#since this au has brought me so many feels I hope it does the same to her 💕💕🌷🌷

[hanafubukki]

Ahhhhh IT WASNT MY INTENTION TO MAKE IT SADDER ajdndndnd I just wanted to have more family bonding time between the three and it just…had some sad moments sprinkled in ajdnfkfkgg I couldn’t help it shdjfjfnf he had to return home eventually ajdnfkfkglg

Im always happy to hear your thoughts Lian 🥹🥹💞💞💕

The lilia detail with the bats was something I added when I was editing, I literally went what would lilia do??…he would draw on the egg! 🤣🤣

Ahhhh yes! I wanted to show Silver and how much his father Influenced him and that scene with the tone changing is one of my faves just that switch from happy silver to serious silver is just 💕💕💕💕

Yes!! That scene where silver says those lines to malleus is also a fave 😭😭 when we talked about it I just had to incorporate it into the story and show that silver is always there for him, one way or another.

You’re welcome 💞💞💞 I’m so glad you loved it so much. I really wanted them all to have family bonding time and for malleus to be spoiled and I’m glad I was able to get it across 🥹🥹🥹

Omg yes yes yes, that’s a wonderful point! Like how true love from lilia and silver woke malleus up. It was malleus love of silver that woke up his UM AND IM- IM- omg please now I’m crying ahhhhhh🥹🥹🥹🩵🩵

The Love of a Family

Summary: A young Malleus Draconia travels back in time to meet Lilia and his older brother, Silver.

Characters: Young Malleus Draconia, Silver, and Lilia Vanrouge

Notes: I saw Lian’s post yesterday about Big Brother Silver AU and brain literally went haywired ( @rayroseu​ ) Please check out her post, its so precious and beautiful and still has my heart aching and I loved it so much. Big Brother Silver AU has a soft place in my heart now and I just had to have them meet. I just had too 😭😭💚💚 I hope you enjoy. I’m not used to writing non-reader insert stories, but I did my best 🙌💚 (This is 1k+ you can tell my brain went brrr 🥰🥰💕💕💕)

Mother…

Father…

Even Silver…

I’m so sorry I was born too late and never got to meet you all…

Malleus felt his tears drip down his face, splattering on the album in front of him.

He loved to look at this album; Lilia always said how it was filled with people who loved him.

His mother and father hugging his egg.

Lilia drawing little bats on the egg.

Big brother Silver, as a baby, shared a cradle with him.

Big brother Silver looked so happy.

As Malleus flips through the pages, he saw how time changes and so does Lilia and big brother Silver.

Keep reading

[emry-stars-art]

I’m wondering (and not sure if this has been talked about yet in a post I simply missed) about how Abram copes with Andrew’s physical affections (or lack thereof) in your lovely royal AU. With the history behind ‘pretty’ that you described for Abram in that last post, I feel like there is so much potential of him expecting to be touched, even before they are courting (but especially during/after), and wondering why Andrew doesn’t—especially once it’s established that he thinks of Abram as ‘pretty’. They are of different station so it would be so easy for Andrew to act entitled to Abram’s body like so many before, especially with Abram in a position where he’s basically serving him in some way. I wonder if it makes him relieved (due to professionalism/personal comfort at the very beginning) or anxious (due to having no ability to tell what is coming for him/later due to doubting if he is really wanted that way if Andrew doesn’t act the same as his point of reference) or a little bit of both for different reasons.

I imagine Andrew to be both a very tactile person and not necessarily so because he is so very aware of boundaries and only crosses them with invitation or purpose. I wonder how that translates here and how his touch plays into how Abram perceives him (and honestly there’s the whole part too where it’s something they have in common, trampled boundaries and bad associations and bone-deep understanding of such) or if they would ever have a conversation about that where Abram wonders about the curtesy of distance and space he is being given.

I’m like two seconds from passing out bc it’s pretty late here so idk how much sense this ask really makes but I’m having thoughts. I love your AU and your work and hope you have a wonderful day <3

YOU GUYS ALWAYS FIND THE MOST INTRIGUING THINGS TO EXPLORE I LOVE YOU (and your comments/etc, apostrophe-philosophy, are always a joy to read hehe)

(First: find the royal au writing masterpost here 💕)

I’ve been working on/thinking about this ask long enough that I���ve straight up forgotten if this was a thought I had when writing that first post (here) or if you brought it fully to my attention but we can safely assume it’s the latter so thank youuuuu for that truly. I love exploring Abram’s slow inch (and Andrew’s, but he’s had more time to get adjusted) towards finding a healthy relationship with touch 🥲 and oh my GOD don’t let me forget to tell all of you about Abram and gloves

I wrote a scene/lil collection of scenes about Andrew clearing things up here too because I’ve been wanting to explore Abram’s POV for a while 👀 there are references to canon abuse, so take care. As always, sparknotes version and additions below

I LOVE your points about Andrew, I totally agree that once it’s established and he’s allowed, he’s very much a tactile person, he just needs to get there first 💕

We all know for obvious reasons that it never once crosses the prince’s mind for Abram to be anything more than a professional bodyguard, even if he does find him attractive. He’s very good at courtesy and polite distance. How I imagine this goes down in the timeline is this:

1) Nathaniel shows up at Palmetto and he’s never allowed close to important people. Certainly never allowed close enough to touch. Totally safe there. It doesn’t take him long to understand Day really won’t take advantage of him since he never did in Evermore either, so that’s safe. There’s not much else to worry about for that long stretch of time.

2) Nathaniel/Abram becomes the prince’s guard. There’s probably a little anxiety just because there’s plenty of opportunities for the prince to try something, but as time goes on and Andrew keeps the previously mentioned distance, even acting apathetic (as he does), Abram starts to assume that the prince is straight/doesn’t care. It wasn’t as if every single person in Evermore was trying to get at him. Just the ones that wanted to. Obviously, the prince doesn’t want to. It gets to the point that Abram feels comfortable and doesn’t try to constantly watch his own back when he’s on duty.

Then the prince, perhaps feeling a little bold or hopeful or just wanting to say something so he doesn’t keep feeling like he’ll explode, makes a single comment on Abram’s “pretty face”. Even something that could be brushed off as friendly jest, if he really wanted. But Abram completely freezes up. Andrew, of course, notices. He doesn’t try to ask about it then, but he definitely notices. But he assumes that Abram took it as the genuine compliment it was, and that Abram is entirely uninterested or even wary of those advances. So he makes no more comments, he leaves the entire concept as far away as he can get it.

Now that Abram knows the prince finds him pretty, he’s just waiting for Andrew to be the same as everyone else. He didn’t even directly answer to the nobles in Evermore and they were still so bold - but he’s Andrew’s servant in the most direct way, and Andrew is a prince. Surely the prince is even more entitled to him than they were. (When he realizes this is what’s happening, Andrew tells Abram in no unclear terms exactly what is and isn’t expected of him. It takes longer than that for Abram to shake the anxiety he grew up with, but at least after that he can start repeating the prince’s words to himself when he needs to.)

3) that’s cleared up well enough, but then (much, much later) the prince wants to court him. At first Abram can’t think much beyond “there’s no way this is real” but then the more he thinks about it, the more nervous he gets again. He doesn’t know Palmetto courting traditions, what if he’s expected to do something he isn’t ready for. What if now that he’s accepted the courtship he can’t tell Andrew no anymore. It wouldn’t be fair of him to, he thinks, he shouldn’t have agreed so quickly.

But there’s a time they’re out doing whatever courtship things (maybe another horse ride for funsies idk), Abram’s getting nervous about it again, and when Andrew asks for a kiss or to hold his hand, Abram doesn’t answer. He’s also a little confused when Andrew doesn’t just do it anyway, because he hadn’t said no, but Andrew is watching him in the way that usually means Abram is acting too much like he’s at Evermore again. He tells Abram, “Nothing’s changed. You can say no.” And Abram does immediately - not because he doesn’t want whatever he was offered but because he scared himself. Andrew’s still watching him. “Don’t forget that again,” he says. Abram takes a shaky breath. “Yes, prince.”

But as soon as Abram’s past that anxiety for the second and probably final time? Andrew is still as tactile a person as before and gods know Abram is touch starved to hell and back, he’ll take any kind words or touches he can possibly get and he craves them. Specifically from the prince. Who loves to give them.

I’d love to come back and make a fluff post specifically about that point in the timeline if we can collectively come up with enough ideas for said fluff 🥰 for now thanks again for the ask, swear to GOD we’re gonna get these idiots a happy ending, but I’m having way too much fun in the meantime 😂

[happi-tree]

dust to dust (tell me i am good enough)

“Does it ever get easier?” She asks, voice hoarse and low (you are used to this from her) and hesitant and very quiet (you are not used to this).

“What?” You ask, a knee-jerk reaction, overcome with shock that she would ask anything of you after everything you’ve done.

“Th- ugh, never mind, it doesn’t matter,” Her gaze drops to the pouch in her hands, fingers fiddling with its thick, plasticky edges, pinching at the places where it’s sealed and watching the last stubborn dregs of blood shy away from the pressure she applies. 

“I wish I could tell you it does, Scary."

Or: When newly-Turned Scary starves herself from blood to the point of illness, it's up to Terry to help her recover and help her gain her footing in the new, monstrous world in which she now finds herself.

ao3

Happy Dndads Halloween Week, lovebirds! Here's my fic for day 1: vampires. It's part of a supernatural au that @kaseyskat and @llumimoon masterminded alongside me, and I'm really excited to post more about it in the coming days. Hope you enjoy!

The silence between the two of you stretches like a rubber band, chafes like an ill-fitting starched shirt. Discomfort is familiar company, though, so you allow it to settle on your shoulders and pretend the way that her glassy, red-pupiled eyes stare through you doesn’t make you want to shatter the silence.

You’ve barged into her life enough, you think, you mourn. You’re always mourning something, been mourning since you were thirteen and it never stopped. 

But this isn’t about you. This is about her, the young girl that’s pushed herself up awkwardly to sit, still clutching one of the many drained pouches you brought for her. So you wait as stolen color begins to warm her pale skin, as her eyes seem to gain some lucidity.

She swallows, clears her throat, and you reach for another blood pouch, but before you can grasp it, she speaks. 

“Does it ever get easier?” She asks, voice hoarse and low (you are used to this from her) and hesitant and very quiet (you are not used to this).

“What?” You ask, a knee-jerk reaction, overcome with shock that she would ask anything of you after everything you’ve done.

“Th- ugh, never mind, it doesn’t matter,” Her gaze drops to the pouch in her hands, fingers fiddling with its thick, plasticky edges, pinching at the places where it’s sealed and watching the last stubborn dregs of blood shy away from the pressure she applies. 

She looks so small like this, you think for the millionth time since she invited you through the doorway in a blood-starved haze, propped up against the headboard of her bed and tangled in pastel bed sheets. Her dyed hair falls slowly from where she has hastily tied it back, ratty tee shirt and bright pink athletic shorts swamping her malnourished frame. 

“I wish I could tell you it does, Scary,” You say to her, blundering on and overstepping anyway, a habit passed down but not inherited. You can feel the weight of her new-moon eyes on you, hear the way her slightly-tremoring hands pause. 

“Oh,” She says, and that one syllable, soft and fear-edged, holds denial-anger-bargaining- depression-acceptance fifty times over, its very own Atlas upholding a life made much heavier than before. You know this because you have uttered it yourself, the same tone coloring your newly-unliving throat, a few years younger than her, and here its ghost is resurrected before you. Oh. 

“After a while, you adjust to it,” You reassure, “become desensitized to it, in a way. The newness wears off and eventually, it’s your new normal, but it never gets easier.”

You sigh, turning to look at her. “You can’t stop sensing the life in people, and you can’t stop wanting to take it for your own. It’s your nature now, and you can’t -” the words get stuck in your throat as you see her hands start to tremble again. 

You’re unsure if it’s the right move, but you rest an artificially-warm hand atop her corpse-cold one. She doesn’t move to hold it, but she doesn’t push you away either. Her fringe obscures her eyes, and her mouth is drawn into a taut line, as if she’s trying to stop it from wavering. 

“Scary, look at me, please, this is important,” You say, you beg, squeezing her hand once. She lifts her head, one eye still covered by magenta-ebony, but the other pierces into you. Good. 

“You can’t keep fighting yourself like this. Your mom was worried sick, and even though I’m used to this, I was terrified when she called me. I’m sorry you weren’t given the time to be a regular kid with a normal rebellious phase-”

“- It’s not a phase, Terry,” She scoffs halfheartedly, and it brings a smile to your face.

“Not if you don’t want it to be,” You agree. “But I need you to promise me something. I need you to take care of yourself, okay? It’s hard, and it’s gross, and it feels bad sometimes, I know, but I need you to keep going. For your mom, for your friends.” For me, you think selfishly.

“I - I don’t want to keep killing things,” She admits, voice lowered to keep it from wobbling, and it feels like something you aren’t supposed to hear. Scary is a fortress of a girl, and it worries you that going this long without has atrophied her walls where they should be unforgiving. 

You need to treat this moment with care, and a voice that sounds like your mother’s bounces around in your brain as you attempt to tow the line between empathy and care and pity.

“You won’t,” You say, just barely cutting off an oh, honey from the beginning. “Not right now. Maybe you will eventually -” Scary turns a shade paler and you squeeze her hand again. “But I would never ask that of you. There are other ways. I can handle it for now, if you’d like. Or your new friend would probably be more than willing to help.”

Scary shifts on the mattress. “Normal? Uh, yeah, he has already, actually, but I’ve never told him anything and I don’t know how he knows but he’s never asked me about it and it kinda weirds me out-”

“He’s an Oak kid. They have a habit for sniffing things out,” You say, lips curling at your own joke. “He’s a Good Person, they’re nice folks.”

“You seem… really weirdly certain about that.” Scary notes, question implicit.

“I know his father and uncle,” You say, smile nostalgia-tinged. “Childhood friends, actually, we go way back. Small world, huh?”

“Huh,” She says.

“Yeah,” You agree. 

You remember the times you had neglected yourself when you were younger, starving until your vision fuzzed and your stomach panged and you could barely stand. You remember the way that the twins had fussed over you like mother hens. Sparrow would push blood at you while urging you not to drink too much lest you make yourself sick, hold you with his warmth surrounding you and his nose buried into the side of your neck as if reminding himself by scent that you were still there. Lark would stand guard at the threshold, pacing restlessly until you gained your strength back, gold-tinted eyes darting between you and the world beyond, hands balled into clawed fists, protective and vigilant. 

You don’t have the nose that they do, but based solely on the snippets of anecdotes Scary’s mentioned, you wouldn’t be surprised if the two of them were packmates by now. The thought fills you with warm satisfaction. 

You weren’t lying when you said that Normal is a Good Person - in both senses of the phrase. She needs more people in her corner, you think, and Normally Oak-Swallows-Garcia is a decent place to start. 

She moves her hand out from underneath yours, only to brace herself on the mattress to sit up more fully. Her deathly pallor is a little less ashy, her expression a little less open, more lucid. Bloodshot eyes dart to the maroon-filled pouches beside you, and you wordlessly hand her another before she asks.

Scary raises a single slitted brow as she takes it from your grasp, and her hands are still far too cold for your liking, but at least their shaking has subsided.

She carefully pokes a straw through the packaging and sips, eyes going wide and dark before pulling away with a small cough.

Blood hunger is a delicate balance, you have long since learned. The longer you starve yourself, the harder it is to show restraint once you start to feed again.

She takes another small, delicate sip, and clears her throat.

“So,” she starts, “Mom doesn’t… know yet, right? About you.”

The implicit why haven’t you told her, what are you doing, why would you do this to her go unspoken but not unheard, accentuated by her pointed glare. 

(The overgrown child in your mind replies to the latter with two can play at that game, and you quash him down with prejudice.)

You exhale. “No,” You reply.

Veronica is a lovely woman. Too lovely for you, many would argue, including yourself. Beautiful and kind and hardworking and supportive, she is a spot of light for you, who cannot walk in the sun. 

She’s also remarkably headstrong and stubborn, you know. You see it in her daughter, immortalized in her blood: the strength of her gaze, the arch of her brow, the set of her shoulders, the calculated carelessness of her words.

However, Veronica Marlowe is also human - and one unaware of the second world that lies atop (or perhaps beneath) her own, like a second shadow or perhaps a mirage. The world you now inhabit, though you hadn’t always. 

The world her daughter now inhabits, unbeknownst to her.

Though San Dimas is… safe, for your kind (and you are forever grateful to the Wilsons for that), part of you still remains a little boy, rabbit-hearted and afraid of how others might react to you. Honesty and vulnerability had never been your strong suits, but that is no excuse for your cowardice.

“I kept… trying to bring it up,” you start, glancing just to the right of her face, unable to bear the full weight of her gaze. “It’s difficult, trying to tell someone that you’re undead, that you won’t age the way they do.”

Scary looks a bit pale.

“I was going to tell her, of course! That’s always been the plan, once I… knew that it would last. That I would be a more permanent fixture in your lives. I had planned on telling both of you, but then -”

“Then,” she finishes, her frown deepening, taking a small sip from her blood bag.

“Yeah,” You reply, feeling rather helpless. “Then.”

“Hey,” Scary says, and you look up at her. 

“You’re not, like… two hundred years old or something, right?”

The question shocks a burst of laughter out of you.

“God. Fuck no, absolutely not. No, I’m not that much older than I look. Oh, ew, I’m sorry if you thought-” She’s smiling, just a little, and a lopsided bit of fang pokes out from between closed lips.

“Okay, thank fuck. Not that I don’t still hate you for, like, getting with my mom, or whatever, ugh,” she grumbles, which is fair, you think. “Just, like, how -”

“Thirty-nine,” you answer for her. “I’m thirty-nine years old.”

“You’re younger than her?” She asks, bewildered. “I mean, I had kinda figured, since you… y’know,” she says, gesturing a hand at her own face. “Initially. But that was before I knew any of this.”

You simply nod in response.

Scary looks like she wants to ask something more, then disguises it with another sip at the pouch. She looks down, considering, and you wait.

“How,” she says, voice coming out strangled. A pause. “How young were you? Wh… when it happened?”

Something in you softens. Or breaks. It’s hard to tell, these days.

“Thirteen,” You tell her.

Her gaze snaps up to meet yours.

“Really?”

“Really.” 

A thousand things push with each pulse of your stolen heartbeat, beating against your ribcage and rising up your throat.

I know what it’s like, to be young and angry and seeking a darkness to match the one inside your head. I get it. I can help you. You will get past this, but it’s hard. It’s so terribly, horribly hard, growing up when you know that you’ll never grow old, and it sucks shit, and I’m sorry. You’re not alone. You have me, if you invite me, but I would never ask that of you.

Her eyes bore into your own, and you wonder if she can somehow read your thoughts.

Maybe she doesn’t need to.

“When you tell her -” she sighs, growls to herself, looks up again.

“When you tell her, do you think we could tell her together?”

You smile, and it’s a fanged, monstrous thing.

“Yeah,” You respond, and though you haven’t fed yet today, you feel oddly warm. “I’d like that.”

Your smile is returned, fanged and monstrous and headstrong and bright.

“I thought you might.” 

[luminlunii]

I have some more details on Sedgewick in Trek for the Truth! Now, two things before I continue. One, no, there are NO horrible sexual things going on here or anywhere else in this AU! Because, I maybe mean with this AU, but I'm not THAT mean! I'm not putting the characters through that. Plus, that just makes me uncomfy, because reasons. So, we're just going to pretend that those horrible things like that don't exist in this AU! Unrealistic? Sure, but I just don't want it. Second, before anyone calls out any unrealistic issues like how humans might be cruel, but they would recognize this as slavery at this point. Regardless of how they feel/see the fictional characters. You're right, they would and it's still against the law in this universe. That being said, this type of situation I'm about to tell you, with the facility and this place, is like a Dark Web exchange. With that, I will continue. I told you he escapes and lost his hand, but there's more to Sedewick from when he was pawned off to another experimentation facility to his departure. He was pawned off to one of the worst, if not the worst experimentation facilities. Because this one, instead of letting illnesses or over experimentation take its course, they fucking have an auction for the ones that aren't sick. So they can take in more characters in they pick up. At the moment, this might be the only one that does this, but that might change in the future. It depends. Sedgewick, being not sick, was one of those people. He was auctioned off to this abusive rich asshole human to be his personal butler. However, there was still some hope. Since, what this guy is doing is still illegal, even in human terms. All that would need to happen is for this guy's actions to be brought to light and it'd be over. That's what Wick tried to do while he was there. Not just for himself, but for the other characters there in the same situation as him. Despite the very glaring warning signs he shouldn't. He starts to collect evidence, have a documentation diary of all the fucked things that happen there. One day, he "accidentally" leaves it behind with a note saying "Help us" at the dry cleaning. A good person, found it and reported it to the police. The police were only doing their job this time and investigated the situation. However, sadly for Sedgewick, this happened before. So, this guy was prepared and made it look really good favor in his favor. Like painting Wick as a disgruntled underpaid employee and a whole bunch of other things. Cops took that and left. If you're wondering, right after this, yes, this is how Wick loses his hand (or paw?). The guy cut off his hand as a punishment for daring to reach out at all. So, here comes the escape. However, I have like two ways it went down and I'm not sure which one to take for Wick. One is where he poisons all the humans at a party and takes everyone away from there. The other is he stages a coo,the place a blaze and taking everyone away from there. Which one sounds more like something Wick were to do if he were pushed to that point? Either way, he's left and took the other characters with him and ended up at the halfway houses in Canada. Which are part of the organization and are typically resting places for escapees from the facilities to rest before going to the organization. Though, sometimes the non sick ones stay to help the ones who are too sick to be mobile right away. Which is what Wick does.

So sorry I took so long to get back to you Anon! I've been busy with other stuff. :(

I agree with the first point, I can see why you wouldn't want stuff like that in your AU.

And your second point

Holy shit Wick loses a hand.

I don't think Wick has the capacity to stage a coup d'etat. French has so many vowels. So, I think the first option would suit Wick. He's a rich man, so I imagine he's proficient enough to pull off mass poisoning.

[the-heartlines]

RE: Plagiarism

This post was the only way I knew how to approach this subject in the best way I could to clear my name. I feel as though if I stay silent I’m complicit, but this entire post is the utmost truth I can offer and I hope you’ll choose to believe me. 

First off, I won’t be mentioning the author, and this will not contain screenshots. 

I have been extremely nervous as of late…my stomach in literal knots, and have had anxiety attacks due to this. I deactivated twitter, again.

And I’m most of all, very disheartened and upset.

I’m being accused of purposefully plagiarizing fics and deliberately doing so. Also, of  “mimicking an author’s voice”—which I’m still not entirely sure what it means, per say? 

There was one instance, that was brought to my attention last month by said author, in my jacegan drabble (that was written back in February which is now deleted since pointed out to me) where, yes, I did unknowingly draw quite a bit of inspiration from her fic and used the ‘your grace, my jace’ line, with a similar scene, but I didn’t do that with evil intentions or even mean to do so. (I literally wrote that fic on the werdsmith app on my phone while making/eating breakfast one morning.)

A snippet I had posted in June of my migwen fic om twt was another one this author had issue with…saying I had used similar wording in this specific chapter. I had read this fic up to this exact chapter back in April and couldn’t even recall it…but finally did reread it, twice, and found zero similarities between this specific chapter and my migwen drabble. (this chap had a literal blowjob scene, which my migwen didn’t even have in it) 

As far as ‘mimicking this person’s voice’ in all my works? I have plenty of moots who read my fics—and this author’s—say they can’t see what this person means by it, and that we have very different tones/voices. I found this accusation particularly pretentious (and did express it to the author). It confuses me and upsets me…and truly, it still does.

And, of course, yes, I've drawn inspiration from fellow creators. We all have. We’re all continuing to inspire each other during the hotd hiatus…whether that be through tweeting, discords, dms, random thoughts��I cannot tell you how many countless times I’ve come across exact hive-minds with fellow creators where we have the exact same thoughts for different AUs or fic ideas. like it’s literally crazy. We also love to connect our other favorite films, etc to the current OTPs we have.

I am someone who has been in fandom for many years. I have friends in different fandoms from 14 years ago, that I am still moots with. I’m an honest and genuine person—albeit a little weird and freaky. But what you see is what you get with me. 

I’m the kinky buffering hornball gemini.

Even though I just started publishing fic back in December for the first time, I have read smutty explicit fics since I was in highschool. 

I myself am also a very sexual person, so I tap into that when writing my ‘ungodly smut’ as someone put it, recently. 

I DO NOT have fics open that I am copying and literally pasting from and onto my word doc. I do not literally “lift lines” from any of my fellow writers, for any of my fics. 

There is absolutely no way I can plagiarize 4-8K of fic. This is what baffles me the most. 

The thing is, my writing has improved in the last six months because I AM writing and using that creative part of my brain that I’ve tapped into. 

I am not dishonestly stealing other people’s hard written fanfics.

Why would I do that? After MONTHS of befriending others in the hotd fandom and discords? If I wanted to gain “clout” or “importance” in this fandom, purposefully plagiarizing or stealing from others IS NOT the way to do so. 

(I would know this, because I have been soft blocked or blocked by many over the last month. And it has fucking sucked.) 

I'm a person who continually has supported my fellow moots by reading and commenting on most of their fics. I would even do reaction threads for certain author’s fics, would post screenshots of favorite parts, and post them to tweet in a thread freaking out about how much I loved them—which I now feel like anyone who thinks this, thinks I’m going to use and copy their words, which I have not and will not ever do, intentionally. 

I truly apologize if you’re someone who thinks I am “maliciously” plagiarizing your work, but I can promise you I am not and never have meant to do so, purposefully.

I appreciate if you took the time to read this…I don’t know if anyone believes me, but this has been a heavy fucking burden weighing me down and making me want to delete my entire online existence. And I had to get this off my chest. Thank you again for reading.

[darkpoisonouslove]

💯 [100] How many words does your WIP currently have? How many words do you hope it'll have when it's done? - Fallen Love

🎀 [Bow] How many named characters are in this WIP? How many do get a POV? - CoL trying to have one peaceful breakfast

💖 [Heart] What is your favorite moment in this WIP? - Fallen Love

‍🎨 [Palette] If your WIP was a color, which color would it be? - forgive me for being too lazy to look up the title, but the sequel to the Marion x Griffin AU where they make out in the CT crypt

❌ [Cross] What would your WIP get cancelled on Twitter for? - may I say the water stars wip 🤭

💯 [100] How many words does your WIP currently have? How many words do you hope it'll have when it's done?

