#real emerald bracelets

[marketingbusiness2]

Buy Synthetic Diamond Jewelry In India - Espira Gems

Buy exquisite synthetic diamond jewelry in India from Espira Gems. Explore stunning lab-grown diamond rings, earrings, and pendants—sustainable, ethical, and brilliantly crafted for every occasion.

[threeacttragedy]

Entry 17: The One About All the Hot Air

Oh, hey, hey, hey – what is that over there?

No, not that –

That!

Ah, fuck.

Is that what I think it is?

Yeah, yeah, it looks like some sort of hot air balloon.

Ugh, it’s that fucking wannabe Wizard! Get that manipulative shit-fuck outta here!

Seriously, don’t let it set foot on land. It’s not welcome on this side of Oz.

Someone release the flying monkeys! Like, now. Knock it out of the sky.

Wait, I thought the Wizard liked green. This weirdo has a red balloon.

Bitch, I didn’t say it was the Wizard; I said it was a wannabe Wizard.

Oh, no wonder it’s steering that balloon like a fucking clown.

Hell, I don’t even think we need the monkeys. That idiot is going to crash and burn itself straight into the glass walls of the Emerald Palace.

Well, you know what they say when you start throwing stones in a glass house…

It is slightly amusing (and a tad concerning) to me that children are always led to believe that the villain of “The Wonderful Wizard of Oz” is that bitch of a Witch of the West when the worst character traits are actually portrayed by the Wizard himself. And, by “worst character traits,” I mean that he was a master manipulator who conned an entire city into believing he held some form of great power.

Did you know that in the original story the Emerald City wasn’t really that green? Sure, it was made from green glass and emeralds, but the Wizard required everyone to wear green-colored glasses so that everything appeared greener than it actually was. Weird, that. And, even more weird, people bought it! “Here, put these glasses on and you’ll see everything exactly the way I want you to see it.”

Yeah, yeah, yeah, I’m fully aware “The Wonderful Wizard of Oz” is a work of fiction, but the idea that people can be easily manipulated – especially by someone with “power” – is not fiction.

That’s what today’s piece of “hot air” is about – fandom manipulation and the power of suggestion. And who better to manipulate an entire fandom than the media? It’s unfortunate that I have to give the media power in this story – and even more unfortunate that I have to give it to rag-mags and social media – but the reality is information is power, regardless of whether it’s misinformation. In fact, MIT Sloan did a study in 2018 demonstrating how false information spreads through social media, namely, Twitter, six times faster than true information. Disturbing, right? I don’t even want to know what the going rate for misinformation is in 2025.

And, of course, since I opened today’s story with a visit to the Land of Oz, we may as well take a day trip over to Australia. Remember how I told you Australia deserved an entry of its own? Well, this is it. No, not really. I did say this was a day trip, not a sleep-over, so it’s not going to be chucked full of shiny bracelets or ways to “keep a good girl down.” It’s just our starting point today.

In my first entry, I briefly described what brought me into this fandom. It was something Luke said – and not really what he said, but how he said it – that left me intrigued. He was being interviewed on the Bowral red carpet by “Gretchen from the Philippines.” Yes, that’s literally how she introduced herself! Could I instead refer to the nice lady by her real name (Gretchen Fullido)? Sure, but “Gretchen from the Philippines” is far more fun. Plus, it sounds kind of whimsical. Any ways, Gretchen (from the Philippines) asked Luke if, “in real life,” he’d support friends-to-lovers. Luke’s response was, well, a bit jumbled, which was what sparked my curiosity because his previous answers that day were, for the most part, articulate: “I would – I would support friends – I feel like it’s not something that – that I have in my li – that I resonate with – that I’ve experienced. But, you know, if my – if my friends wanted to explore a relationship with one their friends, go for it. I’ll support it.”

Something in the way Luke answered that question was like suddenly being able to see the forest for the trees. At that moment, I was convinced Luke had always been in love with Nicola, and everything else that went on during that particular red-carpet event (and thereafter) simply christened the USS Lukola. However, that comment by Luke – and a subsequent one he made in New York – would result in the addition of a lot of trees to our enchanted forest.

Now – I apologize – we need to borrow a hot air balloon, preferably one that can travel through time, and jump forward to November 5, London-time. I promise, we will return to Oz momentarily.

Oh, fuck.

What now?

That ridiculous faux Wizard is right behind us. I thought I told you to send in the monkeys!

Dammit, you said we didn’t need them! I left those fuckers back in Oz.

Well, umm, I think we might need them now.

Why??

Uhh, do you see those four-legged beasts on the ground chasing our balloon?

Oh, you mean those coyote-like creatures?

Yeah, but we’re not in the Americas – and those ain’t coyotes…

Ah, here we are: November 5, Claridge’s, London. This was the evening Nicola attended the Harper’s Bazaar Women of the Year awards. We’re only stopping in real quick to steal a piece of the speech Nicola gave that evening. Okay, got it! Let’s get the fuck out of here!

The part of the speech I wanted to share was this: “I did a six-month press tour for Bridgerton, the show which I love, and I’m so proud of. The amount of inappropriate questions I got asked about my appearance, about my relationship…”

Hold up. Relationship? What relationship?

Did she say “relationship” or “relationships?”

Does it fucking matter?

Well, I guess not. But what does it mean?

I could tell you what I think it means… Wait a hot-air-balloon-minute – where the fuck have you taken us? I told you we needed to go back to April 21, Aussie-time. This looks like Soho in January.

Shit, sorry. Let me fix that. Here we go…

>>> 

Umm, hey, where’s that weird little red Wizard? I swear it was just behind us…

Eh, probably got stuck in Soho, hahaha. Guess it missed its exit.

Do you think that’s a good idea?

Yeah, sure. It’ll be fine…

We’ve returned to April 21, Bowral, Australia. Now, at this point in the timeline, World Tour interviews were already well underway. In fact, the first two parts of EmEdits on YouTube are entirely pre-Australia interviews, making up roughly 6 ½ hours of screen time. I’m not the least bit surprised that “Gretchen from the Philippines” asked Luke what his thoughts were on “real life” friends-to-lovers. The chemistry between Luke and Nicola was hard to ignore.

The Australian red carpet also introduced the hand holding, which – if we took another magical mystery tour over to May 9, Italy – Nicola and Luke agreed was a sign of “love.” I suppose I could buy the excuse that one or both had so much anxiety they needed the other’s hand to remain calm on the red carpet. But, nah, I wouldn’t buy that at all – for one very specific reason. When Luke and Nicola were seen leaving (I believe) the Milton Park Country House on April 23, Luke instinctively reached for Nicola’s hand as they were descending the steps. Why? This reflex by Cool Hand Luke was as natural as a pregnant woman touching her stomach. I ask again – why?

There’s only one answer.

It’s the answer that fits with the Claddagh ring. It’s the answer that fits with the side jaunt to Galway. It’s the answer that fits with their natural chemistry, the hand holding, the canned “shared experience” and “unique relationship�� responses, the playful sexual innuendos. It’s the answer that fits with Luke’s “the best foundation for love is friendship” bracelet. It’s the answer that fits with Nicola’s remark about “[t]he amount of inappropriate questions I got asked…about my relationship…” It’s the only fucking answer that makes sense.

But, the real kicker is, why don’t people believe that is the answer?

Why is it so hard to believe that Luke and Nicola could be in a real-life relationship?

That’s easy – because the Man Behind the Curtain told us so.

Who is the Man Behind the Curtain? Well, that’s also easy. It’s collectively the rag-mags and the social media creators on the prowl for a following. It’s the spread of misinformation at its worst and it’s so incredibly easy to do with, say, a pair of green-colored glasses.

Like I said, “…put these glasses on and you’ll see everything exactly the way I want you to see it.”

There was one major plot twist that came out of the World Tour, and you already know what that is. The seed was planted with a New Year’s Eve kiss, fertilized with blurry pictures, a compulsory hallway hug, and copycat photos, and encouraged to grow with a bit of junk news and a lot of social media innuendo. Now, I’m not saying the video and photographic evidence that was presented was fabricated; I’m simply suggesting the narrative that came out that evidence was skewed. The media, namely, social media creators, pushed us to plant Lutonia trees while Luke’s actions (i.e., not acknowledging the existence of Lutonia) told us to “pay no attention to the Man Behind the Curtain.”

Uh, so, what you’re saying is we shouldn’t have left that wannabe Wizard in Soho?

Ah, shit! I forgot about that fucker!

The unfortunate thing about the Lutonia narrative was that it was bolstered by insinuation that Luke would never be interested in Nicola. Now, whether these remarks were deliberately planted, or they were simply seedpods carried away by a storm, they were not overlooked by Lukolas – or Nicola. In fact, Nicola herself brushed upon it in her Harper’s Bazaar speech: “The amount of inappropriate questions I got asked about my appearance…” Yes, I’m referring to the suggestion that Luke preferred “brunettes” over “blondes.” Somehow this narrative was conveniently supported by the existence of – lo and behold! – the brunette “friend of a friend” Antonia, who happened to be slender. Again, whether it was intentional or not, the push by, initially, social media creators (and later gossip rags) to link Luke to Antonia inadvertently called the blonde in our story – Nicola – fat. I refuse to dance around that word because it is exactly what this disgusting narrative implied when it chose to compare Antonia to Nicola. Regardless of whether these gossipmongers “corrected” themselves by replacing “thin” with “brunette” and “fat” with “blonde,” the implication was that Luke would never be interested in Nicola because she had thick blonde hair. This was incredibly upsetting and confusing to many Lukolas because it was contrary to Luke’s behavior towards Nicola throughout the World Tour (and in Bridgerton behind-the-scenes clips).

I decided months ago that Luke was incredibly transparent. And, by that, I mean he’s terrible at keeping secrets. Luke himself admitted his “tell” to this was pulling at his ear – now go watch the World Tour with that information in mind. It’ll give you something to do, at the very least. Luke’s sincerity is also why the blonde versus brunette nonsense just doesn’t take flight for me. Any ways, as I hinted at earlier, Luke’s comments on the Bowral red carpet and his later comments in New York City about friends-to-lovers would – again, unfortunately – give the Man Behind the Curtain ammunition to debunk any real-life relationship between Luke and Nicola. Luke was quickly labeled as being “…dismissive of something ever happening between him and Nicola…” Those are literally the words The Tab used in an article dated May 22 to explain Luke and Nicola’s differing commentary about real-life friends-to-lovers. In fact, the article is titled, “Luke Newton has revealed the reason he’d never date Bridgerton co-star Nicola Coughlan.” Oddly – but not really given the source – Luke never actually said he would never date Nicola. But that fact didn’t stop it from becoming a theme of the World Tour – Luke didn’t believe in friends-to-lovers therefore he would never date Nicola – even though, by the end of the tour, Luke’s stance on this had seemingly changed. That’s not to say the rag-mags misquoted Luke – they didn’t – but the narrative they coiled around his words attempted to shut down the idea that Luke and Nicola would ever date in real life because Luke wasn’t interested. But what Luke was saying was that he believed in love-at-first sight. “I actually don’t think friends-to-lovers is something that happens in my life. If I meet someone, I know immediately.” Now, take that statement with the fact that Luke has repeatedly stated he remembers everything about the moment he met Nicola.

The above examples of gossip and innuendo are simply par for the course. The media manipulates facts all the time – whether it be through social media chatter or rag-mags putting their own spin on ordinary commentary – but this type of manipulation is not what puts the fandom in danger of itself. In fact, most of the gossip and innuendo that took root during the World Tour would have dissipated almost immediately after it ended – if it hadn’t been for Papsmear.

Yeah. That was disastrous.

Come to think of it, it was awfully convenient, too, don’t you think?

Absolutely. And you know what else was convenient? That little wannabe Wizard was –

Oh, yeah, I heard that, too! That clown has been trying to hand out green-colored glasses ever since!

Yep. Tried to give me a pair and I told it to go fuck itself and its little glass cat, too. I mean, they weren’t even name brand glasses. Fake ass, bitch.

All jesting aside, if you haven’t noticed already, I do, on occasion, use my writing to call out the fandom, usually as a whole. I mean, we are in this together, right? Actually, no; we ceased being Collectively Delulu after a few unsavory characters were bitten by the Hunter’s Moon and followed Nicola through the streets of New York and London. There was a major – and rather unexpected – shift in the fandom when the rabid Jakolas appeared from the dark corners of our enchanted forest. And I’m sure you’ve realized at this point in my story that I have one particular – oh, shit, I just realized I don’t even know to which fandom our wannabe Wizard belongs. Ruh-roh. Regardless, that motherfucker is in my peep sight because it is a perfect example of how fandom manipulation has reached a new level of toxicity.

Typically, I don’t care what part of the fandom you’re on. My general attitude is, to each their own. If you’re a Jakola and you find yourself spending an average of 15 minutes each week reading my Lukola blog, I applaud you for peeking outside of the den hole. Best not let Alpha find out, though. It’s all in good fun, right? I often find myself getting a good laugh from Jakola stories, especially when they theorize on the Woman Behind the Curtain. Question, though – did you find her? In all seriousness, if I didn’t consider Jakola and Lutonia perspectives, I would be borderline Conscientiously Stupid, now, wouldn’t I? After all, the desire for knowledge is what ultimately gave our Scarecrow his brain.

However, what I don’t find “in good fun” is when social media creators prey on more than one side of the fandom under phony pretense, namely, that they “just want Nicola to be happy.” Oh, these Cowardly Lions may argue that they’re simply being “neutral” – and, yes, I’m sure some instances of this do exist – however, neutrality does not embrace openly ridiculing one fandom over another, especially on a platform that is touted by its owners as being a “safe space” for everyone. The problem with these so-called “neutral creators” is that they’re only here for social media engagement – the clicks and the giggles – and they defect to the other side when the going gets tough. If you, too, take issue with this kind of creator, be soothed in knowing that when you play two sides, you find yourself with two-times the number of enemies.

What makes these so-called “neutral creators” – actually, let’s just call them the “Defectors” – so poisonous to the fandom is that they are made from the grease drippings found at the bottom of the barrel of the Conscientiously Stupid. The Conscientiously Stupid are one thing – they are the ones using their platforms to spread misinformation because they choose to ignore exculpatory evidence (i.e., they’re headstrong in their beliefs) – but the Defectors are typically the ones creating the misinformation and feeding it to the Conscientiously Stupid and then hanging them out to dry when the information proves to be false. The Conscientiously Stupid who refuse to “lose the battle” then resort to bullying (more so than usual) the Sincerely Ignorant of an opposing fandom. And in defense of their Sincerely Ignorant comrades (or simply because they’re sick and tired of the Conscientiously Stupid preventing anyone from having nice things), the Fact Finders – unceremoniously, I might add – have taken their own place on the battlefield (oh, yes, they are absolutely your tactical commanders). Now, the entire fandom is at war with each other – all because some wannabe Wizard – a Defector – convinced people to look through a pair of shiny, green-colored glasses. More than once.

Is it appropriate – or perhaps a bit catty – to put “ceasefire” here?

Ah, yes, well, uh, we have found ourselves a bit far from Oz at this point, haven’t we?

I suppose – but we are trying to help Dorothy find her way back home, and at least we now have an idea as to how she got lost.

Maybe one day we will get her back to Kansas.

Yeah, maybe.

Oh, silly me! I forgot to sneak in a sly reference to Dorothy’s third companion – the Tin Man! He’s perfect for the end of our story. You know, in the book, the Wizard was just an ordinary man who stumbled into his Ozian existence on a magnificent hot air balloon and took advantage of the power that Emerald citizens bestowed upon him. Yeah, yeah, yeah, the Wizard preyed on the naïve using deception and the power of suggestion and invoked fear in anyone who dared to question his authority –

Uh, where are you going with this?

Give me a minute!

Like I said – shit, where was I? – Oh, yes, the Wizard was just an ordinary man, and ordinary people are flawed. We all make mistakes. This is where our Tin Man comes in as he represents love and empathy. Yes, empathy; the ability to put yourself in someone else’s shoes, to understand and forgive, to take into consideration someone’s redeeming qualities –

You know that Wizard defected in his hot air balloon before taking Dorothy home, right?

Wait, what?

Okay, okay. It was Toto’s fault but the Wizard sure as shit didn’t come back for her!

Hmm, you’d almost think Toto knew the Wizard’s true colors all along…

“Au revoir, Wiz.”

[starsfic]

Friendship Bracelets

This is based off a fun idea by @ldhedgehog, where Sonic and Shadow end up with a quill from each other and can use that to sense each other's emotions.

Fine. He was hedgehog to admit it.

