#not trying to say that I absolutely hate the new Strawberry Shortcake (yet) but the designs just don't feel like Strawberry Shortcake is -

[q-starhalo]

WHAT HAPPENED TO PURPLE PIE MAN WHY DOES HE LOOK THE WAY HE IS.

[yumeyooa]

[10:56 AM]—the world is our museum

—pairing: tsukishima kei x gender neutral! reader; genre: fluff, established relationship au; college au; rated g wc: 0.7k+; warnings: tsukishima hates mcdonalds 

"I'm sorry, but we're closed."

"What?!" You exclaim, perplexed. "But your website says that you're open around this time? What do you mean closed?"

You didn't mean to sound like an entitled old woman. You truly didn't mean it. But you had been looking forward to this date for weeks, especially since your boyfriend Tsukishima Kei absolutely adored museums. 

This past month has been absolute hell for the both of you, trying to juggle all your priorities as your academics tried to overwhelm them all with the onslaught of papers, tests, and assignments building up on your plates every single day. 

But finally, it was over. The long-awaited break had finally arrived and you had been preparing for this date extensively late last night, making sure that your itinerary was perfect. 

But who knew this could happen? 

"I'm sorry, dear customers, but there has been an incident inside the museum that must be fixed immediately. As recovery could be hazardous to others, we have decided to close the museum for today."

Bummer. A true bummer. Could this day get any worse? 

Earlier today, you had dragged Tsukishima to this new bakery that apparently made the best strawberry shortcake in town, yet the line was so long that there was no way that the cake would still be available by the time you reached the front of it. And now the museum was closed? This date was not going well. 

"It's closed," you say, pouting as you approach your boyfriend, who had decided to stay behind on the railing of the stairs that led to the museum, scrolling through his phone. His face remained emotionless, and you gulped, hoping he wasn't pissed at you. 

You knew your boyfriend wasn't that kind of person, he was a kind soul behind curtains, and you knew deep within your heart that regardless of what happened today, he wouldn't see you as any less. But it's been so long since you've gone out that you couldn't help but feel insecure. 

"I'm sorry, Kei," you say, standing beside him. "If I had known that all of these places would be hard to get in, then I would have planned something else." 

It's silent for a while, and you look down at your fingers, fiddling with them nervously. You could never tell what your boyfriend was thinking. Unlike you, Tsukishima was quite good at keeping his feelings in check while you wore your heart on your sleeve. It always made you nervous, wondering what sort of thoughts were running through his mind. 

But then you feel a gentle pat on your head, and you look up to meet your boyfriend, heart skipping a beat at the sight you see. He's sporting his usual emotionless face, but there's a softness in his eyes that you know is only reserved for you. He sighs, before leaning down to give you a gentle kiss on the forehead, something he rarely does. 

"It's fine, idiot," he says, smiling at the way you pout at his endearment. "We don't have to go to that overhyped bakery or to this boring museum to have a perfect date." You chuckle at the exaggeration in his words, knowing it was half-meant. You knew your boyfriend well enough to know that he too was looking forward to going to the places you had prepared. But the way he averted the situation made you giddy, feeling your spirits lift up. 

"As long as we're together, then anywhere is perfect."

Warmth bursts in your heart, and you feel yourself getting flustered at his words. You had forgotten how smooth your boyfriend could be at times, finding yourself hiding your face within your hands to hide your heated face. 

But he gently pries your hands away, looking at you with so much love in his eyes, a look that spoke volumes, more than his words could ever say. 

"Want to get some McDonalds?"

"But you hate McDonald's, Kei…."

"Oh shut it, didn't I just tell you that anywhere was fine so long as we're together?" There's a blush on his face, and you giggle at him, your expression mirroring his. 

"Okay," you say, gently grabbing his hand and walking down the museum steps. "Let's go get some McDonalds. And this time, you're going to agree with me that fries and ice cream go well together!" 

And as you drag him down to the nearest McDonalds, Tsukishima can't help but smile softly to himself, glad that you were feeling better. 

"In your dreams, idiot."

© yumeyooa 2021. All rights reserved. Copying, reposting, translating, and modifying in any platform aside from a03 and tumblr or by any means is NOT permitted and will be dealt with accordingly.

➢ general taglist (send an ask to be tagged!): @mirakeul​​​ @loveinhaikyuu​

[artificialqueens]

Rollerskating Into My Life (Symone x Gigi) - Strawberry

Summary:

“You’re really pretty, too. But I don’t really know how to skate. Balancing is so hard!”

“Let me get a soda and then afterwards I can help you out?” The curly haired girl offered, and Gigi grinned.

Or, Gigi is at Jaida's birthday party and doesn't know anyone else there. Symone changes that.

A/N: Hi! I originally wrote this for the Rare Pair challenge earlier this year, but I never ended up submitting. I reread it yesterday and was like "Wait, I don't hate this!" so I decided that posting it months later was better than never!

Being at a roller rink with half of her grade was not where Gigi wanted to be.

It was her best friend Jaida’s birthday, and she wanted to go roller skating to celebrate. Being fairly popular, she ended up inviting half of their grade to the party, and Gigi, who was not popular in the slightest, knew absolutely no one well enough to want to talk to and she didn’t want to change that.

However, that meant Gigi would spend most of the night by herself as Jaida went around the rink, talking to everyone. Of course, she didn’t blame Jaida, it wouldn’t make sense to invite so many people and then only hang around the redhead. It also didn’t mean that it didn’t suck.

The two arrived together, meaning that Jaida was her ride back home where they would have a sleepover, just the two of them. Just that made showing up to the big party worth it in Gigi’s opinion, but the minutes were dragging on so slowly. She would’ve been out skating to make the time pass faster, but Gigi was incredibly clumsy and could only stay upright for a maximum of twelve seconds. Skating was not her thing.

Sitting at the bar, Gigi’s eyes wandered from watching Jaida and Nicky skate around, to Rock making a fool of herself in front of Jackie and Jan, to two girls that Gigi didn’t think went to their school.

One was a taller brunette and the other was a slightly shorter girl who had curly black hair. Both of the girls were stunning, but Gigi couldn’t take her eyes off of the shorter girl. She was the prettiest girl the ginger had seen in a long time, and she wished they had the confidence to get up and (slowly and carefully) make her way over to her.

Gigi watched as the brunette slipped and fell after attempting to dance to the Dua Lipa song that was playing and instead of helping her friend up, the pretty girl stood there and laughed.

Her smile was so beautiful.

“Whatcha looking at, G?” Jaida’s voice scared the shit out of her, Gigi placed her hand over their heart as she turned to face her best friend.

“Those girls don’t go to our school, I was trying to figure out if they did. But they don’t!”

“Mhm. You should go talk to the one you think is cute.” Jaida always saw right through Gigi.

“Oh, fuck off. You know I won’t.” She rolled her eyes. Gigi was never one to just go up and start conversations with complete strangers, especially ones that she thought were cute.

“Anything is possible! You actually showed up even though I know you would rather be in bed right now.” Jaida reminded her.

“Of course I would go to my best friend’s birthday party! I’m not a monster.”

“I know! It just really means a lot that you showed up. I know being with large groups of people isn’t your cup of tea.”

“Anything for you, but I think Nicky is waiting for you at the soda machine.”

After trying to convince Gigi to get up and say hi to Nicky, Jaida went off to go see her friend by herself. Gigi pulled out her phone, deciding to see if any of the celebrities she followed on Instagram had posted anything within the two hours they had at the roller rink.

“Hiii,” a voice she didn’t recognize said, and Gigi looked up to see that the pretty girl with curly black hair was right in front of her.

“Oh! Hi,” Gigi let out a nervous giggle. The ginger always laughed when she was nervous and absolutely hated it.

“I saw you looking at me earlier, and my friend just ditched me for a questionable boy, so I’d thought I’d come and say hi. I’m Symone.”

What a gorgeous name.

“I’m Gigi. And where are they? The boy probably goes to my school.”

Symone pointed to where her friend was currently trying to dance with a guy Gigi had history with. “Yuck. Your friend better not hit it off with him. He’s gross.”

“Noted. Is there a school event going on or something?” She asked, looking around at the rest of Gigi’s classmates.

“Oh, it’s my best friend’s birthday. She invited like, half of our grade,” the redhead rambled on while Symone nodded, “I think you and your friend are the only people here who aren’t from school.”

Gigi was never up to talking to strangers, but they wanted to keep talking to Symone. Everything about her was perfect and they were not going to fuck it up by being cold.

Symone made her way to the empty seat next to Gigi, “It feels so nice to sit down. I’ve been on my feet all night.”

“You should definitely rest up then.”

“I haven’t seen you on the rink all night though, I’m starting to think that you don’t know how to skate.”

“So you were watching me too?” Gigi questioned, grinning.

“Yeah. You’re pretty cute, Strawberry Shortcake.”

Gigi didn’t know why, but she liked being called that. It wasn’t new or creative in the slightest, but it gave them butterflies. “You’re really pretty, too. But I don’t really know how to skate. Balancing is so hard!”

“Let me get a soda and then afterwards I can help you out?” The curly haired girl offered, and Gigi grinned.

“Sounds amazing.”

____________

Gigi and Symone did a little more than grabbing a soda. They ended up getting pizza too, and spent a little too long sitting there and chatting.

They might have only met Symone an hour prior, but they really liked her. She was kind and funny and actually seemed very interested in getting to know the redhead a little bit more. The darker girl was an extremely slow eater, so they were there for quite a while, engaging in small talk. They both were interested in fashion and hated boys, it was extremely refreshing for Gigi to meet someone that appeared to be similar to her.

When Symone finally finished up her pizza, she got up and reached out to grab the ginger’s hand. Gigi gladly accepted it, and together they made their way to the edge of the rink.

“Okay, I’m gonna let go of your hand and you’re going to try to balance.” Symone explained, and Gigi hesitantly let the girl take her manicured hand away.

They did not stay up for long. After a few seconds, they had to grab the half wall that separated the rink and cafeteria in order to stay upright. “This is hard!” Gigi yelped, blushing when she saw the amused look on Symone’s face.

“You’re not standing right. You’re putting all of your weight on your heel which is why you can’t stand up for very long.”

Gigi tried balancing their whole foot, and Symone adjusted their body so the ginger was leaning slightly forward. “Try that now. You should have an easier time balancing.”

Symone was right. Gigi had completed the first step of learning how to skate, something they probably wouldn’t have been able to figure out on their own.

“Okay, I think I’m ready to skate.”

“Hold onto me, Strawberry Shortcake. I don’t trust you to not fall quite yet,” Symone giggled, holding her hand out and waited for Gigi to grab it.

They went slow at first, carefully watching Gigi as they went around the rink. Halfway around they passed Jaida who was now skating with Dahlia, and Jaida nearly fell over seeing that Gigi had actually talked to the girl she thought was cute.

After two laps, the redhead was fairly confident in her ability to skate around without holding onto Symone; not that she would tell her that. Gigi was enjoying holding Symone’s hand and she did not want to let go anytime soon.

If the dark haired girl felt the same, she was definitely prioritizing teaching her new acquaintance (what were they? Gigi had no clue.) how to roller skate.

By their fourth lap, Symone was starting to catch on, “I don’t think you need my help anymore. I think you just want to hold my hand.”

Being called out flustered Gigi, but they were proud of what they responded, “Am I wrong for not wanting to let go of a pretty girl’s hand?”

Her new love interest pondered for a moment, “I guess you might have a point.”

____________

They ended up spending the rest of the night side by side, skating around and dancing to music. Gigi was much better at roller skating than they were a few hours prior.

Eventually, Symone’s friend made a reappearance and the people who showed up for Jaida’s party slowly started to empty the rink. Gigi knew that it was time to part ways.

“I had a lot of fun tonight. Maybe we could do it again sometime?”

“Depends. Will you pretend to be bad at skating so you have an excuse to hold my hand again?” Symone teased, getting out her phone and opening up the contacts app, pressing ‘new contact’ before handing it to the redhead.

“I’m never living that down, am I?” Gigi giggled, typing in her name and number into the phone that was now in her hand.

She shrugged, “I’m not complaining about someone as cute as you holding my hand, but I also found it amusing.”

After saying their goodbyes to Symone and her friend Rosy, Gigi made their way over to Jaida who was sitting at the bar, typing away on her phone.

“Hey, stranger.”

Their best friend looked up, smiling at them. “You had a lot of fun tonight, huh?”

“I really did. I’m really glad I came.”

Gigi couldn’t wait to see them again.