What is this question? I have absolutely no idea what is happening here but my brain was trying to convince me to add a new chapter to this just today so I refuse to tempt fate. I am just going to say that, ideally, chapter 3 will remain the longest chapter of this fic even when it's completed.

🎀 [Bow] How many named characters are in this WIP? How many do get a POV?

Bold of you to assume I've gotten anywhere past chapter 1 with this fic. There are at least 10 named characters in it (but probably 12 since I think Erendor and Samara might make appearances). As for PoVs so far only Griffin's is guaranteed. I don't know if it's a good idea to add anyone else's PoV because I feel that if I include more than one of the CoL members, then I'd have to include all of them. But on the other side, I am really enjoying the image of Saladin that I've developed in my head and it would be interesting to explore some of his PoV. Especially since he's the only CoL member whose PoV I haven't written yet. I guess we'll just have to see (if I ever get to writing that).

💖 [Heart] What is your favorite moment in this WIP?

I'll have you know that this question was almost the death of me. Every time I'd pick a scene, my brain would be like "But what about this other one?" or "Yeah, but it needs the context from that earlier scene to really hit". This is like picking a favorite child.

With the caveat that I wouldn't talk about certain scenes because they are major spoilers so I could have a more favorite one among those that I refuse to mention, I have to say that my favorite is the scene where Valtor brings Griffin some of her mother's notes that he collected from the Coven's hideouts.

You see, when the Coven killed Emalyn, they stole all her work that they could find in her home before burning it down to the ground. Now Valtor was a major asshole in the previous chapter but don't jump to the conclusion that he's doing this to make it up to Griffin. He's, in fact, continuing to be an even bigger asshole as he only brought her the notes to make a point. Or rather to further prove the point he was making in the previous chapter - aka the reason why Griffin has been depressed and mad at him.

Griffin tries to turn the point on him because if it's true about her, then it's true about him too, which of course, majorly annoys him. When he cannot get her to drop it, he finally reveals that there was a point in time when he considered telling her absolutely everything about himself aka the fact that he was bound to the Ancestral Witches (which she'd already guessed more or less) and the fact that he's not human and his demon form is his original one (which Griffin had no idea about). He was going to trust her with that but when their plan (to get information pertaining to him freeing himself from the Witches) fell through, he decided not to do it. Not because he was disappointed in her as the failure was mostly hers, but because telling her would have come with certain dangers that could have very well resulted in the exact same situation that she forced on him with her betrayal - she may have needed to stay away from him for an extended period of time and he couldn't bear the thought without the benefit of his potential freedom from the Witches.

Griffin is totally floored by this confession but he's not done yet. He also states that he doesn't care about anything she did - whether her failure in that past moment or her betrayal. He's still just as taken with her.

🎨 [Palette] If your WIP was a color, which color would it be?

The sequel (to Smolder) doesn't have a title yet. I was thinking of sort of making all parts have titles connected with fire but we'll see about that. It doesn't really fit with this answer because I see this fic as pale green. It's a new beginning for both of them (though mostly for Marion) so it's the color of a tiny flower that's just sprouted from the ground - only has a stem and barely any leaves still. Also green to signal that everything between them is going slowly but very well.

❌ [Cross] What would your WIP get cancelled on Twitter for?

I've never been on Twitter + this is barely a WiP yet so I don't have much in the way of an answer. I guess it would be cancelled for how "problematic" Griffin's choice almost is, for how "selfish" Marion is and for some possible queerbaiting if I add that little detail about Marion and Griffin in the beginning (you know, where they're the only ones that remain together for a while).

[the-ninja-legacy-whip]

Not sure if someone asked you this yet but do you have any future plans with Harumi? Specifically the Quiet One?

I know this is really far off in the future but I wanted to ask anyway.

Like, imagine how emotional things would get. If Harumi’s parents die in this, since she’s a well established character by now, will we get to see her grieve for them? Will we see her hatred for the ninja blossom? Since she has many supporting friends in this, will they help her cope and steer her away from extreme revenge? Will she become the “Jade Princess”? How?

And since this AU is kind of a combo of the movie and series, how will Garmadon play into this? Of course, it would depend on what happens to him in the end. Will he need to be resurrected or will he be with his family during these events? Idk.

If Harumi does become the Quiet One, imagine the betrayal the others would feel. She’s friends with all of them, so her hating them (as ninja) would hurt for all of them and not just Lloyd. And Harumi’s reaction to her friends being the ninja? Omg the possibilities.

And speaking of Lloyd, will he develop a crush on her or will the betrayal be focused on them being friends? In this AU, I would also imagine the betrayal being more focused on Jesse, Zane, and Nya (of the ninja ofc) due to them being in the council.

Ughh just thinking of this makes my brain hurt

Sorry for the list of questions

Ah, what I’m going to do with Harumi...my most closely guarded secret~ No one’s asked me directly, but there’s definitely been a buzz about it! 

To begin with, the reason I brought her in so early is because while I loved all the story beats she brought for the show for Season 8 (and beyond), at the same time, it was a lot to take on out of nowhere. It didn’t fall flat by any means, but its impact could have been so much more if the seeds had been planted earlier, and we’d gotten to see a bit more of the downfall. How she reacted to Garmadon’s ups and downs, the changing status of the ninja, literally everything with Lloyd...and of course, her having more of an effect on all the ninja too. 

(The reaction to her friends being the ninja, especially after Season 2, is especially something I’m looking forward to, hee)

In short, I wouldn’t have gotten Harumi so deeply involved if I didn’t have anything planned ;)

And no need to apologize for the questions! I love answering whatever I can! 

...but ultimately, yeah, that is some pretty far off, big stuff, and I do hope one day I will actually get around to writing it, so I’m not going to expose everything. But, I WILL say: 

We will see her grieve for her parents (and the direct aftermath)

We will see her hatred blossom (but...well, it’s complicated)

Her friends will try to help her (whether they’re successful remains to be seen)

She will become the Jade Princess (but there is no Royal Family in Ninjago, so the title takes on a different meaning in this world. How...is too big to reveal right now. But it’s so fun)

Garmadon will need to be resurrected at that point. Later seasons wouldn’t make sense otherwise

Lloyd will develop a crush on her. That’s too big a part of his character to cut out, especially with the direction of later seasons. But, that being said, it doesn’t happen nearly as fast and there will be focus on them being friends first (which is equally entertaining). 

And don’t even get me started on Jesse’s role in everything...

[evediaphoenix1123]

I love Trollhunters and it's saga (not movie tho don't like it) but I'll admit I honestly saw Wizards being different?

Like I knew it would probably have time travel, but part of me hoped it wasn't gonna include that. Like part of me thought it was gonna be a telling of a Future Camelot that's been frozen in time ever since the Kilahead Bridge war-

So after talking to @casualdreamworksenjoyer the both of us put our minds together to create the Time Capsule au. This is the first au I've posted on Tumblr and I plan to release others (I am just a bit scared of posting sometimes).

The au is still under development, I've got a good saying on past timeline but I'm working on current timeline events ! I've got ideas on how I really want it but it's still a process.

( The pictures are made by the picrew Gentleman of Hera and Lady of Hera)

╔═════════《✧》═════════╗

What started out as a normal working night for Douxie is suddenly shattered when he is suddenly attacked by a man in Green Knight armor. Suddenly he finds himself saved by Merlin and brought to new Trollmarket. Once he gets there Merlin informs him of the recent attack of the Arcane Order to New Trollmarket. With these violent attacks, Merlin realizes the Order is trying to capture them to find Camelot again.

Douxie, Merlin, and the Trollhunter gang travel to the hidden land of Canelot and discover the kingdom has been frozen in time and still ruled by King Arthur. Camelot will test everyone, from hidden history to betrayal of allies. The risks will test everyone and lives will be in danger.

══════════《✧》══════════

╗Camelot history╔

The kingdom of Camelot was at its prime, full of promise. It was advanced for its century, full of magic and the newest invention. It was ruled by King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table. But one day everything started to fall apart one by one. So many events happened at the same time, it was hard to really figure out which one was the fall of Camelot. Still, even most of the true stories that caused Camelot to be known today were burned by the King and Knights themselves to hide the sins. What the public knows is that Morgana betrayal, Sir Modred attempted assassination, the war of Kilahead, and the Order led to the dark years that almost wiped out the lives of Camelot. Even so, King Arthur held his head up high, siding with powers of magical beings they made a shield to Camelot that held them in time and held them hidden from the world. Even so the Order is still trying to get inside for something that was buried in the walls.

Douxie had been outside the gates when Camelot was locked away, he had been taking Merlin to his tomb. When he returned he was greeted with nothing so he assumed Camelot was destroyed. So he moved on trying to live his life through grief, so to say he is angry about Camelot actually being around still and no one telling him is an understatement. Still he will find out hidden truth about his true legacy, truths that where buried.

King Arthur is mostly silent, tired from everything he has went through. He has lost his sister and a few friends but he is determined to keep his kingdom healthy and to find the traitor along his ranks. He is still hiding secrets among secrets about his past, only Gwendolyn knows them.

╔The Knights of the Round Table╗

Sir Lancelot - Arthur right-hand man. The leader of the gang. He is Arthur most trusted ally. He is boastful and strongest, even though he keeps himself held high there easy to tell he is hiding something. Maybe it's secretly feeling of hate.

Sir Galahad - Another close knight to Arthur but is Merlin friend. Knows Merlin secrets. He doesn't differ much from the cannon Galahad in the show.

Sir Dodinel - A knight with the mysterious ability to tame any birds. His violent behavior scares anyone nearby and he loves to scare people. Even though he loves to scare, he does his job. He isn't scared to spill blood for the castle of Camelot, even if it is the blood of his own friends.

Sir Bedivere - A mysterious man, not much is known about him. He is as quick and strong like a snake. Even though he is considered scary by outside people, he is honestly a very sweet guy who tends to be awkward in social situations.

Fallen Sir Mordred - The Traitor tried to kill Arthur. He has been executed for his crimes. Even after death he still haunts Arthur. Even though he isn't talked about much, he was a good friend to the people. Even though he could sometimes be standoffs and cruel he was still someone dear.

Fallen Lady Morgause - Mordred sister. She was sealed away secretly, Arthur couldn't kill her. She still has many secrets hidden. She was like her twin, standoffs and cruel, but she held loyalty to her brother even when he threatened Arthur.

Sir Lucan - the Butler who can kick anyone butt, he is serious about Order and clean stuff. He stays mostly quiet and cares for King Arthur and guests.

Sir Galeschin - Arthur long lost relative who stuck up. Always known to bully Douxie to no end, due to his royal connections he takes everything way too seriously and will try to use his title against you.

Lady Flonesse - One of the strongest woman to ever exist, she was said to have faced an army of trolls by herself. She was married to Morgana, to say she still hurt by everything is an understatement. Even though she doesn't talk much about it anymore she still got some hidden truths

Sir Erec - Housewife knight. Loves his wife more then the job. He is still one of the greatest Knights around and is like the caretaker of everyone here. He is kinda like the Maes Hughes of Trollhunters.

More to come soon

[honeybeewhereartthee]

NO NAME ENTRE: LEMONADE AND JOB

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Omae, are you curious what I do in this place? Of course, I’m not a maid of that butterfly! He only forces me to wear this outfit and curse me to wear this because he told me something. Thatyoumightlikemewearingone… it’s so embarrassing at first but then I realize its probably something that person would also be embarrass about, it made me think if I get over these feelings, I have wearing this damn cloth it means I’ll be different from that original. Never mind the chat about him, I don’t want to sound insecure about myself… I don’t think I am.

Anyway, I am not and about my job. I actually have to go to different au about stuff… ahm, this is supposed to be classified information that one needs to keep to only ourselves. But I think your fine knowing the some of it. Clearly, if your reading this it means its fine with that butterfly perfectionist for you to learn some of the stuff.

Anyway, there are some dead aus… because … the world has stopped their stories… It’s something called “discontinued” and the people in that aus have this place where they don’t reach the certain end the person who made those stories able to visualize for it. There many reasons why that’s the case, but those “discontinued” au are pretty… sad. I don’t really care about it much, some of those au. They don’t have a version of you in it—not that I would care for any version of yours in another place, they are different people than you are. So, don’t worry about it.

Anyway, because of what I did before… those sad disconnected world… went downhill than they already are, oops. I honestly would not feel bad about it cause I don’t really care and beside, they are starting to make their own ending outside the fate that was written to them—which is a bad thing for the butterfly guardian, he said those stories is going OFF to much from the main plot those stories are suppose to be leading.

 Some normal stories slowly turn to supernatural genre and some romance stories become a tragedy. Suddenly there’s technology in a supposed to be old English theme world. How funny was that? Anyway, the butterfly doesn’t think its funny sight and I have to go with Mikejima to fix those worlds. Because one day, a hopeful day the stories will continue and reach the ending they are meant to have.

I think that’s an absurd daydreaming of that butterfly, some stories are never going to have their ending. That’s just how stories work sometimes. Endings… are not meant for everybody. Anyway, everybody does not include me. If no one going to continue the stories, I will take you away from our world and live in the gallery, we can watch the stories of the worlds of the other gem goes by without our proper end, because I don’t think endings are everything in the world, ill be fine if I’m with you after all.

 To end that such dramatic note, I actually go to our world to see you sometimes. I am sure to wear disguise all those times, since that butterfly don’t want me to intervene with the hundred and so turns.

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Certain angel look around as he notice that his landlord is not around again, he open a portal to his world as he steps in, he made a mini lemonade and candy booth in the side of the street as he wear a black shades over his eyes, he prepare the lemonade and candies before he seat there waiting for a moment, before people start to walk by and brought some lemonade and candies,

.

he silently sell some of the things he sells, even though he don’t need the money, as always some folks whos into maids flirt with him but he ignored those before he try to unalive some fae if he get some chance or run out proper mindset. A few hours later, he saw someone walking to the booth and looking at the lemonade that almost run out once again. He almost felt his heart beat fasten but he controls himself.

“hihi, I don’t know your selling lemonade again, miss lemonade.” You were a regular customer of the same mysterious lemonade and candy shop called “Miss-me-a Lemonade”. He nodded even so you mistaken his gender again, but it only means you don’t see through his disguise!

 You seat on the chair in front of the mini booth as the other customer left through he turn to wink at the angel and says:”if you need some good time. Just call me~ pretty angel”

And once he left there’s only have the two of you left in the booth.

“I’ll get my usual order as usual.” You mumble as you look at candies, wondering which one to choose from this time around, you saw some angel wings, bees, bunny and flowers and decided to buy those. Taking all the candies that is left from his shop you start to count your allowance that was given by your cousin a day ago. through some thoughts comes in your mind that you try to not think so much about at the moment, there is candy in front of you after all.

The world might have stop from ending, your still not someone who work to have your own money, good thing your cousin still gives money! “how much does one cost again… ahm… I remember I brought from this shop few turns ago…” you start to mumble as you wonder if you have enough coins for it. He watches you silently, wanting to reach out to you but stop himself from doing so.

“omaeee!!” he heard someone called out before he saw an annoying fake running up to you, fallowed by that stupid rabbit. “why did you run again?” he watches as the other him held your hand, he already can feel his hand wanting to strangle someone but he keeps his act and don’t. it’s bad if he did something bad after all.

“I saw familiar shop. So, I come by to buy stuff… hey ai, do you have coins with you. I think I need I need more to pay.” You shamelessly ask your best friend who sigh and take out his pocket. 

“hey, why not ask me then.” The fake tried to get good boy points but the three stared at him. “this is the world of Fae. Do you have coins from this world?” Aira ask as he give the remaining coins you needed and you smiled and went back toward the angel. as kohaku tried to reason back but failed as he realize, Aira is correct.

“hello, this is my payment…” you were about to give him the payment but he raises his [ stop] board. And another one that says [ its free] he really doesn’t want to make you pay for anything since he wanted to give those for you.

 “ehh… really?” your eyes sparkle in glee but behind you, you don’t notice how those two are giving the angel a look, a nasty look. “that sound like suspicious. We can pay!” Aira give the bill he has to the angel but the seller quickly dodges the money and ignore him afterward. [ yup its free for you] was the board says next. And you stared at him, he almost felt your looking deep into his soul.

“oooohhh… free stuff is free stuff! Not accepting free things is a sin!” you quickly start to eat the candies and sip the lemonade as the other two take the two seats besides you. The angel really wants those two to leave so he could have a quality time with you but he has to deal with those bitches and imagine they are not there.

While you guys have your snack, he felt you looking at his direction to the point he starts to blush from being gaze by you.

“mcchi, why are you looking too much to the maid cosplayer person?” aira wave a hand in front of you as you sip your drink and staring at the nameless angel. “I never seen another angel Fae other than ei and tatsu.” You began. Staring at him from head to haft of his body that can be shown from the other side of the booth. “did you run away from Eden because they can’t handle pretty angel like you miss?” You commented before the two people besides you almost drop the glass of lemonade they are drinking.

“…” the angel quickly turns his head, embarrass of what his spouse said to him. Or rather how happy of your compliment.

“mcchiiiii are you hitting on the cosplayer….!? Mcchi do you really want to beat the dollmaker and their flings????” aira start to shakes you, wanting to question why your hitting on someone. “ehh… I’m not?” you were confused by aira words as your nom some candies.

 “I don’t think ill handle such harem. Besides what is wrong complimenting someone? Was compliment only meant flirting?” you chuckle as you pat aira, trying to calm him down and drink some lemonade.

 “…oh yeah… sorry. I don’t know how to handle another one if your going to get another rival for me!” he hugs you and kohaku who been silent stared at the angel for a while.

 “love-han is so silly. Its only complimenting.” Through he said that, he doesn’t trust this lemonade seller at all.

“…”  the angel takes a deep breath and compose himself before he wrote something again in a board and give it to you. [ you don’t need to compliment me for the food, they are really free since you’re my last customer for the day]

“ehh…I don’t do it cause of the sweets.” You mumble as you turn your back from the view point of Aira and Kohaku as you wrote something in another board and close it before other two can see what you wrote. 

The angel raises his brow but decide to check it later once his back to the gallery. “what did you write?”

“my phone and social number, since you two think I’m flirting with miss lemonade.” You stood up from you seat as you drink the juice.

 “we still need to go find hanii’s mom. I think Ei would know where she is. Lets goo” you pulled the two away and when you three where gone as the angel watch your finger disappear from his sight, he starts to clean up his booth and when his about to leave he remember the note you give him.

 [ Hanii your so pretty in your maid cloths. I don’t know it was you before… maybe cause im stress by the end thing in the previous turns. Your lemonade are the best and candies too. I hope you don’t put noir on those again.

Press this cute heart for surprise -> <3]

 He almost drop the board when he realize you finally able to see through him and accidentally press the heart, you appeared before him and pulled his face down for a sweet kiss in the lips as you giggle when you pause the time around you. Seeing his widen and bashful face as you move away you put a red lipstick and kissing his apron that can be seen clearly by others, using magic to make it stay no matter what. 

“I will only flirt to my hanii. So remember that, miss lemonade.” You giggle after you marked his outfit, through you kiss him again and made sure the lipstick stick. His face turn bright red, not even his sun glasses can stay in put when you pulled him again for another kiss, a passionate one. 

“I don’t like that fae flirting with you, I don’t compliment you yet. How dare he.” You mumble feeling bitter about earlier. You only notice that its hanii when you felt jealous about it. You usually wont care and laugh it off, but unless its hanii you wont.

 “o-omae…” he called out to you before, he almost curse when he felt a portal appear behind him and pull him inside, it seems his landlord have learn his little job when he mention your name and now the butterfly is going to nag at him again.

“see you later!” you wave at him and he shyly wave back before the portal close and you teleported back as the time continued again. You stared at the two who look at you in disbelief.

“where did you go and why did the time stop just now?”

“I flirted with miss lemonade.” You casually says.

“*GASP! Mcchi?!”(aira, he cannot believe your into cosplayer now.)

“omae did you really flirt to someone else?” (kohaku, who now thinking of how to take care of the new rival) “am I wearing a green hat?”

“ehh, I don’t ntr, hanii. Why would i?” ‘how does that work when im just flirting with hanii too?hmm… I don’t remember why hanii is two people now… should I ask miss lemonade next time? Ehh, I don’t think hanii would want me to snoop again and learn any of his plan again…’ you thought as you held the two hand who tried to question you more about your new ‘fling’ the miss lemonade lady.

[catras-breakup-song]

this is the last time i'm going to be discussing this "sisters" discourse (i hope), but i feel like i need to get the last word in for my own peace of mind; no hate to the OP but this was subposted about without my prior knowledge and i don't want to get confrontational by responding directly. if OP see this, by the way, i'd be okay with talking in DMs to get stuff sorted out peacefully, but i'd really rather not debate or even discuss this topic any further altogether. this response is for myself and my followers only for archival purposes, so for my own safety because i can't change the settings, please do not reblog if we aren't mutuals.

i talked about it more with one of my mutuals (who has asked to remain anonymous), who shared some thoughts that i agreed with and has allowed me to post them here, which i've re-worded and added to, in case i could ever make use of them for reference again in the future.

firstly, someone else and i have acknowledged & disputed the canon sources which say they're sisters in a different thread from this as being inconsistent with what's true to the story.

To fix this issue, all the writers had to do was to have Adora be raised by Hordak, and Catra by Shadow Weaver. That's it, problem solved. The ship is no longer incestuous because Catra and Adora, in this scenario, were raised in the same place since childhood, BUT BY TWO DIFFERENT PEOPLE. There would be no goldenchild/scapegoat dynamic. There would be no jealousy on Catra's part regarding the fact that she thinks Shadow Weaver will never "love" and "cherish" her the way she "loves" and "cherishes" her sister.

this comes across as a little dismissive of the abuse that adora faced as well since it mostly revolved around expectations of her and actions done to catra were in part to make her feel guilty, and suggesting they be "raised" separately tears apart the foundations of their dynamic which sets up the story in the first place ─ whether they were destined to be sisters or lovers, their turning into enemies heavily relies on their conjoined relationship with shadow weaver. for as terrible as a person as hordak is (he's literally the one who brought the horde to etheria in the first place and was a mass warlord who terrorized & conquered more territories than anyone else ever would, besides maybe prime), he's not a guardian of any type. not a parent, teacher, mentor, or what have you. he's definitely not a master manipulator either; as we can see in the third season when his arc kicks off with entrapta, he's not very sociable, so that wouldn't make much sense. i guess if the backstory was written a bit differently he maybe could have trained adora to be a ruthless soldier without anyone ever knowing of she-ra (though it's worth noting that shadow weaver sensed her existence in a flashback from season two), as i've somewhat seen in edited AUs many times before (credit apparently goes to @/sapphiscientist, whom i cannot find), but he would never single her out as "special" or have the same motivations to gain power from using her specifically.

with all that being said, the golden child & scapegoat dynamic isn't even exclusive to siblings, it's just the most common form. it still could've theoretically worked even if hordak (supposedly a better and more involved "parent") & shadow weaver had mentored adora & catra separately but worked together to divide them so intentionally, as long as they interacted enough throughout their childhoods to be close (which, again, the whole show relies on).

"If she was just their caretaker, then why do Catra and Adora have a goldenchild/scapegoat dynamic that mirrors sibling rivalry? Why does Adora admit to Glimmer that Shadow Weaver raised her as a mom would? Why is Catra filled with genuine happiness after Shadow Weaver caresses her cheek? Why does she gently touch that spot and smile? Why is Catra so heartbroken and furious when her mind basically tells her: 'Shadow Weaver betrayed you.' Why does Catra immediately give up her potentially happy life with Scorpia once she reveals to her that Shadow Weaver once again chose Adora over her"

the centering around a nuclear family structure here is very assuming and interpretative, but none of these gestures are exclusive to that. the soft caressing of faces means something special (or is supposed to) as long as it comes from someone the recipient looks up to and idolizes. also, shadow weaver also attempts to cup glimmer's face the same way in season four, so again, if it's a motherly act then what does that say?

Like… this rivalry is at the heart of C//A. Not romance, but rivalry between two adopted sisters who have a toxic and abusive adoptive mother.

essentially this hints that the heart of catradora's romance would be better off removed from the story because it's incestuous... but to quote the person i was talking to: "Except it's not, because rivalry is not exclusive to siblings. Any adult mentor/caregiving figure can pit children against each other. I get that this level of attachment to Shadow Weaver is really only shown in media as familial dynamics, but imagine having no caregivers or mentors except the people in the Horde. They depended on them to survive as kids. There is going to be a bond there. They're going to seek those people's approval. I know why it comes off as parental and in a way, it does have that energy. However, I really do not see how this parental dynamic is exclusively different than something that could develop between, say, caregivers and kids at an orphanage. I just don't see a fundamental difference enough to see this as having to be parental/like adoptive parents." regarding the last sentence, i feel like even if catradora's relationship can be technically read as sisterly in any way, it's enough to overlook for the main plotline that we were given, which was intended to be a romance.

"Uhm… no. Close friends ≠ siblings, unless everyone admits that they see each other that way. Then they wouldn't consider a romantic relationship in the first place, unless there's some confusion present."

it seems like i was misunderstood again...? the whole point was that glimmadora aren't sisters, because it was arguing against the inconsistency of that logic when they can be paralleled back to catradora, especially in regards to how angella sees adora as almost familial, if not so (remember of course that "family" has a broad and open-ended meaning, and doesn't necessarily mean relatives or whomever would share the structure of adopted relatives). i don't agree with the sentiment that angella adopted adora, but it would be as valid of a statement to make as about shadow weaver taking on adora + catra. besides, i don't think there are any actual siblings in this show, that aren't outright stated to be anyway, except for micah & castaspella.

"Angella was a mother figure in Adora's life (and in Bow's life, too), but she was not her, or Bow's mother. Shadow Weaver was Adora and Catra's mother, until the end. Why? She. Raised. Them. She. Taught. Them. Everything. They. Grew. Up. With. Her.

this implies there's a cutoff to how far you can go in life before considering someone you met as parental. it's a bit insulting to many families out there to say you can't be adopted by someone once you hit your late teens (which is the legal cutoff limit in the US before you're released from the system on your own anyway) just because the person you've grown to love didn't raise you until that point.

also, do we even know how long bow has known glimmer and therefore angella? there is an old drawing by nate of them as kids, with angella included too, so if you consider his work outside of the official series itself canon then who's to say bow didn't have a third parent/mother since she was present for a good chunk of his life?

