#not sure if I actually managed to clarify what I meant haha

[rawliverandgoronspice]

hi! firstly, sorry in advance for the long ask. your blog is very thought provoking! secondly, i wanna say i really appreciate all your writing on totk - i’ve kinda deliberately avoided looking at any critiques of the game because, quite frankly, i had a fun time in the moment while playing it and i didn’t want to sully that experience, but your posts have all been quality and have given me a lot to think about with respect to the narrative, its aims, and whether or not “pure, uncomplicated, escapist fiction” is actually a good thing

i digress though - the subject i wanted to ask about, which comes up both in your general “all the consequences were undone and therefore nothing mattered” stance, and more directly in your post about dondons/humanity/morality (specifically the part about “should we trust the bargainer statues that nothing matters? or should we actually care about light vs dark?”) is kind of the age old sentiment that the journey is more important than the destination, and how you think about this in the context of zelda as a narrative, as a defining game in the adventure genre, and now as a landmark in the open world style

in the case of the bargainer statue, i was thrown by you framing “trusting the statues about morality” vs “being moved by the struggle of light against dark” as an either/or - a grimly nihilistic view. in the game (and, i think, in real life), the message is that the ultimate futility of everything does not invalidate the reality of people living their lives in the present, and a positive nihilism challenges us to try and help people and do good in spite of that meaninglessness. this is why the bargainer statues feel so bizarre and un-zelda-like (or at the very least, un-hyrulian. not a bad thing!) - the universe of zelda has always at its core been about how helping other people is a noble endeavor and is its own reward (with gratitude in skyward sword actually manifesting this physically), and the bargainers’ ambivalence flies in the face of this. it’s obvious to us as the player that towns being destroyed and lives being torn apart is objectively bad, even if everyone ends up as a poe in the depths either way, and the bargainers reading as sinister and alien actually reinforces this more than it calls it into question. the quality of the time spent in life matters, even if the ending looks the same

as a game, i think zelda has always been at least as much about the stories and connections you experience on your quest to deal with the big bad as it is about that actual climactic fight. it’s always leaned into the adventure half of “action/adventure,” and in some ways i do think this is what “gameplay before story” originally meant. as you’ve noted, some of the brightest points of totk are the sidequests and characters for whom you can make a small but noticeable difference, and through which you’re driven to interrogate the world and maybe yourself too. and it’s because of these connections that reverting things at the end doesn’t make everything futile and pointless. link is our connection to hyrule, and if the adventure impacted us positively, then we can infer that it impacted link (and to a lesser extent, zelda) positively as well, and that’s worthwhile even if the external circumstances change

a last quick point is that i think the increasingly open world nature of the series also reinforces this - sure you can run naked straight to castle and beat ganondorf without engaging with the game in any way, and you’ll save the day the same as someone who put in 300 hours on the way there, but your takeaway will be completely different, because that journey is the entire point

anyways thanks again for your thoughtful posts and for reading this far if you did!

Heyy thank you so much for perusing my blog and leaving such a thoughtful ask, it's greatly appreciated! <3

That's interesting you took the Dondon post in that way, as it wasn't what I meant at all haha. But I do recognize it was worded in kind of a cryptic way, and left it up to interpretation perhaps a tad too much (see: the limits of subtext), so I can try and make myself a little more clear (and I also think you bring up really good points that completely deserve to be mentioned and that I personally do not mention nearly enough)

What I meant by the "either/or" isn't what we, as an audience should take away as what's important or meaningful, and completely discard the other part as useless. It's not what we experience ingame, and this contradiction is inherently interesting and sparks some degree of conflict (good! storytelling need those and totk is conflict anemic honestly)

What bothered me is that we are prompted, in the game, to see things in an extremely black and white way in spite of an argumentation that maybe, we shouldn't. It's not bad in itself, I even think it's great that we get to question the moral fabric of the world! It's one of the very rare (in my opinion) compelling things about the narrative weaved out for us. But the endgoal of the game still remains the same: find Zelda, and swear yourself/all of your friends to Rauru's ancestral kingdom by using his powers and his guiding hand. Link's role in restoring Hyrule is never even hinted as being a potential question mark, or something we should ponder upon (Twilight Princess did directly question Hyrule in more ways than one, WW is also there, etc). But moreso than in other games in my opinion: we are doing the bidding of a king's territorial war that happened a very long time ago, and the current state of Hyrule doesn't seem to indicate the need for pushing a unified kingdom back onto everybody, or at least it wouldn't be a problem if not for Ganondorf's presence (which in of itself is still arguable as an argument for royal unity, since people would have been willing to band together for the sake of their own communities regardless of whether or not there was a unifying realm --remove the Sage's vow, and I don't believe Link's friends would have let him handle his fight on his own even without having to swear their alliegeance to what is basically a dead kingdom by this point).

My problem isn't the statues; it's that this Light/Darkness framing is only ever questioned when close to them/the Monster Brothers, and the rest of the world is extremely rigid in what is the correct path --but without the added tragic weight that other Zelda games generally have about this aspect (the Sages in OoT being torn from their previous aspect/your own lost childhood, Skyward Sword's Hylia and the way she enacts her plan through people who never had a choice --and that's identified as something bittersweet, not to mention the infamous curse of Demise...)

I do adore what you mention, this sort of "positive nihilism" as a staple of the series. It's never as apparent as in Majora's Mask in my opinion, where getting people comfort and rest is ultimately without consequence as you constantly reset their minds, but it still feels meaningful to have helped. I think BotW did that really well too --where you help people rebuidling life and meaning in the middle of the desolation, making the post-apocalypse hopeful, a place for potential growth and change and resilience and experimentation. In TotK, however, I don't think your efforts are as centered around making sure these people get a future as they were in BotW (except maybe, as you mentioned, in a couple of sidequests --Lurelin's village being one of them, for example). Maybe it's because Ganondorf's threat is not as clear as the Calamity's was, maybe it's because what guides your adventure is to find Zelda first and foremost rather than defeating whatever threatens the peace (treated narratively as a hindrance more than the core problem, even if it is ultimately the core problem --again, the narration/quest design is pretty messy here and it doesn't help matters), or maybe it's because the endgoal is not for people to make their own way into the world, but mostly for the wayward folk of Hyrule to be ushered back onto the glorious trail of Hylian/Zonai's legacy --but to me, the game has a weird agenda regarding Link/the player's role into this world that is generally tangential to his role as a hero and a balancing force in other legends. Here, he starts the game as a knight. His duty is to Zelda, but it ends up overlapping to what Zelda represents in a far more abstract way than usual.

What I think works in TotK in terms of "positive nihilism" is actually Ultrahand, and this gimmick of "world as playground", which I believe is a very clever and engaging way to imagine an open world. There are a ton of little gameplay moments that are yours to shape and inject meaning into; manipulation for the sake of it, the joy of play, and experimentation being rewarded and never punished. To me, this feels the most like inhabiting the world, making it your own, and doing things because they matters to you --and this being enough. But narratively speaking, this is just not really the story being told to us: we are told, us and basically every other NPC, to conform to a plan laid out for us that doesn't ever need to be investigated or questioned --even though now, at crossroad of what the future could look like, would be the perfect moment to do so.

I think what I ultimately tried to point out in that Dondon post is how jarring this hint that, perhaps nothing you do In The Name of Light actually means anything, and this having zero impact on the rigidity of the pupose you are supposed to accomplish In The Name of Light --and the game never seemingly acknowledging that paradox, which made for a (I think, unplanned) pretty oppressive playing experience on my end.

[fruitsoxs]

Hello! I like your writing a lot and i was wondering if you'd do wolfwood x gn-reader, and the reader has a flirty and vulgar way of joking. I'm curious how would he react to that kind of chaotic person who likes to taunt and tease

I got a little bit nsfw with this haha-- a little full on smut drabble included so-

warnings: !nsfw minors dni! smut, swearing, make outs, blow jobs, face fucking wolfwood gets a bit rough, it's gender neutral but he does call you "angel" (my dyslexic ass is praying i managed to not put a single "angle" in there)

Okay I really do believe he’d probably think you are hilarious. He’d probably  immediately connect with you. 

You take his jokes, and then you tease him back?? Wowie he’s already in love lol

But here’s the kicker- I think eventually  he’d dish out more than he could take

Especially if he starts falling for you along the way

Like he’d say a whittle inappropriate joke and you would try and up him

And then this man would fold

Red face

Unable to talk

Completely and totally flustered 

One time you make a joke about him using something else for his oral fixation and he straight up walks away

He doesn’t talk to you until the next day

You think it’s pretty funny actually - so you decide to start seeing how far you can take it before he snaps

NSFW part below the cut!

Imagine one day you say something and he finally just explodes

Like you make a job about him fucking your sins away and you thinks it’s all witty because he’s a priest

But he literally is like “You know what?? I think I will-” And bam he’s got you bent over screaming his name lol

It’s a particularly hot afternoon, and in order to keep group morale up everyone has decided to make a little stop to drink some cool water. Maybe even eat some food if money will allow it. You’re pretty thankful. One more moment in that damn car and you’re sure you’d burst - it’s WAY too hot with both Vash and Wolfwood on either side of you like that.

It takes only a couple minutes for your dark haired friend to saunter up to you and sit down, throwing his arm on the seat behind you. Not close enough to touch you, but close enough that you can almost smell the cigarette smoke on his clothes. He’s, thankfully, curbed the habit of smoking inside. With a sucker popped in between his lips, he lets out a small sigh.

He doesn’t like sitting still, you know that. He hates when the group decides to take breaks like this. If it were up to him, you all would be moving non-stop into the dead of night. Thankfully, it’s not. So he’ll just have to live.

“Feeling restless?” You ask, knowing the answer already.

“What do you think, angel?” he sighs again, his voice slightly horse.

You smile softly at the nickname, a bit unsure why he calls you that still. He told you once before that it all started when he saw your worried face after he was hit by a car.  He said you looked innocent, and pure. He’d find out minutes later that you definitely weren’t- yet the nickname still rolls off his tongue like it belongs there.

“Why do you call me that?” you ask, looking up at him. “You know why.” His answer is simple. He looks down at you with a raised eyebrow, craning his neck. He’s too tall.

“Yeah I know why you started calling me that- but why still call me that?” you clarify rolling your eyes. He knew what you meant, he’s just being difficult. “I’m not really the most holy individual.’ You point out. He laughs and shakes his head. “Trust me I know.” He mumbles, that smirk still present on his lips as he looks forward. “You’re the biggest sinner I know.” he jokes. He really walks into this one. He should know, with how much he jokes about being a priest, that this joke was always in the back of your brain. Always waiting for the right moment. Yet here he is, giving you the perfect opening. It’s almost like he’s begging for it.

“Oh? Am I a bad girl, father? Should I get on my knees and confess my sins?” You ask with a sneer. He freezes immediately. “Are you gonna punish me?” You go on, leaning in close. Man, this is a gold mine. You’d probably keep going too, if he doesn’t stand up and yank you out of your chair.

You let out a small yelp as he starts pulling you along, through the room, and into a little storage place that is probably only for employees. He throws you in, softly of course, and you stumble forward slightly. “What hell are you-” You’re interrupted by the door locking as he turns to you, shrugging the Punisher off his shoulder. He leans the giant cross against the wall, and sighs.

“You’ve got the naughtiest mouth angel, I can’t fucking stand it anymore.” He curses sauntering up next to you. “All you do is tease me, and yeah it can be pretty funny. Then you go off and say shit like that- and you have no idea what it does to me.” He grabs your chin, forcing you to look up at him. “And you know what? Maybe it is about time you get punished.”

A few moments later and his lips are on yours. It’s a heated kiss from the beginning, open mouthed and messy. The sucker that was dangling from his lips falls against the dirty ground. You can’t help but moan into the kiss, as he devours you like you’re the last meal he’ll ever eat. His tongue invades your lips, and roams around every inch of your mouth. He drinks in your taste, and when he pulls away he’s got this shit eating grin that stretches across his lips.

“What do you think, angel?” He whispers, his hand sliding to the back of your head. 

Like you even have to think about this- Wolfwood is quite literally the hottest man you have ever been given the privilege to meet. Plus he’s endearing, and sweet when he wants to be. Plus that kiss was just about the most amazing thing you’ve ever experienced.

“I have been pretty naughty.” Is your answer.

His grin widens, and his fingers dip into your scalp, pulling your hair so your head tilts back. You gasp, and he takes that as an opportunity to slip his tongue back into your mouth. You’re not sure if it’s even really a kiss at this point, but if the noises that leave your throat are anything to go off of, you really don’t mind.

After a while he pulls away, his cheeks red. “Are you gonna make good on your promise and get on your knees, angel?” he whispers, lips dangerously close to your ear. Your cheeks instantly heat up. You just now notice something hard pressed up against your thigh, and you wonder how easy it was for him to so worked up on your teasing alone. 

You bend at the knees, and slowly fall to the ground. The floor is a bit sticky, but whatever. You have bigger things to deal with right now. And with the way he’s gripping your hair, you’re not sure if you can stop yourself from what’s to come.

He grunts as you slide your fingers into the waistline of his pants, and drag them down. His black boxers are already dripping with precum  from just the thought of what's to come. It makes your mouth water.

You press your lips against the fabric, and he growls softly. You take the hint, and slowly rid him of the undergarments. His dick flies free and you have to pinch the skin on your legs to keep from freaking out.

He’s big. Thick. Uncut and freaking beautiful.

“Like what you see, angel?” He asks, pressing your face forward. You nod, and reach a hand out, delicately tracing your fingers along the shaft. His hips jerk forward slightly, but he’s quick to let you know who’s in charge by pulling on your hair. You moan and lean forward, placing your tongue towards the middle, and licking a line up to the head. You look up at him, eyes wide, before quickly wrapping your mouth around the tip.

“God-’ He mumbles softly. “So perfect. Those lips are so Goddamn perfect angel.” He groans. You can tell he’s holding himself back, so you slide your head down and take in bit by bit slowly. He grunts and moans softly, clutching onto you for dear life. 

“Just like that angel, take it all in. You’re doing such a good job.” His praise ignites a fire in you, and you let out a soft whimper. The vibrations against his dick make the man freeze for a minute. He’s getting closer to losing control. But he wants you to take your time before he face fucks the life out of you.

“You like that angel? Like when I praise you?”

You try your best to nod, lips still wrapped around his cock. He gets the idea, and lets out a soft chuckle. “I’ll keep that in mind.” He mumbles, and his touch feels a bit softer for a second.

You continue on your journey of giving him the best blowjob of his life, licking and sucking as you see fit. One hand wrapped around the bottom of his dick, moving in unison with your head. You find the courage to finally slide it all the way into the back of your throat.  A cry escapes your mouth, followed by a gag, and tears threaten to spill from the corners of your eyes. The moment you deepthroat him, his hands grip the back of your head, and keep you there for a few seconds. 

“Fuck- angel-” He grunts before releasing you. You slide your mouth off of him for a second. “I can’t hold myself back. You feel too good- can I fuck your pretty face angel? That okay?” He asks, his hand dropping to your chin for a second. You nod, and he smiles.

And then, he grips your hair so tight you might scream. Before you can even make a sound, his dick is in your throat again, as he slams his hips against your face at a dead pace. It’s rough, but not aggressive enough to make you uncomfortable. And the noises he makes are insanely hot.

You can’t help but choke and moan as his dick slides into your mouth. You try your best to move your tongue around it, but it’s hard to think straight. You’re almost drunk on his cock.

“Fuck- you’re being so good for me angel.” He coos. His soft voice is a pleasant counter to his rough grip on your hair. 

Finally, his movements begin to get a bit clumsier, and you can tell he’s close. “Angel, shit, I’m close.” He grunts. “You gonna swallow every last drop? Gonna let my cum clean your filthy mouth, angel?” You cry out a yes against his cock, nails digging into his thighs.

That’s all it takes for him to unload into you, letting out one final curse as his seed drips down your throat. He keeps your head pressed against the bottom of his dick until you’ve swallowed the last of it. He lets go of your head, and you fall backwards, knees starting to hurt.

After a few seconds, once his pants are back on, he wraps his hand around your wrist and pulls you back up softly. He lets you lean against him as you get your strength back in your legs, and kisses the top of your head softly. His arm is around your waist, his touch now soft and loving. 

“You okay, angel?” he asks, his mouth presses against the top of your head. “Of course.” You hum, and lean into his embrace.

[initiumseries]

Sorry for getting back to you so late! I’m the anon who asked about Smallville and when you think I should stop. I’m really enjoying it so far. I just finished season one and am starting season two. Clark and Lana had me from the jump, like it’s been so long since a pairing has had chemistry and has hooked me quickly lol. I don’t mind Chloe and Clark, but I also feel like they’re better as friends. At least now regarding season one. I really like Lex and Clark’s friendship, and I’d rather not see them lose that friendship, so I’ll probably check out after season 2 of this show, haha. Especially since the creepy Lex stuff starts happening in season 3 and 4 like you said. Also I don’t know what happens to Pete, but I do know he’s not around for the whole show and I think that’s disappointing. Overall, I find this show to be great and despite not being too much into Superhero shows and movies in general, I just love this kind of writing so far. What are your thoughts on Smallville pairings? (I don’t mind spoilers haha)

Oh no worries! So, just wanted to clarify, in s3, the show gets slick, and at this point, the characters are like, eighteen I think? So there's a relationship shift where Lex and Clark's relationship grows more strained, and Lex and Lana's relationship expands. There's nothing outwardly romantic, but the show frames it in a way where I'm like...no don't do this. Like, I know what they're alluding to, but as long as Lana is in high school, it's not gonna happen, and they stick to that. The moments are brief, and I don't think Lex actually attempts to weakly shoot his shot til s4 and that's more about his and Clark's deteriorating relationship, and less about Lana herself. She ends up dating Jason in s4 anyway and that's funny and inappropriate and weird and season 4 is actually funny because it's totally ridiculous and then they go to China and it's like how are teenagers just jet setting to CHINA to be abducted by Chinese police and tortured, what the fuck is going on now? While also still SO OBVIOUSLY filming in Chinatown in vancouver? LOL. It's ridiculous, so if you're ever curious, give it a shot. Tap out when Lex hallucinates becoming a regular guy and having a family with Lana. That's a good time to tap out (late s4 I believe). And also Clark and Lois become more of a thing in s4 and that's SO annoying because Lois is AWFUL.

