#okay I ended up editing it a bit but it's still weird and long winded

[faevi]

hello!!! I saw that you wrote lifeguard Levi before, requesting lifeguard Gojo, smut 🙏 🙏 🙏

Jellyfish Sting // Gojo.

Scenario: Ouch! Stung by a jellyfish. Good thing Lifeguard Gojo Satoru is here to save the day… Oh, and make you feel reeeaaaallll good.

Word Count: 16,681.

Content / Trigger Warnings: female reader (she/her), lifeguard!gojo, cunnilingus, blowjob, handjob, fingering, sexual intercourse, unprotected, creampie, exhibitionism, public, outdoors, beach sex, dirty talk, pet-names (mostly princess), a jellyfish sting(?), jokes of piss, big dick gojo, stomach bulge, phone call whilst sex happens, people walking by, spanking, massaging, praise, dom!gojo / taking orders, breathplay (via dick and blocking airways), weird position (idk if it has a name but on gojo’s shoulders as he holds you up as he . . .), rough, breast worshipping, finger sucking / consuming cum. all completely consensual.

I think that's it! Please (kindly) let me know if I missed something.

Note: A request is done, woo !! Again like I usually say - not my best. AHAHA. I try !! I didn’t proof-read or edit so forgive if there’s any mistakes, just ignooooore. Lifeguard Gojo is… drools. Very yum. I think that’s about it? ; - ; Thank you for waiting. If you’re reading this and enjoyed it, please let me know !! <333 I’m a slut for kind words. Like usual, I’ll try to do better with my writing. Also hopefully this one doesn’t get fl*gged like my other one :))))))))).

MINORS AND AGELESS BLOGS, PLEASE DO NOT INTERACT!!!

The sun is blazing hot even amongst the few clouds in the sky. If it wasn’t for the sunscreen, you were sure you’d be burnt to a crisp. Truth be told, you didn’t even want to be outside today but, your friends whined about wanting to go to the beach and what kind of friend would you be to deny them that? Still, the weather could be a lot worse than it is and it’s the perfect season for cute bikinis to wear.

You quickly glance down at yourself, admiring the shade of red of your bikini and the flimsy strings tied into cute bows before sighing out softly, feeling content to just sit beneath the large umbrella that you rented with your small group of friends. They’re near the shoreline, playfully splashing each other and there’s a pang of guilt within you for not joining them so quickly. “Come on, Y/N. You won’t die.” You mumble to yourself, shifting yourself from your laying position until you’re up on your feet, carefully bending down so your head doesn’t hit the umbrella. It’s just a bit of sun. Besides, there’s a nice breeze and lifeguards here to save you— If you really do end up in danger. You look over to the tall chair, squinting a little to inspect the lifeguard that’s on duty in this area.

Your eyes travel a bit south of his body and you feel like all of the air was just knocked out of you and leaving you winded. Okay, so maybe his figure is gorgeous. Well-defined muscles. Really, well defined. That must be an eight-pack and how is that realistically possible? Even his legs look nice and long. Soft white hair that makes your fingers twitch with the urge to touch. His skin is clearly well taken care of when he’s out in the sun most days. Wait a minute— Was he looking at you? Even with distance, you can clearly see his head is turned in your direction, sunglasses not truly covering his eyes that you swear are looking your way. No… He’s probably just checking the general area.

He’s smirking at you. You’ve been caught.

You feel the heat rise to your cheeks, thankful to see that his co-worker is suddenly grabbing his attention and so before you’re truly distracted, you stomp through the sand towards your friends. Whatever. You just wanted to double-check check someone was on duty. That’s all it is. “Y/N, finally!” One of your friends whines playfully, latching around your neck to cling to you. “We were wondering when you’d join us. Sitting all alone is boring, y’know.” Your friend continues and you laugh softly, gently patting her back. “I was playing the main character in hopes that the hot lifeguard would look my way.” You say, giggling along with your friends as you glance towards the lifeguard once more.

He’s off the seat now and you couldn’t ignore the obvious sight of tight red shorts low on his hips, the v-line tempting you to want to see further. You feel like some nasty side of you is starting to awaken. You didn’t even pay attention to his hot co-worker; long black hair tied up and your friend clinging onto you gushing about his smile. He’s cute, you couldn’t deny that but, the white-haired lifeguard… There’s something about him.

“Quickly, one of us needs to start drowning.” Your other friend says and you playfully smack her shoulder. “Let’s all just actually swim.” You say, dragging your friends into the warm salty water. It didn’t take long for you to fool around with your friends, briefly oblivious to a certain lingering gaze on your figure. Even with hatred towards the heat, you find yourself grateful for visiting the beach. It’s comforting; to be able to spend time playing around with your friends before the days get busy again.

You grin as you splash one of your friends in retaliation to her own and the pair of you try to dodge each other’s attacks before there’s a sly smile on her face and she floats closer. “Mister lifeguard really does love looking at you~.” She teases and your mouth opens to respond, only for a sharp cry to escape your lips. There’s a painful stinging sensation across your leg and out of instinct, you begin to kick your leg as you flail away from the general area. “What? What is it!” One of the friends says, frantically taking a hold of you.

Usually, you have a high tolerance for pain, but nothing could stop the tears from appearing and threatening to spill as your lower leg area throbs. “J-Jellyfish!” You gasp out your warning, grabbing a hold of your friend who was clinging onto you and begin to swim back to the shoreline before you stumble onto the sand. A mere jellyfish managed to brush its nasty tentacles up against your leg. You plop your ass down against the sand, bringing your leg closer to try and inspect the unpleasant sting, biting back your soft whimpers of pain. “It’s just a sting, don’t worry.” You try to reassure your group of friends who are surrounding you and showing obvious signs of panic. You could feel the area throb, witnessing as it swells up and the parts where the tentacles actually touch flare up. You scrunch your face up, fingers digging into the sand as you try to not show how much it hurts. You didn’t want your friends to panic further. It’s a rather small incident compared to what could happen out in the ocean.

“What’s going on, girlies?”

You turn your head in the direction of the deep voice, eyes instantly making contact with a crystal blue pair, the sunglasses low on the bridge of the lifeguard’s nose. It’s the white-haired one. You feel like you could potentially faint from a mixture of pain and having his gorgeous existence right in front of your very eyes. You quickly glance to notice his co-worker is next to him, they’re both appearing rather concerned. Your friends back off to give space as they both kneel next to you, feeling your cheeks heating up quickly. “It’s nothing, honestly! I just got stung by a jellyfish.” You explain hastily, hands coming up to wave in dismissal, not wanting to distract the hot lifeguards from their actual job.

You feel something graze gently against your cheek and you finally snap your focus to the touch. The white-haired lifeguard’s finger wipes away a tear that managed to escape, offering a comforting smile before looking towards the large sting area and letting out a low whistle. “It got you pretty good.” He begins, leaning to the side to allow his co-worker to inspect the inflamed part of your leg. You’re too focused on the white-haired male with the sunglasses. His lips soon twist to form a playful smirk.

“Want me to piss on it?”

You felt like your mind completely malfunctioned and went into overdrive from hearing such a filthy question. Instantly, his co-worker smacks him across the back of his head and the playful lifeguard whines dramatically, hands coming up to the back of his head. “Don’t ever offer that stupid idea again, Satoru. You know that’s a myth. You’re going to traumatise the poor girl.” His co-worker sighs and all you could really focus on is the fact that you now know his name. Satoru.

Satoru rolls his eyes, lips forming what must be his signature pout as his hands come down to tenderly guide your leg closer to him. “I doubt she’d be traumatised from a bit of urine, Suguru. I was just joking.” He grumbles, noticing the way your friends appeared disgusted by the idea and yet, you’re simply flustered and avoiding eyes. Cute, is all Satoru can think. “Ladies, your friend—“ He pauses, looking your way.

“Y/N.”

“Y/N will be completely fine. I’ll take her up to the lifeguard tower and you guys can keep having fun. Suguru will keep watch.” Satoru expresses and you look towards your friends, all looking concerned. Even over a jellyfish sting. “I’m okay! Keep having fun, I’ll be good in no time.” You say hastily, maybe a bit too eager to be alone with the white-haired male. Hopefully, it’s not too obvious. Your friends continue to give looks of worry and even guilt about leaving you alone, but you simply give them a smile of reassurance as you press your hands against the warm sand, intending to move so you’re standing.

Instead, you feel a rush of air around you and something strong yet comforting wrapping around your body; one around the back of your knees and the other around your shoulders. You didn’t expect your mind to shortcircuit for the second time so soon as you managed to process that the pair of ‘something’ was Satoru’s toned arms lifting you with ease until he was carrying you bridal style. You let out an awkward laugh, ignoring how hot your face feels as you glance up at his smirking face. “It’s just a jellyfish sting, I’m sure I can walk.” You say quite timidly, ignoring the lingering gazes from both your friends and Satoru’s co-worker.

The white-haired male simply looks down at your face, pearly whites exposed as he grins a little, voice low and smug. “Princesses get carried, no? Come on.” He says, turning his broad back to the group as he begins to walk away. Trying to appear casual by rubbing your face as if something itches; you’re actually trying to hide your own giddiness from hearing his words, even noticing how careful he was with carrying you to not touch the area of your leg on where the jellyfish stung you. Satoru continues to walk through crowds of people on the beach, further up towards the tower, completely unphased by the burning sun against his pale skin. He briefly wonders to himself if he could manage to convince someone as cute as you to reapply sunscreen on spots he can’t reach.

Satoru should feel terrible for already thinking such selfish things but, in his defence? He could tell the attraction was mutual the second he caught you looking at him. It’s a miracle he was even looking away at that moment because the moment he saw you and your friends set up on the beach, he refused to move post with Suguru or other co-workers; insisting he stays on guard for that section of the beach. Just so he could continue to selfishly watch you for his own pleasure. He clears his throat to snap out of his deep thoughts. “So, I have a feeling that you’re not actually a fan of the beach, Y/N.”

You puff your cheeks out, head briefly resting against his shoulder as he continues to carry you. The muscles in his arms didn’t even twitch to show exhaustion. He was perfectly fine with holding you for a long time. “What gives you that idea? Have you been watching me?” You tease lightly, internally wondering where on Earth the confidence suddenly comes from. “Yeah, you’ve caught my eye.” The lifeguard replies, finally at the steps of the tower, looking down at you. You quickly look down, feeling even more exposed than before. Especially in your skimpy bikini. You couldn’t deny the happiness that seemed to ignite in your heart from hearing the lifeguard’s words. You’ve caught his eye. Out of everyone on that beach, it’s you. You sigh softly.

“I don’t hate the beach, I actually quite like it. I just feel like I’m going to dramatically burn to death or something from how hot the sun is. That aside, maybe I’ve found something to make me enjoy the beach more than before. Even the sun can’t stop it… or the sting.” You hastily add as you still feel your lower leg throbbing. Being with the hot lifeguard can only do so much. You watch as his lips curl and eyebrows twist to form a frown. “Right. Hold on.” He says, tightening his large hands against your body as he carries you up the steps of the tower before reaching the top. The door is already open as he steps inside sideways and your eyes notice another pair of gorgeous lifeguards sitting in front of the large windows that look down upon the beach. One with his blonde hair slicked back and keeping his body covered with the lifeguard jacket and longer shorts. You notice he’s wearing glasses. The other is another male; with long hair tied up into two messy buns and a bold tattooed line across the bridge of his nose and cheeks. They both tilt their heads towards you.

Satoru presses you against him as he holds you, refusing to let you stand. He really is giving you the princess treatment for just a jellyfish sting. “Utahime left for the day already, Nanami?” Satoru asks, stepping in the direction of the back of the tower. The blonde male simply nods, eyes focused on you for the moment. You offer a timid smile, looking down towards your fidgeting hands. “What happened with her?” The other lifeguard asks, glancing towards you before returning their gaze towards the windows, and picking up a pair of binoculars. “Jellyfish sting, nothing too bad but I’d rather treat it than let her sit out in the sun and wait for the pain to go. Quicker this way, Choso. Anyways, don’t mind us.” Satoru insists, waiting for the pair to be distracted with their job before he truly moves to the back, behind a set of curtains.

“You really didn’t have to bring me all the way over here. I could have waited it out.” You say softly, not wanting to disturb the peace of the lifeguard tower as the white-haired male carefully sets you down on the mattress of the medical bed, allowing your legs to dangle off the side. Satoru whips the curtain further shut to give you both privacy, looking down at you as he reveals a slight crooked grin. “Can you just let me pretend to do my job so I can have you to myself?” He teases and automatically, your thighs begin to clench together as you feel a stir of excitement within you. “That and I’d rather actually ease the pain of the sting. It’d be quicker here than out there. Didn’t you want to get out of the sun?” He reminds, plopping his ass down onto the stool as he rolls over to the counter.

Maybe it’s because of his own flirtatious ways that you find a side of you awakening. That must be it for your words. “Well, I definitely wanted to get out of the sun with you, mister lifeguard.” You say so sweetly, your eyes lingering on the tiny red shorts that just tighten further around his toned legs. Satoru feels a boost to his own ego at your shy words, setting a bucket under the tap before adjusting for hot water, looking your way. “A princess with a sweet tongue. What a weakness of mine. Let’s focus on the sting for a moment.” He says, soon lifting the bucket out of the sink, and grabbing a spray bottle full of vinegar before setting them down. “Various remedies, different strokes for different folks. They all work, usually. It’s a relief we don’t live in an area with dangerous types. Otherwise, I’d be running to the hospital with you in my arms. What would you prefer to try to soothe the pain?” He asks, hands rubbing along his toned thighs.

Truth be told, you could barely focus on his words of wisdom. You’re far too distracted by his pretty hands against his thighs. “The hot water..” You manage to respond and Satoru simply smiles, noticing how distracted you appear to be. “Or you could just look at my pretty face as a distraction until the pain is gone. That might take longer.” He teases and you couldn’t help but whine, playfully kicking in his direction. “Stooooop, you’re making me flustered.” You whisper, not wanting the other lifeguards to hear as your walls quickly come down in Satoru’s presence. It already feels like you’ve known him for so long. He chuckles, bringing the bucket of hot water closer as he sets it between you and himself before gesturing for you to scoot to the edge of the bed. The white-haired male bends down, tenderly taking hold of your ankle before guiding your foot into the hot water. It’s big enough so the water completely covers up the throbbing sting area and you hiss gently from the heat.

Your fingers grip the edge of the thin mattress, breathing in deeply. It’s slow but, the sting is starting to subside already, causing your body to relax with relief. Satoru’s large hand rests against your bare thigh, giving a gentle squeeze and nails scraping along your soft skin. “You think this method is good enough for you?” His voice is soft, as if he wants his co-workers not to disturb him, his thumb rubbing in a circular motion against your flesh. You feel like your gut is twisting from the lifeguard’s touch, gaze fixated on his bare abdomen on display for only your eyes to see. “Yeah..” You breathe out softly, making sure to keep your foot in the bucket of hot water and your eyes already becoming droopy. His touch feels so good... You wonder what else his hands could do.

You snap out of your thoughts when he pulls away, standing up from the stool and before he can move away, two of your fingers suddenly hook beneath the elastic of his lifeguard shorts, preventing him from moving. “Oh? Attached to me already, are you? Don’t worry, princess. I’m just going over there.” He teases as he jabs his thumb in the direction of the counter. Flustered, you quickly let go and look away. He bites back an amused smile, setting the spray bottle filled with vinegar back on the counter before he begins to look through the drawers. Your eyes automatically look his way to watch his movements, wondering what he’s looking for. “You’re not going back out, are you? It— It just hurts a lot, I’m afraid something might happen to me if no one’s around.” You ramble, cringing at your own obvious lies.

Satoru snorts gently, picking up a tube of cream and smacks it lightly against his hand as he makes his way back to the stool, ever so casually. “Now after hearing that, I can’t dare leave the princess all alone, even though there are lifeguards on the other side of the curtain, can I?” He sits back down, rolling close enough to stretch out his arms until both of his hands are on either side of you, trapping you within. You couldn’t even look him in the eye; finding that his piercing blue orbs are impossible to not drown in. “I wasn’t planning to leave, it’s near the end of my shift. I’ll stay with you.” Satoru reassures, playfully tapping the tube of cream against your thigh, his gaze obvious and hot against your figure. “How’s the leg?” He asks.

You slide your leg out of the bucket of water and look down. It’s not stinging as much and you can see the bumpy lines of where the tentacles touched you. “It doesn’t hurt as much.” You say and Satoru reaches over to grab a towel, placing it across his lap and pats it. You couldn’t help but smile before lifting your leg until you rested it against him. Carefully, he pats your leg dry before grabbing the tube of cream. “This will help further. May I?” He asks, already squirting the cream onto the tips of his long fingers, confident to hear you give permission. Although fixated on the length of his fingers, you manage to nod your head and he smears it gently across the inflamed area. He’s careful as he massages it in with his fingers and you continue to watch, feeling a little breathless. Even the numbing pain that is starting to subside couldn’t distract you from focusing on the gorgeous lifeguard.

Satoru tilts his head down to prevent you from seeing his amused smirk as his ears manage to pick up the softest whine that escapes you from his touch. He’s a little selfish in the fact that his other hand joins in to tenderly massage your leg. If anyone asks why he’s taking so long; it really is for your benefit. He does care that you got stung, after all. It’s not pleasant. “Are you going home after this? If not, it might be best to bandage it just to keep it covered for now.” Satoru says, wiping his hands dry against the sides of his red shorts. You pause when you hear the question. All of your belongings are still back with your friends and they probably expect you to return before going home at least but… something else was on your mind.

You bite down on your lip, courage flowing through your veins as your foot on his lap presses down against his toned thigh, daringly close to a particularly sensitive area for a man. You watch as a white eyebrow arches and he peeks at you beneath his circular shades. “When exactly does your shift end?” You ask quietly, glancing towards the closed curtain. Satoru sighs out softly, closing his eyes for a moment as he focuses on the pressure of your foot. You’re not going straight home, it seems. He tugs his phone out to inspect the time, leaning over to hastily snatch up the roll of bandages before tucking his phone away. “In about ten. Why? Do you want me all to yourself?” He teases, thumb pressing the bandage against your leg to hold it in place as he begins to wind it around, eyes never leaving your face.

“Surely there are some secluded areas on the beach that you work on. That must be pretty and fun to be alone with a girl..” You say, unable to stop the sheepish giggle from escaping your lips. Since when could you be so bold? He ties a firm knot before nudging your foot off of his lap to roll his stool closer. He’s tall enough even when he’s sitting and you are on a higher surface, that he’s face to face with you. The lifeguard is so close that you can feel his warm breath fan against your lips. Fuck. You clench your thighs together as best as you can without being so obvious. You should have worn black if you knew there would be a ridiculously hot lifeguard on the scene because you just know there’s a damp patch forming on the bright red fabric of your bikini.

“I can think of a few areas, perhaps. Promise me that you’ll be all mine as I show you around? I mean, if someone disturbs us… I won’t be stopping.” He warns, voice deep and smooth. The words send shivers up your spine and you lean in to playfully bump your nose against his. “Wouldn’t want you to stop, Satoru. I mean, it’s the least I can do for the lifeguard who saved me from a jellyfish sting.” You tease sweetly, fingers ghosting along his toned bicep. He curses beneath his breath, bending down until his forehead meets your bare shoulder. He’s impatient. If it was up to him, the white-haired male would already be bending you over the edge of the medical bed and fucking you in front of his co-workers. Still, it will be exciting to have some fun on a beach where anyone could walk by.

“Such an honour to treat the princess. Now, to waste time—“ He pauses, pulling away as he stands up and walks out from behind the curtain. You automatically pout at him leaving you, gripping the edge of the bed as you wait. Satoru snatches the large bottle of sunscreen from the front of Nanami and Choso, offering a wide grin. Nanami holds his hand up to stop Satoru from speaking. “I don’t want to know.” Nanami says before crossing his arms and continuing to watch. The white-haired male rolls his eyes, grumbling to himself before he returns to you from behind the curtain and sighs. “Do me a favour? I can’t reach anywhere.” Satoru says, placing the sunscreen next to you and you couldn’t help but grin a little. He’s too cute in a way.

You jump to your feet with eagerness, ignoring the dull ache that lingers beneath the bandage and squirt a generous amount of the white liquid into the palm of your hand, oblivious to Satoru’s intense gaze. He’s staring at you, eyes clouded with a mixture of endearment and hot desire. Satoru isn’t feeling attached. Not like that. At least, not yet. Surely any guy would find it difficult to not be endeared by your cute actions, especially when you seem so eager to please him with such a simple task. You grimace a little as it threatens to drip over the side of your hand and approach the tall male, offering him a sickly sweet smile. “Come here, please.” You say and you both meet each other in the middle of the small medic area, chest to chest.

With cheeks feeling hot, you step back slightly before slapping your hand against his firm chest and he grunts a little, lips parting to tease you about not being sexy enough; only to choke on his own saliva. His piercing blue eyes are intense with the gaze, staring down at both of your hands that are now against his toned chest and starting to smear the sunscreen, nice and slow. Your hands seem so much smaller compared to his and just that alone enough is driving his mind wild from the size difference; filthy images of you being practically bent in half before him. Flexible or not, Satoru knows he’d manhandle you into the position he craves.

You could feel his chest rising and falling beneath your hands, biting down on your lip as you began to allow your hands to explore further south, fingers tracing along the beautifully defined muscle lines of his abdomen. You could feel how rock solid and hot he feels from living beneath the sun as a career, hands eager to rub in the sunscreen. You wouldn’t want him to get burned by the sun after all. What kind of princess would let their ‘hero’ suffer like that? No. It’s your job to please him in every way possible, just like you want to. Your fingertips trace along the v-line that travels further down and to an area you shouldn’t reach. Except, you dip your fingers just beneath the elastic and look up into his blue eyes.

“I just have a feeling your upper thighs might get exposed to the sunlight later. Best to be careful. Right?” You hum, tilting your head slightly as you spread the last of the sunscreen along his upper thighs, daring to glide close to the middle but, not far enough. Satoru merely grunts in response, eyes now looking upwards and you could practically see him beg himself to stay in control and not snap. It’s so hard to do that. Another hard thing happens to be his cock. He can feel himself hardening as you tease him further, length straining against the already tight boardshorts. You look down, lips parting in awe to see the outline of how thick and long he is. Is that even humanly possible? You’ve been with guys before but, they were never built like this.

In silent admiration over his giant length straining, your nails graze along the top of his thighs before you slip your hands out. You inspect the upper body area to see the light glisten of sunscreen before you pump some more into your hands and carefully, lower yourself onto your knees. The curtain isn’t long enough that it reaches the floor. If Satoru’s lifeguards look back for even a second, they’d be able to see the glimpse of you kneeling on the ground, looking like you’re doing something so sinful behind the curtains. Satoru notices it instantly and that alone is enough to cause him to sigh heavily and drag his fingers through his white hair. “Y/N, cheeky little girl..” He breathes out as you begin to rub the sunscreen into his legs. You look up to see his crystal blue eyes admiring the sight of you kneeling before him and you merely smile in response.

“I want to cover every inch of you so you’re safe from the sun, that’s all. Although… I won’t smother your cock in sunscreen. I’ll protect that part of you with my, hm.. mouth? Pussy? The sun won’t get you there.” You say soft enough for only Satoru to hear and his hand now travels to cover his mouth in almost disbelief from your filthy words. He’d even say he was close to feeling flustered for the first time in his life; never expecting the timid girl who insisted she’d be okay to suddenly have skyrocketing confidence that only riles him up further. He looks at the time of his watch and curses. You really are taking your sweet time to caress every part of his body and teasing him with scratches from your nails and gentle squeezes. He needs to get you out of here.

“Sweetheart, with all due respect— Please hurry up so I can fucking get you out of here.” Satoru says, fingers gliding through your hair to grip on, pulling nice and slow so you could feel the tugging pain on each strand. Fuck. The aching pain floods you with excitement and desperation to obey his words and so you hastily get to your feet, leaning up on your toes to ghost your lips across his. A near kiss. “Sorry, I just love to worship.” You say, giggling as he leans forward to try and complete the kiss. He rolls his eyes, though the corners of his lips twitch and he turns around. With haste, you squirt the last amount of sunscreen to lather across his broad back, admiring his wide shoulders and the movements of his muscles as you rub in the white liquid down along the length of his body before pulling away. “All done! How did I do?” You ask, grinning.

He turns around, almost melting at the sight of you and takes hold of your smaller hand with his much bigger one. “Perfect— My good girl. Please tell me you’re still good to go protection-wise.” He says, eager to leave. You couldn’t help but smile. It wasn’t long ago when you applied sunscreen and so with your free hand, you give him the thumbs up. The lifeguard sighs with relief before he begins to pull you out from behind the curtain, reaching for his backpack with his spare hand to swing over his shoulder. “Alright, I’m off to fuck— I mean off the clock and going home.” Satoru jokes and you feel yourself flush with heat. Even knowing this man for just over an hour and you’re not really surprised by his crude behaviour with his co-workers. Still, it leaves you flustered. Satoru merely grins at his co-workers who roll their eyes before he pulls you out of the open doorway, nudging his sandals close to your feet. Your heart flutters and you slide your feet into them, noticing how big they are on your feet.

“I can’t believe you just said that.” You whine softly and Satoru guides you down the steps carefully, not wanting you to trip over. He simply chuckles, shoulders shrugging. “Not ashamed and I’m a proud man when I get what I want.” Satoru says, feet meeting the sand. You playfully bump your head against his shoulder, fingers lacing with his. “What about your feet? Aren’t they hot?” You ask with a small pout and instantly, Satoru’s heart clenches at the sight. “Used to it and would prefer your feet protected— Come on, my dick is dying.” He says, gently tugging you along. You would have scolded him for his bluntness if it wasn’t holding some truth for yourself. You, yourself, felt like you were dying from not already being stuffed full of his throbbing length as he pounds into oblivion, claiming you on the beach that you’re sharing with hundreds of others.

Satoru is eagerly pulling you along the beach, glancing every so often to make sure you’re not struggling; whether with his large shoes or the jellyfish sting but, it seems you were just as eager for the crowd to start thinning out as you walk horizontally along with the ocean. Both of your hearts are pounding with excitement, too deep in focus to hold a conversation. That can happen later. You’re still facing a bit of disbelief. How can a ridiculously attractive man, who basically pours out godly energy; want you? After just an hour or so. It’s dangerous realistically speaking and yet, you’re desperate to have him. To please the lifeguard with your own two hands and mouth. Even more.

Satoru continues to drag you along, shades covering his eyes as he glances across the beach. You’ve both been walking for so long now that it’s not part of the popular tourist spot on the beach. People rarely come down this way because he and other lifeguards express that the waters can become dangerous and it’s preferred to situate yourselves within the flags. It’s been about five minutes since he saw the last person lounging on the sand and frankly, he’s had enough. Why walk a further ten minutes just to be extra careful? No one’s around. Even if someone did appear, it’s not going to stop him from touching you. Truth be told, Satoru loves the thrill of being caught and showing off what belongs to him. Even if only temporary.

He finally comes to a stop and you’re panting softly; a mixture of excitement and tiredness from walking beneath the hot sun that is only just now beginning to set. Slowly. White strands of hair fall over his eyes as he looks down at you, unable to stop himself from cooing at the cute sight of you clinging onto his hand, looking like a lost little lamb for the taking. “Sweet girl, I think this is far enough. Here—“ He pauses, tightening his hold on you as he moves up towards the tall cliffs that provide shade. You feel like your cheeks doubled in heat from his words, following him until he suddenly twirls you around and you stumble towards the face of the cliff.

His large hand presses against your lower back, preventing you from making a rough impact on the rock surface. It’s rather smoothed out, not too painful to lean your back against and you look up at him. His free hand presses against the cliff beside your face, easily towering above you. He pushes the sunglasses up until they sit comfortably on top of his head, strands of hair pushed back to expose his forehead. Already, loose strands begin to fall back down, but he doesn’t care. All he cares about is you. He drops his backpack to the side. “The ocean years ago used to reach up to the cliff, slowly washed away the roughness. Perfect to pin you up against, don’t you think?” Satoru says, deep voice sounding almost like magic with the gentle waves in the background.

Your heart is hammering, feeling the slightly jagged rocks against your bare back, but he’s right. It’s the only perfect surface in such an outdoor space. Frankly, you don’t care. You don’t even care anymore about being out in the open. You were nervous before, but all you see is Satoru. Your fingers ghost up along his bare arms before you snake your arms around his neck, leaning up onto the tip of your toes. He bends down so his lips are over yours. “Hurry up and fuck me.” You whisper, soon feeling his soft tiers crashing against yours. Satoru with patience completely out the window; kisses you with fierce passion. He feels fucking starved when it comes to you. The lifeguard noticed you and your friends the moment you set up beneath the umbrella and he struggled to do his job when he was just watching you so intently. Finding every little thing about you to be sweet and cute. Irresistible, even. First time meeting, who the fuck cares. He’s going to have you.

You feel breathless already as he devours you with such ease. Satoru’s lips move slowly against yours, tilting his head to deepen the kiss and you whimper softly, one hand coming to rest against his bare chest. His skin felt so hot despite being in the shade and you could feel his heart racing. It’s somewhat comforting to know that his heart races with excitement like yours. You gasp softly as his tongue glides smoothly across your bottom lip. “Open wide, princess.” He mumbles into the kiss and as you oblige so quickly, his tongue slides into your wet cavern, eager to explore every inch of it, pressing your body against the cliff face as his own much bigger form pins you against it. Needy whines are muffled by his lips as his tongue teasingly rubs against yours. Satoru slides his large hand down the length of your back before boldly cupping your ass cheek to give a harsh squeeze.