"Shadow Weaver was Glimmer's mentor (why tf would she view her as a mother figure??? It was out of despair that Glimmer had to learn from SW, not genuine affection. Also she still had her biological mother???)"

again, i think this is kind of playing into my point a bit because i wouldn't unironically argue that shadow weaver is a mother figure to glimmer. considering she mentored micah and glimmer is his daughter, it would be weird to see them that way and make it seem like she was a (grand)parent. that being said though, since she does small but similar things to glimmer that she's done with her "actual daughters" that are motherly apparently, it would be difficult not to make the comparison.

it's also strange that you would mention her biological mother still being alive, just absent, considering this whole argument is based on parental figures who are not related to their supposed kids. it's oddly specific, since aside from the fact that glimmer missed angella dearly, what she needed as queen was not just guidance/mentorship and motherly love but also simply support in general because she wasn't ready for the role. it doesn't necessarily matter how she gets it or who she gets it from in terms of relationship dynamics, she was still unstable and desperate. if there had been another character in the show besides angella & shadow weaver, they could've very well been parental, in fact if the events of season four had played out earlier and/or differently then micah would've been that person and she might've been able to step down as he regained his kingdom.

"About that "argument"… the underlying issues and insecurities Adora and Glimmer acted out are literally present between Catra and Adora, so… yeah. Case closed, goodbye."

this is still exactly what i'm talking about... i'm sorry, no offense, but this reads to me in favor of my point. the conflicts between catradora & glimmadora are similar, and if one pairing is sisterly and the other is friendly then that just proves these dynamics are not exclusive to one type of relationship or the other. they (either duo) can't be an example of schrödinger's cat as both sisters and not sisters simultaneously.

aside from quoting parts of the post, for whatever it's worth, it may also be worth mentioning that not only to catra & adora not see themselves as sisters despite everything, but adora didn't even know what an aunt was, which is a pretty basic familial term. i guess this point could really go either way since i've seen it speculated before that they were dating in the horde without really having the words to describe being girlfriends, so it could apply to sisterhood too, but i'm just throwing it out there for now.

another thing i never really see get brought up anymore (although i think it has been in the past), unrelated to sisterhood specifically but along the same vein, is that catradora are technically of different species, but both are humanoid enough for it to not be strange or otherwise socially unacceptable with the way their world's biological compatibilities work. does this discomfort to a small percentage of the viewers mean scorptra would be weird as well, since the fandom thought they were headed in that direction for a while, and scorfuma since they're implied to become a canon couple? my understanding is that this would be more analogous to interracial couples rather than comparable to interspecies ones as we consider how they'd be built on earth.

anyway, as i stated when i initially came across the subpost, it was kind of baffling to me how this person was so respectful to me when approaching my inbox the other day (which is a good thing because i would've gotten really defensive and not been so cooperative otherwise), but a couple days before that he came across as so aggressive in the tone & tags when talking about me behind my back originally. i hope this doesn't come across as too hypocritical for me to also be responding without direct notice, but as i said it's mostly for my own circle rather than for him and i'm trying to be fairly humble here.

if you (general audience) read this whole thing, then i'm not really sure what to say... i definitely don't want to cause anymore trouble, so i'm going to leave it here and not come back to it unless i feel attacked. i wanted to get this rant out because i felt obligated to for my own sake, sort of like an egotistical fear over my reputation if that makes sense. both the OP and i have acknowledged that we can't change each other's minds beyond this point, so that's not what i'm attempting to do.

seeing your defending catradora/catradora antis dni post, do you have any arguments against the whole "they're sisters" thing?

i do, yes!

growing up together does not make your friendship a sibling bond/dynamic unless you choose for it to. i saw someone claim that it inherently does unrelated to catradora specifically, but like, surely that has to be a troll because there's no way. 💀 i guess that means lonnie, kyle, and rogelio are also catra & adora's siblings, like a family of 5? what about the other unnamed human-looking characters (i think one had short green hair and another with a dark purple mullet)?

shadow weaver was never their mother (figure). she was their caretaker, basically just the supervising adult in that segment of the fright zone. but like, even if she was, it doesn't take a genius to infer that she was disowned once they both got out of there.

if catra & adora are sisters, then glimmer & adora are too, and also bow is their brother, which crosses glimbow off the list as well. you can't ship anyone without it being incestuous, unfortunately (sarcastic). considering queen angella is a direct parallel to shadow weaver, and angella's last nurturing words to adora before kissing her forehead was that the best friend squad needed to take care of each other, and shadow weaver's last act was ensuring catra could take care of adora the rest of the way to the heart... well, i guess love can only be familial.

in S4 shadow weaver took glimmer under her wing and taught her the same lessons in sorcery that micah (her father) would have if he was around in her life, literally after he learned from her first, so by this logic, glimmer & adora share two adoptive mothers; especially when you take into account their "argument" (canonically it was fake for a setup, but there were some underlying issues & insecurities there) about being the "favorite" with regards to the "golden child" method shadow weaver uses against scapegoats.

i would suggest reading this great post by @witch-apologist, which is where some of the points above come from, and you could probably also search sisters/siblings on their blog since they've challenged antis about this topic before!

[taestefully-in-luv]

Love Again | PJM (Fifteen-FINAL)

Summary: A friend of yours is eager to introduce you to her new man but what happens when Park Jimin, the man who broke your heart 5 years ago walks in through the door?

Pairing: Jimin x Female reader

Genre: exes au, exes to ???, fluff, angst, smut

Word Count: 16.1k

Warnings: swearing, alcohol consumption, mourning, stages of grief, heartache, guilt, crying yeah lots of crying, dealing with death/loss of a loved one, graveyard, mentions of sex, another character death (sorry), mention of funeral, lots of closure!!! Full circle moments! Lots of sweet moments that make me cry lol, tons of DIRTY TALK, oral (fem rec), super sensitive oc, unprotected sex, creampie, honestly they’re both sensitive and desperate as hell lol oh and the use of the word ‘slut’

Notes: It’s the last chapter of this series. Thank you to everyone who has stuck around or is new. I’m sad its over but I hope you’ve enjoyed this crazy ride. Lots of love. Send an ask to chat about the story, makes my day<3 

Previously on…in chapter 14 of Love again, Jimin is feeling jealous and he just really wants to talk to you. Jimin has finally had enough and Jungkook thinks it’s the perfect time to let the universe work its magic. Jimin confesses his feelings he has and you two decide to try a low key relationship. Jeremy finally confesses to Naomi and they get together! It’s almost perfect but something is wrong with Jimin and you’re about to find out what. 

© taestefully-in-luv

Previous

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Today is a big day. The kind of big day that is talked about for years and years to come and the kind of day most have fantasized about since years and years ago. So, of course you are staring at yourself in the mirror, feeling nervous as you wonder if your make up is good enough or if this was actually the perfect dress choice. It’s a day of love. It makes sense that you are nervous. This is marriage. And weddings need to go smoothly so obviously you feel on edge! It’s natural. Or is it? It’s not like it’s your wedding. 

But well, you are the maid of honor. 

It’s the end of September, a little over a year since Naomi and Jeremy got together. Honestly, it only feels like yesterday��June 3rd—when Jeremy confessed his feelings to Naomi. It was the same day Jimin had his opening show and you all celebrated at Hoseok’s house and Jeremy poured his heart to Naomi in Hoseok’s kitchen. You shudder remembering the absolute cringe that unfolded in that kitchen but damn, it was soJeremy and you remember Naomi’s smile and you realize she wouldn’t have wanted it any other way.

You catch your reflection again as you quite literally reflect on the last year of everyone’s lives. How that night brought everyone here now, the good, the bad, the ugly. And also everything so beautiful. 

June 3rd of last year 

As distracted as Jimin is tonight, his eyes find you so often and he’s hit with adoration but also guilt. Maybe guilt isn’t the right word but it’s the only one that feels good enough right now. He feels guilty because he is guilty. In so many ways that crush him and every time he sees you smiling with your friends it just grows more and more. 

But sometimes even for the first few moments when his eyes land on you, before the guilt settles, he feels love. Love because he loves you. And it’s obvious to more than just him.

“Damn, dude.” Jungkook comes next to him, drink in hand as he uses the cup to gesture towards you. “You look like you’re in love.”

Jimin wants to roll his eyes and tell Jungkook to leave him alone but his love for you betrays him because he just softly whispers, “I am.” Instead. 

“Does she know?” Jungkook leans into him, smell of alcohol leaves his mouth. “Because—”

“She knows.” Jimin answers simply, a barely there smile tugging at his lips. 

“Oh.” Jungkook leans away, before prying further. “Are you two—”

“Yeah.” Jimin answers, knowing exactly where the question was headed. “We are.” 

Jungkook’s eyes widen just the slightest before his entire expression shifts. Shit eating grin taking over before he bumps Jimin’s shoulder. “Then I guess I should say ‘you’re welcome’ huh?” 

Jimin finally tears his eyes off you before raising a brow at Jungkook.

“Yeah, you should probably invite me to your wedding.” Jungkook raises his cup towards Jimin with a smirk on his face.

“I didn’t even want to invite you here.” Jimin deadpans.

“Well, at least it worked this time.”

“What did?”

“Me and Taehyung had a similar plan years ago.” Jungkook exhales a long breath, finally ready to admit their shenanigans. “We thought if you saw y/n get pursued by others that you wouldn’t want to risk leaving her…ya know,” He starts gesturing around with his hands, “She’s so amazing and hot and everyone will jump at the opportunity at her, blah, blah, blah. And you wouldn’t want anyone else to snatch her up! We thought if you saw this…then you wouldn’t leave for New York and you’d stay instead…but well,” Jungkook just shrugs.

“You knew about New York? Taehyung told you?” Jimin’s brows pull together as he tries to make sense of what he was just told.

“Yeah, he did. Don’t be mad…he just didn’t know what to do.” Jungkook shrugs again. “He couldn’t really tell his best friend not to follow his dreams but he also knew y/n wouldn’t want to follow…”

“Well, he was right, I guess.”

“You kept the secret from y/n that entire fourth year, didn’t you?”

“I didn’t think it would go anywhere…the audition, I mean.” Jimin sighs, “But in the spring they wanted to fly me out and I couldn’t keep it from her anymore.”

“Eh, whatever. Past is in the past.” Jungkook brushes it off, smirk back on his face. “What matters is the plan worked this time! You had nothing to worry about though. I mean, don’t get me wrong, y/n is…super cool and oh my god, so freaking hot like dam—”

“Jungkook.” Jimin says his name in warning.

“My bad. Habit.” Jungkook raises his hands in surrender. “Point is, she is just a friend. Just wanted to rile you up, buddy.” 

Jimin narrows his eyes for a second before asking, “So you aren’t a girlfriend stealer?” 

“Dude, I can’t even find a decent single girl. So, no.” Jungkook chuckles. 

Jimin joins Jungkook in laughing, shaking his head at how ridiculous Jungkook is and the entire plan he had with Taehyung…he can believe it though. Suddenly, Jimin’s laughter dies down and any trace of a smile is wiped from his face when he feels his phone buzzing for what feels like the millionth time tonight. He takes it from his pocket and scans the screen before his sour mood returns tenfold. 

“You okay?” Jungkook asks, quickly noticing the shift. 

“I’ll take it from here.” Both boys lift their heads to the sound of Taehyung’s voice as he walks up to them. He’s clearly been well aware of Jimin’s mood lately. And he’s ready to confront it. Jungkook nods his head, getting the hint before squeezing Jimin’s shoulder and joining everyone else in the kitchen.

“Hello, my favorite person in the world!” Taehyung grins at Jimin before leaning against the living room wall. His smile turns soft before he calmly requests, “Let’s talk.” And talk is exactly what they do. Jimin explains everything. All of it. And of course, it breaks Taehyung’s heart.

“These feelings won’t just go away…the feelings won’t just leave you, man.” Taehyung’s voice is quiet, soft and troubled. “They don’t hate you.” He tries to reassure his best friend, “But what breaks my heart, Jimin, is that I think that it’s you who does.” 

It’s a truth Jimin knows already. But to hear it from someone who has always kept it real with him and has always warned him and has always helped him…he just feels it is solidified. And at this point, all he yearns for is comfort and the person he needs it from most is you. Even though his emotions are starting to spill from him and go all over the place, he wants to try to rely on comfort alone but he also knows he needs to be honest. 

Jimin walks into the kitchen, his gaze set on you as he sees you at the counter, pouring yourself a glass of water. He comes from behind you, arms wrapping around your waist as he plants a few kisses to your neck. He doesn’t care about anyone seeing. You turn in his grasp, a curious look on your face as you glance around.

“Jimin?” You question him cutely and he wants to melt. “You’re making it quite obvious, you know?” He knows. And he doesn’t care. You’re laughing a little but you grow serious as you look at him and he knows you’re well aware of how utterly down and pathetic he looks. “Hey,” You brush some hair from his eyes, “Everything okay?”

“Not really.” He answers you honestly. Because honest is what he needs to be. 

~

Once the door to Hoseok’s back yard is shut, you and Jimin walk towards the end of the pavement where grass is met. It’s gotten later, the moon rising higher in the sky with a few stars scattered here and there. You brought Jimin out here so you two could have some privacy to talk and you feel nervous but ready to hear what’s been going on with him.

“You know,” Jimin looks down at the ground, “I’m trying so hard to convince myself I’m not a bad person because you don’t deserve a bad person. Even though I know I am.” 

Your heart is already picking up in speed, nerves setting fire to every molecule in your body. Blood being poisoned with his words. 

“Jimin…” You go to stand a little closer to him, “What are you—”

“Emma’s parents reached out to me.” He admits while his throat burns. “They called me like a week ago. They told me they were hosting a gathering to celebrate Emma’s life…and they invited me. Not just invited but rather…” He pauses, foot kicking imaginary rocks. “They were pretty insistent that I go.”

“Why now?” You ask slowly.

“They want to go public with the accident.” Jimin tells you. “They paid a lot of money at the time for things to stay very private. But now…” He starts chewing on his lips, eyes on his black dress shoes. “They believe in order for them to really move forward from grieving…they want to face it and accept it. So, they want to celebrate her life and they told me it’s something I should be there for…considering…”

“Oh.” You nod, trying to process everything. You think you can understand her parents perspective…they want to move forward—a healthy thing to do—instead of burying. “When is it?”

“It was tonight.” Jimin’s voice is quiet. “But tonight was opening night. And honestly,” He chuckles bitterly, “Even if it wasn’t…how could I show myself to them?” He finally lifts his eyes, head turning towards you with a pained expression. “I killed their daughter.”

“Woah, hey…” You immediately shake your head, brows pulled together so closely. “Jimin—”

“They’re disappointed I didn’t show.” He tells you, “Her father hasn’t exactly said kind words to me all evening.” 

“Oh.” You think about it for a moment. All the times he’s looked at his phone with a frown. “He’s just acting out, Jimin…I don’t know what he’s said but—”

“I’m selfish.” He croaks out. “Selfish for so many things and you know it.” 

“What?” You look at him, puzzled. “I don’t think that of you.”

“I am.” He says with a set mind. “I could go on and on—”

“No, you couldn’t.” You try to steer him away but he isn’t having it.

“I couldn’t?” He asks, “Seriously? Okay.” He nods. “What we had…” He motions between your bodies, “Was great. More than great. But I still left you for New York. You suffered, y/n…while I…and I am selfish for missing tonight when it is all my fault. If I never went to New York, I would have never broke your heart. If I never went to New York,” He pauses, throat still burning as his eyes sting. “Emma would still be alive.” 

Your heart has dropped to your lower belly, dying there, struggling to beat anymore.

“Me going to New York ruined everyone’s lives, huh?” He asks you, knowing no answer you could give will change his mind. He’s staring at you, teary eyes boring into yours. “I’m here. I’m the one who is here. It shouldn’t be me. Why is it me? Why am I the one who is here?” 

The pain in his eyes is enough to know his heartache won’t be easy to soothe. You know his guilt has become all-consuming and for the first time, you actually don’t know how to comfort him.

You’re at a loss for words. Mouth hanging open, your own teary eyes blinking at him repeatedly because you can’t fathom his overwhelming feelings and you cannot know what he is going through. 

He stares at you, growing more and more emotional and your lack of response is sending him into a spiral now. You want to reach for him or say something—anything—but you’re feeling broken as you watch him begin to stutter out apologies, voice cracking and eyes beginning to shed his mournful tears. He repeats his words over and over. Between ‘I’m sorry’s’ and ‘I don’t deserve you’s’, you see how he breaks further and further into a mess. And then he says the most heartbreaking thing of all.

“I love you but I’m not the man I want or need to be for you.”

You feel it. You feel his words before he even says them. You are surprised though…you understand where this is going and what exactly he is implying. You understand completely even if you are still trying to make words come out. You understand his desire to step away from you, from the both of you. And you feel your heart breaking. He’s breaking your heart again.

But this ache you are feeling isn’t because of what he is saying that you are completely understanding. Your heart is broken and aching only because his heart is broken and aching. It’s that simple. You aren’t sad because of his implication. You’re sad because he’s sad. 

As much as you want to believe hugging him and telling him you love him will be what he needs, you know it’s not enough. You might have the ability to soothe him, but you do not possess the ability to heal him. It has only been over a year since he’s faced this loss…he’s grieving. And the biggest issue is…he isn’t even grieving properly. You’re aware there’s stages to this—five, you’re sure.

There’s Denial. You know that after the accident, Jimin tried so hard to live his life normally…he still went to work, rehearsals every single day despite needing literally anything else. Then, there’s Anger. His outburst at work. The drunkenness, attempts at fighting and harsh words. Third, there is Bargaining. You weren’t there so you don’t know exactly how this one was for him but even a few minutes ago he was blaming himself for Emma’s death and going as far as saying if he never want to New York that she would still be alive. 

Next, is Depression. And you think this is the stage he has been stuck in since coming back home from New York. He isolated himself…words from Lucy who saw it herself. He wanted nothing to do with anyone or anything. Never smiled or laughed. He omitted joy. But thankfully he found Lucy who seemed to help him and he was able to see a little light. 

But the light was just the sun barely peaking from dark, heavy clouds and perhaps you and your friends kept those clouds from crying rain over him. But you don’t think the clouds have dissipated quite yet. He hasn’t fully seen the sun.

And he deserves the sun.

Last, is Acceptance. Probably the stage that feels impossible. And it is definitely the stage he hasn’t experienced. You stand here, watching as he cries his heart out in front of you. Soft sobs leaving his body, looking frail, weak, fragile. Finally, you know what to say. Since you cannot heal…you’ll soothe. 

“Aren’t you the one who said the past is set in stone—you can’t change it—and you wouldn’t want to. Remember, why explore the ‘what ifs’?” You begin, but you see in his eyes he already hates this. But you continue, “Things happen the way they do, Jimin. That’s it. That’s life.” 

Jimin continues to cry silently, eyes on you but he’s confused where this is going.

“You did great things in New York, Jimin.” Your tone grows softer. “You created loving, everlasting memories. You wouldn’t change that, right?” He cries harder. “And me?” You point to yourself, “I grew up. I met my best friends who mean the world to me…I grew more independent and spent so much time with others.”

Jimin can’t bring himself to respond to anything yet and you’re glad because you aren’t done.

“And you gave Emma you.” You say to him as tenderly as possible. He parts his lips but no words come out, just a deep sob as he finally lets himself break down. “You don’t know what her fate was even if you weren’t involved in her life. Trust me, as someone who has experienced love with you…she wouldn’t have traded it for the world.” 

Jimin lowers himself to the ground, face buried in his hands. “Also,” You continue as you look up at the moon. The pretty moon. The moon who deserves the sun. He deserves the sun. The sun to reflect its light to make him shine. “Don’t say you aren’t the man you need to be for me.” You glance down at him before squatting down to his level. You cup his cheek and add, “Love yourself and be the man you need to be for you. You’re already everything to me, Jimin.”

He lifts his face, cracking a small smile through his snot and tears. “You aren’t letting this end between us, are you?”

“No.” you return his smile. “Not exactly, anyway. We’re a team. No matter what kind of relationship we have.”

“Yeah?”

“Yeah.” You nod. “I think you should see someone. A professional. And that’s a you thing…so I will respect these boundaries so you can heal…even as a friend…” You use your thumb to wipe some tears from his cheek, “I will never leave your side.”

August of last year

“I’m serious!” Naomi points down at the lunch menu, “The prices went up!” 

“You’re right…” Jeremy whines, “We are loyal customers here. How could they do this to us?”

“Ah ha!” Hoseok wiggles in his spot out of excitement, phone in his hands. “Dae finally sent me the actual dance competition video. She finally found it.” He looks up at you, his phone suddenly sliding to the side on the table at your usual lunch place. “Ready to watch it and see how I was so wronged that day?”

“She didn’t just send you sex videos again, right?” You can’t help but chuckle, pretending to slide his phone back. “Not something I want to see.” You pretend to gag while your best friend rolls his eyes.

“You aren’t so lucky.” He scoffs, “But anyway, no. This is the actual video! Let’s watch it!” And now he is scooting his chair closer to you, his finger itching to play it already.

“Fine.” Now you’re the one playfully rolling your eyes as you show him some finger quotes. “Let’s see how you were ‘so wronged’ in how Dae won.” 

“Trust me. I deserved to win.” Hoseok’s finger finally pushes against the screen as he plays the video. “Okay, watch here…see how I…wait, damn.” He pushes his head back in slight shock, “Did she really do that move…I don’t even remember.”

“Oh, she is good.”

“Yeah, but not bett—wait, okay see my immaculate foot work? Yeah, I’m a star!” He grins proudly as he watches. “Damn, wait. She just did the perfect moon walk. But no, still…I should have…hold on.” He pauses the video before looking at you. “There’s no way she was this good?”

“Weren’t you aware?”

He plays the video again. “Okay, you cannot tell me I am not moving to the beat. The rhythm is—hold on, did she just…there’s no way she…maybe she is good…”

“Didn’t you think so at the time too?” You start teasing him, “Isn’t that why you hated her and got horny and wanted to…oh what was it? Teach her a lesson?”

“Shut up.” He grumbles as he keeps watching. “Holy shit…maybe she did deserve to win.” You laugh at this but he immediately shakes his head in denial. “No, no. I’m just blinded because I’m in love. I totally deserved to win.”

You’re about to laugh again and continue to tease him when you realize what he said, “What did you just say?”

“That I totally deserved to win.” He keeps his eyes focused on the video.

“No…” You say slowly, “Before that.”

“Oh. That I’m blinded because I’m in….oh.”

“Love?” You punch his shoulder, smile on your face. “You just admitted you’re—”

Hoseok’s wide eyes meet yours, “No, that’s not what…we’ve only been dating for a few…no…holy shit.” He starts nodding his head as he stares at you. “Oh my god, I am.” 

You laugh, while Naomi and Jeremy laugh as well at the entire conversation. You look at your best friend, totally endeared before you pinch his cheek and he tries to swat you away. “Happy for you.” You tell him softly, “And she’d probably be happy to hear it too.” And then you release his cheek before swiping a fry from his plate.

“Hey!” Hoseok whines, “I thought you were done stealing my fries! You steal Jimin’s now!”

“Speaking of Jimin,” Naomi looks up from her menu, “Where is he?”

“It’s Thursday, Naomi.” Jeremy reminds her, “He has his appointment today.”

“Oh, that’s right!” She nods along then her eyes find yours and you see her sincerity. “How is that going by the way?”

All eyes on you as your friends wait for a positive response, “It’s going well.” You tell them honestly, “I think it took him a minute to get warmed up but there’s been progress.” You say with a smile, happy that all of your friends finally know about Jimin’s past and reasons for leaving New York. “Mr. Smith has been so great with him…he cares so much about Jimin, obviously. He gives him every Thursday off so he can just relax since it can be emotionally draining.”

“That’s awesome.” Naomi leans into Jeremy’s shoulder as she grins. “Progress, even a little, is everything.”

“Yeah.” Hoseok agrees, “He deserves to be happy.”

“He does.” You say before you click your phone as see the time. “Oh shit! We need to order or we are going to be late going back to work!”

September of last year

You’re at your desk, tension between your shoulders as usual as you try to finish this report before the deadline. You’re almost done—or maybe you’re just about to give up—when you feel that someone is behind you. You spin in your chair to see Jungkook staring at your screen before he’s blowing out air through his mouth and he sighs to himself.

“I’m going to miss this.” He complains so suddenly, breaking his whole character of being so serious at work. “I can’t believe today is my last day being your boss!” He finds your eyes now before he’s smirking. “But don’t worry, you can still totally call me Mr. Jeon.”

You swat his stomach and he flinches, “Hey!” He pouts at you, “You’re fired!”

“Yeah, yeah.” You brush him off with a laugh. “We’re going to miss you here too though. But we will still hang out!” 

“Of course we will.” Jungkook grins at you, “I’ll miss telling you what to do though.” He winks before walking over to Jeremy’s desk and you hear him immediately scolding him. 

You shake your head with a smile, eyes going back to your computer screen before you remember something that has you pulling out your phone and opening a text thread you haven’t seen in a little while.

y/n 2:32pm

Happy Birthday!!!! 🥳 I hope this book tour has been everything you’ve dreamed of and more. And I hope your birthday has been super amazing! ☺️

Namjoon 2:35pm

Thanks y/n 😊 it has been more than amazing. Just finished up our last stop and then I will get ready since Emiko and I are going to get dinner to celebrate. Thanks for the birthday text, hope you’ve been doing well.

You smile down at your phone before you click it off and get back to work.

October of last year

You can’t but laugh in your spot as you watch Jimin grow a little red from how loudly Taehyung is shouting at everyone who walks by. “It’s my best friends birthday!” He yells over and over, drunkenly slurring his words as he wraps his arm around Jimin’s shoulders. “Wish him a happy birthday you non-birthday wenches.”

“Wenches?” Jimin rubs his temple, “Interesting word choice.”

“It just feels so right.” Taehyung nods, determined look in his eyes. “Doesn’t it?”

“It’s not nice.” Jimin deadpans.

“Wait, you’re right.” Taehyung nods again, “I’m supposed to be finding the love of my life. Let me try again…hello,” He stops a group of girls who are walking by, they stop and stare at Taehyung, expecting him to get on with it. “It is my best friends birthday and you guys are just way too beautiful to not tell him and by him drinks.”

“We’re good.” One of the girls says before she looks at Jimin, “Happy birthday though.”

“Fine, by me a drink then.” Taehyung slurs. 

“No thanks.” Another girl says, eyebrow quirked at drunk Taehyung.

“No thanks? Don’t you want to fall in love?!?!?” Taehyung starts complaining now but it’s to no one since the girls have now walked away. “Why is love so hard?!” 

“Taehyung.” Jimin smiles at him.

“I’m lonely and no one wants me.”

“You just have to meet the right girl! You’re meeting all the wrong ones.” Jimin tries to make him feel better. “Don’t force it! Before you know it, you’ll be randomly meeting a girl who is just like you!”

