#only to suddenly switch last minute and win

[scimita]

i know a lot of ppl would like to see the preds win more in comics and movies, not the humans, but i honestly find it really funny that the preds lose. Especially when i remember that their species has been around for millions of years and humans are barely 300,000 years old as a species (homo sapiens). THREE HUNDRED THOUSAND YEARS OLD. the preds are fighting babies and LOSING i love it

they even got horror stories abt us. can u imagine having horror stories abt babies and being genuinely scared? i cant, i'd punt chucky into the mesosphere, even if hes the size of my calf

on that note i'd also like to point out that the only reason humans actually win against preds is bcz the last human always has the longest time to observe the hunter (and sure, the pred gets cocky and starts not thinking abt the fight, but the human also get super determined to kill him so). like,, the only reason humans r suddenly winning more and killing more predators is bcz ONE of them (humans) managed to survive and learn their patterns and just started talking abt it to everyone who would listen

i just think its nice to show that humans' pattern-finding brain works so well it kills the apex predators of space

not that we ever get to *see* humans use their supposed ingenuity and cleverness and pattern-findings, they just randomly know what to do, and tbh it's pretty accurate to real life, but this isnt real life so i'd like to see humans be the horrors the preds are being told stories abt.

i also want to know if there are novels detailing the stories abt humans? if anyone knows, pls tell me 🙏

[obsessivevoidkitten]

Pollen and Pheromones

Kinktober Day 13: Sex Pollen

Male Alpha Yandere x Gender Neutral Omega Reader CW: Noncon, sex pollen, aphrodisiac, pheromones, knotting, biting, claiming bite, stranded, spaceship crash, sci-fi, outer space, alien planet, a/b/o dynamics, bigotry/prejudice against omegas, rivalry, breeding, general yandere behavior, tsundere, betrayal Word Count: 1.6k (Enjoy this kinktober meal I have prepared <3)

"Star log: This is Pilot 2418 currently operating vessel Starlion: Orion. I am currently on route to pass the threshold of our galaxy in less than five minutes."

You were a shuttle pilot, one of the Exploration Guild's best. Ever since humanity had achieved interplanetary travel, they had sought to extend themselves ever further. With the new drift-space drives, that dream was now a reality.

They were only currently suited for small 1 to 2 man shuttlecraft, and only a couple such craft had been made. Two different ones had been commissioned through the guild, with both pilots competing to see who could exit the Milky Way first. The new drive could only be used in bursts to prevent overloading, so the journey had still taken a few months. But it seemed like you were about to succeed. Then you could make a U-turn and start drift-jumping back towards the nearest station.

Since you were an omega, this was a great achievement, a notice to the universe that your kind could do whatever betas and alphas could. You would be able to help stamp out the lingering bigotry and inspire others all with one action.

You were just about to cross the finish line!

Suddenly, your opponent, Tetsunori, came out of drift-space behind you. He had been your long-time rival, with both of you being about equally skilled.

But this was unacceptable to him as he was an alpha and held to the knothead mindset that an omega's place was bouncing on an alpha's prick or maybe in a teaching or nursing job.

You weren't worried, though. You had a solid lead. There was no way he could close the gap.

You rolled your eyes at the incoming transmission.

"Why don't you just give up now? If you surrender nicely, I'll let you celebrate my victory by letting you keep my knot warm!"

The temptation to reply was too great.

"Ha! You may be good at navigating the stars, but I doubt you have ever found your way into an omega."

Conversing with him hadn't distracted you or made you pause, so he growled as he switched to another plan. He fired on his tractor beam.

What the fuck, was he insane? Stooping so low to make sure you couldn't have a historic moment? You fired an equal and opposite tractor beam through his, which forced him to disengage. Something only possible because both ships were similar in size and energy output. Did he think you were some amateur?

In a desperate bid to prevent you from winning, Tetsunori rammed his shuttle into yours.

This type of bumping wasn't unheard of. It wasn't lethal if both ships were similar and had their shields up. But the bouncing was pretty strong for both parties, which is why it was a last-ditch effort. It could push you past the line, or it could bump him further. Neither of those things happened, though.

Instead, you careened right into the gravitational pull off a planet. You did everything you could to slow down and stabilize, but nothing seemed to be working.

Tetsunori sped after you in his spacecraft as he spoke into the comm link.

"I'm sorry, oh my god, I'm so sorry! I just had to be first! What omega would want to be mates with someone who they bested??"

You didn't have time for his weird ass confession and barely registered it. Your shields were still online and he had started pulsing his tractor beam to slow you down, full usage of it at such speeds could rip your ship apart, thankfully he wasn't an amateur either and knew that.

You put all available power and quickly put it into overloading the shields. You hit the emergency crash button, and two nozzles came out from the sides of the cockpit and sprayed you with a rapidly drying foam that would reduce damage to you if you got flung about the ship. Tetsunori's reckless and speedy entry into the atmosphere may have been enough to save you, but he had lost control of his vessel as well.

As you crashed, he careened away and crash-landed as well.

It was a good thing the high-tech impact reduction foam was so effective. Despite having shields, the ship was still shaken pretty badly, and the inertial dampeners weren't powerful enough to thwart damage from such a landing.

You took stock of the condition of your systems.

Almost everything was fried. You could at least scan the planet. It seemed like you had actually lucked out. In the entire galaxy planets that supported life were incredibly rare. But you had landed on one.

It seemed there were no known biological hazards present. No recognized toxins, dangerous bacteria, or viral agents. You were cleared to remove your suit. The temporary foam had started to dissolve, so it wasn't hard to remove.

The scanner also indicated there was a strong human life sign. It appeared that Tetsunori was okay.

You took the survival kit from underneath your seat as well as some beverages and rations you had procured at the last station and headed in the direction of dust and smoke in the distance.

You didn't even need the ship's scanner to tell you that the great imbecile, Tetsunori had landed there.

As you got closer, you stepped into a field of flowers that surrounded the entire crash site. You were probably still a mile away, but all around you were odd glittery silver and gold flowers.

The smell of them made you just slightly lightheaded and tingly. You realized the tiniest bit of slick was dribbling down your leg. They must be an aphrodisiac. The scanner hadn't warned you of anything in the air that was truly dangerous, so it probably wouldn't matter very much. And it really didn't. For you. As you trudged through the flowers and pollen, the effects did not get worse.

But for Tetsunori, the pollen was much stronger. When it hit his nostrils, it immediately put him into rut. Not a typical rut either, one of the ruts you see in pornos where the alpha is almost feral and unable to control their mating drive. When you came upon him, he was sitting on a piece of debris from his shit and rocking back and forth in clear distress. Through his outfit, his bulge was immediately visible.

"T-tetsunori? Uh... are you okay? D-did you get hurt in the crash?"

You took a step back when he looked up at you. His eyes were red, giving him a demonic appearance.

"The flowers, I think... they... UGH! My thoughts are all jumbled..."

He started to rub and massage his crotch desperately. He finally caught a whiff of your scent, ripe from the recent hike over to him and from being without a proper shower since your last space station stop. Not to mention the smell of the slick the aphrodisiac had coaxed out of you.

He started wildly sniffing at the air.

"Y-you smell so nice. You can help!"

You started backing away slowly.

"Uh... help with what?"

He got up and closed the difference between the two of you. Sweat had his dark hair clinging to his head. He was significantly taller and looked down at you intensely before sniffing and licking your neck with lazy broad strokes.

"S-smell so gooood. Always wanted to knot youuuu~"

You tried to push him off.

"Tetsunori! St-stop!"

You slapped, smacked, kicked, punched, and flailed, but nothing you did deterred him in the slightest.

"I'm sorry, but I fucking n-need this!"

He pinned you to the ground, clawing and biting off all your clothing until only your underwear was left, he removed it more delicately before inhaling its scent deeply and putting it in his pocket for later.

"Please don't do this, Tetsunori, PLEASE!"

He looked down at you, and it seemed like he was genuinely trying to resist before the pollen-charged rut won out.

Tetsunori unzipped his pants and let his drooling cock and full heavy balls out.

"G-gonna put all my babies in you! Have to! Have to!"

The lust-drunk alpha wasted no more time in ramming into you, an insertion that would have been more difficult had the pollen not slicked you up. Though it was still sudden and slightly painful.

"A-aaah!"

You tried to kick at him, but he growled viciously before pushing you into a mating press and slobbering all over your neck with his eager tongue.

The pollen must have increased the potency of his pheromones, or at least your susceptibility to them, because his musk was starting to cloud your thoughts.

Your grunts of pain became gasps of pleasure as your body quickly accommodated to his large size. You winced as he bit down hard on your neck to claim you. He kept right on fucking into you without skipping a beat.

He licked and kissed the lightly bleeding bite mark, some part of him remembering to comfort you despite his dominating need to fill you with cock. And by that point, the last of your resistance finally melted away.

"T-tetsunoriiiiii~" You moaned as your toes curled and body twitched in orgasm.

He growled your name in response and gave a few hard, deep thrusts before cumming as deeply as possible.

A comforting fullness filled your hole as his knot locked the two of you together. He pulled you close as he sat down so that you were in his lap facing him. The two of you caught your breath, then remained in an awkward silence until his knot deflated.

"G-got it out of your system?"

"Yeah... for the most part... sorry about that..."

You lifted yourself off of his lap, his half hard cock springing free with a lewd plopping sound.

"Well... it wasn't your fault. It was just the pollen..."

He grabbed your wrist and pulled you back into his lap, his cock ramming directly into you, then began humping.

"Well... it wasn't just the pollen..."

[jsprnt]

celebrating the win against austria with your boyfriend

kenan yıldız x reader

A/N: my first kenan fic!! based on this request! thank you for requesting 🤍

W/C: 1.604

just a couple minutes.

that was all that was left for turkey to win their match, and to be a part of the last eight teams competing for the euros this year.

your heart had already leaped when austria had scored one goal in the sixty-sixth minute of the game, and just like everyone rooting for the same team as you, you hoped it would stay 2-1 for turkey.

you had obviously come to support your loving boyfriend, his first euro tournament in his career. he had already played a good eighty minutes, before his coach had decided to take him off.

sometimes he'd glance at you when the game was paused during a certain foul or injury. wanting to make sure you were still there, screaming and clapping in support for him. of course, the glances were pretty short, he had to focus on the game, and you knew that as well.

kenan would give you all the attention after the game, whether he won or lost.

making eye contact with him was your absolute favorite part. it was no secret that your boyfriend was a looker. every time he'd show up on the big screen, you had to hold yourself back from fawning a little too much, though the eye candy was always welcome.

especially in his white kit, it made him look like an angel as he was running around the pitch. the sweat from being incredibly active, darkening his brown hair.

you'd chuckle and smile at the occasional wink he would send you. it leaving you flustered and hot, although it had been drizzling for the past few seconds, it helping you cool down a little.

you fold your arms up, against your chest. wiping the rain that had been dripping down onto your naked arms, your turkey kit not helping you since it’s a t-shirt. you tap your shoe impatiently against the ground, well- the bleachers.

the game pauses for a second during an injury, watching the medics arrive. you look up suddenly when you're nudged by kenan's mother, who's sat next to you, a confused expression on her face.

"look up.." she says, pointing over and up to one of the huge screens in the leipzig stadium. you furrow your brows, not recognizing your own face for a moment.

realizing it's in fact you, on the screen, you smile, trying not to look awkward. your mother-in-law laughs, nudging for you to stop being so tense.

you chuckle, your lips pulling into relaxed smile, you wave your little türkiye flag, sending a quick flying kiss to the camera.

your face heats up at the sudden attention of the thousands of people in the stadium, and you're relieved when the camera pans back to the pitch, the game resuming.

you shake the situation off quickly, hoping you looked good at least.

your breath hitches when you hear the extra time being announced, and get ready for another torturous four minutes.

your mind switches to how anxious kenan himself might feel, at this point, he couldn't do anything about it. he could only trust his teammates to continue defending and possibly score another goal.

you turn to kenan's mother, an anxious expression on her face. you immediately grab onto her hand, smiling at her before squeezing her hand in reassurance. she turns to you, sending you a warm smile back.

you don't have to speak to know what emotions are running through your bodies, it's visible from the look in your eyes.

since you and kenan had been dating for more than a year, you had gotten very close to his parents. especially his mother, having her share the same feelings as you was both reassuring and very important to you.

the entire turkish supporting side of the stadium erupts in gasps and shouts as the ball is headed by a member of the opposition.

everyone's jaw slaws open in shock and happiness when goalkeeper gunök successfully swats the ball away, to prevent a last-minute disaster for turkey.

you and kenan's family start jumping in happiness, along with the thousands of fans. the noise is incredibly loud, and it seems to reach a higher frequency when the full-time whistle is blow.

you watch multiple of kenan's teammates drop to the grass in exhaustion and relief, some running to the goalie and some jumping up and down in happiness.

your heart beats faster when you look for kenan, smiling lovingly when you make eye contact with him. he waves to you, and his family.

the smile on his face makes you swoon, and you have to hold yourself back to not run up to the pitch and plant a fat kiss on his cheek.

the celebration lasts a couple minutes, and you all chant along as the players and staff make a circle in the middle of the pitch.

you immediately perk up when you're allowed to go down to the pitch. waiting for kenan's family to greet him first, as you fiddle with your white handbag. a gift from kenan on your last birthday..

"liebing.." kenan immediately coos in his first language, opening his arms wide for you to nestle in between them.

you wrap your arms around him, pressing your face against his chest. he brings you into his chest, wrapping his strong arms around your waist.

"did you enjoy the game?" he asks, leaning down. his bigger hands cup your jaw, and he presses a tender kiss onto your forehead.

you close your eyes, soaking up the loving touch, feeling rain drizzle on you. the sky darkening as darker clouds become visible in the sky.

"i did enjoy the game. I'm proud of you, baby.." your mutter, looking up into his brown eyes.

he grins down at you, thumb wiping at your face. cheeks wet from the rain.

"oh! you're ruining my makeup!.." you complain, though you don't move or try to swat his hand away.

"it's pretty like this. just like on the big screen. that kiss was for me, right, liebe?" he quirks up his slit brow, peering down at you with a cocky expression.

"you saw that?"

"of course, I almost forgot where I was.."

you chuckle at his words, rolling your eyes in a teasing manner, before humming against his chest.

"aren't you cold?" he suddenly says, eyes darting to his parents. noticing that his father had already given his jacket to his mother. the both of them chatting with his teammate arda's parents.

you don't even get to open your mouth to respond, before he drapes his white training jacket over your shivering shoulders, forcing you to pull your arms through the warm jacket.

"thank you.." you smile, making him lean down for you to kiss his cheek.

the smile on your face grows bigger at his own grin, his pearly whites showing.

"now you're getting all wet, though.." you observe, reaching up to fix his wet hair. the once fluffy brown locks, now soaked and flat, stuck to his forehead.

you don't even notice the cameraman right next to you, totally immersed in fixing kenan's recently washed hair, and definitely not realizing that a huge camera is pointed towards you two.

"you need a warm shower, and maybe some tea. are you allowed to go out tonight? or do you still have a curfew?.."

you frown as your questions don't get answered, and make a confused noise when you feel his hand pressing against your back. pressing you flush against his chest.

"what're you doing, baby?" you question, following his eyes, only to land on the biggest camera lens you've ever seen in your life.

"oh.." you mumble in realization, instantly flickering your eyes away, and watching the protective look in your boyfriend's eyes.

even though you had been filmed before, when you'd attend kenan's juventus games, it never got any easier.

dating an athlete just came with unwanted attention and filming, though you tried not to let it show.

your chuckle to yourself out of embarrassment, burying your face into his chest.

"am I supposed to be looking at the camera?" you ask, words muffled, feeling his hands on your back. his fingertips dancing onto the wet fabric of the jacket.

"no, you don't have to if you're not comfortable. it's starting to pour out here. let's go inside.." he murmurs into your ear, before grabbing on your hand.

"are we running? what if we slip on the grass?" you ask, squinting and trying to cover your eyes from the rain with your arm.

"come on, i'll catch you if you fall.."

you manage to sneak a glimpse of the teasing smile on his face, before he starts dashing towards the inside of the stadium. a chocked laugh leaves your mouth, squealing at how fast he's running.

but, you're a little too happy you're inside, when you see how fast the rain switched from drizzling to pouring out of the sky.

"I'm not a footballer like you, remember?" you pant, placing your hands on your knees and bending over. trying to catch your breath, probably looking crazy to the family and friends of kenan's teammates.

you don't notice when he steps away for just a second, coming back with a towel to dry you off.

you feel his hand on your shoulder, then a soft towel on your head. you stand straight, grabbing the white towel off your face.

"thank you.." you mumble, patting your face dry, then reach up to dry his face with the other side of the towel.

unbeknownst to you two, you're still being filmed.

no doubt these clips will be posted on the internet tomorrow, and you'd try to figure out how to navigate this new-found publicity, with kenan by your side, of course.

[sneezypeasy]

The Lightning Scene, How Azula Targeted Katara (of All People), and the Doylist Reason Why That Matters

Mention Zuko's sacrifice for Katara in Sozin's Comet Part 3 as part of a pro-Zutara talking point, and invariably you'll get a Pavlovian response of:

"But Zuko would have taken the lightning for anyone."

