#muse writes

[osunism]

🐍 Nadja Hikmat Designed by Heaven to pierce Ryōmen Sukuna's heart.

🔱 Sundari Hikmat Conceived by love to balance the scales.

[dark-angel-of-muses]

Ravioli Good Omens AU

Been losing my kind over this with @breannasfluff haha

Legend is a tired, bitter angel who really doesn't want to give ungrateful people blessings

Ravio is a nervous, lonely demon that is supposed to sell cursed objects at a Needful Things type curio shop but keeps all his cursed merch off the shelves and runs a normal shop. Bad for customer retention when they're cursed whenever they buy from your shop, you know.

Ravio and Legend fudge their respective reports blaming each other for whenever their work doesn't get done. Oh, Ravio wanted to sell that cursed doll to someone, but the curse was removed by that Angel! Oh, Legend tried to hand out blessings, but they were siphoned away by that terrible demon!

Meanwhile they actually just live normal lives and ignore their divine/demonic ordained duties. Legend tends a small apple orchard. Ravio has a key to his his house and if either is asked how that happened they will dodge the question.

Ravio also has a "demonic familiar" bird that's actually just a normal bird he adopted. Hi Sheerow.

Ficlet under the cut!

"Um, Mr. Hero Angel sir? Excuse me? May I come in? I'd knock but, ah, your halo is right there on the door. I'm afraid I'd rather not be horribly burned?"

Link rolled his eyes. This demon. Link never even locked the doors anymore. He was being polite by asking to come in. But he was a demon! He didn't have to be polite! Besides, Link hadn't worn his halo in years, preferring to keep it as a door knocker. The remaining angelic power scared people, which meant he could reduce the number of visitors knocking at his door asking for blessings.

Link opened the door, fixing Ravio with a critical look. "I see you've brought a friend today."

Sheerow stared unblinking back at the angel. Ravio had taken him on as a pet after the little bird made a nest on his windowsill and refused to leave.

"Ah, well. You see, I needed to bring him along. I ask for a favor. Just a tiny one!"

Link groaned, swinging the door wide and letting the demon in. If it had been a human, he would have shut the door in their face, but Ravio was.... special. They'd been in each other's orbit since creation. Link was supposed to give blessings, Ravio was supposed to place curses. For a while, they did their jobs, occasionally getting in each other's way. Link would break some curses, Ravio would steal away some blessings.

Eventually, they made an agreement to stop interfering entirely. Link was tired of handing out blessings while his Bosses were thanked, and Ravio didn't much like giving curses. Made one a bit lonely when everyone they met encountered a horrible fate. If anyone asked, they were doing the same work they'd always done, since their output was about the same.

"You want tea?" Link walked to the kitchen to start the kettle.

"Ah, it's not holy water if _you_ boil it, right?" Ravio shuffled nervously, black wings fluttering.

"No. If all I had to do to bless something was touch it, I wouldn't hate blessing so much. Besides, it's not like when you boil pasta, the spaghetti becomes demonic." Link rolled his eyes at the thought. Ravio was so nervous about cavorting with an Angel. Link knew their superiors didn't care. As long as the status quo was maintained, a little rule breaking wasn't noted by either side.

"It's not like I'm cooking for anyone else, I wouldn't know," Ravio protested.

Link dropped the black tea bags into the kettle and left it to set as he flopped into his favorite armchair. "Alright, demon. What's the favor?"

"Could you perform a blessing for me?"

Link blinked. Was he being pranked? "Excuse me?"

"It's just, I've grown fond of this little guy," Ravio scooped Sheerow into his palm, holding the bird up with one hand and covering him with the other, "And I read that birds only live 30 years, and Sheerow was an adult when I found him! If you could bless him with longevity, I would be so grateful!" Ravio bit his lip, buck teeth showing as his nose twitched.

"You do realize if your people downstairs heard that question, they would smite you?"

Ravio blushed. "Look, if it's a no, we can pretend this conversation never happened. I just thought, since we already had a deal and all, you might help me out? I do promise to pay you back! Uh, if this conversation happened. Did it happen?" Ravio's primary feathers twitched and puffed.

