#might give him an infamous au anyway too

[lyriumsings]

listening to ghost town revisiting my obsession with them from when i was like 12 DJSJ and actually this is the perfect vc for my band if mc that doesn’t have a face yet SJSJS i’m gonna draw him i swear but i’m making burgers first

[syrikif]

Gamer Etiquette

Kodzuken x Streamer!Y/N

Pairing: Kenma Kozume x Fem!Reader

Genre: SMAU, Written Elements, Strangers to Lovers, Romance, Fluff, Humor, Friendship, Hurt/Comfort, Streamer/Youtuber AU

Upcoming content creator/streamer, Y/N, has gone viral for lots of things. Her infamous dumb moments, her blended cookie recipe (which tastes better than it sounds), the way she rages at her friends during games, and about a hundred more.

But her most recent viral moment? Accidentally knocking famous streamer, Kodzuken, off the Bedwars map and making him lose his two year winning streak.

Now with more attention (and hate) than she ever asked for, her only option left is to go to the source: the man himself, Kenma Kozume.

Previous | Masterlist | Next

Chapter 4 (b): Guilt

Word Count: 2659

To be honest, Kenma is doing this entirely out of guilt. 

Sure it isn’t technically his fault that people have no self control and don’t know how to mind their own business, but his fans were probably the main root of the problem. So he felt some sort of responsibility towards her, regardless that they’d never met before today. 

“Are you loaded in yet?” He waits a few seconds, almost impatiently so, his eyebrows slowly raising as he waits even longer. “Y/N?” 

A soft sound of movement, a throat clearing, “Sorry, what?” 

Kenma sighs, “Are you loaded into the game yet?” 

“Oh- yeah. I mean almost, my wifi’s being weird.” She laughs then and it’s so painfully forced that Kenma physically feels himself cringe. He has to give the girl props though, she’s doing a lot better acting excited than he is despite the fact that she seems more nervous. 

He’d only asked for her discord on complete impulse, not really considering what would happen if she agreed until it was too late. Don’t get him wrong though, he isn’t upset about it; finding new people to play his favorite games with is always enjoyable for Kenma. 

But he also isn’t looking forward to this being any more awkward than it already is. 

“Are you on the server already?” 

Kenma shakes his head, “No, I’m waiting for you to be ready so I can start streaming.” 

“Oh,” she says and Kenma only then realizes that he’s been treating her like he treats everyone else, even though they know essentially nothing about each other. “Sorry, I’ll be done as soon-.” 

“Don’t worry about it.” And now he’s interrupting her; great first impression, Kenma. “I’m trying to finish eating right now anyways.” 

She doesn’t say anything for a moment and then, almost out of nowhere, “What are you eating?” 

Funny thing about that though is that he’s not. 

“Ummmmm-,” he trails off, desperately searching his brain for some sort of response. “Apple pie,” he finally manages to say. 

“Wait really?” Y/N suddenly sounds much more genuine than she had mere seconds ago. 

Kenma hums in confirmation, head nodding even though he’s currently lying straight through his teeth. 

Why? Who knows. Kenma definitely doesn’t. 

“I had apple pie too,” she goes on to explain. “Literally like ten minutes before I turned on my PC.” 

Kenma isn’t actually eating any apple pie right now, so it’s not as much of the insane coincidence that Y/N seems to think it is. But it is one of his favorite desserts, so he did have some fairly recently enough for it to be considered at least a bit strange. 

“You’re kidding,” he tries to match her enthusiasm.  

“Do I look like the type of girl to joke about something as serious as apple pie?” She’s teasing him now but his mind is slow to pick up on it, unintentionally leaving her in awkward silence as he processes her words. 

“I don’t know,” he drags out the last syllable. “You sound like someone who would.” Kenma has never actually seen what Y/N looks like - and sure he might be comfortable lying to her about eating apple pie - but joking about her appearance without even properly seeing it first seems like a line he shouldn’t cross. 

She scoffs then and Kenma can almost picture the exact face she pulls in the process, having frequently seen the same expression on his own roommate’s. “I have literally never been so offended in my entire life.” 

Kenma subconsciously shrugs, “I have to keep everyone humble somehow, you know.” 

~~~

“I got some stone,” Kenma tells Y/N as he runs over to drop a Stone Pickaxe in front of her. Although, this time he does it close enough to ensure that she doesn’t have to move to pick it up. 

“Oh thanks,” Y/N herself is busy collecting wood, but she’s definitely mining more than she really needs at the moment. 

“I know I explained this a bit earlier but we wanted to stream together just to clear some stuff up,” Kenma says when he notices how confused everyone still is in his chat. “Like how we actually don’t know each other. Right Y/N?” 

Y/N’s character suddenly turns to him in game, mimicking a head nod. “Yeah, I have no idea who this guy is. What’s your name again? Kenny?” Kenma admits that he has to stifle a laugh as she starts running around him in circles. “Well I guess I wouldn’t know because I don’t know you.” 

Kenma rolls his eyes, “You know what I mean.” 

“Yeah,” she easily agrees. “Just like how we didn’t know each other during that game, I also totally didn’t mean to kill you either.”

“Oh yeah definitely not,” Kenma nods, looking over at his chat for a brief second as Y/N stops before a random oak tree to start collecting even more wood. 

Why is y/n mining so much wood???? 😭 😭

y/n’s skin is so cutteeee

I love how Kenma’s just watching her run around lol

But Kenma’s attention is suddenly brought back to the game when he hears the sound of something being attacked, only to see his health two and a half hearts lower and Y/N standing suspiciously far away from him.

“What did you just do?” 

“Huh? What?” She plays innocent almost too well. “What do you mean?” 

“I’m beginning to think you killed me on purpose,” he teases as he starts making his way towards a cave he spots in the ground. 

She gasps, as though she genuinely feels betrayed by his words. “Of course I didn’t mean to, I would never do something like that.” 

He nods as he enters the cave, immediately running towards a vein of coal embedded into the wall. “Oh right of course. Because I totally didn’t see you aiming that fireball at me or anything the other day.” He shakes his head light heartedly as he begins collecting the coal with his own stone pickaxe. 

“See I’m glad you agree with me, Kenma,” Y/N joins his side in the cave, mining the stone beside him before placing down a crafting table. 

His head subconsciously tilts, “I thought you didn’t know my name.” 

Kenma watches as she places a furnace next to the crafting table, “That was before.” 

“Before what?” He opens the furnace when he sees it light up, his curiosity satisfied when he realizes that she’s cooking some Porkchops. 

“Before I knew it. Obviously.”

“Oh duh,” Kenma makes a show of facepalming, adjusting his hand just enough to look into the lens of his camera. “Should’ve known. How could I be so dumb?” 

“You tell me,” she says nonchalantly. “Isn’t that like your forte?” 

Kenma pauses at her words, shifting his gaze back to his monitor as he uses his mouse to slowly turn and look at her. “What?” 

“What?” 

LMAOOOOO

y/n has no chill lol

STOP CUS I LOVE HER

“Did you just call me dumb?” He’s definitely hearing things, because there’s no way that the girl who was fake laughing twenty minutes ago is now teasing him like they’d been friends for years. 

“What- no- I would never- I mean-,” she’s stuttering practically on purpose at this point. “Oh, iron!” 

Kenma turns his character in the direction that Y/N is looking towards, eyes squinting as he leans forward in his seat to try and spot it. 

And then he hears her giggle. 

“Ha! Made you look!” 

He sighs, rolling his eyes half-heartedly as he leans back against his chair. “You’re literally a child.” 

Y/N manages to stop laughing for only a brief second, “I can’t believe you-,” her voice suddenly breaks off with a gasp as she tries to catch her breath. “Fell for it,” she’s barely even able to finish the rest of her sentence, too busy practically cackling.

Kenma finds himself chuckling along with her, even though she’s entirely making fun of him right now. But he doesn’t care, not even a little bit. 

Because for the first time since they’ve met, the interaction feels real. 

~~~

An hour later, Kenma’s stuck in a cave and Y/N is doing who even knows what on the surface, when his roommate walks into the room. 

Y/N is in the middle of telling some elaborate story about the first time she ever played minecraft when Kenma hears his door open. He doesn’t really react at first, only glancing at his viewfinder to confirm that Kuroo’s walking into the room. 

“And then-,” she abruptly stops. “Did I just hear a door open?” 

Kenma would have thought that his microphone (or even discord for that matter) wouldn’t be able to pick up such a soft noise. He’s been proven wrong a lot today though. 

“Yeah sorry,” he confirms as he turns to actually look at the person now entering the room. “It’s my roommate, just give me one second.” Kenma mutes himself in discord but keeps his stream’s audio on, trying not to censor Kuroo as much as he wants to. He then just decides to leave the world, knowing there’s really no way to pause an online game. 

“You? Apologizing? Since when,” the older man snorts. 

Kenma closes his eyes with a sigh, “Shut the fuck up.” 

“That was unnecessarily harsh.” 

The streamer adjusts in his seat, turning in his chair to face his roommate. “I’m still streaming, what do you want?” 

His best friend frowns, “I’m bored and being swarmed by cats out there.” 

“Did you get in the catnip again?” He briefly gets distracted by the sound of Y/N saying something in his headset, but isn’t able to understand anything she’s actually saying because Kuroo is speaking at the exact same time.

“It was only like this much!” He makes a small gesture with his fingers to further prove his point. 

Kenma stares at the distance between his pointer finger and thumb for an unnervingly long amount of time. “Only that much huh?” 

Kuroo suddenly hides his hand behind his back, “Hey don’t look at my fingers like that, you perv.” 

“It’s not my fault you just happened to measure the exact length of your di-.” 

“AHHH!” 

Kenma flinches as he’s cut off by a blood curdling scream, his pulse skyrocketing as he frantically turns back to the game. 

He somehow manages to unmute himself, his fingers clumsily controlling the mouse to log back into the world. “Holy shit are you okay?” 

“Fuck- yeah sorry!” Y/N is still being loud but it’s nothing compared to the way she’d yelled only a second ago. “Jesus, I’m so sorry; that scared me so bad.” 

Kenma feels himself relax against his chair, mentally sighing as he glances back at Kuroo with a clear expression of relief. “She’s good?” 

“Yeah,” he nods, swallowing unsteadily. “Fuck, did you hear her?” 

“Are you kidding? I think the whole street heard her,” he jokes and Kenma can’t help but smile. Leave it to his best friend to be able to relieve such a massive amount of tension with one simple sentence. 

“Your roommate heard me?” Her voice practically exudes embarrassment. 

He chuckles, “Yeah, I think you both gave us a heart attack.” 

“Oh no,” she groans. “I’m seriously so sorry.” 

“What even happened?” (Translation: what the fuck made you react like that?)

“I was just focused on building a house and then a bird or something - I don’t even know what it was  - slammed against my window.” She pauses and Kenma can hear her release a deep breath. “It scared the absolute shit out of me.”

“Okay I guess that’s fair.” He feels something tap against his shoulder and turns to look at Kuroo’s questioning expression. “A bird hit her window,” Kenma elaborates for him. 

His roommate suddenly laughs, “I think chat was more worried than we are.”

Oh noooooo

Poor Y/N 😥

She needs therapy after that 💀

“They like her more than both of us combined,” Kenma confirms. 

Y/N makes a disapproving noise, “I wouldn’t be so sure about that.” 

“Here wait,” Kenma says to pretty much no one as he grabs his headphone splitter and the second headset he always has on hand. After plugging everything in, he adjusts his microphone and wheels in another chair so that both men will be able to talk to her. “Okay, my roommate can hear you now by the way, Y/N.” 

“Oh. Hi there roommate!” 

Kenma frowns as he turns back around in game to start heading for the surface, “Why didn’t you sound that chipper earlier?” 

Y/N doesn’t get a chance to respond before Kuroo does for her. “Because I’m better than you.” 

Complete silence. 

“You’re not even going to try to deny it huh?” He shakes his head, still trying to find his way through the maze of a cave he’d somehow managed to trap himself in. 

“I don’t know; I’d feel mean if I did,” she responds without an ounce of hesitation. 

“Yeah why are you forcing her to do stuff, Kenma,” Kuroo suddenly chimes in with a teasing tone. 

“Fuck you Kuro. No one asked you.” 

Kuroo reels back in his chair, as though Kenma had physically slapped him in the face. “Um wow okay. I can really feel the lo-.” 

“Finally,” Kenma (accidentally) interrupts as he sees sunlight shining down into the cave. “I’m coming up by the way.” 

“Wait, already?” Y/N sounds strangely panicked. 

Kenma nods slowly even though she can’t see him. “Why,” he can’t help but feel suspicious now after her reaction. 

“I haven’t finished building yet.” 

He begins towering his way out of the hole, “I’m sure it’s not that ba-.” He suddenly stops as he sees a building in the distance. 

“I’m sorry, you said you aren’t done?” His roommate says beside him, basically voicing Kenma's exact thoughts as he sprints towards the house. 

“What the actual fuck this is amazing.” Kenma marvels as he opens what he can only assume is the front door. “How did you do this in two hours?” 

Her character suddenly runs over, crouching in front of him and dropping something on the ground. “I might not be super amazing at PVP, but I’ve been building since I was in elementary school.” Kenma scoots forward to pick up the item, his eyebrows furrowing when he realizes it’s a bed. 

“What’s this for?” 

“I wasn’t sure which room you’d want so I just decided I’d let you pick,” she explains. 

Kuroo nudges Kenma's shoulder with his own, “That was really nice of her. Right kenma?” 

But he's strangely at a loss for words because he just can’t get over the fact that, “She made it red.” His head tilts, “Why’d you make it red?”

“Oh,” she seems surprised by the question. “I don’t really know. I just thought it suited you, I guess.” 

“Hm,” he hums in acknowledgement, making his way over to the first room he sees and placing it beside the purple bed already placed against the wall. “Why don’t we just have the same bedroom?” 

“Ooohh,” Kuroo drags out. (Kenma had completely forgotten he was there.) “Putting your bed next to her’s huh?” 

Apparently they both decide that it’s better to ignore him this time because all Y/N says is, “Why would we share a bedroom?” 

Kenma blinks, he thought the reason was obvious. “So then we have more room for other stuff in the house instead of constantly needing to build for more space.” 

“Oh. Okay yeah that makes sense.” 

His best friend suddenly reaches over to press his mute key for discord, “Kenma’s got moves guys.” 