“That probably doesn’t exist. I’m the only one of my kind.” Taehyung slumps his shoulders. “Anyway, since it’s your birthday I think we can convince y/n to have a threesome with us—” He stops when he sees Jimin’s unenthused expression. “Okay, I’m going to the bar where Hoseok and Jeremy are, they’re downing shots like men. I too am a man.” He waddles away while Jimin chuckles to himself before his eyes find you. He gives you a small wave.

You go to him, where he stands on the other side of the tall table, arms wrapping around him as you give him another hug. “Happy birthday again.” You say. He smells so nice. So Jimin and you melt, wanting nothing more than to just stay here, inhaling him for all he’s worth and living like this. But you know you have to pull away.

“Thanks.” He keeps you stuck to his body for a moment longer before letting you disconnect yourself. 

“Thanks for being born.” You smile, “Thanks for being here. I’m glad you are.”

Something similar to the guilt he’s been harboring for a while now flashes in his eyes. The same guilt you had been exposed to. But after a moment it’s replaced with an honest softness before he’s smiling, “Me too.” And you know he’s telling the truth. “Mr. Smith says to stop by more often. He says show days isn’t enough. You owe him, according to him.”

“I owe him?” You raise a brow in amusement. “How so?”

“He told me he only increased my pay so I could take you out on dates.” He’s playful as he speaks, “Like the old days.”

You laugh a little, cheeks feeling warm before you speak. “Doesn’t he know there’s no dates?” 

“He said I can just save up and take you on one in the future but it has to be fancy, I guess.” He shrugs. 

“Also,” You still feel your cheeks heating up. “What about the old days?”

“I used to beg him to pay me more so I could take you out.” Jimin’s lips lift into one of his sly smiles. “How else could I afford it?”

Now you’re really laughing, “Jimin, the most expensive date we ever went on was watching two movies in one night.”

“Movies are expensive! I bought us popcorn! And drinks! And candy! You think money grows on trees?” Jimin’s lips are in a puffy pout with big, exaggerated eyes. “I didn’t know you were so ungrateful.” He jokes, eyes softening.

“I’m not!” You defend yourself, “I don’t care what we do or what we did! Just liked being with you…” You mumble, eyes sliding to the side.

“Is that so?” Jimin’s voice drops a little lower, “Then you’re happy right now then? Even like this…” He pauses, waiting for you to get his implication. “You’re happy?”

“Even like this.” You assure him. “Now let’s join the others. I think Jungkook said he brought a birthday surprise for you but is waiting until we get back to my place.”

“It’s fucking brownies, isn’t it?” 

“It’s Jungkook…what do you think?”

December of last year

Jimin 7:14pm

Merry Christmas again y/n 🥰 have you and your family had dinner yet? My mom asked about you probably around 8 times now lol she won’t stop bringing you up since the show last month

Jimin 7:15pm

She also wont stop telling me youre going to get a boyfriend at any minute since youre so beautiful 

Jimin 7:15pm

I mean shes not wrong but 🙄

y/n 7:42pm

sorry we were still eating! We had a late start bc my mom insisted to do everything herself but then complained when no one helped her lmao

y/n 7:42pm

but yes merry Christmas again hehe

y/n 7:42pm

and tell your mom no boyfriend for me 

Jimin 7:45pm

She is really happy were in each others life tho

Jimin 7:45pm

Im also happy about that

y/n 7:58pm

me too jiminie 

Jimin 8:14pm

Also…im still sorry about last week

y/n 8:51pm

you were drunk its okay plus its not like I was going to stop you

Jimin 8:51pm

Its not fair though…for you. I don’t want you to think I don’t take where our friendship is at seriously. I shouldn’t have tried to kiss you when im still so….

Jimin 8:52pm

You mean so much to me and I I wouldn’t do that to you

y/n 8:53pm

its really not a big deal dude lol seriously! 

Jimin 9:02pm

Me wanting to kiss you feels like a big deal tho 🙃 but I get what you mean but im still sorry 

Jimin 9:02pm

I hope I can kiss you again one day in different circumstances 

y/n 9:05pm

jimin im sorry but maybe we can just change the subject for now…got any presents yet?

February (current year)

It’s one day before your best friend, yes your absolute bestest friend in the entire world or even universe’s birthday. Jung Hoseok. And you wish you were staying up with him until midnight to celebrate his life because he deserves it. He’s your closest most special friend, he is your family. And you couldn’t be further away from him. And he couldn’t be more understanding. 

Because he knows how important this is. 

It’s your second time ever visiting New York, it’s cold, freezing even, but watching Jimin gives you an undeniable warmth rushing through your body. You’re both here, visiting this city with a purpose. Different purposes…yours is to merely support—to just be here. 

There’s snow falling all around you, snowflakes decorating the ground, the trees and the tombstones. Your back is against a tree, the trunk is thick and the leaves that never managed to fall covered in snow. Your eyes are on the scenery around you and falling to Jimin every now and then, his side profile in view. The bridge of his nose, the plumpness of his lips and his head of hair hiding beneath a black beanie. He’s not too far from you, his figure standing tall as he holds a bouquet of flowers while he stares down at the grave. 

This was his idea—or maybe it was his therapists—either way, you know it’s necessary. Necessary for him so he can move on…more forward. Receive closure, perhaps. But of course, you know this isn’t easy for him, no matter how bravely he announced to you that he wanted to do this. He didn’t hesitate to ask you to join him and you didn’t hesitate to agree to come along. And Hoseok didn’t hesitate in urging you as well. 

He’s been standing there for a while, eyes so focused on the name on the tombstone. Emma Dubois. You can sense how tense he is, staring down and you can basically physically see the millions of words in his head. You stay leaning against the tree when you notice Jimin finally slowly fall to his knees on the grave, his shaky hands placing the flowers down as he bows his head. 

It’s the two year anniversary of her death today. This isn’t easy for him. He’s stiff, still with his head bowed down before you can finally see the image of his shoulders slightly shake. His eyes are slammed shut, his breaths are heavy—you can see each one in the cold air. Of course you want to go to him but you keep your distance, knowing he needs this. Needs this time alone. No, not alone. Time with Emma. 

The urge to go to him only grows stronger when your heart begins to pinch…it doesn’t take an expert lip reader to see the apologies and regret spilling from his lips and all the tears that accompany. You’re sure his tears are warm on his cheeks, the way they trail down, leaving behind their warmth to comfort him since you can’t. This. This is what he has been yearning for…giving Emma his words, his heartfelt words. Each tear that falls to the grave gets him closer to the forgiveness he is searching for, closer to the freedom. Heart pinching a little less, you see how this begins to relax his body, like he is releasing everything and maybe he can finally feel something close to ease.

After a while, Jimin stands again, legs looking a little wobbly but he manages to stand stronger than before. Hands wiping at his face, finally letting himself mourn just a little while longer before he takes a deep, deep breath and smiles down at the grave. He gives a small nod before turning in his spot, eyes finding you. You who leans against a tree, snow whirling around your figure and Jimin is starting to remember how pretty snowflakes are again. 

You can see in his eyes that he has finally bid his farewell. He walks closer to you, finding a spot on the thick trunk, leaning against the tree as well. His eyes lift to the snowy sky.

“She’s missed.” He tells you softly. “I’m grateful for the time I got to know her.” He lowers his gaze, eyes finding yours before he’s smiling and reaching for your hand. You’re surprised by the contact. The contrast of this cold day with his warm fingers makes you feel like a cozy blanket has suddenly wrapped around you. 

“Should we go eat now?” He nods towards the street, “I’m so hungry!” 

You blink at him for a moment and then you finally smile. Last stage…acceptance. “Yeah.” 

April

“Wait what the hell is happening? Is this what I think it is?” Hoseok keeps hitting your thigh, his knuckles knocking against you annoyingly.

“If you think it’s a fucking proposal then yes. Stop hitting me!” You try to shove him away, “And shush!”

“Naomi….” Jeremy has Naomi’s hands in his, “I really—”

“Did you know this was happening? He didn’t tell me?!” Hoseok whisper shouts in your ear, “Did you know?”

“No.” You whisper back, eyes glued to your two friends who are apparently about to start making out because you think Jeremy just proposed. “He didn’t tell you?”

“No!” Hoseok’s wide eyes stay on them as well. “He doesn’t even have a ring? Maybe he didn’t even know he was doing this.”

“We can literally hear you guys.” Jeremy finds the closest napkin and throws it at you both. “And no, I didn’t know. But I knew it was time.”

“Time?! You’ve been dating for like—” Hoseok is cut off when you swat his arm. 

“Wait, are you two really engaged now?” You ask, but when you see how absolutely in love and happy Naomi looks, you kind of know the answer. “I didn’t even get to hear it…” You slump your shoulders at the restaurants table. “Hoseok wouldn’t shut the hell up.”

“You know I narrate everything? Why are you acting surprised?” He’s the one acting annoyed now. “Jimin did you hear anything that happened?”

“How could I have?” Jimin laughs, “I was trying to pay attention but dude, you don’t know how to whisper. But also, it’s not like y/n wasn’t talking the entire time either.” 

“I want to get married too.” Taehyung stabs his utensils in his food right when your server comes back to your table. 

“Can I get you all anything else?” She smiles at you guys when Taehyung lifts his eyes towards her.

“Want to marry me?” He blurts.

She glances around awkwardly, “I literally don’t know you.”

Taehyung shrugs and nods his head like he understands, “That’s fair.” He mumbles before stabbing his food some more.

“Anyway.” Dae rolls her eyes while she shakes her head. “Congrats, you two.” She raises her water towards Jeremy and Naomi. “You’re really engaged? Like you two are going to get married?”

“Well, since Hoseok is loud as fuck and no one heard my incredibly romantic proposal…” Jeremy huffs out. “Yes. I literally asked ‘will you marry me’ and—”

“And I literally said yes.” Naomi shakes her head in disapproval but she’s still smiling. “You’re telling me you guys didn’t hear it at all?”

“All I could hear was Hoseok’s loud ass voice.” You deadpan.

“Oh yeah, let’s all blame the guy for saying what we were all thinking.” Hoseok waves you off but you lean into him with a straight face.

“We were keeping our thinking in our heads unlike you.” 

“Can we just congratulate our best friends or are you going to keep complaining?” Hoseok leans into you as well with a glare.

“Should I start saying what I’m thinking too?” You ask with a smile. “Thoughts of strangling you with my bare—”

“Oh my god, just say you’re happy for them you two.” Dae cuts in with a hearty laugh. “You guys fight like siblings who are in middle school.”

“Speaking of middle school, remember that girl who said you had no swa—”

“Too far!” Hoseok shouts out incredulously. “Jimin, can you please get your friend.” 

“Wait, what happened in middle school?” Dae asks, glancing around the table. 

“Some girl said Hoseok had no swag.” Jeremy shrugs, “Something like that.”

“Who was it baby?” Dae grows serious. “I will fight this bitch, who was it?”

“You’re the only one I can count on, Dae.” Hoseok closes his eyes slowly with a nod to his head, “You’re the only one who understands how truly—”

“Anyway,” you finally laugh a bit, pinching Hoseok’s arm as he yelps. “We are happy for you both. Why so suddenly though?”

“We are already live together, work together, hang out together and we’re basically already married…why not just make it official? Love is fucking awesome.” Jeremy tells you all. “Highly recommend.”

“Thanks for the recommendation.” Taehyung grunts while he continues to stab his food. 

“Well, some other news.” Dae gets everyone’s attention. “I put in another work transfer request and I’m feeling pretty hopeful this time! I probably won’t know anything until later in the summer though.”

“You’ll get it.” Hoseok grabs Dae’s hand. “You’ll be moving in before you know it.”

“Yeah. Dae.” Taehyung stares down at his food, “You’ll be.” Stab. “Living.” Stab. “With your.” Stab. “Soul.” Stab. “Mate.” Three more stabs. 

Naomi offers a disturbed expression before looking at Jimin and silently mouthing ‘is he okay?’

Jimin just laughs it off, waving his hands around before massaging Taehyung’s shoulder, “He’s just a little sensitive.”

Taehyung pauses his stabs before looking at all of you, “I’m not sensitive.” He says matter of fact before dramatically looking up at the ceiling with a solemn expression. “I’m lonely.”

“More like dramatic.” You chuckle. 

“Don’t worry bro.” Jeremy slides a shot over to Taehyung, “Your time will come.”

June

“It’s pretty miserable but honestly, you guys won’t believe it!” Jungkook leans forward on Hoseok’s sofa, beer bottle in his hand. “My mom actually praised me. Trust me, I know it’s hard to believe!” He offers a large bunny grin.

“What?” You question him excitedly. “What did she say?!”

“Okay, you guys ready for this? She said, and I quote ‘wow, Jungkook, you actually didn’t fuck up this time.’ Can you believe it?!” He continues to grin while you blink at him.

“Oh…” You smile awkwardly, “I guess that’s a start?”

“I bet she was so sexy when she said it.” Taehyung sips his own beer.

“Gross, dude.” Jungkook shudders, “Anyway, my dad even agreed. It’s looking up.”

“Quick, Taehyung. Is his dad hot too?” Dae asks.

Taehyung sighs out, “Unbelievably so.” 

“Nice.” Dae nods.

“What is wrong with them?” Hoseok groans out, “Anyway, Jeremy said he and Naomi will be here in like an hour. They were having dinner with her parents.” 

“How’s their wedding planning going?” Jimin asks from beside you, “Good?”

“Naomi is a perfectionist and Jeremy kind of just exists.” You say with a laugh, “But it’s not too stressful yet.”

“That’s—oh, hold on. Getting a call.” Jimin says as he tries to slide his phone from his pocket. He looks down at the screen as he frowns. “I don’t know this number.”

“Probably spam.” Taehyung tells him. “I get at least 5 a day.”

“So annoying.” You add.

“Probably.” Jimin slips the phone back in his pocket after sending the call to voicemail. “Anyway, I—” He stops when he feels his phone vibrating again. His eyebrows furrow as he tries to slide his phone out again. “Oh. It’s Mr. Smith this time.” He says with a smile. “Hold on. Hello? What’s up Mr—oh, hi Mrs—sure, Alina.” Jimin continues to smile as he talks to Mr. Smith’s wife. “Is everything—oh.” His smile suddenly drops. Jimin’s eyes quickly go to you, he looks a bit worried and you feel yourself grow a little worried too. You mouth, ‘is everything okay?’ but Jimin continues listening on the other line, concentrating on her words. 

“When? Oh. Okay. I see. I’m so sorry…” His voice grows quiet and now everyone in Hoseok’s living room is watching as Jimin takes this phone call. “Yeah, no, I understand. Of course. I’m so sorry Alina…Viktor was…yeah. It’s when? Of course, I’ll be there. Yeah, she will come too.” Jimin glances at you, your eyebrows pulled so closely together as you try to understand what’s happening. “You want to meet? Sure, we can. Of course…of course. I’ll see you on Monday then. Once again, I’m sorry…yeah.” He nods. “Bye.” And then he hangs up the phone. He stares at nothing for a moment before he looks at you. 

“That was Mrs. Smith?” You ask, “Is everything okay?”

“Um,” Jimin smiles a little, “Not really. Uh, Viktor—Mr. Smith, he uh, he passed last night.”

“Wait, what?” Hoseok gasps a little. “The director?” 

“Yeah.” Jimin nods. “It was peaceful…in his sleep.” Jimin confirms softly. “Alina, his wife wants to meet me on Monday though. Has something for me.”

“Holy shit…” You whisper. “Are you serious?” Your eyes grow a little watery but Jimin is quick to grab your hand. 

“It’s okay. She said it was peaceful.” 

“I’m sorry dude.” Taehyung frowns, “I know you guys loved that guy.”

“Will you come with me?” Jimin asks you, squeezing your hand. “Alina says to bring you.”

You take a moment to respond, the shock a little well, shocking. You finally knock out of it and nod your head and squeeze Jimin’s hand back. “Yeah, sure.”

~

You’re in the old theatre building, the one that needs renovations so bad, the one you came to almost daily back in college and the one you come to now to watch Jimin perform. The one that feels like stepping inside a place similar to home. The one Mr. Smith had always made you feel was a home.

You and Jimin walk in the back to Mr. Smith’s old office, one he is no longer occupying but it still smells like him. Old books, leather, maybe something sweet from a candle that’s fire has lingered. Mrs. Smith is sitting at his desk, a pair of glasses hanging lowly on her nose as she reviews some papers. She lifts her eyes when you and Jimin walk into the room, a gentle smile on her bright face. 

“You’re here.” She beams at you both, her eyes sparked with adoration. You wonder how she looks so okay when her husband has just passed. Her smile isn’t the only thing gentle, her eyes are also shining with a delicacy. She’s looking tired, age evident on her but she still smiles. “Sit, sit.”

“Hi Mrs—”

“Please, call me Alina.” She tells you, her cheeks dusted so rosy. “Viktor never let anyone call me anything but Alina. Said my name was too beautiful to be called anything else.”

“Wow,” Jimin chuckles softly, “I didn’t know Mr. Smith was so smooth.”

“Oh, 50 years ago he was the smoothest man I ever met. But somehow,” She leans back into the leather chair, “He got even more impressive with time. I must have taught him well.” She winks at you guys and you both laugh. “Anyway, the funeral is on Thursday but I wanted to meet before that…I have something for you Jimin.” Her fingers tap against a packet before sliding it across the desk. “Take a look.” 

You and Jimin exchange a glance before he’s taking the packet, opening it and slipping some papers. His eyes scan over it a few times, his expression growing more and more confused the more he reads over it. “What am I looking at?” Jimin questions quietly, “What—”

“To put it simply,” Alina reaches for her glasses before taking them off her face. “This building…its ours.” She gestures around. “He bought it decades ago. You probably didn’t know, huh?”

“He owns this building?” Jimin looks up from the papers. “It’s his? I thought he just worked here…” 

“Was his.” She smiles. “He’s leaving it to you.”

“Wait, wait.” Jimin’s eyes go back down to the papers in his hands, “I’m sorry but what?” He scans the papers again, “No…it’s yours. Right? It’s yours, I can’t possibly—”

“I thought you’d deny but,” Alina opens a drawer at the desk, she reaches for a closed envelope. “He did too. So here.” She hands Jimin a letter. “Read it, honey.”

Jimin looks at you, his eyes big and confused. He’s hesitant but reaches for the envelope and opens it as smoothly as possible. A single folded sheet of paper inside. 

Dear Jimin,

Did you know that you brought this old building back to life? You might have even been the one to give it life in the first place all those years ago. You are what I once dreamed of becoming when I was young…ah,  but I could not command a stage like you. So my new dream was to provide it for someone who could. How’s Alina? Don’t let her sweet smile fool you, she’s actually quite feisty. My beautiful wife has tried to get me to sell this building for years. So please…don’t think even for a second she wants to keep this place. She’s probably feeling relieved to finally get rid of it! With that being said, it’s yours. But I know you are meant to be on stage…so I wouldn’t be upset if you decide to sell it. Do that if you’d like. Use the money to buy yourself a more decent place to live! Your studio apartment truly is tragic. Sell if you need to. Maybe to someone who might actually renovate it, unlike a cheap bastard like myself! (haha!) Please watch after my Alina for me. And please…ask y/n to watch after you for me. 

Live a long and wonderful life.

Sincerely,

Viktor Smith 

Jimin’s eyes are teary as he folds the paper again, he takes a moment to collect himself, deep breath before finding Alina’s eyes. “Did he know he was going to…” 

Alina blinks a few times before understanding his question and then she’s smiling again, “He’s been sick for some time, dear.” She informs the both of you. “My Viktor is resting now. He lived very happily.”

You swallow the lump in your throat, trying to remain calm even though this feels a bit emotional.

“He talked about you two years and years ago…back when you were in college. A natural star and his beautiful girlfriend. How much fun the two of you were…he would come home laughing so hard, telling all these stories. Well,” Alina blinks back a few tears of her own, still smiling. “I guess buying this building forever ago was worth it. Seeing him that happy. Thank you.” She tells you both, “Take care of yourselves.” 

August 

“Are you fucking kidding me, Jeremy?” Naomi shouts across their living room. Your eyes go between her, Jeremy and the little, tiny thing she is referring to.

“What?” He looks around, clueless. 

“Our wedding is in a month! I am literally going insane trying to plan this thing! Why do you think this was the right time for that?!”

“What do you mean?” He continues to play innocent.

“A puppy, Jeremy?! Are you serious?!” Naomi throws her face in her hands, “Why?”

“…Bacon needed a friend.” He finally gives a reason.

“Oh my god, I am going to kill you.” Naomi looks around at the rest of you, wanting some back up. “I finally got Bacon to stop being a little shit and pissing on my rug. Now we have a puppy to potty train?” 

“Damn, that does suck.” You shake your head and Hoseok nods his head in agreement. 

“Nothing about having a puppy sucks guys.” Jeremy scolds you both. “Why is everyone so heartless?”

“The wedding is in a month. We don’t have time for this…” Naomi gives up, plopping down on her sofa. “It’s so soon.”

“It is so soon.” Hoseok chimes in, “Like, didn’t you guys just get engaged…oh my god, Naomi. Are you pregnant?” 

Dae snorts at this but immediately hits Hoseok’s chest when Naomi glares at them. “What?” Hoseok whines, “We’re all thinking it. So…are you?”

“No!” 

Everyone laughs before heads are turning towards Naomi and Jeremy’s front door when Jimin and Taehyung walk in.

“We’re here! We brought lots of snack and—” Taehyung stops in his tracks when he notices a little puppy standing in the middle of the living room. “A puppy?!” He runs towards it in excitement. 

“Oh, cute.” Jimin smiles but it drops. “Wait, I think it’s peeing.”

Everyone’s head turns towards Naomi who is already glaring at Jeremy. “I’m going to kill you.” 

“I don’t think I’m going to make it to being a married man, guys.” 

“R.I.P” Hoseok sends Jeremy some finger guns. 

You giggle to yourself, “So anyway,” You turn to Hoseok and Dae, “Just two more weeks, right?”

“Yeah!” Dae grins, “Two more weeks and Hoseok and I will be done with the long distance. I’ve already started bringing some things over when I visit on weekends. Hoseok isn’t willing to compromise on some things though. Can you talk some sense into him?”

You quirk a brow at your best friend, “What kinds of things?”

“She’s being unfair, y/n.” Hoseok tells you. “She wants to change my bedding!” 

“It’s going to be ours though!” 

You glance at Dae, mortified. “Hoseok’s sheets were expensive! He’s cheap as hell, it was one of the only things he was willing to spend money on and you want to change them?”

“Exactly!” Hoseok leaps into your arms, “You get me. She gets me, my best friend gets me.” 

“They’re red!” Dae looks at you like you cannot be serious. “They’re so ugly!” 

“Sleep in the guest room then.” Hoseok shrugs, still in your arms like you’re going to protect him.

“Fine.” Dae raises her nose in the air, “Have fun using your hand for the rest of your life.”

Hoseok’s eyes widen, he jumps from your arms to hers. “Now that I think about it, red is ugly.” 

“Men.” You roll your eyes. 

“What about men?” Jimin comes to you all, he stands next to you from where you sit on the sofa. 

“Easily manipulated with sex.” You shrug, barely dismissing how pathetic it is. “Sad, right?”

“Manipulation is also sad.” Jimin laughs. 

“Touché.” 

“Can you help me cut up some fruit?” Jimin asks you, “Taehyung went to the bathroom. He’s lying about his stomach hurting, he just doesn’t want to help.”

“Classic.” You stand from the sofa, already heading towards Naomi and Jeremy’s kitchen with Jimin following behind. “Strawberries too?”

“There weren’t any that looked perfectly juicy, sorry.” Jimin smiles sheepishly. “I wanted to get you some, I promise, but I wasn’t going to bring some that weren’t good enough.” 

“Ah.” You click your tongue, “Well, what can you do.”

“So you admit you’d want something only if it were good enough?” Jimin says lightly, he comes from behind you as you reach for a pineapple. “I’ll cut this.” 

“No I can—wait,” You think about what he just said for a moment before you snort. “Jimin,” You turn to face him, his body only inches from yours. “Did you just compare yourself to strawberries?” 

“I don’t know.” He laughs but there’s something a little sad in his words. “Did I?”

“Anyway,” You look into his eyes, all teasing gone. “You’re the only one who thinks you’re not good enough.” Then you turn back around to face the counter before you’re attempting to cut the fruit. 

“That so?” Jimin whispers, “Maybe I’m still working on it then.” 

September 

You cannot believe it’s already the night before the wedding. You, Naomi, Dae and Naomi’s sister are treating yourselves to a spa day/night. You’re all wearing cute, rejuvenating face masks, eating snacks and giving cheers with full glasses of champagne.

“I can’t believe tomorrow is the day.” Naomi chugs back her entire glass of champagne. “Is anyone else freaking out or just me?”

“It’s normal to freak out.” You chuckle, “It’s a big day.”

“I just keep thinking…like, every time Jer does something that makes me feel annoyed I’m like…oh my god, can I deal with this for the rest of my life?!” 

Dae starts giggling at this, “I had a thought like that recently when Hoseok started vacuuming our bedroom while I was still sleeping.”

“He’s a menace.” You snort, “My condolences.”

“Thanks.”

“Guys, I’m serious. I’m freaking out. This is a huge life thing and I’m just…wondering how people do this and they’re so sure. How do I know this is right?” Naomi sits down onto a chair. “I love him. And I know that there probably isn’t anyone else out there for me…not like how he is. Actually, yeah.” She kind of smiles now. “He is for me. Just like I know I’m for him…but I’m afraid one day he will just get tired of me.” She laughs. “I don’t even think my concern about him doing annoying stuff is even about me finding him annoying. I think I’m just afraid he might think that about me.” 

“He lives with Bacon.” You tell her with a smirk, “No one is more annoying than that guy and we all love him. Trust me, if he can be best friends with that dog…you’re a walk in the park.”

“Did you just call my dog annoying?”

“That’s beside the point.” 

“Naomi,” Naomi’s sister hands her another glass of champagne, “Answer this one question.”

“Which is?”

“If you called off this wedding, would Jeremy still be the one?”

“Huh?” Naomi looks around, “Of course he would be.”

“Then you know you’re ready for marriage.” She tells her, “Chug the drink.”

“I’m confused.” Dae admits, “How is that—”

“If you can envision your life with a person even without marriage then there’s a good chance they’re the perfect person to marry. You can still be happy, still satisfied and content because you just want to be with that person. Marriage just has perks. It’s not the thing that solidifies love.” Her sister says softly, “If you can confidently say with or without the big day that comes tomorrow…that he and you could still be happy and in love—then you’re marrying the right person.”