Yeah, Pete. He leaves the show season 3 I think? I liked Pete for sure, but the actor did talk about what it was like being on a show where his character wasn't even meant to be Black, and going through that kind of fan hate pre-internet fandom era, seemed like it was hard for him.

Yeah, I think Smallville's saving grace was it came before the whole Marvel superhero movie machine, so this was about Clark growing up and BECOMING superman, not already being full on superman, and so it manages to humanize him in a way that superhero movies fail to do. Tom Welling's Clark has complex emotions, struggles with trying to fit in and find his place in the world, while also helping people with his gifts and even just keeping his family on their farm lol. it's a very human show, despite the super hero/natural element, and that's what makes it easy to love.

As far as relationships go, I, obviously, am a steadfast Clana fan even when it gets STUPID and Lana wants superpowers so to fuck it up for them, Lex makes sure it's like...kryptonite based and her power is embedded into her skin so she ends up leaving the show because her and Clark can't physically touch. SO DRAMATIC lmao. But honestly look at them.

Tbh, I believed Clark and Lex's friendship the least, because it felt like, Lex was so obviously never being honest with Clark, and constantly like investigating him or whatever, and antagonizing and testing Clark, and because he was always doing shady shit, it was hard for me to believe it when the writing said "they're like brothers!" but Lex only came to Clark when he wanted something and/or just was at the Talon for coffee and witnessed an embarrassing moment or something. Or Clark went to him for help, and it seems like so many episodes pit them against each other, it's hard to see the actual value of their friendship? They actually don't spend a lot of time together, and it's not suggested that they do. Whereas, straight from the pilot, and the dialogue thereafter, it's clear that Chloe and Pete know Clark really well and they're ALWAYS together, and when they fight, it's for real reasons, Clark keeping secrets, Chloe's feelings, Pete's...*gestures vaguely*. I also preferred Clark and Chloe as friends, but I understood the confusion you feel when you're so close to someone, and you never even consider them a romantic possibility, and then suddenly there it is. But he did Chloe pretty dirty lol, so I was kinda glad when they packed it up and she found Jimmy later. Her and Jimmy were cute as hell from what I remembered, and then I liked her and Oliver together, which I wasn't expecting because I REALLY liked Jimmy. That was hard.

I liked Martha and Jonathan together. Like, no one really talks about them, but I thought that Jonathan gave Clark horrific advice, but they were a good pair that I believed as a married couple and liked the nuclear family. Lionel was A FAVE lmao he's horrible. But I hate how they defanged him by making him a Clark stan when Lex turns on him. I think that's it! Hope you stick around til at least s3!

[kyouka-supremacy]

sorry for all that text in your replies ^^; someone once blocked me bc i got a lil defensive abt bones ahaha i didn't mean to come off as harsh if i did. everyone has a right to be upset about the adaptation!! i just was attempting to clear some commonly held misconceptions about anime production, but i also dont want to come off like i know everything (i absolutely don't) or anything like that!! sorry for all that haha

It's totally okay, don't worry about it one bit!!! More than okay actually, I'm always happy to hear takes that differ from mine. I usually refrain from answering to replies, since as of now there's no way to do it from a side blog; if that's okay with you I'm going to reply to what you brought up - and clarify my stand on the original post - on here!

First of all, when I answered to the ask I had no idea case existed of anyone attacking the animators, and it's superfluous for me to say such behavior is absolutely to be condemned. Everything I said is meant to criticize the decisions of higher-ups in management and decision making positions, thinking the animators have any fault in this is absurd; and besides, harassment is never the right way to go to express critique.

I already expressed why the marketing choice of releasing seasons with so little time distance between them makes no sense to me. Season 5 being just season 4 part 2 really doesn't entail the seasons coming one after the other at all. I'm not sure how the studios differentiation works, but in the end it doesn't really matter how many project Bones has going on and just– are they able to meet the quality standard with the currently available resources? The negative answer is now evident, but it's something they should have been able to predict before they set (and followed through with) the season release date. If the currently available resources don't suffice to meet the quality standard, you postpone the release untill they are, it's literally that simple.

Again, I do appreciate your further explanations and I thank you for them!! It's surely interesting to try and understand why this season is going in the direction it is. I do ultimately agree there's definitely things going on behind the scenes we can't foresee! Once more, people who are enjoying this season and are satisfied with its quality are perfectly entailed to be :) Thank you again for your inputs, and take care! (ﾉ◕ヮ◕)ﾉ*.✧

[tossawary]

I need to know more about “SVSSS - Baby Brother Liu Qingge” bc I love tiny and very deadly baby LQG

I have a 3k-ish Shang Qinghua POV that was supposed to be the introduction to this fic concept! So... ah... baby Liu Qingge does not appear in this, but you can see the setup for how an 8yo-ish Liu Qingge was supposed to be introduced. My hope is that this will someday become a "Shang Qinghua and Shen Jiu go on a mission with Baby Brother Liu Qingge" one shot.

-cut-

Shang Qinghua didn't really have the words to describe what it was like having Proud Immortal Demon Way's characters finally come into his second life.

He didn't have the words to describe a lot of his transmigration experience, honestly! His words had described a lot of this world already, haha, hadn't they? Sometimes a person just had to put up with it and keep going.

And then excuse himself later to go scream into a pillow! Many times!

At first, life was just him in a body that didn't fit and strange memories that slipped between his fingers like sand. His memories of a past life had settled eventually, the System finally came fully online, and his relationship with his second family was fully fucked forever. That was fine, though! That was fine! With some unsolicited prodding from his System, he left to go seek his fortune soon enough and he never had to talk to his character's birth parents or siblings again.

But Airplane Shooting Towards The Sky had never said much of anything about Shang Qinghua’s family or home village, besides saying that the man had dreamed of more than his mediocre origins, so everything had been unfamiliar and original and real. Getting to Cang Qiong Mountain Sect, which he had described in great detail, was a real headfuck. There were no words for the experience of recognizing things that he’d written in another life.

He saw the glistening rainbow bridge and the intimidating sect entrance and the majestic meeting hall on Qiong Ding, and he nearly screamed. He definitely squawked. His vision got really fuzzy for a minute there and he had to sit down on the ground before he fell over. What the fuck?! What the fuck?! He’d made a world! The System had really made a world out of his web-novel! He was really stuck in Proud Immortal Demon Way!

There were upsides and downsides to joining Cang Qiong Mountain Sect. Downsides included: the hard training, the harder workload, the dangerous missions, the disrespect towards An Ding Peak, and being surrounded by arrogant and foolish teenagers looking to look down on someone. It was really something else to look some of them in the eye and think, "Bro, I don’t know your name, but you kind of owe your existence to me. Could you stop being such a fucking asshole about leaving your chores for me to do?! Respect your father!"

Upsides included: actually becoming a cultivator (pretty cool, even though the work of cultivation sucked more often than not), better living accommodations and food, and actually getting to see some of the cooler places, plants, monsters, and magic that were a part of his world. Sure, carting a monster corpse brought in by Bai Zhan Peak to Xi Jiao Peak for butchering was smelly and heavy and altogether miserable, but seeing an impossible animal was still kind of incredible. If this unwilling Shang Qinghua could stop being pushed around and stepped on long enough to appreciate the upsides, he’d really appreciate it!

It was interesting and infuriating to log the differences between what he’d imagined, what he’d written, and what the System had created. What sort of author described every single object in every single room? Who had time for that? Who wanted to read that? The System had filled in all the living details of An Ding Peak - the Leisure Houses, the training grounds, the storehouses, the warehouses, the kitchens, the lesson halls, the leisure gardens, the farming fields, the livestock fields, the stables, the cart lot, the water supply, the sewage systems, and so on - so that people could actually live here. Airplane Shooting Towards The Sky as an author had done many things worthy of complaint and criticism, but wasting his readers’ time with sewage systems was not one of them!

The System had also filled in all the little details and decorations - the paintings on the walls of sect history, the detailing on the rooftops supposedly offering protections from dream demons, the chipped and faded paint of old storehouses that disciples would be tasked with replacing, the statues in the fields to scare off scavengers, the carvings on the doors meant to reduce resentful energy, the childish etchings of bored students the surface of the lesson hall desks, the old bench where the An Ding Peak Lord liked to sit and eat flatcakes - so that it really seemed like people had built this place and maintained it and added to it for generations.

Shang Qinghua had his quibbles here and there. Sometimes the System had made choices that he objected to! He would have done it differently if it had asked him, the author, to contribute. He really felt as though the System should have asked him to clarify the plot holes and the gaps in detail, instead of choosing precedence randomly or building off random implications taken way too literally.

Sometimes he found out that the System had built things out of throwaway lines that Shang Qinghua himself had completely forgotten about. It turned out that Ku Xing Peak made a lot of purification tools and containment vessels because Airplane had offhandedly mentioned that this was their specialty, and now Shang Qinghua had to cart around delicate ceramics to be sold to city merchants or other cultivation sects. He never would have dared to write that if he’d known that it would one day in another life be his job to do things like take inventory and chase down signatures for successful deliveries.

Places, items, and creatures were one thing, but logging the differences between the people he met and the characters he’d created was something else. At first it was okay, because he was surrounded by nameless An Ding Peak nobodies - his fellow disciples, their teachers, the hardworking managers and merchants, even the peak lord - none of them had ever mattered in Proud Immortal Demon Way. If Airplane had been the one to name any of them, he didn’t recognize the names or remember them.

Then he met Yue Qingyuan.

Wow, it was a worse headfuck than first arriving at Cang Qiong Mountain Sect, when Shang Qinghua finally realized that this was the young version of one of his actual characters. It took him a minute. As a lowly outer disciple, Shang Qinghua hadn’t received “Qinghua” as a name yet (his name was Houhua, not that anyone ever used it) and the future Yue Qingyuan was still called Yue Qi.

Shang Qinghua was fourteen at the time. Yue Qingyuan must have been around the same age, so he didn’t strike the tall and handsome figure of the sect leader Airplane had described. The boy was broad, but actually a little short. He had freckles. He had acne.

But he also had a warm smile that seemed to go all the way to his eyes when he offered to give Shang Qinghua directions to the right office on Qiong Ding. He had a steady hand when he helped Shang Qinghua up, after the An Ding disciple had suddenly tripped over nothing upon being introduced. Yue Qingyuan - Yue Qi - walked him to the right office and did his best to make small talk, friendly and kind even though Shang Qinghua was having difficulty stringing more than a few words together in his shock.

Even then, it was obvious that the boy was developing the calm surety and the social charm that would make him a greatly admired sect leader someday! It was all Shang Qinghua could do not to blurt out: “Holy shit, you’re REAL?!” Which would be closely followed by: “Hey, is Shen Qingqiu really real too?!” And then maybe closely followed by: “FUCK!!!”

As the years went by, Shang Qinghua met more of Proud Immortal Demon Way’s characters, and it was weird every time. None of them were exactly like he was expecting. He kept expecting… well… he kept expecting them to look like the fanart, like flawless character models, more or less. Instead, he kept getting… people.

Wei Qingwei, head disciple of the sword-focused Wan Jian Peak, was also shorter than he was expecting, kind of stout, with a wide face and a wider smile. Airplane Shooting Towards The Sky had apparently had the man crack a few jokes upon his rare appearances in the web-novel, usually during tense situations, as he was reminded by the System upon thinking to himself: “Why is this guy LIKE THIS?!” So, because of just a few lines, the real Wei Qingwei had a relentless sense of humor and loved telling jokes.

Upon their first meeting, when Shang Qinghua was fifteen and had been sent over to help renovate some Wan Jian dormitories, fifteen-year-old Wei Qingwei had pretended to fumble a sword and, using a packet of dye and a sleight of hand, made it look like he’d accidentally cut off his own hand at the wrist. Of course Shang Qinghua had screamed and panicked! Anyone would panic! But Wei Qingwei had laughed at him and said, “Got you! Shang-Shidi, the sword wasn’t even unsheathed!” Asshole!

Qi Qingqi, the head disciple of Xian Shu Peak, was much taller than he was expecting. Apparently Airplane had once described a group of some of the peak lords by saying something like: “Each one of them was like a giant to young Luo Binghe.” That group had included Qi Qingqi. The System apparently had taken that to mean that Qi Qingqi was of a height with the likes of Yue Qingyuan and Shen Qingqiu. Shang Qinghua discovered this adaptational choice when he was almost sixteen, when this giraffe-like girl came to An Ding Peak to complain about an order someone along the pipeline had dropped completely, and he accidentally found himself (still waiting on a really good growth spurt) eye-level with Qi Qingqi’s chest.

Airplane had apparently once said in Proud Immortal Demon Way that Qian Cao Peak Lord Mu Qingfang appeared a little older than his colleagues, by which he’d probably meant that the man was just tired or something, but this head disciple Mu Qingfang appeared to have ten years on all the other head disciples. Which was good! Shang Qinghua approved of their future head healer not being a teenager and having more training!

On the bad side of things, Airplane had also once said in Proud Immortal Demon Way that the Zui Xian Peak Lord Zhang Qingyan liked his drink too much. This was the peak specializing in alcohol, so it had seemed to make sense! It was supposed to be funny, if anything! Well, at sixteen, Shang Qinghua found out that the System had focused too much on the “too much” part of that statement and now the head disciple of Zui Xian Peak was pretty clearly a budding alcoholic. (Sometimes a cultivator’s constitution and ability to “cure” themselves just… made a person drink more. A lot more.) Which was… not good.

At seventeen, Shang Qinghua met Mobei-Jun.

He didn’t know where to get started with Mobei-Jun.

Somehow he’d… forgotten that Mobei-Jun had been originally based on Airplane’s idea of “the perfect man” and not the super pretty, muscular but slim-waisted protagonist type? The real Mobei-Jun was… tall… and big… and thick. Mobei-Jun’s intimidating features were… more striking than pretty. The first time Shang Qinghua had come back to his Leisure House and found this spoiled brat of an ice demon napping shirtless on his bed, and gotten an eyeful of all that heavy muscle and chest hair, he’d nearly knocked himself out on the doorframe trying to turn away before he had a heart attack.

Mobei-Jun really was going to be the death of him, holy shit.

Especially because this ice demon really was a spoiled brat! Airplane had described this character as being arrogant and apathetic, so now Shang Qinghua had to deal with a Mobei-Jun who took long baths and then carelessly dripped water all over the floor and all over fresh sheets! Who ate all of Shang Qinghua’s cooking and ungratefully only demanded more food, sprawled over furniture not really fit for someone of his size, and then watched Shang Qinghua like a fat tiger! Ahhh, this demon really was lucky he was handsome!

Mobei-Jun was also kind of violent, and mean, which was… well, it sucked.

Back to the sect that Shang Qinghua was now actively betraying, however, as far as he could see, there was still one future peak lord missing.

It wasn’t Shen Qingqiu, who Shang Qinghua had thought would be the last one to show up. Shen Qingqiu had shown up and had been advancing through the ranks of Qing Jing Peak before Shang Qinghua had even met Mobei-Jun, which meant that Yue Qingyuan had finally stopped looking like someone had torn out his soul. (Shang Qinghua had been forced to grit his teeth every time that someone mentioned how privileged that Yue Qingyuan was to have been granted that year of secluded cultivation in the Lingxi Caves at such a young age.)

No, of all the peak lords, it was Liu Qingge who Shang Qinghua had yet to meet.

After meeting Mobei-Jun and becoming an inner disciple, the System had given Shang Qinghua three years to make it to head disciple, probably because the deadline for a new generation of peak lords to ascend was fast approaching. He was working hard to achieve that! Not only did he have to sabotage the current favorite, but he had to make sure all his own training, missions, work, and research were as close to flawless as he could get it! All while keeping an intruding ice demon happy! He wasn’t totally sure that he was going to make it at this rate, even though he’d been here for years.

So it was a little concerning that Liu Qingge hadn't shown up yet. There was so much left to do. A world-state that had yet to be established. Liu Qingge had work to do here!

Liu Qingge and Shen Qingqiu still had to develop a hatred for each other as disciples that would extend to everyone believing that Shen Qingqiu had murdered Liu Qingge as peak lords, after all. Granted, all Liu Qingge really had to do was beat everyone else on Bai Zhan Peak up to obtain the position, and it wasn’t exactly hard to get Shen Qingqiu to develop a lifelong grudge, but the guy was still cutting it pretty close.

It was possible that Liu Qingge was already on Bai Zhan Peak and making good progress, but that he was just so solitary and focused on searching out the next big battle that Shang Qinghua had just never had the opportunity to meet him. Shang Qinghua did his best to avoid Bai Zhan Peak most of the time, honestly! He was curious about where Liu Qingge was, about what the man looked like, but he didn’t let himself sweat at not seeing the future war god, when he already had so many things to sweat about. The System had taken care of bringing in everyone else, so Shang Qinghua was sure that Liu Qingge would follow sooner or later.

Shang Qinghua’s first sign that something was wrong was that, on the day that Liu Qingge finally announced his existence by beating up everyone on Bai Zhan Peak, everyone was saying things like, “I can’t believe some kid managed to topple all of Bai Zhan like that!”

He… may or may not have ignored this sign.

To be fair to this poor writer-turned-disciple, though, he’d been up all night finishing some paperwork catastrophe the An Ding Peak Lord had thrown at him to fix, as some kind of “test” of his logistics skills. Upon hearing the latest gossip, Shang Qinghua thought, “Oh, finally?” And then his overtired brain collapsed from the effort of thinking two words together in a sentence, and all he could manage from there was to feel the intense need to go to bed at a maximum, static-y volume. No words. No more thinky thoughts. Just the need for speedy sleep.

He stumbled through the rest of his day and then passed out for 18 hours straight. In hindsight, this would have been the time when the gossip was at its hottest. He missed all of it.

When he woke up, everyone was still dealing with the aftermath of what had happened on Bai Zhan Peak, but the conversation had shifted more towards replacing Qian Cao Peak’s depleted supplies and the repairs to Bai Zhan’s training grounds. Liu Qingge was the name on everyone’s lips, still, but everyone knew the basic information now. Now, everyone was just exclaiming over and over again how unbelievably young (and pretty) he was to have bested every other disciple on the sect battle-focused peak. This didn't seem too strange.

The System probably would have based the War God's appearance on his sister, Liu Mingyan, a strong contender for the most beautiful woman in all of Proud Immortal Demon Way. Liu Qingge apparently being a very pretty boy fell neatly into line with all the other character design surprises that Shang Qinghua had gotten smacked with so far.