Link rolled his eyes. "Pay me back? What, can you curse the mealworms rotting my apples?"

"Done! They'll be cursed with an affliction so they never desire to eat again! Starvation from apathy. Lots of suffering, I promise!"

Link stared. Was he serious? He had meant it as a joke, but Ravio's face was fully earnest. He... really wanted this. Wanted to get a blessing and fully willing to pay back in a way only he could.

"Well. alright. I'll bless your bird. After all, I can't just leave him in the hands of a demon unarmed, can I? If he lives long, maybe he can tempt you into good."

"Thank you so much! I'll make sure the curse lingers, no pest will ever touch your apples without suffering again!"

He was too good to be a demon. Then again, Link was pretty bad for an angel. Maybe they fit neatly together.

[chequerootlurks]

I added a few more of my Simpsonsverse fics from FFNet to AO3. Feel free to check them out!

[muse-write]

Chapter 10 is up!

Aaaand…with this chapter the published story is officially novel-length at just over 50k words!

[chequerootlurks]

I do that too! In reading and writing. Books that make me pace are always good!

As for writing, I wrote the bulk of this fic (Simpsonverse; Preston/Antoine centric) while walking along the beaches and trails on Sanibel Island, FL.

I wrote this one (Simpsonverse; Burns/Smithers centric) while walking along the rivers and canals outside of Chicago.

Movement in general helps me think. Drives too and from work, in a jet or train ride for business trips, stuff like that.

These two (Nuclear Attraction & The Unfolding of Waylon Smithers; both Burns/Smithers fics) were composed on the many flights between Chicago and the East Coast that I had to take for work.

i love pacing so much. got too excited about stories i gotta go have a little brisk walk about it

[tofixtheshadows]

I've been thinking a lot lately about how Kabru deprives himself.

Kabru as a character is intertwined with the idea that sometimes we have to sacrifice the needs of the few for the good of the many. He ultimately subverts this first by sabotaging the Canaries and then by letting Laios go, but in practice he's already been living a life of self-sacrifice.

Saving people, and learning the secrets of the dungeons to seal them, are what's important. Not his own comforts. Not his own desires. He forces them down until he doesn't know they're there, until one of them has to come spilling out during the confession in chapter 76.

Specifically, I think it's very significant, in a story about food and all that it entails, that Kabru is rarely shown eating. He's the deuteragonist of Dungeon Meshi, the cooking manga, but while meals are the anchoring points of Laios's journey, given loving focus, for Kabru, they're ... not.

I'm sure he eats during dungeon expeditions, in the routine way that adventurers must when they sit down to camp. But on the surface, you get the idea that Kabru spends most of his time doing his self-assigned dungeon-related tasks: meeting with people, studying them, putting together that evidence board, researching the dungeon, god knows what else. Feeding himself is secondary.

He's introduced during a meal, eating at a restaurant, just to set up the contrast between his party and Laios's. And it's the last normal meal we see him eating until the communal ending feast (if you consider Falin's dragon parts normal).

First, we get this:

Kabru's response here is such a non-answer, it strongly implies to me that he wasn't thinking about it until Rin brought it up. That he might not even be feeling the hunger signals that he logically knew he should.

They sit down to eat, but Kabru is never drawn reaching for food or eating it like the rest of his party. He only drinks.

It's possible this means nothing, that we can just assume he's putting food in his mouth off-panel, but again, this entire manga is about food. Cooking it, eating it, appreciating it, taking pleasure in it, grounding yourself in the necessary routine of it and affirming your right to live by consuming it. It's given such a huge focus.

We don't see him eat again until the harpy egg.

What a significant question for the protagonist to ask his foil in this story about eating! Aren't you hungry? Aren't you, Kabru?

He was revived only minutes ago after a violent encounter. And then he chokes down food that causes him further harm by triggering him, all because he's so determined to stay in Laios's good graces.

