#queue were a problem child

[ghoulicides]

another piers… brother in law said that he should have had frosted tips.

[gremlingottoosilly]

I met a guy in the Summer (dilf!Konig x fem!Reader)

Your boyfriend is an asshole. Luckily, his hot dad just returned from deployment. CW and Tags: Cheating, dub-con, size kink, daddy kink, age gap(reader in 20s, Konig is early 40s), Konig is a pervert, slightly obsessive Konig, love(and lust) at first sight, fingering, dom!Konig Word count: 3713 AO3

“Just one more game, babe, don’t be a buzzkill. I don’t want to end at a loss.” You didn’t want to be a buzzkill, of course. You simply wanted to be a good girlfriend, have some domestically cozy date, and for your boyfriend to at least try to put an effort into being with you. It wasn’t much to ask for, really. You hoped so, at least. You didn’t want to be an annoying, nagging girlfriend who only ever waits for another reason to yell at him, but your patience started to run thin. 

You spend the past three hours either listening to his apathetic rambling about the shows he watched – really, you wanted to invest in stuff he liked, but an abnormally large amount of animes he talked about had 1000-year-old girls who looked like they were 10, wearing inappropriate outfits, and you started to raise the alarm. 

You also watched him play – and also listened to his rage quitting and angry voice messages to his team that, honestly, made you slightly anxious. You never liked loud people, people who were so easy to rage about something as silly as some colorful video game with too many characters to look after. 

So, like a good girlfriend would – you wanted to be a good girlfriend, he was such a nice guy before you started dating, and you need something to think about besides the tremendous amount of study work you are doing for college – you decided to go and look for snacks. Maybe bring something for him as well. 

— I’ll find something to eat, alright? 

He didn’t respond at first, so you shook his shoulder. Your boyfriend took off his headphones with annoying look on his face, half-turning to look at you. You gulped, suddenly feeling like a child in front of the principal – not a feeling that you were supposed to feel around your partner, but with him, you somehow constantly felt like you were being judged. 

— Nah, stay here. I don’t want my father to see you. 

— Ah…your father is at home? 

You never heard anyone else being at the house – big house, you must admit, and it’s embarrassing almost how you never thought about his family. He lives with his dad, apparently, and the depth of your relationships can only be judged by the fact you literally didn’t know what his father’s name was. 

— Returned from his fucking deployment. He’d ask too many questions about you. 

— You didn’t tell him about me? 

Ah, now you’re hurt a little bit. You knew it wasn’t anything serious or too committed yet, but you intended to make this work. To try and fix all the problems you can without ending things abruptly. 

— He never asked. Not like he cares too much, but…

An apathetic dad, huh. 

You started to slowly piece together the puzzle that was your boyfriend’s horrible boyfriend skills. Now, you want to meet the man who conceived him and kick him in the nuts for creating such an unlovable human being who somehow captivated your chronically lonely heart. 

— If you don’t want me to come and meet him, I can go home. 

He doesn’t answer because his queue is finally coming to another match – you simply nod, knowing everything you need to. You can grab a little snack for yourself, fuck off to your dorm and rethink your life choices while your roommate is getting pounded by some gruss British bloke with an accent that makes your ears bleed. 

You have dignity, and right now, it has asked you to get some snacks from the kitchen. 

*** Now, the only thing König wanted after returning from deployment was to take as many hot showers as he could, shut his bastard of a son up, and get some delicious food waiting for him in the freezer. He was already home for a few days, but adjusting is always hard when you basically fucking hate living at your own house. Of-fucking-course, his son was watching the house while he was away – and now he can’t even think of a good excuse to set him off to his mother. Too old to do this, and split custody never really worked when not even one part of the relationship wanted to take care of the kid. 

König closes the door of the refrigerator – of course, his son took every good thing that he stashed for himself. With a groan, the colonel fights the urge to finally throw him out of the house – a thing he needed to do a few years ago, just when he celebrated his 18th, but some sentimental part of his heart instead promised to help with finding a place close to the college. No good deed goes unpunished. 

With a groan, he takes a few steps from the fridge – and then he almost stumbles across an angel. 

Scheisse

Now, König never thought of himself as a predator who prefers running after college girls who might as well be his daughters. He never thought of himself as a gut who liked them young – his wife, god forsake her name, was his age when they started dating, and he hardly had any sexual encounters with a person under 25 in the past few years. Well, not like he had any sexual encounters in the past years, but…

The thing is – he never thought he liked girls with wide eyes, pouty faces, and trembling hands who were holding a bag of his cookies that he carefully stashed away from his son. 

You are wearing something cute, a nice skirt and an adorable pink cardigan that looks so cozy and warm and soft, and he fights the urge to grab your skirt and simply lift it, You’re dressed up for a cute coffee date, and König has to double check if he isn’t dreaming and no one has decided to play a prank on him and send him a cute callgirl. 

— Oh! Sorry. It’s yours, isn’t it? 

You give him his cookies back – but not before your fingers fished another salty caramel goodness out of the bag, and you bit it. He looks at your teeth, at your lips, and glimpses of your tongue – god, he is an old, dirty bastard because even his baggy pants aren’t enough to hide his boner. You have no right to look this pretty for a man who hasn’t seen a woman in three months and hasn’t had sex in the past few years. 

You lick the crumbs from your fingers – it’s such a deliberate action that he can’t believe he actually sees it, and it’s not even something from porn he used to like. 

— Ja. You can have it. 

He would give you the code to his bank account if you asked for it. 

— Thank you, sir. I’m…well, I assume if Paul didn’t introduce me to you…I’m his girlfriend. Nice to meet you. 

You lick your lips and take a step back, pressed against the counter. He looks at the sway of your hips, a bit of crumbs on your shirt, and almost brushes it away with his hands. It would be a good excuse to touch your chest – but he can’t be like this, he has to keep his urges under control, or else his son will never forgive him. 

Yeah, like he needs a better reason to throw his useless son from his home. 

— Girlfriend? He never spoke about you. 

You look sad, and he immediately curses under his breath. For a moment, you look too fragile – too real. He can’t handle this look on a woman, especially as pretty and young as you are. You bat your eyelashes, even involuntarily, and he already prepares to give you the keys to his home just so you’d stop with such miserable expressions. He has a spare bedroom. 

He has his bedroom with a bed that would be enough for both of you. 

— Ah. Um. We’re…I guess we’re not at this stage yet. 

— Knowing him, you’ll never be, Schatz. 

You look at him immediately – you’re offended, angry, and sad at the same time. There is a certain stubbornness in your eyes that immediately makes him want to simply scoop you in his arms, lift you, and drag you straight to the altar – and here he thought that his impulses over getting married would be over after his first divorce. 

— What do you mean by this, sir? 

You look uncertain now, he can see this in your eyes – and really, knowing his asshole of a child, he is almost sure that Paul never once got you off, either physically or emotionally. 

Now, König never once considered himself to be a good man. He has killed countless people, overthrown many governments, and made shitty jobs for shitty people way more than saving hostages to help the good guys – and in the romantic field, it’s even worse. Wife, unsatisfied with his controlling tendencies and inability to feel normal love for a human being – and a son who hates him because, in fact, he never once wanted to have a kid. 

He looks at you and sees a pretty young thing, still in college or freshly out of, probably without a stable job and normal social standing – a good girl won’t be with his son if she isn’t stupid or extremely desperate for a relationship. 

The thing is, König is also extremely desperate for another warm body next to his, to feel a woman beside him, to love and obsess over someone – he looks at your pouty lips and shaky hands, at the way you bite the corner of your glossy mouth, and he almost wants to drop you on this very table and fuck you until you’re crying under him. He can’t do just that, of course. It would probably make you extremely uncomfortable and scared, but…well, quite frankly, his son doesn’t deserve you. 

König is. 

— I won’t sugarcoat it, Schatz. My son is a Scheiß Arschloch…fucking asshole, that is. I’m surprised he brought home someone as cute as you. 

You feel embarrassment collecting in your body. Paul’s dad is a…interesting man. 

Tall, broad, very muscular – even his baggy house clothes aren’t really concealing his extremely interesting physique from your eyes. He looks yummy and tasty, and you fight the urge to eye the bulge in his pants because you’re a good girl, you don’t look at your boyfriend’s dad like this. 

König has greying ginger hair, locks already curling slightly at the lack of cutting, and you fight the urge to sit on the counter and get your palm in his scalp, massage his head gently, and pull him closer for a kiss. You feel like a dirty, horrible woman – your boyfriend is in his room, probably enjoying his time on your “date” while you’re lusting over his father. 

Then again, this date already felt like a disaster. This relationship, too. 

— Paul isn’t all that bad, sir. 

“He at least has a nice dick,” you wanted to add but stopped yourself. Paul is tall and somewhat strong – if he weren’t sitting at his computer all day, you would call him even muscular. And he has a nice dick, yes, even though he had no idea how to use it. You liked the idea of laying with him, of spraying your jaw trying to fit all of this in your mouth, but his kinks and his sex skills being directly taken from porn…not really your thing. 

You look at König and wonder if they are similar in all of the places. He is his father, after all. 

König catches your gaze locked on his bulge and smirks. 

God, if he knew his son had such a cute girl, he would ask her to come earlier. He is two weeks off deployment and probably won’t take another long contract for a few months because they just upped his retirement payings, and he can afford to slack off a little bit, only visiting the home base for some training and instructions for rookies. 

He can afford to retire and never worry about money again – but he needs someone to make his days less boring, right? 

You look like a good candidate. 

— I’m sure my son was convincing, but I know him better than anyone. He doesn’t deserve you, Schatz. 

He is shitty at flirting, it’s not his forte – he can flaunt his money, maybe, show you in his wallet and bank account face first. He can just straight up ask you to be his sugar baby and suck his cock instead of doing your studies, but he can’t flirt and manipulate to save his life. Lying isn’t something he is good for, this is why his wife has left. 

— I…not sure we should be having this conversation here. 

You’re a good girl, and it’s infuriating. He knows that having someone in his bed shouldn’t be the end goal for his leave, but he wants you, and by the look on your face, you aren’t opposed to the idea. König doesn’t understand if he likes that you’re so reserved about it or if he wants you to be a bit more slutty – but he captures you in the space between the kitchen counter and presses you with his body. 

— You want to see the bedroom then?

Pushes you so close his knee gets between your legs – it might look involuntary like he didn’t exactly want for it to be placed here, but you aren’t dumb, you know what he wants from you. Like a good fucking girl, you’re too shy to give it to him right about now. God, sometimes he hates being so nice to people around him. 

— Sir, this is very…

He got you caged in his hands, body trapped in his embrace – you jerk your head upwards a little bit, staring at him like a small bird in the hands of a predator. He isn’t a strong man in regard of morals, he doesn’t see anything wrong with fucking his son’s girlfriend – if the girl is up to it. And if she isn’t…well, he better make sure she is. 

— What is it, Schatz? Paul won’t hear us in his headphones.

You know just how wrong it is, and you almost want to escape – his dick grinds on your pelvis through his pants, and you’re horrified to see how big it is. Excited too, of course, he is bigger than your boyfriend ever could be, and you don’t want to be a slut, but, oh well, not like you were in a committed and serious relationship anyway. 

Paul was seeing your friends more than you ever saw them – it’s probably a sign that you should settle for someone older. You did enjoy Lana Del Rey's songs, after all. 

— I don’t want to break his heart. 

— He doesn’t have one. 

You’re lost when he pushes his lips to kiss you over and over again – a surprisingly good kisser, and you give in because it was the first time in forever a kiss made you feel this good. His lips are sending electricity down your spine, you want to moan just from his knee, pushing on the softness of your cunt through that adorable skirt you liked so much – you feel so small like this, so tiny in his hands, you…

God, you feel like a slut, and you like it. 

Soon enough, you answered the kiss, your lips meeting his in a dance that made you feel hot, that made you feel like your boyfriend never could. Never thinking of yourself as someone who can fall so easily into the hands of an older man, now you know that he got you right where he wanted. 

You push your hand on his pants, trying to get the control back – but he stops you, a giant hand enveloping your wrist and pushing you back. With a surprise on your face, König just wants to kiss you all over. God, you’re adorable, and he knows that you deserve way more than being fucked on the rough kitchen counter while your so-called boyfriend is too busy dickriding his friends in some useless online game. 

— Not now, princess. You deserve better than being fucked on the kitchen counter, ja? It can come later. 

“Later” sounds like a promise, and you bite back your moan when he keeps pushing his knee against your cunt, making you throb and clench on nothing. He is such a gentleman, you can’t help but compare him to his son – and his fabulous ability to make you feel dirty after fucking you in the backseat of his car and tossing you to your dorm with your pussy still wet and messy after you didn’t cum. 

You sob, not from sadness, but from pleasure mixed with some weird, unnatural for you emotions – you feel weird, strained here like this, but you hug his neck and whisper something in his ear. Something, dangerously sounding just like “daddy, please” 

König is blushing, and he looks fucking adorable. 

— Daddy, ja? God, you’re dangerous, liebling. Going to get me in trouble with my son later. 

He laughs when he kisses you again, his hand slipping in your panties only to find them completely soaked – he knows you deserve a nice pillow and soft sheets under your body, and he pushes you up so you can hug his waist with your legs. You rely on him like a cute pet, and you’re so perfect in his hands he curses himself for not seeing you before. 

He is going to ruin you for anyone but him. Put so much cum in you, it will make your tummy bulge – make you his precious sugar baby, pay for your dumb college and make you move to his bedroom instead of some shitty dorm you probably share with four other people. 

He can be good for you – but he will ruin you for anyone else, anyone appropriate, every guy your age who clearly doesn’t know how to treat a lady right. 

— So wet for me…such a filthy thing, I didn’t know my son dated a whore. 

— N…not a whore, please…

He kisses you on your forehead, silently apologizing. You feel his crooked, scarred smile, and you push your face up to kiss him – you want to touch him so badly it makes you feel stupid. 

— Sorry, Schatzen. Not a whore, a good girl for her daddy, ja? So nice for me, too fucking young…

— W…we really shouldn’t… — Tshhh, don’t think about it. Thinking will only hurt your pretty dumb head. — I’m not…

— Quiet, little one. Let daddy handle everything.

He kisses you over and over, his fingers playing with your pussy – meaty digits digging in your hole, making you whimper from sudden intrusion. He is big, bigger than anyone else, just two of his fingers are enough to spread you as much as normal cock would, and even though you’re used to taking Paul’s size, you just know that his dad would be much, much bigger. He is going to split you open, and you will love every fucking second. 

It feels so wrong, you still aren’t sure if you want him to touch you like this. 

It feels so right, he is experienced and eager, pushing every button to make you squirm in his grasp. Your orgasm comes embarrassingly quick – maybe because you haven’t gotten off in ages, only miserable masturbation sessions and poor attempts at faking your orgasm made it feel real. Paul never cared enough to actually get you off – but now…

You aren’t ready for him. You squirm in his grasp when the pressure becomes too much, and he soothes you, two fingers still buried in your soaked cunt. You feel so dirty, so wrong right now – you are cumming on the fingers of your boyfriend’s absent father, and you love every second of it. 

Post-orgasm clarity makes you whiny and sobby, and you whimper in his shoulder when he gently lifts you in his hands. God, you’re adorable, and he knows that he just scrambled your brain with that orgasm – it’s good, really, he might just want to keep your pretty head nice and empty for him. Not like you would ever need to think in his presence, the colonel can handle everything in- and out- of bed. 

König holds you close, not allowing you to scramble away no matter how embarrassed you are. You are his precious thing, with a pouty face, and he will do everything in his power to make you squirm on his fingers again and again before he makes you his wife for good. 

So impulsive, maybe this is why his son is such an asshole – taking the worst traits of his father. 

— Don’t cry, Schatzen. You’re okay, it felt good, didn’t it? 

— W…we shouldn’t have. Shit. I’m sorry, it was a m…god, I need to tell Paul. 

— I’ll tell him. 

— No! — I will tell my asshole of a son that you’re my girl now, ja? And then I will take you to the bedroom, so we can fuck. 

— I need to return to my dorm. 

— And then I will dine you properly, okay? Sorry, Liebling, I know I should court you before all of this…but we can afford to go a bit off board, ja? 

He is smiling, so smitten and obsessed over just having you cum on his fingers once – you don’t have the heart to say no. Never did. You’re a good, proper girl, and Paul was never treating you right anyway. You feel dirty, yes, but somehow, it is almost right. 

He peppers your face with kisses, like a dog lapping its tongue all over your skin – you’re so concentrated on the warmth of his strong, seasoned body that you don’t even look in the direction of the doorway to the kitchen. 

Paul, however, looks straight at you, disheartened and shocked. 

— W…what the fuck, dad?! König laughs, kissing you once again – deep, hot, with tongue and loud, sloppy sounds of your mouth pressing into one another. You’re stuck in place, still caged in his arms like a precious little pet you are. 

— She’ll make a good step mom, ja? 

You don’t even register his hands slowly caressing your fingers as if he already tries to check the ring sizes. 

[shunsuiken]

DON’T FORGET WHO’S TAKING YOU HOME (and in whose arms you’re gonna be).

pairing(s). kaeya, childe, ayato, kaveh, neuvillette x fem!reader

genre. fluff

wc. 200-400 for each character

an. AND SING WITH ME 🎤🎤 SO DARLING SAVE THE LAST DANCE FOR MEEE michael buble literally left no crumbs with this song i had to write about it omg + ALSO happy valentines day everyone !!! i may not have a valentine this year but im happy to post this for anybody feeling a little lonely today !! you are so so loved okay ?!!! come and collect a kiss from me before reading on 💋 MUAH have a lovely valentines day !!! <33

kaeya alberich

you’re really good at hiding, kaeya thinks to himself with a huff and a smile on his lips. searching all over the plaza for you was making him break a sweat in his navy blue tuxedo. with another turn around the corner he decides to remove his tuxedo jacket for the time being, folding it over his arm to carry instead.

“no, no, no klee! stop it! you can’t play with your things here, if you blow things up-”

“-master jean will put me in solitary confinement…”

oho, kaeya recognises these two voices very well. he finds it so hilarious that at the end, his feet lead him right to you! not even a single thought was processed as he turned the corner two seconds ago but here you are.

he hides behind the large potted plant, listening to the conversation you and the beloved spark knight share. he stays there until it becomes quiet between you two.

“kaeya, you peacock, i know it’s you.”

kaeya lets out a baffled noise, finally showing himself from behind the plant, offended by the ridiculous nickname you gave him. “snowflake, how dare you?”

