#my brother is the only person who is able to hit all the right spots to make me mad in an instant

[thetriangletattoo]

.

[puckinghischier]

Surprise…?

Luke Hughes x fem!reader

summary: luke gets hurt during a game

notes: y’all i think i struggle writing luke for some reason. i just never seem to really like what i write when i write for him. wtf am i doing wrong 😩

request: can you do a post on luke Hughes getting badly injured the game at umich and both older brothers are there and get worried over him and major fluff

i strayed away a bit from the michigan aspect because i don’t feel comfy writing about college hockey players, so i changed it up a bit. i hope you still enjoy!! 🫶🏼

[3.3k]

~

There weren’t many times you regretted moving to Jersey, but right now was one of them. The constant traffic within the city wasn’t something that usually got under your skin, but today it was the absolute bane of your existence. Of course, you were in a hurry. A big one. You had approximately thirty minutes until puck drop, and you needed to get there before that puck hit that ice. No exceptions. You hadn’t told Luke what you were doing, so he probably already expected you to be there, wondering why you’re not in your usual seat for warm-ups.

As if he could hear your thoughts, your phone buzzed with a message from Luke, not being able to read what it said while trying to weave in and out of traffic.

“Quinn, can you see what Luke just sent. And then tell him I’m on my way. I don’t want him worrying that I’m not showing tonight,” you ask the Hughes brother currently in your passenger seat.

Quinn grabbed your phone from the cupholder, listening to you rattle off your passcode so he can open Luke’s message.

“He asked where you were, and if you were already there. Wanted to know why you weren’t in your seat for warm ups,” Quinn confirms your thoughts, looking to you for an answer.

“Tell him I’m just running late. Be there before puck drop. And tell him I love him and good luck.”

You hear the sound of Quinn typing your reply as you increase your speed, cursing the people who want to drive below the speed limit in the fast lane. This is what you get for trying to be a good girlfriend and surprise your boyfriend and his brother. You get stuck on the road with New Jersey’s worst drivers.

In your defense, you were supposed to already be safely at the arena in your seats, but Quinn’s airline had different plans. His flight being delayed by three hours gave you barely enough time to run and grab him from the airport and make it back to the Rock before the hockey game started. The only thing saving your ass right now is the fact that if you can just get there, you can go through the player entrance and avoid the crowds trying to get in at the last minute.

“If you don’t calm down and drive like a sane person, we’re never going to get there. We’ll be squashed on the side of the road,” Quinn scolds you, grasping what your dad always called the ‘oh shit’ handles.

“If I can just get around these idiots in front of me we’ll be fine. We’re almost at our exit, then I just have to pull around back and we’re in,” you tell him, once again pressing the gas pedal a little harder.

Quinn stays silent the rest of the drive, closing his eyes once you start speeding around the other cars on the freeway, finally getting to the right exit and rushing to the underground parking that the players always park in. You pull your car into the spot next to Jack’s, barely even turning the car off before you’re jumping out and sprinting to the entrance.

“C’mon, Quinn! I know you can move faster than that! We only have a few minutes! Move it!” You yell over your shoulder, Quinn barely having gotten out of the car.

“Remind me to never let you drive ever again,” is all he says as he catches up to you, looking a little greener than before.

The two of you make it inside the arena with no issues, sprinting to your seats just as the national anthem finishes, both teams sending their starting lines out on the ice.

You had managed to snag Quinn a seat next to you, asking the team’s manager for a favor to help surprise their rookie defenseman. With no hesitation, he handed you a ticket and a locker room pass for Quinn, knowing how homesick Luke had been lately. You had thanked him a million times, asking him to keep it a secret from both Jack and Luke, not wanting either one of them to know until the day of. He gave you his word, and was also the reason you were given access to the player parking for the night, not wanting Quinn to be ambushed by fans going through the regular entrance.

You felt your heart rate start to slow once you were both situated in your seats, glad that you had made it in time. Neither Jack nor Luke had looked over and noticed you yet. You wondered if they were going to clock Quinn before they took their stances on the ice.

Your question was soon answered as Jack looked back and saw you, waving and turning to get Luke’s attention before he did a double take, noticing the brunette sitting to you left. Quinn gave a small wave, flashing his younger brother a smile as you watched Jack’s eyes widen, mouth curving into beaming smile. Luke had turned back, looking in your direction, a relieved smile on his face once he noticed you were finally in your spot, eyes too focused on your figure to notice Quinn’s next to you. It wasn’t until he looked over at Jack and followed his gaze that he finally noticed his oldest brother in the crowd, a Devil’s hat on his head.

Luke’s eyes flicked over to you once again, mouthing ‘what the fuck?’ to you, your only response a shrug of the shoulders and a smirk on your face.

The two brothers quickly focused their attention to the officials on the ice, lowered into their stances, waiting for the puck to drop onto the ice.

“You know they’re going to compete now, right?” Quinn says as he elbows you to get your attention.

“Why would they compete? They’re literally playing for the same team. It doesn’t matter who scores as long as the team wins,” you respond, confused at Quinn’s words.

“It matters now. They do the same thing when mom or dad come to watch them. They want the praise. They want to be able to out perform the other so they can brag about it to me after the game,” Quinn clarifies.

“I don’t know about that. Jack’s been good about trying to set Luke up for success all year, I think they’ll surprise you.”

Quinn gives you a skeptical look, not believing your words, but lets it go otherwise; his attention quickly stolen by the sound of the puck hitting the ice, followed by clashing sticks and skates scraping against the frozen floor.

Much to your surprise, Quinn proved to be right. All throughout the first period, the two brothers fought to get the puck, sometimes even fighting against one another. You noticed the odd looks from their teammates, Nico even skating over to Jack during a tv timeout to ask him what was up, not having seen the pair act like this before. You kept throwing glares at Luke, trying to tell him to knock it off, that they’re playing for the same team, but he wouldn’t look at you for more than a few seconds at a time.

As the second period started, the competition between Jack and Luke had nearly ceased to exist. You assumed they got their asses chewed in the locker room during the intermission, noting how their coach seemed to watch them like a hawk. Once the brothers started actually playing together instead of against one another, the Devil’s were scoring goals left and right, putting up four goals before the end of the second period, one Luke’s and two being Jack’s.

With only three minutes left in the second period, Luke was attempting to get possession of the puck from behind the net, fighting two of the opposing players for the black piece of rubber. He lost control of the puck, and in a moment of frustration, pushed one of the enemy players in the back, wanting out of the sandwich they had put him in. The player he pushed fell forward onto the ice, drawing a penalty on Luke. The official had blown the whistle, stopping gameplay, when Luke looked over at him, frustrated at the call.

What Luke didn’t see was the player who had gotten the puck come skating up behind him at full speed, pushing Luke so hard his skates came out from under him, causing him to land on the ice on his back. He was angled just enough, though, that his body slid at high speed straight into the bottom of the wall a few feet away, head bouncing off the boards along the ice.

You were on your feet immediately, hands flying to the glass in front of you, begging for him to get up. Quinn jumped to his feet next to you, placing a hand on your shoulder, whether to comfort you or himself, you don’t know. Jack leaves his spot on the bench to skate over to his brother, falling to his knees on the ice, hovering above Luke.

Luke hadn’t moved yet. Not a foot twitch, a roll over in pain, or a thumbs up to let anyone know he’s okay. He’s laying lifeless on the ice, trainers calling his name, careful not to touch his head or neck. Your hand flies to cover your mouth, a sob making its way out of you when you noticed the stretcher being put on stand-by near the tunnel. Everything feels like it’s in slow motion, time stopped as Luke continues to lay, unmoving. Quinn tries to move you back from the glass, averting your attention from the scene in front of you, but your eyes are glued to Luke’s body.

You thought you imagined the twitch of his foot, thinking it was where the medics were tapping his leg, trying to coax him awake. When you finally see his body try to roll over, you let out the breath that you didn’t even know you were holding. Your relief was short-lived, however, when you hear the scream that makes its way out of Luke’s throat. You’re not sure which one hurt worse, him lying there not moving or the scream of agony that’s currently echoing through the arena.

Your knees start to give out, eyes blurring from the tears falling down your face. Quinn catches you as you slide down the glass, holding your sobbing figure in a crouched position.

“Quinn, gotta go. Gotta go, locker rooms,” you manage to say between sobs, trying to stand and make your way out of the stands.

“Okay, yeah, let’s go. Let’s get you out of here.”

The fans watch as Quinn guides you out of your seats and up the stairs. Most of them familiar with you, you and Luke not being super private with your relationship. A lot of them are still shouting obscenities at the player who went after Luke, demanding he be suspended. Some of them give you sad smiles as you pass, hoping your rookie is okay.

You finally reach the entrance to the training room, knowing this is where they’ll have taken him before they decide if he needs a hospital or not. You can hear them in there talking to him, unsure if you should enter yet or wait on someone to come out and get you. You stand at the doors, staring into space, when Quinn decides to speak up.

“He’s gonna be fine, Y/N. Probably a gnarly bruise, and likely a concussion, but it could’ve been worse. I know its scary, but I promise, he’s going to be okay. Might not even miss more than a game or two.”

All you can do is nod at the words, unable to do much else at the moment. You try to give a small smile, but you think it comes across as more of a grimace. You turn your head when you hear the door to the training room opens, revealing one of the team trainers.

“Oh, good, you’re already down here. He’s asking for you. Wants you to know he’s awake and okay. Nothing’s broken, just banged up and a mild concussion. Probably going to have him follow up with a doctor tomorrow, but for now he just needs rest. You can go ahead and go in. He won’t be playing the rest of the night,” the man in front of you finishes, stepping aside so you can walk through the open door.

You turn back to look at Quinn, seeing if he’s going to come with you.

“I’ll just give you two a minute first. Go ahead, I’ll be right behind you,” he tells you, wanting a minute to process his own emotions before seeing his baby brother.

You nod and turn to walk into the training room, following the trainer down a short hallway before turning the corner into a room with three different treatment tables, Luke’s long body taking up the farthest one. His head is laying back on a pillow, a large ice pack taped to his right shoulder. His gear is laying in a pile on the floor next to him, completely bare from the waist up. As you get closer, you can see the already purple skin forming in the exposed parts of his shoulder and upper arm. You gasp quietly at the bruised skin, causing Luke’s head to snap up at the sound.

“Hey, pretty girl,” he rasps out, voice raw from his screams earlier.

You stop on the side of the bed opposite to his injury, unable to say anything yet. Tears still streaming down your face, looking him over for any other signs of injury.

“Hey, no need to cry, angel. I’m okay, see. Just a little bruise. Nothing to be worried about. You should see the other guy,” he tries to joke, being told he left a dent in the wall where he hit.

You glare at him through your tears, unhappy with his weak attempt at joke.

“Okay, yeah, maybe not the time to joke just yet,” he brings the hand on his good arm up to rub the back of his neck, looking away from your tear-stained face.

“You were unconscious, Luke…you weren’t moving,” is all you managed, staring at his injured shoulder.

“I know, baby, I know. But I’m awake now, see?” he gestures towards his body with his good arm. “I’m just fine. Yapping ability unaffected,” he once again tries to bring a smile to your face, this time it almost works.

“God, Luke, if you could’ve heard the scream you let out,” you shudder at the memory. “It was the worst sound I’ve ever heard in my life. I thought my heart was going to rip in two right there on the spot. I don’t ever want to hear the sound again,” you finally look at his face, noting the small cut on his forehead, you assume from his helmet.

“Y/N, I’m so sorry you had to witness all of it. I can’t imagine how it must’ve looked,” his tone apologetic. “If the roles were reversed, I don’t think I would have been able to keep myself from trying to climb over the glass to get to you. But I promise, sweetheart, I’m fine. Told me as long as my head’s fine I should only have to miss two or three games to let the bruise run its course,” he grabs your hand, rubbing small circles with his thumb.

“It was just so scary, Luke,” you sniffle, closing your eyes for a brief moment. You finally start to calm down now that his hand is in yours.

“I know. But now you get to play doctor and take care of me for a few days. Kiss all my boo boo’s better,” Luke wiggles his eyebrows at you, finally earning that laugh he’s been trying to get out of you since you walked in.

“That was probably one of the ickiest things you’ve ever said to me,” you laugh with Luke, fake gagging for dramatic effect.

Luke opens his mouth to say something else, but the the doors to the training room open, cutting him off. The familiar sound of skates against the floor making their way towards the two of you. Jack turns the corner, a frantic look in his eyes until he lands on Luke, awake and sitting up.

“I’m going to kill you for scaring me like that,” Jack points a finger, glaring at his younger brother. “I mean, why the fuck did you hit him, Luke! What were you thinking? You know how these guys are, they’re begging for any excuse to fight! They don’t care if you’re a 20 something rookie, they’re gonna hit back, dumbass!” Jack yells at Luke, throwing his arms around in frustration.

Luke winces at the volume of Jack’s voice, his ears sensitive to loud noises right now. Before you can get the words out to tell Jack to be quieter, Quinn enters the room and does it for you.

“Jack, be quiet for fuck’s sake. He has a concussion; you yelling at him is only going to make it worse. Yell at him later.”

“Well, it was stupid, Q. What he did was stupid,” Jack says in a normal tone of voice, still angry.  

“Don’t act like you’ve never done anything stupid on the ice before. Just because you never get caught when you hit people doesn’t mean you don’t do it,” Quinn walks over to stand beside Jack at the end of the table.

“You good, Moose? Looked pretty nasty out there from where I was sitting. Scared us, man,” Quinn asks Luke, tapping him on the foot. You note the redness of Quinn’s eyes, knowing how much he cares for both of his brothers. The whole situation shook him up, too, you were just too worried about Luke to notice at the time.

“Yeah, m’alright. Head hurts. Shoulder feels like it’s been run over by the ‘boni, but other than that I got off pretty clean. Nothing’s broken. Have to miss two games at least, more if my head ain’t right,” Luke answers Quinn, moving his hand so he can thread his fingers through yours.

“Your head’s never been right, Moose,” Jack says, causing Luke to roll his eyes.

Quinn leans over to bump his shoulder into Jack’s, shaking his head, unimpressed with his joke.

“Wait,” Luke starts, causing everyone to look up at him. “Are we just not going to address the fact that Quinn randomly showed up to the game tonight?”

“Yeah, how did you get here. Shouldn’t you be in Vancouver right now?” Jack adds, looking over at his older brother suspiciously.

Quinn looks over to you, causing the other two Hughes to shift their gaze your way.

“Surprise?” you say as a question, not knowing what to do with all the eyes in the room on you.

“You did this?” You look over at Luke, nearly eye level with him, even though he’s laying on the table beside you.

“Well, I know you’ve been struggling with adjusting to life here lately, and you were feeling pretty homesick, so I figured it would be nice for you to have both of your brothers in Jersey for a night or two,” you shrug your shoulders, not seeing the big deal with your actions.

“Tried to get your parents here, too, but they couldn’t leave work right now. They sent their love and apologies, though. Promised me they’d be at a game as soon as they could,” you added, wishing you could’ve had all the Hughes here tonight.

“I….I don’t know what to say,” Luke looks at you, so much affection in his eyes it makes you squirm.

“Well, a thank you would be a nice start,” you joke.

“Thank you. I love you. So much. If I could lean over to kiss you right now I would,” Luke brings your hand up to his mouth, placing a kiss on the back of your hand clasped in his.

“Please, for the love of god, don’t make me witness anything else painful tonight,” Jack interrupts the moment, earning a slap to the back of the head from Quinn.

“Don’t you have a game to go finish, jackass?”

“Oh, shit, yeah,” Jack jumps, forgetting about the last period that’s about to start. “See you at home, Moose, Q. You, too, Y/N. Assume you’re staying over to help take care of the patient, yeah?” He nods his head towards the injured one in the room.

“Yeah, I’ll be there. Be safe, Jack. Good luck,” you wave as he turns to leave.

“I’ll go pull the car around, be back in a few to help you get this ole’ goon out of here,” Quinn announces before leaving you and Luke alone once more.

“So, you’re really going to stay over? Play nurse for me?” Luke asks, looking at you with puppy dog eyes, batting his eyelashes.

“Of course I’m staying over. I can’t trust Jack to make sure you’re not up and around doing something stupid when you’re supposed to be resting.”

“So, if you’re going to play nurse, does this mean we can stop on the way home and get you one of those sexy nurse outfits?” Luke asks, eyes hopeful.

“Maybe they should’ve just left you out there unconscious on the ice, you were less annoying that way,” you fire back, smiling at the laugh Luke let out, thanking your lucky stars your boy is okay.

[riordanness]

champagne problems — [l.laurence]

wordcount: 3.2K

warnings: angst

requested: no

a/n: i really love this fic, i spent a super long time on it and it took me ages but i love it so i hope you love it too <3

“Thank you,” I tell my dance partner, another nameless, tasteless, personality-less boy I will never see again. I smile and curtsy, and turn away, as I do every time. No one will ever fill the hole in my heart the way that he did.

I spot Amy talking to Fred, and weave my way towards them. I don’t know anyone else by anything more than name, and it’s awkward. It’s stiff, it’s strange, and it’s uncomfortable. Trying to make friends with these men, men who couldn’t care less about my feelings or my ambitions; just my pretty face and my willingness to marry. Once they discovered I didn’t have my heart in that; at least not anymore, they lost all interest in me.

“Hey, y/n,” Amy greets me, offering me a glass of what I think is champagne.

“Thank you,” I tell her, and take a sip.

“How are you enjoying the party?” Fred addresses me.

I shrug, and try to smile. “It is alright.”

Amy has a sympathetic look on her face. She knows me a little bit too well. All the March sisters do, as well as… him. He knew me better than anyone. Or at least that’s what I thought.

“Laurie!” I laughed, giggling so hard I couldn’t even escape him. His arms caught me tightly, poking and tickling my waist. I squirmed, but the pure joy of being with him was almost overwhelming.

“What?” he teased. “What’s wrong, y/n? Hmm?”

