#men don’t even like using urinals next to each other like come on

[murdrdocs]

INTERVIEW 028. ANDRÉ HARRIS & BECK OLIVER murdrtober oct 28th. glory hole

Beck and André find a glory hole in a bar. It would just be wrong not to test it out, right? 1.2k+ words MDNI 18+

“You’re fucking with me.”

Beck shakes his head, sending his shaggy hair side to side with the movement. 

“Honestly, I wish we were fucking with you,” André speaks first. Leaving Beck to butt in right after. 

“But we aren’t.” Beck places his hands on your hips, starting to steer you towards the men’s bathroom. “C’mon. Let us show you.”

So you let them. The three of you make a tiny train through the crowd, pushing further and further until you end up at the hall towards the back. There’s no line, shockingly, so you push the door open and step in. It’s a small bathroom, only two urinals and two stalls, but that makes it better for the three of you. 

You’re busy looking around. You don’t notice the man standing at the sink washing his hands. Not until he clears his throat and you turn to look at him, surely resembling a deer in headlights. You’re about to think up an excuse until André rubs your back and Beck pulls you into his side. 

“Wasted,” Beck claims. 

André hums affirmatively. “Everything’s about to come up,” he lies, “Might even come out the nose.”

The man eyes you, his eyebrows raised and his top lip curled. You don’t think before lowering your eyes, and leaning your weight into Beck’s side. You make a gagging sound, lurching forward as if you’re about to spill your overpriced drinks all over the sticky floors. It doesn’t take long for the man to clear out of the bathroom after that. He scurries past André, wishing the two guys luck without sending you another look. 

And then the three of you are alone. 

“There. Second stall.” 

Beck gives you a slight push, but he doesn’t follow, leaving you alone to find what you came for. You pull the second stall open and step inside, and sure enough, right on the barrier connecting both stalls  is a hole. Large enough to fit a dick, maybe two if they were crammed next to each other, ineptly made with duct tape around the rim.  

“Holy shit.” 

“We told you we weren’t fucking with you.” Beck appears right behind you. Yet again, his hands are on your waist, fingertips pressing into the thin fabric of your shirt, pinkies hooking beneath the flimsy hem. 

He steps closer until his back is against your chest, circling his arms around your waist as he rests his chin on your shoulder. “You wanna try it out?” 

You knew where this was going. You saw the excitement in Beck’s eyes earlier when he practically ran to tell you about the glory hole he and André found in the bathroom. You knew he wanted to do more than just show you, and still you followed him into the bathroom. Of course you want to try it out, but you look back at André, attempting to decipher what he wants to do. 

He’s leaning against the door, his arms crossed over his chest and his fingers hooked into his armpits. He shrugs when you make eye contact, shaking his head just a bit. “You two go ahead. I’m not putting my dick into a random hole.”

Beck starts to kiss the side of your neck. “André’ll keep watch for us,” his lips trail down, “we’ll make it quick,” he pulls the strap of your top down and sucks at the mark he left the night before, “there’s nothing to worry about.” 

You were going to give in anyway, Beck didn’t need to sweet talk you, but it just comes naturally to him. You thought about pushing back, just because you know he likes it, but there’s only a small amount of time before some drunk guy pushes past André and walks in on something he shouldn’t be seeing. 

So Beck goes to one stall and you go to the other. 

It’s easy to feed into the purpose of a glory hole when you’re on your knees, blind to everything except the cock right in front of your face. You know what Beck looks like, you’ve studied him in awe many times before, but it’s fun to pretend he’s a stranger. 

You want to tease him, leave him guessing for what you’ll do first and then next, make him groan in ways that only you and André know how. You want to make this fantasy complete, but you have to be quick. 

Welcoming Beck into your mouth, you suck as his semi until he’s hard on your tongue. Immediately, he’s more vocal than he usually is. Groans echo around the bathroom as you hollow your cheeks when you pull back. There’s a thud from the other side, and it takes you a second to realize it’s his forehead hitting the wall. You’re barely doing anything, nothing different from what you usually do, but he’s so appreciative. 

You imagine his fingers twitching, begging to push into your head or caress your cheeks. It’s weird for him not to be here touching you, you feel empty without his touch, but barely a second later there’s a hand pushing your hair out of your face. 

You glance up at André, your eyebrows pushed together with confusion. 

“I got you,” he affirms. 

You focus on Beck with more vigor now. With one hand, you hold his cock steady, and you push the other hand beneath your skirt. The first touch of your fingers against your cunt has you moaning around Beck, and he groans, deep and from his gut. 

“Jesus, what’s she doing, André?” 

“She’s getting herself off.”

Beck makes a sound akin to a laugh, just a little less committal. “Yeah? You’re touching yourself, baby? Getting off to this?”

Your eyes flutter closed. You don’t mean to stop, but it’s hard for you to split attention between tweaking your clit and pleasing Beck. The way he talks to you just puts your own pleasure at the forefront of your mind for a second. 

But it doesn’t matter because Beck makes up for your lack of effort by sliding his cock in and out of your mouth, using you as if you’re nothing but a toy. 

His voice wobbles when he speaks. “Talk to me, André. Tell me what’s going on.”

“Yeah, she liked that.” 

Snitch. 

“Keep talkin’.”

So Beck does. In a turn of events, he practically talks himself to his own orgasm, and to your own as a byproduct. When you come, you slump forward, pushing Beck all the way down your throat. You gag, and he swears to the Lord above just before he shoots his load right on your tongue. 

For a moment, you’re scared you’ll actually have to throw up, but then André is right there stroking your head and coaching you through your breathing, making sure you’re taking slow breaths through your nose. 

You can’t last like that for long, though. You pull off before Beck is even finished, leaving a few drops of cum to land on your lips and drip down onto your shirt. 

You’re trying to catch your breath, weighing spitting or swallowing, and trying to come down all at the same time. It’s overwhelming, almost to the brink of breaking, until Beck leans down and smiles at you through the hole. 

“Lemme see.”

You open your mouth, sticking your tongue out for Beck to see. 

His smile widens. “Let André see, too.” 

“Aw, come on, man, you know I don’t—” But just as you turn to look up at André, letting him see the mess Beck has made of you, he stops speaking. He stares down at you, blinking twice, before relenting. “Damn.”

[maturemenoftvandfilms]

A Slice of Texan Beef

Featuring Character Actor, Barry Corbin

I was at No Frills Grill off of Eastchase the other the night and who should walk in the doors? One Mr. Barry Corbin, dressed like one of his on-screen characters. I've seen him lots of times with his wife and NTN trivia/poker playing buddies, then proceeded to get wasted. He is super nice and if you ask him for a picture or autograph, he will happily give it to you. I wasn't fanboying or anything as I said, I've seen him there plenty of times.

Anyway, I had to piss. Entering the bathroom I was surprised to see him. The thing is, the bathroom is VERY small with only a sink, two urinals and one stall all next to each other with Barry using one. I thought what the Hell, it's not everyday you can stand next to your celebrity crush and piss.  

"Talk about a dream come true." I jokingly blurted out without even thinking as I looked up to see he was looking right at me.

"Sorry. I didn't mean to offend, I just had a crush on you for years." I said before I could catch myself.

Suddenly he was looking at me differently. His eyes seemed to stare at me as thought he was looking at me through a magnifying glass. And at that moment, it was if I'd seen him for the first time. He stood 5'10" and had broad shoulders like a linebacker. Corbin has no hair on the top of his head, and alopecia has just about claimed his eyebrows, but a prodigious gray goatee encircles his mouth. The look of real-life Texas cowboy. A real man's man. If he hadn't of smiled at that moment I think I would have run out of the bathroom.

Then the old actor suddenly turned toward me with his cock still sticking out of his jeans. It was thick and uncut, almost prefect. My first celebrity cock I had ever seen in person.

"Well, why don't we make this dream... a reality. I've always wanted to see how it felt to have my dick sucked by a man." Corbin said in that Texan drawl as he stood there shaking his dick back and forth as it swelled up.

I was so shocked, I couldn't speak. All I could do was nod, follow him to stall next to us and sat on the toilet in front of him.

"Don't get the notion that I'm gay." The old man intoned, leaning forward and peering at me as I reached out and took hold of his beautiful dick.

"I'm married." He said as I fondled his thick cut dick.

"And I fuck her all the time." He added as I closed my lips around his pale uncut cock.

The old man moaned as I easily deep throated his swelling dick down my throat. I loved the taste of cock. It was fresh and masculine. His body smelt slightly of sweat as I pressed my nose against his open fly as I deep throated his dick. Corbin then reached down, grabbed me behind the head with his huge, weathered hands and pulling my face toward his crotch, forcing his now hard cock down my throat. I managed to take inch after inch of his thick 7" dick down my throat until my lips were pressed against his dark pubic hairs.

He held my face to his crotch until I gagged before he pulled my head back. I quickly re-swallowed about a third of his dick as I slowly run my tongue up and down his shaft. Then he started moving my mouth up and down his thick dick shaft as he fucked my mouth like he was fucking his wife. I took his plunging dick and made love to it with my tongue as the old man repeatedly shoved it down my throat and pulled it quickly back out.

"Damn... your going to make this old man cum if you kept doing that." The old man called out excitedly as he fucked my mouth faster and faster.

Old memories of how much I had wanted to suck Barry from ‘Urban Cowboy’ to ‘Northern Exposure’ to ‘No Country for Old Men' surfaced in a rush of passion.

“Never had anyone suck my pecker this good.” He told me as he watched me working on his dick.

“Hell, this is better than fucking my old lady!” The old actor said as he started hunching me harder and faster. With him saying that, I fought to keep from chocking as I let him shove his big cock deeper and deeper into my throat. I wanted to give him more pleasure than he got from his wife.

“Get ready. I’m going to unload! Damn! Here it comes!” Corbin said as he suddenly pulled his dick out of my mouth and shot his huge load of white cum onto my face.

I quickly jumped to my feet and grabbed my dick and started to jacking it as fast as I could as he watched me. I shot off on the tile floor of the bathroom with the old man watching.

"Thanks. I'll never forget this." I said as I cleaned the last drops of cum from my chin.

"I won't forget this either son. Thanks." Barry said as I hurried out of bathroom.

I continued to see Barry at No Frills but nothing else ever happened between us.. Just a low key nod or wink.

[hotwings0203]

I JUST SAW FIGHT CLUB AND HOOOLLYYY-

Bro could you IMAGINE FightClub!Bakugo?

Tw:noncon, language, harassment

Okay okay get this: you’re down in the basement listening to the usual men holler and punch each other around while you do your job as their cute little “accountant”. While many of them have good jobs and a real life, the actual members don’t have time or the intellect to juggle the numbers and money around as fast as you can. You’ve been coming here for a while now, and you’re used to the jeers and wolf-whistles coming your way since you’re basically one of the few or only women who dare to come down here.

But there’s one fighter who just can’t seem to take no for an answer.

Bakugo fucking Katsuki.

The man is ruthless, he’s relentless, he’s a force to be reckoned with on the battlefield. You swear he’s had to have taken a shitload of steroids in his youth, otherwise how else could he have built up that much muscle? There’s no way an average gym-goer has that kinda build.

He’s always the first and the last one out in the rink, swaying back and forth with his fists up, a twisted grin on his face that was so reminiscent of a wolf before it lunges for its prey.

It usually took more than two men to pull him off the unconscious bodies that he had just beaten to a pulp, effectively breaking one of Fight Clubs Rules: get up when someone is down.

But he’s too good to let go, no one has the balls to tell him to take his money somewhere else since they’re all scared shitless of him.

Which leads him to believing that he’s practically a god down here, that he can conquer anything: including you.

No one really calls it harassment because no one really cares. What’s so wrong in a guy having a little crush? What, you came down here seeing all this testosterone but you can’t deal with it yourself? Don’t be a prudish bitch.

“Bakugo, I’m at work right now, I don’t want to.”

“C’mon toots, this ain’t even real work, you’re just fumblin’ my hard earned cash.” He grins slyly and crosses his bulging muscular arms, leaning against the doorway of the little office you’re given to work your magic.

You turn in your rickety seat and glare at him, ignoring the way he licks his lips and lets his eyes roam all over your body. “If I’m so shit at my work then go somewhere else and stop bothering me.”

He chuckles in his baritone voice and shakes his head at you. “Naw, can’t do that sweets. If I did then I’d never be able to see your pretty face again now, could I?” Bakugo leers at you and you turn your face in disgust.

“I don’t wanna go out for lunch, or ever with you. Now get out before I have to call someone in here.”

“Oh, is that so?” He uncrosses his arms and steps through the threshold, his body growing larger and more menacing as he slowly draws closer to you. Luckily a fight had broken out near the office months ago so there was no more door from the aftereffects, but that didn’t mean you felt safe even with open space.

“G-get out. I’m serious, Bakugo-“

“-Call me Katsuki, angel. And you don’t really mean that, do you? Look at you, you can barely look me in the eye when you say such mean things.” His voice drops an octave as he comes to stand in front of your seated form, towering above your wide eyes, clenched fists and trembling figure.

He leans down and you flinch and gasp as his breath ghosts over your face. He places both arms on either side of your chair so you have nowhere to look but him.

“You’re such a nice breath of fresh hair down here, through all the blood and violence. You’re like a flower...” he tucks a stray hair behind your ear and breaths out a laugh when you turn your head and squeeze your eyes shut.

“A flower, so fragile...a flower that smells so fucking good...” you feel like you can’t properly breathe as he leans in next to your ear and inhales deeply.

“A flower waiting to be deflowered herself.”

“What’s going on here?” A lanky body in the doorway appears.

Bakugo pulls back and turns his head ever so slightly towards the dude, growling under his breath at the interruption.

“We’re in the middle of something here, so you can just get the fuck ou-“

“-Well, it doesn’t really look like she’s into whatever you’re doing,” the man scoffs and takes in your pale face and shaking hands.

Bakugo stands to his fullest height, almost neck and neck with the man at the door.

“Yeah? I didn’t hear a complaint from her.” He cocks his head and stretches, allowing his muscles to ripple with each movement, something that didn’t go unseen by your much skinnier savior.

But he doesn’t back down. He only swallows and rubs the back of his neck.

“Well, we’re all being called out to put our bets in for the next match anyways, so you better come out before we get our asses kicked.”

The blond grumbles about weak men and no balls, then casts a dark look at your frozen figure before shouldering past the man at the door, almost knocking him down.

As soon as he’s out of your line of vision, you exhale and relax into your seat.

“You okay?” The fallen soldier scrambles back up and cautiously approaches you, looking over your body in a way that didn’t remind you of Bakugo undressing you with his eyes...rather, it was a protective, and worried once-over.

“Yeah, he’s just...a lot to handle sometimes. Doesn’t know when to quit.” You laugh shakily and run a hand through your hair.

“No wonder the dude’s a menace. He’s used to getting what he wants, I guess.” The man acknowledges this grimly, and for the first time you’re relieved that finally someone hasn’t turned a blind eye to your harassment.

“Are they really calling us down for bets?”

“No, I just said that to get him off your ass. Didn’t seem like you liked whatever he was doing.”

You give him a wobbly smile and he returns it.

“Sooo we should probably run before he comes back up here, right?”

“Oh most definitely,” you actually giggle before leaping out of your seat and joining the man to bound up the steps two at a time to freedom.

You both end up bonding pretty well over the weeks, even going out for coffee and lunch dates here and there. You’ve come to really like him, his shyer demeanor more than a majority of the ragtag men down in the basements, his chivalry refreshing to you amongst the blood and foul language thrown around the ring.

You feel like a woman with him, not some piece of ass like you were used to.

Bakugo noticed all this, of course. You started avidly avoiding him, ducking your head down and hiding behind your new ally before he could open his coarse mouth and stalk towards you. He couldn’t find you in your dingy office anymore either, because your savior was up in a cafe doing the calculations with you, laughing away about the latest matches.

That has to change. Effective immediately.

“Yo, newbie. How you been? Haven’t seen you fightin’ here for a while,” Bakugo claps his meaty hand on the scrawny guy’s back, nearing sending him toppling over.

“Yeah, y’know, just haven’t been feeling it lately.” He rubs the stinging feeling away from his sore shoulders and side eyes the blond suspiciously. He had seen firsthand just how bad-news of a guy he was, and he didn’t wanna get caught up in all that.

But Katsuki wasn’t just all brawn. He had some brains, too.

“Look, I know I prolly gave off a weird first impression with Y/N back then. But it’s all in good health, ‘was just messin’ around like I always do.”

“Yeah, sure...”

“How ‘bout we get some coffee or somethin’? You seem like a solid dude, plus we got shit in common to talk about.”

Like fucking around with my bitch.

“Uh, you sure? I kinda’ wanted to see the last fight,” he trails off unsuredly, scratching his jaw as Katsuki steers him away from the growing crowd.

“There’ll always be fights, man. I wanna show you that I’m a nice guy.”

Bakugo Katsuki was not a nice guy.

And everyone knew that too, which is why when some shifted to give the duo a curious glance he met them with a death glare. Any gazes locked on Katsuki’s hand wrapped around the lanky guy’s shoulders were immediately casted down.

You didn’t see your savior for a while.

It had been two weeks since he mysteriously disappeared from his usual place in the outskirts of the crowd, because unbeknownst to you, a certain fighter was keeping him away from you and convincing him to have a friendly brawl over lunch.

You only found out about it on a Friday night, when a crowd much bigger than before was gathered in the dim basement, voices hushed and whispering.

“What’s going on? Why’s everyone so quiet?” You whisper to one of the usuals.

“‘Heard Bakugo’s fighting some dude that was handpicked by himself. He somehow managed to convince the poor bastard to have some kinda’ match with him.”

You felt your heart sinking.

“Who did he pick?”

“‘Dunno, some skinny guy, a newbie I think. Hasn’t been around for too long so I guess he doesn’t know how big of a monster he’s gonna be beaten by.” The groupie shrugged, and you felt the blood drain from your face.

Without saying another word, you spun around and started running around all over the place looking for either of the two.

You end up stumbling into the men’s bathroom, desperate beyond salvation to stop this bloodbath.

He’s there, he’s at the urinal and he yelps when he hears you barge in. You avert your eyes and let his adjust himself as he sputters indignantly.

“Y/N? What’re you doing in here? This is a men’s-“

“Don’t fight him.”

“What?”

“Don’t fight Bakugo, please, he’s gonna kill you, I know he is-“

“-Calm down, what’re you so worked up about? C’mon, I would’ve thought you’d had a little bit more faith in me to be able to stand my ground.” He teases you but you don’t find it funny, on the contrary you’re terrified out of your mind for his life.

“Did he put you up to this? How could you fight him, you’ve seen what he does to the other guys in the ring!”

“Well yeah, but he knows not to go that hard on me. Actually, he’s not that bad of a guy, we’ve gotten some drinks for the past two weeks and I was wrong about him.”

You gape at him. “Wrong? You saw how he cornered me that one day!”

He shrugs, not put off by the distant memory. “The guy just came back from a fight, he still had testosterone going through him. You can’t blame him for wanting to let a bit of it out, right? You should really give him a chance y’know, he talks about you all the t-“

But you can’t hear anymore, this is madness, there’s barely 10 minutes left until they’re going to call the two down for their death match. You need to find the source of this problem firsthand.

And somehow, a little voice inside your head tells you exactly where you know he is.

You round the corner to your office and there he is in all his glory, seated like a king on your chair, leaned back with his knees spread, carelessly looking through your bank statements and bet papers.

He barely looks at you as he says, “Oh there you are, I was starting to think you’d miss the show.”

You sink to your knees.

He looks up at that.

With a tight chest and burning eyes, your dry throat barely permits you to choke out, “Bak-Katsuki, please, please don’t do this. Please don’t fight him.”

He cracks his neck and leans forward, regarding you with dark vermilion eyes. He looks your position over appreciatively before speaking.

“Why not? He’s so good and great isn’t he? I’m just trying to show you how right you were, after all. I’m sure he’s got a fair chance of beating me.”

You shake your head vigorously, knowing what he’s playing at.

“No, no, you’re better, please. I was wrong about him, I shouldn’t have been friends with him, please don’t fight him Katsuki I’ll do anything-“

“-Oh you’ll do anything I say regardless of if I beat him to a bloody pulp or not. You wanna know why?”

You can barely contain a whimper as he stands and walks over right in front of you, his bulging crotch mere inches away from your face.

He suddenly grabs your hair and you cry out before he yanks your head up to meet his cold eyes.

“Because no one in here is gonna say shit to me. I run things here, toots. And if you want your little boy toy to live through today, you’re gonna watch every blow I give to him, and you’re gonna kiss the fucking knuckles I beat his face with. Got that?”

You sob as he grinds his clothed erection against your tear-streaked face, sniffling when he moans loudly and bucks into your open mouth.

A loud knock on the bare hinges stops Bakugo from pulling the front of his shorts down.

You both turn your heads and see a red-faced side-liner looking down and mumbling something about the match starting.

“‘Be there in a minute. Tell the guys to give my girl here a special front-row seat to this match, she’s gonna wanna see her man win, after all.”

The runner scampers off, leaving you both alone.

He bares his teeth down at you and you cower under his painful hold, the roots of your hair ripping from their strands.

He eventually tosses your head to the side after a few seconds of staring you down, and the second he does you clutch your sore cranium.

“I better see you down there in a minute sweet thing. You gotta get used to it anyways, since you’re gonna be getting accustomed to my rituals before and after matches.”

[actuallysaiyan]

Trunks NSFW Alphabet?

A = Aftercare (what they’re like after sex)

Trunks is a total sweetie. He’ll get a washcloth to clean you up, water so you’ve quenched your thirst and he’ll just hold you close and cuddle you afterwards. The man is very into pillowtalk and he just wants to snuggle with you so much. He very much enjoys the intimacy that comes with the aftercare.

B = Body part (their favorite body part of theirs and also their partner’s)

Trunks probably loves his hair the most. Sure, it changes from time to time, but it’s a pretty big source of pride for himself. He knows it really suits him, even if it does change. He thanks his mother’s genes for the luscious hair, instead of the gravity defying hair his father has.

On his partner, Trunks definitely enjoys tits. He’s a boob man, and he loves resting his head on your chest and having you play with his hair and just praise him. He’s very big on smiles as well. It just makes him feel so soothed.

C = Cum (anything to do with cum, basically)

While Trunks is part Saiyan, I don’t think he has such a huge breeding kink. He does enjoy a very good creampie, but he’s just as satisfied with cumming on your tits, face or ass. He just loves seeing you painted up with his seed.

As for making you cum, he enjoys watching you come undone. It’s one of his favorite things in the whole word. It’s just so sexy, and the way you pant and plead, it gets him so worked up.

D = Dirty secret (pretty self explanatory, a dirty secret of theirs)

Before he got with you, he thought about you often. He’d lie in bed at night and pleasure himself to dirty thoughts of you. He loved fantasizing how you would suck his cock and how you would ride him. Now that you are together, he shares the fantasies with you and you love to reenact them. 

E = Experience (how experienced are they? do they know what they’re doing?)

He wasn’t the most experienced, but he is definitely a quick learner. He’s very attentive to your body language and you don’t mind talking about the things that you love. In bed, he listens and watches you react. It’s one of his favorite things about having sex.

F = Favorite position (this goes without saying)

Trunks is pretty vanilla and he absolutely loves missionary. It’s close contact, intimate and it can turn into so many different positions from there if you both should choose. It’s really fun for him to have you tits pressed up against his chest as he slowly moves in and out of you.

G = Goofy (are they more serious in the moment? are they humorous? etc.)

Trunks might crack a dirty joke or two, but for the most part he is pretty romantic and serious. Sex is something he likes to immerse himself into, but he also understands that it can be fun and sometimes there are funny things that happen as well. If you get a leg cramp or something like that, you both might break out in laughter.

H = Hair (how well groomed are they? does the carpet match the drapes? etc.)

So, Trunks has light hair from the bottom of his stomach going down towards his genitals. The carpet matches the drapes, which is seriously no surprise. Have you seen the man’s hair? He likes to keep himself clean and trimmed for you and also himself. It feels better that way.

I = Intimacy (how are they during the moment? the romantic aspect)

Like stated above, Trunks is generally pretty romantic and intimate with you during the act. He loves caressing you, holding you close and making out with you. It just feels so good when you’re both into it and praising each other. Sometimes, he gets a little rough, but it’s not often. Other times, he may be a little more playful.

J = Jack off (masturbation headcanon)

He used to masturbate a lot before you were together, but now he does it less. Whenever he’s got the craving or you’re away for some time, he’ll probably have a fleshlight or something to fuck. He just loves sex a lot, and masturbation is no exception for Trunks.

K = Kink (one or more of their kinks)

So, besides the small breeding kink that most Saiyan men have, Trunks is very into lingerie and blindfolds. He loves the way you look in lingerie, and to him it’s like unwrapping a present. You look so sexy and it’s just so damn hot! Blindfolds heighten the senses, and if you blow him while he’s blindfolded, he’s going to cum so fucking fast.

L = Location (favorite places to do the do)

He’s not opposed to having sex in different places, but he most definitely loves having sex at home in bed. It’s just romantic, intimate and he can take his time. It’s just so nice to have a place of your own where you can just get down and dirty together without any distractions or interruptions.

M = Motivation (what turns them on, gets them going)

With Trunks, it doesn’t take too much. If you whisper in his ear, and he feels your breath on his neck. If you lean over him and grab onto his inner thigh. If you give him that “fuck me” look. You just need to show him that you’re interested. You gotta tell him subtly sometimes, but if you just tell him straight up, he enjoys that too. It’ll get the blood pumping quickly.

