#so i would be director of both. with kind of a concentration in the new one. while my assistant director concentrates on the first one

[dragons-and-yellow-roses]

So I'm an area director at a summer camp, but yesterday my boss called me and asked if I'd be down to be the director of two areas and I said yes without thinking about the consequences. So now I'm the director of two areas? That means two groups of staff to train and lead, two sets of lesson plans, two areas to teach at and make the schedule for and make the lesson plans for, two physical areas to set up. They're right next to each other, but this is going to be fucking insane

[aireia]

from the stars did your kindness bleed through. — you are a spy, he is a sorcerer, a student in the very place you plan on betraying, but he doesn't know that, because he'll fall for you, the same way you fell for him.

tw/cw: reader referred to with she/her. angst with little fluff. hurt no comfort. spy! reader. spying. mentions of blood. minor violence. blades. suicide/ self harm. death. injuries. lowercase intended. author's first language isn't english. wc: 7.5K

note: riko told me to rival her 6.2k word fic, so i'm pulling up with this. (i got carried away) —masterlist

entry snippet, september 5th.

gojo introduced us to a new student today. she seems a little bit like me, but she isn’t, at least that’s what our unreliable teacher told us.she hasn’t interacted much with itadori or kugisaki, even after their pestering. i’m guessing it’ll take a while for her to get used to the new faces. not that it concerns me anyway…

the sun didn’t shine very brightly the next day. grey clouds covered the skies, the winds were getting colder, the once green leaves on trees were turning into a mixture of yellows and browns. winter would be approaching in just a few months, which meant they’d soon have those nights again, where they’d get permission to stay at each other’s dorms and have sleepovers while trying not to burn the kitchen down by making ominous hot chocolate for each other.

that morning when the trio walked into class, they were greeted by you absentmindedly staring out the window at the falling leaves. no concentration to any surroundings, considering you didn’t even look at them when they came in. yuji was the first one to say something, loudly greeting you a good morning, followed by your name, hoping to catch your attention.

you looked over to the trio, trying to take note of their expressions. 

itadori yuji, who seemed excited, waving with his arm in the air and a grin as if you were worlds apart and you wouldn’t have seen him if he didn’t.

kugisaki nobara, who waved with a smile on her face. the perfect mix of crazy and calm, you think.

and finally, fushiguro megumi, who had his arm raised in an attempt to wave, but instead looked like he was raising his hand to answer a question. his expression showed nothing, something between irritated and ‘why am i friends with these people again?’ 

he reminded you of yourself… in a way. probably not what you were thinking about him, but something about him. maybe it was keeping interactions at minimum with people he didn’t know much about… yea. you’ll keep it at that. 

the hyper duo had walked up to your desk before you finished processing your own thoughts. itadori slammed both his hands on your table, causing some of your things to vibrate upon contact. 

“so, y/n, where are you from? what grade are you?” he asked.

“i’m from osaka, and i’m a semi second grade sorcerer.” lies spilled from your mouth easier than when you breathed around them the day prior. being a spy meant having to detach your identity as a person, which also meant having to create layers and layers of lies about who you actually were. 

right before the cheerful boy managed to get another question in, the door of the class flew open, and gojo walked into class with nothing but happiness and positivity surrounding his aura… he was about to send all of you on a mission. you knew, even if it was just a gut feeling.

a loud clap followed by details of a new case confirmed your suspicions. a simple investigation in shinjuku about an unidentified curse that had caused deaths and disappearances of innocent civilians, as well as injuring numerous others.

“i’ll be leaving the rest of the details to our trustworthy assistant director ijichi! he’ll be waiting for you at the entrance.” gojo finished his ‘speech’ before hurrying all of you out the door.

-

“that gojo…” ijichi silently sighed before beginning the mission brief. 

“your task is to only collect information from the residents in a specific area of shinjuku, mainly the offices around schools.” ijichi stopped speaking, only continuing after a brief period of silence. “If you happen to run into any high grade curses, please don’t try to challenge it.” 

“my heart can’t take this type of stress anymore…” ijichi sighed.

the four of you began the mission shortly after, around 10am in the morning. you began by questioning some of the residents. a lot of them seemed nervous the moment anyone in your group mentioned the curse, some even running away from you. most of them didn’t have any information either. 

when noon rolled around and your efforts weren’t bearing any fruits, the four of you decided to split into two groups. nobara with yuji, you with megumi. after the split up, you and megumi continued the search for anyone that might have had any type of intel. you never expected him to speak to you first.

“l/n, right? let me be straightforward about this. why did you join jujutsu high school?” 

“to spy on you, obviously,” but you couldn’t say that.

“to help others,” another lie slipped past your lips.

“...did principal yaga actually let you pass the interview with that answer..?” 

“no, but i doubt you’d want to listen to the speech i memorised to get in. he told me to stop before i finished it,” you sighed, remembering the amount of struggle you faced a few days before the interview. you had to ensure you had a 100% chance of getting into the school, or you would’ve been a failure as a spy. who the hell failed a mission before it even began?

megumi looked at you with a bewildered expression, though quickly shook the look off his face as you approached an ice cream vendor near one of the high schools. 

“recently, less and less people have come by to buy ice cream. a lot of those were kids who would come by to get a sweet treat after school, so i have noticed quite a few of those disappearances.” the vendor placed his fingers on his chin, thinking of the customers that he enjoyed speaking to, even if their interactions were limited.

“alright. thanks for your time,” you expressed your gratitude, even though the things that the vendor had said had helped you in your investigation in… absolutely no way possible.

just as you and the raven haired boy walked away, your phones rang. a message from yuji, reading, “we ran into one of the victims that managed to escape the cursed spirit!! apparently most of the victims are people who’ve lost or cut contact with their parents. they won’t tell us anymore about it.”

“that’s vile,” you thought to yourself. 

“we should meet up with them and report back.”

-

“so, what do we do now?” nobara whined out of boredom. ever since reporting back, there hadn’t been much to do. you all had a free day, but nothing to fill said free day with.

“we should go watch human earthworm 4!” 

“no.” nobara and megumi said in unison, wanting to avoid the movie at all costs. 

“oh! y/n, we should go shopping together!” nobara suggested. and somehow against both yuji and megumi’s wills, you had all been dragged to go shopping.

nobara suggested that she helped you get a new wardrobe, which ended in you trying on multiple sets of clothes. nobara insisted that you got them, and forced megumi to carry your shopping bags even though you said it wasn’t needed and felt bad that he had to help.

the rest of the day went by with a blur, and you exited the mall after the four of you had a few photos taken in a photobooth. 

“my child…” everyone was walking in front of you when you heard that voice. it sounded oddly familiar, and it was calling out to you. you whipped your head around to look for the source, but there wasn’t anyone there. the call of your names continued, and you strayed from the group to look for the source of the sound. 

you were almost one hundred percent positive that it was the curse you had investigated the other day. why was it targeting you? and no one else in the group seemed to hear anything either. 

eventually, you were led to an abandoned building. you could feel the cursed energy leaking from it, and there was a very pungent smell coming from the abandoned structure. you briefly wonder how no one has flagged the place for an investigation yet. maybe it was, and was ignored. who knows?

the voice continued to lure you closer to the building, eventually getting you into the building and up the slippery stairs, wet from the leaking pipes around the building. your footsteps echoed in the building, the sound of your breathing in your ears. 

you walked up to a room with a closed door. a heavy stench seeping from the gaps of the door, even worse than when you were in front of the building. maybe coming here hadn’t been your best idea, but you were already this close, so why stop here? 

you exhaled deeply before twisting the rusty knob open. you saw the dead. blood and corpses were by the spirit’s legs. its claws were digging into the flesh of the innocent, shaking the body as if trying to toy with it more.

the report you submitted was done a week ago, and the incident started way before this. these bodies had been rotting for weeks at least. assuming the cursed spirit in front of you killed all the people around it, you were going to be next. 

you entered a defensive stance, hand on the handle of your weapon, ready to fight if it pounced on you. instead, you watched as it slowly turned its head towards you and walked towards you. your body tensed, but it didn’t seem to bear any hostility. 

it held its hand out, taking one of your hands, and you found yourself unable to move. even when you screamed at yourself to get out of the way, you found yourself unable to resist as it dragged its fingers along your wrist, a thin line of red bleeding out.

“l/n, step back!” the familiar voice snapped you out of whatever trance you were in before the spirit in front of you was hit with a few nails. 

“you’re just like fushiguro. you really should tell us more about yourself, you know?” nobara sighed, holding her hammer over her shoulder. “oi, i’m the one who noticed she disappeared in the first place,” megumi grumbled. you looked at his hands. 

so that’s how they found you.

“if anything, she reminds me of when you first came to the city, kugisaki!” yuji chirped in, seeming laid back even in this situation. he turned to look at you. “you aren’t hurt anywhere else other than your hand, right?” you shook your head.

you looked at the spirit on the ground. it was a first grade at most, but it had been weakened significantly, probably even before you arrived. it wasn’t long before you exercised it, with some degree of resistance. 

as the three of them prepared to leave, you walked towards one of the dead bodies and crouched down, placing your hand over them. 

while yuji and nobara had already left, megumi was curious about what you were doing. you got up and exhaled when he asked. “i don’t know if it works on those who’ve already passed, but usually, my cursed technique allows me to grant people on the verge of death a better demise.”

“it overrides the brain and erases any and all memories they have in exchange for peace, and a painless goodbye.”

“those two are probably waiting for us. we should report back.”

-

when you got back to your dorm, you took the picture out and stared at it. more people that you couldn’t be friends with, but they had saved you earlier… maybe you’d get it framed just to decorate your dorm.

you looked at your injured arm, which had been bandaged, and closed your eyes. 

yuji itadori is physically gifted, a guy born with a set moral standard. his mental game is easily shaken, but that might change in the future. he has a ton of room for improvement. that’s what makes him scary. 

nobara kugisaki is strong-willed, a woman born by the countryside. she cares for others the way she cares for herself, and doesn’t like showing her affected mental state to the world. she’s strong in her own way, and that’s just the type of person she is.

-

weeks passed by quickly. you continued gathering as much information as possible, while growing closer to your classmates. yuji often told you to cover up for the pranks he pulled, nobara would invite you out to go shopping with her, and you and megumi enjoyed reading together.

one morning, you saw megumi sitting by the benches eating alone. right, yuji and nobara had recently been dispatched on missions. you realised early on that you preferred to be with megumi out of everyone. 

maybe it was his personality that drew you in? the both of you were paired up on missions often, so maybe the fact that you were partners helped develop your trust in each other… when he shouldn’t be trusting you at all. or perhaps it was the way he put you first instead of himself. 

megumi is a selfless person that might not seem caring at first glance, but actually does in his own way. he holds back a lot, and has a mind matured enough to compare to that of a man twice his age, though lets loose around people he can truly find comfort in. that was the conclusion you came to about his character. 

you walked towards him, hoping to be able to make small talk with him. instead, you were called upon by someone right before you got to him. 

-

“so this is the location?” you and megumi had been informed of a cave infested with multiple third and fourth grade spirits. your job was simple. take care of them and go home. 

“yea. be careful,” you said, gripping your weapon tightly. 

you and megumi stepped into the cave, almost immediately registering that there was something wrong. a veil was lowered. were such low grade spirits capable of such a thing? you gulped and looked around. just the herds of lowly graded cursed spirits around. no signs of anything else.

“be careful.”

the both of you managed to make quick work of the spirits. a few scrapes, sure, but you were overall uninjured. now, there was only one problem. every last spirit in sight had been exorcised by you and megumi, but the veil wasn’t lifting. something was still there, and you both knew. 

something in your senses clicked. “fushiguro, jump out of the way!” you screamed at him. there was something underneath you, and megumi had dodged just quick enough to not be drilled and split into two halves. 

a drop of sweat rolled down the side of megumi’s face. how would he deal with this? his first thought was to have you distract it while he attacked, but that would probably be useless and would put you and him in too much danger. 

“fushiguro! focus!” megumi lifted his head up, and you were in front of him. you had blocked a direct strike for him. he needed to concentrate. this wasn’t like the spirit you had dealt with at the abandoned building, where it showed little to no hostility, and had been weakened.

“are you back in your game yet?” you breathed out, the tiredness from blocking the attack and dealing with the earlier curses starting to kick in.

megumi took one look at your expression and hummed. there was something about it he couldn’t read, but he can’t let his thoughts consume him now.

you aren’t allowed to die here. 

the both of you observed the curse for a little longer while simultaneously dodging its attacks. it primarily dug underground to attack, which made it hard to predict where its location was. the only warning sign was the rumbling of the ground before it drilled back up, which made it just a little easier to dodge. 

it could blast balls of pure cursed energy, and with each dodge meant the interior of the cave was crumbling. you’d have to look out for falling rocks and stray boulders. 

its weak point was probably somewhere other than its head, considering it used it to dig into places. 

you shot glances at each other before megumi summoned his demon dogs to attack it from behind. “i have your back.” 

you and megumi took turns switching on offence and defence. the one on offence would deal attacks to the cursed spirit, while the one on defence would watch out for oncoming attacks and destroy any rocks that were falling from the ceiling of the cave. 

the plan worked well for the both of you. the uncertainty of when the both of you would switch out confused the curse, making it more vulnerable to your attacks. once you felt that the curse was confident on when you’d switch, you and megumi delivered one final attack to it together, letting it fall with a thump. 

“is it over?” you heaved, your hand over your chest. a sudden realisation hit. the veil hasn’t been dropped. that meant– 

“l/n, look out!” megumi pushed you out of the way before he got hit by a shot of pure cursed energy. you hear the sound of his body smashing against the rough walls, and his coughing afterwards. you looked towards megumi and briefly saw him cough blood out. you’re hoping he didn’t take the impact head first. 

you narrowly managed to escape another blow just when your eyes snapped back onto the weakened, but still active cursed spirit. it can be exorcised in a single blow. 

you rushed towards it and drove your weapon through its body as hard as possible, twisting, and slicing right through it. it’s as good as dead. you stared at the splatters on the floor that used to be a cursed spirit. you don’t have time for this. 

turning your head away from the remains of your enemy, you focused your attention to megumi who was bloodied and injured. he was resting against the stone walls of the cave, and you could hear his heavy pants and breaths. you gulped and looked at his leg. it had stopped bleeding, the crimson now staining his leg.

you ripped a part of your uniform before crouching in front of megumi to tend to the wound. your eyes showed almost no emotion in the face of the situation, yet your trembling lips gave yourself away. you weren’t supposed to care for them, and yet here you were helping one of your targets. 

you only spoke up once you finished bandaging his wound with the makeshift bandage.

“why would you do that?” you had unintentionally let your emotions slip. megumi looked at you tiredly. “just returning the favour. i would’ve gotten hurt if you hadn’t blocked the attack at the start of our battle.”

“fushiguro-” you started, quickly being cut off by megumi. “i know what you’re about to ask me,” he coughed a few times before he continued to speak. “you’re assuming i’m going to die? you’re cruel, you know?”

you tried to find words to speak, yet all you could say was a “no, i’m not,” turning your head away to not meet his gaze.

“i would kill myself if i died on you now,” he confessed, closing his tired eyes. 

“and besides, you’re all i really want to think of right now.” 

megumi went completely silent afterwards, and you heard soft breathing coming from him, compared to the heavy breaths from just a few minutes prior.

the next time he awoke, you were asleep, your head in your arms by his bedside. he felt a little sluggish, but his wounds had been properly bandaged and he was fine, aside from some soreness. you on the other hand, looked exhausted. there were creases on your forehead as you slept, and dark circles under your eyes.

there was a plate of food wrapped up on his nightstand, with a note stuck to it. “we make a good team.”

only after did he learn from shoko that you had completely gone against her instructions of two days of bed rest, and spent the time taking care of him instead. 

-

“you still couldn’t have brought something more digestible?” megumi eyed the three of you, who had brought pizza to him. something that probably wasn’t nutritious enough for a patient in recovery.

“if you don’t want it, i’ll help myself!” the pink haired male took a slice of the pizza and began feasting on it. “oh, and since we’re already here, let’s just have our sleepover at fushiguro’s!” “itadori, talk after you’re done eating!” nobara shuddered at the sight of the food in his open mouth, while megumi looked as if he were about to kick everyone out of his room.

“we are not having a sleepover in my room,” megumi said in a deadpan voice, though the annoyance was evident on his face. “we can’t have it anywhere else because you aren’t permitted to leave your room, fushiguro,” you joined in on itadori’s suggestion.

“hypocrite,” megumi thought.

“alright it’s settled, we’ll have it here!” nobara clasped her hands together in victory, earning a sigh from megumi. “i still haven’t agreed to this,” he grumbled.

-

december 21st.

it’s cold outside. the temperatures have dropped significantly ever since the day you stepped foot into jujutsu tech. currently, you, alongside two of your classmates, were camping in megumi’s room. you had to admit, with so many people, the room considered spacious for one person became cramped.

you were sitting on megumi’s bed with a mug of hot chocolate in hand as you watched nobara and yuji fight over what they wanted to put into each other’s drinks. you found their sibling dynamic entertaining. megumi on the other hand, looked at you with softness in his eyes. the both of you had grown a lot closer compared to the first day you met. you were grateful for that.

maybe not in the right way, but at least you knew he was your friend, right?

the night went on with both chaos and comfort. yuji had suggested playing cards at one point, and he lost just about every single round. monopoly was going great until megumi somehow dominated the game so hard that the banker had to borrow money from him. 

“i’m telling you fushiguro, it’s just this once! i’ll pay you back!” “you’ve said that about three times, itadori.”

you certainly weren’t in any place to laugh, and neither was nobara, since the both of you were basically hanging onto a thin thread, and if by any chance you landed on anyone’s property other than your own, you would’ve been out of the game from bankruptcy.

but you laughed anyway.

the night ended with all of you (except megumi) in your respective sleeping bags with extra blankets in case it got cold. it was quiet. too quiet, even with yuji’s snoring and nobara’s breathing. maybe that’s why you couldn’t fall asleep.

you slowly sat up, careful not to make too much noise. you looked at the clock on megumi’s nightstand. 11:47pm, thirteen minutes till midnight. 

“can’t sleep?” a quiet and soft voice invaded your ears, and you looked over to megumi. he was lying down on his bed, staring out into the bushes and trees, which had been covered in a thin layer of snow. as a response, you shook your head and got up to sit on his bed. the both of you sat in silence for a while before you spoke up. 

“fushiguro, you like the stars, right? wanna go stargazing on the roof?” 

“are you crazy? it’s freezing outside.”

“we can use blankets.” 

“have you forgotten that my leg’s still injured?” 