Sonic had a bit of separation anxiety.

He and his parents chalked it up to the sudden loss of Longclaw and the ten years spent alone. Sonic had been so excited for his first day of school, with actual kids his age, but had spent most of the day deep in anxiety. What if being away from him was enough to convince Tom and Maddie that he didn't deserve to live with them? What if something happened to them? What if something happened to them and Sonic was all by himself again-

Sonic spent most of the day clinging to Tom when he got home.

It had gotten better. He had learned that Tom and Maddie were solid in their love for him. They texted each other during points in the day. Tails and Knuckles, once they were enveloped into the Wachowski fold, were also there, steadying him.

And then Shadow had come along and then was suddenly gone. There was still anger at him for hurting Tom, an anger that was only mollified by a bit when Tom admitted that he had spooked Shadow, but there was also grief.

Shadow had complemented him. It was like there was a piece of him missing that Sonic had never realized until he and Shadow were dancing in the stars, miniature shooting stars, and whispering of grief and loss on the moon. He loved Knuckles and Tails, of course, but neither could truly challenge him in speed, not until he met furious red eyes.

He had spent months convinced Shadow was dead.

And then Shadow was back, dragging Rouge the Bat with him and bursting into the scene like something out of an action movie, kicking a Metal Sonic away from Amy.

They hadn't had much time to talk, but Shadow's eyes lit up when they met, and he admitted that he had been grieving Sonic too, his hand tight around his. They weren't miniature shooting stars at the end, but they still could give one hell of an encore to their dance.

Then they had to separate again.

Shadow wasn't safe on Earth, not when GUN was around. Sonic understood, especially when Director Rockwell marched in and started screaming questions a few seconds after they shoved Shadow, Rouge, Amy, and that one robot they apparently stole from GUN through the ring portal. However, the minute they sat down in the truck, ready to head back to Green Hills where Shadow and the others would meet them, Sonic felt tears pricking at his eyes- not the normal tears he usually shed after a battle, but real, frantic tears.

What if he had just been a hallucination? What if something happened to him in the five minutes it took to set up a ring portal? What if something happened to him and Sonic was by himself again-

Panic attacks sucked. That was a fun fact that he learned. Maddie had decided, once he was back to himself, that they were all getting therapy. Nobody protested this.

Especially not Shadow, who spent the rest of the night- because his parents refused to let anyone go hungry, especially after a battle like that- hovering by his side. It took a lot of effort to convince him to let go of Sonic's hand at the end of dinner. Then Sonic had a nightmare in the middle of the night and had summoned a ring portal to Rouge's house, right as Shadow was crawling through his window to apparently check if Sonic was still breathing.

This started a pattern that was rapidly becoming an issue.

So when Maddie said she had a way to possibly help with their separation anxiety, Sonic honestly doubted her.

"It's a thing I noticed," she explained as she worked at the table, the two of them sitting across from her. "Shadow, you had one of Sonic's quills at one point, and you could tell Sonic was alive."

"Yes," Shadow said with a nod. "I think our mutual bond with the Chaos Emeralds may have infused our quills." Nobody mentioned that chaos energy was how Gerald Robotnik had lived way past his prime. The thought of Eggman possibly licking his quill made Sonic want to shiver out of his skin, he did not want to imagine what Shadow thought of his sort-of father figure licking his quill.

"Yeah!" his mom said brightly. "So, I did some research and poked at some of your quills, Sonic." She finished whatever she was doing, revealing two bracelets.

They looked like friendship bracelets, done with red and blue strings. However, when Sonic squinted, he realized that one had a lot more blue. The other had a familiar red tint to it.

"Hedgehog quills are actually hollow, making them flexible," Maddie explained as she held them out to them. "But your two's quills are way more flexible than I expected, more like human hair. I'm guessing that's because you guys aren't actually hedgehogs, but something resembling hedgehogs..." Sonic took the bracelet with more red and slid it on as Shadow slid the blue one on.

He twisted his wrist back and forth, studying the bracelet. It was close-fitting, meaning it wouldn't snag on anything, which was good. Sonic felt a burst of interest in his chest as Shadow's quills caught the light, turning a lighter shade of red.

Then he looked at Shadow, who was studying his own bracelet. The blue looked good on him. He looked nice with blue. He looked nice in general, but right now he looked cutely nice, kinda like a cat with how his ears flicked-

Shadow's ears flicked and Sonic had to resist the urge to squeal.

Shadow's head turned then.

"Did...did you just squeal in your head?" he said, sounding baffled. "I could feel that enough that I could hear it."

...oh. Maybe separation anxiety was better.

[ifearzombies]

What You Wear

Little things I headcanon MC wears on their RAD uniform to keep the people they love close during the day.

From Lucifer:

A small brooch of a peacock feather on your RAD jacket. It’s a beautiful golden feather with multi-colored gems to detail the colours. You love how it accents your uniform and makes you feel slightly more regal.

From Mammon:

You have not just the chocolate lizard keychain, but there’s one of a bird on your RAD uniform belt. It’s not really gold, and the gem eyes are just crystals, but the bird sits on your waist everyday and you fiddle with it when you miss your first man.

From Leviathan:

You have a small goldfish pendant. The chain is a snake-chain design and the pendant is made of acrylic to make it look real. On the back it reads ‘To my Henry’. You can’t help but occasionally kiss it when you pass Levi in the halls to make him blush.

From Satan:

A small golden ring with cats carved into it sits on your middle left finger (with Satan’s instructions to show Lucifer just the one finger to show it off). The cats have emerald eyes to match Satan’s and you fiddle with it when you’re in class together and watch him perform his spells.

From Asmodeus:

A jangly charm bracelet with little chibis of him sits on your right wrist. He wants you to remember his beauty when you’re separated and this was the perfect way for you to look at him when you’re apart.

From Beelzebub:

He gave you a fitbit that you wear on your left wrist so that you can keep track of your health. Humans have short life spans, so he wants you to stay healthy so you can have as much time together as possible. Plus he likes to compete with you slightly over who has more steps per day. He always wins, but you can’t help but keep ‘competing’ to see his overjoyed smile.

From Belphegor:

You have a ring on middle right finger with Belphie’s bear emblem on it, the stones amethyst and diamonds to show his colours. He smiles when he sees the ring on your hand and is sure to comment on it. You ruffle his hair in return.

From Solomon:

You have fire topaz earring studs from the magician. They’re enchanted to boost your magic abilities during exams that involve magic since your powers (without boost) is weak in comparison to him. He smiles whenever he sees you wear them outside of RAD.

From Simeon:

On another belt loop you have a couple of the diamond shaped gold plates that came from Simeon’s angelic clothing. He got the ones he removed replaced, but he wanted you to have the originals so that he’d always be with you- like a guardian angel.

From Luke:

Your feet never get tired from walking around RAD all day because Luke gave you several pairs of socks from the Celestial Realm that make it feel like you’re walking on clouds. You thank the little angel every chance you get because you walk EVERYWHERE in the Devildom. The socks have been your biggest lifesaver.

From Barbatos:

In the breast pocket of your RAD uniform is the most exquisite pocket watch with the emblem for RAD on it’s cover and on the back, Barbatos’ demon symbol. You’re an example. And should always be on time and presentable, in his opinion. Whenever you’re caught using it, Barbatos gives a nod of approval and smiles.

From Diavolo:

In another pocket of your uniform is a glasses case with Diavolo’s symbol on it. The glasses are enchanted to translate demonic texts to a language you understand as when you first arrived, you couldn’t understand some of your textbooks. You cherish the glasses. Plus, Diavolo has stated he thinks they look great on you, so you tend to wear them most of the day you’re at RAD.

[butchgeorgefayne]

another thing about these emerald designs, i’m obsessed with how ornate they are, the amount of jewelry she’s wearing, and what a contrast it is compared with her flashback design

emerald must love shiny things, a thief living on the streets can’t keep anything too beautiful, anything she likely got her hands on would either be stolen or traded away to keep from going hungry. she must’ve made an effort to wear bracelets and beads after she was found. you see more jewelry in her updated design, too

it makes me wonder, are they fake jewels? illusions? or are they real? either way, they’re hers.

[lilly-onthevalley]

Earrings & Jewellery

I'm incredibly privileged to have grown up with a grandmother who loved high-quality ear piercings. When I was a child, I would always gawk at her diamond collection and her deep emerald studs, which she would keep safe and secure. Prized gifts from past lovers.

One of my favourite things is my jewellery. I would go broke for a good real black pearl. I would fly back to Bridge of Allen to meet the family jeweller who crafted my silver and pink-purple fresh water pearl bracelet. I would run to Poland to find another Torah necklace to remind me of the dear old lady who I would source my vintage jewellery from and my pleasurable years of studying Judaism.

Whenever I walk around, my stack is always a conversation starter because of how it stands out, all rings, earrings, and bracelets. I wear on average 3-5 rings and 4 bracelets, all silver, some with diamond or zirconia. I wear the silver cartier wedding band I got as a gift every day, depending on where I'm going, lol. I also have a signature symbol, which I'll gate keep.

I implore everyone to have a signature charm. It could be a shell design, a flower, a sea horse, a star, anything that feels lucky to you or blessed. Whenever anyone sees the symbol, they will automatically think of you, and whenever you'll see it, you'll remind yourself of the luck and personal significance it has to you. My middle finger ring has my symbol, and so does my everyday necklace. I'm about to get studs with the same.

When you get jewellery, I always recommend finding someone with a passion for it. I don't see the point in going to a mass market jewellery store that will sell you fake jewellery that tarnishes the second summer hits or if you swim. Invest in the metals. 90% of my jewellery is from random old men with a long-time passion for craftsmanship. It's not always pricey. You will not be charged $100+ for starter hoops or a plain stud. Take the leap, and you'll never have to do it again. Furthermore, with these types of jewellers, if you ever need maintenance such as shining, anodising, oxidation, cleaning, repairs, etc, they have your back. The secret to shiny white icy silver and white gold is in the shining, it's necessary. Google is your friend, if you start now you'll be sorted till 60!

Having multiple piercings is thought by the tiktok wealth gurus to not be classy, and quite frankly, I disagree. There's an art to creating a good piercing stack, which adds to your allure.

As a woman of colour from a country with a very proud history of adornment and multiple local high jewellers who's hearts ache to capture Africa into a singular mental piece, I cannot subscribe to that narrative in good faith.

Currently, I have 2 piercings on each ear, which will increase to 5 on 1 and 4 on the other. I have scheduled my piercing dates and contacted all my jewellers to let them know what's up and that I want to come in to see what they have going on for the new season. I'm terribly excited.

When it comes to a good stack, you can never go wrong with diamonds, zirconia, or diamanté. Play with different cuts. Marquise cuts are trending right now in the piercing and engagement ring communities. Furthermore, pearls are something that never goes out of style. I love a good real pearl because of lustre. A fresh pearl will have multiple colours at times, which are enhanced based on the angle of the light around you. Similar to diamonds or clean zirconia and diamanté. Diamonds and stones like it are cut with different facets to play with the brilliance. A certain cut can cause a fire, not in the literal sense but the effect whereby multiple colours are seemily present within the stone because of the refraction of light. This is especially important with engagement rings.

When it comes to individual earrings, I would recommend these types.

Very dainty, very light, very sweet. A stack of these is a sight to behold. Especially on dark skin. I absolutely love how Anok Yai and Adut Akech style their piercings.

A good account on Instagram to get inspiration on what a good classy stack looks like is Maria Tash. I'm utterly obsessed.

When it comes to pearls, here is a colour guide. I believe in jewellery shopping from different countries. My favourite places to get my hands on some pearls are the coasts of Scotland and the UK online markets. You will find the cheapest, pinkest, fresh water pearl jewellery. My friend loves a deep dark pearl and stalks Asian jewellers to find some to add to her collection. I admire her tenacity. They aren't as easy or cheap to find as pink and purple pearls.

🪽

[spruzu]

THROWING SOME SONIC HEADCANONS ON U

Sonic

-He always has a bruise or scratch on him somewhere even if he hasnt fought eggman in a few days. there. is. always. one.

-He's also COVERED in scars. Theyre either covered up by his fur/quills or theyve faded over the years.

-When sonic showers he uses a bottle that can be used for shower gel, shampoo, conditioner, moisturiser, mascara, ketchup, pepsi and a microwave.

-Sonic only really likes physical touch like hugging when he's seriously injured or in pain (example A. sonic prime and frontiers). Also he doesnt mind it when he's doing it to someone else.

-Sonic paces when he's worried, thinking or waiting for something. (Shadow does this too just less)

-Sonic fidgets in his sleep a LOT. He'll falls asleep on his back and wake up with his legs half off the bed and the duvet on the floor.

-Sonic cant cook so he gets tails to make him dinner (he knows how to make chilli dogs tho dw)

-Sonic used to hum tails to sleep when there was a storm

-This ties in with the one before it. SONIC IS A FANTASTIC SINGER. This man is angelic. Also no one can tell me Rouge can't sing coz she defo can.

-Sonic has a draw of all the stuff from his past adventures (chips bracelet, this upgrades from sa2, etc.)

-He smells like man deodorant (Lynx)

Shadow

-He takes notes on how to be a ''real mobian'' since he was brought up on the ARK he doesnt really know how to fit in so he'll stalk sonic and take in how he acts.

-Shadow and Rouge have ''girl nights'' where they stay up, do face masks, eat pizza and watch movies. Just a sleepover pretty much. (Omega is sometimes involved to)

-Shadow sleeps like a vampire

-Shadow and sonic spar often (3-4 days a week)

-And if sonic doesnt show up to the sparing session he'll go find him and make sure he's ok that they are still sparing

-His bedroom is lit up by lamps, no big light at all just lamps and the window.

-He's INSANELY good at cooking and baking. Gordon ramsey ahh hedgehog

-Can speak every language fluetly, this includes few ones that are dead (this is smt gerald gave him when he was in the 'creation' sage oin the ARK)

-He smells fucking fantastic 24/7. Lavendar, rlly nice perfume (probably Rouge's), deodarant, anything! This man smells great.

Knuckles

-He has a really low spice tolerance, one SPECK of spice and this dude is like sonic in tmosth.

-He gets bothered by Rouge trying to steal the master emerald at least once a week.

-Works out everyday, maxes out the machines and just goes at it like it's at the lowest setting.

-Sometimes he'll ask if sonic wants to spar for the fun of it if he's not on Angel island.

-FEMINIST! (He loves women)

-Denise he loves rouge but will just get flustered if she makes on single flirtation towards him.

-Has tubs of frosting and a spoon at nearly all times (WHAT IF HE GETS HUNGRY ITS A GOOD SNACK)

Tails

-Tails puts on cooking videos for background noise when he making/designing a new invention.

-Tails info dumps about planes and nerdy stuff to sonic and sonic just pretend s like he knows what tails is going on about because he knows it makes tails happy.

-Tails uses his tails for pillows sometimes.

-Getes his little hair ruffled by everyone (mainly sonic)

-Likes making gifts for people as a way to say thank you

Amy

-Amy plays dress up with cream.

-Herself and her room smells like roses/flowers in general.

-Loves watching mean girls with rouge.

-Doesnt look it but is STRONNGGGG. Your telling me that she would swing a punch and wouldnt send someone FLYING?? SHE CARRIES THAT MASSIVE HAMMER FOR VRYING OUT LOUD!!!

-Crystals.

Rouge

-LOVES to gossip

-Ayesha Erotica listener

-Does shadows makeup sometimes (Omega watches)

-Has a perfume collection that she lets shadow use to

-Has the most BEAUTIFUL dresses in her wardrobe for different occasions

-Loves to wear rings

there u go, have fun with those.

[reysdriver]

sirius black x pureblood!slytherin!reader where he takes her home for break or for the summer and walburga and Orion are enthralled by her which pisses sirius off for obvious reasons and he distanced himself from her and eventually she confronts him and reassures him

When Sirius brings you home to Grimmauld Place over the winter break and then starts to distance himself, you feel the need to confront him and talk about what's going on — sirius x fem!pureblood!slytherin!reader hurt/comfort

warnings: themes of a toxic/abusive family

words: 0.8k

a/n: I was kinda unsure how to write this one since the family is canonically super abusive to sirius so I'm just kinda pretending they're more just cold and rude to him so I could make this, I hope you like it :)

“Regulus,” You called alongside a knock on his door, pulling his attention away from the book in his hands. “Do you know where Sirius has gone off to?”

He sat up so his back was up against the hard headboard. “He’s probably moping in his room. That’s his favourite thing to do here.”