[feather-dancer]

Trollhunters Fanfic Recommendations - Part 2

My original fanfic recommend post seems to have exploded in notes which is a little bewildering if I’m honest. Since then I’ve stumbled over more I have enjoyed thanks to a couple other recc posts doing the rounds, a few I forgot to list and new ones that have appeared on AO3

Want to see the original recommendations post? You can find it here!

General Trollhunters

Love, we hold on together - Jilaire post Season 3 and very cute and fluffy.

Young Atlas - Season 1 finale with Jim and wandering into the unknown to do the right thing.

Hope (or something a little bit like it) - A take on what it was like for Dictatious  when he was pulled into the Darklands when Gunmar was sealed away.

Partners - Season 1 finale with Toby’s thoughts of his bestie going off without him.

Family - Season 1 AARRRGGHH thoughts and everything he’d do for his current and newly adopted family.

Family History In The Context of the Parallel Development of a Relationship as Told Through a Trollmarket Dwelling - Just as it says on the tin.

Under the Sun — Part One: The White Rabbit  - Oh what wonders could Otto have seen and done long before we met him in the modern day? Learning he hates the cold and snow, for one, and someone seriously needs to get him glasses pronto.

The Devil and the deep blue sea - A retrospective on Walter Strickler/Stricklander and missed chances.

Talking About Teenage Angst: For Dummies! - Steli fic with Coach being wonderful and things going rather pear shaped one night.

Sticky Notes - Another Steli fic, this one is very cute fluff with post-its.

~~~

Stricklake

We'll Meet Again - I think the actual summary sums it up better than I can: Perhaps there is no such thing as love at first sight, but what about second or third or fourth or…?

The Festival of Nauna - It’s time for a Troll festival post Season 3 and naturally Not!Enrique “helps” things along in regards to Strickler and Barbara’s still strained relationship. Also contains Strickler who likely has lasting fears of being summoned by gnomes and good old changeling banter.

Fallout - Jim for a time saw Strickler as a father figure he never had, it turns out however he might have been closer to the truth than either had realised. Secrets don’t stay so forever though, be they true parentage or the slight issue of somebody not being human.

Like for Like, Echo for Echo - IT TURNS OUT An Amorous Attack (The hilarious Draal reporting in to Jim) fic had a sequel and I had no idea! We heard from the troll what happened but it’s not quite the same as hearing from the actual culprits.

misc. trollhunters prompts -  Sometimes fluff, sometimes angst, who knows what you’ll find! Also includes Rebecoming which is an AU that makes me yell in good ways. Then Organised Knowledge made me yell even more.

Stricklake: Stones Through A Lake - Stricklake prompts! Contains fluff, angst and all that good stuff.

almost (you) me - In Unbecoming, what if Strickler had glimpses of a life he could have had if things had just happened a little differently?

The Strawberry Shortcake Chronicles - A collection from the fluffy to uh higher rated? Following the long relationship of Walter Strickler and Barbara Lake through it’s ups, the downs, the dawning realisation of falling for someone and of scenarios that are just adorable to behold. And then Strickler fucks up.

Good Morning Arcadia Oaks! - Put it under this section as two of these ARE actually Stricklake which are incredibly fluffy and delightful and the other one is AARRRGGHH having a job and I love them very much. The newest one is god please let this idiot teach again I need it in my life.

~~~

Alternate Universes

Eventide - An absolutely DELIGHTFUL Gang!AU. Fear the renegade teenagers, they WILL break into your house and make you toast.

Eclipsing Daylight - Jim has spent 6 months in the Darklands instead of two weeks before his rescue and brings a whole lot of trauma, emotional baggage and nightmares home with him. This is the fic that made me feel less bad about Ghost!AU as he’s severely put through the wringer here. Heeding the content warnings is a must.

Lasting Repercussions - His fellow Trollhunters were a bit too late rescuing Jim in the Darklands and the Decimaar blade did... something to him before Gunmar was punched away. With visions and thoughts distinctly not his own Jim has an extra thing on his plate he didn’t ask for but perhaps it could also be turned into an advantage.

A Fantastic Upheaval - Barbara meets her unexpected basement lodger and nothing short of sheer shenanigans ensue.

Works in Progress - Three unlikely friends meet one by one in a hospital, none of them are okay but maybe, just maybe, they can help each other on the road to recovery.

My Only Sunshine  - What if Jim was trolled as a five year old thanks to a (Presumed) magical bath bomb? By luck he turns back into a human but only while the sun is up which leads to both mother and son scrabbling to deal with this awful situation while also trying desperately to keep anybody uncovering their secret lest the worst happens to Jim. Expect to feel emotions, a lot of them, and just wanting things to start going their way. “Jim loses track of time” has never been so ominous.

In the Dead of Night - What if Bular survived? It turns out accidentally adopting a child called Trisha, terrible decision making involving pans on fire, a very confused Otto and the show that must still must go on.

Fire Agate - Toby makes the decision to be trolled like Jim so his new extended family won’t have to see him age and wither as a human. Comes with feels, so many many feels.

Whispers Within - Did you want a slice of life fic with a gay Uhl who gets a monster boyfriend? Well even if you didn’t you can have one anyway as it is DELIGHTFUL. The school actually has more staff, there’s a toilet garden, family drama and such damn good LGBT+ rep! 

Text Ya Later, Trollhunter - A text/group chat fic that tangented due to what we knew at the time into utter delightful chaos. “I see you smiling through ur window u tiny fiend!” has yet to stop being hilarious and I recommend this fic if you just want sheer silliness that led me to binging the entire thing until about 2am.

The Time That Is Given To Us - Please heed the summary and warnings of this before you read. Steve gets up, goes to school, has practice, heads off home, dies. Wakes up and it was just a bad dream right? But the deaths keep happening and along with the phantoms of his previous injuries following him as closely as his killer, he remembers everything. His only hope seems to be some little things are happening differently, slowly but sure...

~~

The self indulgent section

Listen it’s the second recc post, I think it’s now socially acceptable to plug my own two fics way way down here :p

Masks We Wear, Lies We Share - Strickler centric and set before the days Jim Lake Jr. was one of his students we follow the grand ups, downs and general craziness of being a changeling in a human world balancing two lives and the existence of your brethren on the same knife. Then one day you get a goblin making a nest in your hidden office as this is your life now. Contains Ocs that deserve good things, Nomura glad to be back in a warmer climate and soon to come, Otto relating a worrisome auction house incident

It can deal with uncomfortable themes, warnings can be found in the chapter summary when relevant.

-

Ghosts he left behind (Ghost!AU) - After “A House Divided”, we saw Jim manage to stumble home newly changed in the dead of night before collapsing moments after breaking the threshold. However, what if he never made it home after crawling out the waters that changed him?

First chapter follows Jim only, second chapter (To come) follows the rest of Team Trollhunters as they desperately try to figure out what happened to Jim and in turn find the boy who is succumbing to an increasingly distraught state alone. Second chapter also contains Stricklake because I can.

Please remember to check the tags.

[lady-divine-writes]

Coldflash one-shot - “Fatherhood” (Rated PG13)

Summary:

It's been six weeks since the arrival of baby Lisa, and Len isn't exactly handling things well. He seems to be pulling away from his husband and daughter, acting less like himself, and Barry is beginning to wonder - did they make a mistake bringing a baby into their lives? (2313 words)

Notes: So, I would put this at the super beginning of the series. Just a peek into where they began, and some of the issues Len had with the idea of being a father.

Part 7 of Father-hood

Read on AO3.

“Waaaahhhhh!”

…

“Waaaahhhhh!”

…

“WAAAAHHHHH!”

“AAAAHHH! Barry!”

“What?” Barry grumbles, barely opening his eyes even though he’s wide awake.

“Your daughter’s up, and she’s calling you.”

“She’s our daughter. But if you want to get technical, biologically, she’s your daughter. Probably why she complains so damned much ...”

“Waaaahhhhh!”

“Ugh!” Len rolls onto his stomach, dragging his pillow over his head. “Why were we so flippin’ eager to bring her home anyway? The hospital staff had this baby care thing on lock. We could have gone back and picked her up when she was what? Three? Four?”

“Len!”

“Waaaahhhhh!”

“Or you know what?” Len continues. “Felicity’s her mom. Why can’t she take her for the night shift and we pick her up in the morning?”

“We have full custody! That’s how surrogates work! Besides, Felicity lives all the way in Star City!”

“You say there like you can’t zip over there in three seconds and back.”

“Not with Lisa. It’s not safe for the baby.”

“How do you know if you don’t even try?”

“Waaaahhhhh!”

“I mean, Cisco can just whip up a pod or something you can carry her in and …”

“Come on, big guy.” Barry gives Len a shove that about shoots him out of bed. “Time’s a-wasting.”

“What? Me?”

“A-ha.”

“I’m not even awake yet!”

“You’re talking to me.”

“It only takes half a brain cell to hold a conversation with you.”

“Waaaahhhhh!”

“You know the drill.” Barry climbs out of bed, dragging Len by the arm. “She either needs a change or a bottle.”

“See? You’ve got it all figured out.” Len struggles against Barry’s iron grip in an attempt to scurry back under the covers, but he’s not going to win. Regardless of his deceptively slender frame, Barry has that pesky Speed Force on his side. It may not be the same as super strength, but the way Barry manipulates it, it does tip the balance in his favor. “So why don’t you just have at it.”

“Because, Len. It’s your turn!”

“Oh, come on, Bare!” Len wrenches his arm free, but only because his husband lets him go. “You can run in there, change her, rock her back to sleep, and be back here in ten seconds flat. I don’t get what the problem is!”

“Because that’s not the way we should do it! It’s been six weeks already, and I can count on one hand the amount of times you’ve gotten up to take care of her. Waking up in the middle of the night is a pain in the ass, but it’s also important. It’s a chance to bond with our baby!”

“I’ll bond with her during daylight hours,” Len grumbles, staring wistfully at their mussed bed with its comfy sheets and blankets.

“Waaaahhhhh!”

“It’s daylight somewhere.” Barry puts his husband in a halfhearted half-nelson and leads him to the nursery. Len stops resisting. Better to get this over with so he can get his ass back to sleep. He needs about eighteen hours of it to keep up with their baby. That’s part of why he’s making such a big fuss about getting out of bed.

Having baby Lisa in the house, Len feels himself slowing up.

Len’s not an idiot. He knows he’s getting on in years, but he doesn’t want to admit it. Who does? Hooking up with Barry on the sly, and then marrying him, had been such an ego boost in that department. To have a man half his age want him made Len feel like a teenager again. And a superhero to boot? If Len’s head gets any bigger, he won’t be able to fit into his t-shirts. But whereas Barry doesn’t seem to ever run down, Len finds himself getting winded more and more every day. Len has spent the past few decades planning heists, running from the cops, fighting Team Flash, even rescuing the crew of the Waverider and multiple Earths from destruction.

It took becoming a father to make him feel his age.

“Waaaahhhhh!”

Three steps into Lisa’s room and the two men know exactly what’s bothering their baby.

“Phew!” Len groans, head jerking involuntarily to the side. “Good night! What have you been feeding her, Bare? Gravy?”

“Baby formula.”

“Is it expired?”

“No,” Barry says, offended, though he never thought to check. That can’t be the issue. He bought it yesterday. Baby poop just smells … a lot.

“Waaaahhhhh! Waa-AAHHHHH!”

Lisa’s wails seem to rise in pitch when her fathers enter the room. Len expects Barry to blow past him and rescue their screaming infant, but he doesn’t. Len looks over his shoulder at Barry, of absolutely no help whatsoever, then back to his daughter, miserable and probably as exhausted as he is, with a load of wet yuck stuck to her butt.

“She needs you, Len,” Barry whispers.

“I don’t see why when she’s got you.”

“She needs the both of us. And right now, you’re up. Do your thing.”

“You want me to steal her a diamond?”

“Change. your. daughter. I’m not letting you put a foot back into bed until you do.”

Len sighs. All he wants at the moment is to climb into bed and slip back into the open arms of unconsciousness, but his obnoxious husband won’t let him. Tomorrow. He’d be awake and raring to go tomorrow. He glances at the Strawberry Shortcake clock hanging on the wall. 2 a.m. He sighs deeper. It is tomorrow. “Fine,” he says, trudging toward the crib. “I’m on it.”

Barry leans against the door frame and watches as his adorably grumpy husband plods across their daughter’s pastel pink throw rug, gathering things he’ll need as he goes. Normally Barry would toss himself on the grenade and do it, but Len hasn’t been himself lately. He’s not quite as witty, definitely not as devious. He sleeps more than usual, he has no appetite, and he stresses over the tiniest things. Plus, his sex drive has gone straight into the toilet.