(Not to be confused with the similar-sounding Pavlovan response, which is "Zuko's sacrifice ain't shit compared to a mouth-watering, strawberry-topped meringue dessert"*, which is actually the only valid counter-argument to how the lightning scene is a bona fide Zutara treasure, but I digress.)

Now, I've talked in depth about how the lightning scene is framed far more romantically than it had any right to be, regardless of how you might interpret the subject on paper; this is an argument which I still stand by 100%. That Zuko would have gotten barbecued for anyone, and that he was at the stage of his arc where his royal kebab-ness represented his final act of redemption, doesn't change the fact that the animators/soundtrack artists decided to pull out all the stops with making this scene hit romantic film tropes bingo by the time it played out on screen.

(I mean, we stan.)

There's also a deeper level to this conundrum, a layer which creeps up on you when you're standing in your kitchen at night, the fridge door open in front of you, your hungry, sleep-deprived brain trying to decide on what to grab for a midnight snack, and quite inexcusably you're struck with the question: Okay, Zuko may indeed have taken the lightning for just anyone, but would Azula have shot the lightning at just anyone?

But there's yet a deeper layer to this question, that I don't recall ever seeing anyone discuss (though if somebody has, mea culpa). And that is: would you have written Zuko taking the lightning for anyone else?

Or in other words, who Zuko would have taken the lightning for is the wrong question to be asking; the question we ought to be asking is who Zuko should have taken the lightning for, instead.

Get your pens out, your Doylist hats on, and turn to page 394. It's time to think like an author for a hot minute.

(If you don't know what I mean by Watsonian vs. Doylist analyses, and/or if you need a refresher course, go have a skim of the first section of this 'ere post and then scoot your ass back to this one.)

So. You're the author. You've written almost the entirety of an animated series (look at you!!) and now you're at the climax, which you've decided is going to be an epic, hero-villain showdown. Classic. Unlike previous battles between these two characters, your hero is going to have a significant advantage in this fight - partly due to his own development as a hero at the height of his strength and moral conviction, and partly because your villain has gone through a bit of a Britney Spears 2007 fiasco, and isn't quite at the top of her game here. If things keep going at this pace, your hero is going to win the fight fairly easily - actually, maybe even too easily. That's okay though, you're a talented writer and you know just what will raise the stakes and give the audience a well-timed "oh shit" moment: you're going to have the villain suddenly switch targets and aim for somebody else. The hero will be thrown off his groove, the villain will gain the upper hand, the turns will have indubitably tabled. Villains playing dirty is the number 1 rule in every villain handbook after all, and each of the last two times your hero's braved this sort of fight he's faced an opponent who ended up fighting dishonourably, so you've got a lovely Rule of Three perfectly lined up for the taking. Impeccable. The warm glow of triumph shines upon you, cherubs sing, your English teachers clap and shed tears of pride. (Except for that one teacher you had in year 8 who hated everybody, but she's a right bitch and we're not talking about her today.)

Now here's the thing: your hero is a hero. Maybe he wasn't always a hero, but he certainly is one now. If the villain goes after an innocent third party, there's basically no-one your hero wouldn't sacrifice himself for. He's a hero! Heroes do be like that, it's kind of their thing. The villain could shoot a bolt of lightning at Bildad the Shuhite, and the only thing that'd stop our boy Redeemed Paladin Bravesoul McGee from shielding his foxy ass is the fact that Bildad the Shuhite has the audacity to exist in a totally different show (disgusten.)

But. You're holding the writer's pen. Minus crossover shenanigans you don't have the licensing or time-travel technology to achieve, you have full control over how this scene plays out. You get to decide which character to target to deliver the greatest emotional impact, the juiciest angst, the most powerful cinematic suspense. You get to decide whose life you'll put at risk, to make this scene the most intense spine-chilling heart-stopper it can possibly be.

This is the climax we're talking about, after all - now is not the time to go easy on the drama.

So.

Do you make the villain target just anyone?

Or do you make the villain target someone the hero cares about?

Perhaps, someone he cares about... a lot?

Maybe even, someone he cares about... more than anybody else?

You are the author. You are the God of this universe. You get to choose.

What would deliver the strongest punch?

If you happen to make the inadvisable decision of browsing through these tropes on TV tropes, aside from wasting the rest of your afternoon (you're welcome), you'll find that the examples listed are littered with threatened and dead love interests, and, well, there's a reason for that. For better or worse, romantic love is often portrayed by authors, and perceived by audiences, as a "true" form of love (often even, "the" true form of love). Which is responsible for the other is a chicken/egg situation, one I'm not going to go into for this post - and while I'm certainly not here to defend this perspective as objectively good, I do think it's worth acknowledging that it not only exists but is culturally rather ubiquitous. (If you're playing the love interest in a story with a hero v. a villain, you might wanna watch your back, is what I'm saying.)

Regardless of whether the vibe you're aiming for is romantic or platonic however, one thing is for certain: if you want maximum oomph, the way to achieve that is by making the villain go after the player whose death would hit the hero the hardest.

And like I said, this doesn't have to be played romantically (although it so often is). There are platonic examples in those trope pages, though it's also important to note that many of the platonic ones do show up in stories where a love interest isn't depicted/available/there's a strong "bromance" element/the hero is low-key ace - and keep in mind too that going that route sometimes runs a related risk of falling into queer-bait territory *coughJohnLockcough*

That said, if there is a canon love-interest available, one who's confessed her love for the hero, one who has since been imprisoned by the villain, one who can easily be written as being at the villain's disposal, and who could quite conveniently be whipped out for a mid-battle surprise round - you might find you have some explaining to do if you choose to wield your authorly powers to have the villain go after... idk, some other sheila instead.

(The fact that this ends up taking the hero out of the fight, and the person he sacrifices himself for subsequently throws herself into the arena risking life and limb to defeat the villain and rescue her saviour, also means the most satisfying way this plays out, narratively speaking, is if both of these characters happen to be the most important person in each other's lives - at least, as of that moment, anyway - but I think this post has gone on long enough, lol)

This is, by and large, a rebuttal post more than anything else, but the tl;dr here is - regardless of whether you want to read the scene as shippy or not, to downplay Zuko's sacrifice for Katara specifically as "not that deep™" because "Zuko would have taken the lightning for anyone anyway", suggests either that a) nobody should be reading into the implications of Katara being chosen as the person nearest and dearest to Zuko, so that putting her life in jeopardy can deliver the most powerful impact possible for an audience you'd bloody well hope are on the edge of their seats during the climax of your story or b) the writers made the inexplicable decision of having the villain threaten the life of... literally who the fuck ever, and ultimately landed on someone who's actually not all that important to the hero in the grand scheme of things - which is a cardinal writing sin if I ever saw one (even disregarding the Choice to then season it with mood lighting and sad violin music, on top of it all), and altogether something I'd be legitimately pissed about if my Zuko-OTP ship paired him with Mai, Sokka, or just about anybody else 😂

Most importantly c) I'm hungry, and I want snacks.

*The Aussies in the fandom will get this one. Everyone else can suffer in united confusion.

[leahsgirl]

star girl | lucy bronze x reader

based off the request ‘maybe one with Lucy, that the r scores in the euros final like the winning goal’. let’s imagine it’s the 23’ world cup final again and leah + beth never tore their acl’s xx

—

It’s safe to say tensions were high in the locker room as you and your fellow England teammates prepared for one of the biggest matches of your careers. Sarina had opted for the same line-up that secured your team the european championship a year prior, just a few changes here and there.

Yourself was on the bench as a substitute, however, it didn’t make the experience any less nerve-wracking. Double knotting the laces on your boot, you walked over to a familiar brunette.

“it’s totally normal to feel sick to my stomach right?” She chuckles, as if she isn’t about to go out to a crowd of 75,000+ people. “The life of a footballer love.”

“How have you played three world cups? I feel like a heart attack is going to hit me any minute.” Sitting next to her, she squeezes your hand and kisses your temple. “Calmer?” The older girl asks. “Calmer.” You confirm, leaning your head on her shoulder for a brief minute.

You would describe your relationship with Lucy very much black cat x golden retriever; while you was often energetic and switching through emotions like tv channels, lucy was the opposite. While she liked to have fun and be sarcastic and all, she was actually a very chill person who would just go with the flow.

Lucy and you had been dating for just over a year and a half with only close friends and family knowing. You’d be lying if you had your doubts if the both of you would even last - with Lucy playing in Barcelona and you for your childhood club Manchester United, but you stuck it out and recently just bought your first place together.

It was 7:45pm over in Sydney Australia, both opposing teams beginning to line up next to each other in the tunnel. You and the other substitutes were to come out after the starting players. You prayed to God you could come away with a win tonight - you knew how hard each and everyone of you worked and to win the world cup would just be the cherry on top to an undefeated championship run youse had going.

Walking out, it all suddenly got very real. The cheers from the crowd made you smile as you took your seat.

The referee blew her whistle; it was go time. You watched the game intensely, weighing up the stats of your team and the opposing team. Spain was playing good and the nerves in your stomach were intensifying with each passing second.

“Oh shit look!” Ella pointed over at James who was now running down a practically free pitch. “Come on, come on.” You muttered under your breath as you see Spain’s goalkeeper take her stance. James went to hit the ball, it travelling at a good speed. Unlucky for you and your team, it just narrowly missed the goal and instead hit the crossbar - the goalkeeper catching it as it fell back down, opting to roll it to one of her Spanish teammates.

Ten minutes had passed and your team was yet to make another chance, Spain players literally tackling left and right. It all came crashing down however when Carmona scored twenty-nine minutes in, managing to slot the ball into the corner of the net. As the opposing team celebrated you couldn’t help but feel bad for your girlfriend who you know would be blaming herself for the goal after she gave away the ball taking on three players at once.

The game carried on with a profound feeling of desperation. While Beth, both Laurens and even Keira had a shot at goal, none of the attempts made it into the net. You was happy to hear the half-time whistle blow, running down the steps and back through the tunnel.

“It’s not your fault, don’t even think it.” Knowing exactly the thoughts going on in your girlfriend’s head, you rubbed her back supportively. “I got too bloody cocky, I should’ve just passed it back.” Lucy ran her slim fingers through her tied back hair.

“Hey hey, we still have another forty five minutes to show them what we’ve got. And I don’t know about you, but I think Bronze over here shouldn’t stop aiming for gold.” Her lips tugged at a grin over your partially lame joke. “You’re right, as always. Don’t know what I’d do without my woman.” She quickly pecked your lips.

“Okay lovebirds, keep it in your pants - we have a game to win.” Keira piped up, giving both you and lucy a little smack on the back of the head.

It’s safe to say after the pep talks the squad received in the locker room, England was on top form. It also helped that Spain had let go of the reigns a little, clearly thinking they were safe with the one nil advantage.

The 68th minute. That’s when the crowd started to get a whole lot louder and players were charging down one side of the pitch. Hemp had control of the ball, slowing just before the box and passing it to Beth. The blonde hit the ball with her left foot sending it straight into the back of the goal. Cheers roared through the stadium as you celebrated with the other girls on the bench. The scoreline now 1-1, you was still in this.

Your time had come to make a debut in the game, walking onto the outskirts of the pitch, Sarina going through the plan with you. James was the girl who was making way for your appearance, giving you a double high-five and pat on the back.

Running onto the pitch, adrenaline rushed through you as you made eye contact with a certain someone and sent her a wink. You hadn’t even managed to get three passes before you were caught with studs pressing into your ankle, sending you down onto the ground “What the fuck was that for?” It’s not like you was massive threat to the Spanish team at that moment considering you was about to pass the ball back up your end.

Luckily you were awarded a free kick, having alex take it. The match was getting more tense the longer you played, both teams creating good chances. Spain was even awarded a penalty which thank god Mary saved.

91 minutes. The game had entered extra time. Scores still level.

You watched as Keira dribbled with the ball, passing to Leah who kicked it up the pitch. Weighing up where the ball was in the sky and where you was near the goal you saw your chance; jumping up in the air you threw your body back, your left foot getting a hit on the ball which sent it flying into the net. Getting up off the grass, you look at one of the assistant referee’s to make sure it wasn’t offside.

His flag staying down, you dropped to your knees in disbelief. The girls ran over to you cheering and shouting your name while practically assaulting you with hugs.

The final whistle was blown about thirty seconds later with your whole squad now coming into the pitch. Familiar hands wrapped around your torso and lifted you into the air, carrying you bridal style. “You’re fucking incredible you know that?” The brunette spun you around grinning like a little child.

Once put down you cupped her face in your hands, overcome with emotion and smashed your lips onto hers. Although the defender was taken back, she gave into the moment and kissed you back with just the same intensity. It wasn’t the way either of you was planning to make the relationship public but hey, you just won the biggest tournament of your lives and wanted to celebrate with your special lady.

it wasn't long before you was ambushed by your team shouting compliments left right and centre. the crowd was also off on one, the volume making your ears ring.

walking back through the tunnel and into the locker room you felt the hairs on the back of your neck stand up when a voice whispered into your ear "follow me."

obliging by the command and plodding behind the brunette, she dragged you into what appeared to be a storage room, miscellaneous sports equipment scattered around.

pushing you up against the cold wall which made you audibly gasp she planted a searing kiss onto your lips, hands having a firm hold of your waist. you reacted almost immediately, placing you hand on the back of her neck and bringing the two of you even closer.

"god i love you." the older woman breathed out as she moved from your lips to your neck, biting and sucking the skin to the point you was squirming in effort to not make any noise.

"i should score goals more often if this is how i get rewarded." forcing her to look at you, you reconnected your lips wasting no time in biting her bottom lip and snaking your tongue inside.

just as she slid her hand under your shirt there was a bang on the door. "lucia bronze and y/n y/l/n! if youse two are not out of there in ten seconds i will kick this door down myself!" tooney shouted.

you placed one last peck on lucy's cheek "i think we've been caught."

the right-back rolled her eyes. "we're continuing this later." she smirked, hitting your butt before unlocking and opening the door for you.

-

liked by youruser and 2,792,051 others

lucybronze Won the world cup and the girlfriend jackpot. On top of the world right now.

youruser 🤍

creator has limited comment access.

[withwritersblock]

because i liked a boy

~because i liked a boy by Sabrina Carpenter~

Author's Note: requested! Summary: Y/N gets a lot of hate online and Nico comforts her Warnings: brief discription of hurtful language Word Count: 1,893 Nico Hischier x fm!reader

Nico and Y/N have been together for nearly a year and their relationship has remained offline for most of it. Despite both of them being in the spotlight at different levels. Nico was the captain of the New Jersey Devils while Y/N had a huge TikTok following. 

She spent a lot of her videos focusing on makeup and different trends. Today, she decided to film a get ready with me, dedicated to going to Nico’s home opener. For the last two seconds of the video, she showed herself in the mirror posing beside Nico.

It didn’t cross her mind that his fans would find the video as fast as they did. The entire comment section was berating her appearance and talking about how she doesn’t deserve him. Usually, she ignores a lot of the hate that she gets, but something about how even her own fans were switching up on her. 

The entire third period was still left as the boys were just now starting the period. She kept her gaze on her phone, scrolling the comments. Many of them were talking about how she is too ugly to be with. While others were saying that she was too full of herself to be with him. 

Reanne tapped her hand against Y/N’s forearm. Y/N lifted her gaze towards Reanne and forced a smile to her lips. “Are you okay?” she asked. Y/N nodded as she tilted her head back to the comments, she began to scroll through them again. Even clicking on each reply.

“Showed my followers Nico today,” she said, nonchalantly. She lifted her gaze towards the TV screen to watch the game get going. Reanne pouted slightly, “Did not go as well as I expected. I mean only people who follow hockey would’ve known it was him,” Y/N explained as she turned her phone screen off. 

“What are they saying?” Reanne asked as she ran her hand up and down Y/N’s arm reassuringly. 

“Just the usual stuff, commenting on my appearance and my personality. Saying that they know I’m not good enough for Nico; or I’m too full of myself to be with him,”

“Oh that’s bullshit,” Reanne reassured, “People on the Internet think they know the boys but they don’t,” she continued. 

Y/N nodded politely, listening to what she had to say but not truly letting the words sink in. 

The game ended with a win for the team. It was exciting and a hopeful start for the rest of the season. She waited in the suite for a while, as she was avoiding Nico. She knew she would have to put on a front for him, but it was hard as she was starting to spiral.

Each comment, all six hundred of them were starting to repeat in her mind on a loop. It was becoming impossible. The hard part was the fact that her supposed loyal followers were even saying awful things about her. 

She was the last one to leave the suite as she wandered the empty halls of the arena, waiting for Nico to tell her he was ready to head towards the car. Every home game she would roam around until he was ready to head. Being captain held a lot of media responsibilities compared to the other players.

Nico Boy: Come to the locker room darling

She smiled at the text as she began walking towards the locker room. For a brief second, for only a moment she forgot. She forgot about all of the awful things the comments were saying. All she knew was that she was heading to the love of her life. The light in her life, the one person who could truly help her in this moment.

After a handful of minutes she walked towards the locker room, seeing Nico standing outside of it. He lifted his gaze from his phone as he smiled widely. He was giddy as he walked towards her, widening his arms. She giggled as she wrapped her arms around the center of his back, He tightly wrapped his arms around her. 

