#no wonder I tried to jam them together the other day XD

[megan-loves-surveys]

#26.

Do you have a large dog? If not, are you afraid of them? No, and it depends on the dog.

Has anyone ever told you that they loved you, and you didn’t say it back? No.

Who is your favorite photographer? No idea.

Were you shy in high school? Somewhat.

Did the last guy/girl you kissed have any piercings? Yes, my boyfriend has an earring.

Do you actually love your parents? Yes.

Do you know anyone autistic? Not that I know of.

Do you like your girlfriend’s/boyfriend’s parents? Unfortunately, both of them have passed away so I'll never get to meet them.

Do you like Polaroid photography? Not really.

Who was the last family member of yours that died? My Grandma.

Do you have any gay family members? Yes, one of my cousins. I'm also bisexual myself lol.

Would you be upset if you caught your boyfriend looking at porn? No lol, I watch it too xD

What is your favorite type of cat? Any, cats are adorable.

Who of the opposite sex has seen you at your worst? My boyfriend... and my Dad.

Were you raised by someone other than your parents? No.

What’s the last chore you did? Just cleaning up in general.

What is your favorite jungle animal? Dunno.

Is your father injured? No.

Are you part Native American? No.

What are your pets’ names? -

Have you ever worked two jobs? No.

What are the names of all the dogs you’ve ever owned? I've never owned a dog.

Would you ever get a face tattoo? God no.

Who in life have you felt the strongest need to protect? Dunno.

What is the cruelest thing a person has ever said to you? That I looked retarded.

Who have you most feared in your life? Dunno.

What is your strongest reason for your opinion on abortion? I dont want kids, so I always want the option if I accidentally get pregnant.

What one natural thing would you most like to see? Hmm.

Do you like the game Tetris? Sure.

What’s the most rebellious thing you’ve ever done? Oh, don't ask, I'll get in trouble.

Have you ever wanted to be a model? No.

Do you like your name how it’s spelled? Yes, it's the proper way :P I don't like when they add all the extra letters to it, like H and A and that.

Who was your first online friend? Zoe, probably. Not the Zoe I knew in NZ, she was from the UK and was a Blue fan - we met on a Blue fansite haha. We were friends for years! I wonder what she's doing these days.

Your last ex: how did you two get together? We were set up by friends of ours.

Does your mom dye her hair? Yep, her hair is currently like a pinkish red xD I get my love of dying my hair from her.

What’s the best kind of video game? (Adventure, shooting, etc) I love Pokémon, adventure games, strategy games and those 'choices matter' games, plus games like Cyberpunk 2077 & LA Noire that is open world but has a storyline to follow.

Do you know anyone who has road rage? One of my friends lol, he swears constantly when he drives, we get into a small traffic jam and he's like "GET OUT MY WAY CUNT!" out the window lmao.

Have you ever had a controlling boyfriend/girlfriend? No.

Have you ever tried to break up anyone because YOU liked the guy/girl? I don't do shit like that. I have had a crush on a friend's boyfriend before but I kept it to myself and didn't do anything about it cos I'm not an asshole.

Do you draw fanart of anything? No.

What was the last music video you watched? Did you like it? I watched Ladies Night by Atomic Kitten cos it's one of my faves and I hadn't seen it in ages.

What’s a condition you have that you haven’t been officially diagnosed with? Dunno.

Which one of your parents do you think is smarter? My Dad. My Mum is smart, but I think my Dad outdoes her.

Have you ever supported anyone’s Kickstarter? If so, what was it? Yes, I'm currently backing a Kickstarter for a Broken Sword remake! I can't wait to get my bonuses for it.

What band has the power to make you cry by splitting up? None of them, cos they've all split up and got back together so I'm used to it.

Would you feel funny if you kissed somebody of the same sex? No.

Can grills be sexy on a guy? No.

What’s your favorite comic book/graphic novel? That's not really my thing.

Do you prefer original or sour Skittles? I like both.

Do you find it easy to pass the time or do you get really bored? Depends.

Have you ever been in a Catholic confessional? No.

Who was the last non-relative you rode in a vehicle with? My boyfriend.

What was the title of the last song you listened to? "Bad Kind Of Butterflies" (by Camila Cabello)

Who is the lead singer of your favorite band? They're all the lead singer.

Do you expect to be married in the next 2 years? No.

Have you ever had an allergic reaction to an insect? No.

Who IMed you on Facebook last? My friend.

Is there an item that you bought on a whim, but now consider it a crucial part of your life and you would or have purchased it again? TBH, I decided out of the blue I wanted a FitBit and now I can't live without mine.

What flags do you have in your room, if any? None.

What was the last thing you ate? A banana.

What kind of natural disaster is most common where you live? Tornados.

Do you or your parents rake your yard? We don't have a yard.

If you’re not straight, who was the first person you came out to? Friends online.

What do you think of the ‘Healthy At Every Size’ movement/philosophy? It's stupid.

Where did you meet the last person you swapped numbers with? Work.

Who was the last person to add you as a friend on Facebook? Some random.

Did you enjoy high school? Yes, mostly.

What’s an unusual food combination you like? Hmm, not sure.

What’s the longest stretch of time you’ve spent completely alone? A few days over New Year's once, my Mum went to stay with my Grandma and I stayed at home, I didn't even go out lol.

Did your parents allow you to drink soda when you were a kid? Yes, but only on occasion.

Did you ever go through an emo or goth phase? No.

How many times have you stayed at a hotel in the past year, and where? None.

Do you take a walk every day? I try to.

Who was your favourite musical artist when you were 15? Do you still listen to them? Blue and Girls Aloud, and yep still a huge fan of them!

When was the last time you ate at a food court and what did you get? Last week, I had KFC haha.

How do you like your eggs cooked? Poached or fried.

What’s your favourite place to go on vacation? The USA, but I haven't been since 2019. Thanks Covid.

Have you ever done your own compost? No.

Would you ever get a tattoo on your hand or foot? Nah.

Do you open your doors and windows on warm days? Windows, yes. I feel like I'm suffocating in the warmer weather with them closed.

Are the blinds/curtains in the room open or closed right now? Open.

Were you mean to anyone in high school? No.

Have you ever accidentally started a fire? No, the closest I got was doing popcorn in the microwave and it exploded lol.

What is the last note you edited in your phone’s notes app? My shopping list of things I need to get.

Who is your favourite coworker? You can tell me about one from your past if you don’t have one right now. Hmm, probably Elaine, she's an older woman who is at the next desk to me when I do data entry. She's hilarious, she bakes a lot and always shares with me and doesn't mind swapping shifts with me - this week I wanted Monday off so she switched with me, I took her Friday shift and she took Monday.

Do you know anyone who’s adopted a child? No.

What was the last video game or board game you purchased? I bought a bunch off Steam a bit back.

Are any of your siblings taller than you? -

Name a song that reminds you of a past relationship: Hmm.

Have you ever seen a building on fire in real life? Yes, I remember in our last house, one of the houses down the street caught on fire and completely burnt down.

Have you kissed anyone and their first name started with an F, D, or L? Yes.

Have you ever been in therapy for anything? No.

Is there any part of your sexual/romantic history that you have not told your current significant other about or that you will not tell future partners about? No, my boyfriend knows everything.

Have you ever developed feelings for someone whose sexual orientation was incompatible with yours? Yes. One of my friends is sooooo damn hot, but he swings the other way lol.

How many relationships have you been in that actually got sexual? Most of them.

Who performs the most random acts of kindness out of everyone you know? Lynnette probably.

Who’s the most romantic person you ever went out with? My boyfriend.

Last person to tell you that you smell good? My boyfriend xD

Last person you told that they smell good? See above haha.

Who did you have your first kiss with? Do you remember what colour his/her eyes were? His name was Cameron, and I think they were blue but I'm not sure.

Which edible flowers have you tasted? None.

What was the last video you added to your favorites on YouTube? Not sure.

Do any of your family members have an upcoming birthday? Yep.

Is your favorite animal endangered? No, it's cats xD

What is the middle name of the last person you texted? Daniel.

Have you ever come close to drowning? No.

What’s the cutest thing your S/O does, but denies it’s cute in any way? He pouts, and then denies he pouts LOL.

Have you ever dined alone at a restaurant? Not a proper restaurant but at like cafes and stuff, yeah.

Have you ever changed in front of the last person you kissed? Yes.

Have you experienced any severe side effects of medications? Yes - I took antibiotics a few years ago and they gave me a super bad rash and diarrhoea. Found out I'm allergic to that kind!

Have you ever had a big YouTuber reply to a comment you left on their video? Yep.

Have you ever given a lap dance? Yes, as a joke xD

Do a lot of people tell you that you are funny? Not a lot, but on occasion people have said I am haha.

Have you gone to a tanning bed lately? No.

What did you do on the Fourth of July? I'm not American.

Do you have nice legs? I like to think so. I have a short torso so I'm mostly leg haha.

Have you ever been to Ohio? No.

Do you like The Goonies? Never seen it.

Do you prefer hardly toasted at all or burnt toast? Not burnt, but very toasted.

Do you have any unusual skills? Depends what you consider 'unusual'.

Do you have any bug bites right now? No.

Is there anything annoying you at the moment? Yes. I had caffeine in my Starbucks and now it's making me weird lol, I keep forgetting to ask them not to add any.

Are there any forms of art you personally find pointless? Nah, some of it isn't my thing but it means a lot to other people.

Do you have any projects on the go right now? No.

Are you a hat person? On occasion.

Has anyone ever approached you in the street and asked to take your picture? No haha.

What song’s stuck in your head? Cody Rhodes' entrance theme cos he was on SD earlier and it was playing for awhile haha.

Do your feelings get hurt easily? Not really.

Have you ever seen a cougar in the wild? No.

When was the last time you took a selfie? The other day.

Do you have any nieces or nephews? No.

Do you have a good relationship with your cousins? i don't see them much, but we did get along.

Are there any upcoming events for you to look forward to? Sure.

How many siblings does your significant other have? He has two brothers.

Have you ever done three or more shots in a row? Not in a row xD

What was the last zoo you visited? I think the one in Washington DC.

[nerdgatehobbit]

11/11/22

Don’t worry, Lugia, Billy, & Kim will return, but I wanted to mix it up for a bit with my new Mew plush sitting on my Beckett jacket because they’re both associated with genetics! … Listen, it’s the simple things that amuse me sometimes.

Edit: Hang on, it’s acting up on me. Hmm. :/

Edit 2: I figured it out! \o/

Speaking of Pokémon, yes I’ve heard the good news although I am concerned/curious what will be next. Right now I’m still really enjoying Sun & Moon Ultra Legends. Although the Adventures in the Orange Islands are coming up soon- probably less than a year at this rate!

I’m also increasingly curious/hopeful about if Pokémon Masters will have PLA sync pairs after the game’s first anniversary. I mean, if nothing else, it’ll give the app new content while waiting to do Paldea sync pairs. And yes, there’s likely to be Scarlet commentary from me once I have it.

I’ve been playing Dreamlight Valley; I’ve been enjoying it but I haven’t had a lot to say about it. No Milo nor Kida yet. Although to be fair, Belle & Stitch haven’t arrived despite being on the original loading screen. And only Gothel and Scar represent their movies. I don’t even know??

I haven’t yet re-watched SGA’s first mid-season two-parter, but you all will know when I have done so. >:)

XWP’s 3rd season has been a bit of a mixed bag for me so far but I’m still watching & reviewing for my blog. … I still need to resume ALOK’s first season. At this rate I’ll have to start over like I know I’ll have to with Princess Tutu. Though there at least I’ll be able to get screencaps on my second watch now that I have my Blu-Ray disc drive. I’m still figuring how to review Sailor Moon.

Sooner rather than later I’ll be doing my Power Rangers mini-watch. I won’t lie, it’ll be interesting to basically zoom through the first seventeen seasons. Lots of revisiting my favorites! 2023 is going to be the year of Power Rangers & DS9 on this blog. >:D

Speaking of anime, I really liked the first 2 volumes of the Spy x Family manga so hopefully I’ll be able to obtain the anime sometime.

My DS9 watch isn’t especially coherent; on a first watch I’m on the second season but clearly I’ve been going back to rewatch & get screencaps because I want to be just watching on the first time. The important thing is that I’m having a lot of fun! :)

… Although I will say that it’s weirdly impressive how accurate Julian’s hasty backstory will be. Him taking an acute interest/concern about whether or not Rugal’s adoptive parents mistreat him due to who he is. That’s not just Julian being compassionate and/or getting caught up in Garak’s riptide, it’s him projecting due to his own childhood, isn’t it? Same with him calling out Melora’s coping mechanism because he’s aware he’s on the other side of the coin in how they react to people due to a fear of rejection because of who they are.

Meanwhile, Rom hasn’t gotten his development yet, but I have come up with a somewhat depressing Watsonian theory on what was going on in “Babel”. It’s not that Rom couldn’t do the repair, it’s that if he had, Quark would have griped about how long it took him to do so. The idea that Odo caught Quark out because he oversimplified the lie is amusing one. The depressing part is why Rom didn’t actually do so.

I think it’s similar to what went on with Daja and her birth family before the events of the Circle of Magic quartet, where doing manual work was looked down on in Trader culture to the point Daja was scolded/punished for her curiosity about it. To lean into my foreknowledge, Quark hasn’t drunk the root beer enough to encourage his brother’s interest in mechanics, even if it appears to be necessary to do so for profit.

Admittedly the animated Justice League has gone up in my media backlog list after learning about Conroy’s passing. … Not quite literally yet, but odds are I’ll redo the list for real closer to the end of 2022. That’ll probably be the next ramble post.

[alatismeni-theitsa]

thanks for your response to my language question a couple days ago! i've tried duolingo before but always really struggled with pronunciation, so the youtube channel will be very helpful

Happy to help!

My guides for Greek pronounciation (and therefore, some accent):

(You obviously have heard the language being spoken but I want to give some genearl guidelines for people who are wondering)

1) Generally, Greek sounds like Spanish so, if you have ever taken Spanish in your life, the pronunciation is like 90% the same :P Greek and Spanish people can very easily immitate each other’s sounds!

2) Get into the mood. Forget every “ay”, “oy”, “ey” you ever knew and replace them with AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA, OOOOOOOOOOOO and EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE. And bring those sounds DOOOWN, DOWN, DOWN. Short and to the point. To me Greek sounds like Math on drugs. Like, it tries to be straightforward in sounds (no rolling sounds) but it fails because we can never do something properly xD

2.5) Free your mouth. I don’t want any “ah!”s! give me an AAAAAAA like you are an elderly person shouting to donkeys in the chorio and you have to open your mouth veeery much because otherwise the donkeys won’t hear you. Get in scary roller coasters if this helps to practice your AAAAAAAAAAAA

3) Our “s” are strong as you have noticed, so you need to bring your tongue in the front of the mouth. Delicate “s“ are for PUSSIES, here we only speak like MEN!!! We also have a strong χ. To help Westerners not familiar with Greek, I tell them they need to sound like speaking Arabic (usually people have heard Arabic womewhere but not Greek. --- Also, hello to my Arabic speaking followers!!)

4) Every Greek word usually goes consonant - vowel - consonant - vowel οr the opposite. Very rarely you will find two vowel sounds together.

5) In case you haven’t heard English with a Greek accent, go do it xD Most of us on the internet know English so we can understand the differences in languages based on how they pronounce English.

6) I STRONGLY recommend the Podcast Μαρμελάδα Φράουλα (Marmelada Fraoula - Strawberry jam). The two Greek comedians who do it are ABSOLUTELY INSANE AND ALL THEIR BRAINCELLS ARE BURNT, and it’s also a great way to get the gist of the Greek words and sounds.  (Link for the podcast)

[rmg91]

It Shouldn’t Be This Hard

(To Propose To Your Girlfriend)

LOOK! I WROTE SOMETHING! I AM NOT DEAD! Just still distracted by the RP with Autumn. It's too fun, can you blame me? We have such a cute universe happening. Anyway, the muses finally spoke to me and I've been wanting to do a 5+1 for a while now and the right idea came to me. And while this may be a little late it's also my Broppy Day submission. Although when you ship Broppy, everyday is Broppy Day XD

So without future ado, enjoy!

AO3/FF.net

~*~*~*~*~RMG~*~*~*~*~

1.

This was it. This was the night Branch Hawthorn was finally going to propose to his girlfriend of two years, Poppy Meadows. Everything was going to plan and for that Branch was grateful for as he was nervous enough as it was. Both he and Poppy had been able to leave their respective works early to get ready, although Poppy just believed tonight was a fairly normal date night. Then, looking their best and with clear starry night above them, they gotten to Trollington's best restaurant, Chez L'amour, with minimal traffic interference and their reservation had not been lost or given away, things Branch had worried about. Now, with their belly's full of warm delicious food and wine -though Poppy was always quick to assure Branch his cooking was still her very favorite- and dessert on the horizon, Branch was ready to take the plunge.

The mood was perfect, candlelight gleamed and a soft melody was echoing around them and Poppy was looking so beautiful with her bright pink hair pulled up with some strands framing her heart-shaped face and her freckles lit up by the flickering candles and her own bright smile. And her eyes, those beautiful, amber eyes that he just loved to get lost in, were shining with warmth and love just for him. And that was something he still couldn't get over, after all those years of pining and yet so sure he didn't deserve her, he had gotten the girl of his dreams and she loved him. And he hoped she accepted what he was about to ask.

Reaching out across the table, Branch took her hand in his as he returned her smile and hoped the nervousness he felt wasn't obvious. He must have been doing a good job of hiding it so far but he didn't want her to notice now before he had a chance to ask. And maybe it was a little cliché to ask in a romantic restaurant setting but he had spent weeks thinking about this and building up his confidence and he wasn't about to chicken out now. Given her hand a squeeze, he took a sip of his water to wet his throat before speaking, “Enjoy your dinner?” Start small, don't jump into it. All part of the plan.

His gorgeous pinkette grinned and nodded, “Yup! And I can't wait for dessert! I have been dreaming about their triple layer strawberry chiffon cake all week!” She took a sip of her wine before returning his squeeze of their hands before a playful smirk overcame her face and she cupped her chin in her head as she leaned over the table, “You know...You never did tell me why you decided this would be our date destination~ What made you choose the fancy place?”

Branch chuckled and hoped it sounded normal, it sounded off to him, but he simple shrugged and tried not to look away from those wonderful and curious eyes, “What? Can't a boyfriend treat his girlfriend to a fancy dinner once in a while? Plus I know how much you love to dress up, thought it be nice.” And he had a small square box burning a hole in his pocket, just waiting to be pulled out. Absolutely nothing unusual going on. Nope. “And have I mentioned just how beautiful you look tonight? Because you do, absolutely stunning~” He even raised her hand to his lips to kiss her knuckles softly to complete his statement.

“Stooop~” She giggled, that perfect sound the best kind of music to his ears as a light blush dusted her cheeks, “Keep talking like that and you might get lucky tonight~”

“I'm already lucky~” And he was. So, so lucky that this brilliantly bright and bubbly woman had not only healed his torn soul and made him want to live rather than just survive but had given her heart fully to him to hold and cherish. Something he did every day so thankfully and would hopefully get to do well into the future together with matching rings on their fingers. Taking what he hoped was a subtle deep breath, for this was it, he wouldn't get a better time to, Branch opened him mouth to begin his speech, something he had been working painstakingly on for months, pretty much since he decided he was going to propose, but was interrupted by the sound of applause.