N = No (something they wouldn’t do, turn offs)

Trunks doesn’t like doing anything involving feces or urine, but he’s almost down for anything else. As long as he has your consent, he’s going to try it with you. You both like certain things, but there are some things you’ve both tried that you don’t enjoy. Some of those things include hitting(not spanking), urine play and rape fantasies, which you’ve both concluded aren’t for you at all.

O = Oral (preference in giving or receiving, skill, etc.)

Trunks is like his father in this aspect, and he’s a huge pillow prince. He loves it if you tie your hair up and go down on him. Wrap your lips around his cock and deep throat this man. He will fall deeper in love with you every time you suck him off. It’s just one of his favorite things.

On the other hand, Trunks adores going down on you too. He’ll make you cum over and over until you’re begging him to stop. It’s so good though.

P = Pace (are they fast and rough? slow and sensual? etc.)

Most of the time, Trunks is very sensual and loving. He loves to take his time with you, making you cum a lot and just caressing you and enjoying your body. Sometimes, if he’s feeling pent up, he’ll fuck you raw, hard and fast. You won’t see it coming, but you’ll love it just the same.

Q = Quickie (their opinions on quickies, how often, etc.)

Trunks loves quickies. They are fast, fun and messy from time to time. He loves surprising you by rubbing his crotch into your ass while you’re doing something, and this is instantly what sets you both off. He’ll moan in your ear and he’ll pick you up, throw you on the desk or table and he’ll start undressing you. These happen often, but he loves taking his time too when he has the time.

R = Risk (are they game to experiment? do they take risks? etc.)

He enjoys experimenting with you. Risks are taken when you both have consented to it, and the next time you’re intimate, you try the new thing. Trunks likes to tease you and stimulate you in public sometimes too, just to see you react. He finds it sexy when you suppress your moans.

S = Stamina (how many rounds can they go for? how long do they last?)

Trunks could last so long. He would fuck you for hours and hours, making you cum in all kinds of different ways. It would be so sexy, but so tiring. He just goes with what you’re comfortable with that night. He could go for many rounds as well, and his refractory period is almost non existent.

T = Toys (do they own toys? do they use them? on a partner or themselves?)

You and Trunks like to go to the sex store together to buy all kinds of toys. Whether it be a vibrator or a plug, or sometimes he likes to buy things that he can use to tease you like vibrating panties or handcuffs. He loves using a vibrator on your clit while he pounds himself into you. If you use the vibrator on him, he’ll cum very quickly.

U = Unfair (how much they like to tease)

Trunks is huge on teasing. He loves seeing you become all hot and bothered, and when you pout or beg him to go on, he just relishes in those reactions. It’s so sexy to watch you become frustrated only for Trunks to make you fall over the edge over and over and over and over...

V = Volume (how loud they are, what sounds they make, etc.)

He’s a fairly vocal lover. He likes to let you know how much he loves it. He’ll talk dirty to you as well, and he’ll grunt and moan. When he cums, he’s a little louder and it’s very sexy. It’s breathy, pleading and just such a wonderful sound.

W = Wild card (a random headcanon for the character)

Trunks enjoys it when you stimulate his prostate sometimes, and he’s not ashamed of it either. It’s just something that makes him cum so quick, and you enjoy watching him squirm and whine while you jerk him off and stimulate him.

X = X-ray (let’s see what’s going on under those clothes)

He’s got a thick cock, it’s about seven inches and has a slight curve to it. His balls are perfect as well, and the man is just well built underneath it all. He’s a nice mix of leanness and muscles. He’s absolutely gorgeous.

Y = Yearning (how high is their sex drive?)

It’s pretty high, but it doesn’t really interfere with his life. He likes to have a healthy sex life, but he doesn’t want it to take over and ruin things in life. He enjoys habitual sex, but he’s also into spontaneous quickies.

Z = Zzz (how quickly they fall asleep afterwards)

Trunks will make sure you are asleep first before he holds you close and closes his eyes. He’ll fall asleep not too long afterwards.

[softhxtch]

TITTLE: Just Be Here

SUMMARY: Reader just finished a case and her husband, Aaron Hotchner is always there to support her. 

PAIRING: female! reader x Aaron Hotchner

CHARACTERS: reader, Aaron Hotchner, Emily Prentiss and David Rossi (literally for a second), Allison (OC)

WARNINGS: child assault and abuse; mentions of misscariage, alcohol usage, body fluids (blood, urine, vomit), pornography.

WORD COUNT: 3,5K

A/N: am i back? i don’t know hahah, but it’s something, right? again in this story Jack doesn’t really exist, sorry. and again CAC - Crimes Against Children.

'Hey, sweetie. You're safe, okay? Nobody's gonna hurt you anymore.', you whispered taking little girl into your arms. She was sobbing quietly with tears falling down her pink cheeks. She was no more than three years old, still in her purple pajamas, that were dirty form all the body fluids person can imagine and also dirty room she was held in. 'You're safe, Allison. You're safe.', you kept repeating and little girl just held her hands around you even tighter.

You looked around the room and the whole sight was just horrible. No windows, barely any lights, cages, blood and urine all over the floor. Just an awful place to be in let alone to live for months. Even the smallest thought of what was going on before the whole team came in gave you shivers and blood started to boil inside you. The place was there for years at that point and no one knew about it. You were just looking at your teammates, taking the rest of the kids out of the building. Some were crying, some were screaming and some were just clinging to the agents hoping that they would never comeback. And they never will. You would make sure of that.

' Allison, we have to go.', you said quietly, trying not to scare her. But little girl just shook her head and tightened her arms around your neck. 'We have to go. You need to see a doctor. It's scary, I know, but I'm gonna be with you all the time, okay?'

It wasn't easy to convince Allison to come out of the building, but after some negotiations and conversations with you she agreed. You're holding her in your arms as close as possible, trying to avoid the blue and red lights that were blinding both of you in the dark night.

Hospitals were always the last place that you're wanted to be. If you were the it only meant that either someone from your team or family was injured or one of the victims from your case were in tragic condition.

To put it straight, hospitals were never a good sign.

But you couldn't go home, not just yet. You promised Allison, that you would be with her this whole time, so you were also there when she got a check up from the pediatrician. You were holding her hand, caressing the back of it from time to time just to reassure her that you're there. Sometimes your would just add how great she was doing and how strong it is.

'Home.', Allison whined as doctor was checking on one of her bruised legs. Few tears fell down her cheeks, which made your hear break. It was horrible to seeing anyone in that position, but especially a child.

'You're doing great, Allison. Just few more minutes, okay?', you said quietly, taking hair out of her forehead.

'I just need to check the other leg and then you can have a long nap, till morning. How does that sound?', doctor asked and written down something on her notepad.

'I think it's great! Do you, Sonnie?', you said with a happy voice, looking at a little girl. She just nodded, still pouting from her cry few seconds ago. 'I'll be right back.', you said when you heard familiar phone ring. Doctor nodded understanding, but Allison held your hand not wanting to let you go. ' Allison, I'll be back in few minutes. I just need to answer that call, okay? You will be able to see me through the glass. I'm not going anywhere and until then you'll stay with Doctor Ashley.', you explained.

She wasn't convinced at all. It took you few more minutes for to actually let go of your hand. You explained everything a least three times. Doctor eyed you few times, but you just tried to ignore her. After years of working with children you knew how long it sometimes takes to convince them. Especially the ones that have been seriously hurt. They just wanted someone to be with them through the whole process and you understood it one hundred percent.

You sent Allison a small smile, saying one more time, that you'll be back in few minutes. After that you left the room and took out phone, dialing number that called you before.

'Hi.', you heard deep, yet soft voice on the other side. You sighed and replied with the same thing. 'Long night?'

'Yeah and I can't even see the end of it.', you answered and heard your husband's laugh. 'It wasn't a joke.', you added, rolling your eyes.

'I know. But it's kind of ironic considering that the sun will be up in less than an hour.', Aaron said. You could hear him moving around the house. Walking from bathroom to bedroom, probably getting ready for work. 'How are the kids?'

'Fine, if you could say it after living in a basement for most of your life and posing for creepy middle aged men.', you answered, feeling the shivers on your arms. The images that you saw literally just came back. And you can expect they will be coming back more often, but this time in your nightmares.

'All alive?', Aaron asked. You could hear him doing something in the kitchen, which made you smile, still looking at Allison. You actually would do everything to be right now with him in that kitchen. Waiting for his famous muffins with bacon and eggs, like he would do whenever both of you had day off.

'Yes, all eight of them.', you nodded. 'You're heading to work now? It's a bit early, even for you.'

'Not yet.', he answered quickly. You could hear another chews from the other side, which actually made your stomach going louder. 'But yesterday I picked up from the post office that coffee table, that you ordered and I thought I would put it together.'

'You're gonna put a coffee table together? At-', you asked surprised, looking at the watch on your phone. '-4:38 in the morning? Are you okay?', you added with a laugh.

'What can I say? I'm just bored without you.', he answered. Right after that you heard a loud noise from the other side and a quiet curse from Aaron.

'You're okay?', you asked, furrowing you brows.

'Yes. I'm looking for the box with all the tools.', he replied. 'I think I'll ask Morgan about them. He'll know what I should use.'

'How about you leave it to me, huh? I'll do it, because we don't want another trip to ER. It'll be third time this year, they'll assume that I'm assaulting you.', you laughed, hearing just quick 'hey!' from your husband.

For the first time in hours you actually felt nice. You didn't had constant fear in your head about the case. You weren't even thinking about it, right now what you were thinking about was Aaron and that stupid coffee table. And he knew about it, that was the reason why he called. After you were in a car with Allison and two policemen, you texted him that the case was over and you're headed to the hospital with victims. Both of you always do it, just to reassure each other that the other person is fine. Aaron on top of that would always call you. He's a very light sleeper, even waking up when you stir in bed sometimes, so every vibrations of his phone wakes him up. No matter what the time is on the clock, he always calls you. He knows how much you love your job and how saving kids was your thing. You loved it, after few years in narcotics unit you know you found your place. But Aaron also knew that you get very into the cases and you involve yourself a lot and if the case goes wrong you blame yourself really hard. Especially being a unit chief, just like him. So he always tried to light the mood even just a little and talk about the day, whatever comes to his mind.

'You're staying in the hospital, right?', it almost wasn't a question. It wasn't anything new to be honest. A lot of the times you would comeback to the hospital with the victims and especially with this case. He knew it wouldn't be different. You were working on it for over a month and it was draining you.

'Don't think I have a choice.', you admitted, looking back at Allison who was also starring at you. The doctor stopped examination and was about to leave. 'One of the girls won't let me go.'

'Just be careful, okay? And take care. Don't forget to eat something.', he reminded, knowing the previous situations.

'I will.', you reassured him. 'I love you.'

'I love you too, sweetheart. Give me a call later in a day.', Aaron said and you agreed.

After you said your goodbyes, you put the phone in the pocket and went back to the room. Allison immediately opened her arms and you laughed coming closer.

'You're back!', she said loudly, which made you laugh even more. Doctor Ashley smiled at both of you and left the room.

'I said I will.', you reminded her, patting her head. You could clearly see the tiredness in her eyes and how hard she was trying not to fall asleep. 'I think it's good time for a sleep.', you proposed, but Jade just shook her head immediately, taking back. ' Allison, you need to sleep.'

'Not sleepy.', she answered quietly, putting knees closer to her chest. 'Don't want to sleep.'

'You've been awake for a long time, Sonnie. You need to rest. I do too. Everyone needs to sleep so they will have energy for the next day.', you explained, but she once again shook her head. 'I'll be there the whole time. Nothing's gonna happen to you. You're safe.'

'Seven minutes?', she asked, trying to stop the yaw. You nodded and observed how she put her head on the pillow, drifting away from the real world.

Aaron Hotchner looked at his watch for the tenth time in the last 8 minutes. He signed and went back to signing papers in front him.

It was a slow day. Most paper work days were slow, but this one was even slower. He just couldn't focus. His thoughts were everywhere but in that office. He was thinking about his wife and what she's about to at that moment, probably still at hospital with the little girl. It was literally breaking his heart when he was thinking about your job and side effects, but also about your personal issues.

Being married for almost six years and together over eight, was something he was very proud of. He loved you with his whole heart and couldn't see anyone but you. The whole team always loved to see when a woman would flirt with Aaron, because it was always so funny to see him nicely declining the actions. Aaron Hotchner was a strong man with a very intimidating vibe, his voice could literally break you into a meltdown and get when a woman would approach him his eyes would always look for you. He just couldn't see his world existing without you.

With that being said he also knows you very well. Whenever something was wrong, he could feel it. Just from the look in your eyes or movement. You almost didn't have to talk to have a conversation. He understood you without any words and so did you.

After long nights when there were only you two together, Aaron knew what you wanted. Be knew all your dreams and wishes. Where you would like to go for vacations or favourite cuisine. Things that he could control. He also knew about your dream job and family wishes. Things he couldn't control and everytime Aaron would think about this, his heart would break into thousand pieces. Because if he could he would give you everything that you wanted and to do that he would sacrifice anything he could.

Quiet sound of a clock, that was announcing noon, got Aaron out of his thoughts. He looked at the clock just to assure himself of the hour and pressed his lips into thin line. Then he just closed the files on the rest, took coat and walked out of the room. Aaron walked to his friend's office and knocked on the door. He opened them after quick 'come in'.

'Dave, I'm gonna be back in an hour.', Aaron said, looking at the older man working on his papers. He looked up with pen still between his fingers.

'Everything's okay?', Dave asked and got quick nod from Aaron. 'Y/N's at the hospital again?'

'Yeah, they finished the case few hours ago so I'm sure she hasn't ate anything since.', he explained. 'I'm just gonna bring her food and come back.'

'No problem. If anything happens, we'll call you.', David said, waving younger man off. Aaron just laughed and closed the door. Then he walked down the stairs, wanting to leave the office.

'Hey, Hotch! Are you going again to get some food?', Emily's voice stopped him from going further. He turned around to face not only her, but three other agents. 'You're going outside, right?'

'Yes, Emily.', he sighed. 'But I'm not going to the place you love to eat from.'

'I figured. But maybe you would want to do us a favor and go there? Since you're already going outside the office.', she explained and Derek started to come closer with JJ right behind him. 'Look, it's raining outside and it's pointless to have two wet agents in the office. We will pay for the gas and also your food, huh?'

'Just text me your order and I'll see what I can do.', Aaron said, rolling his eyes slightly. Then he turned around and started walking towards the elevators, still hearing voices of agents behind him, who were deciding on the order.

Pediatric floor of the hospital was as always busy. Kids running around, parents trying to keep up with them, crying children from everywhere you can imagine and on top of that walls with so many colours, that he thought that someone vomited on them. He had no problem of finding the room where you were. Of course with a help from nurses.

Aaron slowly opened the door from the hospital room. He was expecting for either you or the child to be asleep and he didn't want to wake anybody up. But the sight inside made just his heart to melt.

You were sitting on the couch with Allison sleeping in your arms. Her head was on your chest and arms were really tight around the back. Her moth were slightly open, just like yours. But you also had your head hung back and he was sure he'd hear your complaints about the neck pains for the next week.

Aaron slowly put the package with your favourite food and something tasty for children on the small table near the door. Then he took the blanket from the bed and put it over you and the little girl, knowing how cold you must be from laying down in one place for so long. After that he just put a light kiss on your forehead and with one last look he left the room.

Aaron got to the elevator and took out his phone, checking out one message from Emily.

If you are going to the place near the hospital and there's a girl with short red hair, then say that you would like to order for Agent Prentiss 😘

He furrowed his brows at the message and dialed her right away.

'Did I say something wrong?', she answered after one signal.

'How this girl supposed to know your order?', he asked, looking at the numbers of elevator going down.

'She'll know, trust me. I've been there many time.', Emily laughed and Aaron could practically see her smile through the phone.

'Whatever.', he sighed, hearing the ding from the elevator. 'Oh and Prentiss?', Aaron called and heard quick 'yeah' from the other side. 'Stop sending me emojis. It's highly unprofessional to do it to your boss and it's making me uncomfortable.', he ended, walking out of the hospital.

You could physically feel lighter closing the door to you home. Everything related to work you always tried to leave outside this house and treat this place like an escape. And it was a long few weeks, so you were nothing but happy and relieved that it's over.

The house was quiet and dark. You could only see dim light from the living room and just thinking about it made you smile. You took off your jacked and boots, leaving the bag at the usual place and started walking towards the light. As you saw Aaron sitting on the couch with his eyes closed, you smiled even wider. His feet were on the coffee table and he had a glass of whiskey in his hand.

You leaned on the door frame and with arms crossed on the chest, you observed him.

'I'm awake.', Aaron said with raspy voice. You knew that he was probably sitting here for a while already.

'I know.', you answered and started walking towards the cabinet with alcohols. 'Aaron Hotchner is at home before me. What's happening in this world? Did they closed the FBI building?', you joked while pouring wine into a glass and sitting next to him.

'Very funny.', he answered with a sarcasm. He put arms around your shoulders and kissed your temple.

'I actually am.', you said, taking a sip. 'But I'm glad you're here.'

'Anytime.', he hummed, placing one more kiss on your head.

'Except the time you're working.', you joked and he just rolled his eyes. 'Thank you for the dinner, by the way. Although I would get something to eat myself, you know?'

'Yeah, you would probably eat your first meal of the day right now. I know you, Y/N.', he said, caressing your arm. 'So, how's the girl?'

'Allison?', you asked, reminding yourself of her beautiful smile in your head. Aaron only nodded, taking a sip from his glass, telling you to continue. 'She's gonna be okay, I hope. But she went through a lot.'

'You got close to her.'

'Yeah.', you admitted. 'I know what you think, Aaron. I know that it's not a good thing, I Get close to those kids and then I come home and they're not there. I know how this looks like. But I swear I just want to help them.'

'I know. But also you need to realize, that when they'll go to foster care they won't have someone to look after them every minute they're there. That there's gonna be many more kids their age and the attention you're giving them right now won't be given to them anymore.', he finished, looking down at you.

'Maybe they don't have to go to foster care.', you whispered, hugging your husband closer.

'You want to adopt a child?', Aaron asked slowly getting to the conclusion and realizing something else. 'You wanna adopt Allison.'

'I do.', you admitted. 'But I won't do it.', you added, sitting straight. Aaron just gave you questioning look. 'They found her mother in Portland, she'll come and get her tomorrow. Ignoring the fact that she doesn't have any job, is living in a two bedroom apartment with four other roommates and all the money goes to the alcohol. Yeah, so Allison has a bright future ahead of her.'

'You never know.', he answered. You put head on his chest once again and laid there for few minutes in silence, trying to relax.

'So, you actually put that table together.', you said keeping the eyes in small brown table in front of you, with Aaron's feet on top.

'I thought you'll never notice.', he answered almost sounding hurt.

'Oh, I did. Just wanted to hold the suspension for a little while.', you smiled and kissed him on the lips. 'Derek did it, am I right?', you whispered, narrowing your eyes.

'No.', he answered simply.

'Liar.', you whispered again, kissing him one more time, but stopping after you hear his phone going off. 'Everything's okay?', you asked.

'Yeah, just Emily.' he answered, but started explaining seing your confused face. 'I gave Emily's number to one of the girls that she has crush on from the restaurant. And I guess she had a good evening.', he ended and showed you the text.

SSA aaron 'Hotch' Hotchner, you are truly THE  man 🥰🤭💗🍑

[peepeepotter]

Hogwarts: New Girl AU

A/N: Warning, some canonical changes were made for plot reasons, the biggest being: Harry and Ginny never dated; Harry, Neville, and Draco are all professors; George has a new WWW store in Hogsmeade. Also, she starts off living with the four guys whereas in New Girl she only lived with all four for about a season. I just thought it would be fun!! Also, when I wrote this it felt a lot longer than it ended up being—so let me know if this is too long or too short or just right!! P.S.: I do NOT condone transphobia (I’m LGBT and will defend trans people until the day I die) and obviously I feel JKR is a shitty person, I write because I like writing and we’ll all agree that 5 year old Daniel Radcliffe wrote the HP series :)

Chapter 1: Who’s That Girl?

Pairing: George x Female Reader

Warnings: Cursing

Words: 3k

Series Masterlist

-

“So, you know in horror movies when the girls are like "Oh my god, there's something in the basement. Let me just run down there in my underwear and see what's going on in the dark", and you're like "What is your problem? Call the aurors!", and she's like "Okay" but it's too late because she's already getting avada kedavra’d. Well, my story's kind of like that.” y/n said, remembering the borderline traumatic moment that happened two weeks ago.

-

Y/N sat in the back of a muggle taxi, on her way to her shared apartment with her boyfriend Cormac McLaggen. Only, incredibly uncomfortably, she was completely naked under a trench coat.

“It’s a surprise for Cormac. I’m just gonna walk in and drop my coat, like BAM. There it all is. He said he has this fantasy that I’m a veela with a heart of gold.” Y/N attempted to whisper into the phone speaker.

“You added the ‘heart of gold’ thing, didn’t you?” Ginny asked, chuckling and knowing full well that McLaggen wasn’t exactly a thoughtful person, and wouldn’t have included that in a sexual fantasy.

“Yeah. I wanted to really get into the character, you know?” Y/N tried to get into the fantasy more, hoping it would make her less uncomfortable.

“Oh really? What’s your veela name?”

“Uh...Fleur?”

“That ones taken, Y/N.”

“Whatever, I don’t need a veela name.”

“Either way, I’m so proud of you for getting out of your comfort zone! Good luck babe.” Ginny encouraged.

As Y/N walked into the apartment, she was trying to position herself sexily in the living room. She laid on her side on the couch. Too cliché. She propped herself on the back of the couch. Too masculine. Eventually Cormac entered the living room from the bedroom wearing only his boxers, making Y/N panic about the fantasy.

“Y/N! You’re back early! I wasn’t expecting you—“

Y/N dropped the trench coat. Immediately after a girl, Pansy Parkinson she recognized, followed McLaggen out of the bedroom. Their bedroom. And she was only wearing her underwear.

“Oh.”

-

“So that’s what happened and why I really need a new place to live. Anyway...what was the question?” Y/N smiled at the four men in front of her. They all looked traumatized by her story.

“Um, do you have any pets?” George asked.

“Oh, no I don’t. Sorry,” She chuckled awkwardly.

“You know what’s funny? When I saw your ad on DumbledoresList I thought you were women.” Y/N laughed. “Crazy, right?”

“Hold up, why would you think that?” Draco spoke before the other two could.

“Just some of the vocabulary used. Like sun-soaked and exposed brick daydream.”

“Draco you wrote exposed brick daydream? Oh my god,” George was nearly in tears with laughter, Harry and Neville following quickly. “Jar, right now, dude.”

“Yeah, jar, seriously. Five galleons.” Harry agreed, pointing to a jar on the mantle of he fireplace with a neon green post-it note labeled “Prick Jar.”

Draco rolled his eyes, getting up and putting the galleons in the jar.

Y/N coughed, trying to refocus the attention. “Look, I really like this apartment. I also really don’t want to live with my friend anymore. She’s a quidditch player...all her friends and roommates are quidditch players. They get into some real weird shit.” Y/N felt like she was pleading with them. Just let me stay here!

“Look I still don’t feel like we know enough—” George was interrupted by Draco.

“Oh, quidditch players? When can you move in?” Y/N grinned, hoping the promise of these three men meeting hot quidditch players would help.

“No, no, loft meeting. Bathroom.” Harry ordered, leading the way down the long hall to the bathroom at the end. When Y/N heard the door shut she quickly and silently followed, eavesdropping on the conversation.

“Come ON guys, she’s friends with quidditch players. Next to veela’s and the girls at Beauxbaton, that’s like the hottest girls in existence.” Draco begged the other two.

“The fact that you’re a professor now and you said that is like...incredibly disturbing.” Harry glared at Draco, George and Neville shaking their heads.

“Yeah, and my sister is a quidditch player so I don’t know about that.” George shuddered.

“I’m not going to lie to you guys, I don’t want a girl living here. Sometimes, I get home from a long day of teaching and I just want to strip and lay on the couch. Let the boys chill.” Harry casually shared. Y/N gagged at the thought, but the other three men in the bathroom made noises of agreement, or at least understandment of his statement.

“I am...actually neutral on this one.” Neville shrugged, causing Draco to scoff.

“You would be neutral on this.” Draco rolled his eyes, but directed his attention toward their fourth roommate. “Alright George, tie-breaker. It’s up to you. Is she in or out?”

“You guys know I don’t do well under pressure like this. Just give me a minute let me think.”

Both Harry and Draco started arguing with each other, putting George under more pressure to make a decision. He slowly backed himself into the stall in the bathroom and locked it. Neville watched everything play out, arms crossed with a smile on his face.

“Oh, now look what you’ve done!” Draco said, gesturing to the hiding George.

“What I’ve done! You started it—” Harry replied.

“Whatever, executive decision—she’s in.” Draco announced.

“YAY! I’m in!” Y/N exclaimed, not able to contain her excitement on the other side of the bathroom door. Draco opened the bathroom door.

“Nobody decided putting a silencing charm on the door would be a good idea?” Harry asked the boys in the bathroom.

“Oh you guys have a stall and urinals? Like a public bathroom? Okay, yeah I guess I can get used to that.” Y/N said, looking around the bathroom that reminded her a little too much of the bathrooms at Hogwarts.