In his flashback, we see Milsiril trying to spoon-feed young Kabru cake that we know he doesn't like. He doesn't want to eat: he wants to be training.

Then with Mithrun, we see him eating the least-monstery monster food he can get his hands on, for the sake of survival- walking mushroom, barometz, an egg. The barometz is his first chance to make something like an a real meal, and he actually seems excited about it because he wants to replicate a lamb dish his mother used to make him!

...but he doesn't get to enjoy it like he wanted to.

Then, when all the Canaries are eating field rations ... Kabru still isn't shown eating. He's only shown giving food to Mithrun.

And of course the next time he eats is the bavarois, which for his sake is at least plant based ... but he still has to use a coping mechanism to get through it.

I don't think Kabru does this all on purpose. I think Kui does this all on purpose. Kabru's Post Traumatic Stress Disorder should be understood as informing his character just as much as Laios's autism informs his. It's another way that Kabru and Laios act as foils: where Laios takes pleasure in meals and approaches food with the excitement of discovery, Kabru's experiences with eating are tainted by his trauma. Laios indulges; Kabru denies himself. Laios is shown enjoying food, Kabru is shown struggling with it.

And I can very easily imagine a reason why Kabru might have a subconscious aversion towards eating.

Meals are the privilege of the living.

[selenekallanwriter]

Person: What's your book about?

Writers:

I'm both somehow 🙃

[jennycalendar]

another cool thing is when you devour a book over the course of a handful of hours and it fucks you up and you just have to lie on the couch feeling like your brain went swimming for too long & only just came up from under the water. art is so good

[lipikkawrites]

A lot will go wrong before everything goes right.

Keep moving forward.

-@lipikkawrites

[starklyscifi]

The thing people don’t realize about writing is that time spent just staring out the window is CRITICAL

[osunism]

「Before It's Gone」

Rating: Explicit [MDNI] Pairing: Toji x fem!Reader Warning[s]: Explicit sexual content including cunnilingus, PIV sex, breeding, and praise kink. Summary: You and Toji are crazy about each other. He's just late to realizing it. [Fluff, a smidge of angst on Toji's part, and smut] Note: It's my first reader fic!

▶• ılıılıılıılıılıılı. "Before It's Gone" by Jon B

AO3 ♱ OC Masterlist ♱ Fanfic Masterlist

     Toji doesn’t realize he’s crazy about you yet.

     Not when he’s coming through your door, taking up the whole frame, smirking down at you with those sharp green eyes, and that hungry glint in his eyes. You’ve got to stand up on your toes to reach him and he teases you, leaning over you to ghost his scarred lips over yours like the world’s deadliest feral cat.

     “Miss me, doll?” He purrs, chuckling when you bite your lip while his large hands grasp your hips, pulling you close, up and up until your feet are dangling and you instinctively wrap your legs around his waist.

     Only then does he kiss you, and boy does he love kissing you.

     He’s got a thing for your pretty little mouth, dishing out sass and affection alike. He thinks your lips are like soft, velvety rose petals. He loves nibbling on the lower one, tugging it gently before biting just hard enough to hear you whimper.

     “Toji…” you mumble as he keeps kissing you.

     “Hn?” He doesn’t stop either, licking into your mouth, large hands cupping and supporting your rear, giving both cheeks a generous squeeze.

     “The door…” you giggle. And he looks back, sees the front door is still wide open. He chuckles, shutting it behind him before he gets back to the task at hand.

     “Thought about you everyday while I was gone,” he whispers into your yielding mouth. “Missed my pretty girl.”

     He carries you into the kitchen, setting you on the island counter, his hands rubbing your thighs affectionately, squeezing them until he’s sure he leaves an impression of his fingerprints there. You look up at him, and he looks down at you and there’s a tender bend to his mouth that makes his smile less sharp. It melts the frost in his eyes, makes the green appear warmer. He doesn’t realize he looks like this when he’s looking at you. The only time anyone stares at him this close is when he’s killing them. But you…

     You’re something else.