He and Poppy, who took her hand back to turn around, looked at the reason for it at another table where another couple sat. A brunette man down on one knee was slipping a ring on the happily crying blonde woman's finger as the other patrons clapped for them. Poppy bounced in her seat, adding to the applause, cooing before she spun back around, “Isn't that sweet?! I'm so happy Oak finally proposed! Oh, Daffodil must be so happy! Isn't that great, Branch? Our friends are gonna get married!”

“Y-yeah..Super great.” Branch hoped beyond hope he wasn't being obvious on how he really felt. Of course! Of course the universe would do this to him! It was all going so well! But then of course something had to happen to ruin his plans! Yes, he could still ask Poppy. No, it wasn't Oak's fault for asking his own girlfriend just before he could but he didn't dare take the spotlight away from the other couple. Poppy was right, they were their friends, and while he was sure neither would mind it still felt wrong to Branch to ask Poppy now after somebody else had beaten him to the punch. Sighing, confidence now deflating as he slumped slightly in his chair, Branch decided he'd just have to try another time. It was fine. Completely fine! That decision made, not that it made him happy, the blue-haired survivalist resolved himself to finish off the rest of this night as best he could. Not that Poppy had any idea, she was far too excited to think anything was wrong with him as she pulled him over to congratulate their friends.

And maybe this was for the best, maybe his second attempt would go better?

2.

A few weeks later, some more planning, a few personal pep-talks and Branch was ready to try again. They were currently in her father's backyard, surrounded by all their closest friends, even Gristle and Bridget who managed to make it down from Bergenville, having a simple summer barbecue. Branch was manning the grill, keeping half an eye on the food and the other half on Poppy as she fluttered around their friends, having fun playing games and jamming out to the music Suki had brought along. And perhaps this would be a better proposal anyway. While Branch would have must prefer to propose in a more private setting, which made him wonder why he even thought of the restaurant version in the first place, Poppy would probably enjoy it more if it happened surrounded by the people she loved most. And she deserved everything that made her happy.

Adjusting a few hot dogs so they wouldn't burn, he closed the grill just as his barefooted beauty came skipping over, a cheery smile gracing her lips. Setting down his tongs, Branch easily and happily welcomed her into his arms as she wrapped hers around his neck and gave his nose a fond nuzzle, “Mmm~ Everything smells amazing! Can't wait to eat!”

Branch chuckled warmly, nuzzling her back as he rubbed circles with his thumbs over her hips, leaning closer to her, “Should be ready soon. I know everyone's getting hungry. But first...” He then closed the minimal gap between them, giving her a soft kiss that had her sighing and relaxing in his arms. Sharing a few more soft kisses, and ignoring the wolf whistles from Guy and Smidge, Branch subtly glanced at the grill and decided the food would be okay for a moment. Because he figured now was a good time to pop the question to the queen of his heart as he had her undivided attention. Subtly guiding her away from the barbecue, he distracted her with words and some more gentle meetings of their lips, “Having fun, I take it?”

She giggled, that wonderful, tinkling sound that always spread warmth through him and nodded, “You know it~! I'm so glad everyone was able to make it! It feels like forever since we last did something!” It really hadn't, the Snack Pack was still just as close as they'd always been but Poppy was always one for exaggerating when she could. And well...maybe it had been a few weeks since they'd gotten a chance to just relax and hang out without work or other engagements in the way.

Speaking of engagements....

Branch stopped the careful migration a few feet from the hot grill, in a good spot where everyone would be able to see what was about to happen and carefully nuzzled his and Poppy's noses together, hoping she couldn't feel the sudden rapid beating of his heart, “So I wanted to ask you something..”

“Hmm? Yeeess~?” She hummed, watching him with those sparkling eyes he really did drown in every time he looked into them.

“Well I-”

And for the second time his very important question was interrupted, this time by the back gate slamming open and a familiar voice shouting, “Sup, Losers!!! The party's just arrived!”

“Barb!!!” Poppy screeched happily, tearing herself away from Branch to run and jump into her cousins hold with a very enthusiastic hug. One the punk-rock queen caught easily before swinging the bubblegum princess around, laughing loudly.

“Sup, Popsqueak?! Came to see if I couldn't liven you and your sugary-sweet friends up a little!” The red-pink mo-hawked band leader said, finally putting the other woman down as her right-hand band mate and drummer came up beside her, in a much more subdued manner. “Yo! Boy-Toy! Add a few extra burgers cause I'm starvin'!”

“There's plenty!” Branch cried back as Poppy and the Pack swarmed Barb for greetings and playful jabs. He then sighed roughly, ran a hand through his hair and returned to make sure nothing had burned. It was fine. No big deal. There was still plenty of day left for him to try again. There was just an extra few people around to watch now. As he checked on the food on the grill, moving a few things around and taking the vegetable skewers off, Riff came over after getting his own excited hug from Poppy.

“Sup, man. Everything okay?”

“Yeah, yeah, everything's fine.” Okay, mostly fine. But having been around Poppy since they were kids, Branch knew to try to look for the silver living. He'd get another chance later that evening, he was sure. “Just weren't expecting you guys. Little surprised.” More like a little annoyed at the interruption but he'd get over it.

The dark hair drummer chuckled softly, “Yeah...but you know the boss lady. Loves to make a entrance. But hey! We brought beer!” He lifted up a large case of beer as a peace offering. Branch gestured to the cooler behind him, telling him to add some to it and thanked him, mind half on the cooking, half on thinking about when he'd get that second chance to talk to Poppy.

...Sadly for poor Branch, that chance never came.

Having spent the rest of his time at the grill, catching up with Riff, he had soon let everyone know food was ready and the group swarmed up for the delicious smelling entrees. Then as everyone are and laughed and enjoyed, Barb and Riff regaled everyone with tales of shenanigans and adventures of their world tour. Describing the pounding energy of their concert in Brazil to their little hot spring mishap in Japan after a show. Poppy was thoroughly entranced by her cousins tales and completely distracted from Branch's attempts to gain a little attention long enough for him to get the question burning in his throat out. Then of course the pop/rock duo started the karaoke with a bang, which as fun as it was, just distracted Poppy more and didn't give Branch a chance to regain any sort of romantic mood. By the time the sun was long set but the energy of everyone was still high, Branch had given up for the night. There was no way he going to propose tonight, especially after Barb convinced everyone to go clubbing.

They say third times the charm, right?

3.

A week and some brooding later and Branch was ready to start planning again. He needed to come up with a good one too this time, something where they'd be alone, without anyone around and where he'd have Poppy's undivided attention. However he, himself, was slightly distracted and prevented from doing any sort of real planning as he and Poppy were currently passing Saturday night as they were prone to do. Snuggled up on the couch, lights dimmed and watching movies. There was even a light pattering of rain outside to add the cozy atmosphere they found themselves in.

A Rom-com Poppy had been wanting to see was currently playing, the screen flickering image's by as the main character's flubbed another love confession and Poppy snuggled up close to his chest. Branch's head rested on the arm rest, arms wrapped snugly around his girlfriend, rubbing mindless shapes where his hands rested on her waist. He knew as soon as the movie was over they would probably have to move to bed, sleeping on the couch was not that comfortable nor good for them after all, but right now he was in no position to move either of them. Bending his neck, he buried his nose in her pink locks and inhaled the fresh strawberry scent of her favorite shampoo, nuzzling gently. That was when it hit him, they were alone, there was no one or anything to interrupt him and he'd have Poppy's full attention. Yes, his inner romantic cried at the lack of romance but he had learned from Poppy to take the opportunity when it was presented to you, not to shy away. So, taking a subtle breath to calm his suddenly beating heart, Branch got ready to take the plunge.

Starting simple, he murmured softly, “I love you~”

“Mmm~ Love you too~” The pinkette responded in a light and airy voice, settling as deep as she could into his embrace.

Taking a moment to rub her shoulder and place a gentle kiss on the top if her head, Branch began a speech that he'd crafted and re-crafted hundreds of times already it felt like and it never felt perfect. Hopefully though now, he'd find the right words. “I...can't tell you just how lucky I am to have you in my life. You are...the greatest thing to ever happen to me and I am so, so grateful you took the chance on this ragged, broken and gray soul and made life bright again. You...Heh, you are my sunshine, making my days brighter and fuller and more fun than ever before. And yeah, you're crazy with your scheme's and your scrapbooking and leaving glitter everywhere but I wouldn't trade that for the world. Bring on the cupcakes and rainbows because I'm ready...ready to spend the rest of my life with you beside me. Call me selfish but I...I don't ever want to go back to the dark and dull existence. I want you and your sunshine to wake up next to until we're old and bent over and you're still rocking that pink hair. Poppy...I love you so much and if you'll have me, it would make me the happiness man in the entire universe if you agreed to be mine forever. So...I ask you, Poppy Meadows, will...” Deep breath, “Will you marry me?”

There, he'd done it, he finally asked Poppy to marry him and now all that was left was for her to answer and then he could go get the ring from it's place and he could finally see it on her finger. But as the minutes ticked by and he got no answer, Branch was beginning to worry. Had he fucked up? Did he say something wrong? Did she not want to? Was she in shock? Was she trying to find a way to turn him down gently?! Trying not to panic, and failing just a bit, Branch carefully turned his head to look at the woman in his arms, “Poppy?”

And found she was asleep, breath's even and deep and completely dead to the world and the proposal he had just cited.

Biting back a silent groan, Branch tilted his head over the arm rest and stared at the ceiling. Of course, why wouldn't this happen?! The universe truly must hate him if it had allowed him to finally ask Poppy only for her to be asleep and having missed the entire thing. Great, just effing great, now he would have to get up the confidence to try again and after three failed attempts he was starting to think maybe he shouldn't. But, as the beautiful girl in arms would tell him, he needed to get back up again and not give up. And it said something about her impact on him when he knew after a little time moping about the newest failed attempt he would do just that.

Besides, he couldn't fail four times in a row, right?

4.

Another few weeks later and Branch was in the midst of planning something the would surely be his best plan yet when Poppy had decided a spontaneous camping trip up in the mountains would be fun. Unable to deny her but secretly lamenting the lost chance of being able to ask her under the fireworks display that was happening that weekend, Branch had agreed. So they packed up the car and drove off for a weekend spent in nature. Which normally would have thrilled Branch but he was still sort of disappointed in the loss of another romantic plan.

However, even though she had no idea she had off railed another proposal attempt, Poppy still managed to cheer him up with her natural exuberance and joy. And the more he thought about, a proposal under the stars with nothing but the quiet sounds of nature around them would be better anyway. He wouldn't have to compete with the sounds of the fireworks and worry about whether Poppy would hear him correctly or not. Yeah, this would be far better and far more romantic. So by the time they reached the campsite, Branch was in a higher mood then when they left, plans already formed around what he'd cook and how he would go about creating the perfect mood.

Arriving at the campsite in the late evening, Branch decided he'd wait until the following night to enact his grand plan, he'd waited this long after all. So he and Poppy went about building their campsite, throwing up the tent and while she piled the sleeping bags, blankets and pillows they had brought into a proper nest, he went to find them some firewood. Soon they had a nice cozy fire to sit by and after a quick meal of peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, they were cuddled up in Branch's chair, Poppy having abandoned hers in favor of his lap. And having his loving, cheerful, kind girlfriend snuggled up in his lap had almost made Branch abandon all plans and just propose right there, he stopped himself. Waiting one more day wouldn't kill him, plus Poppy was already half asleep and he didn't want a repeat of his attempt on the couch. So, picking her up and carting her off to get settled in the tent, he quickly doused the flames before joining her, falling asleep with her in his arms and images of tomorrow night dancing in his head.

Too bad he hadn't foreseen the incident that had occurred the next day.

After a morning spent cuddling, flirting and in all good mood, something Poppy made sure to tease him about saying she had been right that the trip would be a good thing, his pink whirlwind had suggested a little hike after lunch. The day was perfect for it, sunny, a little breezy with fluffy white clouds drifting by in the sky, so Branch had agreed. Never mind that he was looking forward to the evening once the stars came out. So packing up some water bottles, trail mix, a few energy bars and gummy candies, they had set off on the local hiking trail.

Poppy of course either filmed or took pictures of anything she saw that she liked, which was almost any flower or butterfly that passed by and Branch was content to just let her be herself, in far too good a mood to be his usual sarcastic self. Well, almost, he did try to act normal as to not tip Poppy off. But she had still noticed something and when she asked him what had in such a good mood, he simply replied with why wouldn't he be with her by his side? Which had earned him a giggle and few kisses as she called him a flirt. Which, really, he wasn't going to deny that because he was flirting, the thought of finally, finally asking her to marry him making him almost giddy. Yes, he was still nervous as hell but this was the forth time he was trying and he'd be damned if he was going to let that stop him again.

Eventually they had arrived on top of a cliff overlooking the forest, the sight rather breathtaking. After a moment of admiration, Poppy was back to taking pictures and talking about nice everything was and Branch nodded and smiled back at her but his mind was elsewhere. He couldn't help as he watched Poppy gush as she was prone to do but to imagine the future, with her walking down the aisle in a gorgeous dress made by the twins, veil fluttering behind her as all their friends and family watched. And then she'd step up to him and exchange vows before they were dubbed husband and wife and he just knew she'd jump into his arms for that kiss as everyone cheered for them. Of course that little daydream soon came to a bursting stop with the next following of events.

There had been a rustling of bushes and before they knew it a deer was jumping out and running off, making both of them jump. Poppy had let out a little squeak and unfortunately for Branch, as he jumped back shocked out of his fantasy, he had gone a little too far and part of the cliff broke from under him, making him off balance and tumbling down to a lower ledge.

“Braaaaanch!!!” Poppy's scream echoed in his ears as he groaned, trying to regain his bearings.

“Branch, are you alright?!” Poppy cried down at him, worry clear in her voice.

“Y-yeah..I'm fi-Aaagggh!!!” Branch groaned, barely having sat up before having to clutch at his arm. Carefully pushing himself up, he pulled his hand away to find it covered in blood and groaned again as he covered his wound back up to stem the bleeding. Great, just fucking great. He was injured. And all because of a stupid deer. At least Poppy was okay. Looking up to check on her, his vision swam briefly and another moan of pain escaped him. Great, he probably had a concussion too.

“Branch! Branch, are you okay?!” Poppy was asking again, having wiggled her way down the steep incline to kneel beside him. She made a noise of distress of seeing him hurt and carefully cupped his jaw in her hands, “Hey. Hey, what can I do to help? Are you hurt anywhere else?!”

“I-I don't...” He hissed as pain pulsed through him, “Don't think so...Might have a concussion though...” He cursed under his breath before telling her to look in his bag for bandages, taking that brief moment of distraction to pat the inside pocket of his vest to make sure the ring was still safe. Which it was, so at least there was that.

Poppy quickly dug into his backpack, finding his first aid kit and pulling out the gauze roll. “Can you move your hand?” She asked softly, cringing at the sight as he did so, “Oh dear...That-That looks really bad....” She sniffed and Branch was about to start comforting her, telling her it probably looked worse than it was but she began to carefully move his sleeve away, causing another hiss to escape him. “Sorry...” She mumbled, wrapping his arm as quickly and gently as she could, sniffing and blinking back tears.

“Hey...” He said, squinting at her because damn his head really hurt, “It's gonna be fine. Please don't cry, Sunshine..”

“I know, I know...I just....that was so scary.” She wiped at her eyes and sniffed again, making Branch want to hold her and comfort her until she calmed down but it hurt to move just about everything. So he did the only thing he could at the moment and carefully brushed his knuckle over her knee, murmuring it was going to okay.

It was about then that someone was calling down to them and they looked up to see a forest ranger had found them. After Poppy explained what happened and that they could use a little help, she quickly finished wrapping his arm up. The next series of events happened rather quickly, at least they did for Branch who's consciousness was starting to go in and out a little and he struggled to stay awake. The ranger had help them off the ledge before helping Poppy carry him back to their camp, where she quickly began to pack everything up. The ranger assured her that he'd keep anything that was left behind and they could come get it later and that getting Branch to a hospital was most important. So then began Poppy's slightly frantic drive to the nearest hospital as Branch had continued his battle with staying awake.

In the end, everything was indeed alright. Branch had to have a good fifteen stitches in his arm and had to stay over night for observation because of the concussion but other than a few other scrapes and bruises, he was fine. But the incident had once again derailed any proposal plans that once he was patched up and allowed a moment alone, Branch had cursed the universe for. Couldn't he have one attempt not go awry?! Yes, sure, there had been other times he could have asked but damn it all, he wanted to do it right! He wanted a romantic scene to ask the love of his life to be his wife and not have it be an off hand mention or after a serious injury!! Was that too much to ask for?! Apparently it was.

So, slumping back into his pillows, Branch stewed and cursed the universe. And eventually started planning attempt number five.

And it had to work, it just had too!

5.

Once it was apparent that Branch was fully healed and recovered about a month later, Poppy suggested another weekend trip to celebrate, though this time it was to the beach. Branch wasn't completely set on the idea, worries of how another proposal attempt could be ruined swarming his head, but once again he really couldn't deny Poppy anything. And she was so excited to go see the sea and enjoy the scenery, ever after he pointed out that the weather wouldn't really be right for any swimming. But ever the optimist, Poppy had said there was lots more to do than just swim and so they made reservations at a hotel and went off for a weekend by the sea.

And as he predicted, the weather had been on the cooler side and slightly overcast but that hadn't stopped Poppy from convincing him to travel around all the shops the little ocean town had to offer. And he had to admit, once again, that she was right. It hadn't been all bad walking along the boardwalk and stopping by whatever little shop or stand caught her attention. Plus her excitement was so genuine and true, Branch couldn't help but eventually relax and have fun too. So they spent the afternoon slipping in and out of various stores, some with pointless, cute nick-knacks, some with clothes and accessories that he and Poppy threw on for selfies or she modeled for him, other with oddities such as seaside myths. They had enjoyed some sea-salt ice-cream at some point before dipping into a little hidden book store and then they stopped for a dinner of fish and chips.

Now they were walking down the beach, hand in hand with Poppy happily swinging their arms between them as the sun sank slowly over the horizon. And Branch had to admit, now would be a pretty good time to try again. They were alone, the few other people on the beach far enough way that they wouldn't somehow get in the way, the setting was calm and relaxing with the sounds of waves gently lapping at the shore as the setting sun painting the sky beautiful pinks and oranges, and Poppy was none the wiser to burning the question that had been lodged in his throat for months now. And nothing was going to stop him now. So, stopping and playfully swinging her around so he could pull her into an embrace, Branch pulled her close for a soft kiss.

When they parted, Poppy giggling lightly as her eyes shone with love, Branch calmly stated, “I love you~”

“Heehee~ I love you too~” Poppy giggled, leaning in for another kiss that Branch was happy to return before the slowly parted once more.