“Shut up.” 

~~~

Kenma enjoys streaming with her that night. He really, really does. 

But again, he’s doing this out of guilt. 

Or at least that’s what he tells himself when he ends up messaging her again that very next day.

Taglist: @crazy-people-are-here, @existential-traveller, @peachesncats, @royalz658, @musicluverr

Any names in bold are unable to be tagged.

[aiyexayen]

you NEED to tell me all your thoughts and the bts process of Everything You‘re Not Supposed To Do. and i know youre dabbling in a sequel so probably more like tell me Everything that has to do with this verse!!!! i NEED to know!!! the idea of this fic is so unique, i havent seen it anywhere else before! and its ingredients are so precisely and carefully mixed (as all your rarepairs are!) that im astonished its not ,, canon ,,

its such a cool set-up! lqq joining tianchuang, lqq seeking out siji manor years after qin huaizhang teaches her his disguise skills but finding an abandoned estate, han ying going from wariness to desire and affection for lqq! everything thats going on with zzs in the background and that we dont get to see!!!!!!! there are two moments of this AU that are burned into my mind—one is lqq reflecting on her own disappointment at finding what she hoped to maybe become her new home abandoned, the other is zzs realizing he has been outsmarted and giving in to his fate. idk why but these two moments moved me very deeply. the image of lqq taking qhz up on his invitation, but too late. finding only withered grounds, empty houses, dust. and then zzs surrendering to the fact that he has been outsmarted. that his two disciples turned what he taught them against him, that he lost because he, too, is human. the only reason they could outsmart him in the first place being that he let them so close to him, that he underestimated what he means to them, what they are ready to do for him. eugh!!!!! so good!!!

please ramble! i loved reading your thoughts re: The Only Place You Wanna Be! <3

ooouhoohoohooheehee i love this fic (Everything That You're Not Supposed To Do) and thinking about it and talking about it.

starting by dragging a point over from ao3 about having a difficult time believing zhou zishu would go that far in some of the scenes! because i actually had such a fascinating time myself playing with just how far i thought zhou zishu would go. how far would he push liu qianqiao and han ying? how hard would he make them work? as his lovers? as his subordinates? as the sole occupants of the venn diagram where those two circles overlap in such a complicated way. they're so *entangled.*

zhou zishu, of the infamously soft heart. zhou zishu, who knows this about himself and becomes colder and harder to compensate. zhou zishu, who murdered an innocent family down to the servants, down to a little girl he *knew* and cared about. zhou zishu, who drugged his san-shidi to keep him out of the way during that mission--to keep him safe from it--to keep him safe from the worst of tian chuang--to keep him safe from zhou zishu himself.

and i feel like the zishu in this story does a lot to keep both his family and his lovers out of the depths of his business, but while his family/sect he'll do more to protect, he *needs* his lovers to be able to protect themselves.

he'll go harder on them than anyone else because he needs them to be *the best*--no mistakes. no way they can be his weakness and vice versa.

or, at least, that's what liu qianqiao would tell you.

but a very delightful bit of ambiguity i have in this particular fic is pov. we never get zhou zishu's pov. *is* he so ruthless? how many backup plans on backup plans does he have? is he in the shadows after all, waiting to swoop in if they need him? does he retain much awareness and empathy for their humanity? has his own human fallibility projected inhuman standards on them to make himself feel safe, and it simply hasn't backfired yet? is it some jumbled mix of the above?

and! i love that we will never know. that, truthfully, we don't even need to.

anyway! all that was a big part of the bts process, sitting with zishu's character and his headspace in tian chuang, sitting with my pov characters and how i wanted to play with this perspective on it all.

and of course, as always, thinking about liu qianqiao. the idea that a choice that in another au might have been kinder to her than gui gu--to study further under qin huaizhang among the blossoms of siji shanzhuang--ends up merely being complicated in a different way.

something that still requires her to become the best at what she does, rise in the ranks, thrive in danger, make a home only out of the people she can trust.

going to gui gu ought to have her letting go of her obsessions and hurts, but it was never really good at what it wanted to be good at, this concept of second chances missing the mark with its meng po tang, and so it only let her steep in her hurts longer and let her grudges fester. meanwhile this other path both took her further away from the jianghu and required her to actually deal with her shit besides. there was enough of qin huaizhang's legacy, especially in some of the older members of siji shanzhuang that were definitely still around when she joined, to make that true.

i also like to think that in essence liu qianqiao's original choice set her up for more success, too.

in canon, in choosing to become a ghost, she chose to die in a sense, to stop living, but to become a ghost--a permanently frozen echo of the life she had lived up to that point, of the things that killed her.

because humans be human, she went on to still form relationships and find new purpose to an extent. but she didn't necessarily actively expect or want to, and her very identity as a ghost required her to always have the clinging cobwebs of her past laid over everything she did and planned and wanted.

but in choosing to go after qin huaizhang, she was *choosing* to live. she decided that she still had the capacity to be a person, to heal, to find meaning in living. and even if that road took her first to disappointment and then to tian chuang of all places, it still took her somewhere. and she was ready to embrace whatever it was she found.

i have a fondness for canon liu qianqiao and her role as yan gui and her relationship with luo fumeng and xie-wang and her tortuous journey through the weeds with yu qiufeng, trying to sort out and settle these matters that weighed on her too long in her state of self-imposed death.

but i'm also *so* compelled by a liu qianqiao, with all her passion and ambition and cleverness and *care*, who chose to live in that one crucial moment instead. and i just wanted very badly to see her reaction to and influence on a zhou zishu who was rapidly approaching his own choice on that matter.

anyhow! i am indeed working on a sequel to this fic. i haven't fully decided if i want to try another 5+1 things format for it, or if i want to explore zhou zishu's pov as well, or what.

but it will pick up right where the first one leaves off, with all the dramatic fallout of liu qianqiao's plan.

here's hoping it doesn't take too long to actually write 😅

[sea-jello]

if anyone remembers my movie morro au here’s the part where he’s the villain finally LMAO

i had this idea in mind already and it just so happened to sorta line up with the morrotober prompt so

Day 7/October 7: Crystal || Wishing Well || "Too late now." (?)

OKAY so you probably should go read the other part just for the worldbuildings sake but i think you’ll survive if you don’t. anyways he’s still a high up gang member but instead of sneaking around behind the scenes he actually does stuff this time. he still does lowkey stuff he doesn’t go in guns blazing, so like spy stuff, or stealth missions. he still does the jobs from the other part like collect intel, make plans give orders yada yada. also he specialises in poisons instead of weapons cause he has an advantage with his wind. and cause i think it’s cool. like tranquillizers, sleeping potions, smoke bombs stuff like that (ties back to the stealth missions. he still fights he doesn’t just sit back and let the chemicals do the work. they’re just incorporated in) i don’t think anyone knows he has wind cause people would tie it back to him being associated with the ninja, so he uses it but like sneakily (remember in the movie when lloyd says “wind isn’t taken can i be wind?” YUP)

NOW in the other part i said he was very undercover and that’s why they couldn’t catch him. well this morro is a little more involved. as in he and a couple other members tried to steal the biggest crystal in ninjago from the borg vaults, which have the highest security possible (i like to try and incorporate canon and it’s either this or he goes fucking grave robbing and i don’t like that, so it’s the vaults). so they sneak in, they trigger the alarm and they’re like well okay no point now (too late now HAH morrotober prompt that wasn’t even intentional) and start trying to fight their way out. and it’s going alright until surprise surprise, the fucking ninja show up and they get arrested

before i forget morro and lloyd as regular civilians aren’t like close at all cause morro was wus student before the ninja ever were, and he used the stuff he learned from wu to rise up the ranks. they know of each other and they know they’re cousins (ish idrk if morros actually related to wu) but they’ve seen each other like once or twice probably. would recognise if they were asked to identify each other, but do not know of each other’s ninja/gang business cause they’ve both got masks. although i think it would hurt more if they were close so i might change that

so they’re incapacitated and the ninja are like sick let’s go fucking celebrate and dip before morro and the rest of their identities are revealed, so lloyd finds out his cousin was fucking arrested through morros crusty mugshot on the news here too LMAO. i was debating on if they should stay not knowing each other’s identities throughout but that’s like impossible since morros arrest is on the news and movie lloyd would pull his mask of for that “you don’t have to be evil my dearest cousin” speech the second theyre face to face

robbery plus breaking and entering plus aggravated assault plus assaulting a police officer PLUS gang activity since they obviously have proof he’s actively participating (and also he goes out more here that in the post where he’s not the villain so they have more evidence than they did in that version)?? that could add up to like twenty something years in jail. he’s 16 when he gets arrested, but you can be tried as an adult if the crime is severe enough. so he is and BAM hes probably gonna grow up in jail. he’s currently in juvie but will be moved when he hits 18. but he’s not gonna spend his prime years in JAIL

so he breaks out a year later. obviously. remember he is infamous for being a mastermind escape artist

he’s out of jail and he’s out for the ninjas blood. he’s gone three years without ever getting caught and all of a sudden these color coded high schoolers in 20 feet tall robots toss him in the slammer?? they’re going down

the ninja find out he escaped through the news again and come to the conclusion he’s probably coming back for revenge lloyds like oh my god my fucking cousins gonna kill me i’m gonna die at the hands of my own family. wu pops up and he goes blah blah you need to TRAIN i know all of this kids tricks you need to HARNESS the ELEMENTAL POWER INSIDE OF YOU instead of RELYING on your MECHS or whatever idk let’s be honest they need to learn not to rely on them more. the ninja are like 👁👁 you know this guy CUE classic wu backstory montage

i’m not very sure how this would end yet but i feel like it would be really funny if they were planning to hit him with everything they have and it ends up with lloyds “come back to the good side dear cousin of mine” speech anyways. either ways there are multiple fights in which lloyd does try to pacify him and make peace, but morro never gives him a chance to explain who he is so he doesn’t know he’s the green ninja til the end lmao. if this were a lego movie it would be a fight that sucked terribly, make a plan and improve and train, fight again but this time they’re sure they’re gonna get him but everything’s failing at a sudden turn of events near the end, and lloyd gives his heartfelt speech. maybe morro refuses but a new bigger threat appear like the overlord or something and they have to work together and morro realized hey fighting with people isn’t so bad. idk i’m just throwing this at the wall atp see what sticks

this one isn’t that long cause the last one was more worldbuiling and this one’s more about plot, and it’s not that great cause i speedran it in time for morrotober and it’s like lowkey underdeveloped and it’s currently 3 30am i might come back and change some things. the only thing i had completely set on this was he tries to steal the crystal, he got arrested, then broke out, so feel free to suggest some changes!

[sentientcave]

Not me hoping that Storm Front is inspired by that twisters movie that just came out? 👀 Some kind of Storm chasers AU?

Care to share? 💛

Heya Daisy!

It's not! I started this fic back in January, and it's actually a companion to Two Graves which is a short lil Phil Graves backstory fic. He sucks, but I like to think about where characters come from and what drives them to make their terrible decisions. It's basically a zoom in on a particular segment of Two Graves.

Here's a little bite of it

Phil had been outside when the trouble started, mowing the lawn. It was a warm year, and the grass hadn’t stopped growing for a minute. The atmosphere inside the house was too tense to bear, his mama fussing about the house, getting everything just so, and his dad sitting there, ignoring her manic energy with the practiced discipline of a buddist monk, turning the pages of a Patterson without really reading a word. Phil had gotten pretty good at sensing a storm front, and knew when to get out of the way.

The yelling began somewhere around the same time the mower got going, the growling engine only just covering the sound. But he knew the words by heart by now. His ma, feeling frazzled and unappreciated. His dad, who didn’t understand why she had to be so emotional. Didn’t he provide everything she ever wanted? And around and around. The kind of cyclical, unresolved fight that was sure to pick up into a twister one of these days, and bring the whole house down on top of them.

But he shut off the engine when he saw Ben’s car pulling up into the driveway, and left it sitting out, the job only half done, so he could warn them.

“They’re at it again,” Phil said as Ben climbed out of the driver’s seat, looking stiff after four hours in the car, two hours to Austin, two hours back. “Might want to hold on a minute before you head in. Give ‘em a chance to settle.”

“Aw, Christ. Again?” Ben glanced over as the passenger door opened, his mouth set in a grim line. “I was hoping they’d be— For Carrie, at least.”

“Oh, don’t worry about it, Ben,” she said, standing up and stretching. She shut the car door with her hip and leaned her arms against the top, giving Phil a soft smile. “I’m no stranger to parents fighting. I’ve got two sets of ‘em that do that, and they fight with each other too. Phil’s the one I wanted to meet anyway. I’m Carolynn. Carrie. Nice to finally put a face to the infamous name.”

She was gorgeous. Of course she was, if she was dating Ben. Dark, glowing skin, tightly coiled curls that were pulled back into a round ball at the top of her head. A soft, round face and a real pretty smile. She had that sweet Georgia peach accent, and dark brown eyes that sparkled with a joke that Phil was pretty sure just the two of them were in on. She was a cheerleader, and in the journalism program, if Phil remembered right. Smart and pretty. The right kind of girl for Ben.

“Hope you haven’t heard too much. I’m not near as much trouble as I used to be.” He walked around the hood of the car, his hand out. “But it’s nice to finally meet you too, Carolynn.”

Her hand was small and soft in his. His heart lurched, but he tried to let go in a normal way, without dropping it like her skin was gonna burn him, or just plain not let go.

[puppypeter]

I know that the whole idol/super fan dynamic is like, a core component of what makes RoyJamie so delicious, but I CANNOT escape the hilarity potential of famous!Jamie/chronically offline!Roy.

Like, in this au, Roy wouldn't be a footballer (which is also intriguing to me because that's such a key facet of his character, so I'd be interested to hear from you what other careers Roy might have!!) and it is essential that he is also chronically offline, like near hermit levels of sheltered from pop-culture.

Roy would then obviously meet Jamie for some contrived fanfic reason (my running idea is that they meet maybe in a late season two/season three timeline when Jamie is doing his self-motivated 4am training. Jamie motivated for Zava reasons and Roy motivated to avoid crowds/the heat). Roy would have his wattpad 'im not like other girls' moment when Jamie approaches him, obviously assuming Roy will recognise him, which Roy does not.

Of course this leads to Jamie fixating on this grumpy old twat whose buttons Jamie can soo easily press and who seems to have no fucking clue who he is. Roy will become like, Jamie's yoga mums, especially because at this point in time Jamie would still be pretty infamous what with everything going on with his career, so I think having someone who doesn't have a preexisting idea of who he is would be extremely refreshing for Jamie.

This of course leads to a slow burn strangers to lovers situation with the obvious angst potential of a civilian/celebrity fic (paparazzi, privacy, 'oh our worlds are so different, how could this ever work', etc).

ALTERNATIVELY, Roy could actually know who Jamie Tartt is, but for whatever reason he finds him annoying and when they meet he just pretends not to know who he is just to knock him down a peg. This version of the au has the fun potential of the whole 'i know who you are' reveal, but I'm undecided on which direction it should go.

Anyways, thanks for letting me word dump in your inbox, I LOVE your blog and your RoyJamie posts!! 💕💕

i love people word dumping about royjamie in my inbox ❤💙

I also love the famous/non famous. There's not many AUs in this fandom as being a footballer is such a core part of who they are it is difficult to imagine otherwise but coming from other fandoms I have so many ideas (take capitan america/stucky having many AUs and many capitan america/modern bucky barnes too)

I love the idea of Roy not knowing who Jamie is at all. I do have a think for the non-famous person having the most random normal jobs ever like

working the till at the grocey store (I wrote a post once about them meeting at 6am when roy starts work and jamie is stopping for water cause I'd seen a Tesco guy that looked like roy from far away lol) (funnily i often picture step dad simon in this job and that's how him and georgie met and they've actually known each other since jamie was a baby but it took him many years to ask her out)

grocery delivery guy (quiet, peaceful, listens to audiobooks while driving)

park ranger (again can meet at 5am, kudos if jamie sneaks into richmond park and roy fucking hates him for it until he gives up and lets him do it)

classics like baker, coffee shop, bookshop, mechanic etc

I do love the grumpy roy thinking jamie is a pretentious early morning running twat whose colourful atrocious shoes are blinding him. Like he doesn't know Jamie has a legit reason to do all that aka his career.

And of course the angst that would come from stepping into Jamie's world. I did see a post not long ago about a Jamie that is more bashful around dating (and also more protective of his privacy as he was in canon with Keeley). But also would be cute him bringing his fit older boyfriend to the charity gala.

Or what if he knew him from Lust Conquers All that he watched with the yoga mums and had no idea he was a footballer? Then he thinks Jamie is a very superficial guy, a cheater who only cares about his looks etc before Jamie annoys him day after day and he slowly falls for him.

Ok what if he and the yoga mums worked together somehow? He is the maintenance guy or the grumpy receptionist at the yoga gym / massage place or the grumpy delivery guy at the diner who covers the night shift at the counter so he can prep stuff and restock etc and jamie is there at 5am every morning for eggs and a chat and like the first 5 times it's just Jamie yapping on and on with a lot of sighs from Roy. Maybe it's the post-return to Richmond Jamie who is still very lonely, away from his family, no agent, no keeley, no team friends yet (remember how he kept going to keeley to talk and she took him to dr sharon? that didn't happen and he just decided roy would do.. and tbf he does tip well at least ahah)

I have sooooo manyyyyy thoughts!!!😊😊😊😊

[wackybuddiemewbs]

Buddie Moodboard - Eureka Seven AU

So yeah, this manga and anime series has had me in its clutches for a looooong time. And I couldn't resist the temptation anymore lol.

Some background on the main concepts of Eureka Seven: The story largely revolves around the relationship between the alien species of the Scub Corals (Coralians) and humans in the faraway future, exemplified by the main characters Renton (human) and Eureka (humanoid Coralian). Scubs take on different shapes and powerful creatures capable of changing the law of physics at will. Their origins are unknown. At some point, they crashed down on Earth and merged with the lifeforms in the sea. They used fusion as a means of communication, but thereby almost overtook humanity, which made humans leave Earth and forced the Scubs into adaption. People use LFOs (Light Finding Operation) to fly and fight in the air, bio-mechanical hybrids that can ride (lift) on so-called trapars (transparence light particles, a form of energy the Scubs produce that function like water or wind). The first Summer of Love was a catastrophe that kicked off the events of the main plot line. A destructive shockwave that brought the world to ruin and led to civil wars. Scub Corals went into hibernation to prevent the so-called Limit of Questions, the point in time when too many sentient lifeforms in a given space will lead to the collapse of reality, thereby causing a black hole to tear through space and absorb the entire planet.

So, this story would take 10,000 years after the events of Eureka Seven, giving “ample” time for things to be forgotten or changed or made worse. So yeah... that was a lot of intro. Anyway. Hope you enjoy despite it all. Cheers!

It’s the year 22,022.

Aboard the Aion, the infamous crew of the 118 is readying itself for their next strike against the military. Under the lead of Captain Bobby Nash, the crew is determined to stop the evil machinations within the government from unfolding.

Most of the members used to be part of the military, including LFO pilots Hen and Chimney as well as Buck and Eddie. But they left the military alongside their captain, once the full gravitas of the government’s wrongdoings came to light on their last mission. They would not have any part in taking innocent lives, they decided. Which marked the end of the 118th Squad and the rise of the Aion 118.

And so, they left, they flew, they got away. At least for a while. Because they knew they couldn’t find peace until they stopped the government’s plans. Because they chose to protect, and they won’t abandon that mission until it is done.

Already back at the Academy, Buck and Eddie were inseparable. It only seemed natural for them to become co-pilots for the LFO they named Jabberwocky, Jab for short. In fact, their personalities and battle strategies balance out perfectly. While Buck is more hot-headed, quick to think and even quicker to act, Eddie’s calm and focused demeanor match it perfectly.

Nothing much has changed about that since, even though their time in the military and everything that led up to them leaving it certainly changed them personally. Eddie lost his wife in the Seven Swell that marked the end of the 118’s service. And he almost would have lost both his son and Buck in the tsunami that followed the blast of the Seven Swell. Though thankfully, Buck was able to save Christopher and bring him home.

After that, everything was changed. Everyone was.

If Buck and Eddie didn’t have a high stakes mission on their hands, they might have the time to find out just what they are to one another now. What started out as a mere source of comfort, the answer to a need, has shifted over time. Buck and Eddie don’t just share quarters, not just bed, but their lives. Though there are many things left unsaid between them despite that fact. Because losing what they have seems to be one of the few things that can actually scare the two. And so, they just hold on to each other, come what may.

Though perhaps it’s a welcome distraction for them both, focusing on that mission instead of whatever someone may call their relationship. Saving the world is good enough as an excuse, right? And so, they spend every minute they have to spare to live: They are there for Christopher, lift together, sometimes all three of them thanks to the special board they built for Eddie's son. They have each other's back in battle, only to fight over the music playing in their quarters. And occasionally, they dance the night away, to forget. If only for a while.

Things take a sudden turn when the 118 is led into a trap, involving a teenager from Bobby’s past who is out for vengeance. To get back at Bobby for his supposed involvement in his father’s death during a military operation, Freddy is set on making the captain “pay for his sins”.

Despite Bobby’s efforts to dissuade Freddy, he attacks Jabberwocky while Buck is still inside the LFO, causing it to partially explode. Buck crashes into the ocean, and everyone is bound to watch it happen. While Eddie manages just in time to save Buck from drowning, things are far from fine once they return to the Aion to have Buck treated. Not only Jab has seen heavy damage, but Buck sustained great injury that won't easily heal.

Hen cautions them all that it’s possible that Buck won’t ever be able to lift again, just like it’s possible the injuries may prevent him from operating an LFO ever again. For Buck, that’s a blow almost impossible to take. He always defined himself for being able to do that, for being an outstanding lifter and an LFO pilot. And now he’s supposed to have neither of these things, be neither of those things. Then what’s left of him?

Nothing, right?

Eddie’s efforts to try to get through to Buck to make him see what’s beyond his life as a lifter and LFO pilot remain fruitless at first. Buck turns in on himself, away from him, from everyone. And for the first time in their lives together, Eddie doesn’t know how to have his back, how to make Buck stay with him.

But the shocks don’t end just there. Buck feels certain changes in himself ever since he crashed into the ocean. He hears voices where there are none. His eyes hurt all the time. The world looks different. Everything is changed, even though it’s not. And Hen keeps telling him that everything is fine with him. Just that it isn’t.

When his eyes start to turn purple and red, Buck knows that it can’t just be the injuries. Fearing that he might wind up hurting Eddie, Chris, or anyone else of the crew, he only confides in Hen as the ship’s doctor. Upon learning of this, Hen is able to figure out what’s going on with Buck. Though that doesn’t change things for the better at all: Ever since the crash, his DNA became more and more Coralian, which is unheard of.

You’re either born with Coralian DNA or you are not. You either have Coralian descent from the time when humanoid Coralians roamed the earth thousands of years ago, or you don’t. There is no such thing as developing this DNA. Just that there suddenly seems to be.