“klee, don’t eavesdrop on people like this man when you grow older, yeah?” you point animatedly at your lover, who’s folding his arms and scoffing at you.

klee only giggles, nodding her head. “i gotta go find albedo now!” you watch as she skips off towards the plaza, waving goodbye.

you then turn towards your next problem that stands behind you. “i thought you were out dancing?”

“i was, but they’ll start playing the last dance soon and how can my last dance not be with you?” your lover walks towards you, pulling you closer by your waist with his free arm. you immediately wrap your arms around his neck, smiling softly at his intentions.

you hear an announcement echoing from the plaza before you can reply, and you figure it might have been mika because of how timid the voice sounded.

“good evening everyone, please bring all your friends and company over for the last dance of the night!”

“sounds like our queue.” you slide your arms off his shoulder to grab his hand, pulling him with you without warning.

“oh snowflake, hold on-” kaeya almost trips on air and the sounds of your laughter bounce off the concrete floor and walls as you drag him down the staircase leading to the plaza.

childe

you can never refuse ajax’s request for a dance, because he won’t take no for an answer. especially when it comes to dancing. your feet hurt so much. you’re so ready to just fall on top of your bed and go to sleep. but the only thing that keeps you wide awake, heart pumping and everything is the look on your lover's face.

his gaze usually has this inhumane and dull look to them, but you find that whenever he looks at you or when he participates in something he loves, his gaze finally twinkles. it works so miraculously too. like all of a sudden life was returned to him and he could see.

the smile on your lips grows when you think about this. you think it’s sweet how you’re one of the reasons that the life in his eyes returns.

ajax notices the tighter grip you hold on his forearm, making his lips curl in curiosity. “what’s going on in your head, baby?”

you zone in on the situation, you’re still dancing, and you shake your head in response. “nothing, ajax.” you want to keep your thoughts to yourself but when ajax smiles at you like that, with the most expectant look on his face, you can’t help yourself. “actually, i just thought about the dance.”

he twirls you around to the music before connecting arms with you again. “you just thought about the dance?” his brow quirks in amusement.

“no, no not like that,” you say with a sheepish chuckle before continuing, “i just thought that this number is the longest one so far.”

“well of course,” ajax responds with an eye smile. “it’s the last song.”

“it… is?” you look up at ajax while trying to fight the urge to look anywhere else.

if this is the last song… and you’re dancing with him… then that can only mean-

when the choreography allows ajax to pull you against his chest, he leans down so he can whisper in your ear, “you will be my final dance partner tonight.”

kamisato ayato

these few days at fontaine have been strumming the strings of your heart like a guitar—ayato has been spending so much time with you that you’re beginning to think of such ridiculous conclusions. his eyes that linger on your face, his hand that hovers on the small of your back when leading you out of a hall and it’s just these little things that he does with you that makes you want to claw an entire curtain off its rod. one time he even poured you a glass of wine before taking a sip with the same glass—it’s like he’s forgotten he’s the yashiro commissioner!

thoma and ayaka barely bat an eye. but also, they’ve known ayato for much longer than you have since you were a recent (and lovely) addition to the little family. so… perhaps this is just how he acts?

“uh-huh, when he’s courting someone that is.”

the sentence that thoma said offhandedly is the only thing that rings through your mind. but your thoughts must’ve shone through your expression because ayato is quick on his feet to smoothly guide you off the dance floor, gloved hand still holding yours as he brings you to a less crowded area—the balcony.

“you appeared to be distracted, that’s why i pulled us away,” ayato breaks the silence and your train of thoughts.

he’s still holding my hand—is what you’re repeating in your head. your eyes can barely focus on a single object within your field of vision. your bottom lip quivers at the revelation you’re carefully starting to uncover.

“i am not distracted,” you inhale sharply when you accidentally meet ayato’s gaze. “i…” your brows crease as you try to get words out of your mouth.

ayato brings your hand up to his lips, placing a chaste kiss on the back of your hand and you can physically feel the blood rush up to your fingertips. “would my lady like to return to the hotel?”

your voice leaves your throat in but a hoarse whisper, “what did you just call me?”

you hear a chuckle from ayato and it makes you snap your head around in embarrassment. this new term of endearment rolls off his tongue way too easily, the rascal must have been practicing!

“oh no, no, no, my lady, you must look at me,” a grin appears on ayato’s face at your attempts to hide your expression and when he finally gets you to look at him, you’re caged between his arms.

“why would you call me that?” you whine at his teasing.

“well i just couldn’t keep it to myself anymore,” ayato murmurs, a dust of pink decorating his cheeks. “will you allow me to call you that?”

kaveh

three hours. it’s been three hours since you and kaveh decided to learn a cute couples dance routine ‘for funsies’. whose idea was this again? weren’t you two supposed to be just friends? doesn’t kaveh have a client meeting tomorrow that he should be preparing for?

“so we do this—then this and then we’re supposed to oh—!”

the silence is deafening. the song playing in the background fades as you both stare at each other, even mirroring the same expression. eyes as wide as saucers. lips just inches from connection.

kaveh’s breath fans over your lips and you can hear the audible gulp he makes at the closeness. he’s also entirely aware that the red in his cheeks has reached his ears by now. while you, on the other hand, have started hearing the percussion of your heart in your own eardrums.

“o-oh…” your legs are frozen in place and hang on a second, why haven’t either of you let go?

his hand is respectfully sat on your waist, while the other is occupied holding your hand. you hear him inhale and it grabs your attention before you can get anymore lost in his gaze. his gaze observes your lovely face, eyes flickering from one feature to another as he whispers, “has anybody ever told you you’re pretty up close?”

you shake your head ever so slightly. “no.”

kaveh likes this answer, humming as he ponders for a moment.

your eyes sparkle when that handsome smile of his appears on his lips. he chuckles shortly at your expression, your palm feels so warm when connected with his.

“i’m glad i’m the first to tell you.”

neuvillette

“oh dear, neuvillette,” you chuckle softly, walking towards him as he takes another sip of his water. he stands in a more secluded corner of the hall, briefly greeting guests with a nod of the head. which is why he stands out like a sore thumb—arctic white hair, designer blue suit and a piercing gaze.

but that gaze doesn’t fool you. the dragon sovereign is probably pondering on retiring for the night and is only still present to keep up with appearances.

“yes, lady y/n?” it’s to nobody’s surprise that he heard you from metres away.

when he turns around, your eyes immediately land on the problem you’ve sensed since you returned from the dancefloor.

“your tie,” you reply, standing in front of his figure, nonchalantly raising your hands in preparation to adjust the garment. “will you allow me to fix it?”

the gears in neuvillette’s mind pause abruptly at your question. he certainly has no problem readjusting his own tie. his hands aren’t holding anything else other than his cup of water—which he can definitely put down on a nearby table!

but why can’t he bring himself to say no?

the ‘of course’ leaves his lips faster than he would have liked, but that’s no matter, your expression shows no sign of displeasure. instead, he watches your sweet smile brighten.

when your fingers reach the tie, neuvillette notices how you tiptoe to reach him. so he does what any normal person would do—he leans down.

it catches you off guard, the tips of your fingers just slightly grazing against his neck in the process. you profusely apologise in whispers to which neuvillette can only chuckle at.

“it is no trouble lady y/n, i appreciate the kind gesture.” the corner of neuvillette’s lips curve, his hands neatly tucked behind him as he allows you to redo his tie.

neuvillette’s lips only seem to further break into a smile as he watches you pat on the tie in completion.

“there, all finished.” you look up at the iudex, chuckling, “you ought to learn how to do this yourself.”

neuvillette hums, “perhaps you could teach me.” he takes your hand, gently brushing his lips against your knuckles before kissing it. “but for now a dance shall suffice, would you care to join me?”

[petrichor-idyllic]

@lu-thinkingstuff I accidentally deleted the original ask (and the entire fuckin fic I'd nearly finished along with it) so have a screenshot of your ask I managed to keep. Sorry.

I'm writing this as a standalone piece, but it can be read as a prequel to quite a few of my pieces if you please.

INDOCTRINATION

MASTERLIST | MINHO MASTERLIST

SUMMARY: See above. I know the request is fem!reader, but I guess this can be read as gender neutral since I don't think I used any pronous to refer to you, apart from you obviously lmao. Follows no cannon events. I am making this shit up. Can be read as a prequel to "Life before Drowning", any other of my fitting work, or as a standalone. Whatever ya want. References to the simulation sky that's in the books - if you're reading this as a movie fic, then let's pretend this is a failed WICKED experiment.

WARNINGS: Inappropriate language, annoying WICKED shenanigans, traumatised children, Ratman.

You met Minho when you were seven. Maybe eight.

The last few weeks had been a blur of chaos you can barely remember. With the Flare finally taking its victims in your hometown, families flocked to their last resort, donating their children to WICKED.

Most children weren't picked.

Of course, they weren't. Most children aren't immune. The occasional normal child was also plucked from the masses and swept away from the warmth of their families to the cold, white walls of WICKED's laboratories. But that was rare, and they were only ever valued as a control variable in whatever twisted experiments they took part in.

Not that you ever knew that.

The potential horrors didn't matter to most parents; yours included. Mothers and Fathers desperately passing their remaining blood to men in masks in hopes of saving their loved ones. There really wasn't much choice.

You were given even less choice as you were one of the lucky ones to be picked.

A white room became your home for several weeks. They made you forget your parents - those parents who willingly passed you into Ava Paige's custody in hopes you'd have at least a fleeting chance of survival on the infected planet.

They took your name, too. Your personality. The few memories you'd managed to develop so young. All of it; gone.

You were almost in a state of shock when they finally said you could leave your pristine tiled prison cell.

Following your capture through the endless high-tech halls and flawless clean corridors, you reach a large dining hall. Several long tables fill the room, along with the high-pitched chattering voices of children. The kids vary in age - some older, some younger, but that doesn't matter. They're all talking.

"Grab your food and find a seat." The booming, hollow voice of the balding man in a labcoat reaches your ears, and you can't even begin to process what he's saying.

"W-what?" Your voice is barely a whisper as you squeak out a response.

"Join the queue, and then find somewhere to sit. Your lunch break doesn't last long." He gives you no chance to ask anything else as he turns and walks back down the corridor. Leaving you with very little choice but to continue into the room.

Getting the food is the easy bit; a tray full of a passing excuse for food and a small cup of juice. Finding somewhere to sit is the problem. You mindlessly search for an empty seat, though your gaze mainly lingers on the masked individuals lining the room; armed and dangerous.

"Psst. Don't stare. They don't like it when you stare."

Your head snaps towards a voice. An Asian boy, about your age, leans over the table top, hand cupped around his mouth as he whisper-yells at you, like he's pretending to be subtle.

"...What?" You stare back at him as a grin creeps across his face as he sits back down.

"Those freaks? Duh? Don't stare at 'em. They'll snap at you." When you don't respond, the boy starts to sense your unease. "...You gonna sit down or what?" He vaguely gestures to the empty space on the bench across from him. It takes you a second to move, but he seems relieved when you do. "You got a name?"

"Uh, (Y/N)... I think."

"You think?" He scoffs as you struggle to get your leg over the slightly wobbly bench. You think it's wobbly, or maybe you're shaking too much; it's hard to tell.

"Well, yeah - that's not my real name, is it?" Your response leaves the boy unsure how to react. You're... not wrong.

"Huh. I guess. I'm Minho." He says with a grin. "And even if it ain't my real name, they made a good choice. It suits me, right?"

For the first time since you'd arrived, you find yourself smiling. Minho is charming, for a kid. He's already got an air of confidence about him, which is almost reassuring in this situation.

"Yeah," you giggle, "I guess it does suit you."

And that is how you met Minho. Reckless, cocky, funny, brilliant Minho. And by brilliant, I mean he is a brilliantly bad influence.

It's not like you got to see him very often - just over lunch and the rare breaks you both got at the same time. But when you did, it was always fun. You even developed a little group, mainly including Minho's friends - he has enough charisma for both of you.

The first time Minho snuck into your room, you were eleven.

It's the middle of the night, the faint sounds of footsteps from WICKED guards echoing through the small white room you reside in at nights. It's all background noise, now, you barely even notice it as you drift off to sleep.

Until the loud clattering of the vent hitting the floor makes you jump out of your skin, shooting up in bed.

"...shit." Minho murmurs as he peers into your room.

"Minho?" You whisper-yell at the sudden intrusion. "What the hell are you doing?"

"I couldn't sleep." He responds, matching your tone as he attempts to clamber out of the vent and onto the safety on the floor below.

"So, you decided to break into my room?" You climb out of bed, coming to assist your best friend as he slides down your wall.

"Yeah. Figured I'd give you a visit."

You cross your arms, eyebrow cocked as you glare at your friend. "Are you insane? We're gonna get in so much trouble if you get caught." You grumble at him, swallowing your initial shock (and your small smile thanks to his presence.)

"So? What are they gonna do?" Minho dusts himself off. "Make me train more? Poke me with another needle? However shall I cope?" His sarcasm results in another eye roll from you, but you can't help but chuckle as you shove him, playfully - but warning.

"They could lock you in your room for a week." A beat passes. "Again."

"Great." He grins. "Means I get some peace. Sleep away my problems."

"You're such a dick."

"You love me, really." He flashes you another signature cocky grin.

You don't even dignify that with a response. "What exactly are we doing then? Just... hanging out in my room?"

Minho hesitates, then looks back at the vent, then you again as a sly smile slowly creeps across his face. "I think I have a better idea."

And that is how you end up crawling through a vent in the middle of the night, and following your chaotic friend through the facility. Minho is a lot calmer than you are; cracking jokes, whistling and generally being a cocky little shit. You, however, are hissing at him every thirty seconds to shut the fuck up.

Somehow, you both stumble into a vacant hall. Well, Minho dragged you through another vent and whilst he gracefully jumped down, you fell in a heap on the floor.

"Christ-" you grumble as you dust yourself off, looking around the room. It's dark, unusually so - the only light creeping in from under the locked door to the room from the buzzing halogen bulbs. "Where are we?"

Despite your low tone, Minho doesn't do much to hide his voice. "Dunno. Damn - this place is huge!" The boy chuckles to himself, dragging his hand across the wall to navigate, the sound of his words, and comfort, creeping away from your reach.

"Minho-" you say into the void, further panic swelling in your gut.

"Yo, I think I found a light switch."

Before you can object that this is a bad idea, there's a hollow click, quickly follow by a binding light.

You weren't expecting it; expecting the same dull bulbs that consume the WICKED labs. But what you get is anything but.

The entire ceiling springs to life, imitating the bright blue of the sky you haven't seen since you found yourself in WICKED's custody.

"Holy shit-" Minho gawks upwards as he stares, too, finally in your line of sight.

The fake sky is scarily realistic - the glow of the sun, the faint fluffy clouds floating across the screen. You're not even sure you could call it a screen, honestly. There's not lines, or glitches or lagging from the technology. It looks so real. Like you could reach out and feel the damp clouds through your fingers, the heat of the sun on your skin.

You look at Minho, who looks at you at the same time. Both of you have no words; how could you? But your silence and exchanges looks say everything words could - what the actual fuck is this?

"...this is.." Minho starts, losing himself quickly.

"..beautiful." You finish for him.

"I was gonna say freaky." He responds, earning a chuckle from you as you wander into the middle of the room. "Hey, there's other buttons-" He says, gesturing to the control panel on the wall that he originally assumed was a light switch.

With the click of his fingers, dark clouds start to fill the fake-sky, creating a dimmer, more stormy atmosphere. But there's no rain. Just clouds.

Those seem to be the only two weather modes as Minho keeps switching between the two. Cloudy and sunny. It's definitely not quite advanced enough to imitate the real thing.

"Look- there's a time monitor." Minho mumbles as he moves a slider. The sky dims, as bright sunset colours fill the ceiling before it creeps into dusk, and then into a series of bright stars.

Minho's goofy grin says enough as he moves away from the controls, joining you in the middle of the room. You barely even notice him until he's crouching the lie on the floor.

"What are you doing?" You raise an eyebrow at him as he moves to lay on his back, looking up.

"Star-gazing, duh. What does it look like?" He says as he smiles at you, before gesturing for you to join him.

"We're gonna get caught-"

"Will you relax?" He chuckles, leaning up on his arms. "When are we ever gonna get a chance to do this for real? Might aswell enjoy it whilst we have the chance."

"It's fake." You cross your arms defiantly.

"Still pretty. Still better than our boring white rooms." He retorts. "C'mon."

You sighs, but relent as you move to lay next to him.

He's right. It really is pretty. The mimic stars sparkle and flutter, and suddenly the labs and the experiments feel worlds away, even if your escape is an extention of your captives skills.

Minho suddenly starts chuckling.

"What? What's so funny?" You say, turning your head to look at him.

"Nothing." He shrugs. "Just thinkin' that if Thomas was here, he'd probably be telling us about all those star thingies."

"...star thingies?"

"Yeah. You know? Those... stars that are, like, in a pattern."

"...constellations?" You can't help the amused smile creeping across your face at your friends ignorance.

"Yeah- those. They got names don't they?" Minho turns to look at you. "Thomas is such a dork. He'd know all of them."

You shake your head as you look back up at the ceiling, but Minho keeps looking at you.

"We should tell the others." You say, not noticing his gaze.

"What?"

"About this room. Newt and Sonya would love this."

"I thought you didn't want to get caught?" He chuckles and you roll your eyes.

"Yeah- but this is cool. They should see it."

A beat passes as Minho continues to look at you. "Nah."

"Nah?" You look at him, surprised by this. He's rebellious and fiery and is normally the first to drag everyone into schemes and fun despite the risks.

"Nah... this is... ours." He says, smiling softly at you, before he shifts slightly to slips his fingers between yours, looking back up. "Just ours."

And that's what it became.

At least once a week, you and Minho would sneak around and into this secret special room. You'd spend hours talking and messing around, and somehow, you didn't get caught. Or maybe some of the kinder WICKED people were turning a blind eye to two kids enjoying themselves.

Who knows.

It was like this for about a year. Maybe a year and a half.

But, things took a turn.

Minho was starting to revieve praise for his athleticism. He became one of the most physically capable subjects, and it was impossible to get him away from a rigged-up treadmill. So, by the end of the day, he was exhausted. Too tired to be crawling around vents with you.

You were thirteen, maybe fourteen when Minho ended up crawling though your vents again.