You would have laughed at that if it weren’t for the fact that you just couldn’t find your boyfriend. “I’ve checked there.” You sighed. “But that’s alright, he’s somewhere around here.” 

After thanking Regulus politely—even if he couldn’t help find his brother—you  left his bedroom and went back to looking for Sirius. 

Over the winter break, you had noticed yourself having to play this one-sided game of hide and seek several times. It was frustrating, especially when you didn’t know why he was so distant. Nevertheless, you kept your head up and just continued the search. 

You checked the drawing room and sure enough, there he was, sitting by the window and looking outside. You walked towards Sirius and tapped him on the shoulder to show him what you had wanted to show him in the first place. 

“Siri, look at this bracelet your mother gave me. Isn’t it nice? She said I could even have the whole set as a wedding gift eventually!” You said happily, flashing him a silver bracelet adorned with small but shining emeralds. 

He flashed a tiny smile, not nearly matching your emotions or genuineness. “Yeah, love, it’s pretty.”

You could tell he obviously didn’t care. Sirius was pretty fashion forward and has been enthusiastic in the past when you’ve shown him new clothes or jewellery, so that excuse couldn’t be used. 

Running through different excuses and reasons as to why he was acting this way, you had thought that maybe he was upset that both you and his mother had been thinking about marriage. Insecurity surged throughout your whole body. 

You had spoken about marriage before, but it was never more than pillow talk or teasing jokes; was your relationship getting too real for Sirius? Was he upset that you had been talking to his family about your future together? Had he lost his feelings?

The different theories flying around in your head were getting to be too much, and you couldn’t let them go unanswered. You were determined to figure out what was going on as soon as possible. 

You sat down on the loveseat with him. You were close to him, but you still gave him enough space in case he wanted it. 

“Sirius, what’s wrong?” You asked softly. “You’ve been seeming off lately.”

He just brushed it away. “Nothing’s wrong.” 

You knew it was a lie so you kept pressing gently. “I know there’s something that’s upsetting you. Just tell me what it is so we can fix it.”

“I’m fine.” He insisted. “You can go back to hanging out with my parents, maybe they’ll give you my bedroom by the end of the week.”

That stung slightly, but it did at least partially reveal the reason for his recent distance. He was upset that his parents were so taken with you. Of course, you understood that Sirius didn’t have the best relationship with his family, but you had hoped he would be happy seeing you getting along with them. The thought of him being jealous hadn’t even crossed your mind. 

You brought a hand to his upper arm and rested it there. You tried speaking softly to make it clear you weren’t judging him at all. “Siri, are you jealous?”  

“They like you more than me.”

“They don’t. They’re just happy I’m in Slytherin. They like that they’ll have pureblood grandkids with the most Slytherin lineage as possible.” 

“But you like them too.” Sirius said sadly. 

“I only like them as much as they like you.” You explained. “If they’re gonna be awful to you, then I don’t like them at all. I can just pretend otherwise in exchange for some priceless family heirlooms.” 

There was a smug smile on your face as you shook your bracelet in front of Sirius, causing him to chuckle. 

“You’d steal from my family for me?” He asked you with a fake pout. 

You cupped his cheeks and pressed a kiss to those soft lips you love so much. “Of course I would. And once we graduate and get the hell away from them, we’ll sell it all and buy a nice house without ever dipping into your uncle’s fortune.”

“Alright.” He sighed overdramatically. “If it’s for a great cause like that, then I think you should go ahead and ask my mother for a tour of all her priceless jewels.”

“I’ll make sure she gives me a nice brooch so we can have a pool, my love.”

[leviackermanstoes]

"Everybody wants somebody"

A song mingi x reader fic

Based on keshi's new song "bodies"

Songs could also vary to "skinny love" by birdy. "Exile" by Taylor swift and Bon iver. And also "the story never ends" by lauv

----

Overview: Mingi used to be your everything. Meeting at his debut performance, you were enamoured by him. Enchanted at first sight. And soon you found yourself 3 months into dating the man who stole your heart. But as time went on, mingi's fame became too much for you to handle and your relationship fell apart right infront of your eyes.

-

Warnings: mingi is a bit of an ass but he doesn't mean it. Rockstar themes. Idol!mingi. non idol reader. Rich!mingi. Kinda sugardaddy!mingi. Angst. Upsetting themes. Heavy themes of suicide and drug use by reader. Drinking. San and wooyoung are readers' comfort. Yunho can't pick sides. Seonghwa is adorable. Partial fluff. Band leader mingi! Mingis is a bit of a criminal. Mingis is a bit toxic but only a lil.

----

Mingi was everything you dreamed of. His personality, his laugh, his smile, and every part of him were intoxicating to be in the presence of.

The way he acted to you had you feeling like the Queen of the world. Being with mingi was all about expensive dates. helicopter rides, and private jets everywhere. Luxurious hotels and penthouses full of lush interiors and champagnes worth thousands of dollars. He would shower you in lavish jewels like emeralds and sapphires. special edition Cartier bracelets he Somehow got a hold of first. Rings of 24k gold encrusted with diamonds worth more than your house and earrings that could put a chandelier to shame.

Despite mingis rockstar attitude and tough exterior. He wasn't scary to you. A big softie at heart to you and you only. People often were confused at how he could upkeep your princess looks. A rockstar with alcohol dripping from his mouth every day so that his baby could wear the pearl earrings she wanted last week.

Mingi would do absolutely anything for you. But he wouldn't acknowledge that your relationship was falling apart at the seams. After one of Ateez's concerts in LA, you stood backstage, staring at yourself in the mirror, considering if runny eye-liner and smudged lipstick after every show was how you wanted to spend your life.

San knocked gently at your door, and you quickly turned your head away from him.

"You can't hide from me"

San came and sat on the red leather couch, his knees entering your sight as you stared at the black carpeted floor. Your head was racing a million miles an hour with the haze of a vodka + raspberry gin combination and the smell of cigarettes flowing into the room from outside.

"I can't do it anymore, San. This life is killing me, I can't take another die-hard fan on the internet telling me to kill myself because I get to fuck mingi and she doesnt"

The both of you lightly laughed, but San knew how serious the situation was. Threats and hate online were a normal thing you got. People messaging you and telling you that you're "just with mingi for his money" or that you were a "homie hopper" and are actually the groups sex slave.

Hundreds of fans harassed you in real life and otherwise. You felt that no matter what you did, you couldn't get them to like you. Luckily, there was a bigger portion of the fan base that defended you and gave you praise online, defending off the haters for you.

For that, you were grateful, but you couldn't take it anymore. Having to keep up with it was like trying to run on sand.

"It's a tough life" San started "everyone accepts that in this industry"

He cleared his throat. "But you don't have to"

You looked up at him with a messy face and glossy eyes. Your bun was in a tragic state and you had lost one of your dior earrings during the concert which you felt guilty about, you knew mingi had waited months to buy them for you.

You didn't feel like a million bucks anymore.

And while you tried to excuse the fans' behaviour toward you, tonight you had truly reached your limit.

"I can't just leave. What am I if I'm not the rockstar's girlfriend San?" Your hands were flopping around as you tried to make your point.

Gesturing toward photos of you and mingi at his vanity and the table beside you and on the wall. Photos that held memories worth billions. Ones that have and will last eternally. He had one lone photo of your tugged into his vanity mirror frame of you in a wedding dress the day you messed around and bought one for the fun of it.

In the photo, you're laughing and holding a dainty rose in your hand as your body tilts to the side. Moments before disaster. You smiled to yourself before turning back to San.

"There's always a person behind the rockstar. That doesn't have to be you. Everyone in the group knows how much you and mingi love each other, but you're not his shadow love, he knows that, everyone knows that"

San leant his arms on the arm of the couch and put his head in his hand as he looked at you. You picked at the diamonds of your fishnets before you heard the door open to reveal wooyoung.

As he walked to the couch, the smell of strong deodorant came into the room, and you coughed slightly. "I know you don't like the smell of cigarettes"

Wooyoung smiled at you. You were grateful for his gesture, but the strong smell of roses was somehow worse than tobacco.

"Where's mings?" You asked him as he sat at his vanity rubbing off his thick eye-liner.

"He's headed to the shops to pick some food up for everyone. Should be back soon. " Woo shrugged and threw away the ruined tissue.

Mingi, unlike most, didn't care for driving while intoxicated or high. Luckily, you knew he had taken a private ride as it had popped up on your phone that the bands car was arriving at the takeaway.

You rubbed your eye and put your phone on the table. You wanted to undo your tight denim shorts so badly as they crushed your stomach. Hopefully, when mingi returned, he would do it for you.

But you know what the answer will be, so you smile and lay back in your chair waiting for him to return as the rest of the band and their partners huddled into the room.

You weren't close with the girls. Keira, san's girlfriend, was a short dark skinned girl with tattoos and long black braids who had once tried to bring you to one of her and the girls smoking sessions but she was quickly told the fact that you didn't like smoking without mingi, which she immediately understood and politely apologised.

Milani had short red hair with black tips and a bunch of piercings. She was with hongjoong. Milani was quite shy and rarely spoke to you but often waved and gave small smiles. You got the feeling she was afraid of you and your demeanour, which you could only hope joong had told her wasn't personal, but you weren't gonna pry.

And then there was Ashley and Beth, two blondes who had it out for you. Despite the band's warnings that you weren't to be played with, they still tugged your strings like needle to thread. They never did it in front of mingi, afraid that he might tear them apart with his bare hands, but they did do it when the band wasn't around which made you laugh knowing just how pathetic their efforts were.

"Mingi just texted. He's running late because of traffic" Jongho announced.

You sighed and put your head in your hands. Seonghwa stood up and walked to you.

"Let me take you home" he smiled softly.

You didn't want to decline his offer, knowing that he was still sober for now, but later, he would be drunk with everyone else and then you'd have no way home but the bands car and you hated using it.

"Cmon I'll let mingi know okay?"

You nodded and grabbed your phone and purse, waving everyone goodbye before leaving with the hyung. You felt safe with seonghwa as he was the most responsible out of the lot. Of course he still did coke and drank a shit ton, but sober he was like a father to the group, which you were grateful for.

You couldn't deny you felt stood up by mingi. He had promised you that he'd come backstage with you after the show and let you show him your new dresses he ordered you. But he didnt show, and despite the fact that he was on his way here now, you were absolutely exhausted and truly did just want to go home.

On your way into the car park, you watched the bands black Mercedes pull in. Immediately, a confused looking mingi hopped out of the car, his hands curved at his shoulders.

"What's going on?" He asked before he leant down to kiss you softly.

You missed his touch and taste. The feeling of his leather jacket and tailored suit pants rubbing against your exposed skin made your head fuzzy. He smelt divine, and you wanted nothing more than to just push him onto your bed and have him to yourself.

"She wasn't feeling the best so I offered to take her home" seonghwa spoke.

Mingi blinked and looked at you with sympathy. "Are you alright, babygirl?"

You nodded and smiled sweetly at him. Mingi sweeped his fiery orange hair out of his face and turnt to seonghwa.

"Here," he handed the hyung the bag of takeaway containers. "I'll take her home. You go with the others"

Seonghwa politely nodded and accepted mingi's actions. "You want me to cancel the surprise?"

Mingi waved his words away. "No, just have them send it to the pent." he opened the door of his own car, a black vintage corvette.

"Will do. Drive safely, mings. " seonghwa waved the two of you off and walked back inside the building.

As you sat in the soft beige leather seat of his corvette, mingi knew something wasn't right with you. The way your body felt tense under his touch and your eyes drifting off to all different things around you.

"You wanna tell me what's going on?" Mingi looked at you briefly before turning back to the road.

He gripped the steering wheel as he drove with one hand, the other arm leaning on his window, of which was slightly down to let in a cool breeze.

"I just drank something nasty I think"

You yawned and rubbed your neck, sore from constantly jumping up and down to the songs.

"I'll run you a nice bath when we got home okay?" His voice soft and sweet as he reached for hand, switching to his steering wheel arm.

"That sounds really nice, mings."

----

At home, you were greeted by your lush penthouse. Ceilings of dark blue and tiles of black. The smell of sweet vanilla cherry candles wafting through the air made you feel warm and fuzzy inside as you sat down to the couch to take your tight heeled boots off.

Mingi came to you with two freshly poured glasses of orange juice. You tilted your head at the rockstar. "You're staying?"

Mingi nodded as he unlaced his heavy boots. "Yeah," he grunted as he took his shoes off. "I don't feel up to drinking tonight"

You wanted to gasp as a joke, but mingi had been struggling with his drinking for a while. He's been trying to cut back for you because he knows how much you hate the smell, and while you appreciated it deeply, you hated taking away that joy of being with his friends from him.

"Mings you don't have to stay here with me. You just bought all that food for the group, " you tried smiling at him but guilt was sucking at you.

"Ah," he put his index finger to the air, stopping you. "There's nowhere else I'd rather be that here with my-"

Mingis loving speech was interrupted by a phone call in his pant pocket. He reached for it and immediately on his face you knew it was one of the boys.

"I'll be back in a sec" he kissed your cheek and walked away. All you heard was a "Hey san" before his voice faded down the hall.

You were left alone with your thoughts, and the fresh juice mingi poured for you, and as the lights of the crystalline chandelier smashed, the clear view of the quiet TV channel became blurry and your ears rung out with voices and humming, you suddenly felt like this would be the last time you would see mingi tonight.

You stood up, shook off your thoughts, and walked down the hall toward yours and mingis bedroom where the conversation on call became more prominent.

"I'm not gonna do that San, I will not accept that fucking answer!" Mingi slammed the bedside table making you jump. "Either you tell them that I'm not doing it or I'm going to tear that pricks head off"

Mingi angrily ended the call just as you approached inside the room, softly pushing the door open to see him in full. Mingi turnt his attention to you and his face immediately softened.

"Did you hear all of that?" He asked as he put his phone by the bed.

You shook your head. "No. I just came from the lounge room, I was gonna make some food but I came to check on you first"

Mingi scoffed and sat on the large bed, sliding his slender tattooed hand through his bright hair.

"You're too sweet, babydoll. I don't deserve you," mingi smiled at you before moving two fingers at you, gesturing for you to come to him.

Like a moth to a flame, you immediately walked to him and straddled his lap. Mingi's large, ringed hands found your waist, snaking up your back. The rockstar let out a throaty sigh of pleasure as you rocked your hips against his bulge.

You whined and tucked your head into his nape as his strong arms held you close to him. Mingi's fingers fiddled with the strings on your Chanel corset top as he smirked up at you with his gleaming, mischievous black eyes. His delicate pink lips parted so slightly.

"You want me?" His voice was soft and taunting.

Mingis' hands held your waist, causing his sleeves to slide down his arms, revealing his rich black tattoos. The pieces were intricate and fine, detailed to precise specifications. His hand tattoos were your favourite. Roses all on the larger area on the top of his hand while thorned vines snaked up his fingers.

On his ring finger was your initial of your first name in a small delicate font.

"Mingi?" You spoke softly.

"Yeah, baby?, what's up?" He drew soft circles on your palm with his thumb.

You looked into his lustre dusted eyes, dark and smooth, like a captivating void. Something lingered behind them, something innocent and harsh. For the first time in a long time, you felt like you couldn't tell him anything. Your breath was tangling your words in your throat.

"Do you like me?"

You regretted the words as soon as they left your mouth.

"Baby, I love you so much. More than anything on this earth." mingi smiled and let a breathy chuckle out, assuming you were joking.

"I know you love me. But do you like me?"

Your eyes pleaded for an answer of any kind. You just wanted a few words or one or maybe two or however many words mingi could let out. You wanted to hear anything fall from his pink lips of despair.

"You're asking if I still like you? After 5 years of being together?" Mingi let go of your waist. "Well of course I do baby"

You shifted off of his lap. The silvery midnight light caught your body, creating a silhouette of ethereal glow. Mingis eyes drifted through your body, staring at your curves. You could tell he was looking past the bigger picture.

"Do you? I think maybe we've been on a date or two in the past 6 months. I mean, I don't even get to stand in the crowd of your concerts!"

You threw your hands up. Your voice was breathy. Mingi stood up, immediately mousing you in stature. "You know why that is baby, it's for yo-"

"For my own safety, I know," you nodded. "That's not the point I'm trying to make mingi"

He wished he could understand what he knew you were trying to say. Because he did love you to the absolute ends of the earth. Mingi would do everything and anything for you. He buys you jewels and clothes. Dresses and hair clips worth hundreds, shoes, and accessories worth thousands. He took you on dates that put billionaires to shame, to clubs and bars full of VIPs and high rollers. Brought you to parties and galas that held people who owned more money than your entire street combined.