“Ah, ‘toru..” You pant out softly, feeling both of his hands now groping your bare ass cheeks, fingertips pressing so deeply into your flesh that you feel a sweet ache. The flimsy fabric of your bikini bottom rides between your cheeks as he fondles roughly, saliva smearing across your cheek as his lips leave yours to kiss along your jaw, panting softly. “Could see your ass a mile away before, found it so fucking cute. Knew I wanted you then.” He groans softly against your ear, coaxing the butterflies in your stomach to flutter wildly and prompt you to dig your nails gently into his skin. You can feel his tongue dancing across your warm flesh, teeth nibbling before he bites down harshly on the side of your neck, sucking firmly.

You whimper from the dull throb that spreads from the spot and Satoru presses a kiss to the abused area before he pulls back to gaze down at you, eyes swirling with deep lust. “Satoru, please... You’re making me feel so—“ You bite down on your lip and look to the side, somewhat flustered. He merely smirks, cupping the side of your neck and leans to the other side to give his sweet attention. “What is it, pretty girl? Needy? Fucking wet for me? Shall I see for myself?” He says, one hand toying with the tied-up bow. One tug and it’d slip down. His teasing almost frustrates you, already wishing to feel more as his lips scatter kisses across your neck and down to the valley of your breasts. The bikini top did a pathetic job of covering your boobs.

“You’re such a tease.” You exhale softly, glancing at your surroundings. No one is around, still. He grins playfully at your words, one hand lifting from your behind for only a moment before he smacks your cheek firmly, causing you to yelp and press up against him. You feel the sweet sting spread across your ass cheek that jiggles from impact and he swats again before the tingle. Again and again, Satoru spanks your ass, alternating cheeks until he grips the throbbing flesh and drags his nails harshly along the burning skin. You’re whimpering against his chest, hopelessly holding onto him as he lands each spank with such precision, breasts pressing against him. “Fucking delicious.” He sighs out heavily, feeling the heat from the harsh spanks radiate off of your skin.

You’re biting down on your lip harshly as if that could stop the lewd sounds that slip from your lips as his palms soothingly massage the painful sting. With tears already in your eyes, you discovered how much you love pain to be inflicted on you by his hands alone. It sent waves down to your very core. “Sadist..” You mumble playfully as your hand snakes down his abdomen until your fingers once more dip beneath the elastic of his shorts. “Maybe I am, I don’t see you having a problem with it.” He whispers against your ear, hands pausing against your behind. “Baby~. We’re all alone. Stop being so sneaky. Just say you want to see how big I am.” He says smugly and you would have rolled your eyes if his words didn’t hold the truth.

You look down between you both as Satoru’s long fingers hook beneath his boardshorts, tugging them down to the middle of his thighs and your jaw drops at the sight of his hardened cock springing out from the tight confinements of his shorts, throbbing deliciously before your very eyes. He’s big. Beyond big. Long in length and the girth is so thick, you wonder if it’d even fit comfortably inside. Your gaze fixates on the protruding veins that line up along his length, saliva threatening to dribble out at the glorious sight of his dick. No wonder he’s so cocky. “You’re so hot—“ You blurt out before cupping the back of his neck to pull him down for another feverish kiss, your other hand coming down towards his exposed length. He’s all smug as he responds to the kiss, heart swelling with pride and lips curled to form a smile against your lips. He’s a sucker for praise. Satoru couldn’t deny that.

He grunts in response as your fingers wrap around the base of his cock, the tips barely able to touch together. It feels so warm and heavy against your palm and you couldn’t help but think it’s somewhat comforting in a way, as you begin to stroke nice and slowly. Satoru moves to hunch over but your hand presses against his shoulder for the moment, bending low enough so you could dribble out saliva until it drips down onto your stroking hand and Satoru’s hand comes up to tug on his own hair, knocking his sunglasses off his head. He didn’t care. All he could focus on was the snug tightness of your hand as it smears the saliva across each inch of his cock. “So thick..” You whisper and he can barely catch your words as the waves crash against the shore behind him, feeling completely wrapped up in the pleasure that pulses through him as you continue to pump your fist, not daring to relent in the steady pace you set.

You couldn’t help but bite back a giddy smile at the sight of the lifeguard already completely blissed out, using your thumb to drag along the leaking tip, trailing the pre-cum along the side of his length. Your wrist flicks gently with each movement, fingertips gliding across his balls teasingly each time your hand reaches the base. He’s panting heavily against your ear, his large hands soothingly rubbing along your signs, occasionally toying with the strings of your bikini. “You’re already feeling so good just from my hand, Satoru… Just imagine what it’d be like with my needy cunt. Mouth, too.” You give the base of his throbbing cock a squeeze as your lips brush against his, making them glisten with saliva before you start to lower yourself onto your knees before the tall lifeguard, long lashes fluttering as you gaze up at him.

His eyes appear even more alive, almost manic as he grins at the sight of you on your knees. You feel them sink into the sand as you lean to happily press your face against the underside of his cock. “Fucking hell..” Satoru mumbles in awe at the heavenly sight of his twitching cock resting against your face. “Bigger than my face, I bet you’re not surprised.” You mumble, lips rubbing gently against his length before you press your tongue flat against it and travel upwards, dragging it along the protruding vein before you reach his leaking tip. His eyes glaze over with the pleasure that washes over him, barely able to focus as your tongue playfully laps at the head of his length, gathering the pre-cum to happily swallow before your wet muscle swirls around the bulbous tip. He tastes so fucking good already, weighing heavy against your tongue alone.

You feel his long fingers gently grip your hair as you continue to just tease, licking along the sides so eagerly as if his cock was your own personal ice cream, pressing sloppy kisses as your hand squeezes the base. “Y/N.” He warns with his grip tightening on your hair, prompting you to whimper. Quickly, you obey his silent order. You wouldn’t dare defy the white-haired lifeguard. No matter how greedy he becomes, you’d give all of yourself to him. Your glistening lips wrap around the bulbous tip, gently suckling on it. It’s hard to smile at the sound of his pleased sigh, watching as he tilts his head back. You didn’t dare look away, sliding your mouth up and down the first few inches of his thick cock, already finding your jaw aching slightly from how wide you had to keep your mouth open.

Satoru is already blissed out. To think that he thought today would be any other day of typical lifeguard duties. Truth be told, he thought he’d have to deal with lost children or carrying citizens on his board to the safety of the shore. He definitely did not expect to watch you for most of his shift and have his mind pump full of filthy fantasies. What’s even more surprising is the mutual attraction and how neither of you cared to do the typical waiting until touching each other. You both yearned for one another since eye contact. Good for him, he thinks. Satoru thinks he deserves a pretty girl on her knees, sucking his big cock. What he couldn’t wait for is to have his own mouth between your legs, desperate to taste you. Satoru is— Well. A lover of eating out, let’s just say.

“Fuuuuck, princess—“ He grunts out as you continue to bob your mouth at a steady pace, the obnoxious slurping up the saliva that threatens to spill not being covered by the waves of the ocean. The day was starting to calm down weather-wise, ready to embrace the evening. You whine, prompting gentle vibrations along his cock and a string of curses to leave his swollen lips, gaze darkening as he looks down at you. You manage to take another inch or two as you slide your lips further down, stretching around the girth. The tip brushed against the back of your throat and you automatically gag, muffled by his throbbing length. “Good girl, look at you. Taking my cock so fucking well.” Satoru pants and with a brief warning by pulling on your hair, he presses firmly against the back of your head. “Take it.” He orders, voice low and breathless.

Your eyes widen as you feel the pressure against the back of your head and you’re unable to reject it from how strong he’s pushing. Not that you even wanted to. You’re an absolute whore when it comes to pleasing the lifeguard. Already, wrapped around his little finger and ready to do as he says. You feel his length slide along your inner cheeks, keeping your jaw as relaxed as you can as he pushes in until the tip of his length pushes past the point of gagging and your throat completely sheaths his cock, leaving the sight of your throat bulging for no one to see but Satoru.

You’re desperately swallowing around his thick cock, drool seeping out from the corners of your lips as you look up at him. You have to breathe heavily through your nose just to have access to oxygen. Satoru closes his eyes for a moment, enjoying the pretty sounds of you choking on his cock as the insides of your mouth and throat keep his length feeling snug and warm; his length is surrounded with pleasure that surges up through him. He glances down at you and smirks. You look rather pathetic in an adorable way, squirming against the sand, eyes wide and pretty tears threatening to spill from the rough deep-throating.

Feeling playful, Satoru uses his free hand to pinch your nose, blocking the only access you had for breathing. Your face scrunches up a little, whimpering moans muffled by his length still stuffed down your throat. “You look so cute, princess. Struggling to get air. Shall I give you CPR?” He jokes, tightening his pinch and your head begins to throb from the lack of oxygen you so eagerly need. He’s not a complete asshole, nor entirely selfish and so, he lets go of your nose and begins to guide your mouth along his cock. You inhale deeply through your nose when you have the chance, feeling so light-headed as oxygen rushes back. “Just a bit longer.” He grunts out as his closed fist on your hair moves so your mouth slides up and down his length, faster than your pace before.

Helplessly, your hands grip his toned thighs, just above the signature red shorts as your lips stay stretched around his length, heart racing with joy to be used like this by the lifeguard. The white-haired male makes sure you take every inch until you’re at the base of his cock, the nose often momentarily pressing against his lower stomach. “Just like that, fuck— So good..” He pants, his throbbing cock enjoying the wet pleasure of your mouth, tongue rubbing along the underside. His stomach begins to feel hot and tight, the urge to climax growing and so, refusing to let himself cum before you do; he slides your mouth off completely until there’s an audible pop, followed by a sharp gasp as you breathe in the generous amount of air that was briefly stolen from you.

You break the string of saliva that connected your lips to his cock as you pant heavily, unable to stop your lips from forming a wide grin at the sight of him, giddy that you got to please him so well with just your mouth. “You like it rough, huh?” You manage to rasp out and Satoru lets out a sheepish chuckle, his hand coming down to pet you on the head, hand stroking along your hair. “Honestly, Y/N. I think I’m going to enjoy any kind of way when it’s you. Rough or gentle. Now, c’mere.” He says, taking hold of your hand to tug you up with ease.

You stumble forward, feet sinking in the soft sand and the white-haired lifeguard gently takes hold of your arms to stabilise you, leaning down to press a gentle kiss to your lips. Completely different to how he treated you when your lips were wrapped around his length. Maybe he’s eager to show you that he does have both sides and it makes your heart feel like it’s swimming in shimmering gold. He’s perfect, you couldn’t help but think. You smile against his lips and he’s holding you so tight against him that you feel his cock cushioning between your bodies and your breasts pressing against his chest. He reluctantly pulls away, gaze clouded as he looks down at you. “My turn. I’ve been waiting for this. Especially when I first saw you in your cute bikini..” He trails off, hands snaking up to tease the fabric that barely covers your chest. “So cute..” He murmurs before tugging until the triangle fabric is pulled away and your breasts spill out, free from the flimsy confinement.

“Oh shit.” He blurts out in awe at the sight of your breasts as his large hands come up to cup the squishy flesh and give a gentle squeeze. You feel flustered and look away as a soft whimper escapes from feeling his touch, your face feeling hot. “I love your boobs, so damn pretty..” He murmurs, looking like he’s in some sort of wonderland just from being able to massage your breasts, nice and slow. His thumbs tease your hardened buds, grinning at the sound of your needy whines. You tilt your head up to look at the face of the cliff, briefly wondering how a man’s touch to your breasts could already leave you feeling a sweet daze. Satoru pinches the hardened buds, giving a teasing tug before he leans forward to kiss along your neck, staying bent over you as he does so. His body is close enough for his twitching cock to still stay pressed against you and your wrap your arms around his form to cling onto him for the moment.

“I only met you like two hours ago and I’m already this addicted to you..” You confess through a whisper and if only you knew how the words just boost his ego up high, smiling smugly against your neck. “Mm, maybe we’re just a perfect match. I can feed your addiction and you can feed mine.” Satoru says, tongue trailing down the valley of your breasts. You smile at his words and look off to see— Oh god. A couple is walking along the beach. “S-Satoru! People are approaching.” You squeak out, almost horrified if it wasn’t for the excitement of being caught flooding through you. What would Satoru do? Would he not be ashamed and keep touching you?

“Don’t care.” He mutters, hands pressing your breasts together as he presses sloppy kisses to the soft mounds before he pulls away with an annoyed sigh. “Come here, baby.” The lifeguard says as he glances down at his exposed cock that continues to throb before towards the couple that doesn’t appear like dots in the distance anymore. “Usually I’d shamelessly give them a show but you’re all mine for the evening.” He huffs childishly before his arms suddenly wrap around your head to pull you in. His bigger form presses you up against the cliff face, one hand on the back of your head to act as a cushion. Your eyes widen at the sudden action, almost going cross-eyed as you stare at his muscular chest. Satoru tugs his board shorts up to cover his ass as he keeps you in a tight embrace.

The couple slowly walk along the beach, enjoying the cool breeze and warm sun. They notice the pair of you hiding in the shade of the cliff, looking curiously. Satoru exaggerates a kiss to the top of your head and his hand soothingly rubbing along your back. “Baby, there there. No need to cry. I swear I didn’t take the girl’s number. Not a single one offered to me. You’re the only one I want to date. The only one I want to cherish.” He says, loud enough for the curious couple to hear and they look at you two with smiles, pleased to see another couple being all lovey-dovey. “He must be a lifeguard— Oh how sweet, such a green flag for comforting his girlfriend.” The girl says and the boyfriend merely nods, dragging her along the sand.

You know he’s just pretending and yet, you do find your heart melting a little at the idea of being comforted by Satoru during difficult times. You actually wonder what he’d be like as a genuine partner. You briefly nuzzle your face against his warm chest and fake out loud sobs to fit the act of an upset girlfriend, tightening your arms around him. Satoru continues to watch before he finally loosens his hold. “Good girl, played your part well. For that, I must reward you.” He says lightheartedly and you giggle softly at his words, heart racing from the thrill of nearly being caught. How exhilarating. His lips twist into a smirk, leaning down to press a chaste kiss to your lips, whispering. “My turn.”

Your back rests lightly against the cliff as you watch out of curiosity as Satoru drops down to his knees and digs into the sand and at the height of your stomach, he presses kisses, scattering them across your soft skin. “Fucking perfect.” He mumbles, hands ghosting up your legs to toy with the strings of your bikini. At this point, he doesn’t care if the couple decides to walk back. The act is over and he’s ready to devour. No one was going to interrupt what he was really looking forward to. “Spread your legs.” He orders and you timidly shuffle your legs out so they spread slightly, biting down on your lower lip. Satoru lets out a low whistle at the sight of the large damp patch across the red fabric, extending out a finger to gently glide across the bikini, between your folds and you clasp a hand over your mouth to muffle your whimper, already sensitive by his touch.

“To think that I have such power over you, princess. So sensitive, already.” He teases, continuing to rub his finger lightly between your folds, pressing the fabric up between them. Your legs tremble a little when the fabric makes contact with your clit, whining. “Stop teasing, you know how needy I am..” You plead quietly and Satoru’s heart squeezes tight from how cute you are. Fuck. How is he ever going to deny you and frustrate you further? “Alright, since it’s our first time.” He sighs dramatically, fingers swiftly untying the bows that were sitting on your hips.

Your pussy is completely exposed, on display for anyone on the beach, but thankfully it’s just Satoru. He hastily tucks the small bit of fabric into one of his pockets, eyes refusing to leave sight of your cunt that’s already starting to drip and smear your inner thighs with your own slick. One hand tries to shyly cover yourself up, flustered by his gaze. Satoru arches an eyebrow as he looks up at you with his piercing blue eyes. “And what do you think you’re doing?” His long fingers wrap around your wrist and force your hand out of the way, tongue slowly dragging along his lips. He’s eager to finally have a taste, except there’s an issue.

He’s too tall. Satoru could bend down further, maybe even lay down and just force you to sit on his face— that does sound like a hot idea, but another idea comes to mind that prompts a small grin to appear across his handsome visage. “Alright, princess. Time to trust me.” He says simply, guiding your hand to rest on top of his head. You innocently tilt your head and look down at the lifeguard with confusion, cunt still exposed and ready for more. You could feel your hole clench with the desire to be filled to the brim. Still, you know better already and that’s to not rush Satoru. Your fingers slide through his silky white hair, heart racing with anticipation as his strong hand now caresses down your legs, squeezing your flesh. “What are you doing…” You ask shyly, watching as he moves your leg over his bare shoulder.

“Use your other hand against the cliff.” He simply replies and despite being puzzled, you raise your free hand above until it presses against the cliff, gripping onto one of the soft jagged rocks. Oh— Oh! Your eyes widen with a mixture of horror and amazement as Satoru swiftly lifts your other leg to rest over his shoulder and he begins to move up, slow and careful as you feel yourself rise to a height you’ve never been at until you find yourself pressed against the cliff, legs over the lifeguard’s shoulders and his strength is forceful enough to keep you positioned comfortably above him.

Satoru now has you in a spot that he deems perfect; face directly in front of your sopping-wet womanhood. You’re in a higher position now, completely stunned by his idea to hold you on his shoulders. His arms wrap around the area of your thighs that aren’t over his shoulders to help keep you stable against the cliff face, nails digging into the flesh. He glances up at you and chuckles at how flustered you look. “Relax, I’m strong. You have two heavenly sights to look at now. The ocean and me.” Satoru says, breath fanning against your pussy and you bring your hand that was pressing against the cliff to his head, both now gripping onto his hair. You trust the lifeguard enough to know that he wouldn’t drop you, nor press you too roughly against the face of the cliff. The perfect balance.

His crystal blue eyes stay fixated, almost going cross-eyed from how close your cunt is to his face and he swears he could start to feel the threat of saliva wanting to dribble out. Your womanhood is even more irresistible up close. Instead, he shifts his hand closer to your womanhood, arm still wrapped snug around your thigh and slides his fingers along your folds before parting them, glancing up at you as your legs quiver against his broad shoulders. “So sensitive.” He mocks lightly, gathering the saliva that gathered in his mouth before he spits directly against your clit, grinning at the sight of his own glob of saliva dribbling down between your slick-covered folds. You tighten your grip on his hair and whimper his name softly. You’ve never met a man so eager to eat you out. Hell, a man who just seems to want to take his time. Even out in the open, with absolutely anyone to walk by and the wind bringing the scent of the ocean towards you both. This lifeguard is definitely something and whatever that ‘something’ is; you want it all to yourself.

Satoru watches with interest as the glob of saliva continues to dribble downwards before he decides to dive his face forward and drag his tongue flat and slow across your pussy, flicking the tip against your throbbing clit. He merely laughs at the sound of your surprised squeal before he repeats the action, still in his sweet teasing move and so naturally, he refuses to pick up the pace. The lifeguard happily laps up your sweet juice with a soft groan, nuzzling his face forward until his nose rubs lightly against the bundle of nerves and you could feel pleasure surging up through you, leaving you feeling hot and your nails drag along his scalp as your lips fall open in near disbelief of how good everything feels.

He manages to peek up at you, lips twisting to form an amused smirk and frankly, there’s a huge boost in his ego just from your reactions alone. The light burn of your nails scratching his scalp causes him to moan your name as his tongue covered in your slick, travels up to swirl around your clit teasingly, pressing the wet muscle against it, feeling it throb. You taste fucking perfect to him. So sweet and clearly easily aroused from how much slick your pussy seems to produce, but it didn’t stop him.

Satoru is relentless when it comes to eating you out. His face stays pressed firmly between your quivering thighs, the tip of his tongue flicking and swirling around your clit before he leans in to press sloppy kisses to the sensitive area. You feel hot in the face just from the obnoxious slurping sounds but his firm hold on your thighs prevents you from closing them. You sit there, body trembling and muscles tensing as you take it all in. “Ah— ‘Toru, feels so—“ Your own words were cut off by a whine as his fingers dig into the flesh of your thighs and he presses in, pressing a kiss to your clit before his tongue slides along your folds. He continues to balance you on his shoulders, using one arm to hoist you up a little so his tongue can make contact with your entrance, chuckling at the sound of your breathless moans spilling out of your lips.

“You taste so good. Best I’ve ever tasted, princess. How am I to not have you whenever I want? Doesn’t seem fair to me.” Satoru says, tongue clicking in feigning disappointment before he prods along your tight entrance. This time, he allows your thighs to clench to the sides of his face as you whimper. “Have me whenever you want.” You slur out, body feeling so tingly and hot as his tongue prods gently against your entrance. It’s hot to witness you fall apart just from his mouth and leaves his heart pumping with excitement at the thought of you falling apart when he finally gives you what you both desperately crave; his cock. Still, Satoru is a fan of riling you up and taking his sweet time. Even with his cock aching in pain from still being hard with no pleasant contact of your mouth like before.

The lower half of his face is dripping with your mess, unwrapping one of his arms slow and cautious from around your thigh and tightening his hold on the other. You whine in question and he only gently shushes you, hand creeping up in front of his body before the long fingers meet your pussy properly this time. If it wasn’t Satoru that you already find that you deeply trust; you just know you’d throw a fit if some other tried to lift you up and keep you in this rather dangerous position. With a glimmer of concern, all you had to do was look at his ridiculously hot muscles to know that he was not going to drop you any time soon. His fingers keep your slick-covered folds spread wide, briefly flashing you a grin with your juices dripping from his face before he moves in to caress your hole.

You strangle on a moan as you feel the wet muscle push past your entrance, slowly licking on just the inside of your tight heat, tongue rubbing against your warm velvety walls that clench around it. With this angle, Satoru’s nose nudges against your clit as he moves his head forward to lick nice and slow within you. It’s impossible to not squirm with how sensitive you are; bare back rubbing cautiously against the face of the cliff and feeling his hold on you tightening in warning to not move so much. “It’s hard... You make me feel so hot and tingly.” You whine your complaint and Satoru merely snorts against your cunt as his tongue teasingly pumps in and out and despite having a very long tongue, he could only reach so far.

Your clouded gaze briefly scans the sand of the beach to see not a single person in sight as the white-haired lifeguard continues his teasing in an unforgiving manner. No rest to your needy pussy that continues to drip mess on his eager face. “So fucking sweet..” He sighs out happily, tongue once more dragging up between your folds to meet your clit. You unintentionally tighten your thighs around the sides of his face as you now realise his fingers crept up to caress along your quivering hole, panting softly. “Please..” You mumble, already craving so much more than his pretty fingers inside of you. It’s as if he could read your mind because he merely shakes his head, the tips of his hair tickling your inner thighs.

“Princess, I don’t care if we’re in public or how needy you get. I’m still going to take my time.” He says, words muffled against your cunt and despite feeling so floaty already from the pleasure that washes over you as if you’re in the ocean; you still have enough focus to roll your eyes and have your swollen lips form a small pout. “Bit selfish, don’t you think?” You huff out your retaliation and are swiftly met with a firm slap to your thigh, prompting a surprised yelp as the stinging sensation spreads across your skin. Your hand comes up to pitifully try to hide the sound as you look down at the lifeguard between your legs. “Yeah, and? Doesn’t look like you have a problem with my selfishness. Especially when I..” He trails off, deciding on a little bit of no mercy as he presses the tips of his two digits against your tight entrance before with little force, he slides them right in.

Completely and easily with how aroused you really are. Your pussy has been practically drenched since the first kiss and so his long fingers are lovingly greeted with the velvety warmth of your walls squeezing tight around the new invasion. They reached further than just the tip of his tongue. You could feel how long they are as he begins to slowly set a pace of his fingers thrusting in and out of your tightness, pressing sweet kisses to your clit that continues to pulsate from the contact. Whimpering moans easily spill from your parted lips, head tilting back against the cliff face as you succumb to the absolute bliss you feel rush through you.

Satoru’s head tilts up as well to admire the pretty sight of your chest rising and falling from your needy pants and your face scrunching up as he angles his fingers with each thrust until you gasp sharply and weakly grip his hair. “Bingo.” He jokes lightly, tongue continuing to swirl and flick against the sensitive bud as he slowly grinds his fingers deep inside and against the sweet spot. The wet sounds of your pussy only encourage him to pick up the pace of his fingering. Your inner walls squeeze tightly around his long digits, eyebrows furrowing in almost disbelief as you feel his fingers slowly stretch you out as they continue rubbing against the sweet spot.

Fuck, it all just feels so good. Every time you feel that hot flush of pleasure racing through you, you can’t stop your toes from curling and crying out for the lifeguard. The white-haired male thinks it’s a miracle that he’s able to even last this long before stuffing your tight cunt full of his thick cock. Especially after a brief taste of pleasure when your pretty lips were wrapped around him but, maybe it’s because he’s discovered just how fun it really is to tease you. To have your legs over his shoulders and trust his strength to hold you up against the cliff, the sun slowly setting behind him as his mouth devours you completely, fingers causing sweet squelching sounds as he pumps them inside of your tightness. It’s all too good in his eyes. Even before using his cock, Satoru knows he’s going to struggle if he doesn’t get his daily fix of you now. Hopefully, you’ll agree to see more of him. Besides, pleasure aside? He thinks you’re pretty cute.

“Satoru— Best lifeguard in existence, ah… Please? Wan’ more.” You plead breathlessly as you feel his third finger tease around the rim of your stretched entrance. Fingering feels good. It leaves you all warm and tingly but, you want more. Need it. You need his— You’re snapped out of your thoughts when you hear the lifeguard laugh at your form of begging, pushing the two of his fingers against your tight walls slowly until you whine in response and finally, Satoru decides to give you what you want. “Alright, Miss Needy.” He says and you feel him start to cautiously guide your legs to slide off of his shoulders and your hands frantically come up to grip onto jagged rocks but before there was even a threat of a fall, Satoru’s strong arms wrap around your body and he lowers you to the ground, feet sinking into the warm sand and getting in between your toes.

You lean up with the intention to give him a sweet kiss but Satoru merely smirks before his hands firmly grasp your shoulders. ���Now now, princess. Kissing can come later. You’re desperate for my cock, no?” He teases lightly, pressing against your shoulders as he forcefully moves you until you find yourself stumbling. With a playful pout but an eagerness to obey, you shuffle your feet in the sand until you’re turned around, curiosity growing on just how exactly he wants you positioned. This is all up to him, after all. The one who chose such a risky spot in public. Against a cliff. You still truly couldn’t wrap your head around it but, it’s exciting. So thrilling that your heart races.

You let a soft squeak when his large hand grips the back of your neck and he suddenly pushes you down. Without even needing to tell you, your hands come up frantically to make contact with the cliff, hands pressing against the aged rocks. “Good girl, you caught on.” Satoru praises, voice low and breathless. You’re bending over, legs trembling with anticipation and all you can focus on is his overwhelming presence behind you. You don’t even need to glance his way to know he’s towering above you.

Satoru’s pearly white clench together to prevent sounds from escaping as he admires the gorgeous sight before himself and, no. It wasn’t the ocean that was behind him. Nor the sight of families having fun on the beach that he stands guard over. Not the park up in the distance or dolphins appearing amongst the waves. He’s almost numb to those sights from having to come to work daily as a lifeguard but, this? This is a sight he could never become numb to. The sight of you bent over before him, body trembling and feet shifting in the sand as you keep your pretty ass on display for him. Fuck, he could practically see your pussy dripping from where he stands and your juices smeared across your inner thighs. Just like how his lower face is still covered in the sweetness that he refuses to wipe away.

You whine softly, almost becoming frustrated from the lack of both touch and cock inside of you. Satoru merely grins at your whining, large hands caressing gently along your bare sides, toying with the strings of your top bikini. “Such a needy little thing you are..” He says, hands coming down to firmly grip your waist as he steps forward, pressing his bare cock against your ass. You could feel it throb against your ass cheek, pre-cum slowly dripping onto you before he grinds slowly to smear the few droplets across your flesh. The lifeguard grips the base of his cock before playfully slapping it against your ass and eagerly you wiggle your ass back against his throbbing length.

“Fucking hell.” He laughs, endeared by your eagerness before he finally positions his length between your dripping folds. “You do realise I don’t have a condom, right? We can stop if you want me to.” The white-haired male expresses despite the light pleasure he feels from his length dragging along between your folds, feeling your sweet slick coating his length. You feel your hole already clench around nothing as if your body is begging to be filled up. “Wan’ you in me. Now.” You huff impatiently, feet shuffling out in the sand to spread your legs further.

“Going to have to teach you manners later.” Satoru says, though pleased by your ‘subtle’ desperation and so with his hand still wrapped around the base of his cock, he moves to position himself until the bulbous tip of his cock rests against your entrance. Not bothering to wait to confirm with you again, the lifeguard finally presses the tip of his length against your hole and with little force, the rim of your hole finally stretches around the head of his length and your pussy greets Satoru’s slowly sinking cock happily.

The sounds of your strained mewls lace with his deep groans as you feel his thickness slowly stretch out your inner walls and despite the amount of slickness your cunt excitedly produced, you still feel the lingering pain of being stretched out by something so big. Bigger than anything you’ve ever experienced before. Satoru feels breathless as your velvety walls clench around him, wrapping so snugly and tight around his throbbing cock as if eager to keep him inside of you, still slowly sinking in. Satoru tries to take his time pushing in to allow you to adjust but it’s as if your walls are eagerly gripping onto him, pulling him further and further.

Satoru completely bottoms out, throbbing erection completely sheathed as he pants softly, trying to contain himself as the pleasure pulses through him from feeling your inner walls squeeze around his length entirely. Your eyes are wide, barely able to focus on the details of the cliff and only on how wide he stretched your cunt out with ease. You could feel your own mess slowly dripping out despite practically being stuffed full and plugged up. The stretch hurts, stinging at first as you both try to just adjust to the new sensation. You bite back a soft whimper, head hanging forward and eyes closing tightly. Satoru soothingly rubs along your side, hoping to coax you into relaxing.