     He reaches up, cups your face like something precious, traces his thumb over the contour of your cheek, smirking when he feels the heat rushing and blooming under his touch. His thumb traces your lips, marveling at their softness. You smile and press a soft kiss to the pad of his thumb. That undoes him, makes nerveless heartstrings thrum with an old familiarity. He’s felt like this before, and never thought he’d feel this way again.

     And you look into his eyes and you see something you’ve never seen before: fear.

     Toji is afraid. Afraid of what it means when his heart lurches out of his chest everytime you giggle or laugh. Afraid of what it means when his lips twitch into a soft smile whenever your name pops up on his phone. Afraid of what it means when he’s eager to wrap up assignments and come home to you, to lay his head in your lap and feel all the half-buried ghosts of his life go quiet for a while. Most of all, he’s afraid he will lose you, as he has lost everything else he has ever been brave enough to care about so deeply.

     And while Toji is feeling all this fear well up inside him, you’re looking up at him with a tenderness he doesn’t feel he deserves. He blew into your life like a storm and you never complained. He disappeared and reappeared like a stray cat, but you always had a hot meal and a warm bath ready for him whenever he turned up on your doorstep. And eventually, you found yourself making a space for him, noticing the negative space of his absence when he was away, doing whatever dark and filthy work put that look in his eyes.

     “Toji, baby, what’s wrong?” You ask him, reaching up to cup his face in your hands, mimicking his earlier movements. He smiles at you as you trace the lines that carve out his face, and he leans in as you draw him down to press a soft kiss to his lips, tracing the scar at the corner of his mouth with your own.

     “Nothing, doll,” he says, his voice rough with desire. “Just glad to be home.”

     That’s what it is. That’s what he’s feeling with you. He leans in to nuzzle your neck, kissing the tender expanse skin all the way up to your pulse and your jawline. You sigh contentedly.

     “Let’s go to bed,” you whisper, and Toji doesn’t need to be told twice. He pulls you to him as you wrap your arms and legs around him, and he carries you as if you weigh nothing, and you take this time to bury your face in the crook of his neck and inhale him. He smells like cologne, sweat, and gun oil. The muscles beneath are as hard as iron, yet Toji is as gentle as a butterfly with you. He is a man who knows his own strength and he’d break his own neck before he ever let harm come to you by his hands.

     “Ride’s over,” he teases, and you open your eyes to realize he’s standing at the edge of the bed. You shift as he lowers you down, and you’re once again made aware of just how big he is in general. Toji is a man who takes up space in any room he’s in. When you first got to know him, you felt a subtle unease in his presence, as if he were a cat on the verge of fear-biting or scratching. Eventually, you realized this presence was simply who he was. Whether he intended harm was something he had control over, and he’d never once given you reason to believe he’d ever harm you.

     Now, his size thrills you, in every way imaginable.

     You love the way his voice rumbles your name into your brown skin, the way he praises you in soft murmurs of affection.

     “You wanna take this off for me, baby girl?” He whispers in your ear, a hand crawling under your shirt, cupping your soft breast. You make a small little gasping noise as the rough pad of his thumb swipes over the dark bud of your nipple, smirking when it hardens immediately. You nod, not sure why it requires an answer. He leans back, watching you pull the shirt over your head, eyeing your pretty and perfect tits appraisingly. He looks like a wolf of a man, and you bite your lip, clad in nothing but your panties and thigh high socks. Toji thinks you’ve never looked sexier than right now.

     You spread your legs, and his eyes travel down, brow raising at the wet spot in your panties.

     “Already wet for me, pretty girl?” He teases. “I’m flattered.” He reaches down, traces the shape of your cunt through the damp fabric. He can feel it quivering, and you whine, shifting your hips involuntarily, chasing his touch and whimpering when he withdraws. He’s not going to let you get there so easily tonight, and you fix him with your best glare, full lips pouting. It amuses him, of course. You remind him of a hissing kitten, teeth not even sharp enough to sting, claws too tiny to break the skin. He teases the edge of your panties.