“i’ll carry you up.”

that was how you found yourself sitting on the rooftops with a thick blanket around your shoulders. the stars shone brighter tonight. the cold winter wind that breezed by you every once in a while made you shiver. you looked up at the moon, it was full tonight. although the moon didn’t have an expression, you were sure it was smiling down at you and the raven haired boy sitting next to you.

come to think of it, even without exchanging a lot of words, you’d argue that you were closest to megumi out of all your classmates. when you first met him, you saw him as the moon, someone like yourself. yet you realised over the months that if you had to describe him, you’d have to say he were the stars. so pretty, yet disregarded by many as something outshone by the moon. 

“y/n,” megumi’s voice broke through the comfortable silence, and you looked over at him. he had a small smile on his face. you felt him shuffle closer to you. maybe it was getting cold? the wind was getting stronger, afterall.

“yes?” megumi looked at the moon once more, then back at you. “the moon is beautiful, isn’t it?” the words reached your ears, and you couldn’t help but laugh a little. “and what of the sunset?” you questioned him back, feelings hidden behind your eyes and the convincing smile you put on your face.

“the sunset? i dislike it. the rays of the sun blind me too much for me to appreciate it as much as others do.” the sound of your soft laughter reached his ears again when he finished his sentence. “is that so…” you rested your head on his shoulder and looked towards the skies, some of the stars now covered by clouds. “really? i think the moon is beautiful too, but i’m the opposite. i prefer sunsets over moonrises.” you continued, one of your hands inching closer to him and eventually resting on top of his hand.

you exhaled deeply before lifting your head up. “fushiguro, what time is it?” he looked at you with confusion before answering. “a little bit past midnight, i’m guessing.” “oh.”

“may i kiss you?”

your question caught megumi off guard. it was expected, considering it came out of nowhere. a familiar warmth creeped up his face, and the hand on top of his now seemed to weigh heavier as you looked at him, awaiting an answer. he slowly nodded, and you leaned in to press your lips against his. the kiss was short and sweet, the light of the stars shining down upon him as you did.

“fushiguro-” 

“don’t call me by my last name.” you smiled when he said those words. 

“happy birthday, megumi.”

-

nobara eyed the both of you suspiciously, looking you up and down. “you guys could at least try to keep it down when you’re climbing onto the roof. i need my sleep,” 

“i thought i was being quiet. my bad,” you apologised sheepishly. the brunette looked clearly annoyed before she sighed and let it go. 

“sorry,” megumi said to you. “why are you saying sorry?” you shot him a confused look. 

“we would’ve been quieter if you didn’t have to carry me.” 

“oh, thaaattt,” you dragged your words out. “don’t feel bad. you were worth it.” 

“how about you come with me to the cliffs sometime? maybe in the next few days? there’s a great view of the ocean and sky from there, and it’s more secluded.” the invitation fell from your lips before you even processed it. 

a rare smile appeared on megumi’s face. “alright.”

“what are you two doing?! we have a mission soon, hurry up!”

-

he kept to his word. you and megumi ended up going stargazing together so often that yuji and nobara started questioning if you were going on dates. to them, it was blatantly obvious that you two liked each other. hell, even the both of you knew. it was just that none of you had confessed yet. 

megumi always felt warmth when you guys would go together, pointing out constellations and shapes of the clouds when you did. 

you on the other hand, felt the spark between you grow stronger the first few times. you tried your hardest to suppress the rising guilt. afterwards however, you spiralled deeper and deeper into the guilt you felt as a spy. you were never supposed to fall in love with him, and yet you couldn’t help but do exactly that. 

you wanted– no, needed to get rid of your feelings for him. you would never want it, but you’d need it in order to get over him.

you began growing more distant. it was hard, slowly excluding yourself from hangouts and ignoring them more and more, day by day. you felt terrible. every second away from them felt agonising. you’d push them away, dismissing their help. 

the fact that they noticed your distance made it feel even worse. you were going to betray them, and everything you had built up for four months, their trust, friendship, it would crumble.

you’d complete your mission and switch identities again. anyone you’ve met here won’t matter anymore once you disappear. that’s what you reminded yourself.

-

january 25th.

“oh, you’re here,” you approached megumi from behind, sitting down beside him. the skies were dyed with violet and orange hues, the sunset that megumi had once described to be too bright. 

“i was waiting for you. you’ve been quite distant lately.”

“i thought you said you hated the sunset?” you asked, changing the subject to avoid the question. “don’t try to change the subject, y/n. answer me, please, tell me what’s going on.” you could hear the alarms in your mind go off. you wanted to get up and run away. hell, you should’ve never succumbed to the burning feelings in your heart over your mind. 

“it’s really nothing. i’ve just been more busy lately, i guess,” a lie rolled off your tongue again.

megumi sighed. he could tell you were lying, but he didn’t want to push it. “you said the sunset was pretty. i thought the other day that maybe it was because i never took the time to appreciate it, but…”

“hm?” you hummed, looking at megumi. 

“i still can’t see why you like it that much. i still prefer the night skies better.” 

the soft laughter you let out afterwards had goosebumps pricking on his skin. he watched as the light of the sun glowed on your skin, and you looked at him. “i personally prefer the sunset…”

“but if you like the stars that much, i’ll be sure to hate the sun and love stars the next time i’m reborn.”

a light shade of red appeared on megumi’s face, and he turned to look away from you. in reality though, he’s glad. there’s the girl he fell in love with. “you don’t have to do that. we can like what we want.” 

“and i want to be able to truly love the stars.” you said, your tone sullen. 

night fell not long after, but there was no moon that night. the waves underneath you didn’t seem calm either. it was especially cold this winter night, and you and megumi found yourselves bidding goodbye to each other in front of the dorms earlier than you expected. 

mental entry, january 25th.

i wasn’t planning on seeing megumi at the cliffs today, but he was there. i was planning on spending the last day at jujutsu high alone. megumi and i really are alike. It’s a fault on my part, i guess. i grew too attached to them.

i don’t want to do this anymore.

you gulped, and just before he was out of earshot, you called out to him, grabbing his attention. he turned around to look at you, only for you to mumble a “nevermind” before quickly apologising and running back to your dorm. you couldn’t bear to tell him.

megumi was confused. why’d you suddenly call out for him? he decided not to dwell too much on it and went to bed. and the more he thought about it, the more he felt as if he had lost the chance to speak to you about something important, because you disappeared the next day.

you stopped going to classes, training, and you weren’t responding to texts either. any calls were immediately sent to voicemail, and other than the picture that the four of you took at the mall months prior, which was framed on your nightstand, your dorm had been completely emptied out.

megumi was the last person to see you.

the week following your disappearance, it was raining every day. although the higher-ups had confirmed to have launched an investigation for you, megumi was sure that they were looking into things much deeper than just your status as a missing student. he just wasn’t sure what it was. 

the first day you were introduced to them, he felt that you were different in a way. was this connected to it? 

the higher-ups had also told the first years to not worry, and that they’d take care of it. as if they’d ever listen. they had discussions every single day about where you might’ve gone, if you were okay or not, and why they couldn’t see signs of this earlier. 

they got confirmation shortly after that there were no signs of cursed energy from your dorm. it was as if you had never existed, and had it not been for the pictures you’d taken together, along with the texts you’d exchanged with each other, he probably would’ve believed it.

-

february 26th.

JUJUTSU HEADQUARTERS NOTICE

one, y/n l/n has been confirmed to be sharing confidential information to third party sources. she has hereby been expelled from both jujutsu high and the jujutsu realm as a sorcerer. 

two, the penalty of the crimes committed by y/n l/n is death. the execution will be carried out promptly.

three, second grade sorcerer megumi fushiguro will serve as the executioner for y/n l/n’s death penalty.

-

a full month after your disappearance, a notice was released by jujutsu headquarters. 

megumi’s head was pounding. he had just returned from a meeting with the higher-ups, and throughout the entire time he was in front of them, he wished for nothing more than for whatever you were accused of to be false. he was hyperventilating, his face in his hands. megumi swore he heard loud footsteps outside his room before loud knocks echoed through his room. 

 “fushiguro, open up!” the familiar voices of his classmates rang in his ears. no. as much as he wished to find comfort in his friends, he didn’t want them to see him in such a terrible state, so why did his legs move to help him stand and walk towards the door?

megumi doesn’t know whether to regret or to thank his decision of opening the door. his mind couldn’t register that it was yuji who placed his calloused hands on his shoulders and told him to snap out of it. even when they questioned him for details about you, whether he knew about your intentions, and if it was the reason you had grown distant the few weeks before you vanished, he answered vaguely. all he could think of was that it was over. you’re gone, and you’re never coming back. 

megumi wanted to run into the pouring rain and let it wash his soul away so he wouldn’t have to face reality. he wished he’d wake up and realise it was all just a dream, and he could still see your face when he walked out of the dorm in the morning. he remembers the words of the higher-ups so clearly, he was to carry out the execution without delay. he wants to be selfish and give the responsibility to either nobara or yuji, yet the better part of him stopped him from doing so. he can’t do that to them. for once, megumi wished that he would stop loving you.

that night, megumi had trouble falling asleep. he found himself tossing and turning in bed, his head constantly clouded with the many things that would follow this incident. it felt like hours before he managed to go to sleep. 

-

he saw you, right there by the cliffs. you were looking at the sunset again. now that he thought about it, how many of the things you’ve told him were lies? 

megumi walked towards you, standing beside you as he watched the sunset with you. 

“megumi, i understand why you dislike the sunset now,” you said to him, earning a puzzled look from him. “i thought you loved the sunset?” he asked. the sound of the waves crashing against the rocks reached his ears, and you turned your head to look at him. 

“it really is too bright. it doesn’t suit me.” you replied. 

“megumi, have you regretted it yet?” you questioned him back, and he gulped. “regretted what, exactly?”

“us.” 

megumi wanted to say yes. he did regret it. he regretted that he loved someone whose purpose was to eventually betray and leave him. yet, his answer was stuck in his throat, and he said he never did. not for a second did he feel that you weren’t worth his time. he looked towards the horizon, where the sun had now fully set, then at the sky, where the moon was supposed to be, and finally, back at you.

“you made me fall in love with the moon.” you chuckled at his answer.

“i thought you loved the moon from the start.” a brief silence ensued. one that felt comfortable. something he couldn’t feel for the past month when you were brought up.

“would you let me substitute the moon in your sky?” your voice pierced through the silence, and he responded almost instantly.

“always.” 

a content smile appeared on your face. “i’m glad.”

megumi’s eyes fluttered open, the sun shining in his eyes. the male rubbed tried to rub the sleep in his eyes away, only to be met with a damp feeling. tears? what was that about? his mind was hazy, and he swore he dreamt, but he couldn’t remember what it was about. 

he could remember the curve of someone’s lips. yours? yea, it was. even if he went through hundreds of lives, he doesn’t think he’d mistake someone else’s smile for yours.

he didn’t have time to think about that. through the hours of lost sleep, he had convinced himself he was ready to serve his role as an executioner, and he had a feeling in his gut he knew where you were already. at the place he had refused to visit. his mind told him that you had been going there every single day, waiting for him.

-

“you’re finally here.” megumi could feel his heart clenched as he heard your words, and the eerie silence that followed creeped him out. you had a smile on your face, arms behind your back as you looked at him. 

“why aren't you moving?” you turned your body to look at him and spread your arms out. “you need to do your job, megumi.” the smile on your face dropped when you noticed he wasn’t going near you. there were no signs that his shikigami were active either.

one step, two steps, you walked towards him instead. a part of you felt as if you were walking towards your death. you felt him flinch when you used a hand to cup his cheek. his skin felt cold and slightly damp to the touch. he had been sweating. you looked down. his blade was just inches away from your stomach.

you took his expression in, and you couldn’t help but hold back your laughter. megumi’s eyes widened when you suddenly laughed. he felt guilty for loving it. was it genuine? or another one of the things you did as a spy to toy with his feelings? 

“megumi, you’ve grown attached too, huh?” it only dawned on him then that you felt just as guilty for everything you were. 

“do you know what would’ve happened if you sold us out?” megumi spoke with poison laced in his tone, and a lump formed in your throat. “the world would’ve weeped for your sins, y/n.” your expression dropped completely. “i know that better than you do, and here i am, giving you a chance to end my life. yet, you’re hesitating,” you retort back.

“so hurry up already.” you looked at him with sharp eyes, looking for any signs that he might finally give in to the orders given to him. megumi’s hands trembled as he tightened his grip around the handle of his sword. “it’s not that easy to just…” he groaned loudly.

“megumi, do you want to know why they chose you to execute me instead of anyone else?” you sighed and stared directly into his eyes. “they knew i would have resisted had it been anyone else but you.”

your hands went to wrap around his. then, you slowly pry his fingers off his blade and inspect it for yourself. “you sharpened your blade. were you hoping to finish me off in a single strike?” megumi almost choked on air in response, and nodded.

your eyes softened. “how nice of him,” you thought. 

“how about this?” you stepped further away from him and pointed the sword at your skull. “i’ll be the one to carry out my own execution. then,” you pointed your finger at him. “you won’t have to bear the burden of killing me.” you could hear megumi’s heavy breaths. it seemed that reality had yet to crash into him when he first found you here. “megumi,” you whispered as you took one final look at him, “i think you know better than i that i wasn’t trying to give you an option.” you gripped the sharpened blade and winced at the pain as your hands bled, then flashed him a quick smile before you slashed your eyes.

you groaned, holding back the scream threatening to release itself in an attempt to sooth the pain in your eyes. you had no right after all the hurt you’d caused. you couldn’t open your eyes. it hurt like hell, but you didn’t want to see the look on his face either. you convinced yourself it was worth it. 

megumi felt as if he were frozen during the entire duration of your encounter with him. what was he doing? he was spiralling into his own thoughts, and here you were, handling your own execution because he was too much attached and too much in love with you. 

every nerve and muscle in your body seemed to scream at you as you gripped the handle of megumi’s sword tight. even then, your ears couldn’t mistake the heavy footsteps of your beloved as he ran towards you just as his blade pierced your abdomen. his scream rang through your ears when crimson spilled from your wound.

ah, it seemed that blinding your eyes wasn’t enough to keep yourself from thinking of his panicked expression and guilt ridden face.

then, everything went black. you weren’t sure how long you were out for. a few seconds, perhaps a few minutes? your entire body stung, as if you were laying in a tangle of thorned roses. one thing was for sure, you were dying. 

you felt something soft under your head instead of the grassy surface the rest of your body laid on. “megumi…?” your voice sounded tired and hoarse. “is that you?” there was a brief period of silence that made you doubt his presence, but a hum from him confirmed that he was indeed still there. a smile tugged at your face even through all the ache.

“i can’t see right now. look up.” megumi looked up, and realised today was the beginning of a new moon. he could barely see anything. “could you tell me what the moon looks like?” 

“a blood moon. it looks as if roses had bloomed on the moon.” liar.

“it’s not good to lie, megumi. but it’s beautiful, isn’t it?”

“very.”

you didn’t exchange any words to each other for a period of time after that. by now, your breathing had calmed down, and everything around you seemed hot and cold at the same time. something in you told you to let go of your consciousness, and another part wished you’d stay awake longer to feel megumi’s touch. be a little selfish, you told yourself. 

you shakily reached your hand up towards the skies. you balled up your fist, a part of your childish mind hoping you had caught a star.

megumi could hear his heart thumping in his chest, and he pulled your body closer to him. he thought to himself, even if there had been that satellite in the sky, his moon was going to stop shining soon. he couldn’t help but wonder if the stars in your sky had burnt themselves out. 

maybe all of them, except for the one that willingly let the moon outshine it.

“y/n, can’t you use your technique to give yourself a better death?” megumi asked, his hand supporting the weak, quivering fist you held up, his thumb brushing your knuckles.

“i can,” you replied back without hesitation. 

“but i’d have to erase everything that’s in my mind. and besides,” you flashed him a pained toothy grin. 

“you’re all i really want to think of right now, megumi.” 

by user @ aireia, do not plagiarize and/or translate.

fun fact: i actually invested sm into this fic i made sketches of the one of the curses

[mariacallous]

Classical music lovers can debate for hours over which Mozart melody has made the biggest impact. Maybe the first movement of the “Jupiter” symphony, perhaps the Queen of the Night aria from The Magic Flute, or what about the “Eine kleine Nachtmusik” serenade? Those who know the great 18th-century Austrian composer only through the movies have an easier time of it—the sound they’ll remember best may not be music after all but the whinnying, immature, and disobedient laugh heard throughout Milos Forman’s masterpiece Amadeus.

Amadeus, commonly accepted to mean “beloved by God,” was not technically part of Mozart’s name. (He was baptized as Joannes Chrysostomus Wolfgangus Theophilus Mozart, with Theophilus having a similar translation.) After his death, however, the moniker stuck as a way to venerate him. It’s perfect for the title of this movie, in which rival composer Antonio Salieri allows his jealousy over Mozart’s genius to build into a personal war against God. But expanding on some fudged truth is also in keeping with the spirit of the entire project, as the movie’s central conflict is almost entirely made up. (Even better, then, that the original trailer featured the tagline “Everything you’ve heard is true.”)

Based on a Tony-winning play by Peter Shaffer (inspired by a short 1830 play written by Alexander Pushkin, itself inspired by gossip that Salieri was somehow to blame for Mozart’s early death), Amadeus is celebrating its 40th anniversary this year. As such, a new 4K restoration is screening in specialty theaters across North America in advance of a new Blu-ray release. This, plus an eventual availability on streaming, is the first time the version that people originally saw back in 1984 will be available in years. (More on that in a bit.) An upcoming British television miniseries based on Shaffer’s play is in production currently, but we’re skeptical it will have the same magic.

The film’s story is told in flashback, with an old, institutionalized Salieri (played by F. Murray Abraham) “confessing” how he murdered Mozart (Tom Hulce). We are then witness to how Salieri, court composer to Emperor Joseph II (Jeffrey Jones), has his world turned upside down when Mozart bursts onto the scene. His musical instincts are on a level no mortal can comprehend and clearly, Salieri feels, handed down directly from above. But while Mozart’s work is divine, his demeanor is coarse and bratty, which turns Salieri’s understandable envy into an existential rage.

As the winner of eight Academy Awards, including best picture, best director, and best actor for Abraham’s Salieri, Amadeus’s legacy is secure, but any excuse to get more people to see this perfect film is a good one. I can personally report that not one, not two, but three millennial friends of mine came to this movie kind of dragging their feet, watching it only out of an obligation to check every Oscar winner off their list. Each one of them was blown away with just how funny and poignant and entertaining it was.