“Dang, I wish I had an older sister.” Dae looks at Naomi’s sister with heart eyes.

“Oh come on, Dae.” You chuckle, “Taehyung is a master of advice—especially when it comes to life and love.” 

Dae nibbles on her lips for a moment, “You’re not wrong. Taehyung is the definition of a cool, understanding and protective brother. Even though he complains a lot.” She laughs. “But he gets disturbed easily.”

“And whose fault is that?” You ask with a straight face. “It’s your life mission to make him scold you.”

“I’m the baby in my family it’s like literally my life’s purpose to be a brat.” She shrugs nonchalantly. 

“At least she’s self-aware.” Naomi nods. “Anyway, I’m sure Jer and the guys are having a blast.”

“Speaking of the guys…wait, y/n.” Dae whips her head in your direction. “Any progress with Jimin?” 

“You mean with his therapy? He’s doing so well—”

“No, with you, dummy.”

Your cheeks heat up, face feeling hot and you’re grateful you’re wearing a face mask that seems to be cooling you down. “With me?” You point at yourself. “I don’t even know. It hasn’t been a topic of conversation in so long. I’m trying not to think about it. I don’t even know if he’s even thought about it.”

“You’re still into one another, right?” Naomi asks. “I mean, obviously. Friends or whatever the hell, you guys are attached at the hip.”

“We don’t cross any lines.” You admit as you take your own seat. “There’s moments sometimes where its unspoken, I guess. Tension. Innocent flirting. But it never goes further.” 

“You sound disappointed.” Dae calls you out but you wave her off.

“No.” You say, “Not really. I’m just wondering how long I can keep it up.”

“You mean…how long until you move on?” Naomi asks, brows pinched together. “Nobody would blame you, you know? Not even him.”

“I don’t know that I could ever move on.” You chuckle quietly, “I don’t want to rush him but I can’t read his mind…I don’t…I’m respecting the boundaries but I think because we have both had this mind set for so long it’s almost awkward or strange to bring it up now again.” 

“That’s realistic.” Naomi assures you, “You’ve been trying to be cool, and chill and understanding but I think you also get the free pass of being demanding of some answers.”

“Getting answers means there’s a chance I won’t like what I get.”

“Then at least you’ll know.” Dae cuts in. “Taehyung can be pretty smart sometimes. You guys really are soulmates and maybe you’re blind to it but Jimin is probably on the verge of exploding. His eyes are never not on you, y/n. And the story that is the two of you…well, it’s not going to end with an answer you won’t like. It just means it’s not the end of the story yet.”

“Can I offer some advice?” Naomi’s sister questions you and you nod your head frantically.

“Jimin is the one with thick lips and an ass, right?”

“….Yeah.”

“My advice is that you confess and claim. Hurry or I will.” 

“Dude!” Naomi shouts at her sister. “Anyway, the guys are doing their weird little manly men tradition. Camping or whatever.”

“Yeah, my brother said it’s going to be an epic boys night.”

“Jimin mentioned it too,” You chime in, “Classic testosterone building.”

“Ugh, great.” Naomi rolls her eyes. “They’re probably punching each other right now in the face as we speak to see who is the manliest. I swear if Jeremy shows up tomorrow with a black eye…on our fucking wedding day.”

-The guys-

“We know why we’re here,” Taehyung gestures around, a proud grin on his face. “We’re celebrating our fellow brother, Jeremy.” 

“Brothers.” Jeremy nods towards the guys. “It’s my last night being an unmarried man and there’s no one else I’d rather spend the day with. As men, we have certain duties…”

“Exactly.” Taehyung throws his hands on his hips. “Do you guys know why we’re here?” 

“To do manly shit, right?” Jungkook starts hopping in his spot. “I’m so fucking excited.”

“Exactly. I don’t know anyone else who achieves this level of fucking gloriousness.” Taehyung suddenly bumps Jungkook’s chest with his own. “Men!” 

“That’s us.” Hoseok says proudly, “Reporting for duty.”

“Right, right. Reporting for duty.” Jimin laughs. 

“Is this fucking funny to you?” Taehyung asks with a scowl, he comes toe to toe with Jimin. “Say it like you mean it.”

“Taehyung.”

“Right, sorry. I’m just really excite—anyway, men!” Taehyung looks up at the sky, “I think we all know exactly what we want to achieve tonight.”

All the guys start nodding along as they look at one another, “We do.” Jeremy says. 

“Hell yeah!” Jungkook keeps jumping up and down. “What’s first? Going to cut down some trees and chop up wood for a fire? Fire we make from scratch? What else? Oh! Catch our food! Climb a mountain?!”

“Oh Jungkook.” Hoseok puts a hand on Jungkook’s shoulder. “This is way better than just climbing a damn mountain. It’s more than you could ever imagine.”

“In a way, we will climb mountains,” Taehyung sighs out, “In a way, we are starting fires from scratch.” 

“You have no idea, Jungkook…” Jeremy starts filling him in, “But we’re about to exceed anything you thought being manly was. This is crazier, more intense, maybe even illegal and forbidden…maybe even a fucking crime.”

“Holy shit are we going to kill some—”

One hour later

“And that’s how I,” Jeremy is forced to pause when he hiccups. “How I knew Naomi was the one.”

Jungkook stares at him in disbelief, expression angry while his eyes look teary. “Give me that.” He yanks the bottle of liquor from Jeremy’s hands and takes an aggressive sip. “That had no fucking business being that beautiful.”

All the boys heads turn towards Taehyung when they hear him sniffling, “WHEN WILL IT BE MY TURN?!” he yells out, the tiny tent they built barely holding it together. 

“Don’t force it, dude.” Jeremy slurs.

“So what?” Taehyung cries out dramatically, “I’m supposed to just pretend that I’m not constantly looking for the love of my life?!”

“Sometimes you find the love of your life when you least expect it.” Jimin says.

“Exactly.” Hoseok adds, “That’s how that works.” 

“Mhm.” Jeremy takes the bottle of liquor back and takes a gulp.

Taehyung looks at everyone incredulously, “Oh.” He starts laughing. “That is rich coming from you guys! This is what privilege looks like.” He is now the one stealing away the bottle and gulping some back. When he swallows the nasty liquid, he wipes his mouth before pointing at his friends. “Your love stories are basically written like romance novels with the most basic tropes. You,” He points at Jeremy, “Best friends to lovers. Boring! And you,” He points at Hoseok now, “Enemies to lovers. How creative! And you!” He points at Jimin, “Some sort of weird exes story.”

“Wait, what about me?” Jungkook points at himself innocently.

“The perfect author hasn’t found you yet, buddy. But what’s my story?! Huh?! Don’t tell me I’m just some side character in your stories and I don’t even get my own book?!” 

“What the hell is he talking about?” Jeremy whispers towards Hoseok, “I literally don’t understand anything he’s saying.”

“Same.” Hoseok shrugs.

“Guys, we all know Taehyung has a really interactive imagination.” Jimin offers Taehyung a pity smile, “Listen, I just know you’re going to have the most epic love story of all.” 

“I think so too. If we stick with your logic, you might even be the main character here.” Hoseok reaches for the bottle. 

“Yeah well…wait,” Taehyung pauses as he ponders thoughtfully. “Actually, you guys might be onto something…maybe this has actually been about me the entire time…”

“Anyway,” Jungkook takes the bottle from Hoseok, “If this night has taught me anything it’s that the most important thing is to love ourselves.”

“Fucking exactly. That’s step one!” Jeremy shouts.

“With that being said…” Jungkook glances around the tent, nerves making him feel crazy…”…I’m going to quit my parent’s company!” He suddenly blurts. “Yeah! Fuck that place! I’m going to quit!”

“Wait, for real? You’re serious?” Jimin asks, smile growing on his face. “You’re sure you want to do that dude?”

“You basically just asked me if I’m sure that I want to love myself and be happy.” Jungkook gulps some liquor back. “I want to live my life.”

“Hell yeah, brother.” Jeremy nods in approval. “No matter what happens, we support you.”

“Yeah, we do.” Taehyung grips Jungkook’s shoulder and rocks him around. “This is brotherhood.”

“Fucking boys night.” Hoseok grins to himself. 

“But uh,” Taehyung clears his throat. “Speaking of loving ourselves and what not…Jimin.”

Jimin lifts his head with wide eyes, innocent expression on his face as he cutely questions Taehyung’s sudden call out, “Huh?”

“What’s um, what’s going on with you?”

“What do you mean?”

“Oh come on…” Taehyung smiles at his best friend. “You’ve beat yourself up long enough, don’t you think?” 

Hoseok reaches for Jimin, palm flat against his back as his starts to rub it. “Yeah, dude.” 

Jimin looks at his friends, eyes dancing around the tent and he sees their eyes. They’re filled with concern…hope…and maybe endearment. His eyes land on the bottle in Jungkook’s lap and he points at it, laser focused. “Gimme.”

Jungkook wastes no time in passing Jimin the bottle.

Jimin wraps his lips around the bottle they’ve been sharing, the last drops remaining sliding down his throat. He’s quiet, still feeling the eyes of his friends on him. He’s thinking. The same thoughts that have been swarming for a little while. He knows his own answers. Small smile begins lifting his lips before he raises his head and locks eyes with each of his friends.

“Yeah, dude.” Jimin repeats Hoseok’s words. His expression alone tells his friends everything they need to know. 

Hoseok rubs his back for only a moment longer before the softest most genuine smile begins growing on his face, love and pride filling his veins. Hoseok glances around the tent, all the boys forming their own smiles. And Hoseok spills the words they’re all thinking so slowly and intentional. “Boys night.” He says calmly and quietly. 

Jimin nods his head, grin growing. “Boys night.” 

“…Boys night. Boys night. Boys night.” Jeremy starts chanting and then Taehyung joins him. “Boys night! Boys night!” The voices inside the tent gets louder and louder. 

“Boys night!” Jungkook joins with pure excitement. 

Just a small tent under the moonlight, surrounded by trees, is quite possibly the manliest men. Well, according to them.

Present Day

Watching one of your best friends walk down the aisle to join hands with one of your other best friends and seeing them smile all giddily with glossy eyes as they vow to one another about a long life of love is surreal. You and Hoseok are probably the most emotional ones here at this entire venue. You don’t even know how you’re going to handle Hoseok’s wedding one day and he’s thinking the same about you. 

Naomi and Jeremy seal the deal with a sweet kiss and everyone’s going wild, clapping and hollering for the two lovebirds. You were nervous for no reason earlier when you watched yourself in the mirror, reflecting on the last year—the wedding has been perfect. 

Once the ceremony ends, the night continues on to the reception. A big place. Open bar. Dance floor and round tables with beautiful decorations scattered around. Families joined, friends gathered and love so thick in the air. 

Taehyung is walking through the lively crowd of people of friends and family as he grips the drink he just got from the bar. He sees you and Jimin chatting in the distance, your bodies close together, laughing and touching so innocently. Dummies, he thinks to himself as he smiles. He wants nothing more than for the two of you to have this kind of day of your own. But he’s also wishing he could imagine this kind of day for himself as well. In his dreams, because he thinks he is officially giving up. He even sees Jungkook in the distance flirting with a cute girl. 

“When will it be my turn?!” He mocks himself, groaning out loud, not even realizing his own volume. 

“Please.” A feminine voice suddenly can be heard. “That’s what I’m asking.” 

Taehyung’s eyes lower to a girl sitting down at the nearest table to him, she lifts her drinks in some sort of depressing cheers. “Want to take a seat at the losers table?” She asks him with a playful smile. Taehyung looks around the venue before shrugging and taking a seat.

“Trust me, no one is more loser than me.” Taehyung mumbles, taking a sip of his drink.

“You sure?” The mystery girl raises a brow in a challenge. “This is my eighth wedding this year.” She counters confidently, “Imagine having that many friends in love?! I set up half of them. I deserve a fairy tale too.” She pouts before taking a sip of her own drink. 

“God, I know exactly what you mean!” Taehyung nods his head enthusiastically, “My friends all make fun of be for being the biggest believer in soulmates yet they all have one but me?! Make it make sense?!” 

“Unbelievable!” The girl shouts, egging him on with her own woes. “Maybe we’re meant to die alone.”

“I’m starting to think so.” He agrees before taking another sip.

“Love is this magical thing and we will never know.”

“It’s literally the best thing to exist!” Taehyung shouts, “Right?!”

“Hallelujah, amen.” The girl sighs before they clink their glasses together in some depressing cheers. “Why aren’t there more people like us? We deserve it the most!”

“Exactly!” Taehyung starts getting more riled up. “Where is my me?! And where’s your you?!”

“Someone like us?” The girl shakes her head, expressing how impossible that is. “They obviously don’t exist. As if we would meet anyone who share our ideals.”

“Fucking exactly, my dude.” Taehyung takes another sip. 

“It wouldn’t happen,” She drags out her words, completely believing them. Excited to know someone she can share this pain with. “We would never meet…” She says the words slowly, blinking at nothing before she turns her head towards Taehyung. Her eyebrows start to furrow and he gazes back at her, his own brows pinching together as realization starts hitting them both. 

“…Wait…a…minute…” They both say slowly in unison as their eyes narrow at one another. 

They keep staring and staring before Taehyung quickly shakes his head and he laughs, “No…that…that can’t be.” 

“Of course not!” The girl rushes to say as well, “That’s ridiculous! We just met.” 

But then Taehyung narrows his eyes again, “…But what if…”

“Yeah…I mean…” She looks at him suspiciously as well. But then Taehyung snorts.

“We don’t even know each other’s names this is,” Then he suddenly becomes serious. “Taehyung.” He extends his hand out and she takes it immediately.

“Marisol.” 

“…Nice to meet you.”

“…Likewise…” She keeps her hand in his palm and they take a moment to gaze at the other.

“Did you feel that?” Taehyung suddenly asks.

“If you’re talking about the bolt of fucking electricity when our hands touched then hell yeah.” 

“…Are we…”

“…Soulmates?” She finishes the question. 

They stare at each other again and then they both let go on each other’s hands as they start cracking up, heads shaking at the idea.

“God, that’s so ridiculous.” Marisol waves him off before reaching for her drink again.

“For real.” Taehyung laughs alongside her. “Anyway,” He raises his glass towards her. “Cheers.”

“Cheers, fellow loser.” She brings her glass to her lips as they lock eyes, both smiling as they drink. 

~

You can hear lively dance music in the distance as you finish drying your hands in the venues bathroom. You open the door to exit when you run into someone. Like, literally. 

“Sorry, I—” You pause, eyes wide as you eye the girl you just bumped into before you’re grinning. “Lucy?”

“y/n!” Lucy squeals in excitement.

“Wow,” You eye her over, “I almost didn’t recognize you.” You say, she sheepishly tugs at the ends of her hair. Her blonde hair looks a couple shades lighter and her once long locks have been completely chopped off. Her hair curls right below her chin now. 

“Wanted something new.” She admits cutely. “But I’m so happy I ran into you! The ceremony was so beautiful, oh my god, I cried a little, I won’t lie!”

“Girl, you’re telling me.” You chuckle.

��So how are you?” Lucy asks, “I’ve really missed you guys.”

“I’m good.” You smile at her. “We miss you too. Are you doing well?”

“More than that.” She admits, “You’ll never believe it…but I’ve been offered to study below a pretty big deal designer in Paris for 6 months. I’ve accepted…I leave in November.”

“What!” You quickly bring her in for a hug. “That’s awesome, Lucy!”

“It is.” She says in your chest. “Things are good.” 

You pull away from her, “I’m happy for you. Truly.”

“Thanks.” She grins,  goofy smile on her face that you haven’t seen in so long. “Anyway, I really got to pee! Catch you later, girl.” 

“See ya!” 

You watch as she disappears in the bathrooms and you feel your heart glowing. Despite everything…you’ve always just wished her well. You’re glad it’s come true. 

You walk down the hall, your short heels clicking against the tiled floors and you follow the sound of music into the main area. And just when you thought you were done running into people…

“Well, well, well.” Min Yoongi. “If it isn’t a pretty stranger.” He shows you an adorable smile before you’re laughing and giving him a hug. “Namjoon and Emiko are right behind me.” He tells you, you both look behind and you see the two approaching. 

“Namjoon!” You feel your lips spread into a wide smile. He looks as handsome as he ever has. His smile grows on his own face and it’s the one you’ve always known—that genuine fucking smile. 

“y/n.” He says your name with ease, “You look great.” 

“You’re one to talk.” You tease him before you’re being scooped into a firm hug. “And Emiko, you look gorgeous.”

“Wow,” She blushes, fingers brushing back her black, silky hair. “Thank you. You do too!” 

“I’m glad you guys were able to make it.” You tell them all. “Have you said hi to everyone else?”

“Yeah, not too long ago.” Namjoon says. “I’m glad those two finally got together.” He laughs as Yoongi nods along with a smile. “Being reunited with everyone has been a gift.” 

“We feel the same.” You tell him honestly. “Anyway, I’m sure they’re wondering where I’m at. I’ve felt my phone vibrate at least ten times since I’ve slipped away to the bathroom.”

“I’m guessing we can all assume its Hoseok.” Namjoon chuckles.

“Naturally.” You playfully roll your eyes. “It was great seeing you guys though. Let’s all dance later!” 

“Sure.” Emiko grins at you. 

And then you’re walking off to find the rest of your friends.

“Going to use the bathroom, be right back.” Yoongi tells Namjoon and Emiko.

“Sounds good.” Namjoon waves him off, then he catches Emiko’s eye. “What?”

“Nothing.” She sings out. “I was wondering how’d you react when seeing her.” She teases him, “Do you think her and that guy are together?”

“Jimin?” Namjoon raises a brow, “Hmm, I don’t know.”

“You aren’t upset about it?”

Namjoon chuckles at this, “Why would I be?” He smiles at her. “I’ll defend her love decisions!” 

“That so?” Emiko continues to tease.

“Ah, she went on a date with me the day she saw Jimin again for the first time in five years. You know, I bet a whole book could be made about her and that situation.” He laughs, “Maybe I should write it.”

“Going to venture into a new genre?” Emiko giggles, “Okay, what would their book be called? Something like ‘Still in love’” She jokes but Namjoon thinks about it thoughtfully.

“No…” he ponders, “Maybe something like ‘Love Again’ instead.”

“Oh, cute.” Emiko nods her head. “Okay, if we had to have a romance novel about the two of us what would it be called?” 

Namjoon’s eyes expand slightly before he’s titling his head. “Huh?”

“A good title would probably be ‘Oblivious’ hm?” She continues to joke and tease. Namjoon stares at her for a moment. He’s not as oblivious as she’s making him out to be so he smiles before responding.

“Or maybe something cheesy like, ‘First Love’” He tells her with a dimpled grin. But she just drops her smile slightly, blinking at him slightly confused.

“Ah, that phase I had back in like middle school where I ‘hated’ you? I didn’t actually think you had cooties.” He chuckles, “I was just a dumb kid who didn’t know how to handle his feelings. Kids, you know?” Namjoon shrugs and Emiko stares at him while blushing. “But I like to think I’ve matured since then.” 

“W-What—”

“Alright, I’m back!” Yoongi walks between them, “Should we get some drinks now?”

~

“Oh my god, can you believe it?” You lean against Hoseok’s body, swaying into your best friend before he’s wrapping an arm over your shoulder.

“Believe what?” He grins, “That our best friends are all grown up?”

“Exactly. Can you believe we had no idea these two were going to get together?”

“Honestly, I’m still in shock.” Hoseok laughs loudly, “All they did was bicker!” 

“According to everyone it was sexual tension.”

“Literally there was nothing sexy about it.” He deadpans and you burst into laughter.

“God, I am so glad we agree.” 

You two are leaning against a cold, metal railing that overlooks a calm pond. There’s a few tables set up outside but everyone’s indoors, dancing the night away. You and Hoseok found yourselves outside, enjoying the cool late September breeze, escaping the inside crowd.

“Well, if it isn’t the two most important people in the world.” You hear Naomi’s voice from behind you and Hoseok. “What are you two doing out here?”

“Escaping.” You say, sticking your tongue out.

“Hell yeah. Us too.” Jeremy grins, “Can you believe those people in there? So much energy.”

“Pretty gross, if you ask me.” Naomi giggles, “I wish everyone could have agreed to take a nap before getting this party started.” Naomi and Jeremy stand on either side of you and Hoseok. All of you leaning against the railing, eyes on the water. 

“Should we ditch this lame party and have a movie night instead?” You tease.

“God, only if we watch a horror movie so Hoseok can entertain all of us.” Naomi joins in.

“You guys are assholes.” Hoseok complains as he knocks his hip into yours.

“Oh come on, Hobi, we love you.” You knock back into him. “Hurry, tell us you love us back.”

“Not sure you guys deserve my love.” 

“Bruh.” Jeremy whines. “I didn’t even say anything!”

“Fine, you have my love, Jer. But the two of you are on thin ice.” Hoseok looks as you and Naomi before you’re all laughing. “But really…I do love all of you. Feels like an appropriate day to be cheesy.”

“Agreed.” You smile, eyes still on the pond. “This is life, huh?”

“What else would it be?” Jeremy snorts. 

“You know what I mean.” You turn your head to glare at him but then you soften. “We’re at the part of life where things grow and change. It’s natural to grow apart too.” You say more quiet, “We will probably see less and less of one another. Get busy with so many things. Life, you know?”

“I guess you aren’t wrong.” Naomi mumbles. “As sad as it sounds.” 

“Yeah…” Hoseok agrees softly, his arm tightening around you as his other arm goes around Jeremy. “We’re still family though.”

“Always will be.” You say.

It’s quiet between the four of you for a few minutes, everyone staring out into the world, moonlight shining over the pond as you all soak in this moment you’re sure you’ll cherish for the rest of your lives. 

“Wait…” You suddenly blurt.

“Huh?” Hoseok glances at you, “What’s up?”

“Yo.” You look at your friends, “We’re literally stuck together dudes. Less and less my ass! We are stuck with each other Monday through Friday, bitches!”

“Oh shit.” Hoseok suddenly grins, “That’s so true.”

It’s quiet for another moment before you’re all dancing in your spots and collectively yelling, ‘Ayy!’

“We’re in this shit until retirement, huh?” Naomi smiles so hard her face hurts. 

“No doubt.” Jeremy agrees, “And in this economy? Might be forever.”

“I guess I could do forever with you guys.” You laugh.

It’s quiet again until Naomi detaches herself to look at the three of you more seriously, a delicate fondness in her eyes. “But seriously the four of us…” Naomi pauses because her voice cracks a little and she starts laughing at how ridiculous she feels for getting emotional. But you just smile at her, nodding along because you completely understand.

“Yeah.” You say simply because you get it and so do the guys. 

~

It’s been one magical night. You feel happy and loved and grateful. But you have no idea that the most important part of this day has yet to happen. Your friends have gone back inside, Hoseok being challenged by Dae for a dance off and Naomi and Jeremy explaining they should probably socialize with their guests. 

You’re taking this moment to just breathe this late September air and watch how the moon grows brighter. 

“Hey.” You jump a little at the sudden sound of Jimin’s voice. “Whoops,” He chuckles softly, eyeing you over. “Didn’t mean to scare you.”

“Jeez, Jimin.” You throw a hand over your heart. “Warn me next time.” 

“Sorry, sorry.” He smirks at you, “You must have been pretty lost in your head to not have heard me come out here.”

“Not lost.” You smile. “Admiring this beautiful night.”

“Ah,” He comes closer to you, standing by your side before he’s looking out over the water. “It is a beautiful night.” 

“Mhm.”

“Wow,” Jimin turns to face you, looking offended. “That was your cue to tell me I’m beautiful! Drunk you would have done it.”

You laugh at this, “Well, I’m not drunk. So I guess you’re out of luck.”

“Damn, and I thought I had pretty good luck.”

“Maybe another time.” You tease him, playfully bumping into his side. “We haven’t really gotten to talk the last few days since we’ve been so busy with wedding stuff.”

“Trust me, I’ve felt your absence.” Jimin admits, voice soft and low. 

You stare ahead at the water, gulping because his words somehow always affect you so stupidly. Your heart is already pounding in your chest and it makes you feel silly. “Have you now?” You finally ask, voice calmer than you thought you could manage.

“Of course.” Jimin responds, “Is it not obvious that I’m incapable of living without you?” He asks but it sounds like a harmless joke. “If it’s not obvious what can I do to make it that way?” He turns his head to gaze at you. “What kinds of things should I say or do?” He asks lowly, voice smooth and charmed. 

You meet his eyes and try to swallow the anxious lump in your throat. “I don’t know.” You chuckle awkwardly, “Isn’t saying it just like that enough?”

“Hmm.” Jimin licks his lips before continuing, “Is it enough?” 

“I-I don’t know.” You say again. 

“You do know.” He steps a little closer to you, “You’ve been…”

“I’ve been…?”

“Amazing.” He says in one breath. “But that word doesn’t even feel like enough.”

“Oh?”

“y/n…I’m okay.” He decides to say, his eyes on yours, barely even blinking. “I’m okay.” 

“What do you—”

You stop when Jimin turns his head to face the water again, a deep sigh leaving his mouth before he’s swallowing a lump in his own throat. “I want to tell you…” He begins, voice shakier than before. “That I am finally the man I need to be for me…because,” He pauses. “Because I’m the man I want to be for you.” 

You stare at him, speechless, eyes on his side profile, trying to process what he’s saying. 

“I don’t have that darkness eating at me anymore.” He spills truthfully, “I only see light.”

Of course he does, you think. You blink at him, still rendered speechless. 

“So much light.” He swallows.

Of course there’s light. Because he deserves the fucking sun.

Jimin turns to face you again, eyes glassy and a smile so heartwarming you might melt right here, your liquid body dripping into the pond.

“I can’t not be with you anymore.” He admits, breaths heavier as he tries to come up with more to say. “If you’re ready then—”

Finally, after this long year…you are feeling his plush lips against yours as you lean into him with your rushed kiss. He’s surprised for only a moment. His eyes slowly shutting as he kisses you back, hands feeling your waist when he pulls you in closer. But the kiss falls apart quickly, your emotions bubbled over, all you can do is exhale into his mouth before you’re leaning away with teary eyes on his.

“You-you’re okay?” You ask, hands going to his face, cupping his cheeks tenderly. “You’re okay?” You ask again, voice cracking.

Jimin’s bated breaths are hard to miss. He tries to smile for you, his own emotions spilling. “I’m not okay, y/n. I’m good.” 