The Scub Corals have been part of Earth for over 30,000 years, a life form set on communication through fusion with other species. Ever since the Second Summer of Love, humanity pledged not to fight the Scub Corals ever again. To prevent The Limit of Questions from ever happening another time and thus destroying the universe as we know it, it became also a prime directive to ensure the Scub Corals on Earth remained in eternal slumber, to which the Scub Corals had agreed. Their deepest wish was and is to be part of the world where they might one day co-exist with humans, just as it used to be. Therefore, a strict separation of humans and Scub Corals was implemented, especially the Command Cluster in the middle of the Pacific was declared off-bounds for humans.

Humans bearing Coralian DNA are not allowed into military, to ensure that knowledge of intel cannot be passed on to the Command Cluster, should the Scub Corals reawaken, now by accident or not.

Therefore, it’s not possible for Buck to have Coralian DNA, even though that explains the symptoms as well as the test results Hen has. Hen cautions Buck that this may make his situation impossibly worse. They have historical records of what happened to human-Coralian hybrids. They all died as the result of trapars in the air. Which means that the thing that used to make Buck free, lifting, may actually mark his death sentence. Hen vows to find a cure to reverse the effects, but Buck knows he has to reckon with the fact that he may not be able to remain on Earth.

Buck is forced to reveal his status to the crew soon thereafter. And while he shouldn’t be surprised that everyone is determined to help him, Buck is still caught off-guard when Bobby refuses to dismiss him from the crew due to the dangers he may pose to them. Buck dares to put his faith in his team to support him on this journey, so he may stay home.

Though Buck’s health issues soon turn out to be part of the mission they have had all along. Apparently, there were military and government operations in place that were not in accordance with the pledge made to the people and the Coralians. Seeking out Coralians in slumber for their own benefit may actually lead to a third Summer of Love. And if so, it is very well possible that the Scub Corals will awaken from the impact and thus reach the Limit of Questions.

While the Aion 118 rushes to prevent a third Summer of Love near the Command Cluster, Buck has to make up his mind about his future on this planet, even though it means having to do what he has been so scared of for all of his life.

But for his team, he’d do anything. For his family, he would. For love, he will.

Find more moodboards here.

[branmuffins22]

Behold, I have recontextualized my sona for The Owl House! (feat. a way-too-high-effort mockup made in my phone's notes app, a shitty little doodle made in the same notes app, and some images that have been sitting on my computer for years)

Now, instead of a hooligan pretending(?) to be a robot, they're an animated [mannequin? suit of armor? haven't decided yet lol] with dreams of learning magic and finally getting some basic dignity.

Not sure if I'm gonna change this iteration's name or not, normally they'd be Bitty, but that feels a little too "robot", not quite the vibe of this "object with meat" angle. They might just get a regular ass name, who knows.

Anyways, ~Lore~ under the cut (i am cringe but i am free)

Months ago, a talented beastkeeper wanted a helping hand around his apparel shop, but because of his sigil, he couldn't create an abomination. Instead, he cast a powerful animation spell on a [mannequin/suit of armor] he had lying around, in the hopes to create an assistant. Unfortunately for him, his would-be servant thought too highly of themself to go along with it, and walked right out the door to start their own life.

To obscure their body and escape their creator's gaze, they stole clothes from wherever they could: a cowl and plant-track pants from a discarded Hexside uniform, flying boots from a heap of rubble beneath Dead Man's Curve, a belt and satchel hanging from a hotel window, a shirt from a carnival's lost-and-found, and gloves left behind by startled campers.

Despite their bipedal build, they had no bile sac with which to cast magic, so life was quite difficult for the construct. One particularly rough day, after being stiffed once again by their "employer", and denied work somewhere else, they caught sight of the infamous Owl Lady, as well as her apprentice, the Human of Bonesborough. They were both rumored to be powerless as well, and yet they somehow still managed to scrounge together enough snails for frivolities like food and shelter.

When they saw the two "powerless" ladies summon fire and ice to threaten a bounty collector into giving them their due, they resolved to confront them, and learn their secrets.

Fast-forward through the plot of an episode in my funny little canon-rewrite longfic (see Something Like a Bible and the [artificer/overthinker] au), and they become a recurring member of what I'm tentatively calling the Powerless Witches' Support Group, a cast of mostly-adults who meet up outside the Owl House every week or so to learn wild magic together. Basically, an extension of Luz's Magic Bootcamp from Escaping Expulsion.

[shadesofnavy]

Would it be strange for me to admit that I like to imagine that Bounty Keith had a few fortunate encounters with kind folks who didn't take his infamous reputation at face value?

I know it's very unlikely to happen and I know that most people wouldn't risk their lives around someone who is known as a serial killer of sorts- but I like to believe that there were a handful of people who chose to help Keith out of compassion. It could be a bit of food, maybe some medicine, or maybe they happen to come across him with an injury and decide to help him with it.

Again, I'm aware that this is very unlikely but dammit I'm so upset after reading that lore on the AU! What happened to Keith really struck me with feels, and I can't help but wanna imagine that there WERE some folks who chose to be kind and compassionate with the big guy. 😭

Not strange at all! I'm glad you brought this up actually because I've always imagined something similar to this too. Let's think, how else would he be able to get his hair dyed anyways? I like to think that somewhere in town there's this nice chill barber who will trim Keith's hair and shave his beard whenever it's growing a tad bit too bushy than he'd like it to be. He'll stop by late in the evening before the barber shop closes, and the barber, who I think could possibly be someone who's known him distantly since before he became a criminal, will kindly offer to cut his hair and give him a shave for free. There could also be some few kind fellows on some food stands here and there that will hand him a quick meal if he's passing by. Mostly people who maybe aren't familiar with him or just well, are observant and say "well hey this man here is walking in torn rags, I'll give a taco and drink. Won't hurt either of us. just because it's free." Kind people like those. It's not everyday, but once in a while he might meet up with a folk or two like that.

[ddejavvu]

For multiverse Monday, I bring you professor Eddie. I can’t help but think about him being a senior 3 times, he goes on to become a college professor. Anyways, reader has a crush on him and it’s painfully obvious. He enjoys playfully teasing her but not in a mean way. Please and thank you. Love your work.

today is multiverse monday! send me any au you can think of :)

i know you said this was supposed to be all cocky and flirty but i think this is more sweet :') i'm so sorry! I couldn't get super super senior eddie out of my head who knows exactly how his students are feeling and gives the best of pep talks.

--

Eddie can feel your anxiety. It's palpable from the strained silence in the classroom, your presence lingering beside his desk while the rest of the students file out. He itches at the neckline of his muscle tee, the skin underneath bothered by the tie he haphazardly knotted around his neck. He's infamous around campus for his interesting style choices, but you like it.

Perhaps it's not the only thing about the man you liked. He wasn't exactly torture on the eyes, nor on the ears with the slightly raspy voice he had. He used it well, too, cracking jokes and telling stories.

He turns when he hears the door finally click shut, a soothing smile on his face.

"Sit," He gestures to the chair in front of his desk, plopping down into his own. As soon as his butt hits the seat his feet are on the desk, mucky boots propped up on the wood.

"You're not in trouble," He starts, fingers curling around a pen in the cup on his desk. It's an Iron Maiden mug, and it holds a number of writing utensils.

"That's good," You breathe out a shaky laugh, sitting on your hands. It keeps you from fidgeting with them, but he doesn't bother restraining his own. He twirls the pen around his fingers, the tube dancing over his hand like a jumping bean. It's mesmerizing, but you won't allow yourself to get distracted.

"I just noticed you've been skipping assignments lately." He concludes, and you realize you are in trouble. Maybe he won't expel you, but you're going to talk to him about why you've been skipping them, and that's trouble if you've ever seen it.

"Professor I'm so sorry," You begin your rant, anxiety still burning hot in your chest, "I swear I didn't mean to get so behind, it's just that I missed one, and then the thought of doing two was overwhelming, so I missed another one, and then three seemed like torture, and-"

"Dude," He laughs good-naturedly, dropping the pen onto his desk, "It's fine. Seriously, I told you you weren't in trouble."

"Well- yeah I know," You start up again, "it's just-"

"it's just that I'm letting you know the assignments are still open," He re-interrupts you, "You can submit them up until the end of the year."

"I'll have them by Monday." You insist, guilt still written on your face.

"Man, I'd have waited until the last minute," He chuckles, "I was held back a bunch. 'Never turned in my work. I get it, okay? Do it whenever you can, and, if I'm being honest," He leans in, feet back on the floor. You do the same, spurred on by the drop of his voice to a whisper, "You don't have to do them at all. You're passing my class and four homework assignments won't stop that. Just keep an eye on your grade, okay?"

He leans back in his seat, content with the information he's shared. It feels scandalous, really, hearing your professor tell you not to do your homework. But there's something so genuine in his sweet smile, and exhilarating in the mirth his eyes hold, that you laugh.

"Thank you, Professor." You stand, hiking your bag further over your shoulder, "I.. I really appreciate this."

"Anytime," He nods, and you know it's a promise, "And if you want help or something, just come in during office hours. I can't promise I won't be high," He admits, not an ounce of bashfulness in his antics, "But I might be even more helpful doped up."

The next laugh from your throat is an incredulous one, and it widens the grin on his face so far that his eyes crinkle at the corners. You bid him a jovial goodbye, not missing the music that starts blaring through the room a split second before the door shuts behind you.

--

You turn them in during office hours. The four papers are stacked in your hand, stories and character briefs precisely stapled together as you march up to his desk. He glances up at you only when you clear your throat, eyes tinted red. He's high.

"I told you," He laughs, a deep chuckle from his chest. You're stunned, but you have to admit that it's funny, and you nod.

"You did warn me," You pass the papers over to him, "Thank you for the extension, Professor."

"Jesus Christ," He gapes at your handwriting, scrawled neatly over the page, "This is- this feels so fancy! 'S just a stupid biology worksheet," He doesn't teach Biology. He teaches creative writing. He glances incredulously over the top of them at you, "Damn."

[bigskydreaming]

Okay, so you know “Justice League meets Batman’s kids, who they’d previously been unaware existed” AUs?

So picture that.....but this time, instead of them just having no knowledge of any of these other Gotham vigilantes at all....the Batkids all migrate to various cities as they get older and become known as their protectors - Dick in Bludhaven, Tim in San Francisco, Cass in Hong Kong, etc....

Meaning they’re all established figures, the Justice League are aware of them as solo local heroes who stick to their cities and so they just don’t interact with them much if at all, or else some are members of team lineups but are particularly vague about their histories or life outside of the team’s adventures....

So the big reveal isn’t that they become aware of all these other Gotham vigilantes all at once....its that some big conflict or whatever requires a huge team up of all available heroes, and in the aftermath, they figure out that like.....despite being known as solo heroes who work alone or loners outside of their team settings, 80% of these heroes all not only seem to already know each other, they seem to be related.

And so naturally they all turn to Batman, who has profiles on every known hero and they thus figure had researched these individuals too and just never mentioned this little detail, and they’re like, “Did you know about this?”

And then Nightwing turns to him too, arms crossed and is like, “Yeah Dad, did you know about this?”

And the infamous Red Hood is all: “I don’t know what you’re talking about. I have never met any of these people before in my life. Lives? Whatever.”

And then Red Robin moodily grates out “I have no siblings.” Since he’s nursing a grudge since Dick and Jason broke into his apartment the night before and replaced all his custom Red Robin gear with Darkwing Duck merchandise and his vengeance will be swift and also totally disproportionate because things escalate quickly in this family, that’s true in every universe.

Cass meanwhile has deftly skewered Jason’s lie by walking over to him and brazenly patting down the man with many many guns with no fear whatsoever. He squawks and futilely attempts to bat her hands away as she riffles through his many pockets, but he doesn’t seem shocked, just annoyed. Eventually, she pulls away and triumphantly reveals a box of Hello Kitty themed band-aids.

“So these are yours then? Just for you?” Black Bat asks smugly. Red Hood squints at the box.

“What the fuck? How long have those been in my jacket? Why are those in my jacket? Did you freaking plant them in my jacket just on the offchance you could at some point in the distant future use them at my expense?”

Black Bat frowns, puzzled. “Yes?”

“Oh come on, Dead Hood,” Spoiler says with an exaggerated toss of her head meant to convey she’s rolling her eyes beneath her own mask. She skips her way across the room to Black Bat and then drapes herself languidly all over the smaller woman. Who in turn doesn’t so much as twitch beneath the sudden added mass as Spoiler holds out her hand towards the box of band-aids. 

“One please. I have a boo-boo,” she says with easy familiarity straight into the intimidating cowl of Black Bat. Only then does she deign to finish her train of thought with Red Hood.

“I mean seriously, are you saying you don’t have potential blackmail set-ups, pre-rigged releases of incriminating material, and a random assortment of traps, pratfalls and mortifying scenarios in place for the express purpose of being able to humiliate any and all of your siblings at any given moment, without any need for additional prep time?”

“Is this true, Little Wing?” Nightwing whirls on the larger Red Hood with a faux-scandalized gasp. The founder and leader of the Titans, formerly the Teen Titans, renowned for his stratagems and calm competence when directing squads of supers in the heat of battle while he keeps pace with nothing more than naturally acquired acrobatics and a utility belt that apparently uses the same technology as Wonder Woman’s invisible jet....now appears to be....staggering with the back of his hand pressed to his forehead, moaning about how he felt....faint? 

What is happening right now, several dozen superheroes want to know. Is this a drill? Are they supposed to be checking for signs of a mental ambush from undetected psychic saboteurs? Did they all hit their heads at the exact same time and are now experiencing some kind of shared mass concussion?

Look, that wouldn’t be the weirdest thing to ever happen on the Watchtower. 

“Have I failed you so utterly?” The veteran child hero bemoans with a dramatic twirl - that when contrasted with his stern demeanor of a mere ten minutes ago - makes the fears of telepathic infiltration seem less paranoia and more....concerningly probable. “Did you learn nothing from me? Did you learn nothing from B?”

He stops and jabs a finger up at the sky. “Quick, everyone! What is the very first rule of Living While Batty?”

As if by rote, over a half a dozen voices chime in from all over the room, causing various heroes to jump. Spooked by yet more and more vigilantes joining in some kind of mass recitation like they and they alone have some kind of clue what the hell is going on and everyone else just hadn’t been invited to the party. Which is just rude, honestly. Nobody likes feeling like they weren’t invited to the party. Not even superheroes. 

“If you’re not going to bother preparing for every possible contingency and at least six impossible ones, you might as well just stay in bed.”

Even the Red Hood joins in the Illuminati chant or Cub Scout pledge or demonic ritual or whatever the fuck that just was, though his slumped and exasperated posture gives away every hint of sulkiness his headgear otherwise would have kept safely hidden. He’s surprisingly more...expressive, than most who’d only known of him by reputation had expected him to be. The day continues to yield surprises.

“Of fucking course I do,” he growls out, snatching the box from Black Bat. She doesn’t even fight to hold onto it, just lets it go with a knowing smirk. “I wasn’t surprised by the idea of it, I was just surprised she bothered with such a weak effort. Like yeah whatever, actually those could be mine. I use those all the time at home. So what?”

He aggressively yanks one of the band-aids out of the box, fumbles with the peel-off strips with one hand and he roughly rolls up the sleeve of his jacket with the other. Then just slaps it on his forearm and raises said appendage high, showing it off this way and that. “See?”

“Oh yeah, for sure,” Signal drawls from the other side of the room, nodding his head approvingly. “Totally convincing. Nice job walking that one back, you really showed them.”

Red Hood’s head snaps in his direction with ominous intent. “Watch it, Day-Glo.”

Signal just snorts.

“Yeah, like I’m gonna take constructive criticism on my name and costume from a dude who’s spent the last several years calling himself Red HOOD while running around in a freaking HELMET.”

“Its not meant to be literal, you fucking pedant.”

“So wait, its not literally a helmet? Huh, does it at least protect your head literally, or just like...symbolically? Like if Bane were to clock you across the head, would your concussion just be a metaphor? What’s the treatment protocol for a metaphorical concussion? Fluids, bedrest and a philosophical prescription of two chapters of Chicken Soup for the Soul as needed?”

“Laugh it up, KC and the Sunshine Band,” Red Hood bats back. “You just got yourself disinvited from Thursday night’s poker game.”

Signal just grins and folds his arms over his chest cockily. “Please. You’ve been looking for an excuse to ban me for weeks, cuz you know until you can prove I’m using my ghost vision to cheat, you can’t actually bring suit against me for it in Family Court.”

“That, and also Family Court isn’t a real thing, you toddler. Stop validating Wing-a-ding-ding’s obsession with Shitty TV Nostalgia and just call it that thing where Oracle traps us all in a room until we settle our latest fight without anyone getting stabbed.”

“Yeah, but like, say that five times fast,” Spoiler pipes up. “Its just not practical. Family Court’s way easier.”

“Says the one who’s not even in our fucking family.”

“And yet I grace you all with my sublime presence anyway,” she blows a kiss at him, beatifically unbothered. “You’re welcome.”

The Red Hood scoffs and rounds on his heel, zeroing in on Batwoman in the far corner.

“Hey Auntie B, my siblings are all dead to me and I just helped stop an alien invasion so I deserve nice things like a fun Saturday night. Can you get me into Dad’s fundraiser so I can crash it? He won’t put me back on the list until I promise not to bring any C-4 with me and I won’t promise not to bring any C-4 because he should just trust me that I won’t when I say I’m not gonna and he won’t trust me that I won’t until I admit I shouldn’t have brought any to that sting last month where three tiny little yachts blew up through barely any fault of my own, and I’m just not gonna do that ever because I have convictions and I feel I shouldn’t have to be punished for that. Y’know?”

Batwoman blinks at him. “Kid, I’m not gonna lie to you. You’re my nephew and I love you, but I stopped listening three seconds into all that.”

“Ugh, fine. Can you help me crash Dad’s event tonight so I can teach him a lesson about why he should just trust me not to make a scene so I don’t have to always make a scene to make a point.”

“Tempting as you make that sound,” she says wryly, “I have a strict policy for dealing with you lot and your......everything. I only worry about tolerating one of you at a time, and there’s seven of you, and seven days in the week. You each get your own. You know perfectly well its Robin’s day today. You get me on Tuesday, just like always.”

“Auntie B, we’re not like other families, are we?” Red Robin’s delivery is sarcastically childish and his question clearly rhetorical. Most of his attention is fixated on whatever it is he’s doing with his wrist-mounted computer. 

“No sweetie, we’re all severely fucked in the head and a little bit too comfortable with that.”

“Just checking. Oh hey, Hood, I just emailed you a patch for the hole in your firewall I exploited when replacing all my shit using your accounts just now.”

“You did what?”

“Used your accounts to pay to replace all my stuff that you fucked with last night?” Red Robin says slowly. “Did you not realize that I’ve been sticking within ten feet of you for the past five minutes just so I could clone your devices and do all that while BB and Spoiler kept you distracted? I gotta say, bro, I feel like that’s on you then.”

Red Hood swivels his helmeted head in the direction of the aforementioned two. Black Bat waves. Spoiler shoots him an utterly unrepentant thumbs up.

“You’d side with your ex over me? That’s what its come to?”

“My only allegiance is to chaos,” Spoiler says brightly. Black Bat shrugs.

“Plus he bribes better.”

“Hateful,” Red Hood points at Black Bat, moving on to level the same finger at Spoiler, who curtsies in acknowledgment: “Hateful-er.”

Then the finger rounds the bases to aim judgmentally at Red Robin. “Hateful-est. And that was all Nightwing’s idea anyway, not mine.”

“Oh, I assumed as much,” he says casually. “Your idea of a prank tends to have more of a Carrie vibe. Or be a literal literary reenactment.”

“Its called an homage, 4chan.”

“Whatever, plagiarist. And anyway, I couldn’t go after ‘Wing for payback on this one. He used an Immunity card. If you didn’t want me getting back at you, you should have used one too."

Red Hood looms aggressively. Red Robin ignores willfully. Round and round they go. Superheroes who can survive excessive G-Forces are getting dizzy just watching them have a largely motionless stand-off. That shouldn’t be how that works, but whatever. All the most infamously reclusive and isolated heroes in all hero-dom are apparently part of the same one big reclusive and isolated family of fucked up weirdos and they’re all officially bonkers. Nothing makes sense anymore. Reality broke. Try another stall.

“Okay, but see, in order to have an Immunity card, I would have to participate in one of you losers’ stupid Immunity challenges,” the Red Hood drags out with exaggerated patience. “And I’m just not going to do that, on account of those all being fucking stupid. You see the problem there?”

Red Robin just shrugs. “I don’t know what to tell you, bro. You can have principles or you can have an Immunity card. You can’t have both.”

Meanwhile, on another side of....the same room.....look, its like, an octagonal room, probably. It has a lot of sides. Robin fends off questions from an aggrieved looking Superboy.

“You never told me you had a bajillion brothers and sisters!”

“Yes but I never said I didn’t either.”

Superboy rolls his eyes. “Oh yeah, so I should just assume everyone I meet has a bajillion secret brothers and sisters?”

“Well clearly it would have worked out in your favor in this instance if you had, now wouldn’t it?”

“Assuming of course that you can trust what has been said or implied here today and I am actually related to any of those numbskulls. Which I am not actually admitting to,” Robin tacks on hastily.

Superboy eyes him dubiously. “You joined in the same creepy chant all the others did and then got super self-conscious and looked around to see if anyone had noticed. Which uh. I did.”

“First off, your interpretation of body language is abyssmal. I do not get self-conscious,” Robin says with a delivery that probably could have benefited from being a little less self-conscious. “And second....that proves nothing. I guessed what they were going to say.”

“Word for word,” Superboy says super-skeptically.

“I’m very good at guessing things. You know this.”

“Okay. Guess how much I believe you right now then.”

Robin glares and folds his arms grumpily across his chest. 

“And what was that anyway? Was that like....you guys’ family motto or something like that?”

“Oh no,” Spoiler pipes up. “That’s much shorter.”

Superboy balks at that. “Wait, you guys actually have one of those for real?”

“Yup,” Steph says, counting out the words with her fingers. “He who laughs last....probably works for the Joker. So tranq him just to be safe. See? Only sixteen words. The first rule of Living While Batty is way longer, and what we said was just the abridged version. You should hear the original, before Black Bat put her foot down and refused to memorize it unless sizable edits were made.”

Superboy hovers between her and Robin now, both in mid-air and on the verge of taking Spoiler’s words as an invitation to hear just that. A low growl arises from Robin’s direction.

“Must you?” He asks the older vigilante, with a most put upon expression.

She looks at him pityingly. “Do you actually need me to answer that? Like, we’ve met, right? Hi, I’m Spoiler.”

“Wait, so Robin said that I just never specifically asked him if he had a bajillion brothers and sisters, and that’s why he didn’t tell me, so that means he wouldn’t have just lied and there’s not some code of secrecy that flat out forbids telling other people stuff, right?” Superboy realizes excitedly.

“Yes, excellent direction. Go on,” Spoiler says, steepling her fingers. Robin buries his face in the palm of one hand.

“Soooo, what other stuff could you tell me about Robin’s super top secret family that I wouldn’t think to ask about but that he would tell me about if I knew what questions to ask?”

She claps once, lightly but with emphasis. “Well done. You’ve passed the first barrier. Untold secrets await you behind just a few more.”

“I’ll get you for this,” Robin vows calmly. She waves a hand at him.

“Yeah, yeah. Just make sure you do it before January 1st, remember? You’ve promised retribution like ten times already this year and those don’t roll over, y’know. Rules are rules.”