But he didn't like you. He gave you the world, but he didn't like you. And while one would say you were stupid and foolish for saying that, but even a fool, deaf and blind, could agree.

"Where is this coming from, baby? Aren't you happy with me?"

You had hoped that mingi would've agreed that he wasn't treating you right so that he wasn't staring at you with his honey sweet eyes. You felt sobbing, breaking down and crying, like falling apart at your loose seams.

"I'm happy mingi. But I want our lives to move forward. I want to have a normal life with you. I can't keep doing this every time, i can't handle the drinking, and the drugs every night"

Tears were brimming your eyes sharply, and as much as it hurt mingi's heart, he didn't know what to do.

"I can't keep trying to kill myself because of your fans. I won't live like this mingi. I won't"

"Please baby, don't do this, I swear I will stop drinking, and I will stop doing drugs, I can change this I can!" Mingi pleaded with you.

You wanted to believe him.

"It's not just you, mings, its the band and their girlfriends and the life you live I just can't do it anymore"

As you said it, the realisation hit you like a bus. If you left, you might never see the band again. You might never get the chance to hug wooyoung again or play Mario kart with yunho, or see hongjoong's little sister graduate.

And you wouldn't marry song mingi.

"I want to believe you, mings, I do, but lately, I just don't believe anything you say. It's hard to when you keep changing dates and times and standing me up"

"I admit I have been doing that a lot, but I can't help my schedule. I have a lot to do and plan. I don't have a say in that"

You knew he was telling the truth. Mingi was in charge of the band themselves, but he wasn't in charge of the scheduling, unfortunately for his behalf. But time was fading quicker and quicker each day. Every night, you felt the sand of the hourglass dripping in grains of torture. Gripping onto you like a pathetic God was faith.

"I will leave the band!" Mingis eyes were hazed over and glossy.

His small plump lips fell into a frown, his nose and cheeks tinted in light pink hues.

"I will leave the band, and I will never speak to any of them again!" Mingi had damn near fell to his knees before you.

You scoffed. "Is that what you think I want for you?! Mingi, you love those boys more than that stuffed rabbit your own mother bought you! I will not let you leave them behind!"

You pointed sharply at the floor as if making your point. Mingis face became contorted into something you felt in the future would be all too familiar. In this moment, you couldn't imagine a future with him anymore. You wouldn't let yourself get to that point of even trying to find it.

"Please," Mingi's hands found your arms.

Slender ringed fingers slid up your arms in a dizzying motion. Slow and tortuous were his actions. Mingis smell invaded your nose, the intoxicating scent of tobacco and candied apples made your knees weak. You felt like jelly in his presence.

"Mingi-" you looked up at him.

How unfortunate it was that he was so beautiful. So pristine and picturesque like a museum of fine art on legs.

"I'm leaving tonight with or without your permission"

You pushed his arms off and went out to the kitchen, terrified of the footsteps approaching rapidly behind you. "You can't just leave! What about us? And our life together? What about all that I've given you? Aren't you grateful for this?"

He meant the penthouse. And the jewels and thousands maybe millions of dollars worth of items and clothing he's bought you. And the dates in helicopters and the VIP tickets into galas. And the beach house he gave you for your 25th and the number of times he's bought decorations for the penthouse that you wanted.

He didn't mean the love. He didn't mean him holding you against walls and fucking you into oblivion. He didn't mean the baths he's given you and the showers you've had together. Or the movies you've watched in bed while eating ice cream or the books you tell him about or the way that late at night he reads his lyrics to you.

You are always the first to hear them.

"What am I if I'm not your man?"

You suddenly felt deja vu.

"I'm so unbelievably grateful for the gifts you give me and the dates and all the things we've done together. But I can't take not having you anymore. Your barely around most days and when you come home after weeks or even months, work still beckons you. I can't have this anymore!"

"We were supposed to get married and spend our lives together! In case you forgot, you were the one who made me want that, " Mingi cried.

Ouch. That stung more than it should have. But you knew that was true. Mingi never wanted to be married or have domesticity before you. Before you he was happy with fucking 3 different girls every night and having flings he couldn't care less about. He was fine with getting drunk and passing out in a bush by the side of the road. He would sign girls boobs and lick whiskey out of their mouths to get them wet. And, of course, he would sneak bucks into their bras with a wink.

But this was before you. And since then, mingi wouldn't even touch another girl if She was his last chance to survive.

"I can change. I can. I know, okay? I know you don't believe me. I know I've been an idiot and a fool and that I've been sloppy with you and lazy in my actions, but I can change that. I will change it all for you in a heartbeat. Your absolutely everything to me"

It hurt you in every possible way that you wanted to just leave. But it hurt you more that feelings of wanting to stay was bubbling inside you. It hurt more that you wanted to get on your knees and hug him and tell him you were sorry for acting like this and that you won't ever be like this again and that you can live happily ever after now.

And it hurt, just a bit, that you knew mingi would forget it all in a blink.

"If" his voice broke "if your going to leave, if this might ever be the last time I'm going to see you in this lifetime"

He reached into his back pocket and gave you a wrinkled piece of paper.

"What is this?" You asked him.

"I won't tell you. I want you to experience it on your own" he rubbed his tears from his eyes.

"I'd hoped it would be easier than this", you whispered.

You sniffled as mingi pulled you into an embrace. "As much as I would kill to have you stay, I can't force you" he spoke into your jacket.

"A part of me hopes you'll grab my leg and tie me to the couch so that I can't" you lightly joked.

Mingi chuckled into your coat. You stood there for five minutes. "You should go", He mumbled.

"I should"

You could have broken down sobbing right then and there as mingi pulled off you. "Please" his lip trembled "please just go. It feels less painful if I ask you to leave",

You nodded and painfully, slowly, trembling, you walked to the door. This was it. This is it? Is this truly how you were going down? Would you really never see mingi again? Not wooyoung or San or yunho? Not any of them? You would never be picked up by seonghwa again or have jongho invite you to movie nights or have yeosang bring you cakes from the bakery he lived near.

You wouldn't have any of it.

"Goodbye, mingi. I hope in the next life we I can kiss you Goodnight"

"Goodbye to you too___, I hope you get everything you want in life"

---

Ngl I hope this broke some hearts🙏🥰🥰

[marketingbusiness2]

Authentic emerald bracelets represent an epitome of elegance and class. Natural emeralds, commonly treasured for their rich shade and their inherent worth, are used to make these bracelets. The emerald’s color, which ranges in detail, cut, and weight in carats all show its superiority. Highly desired emeralds are those who have an affluent bright green shade that is commonly referred to as “emerald green.”

[expresso-bean]

The Man Out of Time [A ShadAmy and Silver Story]: Chapter 11

Pairing: Shadow the Hedgehog x Amy Rose

Description: It has been seven years of peace following the grueling war with Eggman and his army. Though it took time to rebuild what they have lost, life for the Freedom Fighters could not be better. Whether it's finding love or trying to run from their past, celebrating post-war times has been different for each of them.

All is well until a silver hedgehog comes knocking on Amy Rose's door to deliver the tragic news about an incredible force that seems to be the cause of the future's destruction.

Will anyone believe the mysterious hedgehog's cry for help? Or will he be left to fight for his future alone? Read to find out!

Warnings: None

Word Count: 1.5k

POV: Sonic the Hedgehog

!! I do not own any of the art/gifs/borders used in my chapters. All credits to the rightful owners !!

Masterlist ❀ Ch.1 ❀ Ch.2 ❀ Ch.3 ❀ Ch.4 ❀ Ch.5 ❀ Ch.6 ❀ Ch.7 ❀ Ch.8 ❀ Ch.9 ❀ Ch.10

I fondly remember the days that she chased me, trying to get me to stop running from her and the affection she wanted to hand to me. I remember the way her emerald, green eyes sparkled with joy and love when she saw or talked to me. I remember the way she would pour her feelings out to me, trying to get me to invest in a blissful relationship that would be filled with her complete love and adoration for me.

That's all she wanted to do for me. She just wanted to love me and have me love her. Yet all I did was run away, run away from not only my real feelings towards her, but running away from the idea of being bound together with another person. I was too blind to see it then, and my foolish actions had convinced her that I didn't love her when it was really the opposite. I loved her more than anything. Still, everyone told me not to be with her because she was just a 'fangirl.' I let other people tell me what to do with my feelings, and that was one of my biggest regrets. It took years before I convinced myself to not let what others think of me control my actions and my happiness, but by then, it was too late. Before I knew it, she had moved one from me. She had found someone else to love, and in turn, I attempted to convince myself that I had found my soulmate. In my twisted mind, I believed that if she really used to love me, she would be jealous if she saw me with someone else, but that never happened. She told me that we were family and nothing else.

Those words hurt more than anything else.

Now, my mistakes were sitting right next to me, telling me the story of his broken future and even more broken family life.

"Uncle Sonic, I thought I made it clear that you were not my father. I don't really know about your history with my mother, but I know that you broke her heart, and when you did, she found someone better for herself. And I thought you did as well."

He looked at me with those sad golden eyes, the ones made by the woman I love and the man I loathe the most. I couldn't help but focus on him, and how much he looked like Shadow. To his spiky quills and ring-like glowing bracelets on his wrist and ankles, it's apparent that S takes after Shadow. Yet, he had Amy's compassionate eyes, her heart of gold, as well as her fiery temper. I must have spaced out because Silver was narrowing his eyes as if he were trying to concentrate on something that was on my face. Suddenly, I felt a pondering in my head, and as soon as I did, S fell over from where he was sitting.

"Uncle Sonic?"

I clenched my jaw and jumped up in a slight surprise, thinking that something had hit him. I looked around, looking for any signs of a threat, but found none. I then looked down at S, who was breathing heavily and looked like he was on the verge of an emotional crisis.

"Hey kiddo, what's wrong? What happened?"

I watched as his once soft eyes grew dark and his hand grew misty with turquoise colored magic.

"Sonic, do you love my mother?"

"I, um, wait, do I what?"

I looked away; I didn't know how to respond. He told me we were family, that I was all he had left. I couldn't hurt him like this.

"ANSWER ME!"

I watched as his eyes glowed, the same glow that Shadow gets when he angry. I bit my lip as I averted my gaze. The last thing I want to do is fight my own nephew.

"You do! You love mom! You still love Amy! You always had, hadn't you?"

"No, it's not like that! Your mother is just a good friend to me, that's all!"

"I swear, if you do anything to hurt my mother or father, you will have a big problem on your hands!"

"Kid, I would never try to interfere with your mother's happiness. And I would never want to hurt you like that."

"Mess up her happiness? You had your chance with her, and you didn't take it so don't give me that Sonic! You are seriously sick! You have a wife! Sally will be devastated if she finds out that you are still using her to attempt to make my mother jealous!"

"Stop! Just stop! don't talk about her like that!"

"I'll do what I want!"

I felt something snap within me, and I can practically feel the darkness start to rise.

"I said STOP!"

Before I knew it, I had a smirk on my face as my mind slipped itself from any and all self-control and remorse. I pulled out the green chaos emerald I always kept with me and ran towards S at full force, knocking him to the ground. With my free hand, I managed to strangle him in place. His grunts of struggle beneath me made me cackle. I twirled the emerald within my fingers, much to S' dismay. His eyes widened and shut as I yelled out, "CHAOS CONTROL."

The next thing he knew, we were in the middle of an empty freeway, one abandoned from the war with Eggman all those years prior. I quickly got up from the strangling position I had S in. As he was about to get up, I kicked him to the side, causing him to fly into the side of the barrier of the road. As he got up, I noticed the anger in his face, causing his eyes to glow brightly despite the light of the sun surrounding us.

"Listen here Sonic. You don't know what you're getting yourself into. You fight me, I won't hold anything back!"

A growl escapes my lips and my fist clench in utter disbelief. The way he was talking about himself made him seem like nothing short of a god.

"Who are you to even speak to me like that!"

As soon as those words escaped my lips, I felt S release some sort of energetic pulse that knocked me off my feet. I looked up to meet his gaze, and he seemed like a stranger. Where he once stood was a vast, cracked crater, and he was floating right above it, eyes still glowing and turquoise mist in his palms.

"I am Silver the Hedgehog! Son of Shadow the Hedgehog and Amy Rose! I won't let you destroy my future or my family!"

'Silver, is that really his name?'

With a wave of his hand, Silver summoned an array of rusty, broken-down cars that were now covered in his misty, turquoise magic.

"You're going to regret this!" Silver's voice was laced with rage, his eyes glowed as brightly as his powers.

"Finally, something I can agree with!"

Silver clutched the cars that were in his magic grasp and hurled it towards me. I dodged it seamlessly, which I could tell ticked off Silver even more.

"You can't beat me! You're too slow!" With those words, I was off, speeding down the freeway at an impeccable speed. I could hear crashing behind me, but I didn't dare look at his direction.

"I won't let you get away with this!" He yelled so loudly I could hear his words shaking in my head.

'This kid really is crazy!'

"I've held my fight with people more powerful than you!" I could see Silver gliding toward me. He had his hand held out, and from behind him, three broken down vehicles were floating above him. "This so this is going to be easy!"

That when I noticed him right in front of me. My eyes widened at the sight of all the cars he managed to gather.

'I gotta do something fast,' I spin-dashed through the cars as fast as I could. I easily broken through it. Beyond the abandoned road was old buildings to hide in. 'Perfect. He can't throw things at me if he can't see me!'

"You won't get away that easily!"

"Huh?"

Three cars came toward me before I could even run. The weight of them crushed beneath me. I felt like I couldn't breathe.

"Your going…to regret…this…hedgehog!" I muttered.

I didn't struggle for a moment more as the weight of the cars lifted off of me. I coughed and could feel a bit of blood in my mouth.

"Are you done fighting?" A voice in front of me asked.

Everything around me was still fuzzy. All I could see in front of me was the glowing of Silver's powers around his body.

"Just stop already! You can't beat me. Your head is spinning."

"S-says you..." I blinked rapidly. The fuzziness slowly disappeared the more I did.

"I didn't want to have to fight you, you know. You can still stop this."

His words fell on deaf ears. My face grew hot with rage. I'm not the type of person to back down. He should have known this.

'What is that?'

I looked above him, and I nearly gasped at the sight of a big accumulation of scrap metal floating in the air. A gritted my teeth, trying to ignore the pain of nearly being crushed just a moment ago.

"That's it…" My eyes twitched, I could feel a warm rage coursing through every part of my body. "Let's put an end to this, shall we?"

[onpointedfeetandbrokendreams]

Day 2 - DBDA Week

Day 2 of Dead Boy Detectives Appreciation Week: 10th-16th June by @dbdcentral

Prompt: Alternate Universe

Relationships: Edwin Payne/Charles Rowland

Tags: Alternative Universe - Magic, Star-crossed lovers

TW: None

--

Charles would always remember the day Edwin had to leave for the Academy. They had always known it would come, he wasn’t sure if they had been pretending not to, or if they just never realised completely what it meant. Edwin had kissed him with lips wet and salty from his tears, and Charles had watched until the car disappeared completely beyond his sight.

He felt empty, purposeless. His mind kept going back to all those happy moments they had shared growing up, first playing together in the woods, then the first time they held hands, the first shy kisses. The memories seemed more real than his present life.

He couldn’t deny that he had thought about following him to the city, but Wizards were rare, and precious to the society, and they weren’t allowed to mix with ordinary people like himself.

He moved his fingers to his wrist, to trace the shape of the bracelet Edwin had given him before he left. The feeling grounded him. He said the rune on the pendant would change colour when Edwin thought of him, it was pulsing a warm green now.

-

Six years after the dreadful day when he said goodbye to Charles, the memories of him still haunted Edwin every moment of every day. He wondered what the other boy looked like, if he had grown taller than him, if he still had that blinding smile that made the sun look pale in comparison. It had been torture to be separated for so long. Even now that he was finally about to graduate, he still wasn’t free. His path had been written for him long before he was even born, like every other child of one of the wizarding families, he was supposed to take its place among the Wizard’s High Council who protected the country.

He knew he should just give up hope to ever see Charles again since they were destined for different places. Surely, Charles would have become a Fighter by now, and an amazing one at that. But he held onto hope that one day, they could find a way back to each other.

He concentrated all his powers on the bracelet he had given him that day, hoping that the incantation was strong enough to still be working. 

-

The city buzzed with excitement, the annual parade celebrating the country’s independence had brought everyone out in the streets. There were flags waving, music, food stalls and happiness all around him, but Charles didn’t spare a second look at any of those. He had only one goal. He pursed his lips, his gaze determined, focused on the tall building of the Academy, standing majestically at the other side of the square.