“What do you do for a living anyway? Why do you want to live out here in Hogsmeade?” Draco asked as the group of five made their way back to the living room.

“I just became a professor at Hogwarts! I spent a really long time in both the muggle world and the magical world studying creatures. So, I’m taking over for Hagrid.” Y/N smiled, very excited to be doing her two favorite things in the world: working with animals, and teaching bright young minds.

“Oh, Harry, Neville and I are professors at Hogwarts too. I teach potions, Neville teaches herbology, and Harry teaches...Harry what fucking subject do you teach?” Draco crooked an eyebrow at Harry, purposely acting like he didn’t know what Harry taught.

“Defense against the dark arts.” Harry glared at Draco. “And George here just opened a new Weasley’s Wizard Wheezes shop in Hogsmeade.” Harry said, clapping George’s back. George sheepishly smiled at Y/N.

“Oh that’s awesome! I loved pranks at Ilvermorny. Cormac hated pranks.” Y/N started to tear up, staring off into space.

“George gets it, he was dumped, too.” Draco took his turn to clap his hand on George’s back this time.

“Yeah. Dumped,” George scoffed.

-

“George I just can’t do this anymore!” Angelina pleaded with George as he covered his ears, despite only the one really working.

“LALALA I CAN’T HEAR YOU! WE CAN’T BREAK UP IF I CAN’T HEAR YOU!” George yelled.

-

“Yeah, I was dumped.” George shrugged. “What about it? It was like eight months ago Draco! Move past it. Pfft, dumped.” George got very heated over...seemingly very little, Y/N noticed.

“Ignore him, he’s still fragile. Which, you aren’t too fragile, right?” Draco asked.

“Pfft. I’m so tough. Don’t even worry about it.”

-

“We’ll always have Paris. We didn’t have, we, we lost it until you came to Casablanca. We got it back last night. … And you never will. But I’ve got a job to do, too. Where I’m going, you can’t follow. What I’ve got to do, you can’t be any part of.” Y/N was screaming the words of the monologue from Humphrey Bogart in Casablanca at the television, the four men staring at her from the kitchen.

“Feel like we’ve made a mistake yet?” Harry asked Draco, who rolled his eyes and approached Y/N.

“Y/N, stop.” Draco turned the television off. “C’mon, you can’t be like this! You’re a strong woman! Strong women don’t cry over men who clearly didn’t deserve them in the first place! Strong women go out and hook up with strangers in the bar in Hogsmeade to get over their ain’t-shit exes.” Draco pulled Y/N up from off the couch. “Go take a shower. We’re going to the Three Broomsticks tonight and you’re hooking up with someone.” Draco pushed her in the direction of the bathroom.

“And that gentleman is how you take care of a crying woman. Not that any of you know how to handle women at all.” Draco snipped at the three men, who—to be fair—did not know how to deal with women at all.

-

At the Three Broomsticks, the four men watched Y/N absolutely fail at flirting with any even remotely viable man in the bar. Eventually Draco called her back over to the booth where the four men drank and talked about their days.

“Honey, you’ve got to stop doing whatever it is you were doing out there. In fact, you’re going to stop doing anything. You are going to go sit at the bar and look pretty until a man approaches you, and then you are going to smile and nod and agree to go out with him.” Draco nagged. The three other men were chuckling quietly as Y/N trudged to the bar, hoping for men to approach her.

“Anyway, what is this shit we’re chaperoning on Friday night?” Draco turned to Neville and Harry, hoping one of the two would know.

“I think it’s a school dance but like...not fun for the kids at all. Like I don’t think there’s actually any dancing at all.” Harry summed, confused as well. None of them had ever been to muggle high school, and did not understand what a “homecoming” dance was. The Muggle Studies professor suggested it might be fun for the first Friday back to school, and McGonagall agreed as long as the kids didn’t have too much contact on the dance floor. The Muggle Studies teacher explained to the three men that it was “middle school rules, no touching below the shoulders, room for Merlin in the middle.” if dancing were to be allowed. Neville, Harry, and Draco were clueless as to what that meant.

“Glad I won’t be in on that shit show.” George laughed, taking a sip of his drink.

“We actually signed you up.” Draco said nonchalantly, drinking his beer. George spat his beer out violently.

“Excuse me? I have to spend my Friday night watching a bunch of kids...do what? Drink butterbeer and sit on opposite ends of a room?!” George was clearly pissed off, wanting to have done literally anything else with his Friday night.

“I mean, you’ll see your brother.” Harry offered, which actually eased George’s tensions a bit. He smiled, missing his family.

“Oh, alright. Harry, you charmer, you always know how to get me.” George winked at Harry who waved him off.

“How are things going with you and uh...Loony?” Draco asked Neville. The three other men rolled their eyes, annoyed at how Draco still seemed to live in his own little world.

“Luna. And things are going...they’re going.” Neville shrugged, clueless to his own love life.

“Just as expected, he doesn’t know anything.” Draco shook his head at George and Harry, as if Neville’s cluelessness was their fault.

“Are you blaming—” Before Harry could finish accusing Draco of exactly what Draco was doing, Y/N came back from the bar, squealing about getting a date.

“What did you do?” Draco asked, smirking, just knowing he was right.

“I did what you said! I just smiled and nodded and said I wanted to hookup and he gave me his number and now we’re going out Friday night!” Y/N jumped up and down in tiny jumps, starting to fist-pump.

“This American is so weird sometimes.” Harry whispered.

“It’s endearing, I think.” Neville commented.

“Naive, maybe.” George rolled his eyes, the only one who seemed to notice that she blatantly told the man she would have sex with him.

-

When the night of her date rolled around, the four men found themselves with an unexpected floo guest.

“Ginny, what are you doing—” George stood.

“Who told her it was a good idea to get back out there again? That’s not your job, that’s my job. I’m her best friend, you guys are just some weird adult men living together. No offense brother, dear.” Ginny was in the living room, pointing an accusing finger at the men sat on the couch while Y/N was in her bedroom getting ready. Ginny was clearly ready to go out clubbing for the night, and was dressed in a short dress and very tall heels.

“None taken.” George rolled his eyes, plopping himself back on the couch.

“Now I’m going to go handle the mess you all created, thank you very much.” Ginny glared, walking over to Y/N’s room and walking in.

Y/N laid on the ground surrounded by clothes. Her hair and makeup was clearly done, but she seemed stumped on what to wear. She was currently wearing a witch hat, a crop top, sweatpants, and cowgirl boots.

“Y/N,” Ginny sighed. “What were you going for with this?” Ginny gestured up and down Y/N’s body.

“Witchy space cowgirl.” Y/N shrugged. “It seems like something you’d find in a porn anyway—”

“Here, let’s find you clothes that will actually get you laid.”

After about half an hour, Ginny emerged from Y/N’s room first, dressed in a crop top and sweatpants.

“Now presenting, the new but not improved, still absolutely perfect Y/N.” Ginny gestured towards Y/N’s bedroom, where Y/N emerged. She was wearing the short black sleeveless dress and tall heels Ginny had been wearing when she emerged from the floo. Draco let out a whistle, Harry and Neville started clapping, and George was sat, stunned. Well, until Y/N started fist pumping again, then they all started booing her.

“Don’t let me keep you guys, I know you have plans with a bunch of 11 to 17 year olds tonight.” Y/N giggled, watching as the men stood up at the reminder.

“Don’t worry, we’d rather be anywhere else. Even here watching your weird dancing.” Draco puffed, the other men agreeing.

-

“So yeah, that’s how we got a new roommate.” George explained to Fred, who’s hazy, ghostly form nodded.

“Believe it or not, I actually know her. I was her first friend here.” Fred grinned, pointing to himself. George wasn’t surprised. Ever since Fred died and became a ghost, Fred frequently felt lonely, and George knew that. Besides Peeves, he really didn’t have many friends. He couldn’t interrupt teachers while they were teaching, but since Care for Magical Creatures was not a required class, Y/N had a lot of free time. They bonded over pranks, baked goods, and George. “She’s so cute! You totally would’ve dated her a decade ago.” Fred teased his younger twin.

“Yeah, well, things change I guess.” George felt his phone vibrating in his pocket, and looked at the caller ID to find it as Madam Puddifoot’s store number. “One second.” He told his brother. “Madam Puddifoot?” George asked.

“George dearie, your friend Y/N here was stood up by her date. I figured someone should know, she’s in my shop crying and I have to close in,” she paused, clearly checking the time. “In a half hour. Do you think you could help?” George stood, already walking towards the school’s exit.

-

“Oh hello there.” Y/N sniffled, eyes red and puffy as she looked up to see George taking a seat in front of her. “Don’t you have a school dance you’re supposed to be chaperoning.” She furrowed her eyebrows, pointing a finger at him. She meant for it to be accusatory, but with red puffy eyes, George mostly found it (as Neville said) endearing.

“Some things are more important than watching boys and girls stand on opposite ends of a room.” He shrugged, reaching across the table and grabbing his friends hand. “Listen, real men don’t treat women the way you’ve been treated the past few weeks. I’m sorry you’re going through this. If it makes you feel better, sometimes I still call my ex and leave voicemails in a country accent.” George offered, making Y/N giggled, wiping lone tears.

“Well, you can always call me and talk to me in a country accent instead.” She shrugged, in an attempt to help him the way he’s come to help her. “Do you want to go home and watch—”

“Literally anything other than Casablanca, okay? I will watch whatever sad chick flick you want, but you have watched Casablanca like twenty times this week.” George puffed, standing up and reaching his hand out for Y/N. “Let’s go home and get drunk and cry.” He smiled. Y/N grinned, grabbing his hand and letting him walk her out of the shop. She was still embarrassed, but her heart felt a lot better knowing someone came to help her out of this feeling. She’d never admit it to George, but it was probably the nicest thing anyone had ever done for her.

-

When Draco, Neville, and Harry returned home, their suit jackets thrown over their shoulders and looking rather tired from dealing with teenagers all night, they found quite the sight for their sore eyes. George and Y/N were stood in front of the TV, clearly drunk, singing along to Heath Ledger’s character serenading Julia Stiles character in 10 Things I Hate About You. Draco, Neville, and Harry all looked at each other, shrugging. They dropped their suit coats and joined in, feeding the fire that was drunken George and Y/N.

And that was the end to Y/N’s first week in the loft above the Weasley’s Wizards Wheezes store in Hogsmeade.

Taglist: @yllwtaxi @ememseay

Thank you for wanting to be tagged!! Let me know what you think, feel free to message me any mistakes I missed. If you want to be tagged, message me/comment!! Thanks y’all :)

[rawiswhore]

Various WWF Wrestlers x Fem Reader- "Back That Ass Up"

The 1990's...a time when most rock bands and singers didn't sexually objectify women in their songs and music videos.

A time when popular female singers, from female singer-songwriters to lead singers of bands to R&B singers, barely ever showed their bodies off and used sex to sell themselves.

A time when it seemed like women who defined the decade were sarcastic, deadpan, nonsexualized alt girls like Janeane Garofalo, Juliana Hatfield and Daria from the titular MTV cartoon.

A time where you had riot grrrl bands like Bikini Kill angrily protesting rape and sexual assault.

A time when Gwen Stefani, who was then known for being the lead singer of a band, stating how she's "had it up to here" with sexism while she points to her forehead.

A time when Sonic Youth's Kim Gordon asked "Are you gonna liberate us girls with your male white corporate oppression?" and Queen Latifah making diss tracks towards misogynistic men.

But then...as the 1990's come to a close, just when you thought professional wrestling had dwindled in popularity when so many of their top stars during the 1980's left the World Wrestling Federation, pro wrestling made a comeback in 1996 and 1997 due to Hulk Hogan turning heel and a wrestling company known as WCW was beating the WWF (World Wrestling Federation, not World Wildlife Fund) in the ratings.

What was the WWF to do?

Instead of having a kid friendly product that seemed like a live action Saturday morning cartoon and had their faces of the company not using profanity or adult-like things despite having lots of charisma and being fan favorites with the audience, the WWF by the end of the 1990's became edgier, more violent, sexualized, shocking, trashier, vulgar and "adult like" than ever before.

You could say that the WWF was growing up with their audience who were kids watching the WWF when Hulk Hogan, Macho Man and even Bret Hart and Razor Ramon were the faces of the company that were now transitioning into teenagers who love sexualized women, middle fingers, sexual innuendo, violence and profanity.

Speaking of sexualized women, during the 1990's, when you had hardly any sexualized female recording artists save for a few and rock bands who barely sexually objectified women, by the end of the decade, the World Wrestling Federation would have their women's roster, be it from valets like Debra and Terri Runnels to legitimate wrestlers like Ivory and Jacqueline, participate in bikini contests where they'd be judged for their beauty and dressed in bikinis that left nothing to the imagination, and worse, the women's roster would participate in the infamous "bra & panties" and evening gown matches where women would tear each others clothes and dresses off in the ring until they were down to a bra and thong, or they'd wrestle in bikinis in pools of mud or pudding.

To add insult to injury, this was considered "women's wrestling" by the late 90's and some women would end up winning the World Championship belt for participating in matches involving them tearing their clothes off or "wrestling" in bikinis in pools of pudding or mud.

Plus, the World Wrestling Federation during the late 90's was also a time when you had wrestlers playing pimps that would have groups of prostitutes following them and men who would have half naked women cuddled with them.

And worse of all...some wrestlers played characters that would degrade women, from the Rock telling Chyna she "belongs on her knees", Jeff Jarrett being a misogynistic asshole who thinks men are better than women, some racially insensitive Asian men degrading his wife and someone drugging a woman and marrying her through a drive through wedding whilst unconscious.

After a time where you had feminist-esque female recording artists that almost never used sex to sell themselves, wrote their own music and played their own instruments who performed at those Lilith Fair concert tours (tours that featured all female recording artists), male rock bands and singers who didn't sexually objectify women, the NBA launching the Women's NBA playing legit basketball like men and not dressed in skimpy outfits, and the list goes on for days, the World Wrestling Federation now had most of their female roster participate in bikini contests where they were judged for their beauty and women were mostly there to be portrayed as sex objects and nothing else.

It was like this was a backlash towards Lilith Fair and nonsexualized, feminist female singer-songwriters, rock bands that didn't objectify women, and nonsexualized women in the 1990's in general.

Then again, the WWF's Attitude era as it was known as was a product of its time, popular around the same time other trashy pop culture like the Jerry Springer show, Jenny Jones and Ricki Lake's talk shows, Howard Stern, "South Park", Tom Green, Eminem at his most shocking and Marilyn Manson was at the height of his popularity.

Granted, the 1990's weren't completely wholesome, considering this was also the era of gangsta rap that sexually objectified and sometimes even degraded women, "Baywatch" was a popular show that was just an excuse to see beautiful women with silicone breast implants running on the beach in slow motion in tight red swimsuits, Playboy playmates like Pamela Anderson, Jenny McCarthy, and Anna Nicole Smith were popular sex symbols, Howard Stern was a pop culture icon infamous for sexually objectifying women, and there were even some female singers who used sex to sell themselves during the 90's like Madonna, Janet Jackson, Salt N Pepa, TLC, Adina Howard and more, and by the end of the decade we had the Spice Girls, Lil' Kim, Foxy Brown, Mariah Carey becoming more sexualized, Britney Spears, and Jennifer Lopez getting a record deal.

However, for every oversexualized Adina Howard, there was a Mariah Carey or Whitney Houston. For every oversexed Madonna, there was a Tori Amos. For every band that objectified women, there was a band that didn't objectify women.

Speaking of sexualization, you were one of the many bricks in the wall of the oversexualized women's roster during the WWF's Attitude era.

Not only did you participate in a few of those bikini contests, bra & panties and evening gown matches as well as those mud/pudding/gravy matches where you and another woman wrestled in a bikini, but your character you will always be remembered for playing was a scantily clad, nymphomaniac-like slut who was basically the wrestling equivalent to Madonna during her early 90's sex era and a female Val Venis.

From seducing wrestlers while you wore outfits that left little to the imagination, entering the ring wearing nothing but wrestling belts covering your bathing suit areas, cutting wrestling promos while being gangbanged (though your private parts weren't shown on television), rubbing cum on your body like it's lotion (though it wasn't really cum), wearing outfits that exposed your uncovered breasts not even being covered by pasties, wearing shirts that read "Pervert 69" on the back (parodying Janet Jackson's "Pervert" shirt she wore at the 1995 MTV VMA's), and Ministry Undertaker sacrificing you for being a whore, to roleplaying as a urinal while wrestlers jerk off in your mouth or on your face, becoming one of the Godfather's hoes (and you don't mean "The Godfather" as in the Francis Ford Coppola masterpiece), Triple H and Shawn Michaels undressing you until you lay in the ring wearing nothing but a thong and they pulled a bottle of lotion out and squeezed it to simulate ejaculation, and to top it all off, having actual sex in the ring with Val Venis while over 1000 people watched this in the audience and it was broadcast on television.

The WWF was nearly rated TV-MA almost because of you, and was getting boycotts and protests partially because of you.

However, despite many shocking moments that made headline news and caused controversy and nearly got you arrested for obscenity charges, this particular moment was slightly tame in comparison.

Almost near the end of 1998, during one of those "up next" vignettes that had the guitar riff to Slam Jam's "We're All Together Now" playing, you were on all fours on your knees on top of a bench in the locker room.

While you were on all fours on top of this bench, Triple H, Shawn Michaels, Billy Gunn, Val Venis, Christian, Test, Jeff Hardy, Steven Regal and Kane were circled around you, standing on your sides.

Triple H had his long blond hair hanging down, not with a ponytail in the back, Shawn Michaels didn't have his hair tied back in a ponytail, and Billy had his hair hanging down, not tied back in a ponytail or in little braids.

You were wearing nothing but a bra and thong and being filmed from behind, and as you were being filmed, you rolled your ass backward and arched it up a few times.

Your thong was buried and snug in between your ass cheeks, your pantyline covering your vulva.

Thankfully, you were shaved down there, not a single bit of pubic hair peeking out from your panty line or your panties, and you didn't have any bumps on your bikini line and thighs.

These aforementioned wrestlers around you were just staring at your ass rolling back, they all smiled from ear to ear, nearly salivating at your mouths.

These wrestlers surrounding you were cheering for you, Shawn even put his fingers into his mouth and wolf whistled at you.

Jerry Lawler sitting at the commentary table was going nuts, his eyes nearly bugging out of his head.

Grown men and underage boys in the audience are getting a massive kick over seeing you roll your ass to the camera, cheering for you and a few of them wolf whistling at you.

Triple H put his hand in one of his jean pockets and pulled out a dollar, where he slipped that dollar in between one of your thong straps.

Shawn, too, put his hand down the pocket of his slacks, where he pulled out a few dollar bills and his other hand stretched out one of your thong straps, putting that money at your hip, only to let go of your thong strap afterward, letting your thong hold that money.

Val and Billy really wish they could have some money to pull out and make it rain on you, though Billy wears those Mr. Ass shorts and Val is known for wearing a Speedo and a towel over it, neither of their outfits have pockets.

"Is that money!?" Jim Ross asked at the commentary table.

"Somebody better get her a pole!" Jerry Lawler exclaimed, his voice shrill as usual.

Indeed, you could use a stripper pole for this moment, but there sadly aren't any poles in the locker room.

You pulled yourself up from the bench, placing your feet on the bench and standing up on top of the bench, but after you got yourself up, you still continued dancing and shaking your ass.

Somebody come get her, she's dancin' like a stripper...

Some of these wrestlers surrounding you pretended to be shocked by when you assembled yourself up from the bench, their eyes bugging out and their mouths dropping open as well as walking a few steps back as if to act like they're shocked, only for them to smile after their mouths were agape.

Once you stood on top of the bench, you placed your hands on your knees and stuck your ass out, rolling your ass backwards and sometimes even shaking and bouncing your ass, basically twerking.

You smiled and your head was slightly turned looking at your rear whilst you rolled your ass backwards, hands on your knees, shakin' ass on your thot shit.

Triple H, Billy, Shawn, and Val were looking at you, smiling from ear to ear, especially Billy Gunn who placed one of his hands on your ass cheeks and squeezed it.

Hey, his nickname is Mr. Ass, that's why he did that.

You turned your body around and gyrated your ass and hips around in a circle, rolling your hips to the beat of the guitar riff of that Slam Jam song, and as you did that, you lifted your hands off of your knees and grabbed one of your bra straps, where you slid that bra strap down on of your arms, teasing the audience.

You looked at the camera filming in front of you with this "come hither" expression on your face.

Just as it looked like you were gonna take your bra off, the camera then cut to commercial.

Bah.

You wanted to do so much during this moment; besides spin around a stripper pole, you also wanted lie on your back on the bench with your legs spread up and shaking your ass, squat down on the bench and spread your legs out with your hands on your knees, but this moment was short.

Y'know, since you were roleplaying as a stripper and some wrestlers were pulling money out and sticking it in your G-string, you're surprised Vince McMahon, the CEO and boss of the WWF and pretty much the Ted Debiase Sr. of the Attitude era (and Ted DeBiase Sr. was known for playing a millionaire in the 80's and early 90's) wasn't in this segment pulling dollar bills out on you.

Though, Vince McMahon is a snake, even when the cameras aren't rolling.

[nick-thecreator]

“Finally, A Break” A RE8 Human!au Moreviento Fanfic

I had no fucking clue where I was taking this after a while, so here’s some fic vomit...

I might make more human!au RE8 stuff tho...

_________________________________________________________

“Sal?”

   “Yes?”

   “When do you think you’ll be home?” Donna asked, having been home alone for the past week and a half.

   “I don’t know. it’s been really backed up here, so I’m needed much more than before. I’ll see if I can get Adrian to get here faster, but he’s not one to give up a vacation,” Salvatore replied, rubbing one of his temples, trying to soothe a headache. Donna sighed, placing a hand on her head.

   “You sure?”

   “Unfortunately, yes.”

   “Sir, you’re needed again,” One of the nurses popped into his office. He sighed, looking from the nurse to the phone.

   “Sorry Donna, I need to go.”

   “Okay, I’m going to be at the library tonight again. I have a show.”

   “Great, good luck. Make sure you have everything, okay?”

   “Of course.”

   “Okay, have a good show, bye.”

_________________________________________________________

   “Thank you, good luck, bye.” He hung up before rising from his seat, walking over to the nurse.

   “Who this time?”

   “Alina’s son, Daniel, has had a hard cough and a loss of smell for the past 2 days,” The nurse explained as she led him to their room.

   Everything else through the day was the same, just more tiring every time. Half of the cases were of people that either were sick with Covid, while the other half were either sick with something else or with just small ailments from either the lack of water or sleep. With the latter, he’d be almost jealous of the people who got to go home and get some rest. The naps he had been able to get during his breaks weren’t enough at this point. His back ached, along with a lack of sleep, it gave him a bad headache and aching joints. Even though he just wanted to collapse in his office, preferably on his chair, for some needed rest, he just gritted his teeth and kept working. He had patients to take care of, so he could only hope that Adrian would show up for once.

   At around 5:30, he was in his office, trying to get some sleep, when someone knocked on the door. He groaned, hoping and praying that it was just an update and not being called to work on another patient.

   “It’s unlocked.” The door opened, and Adrian stuck his head in. Salvatore shot up from his seat. “Adrian!?” His face twisted into anger. “You were supposed to be here a week ago!” Adrian smiled sheepishly.

   “Well, listen man, the wife’s been a bitch about that-”

   “Just- nevermind, just get ready for work. Luca should be here in three days to help you-”

   “Three days!? You expect ME to man this place for three-”

   “I ran this place for over a fucking week! Shut the FUCK UP!” Salvatore gritted his teeth, almost hissing his words. The lack of sleep was really messing with him. “Just man the place till then. When he gets here, you’ll switch off every other day. The schedule is in the break room, alright?” Adrian just nodded, his face in a form of shame. Salvatore just sighed, waving him off as Adrian left the room. He got all of his stuff in his briefcase before quickly making a beeline out of the clinic. The nurses wished him a good break, him quickly thanking them while walking out.

   The hit of fresh sent a pleasant shiver down his spine, taking in a deep breath. A small smile on his face, he almost sprinted over to his car, planning to go straight home. He hopped into his car, starting it up and pulling out of the parking space. When he was about to drive out of the parking lot, he thought for a second. He’s spent over a week with people who have Covid. His face went from excitement to worry. He didn’t want to bring Covid home. He remembered his extra set of clothes, cleaning stuff, for both people and surfaces, and the towels he keeps in his trunk for emergencies, like if someone threw up on him. However, there was the threat of himself. He had been cleaning himself with wipes and dry shampoo, so, even though he was “clean”, he wasn’t completely clean.

He thought for a while as he drove down the road, he saw the gym. Surprisingly, it was still open, even through the pandemic. Most likely because it was privately owned, and some people don’t know when to stop. However, it was an opportunity for an answer. He turned around and drove to the gym, parking his car in a parking space. Before getting out of his car, he checked his wallet, just to make sure he had his membership card. He didn’t go to the gym much, besides using it to swim during the winter, so it wasn’t like him to remember it. Maybe that’s why he left it in his wallet. He stepped out of his car, walking over to the trunk after he closed the driver door. He pulled out the bag with clothes in it, putting a towel, a hairbrush, knowing he’d need it, and a bottle of shampoo into the bag before throwing it over his shoulder, closing the trunk and locking the car. He walked over to the gym, putting on his mask before stepping in. Luckily, at the very least, the gym had made masks mandatory, and had signs everywhere about it.