“Come on, baby. This is nothing compared to a jellyfish sting.” He says, pleased to get the reaction he wanted, which was you laughing at the silliness of his words. The lifeguard smiles behind you, red shorts down to his knees and your bikini bottoms hanging out of the pocket. Thankfully, with his touch, you find your body relaxing before him and the painful stretch dulls down until there’s not even a hint of it anymore. Truth be told, it was a pain you found yourself liking because of what it meant. The handsome lifeguard is inside of you. “Nn, move..” You mumble quietly and it’s a good thing that Satoru is so fixated on you because not even the wind along the beach could hide your words from him.

Satoru, not wanting to actually harm you; starts off slow. He slowly pulls back, his length sliding along your warm velvety walls until he pushes back in. He doesn’t go the entire way, just the first few inches but it’s enough to leave your toes curling in the sand and his name spilling from your lips in the form of a lewd moan. “How are you so tight—“ Satoru choked out, voice strained as you squeezed around his slowly thrusting length. He doesn’t dare pick up the pace, the pair of you melting into the pleasurable sensation of his cock sliding in and out of you and fuck, you swear you could feel even the details of his cock against your inner walls, thick and protruding veins.

You deliberately squeeze around him and instantly, Satoru knows what you’re silently pleading for. Crystal blue eyes widening with manic and lips forming a small grin, the lifeguard begins to pick up the pace of his thrusts, deepening them further. Your swollen lips stay parted as needy whines and moans of the lifeguard’s name escape, feeling each deep thrust that sends a surge of ecstasy through your entire body, nails grazing against the rocks. You could hear him pant softly, his cock sliding all the way out before he slams back in relentlessly, refusing to give you time to relax before he slams his thickness back inside of you.

“Fucking hell—“ He grunts out as you squeeze around him, his hand ghosting along your back before he swats your ass cheek firmly. A squeal escapes from feeling the sudden sting of pain, pushing back eagerly onto his throbbing cock. It feels beyond good to feel the way he stretches your walls out and fills you to the very brim. Truly stuffed full of his cock every time he pushes in deep. His hand reaches out to grip your hair, keeping your head tilted back. His other hand lands smack after smack against your ass, feeling your inner velvety walls squeeze around his thick cock with each impact and you whimper from the stinging pain that laces with the sweet pleasure of his thrusting cock.

Both of you nearly go still from hearing a sudden chime fill the surrounding air. Satoru’s phone is ringing. “Fuck—“ He says, hastily stuffing his hand into the pocket of his red board shorts to grab the vibrating object and check the contact, all the while his hips never stop moving. He refuses to let some call get in the way of both his pleasure and your own. Besides, it’s cute to see the way you clasp your hand over your mouth to try and muffle your sounds. He answers the call and presses it to his ear.

“Yeah, Suguru?”

His hips slam forward until his cock is entirely sheathed again and there’s the lewd sound of your juices squelching around his thickness. He’s breathless as he listens to the other voice. “Ah— Y/N from before left her bag with her friends and they’re wondering where she is?” He repeats, unable to stop himself from smirking down at your bent-over body. Your eyes widen at his words, your face feeling flushed. Fuck, you did forget your bag and that includes your phone. You whimper, his fingers tightening the grip on your hair. “She’s here with me… Do they want to talk to her? Alright, that’s fine with me.” He says, voice sounding so sickly sweet as he dangles the phone in front of you. “Go on.” He says, slowly sliding his length out of your tight cunt.

You reach with a trembling hand, heart racing with a mixture of anxiety and excitement at the thought of having to be on the phone when the lifeguard’s delicious cock pistons in and out of you; hard and fast. “H-Hello?” You manage to breathe out, desperately holding back the delighted squeal that wanted to escape as he grinds deep inside of you, prompting electrifying pleasure to course through your very being.

“Y/N? Where are you? You never came back with that lifeguard after you got stung. Are you okay?” You have to hold the phone slightly away from your ear to prevent your friends from hearing your heavy pants, feeling Satoru’s hand snake around to teasingly rub against your sensitive clit. Fuck, the sadist is having too much fun with this. “I’m— I’m okay!” You squeak in response, thighs closing in on the male’s intrusive hand. Your body is flushed with heat, swimming in the pleasure that his sliding length blesses you with. “I’ll get my bag later—“

“Tell them to give it to Suguru and he’ll leave it at the tower.”

You could barely process the words but you can definitely sense the fact that Satoru is enjoying this a bit too much. You muffle a whimper against your shoulder, eyes rolling and phone threatening to fall from your hand. “If you could ah.. nn— Leave it with Suguru? He— He’ll!! Satoru is asking Suguru to take it to the tower, I’ll get it later.” You manage to spill out between your heavy pants, voice high-pitched as you pathetically try to hide the evidence of your cunt being fucked hard. His fingers teasingly pinch your clit, watching as you tremble beneath him and he chuckles lowly, smoothing his hand just up slightly to apply pressure against your lower stomach. He could feel the way your stomach bulges slightly every time he pushes in deep and you bite back a sob, unable to contain how good it really feels to have him rapidly sliding his length in and out of your hot core.

There’s suspicious silence over the phone, quiet murmuring before your friend on the replies. “Okay, um— Hope you’re having fun, we’ll leave it with Suguru!” She says and you could hear the rushed movement of the phone being handed around and you barely managed to hold it up for Satoru to take, your head hanging forward as you whimper. He takes it with ease, despite his own body feeling like hot jelly as your heavenly walls keep a snug tight fit around his thickness. He holds the phone between his shoulder and ear, hands firmly gripping onto your waist as he slams into your cunt, causing you to cry out loudly, body pushing forward until your own cheek rests against the back of your hand that’s pathetically trying to hold you up by gripping one of the jagged rocks of the cliff.

“Mm? Oh, is it that obvious?” Satoru laughs in response to whatever Suguru is saying on the phone. At this point, you’re too much in your own world to give a damn about anything else. “Couldn’t resist such a pretty girl, you know that. Can I focus on what I’m doing now? Yeah. Uhuh. We’ll pick it up later. Thanks, Suguru.” He pauses. You feel him pausing for a moment, only his leaking tip nudged inside of you. “You’re the best, ah— I might tell you all about it later, I know you’re eager. What’s that? Bye!” Satoru practically sings his own cockiness into the phone before hanging up on his own best friend, tucking the object back into his pocket.

“Sorry about that, princess. Now, where were we?” He grunts out, trimmed nails digging into the flesh of your waist. You didn’t even need to see to know his lips were twisting to form his sinister smirk, leaning back far enough to inspect his own cock. It’s glistening with your juice, slowly dripping and fuck, it only arouses him further. You whine, wishing he’d return to fucking you properly, especially so you could forget the realisation that both his co-worker and your friends know what’s currently happening. You sucked at hiding how you were feeling, but in your defence; he was slamming into you hard enough that skin slapping against skin would have been heard through the small device.

“Fuuuuuuck me…” You plead, wiggling your hips back and managing to sink back onto an inch or two before Satoru shivers at the sweet feeling of you squeezing back around him. “You’re such a slut for my cock.” Satoru teases, feeling rather smug as tightens his grip on your waist to return to the steady pace of his thrusts, eager to pound into your tight hole. His crystal blue eyes roll at the sensation, white strands of hair falling over his eyes as his head falls forward, struggling to keep himself together. You just feel so fucking good around him.

You both are resisting the urge to reach climax, desperate to drag this out. Even as the sun begins to finally set and the sky darkens. Neither of you cared for anything but being with each other in the moment. That and how he roughly pounds into you. Not even a hint of a pause as his cock drills in and out, the lewd sounds of your juices squelching with each time his length enters you, balls slapping up against you. It’s a relief no one is taking walks like the previous couple before you are screaming for the heavens above and the white-haired lifeguard is eating it up. Even the stinging pain of his skin harshly meeting yours.

“Ah, ‘toru! Nn— Feels so—“ You cry out in ecstasy, stomach already starting to feel hot and tight with the urge of an orgasm growing more and more. You’re so blissfully fucked out that your mind couldn’t even form thoughts. Your body could only focus on the constant high, walls clenching around his length as he dragged himself out, only to push back into the brim. “Feels so good, huh?” Satoru pants out, his length throbbing harder than before. “Fuck, Y/N— in or out?” He manages to grunt out, hips stuttering as his own sensitivity begins to creep up on him. You didn’t need to be a genius to figure out what he meant and with a loud whimper, you tilt your head back to meet his hot gaze. deliberately squeezing around his thrusting length to send the message.

You want every drop of his cum inside of you. You didn’t care if it was rather greedy on the first time or if it made you selfish. You want him to breed you, like that’s exactly what you were made for. Besides, it’d just feel so nice to be able to feel full. The message was loud and clear despite no words actually leaving your lips and Satoru is thrilled to have permission; perhaps he was desperately hoping you’d agree because once his cock was stuffed deep inside of you, Satoru just knew that he wanted it this way and naturally, luck is always on Satoru’s side. He gets what he secretly wants.

His nails drag hot across your flesh before he snakes his arms around your trembling body, pressing his front down against your back and he embraces you rather lovingly from behind. Satoru grinds slow and deep, refusing to even pull an inch of his throbbing cock out. He wants to stay inside your tight warmth that squeezes around him. One hand travels down to slide two fingers between your folds, deciding to double the pleasure you feel by caressing your clit with the pads of his fingers, slowly rubbing in a circular motion. “Oh— Oh fuck..” You gasp sharply as his length rubs against your sweet spot and feel your sensitive clit throb beneath his touch. You couldn’t hold back any longer. Even if you want to hold out a little longer, your body refuses.

Hard waves of ecstasy crash over your body, thighs squeezing before shaking violently through the sudden, intense orgasm. You cum hard around his thrusting cock and it’s like your mind is just wiped clean of everything as your lips stay parted to let out the string of cries laced with lewd mewls of the lifeguard’s name, fingertips scraping against the rocks of the cliff face. You’re truly oblivious to how your own body reacts as you drown happily in the constant waves of pleasure that crash over your trembling body. Sweat causes strands of hair to stick to the sides of your temples, eyes rolling back and feeling the hot, sweet tingles spread across you, starting from your dripping cunt. Your hot walls clench repeatedly around his thickness as if so hungry for something. Desperate to milk out everything he’s holding back.

Satoru’s own mind short-circuits from the sudden orgasm that takes hold of you and it’s like your tight pussy is clinging, refusing for him to pull out. Even as his hands attempt to soothe you, Satoru’s hips slam forward for the final time and his own body is flushed with the searing heat of an orgasm. It’s like every fibre of his being loosens up as the bulbous tip of his cock buried deep inside of you, shoots out every sticky rope of cum, painting your inner walls white. His forehead rests against your shoulder, hot breath fanning against your skin as he pants your name out. It feels like heaven, to him. To have you wrapped around him as he pumps you full of his cum. He could feel his tense muscles finally relaxing and his length pulsating inside of you. He sighs out softly, pleasantly buzzed from experiencing the momentary high.

“Good girl..” He murmurs, pressing gentle kisses to the back of your shoulder as he continues to hold your weak body against him, hips stuttering as he slowly thrusts to aid in riding out both of your orgasms. You whimper happily, tears in your eyes from the intensity of your orgasm. Truth be told, if he wasn’t holding you up, you know you would have collapsed from weak legs. You continue to tremble gently, inner walls slowly clenching around the male’s length. It feels so damn good to be so full. Reluctantly, Satoru begins to slide his soft length out until he notices his sticky mess spilling out of your stretched hole that now squeezes around nothing. “Why..” You whine your complaint and a breathless chuckle escapes the lifeguard. “As much as I’d love the idea of staying inside of you, I can’t just keep you outside.” He reminds you, long fingers gathering up the strings of cum that dribble out, noticing that it’s already mixed with your own juices.

Fuck. Feeling daring enough, Satoru moves his long fingers towards your face. Your cheek is resting against the cliff when you notice the approach and with a quick side glance his way; you obediently wrap your lips around his digits, happily sucking off the mess. You moan softly at the saltiness laced with your own sweetness, slowly sliding your mouth up and down every bit of his fingers, slurping up the saliva that now threatens to spill. Your eyelids feel heavy from the previous orgasm and still coming down from that sweet high; you slowly blink and savour the taste that fills your mouth. Satoru gulps, completely entranced by the filthy sight of you sucking on his fingers.

“Fucking hell, you are one lewd princess.” He comments as he watches your tongue slowly drag up between his fingers, leaving behind a string of saliva as you pull away, flustered by his words. You’re still in a daze from the orgasm he practically blessed you with. You never really experienced it so intensely before. “It’d be a waste..” You mumble shyly, feeling the last of his cum smearing across your inner thighs as you rub them together. Even your clit still throbs slowly, too sensitive for any kind of touch. The lifeguard smiles, endeared by your words. “Uhuh. Well, if you ever need more. I’m happy to give it.” Satoru snorts, his hands coming up to grip your shoulders. It’s a miracle that you’re still standing and you know it’s because he’s holding you up as he guides you to turn around and face him.

You meet his piercing blue eyes, finally leaning up to get that kiss you tried to steal before. Satoru grins lightly, finding it cute that you’re still so needy despite just being fucked roughly against a cliff. He lowers himself to press a kiss to your lips, hastily tucking his cock back inside his shorts in a pitiful attempt to stop himself from getting hard. It’d hurt and he knows how irresistible you are in his eyes now. “Come on. Might as well go get your bag.” He says, pausing as he blindly tugs out your bikini bottoms that were stuffed into his pocket. With a gentle push against your shoulder, you understood that Satoru was signalling for you to briefly rely on the cliff face to hold yourself up as he lowered himself to his knees, groaning.

“Even I feel like jelly, what did you do to me?” Satoru jokes, inspecting the bottoms. Surely you tie the bows first? What do girls do with these? You bite back an amused smile at his confusion but say nothing, perhaps enjoying the sight of the usual cocky lifeguard being on his knees and looking like he needs to depend on someone. Satoru with the confidence of thinking he’s right, swiftly ties the side strings into bows and he brings it towards you. You grip his broad shoulders as you carefully step into the loops before you feel the male drag them up along your weak legs until they’re once again covering you.

“Such a gentleman. Will I get to see that side of you more?” You giggle softly, hand playfully ruffling up the male’s soft white hair before he stands up. Satoru, feeling playful, scoops your hand up with his and brings your hand up to kiss each knuckle dramatically. “Mwah. Of course, princess. Only you get such honours of this hot lifeguard taking care of you.” He says and you can hear the smirk in his voice. Your heart still flutters and not wanting the already developing feelings to be obvious, you pinch his cheek.

“That’s so cute of you, Satoru. First, you save me from a jellyfish sting. Then, you fuck me. Really good. And now, you kiss my knuckles. I really am spoiled.” You sigh out dramatically, caressing his cheek with the pad of your thumb and he tilts his head to press a kiss to your palm, eyes closing momentarily. “Only fair. You let me fuck you and it was really—“ He pauses, unable to think of a word and despite your hopeful gaze upon him, he merely smiles. “Stop distracting me. Bag.” He repeats, fingers adjusting your bikini top to cover you properly.

Naturally, you pout and roll your eyes from him not finishing his words, still leaning against the cliff. You watch him intently as he finds his sunglasses in the sand, tossing them into his backpack before zipping it up. “But, mister lifeguard..” You trail off, dramatically fanning yourself as your long lashes flutter. “I don’t think I can walk. You fucked me too good and my legs are weak. That and… the jellyfish sting.” You say, glancing at the part of your leg that is still bandaged up. Instantly, Satoru holds his hand up to stop you, shaking his head. “Ah, ah. Do you really think I’d let you walk at all? Who do you think I am?” He says, lips forming a playful pout.

Your cheeks start to hurt from grinning too much as you watch the lifeguard squat down low before you, hands coming back and gesturing for you to climb on. “You really do spoil me.” You giggle, feeling genuinely thankful towards Satoru because truthfully, he fucked you that good. You think your entire body is going to feel all gooey and weak for the rest of the night. You lean off the cliff, dramatically falling until your front lands against him, chest pressing against his toned back. You’re careful to not put all your weight, not that he cares and wrap your arms around his neck to cling onto him.

You couldn’t see the soft smile that graced his visage as he wrapped his arms beneath your knees and hoisted you up with ease, carrying you comfortably on his back and your legs dangle freely. Briefly, he leans forward. “Can you carry my backpack? It’s not heavy.” He says and you reach just in front of him to hook your fingers through the loop on top, holding it against his front body and he stands up. Satoru begins to walk in the direction you both originally came, taking his time. You glance towards the ocean, seeing the very last glimpse of the setting sun. You didn’t realise that it was even getting dark. You were so lost in the world of pleasure, thanks to the very same lifeguard who ‘saved’ you from a nasty sting. You tuck your head between his shoulder and neck, lips brushing lightly against his hot skin. “So, dinner and round two?” You whisper, breath ghosting along his neck. You could still feel his cum slowly leaking out. Satoru’s feet stumble in the sand, surprised by your words before his lips twist to form a grin, blue eyes becoming even more alive. With an eager nod and his arms tightening around your legs.

“Hold on, Y/N. I’m getting you out of here. Fast.”

And with those words spoken, Satoru begins to pick up the pace. You’re stunned by his high stamina, but it also leaves you feeling giddy from witnessing his excitement. You smile against his neck as you hug him tightly. You didn’t expect any of this today but, you’re already hungry for the future. You tighten your fingers on his backpack and press multiple kisses to his neck as you laugh.

“Bring it on.”

[thydungeongal]

Hey, I've been wanting to run a dungeon crawly west marches style game where I include some optional, off to the side, way-overleveled "guardians" that players can return to fight for extra treasure once they have some more levels under their belt.

My problem is that many of my players initially bounced off pathfinder 1e for being too crunchy, and have been playing mostly dungeon world. And while I do enjoy dungeon world, it's got two features that makes it particularily ill-suited for this campaign:

1. Characters tend to gain more options when they level up instead of becoming numerically better at surviving and killing.

2. Combat is Very free flowing. That's great when I want to dynamically change how difficult combat is, but when the feeling I want to ellicit on lower level is "you're in way over your heads", it feels a bit too much like GM fiat to me.

All that is a long-winded way of asking, do you know of any dungeon crawling fantasy RPGs where characters get Stronger in addition to/rather than growing more versatile, that has more black-and-white combat arbitration, *and* that's on the more rules light side of the spectrum (especially on the character creation side of things)?

Okay, so it actually sounds like you might benefit from one of the older editions of D&D! No, don't run away, come back!

But seriously, let me explain what I mean:

If Pathfinder 1e is too crunchy for your players they might benefit from something that has less crunch. While some older editions of D&D can be quite crunchy (basically, both AD&D 1e and 2e are pretty crunchy, albeit in different ways than Pathfinder), there is the whole Basic D&D lineage of games that are very much simplified and streamlined.

Even though character growth in older editions of D&D wasn't quite as pronounced as in WotC editions, there is still a clear power growth as characters level up, and it is mostly expressed via the numbies going up!

D&D has always been About Combat to an extent, so the combat is still heavily structured.

Character creation in older editions is VERY simple, with only a few choices.

Other benefits include the fact that older editions of D&D come with lots of procedures built in for making a sandbox setting come alive. Random encounters, procedures for populating the world, you've got it all! There's even treasure maps that point to random locations on your campaign map!!!

Now I also understand why you might be hesitant to take me on this idea: those older editions have lots of weird rules and significantly fewer character options. Which is often true. But there's also a burgeoning scene of new games that are taking the aforementioned benefits of those older games and applying some modern sheen to them. Many of which are free!

Basic Fantasy Role-Playing Game is a Creative Commons licensed free old-school D&D clone that is not a clone of any specific edition of D&D, but sort of a best-of of old-school D&D. The game is literally free, and if you wish to increase character options beyond the ones in the core rules (which has Humans, Elves, Dwarves and Halflings, and Fighters, Magic-Users, Clerics and Thieves) there is a vibrant community of people creating free supplements for the game.

The Microlite20 family of games are a set of simplified D&D clones that often take more after modern D&D, but there is a separate old-school edition of the latest version! And if you end up missing some of the "new-school" options the Microlite20 family of games are all broadly compatible with each other!

FORGE is a free RPG heavily inspired by the Basic D&D lineage of games but also some modern old-school clones like Knave, and it basically presents a classless version of old-school D&D (but where levels are still a thing and there are still some character creation choices that echo throughout a character's career). It also has fantastic gameplay guidance and GM tools!

And the best thing about all those games I just mentioned: they are all broadly compatible with each other! So even if you end up running one game, you can easily poach procedures and ideas you like from the others! These games are all basically in the same lineage, and because of that they have lots of points where there's a lot of room for modding and borrowing!

If you would like to talk about this some more, don't hesitate to DM me! I love talking about these sorts of campaigns and if you still have questions and specific wishes I would love to help! :)

[greetingfromthedead]

Womanizer (Vash x F!Reader)

Plot: You've been traveling with Vash for a little while and with your current circumstances end up sharing a room. Turns out the confined space affects Vash in strange ways and he has turned on his charm to try and seduce you.

Series: Tempest Wind, but made to work as a oneshot

Pairing: Vash x F!Reader

Raiting: For everyone

Tags: Pre-Canon, Pre-Relationship, Fluff, Friends to Lovers, Flirting, Banter, Butterflies, I Have Never Been Good At Tagging Stuff

Word count: 2.3k

Author's Note: I said I would post this chapter for Valentine's Day or when I have my next mental breakdown. Well, it's not V-Day and while I do have a mental breakdown, this is different. I am vibrating with excitement as I can smell the finish line of Tempest Wind. There are only a few more chapters left to write, one rewrite and then a whole lot of editing. BUT I am nearly there and I can't wait to publish it for all to read! I will make the announcement for the release date soon! Follow me for more updates!

The bathroom door opens and you turn your gaze away from the window as you sit on the wide bed, your legs pulled against your chest. You see Vash exiting the small room, his hair still damp, but he wears a clean change of clothes. You see a pile of dirty laundry on the floor behind him. He looks a bit more cheered up from the refreshing shower.

"Okay, your turn. I'll deal with my laundry later. Hope you don't mind it being on the floor." he smiles awkwardly.

"Only under one condition... You have to do me a favor." you feel weird for what you're about to ask him.

"Anything," he assures with a neutral expression.

"Uhm. I... I need a change of clothes and I... I don't... well... you know... I don't want to go speak to people... on my own." you add the last part solely because you don't want to sound like a complete wimp.

"Oh, no problem!" he's like a cheerful puppy, "Well, one problem. I saw the place where they trade for clothes and the woman already closed shop. I was thinking that you might need some new stuff so I kept my eyes open."

"Oh well, guess I'll just be nude then while my clothes dry," you say quietly knowing what reaction this would get out of him. And you are completely right: he immediately goes red in the face.

"While I have nothing against it at all, I think I have a spare shirt in my bag I kept clean for emergencies." he mumbles out, too much of a goody two shoes to leave you in a situation where your options were to wear dirty and torn clothes or to be naked. He digs through his bag, throwing more dirty clothes into the bathroom and finally pulls out another black turtleneck. He gives it a sniff and then throws it at you. "No pants tho, not that they would fit you well anyway."

"Thank you." You catch the shirt and smile at him. You know his shirt is big and long enough for you to wear as a short dress. You keep it against your chest like a treasure when you get up and pick up the other stuff the hotel provides for your wash. As you pass Vash he gives you a gentle smile and you see it in his eyes too.

You lock the bathroom door and throw off your dirty clothes. The wounds in your stomach and chest are all healed up. You get into the shower and turn on the water. You let out a sigh and get to cleaning off the dirt and dried blood on your skin. It feels nice to be clean, your hair detangled and free of debris. You stand there for a little while, letting the water wash away the past. You wake from your daze and realize you're just wasting water so you get out and dry yourself off completely before pulling Vash's turtleneck on.

Everything is too big on you and it makes you chuckle. Vash doesn't look like a large person under his coat, but he has wide shoulders and a muscular physique, not to mention he is tall with long limbs. You roll up the sleeves to your elbows and pull down the shirt a bit more, it's halfway to your knees. You feel the thick fabric against your skin and smell the collar. It is clean, but has still a faint scent that you are used to smelling on Vash. 

You unlock the door and step out. The room is lit by the sunshine coming in from the window, the brightest spot being the table underneath it. Vash is sitting there and has taken apart his gun to give it a clean, his supplies scattered around. He turns to look at you when you step into the bedroom and lets out a whistle.

"I'd offered you my clothes a lot sooner had I realized how well they suit you." Vash's voice is joyous and almost too innocent. He stands up to come closer. You don't move and only look at him with curiosity. As he stands toe to toe with you he looks at you for a moment longer before taking off his sunglasses and turning them around to place them on your nose. "Great, you're only missing my coat and then you can go off and be Vash the Stampede."

"Funny man," you reply, voice neutral, "I'm missing a few key characteristics... like the desire to get shot."

"Your words sting, woman!" he says with a hurt expression and a condescending tone, but a smile lingers on the corner of his mouth.

"Even so, I'm sure "Vash the Stampede spotted running around with no pants on!" would be a catchy headline." you look at him through the orange glasses, he and the whole room seems sunnier, happier, filled with warmth.

"No, don't think so, it didn't turn many heads last time, but with you things might be different." he laughs, a genuine smile on his face and it makes your heart lighter. It makes you glad seeing him like this, every moment he seems happy makes you proud and you want to squeeze him tight as a sign of it. He hasn't told you much about his past and he doesn't need to, you know he has suffered a lot and still does, the pain of it painted on his face when he thinks you can't see.

"You are a ladies man, aren't you? A womanizer, a skirt chaser if you will." you say, looking up at him like you accuse him of something.

"What makes you say that? Are my charms working on you?" He seems almost too proud of it and you slowly shake your head with a sigh, a smile lingering on your lips, "What? Are you too embarrassed to admit I have game?"

"You are a tease. Probably the most un-serious person I've ever come across." you look him in the eyes, "And somehow, also the most serious, unshakable soul. You are an intriguing contradiction."

"Is it so hard to admit a simple truth?" he has a very playful expression on his face as he leans closer, you don't think you have seen him like this before.

"I'd rather get shot at than admit something like that." you joke, not shying away from him.

"Ouch."

Your arms yearn to reach out to him, to pull him closer, but instead you step around him, one of your arms nudging his as you pass and go to sit at the table to look at the weapon on it. You haven't seen it this close up before. You pick a piece of it up, you aren't even sure where it would go, never before have you held a gun in any form, they always made you feel uneasy, how they are able to take a life from afar.

"You call me unshakable? You're more stubborn than a tomas." Vash whispers right behind you, his breath moving your hair and sending a shiver up your back. He lets out a laugh as you turn around, one hand over the spot his air had tickled.

"You're so annoying." you blurt out, still looking at him through the orange glasses. His face is so close to yours even though you are leaning back a bit.

"Yet you still stick around." he laughs, a glimmer in him making your heart burst. "I'm not complaining, Sweet Pea."

"Insufferable. Do confined spaces always make you like this? I don't remember you acting up under the open desert sky. You were very civil." you say calmly, still teasing him.

"It's not the confined space that does me like this. No, no, it's probably you wearing my turtleneck that's slowly creeping up."

That comment makes you turn red, quickly you put the piece of the gun back onto the table and then both your hands pull the shirt down more and keep it down on your lap. You were still completely covered and you realize he only said it to rile you up. Guess he is just as good at teasing you as you are with him. He laughs and takes half a step back.

"Only joking, Sweet Pea, don't worry. Well, maybe part of what I said was true." he shrugs and reaches out over you to pick up pieces of his gun and starts to put it back together. You are blocked in and he doesn't look like he will let you get away.

What are these words coming out of his mouth? Vash is shocked, too stunned of his own brain. For the week he has been travelling with you after the incident in town he has wanted to pull you closer, give you a tight hug, hold you and take care of you the same way you seem to be taking care of him. All this time his aches and pains, both emotional and physical have found relief from you in one way or another. You have given him trust and comfort he hasn't felt in a long time. Vash thinks you might have been sent by a god perhaps. He is so grateful for you, but seeing like you keep some distance between the two of you, not shying away, but not coming closer either, makes him worried. He longs to be closer.

His head had been a mess of thoughts and ideas, but once he had seen you exit the bathroom everything was wiped clean. A million butterflies had taken over his stomach, filling his insides, his lungs, climbing up his throat. All he wanted was you by his side, no matter what. 

The words coming over his lips  were barely his, he blames the fluttering in his stomach, his head so wiped he might have even forgotten his name at that very moment. Everything he said to seduce you came from somewhere deep inside him, he felt so flustered he was surprised he could speak at all. He was worried he might have done it now, he had gone too far, been too weird, but you didn't shy away from him, not even a millimeter. Your face had been so close to his he had felt you exhale. He has gotten used to the rampaging insects to the point where he knows he won't be able to say anything close to as smooth again, not without stuttering at the very least. So he turns his attention back to his gun, leaving you just as flustered as he felt inside. He didn't want you to leave yet so he stood in your way so you had to keep sitting there, right next to him and he could steal a glance of you at any moment.

You look heavenly to him sitting in that ray of sunlight, his glasses still on your nose, painting your face with an orange light where the sun shines through the lenses. The oversized shirt makes you look so warm and cozy. You watched him assemble his gun, your eyes never leaving his hands, the way all of Vash's movements seem to have a purpose, the way his metal hand moves just like a flesh one. It is fascinating to you, the meticulous movements are like a performance, the way he flicks the gun, makes sure everything moves smoothly. After a bit your eyes stray out the window, you see the people moving in the streets, them going on their business, everything seems so peaceful like there's no violence in this world at all. You feel so normal, like you could fit in with them. The thought of you mingling among them, living a calm and local life brings a sad smile onto your face that you don't even notice until Vash's human fingers trace over your cheek.