“S-Stop!” I gasped for air, playfully hitting him on the arm. Well, it was a pretty hard punch, actually.

“Ow! Y/n!” Laurie released me and winced, grabbing his arm.

“I’m sorry!” I tried to stop laughing.

He stared at me for a heartbeat, and just as my smile faded, he then grinned. “Gotcha.”

His happiness was infectious. I was smiling again, laughing again, purely and completely content to live forever in this moment.

“Y/n.”

Amy’s voice is a warning, and my brain only hears it a minute after I should. “Hmm?” I ask, glancing up at her. She’s used to my daydreaming, so I assume she’ll just repeat her comment, but Amy isn’t looking at me. She’s staring sternly at the staircase at the entrance of this ballroom.

I turn, and there’s a half moment of anticipation. Who has arrived?

Then, I see him. His wrinkled white shirt, untied bow tie. The glass of alcohol held lazily in his hand. His unruly curls are even more uncombed and unkempt than usual. His eyes are light with mirth and dull from the drink. Two women are fawning over him from either side, and he’s drinking up the attention more eagerly than the champagne.

Laurie.

My breath catches in my throat, and I try to swallow the sudden lump there. “Ah, I see.”

Fred puts a hand on my shoulder, a protective, big-brother gesture. I really appreciate him. No matter how many times I end up basically third-wheeling him and Amy when they go out, he never minds. Amy has told him all about what Laurie did to me, so he decided to step in and try to help fill that hole.

And I love him for it, but no one will ever be capable of making me whole the way Laurie did. And I’m not sure if anyone ever will be able to.

I take a cautious sip of champagne, watching as Laurie drapes himself on a lounge on the opposite side of the room. The girls with him sink to their knees on either side of his body, fawning over the boy.

I don’t care how much expression is visible on my face right now; I can’t do anything but stare in a mix of disgust, disappointment and utter disbelief.

Then, he sees me. His eyes clear a little, they get wide and surprised all of a sudden. He attempts to sit up a little straighter.

I can’t watch anymore. I turn and shove my glass unceremoniously in Fred’s hands, and walk out of the room as quickly as I can manage, heading to the little moonlit garden path I know awaits me outside.

I laugh as Jo tells me about her plans for a new story.

“I want to turn this one into a play,” she adds. “And you should be in it! The main character is just the perfectest part for you to play, y/n.”

I roll my eyes teasingly. “First of all, ‘perfectest’ isn’t a word. And second, you know I don’t act. I’m not going to be any good!”

Jo shrugs. “Won’t know until you’ve tried it.”

I don’t answer, my gaze sliding back to all the dancers on the floor. I wish someone would ask me to dance. But I know no one here other than the March girls. And I can’t exactly dance with Jo. She has a burnt dress and isn’t allowed to dance. Not that she minds; she says she’d rather eat a stick than dance with any of the boys here.

Then, I see a boy with dark curls and pretty eyes staring at me from across the room. I tilt my head, and give a little wave and a half-smile.

He returns it immediately and makes his way over towards us.

“Hello there,” he greets me. “I’m Laurie.”

Jo looks at him. “You’re the Laurence boy. You live near us.”

Laurie nods his head at her. “Miss March.”

“Please. Call me Jo. Everyone does.”

“Jo.”

Laurie then glances at me. “I don’t think I know you.”

I hold my hand out to him. “Y/n, Mr Laurie. I’m friends with the Marches.”

He smiles again, and it’s so pretty my chest hurts. Is this what falling in love is like? Is it supposed to be painful? Supposed to feel like you’re being ripped apart and glued together all at the same time?

I lean myself on the wall outside, my head against the cool stone bricks. My head is pounding, my temples aching.

I didn’t think that seeing him again would have such a strong reaction from me, but apparently even my heart rate still hurts because of him.

I can hear footsteps, but I don’t have the energy to hide my distress from anyone right now. Hopefully whoever it is will just walk by and leave me be.

“Y/n?”

The sound of Laurie’s voice will forever bring me the biggest rush of emotions in the world, but where it used to invite happiness and joy, now entices fear and anxiety and anguish.

I squeeze my eyes shut tight. “Hello Laurie.” I’m surprised at how even my voice sounds. I expected it to come out shaky and distant.

“Hey.” He sounds unsure of what he’s doing. “What’s happening with you?”

My eyes are still closed, and I still have my head against the rocky wall. I shrug one shoulder. “Nothing much, thanks for asking.”

There’s three heartbeats of silence.

Then: “How are you?”

I sigh, open my eyes. “Laurie. Why are you doing this?”

His eyes are unreadable. “Doing what?”

“You know what.”

“Y/n, I…” His voice fades. “I just wanted to say I’m sorry.”

I give him a hard look. “Sorry? Laurie, this isn’t about what happened all those years ago. I’m over it; I’m over you.” I was lying through my teeth, but I refused to give him the satisfaction that knowledge would bring.

I sigh. “What are you doing, Laurie?” I wave my hand at him helplessly. “Drinking, probably gambling again? Fawning over random girls? Laurie, you’re better than this. And you know it, too. You’re throwing your life away, and I…” I swallow. “As your friend, I can’t just sit and watch. You need to stop this. Go home, go see your grandfather. Stop destroying the little boy he used to be so proud of.”

I turn, and walk away, leaving Laurie out there in the moonlight.

I don’t breathe until I reach Fred and Amy again. They’re laughing and drinking champagne together, but when they see me, the conversation dies.

“Hey, you okay?” Amy asks.

I try to nod, then tears glisten in my eyes and I have to drop. I shake my head, meeting my friend’s eyes. “I’m gonna go home,” I tell her.

She nods in understanding, her eyes searching mine, desperate for answers.

“I told him what he needed to hear,” I say quickly. “But—he still doesn’t know how much it hurts. And it hurts just to see him. It hurts deep in my soul. I—I can’t—“ I have to force myself to take a deep breath, sobs building in my chest.

I leave, Amy’s hand squeezing mine as I go.

I lie on my back, staring at the ceiling as ‘Aunt’ March chatters about how Fed and Amy are soon to be engaged, so I really must hurry and marry soon.

“Are you even listening to me, y/n?” she asks sharply.

I sit up straight in an instant. “Uh—yes of course, Ms March.”

“How many times must I ask you to call me Aunt,” she sighs. “You’re practically family at this point, my dear.”

I smile. “Alright, Aunt March.”

“Very good. Now, as I was saying…”

I zone back out as she talks, my mind drifting instead to Laurie. I truly had thought I was over him, or at least pretty much so. Rather, the moment I saw him, I thought I might explode. Seeing his smile, his eyes, the way he stands, it made all the memories just come flooding back.

“Laurie—“ I call, walking into his room one pretty Saturday morning. “Get up lazy bones. We’ve got things to do!”

The only response is a groan from underneath Laurie’s covers. I sit on the edge and poke at him.

“Come on!” I beg. “We’re gonna be late, you know.”

Laurie’s curls peep out. “Late for what?” he asks groggily.

I resist the urge to giggle. “Late for our adventures, of course. We have a walk planned, and you promised me you’d teach me fencing this weekend, and you have to keep that promise. It was a pinky promise.”

Laurie groans again. “I don’t want to get up, y/n.”

“What? Even to spend time with me?”

“Yes. Go away.”

I roll my eyes. “I’m not going anywhere, Theodore Laurence, not until you get—up—“ I poke him in the shoulder twice.

“Y/n!” he whines.

I laugh. “Yes, Laurie?”

He sticks his head fully out now, and looks at me. “You’re my best friend, and I love you, but I am not getting up yet.”

I ignore the flutter in my chest and grab his arm, pulling him hard. “Yes you are! I promised your grandfather I’d force you to exercise while he’s gone, and I intend to keep my promise.”

“Fine,” Laurie relents. He allows me to drag him out of bed, and after he’s dressed, the two of us head off into our favourite trail in the woods.

My heart hurts, and my head hurts, and my eyes hurt. I want to get up, go for a walk or something, but I can’t find it in me to do so. So I simply close my eyes and continue to lay face-up along the foot of my four-poster bed.

It doesn’t seem like long at all before someone is tapping my shoulder.

“Sorry, Amy,” I mumble, eyes still closed. “Did I drift off?”

“It’s… not Amy,” a quiet voice answers.

I sit up straight immediately, and come face to face with none other than Laurie Laurence.

“Hi.” He almost says it like a question.

I frown a little, unsure of the nature of this unexpected visit. “Hello, Laurie.”

He winces a little. “Look, you don’t have to say anything. You said plenty last night.”

“You needed to hear it,” I retort.

“I know.” He lets out his breath. “I’ve been thinking, all night, about what you said. You were right, you were right about all of it. I am wasting my life, I’m ruining everything because of one stupid mistake that unravelled it all. And–and I’m sorry. I’m so sorry I’ve hurt you, in all the ways that I have. You don’t deserve a friend like me; you never did.”

He stands to go, and for a heartbeat, I think about letting him. But then,

“Laurie!”

“Laurie!”

I see him, walking along the street as I pass on the other side. I immediately break away from Jo, who I was escorting to town. “I'll see you later, Jo.”

She smiles knowingly and shoos me off. “Bye, y/n/n.”

“Laurie!” I call again, running to catch up with him.

At the sound of my voice, he half-turns, double-takes, and then his face breaks into a wide grin, the way he always saves just for me. “Y/n!”

I run right until I’m in his arms. “I missed you,” I sigh into his hair. “When did you get back?”

I feel him smiling. “Only just this morning. I was going to surprise you, but you beat me to it, tesoro mio.”

“Laurie, you know I don’t speak Italian,” I laugh, pulling away slightly to look at him. “I’m not the one who just went to Italy for a year. And don’t use it without telling me the meanings; it’s mean! I never know what you’re saying.”

Laurie has a faint smirk on his face. “Sorry, tesoro mio.”

I roll my eyes. “You’re ridiculous.”

“You love me,” he replies easily, and oh, how badly I want to agree with him out loud. Yes, I wanted to say. Yes, I’m head over heels in love with you.

So I do say it. “Yes,” I say, “I do.”

Laurie blinks at me. “What?”

My mouth opens a little, but for a second, nothing comes out. “I do love you,” I say slowly.

Laurie stares at me. “Why?”

“Everything, Laurie,” I sigh. “You’re kind, and beautiful, and you understand me better than even I can. You’re always there to cheer me up when I need that, and when I’m sad, you’re all too happy to give me your shoulder to cry on. You always know exactly what I’m thinking, and feeling, and you always know the right thing to say. You don’t mind my silly ramblings, or fantasies, and you don't care what anyone thinks of you. You’re always the person I want to be around; Laurie, you make me so happy. I love you, Laurie Laurence, and I think I always have.”

There’s silence for a minute, just a heartbeat too long to feel comfortable. All I can hear are the birds in the trees above us, but their songs sound alarming.

Laurie looks away, then at the sky, and finally back at me. His tongue swipes his lower lip in a way that I know is nervous.

“Y/n,” he says, and his tone instantly crushes me. “I—that’s extremely sweet and beautiful and I love you too, but…”

My heart sinks. “But you love Jo.” A part of me had always known, but I’d tried to convince myself otherwise. Clearly, my instinct had been correct.

“I can’t help it!” Laurie tries to justify himself, but he has no reason to. He can’t help who he’s fallen in love with, just as I cannot help falling in love with him. “I love you, y/n, I truly do. You’re my best friend… but the love I feel for Jo, it’s different. And you’re not her. You will never, and can never be her.”

I feel like someone has ripped my heart from my chest, stepped on it, thrown it into a frozen lake, and shoved it back inside of me. All I can manage is a nod.

“You should probably tell her then,” I whisper, and I turn to go. I can’t bear looking at him any longer.

That was the last time I’d seen Laurie for a very long time. I’d left for Europe with Amy, leaving Laurie and Jo to have a life together, if that’s what they wanted. Turns out Jo never saw him in that way, and he was rejected by her later that very same day.

I was still amazing friends with all the March girls, and I still cradled my childhood memories close to my heart.

But my heart has never healed. Every time Laurie Laurence was on my mind, it stung like only yesterday. Any day that a memory of those long walks, the silly fights, the hugs and dances, the inside jokes and dumb decisions came to me, I’d break down and cry.

“Laurie!”

He stops at the sound of my voice, turns, and his green eyes meet mine. He stares, waiting for me to speak.

“Don’t leave,” I say softly. “Please. Don’t make the mistake I did.”

He turns to fully face me now. “What mistake?”

I let out a breath. “Running. When someone needed me most.”

His eyes clear in understanding. I missed this about him, the way he’d always know exactly what I meant by everything. I never had to explain anything, because Laurie knew my heart. He always understood what I was trying to say, no matter what.

“Y/n—“

I hold my hand to stop his words. “Don’t say anything,” I tell

him. “You don’t have to. You have never, and will never, be under any obligation to return the feelings I have for you. That’s not your fault, and it wasn’t back then, and I’m sorry that I dropped you out of my life after that day. I’m sorry I wasn’t there for you when Jo turned you down, I’m sorry I never replied or even read your letters. I—“

“You never read my letters?” Laurie’s voice sounds broken.

I stop. “No. I—I didn’t.”

Laurie looks down, his forehead scrunching together. “No wonder…” he mutters. “You… you had no idea.”

Now it’s my turn to frown. “No idea about what?”

He glances up, his eyes searching mine, for what I don’t know. “I wrote to you, y/n. Dozens of times. I poured my heart out into those letters. I told you how much I missed you, how badly I was hurting over what I’d said to you that day. I—I told you how Jo helped me to realise that it really was you all along. I’ve been in love with you since I first met you, y/n, and I never stopped. I just didn't realise it. But when you never wrote back, I assumed that was your answer.”

“Oh, Laurie,” I whisper, tears in my voice. “I’m so sorry.” A million thoughts are racing through my mind, but one rises above the others.

“Is it still true?”

He hesitates. “That I love you?”

I nod once. “Yeah.”

“It will always be true.”

And for the first time in a long while, I feel at home again.

[thatonepersonwhocantwrite]

Hello hope all is well! I was wondering if you could write something for blood of Zeus. I’m not sure if you do platonic for it but if you do and want to, could you right some fluff where reader is like a son/daughter figure to a lot of the gods? Like Hermes, Apollo, Aries, and others as well? Like I think it would be funny if everyone is warned to not to bother Aries but he has a clear soft spot for reader. and maybe could you include a scenario where reader is maybe hit on/flirted with in front of everyone and some of the gods get all protective. If you are able I would love to see how you would write this! If it could be gender neutral that would be grand but if not female pronouns are fine!

A/n hi I'm so sorry this took a while this was requested like a month ago I'm so sorry

Family

Platonic Olympians x sibling reader

Blood of Zeus Fandom

Trigger warnings Zeus cheating on Hera, Ares being violent at first (not towards the reader)

Ares might be OOC

You were enjoying your time on Earth away from Olympus while it had only been a few hours it was amazing. You love your family you really do sometimes you just needed time away from them and their drama especially when you're father was constantly cheating on your mother. Fun times. Well you were enjoying it until you felt a gust of wind.

Wooosh!

Hermes! Y/n yelled as Hermes once again stopped right in front of them reaching his hand up to ruffle their hair.

"Awwe come on man what is this pick on your younger sibling day?" Y/n asked in a sarcastic tone as Hermes chuckled Hermes ruffles your hair again as he smirk “It’s always pick on your younger sibling day, you should know this now” Hermes replied

How'd you even find me so quickly? I only left a few hours ago .... Y/n asked

Hermes shrugs “It’s not hard to find you, just look for the person who’s being a pain in everyone’s ass”

I mean it's not that hard when he's standing right in front of me. Y/n replied

Hermes laughs as he ruffles my hair again “Damn you’ve gotten snarky”

Honestly sometimes it felt like you're siblings and half siblings were your parents instead of Hera and Zeus

" Ok ok I get it dad." You said teasingly

Hermes was about to say something but there was a loud crash in distance then a whining noise

Wait here. Hermes said

Wait Her!!!! And he's gone. You muttered to yourself

"Of course he is because why would he even listen to me?" You asked yourself. No you didn't in fact wait there instead you wandered around until you came across a cute little village . However as you were exploring the small little village a particular creepy looking elderly couple kept following you around. Your dumb ass thought hey maybe I can loose them in an alley way. Nope that didn't work at all they followed you.

Although you were already 90% sure that wouldn't work you did it anyway but you still decided screw it. Now you were screwed. The lady opened her mouth you saw something big and metal. You smirked and took a few steps back the old couple looked confused wondering why you stepped back. "We're not going to hurt you." The elderly lady said. "Oh I know you won't." You replied as a spike hammer hit the elderly couple in the back of the heads.

" Come on Y/ n you're smarter then going into an alley way. " Ares said.

" Yeah I know I know I wasn't thinking clearly. " You replied. You swear his eyes softened for a moment.

"Are you alright?" Ares asked

"Awwwe are you worried about me big brother?" You asked in a teasing tone big mistake .

You and Ares had a sparring match and you are now incredibly sore.

When you arrived back to Olympus with Ares you were tackled into a hug by Hermes.

"Where were you?! I told you to stay put but you didn't!" Hermes exclaimed.

You were extremely grounded by litterly everyone in the room.

" Ready for round two Y/n?" Ares asked.

"Fuck yeah!" You replied

"None better disturb our sparring or you might just find yourself on the wrong side of my fist ." Ares said

After the second sparring match you two sat down and told stories well Ares told stories about war and blood shed you fell asleep exhausted from the days events.

[rhysdoesstuff]

My thoughts on TUTS Newsies!!!

It’s a long post folks, so here you go:

First of all, holy shit was that show good

Second of all, here are my thoughts about the show, in a mildly unordered manner-

During Carrying the Banner, the top part of Crutchies crutch broke off, so he spent the rest of the song, and a bit into the next scene hobbling around with the broken crutch until he could leave stage and get it fixed (they all did such a great job ignoring it) (I also feel it’s worth mentioning it got broken when Jack used it to beat up the Delaney Brothers)

When the Newsies found out the price of papes was raised, and were trying to figure that out, Wisel kept having to deal with Newsies moving towards the paper station, then backing away, and it was funny to watch him grow more and more frustrated with them all.