The first two weeks after Lisa came home, things went fine. They had a rhythm going. They traded off duties - Barry went to work at STAR Labs during the day and Len stayed home with the baby. When Barry came home, he took over with Lisa so Len could have some time to himself. Len has other pursuits. Team Flash and Green Arrow both pick his brain as their ‘resident criminal consultant’, but he said he was perfectly happy as a stay-at-home dad. They began to feel like real parents. But bit by bit, something in Len started to drift away. He didn’t always answer his phone, and Barry found himself racing home to check on him. Things would be fine when he got there – Lisa fed and content, the house generally clean, but Len …

Some days he’d be working himself to the point of exhaustion. Other days, he’d be staring at Lisa with an unreadable expression on his face.

He just wasn’t Len anymore.

Looking at the situation through the lens of a scientist, Len seems to be suffering from postpartum depression. It wouldn’t be too unusual. Paternal postpartum depression is rare, but it does happen. And Len has the classic signs. He’s irritable. He seems at a loss in his role as a parent, determined every time the baby cries that something’s wrong with her.

Or that she hates him.

He doesn’t show up uninvited to STAR Labs anymore, nor has he tried to break into The Foundry in weeks.

He’s been pulling farther and farther away from life as a whole.

Barry would welcome finding out that Len had PPPD. At least, if Barry knew the cause of his behavior, they could decide on a course of action – medication, meditation, therapy.

Whatever’s going on with him, Barry has been praying Len isn’t regretting their decision to bring Lisa into their lives.

“Okay, little bug,” Len mumbles, negotiating their daughter’s kicky feet and unbuttoning her onesie, holding his breath when he breaches the seal of cotton holding back the bulk of the stench. “Let’s see what’s going on … good Lord!” Len pulls a face, blowing a raspberry through tight lips. Lisa stops crying. She stops kicking. She stares up at her father with wide, wet eyes and an o-shaped mouth.

“You need to stop eating cement, girl,” Len continues in a softer, teasing voice. “We can pave the streets with this BM.”

Lisa waves closed fists. Her lips tremble. Barry takes a step forward, afraid she might burst into tears again, but she doesn’t. The corners of her mouth lift slightly. It’s not the biggest or the brightest smile. It could also be gas. But when Len sees it, his whole face lights up in a way that Barry has been missing for weeks.

“Yeah. You might have your Papa beat in the full of poop department.”

Barry’s smile drops when he remembers that Len refers to him as Papa in front of Lisa. “Hey!”

“There you go,” Len coos as he cleans Lisa up and puts a new diaper on, wrapping the old one and tossing it in the trash without looking. “That’s it. Nice and clean. Feels a lot better, don’t it?”

Lisa kicks her legs in response and Len chuckles, carefully sliding one leg at a time back inside her onesie. He buttons her up, then wraps her in her blanket, swaddling her meticulously the way the nurses at the hospital taught them. He considers her a minute, rocking her with his palm pressed lightly against her tummy, but then he picks her up and walks the room with her, swaying in a lazy two-step towards the rocking chair in the corner.

“You know, if you leave her, she’ll probably go back to sleep.”

“Meh, I’m already awake, and I don’t think I’m going back anytime soon thank you very much.” Len slides into the wooden chair, setting it rocking back and forth with his heels buried into the rug. Barry smiles, watching the loves of his life sit together in silence – Lisa blinking up at her dad with drooping eyelids, Len gazing at his daughter as if she’s the biggest payoff he’s ever scored.

“Feeling any better?” Barry asks, padding across the room to be closer to the two of them.

“A little bit … maybe. The jury’s still out.”

“You know, you’re really good at this.”

“You think so?” Len swallows hard. “Because sometimes I wonder if …” He stops himself short of spilling his guts and giving voice to every doubt he’s had since little Lisa came home. She’s nothing like his sister was when her parents brought her home, that’s for sure. Regardless of Lisa Snart now, Lisa as a baby rarely made a peep. Or maybe he’s just not remembering things clearly. A dark cloud seemed to descend on their house shortly after, one that moved into his brain, obscuring certain details he’d rather not relive. No, his boisterous daughter is nothing like his sister, name notwithstanding.

He just prays that, in the long run, he’s nothing like his father.

“Well, this daddy thing has its moments, I guess.”

“Yes, sir.” Barry bites his tongue. Close. He was so close. But whatever’s bothering Len is in there somewhere. And if Len wants to talk about it, he will. Barry just has to give him time.

“Hey, I know she just dropped a huge deuce, but do you think … she might be hungry?”

“I don’t think so.” Barry puts a gentle finger to her lower lip to see if she’ll suck, but she doesn’t. Her eyelids flutter shut. She takes a deep breath in, lets it out, and just like that, she’s asleep.

In under a minute, and with no Speed Force powers necessary.

“I’m hungry,” Len says.

And even though Barry is thrilled that Len’s hungry after days of living on pretzel rods and Near Beer, he recoils. “How the hell can you be hungry with that smell still hanging in the air?”

“I’m sorry. I can’t help it. My hunger knows no bounds.”

“Neither does this stench.” Barry yanks the waste basket liner out of the trash, eyes flashing with a thin thread of red electricity.

Len’s brows pull together. “What are you doing?”

“I don’t want this in the house.” Barry’s voice cracks, static echoing as he phases with energy.

“Shhh! You’re gonna wake the baby!”

Barry steps out into the hallway and closes the door. Even through three inches of wood, the room crackles with the familiar heat of Barry tapping into the Speed Force. The seam around the door glows with a bright orange aura. It blinks out, but a second later, it comes back, and Barry re-enters the room. He puts a white paper bag down at Len’s feet, taking a seat beside it on the floor. He opens it and reaches in, the rank odor in the room overwhelmed by the delicious scent of meat and onions.

“What’s that?” Len asks, staring at the bulging bag dubiously.

“A double double animal style,” Barry says after a bite. “You said you were hungry.”

“There aren’t any In ‘N Outs in Central City.”

“No, but there’s one in San Diego.”

“And that’s where you threw out her dirty diaper?”

“Yup. In the dumpster outside the 7-11 next door.”

“Don’t you think that’s overkill?”

“I don’t really feel like waking up in the morning to the smell of stale diaper, do you?”

“Fair enough.”

“Besides, you can consider it an apology for losing sleep,” Barry says, throwing his husband a wink. Len smirks.

“Well then.” He reaches down for his share of the meal, but he doesn’t take his eyes off his baby girl. Not for a second. “If this is the way night time changing duty is going to go, I’m definitely on board.”

[justaidenarts]

We’ve Come So far

This is my TkYmSecretSanta gift for the wonderful @lilayams ! When I found out that you wanted a paganistic magic au, I was so happy, since I myself am Pagan! This ended up being less video games and magic and more Tsukki actually being affectionate plus them looking back on the progress of their relationship! I really hope you enjoy this, as I spent much time working on it!

Tadashi loved nights like these the most.

He and Kei had spent the evening together in their apartment, relaxing after classes by ordering in and eating dinner, curled up on the couch while watching some documentary they had found on netflix. Afterwards, they had retreated to their shared bedroom, relaxing back against the ever present mountain of pillows on their bed, ready to play their favorite video games to their hearts content.

It wasn't the videogames, or the food or being in the comfort of his own home that made these nights special. It was Kei. Just having him there was always enough to improve Tadashi's mood after a particularly hard day.

Now, Tadashi had put down his controller and leaned against the blonds side, perfectly content to let the other man play on his own for some time as he just watched. After a few moments, Kei leaned towards him in return, resting the side of his head against the top of Tadashi's, his glasses skewing slightly; he didn't even seem to mind. Tadashi didn't bother to supress the smile that came over his face.

When they had first gotten together, back in their last year of high school, showing affection in even the smallest of ways was something Kei had struggled with. He had never really been a touchy-feely person, and wasn't even fond of hugs from his own family. But eventually, with time, and a lot of patience on Tadashi's part, Kei grew more comfortable, to the point where, now, he could kiss and hold Tadashi in public without a care in the world. When Tadashi brought it up, Kei stated that he didn't care what others thought of them; If  he wanted to hold his boyfriend, he would, and that was all that mattered.

Tadashi remembered the first time Kei had ever been bold enough to initiate any sort of affection, a few months into their relationship. Finals were coming up, and Tadashi was caught in between the responsibility of studying for his English final, and reading up on a crystal he was interested in buying. Stressed, and tired from all the late nights of studying, Tadashi was about ready to give up for the night, but then there was arms wrapping around him from behind, long pale arms that tightened around his waist, a chin resting against his shoulder.

Despite the surprise and the flush to his cheeks, Tadashi didn't say anything, and didn't even acknowledge Kei's presence in any way other than leaning back against the blonds chest, sighing as though the warmth of his boyfriends body against his own was enough to draw out all of the stress in his body with only a few seconds of contact. Kei didn't say anything either, just breathed softly next to Tadashi's ear and watched as he got down to work, opening one of his textbooks with a smile.

Now, Tadashi felt the gentle touch of fingers in his hair, running through the long strands at the back of his head and drawing his attention away from his thoughts and to his blond boyfriend. Kei was watching him intently, as if trying to figure something out.

"What are you thinking about?" Kei questioned after a moment, and Tadashi smiled.

"Oh, nothing; Just about a project for one of my classes."

Kei snorted, and leaned more heavily against Tadashi's side, fully relaxing against his boyfriends body. "You're still such a terrible liar. Nobody smiles that brightly while thinking about class work."

Tadashi chuckled, though he couldn't help the blush that formed on his cheeks; Kei just knew him so well.

"It's just... We've both come so far, you know?" Kei raised an eyebrow. "From back in high school, I mean. You used to be this snarky little shit who didn't care about much of anything, and I was this shy, unskilled weirdo with terrible freckles. And now, You're..." He gestured at Kei with his hand, earning a laugh from the blond. "And I'm a less shy, slightly less unskilled weirdo, still with really weird freckles."

"I'm still a snarky little shit, though," Kei murmured, and pressed a kiss to Tadashi's cheek. "And I did care about some stuff."

Tadashi raised an eyebrow. "And what was that?"

Kei smiled. "Well, I cared about dinosaurs," Tadashi snorted, well aware of how true that statement was. "and cake," There was another kiss, this time to the corner of Tadashi's mouth. "And I definitely cared about my super cute best friend who had the cutest freckles in the whole wide world, who definitely was not unskilled and whose shyness was absolutely." Kei sat up, ignoring Tadashi's flushed cheeks and moving to hover over him. "Freaking." Another kiss, teasing, to the other side of Tadashi's mouth. "Adorable."

Tadashi couldn't prevent the happy little giggle that escaped when Kei came in for a kiss, their noses nudging together just for a moment - Something that always happened to them - before they both tilted their heads and pressed their lips together.

Tadashi easily lost himself in the kiss, as he always did. He lost himself in the warmth of Kei's body against his own, warm and more muscular than he had been all those years ago, yet softer, somehow. He lost himself in the taste of strawberry that was always left over on Kei's lips from the chapstick he kept with him at all times. He lost himself in the sweep of Kei's tongue against his bottom lip, a light tease before the blond pulled away.

They then rolled so they were lying on their sides, facing each other, videogame completely forgotten, long limbs tangled together to the point where Tadashi couldn't tell if the calf his hand had rested on was Kei's, or his own. Kei's eyes drifted off somewhere behind him, for a mere moment before coming back with a smile.

"Do you remember that time - after I found out that you were pagan - that I went and bought you that one plant?" Tadashi nodded.

"I still don't even know where you found that thing" The brunet murmured.

Kei snorted. "But I remember thinking that it was cool looking, and that maybe you could use it for a spell or something, because I didn't know shit about paganism at the time."

Tadashi held back a laugh at the memory. "Yeah, and it ended up being literally the least useful plant out of all the ones you could've gotten." Kei swatted at his boyfriend playfully.

"I know!" Kei exclaimed. "Now shut up, I'm telling a story, here!"

Tadashi chuckled, before his grin turned almost devious. "Sorry, Tsukki." Kei cast him a look, fake annoyed by the nickname that hadn't been used in years, and continued.

"You kept it anyways," Kei told him, as though Tadashi didn't remember the story for himself. "And you took care of it, and let it grow, and bought a new pot for it when it grew too big, and read all those articles on how to take care of it. It was this stupid, worthless little plant, but you took it and nurtured it into something big and beautiful." Tadashi raised an eyebrow, unsure of where the blond was going with this story.