Hearing the familiar noise, you're out of your bed before he's even here, your bare feet already on the cold floor as he appears.

"Minho-?"

"I know. I know." He grumbles. "I'm sorry." He says, before you can even get so much as a word in, and it leaves you stunned.

"For what?"

"For like... not being here. For neglecting you, I guess." He shrugs as he runs a hand through his hair.

"Neglect-?" You cut yourself off. "Dude, they've been working you to the bone. You don't have to apologise."

He sighs, seemingly of relief. "Yeah, well, I still feel like a dick. You're my best friend."

"Well, you're here now." You attempt to reassure him. "We can go back to the sky room."

He shakes his head. "Nah. I was thinking we could go exploring." He flashes that damn grin at you again.

"...exploring?" You raise a brow, crossing your arms.

"Yeah. Yanno- like me, Newt and Thomas used to do."

"I never joined in with that."

"Well- you should've. And we were exploring when we found the sky room, so you're no so innocent." He chuckles, and you can't help but admit he's right. Yet, he continues at your hesitation. "Look, we found that room by chance. Surely there's more cool and interesting things to find. I'm getting bored of looking at the same fake sky everyday."

Something in that comment stings. You'd never gotten bored of that pretend sky. Maybe because you'd always been with him - and you could never get bored of him.

"C'mon." He drags out the syllable. "One night of exploration. Just one. Who knows how far they'll be making me run from now on. Better take the chance whilst you have it."

You playfully shove him at this. "...fine. One time only. Okay?"

"Okay." He smiles. "Let's go."

So, once again, you find yourself creeping around the sleeping facility with your far too confident best friend.

Though, when Minho reaches a locked door, you would've never expected him to slip an excess card out of his shoe, swiping it into the card reader.

"What? Where did you get that?" You hiss, wide-eyed and stunned.

"Some dumb lab-coat dude left it on the side. So, I picked it up. Finders, keepers." He says as he pushes the door open.

Sneaky around is one thing, finding hidden rooms through vents - but stealing an ID card is something else. You're literally never going to see each other again if you get caught. Not that you get chance to voice your concerns as Minho walks into the room.

This sinking feeling creeps into your gut, yet, you can't find it in yourself to tell Minho. What if he really is starting to find you boring? Being whiney to him about this would only confirm that. You don't need him getting closer with someone else, especially not the flocks of girls in the dining hall who have started taking interest in the boy since he started his physical training.

Okay. Maybe this is creeping beyond friendship. It was years ago, but you're always thinking about the way he held your hand the first time you found that room. How it was just yours. Your special place, just for the two of you. And he doesn't want to go there anymore?

You've never felt so insecure.

So, you keep quiet.

The first room is full of labelled chemicals you don't understand.

The second is full of strange, clouded tubes, with slimy, creatures with metal arms. Even Minho was eager to leave that one - to remain ignorant for his own bliss, pulling you along once you stop to stare into the tubes. You suspect Thomas mentioned something to him. Thomas has always been Ava's favourite.

Though, the third is far less scary. It's a office - well, more like a small library with a computer and a desk. Filing cabinets liter the walls with endless documents.

Minho lets out a low whistle. "A computer." He grins, casually sliding into the office chair as he starts fiddling with the computer. Having most of the common sense in this friendship, you've assumed that the computer is password locked.

Which is confirmed by Minho's hushed cursing.

So, you start looking through the documents in the drawers. A lot of them are medical files and general testing that you don't really understand.

Though, a few documents contain blueprints and titles such as "the Maze Trails" and "The Scorch Trails". They're detailed and confusing.

"Minho-" you gets his attention, passing him the notes as he's distracted from the computer, a puzzled expression crossing his face as he looks through them.

He doesn't get much time to comment as you find another interesting drawer; labelled "Subjects."

Flicking through a few, you recognise the pictures of the people you've spent the last few years with. Teresa. Thomas. Gally.

You stumble upon Minho's- grinning at his awful mugshot style photo. A7. The Leader. They've already got him marked down pretty faithfully.

Though, something consistent through all the documents is the phrase "status: Immune." Something about that stands out to you, for some reason.

That is until you reach Newt's file.

Staus: Nonimmune. Control Variable.

Nonimmune?

Nonimmune.

"Uh, Minho-?"

"These maps are insane." He mumbles, still examining the blueprints. "Do you reckon these are those big plans Thomas is always yapping about?" He picks his head up to look at you, noticing your face drop, concern written throughout your features. "What? What is it?"

"...we're all immune to the Flare, right? That's why they're testing us. To find a cure?" You don't even look up at him.

"Yeah..? Why else would we be here?" His grin is there, same as always, but now it's uneasy and uncertain. You look at him, before walking over and slapping Newt's file onto the table.

It takes him a moment to catch on, but when he does, his face drops, and he just looks at you.

Before any words are exchanged, footsteps can be heard from down a corridor.

"Shit-" you both scramble, collecting all the papers and stuffing them in whatever drawer they came from (or whichever is closest.)

It's a mad dash to get out of the room - adrenaline and fear coursing through you both. You didn't even find your own file.

Are you immune? Could the Flare get you?

Little do you know, Minho is internally freaking out over the same thing.

In your panic, your silence evades you, which alerts whatever guard was prowling the building.

"Quick! Up here!" Minho commands as he struggles to open a vent, giving you a leg up before yanking himself up the wall and diving in.

You don't even know where you're crawling to, you're just trying to rush away. But, eventually, it goes quiet, only the sounds of yours and Minho's panting in the small vent system.

"We have to tell Newt." You say, managing to turn in the small space to face him. Minho hesitates for a moment, but nods.

Of course you have to tell him.

"Yeah, at lunch, tomorrow. We'll tell him. But right now, we have to get back to our rooms. They'll be checking." You nod in agreement. "Let's get you back first."

Minho has a far better memory than you, leading you back to the safety of the room before he turns to navigate the way back to his.

"Minho-" you say, turning to look at him once your feet hut the floor, a sense of dread overwhelming you.

"..yeah?"

You can only look at him. There's so much you want to say, but none of it want to come out. Some deep gut feeling screams at you that this is the end, but you tell yourself you're being silly.

His blank expression pushes you to talk, though.

"Just.. be careful."

He offers a warm smile, but rolls his eyes. "Yeah, yeah. I'll be fine. Don't worry about me. See you at lunch tomorrow."

Your attempt to mimic his expression falls flat as he shimmies back into the vent and on his way.

You didn't know how accurate your instincts would be.

The next day, you make your way to the lunch hall. You're late- your lab testing ended up being longer than possible. But when you enter the dining hall, Minho's absence is quickly noted.

Though, you do spot Newt. Maybe Minho's running has gone overtime, again?

"Newt-" you shout him, jogging across the hall. "Have you seen Minho? We need to talk to you."

Newt doesn't even have to say anything as he glances at Thomas, whose eyes are burning into the table in front of him. There's some sense of desperation in Newt's expression, mixed with grief and regret, but like he can't say anything.

It makes your stomach flip and your heart stop as you open your mouth to speak, but you don't get any sound out.

"(Y/N)." Janson's annoying voice sends a chill down your spine as you turn to look at him. Two guards stand by his sides, his forced grimace doesn't reach his cold, unforgiving gaze. "I need a word."

Janson gestures for you to walk with him and you swallow a lump in your throat. Your first instinct is to run. Like Minho thought you. But in a room full of people? It's not like your quiet escapades in the middle of the night.

Your feet are like concrete as you force yourself to walk towards him.

Janson walks in front of you, the guards behind you. You're trapped, and even if you did run, that wouldn't change anything as he leads you into a room. It's a room you're familiar with.

It's where you have one-on-one progress conversations with Janson to discuss how you're doing. Minho spent more time in here than you ever did, but that doesn't mean the confines space doesn't fill you with anxiety, even in normal circumstances.

You take your place in the cold chair as Janson sits across from you, the slab of metal that is meant to be a table keeping you separated feels like a godsend. Though, not much of one with the guards breathing down your neck.

"...Where's Minho?" You manage to croak, attempting to mimic your missing friends confidence.

"He's been dealt with." Janson says, and your blood runs cold.

"What- what does that mean?"

"I'm sure you already know what that means. From your adventures last night." The world stops.

You knew.

You knew it was a bad idea and your own insecurities led you to keeping your mouth shut and hiding away from your concerns. What? Because of a stupid crush? Your own feelings of inadequacy have led to Minho's demise. And it's soul-crushing.

"I-I don't understand." You words falter, any false confidence quickly shattering.

"It's a shame. Really. It is." Janson nods as he leans forward, his elbows on the table. "We let yours and Subject A7's strange relationship slide because it was showing promising results. New waves in the Killzone we were examining. I knew we should've stopped it." He sighs. "...and now, you know too much."

"Where is he?" You spit, fists clenched, unused adrenaline causing you to tremble.

"I told you." Janson hisses. "You already know. But don't worry. You're not going to remember any of this." Janson nods towards the guards.

"What-" your words catch at a sharp sting in the side of your neck as one of the masked-men injects a burning liquid into you. You gasp, grasping the side of your neck. "What have you done?"

Your words slur slightly as a dull buzz fizzles into your vision, your head feeling light.

"My job." Janson leans back as he watches you sway in your seat. "What was always going to happen."

You can't even respond as your limp body slips out of the seat, and your consciousness leaves you before you even hit the floor.

WHOOP WHOOP. 1K BABYYYYY.

I guess this is my 1k follower post - and it's angst. That's typical of me. Sorry for the massive gap since I last posted something, but everyone's support has given me a drive to write. Well, at least finish writing this. Sorry if its not everything you wanted, but I've always felt there's something so much sadder about not getting that chance to say goodbye to someone, and things fizzing out instead of a bang.

Anyway, I hope you enjoyed :)

[withahappyrefrain]

this one is so cute! 🍂🍁🍃

A stands in a queue when they notice a leaf stuck in the hair/on the clothes of the person in front of them. They offer to remove it for them.

for bob and maeve?

AHHHH so excited to start writing for these two! And of course I had to bring in Bradley and Birdie! ❤️❤️ Enjoy!

Fall in San Diego was different. By the time October started rolling, the average temperature had cooled down to a ‘crisp’ seventy degrees. Chunky sweaters were traded in for light cardigans. Sure, you could wear a scarf, but not a functional one. Gone were the days of needing gloves.

It was a stark difference from the east coast.

Gone was the scenic view of mountains and orchards. In its place were micro-breweries and overpriced wineries. But also gone was a shitty ex husband. In its place, the unknown.

At least the farmer markets here still sold apple butter.

It was a consolidation prize for Maeve. She was forever grateful that Nora wanted to show her around, but that also meant third wheeling for Nora and her fiancé. Worse, they were sickeningly in love. She had never been so happy for her best friend, but also so fucking jealous at the same time.

So she would enjoy these last few moments, while Nora was trying to find her partner amidst the crowd. They tried to not make her feel bad, but being around them reminded Maeve how alone she had become.

Wait, did that guy have a leaf on his back?

Upon squinting her hazel eyes, she saw that man standing in front of her did in fact, have a leaf on the back of his plaid shirt.

Should she- oh thank God, he was reaching for it. Now Maeve wouldn't have to look at it while standing in line.

Nope. Despite his long arms, the leaf had wedged itself in a place where he couldn't reach. Oh God, was she going to have to watch him struggle the whole time?

Wanting to save her sanity outweighed her dislike of talking to strangers.

"I can get it for you, the leaf. If you want?"

He turned around to reveal a face that made her heart flutter. Bright blue eyes, bluer than the ocean. Tortoiseshell glasses that framed his face. Sunkissed hair, tousled in waves. A button nose that brought a sense of sweetness to him. A smattering of faded freckles, no doubt from hours upon hours of being out in the sun.

"Could you? That would be great, otherwise it's gonna bother me all day?" His voice was smooth as whiskey, a rural upbringing lacing his words.

But what was most astounding was his smile. The way his thin pink lips contorted to form a small, slightly crooked smile. The creases that formed around his oceanic eyes, showing years of smiles and laughter.

God, he just looked kind. The type that Maeve always wondered what it would be like to have. To see first thing in the morning and the last thing when she closed her eyes at night.

"M'am?" It didn't come across as condescending, it was actually charming. It was also said in such a deep vibrato that Maeve to snap out of whatever the fuck those last two minutes was.

It's been three months, for fuck sake's Maeve.

Why would he even be interested in you?

This is why you're a twenty-eight year old divorceé.

Maeve nodded as she mentally scolded herself, "Absolutely, not a problem."

Bob turned around, despite not wanting to. He would rather focus on the umber curls that framed her face. Or the way shades of hickory and green swirled together in her eyes. His favorite had to be how her eyes squinted when she smiled. His mother would call that as having 'smiley eyes' when he was a child.

Jesus Christ, we're really desperate now.

It wouldn't end well for you anyways. Never does.

That's why you're thirty-four and still single, Robert.

So in a way, he was grateful to turn around, as it was a chance to get himself together.

That lasted for maybe ten seconds. Bob couldn't tell if touch was incredibly gentle or if she wasn't touching him. So he turned his head, catching her reaching out.

The eye contact made Maeve freeze for a beat or two. Once Bob flashed her that sweet smile, she found the strength to continue, internally marveling at how soft his shirt felt.

He must use fabric softener. Maybe he attends this market regularly. Maybe-

It's been three months.

Yes, three months since the document was signed and it was made official legally. But the acceptance of a unsustainable marriage had occured a year ago.

She held up the leaf for effect, "You want to keep it as memorabilia?"

Bob chuckled, making Maeve feel warm all over, as if she had just drank mulled cider, "No, no, I think I'm good. But I'd love to buy that for you as a way to say thanks."

This time it was her turn to shake her head, "Oh, it was nothing! Just a leaf." Bob noticed that when she shook her head, the curls that had fallen over his forehead shook slightly.

God, she was adorable. Absolutely, completely endearing.

"Yeah, but that would have bothered me the whole time I was with my friends. I wouldn't have been able to focus on anything else," he grinned, "Plus you had no issue talking to a complete stranger. That's gotta be commended."

A laugh escapes from her rosey lips, "I usually hate talking to strangers." Fuck, why would you even say that?

If he found it odd, the handsome stranger didn't visibly or vocally show it, "Yeah, I'm not a huge fan of that either. Again, gotta be commended."

She looked down at the jar of apple butter, "It would be faster if you paid for mine. I'm meeting some friends too."

"Happy to serve," the unintentional pun about his career was lost on her. At least he could bring it up to Mickey, who would get a good laugh out of it. And his wife Cielo too. And then they would probably do something sweet, like kiss while holding hands, unintentionally reminding Bob how utterly alone it felt coming home from work every day.

Their hands brushed against one another when Maeve transferred the jar to Bob. He turned around, partly to see if he needed to step forward, partly to hide the smile on his face.

Had he turned around, he would have seen the same smile on her face. One that was full of excitement, felt for the first time in years. Just like him.

Eventually, he looked back, this time mainly to see if his friends were amidst the crowd of shoppers.

He felt the need to explain, out of fear of coming across as creepy, "My friend went looking for his fiancé. She's bringing her best friend."

What a coincidence, Nora's fiancé was bringing a friend too.

Yeah, to help you feel less shitty about always being their third wheel.

"Well does your friend have any idea where his fiancé could be?" Maeve asked as Bob paid for the two jars of apple butter.

"Oh yeah, Birdie's first stop is always the Takyaki stand," Bob paused, "Birdie isn't her real name, it's just-"

"Do you mean Nora?" Maeve's voice was now timid. Blood rushing through her veins, wondering if it was too good to be true.

Bob stopped in his tracks, brows knitting together, "How do you know her name?"

Before Maeve could explain, two new voices interrupted.

"Bob?" "Maeve?"

Turning around revealed Nora (who many referred to as 'Birdie'), who was holding the hand of her fiancé, Bradley (who at work was referred to as 'Rooster').

Bob and Maeve turned their attention back to one another, realization hitting like a brick wall.

He's the kindest guy I know. You'll love him.

She's honestly just the sweetest. It's a damn shame what happened.

They're like you. They've been through similar shit.

"You're Maeve?" He had a long finger pointed at her (God his hands were huge) but it wasn't accusing.

Maeve felt at ease, like a weight had been lifted off her shoulders as she nodded, her eyes creasing due to her smile.

There were those smiley eyes that made his knees weak.

"I am and you're Bob? Just Bob, right? No totally random, work nickname?" With anyone else, it would have been demeaning. A few years ago, Bob would have taken offense.

But his shoulders were feeling lighter these days thanks to the past actually staying in its namesake more often.

"Well, my full name is Robert. I have some family who call me Rob, some call me Robby but that's because I gave them explicit permission to do so, not everyone reaches that level. And then some of my friends call me Bobby. So in terms of work nickname, you're correct, it's not totally random." His eyes were so expressive, it was memorizing to watch.

Charming. He was actually charming.

"Well, I think having multiple nicknames that are based off of your actual name is better than having one and it's a children's game or bird," she turned her head to flash a smile, "No offense Bradley."

Bradley, who was used to her strong opinions on call signs and now only a foot away, simply rolled his eyes, "No offense taken Maeve. But we do call him Bagman, remember?"

A coy smile spread across her face, something Bob found so endearing.

"So you two....know each other?" Nora asked, raising an eyebrow. She swears she would have remembered her best friend meeting one of her fiancé's best work friends.

"We actually just met. Maeve saved me from an afternoon of trying to reach a spot on my back to get rid of a leaf," Bob explained, gently putting his hand on Maeve's shoulder. His touch was pleasant, considerate even.

"Bob got me some apple butter as a thank you," Maeve held up the jar while looking down, hoping no one would notice the rosy hue that was spreading across her face.

"Which, I assume is to make your famous cinnamon sugar apple butter pie?" Bob now turned to her, his eyes lit up with excitement.

Catching her confused expression, Bob jumped in, "When you left a pie after visiting Birdie, Bradley brought in leftovers. It was a huge hit, I still think about it."

Charlie always had an issue with whatever she cooked. Too salty. Not healthy babe. Why are you even making that?

But Charlie wasn't here. He was on the east coast, no doubt trying to find another gullible person to invest in one of his bullshit 'ideas'.

Instead there was Bob, who had a sparkle in his eyes. Who had not only heard about you, but remembered details too.

God, the bar was so fucking low.

Meanwhile, Bob hadn't thought about Cassie once since meeting the curly, raven haired woman with the most adorable smile he had ever seen.