During one of the songs, Davey carried Les around on his shoulders for a bit and I loved it!

MEDDA. She is an absolute powerhouse of a singer and I love her. A very Very powerful voice, that I adore and love. Plus her outfits are phenomenal. I love them.

During That’s Rich, there was a man onstage watching it, and every time the name Frank was said, it was said to him, and he had such funny reactions to it all!! 

I don’t know if it was intentional, but when Kathrine went on her tangent about “Like someone said, "power tends to corrupt, and absolute power" she did a little voice, and it sounded a bit like Pulitzer, and now I headcannon Pulitzer saying that to her, and her using those words against him.

During the last few seconds of Santa Fe, as Jack is hitting that final amazing high note, the projection behind him turns from the dreary city streets to a bright and vibrant painting of Santa Fe and a sunset, and it was beautiful, but it was only there a few seconds before blackout and intermission. I loved it though.

Right before King of New York when Davey announced that they “launched the strike in a most auspicious manner” and no one cheers, there was one person who gave a little Hurrah, and that was Mr. Jacobi, who was walking offstage after dropping off the water. It had the audience laughing and I loved it.

Before the Watch What Happens reprise, when Davey asked Jack if what he is painting is Santa Fe, he says Santa Fe in a sing song voice, and he removes his hat as Jack does at the end of Santa Fe, and that was amazing to watch.

Jack, when he is painting during Watch What Happens Reprise, he puts on a red shirt over top of his undershirt. Then he leaves stage and that shirt is never seen again and I’m so confused at why it was there. I loved it, but then he was right back into the amazing blue shirt- so. Yeah.

THE FEMALE BRONX NEWSIE. We love her! I was able to track her through the show, she was in the other group Newsies numbers as well, and was doing an amazing job!

Also, Race. Let’s talk about Race. I absolutely loved him. He was so tall. Taller then everyone else (except maybe Davey, cause he was tall too, though I’m not sure as tall as Race)

In addition, I’m not sure if it was bad shadows, or intentional, but it kinda looked like Race had a black eye? Which would be in character. It’s probably my bad eyesight making it uncertain though. Also! Race’s elbows were all red after the fight. No other Newsies had as noticeable injuries. 

SPOT!!! SPOT AND ROMEO WERE PLAYED BY THE SAME PERSON. They did amazing with both characters, but I spent so long staring at Spot going, wasn’t that Romeo? Until I checked the program and went, Wait, that was actually Romeo! I’m not going insane!!

THE DANCING!!!! They had different choreo from Broadway which I loved. It was wonderful, I loved it so much, and everyone did such a good job. They were doing flips all over the place, and I’m not even sure what I saw half the time, but I know it was good.

The lighting was amazing, and I loved how it was used to set the energy level for each scene!! Also, the projections were beautiful, and paired wonderfully with the amazing set, which was rearrangeable!!!

Pulitzer had a really thick accent, which wasn’t fully New York. I can’t quite place what it was, but whatever it was, it was noticeable, and that made it funnier when Jack mimicked him at one point.

At the very end of the musical, when Jack buys papes and decides to stay, Kathrine buys papes too, and goes to celebrate with the Newsies, and someone puts a newsies hat on her head, which was adorable and which I loved.

[yourclumsyguardianangel]

the seven + a few others future headcanons

percy:

becomes a high school teacher

teaches high school marine biology (idk how it is in other schools but when we hit sophomore year we got to choose different bio classes ie: marine bio, ag bio, med bio + regular bio)

also teaches the mythology elective and is the swim team coach

annabeth:

we already know this queen is an architect with obvious inspiration from greek architecture

learns how to make blue food for percy and their kids from sally

has traveled all over the world looking at different architecture

learns the basics of many languages so shes able to communicate with the locals

her and leo team up to build a small school near camp half-blood for year rounders so everyone can learn consistently but dw they get summers off

piper:

love her but shes a nepo baby

she doesnt act like it tho

”are you tristan mcleans daughter?” “who?”

loves her dad to bits but does not like being seen out in public by the paparazzi

marries shel, they dont have kids tho, neither of them want to bring any into the world especially with america’s downfall and the government erasing women and poc rights

is basically leos big sister atp

leo:

him and calypso dont last, maybe a year and a half in they split bc calypso wants to explore the world and leo is very emotionally unstable and calypso has a hard time understanding

they end on good terms but dont ever talk unless its with a group of friends

he goes into a trade to become a mechanic and owns his own shop

starts smoking cigarettes/vaping

his friends dont really approve but they understand he cant quit just yet as hes not in a mental space to do so

goes to therapy with a psychologist whos a demigod that specializes in grieving and war trauma

they all go to therapy but hes the last one to do it

he’s still the ‘happy go lucky’ guy hes always been but as he gets closer w the others they start to see the true sadness in him

piper and him grow a lot closer after jason died and have a big sister little brother relationship

hazel:

my girl stays at camp jupiter

takes nicos place at camp

horse trainer

her and frank also dont work out as a romantic relationship, they felt that the age gap was too much after frank turned 18 and hazel was 15 theyre still friends tho

hazel often visits leo in his shop

as much as leo reminds her of sammy, through therapy she has recognized that theyre separate people and to not push all her past feelings for sammy onto leo

not only does she train horses but she also teaches little kids basic math, science, and history to the younger kids

they all call her ms. hazel

she prefers to teach the really young kids (age 4-7)

wears her hair in different braid styles after BOO

frank:

my friggin HOMIE

i relate to frank a lot personality wise

therefore i think hed be a 4/20 fanatic after BOO

hes not stoned during training or during important camp duties

but otherwise you try talkin to him and you dont really notice until you look and see the far off look and red eyes and he just goes “huh?”

other than that hes a great leader

after he gets his cool new look from mars he takes really good care of his body including consistent exercise and eating really healthily (maybe he has a soft spot for fast food when hes hi)

him joining the military does not make sense to me

he lost his mom to war, and he was in one himself, idk about you but i would not wanna join the military after being the main character in a war

he studies to be a veterinarian for exotic animals

when no one is around he shifts into the animal to find out whats wrong

”dr. zhang prefers to work by himself” “why” “idk but hes always right, if it aint broke dont fix it”

jason:

rip home-slice

nico:

my other homie

my guy does not get taller than 5’8

stays at camp during the summer to train the new and old kids

him and will get a house together

teaches history at the camp school

cat dad (5 cats and counting)

will:

takes nicos last name when they marry bc its cooler

him being a doctor doesnt click w me i more picture him being an EMT

EMTs are hotter anyways

does med training with new apollo kids whenever he gets time

if he’s not busy during working hours he drops by nicos classroom w his fav drink from dutch bros (starbucks is MID) and hangs out with him and his students

[siennafrxst]

🍂 ₊ ⊹ ~ fate (sequel)

pairing: barney stinson x female reader

universe: how I met your mother (HIMYM)

word count: 0.7k words

a/n: this sequel is set in season 5, which is 10 years after the prequel (yes it’s been that long).

dt @sunflowermyheart 🫶🏼

if you haven’t read the prequel, click here to view it.

◢◤◢◤◢◤◢◤◢◤◢◤◢◤◢◤◢◤

Ding dong.

The five friends turn to face the sudden disturbance, all with perplexed expressions written across their faces.

“Did someone order pizza?” Ted questions.

Everyone shakes their head as Ted frowns, his eyebrows creasing in befuddlement. After much hesitation, he stands up from the couch and unlocks the door. That was when the mystery person had revealed their presence, causing Ted’s eyes to widen at the sight of someone he thought he’d never see.

“Y/N?” He lets out a light chuckle, a smile forming on his face.

“Hey, Ted.”

———

“Y/N, what are you doing here?”

“Well, I was in the city, and I thought, ‘hey, why not go visit my brother?’ I mean, how long has it been since we’ve seen each other in person?”

He nods, the smile on his face only growing in size as they both savoured this moment of reuniting after not having seeing each other for a few, very tiring years.

Ted turns around to spot several pairs of extremely confused eyes glaring upon the two as he snaps himself back to reality.

“Uh, right! Guys, this is Y/N, my sister. Y/N, this is Marshall and Lily — who I’m sure you remember.”

She officially steps into the room to approach the couple as they stand up from the couch with huge grins on their faces.

“Y/N, it’s great to see you again! I haven’t seen you since, like, college,” Marshall says as he wraps her in a hug, Lily following after.

“Yeah, it’s been way too long. Congratulations on the baby, by the way!” She greets as she hugs them back before promptly breaking it.

“Thank you. You know, if you’re sticking around, maybe you can get a chance to meet him?” Lily asks.

“Wouldn’t miss it for the world.”

The three smile at one another once more before Ted gestures towards Robin.

“Robin, this is my sister Y/N. Y/N, this is-“

“-Robin Scherbatsky! It’s nice to finally meet you,” Y/N greets as she reaches for Robin’s hand.

Robin simply smiles before shaking hers in return. “Yeah, you too.”

“And this is Bar… where’s Barney?”

Everyone scans around the room, searching for their missing friend.

“Well, while you guys look for your mystery friend, uh, could I use your bathroom? The cab ride here lasted longer than I expected.”

Ted nods. “Yeah, ‘course. The bathroom’s just that way.” He points to a door in the near distance.

“Thanks.”

Y/N rushes her way to the direction where Ted pointed towards, spotting the door and reaching for the handle, only for it to be opened by someone else on the other side.

“Ted, you’re toilet’s clogged agai-“

That was when Y/N’s eyes trailed to connect with Barney’s, a sudden moment of déjà vu hit them both where it hurt the most.

Her face instantly drops in realization, everything surrounding them seeming to fade into view, blurring itself out of the picture. Her eyes fixated on the man, who was glaring back at her dumbfounded expressions. “Y/N, you’re…”

Ted eyes the two suspisciously, already able to tell that a secret was silently being shared between his sister and his (second) best friend.

That was when Y/N subtly shakes her head, going unnoticed by everyone else in the room except for the man in front of her.

“…just as gorgeous as I pictured in my head! I knew Ted had a hot sister,” he exclaims in a cheery tone, earning an eye roll from Ted.

“And that’s why, you don’t just come uninvited to my apartment, because sometimes, I got a creepy guy lounging around.”

Y/N frowns at Ted. “Oh, I’m sorry for wanting to come visit my brother every now and then. Especially when the last text he’s sent me was ‘sorry I forgot your gift for Christmas.’”

“That’s my way of saying that I love you very very much.”

“Yeah yeah, whatever. I’ll be right back.”

Barney and Y/N’s eyes linger on one another for a seemingly forever-lasting moment before he steps out of the way, letting her walk past him and close the door behind them.

As Barney walks over to sit back on the couch, Ted approaches him, his steps suddenly deafening and cold.

“Hey, you better not be trying any moves on my sister or I swear to God I will individually rip every single suit you’ve ever owned.”

Barney rolls his eyes at Ted’s feeble attempt to make a believeable threat. “I won’t.”

Barney turns to face the bathroom door, holding in a heavy sigh from escaping his lips as his stare lingers into the room. “I promise.”

◢◤◢◤◢◤◢◤◢◤◢◤◢◤◢◤◢◤

A/N: that “I promise” is a callback to when they both promsied that the next time they’d see each other, they’d kiss.

likes and reblogs are vv appreciated.

[tala-bez-i]

At first sight II Chapter One

(m!reader x Bonten!Haruchiyo Sanzu)

Fluff/slash/reader is male/cursing/BontenTimeline/drugs and alcohol mentioned/violence/blood/death

All characters that appeared in the Tokyo Revengers manga and anime belong to Ken Wakui.

Words: 3116

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

No. You weren't hunting Haruchiyo... I mean... Yes, you were trying to follow him, but not to arrest him. You worked in Investigation Department 1, not in 4, and you usually dealt with murders, kidnappings, violent crimes, as well as sexual ones. So, gangs weren't your thing. 

Despite being a member of various gangs in your youth and taking part in their crimes, you were never caught or given a record. 

You frowned. 

No. You were caught once, when you were still in Valhalla. Luckily, you ran into a good friend of your father's, and he let you go. To this day, you haven't been able to find out what Kenzou said, or did that made you manage to get out of the situation completely unscathed, but after that one time, you tried almost everything to avoid getting caught again. 

Some people labeled you an informer, but you've never ratted anyone out in your life. If it were otherwise, you would definitely have continued down that path and joined Department 4. You would have sought revenge on those types, but your mother had raised you well, at least in that regard. Revenge is good when it's deserved, but dedicating your life to just that one aspect is devastating. 

You calmly looked through the material collected in the folder dedicated to Sanzu and slowly, very carefully looked at all the photographs and short videos taken on phone. 

Slowly, one by one, memories appeared in your head, and you knew that you had collected all this material yourself. When had you found the time and opportunity to follow the gangster? You had no idea. Most of them came from various nightclubs and you could clearly see that he was in the company of other Bonten members, such as the Haitani brothers, Kokonoi or Manjiro Sano himself. 

Your heart was beating faster when in some photos and video clips you saw that the pink-haired man's eyes were looking almost at the same spot you were standing at at that moment, as if he had a feeling that he was being watched. However, you couldn't remember anyone ever catching you doing that, which was sometimes hard to believe, especially considering the fact that cellphone cameras had a rather loud sound. 

You looked at the file count marker and asked yourself a question. Were 10,452 files in a password-protected folder about only one person already an obsession? Probably not, because your thoughts were also revolving around different people. 

You looked up when you caught a glimpse of a woman passing by in the open doorway, carrying two small pots of green houseplants in both hands. 

For example, you often thought about Emi. About the woman who held the place in your heart right after Sanzu... 

You blinked a few times. She held the second place... 

You snorted quietly, remembering the last words Sanzu had said to you. 

"If you try to get in my way again, L/n, I'll kill you. If you're not with Mikey, then you're against him. Against me." 

Of course you weren't against him, and you weren't against Mikey either. You were against the darkness that was increasingly taking over the blond gang leader. You didn't join him to get into even bigger shit than Valhalla. 

Why did Takemichi have to leave? 

"Takemichi Hanagaki..." You mumbled, and then memories from twelve years ago hit you. 

“L/n? Y/n L/n? Can I talk to you?” You heard a breathless boy behind you. 

You were just coming back from the store with some groceries that your older sister, Mai, had asked you to do. You turned around and saw a blonde-haired idiot who made a fool of himself often. 

“Hanagaki? What's wrong?” You asked and the boy straightened up, finally getting his breathing under control. 

“I know you're friends with Haruchiyo Sanzu and...” 

“What do you want from him?” You frowned, feeling irritated. 

“No... Not from him...” The boy was confused. “It's just that...” He looked away for a split second and you carefully followed his gaze in the same direction, as if expecting to see someone else there. “L/n, I know you won't give up on him.” 

“Huh?” You looked at the blond again. He surprised you with that. 

“I got that impression from our earlier conversation...” 

“What the fuck are you talking about, Hanagaki? This is our first conversation.” 

“Uh... I mean, I've talked to you before, but that'll be later...” 

“Takemichi...” 

“Do you believe in time travel? You see... Please don't tell anyone about this.” 

“Takemichi...” 

“Please, promise me you'll keep it to yourself.” 

You looked at his face, so determined, that you nodded and swallowed harder. 

“I'm a time-leaper, and I know that because of Haruchiyo Saznu, you'll join Bonten. It won't end well for you...” 

“Takemichi...” You said after a moment of uncomfortable silence. 

“Yes?” 

“Have you been taking any drugs?” 

The guy blinked in surprise and laughed nervously. “Funny. See, you asked me that question during our conversation in the future.” He turned serious again and you had a strange feeling that the guy wasn’t bluffing at all. “Fulfill your first dream and join the police, L/n.” 

“I’m going to follow Sanzu and Mikey further. You wouldn’t understand.” You started to turn around to continue your walk home, but the boy’s next words made you freeze. 

“Join the police. There will be a series of murders in the future, and you will serve them both better as a criminal investigator.” 

You looked at him more carefully. Being on the side of law and justice, you would actually have more opportunities to protect your friend. In this way, you could protect someone you loved. A similar thought had already appeared in your head once or twice. 

You decided to do so, but you didn't foresee one thing. Sanzu took it as a betrayal and didn't let you elaborate on your thought. He didn't let you explain anything more. It's just that the day you decided to tell him, you got into his terrible mood. You were unlucky, but because of your stubbornness, you decided to continue on your newly chosen path in life. 

You protected him as much as you could, although there was a very high probability that he didn't know about it. You risked not only your career for him, but also your freedom, and he, as was his habit after every drug intake, behaved like a young god and risked more and more. 

"Sweetheart?" You heard a muffled voice of a woman, as if it came from outside, and you closed the folder you were browsing. 

"Yes?" 

"Could you help me, please?" 

You got up from behind your desk and headed in the direction from which, as you thought, you heard the woman's voice. You entered the living room, which was adjacent to the room in which you had set up a small office, and smiled gently. 

Behind the closed window, you saw an embarrassed Emi, who was standing on a small balcony and pointing her finger at the door handle. You opened it and checked the mechanism. 

"Thank you..." She said as she went inside and you laughed shortly, hugging her to you with one hand. 

"I'll try to do something about it soon, and you... My sweet dove, when you go out on the balcony, try to block the door with a chair, because it will slam shut again, and you know that winter is coming." You kissed her on the forehead. "I wouldn't like to come home from work and find an icicle on the balcony." 

"I keep forgetting about it." She grumbled, pointing to the door casually and snuggling closer to you. “What would I do without you, hmm?” 

“What would I do without you, my love.” You kissed her on the cheek. “You saved my life.” 

“Not at all.” 

“Of course you did. If you hadn’t taken me in, my colleagues would have continued to laugh at me... It would have led to depression and who knows how it would have ended.” 

“Y/n. You just dedicated yourself to your work, and the fact that they go to Love Hotels with different girls only says something about them, not you. You’re a decent guy.” 

A decent guy... 