“I thought this would be boring, not bitchy!” one pal beamed after a recent screening I hosted with Paul Zaentz at New York’s Paris Theater. That energetic spark is evident in the script but catches fire in the movie thanks to its director. Forman’s resumé is one of the best from the 20th century, but Amadeus is something special, not just because it is about a maverick artist who has to do things his way (a recurring theme in both Forman’s life and work) but because the expatriate who fled communist-era Czechoslovakia to follow his calling was able to shoot the movie in Prague and Kromeriz. As Mozart cackled in the face of propriety, so Forman was able to poke his thumb in the eyes of those who had previously censored him.

Forman was born in the town of Caslav in 1932. Both of his parents died in Nazi concentration camps. He attended a school for war orphans where he befriended future filmmaker Ivan Passer and playwright-turned-politician Vaclav Havel. He began working on documentary crews and eventually made short films of his own that blended fact and fiction, getting better material from non-actors than trained professionals. His first feature, Black Peter (1964), focused on a timid teenager, and its follow-up, Loves of a Blonde (1965), was a similarly naturalistic look at awkward romance. Its deadpan, somewhat bleak style ran counter to the splashy films coming out of Italy and France at the time. Both films are early entries to what became known as the Czech New Wave, leading to Forman’s first bona fide masterpiece, The Firemen’s Ball (1967).

While The Firemen’s Ball—Forman’s first film in color—was understood to be a grand metaphor for the inefficiency of the political system at the time, one doesn’t have to know a damn thing about Eastern Bloc history to respect it as an iconoclastic farce not dissimilar from something like South Park. It was immediately banned in Czechoslovakia, but it and Loves of a Blonde were both nominated for best foreign language film at the Oscars.

Forman was in France raising funds for his next project during the Soviet invasion of Prague in August 1968. He was fired from his Czech production company and ended up emigrating to the United States. His first Hollywood film was the 1971 counterculture farce Taking Off (in which square, bourgeois parents try to get groovy with their kids, to embarrassing effect), which led to one of the most influential movies of the 1970s, One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest.

After the anti-authoritarian Cuckoo’s Nest—which won five Oscars, including best picture, best director, best actor for Jack Nicholson, and best actress for Louise Fletcher—came his adaptations of the musical Hair (1979) and E.L. Doctorow’s novel Ragtime (1981). With that all under his belt and his hands on the rights to Schaffer’s hot play Amadeus, Forman went back to Prague in triumph.

Amadeus is set mostly in Vienna; still, Prague, which was generally left intact after World War II, certainly looks good on camera. And Prague was also an important city for Mozart. He made two lengthy visits there and found a very welcoming audience. Indeed, he wrote Don Giovanni with the intention of premiering the opera in Prague, which he did at the Estates Theatre in 1787. And it was at the Estates Theatre where Forman filmed many of the movie’s best scenes—ones of Mozart conducting opera, filmed with the alacrity and exuberance normally reserved for an action-adventure sequence. (The use of pyrotechnics in the Don Giovanni scenes caused a lot of worry on set, what with the old theater’s interior being mostly wood.)

Shooting a Hollywood movie behind the Iron Curtain naturally had some hardships. (Fruit and fresh vegetables, rarities at the time, needed to be trucked in from West Germany.) Given Forman’s background, the eyes of the state were on them. During that recent New York screening, Zaentz, who worked as a production coordinator on the project and is also the nephew of film producer Saul Zaentz, said secret police were essentially hands-off, except for one time. During off-hours, some members of the crew would hang out and watch VHS tapes of Hollywood movies and were unaware that some of those titles had been banned. The company was soon requested to keep to only approved films.

Perhaps more poignant was when they were shooting on the Fourth of July during one of the opera scenes. The Czech crew surprised Forman and the actors during one take. Expecting to hear the music of Mozart play back from a PA system, some well-wishers instead cued up “The Star-Spangled Banner” while others unfurled an enormous American flag. Everyone stood up and sang along, except, according to Forman, the 30 or so secret police who had been dispersed among the extras.

One can easily read the moment as a victory for Forman. Alas, Mozart’s fate was a little different. Though no one knows for sure why he died at the young age of 35—other than the fact that every case of the sniffles had graver implications back in 1791—the movie shows how Mozart’s queasiness with authority shaped him as a hand-to-mouth freelancer and how his lack of a permanent position and persistent money woes were bad for his health. After Amadeus, Forman continued to make movies about troubled-yet-visionary mavericks: Andy Kaufman in Man on the Moon (1999), Francisco Goya in Goya’s Ghosts (2006), and, um, Larry Flynt in The People vs. Larry Flynt (1996).

As for the Salieri yarn? There’s no historical evidence to suggest that the two composers weren’t just colleagues. (It’s true that Mozart did have a paranoid streak and maybe did think that “the Italians” at court had it in for him.) Salieri certainly did not live in chastity out of some pledge to God in exchange for musical inspiration. Indeed, he had eight children. He was also plenty famous at the time of his death and, later in life, was a tutor to Mozart’s youngest son. Nevertheless, no one should let reality get in the way of watching this incredible movie.

This 40th anniversary rerelease is especially exciting for old-school Amadeus-heads as it restores the 160-minute theatrical cut. All one can find out there now is the “director’s cut,” which is 20 minutes longer. As Zaentz explained to me, that version came out in 2002 during the first DVD wave, when home-video distributors were loading up packages with deleted scenes. Rather than have isolated bonus chapters, Forman decided to just release the longer version instead, though never really considered it the definitive cut. However, over time it became the only version in circulation.

While the longer version has a few splendid moments (some backstage zings with Christine Ebersole as Caterina Cavalieri), it also contains one scene that I am happy to see once again excised. In it, Salieri goes a wee bit too far and humiliates Mozart’s wife, Constanze (Elizabeth Berridge). It’s important for Salieri to be a scheming twerp but also someone who still holds your sympathy. The controversial scene only found in the director’s cut pushes him too far into the role of villain.

So sometimes edits are important! It is said that Mozart never revised, that he took dictation from God. As with so much else about the man, the truth is a little different.

[thelibranvixen]

Kara Allison, XXL Magazine Eye Candy Section (March 2011 Issue)

Folks love to hear the story, again and again, about how a wayward cutie received her first big break. For Kara Allison, her road to being an Eye Candy was par for the course. "I never thought I could be a model, because of my height and my body," says the Miami native, who, one month after graduating high school (class of 2008!), accompanied her BFF to a casting for Lil Wayne and Bobby Valentino’s 2008 smash "Mrs. Officer". After catching the eye of video director Gil Green, Kara, who was certain her 32DD-24-39 dimensions on her 5-foot-3-inch frame weren’t model-friendly, was given a major spot in the video.

Three years and 12 vids later, the Jamaican beauty and college junior has notched several noteworthy joints, such as Rick Ross’s "Magnificent", featuring John Legend; Maino’s "All the Above" (both in 2009); and, more recently, DJ Khaled’s latest posse cut, "Welcome to My Hood", featuring Rick Ross, Plies, Lil Wayne and T-Pain; and Birdman’s "Fire Flame (Remix)", featuring Lil Wayne, which included a jaw-dropping performance involving sparklers. Not a bad résumé for someone who was just out there supporting a friend. “That casting opened my eyes and made me realize that there are all kinds of models,” Kara says. "And I can be successful at it, as well". Yes, you can.

We had a schoolgirl theme going specifically for your shoot, if you didn’t notice. I can relate to it very well. I am a college student, which goes with the schoolgirl theme. What end of the social spectrum were you at in high school? Were you the introvert, the popular girl, the prom queen…the cheerleader? I guess you can say I was pretty popular. I was in the choir, so I knew a lot of people. I always was a class clown, too, so I got along well with people. Oh yeah? Channel your inner stand-up comic and hit us with a joke. [Laughs] I don’t think I would be good at stand-up at all. I’m more of the sarcastic kind of funny. Like, a smart-ass? Yeah, but I knew pretty much everyone in high school. I did win “Most Attractive” at the prom, which was extremely flattering. Absolutely, but how does the prom’s “Most Attractive” end up twirling sparklers in Birdman’s flammable “Fire Flame (Remix)” video? [Laughs] It was very nerve-racking at first, when they were explaining to me what I would be doing, but, at the same time, very exciting. I love trying new things, and I thought it would come out dope in the end. It did. Weren’t you afraid your hair would be set ablaze, though? They had a professional come in and show me how to use it properly, and I caught on within a couple of minutes. It was actually pretty easy. I tried not to concentrate too much on the sparklers, and concentrate more on my dancing. Do you think your classmates are concentrating on your recent success with scorn? Jealousy is a bitch, you know? I’m sure they are jealous. [Laughs] —Sean A. Malcolm Photography courtesy of Sarah McColgan

[thebetawolfgirl]

The Chanel Ribbon part 3 (Final Part!)

Pairing: Timmy/Reader

Word count: 2,535

Summary: The whole story from Timmy’s POV

Warnings: Serious smut!

A/N: The final part. I wanted to do one from Timmy’s POV!

The Chanel Ribbon pt 3

Timothée had been in love with y/n since the day he saw her across the room at an after party and she was asked to sing by the host. She had a voice like an angel, no angels would sound like cats being strangled to death compared to his y/n. She was beautiful, smart and so kind and compassionate towards others, he had never met anyone like her before. Sure he had been with lovely women but they were nothing next to y/n.

They went on a few dates and she was careful with him at first because she told him she had been hurt in the past and used for her status, Timothée promised to spend the entire time they spent together proving that he wasn’t like those other animals that broke her heart.

They had been dating since the beginning of 2019 and she had started to trust him before long and let him into her heart and he protected her and her heart like a precious jewel. They went steady during 2021 after the pandemic started to calm down a bit and they could see each other more. That whole year during lockdown was the most hardest thing he had ever done. He missed her so much and it was like he had lost a limb.

When his grandmother died and she actually flew out to London to be with him from the other side of the world he knew, he knew she was it for him. She was the woman he would spend the rest of his life with and start a family with some day. So he spent that full year having a designer custom design an engagement ring for him then he spent another six months planning the perfect proposal.

The day he was talking to the greatest Hollywood director of all time he couldn’t stop thinking about y/n. After the interview Mr Scorsese asked him if he was alright. ‘I’m sorry, I’ve just been thinking about my girlfriend y/n, I’m just wondering what she’s doing right now, if she’s eaten yet. She’s appearing on Fallon tonight to promote her new album and I just want to text her and wish her good luck and-

‘Just to hear her voice’ The old man finished his sentence with a knowing look and a smile.

Timothée nodded smiling chuckling and looking down. ‘Yes, Sir.’

‘Is this young lady a musician did you say?’

Timothée nodded

‘Y/n y/l/n?’

Again, Timothée nodded his eyes sparkling.

‘Don’t ever let a love like that go’

Timothée nodded ‘Never, Sir never!’

Later on at the private Chanel dinner Timothée couldn’t keep his mind off y/n, his friend Kid Kudi gave him a Red Bull to help calm his nerves but it only made him more jittery and a bit giddy. He decided he couldn’t wait for the perfect moment to propose, he wanted y/n to be his fiancée NOW. So with his mind spinning from the Red Bull he snuck out the back door and hurried down the street to the few blocks to the studio that hosted the Fallon Show. He was a native New Yorker so he took all the backstreets and alleyways to get there quicker. He arrived at the studio and asked one of the people backstage he had to see y/n y/l/n immediately.

They had already been seen out together but just as ‘Friends’ no one knew they were a steady couple.

The staff member patched through to the host Jimmy Fallon saying Timothée Chalamet was here to see y/n, Timothée was getting more and more jittery and hyper so by the time he walked on set to a confused y/n and Jimmy he was practically a rambling mess, he didn’t even notice the large audience watching them both.

‘Timmy, what’s going on? Is everything ok?’ She had turned her mic off which he was grateful for. Because he really giddy now.

‘I needed to see you and speak with you’ he muttered talking quickly fiddling with his necklace. Oh God she was wearing the Chanel ribbon around her hair from the gift bag he bought her.

No Timmy concentrate you’re here for a reason, Timothée’s inner monologue began in his head as she pulled them behind the curtain excusing them to Jimmy and the audience that he just noticed.

‘I’m sorry, I’m sorry I had this all planned out for months and it was going to be perfect but I couldn’t wait any longer and now I feel stupid and- there’s an very large audience out there!!’ He squealed in a hushed tone glad he refused a mic his eyes going wide.

He was still gaping at the audience from their hiding place behind the curtain when he felt her hands on either side of his face and he nearly melted right there at her touch and met her eyes and her beautiful smile.

‘My answer is yes, but you will do this the way you planned because I INSIST you have YOUR moment with this. And you’re not proposing to me backstage at the Jimmy Fallon Show’ She giggled and he looked at her ribbon and touched it gently unable to believe she actually wore the ribbon as well as the bracelet that was in the bag. He moved slightly towards her lips to kiss her while attempting to remove the ribbon, he was in such a daze being around her he hadn’t noticed she was pushing him back until he hit the wall knocking him out of his daze and grabbed his wrist before removing the ribbon herself.

He watched her intently as she began to tie the ribbon around his wrist tightly whispering ‘Everyone saw me wearing this ribbon in my hair tonight, even Jimmy commented on it.’

His breathing hissed as she tied it tightly around his wrist below his pulse point and he smiled slightly at what she was doing. ‘Now I will return to the stage without it, and you will return to your dinner and be seen leaving the hotel wearing my Chanel Ribbon on your wrist.’

She finished tying the ribbon into a perfect bow her head bowed over his arm before raising her head and laying it on his shoulder smiling and looking at him. He nodded smiling back before pressing his lips to hers in a gentle kiss. She raised her head and deepened the kiss and he held her waist before she pulled away completely. ‘The aftermath should be fun.’

They both smiled at each other and went their separate ways. Him back to the party and her to her interview.

When the dinner was over he went outside to meet his fans and sign autographs and everyone commented on his new accessory and how they also saw a certain musician wearing an identical ribbon in her hair. He just smiled and bid his fans goodnight and drove home.

The next morning he woke up to the smell of food and the sound of his phone blowing up, he smiled stretching and reaching for his phone and looked at all the comments.

*Timotheè Chalamet seen wearing a Chanel Ribbon around his wrist he didn’t have when arriving at the Chanel dinner.*

*Y/n Y/l/n was seen wearing an identical ribbon on the Tonight Show but wasn’t wearing it when she returned onstage after Timothée Chalamet came to see her halfway through the interview*

The gossip columns were funny and the fans on both sides were going crazy. Timmy put his phone down again and went towards the amazing smell of breakfast being cooked by his beloved. Once he calmed down last night he decided he would stick to the original plan for his proposal to y/n. Even though he couldn’t wait he wanted it to be absolutely perfect for her. She deserved the world and so much more.

He found her standing in front of the cooker looking through her phone smiling at the screen while the food was cooking. He wrapped his arms around her waist from behind pressing chaste kisses along her shoulder. ‘Good morning, something smells good.’

She smiled back at him tilting her head slightly toward him. ‘The breakfast or the gossip?’

Over the coming days and weeks they both shared the ribbon between them and found new ways to have it on their person. Timmy would wear it around his wrist, on his car keychain and even on his backpack if he had it with him. Y/n would wear it in her hair, around her wrist, she even wore it as a choker when out with friends one night. That got him excited when he saw the photos online.

After he used it to tie her to the headboard of their king size bed, he wondered how she would use it for her turn tonight.

He came home early after a long meeting with his management, exhausted and weary. His new PR Team were the most boring people he had ever had the displeasure of being in the same room as. They had put him with Kylie Jenner for a PR thing, they actually thought he would think this a genius idea. What was he going to talk to her about? He didn’t know anything about what it was she did.

All he wanted now was to lay in his beloved’s arms and hear about her day.

He opened the door and was surprised to see the entire house bathed in candlelight.

‘Oh.’ He whispered looking around and closing the door behind and walking further into the house. ‘Y/n? Are you here?’ He heard a noise behind him and went to turn but gentle hands stopped him. Before he could speak he heard her soft voice at his ear ‘Welcome home my love.’ She began rubbing his shoulders massaging them. He sighed and let his eyes close and his head fall back when she took his hand leading him into the bedroom. ‘I have a surprise for you’

Thankfully the candles were tea light candles so they would go out themselves once the wax was gone,

He wrapped his arms around her waist as he followed her to their bedroom which was all in darkness. She gently guided him towards the bed and began undressing him, when he tried to help she moved his hands back to her waist and whispered against his lips ‘No, tonight I take care of you’ his breathing hitched as she reached under his sweater to remove it and her fingers brushed his skin. The room was still pitch black with the door shut and he could only see her eyes sparkling in the dim light from the window. She removed his sweater then his jeans before pushing him gently back onto the bed he backed up towards the pillows as she crawled over him kissing every inch of him all the way until their eyes met and they were level with each other. He could just make out her smiling at him before she kissed him again then moving along his jawline down to his neck. He moved to lay his hands on her waist when she took his arms and rested them above his head near the headboard where he felt the satin of their ribbon.

He smirked in the darkness and didn’t resist keeping his arms above his head and waited patiently as she restrained him to the headboard. Once she was done, she moved back down and kissed him again before moving away from him and off the bed completely. He groaned at the loss of contact until he saw her turning on the fairy lights around the room to give them some light, he could see now in the dim light she was wearing his favourite dress he bought her. It was a simple green dress he picked out for her when he was going through some financial stuff and he couldn’t afford to buy her a fancy dress. He couldn’t believe she kept it after all these years.

He watched her undress slowly in front of him his boxers getting tighter on him, when she crawled back to him until she was on top of him. She leaned down and kissed him again her long hair falling around them like a curtain and started grinding her hips against his. He struggled against the ribbon, feeling the satin rubbing against his skin and kissed her back more feverishly. She broke the kiss and moved back to remove both their constricting underwear before coming back to kiss him and lowering herself down onto him until he bottomed out inside her. He groaned against her mouth and started moving his hips against her to tell her she could move. She held on to his shoulders as she began to ride him. He felt her open her mouth against his and he deepened the kiss meeting her thrusts with his hips. He wanted to hold onto her but he was still tied to the bed with the ribbon and he didn’t want to rip it. Although if the bed continued to rock like it was doing the knots keeping the ribbon attached to the headboard would come loose on it’s own. Y/n broke the kiss to breath and they both buried their face in the other’s neck as she took hold of his tied hands and tangled their fingers together.

Timmy whispered breathlessly into her ear ‘Untie me I need to hold onto you my love’

She made quick work of the ribbon and freed his wrists, and he pushed them both to sit up and rammed his hips upwards repeatedly. He heard her gasp and grip his shoulders leaving nail marks on his skin before grabbing fistfuls of his messy hair as he dragged his fingers up and down her back and buried his face in her neck nipping and kissing the skin there and leaving marks. ‘I’m nearly there, love. Come with me’ he gasped in to her ear panting hard when they both came and all he were fireworks behind his kids and he could hear her moaning and convulsing against him. He fell backwards pulling her with him drenched in sweat feeling the bedsheets tangled around their waists and legs.