He checked into the front desk before walking into the full part of the gym. He walked along the side of the gym, keeping his eyes down to not cause anything awkward. He finally got to the back, where the locker rooms were located. He walked into the men’s locker room, walking to the back to get to the bathrooms. Inside was a line of urinals against the wall, with a stall right across from them. In the back of the room, there were showers lined up against the wall, enclosed behind a curtain. He walked to the back, placing the bag on the bench next to the showers against the wall, taking his towel, a hairbrush, and a bottle of shampoo with him into the shower, keeping it out enough so it wouldn’t get wet. He then stripped his clothes off, undoing his hair out of its hair tie before turning the shower on, getting hit with the cold water. He jumped back, sticking his hand in every now and then to see if it had warmed up. Eventually, it warmed up, him getting back underneath the shower. He quickly lathered himself in soap, waiting a bit, then rinsing it off before turning off the shower.

He grabbed the towel, drying his body off before trying to dry his hair. While he was drying his hair, it tangled under the towel, so when he pulled the towel off, it resembled a large fluffball on his head. He sighed before peaking out of the shower curtain before quickly stepping out, making sure he was alone in there. There was only one person in one of the stalls. He must have not heard them coming in from the loudness of the water hitting the floor. He dashed over to his bag, pulling out a pair of pants. He didn’t pack any underwear, never really needing to replace them during work hours, and he didn’t mind going commando, even just once. He grabbed the shirt in there after he got his pants on, pulling it over his head and his fluffed hair, straightening it out with his hands. He sat down on the bench, drying off his feet before putting on his socks and shoes. He then grabbed his shampoo and the clothes from work, using the bag so he wouldn’t touch the clothes. He made sure he had taken the hairbrush out first, placing it on the bench. He placed the bag on the bench before picking up the hairbrush. He tried to brush his hair regularly, but it pulled at knots, causing him pain. So, whenever he ran into a knot, he had to pry it apart with his own hands. After what felt like forever, he finally got his hair straightened out, putting the brush on the bench again, not wanting to contaminate the brush too. He placed the towel into the bag before putting his mask on.

He stood up, picking up the bag and the brush, walking out of the bathroom. He walked alongside the wall of the locker room, doing the same in the main gym, before ending up in the lobby again. He checked out, walking out to his car. He unlocked the car, putting the bag in the back before getting into the front seat. He placed the brush in the back before starting the car. Before he pulled out of the parking space, he got an idea. He looked up the schedule to the local library, seeing that a puppet show was scheduled for 6:30pm. He checked the time. 6:22pm. Just enough time. He pulled out of the parking spot, then the parking lot onto the road. After a ten minute drive, he pulled into the library parking lot, parking in one of its spaces. He put on his mask, getting out of his car before locking it. He walked to the entrance of the library, holding the door for a mother and her daughter. He walked in after them, looking around the place. Even though Donna worked there, he hadn’t been there much, so whenever he went there, he would always spend a moment confused on where everything was.

After a while of looking around, he heard some voices having a conversation near the children’s corner. He walked over to it, seeing a group of kids sitting around a puppet show stand. They socially distanced from each other as their parents stood behind them, talking quietly to each other about the performance. He just leaned on one of the bookshelves, watching the show. Donna would usually base her puppet shows off of children’s books and children’s lessons, mainly so it would guarantee that the story was appropriate and enjoyable for the kids. The story today was about a little girl who gets a sickness called “The Spots” from not washing her hands. It gives her rainbow spots all over her body and Covid-like symptoms, and turns everything she touches into candy, which infects the rest of her class. In the end, the teacher tells the kids that if they always wash their hands and make sure they live healthy, they will stay healthy and happy. The kids seemed to enjoy it, as they clapped and smiled at the end, and the adults didn’t complain.

After she had finished, she made the puppets bow as the kids clapped. The adults then collected their kids to go, since the puppet show had lasted till 7:00pm, and they probably had to get home for dinner. Once the majority of them were gone, Donna stood up, finally being able to look over the set up, seeing who was left. Salvatore was still against the wall, smiling at Donna, slowly walking over until she noticed him. Donna, in her see through veil, turned around to put her puppets away before turning around again. He had gotten up to the stand, looking down at her as she was putting the puppets away. She smiled as he smiled back at her, getting down to her level.

“Hey Donna.”

“Adrian finally showed up?” She asked.

“Yeah, finally…” He grumbled. She got all of her puppets put away neatly in her case, before turning to him and giving him a light hug.

“Good, I missed you.”

“I was only gone for a week.”

“Still. It wasn’t planned or anything.” He chuckled, hugging him back. After a bit more time hugging, she pulled away, grabbing her case and standing up. He stood up after her, walking behind her as she stepped out from behind the stand. Another worker walked into the stand behind them, nodding to Donna as she nodded back. The worker started to disassemble the stand as Sal took Donna’s hand in hers as they walked to the front desk.

“Were you able to-”

“Yes, it wasn’t as stressful as before.”

“Even without Angie?” She shuddered.

“Yeah…” She just refocused her attention onto the lady at the front desk.

“Hello Donna, good performance?” The lady asked.

“Yes, definitely,” Donna replied. She held onto Sal’s as they continued their conversation until the lady paid her for her time and energy. Donna thanked the lady and wished her well before gesturing to Salvatore that she wanted to leave. He smiled at the lady as he followed her out of the library.

Once outside, Donna let out a long sigh of relief, looking up at Salvatore. He looked back down at her.

“You couldn’t get a taxi, huh?” He asked. She turned away and nodded. “It’s okay Donna, come on.” He walked with her in the direction of his car. When they got to it, he unlocked the car as she noticed the bag and brush in the backseat.

“What’s that?” She pointed to the bag.

“Covid clothes-” She giggled. “Don’t touch it.” She went silent. Once the car was unlocked, they got into the car. As Salvatore started the car, Donna took her veil off and looked up at him.

“Hey Sal?” She asked.

“Yeah?” He replied, pulling the car out of the parking space.

“How much sleep have you gotten?” He went silent for a second, trying to think of the right answer.

“Over the whole week and a half?”

“Yeah.” He went silent again.

“Well… about…” He scratched his chin. “30-ish hours?” She wasn’t that shocked, considering how tired he looked, with the bags under his eyes.

“You sure you can drive?” He rolled his eyes.

“I’ll make it Donna.” She was going to question him more, but she thought that turning on the radio was a better idea. He was going to complain about it, but she put it on a classical music station, so he just asked if she could turn it down. They eventually got back to their house, getting out of their car once they got into the driveway. He locked the car and went to walk to the door before Donna stopped him.

“What about the bag?” She asked.

“Your bag?” He looked down at her hand, it holding her case of puppets.

“No, your bag? Of clothes?”

“I’ll get it tomorrow,” He answered, unlocking the front door to their small house, opening the door. He held the door open for her, who, after looking back to the car, walked into the house. The house was what you’d expect. The living room and kitchen were both open, with a dining room right in between. A small hallway in the back led to the bathroom and office on the left, and a large bedroom on the right. The rooms had what you’d expect in them. A couch and TV in the living room, a table and a three chairs in the dining room, stuff like a microwave and a pot/knife hanger in the kitchen, regular toiletries in the bathroom, a fax machine and a work desk in the office, and a bed, a TV, a bunch of games with a few consoles on a shelf, and a small desk with Angie on its cahir and stuff like sewing supplies on the desk in the bedroom. The walls in most of the rooms were mostly plain, except in the bedroom and office. The walls in the office had posters on almost every wall, from game posters to movie posters. Most of them were from old collections from when he was a teen, but some were new. The bedroom had mainly framed photos, mostly near the small desk. They contained pictures of Donna’s family and a few friends down at the library. There were only 2 pictures of her and Salvatore in the whole house, one was on the wall next to the desk, and the other was a small photo right above the office desk.

Once Salvatore locked the door behind them once they were both inside, she placed her case down on the couch. Salvatore yawned, stretching for a second, looking over to Donna. Donna looked back at him.

“Feels good to be home,” He stated, looking around.

“Yeah, I stayed in the bedroom for the most part, so the rest of the house should be clean,” She replied. “I did have to order out though…”

“When?” He asked. He knew that he couldn’t get much money home during the days he was gone, but he assumed that there was enough for the time he was gone. However, when he thought about it a bit more, he could see how it could’ve gone in that time. Thank god they had savings...

“Yesterday.”

“Oh, it sounded like it was a few days ago.”

“No, just recently.” She smiled before looking at him most closely. “Did… did you shower recently?”

“Yeah, at the gym. I didn’t want to risk anything.”

“Oh, ok, your hair is still a bit damp.” He chuckled, feeling his hair with one hand, still feeling damp from the shower. They continued their conversation for a minute, until Salvatore yawned again. “Tired?”

“Yeah…”

“You can go to bed if you want. I’ll just order something for dinner.”

“Okay, from where?” She shrugged.

“Yesterday I just got something from mcdonald’s, so if you want something from there?”

“Yeah, that’s fine. You have the code-”

“Of course.”

“Just making sure.” He stretched again. “Sounds like a plan.” She nodded.

“Yep, now you should head to bed before you pass out.”

“You sure you don’t need anything?”

“I’m positive, now bed.” She placed a hand on his shoulder. “You need it.” She felt so proud of herself for a second, considering that it’s usually Salvatore telling her to sleep. He just rolled his eyes, chuckling.

“Alright, alright, I’ll see if I can,” He replied as Donna guided him in the direction of the bedroom. He walked off into the bedroom, collapsing onto the bed on his stomach. The bed was made for the most part, besides a pillow that had been removed from Donna’s side, but he saw it on her seat next to the small desk. He flipped over, but was met with a shock of pain up his back. He gritted his teeth as he sat up, pulling his phone, keys, and wallet out of his pocket, placing them on the side table. He then placed a hand on his back, trying to soothe the pain as he laid back down. He kicked off his shoes, turning his body to be fully on the bed. He didn’t bother getting under the blanket, considering the time of year, it would just make him more uncomfortable. His back kept hurting, so he just sighed, rolling over and adjusting himself to be on his stomach. He grabbed his pillow, hugging it under his head as he tried to let his tiredness overwhelm the pain in his back.

“Hey Sal, what do you want from McDonald’s?” He looked up from the pillow to look at Donna, who had peeked her head into the room, phone in her hand with someone on the line.

“Just something simple.” He muttered, placing a hand on his back.

“Alright.” She turned back to the phone, resuming the order she was placing. After a bit more talking, mainly about price, payment, and location, she hung up the phone before turning back to Sal. “I just got some side stuff.”

“Like what?”

“Mostly fries, but I did get some ice cream too.”

“Really?” He chuckled. “Fries?”

“Should I have gotten something else?” She asked, slightly worried. “I didn’t-”

“It’s fine Donna, really, I just thought it was funny,” He tried to console her, sitting up slightly before going right back to laying down, gritting his teeth. She noticed, getting a bit closer to them, getting to his level.

“Your back okay?” She tilted her head. He nodded.

“Yeah, I’ll be fine.” She placed her hand on top of his.

“You sure? You don’t seem to be?” She pressed a bit on his back, making him groan. She quickly pulled her hand back, looking down. “Sorry sorry sorry sorry-”

“It’s okay Donna, you didn’t do anything wrong.” He took his hand off of his back, holding onto her hand. She looked back up at him and smiled slightly, Salvatore smiling back. “You gonna put your puppets away tonight?”

“Maybe, I’m not sure. I probably will,” Donna replied. “The food’s gonna be here in 30 minutes by the way.”

“Great, what do you wanna do until then?” He asked. She thought for a second before letting go of his hand, walking around the bed and sitting down on her side.

“We could watch something?” She held up the remote controller as he turned his head to see her on the other side.

“Like what?”

“Maybe… Little Women?” He thought for a second.

“Sure, the English or Romanian dub?”

“It’s the 1994 one.”

“Oh, English then.” He slowly went to get up again, before falling back down onto the bed, gritting his teeth again in pain.

“Are you sure you’re okay?” She asked again, a bit more serious this time.

“Yes, I am.”

“You don’t sound like you are.” She slipped her shoes off before getting closer to him. “You look like a dying walrus.” She giggled.

“I’m not that fat,” He joked. “And my teeth aren’t that big.” They both laughed as Donna got a bit closer.

“That’s not what I meant. I meant that you’re just… flopping every time you get up, and I think I know why.” She placed her hand on his upper back, feeling his scars under his shirt. He looked up at her.

“I really am fi-”

“You’re really hard here.” She pushed a bit on his back, it being very hard under her hand. “From working?” He looked down, nodding.

“Work’s been hard…”

“You sure you don’t want any help? I could try.” She placed her other hand on his back, lightly rubbing his upper back. Salvatore had rubbed her back plenty of times, whenever she would get stressed, but she hadn’t returned it as much, considering that she didn’t really know how to. There was also the fact that he had never bothered to ask. He usually just took a bath or could just fall asleep to relieve his pain, but the extra work had taken its toll. He thought for a second.

“Alright, fine. If you want to try, I can help.” She smiled, him smiling back.

“Okay, um… how should I do this?”

“Depends, you want me to sit up or will it be easier for you to do this with me laying down?”

“You can stay down, it’s fine.”

“Okay, you can get on my lower waist, if you want. You’ll be at a better angle.” She hesitated for a second, looking at his lower waist then back to him.

“Really?”

“I can always sit up instead-”

“No! Um… no, I can.”

“You sure? I don’t mind-”

“I can, don’t worry.” She slowly pulled herself up and over his waist, sitting down, straddling his waist under her. Donna tried not to think about it, placing her hands onto his back. “So… now what do I do?”

“Okay, you see where your hands are placed now?”

“Yes.”

“Okay, move your hands up a bit.” She did so till her hands were halfway over the hard places on his back. “Alright, you feel where it’s hard?”

“Uh huh.”

“Take your thumbs and push down and forward, guiding your hands with it. Okay?” She nodded, doing so on his back. He put his face back into the pillow for a second, letting out a light groan of relief.

“Like that?” She asked. He nodded, taking his head out of the pillow for a second.

“Yeah, just like that,” He replied. He put his face back into the pillow as she did it again. He slowly relaxed as she picked up a tempo, moving a bit once a while when he asked. It was silent for the most part, but it was also oddly peaceful in that silence. Both of their jobs usually had a lot of noise, even for Donna’s job in a library, but when they were home, the silence that came with that tended to be more comforting than uncomfortable, even if it did before they came together.

After a while, once they were done, the doorbell rang. Donna, who was getting off of Salvatore at this point, quickly got off and went to the door. Salvatore got up after her, his back feeling better than before. She got to the door first, opening it to nobody at the door, a bag and a drink holder left on the steps. She picked them up, bringing them in and closing the door.

“Hungry?” She asked, holding up the bag, smiling, walking into the dining room. He followed her there, her placing the bag and holder onto the table. He walked up to her, sticking his hand out a bit in front of her, before getting a nod so he could place a hand on her shoulder. She opened the bag, looking back up at him. “Well?”

“Yes, I am now,” He replied, slowly putting his arms around her. She started to take things out of the bag before Salvatore quickly kissed her head. She looked up again.

“What was that for?”

“My thanks.”

“For what?” He chuckled.

“You fully know what.” He kissed her head again. She smiled.

“You’re welcome.”

Ima just put this here and go now-

[primavera-cerezos]

what’s that? I’m supposed to be sleeping? no, thank you. I would rather write 900 words of genderqueer Hermione Granger.

tw/cw: looooots of talk of top surgery (not graphic), coming out to self/others (overall very positive)

not betaed. it’s 2am folks, we ain’t got time for that.

At 20 years old, Hermione Granger decides to get top surgery.

“I’ve never liked my chest,” they explain to Ginny, who nods in understanding. “It’s in the way, makes my tops fit funny, and… I just don’t like it.”

Hermione is, of course, quite familiar with gender affirmation procedures. They’ve read all about them, both the magical and nonmagical sorts. The people who get them, the surgical techniques, the aftercare. It’s all very clear. Trans men get bilateral mastectomies and other breast-tissue-removal procedures to make their chests match those of men who never formed breasts.

The thing is, Hermione is not a trans man.

But they read in a book—a muggle book, one they’re reading for Harry’s youth group—about a young person who doesn’t identify as a man or a woman. That led to a delightful rabbit hole into nonbinary gender identities (with brief side trips into computer coding and children’s movies), and several days later, Hermione emerges, library-dusty and fueled by knowledge.

“Is there a new name we should use for you, dear?” asks Molly, but Hermione shakes their head.

“No,” they say. “I like mine.”

They try muggle binders and compression spells, but it’s no good. There’s always the presence, the awareness. No, there’s only one thing for it.

“We love you,” their parents tell them. “Girl, boy, whatever.”

“I love you too, but I’m not a ‘whatever.’” This comment leads to some terse conversation over dinner and, later, quiet book recommendations. Their parents call the next day and apologize.

Ron offers to tailor Hermione’s wardrobe to fit their new measurements, once they’ve recovered enough for a good fitting. “Mum didn’t teach me a hundred seamstress spells for nothing,” he says with a shrug. “You want to get pho tonight?”

Hermione sees a muggle GP and is horrified by the amount of red tape around top surgery. They decide to start volunteering with a group that lobbies for reforming the requirements for gender affirmation procedures.

That’s all well and good, but then they see some post-op photos right after a bad bout of food poisoning and determine that muggle techniques are not the way to go for them. Nonetheless, they make up a spell to auto-dial MPs with gender-related medical best practices.

They visit St Mungo’s, but there isn’t a gender ward, or even a breast ward, so they find Draco and force him to figure out who they need to talk to.

“I’ll bloody do it myself if you don’t let me piss in peace, Granger,” Draco threatens, to which Hermione responds with direct quotes from the Healer Code of Ethics while standing next to Draco’s urinal.

A resident from Canada is located in the basement of the hospital. Elena Pfeifer, it turns out, worked in Ontario doing magical plastic surgery for several years before moving to the UK. She’d done a number of top surgeries and trained under the best-known top surgeon in North America, who had invented the magical version of the procedure.

“Well,” Draco says, “let’s bring him over.”

Healer Horatio Jackson-Torton is a very tall, very pleasant man. He and Harry get along like they’ve known each other their whole lives. Harry takes Horatio to the youth group, and by the end of the night half the kids have decided to become healers.

Horatio agrees to perform Hermione’s top surgery at St Mungo’s and demands any available surgeons observe. Having never been demanded to do anything before, the Healers comply with baffled curiosity. By the end of the two-hour operation, three of them have registered to study in Ontario under Horatio. Elena Pfeifer feels extremely smug the entire time.

Hermione’s recovery is quick, any pain alleviated by the way their sweaters drop from their shoulders to their belly with any interruptions. True to his word, Ron alters their clothes, and spends every moment telling Hermione how amazing they look. Hermione, who spends more time admiring themself in the mirror than they ever have before, agrees.

Molly brings stacks of dinners and baked goods, and Arthur listens with fascination as Hermione tells me about the muggle way of doing it. Harry and Draco come over to eat Molly’s food and watch Hermione’s new television. Draco french braids Hermione’s hair and Harry rubs their feet.

Four days after the surgery, Hermione is ready to go shopping. Ron’s done a wonderful job, of course, but they want to buy the kinds of clothes they’ve been eying for years. They spend at least a paycheque on button-ups and cardigans and a couple of blessedly-flat-fitting pocket tees. It’s all lovely and they feel delightful.

They help Ginny pick out a binder to try, and then they think better of it and invent a binding spell. “You can’t play Quidditch in a binder,” they explain, “but with the spell you can breathe safely.”

A group branches off from Harry’s, trans kids and genderqueer kids and kids who don’t quite know what they might be, but who like wearing their older sisters’ dresses. Harry hires two social workers from Canada to run it. Hermione marches in protests for fair treatment for trans people in the UK and sends hourly owls to Draco until he agrees to fund a gender affirmation ward at St Mungo’s.

All in all, Hermione thinks years later, swimming topless at the beach with their friends, it was a very good idea.

[cybernaght]

Guardian rewatch: Episode 9

This episode starts with Zhao Yunlan being a bloody good boss. I’ll talk about how the opinions of others must have affected this man’s perception of himself a little later on, but in this scene it is important to note that Zhao Yunlan is supportive, caring and loyal. Wang Zheng comes to him in tears, asking for permission to leave and see the home she had just remembered, and he not only supports her verbally, but drags his entire team on the trip with her the very next day. Sure, he has are ulterior motives, as he strongly suspects one of the Hallows must be around the same area, but I maintain that Zhao Yunlan would have insisted on going with Wang Zheng regardless.

There are complications to this trip; namely, Wang Zheng is a ghost energy being and can neither be in sunlight, nor leave the SID really. Thus, the plan to take her on the trip includes buying a doll. The implication is that Wang Zheng can be somehow placed inside it, and thus be able to move, but the details of how this is done are actually curiously hazy. I’m not sure if censorship is the reason for muddled writing, but there really is very little explanation for the ghost in a doll situation.

Guo Changcheng is tasked with securing a makeshift body for Wang Zheng, and the boy, eager to act fast, and without much to work with in terms of instructions, ends up buying this.

We can only thank the Universe for the role of Wang Zheng not being played by a blow-up doll for three episodes straight.

Zhao Yunlan instantly realises that being places inside this thing might be a little bit upsetting for his subordinate, and lashes out at Guo Changcheng with an excellent “Is the thing above your neck a urinal?” This snaps Zhu Hong out of her mirth, too; she rushes to her friend’s side to offer emotional support, and will remain there for the entire episode.

I love this blocking, in which Zhu Hong is the only one who feels comfortable approaching Wang Zheng in a situation where she is seemingly being mocked by her male colleagues, as Zhao Yunlan and Guo Changcheng look on, unable to offer a meaningful apology.

The evening prior to this Shen Wei is musing over ancient map of the region. His costume is arranged deliberately so you can see the Pendant of Pining hanging around his neck.

I am really wondering when this was shot, because it looks very out of place. The costume differs from Shen Wei’s usual attire, including chinos and an uncharacteristically ill fitting shirt. His hair looks so wrong I am wondering if this is styling, or a different haircut entirely. And, since we’re on this train of thought, his eye colour is so off I genuinely spent quite a bit of time examining the shots in order to figure out whether he’s wearing contacts. I don’t think he is, by the way, but the colour grading makes his warm syrupy-brown irises look almost olive green.

During the scene it is revealed Shen Wei’s only worry in regards to leaving the city and rushing into what could be trouble is a possibility of Zhao Yunlan encountering danger in his absence. It is easy to see that Shen Wei here firmly associates his own worth with his work as Hei Pao Shi, and his own needs with Yunlan being safe and sound. You could trace this thought process back to the mountainside conversation ten thousand years ago, and to years of loneliness and isolation that followed. While, frankly, equating self-worth with comfort of other it’s not necessarily so unusual, and neither is equating it with one’s work, Shen Wei’s disregard for his own life is still horribly upsetting.

The morning after, Zhao Yunlan with his team and Shen Wei with his students move out of Dragon City. Destination - North-west. I have to ask though, why is Shen Wei taking his students with him? I get that it’s a cover but also: he can totally just teleport where he needs to and do his stuff as Envoy, can he not? It’s fast, efficient, and can all be done during the night without arousing any suspicious.

As it happens, Shen Wei goes by car, which breaks, and causes him to instantly cross paths with Zhao Yunlan. What I like about this meeting is that we see it from an outsider perspective, as we drive into the scene with Lin Jing, Chu Shuzhi and Guo Changcheng.

“Is that Professor Shen? This must be their destiny. They keep meeting each other wherever they go.”

Zhao Yunlan confesses that he feels like Shen Wei bugged him and pops up everywhere he goes; Shen Wei counters by saying that in this case Zhao Yunlan who followed him. Zhao Yunlan can just laugh awkwardly. It’s kind of adorable how the two men just basically admit that they’re stalking each other, and are both kind of okay with that. Shen Wei then introduces the other man to his students as his good friend.

Zhao Yunlan, having already figured out that he is not likely to get any answers from Shem Wei, goes on a charm offensive with his students. I think this is the first time Shen Wei sees Zhao Yunlan using his jovial manipulation on others, and he is not particularly happy about what he is witnessing. Below are the series of facial expressions he wears every time it happens throughout the episode.

The way I read it, this could equally be jealousy, or the daunting - and incorrect - realisation that Zhao Yunlan is being like this with everything that moves. He could be even beating himself up for falling for this man’s charm now that he sees that Zhao Yunlan using the same wide smile as a tool to placate, gain trust and access information. In his mind, this is a further confirmation that he is not in any way special in Zhao Yunlan’s eyes. Again, Shen Wei’s supposition cannot be further from the truth. But you could imagine how he may have come to make to this conclusion.

In this particular case, Zhao Yunlan uses his charm to get some information out of Jiajia, and ends up hearing the direction of their expedition.

Shen Wei nervously adjusts glasses in the shot which is not even his close-up. It’s lovely, seeing how good of an actor Zhu Yilong is. Good actors don’t need to be directed to to most of the little things their characters would do, and don’t have to be told what their character quirks are.

Shen Wei very politely shuts Jiajia up when she starts talking about the earthquake, asking her to get out of the sun, despite this not being a hot day.

“Chief Zhao, you are really good at making people talk.”

As he is making this observation, he is offering Zhao Yunlan his water, because the man mentioned that he may be thirsty, and hydration is important. Should I once again be obsessing over how their fingers are touching here? Perhaps not. I am, once more, doing it anyway.