She snuggled closer to you, gently stroking your back with her small hands. 

“You remember that we’re having dinner with my parents tomorrow, right?” 

Damn it... 

“Do we have to?” You groaned, closing the balcony door. “You know they don’t like me.” 

“I don’t understand why. They wanted me to start dating someone from work...” 

“They probably meant some lab technician, not an investigator...” 

“Not true.” She looked at you. 

“Your father thinks I’m a wimp because I often offer to help your mother.” You pursed your lips, feigning offense. “And your mother doesn’t like me because she thinks I think she’s weak because of it.” 

“Not at all.” Emi was slightly outraged. “I already told them that’s how you were raised. To respect women.” 

“I’m a mama’s boy, Emi.” 

“Not at all.” She slapped your ass, completely surprising you and you looked down, straight into her beautiful, bright eyes. Her well-groomed brows were furrowed. “Say that again and you’ll get it again.” 

“You will spank me again?” You said with amusement, smiling mysteriously. 

“Oh, I know you want this.” Her hands slowly slid down your ass and her fingers gently tightened around them. You bit your lower lip gently, feeling the desire awakening inside you and the woman stretched her tempting lips into a mischievous smirk. “You like that, huh? Pervert.” 

“Oh, come on, a pervert.” You mumbled, leaning in to kiss her, but she stopped you by placing a finger on your lips. 

“You won’t get anything until you finish painting the bedroom.” She said with a serious face and you sighed dramatically. 

“I’ve never dealt with a woman as cruel as you, Emi.” 

“Of course you have. It’s just a different kind of cruelty.” 

“Who?” 

“Ko-chan.” 

You closed your eyes for a moment and pulled away, letting your girlfriend get back to her task and nodded. 

Well, yes. Tomoko. She worked in Department 4 and always treated you like a common brat. Her anger towards you deepened after your father died a year ago. She claimed that you were pushing your old man too hard, trying to get more information about Yuji out of him. He was sick and you were poking holes in his stomach with another series of questions. 

You knew you should let it go and let him rest, but you couldn't. You also knew that Tomoko was also aware of the seriousness of the whole situation, but... 

You went back to the bedroom and cleared the two futons off the floor, neatly putting them away in the closet where they belonged. You took out the unnecessary items and opened the can of paint you had started. Time to get back to work. You'd send a report to your superior later and maybe tonight... 

"I knew this would motivate you, lazybones." The woman laughed, peeking into the room. 

You looked at her questioningly, knowing perfectly well what she was talking about, and she shook her head. 

"I won't bother you anymore, honey." 

You went back to painting the walls, feeling a pleasant tingle in the bottom of your spine at the thought of the woman's earlier words. She kept her word, and you knew perfectly well that you weren't the only one who wanted a bit of fun. 

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

Silence. 

Stay silent. 

But how to do this? While your sweet girlfriend happily bounced on your hard cock, riding you like a pro. Like your bodies were made for each other? 

You kept your hands on her hips, gently trying to direct her movements to a slightly different angle, but you knew it wasn't time for that yet. Emi knew exactly what she was doing. She always knew better. 

“Fuck…” It slipped out of your mouth before you could bite it and she slapped you on the chest, falling more violently onto your hips, which caused the head of your penis to dig harder into that sweet spot hidden deep inside her soft, hot core. “Emi…” 

“Shhh… Or the neighbors will hear.” 

“Let them hear…” You wanted to say, but you fell silent. 

The woman’s movements became faster and less regular, and you knew that a little longer and she would tighten her walls around your member, which was eagerly awaiting this moment to explode, bringing a wave of pleasure. 

“Y/n...” She whispered through a slightly constricted throat and her body shivered as she tilted her head back with her mouth open. 

You held her hips in place, pressing yours against her ass with all your might, in such a way as to enter her as deeply as possible. The walls of her vagina tightened around you, causing you to ejaculate, which made a blissful emptiness appear in your head. 

The blonde sighed quietly and fell onto your chest, gluing your bodies together for a moment with a layer of sweat. You stroked her trembling thighs and back and kissed her reddened lips. 

“I love you, Emi...” You whispered tenderly into her ear, and she smiled at you gently, looking into your face from under narrowed eyelids. “You burned a lot of calories today, you can eat a donut tomorrow.” 

Her hand smacked your shoulder. “You’re awful, Y/n.” 

She slid off of you and laid down on her futon, which was right next to yours. 

“You’re downright cruel.” 

“Come on, love.” You said, catching her in an embrace and pulling her back to you. You gently stroked her stomach, which was pleasantly soft under your fingers. “You know I love you the way you are.” 

“I’m not your stress ball.” She grumbled quietly, but laughed when you started tickling her. “Awful.” 

You mumbled into her ear, nuzzling your face into her neck and wrapping your arms around her even tighter. Her hands stroked your shoulders tenderly. 

“I love you. I mean it.” You said quietly in a gentle tone. “You are important to me. I will do anything for you.” 

“I know…” She replied just as quietly. “I love you too, Y/n.” 

It wasn’t long before the woman fell into a peaceful sleep. 

You watched her beautiful face, illuminated by the moonlight that crept through the poor quality blinds that were left by the previous owner of the apartment. Her long, thick eyelashes, so similar and completely different from Haruchiyo’s... 

You pursed your lips and looked somewhere into space. 

This time, there was no Emiko Miura or Sanzu in your private life. You broke up with the girl after less than a year, even before you left Toman with Mucho and Sanzu, and she disappeared from your life forever, which meant one thing. Yuuta did not exist. 

He had never been a victim of molestation, there would never be a chance that he would join a gang. His existence was simply completely erased. You had no children, no wife... You had a clean slate and you did not know whether to be happy about it or regret it. 

Sure, you had Emi, with whom you were happy and even thought about proposing to her, because she brought light into your life, but... 

You had once brought up the subject with her several times and she confessed your fears to you. She knew that you wanted to become a father in the future, and she would not be able to give you a child. She was infertile. Irreversibly. You did not try to find out why, because you could see that it was not a pleasant subject for the lesser. 

You always ended these types of conversations by saying that you could always adopt a child or a dog... Because really, there wasn't much difference, was there? She knew you were joking, to break the tension that was building, but there was a glint in her eyes that you didn't like and it made you uneasy. 

You didn't want Emi to leave. You didn't want to be alone again. 

“Too warm…” She mumbled in her sleep and you released her from your embrace, letting her pull away and turn her back to you. 

You looked at the outline of her body for a moment and, restraining yourself from touching your girlfriend again, you turned away from her in the same way and turned your gaze to the window, suddenly feeling a strange emptiness in your soul. 

At least you could pass on at least a little bit of your love to your own niece. Natsuko was Mai's only child, who had come into this world shortly before your sister's divorce. The girl was now eight years old and eagerly awaiting the birth of her little brother. 

Mai had remarried her old crush, with whom she had managed to renew contact at least a year earlier. Although one of your mother's three children had somehow managed to arrange its life and was truly happy. 

You missed the feeling of holding a small child close to your heart. Protecting his delicate head that almost completely fit in both hands. Those soft hairs... You wanted to watch the little one develop and start making mischief for the first time, day after day. How he clenched his little fists around objects, learning about the world... 

You carefully got up from the futon and left the living room, where you and Emi were going to sleep that night, to avoid another potential poisoning from the fumes from the drying paint in the bedroom and went to the bathroom to take a shower. You knew you wouldn't be able to fall asleep anytime soon, so you decided to occupy your thoughts with something else. 

Coming back from the bathroom, you looked into the living room once more and seeing your partner fast asleep, you slid the door shut and went to your small office, where you sat down at your small desk and started your laptop. 

You instinctively opened the folder dedicated to Sanzu and started looking through the photos again. You began to wonder if the man still used that perfume, you liked so much and remembered from when you were both part of Tenjiku. 

A fragrance that drowns in the darkness created by the spring evening... 

You even managed to find and buy one bottle, but you kept it in your desk, away from Emi's eyes. You pulled it out and opened it, gently inhaling the scent of flowers, cedarwood, and sandalwood, and your heart thumped harder, demanding Haruchiyo Sanzu's presence in your life again. 

No. It wasn't an obsession. It was longing. 

<PREVIOUS/NEXT>

[floralifetime]

Toruk Makto's Sister.

Warning: Very bad writing, some grammatical error (English is not my fist language so please be kind), mention of death, mention of bad parenting.

Previous chapter ➡️ Next chapter.

⚠️⚠️Phrase and various images are not mine, all credits to their respective owners.⚠️⚠️

Chapter n.3 Pursued by a Thanator

“Many people talk to nature and animals, not everyone is able to listen, however. It is such a pity."

The following morning, after a shared breakfast and making sure my brother was okay, I headed to the armory with my personal bow on my back and a quiver of arrows that will allow me to train for a couple of hours. Yes, I brought my bow with me, I don't use it in the army for clear reasons, but the calm and and lucidity needed to know how to use it well always helps me to clear my mind and relaxes me despite being a very tiring hobby. I am passionate about unconventional weapons, the bow and the scythe are my favourites, but knives also have a special place in my heart, throwing ones I mean.

I breathe deeply as I pull an arrow out of my quiver, position it, take aim and release the tightrope, the dart breaks the air and finds its place, in the center of the target in front of me and only then I release the breath I had been holding until now. The training went on for the two hours that I had calculated at the beginning, I must admit that archery has helped a lot, it has helped me to relax a little since I have been very excited since I opened my eyes this morning and that I don't walk, I fly for enthusiasm. At least that's what I do until I freeze in place because I see Colonel Quaritch looking around as if he's looking for someone in particular. I really hope it's not me, because anyone who considers this place only a conquest destination and has no respect for the life present here, I don't consider it worthy of my attention. I don't care who it is, maybe that's why Grace and I hit it off immediately, she hates Quaritch and Selfridge too, we feel alike. “Hey Sully!” I hear myself called by the only person present here besides me, the one I really didn't want to see, always my usual luck. I freeze in place, turning to him quickly, I see him walking with all the calm in the world in my direction, stopping only when he thinks he's gotten close enough. I don't know what's keeping me from taking at least four steps back to avoid it. “How can I help you, sir?” I ask forcing a smile, pretending a respectful tone as much as possible, I don't think I'm happy with it, the dislike I feel for him is greater than my ability to pretend. “You get straight to the point, huh? I like it, not wasting time on useless pleasantries.” he replies. “Precisely what you are doing, I think. So, what do you need?” he smiles and approaches further, this time I back away putting a little distance between the two of us, luckily he understands the hint and stops on the spot. "You're right, I apologize, Sully." I glared at him for a couple of minutes and he only spoke when I raised an impatient eyebrow. “I wanted to know where your brother is. I'm sure you've seen it, I mean, after Tommy's death you wouldn't gladly part with the other one, right?” my eyes widen, this is bullshit, using Tommy's death to get what he wants. I wonder, if he has no qualms about using such a biting and painful topic for me just to get such simple information, what is he willing to do to get something more? The possibilities are endless for someone like him and it scares me a lot.

“I don't know exactly where he is, the only thing I know for sure is that he's not here in the armory, but I think you've already figured it out since you have working eyes.” I retort trying to regain a minimum of that character that distinguishes me when it comes to my family. "I can't believe you don't know exactly where he is." he smiles mockingly while I have to do my best to repress a growl that has very little human. "What I know I've already told you, and see if you can do something productive and useful, if you need my brother, go find him by yourself." I answer. “Aw, did I hurt little Sully's feelings? I thought that sharpshooter had to be calm and concentrated to do their job well…" he turns to leave and I, unable to resist the anger I feel for him, put on my bow, nock my arrow and let it go, breaking one part of the fabric of the shirt he wears, just near his neck. He turned around slowly, his eyes wide open, I can't tell if he was scared, but he didn't expect such a thing, that's for sure. The corner of my mouth quirks in a mocking, cheeky smile as I put my bow away and shrug slightly. "I'm a sharpshooter, I don't miss the target, if I didn't hit you it means I don't want to hit you for now." "You're making a grave mistake, Sully." he growls. “Yes, like your mother when she gave birth to you.” I retort as I leave, shouldering him hard enough to force him to move a little from the position he was in.

“Grace, can I tell you something?” I ask her as I pass her the mixture she needs. "Certain." she cuts it short as she applies it. “I saw Quaritch in the armory.” Grace raises an eyebrow and glares at me out of the corner of her eye, slowing her work. "And? He's a Marine, like your brother. It is normal to see him in the armory.” “I thought so too. At least until he asked me about my brother." She interrupts her work to turn to me and look at me, she knows exactly how I feel about them since my opinion matches hers. “What did he want?” she asks suspiciously. "I don't know exactly, he wanted to know where he was." “Did you tell him?” cautious question. "Absolutely not! You know I would never feed my brother to him!" I don't even pronounce his name because he is hateful. "What did you tell him?" she asks. "That I didn't know exactly where he was." She reflects for a while. "I don't like that he wanted to know, ask your brother for an explanation." I nod. “Do you think he want something from Jakey? I don't think he just wants to ask how the journey was, he doesn't care." Grace nods in concentration. "Obviously he wants something, Quaritch is not the type to care about anything other than achieving his goals, no matter how inhuman and violent they are." her voice takes on a melancholy tone, just as her gaze is lost in memories that I cannot touch, which occurred before my arrival here. “I'd rather Quaritch just leave my brother alone, I really don't want to know Jakey with characters like that.” We are silent for a couple of minutes before I speaks again "Do you think that… Does he want to involve Jakey in his plans?" I ask. "It's possible, I hope not for you anyway. In any case we just have to wait, because at this moment we have nothing in our hands, keep an eye on your brother and ask him for explanations when you learn that he has been chatting with Quaritch. ” I sigh heavily "But Grace, Jakey is an adult, and he's stubborn…If I try to investigate too much he might get annoyed and not tell me anything." "Be discreet, then." I nod. "There's something about what I said that doesn't convince you, right?" she asks me and I deny. “It's not so much what you said, it's that it makes me anxious knowing that Quaritch is looking for my brother for reasons of his, which I don't know, and knowing the character, there can't be good reasons that push him to talk to Jakey. On the other hand, my brother is an adult and can make the decisions he wants, I can't help it, unfortunately or fortunately, it depends on the case. I trust my brother, he's all I have left, I know he wouldn't do something that would make me feel bad." I conclude. I don't trust Quaritch, I don't now and I never will, but I trust my brother.

“I don't know who gave you a gun but I doubt his intelligence, Jakey.” I smile. “Hey, aren't you glad you have your big brother to protect you?” he smiles mockingly, slightly flexing the muscles of his arms, just to show his strength. I roll my eyes and smile. “You are such an exhibitionist…” “But you love me for that too, right little sister?” he makes puppy eyes, and once I nod and shake my head, he tosses my hair affectionately.

Time X has now come and we are boarding Trudy's Samson to be transported deep into the forest of Pandora for the mission. “Well, nice to meet you guys, I'm Trudy and my job is to escort you deep into the forest and pick you up.” the pilot welcomes us from her driving seat. “Trudy, I'm so glad to see you!” I exclaim, I hadn't seen her yet because she was already up when we arrived with our Avatar bodies. Trudy turned to me and smiled. "Do you recognize me?" I asked her, curious. “You are very different, of course, but yes, I recognize you. Your gentle gaze is always the same, it is unmistakable.” I blush heavily, I'm not very used to believing compliments, even though my older brother never misses an opportunity to give them to me. "See? I'm not the only one who says you're beautiful!" Jakey teases me as I pat his shoulder lightly and playfully while the others giggle. "Anyway checks your older brother, I already asked him to deal with the weapons, makes sure he doesn't get too happy about it." this time it was my turn to laugh as Jakey pouted, I have to admit that even though he's my older brother, he's downright adorable with that frown on his face. "You look really adorable with that expression, you know that?" I ask him smiling, he quickly turns his head towards me, his eyes wide. He brings both hands to his chest, pressing them against his heart in pretended fainting. “This is really bad, little sister!” he whimpers. “You struck deep into my pride as it shattered along with my poor Marine heart!” he leans back in the seat, pretending to die, mouth open and tongue out. I burst out laughing and hugged him as best I could, Jakey stood still for a couple of seconds and then returned his hug laughing. “Jakey?” I asked just before lifting my head from his shoulder. "Yes?" she answered, gently tugging at one of my braids. “What did Quaritch want? Did he find you in the end?” he stiffens slightly before answering. "Nothing important, really. He wanted to make sure I protected you well and did a good job. Not big deal, Sweety.” I nod even if his slight initial stiffness makes me think. "Ok, now we're off, get ready!" announces Trudy.

“Bye Trudy, remember to pick us up!” I yell at her once she gets off the Samson, the noise it makes is deafening and drowns out our voices, so that we are all forced to scream. “Of course not, I would never forget my best friend, who do you take me for!? Think about being careful rather than tell me about it, okay?” I nod as I look around, noticing a plethora of Stingbats hovering around the craft. "Careful, those are Stingbats, and their venom is very dangerous." Grace informs us. “Little sister, be careful…What the heck?!” a couple of Stingbats had detached themselves from the group and started circling me, at face level, but they didn't seem willing to attack me. I chuckled slightly, spinning around, following the two little animals. One of them, particularly sociable, landed on my shoulder, he didn't seem intimidated or even aggressive towards me, I slowly approached his hand to his little head, and then stroked him slowly, I didn't want to make sudden movements so as not to scare him, their low intelligence makes them perfect prey, so sudden movements are not the best, despite their very high vision. He let himself be given a couple of caresses, and then flew off peacefully with the others. “Bye little ones!” I greeted them, then turned to my mission mates, and Trudy who was still with us. Grace simply had an eyebrow raised, not surprised by this "strangeness" all mine, Trudy smiled and winked at me, while Norm and my brother had such big eyes that they looked like owls. “Have you touched and interacted with any Stingbats and are you still alive? And do you still have all your fingers? Didn't they stung you or attack you?" Norm asks in a tone somewhere between tense and amazed. "That's interesting too, but it's also true that those flying outside the base have never attacked you, I'm right Y/N?” Grace smiles, while I nod. "You know how dangerous they are, right? Surely you know, you've been trained…" "Of course I know, also because, if you had listened to Grace, you would have known that outside the base where we come from there are quite a few, but nothing has ever happened to me.” Norm turns to Grace, who nods in concentration. "Nothing has ever happened to her, I confirm. They have never been aggressive, even though she often went out in the evening to observe the stars and the sky." Grace informs him, "In fact, it happened often enough that they would stop flying around the sentry guns and come flying near me, but I was never once stung or attacked." I smile. “And is there an explanation for this behavior?” asks Norm who has overcome the concern, leaving only the wonder to take possession of him. "No, not that I know of at least." Grace says. “Looks like you still got a handle on it, sis.” Jakey winks at me as I blush again. “Do what?” Norm asks. “Well, let's say that she has always had a predilection for animals and nature in general, despite the fact that many forms of plant life have now completely disappeared from our planet. What I mean is that she doesn't seem to have lost the magical touch about her." he giggles as I look everywhere but at them.