“Enough!” Thunders a voice then, from the front of the room. Well one of the fronts anyway. Like sides, it has a lot of them, but this is the one where Batman’s standing. All eyes snap to him. Which is kinda just what eyes do when Batman says stuff like that. Its like his superpower, except he doesn’t actually have superpowers, which is what makes it scary. But where the snapping of the eyes (directional) is usually followed by Batman saying something else besides just “hey look at me,” here he pauses in the wake of his own call to attention’s waning reverberations. Uncharacteristically silent.

Not that, y’know, he’s normally Mr. Talkity Talk, but usually his silences feel like he has the words to fill them, he’s just withholding them. This though, this feels more like he doesn’t have any words at all. And he’s as confused by it as any of them, and most everyone else is confused by Batman being confused, and its this whole trickle down economy of confusion and its wrecking havoc on the value of the golden silence standard.

Of course, not everyone present is rendered spellbound with confusion.

“C’mon B,” Nightwing cajoles, leaning forward and practically radiating delight. “I think you know what you have to do now. This is a once in a lifetime opportunity. Its not likely to come around again.”

Red Hood snickers beneath his helmet and chimes in. “Yeah Pops, go ahead. You do this and you’ll actually have my respect for a whole twenty four hours. No, wait. Sixteen. No! Eight. Yeah, eight. Still a good deal.”

“Carpe diem, B,” Red Robin grins, leaning back as if to enjoy the show.

“Hey! Infringe on my trademark one more time, dude,” Signal throws a faux-glare at the former. Red Robin just quirks an eyebrow.

“And what, you’ll start saying Yum every time you eat a burger? Oh no. I’m hoist by my own petard.”

Signal flips him off with a grin and then redirects his attention back to Batman. “Yeah seriously though B, you kinda gotta do it now. Because if you don’t do it, then you’ll forever be the guy who didn’t do it, and you don’t want to be that guy, do you?”

“Yeah you really don’t want to be that guy,” Spoiler shouts out. “Nobody likes that guy. He’s the worst.”

“Do it, do it,” Black Bat starts chanting beside her, steadily picking up speed and volume. Several others start joining in. Even Robin appears to be slightly anticipatory, albeit trying very hard to hide it.

Batman sighs, and somehow everyone manages to hear it. Stills. Waits for....something? Nobody but them seems to have any clue what, but the air is thick and heavy with portentiousness. Something is about to happen, and all most of the heroes present could say for sure is it was something they never would have in a million years seen coming.

Finally, Batman straightens with the resigned air of a man about to have oh so many regrets. He crosses his arms, shakes his head, and in an absolute deadpan monotone, says:

“You are awful children. You know you’re killing me. You’re killing your father.”

[kusanalogy]

Teyvat idols !

Characters: Ayaka, Venti, Chongyun and xinyan Band!au, Modern!au. some character x gn!reader, but its mostly focused about them as a band

Author's note: was inspired by this picture below and a result of playing too much bang dream/bandori.. also i rewrote this bc the original one was "being their manager" but i think i'd get more ideas if i changed it to s/o, sooo now we're here :D I might make a pt.2 but im sure it'll be shorter than this

summary: Your s/o whom you knew for the longest time becomes an idol for a band, How would they act?

Ayaka/Vo.

She's also known as "The Kamisato Princess" due to her angelic look :0 The young girl needs lots of encouragement before setting on stage, venti usually helps her with boosting up the confidence last-minute. Her big brother, the infamous ayato also watches her perform, Giving her more the reasons to push thru and make beautiful music.

As for you, She'd be so happy if you watch her !! Its all the assurance she needs. If you're the loud type and you always cheer her on, she gets kinda embarrased but in reality she doesnt mind it that much. After all she does have all sorts of fans. Though she'd prefer to hear your praises after a concert in private, she feels much more comfortable that way.

Speaking of fans, at first she had so much trouble communicating with them, Making her occasionally stutter :( Once you see her look uncomfy while talking to fans, you try to push her away steadily, without making a scene and go in a corner, attempting to soothe her

She actually slowly improves communicating at public events, meetings, etc. because of you <3 let the girl take her time with this, And spend time with her equally. Even after all of what the both of you do, she'll thank you for being by her side. As long as it stays like that, rest assured she'll be happy.

Venti/Ba.

Okay pretend he isnt a god in this au hes just some random guy

He loves posting on social media, Lots of the content on his account are song covers, pictures you took of him or memes (which is what his supporters love about his account). He interacts with his fans in the comments each time, But ofc there are always haters. He seems like the type to fight back but in reality he just deletes the comment and ignores the account, not wanting a bad image.

He also wrote some of the songs that the band created !! the rest are from different multiple sources

Awards the band members with a glass of wine/juice/drink of choice and some snacks the day after going on a concert. Sometimes brings you with him! He believes it'll give them some motivation to move forward, Which does work most of the time, ...unless he gets drunk and starts scaring them with objects they would not appreciate

One time it was raining outside while they were having an after party at the kamisato estate so while drunk, this mf ran outside and got a FROG into the house and claimed it as his pet. Thoma had lots of trouble trying to find it after venti lost the frog a while after.

"And as the *hic* MoNdstadt saying g-goes... wait.. where did the frog go????"

[insert sound of xinyan screaming afterwards]

Xinyan/Gt.

She's an amazing role model !!

She makes it a goal to like or reply all the comments, even the ones that are just "Great!!" or "amazing", she'd reply with a "thank you 🤍" or simply liking it

Like venti, she makes stuff for the band that she doesnt really need to do by herself, but she does it anyway because she adores what she does, the girl picks out outfits for the band i just know she has amazing taste in clothing. She also draws lots of ideas for merch, her designs always impress the other band members and you

She usually asks for your opinion before going on with making merch, creating tunes or just anything that she wants to improve later on. Xinyan trusts you so much with it, even if you dont know much about what she does.

Has so many ideas for her job, She can barely keep track of what she should try to push thru first. Its not like she doesnt enjoy it tho, hell, she loves it‼ Promotes the band's music everywhere, she likes to share it so more people can understand the art of music :))) shes really passionate about it

"Y/n!! Have you shared my solo to your other friend groups yet? I promise its good! I put lots of thought into it 😋"

Chongyun/Dr.

Like ayaka, hes pretty shy on stage too. He's also kinda a perfectionist? When its time to finish rehearsals he still practices at home, thinking it wasnt good enough. If you catch him getting to focused, pls remind him to take a break! He often forgets to take one

Gets stressed pretty easily, he randomly doodles or eats cold food to relax himself. Loves going outside <3 even better if you accompany him, sometimes just going out for a walk gives him enough inspiration.

Super supportive to the rest of the band members ⊹.(⁎˃ᴗ˂⁎). ⊹ He shows it with words tbh, he says its much easier like that. Likes the idea of working together, He believes it'll solve problems much faster and produce more ideas, making the future of the band brighter. He aims for that desire, seeking to make people proud.

He has lots of pets !! He posts lots of pics of them on social media. Speaking of social media, He tries to keep your relationship a secret. Not that he doesnt trust you or anything, he just doesnt like the fact that you might get hated or something. He's aware that he probably wouldnt stand it if his s/o got hate :(

[nsheetee]

109 Steps To You

this is a part of the “almost” collaboration hosted by @hyucksie​

Pairing: Haechan x Reader Genre: romance, fluff, angst, mature content, soulmate!AU, college!AU Length: 19k Summary: Everyone is born with two marks on their body: one that is identical to your soulmate’s, and one that is identical to the person who will cause you immense pain. No one knows which mark means what until they live out their life and meet the people destined to bring them love and hurt. However, you were only born with one mark. Out of all the places you thought you would meet the person with the mark identical to yours, you never thought it would be on your first day of college. Warnings/Details: female reader, mentions of other nct members (and yuqi from g-idle), explicit sex (unprotected + the consequences that come with it), mentions of a dysfunctional family, swearing

— read epilogue here

a/n: if you’re a minor: beware! there is explicit and mature content in this fic.

“I want to thank you guys, again, for helping me out today.” You shyly announce to the table, swirling your spoon through your froyo and glancing back and forth between the other people sitting before you.

“Oh, it’s no problem, we weren’t doing anything today anyway.” Xiaojun softly knocks his elbow into yours, sending a reassuring smile your way. If it wasn’t for Xiaojun, an old childhood friend, you weren’t sure how moving into your dorm room and getting settled into campus would’ve gone; you would probably still be a mess right now.

“He’s right. Plus, I really wanted to meet the girl Jun kept raving about, he wouldn’t stop talking about how much we would like you-” Mark’s comment is quickly cut off, a thud under the table and a pained look on Mark’s face giving away that Xiaojun just kicked him.

“I just hope I lived up to the hype.” You laugh at their antics.

“Oh, definitely,” Yuqi quickly buts in before Mark can retaliate back at Xiaojun, “And I live a few floors below you, so just let me know if you need anything at all.” She adds on, her warm deposition and all around friendliness from today making you let out a small sigh of relief, some stress falling off your shoulders when you realize just how many people around you are here to help you out.

“I appreciate it so much, really.” You lean away from Xiaojun and Mark, closer to Yuqi and Lucas who are sitting on the other side of the table, “By the way, I love your guys’ marks. They look so good on both of you.”

At your comment, Lucas puts down his phone and gently grabs Yuqi’s hand, their matching chamomile flower marks touching as their fingers intertwine. You almost didn’t notice their matching marks earlier today when they were helping you set up your dorm room, but when you did, you couldn’t help but stop what you were doing and stare at their hands. Such a simple mark has never looked so pretty to you, maybe it’s because Lucas and Yuqi made such a good pair that their fated marks looked so right for them.

“I still wish I got a cool dragon mark down my back, but I’ll let Jun be the one to deal with that in this life.” Lucas smirks at Xiaojun, who just rolls his eyes at Lucas’ fake jealousy. “Yours looks good, too.” He finishes and glances down at your left hand. There, a dragonfly mark stains your skin, the long tail trailing over your thumb and the wings spreading out over the back of your hand and your wrist.

“Thank you.” Your reply is genuine, however you can’t help but remember the solemn fact that surrounds your mark, your voice inadvertently dipping down as your eyes trace over the wings of your dragonfly.

“So, what kind of classes are you taking this semester?” Xiaojun changes the subject, no doubt hearing the lament in your voice.

“Oh, just some required classes. Nothing for my major, really, except Intro to Ethics for my humanities credit.” You reply as casually as you can to bring the mood at the table back up, but your comment makes Yuqi gasp and all four pairs of eyes at the table turn to you. You slouch in your seat at their sudden attention on you.

“Why would you do that to yourself?”

“What is wrong with you?”

“Do you know your advisor's email? Let’s send them a message right now to get you out-”

“Stop.” You shake your head, laughing a bit at the overreaction from your new friends, “What’s wrong with Ethics?”

“It’s in the Hauss building.” Xiaojun says as if you should already know what that means. You roll your lips in and shake your head; you do not know what that means at all.

“It’s the building all the way on top of the big hill on the west side of campus, by the auditorium.” Xiaojun explains more.

“They only teach three classes over there: Ethics and Music Theory 3 and 4.” Mark sets down his melted froyo, not realizing he has some sticking to his upper lip.

“I’m failing to see what’s so horrible about that?”

“When Xiaojun says it’s a big hill, he means it’s a really big hill-”

“Didn’t someone count the steps once and it came out to be, like, close to 100?” Lucas asks, one hand still tangled with Yuqi’s and the other now rapidly slurping his triple chocolate froyo.

“That was me, and it’s 109 steps.” Mark shutters, “I took Music Theory 3 last year and I ended up skipping half of the time because I couldn’t find the energy to climb up and down those steps three times a week.”

“Why 109? Aren’t groups of steps usually in even numbers? That’s not very architecturally smart.” Yuqi purses her lips and her eyebrows screw together.

“Screw architecture. Are you telling me I’ll have to climb up and down 109 stairs three times a week just to go to Ethics?” You can already feel a headache growing at the back of your head when you think about the complications of dealing with this big staircase. You needed that class for your major, and you thought it was going to be a class that you could pass with flying colors, but it seems like it might just be a nuisance to you more than an easy A.

“Talk to your advisor. Try to drop out and take a different class. Trust me, 109 steps don’t seem like much until you actually have to climb them.” Mark gives you his piece of advice, sticking his spoon filled with froyo into his mouth and then immediately scrunching his eyes and mumbling about brain freeze.

You’ll have to send an e-mail to your advisor real quick, but for your first day of classes tomorrow, you’ll just have to deal with those 109 steps.

The walk to your ethics class the next morning is very calming, the university’s nice landscaping and the warm weather calming your nerves down for your first day of classes. When you round the corner of the stonewall you had been following, you’re met with the infamous set of steps.

You have to crane your neck to look up at the top of the staircase, your jaw slightly dropping at how steep of a hill the stairs were built on. There are other students around you walking up and down the staircase, their headphones shoved in their ears and their heads down as they make the climb to and from class.

The stonewall you had been following all the way here continues up the staircase on your right and on the left is a thick wall of trees, their branches hanging over the stairs and giving protection from the sunlight to the students below. You begin to count every step on your way up; four regular steps, the fifth one a bit longer than the rest, and then repeat. It’s not that you don’t trust Mark’s words when he said there’s 109 steps, you just want to count for yourself.

You hear some rowdy boys coming down the stairs, but the noise is not enough to pull your head up from the ground or to stop you from counting, until you’re forcefully pushed into the stone wall on your right. Breathing in through your teeth sharply, your left hand clutches your collarbones where the pain is the worst.

“Oh, my god. I’m so sorry, I didn’t mean to push you.” The guy laughs through his words, a high-pitched and almost squeaky laugh, making him sound not as sincere as he probably meant to be. When you turn to face him, the first thing you notice are his eyes. Chocolate colored and almond shaped, some laugh lines showing from the remnants of his shenanigans with his friends.

Looking back, you realize you fell in love with his eyes first. How they don’t hold back from showing any emotion, and the mischievousness they hold no matter what.

Even when his smile falls, his face looks pretty; long hair hanging down over his forehead and ears, and plump lips spreading into an ‘o’ shape as he looks at your dragonfly. Every line and detail is just the same as his own, as if fate spent a little more time with you two to make sure you know you’re each other’s soulmate the moment you meet.

“Your mark…” The man points at your hand, and that’s when you realize who you’ve just met. His brilliant eyes fill with excitement and he starts to breath harder, taking a step back from sheer surprise that you’re here. His soulmate. His one and only for the rest of this life.

However it all fades away the moment you drop your hand from your collarbones, stepping past him to continue up the staircase.

“Next time, watch where you’re going.” The first words you ever say to him are filled with so much indifference that Haechan can only follow your back with his eyes, his jaw slack and his hand still reaching out for you.

“Hey, wait-” Haechan is about to run after you, but he’s held back by Renjun, his best friend and the one who pushed Haechan into you in the first place.

“Was that-” Renjun begins, holding onto his friend’s elbow as he also watches you walk up the rest of the 109 steps.

“Yeah… Why did she ignore me like that? She saw that I have the same mark. We’re soulmates!” Haechan almost cries out in confusion, his heart and mind in a mess. Can you blame him? He’s been waiting to meet his soulmate since he knew what the dragonfly on his hand meant. Haechan has never been a patient person, and even waiting several years for you to come to him was testing him. Now that you’re here, he isn’t going to let you go easily.

As Haechan begins to walk back up the staircase to follow you, not caring about his Literature class in 15 minutes, Renjun’s grip on him tightens and pulls him back.

“You can’t just go harass her about this.”

“I’m not going to harass her. I just want to talk.” Haechan tries to pull out of Renjun’s grip again, but the little man has the sturdiness of a boulder and pulls his friend back.

“Maybe she doesn’t want a soulmate?” Renjun and Haechan stop their tug of war at Jaemin’s words. He had been leaning against the handrail by the trees the whole time while watching the scene unfold in front of him, his arms crossed over his chest and his baseball cap covering his eyes. “It’s not that uncommon these days.”

Haechan and Renjun let go of each other at their friend’s words. Jaemin sends them a bitter smile and all three of them recall the incident that happened last year when Jaemin met his own soulmate:

A rejection.

Jaemin took it hard; if it hadn’t been for his best friends, he doesn’t know where he would be in life right now. Jaemin can’t help but let the memories surface as he continues to walk down the stairs, slower than before, his head bowed and his hands shoved into his pant pockets. Renjun sends Haechan a look that tells him to not push the situation further, following Jaemin down the stairs.

Haechan sends your retreating figure one last look, watching you reach the top of the staircase and walk into the Hauss building. He retreats and follows his friends dejectedly, the promise of you showing up on this staircase at the same time on Wednesday being the only thing that lets his legs follow his friends down the stairs.

“Hey, ___, come in.” Mark smiles brightly when he recognizes you at the door, stepping aside to let you into the dorm room. “Xiaojun is in the shower still… Will you be okay by yourself if I leave?” He looks unsure as you set your backpack down on Xiaojun’s desk chair.

“Oh, I’ll be fine. You do whatever you need to.” You state and then plop down onto your friend’s bed. You hear Mark laugh and say something about how all the first years look tired at the end of their first day and then leaves the room, shutting the door behind him. You lay sprawled out on the bed, the only sounds surrounding you is the water from the shower and the ticking of the analog clock on the wall.

Even though the whole ordeal happened several hours ago, you haven’t been able to get the moment you met your soulmate out of your mind. It was almost impossible for you to turn around and walk away. Even now, your feet still itch to go back to that staircase and find the sweet looking guy who you no doubt left confused.

However, you can’t do that— you won’t let yourself do that. And that’s partially why you’re in Xiaojun’s dorm room after your last class today: so that he can knock some sense into you.

The shower turns off and a few moments later, the bathroom door opens and Xiaojun steps out. He has a towel wrapped around his waist and a smaller one on his shoulders to catch the droplets from his hair; when he sees you laying on his bed, he jumps in fright.

“Good, God,” He sighs and clutches his bare chest with one hand, the other protectively going to the towel around his waist. “Can you say something the next time you come over? I almost had a heart attack because of you.” He walks over to his closet on the other side of the room, rummaging through some clothes as you sit up.

“Sorry, I thought you heard the door open…” You trail off, getting distracted by Xiaojun’s mark. The dragon on his back is huge, taking up most of the area and spreading to his shoulders and upper arms, too. However, that’s not the mark that caught your attention. Right on his ankle sits a three-leaf clover, so small and such a stark difference from the monster drawn on his back.

You’re pulled away from your thoughts when Xiaojun turns around and walks back into the bathroom, this time leaving the door open, “So, how was your first day?”

“Oh, well, it was okay…” You trail off, speaking a bit louder so that he could hear you from the other room. You stand up and start pacing in the space between Mark’s and Xiaojun’s beds, a nervous habit of yours.

“But? I know there’s a ‘but’ somewhere.” Xiaojun replies.

“Well, something happened…” You trail off, not sure how to make the words leave your mouth yet.

“What is it?” You swallow at the question, your throat dry and hands clammy. You must’ve been taking a long time to answer because Xiaojun walks out of the bathroom, now fully clothed, and stares at your pacing form. “What’s wrong, ___.”

“I met him.” You say simply, hoping Xiaojun gets what you mean, but he doesn’t. You sigh and sink down to the floor slowly, catching yourself on Xiaojun’s bed. The action makes his eyes widen in fear and he crosses the room in a few short strides, kneeling down next to you and searching your eyes for the answer.

“What? What is it?”

“The person with the same mark as me. I met him.”

“... Oh.”

Xiaojun slowly slides down onto his butt in front of you, folding his legs. He’s not sure what to say, or how to comfort you in anyway. He didn’t expect to be the only person around that you trust when something like this happens. He sees the lost look in your eyes and slides towards you to pull you into a hug.

Unlike Xiaojun, and most people in the world, you do not have two marks.

Xiaojun’s dragon and clover match with two different people in this world; one who will be his soulmate and the other who will bring him immense pain. Everyone has two marks— except you; it even states it on your birth certificate, your parents can testify that they’ve never seen a second mark on you, just the lonely dragonfly that spreads its wings over your left hand.

When you were younger, you were curious about what it meant to only have one mark. The people around you always had two marks, the people on the TV shows you liked to watch always had two marks, even anatomy books have depictions of humans with two marks. Why were you different? What did it mean?

After gathering up the guts to type the question into the Google search engine, you found your answers, and it changed your thoughts on your one and only mark forever. The people in the world who only had one mark testified to the same story online: the person who’s mark matched theirs were both their soulmate and the person who hurt them the most.

After learning about that, you promised yourself that if you ever met the person with the same mark as you, you would not meddle with them in any way if they were only destined to bring you pain in the end.

If you knew jumping off a bridge would definitely kill you, you wouldn’t jump, right?

Xiaojun is the only person, other than your parents, who knows about the situation. Which is why when he hugs you, you lean into him and accept his comfort.

“Tell me what you’re thinking about. You must have so many questions.” He mumbles into your hair.

“Not questions. I’m just curious about what I am to him.” You reply, whispering into Xiaojun’s shoulder.

“About what you are to him?”

“I know he’ll be the person I’m meant to love the most, and also the person who will hurt me the most. But am I the one that’s supposed to love him or the one that’s supposed to hurt him?”

“Lots of people say that they can feel it when they meet. Like Lucas, he said he instantly knew Yuqi was supposed to be his soulmate.” Xiaojun thinks back to all the people who have told him the exact same thing, even his parents.

“The guy… he kept calling me his soulmate. He sounded so sure about it, too.” You lean away from Xiaojun to look into his big and curious eyes.

“What about you? What did you feel?” He asks.

“It felt… like I left a part of myself with him.” Xiaojun’s eyes widened at that, “Is that crazy? I was only around him for a minute, maybe less, and I can’t stop thinking about how I never wanted to leave. It was so hard to walk away from him..” You trail off, feeling tears suddenly gather at the edges of your eyes.

“Xiaojun…” The edge in your voice makes him grab a hold on your hands, “I don’t want him to hurt me. I’m not ready for it.”

“Hey, hey…” Xiaojun squeezes your hands before gently guiding your face to his, meeting his eyes with your own, “He’ll hurt you eventually, yeah, but he’ll also be the person who is supposed to love you unconditionally. The person who is going to know you so well, better than yourself. Maybe you should see where he takes you in life? Destiny still wanted you to meet each other no matter what the end game is going to be… Are you really going to tell fate to fuck off?”

“Can’t I?” Your response makes Xiaojun laugh, which he apologises for laughing in a serious situation right after, but the mood is already broken and you laugh at yourself a bit as well.

“C’mon, let’s order something to eat and get your mind off of this, even if it’s just for a few hours.” Xiaojun pulls you off of the floor and reaches for his phone, trying to find the phone number to his favorite delivery place.

You sit on his bed once again, your hands limp in your lap and so much appreciation for Xiaojun in your chest. You probably would’ve gone insane if he wasn’t here for you. His suggestion on giving the guy you met today a chance plays like a record in your head, but the record scratches when you remember the promise you made to yourself a long time ago.

Don’t mess with him. He will only bring you pain in the end.