He could feel both their heartbeats against his chest and he smiled trying to catch his breath as he looked down at her as her eyes were fluttering open and shut. He pushed her hair back from her eyes watching her smiling at him.

‘Love you’ He whispers against her temple before he reaches for the small remote and turns off the fairy lights and sees his wrists ‘Now YOU can explain to MY mother’

She smiles sleepily ‘I’ll tell her you were being naughty’

He looks down at her in shock before chuckling softly ‘Go to sleep’

He got comfy pulling her closer against his side placing a chaste kiss to her lips and closing his eyes with a final thought in his mind.

Yes, she’s definitely the one for me.

@sufferingstarlight

@lixzey

@kteezy997

@gatoenlaciudad

[earanemith]

Promises Made

Chapter 5: Make me forget.

Read here: Ao3 or FF.net pr here on tumblr: Chapter: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5

It had been a couple of weeks after Abby's outburst. This time lunch had gone a lot better. At least until McGee was dumb enough to talk before his brain caught up with his mouth. There had been a news report on ZNN earlier that day about some terrorists finally being found, Mossad reporting that with these criminals found the world was a little safer again. Thanks to the hard work of their officers. Stupidly asking Abby if she thought Ziva had had anything to do with it. As if thunderclouds suddenly surrounded them Abby once again stormed off. Note to self, keep my mouth shut McGee thought as he came down to his desk. There he saw that his desk was taken by someone ells. One of the people who worked under him.

“Boss” Josh said

“What are you doing by my desk Josh?”

“The..uh…Director Vance assigned me as leader, and uh..you are pla-placed back in your old team.”

Dazzled McGee walked back to the elevator and pressed up, and indeed as he walked into the old safety of the bullpen he saw that his stuff was placed in boxes on his desk. It took him the rest of the day to put all of his belongings back to where they were before the summer started. He only saw Gibbs for a moment when he walked past the desks on his way to the elevator. They shared a look, Gibbs giving a short nod to McGee. Him taking it as a sign that Gibbs was pleased he was back. The other two desks stayed empty. No traces of the temporary team having been assigned to Gibbs but also no sign of their previous occupants.

- -

The next morning when he excited the elevator and came to the bullpen he saw that one of the desks had been filled.

“Probie!” he heard  before he saw him.

“Tony, what are you doing here?”

“Being reassigned back.  Was beginning to worry I had to stay on the ship forever. I got the orders yesterday, flew back in the evening. It's good to be back." Both men shaking each other's hands "How long have you been back?"

"Yesterday afternoon, after having lunch with Abby"

"Yes, I should go say hello to her." Tony started to make his way through the bullpen to the elevator when he stopped in front of Ziva's desk. "Did our Mossad ninja get back yet?"

“She’s not here Tony. I have been wanting to ask you, have you heard from her?”

“No, I thought you would have , I mean I have been on a ship all this time. I thought there was a problem with communication. Do you remember at the start I would get all the emails from Abby and you from a whole week all at once. You should have asked Abby maybe she's heard from Ziva." He turned to continue his way to the elevator and down into Abby's lab.

“You better not do that Tony” McGee answered him “I had just lunch with Abby she asked about Ziva and when I did not know anything she kind of flipped”

Still Tony left, but after he came back he gave McGee a look that said that Abby was still in the same mood as McGee had last seen her in. Tony had not even gotten the chance to ask Abby anything. She had reacted just as he expected when she saw him, jumping up and down. Hugging him until he could not breath. After she almost shooed him out of her lab. Stating a lot of work backed up needing to fully concentrate. He had tried to ask her about Ziva then. Abby had shushed him  said "Ask McGee" and actually closed the door to her lab behind him.

With just being back and not wanting to disturbed the forces that be neither McGee nor Tony dared to ask Gibbs if he knew if Ziva was coming back. And so for the rest of the week they tried to get into their old rhythm again. Being fully aware one of the matching beats was missing.

- -

Eyes slowly opening trying to focus and a slight soft moan was how Ziva woke the next day. She felt sore all over, feeling drowsy and on edge at the same time. It took her a while to piece her memory back together from the day before. With remembering came the wish she never had. A feeling as if ice cold water ran down her back. The news from the doctor and even worse her father leaving. Why had she thought he cared for her like he had once? Looking next to her she saw Liat, still sleeping in the chair next to her bed. With the sight of her friend the feeling of cold got a bit better, warmed up the slightest. With each passing minute she woke up more and more. Waking up completely was paired with an increase in pain. A headache also blooming behind her eyes. The sounds she made caused by the pain was what made Liat wake up. At once she was at the bedside of her friend. Noticing the pain she pushed the button to call the nurse in. Not a minute later a nurse entered the room, this time not Miriam. She asked Ziva some questions about the pain. Where was she feeling it, could she describe the way it hurt. While finally pushing some pain medicine in Ziva's IV she explained.

"They gave you some strong sedatives yesterday. You can feel a bit groggy because of them. You are off that dose completely now and the pain medication needs to be balanced out now. This should help. If you start to get more pain or even start to be more uncomfortable push the button"

Just as quickly as she had come she left after that. Giving the medicine time to do its job Liat sat silently beside Ziva. After half an hour Ziva stopped scrunching up her face in pain, the pain having subsided enough.

Turning her head to Liat "ask."

Knowing what she meant and never one to keep her opinions for herself "Your father came yesterday. Didn't he?" Her father was the only option. No one ells could cause Ziva so much distress they had to sedate her last night. Not waiting or really needing an answer she continued. "Do you want to talk about it?"

"He left. He is not coming back. What ells is there to say." bottling up their emotions was something they had in common. Then a request came. One both asked of each other plenty of times before. "Make me forget"

That one sentence brought Liat back to the last time Ziva had spoken them to her. After she returned from America the first time, after her brother had died. Just as it brought her back to all the times she had been the one to mutter the words at Ziva. Having said them often, each time home became too much, each time her father crossed a boundary. Not wanting to talk about it that had become their sentence. If either of them said it to the other they knew what needed to be done. Ziva's method, when they were teens, had often been to grab the first book at hand and read to Liat. At this moment she chose the same method, taking her book out of her bag and starting to read out loud.

“This is my favorite book in all the world, though I have never read it.”

Tagglist: @benedettabeby, @benditlikepress, @happygirl-0408, @tivafanfic, @loudlooks @hopeless-nostalgiac @mrsmungus @and-he-will @kmpotter4140 @litningmyway @koogamy @oceangirl24 @danceswithdarkspawn @irish-trish @residentdormouse @munstysmind @lovelyme12m @tonysziva @artemisscabin @television-overload @tiva2023vibes @tivancis @ncisfanatics@tonyandzivauk@tonylovesziva@tony-love-ziva@tonyandzivamakestiva-blog@missbuckynat@zivaninja@do-it-for-the-fandom@ztarlucy@take-it-on-the-run@stonetee@mackidockie@chenfordsrollisi@fairy-tales-of-yesterday@sweetsouldhavernas

[tilbageidanmark]

MOVIES I WATCHED THIS WEEK #206:

9 MORE POST-DOGMA DANISH FILMS:

🍿 I probably seen RIDERS OF JUSTICE 12-15 times already, and I just can't get enough of Anders Thomas Jensen's 2020 brilliant thrill ride. It's an absolutely perfect movie, perfectly-told. The level of nuanced cinematic story-telling here is as good as any movie I've seen. It's about fate and chance, the power of coincidences and healing, about grief and mental health, and a fraught relationship between a father and daughter...

Watching it around now is even better, because it's actually a Christmas fairy tale (although a tale that include PTSD, sodomy, death of a mother, sale of a child (alleged), and intense bloodshed and gang violence.) 10/10 re-watch ♻️.

🍿 The new FAMILIES LIKE OURS which just premiered on Danish TV, is my 6th by Thomas Vinterberg, and his first miniseries. It has a terrific premise: Because of rising sea level, flatland Denmark [whose highest hilltop is 186 meter] is about to be completely flooded, and all its citizens must evacuate to other countries. So the nice, middle-class society which was used to life of civility and leisure, become climate refugees among other European countries, who may or may not be interested to have a new flood of immigrants among them.

Instead of creating over-dramatic situations, Vinterberg concentrates on the interpersonal travails of the members of one extended family, some more interesting than others. Eventually, the 7 hour-long saga becomes a bit too lengthy and kind of stodgy - a condensed 2 hour version would have been so much more effective. 4/10.

🍿 LAST ROUND (1993) was Vinterberg's film school graduation short. Young Thomas Bo Larsen has terminal leukemia, so he parties hard in his last night in town. But it's an unconvincing, nervous, childish effort.

🍿 THE IDIOTS WHO STARTED THE PARTY is a celebration of the Dogma 95 movement, on its 25th anniversary in 2020. Exciting recollections by members of the collective, as well as interviews with my old film professor from the University, Peter Schepelern! (Photos Above).

The 10 "Rules of Chastity" which they defined and enforced were gimmicky and off-putting, and out of the 35 movies made in this style, only a few are worth watching today. But it definitely built a highly-successful 'New Wave', it energised a whole generation of local filmmakers, and it re-established the Danish film-scene into an international powerhouse.

🍿 WHEN DANISH FILM CROSSES THE LINE (2020) is another Denmark Radio documentary about the most controversial Danish films, From Benjamin Christensen's 'Häxan' (which I haven't seen yet) and Asta Nielsen's 'The Abyss', to 'A stranger knocks' and Lars von Trier. Denmark was the first country to legalize pornography in 1969, so there's plenty of sex involved, but also violence, animal abuse, profanity and atheism, sometimes all at once. Among the talking heads, Peter Schepelern again puts things in prospective! [*Female Director*]

🍿 ØDELAND (WASTELAND) (2015), an unusual film school short - not from Copenhagen, but from the the town of Odense on Fyn . A live action doomsday dystopia, similar to 'The Road', very low-budget but fully accomplished. A father and his teenage daughter, among the last survivors, must use extreme caution when they run across a deaf, traumatized boy. Found at random on YouTube, and surprised that the director never broke through.

🍿 Susanne Bier directed 6 of Anders Thomas Jensen's manuscripts (including my all-time favorite 'After the wedding'). OPEN HEARTS (2002) is the only one I haven't seen until now. It's different from his usual fare, being a straight love melodrama with a strong, domestic plot; A driving mother causes an accident that paralyses a young man who's preparing to get married. Mixed-up doctor Mads Mikkelsen, the driver's husband, falls in love with the fiancé of the paralyzed man, and eventually leaves his family for her. It's a small mess.

There's a lot of fawning online, both gay and hetero, over sexy Mads Mikkelsen. This film surely created much of this fawning: he is playing here an ordinary guy, not a hero, who's just deliciously lovable. [*Female Director*]

🍿 Also, two of Mads Mikkelsen's earliest films: In his very first film, CAFÉ HECTOR, Mads has a small cameo, while the main character is played by his real-life brother, actor Lars Mikkelsen. An affected little make-believe story about a social outcast pretending to be Travis Bickle who actually gets to stop and kill a real psychopath with a gun. Surprisingly, this is also one of Anders Thomas Jensen's first works as a writer. 1/10. [*Female Director*]

🍿 THE CARETAKER (1997), a little nightmarish Noir about a man watching a woman with binoculars, sees a murder, maybe not. Some surrealist touches, cockroaches crawling in the ceiling, bloody hand - M'eh.

🍿 The "romantic" comedy ITALIAN FOR BEGINNERS (2000), my second by Lone Scherfig. But while 'An Education' was wonderful, this one was unpleasant all the way through. Not only the low-cost, indie, badly lit and noisy vibes, but none of the clumsy, meek and fumbling characters were endearing. There are two abusive parents (who fortunately and separately, die), and especially the main dude, Hal-Finn, is a real asshole but whom everybody tolerate. And they all want to learn Italian, for some reason. Pass! [*Female Director*]

🍿

ROSE HOBART was a 1936 experimental collage film, an early re-purposing of found footage. It comprised mostly from snippets of Rose Hobart, the main actress of 'East of Borneo' which Joseph Cornell, the shy avant-garde artist who made it was obsessed with, making it also an early 'fan-edit'. Salvador Dali disrupted in rage during the premier of this film which he attended, claiming that Cornell stole the idea "from Dali subconscious". Selected for the 'National Film Registry' in 2001.

🍿

4 SHORTS BY GERMAN ANIMATOR VOLKER SCHLECHT:

🍿 THE WAITING: "Ecologist Karen Lips lived for several years in a tiny little shack in Costa Rica to observe frogs. When she left the cloud forest for a short time and returned, all the frogs were gone. She set out to find out what happened to them – and encountered a horrible truth. Mysterious deaths occur all over the planet and have a similar pattern. Why have so many species vanished? And what does it all have to do with us?"

This outstanding 2023 science animation of a real-life crime mystery won a bunch of awards at film festivals. 9/10.

🍿 In KAPUTT (2016), two women who were political prisoners in East Germany describe the horrific conditions of forced labor and abuse in the notorious central prison at Hoheneck. Hard watch. 10/10.

🍿 GERMANIA WURST (2008) is a semi-humorous rundown of Germanic history, from the Holy Roman Empire to the present day. He serves it sliced with bouts of sausage making and lively military march music. Terrific! 8/10.

🍿 NOTHING ELSE (2001), Schlecht's second film, more of a mood piece about tiny gestures on a train ride.

🍿

MORE FROM FREAK OF NATURE RICHARD CONDIE:

🍿 Re-watch♻️: Isn't his 1985 THE BIG SNIT the best Canadian movie ever made? Yes, it is. And why is there a giant Goodyear Tire in one of the rooms? 10/10.

🍿 "Moments ago I had everything - Now there's a cow in my nose - Because I opened the stupid door!"

In LA SALLA (1996) a wacky Italian inventor literally loses his head. So much drugs were used during the creations of this film!

🍿 OH, SURE (1977), a very short short about how to make a fool of yourself, even at your old age. Perfect for me.

🍿 In PIGBIRD (1981), a man smuggles a hybrid animal into the country, only to discover too late that it is covered with some nasty ticks. It was actually a PSA for Canadian Customs. 9/10.

🍿 THE APPRENTICE (1991) is another weird, incomprehensible story set in medieval times. Wordless, it's told only through guttural, cacophonous sound effects.

🍿

THE ONLY GIRL IN THE ORCHESTRA is a new documentary about the first woman whom Leonard Bernstein allowed to play with the all-male New York Philarmonic in 1966, and her illustrious career as a double-bass musician. It features some beautiful music, but the old-time sexist theme is told in the typically pedestrian Netflix style, devoid of air and life. [*Female Director*]

🍿

2 WITH ELEANORA PIENTA:

In PLAISIR (2021) she's a young American seeker who doesn't speak French, but nevertheless comes to the south of France to stay in an art/work commune. It's about the inability to communicate, and not being exactly sure what you know and what you want. Female-focused with a distinct female gaze. [*Female Director*]

🍿 LITTLE CABBAGE is a Southern Gothic of a kind. In 1959 Alabama, a young female composer falls for a black man and goes insane. 1/10. [*Female Director*]

🍿

A BUNCH OF SHORTS:

🍿 My first Popeye cartoon, the 1934 A DREAM WALKING. What a terrific piece of art! Popeye and Bluto fight each other to see who will get to save the sleepwalking Olive from the beams of a high-rise construction site. Absolutely thrilling - 10/10.

🍿 "Shag me kindly...?"

LADY PARTS (2018) is the pilot for the series about this all-girl Muslim punk band in Camden. The musicians are one Halal butcher, one Uber driver, one illustrator who sells her art at the open market, and their Niqāb-clad manager working at cheap ladies' lingerie booth. [*Female Director*]

🍿 "Give the kid a bagel!"

A miracle in Brooklyn, and a holiday classic: In 2007 Ken Russell's was challenged to make a film so offensive that even he would want it banned, so he made the absurdist A KITTEN FOR HITLER, with an Oompa-Lumpa playing a little Jewish boy with a swastika tattoo. As much as I hated 'Jo Jo Rabbit'...

🍿 MERMAID (1997), my 5th Pagan/Christian Russian fairy-tale by animator Aleksandr Petrov, done in his recognized style: Pastel oils applied by hand unto glass plates, like moving paintings, making his films seem like blurred dreams.

🍿 When I lived in Norway in 1974, there was a little toddler in the farm, and her favorite TV-characters were the classic KARIUS OG BAKTUS. These two puppets were tooth bacteria that lived in some boy's mouth, and destroyed his teeth. I can see how traumatic was this 1955 horror cartoon for little kids.

🍿 I only watched the Israeli love story SASSI KESHET NEVER EATS FALAFEL (2013) because it had 'Falafel' in its title. It's a stupid reason - just like this film. 1/10.

🍿 "Do not lose time on daily trivialities. Do not dwell on petty details." Don Herzfeldt's WORLD OF TOMORROW, my second favorite movie of all times. I should start watching it every week... 11/10.

🍿

When I saw the first episode of STONER CATS, I wrote: "I like cats and I like 'stones, so (this) was exactly for me. 5 cats gets stoned when their old lady shares her medicinal delivery stuff with them." But now that I saw the whole first season, I say: Screw that! It was a one joke stretched into an unwatchable lame, thin slop soup. 1/10.  

🍿

(ALL MY FILM REVIEWS - HERE).

[papilio-anima]

[ afar ] pew pew bow

right place, right time prompts. @melodicbreeze / Venti

[ AFAR ]: the sender incapacitates, distracts or kills an assailant from a distance to protect the receiver.

A  hazy  red  obscured  her  vision.  The  sounds  of  crackling  embers  was  almost  deafening  where  she  stood.  Incense  sticks  were  used  to  try  to  ward  of  the  burning  decay.  No  matter  how  many  times  she  performed  that  scent  lingered.  Fire  was  always  a  go  to  when  it  came  to  ritualistic  cleansing  and  burials.

Of  course  the  pyre  would  attract  some  guests.  Even  the  unruly  ones.  The  funeral  director  was  too  absorbed  in  her  task  she  didn't  even  hear  the  screeching  laugh  of  an  abyss  mage  until  last  minute.  Her  concentration  was  broken.  Another  one  of  its  kind  soon  entered  the  mix.  She  could  take  these  on.  Just  apply  a  blood  blossom  to  tear  down  their  elemental  shields.  After  all  the  annoyance  from  a  disrupted  ritual  was  her  motivation  to  fight  back.