He took a hold of the back of her head. She melted into his chest, suddenly getting teary eyed feeling his touch. “New tradition, right here,” he mumbled as he pressed his lips to the top of her head. 

She reluctantly pulled away, dropping her gaze. She blinked rapidly as she fought the tears forming in her eyes. He clenched his jaw as he furrowed his eyebrows, “Hey, why are you crying?” he asked as he rested his hands onto her hips. 

“No, no not crying, I promise,” she said smiling, her eyes instantly drying up, “Come on, let’s get home,” she said as she looped her arm around his as she began guiding him towards his car.

She was silent for the whole drive home, which was odd. She normally would be singing along to whatever song Nico was playing. He kept the music loud, not wanting to ask her any questions as she was definitely not feeling great. Instead he kept his hand on her thigh, rubbing his thumb in small circles.

He pulled into his parking spot inside the parking garage of his apartment. He quickly put the car in park and turned his body to the side. “Are you okay?” he asked as he tucked his knee towards his chest, “Don’t lie,” he said as he tapped his hand against her leg. 

She tilted her head to the side as she clenched her jaw. “Nico, I don’t want to talk about it,” she mumbled as she unbuckled her seatbelt. 

“My love, you’re sad,” he let out. A drawn out sigh left her throat as she tilted her head to the side to meet his gaze. She scanned his features, his eyes were squinted slightly as his lips were pouted. 

“I don’t want to talk about it,” she said as she climbed out of the car. She shut the door and began walking towards the elevator. He clenched his jaw as he quickly followed her out of the car. 

He jogged after her, shocked at how fast she was able to get across the parking garage. “Y/N,” he let out as he reached beside her. She stopped short as she turned and met his gaze, she was crying now. “My love,” he let out sadly as he quickly wrapped his arms around her. She tightened her grip around his chest as she sobbed into his chest. “Upstairs, yeah?” he asked as he ran his hand up and down her back.

She nodded as she pulled away from his grasp, walking ahead of him towards the elevator. He let her keep the lead, walking behind her. He felt his heart ache in his chest. He was aware that he obviously didn’t do anything but still felt like he harmed her. 

Once they reached the elevator, it opened instantly as she pressed the button. They stepped inside, side by side. He loosely wrapped his arm around her waist pulling her to his side. She rested her head onto his shoulder as she took in a deep breath. 

After a few seconds they walked down the hall towards Nico’s apartment, where they practically live together. He unlocked the door and opened it as he quickly stepped inside, she followed behind. 

He spun around, hugging her tightly once more. “It’s stupid,” she muttered. He shook his head as he continued to run his hand up and down her back. 

After a few seconds she pulled away, dug into her pocket. She fished her phone out and pulled up the video on TikTok. “The comments,” she mumbled as she handed him the phone. She walked away towards the bedroom as she took a deep breath. 

He stood still in the entryway, reading the different comments. His body was fueling with anger only after a few comments. Utterly shocked to see that anyone could say anything bad about his beautiful girlfriend. 

Comment: ugh he’s way too good to be dating her, has he actually looked at her?

He read that comment multiple times, shocked to even think that anyone could think that. Especially someone who doesn’t even know who he is. She is the most perfect person in the world, the most gorgeous girl, she was everything to him. 

He went to the settings on her account and turned off all of the comments. Even on her other videos. Right now, she doesn't need to see any of the content.

He took a sharp breath as he walked towards the bedroom.She was already in her pajamas and curled up into bed, her makeup still on her face. She rolled onto her side, curling the blanket up to her chin.

 He tilted his head to the side as he took his suit jacket off of his frame, tossing it onto the chair in the corner of the room. He began to unbutton his shirt and slide his pants off of his body. He slipped into the closet as he pulled up a pair of sweats onto his frame. He walked towards the bed. He climbed under the blanket and quickly cuddled up against her body.

He looped his hand around her stomach, he ran his hand up her shirt. Reassuringly running his hand along her skin. He pulled her towards him, pressing his lips against her shoulder for a few seconds.

“You know they are just jealous,” he whispered into her ear, “You are so beautiful,” he mumbled. She squinted her eyes shut as she held her breath for a few seconds. “There is nothing that anyone on the Internet could say that could make me not love you or make me think you are not the most gorgeous girl in the world,” he whispered. 

“I know,” she let out, her voice rasped as she spoke. “It was just overwhelming,” she mumbled.

“I know, my love,” he whispered before he pressed his lips to her shoulder, “Take a few days off, spend time with me,” he whispered as she rolled her body over, facing him. “I turned the comments off,” he said. Her eyes widened.

“Nico,” she scolded.

“What?” he asked innocently.

“Then they’ll know it bugged me! That’s like the worst thing you could’ve done,” she let out, tilting her head back. Her eyes started tearing up again. He pressed his lips together as he scanned her features. He raised his hand up as he rested his hand on her cheek.

“What they think of you doesn’t matter. What you think of you matters,” he let out, rubbing his thumb across her skin so delicately. “The words they are saying are hurting you, my love, you don’t need to read those things,” he reassured. She clenched her jaw as she shut her eyes, a tear streamed down her cheek. He wiped it away. 

She smiled softly towards him. “Make a video about it, be transparent, it could help,” he explained. She nodded as she rested her hand onto his forearm.

“Okay,” she let out as he scanned her features.

“I love you,” he let out.

“I love you too,” she whispered as he leaned down and kissed her softly. He pulled away, resting his forehead against hers. 

“It’ll be okay,” he mumbled before he kissed her again.

[lionesses-lover]

New Girl - A. Russo

The one where you are hopelessly in love with the new girl on the team but she doesn’t seem to notice you.

word count: 5.5k

Notes: First fic ever! Hope you enjoy :)

The obsession wasn’t something you had planned. It crept up on you so suddenly that you never had a chance to process it. The minute you realised it was there you were already overcome with the powerful emotion and it was too late. You were hooked on the sweet, slightly clumsy blonde. 

Eight Years Ago

The first and only time you met was at an international camp. Norway U17s were playing England U17s at St George’s Park and at the big age of 16 it was your first time away from home and the pressure of representing your country was weighing heavily on your shoulders. The evening before the match you had felt sick to your stomach with nerves and nothing - not even the kind words of your best friend Ingrid - was able to calm you down

On the morning of the match you were still trembling with fear but tried to pull yourself together and eat some breakfast to help stop your stomach from screaming at you, telling you to go home. You eventually managed to get ready and go out to the pitch for your warm up. Then, you saw her. Chasing around a smaller brunette girl shouting something about shin pads.

“Tooney! I need those shin pads please give them back or I’ll tell the coach!” She shouted

“No way Alessia,” her friend, Tooney, replied, “this is payback for hitting me in your sleep on the bus.”

Alessia. That was her name. It was perfect.

You were stuck in place when you saw her. The light from the sun hit her perfectly, making her blonde hair shimmer and her blue eyes glisten. She looked like an angel, and just as she was turning around to carry on chasing her friend, her eyes locked onto yours. Only for a split second, but to you it felt like hours. However, before you could go and talk to her you were dragged away by Ingrid and then the match started. It was a tough match as the teams were quite evenly balanced, but unfortunately for you it ended 3-2 to England, with the girl who was already beginning to consume your thoughts scoring the winning goal in the 87th minute. All you wanted to do was go and introduce yourself, but sadly you had a flight to catch back to Norway. But that didn’t stop you from rapidly searching Instagram and eventually finding her account. Alessia Russo. Her full name sounded even more perfect. After scrolling through her posts, smiling to yourself at how gorgeous she looked, you quickly hit the follow button and turned your phone onto airplane mode before settling into you seat ready for the flight.

Unfortunately for you, that was as far as the interactions between the two of you went. A one second glance on opposite ends of a football pitch. When you switched your phone back on after your plane back home had landed you went straight onto Instagram in the hope that she had followed you back.

She hadn’t.

Present Day

“Have you heard the news?” Keira said as she bounced up to you upon entering training that day.

“No what’s happened now? Who’s injured” You asked, slightly worried as the last time Keira said there was news she revealed that Lucy had needed a minor surgery on her knee, which wasn’t the news you were hoping for.

“No one is injured don’t worry,” she replied, laughing at the panic that had spread across your face, “we are getting a new teammate tomorrow.”

“And we think you will really like her” said Ingrid, smirking whilst watching your reaction.

“Who is it?” You said.

“Alessia Russo, the blonde ex-Manchester United player, mine and Lucy’s teammate with England” answered Keira, grinning from ear to ear and bouncing around the changing room excitedly.

“Oh my god” you whispered to yourself, sitting down in shock at the thought of the girl you’ve been madly in love with for eight years finally noticing you. You turned on your phone to see the announcement posted on the FC Barcelona Femeni Instagram. Then you saw another notification.

@alessiarusso99 has started following you.

You couldn’t believe it.

“Are you finally going to make a move now?” asked Ingrid as she came and shook you out of your daze, reminding you that you needed to leave the locker room and walk to the training pitch. “You’ve been following her on Instagram for ages now, never messaged her and I know you’ve been in love with her for years. I think now is the perfect opportunity!” She said hopefully.

“I barely know her and she’s only just discovered who I am and followed me back, I’m sure she won’t be interested,” you replied sadly, “but that’s not going to stop me giving her the best welcome to Barcelona ever.”

“Ingrid, Y/N” shouted Alexia, your captain, “you can give relationship advice later, it’s time to train!”

———

After a very tiring and busy training session, filled with lots of teasing from you teammates, Mapi and Lucy in particular, who all knew about your not so secret crush, you finally made it home to your apartment. However you were not empty handed as you had decided to stop at a grocery shop on your way home to pick up some gifts to give to Alessia to try and welcome her to the team nicely tomorrow morning. You had bought some of your favourite chocolates, some fresh fruit and a small bottle of champagne so she could celebrate her new contract properly.

You went to bed early that night and made sure to set your alarm to wake up an hour earlier the next day. You were determined to make an unforgettable first impression on Alessia and that required you to get into training early so you would have the chance to speak to her and give her your gifts.

As you started to drift off to sleep, all you could think about was that gorgeous blonde who stole your heart in one moment all those years ago.

———

Your alarm woke you up bright and early the next morning and you had to take a moment in bed to remind yourself that today wasn’t a dream. She was really coming to play with you. After eight years of wishful thinking about being with her, eight years of staring at her through social media, your dreams were coming true. You were finally going to meet her.

After a quick drive you arrived at the training centre with a full hour before training began. As you roamed the empty hallways on your way to the locker room your eyes searched for a glimpse of  beautiful blonde hair, hoping you could talk to her and introduce yourself before your teammates arrived.

Unfortunately it appeared that luck wasn’t on your side today as Alessia didn’t appear until the rest of the team had arrived, Ingrid and Keira smirking to each other when they saw you patiently sitting by your locker with a small package next to you.

But when she did finally enter the room you were blown away. She was even more beautiful than her social media showed. You hadn’t seen her in person since that match eight years ago, but you were well aware that she had changed from a young girl into a grown woman, and that she had grown even more into her beauty in that time. You were not aware that her social media didn’t do her enough justice, even though she looked amazing in her Instagram posts. She was spectacular in person. Her long, tanned legs and her sleek blonde hair which was tied into her signature ponytail. Her stunning blue eyes which were shining with pride having just signed a new contract with one of the best clubs in the world. All of her was perfect. 

She walked timidly around the room, being introduced to all the players by Keira and Lucy, who had taken it upon themselves to give their national teammate the best start to the team possible. Finally, after what seemed like years, they reached you. 

“Hi Alessia it’s so nice to meet you, I’m y/n” you said, standing up to shake her hand in introduction.

“Hey,” she replied, quickly releasing your hand before staring down at the floor uncomfortably.

“I think you two have played against each other before” interrupted Keira, grinning at you.

“Um, yeah quite a while ago, I think you actually scored the winner Alessia,” you chuckled softly, hoping she would feel more comfortable.

“Oh, that’s weird I don’t remember it,” she said.

Across the room your eyes met with Ingrid as she looked at you sympathetically. She knew how much it must hurt you that Alessia doesn’t remember the moment you have been replaying in your head for almost a decade.

“No worries, like I said it was ages ago,” you smiled at her, before turning around and picking up the package you had been anxiously waiting to give her, “I actually got you a small gift, sort of a ‘Welcome to Barcelona’ thing, I hope you don’t mind.”

You had hoped she would open it then and there but sadly she just took the package, murmured a few words of thanks and moved on, following Keira as she was introduced to Alexia. 

Despite the slight rejection of your gift, you carried on getting ready for training as usual, ignoring the pitying looks of some of your teammates. You remained optimistic as you knew exactly what type of training was happening today, because you had checked the schedule in the coach’s office this morning before everyone arrived.

Today, the Barcelona women’s team would be doing training in groups based in their position on the pitch. This meant that, as you were also a forward, you would be in the same group as Alessia, who you hoped would agree to be your partner.

However, the universe seemed to have decided to make life hard for you today. By the time you plucked up the courage to ask Alessia to partner with you for one of the drills you were met with rejection once again.

“Sorry, I told Mariona I would go with her”

“Oh,” you said, trying to hide your disappointment as she refused eye contact and once again looked uncomfortable in your presence, “no worries I hope your first training goes well.”

Once again, you only received a small murmur of thanks before she turned around and walked away.

“Don’t worry,” said your national teammate Caroline as you partnered up with her instead, “I’m sure she is just nervous about being here.”

“It’s just sad,” you replied quietly, “I was so excited to finally speak to her and now I don’t think she likes me. What did I do wrong?”

“I don’t think it’s just you, she doesn’t look very happy to be with any of us,” Caroline answered, subtly pointing over to the other side of the pitch where Alessia and Mariona were working together in silence, with Alessia awkwardly looking around at the rest of the team.

“Hopefully she warms up to us soon,” you said, “I’m not sure my 16 year old self would forgive me if I let the girl of my dreams go without making a move again”

———

A month later, Alessia had made her debut for Barcelona and attended every single training session, slowly adjusting to the style of play that was always seen at the club. However there was one major issue. Alessia had not gone to any team bonding nights or accepted any offers from teammates to hang out after training. No one on the team knew what she did with her time, not even Keira or Lucy despite their many attempts to get Alessia to socialise.

Throughout the last month you had continued to try to partner up with or chat to Alessia, eager to get to know her better. However every time you were met with the same reaction. Short answers rejecting you whilst she looked uncomfortable. Each time this happened, it felt like a small piece of your heart was shattered, and you were dangerously close to having no heart all together after being rejected daily by the woman you so desperately wanted to be loved by. 

The heartache you were experiencing eventually got so unbearable that you found yourself going home with Ingrid and Mapi one night, in tears after attempting to ask Alessia if she wanted to go out to celebrate the latest Barcelona victory with the team. 

“I just don’t understand,” you cried as you sat with Ingrid sobbing into the cushions on her sofa, “why doesn’t she like us? Why doesn’t she like me? What did I do wrong”

“You didn’t do anything. I’m not sure why she doesn’t like us but it’s nothing to do with you,” replied your best friend as she felt her heart ache for you. She knew how desperately you wanted Alessia to like you, and didn’t understand why the blonde was so adamant not to accept your attempts at friendship.

“I agree with Ingrid, y/n”, said Mapi, “I’m sure it’s nothing personal, maybe she’s just shy.”

After another few hours of crying your heart out to your best friend and her girlfriend you decided to go home and attempt to get some sleep before enjoying your day off tomorrow. But once again, the universe had other plans. You were driving through the dark streets of Barcelona when you passed the apartment block where Keira and Lucy lived. It was also the apartment block where Alessia lived, in the apartment next to her English teammates in an attempt to make the transition to Barcelona easier for her.

Angry, hurt and disappointed, you suddenly felt the urge to visit the blonde. You needed an answer as to why she rejected the team, why she rejected you. You needed to know whether there was a chance that you would ever be someone she loved. 

So, you parked your car, walked into the building, took the lift to the second floor and walked up to the door of Apartment 3. Taking a deep breath, you knocked on the door and waited. Thirty seconds later, the door opened and you were met with the blonde beauty you cared so deeply for. 

“y/n, what are you doing here?” she asked, slightly alarmed at your sudden presence at her door.

“I need to speak to you, can I come in?” you asked shyly, now fully aware of where you were and what you were doing.

“Um,” she hesitates, looking behind her into the apartment, before eventually sighing and opening the door, “sure, come in.”

As you step into Alessia’s apartment for the first time, you are hit with a shock. It’s empty. The only things in the main rooms are a table and chair in the kitchen and a sofa and television in the lounge. There are no photos, no trophies or medals, no personal belongings suggesting that someone actually lives there. You look to your left into the bedroom and you see a mattress on the floor. She doesn’t even have a bed. 

Alessia clears her throat, “What did you want to talk about?”

“Why is your apartment empty?” you interrupt.

“I haven’t got round to settling in properly,” she answered, looking down sadly, “I also don’t really know my way around the city. I don’t leave the apartment that much.”

“Why?”

“I’m on the phone a lot. I call my mum, dad and brothers once a day, and my best friend Ella every two days. I also call some more of my old teammates every week.”