If Airplane had known that he'd be transmigrating into his novel, maybe there would have been even more handsome men! And everyone would have lived happily ever after and nothing bad would have happened ever, probably, but also there might be more sexy guys too.

-

TBC

[readerinsertfanfiction]

hii I was wondering, if it’s not too much, could you write a little something that’s like childhood best friends to lovers with Naruto? I’m such a sucker for those. Being friends with him since the beginning even though everyone hated him, & just him being confused on why you’re friends with him and it leads to a confession?🥺. Thank youuu🧡🖤

Ooh, it has been a loooong while since I wrote anything for Naruto, I feel. Let’s see what I can cook up for ya! 

Fandom: Naruto

Character: Naruto Uzumaki 

The kyuubi attack had left many orphans, both young and old, including you. Within one night you found yourself all alone in this world before you had even a consciousness in which you could realise the loss you had faced and properly mourn it. A loss you hadn’t even realised you had, nor any understanding of what had happened for you to lose everything that you were supposed to be born and grow with. And with the village in ruins the adults were too preoccupied to cumber over yet another orphan. You, along with many others, were left to your own devices and that was a bitterness you could understand.

“These adults are stupid,” you had exclaimed one day after that the hokage had visited you once more. Barely of any age you had to fight and you had to grow faster than any child in the village who did keep their parents. “Thinking they can pick on us just because we have no adults to spit on them,” you continued your complaints as you turned towards a certain blond, a young boy who was just like you, an orphan.

“Is that why you spat on him?” the boy had questioned, eyes wide and a little dirty. It was just another day for him, where he was cursed and glared at, pushed and ignored for whatever reason other than that he had no parents.

“That was nothing compared to what I was about to do! If only I wasn’t held back,” you exclaimed with a scoff before turning to the boy.

“Those adults should feel bad for bullying us kids. But we gotta stick together as well. After all, there is no one else who will stick up for us.”

The statement rang true as you offered your hand to the other. A peer, one of the many, but for some reason that you couldn’t comprehend, even more rejected than you and your lot were.

“What’s the name?” you question the boy and once more stark blue eyes and whiskers on the face looked up at you, a suspicious glare on his face first before he mumbled:

“Naruto. Naruto Uzumaki.”

And to this you flashed a grin, grabbing hold of his hand as you shook it wildly, just as you had seen people greet each other. How you had seen friends bump into each other.

“Well, Naruto, let’s be friends!”

The exclamation rang true and it did so for years, with the two of you doing everything together. Mischief, pranks, growing up in general. Even attending the academy was done together, but where Naruto was held back by some unseen force you had managed to move on, soon making yourself a known name, a talent to behold, a figure to look up to.

It left Naruto with a bitter distaste, for the two of you always had been together, always had been equals and now you suddenly were not. But he never let it show, encouraging you to pursue the path the both of you had chosen.

“I will wait for you to catch up!” you had promised and Naruto only flashed a grin back;

“Don’t wait too long, or I might actually pass you by!” he had said, sparkling that bright and optimistic aura of his, never beaten down by a failure it seemed. How you admired his determination and strength for that, for you knew that you weren’t half as strong if it wasn’t for his stubbornness at your side.

“Still a genin?” you smirk as you welcomed your old friend back into the village. The years had passed and the two of you had grown into teens, fine teens that were allowed to be proud of their accomplishments.

“Just you watch, I will catch up soon and be a chunin like you!” the male exclaimed, bright and cheery, always encouraging and never with a cloud on his mind. Confident as ever, despite all the setbacks he had faced, despite the horrible truths he had to learn about himself and the village. You as well were aware of them by now.

You laughed, hands on your hips as you let your head fall back into your neck. A precious friend he was indeed. The same old Naruto, with or without that monster within him that had taken away so much, but given you even more.

“I’m a jounin by now,” you revealed, expecting Naruto’s eyes to grow wide as sausages as his lips would fall agape like a fish. You were waiting for his surprise, just as you were expecting him to congratulate you with that same old cheer.

There was silence instead, and when you peeled open an eye you found that your best friend was looking down at the ground, his fist balling up before he finally lifted his face with a forced grin.

“I really can’t beat ya, eh?” he sighed instead and you instantly knew there was something amiss.

“Naruto…”

“Haha, what else could I have expected from you, my role model?” the male continued and you felt a stab in your chest, wondering why he was referring to you as an example instead of a friend, for were you not?

“I will have to work extra hard to live up to your standards, or else I fear you won’t be hanging out with me anymore,” he continued to exclaim and yet again you felt a stab to your chest, wondering why Naruto spoke so distantly.

“Because we’re friends?” you tried, brows furrowing to which Naruto scratched his face, not really sure what you meant it seemed before he sighed.

“Hey, now that you’re a jounin you get access to all these super secret files, right? Maybe you can look into Sasuke’s file for me?”

You felt your heart break at the mention of that male’s name. The one that had so quickly surpassed you as a friend. The one that Naruto had thrown himself into entirely and devoted so much of his time to. The one that seemed to have pushed you out of his life so completely.

“If I were in Sasuke’s place, would you have been as desperate?” you suddenly find yourself questioning the blond who freezes at your tone. This time his eyes did grow wide and his mouth fell open agape, like you had hoped it would do when you would reveal your new rank to him.

“There is no need to save you from evil. How could you ever be as dumb as that Sasuke?” Naruto exclaims instead, earning a grit from your teeth as you clench your fists. You were being unfair, you knew that, but it hurt all the same.

“Perhaps I should, because all you ever talk about is Sasuke, Sasuke, Sasuke. What about us? Aren’t we friends? I was your friend before he was,” you spit out the vitriol that is building up within your lungs, but you regret the words immediately as you see Naruto’s expression fall, hurt in the same way you were.

“Whatever, I had hoped you would value me more,” you ended the conversation and left.

That this was the way you guys parted left a bad taste. Nonetheless, the both of you were of the stubborn kind and neither wanted to approach the other to speak of the hurts within their hearts. You missed him, but you didn’t dare to admit your fault, didn’t want to face your shame.

When the Akatsuki attacked the village you once more made another realisation. One that you should have realised so much sooner, but that your anger and your bitterness had prevented you from realising. When your friend, the bestest you had, was thrown up into the air by the crowd, hailed a hero despite his low rank and his former image, finally earning his place in the village. It was then that you realised that, as Naruto shared his magic and his warmth with the people around him, that you had lost him.

“Hey,” you greeted him one late night. You had gone home early that day, on purpose, so that you could wait at the window for your friend to appear. The same window that you guys shared, for neither of you had ever moved despite life looking up.

“Hey,” came the greeting back from a boy that had grown into a fine male, a hero like he had always imagined himself to be. Naruto had been late to get back that night, what with the village now occupying him.

“Congratulations,” you spoke, and to this Naruto seemed confused, not really understanding what he was being congratulated for. “Congratulations for surpassing me,” you clarified and to this Naruto’s eyes drooped a little, an understanding settling in.

“Listen I--”

You cut him off, hand rising as you shrug your shoulders, trying to find your words.

“I shouldn’t have made you choose between Sasuke and me. I know we both hold a different meaning in your life,” you start, eyes downcast as you remember the words ‘role model’ and ‘example’. When you had become such you weren’t sure, but it still bit.

“I never thought of myself as better than you, or someone you needed to surpass,” you smile, knowing that it took you long enough to realise what your feelings were and that it was better to let it out now, now that your friendship seemed to have grown to a natural end. “You were my best friend, still are,” you trail off as you gather your courage to continue.

“And also the person I like the best in this rotten world.”

You knew that after his ascension to legendary heroes that Naruto had received the attention of many. Even more had fallen for him, as there was a daily and steady string of confessors each day that wished to share and convey their feelings to him. You just hoped that none of them were as dear as you had once been, that you still held an edge because of your longstanding friendship.

The silence that followed after was even more suffocating than the silence you had shared before, clear blue eyes focussed upon you, confused and conflicted, and could you blame him for that?

“I,” the male started, letting the words sink in. How familiar you were to that expression of his when Naruto was truly and really trying to progress something.

“I think you are also the best in this world!” he exclaimed loudly and you scoff out a laugh, nearly ramming your head into the side of your window as you try not to launch yourself into a drum against the wall.

Somewhere you had expected this answer to come from him. Dear as Naruto was, he simply wasn’t the brightest, but definitely the dearest. You were fine with giving him the time and room needed to realise what you really meant. There was time after all, you weren’t planning on leaving him alone after all. 

[lvanter]

note: lmao good to see y’all as promised (i didn’t actually promise lol) here a more detailed version also this is like a mix of past tense and present sdfgjskafghs

warning: usual 7mih stuff, which means suggestive stuff, swearing, i call jisung a bitch but that’s a given, and call you a bitch but yk that’s also a given JUST KIDDING I LOVE YOU i also call seungmin a bitch

wc: 2.4 (almost 5)k sdgshsjshhshsjjahhss

“ seven minutes in heaven ”

chan

okay i have something to say chan is a shy boy and would not know how to talk to his crush without stuttering and having red cheeks okay let’s proceed.

chan would be a nervous wreck—almost tripping when he stood up to follow you into changbins way-too-big closet.

and this is chan so if he was like in love with you he would most definitely be too shy to start anything, and if you were shy too: the two of you would stand in silence until the seven minutes was up

but like if you’re a confident bub, or just knew he liked you; you were like why not have some fun yk??

and by fun i mean taking small steps towards him; like so small he doesn’t notice you’re getting closer until he can feel your breath on his skin.

you put your hand on his chest; it was lowkey innocent but chan went feral

his breath hitched and his cheeks went RED, because what the fuck why the fuck are you so fucking close (name) please i have a family you can’t kill me like this i only want to die being suffocated by your thighs

“channie? is this okay?” you whispered to him, your mouth Right By His Ear

“....y-yes……” he managed after like a minute of silence.

he could feel you draw figures and move your fingers up and down on his chest, praying you couldn’t feel how fast his heart was beating.

while it was fun seeing him trying to speak and it only coming out as a weak stutter, you did kind of feel bad for the guy

because like he’s in love with you and you’re teasing him like this

you took a step back just as jisungs voice came “SEVEN MINUTES ARE UP!”

you walked out first, leaving chan standing alone in the closet with a raging boner a fast beating heart and you on his mind

minho

minho is somehow a cocky little fucker and babie at the same time.

when the bottle landed on you after he spun it, a smile spread across his face.

he (LiSten) he took your hand, making everyone else holler and scream as he led you into the closet.

but like he’s a respectful boi and doesn’t wanna make you uncomfortable so he keeps his distance.

but yk it's kind of cold in the closet and your shirt is fortunately unfortunately thin.

you run your hands up and down your arms to get some warmth, and minho is immediately like “are you cold? we could hug so you get warmer? should we hug? i just don’t want you to get cold,”

“minho,” you giggled, and minho's heart just fucking stopped working because your giggle is a godsend sound and he wants to hear it everyday from now on and till he dies, “we can hug,”

minho just gently wrapped his arms around you and pulled you close. your arms automatically went around him and not saying you had never felt safer but you had never felt safer.

(minho decided he wants to hold you like this everyday)

when the “THE SEVEN MINUTES ARE UP!” yell came, minho kissed you softly on your forehead and walked out with your hand in his. (++ his heart in your hands) (gross romance)

changbin

binnie ?? did you mean a babie ?? yes !! binnie babie !! binnie shy babie ?? yes !! binnie shy babie !!

when the bottle landed on him he went :o

you’re the love of his life ??? he’s gonna be in a closet with you ???? you’re lowkey meant to kiss ????? ma’am ???? what the fuck ????????????

he’s a easy-to-fluster boy so if he even can smell your perfume (or deodorant) he's gonna get a boner go feral

maybe he knows you have a crush on him too and maybe he wants to have the upper hand for once so maybe he leans closer to you so you get flustered

and maybe his eyes fall on your lips and god they look so kissable and he wants to know how they feel he bit his lip as he looks at yours

he doesn’t even register you’re looking at him until…. “changbin? why’re you staring at me?”

he goes red like tomatoes from my grandmother's garden red (which is pretty fucking red)

oh god he’s stuttering trying to come up with an excuse “y-you…you..you have… have something on your face,” he blurted out very quickly—you almost couldn’t understand what he was saying

“how do you know? you can barely see anything in here,” you giggle (why giggle SDGSSJ) and changbin feels his soul leave his body

next thing you fucking know seo changbin is kissing you he honestly tried to hold himself back but when you giggled he went ‘fuck it’

“THE SEVEN MINUTES ARE UP! IF Y’ALL AREN’T DATING YET WE AREN'T LETTING YOU OUT!”

hyunjin

mother fucking hwang hyunjin okay

hyunjin is a confident flirt until you flirt with him if you flirt with him while he’s flirting with you he will combust

when the closet door closed he honestly felt confident and made you flustered by making suggestive comments and standing just a biiiiiiit too close to you and oh god his hand is on your arm

he kept going making you flustered and feel like you were gonna explode like your mind went blank

but then you get some brain back and you’re like wait a minute i should flirt with him and then he’ll get a boner die! great!

wait no!!!!!!!!

you run your fingers softly over his arm, just slightly so he can feel your fingers are there and he goes red

hyunjin: flirts with you

you: flirts back

hyunjin: (=･□･=)

you’re being mean to him!!!! he’s supposed to mean to you!!!!!! what is this!!!!!?????? a fanfiction??????

“you okay there, hyunnie?” you smile teasingly, resting your palm on his face, feeling how hot it is (rly fucn hot)

you moved closer to him, your lips now really close to his neck h e c a n f e e l y o u r b r e a t h i n g o n h i s n e c k w h a t t h e f u c k r i c h a r d

just as you’re about to put your lips on his neck— “THE SEVEN MINUTES ARE UP!”

you pulled away with a teasing chuckle, kissing his cheek “that was nice we should do that again sometime,”

jisung

ah yes han jisung; a confident hot mess

so like he’s a cocky bastard but he’s also a babie who will die if you catch him off guard

the entire night he’s been hoping the bottle would land on you and he could get a chance to kiss you in the dark like he’s dreamt of doing for like the past 7 months

when he spun the bottle and it did land on you he deadass threw his fist in the air in victory (you went: °＿° )

jisung made sure to wink at you when you walked into the closest. (to like clarify: it wasn’t making you uncomfortable or anything you’re very good friends and joke like that all the time SDGHSJ)

the door close and jisung goes “just you and me, baby,” because he’s a little bitch who wants to kill you like that

(jisung; “we have all the time in the world”

you: “we only have seven minutes?????”)

he was being a little bitch and teased you so much just standing a little too close, touching you lightly, he's probably flirting with you but like whispering the words directly into your ear (it’s lowkey gross but jisungs hot so you don’t say anything sdghJkssgjss)

by this point (which is 5 minutes in) you’re a m e s s; face: hot ears: hot heart: beating way faster than what is considered healthy and jisung is just proud he made you this flustered

his hand is caressing your cheek so he can feel how hot it is that bitch

but like then felix yells “THERES 2 MINUTES LEFT!” and you’re like “haha what if i,,,,,teased the fuck out of this bitch boy,,,,,???? yeah i’m gonna do it

so you slowly take his hand from your face and intertwine your fingers and jisung is like haha???? what???? but you’re also a bitch so you don’t care

you run your fingers all over his biceps and telling him stuff like “jisungie, you’re so strong,” because you know what it does to him jisung has a praise kink

so obviously jisung flushes red but before he can get anymore flustered felix becomes his savior with his way too loud yell “THE SEVEN MINUTES ARE UP!”

felix

felix……….felix lee…….lee yongbok……. i lowkey think minho calls him yongbok because he finds it too difficult to pronounce felix lol

felix….. babie…………..felix…..shy..babie …….felix…..best boy……………….felix… owner of my heart……..

like i said in the other thingy felix is kinda hard to place because like yeah he’s babie but he’s also from down there where being called a cunt is a compliment

but most importantly he’s babie and a shy babie that is

okay when the bottle lands on you felix is already sweating bullets and he’s so so so so so scared you can smell it sdghsjs

he tries to keep distance in the closet and make space between the two of you (more for his sanity than yours)

he probably makes small talk (felix is definitely the type of person to talk about the weather with a stranger at a bus stop) asking you stuff like “how are you?” “anything interesting happen lately?” “do you know about my giant crush on you?” “yes”

you make the first move you move closer to him until he can feel you. you run your fingers through his hair to get him worked up

“your hair is so soft, lix,”

“t-th-thank-thank you, i s-stole the shampoo from hyunji-hyunjin”

you laugh slightly at that because can he get more adorable yes

you brush some hair out of his face with a teasing smile and felix is just like ready to die

you know about his crush on you seeing as he isn’t very good at keeping it a secret — the way he looks at you for a bit too long than everybody else and the way his cheeks turn red whenever you talk to him

he’s very obvious lol

you brushed your lips against his, hearing how his breath hitches. your arms around his neck playing with his hair because you’re mean ://

you keep brushing your lips against his and he is just ready to see the light if you don’t fucking press your lips against his completely- oh fuck are you actually gonna do it??!?!!!!!?????!!?????

your lips are so close to his. they’re touching but not pressed together now. oh my god oh my god oh my go-“THE SEVEN MINUTES ARE UP!”

seungmin

the dandiest boy yes

seungmin is a playful person even more so with his crush (aka u)

he’s always teasing you n calling you an idiot

now seungmin is a meanie and knows you have a crush on him and trust me babe he uses it to his full advantage (HE DOESNT TAKE ADVANTAGE OF YOU SCHFGJJDKS I MEAN LIKE HE TEASES YOU A LOT BECAUSE HE KNOWS IT MAKES YOU DIE SFSHSJS)

and trust me bois it’s even worse in a small closet

he closes the closet door after asking u if you’re ready for the dark because his mother raised him to be a gentleman

he makes sure to stand close beside you, his hand brushing against yours all the time it makes you want to hold his hand goddamnit seungmin !! let me hold your hand!!!!!!!!!

your breath get shaky when he moves you so you’re facing him instead of the inside of the door. he fucking Listen this bitch kim seungmin fucking begins running his fingers slowly and softly over your lipsssssjsjhsHhshwhaajHSHAHSHAJJAWJ

and you’re over here like (=･0･=) seungmin you bitch

he’s teasing you the entire time leaning close to you to see how flustered you look actually finally takes your hand holding it tightly in his making your heart go boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom what no i didn’t copy paste the lyrics

“you okay there, angel?”

t h a t b i t c h

“wh-what? y-y-ye-yeah im...im..im fine…. haha why- why wouldn’t -why wouldn’t i be…? haha…” no don’t make me flustered your so sexy aha

god he’s embarrassing you

he actually fucking actually peaks your lips to which you let out a small sqeak to which he fucking laughed at you that bitch

“THE SEVEN MINUTES ARE UP!”

jeongin

jeongin is the actual devil don’t be fooled by his cute face

aright so my boy jeongin is in love with you and have been for like 9 months

why doesn’t he confess you may ask and i’m gonna reply it’s because he’s a coward

he knows jisung hyunjin felix n seungmin planned for him to end up in the closet with u even before it happened

they were all up in his business before they left the dorm all like “make sure your lips aren’t chapped you may have to kiss someone wink wink” yes jisung did say wink wink out loud and shit like that

so when the bottle landed on you he couldn’t say he was surprised lol he did give the middle finger to the four as he walked into the closet

“so….what should we do for the next seven minutes?” he asked you, surprisingly calm he was surprised at how calm he sounded sfghdkshdk

i said surprised too much

despite how calm he sounded he wasn’t calm at all; his hands were sweatier than they had ever been and his heart was beating far to fast

he can barely look at you for too long without turning red as a tomato so imagine how he feels when he’s locked in a closet with you

“well we could do what they expect us to,”

oh you bitch

jeongin flushed red, ears and cheeks heating up to an alarming warmth like earth

“y-you me-mea-mean k-kiss-kiss?”