Since I was a child I developed a great empathy and sensitivity towards animals and plants, I was not very popular in our country, I only had my older brothers because I was considered "strange" and "weak" given my basically kind and unselfish personality. I didn't have any friends and things at home couldn't be said to be that much better, my parents didn't care much about me like they didn't care much about Tommy and Jakey, we always rolled up our sleeves to take care of all three together. This loneliness prompted me to develop a high capacity for identification with animals, often strays, who were mistreated or ignored like me, I don't know exactly how, but this also applies to plants, as if I were able to perceive and feel their suffering, as if I felt it myself, just by looking at them. I took care of them, and they, in turn, helped me in my time of need, becoming my most loyal friends and making my "weird" reputation worse than in the beginning. But every cloud has a silver lining, as if I hadn't already pulled out my claws when it came to defending my brothers, I definitely pulled them out for the animals and so I can say that they also helped me get stronger, without losing my kindness and humanity, which on Earth as we know it, is absolutely not a given.

“It is something that she has been carrying around since she was a child, I dare say, since she was born!” Jakey smiles. “Okay, but that's enough now because we're not here to talk, but to accompany me to collect various samples. Now, let's stick together and not part, okay? The forest is dangerous at any hour but even more at night. Have I been clear?” Grace brings everyone back to reality while also saving me from a very embarrassing situation, I can't thank her enough for that. We all nod and I instinctively approach my brother, squeezing next to him. "Come on let's go, let's not waste time!" the scientist prods us and we set off into the depths of the forest, with my warning to Jakey, to be careful with his gun, which echoed behind us.

The forest was magnificent, of a luxuriant green, it didn't need that there were who knows how many noises to guess the life that lived there, strong in its prosperity. The few sounds that were heard all came from the various groups of animals to which the forest provided a verdant refuge, who regularly saw the gun of my evil mastermind older brother pointed at them. “Jakey, how many times do I have to tell you not to point the weapon at any source of noise?” I ask him. “But what do we know if a predator is hiding there in the middle of the branches? Prudence is never too much.” he replies as he points his weapon at peaceful Prolemuris. “Those, Jakey, aren't predators.” I specified. “Your sister is right, Marine, their name is Prolemuris, and they won't attack anyone here as they are non-aggressive, despite living in very large groups.” The yellow eyes of the creatures moved constantly between me and everyone else, especially Jakey who, being close to me, was even closer than the others to them. Their inquisitive eyes soon move definitively to me, who smiles softly, tilts my head to one side and approaches them calmly, carefully listening to their lively chirps and trying to reproduce them, which I do well enough to let some of them down so that I find myself face to face with three of them, who look at me happy, they seem to have understood that I'm not an enemy and that I'd like to play a bit with them. I have always thought that animals, terrestrial or otherwise, have a higher capacity for understanding than is normally attributed to them. As if they feel and knew how to distinguish the good people from the bad ones, the weird one of the group, after all.

I gently extend an arm towards them, it seems to me that they are a young male or female given its liveliness, a mother with a baby on her back and another who I think is a male who has come to check the situation, especially the mother with the puppy as they are very protective of their puppies. The livelier one climbs without hesitation on my hand, cheerfully chirping along my entire arm to then land on my shoulder, and starting to lightly pull some strands of my hair. “Hey, little guy! Stop pulling my hair…" I slowly turned my face towards him and moved my finger just as slowly, to then stroke his little head, he liked the attention because he chirped happily, starting to climb further, settling on my head. I chuckle as I slowly bend down to observe the mother with the baby, he will not have been bigger than my hand. The mother also leaned towards me and I made her little head collide with her nose, which she rubbed against my cheek affectionately, allowing me to stroke both her and the baby. The puppy climbed onto my finger, and when I gently approached him he nuzzled my cheek, making me giggle. He was really adorable, as much as his mom who chirped happily when I helped the little one get back to her, safe and sound. The male, initially suspicious, had calmed down and approached, leaning towards my nose, touching or examining with a curious look, his movements made me giggle, he seems to like my laugh because he chirped happy and curious every time he noticed how my nose would move. I interacted with them for a couple more minutes before they all retreated together. “Bye little ones, have a nice day!” I greeted them as I watched my brother walk towards me with a knowing look on his face and a smirk on his lips.

“And we are already at two animals that react in a particular way with you.” Grace smiles as Jakey walks me over to her and Norm. “I said it, you have an innate predisposition towards nature and animals. She doesn't surprise me that this is the case." grins my brother. “Well, you must be right, Prolemuris are very protective of their puppies and something like this has definitely never happened before.” Norm nods. "Come on, let's continue but be careful, surely the Na'vi are already keeping an eye on us." begins Grace. “And definitely under fire.” I conclude as we walk.

“Be careful, this is Hammerhead Titanothere territory.” warns Grace. "Are they dangerous?" Jakey inquires putting his hand on the gun he's carrying around. "No, at least they're not angry, they're herbivores but it would be better not to underestimate them…Take them like Pandora's rhinos." I inform him and Jakey nods, looking around, immediately noticing the particular plants, the fluorescent mushrooms which, as soon as they are touched, sink into the ground as a form of defense. Their name is Helicoradian, and they are not very happy to entertain my brother as he was intent on playing, touching them repeatedly. I could feel that the mushrooms didn't appreciate Jakey's way of having fun at all, I closed my eyes and breathed deeply, it seemed to me that I was connected with the forest itself, as if her heart beat in conjunction with mine. “Jakey, please don't play with this plant.” I said approaching him and placing a hand on his shoulder. "It's fun to see how they retreat to the ground." Jakey chuckled. "Yes, I guess it is for you and don't get me wrong, I'm glad you're having fun and enjoying being here, but that plant doesn't appreciate the way you do it at all, you know? Its retreat into the ground is a form of defense, she thinks you mean to hurt her.” My brother turns to me, raising an eyebrow and continuing to do what he was doing despite my warnings, prompting the entire group of Helicoradian to retreat, showing a Hammerhead Titanothere not at all happy with Jakey's intervention and his presence. My brother, definitely known for his intelligence, seeing that the Hammerhead Titanothere was obviously aggressive, pointed his gun at him, while Grace and Norm joined us, having previously departed to collect the famous samples we went out for in the first place.

“Don't shoot him, you'll just irritate him!” Grace warned him. “And what do I do with this beast? Shall I waltz with it?” sarcastic question my brother. The Hammerhead slammed her hammer into the trees nearby. “He's pissed already, by the way!” “Jakey, what do you think you do to a Hammerhead? Your bullets on its outer shell have the same effect as teeth on armor.” “Then what do we do?” my brother asks continuing to hold him at gunpoint. "Don't shoot or try to attack him, if you were to attempt such a feat he would charge you with all his strength, you wouldn't like to suffer such a thing." says Grace. Jakey obviously doesn't listen to her and, trying to drive the animal away, fires a shot at it, so the Hammerhead charges at Jakey, stopping confused when I stand between them, ignoring Jakey who tries everything to push myself behind him. My arms are raised and slightly forward, with my hands open and palms facing him, so that he realizes that I have no weapons and, therefore, am not an enemy. "Shh…It's alright, you're scared, aren't you?” I whisper softly, moving my hands slowly, always so as not to frighten him, I have to be careful and be delicate to resolve this situation without anyone getting hurt.

"You see? I don't have those ugly things that other people have." I nod after he looks at me curious and even a little suspicious for a couple of minutes. “Can I come closer, honey?” my voice seems to reassure him, so I approach slowly, calmly, while he looks at me curiously. "It's okay, you're fine, I promise." I smile softly, when I'm close enough I tenderly pass a hand on his neck and head, while he grumbled contentedly approaching me. "I'm sorry if we scared you, baby, it wasn't our intention, I promise." I smile, while I caress him. “Little one? Is that small?” Jakey asks bewildered, I ignore him while I scratch his head. The interaction between us goes on for a while, until the Hammerhead runs away scared, I don't know from what.

"What the heck happened?" Jakey asked, as dazed as I was by the animal's rapid change in mood. We turned slowly and we were greeted by the worst sight that could greet us, worse even than a group of armed and angry Na'vi. A big Thanator, straight and proud that he looked at us as if we were his next tasty dinner. "What do we do with this? Run away? Don't run away?" Jakey asked as he raised his weapon, pointing it at the Thanator. "We definitely run!" I scream. We started running and soon, in the confusion, separated. Jakey and I were running at breakneck speed, with him trying everything to keep me from falling behind him and when he could he fired a few shots at the beast, trying to drive it away but increasing his anger, continuing to run we came up to a waterfall with the water that formed a lake under it. I heard the speedy footsteps of the predator getting closer and closer, I looked around to look for a possible way out that didn't include diving headlong into a lake of unknown size and depth. I found none and, by the time it took me to inspect the surroundings around us, the Thanator had caught up with us and had aimed at my brother who had his back to him trying to control the height of the cliff where we were. Just as the Thanator leapt forward to attack Jakey, I positioned myself between him and the predator, pushing my brother off the cliff with all my strength. Jakey screamed in surprise and fell forward, staggering forward and feeling a strange tiredness I ran and plunged headlong into the lake below us.

Once I hit the water, a sharp, excruciating pain pierces my shoulder making me gasp to reach the surface and get to the shore, I can only get back up thanks to the help of my brother who has joined me. "What happened? Are you ok?" he asks me worried. “I think the Thanator scratched me before we jumped…” Jakey gently grabbed my arm and checked the open wound which was still bleeding, not the best. "Damn it!! Take off your shirt, we're using it as a makeshift blindfold. Put my coat over it to cover you up.” he says pulling off the military textured coat he's wearing as I proceed to take off my shirt and wrap it around my shoulder, then put on Jakey's jacket. "We've parted ways with Norm and Grace, we don't know where we are and it's getting dark, it couldn't get any worse!" he moans helping me to my feet. "I'm sorry, I don't want to slow you down, but my arm hurts." I start by trying to reach him. “Can you go slower, please?” I ask as he stops, letting me join him. "Imagine, does it hurt so much?" he asks while I just nod.

This is chapter 3 and yes I know it took me forever to get this out😅…Sorry to anyone who has read and enjoyed so far but it's been a busy few days and I couldn't find a good time to write. I apologize so much, and I take this opportunity to thank anyone who has read up to now, hoping that they have enjoyed everything❤️.

Taglist: @avatarbyamara

©️Floralifetime April 20-2023, please do not republish, repost, steal, modify, translate or claim my work as your own. All rights reserved.

[heretherebedork]

All of your insights on wedding impossible feel so spot on to how I’m also consuming the drama. I haven’t gotten to the press conferences and stuff since I’m only on episode 8, but I’ve seen posts about it and even those frustrated. It just feels insane to me that anyone can think Dohan is the selfish one. I know we’re kind of beating a dead horse and preaching to the choir here but it’s just so baffling. Jihan who tried to get his brother’s fiancee not to marry Dohan so Jihan can build a mall. Jihan who tells Ajeong to her face he doesn’t like her but he’s going to seduce her and she’s not going to be able to resist bc he’s just sooooooo handsome and charming (which gave me a huge ick, how lowly does he think of this 32 year old woman that he assumes she’ll fall for someone who says he doesn’t like her??? But then she does???). Jihan who then does try to seduce HIS BROTHER’S FIANCEE. Jihan who tried to stop another woman from getting married by saying he should’ve hit on her instead (I also feel bad for CEO Chaewon in this show). Jihan who then strings Chaewon along to get things he wants (like breaking up his brother’s marriage that he thinks is real). Jihan who takes zero time to worry about Dohan after he’s outed by a crazy ex before immediately getting angry at Dohan and then again telling Ajeong not to marry him. Jihan who did all of this because he wants money. He’s the selfless one? Why, because he held an umbrella?

The writers are resting on the assumption that viewers will just ignore how awful Jihan is because he’s the male lead and is supposed to be the ideal man we all fall for, so they aren’t putting in any work to actually make him sympathetic. The worst part is it’s apparently working for the vast majority of viewers. You’re also so right that the show keeps telling us Jihan and Dohan are supposed to be close, but doing absolutely nothing to show us that. They might as well be strangers sharing a lease at this point. I had never watched a (het) romance kdrama before this (I always stuck with mystery and thrillers which korea does quite well imo), and I’m not sure I ever will watch one again if this is considered good. Also do we ever find out wtf happened to the ex? It’s been a couple episodes since we saw him all beat up but there’s no indication of what happened. Did they really use a gay bashing to create an evil ex boyfriend who could out Dohan to Jihan and stalk Ajeong for a bit and nothing more?

The ex was so underutilized and basically amounted to nothing except him forcibly outing Do Han to Ji Han to make the plot move. That's really all he does. Well, maybe he does more in the finale. I haven't watched yet. I'm working up to it.

But, yeah. This is my dead horse to beat.

Ji Han was the single most selfish character in the show and anyone who tries to claim otherwise is trying to sell you something.

Or trying to salvage a romance that ended up just generally unpleasant to me because, seriously? The entire romance started with him trying to steal away his supposed fiance and then ended with him getting pissed off about Do Han being gay and supposedly manipulating Ah Jeong and then was him just destroying their supposed sibling relationship.

Which I guess they don't have anymore? Or something?

The show gave us zero closure on that and I hate it so much. Because it's so stupid. Because there was no sibling relationship. None! The show refused to give us anything. Nothing but Ji Han being selfish and Do Han having to feel like the worst person ever for even remotely trying to protect himself.

Ah, but the show isn't going to show any homophobia. Why would they do that?

Instead, the show is just gonna give us nothing.

Absolutely nothing.

Not even a goddamn glimpse.

No one seeing this would ever believe these brothers loved each other.

[thefinalcinderella]

Tsurune Book 3 Chapter 4 - Old Friend (Part 1)

this chapter broke into my house and robbed me. this chapter punched me in my stomach and proceeded to kick me as i was down

anyways we meet Seiya's brother Gaku. Gaku seems to be a gnc person but is still referred to as Seiya's brother so i will be using he/him pronouns for him

Glossary here

Full list of translations here

Translation Notes

1-18. The explanations of the puns were so long that i decided to make a separate post for them. tbh you can just skip the puns and go all the way to the end of this section

Previous | Next

It was a certain day off.

The five boys of the Kazemai High School kyudo club gathered at Minato’s house. It was a study session to prepare for a regular exam, and since Minato’s father wasn’t at home because of work, they occupied the living room.

Seiya smiled.

“Ryouhei, if there’s anything you don’t understand, feel free to ask me. I can help you with most of the liberal arts subjects.”

“Woo! I’m so glad that I have you, who’s at the top of our class, as my childhood friend.”

“I’m happy to be helpful to everyone.”

Nanao, hearing that, waved his mechanical pencil with a frog on it. There was also a pencil case with frogs in traditional Japanese design on the table.

“As expected of President Mustache. You really give off the composure of someone worthy of a mustache. Maybe I should have chosen science classes too, though it’s a bit late for that now.”

“Apparently, nowadays there are some universities where they don’t divide the courses into the sciences and liberal arts, but allow students to take both.”

“This is what they call the age of diversity. Our future is shining brightly. Exciting, sparkling!” Ryouhei also chimed in.

“Sparkling! This humble one is also excited!”

Next to them, Kaito put down his pen.

“You two! Those Yotubers’ ways of talking are rubbing off on you. Nanao, stop playing with frogs and focus on your problem set.”

“Yeah, yeah, Kacchan. Follow your own path.”

After checking on everyone, Minato went to the kitchen. He returned to the living room with a drink in hand.

Minato’s cup was purchased on the return trip from last year’s regional tournament, and it had the illustration of a dormouse on it. In his left hand, he held the dormouse mascot that Masa-san gave him. The dormouse was a small mouse that was a natural monument and also called the spirit of the forest and the guardian deity of the mountains. Masa-san gave him, who was suffering from target panic, the dormouse mascot in place of a talisman, but Minato had no way of knowing the prayer it contained.

When the five’s cups were emptied, the intercom sounded. When Minato looked through the camera, he saw a young woman standing there. “Hello?” he answered.

“Mii-chan, it’s me. It’s been a while.”

“Oh! I’m opening the door now.”

When Minato opened the door, the woman suddenly hugged him.

She was in her twenties. She was gorgeous and bewitching, but also cute—she was a superb beauty who made one feel that gap. She was dressed in a stylish outfit, and her straggling hairs fell gently.

The beautiful woman exclaimed in joy.

“Mii-chan, you smell as good as ever! Is it rosemary? It’s different from a vegetarian’s scent. The fact that you smell like this and don’t use antiperspirants or perfume is nothing short of a miracle.”

“Can’t you do something about that quirk of yours?”

“I feel so refreshed when I smell your scent, Mii-chan. ‘Mina-huffing’ is way better than cat huffing!”

Minato grimaced, looking fed up. Since he knew that the other person only looked slender in clothing and was actually a Jeet Kune Do master, Minato didn’t disobey her and stayed still. It was a martial art where the opponent was defeated within six seconds. He wouldn’t be able to stand a chance if he was hit in a vital spot.