"It's kind of like us, you know?" Kei stated, and a blush appeared on his cheeks.

"We're stupid, worthless little plants?" Tadashi asked, teasing. Kei stared at him incredulously.

"You know that's not what I mean!" Kei scolded. "What I mean is, We nutured each other, you know?"

"No, I don't know." Tadashi was smiling, and Kei knew that the brunet just wanted him to elaborate.

Kei sighed, but spoke again. "I was this snarky little shit, who didn't care about anything other than dinosaurs, cake, and my weird best friend-" Tadashi scoffed, but Kei continued. "And you took me, you and your sweet, caring personality, and your drive to do something more with yourself, and changed me. Just like that plant-" Kei's eyes drifted again, and now Tadashi realized what his blond boyfriend was looking at; the exact plant, the same one Kei had bought all those years ago, was just on the other side of the room, next to the window with all of the others they had accumulated over the last few years. "You took me, and you made me more. You nutured me and I grew and I became softer, I guess. Less of a snarky little shit, and more... I don't know. More caring, I guess?"

Tadashi laughed. "You're still bad at explaining your emotions though." he lifted a hand, running it through his boyfriends hair lovingly as the blond scoffed.

"I'm working on that, Okay?" His expression then melted into a smile when he caught the soft look in Tadashi's eyes. He leaned in, and pressed a kiss to the tip of Tadashi's nose.

"How have you changed me?" Tadashi asked once Kei pulled away. "You said we nurtured each other."

Kei nodded. "You're more confident now," Kei told him. "I like to think that's my doing. You've also got a little bit more snark in you than you did before." Tadashi grinned, and wrapped his arm around Kei's waist,

"That I do." He murmured.

"Plus," Kei added, running a finger up the middle of Tadashi's back, the calloused tip running along his spine. "I think you've developed a bit of an obsession with strawberry shortcake. You definitely got that from me."

Tadashi laughed. "That's definitely true. I'm pretty sure I hated strawberries before we met."

For a moment, Kei just stared at him, mouth agape from shock, before he sat up out of Tadashi's embrace.

"Nope. No way. I refuse to be with someone who hates strawberries." He crossed his arms in front of his chest, refusing to look at Tadashi.

"What?!" Tadashi sat up quickly, a fake scowl on his face. He went to wrap his arm around Kei's waist to pull him back down, but Kei refused, struggling in his hold.

"Noooo!" Tadashi cried. "Tsuukkii! You can't leave me!" He rocked back and forth playfully, pretending to be upset as Kei struggled against him, remaining silent and refusing to speak to him. "Babyyy! C'mon Kei! I promise I like strawberries now!"

Kei continued to give Tadashi the cold shoulder. "I love strawberries!" Tadashi exclaimed, scattering kisses along the back of the blonds neck in an attempt to get his attention. "I love them sooo much!! I'll even make you a cake tomorrow morning to prove it!"

Kei seemed to perk up at that, turning his head to Tadashi as his struggling ceased. He had a thin eyebrow raised, almost accusatorily. "You promise??"

Tadashi laughed, pressing a kiss to his favourite blonds cheek. "Of course!"

Kei turned his body back to him. "Okay, I love you again."

Tadashi couldn't help it, he nearly jumped into his boyfriend arms, settling down into his lap and pressing happy kisses all over the blonds face. Eventually though, he pulled back just slightly, looking Kei in the eye as he murmured, "I love you too."

They kissed again, this time much slower, much sweeter than before, basking in the warmth and the feeling of holding each other.

"Can we make the cake now." Kei asked against Tadashi's lips, drawing a laugh from his boyfriend, who pulled away and glanced at the alarm clock next to their bed.

"Kei, no."

Kei cast him a look, before his lips pulled up into a smirk. "Kei, yes."

Tadashi's eyes widened, before he scoffed and pressed his hands against the blonds face. "You're such a meme!" Tadashi exclaimed, laughing. "And no! It's already midnight!"

Kei burst into laughter. "Yeah, but that's why you love me." He teased. "And it's literally the perfect timing; we can have a little midnight snack!"

Tadashi glared, though their was no heat behind it, as he was still laughing. "We won't even be able to eat it until morning, anyways. So what's the point?"

Kei grabbed Tadashi's hands, holding them together with sudden sencerity in his eyes.

"Not the cake, Tadashi. The leftover strawberries!" Kei's eyes seemed to sparkle. "Oh my god, we can do that thing with the chocolate we got last week, where we melt it and dip the strawberries into it, and-"

Tadashi howled with laughter, and gave in due to his boyfriends excitement. "Fine, fine!" Tadashi exclaimed, cupping Kei's face into his hands and scattering kisses over his cheeks. "But were not doing that silly chocolate thing!" Tadashi climbed out of his boyfriends lap, standing and making his way towards the bedroom door.  A hand grabbed at his, however, and pulled him close.

"I love you, Tadashi," Kei told him, completely serious, as though he never wanted to stop saying those three words to his beloved boyfriend.

"I love you too, Kei." Tadashi grinned as he responded, because really, that was just one of the many signs of how far they had come.

--

I honestly hope you like this, as I put a lot of time and love into it. I’m so used to writing angst and smut, that I forgot how much I enjoy writing fluff.

[ionica01]

Karmanami Vampire AU

Okay you guys I actually wrote the Vampire AU and I’m quite proud of how it turned out. @todomomo​ for your Karmanami needs:)

This is a pretty long one so I’ll post it under the cut. you can also read on Ao3.

She had to do it.

Her heart gave a tight squeeze and the toffee she had just eaten made a double flip in her stomach. It was such a shame, too- it was from her favourite dessert shop in the entire city. She hated wasting high quality food like that, but right now, being environmentally friendly wasn’t exactly her biggest issue.

She had a mission to carry through.

It wasn’t so much of a mission as it was a challenge, frankly speaking. And it shouldn’t have been a challenge either. For any rational soul, it would have been common sense. In fact, Manami letting it go this far could be catalogued as absolute insanity. Not that rationality kept the feeling of emptiness from punching her guts- it just added guilt for the perfect combination.

Manami breathed in the chilly air of the night and let the rhythmical click-clack of her heels against the pavement calm her down. She cleared her mind of the last echoes of the opera, willed herself to forget his voice over dinner, wiped away his smile from her memory. That smile that warmed up her insides, that smile that made blood rush to her cheeks.

She suddenly realised how cold it was outside and pulled the fur coat tighter around her shoulders, gulping down the tightness in her throat.

She could do it.

“I didn’t know secret agents were so weak against strawberry shortcake,” she finally delivered the line she had been perfecting for days. She had said it out loud so many times to find the right fluctuation in her tone, yet her voice still quivered under the pressure of the real moment.

“I didn’t know vampires had a soft spot for toffee, either,” he answered unfazed, walking forward as if nothing was out of the ordinary. As if she hadn’t just divulged the job he had never told her about. As if he hadn’t claimed that she belonged to a race from the old legends.

“If you knew, then why did you approach me?” she inquired.

Indeed, his behaviour over the past few months intrigued her. One day, he entered her office to ask her on a date, claiming to greatly admire her research, and never lost any occasion to take her out since. At first she suspected he was just surveilling her, but she was just a benign vampire. She had nothing new to add to the fray, no information worth wasting hours of his precious time to spit out.

“Because I thought you were interesting,” he said nonchalantly. “And I was right. I mean, what vampire becomes a scientist fighting to find a cure for cancer? As far as I know, that is an illness that only affect the ‘lowly race’.”

“Such a thing as ‘lowly’ doesn’t exists. Humans have overcome their shortcomings better than us, and they deserve praise for that. Besides, vampire tissue might save thousands of lives and-” Manami stopped talking when she saw him smiling. Did he even had any idea how contagious he was when he smiled genuinely like that?

“See? I told you you were interesting.”

The sound of heels clicking against the pavement came to a halt and Manami took in another deep breath. She needed to focus. Whatever relationship she had with him, she needed to end it. It could only cause them both a heap of problems and pain later on. Much more pain than the emptiness in her heart caused her right now, she tried arguing with her feelings. They didn’t bother to listen.

“Are you making fun of me, Akabane-san?”

Her words lingered for what seemed an eternity in the empty street. She knew he wasn’t- and that made it even harder for her to carry her mission through.

Eventually, the sound of his polished shoes also died out and he turned around to face her.

“Do I look like I’m mocking you, Okuda-san?”

Playful was the last word Manami would have used to describe Karma Akabane. He looked serious, ferocious and, most of all, hurt. She was already hurting him, only by using words.

Her guts twisted again.

“Do I look like I’m joking around?” he asked again, taking a step towards her. She backed away from instinct.

“I am dead serious when I’m telling you that you are very interesting, Okuda-san. You are an one-of-a-kind woman, vampire or not. And I find you intriguing.”

He narrowed the distance between them to a step. Manami’s back was now leaning against the window of a closed shop. Her mind issued warning signals, but she didn’t evade.

“That’s why I came to like you,” Akabane finished with a smirk and closed in the distance between them.

Manami could feel his smell burn its way to her lungs. He smelt like cologne and danger, but also like strawberry shortcake and very, very sweet blood.

She found herself staring into his golden eyes as she whispered, “You’re insane.”

“Perhaps,” he admitted. As if to prove his insanity, he leaned down and kissed her.

It probably only lasted a few seconds, but it was long enough for Manami to forget how to breathe altogether.

This was wrong. Their whole relationship was wrong. He was a human from the Surveillance Department; she was a vampire trying to find her place in the human society. She could only bring destruction and inflict pain upon him, so why was he being so stubborn? He knew-he should have known what she was. What she was capable of. How they shouldn’t even dare overstep the boundaries of their respective societies.

And yet here he was, his lips pressed against hers with passion, his hand exploring her face and brushing stray locks of hair aside. Manami felt like he was claiming her- just as vampires did when they drank a human’s blood.

Red locks intertwined with her purple bangs, breaths mingled in the air, one collected and sure, the other one quick and panicked. She wasn’t sure where she ended and where he began. They were together- that was all she could be sure of.

When Akabane broke off the kiss, he gave her a few seconds to catch her breath before eventually asking, “Do you understand now?”

“I do.”

And she did- she understood that she was right. They were wrong to be together, and it was wrong for them to act as if they had any right to be.

But she also understood that none of it really mattered.

Because when he kissed her, he tasted addictingly sweet, poisonously so. Now that she had a taste of it, she doubted she could live without it anymore.

So what she did was pull his tie to bring him to her eye-level and hungrily kiss him again.

She felt Karma smirk against her lips.

“Manami-chan, why do you publicly claim to be a vegetarian?” Karma questioned her.

Picking her up from work had become somewhat of a routine for Karma. At 7 p.m. sharp, he barged into her laboratory, tearing her away from her microscopes and tissue samples. Sometimes they went out to eat, other times he just took her home. The destination mattered less. He just found it more enjoyable to talk to her while walking, having the fresh air wash over both of them.

“Because I do not eat meat in the public,” she responded categorically.

“Why is that?” he pushed further, squeezing her hand playfully.

Her hands were always pale and cold, but that didn’t bother Karma. In fact, he thought her low body temperature reflected quite well how hard to impress she was. The harder, the more exciting the challenge.

“Let’s just say it’s not a pleasant sight,” she sighed. When her dejected face was so adorable, how could anybody expect him to resist teasing her?

“But you like it, right?” he asked her with a blossom of a grin.

“Yes,” she admitted skeptically, meeting his look. Her sharp intuition was right on the spot.

“Guess what we are eating tonight!”

***

“Karma-kun, no!” Manami repeated for the umpteenth time since her boyfriend had put an apron over his suit and taken over her kitchen.

“But I’m a really good cook!” he assured her.

“That is not the issue!” she sighed exasperated, dropping into one of the chairs at the table and clutching her head with both hands, shaking it violently.

Karma had to hand it to her, she was putting up a great show of being stressed out. The overwhelming curiosity as to why she so categorically refused to eat pork in public haunted him. He had a hard time imaging diligent and overly careful, though a bit clumsy, Manami being a messy eater. What were her standards for an “unpleasant sight”, anyway?

Karma flipped over the vegetables in the pan and opened her cupboard, searching for spices.

“Only oregon?” he wrinkled his nose.

“I’m not a chef or anything,” she defended herself, glaring at him through her bangs.

“You don’t need to be a chef to have at least some decent spices. Where’s the parsley, pepper, chilli, tarragon, basil, cardamom, wasabi, sesame-” he stopped upon seeing her inexpressive face. “You didn’t get half of those, did you?”

She shook her head in response.