     “Toji…” you whimper. “Please…don’t tease me, baby…”

     Toji leans in between your spread thighs, pressing kisses along the soft flesh on either thigh, working his way closer until the rough edges of his scar trace the damp contour of your pussy through your panties. You make another noise, a desperate noise, and he laughs.

     “Use your words, baby,” he tells you, meeting your eyes, already pricked with tears of frustration. “Tell me what you want.”

     You feel your pussy throb at his words. He’s so close you can feel his breath on your quivering flesh. But he wants to hear you beg him for it, and so you naturally resist…or try to.

     But Toji is patient. His entire career is a testament to patience. He takes lives for a living, beloved. Your bratty resistance is nothing to him. Right now, the power is in his hands, and so are you, so if he wants you to beg him to fuck you with his tongue, that’s what you must do.

     “T-Toji…” you stammer his name at first, hips struggling against his inhuman strength, an exercise in futility. “Need your tongue inside me…pleasepleaseplease…”

     And then the words are coming out like a spray leak from a dam’s cracked exterior. Your feeble, bratty resistance shatters beneath the weight of your own desire and Toji grins.

     “Yeah?” He confirms, leaning in to press a soft, teasing kiss on the damp gusset of your panties. “This what you want, baby girl? Want me to give this pretty little pussy a nice long kiss?”

     You nod vigorously, chanting a chorus of yesplease. So well-mannered, and Toji rewards you, hooking a finger into your panties to slide them aside. You take smug satisfaction when you hear his soft, reverant swear at the sight of your naked cunt in his face. He traces your soaked folds with his fingers and your moan from the contact, spreading your legs wider.

     “Fuck, baby girl, you’re melting,” Toji whispers, spreading you open with two fingers to expose the swollen bud of your clit. He doesn’t give you time to prepare, leaning in to run the broad side of his tongue through your folds, groaning at the taste of you. Your mouth drops open in a soundless cry, before a small wail spirals out of you when Toji’s lips fasten around your clit and sucks in a pulsing rhythm. If it weren’t for his grip on your thigh, your hips would have stuttered into a gallop against his mouth. But Toji holds you still, forcing you to endure the endless compounding pleasure of his lips and tongue exploring every slick fold of your pussy. He pulls away briefly with a wet pop, his lips and chin glistening as he smirks up at you.

     “You look so pretty, baby,” he coos. “Think you can take me tonight?”

     He slips a finger into you as he says this, drawing out a moan from you as he begins to slide it in and out. Your pussy is talking to him, now, and slick squelching is the only sound in the bedroom before you nod your head. Yes, you can take him. You always try, but Toji is just so goddamn big you struggle sometimes.

     Tonight, however, he takes his time.

     He dives back in with his mouth, suckling your clit, rolling it between his lips and along his tongue, chasing the increased volume of your moans, and the wailing of his name as you beg him for release. Your pussy clenches tight around his finger before he adds another, increasing the sensation of being filled while his mouth works expertly.

     “Oh fuck…” you whine, reaching to grip the headboard. “Oh fuck…Toji…Toji…”

     Toji doesn’t let up. He keeps up the pumping of his fingers, crooking them upward to rub that spongey plane of flesh that makes your eyes roll back as you cum around his fingers and all over his face, moaning and whining incoherently as he finally—finally!—allows you to move your hips. Toji licks you clean, sucks his soaked fingers, and licks his lips with a low purr in his throat.

     “Mmm, you taste so fucking good, princess,” he says. “I could eat you all night, but I need to feel you cum around my cock tonight. You think you can do that for me, baby?”

     You nod, your eyes glassy with pleasure. Of course you can. As good as his mouth feels, his cock feels even better.

     Toji gives you a show, but it’s not the kind of show he knowingly puts on. He’s just one of those men that is effortlessly sexy by virtue of existing. He pulls his shirt over his head and your eyes rake over the rippling expanse of muscles that comprise him. It takes everything for you to not start panting like a dog when you spot that sexy, veiny Adonis V that vanishes into his pants. And when he comes out of his pants and briefs, freeing his cock, you can’t help but bite your lip, your cheeks burning with heat that has little to do with your first orgasm of the night.