On Wednesday, Haechan is the first one out of his seat in his Music Theory 3 class, not even waiting for the slow Renjun and even slower Jaemin before sprinting out of the classroom and outside, waiting at the top of the staircase for your figure to appear at the bottom.

Students float up and down the stairs, but he doesn’t see you anywhere amongst them. Eventually, Renjun and Jaemin catch up to him, standing behind him and also staring down the long staircase.

“C’mon, Haechan, we need to go to our next class.” Renjun is the first one to step down, followed by Jaemin. Haechan takes a good look at everyone’s faces on his way down, getting some weird looks sent his way for staring, but he doesn’t care.

“Haechan.” Jaemin suddenly calls out, making his friend turn suddenly to look at him. Jaemin only nods his head to the bottom of the stairs where you just turned the corner. Despite his hurry from before, Haechan stops at the sight of you. His usual confidence is lost when he sees you climb the stairs. Now, he’s not sure if he should approach you.

“Hey, what’s wrong?” Renjun nudges Haechan, but the younger only turns around to look at his friend.

“I don’t know what to say to her. What do I say to make her see I’m her soulmate?” Haechan asks, helplessness seeping into his words.

Renjun rolls his eyes; whenever his best friend needs to be the usual confident man he is, that’s when the confidence is most likely to drain out of him. Renjun shakes Haechan’s shoulders with a tight grip on his jacket, making some more people send the two of them some weird looks.

“She’s your soulmate, right? Fate already gave you everything you need to know about how to talk to her.” Renjun then pushes his friend towards your direction, “But for the love of god, don’t harass her.” Renjun ends with a pointed look and continues walking with Jaemin down the stairs.

Haechan slowly makes his way to you, crossing over to the middle of the staircase and stopping you in your tracks. You look up to inspect who it is that just stopped in front of you, and your surprise fades when you realize it’s the same guy from Monday.

“Hi.” He says simply. You only nod your head, lips pursed, and then move around him to continue walking to class.

“Wait…” Haechan calls after you, but you don’t stop this time. So Haechan keeps walking after you, only one step behind, “I’m not sure if you’re aware, but you’re my soulmate. I’ve been waiting for you for so long—” You sharply turn to face him, making Haechan cut off and tilt his head up to look at you.

“How do you know I’m your soulmate? What if I’m not?” You ask. Haechan shakes his head softly at that, his golden hair moving over his sun-kissed skin as he does.

“That’s not possible.”

“How do you know?” You ask. Haechan loves how curiosity burns in your eyes. He takes longer than normal to speak only so that he can look over your features and memorize them to the best of his ability. Last night, he tried to recall your face but the image came out so blurry since he only saw you for a moment on Monday. He wants to clearly remember what you look like.

“How about I take you somewhere, and then I’ll tell you?” The proposition stuns you, and your burning curiosity makes you want to say yes. However, going anywhere with him would be breaking your promise to yourself, so you decide to forget it.

“Nevermind…” You mumble, turning around to walk up the stairs again.

“You seem like you really want to know how I’m sure we’re soulmates… Aren’t you curious?” Haechan asks, making you stop in your tracks again. This man has only known you for a day, only talked to you for a few moments, yet he already knows how to get you to do something. “I promise I won’t hurt you, and I’m not lying either.”

You take a moment to think about the proposition. You’re really curious about how he’s so sure that you’re soulmates. Sure, you know you’re soulmates, but why is he so sure you aren’t the person who’s supposed to hurt him? You consider taking up the offer, but can you stay strong to your own promise while being close to him?

Curiosity wins, and you turn back around to face him, nodding and making him smile widely. There’s that crinkle in his eyes again, that sparkle against the sun that makes saying yes to him so much more worth it.

“My friends call me Haechan, but you can call me Donghyuck. That’s my real name.” He sticks out his hand for you to shake. You once heard that physical touch brings soulmates together quicker; you’re not sure if that’s true, but you don’t want to test it.

“I’m ___.” You nod at him and grip onto your backpack straps instead of accepting his handshake.

“Haechan, hurry up or we’ll be late!” You both hear Renjun shout out from the bottom of the stairs, “And on our second day, too.” You hear him groan.

“Okay, ___, I’ll see you here at 7pm tomorrow night.” Haechan turns around to run back to his friends, sending you one last wave goodbye and almost tripping down the stairs as he does.

You take a deep breath and turn around to walk up the rest of the steps. You’re unsure if you did the right thing by agreeing to see him tomorrow night, but the deed is now done, and you can only wait for Donghyuck to quench your curiosity.

As promised, you meet Donghyuck at 7 o’clock sharp the next day. He’s already waiting for you at the bottom of the stairs.

“So, where are you taking me?” You ask after saying your hello’s.

“It’s a surprise.” He smiles and nods his head to make you follow him. He leads you through parts of campus you haven’t seen yet, the buildings looking older and older the further down the path you walk. Soon, Donghyuck takes a sharp turn into what looks like the middle of the forest but is really just a small, hidden extension of the trail.

Under a canopy of tall trees that wave with the wind to you and Donghyuck, there is a skinny trail that leads to glimmering water. It draws you in, your curiosity struck and your feet now moving on their own accord. Bushes tickle your ankles and the smell of some sort of flower you cannot identify floods your senses, but you can only keep walking towards the sparkling water.

The scene in front of you takes your breath away, a crisp gasp that you have no control over leaves your lips. The pond before you is big, stretching further than what you can see. The water is blue and the setting sun’s light reflects off of it to create rippling sparkles. There are some lily pads floating around, their flowers gone due to the temperature dropping recently.

You didn’t even notice that you stopped walking, your eyes wide as you take in the scenery before you. You almost forget who you’re with and why you came, but Donghyuck doesn’t let that happen. You snap out of it when he continues to walk along the trail that leads around the pond. You walk alongside Donghyuck, a few feet away with your hands awkwardly tucked into your pockets.

“C’mon, let’s sit.” He motions to a weeping willow tree. It’s tall and the branches sway pleasantly in the wind, completely unaware and indifferent to the years of history in the area. Underneath the tree is a sturdy bench, you sit on the left side while Donghyuck sits on the right side. Then, you both take a few moments to stare at the mesmerizing water that led you all the way to this seemingly magical place.

“Why did you bring me here?” You ask after a bit.

“Do you not like it?” Donghyuck asks back.

“No.” You quickly reply, looking over his side profile before turning back to the water, “I’m just curious.”

“Something in me knew you would like this place, that’s all.” Donghyuck replies while trying to hide his proud smile, looking down at the grass. “You’re curious about a lot of things, huh?”

“Yeah, I can’t help it. There’s just so much I want to know.” It’s easy to talk to him, a bit too easy. You have to keep reminding yourself that you’re supposed to have your guard up in front of him, but it’s proving harder than you thought it would be.

“Like how I’m sure that you’re my soulmate and not the person who is supposed to hurt me?” Donghyuck leans his weight away from you, his eyebrow cocked in a question. You nod your head lightly, playing with your hands on your lap.

“It’s because I’ve already met the person who’s supposed to bring me pain. I’ve already been hurt.” At his words, surprise fills you up and you turn your head to look him straight in the eye.

For some reason, you always thought that when people meet the person who brings them the largest amount of pain to their life, they couldn’t be the same ever again. How does one get hurt so badly, and still live on?

There are so many ways to hurt someone. Some people become bankrupt, some people lose all of their belongings, some people are even physically hurt by the person who has the same mark as them. How does a person go through any of that and still be themselves afterwards? More importantly, how did Donghyuck go through immense pain and still be able to smile at you like he is right here, right now?

“Here.” He begins to explain, pushing his pants around until you can see his second mark through one of the holes in his jeans, a sunflower on his knee, “My dad had the same mark as me.”

“Your…. Dad?” You ask, still confused.

“Mhmm,” He nods, now tracing the petals of the sunflower mark absentmindedly, “My parents immediately knew something was wrong when I was born. Why would a son and dad have the same mark? When I was growing up, he worked a lot, so I spent lots of time with my mom and grew closer to her. I don’t remember much from that time, but I do remember we were happy. We didn’t have a lot, but we had each other; that kind of feeling.” He looks over at you to see if you’re keeping up with the story. To Donghyuck’s surprise, you already have tears lining your eyes.

“Then one day, Dad comes home and tells us he lost his job. I remember my parents fought a lot the few weeks after that happened, mostly about how to raise me if they had no income. Dad would go out and look for work, but always came back with no luck. So eventually, my mom started working. For a while, the reason we could keep living was because of her.” Donghyuck swallows and pauses for a moment before continuing.

“And then one night, dad came home and told us he gambled. Everything, he gambled everything away. Even the little that we had, it wasn’t ours anymore. That night, my dad told me I was a mistake. My parents never meant to have me, and he said…” Donghyuck purses his lips for a moment. It had been a while since he thought about this. The scar on his heart still hurts when he picks at it. “... He said that he wished I had never been born. Then, we wouldn’t have been in that mess.”

“How old were you?” You speak up after a moment.

“Seven? Or eight.” He nods and sniffs his nose, looking down at his knee. The whole day, Donghyuck was preparing himself to tell you this story. He felt that the only way to get close to you was to open up like this first, to show you that he isn’t someone scary or bad. To Donghyuck’s surprise, telling this story hurts less now than it did earlier in this life. Maybe that means time is working, and his heart is being mended bit by bit.

Donghyuck leans his elbows against his knees, looking at the water once again while waiting for you to say anything. Are you still curious? What do you think of him now?

He was in no way prepared to feel your arms wrap around his waist in a hug, your head resting against his shoulder and your chest pressed against his side. He freezes for a moment, and then melts into your embrace completely. He’s overcome with lovesick softness for you, lightly griping the part of your arm that’s across his chest as his head turns to the side to press a kiss to the top of your head. It’s so quick that you don’t even have time to move away or to react. You just let it happen, as it’s supposed to be.

“You said that something in you knew I would like this place,” You mumble against him. He hears your voice straining with emotion, “Well, something in me knows that you need this right now.”

You and Donghyuck sit there until the sparkling water is no longer fueled by the sun’s light, but by the moon’s. It seems as though now you’ve touched Donghyuck, you never wanted to stop. You’re almost one hundred percent sure that it’s because of the soulmate bond, and a part of you nags at yourself for already chipping away at the promise you made to yourself when you were younger.

However, younger you never knew what it would be like to have a person sit in front of you and share a part of his past with you in an act of confidence and security. Your younger self never knew what it would be like to feel the same pain as someone else, and the pull you felt to touch him after sensing that physical affection would help ease that pain away.

Your younger self had no idea it was this easy to fall into a person, especially when you know they’ll catch you.

“God, I’m so sick and tired of Accounting. ___, I’m quitting school.” Xiaojun gravely tells you, his eyes not wavering from his computer screen.

“Shut up and do your homework, Jun.” You mumble, your eyes not leaving your own computer screen as you type up your Ethics essay. Three weeks into school and you’re already fully emerged in your classes. The newness of college has faded and now it’s time to start the next four years of studying endlessly for the future.

“Are you guys… okay? You haven’t moved over there in a few hours.” Mark asks from the other side of the room where he’s doing his own homework. He eyes you and your best friend from where you’re sitting on his bed, “Are you even comfortable?”

You and Xiaojun are sharing a blanket, he’s leaning against his headboard and you’re leaning against the wall. Your legs are thrown over his and several textbooks are scattered over the blanket. You’re not even sure which of these books are yours or his, or which papers laying in messy stacks belong to who.

“Yeah, I think we’re okay. We’ve been studying like this since high school.” Xiaojun answers, his fingers moving along his keyboard at the same time. You nod at Mark and he shakes his head, not understanding you two but accepting the answer.

You’re over at the guys’ dorm room enough that Mark is not surprised to see you here anymore, hanging out with Xiaojun or waiting for him to come back from class. It’s not that you don’t like your own dorm room, but it’s always so quiet in there since your roommate always studies at the library. You only hear her come into the room late at night when you’re on the verge of sleep, and when she leaves early in the morning before your alarm rings. Weekends are the same. You don’t really care, but you’ve started to hate the quiet, so you’re glad that Mark and Xiaojun don’t mind you chilling here.

“Argh,” Mark yawns and stretches after a few minutes, throwing his computer to the side and standing up, “I’m getting some snacks from the vending machine. You guys want anything?”

After you and Xiaojun answer with simultaneous shakes of your heads, which creeps Mark out, he leaves the room to get food. The room is silent for a few more moments until Xiaojun angles the lid of his laptop down to look at you.

“So… How’s the guy?”

“What guy?” You ask, still preoccupied with your essay.

“Your soulmate, ___, what other guy is there?” Xiaojun answers exasperatedly, “You never told me his name, so I don’t know what to call him. Actually, I haven’t heard you talk about him since the first day of classes. I was hoping you’d tell me what happened with him, but I guess I have to go digging up your dirt myself.” He rolls his eyes.

“His name is Haechan.” You answer, moving your computer to the side, “And I haven’t said anything to you about him because… I haven’t seen him in weeks.” You admit quietly.

“Huh? Didn’t you say you were meeting up so he could tell you why he’s sure you’re his soulmate?” You nod your head at the question, “So, what happened after that?”

“Well… I kinda, maybe, sort of…. have been avoiding him.” You answer quietly, stealing a glance at your best friend to see him staring at you blankly. When he sighs and reaches for his pillow, your eyes widen and you hold up your hands in front of you, spewing pleas and ‘wait’s. Xiaojun doesn’t care, though, flinging his pillow from behind him and into your face.

“Ow?” You whine after the pillow makes contact with your head and forces you to turn to face the other way, “Was that necessary?” You rub your nose, the part of your face that hurts worse from his attack. You’re used to Xiaojun doing this to you whenever you did something that both of you know you shouldn’t have so that you can “get some sense knocked into you, hopefully.”

“You’re so dumb. So, so dumb. Why would you avoid him.” It’s not a question, more of a confused statement to the general air. “You realize people would kill to meet their soulmate, right? People would do anything to be in your position, but you just hide away?”

“People would do anything to meet their soulmate, but people would also do anything to stay away from the person who shares their other mark.” You retaliate, “You don’t understand. To me, Haechan is both of those people.”

“There you go again, worrying about the future when you’re not even sure about what is going to happen. When will you stop worrying about something you can’t control and start thinking about today?” Xiaojun sounds so tired talking about this topic, a conversation you’ve had many times in your friendship. You wonder if he’s so tired of it, why he keeps bringing it up himself.

Before you can answer, the door to the room opens and Mark walks in, several snacks in his arms, “Hey, everyone, I hope it’s okay I brought a friend. He’s in the same major as me, just a year younger—”

“___?” Mark stops talking when his friend speaks, surprised that he already knows one of the people in the room. Your eyes widen, jaw slackening as you’re unable to even let out a peep from your mouth.

“You know each other?” Mark asks, looking between his two friends.

“Yeah, you could say I know my soulmate.” Donghyuck replies, making both Xiaojun and Mark’s eyes widen. You suddenly realize the situation you’re in: under a blanket with Xiaojun, your pajamas on, and your soulmate in front of you after you ghosted him for weeks. For the first time in a while, your eyes meet.

Donghyuck is mad. You can tell by how his fists are clenched and his jaw is tightened. Slowly getting out of the bed, you try to form some words, but Donghyuck snaps and walks over to you quickly. Grabbing your hand, he pulls you out of the room and down the hallway until you get to the lounge area. When you reach the empty room, that’s when you come to your senses.

“Donghyuck,” You pull your arm out of his, making him turn to face you, “I’m not even wearing shoes.” You hiss, pointing down to your feet as if to prove some point.

“What was all that?” He disregards your comment and hisses back at you, stepping closer so that you’re barely a few inches apart. “You were under a blanket. With some guy. Don’t you feel wrong doing that?” He asks, his hands now on his hips. You feel slightly like you’re being lectured to.

“That guy is my best friend.” You spit out.

“So, do you go around and do that to all of your guy friends?” Donghyuck chuckles vehemently, you can tell he’s angry and jealous, and that those emotions are clouding his brain at the moment. That doesn’t mean his words don’t hurt, though.

“Xiaojun and I have been best friends since we were in diapers. I’ve known you for three weeks, barely. I’m more comfortable around him than I am with you. You think just because I’m your soulmate, I’ll automatically trust you and we’ll all of a sudden be a happy couple? It doesn’t work like that, Donghyuck. I don’t even know you.” You can tell you hurt him by your last words because he turns silent, his shoulders slouching and his anger subsiding.

You can tell you hurt him, hard, because you feel the hurt, too.

It makes you realize how scary the bond between soulmates is. Even though you and Donghyuck haven’t spent that much time together to strengthen your bond, it’s still strong enough to allow you to feel his emotions. It makes you wonder if Donghyuck will be able to feel your pain in the future when he hurts you, like he’s destined to.

“Have you even tried to get to know me? You’ve been avoiding me ever since I took you to the pond.” At his comment, you fold your arms over your chest and look away, not ready to answer that question.

“I’m… just scared, is all.” You manage to reply. Although not the complete truth, it’s not a total lie. Donghyuck completely softens at your words, his close proximity to you feels less threatening and turns into something more gentle. His hand softly slips into yours, but this time with a lighter touch than before.

“You don’t have to be scared, not around me. I’m new to this too, so I don’t know how it all works yet, but this is something we can figure out together. That’s what we were fated to do.” Donghyuck can feel his words pulling you closer to him, he can feel you on the edge and he’s ready to catch you with his arms wide open.

But in the last second, you take a step back and slip your hand out of his, making his drop limply to his sides. You send him a look, something he can’t read, and then turn around and walk back to the dorm he pulled you out of.

He almost had you, almost.

When midterms come around, you use your upcoming tests and projects as a way to dive deep into your work so that you don’t have to think about Donghyuck. It’s a good plan overall, however your friends quickly start worrying for you and your health. Staying up late several nights in a row and not even being able to remember when the last time you ate is where Xiaojun pulled the plug on your bad studying habits. He confiscated your backpack and dropped you off in front of your dorm building with the promise that you’ll have all of your things back tomorrow morning only if you rest for tonight.

On your way to the elevator, you run into Yuqi, both of your facial expressions brightening when you recognize each other.

“Oh, ___, Hi!” You stop in the middle of the hallway to greet her, a smile pulling at your lips due to her bright hello. “How are you?”

“Midterms are kicking my ass, but other than that I’m fine.” She laughs at your answer, throwing her head back and letting her new short hair ruffle her shoulders.

“I wish I could tell you it gets better, but that would be a lie.” You nod your head in solemn understanding, “Listen, I can’t talk for long since I have a night class, but promise to text me when things slow down, yeah?”

“Of course, I promise.” You nod, just the thought of spending some time with a good friend already pushes away your stress. You wave bye to Yuqi as she begins to turn around but after a loud “oh!” leaves her lips, she turns back to face you.

“Your roommate, her name is Mya, right?” At her random question, you tilt your head in confusion, “She has really long, black hair and big glasses, right? I think I saw her when I was helping you move in?”

“Yeah, that’s her.” You nod, “Why?”

“She found her soulmate today.” You would’ve been more interested in the news if you knew Mya beyond when she goes to class and when she gets back to the dorm, but you feign surprise and nod your head absentmindedly.

“Lucas managed to get a video. It was a whole performance in the quad today, you’d think someone was getting married. I’ll send it to you later.” And with that, she says her last goodbye and runs off. You slowly turn and continue walking in a slow pace up to your dorm room, taking the stairs just so you can have some time to think and be away from people you could potentially run into if you use the elevator.

You’re genuinely happy for Mya, even if you barely know a single thing about her. However, something about a person close to you finding their soulmate makes you sad, considering the situation with your own soulmate. You can’t help but feel a little jealous that there are people who can meet their soulmate and fall into each other’s lives easily.

In times like these, you crave for Donghyuck.

You crave his touch and his words, you crave that comfortable feeling of belonging somewhere you get when he’s around. It’s insane that you haven’t spent much time together, yet you can yearn for someone to the extent that it hurts. It’s been like this ever since Donghyuck pulled you out of Xiaojun’s dorm and you rejected him.

Turning away from him all those weeks ago still haunts you. When you’re struggling to fall asleep, your mind goes to that night. When you let your mind wander, it wanders to that night. You constantly think about stepping away from him, but you’re not sure if you keep remembering the moment out of guilt or shame. One of the questions you keep asking yourself is if you did the right thing. You still do not have an answer.

When you walk into your dorm room, you kick off your shoes and turn on your bedside lamp, falling onto your bed with a deep sigh. You close your eyes for a second, but the peace and quiet of your room is ruined when your phone dings with a notification.

Yuqi’s message pops up, and when you swipe your phone open you can see she sent a video. You click on it and turn the volume up. This was no doubt taken earlier today in the quad, the sun shining and lots of professors and students walking in the background. Under the huge clock tower stand two people, one of them holding a large bouquet of roses. When the clock strikes noon, the bells on top of the tower begin to ring a familiar melody that can be heard all over your big campus. You see the exchange of the bouquet and the two people hug, and then applause rises from the people walking by. You smile when you hear Lucas’ whooping and hollering from behind the phone.

You’ve heard about the tradition of soulmates meeting under the clock tower at your university. Yuqi told you about it when she was giving you a tour around campus at the beginning of the semester. You remember her telling you that it’s really romantic, probably due to the history of so many people getting together in the exact same spot.

Although the idea is rather plain, you do feel your heart strings tug at the beautiful display, glad you could see something like this through a video. Then, as the camera gets closer to the couple, your smile fades and you pause the video, zooming in to get a better view. Mya is no doubt the one who received the flowers, but you can’t help but furrow your eyebrows as you recognize her soulmate.

It’s one of Donghyuck’s friends.

Not the quiet one with black hair that hangs around on the outside of their group, but the shorter one who seemed to simultaneously love and hate Donghyuck, or at least that’s what you gathered from seeing him a few times.

After the realization, you drop your phone to the side and stare up at your ceiling in defeat. Is this fate? If you didn’t meet Donghyuck on those steps two months ago, would you eventually meet him through your roommate and her soulmate? Or is this all just one big coincidence?

In this world, coincidences are harder to find than the work of fate.

Your train of thought is quickly cut off by the opening on the door, you quickly sit up to watch a huge red bouquet of flowers enter the room, followed by your roommate. You’ve only seen her face a few times this semester, but never have her features looked so bright and happy. She also looks startled when she notices you’re in the room, but her happiness doesn’t fade.

“Oh? You’re here?” She asks.

“I could ask you the same thing.” You both chuckle awkwardly, “Congrats, by the way. For finding your soulmate.” You motion to the flowers in her hand.

“Thank you! To be honest, Renjun wasn’t at all what I expected in a soulmate, but I think I love him already.” The sweetness drips from her eyes and words, and you nod and smile, remembering that Donghyuck’s friend’s name is Renjun. Her phone begins to ring and she shuffles the flowers in her hand to look at the screen, “Oh, it’s him.”

She answers the call, speaking quietly as she walks over to her side of the room. You weigh out the options of sneaking out of your dorm and finding a place to chill until your roommate falls asleep. You're not sure if you can talk to her about soulmate stuff and keep up this happy look on your face.