“hmm,” you confirmed, cupping his face making him go feral because of fuck oh fuck oh fuck oh fuck you’re so close to him oh fuck oh fuck

you do actually kiss lol — you slowly lean close to him giving him a chance to back away. you stop just before your lips touch

“we don’t have to,” you whisper.

H E C A N F E E L Y O U R B R E A T H O N H I S L I P S HELLO POLICE???

“i-i want...i want to…” and with that your lips are on his and his heart just goes AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

“THE SEVEN MINUTES ARE UP! YALL BETTER BE DATING!”

[loadingluke]

undefined

6 weeks post stage 3

Hey all, today I am 6 weeks post op stage 3.

Since my last update, I started to struggle with deflating the device. I started to notice that it felt like the device had twisted even more, and that the button was even further in my leg crease and borderline inaccessible. This all came to a head about a week ago, where I was stuck inflated for about an hour and was unable to completely deflate my device as normal and as I had previously. I emailed Dr Goossen and we decided to stop with the cycling as I was seeing him in a few days. I was really stressed that the deflate button was broken or something, and my anxiety proceeded to spiral to that point that just accepted that I will probably need to have another surgery to reposition the pump as the way it was was not really working, or worse, that I’d need my entire device replaced.

On Tuesday I had my 6 week post op checkup back in Brisbane, so I few up for the day. I went in with René and explained the situation, and I pumped up the device as normal. René then went to have a look and tried to deflate the device, and was also struggling. She said she had felt some scar tissue around the button (which is normal as scar tissue forms a capsule around the device as part of the natural healing) but this may be contributing to the issues I was having with deflation. After about 15 minutes of both of us trying our hardest to deflate the device we decided to just leave it until Dr Goossen could have a look.

When Goossen came in to have a look I explained our issues and braced myself as he is often not the most gentle (and I was a little raw from our 15 minutes of attempted deflation). He started to have a feel around the pump and then, like magic, deflated it with zero issues in 2 seconds. René and I both just stared at him amazed and dumbfounded as we have no idea how he managed it so easily when we had been on struggle street not even 5 minutes prior. I inflated the device again and he showed me exactly where to push and where the button was.

TURNS OUT. THIS ENTIRE TIME. I THOUGHT THE PUMP HAD TWISTED 90º TO THE LEFT, AND THAT THE BUTTON WAS IN MY LEG CREASE. WHEN ACTUALLY. THE DEVICE ROTATED TO THE RIGHT. AND THE BUTTON WAS ON THE FRONT, LITERALLY RIGHT THERE, EASY AS TO ACCESS. SO, this entire time, I had been pushing and prodding and squeezing my poor poor left nut in the complete wrong spot, and for no reason at all (see the attached video of the pump bulb to help explain this visually!).

I am assuming that during the earlier stages of healing when I was still a little swollen the button was being pressed even when I was putting pressure on the wrong side because it was able to press against the swelling, but as that has gone down the lack of resistance meant that the pressure on the wrong side wasn’t enough to deflate the device, which is why one day what was working fine suddenly wasn’t sufficient. Either way, once this was all clarified, I had no issue. I deflated and inflated about 4 times to make sure, and then sheepishly thanked Goossen for tolerating my ineptitude. Since then, the pump has been working completely perfectly, and the button is actually super easy to press. So there we go. I stressed out for no reason and all is well😂

Once that was all fixed up, Goossen and I had a little chat about what happens from here. I was given the blessing to go ahead to have sex once I hit 8 weeks, and he told me that he was very happy with how I’ve healed and that I have a beautiful penis (to which I replied with ‘thank you…literally thank you’ 😂). I’ve also been cleared to go back to the gym as of 6 weeks (gently at first of course!) and have been given instructions to continue cycling the device daily until I’m about 6 months post op. We’ve arranged to have a Skype check up in about 10 weeks, and then I’ll pop back up to Brisbane for hopefully my final sign off in the end of July, also around 6 months post op. Hearing that was honestly a tad overwhelming, it’s really hard to believe that I’m all done and that I don’t have to keep coming back, and honestly a little bit of sadness that I’ll not have much of a reason to see Goossen again once I’m all settled- he’s honestly an amazing surgeon and I think I’ll honestly miss him haha.

I did mention that I was concerned about my testicular implant and that aesthetically it’s still sitting a little too high for my liking right now. We’ve decided to not worry about it yet as 1) there is still a lot of swelling and 2) there is still a chance I’ll be able to yank it down over time. He said we can discuss it in July if it’s still something I’m unhappy about, but he was a little hesitant to surgically intervene unless I really insist- as this would require replacing the implant and could pose an infection risk/ could compromise the erectile device and probably wouldn’t be worth the risk. I decided to just keep tugging and then in July if it’s still an issue we can discuss it again then. He seemed optimistic that with some determination and patience that I should be able to shift it, so I’ll keep working on that.

I’m honestly still a little bewildered and shocked that this is all nearly over, after years of waiting to be at this point. Some days I catch myself thinking about and dreading having stage one, only to remember that I’ve already done it and I don’t ever have to do it again. I feel so blessed and happy I made it here, and I’m excited to move forward with my life without having my body holding me back. I’d just like to say thanks to everyone in here for being respectful and supporting me over the last 2 or so years during this process. All the kind words and support have meant a lot and I’ve appreciated it loads.

That’s all I’ve got to say for now, so far so good. I might be a little quiet now that I’m healed up and done with all my surgeries (at least for the time being) but as usual I’m happy to answer questions, and I will of course update if anything of note happens. Until next time 👍

[jising-jisang-jisung]

Truth or Dare | Kim Seungmin

Genre: fluff

Word count: 1.9k

A/n: hi I did this instead of everything else I was supposed to do and I think it's really cute and I love Seungmin and I hope you like it

"Cmon y/n, when will you confess to Seungmin?" Your friend, Kate taunted you again. She has been on your case ever since you filled her in on your little crush. She only knows that you've liked him since freshman year, but really it's been since like 7th grade. "It's senior year, what's the worst that could happen if you confess? You move away in a few months and never have to experience the awkwardness of seeing each other everyday? How awful." You don't laugh at her joke, so Kate takes that as a sign that it's time to change the subject. "Well, yknow how my birthday is in like 2 weeks. My mom is letting me have a party with my friends and she won't even have to be there to supervise. Since I'll be an adult and all!" She emphasizes adult as if being 18 suddenly makes her mature.

"Sounds great, Kate," you rhyme. You're hardly paying attention because something, or rather someone, caught your attention. "I'll see you after class," and then you're off to math while Kate had biology. She definitely noticed how hard you were staring at Seungmin while she was talking with you. Of course, you know nothing of what's to come.

~

"Hey! Felix!"

"What's up, Kate?" Felix was friends with Seungmin and some other boys. He also tended to be seen with Kate. Most people just assumed they were dating, and maybe they were, not even they know for sure.

"I'm having a birthday party next weekend and you and your friends are invited! Especially Seungmin." She adds a wink with the last statement.

"Will Miss y/n be there?"

"Of course. Why do you think I'm specifying for Seungmin?"

"It's so painfully obvious that he likes her so why can't he make a move already?!"

"Y/n is no different," Kate admits. "That's why I have a plan."

~

"H-hey y/n, " Seungmin stutters as he sits in his seat next to you.

"Oh, hi," you manage to reply, blush evident throughout your face.

"Um, did you get number 27 on the homework? I was super confused."

"Yeah, the equation for that one is different than the others because..." you explained the concept to Seungmin while he stared at your face unbeknownst to you. "Does that make sense?"

"Yes. I get it now!" He smiles and you actually die. You caught a glance at his homework to see number 27 done correctly but you were to affected by his smile to put two and two together.

~

All the days seemed to be same, passing by until it was finally Kate's birthday party. Obviously you went super early to help her set up. There was no alcohol allowed since her mom said she would let her throw it all by herself under that one condition, not that Kate would ever underage drink anyway we are good children here.

Kate left to answer the door as you pulled some cookies out of the oven. "Kate! Happy birthday!" You heard Felix's voice ring through the entryway. You weren't surprised she invited him, but then you heard more voices.

"Your house looks really nice."

"Happy birthday, Kate."

"Where should I put this gift?" Your eyes widened. You could recognize that voice anywhere.

"Kate! Can you come here for a moment?" You shouted for her.

"What's up, buttercup? Are the cookies okay?"

"I can't believe you invited Seungmin. Bro, I thought we were cool." You overreacted.

"Chill, y/n, all his friends are here, along with our friends. There's so many people, don't even worry about it." She tries to reassure you.

"Well... do I at least look okay?" You ask shyly.

"Look fine to me." You jump at the boy's voice. "But I suppose I'm not the one you want to look good for."

"Jisung, you scared the crap out of me," Kate smiles as you nearly died of embarrassment. Had he heard your whole conversation?

"No. Only the last part." He answers. It's only then that you realize you asked that out loud. You face palmed with bright red cheeks as more boys filed into the kitchen.

~

"Now that everyone is here, let's get this party started!" Kate announces as she turns on some speakers and blasts some upbeat music. She and Felix dance on the coffee table while everyone else is jumping around on the couches and dancing on the floor. The mess of people was starting to become overwhelming when you felt someone push you from behind. Unluckily, you fell directly into Seungmin's arms.

"Wow. Falling for me this early in the night. I hate to say I'm not surprised, y/n," Seungmin says in a low tone. "I'm just kidding," he quickly adds when he sees your eyes bulging out of your head.

"Oh, yeah. Right! Haha! So sorry I fell into you. There are so many people."

"Since I have you here, wanna dance?" He smiles again. How could anyone say no to his perfect smile?

"I'm sorry what was that?" He looks confused, like a puppy.

"I said yes!" You lie trying to cover up your thoughts that you must've spoken out loud, again. You and Seungmin begin to jump around, laughing. Kate gives you a knowing look which you return with a glare. Little did you know Felix and Seungmin were in the same boat.

~

"What else do you have planned?" Felix asks sounding very rehearsed.

"Hmm. Why don't we play truth or dare?!" Kate suggests. That was not on the schedule you had for the night's events. You knew something bad was going to happen when Kate smiled your way.

Everyone sat criss cross applesauce in a circle and Jisung volunteered to start. "Minho, truth or dare?"

"Dare." The boy responds with a brave look in his eye.

"I dare you to," he pauses, thinking of something good, "do a sexy dance for everyone."

"Pff. Okay." Minho continues to grind on the ground, not minding the looks he's getting at all. In fact, Jisung had to stop him, because it was getting too out of hand too quickly.

"I didn't dare you to strip, MinHOE!"

"Whatever, you know you liked it," he teased back. "Hmm let's see. Kate, truth or dare?"

"Uh, I'll pick truth."

"Do you like Felix?"

She furrows her eyebrows together, looking confused. "Felix and I are dating. So, to clarify, yes I like him very much." Everyone is so lost as to how they hadn't known that the two were official. I mean, y'all obviously could see that they liked each other duh. "Felix, truth or dare?"

"Dare." He adds a wink to Kate.

"I dare you to kiss me." The crowd shouts a bunch of ews and grosses as Felix briefly pecks Kate's lips.

He turns to Seungmin with a devilish look. "Seungmin, truth or dare?"

He must not have been paying attention yeah cuz he was admiring you face again whore because he is completely oblivious to the grin on Felix's face right now. "Why not? Dare."

"I dare you to kiss y/n" Felix sticks his tongue out at Seungmin as everyone turns to look at you. You tried so hard to keep your face from looking like a tomato but you knew it was no use. Seungmin gulped as he stared at you.

"I- I can't." His words made you frown without thinking. "Y/n, should have a say in this too. I can't just kiss her without her consent," he elaborates.

"Fine then," Felix speaks again. "I dare you to go up to Kate's room alone with y/n. Anything you two might do in there is all up to both of your consents." Felix smirks at you and then back to Seungmin. You both kept eye contact as you stood to head to your friend's bedroom. There were lots of hoots and hollers following you two as you made your way up the stairs with faces painted with crimson shades.

~

You both sat on Kate's bed. You face was on fire even more now because he was so close. When I mean close,, like your legs were nearly /touching/. And you can't handle being so /close/ to your big phat crush. However, the feeling seemed somewhat mutual for Seungmin.

"Do you like me?" You squeaked out. It was completely random and Seungmin even flinched slightly at the sound of your voice.

"..." the boy stayed silent and you refused to meet his gaze.

"ohmygosh that was so rude of me to just ask. I'm sorry. Just forget I said anything." You began to get up to walk away when he grabbed your wrist.

"Do you- like me?"

"..." it was your turn to mimick the silence you'd not heard moments earlier.

"Did we both not say anything for the same reason?" You opened your mouth to respond when the door opened, revealing Jeongin.

"I was told to come make sure you two weren't doing anything," he narrows his eyes on Seungmin, "gross." You both sat there like deer in head lights. Jeongin looked at your hand and then back at Seungmin. You hadn't noticed that Seungmin's and your pinkies had been laced until Jeongin's judgy stare pointed it out. "Also, you are both welcome to rejoin the party." The younger boy smiled and walked back down the stairs without a care in the world.

~

"Wow look who's back," Jisung announced. "You two didn't have too much fun did you?"

"Don't be icky!" Jeongin defended you. "They weren't even talking to one another when I walked in. But- they were basically holding hands!"

"Not true! He's lying!" Seungmin shouts back. You laugh, looking down to see that you, in fact still had your pinkies intertwined. You broke away and returned to your seat to continue the game.

"Anyway, it's my turn," Hyunjin claims. "Seungmin, truth or dare?"

"Me already again?" He looks a bit freaked out before taking a breath and choosing, "truth."

"Wrong choice, buddy. Do you like y/n?"

He makes deliberate eye contact with you as he answers the question. "Yes. Y/n, pick truth."

"Truth." Everything was happening so quick, you didn't have time to react to what Seungmin was even saying before you responded.

"Do I have your consent this time?" It took a moment for you to figure out what he meant. When you put together that he was asking if he could kiss you, you shook your head quickly. He wasted no time before softly pressing his lips to yours. They were sweet like honey and warm and soft and you thought you could get lost in the moment forever. That is, until he pulled away. It was much to soon for your liking, until you remembered where you were. You both looked around to see everyone's jaws dropped in shock. You timidly smiled and your friends began to cheer. They were soon followed by Seungmin's friends screaming, Jeongin in particular.

Needless to say, you remember very little of what happened after that moment at the party. All you do know is that your friends set you up and Seungmin's friends set him up and now you two are in love. Senior year sure was going to be interesting.

[the-observant-frisbeetarian]

Chapter 1 - Tapped Out

Catch Perfect by George deValier

CHAPTER ONE

TAPPED OUT: A player who has lost all of his money.

Berwald drove slowly down the narrow residential road. Situated behind the university, it was a colourful, ramshackle sort of a street, obviously inhabited mainly by students. The houses were large, slightly dilapidated, many with evidence of renovations half completed then forgotten. The cars in the driveways looked old and run down. An inordinate amount of people were hanging around outside, talking over fences and strolling the footpaths; Berwald could hear the racket of people shouting and music blaring even from inside his car.

Berwald scanned the numbers of the houses he passed. He was not exactly excited about moving into a share house - in fact he was dreading it - but after his last disastrous game he didn't have much of a choice. Having lost everything, and now completely broke, he had five days to move out of his apartment. So when he'd spotted the ad for a 'Gay-friendly, Scandinavian Housemate' in the student paper he'd figured that, although a bit strange, it was probably his best option. He was a bit apprehensive, though, based on the phone call he'd made.

"Hello?" A bored voice answered after three rings.

"Hi. Callin' 'bout the ad."

"Excuse me?"

"The ad, in th'paper."

"Oh right, right. ICELAND!" Berwald winced as the voice shouted in his ear. "PHONE FOR YOU!"

A few seconds later. "Hello?"

"I… hi. Callin' 'bout the ad."

"'kay big boy, so it's ten bucks for the first five minutes, twenty every five after that, it'll be extra if you're after anything too kinky. You got the PayPal info there?"

"Er… um. The ad 'bout th'housemate."

"Oh, for Christ's sake… NORWAY YOU IDIOT HE'S CALLING ABOUT THE HOUSEMATE WANTED AD!"

A few seconds later the original voice came back on the line. "You can come look at the place tomorrow. Number 58. You'll know it when you see it."

Berwald did not have a chance to respond before the line went dead.

Coming back to the present, Berwald slowed down as some students kicked a soccer ball down the street and nearly ran in front of his car. He gritted his teeth in annoyance… some people deserved to get run over. The students waved a halfhearted apology and ran off the road into a group converging on a front lawn. Berwald nearly swerved off the road… was that blond guy naked?

He was just gaining control of the car when he saw it - an enormous Danish flag flying in front of a two-story house. Now he knew what they'd meant by knowing it when he saw it. He pulled into the driveway of number 58, parking behind a battered old Volvo. Steeling himself, and still wondering if he was doing the right thing, Berwald got out of the car and walked to the front door.

He was interrupted mid-knock as a tall, blond man brandishing a beer can threw open the door. "Yeah what?" he shouted.