"Well, given the lack of a paper bag in Nora's hand, I'd say it's time we head to the Hog Haven stand and get some breakfast sandwiches," Maeve suggested, hoping it would turn the attention away from her.

"Absolutely! I know Bob wanted to stop by the pickling stand for Sauerkraut and that's on the way!" Nora grabbed Bradley's hand, and walked forward, leaving Bob and Maeve to walk side by side.

Almost as if it was planned that way.

"What's the Sauerkraut for?" Maeve asked, secretly noticing how he slowed his stride to match hers.

"I'm making Bigos. It means 'Hunter Stew' in Polish. My mom made it for me and my siblings all the time growing up. She's back in Wisconsin, and since it's finally 'cooled down' here, figured it was a good time to make it."

Bob can't remember the last time he felt this talkative to someone new. Usually it takes hours, sometimes even multiple outings for him to warm up. And that was if he liked the person's company.

It took him two months to warm up to Jake.

But something about Maeve had him talking a mile a minute. Even Bradley had turned around to raise his eyebrows at how much Bob was talking. He had to be careful; the last thing he needed was to be in the same situation he was in six years ago.

"I'm not super familiar with Polish food- other than bagels and pierogi's- but I'd like to learn more about it," her voice was sweet, albeit slightly reserved. Not wanting to appear too eager, or insinuate anything.

"I have a whole box of recipes from my mom and Aunts and Grandma. I can bring it next time-" He paused. No, don't assume. Never assume. "I can pass it on to Bradley who can give it to Birdie. Whichever you prefer."

"We can leave y'all to talk to each other if you want!" Bradley called out before turning his attention back to Nora.

"I have a feeling this won't be the last time we see each other. Not if those two lovebirds have anything to say about it." Her comment brought out a laugh in Bob, which in turn caused a big smile to break out across Maeve's face.

"Glad I'm not the only one who calls them that. Everyone else says it's too cheesy." "Well, those people have no love or appreciation for puns. Luckily for you Robby, I do."

He didn't correct her. In fact, he liked how the name sounded coming from her pink lips.

"Maybe we can keep talking about puns and recipes while they," Bob pointed to Bradley and Nora, who were currently holding hands and exchanging (what they thought to be) sneaky kisses, "Are themselves."

"So they act this way around you too?" Maeve's eyes lit up, relieved she wasn't the only one who had to deal with the most sickeningly sweet couple on the planet, "Being a third wheel with them is rough."

The two had now stopped at the pickles goods stand, ignoring their friends who had invited them out.

"I think it's going well! I never saw her smile this much with Charlie," Nora whispered excitedly, unable to take her green eyes off of Maeve and Bob.

"I'd say so," Bradley looked at Nora, not needing to see that his friend was talking to Maeve with a gleam in his blue eyes, a rare sight, "You know it's not going to happen overnight, right?"

"I'm aware. But I think they're off to a good start," Nora grinned. The sight of her best friend, looking the happiest she's seen in the past year, kept her bounce on her toes.

Bob and Maeve were indeed, off to a good start.

[byeuijoo]

amusement park 𐀔 &team

genre : fluff ⋆ warnings : none? ⋆ word count : 0,9k

⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀ ୨ ✩ ୧

⭒ k

he's the kind of guy who, when he notices you're cold in line for an attraction, will open his coat for you to cuddle up to him for warmth. expect him to place kisses against your forehead and temple, gazing at you with such adoration that the people behind you will watch you with envy. often lures you into hidden corners to steal you a kiss or two, then runs away to avoid you hitting him in embarrassment. he always tries to make you laugh and see you smile, but he also loves to scare you when you're both in the haunted house.

⭒ fuma

makes sure you're not afraid every time. places his hand in front of you on thrill rides, as if to protect you, even if there's a seat belt. do everything in his power to win you a really big plush toy (and to prove to you that he's the best at the same time). he's really your superhero — he guides you around the park like a pro and avoids people pushing you around at all costs. your safety is his top priority.

⭒ nicholas

he's so calm, you're always the one talking and showing him everything that catches your eye around you. he approves and accepts absolutely all your ideas : you want to ride the ghost train three times in a row? no problem. you want to go to the ride with the longest wait? he's already in the queue. leans in to chat with you, your hand always in his, the latter concealed in his coat pocket. at the end of the day, you've spent more time walking around than riding anything, but who cares as long as you're together? (but, all the girls around you are jealous that he only has eyes for you.)

⭒ euijoo

he's such an angel, and you're the one who can't resist him and his pretty smile. he loves doing things with you, and if running around in a crowded amusement park made you happy — then he will follow you to the end of the day, always smiling. but don't worry, he's having fun too, especially when you've bought matching headbands featuring the park's mascot before taking photos together. but his favorite thing to do with you, was the ferris wheel at the beginning of the evening, when the sun begins to set and the sky takes on a rosy hue, and you're snuggled up in his arms, eyes fixed on the same horizon.

⭒ yuma

he absolutely don't want to go, but you ended up convincing him anyway. so at first, he tries to make googly eyes at you to convince you to go back home, but when he realizes he won't be able to change your mind, he decides to put a little more willpower into your date. but you must follow one rule : no thrill rides with him. he's up for the chill rides, the flying chairs and the laser game, but not for rides that go as fast as the speed of light and make him dizzy. in the end, he decides to let you win just to see you smile in victory (or he just sucks but won't admit it).

⭒ jo

if you thought you'd come with jo to the amusement park to ride the rides, you were sorely mistaken. you're here to try out all the sweets and restaurants in the park, one after the other. lucky for him that you like to eat as much as he does — so you don't mind coming to the amusement park to taste the good stuff. nonetheless, you still manage to do a few not-so-sensational attractions — like the little train that circles the park like a guided tour. it's one of your favorite things : eating delicious mochis while observing the surroundings without walking.

⭒ harua

he will acts like a shy child but don't hesitate to do all the attractions with you. at first, he'll be a little reserved, but within an hour, he'll be guiding you through the amusement park and getting you to do exactly what he wants. what he prefers to do is the giant cups spinning at high speed, giving you the impression that the world is spinning around you when you put your foot down again. he always makes sure you're having fun, and if he sees you're not enjoying it, he finds something else to keep you entertained. at the end of the day, he takes you to a nice restaurant where they serve your favorite dishes to thank you for the day.

⭒ taki

he's kinda afraid and didn't want to come in the first place, but when he saw your excited expression, he couldn't resist you. he follows you around the park like a lazy child, walking in slow motion to keep you both as far away as possible to the thrill rides. but he's willing to go to the haunted house with you, promising to protect you even if he's the one who ends up screaming and running away, abandoning you to ghosts and demonic apparitions. but to make up for such a betrayal, he'll always buy you your favorite ice cream, which you'll enjoy while sitting next to each other on one of the many pretty benches.

⭒ maki

too much energy duo : people watch you run around, hand in hand, trying not to get lost, to do as much attraction as possible in as little time as possible. you also battle to prove which of you screams louder in the ghost train and pirate ship. competition is something serious between you two, so much that even the animators of the various attractions take to the game and encourage you both, in their own way. one time, you stood on either side of the pirate ship, challenging the other participants in the attraction to shout along with you, and the one whose side screamed the least, paid the other one a barbapapa. (spoiler alert : your side win.)

⠀

reblogs & feedbacks are highly appreciated !

taglist ౨ৎ @wtfhyuck @yuma-is-mine

[stillness-in-green]

First of all, thank you for Bring It All Back. Gave me chills. Second, what do you think about the newest chapters? It seems like Izuku took Gran Torino's 'killing to save' ideology to heart. Personally, I gave up somewhere around the Nagant arc.

Belatedly, thank you very much, @kermitthekrog-blog!  I’m glad you enjoyed it, and I’m particularly always happy to hear people say it was chilling, upsetting, enraging, or other such disruptive adjectives.  It’s a rabble-rouser of an art project, to be sure, quite intentionally so.

As to the rest, I’ve made a few posts here and there since I got this ask which probably make my opinions pretty clear, and I’ve got a new ask in the queue which wants to know my thoughts on the epilogue material thus far, so I’ll have more to say there!  But in the meantime, yeah, it’s pretty appalling to think back to all Deku’s talk about “saving” Shigaraki and realize that all of it predates the Gran Torino scene?

Like, he thinks he wants to save Shigaraki when they part ways at the end of the first war arc, sure!  And he tells the vestiges he wants to save Shigaraki!  But does that specific word choice endure once he wakes up?  Well, @codenamesazanka did some hunting recently (you can find two posts about her rereads here and here) and, it turns out, no; it doesn't.

After Deku wakes up and talks to Gran Torino, the focus switches to Deku understanding Shigaraki, choosing not to ignore him, finding out the nature of the Crying Child, all that stuff.  That word completely stops coming out of Deku's mouth, and very shortly after stops coming from any of the OFA vestiges as well.

It really does read, in retrospect, like, yeah, he sincerely took Gran Torino’s words at face value and to heart. “Killing can be a way of saving, so I can save him by killing him.”

Heck, if anything, given how little he focuses after that on saving, it almost feels like that’s the moment he resolves to kill Shigaraki—rather conveniently, it allows him a way to make peace with extrajudicial murder and avenge himself for all the people Shigaraki’s hurt that Deku can’t forgive him for.

The only thing that’s different from just killing him outright is that Deku wants to understand him first, as if he has to verify for himself that Shigaraki is secretly unhappy and why so he can justify that save-by-killing—putting Shigaraki out of whatever misery Deku can make himself believe Shigaraki is in—with a clean conscience.  But he absolutely does not make any further promises about not killing him afterward.

Grim fucking stuff, but it lines up.  One wonders what he would have done if the Shigaraki in the mindscape had changed to Sweet Innocent Tenko and never reverted back to Shigaraki Tomura at any point.  Would Deku have tried not to punch him to death?  Tried to call for Eri or Recovery Girl after AFO’s vestige faded out?  Felt like more of a failure because the “person” VFO devoured would have been that cute kid, meaning Deku failed to save the “child”?

As it is, he mostly just seems vaguely discouraged and unhappy about Shigaraki staying “the leader of the League” until the end—would he have preferred that his hands were ashen and flaking with the powdered remains of the crying child instead?

As to me giving up, the Nagant fight is one of two places I'd put that pin.  I was discouraged by the first war arc, when so many of the advantages Shigaraki had gained over the course of MVA were stripped away from him again.  I was dissatisfied with the second encounter with Muscular, when Deku's "victory" was framed in such a heroic, triumphant light despite being a categorical failure based on the standard Deku seemed to have set for himself.  But Deku’s fight with Lady Nagant was so bad for so many reasons that it served as the first true hammer blow to my belief that Horikoshi would be willing or able to seriously grapple with the societal problems the manga had been building up to at that point.

My patience with the manga, and the enjoyment I derived from it, continued to deteriorate throughout the rest of that arc and the following war arc, but the hospital attack is the other place I would point to as the sequence that completely destroyed my engagement with the series.

Just—the naked contrivances of it, the excruciating treatment of Spinner, the howling tone-deafness, the monumental unfairness of the demands it laid at the feet of its oppressed minority. The series presents a backstory like Shouji’s alongside current story elements like heteromorphs being turned away from shelters in the supposedly accepting and quirk-blind big cities and still somehow comes out valorizing passive endurance so hard it starts to look like willful self-subjugation.

It is the most comprehensively noxious moral in the entire endgame, rivaled only by Deku’s murder of Shigaraki under the guise of “saving” him, and frankly? I would still put that one in second place. At least you can point to Shouto (and possibly Ochaco, though that remains to be seen) as an indication that save-by-killing is not a story-wide moral about villains who have “gone too far.”

Conversely, pretty much everything the hospital attack mini-arc winds up preaching can be read outward onto the rest of the story's antagonists as well, including Lady Nagant. What else to make of her exchange with Hawks The Optimist, after all, than that the conclusion is that she should have just kept murdering whoever the government told her to until some outside player solved her problem for her?

A Hero is someone who is willing to suffer in silence. A Villain, then, must be someone who refuses to.

Truly, the hospital attack is the poisoned well that wipes out the entire village.

[lizaluvsthis]

SMG4: Trash Friends

Shit. Hello guys- I stole my phone and it is currently 4 am and I posted this (Because it's scheduled on queue)

I'm still not here but I managed to grab the phone out of the room, I can post for a bit. But then again, I wont be catching up to stuff while I'm at it.

Okay so- this video is about SMG4 needing that usb where michael jordan is n stuff to become popular.

SMG3 is needing that one to become popular as well so that his shop would be flooded by customers.

And then where it comes to needing stuff, they'd do literally anything for their 'friends' to get it.

SMG3 lied to him saying the business is running good, he just didnt want to face the problem in front of the protagonist that he's going downhill with running the business.

"I'm finally gonna get the attention I deserve, and prove to everyone YOU'RE THE WORST VERSION OF ME!"

This? This was his thoughts. This is how it speaks for him that is why he was afraid to show that to him.

After SMG3 told Mario he needs that usb for Fame and Love because SMG4 has too much of that. He knew how much important it is to him. He wanted the same love like how SMG4 has, he'd never had all the attention like how SMG4 had too. He was lost of himself.

Mario being the gullible idiotic man he is, he never complained to three about his speak of truth, he had comforted his friends especially meggy. Mario figured that Three had exposed his inner emotions, the most that he can do is just vomit that sh-t out.

Right after Three hid Mario from his hat, turns out he really does need shampoo. I mightve noticed that he'd been staying up late at night and doesn't shower because of his bad habits.

Sometimes depressed people mostly forgot to shower and just cope sh-ts to themselves like curling up to the bed and wallow in sorrow. And mostly they just hide that feeling. And I guess you might've noticed SMG4 did. Thats the reason why he searched that up from the internet.

He was THIS obviously close to reveal he had been concerned about Three because he stinks.

When SMG4 told three what the matter was, since the only thing he knew from him is that his business is doing fine. SMG4 thought that three wanted that fame all to himself, being the selfish one he knew back then.

After four told him "you're being selfish! All you ever think about is yourself! JUST. LET. GO!" the soft spot where SMG3 got his by the heart because of it.

He never wanted to go back to being how he wanted to be. He never wanted to show that whole destruction thing again from his ecil doings. This was the rrason why he ever wanted to change into a better person.

"OKAY!" "Okay...?" SMG4 noticed where Three easily surrendered himself, letting his guard down due to his anger.

He opened up.

"YEAH! I dont know what I was thinking! I'm doing fine! My shop is ALWAYS flooded with customers, I'm SO successful. Nobody is EVER throwing my coupons in garbage.

AND I DEFINITELY DON'T FEEL LIKE THE WORST VERSION OF YOU THAT LIKES TO PRETEND HE'S DOING FINE!"

HE said that to himself. When he thought he'd be the worst ever version of him, because he was supposed to be an antagonist. He was supposed to be SMG4's enemy, but he was also supposed to be partners with Four because they were both meme guardians.

SMG4 didn't knew. He always didnt know all of SMG3's antics because he thought Three also had everything to himself. But he didn't know he also felt like this, like Trash.

SO THIS GOES ON WITH THE MORAL. SMG4 noticing it just now is that he felt like TRASH. Because last time he'd ever notice is just Three wanting attention of how the golden child (aka SMG4) is when he gains that love and joy with everyone from meme warts.

Yet Three is there saying that to himself. He was there being open to Four and to Mario that he is struggling as well. His whole life, his financial issues, everything that meant to him. He popped the balloon and spoke the truth.

Four picked up the coupon, he was sad about this when he had finally just realized the whole sh-t of things. Sure four has done alot of wrong things but this? This is sick to his guts feeling bad for three...

Four looked at mario because he knows how valuable of a friend Mario is when dealing with emotions and open ups. And so- he got to the talk with three.

With all thats settled, SMG3 came back and fist bumbs Four to know that he's good now. What I also didn't expect is that three after using the usb, Four didn't even stop him. He looks at three with those softened eyes and just. Wow.

Four really wanted to show three his kindness, he was soft on him so he gave him a chance. He wanted three to be happy too.

[demonshauntingthedoves]

Chapter 1

Perfedious : A disloyal and faithless person.

Pairing : Yandere!Seokjin x female reader (Mirae)

Summary : You had dreamt of a beautiful man who held a diamond ring in his hand for you and the dream had come true when you saw Seokjin holding the same diamond ring and he slipped it on - your sister's finger - not yours. Sometimes what you want happens in the worst way possible.

Warnings : Heavy Angst, Family Problems, Age gap, Dilf, Dub-Con, Infidelity, Affair, Toxic Behaviour, Eventual Yandere, Eventual Smut, Just wait for Seokjin's dark Pov [hehehe].

WordCount : 4200+

The bus engine roars to life and so does your heart, anticipating to be free from the weight it holds. As the vehicle pulls away from the curb, you sank deeper into your sit. You closed your eyes and drew out a sigh- surrendering and letting the bus drag you away from the sins you ploughed behind. Your weary eyes were fixated on the window, watching the cityscape fade away gradually. Slowly the streets grew smaller and blurrier.

You glimpsed at your reflection in the windowpane- hollow eyes tiredly fluttering. You saw the reminder of your pain decorating the red rims of your swollen eyes and that was enough to make your tears well up again. You clasped your lashes shut, guilty tears running down your pale cheeks.

In times when everything got too much. Too unbearable.

You'd done one and only one thing and that was runaway.

You'd go away.

Far away from home.

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

Harsh remarks, biting sarcasm, belittling words, that was all your mother had for you. Maybe that was what came as second nature to all mothers. They often nagged and ranted to their children.You'd even asked your friend Ari, if her mother also shouted at her all the time.

"Yeah, she scolds me but she always hugs me and caresses me after that." You ten year old friend had told you.

But your mother never did the latter part. She'd just leave you all sad and sobbing alone.

No loving words, no soft caress and no motherly warmth. You never got that. Atleast not after your father left home untold. It was after that day, her resentment towards you and your sister grew like a dark creeper. You'd never known the reason until one day you did.

"Your father left me because I couldn't give him a son!! There was no other reason for him to leave!!" She had spat irrationally on your faces.

It had hurt a lot at the sprouting age of twelve when she called you and your sister a liability. Minsu was older by eight years. Despite getting the same harsh treatment as you, you'd always thought she was at least lucky to have spent more years in the presence of father when everything was well. Unlike you who got no parental love and care.

Your mother had nothing to give you except her indifference.

No love.

No warmth.

And at some point, you stopped craving and begging for it as a child.