Once  again,  she  failed  to  see  the  bigger  picture.  A  much  bigger  one.  Just  as  she  was  finishing  her  attack  involving  her  ghostly  familiar  she  heard  a  heavy  thud  behind  her.  Ameno  arrows  stuck  into  the  back  of  the  mitachurl  that  somehow  snuck  up  behind  her. 

Oh,  she  definitely  knew  who  those  belonged  to. Hu  Tao  glanced  briefly  over  her  shoulder  noticing  the  bard  assisting  from  afar.  "I  don't  know  if  I  should  thank  you  for  the  save  or  for  delivering  a  new  client  "  she  remarked  then  looking  down  at  the  deceased.  "So  I  will  go  with  both~"

[bolllywoodhungama]

BREAKING: Koi Mil Gaya, starring Hrithik Roshan, will reopen in theatres on August 4.

Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge (1995) and Jab We Met (2007) both returned to theatres during the Valentine's Day week earlier this year. On the occasion of Amitabh Bachchan's 80th birthday last year, a number of his classic films were released in theatres.

Even though fans have watched all of these videos numerous times and they are all streaming, they all received a tremendous response. And now, yet another movie will make an attempt at this. This Friday, August 4, is the rerelease date for the big-screen version of Koi Mil Gaya (2003).

The re-release will take place as part of the movie's 20th anniversary celebrations, according to a report in Hindustan Times. On August 8, 2003, the Hrithik Roshan and Preity Zinta movie was released. Then, 450 screens were used for the release. Meanwhile, the tight release for the re-release will occur in 30 cities. The prints could, however, go up based on demand, as it did in the case of Jab We Met earlier this year.

In the film Koi Mil Gaya, which was directed by Rakesh Roshan, Rohit (Hrithik Roshan), a young boy with developmental delays, falls in love with Nisha (Preity Zinta). He does, however, conceal a sweet extraterrestrial named Jadoo. The kind alien gives Rohit his power, who then gives it to his son Krrish (Hrithik Roshan). The makers of the follow-up, Krrish (2006), concentrated on Krrish's tale, his romance with Priya (Priyanka Chopra), and his confrontation with the frightening Dr. Siddhant Arya (Naseeruddin Shah), who had imprisoned his father for nearly 20 years. Krrish's box office performance inspired Rakesh Roshan to direct Krrish 3 in 2013. It was the story of Krrish against Kaal (Vivek Oberoi), a greater evil.

Krrish 4 is currently being made by Rakesh Roshan. He said he wants to take it on floors in 2024 in a recent interview. In honour of his birthday in 2022, Bollywood Hungama held a private interview with the renowned director. Upon being questioned about Krrish 4, he responded, "My scripting is almost done. It’s a big-budget film. The challenge for me is that in today’s day and age, people are aware of and watch superhero films from all over the world. These superhero films are made on very big budgets. And we don’t have such big budgets. So we have to make superhero films with very strong content and with newer ideas to come at par with the big-budget superhero movies. Meanwhile, Hollywood films are released all over the world. Our films are released in India and certain overseas territories with a huge South Asian diaspora and hence our box office potential is limited as compared to Hollywood. So, I am just waiting for the right time when the audiences would start flocking to the cinemas once again in big numbers.”

Get Latest Bollywood News only on Bollywood Hungama.

[lovebeinaprincessworld]

Intelligence (Spencer Reid x reader)

Masterlist

Description: You really like Spencer, but worry that you’re not smart enough for him.

2831 words

“Everyone, meet our new Assistent (Y/N) (Y/L/N). I finally got Strauss to agree that we have too much paperwork and she hired someone to help us”, Agent Hotchner introduced you to the team that was already sitting around the table in the room. All of them looked very nice and greeted you, and you immediately felt less nervous. Considering you were about to run to the bathroom and throw up a few minutes ago, this was a huge improvement.

You were hired by Chief Strauss to handle part of the paperwork the BAU team could delegate. That didn’t mean you’d fly out with them when they got a new case, if it was necessary they could request you but your job was at Quantico most of the time. However, you were attending all their meetings at the BAU so you could document everything.

“Hey I’m Penelope Garcia, the tech analyst and communications director”, a blonde woman with colorful clothing introduced herself, and after that you learned who JJ, Emily, Derek and David were. The last one to introduce himself was a skinny, brown haired man whose voice was shaking slightly when he started to talk. “Hey, I’m Spencer”, he said and met your eyes, damn he was cute. And kind off young compared to the other ones, he looked more like your age.

“Hey, Nice to meet you”, you answered and took his offered hand. It was softer than expected and he blushed when you smiled at him. “Here have a seat”, Agent Hotchner pulled out a chair next to Spencer for you, and you sat down. “Thank you sir”, you said and pulled out your laptop so you could take notes. You side-eyed the attractive team member next to you, and blushed when he caught you staring, making him blush too.

“Oookay”, Penelope started, getting yours and Spencer’s attention, making you realize the whole team was looking at the both of you. Perfect, could this get any more embarrassing. “Garcia, the case”, Agent Hotchner looked at her sternly, making everyone snap out of it. “Oh right, yes sir, so, we have three female victims in the Austin area”, she started and pulled up three crime scene photos on the big screen.

———————

You were working at the BAU for two months already and in that time you found out that Spencer - who you developed a serious crush on - wasn’t just part of the team, but a doctor who had an eidetic memory and an IQ of 187. No wonder he was such a vital part fo the team at this age. You two talked a lot when you had the time, but you would never hope to be anything more than friends. He was way to smart to want to be with you, not that you were stupid, but to be in a relationship you need to be able to talk about shared interests and you had the feeling you wouldn’t be an adequate partner for that. That didn’t stop you from daydreaming though, having been caught staring into space thinking about his soft brown eyes by Penelope more than once.

Because you and her were the two team members staying in Quantico most of the time, you became good friends and sometimes you were working together in her tech cave. You were on friendly terms with all of the team though, but with her it was just effortless. “You daydreaming about our boy genius again?”, she chuckled when she came through the door, balancing her new coffee and muffin and tablet at the same time. “What? No! Of course not”, you denied, but a treacherous blush made its way into your face. “Sure honey”, she giggled and sat down, while you tried to concentrate on your report again.

“I don’t get why you won’t tell him, he’s so obviously into you too”, she sighed like she always did when she caught you. “He’s not”, you rolled your eyes. “Sure he is! Everytime he remembers you’re in the room too, he looks over and stumbles over his words mid-rant, it so obvious”, she told you while simultaneously typing away on her computer. You two were finishing up the newest case, the team was already in the jet back.

“Even if he was, nothing could ever come from it”, you sighed and gave up trying to write your report. You’d just take it home. “What? Why?”, now you had her full attention, normally you just brushed her off, but now that you actually admitted something, she wasn’t going to let you off the hook so quickly. “It’s…it’s just he’s so smart Penelope, I could never talk with him about the things he’s interested in”, you sighed, feeling slightly better by telling someone, “I tried to read the books he rants about sometimes and even looked at his favorite mathematical phenomena, but I just don’t get it, not enough to have an intelligent conversation about it at least.”

“Oh my sweet little oblivious colleague”, she sighed and shook her head, “Spencer doesn’t care about that, I’m sure! And you’re not not intelligent just because you’re not as smart as him, nobody is, that’s not what relationships are about!” “I don’t know, maybe it would work at first, but at some point he’d be bored. He needs someone equally as smart”, you shrugged and tried to tell yourself that it’s no big deal. You were fine just being friends.

Before Penelope could try to convince you more, Derek pushed open the door to greet his favorite tech girl.

—————————

“Reid, why don’t you just get over yourself and ask her out?”, Derek asked Spencer who was walking down the corridor after the both of them ran into you and Reid was left a stuttering mess. “I can’t Morgan”, Spencer was still red and his heart was beating thousands of beats per minute. “Reid! Reid, slow down for a second”, Morgan grabbed his arm and pulled him to a stop. “You see how I act around her, how would I ever be able to ask her out?”, Spencer was desperate, even after months of working together his feelings for you only seemed to get stronger.

“Spencer, she obviously likes you too, I know you can do it”, Derek encouraged him. “Oh, you two taking about (Y/N)?”, Rossi was walking by and heard the two BAU members. “Am I that obvious”, Spencer visibly deflated. “Yes, but so is she”, Rossi chuckled and Derek crossed his arms. “Derek is right you know, she likes you too, don’t tell me our genius isn’t studying her body language?”, Rossi teased Spencer, who looked up.

“How could I, I’m way to busy embarrassing myself”, he mumbled clutching the strap of his bag. “Her pupils are dilating every time you start talking, she’s blushing just as much as you are and she’s always patiently listening to all of your rants, which is honestly admirable”, Derek pointed out and Spencer seemed to be uplifted by that. “Are you serious?”, he asked, sometimes not understanding when people messed with him.

“Yes Reid, trust us, and if you don’t, ask Garcia, you know she’ll tell you the truth”, Derek rolled his eyes and gave Reid an encouraging pat on the shoulder before leaving. “How do I ask her out though?”, Reid asked Rossi now that they were alone. He had little experience in things like that, and he never ever felt like this for someone before. “You talk to her a lot, you know her”, Rossi told him, “just be casual about it, so you two don’t mess it up.” Rossi also gave Spencer an encouraging pat before going the same way Derek left. “Casual”, Spencer mumbled thoughtfully.

—————————

“Hey Spencer!”, you greeted the doctor who was sitting in the break room alone, reading a book. His head immediately snapped up when he heard your voice and he raised his hand to wave at you, but almost knocked over his coffee. His clumsiness was honestly adorable. “Hey”, he said and caught the cup before it could fall.

“How was your lecture yesterday?”, you asked him, remembering he told you about a guest lecture he was teaching. “Oh! It was great, thanks for asking”, he smiled and you poured yourself hot water on the teabag in your cup. You heard his chair scrape against the floor, and he stood beside you, pouring himself some more coffee. You didn’t mention that his cup was almost full as it was.

“You know there was something I was meaning to ask you”, he said with a slightly shaking voice and you turned towards him. “Sure, everything okay?”, you asked and he just nodded, his eyes roaming your face, making you feel slightly hot. “Do you wanna go out with me?”, he finally blurted out after a few seconds of silence, rendering you speechless.

“Really?”, was the only thing you were able to get out. You dated your fair share of boys in college, but this was something else, something more serious. “Yes, really”, Spencer was fidgeting with his hands, seemingly nervous too. “Yeah, yeah I’d love to”, you finally answered his question and he seemed to be relieved. “Great!”, he said and smiled at you, making your knees weak. Maybe you should give this a shot.

——————————

The date was going way better than you expected, it seemed like outside the walls of the BAU you two were way less tense and awkward around eachother. Spencer took you to a small cafe that was a bookstore at the same time, and you two were sitting way in the back between two shelves of old books.

“So yeah, I probably don’t have to mention that I’ll never eat jello again”, you laughed, having told him the story of how your best friend in college puked her jello shots all over you at a frat party. Spencer laughed with you, and was about to answer when the waitress interrupted you two. “I’m sorry you two, but we’re closing in ten minutes”, she told you with a broom in her hands and you looked at your watch in shock.

“Sorry, of course! Can we pay?”, Spencer said, you couldn’t believe you were here four hours already! The sun was already setting outside. When the waitress gave you the bill, you were about to pull out your wallet, but Spencer stopped you. “Don’t worry I’ve got it”, he smiled and gave the money to the waitress. “Thank you Spencer, you didn’t have to”, you smiled at him, but he just got up and took your hand while walking out of the cafe.

The cafe wasn’t that far from where you lived, so Spencer decided to walk you home. “I had a really great time with you tonight”, he told you when you reached the front door of your apartment building. The streetlights were already lit up. “Me too”, you smiled, but the doubts you had pushed aside this entire afternoon were slowly coming back. Did he really have a good time, or was he just saying that to not hurt your feelings?

You talked a lot that afternoon, and he also explained a lot of the things he’s interested in to you, but you couldn’t help and wonder if he thought you were stupid for not knowing what he was talking about from the beginning. “I know we just went on a date, but what do you think about going to dinner tomorrow?”, he smiled and you were unsure. Was it worth enjoying the time you had, just to get your heart broken when he realized you weren’t intelligent enough? Not that you would ever expect him to tell you something like that, but you were knee deep in your insecurities right then.

“What is it? Did you not have fun? I’m sorry, did I misread-“, you could tell he was beginning to get nervous by the lack of answer you were giving him. “No! No you didn’t misread anything, I had a great time too”, you reassured him with a smile, but it fell of your face rather quickly, “it’s just…” You couldn’t bring yourself to finish that sentence, no matter what you were going to say next it was gonna sound pathetic.

“You can tell me”, Spencer tried to get it out of you, but looked rather worried. “This sounds exactly as dumb as I feel, but Spencer you’re so intelligent and you have so many interests in things I can’t even really grasp, I-“, you took a deep breath, “I’m just worrying if there’s going to come a moment when you realize I’m not smart enough. I tried reading some of the books you like so much and even tried to understand the math stuff you always talk about, but I’ll never get it.” You looked down at your hands, a little ashamed to put your insecurities out in the open like that.

It was silent for a few moments, two or three cars passing by. Spencer grabbed your fidgeting hands and you raised your head in surprise. He looked shocked. “How could you ever think that? Not once in all our conversations have I ever thought that! I love talking to you, and I love how you let me rant about my interests even if you might not understand them. But that doesn’t matter! I love that you’re trying to understand the stuff I talk about, but that isn’t what’s important, please don’t worry about that. I like you, like a lot, and we don’t have to have all the same interests, the most important thing is that we’re interested in eachother”, he told you without stumbling over his words once and you were looking at him with wide eyes.

Was he right? There was never not something to talk about between you two, and you were both doing your best to understand the things the other person was interested in. Maybe he was right.“I’d love to go to dinner tomorrow”, you came out of your stupor and blushed at the way a smile made it onto his face.

“I can’t wait”, he grinned and his hand softly cupped your cheek, while he was blushing too. Oh my god, was he going to kiss you? His other hand was still holding yours and he pulled you a little closer, so you two were standing chest to chest. “Can I-“, he started but his voice gave up and you noticed the hand on your face shaking a little. “Please”, you whispered and leaned upwards. He met you halfway, and his lips softly found their place on yours.

Your hands were holding onto his cardigan, because your knees were weak immediately and his now free hand was pulling you closer by the waist. His lips moved against yours hesitantly but meaningful at the same time, and your heart was beating so loud you were scared he could feel it. After a few moments you pulled away, but still stayed close to him, loving the way he was holding you.

“I like you too by the way, like a lot”, you said softly and gave him another kiss - this time shorter than the other one. He grinned and pulled you close again.

————————

“Do you think we should tell the others?”, Spencer asked you, not worried about being overheard since you were the only two that were in the meeting room already. You two were a couple for nearly three months now, and it was getting harder and harder to hide it from the team. You wanted to make sure that it worked out before telling them. “Yeah maybe, there’s this gathering at Rossis on Saturday, how about then?”, you suggested an were about to take a sip from your coffee when Spencer pulled your chair closer.

“Woah, careful there love”, you giggled and he looked at you with a lovesick smile while you put your coffe down. “I can’t wait to stop pretending”, he sighed and leaned forward, his hand holding your face while he kissed you gently. He was always so soft with you, and you were loving it. It seemed like you two were so deep in your bubble, that you didn’t hear the door opening until someone cleared their throat.

Your eyes flew open and Spencer immediately pulled away, both of you completely red in the face when you saw the whole team standing there looking at you with smirks and smug looks. “I told you so”, JJ was the first to break the silence with a sing song voice. “I knew you had it in you kid”, Rossi and Derek were patting Spencer on the back making you giggle. “Guess we don’t have to tell them anymore”, you told Spencer, who nodded in agreement.

“Tell us?”, Horch raised an eyebrow, “Even someone who isn’t a profiler could have seen what was going on.” Turns out you were more obvious than you thought.

———————

First criminal minds piece, hope you liked it!

[jujumin-translates]

Event | Literary Impasse | Epilogue: Reunion

*Contains spoilers for Act 12 - eternal moment*

Ruffian A: “Just come on already!”

Town Girl: “Somebody help meeee!”

Kappa: “That ain’t a very attractive way to ask a girl out. Dontcha agree, Taro?”

Taro: “Let her go!”

Ruffian A: “And why the hell would I do that?”

Ruffian B: “Get ‘em!”

Kappa: “Hah!”

*Punching sound*

Ruffian A: “Ghgh!”

Kappa: “It’s alright now, Sweetheart.”

Audience Members: !!

Director: (Incredible. All the ladies in the audience instantly went all heart-eyed…!)

Kappa: “Whoa, easy there, watch your head. You’ve got something pretty important there.”

Audience Members: Ahaha!

· • —– ٠ ✤ ٠ —– • ·

Tsuzuru: Otomiya-san’s production of this play was amazing.

Director: Yeah. The sword fight was really cool, and I liked the heartwarming story about human nature and emotions!

Syu: Hey, you two.

Tsuzuru: Good work today!

Syu: As you both can tell, the new work by Minagi-sensei was a big hit.

Syu: Our resident was totally fired up when he saw it.

Syu: They were just so excited about not being able to afford to lose to you.

Syu: I might not be able to get you out onto the scene right away, but you’re always welcome to write for us again.

Tsuzuru: Of course!

Syu: By the way, was your compensation good enough? I’m willing to pay you even more next time because of how well this performance was received and how high my expectations are now.

Tsuzuru: No! It was more than enough…!

Director: (I never thought Tsuzuru-kun would actually ask me if he was getting paid too much.)

Director: (I’m sure that the amount Syu-san decided on is based on the market since he knows it so well…)

Director: (I just told him it meant he recognized the value in his work and he finally agreed.)

Syu: It still doesn’t compare to the great Hakkaku-san, but I have high expectations for you, our dear Minagi-sensei.

Syu: If you want, I can set up a fan club for you.

Tsuzuru: Eeh! Nononono, I’m not that kind of guy! That’s too much!

Syu: Heh. How humble.

· • —– ٠ ✤ ٠ —– • ·

Director: Syu-san really liked you a lot.

Tsuzuru: No, I’m… Really appreciative, but…

Director: I think you should be a little more confident now that the super-particular-about-his-scripts Syu-san has given you his approval.

Tsuzuru: I guess that’s true…

Tsuzuru: Once he recognized the flair I have during “IMMORTAL CROW”, it should’ve given me whole lotta confidence, but…

Tsuzuru: In the end, I ended up getting lost, falling into a slump, and second-guessing myself all over again.

Tsuzuru: Just like always, the world of creativity is a hell of its own.