“I’m studying right now.”

“Oh, that’s right. I came here for something else. Let me just come in for a minute.”

The woman left Minato and went into the living room without hesitation. She opened the door with a bang.

“Who’s that?” Just when Kaito muttered in his mind, Seiya shouted, “Onii-chan!”

Kaito let out a splutter.

Rather than the fact that the person who he thought was a woman was actually Seiya’s brother, he was more shocked by the fact that Seiya calling him “Onii-chan.” Seiya’s brother completely ignored the dumbfounded Kazemai High School kyudo club members and made a beeline for Seiya.

“Seiya, you completely ignored your phone even when I called you. I came back home after all this time, so keep me company for a little bit at least.”

“Why are you coming in all the way here, Onii-chan? You’re as restless as ever.”

“Can’t you be a little more affectionate towards your beloved brother? Something like, it’s been so long, I missed you, Nii-san!”

Seiya made no comment. His eyes were glassy.

“Ugh, you’re such a prickly kid. Everyone, sorry for interrupting your studying. Nice to meet you, I’m Seiya’s older brother, Takehaya Gaku. I do the branding for ‘Hanayoi,’ which promotes Japanese style merchandise. You over there, that frog pencil was also one of the things I had a hand in.”

“Whoa!” Nanao said. “I know Hanayoi. You did a collab with Yumihiki Douji recently.”

“You watched it? I’m so happy to hear that.”

Gaku sat down in front of the table.

“I’d feel bad about staying here for too long, so I’ll just tell you why I’m here. Everyone here should also listen. I chose the path I liked, so Dad wants Seiya to inherit the hospital. He says he wants Seiya to start preparing for that soon.”

“You’re talking about that again? And this isn’t something you talk about in front of everyone, you know? Onii-chan, you do what you want, and yet you expect to me to obey you.”

“Mom and Dad always respect our wishes. But in their hearts, they think that you’re suited to becoming a doctor. This is the countryside, so doctors are absolutely needed. They want you to contribute your service to the community. They won’t back down until you say yes.”

“There’s no point in using martial arts on me. I know your weak spots. It’ll be no trouble for me to defeat you.”

“Ugh, Seiya, how invincible are you? Well, it doesn’t matter. I plan on staying here for two or three days longer anyway.”

Gaku stood up, then stared at Nanao, who had been listening with his chin in his hands.

“…Magnificent. You’ve caught my eye since the moment I entered this room, but you’re so beautiful. How would you like to become our new brand image character?”

Gaku’s eyes roamed over Nanao’s figure, then he raised his hand and inhaled the scent deeply. Gaku’s sense of smell was unusually developed, and he was an eccentric who judged people based on their body odor. It was said that only one in five people could sniff out asparagus smell, which was the smell of urine after eating asparagus. He was one of them, and he was also a perfumer.

“Mm, mm, what a pleasant scent. It’s sweet, heartrending, and strong—. You fit the image perfectly. You’re the very picture of the crowned Frog Prince.”

“Hold on a minute, I can’t see what you’re talking about.”

“There is no one better suited for this role than you. This is a big project that will be expanded overseas. Don’t you think it’s a great opportunity?”

“No, no, no, the more skillfully someone speaks, the more I’m on guard.”

“There’s nothing wrong with being cautious. Please give me a reply in three days.”

After only saying what he wanted to say, Gaku left. In the calm after the storm, the five boys remained silent.

Ryouhei moved to break the silence.

“I was so surprised to see Seiya’s brother. He got even prettier than I remember. What will happen if Nanao takes on that job?”

“I’ll be okay, but it might be tough for Nanao to balance his thing with kyudo,” Seiya said.

“Huh!? Can’t you wait for a moment? Then I’m against it. You agree with me, right, Minato?”

“…I will respect the two’s wishes.”

“Huuuh!? Kaito-kun, you of course are also against it, right?”

“I dunno. It’s up to Seiya and Nanao.”

“What? Why aren’t you stopping them? Don’t you all want to stand on the same stage together again? We can only be high school second-years once! Well, you can be held back a year, though!”

Seiya opened the reference book on the table.

“Sorry, guys. My brother’s always like that. He throws everyone around him into confusion and immediately leaves. Nanao, you should think about it carefully before responding to him.”

With complicated feelings, the five boys faced the table again.

After the study session finished and everyone left, Nanao went to Kaito’s house.

He took two teacups in the kitchen and poured black tea, milk, and sugar into them. His brain needed sugar to work. He put the cups on a tray and went to Kaito’s room on the second floor.

“Hi, Kacchan. Today, I’m specially making this tea for you. Be thankful.”

“Yeah, yeah, Frog Prince.”

Nanao put the teacup on his desk and sat down on the bed. He flicked the frog-shaped clock by his side with his finger. The second hand was moving as usual.

“Kacchan, what do you really think about what Gaku-san talked about earlier?”

“I already said that I don’t know.”

“You didn’t put a stop to it this time.”

“Hah? Did something like that happen? If I say anything, your judgment might be affected, so I kept quiet.”

“You could have at least given your cousin some advice. What a useless man.”

“Shut up. Neither you or Seiya are little kids anymore. It’s the truth that by the summer vacation of your second year in high school, you have to decide on your career path to some extent.”

“That’s so early. I feel I only just entered high school.”

Seiya was also faced with the dilemma of choosing his career. Kaito was probably feeling nervous on the inside. Even Minato should be wondering whether he should encourage or discourage him.

Kaito got his phone out and started playing a game. Lately, he had been absorbed in a city building game. He had built a kyudojo, a library, and a concert venue just for Japanese rock. Once, he had cried tears of gratitude when the avatars of the bands he liked in the real world performed there.

Lucy the cat rubbed against Kaito’s back and showed her belly. Kaito petted Lucy without looking away from his game, and Lucy kicked him as though to tell him to look at her.

Nanao remembered when he and Kaito visited Tokyo together in middle school.

Kaito had let out a big yawn.

“Ah, this is such a pain. I only care about kyudojos and kyudo stores. Are there any nearby?”

“Don’t say that, Kacchan. Let’s take the classic course first.”

He stuffed his mouth with crepes and peered into a store where everyone was lined up. At the storefront where accessories were arranged next to each other, he could see a man giving out rings as a gift.

It was fun to walk around the city. The place where they lived was surrounded by mountains, but this place was full of man-made object and people. It was a stimulating and lively space.

A little further away, there was a man running through the crowd.

“Why is that guy running?”

“Who knows, maybe he forgot something.”

As they were talking, the man quickly approached them and handed him his business card. The name of an agency was printed on the front, and the names of the talents affiliated with the agency were printed on the back.

Talent scouts really did exist. He thought it was an urban legend.

Kaito’s eyes flashed in their usual way. From his point of view, the person approaching Nanao was nothing but a suspicious person who deserved to be guarded against.

“Sorry, we’re in a hurry,” they declined and started walking away.

As they continued on their way, eating snacks, someone called out to them again. Nanao didn’t know if it was a scout or someone trying to pick him up, but he completely ignored them. However, some people were persistent and would stubbornly keep talking to him. Thanks to that, they walked faster and faster.

“Hey, hey, you over there. You’re a shining diamond in the rough. Could please just listen to what I have to say?”

“If you put it like that, I might be a little interested.”

“Tell the kid next to you to consider it too. I really think he’s got what it takes. Getting famous with videos is fine and all, but I recommend that you join an agency that can manage you properly.”

“No, thank you,” Kaito answered.

“Why don’t you join with him, then? I think a combination of two different types is also a good idea.”

“…”

“You might have to pay for the lessons, but we also have plans that are better than other agencies.”

“Shut up! This guy won’t leave our hometown!” Kaito shouted and grabbed Nanao’s hand, then started running.

Masquerade.

This was a city where you could meet a different version of yourself.

A doll-like girl spinning on a music box and a man holding a fake sword studded with sequins. Were the woodwind instruments being played foreign? Many boats floated on the meandering river, and the two went against the current. Was this really reality? His feet felt unsteady.

“Let’s leave this place quickly. There’s too many people and we’ll keep getting bothered.”

“You’re right.”

The sounds of people bustling about was comfortable.

Kacchan said that there were too many people here, but everyone was nose-deep in their phones and no one’s looking around. No one’s paying attention to us. No one knows who we are.

I will protect Kacchan. In this city, he’s the only who knows me, and I’m the only one who knows him.

I will never forget Kacchan gripping my hand.

It seems like he forgot about it, though.

That’s fine. This is a memory that only I remember.

“Kacchan, I wanna eat chips. Go and buy some.”

“What, go buy it yourself. I think we have some downstairs.”

“Can I eat them?”

“Yeah.”

“Thanks, Kacchan.”

When Nanao got up, Lucy let out a small meow.

After the study session, Seiya and Minato watched Ryouhei leave until they could no longer see him.

“Minato, I’m going to go shampoo Kuma. Wanna come?” Seiya said.

“Of course!”

Minato went to Seiya’s house. He rolled up his sleeves, took off his socks, and Kuma, who realized what was going to happen, ran around excitedly. When Kuma was still a puppy, just getting him to soak his paws in the bathtub full of hot water was a difficult task, but now it was one of his favorite times. They wetted his fur in the shower and lathered up the dog shampoo.

“Kuma, doesn’t that feel good? Do you feel itchy anywhere?”

Kuma tilted his head left as though to say, “Here,” so they focused on that area. As they were rinsing off the later with the shower, Kuma shook his whole body.

“Kuma, don’t shake!”

“Kuma seems to be in high spirits,” Seiya said.

While they were shampooing Kuma, they saw a gecko on the windowpane of the bath. It had a light pink belly and the base of its tail was heart-shaped. The edges of its five tiny fingers were transparent and beautiful. It didn’t so much as twitch even when Minato touched it through the glass. He once saw one in his own house, and he had captured it and let it go outside. The gecko was still clinging to the window even after they finished shampooing Kuma.

Seiya’s brows lowered when he saw Kuma leaning against Minato as he wiped his wet body.

 “Kuma, you sure are making a nice face. Even though I’m your master.”

“Kuma likes people.”

The two and Kuma went out for a walk. As they walked toward the red sun, the indigo sunset approached from behind. The first star of the evening shined in the evening sky, and it matched the speed of the two boys and dog. When they stopped, the star also stopped. The large yellow moon shined on the horizon.

On the roadside, bees gathered by the fleabanes, and butterflies gathered by the milk thistles. A loud chorus of frogs could be heard from the rice fields that had just been filled with water. There were also baby praying mantises in the purple thistles, shortawn foxtails, and ixeris flowers. Though their bodies were only one centimeter long, they were vibrating them like adults. They seemed to be imitating the appearance of swaying leaves, but it was said that only two percent of two hundred eggs could grow into adults. Minato sent thoughts of encouragement for everyone to survive safely.

Minato patted Kuma on the head.

“It seems that there is a family of wild rabbits living in Shuu’s garden. At first, when we saw each other, they would run away like rabbits do, but lately, they are the ones who have been approaching me.”

“With that house, I’m not surprised about anything that lives there.”

“To tell you the truth, I once asked your dad a question. I asked him, aren’t you worried about Seiya quitting Kirisaki? Is there anything I can do?”

“…No way, really?”

“He told me, ‘There’s nothing to worry about. Worrying would mean that I don’t believe in Seiya’s strength. Both Seiya and his brother are people who don’t see hardships as hardships and can blaze a trail forward.’”

“Dad said something like that? I didn’t know.”

“You have a great dad. He’s really cool.”

“Yeah, he is, thanks. My brother’s a weirdo, though.”

“Kuma’s cute too.”

“My brother isn’t cute, and I don’t listen to what he says.”

“Brothers, huh. I’m a bit jealous.”

Minato looked up at the sky. The full moon was changing from yellow to silver.

“The moon is beautiful tonight.”

“…Yeah, it really is. Minato, do you know the anecdote about Soseki Natsume?”

“The one where he had a habit of pulling out his nose hairs when he got writer’s block and line them up on his manuscript paper?”

“That’s what came to your mind? It’s the one where he said that when Japanese people convey their love, they don’t say ‘I love you,’ but use another way to express it.”

“Sorry, I don’t know that one.”

“You and Kaito really don’t waver, huh.”

“What will Nanao do? Kaito was clearly shaken.”

“The two of them are probably discussing things right now. It might be something that’s hard to talk about in front of us.”

“You’re right. Oh, I saw two dormice in that tree hollow ahead. You wanna go see them?”

“Yeah. Let’s go.”

The two boys and dog went to the woods. When they went into the woods, Kuma took the vanguard position, probably with the determination to protect his masters.

When the wind shook the leaves, white-tailed skimmers spread their wings.

The wind blew through the blue yamichi of Kazemai High School’s kyudojo.

After the prefectural tournament qualifiers, the club members headed toward the targets as they pleased. Not thinking about unnecessary things and simply releasing arrows with all your strength was also a pleasant feeling. They surrendered themselves and rode the updraft.

When they generally finished shooting their arrows, the signal to gather was given.

“Today, we’ll be having a special class today. Let’s warm up before inviting our speaker. First question, what day is September tenth?”

Ryouhei immediately raised his hand.

“It’s Kyudo Day!”

“Correct. Now, the second question. Does anyone what day is August tenth, a month before that?”

“Yep, yep, it’s Masa-san’s birthday!”

Kaito turned to Minato and grinned triumphantly. Masa-san smiled in embarrassment.

Tommy-sensei continued. “Third question. What day is September first?”

“The questions suddenly got harder. Seiya, do you know?” Minato said.

“Hmm, is it famous?”

“Oh? Takehaya-kun not knowing something is surprising. Let’s get into the main topic. Self-possession is necessary for kyudo. Learn the best techniques to stay calm in any situation. That’s right, it’s all about words, it’s about how you perceive events positively through words. Here comes the specialists. Come on, everybody!”

The ones who appeared at Tommy-sensei’s signal were two elderly men. Question marks popped up over everyone’s heads.

“These two are acquaintances of mine. They are alumni of the ‘Kazemai High School Bad Puns Association.’”

Seiya’s glasses flashed. Kaito had a bad feeling.

The class began.

“Bad puns are things that have ‘creativity and impact,’ and enriches communication between people. We take advantage of the infinite ‘attraction’ of puns, and our wish that bad puns will bring color and richness to life and delivers salvation to the world is embedded in September first.”*

“…I can already sense that this is going to be a disaster.”

Kaito was in agony, but Seiya straightened up even more and listened attentively.

“A barrage of dad jokes that follow up on each other. This is indeed ‘jab-jab’ humor, Kacchan.”*

“Na-na-o, not you too!”

As the cousins’ comedy routine unfolded, practical training began. First, they were asked to tell the bad puns they already knew.

Keyaki went first. “The principal’s in good form!”*

Kanbayashi went second. “The dog’s so nervous that it’s wetting itself.”*

Himuro went third. “Suki kuu mushi mo tadetade.”*

Everyone’s eyes widened at the fact that Himuro spoke, but only Seiya sighed by himself.

“It’s no good, first-years. You can’t just say such excellent bad puns.”

Keyaki shrank back.

“What exactly is an excellent bad pun…? It’s too difficult for amateurs. I feel like successfully pulling off a bad pun is more difficult than the path of the bow for me.”

“First, we must learn the classics. I’ll give you some examples. ‘6:30 is the best time on a clock, hands down.’ ‘Thanks for being so grape!’ ‘Camping: like many of the best things in life, it’s tree.’”*

The two teachers applauded.

“Wonderful! As expected of the club president, you have a very good understanding of this. Oh, you over there, you say a pun too.”

“Me too?” Masa-san said.

“Of course. To us, you’re also a Kazemai kid, Coach Takigawa.”

“Then if I may be so presumptuous, I will contribute one pun. ‘My back is kaino at kai.’”*

Seiya inadvertently laughed, but then made his face serious in an effort to hide that he laughed.

“Recreation is a form of communication and relaxation that’s also used in free schools, and it is also a way to train people to think in a way that softens their stiffened heads. Now, we pros will show you how it’s done.”

“What kind of sport is kyudo? The kind of sport that makes your chest squeeze tightly and impresses the people around.” “If you draw a bow in Yamagata, your arrows will bend.” “Ah, I hit the inside of the curtain.” “Hakama wa hakanma.” “What are yuu going to the kyudojo for?” “I get angry when I don’t do the uchiokoshi well.” “When I do uchiokoshi, you go to the front.” “Let’s have a third party look at our daisan.” “Ya o hanatsu to yugaeru kero.” “Zan, shin!!”*

Kaito quickly stood up.

“They’re cold, they’re too cold! Are we in Siberia or Alaska or something!?”

Unable to endure it any longer, he left.

Tommy-sensei chuckled. “…Good reaction, Onogi-kun.”

Before they went home, they received a large amount of broad beans from the teachers, who had grown them in their home gardens.

“Hey, hey, what are you going to do about Seiya’s brother, Gaku-san’s offer?” Ryouhei asked Nanao.

“Oh, I think I’m going to turn him down on that day.”

Kaito’s face relaxed.

“You’re giving your answer too early. You might regret it later that you should have accepted it.”

“I won’t regret it, and even if I do in the future, so be it. I’ll consider it again at that time. The current me has decided not to do it. My dream has already been fulfilled. I wanted to become a normal high school student.”

“A normal high school student?”

“Don’t you think it’s amazing? Frogs and birds risk their lives to get food every day, but we normally eat our lunches in our classrooms, normally make side trips on our way home from school, and normally groan about bad test scores.”

“Is Nanao really a high school boy? You have a pretty philosophical view of things,” Seiya murmured.*

The second-year girl, Hanazawa, writhed in agony. “Takehaya-kun, don’t just smoothly insert an old man joke here.”

“The only old man we need is Takigawa=san,” Shiragiku said.

“Putting aside the fact that our club has a high concentration of old men, I don’t know how a guy with a fan club could be called normal,” Seo continued.

“That isn’t something I wanted, but I’ll properly fulfill the role given to me. I don’t want to disappoint the girls who love me.”

“Wow, you’re like a real prince.”