“So there's...something I wanna say...” And ask but he didn't want to give it away just yet. And boy did he hope she didn't notice how his heart had started pumping in his chest. This was it, he finally going to ask Poppy to spend the rest of their lives together and even though this was his fifth attempt, the nerves had returned like it was that first try again.

“I'm all ears, My man~” The pinkette said with a grin, nuzzling her nose against his as she settled her arms around his neck.

Deep breath and ignore the flush that came anytime she called him 'her man', “Well...you see..” Please don't let her notice just how stuttering he was becoming, “You are...the greatest gift I could ask for and I-” And before any more could be said a loud, long horn of a boat sounded, causing both to jump and to look toward the ocean where in the distance a ship could be seen. Huffing, and not about to let one measly horn blast stop him, not this time, Branch tried to continue as Poppy giggled lightly, “Right. As I was saying...” Another deep breath, he could do this, “I love you so much and-” Another three blasts of the horn stopped him again and he glared at the ship as Poppy started to laugh quietly. “Anyway. What I'm trying to say, Poppy, is-” And another long, drawn out horn had him groaning before calling out toward the sea, “Oh come on!!!”

Poppy was now full on laughing, laying her head on his chest as he stewed about the stupid boat, before getting a slight grip on herself. Reaching up, she cupped his face and ran her thumbs over his cheeks, “Branch. Hee~ Branch, it's okay! Let me guess, you have a new poem for me?”

He did but that wasn't what he had been about to say. Still he grumbled, looking off to the side, “Maybe...” He also had a proposal he just couldn't seem to get out before something went wrong.

“Then...~” Poppy started, bringing his face back towards her so she could nuzzle their noses together again, “Why don't we go back to our hotel so you can tell it to me where we won't be interrupted? And then you can tell me all my favorites as you...do other things to me~” She then sealed her offer with a deep kiss. One Branch sank into with a sigh but not without lamenting silently the derailment of yet another proposal. Sure, he supposed he could always try again later that night but something in his gut told him it wouldn't be the right time. He just wanted to propose to Poppy in a romantic setting without anything stopping him! Was that too much to ask for?! Apparently...

“Come on,” Poppy murmured, eyes glazed with want as she pulled away, “We can go take a nice warm bubble bath as you recite your newest piece to me~”

Branch hummed and let her take the lead back to their hotel, still brooding over his latest failure. This was five times now he had been stopped and it was starting to wear down his confidence that he'd ever be able to ask her. Which meant it was probably time to ask for help from her dad and possibly Suki and Smidge if he actually wanted to succeed. Sighing quietly to himself, he squeezed Poppy's hand and hoped that the next attempt would finally be the one.

He could only hope, right?

+1.

Poppy hummed a joyful tune as she walked down the hallway to her apartment, another day of party planning behind her. She still couldn't believe some days that she got to do one of the things she loved most for a living! And she was her own boss! Well...sort of...Sky Toronto was still sort of her boss, sort of her partner but that didn't matter! She got to help people plan out their very best parties! And it was soooo satisfying! Especially after long days like today when her clients had a specific vision they wanted done. Which was fine because everyone deserved to have whatever they wanted to be happy with the party they were throwing but boooy, did it tired her out! But that was fine too because she was now home where her wonderful boyfriend hopefully had dinner waiting for them.

Coming up to their door, and smiling as she always did when she caught sight of their door plaque she'd made, she opened it up, singing proudly, “I'm hooooome~!” Before a fantastically delicious scent hit her nose and she groaned. “Ooooh my goooosh~!” She quickly dropped her purse and came around to the kitchen as her stomach gave a rumble, “That smells amazing! Did you make enchiladas?!”

Branch chuckled, that warm, fond sound that always melted her insides a little as he finished pulling the dish out of the oven, “I did. I even made them...chicken enchiladas like you said you wanted.”

“Yeeeessss~!” Poppy hissed happily, “Yes, yes, yes! I am starving!” She excitedly through her arms around him once his hands were free in a tight hug, “You are the best boyfriend ever!” After pulling him down for a quick, grateful kiss, the pinkette pulled away for a little happy dance. “Oooh, I can't wait to dig in! What else did you make?!”

Another one of those warm, fond chuckles came from the blue-haired hottie she had a claim on and he gestured to the stove, “Some Mexican Rice and..” He led her gaze to the table where some different dips and chips sat, “Some sides.”

“Aaaah~! Yes! Your guacamole is the best!!!” Poppy scurried over and took a chip full of green dip, humming in delight at the tangy taste and did another little happy dance as she stuffed another chip into her mouth. “Gosh! D'ish ish shooo goood~!”

“Do you maybe want a plate full or do you wanna continue dancing in place as you eat over the table?” Branch asked, amusement ringing through his tone.

“Oh, haha!” Poppy responded, hands on her hips, “I can't help it! I told you I am staving! Mrs. Sparks ran me all over town looking for just the right party venue and I barely had time to eat lunch. But I did!” She added quickly knowing he would scold her for not eating lunch. “Anyway, once we finally found the right place, I started throwing out ideas for decorations and food and I think we've got a nice solid base now!”

“Sounds like you a had a busy day.” He grinned as she nodded, stuffing another chip into her mouth, “Also sounds like you might need a margarita.”

“You made margaritas?!” Poppy cried, excitedly, looking at him with wide, happy eyes. Oh, she officially loved this man!!! “Can we have them blended?!” She asked, bouncing happily when he nodded and turned to get the pitcher out of the fridge, telling her to get the blender out. “Yeessss~!” She cheered, already halfway to the cabinet to pull out of the appliance. As she set it out on the counter and watched him place the pitcher on the table before getting in the freezer for ice, the thought that this was her life, that she had such a wonderful, thoughtful and sweet boyfriend by her side made her feel all warm and fuzzy inside. And that she wanted this for the rest of her life. She wanted to come home after a long day to dinner or even surprise him in return with the same, she wanted long, cuddly movies nights and lazy mornings in spent in bed. She wanted picnics and romantic date nights, days spent at home filled with laughter and singing or the occasional quiet as they both worked on their respective hobbies. Games nights with friends and maybe, just maybe...one day an adorable child that looked like the two of them. Poppy wanted it all with Branch right by her side in every way possible. So without really thinking about she suddenly said, “Marry me.”

“WHAT?!?!” Branch sputtered, pulling out of the freezer with a wide eyed, shocked expression, staring at her like she had lost her mind.

It took a moment for her to actually realize what she'd said but then she was beaming and nodding, bouncing over next to him, because yes, she very much wanted to marry this man, “You heard me! Marry me!!”

Branch stared and kept staring and eventually he hid his face in a hand as the freezer door closed and Poppy was beginning to worry when his shoulders began to shake. At first she thought maybe he was crying but then the quiet chuckling came which soon turned into full blown laughter and he was leaning against the fridge to support himself. Poppy pouted at him and crossed her arms, “I'm serious, Branch! Don't laugh at me!”

He tried and failed to say something a few times, each times getting cut off by more guffaws then before, before he gestured for her to stay where she was and turned to go down the hallway. Poppy was very confused, and a little hurt, that he was laughing because she meant what she'd said but she didn't have time to think much more on it as he came back, still chuckling. Standing in front of her, he finally got a grip on himself and grinned at her, stray snickers still coming and going as he reached out to cup her cheek, “I'm not laughing at you, Sunshine. Promise. I'm laughing because...” He took a deep breath before cupping his hands around something and bringing it into her view, “Because I've been trying to ask you the same thing for months.”

Poppy gasped, hands flying to her mouth, as she saw the small velvet box opened on his palm containing the prettiest ring she'd ever seen. A golden band that held a round, sparkling blue topaz in it's center, flanked by two smaller pink gems, the metal band twisted around them to hold them in place. “Oh Branch...” She sniffed, grinning behind her hands, because of course that was the reasoning behind his sort of off behavior the last few months, before crying, “Yes!”

He smirked at her, blue eyes twinkling, “Pretty sure that's suppose to be my line. You did ask first.”

“Oooooh!!!” She growled, well and truly starting to cry now as she grinned winder than ever before, “Just-Just shut up and put that ring on my finger!!”

“So demanding.” He cooed, smile just as wide and eyes damp as he did just that. Giving her hand a look that said he was finally happy to see that ring on her finger before he brought it up to lay a kiss on it.

Then they were both laughing and Branch was scooping her up and twirling her around, hugging her close. Poppy cried as she laughed, burying her face in his shoulder, the unbelievable feeling that she was engaged coursing through her as Branch spun them around. Soon he stopped and she lifted her face to see he was crying and grinning she as she was and she felt another giggle come before they both leaned in for a kiss. Kissing him with all that she had, they stood there, her in his arms as they moved their mouths against one another's as their tears mingled. Pulling back, both breathless and smiling and so, so happy, Poppy looked into Branch's eyes and chirped, “I love you~!”

“I love you too, Sunshine.” He grinned, the expression lighting up his face like she loved to see, “And I will for the rest of our lives.”

“Good~ Because so will I~” And she pulled him for another celebratory kiss and another and another before they were both laughing and twirling again. And eventually they got to that dinner, now a celebratory one, and made plans to tell everyone the following day but for now...for now they were just going to bask in the haze of excitement and happiness that surrounded them as they looked toward a very happy and bright future together.

~*~*~*~*~RMG*~*~*~*~

Always gotta go full cheese at the ending right? Anyway, this was obviously done a tad differently than I normally do just because I tried to keep within Branch's perspective and then Poppy's when I normally write both in conjecture to each other and it was a bit of a challenge but I'm really happy with how this came out! And I hope you all enjoyed it too!

Until next time!

[besanii]

I've just started getting into period c-dramas and I see you reblogging about a few of them. And I was wondering if you had some recs? Thanks, I love SM and DH. it's okay if you don't answers this I know this may not be the purpose of your blog.

Hi nonny!

Period cdramas are my jam!!! I love period cdramas (and fantasy/wuxia/xianxia), although I used to watch primarily HK ones and only in recent years started to watch mainland ones. I’m going to assume you’ve watched The Untamed (陈情令) since you came to me and my blog is like...90% CQL lol, so I’ll leave that off this list XD

I’ll be providing YouTube links where I can, but please note that the subs on YouTube are not...the greatest. I don’t usually watch cdramas with subs, so I’m not sure which places to recommend. Sorry in advance!

Nirvana In Fire (琅琊榜)

I think everyone recs this at some point, but it’s just THAT GOOD. It’s set around the Northern and Southern Dynasties era and is primarily a political drama, but also has elements of wuxia (martial arts) mixed in. My favourite part of this drama was the intricate plot and also the wealth of interesting side characters that give the whole drama extra depth. There’s not much romance, but the individual characters and the plot is gripping enough without it.

(I tried to watch the sequel Nirvana in Fire II: The Wind Blows in Changlin (琅琊榜之风起长林), but I never really got into it? I should really try again, but at that point I was still really attached to the first one and wasn’t ready to let go lol. I’ve heard it’s good too!)

Legend of Ruyi (如懿传)

Okay I just finished watching this the other day and I really enjoyed it. It’s set in the Qing dynasty, during the rule of the Qianlong Emperor, and is about the life of Ulanara the Step Empress. I loved the strong female friendships in this (it’s rare in a Palace drama), and the complex dynamics between concubines of different ranks. The progression of Ruyi and Qianlong’s relationship feels very organic and (if you’re familiar with the history) is like a reverse-slowburn where you’re just really rooting for her to get out and when she finally stands up for herself it’s like \o/

(also cameo by everyone’s favourite shijie, Xuan Lu!)

The Story of Yanxi Palace ( 延禧攻略)

This is also set in the reign of the Qianlong Emperor, but the story is completely different. It’s about the Imperial Noble Consort Weigiya and her rise from a palace maid to the Emperor’s favourite consort. It’s funnier and more light-hearted than Ruyi, but it still has its fair share of dramas. The main character is a ‘non-traditional’ woman in that she’s outspoken, brazen and can be quite cruel when dealing with her opponents, but she’s still fundamentally a good person so you really root for her throughout the show.

I personally wouldn’t recommend watching this and Ruyi together or back-to-back because you’ll probably get whiplash from how different the characters are portrayed and how differently the history is interpreted, but it really highlights how much we don’t know about the palace women throughout Chinese history.

The Story of Ming Lan (知否知否应是绿肥红瘦)

NOT a palace drama this time! But it still explores the very complex family dynamics in China between wives and concubines and their respective children, about marriage and social hierarchy and how an unfavoured, illegitimate daughter of a low-ranking imperial official rises to become the wife of a powerful Marquis in the Song Dynasty. I’m a massive fan of Zhao Liying, the main actress, and her husband on the show is her husband IRL and they are the CUTEST HECKING COUPLE I swear to god. Their chemistry is OFF THE CHARTS.

Three Lives, Three Worlds, Ten Miles of Peach Blossoms (三生三世十里桃花)

Xianxia (fantasy/martial arts) drama about an immortal Fox Spirit and her love story with the Crown Prince of the Nine Heavens that spans over three “lives”. There’s magic, sword fighting, questionable CGI and a lot of typical romance drama stuff like pining, misunderstandings, miscommunication and jealousy etc. I found this drama more compelling than its sequel Three Lives, Three Worlds, The Pillow Book (三生三世枕上书) because the characters were better fleshed out (although a lot of the same characters appear in both), and it was easier to get emotionally invested in them. Also I find Bai Qian a lot less...annoying than Fengjiu (who is so cute, but oh my god can be quite irritating sometimes).

Love and Destiny (三生三世宸汐缘)

Apparently this is meant to be set in a similar universe to Peach Blossoms, but it’s quite different. This is the love story between a young bird spirit and the God of War, which also spans over three lives. I found it a lot darker than Peach Blossoms, and a lot more tragic, but I enjoyed it a lot more than I had expected to when I first heard about it. I really liked the main character (Lingxi) here (she’s a good mix of Bai Qian and Fengjiu), and although I wasn’t quite sold on the development of her relationship with Jiu Chen at first, they won me over with some really heart-wrenching story lines.

(I don’t know if the playlist above is Eng subbed though, sorry!)

Other dramas that I liked are:

Empresses in the Palace (甄嬛传) - it got really messy in the end, but I really like Li Sun so I kept watching. It’s meant to be a prequel to Legend of Ruyi (above), set in the reign of the Yongzheng Emperor (Qianlong Emperor’s father). Don’t watch it on Netflix though, they really messed it up by trying to condense the story and it doesn’t work.

Legend of Fuyao (扶摇) - xianxia drama about a slave girl who was cursed as a child and sets off to collect magical artifacts to lift it. I got up to about Episode 20 and then life got in the way, so I didn’t finish it, but I’ve been meaning to get back to it one of these days. It stars Yang Mi, who plays Bai Qian in Peach Blossoms.

Princess Agents (特工皇妃楚乔传) - I really liked this drama, but it gets really dark and touches on some darker themes like rape, murder and torture, and the story gets quite messy and it ends on a cliffhanger (there was talk of a sequel a couple of years ago, but nothing’s come of it). Stars Zhao Liying (from Story of Ming Lan), who is so badass in action roles.

Noble Aspirations: The Legend of Chusen (青云志) - another xianxia drama about an orphan boy Zhang Xiaofan who joins the Qingyun Sect after the massacre of his village and falls in love with the daughter of the leader of the Ghost King (an enemy of the “righteous” sects). It starts off quite slow, took me about 5 eps to really get into it, but I enjoyed it for the most part. There’s a season 2 that kind of ends on a cliffhanger, and there’s been rumours of season 3 for years but nothing has ever come of it so it was quite disappointing. Stars Zhao Liying (again, I’m a massive fan haha), and is based on the same novel as Xiao Zhan’s movie Jade Dynasty (which I haven’t watched yet).

[antihero-writings]

Oswald has a nightmare about executing Lacie and she comforts him? :D

Notes:

Hey @el-of-the-daleys! So sorry this took so long!! I really hope you enjoy it!! <3

I actually am planning on adding to this fic something that wasn't in/is a little different from the prompt for a second chapter, haha!! 

Since I wrote a scene fitting this prompt in “The Things He Left Unsaid”--(actually I believe that scene is why I was given this prompt?? Because you liked that scene?? Correct me if I’m wrong!!)--I wanted to go somewhere different with the scene/prompt this time. I started writing it...but it ended up being too different, and not actually fitting the prompt XD So I had to go back and write something that fit the original prompt, haha!! Don't get me wrong, I really like this chapter, I think it turned out really nice!! But I still liked what I originally wrote too, and think it takes it in a creative direction, and fits as a second chapter, so I plan on doing just that and finishing it and adding it as a second chapter!!

Anyways! I hope you like what I came up with!!

To others reading, I love getting prompts, and Pandora Hearts is my favorite series, so if you want me to write something for Lacie and/or Oswald, Pandora Hearts, (or anything really!), I'd be delighted!! 

I'd really appreciate if you could leave me a comment and let me know if you enjoyed this!! They really do motivate me to keep writing, and make my entire week!!

Dismembered Duets (Ch1)

A song cut through the moment. Each note a twinkling, golden light falling about the atmosphere.

His sister was dancing in her room. A purple butterfly fluttering about her garden, bringing life to all the flowers around her. Her song. Her dance. Sheer wonderful absurdity, pollinating this black and white world.

And the puppets smiled in reply.

He wanted to join her, to dance and sing too…But something was keeping him back. Something physical, or something spiritual, he wasn’t sure.

A beautiful, gentle melody to sing him to sleep …Yet, as she continued, he found there was something dark, distorted, something…perhaps a little mad within it;

The harmony, every few seconds would cut with a dissonant note, like a misstep on the piano. An error of the foot.

As she kept going, the song, the dance, sped up, and the lapses became more frequent, though she didn’t seem to notice; just kept dancing as if this was all part of the plan.

And when the notes slipped, reality would crack. Or, more accurately, the cracks in the world—that is to say the chains holding reality together—would bleed into his vision.

He wanted to join her. To take her hands and twirl her around. Be her brother, her protector and confidant, in that beautiful insanity. To feel it too; for the notes to tickle his arms, wire his movements, to take root in him, to know what she felt as her voice rang and ran out.

He knew he shouldn’t. He surely couldn’t. The dance was not his. Not his to join. Not his to take and taint.

Still, he couldn’t just stand on the sidelines.

Oswald took a step forward.

A chain unlatched. A chain he didn’t even know was there. The sound wrapped around her right wrist, keeping her hand in place. She hung her head, looking at him, a smile etched on her features that—like the music—was just a little bit mad.

His mouth opened in horror. He took another step forward, this time to try to help her, to untie the chain—

With a loud clank a new chain wrapped around her left wrist, hanging her other hand in place.

“Lacie!” he cried, and decided taking it slow was the problem; he ran as fast as he could to her.

That only made everything happen in seconds: a chain around one leg, then the other, and her body flew upwards like her partner in the dance was lifting her into the air, and he knew they weren’t going to let her back down…

—(Was he her partner? Why were his movements chaining her? He didn’t want this)—

The next pierced her abdomen, and another through her chest, one through her leg instead of around it—blood flocking to each in turn—and the last, wrapped around her neck, though it didn’t slice through it.

By the time he arrived at her side it was too late. As he stood below, she hung there, her blood dripping onto his cheeks like the first drops of an intense rain.