He knew he would find Edwin there, ever since he arrived, his bracelet had been pulsing a deep red, the strongest colour he had seen in it yet. It was the thing that made him certain that his feelings were still reciprocated, that Edwin expected him.

Hiding among the crowd, he made his way closer to the entrance. He just had to wait for the fireworks to start, so that the guards would be distracted.

The moment he saw the first burst of lights and colours from the corner of his eye, he slipped inside, trying to remain in the shadows. He ran through the corridors, in the direction of the rooftop, where he knew all the students gathered every year to watch the show.

When he peered inside, he found his favourite emerald eyes already fixed on the door. So many years, and their minds still worked in perfect harmony, understanding each other without the need for words.

He saw Edwin excuse himself and move towards the door, Charles felt like his heart was about to explode in his chest.

“I was hoping you would come,” Edwin whispered in his ear. It made a shiver run down his spine.

He thought about replying, there were at least a thousand things he wanted to say, to ask, but there were more pressing matters. He all but launched himself at him, hugging him close, his lips rushing to Edwin’s like a drowning man resurfacing and finding the first breath of air. The kiss didn’t taste like salt this time, it tasted like desperation, and need, and in one moment it managed to make six years look like a snap of fingers.

Edwin guided him by the hand along the corridor to a room, and locked the door behind him. Finally safe from prying eyes, they dared to look at each other more thoroughly. Edwin was even more beautiful than he remembered him, his shoulders had broadened, his eyes were shining with happiness and he wanted nothing more than to kiss his smile again.

“I was afraid you wouldn’t come,” Edwin said, breathless. “I kept looking at the door but I thought that maybe you had moved on, or you forgot about me.”

Charles shook his head in disbelief. “I thought about nothing else since the day you left.”

He entwined their fingers together, leaning his head on Edwin’s shoulder. They would have to separate again soon, or people would start looking for them, but at least they had this one day they could steal for themselves. And Charles would never give up hope.

[ourloveisforthelovely]

The Words "Best Friends" Become Redefined. Part 2

Regulus Black AU

Summary: You had been Regulus’ friend since childhood and now his mistress. The war had changed many things, Regulus among them. Now its time to decide if you should put your self-worth over missing someone who was gone.  

Pairings: Regulus Black x Reader

Rating: M- smut

Song in Chapter: King of Wishful Thinking by Go West 

Link to Part 1 

______

I'll get over you, I know I will. I'll pretend my ship's not sinking and I'll tell myself I'm over you. 'Cause I'm the king of wishful thinking.

Your eyes snapped open as the song on the radio began to register in your sleep-deprived mind. Groaning, you sat up and threw a shoe at the radio knocking it off of your chest of drawers. Anything about being “the queen of wishful thinking” made you want to barf.

It had been several weeks since the night at the pub and you were no closer to getting over Regulus than you were on day one. Every day seemed to be the same, emotionally. You would wake up, cry a little, get mad at yourself for being sad (because you were right and he was wrong), then get up and force yourself to put on a happy face.

Regulus wasn’t helping any matters by sending you letters every single day. He had sent you the emerald bracelet that you returned several times before you finally gave up and just kept it. When it came to the letters, you just gave them to Sirius to do whatever he wanted with them.

Sirius

You were more thankful than ever for your friendship with the elder Black brother. He was always a willing ear when you needed to rant. Sirius also took extra care to not tell Remus anything about the true nature of your relationship with Regulus. For all that Remus knew, in your mind, was your friendship with Regulus had ended and you were being a royal grouch about it.

Sighing, your mind went to the previous night when you were once again raging about Regulus to Sirius.

“I’m a real idiot, Sirius. I go around throwing away perfectly good boyfriends. Well, I don’t know if he considered himself my boyfriend but god damn it…Regulus is such a freaking jerk!”

Sirius sat on the couch watching.

“You’re still wearing his ring.”

You looked down at your hand. The ring that Regulus had given you years ago was still sitting proudly on your finger.

“I know that I am! I am a mess, Sirius. I can’t eat. I can’t sleep. All I want to do is cry. You know me, I’m not a crier! I can handle a crisis!”

Sirius smirked.

“A trait that you share with your brother so well…look, love, just because you love him doesn’t mean he’s good for you…hey look at me being the responsible one. Normally that’s your brother's job”

You groaned dramatically before sitting down.

“I know you are right but I don’t want to accept it. I am having a shit time at just throwing away a ten-year friendship and slight love affair. Why wasn’t I good enough for Regulus to fight for? Why couldn’t he say no to your family’s psycho ways and fight for me? Am I not…”

Sirius held a hand up.

“I’m just going to stop you right there, Y/n. You are more than good enough! You have always been good enough! Personally, I think that you are too good for the bum. Now come with me, we are going to do something. I want no complaining.”

You reluctantly followed Sirius into your bedroom. He led you to your full-sized mirror and put you in front of it.

“Now I want you to stand here, look at yourself, and tell me some of your best qualities.”

You gave your friend a frown only to earn a slap to the behind.

“I’m your best friend. I can do that…now get going, sugar bean.”

You sighed and looked at your reflection for a moment before meeting Sirius’ waiting eyes.

“I’m smart. I’m a good friend. I’ll fight for those I care about no matter the cost. I have a giving heart…I may be a sass queen…”

Sirius snorted.

“May be?”

You chuckled before turning around and hugging Sirius.

‘“Thank you, Sirius.”

Getting out of bed, you felt somewhat better. While Sirius could drive you crazy, he also knew how to make you feel a lot better.

He really does remind me of Regulus.

A truer thought couldn’t have been said about that one. Whether they argued and swore that they were totally different. Regulus and Sirius’ friendship styles were extremely similar. Standing in you in front of the mirror and making you list off good qualities about yourself was definitely something that Regulus would have done.

Stepping into the shower, you sighed in relief as the hot water washed over your aching muscles. In addition to your poor state of mental health, you had been pulling extra duties for The Order. This meant nightly patrols, tons of research, and spying on unsuspecting death eaters with Sirius and Remus.

“Hi sugar, I know that you miss me.”

You froze. This had been the first time that you had heard Regulus’ voice in your mind. Legilimency. Of course, Regulus could do this. You internally smacked yourself in the head as you “chose” to ignore him.

“Oh, you’re still not talking to me, huh? That’s too bad. I miss you, princess. Do you really expect me to go from spending every day with you for ten years to nothing so easily? I miss everything about you.”

You closed your eyes. Even though you were quite good at Occlumency, you made no move to push Regulus from your mind. Maybe you were asking for what you were getting. Maybe you were being weak…but damn it was wonderful to hear Regulus’ voice in your mind.

“Still nothing? Y/n, you really are being so stubborn. Maybe you should know what I miss. I miss seeing your beautiful face underneath me. How beautiful you look after I kiss your lips until they’re swollen and your cheeks are flushed bright pink. I miss how desperate you get when I suck on those dusty nipples. I miss how you move under me. You can’t tell me, love, that you don’t miss how your pussy trembles when I’m pushing in. Don’t forget, sweetheart, that it was I that showed you how to please a man. Now, that I know you are wet, how about a word? Anything…tell me where you are and I’ll come to you. We can fix all of these nasty little issues that we are having and get back to us…the real us.”

You bit your lip at “the real us.” Regulus didn’t remember what the real “Regulus and Y/n” was. He forgot what your friendship meant. He forgot what actual love was…

Forcing Regulus’ voice from your mind, you quickly turned off the shower.

“I have got to keep him out of my mind.”

You spent the majority of the day trying your best to avoid having your mind fall back to Regulus. Thankfully, there was enough crazy going on at the ministry to keep you busy for hours. The less that Regulus graced your mind the better. You weren’t able to sit around and think about his cocky voice in your head that morning…and how deliciously deep his voice sounded.

Merlin, I am really fucked.

You thought before putting your head down on your desk. Maybe you were more screwed than your realized?

Later that day you were more than happy to meet Remus and Sirius for dinner at a bar. Seeing your friends was just what you needed to “get out of your head.” The moment that you walked into the bar, Sirius motioned you over to the table.

Taking off your jacket, you nearly collapsed at the table. Normally, you would have kissed Remus and Sirius both on the top of their heads. Today, that wasn’t happening. Both men looked slightly offended as you held your hand up.

“Rain check. What a day! I am beat!”

You commented as Remus slid you a glass of fire whiskey. He gave you a small smile. Remus wasn’t a fool. He knew that there was more to your friendship with Regulus ending than what he was being told. Remus wanted nothing more than to question you and then go kill Regulus…but that would get him nowhere. You were depressed enough as it was. If he “offed” Regulus, you would be inconsolable. If Remus was to do anything, it would be to let you tell him in your own time.

What is it with Lupins finding the Blacks so damn interesting?

Remus looked across the table at Sirius who gave him a small smile.

Oh, that…that right there.

Remus added to his thoughts before turning to you.

“Long day?

You nodded.

“We don’t have many short ones any longer. I swear, this war needs to hurry the hell up. I don’t think that I was meant for this being careful thing. I ran into Augustus Rockwood today and had to stop myself from saying you’re next mother fucker.”

Sirius giggled.

“I’m surprised that you didn’t. Y/n, I have to say that Remus and yourself are the sassiest people that I know.”

“Does that assessment include yourself?”

Remus asked, cheekily. Sirius rolled his eyes.

“See what I mean? Sass!”

You leaned back in your chair and took a sip of your whiskey as the lights in the bar went out. Immediately, you reached for your wand as some death eaters walked into the bar.

“Boy, they sure like to make a big entrance.”

You murmured as Remus, Sirius, and yourself dropped to the floor. Remus’ eyes were wide as he turned to you.

“Get out. There is an exit in the back. Sirius and I will take the exit over there. If we all go together it will draw too much attention. If you want to go with Sirius, I’ll go the back way.”

You shook your head. The last thing that you were about to do was let them be separated. Besides, you could handle getting out on your own.

“No, just go. I’ll meet you lot back home.”

You whispered before crawling off toward the back of the pub as people in the bar started screaming. As much as you wanted to go back and fight, you knew it would be stupid. The three of you were outnumbered.

Once in the other room, you moved to stand up but someone grabbed you from behind. You quickly threw your elbow back hitting whoever it was in the ribs. When they made a painful moan, you pulled away enough to get a good look at who it was.

“Going somewhere, sugar?

You froze as Regulus took off his mask. As much as you wanted to stand and stare at him, you couldn’t. Taking out your wand you launched hex after hex at Regulus only for him to repel them away. You wanted him to hurt as much as you were hurting!

“Come on sugar is that the best you’ve got?”

Regulus said, sounding bored. You stopped and glared at him. You wanted Regulus to feel your misery. If there was anything of the man that you cared about in there…you wanted him to see your side.

“I don’t kill things. Unlike you, I don’t hurt people that I care about.”

Regulus chuckled.

“Oh, sugar. You really are mad.”

You picked up an empty bottle and threw it at Regulus. He sighed as it only hit him in the chest.

“Go away, Regulus. If you’re going to kill me then just be a man and do it.”

You snapped. Regulus was about to reply but stopped the moment that he heard Lucius Malfoy’s voice. He stood motionless for a moment before rushing forward and wrapping his arms around you.

“Don’t scream. Be silent.”

He hissed before standing his body upright. The last thing that Regulus wanted was for Malfoy to have any idea that he had “company.”

“Black, we need to go. Nothing that we came for is here. It was another piece of bloody useless information.”

You stood wrapped in Regulus’ arms clutching tightly to his death-eater robes as he gently rubbed soothing circles on your back.

Soothing…what is happening here?

You thought before taking a moment and breathing him in. Never in a million years did you think that you would ever be in Regulus’ arms like this again…yet here you were. There you were and he was holding you just as he did before turning away from you.

“I knew it was a waste of time. Go ahead, I’ll be along shortly. There is something else that I need to take care of.”

Regulus replied. He waited until he was positive that Malfoy was gone before letting go of you. When you looked back at your love’s face, he looked ready to panic. His cool calm composure was gone.

“Take the second door and get out of here. Turn into your animagus form the instant you are outside and don’t turn back into a human until you are home. Run and don’t look back…just run.”

“Reg..I…”

He shook his head before pulling you into a kiss. Neither of you moved away from the other for a moment. It was savoring the moment… enjoying the closeness that both of you missed. You sighed as Regulus’ tongue caressed yours. This was the kiss that you missed…the kiss that you longed for in your dreams…

Regulus was the first to pull away.

“Go! Stop wasting time…just please…go.”

You gave him one final look before morphing into your cat animagus form and rushing out the door into the dark silence of the ally way…

______ @amelie-black @jessyballet @knreidy1 @georgeweasleydumbhoe @justfinishthis @acciosiriusblack @siriuslyceleste @mimisparkle12 @teletubiswszpilkach @ell0ra-br3kk3r @darkenwolfie @livshifts @stelleduarte @starsval @millies0bsimp @coffeeaddictednymph @readtomeregulus @daddyslittlevillain @rogue-nyx88 @panpride @saramaple @missgorldafirst @s-we-e-t-t-ea @taylor-will-be-the-death-of-me @f4iryluvy @buttercup-beeee @i-love-scott-mccall @gugggu6gvai @jag9000 @quinis @yousmellllikecaca @mentally-unstable-hoe @haroldpotterson @padf00ts-l0ver @goldensunshineshit @aurorasnape12 @ad-astra-again @rubyroscoe1 @dumybitch @spideyxalmighty @lucasfilms77 @lostarc24 @marichromatic @play-morezeppelin @ravenhood2792 @un-lovesherself @melaninnbarbie @criminalyetminimal @brokencasbutt67-writer @authoressskr @moldy-old-boot @hankypranky @summer-novak @emiwrites3reads @shaylybaby2032 @knight-of-gleefulness @deanwherescas @sprnaturallover @wontlookaway @shitfaceddaniel-blog @untoldshortsofthefandoms @li0nh34rt @tas898 @mycuddlycorner

[whositmcwhatsit]

Chapter 3

AN: Well, this whole writing thing got away from me for a bit, sorry everyone! Thank you to my alpha @thatbanditqueen, who decodes my gibberish, and a big thank you to @vintageshanny, @ellie-24 and @be-my-ally for keeping me sane without even knowing it.

Here are the previous chapters since you'll definitely need to be remind yourself what it's all about!

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

There was a sharp rapping at the door after lunch the next day. Sally had gone back to the room to change into her bikini and robe, deciding to brave the poolside because she was tired of looking like the washed-out spirit of some pioneer girl haunting the hotel.

Thinking it was Laura checking on why she was taking so long, Sally threw open the door as she went to the mirror and adjusted the bikini top beneath her loose peasant blouse.

“Do you think I should untie the straps on this thing? I don’t want to have white lines on my shoulders.”

The tall man standing in the doorway raised his eyebrows behind his sunglasses and flashed a wide smile.

“Uh, I don’t know that I’m qualified to answer that one, Miss,” he replied amiably with a shrug.

Sally whirled round, feeling her mortified blush tingle as it hit her hairline.

“Oh gosh, I thought you were someone else,” she mumbled lamely. “Sorry.”

“Yeah, my name’s Sonny. I work for-“ He pointed a finger up and Sally frowned.

“God?” Utah wasn’t a million miles away but surely they didn’t send missionaries to the Las Vegas casino hotels. That just seemed unfair on both sides.

“What?” He gave a sharp laugh. “No!” He shot her a look like he thought she was either dumb or crazy, maybe a mixture of both. But she wasn’t the one who cased the corridor like a secret agent before murmuring: “Elvis. I work for Elvis.”

“Oh.” She thought that he was maybe waiting for more of a reaction, but after worrying that he was a Mormon missionary, the fact that he was one of Elvis’ guys was a relief.

“Uh, anyway, my boss wanted me to bring you these-“ He whipped out the tickets for that night’s show. “And, uh, this.” He held out a small, dark green velvet case in his other hand. She took both and frowned again at his look of expectation.

“Do you… Oh, I don’t really have any cash on me right now. Hang on a second, I can check-”

“God, no.” He wiped his face with a big meaty hand and yanked off his sunglasses, fixing her with a look that she thought was supposed to be intimidating but just looked exhausted. “Can you open it please? I’m s’posed to let him know how you… acted.”

“No pressure,” she muttered, lifting the lid.

Inside was a gold bracelet interlaced around emeralds circled by little diamonds. It looked like something the Queen of England might wear to a soiree, not a teller from a bank in the middle of nowhere. Not without being accused of embezzlement.