When Ryouhei looked at him with eyes full of respect, Nanao gently lowered his eyes. If the fan club girls were here, they might have fainted on the spot.

When he opened his eyes, a strong gaze appeared there.

“I want to become a carpenter. I want to start with design. Kacchan, let me build your house.”

Kaito’s eyes widened.

“This is the first time I’m hearing of it.”

“Of course it is. Because it’s the first time I told someone. Before I came here, I asked the teacher to let me switch from the humanities to the sciences.”

“That was fast! I didn’t know you could change it.”

“First, I want to build a round wooden frog house in a green forest. The eyes will be the windows, where you can see the starry sky through them at night. The Summer Triangle of summer and Orion of winter. It’ll be amazing to gaze at them while lying down on the floor with everyone. Right now, I’m researching the costs.”

“You’re really moving too fast. Where are us students gonna get that money from?”

“It’s not about whether you can or can’t do it, it’s about envisioning it first. I don’t think it’s that difficult.”

The first-years applauded.

“As expected of Kisaragi-senpai’s super positive thinking. He has a dream!” Kanbayashi said.

“I will try thinking about what I really want to do,” Keyaki said.

“I want to continue doing kyudo even after I graduate. Have you decided on what you’re going to do, Narumiya-senpai? Are you going to go to a university with a strong kyudo club?”

Minato looked indifferent.

“All I thought was that I should probably go to university. On the career preference questionnaire, I thought about my family finances and wrote down the names of several universities I was interested in, including a local public university, a department where I could study Japanese culture, a university with a Shinto course, and an agriculture department.”

Seiya pinched the corner of his eyes. “Our teacher is probably very confused, thinking that Narumiya-kun is supposed to be in the sciences.”

“I’m interested in what Shinto priests do, but I don’t know if I want to do it as a job… To be honest, I’m at a loss.”

Tommy-sensei, who had been silently listening to them, laughed out loud. Masa-san was also next to him.

“Ah, the worries of vibrant youth. Try talking to yourself, not others. It might be a good idea to try drawing a mandala chart. By the way, the goals I set when I was fifty were to walk eight-thousand steps every day, learn the names of flowers and plants, and take pictures of clouds. Please look at my work.”

Tommy-sensei showed them pictures of clouds in the shape of soft-served ice cream, candy, and dried squid. He told them that they weren’t edited images, but actually floating in the sky.

Ryouhei’s eyes sparkled.

“What’s that, it looks tasty!”

“Ho ho, there’s Pucky here too. And even a Koala’s Dash.”*

“Whoa, I wanna try searching too! Nee-chan, Shuu-kun, and Sae-chan would definitely love it if I show this to them.”

It seemed that Tommy-sensei taught them a simple game once again. Minato thought that the people who could laugh at bad puns and were curious no matter how old they were might be the masters of life.

When Seiya returned home, he told his parents this.

“I’m going to be a doctor. But right now, kyudo is my top priority, so I might become a ronin.* Mom, Dad, will you still support me?”

“Yes, of course we will.”

“Do your best, Seiya-kun.”

Previous | Next

[nifreti-ii]

My silly “little” OC Eike! (this is gonna be a long one, buckle in)(Also yandere related content) 

Eike is the youngest of three children and the shortest in his family (hilarious isn't it), which is a slight sore spot for him. He was raised by both his parents and two older brothers. Eike started being homeschooled when he was 11 after a bullying incident in middle school that left him hurt (ref scars on his face) and the school did nothing to stop it. Due to spending a large portion of his adolescence (and subsequent MAJOR growth spurt) at home, he constantly hits his head on door frames at most places. Despite his height, he’s just a big ‘ol puppy. He loves going to college and being able to make proper friends, just smiling constantly and excitedly talking to people. When he first meets Gavin, he genuinely finds his (awful) jokes hilarious and proclaims him to be his best friend (Gavin gave up trying to flirt with him). Perfectly remembers the first time he met Harper and had a “waaaaaait a minute” when he met him again (greatly appreciates not having to break his neck to talk to someone). 

(now on to his likes and dislikes) Love love LOVES bugs, but loves moths even more. The first time he saw a fluffy moth he said it looked just like him and cradled it in his hands till it flew away (he denies it to this day he cried when it left, don’t listen to his brothers). His entire family has a very close connection to nature, their home is a 5-minute drive to the closest road. It’s to the point that the inside and outside of the house are littered with plants (even the bathrooms man). He finds it the greatest honor when someone tells him a secret and takes keeping it VERY seriously, you can’t even torture it out of him. His mom gave him his first knife when he was 11 after what happened and made him promise to protect himself if someone tried hurting him (he now has 30 knives…). He grew up listening to folklore, cryptids, and myths; Knows all the signs of nearly any supernatural creature and habitually tells people “not to anger the spirits”. 

He’s interestingly enough very private about his family life, no one who knows him has ever met any of his family or seen them (Only ever talks about anything they’ve done to him/for him.) …Spoons… So. Many. Spoons… (His brothers hid spoons in his room…his closet, his bed, and his bathroom, it was the one he found in his plant when repotting it months later that made him hate them.) Hunters used to hunt on his family’s property and constantly were a problem; It took one of his brothers getting hurt for the problem to be taken care of (he was too young to remember what happened, but does remember all the blood). The town tried to intimidate his family into giving up their land to build more homes, starting to cut down the trees right outside of the property. It was when one of the cut trees landed and destroyed some trees on their property did the town learned its lesson. The first and last time he went to the beach, a crab grabbed his toe and nearly snapped it off. He was 13, so his family just left him home whenever they went to the beach (His brothers tried scaring him with a crab shell, but he ended up liking it and now hangs it up on his wall.).

(referring to 5 min ship, not all tho) He would always steal his family's clothes and hug them whenever he had nightmares or missed them. It feels like he’s being hugged by said person (if he can’t wear it, he just wraps it around his head T^T). His family mostly showed love through actions, always hugging and gifting each other things (they say “I love you” at least twice a year). He tends to admire bugs and take pictures of them before letting them go. He either gives the meanest glare to whoever is bothering his love interest or physically intimidates them when they try to touch them. He’s only been in 2 relationships, each lasting over a year and both ended because he was too possessive (He’s better at his jealousy now but will be in a foul mood for a few minutes… or hours, really depends) 

Was this long? Yes. Did I space out halfway through it and just realize that? Also yes. I love my skrunkly little OCs and giving them fairly fleshed-out backgrounds. I wanted to add that Eike is a decadent of Dryads/Nymphs along with his father and brothers, his mother being a witch. I know that supernatural creatures are canon in-universe, I just hope I'm not stretching tooo much T-T. The leaves in Eike’s hair are PART of him and hurt when pulled on, kind of like pulling out a weed or carrot (they grow back) I love his little ears and slightly greenish skin :3 Im gonna crawl under a rock (for now). Harper and Camp willow peak belong to @campwillowpeak (the silli knows too much but likes to pretend he doesn't :>)

Check out my Masterlist for my art and (limited) writing! :D

[thronesforkings]

Title: Music Brings People Together

Requested?: No

Genre: Fluff

Characters: Male!Reader x Haitani Rindou

TW/CW: Swearing, Hinted stalking, Description of injuries and blood, violence, (Name) has scars but that is the only specific thing to describe his appearance. Rindou is a very awkward human and is bad at social interactions. Recreational Drug use hinted. 

Notes: I am weak when it comes to making characters related. ALSO, sorry for just kinda disappearing for a bit. It’s getting close to the end of the school year and with finishing up high school, things are a little chaotic at the moment.

Notes 2.0: this is all over the place and doesn’t really have a flow, sorry bout that.

Word Count: 2,127

Mikey was a respected leader and put fear into those who worked with him if needed. He also wasn’t one (at least not anymore) to have extra people around. So, to the Kanto Manji Gang, they were baffled when the blonde allowed a random person to join Kokonoi to all the meetings. Though he was always around if Kokonoi was there. 

It was the second week that the mysterious male had been coming to their meetings and there wasn’t anything said about him. Hanma was the first one to speak up. The male had left the room to go get some snacks from the snack cave, Mikey with him.

“Hey Koko, who’s the cutie that has been joining you?” Hanma asked and the room watched Koko look at him with a look that told the other that he would regret it if he ever did anything funny. Wakasa and Kakucho realised after they saw his look, that he was just protective of this person. 

“This is my twin brother. (Name). Due to a situation, he’s going to be sticking with me. It’s up to him if he wants to befriend any of you. I’ll give you guys a pointer as to not get killed by him. Do not, and I mean in any situation, do not try to take off his headphones or get his attention if he’s focused on his phone.” Koko explained and this confused the others. 

============

(Name) had stopped joining Koko after a month and it had been a few months since he had stopped tagging along. Rindou was confused as to why he kept thinking about him and was upset when he had left. He simply ignored the feelings and pushed them away, like a healthy person. 

So it was a shock when the sibling stumbled into the abandoned building that they had made their hideout. Koko was the first one to stand up then Rin. 

“I’ll get the first aid kit.” The young adult said as he saw that his brother had questions. He was quick to leave the room and Koko helped (Name) to the couch. 

“Uh, that pocket knife came in handy. Um. I just went out to get some snacks but he had found me. He had some people with him as well. I was able to knock the extras out, though he put up a fight. I stabbed his side and made sure to hit a spot that he needed to go to the hospital for. So he wouldn’t follow me.” (Name) explained as Hajime took the bloody jacket off of the other. 

“It’s not illegal if I don’t get caught.” Hajime said as he examined the injuries on the other, Rindou came back with the first aid kit and handed it to the black haired male. 

“Okay, while you are right, how about we don’t? If he tries shit again then I will let you go after him, but no killing. Oh, Mikey-Kun might be able to scare him away.” (Name) rambled as Koko took the kit and started cleaning the blood off of him. The other hissed when the disinfecting wipes went over the scrapes and small cuts he had on him. 

====

Kanto had a fight tomorrow and the location was close to Kokonoi’s residence. They had decided that they would hang out at his house for convenience and that’s what led to the gang in the living room, some of them drinking. 

“Hey Koko, where’s the other one?” Shion asked as the other sighed. 

“He’s in his room. I actually have a question for you guys, who wants to go and disturb him? I’m not since we got in an argument earlier so he’s still pissed at me. I was thinking of ordering some food, since I haven’t eaten much today, so I need to know if he’s eaten at all today.” Koko explained and Rindou noticed no one wanted to do the request, which made sense since they were told to not disturb him by the other when they first learned about him. 

“I can. Which door?” Rin said as he stood up, Koko letting a little glare slip out as he knew the older male’s crush on his brother. 

“You’ll hear music. It’s the one that has a busted door. Thanks.” 

-----

(Name) had heard the knock on his door but was in the middle of his rhythm game, his response was to tell Hajime to go away, as he assumed it was his brother. 

“Not him, it’s Rindou. May I come in?” The other asked through the door and (Name) called back a noise that let him know he could. Rin quietly opened the door and shut it behind him, not knowing what his thoughts were about people leaving his door open. 

“Hold on, I need to finish this song.” (Name) said in a quieter voice, the music coming from his tablet and he was moving his hands around. Rin nodded and took this time to look around the room. He noticed many vocaloid and anime posters, then a desk that had a computer setup that looked nice. On the shelves connected to the desk were collectibles and figures of different characters. On one of the shelves there was a CD player and a bucket of different CDs. 

“Okay, what’s up?” (Name) asked as he turned his tablet off, having finished the game he was doing. Rin looked at him and did take a moment to take in his looks and let his thoughts wander to the idea of him being cute with the cosy clothes he was wearing. 

“Oh, your brother sent me to ask if you’ve eaten at all today. He’s going to order some food apparently. I wasn’t really paying attention. I honestly took this offer to just escape the idiots for a moment. If you don’t mind.” Rin explained as he scratched his neck, watching the other chuckle and nod. 

“It’s fine, I should take a break anyways. My hands are hurting. As for the question, I’ve eaten some things. Let me text him.” (Name) said as he grabbed his phone from the nightstand and texted Koko that he was hungry and to just order something for him. 

“You can take a seat, you don’t have to stand.” (Name) said as he texted, Rin blushing and hesitantly sitting on the end of the bed. 

“What were you doing? You mentioned that your hands hurt.” Rin asked, wanting to know more about him. 

“Oh, I was playing one of my rhythm games. It’s a vocaloid game. I’m trying to get near a full combo on one of the songs I love, on the hardest difficulty. I like playing games. That’s what I do when I’m at the hideout. I was playing one of my rhythm games each time.” (Name) explained, looking at Rin with a small smile. He had asked Hajime about the lanky male after he noticed him on his first visit. He never knew how to go up and start a conversation with him though, so he just settled for admiring him in silence.

“Huh, I haven’t played the vocaloid ones. I have ones on my computer that I play, they are more of EDM and party songs. I have one on my phone that is just EDM. to be honest, I’ve never actually looked into vocaloid. I know the basic concept of it but I never know where I should start.” Rin said, his heart going faster at the fact that he shared a common interest with the other and one that it seemed like both of them were obsessed about. 

“That’s a common struggle with getting into the genre. I accidentally heard one from a streamer who plays guitar hero on his computer. Are you good at the games?” (Name) asked, Rin shrugging. 

“I guess? I’m not bad but I’m not insanely good. The main one that I play, I’ve done most of the songs on normal and some on hard.” Rin took his phone out to pull up the game. He opened it and handed his phone to (Name), the other taking it and looking through his scores. 

“Hm. I haven’t played this one. I would try it but I don’t have the shit to make me forget the pain and then deal with it tomorrow. I’m putting my number in here though. Pro tip, never hand your phone to someone who is a chaos goblin.” (Name) spoke as he exited the app and went to his contacts, smiling at the weird names. He was quick to make himself a contact and name himself as Music Bitch. 

----

“You mentioned a streamer, could you show me some of his stuff?” Rin asked as they had been talking for a while now. (Name) grinned and grabbed his laptop. He was quick to pull Rin to sit against the bed frame and set his laptop up in front of them. 

“Okay, his streams are in English but I have captions on. This is one of my favourites.” (Name) explained as he pulled up a past live stream from a channel named Acai. He put the captions on and let it start. 

----

“I have your food, idiots.” Hajime said as he knocked on the door. 

“Hm. If you bring it to us then you are forgiven.” (Name) said with a childish smile and Rin felt his heart flutter at this. Every second that he spends with the male he just falls harder in love. 

Hajime sighed as he went in and a small cat ran in after him. 

“You’re finally out of hiding! Rin, this is Daiko. She is a little shit and I love her. Thanks Haji.” (Name) said as he took the food, watching Daiko go over to Rin and sniff his leg before climbing onto him. 

“I guess you’re stuck here now. Make sure he actually eats his food. I’ll let the others know that you have been trapped.” Koko said as he smirked at Rin’s glare at him. 

----------

“Is Rin still with him?” Ran asked as it was nearly one am and most of the others had gone and passed out around the house. 

“Yeah, I bet that they fell asleep.” Koko said, almost saying the truth. 

----------

Rin quietly traced the scars that were on (Name)’s shoulder. The two were just cuddling and falling asleep. Rin wasn’t told to leave so he decided to take this opportunity to stay and be close to (Name). He heard the tired male let out a hum. 

“Hey, I’m probably going to fall asleep soon. I have no filter, I’m tired. Two things, first off, I sleep without a shirt so I hope you’re chill with that. Second, you are so fucking cute. I mean, I’ve heard that you’re a scary fighter but you just seem to be a big cat. Fierce when you want to be but just soft and want attention.” (Name) rambled as Rin blushed. He watched him sit up and start to take his shirt off. 

“I’ve never been described as a cat. I guess it fits. I really like you, so you’re the only one that gets to see the soft side.” Rin said quietly as he was flushed at the fact he was admitting this. 

“Well I’ve liked you for a while now. You caught my attention when I first came to the base. You’re warm like a cat as well.” (Name) said as he laid back down, cuddling into his side and Rin had to reboot for a moment before he wrapped his arm around him. 

“Well, we have a fight tomorrow, or today as it is the early hours, so after that I can take you out or something.” Rin said as he noticed some scars on his back and carefully traced them. 

“Yeah, I would like that. I can show you a cafe I go to often. Now shush, sleep time. You need sleep if you’re gonna fight.” 

Rin smiled at this and nodded, holding him carefully as he let himself start falling asleep. 

=========================

Extra: 

“Let me see your phone.” (Name) said as he was standing in front of Rin, the others were confused. They knew that they had started hanging out more but they had kept it quiet that they were actually dating. 

“Okay?” Rin questioned as he opened his phone, handing it over. He smiled and sat back down next to Hajime. 

“I’m going to beat all your scores.” (Name) said as he opened the EDM game. Rin just chuckled and smiled softly. He would rather die than admit that he had started playing the one on his phone more just so he could get better and beat whatever score he would put there at some point.

[sequinsmile-x]

All's Fair - Chapter 1

Emily and Aaron have loved each other since they were children. War might be the thing that finally brings them together, but it could also be the thing that tears them apart forever.

A Hotchniss AU, set in 1917 and beyond.

-x-

This is something I've been working on for a little while, and is very much inspired by a recent re-watch of Downton Abbey.

This also is my 150th fic on Ao3. Which...is absurd and amazing and just about everything in between. Thank you all so much for all the endless support <3

-x-

Words: 2.6k

Full list of warnings and tags can be found on the Series Master List

Read over on Ao3, or below the cut

April 1917 

Emily had always loved the spring. 

The sun was warm when it hit her face, and the days were longer. Leaving her more hours to spend wandering her mother’s estate. Just her and a book as she escaped the expectations she would never live up to. She’d walk as far as she could away from the house and find a spot to waste the day away, hoping that somehow, in some way, her life would turn into more than this. 

She sits in amongst the grass, one hand holding up her poetry book and the other running through the daises she had chosen to sit by. They were her favourite flower, something beautiful in their simplicity, of how they grew wherever they could.

“You know they’re weeds, right?” 