However, all thoughts of those plans leave your mind when Mya turns to you and holds out the phone, “It’s for you?” She says it more like a question, but you’re sure you’re the one who’s more confused.

“Hello?” You ask into the phone, awkwardly looking around the room.

“___? Oh, thank god. It’s Renjun, Haechan’s friend. I need your help.” He talks quickly and shallowly, like he’s out of breath and currently moving somewhere.

“How did you know I’m Mya’s roommate?” You ask, disregarding his cry for help.

“It’s a long story, I promise I’ll explain later, but can you please come to the auditorium? The back entrance.” You hear more voices in the background of the call, but you can’t make out what they're saying. One of them is definitely Donghyuck.

“What’s going on?” At the sound of your soulmate’s unique tenor, you suddenly become more aware of what might be happening. Is Donghyuck safe? Did he get in trouble?

“Donghyuck drank too much and he won’t go home, he keeps asking for you.” At that, you hand the phone back to Mya, who takes it from you with an unsure look. By the time Mya says her worried goodbyes and hangs up, she turns back to an empty dorm room, your phone snatched from your bed and your scattered shoes gone.

You must’ve made it to the auditorium in record time, not even the climb up the 109 steps could slow you down. When you reach the auditorium, you can hear Donghyuck and his friends conversing loudly and you follow their voices, which eventually leads you to the dingy backside of the auditorium. Donghyuck is sitting on the ground with the hood of his coat pulled up and covering his eye sight, arms crossed over his chest and his lips in a pout. His two friends, Renjun and the black-haired kid, stand above him. The quiet one is shivering in his spot while Renjun practically yells at Donghyuck on the ground, who doesn’t seem to be moving any time soon.

“Hi, ___.” The quiet one notices you first and then all three guys turn to look at you.

“___…” Donghyuck whines out your name and tries to stand up but Renjun gently pushes him back down.

“What happened?” You ask, sniffing your nose when the harsh, cold air nips at it.

“He said he wanted to unwind before his midterms tomorrow but then he went out and had some drinks, a few too many as you can see.” Renjun explains, “We followed him here, he said he won’t go anywhere unless it’s with you.”

“It’s strange. Haechan is a good drinker, I didn’t think he would get drunk so quickly… Oh, I’m Jaemin, by the way.” He introduces himself with a bright smile, as if you weren’t just discussing the drunken state of his friend.

“I’m Renjun, I called you earlier. I promise I have a good explanation for how I know you’re Mya’s roommate, I just don’t think right now is the best time to talk about it.” Renjun explains, his hands pointing towards Donghyuck.

“Right, about him… I think you guys should leave.” Both sober men widen their eyes, looking at each other and then back at you.

“Are you sure you want to handle this yourself? He looks small, but Haechan is kind of heavy.” Jaemin warns.

“Hey!” Donghyuck speaks up, but even his verbalization sounds slurred. When he points an accusing finger at Jaemin, he sways and misses Jaemin’s figure by a whole foot, “Don’t say that kind of stuff to my girlfriend.”

At his use of the word, Jaemin and Renjun stand straight with awkwardness and you sigh, white puffs of air leaving your mouth, “Yeah, you guys should go.”

Renjun and Jaemin give you an unsure look, but turn around and leave the area anyway. Renjun sends one last look over his shoulder with a wave of his hand. You look at Donghyuck after they turn the corner, kicking his shoe gently.

“Hey, get up. How much did you drink?” You’re not actually curious about how much alcohol he consumed, you just want to know if he can even respond to simple questions.

“Babe!” He exclaims when he looks up, “Oh, not much. I could go for another round right now, actually.” His words slur together and he sways in his sitting position against the brick wall of the auditorium.

“You’re not going for another round, you’re going home. C’mon.” You grab onto the sleeve of his puffer jacket, pulling him up so that he’s standing. He immediately falls onto you, his arms around your waist and his legs spread wide so that his head is hidden in your neck.

“Hyuck, you have to walk. Get up.” You pull him up once again, putting one of his arms around your shoulders and giving him more support around his waist. Slowly, you begin to walk away from the auditorium with Donghyuck’s drunk mumbling filling the cool air. His legs barely work underneath him, and he turns his head and leans into your ear every once in a while to sing some random lyric that pops into his mind at that second, like a small concert that he allows only you to hear.

Once you reach the top of the staircase, you stop and take a long look down to the bottom, “Why did you have to come all the way up here? How are we getting down the stairs?” If you start to climb down, Donghyuck could fall and hurt himself. You’re not that strong to begin with and your shoulders are already feeling sore from carrying most of Donghyuck’s weight.

“We can ride this.” He giggles and breaks away from you, one of his legs swinging over the handrail so that he’s straddling it.

“No, no, no.” You pull him off, but his shoe gets caught against the rail and he comes falling down onto you, both of you landing on the top step of the staircase. You wince in pain at how your back hits the concrete, but you don’t think about it much as you push Donghyuck off of you and into the space next to you on the top stair.

“Oh, no. Are we stuck up here?” He asks as you brush your hands together to get rid of the little pieces of concrete in your skin.

“Yes, and it’s all your fault. What are you gonna do about it?” You reply, so sarcastically that even Donghyuck’s drunk brain registers the joke. Your heart almost leaps out of your throat when he grabs your hands and pulls you closer to him, gently picking out each little ball of cement in your palms.

“I’m sorry I keep hurting you.” He apologizes. This close, you can smell the alcohol in his breath, mixed with his shampoo and cologne. He smells warm in this cold weather, and you feel like falling into him and drinking up his scent, not even minding the alcohol stench.

“Keep hurting me?” You ask.

“Yeah, that must be why you don’t want to be with me. I have to be doing something wrong for you to hate me.” He sighs, sniffling and enclosing your hands in his, his glassy eyes looking up at you and his long hair hangs down over his forehead and tickles his eyelashes. “I’m a bad soulmate.”

The way he says it makes your heart break. It makes you feel regret 1000 times worse than what you’ve been feeling these past few weeks; as if all of the worry and sadness hit you all at once, you feel like crying.

Isn’t he supposed to be the one who hurts you? Why does it feel like you’re the only one doing the hurting?

“You’re not a bad soulmate,” It’s not Donghyuck’s fault that he got stuck with you, or that things will turn out the way that they’re destined to, “And I don’t hate you.”

“You don’t?” He looks up into the night sky and sways a bit as he thinks, “Then why won’t you be with me? Hm?” He tilts his head, his lips pouting as he thinks. You desperately want to find an answer that’ll soothe him, but nothing you can come up with will give you that result, the truth included.

“It’s complicated…” You trail off, and your answer makes Donghyuck snort.

“How? I’m your soulmate, you’re mine. What else matters?” He laughs incredulously.

“What if you’re not just my soulmate?” You ask him, surprising yourself with how easily you can ask the question, probably because the influence of alcohol over him has you more at ease, “What if something happens in the future? I’m just… looking out for me, and for you.” You explain, trying to sound as vague as possible.

When you glance at Donghyuck, he looks dead serious. You think that maybe he has suddenly sobered up with how deep and calculating his eyes look. One of his hands tighten around yours while the other slowly raises to your hair, pacing himself along the way, and pausing before he touches you. When you don’t stop him, he gently caresses your hair and moves it away from your face, his nimble fingers sliding to your jaw. He moves your face so that your eyes meet his.

“I know I’m drunk, but I can make this promise again when I’m sober. I’ll make this promise every single day for the rest of my life, only if it means you can be there with me to fulfill it.” The severeness in his tone is like a wake up call about how serious this is for him.

“What promise?” You whisper back.

“It’s not just a ‘you’ or just a ‘me’ now. It’s an ‘us.’ And I will do everything I can to not hurt us.”

He says it with so much conviction that you somehow believe him. You finally fall into him and rest your tired head on his shoulder as he welcomes you into his warm arms. Maybe it’s foolish of you to think you two can go against fate’s words, but with him by your side, you feel like you can conquer the whole universe.

“Stop smiling like that, you’re making it very obvious that you got laid for the first time.” Donghyuck peers over his laptop screen to Renjun, where he has had a permanent smile on his face ever since he, Donghyuck, and Jaemin met up today to study in the lounge center of their dorm building.

“You know, Haechan, I’m not even mad at that. It’s more than what I can say to you.” Renjun tries to hide his widening smile while looking down at his own laptop, but that paired with Jaemin’s quiet laughter leaves Donghyuck bitter. “Didn’t you and ___ make up?” Renjun asks.

“They were fighting? I thought they just weren’t talking to each other?” Jaemin asks.

“Isn’t that fighting?”

“Kids.” Haechan cuts them off, “Not that it’s any of your business, but we were not fighting and we did make up.”

“That makes no sense.” Jaemin mutters and squints his eyes at Donghyuck.

“I’m older than you.” Renjun retaliates, but Donghyuck pretends like he doesn’t hear.

“We’re just… taking it slow.” Donghyuck ends his explanation with a firm nod of his head, and Renjun shuts his laptop and turns to his friend.

“Can you take it slow during the Fair this weekend? I’m planning to go with Mya and accidentally bought two pairs of tickets. I’ll give you the other pair.” Renjun leans into his friend’s side and wiggles his eyebrows.

“At what cost?” Haechan leans in as well and raises an eyebrow.

“Help me with my English project.”

“No way,” Haechan leans back and focuses on his own laptop screen again, “I haven’t even started mine, I don’t have time to help you with yours.”

“Please,” Renjun draws out the word, grabbing Donghyuck’s sleeve and tugging at it so hard that he can’t properly type, “I suck at English, and unfortunately it’s the only thing that you’re better at than me.”

“The only thing?” Donghyuck glares at Renjun. “Now I’m definitely not helping you.” When Renjun whines at that Donghyuck gets a devilish idea, and it shows by the smirk on his face, “... Unless, you’d like to show us how you really need help.”

At Donghyuck’s proposition, he leans back in his chair with his arms folded across his  chest while Jaemin mirrors his actions, his own goofy smile on his face as he waits for Renjun to either accept or deny the proposition, but he hopes he’ll accept it.

Renjun looks between his two friends and sighs, dropping his head down as he mentally prepares himself. When he lifts his head, he looks at Donghyuck with his lips pursed, his pointer finger over them and makes a “kyu” sound that is way higher than his original speaking voice. Jaemin and Haechan immediately burst into as quiet of laughter as they can, Jaemin reaching over the table to poke Renjun’s cheek at his cuteness.

“I never said to act cute, I just wanted you to say please again.” Donghyuck jokes through his snickering, and Renjun immediately stands up from his chair to take a fistful of Haechan’s jacket and pull back his other fist, all cuteness gone from his facial features in a split second.

“Okay, okay, sorry, sorry.” Haechan tries to pull away, his voice rising as Renjun holds onto his jacket tighter and threateningly leans in.

“Hey, quiet down.” Someone whisper-shouts from a few tables away, and it makes Renjun let go of Donghyuck and slowly sit back down. “This isn’t even a library, why are they shushing me.” He grumbles.

“You guys have fun on your date,” Jaemin sighs as he begins to put away his things, satisfied with the study session and with his friends' mischief, “I would go too, but I don’t feel like being a fifth wheel.”

Once your classes end on the day of the Fair, you and your roommate meet up with Donghyuck and Renjun outside of the Fair grounds. You and Donghyuck walk side by side, a bit behind the other couple as they lead the way, practically in their own little bubble. Your hands are shoved in your pockets to keep them from turning numb from the cold and you try to shove your head as far into your jacket as you can to keep your face and neck protected from the wind. Other than the chilly weather, it’s a perfect day for a Fair.

You don’t seem to notice Donghyuck’s predicament right beside you; he’s trying to find a way to hold your hand, but you don’t move them out of your pockets. Actually, Donghyuck is sure you’re doing this on purpose, since he has been trying to touch you the moment you met up with him tonight.

“So, what do you wanna ride first?” He asks you. After looking around the area, your eyes land on a tea cup ride, where the large cups move in circles and also spin in their spots.

“That.” You point to it. Before you can move, Donghyuck latches into your hand that was pointing into the air and pulls you to the ride, a smug smile on his face at how he succeeded in finally sharing some skin to skin contact.

The ride was, to say the least, nauseating. Not that it was disgusting, but Donghyuck wouldn’t stop spinning your individual cup around in fast circles, and you were so sure that you would fling off any second due to the strong velocity those tiny cups have when they go at full speed. However, walking off of the ride with wobbly legs and not being able to see straight was funnier than you thought it would be.

Donghyuck was actually still pretty dizzy when he tried to win a stuffed octopus for you with a dart game. However, he ended up losing $15 while trying to win the game, and you’re sure he would’ve spent more if you didn’t pull him away. After eating some good food and refilling your energy, the sun begins to set on the horizon in a colorful display of red, orange and pink, and people start to make their way to the ferris wheel.

“C’mon,” You hear Mya say from behind you, “We need to get in line first or else we’ll be waiting for half of the night.” She pulls Renjun by his sleeve and passes you and Donghyuck, practically running to the end of the growing line for the Ferris Wheel. When you see where she’s running to, you stop in your tracks which in turn makes Donghyuck stop. Your intertwined fingers pull you back to each other as he looks at you with a puzzled look.

“I’m… not good with heights.” You confess and look towards the top of the ferris wheel, shivering just at the thought of going that far up into the sky in a metal contraption, “Or small spaces…” You add on.

“That’s okay,” Donghyuck gently reassures, smiling lightly at your sudden timidness about your fears. Honestly, he’s just happy you now trust him a bit more to even tell him what you’re afraid of. “We don’t have to go. We can do something else.”

“Like what?” You ask. Donghyuck purses his lips and looks around, until a set of stairs on the edge of the fairgrounds catches his eye.

“I know a place where we can still get a good view of the sunset without going too far up.” He replies and tugs you along with him towards the set of stairs. They lead down to the park that’s nestled in the middle of your University, which eventually leads to a pedestrian bridge that crosses over a river that runs through your town.

The river isn’t that big, nor is the bridge, but it’s big enough to have your head tilting up in wonder as you gaze at the lights adorning the sides of it, lighting up not only the bridge itself by the sky as well. You’ve seen this bridge from your dorm room, but you’ve never once stood on it, and it looks remarkable from this close up.

Donghyuck continues to lead you over the pedestrian bridge onto the other side, where an outdoor museum that was constructed by art students a few years ago holds several different abstract paintings. His hand in yours, which has been it’s resting place all night, keeps yours warm. You try not to think about how your hands fit into each other like the gears of a hand-crafted watch. The lines on your palms connect with the lines on his; it’s painfully obvious he was made for you and you were made for him.

When you reach the end of the outdoor museum, you turn west and face the sunset just as it’s setting over the skyline. Even though some tall buildings obstruct the view, the colors of the sky stretch overhead and make both you and Donghyuck stand still and appreciate the artwork in the sky.

“You like these kinds of things, huh? Sunsets, and ponds, and that kind of stuff?” He suddenly asks, not talking his eyes off of the sky. You, however, turn to look at him. He has his eyes screwed as he tries to look at the sunset, obviously not liking the bright sunlight.

“You don’t?” You ask back.

“I think... there are more enjoyable things.” Donghyuck takes a while to make up his mind about what he wants, obviously trying not to make the things you enjoy sound bad to him.

“Then we should go.” You turn around, but he pulls you back to your original spot.

“We walked all this way, we’re watching this sunset even if my feet freeze to the ground.” He tightens his grip on your hand and speaks through his teeth, making you sputter out a laugh and hit his shoulder with your own lightly.

“Sometimes, I wonder why fate put us together.” You ask, watching as the sun moves bit by bit, leaving behind trails of light and the beginnings of stars and the vast universe on the other side of the sky. “We’re different. I don’t know about you, but you are not who I imagined my soulmate would be.” You speak truthfully.

Even though there are some strings attached to Donghyuck’s relationship with you, it didn’t stop you from thinking about what kind of person he’d be— what kind of person fate would pick to be your perfect fit. Maybe they would have some sort of major flaw, like an anger problem or a lack of common sense. Maybe they would be an alcoholic or someone who commits crimes.

When it came to your soulmate, you always thought of something bad considering that they were also going to hurt you in some way. You never thought that your soulmate would be someone as unique and fun as Donghyuck. Fate made it way too easy to be with him, and you’re not sure whether to feel bitter or thankful.

“Well,” He blows some air through his nose, “You’re exactly what I thought my soulmate would be like” Your heart jumps into your throat and beats irregularly when Donghyuck says that, struck with the feeling of surprise once again.

“Mark tells me you’re smart and get good grades, and I know it was you who ordered that soup for me the morning after you took me home when I got drunk. Not to mention, you went out when it was dark to take me home in the first place.” Donghyuck explains, his hand that’s still interlocked with yours waving around as he does so, “You’re willing to help others, you have a good head on your shoulders, and not to mention you guard your heart to the very end.”

“Guarding my heart… That’s an admirable quality? If I remember correctly, it caused you some pain in the past few months.” By now, the last rays of the sun are disappearing over the horizon and night begins to blanket the sky. You turn to your soulmate when he takes more than a moment to answer, watching the way his face reacts to the thoughts turning in his head.

“Yeah, it is a great quality. I think if you completely trusted me the moment you saw me on those stairs, we wouldn’t end up here now. You wouldn’t be the perfect fit for me if you loved me so easily.” He turns to you, a teasing smile playing on his lips. Your interlocked fingers are basically frozen together at this point and maybe your feet really have stuck to the ground, but his words warm you up from the inside out.

“I think I would’ve fallen in love with you even if we weren’t destined to be together.”

Somehow, he manages to remind you of one very important fact that you’ve set aside since the moment you met him. You’ve always put the fact that he’s supposed to hurt you first, and the fact that he’s your soulmate second. However, he is a human and so are you, and you’re both given the opportunity to love one another wholly and truly. People die to have this type of moment. People live their whole lives without experiencing this type of emotion.

It’s time to remember that Donghyuck is your soulmate, first and foremost. He is deserving of love, and you’re now willing to give it to him.

When you pull Donghyuck into you, he feels like it may be a hallucination. Surely your lips can’t be that close to his own. But when he smells the cinnamon on your lips from that churro you had and your fingers sliding up his arm to grip his jacket, he becomes scared that this might actually be a hallucination.

You slowly lean in, almost painfully slow, but Donghyuck doesn’t dare rush you. When your lips do meet, both of you feel complete. The feeling of finishing a lifetime’s worth of work with one gentle kiss is the most delicious feeling ever, different from anything that either of you have ever experienced.

It’s slow and careful, but passionate and full of true love. No matter what happens in the future, it will always be your memory to savor and remember for the rest of your lives.

“___!” You hear Mark’s voice from your right, turning your head quickly to see him stick his hand up in the air and begin to make his way through the throngs of people between you two. You move towards him, attempting to meet in the middle, but somehow he ends up behind you, and you laugh as you attempt to meet again.

“Hey, Mark,” You look over him, noting how well he manages to pull off the choir robe that everyone else seems to look like a sack of potatoes in, “I didn’t know your concerts could get this packed. You guys could start your own group and make it big.” You look around while adjusting the flowers in your hand so they don’t get squished against your chest.

“Nah, it’s mostly just families that come to these concerts. Since there are a lot of vocal majors, there are a lot of families that show up.” He explains.

“So, what does that make me?” You joke, but Mark doesn’t seem to get it and tilts his head to the side.

“You’re Donghyuck’s girlfriend. That makes you family, right?” At the mention of your relationship, you glance down at the flowers in your hand, the flowers that are meant for the aforementioned boy. You nod, mumbling something like a ‘I guess’ before Mark looks down at his watch and sucks a breath through his teeth.

“Okay, I have to go warm up. Make sure you get a seat in the middle, that’s where it sounds best.” He gives you a quick wave as he walks away, and you manage to send one back. Before you know it, the doors to the auditorium open and people flood in to grab the best seat they can.

You barely manage to snag a seat in the middle, an older lady to your right and a grandpa to your left who seem to be unrelated and didn’t mind you sitting between them. You shrug off your coat as you look around, feeling anxiety build up in your chest. You know you don’t have anything to be anxious for, so you deduct that it’s probably Donghyuck.

He invited you to the concert today. For him, it’s part of his final grade for his vocal class and for you, it’s a chance to see him sing on stage. Strangely, he has talked about how much he loves to perform but never wants to sing in front of you. When he told you he auditioned for a solo in one of the songs, and ended up getting the part, you knew you absolutely had to come today.

Pulling out your phone, you send Donghyuck a text saying that you’re seated and that you wish him to break a leg. You see the read receipt pop up next to your text, and although he doesn’t text anything back, the anxious feeling in your chest subsides and you smile to yourself.

“Those are pretty flowers.” Turning your head to the lady on your right, you glance down at the bouquet of black-eyed susans on your lap.

“Oh, thank you.” You put your phone on silent and slip it into your pocket.

“They’re my mom’s favorite.” Your attention turns to a kid who sits on the other side of the woman. He can’t be any older than ten, and his feet don’t touch the ground as he swings them back and forth and looks up at his mother.

“Oh?” You ask, turning back to the older woman, “Would you like some?”

The woman seems to be stunned by your question, obviously not expecting you to hand over flowers at such a comment from her son. She looks almost flustered as she shakes her head at you.

“No, it’s okay. I bet those are for someone special?” She asks while nodding towards the stage.

“They’re for my… boyfriend.” You mumble, still not used to the words leaving your tongue, even though it has been more than a few weeks now.

“Then you should save them for him.” She nods and you smile back.

“But I want one.” The woman’s son pouts, and the mother nudges her foot against his leg. You laugh a bit, using your right hand to hold down the bouquet and your left to pull out a flower. Carefully, you hand it over to the little boy and he grasps it, his pout turning into a smile while he sings a ‘thank you’ and counts the petals on the flower.

The woman gives you a nod, and you all turn to face forward where the students are beginning to walk onto the stage.

The concert went well; you weren’t familiar with any of the pieces of music the choir performed, and many of them were in different languages, but you still enjoyed the performance by the many music students from your university. You managed to catch sight of Donghyuck fairly quickly, and Mark was just a few rows behind him.

Donghyuck’s solo fit his voice perfectly. Maybe you’re biased, but you think no one would be able to match his tone and technique to fit the song as perfectly as he did. Since it was the first time you heard him sing, you were a bit taken back by how amazing his voice sounds and how much control he has of it. It didn’t look like he struggled to hit the notes, and he looked like he was in his element on stage.

After the concert, you wait on the staircase outside of the auditorium building where you agreed to meet up with Donghyuck. You roll on your feet, jumping up and down slightly to keep warm. You clutch the flowers to you, scared that the cold weather might cause them to bend and begin to wilt quicker.

“Oh, it’s the flower lady!” You hear a familiar voice call out, and you turn your head to see the little boy and his mom from earlier… walking with Donghyuck? He has his choir robe hanging from one arm and his other hand intertwined with the little kid.

“Do you guys know each other?” Donghyuck asks, looking between the three of you with confusion.

“We happened to sit next to each other during the concert.” The woman explains, a grin growing on her face as she looks between you two. “This is your soulmate.” She doesn’t say it like a question, she says it plainly and nods her head in content.

“I’m sorry, did you already know who I was when we met?” You ask her.

“No, until I saw the mark on your left hand. I would recognize my own son’s mark anywhere.” Son? This is Donghyuck’s mother?! Your eyebrows must be up to your hairline and you think your mouth might be open, but you can only focus on remembering every little thing you said to her before the concert started to recall if you said anything dumb.