"Don't look so sad," his hand goes to rest on the back of the chair. "Can I cheer you up somehow?"

You look up into his pretty blue eyes, they look like endless wells to you, they remind you of water, but not the kind you are used to on this planet. They recall a memory from a different life, one that you no longer remember.

"I'm fine, nothing to worry about. It was just my mind wandering off." you assure him, still looking into his eyes. You see his hand move off the chair again from the corner of your eye. It's as if he can't stop himself, he places his palm onto your cheek his thumb stroking your skin. He feels how soft and smooth it is, a painful reminder of the scars covering his body.

You look at him, his complexion seems golden through his sunglasses. His hand moves under your chin, the thumb trailing over it, your lips parting a little. His eyes are on your lips as he slowly leans closer. He yearns for you with his whole soul. His eyes find yours again, you look unshakable, like a constant that would never change. But he knows that if he's not careful he might lose you and it would be his fault. He hasn't even told you the truth yet, hasn't revealed his true nature. He can't be this selfish. So he stops and moves both hands up to take the glasses from you and put them back onto his own nose, tilting his head masterfully to the point where the light from the window would mirror back from the glasses and hide his eyes from you.

You look at him for a moment longer, frozen on that chair before turning away. How you had wanted to lose the gap, to pull him closer. But it's all too much, too fast. He says he trusts you, but you barely know anything about him, he guards his secrets closely. But you can't blame him for keeping his secrets, there's plenty you haven't told him either. Yet he fills your stomach with butterflies.

Read more Tempest Wind HERE.

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[max-nico]

The white trim on Amy's dress has been tinted green from the hill she sits on, along with her once white gloves. Sonic sits next to her, a few weeds in his quills and a wary smile on his face as he stares out at the distant setting sun.

Amy places her hand on top of his, he shifts away, and doesn't look at her. They say each other's names at the same time, Sonic with melancholy and Amy with hurt drowned in worry. The synchrony of their words leaves the two in a tense, heavy silence.

Amy has put her foot down in her head, she refuses to speak first because she knows Sonic will just go along with whatever she says. It's hard watching him lie to her when she just wants to help. So despite how tense the silence is, she allows it to linger and pass over her body, as if making a home in quiet as Sonic has with the wind.

It takes a few moments, and by moments she means the longest five minutes of her life, but eventually he clears his throat and begins speaking. His tone is a bit empty, dry in a way she's rarely ever heard from him. He still refuses to look at her, and still has a half grin on his face like that will hide his grievances.

"Amy," Sonic pauses. "What would you do if I said you could never touch me again?"

Not the question Amy expected. She tries to get a read on Sonic, which is impossible on a good day and somehow harder on a bad one. "Well, first I would ask why." She desperately hopes whatever words she says next are the right ones.

"Let's just say I gave you a good reason, so I don't have to think of one." Sonic chuckles, not succeeding in easing the tension.

"Okay, well after I figure out why, I would get thicker gloves and start sewing sleeves on my dresses." She says, "Because maybe it's a skin to skin thing? But if it's not, I'd get us separate beds to sleep in and a bigger couch so that we could sit without touching. I'd ask you what changes you want to make of course, and I'd get Tails to help me because he's the only one I know who could build a couch overnight." She smiles, just barely exposing her sharp teeth.

There's something so kind and warm in the way she is, something just so understanding that it makes Sonic want to curl up in a ball and hide forever. Amy doesn't know this, because why would he tell her how small she makes him feel. Her sincerity manages to eat away at him, he feels so undeserving of her, he could never understand what she sees in him. He spent so long blindly running away from her that it's a wonder to him how Amy's vision has always been clear.

"And… If you'll allow me to be a little selfish," Amy sighs, relaxing backwards and putting her weight onto her hands. "I would ask you for one more hug, and I would kiss your cheek for the last time. As long as it's alright with you." She takes one hand and pushes her quills out of her face, wearing a concerned little expression. "So, what's this about?"

Sonic looks down at her and opens his arms up for a hug instead of answering. Amy is quick to reciprocate, placing herself in front of him to easily wrap her arms around him. There's so much Sonic could say, so much he could show her, so many things he could do to tell her how he's feeling. Instead, he just pulls her closer and squeezes her tighter.

"Just let me hold you a bit longer." He says.

And Amy doesn't move.

Tw: romance written by an aromantic lmao

I'm sorry you're never getting the whole fic, but here's a somewhat edited partially written scene taken from the middle ending-ish lol.

Alright sonamy nation, how are we feeling? I hope it's good, bc these hedgehogs are going through it.

I am a Tails focused blog, but come say hi anyway, just don't be /weird lol

[awakenedsalamander]

Hey so as a new DM getting into WoD (coming from D&D and Cyberpunk) where would you recommend starting for reading up on Mage?

I’ve got both VtM and HtR and there good sourcebooks but I’ve been told Mage has all the ‘deeper’ lore. I just don’t know where to start.

[Note: I answered this question in typical long-winded fashion, so you can skip to the numbered list at the end for a somewhat shorter summary of how I’d get into Mage, if you prefer. Also, this is my own opinion— I can’t promise it’ll work, but I know it worked for me, at least when I started actually doing it intentionally.]

This is a relatable problem!

So, I got into Mage by picking up pieces of the lore from a distance over the course of a couple years, and then diving into the M20 corebook while they were offering it for free during the pandemic. I read the intro, then skimmed the book, with a focus on parts I was interested in, and over the course of the past three years I’ve read almost all of it by now. It’s almost 700 pages of weird, dense material and while if I wanted to I could have gotten all of it read much quicker, it still would have been quite the task, which is not ideal for a game.

Alright, how should you do it then?

Okay, first, put aside the notion of “deeper” lore at least for the moment. Don’t let the fans of Mage who wax lyrical about how important and wild and vast the implications of the Ascension books are. While Mage does get pretty out there, it does not and should not overshadow the other games. Gehenna’s still coming, for instance, don’t let the incident with what was *maybe* the Ravnos Antediluvian take away from that.

Seriously though, it’s easy to get intimidated by certain Mage fans. They can be kind of a snobby crowd, frankly, and not just in the fun pretentious way. Enjoy it at you own pace, those guys think they know the game— nah. A lot of them just know the metaplot, and that does not a game make.

Approach Mage more like an all you can eat buffet, and you’re getting from it what you want. As much or as little, as big or as small, as focused or as broad as makes sense for your interests. You take the parts you want as you like, and go from there. There’ll be time for the rest when you’ve found your footing.

So, if I were to do it all over…

1st— Get ready to take the plunge—but carefully, and with some intent. Steel yourself with some deep breaths, and grab a book to get started with. I do actually recommend the 20th Anniversary Edition to get started, but it is a lot, so if you’re worried about getting distracted or overwhelmed, Revised should work too. (I personally think Revised is just a bit too limited in its take on the setting, but that’s really subjective.) Don’t start reading quite yet, though, just pick the book you want to start with.

2nd— Be ready to ask questions. I’m putting this up early not because you’ll necessarily have questions immediately, but it’s always intimidating to be confused and have questions, so just know that there are folks in the community who will be polite in answering questions.

I’ve had luck with r/WhiteWolfRPG in the past, but I haven’t dipped in there for a while so they may have gotten worse. The Onyx Path forums are generally fairly nice, though. And here on Tumblr I have to think there are people, though I’m new here. Still, I can speak for myself and say— I love questions!

3rd— Alright, here’s what I’d do now. Read the first chapter or so, enough that you know what this setting even is, and then it’s time to find the parts that you are interested in specifically. For example, I’m really into alchemy, hermeticism, that kind of ceremonial magic, and mashing that into a modern setting— playing someone trying to do this old school classical wizardry in the 21st century, basically. So I’d jump into the relevant sections of M20– I’d read about the Traditions, the faction most into old school magic, then read specifically about the Order of Hermes, the Verbena, maybe a few other factions like the Children of Knowledge and the Hollow Ones, and go to any linked relevant sections I’m interested in, such as the write-ups for Alchemy and High Ritual Magick in M20. I would recommend doing something similar. If you don’t know where to start at all, I’d recommend looking at paradigms, the Orphans, and maybe Avatars. That’ll give you the kind of basic introduction a newly-Awakened mage would get. Also, probably stay away from the Umbra for now. It’s got a ratio of weirdness-to-size that makes it a tricky thing to grasp, at least at first.

At this point you might still be confused, just cause it’s a lot to reckon with, but you should be grounded in the details that you plan on working with. You’re building the foundation, hopefully in a way that’s not too confusing.

4th— Something I find helpful for getting to know a game is making my own character, so when you’re comfortable with that notion, I’d suggedt getting a character sheet and finding the section for character creation, then going through it and filling out that sheet as needed. You may never play this character, but in doing so you’re getting a feel for how the mechanics and setting interact, and you’ll probably start to get some knowledge of the basic Mage-specific rules. If you’re like me, you’ll naturally be curious enough to check out those sections, but even if not you’ll still learn more.

5th— Now I’d say to just widen out from where you are. This may take the form of just reading the whole damned thing now, straight through, but for me with M20 that was still kinda scary. There’s just so much. So I read about the things I felt that I knew about, but only vaguely. The Technocratic Union, the nature of Paradox, how paradigm works mechanically, Avatars, that sort of thing. At this point you’ll likely be familiar with your corner of the setting and get a view of how it fits into the wider whole. If you’re feeling ambitious, you might jump into some crossover stuff— what happens if a mage drinks vampire blood, or how werewolves and the Awakened fight over Caerns/Nodes… I was a little overcautious about weaving in the larger World of Darkness when I was getting started, but I know that’s how some new players get a foothold.

(Optional 6th— On that note, I find Mage is a lot easier to run if you’ve gotten some experience with other WoD games. Maybe run a one-shot of one of them, or even a quick mini-chronicle, just so you know the basic rules and find your grove for Storytelling in the setting. You might feel you’re ready to just dive into Mage, and you might be! But I learned that I needed more practice, so just a word of advice.)

I wish you the best of luck! You’re stepping into some weird and wonderful stuff— magic, mystery, and madness, all that— and it takes some time. I hope you enjoy your journey, and remember, it’s never wrong to have questions.

Other than that…

You’re ready.

It’s time to Awaken. Begin walking your Path.

[joltai-showa]

continuing naruto reread third edition chapter 2

my honest reaction to Kishi's bullshit post Konoha foundation flashback

continuing with Hiruzen bashing - why the fuck is the ninja mayor of your village is busy looking at the process of kids taking their graduation photos? Like, does he really have nothing better to do? You aren't worried about your ex-student overtaking a neighbouring country and starting his own hidden village? Nothing is going on in Land of Wind, right? Onoki is simply planning his retirement and chilling? Land of Lightning isn't busy rearming? There aren't hundreds of nukenins running around after the fall of Blood Mist? Your own student is finished with her alcoholic 20 something year long trip?

at this point it really does seem like Danzo was the only one doing any work in Konoha

JESUS FUCKING CHRIST HIRUZEN WHAT THE ACTUAL FUCK? WHAT DO YOU MEAN THE HEADBAND MARKS YOU AS THE ADULT SHINOBI OF THE VILLAGE? YOU MEAN THE HEADBAND THAT IS GIVEN TO EVERY GENIN? FUCKING GENIN????

oooof.

Okay, first of all: Hiruzen you suck so much. Second of all: mind you, he is telling this to Naruto who is like 13 and it's been like 14 years since Third Shinobi World War ended.

Now consider the same thing being told to kids who fought in the Third Shinobi World War aka Kakashi's generation, because holy shit Hiruzen was still on his first term at that point and just casually hit those guys with "yeah you just finished primary school, you're an adult shinobi now." Btw, the databooks have ages for when certain characters got their genin/chunin rank, so here's some fun info about how old <character_name> when they left the Academy😁😁😁😁:

Kakashi - 5 years old (yep, a literal preschooler is now an adult shinobi. nope, i don't give a shit that he's supposed to be a genius)

Gai - 7 years old (wow, a first grader🎉🎉🎉)

Asuma, Kurenai, Rin, Obito - 9 years old (and when they were 8 the Third War just started)

HELL YEAH ADULT KONOHA SHINOBI🦅🦅🦅🦅🦅

(other generations/villages don't have a better train record for their genins)

people in reality love to joke that "kids yearn for mines", but in Naruto world it seems like "kids yearn to die on the frontlines" is more appropriate

and then everyone's surprised when people from Kakashi's generation are on like their third suicide attempt by the time they turn 15 or become outright delusional

anyway, those living in Konoha likely wake up every night from very loud rattling noises (it's Hashirama rolling in his grave)

also while on the topic of fun info available only via databooks, there is this fun thing called shinobi registration number!

Basically, shinobi villages are actually doing some work out there and register the academy graduates with their own unique number. now, after reading through the corresponding page on naruto wiki, it seems like registration system works a bit weird in a sense that every graduate gets their own number, but not all graduates even get to genin rank (this is seen by Naruto's class example where 27 people graduated but only 9 became genins, however those 9 people don't have their numbers follow one after another, so Sakura's is 012601, Ino's 012604, Sasuke's 012606, etc, etc). There is very little info on how it is in other villages (mostly because other villages have less than 10 characters with their registration numbers each lol), but I do have some concerns regarding entering kids' data into your NINJA registration system even if they never make it to the lowest ninja rank... like, are those people drafted after a war breaks out? otherwise why register them in the first place? btw those people were neven given proper training, no tree climbing, no water walking, just some basic justu. Once again imagine being some guy from Obito's graduation class, finishing the Academy as it is the only educational institute in the entire village, going to I dunno work at your family dining business and wash the dishes only to be hit with good old "yeah kid you're in our shinobi registration system, we're really low on people after 5 years of World War, we are sending you to fight some Kiri ninja, every single one of them is a mass murderer (that's what their graduation exam is about), good luck lol" after you've spent like 5 years of your life without touching any ninja weapons or training any ninjutsu.

Ah, yeah, obviously not all shinobi assosiated with certain villages have a registration number, because they were born long before such system was implemented, lmao, so a lot of the ancient shinobi don't have one (Konoha founders, first Kages for all villages, Kakuzu, Onoki, etc, etc)

Let's move on to another interesting thing and it's which villages actually have this system, because the answer is pretty surprising. Amongst the five Great Nations, only four have this system, and it's Konoha, Kumo, Iwa and Suna. Kiri shinobi consistently never had any registration numbers in their profiles in the databooks. My personal headcanon as to why it's the case is that they actually used to have such system in place, however due to internal political instability (read as Blood Mist and Fourth Mizukage literally being controlled by forces outside of the country) the records on Kiri shinobi were fully destroyed and by the time of Shippuden Mei and her gang simply didn't have the time to start the registration procedure anew. Amonsgt the smaller villages only Amegakure was known to use registration numbers, and it's another curious case, because the only Ame shinobi known to have registration numbers are genins sent to Konoha's chunin exam in OG Naruto, so neither Hanzo nor Ame orphans have those. My interpretation of this is that under Hanzo Ame never actually had such system, so it only started after Pain and Akatsuki took over the village, soooo... huh, I guess my headcanons that the terroristic gang did do some good for Amegakure are not that much of headcanons.

(also Uzushio aka where the Uzumaki clan comes from is a weird case because we have two people from there, one is too old to have the number being Mito and another being trained and registred in another village being Kushina)

Anyway, so here's another fact that I absolutely love about the registration systems (yes I am a bit insane about this tiny piece of lore because it's really really cool in my opinion): every single village has a unique way of assigning numbers to their shinobi! I already mentioned how Konoha's registration numbers look, but here's the template for each known village:

Konoha - a six digit number (XXXXXX), seems to be given out sequentially, so older graduates will have a smaller number than younger graduates (Hiruzen's is 000261, Tsunade's 002302, Minato's 006510, Kakashi's 009720, Naruto's 012607)

Iwa - two letter code for the village's name and a five digit number that seem to be given out sequentially (IW-XXXXX). Kitsuchi's (Kurotsuchi's dad) is IW-06112, Kakko's (the guy who dropped the boulders on team Minato :) is IW-06219, Deidara's is IW-08721

Kumo - same as Iwa, but instead of Japanese pronounciation they use English one for the village code, so theirs is CL (likely standing for Cloud), and a four digit number (CLXXXX). Killer B's is CL3288, Yugito's is CL5322, Karui's is CL6306.

Ame - similarly to Kumo, they seem to use the English pronounciation for the village code (R for Rain) which has a single digit number attached to it (I guess for graduation period? There are not enough Ame shinobi to do a better conjucture) and a three digit sequential number (RX-XXX). The guys there are literally NPCs, so I'm not even gonna bother with their names, but their registration numbers are R1-115, R1-127, R2-039, R4-059.

I left out Suna for last because I think their numbers contain by far the juiciest piece of info that a registration system can have: year of graduation according to internal chronology of Naruto world. Now we all know that Kishi is not great with numbers and chronology especially (heeeey history of Blood Mist that makes zero fucking sense and has at least a few time travellers if we take Kishi's writing as it is), but what we certainly know is that Kishi imagines that the hidden villages system was established approximately 60 years before the events of Shippuden. I say "imagines" because if that is the case, then the entire Senju clan needs to have the ability to time-travel to be able to do everything that Kishi says they did (I go into more detail about this in the timeline I made for my fics), so I believe that the villages were actually established 80 years ago, so the dates that I have and the dates Kishi uses would have about a 20 year long gap between each other. Now that we got that out of the way, let me present my case about my assumptions regarding Suna registration numbers. The easiest one to see is through the Sand's siblings numbers - Temari's is 53-004, Kankuro's is 54-002 and Gaara's is 56-001. According to the timeline of mine, Temari would graduate in year 73 since Konoha's foundation, Kankuro - year 74, Gaara - 76, all of which happens to perfectly line up with their registration numbers minus the twenty years that Kishi doesn't believe in lol. The theory does weaken significantly when we take older Suna shinobi in consideration, because their registration numbers are a... mess, to say the least. Sasori's does line up (year 52 and 33-001 respectively), but Baki's (Sand's siblings teacher) is completely off with year 54 and 38-212 (and in this case I am sure in my calculations because both Baki and Sasori have their ages and graduation ages for Shippuden). Yashamaru (Sand's siblings uncle) is even more bizarre, because my calcs suggest that the guy graduated at least a year after Baki, but his number (32-049) suggest that he is a whole year ahead of Sasori. Older shinobi are an even bigger mess, because Chiyo and her brother Ebizo both have theirs... which shouldn't be the case since both of them are way over 70 years old and in Kishi's perspective should have been born before Suna was even established, yet they do lmao. Welcome to trying to untangle Naruto's mess of a lore.

Anyway, I'm done ranting about the villages, just wanna add a few fun observations that can be seen in the registration numbers that aren't necessarily obvious in the plot. Considering that Naruto's class had 27 graduates, I think it's fair to assume that if people have less than 30 number difference between each other's numbers, then they likely graduated from the same class/during the same ceremony.

Konoha's elders numbers are spread out through 000256 to 000293

Sannin's numbers all follow each other (Orochimaru 002300, Jiraya 002301, Tsunade 002302)

Dan Kato (Tsunade's fiance) and Maito Dai (Gai's dad) might have been in the same graduation class (002973 and 003001)

Hyuga Hiashi and Hizashi follow each other (005159 and 005160)

Mikoto (Itachi's and Sasuke's mother) was likely in the same class as Nawaki (Tsunade's younger brother) (005348 and 005350)

dads in Aburame, Akimichi, Nara and Yamanaka clans were in the same class (005480, 005490, 005491, 005492)

Kurenai, Rin and Obito graduated during the same ceremony (010881, 010885 and 010886). Kakashi and Gai graduated a lot earlier than them, while Asuma was a bit earlier

Kabuto for some reason has a registration number even if his story suggest he shouldn't. It's actually pretty close to Itachi's (012140 and 012110)

Team Gai all graduated a bit earlier than Naruto's class

I already covered a lot about Sunagakure, but Chiyo might just be the second Suna shinobi to ever be registred (01-002)

Akatsuchi and Deidara were in the same class (IW-08718 and IW-08721). Kurotsuchi graduated later than them both (IW-09011)

Neither of Iwa's jinchuriki has a ninja registration number

Mabui and Samui likely were in the same class (CL5550 and CL5570). Darui possibly too (CL5596)

Omoi and Karui graduated at the same time (CL6305 and CL6306)

Hoooo. Okay, random Naruto trivia is over, back to the chapter

again with Kishi's later rewrite on what Naruto really is. fun fact: the term jinchuriki does not appear until the start of Shippuden :) I remember reading the old translation of Naruto which were released by fans as the manga was still running and it was really funny watching the fan translators try to figure out wtf is this new thing supposed to be (the term was also translated fully and imagine starting Shippuden and being hit with POWER OF HUMAN SACRIFICE in the face lmao)

also don't be fucking mean to a twelve year old, Ebisu

Hiruzen he's beating your grandson's ass maybe do something, oh right, you aren't doing shit even with your primary duties

buddy what are you yapping about the nepotistic line of hokage curves over you higher than a volleyball curved over me when me and my classmates played with it during PE classes

little bro that's exactly how hokage are chosen lmao

I like to imagine that Land of Earth and Iwagakure have hundreds of masters working on stone, precious metals, etc, there are thousands of beautiful statues and monumets literally hand-carved, so whenever an Iwa shinobi ends up in Konoha and sees the Hokage monument they burst into tears and start screaming "THAT SHIT IS SO ASS!"

like, why is the Hokage monument so ugly omgggg

NAAAAAAAAAH not the Kurama slander. tormented our people = was stuck inside Mito for like 40 years before being immediately shoved into Kushina for another like 15, being ripped out by Obito for like 15 minutes and shoved into Naruto for another 15 years. Like, every single mean thing that Kurama said about humans is absolutely valid

(retcons my beloved retcons)

i m in actual tears rn because omg everything in retrospect seems so much funnier, like, Hiruzen, wdym Minato selected Naruto, little bro is his own kid fresh out of his wife😭😭😭

literally who in the shinobi world EVER followed these principles???

"there are no shortcuts to Hokage title"

"you just have to get lucky and be born into a previous Hokage's family"

"and get a teacher who is a Hokage or studied under Hokage"

"see, you need to do a lot of work!"

jesus fucking--- why are you being so creepy hiruzen

[triflesandparsnips]

This is (still) not the OFMD medical horror essay

...but there I was, minding my own business and looking up recipes in apothecary manuals, and I accidentally opened up the 1653 edition of John French's The Art of Distillation.

Figure 1. AND I FOUND A THING.

(...although this printing is from 1667 -- maybe there's an even earlier edition, who knows, 17th century publishing was weird what can I say.)

SO TELL ME JOHN FRENCH, what should we know about baths -- by which I mean, what did Stede know?

Or better yet-- based on these publication dates (and for maximum angst)...

What did Stede's dad know?

Maybe I am doing medical horror here, WHOOPS OH WELL.

Ahem:

Seeing [that] by bathing and sweating most diseases are cured, especially such as proceed from wind, hot, and distempered humours, or cold and congealed humors; because all these are rarified, and evaporated by transpiration in sweating, or bathing, I thought it a thing much conducing to man's health, to set down such a way of bathing and sweating that might be very effectual, and appropriated to any particular disease or distemper.

So what I like about this paragraph is that, leaving aside the "new and cool" way of bathing that our man French here is about to describe, it tells us what the reading audience may already know about the Wonders of Bathing-- specifically, that:

bathing and sweating? serve a similar purpose

and that purpose is to evaporate (or "rarify", which may mean... make less dense? OKAY, MERRIAM-WEBSTER) the humors

which humors, you may ask? why, the hot and distempered ones (what might make a young lad sass his father), or the cold and congealed ones (what might make a young lad pick flowers and cry a lot)

French then goes on to give us a rundown of his awesome new inventions for bathing, all of which come down to DIFFERENT TUB-TYPES connected to a STILL:

A, Signifies a hot Still with two pipes going into two wooden vessels; In this Still you may put either [herbs], or spices, with water, or with Spirits, and distil them by which means, they that are in the vessels will presently be forced into a sweat, by vertue of the subtlety of the vapours. And this indeed is as a good and effectual a way for sweating as any can be invented: You may by this means appropriate your ingredients to the nature of the diseases.

Figure 2. Well, technically figure A for French, but essentially the primary mechanism for creating enough heat to make the patient sweat in their bath, plus a bunch of medicinal bits and bobs (and... alcohol?) to aid in said pickling sweating.

B, A vessell wherein a man fits in the bath. Now this vessel hath in it a door, for the easier going into it, which fashion is far better, and more convenient, than to be open only at the top.

Figure 3. (or B.) BEHOLD THE BATH BOX. Lock ur boy in until he sweats the gay out.

C, A long vessel where a man that is weak, and not able to sit up, lies and is bathed.

Figure 4. OH LOOK. IT IS. A FULL-SIZED BATHTUB. For the ~weak.

Figure 5. Stede Bonnet's entirely impractical tub (plus or minus one extraneous Blackbeard). Compare and contrast.

INTERESTING.

So... what else can you tell us, John French. What else could Stede, with historical accuracy, been subjected to?

Let's start with:

Whatever temperature of steam his medical professionals (...or father) thought he could "bear" before it got diverted away.

Now you must note, that these vapours must not be hotter than the Patient can bear: also if the vapour come forth too hot upon the body of the Patient, he may by putting a pipe, upon the end of the pipe that comes into the vessel, divert the hot vapour from his body, and so it will not offend him that way.

He could have been forced to stay in the heat until he fainted...

Note, that the Patient, as soon as he begins to be faint, must come forth, or else he will suffer more prejudice than good by his bathing;

...but otoh maybe he got given booze to prevent that. GIVE THAT KID A LAGER I GUESS.

and also to prevent him from fainting, let him take some Cordial, or cold Beer, which will much revive him, and make him endure his bathing longer, as also make him sweat the more.

When he was All Done sweating in the bath, he could've been bundled into his nice comfy bed... to sweat until he could no longer "bear it" again...

As soon as the Patient comes forth, let him go into a warm bed, and sweat as he is able to bear it,

...and yup, still possibly fainting all over the place, not at all a concern...

and take some Posset-drink, or Broth, or such like warm suppings, as also some good Cordial if he be very faint.

...and definitely not something that could happen to him over and over again, until he was "better" by whatever metric someone might decide to judge him.

The patient may according as his strength will bear, and his disease require, bathe more seldom or oftener.

And so with all this in mind--

--if someone wants to write up some deliciously heart-wrenching hurt/comfort around all this--

--let's just say it wouldn't be unrealistic.

Figure 6. Oh Stede. You are potentially so conflicted about the hot pirate who just wants to find comfort in your nice big symbol of your medical trauma bathtub.

[pbandjesse]

Well I wanted to go to work today. I fully planned on it! I was not feeling amazing but I woke up and got dressed and was about to put my shoes on when Alexi texted that it was snowing at camp and we should stay home. Oh. Okay. There were flurries outside which was pretty but I was very confused about this snow day. But I'll take it.

I wasn't entirely sure if we were actually staying home though. The way she phrased it I was not sure if I should be ready to head in later. But I wanted to be ready so I did not fall asleep. At least not for a while.

James has packed me breakfast and lunch and we're downstairs doing their thing. And I was a little unsettled and not feeling amazing. I wasn't exactly sure what to do with myself. So even though I didn't want to go back to sleep I did get in bed. I was very cold.

I would spend the first hour drawing and being cozy. James went to the museum to get a free bagel from the new bagel store that opened today. And would stay for a bit to help them with a weird school group issue. But I'm glad they were able to help and were safe biking in the wet snow outside.

I would wander around the house a bit. I decided we should move some of the boxes in the studio with my knickknacks to the small room for now. But I only got one box up before I got super tired. I am doing better but I am still so weak. And get so winded so quickly. Which is not fun for me at all. It makes me feel terrible. But I did my best.

I would end up falling asleep for a little. James would come back and I would be out. Just dead asleep. And that made me feel a lot better. When I woke up I finally had some work to do. Elizabeth needed me to edit a PDF and Alexi let us know we would be a part of a meeting at 1. Excellent. While I waited for the meeting I had some ice cream and worked on a drawing for Valentine's day. Which I will print tomorrow.

James would go for a bike ride during my meeting. And it was a nice little meeting about volunteering and how we're going to structure the program. I asked if I could do some research about trainings we could have them do to make the program more well rounded. It was nice to see Sarah and Alexi. Poor Sarah was struggling really hard with her connection but we made it through. And I spent the next hour or so researching and working on a few things.

James would take the car to go get some more stuff from the apartment. We are coming up on there only being some stuff left. Which is nice. Still some books to pack but I'm really happy with the progress. I hope next week to fill holes and clean. And then move my fishtanks. We are going to hopefully buy their new table this weekend at IKEA. I'm really looking forward to having furniture.

While James was gone I attempted to hang the curtain rods in our bedroom. Which went semi successfully but I got very very dizzy having my hands over my head. When James got back they helped me finish them and I really appreciated that.

They brought my table for my band saw back and I got that in place in the basement. And we worked to put more stuff away. Sweetp continues to run around on the vents in the basement. I hung a few pictures in the bedroom. James was downstairs making me something for Valentine's Day. So I was sequestered upstairs for a bit. But that was okay.

Eventually I ran out of steam. I felt gross. I tried my theory about turning the sink on to get the shower to work and it worked? Like it's still not hot but it's so much warmer and I was able to actually comfortably wash my hair and didn't feel rushed or anything. It's still not perfect but it's so much better. And it was really nice being clean.

I hung out in bed for a long time after that. James would make us spaghetti for dinner and we sat together in the living room watching a video about RL Stein. James telling me memories about being a kid and borrowing goosebumps from the library. The pasta didn't taste like much, because my sense of taste is all messed up still, but the love was there.