During the conversation that ensues here, Shen Wei reminds Zhao Yunlan that he was asked not to leave the city, and makes one more attempt at forcing them to part ways after the car fixing is done. Chief Zhao is having none of it. He reminds Shen Wei that no promises were given, and suggests they work together and protect each other instead. It’s interesting how their end goal is similar: they want to keep each other out of harm’s way. But for Zhao Yunlan, who works with a team, this implies sticking together. For Shen Wei, who has been alone for what could have been centuries (we are never given a timeline for when his magical coma ended), this implies being as far away from each other as possible. Many things about their relationship will change - but this one will never do.

Zhao Yunlan proceeds to charm his way into driving Shen Wei’s car. He is after all very good with people, and he’s not afraid to use this skill to keep himself near the Professor.

Next, we have intercut scenes depicting conversations in two separate cars.

Lin Jing is driving Zhu Hong, Guo Changcheng and Wang Zheng in the jeep. There, Guo Changcheng tries his darnedest to offer exceedingly moody Wang Zheng apologies and consolation, but his weak attempts to very little to lighten the young woman’s dark disposition. In the meanwhile, Zhu Hong is seething with resentment and jealousy. She notes discontentedly that Zhao Yunlan once again chose to go and spend time with Shen Wei, hypothesises on why Shen Wei is unmarried, and then goes into a long-winded rant about Zhao Yunlan being an uncaring person. Lin Jing reluctantly participates in this conversation, but he does not look very much like he cares for it.

I have mentioned in my previous recap that those around Zhao Yunlan comment on his crassness, and now I am wondering how much this creates a vicious circle for the man in question. He may have heard - from his father, from his previous romantic partners, from his colleagues - that he is a failure, a boorish, unloving and superficial man who only does things to chase clout and carnal pleasures. It is difficult to not internalise that, and Zhao Yunlan may have just grown to see this as an unshakeable truth about himself.

As for Zhu Hong’s part in this, it is easy to call someone not responding to your advances an uncaring jerk. It does not, however, necessarily make them one.

Curiously enough, the only person speaking up in defence of Zhao Yunlan here is Guo Changcheng. He notes that he considers Chief Zhao to be a nice person; despite only being with SID for a month, he is able to see good intensions behind the bristles. No doubt, this is another case of Xiao Guo being incredibly empathic.

In the other car, Zhao Yunlan is driving Shen Wei and his students. Here, we see the chief continue to crack jokes and use his bountiful charisma to find out more about their expedition. Presumably, this has been going for a while, and Shen Wei’s patience finally runs thin when Zhao Yunlan states that their research must be very important. “Thank you for the compliment”, states Shen Wei flatly, according to subtitles.

According to my dictionary however, what he actually says is, roughly, “Chef Zhao overpraised [us]” (“赵处长过奖了”), which even with my very basic comprehension of Mandarin, I can see as overly formal and clearly dismissive.

Zhao Yunlan seems to be taken aback, and a few seconds pass before he composes his features into one of the chuckles he uses as a mask: it is loud and wide, but does not quite reach his eyes, sliding off his face almost instantly. In the passenger seat, Shen Wei is slowly and deliberately readjusting his own mask.

We cut to Zhu Jiu trying to secure assistance of a whole bunch of Youchu he drags out of the cave. It goes even worse than his other plans do, with the beasts grumbling and effectively refusing to do any work whatsoever.

Zhu Jiu’s ineffectiveness is actually pretty sweet on rewatch, and I am starting to kind of appreciate Wan Naichao in this role. It’s not that I find his performance particularly good, but between the costume, the wig and the script, he does not have an awful lot to work with, and he nonetheless appears to have so much fun hamming it up to his heart’s content. He is not intimidating by any stretch of imagination, but he is surprisingly, albeit ironically, watchable. And, honestly, I would rather watch an actor being hammy and enjoying it than visibly longing for death on set.

After passing a checkpoint through a combination of Zhao Yunlan’s connections and ever-present charm, the now joint SID/DCU expedition shuffles around in cars once again. Despite their destination being allegedly twenty kilometres (or about 12.5 miles) out of town, it takes them a whole day to reach it. Who knows, maybe the Seastar’s measuring units are different.

This time, it is Lin Jing driving, with Shen Wei and Zhao Yunlan having relocated to the back. We see that Zhao Yunlan has got a cold again - which could theoretically be from being so close to the hallows. He sneezes, and Shen Wei microexpressively overreacts.

Then, Zhao Yunlan unceremoniously arranges a pillow on Shen Wei’s shoulder and settles in for a nap. Does he remember napping on Shen Wei’s shoulder a few nights prior to that? Because he might do, considering how comfortable he feels with this casual close contact.

After a momentary panic, and a comment about flu meds, Shen Wei not only lets Zhao Yunlan do it, but also rearranges his pillow several times to make it more comfortable for the other man. I have no hot takes on this apart from just... those two. I love those two. How are they so adorable.

The car enters CGI fog, and promptly get stuck. To make matters worse, Lin Jing says he does not have a phone signal and asks Shen Wei to check his phone. “He does not have a mobile phone”, deadpans Zhao Yunlan before Shen Wei even opens his mouth.

Finally, Zhao Yunlan’s head vacates Shen Wei’s shoulder, and the professor leaves the car to scout the area. Jiajia tries to follow, but Zhao Yunlan dissuades her and goes after Shen Wei himself, catching up just as the other man is starting to scry the surroundings with his powers.

Zhao Yunlan enters the scene quoting poetry to highlight the beauty of their current location.

Shen Wei instantly tries to send him back: partly to continue using his dark energy, and partly, perhaps, out of genuine worry. In response Zhao Yunlan notes that Shen Wei is the only one who can order him around. This is not all done in cheek: it’s actually kind of true. Even before finding out that Shen Wei is powerful and ancient, and imposing, Zhao Yunlan is readily listening to him, and following his lead.

As a precursor to returning to the car, Zhao Yunlan takes his jacket off and drapes it over Shen Wei’s shoulders, despite the other man’s loud protestations. Again, Yunlan has got a cold, and he is visibly filling the chill air later in the scene. He has no way of knowing that this jacket will become a catalyst for his suspicions about Shen Wei’s alter ego, so there can’t be any other reason for him forcing his jacket onto the other man apart from a desire to make sure he is warm and comfortable.

Shen Wei stares at Zhao Yunlan in absolute wonder.

It is easy to believe that the idea of someone wanting to look after him is foreign no Shen Wei: we know from the text of the show that before Kunlun no one has shown him any consideration, and seeing Shen Wei now, it is not difficult to imagine, heartbreaking as it is, that no one has done it since.

Jiajia’s scream cuts through the air, interrupting the scene. As the two men take off in the direction of the sound, Shen Wei grabs Zhao Yunlan by the elbow as they run out of the shot.

When they rejoin Jiajia and Lin Jing, she girl stammers a few words about ghostly presence that she witnessed, and Lin Jing confirms her words, sharing his knowledge about ghosts seen in this area. Zhao Yunlan reprimands him for speeding feudalistic and superstitious concepts. Just remember that their HR manager literally is a semi-corporeal dead woman. This line is such a blatant and somewhat tongue-in-cheek appeasal of the censorship, that it sounds delightfully silly.

The group finally reach the remote village they were heading to. As everyone files out of the cars, they notice a strange looking crow nearby - clearly Ya Qing is checking in on them. Lin Jing proceeds to tease Xiao Guo, saying the young man in unlucky. Chu Shuzhi is looking disapprovingly at this comment, but it’s actually Zhu Hong who shuts it down. She does use this excuse to make an impolite jab at Shen Wei, noting that the misfortunes are someone else’s fault, while looking at her romantic rival from the corner of her eye.

Shen Wei graces the screen with another one of his “why does the snake woman hate me?” faces. 

It’s quite amusing that as the group starts walking towards the guesthouse, Zhao Yunlan sends his people off while he himself deliberately lingers in place, so he can walk with Shen Wei, sneaking a hand across the professor’s back. 

Just as the company enters the premises of the guesthouse, they find a human skull. Of course they do. But the reason I am including this here is to point out that Shen Wei’s reaction is to cover Jiajia’s eyes. Zhu Yilong does not do it in all of the takes used in the scene, which indicates to me that this is an in the moment acting choice. 

Shen Wei then leads his students away to give the SID a chance to investigate. While Lin Jing and Zhao Yunlan do just that, Wang Zheng sinks to her knees and starts praying to comfort spirits of her ancestors. Hilariously, this goes unnoticed for a while.

After completing some preliminary checks on the skull, Zhao Yunlan suggests they park the investigation for the night, citing that he does not want students and their teacher to get ill as the reason for doing so. Da Qing notes that this is more considerations than he shows his subordinates. I don’t think he means it, but it’s a lovely little jab at Zhao Yunlan’s unmistakable crush.

Inside the house, everyone settles in to hear Wang Zheng’s tale of the Hanga tribe. What follows is an massive exposition dump. She sets up as “some things she heard from rumours”, but considering how forlorn she is throughout this tale - and that she was praying earlier - it is pretty obvious that she is of the Hanga tribe herself.

Again, I love the blocking here. Zhu Hong is keeping her shoulder in front of Wang Zheng, protecting her from the strangers (and Shen Wei) that they are sharing the table with. Zhao Yunlan and Da Qing are watching from afar, and Chu Shizhu is perching above them on the stairs. The composition is easy on the eye, and implies that the SID men are ready to protect those at the table from all directions.

Soon, they are interrupted by a villager pretending to be a ghost, and a reluctant village head explains that the outsides may not be welcomed because there has been a murder here in the recent days. Zhao Yunlan and Zhu Hong leave to investigate the crime scene. As they do so, Zhao Yunlan catches the woman gazing upon him in adoration, and freezes uncomfortably, for a second before laughing it off.

He should really force himself to have an uncomfortable conversation with her, but he won’t do it until pushed.

In the meanwhile, Zhu Jiu is having more luck riling the actual ghosts up than he did with the Youchu. After some hesitation - and some baseless threats from our unfortunate villain - the Hanga tribesmen launch an attack against the guesthouse.

Just to note: their masks don’t look anything like the masks Wang Zheng drew. Considering that the guesthouse parts of the episode was likely to have been shot together, I don’t see any explanation for this as it pertains to production.

Chu Shuzhi and Xiao Guo leap into action to fight the ghosts - and the young man actually successfully fends one of them off. They are soon joined by Lin Jing, who leaves Shen Wei in charge of looking after the students and Wang Zheng inside the house. The ghost woman energy being asks to be let outside because she guesses correctly that the ghostly warriors are here for her, but Shen Wei refuses to let her go. The reason he states for denying her is that “Zhao Yunlan would never agree to it.” He knows that the other man would never put his crew in danger - and adopts the same attitude.

Shortly after, Zhu Hong and Zhao Yunlan arrive on the scene.

Here we see for the first time Zhao Yunlan’s painful flashback to his mother’s death, followed by him freezing with the gun in his hand. Zhu Hong does save the way by snatching the weapon away from him and firing it, but she also goes on full offensive afterwards, berating the man. Hers is not a kind response at all, and this type of a reaction is likely to be the reason Zhao Yunlan has not felt comfortable talking about his tragic past, perhaps even seeing it as something to be ashamed of.

After the ghosts disappear, Zhao Yunlan stays outside with his team, and uses the Dial in attempt to locate the other ancient item which he knows is somewhere close.

Shen Wei, on the other hand, tells Wang Zheng about the totem hidden in a cave, and asks her for any information on the matter.

His interrogation does not get him anywhere, but he does get suspicious enough to refrain him from drinking the drugged water she offers everyone present in the very next scene.

It is clear from this shot that after toasting with warm water, everyone goes to down their cups - apart from Wang Zheng and Shen Wei, who lock eyes over their cups for the second.

Having escaped her protectors in the night, Wang Zheng heard towards the cave in which Sang Zan’s spirit is kept, Zhu Jiu hot on her heals, and we witness the first of many flashbacks to her life and death.

Next up, Episode 10: Death By a Thousand Flashbacks.

—

Notes.

The next post here will actually be some thoughts on the Lost Tomb Reboot which I have spent this Easter Weekend binging. And if this post is more Zhu Yilong-centric than usual, this would also be why.

[recurring-polynya]

soul reapers to get paid and their salaries are even quite high! if i remember correctly, lieutenants make around $7k while a captain’s salary is almost triple(nearly $19k)

(cont) that is if my conversion was right, in a JET interview kubo said captains make 2million yen, lieutenants - 700 000yen and an unseated officer - 200 000yen. but then again, i think the living cost in ss is much higher, i remember matsumoto mentioning that clothes in the living world are much cheaper

I have to say this is one of the liveliest discussions on Bleach meta that I have ever participated in on this website. I feel like I can definitively report that is is both fanon consensus and supported by the creator himself that Soul Reapers do, in fact, get paid. For the record, my husband, who started this, conceded days ago and I am sure has not thought about it since.

In any case-- I was very surprised by these numbers, and at first I thought that maybe they were in kan, the fictional currency used in Soul Society, rather than yen. I mean, $19k/year is a terrible salary (for those of you who are not American it is roughly minimum wage). I attempted to figure out the conversion rate between kan and yen once, and at the time, came to the conclusion that kan were worth somewhat more than yen, but I no longer have my scratch pad, so I cannot show my work. Looking at it again, they seem pretty close.

Then, just to get an idea, I googled the salary of a four-star general in the American military, which I thought should be a rough equivalent, and the article I found reported all its numbers in monthly salaries, which I am not used to seeing, but maybe they are more common in other countries. In any case, according to the article I found, the highest salary you can make in the US military is $15,800/month ($189,600/year), which is pretty close to what a Gotei captain makes. I realize that is a lot of money on an absolute scale, but that actually seemed shockingly low to me, in the sense that there have only ever been 246 four-star generals in the history of the U.S., but this is the sort of salary that, say, a C-suite executive might make. A president of even a public university can make 2-5 times this. Now, a career in the military comes with a lot of other perks-- free room and board, free healthcare, etc, but I think this is going to make a much bigger difference to the people in the lower ranks.

The more I thought about it, I do think this tracks, though. Gotei captains are immeasurably valuable and basically impossible to replace. One of the more chilling moments leading up to the Winter War was the part where Hitsugaya is basically like “we don’t know how many Arrancar Aizen has, but if it’s more than 10, we’re screwed” and then it cuts to Hueco Mundo, and Aizen is just surrounded by guys. So, yeah, it honestly makes perfect sense to me that captains are paid a “good living” but it’s insulting compared to the wealth of the nobles that live around them. I don’t usually have a lot of nice things to say about Byakuya, but I do want to emphasize that this has to be chump change for him. This guy definitely works out of a sense of duty, he is not in it for the Benjamins.

The vice-captain salary (~$84k/yr) comes closest to an O-4, which corresponds to a major or a lieutenant colonel, and usually entails about 10 years of service. I guess years count for less when you’re immortal, so I guess that works out. One thing that doesn’t fit is that in another interview, Kubo states that Renji’s sunglasses cost half a year’s salary, but their price is listed in the Bleach Bootleg as 84,700 kan. If a kan is roughly equal to a yen, this is wildly off. I will get back to this later. In WDKALY, there was some mention of vice-captains and captains being given “mansions” to live in (if they chose to). I absolutely cannot accept this fact as canon. I can’t. I mean, there are numerous omake about Hisagi trying to score free food out of Omaeda, yet this man lives in a mansion? And do not tell me he (or Matsumoto or Iba) would pass up living in a mansion if they had the option, even if the commute were an absolute nightmare. Maybe he can’t afford the cost of utilities and furnishings. I don’t know. Please, someone write me a sitcom of Hisagi and Kira living in giant mansions next door to each other, but it’s just like the Bluths living in the sample house in Arrested Development. [Aside: Renji would take the mansion, but he would turn it into an indoor soccer field and continue to sleep in the barracks search your heart you know it’s true]

Back on topic! The unseated officer salary of 200k yen/mo works out to an E-3, which is what an enlisted service member makes after a year. Everyone in the Gotei is considered an officer, and unseating people are awful, so, once again, this seems fine. Well, it seems shitty, tbh, but consistently shitty.

To really answer the question of “is this shitty?” though, we need to consider buying power. Earlier, I mentioned that Gotei service includes free room and board, and that alone is equivalent to a lifetime of wealth for someone from the lower Rukon. I mentioned earlier that I once tried to calculate the exchange rate between kan and yen using a variety of prices for various items. I wish I had kept better notes, because my main takeaway was that prices for things were not very consistent. A copy of the Seireitei Bulletin is 380 kan. Using a straight kan to yen to dollar conversion, that’s $2.80 (I am using 100 yen = $1 because it’s close enough, in case anyone was wondering). Sexy photo books of the captains cost ~$25. The budget of the Shinigami Women’s Association is $2500/year, and the Men’s is $900/year, which is roughly the cost of one pair of sunglasses. I think it must have been the sunglasses that threw me, because I kept trying to peg the cost of a pair of sunglasses to a half year’s salary. The club budgets are just honestly confusing because I have no idea what a calligraphy club budget should look like. It seemed... fine... that a club budget should be equivalent to half a year’s salary? To be honest, I think a kan should be roughly equal to a yen and the sunglasses are just priced too low. (Not a statement I ever thought I would be making).

The comment about clothes being cheaper in the World of the Living makes a lot of sense! Cloth in Soul Society is probably hand-dyed, rather than mass printed, and sewed by hand, rather than by machine. On the other hand, if you wanted goods made in traditional ways, it would be a lot cheaper to get in Soul Society. A chusen-dyed kimono is a luxury good in 2021, because you have to option to order a cheap t-shirt and sweatpants from Amazon. Everyone wears hand-made kimono in Soul Society because that’s what there is, so the price is going to be relatively lower. I do think that cost-of-living jumps sharply inside the walls of the Seireitei, and that it’s very common to do your shopping in the upper districts of Rukongai, where there are lot of highly skilled artisans making goods for the city-dwelling market. I figure that one of the few opportunities for upward mobility, aside from selling your soul to the military is to make enough money to buy your way inside the gates (either through overpriced business licenses, getting a noble patron, or by arranging a marriage to someone who already lives inside)

That being said, I have thought a lot about importing items from the WotL--shinigami usually travel through senkaimon, which do not allow for matter conversion, so they wouldn’t normally be able to bring anything with them. I imagine that it’s sort of a perk of the job that when you go on a mission where you have to go through a matter converter (which would include any time you are bringing a gigai over) you could smuggle back whatever you can fit in your kosode. It’s very strange which technology is adapted from the World of the Living (washing machines, treadmills, urinals) and what isn’t (coffee). In fanfic, it’s common to see shinigami wearing Living World clothing in their off-hours, but I don’t think that’s supported by canon or filler in any way. For my own fanfiction, because it’s fun and world-buildy, I like to pretend that Ichigo is a very popular figure after the Winter War and that World of the Living fashion, music, etc becomes popular, starting during the two-year timeskip, particularly among the younger denizens of the Seireitei, and that there are special bars and such that specialize in that kind of thing. Shinigami who have done extensive stints in the Living World are considered cool for their knowledge of such esoteric subjects as “rice cookers.”

I am done now! I swear! Thank you, everyone for reading all the way down to the bottom of possibly the nerdiest and most boring post I have ever made on this website! (wait, no, I just remembered the one on senkaimon transfer protocols. Second most boring.)

[greaterawarness]

Brothers CH. 2 "Fresh Off The Shuttle"

(Fives and his brothers arrive on Coruscant for the first time. After finding a place to stay Fives gets lost and runs into some interesting characters.)

Fives squeezes his bag tighter with every shake of the shuttle. They’ve been on a ship taking them to Coruscant for a while now. Droidbait is asleep with his head on Hevy’s shoulder. Cutup gets ship sickness and has his head in a bag he brought for such the occasion while Echo plays a game on his datapad. Fives keeps a death grip on his bag and taps his foot nervously. He wasn’t afraid to fly in starships. He was more nervous and excited for when the shuttle landed.

“Please be seated. We will be landing in Coruscant in a few moments.” The droid flying the shuttle says over the coms. Fives foot taps more vigorously.

“Good… don’t think I can take much more…” Cutup moans from his bag. Hevy rolls his eyes and keeps his eyes on the shuttle doors. He’s always so calm and cool in everything he does. Fives stares down at his hands frowning. He thinks back to the moment in the canyon when he wanted to grab the blaster and shoot the trandoshan. He couldn’t move, but Hevy didn’t even hesitate to reach for the blaster. Hevy’s always been the leader of their batch. On Kamino, at the farm, and even now. Echo finally puts his datapad away and nudges Fives.

“Remember when we said we wanted to be the best star pilots in the galaxy?” Echo says.

“Remember when we wrecked 99’s speeder immediately after starting it up?” Fives chuckles. Echo laughs and shakes his head.

“We were stuck mucking stalls for months after that.” Echo sighs. Fives loosened his grip on his bag and felt his fidgeting stop. He rests his back against his seat for the first time since they took off. The shuttle shakes harder then normal knocking Fives and Echo into each other. They were landing. Cutup groans while Droidbait jumps awake.

“We’re here.” Hevy says with eyes still glued to the shuttle doors. When the shuttle lands Fives and his brothers hold their breath. They have to use all their self-control not to burst out the second the doors open. Instead, they wait patiently like good sane people. When Fives steps out of the shuttle planting his foot on the Coruscant pavement for the first-time, excitement buzzes through his body. Giant skyscrapers surrounded them. Speeders fly overhead like rivers of light in the sky. The streets are filled with all walks of life. He can already make out some clones peppered in with the crowds. His brothers share his look of shock and awe.

“Watch it clone!” a Quarren shouts shoving Cutup out of his way, pulling Fives out of his trance. Cutup frowns after the man but doesn’t say anything. Hevy pats his shoulder and pulls everyone to the side of the street.

“Alright, lets stay focused here. We need to find a place to stay and then we’ll let ourselves get all excited. Understand?” Hevy says while waving a finger at them.

“Understood.” They say but Fives can’t force himself to say it.

“Good,” he says before turning to Echo. “Pull up the addresses to all the apartments we can afford.”

Echo pulls out his datapad to start pulling up the apartments before handing it to Hevy so he can lead the way. Fives pulls his bag over his shoulder and walks in the back of their group. While walking he peeks over the side of the street and nearly loses balance. Cutup grabs his arm to steady him.

“It looks like it goes on forever.” Fives says. Cutup pats his shoulder as they keep moving. When Fives heard about Coruscant he never imagined it would be like this. It was all so disorientating. So many shops layered on top of each other with people walking so fast and confident that Fives had to keep jumping out of people’s way. Even the clones didn’t seem to want anything to do with them. He had no clue how they were going to find their way around this place. He hated to admit it, even to himself, but he was glad Hevy was taking the lead this time. Fives doubted he would be able to find a way off this street let alone to some random address somewhere in the city.

They eventually take a lift down lower in the city. They have to take three more lifts down before they get to the right level. Echo flinches at a stray lothcat that hisses at his feet when they step off. Fives and his brothers look around the dirty streets covered in filth and graffiti.

“Stay close.” Hevy says over his shoulder before walking on. There are a lot more homeless people on this level. A lot more shadier people too. Fives spots two men talking in an alleyway. One of them meets his eyes making him jump and quickly look away. The streets reek of urine and sewage. Fives pulls Echo out of the way before he stepped in a pile of vomit on the sidewalk. This far down it was hard to see the sky. Fives squints up only able to make out the lights of the speeder lanes. His stomach twists with anxiety. The last time he went anywhere where he couldn’t look up and see the sky was on Kamino. He winces at the memory of Bric, the bounty hunter assigned to train their batch. A shiver runs up his spine. Echo steps closer to Fives, letting their shoulders touch. Fives glances at his brother who keeps his eyes forward.

“I think this is it.” Echo says, stopping in front of a dirty building with the name Cott’s lit up in a broken neon sign with only the C and T’S glowing.

“You’re joking?” Droidbait practically gags.

“I mean at least its not any worse than the other buildings around here?” Echo shrugs trying to find some positive here. Hevy walks through the front doors and stops in front of a Sullustan sitting behind protective glass. He doesn’t acknowledge them as he reads along to something on a datapad.

“Excuse me?” Hevy says. The Sullustan keeps reading. Hevy clears his throat. “Excuse me!”

“What?” The Sullustan finally says turning around. He wears a name tag with the name Sbug on it.

“We called to view one of your apartments.” Hevy goes on. Sbug looks them over not seeming impressed. They stand there another moment in awkward silence before Sbug grunts while getting to his feet. He grumbles something with a little wave for them to follow. The inside of the building is just as disgusting as the outside. They can hear the inhabitants fighting while walking past the doors along with muffled yells and distant laughing. Droidbait pinches his nose from the moldy stench. Sbug stops in front of the door that read D405.

“Here you go, home sweet home.” Sbug says while pushing the door open. He steps aside so Fives and his brothers can get a good look. Hevy walks in first trying not to show how disgusted he was by the place and failing miserably. Echo, Droidbait, Fives, and Cutup made no such attempts letting their true feelings show. It’s a studio apartment with one small window. A small kitchen is set up against the wall with the door leading to the hallway. Bunkbeds are built into the wall but there are only four of them. Echo opens the door on the left side of the room revealing a very small grimy bathroom with flickering lights.

“Do none of the lights in this building work properly?” Echo asks but Sbug is back to reading whatever is on his datapad. Fives walks over to the one small window and peeks out. The only view is of the building right next to it. He tries to look out it through different angles but no matter how hard he tries he can’t spot any sign of the sky.

“How much did you say this place was again?” Hevy asks slowly.

“500.” Sbug grunts.

“500? For this? There aren’t even enough beds!” Cutup says with his arms out.

“Not my problem. You want it or not?” Sbug asks.