“Do you miss them?” you asked softly.

“So much,” she replied, looking up so you could see the tears that were appearing in her eyes, “I haven’t been away from them since I went to UNC for college but this is different.”

“I understand,” you told her quietly, “when I moved from Norway to Barcelona I was terrified about being alone that I texted my mum every hour. It was stupid but I genuinely thought no one else would talk to me.”

She stayed quiet, sitting down on the sofa playing with her fingers. You could tell she was trying not to cry. Taking a deep breath, you sat down beside her.

“Is that why you haven’t been accepting anyone’s offers to hang out?” you asked, “because you miss your family so you want to speak to them?”

“Sort of,” she confessed, “ I guess it started off that way but now I’m scared none of the others will like me. Barcelona is a tough team to join - you guys are all so close that it’s a bit intimidating to try and make friends with.”

“But we have been trying to get you to hang out with us for almost a month, you’ve even turned down Keira and Lucy,” you said.

“I guess I was worried I had missed too much. I thought it would be awkward if I tried to get close to the team now after being quite antisocial for the first month,” she sighed, running a hand through her beautiful blonde hair. “I’ve also been so busy trying to get settled into my new home at the same time as trying to improve and develop my skills on the pitch.”

“But you are doing great! You have played in 3 matches so far and the team is winning all the time,” you argued.

“I haven’t scored,” she whispered, “I’m a striker and I haven’t scored. I’m letting the team down because I literally can’t do the only thing my job says I need to do.”

“That will come with time,” you reassured, slowly reaching a hand out and placing it on her back, rubbing circles in an attempt to comfort the crying blonde, “when you are properly settled in you will be able to relax and just enjoy playing the game you love. The first thing you need to do is sort this place out. You can’t live with no bed and no photos and personal items around.”

“I don’t know where to go,” she admitted shyly.

“Well, we have a free day tomorrow, why don’t I go home now, you promise to get some sleep, and I’ll pick you up tomorrow morning and take you shopping. I’ll even help you organise everything so you feel more at home,” you suggested, secretly hoping she’d say yes in order to give you a chance to spend time with the blonde you had been dreaming of for eight long years.

Taking a deep breath, Alessia looked up at you.

“Alright, pick me up at 10?” she suggested shyly.

“I’ll be here.” you smiled.

———

The next day, as promised, you were outside Alessia’s front door at 9:55, five minutes early, which gave you five minutes to calm yourself down and reassure yourself that it was all going to be okay. You had been given a golden opportunity to make the girl you loved like you a little bit and you were not going to ruin it. Slowly, you reached out and knocked on the door, just like you had done the night before.

“Hi,” said Alessia as she opened the door, “I wasn’t sure whether you were being serious last night.”

“Of course I was being serious,” you chuckled, before holding out your hand and offering her the bouquet of flowers you had picked out at a local florist in your way to her apartment, “I um, I got you these, I thought they would be the first step in getting you settled into Barcelona.”

“Thank you so much y/n” she said, taking the bouquet as a grin began to spread across her face, “ I’ll put them in the sink until we buy a vase.”

“Oh, I’m sorry, it didn’t cross my mind that you wouldn’t have one,” you said, suddenly feeling very nervous.

“It’s fine don’t worry about it,” she chuckled softly, stepping out of the apartment, “that’s why you’re here, we are going to get me properly moved in so I can finally score my first Barcelona goal!”

“Yeah, that’s what I’m here for,” you said quietly. Was that all she thought this was? Did she just think you were doing this as a favour? You wished you could tell her how you felt, how you have been in love with her since you were 16 and you saw her once at a match. But sadly she didn’t even remember that match.

Taking what seemed like your millionth deep breath of the morning, you eventually said, “Come on Lessi, let’s go.”

If you had paid more attention to Alessia instead of focussing on trying to stop your hands shaking with nerves as you closed her front door behind her, you would have noticed the small blush that covered her cheeks as she heard the nickname you had used without noticing.

———

“I can’t believe you’re that clumsy!” You laughed as the pair of you returned to Alessia’s apartment, arms full with boxes of household items.

“It’s not my fault I couldn’t see the step was there!” she argued, grinning widely at you, “carrying this massive box is hard!”

You chuckled at her before replying: “Well at least you can finally sleep on a proper bed instead of a mattress on the floor.”

“Only if you help me set it all up,” she said, hoping you didn’t plan on leaving yet.

“Of course I’ll help,” you answered, your heart flipping around in your chest at the thought of spending even more time with the blonde, who finally seemed to be feeling more comfortable around you.

———

Four hours later, as the sun began to set in Barcelona, you and Alessia flopped tiredly onto her sofa, before looking around at her apartment. It looked like a home. You had bought some nice decorations for the rooms, as well as convincing her to finally unpack the many boxes containing photographs, trophies and medals from over the years, convincing her to display them to make the home seem personalised.

“It looks lovely, I feel so much better thank you y/n”she said softly, turning to face you, “I’m so glad to have you as my friend.”

Friend. 

Your heart broke a bit more upon hearing her call you that. As you looked into those beautiful blue eyes you desperately wished you could find the courage to confess all the feelings you had been keeping secret for the entire day. But sadly, you couldn’t. You didn’t want to make her feel uncomfortable. You didn’t want to pressure her into something when she was still settling into her new life. 

“You’re welcome,” you replied quietly, “I’m always here if you need me, um, I should probably go, it’s getting late and we have training tomorrow.”

“Oh, um, sure,” she said, getting up to walk you to the door, “See you tomorrow.”

“Bye Lessi,” you said as you stood in her doorway, before taking a deep breath and doing what you knew deep in your heart you had to do. 

You slowly leant forward and hugged her. Putting your arms around her waist and letting her arms fall round your shoulders. It wasn’t a long hug, but it was what you both needed. You needed some love given to you after being in love for so long, and Alessia needed some comfort and a sense of belonging from a kind person who had managed to force themselves into her heart within a few hours.

As you pulled apart, both of you wearing matching blushes on your faces, you couldn’t help but smile at the hope that something could finally happen between the two of you.

“Right, I really need to go now otherwise I’m going to be late going to sleep, which means I’m going to be late waking up and so might be late to training and then Alexia will kill me,” you said, suddenly getting very nervous standing in front of Alessia.

“Bye y/n, see you tomorrow”

———

Two weeks later

If you said the past two weeks had been great then you would be lying. They had been like a dream. 

Every morning you walked into training and were greeted by a grinning Alessia Russo, who had become a totally different person. Her blonde hair shimmered and her blue eyes shone brightly as she chatted to many of your teammates throughout the weeks, making up for the time that was lost as she was adapting to Barcelona life.

You had finally had the opportunity to partner up with her in a few training drills and it was wonderful. The bond between the two of you was slowly getting stronger and that was showing both on and off the pitch. The pair of you had began hanging out after training every day - watching movies, visiting coffee shops and going shopping to grow Alessia’s wardrobe after she had admitted to you that she left most of her clothes back in England.

However, the only thing that wasn’t perfect was your growing love for the English blonde. You tried to keep your feelings hidden but it was becoming increasingly difficult not to confess everything to her as you became closer. 

“I don’t understand you,” said Keira one afternoon at training, as she watched you watch Alessia run around, chasing after Aitana and Claudia.

“What do you mean?” you asked absentmindedly, trying to contain a smile as the sweet noise of Alessia’s infectious laugh reached your ears.

“You are obviously in love with her and she is obviously in love with you, why don’t you tell her how you feel?”

You turned round to face Keira, the smile on your face vanishing, “It’s not that easy, she doesn’t like me,” you said sadly, “she thinks of me as a friend. That’s it.”

“I think you’re being stupid,” sighed Keira, “at least tell her how you feel, please. I don’t like watching you obsess over her. It just makes you sad because you’ve convinced yourself you’ll never have her, which is a lie.”

“I just don’t want to get hurt,” you said, “I’d much rather be her friend than nothing in her life.”

Taking a deep breath, you turned away from Keira, trying to stop your tears appearing at the thought of Alessia rejecting you.

———

“y/n! y/n!” shouted Alessia, desperately trying to get your attention over the loud music at the club, “come and dance with me!”

You hesitated, not wanting to risk being at such a close proximity to Alessia without being able to hold her or kiss her.

As if she could sense your hesitation, she shouted once again, “Pretty please, think of it as my reward for getting my first Barcelona goal.”

You were hooked. The combination of her adorable puppy dog eyes and the memories of her gorgeous 57th minute strike (assisted by you) against Real Madrid earlier that day were more than enough to convince you to go and join her on the dance floor.

As you approached the beautiful blonde you had your first opportunity of the night to take in her outfit. She was wearing a gorgeous all-black suit paired with a black crop top. She looked flawless. You just wished you could tell her that she took your breath away.

However, it seemed that Alessia had also been having similar thoughts, as she shouted “you look so good tonight, I love your style, you look amazing,” before throwing you a lopsided grin.

“Thank you Lessi, you look beautiful,” you said, finding courage in the compliment you had just received.

You slowly placed your hands around her waist as she looped her arms around your neck - the pair of you slowly swaying to the music that was being played in the club.

“I’m so happy you helped me settle in to life here, it’s wonderful. I’m really grateful to have found a friend like you,” she said happily.

There it was again. Friend. The word that made your stomach turn and you heart crack. You wished she would see you as more than that - you would give her the world if she asked you - would a friend do that?

Once again, it was as if she could sense your hesitation as she softly asked, “what’s wrong y/n? Did I do something? You seem sad.”

You rapidly looked around, trying to think of an excuse to leave the conversation before you became dangerously close to exposing yourself. However, all you saw was Ingrid and Mapi, dancing a few metres away from you. They looked so happy and in love. Mapi looked at your best friend as if she was the only person in the room and Ingrid looked at her as if she had hung the moon and the stars. 

You wanted that. You wanted that with Alessia. It was all you had wanted since you first saw her on that football pitch all those years ago.

Suddenly, you were hit with the realisation that if you didn’t do anything about your feelings then you would never have the love you so desperately wanted. Slowly, you turned back to Alessia, smiling gently as your eyes met with her.

“No I’m not okay Lessi,” you said calmly, trying to take deep breaths and say what you needed to say, “I’ve been in love with you since I saw you on the football pitch at St George’s Park eight years ago and I know you don’t remember it but you stole my heart and you are all I’ve been thinking about ever since. I’m so sorry if you don’t feel the same way and I really don’t want to make things awkward between us but I needed to tell you before it breaks me. Because I can’t keep living my life too scared to admit that I love you.”

You quickly shut your eyes after your confession, not wanting to watch her reaction in fear of disgust and rejection taking over her face.

“y/n” she said slowly, “I need to tell you something too”

You looked up to face her, ready to hear that you were too late - she was in love with someone else.

“I remember the match. I didn’t at first, but when I was sorting out all my photos the other day I found a photo from the match. We won 3-2. I scored the winner.”

You nodded carefully.

“You’ve been so lovely to me over the past few weeks. You made an effort to try and get to know me even when I was too shy and homesick to accept your kindness. I was so excited when I joined Barcelona from Manchester United. Not only because I was going to play for the best club in the world but because I was going to finally meet the player that my friend Ona had been telling me about. The beautiful Barcelona player who her Spanish teammates played with. I found you on Instagram and I was hooked, you are gorgeous.”

“Lessi..” you began, still trying to absorb the new information about her feelings.

But before you could ask what she was trying to say, Alessia leant forward and captured your lips with hers, pulling you into her by the waist whilst giving you a bruising, passionate kiss in the middle of the dance floor. 

Previously, there had been many times where you had dreamed of kissing Alessia. But no dreams could ever compare to the real thing. Her lips locked onto yours so perfectly it felt as though she was made for you. As cliché as it sounds, everyone else in the busy club seemed to fade away. You could vaguely hear Keira and Lucy shouting in the background but you blocked them out, instead choosing to wrap your arms around the blonde, trying to savour every second of this moment.

Eventually, you both pulled away, breathing heavily and smiling giddily.

“So does this mean you feel the same?” you asked shyly, hoping to hear her confirm what you already knew.

“How could I not? I love you too y/n” she answered, pulling you into her again and pressing her lips against yours.

“Finally!” You heard Ingrid say, “she’s only been crushing on Alessia for eight years”

Finally, you thought, finally you had the girl of your dreams.

———

[mins-fins]

bring it back

&&. you tell donghyuck all the time, but his fists are always so bruised he doesn't listen.

pairing: lee donghyuck x m!reader

genre: weird rejected hybrid thing

warnings: literally fighting, is this relationship safe? idk!!

word count: 1.3k

notes: this spawned while i was reading one of my old old things back from my wp era and i suddenly got inspired.. only reason i chose hyuck is bc hes the first member who came to mind when i thought about writing 😣 im also a little obsessed with him atm.. i sort of left you all with radio silence yesterday, was supposed to post a timestamp but didn't, my apologies isanator nation (like 2 ppl) anw! don't take this too seriously, i don't get into fights and don't know much about fighting, my google search history looks very concerning rn ☺️

"come on! is that really all you got? those hits were weak".

donghyuck sits up defeated, but he doesn't allow for such an expression to cross his face, the last thing he wants to do is look like a sore loser in front of you, though he clearly is with how he got knocked to the ground by a single punch.

he refuses to think about the fact.

you raise an eyebrow at the sight of him catching his breath on the floor, a taunting chuckle leaves your lips, a chuckle donghyuck narrows his eyes at. if you knew sparring meant you'd have to meet donghyuck's piercing glare more than once in the span of five minutes, you would've offered to be his sparring partner much earlier.

you think he looks adorable when he's mad.

"done verbally berating me now?"

"not sure i'll ever be done".

you extend your hand forward, and donghyuck takes it instantly. once you help him to his feet, he gives you a pout, one you press your finger to. "what the hell are you pouting about?" you inquire, and donghyuck's eyes roll.

"you beat me like— five times, y/n".

you scoff lightly, shoving your boyfriends shoulder. "and i'll continue beating you if you don't stop hesitating before every hit" you lean closer to press a kiss to his lips, trying to erase the pout with an act of affection, but he stays pouting.

you snicker as you pinch his cheek, turning on your heel and walking towards your duffel bag on the other side of the room. what can you say? throwing your boyfriend around the room makes a guy thirsty.

donghyuck stares at you for a moment, studying your figure, then groans. "y/n".

"hm?"

you turn back to look over at him, and donghyuck has to stifle his laugh. how is it that you look so harmless right now when you just spent up to almost an hour breaking every bone in his body? he finds it hilarious how quick you can switch tunes. "one more round".

shock gleams in your eyes. "you sure? i thought you were tired.."

donghyuck is quick to shake his head, suddenly filled with an abrupt surge of determination. "yeah, this'll be the last one".

you blink, but you don't seem to mind, because you shrug, dropping your bottle of water and beginning to stretch your arms. "i'm starting to think you like being thrown around, should i note this down as a kink of yours?"

your smile is tormenting,

the good kind though.

"do whatever you want y/n~" donghyuck muses, a sing songy tone of voice accompanying his words. you study his body language for a while, cracking your knuckles. "i'm not letting you win again".

"ah really? you think you're gonna beat me this time?"

"wanna bet?"

you seem to like the sound of that, if the way your eyes light up is any indication. donghyuck's got you, perfect. you scour your mind for ideas, tilting your head as you smile at your boyfriend. "fine then, if you manage to knock me to the ground i'm all yours next week".

donghyuck's eyes widen to a comically huge size. "you serious?"

"slow your roll, baby, i said if you manage to knock me to the ground".

donghyuck clicks his tongue, an acception of the bet you put down. "don't underestimate me so quickly".

"underestimating? i'm just saying what's true, how many times did the sim kid knock you out last week? ten? fifteen? if i didn't know any better, i would've assumed you were weak".

god you're so skilled at this, you know exactly how to hit donghyuck where it hurts, both literally and figuratively. you know exactly what to say, and know exactly how they'll affect him. trash talk is something your so good at, sometimes donghyuck forgets it's all an act.

you know donghyuck can fight better than he actually does, his attempts at punches right now are vastly different to the punches he throws during actual fights. you know he's much stronger than he thinks, but for some reason, he seems to.. soften around you.

it's cute in hindsight, but he's been slacking lately, and you have to get him back on track.

"weak huh?"

"yeah, you going easy on me?"

your posture is relaxed, you don't want to make the first move, your waiting for donghyuck to surge forward and try to hit you. he narrows his eyes, your feet tapping rhythmically onto the floor and your arms crossed. "not a chance".

you chuckle at donghyuck's statement, a chuckle that angers donghyuck. what the actual fuck are you being so cocky about? he wants to wipe that smirk off your face, no, scratch that, he wants to punch that smirk off your face, he's going to make you wish you never said anything.

without saying anything more, donghyuck surges forward, a move you weren't expecting, but one you knew how to deal with already. a right hook, simple, easy to dodge and easy to counteract.

"was that a punch? i bet renjun could throw a better one than that".

donghyuck grits his teeth.

"don't mention renjun".