Karma stirred the vegetables again. “We’ll work on that,” he assured her.

“Yes, oh mighty Lord of Spices,” she scoffed, but Karma let it pass. He’ll be the one taunting her when she’ll mess up the spices in the following cooking lessons.

“I don’t get it. You have a fine nose- shouldn’t you be picky about your food?” he instead asked her.

“Having a good nose and being a good cook are two distinct notions,” she noted with sorrow.

“I’ll guess that explains your mostly-empty fridge?” he teased with a gesture towards the suspiciously clean kitchen.

“Yes,” she grudgingly admitted.

“Well well, Manami-chan, I’ll let you know us humans need fuel to survive. And I happen to possess particularly keen taste buds.” He threw his words at her one after the other, observing with satisfaction as her expression evolved from annoyed to exasperated.

“I understand, you will rule over the kitchen,” she snarled at him, crossing her arms over her chest.

“You are dumping all the responsibility on me just like that?” Karma taunted.

Manami’s eyes widened with the horrible implications. “No!” she vehemently declared. He kept his unyieldingly pestering look on her. “No, no, no,” she repeated, slamming her hand against the table. “I am not cooking!”

“Oh come on, Manami-chan! Will you keep your exhausted boyfriend starving?” he pleaded.

“He won’t be starving. There is a convenience store just around the corner,” she reminded him flintly.

“That’s so mean! It is said that love goes through the stomach, you know?”

“Your love goes through a teasing-machine, Karma-kun,” she noticed matter-of-factly.

The timer went off, signaling that the pork was ready. Karma put on a glove and pulled out the tray, admiring his masterpiece. The bloody pork smelled every bit as delicious as it looked, to Karma’s delight.

He turned to see Manami’s reaction, but she was holding her breath, blocking her nose with a sleeve.

“Come on, Manami-chan! It smells delicious,” he tempted her, but the girl only shook her head again.

Karma pretended not to notice her aversion towards the delicious meal. He set the table and arranged two plates before inviting her to sit down once again. Her look shifted between him and the plate with uneasiness.

Seeing her so unsure, Karma found it in his attributions as the good boyfriend he was to assure her, “I won’t break up with you over you being a messy eater, you know?”

She seemed to ponder the statement for a moment, searching for any sign of teasing on Karma’s face. She slowly lowered her sleeve from her nose after her search ended up with no matching results and responded, “You won’t be disgusted?”

“You can’t be worse than Nagisa attacking the lamb I was about to cook, believe me,” he assured her.

Manami chuckled despite herself, sitting down and grabbing a fork. Karma noticed her hands were trembling- was she afraid?

As soon as they dove in, though, Karma realized it wasn’t from fear, but rather, from excitement. He hadn’t even cut his meat that she had already gulped down a third of the steak, barely touching the vegetables. He had taken her out many times, yet not once had she reached that speed. It was almost unnatural- she barely chewed the food before stuffing her mouth with the next piece.

Only one word came to mind to describe the process: animalistic. Like a hunter tearing its prey apart.

Just how much self-control did she have to exert around humans if animal blood made her go crazy like that? Karma suddenly recalled how she gulped tightly when he cut himself in front of her ‘by accident’ on their first date and swallowed the guilt. She must have gone through hell. She still did.

Blood was trickling out of her mouth and down her chin when she looked up from her empty plate. A trace of that animalistic desire flickered in her eyes before her look focused on Karma and she lost the feral glint. The man wasn’t sure what was going on inside her head, but she must have lost her self-control to her instincts, because Manami grasped the table with such force that her pale fingers became white. It took a few minutes for her to calm down and wipe the blood from her chin.

“Unsightly, isn’t it?” she asked him without making eye contact. A sad smile tugged at her lips.

Karma stared at her for a whole minute. He didn’t see where she saw unsightly- it was beautiful to him. That she was willing to restrain herself so much just to live among humans was beyond extraordinary.

He traversed the table in the blink of an eye and pulled her into a tight hug.

“Uhm, Karma-kun? This is not-” she struggled to get out “-not a very good idea.”

Of course it wasn’t. The smell of his blood must have burnt her lungs. He was only giving her more pain fighting against her instincts. But that couldn’t be compared to the pain she must have felt upon being seen in that state.

“I really do love you,” he told her. She stopped struggling and pulled her head back to look him in the eyes.

“What did you say?” she asked him.

“I love you.”

She stared at him just like she had back when he had kissed her that night- like he was crazy. And also like she loved him despite that. Because of that, Karma grinned.

She buried her head into his chest and hugged him back, digging her nails into his shirt. “Me too,” she mumbled, voice muffled. Karma felt her breaths even out as she regained control over body and eventually stopped trembling. He kissed the crown of her hair.

“I think I’ll keep cooking pork from now on,” he informed her when she seemed stable again.

This made Manami break off the embrace. “Better me cooking than that!” she responded in a terrified voice.

Karma’s laughter filled the kitchen, shortly thereafter followed by Manami’s chuckle.

“If it really doesn’t bother you-” she said when they sat back down, “-can I have seconds?”

Manami loved fluffy socks. Her toes curled in the soft paradise, warming her up on the inside. She knew it was impossible for anything to raise the actual temperature of her body- save for Karma’s teasing remarks- but fluffy socks worked miracles on brightening her mood.

What was even better than fluffy socks was wearing them after an exhausting day and accompanying them by two other objects that served to put her in high spirits: a cup of steaming hot tea and a good book.

Manami sipped her tea and leaned the mug against her chest, letting the steam tickle her nose. Her glasses blurred, but she didn’t bother to take them off. Instead, she closed her eyes and leaned against the pillows, taking in the scent of her house.

It used to smell like lavender and old books, but now hints of cologne and spices lingered in her apartment. The aroma that ruled over her house was the scent of him, though. It impregnated every pillow, every carpet and even her own clothes.

She hadn’t seen him the last week, and she was worrying the smell would fade away. He was preparing for an infiltration mission that, as far as she knew, was supposed to be carried out tonight. She checked her phone for any calls- there were none. Manami’s heart squeezed, but she tried arguing that he knew what he was doing. He was going to show up at her work again the next day, grinning as per usual.

The doorbell startled her, the jolt of surprise causing her to spill the tea all over the couch and the carpet. She cursed under her breath and made for the kitchen to grab a towel, but the doorbell rang again. Suspicious, Manami changed course, clutching the book in her hands. She never got visitors so late at night.

She stepped quietly, ready to use her novel as a weapon if need arose. The third time the doorbell rang it was longer and it sent shivers down Manami’s spine. A very bad premonition crept its way into her head and nestled into her heart. She almost jumped the last few steps to the door. The sweet smile was unmistakeable.

Book clutched so tight into one hand her fingers went white, heart racing and feet trembling, she peeked through the eyefish lense. The color red burnt her retina and she unlocked her door in quick moves, finding the locks instinctively. She didn’t dare take her eye from the sight. All of her fears coming to life when she banged it against the wall.

“Good evening,” Karma greeted her with a tired smile. The scar on his face crooked when his lips curled and sent shots of pain through him.

She pulled him in and locked the door behind them again, grabbing his hand and leading him in the living room wordlessly. Their way was marked by a trail of blood droplets and his hand was sticky from the dried blood.

That was not how she wanted to see him again. He was ravished, his suit blood stained in more places than one, his body scarred in more places than one. Her nostrils flared with the smell of fresh, human blood, but her instincts weren’t nearly strong enough to overcome the fear that spider-walked through every fiber of her body.

She had no idea how to react or what to say. The best wisest choice was probably not to talk at all- she feared being unable to close her mouth once she opened it. Her control only took her so far. After all, his blood generally smelled good, his open wounds were outright inviting, poisonously sweet.

“Before you yell at me for coming to your place, I know that’s not exactly the wisest choice,” Karma said. The long sentence made him cough, causing the bloodstain on his shirt to spread further into the fabric. She was going to burn it later.

“Stop talking,” Manami hissed through clenched teeth, taking out band aids, bandages and disinfectant from her first-aid kit. Before she turned back to him, she put a hair pin on her nose, just of block off the smell.

He unbuttoned his shirt without waiting for her to instruct him. The wound on his abdomen wasn’t lethal, but it was big enough to become nasty if not disinfected thoroughly.

Manami ignored his jolts of pain as she applied the disinfectant to his wounds. Karma didn’t say anything either. The cut seemed like the work of a dagger, a swift and well delivered cut. The only thing Manami could be thankful for was that no bullets were involved. That would have been impossible to operate with her scarce ustensils.

Only when she tied the bandage up did she finally open her mouth, letting all of the words she had stored up overflow. “What happened out there?! I thought you were supposed to infiltrate, not fight to your death. And get yourself treated at a hospital first! You can’t just enter a vampire’s house as a pre-prepared meal either! Are you an idiot?!”

He watched her with a look that mixed fondness with an apology, caressing her face with a hand. Manami felt the trace of blood it left on her face, still warm and appetizing, even through her blocked nostrils. However, she schooled her body to stay still. She wasn’t aware when the warmth of his blood mixed with her own salty tears.

He picked the hairclip from her nose and threw it on the table, pulling her on the couch next to him. Standing up probably hurt too much. Manami felt a shot of his own pain through her and placed a hand over his, on her cheek. Hers was frozen against his.

“To answer your-” he started, but winced at the pain.

“Don’t talk so much,” she advised him. She had never seen him so beat-up, so vulnerable. The always-in-charge Karma looked human and frail.

“It was supposed to be a spying mission, but it turned out to be a trap. Damned be Asano,” Karma spat and ran his other hand over his freshly-bandaged wound.

“You infiltrated Lord Asano’s house?” Manami asked in shock. His mansion was way too well guarded for only a handful of people to get in.

“No. His son’s. But he was one step ahead of us- he turned the house into a trap and moved away.” The man frowned of the memory. Manami knew just how much he hated failing.

She looked away from him, picking a fresh bandage for his cheek. His sorrowful voice delivered a damaging hit to whatever managed to escape unscratched in her heart.

“It was horrible. He had high technology and hitmen all ready for us. Chiba and Hayami managed to take down a few, but they didn’t left unwounded either.”

“And you?” Manami placed a compress on his cheek, not bearing to meet his golden eyes.

“I was the head of the mission, so I guess I got the worst of it.” She heard the sad smile in his voice. “I got in a brawl with an assassin. Let me tell you- your vampires have some amazing force when they want to crack someone’s skull open.” She knew he was trying to make light of the situation. He felt her trembling under his touch and tried again, “Well, at least not even vampires are immune to paralysing spray.”

Manami’s stomach did a flip and she cupped Karma’s face, feeling the need to touch him. To know he was really there. To know he was alive. He smiled at her, wiping away sweat she didn’t know had formed on her brow. At least the tears had dried, leaving only a trace of washed blood on her face.

She pointed to his biggest wound fearfully.

“A petty last attack from one of the hitmen. Chiba knocked him unconscious before he could stab anybody else.”

Manami guessed she must have been paler than usual, because Karma pushed his forehead against hers.

“I’m here. I’m okay now.”

No, he was not.

“Chiba and Hayami had smaller wounds, so they treated them at the ministry. I-” he tightened the grasp on her hand, “I needed to check you were safe.”

Manami doubted lord Asano would target her after he had left three humans in a house full of vampire assassins, but that certainly wasn’t impossible. She gritted her teeth.

“I’m sorry,” Manami was all she could say.

“It’s not your fault. This is my job. Besides, I should have figured it was a trap. It was way too easy to track him down.”

“You shouldn’t have to worry about me when you’re so beaten up.”

Karma cringed. Manami knew he had a good hunch of what she was thinking, but she said it before he could contradict her.

“I never realised just how dangerous your job was,” Manami whispered. “And how our relationship could make it even more so.” She was a danger  to him. The word haunted her. She hated saying it aloud as much of Karma hated hearing it. He got out fine now, but he could end up in much nastier situations in the future.

“Don’t ever say that again,” Karma answered in a voice that admitted no comeback. “My work has always been dangerous. That’s what makes it fun,” he said with one of his trademark smirks, making Manami simper despite the situation.

She threw her hands around his neck, ignoring the smell of his fresh blood that awakened her animalistic instincts The thought that she was the danger almost drove her insane. And yet he still wanted her around- and she was selfish enough to stay.

“You scared the hell out of me,” she said.

“I’m sorry.” He circled her waist with an arm, pulling her closer. She closed her eyes, listening to his heartbeats. He was alive. She always seemed to forget just how easy to kill humans were. She buried her nose in his hair, trying to get rid of the blood smell. And then she noticed it.