As the irritable years went by, it became more and more unnerving. And you no longer wanted to live like a quiet and depressed child, so you rebelled. You'd throw back comments and on queue the whole house would fill with shouts and screams. You were a total of three ladies in the house but the volume of noises that were heard outside were ten folds.

Your mother didn't wavered by your teenage rebellion. She just got more chances to cause drama. Reasonless arguing and condescending words.

Even public humiliation, the one time she came to meet your homeroom teacher. Nothing was worse when Miss.Choi had awkwardly asked you if she was your stepmother because indeed she treated you like one.

It became so exhausting that you gave up on fights and found ways to escape.

You stayed extras in school, went for night camps and trips, you just ran away from home.

This kept you away from your mother's temper tantrums for days.

You'd sleep more peacefully under the open starry sky than the roof of your own home.

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

You were seventeen, when you had quite fortunately stumbled into this good-looking young man.

That time your nose had almost flared in anger looking at the feets of the stranger who had made you fall down until you looked up to see a handsome face.

That was the very first time you saw Seokjin.

Your face had changed from a dark shade of red to light shade of pink as you awed beautiful man.You were literally ogling at him from your tumbled down position.He was in his creaseless suit and dress pants.You had pretended to not notice the buckle of your knees when you took in his appearance.

How could a person be so handsome?

Your next camping trip was filled with whispers and giggles about the handsome man you had encountered and quite obviously got a little crush on. Your friend Ari had teased you all along the trip.She'd winked and nudged you with mischievous eyes and playful smile whenever you both shared a task and left you flustered.

It was under the canvas tents, that Ari had filled your head with intriguing and exciting scenarios about the man while chattering like a gleeful cat who was happy for her best friend to find a man for herself. Though it was far from the truth.

That day a tender symphony had played faintly in your heart.

That night, you had dreamt about him out of your impending fascination and admiration. 'His broad back; adorned in a white tuxedo; facing you. And then he turned back slowly- you stared at his beutific face, then his styled hair, then his pillowy lips and then his pretty eyes which fluttered up to look at you. You saw the caves filled with gems and diamonds in his sparkling eyes. And then you saw the velvet box in his hand which extended towards you.The box opened to reveal a precious diamond ring glazing so brightly that you shut your eyes from its intensity.'

Only to open your eyes and see Ari's groggy face the next morning.

Just the reminder of the fantasy brought a blushing hue on your face and fluttery feeling in your stomach. When you told Ari, she had squealed so loud in the bus and grinned at you.

"Your eyes are literally shining since you saw him, you know that." Ari told you in excitement.

"In all honesty, we should really go find him and then why not give it a try!!" Ari suggested.

And you shushed her because the single thought of meeting him again gave you tingles everywhere.

You had seen many girls with teeny tiny crushes but never thought you'd be one.

But again

You knew you were being stupid to dream about a man who was probably twice your age.

But again

It wouldn't hurt to dream.

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

In the drapes of spring blossom, your sister got married.

As the vows and kisses were exchanged beneath the flower beds, your heart too, like the petals, fell to the ground.

The diamond in her ring finger shined just like the coat of tears welling up in your eyes.

Happy tears and sad tears.

You feigned the biggest smile till your cheeks hurt.

You had never thought you'd be so upset from inside at your beloved sister's wedding but you couldn't help it.

It was worth a grimace how familiar her groom looked to the man in your dreams.

Because indeed it was him.

Kim Seokjin

What a laughable coincidence it was!

Everything had happened so abruptly.

On the day you returned from your trip, you saw Seokjin for the second time.

But the foolish grin on your face was wiped away the moment you saw him sitting on your couch with your sister.

Their hands were intertwined like lovers.

And you were more surprised to see your mother's pleased face, who soon after declared they could wed in the coming week. The little celebration was carried on with clinks of wine glasses and plates of special dishes.

And you sat there dumbfounded and baffled by the sudden decision.

Minsu hadn't said a single thing about this.

Your sad face never went unnoticed by her and she explained to you with a calm sigh,

" I know Rae, I'm sorry that I didn't tell you but I was unaware that he liked me just as much I liked him."

"And then he proposed to me all of a sudden and I didn't feel like there was a single reason to say no."

And then she smiled bashfully like a damsel.

"Fate is a wondrous thing, Rae. I'm so grateful to the scriptor above wrote him in my fate."

Damn the scriptor.

You stomach had churned when you asked her,

"Do you love him?"

She looked at your glassy eyes.

"Do you think I'll marry a man I don't love?"

"Ofcourse I love him. Who wouldn't?" You felt your breath sink from her last sentence. You had seen the love and sincerity in her eyes.

Then her gaze shifted with concern to you and she squeezed your shoulder lightly.

"You are happy, right?" She asked you.

Your eyes darted away. You couldn't do this to her. You would not crush over her man. You should not.

You pulled her in a tight hug and hid your face as hopeless tears ran down your cheeks. You didn't know why you were feeling this myriad of emotions all of a sudden.

You couldn't place your finger on what you were feeling. There were so many things at once.

"Ofcourse I'm happy for you. J-just don't forget about me. Don't leave me alone with that omen." You heard her chuckle as she patted your hair.

"I will never leave you Rae, I promise."

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

And that was how you stood beside her as her maid of honour. You stole a few glances at Seokjin who was so blissfully unaware about the way your heart and stomach felt tingles by looking at him.

You were so shameless to stare at him with intent just to see if he was really there and you weren't dreaming again.

You're not gonna lie but Seokjin looked so exquisite in his attire. So so beautiful that you almost got lost in watching him smile.

Seokjin wanted to have a small and uncrowded ceremony. He booked a hotel which was decorated like paradise. Interior graced with soft looking pink and white roses. And the garden was filled with cherry blossoms.

It was a wedding everyone dreamt of.

Under the trees, you sat with a pout and looked at the couple who were busy posing and capturing the memories of their wedding in the garden. Post wedding shoot.

Seokjin and Minsu,

They looked good together.

Now that you consider thinking, you were actually being childish and stupid to even have thought that you held any chance with him.

It was a stupid crush.

Little doration and little fascination, that was it all.

And it was plain stupid and dumb, to put so much strain and stress to your mind with whatever you were feeling.

Not only you but anyone would wish to have a man like him.

That's it.

One thing you knew was Minsu was dear to you and you'd do anything for.

So what you had to do now was let go of this stupid crush and the intrusive thoughts that came with it.

He was your brother in law now.

Avoid it or not.

And yet again you couldn't control the loud beating of your heart as he walked over to where you sat. Behind him, Minsu was still posing in her wedding gown.

You inhaled his expensive rosewood perfume as he sat down beside you.

Thank God your ears were covered by your hair or else he would have seen how red and hot they had turned.

"So, did you enjoy the wedding, Mirae?" He tried to strike a conversation with you.

You tried not to shy away from his gaze even if you were squealing inside just by hearing your name roll down his tongue.

" I-I did, it was gorgeous with all the flowers." You smiled and stared at the rose in his hand.

"And the food?"

" I didn't get to try the buffet yet because mother warned me to not eat before you both. I need to accompany you both."

Your voice grew smaller at the end thinking you spoke more than you needed to.

You heard his melodious chuckles looking at your frowning face.

"You don't need to worry about it, you can just go and have the food. Minsu had specially selected your favourite dishes."

Your eyes brightened at that and you looked up at him only to see him fondly smiling at you. He looked so princely. Your hands unintentionally squeezed the fabric of your baby pink dress.

You shook your head,

"No, I'll better wait for you both. And I guess Minsu's shoot is about to end."

You both looked at Minsu who was flaunting in her white gown ahead. Dangling a large bouquet of roses in her hand.

In your periphery, you saw him fiddling with a rose in his hand. He might have used it for the photoshoot.

You flinched when a blossom fell on you and he laughed at you. Your cheeks would have been dusted red by now.

"Why don't we go on a walk near the river until she gets back?"

He gestured towards the river at the other end of the garden. You gave a tiny nod and walked side by side.

The ceremony had ended by late noon and now the sun was dipping down the river. You had to crane your neck up just to look at his side face.

" I didn't get to ask this before but are you happy for your sister? "

You were stunned for a moment but put up a smile and replied,

"Yes, why would I not be? You both love each other and that's enough for me to be happy for her"

That's enough for me to let my chance go.

You were already getting tired to answer this same question again and again. Sick of convincing yourself that you were, happy.

You gulped when he observed your face for a few seconds, his eyes reflecting the golden sunset behind you and then he nodded.

Peering into his bourbon eyes was making your breath uneven. He was so so handsome, you had never witnessed a man like him. It was so hard for you to conceal the velvet fondness in your eyes.

You tried not to stare.

You tried not to show.

You were about to turn your face away to stare at the river on other side and also to hide your reddened face. But he tucked your elbow lightly,

"Wait"

His face was merely away from yours as he leaned down with furrowed brows. Your heart almost cried happily at his soft touch.

The symphony had come back and played in your heart again. Pellucid.

His leaned closer and his sweet wine-tinged breath hit you. Your legs were shaking under your frock. You were being skittish. If not for the light grasp he had on your hand, you would have staggered back and fell in the open river. Because your legs were out of control.

Like your heart.

Like your breath.

Like the ruby blood rushing to your full cheeks.

What were you feeling?

And what was he doing?

He plucked something from your lash and held the tiny piece of petal that had stuck in your lashes unknowingly.

"Uh, I saw this. It would have gone in your eye so I removed it."

He said simply as if he didnt just wrench your breath away and backed away.

You swiftly turned around to look at the shining ripples of water. Your eyes darted everywhere but at him.

You gasped when you saw something on the ground and crouched to pick it up.

Seokjin furrowed his eyebrows and leaned to look at the little leaf flat against your little palm, as you showed it to him.

A four-leaf clover

"You know it's so rare to find. Only the luckiest ones get the chance."

He was amused by hearing that and asked,

"So does it have more speciality?"

You nodded hurried and told him,

" Yes it does! The first three leaves are for hope, faith and love. And the fourth one which is rare to exist brings luck."

"Hmm..So aren't you the lucky one?"

You wanted to laugh and tell him that you were anything but.

It was ironic

To find a four clover on one your unluckiest days, if you put it out like that.

You grinned at him to hide your grimace and shrugged,

" I hope so I am."

" Ofcourse you are, now you got a brother-in-law at your side."

He said playfully and proudly.

Your insides winced at the mention of that awful term, you were already annoyed with that claim.

"But honestly, I will always love and protect Minsu, and hopefully take care of you too. I never thought I'd have such a little sister in law." He babbled his confession.

You had got so caught up with that 'take care of you too' that you didn't hear what he said next.

"I know how you two have been close and dealt with-with your mother, but I promise that- from now on I'll keep your sister happy."

You were melting at his words, at his need to constantly reassure you. That he found you important enough to assure it to. He was making you feel like the bigger person by saying those sugary words. And no one had ever taken that effort.

He even offered you the small pink rose in his hand to seal his promise.

And you took it with dreamy eyes, which you were sure won't get any sleep tonight.

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

The bus screeched to a halt. You stepped down clumsily, clutching your bag. The bus drove off and you spun to walk forward as strides of your heels hit the cobblestoned lane of the small town.

The memories of your childhood swirled around you, winding through the streets like fleeting chuckles. Lollipops. Paper windmills. Little balloons. Your father.

This was his hometown.

The breeze caressed your face as if reassuring you that everything will be alright. You reached the designated home and knocked on the wooden door, only to be greeted by your Grandma's mushy face which bloomed with a welcoming smile.

The haven of herbs and medicines greet you next. Your grandma was a traditional therapist. She was known around for her herbal therapy. Everyone came to her 'Healing Home' for cure.

And maybe you did too. You came here for a cure. To seek her healing water which would wash you off your sins. To seek a balm to treat the wounds of remorse.

And to seek a refugee to coop up your pathetic broken self in.

It came easy for you to conceal what's inside you- your feelings. Conceal. Hide. Obscure them. That was what you had done all your life.

So just like your feelings, you wanted to hide yourself to. Anywhere. Away from prying eyes. Distant the whispers of blame and shame in your head. Detach yourself from his lingering scent.

You wanted to hide away and curl and cry and sought and mend yourself. And nothing was better than your grandmother's mending shelter.

She offered you tea. Caramel evenings were spend with honey teas and baked cinnamon rolls. You talked to her and told her how you wanted to take a break away from the city. You lied to her that office work was stressing and making you sick. You needed time away from all that and find peace.

Away from home.

Away from him.

Next I Main Masterlist

A/N : This chapter is pretty much about female mc and how she starts to like Seokjin.The seed is just sown. NGL it was way to angsty. Seokjin is good and kind in this and will be in further chapters until the facade slips.

Hope you all like this. Also comment if you wanna get added in the tag list.

@themochiverse

[mngo-jii]

MC's always so happy and cheerful ☹️ i wonder how everyone would react to her suddenly being a lot more gloomy than usual. could be either romantic or platonic hcs!

“ WHAT’S UP WITH YOU ? ”

characters: daniel page, lottie turner, ivy warrington, robyn thistlethwaite, kevin farrell, cassandra vole + frey twins

letter ✉️: good morning (for those who have the same time zone as i do) for some reason this didn't post and remained on queue 😐.. these might be a little ooc im sorry

★ DANIEL PAGE

he’s the first to notice the way you’re acting.

next to his concern is likely astonishment because he had never seen you this... miserable before

he’s like thats my job!!!

eventually he gets tired of seeing you so gloomy like there's a raincloud over your head, he drags you somewhere that would cheer you up, like maybe a trip to hogsmeade or a shopping spree at madam malkin’s robes.

and he’ll pay for it allll. he’ll get a little annoyed if you insist him that its ok

he watches you the entire time and takes note of how slowly the way you react or behave evolves back to your usual self

but if it’s something a simple trip won’t fix, then expect him to force the reason out of you

he doesn’t mean to be a bit pushy, he’s just so worried and can’t stand the sight of you so sad anymore 😭

you never knew he’d be caught in a position like this but here you are sobbing in his arms

he won’t say much other than a few advice here and there, but he shushes you so gently and coos at you while running his hands through your hair

very relieved once youre better 💯 but don’t tease him for cheering you up or he won’t do this ever again (he definitely will)

he tells you a sad expression doesn’t fit a (pretty) face like yours

★ LOTTIE TURNER

she’s also one of the first to notice after daniel

unlike daniel who’d wait when you two are alone, she asks the second she notices, even during a conversation amongst the group that has nothing to do with you

“[MC] are you okay???” she asks, concern lacing her voice. she interrupted someone when she asked that but it doesn’t matter 😭

why?? because youre sad. and its usually you who comforts them

so this is obviously a very serious problem

she’s very sweet and unlike daniel she'll leave you alone after the 2nd time of you refusing to talk about it, and instead would ask what she can do to comfort you

if you don’t refuse but rather completely break down in front of her, she panics and instantly rushes to pull you in a hug

“oh no no no don't cry im sorry-”

“i don't know what to do im sorry :((”

rocks you back and forth in the hug like a small child and wipes your tears with her thumbs :')

hours later she’s presenting you a little sketch of you and her in some flower field with smiley faces and ‘no sad’ written above

★ IVY WARRINGTON

also doesn’t notice AT FIRST until a little while later or when lottie points it out

strokes the top of your head like you're a cat 😭 “what's wrong, [MC]? :(”

brings you things like maybe flowers, small trinkets, biscuits, and pastries in hopes of cheering you up

honestly can’t function properly knowing you're sad

her mood would switch the moment she remembers you during times she'd usually be really happy and go “[MC] is sad right now :/”

nonstop talks about you, rlly worried

kind of tries to guess why you're sad like

“maybe they’re sad because [some random reason at this point because of the amount of times she tried to guess]”

will give you the best hugs if you let her

“we’ll always be here for you :)”

she squeezes you a bit before letting you go

★ ROBYN THISTLETHWAITE

is a bit awkward about it when she notices but shes rlly worried

“hey.. a-are you okay?” she places her hand on your shoulder when she sees how down you are

also a little astonished like daniel and only now did she realize that this was your first time ever being this way

because usually you were the one helping and looking out for them

kind of feels bad when she realizes that 😞 and also a little guilty

she tells the others about this guilt and eventually it kind of spreads

makes an entire plan with the others like “mission cheer up [MC]”

she’s gonna pop up randomly out of nowhere, like constantly, and will show you something you’d probably like

“hey! hey, [MC]! check out what i got! pretty cool, right?”

“yes its cool i guess 🙁”

“😟”

she tries her best 😭 it’s a little overwhelming but u can’t say it isn’t endearing how much she’s desperately trying to cheer you up

★ KEVIN FARRELL

a little too immersed with other things to notice for a while, but he catches on when someone points it out

doesn’t know what to do 🧍🏻‍♀️

kind of just lets the others take care of you but he gets rlly guilty about it 😭😭

robyn would drag him to help her cheer you up, and he’d comply quite easily because its the most he can do

he’s just as desperate as robyn too

doing your own things silently and having to predict which one of them is gonna pop up is like playing fnaf or something

he slowly starts to see that their efforts aren’t working and tries to convince robyn to do something else

he rlly wants to comfort you himself because he knows its the best course of action at this point, but he’s also a little awkward 😭

now he feels guilty about that TOO ☠️

when robyn pointed out you were always there for them he was guilty. when he just stood aside and let the others work it out he was guilty. now he feels guilty because his friend is literally SAD but he’s too awkward to go up to them 😭

he rlly worries about u, he rlly does! pls dont take it that he doesnt 😞

★ CASSANDRA VOLE

side eyes you

“can any of you little rascals tell me why they’re doing that ?”

“doing what...”

“doing that.”

gets annoyed because you dont react at all when she’s there 😭 as in you’re so stoic-faced and miserable it doesnt feel real

is very deep in thought as she stares at you from a distance

she doesnt wanna admit shes worried about you but she definitely could not stand you ‘looking like that’ anymore

glowers at your friends’ ‘useless efforts’ on cheering you up

life gets boring for her because you honestly dont care anymore, and your other friends are too busy with you to pay attention to her or the twins

eventually she just gives in

“i’ll show you all how it’s done”

after classes you return to your dorm to see a gift wrapped in gold on your bed with a letter beside it

when you open it, it’s something that you’ve been wanting for a really really long time but couldn’t afford :') how did she know about it? well it’ll remains mystery

“you look hideous with that look on your face. wipe it off. - C.V”

while the letter could have been nicer, she means well, but she wont admit it

★ bonus: THE TWINS

really REALLY confused and salty 😭 they’re probably the most confused of the bunch

while robyn and kevin desperately try to cheer you up at the most random times, they don’t rlly stop being pricks randomly for a while

it’s not to make you feel worse it’s just to desperately get to see you react like how you used to 😭

life gets boring for them too. like i said, the others are also too worried about you to pay attention to them

fischer will just go “pshh. whatever. let’s go” and marches away

but colby approaches your friends. “aye, what’s going on with them? 😒”

they’re taken aback and go like “why would you care”

he scowls at them and says that he doesnt that he just wants to know

they dont tell him and it makes him more salty

dont expect them to do anything they just keep their distance for a while until you feel better ☠️ you dont know if they do it out of niceness or because theyve gotten bored but wtv

[https-genesis]

our little group has always been and always will | avatar twow teens × f!reader

Synopsis; You would do anything to protect the people. Neteyam would do anything to protect you.