"oh? am i striking a nerve?"

you are striking a nerve, and donghyuck is about to strike you in the face. he keeps throwing punches, a flurry of hooks left and right, he has to hit you, he will hit you.

you're completely unfazed, the hooks nothing you haven't seen before. you swing your right hand over to parry the hit donghyuck sends you, using your position to your advantage and delivering a punch to his side. it catches him off guard and he winces, reeling back in just the slightest.

you give him no time to adjust, taking his distraction into consideration and surging towards him, a left jab to the side of his stomach. he stumbles back, trying to gather himself as his head spins in dizziness from the hit you delivered.

you let out a small scoff. "come on, hyuck, you have to hit me".

donghyuck grunts, moving forward with a left hook this time. "i'm trying" he grits his teeth, an action that makes you smile. donghyuck gives a small tch at the sight of you smiling, he hates it (that's a lie, he loves it).

you don't even try to hit him back, just continue stepping backward as donghyuck sends hit after hit.

he narrows his eyes, but you just smile again, you're really starting to get annoying. it's then that donghyuck notices something, your legs, he can use that to an advantage of his.

so, without any prior warning, donghyuck punches your lower stomach, a punch you weren't expecting. when you reel back from the hit, he decides to take his chance. an uppercut, a right jab to your side, and a haymaker to the side of your face.

donghyuck doesn't know where all of that came from, but it seems to do the trick, because you have no more strength to continue fighting. you stumble for a moment before falling over, hitting the ground and rolling over as you clutch your stomach.

donghyuck immediately gasps as he sees your state. "holy shi— oh my god! are you okay!?"

you give a tired smile, sending a thumbs up to the air. "i'm alright, that was great, babe".

it's only then that it dawns on donghyuck. "i beat you".

you nod.

donghyuck breathes in and out, he truly can't believe this. "i beat you, holy shit i beat you!"

you chuckle at how excited he sounds, breathless from the blows he delivered to you. "yeah, you did, congrats champ".

donghyuck falls down beside you, flinging his arm over your stomach and moving closer to you. "i get to have you all to myself now".

you raise an eyebrow. "you've always had me all to yourself".

donghyuck giggles. "i know, but i knocked you to the ground this time".

"don't get used to it".

[kangshxrtie]

ch. 23 ⤍ left 4 dead

​​you switched the screen from the "starting soon" animation to your face cam, flashing a quick smile before going  into your introduction.

"i honestly have no idea what i'm doing today," you confessed to the stream, leaning back in your chair. "so it would be really great if one of my friends watching could hop on and play games with me." 

almost instantly, a message popped up in chat.

jenaissante am i one of your friends 👉🏼👈🏼

"i would assume so. would you like to play games with me, yunjin?"

jenaissante yes pls jenaissante i'm getting food rn jenaissante inv me though

you only saw the first message and didn't invite her, instead scrolling through the chat, searching for someone else.

_chaechae_1 can i play?

"yeah, of course, chaewon," you replied casually.

jenaissante how dare u say yes to chaewon when i asked u first

you squinted at the screen, confused. "wait, did you say something? i didn't see it."

jenaissante fake —permanently banned

your eyes widened. "wait, shit! i didn't mean to ban you, i was trying to check the logs!" you broke into a laugh as you quickly unbanned her.

jenaissante just say u don't fk with me

"i swear i didn't see it! you said you were getting food, then 'invite me' a second later. how was i supposed to know?"

jenaissante can't believe you hate me

"just get your food and join us," you said.

jenaissante okay

you hopped on a call with chaewon, brainstorming what games to play. the two of you tossed out random suggestions, but each idea was quickly shot down due to the number of players needed or a lack of interest in the game. finally, yunjin joined the call—still eating, so not much help in the decision-making process.

"let's play left 4 dead 2," you suggested, scrolling through your steam library.

"isn't that for four players?" chaewon asked.

"yeah, but how hard can it be to find one more?" you shrugged. with everyone in agreement, you immediately started looking for a fourth.

"i've got a fourth!" you announced.

"who?" yunjin asked, curious.

"just a girl i know," you said cryptically.

"what girl?" yunjin pressed.

"you'll find out when she gets here"

"wait... is it kazuha?" chaewon guessed.

"uh, no, she's busy today," you replied.

"oh, right," chaewon nodded in understanding.

suddenly, yujin joined the call with a loud ping, interrupting the conversation.

"oh, it's just yujin," chaewon said casually.

"just yujin?" yujin echoed, clearly offended.

"not like that!" chaewon chuckled. "y/n was talking about you like you were some random girl we'd never met."

"i literally said she's a girl i know, which isn't a lie," you defended.

you booted up the game and invited chaewon, yunjin, and yujin to your lobby. everyone picked their characters as you fiddled with the settings.

"what difficulty should i pick?" you asked the group.

"maybe advanced?" yujin suggested.

"or, you know, maybe normal?" chaewon said, her voice laced with caution.

"we can handle expert. we've got this," yunjin declared confidently.

"can we, though?" you asked, skeptical.

"of course! we're pro gamers," yunjin insisted.

"you know what? you're right. expert it is," yujin agreed, backing her up.

"i don't agree with this at all, but sure," chaewon muttered.

sighing, you set the difficulty to expert, not trusting yunjin or yujin at all but just wanting to see what happens.

user2 we'll see how long that lasts user3 "they're not even lasting a minute" is winning the polls by a landside rn user4 betting all my points on them losing rn

the game loaded in, and as usual, you all messed with the controls to get comfortable. scanning the ground, you grabbed a weapon and glanced at everyone else's characters.

"wait... why is chaewon's character kinda hot?" you remarked suddenly.

"huhhhh?" yunjin blurted, totally caught off guard.

"y/n, you can't just say stuff like that," yujin laughed, trying to hold it in.

"i'm serious!" you continued. "her character just backed it up on me. y'all need to see this from my point of view."

as the first wave of zombies swarmed in, everything fell apart in record time. chaewon screamed as she died almost immediately, yujin calmly took out a few zombies, while yunjin panicked because of chaewon's freakout—only to die herself. you were just trying to help, but it was too late. you all died in less than a minute.

you quickly went to adjust the difficulty. "normal or advanced?" you asked, trying not to laugh.

"we died so fast!" yunjin laughed, still in disbelief.

"we can handle advanced," yujin suggested.

"no, we cannot," chaewon said, her voice sounding genuinely scared.

you set the difficulty to normal for the sake of chaewon, who seemed like she was actually traumatized from the previous events.

"no, we cannot," chaewon said, her voice sounding genuinely scared.

"everyone on the roller coaster," yunjin instructed, already making her way up the tracks.

you followed, but when yunjin turned around, she noticed chaewon still struggling at the bottom. "she's down there alone. she's not gonna make it."

"i am!" chaewon yelled, her voice laced with panic as she fought off the swarm of zombies below, while the rest of you were already perched at the top of the roller coaster tracks, watching her struggle.

"you gotta get up here!" yujin called out, her tone urgent.

"i'm trying!" chaewon replied, breathless.

"she's actually not gonna make it," you observed dryly.

before long, zombies started appearing at the top of the tracks, forcing all of you to engage in a fight. yujin was downed causing yunjin to freak out and looked to see chaewon stuck below, trying to fend off zombies and ultimately getting downed herself.

without hesitation, yunjin leapt down to save her. "i'll save you, chaewon!" she shouted, helping her back to her feet.

as soon as chaewon was revived, she announced, "i have a defibrillator! i can save yujin!"

meanwhile, yunjin called out, "i'm about to die!" as she sprinted up the roller coaster tracks.

"please don't," you muttered as you yourself were downed.

"y/n!" yunjin screamed from the other side of the tracks, panic evident in her voice.

yunjin and chaewon fought desperately to fend off the incoming horde, trying to revive at least one of you. but in the end, yunjin got downed too, leaving only chaewon to fight.

"teamwork did not make the dream work, yikes," you commented, leaning back in your chair.

"that's toxic, y/n," yunjin groaned.

"i'm coming back!" yunjin exclaimed as chaewon managed to help her back up.

"please don't," you deadpanned.

they finally revived yujin, but the zombie horde was relentless. despite your best efforts, it wasn't enough, and you were all taken down by the overwhelming hoard. the level had to be restarted, but at least you managed to beat it on the second try.

now that you all were in a safe room, the group decided it was time for a quick break before the next round. you took this time to turn your attention to chat, seeing a chat from kazuha causing you to smile at it.

k_a_z_u_h_a__ ain't no way ur playing with my roommates & not me rn

"are you jealous?" you asked in a teasing tone.

k_a_z_u_h_a__ and if i was?

"i would have invited you, but you were busy," you replied with a grin.

k_a_z_u_h_a__ :( k_a_z_u_h_a__ still messed up

user2 should we leave 🤨

"i'll play games with you next time then."

k_a_z_u_h_a__ :) k_a_z_u_h_a__ that works k_a_z_u_h_a__ gotta film now... k_a_z_u_h_a__ i'll miss u

"bye, kazuha. go do your job," you said, waving at the camera with a smile.

once kazuha logged off, you responded to a few more questions about the game and joked with your chat before the break ended. then it was time to lock back in for the next round.

"chaewon, behind you!" yunjin shouted, swinging a baseball bat wildly at the zombie chasing after chaewon's character. "this thing's so fast!"

chaewon let out a scream once she finally noticed, firing her gun with her eyes squeezed shut. somehow, she managed to kill the zombie.

"i got it, chae!" yunjin said triumphantly, smacking the now-dead zombie one last time for good measure.

"oh wow, thanks a lot," chaewon replied sarcastically. "really saved my life there."

before yunjin could respond, a spitter grabbed her character. "wait, huh? chae, help!" she called out, struggling.

chaewon just burst out laughing, watching yunjin's character get dragged away.

"why are you laughing? help me!" yunjin begged, "my character's gonna die! do something!"

chaewon kept laughing, only stepping in after yunjin's health hit was completely down.

"i was actually dying, and you just stood there laughing like a maniac," yunjin grumbled. "even after i saved you."

"oh, that was funny," chaewon said, still catching her breath.

a little later, yujin came up to you, wielding a chainsaw as you took down the last zombie in sight only for yujin to swing the chainsaw at you.

"what the fuck!" you yelped.

"oh, sorry! thought you were a zombie," yujin said with fake innocence.

"no, you didn't. don't lie to me," you laughed.

"i'm serious, i couldn't tell the difference!" yujin insisted.

"yeah, sure," you replied, shaking your head.

eventually, you all reached the safe room, the mid-level stats appeared on screen, detailing the damage each of you had dealt. once your characters were back in view, everyone reloaded their weapons, patched up any wounds, and stocked up on ammo and supplies, prepping for the next onslaught.

"alright, last level. let's go," yunjin said with determination prompting you to open the door.

"yippee! last level!" chaewon cheered, her voice full of excitement.

"we're professionals now," yunjin boasted confidently, with chaewon echoing, "professional gamers!"

"seasoned at this point," yunjin added.

the mood was light as you ventured out, shooting the few zombies that outside near the safe room. things were manageable until chaewon's panicked scream rang out.

"behind us! oh god, they're behind us!"

user5 instant chaos 😭

you whipped around, guns blazing as yujin tossed a boomer bile into the horde, and you got out of there following behind chaewon who was now heading up some bleachers. as you were a prompt came up to start the stage lighting.

"do i start this?" yunjin asked, eyeing a prompt to activate the stage lights. before anyone could answer, she hit it.

"oh—we have to survive here," yujin noted, already scanning for a place to take cover.

"there's some medkits up here!" chaewon called out.

the notification flashed across the screen: rescue is coming! defend yourselves.

"alright! where are we holding out?" yunjin asked.

"under the main stage," yujin suggested, and both you and chaewon agreed.

with that, the fight began. molotovs flew, bullets sprayed, and zombies kept pouring in, all while the stage lights burst like fireworks overhead.

"yujin, behind you!" yunjin yelled, saving her from a sneak attack.

"thank you," yujin replied, barely catching her breath.

"i got the right side!" chaewon called out, steady in her role.

"i got all the sides... except for the ones i don't," yunjin quipped.

"we're literally destroying them," yujin remarked confidently. "this is easy."

"too easy," yunjin agreed.

just as the lights flickered out and the zombies seemed to stop coming, you were about to relax.

"that's... it?" you muttered.

"i knew we would end them," yujin said proudly.

you were about to reply when chaewon's voice cut through. "guys..."

"it's just one. we'll mow it down," yunjin said dismissively.

"yeah," chaewon echoed.

as you focused on the tank approaching, chaos struck again—a jockey rode yujin, dragging her health down fast. you quickly intervened, freeing her before returning your attention to the tank.

"wait... it's not dying," yunjin exclaimed in disbelief, continuing to unload bullets.

"he's so big," chaewon groaned.

"oh, wait, it is now!" yunjin cried as the tank finally fell, everyone cheering as victory seemed close.

but then, another swarm appeared. zombies flooded the bleachers, and yujin was slammed to the ground by a charger. chaewon, wielding an axe, rushed in to save her, only to face yet another tank. the group barely managed to set it on fire and take it down as the rescue helicopter appeared overhead.

another notification flashed across the screen: rescue has arrived! get aboard

you and chaewon scrambled up the bleachers while yujin held her own on stage, fighting off the remaining zombies. but just as she made it to you, chaewon was downed. yunjin ran to help but got downed herself.

yujin threw a molotov to clear the area but ended up setting both you and chaewon on fire in the process. "both chaewon and yunjin are down! we can't go without them," yujin said urgently.

"i'm coming, give me a sec!" you yelled as you fought through the flames to revive yunjin.

"just run to the helicopter!" you shouted once yunjin was back on her feet.

as you made your escape, yunjin got downed again. yujin, torn between survival and saving her friend, paused. "i can't leave without her!" she cried, fighting off zombies. but eventually, she gave in. "actually, i might have to leave her," yujin said, backing away.

"yujin! what the fuck!" yunjin shouted as yujin left her behind.

"sorry, i gotta put me first," yujin quipped as she headed to the helicopter with you and chaewon.

"wait, we can't leave without chaewon," you said.

"you right, we can't leave her, and by we i mean you two" yujin agreed staying near the helicopter, far from the danger.

"i have a defibrillator!" you said, rushing to revive yunjin.

"alright, i'll cover you," chaewon promised, while yujin hung back in her safe zone.

you called for help, taking damage while trying to get yunjin up. "wait, help me!"

chaewon hesitated but eventually stepped forward, just as yujin climbed into the helicopter. "pilot, you can leave now."

"what do you mean, leave?" you snapped.

before you knew it, the helicopter left with only yujin aboard. the sound of her triumphant laughter echoed in your headset.

"yujin, you left?!" chaewon's disbelief was palpable.

"ain't no way," yunjin muttered.

in memory of:

chaechae jenaissante gameryn

"i went to get a medkit for chaewon, and they killed me for it," yunjin said.

"in memory of us minus yujin's bitch ass" you said.

"don't worry, you'll be going in the autobiography for sure," yujin reassured like that meant anything.

"it's so on brand. yujin would leave us in a zombie apocalypse," chaewon sighed.

yujin just laughed in response.

"wow. you're not even gonna try and defend yourself?" you asked, incredulous.

"y'all wouldn't believe me anyway," yujin said casually.

"damn right! you left us!" yunjin exclaimed.

"if we ever end up in this situation for real, i'm sacrificing you first," you said firmly.

"fair," yujin responded, still laughing.

after the game, the group spent a few minutes laughing and recapping the best moments, mentioning yujin's betrayal and the chaos that ensued. once everyone said their goodbyes and left the call, you sighed in relief, finally able to settle in for some one-on-one time with your chat to debrief without the noise of the rest of the group. 

user6 yujin really said "every man for himself" lmao

user7 ofc yujin would be the one to leave

user8 yujin's betrayal arc, wow...

user9 left 4 dead (literally)

user0 no mercy, no loyalty, just vibes

user1 yujin's so real for that

“never inviting yujin to another lobby again,” you declared, shaking your head. you spent a few moments catching up on donations and responding to messages you missed during the game before wrapping up the stream with your usual outro.

ALL CHAPTERS !!! | NEXT CH !!!

[tmntxthings]

一Holiday Comps・゜・。

author’s notes: so last weekend me & mine decorated our own gingerbread houses, call me inspired ✨

author’s notes 2.0: *sigh* i couldn’t get this done during xmas, so sad, but i want it OUT of my drafts, totally lost the motivation after Donnie’s 😭 forgive meeeeee

warnings: cursing? competitive nature x10, unedited asf it’s 2:00 am rn :3

—————————————————————————

Leo

Obviously he would be trying really hard. Because if anything suddenly becomes a competition all this turtle is concerned about is being numero uno.

“We should up the stakes a bit. April! You’ll be the judge, anddddd add in stuff to like throw us off our game. Make it harder! Oooh time limit of 40 minutes?”

He’s like adding shit and making things way more complicated than just a, “Oh cool gingerbread house contest? When everyone finishes the judges can decide who wins!”

No! Nope! Not happening. This will be the X-Games of Gingerbread Comps. Glory or death type shiz. So how does this process that he thrust upon the whole gang work? Well let me just say he has no problem abiding by the time set.