“Karma,” she warned him, pointing to his fingers. He watched the blood trickle down his fingers and wiped it off his destroyed shirt.

“Sorry, almost got your carpet,” he apologised.

“That is not the issue!” Manami exclaimed in exasperation, getting another bandage ready. This cut was superficial, but any exposure to air made it a target for more microbes. And for Manami’s hunger.

“Manami,” Karma stopped her as she prepared to wrap his palm. “I have wondered this for a while, but why do you always refuse to drink my blood?”

She froze midair, squinting her eyes at him. “We’ve been over this before. I don’t know if I can stop once I start,” she spoke evenly.

“You just treated me. I think you can control yourself pretty well.”

“This and drinking it are different,” she explained. Besides…

“You’re hiding something from me, aren’t you?” Karma inquired with his freakishly accurate intuition. Of course he’d see through her. “What’s your true reason?” he pressed.

“That…” He was watching her intently, not missing any of her movements. She breathed in deeply. He had every right to know. “Do you believe in soulmates?”

“No,” he responded immediately. “I don’t think some sort of ‘fate’ decides who you’re destined for.”

“Well vampires do,” she informed. “They think each of us has a soulmate. And they say you’ll know who that is- once you drink their blood.”

“So you’re saying they go around drinking people’s and vampires’ blood alike, looking for a soulmate?” Karma questioned. “Seems counterproductive to me,” he told her with a smirk.

Manami rolled her eyes, “We aren’t that desperate.”

“Then what about you? Do you think it’s true?” He asked her with a serious look.

The scientist within found it stupid. The vampire experience contradicted her, though. She had seen so many vampire couples simply knowing how their partner felt, as if their souls were bound. She had been hearing stories about soulmates since she was a mere child. Kayano was absolutely obsessed with researching it.

“I-I don’t know,” Manami admitted. “I’ve always been told I’ll just know once I drink his blood so I…” the words refused to get out.

“So you’re afraid I’m not it,” Karma remarked coldly.

“No!” Manami strongly opposed the idea. In fact, she wasn’t even sure it worked with humans- vampires were so against the idea of being bound to a human they kept no such records. “I mean- I love you, Karma!” she blurted. She needed him to understand that she didn’t care whether he was her soulmate or not, but that it mattered to her society. To his chances of ever being turned into one of her own.

“Then does it matter?” he asked with an indecipherable look.

Manami gulped. “Then it shouldn’t matter to you either if I refuse to drink it,” she tried.

“But it does, Manami. Because you’re always restraining yourself around me. I don’t want you to always fear losing your head around me.”

“What if I can’t stop myself?” she asked fearfully, glancing at his wound. It lured her to get a taste. She gulped down her desire.

“I’ll stop you then,” he assured her with a gentle smile.

The blood was trickling down his fingers again. Manami felt a pit open up in her stomach. She was dead-scared of not feeling whatever she was supposed to feel. However, she could imagine no other man to spend her eternity with, so she closed her eyes and let the smell of his blood feel her lungs.

And then she drank it.

It was like an explosion of taste. It was sweet and salty at the same time, and it was extremely dense, yet it flew out of his cut seamlessly. As soon as she tasted it, she knew she craved more, she knew she needed more. It was just like when he had kissed her for the first time- once she knew the feeling, she couldn’t live without it.

Was this what a soulmate was? A person without whose presence you couldn’t imagine life anymore?

She suddenly felt a jab of pain on her left wrist and then the spot burned and glowed bright red. A jolt of surprise waved through her as she observed her wrist. There was something there- a mark, a drawing…

A tattoo.

It looked like a stylised flower, its complicated model waving its way as it burnt into her skin, flaring red. It was beautifully intricate, so much so, that it was hard for Manami to take her eyes from it.

She looked up at Karma to see his eyes widen in surprise as he examined his own wrist.

He had the same model.

Manami blinked once. Twice. And then she felt her cheeks damp and her vision blurry. She let out a sob of relief and felt Karma’s hand on her face, his warm wrist resting against her neck. He kissed her softly, wiping away the happy tears from her eyes.

“Are you certain about this?” Manami asked again, suddenly feeling like the door they were facing was so imposing it could crush her.

“Isn’t it kinda late to back out now?” Karma chuckled, squeezing her hand. “They’re gonna love you, I guarantee it.”

“If you say so,” she half-heartedly agreed. Karma knocked on the impassible door. With each second that went by, Manami’s heart beat faster and the sound of steps echoing inside drummed in her ears.

When someone finally opened the door, Manami jerked. A beautiful red-headed woman stood in the entry. She blinked at them a few times before her face split in two with a familiar smirk.

“Honey,” she yelled, “it’s a girl! Karma brought a girl!”

Manami felt the mark on her wrist grow warm and she glanced sideways at Karma. It was almost unnoticeable, but the blush was definitely there.

“Are you done yelling the newest gossip out loud?” Karma rolled his eyes and stepped inside, dragging Manami after him.

“That’s not a very warm greeting, Karma,” his mother smirked at him.

The man smirked back, “It’s just as warm as the weather we had to wait in.”

A giggle escaped Manami’s lips, but it went unnoticed as mother and son kept going at their comeback contest. She had tried imagining what his parents would be like ever since he announced her she was invited to have dinner with them, but it didn’t cross her mind that his mother would be a feminine version of him.

“They’re at it as soon as they see each other,” the masculine voice she had heard earlier spoke. Manami looked in its direction to see a well-built man with Karma’s golden eyes and black hair. He smiled softly at her, the same smile Karma wore when he was genuinely happy. “I’m sorry they’re being so stubborn.”

“It’s nothing,” Manami assured him, giggling again. “They are rather entertaining. Oh!” she suddenly remembered, handing him a gift. “This is not much, but please accept it!”

“That’s nice of you, miss… ?”

“Okuda. Manami Okuda,” she bowed.

“Okuda-san. I am Akabane Ryunosuke, Karma’s father,” he bowed in return.

“And you bring in a cute girl like this without even telling me?” Karma’s mother teased him, earning Manami’s attention. “Isn’t that just being mean to you parents?”

“Mother please, if I told you I was bringing my girlfriend to dinner, you would have dug up all the blackmail material you had on me,” he answered in return. “I couldn’t give you such a chance, or I wouldn’t be a fit tactician.”

“That’s my son,” she admitted, patting his back. “Now then, introductions!” she suddenly changed gears, spinning on her heels to face Manami. “Akabane Urara,” she presented herself, hugging Manami out of nowhere.

“Okuda Manami,” she answered, hugging the woman back. It was quite an unusually warm welcome, and that made her heart flutter.

“Manami-chan, you’re so cute!” The woman pulled back to study her better. “My my, when my son told me we had guests for dinner, I thought he meant Nagisa. Are you a vampire too?”

Manami felt her blood freeze in her veins. The woman was too direct, and she seemed so nonchalant about it that she didn’t know whether it was a trick or a genuine question. The Akabane family seemed to have an inborn gift for confusing people.

“Yes she is,” Karma just as nonchalantly answered, taking his coat off.

“That’s awesome!” the woman exclaimed, before returning to her son with a suspicious look. “You didn’t blackmail her with your position, did you?”

“I don’t succumb to such petty tactics,” he countered.

Manami didn’t find the appropriate reaction, but Akabane-san came to her rescue before she needed to. “Okuda-san probably wants to sit down, so why don’t we continue this discussion in the living room?”

Urara-san grabbed her hand and led her into the spacious living room. It wasn’t extravagantly furnished, but Manami could tell they didn’t lack money. As if the location didn’t give it away- they lived in a small town 40 km away from the capital, in one of its residential areas. She wondered what kind of childhood Karma had here.

“I should go look over dinner,” her saviour announced. “Karma, come with me?” When the man glared at his father the older one shrugged, “I can’t trust the house not blowing up with you and your mother in the same room.”

“Come on dear, we have a great relationship!” Urara-san faked being hurt.

“I never said you didn’t. However, I doubt that that great relationship will make Okuda-san want to rest any longer with us,” he explained. Words failed to express how thankful Manami was for this man’s kind smile and small encouragements.

“Please don’t freak her out, mother.”

“If she could stand you, I think I won’t pose a problem,” the woman grinned.

Karma ignored her and instead addressed Manami, “If she’s about to do something to you, just scream, okay?”

“I think I can handle it by myself,” Manami assured him.

Urara-san waved the men good-bye with a sweet smile plastered on her face. When she whipped her head around with Manami, a trademark Akabane grin replaced it. “Wanna see photos from Karma’s childhood?”

***

“And this one is from middle school,” she pointed to a small version of Karma with tamer hair.

“He’s been into cardigans ever since, I see.”

“He always said it was much easier to move around in them,” the older woman approved.

Manami grew to like Urara-san over the past half an hour they spent going through albums. She was actually quite fond of Karma, from her stories of his baby days to how he became a master of the game of tag.

“Oh, I always wanted to do this! What’s a matter for if not for embarrassing her child?” Urara-san sighed delighted. “Manami-chan, what about your childhood?” she asked, eyes lit by curiosity.

“Mine? Nothing amazing, really.” Urara-san’s disappointed look made her admit, “Well, I used to work in my parent’s laboratory.”

“That’s right, you’re a scientist, aren’t you? So what did you do? Experiments?”

“More like trying to find something to reduce the damage made by the atomic bomb. My parents were both against the cold ways of the Second World War.”

Urara-san stared at her for a moment before bursting into laughter. “This is why vampires are so much fun!” she said, wiping a tear from her eyes. “You don’t look a day over 28 yet you actually lived through World War II!”

A blush crept up Manami’s cheeks. “Well that’s-”

“That is amazing!” the woman exclaimed. “I see why Karma wanted to work-”

“Are you done embarrassing your son?” Akabane-san’s voice echoed from the door frame, interrupting Urara-san’s incoming story. “If yes, he needs help setting the table.”

“I’m coming, I’m coming,” she yawped. “Why must you be such a killjoy?”

Akabane-san kissed her forehead on her way to the dining room upstairs in compensation. Once she disappeared in the kitchen, he took her place on the couch, next to Manami.

“Has she filled your head with stories of Karma?” he asked, mildly amused by his wife’s excitement.

“She did, but I don’t mind. It was endearing.”

“I doubt he would be to pleased to hear you know of them.”

“I think he already knows,” Manami whispered, and Akabane-san agreed with a nod and a smile.

“I think that’s Urara’s way of doting on him. She didn’t get the chance to when Karma was a baby,” he confessed.

“How so?” Manami asked. Once she noticed his faraway look, she added, “You don’t have to answer if that’s too personal.”

“It’s fine. Karma would have told you sooner or later, anyway.” He breathed in and fixed his look on a spot in the carpet work, though it seemed like he was watching into his family’s past. “We were gone a lot when Karma was little. Business trips all over the world took up our already limited time with him. That’s why he grew so independent and built walls all around him,” he smiled sadly. He ripped his look from the carpet and looked at Manami. “And yet, he never came to hate us. I don’t really think we deserve to be forgiven so easily, but that’s just the way he is.”

Manami could perfectly picture that. A child version of Karma, detaching himself from the other snot to get hurt. But deep inside…

“He’s actually a soft person,” Manami said.

Akabane-san gave her a doting look. “He’s just like his mother. Thank you, Okuda-san,” he said, “for taking care of him.”

“No no,” she stammered, “it’s more like I’ve been in his care.”

A moment of silence fell between them, but Manami enjoyed it. It wasn’t tense or charged, but rather, it was a moment of mutual understanding.

“Doesn’t me being a vampire bother you?” she asked in a quiet voice, finally voicing what has been on her mind the entire visit.

“We learnt to trust Karma long ago. If you managed to bring down his walls and make him confide in you, I think that’s proof enough you deserve our trust, as well. Even more so if you are a vampire,” he smiled.

“Thank you,” was all she could answer without her voice breaking.

“Dinner is ready~” Karma sing songed his way into the living room. “Wow, what’s with the serious tone?” he asked once he sensed the mood.

“Seriously, did somebody die?” Urara-san asked too, mirroring Karma’s expression.

“No, we were just enjoying a quiet moment without you two,” Akabane-san answered in his usual voice. “You know, it’s a thing people actually do.”

“There is no moment without us,” Karma drily said.

“Exactly. We are the salt and the pepper,” Urara-san agreed, as if disappointed with her husband.

Manami chuckled at the duo.

“Young lady, are you laughing at somebody older?” Urara-san warned her.

“Technically speaking, I’m the oldest one here,” she corrected her.