“Well think about it.” Hevy says before Cutup can try and argue more. They couldn’t get out of the building fast enough. Echo and Droidbait shiver and scratch at themselves.

“I swear, if that place gave us lice or some other parasite I’m suing!” Droidbait swears.

“Oh yeah because I’m sure they’re just swimming in credits.” Cutup nudges him.

“Calm down, we have other places to see before making a decision.” Hevy says. And he was right. There were other places. Three to be exact. All three were even lower then the first one. The second place was about the size a shoe closet. The third had a communal bathroom that was currently being occupied by a man having sex with a prostitute. And the moment the landlord turned the lights on in the fourth place an army of rodents and insects scattered. At the end of the day Fives and his brothers found themselves standing in front of CT’S. They walk inside and stare in defeat at Sbug.

“Still got that room available?” Hevy asks with no life left in him. Sbug gives a little chuckle.

“Yeah, but the price went up. It’s 800 now.” He says while taking a bite of some greasy snack.

“800? You can’t be…” Cutup starts before Hevy places a hand on his shoulder stopping him.

“Fine. 800 it is.” Hevy gives in. they pay the Sullustan, and he hands them the key. “Wait, this is only one key. There are five…”

Sbug slams a metal screen down that says GONE ON BREAK.

“Well, at least we’re not sleeping on the street.” Fives says while watching Hevy’s fingers curl around the one key.

“Oh yeah because I would hate to sleep in a dirty cold dangerous urine smelling place! Oh wait…” Cutup starts making Fives punch his arm. They walk up to their new home and lock the door behind them. No one wanted to sit or touch anything. They stand around looking at their new home trying to find something positive.

“Alright, this doesn’t look good.” Hevy starts. “But we’re in Coruscant! Once we get jobs and get some credits coming in on a regular basis, we can find a better place.”

Fives finally plops his bag down on the bottom bunk on the right side of the room. His feet were killing him, and he just wanted a hot shower and to go to bed. When his stomach lets out a loud growl it reminded him and his brothers of just how hungry they were.

“Why don’t we go up closer to the surface and get some dinner? That might cheer everyone up?” Echo asks. While no one wanted to walk anymore no one also wanted to stay here. They make sure to lock the door behind them before heading towards the surface.

They end up eating at a greasy fast-food place, but no one seemed to mind. It was cheap so they could order a lot of it and Fives could get a great view of the sky. Entire lanes of starships aim off world in beautiful lights. With the sun going down it turned the sky into a beautiful pink hue. He notices a park further down the street. He shoves what’s left of his food in his mouth before standing.

“I’m gonna check the park out.” He says gesturing to the patch of green.

“Don’t go to far Fives, you don’t know your way around the city yet.” Hevy warns. It takes everything to keep himself from rolling his eyes. Instead, he manages a nod before walking off alone. He shoves his hands in his pockets enjoying the fresh breeze. He passes a flower shop and a nicely dressed couple walking their three tiny dogs. For the first time today, Fives felt like he didn’t have to hide his wallet and avoid eye contact with anyone.

When he approaches the park, he finds a winding path to follow. Parents play with their children in the large patches of grass while others play fetch with their furry pets. The trees are all lush and green while perfectly trimmed. He finds a bench facing a large lake and takes a seat. From here he can watch the star ships take off and enjoy the greenery in front of him.

“Mind if I join you?” a voice startles him. He looks up to see a Kel Dor staring down at him.

“Uh, go ahead.” Fives says scooting over to make room for the man. He sits before pulling out some bread and tossing some crumbs out for the birds. Fives shoves his hands in his pockets awkwardly.

“Haven’t been on Coruscant long, have you?” the man asks making Fives almost flinch.

“No… how did you know?” Fives arches a brow.

“Because you keep looking up. Usually only the ones new to Coruscant stare longingly at the sky.” He chuckles softly. Fives looks down at the birds pecking at the scatter bread.

“Yeah… Coruscant isn’t how I imagined it to be.” Fives confesses.

“Most things aren’t.” the man says while leaning back on the bench. “Why have you come to Coruscant?”

“To find ourselves? I’m not really sure honestly. I mean, I’m a clone. I was always meant to come here at some point to fight for the Republic. Just seemed right.” Fives explains. The man gives a small hm. “Not to mention there are more clones here on Coruscant than anywhere else.”

“That is true,” he chuckles softly. “Clones are good alone but great when they’re together.”

“Yeah, well, I don’t know where to meet any of them. At least not without just striking some random conversation on the street.” Fives sighs now leaning back on the bench.

“It just depends on what type of crowd you want to be in. There are some clones who work normal nine to five jobs like everyone else. They go to work and then go home to a family and kids.” The man explains. Fives wrinkles his nose making the man laugh. “And then there are those that aren’t quite done fighting.”

This makes Fives sit forward staring at the man.

“Piqued your interest, have I?” the man laughs. “There are groups of clones that take on jobs similar to bounty hunters except with… let’s say a moral code. Each group is different, and it is important to do your research before joining. These aren’t just clubs or ordinary gangs. They’re families. Clans.”

“Like Mandalorian clans?” Fives asks making the man lean back slightly and cock his head.

“Perhaps.” He says with his hands folded in his lap.

“Where can I find these clans?” Fives asks now turned fully facing the man. He first looks like he’s about to answer when his com starts beeping. He excuses himself to answer. Fives sits back and crosses his arms. He imagined himself in Mandalorian armor just like Rex. He would have thought deeper into it if it weren’t for the shouting coming from the man’s com. He can’t make out who he’s talking to but can hear the commotion on the caller’s side.

“I said shut up already!... anyway, we could really use you back at… dammitSin—” that’s all Fives can make out before the com shuts off. The man shakes his head with another soft chuckle before turning back to Fives.

“It seems my boys have gotten into trouble again. I’ve quite enjoyed chatting with you.” The man says before reaching a hand out. Fives stands and shakes his hand. “I wish you luck on your journey.”

“Thank you, sir.” Fives says before the man walks away with his hands folded behind his back. Fives decides to head back to his brothers. While walking towards the place they grabbed some food he was becoming uncomfortably aware that his brothers were nowhere in sight. He stops in front of the shop and looks around. Nothing. Fives curses under his breath before walking down a street thinking they may have just gone home without him. He’d kick each of their asses if they have. The only trouble with this is: Fives didn’t know how to get home.

Fives takes a turn that he thinks will take him towards the lift down to his level but ends up on a street he didn’t recognize. He takes another turn trying to get back to the street where the food place is but still can’t seem to get where he needs to go. With the sun now completely set Fives starts to panic. He picks up his speed desperately trying to find his way through the city. In his blind panic he manages to run straight into someone’s back. He falls to the ground hitting his head on the concrete. He sucks air through his teeth while rubbing the spot that made contact with the ground. When he opens his eyes, he freezes. A blaster pistol is pointed directly at his head by a Mandalorian in light orange armor.

“Easy, Cody! You’re frightening the boy.” A voice says before possibly the most well-dressed man Fives has ever seen reaches down to help him up. “Are you alright?”

“An… angel…” Is all Fives manages to get out. The man is not only dressed well but is the picture of beauty. Not a hair is out of place from his soft brown hair or from his well-trimmed beard. He arches a brown with a smile.

“Watch it kid.” The Mandalorian warns. The man only laughs and places a hand on the Mandalorians shoulder.

“Now, now, Cody. I’m sure the poor boy didn’t mean to.” The man says.

“I am sorry.” Fives finally manages to form words. A stretched-out speeder appears next to the sidewalk.

“We’re going to be late.” The Mandalorian says.

“Of course,” The man says as they turn for the speeder. Before sliding inside his ride, he looks back at Fives. “Do be careful next time. There’s no telling what lunatic you might run into next.”

The Mandalorian stares at Fives a moment longer before getting in next to the gorgeous man. Fives watches the man fly off before smacking his cheeks to snap out of his daze. He still needed to find his way home.

Fives eventually finds a lift down to the lower levels of the city. Unfortunately, everything looks less familiar in the dark dingy streets then the ones near the surface. Fives stuffs his hands in his jacket pockets while walking down a street he hoped would lead him to his new home. He was becoming aware of the two twi’lek men following a ways behind him. He picks up speed before noticing the twi’leks speeding up as well. Now in a full sprint he found himself in a bigger panic then before. At least near the surface he wasn’t running for his life! Fives starts to turn a corner before running into something short and metal. He goes flying over it and rolls in the street. Once again hoping the dark smudges on his clothes were just mud.

“Artoo!” a voice calls from down the street Fives was trying to run down. The droid Fives ran into beeps urgently. Fives gets to his feet as a man being chased by two twi’leks himself reaches them.

“You’re being chased too?” Fives asks. The man stares at him for a second before grabbing Fives and forcing his head down before a blaster shot could pierce his head.

“Come on!” the man yells while running down another street. Feeling he had no choice Fives does as the man says.

“Why are they chasing us?” Fives asks while trying to keep up with the man.

“They must have thought you were with me!” the man yells when the four twi’lek men start firing down the street.

“Why?” Fives yells while ducking.

“This might come to a shock to you, but you don’t have the most unique face.” The man laughs. Fives frowns unable to think of a comeback. They take another turn before Fives nearly runs off a ledge. The man grabs him by the back of his shirt and pulls him back to safety.

“What now?” Fives asks. The droid beeps before its rockets lift the droid to the street on the other side.

“Good idea, Artoo!” the man says.

“Good idea? We’ll never make that jum—ahh!” Fives yells as the man grabs hold of him and launches him into the air. Fives manages to remember to tuck and roll when landing. He looks back in time to see the man back up a few steps before running and jumping. Fives jaw drops while watching him clear the space between the alley and the street with ease. He lands on his feet before looking back at the four twi’leks.

“Get back here you scum!” one yells. The man gives a two-finger salute before running down the street again. Fives and the droid run after him before the twi’leks decide to open fire again. When they catch up to him, he’s leaning against a pole grinning.

“That was impressive.” He says.

“What was? Running for my life or getting thrown across a speeder lane?” Fives asks frowning. The man chuckles while placing his hands on his hips.

“All of it really. Sorry to get you involved.” He says. Fives rubs the back of his neck.

“Wasn’t your fault I guess.” Fives grumbles before the man’s com goes off.

“Oh, there you are Snips! Really could have used you a few minutes ago.” The man says into his coms.

“Hey, someone had to stay and protect the objective!” a girls voice snaps over the com. “I took down three of them by the way. You’re welcome!”

“Oh yeah? Well, I took down four. So, I win!” he says.

“You’re impossible.” The girl sighs over the com.

“Except you didn’t take down four. You just ran away from them.” Fives arches a brow making the droid beep in agreeance and the man wince.

“What was…?”

“Nothing! I’ll be back soon!” the man cuts her off before turning the com off. “Gee thanks.”

“You did nearly get me killed.” Fives snorts.

“Fair enough,” The man says as they begin to walk down the street. “Anyway, can I make it up to you? Buy you a drink? Dinner?”

“Actually, I’m a little lost. Think you can help me find this address?” Fives asks before showing the man the address. The man looks at it and smiles.

“Sure thing.” He says before leading the way.

Turns out they weren’t to far from the apartments as Fives originally thought. When they reach the building, the man holds a hand out.

“Thanks for showing me the way.” Fives says shaking his hand. He was surprised to feel metal underneath the gloved hand.

“No worries. Sorry again about nearly getting you killed.” The man says. the droid beeps at his side before they start down the street and out of sight. Fives let out a sigh feeling the exhaustion from the day hit. He walks up the stairs to his apartment and tries opening the door. Locked. Dammit. He ends up sitting on the floor of the apartment hallway for an hour before his brothers appear. They carry bags of groceries and cleaning supplies.

“I told you he’d be here!” Echo says when he spots Fives. Fives stands relieved they finally made it home.

“What happened to you?” Hevy asks with a note of anger in his voice.

“What happened to me? What happened to all of you? I came back to the food place to find you all gone! I came home thinking you left without me.” Fives crosses his arms.

“We noticed a grocery store across the street. We decided to grab a few things. Cutupwas supposed to wait for you.” Droidbait says eyeing their brother.

“There may have been a pretty girl in the bar next to the grocery store…” Cutup rubs the back of his neck. Hevy rolls his eyes before opening the door to the apartment. Fives punches Cutup’s arm before helping his brothers do a deep clean of the apartment. Droidbait takes over the kitchen, Hevy and Fives cleans the floors and walls, Echo makes all the beds and hangs up a hammock between the two walls, while Cutup is stuck cleaning the bathroom. By the time it’s done, the room is at least tolerable. Fives claims the bottom bunk on the right side of the wall with Echo taking the top. Droidbait sleeps on the top bunk on the left side of the room with Hevy on the bottom. Leaving Cutup to sleep in the hammock. Everyone’s so tired from the day that they all pass out almost immediately. Fives rolls onto his side listening to his brothers soft breathing and snoring. Despite their living conditions today wasn’t completely terrible. He did get to meet some interesting people. Especially that Mandalorian. He was a clone. It’s not always easy to tell just by the voice when covered by a helmet. But this time he knew. There are clone Mandalorians here. Right before he gave in to sleep, he wondered what it would take for him to be a part of a Mandalorian clan too.

Read full story HERE on AO3.

taglist: @imabeautifulbutterfly

[starr-fall-knight-rise]

Humans are Space Orcs, “Revenge.”

Getting into the meat of this arc now, I am having fun so I hope you all are :)

A thousand humans, perfectly straight in their orderly rows three feet to all sides. Looking down each row, it almost seemed as if no organic creatures should have been able to achieve it. In comparison, the rundi and Tesraki forces seemed scattered and confused, though the Drev and the Celzex had taken up the very human tradition.

The inside of the ship was dark.

The Rundi Imperial cruiser was large enough to hold an entire city inside its belly, but today it held soldiers. These soldiers were the first of their kind, or so the human said. Airborn shock troops from the UNSC 109th. Most of them were ex marines, who had been set on this new path after at least five years of prior service.

Overhead, the arching ceiling rose almost fifty feet into the air, and it seemed as if they couldn’t possibly be standing in a structure, especially one currently floating at the edge of IRus, waiting for the moment when they were to warp into existence over the burg planet, and drop their deadly cargo.

Not one of them moved an inch.

The human battalion commander Lieutenant Colonel Tyson stood eyeing his troops: the first of their kind, the best of the best, and likely heading to their death.

Did he feel bad about that: no. They knew what they were in for.

And they had volunteered.

He would give them one more chance to back out, but he already knew they wouldn’t. That's not how these guys worked. Though, it’s not like he was just throwing these men away, they had the best training in the galaxy, and that was a statement of fact, not just boasting. And then there was their secret weapon, an idea given to them a grounded marine.

Delta units.

A Drev, each of them monsters at over nine feet tall strapped with mobile machine guns manned by one of the shock troopers. Intelligence on the Burg home planet described it as mountainous, hilly, and riddled with caves. Their troops from above would be no use, and their vehicles wouldn’t be much better than decorative rocks when it came to that sort of terrain. Even the hovercraft wouldn’t be much use with how dence the rock and foliage was.

That is where these men came in, with their full body gear including gas masks, thermal vision, and advanced weaponry: advanced weaponry worked on by the Celzex themselves.

He smiled a little bit. Maybe he wasn’t sending them to their deaths.

Maybe he was sending them to glory.

The other alien commanders finally filtered in.

He stepped forward, and a call to attention rose through his troops. Heels snapped together, and hands shot up brushing their temples with one clattering echo. The aliens stepped back.

“At ease!” A hundred hands dropped.

He paced across the deck, “I know a lot of you have heard why you are here. I know you have heard a lot of bullshit, and despite what my commanders want me to say, I am going to be honest with you, “This isn’t about economics, or even about rightful retaliation.” He paused hands behind his back and glanced down at his men, “This is about REVENGE!” A shout rose up from his men.

“Revenge, for the burg war!”

Another shout.

“Revenge for their attack on earth!”

The room echoed.

“REVENGE for the good men and women lost!”

It was a roaring now.

“REVENGE!” He threw his fist in the air and waited for the screaming to die down before he finished, “Revenge, for Commander Vir.” He paused, “I didn’t know the man personally. I will openly admit that. And I am not pretending to make the tragedy of his passing a personal one because I am not. His passing is a tragedy to, humanity, to the GA, and to the universe.” 

He paced down the line, “he wasn’t just a man, he was a symbol. The embodiment of what humanity should be and the lynch pin that held together our different species.”

He passed his eyes over the men and women standing before him, “I visited the memorial before coming here. I visited with my son. We lit a candle, and he left a stuffed bear to keep watch at the vigil for us. For those of you who haven't seen, it takes up an entire city block, thousands of candles, flowers pictures, toys notes, people singing…. This wasn’t just an attack on us, it was an attack on every ideology we have ever held. It is an attack on what we believe in. The Burg wish to divide us….” He turned to look in a wide circle and smiled, “I will say they failed.”

He didn’t try to speak after that as a cheer rose up into the air. Thousands of voices, both human and nonhuman crying their desire for revenge. 

When things quieted down again, he turned to look at the Drev and raised a fist, “For those of you who don’t understand revenge… for glory!” That got a rise out of the Drev, and he bared his teeth like a wolf, hungry for blood.

It was then he got a surprise when a voice rose up from the crowd to the line of a song he had never heard.

IT repeated a few lines and then faded.

The second verse came up and then faded again.

He turned to see who was making the sound but he just couldn't make it out.

This time when the voice rose up there were others to echo it, a call and response.

The more the lyrics repeated the more voices that joined, until the entire room was filled with the roaring echo of a thousand voices.

He looked down at the command major, “What is this.”

The man stepped up beside him smiling slightly, “I learned it from a marine who worked on the commander’s ship. It's unofficial name: We are the Harbinger.

Lieutenant Colonel Tyson nodded his head, “Not bad… not bad at all.”

Rest in Peace, Commander

***

So, fun fact, walking out isn’t an option.

I know, I know what you might be thinking. Commander Vir, why didn’t you try that as soon as you got there. Well my young padawan, that was because I was in horrific pain and bleeding out on the floor, and after that it was because I was too exhausted to try anything. Plus, another part of me sort of assumed they were here to help me. I mean they hadn’t done anything to prove otherwise, so there was no real reason for me to worry.

However, this morning, when I tried to walk out past the Omnidroid, my path was blocked, and I was encouraged back to the other side of the cell. It wasn’t being mean or anything really, not that I would have known, but it made it pretty clear, I was supposed to stay here, and there were no other options.

Ok, that didn’t necessarily mean that I was a prisoner, it could just mean that they didn’t want me wandering around and messing stuff up, so instead, I sat down and turned to look up at them. Here was to finding out if this thing could speak. Or at least trying to figure out if I could understand it.

My quickest conclusion was totally not.

These guys sound like above ground wales. Their voices were so incredibly deep that when they vocalized, it shook the very ground around me and rattled inside my chest until I thought my spine was about to crawl out of my mouth.

You’re welcome, for that visual.

And unfortunately for me, I am not as talented as a small, forgetful, blue fish, and do not, in fact, speak whale 

And I thought the Gromm were aliens, but this thing took it to an entirely new level.

There was always the chance that I could try and fight it, but I was hesitant to try that as they hadn’t actually hurt me. It seemed best to pursue all of my other options first, and determine if I was actually a prisoner, and if there was actually anything for me to worry about before I took such sudden and drastic measures.

So I sat in the white cotton fluff and wondered where this was going to go…. Also wondering where the next rest stop was, because I really had to pee, and I wasn’t a fan of having this guy around watching when I did.

The omnidroid didn’t move though, so I was forced to hold it.

If this went on any longer, you were going to be able to see the urine levels in my eyes as I slowly filled up to the very top.

No no that isn’t jaundice, that is just me really not wanting to pee in front of an alien, and… like where? There is nowhere in here to go.

Just as it seemed my eyeballs were about to shoot out of my head from the pressure, the door hissed open and another one of the omnidroids walked in.

They shook the cel with their voices for a second before turning to look at me…. At least I think.

Behind them, I can see others out in the hallway, a group of five or six. There is a bit of a commotion, and, for a moment, I thought I heard a distant voice, very high in pitch compared to the Omnidroids.

Reminded me of Krill a little, but wasn’t THAT wishful thinking.

Just then, the Omnidroids stepped from the room leaving the door open.

I watched them go.

And waited.

The door remained open.

Alright, i’ll bite.

I stood and took a step forward, slowly waking over to the door and poking my head out into the hallway. Two of them were blocking the hall to my left, but the hallway was open to my right. Also there was a random piece of fruit lying on the floor in the middle of the hallway. This made me frown as I had no idea what they were trying to accomplish with that.

 I was not going to eat floor fruit.

I turned back to look at the other two at the end of the hall and then shrugged, turning the walk up the hall, stepping over the floor fruit and down around the next corner. They were blocking my way out to the right this time, so I went left. I thought I could see a sliver of light towards the end of the hallway.

I quickened my pace, jogging forward, my bare feet clattering over some sort of cold material that was neither metal or plastic, but something in between. I had to hold up a hand to block my face from the light, and by then it was too late.

There was a sharp snap, and I nearly leaped out of my skin turning around to find that a wall had risen up from the floor behind me and snapped into place leaving me inside an eight by four crate.

I turned in a sharp circle in confusion pressing my face up against the little window of light.

Shapes moved around outside, though I could see nothing beyond that.

I sighed and sat down on the floor.

Leaning my head back against the wall.

Great, I was trapped, AND I had to pee.

This really was turning out to be a pretty lousy day.

If only some super secret mystical universe force had granted me unimaginable power and a laser sword, then this wouldn’t be a problem, but instead of being a jedi, or Han solo, I was stuck here like an idiot…. Guess that made me a little more of a Captain Reyalds after all, or…. Star lord maybe?

No, star lord had a higher charisma score than I did, and you know, could actually get a date. I was… well I was me, Commander Adam Vir, the absolute lamest story protagonist ever. Where Spaceship captains were supposed to be dashing, I was sort of just….. weird ? Where they were supposed to be charismatic and confident, I was awkward and racked by crippling self doubt that I never let anyone else see. And while they were supposed to be smart and full of ingenuity. I was an idiot stuck in a box with no way out and really needing to pee.

Yeah, captain vir… whoo-hoo.” The lamest man alive.

If my life were a book, I would put it down.

The roof above my head jolted, and I nearly tumbled against the far wall as we began to move.

I braced myself against the back wall and steadied myself against the moving floor.

It went on for only maybe five seconds before there was a sharp thud and click. Another moment of silence, and the door hissed open.

I threw my hands up to cover my face blinking past the sudden onslaught of light.

WHen I could only sort of see, I walked forward, keeping my hand raised high in the air as I passed out of the door, feet falling onto soft sand.

The air around me was clean and fresh.

Somewhere water trickled.

I slowly lowered my hand eyes rising to the view before me.

And frowned.

You have got to be kidding me.

[seiin-translations]

2.43 S1 Chapter 3.5 - The Dog’s View and the Giraffe’s View

5. READY FOR SUMMER

You think Aoki reads shonen manga?

This is the end of the first half of the first season, a.k.a the first tankobon volume. I’ll be going on a short hiatus for a few week before coming back.

Stan Odacchi!

Previous || Index || Next

Thrusting a CalorieMate bar into his mouth and holding a sports drink in his hand, when he rushed to the washroom near the gym, he suddenly ran into Aoki. Aoki took one look at Oda’s face and widened his eyes for a moment, then cautioned him with a disgusted look on his face.

“You should stop it with that…in my opinion.”

“Can’t be helped. I didn’t have the time to eat lunch or go to the washroom.”

The CalorieMate had sucked up his saliva and was sticking to his mouth. He put the box that still had some left and the bottle on top of the urinal and lined up next to Aoki.

Immediately after serving as an assistant referee on the courtside, he immediately jumped into his own team’s match, served as an assistant referee again on the same court as soon as it was over, plus he had to keep an eye on the progress of the entire boys’ volleyball division, support the participants and instruct the other members… Needless to say, he didn’t have time to take a lunch break, and he wasn’t allowed to go to the washroom since morning. Still, Oda only had to watch the gym, but Aoki was frequently pulled back by runners from the executive committee’s tent on top of that. This was the first time he was able to make time to talk to Aoki face to face.

It was finally the day of the Seiin Ballgame Festival. Luckily, the last few days were breaks in the rainy season, and the event was held on a day that didn’t interfere with outdoor events. In fact, the weather was so favorable that the temperature has reached July-like levels, and the executive committee has been repeatedly urging people to be careful about heat stroke.

Boys’ volleyball had managed finish four of their six group games without incident on the stage side of the gym. According to gossip, from the first group Team C, led by Aoki, had two wins, and from the second group Team F, led by Oda, had two wins, so it had already been decided that they would clash in the finals. The remaining two games would be elimination games that didn’t make it past the preliminaries, whether they win or lose, but since points were added depending on the points won, the overall winner was still unknown.

“It’d be interesting if we train Okuma to be a center.”

Aoki said next to him as he relieved himself. As ever, Aoki’s shoulder was at the corner of his vision.

“Okuma’s on the rugby team, isn’t he?”

“Well, it’s just an idea. If we had a burly guy like that, we’d look a bit stronger, right? Suemori-san said boys’ volleyball is soft.”

“It’s all about looks?”

“It’s important to look scary, you know?”

Well, when he puts it that way, it’s true that even though Aoki is the tallest guy in school, he’s more “long” than “big,” so he doesn’t look all that burly. He’s a center whose traits are height and dexterity. Okuma’s likely to be a different type of center than Aoki though…

“Well, enough about Okuma. I want Haijima more.”