“Let me introduce you properly. This is ___, my soulmate and my girlfriend. ___, this is my mom, Sara, and my half-brother, Hyunjin.” Donghyuck gently takes your elbow and pulls you closer to him.

“It’s nice to meet you.” You politely greet them as if it’s the first time ever.

“Well, I like her. She gave me a flower.” Hyunjin exclaims.

“Back off, she’s mine.” Donghyuck jokes with the kid. “Thank you guys for coming today, by the way.” He continues, “I appreciate my favorite people being here for my first college performance.”

Donghyuck goes to hug his mom as she sets a kiss to his cheek that makes him cringe away slightly. However, you’re still struck to your spot from being included into Donghyuck’s group of favorite people. There’s a warm feeling in your chest at being included into something so special so early on in your relationship. There’s also some anxiety that comes with it, since promises that are made too early hurt the most, but you push the feeling away and soak in Donghyuck’s unconditional love.

After you all bid farewell to each other, and Sara and Hyunjin leave, you turn to Donghyuck with a deadpan expression, “You didn’t tell me I’d be meeting your family today.”

“Would you believe me when I say that I forgot they were coming?” He asks and you roll your eyes, not believing his words at all.

“These are for you.” You push the flowers into his chest and dig your hands into your pockets so that they can finally get warm, “Your solo was… interesting to listen to.” You say with annoyance dripping from every word.

“Thank you,” He replies cutely, not affected by your irritation. You roll your eyes again, but a smile tugs at your lips as well. “What kind of flowers are these? I don’t think I’ve ever seen them?” He asks while digging his nose into the bouquet.

“Black-eyed susans.” You reply, and Donghyuck gives you a weird look.

“That’s such a random flower.”

“They attract dragonflies.” You explain, nudging his side with your elbow. When you glance over to him, he has a smile playing on his lips.

“Should I be giving these to you, then?” He hands them over, but you push them back at him.

“No way. I’m already attracted to you.” You state, turning around to walk back down the staircase. When you don’t hear any footsteps following you, you turn around to find Donghyuck kneeling over with the flowers clutched close to him.

“Are you okay?” Alarm rises in your chest, especially when he shakes his head at your question.

“No, you just made my heart beat really fast and I’m afraid I’m gonna have a heart attack.” You would roll your eyes again, but you’re afraid they might roll out of your head at this point. You climb back up the stairs and yank on his sleeve jacket to make him walk alongside you.

“___, feel my heart. I swear it’s going to beat out of my chest.”

“Shut up, Donghyuck.”

“No, seriously, I think we should go to the hospital.”

“Shut up.”

In the morning, Donghyuck loves to wake up next to you. He has always been a spread-out type of sleeper; arms to the side, legs open, laying diagonally across the bed. Once you two moved out of your dorms and moved into an apartment together during your second year of college, Donghyuck’s way of sleeping changed dramatically.

Now, he can’t help but snuggle in, wrap his arms around you, tangle his legs in with yours, and do everything he can to sleep as close as he can to you. Maybe that’s why he suddenly woke up. The absence of you next to him made him shuffle awake, missing the frame of your body next to his like how it usually fits.

He groggily opens his eyes and immediately shivers, catching the open windows in the bedroom letting in fresh, cool, morning air. Donghyuck shivers once again, blindly reaching for the blanket and wrapping it around his head and shoulders, then making his way out of the bedroom in search of you.

He checks the kitchen, but you’re not there. Then he goes to the living room, and he sees your figure outside on the balcony, the curtains that are supposed to be hanging up in your bedroom moving with the wind as they hang next to you. He tightens the blanket around him and opens the glass door. Even though you definitely heard him come outside, you don’t turn around. You have a cup of something warm next to you and you’re leaning against the balcony while staring out into the city skyline, watching the sun rise into the sky to welcome the new day.

“Good morning.” Donghyuck mumbles as softly as he can. When you mumble back a reply, he opens the front of the blanket so he can swallow you into his embrace. His chin rests on your shoulder and tries to guess exactly what you’re looking at, but when he lifts his head to look at your face, your eyes are closed.

“So, do you want to tell me why our curtains are out here and not on our windows like they should be?” He rests his head against yours, also closing his eyes.

“I woke up and suddenly felt the urge to clean them, I don’t know.” You laugh a bit, making both of you move with the movement of your chest. Donghyuck smiles at your reason; one of the things he learned about you when you moved in together is that your work ethic comes in random bursts of energy, rather than carefully planned out schedules to follow. You always have a small goal for every day, and sometimes you don’t even know what it is until it randomly pops into your head. Although he doesn’t really understand how you’re able to work like that, he loves this little quirk anyway.

“Did I wake you up?” You whisper and nudge your head into Donghyuck’s, nuzzling back into him when a particularly strong gust of wind blows over the balcony.

“Not technically, no. You not being next to me woke me up.” He replies.

“Well, I’m here now. How about we sleep some more?” You ask, leaning back against him and looking at his face.

“Best thing I’ve heard today.” He sighs. Without letting you out of his blanket trap, he walks you both back into the apartment and into your bedroom, both of you beginning to giggle at one point when you almost trip over the blanket and crash into the ground.

Thankfully, you both made it back safely to the bed, falling into the soft mattress. Immediately, Donghyuck gathers you in his arms and cuddles you to him, almost like he’s latching onto you. You wrap your arms around him slowly and lean into his shoulder, placing a kiss against his collarbone. You were going to stop there, but when he lets out a whimper at the small press of your lips to his skin, you continue moving up his neck.

When you reach the space underneath his ear, he twitches at how you suck on the sensitive skin, not expecting you to pay closer attention there. His hand slides over your back, between your shoulder blades, and back down, pressing you to him as he caresses you and silently hopes you don’t stop what you’ve started.

You don’t seem to have any intention to do that when you lean back, looking up at Donghyuck’s big, round eyes as they stare down hazily at you and quickly connecting your lips. He kisses back slowly, as if taking his sweet, sweet time in loving you.

“I thought we were supposed to sleep?” You ask between kisses.

“We can sleep later…” He trails off, grabbing your hand and pulling you on top of him so that you’re straddling his hips. “... If you’re really tired we don’t have to.” He suddenly pulls away, his hand comfortably resting over your waist.

“No way. It’s too late for that.” You answer, pulling your shirt over your head and tossing it to the other side of the bed. A chill runs through you at the cold temperature in the room, goosebumps forming over your arms and your nipples hardening. Donghyuck wraps his arms around your middle and presses a kiss in the valley of your chest, moving over until he reaches your left nipple and taking it into his mouth.

Biting your lip, your hands find his hair and tug on the long strands. Donghyuck’s hands squeeze your sides and his fingers draw random, little lines over your bare skin as he sucks and plays with your nipples, switching between each one.

“Hyuck…” You whine, giving a particularly sharp tug to his hair when he bites down onto your right nipple. “Please…” You trail off.

“Hmm? Please what? What do you want.” He leans back and looks up at you. You comb your fingers through his hair, pushing it back away from his face and behind his ears. His eyes are clouded and hooded over by the thoughts of you that are speeding through his mind.

“Please, make love to me.” You say it shyly, your eyes looking over his face but not meeting his own. He can’t help but smile at your timidness. You act like it’s the first time those words came out of your mouth. He can’t help but find it endearing how you ask him to make love to you every single time you find yourselves in this position.

“Of course, anything for you.” He connects your lips again, keeping the slow and steady pace from before. He shifts around as he moves his boxers away. Breaking the kiss, you move his hands away and pump his shaft, glancing up at him as he leans back with his weight on his hands and his head leaning back.

He lets out whines every time you twist your wrist, and you almost want to take a moment and stay this way, loving the sounds coming from Donghyuck’s mouth and how he looks as he pants beneath you. However, the tension growing between your legs makes you stop and sit up, pulling off your own pajama bottoms and underwear, throwing them somewhere along with your shirt.

Donghyuck grips your hips with one hand, the other pressing his middle finger to your slick folds, watching you squirm from above as he slides his finger through slowly.

“Just— Can you just do something already?” You almost whine out, grabbing onto his arm hard enough that you leave crescent moons in his skin.

“Are you sure?”

“Yes, yes, I’m sure.” With your permission, Donghyuck positions himself at your entrance and slowly brings your hips down, watching your reaction throughout it all. The way your jaw slacks and drops open to the way you swallow when your hips meet with his, closing your eyes in pleasure at how he manages to fit inside you so perfectly. When everyone says your soulmate is made specifically for you, they really do mean in every way possible.

You sit like that for a moment, before opening your eyes and looking at your lover. He helps you move your hips up and back down, you let out a gsap at the sparks that fly up your spine. Your hips start to move in unison, yours grinding down and his moving up to meet yours in a steady rhythm, like a dance to music only you two can hear.

Your nails hurt when they move over his shoulders and chest, leaving temporary marks, but Donghyuck doesn’t mind. Actually, he loves it when you tug on his hair and scratch up his back, his whines turning into full out groans when you lean in and attach your lips to the side of his neck, pressing hot kisses down to his collarbone and biting down gently in the same place this whole situation started.

“H-Hyuck, I—” Before you know it, you’re so close to your orgasm, it’s basically right in front of you to reach out and accept.

“I know, baby, I know. You can come, I got you.” He answers back messily, using the last of his energy to keep your hips in place and drive himself into you. You let out a shriek at the sudden pleasure, only a few more deep thrusts into your hole and you’re falling over him as your orgasm spreads to every crevice of your body.

Donghyuck loves the way your muscles seize and flutter around him, making him pant and his thrusts become sloppy as he comes as well, his warm seed filling you up as he rides through his high. You both fall into the mattress below, you on top of Donghyuck, too tired to roll over and opting to just rest on his sweaty chest.

“I think that was way better than sleeping.” He says, his chest rumbling underneath you as he speaks.

“What a good way to tire ourselves out.” You yawn.

In the last few moments before your tired bodies fall asleep, you find Donghyuck’s hand and intertwine your fingers together, happily and contently falling asleep with the fresh air coming through the window and the sunlight now fully streaming into the room.

In the late summer before your and Donghyuck’s last year of university, you attend a wedding. Not just any wedding: Yuqi and Lucas’ wedding.

Although the ceremony is held outside, there’s a nice breeze that keeps the guests from getting too hot and sweaty in the summer sun. The whole wedding is held in a botanical garden and the place is decorated in white and purple, lilacs and daisies filling vases everywhere you go and freshening the air with their scent.

You and Donghyuck walk into the room inside the administrative building that’s designated for the bride. Yuqi is there, her face shining brightly with happiness and a glow that can’t be stolen from her today.

When you walk in, you let out a sound of delight at how pretty your college friend looks in her wedding dress, taking note of the chamomile flowers that adorn her hairpiece.

“Ah, I can’t believe you’re here.” She all but shrieks, embracing you tightly with her small bouquet still in her hands. After she gives Donghyuck a small, welcoming hug, she backs away to look at both of you.

“You look amazing today, I can’t believe you’re actually getting married. Congratulations.” You say sincerely.

“I can’t believe it either, actually. I feel like we’ve been planning this for forever, and now the day is finally here.” She recalls, a blissful look in her eyes even though you’re aware of how much stress she has had during the past few months over this one day.

“Are you nervous?” Donghyuck asks and you nudge his side and send him a look for asking a question like that.

“No, I’m not,” Yuqi laughs, “I feel one hundred percent happy. Like I’m starting the next part of my life with the one I love.”

“I’m glad you can spend the rest of your life with your soulmate, you’re definitely luckier than most.” You muse, and she suddenly softens her expression and takes your hand in hers, gently holding onto you.

“I’m not marrying my soulmate. I’m marrying the one I love. It just happens to be the same person.”

After bidding your farewells and good lucks, you and Donghyuck walk out of the room and head to where the ceremony will be held. He pulls out of sunglasses, propping them on the edge of his nose, and then grabbing your hand and strolling through the exhibits on the way to the ceremony grounds.

Yuqi’s words ring in your head throughout the peaceful walk, specifically how happy she looked to be marrying the one she loves. Somehow, you never thought about separating soulmate from lover; those two people have always been one in your head. You always thought that there can’t be a soulmate without a lover, and there can’t be a lover without a soulmate.

But the moment with Yuqi reminded you of the first time Donghyuck properly confessed to you, the words you can still hear floating through your head whenever your mind wanders off and thinks about him.

“I think I would’ve fallen in love with you even if we weren’t destined to be together.”

Maybe Donghyuck has been wiser than you this whole time. Not that you’d ever admit that to his face, unless you’d like to hear about it at least three times a week for the rest of your life.

Every memory— every year that has passed by with Donghyuck has only grown the idea of soulmate and lover further apart in your mind, and it took the matrimony of your close friends to realize it. You don’t think it’s a bad thing; in fact, you’re lucky that you can call your lover and your soulmate the same person.

You feel something tugging at your hand, and when you look over at your lover, he looks at you expectedly.

“Huh?” You say, dumbfounded since you’ve been in your own little world for who knows how long. Donghyuck laughs, bending over a bit at the funny, bewildered look on your face before straightening up and looking over to you again.

“I said, what colors should we do for our wedding? I personally think I look good in red, but I’m sure we can figure out something less contrasting.” He explains nonchalantly, you realize he’s kicking a random pebble around as you walk. Looking around, confused out of your mind, you turn back to him.

“Are we getting married?”

“Well, yeah,” He does something between a laugh and a scoff before leaning next to you, a serious look that permeates through the shade of his sunglasses, “You do want to marry me, right?”

Your brain is in a complete fritz. If you had a whole day to think about this you could maybe make up a sentence that resembles a sophisticated answer, but you can only shrug.

“Uh, yeah, I guess.”

“You guess?” Donghyuck stops walking, “I just asked you if you want to get married, and you reply with ‘uh, yeah, I guess.’” He mocks your tone and it makes you roll your eyes at him.

“This is the first time we’ve ever talked about this and I got nervous.” You explain, making him relax and stand in front of you with his hands leisurely resting in his pockets. “Of course, someday I would like to marry you. I guess you’re… tolerable.” Donghyuck pushes you away from him and quickly walks down the path, twice as fast as he was walking before. You laugh and follow him, running slightly to catch up.

“Excuse me, Miss, would you like to leave a wish for the happy couple?” A sudden voice stops you, making you turn back around. A man stands with a camera, looking at you expectedly.

“Uh, how?” You look from the camera and back up to him.

“I’ll take your picture. You can write a wish on it and hang it up over there.” He points to the dozens of polaroids already hung up a few feet away, random people posing in the photographs with different color writing on every picture.

“Let’s do it.” Donghyuck comes up behind you, no doubt catching the last part of what the photographer said and pushing you lightly over to where there’s better lighting while taking off his sunglasses and tucking them into his shirt. The photographer asks you to pose, and you and Donghyuck smile for the camera, your eyes slightly shut due to the sun beating down on top of you.

“Great, how about one more for yourselves?” The photographer asks as he waits for the photograph to develop and you agree. This time, Donghyuck wraps an arm around you and pulls you closer so that your back is against his chest. You feel him rest his cheek on your head and drape his other arm around your front. You grab onto his forearm, not knowing what to do with your hands, and then suddenly the picture is taken and the photographer hands over both of the developed photos.

You take the second picture out of Donghyuck’s hands, not being able to look away. The sun seems to hit both of you just right, and the slight candidness of the photo adds another layer of reality to the picture. Donghyuck has a small smile while his cheek is slightly squished against your head, but he still looks as handsome as ever.

“What wish should we leave them?” He asks, picking up a golden sharpie from the table nearby, somehow already having his sunglasses back on.

“Maybe just… Congratulations on getting married?” You suggest.

“And a million other people will have the same thing. We need to be memorable.” He stresses and taps the end of the sharpie against his head. “What do you wish for Lucas and Yuqi?”

“I wish…” You think about it for a moment, “For them to have a lifetime of memories that they can share until the very end.” You nod.

“Oh?” Donghyuck looks at you, “When did you become a poet?” He asks as he writes that down at the bottom of the first picture.

“I’ve always been like this. I’m glad you just now figured it out.” You reply sarcastically, to which Donghyuck replies back with his own sarcastic laugh. He hangs up your picture close to where Mark and Xiaojun hung up their’s, and then turns back around.

“Alright, let’s get this show on the road.” He pushes up his sunglasses with his ring finger and thumb, walking with swagger towards the ceremony and grabbing your hand while he’s passing by.

“If you’re going to be like this at our wedding, maybe I’ll have to change my mind…”

For one today being one of the most awaited days of your life, it started out pretty regularly.

You wake up from the ringing of your alarm, get ready, and go to your classes for the day. You had breakfast before you left, and lunch right before your last class of the day. Even work was boring as usual, but nothing beat going to the store afterwards.

When you got to the aisle filled with shoes, you were first puzzled by how many options there are. So many colors and styles, you didn’t expect to be so overwhelmed and accidentally spent almost an hour just looking at every individual pair. This had to be perfect. This was going to be a memory that you thought about for the rest of your life.

You call Donghyuck when you approach your front door, he answers almost immediately.

“Hey, love, what’s up?” He yawns through the words, and you can’t help but smile as you look down at the bag in your hands.

“Oh, I was just wondering when you’ll be home.” You open the front door and shut it behind you, taking off your shoes.

“I’m right outside of our building. Did you just get home?” He asks, no doubt hearing the front door from your side of the line.

“I’ll talk to you when you get up here then, see you.” You send a kiss through the phone and abruptly end the call. If Donghyuck is right outside of the building he’ll be up to your apartment in just a few minutes.

You drop the rest of your things down at the front door and hurry into the kitchen, setting down the small white bag with a lace bow on top in the middle of the kitchen table, clearing the table of anything else. You slide into a seat at the table, fixing your clothes nervously as you hear the front door open. Not even a few seconds later, Donghyuck walks into the kitchen, his eyes moving from you to the white bag and back to you.

“What’s wrong?” He asks, dead serious. Your nerves and anxiety, and maybe even some fear, must be strong enough for him to feel. You shake your head and pat the chair next to you. Donghyuck takes a seat, he came through the door so quickly that he didn’t even take his shoes or his jacket off yet.

“Open the bag.” You can’t help the excited smile and small clap of your hands as he reaches out and holds the bag. He gives you a quizzical look, but you only nod to encourage him.

Donghyuck unties the lace ribbon, looking down into the bag for a few moments. You can’t read his face and you can’t feel any emotions from him, and your anxiety grows tenfold. He reaches in and pulls out the little shoes, a light blue color with white stitching. They’re so small, they can sit in Donghuck’s hand perfectly.

“What are these?” He asks, still looking at the shoes in his hand.

“Well, they’re shoes… For babies. For our baby.”

At your reply, he does nothing. He doesn’t react at all, which only worsens your nerves and makes your leg twitch up and down as you wait for him to say something. He swallows and sets the shoes on the table, still looking at then with a blank expression.

“You’re pregnant?”

“Yeah…” You reply, reaching out to put a hand over Donghyuck’s, “Say something.”

“I’m not sure what to say, this is very… sudden.” He tilts his head. Your stomach drops at the lack of emotion in his voice. You aren’t sure what you were expecting, but it was not this stoic expression in his face. Whatever traces of a smile that you had on your lips vanishes and you grip his hand tighter.

“I know this is not what we had planned. I know this is kind of… not good timing, since we’re still in school and not married, yet. But this is what fate had planned for us, I guess?” You’re not sure if you’re trying to console him or convince him, but the icky feeling in your stomach tells you Donghyuck’s reaction to the situation is not good.

“Yeah, fate did us real good.” Donghyuck replies sarcastically and you drop your hands from his, resting them in your lap. You can see the tears forming in his eyes even when he tries to look away from you, and you can feel the fear that’s boiling and overflowing inside him.

“I know you’re scared, I’m scared too. But we can get through this to—” You’re suddenly cut off by Donghyuck standing up abruptly.

“I’m not scared. I’m worried.” He rubs his face with his hands. “I’m worried that I won’t be able to support this kid. I’m worried I won’t be able to be here for you through it all. I’m so worried I’m going to end up like my father that I feel like it’s going to eat me alive.” He runs his hands through his hair, pulling his head back as he looks at the ceiling and paces around the kitchen.

“I never knew your father, but from what you told me, you’re nothing like him.” You stand up too, your legs feeling like jello.

“No, you don’t understand. What if I say something wrong and ruin this kid’s life like my father did to me? What if I can’t find a job after we graduate? Are you going to support all three of us? I can’t let you live like my mom did, it was too hard to watch back then and it’ll be even harder to watch now.” He suddenly stops, not giving you a chance to speak as he looks from you, to the little shoes, and back to you. “I can’t.”

“You… can’t what?” There’s panic rising in your voice as he shakes his head and backs away.

“I can’t be here, not around you or this baby. I won’t be a good father.” He turns and walks out of the kitchen, leaving you standing dumbfounded with tears brimming in your eyes. You move to the front door, watching at Donghyuck’s shaking hands pick up his keys and wallet.

“Are you leaving me? Right now?” He doesn’t look at you and he doesn’t answer, opening the door, “Wait!” You cry out. He stops, his shoulders tense and his hand clenching the doorknob.

“What about that promise you made me? Huh? You said that it’s not just a ‘you’ or a ‘me’ now. It’s an ‘us.’ You said you’ll do everything you can to not hurt us.” You ask, recalling the promise Donghyuck made back when you two were young college students, and a promise he has repeated and vowed to you over and over again every time your relationship got into a rough patch.

“I think… that what I’m doing is what’s best for us. It’ll be better if I wasn’t here. ___...” He looks back at your teary eyed figure with one last look of regret, “I love you. I’m so sorry.” And with that, he closes the door, leaving you all alone in your cold and dark apartment.

You jumped off of the bridge. You jumped off a while ago, actually, but the fall took longer than you expected. You thought Donghyuck would be there to catch you at the bottom, but he’s nowhere to be seen now. The fall was peaceful and enjoyable, a soft limbo between making the hardest decision in your life and the ultimate consequence of that decision. The fall was long and made you feel faux comfort, so when you reached the very end, it ended up hurting a lot worse. You knew jumping off of a bridge would kill you, so why did you jump?

You’re not sure how long you stand by the front door, but it’s long enough that the sun sets outside and the room turns dark. You stare at the door, waiting for Donghyuck to come back. You wait for the door to open and for him to run through, hugging you and whispering that he’ll be here for you. You can only walk up to the door and slide down onto your knees, your forehead pressed against the cool wood as you wait.

Tears run down your cheeks silently, your eyes red and your head hurts. You keep your forehead pressed against the door for the whole night, waiting for him to come back. You wait, and wait, and wait. Donghyuck never comes back.

Your heart rips open from pain, it feels like it’s bleeding onto the floor in front of you. Your mind is numb from any other emotion, your body is cold from sitting on the floor, but you can’t get yourself to stand up. That’s when you realize, this is it. This is how Donghyuck hurts you.