But his house looks messy as hell. He had a very hard time getting the roof to stop collapsing and may have looked over at Donnie to see how he got it done. Icing? Everywhere. He has no problem when one of the challenges was to ��Switch hands! Use your least dominant,”

Easy peasy lemon squeezy. Though some could argue that it didn’t matter what hand he used, it would have been messy either way. If one challenge was to switch seats and work on a brother’s gingerbread house be ready for a slick sabotage. One that Mikey may not have realized until his own foundation started fumbling, why were the walls caving in?! And what happened to the tree gummies that had been set aside?!

Leo happened, that’s what. Though he is quick to deny and not know the nature of those issues at all. By the end April is video recording to also get Sunita and Cass’s vote. Including Splinter that’s four! One for each turtle if everyone is lucky.

The responses on Leo’s house are making him pace. He can’t stay still as he hears Cass laugh out loud, wondering why the hell his gingerbread man is on the roof. “This one is a bit all over the place but, it’s got personality!” Is the saving comment from Sunita who revives Leo’s confidence in the whole ordeal

In the end I think with the time frame Leo definitely got shit on his house, but it doesn’t look all that pretty, one vote at least!

He’s butt hurt about whoever wins if it’s not him and definitely calls out his brother’s own flaws in their own work. Petty. P-E- to the T-T-Y~!

Donnie

If given an unlimited amount of time, I do believe Donnie would be a real rival in this house decorating competition. First of all he’s good with his hands, precision baby, precision!!! He has the most practice with fiddling around with crazy small parts. Those little sprinkle balls aren’t falling to the floor due to his hands.

Now he may not get a lot of them on, because this turtle will take up a lot of time just getting the foundation of the house perfect. The walls have to be straight! The roof cannot be uneven! April may have to stop him from using outside sources or trying to break the whole model build and go for something more his style.

Once he finishes with that Donnie probably took about 10 minutes alone with it having to be perfect. Icing is up next and oml this may be his downfall. There is so much to secure, and you have to take into account the drying time! The challenges he has no problem with either but they eat up his time completely!!

If April decides to do a bit of trivia, winner gets to penalize whomever he chooses, Donnie is most likely winning those even if April chooses a fair category like Jupiter Jim or Lou Jitsu. Trivia is just Donnie’s jam, and the only way he can get Leo to stop for two minutes or be able to eat one of Raph’s essential pieces like a peppermint decor!

Donnie’s build would be the cleanest, icing looking beautiful! Like touched of snow on the house! But he would hardly have any decorations due to sheer lack of time. He’d have a vote for sure but would get comments like, “It looks pretty simple!” or “This one doesn’t have a doorknob!”

“If I had more time,” would be his immediate come back. Puffing up and feeling defensive because this competition is definitely in his wheelhouse, but Leo of course had to make it to where a genius couldn’t thrive under such terse conditions. Hmph!

I’m sure April’s vote would be for Donnie

Mikey

He’s an artist, artists thrive in silly little gingerbread house competitions. I mean come on he’s the one who has the most creative ideas. Probably the most aesthetically pleasing as well!

But I fear Mikey will lack in the actual house building part. Which is literally just four slabs of gingerbread and the two more for the roof. He’d struggle to get it to stand. He’d struggle to get it to stay still. “Why does it keep MOVING?!” He’d be yelling out his frustration for sure

Even more so when he finally gets everything to stay in place only for one of the challenges to be switch houses. Leo getting his house and while Mikey doesn’t pay too much attention to what Leo is doing, when he gets his gingerbread house back it’s suddenly collapsing again?! He thought he had solved that problem! ACK! “LEO!!!” But no amount of calling his older brother out would change the fact that his house still isn’t put together

When…If he does get it together in time, you best believe he’s rushing to finally get to his favorite part! The decorations! He’s definitely eaten a couple of things without noticing it happening himself. It’s not exactly good candy, but candy is candy!

I think Splinter would vote for Mikey’s even if the house is crumbling, it’s a pretty crumbling house, out of all the brothers I think Mikey would win in a contest that wasn’t rigged by Leo!

Raph

I’m sorry, but he’d eat like half his materials. HE WOULD! So there wouldn’t be a house, maybe a shack if he’s lucky.

And on top of his appetite getting the best of him, everything is pretty darn small, and his fingers are chunky. This activity is just really not made for him but he’s doing his best, okay? His best with what he has left LOL

The hardest part would be decorating since the candy would be the smallest pieces to get on. He’d have icing everywhere, mostly on his fingers to which he would be licking clean, losing more material!!!

“Raph are you even trying???” Leo would goad, feeling that much better about himself and his standing even though he’s not doing much better as we have seen! Raph doesn’t let Leo get to him, he’s happy to just be doing something with the fam! And eating!

I think Cass would vote for this guy’s shack. Probably for some odd reason that I could never guess because she’s such a wild card to me sksksksks

[thereal-true-ogilvie]

hello everyone welcome to i talk about benrey for a minute here

as someone who’s watched the entirety of hlvrai at least 6 times, the full vods at least 3, and the cast commentary hovering somewhere around 10, i consider myself to be pretty well-versed in the series. i also kin benrey. this is probably important to my perception of him.

the series is about self-aware AI.   its in the title! so it seems obvious enough to me that Benrey was programmed to be the final boss. he was SUPPOSED to be a silly character that antagonizes the protag and throws off the group dynamic, and then it’s a big reveal and you get to beat up this guy that was mean to you!

but he doesnt wanna. hes self aware.

Of all the characters, i think Bubby and Tommy are the most “powerful” in that they were able to break their characters the most. Tommy is a bit of a wild card because he doesn’t usually act like an AI. I view him as the “character you’re supposed to protect” in the party, but somewhere along the way he, too, became self-aware and figured out how to handle his own. I think that’s where the age thing comes in. He was programmed to be a 5-year-old that you’re trying to get out of this dangerous facility! but he didn’t want to be a 5-year-old, he’s smarter than that, he’s capable! so he changed it. Him being the son of Gman also probably helped with him being able to just do that.

I take Bubby and Dr. Coomer as both being tutorial characters. Dr. Coomer is a bit broken, but he still does his best to teach you about things. I think he’s the tutorial NPC that goes “watch out for [x]” and “we can use ropes to cross big pits!” and “we should call them Peeper Puppies!” while Bubby was supposed to be the “here’s how you shoot a gun”

Like, Dr. Coomer does the knowledge about the world, and Bubby does the action. for the video game. And Bubby is supposed to be kinda cold to you, because the action-tutorial NPCs tend to be. Like “what you cant even hold your own? tch, guess ill have to teach you.” But Bubby doesn’t do that. He doesn’t WANT to play the game, he wants to go back home. He liked it before the game was switched on. So he doesn’t teach Gordon shit and just tries to speedrun so the player will leave and he can go back home.

one little scene that stood out to me so much was when the crew is sitting around in a circle with the pigeons. not outside, the other scene with them sitting in a circle and there’s pigeons. why are there 2 of those.

anyways, Benrey is just staring at this pigeon behind Gordon, and singing to it, calmly. And then there’s a loud beep that sounds like the vox, and definitely doesnt come from Benrey. and he suddenly gets up and shoots the pigeon. That reads SO HARD like he was being too soft with the game world, so it pushed him to do something evil randomly. Like a little villain reboot.

Almost everything he does to antagonize Gordon can be read as genuine confusion. He kills random NPCs because he knows theyre not important, and that they can’t feel anything, and that they’ll only slow the team’s progress. And what makes Gordon so mad at him is how often Benrey says Gordon shouldnt be allowed in here. I take that as a similar stance to Bubby. Benrey doesn’t want to be the villain. He doesn’t want the player to progress and make him. That gets more obvious the closer we get to the end, and most people tend to notice it in the last scenes before Xen, where he’s suggesting they go all the way back, and basically begging the player to stop here, at least for a little while.

its really sad, honestly. but i take the cast commentary bits as canon. Which makes it adorable when Benrey comes back into the movie theatre with Gordon and we get

“I wonder what will happen. I bet you know what happens!”

“I win!!!”

He did win. He got to get past being the final boss. He got to join the epilogue. I think, he probably wasn’t supposed to be able to. But these guys broke the game enough that he could. Isn’t that sweet? Isn’t that a nice ending for him? I think he deserves it.

Wayne says he acts like “he isn’t aware unless he’s being spoken to” and I think that fits really well. Like, sometimes his actions are coded into his behavior, so he does them without realizing. And then the player interacting with him (which is the premise of the self-awareness) forces him to actually look at what he did, and sometimes he has no idea how to explain it. Leading to his “huh?”

listen to me. are you listening. i need you to hear this. i need more people to understand benrey. and how much i love him. hes trapped in the narrative, doomed by it to be the villain. but he doesn’t want to be. he clearly cares about the crew in his own silly goofy way. he doesn’t want to fight them. i wrote down everything he said in the finale, and he only says 5 outright malicious lines, all of which are directly after an unnatural pause, like he’s being rebooted again. Some important lines: “I knew this was gonna happen,”

“Stop shooting at me, I have to shoot back, I don’t wanna do that,”

“I didn’t have a big plan, I was supposed to be nice, but you forced me to be BAD so I’m gonna be BAD… friend.” the small, quiet “friend” there gets me every time. even after everything, even after his nature is revealed, he wants to believe theyre still friends.

“Don’t go in there, please… I don’t like that room." The amount of times he sounds so genuinely sad when asking them to stop, or even just saying “bro..” like he’s mourning the friendship they could’ve had. The amount of times he sounds genuinely pained when he’s glitching out and stretching across the screen.

And his last words, said childishly of course, but,

“This isn’t fair.”

[number-one-fan-of-doktor]

Kink-Your-Tober Day 19: Vaginal/Anal Plug

Ludwig shifted, trying to find relief. He wasn’t the biggest fan of these games he and Mikhail played, but he could certainly see the appeal of them.

They both had a remote in their pocket, synced up to the plug in the other man. Misha had been adorably shy when Ludwig had opened him up, putting the butt plug into him snugly, and in just the right position for it to brush against his prostate.

He, on the other hand, had gleefully spread his legs, flashing Mikhail with his trimmed bush and pink hole. The small bullet vibe slipped into him without a problem, the cord being tied around the band of his underwear. Safety first, after all, even if Ludwig was capable of fixing whatever injury their little sexual escapades could possibly cause.

“Remember rules. You die, I pick higher level. I die, you do same thing for me.” Mikhail whispered into his ear. They were pressed together, chest-to-chest, looking like they were just sharing some loving words before battle. Ludwig giggled, nuzzling his forehead against Mikhail’s neck. He wasn’t the biggest fan of their games, but he still enjoyed them.

“Let’s go!”

++++

The first time Ludwig died, Misha conveniently forgot to switch his vibe on. They had died simultaneously, however, and Ludwig had not been so kind. He saw the way Mikhail winced, then shot him a rueful smile before jumping back into the fray. Ludwig sometimes couldn’t believe that he had married such a big tease.

++++

The second time he had died, the vibe immediately buzzed onto the second out of 5 settings. Ludwig bumped into the bench in respawn on his way out, suddenly feeling self conscious. The buzz was inside of him, too quiet to be heard, and his jodhpurs did a fantastic job at hiding his boner. And yet he felt as if everyone around could see him stumbling, could x-ray in beneath his clothes. As if everyone knew the reason behind his breathless responses to Medic calls.

It only made him harder.

++++

His third death was simultaneous again, his body pitching forward and crashing against Mikhail before he even had the chance to breath. His husband seemed completely unmoved by his butt plug jumping from option 1 to 3, before dropping back down to a 2.

He just winked at Ludwig, saying, “Keep up, doktor. Remember, I give you reward if we win fight!” Oh, he really wanted that reward.

++++

His 10th death was like his last 4; his body would disintegrate upon dying, and for a blissful few seconds he wouldn’t exist, before spawning back in and collapsing against the bench as the vibe shot back up to level 5. He sat there in the spawn room for 5, then 10, then 20 minutes, until the end of the match was announced, with a RED win. He could have cried when the vibe switched off, and Mikhail walked in, grinning at him.

“You earn your reward, doktor. My bedroom, now.”

[miraculouslbcnreactions]

With the state Adrien was in just before the finale, can you think of any way he could have made it to the final battle without getting akumatized or otherwise being a liability?

So I've talked about how the final could have been improved by Adrien being the one to get the ring to Paris or by having Ladybug fight while Adrien goes and finds the jump rope lucky charm so that they can save his father but there is one other path you could take without massive rewrites. A path I haven't talked about because - imo - Chat Blanc and Ephemeral made it impossible by establishing that Gabriel is a terrible father who doesn't care about traumatizing Adrien and/or using him for evil.

If we accept the final's retcon that Gabriel totally loves his son and would change his wish at the last minute (a premise I DO like, but not one that the show earned) then here's what you do: have Ladybug and Chat Noir be at the final fight after Adrien fought off the nightmare dust the same way that all of his friends got to do. Have everyone's identities revealed during the fight so that Gabriel doesn't have time to plan. Have Gabriel do his normal evil route and command Chat Noir to stop fighting/switch sides, leading to Gabriel winning and getting both miraculous.

Have Gabriel in his moment of triumph release his son so that Adrien can share in this moment because Gabriel truly thinks that Adrien will be on his side now that Adrien has had a moment to process everything. Have Adrien instead run to Marinette, crying, apologizing because he couldn't save her. Because he's supposed to be her protector and he failed.

Have a horrified Gabriel flash back to when Emilie was lost because Gabriel always blamed himself for letting her use the peacock instead of him and now he's FORCED his own son to go through the same kind of pain. Have Gabriel suddenly question his goals at the sight of his child's anguish. Have Gabriel look at his wife, knowing that she never wanted to be saved. Have Gabriel make his final wish: give my son my humanity. Let him be free so that no one can put him through this again. Make me the senti. Everything fades in a ball of light.

Cut to graveyard. Adrien is dressed in black standing before his parents' grave stone, holding his mother’s broach. Marinette joins him, taking his hand, squeezing it.

He squeezes back, then sighs, putting the broach in his pocket.

“I wish that I had more than this. Even their wedding rings are gone.”

Marinette smiles, tapping his miraculous. “You’ve got the only ring you’ll ever need right here, Kitty.”

Adrien smiles back. “I don’t know, in a few years, I’d like to add one more.”

She blushes and he laughs, kissing her softly. Then they hug each other tight. Adrien looks at the graves longingly, then closes his eyes and tightens his hold on Marinette. He's got long journey of healing ahead of him, but with his Lady, he can do anything.

That's probably the most satisfying thing that I can come up with without completely rewriting the whole season (or even the whole series). The basic premise behind this rewrite is that letting an old video of Emilie change Gabriel's mind makes no sense in the story they wrote.

For starters, there is no way that this is the first time that Gabriel is hearing these words from her. I mean, you really believe that she took the time to make videos for Nathalie, but never actually talked to her husband? Of course you don't! So why would the video change his mind when the real woman couldn't?

This is especially true because the video is played at the end of a season that started with Gabriel choosing defeating Ladybug over saving his wife!!! In other words, the narrative has literally gone out of its way to establish that Emilie has no sway over him when it comes to Ladybug. You do not write Evolution (S5E1) if you want to have this be your ending, but they did and nothing in season five undermined Evolution's message, so this ending makes no GD sense.

But Gabriel changing his mind because of Adrien? We have actually seen that before and we want the Father-son relationship to build to something big. We also want the senti stuff to build to something big. This type of change would satisfy those expectations while also giving a resolution to the central conflict of season five: Gabriel trying to control his son because he thinks that he knows best. A conflict that will now never be resolved because Gabriel will never have that moment where he gives up control. His final act was literally controlling the fate of the entire universe. That is not a satisfying conclusion for a villain who's all about control!!!! It doesn't matter that he's dead if you let him control his death! But if he has control of the universe and uses that control to do the opposite of what he's been trying to do all season? Arguably the entire series? That is actually a somewhat meaningful and powerful conclusion to one of your main themes.

Yes, Emilie was his motivation, but he gets to be with Emilie, so he didn't actually give her up. He still gets exactly what he wanted and controlled the fact that he got to be with his wife while also further traumatizing his son! This is not a meaningful surrender of control. This is Gabriel just having enough and deciding he wants to be with his wife and Nathalie can deal with Adrien from now on even though she has never expressed any interest in being Adrien's primary guardian. Idk, let's not get into it, this is already long.

[sparrow-marrow]

CSOCW 24 day 4 - tragedy-

@carmensandiego-ocweek

I think that a full story would take me a While so, I’ll make a bullet point story.

I’m calling it the Grim Reaper Rally caper

Since the Ivory Off Road Invitational is a very dangerous one

If you’ve ever seen Speed Racer, I’m talking like almost Casa Cristo level danger

multiple deaths and injuries

This is also set in summer while schools out

NOW some backstory

This rally is one of many that have been rigged by VILE in order to get the prize money

BUT this hasn’t worked in the last couple of races due to Jamie who somehow beat VILE’s racers

The Next rally would be the Ivory Off-road and VILE was determined to win this one

Now onto the story:

Player was doing his thing decoding the VILE harddrive when he found something that chilled him to the bone

It was a series of rally sabotages and fixings that hadn’t worked in the past few years due to Jamie of all people and now VILE had made it clear that No one would win the Ivory Off-road Invitational other than them

As VILE had planted a bomb in their racers bike, so the Driver could activate it if need be

And the Ivory was Jamie’s next race, one that they had been preparing for a while

“Jamie, please! You can’t race in this rally, you could die!”