But she didn’t yell or scream, or cry, or even ask what was happening. It was like she knew this was going to happen from the start. That smile stayed on her face, and it was more than a little mad now. An almost-maimed beautiful thing on her brother’s lonely, metal strings.

He stared up at her in horror, those violet eyes shimmering, pooling with red. He wanted to scream and cry, to run for help, to say something, anything at all, but no words came to him, none would adequately do the job, so silence was his pick of poison.

As the blood dripped onto him, instead of falling to the ground, it trickled and slithered onto his back—as if it was a living snake, with a mind of its own—and dove beneath his skin.

He cried out and pain, falling to his knees as knives jammed into his back. He didn’t even know where he was, what he was doing, or who he was for that matter—

—Was he Oswald; Lacie’s brother, who wrote songs in his spare time? Or was he Glen, without a second to spare, in charge of the whole goddamn world?—

When the pain subsided, sense and memory returned. He tried to lift his arm, to get up, to help his sister—she needed his help—

But his hand was too heavy to lift—

No, not his hand...for what he saw raise feebly in its place was a blackened claw…with the other end of the chain resting in its grasp.

He gasped, let go. But as it clattered to the ground, the tiles began to give way, all converging on the spot, collapsing beneath him. But before he could fall into the void something gripped his ankles and lifted him up until he was hanging upside down beside her, a fly caught in this twisted web, waiting for the spider to devour him.

An ugly sound reverberated around him, like a bubbling cauldron full of the worst poisons. It took a moment for him to realize it was Lacie laughing.

He jerked his head to look at her, to see her face, his sister’s beautiful face, twisted into a dollish, painted sneer.

No, it couldn’t be her laugh. Her laugh was the sound of butterfly wing beats on summer days, her laugh was the sound of a brook in spring, the wind rushing through the leaves in autumn, the fire crackling in winter—

She reached out and wrapped one of the chains around her arm, and pulled hard, enough that her brother, on the other end, was lifted up by the ankles until he was hanging upside down in front of the mirror on the mantelpiece.

Something told him not to look. Something very sensible. He listened: shut his eyes tight, refusing to look, to see it.

But he heard giggling to his side, a giggling that got closer, and soon he felt the dolls crawl over him. He tried to shake them off, but two made their way onto his head. They put their tiny porcelain hands on his eyelids and pried his eyes open, as Lacie whispered softly,

“You can’t look away from this, nii-sama.”

He almost yelped in shock.

It was him…but not him. A twisted, grotesque version of himself. His expression was marred with drops of red, like clawmarks across his handsome face. Speaking of claws, his hands had turned into the blackened, talons of beasts, and they were bloody.

And, worst of all, black as the night sky on a starless evening, four, great, feathered wings had erupted from his back, so big they obscured much of the room from view.

Was this him? No. It couldn’t be…Certainly not. What could have caused this? …How long had he been like this?

“If you wanted to play, Glen,” said that demented smile, the words no longer soft, “you could have just asked.”

And the puppets laughed in reply—

—(All except the black rabbit, who looked altogether too sad to join in)—

The toys climbed onto the chain holding him up, and jumped up and down on it as if it were a trampoline snickering as it started yanking him back and forth.

“Wait!” he yelled when he realized, too late, what was about to happen.

And as he swung into the mirror, cued by the sound of shattering glass only in his mind—

The sweet chorus of reality came in.

A twenty-year-old Oswald shot up in bed, his shirt sticking to his chest with sweat, his violet eyes piercing the dark like spears, trying to hunt something far from this room, all the while trying to temper his breath, his heartbeat, his dismay, to keep his prey from noticing his presence…and failing.

He’d been dealing with these sorts of sleep-induced traumas as long as he could remember—(No, calling them nightmares didn’t quite cover it).

Sleep was meant to be peace, but, spending so much time controlling his reactions, pacifying his hopes, his fears, when he relinquished his control to the night it could only bring all those pesky little humanities to the surface.

Knowing one day you’ll be sending your sister into nonexistence isn’t exactly a lullaby.

Knowing one day he’d be someone else, Glen, in charge of the world, and unallowed to deal with such human things as nightmares, unable to run to any sort of guardian for comfort from the demons didn’t help them go away today.

His breath remained heavy on his chest, feeling too warm and too cold at the same time.

The room was far too small.

He threw his legs over the side of the bed, marching out the door without a second thought, or changing his nightclothes.

Fresh air was what he needed. An escape from this oppressive place.

The nightmare echoed like a resounding gong throughout his head, its images repeating, its emotions resounding.

No, he couldn’t let this consume him.

After all. It would all be real some day.

He didn’t know how fast he was moving; if he was walking calmly, or running, but at some point he found air. The world outside smelled like daffodils and peace. The courtyard, it was once called, in some time far from now. At last he allowed himself to pause, take a deep breath—

And he heard singing.

He froze, his eyes widening.

He waited, sure this was just an addendum to the nightmare, that before long the notes would slip, become that mad melody…but they didn’t. They remained the gentle tone of a true, sane song. One of his own compositions, if he recalled.

He let the music pull him slowly along like a lifeline to a ship, until he saw Lacie in the middle of the courtyard, twirling around in her white nightdress, singing without a care in the world.

Of course she was up at fifteen in the morning singing. What normal person would be?

She dipped and swayed like a bird in the air.

He didn’t dare take a step forward. Didn’t dare try to join her. From the sidelines he interrupted;

“What are you doing up?”

“Asks my brother, who’s wandering around in his nightclothes.” She didn’t miss a beat, and continued dancing, despite the halt in music.

“Who could sleep with you singing like this?” He folded his arms.

She grinned, and it was that playful, mischievous—but still sane—thing. “I’ve only been singing for a few minutes, and your room’s on the other side of the manor. You can’t possibly have heard me.”

He didn’t reply, only looked away.

“Having trouble sleeping, Ni-sama?”

“What makes you ask that?”

“Please. You think I don’t know my brother well enough to know he doesn’t stroll around at midnight for fun?”

He rolled his eyes.

“Soo, my dear brother had a widdle nightmare.”

“Stop.” He said like the word itself would force her to obey.

“Ahh so a nightmare about me.” There was no hint of fear, or inclination of obedience in her.

His eyes widened.

“The usual, I presume?” She may well have been talking about what he wanted to order for breakfast.

He looked down and spoke softly. “…Yes.”

She walked up to him, and without warning, lunged for his hand.

“What are you doing?” He ripped it away, holding it up high.

“Dance with me.” She looked up at him with puppy dog eyes, resting her head on his chest, the grin on her face lined with mischief.

His eyes lidded. He pushed her away, before folding his arms over his chest; keeping them behind bars.

No. He shouldn’t. Besides, he didn’t want to; he wasn’t any good at dancing anyways. He’d just step on her toes, or worse.

She tugged on his arm, trying to free it from its bind.

“Pweease?”

He looked away, not budging.

This dance belonged to her. His part was merely the song—a song to which he never wrote lyrics. It wasn’t his place to dance to it. Only admire from a distance.

He didn’t want to chain her.

“Preeeeetty please?” She blinked girlishly. “What if I promised to do something for you?”

He raised an eyebrow. “Will you clean your room?”

She pouted. “…Fine.”

He allowed his hand pardon.

She snatched it before he could give a caveat, or even try to protest. Her skin was cold against his sweaty fingers…but not an unwelcome cold. It was the kind of cold that was gentle, that could bring him back to reality.

The wind rushed by as she pulled him along, until they were beneath the colonnade, where the air was cooler, and fireflies were blinking in and out of focus.

He was pretty sure this was what it would feel like to be taken away by the fae folk.

Upon arriving, she stopped abruptly—(he almost ran into her)—and held out her other hand. He rolled his eyes before accepting it. Grinning, she began to pull him along into the moves, putting one hand on his back, and the other on his shoulder.

“You’re leading?” He frowned.

“I’d be pleased to follow your lead,”—she took a step forward, and he stepped on her toe, causing a smirk to spread across her features—“But something tells me you’re not up to the task.”

He glowered at her.

The notes spilling from her mouth as they swayed and spun back and forth, traveling through the pathways in the colonnade. …He stepped on her toes a number of times.

“You’re so stiff, nii-sama,” she noted. “You just need to loosen up.”

“Maybe I’m stiff because my sister is forcing me to dance against my will.”

She sighed fakely. “I guess my room will just have to remain a pigsty.”

He tried to loosen up.

Lacie didn’t continue the music for a moment, simply looked through the columns into the sky. “The stars are beautiful. It’s like they’re waving at us.”

He cast his gaze there too.

The sky was calm, the air fresh…it was hard to remain anxious out here, holding his sister’s hand.

“Yes.” He replied absentmindedly, then paused before speaking, “You never actually answered my question.”

She grinned slyly. “‘What am I doing up?’…Let’s just say you’re not the only one who the demons have an affection for.”

[cl-babydew]

Where’s Connie?!

Ok so..

Steven really needs his Connie! And tbh, I miss her so much! So very much! It’s been a while since she actually was involved in something! And I have a ton of theories on what can happen and Ik a lot of people do too!!!(This isn’t gonna be any of my theories tho!)

But first off, let’s get one thing clear, the ones that want Connie so desperately like myself don’t mean for her to be a therapist to him! Cuz we know she’s dealing with college and etc! But I made this post to remind you of a good bit of things that might come into play!(I guess I sorta went off topic? XD)

Remember Full Discloure? We seen how Steven tried running from her to protect her, quite literally too! But she ran after him! Like everyone knows, if Connie knew something was wrong with Steven, she will follow him to the ends of the earth just to know what’s wrong and to be there to help him, and we all know, including Steven that she would put him over anything else! This would cause Steven to want to hide again! To keep to himself cuz he knows that she’s already busy enough! And he knows she would come after him! So he would keep to himself!

But in Full Disclosure, Connie already fussed him for running and worrying about that!! She WANTS to help him! That’s her decision becuz she cares for him! She chose and chooses to run after him! She knows he means well, but she also knows that bottling up like he’s been doing/did isn’t good!

Connie: *gasps* Steven, your eye! What happened to you?

Steven: I didn't want you to worry about it.

Connie: I've been worried sick all day, what do you think I'm doing here?

Steven: I just wanted to protect you.

Connie: Stop. Just tell me everything

A moment later(skipping a few lines tho...)

Connie: That is a lot to take in.

Steven: Are you okay?

Connie: Are you okay? You're the one that's been through everything. The least I could do is just listen.

Steven: I can't ask you to do that.

Connie: I want to, Steven. I want to be a part of your universe.

Boom! She’s WANTS to! And she’s said a lot of things similar to the last line!

When they promised to always fight together! They fought about that whenever Steven came back with him saying once again that he wants to protect them and her! She gets frustrated that he still doesn’t tend to understand! The crazy thing is he’s the one that came up with that promise! From Sworn To Sword:

“I want to fight with you, together!”

Wait for it...

“No matter what comes, we do this together!”

Boy came up with this promise or vow, but broke it a few times! And people were mad at Connie?! I understand in a way, but people get mad at Connie a lot when sometimes it isn’t even her fault! Sorry just annoyed with that fact, Ik we all have opinions, but I’ll be honest it really bothers me! Anyway! Continuing:

Jam Buds!

Gosh I miss that...they were so innocent back then..🙈

(I skipped a bit of the lines and cut off a bit at the end to get to the part I mainly wanted!)

“Yes I do! If Connie is going to fight, we’re going to fight together!”

“That’s right!”

You may say that this isn’t a promise, but I think it’s suppose to be taken as one, or a vow at least which technically is a promise!!

In conclusion! No matter what, Connie is gonna keep that promise! She’s gonna fuse him about it again(in a tough love way)for not telling her, being apart of his universe means she wants to know the flaws and good times! She wants to know when he’s hurt in order to listen! After all...that’s the least she can do? And that’s what he needs. Someone who is willing to listen, and that someone is Connie!

“I want to, Steven. I want to be apart of your universe”

I’m not great at making these types of post like all the others, but still, I hope this made sense. I’m not sure if the point I wanted to get across even made it to the other side! XD My point was kinda saying what we all knew, that she was gonna be there for him no matter what the cost! And tbh, she’s gonna find out sooner or later! At least I hope she finds out sooner!

I wonder...Lion...? It would be amazing if he brought Connie to Steven! 😍 That would make Connie his Knight! XD Sorry! Anyway! Any thoughts?

[fightmewiatch]

We Survived

Pairing: Curtis (Snowpiercer) x Reader

Prompt: “Hold me and never let me go. ”

Author’s Note: I needed to change the ending, okay? So, if you haven’t seen Snowpiercer, there are some...idk, vague spoilers, I guess. Most of it I don’t come out and say, but I do spoil a couple things, so, if you don’t mind, go ahead, but if you do, go watch this wild fucking movie first. XD 

          The first time you boarded the train, you didn’t care about the divisions, you didn’t care that some rode the back of the train or others the front of the train.You were just grateful to be out of the freezing cold world the train was going to protect you from. 

         At least, you were grateful for a few moments, tucking into the space with more people than could reasonably fit. People didn’t bring much, just things they thought they might need on board, but once the tail section was packed, soldiers came through, taking possessions. You were grateful, for a few more minutes, to be in the back, far from their searching eyes, and quickly dug things out of your bag that you would rather die than give up, tucking them beneath your clothes as best you could before they came. The bag, your things, they were gone, but you held tight to what you could hide. 

         Your bed, nothing more than a fabric hammock, had been fitted evenly between two beneath you and several more above you, but you had long adjusted to falling into the awful sleep you managed to find with your legs tucked in so you could fit. Years, you had time to adjust to keeping your head down and staying quiet, forming companionships with the people in the tail section, the people who were now your family.

         But quiet was gone, now. You had promised to stay back in the tail section, to try and help the people, while the revolution stormed the cars on the train to reach the front. There were years of anger and rage that filtered through all of you differently, but in the end, this had to happen. The fight had to happen, you all had to try. You had to try to change things, to save the people suffering in the tail section. 

         It didn’t mean you were prepared for the violence, for the way the train rocked, growled, roared, and toppled off the track, as you made your way through as best you could, hiding in shadows and around corners where you could find them so the men storming the tail section didn’t find you. 

          You had no idea how long you were out, but as you opened your eyes, pain blossomed through your head, and you realized, through it, the train had stopped moving. It had felt like ages, before you could move to your feet, and look around at the car you were in. It was upside down, your body teetering on the roof of the car.

         You knew the word about how cold it was outside, but with the damage done, and the train clearly no longer functioning, you couldn’t be afraid any longer. Instead, you dug around the car, finding something thick and heavy to wrap around yourself before climbing out through the hole that had been ripped at one end. The wind was biting at your skin immediately, but nothing like you expected, as you stumbled through the ice and snow, hollering out into the tundra at the people moving away from one of the cars that lay on its side.

         It had been a blessing, finding anything in the first place, let alone finding the cave in the mountainside. The stories that had been told whilst on the train had been insistent that all the world was ice and snow, covered and still in the vast freeze. But the cave was good, the cave was a sign that things were getting better in the world. 

         The challenge came in returning to the train, filtering through the wreckage for supplies that were still good, gathering whatever survivors there were from the tail section. You took it upon yourself to look through the wreckage of the nose of the train, knowing full well that Yona and Timmy had already seen it and not wanting to put them through it again. Survivors in the nose had been unexpected, Namgoong lost in the rubble. But Curtis was alive, barely, when you climbed in, and it took everything you had to wrap him up in something warm and get him out of the tipped car. 

         Within a few days of the crash, the cave was full, much like the tail section had been. But this time, the people were happier to be packed tightly, the warmth of their bodies filling the space to keep everyone going. Curtis, along with several others, were resting as far into the cave as possible, with one fire lit in the middle of the space to help, too. Your voice carried through the cave, instructing the injured to rest, and the others to figure out how to get anything to hang over the opening of the cave to block out the cold without sealing you all inside.  

         There weren’t many people left, now. Much fewer than there had been before the revolution. But it didn’t stop any of you from being determined, from settling in to discuss plans on what to do now. You dug graphite and paper from the supplies salvaged in the wreckage, listing the things that would need to be done, as well as the people well enough to do it. 

         For days, Curtis rested on several pieces of fabric, cut from the beds in the tail section, his arm wrapped and rewrapped, cleaned with snow and apologies for the cold and the sing. When he finally started to heal, when he finally seemed to be regaining at least some of his strength, you lowered yourself beside him, opposite his injured arm, and sighed, half-smiling as he peered over at you.

“I’ve never seen this side of you,” he commented, voice thick and raspy with disuse. You chuckled, shaking your head. 

“Neither have I. But our leader was down, and the last thing we needed was a panic.” You reached up, wiping your hand lightly across his forehead, as he smiled a little. “How’re you feeling?”

“Like I jammed my fucking arm in the train,” Curtis groaned, rolling his head to look up at the ceiling of the cave. 

“Good, because you did.” You smiled at each other as he spared you another glance, before shaking his head. “What can I get you? You haven’t eaten much but broth since we got you in the cave.”

“Broth is good...keeps you going, freezes well, lasts.”

“...that’s true. Is there anything else you want?” Curtis hummed a little, wincing as he tried to move his arm, before he shrugged his good shoulder. There was a flush to his cheeks, one that could have been from anything, but, the way he looked away from you, you knew he was simply blushing. “...Curtis?”

“Well...there’s one thing I’d like, to be honest. And considering we survived that shit show...now or never, right?” You blushed, then, as he met your gaze, his eyes hopeful. 

“Name it.”

“Will you lay by me? Just...hold me, and never let me go?” 

         You were surprised by the request. It wasn’t unusual to find a way to curl up together back on the train, cuddle together for support and company as much as necessary, but you hadn’t expected the soft way Curtis asked you. You had been on the train as long as he had, trapped in the tail section the whole time, too, and you knew what happened in the start, you knew how things had progressed until the front pretended some kind of mercy and passed out those awful protein bars. You knew he didn’t think he was worth any kindness based on what he’d done, but you also knew that the people in the tail section shouldn’t be judged based on what happened after the end. He had always dismissed your insistence of this, your insistence that what had been done couldn’t be changed, but it had happened to ensure the survival of at least some good for the next life. 

         But the way he looked at you now, you wondered if he was seeing your meaning, understanding where you’d been coming from all this time. So you smiled, and glanced back towards Yona and a few of the others, who were busy working down the list of things that needed to be done first. With a nod, you twisted, and stretched out alongside him, resting your head on his shoulder as you carefully draped your arm around his waist. 

“You only ever have to ask. But you’re crazy if you think I was ever going to let you go anyways.” Curtis chuckled, the rumble low against your ear, but he draped his arm around you to squeeze your shoulder.

“I hope you don’t mind if I’m crazy anyway.” You glanced up, chuckling, before snuggling in against him, warmth slowly seeping through your clothes to one another. 

“I don’t mind if you don’t.”

“Good.”

[nighttimepixels]

Heyhey Night! I have a buncha questions after seeing all your animations and they're just so cool so! I hope this is ok!! Can u animate normally too, or only pixel? Not that that's bad, just wondering! What's ur preferred kinda animation? Do u prefer lipflaps or lipsyncs? What's the hardest part of the animation process?? What's ur favorite?? Any part u don't like? What's a thing people don't see that u put a lotta time into? Do u have a fave animation u've done? Thank u btw for all ur art!!