I wanted to sort the rest of the art we have in the ground but I just didn't have the energy. Instead coming upstairs. It is going to be so nice when we have a sofa downstairs but for now, the bed is good enough.

James is having their book club with their friends. Jess is on a first date. And I am thinking about going to sleep early.

Tomorrow is valentine's day! James and me are going to have special pizza at home. But I hope to have a nice day at work first. I love you all. I hope you are feeling good tonight.

[tofueggnoodles]

Special Edition Drama (Volume 1 of the Reload Blast Anime BR/DVD): The Doll in the Empty House

Summary: The Ikkou stayed for the night in an abandoned house. Gojyo got spooked by a doll. (But he was not the one who got the bad ending this time :))

--------

Hakkai: How did it go?

Gojyo: It’s no good! I couldn’t find a single soul.

Goku: Same here.

Sanzo: So it’s a deserted village.

Hakkai: Yes. No-one seems to be living here anymore. It’s a good thing we managed to stock up at the previous village, but I’ve wanted to stay at a proper hotel tonight....

Goku: I wonder how long it’s been since the villagers went away. A bit of food was still left in one of the houses I went into just now.

Gojyo: Don’t tell me you ate that, monkey.

Goku: I didn’t eat it! Okay, I did, just a bit.

Gojyo: As I thought!

Sanzo: Don’t worry. There were times when this guy’s had a cold, but he’s never had an upset stomach. It’s pointless to trouble yourself about him.

Gojyo: Is that so.

Hakkai: The night’s getting late, so for now, let’s find a house to stay overnight in.

Gojyo: I thought it’d come to that, but is there really no other option?

Hakkai: We’ve been driving non-stop for a while, so I’d like to let Hakuryuu rest for a bit. Above all, nights around here can get chilly.

Sanzo: Let’s get going.

--------

Gojyo: What’s with this door? It’s not opening at all.

Sanzo: Goku.

Goku: Yeah. Gojyo, let me try.

Gojyo: Okay.

Goku: One, two–

Gojyo: Oh, it’s open now. As expected from our brute of a monkey!

Goku: Don’t call me a monkey!

Hakkai: Goku, you should be more gentle when opening the door.

Goku: Okie-dokie.

Gojyo: This is sure a creepy house, though. Whoa!

Sanzo: Hah? You’re just being fussy.

Gojyo: I’m not! Someone’s left a weird doll behind. Look there, on that shelf over there.

Hakkai: Oh, if that’s not a French doll.

Goku: French doll?

Hakkai: Also known as a bisque doll, it’s made of porcelain and shaped in the form of a little girl. This item seems to have been made by an exemplary manufacturer. Due to intense competition, mass production of these dolls has declined in recent years, so a piece of such high artistic quality seldom appears on the market.

Goku: Eh.... I don’t really get it, but in short, this is a rare doll?

Hakkai: Well, you can put it that way.

Gojyo: Isn’t it strange? Why is there a French doll in such a place?

Sanzo: How would I know? I’m going ahead.

Goku: Ah, Sanzo–

(A loud crash is heard.)

Gojyo: The door’s just closed of its own accord!

Goku: Maybe it’s just the wind.

Gojyo: No, the wind was not blowing that strongly when we were outside just now.

Hakkai: Perhaps the screws or something else in the door became loose when Goku forced it open.

(Gojyo mutters incoherently.)

--------

(The wind blows as they walk through the house.)

Gojyo: Hey Goku, doesn’t this house creep you out?

Goku: Eh? What’s supposed to be creepy about it?

Gojyo: Er, how should I put it.... Well, there’s the doll we saw just now.

Hakkai: Ah, that certainly bothers me.

Gojyo: Yeah, doesn’t it?

Hakkai: The overall style of this house is Tibetan, so that doll is the only thing that does not fit in at all with the rest of the interior. Perhaps it might have been put there as some sort of a highlight. In that case, it should have been dressed in an Asian costume to avoid making it look out of place.

Gojyo: That’s not it! Since I saw that doll, I’ve been getting the feeling that there seems to be something in the air, uh, like something’s about to appear. Is everything really okay with this house?

Hakkai: Based on the exterior appearance, this house is the sturdiest and seems to our best option at keeping out the cold. The doors and windows of the other houses are broken. Please bear with it.

Sanzo: If you dislike it so much, go sleep outside by yourself.

Gojyo: Why would I have to do that? Isn’t that the same as sending me out to my death? **

Hakkai: Ah, after the murder has occurred, everyone feels safer gathering together in one place. But, one person will say, “I can’t stand being in such a place anymore, so I’m going back to my own room!” and take a different action from everyone else. Later, this person will turn up dead – that’s the usual pattern.

Sanzo: That’s a typical plot element in suspense dramas.

Goku: Hakkai knows quite a lot about dramas, doesn’t he?

Hakkai: I started to watch them in order to have something to talk about with the neighbors and ended up getting addicted to them. It seems that the other day, they’ve just cornered the suspect at the top of the cliff in Noto Peninsula. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Noto_Peninsula]

Gojyo: Where’s this Noto Peninsula? Also, if anything, the current situation is more like a horror drama than a suspense drama!

Goku: You worry too much. Besides, even if anything were to appear, it’d be fine as long as Sanzo recites a prayer.

Hakkai: In case Sanzo’s prayer does not work, there’s still the salt I got at the previous village, so everything will be all right.

Sanzo: Hey!

Gojyo (mumbling indistinctly): Salt....

Goku: Anyway, let’s put down our stuff somewhere and eat. I’m hungry! I want dinner! Dinner!

Sanzo: You just had a steamed bun a short while ago.

Goku: That was snack.

Hakkai: It’d be great if I could boil some water too. I would’ve loved to have some hot tea to wash down the canned food we’ll be having for dinner.

(Something crashes and rattles loudly. Gojyo whimpers.)

Goku: Hurry up, Gojyo!

Gojyo: Y–yeah.

--------

Goku: Well, here we go – one, two, three, shoot! Ah, I lost!

Hakkai: This means Sanzo and I get the bed.

Sanzo: It’s settled, then.

Gojyo: Do I have to sleep on the floor again?.

Goku: I want the bed! I don’t want the futon!

Sanzo: Stop making a fuss. Just accept your loss – there’s nothing you can do about it.

Gojyo: This is the fifth time in a row I get to sleep on the floor! Once in a while, I’d like to sleep on a bed too– Well, never mind. I’m fine with the floor.

Goku: Eh? Why?

Gojyo: Er, well, the floor’s just fine.

Goku: Eh?!

Hakkai: Could it be that you’re bothered by what I said during dinner, Gojyo?

Sanzo: Are you referring to a common scenario in situations like this, in which one’s foot is seized by something while sleeping on the bed?

Gojyo: Don’t remind me of it when I’ve been trying my best to forget it!

Goku: But, if your foot might get seized by something under the bed, wouldn’t sleeping on the floor be more danger–

Hakkai (grabs Goku and silents him): Goku, if he were to realize that, it’d only lead to trouble, so for tonight, please just accompany him on the floor.

Goku: Okay, understood.

Sanzo: How foolish. I’m going to sleep now. (gets on the bed and starts to breath loudly)

Goku: That’s fast!

Hakkai: Shall we turn in too? Tomorrow, we’ll start moving early in the morning so that we can arrive at a town within the day.

Goku: How long would that take?

Hakkai: About half-a-day according to the map, but since the terrain has changed considerably, there’s no guarantee we’ll get there within half-a-day.

Goku: Ah, I want to have something aside from canned food for tomorrow’s meals.

Hakkai: Our diet’s ended up really unbalanced indeed.

Goku: I want to eat piping hot ramen, fried rice, meat buns, pot stickers, soup dumplings, fried noodles, spicy tofu with minced meat, stir-fried shrimp in chili sauce and pepper steak!

Hakkai: You’ll just make yourself unnecessarily hungry by thinking about them.

Goku (as his stomach rumbles): So it seems.

(Gojyo mumbles incoherently.)

Hakkai: What’s the matter, Gojyo? You’ve been quiet for a while.

Goku: If you’re feeling sleepy, why not just go to sleep like Sanzo did?

Gojyo: That’s not it. I’ve just been thinking for a bit.

Goku: About what?

Gojyo: Eh? Er, well, about that, er–

Hakkai: If it’s bothering you that much, I’ll just put this bag of salt under your pillow.

Goku: Oh, so you’re just feeling spooked.

Gojyo: Shut up! Hey, Hakkai, is salt really effective [against ghosts]?

Goku: Ah, I want to know too! How does it work, Hakkai?

Hakkai: Since ancient times, various theories have arisen regarding the use of salt as a charm against evil spirits. Its white color is seen as a symbol of purity and uprightness. Moreover, salt is known for its effectiveness in slowing down spoilage and decomposition. Because of these, the idea that salt is something that ghosts detests has taken root and become commonly accepted. Furthermore–

(He is interrupted by a couple of loud snores.)

Hakkai: Ah, good night.

--------

(The floorboards creak.)

Gojyo: Hmm? Hm-hmm? Hmm-hmm?! Oi, oi, oi, oi, oi, is this seriously happening? This must be ‘that’ thing! If I open my eyes, it’ll be over! I’ll just get my head under the pillow. ** Crap! Is it really time to use the salt? Ah.... something is getting into my futon!

(He tosses the bag of salt with a shout.)

Goku: Aw! What are you doing?

Gojyo: Eh? Monkey?

Goku (spits out the salt): What’s this? It’s salty! Don’t just throw a bag of salt at me all of a sudden!

Gojyo: You’re changing the subject!

Goku: All I did was come back after going for a pee. What a cowardly cockroach kappa! Idiot!

Gojyo: What did you just say?

Hakkai (wakes up and switches on the lamp): You’re noisy. What time do you think it is?

Goku: Gojyo suddenly threw the salt into my face!

Gojyo: That’s because you crawled into my futon all of a sudden!

Hakkai: Errr.... Goku?

Goku: Ah! That’s not it! I just got the spot wrong when I came back!

Gojyo: You’d have normally noticed that someone’s already sleeping in the futon [you’re trying to get into]! How spaced out could you get, you sleep-walking monkey!

Goku: It was dark, so that was an unavoidable mistake!

(A gunshot rings out. Gojyo and Goku whimper.)

Sanzo: Shall I silence you both once and for all?

Goku and Gojyo: S–sorry.

Hakkai: Isn’t it a good thing it wasn’t a ghost? Come now, let’s go back to sleep. If you make a racket again, there will be no guarantee on your lives.

Gojyo: Damn it! What a crappy ordeal!

Goku: That was my line, scaredy-cat kappa!

--------

(The floorboards creak. Again.)

Gojyo (half-awake): Is the stupid monkey going for a pee again? (drew his duvet over himself) Really, how many times does he have to go in the middle of the night? What an annoying monkey! (starts to snores)

--------

(The next morning, as they ride on Jeep....)

Goku: Ah! I had a good night’s sleep! As expected, it was much better than camping out.

Sanzo: So says someone who woke others up in the middle of the night.

Hakkai: Now, now. Gojyo, did you have a good sleep after that?

Gojyo: Yeah, I did. Anyway, you went for a pee again afterward, didn’t you, monkey? You should’ve just done your business in one go, you know.

Goku: Eh? But I went just once.

Gojyo: Hah? Then whose footsteps was it then?

Sanzo: Tch. Oi Goku, get me a pack of cigarettes!

Goku: Okay. Cigarettes, cigarettes.... (rummages in the storage behind) Hmm?

Hakkai: What’s the matter, Goku?

Goku: Hey, who put this doll in here?

Gojyo: Ah! It’s that doll!

Sanzo: Isn’t it the French doll?

Hakkai: It’s from the house we just left, isn’t it? There's no doubt about it, considering the rarity of such a work of art. By the way, I was not the one who put it on Jeep.

Goku: Me neither. Gojyo’s awfully scared of it, so it can’t be him either.

Hakkai: Then, was it Sanzo?

Sanzo: Why would I do that?

Hakkai: Indeed, why would you. In that case, then....

Gojyo: Eh? Then what? Are you saying that this thing followed us of its own accord? That’s impossible!

Goku: Could it be that the footsteps you heard in the middle of night....

Sanzo: That’s a plausible explanation.

Gojyo: Oi, oi, oi, oi, oi, oi!

Goku (jiggles the doll before Gojyo): “Don’t leave me behind!”

Gojyo: Stupid monkey! Don’t get that thing near me! (struggles to get away from Goku and the doll)

Hakkai (losing control of Jeep): Gojyo!

Sanzo: Oi! Stop struggling!

Gojyo: It’s not me! It’s the monkey!

Goku: I was just getting you acquainted with it for a bit. Here, here!

Gojyo: Didn’t I tell you to get it away from me, stupid monkey?

Goku: “Aw, how heartless of you!”

Gojyo: This blasted monkey! Getting carried away like that! Stop it already with that girly act!

Goku: “Come on–”

Hakkai: Please stop it, the two of you. Even under normal circumstances, this is the kind of road on which it’s easy to lose control of one’s vehicle.

Sanzo: Cut it out! Do you two want to get killed that badly?

Hakkai: Sanzo! If you stand up in this situation–

Sanzo: Mmmp!

Goku: Ah. Sanzo fell off.

Gojyo: Crap.

--------

(Round brackets): actions and sound effects. [Square brackets]: translator’s notes. Double asterisks **: Stuff I am not sure with. Suggestions for improvements and corrections are more than welcome.

[allthemusic]

Week ending: 18th September

Here we go. After awkwardly not talking about it last week, we finally get to talk about our first proper Eurovision hit as a Eurovision hit, and not just an okay cover version of a Eurovision hit. Which is pretty cool, because while it's very different to what you imagine, when you think "Eurovision hit", it's also pretty typical, in some other ways.

Volare - Domenico Modugno (peaked at Number 10)

I like this song. I liked last week's version, but this version, which is almost identical, minus some mandolins and some random English lines, is even better. There's just something very fun about it, and very dreamy, the way it slows down and speeds up, the odd little harp and piano frills, and the ethereal organ that floats in and out at points. And the lyrics, written by Domenico after getting drunk and waking from vivid dreams to some reproduction Marc Chagall paintings, are equally dreamy and weird, all about painting yourself blue and then being able to fly. There's possibly a metaphor in there about being in love, too, but it's all very weird: I think that a dream like that will never return / I painted my hands and my face blue / then was suddenly swept up by the wind / and started to fly in the infinite sky.

It clearly won over hearts in Domenico's native Italy, where he won the eighth edition of the Sanremo national song contest with it. This was a good proving-ground, since the Sanremo contest, which is apparently the longest-running TV musical competition in the world, was the inspiration for Eurovision, and so, when Italy needed somebody to send along to Eurovision, Domenico was picked. His song only actually placed 3rd in the contest, but was the breakout hit of the contest, and one of the biggest Eurovision hits in the contest's history, more generally.

This, in some ways, isn't surprising. It sounds very different to your classic ABBA-style numbers, but at the end of the day, we're looking at a big, dramatic chanson-style ballad with nonsense feel-good lyrics that you don't really need to understand, complete with some interesting instrumentation, and a hook that everybody can sing along with, regardless of their native language - just about everybody can manage a sweeping approximation of the volare, ohhhhhhhh / Cantare, ohhhhhhhh line. So yeah, I could see this doing well even today.

Anyway, it's also cool to see Eurovision already having an impact on the UK charts, just three years after it began, inspired, apparently, by the way networks had been able to broadcast Elizabeth II's coronation live across a bunch of European countries. Excited by the technical prowess that this showcased, and keen both to produce some cheap televisual content and to foster friendship between countries that had been at war not too long ago, Eurovision was developed by the European Broadcasting Corporation, which had been established in 1956. And yeah, something tells me that the contest is going to continue to be important as this project continues, as a minor but non-negligible route for European artists to make it on the world stage and compete the with the American artists and British knock-offs of American artists that are otherwise dominant in the charts, at this point.

I really like Eurovision. And I enjoy this song. I feel like it gave it a bit of a rough ride last week, when it really is pretty great - and better in this original version! I leant it, back in secondary school - I can't remember exactly why - and I can still sing along with a lot of it. I didn't realise just how trippy the lyrics were, though, and I'd never really thought about it as a specifically Eurovision hit, though I knew that was where it was from. And yet thinking about it in that context does make it make sense - you could even kind of see it working if they entered it today, you know? Honestly, I'm mostly just surprised it only made 3rd!

Canzone preferita del gruppo: Volare

[not24opposumsinatrenchcoat]

REALLY FAST if you get freaked out by body horror or general gore, I would advise you skip. I don’t want to give too many warnings because that’ll ruin the whole surprise, however there is lots of body horror and animal gore, lots of blood, weird creepy shit. You have been warned ‼️

So I have been writing as a hobby for like my whole life and I literally have no where to put my work other than here, so uhhhhhhhh take this

So like a year ago or so I made an attempt at a short horror story, I’ve always been super into horror and stuff and I was experimenting. At the time I rlly rlly liked this and I’ve gone back and edited it a bit, I’m not sure how I feel about it now but anyways I hope someone finds this and enjoys reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it.

Okay here we go

1: The farmer. The sheep. And the fog.

The wind bellowed coldly through the grass, the moon shone down onto a lone pasture. A few toads let out low croaks here and there. A herd of sheep slept peacefully in a large field of grass, encased in a rickety wooden fence. The moon's light illuminated their wool, and against the viridescent grass, they looked like spider silk, lumpy but soft.

The sky was cloudless, but in the cold concealment of the darkness, a gentle fog crept up onto the grass. The moon's yellow gleam made the fog look soft and crisp. It was low, only covering a few inches above the ground, and even then a sharp eye could pierce through the fog’s cover and see the sleek blades of grass underneath, which were gradually forming small drops of dew.

Beyond the pasture, an old house lay bare against the tress. It had chipped paint on the door, and the bricks that made up its walls had been smoothed down over time. The roof was uneven and different color tiles dotted it from when it would collapse occasionally. The chimney jutted from the roof awkwardly, and at an odd angle, looming to the side like a wilted flower built from stone. A few bricks were missing here and there, though it still stood, puffing a thin stream of smoke into the night sky. The floor of the house was filthy, and if you weren’t careful the hard wooden planks would assault your feet with brutish splinters. If you were to step with too much weight, the house might feel as if it were going to plunge down on you. Though with a fire burning and a soft bed, anyone would call it home.

Inside this house, however, lived an old farmer. He was quiet and rather irritable. He lived alone, only visiting the nearest town, (which was very far off) for the occasional selling of his sheep's wool, and to purchase any drop of alcohol he could find. No one bothered him except a few wolves who liked to scare his sheep in the night, causing panic and waking the old farmer for hours on end. Once the farmer had sent the beasts a warning shot into the air with a musket, and they had left him alone since.

In the sky, a thick cloud drifted over the moon. Severing the light from the pasture below. The wind suddenly stopped as well, and the toads and their croaks vanished.

All was silent.

After an impassible couple of moments, one of the sheep abruptly stood up and walked silently through the fog, and to the edge of the pasture that faced the woods. Precipitously, the sheep started yowling mindlessly at the tranquil trees. Just as oddly, none of the other sheep woke, nor joined in the disturbance. The single sheep stood alone and without movement, aside from its mouth. If one were to look closely at it for a long while, it would be as if the sheep was simply fake, if it was not for the movement of its mouth and the sounds it made, one would assume it was in fact fake. Possibly a statue, or a wooden toy.

The sheep continued its mindless screaming, and soon the farmer woke, he groaned and grabbed his musket. Assuming it was more wolves come to further pest the old man. He swung open the door quickly, musket ready. But no one was there. The farmer saw it was one of his sheep, he recognized her as Morrigan and grumbled to himself as he put his gun down against the door frame.

As he walked away from the doorway, he felt the warmth of the small fire that lay in the chimney, be torn from his skin, leaving him in the crisp nighttime air.

The scarcity of noise and wind made the hair on the back of his neck stand up, goosebumps began to swiftly latch onto his skin. He ignored it and continued to the pasture.

He clambered over the low wooden fence and made his way over to the bothered sheep. He did notice, however, how odd it was that all the others were still mutely asleep. As the farmer came up to the screaming animal, he had to cover his ears, her screams seemed to pierce the air and strike his brain into an immediate headache. He pressed on and came up next to her. He looked into the dark wood to see what she may be upset at, but nothing other than trees and other greenery stared back.

He attempted to soothe Morrigan by petting her, but it did nothing. And he quickly had to cover his ears again hastily. He stood up and tried to nudge the sheep away with his foot, but it did nothing yet again, it was almost as if the sheep was fused with the ground, unable to move or be moved. After a moment, he tried to nudge her harder, but still nothing. Finally, the ill-tempered farmer had had enough, he kicked the sheep in her side.

A sickening noise cut through the air substituting the screaming, a concoction of a sharp series of cracks, and the dank sound of decaying flesh filled the silent air. Morrigan did not falter, though her mouth hung open, frozen mid-yowl. The farmer, aghast, fell back into the wet grass, his boot covered in blood and perished flesh. The fog hardly wavered and abled over him quickly. He gaped at the rotting sheep, which was still staring blankly at the woods. She looked as if she had been petrified in place, or stopped in time. The smell of thick blood and iron wafted through the air, as well as the pungent smell of decaying meat.

The farmer, terror-stricken and furthermore panicked, looked over at the other sheep in the pasture but was only met with something equally horrifying, all the sheep were standing up as well. They all stared at him. Now, normally sheep's eyes looked at their sides, the vertical pupils eyeing for dangers on either side of them,, as most prey eyes do. However, these sheep were looking, directly at him, looking straight forward at this impoverished man. All of them were unmoving and silent. The farmer stared back, aghast at the horror before him.

Without the light of the moon (which was still hidden by the fixed cloud), the sheep looked plain and heartless. Their eyes glossed over.

All was silent.

A single, sharp crack of bone broke through the air, and the farmer looked back at Morrigan. Her body remained still, and unmoved, but her head had roughly turned to look at him. One notable thing, this sheep’s eyes still remained at its side, as a normal sheep's eyes would. However, after a few everlasting heartbeats, Morrigan’s eyes suddenly looked straight ahead, at the farmer. And as it did so, her jaw opened, revealing a pungently rotting mouth and throat. The farmer felt ailed.

Abruptly, another crack broke through the air, as the sheep’s bottom jaw fell to the ground, leaving her putrid tongue dangling out, and her throat exposed. A few chunks of flesh fell after it, the sheep was still again.

All was silent.

The farmer, who was still flabbergasted, shuddered and held back vomit. He risked a vacillatory glance back at the other sheep, and he realized with a lurch, that they had all gotten closer, the closest one being merely a few yards away, whereas before, it had been at least 20 feet away. What was even more frightening, was the fact that they all had managed to move silently.

He looked back at Morrigan, his throat dry, sweat glistened on his forehead. She stared back at him, and without warning, Morrigan’s tongue began to steadily, but swiftly, slide from its mouth and towards the farmer. Bits of putrid flesh fell from the slithering tongue and onto the ground. The tongue slithered towards the farmer, like a snake stalking its next bite of food. It advanced to the farmer and rested on his shoulder, it was muggy, and pulposus. The man shuddered violently.

“What… are you…” Was all he could muster to say, his heart screamed into his ears. His hands dug into the damp grass and trembled against the earth.

The sheep looked blankly at him for a moment. Until a slit appeared on the sheep's forehead, it cracked open as if it were a rotten egg, and scarlet clotted blood gushed from it as a third eye gradually opened. This eye was completely red, with a black verticle sheeps pupil. It pierced through the farmer's soul and the farmer felt a sharp coldness reverberate through his body as it did so.

Forthwith, All the other sheep started screaming, but were cut off suddenly as the 3 eyed sheep rapidly wrapped its tongue around the farmer's neck

Crack

All was silent.

[…]

AAAA THATS IT if you read all of that i hope you liked it, again idk how i feel abt it now but i am pretty proud of the scene descriptions in this I think I did well with that. I don’t love the ending but besides that i think it’s okay

(I’m rambling sorry)

But if you like this I’m currently working on the rough draft of a full length novel, centring around space and isolation and has a similar vibe to Alien. If you wanna see some stuff from that idk lmk I enjoy the attention 🤭

(Also I have no clue how to use tumblr nor do I understand the culture but I’m trying my best 😭)

[violetlilysunshine]

Like a Sleepover

Tom Holland x Female Reader

Requested

Anon: Sleeping over Tom Holland house for the first time. Lots of fluff please

WC: 3,544

Warnings: none, just fluff

A/N: I'm seeing this take place in Atlanta, but it’s not really specific if you wanna imagine it somewhere else!

REQUESTS OPEN - Or just come chat :)

MASTERLIST

You and Tom had been together for a little while; you were getting serious, spending more and more time together.

Last month, you finally put a label on yourselves, “is it...ya know, uh… can I, well…” he stuttered.

“Spit it out, Tommy,” you joked.

“Can I call you my girlfriend?”

You were taken aback for a second, “well, uh, to be honest, I kinda thought I already was…” you giggled.

He laughed at you gently, “well alright then, girlfriend…” he trailed off with a raise of his eyebrows.

“Okay, boyfriend.”

TUESDAY

Flash forward and you’re making plans for this weekend seeing as you're both off from filming.

“Yeah, so they’re showing Outsiders at the drive-in on Friday, and we’d have to go to the later showing after I finish filming, but uh, I thought it would be fun and something different for us and I know you love the movie. Might be fun to dress like Greasers too,” he proposed through the phone, calling you between scenes.

“Ooh that does sound like fun, but I wanna be Cherry,” you said, giggling a bit.

“Okay, you can be Cherry, I’ll be Ponyboy,” he finalized.

“Sounds good, well I gotta go,” you said, “duty calls.”

“Yeah, me too, but uh, one more thing real fast?”

“Sure, what’s up, babe?”

“Well seeing as it’s going to be really late, I just thought maybe after it’s over, you could maybe stay with me?” his voice tweaked up at the end. He was met with silence on your end for a minute before he added, “ya know, like a sleepover…”

“Uh, yeah, maybe…” you trailed off, “we’ll see what the wind blows, huh?”

“Oh,” he said, his voice dropping a bit, “yeah sounds good.”

“Okay, well I really do have to run.”

“Alright, darling, talk to you tonight.”

“Bye,” you said, already walking out of your trailer and back to set.

“Yeah, bye,” he answered to himself, seeing as you’d already ended the call.

You had never been nervous with him before, but now he’d casually invited you to stay over at his house for the night, something you’d never done with any boyfriend, ever. You didn’t know how to act, and it kinda freaked you out.

Was he expecting anything? What would you even wear? Should you bring a change of clothes? Would late night last into early morning? What if you woke up before him and didn’t know what to do in his house? What if he woke up first and you slept in really late, leaving him bored and trapped?

Questions swirled your mind, and you knew he would bring it up again, but you had to force them away. You hustled back to set, getting into character and trying to forget about everything.

He called you later that night, “wanna grab a bite with Harry and I?” he proposed.

“Uh sure,” you thought since Harry would be there, he wasn’t likely to bring it up again.

You met him just down the street from his house at the forgotten diner you frequented, never being recognized and getting some peace together. You grabbed burgers and chatted about your day as you ate and everything seemed fine. He didn’t bring it up again, and you thought you would have another few days to process everything and hopefully get over the hurdles in your mind. You wanted to stay with him, but you didn’t know how that would play out, exactly.

“Finished?” he asked, gesturing to your empty tray as he stood up.

“Yeah, thanks,” you smiled, and he cleaned up the table and took the trash to the can.

“I’m gonna walk back, if that’s okay,” Harry said, standing from the table, “got some photos I wanna edit.”

“Sure, bro, I’ll be right behind you,” Tom answered, coming back to you.

“Bye,” you waved as he left you and Tom alone.

“Walk you to your car?” Tom offered.

You stood up, turning around to thank the workers as the two of you left the diner. He walked you to your car, one hand secured around your shoulders, hugging you tight to his side.

“So, uh, I kinda got the sense that you didn’t want to stay with me earlier,” he said slowly, testing the waters to see how you would react.

You swallowed hard, turning to lean on the door of your car, “oh,” you whispered, “well uh, it’s not that, it��s just that I don’t - I’ve never really, uh, done that before.”

“Yeah I know we haven’t, love,” he chuckled.

“I mean, like ever,” you whispered, looking at the ground, “I just uh, don’t really know how that works.”

“Oh, well, uh, it’s not that hard really,” he soothed, “you just sorta sleep at my place, and I take care of you, and make you breakfast, and we just be together.”

You looked into his chocolate eyes, nothing but love pouring out of them. You don’t know how long you held his gaze for, but he started to get a little nervous at your lack of response.

“I mean, we’ve napped together before, it’s kinda like the same thing, just longer,” he added, trying to put you at ease.

“But like, what’s gonna happen?” you said, fiddling with your hands.

He understood what your emphasis meant, bringing a hand to your shoulder and rubbing it gently, “I’m not expecting anything, love,” he soothed you, “if it happens, fine, I’m ready for that. If you’re not that’s fine too, just wanna cuddle with you. Feel you pressed against me. Have my sheets smell like you when I get in ‘em the next night.”

You felt more at ease about it, but wrinkled your nose at his last statement.

His eyes grew wide, “no no no,” he hurried out, “I didn’t mean it, like, in a weird way! It came out wrong!”

You giggled at him, “it’s okay, bub, I get it. Why do you think I like wearing your hoodies all the time?”

He breathed a sigh of relief, chuckling at you, “yeah?”

“Yeah, and to be honest I don’t really even like hoodies. I’m a sweatshirt kind of gal.”

“Noted,” he answered, saving that info for later, “so what d’ya think about Friday?”

“I’ll stay, but like, do I bring anything?”

“You can bring whatever makes you comfortable, love,” he answered quietly, stepping towards you and cupping your face in his hands.

“Okay,” you breathed, connecting your lips to his.