But it was too late Jamie had already said yes to the invite and suddenly rescinding that would damage her rep as a racer

They called Team Red and Jamie vetoed any plan that would cause him to never race again

“This is one of the last connections I have with my mother, I won’t quit now.”

So after a long debate they decided on this plan

Jamie would race but have Ivy and Zack on crew, Carmen and Shadowsan following the race in the air, and Player on coms and cams

As Jamie entered the locker room, they could feel people’s eyes on her, specifically VILE’s own motocross racer, the Driver

“Good luck in this rally Bellamy, you’ll need it.”

With that chilling exchange out of the way, Jamie went and got prepared

Meeting up with Team Red in their tent, they fleshed out their plan

“When I give the signal, Jamie, you turn on the hidden body cam. Zack, Ivy, you keep watch for any sabotage on their bike. Me, Player, and Shadowsan will keep watch from the skies and cameras. The bomb will be almost invisible except for the timer, which will be on the front left. Got it?”

After agreeing to the plan, The team split off into their positions and started the race

From the beginning, the Ivory was difficult.

The terrain shifted from soft ground to rocky dirt and dust and it was full of twists and turns

But Jamie was focused, keeping an eye on the green and gray bike up ahead

About halfway through the race Jamie caught up to the Driver and something happened that changed all of their plans

“Shit, She activated the bomb!”

Then Jamie had an idea

“Change of plans, I’m turning on my camera now. Player, can you hook it up to the MC’s booth?”

In just enough time the MCs switched to Jamie’s feed and saw the timer, revealing the bomb to all who were watching

By now Jamie still hadn’t told Team Red what she was doing and they were worried

Player tried to get him to say what their new plan was and all he got was this

“Even if I win, that bomb is still activated, so I’m going to stop it.”

Immediate backlash from Team Red and for good reason

“Jamie you have no experience with this, you can’t-”

“I’m the only one who’ll make it in time.”

Jamie turned off her comms and sped to catch up with the driver

He forced the Driver off track and caused the Driver to get fed up with them

That’s when the fight started

Now the Driver had been trained by VILE and was definitely more skilled than Jamie, but Jamie was more stubborn and had the desperation and rage of a dying man

Jamie was getting a beat down, at least 3 broken bones, a bloody nose, a black eye, blood everywhere, but still kept getting up

The fight lasted until there was 5 minutes left on the bomb

After hearing the warning, The Driver ran off, leaving Jamie on the ground

“Shame you’re going to die Bellamy, at least you were a good opponent.”

Jamie had one thing to say to that

"Fuc-Fuck You"

To add salt in Jamie's wound the Driver stomped on Jamie's right hand

Raising her good hand, he turned on their comms again

“JAMIE! Your biometrics are all over the place! Red and Shadowsan are on their way to your coordinates. What happened?!”

The first time she opened his mouth, they coughed up blood

“No-Nothing, just tell me how to defuse a bomb.”

Jamie used her good hand to haul himself to the discarded bike

It took some time to get there and even more for their vision to stop being blurry

She had 2 minutes to defuse this thing

The two got to work defusing the bomb, cutting it close when Jamie had to take a break

It was too close and now there was 10 seconds

9..

Jamie had to stop as the worst of his injuries caught up to them

8…

“Peter, if I don’t make it, promise me one thing.”

7…

“Don’t talk like that! You’ll make it, you have to…”

6…

“You have to tell our parents.”

5…

“Wh-What?”

4…

“Promise. Please..”

“Alright, I promise.”

3…

2…

1…

The explosion was deafening and the smoke could be seen for miles

During their conversation Jamie had found cover behind a large rock

As Jamie fell unconscious they caught glimpses of Carmen and Shadowsan running up to her, then all black

He was airlifted to a local hospital and then again to a larger one that was better equipped

Jamie ended up unconscious for the next 7 days, their condition critical but stable

Team Red were there most often and 3 days in, Player and her family came in. The organizers paying for their hotel stay.

[l-norris]

The last race of the triple header has blessed us, and now thou shall receive another recap, this time with a new(-ish) design!

(... It's literally only the header that's new but whatever)

DISCLAIMER: Remember that this is just for shits and giggles, I'm not trying to actually hate on any of the drivers cuz all (most) of them are very dear to me!

As always - numbers in brackets = lap numbers

- Pre-race anxiety is through the roof

- Checo starts from pitlane

- Logan starts from 12th!! Go funky American man!

- Lando and Max are starting next to each other

- God help me

- Rain hovering in the distance

- Ferraris are fucked

- Formation lap starts

- George speedy formation lap

- He wants to get this OVER with

- Pierre has issues with the car after 50-grid-place penalty rip

- He retires before the race even starts

- It's lights out and away go!

- Lewis instantly swoops over to protect George

- Lando bottles start again :(

- Lando struggles with tires

- DRS enabled

- What happened with Pierre? We don't know.

- Mans didn't even make it through the formation lap

- Alex loses pieces of his car (3)

- Logan reports it like he's scared they'll make him switch cars with Alex midrace

- I wouldn't put it past Williams tbh

- Talks of rain already (4)

- "Double stacking won't be a problem for Red Bull" SHOTS FIRED

- Alex and Fernando contact at the start of the race btw

- ... So that's why Alex' car is falling apart

- PSA: Checo is not last anymore! (7)

- "Hülkenberg, who was the fastest Ferrari powered car in Qualifying yesterday." CROFTY PLS😭

- Esteban classical dive-bomb

- Pierre had a gearbox issue btw

- Glad we got that outta the way

- So much for switching all the components in the car

- Alpine please get a grip (they won't ever)

- "Lando we'll keep it simple" what does that mean William

- William I don't like how this sounds

- "Rain in so-and-so many minutes" SHUT UP!! I'M SO FUCKING SCARED RIGHT NOW YOU SHUT UP!

- Guanyu pits (13)

- Charles overtakes Lance (14)

- Lando closes up to Max (14)

- I've seen this movie before and I didn't like the ending

- Lando overtakes Max! (15)

- Oscar now also closing in on Max (17)

- He overtakes him easily! (18)

- Holy hell the Red Bull is a tractor

- Lewis overtakes George! (18)

- And Lando swoops past too! (19)

- Switched to ORF bc F1 TV is behind by like half a lap

- People switched to inters and damn bro y'all were STUPID for that

- And before you ask

- Yes, there was a Ferrari involved.

- Yes, that Ferrari was Charles Marc Hervé Perceval Leclerc.

- Terrible day for Tifosi 4.0

- Red Bull sacrificed Checo

- "It's too dry for inters" We know Checo (unlike some teams)

- DRS enabled (24)

- The people on inters crying rn

- I'm crying too dw

- horrendous laptimes from the drivers on inters (we're talking 1:50 territory here)

- Max in 5th

- 30 minute rain cell incoming

- Checo lapped (25)

- Charles lapped (25)

- That's three in a row now Ferrari

- What the fuck are you doing Ferrari

- Sigh...

- Lando and Oscar fight (26)

- help me

- everyone pits except for the Top 4 (27)

- Lando pits (28)

- Mercedes double stack (28)

- They fucking forgot Oscar again😭

- McLaren when I catch you McLaren

- Charles pits AGAIN (28)

- This is worse than Spielberg

- I can't do this anymore

- Red Bull fumble Checos pitstop (29)

- Max can't keep up

- He's 1.3 seconds slower than Lando

- "It's not raining anymore mate" Okay Lewis

- George retires (34)

- Horrible day for GR63 fans (me)

- Kevin almost bins it in classical Kmag style (35)

- Lando wobbles a little and gives me a heart attack in the process (36)

- Max is suddenly somehow faster than the others (38)

- What a fucking surprise /j

- Slicks time (38)

- Lando stays out one lap longer

- Lando pits (39)

- Lewis leads (40)

- MCLAREN. WHEN WILL YOU LEARN THAT YOUR ACTIONS HAVE CONSEQUENCES?!

- That's like the fourth win y'all just fucking gave away

- Mr. Stella I'd like a (not-so-friendly) word or two

- Kimi Antonelli sighted! (45)

- Max is gaining on Lando🫣 (46)

- anxiety

- I'm sweating real hard

- Max swoops past Lando (48)

- man

- Lewis is still in the lead

- if it is one person who deserves the win it's Lewis

- At least they're keeping it exciting until the end

- This is fine

- last lap starts!

- Oscar fastest lap (51)

- Rooting for Lewis rn don't talk to me

- HE WINS IT!

- Carlos steals fastest lap btw

- BUT!!!

- GET IN THERE LEWIS IS BACK

- HE'S CRYING😭

- HE'S CRYING I'M CRYING EVERYONE IS CRYING

- LEWIS😭

- I wanna give him a hug so bad rn

- He deserved that win

- Also he's DotD!

- "Why didn't you go onto Mediums instead?" LEWIS PLEASE LEAVE THE CHILD (Lando) ALONE!!

- The cooldown room scenes are a blessing and a curse lmao

- ... Feel free to add on!

... Phew! What a race man. There were some classics (like Ferrari and McLaren screwing their drivers once again), but Lewis deserved this win so so much, I'm literally in tears. Sad that George had to retire, but at least we got two Brits on the podium🥹

[savventeen]

2 ... With mingyuuuuuuu 🥺

break the curse, break my heart

pairing: cursebreaker!mingyu x cursebreaker!gn!reader rating: M (mostly for reader's potty mouth) wc: 5.1k prompt: ‘things you said through your teeth’ (from this list) summary: what's supposed to be a simple hex job turns into something much deadlier, and suddenly the two of you are fighting just to stay alive warnings: angst, hurt/comfort, near-death experiences, exorcisms (kinda), convulsing, blood, hospitals, but there's a happy ending friends no worries!!!, mingyu is self-sacrificing, self-harm (mingyu cuts himself so he can use blood for magic reasons), descriptions of a panic attack tags: modern magic au, curse-breaking as a career, they’re partners (in the business sense AND romantic sense), non-linear narrative, alternating pov, reader calls mingyu stupid approximately a billion times, but he absolutely deserves it so *shrugs*, seungcheol also makes a guest appearance as #1 hyung a/n: sorry this took approximately 84 years to complete (it was only supposed to be a drabble lmao) but i hope you enjoy it despite the wait!! also a quick note on the magic in this world: hexes are the equivalent of small pests and are more annoyance than anything whereas curses are Extremely Dangerous and often deadly

Hex hunting is not what you expected to be doing tonight.

Well, it was your job, of course, but usually you weren’t called in on a case so last minute, and especially not on one of your few days off.

But apparently whoever owns this house-turned-antique shop called in a favor or two at the guild, and everyone else was busy, so here you were — hauling yourself up a ladder and into a dusty attic at nearly midnight on Saturday night because there was pesky little hex on the loose that apparently couldn’t wait until morning to be taken care of.

Whatever. Jeonghan would owe you one, and you plan to save that favor for something big. Plus, it’s not like you’re doing this job alone.

Right on cue, Mingyu’s voice filters through your earbuds in a petulant whine. “Jagi-yahhhhhh.”

You roll your eyes even though you know he can't see it, a hint of fondness trickling through the exasperation in the form of a smile, and you continue your scan of the first room of the attic. The bright teal glow at the end of your wooden staff is your only source of light as you look for any signs of the wayward hex.

"Why did I have to be the one to search the basement,” Mingyu continues. “Why couldn't we have switched?"

You snort, peering around a stack of old moving boxes that tower over you and seem to be more duct tape than cardboard, miscellaneous protective runes scribbled all over them in sloppy permanent marker. "You lost rock-paper-scissors fair and square, babe, I don't know what else to tell you."

Besides the faint scorch marks you've found that match the ones throughout the rest of the house, you haven't had any luck in finding traces of the hex.

"But it's so creepy down here," he whines, pout audible through the phone call. He's right, of course — you suppress a shudder at the thought of having to face the numerous shelves lined with antique porcelain dolls stored down there, and thank the stars for letting you win that particular battle of rock-paper-scissors.

Even still, you can’t help but tease him just a little. “If you stop complaining and actually clear the basement, you can get out of there much sooner, you know.”

There’s a moment of silence over the line, and you take the opportunity to do one last sweep of the haphazard piles of boxes and broken artifacts — your staff’s glow unwavering — before heading to the door that opens into the attic’s second room.

“Wow,” Mingyu deadpans. “I think I hate you and everything that you stand for, actually.”

You bark out a startled laugh, loud and carefree in the way that only seems to happen with Mingyu, and you feel a smile bloom across your face. “Oh, wow,” you giggle. “Whatever did I do to deserve such sweet words from you?”

The teal light flickers slightly as you trace your staff in a familiar pattern in front of the door, checking for traps and finding none. Satisfied, you push it open with a creaking groan and step carefully past the threshold.

“You know exactly what you did,” Mingyu scolds indignantly as you step fully into what appears to be an empty room. “And you will get sweet words when you stop forcing me to go down into scary basements, y/n. I swear, some creepy possessed toy is going to be the death of me one day.”

“Sure,” you reply, distracted. Something about the room is…off.

There’s nothing immediately amiss — boxes and antiques just like the previous room propped up and shoved against the walls — but there’s something, a feeling, that you can’t quite seem to put your finger on, and it sets you on edge. “Should’ve picked a different career if you wanted to avoid scary basements, though.”

“Funny, we have the exact same job description and yet somehow you never have to go into the basements — only me.”

“Yeah,” you murmur quietly. “Funny.”

Something’s wrong.

Your bad feeling coalesces into a pressure that starts to build in your chest and the hair on your arms stands on end as goosebumps race across your skin.

“Gyu, something’s wrong.”

Belatedly, you realize you’d just interrupted him in the middle of a sentence, but you’re too busy tracing a quick series of protective sigils in the air around you to care too much.

His tone turns serious in an instant. “What’s wrong? What’s going on?”

“Not sure yet, bad feeling.” There are only a few strokes left for you to complete when the teal light at the end of your staff flickers and then goes out.

“Shit,” you whisper.

“Y/n?”

Before you can open your mouth to answer, the end of your staff lights up again. But it’s not the calming teal blue that you’re used to. It’s red — deep, dark, and ominous — and the implication sends dread coursing through your body like liquid lead.

“Fuck, it’s not a hex, it’s a curse.”

You pivot to run out of the room, but before you can make it two steps away, something slams into you with enough force to knock you down to the floor. And then you’re screaming — the dark magic coursing through you in an agonizing wave that makes you feel like you’re on fire.

You realize you’re on your hands and knees and Mingyu is yelling in your ears and you feel like you might be dying, and for a few moments you forget that you’re trained for this. You might not have any of your usual equipment since it was supposed to be an easy in-and-out hex job, but you grit your teeth and remind yourself that you’re fucking trained for this.

"—cking answer me, y/n, please."

“Here,” you sob. You’re not sure how much time you lost, probably only a few seconds, but you think you can hear Mingyu pounding his way up the stairs.

“Fuck, thank god, okay. Hold on, I’m on my way. Just hold on.”

You can feel the curse trying to tear you apart from the inside out, an enraged wildfire with scorching claws, and it takes all of your concentration to pull the sharpie out of the pouch attached to your belt. You yank the cap off with trembling hands, and then another wave of agony courses through you and you collapse onto your side, unable to hold yourself up any longer. Doesn’t matter, you think. You don’t need to be sitting up for this, anyway.

You drag one of your sleeves up and shakily start to trace out a series of banishing runes — the ones you’ve known by heart for years now. But it only takes you a few strokes to realize you’re shaking too much to be able to draw anything legible. It doesn’t stop you from trying though, tracing wobbly shapes even as you can’t see them through your tears. And then the painful spasms get so bad that you can’t hold onto the pen anymore, and you’re left shaking on the floor feeling like every single one of your cells has become a raging inferno.

“Gyu, ‘m sorry,” you slur through your cries. “Love you, ‘m sorry.”

You don’t know if he responds, but you blink and suddenly hands are turning you over and clutching your shoulders, cupping your face, and — Mingyu is here.

He’s here and he’s saying something, his face a portrait of fear and worry, and you know deep in your gut that he’s too late. He’s too late and he’s going to have to watch you die right in front of him and that thought is almost more painful than the curse searing its way through every fiber of your being and then—

For a moment, the agonizing fire within doubles, triples, in intensity — the curse hooking its claws within you and coalescing into a pain so severe you didn’t think it was possible. The agony is so all-encompassing that you don’t even have the ability to think any last words, let alone say them, before the darkness claims you.

Mingyu has always hated going down into creepy basements.

It’s his least favorite part of the job and he makes sure that everyone knows exactly how much he hates it whenever he’s forced to go down into one. (Especially when he lets you win at rock-paper-scissors, because even though he’s fond enough of you to go down into the basements in your stead, he’s not at all above whining about it.)

He knows it’s all psychological, of course, that any other rooms of the houses they’re called out to are just as likely to be affected by malignant magic. But — there’s something that always feels so sinister about descending a flight of rickety stairs into unknown darkness.

And of course, tonight’s last minute hex job just had to have a basement full of creepy dolls that seemed like they were trying to stare directly into his soul. Because the universe hates him and he loves you too much for his own good.

The blue glow of his dual war picks isn’t helping the situation either, casting ominous shadows wherever he turns.