“And we have a winner,” Karma proudly declared. “Prize: dinner. Come on, I’m hungry,” Karma grabbed her arm and pulled her upstairs. His excitement was so contagious it made the girl smile. Karma had been right- she had nothing to worry about.

Maybe one thing to worry about.

“Karma,” she questioned him with an accusing look. Her nostrils predicted hell was about to break loose.

He ignored her and proudly announced once they made their way in the kitchen, “Tonight, we’ll be serving bloody pork!”

The mark on Karma’s wrist blinked dully, its lila color glowing in rhythm with Manami’s breaths. Karma had needed some time to come to terms with the fact that this tattoo was actually a soulmate thing. Last time he checked, he was in a word populated by vampires, not in an alternative universe where drinking your soulmate’s blood gives you matching flowery patterns.

A few months later, though, he was positive that was was the most beautiful thing he had laid his eyes on. Not person- that would have been Manami herself. But this tattoo or mark or whatever vampires called it was beautiful.

What was special about it was that it linked Manami to him no matter how far away she was. Granted, if she was very far away, it faded, but it never disappeared.

The first time it had changed color, Karma checked his forehead for a fever. When he received it, it was red like his blood. The next morning, however, it had turned lila. When he asked Manami what the meaning of that was over breakfast, she had no clue- hers was now golden.

They didn’t really pay it any mind until Karma suddenly felt his hand burning and saw his mark glowing purple. He was in the middle of a meeting, but excused himself to the bathroom to call Manami and check if she was alright. She seemed just fine- in fact, she was in high spirits because her project had been approved for testing.

With time and some research, as well as eventually giving in and asking Kayano, Karma found out that the tattoo was a very special link between soulmates and changed according to their feelings. Each tattoo was unique in its own color symbolism, but basically each of them transmitted how the other one was feeling.

“I haven’t seen one of those in ages,” Mr. Karasuma had said when he noticed it through Karma’s shirt. Vampires weren’t really subtil with their glowing tattoos. “Congratulations, Akabane.”

It was the first time Karma had seen his superior genuinely happy for his welfare.

Manami’s standard color turned out to be lila. When she was extremely pleased, the flower glowed purple. For Karma’s state of mind, the default setting was golden, though more often than not his teasing turned it into brown. Him being honestly happy was signaled by yellow, Manami claimed.

The only colour that was common for both of them was red. Shining crimson red meant either of their blood had been spilled. Even with a minor paper cut, the tattoo went red and Manami frantically called Karma to make sure he wasn’t beaten up again. Karma had to keep the glowing red concealed for the monthly five days in which Manami suffered from the curse of being born a woman. At least he knew when to buy her tampons, he argued when she groaned about his involvement in her pain.

As beautiful as the thing was, it came with its downsides, the biggest of which being that Karma couldn’t hide himself when he was worried. Manami’s tattoo turned silver whenever he was mulling over something.

“I’ve got something you want,” Asano said.

Karma narrowed his eyes at him. “What could you possibly have that will make you help overthrow your father?”

“I can turn you into a vampire,” the bastard said, smirking as his words sunk in. karma schooled his features into remaining neutral. He couldn’t jump at the bait.

“Why would you turn your mortal enemy into an immortal one?” Karma questioned his judgement.

“Because you and I have something in common- we want the human society to survive. The Lord doesn’t.”

Asano knew just how dim the Ministry’s chances of ending Lord Asano’s reign were. They barely stood a chance uniting their forces. Karma gritted his teeth as he pondered the offer. It was hard to refuse. Ever harder when his future with Manami balanced the fate of humanity.

Karma knew what Asano wanted- for the vampires to be acknowledge by society once again. For them to hold positions of power in the govern. It wasn’t ideal, but it was better than “survival of the fittest”, as the older Asano called it. That was just sugarcoating the mass homicide he was planning. Humans were just stepping stones for the Asano family. One wanted to destroy them after making his way to the top so that he wouldn’t have anything to drag him down later. The other one wanted an amortizor in case he fell.

“There are terms you will have to agree to,” Karma answered after a minute of running the possibilities through his head. Humans were doomed anyway- desperate times called for desperate measures. “You will be called to the Ministry in the following week to discuss the official terms.”

“I knew you’d be sensible about this,” Asano grinned.

“Only so that I’ll make you regret your promise for the rest of eternity,” Karma grinned back.

The mark had turned not silver, but white that day. Manami didn’t know what to make of it, and Karma told her he was exhausted and under the weather, so he was probably just unstable. He couldn’t give her false hope.

He watched her again, curled into him peacefully. They had come so far- she could now sleep next to him without fearing she would snap; he was able to let her draw out bigger quantities of blood from him, although she mostly opposed the idea; they were able to be together despite the odds.

And he was one step closer to spending an eternity with her- that made it worth any risk.

The tattoo started glowing stronger as Manami blinked awake.

“Morning,” Karma greeted her. She blinked away the sleep and watched him through heavy eyelashes. And a good thing too, because she would have noticed the yellow glow of her tattoo otherwise.

Karma accaparated her attention with a kiss, placing a hand over her wrist. He knew it was futile, though- happiness irradiated from every inch of his being.

[gleefail]

Glee Memories: 1x11 HAIROGRAPHY

A long, long time ago, as Glee was approaching graduation in Season 3, I found myself nostalgic with some rare free time on my hands. So I decided to rewatch the series from the beginning and jot down some memories, discrepancies that have arisen since, fave quotes, tally solos - all that good stuff, strictly for shits and giggles.

8 years later (eek!) and once more I find myself with an unexpected abundance of free time. With so many revisiting or being newly introduced to the show between binge watching during Quarantine and all the tragedy that has surrounded the show since it went off the air, I figured I’d finish what I started. And by finish, I mean go through the end of S3. Cause I truly cannot acknowledge what happened after that. Except for 5B.

Kicking this off by reposting the first 15 episodes I already went through. Enjoy!

1x11 HAIROGRAPHY “I’m the Fine Arts Administrator or something.”

“Coach Sylvester didn’t tell me to do this”

Will is saying it’s unfair if Sue leaks their setlist or video of them performing to their competitors…um…since then and now hasn’t New Directions spied on Vocal Adrenaline in rehearsal, found out they were doing Gaga, and watched black and white video of Unique rehearsing with VA? Yeah, I thought so. Was it ever said to be unfair then? Nope. So…is the show trying to say that ND has become the very thing they hated and is the new VA, breaking rules, with no scruples, etc.? Doubtful they’d purposely do anything that deep. It’s most likely just a double-standard and/or continuity issue. #oops.

“And if you can’t take Muhammed to the mountain, then you gotta get Muhammed to bring the mountain…down…to his house…Muhammed’s house…wherever he’s staying.”

I totally forgot Eve was a guest star on Glee!

“Afasia! Give Mr. Schuester his wallet back!”

“What kinda messed up school are you people runnin?” RIGHT?!

“Our showchoir has to practice out in the rec yard. This is Ohio. We have weather.” PREACH!

Jane Adams’ Academy. Okay, so there are like, crazy hidden peeps in this number. Three dancers from So You Think You Can Dance that got pretty far (Kerrington, Comfort, and …crap, I forgot the third! I thought it was Lauren cause I was like “um..she’s in Vocal Adrenaline too. What’s that about?” but now I can’t find the third girl) and then there’s a girl that was a friend of a friend that I hung out with a few times in college. Small world. :) Oh, and also the assistant choreographer of the show!

Listen, that was not Hairography. They ARE really good dancers and there vocals were NOT so-so. What you’re gonna do in this ep is Hairography, Rachel. That was just awesome vocals and dancing with lots of hair as well.

Haha, Artie’s wig is basically Joe Hart dreads. Nice.

“You worry too much, Terri. Mom smoked and drank a bottle of Reuniti on ice every night when she was pregnant with us and we’re totally normal.”

Finn is pretending to be a dinosaur in the choir room. #BlessFinnsHeart

When you are plotting a makeover for a girl who’s into your boyfriend so that they’ll spend more time together and she can rope him in, all so you can spend time ‘test driving’ another guy to see if he’s boyfriend/father material…there might be something wrong with your relationship. S’all I’m sayin’

“Hey Kurt. Can I pick your little pink brain for a second?”

“Why hello, Quinn. To what do I owe the honor? I do believe this is the first time you’ve ever spoken to me.”

“Makeovers are like crack to me.”

“Rachel somehow manages to dress like a grandmother and a toddler at the same time.”

“You need something to distract from your horrible personality. Most of the time I find it hard to be in the same room with you. Especially this one. Which looks like where Strawberry Shortcake and Holly Hobby come to hook up.”

How is Rachel in love with Finn? Like, past crush, straight up in love with? Really? How? When? Based on what?

“In short, she had to dress like a ho” re: what Sandy had to do to snag Zuko. Truth. Terrible lesson for little gals. But truth.

“I’m keeping my baby” Yeah. You probably don’t wanna do that, Quinn.

“I run a Glee Club at a school for the deaf. You think I’m rollin’ around in deaf choir money?!” Haha. Except the whole ‘deaf in one ear from scarlet fever’ thing. Again, not funny Glee. Cheap jokes are never funny. And they’re ugly on you.  

“Well you don’t have to make fun of me with those hand gestures…”

So Kendra’s solution is to kidnap Quinn and steal her baby. Oh Kendra. Oh wait, they’re not gonna steal it – they’re gonna convince her to give it away by making her babysit Kendra’s terrible children. That’s right.

“You got the beauty but…I got the brains and the beauty.”

“Ok guys, from the top!”

“You look like a …sad…clown hooker.”

Rachel just found out Kurt sabatoged her. So…I guess he kinda threw the first punch/gauntlet down in that relationship, not her. My bad.

Puck thinks one night of babysitting demons means him and Quinn proved they can do ‘this parenting thing’. Hmm…about that, Puck…

and yet again with the beating over the head with the theme of the episode: distraction. Yay. :/

Santana Lopez going all Lima Heights for the first time. YES!

(signed) “They look absolutely crazy.”

I have cried every single time I see Imagine. Including right now. There’s just something so vulnerable and beautiful about it all.

The silence and just signed ‘applause’ at the end. Just. So lovely. Gets me every time. Gah!

Aw Puck! You were doing so well and now you went and blew it with your sexting and talking about being a dude and Quinn not giving it up since the night you knocked her up. Doofus.

It’s a ridiculous storyline, but I still find it sweet that Quinn says she wants her baby to have a good father and that Mr. Schue would be a good dad.

“Can we be in love again?”

Man. It’s sad to look at this now and remember that Finn actually chose Quinn over Rachel but Quinn kinda picked Finn cause Puck made a dumb move with his texting tomfoolery and doofus teenage boy comments…or maybe that’s just how I’m seeing it. I dunno.

Tina gets a solo!!! And I love it. I use this song a lot as well for warm-ups. For some reason it always reminds me of one particular student. Not sure if it’s cause she reminds me of Tina (the team player aspect) or if she was the first one to request it one day or what. But I love True Colors. :)

aaaaand Sue is NOW leaking the set-list. Way to give her the idea, Will!

True Colors is so good. I miss this Glee. So much. So far in my rewatching, even with Rachel tipping the scales, the screentime and solos and show in general is SO much more focused on ensemble. I love that. I MISS that.

SOLOS: Quinn (1), Artie (2), Mercedes (2), Rachel (1), Finn (1), Tina (1)

[maggieisalarrie]

Titles: T

take me for what i am (who i was meant to be) by howlouvely (8k)

Too late, he realizes that the handsome stranger spoke to him and Louis has yet to respond. He puts on his most dazzling smile before speaking. “Why yes, I must be. Are you one of the lovely people competing for my affections, then?”  

Instead of confirming his suspicions, though, the man laughs in a way that is both inappropriately loud and extremely endearing. “Unfortunately not,” he gets out through his chuckles. “I’m Harry. I’ll be your host today.”

Louis is dealing with heartache. Niall signs him up for a dating show to help him move on.

take my hand (and lead me home) by tumsa (13k)

AU in which every time a person falls in love with their soulmate, a red line, like a tally mark, appears on their wrists. When their love is requited, the tally mark turns black, and turns into a scar when the one they love dies. Harry with no tally marks falls for Louis with all of his tally marks scarred.

take my hand (and my heart and soul) by bananasandboots (46k)

Harry feels nauseous when he opens his mouth. "Hey. Um, hi. It's me," he mumbles before realizing with a jolt that Louis might not have his number anymore. "It's Harry... Styles," he tacks on, screwing his eyes shut and pinching the bridge of his nose. This was a terrible idea.