"Here 'bout the ad," said Berwald, taken aback.

The man stood a bit taller and narrowed his eyes. "Which one?"

"Stud'nt paper."

"What?"

"Stud'nt paper," Berwald repeated a little louder.

"Aaah…" The blond instantly relaxed. "Let's see, that was the ad for the housemate… you gay friendly?"

Berwald wasn't actually quite sure what that meant. He'd never given much thought to his own sexuality, but he wasn't bothered by anyone else's, so he nodded. "Sure."

"Scandinavian?"

Berwald nodded again. "Swedish."

The man's eyes lit up worryingly. "The last piece of the map arrives! Come on in, Sweden. We've been waiting."

Berwald stepped warily through the door and was immediately hit by the strong smell of smoke and air freshener. He glanced cautiously around the large, open house. Some trash-laden couches and scattered beanbags centred around a TV to the left; a young man in a blue beret sat reading at a large dining table to the right. He didn't look up.

"Want a beer?" asked the loud blond, opening a small fridge in the corner of the room. It was surrounded by plastic crates, bottles both full and empty, and plastic cups. Berwald shook his head but the man tossed him a can anyway. "Haven't seen you around campus," he continued after taking a swig from his own can. "What are you studying?"

Berwald had been dreading this part of the conversation. "M'not a student."

"You work there?"

Berwald nodded and hoped he would leave it at that. No such luck.

"You're not a professor, are you?"

"No." Berwald discreetly placed the beer can in a dead pot plant. "Gard'ner."

There was a silence as the blond stared at him. Berwald stared back.

"Huh."

Actually, that was a far better reaction than Berwald was used to.

"I'm Denmark."

"Denm'rk?"

"You're kind of hard to understand, man."

Berwald shrugged. He was used to hearing that, although he wasn't sure why. He'd worked hard to get rid of his accent.

Denmark broke into a grin and laughed loudly. "Sweden, you're all right. You don't talk much, and I like that. When can you move in?"

Berwald just stared. He wasn't good with words at the best of times, and this certainly wasn't one of those.

"Let me show you around the place." Denmark casually threw his arm around Berwald's shoulder, and Berwald fought the instinct to throw it off. Denmark led him to the dining table first. "This is my sugar plum, Norway. Isn't he the sweetest thing you've ever seen?" Denmark ruffled Norway's beret.

"Don't touch me," Norway growled. He did not look up from his book: The Stranger by Albert Camus.

Denmark giggled and pinched Norway's cheek. "Yes you are just the sweetest, cutest little pixie in all of Scandinavia you are!"

"I am going to kill you one day."

"Hehe, silly little Norge."

Berwald blinked in surprise. He was starting to wonder about Denmark's mental wellbeing – and what was with the names?

"And here we have the living room," Denmark continued, steering Berwald over to the circle of couches. What Berwald had taken for a large pile of rubbish was actually two guys, asleep, covered in cushions, fast food wrappers, and empty bottles. "This is Faeroe, and this is Greenland."

"My name's Mike," came a muffled voice from beneath a cushion.

"Shut up, Greenland. Now Sweden, as my newest subject you have last choice in the television viewing schedule. If you wish to view a program, you must submit the title and time of the show, in writing, at least one week prior to its airtime. Please also include a brief summary of its content and why you…"

"Don't watch much TV," Berwald interrupted quickly.

"Ah. Well there you go. Study's through the back there, and the kitchen is right through here…"

It was obvious by this stage that Berwald should just leave. He didn't really get people. He didn't particularly like people. And any person choosing to live with this 'Denmark' had to be either perpetually drunk or a little insane. Being students, possibly both. He tried to protest as Denmark steered him into the kitchen. "Look, th'nks, but think I might…"

"Finland!" cried Denmark cheerfully. "When did you get home?"

The young man in the kitchen glanced up as he shut the fridge. "Hey, Den. I just came in through the back."

"Sweden, this is Finland."

Berwald's heart suddenly, unexpectedly, filled his chest. The instant their eyes met, Finland blinked his away, stepping back to grip the counter behind him. He stared intently at his feet, as though they were the most interesting thing he'd ever seen. He had two different shoes on. Berwald couldn't breathe.

"Finland, meet Sweden, our new housemate." Denmark's voice sounded muffled and far away.

Berwald opened his mouth to speak, but his throat was dry. He coughed a few times before finally managing to say, "'t's B'rw'ld."

"It's what?"

"It's Berwald," Finland clarified, still staring at his feet, his light blond hair falling in his eyes. Berwald had seen them only briefly, and thought they were blue. Or green. Or hazel.

"What's Berwald?"

"He's Berwald!"

"No, Fin, he's Sweden."

Finland just shook his head. He was wearing the ugliest sweater Berwald had ever seen. It had a moose on it. "It's very nice to meet you, Berwald. My name is Tino."

Tino. Berwald almost spoke it aloud… Tino. What a wonderful name. Shy Tino. Blue or green or hazel eyed Tino. Tino, whose shoes did not match.

Denmark swung himself up to sit on the bench and patted Tino on the shoulder. "Great to see you're getting along with your new roommate."

Berwald felt his brain cease functioning at this point. "Roommate?"

"Yeah, look, I know we advertised another room but you know how these things go." Denmark shrugged and took a gulp from his beer can. "Decided we needed it for the twister mat."

"He's moving into my room?!" Tino spluttered, recoiling from Denmark's hand. "You never even asked me!"

Denmark raised the hand placatingly. "Hey hey, it's all good Fin, we moved some of your stuff today to make space. Found your stack of porn under the bedside table. Kinky stuff." He winked.

Tino turned red. "Huh… that's not…" He looked straight at Berwald, eyes wide and panicked and… violet. Violet eyed Tino. "I don't have…"

"Haha, just kidding, this kid's innocent as they come, I swear." Denmark dropped back to his feet and charged, face suddenly inches from Berwald's own. Berwald did not blink. "Which is why you're NOT staying in his room. Well, not exactly. We've rigged you up a little alcove upstairs. I'm sure you'll be completely comfortable."

Berwald contemplated the situation. There were guys passed out on the couch, a psychopath reading existential philosophy in the dining room, and this 'Denmark' was quite possibly certifiably insane. Then Berwald looked at shy, badly dressed, violet eyed Tino, and he could only nod. He wasn't going anywhere. "Sounds good t'me."

.

Next Chapter

Disclaimer: This story belongs to George deValier. Hetalia belongs to Hidekaz Himaruya. I own nothing.

[dragonindigo245]

Project [REDACTED]

Heyo!!! This is a WIP story I'm doing with the amazing @pawton-meowity! Hope you enjoy! The odd numbered chapters will be posted on their Tumblr while the even ones will be on mine. Feel free to request to be added to the tag list for updates! Thanks! 💙🖤💙

Tw: Remus being Remus, blood

————

Chapter 6: P.O.V of Remus

“Oh! Remus! Heya kiddo!”

I turned my attention away from my fidget cube and turned my head towards the voice. Patton was next to the bench I was sprawled across with a smile on his face.

“Hey Daddy-o! I assumed you would be in your classes learning about all the ways you can kill someone!” I cheerfully replied. He made a noise of discomfort and sat at the end of the bench I didn’t take up.

“Well I was in class learning about how to HELP people but it let out early. I have around ten to fifteen minutes to hang out.”

“You know you’ll have to teach me about weak points and stuff. It is rather interesting. You could probably kill someone in a hundred different ways!!!”

Thunk.

“The fuck?!?” I exclaimed. Patton was probably thinking the same thing without the colorful language.

I didn’t have to wonder for long until a fucking bird flopped down on my head. The odds of that had to be ridiculously low.

Patton screamed and jumped up, freaking out about the bird. Honestly what was the big deal even? It’s a bird?? Actually… we could make it a rotisserie bird...

“OH MY GOODNESS GRACIOUS WHAT THE FUDGE STRIPE?!?” Patton finally managed to say. Good to know he can say actual words again.

“I know! We’re so lucky to have a bird land on me!” I said while grabbing the bird from the tip of its wing. It screeched, unfortunately not dead yet, and wiggled around.

“REMUS! DON’T JUST HOLD IT LIKE THAT!” Patton scolded. He took the bird from my clutches and held it like a puppy.

“Aww but Patton! I want it!”

“Then you should learn to take care of a bird before you get one!”

“What? I already know how to prepare it. It needs to be dead fi-”

“YOU WANT TO EAT THE BABY?!?”

“Yes?”

Patton stared at me in shock. Okay… that’s fair. Patton dismissed it with a sigh and turned his attention to the bird. It was a little brown feathered bird that left its feathers all over the place in distress. Shame… could have made a good meal.

“Well if you’re not going to eat it then what’s the point?” I rebutted.

He sighed again and held the bird close to his chest. “Help it, obviously!” Patton said with a small smile.

He reached for his right sleeve but his fingers didn’t quite make it before I sprang forward.

“Don’t risk it on a bird you idiot!” I said in a low and threatening voice. He didn’t seem to have a visual reaction to my threat besides looking back at the bird.

“But Remus! It’s a hurt little robin! I know I don’t have a grip on my po-”

“Don’t talk about it either you fucking moron! What did we say about their eyes being everywhere?” I growled.

I must have shifted slightly because my position from when I sprang forward because I fell off the bench with a yelp of surprise. I hit the concrete mostly unharmed but on the way down I bit my tongue hard. Why does this only happen to me?

“Excuse me gentlemen.” Welp that cut me out of the picture. Whoever that is isn’t talking to me.

“Oh! Hello… sir!” Patton nervously answered. Okay maybe they were talking to us.

I looked up before flinging myself backwards. A burn bro. They eyed me before turning to Patton.

“I didn’t mean to intrude but you said something about risking something on a bird? What did you mean by that?” They asked casually like they weren’t here to kidnap Patton.

“He meant wasting his time asshole. Stop sneaking around like a Scooby Doo villain.” I spat.

“Hey R... shut the fuck up. You are of no use with your mush for brains.” They growled back.

“Whoa hey can we just calm down? Surely we can just have a calm, quiet conversation?” Patton attempted.

The guy cleared his throat and nodded. “Ah yes. My apologies. That was highly unprofessional of me. May I ask what the risk was in helping the bird?”

Patton smiled an extremely fake smile and shrugged. “Oh well there’s absolutely no risk whatsoever. It’s just a bird that we are going to help very normally.” What in the god damn fuck Patton. You have single handedly screwed us.

“Mhm… say may I ask your first and last name?” They asked.

Fuck. Damn. Shit. Ass.

“Uhhh welllllll… my name is…. Burnnnnnnnnnnie Robinnnnnnson. Burnie Robinson.”

“Are you sure about that?”

“ABSOLUTELY! A hundred and one percent!!! Burnie Moral Robinson at your service!”

What. The. Fuck.

“Okay… Burnie. Where is your dorms?”

“I’M NOT ALLOWED TO ANSWER THAT Haha! You see here it’s kinda private information and I SURE AS HEAVEN DON’T KNOW YOU!!! Stranger danger and all that!!”

“Okay that’s fair… have a good afternoon Burnie.”

Holy shit that worked. OH MY SATAN THAT WORKED!!!!

The burn bro walked away suspiciously BUT STILL WALKED AWAY!!

“Oh my goodness that worked…” Patton said baffled. “I got away with that? I actually got away with that.”

“Yeah you did for now! You have landed us in hot water! They are going to keep asking you questions until they get who they’re looking for! All for a BIRD!”

“... but it’s a baby…”

I groaned and put a hand up to my mouth, remembering the blood still floating around in there.

“It’s not a baby. Babies are little gross mini humans. That is a feathered, walking lump of meat. How are you even attached to it?”

“Because it’s CUTE!”

I spat out a bit of blood from my mouth so I could reply but Patton screamed once more.

“OH MY GOODNESS YOU'RE BLEEDING?!? ARE YOU OKAY?!?” He screamed out.

“Wait someone’s bleeding?” Logan yelled from behind me. He was far away from us still but within hearing distance.

I sighed and grabbed my fidget cube that was now on the floor. “I’m fine. I cannot understand how you two are so… considerate. HEY! You two should pork!!!” I exclaimed.

Logan and Patton exchanged looks of confusion.

“What does protein have to do with a person’s well being? Logan said while joining his side.

“Protein is an important factor in a diet, you know that Logan.” Patton chimed in, “But cows are too cute to eat!”

“Yes Patton, we all know you’re vegetarian, but pork is a pig based product, not a cow based product…” Logan sighed.

“PIGS ARE CUTE TOO!” Patton exclaimed. I shook my head as the two glasses gays were totally missing the context of my joke.

“You two are so innocent… I meant you should TOTALLY FUCK.” When I clarified my original statement’s meaning, the two stared at me for a moment. Logan’s face showed slight shock but mostly confusion, while Patton went red as the blood I just spat onto the ground. Patton couldn’t make eye contact with either of us but after a moment, Logan was able to regain his composure and fix his glasses.

“Remus… I don’t believe that is how an optimal courtship should be conducted. Not that I have much experience in that department… but I assume you don’t either if that is how you approach people.”

“Oh, so you’re a virgin,” I cackled, then looked back at Patton and his bird, “then I assume you are too?”

Patton said nothing, just gently pet the bird.

“Patton, just ignore him.” Logan sighed, rolling his eyes at me.

“Okay… that sounds like… like a good plan. I’ll see you later Logy…” Patton squeaked and hurried off, the bird still clutched in his hands.

Now all that remained was the fucking nerd. Nah he’s boring. I’m getting outta here.

“Welp goodbye glasses gay! Enjoy your night with Patton!” I winked with the last word and ran off, leaving a Windows error in Logan’s place.

I skipped off to go back inside the college however the halls were flooded. Trying to find the others would be like trying to find a needle in a haystack. Good thing I found a needle in a haystack before.

I pulled open the door and inserted myself into the crowds of people. Most of the students were polite and didn’t do what I did… push my way around people. I didn’t slide by anyone but straight up, or as Logan and Patton should do, gay up, decided to ram into them. Most people flung themselves out of my path as best as they could at least.

I spotted the top of Virgil’s purple hair and ducked around to reach him. He was close to the bathrooms so that helps our situation.

I reached him and before Virgil had a say in the matter I pulled him into the bathrooms. Surprisingly, nobody was in here besides us two.

“What the fuck Remus?” Virgil asked colorfully.

“Shush! This is important! They’re here!”

“Jesus Christ Remus, you don’t mean-”

“Yup. Burn bro. Patton and I just had a run in. By the way, don’t ever ask Patton to lie about anything.”

“Okay cool. Can we get back to the part where THEY are HERE on SCHOOL GROUNDS?!? What even happened? Wait are you bleeding?”

“Why is everyone obsessing over that? I’m fine! Just hit the pavement.”

“So they didn’t hit you… right? I swear to god they better not have.”

“No! All they did was almost catch Patton-”

“THEY FUCKING WHAT?!? ALREADY?!?”

“Yup. That’s a downside. They are skeptical at least. Hey at least Patton’s in danger and not already captured!”

“You say that like it’s a good thing! Jesus fucking Christ I need to get to Patton!”

Before I could say anything else Virgil ran out of the bathrooms.

[wickednerdery]

Title: A Dance with Death Author: @wickednerdery Fandom: The Night Manager Pairing/character: Jonathan Pine/Female Assassin Rating: Teen Summary: “You have five questions.” Notes: Death is not her name nor is she meant to be Death literally. The masterlist is here. This one only took me forever, right? Well, better late than never, I suppose. Bless whoever still actually reads this, LOL!! It picks up a few weeks, maybe a month, after the last and is, surprisingly, pretty tame really...there’s a bit of mature discussions happening, but otherwise not much honestly..consistency dictates a “Read More” though.

“Why here?” Pine asks, eyes warily scanning the café for answers as much as threats. He expected her to trick him into a murder, his own or another’s. He expected her to simply not show, have it all be a laugh at his expense, but as ever Death delivers him what he least expects: herself.

Sitting at a small table with cup of coffee and two biscuits; ruby lips lift, curl, but teeth remain politely hidden. “I like it here.” Simple, straightforward, and utterly confusing to Jonathan. “Isn’t that what people do? Share things they like with one another?” The smile leaves. “Sit.”

If he didn’t know any better, he’d think her offended. But she doesn’t get offended. She doesn’t get hurt beyond the physical. She doesn’t care enough to. ...He sits. “Why do you like it?”

“Fond memories.”

“Meaning?”

She smiles softly, goes to sip. “When I first started, I used to come here after each success.” The sip is taken, cup set down. “I’ve always been successful.”

Pine reads between the lines. “But you don’t come here anymore.”

“It’s not as safe.”

“You’re known.”

Death’s only reply is a smile as she takes a biscuit, pushes the other in his direction. “Don’t worry, it’s not poisoned.” Seeing his hesitation alone makes her giggle. “I need you very much alive and conscious for what I have planned next.”

“Which is?”

“Eat the fucking cookie, Pine.”

His smile is in remembering Angela’s similar order years ago; his obedience is same as before, an attempt to placate. “What have you planned?”

She rests back, sipping coffee. “You have five questions.” Smiles. “I’ll be honest.” Smirks. “Don’t get too smart.”

Impulse to ask for clarification is swallowed in case she declares it one of five; he runs through his options. “Tell me about the scar on your stomach.”

“That’s not a question.”

“How did you get it?”

“Another girl thought I was pregnant by her boyfriend so she tried to gut me.” 


“How old were you?”

“16...maybe 15...” It’s so hard to remember anymore.

“Were you?”

“Not by him.” The reply oozes dark amusement, but Pine only senses a strange sense of loss.

“You have children?”

“No.” The sharp tone causes Jonathan to stop a moment, then he opens his mouth again and she cuts him off. “You have one more question.”

He knows better than to argue. “Why me?”

Death smiles wide in her usual, tauntingly playful, way. “Roeper.”

Pine stares displeasure at the subpar answer, but doesn’t ask her to clarify.

She throws him a proverbial bone. “When I heard his little empire fell I thought, surely, it would be at the hands of those Jason Bourne or James Bond types. You know, the typical George Smiley super spy, chessmaster, with all the latest gadgets.” The giggle’s short, she leans towards him. “Then I hear it’s some hotel manager with little more than a few apps on a spare mobile phone. I was impressed...intrigued.”

“This is all some sort of...courting to you?” Tone vacillates between confusion and irritation.

“I’m sorry, the Q and A portion of this meeting is over.” She slips from the booth, looks down so softly it unnerves. “It’s my turn.”

He feels like prey, swallows hard.