All of that ran through her head as she stared open-mouthed. Finally, she remembered her audience and she glanced back up.

“Can you tell him that I was overjoyed and jumped up and down and was grateful?” she asked, worrying that she hadn’t accrued enough goodwill to get him to lie for her. “I am very grateful, really grateful, but this is… I’ve never even seen anything like this before, let alone touched it.” She tentatively put a finger to the metal; it felt cool against her fingertip.

“Yeah, I’ll tell him.” He slid his sunglasses back on and gave her a small smile and a nod. “I’ll see ya.”

Sally nodded back and closed the door, clutching the tickets and bracelet to her chest. “Well, that was weird.”

At the pool, Laura huddled over the bracelet, pulling Sally’s wrist close to her near-sighted eyes like she was a jeweler, appraising gems.

“You think they’re real?” she asked, tilting Sally’s arm to see the stones caught the sun. Sally looked around at the other people on the sun loungers, feeling slightly too conspicuous thrusting precious stones in the air.

“I don’t know.”

“And you didn’t even have to sleep with him.”

“Keep your voice down!” Sally hissed, snatching her arm away.

“I’m just saying, you’ve got to be careful playing hard to get, you know, Sal, they can get tired of it real suddenly.”

“That’s not what I’m doing. I wouldn’t do that.”

Sally could imagine that he would be able to see through that pretty quickly too. He seemed to do that, to see deeper than people thought he did, or at least it felt like he did when his eyes were on you.

Almost as if she was afraid of being caught, she glanced up at the towering white façade of the hotel. It rose up and disappeared into the shimmering heat of the endless blue sky. Somewhere, right at the very top, which she couldn’t make out from the bottom, he was there. She wondered if he was thinking about her. Maybe he was looking down at the pool… She felt her cheeks heat up and she had to look away just in case.

That evening, she and Laura were standing in line for the dinner show. At the front were the devoted fans who had probably started queuing while they were still at the pool.

“Imagine if they knew you what you got up to last night,” Laura remarked, wiggling her eyebrows. She seemed more excited by the cachet of Sally’s relationship, such as it was, with Elvis, than Sally herself was. “What? It’s okay to enjoy things, Sal, Jesus!”

Sally opened her mouth to reply, but was interrupted by Emilio the maître de who had somehow picked them out of the crowd of heavily made-up glamorously dressed women.

“The Beatles fan… Sally, is it not?” He pecked both her cheeks and then grabbed her fingers, wrapping them around his crooked arm. “We have been told to take extra special care of you.”

Sally glanced back at Laura, who had snatched hold of her other arm, and pulled a face. They giggled as they were escorted past all the baleful looking people in front of them in the queue.

“It’s like being a movie star!” she whispered to Laura.

“Now you’re getting it.”

Sitting in the central booth again, they felt highly visible as the room rapidly filled and staff served dinner. Sally watched the tables beside the stage fill up, the biggest tippers sitting central, women only closest to the stage.

“You know, some people come all the way from Japan and England and Australia just to watch these shows. Not even on vacation, just to see Elvis. The other night, I was talking to some people from South Africa!”

“Well, older folks have more money I guess,” Laura murmured, sipping her champagne.

“It’s not just older people,” she murmured, hearing how defensive she sounded. Laura shrugged, but didn’t reply as the lights started to go down.

The show passed in a blur of lights, sounds and, of course, music. Sally could tell that Elvis was getting more comfortable on the stage with each show, the patter between each song was becoming longer, sometimes surreal, usually funny, and he was cutting up during the songs more, swapping lyrics, usually for something dirty. The audiences seemed to enjoy it, and he certainly seemed to thrive on that.

Joe appeared during the piano intro for ‘Can’t Help Falling in Love.’ This time, he didn’t ask them to come backstage, he just gave them a smirk and gestured for them to go ahead of him.

In the wood panelled outer dressing room, Sally recognised some of the stars in the crowd, there were the actors from the Mod Squad, over there was Glen Campbell, but there was only one face she was looking for. She stayed back as the inner dressing room door opened, there was a glimpse of fleur-de-lis wallpaper, and Elvis came out.

Sally thought he looked anxious as he emerged, but even as her brain was registering it, his face relaxed into his usual charismatic smirk and he scanned the room. She averted her eyes, her stomach fluttering manically, and tried to look casual. She twitched a nervous smile at a stranger across the room and looked around for Laura, finding her beaming up at a tall, tanned older man.

Shaking her head, Sally turned back and almost banged her nose on Elvis’ chest.

“Oh!”

“Snuck up on ya, didn’t I!” He looked pretty pleased with himself even as he grabbed her forearm so that she didn’t stumble back. He pulled on her arm a little harder, tugging her towards him so that he could lean down and give her a lingering kiss on the cheek. She felt a wave of goosebumps ripple up her spine as her hand brushed against his suit jacket and his cologne tickled her nose.

“You did, I almost pulled out my pepper spray.”

“Pepper spray?! Hell, that ain’t no good, honey, that’s just seasoning. We oughta see about getting you a gun.”

“Oh, no thank you,” she replied, pulling a face.

“Not a big one,” he reassured her, like that was the problem. “You know, they make ‘em small enough that you can just put it in your purse.”

She envisioned fishing around for a mint or lipstick and shooting herself instead.

“I think I’m more comfortable with the pepper spray.”

Elvis pulled a face that told her that he wasn’t, but luckily they were interrupted by one of his famous guests, who leant right across her to shake Elvis’ hand and pat him on the shoulder. Sally moved back before she was elbowed. She almost stepped on the foot of a man behind her who was wearing a jacket covered in Elvis pins. It was a comedy of errors as she shuffled and circled and edged out of everyone’s way. She found herself pressed up against a decorative carpet that hung against the wall, overshadowed by a dark wood cabinet. It didn’t feel that different from the showroom, standing at a distance, watching him say his lines and his audience beaming at him. Even off stage he was still always giving a performance.

After about half an hour, the tall man who had delivered her bracelet- Sonny- gave her a pleasant smile and asked her to come with him. She glanced over at where Elvis was explaining something with animated hand gestures to a rapt group of men and women. The group let out a loud collective laugh as Sally grabbed Laura and they followed Sonny from the room.

“Where’s Elvis?” Laura asked as they walked along the bland tiled corridor towards the elevators.

“He’ll be coming along,” Sonny replied, pausing to introduce himself. Laura’s eyes lingered on him a little longer and Sally looked down to hide her knowing smile.

The elevator ride felt like an interrogation as Laura questioned Sonny on himself, on Elvis, on Hollywood, and anything else that caught her attention. Laura’s enthusiasm was unphased by Sonny’s stoicism, even after he mentioned his fiancée. Sally envied her friend’s confidence and self-assurance. Laura was the top saleswoman back home every month because she had a knack of dragging customers into conversations and building rapport with them so that when she mentioned that she was worried that they were not sufficiently covered by insurance, or that they could get that home renovation done now if they just signed up for a little, low-interest home loan, they felt they were being advised by a friend. If anyone had told Sally that one of them would get noticed by Elvis while on vacation, she would have bet all her cash on Laura.

Up in the Imperial suite, Sonny brought the women a drink and settled them in the den like they were his house guests. He seemed to have succumbed to Laura’s charms, sitting beside her on the couch and stretching out his arm behind her. Sally clutched her drink and surveyed the room, pretending to be intensely interested in the chandelier as Laura giggled quietly off to her right.

Finally, the door of the suite burst open and half a dozen guys strode in together. They all seemed to be talking at once, laughing at some in-joke. Elvis appeared amidst the group and the corner of his mouth twitched up as he caught sight of her. He made a beeline for her as his entourage peeled off and headed in different directions. Joe handed him a bottle of water, still talking to him, but it didn’t slow Elvis’ stride as he came and stood in front of her.

Without a word, he took the drink from her and placed it on the side table, then grabbed hold of her hand and pulled her to her feet.

“C’mon, honey, let’s go hide.”

Sally bit down on her lips to stop herself grinning like a cartoon as he tugged her along behind him. He took big strides so she had to half jog in her heels to keep up and she kept her eyes on the floor to make sure she didn’t trip on the thick carpet or any hidden steps.

In the bedroom, he slowed down as he purposefully closed the door, leaning on it for a moment before he turned round and smiled at her. She shivered involuntarily at the light twinkling in his eyes.

“Hi.”

“Hello,” she giggled and he bit his lip as he moved toward her, his eyes taking her in with an almost predatory hunger. His lips pressed softly against hers even as she felt him gathering her up, his hand around the back of her head, the other on the small of her back, sliding up as he pressed her into him.

Sally almost sagged in his arms as the anticipation and tension she had felt since leaving him passed liked waves from her body. She didn’t realise he was moving the both of them backwards until the side of the bed hit her calves and she made a squeaking noise against his mouth as she wobbled. Elvis’ grip of her tightened even as her arms tensed around his athletic frame, trying to keep herself upright.

Elvis pulled back from the waist up, his eyes opening slowly, thick black lashes flickering against his cheeks, as if he didn’t want to quite let go of the kiss. It only made her want to launch herself back at him, but she suspected he knew that.

“Man, I been thinking about this ever since I saw you in that dress,” he murmured, his hand dragging around her waist from her back and his long fingers tickling underneath the short hem.

Sally had already worn all of her good outfits to his shows, so she had borrowed a green mini dress from Laura and had spent most of the evening tugging it down.

“You wear this for me, honey?” His warm breath tickled her neck as he leant in to pepper her jaw and throat with soft butterfly kisses. “You ain’t trying to get me in trouble now, are you.”

At the same time, her thighs tingled with goosebumps at the feel of his callused fingers trailing up to the edge of her underwear beneath her skirt.

Part of her was protesting that this was too fast, that he was too much of everything: too experienced, too rich, too famous, too handsome, too Elvis for her. She was so far out of her depth that drowning was inevitable. The problem was that he made drowning look both exciting and pleasurable.

“I wore it because it matched my new bracelet,” she said, slipping her fingers through the opening of his jacket, warmed by his skin and the feel of the coarse chest hair against her fingertips. She could feel the thudding of his heart reverberating through his rib cage and sternum.

His chin dimpled as he peered down, grabbing her hand and pulling her wrist up for examination. She gazed at his face as he inspected her wrist, his left eyebrow twitching with self-satisfaction. She loved the creases at the corners of his mouth, how they made his full lips look sullen even as she knew he was suppressing a smile. It felt like a secret between them.

“You like it, baby?”

Sally shot him a look of disbelief. “Of course, it’s beautiful, Elvis, so beautiful, but you shouldn’t have. It looks expensive.”

“That don’t matter,” he murmured, frowning. “It looks pretty on your little wrist here.” He dipped forward and pressed his lips to the bony part of her wrist. Sally’s whole arm twitched at the heat and velvety softness of his mouth and her stomach fluttered as his pout continued its path round to her pulse point. His hair brushed against her jaw and throat as he leant over pressing kisses up the delicate skin on the inside of her forearm.

“I -uh..” She dropped down onto the bed, even as she was thinking that she was starting to feel a little lightheaded from holding her breath.

He looked like he was holding back a laugh as he asked, ‘You okay, honey?”

“I meant to do that.” She frowned, daring him to contradict her.

“Uh huh.” He nudged her legs open with his knee so that he could step closer and she could feel her skirt sliding to the top of her thighs as he drew in, his thumbs on her jaw tipping her head back so that he could kiss her as he slowly and gently lowered her back onto the bed, his tongue teasing its way into her mouth.

“Well,” he said, pressing his knee into the mattress right at the apex of her thighs, the pressure of him answering the ache beginning to throb there, “I might not get around to the next show, but-��� He lifted a mischievous eyebrow. “It’ll be worth it.”

It took every drop of restraint in Sally’s being not to grind down on his thigh, but her self-discipline was almost immediately undermined by Elvis pressing down on her, and she let out a sigh mixed with a moan, catching a glimpse of his smirk before he kissed her again. Yet again, he was performing exactly the show he knew his audience enjoyed.

Trying to find some sense of balance, she let her hands glide down from his shoulder blades, feeling the mechanics of his lean muscles working beneath his suit jacket, and cupped his perfectly round ass. She felt him pause for a second, before he tried to cover his surprise by moving with even more authority, rolling his hips and driving a moan from her that had her turning her face into his neck and hiding in embarrassment. He didn’t seem to realise this was what she was doing as he shuddered and showered kisses on her throat and shoulder, pulling back her neckline as far as it could go so he could taste her pink, sun-kissed skin.

Sally felt his teeth clamp down lightly on the muscle in her shoulder before he drew back, depriving her of his spicy warmth, so that he could shrug off his suit jacket. As usual, he wasn’t wearing anything underneath and she couldn’t stop herself reaching out to touch his skin, running her fingertips up his sides and making him twitch and hiccup a laugh before he grabbed her wrists and pinned them above her head. Her bracelet bit into her skin from the pressure, but she didn’t fight it or protest.

“This okay?” he asked softly, his face looking suddenly very boyish and vulnerable. It was unexpected and helped ease some of her nerves as she gazed up at him and nodded. Her lips were swollen and tingly, seemingly a side effect of being in close proximity to him, and she bit down on her bottom lip, trying to stop herself from panting too needily. He groaned, mumbling about how she was going to be the end of him, and sank back down into kissing and rubbing and pressing against her as she shivered and writhed and pressed right back.

Sally’s skirt was now somewhere around her waist and her restraint was buried somewhere in the sand outside of Las Vegas along with everything else that people from this city found themselves forsaking. She hooked her fingers into the tight waistband of his pants and tugged impatiently even as her tongue was sliding against his.

“Hey, whoa whoa, easy, baby,” he mumbled into her mouth. “We got plenty of time. I got you to myself all night, right?” She nodded dumbly. “That’s right, we made a deal.”

Despite his words, he walked his fingers up her thigh and her breath stuttered in her throat as he slipped his thumb into the warmest, wettest part of her. His eyes crinkled slightly and his mouth fell slightly open as he studied her face, which she was desperately trying not to screw up into unflattering expressions as he circled and dragged the pad of his thumb over her slippery skin, flooding her with sensation, before slowing and ebbing back, letting her breathe and float for moment. He seemed to take her efforts to be quiet and composed as a personal challenge, shifting his hips to get more comfortable and pressing himself against her thigh, before pulling out his thumb from the leg of her underwear and insert his whole hand into the front.

“S’okay,” he whispered, panting softly, as he played her like an instrument with his delicate fingers and she bit down on a whine. She could see where his mascara was beginning to smudge below his eyes as they both lost their cool both figuratively and literally.

Sally felt sweat trickle from her hairline down behind her neck and she shifted slightly. Elvis glanced up from where he was watching the movement of his hand and his heavy-lidded eyes seemed to assess her. In one smooth movement, he rolled onto his back, his hand still working in her underwear, and reached over to grab a pillow from the top of the bed.

The next thing she knew she was being thwacked lightly in the face with it.

“No, wait, that ain’t right,” he remarked dryly, picking it up again and smirking at her disgruntled expression beneath. “Lift your head, honey.” She clasped her hair in one hand and raised her head so that he could tug the pillow into place with his free hand, grunting slightly as he tried to keep himself up at the same time.

As soon as he was satisfied she was comfortable, he leant back over to kiss the air from her, increasing the pressure of his fingers as they began to sink into her while his thumb strummed at the bundle of nerves, making her twitch and writhe.

“Oh God,” Sally breathed, clasping at his neck and the damp tendrils of his hair. She couldn’t decide where to touch him, still not able to believe that she could. Her hands moved from his neck to his shoulders to his back, brushing his narrow waist, kneading his perfect ass and squeezing his thighs.

As the knot tightened in her belly, her muscles tensed and she began to moan freely, losing her inhibitions, she palmed at the firm bulge in his pants. He growled softly, pressing his face to her chest and resting his warm, sweaty cheek against her decolletage, scratching her with his sideburn. It felt like he was everywhere, leaving nowhere for her to retreat and hide, making it impossible to stay calm and demure, giving her no way to hold it together.

His fingers prodded deeper, causing the swell of the waves of pleasure in her gut to break and ripple through her body. She whimpered into his damp hair as stimulation so intense that it was almost painful rolled over her, making her thighs clench and her toes curl. The aftershocks made her twitch and he huffed a laugh into her temple, giving her pussy a scritch like it was actually his pet.

Sally shot him a disapproving look, a little embarrassed at how completely he had taken her apart with just his hand. He raised his eyebrows and shrugged as if he wasn’t responsible for what he did.