There's silence on the other end for a long time. Harry understands. He shouldn't have called. He tries not to let the static swallow him whole.

"I – yeah. Hi," Louis finally answers, slowly, awkwardly. "I um. Sorry. I heard about your accident. You're alright?"

Or, the one where Harry hasn't spoken to his best friend in sixteen months and can't remember why.

Take Off Your Running Shoes by polkadotpeacoat (55k)

AU- Harry is the fit supermarket check out boy. Louis wants to sleep with him. Summer romance ensues.

take your time rolling up your sleeves by aniloquent (5k)

“Lovely. Could you whip us up a strawberry shortcake with a message on it?” Harry nods again, drawing his notepad from one of the pockets of his apron and waits for the message. “‘We all knew the cat was going to leave you for something better.’” Harry sputters while the raven-haired boy elbows his friend harshly.

“Louis,” he chides. “You’re such an absolute dick, you know that?”

Louis shrugs as a little scowl pulls at thin lips. “What the fuck am I supposed to put on it? ‘Sorry me and Zayn threw the fucking mutt out into traffic during a trash wrestling match and it decided to take a fucking hike?’” Zayn, he presumes, hits him again. Harry blinks.

-

Based on the twitter prompt "I work in a bakery and you keep coming in and asking me to write you weird messages on cakes"

taste on my tongue by bethaboo (78k)

Louis Tomlinson, second place winner on TXF four years ago, is looking to reinvent his career.

Harry Styles is a baker who is desperate for a bakery of his own.

Louis doesn't bake. Or cook. Or know how to use an oven.

Take Louis. Take Harry. Add in a heaping cup of sexual tension. Another cup of delicious (and not so delicious) food. A smidgen of competitive spirit. A dash of hopes and dreams. And you get Kitchen Wars, a TV show that promises to be the must-watch event of the fall.

Tell Me What You Want by stylinsoncity (11k)

"Harry is looking for a new roommate after Liam moves in with his girlfriend. After a few bad dates he’s done with men for the moment and wants to concentrate on school. That’s why he’s looking for a female or a straight male roomie. When Niall tells Louis about the free room he leaves that little detail out. Louis, desperately looking for a room, pretends to be straight, thinking it would be easy, until he discovers that Harry likes to be naked at home. His best female friend posing as his girlfriend doesn’t work very well either."

The Art of Reading Tea Leaves by evelynegrey & fortunefavorsthebrave (29k)

"If he were such a good person, he'd be in here," he smiles jokingly. "You know that house elitist stuff doesn't make sense, right?" It's a comfortably old debate, one they both know the outcome of, and Harry takes it gratefully. "Harry Potter was Gryffindor, is all I'm saying," Niall argues easily and Harry opens up his books again. "And Voldemort was Slytherin," he fills in with a smile. "But Romeo was a Montague, you know. A rose by any other name and all that." "What?" "Never mind."

Hogwarts AU where Harry decides to take Divination without his friends, Niall wants to get laid, Liam and Zayn are the dream team in Potions and Louis has a secret. He also happens to be a Slytherin.

the beast you made of me by Ashtarok (5k)

The bell tinkled, and Harry froze as an overpowering scent, musky and thick, crisp and slightly sweet, yet utterly masculine, delightfully tickled his senses. Harry's eyes slowly slid up to see the source of this wonderful scent, and his breath was taken away at the sex god before him, all muscled and compact and utterly screaming of Alpha. Icy blue eyes stared him down, set off by sharp cheekbones, a stubbled jaw that looked yummy enough to nibble on, and caramel hair, which was lazily gelled, a few pieces falling over his forehead. His skin was tan, his hands strong and steady, his biceps still clearly visible even through his jacket. Every fiber of Harry's being stood at full alert.

The one where Harry's a vanilla-sweet Omega and Louis walks into his bakery one day.

the boys of fall by godgavemelou (21k)

“And everyone, this is Harry Styles. He’s going to be our starting quarterback this year.”

Louis looks at him, the tall and lanky Harry Styles, and takes it all in. He’s got hair to his shoulders that curls at the ends, tattoos all down his arms, and a bright smile on his face as the team cheers him on. He’s lean and fit, and absolutely beautiful, and Louis hates him to the core.

OR an american football au where the boys play for the university of tennessee, and harry and louis quite hate each other.

The Dead of July by whimsicule (117k)

Being an Avenger means continuing to be Captain America and smiling and being honorable for the public and Harry does his best. But it doesn’t give him time to figure out who he is supposed to be once he takes off his uniform and puts the shield to the side. Just being Harry had always involved Louis, and Harry fears he doesn’t know how to exist without him.

or: Harry is Captain America, and Louis’ been dead for 70 years.

Part 1 of Avengers

The Finish Line (Is A Good Place For Us To Start) by LoadedGunn (122k)

Louis Tomlinson, one-time Formula 1 World Champion, is looking forward to the 2013 season. He’s got Zayn in his garage and Liam in his ear, he’s got Cowell Racing backing him despite former indiscretions, he’s got experience and the best race car out there. Not to mention he’s the only racer they have, after Oliver dropped out late last year.

It hasn’t occurred to him that Oliver would have to be replaced by February. That is, until he finds himself at a party celebrating Harry Styles leaving Ferrari for Cowell. Harry hotshot Styles, who broke a record last year and is probably looking to make a big splash. Harry Styles, who is talented and somewhat intimidating. Harry Styles, who left Ferrari for reasons unknown and seems kind of lonely and harmless in person. Lonely, harmless, hot as fuck. Whatever.

The first thing Louis does is take him under his wing. From there it’s nine months of slow-burning romance, the past catching up to them, turning into the human puppy pile that is OT5 and a lot of feelings until, of course, reaching the finish line.

The Flatmates by Centa0592 (47k)

Harry is a cheeky Alpha who vows never to settle down.

Louis is a hurt omega whose Alpha died just before they could bond officially.

Zayn is an artistic Alpha who doesn’t understand privacy, or personal space.

Liam is a curious Beta who is convinced the world is going to end.

And Niall is a drunk Beta who keeps falling asleep randomly without finishing his sentences….he might also suffer from narcolepsy. None of the lads know for sure.

Or

The story where five lads all respond to the same ad about an available flat and move in.

Part 1 of Life as we know it

The Fragmented Veil by missberrycake (28k)

In which Louis gets attacked one night in the dark. It changes his life, just not in the way he expected.

The King of Spades by hazmesentir (109k)

Undercover Metropolitan Police officer DC Louis Tomlinson has worked his way up the ranks of a prominent London crime family without raising suspicion, but when he finds himself pitted against a rising crime boss with a police background and a favoured employee by the name of Harry Styles, everything starts to unravel. Finding himself in the middle of an escalating war between two bosses whose bad blood runs deep into a violent past, Louis has to be even more careful where he steps in case his big secret catches up to him – and if it does, he knows he won't survive it.

Not to mention he's falling for someone he can't have – whose earnestness and honesty is a bright spot in a dark world – he can't sleep because his nightmares haunt him and he's in way over his head, but it's just a game, always just a game, and if Louis plays his cards right he might just make it out alive.

The Melody You Never Heard by bananasandboots (30k)

It's one last adventure. One last chance to be young and carefree. One final weekend before they take up their internships, their corporate positions, before they enter the real world, fresh out of university. Niall's his best mate. Liam's been there for him since they were lost, little freshmen, trying to find their ways through an overwhelming first year. Harry can't disappoint them, even if it means enduring four days with Louis.

Louis, who he does share a history with, a history he's never told anyone about, not even Niall, a history he hasn't brought up in three years because it's stupid and embarrassing and confusing.

Or, the one where Harry gets roped into a four-day camping trip with the boy who kissed him and never called back.

The Stars In Your Eyes Light Up The Sky by andthensusays (60k)

Once again, Harry’s life was on a fast track into seriously uncharted territory. He had known from the moment he’d woken up on that horrible morning that he would have no choice other than to come out. Publicly.

Harry Styles, the first publicly gay Prince of England in British History.

That would be his luck.

Or,

The one where Harry is a prince forced out of the closet and Louis is a boybander forced in. When they meet, everything changes.

The Sweetest Incantation by smittenwithlouis (41k)

Harry has been alive for decades, and yet he's never been as confused and dumbfounded. He's a witch, for God's sake. Can't get much weirder than all the magical things he's experienced throughout his lifetime. Never in a million years, however, would he have expected to be mere inches away from a hybrid.

Or: Harry is a witch who's still working on developing his powers and Louis is a werecat who falls into his life and turns it upside down.

The Things I’d Do To Wake Up Next To You by dirtymattress (36k)

AU. Harry wakes up to a pregnant Louis Tomlinson and a wedding band on his finger.

These Constant Stars by stylinsoncity (31k)

Louis’ career has nowhere to go but up. He’s living at the height of New York City on the precipice of an epic promotion. Life is good and only getting better. And then one day, things turn disastrous.

This is a story about life, death, and punk rockers turned guardian angels.

Title inspired by "Fool's Gold" by One Direction.

Part 1 of Guardian Angels

These Roads We Stumble Down by onewasturning (18k)

He’s completely drenched, not one millimetre of him not covered in rain, and the old sheepskin cover over the seat is probably going to stink afterwards from the damp. But even with what seems to be a constant tremor shaking his body, brown hair plastered to his forehead, and a blue tinge to his skin, he’s still probably the most gorgeous person that Harry has ever seen.

Or, Harry picks up a hitchhiker in Oxford, and it's a long ride to Glasgow.

This Road Leads Where Your Heart Is by LittleLostPieces (15k)

Alright, so Louis has a bit of a type is the thing. And as fit as his supermodel flatmate (Harry) may be, he isn't what Louis is looking for in a potential partner. That’s all. He’s not Louis’ type, with his miles of lanky limbs and his bright, boyish eyes. His impossibly tight, little body and infectious laughter are not what Louis wants. They're not. Really.

Three French Hems by 100percentsassy & gloria_andrews (20k)

In which Louis is a designer at Burberry and Harry spends December wearing Lanvin… and Lanvin… and Lanvin.

through the wire by Awriterwrites (11k)

“Mate. He’s like. I don’t know how to describe it.” Liam’s voice was on edge, a tremble in it that indicated he was either very nervous or extremely excited; unsure of what to do next. It was probably both.

All Harry could think about was LouisLouisLouis. He needed him so badly his body ached with it. His skin was crawling and his entire body felt explosive, ready to ignite at the slightest touch.

“Ok. Li? This is what you are going to do…” Louis took a deep breath, the intake of air audible through the wire, as he prepared to guide Liam through what was probably going to be the strangest most erotic, and possibly most awkward experience of his life.

trusting things beyond mistake by sarcasticfluentry (10k)

"Is that even possible?" asks Harry.

All of them stare at him for several seconds, and then Louis says, "What, coming untouched?"

"Christ," Zayn mutters, throwing his hands up. “This fucking band, I swear.”

...or, Harry wants to see if he can come without touching his cock and ends up getting more than he bargained for.

Truth Be Told (I Never Was Yours) by JustForTommo (77k)

Harry watches Louis as he scrunches up his nose and bites the end of a pen in concentration. He’s been working on seating arrangements for the past hour and getting more frustrated by the minute. Louis huffs out a breath and glances down at Harry with a soft smile on his lips before he returns to the task at hand. It’s easy, right then, for Harry to let himself believe that they’re planning a seating chart for their own wedding and bickering over who is going to sit where from a list of their own family members. He can let himself daydream about a white picket fence and a dog that they could have within the next year.

It’s like a cold slap in the face when Harry looks to the top of the page to see “Aiden and Louis Grimshaw” at the head table, and Harry has to mentally remind himself for the thousandth time that Louis is not his. Never was, really. He’s just the wedding planner that’s been in love with Louis since he was sixteen.

(or the one where Louis and Harry have a complicated past, Louis is getting married to someone that’s not Harry, and the universe has decided to have a laugh and make Harry the wedding planner.)

Tug-of-War by cherrystreet (63k)

Louis' husband dies suddenly and he is left with nothing. Well, not really nothing. He has Harry. And a St. Bernard puppy named Link, whom his late husband left behind for him. Louis takes care of Link and Harry takes care of Louis. Everything is okay until suddenly, it isn't.

Two Sugars, No Cream by loveyoulou (orphan_account) (8k)

Harry's a young, successful, and rich music producer under Simon Cowell. Louis' a college student, working part time at the local coffee shop while studying to be a pediatrician, just barely making ends meet. He has no idea who the cute boy is that keeps on popping up at his school and work is, or what Harry has in store for him.

Last edited: September 6, 2017

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