What a sick and twisted way for fate to finally serve up her plan. You almost forgot who Donghyuck is supposed to be; the one who loves you, and the one who hurts you the most.

— read epilogue here

[jadepetals]

so i kinda disappeared for 5 months lol anyways i’m back!! 

This Ain’t Red Wine by LetTheMusicMoveYou / 9054 words

Human Louis accidentally finds himself at a Vampire only party which actually turns out to maybe not be the worst thing.

Shut Up and Wink at Me by @flamboyantommo / 14163 words

Louis wants to go away to college to get away from everything having to do with his hometown. So when he finds out his roommate will be Harry Styles, perfect school athlete and the exact opposite of what Louis wants in a roommate, he's not happy about it.

save me, call me baby by @eeveelou / 14318 words

Louis didn't plan for him and his husband to be pregnant at the same time. Somehow, it works out.

Ready to Love (I've Been Guarded Long Enough) by juliedreamer / 15251 words

Louis Tomlinson might not hate his childhood nemesis as much as he convinced himself he did.

the way the storms blow by rbbsbb / 21649 words

Louis doesn’t have a habit of thinking about Harry’s dick.

That would be weird, seeing as they’re best mates, and they share a flat, and they’ve spent holidays at each other’s family homes. Their friendship hasn’t ever risen to a point where Louis should want to see his mate’s dick, and he’s happy to keep it that way.

Except, all that Louis can think about is exactly that. The size of it. The shape. The amount of people it’s been in.

Maybe it’s the tequila talking, or the fact that Louis’ just recently walked in to an eyeful of Harry taking turns on some slags that he’s never seen before, but. Louis’ mind can’t stop obsessing over the idea.

might we be stardust stories by ryanreynolds / 25212 words

In which werewolves and vampires have been fighting each other for a century, and Harry and Louis' marriage is what's gonna bring peace to the realm. Hopefully.

robbers and cowards by @adoredontour / 32337 words

A modern day robin hood au where louis and harry (don’t really) hate each other but they hate greedy billionaires more

the sound of shooting stars by @hazaesthetic / 33262 words

Sleepless in Seattle AU where Harry is Sam, Louis is Annie, and the universe has a twisted sense of humor. Guest starring: fate, magic, destiny, and one little girl who unknowingly changes everything.

Love will tear us apart by @wifeylouis / 33632 words

Soulmates au. Except they're not eachother's soulmates.

eyes off you by @soldouthaz / 39396 words

Charlie’s angels inspired fic where louis is the brains, harry is the charm, liam is the muscle, and niall drives the getaway car - and zayn is there, too. sometimes.

my heart, in deadly rhythm / 42000 words

Spies!AU in which Liam is the Wade to Louis' Kim Possible, Zayn seduces people for intel, Niall is an expert at blowing things up, and Harry is more than a bit famous in his particular field... or infamous, actually. And Louis? Well, Louis just wishes people would quit trying so bloody hard to kill him all the time.

give my love a four letter name by @levelofcharm / 46627 words

Louis hates Harry because he's a demon. Harry hates Louis because Louis hates him. Things change.

teenage dreams in a teenage circus / 50630 words

The three of them have always been a unit, seamlessly pulling pranks to get revenge and keep life interesting. The last few months of sixth form bring about a lot of changes, however. Gemma refuses to let anything stop her from getting into her top-pick uni, Perrie second-guesses what makes her special, and Louis breaks the most common of friend codes: he falls for his best mate's little brother. A coming-of-age tale rife with sneaking around, late-night vandalism, first times, successes, and jealousy.

And down the long and silent street by whimsicule / 86090 words

Wherein Louis and Harry are on the opposite ends of the social ladder, but their paths still cross on the filthy streets Louis calls his home. The odds are staked against them from the beginning, and even more when Louis' past finally catches up with him.

Pledge to the Wretched by @afterglowslouis / 95946 words

In the process of solving a murder, Louis falls in love with the man responsible.

fearless by @suspendrs / 97325 words

Harry left home without a word after high school, and a lot can change in ten years.

september

[sigillaria-svt]

𝕮𝖍𝖆𝖕𝖙𝖊𝖗 𝕺𝖓𝖊: 𝕻𝖗𝖔𝖑𝖔𝖌𝖚𝖊

Pairing: Reader x SEVENTEEN (Guild Fantasy AU)

Genres: Slice of Life, Action, Fantasy, Fluff/Angst

[Masterlist]

Edit: Did some minor adjustments to change the perspective

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Magical prowess and physical ability are not something that is easily gained in this world--instead, most of the abilities that make up brilliant magicians and brave warriors come from only one of two things: their blood or their loyalty to the darkness. If not passed down from their forefathers, others can only hope to gain powers by sacrificing something precious to them to the spirits that roam the wildlands. In the Almaz empire, great value is given to those with the power to harness magic that is light, pure, and holy—essentially magic that is considered clean. Although it isn’t something explicitly taught in schools, the empire definitely has a distorted view of those whose specializations lie in the gray area between what is good and what is evil.

Yet here you are, a female Naturalist of the Empire, also known as the Poisoner of Jatropha, a name that you really wanted to just get rid of because of how it takes you away from guild opportunities. In your free time, you can be found in the many libraries of the city, but during your spare time you study poisons and the properties that cause them, so you aren't really surprised about why they call you so.

Even before you got your infamous nickname, you've never really been associated with a guild. It's not that you were too weak to be accepted anywhere, but that the guilds have always shunned those that are involved in poisoning and other dark arts. You don't quite consider it a 'dark' art, since your goal in the first place was never to use it to poison other humans, but to find a way to poison dark creatures for the advantage of humans. That kind of logic never pushed through anyone, though, not especially in the Empire where light magic is the standard.

But today was a bit different from your usual guild-scouting shenanigans. In your visit to the Guild Masterhouse, you look through the bulletin board for guild openings and find one guild that had never submitted its name in for recruitment before: the guild SEVENTEEN.

Now normally, you'd avoid getting into a guild that was as exclusive as this, but in this case you think it'd be worth considering, even though for all the years that you've known them, they've never expanded beyond their original thirteen members. However, this was also one of the guilds that you might have a shot at. One of the members is an infamous necromancer, Yoon Jeonghan. If they're willing to take him in, they might take in a naturalist like you. Not that you are a typical naturalist--you aren't. You are a poisoner by definition, although not by classification, but there is more than one way to make use of your abilities, and you were going to give it your all.

You head over to the guild secretary at a desk on the other side of the room.

"Oh hello, Y/N." She says, not looking up as she looks through some papers. "Ready to give it another shot?"

"Yes." You say, almost laughing. You've visited this place at least once every week for the past six months, and you can't help but feel embarrassed and amused at the same time. "I heard that SEVENTEEN was looking for new people."

At this, the secretary looks up. "Well, yes. Yes, but..." She taps the papers in front of her to align them into a neat stack. "So far around twenty people have applied, all of them actually very good fighters, but the next day I come to work with a notice of rejection from the guild."

Rejection isn't something new to you. You simply nod at her and hold out your hand for the application paper.

"Alright, of course. You're going to try anyway, aren't you?"

With the filled and stamped application form, you make your way to SEVENTEEN's guild house, which was inconveniently found at the westernmost part of the city bordering the forest. Even the steam trains only led you up to the city walls, requiring you to take another hour of walking through the dirt roads of the great plains before finally spotting the single large building standing out against the pale grass.

 The guild house is a three-story stone building with glassed windows and an even taller stone tower at the western wing facing the great plains. You walk up to the large wooden door on the front and knock as hard as you could.

After a few moments, the door is opened by an equally large, tan-skinned man who looks like he just got out of bed. "Huuuhhh...."

"Uh, hi, hello. My name is Y/N," You say with a smile, hopefully energetic enough to wake up the man. "I'm here to apply for that guild member position...?"

He squints at you. "You look like a student."

You frown slightly. "I'm a Naturalist. I cure diseases... or well, kind of. Or not. It depends. But anyway, is the position still open?"

The man steps aside to let you in, scratching the back of his head as he yawns. "Wait inside, I'll go get our leader."

You walk in and see the great contrast of the relatively mild exterior to the messy and diverse interior. Despite only having thirteen members--which is very small in comparison to other guilds--the inside of the large house is filled with a variety of equipment, books, furniture, and even a random summoned creature laying on the carpet. You aren't so sure where to sit, but the man beckons you to one of the couches--which, is not at all complimentary to the brown couch right at the other side of it.

The man disappears into the flight of stairs at the eastern end of the building, dragging his steps as he goes along.

While you wait, you look around. Despite the mess, the house is quiet, and the silence makes you feel all the more need to do or say something.

Thankfully, though, the man returns with three other people in a few minutes, one of which you recognize as Jeonghan the necromancer. You give them a small bow and a tight-lipped smile as they approach you. One of the three men, who is larger in build but more or less the same height as the other two, nods to the large man to dismiss him. He enters into one of the doors and is audibly heard falling back to his bed.

"It's nice to meet you. If you don't mind, we'll be having a quick interview here, followed by a quick sparring session outside." Says the man in the middle. "My name is Choi Seungcheol, and this is Yoon Jeonghan and Hong Joshua who will be assisting me with the recruitment process."

You already heard this hundreds of times before. In every single guild, the protocol was always the same.

"Alright, sounds good." You say comfortably.

They sit on the couch on the other side of yours, each of them looking like they haven't slept much either. You know the man is going to ask you some questions, but you're not really sure about the other two. Jeonghan looks like he's going to ask the most absurd questions possible, while Joshua seems to be nice and friendly--but we never really know what goes on in the minds of strangers.

You hand the papers to Seungcheol and he goes over them very quickly. "You've never been in a guild before, huh? That's weird, last time I checked, a lot of guilds were looking for naturalists."

"Uhuh, well," You manage to laugh in the middle of your sentence--a bad habit that you have whenever you get nervous. "I specialize in poisons and well, obviously, their antidotes. But you know how it is, poison is considered a dark art and..."

The guild leader nods and immediately moves on to the question, understanding the distaste of most of the people for specialties like these. "Any offensive techniques in the field?"

You pause for a second. "I'm not bad, but it's a bit unconventional how I use it."

"Unconventional?"

"You'll get what I mean in the sparring session later." You say quickly. This part always made the other guild recruiters suspicious, but it doesn't seem to phase the three all that much.

Joshua speaks up for the first time, leaning forward slightly as he starts. "How good is your general healing? I'm a Priest and I heard that your kind of healing is different from ours."

"Well, healing naturally fluctuates with the amount of damage the patient receives. I work my way through natural healing processes, and just speed up what happens along." You answer carefully. "I believe yours happens... a bit more magically, if I may say."

This earns a small laugh from the priest, and Jeonghan follows up with a question of his own. "Can you tell us about this poison that you seem to specialize in so much?"

The way he asked was strange, though. In fact, the question itself was strange because you don't remember telling anyone about your current research progress, nor writing it down on any documentation handed to them.

"Well... I've told a few guilds about it before, but I'm trying to work on poison against dark creatures." You stare at Jeonghan straight in the eye, and he stares back with his dark eyes as if he knew everything that was going on in your mind. "On its progress... well you're going to find out about that later if you decide to take me in."

"That's not what I meant."

You raise your eyebrows in surprise, but quickly compose yourself. "Okay, what did you mean?"

Jeonghan quickly moves his eyes to something right next to my head before returning back to meet my gaze. "The one that you worked on before you were going into poison against dark creatures... before you even graduated from the academy."

This has you dazed.

You think to yourself before answering. This was something that you were far more secretive about. You literally told nobody about this and worked on it in secret before deciding that it was far too dangerous to proceed. Your heart was racing thinking about whether or not it was safe to divulge this kind of information.

"If I tell you, would that increase my chances of getting in?"

"That depends."

"And what if I said that it was dangerous?"

Jeonghan remains silent. You were being extra careful with this because it might be sensitive to a necromancer like Jeonghan. You look over to Joshua and Seungcheol, but both of them have both confusion and anticipation. This question was something that only Yoon Jeonghan had a full grasp of.

"Well?" Jeonghan asks as he leans forward slightly.

You decide to tell the truth. It's not like they could turn you in for something they don't have concrete evidence of except for your word. "I was working on a poison that did nothing to the physical body but devastated your means of magic—a poison for the soul, essentially cutting off your abilities from your bloodline."

Seungcheol and Joshua looked shocked, and honestly slightly afraid, but Jeonghan remains calm about the entire thing. "And did it work?" Jeonghan asks.

"Well... yes." Your admission causes a few more eyebrows to be raised. "I know it's hard to believe, but yes, and I'm not going to go back into it ever again."

"Did something happen?" Joshua asks. "I mean, you can tell us only if you're comfortable."

"Hmm, nothing grand happened. Even if it worked, I didn't make any attempt to make it perfect. I used it one someone I know and... well let's just say they're working to get back years of lost work."

Jeonghan looks at you with a raised eyebrow.

"What do you mean?"

"What I mean is that I damaged a link, somewhere… perhaps. He lost half of his abilities spontaneously over the course of a few days. If the dose was stronger or the poison less contaminated, he would have lost everything." You say, worried but relieved to get it off your chest. "I... didn't mean to do it, and I told my friend about it but... Well, we don't really talk anymore."

Silence. You couldn't hear anything else except for your heartbeat in the large room.

Jeonghan looks as if he's contemplating something before speaking, looking at different things around the room, as if in a conversation that only he's in. "Alright, we'll take you in. Go get your things and move in by tomorrow."

"What?" you ask with a bit of shock. To your surprise, both Seungcheol and Joshua mirrored your reaction to Jeonghan's statement.

"Wait, no, Jeonghan." Seungcheol says, putting his hand over Jeonghan's shoulder. "We haven't even sparred, and we just heard that she had been working on dangerous things--heck, we haven't even run a thorough background check on her!"

Jeonghan crosses his arms. "Well, the ghosts seem to like her, and she doesn’t seem to be lying or having bad intentions. Do you want to go ahead and get poisoned as a free trial, then?"

"Well, I mean, I do have an antidote for all my poisons if you still want to tussle." You say quietly.

Jeonghan looks at you briefly but immediately goes back to Seungcheol. "We're looking for a support, and she fits the job. Poison is just one step away from medicine, anyway."

Joshua speaks up to ease the tension between the two. "If you're so decided on approving her application, it still wouldn't hurt to see her abilities, right? We should go on for a small sparring session."

Seungcheol turns to you. "You have those so-called unconventional fighting methods, don't you? Well, let's go ahead and see them."

You let out a nervous breath. He's making it seem like the request is your idea. "Alright."

The four of you head off to a small open area behind the guild house, right next to the edge of the towering forest. Seungcheol takes his place opposite to you as Jeonghan and Joshua watch at the sides. You haven't done a physical fight in a while, so you hope that muscle memory serves you well this time.

You take off your shoes, which earns a baffled look from the guild leader. "I can use poison, right?" You ask, and Jeonghan gives you a firm nod, all to Seungcheol's displeasure. "I'll take that as a yes."

Seungcheol was obviously taken aback initially, but all of that has now been replaced with complete focus as he uses basic spells to put up defenses and boost his own physical abilities.

From an inexperienced eye, it may look like you're simply standing on the grass with your feet to the ground, but underneath, you're already using magic to manipulate the one thing that your family has been for generations: roots.

It's hard to explain how magic feels like exactly, especially since it's different for everyone. The best way to imagine it would be like having your blood go thicker and heavier as it moves through your body. It's not painful or uncomfortable, just draining. It's hard to control what you can't see, but years of training have made you proficient at it.

They grow closer and closer to Seungcheol like a hidden animal waiting to pounce, and at just the right moment, they snap out of the ground to keep him in his place. You quickly run up to him and charge at him with a flurry of blows, but you're met with a completely calm defense.

Obviously, he was a better fighter than you, but that doesn't stop you from still trying to figure out a way to get through his defenses. You take a few steps back, trying to assess the situation again.

"Ah, this is pretty inconvenient." Seungcheol says as he attempts to wriggle out from the roots.

If you were going to impress the guild leader enough to let you in, you were going to have to take out your best weapons. In this case, you had one trick up your sleeve, but it was a gamble.

It's going to take up nearly all of your magical energy, but you do it anyway.

Before he lets another foot out, you take on a burst of power and manage to surge out a large tangle of tree roots, enough to engulf Seungcheol up to his shoulders. The speed of growth is not fast, but it is definitely sturdy. This time, it takes him off guard and disrupts a part of his magic defense around himself.

You take advantage of the situation and deftly climb on the roots to make up for the difference in height and pull out three large needles filled with paralyzing poison. Despite draining much of your magical energy, adrenaline pushes you to another burst of energy to end the match as quickly as you could. Your hands quickly make their way to his exposed neck, made more accessible with the tugging and pulling of the continuously growing tree roots.

Just one more inch further, and the needles would pierce him cleanly in the artery and poison would spread in a few heartbeats.

But it doesn't go in.

Instead, you find yourself abruptly thrown back and laid flat on the grass, pinned down by dancing shadows around your arms and legs.

"Alright. We'll end the fight here." Jeonghan says. With a flick of a wrist, he dismisses the shadows and you sit up from your position, still nearly breathless. "Release him from the roots will you?"

It takes you a few seconds before fully processing what had just happened. You look over to Seungcheol, is was nearly unseen under the thick layers of intertwined wooden roots, and you quickly bring them back to the ground. Seungcheol takes in deep breaths now that he's finally able to move again.

"Hey, Yoon Jeonghan! You said you'd intervene if it gets too dangerous!" He said, angry but not furious at his friend who was just smirking at the side. "I really thought I was going to black out!"

"It was your fault for underestimating her." He shrugs.

You slowly get up from your position, still shocked that you ended up this far away from Seungcheol in the blink of an eye. This was obviously Yoon Jeonghan's doing--sly spells from the sly necromancer. You've heard about how he works before, but it was definitely different from experiencing it yourself.

Seungcheol looks back at you, arms on his hips. "You did well, but I don't want to see those needles ever again."

"So, does this prove my point? The ghosts don't lie and we definitely need another healer or support if we want to do more missions with smaller teams." Jeonghan says, getting into a topic that you seem to be out of.

Finally, with a nod, Seungcheol gives in to Jeonghan. "Yeah, alright. Let's take her in."

A wave of joy mixed with relief washes over you.

Finally.

Finally.

After all this time, there is finally a guild that is willing to accept you. These past few months of working as an independent mage with a suspicious specialty will finally come to an end, and you were more than excited.

"Thank you very much, I'll do my best!"

◊◊◊◊◊◊◊◊◊◊◊◊◊◊◊◊◊◊◊◊◊◊

Thank you for getting through the first chapter! This is my first multi-chapter SEVENTEEN work, so I hope that you enjoyed it. I’m also excited to write on the individual members in the following chapters~

[geraskierficrecs]

Modern AU Stories

when midnights break their sleep by SummerFrost

The first Snapchat that anyone ever sends Geralt is a picture of his own irritated face.

shrike_princess: can u believe this dumbass finally got a snapchat bc a cute boy asked him nicely

"It wasn't even that nicely," Geralt says flatly.

AKA: The one where Geralt is a bartender and Jaskier sings karaoke.

(This is one of my favorite stories in the fandom.  I love it so much!!)

Give Me Nothing, Give Me You by dis

Ciri's kindergarten letter comes in the mail on a Tuesday. Geralt opens it, skims it, and frowns at the class his daughter has been assigned.

Dandelions.

Or: A modern AU with Dad!Geralt and Teacher!Jaskier.

Chopsticks by thisgirlsays22

“Yennefer sent me a check for eight lessons for you,” Jaskier said the following weekend, wearing a beige button-down with--

“Does your shirt have owls on it?” Geralt asked, caught somewhere between amusement and horror.

Jaskier looked down and tugged on the front of his shirt as if he had to remind himself what was on it. He beamed at Geralt. “Yeah! Do you like it?”

“Not particularly.”

The smile swiftly disappeared.

“It’s not terrible,” he amended, stepping back to let Jaskier inside the apartment. Then Jaskier’s initial words sank in. “Wait. Yen did what?”

Hanging up on Yennefer was always a mistake.

New Monster Stories by kathkin

“So do you have a name?”

“Yeah.” The man who had saved his life less than an hour ago – the white-haired, absurdly buff, weirdly sexy man Jaskier might have called taciturn if he was feeling charitable and surly if he was feeling less so – dug into his second burger.

Jaskier waited. “Are… you going to tell me what it is?”

The man paused mid-bite, and looked at him reproachfully as if to say how dare you. How dare you interrupt me. Can’t you see I’m enjoying my cheeseburger. Can’t you see this cheeseburger is the most important thing in my life right at the moment. He swallowed, and said, “Geralt.”

It turns out almost getting eaten by a werewolf can make your whole life go careening off in a new, terrifying, wondrous, artistically flourishing direction. Who knew?

Where There’s a Witcher by ghostinthelibrary

Jaskier is a twentysomething recently unemployed journalist and amateur musician looking for his big break. So when he’s saved from the jaws of a wyvern by the infamous Butcher of Blaviken, Geralt of Rivia, he comes up with a brilliant idea: he’ll follow the Witcher around and sing about their exploits. He’ll gain fame and fortune and Geralt will get a much needed image rehab. Everyone wins. Unless Jaskier goes and falls in love like an idiot.

Only Human Series by ghostintxelibrary

It’s a Tuesday, so someone is threatening to kill Jaskier.

Geralt doesn’t know why he’s surprised anymore.

Geralt moonlights as a superpowered vigilante called the Witcher, but his cover identity is the mild-mannered Geralt Rivia, reporter at The Continental Press. Jaskier is an entertainment writer at the Press and Geralt’s ex-boyfriend. He's obsessed with the Witcher, the vigilante who has saved his life multiple times. When Geralt is blackmailed by a powerful sorcerer into pursuing the Shrike, a serial killer who’s been targeting abusive men, Jaskier gets involved, despite Geralt’s best efforts.

(Seriously, all of her stuff is amazing.  Read it all.)

Thieves and Riches

Geralt is just trying to do a favor for an old friend when he finds himself tied up and shoved into a storage closet by a group of robbers. There he meets Jaskier, an enigmatic cat burglar who is a little too good at teasing a reaction of the normally stoic detective.

I’ll Never Be Free From Your Smile by whisperedstory

Geralt isn't sure how he got here, standing in his kitchen in black gym shorts and a baby pink—baby fucking pink—shirt that stretches too tightly over his muscles and has Toss a Coin written in sparkling gold letters across his chest while Jaskier is aiming a camera at his face.

Or: Jaskier is a YouTuber and Geralt is his best friend and roommate.

Next to You by Bean_Writes

Moving to a new town is one thing. Moving to a new town, becoming best friends with his neighbor and falling head over heels for her dad is something entirely different.

In his second year of college, Jaskier struggles with his undying crush on Geralt, Ciri's dad. It also doesn't help that the man's job involves him looking like an absolute wet dream come true, emerging from beneath a car, muscles flexing, slick with sweat and grease.

He's really fucked.

The Tale of Jaskier's Grudge Against Historians (and how they gave him his happy ending anyway) by notebooksandlaptops

[Text Sent From Ciri] Is there a reason why a love letter to Yen and Geralt is in the British Museum signed from you?? -C

[Text Sent to Ciri] Because Historians are nosey pricks. Do NOT tell your parents. -J

[Text Sent From Ciri] ;) – C

The winking face of a semicolon and a bracket stared up at him, composed of unforgiving pixels. She wouldn’t, would she? No. No. She couldn’t. She wouldn’t.

She wouldn’t.

-///-

Or, an exploration of the reason (immortal) Jaskier hates historians (hint: it's because they keep stealing his shit and putting it on display)