Oh stars, okay, yeah- I’m happy to answer all these!! I’ll break them up so it’s easier to read X) And awww geez thank you so much for your support, sweet anon! It really makes my day when people say they like anything I’ve made, and stars knows it’s all the more true with the sweet sweet time sink that is animation   (´•̥̥̥\\ヮ\\•̥̥̥` )

I’ll also put this under a cut since it gets a bit long :)

Can u animate normally too, or only pixel?

This one cracks me up a little, don’t worry about it XD I totally can! In fact I enjoy it a lot - and... gods, animation software is a nightmare and a half, to be honest. That’s the biggest hurdle.

I do just straight up love pixel art and the aesthetic I can achieve with it, but I do at times miss ‘normal’ (non pixel?) animation, heh. Especially sound-syncing! I do all my pixel art in Asesprite which imo is the best pixel art program, not to mention made by an actual pixel artist - buuuut it doesn’t have a sound file option. Which makes sense! Er, frankly, most pixel artists wouldn’t... use it to animate like I do? More for games, or for looping gifs? So I can’t complain much, it makes a lot of sense that it’s a low dev priority.

Now, when it comes to other animation programs... I’ve tried a lot. Unfortunately, the ones that are preferable for the feel I like are either way out of budget (stares at TVPaint in the distance) or... well, have too high a learning curve for my single-person workflow, really. (OpenToonz, sigh...) And a lot of the free programs are good for getting a start in animation, but once you get to a certain point you really feel the limitations (whether it’s workflow, sound import, exports, trying to make something more finished than a rough...).

Then... there’s animation programs I just don’t like, and a lot of those are angled towards bone-style animations (nothing wrong with those, they just don’t fit my style? and are too much time investment for a single artist to output more quickly...), or are, well, freakin’ Adobe Animate.

I... gods, I do not like Animate (formerly Flash). And I made a whole 2 minute+ animation in it a couple years ago! (It’s very rough and bad and doesn’t make sense, pfff, not gonna link it XD) It’s... clunky, and vector oriented, and freaking lines don’t go where I want them too, and it tries to predict too much?? It’s hard to put to words, gah. For me, my animation style would be much more... raster oriented. Flow, hand drawn inbetweens, yaddayadda. Animate’s great for... plenty of things, but not for that kind of animation. There are far better animators than I who make it work with freakin’ aplomb though! So really, it’s just my taste, haha.

.... Er, that got long! I’ll cut off more rambling about animation software and tl;dr boil it down to “I love animating period, but turnaround is something I have to keep in mind as a freelancer, as well as budget, and my current focus is pixel animations for a number of reasons.” X)

What's ur preferred kinda animation?

I’m not exactly sure what this one means! Between pixel and non-pixel? Er, they both have their pros and cons, so I couldn’t say! But if I have to break down my current animations into categories, I’d say I have cutscenes, loop environments, and the broad game-like animations...

The first would be something like this animation feat. teasing Edge, the second would be something like this one with skesgo’s Starlan and Cinnamon, and the third is... everything else! From headsprite loops to ‘small’ characters running and so on.

Honestly, they’re all a lot of fun for different reasons! Cutscenes are generally the most challenging, but they give me the chance to push my limits and try and pull off something cool, whether I’m having to conserve frames (to keep the cost of a commission down) or whether I’m going more all out (which is a pricey commission, or a fun personal project, lol).

Loop environments are their own challenge - it may not look like it, but I put a lot of thought into how to make them look as natural as possible! From timing of talking characters, to where to place a blink, to exactly how many frames it’ll take to ‘soften’ a motion (so people aren’t just snapping between major poses) and so on - it takes... a lot of time to animate even simple scenes well, so I do a lot of mental math on how I can keep things affordable when someone approaches me for a commission. And frankly, I totally undercharge;; but I do my best!

Game-like animations are just fun. They range, they’re silly, to intense (I’ve animated fight animations before for game concepts), to indulgent, and beyond! Headsprites are always a delight, especially if I get to push the expression X) and I love tiny things (I mean... I am a pixel artist...) so getting to make lil tiny babs even just walking can be fun - and also, a lot more time consuming than you might thing, esp if you wanna make it smooth, like this lil Frisk I did last month or so:

Do u prefer lipflaps or lipsyncs?

oTL

B... both??

Okay, lipsyncing basically is very time consuming. AND, I freakin’ love it. I love puzzles, and when it boils down to it, that’s what super fun & expressive lip syncing is (some Ghibli animations are the heckin’ best for this)...

and, I’m a pixel artist, without sound-syncing capabilities in her main art program oTL Yeah, I can export frames and line them up and check but... gods, it’s so time consuming. I’ve tried it out of desperation - but for even five seconds of sound (sayyyyy a lil Vine...) that’s hours upon hours of transferring back and forth just to check.

So even though I love lipsyncs, they’re too time-consuming (and ergo, if I’m being commissioned, often too expensive) to do often! Someday I’d like to get back to doing them more often, but for now, practically I stick to/’prefer’, in the loosest terms, to do lipflaps. For the layman, this is that ‘two frame’ (maybe three) open-closed style of animating mouths- however, I’m working on ways to keep that style, but make it more expressive! It depends on the project - and in commissions, I’ll pretty much always prioritize giving the client a little more body animation than mouth animation, unless it’d really fit what they’ve requested.

What's the hardest part of the animation process??

.... damn, this is a tough one! Sometimes I’d say it’s the initial concept work - but it depends on what I have to work with. Sometimes that parts a breeze - and honestly freeing, bc I can take the time to try and push what I’ll do with it!

Roughing is one of my favorite parts, tbh. It can be tricky, sure, but getting to go from keyframes to in-betweens & smears to adding the flairs of secondary motion (think hair swishing, or coats flaring, etc) is so exciting and satisfying.

From there it’s all refining, and tweaking...

Hm. Honestly, the hardest is probably the initial cleanup and lining. It’s cool to see it come together, but it feels so much slower, and it can drag - and then you find bits that actually don’t translate well from the rough stage, so you have to go back and rework, and oof it can just drag in this phase, heh. Plus, I’m always tempted to add more frames, but it’s not always realistic - I’m a perfectionist, to say the least, so I’m constantly having to leash myself back so I don’t turn a project into a half-a-year undertaking, pff.

What's ur favorite??

Probably gave myself away talking about the roughing stage X) It’s just loose and fun and free! But seeing it all come together is also damn satisfying too, so that’s not to say I don’t like the refining portions either...

Outside of that, I also really like the beginning of the color stage! .... Before having to translate shadows/highlights to each and every frame *shudders*. That gets tedious, but it’s so critical! Anyways, though, I heckin’ love colors. I always have a rough palette in mind at the start of the process, but I go ham and play with it as a little break and a true test when I get to actual slap together a full frame with full color, highlights/shadows included! It’s exciting, like a preview of the finished product, basically :D

Any part u don't like?

Heh, by the time I get to shadows/highlights, I tend to be getting impatient, I suppose. It’s not that I don’t like it - I definitely highly value it, and if it was the only thing I was working on in an animation that’d be different, but as a one-woman team I’m just raring to be done at that point; it’s very nearly the last thing I do, after all, so it’s a struggle to focus. X)

I suppose one that always gets me is more complicated backgrounds. It’s a work in progress, as I’m getting better and finding the fun in them for sure! But I’m still not where I want to be in translating ‘background concept’ to ‘finished background’ - it feels more stiff than my animations, I guess. So it’s a frustrating part... but hey, it’s part of it! And learning to embrace the challenge is a big help.

... I just always have to make sure I have a big cup of coffee and a good jam playlist going when I sit down to do ‘em, in the meantime.(=▿= ||||)

What's a thing people don't see that u put a lotta time into?

Definitely the coloring. This goes for both backgrounds and the animated characters themselves. It’s... never as simple as it looks? It’s time consuming, and while some parts of frames can be copy-pasted, I also put subtle work into the animations that mean that some pixels are off so it ends up being marginally faster to just recolor, but then there’s shadows, and working in pixels means that if I miss one then there’s a flickering pixel mid-animation, and sometimes there’s an unconnected line and then you bucket fill the whole damn thing, and gods know I’ve got colored lines so I have to be exacting with keeping the same ratios highlighted vs darker in shifting frames...

*deep breath*

... Yeah, basically the coloring is super time consuming. And balancing bg coloring with animated elements in the image itself is a whole extra challenge on top of that. For 99% of my animations, I can damn near guarantee I’ve spent at least twice as much time coloring it as I have animating it.

Do u have a fave animation u've done?

*looks at my goblin hoard of animations in horror like I’ve been asked to choose a favorite child*

... Stars above, I can’t choose! I love them all, and at this point a good portion of them are commissions- it wouldn’t feel right to choose!

*...carefully covers the hoard’s metaphorical ears*

... also, that said, I can admit a soft spot for any of them that involve humor. I tend to get to do extremely expressive faces and action there, even if I have to ration the frames, so it turns out really fun X)

And though rough and I’ve definitely done stuff I’m more proud of, I still crack up at this one I did a while back of the nonsense ‘ass’ joke between Red & Stretch... their faces were too much fun XD I’ve gotten waybetter since then though, Big Oof, I see so many things I can fix; might go back and redo it someday.

Honestly, though, I just freakin’ love animating! They all have their ups and downs andI always put a lot of love into them and find a way to have fun with it and try to push any emotion/theme (when applicable). I like to think it shows, but idk, that’s something I have to leave up to you guys X)

[oumiyuki]

If you could spend an entire day with Honoka, what would you do?

Just stare at her

(* >ωᴗ

If say, I just woke up and she’s at my door and we got an entire day together. We would first have a good hearty breakfast! Freshly baked bread and delicious strawberry jam to spread across them and we chow down on them while we smile and a little chatter. Honoka gushing about the bread and me gushing about the sweetness and blushy lil’ o’ me as I say “it’s extra sweeter cos I’m eating it...with you.” ///w/// kya~ hehe~

(also there’s milkshake while we eat! or tea :3 because we are both tea people)

Then we’d go on to get a start-the-day-shower, and Honoka is so sweet and saying “how bout we get in the bath together?” but I’m ..!!!! (♡´艸`)（♥￫ｏ￩♥） “No..No...I..We...We couldn’t- *cough cough cough clears throat three times four*

“Okay!” Honoka chirps and gets in the shower first and then I do too. And I’m like, we smell the same, we smell the same now. Cos we used the same shampoo and body wash, and ahhh, Honoka!! (⺣◡⺣)♡*(⺣◡⺣)♡*(⺣◡⺣)♡*

Honoka then suggests going for some outside, fresh air. I’m a bit apprehensive in thought as I’m such an indoor girl. Honoka smiles patiently and says we don’t have to if I don’t wanna. That kinda flips my switch of not wanting to hold others back. So I quickly shake my head to say “no, no! we can go out! but where to?” 0o0`

Honoka beams and takes my hand. I’m surprised I haven’t faint yet. But internal Miyuki is doing that long gasp thingy people do when they are in awe but dying but loving every single moment of what’s happening kinda gasp XD

We leave the house and end up in the grocery store and I’m wondering why we’re here but also guessing, well, to buy food! Honoka nods with that angelic smile of hers. “Let’s get food we both like to cook~”

I smile my happy-fluttery-in love smile because I LOVE home-cooked food the most. And be it, me getting a chance to have Honoka’s cooking. Or me having a chance to cook for Honoka! Or woah, we’re cooking together! I’m so hyped and in high tension now! Honokaaaa~ I love you. Let’s cook!

Halfway through lunch of me stuffing my mouth full of food, which was a feat as I couldn’t quite stop my smile. So I’m smiling and eating, looking at Honoka every moment I can instead of looking at my food. I drop the rice or ingredients at times or poke my face with the spoon and Honoka’s laughs. I think my soul ascended a bit. hehe. Honoka~ (♡´౪`♡)

Oh right, halfway through lunch I jolt out of my intoxicated with love stupor with a gasp and my expression one of worry. Honoka has a concerned look on (which I found really cute too) and asked me if everything was alright. I take a few seconds as my mind raced, before I chuckled awkwardly, “Oh no...Just thinking that I haven’t gotten my login bonus for today and to play a bit of SIF...hehe...” Rubbing my arm a little awkwardly from the nerves and silliness of this realization.

Honoka smirks. Honoka smirks! Before she grins at me lovingly. “But I’m here already.” My head shot up and face morphed in an I know! I know that’s why I’m not rushing for my phone or anything. Don’t misunderstand-

“But I would like to see what your account looks like~ Filled with...me~? Just kidding. It’s totally okay for you to have a bunch of Kotori-chan cards or Nico-chan cards. They are both really cute school idols too!” Honoka actually looked like she’d be upset if I did have more of their cards in my SIF account.

I feel my heart squeezing and thumping that much faster at how much I love Honoka. How cute she is. How amazing she is. How Honoka she is~ ♡(ŐωŐ人)

I show her my account and she goes “Woah, that’s a lot of me!” And we both chuckle at what a funny thing it is to say. I comment shyly, “But my dream is to have all of Honoka- er, I mean all of your cards...so...I’ve still got ways to go...hehe.../////”  And she adds, “But now there’s me right here with you...so you could get all the other cards you don’t have yet in reality next time!”

Honoka stays quiet after that line. I stay quiet too. Then she bounces on the spot with a clap. “Let’s finish lunch and play something~” I nod in agreement and we continued eating our Honoka and Miyuki cooked meal together~

With the dishes washed, Honoka rocks on her heels back and forth as she asks what I might like to do together. I stared at her. We’ve spent an entire morning till afternoon together already and I still feel like I’m dreaming. I’ve living a dream! ۹(ÒہÓ)۶ “Movies and cuddles?” OH MY GOSH. WAIT, WHAT DID I JUST SUGGEST. HONOKA- WITH HONOKA- I MEAN. I JUST WANNA HANG OUT MORE, NOT ANYTHING ELSE. SHE HAS KOTORI-

(which I forgot to add that Honoka would comment about how cute Kotori is in SIF and she’d see my team name “HonoKoto” and she does that endearing smile at it. And my HonoKoto heart squeals with starry eyes that HonoKoto is real (● Ò □ Ó ) ♡ ♡ ♡ )

Honoka laughs. “That sounds like something we can do after dinner. But sure! You’re so cute~”

you’re a thousand, million times cuter, Honoka!! I scream in my mind but don’t verbalize it cos she took my breath away. (⺣◡⺣)♡*

We don’t cuddle. Of course, we don’t. XD But we sat beside each other on the couch as we put family cartoons on the big screen and some rom-com on too. We laughed, we felt our heartstrings being tugged for the characters on screen and at times a bit of tears too. And it’s just so fun to talk about our opinions on the movies after each one of them. :”))))))

Dinner time was closing in. And we already decided what we were gonna have! We just can’t say no to curry! (ᗒᗨᗕ) so we put that to boil and then on our plates and mmmmm~ it’s sooooooo good!

She had this fun idea of cutting the carrots and potatoes to look like alphabets somewhat so that when we get that on our plates, we can ask each other questions starting with the letter. And it’s a funget to know each other game as we eat. Which enhanced our chat too. Our dinner lasted long with laughs and “ooohs~” as we found out more about each other.

We got back on the couch after but instead of movies, we went to have fun on youtube and also look through my folder of Muse stuff. I was a bit embarrassed but Honoka got embarrassed too with how much Honoka content I have. ///w/// hehe~ Honoka~

We stayed up for as long as we can as I childishly and determinedly not want to sleep or let Honoka go to sleep as I didn’t want the day to end via sleep like that. It was a tough challenge as me being in bed equates to sleep within seconds or a minute. Honoka herself loves sleep. So we both tried to keep up the conversation or stares and funny faces and even going “First one to sleep is pink pig plushie (think SIF SR Honoka ;))” or “First one to sleep owes the other a drink/meal”. But well, we don’t really know who fell asleep first as we both closed our eyes, our bodies laid down on bed and sleep took us.(๑>ᴗ

Morning came. But it was still dark. Honoka was awake. I blinked up at her as she rolled out of bed and brightened the morning with a smile. “Get up, Miyuki-chan~ I’ve got something to show you~” I blinked grogily, still sleepy. “Honoka...5 more-” “No!” Honoka pulls me out of bed and before I know it, I’ve brushed my teeth, put on a bit more clothes and we’re somewhere outside.

I’m more awake when Honoka says “This will be another one of our memories together.”

I look at her and then a flicker started from across the horizon, far out at the sea. Yup, she brought me to a park, to watch the sunrise. “Honoka...” My sun...

Honoka smiles as she watches the sunrise. I watched her and the sunrise. “Th-Thank you...This is beautiful...A beautiful, unforgettable memory.”

Honoka smiles bright, to me, it’s brighter than the gorgeous sunrise we just experienced. And that says a lot. (๑>ᴗ

Honoka stands and I follow. She looks a little more solemn now. “Honoka..?”

“I guess this is it.”

“Oh.” I lowered my head, staring at our feets. Honoka was wearing my slipper. “I guess...”

Honoka puts a hand on my head, a soft pat. “I hope it was a fun day for you.”

I nod vigorously, my hair being a ruffled by her hand still on my head. “It was so fun! I...I wish it didn’t have to end!”

Honoka grins from ear to ear and she whispers. “Me too.”

I looked, stared and really didn’t want to have to look away from Honoka. Ever. “...Bye bye...”

Honoka chuckes softly and takes my hand in hers like she did when we were going grocery shopping. “First, I escort you home.”

“Thank you...” I tend to never say no to escorts since I get lost easily. I should have pointed out that I wanna see her off. But well, she walked me home and we waved goodbye. I got a hug. A huge hug. A bear hug. A hug that lasted so long but just not enough.

“Goodbye, Miyuki-chan!” Honoka graces me with that huge smile that steals my heart every single time before she ran off, leaving me waving and staring in the distance.

...

What a day.

Wait. Honoka said ‘next time’! When looking at my SIF account??

Does that mean..?

She might come over for an entire day again?!