     Toji knows you’re looking of course. He always knows. He smirks when he catches you staring at his cock, a thick and long length. He’s a lot to take in, quite literally. He reaches down and starts stroking himself slowly.

     “Come here,” you whisper to him and Toji, as dominant as he is, can’t help but come to you in that moment. Your voice is so soft and needy, and how can he resist when you open your arms and legs and welcome him like that? He moves with a panther’s lissome grace, and you’re reminded of what he is, what he does. He captures your mouth in a kiss, and your lips part beneath his with a soft moan.

     “You want it?” He whispers against your lips, forcing you to maintain eye contact. You can feel the heat from his cock brushing against your thigh.

     “Yes,” you whine softly against his lips, hungry for another kiss, which he indulges. “Toji please…need you inside me…please…”

     Toji angles his hips just so, and the blunt tip of his cock nudges it agaisnt your dripping entrance. He’s prepared you, though, and the initial stretch of him sliding into you is not as painful. In fact, it feels really, really good. As evident from how you moan loudly. Tears prick your eyes, and one spills down your cheek.

     “I know, I know, baby,” Toji coos, kissing your lips and then your cheeks, licking away the tears. He rolls his hips forward. “Almost there. You’re doing so good for me, baby girl. So fucking good…”

     He grunts as he rolls his hips again, withdrawing partially only to bury more of himself inside of you. You whine and sob, and then gasp as he hilts himself inside you, his pubes brushing your clit in a startling friction that has you moaning helplessly against him.

     “Mmph, baby…squeezing me so tight…” Toji growls against your lips. You whimper in response, your walls sucking at his cock greedily, as if you don’t want him to leave. You really don’t.

     Toji takes his time, looking at you and holding your gaze.

     “You ready?” He asks you and you nod. He kisses you deeply, and then he starts to fuck you.

     Normally, with Toji, he’s all rough and domineering, wanting to wring you limp with sweat and tears before he finally comes inside of you, growling and gripping you until his fingerprints are branded in your marrow. But tonight? Oh he wants you to be lucid for the ride. He’s tormenting you, making you gasp as he drags every inch of his massive cock out of you and then slides it back in with a fluid motion of his hips. It doesn’t take long for that rhythm to get you whimpering and pleading for him to never stop.

     “Ooo…Toji…don’tstopdon’tstopdon’tstop…” you beg, and he’s grinning at you, before you feel his hands sliding under your thighs, pushing them back, deepening the angle until the breath is a whine in your chest, until your eyes flutter and you let out a strangled, keening sound.

     Toji growls in approval. “Good girl…” he kisses you, devouring your whimpers and mewls like the wolf he is. “Good fucking girl…feel so fuckin’ good cummin’ around my cock. You want me to put a baby in you? Want me to fill this pretty little pussy up with my cum?”

     Your mind is still frazzled from the intensity of your orgasm to register your response, which is a babbling chorus of yesyesyesyesyesyesyes…please put a baby in me, Toji!

Toji’s got you in a mean mating press, now, leaning up to get a good look at your dripping cunt split around his cock. He reaches down, pulls his hips back just enough, and squeezes his fingers around the swollen lips of your pussy against his cock. He groans from the sensation and your back arches, walls clenching, and Toji resumes fucking you at a brutal pace.

     He just wanted to feel how tight a seam you create around his cock. You take him so well, which is no mean feat. And you take him deep.

     Every slap of his balls against your ass makes you yelp, and every thrust steals a gasp from you, words failing but the fucked out look in your eyes conveying everything Toji needs to understand you.

     “Yeah?” He teases you again, leaning down to nip at your plump lips. “You like the way I fuck you, princess? Like taking my cock so deep like this? Look at this pussy, baby. So fucking greedy.”

     You moan in response to his vulgarity, because it’s all true as far as you’re concerned. Yeah, your pussy is greedy for him, and why shouldn’t she be? Look at him!