You kissed for a while, his body pressing yours into the door. You pulled back to take a breath, resting your forehead on his, “but really, do I bring like, a toothbrush and stuff?”

“Yes, love, bring a toothbrush,” he chuckled, pecking you again. He swung his arm around your shoulder again, pulling you off the car, “let’s get you home, yeah?”

He opened your door, letting you inside the driver’s seat and closing the door. You started the car, him still standing there watching you. You rolled down the window, “are you coming or what?” you laughed.

“What?” he asked with a chuckle.

“I’m taking you home, obviously,” you giggled.

He ran around to the other side, hopping in quickly and buckling up. His hand rested against your thigh instantly, stroking his thumb across your skin.

You made the short drive to his house, lights on downstairs showing that Harry was already there.

“Thanks for the ride, baby,” Tom said, leaning over the console and giving you a quick peck.

“Anytime,” you whispered, pecking him again.

“See you Friday,” he said with a raise of his eyebrows, squeezing your thigh.

“Yeah, Friday,” you answered quickly.

He pecked you one last time before slipping out of the car and jogging to the front door. You watched him go inside, waving to each other before you drove off.

THURSDAY

After you were off, you took a long shower, exfoliating everything and shaving your legs, in preparation for tomorrow night. You carefully packed your bag: toothbrush, toothpaste, floss, mouthwash, hair brush, extra ponytail holders, face wash, cute pajamas, fuzzy socks, extra undies (more than you’ll ever possibly need but can’t be too prepared, right?), a cute outfit for Saturday, and a book (because who knows what the tide will bring?).

You’d spent so long worrying about what you would take with you, that you’d forgotten that you had to find something to wear to the movie. You’d already agreed to be Cherry, so you had to come up with something.

You slipped to the back of your closet, finding an old-plaid-navy-school-uniform skirt. That’ll work. You pulled out a plain white sweater that you’d never found a chance to wear, thinking you could tuck that in, and a lace bralette to go underneath it; after all, you wanted to feel a little sexy. You pulled forward some old blue Vans and some white crew socks, planning to fold them over. You also planned to ask your hair and make-up artist to help you with your hair before you left set tomorrow, saving a few pictures for her.

By the time you’d done all that, you figured you better go to bed, turning off the light, crawling into bed, and thinking about what tomorrow would bring.

FRIDAY

You’d had a long and stressful day filming, stuttering over your lines, missing your marks, and overall just not giving your best performance. Everyone has their off days, but you knew this was coming from your worries about tonight.

You called Tom as you were getting your hair done after wrapping for the day.

“Hi, bub, am I interrupting you?” you asked as soon as he answered.

“Never, love,” he answered, “what’s up?”

“Well, I’m getting my hair done for tonight, then I was going to head home. Just wanted to make sure you didn’t want me to stop and get anything at all or bring anything specific with me..”

“Course not, darling. You just have to bring that pretty face…” he trailed off.

If you were with him, you’d have slapped his shoulder lightly. Instead you just giggled, asking, “you’re positive?”

“Yes darling,” he insisted, “I’ll pick you up at 9:00.”

“Alright…” you trailed, “guess I better let you get back to work.”

“I’ll see you later, beautiful,” he whispered, “bye.”

“Bye.”

Your hair and make-up artist finished her work, expertly recreating your example images. You thanked her profusely, complimenting her over and over.

She answered with a simple, “it’s nothing dear,” and a wave of her hand.

You hugged her thank you, heading back to your trailer to collect your things.

By the time you got back to your apartment, it was already 8:30. You quickly dropped your work and other set junk on the table, scurrying to your room to collect your bag for Tom’s. You checked over everything in there, playing all the possible scenarios in your mind before deciding you were prepared.

You changed into your outfit for the night, lacing your shoes and admiring yourself in the full length mirror. You snapped a few pictures, deciding that one was cute and posted it to your Instagram story with the caption, “where’s my Pony?” and a cherry emoji.

As soon as you put it up, Tom knocked on your door. You rushed through the living room to the front door, flinging it open to see what Tom had concocted for the evening. You took in his appearance, mouth watering at the sight. You admired his slicked back hair, tight grey t-shirt, sleeves rolled up a bit of course, loose jeans, cuffed at the hem, beat up black converse, and red flannel hanging over his shoulder; you didn’t realize the effect this dress-up would have on you. You giggled, eyeing him up and down as he did the same to you.

“Hey, doll,” he grinned, meeting your eyes again.

“Hey, Pony,” you laughed.

“Ready to go?” he asked gently.

“Yeah, let me just get my bag from my room,” you said, turning back to grab it from your bed.

At the last second you decided to throw a box of tampons in. You weren’t expecting to use them, but you didn’t want to get stranded without them. You sighed, zipping up the bag and turning off your bedroom light.

You emerged from the room, walking towards Tom, standing by the table.

“Ready,” you said, voice kind of quiet.

“Let’s go then,” he smiled brightly, taking your bag from you and grabbing your hand. You locked the door behind you before following him to his car.

~~~~

When you parked to watch the movie, Tom was quick to pull out his phone, snapping a picture of the title screen and posting it to his public story. You knew fans would be in a tizzy, considering your earlier post, but they always were so what’s the point in worrying. Then he turned to you, “take a photo with me, love?”

“Course, Pony, anything for you,” you said dramatically, even though you loved it.

“Are you gonna call me that all night?” he chuckled.

“Maybe forever,” you answered, laughing loudly.

He pulled his phone up to take a selfie. You smiled wide, pressing your faces together, and he turned to peck your cheek. He snapped another, smiling as well, saving it and setting it as his lock screen.

The movie was great, as expected, and the drive-in atmosphere made it even more fun. You didn’t have to worry about fans interrupting you, a big plus, but it also just fit the movie so well, and it was fun to be in costume.

When it wrapped up and you were waiting in the traffic to pull out of the lot, Tom asked gently, “still wanna come over?”

“Yeah, sure,” you said, trying not to overthink things.

“Okay, just making sure. You don’t have to if you don’t want to. Just want you to be comfortable,” he said, dropping a hand to your thigh and giving it a gentle squeeze.

“Oh, well I wanna give it a go,” you said with a small smile, placing your hand on top of his.

He smiled wide, picking up your hand to give it a kiss, before dropping it back into your lap.

The drive to his house was quick after you finally made it out of the parking lot. He hurried around the car, opening your door for you, before grabbing your bag from the backseat.

He placed a hand on your lower back, gently guiding you to the front door. He shuffled around to unlock it, pushing open the door and allowing you to enter first. You stepped inside, making note of Harry on the couch. It was almost 1:00 AM, so you’d assumed he'd be asleep.

“Oh, hey Harry,” you spoke lightly.

“Hey, was wondering when you’d get here…” he trailed off, “I was just about to turn in. Outfit’s great by the way,” he said, standing from the couch and gathering his laptop.

“I don’t mean to chase you out,” you said, not wanting to be in the way.

“No, no, you didn’t,” he soothed, “it’s time to turn in anyway, gonna go golf in the morning.”

“Oh, okay, goodnight.”

“Night,” he said, trudging down the hall.

Tom had set your bag on the bench in the entryway, coming up behind you. He placed his hands on your hips, pulling you flush against his front, as he snuggled his face into your neck.

“Hi,” he whispered in your hair.

“Hi,” you giggled back, attempting to turn in his grasp.

His hands held you in place, wrapping around to cross over your stomach. He rested his weight against you, slowly swaying the both of you back and forth.

You eyed the mirror across the room, desperate to take pictures like this. After all, he got a new lockscreen earlier…

“Bub,” you giggled, feeling his breath fan across your neck.

“Mmm, yes, my love?” he grumbled, pressing kisses against your skin.

“I wanna take a picture,” you giggled, “over in that cool mirror.”

He squeezed you tighter for a second, before releasing you, “mmkay,” he answered, letting you lead him over to the mirror.

“Do that again,” you told him, guiding his arms around your waist.

He was quick to settle back into you, breathing in your scent as you snapped a few photos in the mirror: a few of him kissing your neck, a few with you both looking in the mirror, a few of him looking at you, lovingly. He buried his face even further into you, hiding completely, as you took just one more. You asked him if it was okay to post one.

“Let me see it first,” he said, wanting to check all of the surroundings for spoilers and whatnot.

He was quick to approve the photo with his lips pressed to your jaw, making you smile.

You put it up on your story, captioning this one, “found him,” with the horse and cherry emojis.

He kissed your neck a few times, watching you post, before mumbling, “ready for bed?”

You yawned slowly, “yeah, I think so.”

“Alright,” he whispered, pecking your cheek one final time.

He slid one hand down your arm, locking your fingers together, and pulling you towards the staircase. He picked up your bag, carrying it with him up to his bedroom. You followed him in and he set your bag on the end of the bed.

“Alright, darling,” he said, rubbing his hands together gently, “make yourself at home.”

“Okay,” you giggled, stepping towards the end of the bed gently.

He’d placed your bag in the middle, next to a sweatshirt. You looked at him, making note of its presence.

“Oh, well, uh, you said you didn’t like hoodies, so I uh, pulled this one out for you, ya know, if you want it,” he said, shuffling his feet.

All you could do was smile, You wrapped your arms around his neck, pulling him into you. You kissed him gently, lingering for just a second.

“Thank you,” you whispered against his lips.

“You’re welcome, darling.”

You turned towards the bed, stepping back from him.

“So what’d you bring?” he asked, one hand finding the zipper of your bag as he tried to get a peek inside. You were quick to stop his hands, not wanting him to see the box of tampons thrown on top.

“Things,” you said giggling, “teeth stuff, hair stuff, clothes, a book…” you trailed off.

“A book?” he laughed lightly, “what book?”

“Looking for Alaska,” you answered, “it’s my comfort book.”

“Well, you’ll have to read it to me,” he said with a glint in his eye.

“Okay,” you whispered with a sheepish smile.

“I’m gonna pop in the bathroom real quick, alright?”

“Of course, it’s your house,” you laughed.

In his absence, you changed clothes, dragging on your tiny sleep shorts and matching tank top and pulling his sweatshirt over the top. You moved your bag off the mattress, dropping it on the floor. He came back quickly, seeing your new outfit, and smiling widely.

“Looks good on you,” he grinned.

“Thanks,” you said, “can I take my makeup off?”

“Course,” he answered, gesturing to the bathroom.

While you did that, he changed as well, dressing in a new t-shirt and clean boxers; he didn’t want to get in bed with you for the first time in dirty boxers of course. He shuffled under the covers, tucking into his usual side and propping against the headboard. He scrolled through Instagram, reposting your stories to his own and liking a few posts of yours.

You returned, dropping your items back in your bag, and grabbing your book. You flipped off the overhead light and stepped into the other side, enjoying how utterly domestic everything felt.

He flipped on the lamp on the side table, opening his arm for you to rest against him. You settled against his chest, opening your book to start to read to him. He kissed your head and rubbed small circles into your arm.

Your eyes were getting heavy as you read, but you would gladly stay up all night reading with him. Unfortunately, he started to doze off, snoring just enough for you to hear. You closed the book, marking your page but knowing you’d have to go back a little bit tomorrow, and reached over to turn the light off.

He woke up a bit, grumbling, “what’re you doing, love?”

“Just turning off the light,” you whispered, “go back to sleep.”

He sank down to lay against the pillows. You dropped back over to your side, curling up, but leaving some distance between you two. You faced him, admiring his face as he slept.

“What’re you doing?” he grumbled, eyes still closed.

“What do you mean?” you giggled, “going to sleep.”

“No, c’mere,” he said, reaching an arm out to wrap around your waist.

He pulled you into him, tangling your legs together and pecking your cheeks. You giggled at him, pulling his lips to yours, kissing him goodnight.

“G’night, my love,” he grumbled, tipping his head back to rest his chin against your forehead.

“Night, Pony,” you whispered back.

He chuckled, squeezing you tighter before you both drifted off to sleep.

[amchara]

Effortless - Chapter Two: Cults, Surfing and Flirting

One / Two / Three / Four / Five / Six / Seven (completed fic) 

(Completed fic at Ao3, posting to tumblr with a few minor edits)

Summary: After moving to England to live with Tessa and Jem, Kit ends up attending a local sixth form college alongside his Shadowhunter training.

Featuring- a charming but slightly broken Kit, typical teen drama, mundane friendships, pop culture references, Carstairs-Gray family moments, a rotating cast of our favourite Shadowhunters as guest tutors and of course, some unacknowledged pining for one Ty Blackthorn.

Wordcount: 5,556 words for this chapter

Rating: Teen, no content warnings for this chapter but heads up, there's some light Kit/OC flirting

CHAPTER TWO: CULTS, SURFING AND FLIRTING

October-December 2013

“I don’t understand what I did to you,” said the voice behind him.

Kit tensed as he pivoted around, his balance teetering on the narrow wooden fencing in front of the bus stop.

Ellie, the girl who could see his runes even if they were hidden with glamour, was standing in front of him. Given that fact, he was naturally wary of her but nothing over the past few weeks had made him think that she had any further knowledge of the Shadow World. Or if she did, she was playing a long game.

“You did nothing,” he said, dismounting with what he hoped was his natural Shadowhunter grace. He stumbled a bit but he blamed the long grass at the edges of the fence. He smiled what he hoped was a bland, welcoming smile. The kind his dad had taught him to master years ago for the annoying Market customers. “We’re all good.”

“Okay but…” Ellie hooked her bobbed hair behind her ears. It was now a brash magenta colour, and the change highlighted the bright blue eyes currently examining him head to toe, as if she were a scientist and Kit an interesting new specimen. “There’s just some kind of weird vibes I’m getting.”

“I just don’t think we have that much in common,” Kit said, looking at his phone, hoping his bus was due soon. No such luck- he still had ten minutes. And there was no one else at the bus stop- most students lived closer to the centre of town and didn’t have to take a forty minute bus ride home through winding countryside.

“Is it because you’re gay?”

Kit started. “What?” He crossed his arms. What was this conversation anyway? He was getting whiplash from it, and he suspected Ellie had barely started. They had had some very casual conversations in class but he didn’t think it had warranted this much interrogation.

“I don’t care- look, I’m an actress, or I’m going to be. I have a good gaydar,” said Ellie earnestly.

“Noooo,” Kit said slowly. This was not where he had expected this interaction to go. “And for the record- I’m not gay.”

The sceptical look on Ellie’s face made Kit realise he was going to have to spell it out. Luckily, he had had a winter of isolation, a good internet connection and the example of Mark Blackthorn and Kieran to help him realise what he was. “I like both girls and guys- so, I’m bi.” 

He watched her reaction. As far as he had heard from Ade, Ellie was fairly popular but a bit of a gossip, so he had no doubt the news would spread rapidly. He had a sudden regret - he wasn’t entirely what Ade and his friends would think but hey, it was 2013 so fingers crossed there wouldn’t be too much homophobia around.

It had been almost a month and Kit was starting to find his rhythm at school- no, college, he internally corrected himself. School here in England was for younger kids. He knew he needed to keep a low profile but he also wanted to have friends. And he liked hanging out with Ade, and Ben and Eamonn, and he was sure there would be others. And Ellie was unfortunately in two of his classes - Film Studies and English Literature, so he was probably going to have to play nice if he didn’t want to avoid her all year now.

“Oohh,” Ellie said, blinking. “Ace - that’s very drama of you.” But she didn’t look entirely satisfied with that revelation.

“So yeah, why do you care what a weird, bi American kid thinks of you?” he asked.

“You’re a mystery, Kit Herondale,” Ellie said, watching him with a small smile that showed off a deep dimple in her right cheek.

Kit shrugged and continued with the bland smile, and he could see a flash of irritation cross her face.

“I like mysteries,” she said. “I like solving them…” and she started to saunter away.

Kit sighed… great, trying to act casual had backfired spectacularly. He tried to think of a way to keep the situation from spiralling into her looking into him further.

“Wait, Ellie…” he called out, suddenly hit by inspiration. This could work- and maybe even keep her off track if she tried to dig into other aspects of his life.

She looked back, her bag slipping off her shoulder. “Yeah?”

“I’ll tell you but you have to promise you won’t spread it around,” he said. Ellie moved with ridiculous speed. 

He held out his hand, pointing to the Voyance rune. “You see this mark?”

She came to stand beside him. “Of course- it’s the one I complimented you on.”

“Yeah, it’s from a cult,” Kit said, internally apologising to all the Shadowhunters he knew. On the other hand… where was the lie?

“You know that I’m from LA, right? I had to leave because of that,” he nodded. “I have other marks but I er…” he thought fast about how he might be able to explain the disappearing runes he was likely to use. “I sometimes use make-up to hide them.”

“Whoooa,” Ellie breathed. “That’s- messed up.” She looked at him, her suspicion dissolving into sympathy. “Did your rich cousins also escape the cult? Did you all get financial compensation- is that why you live in that big manor?”

Right, Ellie knew more than he thought about his life.

“No,” Kit said hastily. “But they’ve been great- after the… events. But when you complimented my tattoos, it brought back a lot of hidden feelings.”

“You poor thing,” Ellie said, hovering and almost looked like she wanted to reach out and touch the rune but was restraining herself.

“So… I’d appreciate it if you wouldn’t say anything else at school about them,” Kit said.

Ellie nodded. “Of course- you have my solemn promise,” she straightened up and made a big cross against her heart. She also leaned forward and gave Kit a big hug, and Kit was so surprised that he didn’t even have time to stiffen or push her away.

“Thank you for telling me,” she whispered against his ear, and Kit was momentarily baffled by why he could smell cotton candy, before realising it was her perfume.

She let him go, hiking her bag up again, and started walking off. “See you on Thursday for English Lit doubles! I’ll save you a seat.”

Kit watched her go, feeling bewildered but also smug. Julian Blackthorn had nothing on his deceptions, he thought.

--

It took less than twenty four hours and Kit was almost impressed at Ellie’s gossip network, given the number of students at the college had to number close to a thousand.

It was a Wednesday afternoon, and per usual, they had the afternoon off for sports and extracurriculars. Kit was pulling off his football jersey in the small changing room outside the playing fields, when he looked up to see Ade standing in front of him. Most of the team had gone, and it was just a small group left. “So Kit… you can be honest,” Ade said seriously.

He gestured to himself and then to the assorted remaining members. “Which one of us do you think is the fittest?” He grinned.

“Uh…” Kit knew enough British slang at this point to know that Ade wasn’t asking questions about their level of fitness. He weighed his options, and decided to brazen it out. He channeled his best arrogant Jace, adopting a lazy smile. “I mean- how can I choose. You’re all just soo pretty…”

Ade pouted. “See, I could’ve sworn it was me, especially after you asked to borrow a pair of my pants after practice…”

“That was an honest mistake!” Kit protested, dropping the act. “Trousers just sounds dirtier anyway.”

Ade and Ben let out huge laughs, while Eamonn just smiled. “True, true- the British are good at making even innocent items sounds dirty,” said Eamonn. 

“You’re telling me,” Kit grumbled, remembering the spotted dick incident at the Bull and Hart with Jem and Tessa.

“You’ve attracted the interest of one Ellie Harris,” Ben informed him. “You should be lucky that you had a good rumour.”

“Yeah- it’s not fair,” Ade said, poking him in the side as Kit stood up. “You get to be all mysterious golden boy from Los Angeles. AND now you’re playing for both sides- you shouldn’t get all those aces.”

Kit flushed. “Nah- it’s not like that.”

“Sure it isn’t mate,” Ade said, good-naturedly. “C’mon, let’s go get some food before your bus comes.”

They left the changing room, out into the crisp October air. Kit held back, waiting to let others exit. As Eamonn passed him, the other boy lingered for a moment, and it felt like he deliberately brushed past him. Kit shivered briefly, meeting Eamonn’s big hazel eyes. Slowly, deliberately, Eamonn reached across and gave Kit’s hand a small squeeze.

Kit felt his breath catch.

“Oi, Eamonn, Kit, stop flirting!” Ade’s voice came drifting past them.

Eamonn smiled at him, and jogged on without another comment and Kit let out the breath he had been holding. He pushed down the feeling that he had last felt when it was grey, rather than hazel eyes looking at him.

--

Kit wandered into the airy front hall of Cirenworth, and he could hear Mina wailing distantly further in the house. “Tessa? Jem?”

There was no response, and Kit suddenly felt a shiver run down his spine. He dropped his bag and started running towards the sound of Mina’s cries.

He skidded to a stop in front of the laundry room, as he saw puddles of water, and a prone Tessa, who was frantically mopping up water from an open washing machine. Mina was in her baby bouncer, her tiny face scrunched up and upset as she watched her mother distractedly rock her and mop at the same time. Tessa’s face was pinched.

“Do you need help?” Kit asked as he moved into Tessa’s line of sight.

Tessa jumped, and then she relaxed as she saw Kit. “Oh- Kit,” she said. “I didn’t hear you come in. How was school?”

“It was fine- funny story actually…” Kit looked around, and grabbed some of the extra towels he could see, and laid them down beside Tessa. He then bent down and unbuckled Mina, and she buried her face into his shoulder as he scooped her up. “Are you okay? What happened?” He bobbed Mina up and down in what he hoped was a comforting rhythm.

“The water pipe connected to the washer started leaking,” Tessa said, sighing. She threw a sopping wet towel to her right, and grabbed another one with grim determination. “Jem’s gone into town to see if he can find a plumber at short notice.” She sighed. “And then Mina woke up from her nap after only twenty minutes and then it started flooding again… this house, it’s beautiful and I know what it means to Jem but it needs so much work and-”

“Hey- I know,” Kit said. He didn’t entirely but he could see how tense and tired Tessa was. He knew that Mina was going through another of her ‘sleep regressions’ and despite being an immortal warlock, and a former Shadowhunter and Silent Brother, he knew Jem and Tessa were struggling with the lack of sleep. He had almost beaten Jem in a broadsword fight the day before (almost) so he knew Jem was also definitely struggling.

“Should I put the kettle on?” he offered awkwardly. It had been one of Tessa’s power moves the previous winter, whenever he had stumbled downstairs after short days and long nights of brooding alone in his bedroom, and she had put the kettle on, and pulled out a plate of amazing British biscuits, and they had sat in the warm, cosy kitchen, Tessa with her tea and Kit with his biscuits, either content to be together alone with their thoughts, or talking about things of limited consequence.

Tessa smiled. “That would be lovely.”

A thought occurred to him as he left the room and he poked his head back in. “Tessa, do your warlock powers not work on plumbing? At least to stop more water from coming out?”

A groan came from the floor. “That is a valid point. Thank you, Kit.”

Ten minutes later, with the leak temporarily plugged, Tessa sipped her tea, and listened as Kit told her about the last couple of days- leaving a few key pieces out, namely about Eamonn. He thought Jem and Tessa probably would be cool with it but he didn’t want to mention it yet. He also didn’t mention the fact he suspected Ellie was a Sighted mundane. He didn’t know for sure, and as annoying as she was, he didn’t want to put her on the radar of some keen Shadowhunter recruiter.

“You told her… you had escaped from a cult?” Tessa said slowly, her eyes widening.

Kit nodded. “Yeah, pretty good, huh?”

Tessa’s face contorted, and she buried her head in her hands, her shoulders shaking silently and Kit was concerned until he realised she was laughing.

“Oh, dear,” she said, looking up and wiping a tear out of her eye. “Darling- you. I’m not sure you understand how teenage girls work.”

“Wait, what?” Kit was suddenly panicking. Had he accidentally put them all in danger?

“You’re going to be like catnip to her,” Tessa said. “The Edward Cullen to her Bella Swan. And I’m sorry for that- but I think you’re going to have to figure out a way to fix it yourself.” She patted his shoulder. “Also, this really clears up the conversation I had at baby group today when Gemma asked me if we felt safe since we had come to Devon, given your situation.”

Kit harrumphed. “I thought it was a good plan.” He leaned over to pick up Mina. “Mina- you’ll back me, right?”

“Dada DADA, DA BA,” Mina said, wrapping her chubby hands around Kit’s neck and cooing delightedly. Kit gave her a quick kiss on her forehead.

“Exactly,” Kit said, sweeping out of the room, his dignity still mostly intact, ignoring the additional giggle that had escaped from Tessa. He paused to swipe the rest of the half-opened jaffa cakes. “You should rest, Tessa. Min-Min and I are going to go into the back garden- I’ll chill with her until Jem gets home.”

--

Tessa was both right and not right about Ellie.

She had at least kept her promise to save him a seat.

Kit sat down beside her in their English Literature class, glaring. “So… what happened to not telling anyone about the cult thing?”

To give her a tiny bit of credit, Ellie did look contrite. “I’m really sorry about that, Kit,” she said. “I really didn’t mean for it to get out. I don’t think anyone believes it though,” she said, pointing to his hand. “Your make-up work is usually very good, and so no one else seems to have noticed your tattoos.” She sighed dramatically. “It is sometimes a curse, being so observant.”

Internally, Kit thanked Tessa’s stronger warlock glamour that he had asked her to put on. Externally, he rolled his eyes and leaned back in his chair. “You also told people about me being bi,” he pointed out.

“Well, let’s be honest, that was going to come out eventually and it’s just going to add to your mysterious charm,” Ellie said. “But the other- let me make it up to you.” She leaned forward in her chair, pushing her hands towards the edge of her desk and peering up at him with her big blue eyes.

Kit gave her a sideways glance. “How?”

“My parents are co-owners of the surfing school in Paignton,” Ellie said. “How about you and I go after class next Friday? I can get us boards and you can borrow a suit. All for free.”

“At this time of year?”

“Best time for it!” Ellie’s eyes were pleading. “All the tourists are gone and the swells are a perfect height.”

Kit was unsure how much extra time he wanted to be spending with this girl right now, but he had to admit he was intrigued- he had never had an opportunity to surf in Los Angeles, and he felt that should’ve been a rite of passage, given he was L.A. born-and-bred. Maybe he could make up for it now by learning to surf in Devon. “All right,” he said cautiously.

--

Kit yelped as another cold wave washed over his board and into his chest.

Ellie looked back at him. “Oh, c’mon it’s not that bad- you have a wetsuit on.”

Kit shook the spray out of his eyes, and awkwardly paddled further ahead, pulling up as close as he could to her. He watched as Ellie pulled herself up to a seated position, and they bobbed along in silence for a moment. All around them, the sea was an immense grey mirror, merging with the autumn sky above them, only broken up by white caps in the distance.. Ellie stretched and then she pointed ahead of where they were waiting. “Should be some good waves coming in a few minutes.”

“I don’t suppose this is a good time to mention that I’ve never surfed before,” Kit said casually, as he could feel the current swirling around where his legs were in the water, pulling them further out to sea. The small seed of anxiety began to grow, and he was regretting the choice to put on a wetsuit and go out into the sea in October, particularly as he had never been that strong a swimmer. He closed his eyes - or at least he could’ve refreshed his three-day-old agility rune before heading out.

Ellie whipped her head around. “What? But you’re from Los Angeles...” she said, and her eyes reflected the horror that had sunk into Kit’s stomach.

“Doesn’t mean I can surf- don’t be so stereotypical!” Kit shot back.

Ellie sputtered and then she looked back. The waves were almost on them. “I thought your paddling was weak... just- try your best to feel the wave,” she said, and then it was upon them, the slight ripple that had seemed so innocent now seeming like a huge tsunami as the previously calm water pulled back into a rippling wave.

Kit paddled frantically, watching Ellie out of the corner of his eye. He tried to focus ahead on the shore, and he watched as Ellie gracefully pushed her way up to a standing position, her surfboard dipping briefly. He tried to imitate her, and tried to balance on the suddenly slippery, treacherous piece of wood underneath him. He managed to get his feet underneath him and although wobbling, he was suddenly standing.

Woah, he was doing it, Kit was ecstatic, and he turned his head to see if Ellie was watching. That was a mistake, and he was suddenly thrown backwards. 

The immense pressure and power from the wave was pushing him down to the depths of hell. Kit struggled to orient himself and his world narrowed down to blackness, salt and burning and overwhelming panic.

He felt a hand on the back of his wetsuit, pulling him up, and then grabbing his arm. He surfaced, finding that he and Ellie were in the shoals of the beach, the wave that almost killed him already receding, the white foam swirling around them.

Coughing and sputtering, Kit let Ellie lead him to the shore. She looked a wild mess, her hair a dark purple smeared against her cheeks.

“You- absolute tosser!” she shouted at him, once she had given him the once-over for injuries.

“You never asked if I had surfed before,” Kit offered but he knew the excuse was weak.

“Oh my God!” Ellie literally threw her hands in the air. “Why?”

Kit chuckled briefly at her dramatics, the sheer relief of being alive crashing over him, and she looked over to him, and a smile began to curl on her face.

“Well- you did manage to stand briefly, so you’re not hopeless,” she said, assessing him. “I guess we could start with the basics?”

“Maybe another time,” Kit said quickly. “I think I’ve had enough for today. But yeah… that could be cool.”

He shared another small smile with her. “Let’s go get some drinks on the pier,” Ellie suggested.

--

After saving his life, and this time not telling anyone at college about his incredible fail at surfing, it was impossible not to become friends with Ellie. And having a friend in his classes was convenient, especially for the coursework projects they had to do.

Tessa gave him a knowing smile, as he led Ellie into the kitchen one day. But she didn’t say anything, just nodded with her normal warm manner when Kit introduced Ellie, and asked if they wanted any tea before they headed into a small cozy room in the back of the house, previously known as the drawing room, but now functioned as the family film room. 

They quickly settled into a routine of watching their Film Studies movies in that room a couple times a week, as Ellie pointed out that he had a much better set-up to both study in and skive off than her tiny room at her house.

Kit quickly realised though he had to keep Ellie away from certain areas of Cirenworth as her natural curiosity and probable Sight made her innately curious and liable to ask awkward questions. He had to admit, it kept him on his toes.

“Damn Kit, your relatives were proper lush,” Ellie said, one rainy day in November, staring at a photo of Will Herondale. “I would absolutely let him try it on with me,” she said, as she looked around the rest of the dim hallway.

Kit stood terrified, as he could see the daguerrotype of a younger Jem and a studio portrait of Tessa and Lucie Herondale just behind her. He stepped in front of her, and tried to catch her attention. “Hey, we should go back to the main room,” he said.

“Yeah, just a second- don’t you think it’s just wild, living in a place like this with such a history?” she asked him.

“Yeah, of course,” Kit said, trying to formulate a plan to shepherd her out.

Ellie turned and Kit lunged towards her, and he caught her in his arms. She turned her head up to him, surprised, and then her eyes crinkled and she nodded, going on her tiptoes. With an instinct Kit didn’t think he had possessed, he leaned forward to kiss her. She smelled sweet, like candy, her lips soft and her arms circling around to rest at the base of his back.

“Mmm,” she said, as they broke apart. “That was nice.”

Kit drew her back to a safe room. “Nice?” he said. He frowned- oh god, Livvy and now Ellie. Was he really that bad at kissing girls?

She looked at him. “Yeah…ooh, no Kit, I mean…” He could see in her face she wasn’t interested in him that way. And he wasn’t even sure he was either… it had just kind of happened. Wow, he really was broken in the romance department.

“It’s fine-” Kit said hurriedly. “And I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have- without asking.”

Ellie put her hand on his forearm. “No, I should have said- I’m kind of seeing Jack Armitage, from Drama.”

“Yeah, sure-” Kit said. He looked past her, asking in a neutral voice. “Just- can you let me know- was it really that bad?”

Ellie looked at him, her eyes moving up and down his body from head to toe, and Kit was suddenly unsure he wanted to know.

“Nah- it was actually pretty good,” she said cheerfully. “And with the way you look-” she touched his hair fleetingly, and slid her other hand from his forearm to his waist, in a half hug. “You’ll be fine. Plenty of girls or boys would've killed for a chance at that kiss,” she informed him, making a familiar gesture. “Cross my heart.”

Kit groaned but he let her drag him back to their Charlie Chaplin marathon. “Why do I feel like you’re humouring me?”

“Oh honey,” she said, throwing herself back onto the sofa. “You’d know if I were humouring you. Trust me.”

And Kit, strangely, found that he did, which was a miracle, considering how they had first met. But maybe that’s what happens with friendships, Kit thought. They could surprise you.

--

Kit was so caught up with his A-level study and his ongoing training with Jem, that he had almost forgotten the promise about guest tutors. But one afternoon in mid-December, he and Ellie walked into the Cirenworth kitchen to find Emma Carstairs sitting at the big butcher’s block table.

“Kit!” Emma flew up and gathered him into a big hug. Hugging her back, Kit faced a sudden wave of homesickness. With her bleached blonde hair, vintage clothes, faint smell of jacaranda and jasmine, and tanned skin, even slightly faded from her travel year abroad, Emma embodied every inch of an L.A. girl.

Ellie narrowed her eyes, and Kit realised he would have to get her out of the house. He couldn’t risk Ellie, as a possible Sighted mundane, learning more about the Shadowhunter world.

He made excuses about family visiting and started directing Ellie towards the door. “Just say the word and I’ll rescue you,” Ellie promised in a low voice as he walked her to the doorway. “I saw her tattoos- she’s part of it, the cult!” she said, shooting him a worried look.

Kit smothered a smile. “She’s- look Emma’s a good one,” he said to her. “I’ll be fine- you don’t have to worry about her. Or me.”

“Oookay,” Ellie said. “But you better be at college tomorrow and not kidnapped halfway around the world.”

“Don’t worry, I will be. Bye, Ellie,” Kit said, practically shoving her out of the door. He had barely closed the door when his phone pinged. If we need it- the code word is ‘pizza’. txt me and ill come rescue or call the popo

Kit wished he could headdesk against something but figured he might as well save the bodily harm for the upcoming training session. Jem had mentioned that the first of the guest tutors would be arriving soon… but he hadn’t thought it would be so soon, or that it would be Emma. Unless she was just here for a visit with Jem?

“Yeah, Julian’s just finishing up some stuff at Blackthorn Hall, and then we’ll be heading back home for Christmas… but I’m so glad I get to see you guys and spend some time here before we head back-” Emma was updating Tessa and Jem, who were listening avidly about Emma and Julian’s own trials with renovations.

“Kit!” she said, as he arrived back in. Her eyes sparkled. “Are you ready to do some training?”

“No?” Kit offered hopefully. Damn, wishful thinking on his part, although he acknowledged deep down he was both excited for, and dreading the training.

Emma’s grin inched wider. “Too bad.”

“May the odds be ever in your favour,” Tessa saluted Kit from the kitchen chair where she was feeding Mina mushed bananas and weetabix. Mina waved her spoon around imperiously, like the tiny Empress she was.

Jem brightened. “Oh- I know that one!” They had watched the Hunger Games the previous weekend as a family, Jem and Tessa sharing a big bowl of popcorn and Kit eating so many crispy M&Ms that he had felt sick from the sugar high for the rest of the evening.

“Honestly, Emma… I kind of feel like Katniss could be your spirit animal,” Kit commented, stifling a laugh at Emma’s puzzled face. “I’ll explain it later.”

*

“Wow,” Emma’s eyes were covetous, looking at the converted old ballroom that was Cirenworth’s training room. The dim sunlight was streaming through the skylight windows, highlighting the ancient weapons hanging on the walls. The floor beneath were fresh tatami mats on half of the room, and half floorboards from the original era. At the back of the room was a raised platform Jem told Kit had been there since the late 1890s.

“It’s pretty sweet, right?” Kit said, feeling proud. The L.A. Institute’s training room was well-designed- he remembered marvelling at its smooth, modernist beauty but Cirenworth had character. He walked over to the piece de resistance he had convinced Jem to install the last time the builders had visited Cirenworth. He pulled out his phone and slid it into a small dock on the side of a wall.

Trumpets started blaring as Kanye West’s ‘All of the Lights’ played in surround sound.

Emma had skipped back, on guard at the unexpected surprise but she relaxed as the music swelled, and a grin started spreading across her face, as Kit unhooked two training rapiers from the wall and handed one to her.

“C’mon,” he said. “You can’t tell me you’ve never had a background soundtrack going on in your head while you’re engaging in some epic showdown with Julian or Cristina?”

Emma laughed and shook her head but her eyes were shining. “This is insane, Kit.”

“And yet?” Kit shrugged. “Do you not want to fight?”

“Oh no, I definitely do,” she shot back. Emma hefted the rapier, giving it a few experimental swings and adjusted her grip. “You ready?”

“As I’ll ever be,” Kit said, preparing to get his ass handed to him.

There was just one issue with having a sound speaker installed, Kit thought later on, as he closed his eyes. Oh god, he was going to die to the background music of Gangnam Style.

“Just jump down,” Emma called from the floor below.

“I can’t just jump,” Kit hissed, from where he was hanging on for dear life on one of the wider ceiling beams of the training room.

“Sure you can,” Emma said, crossing her arms, and Kit flashed back to one of his first weeks at the L.A. Institute when Jace and Clary had visited, and Jace had told him the same thing. Emma had arrived at the end of that session, and he wondered if she remembered that time.

At least he had made progress since then, Kit thought. This time he was the one twenty feet in the air. Cold comfort though, considering that he had no idea how he was going to get down.

Emma tilted her head, considering. Then she made her decision and her black, gear-clad body made quick work of the distance.

“Hey,” she said, her brown eyes softer than usual, as she perched without a care on the beam beside him. “We can take our time and I can talk you through it, give you some techniques.”

“You mean techniques on how to die or fall, breaking my neck?” Kit asked sarcastically.

“Demons are expert climbers,” Emma said, matter of factly. “A Shadowhunter can’t be scared of heights or afraid to chase a demon off the ground.”

Kit took a deep breath. “Yeah, I know that- just, give me a minute.” He looked down and shuddered. In the background, he could hear the song switch over to Lorde’s Royals.

“It’s okay to be scared,” Emma told him.

“Hah, like you ever were,” Kit said. “Or at least- while training, I bet you weren’t.”

“No, I was, I broke my collarbone really badly when I was thirteen,” Emma said. “I couldn’t face climbing higher than my height for almost six months afterwards.”

Kit looked up at her. “So what did you do?”

“Panic, cry in my room, and then eventually I just got Julian to be there while I battled through it.”

“I don’t have a parabatai to hold my hand,” Kit said.

“No, but you have me,” Emma said, and she held his gaze. “And I believe in you, and I don’t believe in people that I think won’t succeed. Now, listen-” she told him about making sure his knees were soft, and picking a spot on the floor but not leaning forward as he fell.

Then she dropped effortlessly, her boots making a small thud on the floor.

Kit swallowed hard. Right. Then, as if by an external movie cue, the opening chords of his current favourite song, Pompeii by Bastille started. Kit allowed himself to get briefly lost in the lyrics and as the music echoed around the wide hall.

We were caught up and lost in all of our vices

In your pose, as the dust settled around us

And the walls kept tumbling down

In the city that we love

Grey clouds roll over the hills

Bringing darkness from above

But if you close your eyes

Does it almost feel like nothing changed at all?

And if you close your eyes

Does it almost feel like you've been here before?

Kit jumped. While the ground rushed up quicker than he thought possible, and his knees jarred painfully, he landed upright. He looked up to see Emma nod approvingly.

“Good- now let’s do that ten more times,” she said.

“I regret signing up for this Shadowhunter life,” Kit said, knowing it was absolutely a lie. Mostly.

--

Notes: Fun fact- Devon is actually a big surfing location in the UK! And given the many references that Kit makes to movies and film aesthetics in Lord of Shadows and Queen of Air and Darkness, don't try and tell me that he wouldn't also want to have his own internal epic soundtrack. Plus, it might also be a cheeky nod to the Shadowhunters television show. If you watched it-- you know what I mean about the training scenes and the music…

As before, not canon-compliant with Secrets of Blackthorn Hall.

[thewritingginger]

Will It Ever Be The Same? P.1

Ok I made the first part of this idea I had that was going to be a one shot but it was getting kinda long so here's what I've got so far!

The beginning was a trip for me to write/edit when I decided to change the tense it was in 🥴  So forgive any mistakes, I’ve read and edited this as many times as I physically could handle before I got tired of the words on the screen :)

Enjoy ~

Fandom: Blood of Zeus Pairing: Seraphim x Fem! Reader Word count: 4.5k+ words  Warning(s): 16+, Mentions of violence and death, Angst, Fluff, (More might be added over course of writing)

Summary: Seraphim saved you from a pair of boys when you were young and from then on your friendship grew. Everything was perfect till disaster struck, causing you to flee. It’d be 10 year till you saw each other again. Will this rekindled friendship grow to be much more or will it end in disaster once again?

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

The midday sun was high in the sky, beating down on the flooded marketplace. There were stall keepers hollering their offers and deals that blended together with the rest of the nonsensical crowded chatter. “Make sure you keep up with me. You wouldn’t want to get lost again.” The boy's mother said, giving him a knowing glance as he refocused on their path.

He stood in a shaded bit by the shop hut as his mother was exchanging herbs and spices for coin pieces. His attention was then drawn to the sound of children yelling.

“Hey, wait up guys!” A girl, younger than he, yelled winded as she chased after a pair of boys.

“Leave us alone! We don’t want a girl with us, you’re too slow!”

“Yeah so go away.” A boy with sandy hair added as he shoved the girl to the ground. The duo started to laugh and make fun of her as she began to cry.

“Well that’s not very nice.” The boy’s mother said, breaking his attention. He turned to her with a raised brow.

“Well not like we can do anything about it.” He shrugged, about to walk away.

“Seraphim.” He stopped. “You should always try to help others if you can.” She smiled at him, sweeping her palm over his hair as she walked past him to the next stall. Letting out a huff he glanced up at the back of her head then back to the girl crying in the dirt.

Walking over to the two boys still joking and laughing he strode right up to the sandy haired boy and shoved him to the ground with a hard thud. “What the heck! What was that for?”

“Now you know how it feels to be pushed in the dirt.” With his hands on his hips Seraphim looked down at the boy then up to his accomplice - who took a step back.

“Whatever.” The boy stood up, dusting himself off. “Let’s get out of here, he can deal with her.” The two of them scampered off through the crowd as Seraphim turned to the sniffling girl.

Looking up she saw his extending hand. Hesitantly she reached for it and got up. “I’m… Seraphim.” He introduced awkwardly as she whipped away the remaining tears and snot on her sleeve.

“I’m Y/n.” She stuttered. “Thanks for helping me.”

“Yeah it was whatever. My mom said it’s good to help people so… that’s why I did it.” He scratched his head and looked around like he wished to be elsewhere than in silence with the snot nosed girl. “Well I’m gonna go, bye.”

“Wait!” She interjects. Twisting her hands together she then shook her head and looked down. “Nevermind.” Seraphim looked at her for a second more and before he could say or do anything else he heard his mother’s voice.

“Seraphim are you ready- Oh hello.” She smiled before looking down at her son. “I saw that some boys were giving you trouble. I hope my son wasn’t one of them.” Seraphim tsked and looked at his mom, a small curve of her lip grew while she kept her gaze towards the girl.

“Oh, no. He actually helped me, he pushed the boy that hurt me and got them to leave.” Seraphim gave a nervous smile to his mom when she raised a brow at him.

“Well I’m glad my boy could help you. I’m Ariana, would you like to join us for lunch?” His mother asked, which caused Seraphim’s head to whip towards her but she just chuckled sweetly.

“Uh, I don’t want to be a bother…” the girl trails off meekly glancing at the dark haired boy before looking to the ground.

“Nonsense! We would love to have you join us. Right Seraphim?” She places her hand on his bare shoulder.

“Yeah, sure.”