I couldn’t quite think of anything else for the rest of the day but Honoka. 

~~~~~~~~

(´∀`) Like...woah. （・ｗ・）1738 words what? (* >ω

I took a really long time to answer this Ask, but I guess you can understand why? XD I was procrastinating as I rolled in a thousand and one ideas of what I could possibly do in a day with Honoka. BUT. I guess the way about it was really to just sit and let the thoughts spill out of my head with fingers moving to type out each and every thought. An honest one, where I don’t go “but that” , “but I wanna do this” (* >ω

My sincerest and greatest thanks to you Shin-san for the Ask! It really made me think and gosh, an entire day with Honoka is such a blessing. hehe~ (*≧∀≦*)(*≧∀≦*)(*≧∀≦*)

[darksiderssin]

Post Apocalyptic Slowburn feat. Horsemen

WOW THIS TOOK ME LONG ENOUGH. Super long post, so I’ll stick it under a cut so you don’t have to scroll forever XD

War: The fact that you've survived despite your planet being dead for the good part of a century has impressed the guy right off the bat. Not so much the Watcher, but War is adamant you stay with him- initially to prove to the Council that humanity isn't extinct and strengthen his case. Then you start having each other's back- you are vicious with that machete and Chaoseater is never too far from neatly bifurcating whatever's out to eat you. He's blunt when he tells you why your world ended, and you admit that it's not cool that this was pinned on him just because he was the closest person at the time, and War comes to treasure your loyalty like you treasure having him for a companion. You have a solid friendship already going on here. 

By the time the Chosen are dealt with, War doesn't expect you to blindly follow him into the Black Tower for his rematch with Straga and grudge match with the Destroyer, but you do. Your bond is only strengthened by Azrael's confession that the Apocalypse was a mistake, so you are 100% down to help him fight Abaddon. Afterwards, it's just kinda natural that you stay together- you have work to do. 

If your first kiss as a couple took a while, then you'll have to wait for one of your more calmer moments to get it on. No Watcher to taunt him now, no Council out to vindicate him- War knows what's coming next. You sit beside him, leaning on his shoulder and holding his arm gently as he admits that despite everything, despite the fact that he's ready for whatever comes next, he is terrified of losing you. That night is spent with your bodies intertwined in a way you know the Horseman just needs, but he's so scared that he might break you in half that you have to talk him through it the whole time, reassuring him and giving him praise. The look in those eyes as he takes you is a mix of feral lust and deep devotion that makes your loins twinge in just the right way, and the growled curses in Abyssal against your ear is enough to send you over the edge. You spend the rest of the night sleeping in an exhausted pile of tangled limbs, but it's a moment of peace you both deserve. 

Fury: She absolutely didn't want you around at first. Why you didn't just go to Haven was beyond the Black Rider's comprehension, but you don't get in the way, you're smarter than you look, and you're not a bad shot with a bow and arrow- if you're lucky, you might catch Fury musing aloud how archery is a dying art among other races and that it's refreshing to see it still practiced by humans. ("What was that?" "Shut it and keep walking.") It becomes nice to have you around, though; your reassurance against the taunts of the Seven is strangely comforting, almost, especially when you say you don't know why they call her the dumb one and mention that it's pretty rude. 

Speaking of the Seven, hearing them say awful things about how they want to eat you or something along those lines pisses Fury off to no end. Like no, that's her emotional support human, get fucked. Especially when Pride has the nerve to insult her further for "cavorting with the dustborn mongrels"- at least you have a clapback for it that takes Fury by surprise. It definitely knocks Pride's ego down more than a few notches when she's lying defeated with your arrows sticking out of her, But when the masks fall away, you tried to save Fury from Envy, and Envy took you away as a result as the Horseman fell. Fury's mega pissed when she sees that Envy has you chained like her brother was as she assaults the Council.

After it's over, and Fury has ferried the last of the humans at Haven away to safety, she admits that she was terrified of losing you. Now that you both have a moment alone, she's holding you to her chest and making sure Envy didn't hurt you. She finds a few marks and grumbles about it, even when you insist that it's not that bad and it'll heal. "She took what was mine," Fury growls, then captures your lips in a kiss. If you thought Envy left a mark, you're in for a ride, my friend; there's no real method, none of her usual dominatrix posturing, this is her boasting to her deceased enemy that she tried to take away her cherished human, the one who made her want to change, and failed. She's not giving you a moment to breathe, and you get sucked into the frenzied, feral, "holy-shit-we-survived" sex that leaves you both covered in hickeys, and you're pretty sure you passed out at some point. Sure, you've got a temporary colony to set up in the morning, but you crazy kids earned this. 

Strife: You know him as Jones, the mild-mannered man of few words that you ran into on your way to the big-ass tree in the middle of Manhattan. He asked if you were alone, and when you explained that it was just you and where you were heading, he asked if he could tag along, since a giant tree isn't something you see every day. You talked about yourselves on the way, but you didn't glean much from his brief answers; middle child, two brothers and a sister, not a local by any standards. You brushed it off as him being a tourist when things literally went to hell in a hand basket and let it go. Ulthane and the other two Makers welcomed you both warmly, and you settled in with the others, finding your place to sleep. You noticed that Jones looked amazed that there were still so many humans alive after everything- you joked about needing a bigger tree, considering a tree this big would draw way more people, given time, and you might run out of room. With time, though, you'd started to pick up on things that he said that gave you the impression that he was a total fish out of water; not knowing about Chuck Norris jokes, or any of the TV shows that had been on before the world ended, and it seemed like he'd never picked up a book, either. You guessed that he was just raised a certain way and left it at that- you just didn't have the heart to ask. 

It was one day while you were out hunting together, when you got jumped by a pack of Stalkers. Just your luck, your gun jammed, and you had no idea how to fix it. But just as you'd resigned yourself to the fate of being a lesser demon's chew toy, you heard gunshots ring out next to you- you had no clue where they came from, but Jones was holding two ornate pistols that blasted huge holes in the heads of the Stalkers and didn't seem to run out of bullets. When the smoke cleared, you didn't let it go- he was going to tell you what happened right now. Jones tried to tell you that you didn't want to know, but you were his friend, and he knew you wouldn't stop until you knew the truth. So he showed you. You were sworn to secrecy, but you felt you could trust him more now that you knew who he really was under the mask of a grizzled man in his late thirties, and it showed. Everyone joked about how close you two were getting and you nearly spat your stew across the room when someone asked when the wedding was one night over dinner. Jones took it in good jest, though- but wow, if you two weren't thinking about it later.

He did sleep with you, but it wasn't at Haven. You two were out on a run for supplies and any other things that could be useful to Ulthane or the others when you found what was left of one of the big hotels in town. There had to be stuff in the old safes here that the rich folk left behind when the End came, one being one of the mattresses in the suites that could fit like three people on it, and it was in pretty good nick. Maybe out of some childish impulse or lack of thought, you thought it'd be hilarious to tackle him onto the mattress. After he got over the initial shock and realised you were playing around, you both had a friendly wrestle on the mattress, laughing and rolling around until he let the facade fall away, pinning you down. You could feel his smirk under his mask before he took it off and tossed it aside, capturing your lips as your play-wrestling took a more intimate turn. I mean, no better way to break in a mattress, right?

Death: He was surprised, but elated to find you after stopping some of the Phantom Guard from pulling you out of your hidey hole. Gently as he could manage, he coaxed you into coming out to talk. You were alone, no clue where your friends had gone, and moreover, you were lost. You offered to help the Horseman look for the pieces of the Rod of Arafel, but you weren't sure where you would go after that. Begrudgingly, Death offered to take you with him (a poorly worded statement either way from someone named Death) so he could take you somewhere where you would be safe and protected- and most importantly, you wouldn't be lonely. At this point, anywhere sounded better than Earth, so you went with him. Then, the Pale Rider noticed something with you- not so much on your part as it was his, but...what was this old, familiar feeling? He thought he was being protective because he'd promised to get you to safety, but now he had these thoughts of staying with you. But War...

The more you convinced Death to tell you more of his family, you came to see another side of him- a side that was selfless and wholly prepared to sacrifice for his siblings. You found that quite endearing, that he seemed so human beneath the mask. He made you swear not to repeat any of what was said, but you knew that was a good thing. He was starting to trust you more, enough so that he'd started to take your perspective into consideration when you two were presented with obstacles or challenges, or listen to any random tidbit of trivia or a memory with interest. You wondered if it was love or if you were reading too much into it, and secretly Death wondered the same thing. He was beating around the bush when it came to figuring it out, but it wasn't like he was doubting it, gently brushing his knuckles against your arm as you slept next to him.

Death has to admit it- away from prying eyes. Really, it's the last thing he does, and he knows it's going to be cruel when he has to leave you behind, but he really wants to get back to you someday- time progresses differently depending on the realm you're in, after all. That's why he has to come clean to you. You're not sure how it happened, but you're so close, your body pressed against his chest. You reach up to remove the mask barring access to his lips, but his hands catch yours. "No." It's not said to scorn you, it's a request that shows his vulnerability- you're not sure where it comes from, but with his hands so attentive to your body's aching need, you can forgive him. Lying in the afterglow of your completion, Death feels an ache in his chest. He feels the crushing weight of his duty to War, to his siblings. One day, he hopes, you can forgive him for having to put you second.

[staytheb]

The Balloons' Representation

Pairing: B.A.P’s Yongguk x OC [Nalin] Genre: slice of life, slight fluff Word Count: 1,994 Summary: It’s Valentine’s Day and Nalin has reconnected with her senior and crush Yongguk. To express her feelings for him over the years she purchase a balloon bouquet. She just didn’t think that he’ll also have a response right back at her using the same bouquet of balloons.

Warning: none, except not proof-read since last shared, 7 years ago lol

and leader Bang Yongguk was last... and maybe it was because he was my sister’s bias that i wrote longer than expected. haha... his story was hella cute and i enjoyed writing it so much that i got carry away. still though, i’m curious if any of the boys would act like this, but fanfiction will do for now xD so yeah, i think that’s the last of the B.A.P stories i’ve written. again no request for them as either a group or as individuals. anyways, happy reading and kthxbai, Admin Lia~

Sang Nalin had a small crush on her sunbae, Bang Yongguk, when she had first transferred to the same high school that he attended in her first year of high school. He was the one that gave her a tour of the school because she had bumped into him on her first day there. Because of that the principal had made Yongguk give Nalin the tour of the school so that the principal himself didn’t have to do it. Nalin had apologized for having him to be the one to show her around instead, but he had laughed it off, dismissing the issue and happily showed her around the school’s ground. While doing so, Yongguk asked Nalin basic questions every now and then and she would answered them as best as she could without giving away too much information.

The next day, thinking that Yongguk was just friendly to her because of the principal, Nalin didn’t acknowledge him, but Yongguk did acknowledge her, and she found herself being introduced to more of her sunbae. From that day on, they had a sunbae and hoobae relationship, but became casual friends. During her stay at her new high school, Nalin started to have feelings for Yongguk. She knew that she shouldn’t have started liking him, but he had such a friendly nature about him, despite the way he look like a jjang, and she couldn’t help it since liking him just felt so easy and natural.

Before she could express her growing like for him, since she never found the right time to tell him, and whenever she did, she was always interrupted, Yongguk’s time for graduation had approach. Unfortunately, at around that same time, her family had to move once again and she had no choice, but to transfer schools once again. Nalin was unable to attend Yongguk's graduation as well as unable to say goodbye to him. Nalin was deeply regretful that she was unable to tell Yongguk that she liked him before leaving to another province. Yongguk never got to see Nalin again after that day, and he was unable to call her phone which happened to become out of service.

After four years has passed, Nalin returned back to the province where she had attended the same high school with Bang Yongguk. She was permanently there to stay and live because her parents had finally decided to settle themselves in one area after having to move from one place to another place over the years. Nalin wondered if Yongguk was still living there because she clearly hadn’t forgotten about him, but she assumed that he may have forgotten about her though.

While helping her little sister shop for new school supplies and clothing for school at the mall, Nalin had bumped into Yongguk. Both were clearly surprise to see one another after so long and Yongguk suggested that they should catch up whenever she was free, and the two exchanged phone numbers. Nalin had gotten a new phone with services after her father had disconnected their services after the move, but she lost all of her previous contacts and was unable to contact anyone that she had saved on there.

Nalin took up his offered to hang out after deciding what to do for three days, and the two quickly caught up spending the whole day together to see what had happened after she left. They spent every free moment they had to just hang out and spend their days like they did back in high school. Nalin laughed and told Yongguk that he was still the same like he was in high school, on one of their outings, while Yongguk told her the same thing. It was like they’ve never spent a day without the other there.

Nalin thought she had let her feelings of Yongguk fly away, but she realized that her feelings for him were still inside her heart, ready to stir to life again. She wondered if she would be able to tell him her feelings after all these years, but for now, she kept them still and enjoyed her time that she was spending with him. Like today, during one of their usual hang outs, which happened to be on Valentine’s Day, they were at the mall spending their time and day away on whatever interested them.

They checked out the music stores for the latest music, jamming out to all the love songs that were playing, until they got kicked out for singing too loudly. Next, they went clothes shopping and noticing that it was Valentine’s Day, they tried on all the couple outfits they could find and pair up. While having a hilarious time, the two in the end, ended up not buying anything, and one of the salesperson told them to leave the store. Even if they didn’t buy anything, they had taken pictures of all the clothes they had tried on and laughed about it as they exited the store. They decided to play around at other stores before Nalin became hungry for something sweet.

 As Yongguk and Nalin made their way to the front of the line of the ice cream parlor, the cashier automatically gave them the couple ice cream special and told them that the two made a great pair. Before Nalin could say anything, Yongguk had pulled her away along while taking the ice cream treat. Before she could bicker, Yongguk had stuck a spoonful of ice cream into her mouth, smiled at her before digging into it himself. She rolled her eyes and began eating it too. As both Yongguk and Nalin were enjoying their ice cream, they couldn’t help noticed that other people who were actual couples were enjoying the same treat as them. Remembering her own feelings, and today and the whole mood just felt right to tell Yongguk how she felt, but she wanted to get him something first to help her.

Nalin coughed to get Yongguk’s attention, which he looked up at her and Nalin told him that she would be right back and that she had to go get something and that he should just wait for her right here. Nalin ran off to get him a bundle of heart-shaped balloons that she saw a cart person was selling. She found them cute, sweet, and she knew that his favorite color was still red, and all of them balloons were just perfect to give to him. Because they were filled with helium, and if he didn’t accept them, she could finally just let feelings for him float away and move on. After purchasing the balloons, Nalin made her way back to Yongguk who was still seated in his seat from when she had left him. Yongguk noticing the balloons asked her about it and so she told him how she felt about him since first meeting him back in high school.

Nalin told him that she wanted to let him know, but the timing was never right, and when she did find the right time, she had to move away. Then after four years had passed, she still had feelings for him when she thought she put them away. Then meeting him again she felt them stir inside of her and she wanted him to finally know how she felt. It was because this whole time while spending today with him on Valentine’s Day which just happened to aid her and gave her the right time to tell him finally. After saying what she’d been waiting to tell him, Nalin took her seat across from him again, digging into the ice cream with her other free hand and waited to see how he would respond. She also told him that these five balloons represented the years that she had had feelings for him.

Still scooping the now melting frozen treat into his mouth, Yongguk responded to Nalin’s words by taking the balloons’ strings into his own fist and then looked at her and confessed that he too liked her for all of those years and that he still did. He explained that he wanted to tell her on his graduation day, but she didn’t show up, and that he couldn’t reach her by phone because it had become disconnected. So when they did finally meet again after these four years, he was happy to see her and wanted to hang out with her that much more.

Yongguk then reached for her hand that he took the balloons from and placed the strings into her own palm along with his own hand, the two holding hands with the balloons’ strings between them. Yongguk then told Nalin that these five balloons represented the years that he had had feelings for her as well. He then clasped her own fingers over the strings so she would now be holding the balloons instead. Speechless, Nalin blinked a few times at him, then a few times at the bundle of balloons she was now holding, and then again at him, and then she flung ice cream bits at him.

Nalin flamed at Yongguk about how could he go and give her back the same balloons that she got for him, and telling her the same thing that she told him about the meaning of the five balloons. While saying all of that, she flung more and more ice cream bits at him, fuming that he just did and said the same thing to her that she did for him. Yongguk found himself laughing knowing that he did tick her off by doing the same thing, but he truly did feel the same about her, as he tried to stop her from flinging the rest of the melting ice cream at him.

Failing to stop Nalin, Yongguk used one of his hands to scoop up some of the puddle of the now couple ice cream special and smeared it across Nalin’s face. Nalin, who was surprised by the sudden attack, halted her flinging, and stared at Yongguk who then took this chance and kissed her, surprising her even more. Because she was highly surprised and not really functioning, she unintentionally let go of the balloons. The two were then interrupted by a security guard who asked them what they were doing wasting good ice cream, and causing a ruckus for the other customers.

Before Nalin could registered to what was happening around her, she felt herself being pulled out of her chair by Yongguk’s grip. She finally registered that the two of them were now being chased by the security guard as Yongguk led them quickly away, laughing all the way. The two made it out of the mall and to where they had parked their cars, and stopped running and hid alongside it from the security guard’s view. When the coast was cleared, Yongguk pulled Nalin to her feet, but at this time Nalin finally got her senses back and slapped at him for ruining their outing, especially on Valentine’s Day.

He grabbed a hold of her to stop her slapping and warned her if she continued to ‘attack’ him again, he would kiss her again. That seriously made Nalin stopped slapping him again, but he lied and kissed her anyway. After Yongguk pulled away, he told Nalin that she still had ice cream on her lips and he wanted to kiss them away. Nalin’s face became red due to the blushing, and at that moment she went on a full power ‘attack’ on Yongguk feeling embarrassed and flustered about everything. Unfortunately for her, Yongguk had turned her around, making her back press against his chest, while his hands and arms had crossed her own against her body, trapping her. Nalin finally gave up as Yongguk continued laughing into her ear, saying how happy he was that the both of them were now able to be more than sunbae and hoobae, and more than just casual, good friends.