Contents; angst no comfort, major character death ×2, Tsireya, Lo'ak, Ao'nung, Rotxo + (platonic) x reader, gore, teen reader, Metkayina reader / italics means sign language, neteyam (romantic) x reader, tsireya (romantic) x lo'ak

Dictionary; tsaheylu - the bond, tsurak - skimwing, oel ngati kameie - I see you, uturu - sanctuary, Toruk Makto - rider of last shadow, Tsahik - interpretor of eywa, Olo'eyktan - clan leader, kuru - queue

A/N; I love pain, this is a BEAST.

When you were still a small child, your mother, the Tsahik, told you stories of how your uncle fought at war. Peace was common among the reef people, but every time great sorrow was brought upon the Metkayina, everything was tense. Your mother also told you about how your uncle died at war protecting your family, and from that day on you decided you'd honor him by protecting the people of today.

You grew up with your younger sister, Tsireya and older brother, Ao'nung, alongside their groups of friends. Fitting in was never really a problem for you, since most of the Metkayina were very gentle Na'vi and because of you affiliation with the Olo'eyktan and Tsahik of the clan. Because of your rather protective nature, Tonowari understood you were meant to be a warrior. You learned whatever he would teach you relatively fast and whenever you were around Ronal seemed at ease. The entirety of the clan loved you and Eywa told her one night you were a brave but peaceful soul, destined to something even bigger than you were.

Alone with Tsireya on the shoreline collecting pretty shells, you saw from above you a flash of unusual colors. Ikrans. Only the Omatikaya people ride these winged creatures and only a few seconds after the ikrans flew over your head a horn was blown. You and Tsireya shared a questioning look before calling an ilu, quickly making tsaheylu and swimming to a small patch of sand along the beach. Arriving there, you jumped off your ilu into the water, unknowing of the two pairs of eyes casted on yours and Tsireya's figure. Coming above water you glanced at your friend again, signing 'Who are these people?'' Tsireya answered with 'I do not know. My father is coming.'

Climbing up and walking through a dozen of curious Na'vi, you spotted six darker blue people, two who were clearly adults (one of them clinging onto a little child) and three teenagers; maybe younger than you but older than Tsireya. Staring at the crowd once more looking for the Olo'eyktan, you caught sight of Ao'nung and Rotxo, who were causing trouble with the the two boys in the Omatikayan family. Tsireya ran up to them and pushed her brother on the shoulder while you stood beside her. "Ao'nung! Rotxo! Do not." Looking for an escape, Rotxo's eyes shifted to you but he only got a shrug and a grin from you.

You turned towards the darker blue people, one of which were already looking at you while the other stared intently at Tsireya. He whisper a short "Hey." and she grinned, finding the sand at her feet much more interesting than the growing hues on her cheeks. You laughed at her and Neteyam's ears perked up; the sound of your laughter made his entire day (even if he didn't want to be here for a second longer). The sound of water splashing and loud war cries stopped your laughing and you didn't even have to look over to know it was the Olo'eyktan and his right hand men. They dropped with their tsuraks underwater and emerged back alone, walking slowly towards the shore. At the same time Ronal, the Tsahik, walked between disoriented Metkayina to reach the commotion. The Omatikayans reach their middle fingers to their forehead, signing 'Oel ngati kameie".

The father stepped back and said "I see you, Tonowari. I see you, Ronal." From afar, you could hear the man, named Jake, ask for uturu to hide from war. Ronal wasn't impressed and her grumpy tone told you everything you needed to know, but the mother, who you learned was Neytiri, chimed in. "My husband was Toruk Makto. He led the clans to victory against the sky people." Tonowari seemed to be considering, while Ronal's lip twitched, itching to hiss. "This is what you call victory? Hiding among stangers?" She turned towards Jake, "It seems Eywa has turned her back on you, chosen one." You cringed and looked in Tsireya's direction, signing 'Are you okay? Scared?'' and her eyebrows furrowed. 'I am okay, but scared.' At that, you walked towards her to hold her hand firmly, dragging her away from the commotion to let her heartbeat slow.

A few minutes later, when you went back into the crowd to look for the rest of your family, Tonowari spoke while pointing to his children. "My son, Ao'nung, and my daughters, Tsireya and Y/N will teach you the ways of the Metkayina." You grinned towards the family and glanced at the teenager girl, Kiri to wave. She seemed shy but you understood why she would be; this is all to new for a forest Na'vi. You and Tsireya grabbed their baggage before she turned to the family. "Come. We will show you our village." Walking along the net floor with their baggage heavy in your hands you soon arrived to an unoccupied marui. "This is your new home." Smiling again, you noticed how Neytiri's features were downturned; she was clearly unhappy to be there too. Again, you understood how difficult it must be for a forrest Na'vi. The Omatikaya were not built for the water. Their limbs were to thin and their tails were too short. Even with their differences your refused to judge them, you knew if you'd appeared in their clan one day, your paler skin and thicker body would cause the same ruckus.

It had taken a few days for the family to get accustomed to your daily life, but thanks to yours and Tsireya's breathing training, Lo'ak and Neteyam had majorly improved. Kiri was a natural (it had taken her mere hours to learn to hold her breath correctly and manage herself underwater) and she seemed to connect with the ilu and wildlife like a true Metkayina. Ronal had made it clear during their first appearance that some of the Sullys were born from a Dreamwalker, so whenever it was Ao'nung's turn to teach, you were always close by. You knew he wasn't very prone to kindness in general, much less with strangers. He seemed to keep himself a bit more on track when you were around and that eased the Sully children greatly. Neteyam was most greatful, seeing his siblings get picked at for their 5 fingers and strange tails made his blood boil. He showed his gratitude to you with pretty rocks he found while practicing swimming, even though he knew you probably had even prettier ones in your marui. He could tell by your beautiful beaded tops and the jewels in your hair, but you never seemed to care how big or how colorful the rocks he gave you were because to you, the simple fact he went ut of his way to bring you back these gifts made your heart flutter. Ao'nung's bitter attitude went undetected by the Olo'eyktans until the one faithful day he decided to take it too far.

☆

You were sitting next to Kiri in low tide, admiring the sunny day Eywa had blessed you with while she observed the small creatures resting beneath the sand underwater. The sound of laughing and water splashing being you made your ears perk and your turned in its direction. Ao'nung and his friends approached you with an air that seemed more than devilish and you could tell by the smirk plastered onto his face that he was up to no good. "What is she doing? Is she a freak?" One his his friends asked and you cocked your head to the side with a frown to show him you were annoyed. Kiri rose up to her knees and felt your four-fingered hand grasp hers to drag her away from Ao'nung's friends. Kiri looked around in confusion. "Huh? What did you say?" She asked, and you could feel Ao'nung's ego inflate. "Are you some kind of... freak? I mean I don't know why she hangs around you." He addressed and pointed to you. Kiri didn't reply at first, so one of his friends chimed in. "He asked if you were a freak." Your frowned deepened and your lip twitched upward, baring the tip of your fangs at the group. "No, she is not. She is Na'vi, like all of us. Leave her alone, Ao'nung." You pulled Kiri onto the beach as she pressed the water out of her drenched hair and the bullies followed you, tugging at Kiri's tail. She brushed them off, continuing to walk away with you until Ao'nung grabbed her hand. You pushed her behind you and fully hissed this time, making the boys jump back in surprise. Lo'ak saw the commotion from afar where he could see you protecting Kiri from whatever the meaner teens were doing. "Hey! Back off fish lips." They laughed again, maybe even louder than last time, and another one spoke up (you couldn't tell who, your mind was focused on protecting the annoyed Kiri). 'Protect the people.'

You could vividly remember the entire thing; Neteyam jumping in, you trying to defuse the situation, Lo'ak punching Ao'nung square in the face. The same day, you went with the Sullys to their marui to explain the the Omatikayan Olo'eyktan what happened back at the beach, and you were sent to make sure Lo'ak and Neteyam had apologized. You'd never tell Mr Sully that they, in fact, did not apologize.

☆

Ao'nung's bickering had came to a halt, and the Sully kids seemed to come to rest around him. Fortunately, you and Rotxo were there to ease the tension because Eywa knew Tsireya wouldn't dare speak over her brother in such a way. Ao'nung had actually asked Lo'ak to come spear fishing with him, for a change, and you thought this was finally the start of a somewhat tolerable friendship. Until Ao'nung came back with his friends and no sign of Lo'ak, and you had to be the poor person to tell Neteyam. He obviously rushed to his father with Ao'nung's kuru in a firm grip, you trailing close behind. "Tell him what you told me." Neteyam's tone was one of irritation, but through its cracks you could also sense slight worry. No more than a few minutes later the entire clan were searching for the boy while you sat by Neteyam's side. He couldn't even lie to himself, the warmth of your arm curled up into his bicep and the weight of your head on his shoulder eased him. You had started humming a tune that your mother sang to you as a child to comfort him when a loud horn rang nearby. "The boy is back!" And that's all it took for Neteyam to grab the arm that was linked into his to pull you up and forward. You were near the dock when Lo'ak came into view, seemingly slightly injured, but the angry scowl he gave Ao'nung told everything. Jake assessed the scrapes littering his figure before turning to the Olo'eyktan. "He's fine, just a few scratches. He's okay." Neytiri had came running too but her pace was erratic and as she arrived to where Lo'ak was standing she seemed more than upset. "I pray for the strength that I will not pluck the eyeballs out of my youngest son." He had barely flinched and you assumed he was used to this type of scolding when Tonowari spoke up. "My son knows better than to take him outside the reef. The blame is his." Ao'nung bowed to one knee with his fathers large hand on his nape, but Lo'ak interfered. "No... It's my fault. He tried to talk me out of it, really." And everyone seemed surprised. The entirety of the clan knew of the Olo'eyktan's son 'delinquent' nature, so to have Lo'ak dissappear beyond the reefs after being with Ao'nung was suspicious. Nevertheless, the Olo'eyktan let it go and the night went on.

The next day, you ended up grouping up with the Sully kids and Tsireya and Ao'nung near the docks. Lo'ak was trying to explain to you how a lonely tulkun saved his life, how said tulkun had a missing fin and no tattoos littering its skin and- oh- Eywa. Lo'ak had met Payakan. The outcast tulkun. The one who was rumored to kill few of his own kind and dozens of Na'vi. After that day, he kept on going to visit the tulkun and overtime had started to tell you more stories about him. Lo'ak had sworn to you that Payakan never meant what he did. You understood, in a way. If you were to ask your father how he had felt while killing, he'd probably say he despised the feeling. But when you have no choice, you have no choice.

All of that led to where you were now- it had been not over an hour since Jake Sully had warned the clan of trackers that had been shot into the tulkun. Lo'ak's only thought at that moment had been 'Is Payakan okay?' and you could tell that Neteyam's was 'Lo'ak is going to see Payakan.' - sat atop Payakan's fin, pulling with all the might you could muster, trying to get the large red Sky People device out of its side. Ao'nung, Rotxo and Tsireya were pulling at its base while you and Neteyam were near the ilu. Tsireya panicked as soon as she saw the ship, "Hurry! It's getting closer!" Which made you cry out in despair. Lo'ak stood in front of you with his feet firmly pressed against Payakan's side until the device fell off its skin. Kiri and Tuk were comforting the tulkun while making sure you had enough time, and as soon as the machine was grasped by Neteyam you jumped behind him on the ilu. After a few seconds of dodging whatever the Sky People were throwing at you, Neteyam dropped the tracker at the bottom of the sea floor and you kept swimming forward. You had no idea where the others had went or if they were okay, but your gut told you everything you needed to know.

☆

Spider knew that Colonel Miles Quaritch was an asshole. Killing thousands of people just to get revenge on a single man was nuts, but that didn't hold him back. Jake had peace for 15 years, where he and his beautiful mate Neytiri had five children. When they came to Awa'atlu, they knew that the war would follow them sooner or later. They were right.

Quaritch and his men held Tsireya, Lo'ak and Tuk captive asking for Jake to surrender, and in all honesty, Jake thought about simply giving himself to him and finally let peace take over Pandora once again. He had ordered for the Metkayina warriors to stand back while his tsurak slowly swan towards the ship and all he could hear were the desperate pleas of Neytiri from the comms. He was going to surrender. Jake Sully, Toruk Makto, The Olo'eyktan, was going to surrender. Lo'ak's rage was felt by Payakan, who was now his soul brother, and of the dozen of people he expected to save him, he would've never thought about Payakan. The tulkun had emerged from beneath the boat and slammed its body onto the deck, effectively killing most of the avatars and humans in its path. Quaritch and his men had dispersed and Lo'ak had tried his hardest to break the metal pole than geld his and Tsireya's and Tuk's wrists bound togheter. Tuk had almost started crying when You and Neteyam sprung up and off an ilu, landing right beside them to help. Lo'ak swore he'd never loved his brother more at that moment. "Who's the mighty warrior? C'mon, say it!" and even though Lo'ak would never admit that Neteyam had granted himself the tilte of hero that day, he was proud of his brother. You had rushed to Tsireya and Tuk with your hunting knife and pushed them to the edge of the ship. "Go. Take Tuk back to shore!" You pressed your forehead against your sister's in a show of love. They had obliged, but from the corner of your eye you could see Lo'ak hadn't done the same. "They have Spider, we can't leave him here!" You didn't know much about the human boy, but he seemed trustworthy to your eyes. So you followed with a groan.

Crawling from a corner to another waiting for guards to walk by was the scariest thing you had done in your entire life, but you reminded yourself of the promise you made to yourself years ago. 'Honor father, protect the people.' One by one you took the guards the held Spider down and ran the the end of the ship where you could escape. One of Quaritch's men, Lyle, had seen your group run from across him and started shooting and for the few seconds Neteyam have gave you to run, you made sure Lo'ak and Spider dove first. Lyle had gotten closer and Neteyam had dropped the gun he stole from Lo'ak to run to you, grasping you by the wasit to plunge underwater. For a second you coulve sworn you had made it until the dark blue water surrounding you and Neteyam's bodies turned a deep shade of red. The bulging bullet wound on his chest made you whimper just strongly enough for shooting pain to rush through your side. Your head ducked down for you to scan your own body and the apparent hole in your right side made you shiver. The bullet seemingly had went through your ribs and broke most of them, leaving behind ripped flesh and blood oozing from the wound. To your left Lo'ak and Spider were joined by Tsireya and Tuk, pulling themselves on an ilu as Lo'ak yelled to you. "Quick, guys! Get on!" Neteyam groaned, barely able to keep his head up if it wasn't for you, and cried out a reply. "You skxawng, I'm shot!" It was apparent that Neteyam didn't know you had also been hit, but you didn't dare say anything. 'Protect the people.' You helped Neteyam hoist himself up onto Lo'ak's ilu to call your own, and as you watched them swim away you asked yourself if you were going to make it back home. Tsireya and Tuk had both left after you signed for them to and your wound had stopped bleeding so you guessed they hadn't noticed.

You arrived at shore mere minutes after the others, but it was clear you were too late. Neteyam laid on his back on a boulder with his family around him, shaking from either the cold or the pain, but he stopped when he saw you walk to him. You were covered in watered down blood from your waist down and it had taken a moment for him to register the large wound right by your ribs. You stumbled, kicking a rock with the movement, alerting the rest of the family. Jake turned first, the mere sight of two teenagers - two kids - covered in their own blood made him sick to his stomach. Tsireya had ran up to you then, sobbing. "Oh tsumuke, no- No... Please, do not leave me! Oh my Eywa- please!" She gently held your head as you stumbled to the ground, dropping you right by Neteyam. With the last of the strength in him, he grasped your hand and whispered something the people around you couldnt understand before the light finally dissipated from his yellow eyes. Neytiri barely had the time to sob before you cried out too, your other other hand reaching his to roll onto your side. You could feel Tsireya's hand on your forehead and you could hear her erratic breathing, but everything was blurry and everything was fading. You breathed in and stared right into Neteyam's colorless eyes to mutter a something they couldn't hear over Neytiri's and Tsireya's weeps, but Jake had catched it. He was dissociating, his mind was blank, he could barely hear anything around him, but your short and light whisper brought him back to reality.

You had said 'Oel ngati kameie'. His son's last words to you were 'I see you' and he never got to hear you say it back.

rip

[cultofdionysusnet]

ᴡʜᴇɴ ᴛʜᴇ ʟᴇᴀᴠᴇꜱ ꜰᴀʟʟ

A chill is beginning to tinge the air as fall settles in... It's the perfect time for one more escape from your day-to-day life into the wilderness before the snow replaces the leaves. Everything may not be as it seems, though; join the Cult of Dionysus on a camping trip and see what shenanigans will ensue!

🍁 For network members only! 🍁 Must use one of the prompts* 🍁 Must include camping in the fall/autumn 🍁 Minimum 500 words 🍁 All NSFW material must be under a read more 🍁 Anything over 500 words must be under a read more 🍁 Deadline to submit is December 20th 🍁 For network approved groups only (Ateez, Stray Kids, & TXT) 🍁 Network rules apply as always 🍁 Cannot submit work for other network events or collabs 🍁 The tag for this event is: CODN: fall24

* you may create your own prompts but the existing prompts cannot be changed

For ease of masterlist & queue admin, please list the event & prompt used.