“Get up.”

He does, stays perfectly still as she takes his hand.

“Dance with me.”

“I...” he’s pulled from tables, hands placed where she wants them on her body. “This isn’t a place for dancing.”

“It is if you dance.”

There’s no music, Death sways to the song in her head. She hums it softly, leads Jonathan into it through her body, and soon they move as one. This close, without the mess of sweat and blood and sex, he realizes she smells more like gunpowder and chocolate. He’s never considered the mix, yet breathes it in like an intoxicant.

Her hand slides to his hip, then around, up to cling as if trying to attach to him. Not a predator, but a parasite. Trying to become a person by feeding off his humanity. When he moves their hands to his heart she feels the fast, steady, pace with a faint smile. His heart betrays his steady hands and sure footing.

“You’re good at this.” It’s a hot breath against her cheek.

“Dancing?”

“Pretending.”

Right, so a rather short piece, but that’s all they had to say about this encounter, haha! Given what they’re saying about the next one, the following piece may be longer. Somehow - while they still wanna shag the hell outta each other - they’ve moved beyond strictly sex into...whatever the hell this is gonna be, haha! On the plus, expected events can be fun and throw gasoline on the creative fire!! :D  (George Smiley is another John le Carré spy character - I don’t know myself if Death’s referring to him as if he were real or a character.) Thanks to whoever was patient and still interested enough to read this, LOL!!

(Gif found from Google!)

Tagging Who Might Care/Asked to be tagged in ALL the Tom fics: @sleepless-nights-with-your-king @chibiyanai, @my-world-of-imagines @lokilvrr @rizzo87 @tarithenurse @creedslove​ @wadeyouwitch @annievvv7 @cassadius @lady-crowned-with-stars @moonfaery @wintertink @holykryptonitekitten @musiclovertjeever @ultrarebelheart @lukeevansandjdmobession …If I forgot anyone, I’m sorry, I really need to make a tags masterlist or something, lol! (Strike-throughs are those Tumblr wouldn’t allow proper tagging of.)

[thestormfall]

Everything about Beat today was a little too much. [TSoS 2019: Hexa-Code Kernel]

----

Characters: Daisukenojo ‘Beat’ Bito &  Neku Sakuraba 

Wordcount:  2,677

Also on Ao3

hohoho I’ve finally written fanfic again. Gotta give some fanfic love to my fave Beat. feel free to read it there and leave a review if you enjoy it haha  

or just here, under the cut.

03/07 10:00AM

- yo, Phones! you free today? lets hang out!

- Sorry, I can't today, I'm kind of busy.

- thats cool

03/09 10:20AM

- man, the weathers sick today! cmon Ill go teach you that move I was talking about

- Can't do today either, Beat. Family stuff.

- No probs man

03/10 09:00AM

- so Doi is doing a special lunch menu today wanna go?

- I've already got lunch plans, sorry

- issokay man

- How about later? We can hang in the park after I'm done with lunch?

- yeah! aight Ill see you later.

xx

Of No Envy

Neku wasn't great at skateboarding but he didn't think that he was terrible. At the very least, after two years of being taught by Beat, he thought he would end up being decent. The unconcealed impish grins of a group of middle-school kids told him otherwise, though. Yeah, yeah laugh it up.

On the other hand, Beat was practising a few tricks that made the kids forget all about him. One of them even clapped. Yeah, Neku wasn't going to manage to do that. He couldn't even remember what it was called.

He resigned to heading towards their resting spot at the top of the skating bowl, leaning against one of the slim trees. Neku wiped the sweat off his neck using his wristband. He always exerted a lot of energy skating with Beat. With him, no matter how idle Neku might have wanted to be, Beat simply dragged him along. Not that he minded, of course.

"Phones, did you see that?" Beat skated up to him, hopping off his board and landing perfectly on the spot next to Neku, catching his board with one hand. For someone so brash, it was almost comical how smooth he was with his skateboard. "Been trying to land that nollie laser for a month!" So that's what it was called. "Gotta see if I can do it again!"

"I'm sure you will."

Beat settled down beside him, crossed leg. "Put 'em here!" He held up a fist, awaiting eagerly.

"Haha, good job." Neku returned the gesture, noting how Beat seemed pretty satisfied with himself today. "So, what? Was that what you wanted to show me all week?"

"Nah, didntcha hear me? That's the first time I've done it." He nudged Neku with his shoulder. "Had a feelin' I wouldn't get it 'till I had you around."

"Oh please, you would have got it eventually. Don't think I know anyone more stubborn than you."

"Thanks, Phones!"

Neku wanted to tell Beat that it wasn't usually meant to be a compliment…but he supposed that in this case, it was. He grabbed his water bottle, poking Beat in the cheek with it. "Want some?"

"Bwaaaah! Phones, that's cold!" Though he said that, Beat took the drink, gulping it down.

"Beat. What's wrong?"

This caused Beat to spit out about half his drink. "Huh? What d'ya mean? There ain't anythin' wrong?"

"Judging how you spit out enough water to keep all the trees in Miyashita Park hydrated, I'd argue otherwise."

His friend opened his mouth, then closed it again. A few times.

"Beat. What's wrong?" He repeated, a bit more sternly this time.

"…Yeah, yeah okay, you've got me." Beat sighed deeply and leaned back against the tree. "How'd you know?"

"You've been bugging me to meet up for the past two weeks," Neku said, drily. "Pretty sure I told you after the last ramen session that I was going to be busy, but there's been a message from you, what…every morning?"

It wasn't just that. Everything about Beat today was a little too much. Yes, Beat was always one to spend the whole day boarding but right now? In the middle of March? Neku had warmed up from the exercise but even after sitting here for a few minutes, the cool spring air was starting to seep into his skin. Beat hated the cold, too. Neku would know, Beat never failed to complain about it.

There was something about the look in his eyes, too. There, even as they were talking. Even as Beat was looking right at him.

"…Is it because Rhyme's leaving?"

Beat stiffened as the words left Neku's mouth.

I knew it.

Neku already knew that Rhyme was leaving, she and Beat had told all of them. She was off to a specialist high school overseas. When Rhyme said that she had a dream to chase, she really meant it. Of course, it would hit Beat hard. They all knew how much she meant to him.

"Hey, I'm going to miss her too, you know," he offered, quietly.

His friend stayed quiet. He lowered his eyes, then looked away.

"That's ain't it, Phones."

"It's…not?"

"Not all of it. It is and it ain't."

Well, that had Neku stumped.

"You're going to have to help me out, here a little Beat. You wanted to tell me what it was, didn't you?"

"…Ya know how you said I was 'buggin' you' for a while?" Beat finally said.

"Beat, you're not actually bothering me," Neku tried to clarify. "It's just a figure of speech –"

"I got that one," Beat interrupted. "At the start, I was jus' wantin' to hang out. I didn't want to ask Rhyme 'cause she's busy with gettin' ready to leave. But you've been busy too. An' Shiki." He paused. "…I even asked Priss." Neku raised an eyebrow, and Beat returned a look that said, 'I know'. "Anyway, everyone was doin' somethin'."

"Beat…"

"So I just kept askin' you. But you've got other friends now, right? You were havin' lunch with them today, right?"

"I guess I do," Neku said. "Beat, yeah sure I was having lunch today with other friends, but it's not like you're any less of a friend to me. Heck, I'm pretty sure you guys were the ones who were telling me to make more friends."

"Yeah, an' you did. I'm not sayin' you shouldn't have. It's a good thing. I know that," Beat said. "I know you worked pretty hard to make friends."

Hearing that made Neku felt slightly embarrassed.

Beat could probably tell. "You did. An' I'm glad you did. I know you didn't wanna have any friends…back when…back when we were in the Game." Beat whispered 'the game', something that they all tended to do. "The point is you changed. An' you kept changin' after the Game. All of you did."

He said the last sentence, with such a bitter sting that Neku was taken aback. "You don't like that we've changed?"

"I don't like that I haven't changed." There was a softer, "not one bit."

Neku hadn't seen Beat like this…not since the Game. It seemed that Beat needed a moment to compose himself.

He wasn't speaking, so all Neku could hear was the sound of those kids skateboarding, laughing with and at each other as they continued showing off tricks to each other. It was jarring, how downcast the atmosphere around Beat was in comparison. It was almost like Beat didn't belong in this picture.

Or maybe it's like that because that's how he feels.

"Rhyme's still chasing her dream," said Beat, speaking suddenly again. "An' she's leavin' because of it. I'm happy for her an' all that but we used to hang out all the time. But she's too busy now, so yeah I thought I'd leave her alone for a bit. But besides you guys, what do I have? Nothin' but this skateboard. The rest of you have tried to change, but I didn't. After the Game, I thought that was enough. Rhyme was back so that was enough. But I'm still a good for nothin' loser who doesn't matter and who has nothin' that matters to me."

Neku wanted to argue because it's not like Beat didn't have other friends. Except thinking back on it, he never mentioned having any. Not having friends was kind of Neku's thing. Perhaps he made such a big deal of it that Beat never wanted to because Neku couldn't recall Beat ever mentioning having other friends either.

Come to think of it…Hadn't Beat always gone a bit quieter whenever Shiki mentioned she was working on a new project? Whenever Neku said Hanekoma was going to help iron out a few things about his new track? Whenever Rhyme went on and on about her new school?

…When had Beat talked about himself?

He knew the answer: not much. Not since the game.

Not until now.

"You're not a loser, Beat."

"I knew you'd say that," was the immediate response. "Doesn't make it true."

He never thought he'd be the one left speechless with Beat. Neku didn't know what to say. He was never good at this. Maybe Shiki or Rhyme could have dealt with this better. Maybe even Josh – no, not Joshua, he would just say something that would make things worse.

Neku hated this, he hated seeing Beat like this.

He just…he just never assumed Beat would be anything but okay. They all had their nightmares about the Game but that was something they shared and talked about. There was nothing to indicate that there were things weren't going well after that.

And he couldn't outright say that Beat had definitely changed because he hadn't. Not in any way that he could tell.

…but so what?

"So what if you haven't changed? So, you haven't made any new friends? Or you don't have a dream? You don't need to have them, it doesn't make us any better than you."

"Phones?"

"Yeah, fine. You're still the same Beat who did everything to save your sister and who wasn't afraid to ask me for help," he continued, words falling out before he could catch them. "You're the same guy back then, who wanted to make friends with me of all people. Then, I'm sorry, but that's perfectly fine with me. Who says you need to change anyway? Screw that. If you want to find a dream or whatever crap, fine. We'll help you, but you don't need to change to do it. Another thing,you don't need a whole bunch of other people as friends because you matter to me."

Beat blinked at Neku.

"…Man, I didn't think you were goin' to get…angry with me."

"I'm not – "

Oh.

Uh, maybe he had been shouting.

Yep, those kids were giving him strange looks.

"The bottom line is," he tried to say with a bit more calm. "You're one of my best friends, and always will be whether you change or not. Or whether you have a dream or not. If you're really having a bad day or something you just need to tell me. And not with just some 'let's hang out' texts that you drop after one reply."

The person Neku was two years ago, before he met his friends, was a thorny person of no envy. Beat, however, had always had a heart of gold. Neku just wished that Beat could see that too.

"…I guess you're right," Beat said, though Neku was unsure if he was entirely convinced. "An' I think maybe I was feelin' a bit left out."

"Yeah…but seriously, if you just want to cry or whatever, I'll drop my plans."

Beat shook his head. "…That would be pretty mean to your other friends."

"I'm serious." Dead serious.

"An' why would I text you, to say 'I'm cryin', that's weird, dude."

"You're crying right now," Neku pointed out.

"Huh."

He guessed Beat, didn't realise, but there were definitely a bunch of tears just rolling down his eyes right now. Beat was always a crier; another thing that Neku was glad didn't change.

At this point, the kids were definitely staring.

"Alright, let's go Beat. The special might not still be on, but I bet you could do with some ramen right now."

Getting up, he gathered his skateboard and helmet, helping Beat to do the same. They got more stares as they left the skate park, but Neku ignored them.

"Phones?"

They only just made it out of the entrance, and Neku turned to see that Beat was wiping his face his hand. "Thanks for that, man."

"Yeah, no worries. Just…just don't keep these kinda things in, okay?" Neku tugged at his hair, a habit that hadn't changed for him after the Game. "I don't know if whatever crap I just said was good advice or not, but that's just what I think. If that's good enough for you, then you know, you can talk to me."

"Okay," he grinned, looking a lot better already, even though his eyes were still puffy. "Yeah, I haven't talked about that before so I guess I needed to let it all out."

Neku nodded. "And I'm here, whenever you need to."

"If you've got anythin' to get off your chest, you can tell me too," Beat declared.

He swung an arm around Neku's shoulder, to which Neku would usually tell him to do a bit less zealously but he would let it slide this time. "Aight, now let's get some of that ramen you were talkin' about."

"Heh, of course."

He was glad that even if Beat wasn't completely better, he had cheered up a little. The idea of ramen probably helped too.

"Thanks again, Neku."

"Anytime."

…Wait, did he just call me –

"Man, I'm starved now, Phones. I'll race ya there!"

Beat took off before Neku could say anything else. He stood there for a bit, wondering if his ears were working right.

"Hey, what're you doin'? This is a race! Pick it up, Phones!"

Shaking his head, he sighed, even as a smile came to his face.

"I'm there!"

A/N: Tadaa! Wow, I haven't posted anything since…June 2017? Not to say I haven't been writing, but most things I posted on Ao3 because the fandoms I wrote for were there…Ew, that makes me feel totally disloyal now. Okay nope, that's it, I'm giving my fics back to ffnet first, always. That said, happy start of TSoS 2019: Hexa-Code Kernel. If you didn't already know, the Twelve Shots of Summer, is exactly that – twelve one-shots all through summer!

And of course, I thought I'd get my gears going into the mood by starting off with one of my still most beloved and favourite things to write about: TWEWY!

I wanted to write something a bit more Beat-centric, though for writing Beat I usually need a bit more of a warm-up before writing in his voice so…this happened. The prompt was 'Open()' and as you probably can tell I used it in an 'opening up' sense. Not to be confused with 'open up your senses' ;D *bdm tsss*

My twewy writing is a bit rusty but I hope I did okay with my fave boy Beat. Always thought that things might not always go well for him, even after the Game so yep. And I would think Neku tried to make some friends from class after the TWEWY game, though of course the Hachiko Gang are still his best friends.

Anyway, I hope this gave you some good twewy feels. Thanks for reading!

- Dina 09/06/2019

[chemicalmagecraft]

I Would Totally Kick Jiraiya’s Butt Chapter 12

A/N: Just in case you didn't read the A/N from the last chapter, anytime any version of Kouki that isn't Kouki Prime has the spotlight, like the next scene, it will be noted before the scene begins to clarify.

kukukuku~

Chikage

I axe kicked a giant rock in half. That was fun. I also found floating around not with demon sage cores but with glittery fairy wings made from demon sage chakra to be enjoyable as well. Because I was pure chakra, I was actually a lot better at handling natural energy than weak, inferior carbon-based lifeforms and could absorb more without any kind of negative effects. Sure, there was some instability if I went too high, but it was nowhere near as bad as the side effects on a human. "Dang," Kouki said from where he was sitting on another rock. I turned to face m-him. "So I guess you're just default a lot stronger than me. Makes sense, you're basically a mini bijū." I could tell through our connection that he was a little off about how he couldn't access the red chakra that was now me, but that was mostly overshadowed by his marvel over the potential of the jutsu. He fidgeted a bit, causing his arm to mutate slightly, red scales instead of the frog limbs that comes from using toad oil as a medium. "Dangit." The demon sage cores orbiting him sucked all of the natural energy out of him, setting him back to square one.

I grinned and "sat" on the air in front of him. "You having trouble, bro?" Kouki had decided that with the extra control granted to him whenever we were separate, combined with the fact that he couldn't fall back on red chakra without me, that he should finally learn how to make sage chakra the right way.

He glared at me. "You know as well as I do that this isn't easy to do properly."

I grinned and started telekinetically messing with a leaf using my sage aura. "Do I really?" I spontaneously combusted it.

"Haha." He closed his eyes and stuck his tongue out in concentration.

"Right," I said. "Imma go see what else I can do." I melted into the ground, traveling through the shadows of the grass. It turned out that, while I couldn't move fast at all when projecting myself as a shadow that didn't already exist, whenever I entered a real shadow, I could move... well, I didn't know how fast exactly because I hadn't gotten around to figuring out how to calculate that, but at the very least it was fast enough that it looked like teleportation even when Kouki pulled a little trick with the Shōraigan to slow down the "footage." 

So yeah, I got to the the trees pretty dang fast. I flew out of the shadows in my bijū form, which was really just me as a fox with fur the color of my clothes with the exception of a "mane" the same color as my hair, and sliced a tree in half with my claws. I opened my mouth, compressing red and blue chakra in a way that just felt... right. Even with sage mode it was small and a little draining, but it was still a bijū dama. I launched it at a tree, obliterating it into smoking mulch. I sighed at the relatively small AOE, but then grinned about the fact that I just made a bijū dama. Unfortunately, my victory was cut short by Kouki calling for me to come back through our telepathic link. That meant it was time for our experiment, which he wanted to be whole for just in case something went wrong. I shrugged. "Guess it's for the best," I thought to myself. "Was probably going to just throw around dama 'til I ran out of chakra." I melted into the shadows and zipped off to Kouki.

kukukuku~

I sighed as I felt Chikage returning to me. It was reassuring to have my red chakra back, even if I didn't really use it that much. Still, I suppose I did have the sage cores to fall back on, on account of how my telepathy to other sources of my own red chakra was uninterrupted. I crossed my arms behind my back and turned around, my eyes closed. "Finally," I said. "A project months in the making, about to be fulfilled. I'm assuming you're here to watch, eh, Tenko?"

Ai laughed. "That's a lot less intimidating if we know you can sense us, kid." I sighed and opened my eyes. "And wasn't it only one month?"

I shrugged. "Felt like more. Might just have been from that one part where they read my journal..." I held my hands out in front of me and the giant scroll I'd taken to sealing as much DSC into as possible once I'd filled the demon sage seal on my body, the Scroll of the Demon Sage, appeared floating in front of me through a summoning instead of a sealing on account of how its power meant I couldn't seal it in my inventory scrolls and actually keep anything else in it as well. "This is it. What might be the second most powerful thing in Konoha." The scroll unfurled slightly, revealing a seal tag that as of then contained most of its power. Uzumaki are really good at handling stupid levels of energy, okay? At least I'd also managed to complete my first mini bijū dama paper bomb... "Are you ready to receive this power?" I asked Ai.