     Toji teases your clit with his thumb, and he almost laughs at the shocked look on your face before he’s riding you at full gallop toward another orgasm.

     And when you cum, stars burst across your vision momentarily, like dancing lights all around the bedroom. Toji’s thrusts become ragged, losing rhythm, and you feel his cock pulsate inside of you as your walls spasm around him. He floods you with liquid heat as you moan his name. Toji takes it as a point of pride that he can get you to sing in bed the way you convince him to sing karaoke.

     He releases your legs, and they tumble loosely around him. This new closeness lets both of you indulge in slow, sloppy kisses, your arms tangling around his neck, fingers threading through his hair. He tugs your plump lower lip between his teeth.

     “Mmm, I love you so much, baby girl,” he groans, reveling in the sensation of his cock soaking inside of you as you kiss him tiredly, your eyes soft and blurred with pleasure.

     “Mmhmm,” you reply with a grateful little sigh. “You’d better…”

     You squeal when he pinches your hip in response, but neither of you seem inclined to stop kissing. Toji sits up a little to get a better look at your face.

     “You’re so damn gorgeous, baby, wish I could keep you like this forever,” he doesn’t know why he’s feeling so emotional looking at you. He hasn’t fully realized it yet. So you reach up and cup his face in your hands, holding his verdant gaze.

     “I’m not going anywhere, baby,” you tell him. “I’m right here.”

     Toji doesn’t know what’s happening to his heart, the way it stutters in his chest at your gentle words. He knows you mean it, knows that no matter how long he’s gone for, or what hour he drags himself exhausted and ragged through your door, you will never turn him away. He doesn’t understand why, because you ask nothing of him. At least, nothing he’s unwilling or unable to give you.

     He smiles, letting you draw him down for a kiss.

     He’s not quite ready for the dream to end just yet. He’s crazy about you, after all.

© 2024 Hajara Asiri. Do NOT copy, translate, plagiarize, repost anywhere without permission [reblogging posts is okay]. I only upload on Tumblr, AO3, and FFN. All banners by @cafekitsune.

Member of the @pixelcafe-network.

[dark-angel-of-muses]

Ace Wedding Night

Look, maybe they should have had this conversation when Ravio moved in. Definitely should have had it by the time they started dating. Absolutely should have had it when Legend proposed.

But it's his wedding night and "should have" isn't helping.

The ceremony was stellar, all the Chain helping take on some work to lighten the load. He'll admit, he cried when Time agreed to be the one to "give him away" since he had no living relatives to do so. Ravio looked stunning in his black wedding gown, a cold shoulder mermaid dress. Impa ordained the whole deal, and Fable hugged and congratulated her brother at the reception.

Honestly, while he was nervous about it in the days leading up to the wedding, Legend had entirely forgotten about tonight. lost in the joy of getting married, and making merry at the reception.

But now it's at the forefront of his mind. Ravio kissed him, long and heated, then said they should both take a shower before they started the rest of the night. The implications weren't lost to Legend, especially when the merchant fixed him with a heated, half-lidded stare.

Legend was stuck in the bathroom, though. He long finished his shower, but didn't move to turn off the water. He was scared. Once he did that, there was no going back. Ravio already showered, dressing in a sheer silk black nightgown. He was probably expecting Legend to come out in his own nightclothes, then they'd kiss and get on the bed and. Ugh.

It was stupid. Legend liked Ravio. He liked the idea of doing something nice for the merchant. Kisses and cuddles were great, and he couldn't get enough of them. But the idea of going further seemed so gross. Even if he tried to imagine it with Ravio, he couldn't get over how little any part of it appealed. Sweat, and saliva, and skin on skin. His stomach lurched.

"Link?" There were two knocks on the bathroom door. "Everything all right in there?"

He should respond. Say he's ok, and burst out in a big romantic gesture to scoop Ravio up and please him. He was a Hero Of Courage, dammit! Something this normal shouldn't be paralyzing him with fear.

"I'm coming in."

Legend wanted to stop him, to reassure him that everything was alright, but fear rendered him mute, just the same as when he was a child staring at his own wanted poster on the castle walls.