[kumeko]

three square meals

Characters/Pairings: The Fellowship, Eowyn

A/N: written for the @lotr-zine, Twilight and Shadow. I got assigned fluff and tried to include everyone. XD

Summary: Even separated as they were, they all had to eat. Had to rest. Had to laugh.

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Breakfast:

“You were serious about the second breakfast?” Boromir stared at Merry and Pippin as they sat on a rock, divvying up sausages and fruit. They had already made four piles of bread, unpacking whilst everyone else was gathering their belongings. It was a mess and not for the first time he wondered if there was any wisdom in bringing such small, impulsive creatures with them.

 Despite their supposed ages, they looked and acted like children at times. Such as now, with Merry grinning cheerfully and holding out an apple. “Should we set some aside for you too?”

 “No.” Boromir frowned, rubbing his forehead. They had been traveling together for the span of a few days and he had a feeling his headache would be a daily thing. “How many breakfasts do you normally eat?”

 “Four.” Pippin said confidently.

 “Five,” Merry replied just as firmly at the same time and the pair stared at each other.

 After a moment, they chorused together, “Three to five.”

 “That’s…that’s a lot of breakfast.” Boromir glanced at their bellies. They didn’t look portly, like some of the nobles in Gondor did when they’d spent their days feasting and nothing else. Though, he couldn’t say the hobbits were particularly fit either. Merry and Pippin often complained about the hike, asking for breaks on an hourly basis, even if they were soundly rejected every single time.

 Though they did keep walking despite their whining, so maybe they were sturdy at the very least.

 Merry shrugged, returning to spreading jam on a piece of toast. “Not really. It’s normal. What, do you only eat two?”

 “One.” Boromir, crouched, glaring at the pair. He was starting to feel like a baby sitter. “And you need to pack, we’re leaving.”

 “Oh, come on!” Pippin crossed his arms and puffed his cheeks and Boromir could not shake the image of a child out of his head. “We’re setting things so we don’t have to stop for breakfast. We can eat while we walk.”

 “Yeah, do you want to hear our stomachs rumble?” Merry swished a butter knife in the air dramatically. “We’re hiding in a bush, away from the dark lord, and then all of a sudden there’s a loud awrrrrgghhhh because someone wouldn’t let us eat?”

 “We won’t hide,” Boromir stated, his hand on his hilt. Despite all the uncertainties of their travel routes and methods, of that he was positive. “We’ll cut past them.”

 “Sure, you say that now.” Merry snorted. Both hobbits were quickly bundling up their food piles and when had they finished preparing? They were surprisingly sneaky little things; it was no wonder Boromir had never seen one before this day.

 “I’ll say it then too.” Boromir got up, looking toward the sun. Toward home. It would miles yet before they were near Gondor, before he could even dream of Gondor, but they would get there. No matter what the elves or Aragorn had said, he was sure he could convince the group to stop by when they were closer.

 “There. Set.” Pippin leaped off the rock, his bag packed. “See, no trouble at all.”

 “Right.” Boromir laughed as the two hobbits puffed their chests with pride. All this over breakfast. “When I take you to Gondor, you’ll see why one breakfast is more than enough there.”

 Merry furrowed his brow, a challenging smirk on his face. “Do you really think you can satisfy us?”

 “You’ll be rolling home.” He ruffled their hair, ignoring their protests. “It’ll be a feast unlike any you’ve ever seen.”

 -x-

Lunch:

“What is your home like?” Eowyn asked, rolling her shoulders back as she straightened her posture. Long rides were nothing new to her; the horse was almost an extension of her body at times, and she could move him through his paces in her sleep. The problem was the tedious pace, the days upon end where they trotted slowly across the kingdom. It was a long trek to Helm’s Deep and they couldn’t go any faster out of fear of outpacing their walking subjects.

 It did not make it any less tempting to squeeze her thighs and urge her mount into a gallop. The wide fields ahead of them almost seemed to call for her.

 Gimli twisted on his seat uncomfortably, his expression dour. His arms crossed as he failed to find any position he liked, and it spoke of his strength that he didn’t fall of the horse like that. “We do not use horses.”

 He’d been like that for the past hour but she was pretty sure it was the elf sitting in front of him that was the real reason for his discomfort.

 “That’s because you can’t reach high enough to sit on one.” Legolas smirked, glancing over his shoulder at his companion. “Don’t worry, the ground won’t be too far when you fall.”

 “When?” Miffed, Gimli’s hand curled around his axe for what had to be the tenth time this morning.

 Eowyn failed to suppress her chuckle in time and Gimli turned his glare to her. With a placating smile, she patted her horse’s neck. “They aren’t too bad, when you get used to them.”

 “If you say so, lass.” Gimli still frowned, looking entirely put out.

 “Why don’t we give him a dog; the ponies the hobbits have might be too big for him,” Legolas suggested, and she wasn’t sure at this point if he actually meant half his insults or he said them only to get a rise out of his comrade.

 Either way, it always ended the same way, with the pair glaring at each other. Bloodshed seemed almost unavoidable now and she glanced at Aragon hopefully. When he merely shrugged, unfazed by the threatening atmosphere, she bit back a sigh. It fell to her then. Tapping her chin, she tried to find a neutral topic. It was close to lunch and her stomach grumbled softly. “What is food like in Erebor? You said something about a feast.”

 “Aye!” Finally, Gimli grinned, wide and full of teeth. He puffed his chest proudly. “Come under the mountain, and you’ll see a dwarven feast. Piles of meat, all cooked to perfection. Goblets of overflowing wine. Nothing is lacking.”

 “Burnt food,” Legolas listed off, counting his fingers. Somehow, even that simple movement looked more graceful than anything Eowyn had done in her life. “Sour wine. Lack of vegetables. No wonder you’re always in a foul mood.”

 “And you’re a bloody rabbit,” Gimli shot back, leaning back to look up at the elf. Some miracle kept him on his seat; any further and he would fall. “All leaves and grapes and your meat’s undercooked.”

 “Or maybe you just don’t know what proper cooking is.” Legolas raised a brow, looking over his shoulder. “You know it isn’t supposed to be black. Even charcoal has move flavour.”

 “You…” Gimli growled, setting off a tirade of proper fire techniques and maybe food wasn’t as safe a topic as Eowyn had hoped. To be honest, maybe nothing was—she had a feeling that even a discussion about the sky would somehow end up in an argument.

 At least it was entertaining.

 “You got them started,” Aragon sighed as he urged his horse next to her, clearly used to the argument. He clicked his tongue as the pair squabbled. “It’ll be hours before they shut up. Even then, only for a few minutes.”

 The amused smile on his face said otherwise. There was a wild rush at seeing that, like racing her horse across the plain, like winning her first sword fight. She looked away. “And what about you, my lord? How do your people eat?”

 “…nothing to talk about,” Aragon admitted slowly. A hand rubbed his neck slowly as he considered the question. “We live in the wilds, so it’s just wild game and herbs. We’re not really known for our cooking.”

 And what are you known for? she wanted to ask. A king who was not king, a man who lived freer than she ever had. Even with her uncle safe, with her brother back, she felt just as trapped as she did back in that cold castle with Wormtongue leering at her. But the words were caught in her throat and she tightened her grip on the reins. “Neither are mine, we spend too much time in the saddle. Oh, but my mother, her stew was delicious.”

 “Stew?” Gimli tuned back into the conversation, interested once more. He leaned toward her and there had to be something supernatural that was keeping him on his seat. “Would that be a meat stew, lass?”

 “Of course.” She brushed a stray hair behind her ear nervously, before blurting out. “I’ll make you some for lunch.”

 Gimli looked delighted and though she wouldn’t look, she hoped Aragon was maybe half as interested.

 -x-

Dinner:

“Keep your hands from the pot!” Sam ordered, slapping Faramir’s hands before they could touch the ladle. The sound echoed in the night air, drowning out the crackle of the fire. “It’s not ready yet.”

 Faramir blinked. It was rare that anyone treated him with such familiarity. Even out here, in the marsh lands, he was still considered a lord, a de facto prince, since few believed the king would return. “I was merely going to stir it.”

 “Oh.” Sam coloured, embarrassed. He twisted his hands nervously. “No offense meant, sire. Just that…well, my friends, they’d often steal bites while I cooked and I…old habits.” He offered a timid smile.

 It was interesting to observe Sam. One moment fierce and protective, the next self-depreciating. Faramir could see a little of himself in the hobbit. “It’s fine.” He sat next to Frodo, who watched the affair with a tired smile. “Are you one of those friends?”

 The hobbit looked exhausted, almost as dead as the land they threaded, but at this a small flush of colour returned to his skin. With a mischievous grin, he confessed conspiratorially, “When he wasn’t looking.”

 “What?” Sam dropped the ladle, staring at him in surprise. A hand reached up, clutching his chest. “I could understand Merry and Pippin. But you too?”

 Looking entirely unapologetic, Frodo shrugged. “Well, I was hungry.”

 “Frodo Baggins!” Sam frowned, disappointed. Sternly, he pulled the ladle closer to him as though some mysterious had would steal it away. “Well, not this time.”

 “Of course not,” Frodo blinked innocently, a beguiling smile on his face. He clasped his hands in front of him, looking troubled by the very thought. “Your stew is safe.”

 Not buying it, Sam shook his head with a distrusting scowl. Lifting the ladle, he took a small sip and rolled the liquid around his mouth. He reached into his pouch, pulled out a pinch of some mysterious powder, and tossed it in. “Ok, this should do.” He grabbed a bowl and poured a spoonful of a steaming hot broth inside. “For you, sire.”

 Faramir took the bowl and inhaled. While it largely smelled like any other rabbit stew, a few unfamiliar herbs flooded his senses. Whatever they were, it was a pleasant scent. “Smells good.”

 “Thank you. Made it just like my gaffer did, a family recipe.” Sam smiled proudly, his hands on his hips. His smile dropped as he swivelled his head over to Frodo and squinted at him for a long moment. Grabbing a second bowl, he mused, “I think I’ll give this to Gollum first.”

 Aghast, Frodo stood up in horror. Clearly, he had not considered the consequences of his admission. “No!”

 “Yes!” Considering how much Sam hated the creature, this was clearly a sore point. With a sniff, he filled the bowl to the brim. “And then maybe for Faramir’s men and if anything is left over, then you.”

 Faramir cracked a smile. “I doubt there is enough in there for all of my men.”

 Sam pursed his lips disapprovingly. He stirred the pot three times, considering it, before conceding. “Fine. But Gollum first and then you. And if you steal a spoonful, that will be your last spoonful.”

 Looking contrite, Frodo nodded. He clasped his hands behind his back. “I won’t touch anything.”

 “I’ll watch him,” Faramir offered, chuckling as Sam trotted away in a huff. Meals with his brother used to be like this, warm and full of conversation.

 Boromir. His eyes lowered, staring at the bowl in his hands. His brother, dead. His brother, gone. It was a strange thought, to know that his brother would never return to him, would never again stride through the halls with a laugh and a hearty wave.

 “Faramir?” Frodo cocked his head, looking up at him in concern. He crouched next to Faramir, his hands on his knees. “Is something the matter?”

 Shaking his head out of his thoughts, he stirred his bowl. “It’s nothing.” He took a small sip and his lips parted in surprise at the warm broth. It seemed Sam wasn’t all talk. “It’s delicious.”

 “He’s a good cook.” Frodo sat, hugging his knees. Staring at the fire, he commented softly, “I don’t think I would have made it this far without him.”

 Ah. The hobbits really did remind Faramir of himself. He had seen that exact look before in the mirror, while thinking of Boromir. “He’s a good companion.”

 “More than he realizes.” Frodo added with a quiet smile. His fingers played with the folds of his pants. “He’s my best friend.”

 His brother was his best friend too. No, Boromir had been his best friend. A dull ache came at the correction, at the realization that he had a lifetime of it. Faramir took another sip, the liquid carving a hot path down his throat. “Did my brother ever tell you about Gondor?”

 “Yes, he wanted us to come.” Frodo nodded, chuckling. He glanced at Faramir. “He told us about your feasts. He said you’d have to roll us home after breakfast.”

 Faramir shook his head. That sounded exactly like Boromir. Always terribly proud of Gondor, even in the smallest of matters. “I’m sure he made us sound grander than we are.” He looked at the bowl in his hands, warmer than any meal he’d had in Gondor since his brother left. If a trace of this could return to the halls, perhaps his father could change.

 Perhaps they could all change and become the Gondor his brother was proud of once more.

 “It might not be as filling, but I’ll make breakfast tomorrow,” Faramir offered.

 “Really?” Frodo snapped his head to stare at him, excitement crossing his face. “Ohh…Merry and Pippin will be jealous.”

 Faramir could almost hear his brother’s guffaw.

[imashayne]

Of Clouds in the Night Sky

Just a short quick Klance thing I wrote up the other night when I should have been working on bang fics XD This idea hit me and wouldn’t leave me alone, I had to get it out. It’s rough and I plan on doing more with it later, but for now I’m really happy with how it turned out lol

“That’s a wrap!” Coran clapped his hands, voice reaching the entire stage crew, including Lance where he stood up on the bridge. Beneath him the dancers broke their poses, chests heaving and sweat glistening beneath the lights as rehearsal ended. From his vantage he could see the handful of journalists from the school newspaper gather up their things as well.

To his left one of the other spotlights went out, and Lance followed suit. He breathed a small sigh of relief as the air around him cooled without the heat of the 500 watt bulbs. As he made his way over to the lift, gantry shifting with each step, Hunk and Pidge joined him.

“-I can’t believe the university doesn’t replace any of this old ass equipment-” Pidge huffed, folding her arms as they descended. Lance rolled his eyes, this conversation again. He liked working with the old spotlights, after all it was the closest he’d ever get to them he figured.

“We should bring it up to this century ourselves.” Hunk stated in a matter of fact manner, glancing down at Lance as he fanned himself, burnt orange shirt dark with sweat, “how do you not die of heat stroke next to those lamps in that sweater?”

Ignoring how his own clothes stuck to him Lance grabbed the collar of his signature green jacket and tugged it. “Are you kidding? I’m so cool it radiates from me.” Pidge snorted as the lift jarred to a halt.

When they reached the bottom he waved the two of them off, “I’ll catch up with you guys later!”

He began to cleanup, putting props away and hanging up the haphazard pile of discarded costumes. Taking his sweet time.

“Thank you my boy, always such a help. Once you’ve finished, lock up.” After Coran handed him the keys he left. Lance scanned the deserted backstage area, dashed to the left wing of the stage and glanced out into the seats.

Finally alone.

In the quiet Lance could almost pretend, as he stepped out onto the stage from behind the heavy red curtain, that it was the hush before a ballet began. On poised limbs Lance settled in the middle of the darkened stage. He slipped his jacket off in one motion that shifted like fluid into the next and the next.

Lance began to hum as he danced, arms arching and swooping, legs spinning him before he leapt into the air.

It was the almost imperceptible sound of a camera clicking, shutter closing to capture a moment, and the flash, lighting up the empty audience seats, that broke Lance’s concentration. What should have been a perfect landing ended with him falling, knees skidding across the glossed wooden floor.

But he ignored the pain, head snapping around to find who was there, pounding of his heart the only sound he could hear.

Lance didn’t have to look hard, from the wings a kid with pitch hair that looked as if it was in need of a trim rushed towards him, a look of concern on his features. It wasn’t until he was closer that Lance recognized him. Kevin or Keegan or something like that. They’d had a few of their general classes together. A pretty boy who’d never given Lance the time of day.

He held out his hand, “are you al-”

“What are you doing here?” Lance snapped, face flushed as he knocked the offered hand away and stood on his own. He couldn’t meet the other’s gaze, hyper aware of how bare his arms were. Blue eyes flashed back and forth, trying to find where he’d dropped his sweater. There! Center stage.

“Not that I owe you an explanation but I’m taking pictures for the article.” He spoke as if it was the most obvious thing in the world.

Lance tried not to lung for his jacket as he snatched it up, breathing a bit easier as he jammed his arms into the sleeves.

“Why did you take a picture of me?”

Smart guy didn’t have an answer for that one, by the way his mouth slammed shut.

“Well I don’t really care why, but you better delete it.”

The other scoffed. “Fuck no, you’re not my boss.”

“Yeah, and you didn’t ask to take my picture!”

Lance grabbed for the camera, but the other dodged away. Though he looked torn. Lance tried not to think about how cute he was as he bit his lip.

“Tell you what Lance-” That stopped him up short, this guy…. This super cute popular guy remembered him? “This picture will go away if you stop by my place.”

“Wha-no? Why?”

It was the other guy’s turn to blush, but he didn’t answer Lance’s question. “You know the Gama Zeta house?” Lance could only nod. “Meet me there, Saturday, 10 am.” He turned and started out of the theater, and was halfway down the middle aisle when Lance fell out of shock.

“Hey wait what about the picture?”

“I’ll delete it when you show up!”

***

Lance’s alarm went off, but his eyes were already wide open. All night, no, all week he’d been wondering why in the hell that guy asked him over. After what he’d seen that afternoon…

His thoughts ran wild as he brushed his teeth. What even possessed the guy to ask? The nerve. His own jittered in anticipation as he blended the foundation across his cheeks. He donned his jacket to cover his arms and headed out the door.

Anxiety was like electricity through his veins as he walked the campus.

By the time he reached the fraternity he felt lightheaded. It didn’t help that as he knocked on the door he held his breath. A tall guy answered and Lance’s eyes widened as he looked up at the handsome man.

“I’m uh… I’m here for…” Lance realized he never got a name.

“Oh yeah Keith said you’d be coming by for him. His room is up the stairs, second door on the right.

Lance followed the directions, but his fist hovered, hesitating to knock. The door opened regardless.

“Hey Shiro have you- Oh hey Lance you’re early.”

Lance could feel the warmth in his cheeks, “yeah uh…”

“Come in,” Keith stepped aside and as Lance entered he tried not to be too impressed with the mullet’s setup.

“What do you want.”

“Wow okay, no pleasantries.” Keith crossed his arms, “I want you to model for me.”

Lance was speechless, something rarely seen. Not that Keith would know.

“Can I take that silence as a yes?” Keith asked, mouth turned up at the corner. Lance sputtered, turning his gaze away from that adorable expression.

“Why in the hell would I say yes to that? I told you I wanted the one picture you took of me deleted.”

Keith pulled in a deep slow breath, running his fingers back through his hair and hell if Lance didn’t want to do the same thing.

“I’ve wanted to ask you since that class with Iverson-”

“Wait, you’ve wanted a picture of me for that long?” Lance wasn’t quite following.

“Yes-No! I mean…. I’ve wanted to ask you out. It wasn’t till I saw how fucking, Lance just breathtaking you were when you were dancing that I wanted to take your photo.”

For the second time that day, Lance was speechless. He wanted to call Keith a liar. To look around for the others who might be in on this prank.

The hopeful look that shone upon Keith’s features darkened with each second that passed.

But Lance had no idea how to reply, he searched for words, but the only ones that came to mind were “lets get this over with.” Before; “wait wait! I mean…. I don’t understand, like, at all. How you could be into me, and even less so about the, wanting a picture of me front but…. But sure to the date… and the photos…. So like, lets get this over with.” These sentiments rushed out of him before he could organize them.

“Slow down.” Keith chuckled, placing his hands on Lance’s shoulders. Keith began to slip the jacket down the other’s tensed shoulders. Though a part of him wished too, Lance didn’t stop him. It wasn’t until Keith’s hands slipped beneath Lance’s shirt that he did anything at all.

“Uh, what are you doing?” They were so close that Lance could feel the other’s breath hot against his lips.

“Getting you ready for the shoot.”

“Here I thought I was already-” His heart stuttered as the shirt lifted over his head, leaving him the barest he’d ever been around another, “ready.”

“Not for what I have planned.” Keith stated, tracing a part of lighter flesh upon Lance’s torso, hopping to the next pigmented discoloration, and the next, as if connecting stars to make a constellation. Until he reached Lance’s neck, pausing at his pulse, feeling how swift his heart beat.

“Make up?” Keith murmured.

Lance swallowed and nodded.