While she slowed her breathing and felt the unwelcome return of her inhibitions, Elvis hovered over her, straightening her underwear and diligently pulling down her skirt. He moved up, adjusting her neckline and pulling the shoulder of her dress back into place. Sally hoped they hadn’t stretched it, because she knew Laura would make her pay for another and she suspected it wasn’t from a catalogue like Sally’s own dresses.

“All better,” he pronounced in a soft, babyish voice, looking down at her body. When his eyes returned to her face however, he snorted softly. “Up here’s a different story though, baby, up here you’s a mess!”

“Noooo!” she protested, her hands going up to her hair, feeling the damp frizz and knots as he gave a cartoonish cackle and nodded. She pouted and reached up, vigorously ruffling his hair and pushing it in his face. “There, now we match!”

There was a pause and her stomach dropped as she thought that maybe she had crossed a line, but then he laughed and shook his head, swiping his black hair out of his eyes before he swiftly straddled her and obliterated any hope she had that her hairdo was salvageable. She wrinkled her nose and blew a lock of hair off her face.

“You made me do that!” he informed her. “I didn’t have no choice.” He did one of his patented sullen smirks as he picked up a long lock of her hair and laid it across her forehead like a monobrow. His laughter vibrated through her and his thighs tightly clamped her hips as she batted at her face and knocked her hair away.

“You are a public menace,” she informed him.

“You ain’t the first person to say that,” he nodded. “First person with a bird’s nest on their head to say it though maybe…”

In spite of his playful tone and the calming endorphins flooding her body, she was starting to feel self-conscious and she tried to roll over and escape his grip.

“Okay, let me up.”

“Honey, I’m just teasing. It ain’t that bad.” The expression on his face contradicted his words. She shoved at his thighs, trying to push herself free, and quickly discovered when her hand slid up that she might have been a mess, but she was apparently an exciting mess.

It was another twenty minutes of rolling around on the bed before she made it to the bathroom to examine the damage to her hair. It was as bad as she had feared, and she rooted around in the drawers and cabinets looking for a brush or comb to attempt triage. During her search, she found three pistols, some amber bottles of medication with a range of names printed on them, and a photo of a cute blond-haired baby, before she finally found what she was looking for.

Two hours of curlers and teasing and half a can of hairspray wasted, she vigorously brushed her abused hair into long brown curtains on either side of her face and wet some tissue to wipe away her smudged and smeared eye make-up.

When she emerged from the bathroom, Elvis was laying on the bed and he did a double take as she came out.

“What?” she asked, pausing nervously.

“Nothing… Nothing, honey.” He smiled, but it didn’t quite reach his eyes. “You just look different with your hair all down like that.”

“I didn’t have much choice now, did I?”

“No, I guess not.” He rolled off the bed and somehow made it onto his feet before he hit the floor, striding over to clasp her head in his hands and kiss her almost chastely. “It looked so pretty before though, honey.”

“Thank you?”

He shook his head sharply. “I mean, you’re still pretty. I don’t even know what I’m saying, man. Sorry, baby.” He kissed her again, this time with more force. “Every time I get up on that stage I think I must shake something loose up there, losing my damn mind. You’re pretty, you’re beautiful, honey.”

Before either of them could speak again, there was a gentle tap on the door.

“E, it’s time.” The guy’s voice was no louder than speaking volume and clearly audible through the door. Sally was horrified, thinking about what they might have heard on the other side of that door. Elvis didn’t seem bothered though, just annoyed that their time together had to end, but then he was probably used to all of this.

“I gotta go to work, honey. Sold my soul to Kirk Kevorkian for a hundred thousand a week and I’m starting to think I’m the one that got snowed.” One side of his mouth twitched up into a half smile as he rose, but she didn’t quite understand what his expression was trying to convey. And in in an instant, it was gone.

“You coming to the show?” he asked with a bashful smile.

“If that’s okay with you?”

At this, he cupped her face in his large hands and kissed her, nipping her bottom lip between his teeth before pressing his forehead against hers.

“You ain’t real,” he told her, to her confusion. “There ain’t no way you’re real.”

“Funny,” she replied, “I think the same about you.”

As he walked her to the main door of the suite like they were on a surreal date, he told her not to bother coming down to the stage for a kiss at the midnight show.

“Oh,” she murmured, a little deflated. “I did exceed my allocation after all then?” He gave her an amused little frown.

“The way you talk, honey! Naw, I just got something else in mind. Don’t go messing with my plans, now, okay?” He gave her a peck, motioning to someone behind her. Laura reappeared, straightening her dress slightly and looking sheepish. Sally looked from her to Sonny wiping his mouth with the back of his hand.

The midnight show, her fifth now in three days, confirmed that the tummy flip when Elvis appeared on stage was a permanent thing. Meeting him, talking to him, hadn’t lessened her wonder and awe at his talent and energy. If anything, seeing him up close in the flesh and learning more about him only made that huge presence he projected seem that much more impressive.

“Does it bother you?” Laura asked curiously, pouring herself a glass of champagne from the magnum resting in an ice bucket. They hadn’t ordered it, it had just been presented to them with the assurance that there was no charge.

“What?” Sally asked. Laura nodded towards the stage where Elvis was crouched down in front of a couple of women who were giving him a gift. He gave them both deep, effusive kisses, going back for seconds from one of them.

“Why would it bother me?” she laughed. “if he didn’t do it, I wouldn’t have got to kiss him.”

“Exactly,” Laura said cryptically, raising her eyebrows. Sally rolled her eyes and turned her attention back to the show.

Elvis didn’t introduce Love Me Tender until later in the set, leaving Sally wondering what he was talking about when he said he had a plan. When he finally started the introduction, she suddenly became vigilant, like she was waiting for an ambush.

At first, nothing seemed much different, Elvis sang a little, kissed a lot and the band persevered, playing verse after verse. Then, after walking to the wings, he just… didn’t stop. She watched his dark head drop down into the crowd and pandemonium broke out. People- women- were charging down from the back of the showroom, the audience were laughing and whooping as girls called Elvis’ name and begged to be able to touch him.

“God, they’re going to eat him alive!” Laura laughed, as they both craned their necks to follow the knot of people moving through the crowd.

Sally watched as people tried to climb over tables just to reach out and touch his arm as he passed by. He was being jostled by the press of his own bodyguards and then the fans begging for kisses. Her eyes widened as she realised the procession and growing mob were heading toward their booth; blue uniformed security guards were already appearing behind her, ready to marshal him through safely.

A beautiful blond managed to step into Elvis’ path as he almost reached the back of their booth. Sally and Laura had turned in their seats and were kneeling up on the red velvet cushions, watching the circus. He clasped the blonde’s face, just as he had done Sally’s only an hour earlier, and kissed her on the lips. Sally wondered if maybe she should be feeling jealous, but the truth was that she really just felt empathy with the woman, understanding how exciting and delicious it was to be kissed by him.

Despite the pressing and the chaos, he managed to pause at their booth, his tanned hand replete in gold rings gripping the white scrollwork to fight the momentum pushing him on. He gave her a lopsided grin as he leant in.

“How’d you like my plan? Seemed a good idea at the time.” He almost stumbled as he was jostled from behind.

“Not bad for a public menace,” she grinned, wrapping her fingers around his sweaty neck and almost sighing against his soft lips. A security guard stepped closer as if she was an overexcited fan that he was going to have to drag away, but she drew away before he could reach out and grab her.

“See ya later!” Elvis called over his shoulder, taken by the current. As he was swept on, she only heard the word ‘deal’ float back through the screams and whooping and laughter.

Turning round and smiling at Laura, Sally licked her lips and savoured the salt there. 

Tag list:

@itsnotthatserious03 @everythingelvispresley @bigromansgirl-blog, @sillybookmarks, @returntopresley

As always, shout out to the Elvis harem: @thatbanditqueen, @be-my-ally, @vintageshanny, @ellie-24, @from-memphis-with-love, @missmaywemeetagain, @peskybedtime

[longitudinalwaveme]

Fictober 2022

Day 4:

Prompt: No, We’re Not Doing That 

The Flash Rogues vs the Queen of Fables

When Sam Scudder had first discovered the land that lay beyond mirrors, he had been amazed by the vast dimension, with its millions of shimmering mirror portals. That astonishment had quickly turned into caution when he realized that it was inhabited by what he called mirror monsters—-creatures composed of shards of glass—--and then into a true fear of the place when he started to realize how easily it shifted, changed, and warped; how easy it would be to start following a path, only for it to disappear and leave you stranded, unable to ever find your way back. While he never stopped venturing through the Mirror Realm—it was far too convenient as a method of transporting himself and his partners in crime—-he never strayed far from the paths he had mapped out. He was much too wary of the place to wander through it randomly. 

Which was why Sam had never considered that being trapped inside the Mirror Realm for two weeks would be mind-numbingly boring .

He had been wrong. For all the parts of the Mirror Realm that were beautiful, wild, dangerous, and wonderful, there were also parts of it that were little more than an endless expanse of gray nothingness, with nothing but the distant twinkling of thousands of mirrors to indicate that the rest of the dimension existed at all. And it was in one of those gray voids that Sam had found himself trapped for the past two weeks—which meant two weeks with no physics textbooks, no notes, no TV, no music, none of his fellow Rogues, no way of contacting the real world, and, worst of all, no way to look at himself in the mirror. He could only imagine what sort of state his hair was in by now. 

Suddenly, a rectangle of bright white light, about as tall and wide as Sam himself, appeared in the expanse of the gray void. Sam sighed. After two weeks of this routine, he knew exactly what the rectangle’s appearance meant. 

After a few seconds, the glow of the rectangle faded, allowing Sam to see into an opulent throne room, made out of the debate chambers in what had once been City Hall. Standing in the middle of the room was a tall, graceful, and almost impossibly beautiful woman, with skin the color of paper, eyes like sapphires, and thick, wavy red hair. She was dressed in a long, elaborate purple gown, wore a mink stole around her neck, held an elaborate scepter, and was bedecked with diamond necklaces, emerald bracelets, and a gem-studded golden crown that would make the reputation of any thief who managed to steal it. 

Unfortunately, when it came to topics of conversation, she also had a seriously one-track mind. 

“Mirror, mirror, on the wall, who in this land is fairest of all?” 

“Hello to you, too, your highness,” Sam said. The woman narrowed her eyes. 

“The spirit in my last magic mirror was not nearly so insolent.” Sam had given up trying to convince the Queen—as she was insistent on being called—that he wasn’t some sort of ghost or something several days ago. 

“If I had to hazard a guess, your highness, that would be because you weren’t responsible for trapping your last spirit inside the mirror.” 

“Continue in that tone, spirit, and I shall use my arts to strip you of more than just your freedom,” the Queen replied. 

“My apologies, your highness,” Sam said quickly. While he wasn’t quite sure he believed the woman’s claims that she was a “mistress of the dark arts”, she had had the power to trap him in the Mirror Realm in the first place. He didn’t want to push his luck and find out what else her powers might let her do. 

“Then answer my question, spirit. Who is the fairest of all?” After two weeks, Sam still had no idea how to answer this question. It wasn’t like there was some objective measurement of how beautiful a person was. Was he supposed to answer based on his own personal preference? Poll everyone in the world and see which woman was mentioned most often? Guess? 

The one thing he couldn’t do was lie. The Queen had informed him immediately after she had trapped him in the Mirror Realm that he could only speak the truth so long as he was bound to her mirror—which was very inconvenient, because it meant that he couldn’t just tell her what she clearly wanted to hear and be done with it. 

“The answer hasn’t changed, your majesty. I don’t know who the fairest is, and I don’t know how to find out. You’re definitely the fairest woman I’ve seen in the past two weeks. Does that help?” The Queen frowned. 

“If you cannot find the answer yourself, I will have to provide you with the power to find the answer I seek,” she said. She waved her hand over her staff, and a wave of energy passed through the barrier and slammed into Sam’s chest, nearly knocking him off his feet. For a few seconds, nothing seemed to change, but then he felt a surge of power. A series of images flashed through his mind before settling on the face of a very attractive young woman with curly black hair and dark brown eyes. She looked vaguely familiar, but he was sure he didn’t know who she was—which made it all the more surprising when a name suddenly popped into his head. 

“You, my queen, are fair; it is true, but Lashawn Baez is still a thousand times fairer than you.” Sam could hardly believe what was coming out of his own mouth. Did using magic powers force you to talk in rhyme for some reason? 

“Where is this Lashawn Baez?” the Queen demanded. 

“Why do you want to know?” Sam replied. The Queen gave him a nasty little smile, and suddenly Sam realized that he already knew the answer. He wasn’t exactly a big reader of fairy tales, but as the Mirror Master, he was kind of obligated to know about the Evil Queen from Snow White. 

“So that I may put an end to this girl who is fairer than I am.” 

“In that case, you can find out where she is by yourself. Answering your stupid questions is one thing; helping you kill some random girl so you can win a beauty pageant that exists only in your head is another.” 

“That was not a request, spirit. Tell me where she resides.” Another image suddenly sprang into Sam’s mind, and, in spite of himself, he found himself answering the question. 

“Lashawn Baez, O queen, terries now in one of the local inns. ‘Tis there she can be found.” 

***************************************************************************

Evan McCulloch was alone in the bar—or tavern, rather, ever since that witch had turned Central City into a storybook come to life—-drinking a flask of ale. He had tried to get some of the other Rogues to come with him, but all of them had refused, saying that they weren’t stepping a foot outside of their safehouse until things went back to normal. 

Evan thought that they were overreacting. True, it was a bit weird to suddenly have your city and everything in it magically transformed into a medieval village, but that wasn’t going to stop him from enjoying a pint or two. After once having been lost in the Mirror Realm for weeks, strange happenings just didn’t bother him anymore.

Suddenly, a tall, cloaked woman, with skin as pale as snow and eyes as blue as the heather, walked into the tavern. Every person in the tavern—not that there were many; most of the civvies had been even more frightened by the sudden changes to the city than the other Rogues had been—-turned to stare at her as she made her way towards Evan. 

The woman moved gracefully—like a dancer, but somehow more—and Evan almost felt disappointed when she stopped and sat down in the chair beside him. 

“Can I help ye, hen?” The woman gave him a slight smile.

“That is no way to address your queen—but as I came here in disguise, I will forgive you your lapse in manners this once,” she said. Evan laughed. 

“Haw! Just like the storybooks! Well, your highness, if you’re wanting to know if you’re the fairest of the land and all, I’d have to tell ye truthfully I’ve seen bonnier lassies in my day.” The woman gave him a smile. 

“If I elevated you to some title—say, a dukedom—would you re-evaluate your position on my beauty?” Evan laughed. 

“A title’s naught but air—air that comes with obligations I dinnae want or need. I’ve naught to do with big castles or fine manners or ruling anyplace. Keep your titles—I’ll keep my opinions.”

“Then how about your weight in gold and jewels—paid to you once a day for the rest of your life? Would you change your opinion then?” Evan grinned.

“Aye, your highness, that I would. But I didn’t come up the Clyde on a banana boat, ken? You won’t give me so much dosh just for saying you’re the bonniest woman I’ve seen. What do you need me to do for you?” 

“My magic mirror has informed me that there is a woman in this kingdom who is fairer than I am. As such, I find myself in need of a new royal huntsman.” Evan laughed. 

“A huntsman! Haw! That’s pure deid brilliant, so it is!”

“Then you’ll do it?”

“Aye, aye. I’ll do it. For that kind of dosh, I’ll do anything.” 

“Excellent. Bring me the lungs and liver of Lashawn Baez, and you shall have your reward.” As the Queen handed him an elaborately-carved box, Evan grinned. Miss McCulloch had read him the story of Snow White hundreds of times when he was a wee lad, and he knew exactly what he needed to do to ensure that he got his payday. He didn’t kill bairns, and he didn’t kill women—but so long as the Queen thought that he had, she’d still give him his weight in gold. 

As soon as the Queen left the tavern, Evan slipped through the Mirror Realm to a local slaughterhouse, killed a pig, cut out its lungs and liver, and put them in the box before traveling by mirror back to the tavern. Then he began the arduous process of trying to find the Queen’s castle. As a relative newcomer to the twin cities, Evan wasn’t familiar enough to make his way around the city now that all the landmarks were transformed. 

After forty-five minutes and several wrong turns, he arrived, and was quickly ushered inside by the Queen, who had changed her cloak and simple clothes for the regalia of her title and was holding a scepter. 

“You work quickly. I’m impressed.” 

“I was worth the price, then, eh?”

“Give me her lungs and liver, and I’ll tell you.” Evan grinned and handed over the box. When the Queen opened it, she let out a triumphant cheer. 