Oh, he was crying.

The moment Ravio saw him, he raced to his side in alarm. "Link? Are you ok? Are you hurt? What's going on?" The merchant took Legend's face in his hands, scanning to figure out what was wrong.

Legend tried to respond, but there was a ball of anxiety in his throat. Gently, Legend pushed Ravio back so the merchant could see his hands.

'I'm sorry. It's my fault.' He repeated the apology in circles over his chest.

Ravio switched to sign as well, eyes wide. 'What is? What's wrong?'

'I don't know why I'm scared. I love you." He should explain, but the concept was looming, terrifying. If he named it, it felt like it would break what little hold he still had over his emotions.

Ravio lifted his hands, seeming as if he was trying to sign something but couldn't find the words. This, his mouth formed a little 'o', some realization dawning on him. Then, his hand moved, forming a hook near his cheek with his other index finger crossed over it as he brought it up to his ear.

Legend blinked, uncomprehending. Ravio tilted his head, then nodded in understanding.

'Sorry, that's a sign my friend made up. It's for A-S-E-X-U-A-L.' Ravio fingerspelled quickly. Had he practiced that word a lot?

'Asexual?' Legend repeated the sign Ravio made earlier. Oh, it made sense. Like crossing out 'sex'.

'So are you?' Ravio said, his face filled with a terrifying patience. 

Legend hesitated. At least Ravio had heard of the term before. That helped calm the ball of anxiety, albeit only enough for him to speak.

"I am. I'm sorry I didn't warn you earlier. I just- I really do love you. I kept meaning to tell you, but I was so scared you'd think there was something wrong with me, or want to break up," Legend's voice hitched. How cowardly was he? If this was information Ravio was going to break up with him over, he should have told him before they were married! He was scum.

"Hey, hey, it's ok. Bun, look at me?" Ravio used the pad of his thumb to brush away the renewed tears. "I'd suspected something like that, I just didn't want to assume."

"Wait, what?"

"You never initiated or showed any interest, and every time we made out, you'd always stop the moment things started to escalate. I'm not stupid, you know?"

"It's not because of you, I promise. It's like this with everyone, I swear you're beautiful and you look so pretty in that nightgown-" Legend stopped abruptly as Ravio placed a finger on his lips.

"It's ok, I know what asexual means. Hilda is the same way. She got so frustrated with suitors not understanding that she wasn't interested in going farther with anyone. They always thought they were this exception, or they'd convert her. I know it isn't about me." Ravio smiled softly, grabbing Legend's hands to hold them reassuringly.

"I'm sorry. I should have told you," Legend hiccuped.

"I know it's scary. A lot of people wouldn't react well." Ravio squeezed his hands gently.

"Do you want to split up?" It was a whisper, raw and vulnerable.

Ravio had the gall to laugh at him. "If I needed sex, our relationship wouldn't have lasted this long. It's ok, I can take care of myself. If all you want is cuddles and kisses, I've been prepared for that."

Legend squeezed Ravio's hands back. All that fear melted away in a single sentence. It was almost unfair. "I love you so much."

"I know." Ravio kissed him, and when Legend cried, they both knew they were happy tears this time.

[humunanunga]

Enough of the trope where memory loss undoes the damage or the corruption or whatever. More content where removing memories just removes the context.

The tragedy of needing to grieve and not knowing what or who you lost or why. The angst of having trauma and being denied the awareness that it's trauma. The suspense of being different somehow and left to wonder how and when. The tension of knowing that something is off and you can't find where it hurts. The Adventure Zone gets it. Kingdom Hearts gets it.

There is an aching inside you and you don't know how it got there.

[chequerootlurks]

I finally started uploading my queer-positive fanfics to AO3.

You can check them out here:

[muse-write]

So since I can’t find my Inklings Challenge post anywhere on this blog by searching, I decided to go ahead and post it on Ao3 for archival purposes. Also I took some time to edit stuff that bothered me every time I looked at it, so I think it reads much better now.