"Is this really necessary?" Tenko asked, worried.

"No," Ai and I both said at the same time.

"But really, what's the point of amassing an insane amount of dangerously powerful chakra if you don't infuse as much as possible into the best known person for taking in stupid amounts of chakra just to see what happens?" I elaborated.

Ai nodded and gingerly took the demon sage seal tag from its place in the scroll. "Right, so I'm guessing you have somewhere you want me to stand?"

I slung the scroll on my back and pointed over to an area I'd prepared in advance. "There. I've already set up four cores with orders to use the Four Violet Flames Formation should anything go wrong." A nice thing about having multiple potent sources of chakra at my total command, I'd found, was the fact that I could use collaboration nin- or genjutsu without actually having to collaborate with anyone.

Tenko sighed. "That's not reassuring."

Before Tenko could actually object, Ai slapped the tag on her chest. "Toolatealreadyusedit!" She quickly shouted. The red lines of the seal tag began to glow orangey-gold, then started to spread to cover her entire body in a thick chakra cloak. She laughed maniacally, floating into the air as nine tail-like chains made of the same chakra sprouted from her backside. The chains spread to curl around the entire training ground, a red, domed barrier coming into existence at the edges. I don't know if she meant to or not, but her barrier materialized just before the shinobi that I'd had posted nearby via Sandaime just in case of a worst-case scenario, cutting them off.

"Kouki-kun, what did you do to my wife?" Tenko asked worriedly.

I grinned. "'Wife?' So did either of you finally pop the question?"

She flinched, then blushed. "I... haven't yet... I do have a ring, though."

I shrugged. "Hope for the best with you two. And by the way, I'm sure it'll go over fine." Ai's maniacal laughter grew louder, causing me to turn my attention back to her. She put her hands in front of her, as if she was holding an invisible ball. Oh. "A thought occurs to me," I said, making sure to keep my voice calm.

"That doesn't sound good..." As if on cue, Ai started to slowly form a disconcertingly familiar-looking chakra ball in between her hands. In addition to that, countless streaks of energy began to slowly form in the air, gravitating to the epicenter. That epicenter being a modified bijū dama.

"So there was this one clan with a Kekkei Genkai that allowed them to passively accumulate natural energy and then use that to mutate themselves. Because they didn't work for it, though, the natural energy caused them to become uncontrollable, entering homicidal rages. Because of that, they were almost completely wiped out." At that point, I started to feel a slight tug on my chakra, though I was able to resist it.

"So what you're saying is..."

"She's drunk on power, yeah. Whoops."

"How, exactly, did you not notice that'd happen with your eyes?"

"Figured out a way to make sure that nothing bad enough I can't fix it will happen while still not spoiling me on what happens. Use exclusively that for my experiments now," I explained. I noticed a bit of chakra chain straying near me and had an idea. "Hang on, let me fix this." I tried to grab the chain with a chakra thread, but it was just sucked in, so I aborted almost immediately and just lunged at it. It was starting to get to the point where I needed to have my sage cores actively cling to me to make sure they weren't sucked in. That would be bad. Thankfully, I managed to grab the chain and my theory was right. 

Just like how Kurama still held some link to my red chakra and Kaguya still had some link to his chakra, I could feel my connection to the chakra in the modified Adamantine Sealing Chain. I grabbed it with both hands, wrapped one side around my arm, then tugged the two sides in opposite directions. With a bit of willpower applied, one link snapped and got spaghettified by the still-growing ball of impending doom, leaving me with a really long chain of chakra that I could control wrapped around my arm. "Right, let's hope this works or Konoha probably becomes partially made of smoking crater," I said, glad that I'd picked one of the farthest training grounds from Konoha proper, then pulled a leaf out of Ai's new book and sucked the chain into my body, making sure to strip enough natural energy off of it that I didn't become a glittery garden statue. "Oooh," I grunted, then sucked in a breath. I noticed that with one chain down, the chakra-sucking had slowed back down, though I knew it was going to pick back up if I didn't do anything.

"Are you okay?" Tenko asked.

"Yeah, just a bit of a rush," I said. "Sorry. Well, here goes..." I concentrated on the chakra that I'd absorbed. After a few seconds, I was able to form two purple chains of chakra that emerged from my sleeves. I drew on the power I'd stolen from Ai to lengthen the chains significantly, taking the shortest possible paths I could to intersect her chains with my own. Once I'd gotten all of her chains, I tugged on the chakra in them, converting Ai's golden chains to my purple chains. The effect cascaded, eating away at all of her chains until her chains were fully turned, making the barrier fall and stopping the suction effect fully. I jerked my arm, causing nine chains to sprout from Ai's arms and wrap around the bijū dama. I started retracting the chains back into my body, removing almost every last trace of demon sage chakra from Ai's body. Thankfully, she didn't fall on her face, as she was able to recover almost immediately and shoot some now non-glowing yellow chains into the ground and lower herself down gently.

"I have no idea what just happened, but I'm assuming it worked because I can make chains out of my chakra now," she said.

I nodded, concentrating on the ball of dangerously explosive chakra I was slowly reeling in. "Tenko, I need you to take the scroll off of my back and open it up a bit." She did as I asked, holding the scroll up so I could easily access it. I slowly put my hands on the scroll, converting the chain into the seal. The chain, no longer attached to my body, continued to reel in the demon sage chakra. As it did that, I placed my hand on the chain, removing the impurities the chakra gained from being in Ai's system. I greedily absorbed those bits of chakra. As I suspected, my body accepted it as readily as it did Shukaku's chakra.

"What exactly happened there?" one of the shinobi asked now that they'd arrived.

"Science," I answered.

"What were we even supposed to do about that?"

I shrugged. "Sorry, I didn't expect that to happen. I just figured Ai wouldn't have very good control of her chains at first. Turns out that that much sage chakra means going crazy, though."

"So I'm guessing I shouldn't use that seal for a super mode?" Ai asked after walking over to us. I swiped the empty tag that still stuck to her.

"No, if I segment it to lower the dosage, then it both becomes multi-use and lets you keep your sanity, at the tradeoff of power, obviously. Just make sure to use it for emergencies only. And while we're at it, I should be able to eventually teach you how to enter proper sage mode, which you could do any time with just a few minutes to charge up." I looked back up to survey the mostly concerned, but with one happy, faces looking at me. "I'd say that this little experiment has been a success."

kukukuku~

Yeah, I got chewed out by my dad. In hindsight, though, I really couldn't blame him. Thankfully, I was able to get off with just a tongue-lashing and promising to make absolutely sure to test out anything that could theoretically have a large blast radius by making a sage core take it far away from Konoha and remote detonate it or just not do it at all. To be honest, though, I was bracing myself for a grounding, so I was actually fine with that. And he even organized a lesson on nature transformation for me. After giving me another lecture, this time on not doing things that could potentially destroy my hands or other parts of my body unless absolutely necessary. 

And so there I was, leaning on the wall of the Hyūga compound courtyard. I'd made sure that there was a chain of shadows that Chikage could use to get away from me because I knew Kakashi was going to use that one chakra paper thing on me and I didn't want to have any interference from her/my power, yet still have her accesible once we started the lesson in earnest. "Sup," I said when Kakashi arrived.

"So you want to learn how to use nature transformation?" he asked.

I shrugged and licked my lips. "I already know how to use wind, but I'd like to learn at least the basics of the others."

"Right, learning it now if you have the chakra for it is actually probably a good idea." He pulled out a piece of paper. "I doubt you can do much with it at the moment, but at the very least, you'll be able to practice until you're ready for the big stuff." He used the paper, crinkling it. "This paper is made to test one's elemental affinity. Channel a light amount of chakra onto it and it'll react in different ways depending on what your primary affinity is. Mine's lightning, so the paper became wrinkled." He gave me a second piece of paper. "You try."

I complied, channeling a bit of my chakra into the paper. "Well what a coincidence," I said, referring to the fact that my paper was now as crumpled as his was. "We have the same element, don't we?"

"Yes, that's what that means. I suppose we'll start with the lightning exercises, then?"

I called Chikage back, and she reentered me without Kakashi even seeming to notice. For whatever reason, her chakra signature was muted whenever she was inside a shadow, and she could easily suppress her signature even more, so the only way he would've noticed was when we joined or if his Sharingan was out. It would've been the perfect ability for stealth if not for the fact that she couldn't bring anything with her, and I was already trying to think of ways around that one little weakness. Well, there was also the little snag of how she needed shadows, but really, where aren't there shadows?

"Let's start this lightshow, then," I said with a smile.

kukukuku~

And now for something completely different.

A rabbit bounded across a field near End Valley. It did not know what its destination was, just that something was... calling to it. It stopped by the roots of a great tree and began to sniff at the ground. Whatever it was looking for, it was there. It found it after a few minutes of searching. A small red stone, barely a flake, that glowed with some unearthly light. Now hat it could see it, the rabbit's every instinct screamed to get away, that this stone was a predator, but it couldn't stop itself. Its body wasn't its own anymore. The now-terrified rabbit tried to fight back with all its might as its head came closer to the gem, but to no avail. The stone already had a hold over it, it just needed to touch it and it would be over. A spectre of death seemed to emerge from the jewel of death, ready to embrace the rabbit. When the rabbit's head was close enough, the stone lifted from the ground and adhered to its forehead. The rabbit screamed as a foreign presence entered its body, burning away its very soul to make room for something else.

I grinned a rabbitty grin and hopped around a bit, testing out my new rabbit body. It was a shame that I could only gain a proper body by stealing it from a living creature, but what can you do? I sniffed at the ground with my new nose. The rabbit's sense of smell was different from my original's, but when I took over the rabbit's brain I gained complete access to all its memories, so I was able to adjust soon enough. Plus I noticed that I could understand rabbits now. I sent a telepathic message back to Kouki and Chikage.

"You find a body?" they asked.

"Yup. Rabbit. Surprisingly good chakra affinity, despite being wild," I replied.

"Cool. Right, you should probably act natural for at least a month, to build up plausible deniability." they instructed. "Then you can start doing supernatural stuff. Cannibalize the body and continue your mission."

I sent a scoff through our link. "I know what to do, I have all your memories."

"Stop being so sarcastic, you're not supposed to be me."

"Right."

"By the way, did you pick out a name?"

I gave a small rabbit grin. "Of course. If my first body after my 'resurrection' is to be that of a rabbit's, then why shouldn't my name be Usagi?"

"Cool. You'd better give at least one 'name of the moon' speech though."

"Certainly. I would never pass up such an opportunity." It may have purely been within my mind, but I was already preparing my cover by practicing my new mannerisms, at the very least those dealing with how I spoke.

"Right, I'ma get back to this stupid leaf, you go do your rabbit thing. Rabbit." I hopped around a bit, searching for some food. A deep cover assignment. It was going to be marvelous.

kukukuku~

I growled as I passed my chakra through the leaf. No matter what I did, it just wasn't getting wet!

"Did you try turning it off and turning it back on again?" Chikage asked me as she floated over me.

I rolled my eyes, cut off the flow, then let my chakra flow over the leaf like water once more. "Don't think that helped."

"Dude it's been a day," she said. "You're not Naruto, you don't have an army of clones to poorly manage yet still somehow get your thing done. Just take a deep breath, accept that this is going to take some time, and do the other three exercises that you actually did make some headway in. You don't have Tsunade-levels of control when we're unfused yet."

I stared at her for a second. "How are you taking this better than me?" I asked.

"I mean, two heads are better than one. I have the perspective that you're being a lil dummy."

I stopped trying to wet the leaf and started trying to set it aflame instead. Because I already had experience doing it with and as Chikage, it started to smoke after a few seconds. I removed my thumb, seeing a smoldering thumbprint on it. Chikage picked it up, then it just disintegrated. "Showoff."

[ohalemalia]

Daily Dose - Part. 7 (S.M. Imagine)

Pairing: Scott McCall x Reader

Warnings: fighting

A\N: I’m thinking no more summaries bc #spoilers. I’ve got new writings in the works. Expect a Theo imagine, a multipart Derek fic and a Malia imagine soon ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°) I edited this as i could if there are errors i am sorry i am a bit tired haha

Word Count: 3735

Have you ever had those stress dreams after lying in your bed at night during a bout of insomnia? The ones that make no sense whatsoever. The ones that if you tell your therapist or a psychic about it, they’ll tell you that they’re your subconscious telling you what it really wants?

It’s a good thing I don’t go to therapists or psychics, because I would not want to hear that.

So, I guess I should break it down. Basically late last night I was wide awake in bed, stressing about the fact that I was going to be officially starting school the next morning. Eventually, I managed to fall asleep. I dreamt that I was walking into school the first time, books in hand, backpack on my back and a heavy feeling in my chest. People were walking past me, but every time they did, they would stare at me. And stare. And stare. It got to a point when I was standing in the middle of the entire Beacon Hills High student body circled around me. I looked around but there was nowhere to get out and everyone was staring at me. I opened my mouth to say something, to ask why they were all doing this but no sound came out.

Then they started marching toward me. The circle started getting tighter and tighter. I spun around, trying to find a way out, trying to get them to leave me alone, telling them I was going to be late to my first period.

Then, through the crowd burst the one and only Scott McCall. He shoved people out of the way.Once he got through the crowd we made eye contact.

“Scott,” Was the only word I was able to say.

He heard me and came rushing towards me. My feet were basically hard wired to go right towards him. His hands went on my cheeks and he KISSED ME.

RIGHT ON MY MOUTH.

SCOTT MCCALL KISSED ME (in my dream) BUT HE KISSED ME.

The worst part? It felt like I was meant to kiss him my entire life. All the other (well, they weren’t a lot, let me not kid myself) but all the other kisses were just training for kissing Scott and ugh admitting that just makes me want to--

Well, I’m not sure what I want to do but it’s not good.

Besides, it was just a dream and it probably means nothing, so there’s no reason to blow it out of proportion. The thing I should really be worried about was jumping into the lion’s den that wasa new high school.

I emptied my concoction of pills and vitamins into the palm of my hand, tossed them into my mouth and downed them with some water. They were hard to swallow (much like the truth) and left a bitter taste in my mouth (also similar to the truth) but I had to take them. They didn’t completely make my lupus go away (obviously), but they helped everything feel a little bit better.

I rubbed my shoulder and tried to soothe the pain in the socket as I walked over to the closet to decide what to wear today. As the weeks went by, I can slowly started moving more and more of my things into the McCall’s house. I insisted on going home so I wouldn’t be in their way, but Melissa and Scott really wanted me around and my parents felt safer if I wasn’t alone given my current conditions. The other option was to have my Aunt Liv come live with me or to go live with her. I really didn’t want to be uprooted from the one place I was starting to feel comfortable. Aunt Liv felt the same way since she just moved to Seattle to pursue her art career. Besides, my parents just bought the house, there was no way they were selling it already.

In the middle of picking my outfit, there was a soft knock at my door.

“Come in,” I called out as I picked a purple top out of the closet and held it up in front of me.

The door opened and in popped Scott’s head, “Hey.”

My heart hammered in my chest. I knew he couldn’t possibly have known about my dream, but it still didn’t make things feel less weird, even if they weren’t real.

“Hey,” I hung the purple shirt back up and grabbed a black one.

“So,” Scott walked into my room and plopped himself down on the bed, “How are you feeling? You excited?”

“If by excited you mean going to throw up, then yes. Super excited,” I slipped the shirt off the hanger and threw the shirt on the bed next to him.

“It won’t be that bad,”  Scott assured me, “And you’ve been to school before, right?”

“Yeah,” I grabbed a pair of jeans with a frown on my face, “But this is a new one. I don’t know anyone.”

“You know me,” Scott sat up straighter, “And Stiles, Lydia, Liam, Mason, Malia, Kira.”

The mention of Kira’s name made my slightly uncomfortable, “Yeah...but what if I don’t have any of you in my classes?”

“Then I will switch every one of my classes to be with you if it makes you feel better,” Scott smiled so earnestly and I believed him. Then I thought about the dream and my stomach did a somersault. Not the good kind.

I abruptly broke away from his gaze and folded my jeans over my arm, “I didn’t mean just you, the others too.”

Speaking of the others, I needed to know something, “Like Kira. What do you think of her?”

“Kira?” Scott leaned back on the bed to think about my oddly specific mention of her, “Yeah, I mean Kira’s great.”

“Yeah, I bet,” I placed my shirt on top of the jeans, “I mean she’s really sweet and really pretty.”

Scott sat up straight on the bed, his eyes narrowed at me in confusion, “Are you...do you...are you trying to get me to set you up with Kira?”

I spun around to look at him with my eyes wide, “What?!”

“I mean, that’s totally fine! I didn’t mean to offend you. That’s totally fine! Kira’s like great, I think you two would be good toge--”

“Scott! God! No! I’m not--that wasn’t the point. I do not like Kira.”

Scott gave me a look and I started to backtrack.

“I mean, I like her and all, but not like that. She’s--” I pinched the bridge of my nose and tried to collect my thoughts. When I had figured out how delicately I was going to put this, I looked up at Scott, “Did you and Kira have a thing?”

Now it was Scott’s turn to be flabbergasted, “What? No? Why would you ask that?”

I raised my eyebrows and looked down at the ground, “Well from the looks of it, I think she has a thing for you.”

Scott watched me as I crossed the room to get to the bathroom, “Kira? Are we talking about the same person?”

“Kira, cute Asian girl, a bit mousy and awkward but otherwise very much into you,” I clarified, “And you’d have to be blind to not see the way she looked at us the entire time at my party after my parents called.”

Scott must have temporarily lost his vision that night because he definitely did not know what I was talking about, “But...we’re just friends.”

“You and me?” I turned to look at him, “Or you and her?”

I continued my walk to the bathroom. Scott got up and followed me, “I don’t know, both?”

“All I’m saying is it wouldn’t hurt you to go on a date with her. Just to test it out, you know? See if there’s that spark.”

Scott chuckled, “Y/N, I have no idea what you’re talking about. And I’m pretty sure Kira doesn’t like me like that.”

I smiled as I got on my tiptoes to lean close to his face, “And I’m pretty sure you’re wrong.”

I had meant to quickly turn around and shut the door in his face to get the last word, but I hadn’t counted how close I would actually be in his face.  And I hadn’t counted on noticing how his eyes had reddish undertones and a slight sparkle of gol

ABORT.