“It’s uh… it’s called vitiligo…” Lance answered, though Keith hadn’t asked. “It’s a skin condition….”

Keith nodded, taking a step back, leaving Lance feeling even more vulnerable than before.

“Go wash your face and take the rest of your clothes off.” He gestured towards his bathroom.

“No way!” Lance squeaked, covering his chest.

One eyebrow raised and a crooked smile graced Keith’s face. “Would you like my help again?”

The door slamming was his only answer as Lance stormed to the room Keith had pointed out.

When the door opened next Keith barely glanced up as he fiddled with his camera. Lance cleared his throat, unsure of what to do now.

“You can go and sit on my bed, I’ll pose you in a sec…”

Lance glanced between Keith and the neatly made bed.

“You sure do think you’re a smooth fucker huh?” Lance’s voice was tight, and he tried to will himself to calm.

“Yeah but only when I’m really into someone.” He shot a smirk up at Lance, eyebrow raising, “you’re gonna have to take the towel off.”

“I bet you say that to all t-the p-pretty…” his voice stuttered to a halt as Keith took all of him in.

“You’re beautiful.” He stood and pulled Lance’s hand out of the death grip it held on the towel. As the terry cloth fell Lance imagined how Keith’s lips would feel beneath his own. What would happen if, instead of sitting on the bed, Keith moving his limbs into a suggestive air, he grabbed the other boy and tumbled them both onto the blankets.

But then he tried not to think of that, because god forbid he have a damn boner while Keith was taking pictures of him.

“Take a deep breath Lance, hold that position for as long as you can.” He was on his knees, one hand between his legs, hiding his stiffening member, and one splayed back. He had no idea what sort of expression he was making, nor what he should be. But Keith didn’t say anything else as he stepped back, camera clicking away, each time from a different angle.

“Now hang your leg off the bed, but keep the other up and bent beneath you…” Keith walked around the bed, “straighten up, arch your back a bit…” click, “move your left hand to your hip…”click, “now to your shoulder.” Click.

Keith was behind Lance. “look back at me…perfect.” The last word was but a breath. Silence reigned and Lance grew sore with stiffness.

“Oh you can totally move now.”

He almost fell off the bed as he turned to find Keith sitting at his desk, camera already hooked up to his computer.

“Can I see?”

“Not yet, you can leave if you want but-“ Keith’s smile was bright as he looked at Lance again, before his eyes flicked back towards his screen, “I’d enjoy the company.”

Lance blinked before the flush that had never dissipated flared up. He nodded, though Keith wasn’t looking. “Yeah I’ll stay.” He got dressed, touching his face as he exited the bathroom. Of course he’d forgotten his makeup at home. The thought of leaving without any hiding his complexion had the anxiety that flirting had buried resurface. He needed a distraction. But talking with Keith seemed out of the question, he was so focused. Instead Lance began to wander the room. Everything was so tidy, each item had a place, from the boring physics books to the wicked looking knife. It all was a puzzle, like the boy himself.

Being as impatient as he was Lance quickly exhausted every diversion. With a sigh he fell onto the bed, satisfied that the covers mussed. He groaned, rolling onto his stomach, feet kicking up behind him.

Keith’s head fell back. “OMG Lance.”

“I’m bored! Are you done?”

“Ya know I said you could leave.”

“And you said you wanted company!” Lance was standing and didn’t remember doing so.

“Yeah before I knew you’d just be complaining the whole time.”

“I haven’t said a word! But okay whatever, I just wanted to see… I’m going.” Lance stomped over to the door, but a hand closed over his wrist and Keith spun him, leading him to the desk as he sat down he pulled Lance into his lap. Hushing his protests with a kiss. Lightning crackled down through his system but before he could deepen the exchange Keith was already pulling away.

“The edits aren’t done, but…” Keith turned the chair so that they could both look at the screen. What he saw stole Lance’s breath away.

Keith had changed the lighting of the photo to look like evening. But it wasn’t like nighttime around Lance, he’d made Lance the night. He had somehow made the lighter areas of pigmentation on Lance’s skin appear as clouds drifting through the sky. There was one across his right eye, and upon his hip. The one encompassing his shoulder looked as if it were being shaped by his own hand. The freckles that peppered his cheeks and back were brightened to look like stars and the blue of his eyes looked like deep pools.

“Woah.” He murmured, “Keith…. This is amazing.”

“You’re amazing Lance.”

“No way I don’t look like this!”

Keith’s arms tightened around him, “That’s how I see you.”

[boydgearloose]

how do you feel about Fenro? do you think it has a chance when it comes to character development?

OKAY so i have been trying to figure out how to answer this without going on a whole ass tangent but however i cannot so read more it is fellas let’s do this

basically my feelings on fenro are….well i don’t wanna say complicated because i do REALLY love it and can’t deny that, even if i don’t post a lot of it here BUT i am gonna say that i’m not a huge fan of how a lot of people portray it and that might be because i tend to get super attached to how i see certain dynamics?? but still i feel the need to go off a little bit about that

let me start this off by saying one thing: as of now, fenton and gyro’s relationship is one of the most interesting things in the show to me and not even in a ship way, i just really love their scenes together and seeing them interact because hey they’re my two favorite characters! what’s not to love?

however, the fandom interpretations kinda throw me off because when i see content of these two it’s either like…..gyro currently in the show having a thing for fenton and being hard on him because he likes him or whatever OR gyro just straight-up being unforgivably terrible and awful to him for no damn reason to the point of where he’s portrayed as an antagonist 

and both of them are extremely fuckin oocfirst of all, the whole “tsundere” gyro thing is kinda….weird imo? i mean, yeah he’d probably be the type to deny his feelings at first because he’s a pretty closed off person but it’s such an overly exaggerated and boring way to go about this whole thing

gyro and fenton currently have a looong way to go like i don’t think they hate each other in the slightest (frank more or less confirmed this) but there definitely is a lot of tension there so anything romantic happening that soon feels weird to me and super uninteresting compared to the other options

in order for this to work, it would have to be a LONG way into the future but that’s still possible! one thing i find super interesting that nobody ever brings up is that their whole dynamic just changed: they’re on the same level now because they both work for scrooge, gyro has no right to boss fenton around and they’re going to have to learn how to work together as equals and develop a friendship from there

THAT’S WHY I FIND THEIR RELATIONSHIP IN THE SHOW SO INTERESTING AND NOBODY EVER PLAYS WITH IT and that makes me irrationally mad like i’m literally counting the DAYS until we get to see them interact again with this new dynamic and i know for more or less a fact that we’re gonna get some good development out of their relationship this season and everyone just….doesn’t…..talk about it……they just pull some “lol gyro is a jerk to fenton bc he likes him xD” crap AND THAT’S REALLY NOT IT MAN JUST LOOK AT THE POTENTIAL THESE TWO HAVE THAT YOU’RE WASTING ON THAT AWFUL CLICHE TROPE

now that i’ve covered that bad interpretation, let’s move on to the second take because boy it really makes me mad too!!! now i’m not trying to deny that gyro is WAY too damn harsh on fenton because he definitely is and i haven’t seen anyone try to ignore that (if they do then they’re wrong bc gyro’s an asshat)

gyro is…..not the best socially, as we all know, and he has the tendency to act like he’s above everyone else and this is definitely portrayed with how he’s treated fenton thus far and he needs a stern talking to and lesson on how to treat people the way they deserve to be treated bc damn he’s got some issues!!! but i have no doubt that will happen because the crew has nothing but positive words for gyro

however, like……okay i am really trying to think of a way to word this that doesn’t make me sound like i’m dunking on fenton bc I’M NOT HE’S SUCH A WONDERFUL CHARACTER AND GENUINELY NICE PERSON but sometimes his attempts to be helpful kind of…….are things that would make a reasonable person angry? and gyro already has a short fuse so like how else is he gonna react when he finds out someone posted his secret information online and got it stolen or that someone’s sneaking around with an unstable invention of his and doing stuff with it that he said not to do?

this ties in with the whole thing where people infantilize the shit out of fenton and refuse to see him as an adult and instead think he’s some poor wittle defenseless baby who can’t stick up for himself uwu so he needs someone to save him uwuwuwuwu which…HOO BOY I DON’T LIKE THAT ONE BIT

fenton is a bit of a pushover who tries to hard to help others, yes, but how can you watch who is gizmoduck and think he’s 100% defenseless against gyro??? the whole episode is about him pushing past misconceptions and standing up for himself so why do you think he’d have a problem telling gyro to go fuck himself if it came down to it like HE EVEN KIND OF STOOD UP TO HIM IN THAT EPISODE JUST. GOD. FENTON ISN’T HELPLESS Y’ALL HE’S A 25+-YEAR-OLD MAN WHO WANTS TO SEE THE BEST IN PEOPLE BUT ISN’T AFRAID TO TELL SOMEONE OFF WHEN THEY DESERVE IT

kinda backtracking here but fenton’s whole thing is that he wants to help people but he’s too impulsive with how he goes about it and it winds up wrong and yeah it’s the thought that counts but that’s such an interesting part of his character and others overlook it to make it seem like gyro continuously torments him or something which he really…..doesn’t, he’s not very nice to him at all but people really take it too far sometimes and act all Edgy about it and it’s a terrible take for both of their characters

honestly what’s interesting about these kind of relationships is that you get to watch them grow and look back in a few months or years at a season 1 episode and think “aww! look how far they’ve come” and it’s gorgeous 

fenro couldn’t possibly work as anything other than a REALLY SLOW BURN i mean like REALLY SLOW but y’know?? slow burns are my JAM so i’m on board! i just really wish more people felt the same way about it instead of rushing it when they haven’t even gotten to the friendship stage in canon yet 

i love where this is going and am too hyped for words to see how they’re gonna interact now that they’re on equal grounds and gyro is gonna be confronted with the fact that he can’t act like he’s above fenton whatsoever anymore (tbh i really think fenton’s gonna do the confronting himself bc like i said, he can do that y’all!!! he can stand up for himself when he’s pushed too far and you all gotta realize that and stop treating him like he’s a baby!!!!!!)

these two are my favorite characters in the show and i trust the crew to give us some good content of em and to develop their relationship in an interesting way because i have yet to be disappointed in any of the other character dynamics they’ve fleshed out and i know whatever they do is gonna kill me

also my friend and i may or may not currently be writing a fic about all of this but i’ll leave that for y’all to find on your own ;) 

SO TL;DR: YES. IT DEFINITELY HAS A LOT OF POTENTIAL AND I THINK IT’S GONNA GET SOME NICE TASTY DEVELOPMENT IN SEASON 2 BUT PEOPLE IGNORE THE DEVELOPMENT PART AND IT MAKES ME ANGRY

[lady-divine-writes]

Kurtbastian one-shot - “The Dangers of Self-Medicating” (Rated PG13)

Kurt gets sick on a business trip, and everything he does just to get home makes it worse. (1956 words)

Notes: This actually comes before Crafting Chaos. I had a minor brain fart and finished that one first xD

Part 46 of Daddies.

Read on AO3.

“Sir?”

“Mmmrrr … hmmm?”

“Sir? We’re here.”

“Here?” Kurt’s eyelids flutter slightly, opening a sliver. But when the mid-morning sun hits their dry, red surface, he immediately shuts them again. “Where’s here?”

“Uh … 15-22 Mulberry Place? It’s the address you gave me.”

“The address I … wha---?” Kurt pries open his eyes. The address sounds familiar, but the voice speaking to him doesn’t. There’s a lot of mud and fog cluttering his brain. The last thing he remembers was being in his hotel room, packing his bag. No, it was losing his breakfast, and lunch and dinner from the day before, in an airport toilet. No, no, it was waiting by the curb, clutching on to the handle of his carry-on for support while he waited for his Uber to arrive.

Uber! He’s in an Uber! Which means he must be …

“Home,” he says in a raw, grumbly voice.

“I guess?” The man puts his car into park. “Do you need any help with your bag?”

“Nah.” Kurt grabs the handle of the bag he’s been cuddling awkwardly since he fell asleep in this poor man’s back seat. At least he didn’t vomit in his car. As far as Kurt can remember, he’s baptized nearly every toilet and trash can from Manhattan to home. “I’ve got it.” I’ll just pour myself onto the pavement and slither up to my front door, he thinks. “Here …” Kurt fumbles a hand into his pocket and pulls out his wallet. Squinting, he fishes out three tens and clumsily hands them to the driver. “Thanks for everything.”

“Good luck,” the driver says, mentally snickering at the intoxicated man doing his best to exit his Prius. Ten sheets to the wind at barely eleven in the morning?

Well, it’s five o’clock somewhere.

Kurt backs out of the car butt-first, searching for the ground with his feet to make absolutely certain that it’s there. Once they make contact, he extricates the rest of his body, his Samsonite bag landing on the curb with a thunk when his arms fail to support its weight. It takes him longer to stand up straight, the compact blue Toyota gone before Kurt gets his head balanced on his shoulders.

He blinks his eyes and looks around, wondering why his husband isn’t there to meet him at the curb. Sebastian and Thomas drove him to the airport, but he took an Uber home. And thank God he did. There’s no parking anywhere on the street this morning. Of course, he lives here and, hence, has a driveway to pull in to, but still. Strange, but Kurt doesn’t have the brain capacity to speculate about that just now.

Kurt has been traveling for most of the morning, voluntarily switching flights twice when a technical malfunction bumped travelers onto other flights. He went from first class to coach, then back to first class again. He misses his family, but he came out of the deal with two travel vouchers, a slew of frequent flier miles, and a thousand dollar refund back to his credit card.

Not too shabby for a Sunday afternoon.

He’s a stone’s throw from home, but the way he’s feeling, it might take him the rest of the afternoon the get there.

Kurt turns taking baby steps, one tiny shuffle at a time with breaths in between to keep the sidewalk underneath his feet. He does the same for the journey up his driveway – shuffle-shuffle pause, shuffle-shuffle pause, bending at the knees on occasion to ground himself and keep from collapsing.

The walk up his driveway to his front door on this beautiful Sunday afternoon is the most excruciating thing Kurt has done in ages.

Correction – pulling out his keys, listening to the God awful things jangle loudly, the noise ricocheting like bocce balls inside his skull, is the most excruciating. Walking up the driveway, and then up the porch steps, each movement sending a dull ache searing from the soles of his feet to his forehead, was simply a precursor to this pain.

Kurt doesn’t understand how he could have gotten sick. He’d been on top of his Echinacea and his Vitamin C game for a week before he left. He kept his mouth and nose covered with a scarf on the plane, and no one he spent any significant time with looked particularly ill. Then again, he’s learned from having a child that sick people are often contagious way before they show any symptoms.

Plague-ridden bastards and their ninja germs bombarding him with their unseen illnesses! He did everything in his power to keep from catching anything, and now he’s standing at death’s door.

In reality, it’s probably from commuting back and forth to the city after all these years of suburban living. Living in the boonies, away from the dirt and the grime and the smog, has lowered his immune system, made him weak on a microbial level.

Clean air and sunshine – it will do you in every time.

His key ring raised to an inch from his eyes, he isolates his door key and pinches it between his thumb and index finger. He tries to stab it into the lock, but he keeps missing, his triple vision causing the end to veer away from the hole at the last minute and hit the door instead.

“Get … in … there,” Kurt snaps. “Get … in … that … hole … you stupid … little … prick!” Kurt hears the door unlock and lets go of his key, assuming it made its way into the lock somehow. But the ring falls to the ground with a bang. “Shoot!” He mutters, realizing he’ll need to bend over and pick it up.

If he does, he may never get up again.

The door swings open, the momentum of it almost dragging Kurt forward with it.

“Aw,” Sebastian coos, his body blocking Kurt’s way, saving him from falling on his face. “You were thinking about our wedding night, too?”

“He-ey!” Kurt says, bright but slow, sounding as drunk as he looks.

“Hey, lover.” Sebastian gives his husband an enthusiastic, lovesick once-over, but raises a brow at his wrinkled clothes, his unbuttoned collar, his flushed face, and his severely disheveled hair. “How’s it hanging?”

“In my stomach, to be honest. Ooo, I wouldn’t do that if I were you.” Kurt throws a hand over his mouth, diverting Sebastian’s kiss from his lips to his cheek. “I think I contracted bird flu somewhere between Broadway and 75th Street. Or maybe syphilis.”

“I told you – if you’re going to cheat, use an escort service.” Sebastian opens the door wider. Grabbing Kurt’s bag in one hand and his elbow with the other, he leads him inside. “That’s what the AmEx card is for.”

“Hmm, I should have listened.”

“Yes, you should have.” Sebastian walks his husband to the sofa and helps him onto a cushion. “So did you miss your plane and walk home,” he asks, retrieving Kurt’s keys and closing the front door, “or …?”

“Very funny.”

“I don’t want to say you look awful but …” Sebastian takes a few steps back to get a good long look at Kurt sinking into the sofa, his head finding the arm and leaning against it. He doesn’t look like himself at all – from the hair to the clothes, and beyond his flushed cheeks, his skin actually looks green “… babe, you look awful.”

“It’s not my fault. I took an Ambien last night to help me sleep off this …” Kurt waves a hand in front of his nose “… whatever I caught, but it didn’t help. I was coughing and sneezing and tossing all night. By six a.m., I was afraid I’d crash before I made it to the airport, so I took some DayQuil to keep me alert. But I guess DayQuil and Ambien don’t play nice together.”

“I guess not.”

“To top it off, since my plane was delayed, I dropped into what I thought was a Dunkin’ Donuts. I mean, the banner over the door looked the same and everything. Turns out, it was some new boutique place called Drunkin’ Donuts. I ate two blackberry wine donuts before I realized I was feeling a little tipsy.”

“Uh, but wouldn’t the alcohol in the donuts cook away?” Sebastian asks, digging his phone out of his pocket and logging on to WebMD to see how much trouble his husband might be in.

“Yeah, in the donut, but not the jam filling. I’m amazed I made it home. After that, everything was kind of a blur.”

“Like what?”

Kurt swallows. This was the part he was hoping he wouldn’t have to get into until he was better … or sober. “Okay, don’t get mad, but I may have tweeted David Beckham and told him he had, and I quote, a very bite-able bod?” Kurt admits, eyes begging his husband to please tell him that that was just a dream.

And even though Sebastian is quietly panicking over the fact that his husband might need his stomach pumped, he can’t help smirking at his man.

“Alas, you did,” Sebastian confirms. “But in case you didn’t see his reply tweet, he claims that you do, too. And his wife concurs, so there’s that. I think you may have raised your stock value with that snafu.”

“Thank God!” Kurt moans. He knew that tweet wouldn’t cost him his job or anything, and he was only mildly worried about what it might do for his home life. But more than that, he was afraid what might happen next time he and Victoria Beckham crossed paths.

She might be petite, but he’s heard she’s a hair puller.

“What else?” Sebastian asks, keeping Kurt awake while he stalls for time.

“I may have ordered everything from pages 23, 24, and 25 of the SkyMall catalogue.”

“You do that even when you’re not tripping balls ...”

“I …” And this is the one that may have Kurt crawling beneath the sofa out of sheer embarrassment “… I may have emailed all of our friends and family … using your email account … and invited them here today for, and again I quote, a surprise party in honor of the wonder that is me?”

“Right again.” Sebastian chuckles, but laced with concern. “And by the time I checked my email, they had all RSVP’d. They’re in the kitchen waiting to yell surprise the second I open the door.”

Kurt’s eyes pop, his gaze shifting to the door beside him, terrified by this new knowledge that seventy or more people might be on the other side, ready to scream at him.

That alone makes his stomach flip.

That explains the lack of parking on the street.

“And you couldn’t just cancel?” Kurt groans, putting his hands over his ears in preparation for the cheer that’s about to run him over like a freight train.

“Of course not. I invited them.” But Sebastian doesn’t open the door. He hits send on a mass text and shoves his phone back in his pocket. From beyond the white washed piece of wood, Kurt hears the muffled trickle of text alerts going off, accompanied by a rumble of voices muttering in confusion. Someone who could be Wes says, “Hey, Tom-Tom! How would you and Hepburn like to go play mini golf?”

Sebastian reaches for Kurt’s arm, preparing to help him up, but decides against it and lifts his husband off the couch.

“Wha---what are we doing? Where are we going?”

“I thought it might be a good idea if we turned this welcome home celebration into a party of two. And we’re holding it at the emergency room.”