Taking your child camping proves difficult on your own until you get help from an unlikely source: single parent au, supernatural creature!Idol; fluff

You’re forced to share a car with someone you don’t particularly like to save on gas when carpooling only for the car to break down and you find a cabin to share. The only problem? There’s only one bed: enemies to lovers; smut

Camping brings back a lot of old memories, especially of an ex-lover making you wonder, could things ever go back to how they were?: Lovers to exes to ???; angst

Camping normally isn’t such a trying ordeal for you but nothing seems to be going right. The final straw is when a branch falls into your camp, destroying your tent and forcing you to share a tent with a kind stranger in the same campsite: strangers to lovers; smut

You and your best friend always go camping in the fall once a year but for some reason this time around, weird coincidences keep making things accidentally romantic: friends to lovers; fluff

You’ve come to the realization that you’re in love with your best friend, only it’s happened on a camping trip with all your friends but even worse? They’re in a happy and loving relationship: unrequited love; angst

While out and about, you run into your ex from a few years ago and decide to catch up: exes to lovers; fluff

For your anniversary, you planned the perfect camping trip where you would be all alone for a weekend: established relationship; smut

Falling out of love is difficult but ending things is even worse: lovers to strangers; angst

As ever, have fun with this fall's seasonal event! May the muses bless you, Dionysians. The Fates eagerly await your submissions~!

[adder24]

Flowers for your hotdogs

A crossover fic with the Mentalist and Castle, since we never got the crossover of the centurary.

A/N: The timelines are not accurate I admit since I have mashed season 6 of the Mentalist with season 4 of Castle. I know I know but it's a bit of fun right?

Summary: Fed up of being restricted by the FBI, Jane makes a break for it while working a case in New York. He manages to throw the FBI off his scent but in doing so, he manages to bump into one of New York's finest detectives and a famous Author come consultant who both require Jane's expertise.

@profwonderbearthementalista @captkatecastle @untilthe12ofnever @nuggsmum @loops911 @nikki-rook @loops911 @hellostickerdoodle @myfriendtheurbanlegend @bonnie131313

Story below the cut

Chapter 1 - Damp Warehouses

When a dog is put on a short leash, it loses the ability to explore, to get acquainted with its surroundings and familiarise itself with the locals so to speak. It’s a tactic used to make a dog fall into line and a Tactic that the FBI were currently using on Jane. The problem was the more restrictions they put on him, the more Jane tested them and the trip to New York and being denied a Hot dog, was the breaking point.

He created a suitable distraction, by getting a suspect on a homicide to tell Kim Fischer she was going to inform the media, and while her and Lisbon ran after them, Jane decided to make a break for it, evading the other agents on the ground and blending in with the crowds of people around him. With his new found taste of freedom his first stop was a hot dog stand on the Manhattan side of Brooklyn bridge, next to the City hall park. Understandably there was a queue but eventually Jane reached the front of it and put in his order for a hot dog all the way.

A child like smile spread across his lips as he was given his hot dog, Jane made sure to pay the vendor generously, using the leftover change that he got from the disallowed hot dog earlier, but as he was about to take a bite, he sensed someone close by watching which was soon confirmed by an excitable sounding “Patrick Jane?!”

He turned his head to the voice and upon recognising the tall,stocky looking man coming towards him, he too got a little excitable.

“Richard Castle?!” He replied, chuckling when he saw the other man's Jaw drop and then turned to the woman standing next to him, the woman he could only assume would be the inspiration behind Nikki Heat. Kate Beckett.

“He knows me! Kate, he knows me!” Castle squeaks happily

“How can I not know you? The Derrick Storm novels and now The Nikki Heat stories? You’re pretty well known” Jane replied calmly as he took a bite from the hot dog and savoured the taste “I have been craving this all day”

“The man likes hot dogs too” Castle whispered as Kate gave him a look.

“A lot of people do Castle, now can you stop fangirling for five minutes and explain to me who Patrick Jane is” Kate replied firmly.

“He’s a Psychic!” Castle replied happily.

“No such thing as Psychic’s, more like an elaborate con artist” Patrick interjected with a smile

“A con artist?! You’re fangirling about a Con artist pretending to be a Psych-Wait hang on, Patrick Jane? The same Patrick Jane who’s fam-”

“Family was murdered by a serial killer! Yes, that Patrick Jane, I was trying to avoid bringing that up around him Kate but nevermind” Castle grumbled

“It’s okay…I have grown accustomed to it now.” Patrick replied as his smile fell a little. “Yes I am that Patrick Jane and yes I know you two are more than just Colleagues and I am guessing you’re trying very very hard to keep it a secret from those you work with”

Both Castle and Kate looked at him dumbstruck. They had literally only just met him and the man was already picking up on the fact they were an item and desperately trying to keep it hush hush.

“Oh he’s good!” Castle said a little too enthusiastically.

“Yeah, he’s a con artist Castle” Kate replied unimpressed, “He probably followed us-”

“Or I have a good read on people. Castle here, he’s like a Labrador, Excitable, always sees the world as his playground, can be tamed with food and is loyal to his family and those he loves but you Kate, you’re a little more complex. See you want to be like him but you lost someone very close to you and their death has given you a thirst for revenge, one that hasn’t been quenched yet but you have been tantalisingly close on a few occasions. And that drive, that quest you have set out in your mind, it’s what has closed you off a little from all the good things he sees in this world...You’re opposites but you need one another. You need him to help you lighten up and he needs you to ground him and reel him in a little, otherwise he becomes an untameable, bouncy labrador that humps all the furniture” Jane interrupted, watching their expressions as he accurately described them. “Am I close or do you still believe I followed you? A bit of a feat considering I crossed over from Brooklyn”

“I don’t hump furniture!” Castle blurts out, watching Jane as he takes another bite from his hot dog, chuckling.

Kate however was a little more shaken up. It felt like Jane had reached into her soul, pulled out her memories and was poking at them, seeing what kind of response he would get from her when he was able to discover her life story in mere seconds.

“How did you do that?” She asked him carefully

“Like I said, I just have a good read on people” Patrick replied casually as he finished off his hot dog.

"Right…come on Castle we got a case to work on" Kate says cautiously, watching Patrick closely.

"We do-wait, I got a brilliant idea" Castle replied, his voice filled with excitement.

"Oh no" Kate groaned.

"Oh no? What's Oh no?" Patrick asked, being his usual nosey self.

"Why don't we get Jane to help us solve the case quicker?! That's only if he hasn't got anywhere to go or isn't working" Castle suggested, watching the death glare form on Kate's face.

"Excellent idea, I'm not working on anything, I'm just here visiting" Patrick replied with as much eagerness as Castle.

"We can't just bring him into the precinct like a stray dog and hope Gates will let him work a case" Kate growled 

"Then like a stray dog, we sneak him in, tell her he's a witness or something." Castle replied

"You know the times where I hate you? This is one of them. He can tag along but there are rules." Kate said sternly 

"It's okay I'm house trained" Patrick interjected.

"Oh great, he's just as Snarky. Okay Patrick, rule one, you don't tell anyone what is going on between me and Rick, do and I lose my job. So unless you want me to use your inside as a football, I suggest you keep it quiet. Rule two you only read the suspects. Castle I don't want you encouraging him either" Kate said firmly giving the man that look "Rule three and the final rule, if you want a coffee…make it yourself"

"But I only drink tea" Patrick replied

"Then you should be fine" Kate said as they started to walk towards the car "You coming?"

“Absolutely!” Jane said with a beaming smile, chasing after them, eager to see how this dynamic partnership worked together.

The journey to the precinct was a bit of a whistle stop sightseeing tour for Patrick, he got to see the Empire State building, Times Square, a peek at the Chrysler building and a fleeting glance at lady liberty herself before they finally reached the precinct. Patrick got out of the car and took a moment to get himself acquainted before Castle showed him the way in and signed him in as a guest. They then made their way up to where the magic happened, a small area that was alive with the hustle and bustle of detectives working cases or acting on call outs. It felt a little like home for Patrick, reminding him of the CBI before it was disbanded.

“Do you have a couch?” Patrick finally asked

“Yeah in the family room…where we talk to the families, why?” Castle asked “Oh it’s just how I do my best work, laying on the couch, staring at the ceiling, listening to my environment. Something I asked from the FBI but they're not in the mood to bend and consequently I’m not doing my best work for them” Patrick replied, giving Castle a coy smile.

“You think Kate will buy it?” Castle asked him

“She will buy it if you are in on it, say ... .I tell you it’s a technique used to gather your thoughts, see clarity in your decisions and all you have to do is tell her it works”  Patrick suggested, knowing full well Castle was up for a bit of mischief making.

“I’m in!” Castle replied Defiantly 

“Excellent, show me the way to the family room and I will show you the magic” Patrick replied confidently

“Certainly and may I say, I like you, we’re going to get into so much trouble” Castle said happily.

“Oh we are, we really are” Patrick replied with a chuckle as Castle showed him to where the couch was kept.

Oddly enough, it was a similar one to the one Patrick grew accustomed to, only this one seemed a little more supportive. He sat down, bounced on it a few times before laying down on it to get a feel.

"Oh this is comfortable, I can work with this" Patrick said as a grin spread across his lips "Wanna give it a go on the other one Castle?"

Castle quickly looked around to make sure no one was looking in before he too took his place on the other couch, laying his 6 foot 2 frame across the cushions and letting out a contented groan.

"Oh yeah…I can see why you like this way of working" Castle said huskily 

"It's great, you can relax and let your brain unravel the case but what's even better, is you can listen better like this…you can hear everything going on, channelling in on the right conversations, picking up little nuggets here and there" Patrick says as he closes his eyes to tune his listening skills  "What's the case you're working on?" 

"A guy killed by a Zombie" Castle replied nonchalantly 

"You're joking right?" Patrick replied surprised 

"I'm not. We got video evidence. It's really cool but a little creepy!" Castle replied excitedly

"There is no such thing as Zombies. It's illogical for them to exist" Patrick replied calmly, knowing Castle will argue against him.

"Okay well I guess I'll have to show you the footage to make you believe" Castle replied.

"Guess you will" Patrick replied softly 

There was a moment's silence between the two men, both of them listening to their environment momentarily before Castle's curiosity got the better of them.

"You know how you freaked out Kate? Can you do that with me?" Castle asked "Just curious to know what you're psychic abilities picked up on me"

"Not psychic and I already did" Patrick replied as he turned to look at him "You ready to hear it?"

"Fire away" Was Castle's response, not truly prepared for what Patrick was about to say.

"On the outside you appear as this loveable guy that has a good sense of humour, wit and charm but on the inside you've experienced a lot of heartbreak, sensing your father was never around when you was born, that you took on the responsibility to be the man about the house, look after your mom, pay the bills and help keep a roof over your head." Patrick replied

".......I never told-"

"I'm not done" Patrick interrupted "You put on the playboy act after a broken heart by a childhood sweetheart, you didn't want your heart broken like that again so you played the field for a very long time…got married a couple of times and had a child. A daughter who is and always will be the apple of your eye. You're loyal, loving to your family and now you actually feel ready to have a serious relationship with someone, who I believe is Kate or Beckett as you call her at work. Problem is you love her but you still keep things from her and I can tell you, you need to be open with Kate, stop hiding behind the playboy act, lower your walls a little and just be you. You don't need to impress her Castle, she likes the man you are." 

Castle just stared at him, he was impressed by the man's skill, if somewhat a little uncomfortable by the man's accurate reading. Of course it did cross his mind that Patrick may have researched him beforehand but something was telling him that it was not the case, that somehow, Patrick leapt into his mind and relayed all that he saw before him.

"How far off was I?" Patrick asked

"Did you research me?" Castle asked

"Nope, didn't have time and didn't know I'd end up working alongside you." Patrick replied casually.

"Well for someone who hasn't done his homework, you got it spot on. You gotta teach me how to do it, it would be a cool thing to do at parties!" Castle responded enthusiastically.

"I'm not one to give out my trade secrets but as a tip, people give out visual clues all the time, you just need to know where to look and how to read it." Patrick replied with a smile.

"Kate can be my test subject" Castle replied thoughtfully

"Yes she can but don't be too obvious with it, try and be subtle" Patrick advised.

He then went on to spend ten minutes schooling Castle on how to subtly get a read on someone, reminding him to keep eye contact with someone but not make it uncomfortable, all before Kate burst into the room and stood in the doorway, a disapproving look on her face and her arms folded across her chest.

"She's upset" Castle said calmly

"Yeah it's quite obvious" Patrick replied

"Castle you asked to have this man work on the case and here you both are, laying on the couch, gossiping while I am out there busting my ass off trying to catch a lead" Kate said in frustration.

"This is how Patrick works, you lay on the couch and lis-"

"I don't care. Get your asses to my desk. Now!" Kate demanded, giving Patrick her trademark death glare "I don't care how you work, when you are under my command you do things my way. Are we clear Mr Jane?"

"Oh we're clear but you'll be surprised what you hear from the couch" Patrick replied in an annoyingly optimistic manner, hoping he could make Kate crack a little.

"Desk!" She snapped back at him as Castle hurriedly ran to get another seat setup at Kate's desk.

"But I don't know where you sit" Jane protested "And I still need a cup of tea"

"Tea can wait. Follow me if you know what's good for you" Kate replied.

Patrick shrugged his shoulders and followed her through the office, watching the people around him work and noting two detectives that were giving him a quizzical look as he passed them by. He then approached what he assumed to be Kate's desk and sat in the empty seat next to Castle, the man presenting Patrick with a cup of tea he had made for him.

"Did you put the water in, make sure the tea bag stewed a little and then the milk?" Patrick asked him.

"Yep, my mom knew this English guy who was very precious about the way his tea was made and he taught-"

"Guys. A little focus here" Kate said sternly

"I made him tea," Castle said proudly.

Kate rolled her eyes and shook her head before presenting Patrick with the file they were working on. Inside was the report on the body from Laney, pictures of the body and the crime scene and a few statements from those who attended the scene along with information gathered on the victim and a list of potential suspects.

"For someone to bite another human and leave behind a deep wound, they would need to be high or deranged" Patrick said as he continued to read the notes.

"Or a zombie,"  Castle interjected.

"You only ever bite someone if it's in self defence or…you're sexually aroused by it. This doesn't come across as either…was there any chemical residue left behind?" Patrick asked

"As a matter of fact there was, traces of a chemical found only in this specific Warehouse district downtown which is on the to do list" Kate replied as she studied Patrick "You thinking drugs are involved?"

"Could be, where's this Charlie fellow?" Patrick asked

"Down in holding, he believes he's going to turn into a zombie" Kate replied with a sarcastic tone in her voice.

"Ooof. Someone's been watching too many horror films. Can I speak to him? I want to know what person we're dealing with here" Patrick asked

"I'll take you to him, I would say take Castle but it'll only encourage his zombie fixation" Kate replied.

"Don't come running when he turns and hungers for your brainy goodness" Castle quipped as he started going over the files again.

"Nice tea by the way" Patrick said, raising his cup to him as he walked alongside Kate. 

They didn't speak much but Patrick could tell that this was a woman who was strong minded, stubborn and confident. He could see It in the way she walked, the way she commanded authority and kept her team in check but under that tough exterior he knew there was a soft spot, someone who was warm, caring and understanding. He just needed to gain her trust a little.

"Do you have a team you work with in the FBI?" Kate asked him finally.

"Yes…yes I do it's still being put together but all the right ingredients are there, it's just getting them to click into place" Patrick answered as they reached the holding cells and waited for someone to sign them in.

"I'm guessing you're an agent" Kate said as she began to fill in the forms.

"No actually, I'm a consultant like Castle I guess" Patrick replied. 

“So who’s lucky enough to have you as their pain in the ass?” Kate asked with a chuckle

“Theresa Lisbon, you’d get along, she has things she can teach you and you have things you can teach her” Patrick replied as he signed the forms where he needed to “We have worked with each other a while now, she’s the only one I truly trust when it comes to things close to my heart”

“Sounds like you have a soft spot for her” Kate says with a smile

“I’ve worked with her for years, of course I’m going to develop a soft spot for her” Patrick says defensively as Kate walks him into the maze of holding cells, every single one of them empty bar one, which was occupied by Charlie, tall man with short black hair, wearing a grey shirt, white tee and Black trousers. Sure enough, Patrick saw the bite mark on his arm, same as the one found on the victim.

“That is interesting!” Patrick says gleefully as he sits down on the floor, placing his cup of tea on the ground between his legs “Hey I’m Patrick Jane, I’m another consultant. Look I need to ask about the attack, smooth out a few details. Now according to Zombie lore, by now you would have turned and that wound on your arm would become a lot more redder and angrier, your veins would be purple and more to the surface and you would be clammy and sick looking, like you have the flu. None of that has happened so I think you’re still able to help me understand what happened to you and David.”

Charlie slowly looked at his arm and then back at Patrick, indicating for the man to carry on with what he has to say.

“I want you to close your eyes for me and slow your breathing down, breathe deep in through your nose, hold for three seconds and breathe out slowly. Can you do that for me?” Patrick asked

“Yeah ... .I can do that” Charlie replied as he slowly closed his eyes and followed Patrick’s instruction.

Patrick waited a couple of minutes, watching the man calm himself down and fall into some form of trance that made him a little more amicable and easy to coerce.  The perfect moment for Patrick to try and draw out some information they couldn’t get out from him while he was hysterical and focusing on his bite.

“I know the attack was quite violent and disturbing for you but I want you to try and remember that day for me, recall any smells or sounds that put you there, maybe there is a colour that reminds you of that day” Patrick says softly, watching the man relax.

“Glue….I could smell Glue….like latex glue” Charlie replied

“Okay that’s good. What else stood out to you?” Patrick asked him

“Rust and…staleness, no damp, the clothes smelt damp” Charlie replied

"Good and did you recognise this person who attacked both you and David?" Patrick asked.

"No idea they just…they came for us and then ran off" Charlie replied 

Patrick took a sip of his tea and looked at Kate with a smile.

"Rust and damp smelling clothes would fit warehouses, especially the leaky ones. But…I don't think our killer was of sound mind and I have a feeling, since Charlie here doesn't know them, is that they were hired to kill or maybe coerced" Patrick suggested before he clapped his hands, snapping Charlie out of his trance "Thanks Charlie you have been a big help"

Charlie blinked, confused and disorientated, unsure of what happened to him as Kate gave Patrick a perplexed look.

"Did you hypnotise him?"She asked

"No just calmed him down and made him more cooperative" Patrick replied with a smile as he got to his feet and picked up his tea from the floor “Castle makes a good cup of tea”

“I'm sure he will be thrilled to know” Kate replied as she walked with him out of the holding area. “Fancy having a walk around some of New York’s finest warehouses in the middle of the night?”

“Sure. I don’t sleep much anyway so maybe a walk around some Warehouses might make me sleepy” Patrick replied with a sarcastic tone and a cheeky smile on his lips.