“You’re pretty fixated on Haijima.”

“What kind of guy wouldn’t fall in love with that play? You’ve seen him play two games, didn’t you?”

“I know he’s good, but that’s not enough. It’d be nice to have a character who can speak up and get the team going, but he’s the complete opposite of that. Your team isn’t attracting any amateurs, right? For events like these, it’s better to have a noisy guy like Okuma.”

“So you want Okuma more than Haijima? Aren’t you being pretty cold to him?”

He couldn’t help but sound grumpy. He understood Aoki’s objective point of view. However, he got angry when he was told things objectively.

“Hmm? No.”

Aoki’s voice was light, and his shoulders turned slightly towards him.

“I’m talking about the ballgame tournament. The captain of this team is you, and if that’s what you want, then I won’t object to it and cooperate with you. If you want, I can find Haijima’s weakness so he can’t refuse no matter what.”

“I don’t need that kind of shady business.”

When he glared at him sideways, his shoulders shook with laughter. “It’s a joke.” It’s scary because this guy actually does those things that seem like a joke.

“We don’t need Haijima’s weakness for him to join. The problem might be Kuroba. He’s doing well so far today, but I don’t know what’ll happen when he comes face to face with Haijima in the finals.”

“Just have them match up. A feud between freshmen would be all cleared up if they just punch each other once hard and tell each other their true thoughts, don’t you think?”

Aoki said carefreely while lightly shaking his hips up and down, then tucked his thing back in and left the urinal.

In the case of you and me, we missed our chance to go through the process of punching each other and saying our true thoughts, and now we’re here… Oda watched the tall silhouette disappear across the label of his plastic bottle with a look like he wanted to say something.

Even though he and Aoki had their disagreements, they always ended up sidestepping the issue instead of getting into a serious quarrel. Even though Aoki would attack others with a sharp tongue as much as he wanted if necessary, but when it came to Oda, he would take a step back. He didn’t have to retract his opinion if there was something about Haijima’s acquisition he didn’t like. I’m not such a tyrant that I won’t respect the opinion of the vice captain.

Oda still wasn’t convinced about how he was chosen as captain in the first place. Whenever Aoki gave him his due because he was the captain, it stimulated a deep sense of inferiority within him.

When the grade before them retired, Aoki was to be appointed as the next captain. He had a mild and calm personality, able to keep an eye on the whole team. He was the natural choice.

At the same time, Oda was advised to switch from attacker to libero. The introduction of the libero system had opened up a place for people with short statures to play an active role. They could only substitute with a back row player and couldn’t participate in the spikes and blocks in the front row, but a receive specialist was an essential position in modern volleyball. It wasn’t that the previous captain had any ill intent, but rather that he knew that Oda poured more passion into volleyball than anyone else.

However, right with that timing, Aoki jumped into the student council. As though he was purposely creating a situation where Oda was compelled to be the captain—he couldn’t hold an important position on the student council and be a team captain for club activities at the same time. That was why Aoki couldn’t take on the role of captain. And under the current rules, the libero couldn’t in effect be the captain. In other words, as long as Oda had no choice but to be captain, he couldn’t switch to libero. Oda truly felt humiliated at being stripped of the attacker position. Because Aoki had sensed that.

What’s with you? Was that pity for me, who never grew taller? Or was it the freedom of a tall guy? He was angry. However, he was unable to lay bare such ugly emotions in front of Aoki and in the end, it didn’t turn into a serious conflict at the time. The comfortable relationship that they had since they started high school had somehow created a wall instead, and there was an atmosphere where it would be too awkward to share their feelings at this point.

Although Aoki was his best friend and a trustworthy partner who was more easy to get on with than anyone, he also harbored a strangely twisted gloominess towards him.

⋆﹥━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━﹤⋆

It was awkward, so he purposely waited for Aoki to leave the washroom before he did so himself, but he saw a tall and narrow back staying in the corridor in front of the gym. From the other direction, Suemori appeared and suddenly spoke in a reproaching tone.

“Oda-senpai, why were you taking your time in the washroom? Please don’t make me wait here.”

“I don’t remember telling you to wait…You could have given me a shout if there’s anything to take care of.”

“I don’t want to go near the boys’ washroom.”

Oda nonchalantly put his hand behind him, feeling that the food and drinks he brought out from the washroom were dirty. I’ve been slightly thinking this for a while, but I wonder if Suemori hates men. But she seems to be able to talk to Kanno normally.

“So, what’s up?”

“The old teacher collapsed.”

Aoki answered in place of Suemori.

“What!?”

The advisor for the boys’ volleyball team was an elderly teacher, just as Aoki called him. They’ve heard that he was rehired on a part-time basis once he reached retirement age. Apparently, he used to play volleyball when he was a student, but the form of the game of volleyball should be quite different between then and now. He was like a fossil from his generation.

The advisor had been the referee for the entire competition without a break since this morning. Even they, as active high school students, were likely to collapse from the hectic bustle, so it would be even harder on the elderly.

It seemed that he was feeling dizzy from the heat due to the temperature in the gym having risen. They said it wasn’t serious, but the referee’s chair was now vacant. There were still three matches left. Either Oda or Aoki should be the referee for the remaining two games in the group league, but the problem was the finals where C and F would encounter each other. Since the other positions also had the bare minimum amount of people in them, there were no extra hands.

“Well, I’ll do it.”

Aoki said without missing a beat.

“Aren’t you competing?”

“I don’t mind. From the start, I prioritized administration, so if there’s not enough people, I was going to pull out and head over there, but…ah, there’d be a problem with me refereeing a match with my own team.”

“You say that, but there’s no other way. I want to give Kanno a chance to be in a game, and there’s no reason to bother pulling Kuroba out. On the contrary, isn’t the balance better now that we have two experienced people on each team?”

“Even if it was still three on two, we won’t lose. It’s not that…it’s no fun if you’re not gonna be playing.”

He felt like he was the only one being childish and having a tantrum at a time when everyone had to back each other up, and his voice got quieter and quieter. He couldn’t bear knowing that Aoki and Suemori were exchanging worried-looking glances over his head. But he still didn’t like Aoki’s quick and easy way of splitting them up. Was I the only one who was looking forward to the match…?

“If that’s the case, let’s make it a little more interesting.”

Aoki proposed in a light tone. When he looked up with suspicion in his eyes, Aoki had a pensive look on his face with a faint smile hovering at the corner of his mouth. He looked like that when he was about to plot something.

“In other words, you’re saying it’s boring because you’re not in it. In the first place, you say ‘take’, but do you even have their approval…?”

“I’ll persuade Okuma. Of course that’s if C wins. If F wins, you’ll persuade Haijima. However, if you lose, you’ll have to give up on Haijima once and for all. —Kuroba!”

Aoki suddenly yelled. Kuroba, who had suddenly been poking his head in from the metal doors on the gym side of the corridor, made a “Mrp” sound and ducked his head.

“You and Nagato both don’t want Haijima to join, right? You were listening in on our conversation just now. Since it’s like that, crush them to bits. Treat this match like a real game.”

***

The chief referee for the finals was Aoki. The assistant referee, the point displayer, and two linesmen were all members of the team who weren’t playing in the game. The other two linesman and the ball retriever were help from the girls’ team, including Suemori.

It was past four o’clock in the afternoon, but heat was coming down the roof, which had been scorched by the midday sun, and accumulated indoors. The windless court wasn’t just completely covered in heat, but also some kind of strangely oppressive atmosphere.

As the team members took their positions around the court, they sensed a strange tension in the court that went beyond a mere school event, and their expressions tightened. Only Aoki had his usual relaxed expression, and he wondered what he was scheming. The way the already-tall Aoki stood on the referee’s stand and looked down at the court already somewhat made it a “tower.”

There were some spectators gathered along the walls and on the stage. The gallery installed on the second floor was also overflowing with students in sportswear. He thought that since it coincided with the futsal and softball finals, the spectators would be drawn to that, but it seemed that a surprisingly large number of people had come just to watch. Across the partition net, on the other side of the court, the girls’ basketball game was being held. The random bouncing of a ball other than a volleyball was jarring to his ears—he might be getting a bit nervous himself. He shrugged his shoulders up and down to release the extra energy. He was already sweating just by standing.

Team F got the serve through rock-paper-scissors. Haijima would serve from the right back row, and Oda would start diagonally from him at the front left. The opposing Team C’s starting order had Kanno at the front right and Kuroba in the back left. With two volleyball veterans placed diagonally from each other and sandwiching and supporting the amateurs, both teams had the most suitable formation.

Kuroba, getting ready to receive, kept pulling at his T-shirt and wiping the sweat off his face an unusual number of times. He wondered if it was just his imagination that the movement of his legs seemed heavy. Even though he was always jumping around on the court even when there was no need for it, now his feet were clinging to the floor. He’s pretty nervous. The fact that the crowd was much bigger than for the group league no doubt played a role.

What are we going to do for this game? He felt like it had become a farce starring the boys’ volleyball team, but of course he wasn’t going to lose on purpose. We’re going for the win. It was out of the question to give up on getting Haijima because of a single loss in a in-school match. If that was the case, he shouldn’t have taken this bet, but it was also out of the question for Oda to not buy a fight that had been sold to him.

He called Haijima, who was heading for the service zone, to a stop and he turned around and asked him something.

“It’s okay now, right?”

“Yeah. Do it with all your power.”

He heard the sound of the safety lock inside Haijima disengaging. In the previous two games, Haijima was banned from doing jump serves. It would no longer be a game against an amateur team if he did so, and someone were to get hit in the face, they risked injury.

“…Eleven months.”

Haijima muttered in a low voice, cast his gaze to a point on the other side of the net and narrowed his eyes.

“Did he get a little better?”

He smiled faintly. The depths of his eyes were boiling, as though he was even taking in this heat and transforming it into a part of the heat within him. Stimulated by that fighting spirit, Oda also felt his entire body trembling.

Just you watch… He glared at Aoki, but couldn’t meet his gaze with Aoki on the referee’s chair.

⋆﹥━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━﹤⋆

Haijima’s jump serve even drew the eyes of the first-timer spectators. He placed the ball in his left hand, stretched his arm directly before him and stood still. A beat of dignified silence that took the watcher’s breath away. The moment he tossed the ball up high with a spin towards the ceiling, there was a big “Ooh.”

From his graceful and refined form, as though he was dancing in the air, he let loose a sharp jump serve. Contrary to the slickness of his form, Haijima’s serve was quite unpleasant. It had a unique twisting spin, partly due to him hitting left-handed, and the one who was receiving was under immense pressure. Drawing a curving arc, it accurately aimed for the area Kuroba, who was positioned in the back row, was guarding. Kuroba, who didn’t say he was good at serve receives, managed to hit it with his arms with a panicked look on his face. Fortunately, it went up high, so his teammate went right below it and waited. Who was going to hit it?

Was Kuroba, who received it, going to hit it himself?

“Right court!”

He was astounded by the instruction that came from the referee’s chair.

Oi, wait a minute!? Is that even allowed!?

The ball was set to Kanno on the right court. Oda jumped to block in surprise, but Kanno dexterously shifted the core of the impact and changed it to a straight spike from the angle of a cross-court hit. Tch, he’s good… The spike that was as sharp as a needle went through a narrow course.

While landing, he turned his head to follow the whereabouts of the ball. He thought it might have been on the border of the sideline, but Nagato the linesman didn’t hesitate to indicate that it was in. The person who enthusiastically shouted “Yes!” from outside the court in place of Kanno, who had landed soundlessly, was…Suemori. I get the feeling that there’s a lot of officials that are emotionally attached to the opponent’s side, but…?

Team C’s first point was engraved.

“Oi, why is the referee giving out instructions?”

He snapped at the referee’s chair.

“If there are any objections, you can write them down on the record sheet later.”  

Aoki said calmly, then quickly blew the whistle to prompt Team C to serve. There was no way they were going to prepare a record sheet used for official games for a ballgame tournament.

“Do it in one go, Haijima.”

He turned his back on the referee’s stand in indignation and said that aloud in order to calm himself down. However, Haijima only sullenly muttered, “You haven’t gotten any better at defense though,” and it seemed that he didn’t care about the noise around him or the subtle and complex actions of the staff members. The intensity of his concentration after entering the court was astonishing, but…he felt that he was slightly different from the previous two matches. Isn’t his mind too focused on one point?

At the end of where Haijima’s eyes were fixed on, Kuroba was, as ever, looking around restlessly while worrying about sweating profusely. The complete opposite of Haijima, his concentration was scattered. It was a face that screamed that Aoki’s implication was bad.

Team C, under Aoki’s instructions (which he still couldn’t wrap his mind around), had adopted the strategy of gathering the ball to Kanno. The scene where Kuroba hit didn’t return immediately, but even so, that scene came when it was 3-3 in the beginning, the rotation moved three at a time and Kuroba in the front right was directly facing Haijima in the front left over the net.

The first setting of this set came from Kanno to Kuroba.

At Haijima’s instructions, a triple block was set up. Oda in the back row prepared to back them up. “That’s a hell of a jump from that guy!?” The jumping power of Kuroba, who was high enough for his chest to comfortably show up over the net, made the crowd go wild. Completing the rotation of his shoulders by arching his whole body in midair, his body bent back and his arms swung out, as though releasing a nocked arrow. This dynamic spiking form, which could be called the splendor of volleyball, was the usual Kuroba, but…he’s not looking at the blockers at all. The ball didn’t pass over the net, getting caught on the white band and falling to Team C’s side.

Right when F-team took the lead with 4-3,

“Time out.”

The head referee requested a time-out.

Oi…I’ve never heard of this.

⋆﹥━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━﹤⋆

“Why hasn’t he fixed that habit of his yet?”

Haijima turned on him as soon as they gathered courtside. Team C was making a circle around the tower that was Aoki. So why was the chief referee coming down from the referee’s stand and being on the bench of one team? After glaring at the other party who made his temple spasm, Oda turned back to Haijima.

“It already became solidified within him when he joined in April. There’s no problem in practice games, but he always gets like that when it’s a game with a lot of pressure, and to be honest, he’d be useless in an official match.”

For last year’s middle school prefecturals, Oda only went on the second day, so Kuroba, who apparently only participated on the first day, went unchecked. When he first joined the club, Oda was simply excited that an unexpected find had burst in. In fact, when he was used in the May practice match, he couldn’t find any problems. There was an inconsistent feeling to him, like he was developing, but his energetic play was pleasant to watch, and his strangely likeable character also helped to energize the whole team.

Although they haven’t acquired Haijima yet, he was confident that their attacker lineup was in good order with this, and then the prefectural tournament in the start of June—

The god of volleyball seemed to like secretly digging pitfalls.

An odd habit had begun to show up. He either failed his spikes entirely that got caught by the blocks and got himself out, or it got trapped by the net. It wasn’t like his form was messed up, but he couldn’t settle it. Even when he asked the person in question, he vaguely answered with a somewhat spaced-out expression, like his feet weren’t on the ground, that even he didn’t know why it was like that.

“…Why…”

Haijima grumbled, glaring at his feet with a gaze that could scorch through the floor.

“Stumbling over something like that…”

Haijima, that’s exactly how I feel about you, Oda thought. If you ask me, I’m jealous of the both of you, and just looking at you makes me irritated.

“Hey, we have to do something about him. It seems that it has something to do with Nagato and the second round of the middle school prefecturals?”

At this point, I should create a front that would make Haijima take a step closer to us, even forcibly. Thinking that, he tried inducing him.

“The middle school prefecturals…?”

Haijima raised his head and furrowed his brow.

“Sometimes players fail in their debut matches and suddenly fall to pieces.”

“They said it was my fault? But…”

His voice jumped up for an instant. He immediately closed his mouth sullenly and looked down again, fiddling with the taping on his fingers in front of his stomach. He thought of him as a player who didn’t have the habit of making other people read his mind, so that behavior was unexpected.

“What was I supposed to do…I was waiting, on that day…but, he was the one who didn’t come…”

He felt like the view before him was suddenly blocked by a thin, but hard, shell.

***

Even after the timeout, Kuroba’s play was lackluster. It would have been excusable if he had been blocked by the volleyball team members, but he was messing up because he was minding the blocker, who was an amateur ten centimeters shorter than him and just standing in front of him. Really, when he was good, he was great, but once his gears went out of whack, he quickly fell apart on his own. To be honest, he thought it was better for him to withdraw, but Aoki, Team C’s captain as well as the referee (this dual role was strange no matter how you look at it), didn’t seem like he was going to replace him.

He could see the frustration building up in even Haijima every time Kuroba made a mistake. Even so, the thing that differentiated Haijima from Kuroba was that his play never wavered, or rather, became frighteningly sharp. Not necessarily in a good sense, as he even covered his teammates’ minor mistakes all by himself and ended up excluding the amateurs. It felt like the sullen aura emanating from Haijima’s entire body made it seem as if the temperature on only their side of the court had dropped down a notch. It was out of the control of even Oda and he called to him less and less, and he thought that he could imagine the atmosphere in the second round of the prefectural tournament Nagato was talking about now.

His irritation towards the two who didn’t appreciate at all the value of the treasures that had been given them became stronger. If it were those two, there was no doubt that they would be able to stand at the forefront for the next ten or twenty years. Was it asking too much of freshmen to be less small-minded when they had such high physical potential? But, if he had those two’s potential, he definitely wouldn’t waste it. A super-ace who was trusted by his team for his solid decision-making ability as well as enlivening the team as a mental pillar…He knew that he couldn’t be that kind of player anymore, but he still dreamed to this day.

The fifteen-point system was shorter than he expected. When Haijima rotated from the back row to the front row and match-upped against Kuroba with the net between them again, they entered the final stage of the first set. Kuroba, obviously bending back, took a receiving stance like he was shrinking away from the net. While glaring at Kuroba’s disgraceful behavior with a gaze that could burn the net to ashes, it was perhaps at this moment that a circuit somewhere in Haijima’s mind snapped.

The serve was Oda’s. His thoughts were so focused on the two of them that his aim was a bit fuzzy, so the easy and half-hearted ball ended up falling right in the middle of the opponent’s court. He ran back to the court, fed up with himself as he thought that he might not be better than Kuroba today. That was when it happened.

“Hit the ball, Kuroba!”

Haijima shouted. His carrying voice suddenly pierced through the court where all talking had decreased, and everyone on his own team was startled.

As in the first round, the set flew from Kanno to Kuroba. Almost as if by spinal reflex, Kuroba suddenly did a run-up and leapt. Haijima blocked it perfectly.

However, this time as well, Kuroba’s spike didn’t even go over the net before it was blocked.

They both landed on the floor at the same time, the net between them. Right then,

“Stop screwing around!”

Haijima kicked the floor right after he yelled that, and then barged into the other court from under the net and tackled Kuroba. At this unbelievable situation, Oda froze in the receive stance, unable to move. It’s different for baseball game broadcasts, but I’ve never seen a brawl at a volleyball game, and I didn’t think he was the type to lose his temper like that!?

Everyone on his own team was dumbfounded, and everyone on the other team jumped out of the way, startled. After blowing Kuroba all the way to the center of the court, Haijima immediately went to straddle him and grabbed him up by the collar as Kuroba was hitting his back and coughing.

“Don’t run away! At least give one decent shot! If you’re this nervous for just a ballgame tournament, you’re not cut out for this, so just quit!”

He was yelling at him, looking like he was about to bite his nose off.

Kuroba’s back lifted off the floor.

“Hey…stop it, Haijima!”

Oda came to his senses and hurriedly passed under the net.

Right when he was about to pin Haijima’s arms behind his back, Kanno wedged himself in between them and said, “Senpai.” While keeping Oda back, Kanno looked at the referee’s stand. Oda widened his eyes and looked up at the stand, where he saw Aoki leaning against the top of the pole and grinning down at the two first-years on the floor.

“If they had just one big fist fight and told each other how they really felt…” Their conversation in the washroom flashed across his mind.

Hah!? No way, don’t tell me you were expecting this!?

Kuroba, who he thought was just going to let this happen, surprisingly grabbed Haijima’s wrist and yelled back.

“I’ve never been in a game where I had to lose successfully, and I don’t know how to do that, so of course I’m not cut out for this!”

“What are you talking about…”

Haijima was speechless. Kuroba, hesitating to say further, glared at Haijima at point-blank range as he moved his lips soundlessly. Then, he suddenly cast down his eyes, drew in his chin, and pressed his fist that was grabbing the front of Haijima’s chest to his forehead. It looked like a gesture of prayer.

“…’Cause, he said that you’d come back if we lost… Hey, isn’t this enough… Come back already…”

Come back already.

Those were words that Oda couldn’t think of or say in his position. They made him realize he didn’t need any pretense, and that all he needed was such clumsy, straightforward words.

Haijima, having lost his outlet for anger, just looked bewildered. His face, looking like those straightforward words didn’t penetrate his stubborn heart very well, made Oda irritated again.

“Hai…”

Right when he was about to interject, unable to keep quiet anymore,

Beep!

“Oh, you guys done yet? It looks like you guys pretty much said it all.”

A fake cough and Aoki’s voice, dampening the tension, came down from the referee’s stand.

“If that’s the case, the two of you, leave the court.”

He said, calmly holding up a red card.

“Fighting in volleyball is unheard of. And freshmen, don’t say that this is just a ballgame tournament, because this is a lively event that I worked myself to the bone to prepare for without sleeping. They really do need to pay me for this.”

***

After seeing the overall results at the administration tent with his own eyes, he returned to the gym. The gym, where the partition net was removed and cleanup had ended, was empty, but the net and poles still remained on only the stage-side court where the boys’ volleyball match had taken place. It was as if only the net wouldn’t admit that the match was over. The enthusiasm for the finals that had engulfed the court had now been cooled by the evening air, and he suddenly felt lonely.

There was a figure standing before the net. Like the net in front of them, it seemed like they still wanted to continue the match. Well, he was kicked off the court after doing one set, so I guess I can’t blame him for wanting to rampage more. The taping on his hands hanging down on the sides of his body still haven’t been undone yet.

“Haijima.”

Though his back reacted slightly to his call, he didn’t attempt to turn around. He goes at his own pace, eh. Oda smiled wryly as he approached him.

“They didn’t put the net away?”

“I asked them to leave it. I’ll put it away.”

Just like on the first day of team practice one week ago, Haijima lifted his chin and looked straight at the white band of the net. The sunlight shining through the window weakened and it dimmed considerably in the gym, but he could see a light in his eyes. A dazzling light that welled up within Haijima, as though he couldn’t contain his feelings of dissatisfaction.

“This wasn’t set up at 2.4?”

“Oh, we only raise it to 2.43 at the finals. ‘Cause it’s a game full of experienced players.”

With his hand on the net, stroking it sideways, Oda walked to the edge of the court and put his hand on the pole. Since the protective mat was removed, his palm touched the cold metal directly. The surface of the old bronze-colored pole was rough with copper rust stuck to it.

“We’re going to a family restaurant for the team’s afterparty, so meet us at the school gate at six-thirty. Don’t worry, us third-years are paying.”

“Please don’t count me in.”

He was given an annoyed reply. There are still not enough reasons? Oda sighed. Even though it’s so obvious that he’s longing to play volleyball, what exactly is holding him back? Is there something else besides the Monshiro Middle incident? This guy who’s fundamentally arrogant and seems to not care about other people’s feelings is clearly afraid that something is going to happen.

“You know, volleyball really is a sport that chooses people. Well, what you do in it depends on the person. It’s not a sport where you can carry the ball by yourself, and even if one person is skilled, you can’t win. I’ve told you this before. Remember it.”

“I got kicked in my ass.”

Since Haijima was pouting with a bitter look on his face, a laugh unintentionally slipped out of his mouth as he recalled it. He immediately stopped when Haijima was getting more and more sullen.

“There’s also the fact that the difference in our sizes frankly makes me cry. It’s a cruel story, isn’t it. No matter how hard a guy like me works, even if I think I won’t lose in athletic ability, skill, attitude, or anything, I just can’t beat a big guy in that one factor, height. Why did I fell for volleyball, of all things?”

Too many of the words people hurled at him came from his own mouth. When he explained it to people, they made doubtful faces and couldn’t sympathize with him very much, so these days he had learned to ignore that kind of talk. Aoki wouldn’t understand this much either. They might show their understanding for me, but they wouldn’t have any sympathy for me.

Haijima didn’t worry over his answer. He tilted his head, as though thinking,　This guy’s asking something weird, and stated it definitively. He said it like he was talking about the completely natural activities of living beings, like saying,　Don’t calves stand up after they’re born?

“Isn’t it because there’s nothing more interesting than volleyball?”

Aah…I knew it.

I had a feeling he’d say that. What’s for us, the very simple truth of the world.

I wanted words from someone other than me. I wanted someone to affirm to me that it’s okay for even someone like me to be devoted to something. If a man with much more talent than me, who possibly loves volleyball more than me, said that to me, then I can believe that the time I dedicated to volleyball was never a waste.

Is there anything in this world that is as interesting as this, that can make me as passionate as this? The exhilaration when you release a powerful spike. The feeling of solidarity when a brilliant combination play is executed. The sense of accomplishment when you persevere and break away a rally with your teammates. The feeling of conquest when you force the opponent’s ace to yield with a kill block. That intoxication, when your concentration is at its peak and the team’s hearts are one, and you can clearly see the ball’s trajectory as an unbroken line——

Something hot welled up in his throat, and he suddenly felt like crying. But, it was too early for that. He still hadn’t accomplished anything yet.