Emily rolls her eyes playfully as she closes her book and puts it down next to her, looking up at the man who had disturbed her peace, the only person she’d ever allow to do so. 

“You tell me every spring,” she replies, putting her hand over the top of her eyes to block out the sun so she can look up at him, a smirk on her face, “Shouldn’t you be working, Aaron?” 

He shakes his head at her, his hands on his hips as he looks down with a smile she liked to think was just for her. 

“I would be if my boss's daughter wasn’t right in the way of where I’m supposed to be working.” 

She looks behind him to see the lawn mower, and scrunches up her nose, “That sounds very boring,” she says, patting the grass next to her, “Come sit with me.”

“Em,” he sighs, “You know I’d love to but-”

“Please,” she says, smiling tightly at him, and turning serious, “I could do with a friend today.” 

They’d grown up together. He was only three years older than her, the son of her mother’s old caretaker. When they were kids, the difference between their lives, between what was expected of them both didn’t matter to anyone. The fact she was the only heir of the estate and he was the son of the live-in caretaker didn’t matter. It still didn’t matter to her and Aaron, and Emily knew he was one of her only friends. He was the only one she completely trusted to have her best interests at heart. Everyone else she knew through her mother, and there was always a seed of doubt about their intentions. 

After Aaron’s father died, he was the obvious option for the job - he’d watched him do it his whole life, much more hands-on with the work than his brother Sean ever had been. It was then, Emily just shy of her 20th birthday, that her mother suddenly deemed her friendship with Aaron inappropriate, and tried to stop them from spending any time together. 

It was one of the reasons she’d walk the grounds for hours, keeping him company whilst he worked, wanting nothing more than to spend time with him. 

She knew she loved him, and that he loved her back, but they could never acknowledge it. Trapped in the lives they’d been forced into by chance and happenstance. 

Aaron sits down next to her, never one to be able to say no to her, and picks up the book she’d discarded on the grass. He smiles as he reads the title from the front page.

“Mountain Interval by Robert Frost?” He asks, his eyebrow raised at her as she rolls her eyes, reaching for the book he purposely holds out of her reach, “You and your poetry.” 

“It’s one of the few things I can enjoy around here that Mother approves of,” Emily says, sighing as he opens the book in front of her, giving up on trying to get it back, “Plus, she can’t read French as well as I can, so I can buy all the racy ones and she won’t know.” 

Aaron chuckles at her, “Robert Frost though? A bit more…simple than what you usually go for.” 

She smiles as she flops back onto the grass, looking up at the sky. “That’s why I like it,” she explains, turning her head to look at him, “Just because it’s simple doesn’t make it any less beautiful.” 

He returns her smile before looking back at the book, reading the first page to himself as they fall into companionable silence before he reads the last few lines out loud.

“Two roads diverged in a wood, 

And I− I took the one less travelled by, 

And that has made all the difference”

Emily ignores the flutter in her belly as she so often did when he was around, the pull towards him that she felt all the time. So much between them went unspoken, and she knew it always would. That nothing could happen between them, that a fantasy life where she got to be happy with him would always be the road that they could never travel. 

“Well,” she says, swallowing down the lump that had formed in her throat as she covers it with a smile, “If you get bored with being the caretaker of the estate, you could have a career in professional poetry reading.” 

“I’ll keep that in mind,” he deadpans, finally closing her book and handing it back to her. 

“Actually,” she says, sitting back up, “I refuse to let you do that. What would I ever do if you weren’t here.” 

His smile falters for a second, guilt he knew he deserved to feel like a vice around his heart. He thinks of the letter he’s already written her, one he’ll leave for her to find after he’s gone. He knew she was the only person who would be able to talk him out of it, his love for her his Achilles heel, so he’d kept it from her. Asked her mother to do the same when he handed in his notice just a week ago. 

He brushes past it, “Why do you need a friend today?” He asks, and her initial response is a sad smile. 

“I’ll give you one guess,” she replies humourlessly, looking back down at the daises on the ground, playing with the soft petals of one between her fingers. 

“Your mother?” He asks, and she chuckles.

“Isn’t it always her,” she sighs sadly, shaking her head, her body still thrumming with anger over the news her mother had so casually delivered her over breakfast, “She…” she clears her throat, looking up at him as she continues to gauge his reaction, “She told me this morning that one of the Doyles, Ian, asked for my hand in marriage,” she swallows thickly, “And she accepted the offer.” 

Aaron feels like his world had come to a stop, his heart seizing in his chest at the mere thought of her married to someone else. 

“She…she did what?” He chokes out, his hand balling into a fist. He thinks of the letter he’s already written for Emily, of the look of relief on her mother’s face when he handed in his notice that suddenly made more sense. 

“I’ve only met the guy once,” she exclaims, pulling her legs up to her chest, her skirts pooling around her as she wraps her arms around her knees, “He spent the whole night staring at me.” 

“How can she do that to you?”

She laughs humourlessly, resting her temple on her knees to look at him, “For the same reason she’s always been able to do anything, Aaron. Because she can. Because I’m close to becoming a spinster-”

“You’re 25,” he replies, his frustration breaking free as he clenches his teeth. It makes her feel better in a twisted way, that he was so affected by the news. It felt nice to know someone else cared so much. 

“Well, as she’s said multiple times, she was already married and had me by my age,” Emily replies, “Apparently he’s going to do it officially in a couple of weeks, and it is expected that I say yes.” 

“This is insane Emily, it’s 1917. Surely you have a choice these days.” 

“Women like me rarely have a choice, Aaron,” she says, sadly closing her eyes to force back the tears she refused to shed, “I have a duty. I was born with one. And that is to marry someone and have children.” 

He sighs, shaking his head as he leans forward, and he places his hand on her shoulder, squeezing tightly. 

“I’m sorry, Emily.” 

“I’m sorry too.” 

She thinks it might be the closest they will ever come to admitting in another life, they could have had more. 

___

She barely eats any of her dinner, excusing herself early to her room, her sadness a heavy weight in her stomach. She’s sat on her bed, a book open on her lap, simply staring at the wall. A knock on the door snaps her out of it, and she sighs.

“Come in,” She says, relieved when it opens to reveal JJ, an everpresent kind smile on her face as she steps into Emily’s room, “Oh JJ, I’m glad it's you.” 

“Your mother sent me up,” she says, sitting on the edge of Emily’s bed, “She’s worried,” she smiles as Emily rolls her eyes, “She is my boss,” she shrugs. 

“Technically Rossi is your boss,” Emily says, a small smile tugging at the corner of her lips as she mentions the head butler, “And she’s his boss.” 

“Semantics,” JJ says waving it off, picking an invisible bit of lint off of her maid’s uniform, “Are you ok? It can’t have been an easy day.” She asks, and Emily knows she genuinely cares. She was her friend, another member of staff from the house who she knew she could trust.

“Not really,” she admits, closing her book and sighing, “This whole thing with the Doyles is just…it’s ridiculous. We all know the rumours about Ian, he’s a vicious-”

“Wait, what are you talking about?” JJ says, tilting her head as she furrows her brows, “What about the Doyles?” 

“Mother told me…” she drifts off, a sick feeling dropping in her stomach, “Wait, what are you talking about?” 

JJ hesitates for a second before starting, “You know it’s being reported we’re joining the war in Europe?” 

“Yes,” she says, her stomach twisting even further, “I read it in the paper, what's that got to do with anything?”

“Hotch has…well he’s signed up to join the army,” JJ says carefully. It takes a moment for her words to register, for their meaning to wash over Emily. 

She stands up, scrambling off of the bed, “He’s done what?” 

“It’s the talk of the house,” JJ says, standing up too, “He handed his notice in a week ago, Rossi has advertised for his role. I thought he would have told you.” 

Emily chokes out a bitter laugh, “No,” she says, shaking her head, “No, he didn’t tell me.” 

___

He knows it's her the second the door to his home opens, her furious footsteps down the path unmistakable. One of the many things about her he’d recognise anywhere. He turns to look at her, unsurprised to see the fury on her face, the way her arms are tight around herself. 

“Were you ever going to tell me?” She asks, her eyes fixed on him, unyielding in her gaze. He sighs and goes back to folding the shirt in his hands dropping it in the bag in front of him. 

“I wrote you a letter,” he replies, picking it up off of the small end table near his couch and handing it to her. She snatches it from his hand, the envelope crumbling slightly as she folds her arms again, “It explains everything.”

She chuckles humourlessly, shaking her head at him, “You really weren’t going to tell me to my face? You were just going to leave?” 

“Em,” he sighs, pinching the bridge of his nose as he’s forced into a conversation he’d tried to avoid for both of their sakes, “You would have tried to talk me out of it.”

“Of course, I would have,” she exclaims, stepping closer to him, shaking her head, “It’s war, Aaron. I read the papers I know what’s going on over there,” the next words catch in her chest, scratching at her insides as they make their way out, “You could die.” 

He places his hand on her elbow and she pulls away from him, the first time ever the always too brief physical affection between them felt too much to bear. 

“Emily, I know that, but I have to do it. It’s the right thing to do. It’s my duty, just like you were talking about earlier.” 

“Don’t talk to me about duty. And screw the right thing to do,” she shouts, not caring that she sounded selfish, like the spoiled brat everyone always mistook her for. “What about me? You’re really going to just leave me here? If you die…” she drifts off, aware she’s on the precipice of saying one of the many things they never talk about. 

Aaron reaches out for her again, his hand on her shoulder. She doesn’t shake it off this time, the tension visibly leaving her body as he touches her. 

“If I die…” he says, leading her into saying what he already knew. What he’d written in the letter she had crumbled in her hand. One of them had to say it, and she’d always been braver than him. 

“If you die, I’ll spend the rest of my life missing you,” she admits, a crack to her voice as she says it, her eyes shining with tears he knows she won’t shed, “I can’t lose you, Aaron, I…I love you. You know that. Surely you know that.” 

For a moment, the world stops. He can no longer hear the chirp of the birds outside his house or feel the warmth of the fire behind them. All he can see, hear or feel is her and this moment they’ve been avoiding for years. The air is thick with it, with the admittance she can’t take back. 

“Emily-” he starts, cupping her cheek as he wipes a tear away from her skin. He’d never been quite this close to her before, had never felt the soft skin of her face. She cuts him off, shaking her head at him slightly. 

“And I know I’m about to be engaged to someone else, and that there are so many reasons this can’t work, but…I do. I have done since we were kids.” 

“I know,” he says, leaning forward so his forehead is against hers, something so intimate about it she heaves in a deep breath, “I know you have, and I love you too.” 

“Then stay,” she says desperately, pulling back to look at him, “Stay here and we’ll figure it all out. We can be together.” 

“It isn’t that simple,” he replies, desperate in an entirely different way, “I’ve signed up now, if I rescind that I could go to prison for desertion,” he feels a pang in his chest as her chin trembles, the force of the emotions she’d been trained since she was young to hold back clearly taking their toll. “And what about your mother? About the Doyles?” 

“I don’t care about any of that,” she says, reaching up and cupping his cheek, “I don’t care. I don’t love him, this is just some business deal my mother has cooked up because she thinks me being married will make me more upstanding…” she drifts off, her desperate rant fading as it turns into an idea, “That’s it. That’s what we can do.” 

Aaron uses the hand on her cheek to make her look at him again, confusion colouring his expression as their eyes meet. 

“What are you talking about? What can we do?” 

She smiles at him, a familiar glint she always had in her eyes when she teased him for being dense. 

“We can get married.” 

-x-

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[evilkitten3]

sometimes i wonder what krillin must have felt when vegeta got to namek (prior to their team-up ofc). like it was goku's request that vegeta not get shish kabob'd, but it was krillin's choice to adhere to that; he frankly would've been completely justified in stabbing away no matter what reason goku had.

but he didn't, and now they have to deal with him again. the guy they definitely aren't able to beat now that they've swapped out goku for bulma (sorry bulma, but. y'know).

sure, vegeta wasn't the strongest person on namek by a longshot at that point, but he was the one krillin had already run into. just one more threat they had to face that completely outclassed them, but unlike everyone else on namek, this one was there specifically bc krillin hadn't killed him when he'd had the chance. and he had no reason to think vegeta would be even a little forgiving over the "sparing your life bc my bestie has a fightcrush on you" thing (or anything else. not a super forgiving guy in general)

and now here he is, with a five-year-old alien hybrid and a non-combatant engineer. he's the only adult fighter in their little trio and i think that would've been when it really hit him that there wasn't anyone he could go to for help. no roshi, no goku... and if they fucked up, no dragon balls.

that's a lot for the poor guy to be dealing with on top of a good chunk of his friends having been murdered right in front of him. iirc, krillin was the first of the main characters to die in dragon ball, and he was still dead when chiaotzu and roshi died, so goku dying at the start of dbz would've been the first time he actually saw one of his close friends die. then said friend's son is kidnapped (by the little brother of krillin's own murderer, no less) and he can't do anything about it bc everybody's gotta go train for the even stronger aliens that were on the way, and then almost everybody dies, they lose the dragon balls, and goku just barely gets there in time to stop nappa from turning gohan into a son pancake.

krillin gets a brief hope spot in which goku hands nappa his ass on a silver platter, but then it turns out nappa's boss (who's just been sitting there laughing his ass off as all of krillin's friends are dying) is an even bigger asshole than nappa, kills him without even trying, and just when he's trying to get goku's kid to safety, they realize "oh shit yeah i don't think goku is actually quite strong enough to win this", so they have to go back. he has to fight the guy whose minion he could barely deal with.

and after everything, he agrees to spare vegeta's life. just because goku asked him to. and it immediately comes back to bite him in the ass. can you imagine if the ginyu force hadn't shown up? i can't imagine vegeta would've teamed up with gohan and krillin (TEAM THREE STAR!) without an immediate threat he knew he wouldn't be able to handle, so it's very possible he would've killed them right away (i doubt he could've taken nail at that point, but he probably could've killed at least one of the earthlings before nail either stopped him or he ran off).

krillin went through so much shit in early dbz, and that was all before he got exploded. i don't think he gets nearly enough credit for keeping it together for as long as he did.

[eshtaresht]

GUYS GUYS I CAN'T KSODKLSOSL!!!1!!1LKDKJ;;S !!!l1JK!::kKD;P SOSKSLSPSODS A;SDOKDLAD I CAN'T EVEN FORM WORDS

spoilers for ep 12 (and a bit for trigun in general) and my overexited ramblings under the cut

you know an episode will be good when where's no opening

so, the twins are meant to be characterized straightforward in every anime adaptation, ig. it's not bad, but the manga twists their personalities 180° and it adds SO MUCH nuance (I'll talk about this at length some day)

tbh I had to pause for laughter when knives was YEETED outta the gate (I have sense of humor of a five year old)

everybody already said everything, but still. OG HAIR COMEBACK OMG AHRAHAAKFJDlahjddjha!!!!!!!! ;!!! ;! and not only hair, but the whole characterization this episode was much closer to trimax vash, and not just sadboy depressive bbg

MERYL/REM PARALLELS LETS GOOOO!!! like, I guessed this would happen, but the visuals, the tension and pure GRATITUDE in vash's voice when he was able to break free from his mental prison... we're eating good

speaking of eating, I CAN'T get over that moment when vash deadass BIT KNIVES. that's peak sibling behavior, he's literally fighting tooth and nail over there

also mashwood is so real tonight!! love love love meryl&nico interactions in stampede, they barely spoke to each other in other versions! and the look of relief on vash's face when he sees nico skedaddling away with meryl!!! he's so glad that they're gonna be okay and that nico made the right choice and came back to help, if briefly. interstingly, he was able to remember everyone, but after the explosion at the end he still lost his memory.

and THE WINGS, DUDE!!!! it gives the finale of trimax, when they both had only one wing left..... still missing feathers, but I love the diversity with knives's, eh... knives, and vash's energy/void or whatever that is, I support it

he's so pathetic even when he looks cool, homeboy had NO control when he used his wing for the first time... cudos for learning new powers on the spot tho

ow ow ow that scene with the military hurt... and he couldn't even save them!

"why are you like that, vash?" "I'm vash the stampede" "IT'S BEEN OVER A CENTURY AND THIS IS THE BEST YOU COULD CAME UP WITH" same here, knives, he's hopeless. I anticipated that moment, but it probably hits even hard for stampede onlys

angel arm!!! tho it's not that angelic now... how are we gonna call it? I take suggestions. rip arm and coat, I feel like we'll actually get a more trimax leaning design next season!

to all the ppl (myself included) who wanted to see vash cry properly... are you happy? ARE YOU FUCKING HAPPY??? after the last episode, after all the mental torture knives put him through, vash still doesn't want to hurt him and, just like knives, can't handle the distance between them.......... I am inconsolable. and as much as knives wanted to break vash, it hurts him so much to see those tears irl....... but he just can't stop, because they're both SO FUCKING STUBBORN and it already took to much to get there and he just can't. stop. now.

"nai is dead, you killed him" first of all, *sounds of screaming crying throwing up*. second of all, his name is million knives, vash, stop deadnaming your brother/j

the death scene itself.... oh it's soo good and yummy. I know this mf isn't fully dead and conrad will fix him, but still. he can have a second death of self as a treat

btw, gotta adress my earlier theory about "happy birthday" being metaphorical. no, it is in fact July 21st, and tristamp lasted about two months in universe. still pretty hard for me to believe, it felt five times shorter due to the pacing. but it is what it is: I'm esht and I was wrong, I'm singing the esht wrong song

and just as I thought this would be the end of it, WE GOT A FLASH FORWARD THAT HAD BASICALLY EVERYTHING WE WERE HOPING FOR AND MORE

RAISED BOUNTY! MERYL GIRLBOSSIFICATION!! a hint at insurance society (tho that was more of a threat and she's still a journalist). MILLY CONFIRMATION!!! ERIKS' LACK OF ARM AND AMNESIA!!!! EARTH FLEET AND CHRONICA!!!!! AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!!!!!!

IT'S GONNA BE GOOD SEASON 2 IS GONNA BE EVEN BETTER I CAN FEEL IT IN MY BONE MARROW