Tsuzuru: You think you know the answer, you think you see the goal, but soon there’s darkness just beyond that.

Director: Theater is the exact same way.

Tsuzuru: Yeah. But, this is still the path I chose and the path I want to take.

Tsuzuru: When I’m in doubt, I think of all the characters I’ve created across my life.

Director: (You’ve really made another step forward as a writer, Tsuzuru-kun.)

Director: It’s not only about your past achievements, but also having to constantly move forward and create something new, which is hard to do.

Director: You’re absolutely right, Tsuzuru-kun, the things we’ve created will never disappear, so we should cherish them in our hearts.

Tsuzuru: Yeah, I’d say I probably cherish those things too much sometimes.

Director: How so?

Tsuzuru: Well, I think it sometimes becomes an occupational hazard.

Tsuzuru: Like when I was in a slump while writing CROW--.

Tsuzuru: And all the guys from Spring Troupe started acting as their characters for me.

Tsuzuru: For a while now, I’ve sometimes been hearing the voices of those characters talking to me.

Tsuzuru: Every one of the characters I’ve written lives in my head, and when I’m in a daze or concentrating, they just kinda show up.

Tsuzuru: Maybe it’s just a writer’s daydream, but still.

Director: Nah, I think that’s wonderful.

Director: I’m sure they’re all happy to have been created with such care and to be allowed to live on in your heart like that, Tsuzuru-kun…

Tsuzuru: …I’m also glad I’ve gotten to meet them.

· • —– ٠ ✤ ٠ —– • ·

Tsuzuru: We’re back.

Director: There’s some kind of smoke coming from over there.

Tsuzuru: Maybe it’s the shichirin again?

Sakuya: Welcome home! Here you go, your two!

Tsuzuru: Dango, huh. Looks good.

Director: Can’t wait to try it!

Tsuzuru: But the performance is already over. You still stuck as Tomohisa?

Sakuya: Something like that. I don’t need it for a role study anymore, but…

Sakuya: I still wanted to continue basking in what I felt and gained through Tomohisa. Like cooking with a shichirin.

Sakuya: This way, I feel like I’ll always be able to feel Tomohisa in my heart, even after the show is over…

Tsuzuru: I see… Thanks for taking care of Tomohisa.

Sakuya: You’re welcome! Thank you for letting me meet Tomohisa!

Tsuzuru: (Even after the show is over, they’ll all live on in our hearts…)

Tsuzuru: (I was able to meet Kappa again on stage, and I hope to meet a lot of my other characters on stage again someday too.)

[ ⇠ Previous Part ]

[alluringjae]

queen of hearts - sjn

summary: for the first time, one of your star students hasn’t been fetched right after class. but when she finally does, you weren’t expecting such a fine man to be her father.

pairing: johnny x female reader

word count: 5.5k

genre: fluff, romance, comedy | ceo and single dad!johnny + ballerina!reader + modern day!au

warnings: mentions of an absent parent, johnny being an overthinker, sexual innuendos (ten saying dilf hehe), slight explicit language, technical terms of ballet, a mini reference to mean girls

author’s note: sooo i came in touch with my former dance life, which led me to write this. there are links for the variations i used; their names are underlined when they’re mentioned. i am going to get technical with ballet terms here (even when my ballet knowledge decreased), so to any dancers reading, i really did my best, so please don’t come for me or do correct me for any mistakes.

although one character and her dance background, plus the name of the setting, are real, everything else about it is still a work of fiction.

i miss dancing, no cap.

leave me some feedback, constructive criticism or hellos!

Ballet student and teacher by day, a soloist of the Korean National Ballet at night.

This was your daily routine, and it wasn’t the typical 8-5. But it’s debatable whether or not it was worse, because you’re always going overtime. That’s the thing when you’re an overachiever. Nonetheless, you loved what you do. It’s the lifestyle you gradually built since your preschool days.

Mornings on the weekdays were mostly vacant since all the kids were still in school. You’d start at 10 am for a warm-up class for the company. Before you delved into teaching and assisting, you’d train right after your lunch break. Partnering class, en pointe class, 1-on-1 sessions with choreographers, self-practice, then the company night class, that’s the organization of your week.

Now adding the teacher title, you mostly handled kindergartners to 5th graders in the academy aspect of the company. Your first teaching class would start at 1 pm. It’s when the younger students who finished their morning classes zoom into your assigned dance studio. One class would last an hour and a half, then you have a 30-minute break in between another class with the older kids. Their lesson repertoire was more strenuous due to the added across-the-floor lessons and jumps. Water was always your best friend, water refilling stations located everywhere in the company building.

You wouldn’t say you’re a strict teacher, but you weren’t shy to correct anyone from wherever you stood. You’d lightly align their arms or back properly so your students were working on the correct body parts. Compared to the other teachers, a lot of students enjoyed your kind yet frank approaches. Your former students, who’ve already gone to the higher levels, missed your lively presence and wished repeatedly that they want you back as their teacher.

“Teacher (Y/N), I miss you so much! Teacher Ten is so intense. I get the jitters especially when we’re en pointe on the floor.”

“Teacher (Y/N), Teacher Sicheng and Teacher Seulgi scare the heck out of me during partnering class. Especially when I tried to lift my partner, I keep losing focus because of Teacher Sicheng’s never-ending comments!”

Not to be sadistic, but you’d simply laugh at their minuscule complaints. Even if they’re struggling in the academy, those comments were directed to fix their techniques if they wanted to breakthrough.

“Kids, you’re going to be fine! They wouldn’t say or do those things just because they wanted to. They’re here to push you to the next level, like how I used to do with you. It’s a cut-throat industry after all.”

This was always your reply, bittersweet and truthful. Not everyone makes it, unfortunately, so if you’re really striving, you’d do whatever it takes. Throughout your career, you’re relatively impressed with how far you’ve come.

Trainee at 17, Corps de Ballet at 18, Demi-Soloist at 21, and Soloist at 23.

You’ve been a soloist for 4 years. The final stage, which was to become a principal dancer, is your running goal. Becoming a soloist was praiseworthy enough because you’ve seen so many give up in the Corps, but claiming a spot as a principal dancer has been the ultimate dream. Since you’ve watched Swan Lake for the first time at 4 years old with your parents, that’s where you found a passion for dancing and the stage. Here you are years later, practicing numerous variations daily, performing in opera houses, and mentoring all these gifted kids.

Your last class with elementary kids, which began around 5 pm, reached its end once all the students curtsied in front of you and scurried to their mothers or their nannies. The remaining plan on your agenda today was the company class at 7:30 pm, which exceeds the average hour and a half. It’s worse during show season. There have been times everyone went beyond midnight to polish every scene from head to toe.

Currently, there’s no upcoming show for the public, though the annual summer recital for the students was around the corner. Selected members of the company were chosen to perform individually in it, which was both exciting and intense. It’s also because it’s an evaluation on whether you’d get promoted in status or staying put. You’ve partaken in 3 recitals in the past, two of which elevated you from the corps and demi-soloist ranks. The recent one, however, didn’t change your soloist ranking.

It was a major first in your career in ballet, and after finding out the result of the latter, it emotionally pained you. Recalling how much soul you put into that piece, the rejection from your artistic director clenched your heart. Though in time, you moved on from it and viewed it as a stepping stone. Also, Sicheng and Ten personally stormed your apartment to pull yourself together with wine and pizza after going on a short leave.

Since you were trainees, Sicheng and Ten were your best friends in and outside the company. Working daily to occasional barhopping, that’s your youth summed up. It wasn’t because you didn’t like the girls you’ve worked with (though a lot of them were fake and bitchy), but these two were frank and humorous as hell. Together, you’d help each other with your goals rather than be competitive. Over time, Ten leveled up to a principal dancer for 2 years running while you and Sicheng were still soloists. The way you’d watch Ten take all the big roles, that’s where you want to be one day.

Back in your last teaching class, the entire dance room was vacant. Since it’s mainly used for ballet classes, you’d either run through anything you’ve practiced from the company classes and polish it or warm up a little bit more.

Except for today, this was the only free time to sew a new pair of pointe shoes because your current ones were dead. Dead in a sense that the hard shell turned soft, which won’t be able to support you when you’re up on your toes. You’re not taking any risks of minor injuries especially when you’re in the current lineup of company members performing for this upcoming recital again. You have to prove to everyone that you deserve a position as a principal dancer.

As your legs sprawled in a half middle split, your sewing equipment laid in front of you like you’re about to perform surgery, a tiny girl stood by the ajar studio doors. In her neat bun and holding on to her small duffel bag, you’re convinced everyone has gone home already since it’s quite late.

You may have your priorities as a company member, but she was still your student.

“Minji!” You shouted her name, speedily waving your hand. You’re not one to have favorites, though you couldn’t help wonder how extraordinary she was. She’s always taking charge in demonstrating the lessons to everyone and improving every session in the 3 years she’s joined the academy. “Come in! Come in!”

At age 7, she’s gotten taller through the years, above the average from how you see it. She must have amazing genetics. Her legs sauntered in seconds to you. Sitting down across you, she marveled at your setup. Specifically, at the fresh pointe shoes.

“Are those yours, Teacher (Y/N)?” She perked up, caressing its soft fabric and playing with the mini bows of the drawstrings.

“Yes, it is, Minji!” You answered while trying to insert the thin thread through the small eye of the needle. “Why are you still here? Is your nanny stuck in traffic or something?”

“My nanny went on sudden leave, so my dad’s the one fetching me. But I think he’s running late from his job.”

Oh, this was a first to know about her father. In all the years she’s been your student, you rarely caught sight of him, even in recitals. Maybe he sat in an unknown section, but you’re pretty much acquainted with all the parents of your students. Even if some were snobbier than the rest because they wanted their child to have more stage time, you still got to know them out of respect. Quite odd, if you said so yourself.

After deep concentration, the thread triumphantly passed through the eye so you tied the two ends of the thread in a double knot. Seeing as Minji attentively watched you, you tasked her to cut the ribbons of your shoes according to the trail of pencil marks. This was so she wouldn’t cut it too short or too long. While she did that, you hammered your shoes against the floor to soften the hard front, bending the shank back and forth so the arch of your feet could move without difficulty later.

Minji wasn’t expecting such loud sounds, her entire body shaken awake. Her facial expression was priceless, explaining to her, “Once you get your first pointe shoes in a few years, this is one of the basic things you need to do so your feet won’t hurt too much while dancing.”

“Will you be there to teach me how to make my pointe shoes?”

“Absolutely! Come to me first then I’ll mentor you all that I know.”

The process of sewing and breaking new pointe shoes engraved your mind since your adolescent years, with changes along the way. Inspired by some tricks from your former teachers, but there were some differing rituals you followed. There’s no definite process of it, just as long you’re comfortable to dance after.

With your feet, you stepped on the hard boxes of the shoes to soften it more, creating a popping sound. Followed by sewing your elastic bands in. For your ribbons, you liked to burn the edges with a lighter so the thread of it won’t run. Kindly asking your cute assistant for the lighter beside her, you scanned the edges back and forth the flame. In seconds, the edges had a distinct mark, fully closed. From there, you slid your feet to your shoes to make final sewing adjustments. Sewing your ribbons took you another few minutes, plus adding superglue inside the shoe so the shoe won’t collapse when it unstiffens and scratching the shank with a cutter so you won’t slip later while dancing.

Voila, the final product is done! Hopefully, it can last you a week at least.

“Wow, Teacher (Y/N), it looks pretty!” Minji applauded, collecting the mess you’ve both made to dispose of later. You, on the other hand, gave her your thanks once you applied some bandages on your big toes and put on your toe pads. Slipping inside the shoes and tying them, you rose up back to your feet and headed to the bar to break them in. From plies-relevésto forced arches, the shoes gave you the sensation that they were an extension of your feet. The ease flowed through, meaning you were ready to practice your variations.

While you stepped your shoes in rosin for friction, your curious student moved to the front where the mirror lied to watch what you’ve prepared.

“What variation are you dancing to?”

“This is the Gamzatti variation from La Bayadere.” You replied, tapping the play button on your phone and racing to your position on the side. Talking a short ballet walk, you strongly prepared your arms before the music of the orchestra takes off.

This variation consisted of a lot of jumps and turns. Grand jetés, attitude turns, chaîné turns, you needed a lot of core control and proper spotting so you won’t get dizzy. The thrilling music lessened your nerves because you enjoyed learning this piece from one of the principal dancers, smiling and letting the music guide your legs. Once you nailed 3 consecutive grand jetés, the variation ended with a sus-sous and the wrists of your hands flicking upwards.

Holding it for 5 more seconds, you landed back on your feet with heavy breathing and a need for water. But before you could, small claps and cheers from Minji in front erupted. Momentarily, you’ve forgotten her presence because dancing solo puts you in your own space. You’d never let anyone take you away from it.

“Teacher (Y/N), that was wonderful! Are you performing that in the summer recital?”

Yikes, she’s right but she wasn’t meant to see it yet. Solo performances from the company members for the recital were top secret, only unveiled during the production rehearsal. Well, you didn’t think this through, but you didn’t mind.

“Can you keep a secret?”

Time ticked a lot faster today, only 10 minutes left until the company class on the ground floor whereas you were in the second. Just a few steps down the stairs away, yet Minji was still here. You only presumed that within your hour break, her father could’ve made it already. But maybe he’s stuck in traffic or at work.

“Minji, my class starts soon. Have you contacted your father?”

“I already texted him earlier, but he hasn’t responded. This happens often, he’s a busy man.” She bowed in front of you suddenly. “I’m sorry, Teacher (Y/N) for the hassle.”

“Oh no, please!” You shook your hands so she’d stop. Because this situation was relatively new, you were unsure of how to handle it. Or that was until you remembered what Ten texted you earlier. “Minji, the blinds of the main studio are going to be lifted so anyone from the outside can view us practicing. Would you like to watch until your dad gets here?”

With her insistent nodding, she situated herself in one of the seats in the front row. When you entered the main studio, your two close companions already carried a metal barre to the center and leaned towards it while observing you walking to them in your flat shoes.

“I see we have a bit of an audience here.” Ten glimpsed at the young girl, astonished by the many dancers prepping and chatting away with their cliques from the glass barrier.

“Her dad isn’t here yet, and you did say the blinds were up today. Might as well give her a show while she waits, you know.” You lifted your right leg to the top barre, stretching it with your arms.

“Hmmm, shouldn’t her dad be more cautious though? It’s getting late and it’s a Thursday. Doesn’t she have school or something?” Sicheng pointed out, discarding his muscle tee to straighten out his leotard.

“That’s not my business though. She’s just my student, and since she’s still here, I have to entertain her while she waits.”

Before your friends said anything back, the artistic director of the ballet company strutted her way to the center of the room. It’s a common rule here that once she entered, everyone must be silent to listen and race to any free spot in the numerous barres spread out if they haven’t.

“Alright, everyone. We’ll do the typical barre, then before doing across the floor exercises, I’ll be requesting those performing solos already in the recital to dance any variation tonight as another evaluation on who deserves to perform twice.” She eyed the pianist directly beside her. “Proceed first with two demi-pliés then one grand plié. Don’t forget to do the port de bras of each position.”

As the live piano music played, your focus was divided. Partly properly executing the exercise while your artistic director roamed each barre area, partly thinking about what variation to perform. This was a first for the company, and everyone was just stunned to hear the breaking news. It’d be nice to get an extra opportunity to showcase to people your potential.

30-40 minutes flew by quickly. As the guys carried the bars to the side to clear out the floor and the girls changed to their pointe shoes, the artistic director ordered all the performers of the recitals to stand in a line in front of her. Everyone else was seated around the room, so the interested eyes of everyone were on you. There were 10 performers, half are from the corps and the other half are either demi-soloists or soloists. You and Sicheng stood beside each other, internally shaking with nerves under the intimidating eyes of the artistic director. She used to be a principal dancer for the Stuttgart Ballet in Germany before moving back to Seoul, making her undeniably capable of leading all of you.

“Okay,” From her seated position observing the 10 performers, her finger pointed at you directly. “Ms. (Y/L/N) (Y/N), you perform first.”

Your nerves intensified and more sweat streamed out your upper body. Even if going first felt more relieving, no one was ever brave enough to perform individually in front of the esteemed artistic director. Principal dancers aside from Ten that you’re close with were intimidated when they have 1-on-1 or partnering sessions with her. But anyhow, in less than 2 minutes, you’d be done. This wasn’t the first time she’s had your full attention either, so you’ll treat it like the other individual performances you’ve had.

You smiled to yourself when the other soloists left you alone, while you gave the name of the variation you’re dancing to the pianist. Running to the side to put on a practice tutu, the artistic director asked, “What will you be dancing for us tonight, (Y/N)?”

“I’ll be dancing Queen of the Dryads from Don Quixote.”

The last time you did this variation was 3 years ago during the recital that didn’t change your position as a soloist. Even if this variation hurt to think about for a while, it was still one of your favorites to watch and do. Moving on, you could only muse how powerful and beautiful you felt at that time. This isn’t an easy piece to perform in your opinion. Yet according to the members of the company, this was their favorite solo of yours.

As the starting notes unfolded, you took a deep breath and elegantly walked into the frame. You only wished you wore your fake crown again for this. Minimal smiling and light arms, you imagined yourself as an actual queen who captured the eyes of many. In this case, your fellow seniors and juniors held their breaths at the captivating sight of you.

Off you go into a series of glissade jeté developpé on relevé at elevating heights, then a fouetté arabesque and another arabesque on relevé before ballet walking again to the side to dance across the stage. Sissonne to the front, right developpé to the front on relevé, pique to prepare for a single pirouette, you gracefully did a chassé to the front twice and stood on your toes with a sus-sous.

Doing it a few more times, the climax of the entire variation was nearing. Returning to the center, you took another deep breath and lifted your left leg for the Italian fouettés. Spotting to the front and back while maintaining your balance, the variation approached its end with lame duck turns, posing with your arms were positioned at a 45-degree angle, your back slightly arched and your left leg doing a tendu derriére. Your eyes reflected at the mirror in front, surveying your alignment. Once your 5-second hold was finished, you properly put your arms down and closed your back leg into 5th position.

The applause from everyone in the room roared, Ten and Sicheng wolf-whistling even for more support. It’s a usual thing every time any of you perform individually, and no one minded it. The artistic director grinned, giving a quiet clap from the front before calling out the next performer, who was from the corps. Bowing to everyone hastily, you paid more attention to spot your student by the window. She was smiling ear to ear, waving both hands at you.

“You did amazing, Teacher!” She mouthed. Hearing words of praise from members was one thing, but hearing them from students was another. You’re so used to watching them and giving them your compliments that you often forget that you’re a dancer first before a teacher. Seeing them all delighted, saying that it motivates them more, showed that you’re doing a great job teaching them. You’re a reflection of what you pass down, and all you want was for them to be the best they could be.