“You are?” You ask, in an almost pleasant disbelief. “Do you still—”

“Love you?” He chuckles, sniffling a little before leaning forward and pressing a kiss to your lips. “With all my heart. We’re fated.” 

You laugh, despite wanting to cry. “Cheesy.” You push him back playfully, “You sound like Taehyung.”

“Is that a bad thing?” Jimin rubs his hands on your waist.

“God, not at all. He might be the best one of all of us.” 

“Yeah.” Jimin nods. “He is our soulmate, after all.”

“Don’t let him hear that, we will never hear the end of it.” You giggle, hands still cupping his cheeks. “I also love you, by the way.”

“I know that.” Jimin brushes his nose against yours, “You’re going to love me again and again.”

“Forever.” You confirm. “So…”

“Hm?”

“I’m pretty sure we could leave if we wanted.”

“Oh could we?” Jimin leans further into you again, his lips pressing over yours as he smiles. “You going to let me take you home, baby?”

“Going to let you take me anywhere.” You reply, voice laced in silk now.

“Paradise.” He says, “Going to take you to paradise.”

~

God, you don’t think you’ve ever known another tongue like this. Wet and delicious, sliding up your inner thigh, teeth nipping the fragile skin. Your fingers dig into your sheets, the soft material not enough to handle the violence you’re unleashing on them. You’re not convinced you can make it out alive. Not with a man promising paradise, promising heaven. 

Jimin’s got a thumb spreading the tops of your folds, exposing the place that promises your sinful death. He only admires your heat, arousal dripping to your mattress and he takes a mental picture. He wants to remember your pretty pussy like this—before he ruins it. 

“We don’t have to take our time, Jimin.” Your hand goes to the top of his head, fingers threading through his hair before you tug it. “I’m so desperate for you.” 

“I love those kinds of words, babe.” Jimin kisses the inside of your thigh, dark eyes on you. “You can say whatever words you want…but that won’t change what I do with you. But I encourage it, it just makes me harder.” He tells you, his hips rutting against the mattress. “Say you’re desperate. Talk about how badly you need my cock inside you or you might die. Go ahead,” Another kiss, but this time closer to your core. “Say it so I can get so hard that I come all over your sheets, baby.” 

“Jimin…” You whine his name and he only smiles at you, sly and forbidden. 

“Look at you.” He mocks you sweetly, “Looks like you’re going to fucking fall apart just from this.” 

Your chest is heaving. He isn’t wrong. You probably do look like that since that’s how it feels. You’re so fucking sensitive, you’re so fucking pathetically sensitive. 

“I could suck your clit for 30 seconds and I bet you’d fucking shake from a quick, pathetic orgasm, huh?” Jimin teases, his tongue poking further from his lips. He keeps his eyes on you when he finally uses it. Uses his tongue in the place that’s going to kill you. 

“Fuck, Jimin.” You breathe roughly, body tense from how insane you’re going. He stares up as you, eyes with flames burning inside. He presses his tongue against your core, a ridiculous but perfect amount of pressure as he drags it up towards your clit. You’re not going to survive and you sure as hell aren’t going to last.

Jimin, using that same amount of pressure, circles his tongue expertly, making you cry out. Making you want to scream. And he does what he teased you with…he wraps his luscious lips around your sensitive nub and he sucks on it. Your legs immediately react, heels of your feet digging into Jimin’s back. He groans into your cunt, sucking while his tongue fucks you into another reality. 

He said 30 seconds but you cannot even confidently say it’s going to be that much…you’re feeling like this is the first time. First time you’ve ever been touched. First time you’re being introduced into a new world of overwhelming pleasure. You’re moaning, high, low, whimpers, whines and everything in between. 

And then you gasp, heels digging deeper into his back when two thick fingers push inside your entrance. 

“Oh, fuck.” You cry out, eyes slamming shut even though you want to watch him. Those two fingers curl and explore…and you cannot keep this impending explosion of pleasure at bay any longer. Fingers tugging at Jimin’s hair, you cry his name over and over until you feel yourself get hit with a rush of heat. Fire trialing across your entire body as this orgasm hits you in waves. 

Jimin lets you use his face to ride it out, your moans a melody to this rhythm. When you’re finally relaxing, Jimin backs away, satisfied, sinister grin on his face. When his fingers leave your dripping hole, so does your sanity.

“What did I say?” Jimin crawls up your body, voice taunting. “You’d be shaking from an orgasm that you so pathetically welcomed.”

“Because I’m so desperate for you, Jimin.” You pant, completely worn and out of breath.

“Keep up the desperation, baby.” He strokes his cock, “Because I have yet to fuck you.”

“No condom.” You moan, “Fuck it. No condom.” You tell him again, “I’m good about my birth control…fuck me with nothing between us.”

“You just want my cum filling you up, don’t you? God, you’re so dirty, baby.”

“Yeah.” You nod, your fingers going down to his member, stroking his length yourself. His eyes roll to the back of his head at the contact. “Need your cum inside me, want to feel it dripping out, want to feel the evidence of your pleasure mixing with mine.”

“That’s something a slut would say, baby.” Jimin’s hips jolt forward when you squeeze the head of his cock. “Is that what you are for me, hm?”

“Find out.” Your breaths are erratic, smile on your lips as you guide his cock to your core. Jimin allows you to tease the tip of his dick, the swollen head dipping into your hole, stretching you with every little push.

“More.” Jimin is the one begging, “Let me push inside more.”

“Yeah.” You nod frantically, whines leaving your mouth. “Bury yourself inside me.”

Jimin’s hands go to your hips as he concentrates on sliding further into you, inch by inch slowly disappearing as your pussy sucks him in. “Yeah, fuck.” He pants, body falling further on you, his face hovering above yours. “This is how I’m going to fuck you, yeah?”

“Mm, yeah.” You cry, his cock finally fully inside, his pelvis meeting yours. “Move.”

Jimin says nothing, he just pulls his hips back, his length brushing your insides before he’s thrusting back in. He’s breathing so heavily as he starts repeating these motions. Your fingers are now clawing at his back, he groans right in your ear at the slight pain he feels from your nails. But he doesn’t hate it. 

“More.” You beg, “More, more. Fuck, Jimin, more.” 

He’s motivated. Hips slapping against yours, fucking you properly now. He’s pushing in and out, forcing his hips to grind into you with such depth and precision. He’s feeling the tightness in his balls and he’s struggling to keep his sounds from sounding so incredibly pitiful. And it is so fucking sexy to your ears. 

“Jimin, fuck…” You whimper, “I’m going to come again…from this alone, god, I’m going to come…I’m so cl—”

“Yeah?” Jimin starts fucking you harder. “Thank god. The way you’re squeezing me, baby…” He can’t finish that sentence…your walls close in on him as you feel the high of pleasure possess your body. You’re entire body is tensing, back arching and Jimin can’t control it when his cock reaches the end and he’s in euphoria. He’s coming. Hot cum creating art inside you. 

You’re both panting, you’re both moaning, crying, sinning beyond repair. You’re both in the paradise he promised. 

“Shit,” Jimin collapses, trying his hardest not to crush you. “My love…” he kisses your neck, “I fucking love you, you know that?” He whispers. “This is day one.”

“Yeah?” You smile, breaths still erratic. “Good. I love you too.” 

~

“What time is it?” You murmur sleepily, pointer finger tracing little patterns on Jimin’s chest.

“Maybe like 3am.” He tells you softly, “You want to sleep?”

“No.” You chuckle. “But also yes.”

“You know,” Jimin sinks deeper into the sheets, body twisting so he can face you, eyes on yours. “Life is crazy.”

“For sure.” You say, lips curving up. “Everything happens for a reason though, right?”

“Yeah.” He smiles. “Fate or whatever.”

“Mm,” You nod. “I guess so.”

“You know how Mr. Smith left me the theatre?” Jimin gazes at you, softness in his features.

“Yeah?”

“I found a good person to sell it to.” He informs you, “He would like this guy.”

“Oh.” You blink at him in slight surprise. 

“I’m going to use the money to buy a house.” Jimin scoots closer to you, soft breaths hitting your lips. “How does that sound?”

“You’re asking me..?”

“Mhm.” He pecks your lips. “A home for us. We know we’re good at living together already,” He chuckles, “Been there, done that and what not.”

“Right.” You laugh, pecking his lips as well. “Might as well do it again.”

“Yeah, how do you think that sounds?”

“Sounds like fate.” Your hand goes to his cheek, thumb brushing against his smooth skin, “And you know what they say about it.”

“What?”

“It works pretty funny.” 

“You have no idea.” He grins once more before kissing you again and again. 

Well, maybe you’ve had an idea all along.

[sashi-ya]

4𝑘 𝑟𝑎𝑓𝑓𝑙𝑒 𝑝𝑟𝑖𝑧𝑒 𝑓𝑜𝑟 @lucci204 𝗡𝗘𝗪 𝗚𝗔𝗠𝗘 .nsfw t r a f a l g a r l a w x f ! r e a d e r - n s f w

tw: nsfw. best! friends to lovers. moder au. gamer! law. sweet love making, slow teasing. cora-san stellar appearence. wc: 2149 a/n: dear @lucci204 thank u so much for participating! I hope you enjoy your prize! You will have the pdf copy too send it to you so you can save it! ♡

“(Name-ya) sit on my lap, I will show you how it’s done!” “alright, alright…”

A few cans of energy drink are down for him, he doesn’t mind having another one. The LED lights of his room are low and purple, you are used to them. And you are also used to the bright shine coming from his screen as he plays until late, while you hang out on his bed reading spicy fan fictions of your favourite characters.

But tonight, it’s different. He is too excited for his new game purchase and he really wants you to play.

“Sit down here, I will move your fingers until you understand and then alone. Ok, (Name)-ya?” he commands, as you comfortably take a sit on his lap.

Sitting over his legs has to be new, your best friend and you have always been close, but never this way.

“It better be fun, we stayed home because of it” you joke, you weren’t interested in going out at all. The weather is too shitty outside to do so.

“It’s pouring rain and it’s freezing; you were the one asking me to stay“ he protests, moving you up and down until his back is comfortably resting on his gamer chair.

 You feel something inside your belly you haven’t experienced before… or perhaps you did, just in your dreams. The closeness and warm touch of Law’s arms around you feel magical. It makes you so happy, but at the same time all of your muscles stiffen up.

“Hands on the controller” he orders, speaking softly next to your ear. It makes your skin all bumpy, a shiver running through your neck.

“Ye- yes” you murmur, holding the black joystick with a subtle tremble. You close your eyes; you need to stop. Law has been your best friend since you knew him… you can’t think of him with such lust.

But, the med student is making it super hard to you. A lot more than you can take.

Law’s hands land over yours, the black tattoos become slightly purple because of the LED lights. His chin rests on your shoulder, you can smell the scent of his delicate, but manly, perfume. Musk and something sweet, but also citric, over his caramel skin it smells… delicious.

“Chose a character, (Name)-ya” he commands, moving your thumb with his over. You feel the soft silicone of the analogue stick on your fingerprint, wishing he was doing the same thing with your special button.

You swallow, you need to concentrate. “Uh, the girl. That one” you pick a random character; you don’t really care.

Law scoffs; you can feel the motion of his belly moving up and down as he laughs. “Of course, you would chose her! Dork-ya” he says, with a cocky attitude and a smirk you are able to sense with your cheek.

“Excuse you? Why are you saying that? What’s the problem with her?” you ask, turning slightly back to see his face.

You gasp softly and widen your eyes. You didn’t think you were that close to his lips. He freezes but never moves his face from that place. You can see yourself reflected on his silver orbs slightly illuminated by the screen lights.

Both swallow. Tension, there is tension in between the two of you, and you have barely noticed up until today.

You blink, he blinks too. Slowly, slower. You can even feel the warmth of his breathe on your lips, and probably he does feel yours too.

And, in fact, an invisible force seems to be making your faces get even closer, that much that your lips are just about to clash…

“LAW!! I BROUGHT YOU WHAT YOU ASKED ME! I’M LEAV-“

The door suddenly opens, and a well-known voice -and fall- stops you from the inevitable.

“CORA-SAN!” Law screams, with you still sitting over his lap and your face as close as possible from his.

The poor man, that’s been like a father to him, and also to you from many years, stands up as quickly as possible leaving the bag with snacks right on the floor.

“Eeeeexcuse me, please!! Law, I’m leaving with Bellemere-san! I will… uh… come back tomorrow! I- uh… kids, take CARE… ok? PLEASE, take CARE” he says, closing his eyes, but opening them with a smile. Rosinante couldn’t be happier…

However you two, with cheeks on fire and totally frozen remain silent for at least a couple of seconds.

“Let’s- just-, keep playing. Press start, (Name)-ya” Law says once he is able to speak, but probably still startled from what has just happened.

You nod and quickly press the button in the middle of the controller, you are sure you shouldn’t still be sitting where you are, but are you able to move? No. And probably, Law either.

His thumb is still over yours, and as he moves it, the character you chose does the same. For some time, you focus on it; you need to, he needs it too.

Everything seams peaceful; he laughs at you for being so bad at videogames and despite you pout, you laugh too. There is nothing you don’t enjoy when it is done with him.

But, this isn’t Animal Crossing and so a sudden creature appears, scaring the hell out of you -and Law too-. You jolt over his lap. He presses the controller against your belly, right under your breasts. His tattooed arms squeeze you and your stomach feels like dropping.

Your whiny gasp and the way you humped on him, makes your soon to be a doctor friend to widen his eyes. He sighs louder, you can feel him squirming subtly underneath you, as if he wanted to move a little to the side.

At first you don’t understand, but soon you clearly get what’s happening with him… would it be so bad if you were to torture him a little? A little teasing never hurt nobody, right?  

“What’s going on, Law? Are you scared?” you ask, laughing louder than you usually do just to make your body slightly jump over his.

He reacts bending his chest against your back just to avoid your glutes to fully graze against his -now aching- groin. His goatee brushes over your nape, Law closes his eyes breathing louder.

“I- it was just the loud scream. Stay still, ok?” he asks, but in reality it sounds more like a plead. He knows that you will soon notice his growing hardness. And he is becoming desperate.

You giggle, giving him a sexy side look over your shoulder. You aren’t sure where did you get the confidence, but it is as if your body was acting on its own.

“Stop it” he suddenly grunts. You bite your lower lip, almost unnoticeable for him.

“What? I was joking” you mock him, rolling your eyes. Just to watch Law act as you has never seen you act before.

He takes the controller off your hand and puts it over the desk. His hand land on your neck, giving it a soft squeeze and then grabbing your cheeks in between his thumb and index. It makes you moan out of amaze and excitement

“You are joking now, too? Tell me, (Name)-ya… You wanna keep humping on my lap?” he whispers, carving his inked fingers on your cheeks, moving your head to the side just to take a better look at you. His other hand is now over your belly, pressing you down and against his now hard, hard sex.

You swallow… damn it.

“I- I’m not joking, if you aren’t” you mumble, scared of him acting this way just to make you look like an idiot.

He laughs, a sexy “heh” abandons his lips. Lips that he then presses against your skin while stretching your neck and never letting your cheeks go.

You reach his palm with your lips, planting a sweet kiss from the side as little moans scape your mouth.

“I’m not joking, not at all…” he murmurs, making the back rest to go down up until the almost horizontal position. You can move any further as you get completely trapped in his arms, your legs hang from the chair… you have not scape now… And you don’t want to scape either.

Law catches your lips from the side, and while he kisses you so lustfully, his hand goes down your belly. Like a snake it crawls inside your baggy pants, those you always use around him, those that feel the most comfortable to you. Those that are his…

Your best friend’s fingers reach your panties. Your wet panties. He smirks, a sexy -almost psychopath like- laugh reaches your ears. He is so happy to find out that, just like him, you are so aroused and needy for more.

“Wet…” he whispers, biting your earlobe and this time moving your thong to the side. Law plays with your dripping honeys; he takes the time to make it all dampened around.

A finger slides inside, and it makes you tremble. Then two more go in. “Should we go to the bed?” he asks, while you squirm over him, and your nails are carved on each armrest.

“ye- yes” you barely mumble, you can’t think.

Law helps you stand up, you feel your crotch and your thighs moist. The trousers with wet patches too.

As soon as he is up, he pushes you to his bed, moving away the polar bear plushie for you to rest comfortably.

You flop there, extending your arms to call him. But, before he could pounce on you, he takes his black and yellow hoodie off, pulling with it his white sleeveless shirt too.

His chest with the inked lines of love goes up and down as he gets ready to finally take you. You notice in his eyes the pure lust that’s been unleashed… but suddenly, he frowns. There is something he had just come to realized.

“So many years…” he murmurs as he crawls to bed in between your legs. His shoulder blades protrude like a feline, his lips come closer to yours like a snake… inviting to bite, the forbidden apple.

You reach for his cheek, the tip of your fingers playing with the golden hoops on his ear. You smile lovingly at him, while he does the same. This time is not just a sexual smirk, there is love behind those eyes. You aren’t confused, you want this more than anything.

“Can I?” he asks, tucking a tuft of hair behind your ear.

“You mean… making – love?” you ask, a little shy. Talking and doing is totally different.

“Uhum… I mean- you want to?” Law is also feeling a little shy. He realized he wasn’t touching just a simple girl, he was touching you, his best friend.

You nod, pressing your forehead to his. Something that makes Law instantly kiss the tip of your nose.

And little by little, both fall completely into the traps of lust. He undresses you, with utmost care, enjoying your nudity this time with more than just a quick glance to spy on you while in the pool.

You do the same, enjoying every bump of his skin, the soft feeling of his dark hair in between your fingers as kisses come and go.

Law goes down on you, a trail of smooches from your chest to your femininity. His fingers separating your folds, expertly knowing where and how to touch. Nobody knows better of anatomy than him.

You arch your back, your toes curl. Pulling from his hair, and sometimes fixing your eyes one to the other as he is muzzled by your core.

“Law- Law fuck me” you plead, you want him inside. You can’t wait any longer. No more.

“Now? Really?” he asks, acting all cocky but with a subtle tremble in his voice… Law is as nervous as you, but he doesn’t want you to notice, even if you know him well, more than anybody else.

You nod, pulling him towards you. He swallows and complies.

Topping you, with his hardness pressed against your lower belly, he looks at you for some time. “I never- I never thought-“ he tries to say something, but you don’t need him saying anything at all.

“Shh…” you giggle, pulling him into a kiss as he lifts your right leg up and prepares to feel you from the inside.

Guiding himself, he finally slides into you. Deep, deep. He goes deep. Your nails carve marks on his tattooed back. “Ngh…” you whine, and he grunts.

His hips begin to move, the thrusts become violent each time they go in and out. Law breathes your moans, you devours his. Mouths open, lips barely touching, fingers interlocked.

Ecstasy awaits for the both of you, for the first time, together… but not the last…

“I think I’m in love with you, asshole” “Same, you dork”

[minniepetals]

Rose & Thorns: 10

— summary: a lone rose, a little broken, until Jungkook came along and the two of you saved each other. and in doing so, Jungkook showed you a world where he shared with his six other mates.

— pairing: dragon!bts x reader

— genre: angst / slight fluff / poly!au / fantasy!au / dragon!au

— word count: 8.0k

— warnings: none

╰ part 1 / part 2 / part 3 / part 4 / part 5 / part 6 / part 7 / part 8 / part 9 / part 10

You stood in the hall of the castle on the left of Namjoon while Hoseok stood on his right, faces grim and serious as you could feel all eyes on you with the intriguing fact that a Keeper was in their clan, a Keeper the clans haven’t had since hundreds of years ago. None of them were alive to live through the years when the first Keeper had been chosen so to know that another Keeper was made was quite fascinating to them, you were sure.

But you could also tell that some dragons still doubted your loyalty, knowing fully well how many of them did not have good histories with your kind. But you weren’t going to let them faze you. Namjoon often reminded you to look confident no matter how much they may scare you. After all, looking small and vulnerable in front of the dragons would only give them more doubt and you knew you had to gain their trust and show them that you were capable of being a Keeper more than anything.

As the steps of the leader of the Southern Clan began to echo into the room and the whispering voices died down, Namjoon took his respective bow with you and Hoseok automatically following along, heads lowered in respect as you stared at the floor below you.

It was nerve wracking being in a room full of dragons you had never seen before but you knew you had to remain strong.

“Prince Namjoon.” Surprisingly the voice was light and friendly as the prince spoke your leader’s name. He rose upon the call of his name with you and Hoseok following and could see the kind smile prince Daesung was giving him. “Welcome to our Clan.”

“Thank you,” Namjoon gave him a short nod before his gaze fell to Hoseok.

“Prince Hoseok.”

“Your highness.”

“And,” he turned his head your way and the moment his eyes met yours, you could see the way his eyes widened a little, falling silent at the sight of you with a delicate hand coming up to cover his mouth. “Oh my,” he whispered in a small gasp, blinking one moment before breaking into a bright smile that practically lit up the entire room and the next thing you knew he had rushed in front of you with his hands grabbing ahold of yours, squeezing it tight. “You didn’t tell me she was so adorable!” The prince squealed with delight, surprising you with a sudden embrace that caught you off guard and your eyes were quick to dart to your dragons with a flustered expression plastered onto your face.

The way their eyes darkened slightly almost brought shivers down your spine.

“Human girls are the cutest thing ever! I can’t believe I’m finally meeting one in real life!! Tell me!” He backed away just enough to face you again as you could feel yourself blushing at how close he was. “Keeper of the Dragons, what is your name, dear one?”

“U-uh,” you stuttered, feeling slightly uncomfortable by the close proximity but knowing not to be rude in his presence, “Y..Y/N.”

You thought his eyes had lit up even more. “What a pretty name! You’re so—”

“Okay, that’s enough,” Hoseok quickly stepped in to grab you by the shoulder and pulled you back to his arms with a displeased look on his face. “Prince Daesung. Whether she is a human or not, you must remember that our Keeper is still a lady.”

“Oh my.” Totally ignoring Hoseok’s warnings, prince Daesung could only wiggle more with excitement as his eyes returned to you again. “I know jealousy when I see it and I must say, to woo the seven princes of the East Clan is quite a bold move of yours, precious Y/N.”

“Huh?” You began to panic as your hands came up to wave with denial. “No, I-I didn’t—”

“Not that I’m saying it’s a bad thing. I would do the same if I had the pretty looks you do. How’d they find such an adorable face such as yourself? Or did you find them first? I’m sure these possessive dragons stole you away to make you fall in love with them, didn’t they?”

“W-wait! They didn’t—”

“Prince Daesung, stop teasing the little one already.” Namjoon let out a tired sigh.

“I can’t help it!” The prince chortled with a sly grin. “She’s even more pretty when she blushes so easily like that.”

You could see his followers looking away or hanging their heads in shame at their prince’s words and you realized that you were totally baited by the South Clan’s leader, making you even more embarrassed than before.

As if reading your thoughts, Hoseok gave you a squeeze. “Don’t worry. Prince Daesung likes to spew nonsense so don’t take him too seriously.”

Offended, prince Daesung gave out a dramatic gasp. “Rude!”

“Forgive me for the impolite behavior of my dear brother.” You turned at the sound of the voice that was laced with poised to find a young lady a few feet taller than you. She had her head bowed with a hand rested against her heart, showing both grace and a dignified manner and you could tell almost immediately who she was after learning a few things about the South Clan. “Are you alright, milady?” Princess Soyeon asked with a slight concern as she addressed you.

“Yes, your highness,” you told her with a small smile, a bit taken back by how different the two siblings were.

She returned the smile with her own before turning to her brother with a displeased glare. “Not only is Y/N a lady but she is also the sole Keeper of the Dragons. You cannot disrespect the lady like that.”

Her scolding made prince Daesung look away with a pout. “You cannot expect me to ignore the cute.”

“Would you like to feel the wrath of our neighboring princes as well?”

Though the prince did not respond to that as he refused to meet his sister’s glare, you cocked your head slightly to the side with confusion upon her words. “Wrath?”

Princess Soyeon looked back at you with softer eyes and a faint smile as she eyed your two princes. “Us dragons are very possessive creatures. If anyone tries to touch our treasures, it may turn into conflicts. They may not look like it but I am sure prince Namjoon and prince Hoseok weren’t exactly fond of my brother touching you.”

You looked over your shoulder at the two of them who stood tall behind you and found Namjoon meeting your eyes with a slight raise to his brow almost as if confirming the assumption of the princess, making your cheeks warm up again.

“Again, please forgive my brother. I will make sure he does not do anything to offend you again.”

“Ah, it…” you shook your head with a smile, “it’s alright.”

“Now then,” with a sudden clap echoing into the large room, prince Daesung began to dismiss the members of his clan. “You’ve gotten a good look at our dear Keeper and see that she is a beautiful lady and anyone beautiful is worth trusting so—”

“Our relationship with the Eastern Clan is clear enough to show that we have no reason to mistrust them,” princess Soyeon stated in a loud, clear voice as she totally ignored the voice of her brother who responded with a glare of his own. But even though she had interrupted him, he let her go on to address the crowd. “We all know that the only way a human can become a Keeper is through the will of our own ancestors and we know never to question their decisions. If they have chosen Y/N as the new Keeper of the Dragons then that is the decision that we must accept. If anyone has any problem with that, know that you will be going against our own ancestors.”

Her voice, so poised and filled with charisma, was enough to let her warriors know that she wasn’t going to tolerate anyone that would go against having you as their Keeper and for that, you felt so thankful to the princess.

Once the room finally cleared away and all that was left were the five of you along with a few trusted warriors of the Southern Clan, you knew it was all business now.

“Your highnesses,” Namjoon began and it was enough to let the princess understand what he wanted to discuss.

She turned to follow her brother as she spoke and the rest of you followed along to their steps. “I am sure you must be wanting to discuss the agreement between the three clans upon accepting the Keeper.”

“That’s correct,” he gave a firm nod.

You walked beside Hoseok, silently listening in as your nerves began to reappear once again. You knew it wasn’t going to be easy even if the South Clan seemed friendly but you hoped things would work out well in the end.

“The other clans may not be as lenient but we do not plan on using Y/N for all of the wars that will be fought in the future,” she was quick to assure. “Whether she is a Keeper or not, we will not lay so low as to use someone outside of our clan as a tool in order to fight our wars.”

“Besides,” chiming in, you met the eyes of the prince as he looked over his shoulder for a brief moment and sent you a smirk, “who would want to send a beautiful lady into the battlegrounds?” He turned back again, sounding a little more exasperated this time. “However, we all know prince Hyungwoo and prince Seojoon aren’t going to be as kind as us.”

As the door to a room opened up, you all walked into their meeting hall and immediately took your seats in order to continue discussing.