He comes around a corner and finds himself unexpectedly face to face with one of the dolls — the porcelain cracked excessively at the corners of the mouth, making it look like its face is stretched into a smile straight from hell. Mingyu shudders.

“God, I hate dolls so much,” he tells you. “Especially this one. I swear it’s going to come to life and try to eat m—”

“Gyu, something’s wrong.”

Your voice is completely void of all the lighthearted bickering from just a moment ago, and Mingyu’s tone hardens to match. “What’s wrong? What’s going on?”

“Not sure yet,” you continue, distracted. “Bad feeling.”

He tightens his grip on his picks and turns to make his way out of the basement, but your whispered “Shit” stops him in his tracks. Worried, he calls out your name.

You gasp, loud and crackling over the phone call, and dread drips icily down his spine. “Fuck, it’s not a hex, it’s a curse.”

Before he can process how truly fucked that makes the both of you, you start screaming, and Mingyu promptly loses his goddamn mind.

His feet move faster than he can think, sending him rocketing up the stairs. But one of his boots catches on the top of the basement steps in his haste and he goes sprawling across the wooden floor.

He shouts your name as he scrambles to get up, and the longer you keep screaming instead of answering, the more desperate he becomes — begging you to just answer him, please, god, please.

You sob out a “Here” just as he’s making it up to the second floor, hating the house for being so huge it’s practically a mansion.

He curses in relief at the sound of your voice and says, “Hold on, I’m on my way. Just hold on.”

Soon the ladder to the attic is in front of him and he quickly sheaths his picks, practically flying up the worn wooden rungs. His movements turn frantic when he hears you slur an apology over the line, something that sounds an awful lot like a final goodbye, and when he sprints across the attic to the far room and finds you convulsing on the floor, his heart stops.

His worst nightmare is playing out right in front of his eyes, and he feels like he can't breathe when he falls to his knees next to you.

Your staff is glowing a deep, hellfire red off to the side, and from the shadows in the room he can tell that his picks are glowing the same sinister color. He grabs you by the shoulders and rolls you onto your back, flinching at the heat emanating from your skin.

“Baby, look at me. Hey, look at me, baby, c’mon—” You don’t respond verbally, but your tear-filled eyes open a fraction and lock onto his. He moves his hands to cup your face — it feels like you’re on fire, fuck — and vows, “I can fix this, baby, okay? I’m—”

Too late, something traitorous whispers in the back of his mind. You’re too late, and they’re going to die, and it’s going to be your fault.

“Just— just hold on, please, hold on, baby, I’m gonna fix this.”

He sees the sloppy runework on your forearm, knows in his gut that even if he redid them himself, it would be unlikely for you to survive the banishment. Devastation chokes him for half a second, freezing and unyielding and all-encompassing, before he realizes: you probably couldn’t survive…

But maybe he could.

Again, his body starts moving before his brain can fully catch up, snagging your dropped sharpie from the floor and scrambling to trace a transference rune on the unmarked skin of your arm. He copies the matching rune onto his palm, and with one more desperate plea for you to hold on, he slaps his marked palm over your rune.

He already knows the curse is a nasty one, but the way he can feel it digging its claws into you, ripping and tearing as it’s forcefully dragged through the rune on your arm and into his, brings bile to the back of his throat.

You scream your loudest yet before going scarily, horrifyingly limp, but Mingyu doesn’t have enough time to do anything but try not to pass out as the curse sears its way into his body.

It’s agony, and Mingyu knows he has a very limited amount of time. From the way it already feels like he’s being boiled from the inside, it’s probably even less than he thought.

Maybe I won’t survive this, a quiet, scared little part of him whispers.

He bites back a scream between his teeth and starts drawing a binding rune on his arm, taking another glance at where you lie crumpled on the floor.

Maybe I won’t survive… but you will.

Consciousness, when it comes, is slow, syrupy.

For some reason, the fact that you’re conscious at all comes with a sluggish sort of surprise, a groggy, Huh. Not dead.

And then you realize just how freezing you are. It’s like your entire body has suddenly turned to ice. A voice in the back of your mind mumbles something about fire, but all you can focus on is how cold and how empty you feel, and—

Everything comes back to you with the force of a meteor — the curse, the pain, Mingyu, “I’m gonna fix this,” Mingyu, Mingyu, Mingyu — and you’re jolting into motion with a choked gasp.

It’s not the unthinkable agony of before, not even close — but it hurts.

Your body feels like its insides have been scraped out with icy, rusted spoons and your bones have been replaced with lead that’s been left to freeze in the arctic tundra. Just getting to your hands and knees feels like climbing Mount Everest, and dizziness threatens to send you sprawling back onto the attic floor.

But you push through it with a grunt, and from your right you hear Mingyu gasp out your name in question. You turn, almost falling over in the process, and find him curled up against a beat up old trunk and a pile of small cardboard boxes, one of his war picks tossed to the side and casting him in a haunting red glow.

He looks awful, sweat dripping down his face and expression scrunched up in misery. His entire body is tensed, strained with the amount of force it's taking to hold all of the pain inside, and one arm is pulled tight to his chest while the other is pressed to the floor, his fingers coated in something wet and shiny. 

You scramble as quickly as you can to him with a worried croak of his name, but he shoots out the hand he’d been holding against his chest and shouts, “Wait, stop!”

You do, but only because he sounds so scared. “Gyu, what…”

Your eyes trail from his worried face to his outstretched arm, to where a large burn sits in the palm of his hand, smudged with ink. More ink further up his arm catches your eye, and it’s with a dawning horror that you realize what exactly he’s marked there.

It’s a binding rune, and you think you’re going to be sick.

“What did you do?” It comes out as a whisper, and Mingyu doesn’t respond, just clenches his jaw and starts moving the hand he has on the floor.

You follow the movement, and you realize he’s drawn something on the floor with that shiny substance, a set of runes like the ones you tried to complete, and then something clicks in the back of your mind and you realize it’s blood. It’s his blood, judging by the equally dark and shiny tear in the knee of his pants.

No… no no no no no.

“What did you do?” This isn’t real, this isn’t real, this isn’t real.

You already know the answer to your question, the lines drawn in blood on the floor matching the ones you tried to draw on your arm. Since he used a binding rune on himself — stupid, stupid, stupid — the only way to complete the banishment is with a blood ritual. A stupidly dangerous, stupidly deadly blood ritual. “What the fuck did you do?”

His eyes flint with a steel-lined determination. “Took the curse,” he grunts.

All at once, all of the fear and worry coursing through you ignites into a righteous fury. You force your frozen limbs to move — careful not to smear his stupid, stupid runes — and clumsily crawl close enough to grip him by the shoulders as tightly as your shaking hands will allow.

"Kim Mingyu, why the absolute hell would you do something so fucking stupid?!"

You’re angry, furious, but it’s only a mask for the fact that you’re the most terrified you’ve ever been in your entire life. Desperate tears start dripping down your face, momentarily blurring your vision.

When you blink them away, you see him looking at you. No, not at you, into you — into your heart and into your soul.

And through gritted teeth, he vows, “Because you're the love of my fucking life, and like hell was I going to sit back and let this curse take you away from me."

A wounded sound punches out of you, and you twist your trembling hands in the fabric of his shirt. "So you're gonna let it take you away from me instead?"

Your fury melts into devastation, into grief, so quickly it leaves you lightheaded. You sway forward until your forehead makes contact with the burning skin of his neck.

“ ‘S not gonna take me.” He pants, pressing a searing kiss to the shell of your ear. “I promise.”

You can feel the way his arm moves as he traces out the final strokes of his blood rune, and you know the instant he completes it because his entire body tenses beneath yours. And then he’s screaming, raw and guttural, and then you’re screaming, and the curse fights every second with metaphorical claws and teeth until the banishment is complete—

And then, with a blinding flash of red, the house is silent, still, and dark.

It takes Mingyu much longer than what’s probably considered normal to realize that he is, in fact, awake.

He thinks he feels like he got hit by a bullet train, but mostly he feels so floaty that it’s hard to tell anything at all.

“That’d be the drugs.”

Hmm. He knows that voice. He wonders what Seungcheol is doing in his dream. Usually his dreams have more color, though, not whatever this endless black is.

“Not dreaming. And you’d know that if you opened your eyes.”

What a revolutionary concept. One that proves much more difficult than anticipated, because somehow when he wasn’t paying attention, someone switched his eyelids out for anvils. It could take him minutes or even hours, but eventually he’s able to peel his eyes open a fraction. It’s enough for him to see… beige. Just— a whole lot of beige. And then a really blurry face.

“Hey, hey, Mingyu,” the face says, suddenly eager. “Are you in there? Are you actually waking up this time?”

Mingyu blinks, and opens his eyes a bit more, and the blurry form above him morphs into the worried face of Seungcheol, his dark eyebrows pulled together in hopeful concern.

Mingyu blinks again. “No,” he pouts.

Seungcheol barks out a laugh that almost sounds like a sob. “Oh, thank fuck.”

Mingyu feels a hand slip into his and squeeze — oh yeah, hands, I have those — and another gently brushes his bangs aside. “Hey, kid. It’s good to see you,” Seungcheol sniffs.

“Why’re you cryin’?” Something must have happened to Mingyu’s face if the mere sight of him brings Seungcheol to tears. Did he trip and fall down some stairs or something? He vaguely remembers a set of rickey stairs. “Wha’s wrong?”

For a moment, Seungcheol just looks at him, biting his lip like he has a million and one things to say and no idea which ones to start with. Then he sighs, deep and long, and shakes his head. “You’re gonna be the death of me, Kim Mingyu.”

You're gonna be the death of me.

Something in the back of his mind freezes, tugging at a connection, and then clicks into place.

All of a sudden, Mingyu is no longer in front of Seungcheol. He’s back in the basement, surrounded by shelves of porcelain dolls as he tells you over the phone, “I swear, some creepy possessed toy is going to be the death of me one day.”

And then memory after memory starts fighting its way to the forefront of his consciousness — red, sickly and glowing, the entire room bathed in it  — his war pick in hand, the sharp end slicing into the flesh just above his knee — you, lying in a crumpled heap on the floor, not moving, not moving, are you even breathing — the curse, ripping and tearing and shredding its way through the both of you — you, screaming, you, you, you—

He gasps out your name, body moving even as the memories continue to slam into him.

“Woah, hey! Calm down,” Seungcheol shouts, pushing Mingyu back down onto what he now realizes is a hospital bed. But he can’t calm down, not when he doesn't know where you are and the last time he saw you, you were— you were—

“Hey, stop it!” Seungcheol is practically laying on him, each of Mingyu’s wrists pressed to the mattress in a firm grip. “Stop, you’re going to hurt yourself!”

Mingyu’s wild gaze snaps to Seungcheol’s as he continues to struggle. “Y’n, where’s y/n," he begs. "Hyung, where— they were hurt, they were d— please, I need to find them. I need to make sure they’re okay, please, hyung, please, they have to be okay, they have to, please, I need—”

Hands suddenly grip either side of his face and Seungcheol is almost nose to nose with him, eyes wide and imploring as he orders, “Breathe, Gyu-ah. C’mon, breathe with me.”

Mingyu doesn’t realize how irregular his breathing has become until he tries to take a deep breath and ends up choking on it.

“Hey, it’s okay,” Seungcheol assures. “Let’s try again, okay, Gyu-ah? Just follow me; you can do it.”

He continues to talk Mingyu through the panic attack, words as gentle as the fingers he uses to wipe Mingyu’s tears from his cheeks.

Eventually, he gets his breathing under control, and all Mingyu can do is grip Seungchol’s wrists where they still cradle his face and plead, “Hyung.”

“They’re okay, Gyu-ah,” Seungcheol confirms with a crooked half-smile, one that’s cracking at the edges with leftover fear and worry. “Stuck in another bed just like you, but they’re okay.”

Mingyu’s relieved sigh is shaky at best, and Seungcheol doesn’t complain when Mingyu pulls him closer so that he can bury his still-dripping tears in Seungcheol’s chest. He just carefully adjusts their positions so that he can fully wrap himself around Mingyu without messing up any of the wires or sensors. “It’s okay, kid, let it out. I’m here, hyung’s got you.”

And somewhere in between Seungcheol’s comforting words and the most cathartic crying session Mingyu’s ever had in his life, he falls asleep. He doesn’t even realize he’s fallen asleep until he’s waking up to some kind of commotion happening outside of the room.

Between one blink and the next, Seungcheol launches himself out of the bed and Mingyu watches as he jumps about ten feet in the air when the door slams open right as he’s about to reach it.

And then Mingyu’s breath catches in his chest because — there you are.

You’re standing in the doorway, silhoueted by the fluorescent lights of the hallway, looking like some kind of avenging angel. The bottom of your wrinkled hospital gown barely peeks out from beneath the extra large hoodie that looks like it’s trying to swallow you whole (his hoodie, he’ll realize later — one that someone must have brought for you), and you’re wearing a pair of purple fuzzy socks pulled all the way up to your knees.

None of that detracts from the look of pissed the fuck off that you’re wearing like battle armor, though. And if he weren’t so absolutely, joyously relieved to see you, Mingyu would almost certainly be terrified.

It’s as if the whole world freezes for a moment as the two of you lock eyes. The grumblings of the irritated nursing staff fade into the background, and all Mingyu can feel is the beating in his chest calling out to you.

Home, home, home, it seems to say, and he breathes out your name in awe.

Your face goes from furious to relieved to leaking a constant stream of tears so fast that Mingyu almost gets dizzy watching it.

“Fuck, Mingyu,” you choke out, eyes roaming over his form like you’re afraid he’ll disappear if you look away. And oh, the sound of your voice, even as it’s clogged with tears, is the most wondrous thing he’s ever heard in his life.

“Y/n,” he repeats, holding your name in his mouth like it’s something holy, something ephemeral and reverent and a syllable away from cracking.

And somehow it breaks whatever spell the two of you were under, because then you’re stalking over to the bed and throwing yourself into his embrace as you sob, “Kim Mingyu, you absolute piece of shit, I hate you so fucking much.”

He laughs wetly as he clutches you, pulling you so close that anyone would need a crowbar to separate the two of you. “I know, baby, I know,” he says.

“I’m so fucking mad at you.”

“I know, baby.”

“If you ever do anything like that again, I’m going to fucking castrate you, I swear to fucking god.”

He feels like his chest might burst with all of the happiness trying to shine out from between his ribs. “I love you, too, y/n.”

“I’m just gonna…” Mingyu looks up at the sound of Seungcheol’s voice and sees him standing awkwardly by the door with a finger pointing out towards the hall. Mingyu nods, and Seungcheol nods back before walking out. He steps out of the door before popping his head back in and saying, “Oh, also, you probably have around fifteen minutes at the most before the rest of the boys realize you’re both awake and storm the castle.”

You snort softly against Mingyu’s shoulder, and he smiles wide enough that his cheeks ache. “Thanks, hyung.”

Seungcheol just gives him a thumbs up before finally making his leave, and Mingyu sighs, soaking up the feeling of holding you in his arms. He quickly tucks his arms up and under your sweater, wanting to hold you even closer, and involuntarily shivers when he feels how cold you are.

“God, you’re freezing,” he murmurs, using one hand to pull the thin hospital blanket over the both of you.

“Mmm,” you agree, wiggling until you’re tucked under his chin and wrapped around him like an extra-clingy koala. “And you’re my new favorite space heater.”

Mingyu grins. “I’m honored.”

“Don’t get used to it,” you grunt. He starts rubbing gentle circles on your lower back, and you melt against him with a drawn out sigh. “You’re still number one on my shit list.”

“Just as long as I’m your number one.”

He lets out a high-pitched yelp when you pinch his side. “Ow, jeesus, you’re pissed, I get it.”

“Good. Know your place.”

(If he blushes at those words, no one is around to see it.)

You lay together in silence for a few minutes — simply basking in the feeling of holding each other — and then Mingyu’s brow furrows as he realizes that you haven’t gotten any warmer. Also, he hadn’t really noticed before because he’d been too focused on you, but he’s feeling warm. Like, really warm.

“Hey, y/n.”

You grunt in acknowledgement.

“Is this Katy Perry hot-and-cold thing we’ve got going on a fun new side effect of the curse?”

“Oh my god, Mingyu,” you groan, untucking your face from his chest just so you can glare at him.

Mingyu holds back a grin as he raises an eyebrow. “Am I wrong?”

You glare even harder before huffing and tucking your face back into his chest. “No,” you murmur petulantly. Before Mingyu can hold his victory over your head, though, you power on. “And to answer your question: probably. We can have Hao and Shua check to be sure.”

Mingyu hums in agreement and presses his cheek to the top of your head. A moment later, a thought occurs to him, and he grins as he says, “We’re even more perfect for each other now.”

You lift your head again, eyeing him with a hint of suspicion. “Why?”

He tilts his head down so your foreheads are resting together, and his eyes crinkle with the force of his smile. “Thermodynamic equilibrium,” he whispers.

Your eyes soften, filling up with so much fond endearment that a few more tears decide to trail down your cheeks. “My baby is such a fucking nerd.”

And when you press your lips to his, the whole world goes quiet.

Home, home, home, his heart sings inside his chest. Home, home, home.