From her jolly expression, a tall masculine silhouette hovered a part of the window. Her instinct of giving a brighter smile when the hand of said silhouette patted her head then carried her duffel bag again, that could only mean one thing. Excusing yourself to the artistic director, you stepped out to bid your goodbye and maybe meet her father. Minji and the tall man were about to leave the building if it weren’t for your breathy voice calling them out.

“Seo Minji and Mr. Seo?”

They stopped their tracks. Minji was fast to react, familiar with your voice and racing towards you for a sweaty hug. Meanwhile, your focus shifted once the masculine silhouette came into full view. You finally understood why Minji’s growth spurt spiked up, noticing that he was taller than Sicheng.

The top buttons of his shirt were off, yet he kept his formal blazer on. His hair was a bit tousled, some strands falling in front of his forehead. He must’ve run here. Peeking through were some roots of his scruff growing. His eyebags were almost as dark as his brown hair. Yet by the way his Rolex remained spotless, you blatantly assumed that he was more than well-off. Especially when the ballet academy was one of the most prestigious ones in Seoul.

Out of all the parents you’ve met, none of them appeared youthful like him.

“Teacher (Y/N)?” Thanks to Minji, you moved your staring eyes away from him. This was another first, since meeting only the fathers of your students wasn’t your norm. Meeting young-looking fathers, to be specific.

“O-Oh,” You ate your words, suddenly blanking out. “You’re leaving me without saying goodbye, Minji? Not polite of you.”

“My father was rushing right after watching your performance, and I don’t know why.” She responded, her finger scratching the top of her head in confusion. Speaking of said father, his strong presence appeared right in front of you. The wrinkles of his forehead creased while his eyes barely looked at yours.

“Uhm,” His fingers toyed with his Rolex. “I apologize for my tardiness. I got caught up in work and all, plus her nanny le-”

“Mr. Seo.” You halted his rambling, already aware of the situation. Like father, like daughter. “It’s fine. Minji loved watching us practice while waiting, and she wasn’t a bother either. You have nothing to worry about.”

“Phew.” He swiped an imaginative bead of sweat from his forehead, displaying his relief with his playful nature.

At age 23, Johnny Seo started his own company in the fashion scene and it grew internationally in the coming years. Then when Minji unexpectedly joined the picture, he’s been multi-tasking to make ends meet. Lately, as a CEO, he has had meetings and conferences on a daily. So, his position as a single father was always tested. It worsened when he rarely has proper time to spend any time with Minji unless it’s the weekend or late in the evening. Breaking it down, it wasn’t because he didn’t want to meet you. It was more like he couldn’t when his schedules were packed from head to toe.

Having the guilt of taking your precious time, “Seriously though, I am sorry for being late. Her nanny resigned suddenly, and I have no time to find her replacement.”

“Mr. Seo, again, don’t worry about it. As her teacher and a company member, I am practically here 24/7 so it won’t be a nuisance at all if this happens again.”

“Thank you so much, Teacher (Y/N). That is your name, right?” He planted his palm on his forehead, stressed. “Being a single parent is hard. I am always forgetting things.”

A part of you couldn’t restrain from feeling sorry for his struggle. Taking care of a child should be the work of both the mother and father, not one of them being absent. You’ve feared this would harm Minji, but she’s a strong girl.

“The fact you didn’t forget to fetch Minji despite the late time is still something to be happy over. I’m not a parent or anything, but parenting, in general, is a challenge.” You added an insight, patting the head of the young girl beside you. “Cut yourself some slack, Mr. Seo. I’m sure Minji still loves you, right?”

Minji shouted a big yes, now clinging to the leg of her father. “It’s okay, dad. Really.”

Over the years, Johnny has been doubtful of his parenting skills. He was an only child, and he struggled to ask for guidance from his own parents due to the shame of having a kid at a young age. So, he’d ask for help from his other friends and co-workers. No matter how many times they’ve reassured him that he’s doing well, he’s an overthinker who always reflected on the bad scenarios. There’s also that pressure to find someone who can fill that absent position not just for Minji, but for himself too. No matter how many girls he’s asked out or been set up with, he failed in the love department badly.

It’s the soothing way you voiced out your truth that made all these negative thoughts running through his head freeze briefly. Over the past 3 years since Minji started ballet, she always had a great story about you to share. One of them was how ballet made her a lot happier because of your influence. If he had at least an hour of his day to meet any of his daughter’s mentors, it would’ve been you.

“Do feel free to call me Johnny instead.” He casually introduced himself, taking his hand out for you to shake. “Mr. Seo makes me feel like I’m at work right now.”

Despite his informal approach, you understood his intentions and returned the action with a promising smile. “Pleasure to finally meet you, Johnny.”

“Pleasure is all mine, Teacher (Y/N).”

Earlier, the nerves from performing in front of the artistic director died down fast. But for some reason, they rose back up when you’ve spoken to this man in a matter of minutes. As someone whose feelings don’t flourish in a single glance, why did this man specifically deliver you such a strong effect?

If it weren’t for Ten calling for your name by the door, you would’ve held on to Johnny’s hand longer, which would’ve been inappropriate. Letting go first, this was your cue to return to your class.

“I must head back inside, Johnny. Don’t sweat on fetching your daughter late, though she is still a student with school the following day. Right, Minji?”

Minji nodded as Johnny kept that mind, knowing where he has to improve next.  “Yes, Teacher (Y/N). Thank you again, sincerely. I’ll definitely see you again in the coming days until Minji has a new nanny.”

“That’s no problem with me at all, Johnny.”

Soon as Johnny held his daughter’s hand to exit the studio and you were re-entering the studio with an impatient Ten, he swerved swiftly as if he forgot something.

“Oh by the way Teacher (Y/N), I saw your whole performance awhile ago. I was blown away, you deserved the applause.”

Although you could only distinguish his silhouette, you didn’t suppose he watched you from head to toe. Most parents or nannies would’ve dragged their kids out of the studio once they find them like they were on a tight schedule, so this was novel to experience. That performance showed your prime too.

“Thank you, Johnny. See you again soon.”

Giving a final nod, you led yourself back to the studio, not bothering to acknowledge the erupting heat on your cheeks and entire body. Not to sound narcissistic, but compliments weren’t foreign to you. You’re conscious of the hard work that you put in your talent and if they pointed out your greatness, why would you deny it? However, receiving one from Johnny was like gearing your engine with new fuel.

Before you could try to reject these harboring feelings, Ten was fast to pick up on it. You cannot hide anything from this man at all because body language was like another language he’s fluent in (aside from the other 5). Unlucky for you, the saga continued.

“You’re so into dilfs, (Y/N)!” He shrieked in your ear, nudging your shoulder repetitively. He placed things in his own way, yet they always shocked you because it was so inappropriate. Typical Ten for you.

“Shut up, Ten!” You objected, watching the other performers. You’ve improved in ignoring his remarks over time. That was until Sicheng sat down beside you after his solo and got up in your business. That placed you in the middle of boys from the water sign clan of astrology. They just loved getting down to your love life, going raunchy and whatnot.

“Who’s into dilfs, Ten?”

“A Miss (Y/N) beside you, who met Minji’s dad awhile ago, was basically eye-fucking him.” Ten elaborated, planting his elbows on your leg and gave you a sneaky glare. “Minji’s dad is fine as fuck, guys! I’m telling you, like a literal god! I’m surprised this is the first time he showed up here after 2-3 years?”

“How come (Y/N) is always getting students with good-looking parents? Especially the single moms.” Sicheng slumped his shoulders, attempting to get your attention too. “Is he that hot, (Y/N)?”

“Yah.” Sighing with annoyance, you’ve given up trying to appreciate one of the corps dancers with her rendition of Dulcinea from Don Quixote. “Don’t speak of Johnny like that. You barely know the man, yet you talk about him so unprofessionally."

“Oh, Johnny is his name, huh?” Sicheng sing-songed, bobbing his head. He’s certainly going to stalk him later on social media, you felt it in your chest. Like it was ESPN or something.

“Talking about being unprofessional, yet you’re here referring him as Johnny, not Mr. Seo.” Ten barked back, his lips pursed and one eyebrow lifted.

Just as soon as you could retaliate, the artistic director’s velvety voice boomed the room.

“Alright, thank you to the performers. I will deliberate with the staff and principal dancers over the weekend, and let you know the results on Monday. Now please, let’s proceed to the center.”

Everyone began to spread out on the wide floor, snatching a good position so they could monitor themselves in the mirror. Maybe you’ll defend yourself later after class because now, you needed to beat everyone else and have a crystal-clear view of yourself doing these following exercises.

In the meantime, Johnny was in the middle of driving Minji home. He had a designated chauffeur, but he gave him the night off because he wanted to spend time with Minji. Around this time, she’d be sleeping soundly, but instead, she’s boosting with so much life. She hasn’t even eaten dinner yet, which was the first thing on Johnny’s agenda now.

Playing Coldplay in the car, Minji belted some lyrics from her favorite songs while Johnny smiled to himself while listening to her attentively. Taking a breath, her thoughts reverted to her fantastic ballet teacher and shared them with her father.

“Dad! Don’t you just think Teacher (Y/N) is so cool? Ugh, I want to be just like her when I grow up.”

“Oh, to become a ballerina like her, you have to work hard every day and memorize lessons fast. Are you up for it, Minji?”

“Absolutely, dad! I want to pull off perfect jumps and turns like her one day!”

In the other after-school activities Johnny enrolled Minji in the past, none of them compared to the passion she had for ballet. Her work ethic was alike to Johnny’s: if they want something, they’ll do whatever it takes to make it possible.

Aside from being a star student in her school, she’s aiming to be a star ballerina. Being the supportive father he is, Johnny was on board to do what it takes to make it happen. Unlike his parents trying to mold him into the next heir of their company, he’s all ears to the dreams of his daughter. His only dream for her was to be live long and happy, not to merely pass on anything.

Johnny lost so much in his young life, so he doesn’t want to lose Minji in any way. As much as he loves his profession, he wanted to be an active father as much as time allowed it. He mostly received complaints from others that he’s not prioritizing his time well, but after hearing your kind words, this heavy weight on his shoulders decreased. All this doubt started to vanish after meeting you for the first time.

“Dad! Isn’t Teacher (Y/N) so beautiful?” Minji honored whilst gazing at the twinkling night sky. “She loves what she does and shines at it.”

Johnny was accustomed to his female co-workers throwing themselves at him due to his attractiveness, more than flattered even to have them feeling weak for him. Yes, there were times he used it to his advantage, some he frankly turned down. 

However, the radiance you carried whether you’re dancing or not was something Johnny couldn’t cease wondering about. Unknown to him, he’s the one getting weak. Behold, an unlocked first for the confident CEO.

“Yes, Minji. I do think Teacher (Y/N) is absolutely beautiful.”

[architectuul]

Autobus Park №7: Kyiv’s Abandoned Transport Circus

Kyiv might be Europe’s single greatest city for late-twentieth century Modernist architecture. It boasts many wild, eclectic, and vividly imaginative examples of the style, built during the height of Soviet monument-mania. Though amongst its steel and concrete marvels of Soviet-era architecture, one of Kyiv’s most striking modern buildings has, in recent years, also become one of the city’s most problematic ruins. Autobus Park №7  – once the pride of the Ukrainian transport industry – exists today as a decaying morgue for almost a thousand abandoned buses.

Autobus Park №7 today. | Photo © Darmon Richter

The design challenge of the Autobus Park №7 was to create an efficient depot capable of housing and maintaining a fleet of some 500 buses, in an urban environment where building space was limited. Had the building been constructed like a warehouse, or a factory, using a square plan and a regular pillar-based solution for supporting the roof, it was estimated that the total size of the building would have needed to be at least 4,000 square metres. However, an ingenious solution was proposed instead.

Under construction (1972), promotional photographs (1970s) and technical sketches (1979). | Photo via Khabarovsk Polytechnic Institute.

The chief engineers on the project, V. A. Kozlov and S. I. Smorgon, were responsible for the idea of using a cable-suspended roof. They took their inspiration from circus buildings – the cylindrical concrete-and-steel constructions which were by this time a ubiquitous feature in cities throughout the Soviet Union. By designing the building on a circular plan, and suspending concrete roof panels on cables strung between a central support pillar and the outer walls, it was found that both space and construction costs could be significantly reduced. Moreover, this design, with its organic, circular shape, lent itself more to what was then considered a modern and humanistic work environment for employees – while its form, reminiscent of circuses and Palaces of Culture, presented the bus depot not as a bland, functional box, but rather a community venue.

Kyiv’s Autobus Park №7 during its heyday with the tall building on the left accommodating administrative offices and staff canteens. | Photo via Exutopia

Left: Workers outside Kyiv Autobus Park №7 in 1977;  right: A new fleet of buses ready for service, 1975. | Photo via Exutopia

Kozlov and Smorgon built a 1:10 scale model to test their idea. The central support pillar would be 18 metres high, a tower of reinforced concrete with a diameter of 8 metres, consisting of 0.3-metre thick concrete walls around an inner support of solid steel with a cross-section of 0.32 x 0.22 metres. Attached to the top of this pillar, were 84 radial cables – steel ropes with a diameter of 65 millimetres. Each of these cables was able to support a weight of up to 350 tons, and the roof would be constructed on top of them: a suspended tent dome, created from concrete plates, and with a total diameter of 160 metres.

On its completion in 1973, the building was considered an engineering marvel – its hanging roof was one of the largest ever constructed, and this system of support reduced the building’s necessary size from 40,000 square metres (the estimate for a pillar-supported roof) to a footprint of just 23,000 square metres. 

Details of the relief on the front of building showing staff, passengers, vehicles, and the logos of various automotive brands. | Photo © Darmon Richter

As much as possible, the design aimed to take advantage of natural light. The concrete plates of the roof were fitted with portholes, most of which were concentrated close around the main support tower. In the outer wall, upright glass cylinders were installed between concrete panels, serving as sturdy support pillars that both insulated the building against the cold outside, and allowed refracted light to shine into the wings of the building. This solution proved particularly robust, and most of these glass pillars have survived intact since the early 1970s until this day. Between them, these design choices resulted in an interior space and working area that enjoyed bright sunlight during the day, thus minimising the additional cost of electrical lighting.

Attached to the 18m central support pillar, a metal staircase leads up to an observation platform. | Photo © Darmon Richter

Once operational, Autobus Park №7 was the largest vehicle depot in the Soviet Union – and it was rumoured, potentially the largest anywhere in the world. It served as more than just a garage, though. It was the base of operations for the entire fleet of buses serving the capital, including city buses, intercity buses, and also those working international routes, to Germany, Poland, Belarus and Russia. The building was fully air-conditioned, it featured a four-gate vehicle wash, and a mechanised repair bay fitted with conveyor belt systems. The building had a staff of 1,500 workers, and featured workers’ canteens, as well as a computing centre too – where teams calculated staff salaries and work shifts, as well as designing and optimising bus routes.

Sadly, the glory days of Autobus Park №7 would be short-lived. Following the break-up of the Soviet Union, many of the fleet’s international routes were discontinued. Services were gradually reduced through the 1990s, into the 2000s, while meanwhile, the building was increasingly used to store wrecked vehicles awaiting repair or decommissioning. The reduction of domestic bus routes in 2005 was a further blow, and eventually, in 2015, the autopark closed its doors for good – the building slipping into disrepair, as the once-proud circus was steadily transformed into a scrapyard.

Since it was officially closed in 2015, almost 1,000 buses have been stored inside the abandoned building. | Photo © Darmon Richter

Today, Autobus Park №7 in Kyiv seems to be locked in a downward spiral of decay. The building itself is nothing short of an engineering marvel, an extraordinary work of architecture that supporters have suggested could be adapted now into a museum, or even a film studio. In April 2018 a petition was registered on the website of Kyiv City Council, calling for the building’s preservation – but it only received 321 votes, a long way short of its target of 10,000 signatures. Even had it been successful though, good intentions don’t count for much without action and intent on the part of Kyiv City Council; where currently, any talks of potential preservation are being blocked at a bureaucratic level.

For 25 years the building has been owned by the company Kyivpastrans (‘Kyiv Passenger Transportation), whose deputy general director, Sergey Litvinov, has said that Autobus Park №7 poses an imminent risk of collapse, and, given the cost and scale of such a project, would be almost impossible to save. Meanwhile, other former transport depots around the city have already been bulldozed to make room for new residential blocks and shopping centres. Many property developers would jump at the chance of getting their hands on this 23,000-square metre plot – and from the perspective of the current owners, it is probably a more attractive financial proposition. The building is neither listed nor protected, so were it empty, there would be nothing to stop the owners from knocking it down overnight.

This rooftop capsule offered a panoramic view of the 180-metre diameter suspended roof of Autobus Park №7. | Photo © Darmon Richter

However, for the time being all parties are locked into a kind of stalemate over the building’s contents. The estimated 903 rusting vehicles stored inside (including LAZ, Volvo, Ikarus, and various other brands of urban and long-distance buses) pose a major administrative problem. These buses cannot easily be removed, or scrapped, as technically they are yet to be decommissioned from service. A new regulation that was introduced into Ukrainian law in 2013 complicated the bureaucratic procedure and created a backlog; so that all of the vehicles inside Autobus Park №7 today are – officially, on paper – still in service and awaiting audit. As such they cannot legally be taken apart for scrap, and right now, there’s nowhere else to store them in the city but here.

The vehicles have still not been officially decommissioned under Ukrainian law – which means they cannot be scrapped until the necessary paperwork is processed. | Photo © Darmon Richter

So for now, it’s a waiting game. If Kyivpastrans and Kyiv City Council are able to solve the bureaucratic headache of their vehicle decommissioning procedure, remove the abandoned buses, and then find the will, not to mention the funding, to undertake the colossal project of preserving Autobus Park №7 (while turning down more lucrative offers from property developers in the process), then perhaps the building might yet be saved. But in the meanwhile, the circus roof is sagging, and young trees are already sprouting from cracks in the concrete.

It may just be that this building, an engineering marvel of the Soviet period, having failed to find its place in a post-Soviet world, is doomed to go the same way as the regime that built it.

--

by Darmon Richter 

[adapted with permission from an article at Ex Utopia]

Sources: Smena Magazine (1974) Issue No.19 Khabarovsk Polytechnic Institute (1979) Reinforced Concrete Space Structures (lecture notes, p.24-26), M. P. Danilovsky Hmarochos (2018) Why are Storage Facilities for Faulty Kyivpastrans Buses Being Set Up in Kyiv? Kiev Vlast (2019) Kyiv City Council Decided to Solve the Riddle of Bus Depot №7

[paperpocalypse]

white rabbit.