“The princes of the North and West know not to reject a Keeper but you must be prepared for what challenges they will have you facing.”

You tilted your head slightly to the side at princess Soyeon. “Challenges?”

“To see how powerful you can be.”

“They won’t do anything unethical now will they?” Hoseok frowned.

“If they realize the little one has joined your little circle of lovers then perhaps they will take not offending you more into account,” prince Daesung opined with a light shrug. “But the two of them are quite unpredictable, especially prince Hyungwoo of the North, so it’s best to keep your guard up. Prince Seojoon is rational but it’s hard to please that man.” He propped his elbow upon the grand table, resting his chin onto his hand as he looked at you with sympathetic eyes. “Be careful, dear Y/N, dragons can be quite prideful and if someone comes in to threaten their position in this little game of ours, it can get a little nasty.”

You could feel a shiver running down your spine but it fell away too soon as you felt Hoseok’s hand suddenly holding yours. When you turned your head towards him, he graced you with a kind smile. “There’s no need to be afraid, we’ll be right there with you,” he whispered softly, allowing your heart to relax again.

“Major wars do not occur very often,” princess Soyeon added truthfully, “and if they do, we often deal with it on our own with our own dragons. But if there is ever an emergency that forces us to seek help, I hope that you will allow us to call for you.”

“Of course,” you gave her a firm nod with a determined gaze. “I will be prepared for the day I am asked to help fight the wars.”

She returned the nod just as firmly before letting herself relax just for a moment to spare you a small smile. “Thank you, Keeper, and thank you princes of the East for finding her.”

It was their unquestioned trust in you that made you believe in yourself more.

.

.

“What are you thinking about?”

The prince had allowed your stay in the South as the sun was already beginning to set by the time the meeting was over and as you sat on the grand bed prepared for you and your princes, Namjoon took a seat beside you after changing into proper sleepwear, wondering why you looked so distant all on your own.

You didn’t want to bother them with your concerns so you shook your head lightly with a faint smile thrown his way to try and ease the tension that hadn’t faded from the moment the three of you left the Eastern mountains.

“Right now it feels just right to take up prince Daesung’s offer to stay here a while longer and postpone our travel plans for the West and North, doesn’t it? I know you’re anxious,” Hoseok said with a wry smile as he went on to sit beside you on your other side.

“But,” Namjoon took ahold of your hand and placed it on top of his palm where it rested upon his lap, and began to rub small circles on the back of your hand as a way of comfort, “I know you miss the others and cannot wait to go home.”

How was it that they knew you so well? You could still recall those moments when they couldn’t trust a word you said and had treated you poorly but looking at them at this moment, you could find nothing but love in their eyes and that alone warmed your cold, anxious heart.

“It hasn’t even been a day,” you lamented as your eyes cast down to the gentle hands that were still caressing yours. “I miss them so much.”

“You’re right,” Hoseok said in a soft manner as he thought back to that morning the three of you took your leave and placed an arm over your shoulders with a small squeeze. “It isn’t often we go our separate ways outside of our lands.”

“Really?”

“Mhm,” Namjoon said, nodding. “There are some of us who haven't even seen the world outside our own lands despite being princes.”

Your eyes widened a bit at the revelation. “No way. Who?”

“Jimin and Taehyung.”

“Why is that?”

“Jimin looks after our prisoners, as you know, so it really doesn’t matter much to him because he’s sadly almost always in the dungeons. As for Taehyung, the younger one has to look after the little ones so he doesn’t get out much either,” explained Hoseok. It made sense, you should have known of those facts before they even told you but it still made it sad to be able to hear of the two of them being stuck in the clan everyday.

“So what are the occasions when traveling outside our lands?” You asked them.

Namjoon gave you a small grin. “Well for one, meetings like these. But I have meetings with the clan leaders every full moon. Usually Yoongi will accompany me on those nights. That’s why some days we go missing and are nowhere to be found inside the clan. Seokjin travels if he needs to find special herbs or wishes to learn more about plants and remedies that don't exist on our lands.”

“Those are what he calls his errands,” Hoseok said almost in a whisper as he sent you a wink, causing your mouth to form into a little circle at the epiphany.

“That’s why he takes so long and sometimes comes back so late? I would have loved to accompany him on those journeys.”

They both shared a chuckle.

“You’ve had some bad encounters when leaving the clan, I’m sure hyung only left you out for your sake,” Hoseok explained gently as he stroked your hair before proceeding on. “Jungkook and I sometimes have to do secret patrols that take place outside our lands. Only a very few of us know of that though. They’re sort of like secret investigations to get information on whether a smaller clan will be wanting to rise against us or not in order to prepare for or avoid any future wars.”

“But as you can see, we’ve managed to avoid war for a long time now.”

“Though it doesn’t guarantee the fact that we won’t be going to war again at all.”

As you stared down at your lap, the distressed look on your face made the mood drop as your two princes shared a look of understanding, knowing exactly what you are worried about.

Namjoon lightly squeezed the hand that he held onto as he began to speak again. “I know I cannot promise you that there will be no wars in the future and that even if there is a war that does not concern our clan, you may be called in to be involved as Keeper, but I can promise you that you will never be alone.”

You looked up at him with sad eyes just thinking about the wars that you all would have to face in order to protect your own people.

But Namjoon did not back away from your fear and held onto a gentle smile. “Perhaps it may not be enough to just tell you that you will not be alone but I speak for all of the dragons in our clan when I say this, Y/N. Whether it is a war fought for our own lands or a war you will be called into as Keeper for the other clans, our dragons will be right behind you guarding you at all sides. As a follower, as a friend, as a lover, and as dragons of the Eastern Clan. We are here for you.”

Upon those words that were given unto you, you knew that you could trust them with your life just as you trusted the two of them. It had been a long journey from the moment you and Jungkook escaped your old village and flew into their clan. Many things happened but as time changed, so did their hearts. You were a trusted keeper now, a human your clan believed in without a doubt so it was your turn to put your faith in them.

The journey beyond was still long but you knew you’d be alright as long as they were by your side.

“I love you,” you confessed and their eyes softened.

You were held in between the two of them, huddled so close, making you feel safe and sound and that alone allowed you to believe that everything would be alright.

.

.

“Greetings to the prince of the Western Clan.”

The air felt thicker, more tense than it was during that moment where you stood tall in front of the Southern Clan. The Western Clan was not as friendly looking as the Southern Clan but you knew that they valued law and order so although a part of you was filled with anxiety standing before the prince, you also understood that prince Seojoon wasn’t going to be someone who would judge someone that easily just because of their descendants.

“Greetings to the princes of the Eastern Clan,” he returned the formal bow, face as expressionless and as stoic as you’d been warned about. When he turned to look your way, you couldn’t tell what was on his mind. All you knew was that what he saw before him was a simple human girl claiming to be the Keeper of the Dragons.

What did he think of you? Perhaps in his eyes you looked like a frail, weak, human girl who should have never associated herself with the dragons.

It was hard being tested back in the Eastern Clan itself when you first arrived. Many of the dragons hated you at the time but you never let it get to you and tried your best to do what your heart had told you to do. Whether the dragons would accept you or not, you just had to continue doing the job you were meant to do with a golden heart.

If you show weakness, if you let their words and judgement hurt you, you would only look like someone who was not worthy of the Keeper title and that was something you knew you absolutely could not do. You couldn’t taint the reputation of the Eastern Clan, you couldn’t let the other clans shame them. If Namjoon gave you that title because he believed in you and the dragon ancestors accepted you then you had to live up to all of their expectations no matter how unclear the journey before you may lie.

When you greeted the eyes of prince Seojoon whose face revealed no sign of anything, a part of you was still afraid. But you kept your head held up high and perhaps because of that strong facade, his expression did not harden when he met your eyes.

“Keeper.” His voice was rather normal. No tone of disgust, no amount of hatred bleeding through the tip of his tongue. He greeted you as if you were an equal with a short bow and a small nod of acknowledgement.

Perhaps it wouldn’t be seen as something special but you knew and many of the dragons knew that that itself meant that prince Seojoon wasn’t going to reject you as the Keeper.

“Seojoon.” At the call of his name falling out of Namjoon’s lips, the Western prince returned his focus back on the leader of the Eastern Clan.

For a moment all was quiet and tense as the two of them stared at one another as if sending telepathic messages to each other with looks alone. You stood there beside Hoseok, waiting for one of them to break the long silence but it seemed as if none of the two were willing to do so.

You didn’t know much about the history between the two princes nor understood much of what their relationship was but what you did know was that between the two leaders of the Eastern and Western Clan, though they may have once fought from time to time long before Jungkook was captured by your former village, the two of them had this silent mutual respect for one another.

And perhaps that was one of the reasons why prince Seojoon was willing to be the one to break first.

“I was surprised when I received your letter, Namjoon,” he began without so much of a blink in his eyes. “Out of all the crown princes who have taken their positions on the thrones, I never thought you out of the four of us would choose to trust a human and grant them the title of a Keeper. In fact, I always believed you to be the last one to ever be willing.”

Standing tall and proud with no sign of remorse, Namjoon spoke with the same resolve. “It is true that my actions were indeed unexpected but my decisions were not made solely on feelings alone.”

“You are not one to easily trust a human,” the Western prince acknowledged, “so I will trust in the decision you have made. The ancestors have, as it seems, deemed her worthy of the position. However, that does not mean I will blindly put my faith in someone I do not know. Until the Keeper can prove her worth, I will be on the neutral side on neither accepting nor refusing the new Eastern Clan member.”

Prove your worth.

He wanted you to prove your worth as a Keeper in order to accept you as someone needed in the dragan clans. You weren’t sure how to do that, you weren’t even sure how you were going to be someone of good help to the four major clans. Namjoon believed in you and so did the other six, but at the moment their support did not mean much until you could find the strength within yourself to accept the role.

Prince Seojoon was right, you had to prove your worth. But not just for the clans but for your own self as well.

The past years have always treated you horribly, a human woman who had no place anywhere with no purpose in life. Now that you were given such a high honor and set at the center of the dragons, the new profound responsibilities could only make you feel as if you were just another outcast again.

No.

Your princes believed in you and they’d go through any lengths to make sure you were safe and protected. They gave you a place in their clan, cared for you, and made sure everything was alright. It was time to stop hiding in their shadows and prove that you were indeed worthy of such an honorable title and be the one to protect instead.

You were a Keeper now. There was no time to dwindle and convince yourself otherwise.

Seeing the resolve in your eyes rather than shrinking in fear and hiding behind the princes of the Eastern Clan, prince Seojoon was a bit taken back by your strong gaze.

But...it wasn’t a look that he did not exactly hate.

Not bad, he thought, and hid the small look of approval behind his cold exterior.

.

.

“Your highness.”

Prince Seojoon stopped walking and turned slowly to find the Keeper who had not spoken even once during his audience with the Eastern Clan’s arrival. You bowed before him in a formal and elegant way, a voice too gentle and soft for a supposed warrior who would eventually have to be used in upcoming battles with the dragons, but he allowed himself not to judge someone based on the exteriors alone.

“What is it, Keeper?”

At least he was calling you by your title, you thought, and let out a hidden sigh before facing the prince with a dignified stance.

“I understand that the relationship between humans and dragons is not a strong one, but I also do not conceive of you as one who would wrongfully judge others based on the fact that I am human alone.”

“You do not, huh?” He replied with the same seriousness as you have written on your face.

“Forgive me if I am overstepping my boundaries but prince Namjoon himself has told me that you are one who sees the person before him as what they are as you see before your eyes. Neither past, race, gender, nor what they were born as will sway your mind into thinking otherwise.”

“And what are you to do with that information?”

You held your head high and met his eyes without falter, keeping in mind the words Namjoon had warned you about with how prince Seojoon did not like it when one spoke about proving oneself while cowering before his eyes. “If me proving my worth to the dragons is all that you want from me, then I will do all that I can to become a warrior that is worthy to everyone. I hope that someday you can faithfully put your trust in me as Keeper of the Dragons.”

Prince Seojoon took a moment to reply, the silence between the two of you lingering while you refused to back down upon his hard gaze otherwise he would never take your words seriously.

After a short while, he finally gave you a firm nod. “I trust that you will keep your words.”

“Yes, your highness.”

With that, the prince watched you walk away while he stood there, beginning to understand just a little bit of why the princes of the East have decided to keep you by their sides.

A brave soul, kind and gentle, but unaware of the power you held as a Keeper. One day you’d find your strength and courage walking into future wars that would call for you.

Like a rose who had yet to make use of her thorns.

.

.

“What are you worried about, hm? I’m pretty sure you just passed his test.”

“Test?” Your head was quick to perk up upon Namjoon’s words though those eyes of yours were still filled with an unspoken anxiety that kept weighing down your shoulders. “What are you talking about, Namjoon?”

“Seojoon isn’t as cruel as he portrays, he’s just a bit strict and serious when it comes to the future of the dragons.”

“You would know, you’re just like him,” Hoseok commented as a side remark, causing the leader to roll his eyes while you let out a small chuckle.

Hearing that, Namjoon’s brows furrowed as he sent you a pout. “You agree?”

There he was, a prince who was always seen as a strict leader to all, showing you a cute pout. “Well you were quite hard on me when I first walked into the clan,” you reminded the prince, causing him to let out a dry laugh.

“Right,” he cringed, not entirely liking the images of those memories walking into his head. Those days weren’t the greatest and they regretted it more than you could ever imagine but telling you those thoughts would only bring more weight on your shoulders and that was something they absolutely couldn’t do. So rather than dwelling on the negative thoughts, he approached the subject with a light tone. “If someone like me can be swayed into trusting a human once again, then Seojoon would have no problem following my footsteps.”

“Mhm,” agreed Hoseok, “Prince Seojoon is rational when it comes to judging people.”

“All you have to do is be yourself. He likes authenticity more than anything so you have no problem there.”

“I’m just,” you let out a soft sigh as you went on to hug yourself, head falling to the floor, eyes dropping with worry, “how do I prove my worth when I can’t even master my abilities as a Keeper yet?”

You felt arms wrapping themselves around you in a gentle manner, holding you close to his chest, and a soft kiss pressed to the crown of your head. “Wielding ones’ power takes time and patience but I know this, and Hoseok and the other five back at home know this.” He looked down into your eyes with a strong gaze of confidence and encouragement, meeting those anxious ones headstrong. “You can do it, Y/N. If you can turn your back on the village that was supposed to be your past, present, and future but failed you, if you can turn a blind eye on myths and legends about hideous monsters like us, if you can lend your strength towards the one that was meant to be your prisoner, rescue him, and still stay in a clan full of dragons that openly showed their distaste in you. If you can be framed for someone else’s wrongdoing, get locked up in the dungeons for months, then survive a fall off a high cliff with someone who didn’t even appreciate you and injuries all over your body...My love, you can do absolutely anything.”

“I mean look at yourself, pretty girl.” Taking your hand to pull you away from Namjoon, Hoseok held your hand in the air to twirl you around right there in the middle of the guest room. “Beautiful hands,” he pressed a kiss to back of your hand, “beautiful hair,” taking a few strands of your hair, he pressed a kiss to them, “beautiful forehead,” kisses to your forehead, “beautiful brows,” to your brows, “beautiful eyes,” two upon each eye, “beautiful nose,” to the tip of your nose, “beautiful lips,” he grinned at the sight of your cheeks blushing red and delivered a chaste kiss to them. “And a beautiful heart.”

He wrapped his arms around your waist, pulling you in close and pressed a kiss to the right of your chest before simply resting his chin atop your shoulder.

“On top of that you’re so strong,” Namjoon stated and held you from behind, his chin resting on your opposite shoulder with you wrapped in between their arms. “If there is anyone I can trust with the title of a Keeper, it’s you. Because that is your worth. You’re beautiful and kind and so, so strong.”

“We believe in you more than anything, little one. If you can do all those things and still keep your head up and face everything with a strong mind, you are worth more than anyone as the Keeper of the Dragons.”

“You’re going to be alright. You’re going to fail from time to time but you’ll keep at it without giving up hope because that’s what you’re best at doing. When everyone else has given up hope, you’re right there to smile through the rocky road and continue on without complaint.”

“And through it all, you won’t be alone.” With a kiss on your right cheek and a kiss to your left cheek, they whispered a promise that they’d never break. “We’ll be right here next to you.”

“So rely on us too, okay?” Namjoon said as he pressed another kiss to your temple. “We’re right here for you.”

.

.

“Welcome, princes of the Eastern Clan, and,” you could feel the Northern Prince’s eyes on you though you didn’t dare to look up unless he had given you permission to do so. With a light tone that hid a certain secret you couldn’t quite put a finger on, the prince greeted you. “Keeper of the Dragons, it is an honor to finally meet you.”

“The honor is mine, your highness,” you returned the formal words with a head still lowered before him.

“Now, now, we don’t have to act too formal with one another,” prince Hyungwoo spoke in an easygoing tone as he gave a small clap. “We are comrades who are inevitably meant to fight alongside each other, aren’t we?” He held a hand before you and when you looked up to meet the gaze of the Northern Prince, you could see the lopsided grin he had greeted you with, a feeling not going too well with you but how could you show rudeness to a prince of the four?

From your peripheral vision, you could see Namjoon and Hoseok who watched with the same caution and wariness but even they couldn’t do much being as you were in the territory of the Northern Clan. A cold, hard place in the snowy mountains.

Possessive or not, it was common courtesy.

So you let your hand fall into the prince’s palm. “Yes, your highness,” you said and with a satisfied twinkle in his eyes, he gave you a kiss atop the back of your hand.

“Your beauty is one that can defeat the enemies itself, Keeper. Tell me, what is your name?”

“My name is Y/N, your highness.”

“Y/N,” he repeated the name slowly along his tongue, waiting for a moment before letting your hand go and looking up to you with a small smirk curled along the corner of his lips, “can you wield a blade?”

Your brows furrowed. “What?”

“The dragons of the Eastern Clan are one of the best warriors who control both the skies and the land, notorious for being an undefeated clan who refuses to lose to even the smallest wars. Now that they’ve gained a Keeper in their possession, they only grow stronger.” The prince gave one small look towards Namjoon and Hoseok before resting his gaze on you again. “But the Keeper does not only belong to the Eastern Clan, now does she? So tell me, dear Y/N, in a world where dragons are fighting for power just as any human kingdom would, what skills do you have to offer us protection and victory in a battlefield that may cost the lives of many?”

You knew what he was trying to say, that the position you were given and the wars that were to come was not a child’s play. It was all serious business where each one of you would walk into the battlegrounds not knowing who would live and who would survive. Being a Keeper did not guarantee safety nor victory of the wars. It meant protecting the dragons and bringing them back home alive.

“Prince Hyungwoo, the Keeper was only made recently,” Hoseok tried to save you but the Northern prince wasn’t having it.

“All the more reasons to get her ready for such dangerous events. You can’t tell me you aren’t worried just because you have a Keeper by your side now, can you?” He asked, raising a brow at the two Eastern princes. “No. It is because she is the Keeper that makes you worried more than anything. Am I wrong?” Upon the silent response that he received, the prince went on. “I won’t go against the words of our ancestors, they have accepted our dear Y/N after all, but she wouldn’t be useful if we don’t put her to good use.”

A tool.

You could tell that was all the prince of the Northern Clan thought of you as. And not just him but many other dragons who did not know of you as Y/N but as the Keeper of the dragons. You were going to be made a pawn in their wars.

“Since it seems as if the Keeper does not have any particular skills just yet, why don’t we test a theory out?” He snapped his finger, looking right back at you and bringing shivers down your spine as you knew something good wasn’t going to come out of his mouth. “They say the Keeper is at their strongest when placed in a very emotional state of mind.”

“What are you trying to say?” The anger rising in Namjoon flashed in his eyes as he watched prince Hyungwoo but the prince chose to simply ignore his concerns, eyes holding yours with a sly grin.

“What causes your ire, dear Y/N?” He asked you so casually as if speaking about the weather. “What makes you so livid and upset that you can’t seem to control your own emotions? Think of something very unpleasant.” He inched forward your way, dangerous eyes staring straight into your soul. “Is it when a man you barely know of touches you and makes you uncomfortable?” He grabbed ahold of your wrist, a touch different from when he held your hand for a greeting.

You winced slightly, biting back your tongue in order to hide how uncomfortable you were as the images of Jinyoung flashed before you.

“Prince Hyungwoo,” Hoseok growled a low warning as both of your princes stepped up behind you.

But he didn’t let go. “Hmm, you don’t look like someone who would get angry for the sake of yourself. You look like you would explode if something were to happen to the ones you cared most about.”

You couldn’t hear a single thing he was saying with the tight grip on your wrist. The only thing you could see was Jinyoung, the man who only looked at you when you were finally made useful because you managed to tame a dragon. The love he claimed he had for you wasn’t love. He just wanted to use you, having no other reason behind his infatuation for you.

Just like your former village.

You were just a tool for them as you would become one for the dragons.

“Let her go,” Namjoon demanded in a low snarl as he placed a tight grip on Prince Hyunwoo’s shoulder. Only then did the prince realize the state you were in and released his hold on you.

You couldn’t meet his gaze any longer but you held your head up, lips pressed into a thin line as the expression on your face refused to give into the fear your mind wanted you to walk into.

Hoseok wrapped a hand around your shoulder and took a step back so that he could create more distance between you and the prince.

Even then you didn’t feel good.

In a Clan where strangers stared at you as if you didn’t belong, in a Clan that only hoped to use you as a tool, you were reminded once again of your place in the world.

Jinyoung, your former village, and the dragons.

The whole world was really against you, weren’t they? Because when you think you’ve finally found happiness, it tries to take that away from you.

.

.

Hoseok stood there beside the open door that led into the guest room where the three of you would reside while Namjoon held a meeting with prince Hyungwoo, and watched with a silent gaze as you sat on a chair, eyes staring at your hands with thoughts running all over your mind.

Despite how brave you were in front of prince Hyungwoo, behind that font he knew how anxious and afraid you were. He could see it from where he stood now, watching you sit there all alone, finally letting your guard down but with a mind filled with anxious thoughts.

You were a brave soul, the sweetest kind he had ever met, and seeing such an expression on your face made him want to make it all alright again.

So he stepped into the room, closing the door slowly behind him to not make any abrupt noises which would startle you and walked towards your way.

Sliding a hand upon your shoulder, he felt you jumping slightly at the sudden touch.

“Sorry, I scared you, didn’t I?” Hoseok first apologized with a rueful smile. The last thing he wanted was to make you even more anxious.

But the way your expression softened at just the sight of him and how you breathed out the slightest relief of “Hoseok” made him at ease again. He made his way around to kneel before you and took your hands to caress them both with a gentle smile to help ease your own worries that kept circling your thoughts. Your eyes followed him silently, comforted at just his presence alone.

“Roses are really beautiful, you know that?”

The hairs of your brows creased in between as you met his gaze. “Hoseok?”

Yet he continued. “They bloom in the most magnificent ways, fluttering their petals open, blushing in the most prettiest shades of red. However, although they are known to be one of the most beautiful flowers, a rose doesn’t just offer itself as a pretty flower. It has its thorns to protect it from harm. Some thorns may be harmless, while some are really sharp and more dangerous than others. It’s like a pretty little thing such as yourself building bushes out of bushes made of thorns to keep yourself from harming others and others harming you. The rose likes to stand there, far from others, and smiling prettily as if everything is alright, while inside it’s slowly wilting away and just wants a hand that would willingly give it sunlight and water without fearing her thorns.”

Now I’m not saying that the thorns are always a bad thing. They can be good when facing harmful creatures that wish to simply pluck it and steal it for themselves, eventually hurting the little rose because they wouldn’t know how to care for it. But there are times when the wall of thorns can fall out of control. There are times when those thorns can harm the little rose. But do you know what’s so fascinating about these thorns? They only exist because the rose allows them to. Some thorns can get out of control, but once it’s tamed and nurtured and the rose can face it each day until it no longer fears those thorns, they can become one of the most powerful allies the rose can use.”

What I’m saying is,” Hoseok held your hands tighter against his own, giving it a gentle squeeze while never taking his eyes off you, “these little thoughts of yours can become your greatest ally or your worst enemy. It is all up to how you wish to face them. The world can be really scary, and I know that because I was one of those scary things that you had to face to get to where you are now. But just as your world can shift with just one sincere heart, you can do that all over again. Sincerity was what got us to see your blooming petals and soon all dragons that exist will see that too. Though,” he narrowed his eyes, “you have to be careful otherwise they’ll try to steal you away.”

“As if that would ever happen,” you told him with a shake of your head and a bitter smile.

“What do you mean?” He asked as he gave you a light squeeze. “You’re beautiful, Y/N, anyone would be lucky to have you.”

“I know what you mean, Hoseok, but I…” You looked away, eyes shaking as you could feel the tears coming. “I don’t want to be seen as just...that. I don’t want to be seen as just Y/N, Keeper of the Dragons, as a human, as a human girl who managed to become an important figure to the dragons and is now...and is now someone who can be used to win battles.” You took your hand from Hoseok to hold your face, hiding the tears that fell from your eyes the more your voice shook. “I know it’s selfish of me but I don’t want to be used as a tool. I don’t want to be seen as someone who’s far greater or far lesser than everyone else. I want to be seen as an equal, as an ally. I don’t want to be a weapon. I’m so scared, Hoseok.”

The sight of your tears, the soft cries and soft whimpers that left your lips made Hoseok’s heart ache when you finally decided to break down and tell him the things that had been going on inside your head.

Back then when you were in front of prince Hyungwoo, the way he held your wrist probably reminded you of how cruel and forceful Jinyoung had been towards you. Though he himself hadn’t ever witnessed the cruelty from both Jinyoung and the village you grew up in, he was sure the memories only served you as a horrible reminder of what you were to those people.

Hoseok wrapped his arms around you and in just a split second, your cries grew louder as you leaned against him, eventually getting too weak to hold yourself up on your own so you fell into his arms and the two of you sat there on the carpet floor.

“It isn’t selfish to want something for yourself, Y/N,” he said in such a soft tone as he held you close and tight. “Just because you are the Keeper does not mean you have to belong to everyone. You belong to your own self. Not me, not the Eastern Clan, not the dragons. You belong to you and no one should feel as if they can use you for their own benefits.”

“But…”

“You have a duty to hold as a Keeper, yes,” Hoseok nods, cutting you off gently, “but just because the Keeper’s job is to protect everyone, it does not mean that you are to be used as a tool. My love, I know the world hasn’t been fair to you but you have us now. You're not alone. Whatever you wish to do, we’re with you. Me, Namjoon, Seokjin, Yoongi, Jimin, Taehyung, and Jungkook. If it seems as if the world is not on your side, know that we are. I believe in you, Y/N. It’s okay to be afraid and it’s okay to lean on others when things aren’t going the way you hope for it to go. No matter what, you are you, and no one can take that away from you.”