“Lashawn Baez is dead! I am now the fairest in the land!” Then she smiled at Evan. 

“You have done me good service, my huntsman. Here is your reward.” She waved her hand over her scepter, and suddenly a wagon loaded high with gold and jewels appeared in front of Evan, who stared at it in shock. In spite of his extensive criminal career, he’d never seen so much wealth in his life. This plan had worked out even better than he’d expected!

“Thank you, your highness.” 

“Your work has earned your pay, and then some. Should I ever be in need of a huntsman’s services again, I will send for you.” 

As soon as he left the castle, Evan found a safe hiding spot for his newfound wealth, then went to warn Lashawn that she should probably find someplace to hide.

****************************************************************************

“I don’t know, Lashawn. I think I look pretty dashing in these new clothes,” Owen said as he looked at himself in the mirror. 

“You look like you should be greeting guests at Disney World. No real person has ever dressed like that,” Lashawn replied as she paced the floor of the room she and Owen had rented from a cheap motel, which had been transformed into a fantasy inn. 

“What, you mean you don’t think any real woman wore a gigantic princess hat in combination with a dress that looks like it came from the 1930s?” Owen asked with a smile. 

“How are you so casual about all this? Our entire city has been transformed into a Renaissance Festival, no one can enter or leave, we’ve been completely cut off from the rest of the world, some sort of evil queen has made herself the ruler of the city, and the Flashes can’t help us because they were off fighting an alien invasion in Rio de Janeiro when she showed up!” The smile slipped off Owen’s face. 

“I know, Lashawn. I’m worried, too. I mean, I’m used to weird stuff, but actual magic is a bit outside my wheelhouse,” he said. Lashawn continued to pace the floor nervously. 

“And since actual magic is real—I’m starting to think I really am cursed. I mean, Warden Wolfe is finally forced to acknowledge that I’ve served my time and that he has to let me go—and the second I’m free, a witch shows up and transforms the whole city into something out of a storybook,” she said.

“I’m just glad I was able to come and pick you up at Iron Heights before all the craziness started. I mean, I’m not glad you got pulled into all the weird fairy tale stuff, but if the witch had shown up and transformed the city a few hours earlier, you would’ve ended up stuck in the middle of nowhere outside of the prison,” Owen replied. 

“I still don’t understand why you volunteered to pick me up in the first place.” 

“Because I know a thing or two about making mistakes and then having to try to set things right. And, admittedly, because you’re beautiful.” Lashawn blushed furiously. Except for her father, no one had ever called her beautiful before. She’d been too busy with medical school to bother with romance before her father had gotten sick, and after she’d made the stupid, desperate decision to try to steal a kidney for him after months of him getting pushed back on the waiting list, boys weren’t exactly lining up around the block to date the latest “Rogue”. 

“You’re not bad-looking yourself,” Lashawn mumbled. That was an understatement. Owen was very handsome, with thick red hair and twinkling blue eyes. He must have gotten his looks—and his manners—- from his mother, because his father, Captain Boomerang, had early male pattern baldness, the manners of a dingo, and a face like a brick wall. 

Owen laughed. 

“I inherited my dad’s throwing arm, but I’ll admit, I’m glad I didn’t inherit his face. Or his apparent aversion to bathing.” And, in spite of the seriousness of the situation, Lashawan found herself laughing too. 

Then Evan McCulloch came through the mirror, and their laughter was stopped dead. 

“Stay behind me, Lashawn. I know this guy. He’s dangerous.” McCulloch laughed. 

“Aww, don’t get yer knickers in a twist, chief. If I wanted to hurt you or the bird, you’d both already be dead,” he said. Lashawn debated if she should grab Owen and teleport out of the room. She didn’t want to risk hurting anyone by the explosion her teleportation would create, but, at the same time, she and Owen were in very real danger. Even though she hadn’t personally interacted with the second Mirror Master the way that Owen apparently had, she had heard more than enough about him to know that he was powerful, violent, and completely unhinged.

“Then why are you here?” Owen asked. 

“Because your bonnie wee girlfriend made me a fortune, and I figured I owed it to her to tip her off that the Queen wants her dead.” 

“But I’ve never even met her!” Lashawn protested. 

“Don’t matter. She says her magic mirror declared you the fairest in the land—and that means she wants you dead.” 

“How did that help you?” Owen asked. 

“The queen offered me my weight in gold and jewels if I would kill the lassie and and bring her her lungs and liver. I said I would, then I killed a pig, cut out its guts, told her it was the lassie’s, and now I’m swimming in dosh.” 

“Why didn’t you just kill me, instead of going through all the trouble of tricking her?” 

“I may like dosh, but not eno to kill women or children for it. ‘Tis hoora bad business, so it is. So I tricked her instead.” Owen raised an eyebrow. 

“Don’t you think she might be angry when she asks her magic mirror if she’s the fairest of the land tomorrow and finds out that Lashawn isn’t dead?” 

“She won’t be mad—she’ll be furious. Which is why I’m here to tell you and the bird to clear out of here.” 

“And go where ?” 

“Follow the fairy tale, laddie, and you’ll know.”

“Care to translate for those of us who aren’t crazy Scotsmen?” Owen asked. Evan laughed again. 

“As I was going through the Mirror Realm, I spied a small house with seven wee men. If you go there, you should be safe, at least for a time.” 

“How do you know?” Owen asks.

“Come on, laddie. Didn’t anyone ever read you the tale of Snow White?” Evan asked. Lashawn groaned. She’d thought Evan’s description of the Queen sounded familiar… 

“Let me get this straight. You expect Lashawn—and me, since I’m not leaving her—to show up at the doorstep of some random people because a fairy tale is telling us to? ”

“Aye, laddie. That’s the general idea.” 

“No. We’re not doing that. Are you completely out of your mind?” 

“Aye. But I’m also right.” Lashawn sighed. 

“Owen, I don’t like this any more than you do, but given the fact that this witch or evil queen or whatever has turned the entire city into a fantasy kingdom, and is clearly reenacting Snow White, I think McCulloch might be right. Unless the Flashes manage to break through the barrier and save the day, the only way to put an end to this mess might be to let the fairy tale play out.” Evan nodded. 

“Aye. Ye see, that’s the problem with wicked witches—they’re bound tae the rules of their own stories.” 

“And you know this how , exactly?” Owen asked. 

“Easy. The Mirror Realm told me!” 

Lashawn couldn’t help but wonder: had McCulloch always been crazy, or was this a recent development? 

*************************************************************************

Four days after their flight to the house of the seven dwarves, who were surprisingly good hosts for a bunch of guys who had probably been created less than a month ago by the Queen, Owen was hunting in the woods that had mysteriously sprung up around the city with his dad’s trusty boomerangs. He had already brought down a few rabbits, but was hoping for a deer, since that would really impress his dad. And, if he was lucky, maybe Lashawn too. 

Crack! Owen turned in the direction of the sound, and, sure enough, there was his deer. It was a magnificent specimen—so much so that he almost hated to hurt it—but since all of the supermarkets and refrigerators had disappeared when the Queen had transformed the city, this was really the only way to get meat. Owen pulled his arm back and was about to release the boomerang when he heard a loud, cackling laugh coming from the dwarves’ cottage. 

Lashawn! 

In a panic, Owen dropped his rabbits and ran back to the cottage. He burst through the door—and found Lashawn lying on the floor in a heap. An apple was lying on the floor next to her, with one bite having been taken out of it, and an old woman was laughing triumphantly over her. 

“Lashawn Baez is dead! Now I am the fairest in the land!” Owen ran over to the old lady, who was obviously the Queen in disguise, and grabbed her by the cloak.

“What did you do to her?” 

“I gave her a poisoned apple, and she ate it—though it wasn’t as simple as it used to be. In the old days, the fairest would always be trusting enough to take a magic wishing apple from a kindly old lady, but this Lashawn—she wouldn’t let me in. I had to cast a spell on her and force her to eat the apple—but she’s out of my way all the same. She will spend the rest of her days in the sleep of living death, unable to be woken by anything but true love’s kiss—which is why I’ll need to get rid of you.” 

“Me? Why me?” 

“You’re the handsome prince. Your kiss will break the spell—and I’ve been foiled too many times to let that happen again.” Owen was about to protest that he wasn’t a prince, and that, while he liked Lashawn a lot, he wasn’t sure he was in love with her, but then the old hag cast a spell at him and he had to roll desperately out of the way. He threw the boomerang he had intended for the deer at her, but she simply disintegrated it with her magic, and then cast a spell that trapped him in a mass of magical chains. Owen struggled against the bonds, but to no avail. 

“Say good night, sweet prince.”

Suddenly, a red blur knocked the old hag off her feet and into a wall. The magic chains fell away just as the blur solidified into the Flash. 

“Deus ex machina, baby!” he exclaimed. 

“Thanks, Wally.” 

“No problem. Dealing with weirdos like the Queen of Fables is kind of in my job description.” 

“The…Queen of Fables?” 

“Yep. She’s a refugee from fairy tale land in another dimension, and she uses her magic powers to recreate stories. One time she trapped me in the story of Little Red Riding Hood, I guess because my costume is red, and I had to deliver food to my grandmother, who was Joan Garrick. That was a weird experience.” 

“Who was the Big Bad Wolf?” 

“Gorilla Grodd.” Owen shuddered. 

“Suddenly, being Lashawn’s Prince Charming doesn’t seem so bad.” 

Wally looked down at Lashawn’s body and gave Owen a weak smile. 

“I guess you’d better kiss her, then. It’s the only way to break the spell—both on her and on the city.” Owen blushed. He had been thinking a lot about how nice kissing Lashawn might be lately, but definitely not in this context. 

“I don’t know. I mean, it’s not like we’re dating or anything, and, well…she’s unconscious and—” 

“Yeah, I can see how that might be awkward. Maybe you could just kiss her on the cheek or something?” Owen took a deep breath. 

“Well, I guess if it’s the only way to save her, I can manage that.” 

Nervously, he knelt down to Lashawn’s body and pecked her on the cheek. For a few seconds, nothing happened, and he started to worry that he might have to kiss her on the lips, but then her eyes fluttered open and the dwarves’ cottage transformed into the postal office of all places. 

“Owen?”

“Good morning, princess. Your Prince Charming has broken the spell, and is here to carry you off to his castle, where you will live together forever and ever.” Lashawn rolled her eyes. 

“Don’t push your luck.” 

“Does this mean that you don’t want to go out with me this weekend?” Owen asked. Lashawn paused and seemed to think things over before responding. 

“That’s a happily ever after I think I can manage.” 

******************************************************************************

Evan McCulloch was busy sorting through his stack of gold and jewels in the Rogues’ current safehouse when an obviously irate Sam Scudder suddenly emerged through a nearby mirror. 

“YOU’RE the Mirror Master who’s freakishly obsessed with the Mirror Realm. Why weren’t YOU the one who got forced into playing “Magic Mirror on the Wall” for three weeks?” 

“Oh, so that’s where you went. I was sort of wondering about that,” Evan said as he held up a particularly nice jade necklace. 

“I was trapped in a void of empty gray nothingness, with no entertainment and no hair care products , for THREE WEEKS! Do you have any idea how boring it is to—where did all that gold come from?” 

“I tricked the evil Queen into paying me for a hit I didn’t actually carry out, and now I’ve got more dosh than I know what to do with. Hoora great, int it no?” 

“Let me get this straight. I got stuck in a gray void in the Mirror Realm for three weeks—and you got a hundred million’s worth of gold?” 

“Aye, that sounds about right.” 

“I. Am going. To kill you,” Sam said quietly. Normally, Evan would have laughed off a threat like that—he was stronger than Sam, and better at using the Mirror Realm to fight—but there was an intense look in the man’s eyes that actually made him nervous. He might not be able to take Evan in a straight fight, but Scudder was still a genius, and Evan didn’t want to find out what would happen if he decided to turn that genius against him. Besides, there was plenty of gold and jewelry to set them both for a very long time. 

“How about this, chief. I give you half of the shinies, and we both try to forget this ever happened.” Sam looked at the gold, then at Evan, then back to the gold. 

“If you also promise to stop showing up in my hideouts unannounced using the Mirror Realm, you’ve got yourself a deal.” 

“Fair eno. Deal.” The two of them shook hands, and Evan grinned. 

“See? Happy ending for everybody.” Two seconds later, the Weather Wizard came down the stairs . 

“Hey, where’d all that gold come from?”

“The Mirror Realm,” Evan said. 

“And you can’t have any of it. It’s ours,” Sam added. 

The resulting indoor thunderstorm blew out three windows, ruined the linoleum floor, destroyed three-quarters of the gold and jewelry, set fire to Mick’s favorite “Kiss the Cook” apron, which he had unwisely left in the middle of the living room, alerted the Flash, and resulted in Evan, Sam, and Mark all getting sent to jail, but over the course of their desperate attempts to survive their perhaps ill-advised decision to not share any of their loot with someone they knew was able to whip up storms, Sam and Evan actually buried the hatchet with each other and became, if not friends, at least capable of tolerating each other. So in a way, there was a happy ending after all.

[novankenn]

"Jaune Gets a Gun AU" (Day 2) To the Convention Centre!

Inspired by @howlingday's weapon posts

To Pyrrha and Ruby, who had sat up half the night awaiting their Knight's return, and both of whom were mad at the other for losing sight of the green haired girl that had Jaune-napped their love interest. Jaune looked a little worse for wear and had a few "blemishes" on the side of his neck.

Pyrrha/Ruby: Jaune.

Jaune: (Rubbing the back of his neck) Hey Pyr. Ruby. Funny meeting you guys here! Wait, shouldn't you both be in bed?

Pyrrha: We could say the same of you.

Jaune: Yeah, well Emerald...

Ruby: (hissing through her teeth) So that's the Hussy's name.

Jaune: Er, what? Did you say something, Ruby?

Pyrrha: She's just over tired... all that... excitement... from yesterday is catching up to her. So Jaune...

Jaune: Yes Pyr?

Ruby: (Jumping to her feet and pointing at Jaune) Where have you BEEN, mister!?!

Jaune: Well... I... um... I

Pyrrha: DID she touch you, Jaune?

Jaune: What?

Pyrrha: It is a simple question. DID. SHE. TOUCH. YOU?

Jaune: Of course she touched me, you kind of have to...

Ruby/Pyrrha: (Gasping in Despair) No! Please, No!

Jaune: ... when she's pushing me out of her dorm room.

Ruby: Really?

Jaune: Why are you asking that? It's like you guys want to date me, or something. (laughs dryly) Like that could ever happen.

Pyrrha: What about...

Jaune: About? About what Pyr?

Ruby: (Ruby uses her semblance to basically teleport to Jaune's side and pulls down the neck of his hoodie to reveal a couple hickeys) THESE! WHAT ARE THESE?

Jaune: Ah, yeah, those.

Pyrrha: Well?

Jaune: Well, Emerald carried me all the way back to her dorm, which considering her size is pretty impres...

Ruby: Jaune! Details! Now!

Jaune: Alright, alright. Calm down. Please?

Pyrrha: Jaune?

Jaune: Okay, so she got me to her room, and then sat me on her bed...

Ruby: That SLUT!

Jaune/Pyrrha: Swear Jar!

Jaune: Anyway, she started to try and kiss my neck, but I was able to tap my bracelet and changed back... which freaked her out, and the next thing I remember was waking up on the floor outside her room.

Pyrrha: I think I need to have words with...

Jaune: (Crosses his arms over his chest) You will leave Emerald alone. She was confused about who I was. It's an honest mistake.

Pyrrha/Ruby: She Jaune-napped you!

Jaune: That is not a real word. What she did was VERY aggressively hit on a young woman, who just happened to be me.

Pyrrha: New rule! As your girlfr... I mean partner, from this point forward no more of that, whatever it is.

Jaune: You mean this?

Jaune tapped his bracelet...

Ruby: As your girlfr... I mean, Best friend, I second Pyrrha's declaration! Now stop doing that!

Jaune: (Pouting while turning back to normal) Fine. Better.

Ruby/Pyrrha: Yes.

Jaune: Okay, since that is settled, shall we go to the cafeteria to have breakfast, or pick something up in Vale?

Pyrrha: Why Vale?

Jaune: The Gun Show, of course. I still need a ranged option. You're coming too, right?

Pyrrha turns her head slightly and regards Ruby for a moment. Ruby outwardly shivers...

Pyrrha: Yes. Yes I am.

Jaune: (claps his hands) Great. Then let's go!

(So starts the adventure for Day Two! Hope you enjoyed.)