ABORT.

ABORT.

The dream started playing in hyperspeed through my brain again. In a panic, I went inside the bathroom and shut the door, leaving Scott even more confused on the other side.

------

“Scott! I can’t believe you have her riding on the back of that thing!”

As we pulled up to the school on the back of Scott’s motorcycle, Lydia was heading towards us with a frown on her face. Kira, Malia and Stiles were also standing there, behind them a very cute blue jeep.

“My mom has the car,” Scott explained as I took my helmet off and handed it to him, “How else are we supposed to get here?’

“You could call me for a ride, or walk, or run for all that matters,” Lydia crossed her arms. While Lydia and Scott went back and forth about how safe or unsafe the motorcycle was, out of morbid curiosity, my eyes drifted over to Kira. Her eyes were cast down and Malia was muttering something to her, while looking over at me every couple of seconds. I frowned. I really didn’t want to cause any problems or have girls hating me over a guy. I glanced over at Scott to see if he could see what was going on too and that I wasn’t just imagining things, but he was still talking to Lydia. With a sigh, I decided it was time to break this up.

“Guys,” No one listened. “Guys!”

Lydia stopped mid sentence, her red lips still opened and looked over at me. Scott did the same, minus the red lips stick, of course.

“We got here in one piece. And I appreciate your concern but it’s totally okay,” I smiled, “Let’s just get to class.”

They reluctantly agreed to drop the subject and we headed into the monster house that was high school. I didn’t know what to expect. I didn’t know what would happen. I just hoped I made it out in one piece.

------

So I only have classes with Kira and we’re partners for every single project for the rest of the year.

Kidding!

In all of my classes I have at least one person that I know, which is really comforting. No one gave my pity because I’m sick, which is great. And the school day is over, which is fantastic.

As I walked out of the classroom, I pulled my phone out to text Scott and ask him where I should meet him.

“Whoa, whoa, watch out!”

I looked up too late and collided with someone carrying a huge canvas. We both fell back on our asses with grunts of pain. My phone skidded across the tile floor and my elbow got banged up pretty badly. My joints were already weak but the added impact of being knocked on the floor felt like someone had just slammed my arm in a car door.

“I’m so sorry!” The other student scrambled to their feet. Someone grabbed my phone and tried to hand it to me, but all  I could focus on was the burning pain in my arm and the static ringing in my head.

“Are you okay? Are you okay?”

I was fine. I was fine. I was going to be fine. I opened my eyes and looked down at myself. There was paint all over my clothes. Great.

I started to pull myself up to my feet. I felt someone place their hand under my elbow so that they could help me up. I shooed them off, “I got it, I got it.”

“I’m so sorry, I couldn’t see you,” The kid started to explain to me. I shook my head and cradled my elbow to my chest. I felt a lot worse for the kid, his painting was probably ruined at this point.

“I’m okay,” I smiled sympathetically, “I’m really sorry about your painting.”

The kid looked at his painting on the floor and frowned, “I failed the assignment anyway. Again, I’m super sorry. Please don’t hate me.”

“I don’t, don’t worry. It’s fine.”

The kid picked up his canvas and scurried off, a group of students parting to let him through. I sighed, well now I really wanted to go home. My phone chimed with a message. I looked down at it.

Scotty

Hey, i have lacrosse practice after school do you mind staying?

Well, never mind. As I started to reply, I almost bumped into another person. You would think that I

would learn my lesson by now.  I looked up to see Scott grinning down at me, “Hey!”

“Hi, I was just about to--”

“What’s that all over your shirt?”

“Paint.”

“You know the paint’s supposed to go on the paper,” Scott teased, “Not your shirt.”

I rolled my eyes, “Haha, always the comedian. Some kid bumped into me so now this shirt is probably ruined.”

Scott opened his bag, “I’ve got an extra one if you want it.”

Wearing Scott’s shirt?

“Uh, that’s--”

But Scott was already pulling an extra folded up shirt out of his backpack, “My mom just washed it, so it’s totally clean.”

I took the maroon colored shirt from him, “Thanks...I’ll just go and change then.”

“Yeah, totally. Practice is on the field. If you get lost, just listen for Coach yelling at us and saying we’re disappointments to him.”

I raised my eyebrows and nodded, “Will do.”

------

 Oh this was bad. This was totally and absolutely bad. I looked at myself in the bathroom mirror and realised what Scott had given me.

It was his jersey.

It had Beacon Hills with a number 11 on the front but oh no, that wasn’t the icing on the cake. On the back there was the same #11 but right on top of that was “MCCALL” written in big white letters.

Was I overthinking this?

It was one thing to wear your friend’s clothing, a jacket maybe, but it was an entire different ball game entirely to wear a guy’s jersey, much less one with his name on it. It almost signified that you belonged to him or that something was more than it wasn’t. It was something you gave to your girlfriend.

I groaned out loud to myself. I really didn’t want this to be more than it needed to be. I liked having Scott around and I didn’t want to ruin this or him with, well, me.

But I had no choice. I had already thrown my shirt in the sink and soaked it with water to try to get the paint off. I had nothing else to wear at the point. With a sigh, I grabbed my backpack and headed out of the bathroom. The hallways were empty since classes were well over.

Around the corner came Kira and since I had already been bumped into twice today I was ready to move out of the way.

“Oh, I’m sorry!”

“No, it’s fine, I’ve gotten a lot of practice avoiding people at this point.”

“Yeah I heard from Scott,” We shared a laugh together. Kira’s smile faded away as she looked down and noticed my shirt.

“Is that?”

I looked down as if I forgot what I was wearing and covered my arms across my torso, “Uh, yeah, I just needed something to wear since I got paint all over my clothes. It’s not a big deal, really.”

But Kira’s shoulders deflated and I could tell that to her, it was a very big deal, “Yeah. Right. Totally not a big deal, it was nice of Scott to let you wear it. I can tell you guys are close.”

“Not that close,” I tried to make her feel better, “I mean, you’ve known him longer than me.”

“Not that long.”Kira gave me a tight lipped smile and jutted her thumb down the hallway, “I should go.”

She didn’t give me a chance to say goodbye before she spun around and headed down the hall. The last thing I wanted was for Kira to end up crying alone in her car because of me and a stupid jersey. I jogged to catch up to her, “Kira, wait.”

I reached up to put my hand on her shoulder. As soon as my hand made contact with her shoulder, she spun around, her eyes glowing an unnatural orange color. She growled something at me in Japanese and suddenly I was flying across the room.

I skidded across the room and hit a row of lockers with a hard thud. If I thought that getting knocked over earlier had hurt, this was excruciating. Where the hell did Kira get that inhuman strength? Why were her eyes glowing? What the hell was going on?

I opened my eyes and blinked, trying to focus on the real world again. Across the room from me was Kira, standing there but something was very, very off. Around her was an orange glowing aura that almost looked like…

Like a fox.

I tried to scramble to my feet but my body ached. Then Kira started moving towards me.

“Ki-Kira, Kira what are you--”

She growled something else at me, except it didn’t sound like her voice at all. It was distorted at a lower pitch and was plain evil. Then she started moving faster. I couldn’t scoot far enough away she was getting too close.

And she looked like she wanted to kill me.

I grabbed onto the handle of the locker and grabbed myself up to stand. I turned around with a scream and threw myself to the right, narrowly avoiding a kick from Kira. But she showed no signs of letting up.

“Kira! If this is about Scott--”

She shouted something else at me and from the sounds of it she didn’t want to listen to anything I had to say. But I couldn’t process what was going on. Why did Kira look like that? Were demonic possessions real? Why did she want me dead so bad.

Kira swung again and somehow I managed to dodge out of the way. She swiped her leg out from under me and I toppled down to the floor screaming. She jumped on top of me, her eyes burning like fire and her teeth bared at me. The fox aura thing was still around her and I couldn’t understand how my imagination could keep this image up for so long.

Unless...it wasn’t my imagination and this was very real and Kira was going to kill me.

“Kira, please!”

She raised her hand high to gather enough momentum to strike me.

“Kira, don’t, please!”

As Kira went to strike me, a growl rippled through the hallway that sounded vaguely like Kira’s name. I tilted my head back to see a figure standing there. I was I could call it a man, or even human but it wasn’t. It’s face was oddly sharp at the strangest places. It’s eyebrows were low, covering it glowing red eyes. There was hair on it’s cheeks and it’s ears were pointed. I could see it’s sharp teeth as it opened its mouth to growl at Kira again.

I almost passed out right there.

Kira’s eyes softened and returned to their doe like innocence. The orange fox around her dissipated. She looked down at the me in confusion and then in absolute horror.

“Y/N?” She sounded as if she was going to cry, “Y/N, I am so sorry. I am so sorry.”

She got off of me and I scrambled as quick as I could to my feet and away from her. She looked over at the creature standing in the hallway, “Sc-Scott, I’m so sorry. I didn’t mean to. I don’t know what happened, I just lost control.”

Scott?

I looked over at the creature which was now heading over to us. As it got closer I could see it’s inhuman features melting away until…

It was Scott.

He immediately went to me, “Y/N, are you okay?”

As he reached for me, I drew myself back, “Am I--am I okay? No! No I’m not okay! Wh--what? How could I be okay? What hell--is this some kind of prank?”

Kira shot an alarmed look at Scott, “She doesn’t know…”

“Know what?!” I demanded.

Scott hung his head down, a curl of his hair falling down in his face.

“Why did you--and you--” I couldn’t even begin to ask a question. How could I when I wasn’t even sure what I was dealing with?

“What’s going on, Scott? What’s going on with you?”

“I’m a werewolf, Y/N.”

I opened my mouth to say something, but what the hell was I supposed to say to that?

I shook my head with a bitter laugh, “That’s not funny, Scott.”

“It’s not a joke, Y/N,” Scott insisted.

“No! No it is, this whole--I just--” I was starting to hyperventilate. Werewolves didn’t exist. This wasn’t funny and I wasn’t laughing. In fact, I was starting cry, “I’m freaking out here! Kira just tried to kill me and I--I--”

“Y/N,” Scott grabbed my hands in his, “I’m telling you the truth. I swear, I’m telling you the truth.”

I shook my head, “Werewolves aren’t real, they aren’t, they’re just stories. Bad movies.”

“They’re not, Y/N.”

I shook my head and pulled my hands away from his, “I need to go.”

“Y/N, please,” Scott mirrored my movements as I stood up, “Please don’t go.”

I held a hand out to keep him at a distance. I couldn’t process all of this. Not right now. Not with Scott, “Just stay away from me right now, please.”

Walking away from Scott and seeing him standing there absolutely crushed gave a whole new meaning to the sad puppy vibe I was getting. Twenty four  hours ago, if you had asked me if I would leave Scott’s side I’d probably tell you no. But now?

I wasn’t sure if I was coming back.

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[kovacissues]

There’s No Way I’m Falling (Dejan fic) Chapter 21

A/N: Hope you enjoy this, also I forgot if I had given Mimi’s mother a name... but I did in this chapter so oh well haha.

HERE is a link to my fanfics!

Chapter 21: She will believe you

He could not help but panic as he hurried out of the club to find a cab. His mind was blurry, but at least he was one hundred percent sure of one thing; He HAD to go home so he could fix this mess at once.

A hand firmly grabbed his shoulder, and he turned around ready to punch whoever touched him, but he quickly calmed down when he saw Mo standing there. “I will go home with you, at least I was sober” Mo told him, and smiled weakly at him.

“What if she doesn’t believe us!?” he didn’t mean to sound so aggressive, but he was so scared. She had been mad when he kissed Sime, but this was way worse. It wasn’t like he had kissed her back, but Mimi couldn’t know that. The hope of her trusting him just wasn’t enough for him to calm down, he couldn’t shake away that lump in his stomach or the voice in his head, telling him he was gonna lose her.

“I promise you, she will believe you” it was something about Mo’s certainty that helped Dejan calm down, at least a little bit.

After ten minutes of trying, they could finally get a cab and got home to the house. He took a quick glance and his stomach turned when he saw the lights were on, which could only mean one thing; She was home already.

He had never walked so carefully in that door before, in his life. The fear of a short, angry, Spanish woman standing around a corner, screaming at him in… well, Spanish…, made his entire body tense. Not even his friend’s soothing presence made this feel survivable.

Entering the kitchen, he found Magi, Matea and Mimi sitting by the table doing something on the computer. All three quickly turned their attention away from whatever they were looking at to Dejan. He felt his entire body sweat worse than after the hardest trainings he had ever had, he was sure it probably looked like he was showering right there and then.

His heart started pounding even harder as Mimi quickly stood up and walked towards him, quickly. “Dejan!” he was so confused as her voice sounded more concerned than angry, and it didn’t help his confusion that she decided to hug him tight. “are you okay?”.

“What do you mean?” he asked her, not at all grasping how she hadn’t tried to kill him or at least yell at him yet.

“A unwanted kiss is sexual assault… are you okay?” she clarified and for once he managed to let his eyes meet hers, which where filled with worry.

“I’m fine… I thought you…” he didn’t really know how to end that sentence, not when she had been so understanding of everything.

“You thought I’d be… mad? That some skank kissed you?” she finished it for him, obviously adding the last part of the sentence.

“I’m sorry Mimi… I should have trusted that you trusted me well enough” Admitting that was one of the hardest things he had ever done. Spilling out his flaws was not something he was known for, and he could see on the faces around the room that nobody had ever expected to hear that.

“Don’t think about it… you should get some water and food and go to bed… I’m just gonna pump and dump and then I will come… Matea will stay here tonight, Magi and Mo can too if they want” Mimi’s rambling was one of those things that Dejan knew very well meant that she was stressed, but damn it was cute and relaxing as Hell for him.

Magi smiled warmly at both of them “I think we’ll grab my girl and go home, I am exhausted and need my own bed” she declared before gathering all her stuff and the girl.

“Thank you for watching all of them, I wish you had come with us but I get that it’s not your cup of tea” Mimi said, before hugging her tight and saying bye to her and Mo.

Dejan gave his friend a hug, knowing that he had to confront him for not telling him he knew that Mimi wasn’t mad. “Bye… you could’ve told me you had talked to them” he whispered, only earning a grin in response before the Salah family disappeared out the door.

---

He looked himself in the mirror, fixing his bowtie. It just felt so overwhelming that today was the day when he was getting married to the most beautiful human being on earth, inside and out. Seeing the smile that crept over his face as he thought about her, made him feel like a giddy child. That was how he knew she was THE ONE.

However, it was hard for him not having the kids with him. All four of them would come with Mimi, Josip as the ring bearer and Elena as a flower girl. The babies would be carried in by the bridesmaids. The twins were just under 10 months, so they could already walk a little bit but that would take way more time than what they could.  

“You look smashing dragi” Sime told him while appearing behind him in the mirror with a stylish suit with colors that matched those in the details of Dejan’s.

“I better… or that drama queen will turn around” he said with a grin, making his best friend laugh wholeheartedly.

“She did threaten with that” Sime admitted, before gently patting Dejan’s shoulder. “How did she manage to pull this off so fast? She’s a superhuman” he could see Sime’s smile as he shook his head a little.

“I have no idea, she probably planned stuff in her sleep” Dejan answered, laughing with his friend.

He took a look around the room, seeing all his best friends there, smiling at him. However, he had a bad feeling about the day. Not because he thought anything would go sour, but because Mimi’s mom still refused to be a part of anything Mimi did or said. At least, however, her dad and brother were gonna be there which made Dejan calm down just a little.

He knew that bothered Mimi more than she was willing to admit, so he wasn’t going to give up. Not yet. He would do everything in his power to make her mom show up and support her daughter. Being a parent, he knew that this was one of those times that her mom would regret her entire life not experiencing. After all, he knew she had come to town, she had just refused actually attending the wedding.

Grabbing his phone, he called the number he had taken from Mimi’s phone when she hadn’t looked. He was gonna make this right for both of them. The phone rung for a long while before someone finally picked up and a woman answered. “This is Angelique López” she greeted and Dejan sighed out in relief that he had found the right name.

“Hello, mrs. López… It’s Dejan calling” he greeted and heard the woman on the other end of the line huff loudly in annoyance. “I know you’re not my biggest fan… or fan at all… but think about your daughter… I am a dad myself and I know I wouldn’t want to miss my kids’ wedding days for anything in this world” he tried to bargain with her, but if she was anything like her daughter that wouldn’t be easy.

“That’s good for your kids, but my daughter sinned… gravely” she stated, without a single feeling other than spite poisoning her speech.

“Okay, maybe I wasn’t one hundred per cent divorced, but I was pretty damn close… and maybe she got pregnant outside marriage, but that happens! You’re the ONLY person she wants here today!” by now, he could feel tears filling his eyes. It was so unfair that she couldn’t have her mom there when he had his.

He could hear her breath changing, as if something he had said had moved her. “She sinned… I cannot go into God’s house and see a sinner get married” she said, almost in despair, now he could hear her pacing back and forth on the other end of the line.

“There is a place for you at the dinner if you should want to make an appearance…” he told her, eyeing a hope that the uncomfortable conversation would come to an end.

“I will think about it… bye De… jan..”

“Bye, mrs López”

As the phone beeped to tell him that the call was over, he sat down on the chair, breathing out a breath he didn’t realize he had been holding. “I’ve done what I can” he exclaimed, mostly to himself, and the guys around him nodded at him with smiles that were probably meant to cheer him up.

---

The church was filled to the rim with people in fancy dresses. However, he didn’t really notice what happened around him too much. His heart was pounding, but not in a bad way. It was the way your heart pounds before going on the pitch before a huge game. He was so freaking nervous, but he knew this would be the best time of his life none the less.

As the doors opened and Elena and Josip walked in, Elena throwing flower petals on the floor and Josip carrying a little pillow with the rings on it, he couldn’t help but feel a small tear fall down his cheek. If only the kids knew how happy they would be the day after.

After they had started walking down the aisle, Magi and Nadia walked in, each holding each their twin. They reached the end of the Aisle, and everything went silent for what seemed to Dejan like a minute or hour or whatever, probably only seconds. As the music started again, Mimi entered with her father on her side and Matea behind her helping her with the dress.

He lost his breath for a little while, looking at his beautiful bride. When his eyes met hers, he couldn’t help it anymore. It was as though someone turned on the faucet and he couldn’t stop all the tears that started flooding down his cheeks. The comforting hand Sime laid on his back did not help him much, as the tears became even more persistent. He had all these wonderful people around him to celebrate this incredible day.