~~~

Seraphim’s mom directed the two of you to go hangout in the shade as she gathered a few more things.

Sitting under a tree, Ariana’s back still in sight, you and Seraphim were in silence. He was standing with a  stick in hand, prodding the ground and loosely swinging around like a sword as you ran your fingers in the grass picking at the small white flowers littered about. Growing bored you asked, “How old are you?”

“Twelve.” He responded, crouching down to look in the dirt.

“Oh well I’m ten.” You started to feel like he didn’t want you around because the conversation just teetered off from there.

About 15 minutes later you heard Seraphim’s mom “Okay, are you two ready to get some lunch going?” She smiled at the two of you. Walking a bit ahead of them you noticed Ariana whispering to her son before she directed you towards the entrance of the forest. “This way, my dear.”

After walking for about 10 more minutes you were in a clearing with a river and a small cave. “Wow, do you guys live here?” You asked, looking at the pretty flowers around the edges.

“Yes we do. You know Seraphim was gonna catch us some fish, if you’d like, I’m sure he’d enjoy the help.” You turned to join them by the river and you heard Seraphim give a quiet whine.

“Mom I can do it myself.” His mother just shook her head and walked away to get things together in their rock home. Then it was just you two. Again.

Maybe I should just go help his mom instead You thought, as you turned to walk away Seraphim interrupted you.

“Where are you going? Aren’t you gonna help me?” He asked, looking up from the spear he was sharpening with a pointed look.

“Oh I thought I could go help your mom. I don’t want to get in your way.” Standing up with a small huff he walked away towards the hut leaving you alone by the river. A few minutes later he arrived back, breaking your thoughts as he stuck the base of a spear in the ground next to you, his other hand holding another.

“Here. Now you can actually help me instead of standing around.” He leaned it towards you to take with a trace of a forced smile on his lips.

So for the next hour you were practically just standing in awe of how Seraphim stood in the gentle flowing river looking for fish and throwing his spear in the water. He even tried to teach you the best way to catch fish as well.  “You want to make sure you don’t disrupt the water too much when you move or you’ll scare them away.” You just nodded and focused on what he is doing in hopes to replicate it.

Standing in the middle of the river a few pases away from the boy you suddenly felt something slippery touch your ankle. Letting out a squeal Seraphim looked at you just in time to see you fall back in the water.

“Something just touched me!” Looking up with eyes the size of dinner plates, you just saw Seraphim laughing. Really laughing, with his spear in the water using it as a crutch as his head reared back. “What’s so funny?” You asked, your face began to heat up.

“It was just a fish you scaredy cat.” He said between laughter. “Are you okay?” He walked over to you offering a hand, much like he did earlier in the day but much warmer than before.

Standing up dripping wet you decided you were done “fishing” for one day. Besides, Seraphim had already caught five fish to your zero.

Walking back to the cave where a fire has been made you sat on a log.

A hand rested on your shoulder, “Here Y/n. How about you change into this and we can lay your clothes out to dry.” Ariana said, handing you what looks to be one of her simple cotton dresses. You accepted it and trudged into the cave to do so. The dress, as you expected, was way too big on you. You had to hold the skirt up so it wouldn’t drag on the ground as you made your way back to the fire pit. Seraphim was roasting the fish over the fire, snorted when he saw your new attire. You were right to think you looked ridiculous. “Y/n, you look lovely. Doesn’t she?” Ariana gave her son a look.

“Yup, she sure does.” He said, trying to hold back another chuckle. You just rolled your eyes at him and took a seat.

Ariana laid your drenched clothes out on a giant rock that was soaked in the sun's rays.

From there everything went quite smoothly. You actually ended up spending the rest of the day with them till the sun was beginning to hang low above the horizon. You honestly had so much fun. Once the newness between you two wore off it became much easier to talk and play.

After your clothes weren’t soaking wet anymore you spent much time after eating, running around in the forest and even playing in the river looking for cool rocks.

But all things have to come to an end at some point.

“Y/n, don’t you need to head home? It’ll be nightfall before you know it.” Ariana reminded the two of you of the time. As you walked back to the cave you thanked the woman for allowing you to stay. “It was not trouble. You’re more than welcome to come back anytime, I’m sure Seraphim would enjoy the company as well.” She smiled. The boy in question looked at her.

“Mom!”  He whispered, embarrassed.

“Oh hush now. You should walk her home, make sure she gets back safe.” His mom nudged him forward as she left you two.

At that point walking side by side wasn’t too weird anymore. “Thanks for letting me play with you.” You said.

“Yeah, it was fun.” He smiled.

A few times throughout your journey home the two of you got side tracked, to look at different rocks, flowers and even by an animal passing by.

“That’s my house over there.” You pointed towards a modest cobblestone hut with a straw roof. “Thanks, again.”

Standing at the door Seraphim gave you a nod. “You’re welcome. See ya.” He turned but you stopped him.

“Wait, would you like to- Maybe we can hang out again? There’s a place over here that has a lot of rocks. Maybe you can find some for your collection?” You said, wringing your hands together, admittedly a nervous tic. He thought about it for a few seconds then nodded his head again.

“Sure, that sounds cool. But I should go now before my mom worries. See ya later Y/n.” He said with a slight smile and wave.

~~~

The next few weeks you and Seraphim began hanging out more and more till it became an everyday occurrence. After the first week Seraphim’s mom wasn’t even surprised by your presence.

“Good, you two are just in time to help me pick apples.”

That day you met their bears. It came as quite a startle when you just saw a bear walking up from behind Seraphim. “Oh my god, there's a bear!”

“Don’t worry, these guys won't hurt you.”  He said as he scratched the animal next to him. Taking a few experimental steps forward, the bear accepted your touch when Seraphim guided your hand atop the creature's head. It’s black fur was so soft you couldn’t help but wrap your fingers in it and smile. Then not only did you have Seraphim to play with but also a few adorable bear cubs to pet and roll around with as well.

~~~

Though all this joy would soon come to an end a few short weeks later.

You and Seraphim were fishing in the river a bit away from his home. That day he brought his bow and you your spear. You were actually getting better and even managed to catch one that day. Heading back to the camp laughing Seraphim stopped abruptly making you bump into him. “Hey, wha-”

“Shh.” He cut you off. You felt uneasy by the seriousness on his once smiling face. You heard male voices and then a woman’s cry. Sticking close behind him, he crept around the lightly wooded area of your destination. Peering through the foliage of the forest you saw that it was Seraphim’s mother who cried and she was with company that seemed less than welcomed. There was a group of men holding swords talking to Ariana that was kneeling on the ground before one of them.

“Where’s the boy?” The man barked.

Seraphim? You look at your friend, his eyes glued on his mom. The grip on his bow tightened.

“I swear there is no one here but-” Her pleas are cut off by a sharp smack, you saw Seraphim’s body tense as if he was about to stand up. You grabbed the cloth around his waist to silently stop him, your eyes pleading. He glared at you, eyes locked. As you are growing more frightened you can see the fire in him was building.

Your staring contest was broken by a new voice. There was another  woman the man referred to as Ariana’s sister. Your blood ran cold when you witnessed her apologizing before one of the men stabbed their sword through the back of her neck. Covering your mouth your eyes began to brim over with tears. Seraphim’s reaction was just as shocked till he saw another man grab his mother’s neck, strangling her.

Pulling out one of the arrows he readied his bow, his mother looked at the two of you with worry filled eyes. They were screaming for you to run, to leave before the two of you were hurt. Which was exactly what everything inside you was telling you to do but your body felt numb and unable to move. You were then soon brought back to earth when Seraphim released the arrow into the back of that man’s skull, the head sticking out his mouth.

Before climbing the tree he shoved you to the ground. “Get out of here!” His command startled you. You couldn’t just leave him.

After that everything happened so fast it felt like daze. First the bears you’ve played with countless times charged in mauling the men as Seraphim shot arrows at others. Then everything slowed when you saw your friend racing towards his mother as the man in charge grabbed her and sliced his blade across her throat, a wicked grin you’ll never forget played on his lips. Your heart broke for the loss for your friend and from his cry.

You wanted to look away or run, anything besides watching this nightmare playing out before you. The family you found was getting cut down one by one. The bears, Ariana, and all that was left was Seraphim.

You wanted to scream. Get to him. Anything to stop what was happening in front of your eyes. But you couldn’t. What could’ve you done? You could barely catch a fish without Seraphim’s help so you were forced to watch him face off against a grown man with a sword. This can’t be happening! Run! Your mind was pleading but you were frozen in fear once again. No matter how much you prayed to the gods it was all a dream and to make it stop, it didn’t.

Then in a horrifying moment you witnessed the vicious man’s blade strike down Seraphims face. He fell and so did you. Hiding behind the bushes your palms cupped over your mouth, trying to muffle your tears and quickened breath. Then once more a fire was lit under your ass when you heard more screams from the men and the roar of another bear. This time you got up and ran like Seraphim told you to. Glancing back all you saw was someone riding away on a horse and the blurred image of two figures crumpled on the ground.

~ 10 years later ~

For the past few years you’ve been working odd jobs where you can to earn coin. You’ve swept shop fronts, washed and fed horses, and stocked shop stalls with newly delivered goods.

At the moment you were working at a small tavern, filling drinks and cleaning tables.

You were out front serving a couple when you heard some commotion.

“Hey! Watch where you are going asshole!” A man yelled to another.

Probably just a drunk that wasn’t watching where he was going and is looking for a fight. The man just tsks, “Freak.” Before walking past you. Looking up, you catch a glimpse of the man he was referring to as he was pulling his hood back up. You paused. 

That guy- 

But you’re pulled from your thoughts by a voice. “Excuse me.” An older woman calls you, cup held up. You sighed and got back to work.

~~~

Another long day of work is over, thankfully. “Okay, I’m heading home. See ya tomorrow.” You wave to your friend as you leave through the back of the tavern. Turning the corner you see a large figure in a cloak. It resembles the man you couldn’t shake from your thoughts some weeks ago. You decide, against your better judgment, to take a detour and circle around a building hoping to be in a position to catch another look at his face. You don’t allow yourself a moment to really answer yourself as to why it was so important, you just let your legs guide the way.

Crossing the road, the evening sun casting it in a warm orange glow, you stopped at an abandoned stall that was shaded behind the building, trying to get a look of him from the corner of your eye.

Then your eyes locked!

You looked down and tried to walk away as nonchalantly as possible but you were stopped by a booming voice.

“Why are you following me?” The mystery man asks. You froze, turning on your heel to face him. You are about to respond when your words get caught in your throat. You must’ve looked like an idiot with your mouth ajar. It can’t be, can it? He gives a tsk as he begins to step away

“Seraphim?” You finally say. It came out as more of a whisper to yourself but he must’ve heard cause now it was his turn to freeze. You shake your head, That’s ridiculous! “I-I’m sorry. I must have the wrong-”

“How do you know my name?” He cuts you off, turning towards you, advancing a few steps. His build is much more threatening at a closer distance and his question certainly didn’t help. Though it was more of a command. You just open and close your mouth to find the words. Any words, literally anything at all would work just so you could stop looking like a fool that hit their head. Which you might have because this can’t be happening.

“Is it really you?” He just squints his eyes. “You remember me right? We played together a lot as children.” You can tell your words have begun to sink in the more his eyes scanned you, his face drops. Standing there, nerves getting the better of you, you began to rub your palms together awaiting his response. You’d be relieved even if he just spat a “fuck you” in your face cause than atleast there wouldn’t be this deafening silence. Unable to keep his gaze you look away but you can still feel his eyes burning a hole into the side of your head.

“…Y/n?” He finally says. Your name travels hesitantly past his lips. You feel like you might pass out or scream or just simply cry cause it’s him. It’s really him!

His expression reads the same as yours. For a final silent second of looking over each other you take a tentative step towards him, he stays like a statue.

Standing before him you think about touching him.

He is just like you remember, minus the height and strong build, his tanned skin and long brown hair you were always so jealous of. Though when your eyes reach his face yours falls, he notices and turns his away slightly.

His eye.

The right one is the same hue of obsidian as you remember but his left is cut through with a scar and left white.

That must have been from that day. You shudder at the thought.

Reaching up your palm grazes his cheek, he stiffens from your touch. You don’t know why you did that. Maybe you just needed proof that this wasn’t all a dream. That your old friend really is flesh and blood before you.

Turning his gaze to yours, you tilt your head taking him in. He really is the Seraphim you remember just… hardened.

“I- I thought you died.” You say, voice threatening to cry, because perhaps some part of him did that day and in the years apart.

He stays silent a moment longer, you assume it’s due to the similar shock you’re feeling. But then he pulls your hand away before turning. “You’d be better off keeping it that way.”

His body moves further into the shadows and you feel your blood begin to heat up. Does he really think he can just walk away like that?

Stomping after him you catch his shoulder and spin him back towards you, his brows raised. “What’s the big idea? What do you mean I should keep it that way?” Your hands are on your hips, chest is heaving. Unsure as to why you’re reacting like this you just keep your eyes locked with his.

“Do you have any idea how many nights I spent beating myself up for not going to you? The countless years I’ve spent wishing I could see you again? Just for you to tell me, now that that would be possible, that it’s better that I think you dead?”

After your outburst your arms drop to your side. You look up hoping to halt the tears threatening to seep out and just when you were about to tell him to forget it he responds.

“I don’t know what you’re hoping for Y/n but -” He trails off.

“You want to know what I was hoping for? That you were alive and I could see you just one last time even if that was all I’d be allowed.” You let out a breathy chuckle. “Call it pathetic if you want but… you were my only friend and I missed you. I mean it became pretty lonely without you.” You wipe away a loose tear that betrayed your will.

“Then what do you want?” He asks. You look back up with glossy eyes.

“Meet me tomorrow. I have work but I’ll be off two hours till nightfall and if either of us wants to leave after, then that will be that.” You say matter of factly with your hands on your hips. Another moment passes with him in silence. You let out a defeated sigh. “You know what, forget it.”

“I never said no.” His eyes bore into you in thought before continuing. “Meet me at the river.”

And that was it.  He turned and walked back into the dimming streets, hood pulled high before you could say anything else.

So to say you were a bit shaken would be an understatement. Walking home you just kept replaying the image of his face and his voice.

He’s changed so much. Well of course he has, it's been a decade since you last saw him. He’s practically a stranger at this point.

A stranger…

And you’re going to be meeting with said stranger at the river before dusk tomorrow. Leaning against the door of your home you knock the back of your head against the wood. Y/n, what have you gotten yourself into?

Getting through the door you just flop yourself onto your bed, not bothering to change. The whole night was spent tossing and turning thinking about the coming day.

This is a bad idea! You don’t even know him. I mean sure he is your friend but what if he isn’t the boy you remembered? What if things are weird? What if he’s... different?

You somehow managed to sleep, though your unconscious mind was still spinning with thoughts of Seraphim. You had a dream, a memory actually. One you almost forgot.

~~~

You were running around in the forest like you guys did countless times. But this time the two of you were ‘battling’ but you were doing a lot more running than fighting.

“Come back and face me! For I the mighty Seraphim will take you down!” The raven hair boy declared boisterously, making you laugh. The air was filled with the sound of rustling leaves and laughter from the two of you. You saw a clearing up a head which would make a perfect arena. However, you didn’t make it there before your foot got caught on an outstretched tree root. Tumbling to the ground you let out a small cry. “Y/n! Are you okay?”

Seraphim kneeled beside you on the damp earth. Looking you over he sees you clutching your knee to your chest. “Let me see it.” He said. You removed your hands to show him, you scraped your knee pretty badly. It was starting to bleed a little but nothing too unmanageable. “Stay here, I'll be right back.” He instructed before rushing towards his home.

About 10 minutes passed and your tears had stopped, though you were sure your eyes were red and your nose snotty. You hear rustling coming towards you and looking up you see the boy returning with a small pale of water and a cloth. “My mom is still at the market so this is the best I could do.”

He soaked the clean cloth in the water and started to wipe your wound. “OUCH!” Your knee jerked away from his touch.

“Sorry. But you need to wash it so it doesn't get worse.” You nodded your head and allowed him to continue. You kept wincing and hissing every so often.