“I’m guessing you have a hotel room for the night?” Kate asked as she started to sign them out 

“Err…not really I was just going to take a chance on luck” Patrick replied as he started to sign the documentation.

“Well Castle has a spare room or three you can make use of, I’m sure he would love to have you around” Kate replied as they made their way back to the bullpen 

“I’ll be sure to ask him” Patrick replied

Once they returned to Beckett’s desk, she started to put her plan into action. Her, Castle and Patrick would take a few warehouses within  Manhattan, while Ryan and Esposito took a few spots along the Hudson and of course they would move at night, usually the time where crime would be at its peak and they may catch a few breaks with some drug dealers that could potentially have a role to play within the case. So as soon as Darkness fell over the city, Beckett and her team got to work, Esposito and Ryan headed to their spots while Kate, Castle and Patrick went to theirs. Their first spot was a bust, nothing happening, no suspect behaviour or even drug dealers but the second spot, the second spot was interesting. There was steam and a creepy atmosphere around the place which oddly put a smile on Patrick's face.

“Oh this is deliciously creepy” Patrick said joyfully

“Even more reason to have your wits about you Patrick” Kate retorted as they walked through the grounds of this particular spot.

“Oh I have my wits about me, don’t you worry about that” Patrick replied as he marvelled at the spot, chuckling when he saw how on edge Castle was, despite the man trying to disguise it with the macho front he put on. Of course, it teased out Patrick’s mischievous side, he couldn’t help himself and when the right time presented itself, Patrick struck. He managed to find a discarded paper bag,collected air into it and popped it, the explosion loud and reverberated around the grounds of the warehouse. Castle must have lept twelve feet in the air, causing Patrick to laugh loudly before he realised Kate’s gun was trained on him and he flung his arms up in the air to show submission.

“Do that again and I’ll tell Lisbon personally why you came home with a hole in your body” Kate snapped.

But as Jane was about to reply with a witty comment, something caught his eye, something running frantically behind them.

“You might want to turn around” Jane said hurriedly

“If you’re tricking me, I swear-”

“I’m not tricking you! Turn around, there is someone running for their lives!” Patrick pleaded

Thankfully Castle saw it too, despite his nerves already being shredded by Patrick’s antics.

“Kate I think they need help” Castle said

Kate slowly took her eyes off Patrick and looked in the direction both men were looking in, sure enough there was a young woman emerging from the steam in the distance, sprinting towards them, horror etched on her face.

“Get out of here! They’re coming!” She screamed as she ran past them, Patrick watching her path as she ran by..

“Gotta admire a woman who can sprint in heels!” Patrick said before he then turned to look in the direction she came from and sure enough, emerging from the steam was a horde of people also running in fear.

“Okay what’s going on?!” Castle blurted out as he watched Patrick and Kate watched as these people ran past them screaming.

Then there was an eerie silence as the screaming died off into the distance. A moment for them to catch their breaths and try to figure out what had just happened. Patrick was about to speak before he noticed a crowd of slow moving people In the distance, people that stumbled over their feet, that had their hands outstretched. They could hear the distant growls and groans before they emerged from the shadows, coming from every direction. Patrick's eyes lit up in wonder while Castle appeared more panicked. He knew what this group of people were.

“We need to run!” He shouted

“Why?” Patrick asked, confused.

“Because if we don't they'll eat out brains, they're Zombies Patrick!” Castle replied

“.....Zombies? Well this should be Interesting” Patrick replied calmly.

“How are you calm?!” Castle yelled

“Err…I dunno, maybe I know the difference between fact and fiction” Patrick replied 

But the Zombie horde got closer and closer, Patrick fought  back the urge to yell out Lisbon's name as he became increasingly uncomfortable with the amount of people coming towards them, vacant, soulless eyes staring right at them. Unsettling, unnerving and creepy. Kate quickly drew her gun and stood her ground.

“CASTLE, PATRICK, GET BEHIND ME!” She yelled as she kept eyes on the horde.”This can’t be real…”

“WE’RE OUTNUMBERED!” Castle replied, panicked by the sight.

“Significantly! You don’t have enough bullets in that gun to hold them back,so I hope you got a plan, Detective” Patrick warned as he backed himself up against Castle

“Only one. Hold tight and be prepared to fight!” Kate ordered.

[mjinzx]

midnights with you

wc: 415 | genre: fluff, angst if u squint rlly hard | fem! reader x atsumu miya | cw: profanity, she/her pronouns, 3rd pov

~~~

Y/N can’t sleep.

Well, that’s one way to say her problem. It’s 12 am and all she could think about is a nice bowl of black bean ramen. But, she doesn’t want to cook, she’s too lazy to cook. And what better way than to ask someone else to cook it for her?

By someone else, she meant her roommate, Atsumu.

Here’s the thing, though, Atsumu is probably asleep by now, and waking him up would be a suicide mission. Not only does he sleep like a log, but when Atsumu wakes up, he’s the grumpiest person on earth.

But, no one’s stopping Y/N now, she’s already on her way to Atsumu’s room to wake him up and “ruin” his night. She opens his bedroom door, and there he is, deep in his sleep.

‘He’s probably in dreamland right now.’ Y/N thinks.

Y/N had a wonderful idea to wake Atsumu up, and of course, it’s blasting EDM music in his ear at maximum volume.

You bet Atsumu woke up.

“Y/N? What the hell? Why are you here? And most importantly, why are you blasting music in my ear at midnight?” He says furiously.

Y/N just smiled cheekily. She knows that Atsumu isn’t actually mad at her, maybe a little annoyed, but never angry.

“I’m hungry, can you make me ramen, please?”

Y/N pleaded cutely, making sure to stretch that ‘please’ so Atsumu would give in.

“No.” Atsumu responded.

“Pretty, please?” At this point, Y/N is begging for Atsumu to cook for her, but Atsumu doesn’t even look one bit fazed.

“Why don’t you cook your own, Y/N? Come on, it’s 12 am, I need to sleep.” Atsumu says flatly.

Queue Y/N pouting. “Tsk. Fine.” She says and went out of Atsumu’s bedroom.

Y/N looks like a child not given candy during halloween right now. She’s pouting, brows furrowed, and stomping her way to the kitchen.

‘Of course he wouldn’t agree, Y/N. What were you even thinking? It’s 12:51 am.’ She thinks.

Y/N was having a hard time finding a pot, so she didn’t hear Atsumu entering the kitchen, his hands inside his pockets. He leans in the wall, just watching Y/N struggling to find a pot, with a smirk on his lips.

“I’ll do it.” Someone says.

‘Hm? Atsumu?’ She thinks.

She looked behind her only to see Atsumu smiling at her.

“Hey bub, sorry about earlier, you just surprised me, that’s all.” Atsumu apologizes.

“I’ll make you ramen?”

“Yes, please.”

“Black bean?”

“Black bean.”

a/n: this is my failed attempt of using 3rd pov in y/n imagines 😆

© mjinzx

[insomniac4000]

A Pot of Gold Part 2

“Hello!” Mae beamed as she stepped into Ethan and Faith’s house. Olive came toddling over with her arms out as the redhead picked her up and gave her a big cuddle. Mae was like an auntie to Olive, she did find it really hard at first losing her own child but she loved the little girl like she was her own and definitely spoiled her.

“Hey! How are you?” Faith asked as she gave the small woman a hug.

“Good, how are you guys?” Mae asked as she flashed the small child another smile.

“Good. We heard you on The Fella’s Podcast and oh my God,” Ethan started as Faith started to pour everyone some wine and started to hand out the glasses.

“Thanks, I’m going to have to talk about things in interviews for promotion when the doc comes out so it’s quite nice to practise with friends, get’s me more relaxed and used to talking about it,” Mae explained taking a sip from her drink.

“You should come on growing Paynes, and after the serious talk we can then gossip about you and George,” Faith giggled.

“There is no gossip! People saw one picture and went fucking nuts,” Mae replied.

“Chris thought there might have been something,” Ethan admitted causing Mae to look at her old friend confused.

“What? When? What did he say?”

“We were filming the other day, I asked him about it and he said he didn’t know if it was completely a joke then took the stinkiest free kick I have ever seen,” he laughed and Mae frowned, why would Chris say that?

“Well there is nothing going on.” Mae cleared up any confusion, her tone clear that she was telling the truth.

“Is there anything on that front?” Faith asked curiously, picking up the random item that Olive had just handed to her.

“Eh nothing serious, date here and a date there, no one I’ve liked that much that I want a second.” Mae smiled sadly before taking a drink. As she met Jack at college and they were together so long she was new to dating and especially to online dating. The problem was she genuinely wanted to meet someone and wasn’t too interested in hook ups which lessened the pool of people dramatically.

“Would you rule out dating another Youtuber again?” Faith asked, when Mae opened her mouth she was interrupted by Ethan.

“Don’t ask all the questions now! Wait until she’s on the pod.”

“I love you both but there is a massive queue, apparently all you have to do in order to be in demand is have a complete mental break down,” Mae tried to make it sound like a joke but it was obvious there was still a sadness behind her eyes.

After having a drink and spending some time with Olive, Mae made her way home and as she did she messaged Chris saying ‘apparently you believe the rumours?’ she didn’t answer the subsequent message or his face time as she was still on the way home but when she walked into her flat she returned his call.

“Hey, what was that message about?” Chris asked. He was lying on his bed, arm casually behind his head.

“Why are you saying you don’t know if George and I was a joke?” Mae asked as she tried to place her phone down in order to try and pour a glass of wine.

“I dunno what you get up to in your spare time,” he replied with a shrug.

“In my spare time? Drinking lots and crying alone,” Mae replied as she poured her wine.

“I thought you were doing better,” Chris replied as he frowned, hating the sound of Mae going backwards.

“Yes and no. I think with all of the talking about everything and the documentary it’s just bringing things back a little bit. Look there’s nothing going on with me and George, I dunno why you told Ethan there might be but please don’t say anything about it anymore, I don’t want rumours to spread. ”

“I’m sorry. I think it was just guy talk and I got swept away with it all. Doesn’t help George is walking around with an even fatter head excited he’s being shipped and people are taking an interest in him,” Chris said sincerely.

“Okay then I need to talk to him too about being a prat.”

“Doesn’t work, I do that multiple times daily.” Chris paused to let Mae laugh. “If you need company you know where I am.”

“Thanks.”

“So what have you been up to today?” Chris asked studying Mae carefully, she seemed more subdued then usual and he was worried. 

“I went to see Olive,” she answered trying to keep her voice steady. She absolutely loved seeing her but it was really hard for her sometimes, coupled with the fact she was talking about the loss of Aria a lot lately made it a little harder. Mae could feel the stings of tears in her eyes she tried to hold them back but it was no use, she blinked involuntarily causing a single tear to drop down and it didn’t go unnoticed.

“Want me to come over?” Chris asked as he sat up from his bed ready to get his shoes and jacket on.

“Only if you’re free, I don’t want to impose,” Mae replied, she knew Chris had cancelled plans at least once or twice for her and she felt incredibly guilty when she found out even though he was happy to do so.

“I’ve got nothing going on, see you in about twenty minutes,” Chris waved and hung up. The boys flat was actually only about ten minutes walk away from hers, a happy accident but it came in handy.

Mae tidied up the flat a little bit, placing some washing away and making sure the bathroom was tidy and clean, she filled a bowl of crisps and another with some sweets and chocolate, it was something her family always did when people came over and she had picked up the habit. Chris arrived about twenty five minutes after they had hung up the phone, Mae noticed he was wearing a different T-shirt.

“Hey, thanks for coming over, I really appreciate it,” Mae smiled as the two hugged before settling on the sofa as Mae poured some wine for them both.

“How are you doing? Really?” Chris asked as he crossed one of his legs over the other.

“I’m okay it’s just a lot at the minute.” Mae gave a small smile trying to push through everything knowing this was how things were going to be for a little while until the documentary came out. So what are you doing alone tonight? Thought you had them all lined up?” Mae asked with a wink wanting to lighten the mood.

“Not tonight. I’m moving away from just scoring and moving into actual dating now I think.” Chris admitted nodding, he liked talking to Mae about dating because unlike the boys there was no riffing.

“Do you ever think that Shannon was it? How do you keep hope that you will find someone else?” Mae asked, she wasn’t trying to be rude about it, she was genuinely curious about Chris’s thoughts on things. Him and Shannon had such a mature attitude towards their break up completely the opposite of what she went through.

“You have to. I remind myself as great as Shannon and I were at some point we broke up for a reason, we still see each other regularly and if we were meant to get back together we probably would have by now.”

“It sounds like such a mature break up, must be nice. I found the messages on his phone, had a break down, threw his stuff out on the street, refused to see him when I was at the hospital and haven’t seen or heard from him since. On one hand I think not having closure might be one of the reasons why I’m struggling to move passed things but on the other the thought of seeing or hearing him again makes me want to be sick,” Mae spilled out her feelings. It was something that she had needed to get off of her chest for a while. Chris listened intently and shuffled on the sofa moving himself closer to Mae, placing his glass down.

“I can’t even begin to understand what happened to you, what you’re going through now but I do know you’re kind, funny, smart, attractive and you support Arsenal! Who wouldn’t want that?” Chris said earnestly as he placed an arm around the woman and she leaned into the hug a little.

“Thanks. I am allergic to cats though,” she looked up at Chris who shook his head.

“Might be a deal breaker for some but my point still stands. Since being single my channel is probably the best it’s ever been in terms of video content and production, you’re doing brilliantly as well it’s not the be all and end all of life. You can still do the things you want to do, you can still buy a house, get a dog.” Mae looked at Chris and nodded slowly, he was making a really good point.

“You’re right. I keep low key looking at houses but then I think oh what if my future partner doesn’t like it. If I get with someone who doesn’t like the house I live in and makes a big deal out of it then there’s bigger problems going on there,” Mae mused before taking a drink and looking at the dirty blonde male. Her and Jack bought a house and were doing it up before the baby arrived. Once everything had blown over Mae sold it as she couldn’t abide living there anymore and she moved back into her old flat which she thankfully kept but rented out.

“Thanks Chris you’ve really put some things in perspective. Shall we do something else, maybe watch a film?” She offered as she searched for the remote control.

“Only if you want to,” Chris replied and Mae nodded knowing Chris meant only if she had finished talking which she had.

“Thank you for coming over today, I really appreciate it,” Mae uttered as she started to scroll Netflix and leaned on Chris as she tried to get comfortable. He grabbed the blanket which was neatly folded over the back of the sofa and draped it over the both of them as they settled into watching Galaxy Quest.

When the film was over they watched a couple of episodes of The Inbetweeners before Mae started to yawn and felt her eyes get really heavy.

“Tired?” Chris asked before yawning himself, it catches very quickly, Mae nodded.

“The spare room’s yours if you want it,” Mae offered and Chris nodded. He had stayed in that room before, usually after trying to calm Mae down or wanting to keep an eye on her so it was nice their evenings were more relaxed these days and he didn’t have to worry too much. 

“Night, thanks for today.” She said earnestly giving him a little kiss on the cheek before going to her room.

[bohemian-nights]

I think daemyras' worst headcanon/disillusionment about Daemon is that he loves Rhaenyra's bastards as if they were his own (I get chills when I see them putting Daemon as their big daddy) whilebin the show what is shown he is indifferent to them at the very least and at most he feels irritated that Weak boy #1 wants to boss him around, what makes it worse is that they saw him being an absent father to the twins, but suddenly, he's an excellent stepfather to the bastards just because they are the children of his "soulmate" and he loves everything connected to her 🥴I always had the impression that Daemon wanted a boy so much since he was still married to Laena because he knew that Weak boys were bastards and that that would be enough to take her away of the succession and he needed a male heir to be able to challenge his nephews with the power of House velaryon behind him after all, it is not said that House Velaryon could challenge both the Green and Blacks when did Daemon marry Laena? I'm not saying that he didn't love her and wasn't happy with her, because I believe that he really liked her and her free spirit, but that the marriage did have political reasons behind it and there is nothing wrong with that, by the great council of 101 daemon had a claim too, which was certainly more legitimate than rhaenyra's after she committed high treason

I think their most delusional take is that Missy Anne was his soulmate(we all want our soulmate to abandon us when we've lost our marbles for another woman and chokegate), but that kinda ties into this take.

The fact of the matter is if Daemon really truly viewed those boys as his sons(and if he loved everything about Miss Maegor) this would've never happened:

Imagine getting your a** handed to you as a child(in a 4 on 1 fight) to where you need your younger brother to come save you and yet you still haven't learned how to fight six years later. I almost feel bad for laughing, but this is downright comical🤣

Anyone who thinks the Rogue Prince Daemon freaking Targaryen would let his sons go around not knowing how to at least protect themselves is a moron.

I'm not going to comment on it further cause what more needs to be said🤷🏽‍♀️

Show!Daemon really is a father to no one. Book!Daemon is a little better(hey at least he's not a misogynist towards his daughters), but ultimately he leaves his children to fend for themselves* after falling into a depression cause in order to save Nettles he had to let her go. He's not winning Father of the Year anytime soon.

*If he actually wanted to save them he would’ve gone back to Kings Landing like Missy Anne wanted him to, in order to sort things out and get back-up to help him defeat Aemond/Vhagar. Does he do that? Only in a Dumbnyra fanfic ☕️

Moving on, I do believe Daemon found Laena to be very alluring I think it's pretty obvious he loved her, but yeah their marriage was politically motivated.

He knew what he was doing when he married her(especially given how her parents were butthurt over being snubbed twice over). He probably was very likely to stake his own claim to the throne(although that would've involved usurping Aegon, but I don't think he'd have a problem with that). There's no way Daemon doesn't at least try to ensure his own flesh and blood wears the crown.

This is why Nettles was Daemon’s purest love/relationship. She offered nothing and I do mean absolutely nothing to him, not titles, not blood, not a crown, not armies and yet homeboy was ready to end it all cause of her. He abandoned his queen for her. He was going to give up his life for hers. He might've even lived and crawled back to her(queue Hozier Work Song🎵). That's his soulmate right there🫀

Is it perfect, no. Daemon is a piece of sh*t, he's old as hell and he keeps getting with girls/women half his age. He murdered children. The man straight-up abandoned his family. I mean I love him as much as GRRM does, but he's the worst(well second worst cause of Gollum who should've been thrown in the fire), but he did love Nettles and he saved her(she’s my fave so I won’t hate)☺️