“Hoseok..” You called his name.

“What is it?” Hoseok gently asked.

“I want to go home.”

The raw broken tone in your voice made his heart ache and although there were still a few days to go and the sun had yet to set, how could Hoseok ever say no when you’ve finally voiced out a selfish wish for the first time?

“Okay.” So he said, giving you a nod and a soft kiss to the crown of your head. “We’ll go home.”

[crushedsweets]

OK PART 2

NO NEED TO ASK PERMISSION OR DO ANYTHING LOL if i made some requirement it would be weird imo... plus make it harder to answer asks w/o clogging up my feed...so yk... yeup! same goes for everyone, just send a normal ask, tag it as an emoji, and we go from there LOL. otherwise im way less likely to respond granting permission cuz i feel awkward

best of news for past you. i have posted more kate since i got this. W

IM GLAD I THINK!!!

ur so sweet anon. thank u. HAHA i love her. gotta draw some more asap

THERE R A LOT OF U GUYS... HAHA

he is hell on earth...most foul man.... the smell of BO is unbelievable....

i love when people roleplay werewolves. i think its funny. the alpha in them..

THIS WOULD BE SO FUCKING FUNNY TOBY WOULD BE SO FUCKING MAD IT WOULD BE OVER. IT WOULD BE SO OVER.

TYSM!! <3333 UR SO SWEET THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU!!

TREAT ?.... TREAT!!!!

its so funny how liu attracts so many gay men and jane attracts so many gay women. who does jeff attract. (nobody)

joey please explain this to me...asap..

TOBY KNOWS HOW TO BEAT BOX I KNOW IT I JUST KNOW IT HE SPENT FOREVER IN HIS BEDROOM IN HIS YOUTH BEATBOXING AND HE SHOWED LYRA ONE DAY AND SHE LAUGHED AT HIM AND HE SHOVED HER AND WENT TO HIS ROOM TO SULK

shes not in my au! if she is, she'd prob just some sort of spirit that wanders about.. maybe only friends with other ghosts

thank you.. i feel...so safe right now.. <3...

explain

DUDE WEEZER COVER ART IS ALWAYS SO FUNNY TO ME YOU SHOULD DO IT. ALSO THANK YOU SO MUCH!!YOURE SO SWEET <333

THANK YOU SO MUCHHH <333 i love nina so much shes so sweet tysm

HELLO!!!!! this is a super sweet concept but unfortunately.. im not capable of doing any sort of blank/reader/etc sort of concept cuz im bad at putting in a blank canvas HAHA BUT I THINK I SAW SOMEONE ELSE GET THIS ASK AND THEY GAVE A REPLY SO I HOPE U GOT SMTH GOOD

yes but it will be me x kate

i think so too. his skin would be very unpredictable. some days he'll just get a nice tan, some days he'll burn so bad he gets blisters. sun spots, freckles, moles, beauty marks, scars. he has everything there is to have on his skin. such is life

beyond fucking canon tbh. yeah.

i think you sent this when i asked for people to ask me for nurse ann headcanons AHHAHA but ill try to put out more just in case.

aw wait thats so cute i never even noticed this

AHHH I AGREE A LOT I SUPER AGREE. "running and fighting for freedom" freedom is such a huge thing for toby... "this is the last time i'll cry lullabies" im sure several times in his youth, he swore to god 'this is the last time someone takes xyz (power, joy, safety, etc) from me' . many times he was brought to tears and his dad beat it out of him. now he's stuck with swearing to god nobody will EVER take that shit from him ever again. 'im so tired of walking through this fire' literally . the second he walked into the fire he set when he was 17, he's been living through it every fuckign day he works under slendy and it suuuucks fucking aaaassss....

HELLO THANK UUUU AGAIN tbh i think! i think i'd just throw him into Dina's cult. he'd constantly paint her and treat her as a muse, because she's the center and 'goddess' of the cult. and then, to replicate the slaughter he committed in his university, he would instead mass-murder the cult after dina's disappearance... maybe die, maybe spend forever searching for her. maybe just go to jail after. but he'd def be apart of dina and lazari's story.

I HAVE SEEN DIGITAL CIRCUS!!! hmmm...... i think... kate as zooble for sure. lulu as gangle for sure. brian as kaufmo idk why... ummmm.... jack as pomni. maybe toby can be caine? not very fitting but also i feel like i could force it somehow.... i dunno who would be kinger tbh.

OK I NEED TO CLEAR MY ASKBOX

IM JUST GONNA ANSWER A TON OF THEM HERE SO I DONT CLOG UP MY FEED....

hi >.<

this is so fucking sweet i remembered how happy i was when i first got my car. i cried everyday for a week straight because i was so happy. very glad yall got to watch me get my first car. i spend over an hour in her every day commuting now. LMFAOOO (i named her lindsay btw) ((after tdi lsinday)). im so sorry im late but thank you so much this meant sm !!! <3

you asked me this in august im evil oh my god. anyway i aagree. but i am always inclined to forever think he's a midwest emo guy. twin sized mattress forever

SHE NEEDS AND DESERVES SO MANY.

im immediately inclined to say clocky or toby the second i see time and fire mentions. so ticciwork. my clocky is often a bit messy so she'd be pissed and angry and upset over the sort of war she's found herself in, especially as she sees toby just falling deeper into it. 'my god, was i oblivious?' when she finally realizes toby will always, always put Slenderman before her. frustrating. 'hell stays hungry for a world so weak' natalie is hungry for a good world, but she thinks everyone is too weak for goodness, meanwhile toby is hungry for power so he can make everyone else seem weak. etc. 'they only want you to bleed' they being slendy, operator, zalgo, etc etc etc... power, being a pawn, fighting, using humans as toys in a battlefield, etc etc.. yeah

RELEASE ME JOEY

i genuinely think nina is a really good influence on so many of the creeps. like theyre all assholes, traumatized, refuse to believe in the good in the world, etc etc. but nina is traumatized and still kickin. she comes in like ^_^ hello chat. and i think that, while its still important to feel the shitty feelings, it's really grounding to see someone whos just so .. able to be happy. idk. someone who SEEKS joy, rather than expects it to fall into their lap, and blames the world when it doesnt

this si perfect idk why i forgot about bats for him. gotta get back into this idea

AHHH OK I WILL DO MORE EVENTUALLY i just wanna say thank yewww i think theyre such a good sibling dynamic. like little brothers and big sisters and both being little assholes to eachother but would die for the other. idk. ugh. important to me.

actually this sounds really sweet..... thats funny cuz i was JUST talking to a friend about who i would have EJ go endgame with if i had to, but i couldnt settle on anyone. but liu seems like a good fit for ej. i think they'd be super sweet

ANON ME TOO AHHHH ITS LITERALLY MY FAVORITE FUCKING THING EVER. I DONT GAF ABOUT EVIL MEAN 'CANON' SLENDER I LOVE WHEN HE'S A DAD AND WORRIES AND STRESSES. IEPFB AND KASTOWAYS SLENDY>

AH THANK YOU!!! he reminds me of my little cousins HAHA theyre like 10-14 right now and theyre all cuties.... just playing roblox and being mischievous...

THIS IS ABOUT THE BLUSHING NAT DRAWING ISNT IT AHAH OMG THANK YOU!!! i think shes so cute. i know she cant handle compliments. she's either deadpanned 'thanks' or just covers her face and says 'shut up' cuz she doesnt know what to do.

I LOVE HER TOO!!!

GOOD NEWS THEN ive drawn her a handful of times since u sent this HAHA TYSM

you sent like... natobina i think... ok tbh kinda slaps

OK REAL but also when i read it i keep reading it as 'cochina' and i cannot bring myself to name the throuple that </3 HAHA

TBH AHAHA I SEE IT. TOBYS AMETHYST GARNETS NATALIE AND NINA IS STEVEN.

i want jeff to ache in his loneliness

i need to draw connie asap but also THANK YOU SO MUCH AGAIN FOR THE CAR CONGRATS I REALLY APPRECIATE IT IM SO HAPPY I LOVE MY CAR SO MUCH i gotta go vaccuum her..

shes such a cat to me. feline. of sorts, if you will

also good news for you anon, i have also drawn her an ungodly amount of times since youve sent this. LOL

THEYRE MY ANGELS I HAVE MORE OF THEM !!! I LOVE THEM!! AHHHGGG

literally the second that people tell me i made them start to like clocky i am overwhelmed with joy. i feel so much ache when people aren't fond of her bc shes so fucking cool and such a good character and so much fun. so sad that 2015 era creepypasta fandom destroyed her. but im here to fix it...

IM SORRY ANON I BARELY DRAW HIM HES JUST SO BOYISH I LAUGH EVERYTIME I SEE HIM FKAHAHAAH OK OKOK ILL CHANGE ILL DRAW HIM I SWEAR

I REMEMBER WHEN I FIRST STARTED DOING EMOJI ANONS BAHAHA u guys r funny

incredibly. happy. to do this to u.

nope! im not too interested in the 2021 nina just cuz i feel like i've seen that character concept many times (not just in jane), BUT if i had to do my own intepretation of her, 2021 nina would be INCREDIBLY immature in like. not a childish way, but an entitled, angry-fueled adult who cannot comprehend anyone else's thoughts/feelings. and thus, would despise OG nina (although within reason, OG nina idolizes the person who killed her family) . but even if there wasnt a good reason to dislike OG nina, she'd be mean. and OG nina would be mad and bitch. and theyd theyd fight. HAHA

I-IF...???????? ANON?

HELD TO THE FUCKING BRIM

[anime-grimmy-art]

What do you do when there’s not much to an AU? You make up your own stuff, ofc. And as is per usual when I make Character Designs, I make up a shit ton of lore too.

The ramblings under the cut, but what I’m really interested in, is what you guys think. Do you guys have any headcanons/ideas for this AU? Let me hear them! Also, if you don’t wanna read on tumblr, here’s the Google Docs link: https://drive.google.com/file/d/151yshHxnb_--P6eMKkwkI2dee9xC_Llb/view?usp=sharing

Before I get into the characters’ roles, here’s some general facts and backstory of their town:

- Basically, it’s Undertale meets Harvest Moon / Stardew Valley. Well, kinda. I at least used that approach for coming up for the jobs for the characters. You know, how there’s always a general store, a doctor, a smithy, etc.

- The usual story of a HM game is that you come to a town that’s way past its glory days and you, as the player/farmer, help them get back to that. The “backstory” of the town is that that already kinda happened. I’ll get into it more in the character description, but basically when Asgore was still mayor, the town got really popular. Then yadda yadda, a certain tragedy happened, two kids died, and the town suddenly got very bad publicity. There was a lot of stuff going on back then, bad reputation being spread and also a lot of law stuff, cos, you know, supposed child murder ‘n all, so Asgore made the decision to shut off the town to ppl from outside. This was in the interest of most monsters living there, because as fun as it is to have a lot of people coming there, most just wanted to live a quiet life. Not everyone was happy with that though, so many moved away from town and some others are trying to get the town back on its feet. But more on that later.

On to the characters:

I’m just gonna start with the skelebros, cos it’s their fault in the first place I got so invested.

Basically, they are what the player is in hm/sdv. They just showed up one day, took over the abandoned farmhouse and began their life there. The two came to town way after it was “closed” and since then a new mayor has opened the possibility for new residents to move in. Their farm helps the economy of the town a lot and the mayor, like usually in hm games, is trying to use that to make the town more known again. The skelebros aren’t really working towards that goal however.

So, now a bit more detail on them individually.

Papyrus:

- The design is mostly based on what’s “canon” in this au.

- He works mostly on the fields and is in charge of the crops. Their fields aren’t spectacularly big, but still big enough to plant a few dozen rows of veggies. 

- Paps also helps out a lot in town when he has the time. He helps Asgore with his plants, he goes fishing with Undyne, helps Toriel carry crates around and so on. This is inspired by the part-time job mechanic in HM ToT.

- Unbelievably, in this AU Pap is not an absolutely awful cook. Since he helps out at Muffet’s and Grillby’s a lot, they tend to show him some tricks to cooking. Even though Pap’s not a big fan of the greasy or overly sweet cooking those two do, he picks up a lot.

Sans:

- Again, design mostly based on the “canon” look. Maybe a bit more baggy.

- This is finally an AU this dude gets to rest. Since there are no resets and he doesn’t have to see his bro die again and again, for once in his life, he’s not a sad ball of depression. He’s just a chill and lazy dude that loves to make puns. Though, since he’s not too experienced with the feelings of loss, helplessness or grieving, he still tends to hide behind puns and fakes smiles if he does feel bad.

- Sans is in charge of the animals on the farm. Papyrus begrudgingly gave him that role since Pap’s loud demeanour and hectic movements usually scare the animals. Sans’ relaxed attitude draws the animals to him naturally and even if Pap mostly finds him sleep against a tree, in a stack of hay or on one of the sheep, the animals are always fed, healthy and relaxed, so Sans seems to be doing his job.

- Sans always has a small chic sit inside his hoodie or hat. Is it always the same one? Who knows, maybe.

- Sans also, somehow, can produce eggs out of thin air. Grab into his hoodie pocket, in his pants pocket, in his hat, in his slipper, there’s suddenly always an egg there. On good days he can even make butter or cheese appear. 

Gaster:

- He’s literally just a scarecrow in this. Though, if you ask any of the bros why they designed their scarecrow that way, they won’t have an answer.

Frisk&Toriel:

- Frisk is mostly based on what I wore myself as a kid in summer. Just a loose shirt with a cappy. Toriel basically has her ut gown, just with an apron on top.

- Frisk just appeared outside the “magical” forest one day. Napstablook and his cousin found them and brought them to Toriel, who has been taking care of them since.

- Toriel runs the general store in town, but also often takes care of the few kids that still live there.

- Frisk usually helps out in Toriels store, plays with the other kids or sits around at Asgore’s. They’re notorious for nabbing small snacks, mostly from Asgore’s plants. You’ll always find them munching on something. 

- Frisk was in town before the skelebros. Since they’d moved in, Frisk often went to spy on their farm. After a small incident with angry chicken, Frisk got to know the two better and now they see them as something between brothers and uncles.

- But Frisk honestly gets along with everyone. Just like in UT, they’ve not only been adopted by Toriel but literally everyone.

- Toriel and Asgore’s relationship is not as bad as in the main game, since, you know, Asgore didn’t kill literal children, but there’s still tension between them. Back when Asriel and Chara died and the whole thing with the bad rep for the town began, Toriel felt betrayed by Asgore focusing more on the town than giving their deceased kids the grieving they deserved. They’re not divorced, but Toriel still moved out and said needed space to think. Now that Frisk is in the picture though, the both of them are slowly coming to even ground and may even be able to talk things out and clear up the uncertainty of their decisions.

Asgore:

-Asgore has his UT Ending / Deltarune clothes, just with a gardener’s belt.

- He’s the previous mayor of the town, but after all the crap that happened, he stepped down from the position. Now he has his own little shop and sells seeds, saplings, homegrown veggies and fertilizer. So, basically what e.g. the Marimba Farm is in HM AP

- His main customer is Papyrus and they’re on friendly terms. Asgore is worried about how much and how hard Pap works, so he often gives him a discount. 

- Since his family’s past tragedy, Asgore is kind of nervous around kids. So, when he first met Frisk, he hoped they’d not visit him too often. But to his chagrin, Frisk took an instant liking to him and spends a lot of time at his shop (and steals eats the fresh grown veggies). Now, he’s really grateful for that, because for one, he loves Frisk as dearly as he had his own children, and also because now the tension and mistrust between him and Toriel seem to grow smaller day by day.

Undyne&Alphys:

- I gave Undyne a pretty basic fisher’s outfit. Alphys basically has Elli from HM’s outfit, just a bit more doctory stuff added. She still has her canon lab coat too.

- In essence, Undyne and Alphys have 2 completely different jobs. Alphys is the resident doctor and Undyne runs the fish market.

Two things. Yes, I know Alphys is more a mechanic than a doctor, she fits the aesthetic though, so she’s the doc now. And no, Undyne being a fisherwoman is not cannibalism, think of it more as a shark hunting smaller fish.

- The reason I lump them together is because they act as the local “smithy”. Alphys is still really tech savvy in this (I mean, Mettaton is still part of this AU), so she takes on most problems with electronics and stuff. For Undyne, I didn’t want to lose her Royal Guard’s Captain image, so she’s really good at handling tools (and weapons, but Al doesn’t let her make them anymore). So basically, if there’s a broken tool, you can be sure that either Undyne or Alphys can fix it.

- As for relationships, those two are still an item. Alphys is still really shy and a shut-off, but since Undyne and Pap become best friends, she gets to know the skelebros better. She and Sans especially get along well, since most of the time Undyne and Papyrus are let loose, they sit back and talk about science-y stuff. (no, Sans doesn’t have a background in science but he’s still into sci-fi)

- Alphys has a bit of a strained relationship with both Asgore and Mettaton.

Back when Chara and Asriel died, it was because of “illness” (maybe poisoning?). Alphys feels awful because with her back then limited knowledge on medicine she couldn’t help the two. Asgore doesn’t hold anything against her but Alphys can’t help but feel guilty.

Alphys still built Mettaton’s body in this one. The two had a really big disagreement, because Mettaton hated the fact the town was going to close, and he couldn’t understand how Alphys could feel otherwise, even more so endorse the idea.

Mettaton, Napstablook, Mad Dummy/Mew Mew:

- Napsta and Dummy are pretty self-explanatory, they got straw hats. Mettaton’s outfit is a bit of a joke cos it’s a play on “work at the top and party at the bottom”. The tie has two different sides, one with the yellow red pattern, the other completely red. His “top part” is the business part, because when he’s on tv or in the mayors’ office, you don’t usually see his feet. The bottom is his party/dance part, cos his dancing/entertainment channels mostly feature his legs. 

- Mettaton, still a robot, Napstablook and Mad Dummy are all still cousins in this AU.

- Originally, they all lived and worked at the Blook Farm, the Animal Farm of this AU. Mettaton, however, despised that simple live and after befriending Alphys and her building him a body, he left the Farm to pursue bigger things. 

- Mettaton runs the local tv network. From weather to game shows, he does it all. He also runs the tailor shop in town that sells his designer clothes and merchandise. After Asgore stepped down, Mettaton also took over the role of town’s mayor and now works towards making the place more known again. Not everybody is happy with him doing that though.

- One of those people is the Mad Dummy. He can’t stand people anyways and he always claims that history would just repeat itself.

- Since the whole family is made of ghosts, they have different dummies and scarecrows they can use to take care of the animals. To mock Mettaton and kinda get back at Alphys for giving MTT such an opportunity, Mad Dummy found the blueprints for the Mew Mew robot and now modelled one of their scarecrows after it. 

- Napstablook isn’t fond of taking over obejcts like his cousins do, so he mostly takes care of the snails. Somehow, he can interact with them even when incorporeal. 

Muffet&Grillby:

- The two of them run the Inn together. Muffet cooks in the daytime and makes desserts, Grillby manages the bar in the evening. 

- The two still can’t really stand each other but working together like this benefits them both because their rivalry just spurs them on more.

- Even though Grillby is a patient person, somehow Muffet is the only person who riles him up enough to retaliate. (Well, maybe except for Sans, he’s a strong second).

So, basically everything between those two is a challenge in some way. Even if Papyrus doesn’t notice, even his cooking lessons are a challenge for them. 

- Even though they’re constantly bickering, after working together for so many years, there’s a strange level of respect and trust between them. Even if back when they first started this business, they’d pour salt into an already open wound, nowadays they’d know better and just take a step back from the other or even comfort the other (on very rare occasions only). 

Asriel&Chara:

- They be dead. Kinda.

Some Characters that’d live in that town too but that I haven’t made designs for:

- Gerson is the original smithy of the town. He’d grown up in a family of smiths, but he’d always had an appreciation for the sea. That’s why, when the town became more deserted and Undyne had a good enough skill level as smith, he took up the Captains hat and now mostly spends his days out on sea. He also ferries people to places if they need him to. Oh, and just like in canon, Undyne learned most of her skills from him.

- Burgerpants is a poor dude Mettaton basically kidnapped when he was trying to get fame in the city. Now Burgerpants works wherever MTT needs him to, be that as cameraman for the tv shows, cashier in his tailor shop or his slave secretary in the mayor’s office.

- MK is Frisk’s best kid friend. MK’s parents are in charge of shipping the goods out of town and paying the individual people. MK’s the one that usually collects the goods at the end of the day.

- Other than that, there are only a few people in town. I’d imagine the older folks or the really young families stayed in town after it was closed. I think the librarby dude would still run the library. Some Snowdin residents like the stone family or the dogs also might still live there. 

[buckyownsmylife]

plagiarism and bullying

I am not sure how much readers of this community know about what’s been happening, but I know pretty much anyone who writes has been going through hell the last couple of months because of authors who have grown too big for their own heads - and have effectively managed to poison the entire community with their behavior, which is precisely what I feared.

And I am sick of it.

I am sick of what can only be described as psychological and emotional harrassment, done privately so people feel isolated and scared to post anything.

I am sick of people thinking they own tropes, alternate universes, clichés, pairings, characters, even GENERAL PLOT POINTS that no one can possibly possess and take ownership of.

I am sick of these same people being the ones who can’t see an idea being thrown in front of them before attaching themselves to it until the original author is forced to pull back on something they’ve been working on because this other person who they considered a friend posted it before (oh yeah. I know all about those of you who are calling out people as plagiarists while stealing WIPs from your friends).

So let me give it to you straight - and this is coming from someone who is actually a victim of plagiarism myself.

Every time one of you points a finger at someone else and shames them privately or even attacks them publicly for writing a story that has the same generic set-up (Steve finds your fanfiction, Bucky loses himself to the Winter Soldier, reader needs to be rescued by one of the supersoldiers) you’re doing all of the people in this community a disfavor, by 1. making everyone scared of publishing anything, because the entitlement for the littlelest things seems vindicated now and 2. you’re taking away from actual instances of plagiarism and authors who are having their entire works stolen.

Think of it this way: can I feel entitled to the concept of sex pollen? only one bed? in vino veritas? why can I feel entitled to this concept that I apparently came up with but that can be rewritten in a thousand different ways?

If someone else can take that generic summary and run with it in a way that’s their own, YOU WOULD NOT BE ABLE TO TRADEMARK IT. It ISN’T an instance of intellectual property and it most definitely isn’t plagiarism.

You all have common sense. Use it. It’s one thing to copy an entire premise of a series, keep the same AU and character and change the lines of dialogue. It’s an entire different thing to create your own stepfather Bucky series, or mobster Steve series, or Alpha all of Chris’ characters (here, have one of “my own” ideas), with your own premise, your own ideas for each chapter and the other details of their relationship with the reader.

Or are you telling me from now on, there can be no more alpha!Bucky’s heat taking over him suddenly, Steve and Reader have to share a bed on a mission, stories with reader, charles and lee as a pairing or any other unusual one? Is that what we really want? To be the only suppliers of a certain trope, pairing or au? Can you see how your ego is affecting the entire fanfiction community hee on tumblr? Why authors are giving up on providing their fictional universes to welcome us into after a lousy day?

If your work inspired someone else’s, there’s a simple way to resolve it: reach out to the writer, confirm it was actually inspired by yours and ask them to give you credit. Credit is the actual solution for works that have been inspired by other works, but not bullying, not threats, not forcing someone to delete their own versions of a story we’re all actually sharing because bottom-line? We are all stealing Marvel’s characters and placing them on Shakespeare’s plot lines and the only thing we can do about it is add our porn and our own personal interpretations, imagination and developments.

And that means, of course: writers, if your story was inspired by someone else’s, please give them the proper credit. As I’m sure you’re aware, we are very quick to identify when something is similar to our creations, and it’s a fucking awful feeling. It’s what created this whole witch hunt over plagiarism in the first place, but while in 8/10 cases it isn’t actually plagiarism, it fucking sucks and it could have been easily prevented when it was just a matter of recognizing you aren’t the seventh wonder of the universe and actually got the inspiration to write that story from someone else.

In the same way, DON’T STEAL PEOPLE’S IDEAS WHEN THEY TALK ABOUT THEM. And no, THAT’S NOT PLAGIARISM either, it’s just common decency. They might even be okay with you writing the same idea, but it’s always nice to let them know and give them credit. Especially if it’s someone you consider a friend, but even more so if it’s something you saw as a snippet of a WIP on your timeline (as a general rule, I wouldn’t work on anything I thought intriguing only after I saw someone else was writing it).

And finally, still keeping that other point in mind: you don’t have the right to stop someone from working on something similar to what you’re writing. Can you imagine how many people are writing, at this exact moment, stories with the same premise? Of course, once it’s out, there’s a high chance the projects will be completely different, since each writer made it their own. I am willing to bet most of them didn’t copy from one another, they just happened to be interested in the same things - which is often the case here, prevented you aren’t an asshole that does what I described in the last paragraph.

I don’t know about you guys, but I am excited to read more stories about magical boading schools and I definitely hope J.K. Rowling won’t stop me from getting that.

Similarly, I beg you. You want to write your mafia!andy series? Please, do. The world needs your story. Just make sure it truly is your story that you’re telling.

tl;dr: plagiarism is a real issue, but never an excuse to bully people and traumatize them from writing. Writers, learn the difference between plagiarism and inspiration. If you do think it’s actual plagiarism you’re working with, please follow the following steps:

Before accusing anyone from plagiarism:

1. Actually talk to them without threatening or manipulating them so you can understand what happened and let them know how you feel. 80% of the times they’ll apologize and give you credit for it. 

2. Unless you’re the reincarnation of William Shakespeare (and so being, you have the rights to all of the tropes and plot twists created in modern literature. go you!) - and prevented the “plagiarism” isn’t so obviously truly plagiarism, that it can be proven with two screenshots placed side by side - talk to someone unbiased who will tell you if what you think was stolen was actually stolen. There’s a good chance you’re being delusional and thinking the entire world is aware of your stories and looking forward to take advantage of your hard work on them.

A good rule of thumb? Don’t do to others what you don’t wish would be done to you, and make sure to apply that rule to the way you approach the situation and treat the person you were so quick to consider a villain. I’ve yet to see (in this community, since I got here) a situation where the writer accused of plagiarism when confronted has been anything other than kind and remorseful, ready to remedy the situation once it’s been brought to their attention.

If you’re so certain of being right, there’s literally no reason to be aggressive to someone who’s not treating you rudely.