Whilst cleaning your knee Seraphim saw you had a big splinter. “Uh this might hurt but I’ll do it quickly.” He tried to reassure you. Bracing yourself he took out the small piece of wood, you actually started to cry again - which felt embarrassing.

Once your knee was as clean as he could get it he then wrapped the clean side of the cloth around your knee. “Are you okay?” He asked, his onyx eyes laced with concern.

“Yeah, thanks.” you sniffle, wiping away the tears from your cheeks. Seraphim leaned towards you and placed a small peck on your cheek, which startled you. “What are you doing?”

“Uh, well I uh- you were hurt so I gave you a kiss better.” He hastily stuttered as he got up and dusted himself off. Without looking at you he extended his hand for you to take. “We should head back, my mom should be there by now.” He then took your hand and started walking back.

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

Wow. Okey if you made it through that I hope you enjoyed it. This start feels a bit rocky but lets hope it only goes up from here 😅  

I’m definitely more of a One shots & HCs kinda girl not a big Fic writer, perhaps that’s because I haven’t done much multi part/”chapter” writing before so 🤷🏻‍♀️

If you enjoyed this let me know your thoughts :3

💛 ~

~ Masterlist ~

[koushisbabie]

Lovebites w Kenma

“i think i should submit here but may i please get a fluffy kenma one-shot where he kinda tackles the reader away from their study stuff because he needs attention and their relationship is relatively new so kissing and makeout stuff is rare but he's just kissing up on the reader's neck, nibbling on their neck, then just cuddling them after leaving a pretty hickey there, admiring the color on their skin before offering words of affection and just massive cuddles? i would love u forever” Request from @haikyutiehoe​

I kind of took creative liberty with this one, and it’s KIND OF suggestive near the end?? I hope you like it! (I also didn’t reread and edit it bc I’m supposed to be doing my essay lol)

TW: lovebites/hickeys, general fluff, suggestive at the end, probably doesn’t qualify as nsfw but like, be wary.

Pairing: Kenma x gn!reader

Word Count: 1,037

Soft lofi plays in the background as my fingers hover over the page in front of me. Loose documents and various writing accoutrement lie strewn across the kotatsu and spill over onto the floor surrounding me. Three almost empty mugs sit amongst the mess, their remaining contents long gone cold and stagnant.

I glance at the time, briefly scanning over missed messages waiting to be acknowledged. One message in particular catches my attention. A simple ‘what are you up to?’ Followed by ‘just a heads up, I’m streaming soon, wanna hang out after?’ And a third message ‘y/n, are you done yet?’.

Exhaustion seems to have made a permanent home in my limbs, but that not prevent me from instinctively smiling at the phone screen. I type back a hurried ‘I'm still studying, we can hang out later’ before turning the phone face down and shifting my attention back to the ruckus in front of me. I inwardly groan at the idea of trying to stuff copious amounts of information into my already tired brain, yet despite the hassle, somehow manage to force myself to open the next textbook and begin reading.

An indeterminate amount of time passes before a shrill vibrating erupts from the phone to my right. It pulls me out of my trance, and I reluctantly pick up the phone.

‘Hello?’

‘You’re still alive.’

‘Just barely.’

Kenma’s quiet laugh sounds on the other end.

‘What did you need?’ I ask, holding the phone between my cheek and my shoulder, using my free hands to write a few words down into my study notes.

‘Just checking up on you, you’ve been at this for hours,’ Kenma replies. ‘Come upstairs, give yourself a break, we can watch a movie or something.’

‘Tempting, but there’s some methods I haven’t completely wrapped my head around yet,’ I say, hoping that frustration does not wind its way into my voice.

‘Have you even eaten yet?’ Kenma interjects.

I glance guiltily at the snacks I vaguely recall him silently leaving on the table hours ago. ’I drank the tea,’ I quickly add, ’thank you, Kenma.’

He sighs audibly. ’Y/n...’

‘I'll eat, I promise, just a few more hours, okay?’ I smile into the phone, knowing very well he cannot see me.

‘Sure, Y/n,’ he says finally.

The phone goes silent and for a split second I consider just going upstairs to check that he isn’t sulking. He can handle a few more hours, I think. Turning back to my notes, I continue to read.

Before long, there is the muffled sound of footsteps on carpet, a door sliding open, and the gentle kneeling of a person behind me. Warmth envelopes me as sweatshirt clad arms encircle my waist, a cold nose nuzzling into my neck, the tickling of outgrown blonde hair against my skin.

‘Kenma?’ I peer at him out of the corner of my eye. ‘What’s up? You okay?’

‘Do you know what time it is?’ Comes his muffled voice. His lips press against my neck as he speaks, sending shivers down my spine.

‘It’s, uh,’ I go to check my phone, but Kenma’s hand grabs my wrist.

‘It’s time for you to listen to reason,’ he kisses my neck in between speaking, ‘and spend time with me.’

‘This is out of the blue,’ I laugh nervously. ‘Since when do you make the first move?’

‘Just because I haven’t done it before, doesn’t mean I don’t want to do it,’ Kenma blushes. ‘Is it really that weird?’

It’s now my turn to be embarrassed. ‘No, I like it.’

He presses his mouth against my neck more firmly. ‘What is it that you like, Y/n?’

‘That,’ I murmur in response, closing my eyes. ‘When you kiss me.’

His arms pull me ever closer, before using one cool hand to pull the neck of my shirt further to the side, exposing my collar bone. He places kisses fervently against my skin, the warmth and the firmness growing with each movement. I resist squirming in his grasp, not wanting to ruin the romance of the moment, despite the flustering in my belly. ‘Tell me if it hurts,’ Kenma murmurs into my ear, his lips tickling my earlobe deliciously.

‘It doesn’t.’

A moment of hesitation passes before the next kiss turns into something sharper, more urgent. He bites me hard enough to hold the skin between his lips before sucking gently and placing a soft kiss. I turn my gaze to his, the flecks of gold in his eyes shimmering innocently back at me, as if he wasn’t pushing every button I have in this moment. Almost every button.

‘Did you like that?’

The curiosity in his question almost makes me want to laugh. ’I did, yes.’

Kenma shifts his attention to my neck, his lips forming a lovely ‘o’ in surprise. He takes a hand and strokes the tender area. ‘You beginning to bruise.’

‘Am I?’ I cannot quite see the bruises.

‘I didn’t think I was that hard,’ Kenma gives a tiny smile. ‘Sorry.’

I grin mischievously at him. ’Something tells me you aren’t actually sorry for that at all.’

‘Maybe not,’ Kenma buries his blush in the crook of my neck, pulling me into an even tighter embrace.

‘Wanna go continue this upstairs?’ I ask, taking a hand and running it through the stray strands of his soft hair. This elicits a soft moan from Kenma, not unlike a cat’s purr.

‘That’s what I’ve been asking you for hours,’ He whines.

‘Ah, so you were sulking!’

‘Was not,’ Kenma argues. ‘Just, come be with me for a bit. I’ve missed you.’

Guilt tugs at my heartstrings. ’I’ve missed you, too.’

He meets my eyes with a tenderness that renders me speechless, and for a long second, nothing existed besides the two of us. God, he’s beautiful.

I stand and offer him my hand, to which he takes without hesitation. He eyes the mess I’ve made of my textbooks and study notes. 'I'll clean it tomorrow,’ I shrug. ‘Right now, I want to see how many more love bites you can give me.’

‘Anything for you,’ Kenma replies as he leads me by the hand to the sanctuary of the bedroom.

masterlist

[m-aster-of-spinjitzu]

the hues of an empty sky

Missing memories, or having two of them for one moment - not quite the same, but if there's one thing Jay's leant over the last few weeks, it's that literally nothing makes sense anymore.

Or, some Skybound aftermath, Zane actually expressing emotions about his memory switch being turned off for all those years, and what was supposed to be a 'they tell everyone about the erased timeline' fic, but it turned into a 'two characters who barely interact on screen talk at like one am in the morning, and don't actually tell the other what exactly they're alluding to the whole time' fic that I wrote at like one am- 

Also yeah, I realized too late that they split up to look for Wu after s7, we’re just gonna pretend that they waited a few days or something, idk anymore tbh, lol.

(I also didn't have time to edit - so please tell me where the typos are? 😂💛)

Word count: 4539

Prompt: crying, from @ninjago-bingo 's warm board.

Trigger warnings: the main character has a panic attack, and squeezes their fingernails into their hands once or twice but I think that's it.

*facepalms* also, guys, i’m so stupid - i literally just realized that this freaking CHANGES TENSE HALFWAY OHMYGOSH I-  i don’t think it’s super noticeable, but ugh, apologies to anyone who actually thought my writing was good lol-

---

It's cold.

Bitterly, freezing cold.

The biting chill of the air is a bit strange for this time of year, but, heck, that's nowhere near the craziest thing that's ever happened to him - not by a long shot.

He sighs, squinting at the stars dotted liberally against the black canvas of the sky.

Cole had once joked that one of them might be the remains of their golden weapons, after they'd hurled the burning mass into the sky - in another alternate timeline; one that only existed in the memories of a certain few.

Gosh - that seemed like such a long time ago.

Wouldn't it be nice to go back to that time, when he'd still thought that their powers were the coolest thing ever - instead of despising them for all the responsibility and sacrifice that came with them? When one of his biggest worries was whether the girl he had a crush on liked him back - not wondering if his friends would survive the night?

"I did not expect to find you awake at this hour, Jay."

Reflexivity, he jumps back, his mind twisting his friend's gentle voice into the- the djin's triumphant, accented one.

You're supposed to be a ninja. What good are you if your friends can still sneak up on you?

"Geez, warn a guy before you sneak up on him! I almost fell off the Bounty!"

"My apologies. I was... surprised to find you awake at this hour," Zane answers. "What are you doing?" "Couldn't sleep. It's too cold," he confesses, not entirely a lie. Ninjago wasn't 'that' far from the Sea of Sand, but he'd grown up in a much warmer area - unfortunately resulting in his practically nonexistent tolerance to the cold. That never failed to stop Kai from teasing him about it, though. He doesn't mention the pressing weight on his chest, almost tangible - or how it constantly makes him feel. Like he's being dragged through the darkness of an empty sky, spikes of fear making everything so freaking terrifying- "You?"

"I have been analyzing my memories of Pixal, in the hope that it may lead me to her whereabouts. However, all my efforts have proved... unsuccessful," Zane answers wearily, shifting his gaze to the sky.

Oh- oh. They'd all be so caught up in the chaos of the last few weeks - hey, it's not like any of them had asked the universe to permanently be out to get them! - that they'd forgotten Pixal was still offline.

"Hey, I'm sure that she's still there somewhere," he says, earnestly. "After all - she wouldn't be your girlfriend if she didn't pull a vanishing act every now and again, eh?"

The question is punctuated with a laugh, but he doesn't say that he's a little worried about her too. They hadn't talked much, but-

I can't see one of my best friends find out that his girlfriend is dead, a quiet voice at the back of his mind points out. Well - been there, done that, wouldn't recommend, he thinks bitterly. Emotional breakdowns and frequent nightmares apply. Anxiety attacks are half off, too!

It's quiet for a few minutes, neither of them seeing a need to break the silence. The wind blows softly through the sails above them; gray wisps of cloud revealing a pale sliver of moonlight that paints the sky in its glow.

It should be a peaceful night: beautiful, calm, no one trying to kill them or destroy their city - for a change.

His hands won't stop shaking.

It should be a peaceful night, but, as usual, the world is too freaking unfair for that-

He hasn't even slept for a full night in weeks! Well, not since- since-

Don't think about it! That's only going to make it worse, duh-

"Are you alright, Jay?"

"Yeah- I- I'm good, thanks," he says quickly, ignoring the way his breathing keeps speeding up. FSM, not this-

Not for the first time, the world suddenly becomes too loud - too much. Every little thing, from trying to breathe properly or even walk- feels insurmountable, because, gosh, oh gosh, it's going to come crashing down if he even moves-

The memory starts off the same as it always does.

Rubble strewn over the temple grounds, his friends literally reduced to nothing more than statues. A shot that hit the mark perfectly, but perfectly shattered his world in the process.

A poison-splattered dress, a terrifying realization.

Her well-aimed joke, but one that never fails to sting every time. Gosh, why hadn't they just allowed her to join their team in the first place? Maybe they could've prevented this- this- whole situation, if they hadn't been so freaking egotistical-

And, again, he's overwhelmed by the sheer sense of helplessness, all his power and training and skills completely useless to one of the people he cared most about. FSM, if only I hadn't used my first w-request so carelessly! If only I'd been able to escape- or, or if only I'd been able to assemble the team faster! If only-

Despite being in what must've been unimaginable pain, she offers a strained smile - a sweet gesture that, ironically, feels like she's poisoning him, because- because FSM, this is all so wrong, it wasn't supposed to end like this-

He watches with horror as her eyes dull and she stills in his arms.

She's gone, FSM, she's gone and it's all my fault-

"Jay?" a voice asks, concern evident in their tone. Distantly, he registers that he's having a breakdown in front of one of his best friends - one of the things he'd been trying really hard to avoid.

Dang it.

"I-" he tries to say, but, great, he's breathing too fast to even get the stupid words out.

"Breathe in for four seconds," Zane says, softly.

Four seconds? Time has no meaning right now, narrowed down to, like - falling down a chasm, terrified of what's at the bottom, except the fear's all around, this- this... foreboding thing of his mind that keeps yelling that he needs to run, or fight, but he can't, can't-

Right. Four seconds.

You're okay, you're fine, no one's trying to hurt you or your friends. She's not dead.

But what if- what if they're being dragged out of this ship right now? What if it was all a dream, and she's dead anyway, because all of us were too stupid to come up with another plan, and none of us could even do anything when she-

After a little while, when he could breathe a little easier, and the fear didn't feel like it was slamming into him from every possible direction, he slowly opened his eyes. Shakily, he wiped a tear from his face - as if that would wipe away all the weeks that had, theoretically, never even freaking happened.

The sky comes back into focus - pinpricks of light against pitch black. 

How was he going to come up with some sorta explanation without... well, explaining everything?

Great.

My nerves are frayed, and I have to lie to a walking lie detector - what could possibly go wrong?

"Are you alright?" Zane asks, his brows creased in concern.

"Heh heh, yeah. Probably just too many video games," he replies quickly, laughter a bit strained.

"You were muttering to yourself," his friend replies quietly. Ugh, trust the way-too-observant-nindroid to call him out on the remains of his facade. "If you do not mind me asking, what was 'all your fault'? I am sure that it was probably a misunderstanding."

You're the one who misunderstands everything, he thinks wearily, ignoring the part of him that yearns to tell someone else about... well, everything that's happened because of that stupid teapot. He's not one to keep secrets by nature, and it's been taking a bigger toll of him than he'd thought it would. Is this how Nya felt when she was still the Samurai? "It's- it's nothing, probably just nonsense."

"Are you sure? You seem... quite worried about something."

Dang it, were his hands still shaking? He presses his fingernails into his palms, squeezing his eyes shut for a second.

He's talking to one of his best friends, FSM. Weren't friends able to tell each other anything?

"Do you think it's easier to forget? Better?"

He didn't even realize he'd asked a question until Zane's eyes widened in surprise.

A forest coated in snow, ice crystals dangling from the tree branches above their heads. Plenty of screaming - way too much, he reflects, couldn't they have been a bit nicer? It must've been pretty jarring to learn that you weren't human, or that your father had erased years of your life from your mind - in that weird underground treehouse. Those crazy tree monsters - and the realization that they all had much more power than they'd thought.

"N- nevermind," he stutters, fleetingly thinking of kicking the deck. "That's way too personal, you don't have to answer it-"

"I do not mind," Zane says, a bit sadly.

Oh.

Heck, his friend was way too nice.

They gaze up at the stars for a few minutes, not really seeing them - one drowning under the weight of too many secrets, the other, too many memories.

It's quiet - too quiet.

Ugh, he thinks, sighing, that sounds like something a low-budget horror movie would start with, cringey sound effects to match.

But the silence is a painful reminder of the days he'd spent tossing and turning in a cramped cell - nothing but his worries and the bruises on his leg from that stupid ball and chain keeping him awake.

He's been trying hard - maybe too hard - to avoid being alone, avoid being in a situation where they've gotta be quiet ever since then, because, dang it, his memories always seem to fill the silence, and they're always far more terrifying than they should be-

It's easier, in a way, to be mocked for his stupid jokes than it is to relive a single moment from those nightmarish few weeks.

Almost reflexively, he grasps for something to fill the quiet.

"Heh, this is a bit awkward. It's okay if you wanna leave-"

"I do not mind," Zane echoes, walking a bit closer. "It is not as if I need to sleep. But... I do not quite know what to think of your question."

There comes the answer - or a semblance of one at least, and it's the last thing he'd been expecting.

"You don't know?" he blurts out before he can even think of trying to filter the thought. Way to treat your friend who's been nothing but kind to you, Jay. "But you're- you're a nindroid! You know everything-"

"Pixal," his friend mutters softly, sighing, and the hurt, the fear, laced through the word makes something in his heart practically twist. He knows all too well what it feels like to be in that situation - even if, technically, it had never happened.

Then- "I wish that were true. But I suppose that my emotions make certain situations much more complicated than... than they need to be. Thus I cannot give my perspective on this - or, at least, without sounding quite conflicted."

"You know that you're allowed to be conflicted, right? Even the coolest Nindroids don't know everything."

"...Yes, I suppose so."

Jay frowns at the almost subconscious hesitation, eyebrows creasing in concern.

"Seriously," he starts earnestly. They're both leaning on one of the railings just above the deck now. "Just 'cause you're a nindroid doesn't mean that you've gotta chase some kind of perfection that doesn't even exist."

He doesn't miss how Zane's eyes widen in shock, their bright blue hue glowing a little brighter - and heck, if that doesn't hurt even more than the earlier realization.

"Besides - it's not like none of us haven't made mistakes before. Hate to go all Wu on ya, but they help us learn or some stupid thing like that. Even if the mistake is trying not to make 'em, you know?"

"Thank you," Zane replies, a tired smile on his face. "Even the most advanced tech is susceptible to error, I suppose."

They've all made lots of mistakes, heaven forbid if one of them is still agonizing over messing up over the crazy situations the universe constantly put them in. It's not like they were told they'd have to face more ancient evil armies than they could count, were they?

Maybe it's time to stop focusing on events that never even happened, and pay more attention to your friends. What's the point of being part of this team if you're always scared or selfish?

"Shut up," he mumbles, rubbing his temples. What's the point of fighting if your own brain is gonna fight you whenever it gets a chance? A few seconds later, he schools his face back into his default anxious grin. "Great, cause I- I- could use your advice on something." "Alright," comes the quiet reply, his friend seemingly lost in thought.

"What if you wanted to tell someone something, but you couldn't?"

His breathing starts to speed up again, but he grips the deck until his fingers are practically bruised, stark white against his tanned skin. Not this time-

"Is this what you were referring to earlier? An event that you blamed yourself for?" Zane asks, eyes flitting between the floor and the sky.

Dang it, way too observant as usual. He masks his surprise with a laugh, but the conversation definitely isn't going as planned and, oh gosh oh gosh, what if-

No, there's no way that any of them would even believe that. Besides - no one can remember stuff that they've forgotten, especially if magic's at play.

"Yeah, kinda," and he's surprised by how steady his voice sounds. It's not easy to even think about that- event, talking about it is a whole different thing. A much more difficult thing, but also - a bit, a little bit, easier. "I-" "Apologies for interrupting," his friend interjects. "I suppose that I have not been entirely honest with you." What?

"A few days ago, I discovered a number of deleted memory files buried deep within my code."

Just like that, his whole world tilts out from underneath him.

It takes every ounce of his strength to keep himself from falling into the abyss again.

Wait, what?

Has he really known for all this time? It's been weeks! Surely he would've said something? It can't be, it never even-

The rational part of his mind points out that he can remember every day of those few weeks. Well, he was the one to make the wish - magical logic is kinda stupid, but maybe that's why he had to remember it or something?

Well then, a small voice interjects, why was Nya cursed to remember everything too?

Of course, even the stupid magical logic doesn't even make sense to the one who caused this whole mess in the first place.

"They were almost entirely corrupted - scrambled in a way that I am not familiar with. However, I did realize that certain files bore dates that have not even occurred yet. I dismissed it as a problem with my code, however..."

Breathe, calm down, it's not like he was able to process them or anything-

We agreed that no one was supposed to know! What if they end up blaming us for keeping it a secret this long, or, or-

"I mean, they could've been-" he starts, but the way in which he's nervously twisting his fingers is a pretty clear indication that he's lying, dang it.

"So when you mentioned that you were unable to tell someone something - did you mean that it was because they had quite literally forgotten about it?"

Great. Fantastic. Of course the literal robot has pieced it together by now-

He squeezes his eyes shut for a minute, hoping that if he ignores the problem, maybe it'll go away.

Okay, fine, maybe he's trying to figure out a way to fix this whole mess. Doesn't mean that he's any closer to coming up with a solution, though.

"Er, yeah," he whispers, shoulders slumped, eyes still firmly shut. Because gosh, he doesn't want to - can't, can't - see the realization dawn that, yeah, he's lied to people he's known for years and years, even though they've all seen way too many times that secrets bring nothing but trouble-

"Well, then - I would say that you don't have to tell them," Zane replies, surprisingly... earnestly? That, or he's either too freaked out to understand the tone properly. Could be either.

He opens his eyes, hesitantly.

And it comes as a bit of a shock to find nothing but concern reflected in his friend's.

The almost persistent weight on his chest feels a little lighter now, like the sky isn't as quite so empty.

Well, it still kinda is. But that doesn't hold as much weight as he'd thought it did - not if one of his friends is willing to look past that; past the heaviness of holding up all those memories with nothing his single star, flickering in and out of the darkness, to try and light the unforgiving darkness of the sky.

"Why?" Jay asks, so quietly he can barely hear it himself. "Don't I owe it to them? Do you?"

"No. Definitely not," comes the reply, so full of conviction that he almost stumbles back. Why-

"My father..."

Oh- oh.

"thought it was better to spare me the pain of mourning him than for me to know who I was," Zane confesses, hesitantly. "Not that I disagree, necessarily. I just..."

He trails off, clutching the railing so hard that the wood almost snaps beneath his titanium fingers.

It takes Jay a little while to realize why - why exactly his friend, who has access to a wealth of knowledge and information, is grasping for an answer. Because- because, well, even if someone does something in your best interests - sometimes the choice isn't always up to them. Or maybe it is, but it was... difficult, to say the least, to let go of the fact that his parents had never told him the truth sooner. Not that he blames them, necessarily - it's not like they knew that his father would pass on before he'd even get the chance to meet him - but... it's confusing, and difficult, not to know why you were left at a junkyard as soon as you were born. Maybe if he'd known that sooner, he could've asked the one person who might've had answers - although it's not like hoping for the past to change will actually change it.

They don't even know that you know, a small voice at the back of his mind points out, and suddenly everything makes a lot more sense-

"You wanted a choice," he breathes, eyes widening. A choice - like one that he'd never been given, one that he stills struggles not to hold against two people who've always had his best interests at heart. Even if they did have the right to withhold that one thing, after all they've done for him - the 'what if's' still echo in his mind far more often than he'd like. "There's nothing wrong with that, even if it feels that way. I kinda get where you're coming from, dude, and it's... super confusing, but I'd be pretty mad if my memories were tampered with like that."

So would anyone, he realizes, heart sinking. Oh, great. Not helping-

"I- I suppose so?" Zane answers, but it sounds more like a question than a reply. "However, in the same vein, it would be unwise for you to give away your choice whilst you still have one." "But don't I owe it to everyone? You just said it, it's horrible to alter people's memories and I- I-" "Did we forget... whatever it was for a good reason? "I- I mean, I guess, but..." "Then you do not owe it to us to relive something that we do not even remember." The words should be a relief - and they kinda are. But some part of him really does want to explain the crazy alternate timeline, and everything that happened in it. It's just... really, really freaking difficult.

"What if- what if I wanted to, though?" Jay asks hysterically, running his hands through his hair in a frenzied sort of way. "And I still couldn't? I just, I-"

He cuts himself off with a bout of forced laughter.

Zane takes a moment to reply, the bright blue light in his eyes flickering - a small tell that he was thinking so deeply, his processors were literally sparking up a bit.

"You queried earlier if it was easier, or better, to forget. And while all situations are different, I suppose it is... well, subjective. What do you think?" Zane asks, softly.

Derailing the conversation a bit, but his friend's obviously smart enough to be leading up to something.

Sure, he'll go along with it.

"I mean, there are some things I'd rather forget, you know? I guess we all know what that feels like," Jay replies, the statement with oddly sad air to it. They're still kids, after all, and it gets a bit exhausting pretending that their superhero lives were all fun and games - when they'd just given him enough grey hair to last then lifetimes, and enough nightmares to keep him from ever getting the normal amount of sleep his mum always prattled on about.

Sleep, heh heh. Practically a foreign concept, now.

"And I know that stuff that happens, like shapes us or something - and Master Wu would probably go off on a whole ramble about why we learn from our mistakes or whatever," he laughs nervously, resisting the urge to just fall headfirst onto the deck of the stupid ship instead of continuing the conversation," and how 'our scars only make us stronger', crap like that, but I just-"

"I'm just really... tired of this," he confesses warily, shoulders slumped. "W- I remember so many horrible things, and I-" he breaks off, laughing bitterly. His voice takes on a sort of brittle quality, way too high pitched, "and I can't even talk about them, dude. If that's not the most pathetic thing ever, I dunno what is."

"It does not-"

"Don't say it," Jay mutters, rubbing his temples. "I know, I know, my feelings aren't pathetic, they're always valid, whatever, spare me the lecture-"

"That is not what I was going to say," Zane replies gently. "It just seems that you have answered your own question."

"Gee, which one?"

"I do not know how much helpful assistance I can provide in this situation, but it is understandable to wish certain events had never occurred. However, seeing as we cannot change the past, it seems unwise to dwell on said events if you can avoid it."

Jay stiffens, clamping a shaky hand over his mouth. Something seems to press down even harder on his chest, a heavy sort of weight that causes his breathing to speed up again. Don't say it don't say it there's no reason to warn them this time-

"If you would like to tell any of us about something, of course you are welcome to. It does not to be the whole story, after all. Just make sure that it is the decision you choose, not one you choose because of what you think how it will affect others," Zane finishes quietly, ducking his head as if he's embarrassed.

The stars are still white-hot, burning away some million miles above them.

"Thanks," he says, and puts his hand softly on Zane's shoulder. "I mean, I know - that all makes sense, I guess. It's just- I-"

"You want to?"

"Yeah," Jay starts, sighing, "I do. It's just- it's not just my choice. And I'm pretty much dying already right now, so, as fantastic as making it all worse sounds, hard pass."

Oops, maybe he shouldn't have said that last bit. They'd agreed not to tell anyone about it - even this conversation was cutting it way too close. It wasn't impossible for them to put everything together - they were a pretty smart group, after all, even without their resident inventor and engineer - and Jay didn't really know what he'd think if they did. Fearful? Relieved? Angry?

"That does... not sound great? Dying certainly does not seem-"

"It's called sarcasm, Zane."

"Oh- yes. My memory now accesses the fact that people often speak in that manner. It does seem a bit counterproductive, though. Why not just say what you mean?"

"Shut it, you have no clue how integral to my life it is," Jay replies with a halfhearted grin.

A few seconds later, he remembers something his friend had mentioned earlier, and the grin disappears.

"You know that you can talk to us if you're not happy, right?" he asks, earnestly. Sure, it's not like he could always do that, considering, well, a stupid djin and even stupider magic, but it's not like he needs to. It's- well- he'll be okay, probably. Maybe. Kinda.

Zane's eyes blink on and off again, blue fading in and out. "I... I suppose that I was not quite aware of that."

Okay, they've screwed up way too many times, but this... this is pretty bad. Dang it, how long does it take for them to throw self-preservation instincts at their friend before he freaking- picks them up or something?

"However, will it not hurt those who have experienced the same unfortunate events?"

Dude, not the best question to ask someone wondering the exact same thing-

"It's been... uh, nice, kind of, talking to you. So- I don't think so, and I'm pretty sure someone would say so if it did. Besides, don't we talk about our adventures all the time? It'd probably be better if we... uh, well- heh heh, nothing."

"If we talked about the less than positive elements of them? Perhaps, but I still-"

Maybe it's the fact Zane has always tried to be there for him, or maybe he's too sleep deprived to care anymore, but this is a way too familiar situation and-

Well, not ignoring the issue would be a start.

"Sorry to interrupt, but we're family, Zane. We care about each other. And, gosh, that means that we care about you too. Memories are stupid and annoying sometimes, but we have to make good ones too, right? To block out the bad ones a bit, I guess? Kinda, at least."

They both look away from the stars now, grappling for something else to say.

In the end, they leave it be with a hug and a fondly exasperated warning about sleeping, if you happen to need it.

After all, they're family. They don't have to be perfect, or tell each other everything - even if it does take them a long time to realize that, and an even longer time remembering it.

---

The next time Jay startles awake from a nightmare, the sky is still empty - painfully so, like an ache that simmers beneath the surface even when it's not able to be seen.

The hue, though, is a little lighter.

Just a little - the all-encompassing darkness of it is now a navy sort of blue, his star shining a little bit brighter.

It's still not sunrise, not even close - but he'll take it. AN: the ‘sky’ mentioned at the start and end is a stupid metaphor that i somehow ended up liking too much to trash, it’s ‘empty’ because he hasn’t told anyone about the timeline, and Nya’s not included because they never had a chance to tell each other everything significant or even talked about it or processed it on screen. so yeah! if you read this,,, not great thing, can i send you a hug or good vibes or smth? tyy🥺