So he bared his teeth and smiled instead.

“That so? Well, for me, I love volleyball to death. It’s the only thing where I’m confident that I won’t lose to anyone.”

It was funny that Haijima countered with an extremely serious expression, “I won’t lose either.”

“…Haijima. To be honest, it was for my convenience that I wanted you to join. I’m a third year now. Even so, I want to play as many games on the court as possible, even if it’s just one game. Even if it’s just for a day…even just for a minute, just a second, I wanna play volleyball. Can I borrow your strength for that reason? All of your strength…”

Wouldn’t I get the opposite result with that way of talking? No, it’s fine. These words shouldn’t make Haijima build a wall around himself. He seems to be terribly stoic to me and everyone else, but he won’t reject someone who’s facing volleyball seriously. Ultimately, it wasn’t about whether you were skilled or not, or whether you were tall or short. Whether you are serious about volleyball or not—that was the only line Haijima drew.

That’s why there was no reason to hesitate to step in. I’m holding the key to the door.

He really felt like he was gripping a small key in his right hand. Of course, when he opened his palm, there was no key actually there. However, he turned to Haijima and held out his hand as though to show it to him.

“Won’t you believe in me, Haijima?”

Haijima was silent for a while, staring at Oda’s hand with downcast eyes. He loosened his tied lips.

“…Spring Inter-High.”

A whisper slipped from his mouth.

“…You’re serious about going there, I see. A weak team that has never won a proper game within the prefecture is aiming for it, thinking they can seriously go there. The 2.43 meter net is for that reason, I see.”

Those eyes with a sharpness that seemed to pierce through anything before them were directed towards Oda’s face. He was surprised that something he only mentioned briefly a week ago seemed to have remained in Haijima’s mind. However, he was also convinced that just showed how strong his feelings were. By all rights, he shouldn’t be the kind of athlete who was stuck smouldering in a place like this.

He wasn’t saying it in a way that was making fun of him. On the contrary, if he was the one who poked fun at him even slightly or was ambiguous in his answer, he would without a doubt slap his hand away on the spot.

Neither deception nor half-hearted seriousness was allowed in front of this guy.

“Yeah. Now, all the actors are in place. I seriously believe that this year’s Seiin will definitely become a team that can go to Nationals.”

Oda also looked back into Haijima’s eyes with a piercing gaze and answered.

If you take this hand, I will have to meet your expectations with all my power. I’ll repeat it again with force in order to convey that resolve. There’s no need for complicated reasons. I’m sure that only straightforward words would reach his heart.

“I want you to believe in me. Lend me all of your strength.”

***

“Why the hell are you smiling? Did Haijima say he was going to join?”

Aoki jeered at him when he stopped by the administration tent. Am I smiling? Oda wondered, patting his cheeks. He might be.

“Who knows. Well, he’ll be coming to the next practice, won’t he?”

“Hoo. Personally, I don’t like it, but well, that’s good I guess.”

Aoki said that in a twisted and unstraightforward way. Oda, while wondering in astonishment, Weren’t you the one who set this up?, dragged a free folding chair over and sat diagonally across from Aoki. He leaned over the long table, thrusted his face at him and lowered his face, as though it was an interrogation in a detective drama.

“So, from when and how much of it all was within your calculations? Since you brought up that betting match in front of Kuroba, right? Since you stirred me up by saying you were more interested in Okuma than Haijima? No way, you’re not gonna say you were the one who arranged for Haijima to be in volleyball, are you? I don’t think it’s possible, but does that mean the ballgame tournament itself is a huge charade…”

“I must be the world’s greatest swindler then. You’re giving me too much credit. Originally, I planned to have Team F win the championship, and I wanted to go to the lodging house on the refreshing highlands and getting Haijima while we’re at it…that was all I was thinking. Well, the dream of the highlands lodging house is completely gone now. I really did want to go there.”

All but one of the administration tents that were lined up with their eaves side by side in a corner of the first sports ground were dismantled, and the lower grade members of the executive committee were clearing away the steel frames and sheets while bickering noisily. All of their voices had a listlessness to them, like they had finished burning, and they didn’t sound grating to his ears. Rather, the noise soaked pleasantly into his tired body.

On the grounds, members of the baseball club were doing somersaults. The clock tower behind the back net displayed the time of 6:15. The brightness of the sky dimmed, and grey clouds started to appear. According to the forecast, apparently it was still going to be clear during the day, but the rainy season was going to return during the night. There was the scent of approaching rain. The warm wind, which contained moisture, made his arms and body sticky again after his sweat had finally receded.

The uncoated paper with the overall results for today was posted on the tent’s support. If he thought that there was more enthusiasm about this year’s championship than last year, there was apparently a secret prize that was going to be given to the supreme general of the winning team. The contributor was the executive committee—of course Aoki was the one who was holding the wallet. That prize was the group accommodation at a lodging house on a highland area in the prefecture for summer vacation. It was a form of taking advantage of the fact that the captains of the major sports clubs were spread out across each of the third year classes and stirring up the competition between each team.

In the boys’ volleyball division, Oda’s Team F defeated Team C to win the championship. The referee Aoki’s blatant support for Team C in the first half was camouflage, and after ejecting the two first-years, he devoted himself to making fair and impartial judgements in the second half—or that was how it seemed. Skillfully weaving in a few advantageous judgements for Team F, he manipulated the outcome. He’s a crook through and through…but since it’s a school event, I can just barely forgive him, but if he pulled this kind of thing somewhere else, I’ll be done with him.

However, they didn’t perform so well in the other events, and in the end, Team F had to settle for second place overall. The guesthouse on the highlands was to be given over to another club.

“Aaah, I guess we’ll have to do it at school this summer too. It’ll be harsh without air conditioning though.”

“You know, you’re pretty practical even though you don’t look it…”

“Dunno what you mean by not looking practical, but I’ll accept the compliment. Well, the things you can get with cheap tricks aren’t that important, and there are plenty of things you can’t get...” a loud yawn slipped out from his wide mouth.

“Are you going to the after party? The first and second-years worked hard today, so we gotta thank them.”

“Sorry, but I’ll have to pass. I don’t mind splitting the money in half. I didn’t sleep for three days to finish up preparations.”

“Three days? And yet you managed to get in two games.”

“It’d be tough to do three games. When the old teacher collapsed, I thought in my head, ‘I’m saved.’”

He leaned back deeply on his folding chair, causing it to creak, and when he bent his neck and tilted it left and right, there was a cracking sound. Though he wondered if it was okay to speak that way about an elderly person, it seemed that after he rested in the infirmary for nearly an hour, he had readily recovered and went along with the teachers to their after-party, so perhaps it was okay for Aoki to say that, considering all his toil.

During this ball game tournament, which included preparations, while Oda was just saying he wanted Haijima like a spoiled brat, just how hard was Aoki working, even using his influence, for the sake of the whole team? When it came to Haijima, even though he wasn’t supposed to have agreed to it, he considered Oda’s feelings and took action like it was a matter of course. It had completely slipped from his mind, but it was time to think about summer training camps.

Since they knocked on the door of the boys’ volleyball club in April two years ago, he had helped him one-sidedly until now. The prodigy who had student council duties, and who on top of that could get accepted to Kyoto University, probably had any number of things he could do besides volleyball, unlike Oda. He felt a deep sense of guilt that because he invited him that day—because they were “Aoki” and “Oda”, an unexpected intrusion ended up coming into Aoki’s life.

“Ah, hey…thanks for everything…”

It was too embarrassing to say it now after two years, and he couldn’t look him in the eyes. He was grateful for the gap between their lines of sight right then. Every time he was covered for, it only deepened his own sense of inferiority, and he had never thanked him face-to-face until now.

Good grief, it’s not just my outside, I’m also tiny and worthless on the inside.

“But, sorry…you’re going to have to go along with my selfishness for just a little longer.”

His debt would increase even more in the future. It seemed that Aoki won’t be able to concentrate on his exams for a while yet.

“…That’s just like you.”

Aoki mumbled to himself, his head still turned away. From Oda’s position, he could only see his chin moving slightly, and he had no idea what expression he had on his face.

“You’re giving me too much credit. I’m feeling guilty now. Playing volleyball with you is what I want to do right now, and I’m not doing it unwillingly. I don’t need to be thanked at all. I’ve been saying this since before, but me not liking Haijima is completely my personal feelings, and I’m the one who’s just being selfish. I don’t really care about going to university or not, and I don’t mind if you want me to lower my rank so we can go to the same place…I’m basically just driven by my ulterior motives.”

“Ulterior motives?”

There was the sound of water drops hitting the roof of the tent. The people working outside the tent looked up at the sky and exclaimed, “It’s starting to rain?”

“…You don’t have to understand.”

Aoki raised his head slowly, like a giraffe stretching its neck to find leaves that were just right, and stifled another yawn. Then, he turned towards him and lifted the edge of his mouth. 

“Let’s go to Spring Inter-High. I’ll follow you until the end.”

For Oda, that thin, ironic smile was more reliable and trustworthy than anything. 

The prefectural preliminaries would start at the end of September, two months later. If they won there, his retirement would be extended until the final representative deciding match in November. And if they managed to win the representative deciding match, then it would be until the nationals in January——. Just one game more. Just a day, a minute, a second longer. In order to delay the “end” just a little bit longer, they third-years would clumsily make every effort with all their ability.

When the rainy season ended, their final summer would arrive. There was no doubt that that summer would be like a condensed version of the rest of their lives after graduation. His doubts about his career path cleared up. He would put all he had into everything he could do and wanted to do right now. He didn’t care if the next few decades would be the rest of his life. Even if he burned out here and had nothing left within him, he wouldn’t regret it now.

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[sserpente]

A/N: Request from @ilikebritsandbands. Here’s your long awaited Jack Sparrow fluff! ♥ I don’t know if this Imagine is historically correct but… let’s ignore that, savvy?

Words: 1616 Warnings: fluff, mentions of forced marriage

Fate was cruel—not as cruel as your father but cruel nonetheless. You refused to give up; you believed in your freedom. The more it was taken away from you, the more you fought for it.

They had attacked at night, taking gold, jewellery, expensive garments and other treasures. Pirates you had read so many stories about as a child. And all of your struggling, biting and scratching had been in vain when they took you, throwing you over their shoulder and carrying you back to a ship with black sails like a piece of furniture.

Your home was a prison. A safe and clean place your father kept you in until you could marry you off to an old and rich man for social reputation. The pirates expected a juicy ransom for your freedom—but by now, you had long left the haven and were sailing in midst of the seven seas, far away from help and civilisation.

At least they hadn’t thrown you into one of the dirty cells or tied you to the mast for the crew to gape at you like hungry animals. In fact… in fact the pirates who had taken you were by far the most peculiar bunch you had ever met—especially their Captain.

None of them were exceptionally cruel or ruthless. They made sure you had water and food, had even given you a coat so you would not freeze. The first mate—Gibbs, you believed he was called—had even apologised for all the inconvenience. You had almost laughed out loud.

You had been counting the days since your abduction, of course. Halloween was coming up, tonight. Back when your mother was still alive, you had always carved pumpkins and lit them up with candles, then cooked pumpkin cream soup and baked pumpkin pies together. You missed the times you were young, free and careless.

Now, you weren’t even on firm ground anymore. Around you, masses of salt water expanding all the way to the horizon and beyond it.

“Ha! Found me another bottle of rum, luv!” Jack grinned when he entered the Captain’s cabin, strutting into the small room proudly.

Your smile was sad. Jack Sparrow was a strange fellow. A pirate with a criminal history, yes, but also a man with a good heart. Besides, he was really handsome. You’d rather get betrothed to him than this greasy old man your father had chosen for you.

Jack had spent hours studying old maps last night. He was onto something—and whenever he was onto something, he would drink half of the ship’s rum supplies. He uncorked it with a silent pop, then handed it to you before sitting back down at his wooden desk.

“Ladies first?”

You shook your head with pursed lips. The taste of rum was disgusting. You did enjoy the occasional glass of wine when dining with your father but rum was too strong, too intense. Jack shrugged and took a big gulp himself. You did not realise you were still watching him until his dark eyes locked with yours.

“Why the long face, luv?”

You shook your head once more. “I’m homesick.” You admitted. What you did not expect was the hint of compassion and pity reflecting in his expression.

“We’ll be back in a week’s time. Yer journey will end if yer father agrees to our terms and conditions.” He remarked with a grin.

You snorted. “I don’t even know if I want to go back there. My father means to marry me off to some rich snot thrice my age.” But you knew Jack wouldn’t just let you go without getting anything out of it himself—and if one of your father’s servants was awaiting the Black Pearl to hand over the gold and pick you up, being trapped in your room until your wedding would be no better than being trapped on a ship.

“Sorry, luv. Yer welcome to stay with me, too. Wouldn’t mind the company. Gibbs always says having a woman on board is bad luck I think it’s worse without them.” He suggested with a smirk, taking another sip of his rum.

You refused to admit you were actually considering this. Perhaps one day, you would be able to go your own way either way.

“Where are we docking tonight? You said we would be filling up supplies.” You said instead.

“Tortuga.”

“Tortuga? The… the pirate haven?”

“The very same.”

Your face distorted. You had heard stories about Tortuga. Bad stories. That’s what came with travelling with pirates, even if it was against your will.

“C’mon, luv. What can I do to put a smile on yer face?” You snorted.

“You could take me to a farmer to buy a pumpkin.”

Jack blinked, entirely taken aback. “A pumpkin, luv?”

“Yes. A pumpkin, to carve for Halloween. It’s coming up.”

The pirate looked at you like you had just stolen his beloved ship, eliciting a giggle from you. “Yer want to do what?”

“It’s called a Jack O’Lantern. To scare away evil winter spirits.”

Jack pouted into his rum bottle. “Could use some of that… So yer want me to buy you a pumpkin, luv?”

“Or steal one. Whatever it is you pirates do in situations like that.” The Captain grinned cheekily. “In return, I could make some pies with the guts?” Jack still looked a little disturbed. Usually, women would ask for jewellery or dresses… not pumpkins. But eventually, he agreed.

-

Tortuga wasn’t by far as scary as you had imagined it would be. There were drunks and prostitutes, yes, and people throwing insults and bottles at each other… and it smelled like urine, alcohol and smoke but apart from that… you had expected much worse.

Instinctively, when you passed a group of men who walked past bellowing obscene things at you, you grabbed Jack’s hand and held it tightly, causing him to wrap his arm around you and keep you close.

Ironic, really. Instead of trying to get away from your captor, you were getting even closer to him.

“Yer alright there, luv? I’m quite known here. Yer have nothing to worry about, savvy?”

Well. Last time he had said this somebody had slapped him in the face mere moments after.

“There’s a grocery farmer right around the corner. Yer pick yer pumpkin quickly, toss him a coin and then we leave.” He warned you contritely.

“I pick the pumpkin?”

“It’s not me pumpkin, luv. As long as I get me pie.” Jack had the audacity to wink—and for some peculiar reason, your heart sped up unlike it ever had when meeting with your future husband. “And I owe him money…” He added quietly.

You giggled once more—not just because you were not surprised but also because as soon as you had purchased your pumpkin—the biggest and most beautiful one you could find—Jack Sparrow looked downright adorable carrying it back to the ship all by himself where the crew was already waiting for him to leave the haven again.

On deck, you got to work right away, earning you a few confused glances as you began carving a spooky face into the pumpkin with a dagger Marty had lent you and collected the sticky guts in a bucket. Something… something felt oddly strange as you set foot on the wooden ship again, the gentle waves beneath your soles somewhat familiar and reassuring.

Jack raised an eyebrow at you when you finished and grabbed some candles to place them inside the hollow pumpkin, lighting it up and promising to the crew how adorable your little creation would look at nightfall. But he only shrugged, suppressing an amused smirk. It was rather easy, making you happy. In some aspects, you reminded him of Elizabeth. A polite gentlewoman but not up the creek without a paddle upon being ripped from wealthy life… if he didn’t plan on collecting his ransom for you and drop you off back at your father’s… he’d even consider keeping you by his side; if you wanted to.

Singing an old Halloween song to yourself, you made your way to the ship’s kitchen to make those pumpkin pies you had promised Jack. It was only when you shoved it in the giant oven Gibbs had to help you heat up, you realised just what was so different. You didn’t feel like a prisoner anymore.

Jack was treating you gently, like a crew member with privileges. No one was cruel, no one was heartless… and now he had even bought a pumpkin for you.

“Me pumpkin pies ready yet, luv?” He appeared behind you, slurring a little. Only God knew how many bottles of rum they had taken with them from Tortuga. Greedily, Jack reached for one of the treats—and promptly cursed loudly as he tossed it in the air repeatedly until it had cooled down a little.

“Ow! Hot!”

“Jack…” You began when he took a bite, chuckling when he started moaning. “Jack?”

“Buying you that pumpkin was a good investment, luv.”

“I’m glad you think so… Jack?”

“Hmm?” He took another bite, already reaching for the next pie in the process.

“What happens when my father pays you the ransom?”

The pirate immediately stopped chewing.

“Yer not gonna go back to yer husband, hmm?” You shook your head in response.

“I… it’s not so bad here. Sailing with you…” And you slowly felt like living on the ship, sailing the seven seas was not deprivation of freedom after all… but much rather the incarnation of freedom itself.

Jack grinned. “In that case… welcome on board, me luv.” You smiled when he bit into the next pumpkin pie.

-

A/N: Check out my blog to find more Imagines and take a glimpse at my first (to be) published novel! Also, if you enjoyed this story, I would appreciate so much if you supported me on Kofi! ko-fi.com/sserpente ♥

[frostedfaves]

To Build A Home (6)

Masterlist

Pairing: Rosa Diaz x fem!reader

Summary: Rosa spent years building a friendship, relationship, and eventually a marriage and home with you. This tale follows your journey together up until her sudden murder. Now that you’ve tracked down her killer before anyone else, will you do the right thing and send him to prison or take care of him yourself?

Warnings: brief mentions of a bomb threat, robbery, and alcohol use, poorly written detective work, Jake and Amy ignored on their own wedding day (I’m still so sorry faves)

A/N: this part doesn’t feature as much Rosa and wife interaction as the previous parts because I needed to set the scene for something that will come back later ;) but I hope you still enjoy it! feedback appreciated as always

Previous chapter here

-

Your eyes roamed around the small store after passing the crime scene tape, assessing a surprising lack of damage for a robbery. You didn’t expect the place to be trashed, but there was barely a sign of a struggle or anything taken in a hurry.

“Hi there.”

You turned to face a white man in his possible fifties, at least from what you could tell with the graying strands of hair and incoming wrinkles around the eyes. A hint of a smile was directed your way as he stretched out his hand.

“You must be the detective the cops told me was coming. I’m Mark Collins, the owner of this place.”

“Detective Y/N Diaz,” you introduced yourself before pulling out of the handshake. “So you said you were robbed. What happened?”

He quickly explained to you the events that took place, starting with firing an employee the night before and leading into his return this afternoon.

“I had a feeling Thomas would retaliate and I would’ve been prepared for him, but my sister brought her daughter by this morning and they’re both terrified of guns, so I hid it in the back. I have a license for it, by the way,” he added when your brows raised at him.

“Do you mind if we take a look at your security footage?” 

You followed him into his office, watching as the same situation he described to you played out on camera. You sighed a bit when the armed man shouted his reason for taking the money, feeling that Mark owed it to him to help pay his rent since he didn’t give him time to find income elsewhere. Although you’ve felt the pain of suddenly losing your job before, it didn’t justify you or anyone taking money from someone else.

“Alright, I’m going to need a copy of that footage downloaded. I’ll come back for it later. I’m also going to need the address you have on file for Thomas so I can pay him a little visit.”

-

Twenty minutes later you pulled into a parking spot just down the block from the apartment building of your suspect. You’d just taken off your seatbelt after cutting the engine when your phone rang, a smile appearing on your features at the sight of your wife’s name and picture.

“Hey, baby,” you greeted cheerily as you locked the car doors again. “How’s the wedding day craziness going?”

“Even crazier than expected,” she told you with a sigh. “You’re not on your way yet, are you?”

“No, why?”

“Someone called in a bomb threat on the rec center, so that’s getting checked out while Jake, Amy and Charles try to figure out who did it. I’m waiting for Terry to call back the driver of the car that he left Amy’s veil in.”

You couldn’t help but laugh. “Okay, so you weren’t kidding when you said ‘crazier than expected’.”

“I was not.” She chuckled along with you for a second. “So where are you?”

“I’m currently outside of where my suspect may or may not be. On the security footage you can hear him say he stole the money for rent since he doesn’t have a backup job but…” You let out a sigh of your own. “I don’t know. Maybe I’m giving him too much intelligence credit, but if I robbed the store I just got fired from, I wouldn’t go back to the address I gave my manager. Still going to give it a shot anyway.”

“Okay, well I won’t keep you on the phone much longer. Driver’s pulling up anyway. Be safe, and I love you.”

“Love you too, Rosa. See you later.”

You made your way up to the apartment quite easily as the lock on the secured door was broken. A knock went unanswered for several seconds. A second knock brought you face to face with a woman much younger than Mark.

“Detective Y/N Diaz,” you introduced yourself as you held up your badge for her to see. 

“Jessica Moore,” she offered. “What’s this about?”

“I’m looking for Thomas Moore. Is he here?”

“He was, but you just missed him by about an hour.” She shrugged. “Tommy was sleeping on the couch for a while because his girlfriend kicked him out. He was only gone maybe half an hour before he came back saying he was headed home, packed up his stuff and left.”

“Do you know where this girlfriend lives?”

“No, sorry. I don’t even know her name! Every time I ask about her, he just tells me I’m asking too many questions, as if he doesn’t try to interrogate every guy I’ve been on a date with,” she grumbled off to the side with her arms crossed.

“I know the feeling,” you told her and she turned back to you with a hopeful smile.

“You have brothers too?”

“Nope, just familiar with men and their double standards.” You pulled a business card from your jacket pocket and gave it to her. “Call me if he shows up, and thanks for your cooperation.”

-

After gathering all the evidence you needed from the crime scene, you’d arrived at the precinct just in time to see Holt cleaning up what used to be a cake version of the Nakatomi Plaza. You had your questions, but you simply saved them for a moment when you weren’t completely focused on your case. Every single moment of the day, every conversation that didn’t come from the computer where you were studying surveillance footage was ignored.

“Yep, Terry fumbled the task. But we got you a bouquet.”

Your ears couldn’t help but tune in at the sound of Rosa’s voice, this moment being the first time you’d heard her in a few hours. Still, you couldn’t bring yourself to pull away from your work until her hands gently landed on your shoulders, effectively melting the tension from them.

“Hey.”

“Hi.” You turned in your chair with a smile, which instantly fell as you caught sight of Amy in a wedding dress. “Please tell me I didn’t accidentally work through the wedding.”

“Jake, Amy, let’s go downstairs. It’s wedding time!” Charles addressed the pair with a proud grin and Rosa gave your shoulder a teasing nudge.

“Looks like you’re just in time. Come on.”

-

“But I do have some bad news. There’s a bomb at this wedding as well.”

“What?” The frown on Jake’s face matched yours, both of you confused by Amy’s calm demeanor.

“Your butt. Your butt is the bomb. There will be no survivors.”

“I love you so much. You’re my dream girl.”

Your laugh at the adorably childish pair was cut short when you realized Rosa was staring at you. “What’s wrong?”

“Nothing. I just missed you today.” She threw her right arm around your shoulders, gently pulling you in to lean against her and dropping a kiss on your hairline.

“I missed you too.” Your left hand grabbed hers, locking your fingers together in her lap, both of you smiling at the reciprocated skin-to-ring contact. Satisfied with the physical touch, you both turned your attention back to your nearly married best friends, brows raised as you watched a robot from the bomb squad bring the rings down the aisle.

-

You thanked Rosa as she placed two drinks on the table, sliding into the booth next to you and this time wrapping her left arm around you. You slipped your fingers through hers once more as they dangled over your shoulder, extending your thanks in the form of a quick kiss on the cheek.

“So how did it go earlier? I’m guessing by the way you were buried in your case that your suspect wasn’t stupid.”

“No, he wasn’t,” you sighed. “I found his sister, who told me that he’d left some time before I got there to go back home to his girlfriend. I can’t find any evidence of him having a girlfriend, but I have to wait until Monday to get a search warrant for the apartment. So I won’t know whether or not the sister was lying until then.”

“Well when you do find him, which I know you will, don’t forget to call me. I love watching my woman take down bad guys.” She winked and you laughed so hard you nearly snorted.

“What about you? How’d you end up with a shower curtain and flowers instead of a veil?” you asked after settling down, keeping your eyes on her as you sipped your drink.

“The customer after us knocked the dry cleaning bag out of the car when he left and we found it soaked in urine because, you know, New York streets are gross like that.” 

She shuddered, her look of disgust shifting into adoration when you held her glass and straw up to her lips. As you returned it to the table, you caught sight of Jake and Amy gazing at each other like no one else existed within the walls of the bar.

“I’m so happy for them. I can’t believe our best friends are married.”

“I can,” she responded as she shifted even closer to you, her eyes landing on the pair. “They’re the perfect example of the ‘opposites attract’ concept. They’re going to grow old together.”

“It’s funny that you say that, because they think the same thing about us.”

She turned back to you, that specially reserved smile back on her lips as she took in your appearance. Using the arm around you, she guided your own lips close enough to leave a kiss on them that was far too short for your liking. She settled back into the booth again and picked up her drink, her eyes never once leaving yours.

“Let’s prove them right, then.”

-

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