50 Wordless Ways to Say “I Love You”: 2. Tucking the sheets around them when they stir during the night.

Pairing: Five Hargreeves x Fem!Reader

Word Count: 1,874 words

Warnings: Swearing, panic attack

His idiot siblings are going to give him a goddamn aneurysm.

The hum of the Commission briefcase – which is now in 2019 without a single person attached to it – rings in Five’s ears, mocking. He resists the urge to scream and tear all of his hair out. All that work – wasted!

“Now what?” Luther asks as Five paces up and down the alley.

What do you think, you doorknob? “Now nothing, Luther, all right? Make your peace with God.”

“What? What about Allison and Vanya?”

“Screw them both. They should have been here.” Five’s irritated pacing turns into a run, and he furiously kicks a cardboard box. God, the alley smells like vomit and shit. Everything is shit! “Ugh!”

“What about Diego?” Klaus slurs out his two cents from his place on the ground. Useless puke bag. “He's quite a responsible young man, no?”

“Something must’ve happened to them,” says Luther.

Fuck that. Wherever they are, they’ll be dead soon enough. Does nobody understand that? Dead! Dead! Dead!

“Screw Diego, all right? Screw everybody!” Five seethes. “[Y/n] and I were better off in the apocalypse.”

He turns on his heel, trying to suppress the rising panic in his bones. Something catches his arm.

Your brow is furrowed when he meets your gaze, mouth set in a thin, worried line. “Five,” you murmur, voice soft.

A tiny sting of regret worms its way into his chest at your expression. But then he thinks of the briefcase, and the Handler, and he quickly looks away.

“Five!” Luther admonishes, casting you a concerned glance. “Come on.”

His brother’s tone grates on the last of Five’s nerves. Gritting his teeth, he advances on the large man. Your hand slips away.

“You know what, Luther? It's every sibling for himself now.” Five throws his arms out in a grand gesture, then makes his way over to the door. “How ’bout that?”

Yanking the door open, he storms into the building.

Five tries to think as he stomps up staircase after staircase, but he can’t hold onto a thought for more than a few seconds before it disappears into a muddle of static. Concentrate. He just needs to get to the flat and think of a new plan, yeah, again, and try to save the world for the millionth fucking time – he stumbles over a step and then rights himself, legs numb. His chest feels tight. Come on. Keep moving. Think, think! God!

You’re calling his name. He doesn’t answer.

There is another way. A Hail Mary. But what if they waste that last chance too?

He swears underneath his breath, heart pounding. Blood roars in his ears. He tightens his grip on the railing and tries to even out his breathing.

Shit. Now is not the time. He needs to get out of this stairwell. Everything is so cramped and it’s not helping at all –

“… Five.”

You’re behind him, and then you’re in front of him, and Five meets a blurry set of eyes for the second time. Breathe. Breathe.

“Do you want to go back outside?” you ask softly.

No more stairs. “Flat,” he manages to reply, gesturing messily at the door a few feet away. Just somewhere with some space. In. Out.

You nod.

Several minutes later, he’s sitting on the bed in the room that Elliott had given him, blazer folded over the footboard, face damp with sweat and tucked into the crook of your neck as he completely breaks down.

Your hands treat him gently, rubbing circles into his back and wiping his face. He grips your shirt until his knuckles are white.

“You can get through this,” you say to him. “Just breathe with me, okay?”

Five tries. He really does. A shudder wracks his body. You inhale. He inhales. Exhale. Exhale.

“Good job.”

Something wet runs down his cheek. Fuck.

Both relief and shame fill him when you dry his cheek with your sleeve.

It’s absolute shit, however long it lasts – Five doesn’t know how long. Too long. But you’re there the whole time, holding him like you’ve done before, and it helps even though he’s too embarrassed to admit as much. You help a lot.

As the hammering in his chest finally slows to dull thuds, he takes in another deep, slow breath, and loosens his grip.

“I’ll get you some water?” you ask. He moves his head in some semblance of a nod. “Okay. I’ll be right back.”

Carefully, you detach yourself from him; the mattress creaks as you stand up and leave. Five swallows, staring down at his hands. The air feels slightly chilly on the side of his face that had been pressed against you, and he uses the comforter to quickly scrub away the dampness. His eyes ache.

You return soon enough with a glass of cold water. He sips slowly at first, then gulps the rest of it down. You put the empty glass onto the nightstand and brush his hair away from his eyes.

“You need to rest.”

The word brings a brief wave of longing. Then stress follows soon after, and Five steels himself. “I need to come up with another plan,” he mutters.

Even though he’s not looking at you, he feels the sudden burn of your gaze as you put your hands on his shoulders. “After you rest.”

“The apocalypse –”

“Is still a few days from now.” Your words take on a honeyed, coaxing tone. “There’s not much else we can do today, so sleep. Please. I’ll take care of things while you’re away.”

You press down, and despite his previous protest, Five doesn’t resist.

“… Thanks,” he vaguely hears himself mumble.

When his head touches the pillow, it feels as if all his muscles give way. His eyelids immediately feel heavy.

The last thing he’s aware of is you taking off his shoes.

—

Five is thoroughly conked out by the time you pull the blankets over him, and after giving his forehead a tender peck, you tiptoe out of the bedroom and shut the door with a quiet sigh.

Now on to business.

The rest of the Hargreeves siblings, as well as Sissy and Harlan Cooper, sit up slightly as you stride into the living room. You make a point of looking at each one of them individually, cross your arms, and then speak.

“I believe explanations are in order.”

Diego is the one who speaks first. “I ran into Lila,” he says, maintaining eye contact with you. “She tried to drag me to the Commission while I was burying Elliott.”

“I see,” is all you say. “Allison?”

“Some men came in and attacked Ray and me at the house,” she explained. “Otherwise, I would have been on time.”

“Did you kill them?”

“I made them leave.”

“All right. Vanya?”

“Carl called the police to stop us on the way here. I had to deal with them.”

Sissy and Harlan are not supposed to be here. Based on the hard look Vanya is giving you, she knows that. You close your eyes and breathe out softly.

“All right. Well, I can’t change the past, and the briefcase is already lost, so I’m not going to shout about how everything should’ve gone,” you eventually tell them, eyebrows drawn. “I just want to talk to you about Five.”

“What's wrong with him?” Diego asks.

Klaus answers for you. “He’s pissed.”

Luther agrees solemnly. You frown.

“He’s stressed. Yes, he’s angry, but he’s mostly stressed and worried sick.” You uncross your arms. “Do you know what he did to get that briefcase?”

The siblings blink at you.

“He assassinated the board of directors,” you say. “I know you don’t know much about the Commission, but what he did was a big deal and very dangerous. And he did it for you. He does everything for you, because you’re his family, and he cares about you.”

“He has a hard time showing us,” Diego mutters.

“And you guys seem to have a hard time showing him,” you return. “It just … it feels like you see the apocalypse as Five’s problem. And maybe mine as well, but not yours. I understand that you’ve had to adapt and make a life here, but none of you except for Sissy and Harlan belong in this time. Whatever we’ll have to do from now on will require all of us to stay together. We can’t risk another doomsday.”

“Doomsday?” Sissy speaks up, alarmed. “What’s this about a doomsday?”

Vanya shifts. “It’s …” She touches Sissy’s hand gently. “It’s kind of a long story. I’ll tell you later, okay? You and Harlan don’t have to worry about it. We’ll fix it.”

“We will,” you confirm, nodding at the pair. “As long as everyone does what they’re supposed to.”

Luther looks at you curiously. “Why are you telling us all of this and not Five?”

Why, indeed. Glancing back in the direction of the bedroom, you think of Five tucked away in bed for the first time since he landed in Dallas. Hopefully, he hasn’t snuck out. You’ll have to check on him soon.

“He’d be too stubborn to admit it. It took me a long time to find out how much he sacrificed to help me in the apocalypse. And the Commission.” You smile frankly. “What’s more, he’s resting now. It’s been a long two weeks.”

“Shit,” Klaus mutters. “I forgot about the time thing. The old man must be one apocalypse away from a heart attack.”

“Yes. He’s not invincible.”

Everyone looks down awkwardly.

“We’re sorry for not making it. We didn't know. And we’ll tell him that.” Allison folds her hands tightly in her lap. “So what do we do now?”

Again, not much. Shrugging, you gesture to the couches and chairs that they’re sitting on. “Rest. Get cleaned up. Five and I will need to explore our options once he’s awake.”

With that, you turn and start making your way back to the guest room.

Vanya’s tentative voice stops you when you’re halfway through the kitchen. “Let us know when he wakes up?”

The other siblings voice their agreement. A genuine smile touches your lips. “I will,” you answer, pleased.

The murmuring in the living room fades as you continue walking. When you reach the bedroom, you gingerly open the door and poke your head inside.

Five is exactly where you had left him, tucked in with the blankets up to his chin and dead to the world. Soft snores reach your ears as you creep closer. Good. Seating yourself at the edge of the mattress, you run your fingers through his hair.

For the rest of the evening and most of the night, you watch over Five, keeping quiet and re-tucking the sheets around him whenever he stirs. He doesn’t open his eyes once. His siblings drift in occasionally, individually or in pairs, each of them looking every bit like they’re entering a lion’s den until you smile and beckon them closer. None of them speak, but they don’t need to. You can only hope that Five won’t be too angry with them in the morning.

A lot of work will need to be done then. But for now, your partner needs to sleep.

[awkward-and-indecisive]

First Day Assistance.

Summary - Y/N is new on The Boys set, nervous and determined to do her job right until she meets Jensen Ackles and her mouth loses its filter so he decides to teach her a good lesson.

Pairing - Jensen Ackles x Female!Reader

Warnings - SMUT 18+, Unprotected sex (y’all are better than this), Oral sex (f receiving), fingering, semi-public sex, tiny bit of fluff, Jensen in that damn Soldier Boy suit, this is just pure filth with no plot in sight

Word Count - 2547

A/N - Blame @msmarvelouswinchester for this and of course Mr. Jensen Snackles who I’m pretty sure wants to kill me. Apparently this is what she and I do, put thoughts into each other’s head until we can’t do anything but write them. Till three in the morning🤦🏽‍♀️

This was also Beta’d by @msmarvelouswinchester , so double thank you 😘

This is a work of fiction and for entertainment purposes. I don’t mean any harm to anyone in their family.

This is my first ever fic so please tell me what you think about it. FEEDBACK IS HIGHLY APPRECIATED!!!

Happy Reading!!!

*****

It was your first day on the set of The Boys and you were excited for this new opportunity. You had to start small with being a P. A. but now you were looking forward to working on the third season of such an amazing show. You were ready to work hard and were determined to make it big in the industry.

But all those plans flew straight out the window when you looked at Jensen fucking Ackles in his Soldier Boy suit looking like a sex god. You probably had stopped breathing and only inhaled sharply when you became a little lightheaded. Your thighs squeezed together, your pussy clenched and you could feel wetness pooling between your legs.

It was rather directly proportional - the dampness of your panties and the amount of time you looked at him. The more you stared at all the little details, the more wet you became. You knew it was highly unprofessional to have such thoughts about one of the leading actors but it was like your body had stopped listening to you and all the rational and moral thoughts had ceased to have any effect on you.

The way the muscles of his broad shoulders rippled underneath the spandex of his suit as he moved. The way the suit gave a little peek of his neck. The way his freckles shone through the little peek. The way his shoulder to waist ratio fucked you up. The way that knife holster on his hip made you go feral with lust. The way you wanted to come undone on those fingerless gloves till you couldn’t anymore. The way that suit hugged his curves, especially that perky ass.

You were busy thirsting like a dehydrated bitch in the middle of the Sahara, lost in your own filthy thoughts for who knows how long, when a snapping noise brought you back to the land of living. You blinked a few times to clear your head of its dirty thoughts and blurry vision. When you looked back up, you saw Jensen Snackles, as Sony Pictures had oh so proudly named him, standing in front of you and snapping his fingers.

Confusion flooded your expressions but before you could open your mouth to ask what he wanted, he cut you off, “Do we have a problem here, miss? Is there something on my face or what? Because you keep staring at me and I can’t do my job like that!” He said in an annoyed tone.

That’s when you looked around and saw that the set was deserted except for you and the Adonis. The director must have called for a break if there were too many bad takes. You felt a little guilty for wasting everyone’s time but before you could apologise, he cut you off again, “There she goes again. What is going on inside your head?” He clipped, waving a hand in front of your face.

You didn’t know what it was. The pent up sexual frustration of not having had sex in months or how rudely Snackles here was constantly cutting you off, with the fact that no one should look like that or that you couldn’t get your mind off of him but you snapped at him.

“Listen Mr. Sna- Mr. Ackles, firstly, I don’t have a problem with you and I’m not staring at you and secondly, you are not letting me work and are distracting me.” You quipped.

You knew in an instant you were fired for the way you had talked to him but now that you had spoken your mind and the words had left your mouth, you couldn’t take them back. So you decided to stand your ground.

“I am not letting you work?!” He scoffed, cocking one of his eyebrows.

“Yes!! You think it’s easy for me to concentrate when you roam around looking like sex on legs.” You said, waving a hand up and down his body.

Your eyes widened and your hand flew to your mouth when you heard the words that had left your mouth. A cocky smirk grew on his face and he took a step forward as you mirrored his move in the opposite direction.

“I think that implies you were staring at me.” He chuckled, stepping forward again until your back hit the wall and the clipboard and the walkie you had in your hands fell. You were caged by him against the wall, looking like a prey meeting the eyes of its predator just before it’s death.

You looked down, too ashamed and weak to meet his burning gaze. You turned your head towards the exit and said, “I’m sorry Mr. Ackles. I should leave.”

“Nuh-uh,” he tutted, “Sex on legs huh?” He asked cockily.

He was dangerously close to you. You could feel his warm breath fanning over your face. You let out an involuntary whimper and if it was possible, his face turned more cocky.

“What other thoughts swim around in that pretty little head of yours Miss..” he trailed off, his hand coming to push a stray piece of hair behind your ear.

You cleared your throat before half whispering and half whimpering, “Y/n Y/l/n.”

“Y/n Y/l/n.” He said, gruffly, as if trying to see how it would sound from his mouth and god did it sound so sinful. “Interesting name but I guess it makes up for your interesting personality. So as I was saying, what other thoughts about me do you have? Other than sex on legs of course.”

You couldn’t focus enough to reply as you were busy staring at his plump lips and that goddamn beard that gave you all kinds of thoughts you wouldn’t think in your wildest dreams.

“You’re staring again, sweetheart.” He chuckled and the vibrations of it could be felt by you as he pressed his body to yours and caged you between his arms that you knew from his Instagram video he had spent some time working on.

You instantly looked up into his gorgeous green orbs and found yourself lost in them. You opened your mouth a few times but nothing came out, looking like a fish out of the water. Words had left you. It was like a small child trying to speak but not knowing how to.

He closed the distance between his mouth and your ear and growled, “What’s wrong, sweetheart? Cat got your tongue?”

Your whole body shuddered and you pushed your thighs together to get some much needed friction. Jensen seemed to notice your reaction and pushed his thigh between your legs.

“Oh so that’s what this is about. I see nobody has fucked this tight, little pussy in a while and that’s why you’re snapping at people and undressing me with your eyes.” He said in a low, deep voice that had your pussy clenching around nothing.

A wave of arousal flooded your panties and you knew they were ruined a long time ago but now it felt like they had simply disintegrated.

He continued, “But don’t you worry, unfortunately I know what it feels like and I think I would very much like to help you with that.” He winked and if it wasn’t for the wall and him caging you in, your knees would have buckled and you would be a horny mess on the floor.

You noticed your breathing had become heavier and your lips had parted, your hands were balled in fists at your sides, your pussy throbbed in need and your whole body was shaking with lust and desire.

Jensen leaned down to look into your eyes and spoke softly, “Hey, if you don’t want this tell me right away.”

That seemed to snap you out of your sensory overload and you quickly nodded frantically.

“I want this. I want you to fuck me, Jensen.” You sputtered quickly before he could take his offer back.

The moment your consent reached his ears, the beautiful greens of his eyes were eclipsed by the black clouds of lust. He crashed his lips on yours in a bruising kiss that was all teeth and tongue. It was driven by pure lust and need and want and desire.

His hands were on you pushing and pulling and mapping out your entire body. Everything felt too much and not enough at the same time. When the need for air became too much you both parted, panting like you had just ran a marathon. He pushed his partly gloved hands underneath your jumper and pulled it off you leaving your upper body in the black tank top you were wearing.

His mouth moved towards your jaw, nipping and nibbling at the skin there while his hands squeezed your ass. His mouth went to your neck, to the spot behind your ear that drove you wild and sucked. And oh god did he suck hard. You were pretty sure you’d be sporting a big purple hickey but you couldn’t care less.

He kissed the valley of your breasts and suckled one of your clothed nipples as your back arched off the wall and you shamelessly let out a loud moan. He pushed your tank top up as he kneeled down, leaving open mouthed kisses all over your stomach.

He pushed your leggings and your panties down in one go and both of you were shocked. You, to see that your panties hadn’t disintegrated and him, to see how wet you were. He looked up at you with a mischievous glint in his eyes and before you could comprehend what it meant, he dove inside your pussy like a starving man.

He let out a groan when he tasted you, gripping your thighs so tight that you were sure there'd be bruises there. You tangled your hands in his hair, keeping him in place but also giving yourself something to hold on to.

All your wet dreams and imaginations didn’t do justice to how delicious the burn of his beard felt between your thighs. He fucked you with his tongue and then went on to suck at your clit like a child sucking an ice lolly after playing for hours in the summer heat.

To say that you were a panting, moaning, whimpering, writhing and blubbering mess would be an understatement. You were at the mercy of this man’s mouth and you thanked your lucky stars for it. One of his hands left your thigh and came to encircle your core. Desperate to come, you started grinding on his face.

He pushed two of his thick fingers in and groaned at how easily they fit cause you were practically dripping at this point. He fucked you on his fingers hard all the while nibbling and sucking your clit. He moved up your body till he was face to face with you all the while thrusting his fingers into you at a merciless pace.

He crashed his lips on yours and pushed his tongue inside your mouth. You moaned at tasting yourself on his tongue. He moved his talented mouth towards your ear and nibbled on the lobe.

“You’re close, aren’t you? I can feel you squeezing my fingers. Come on Y/n. Come for me.” He whispered in your ear.

Like he had a remote control to your body, you came. And you came so hard that you saw stars. Your vision went white, your body went slack and you felt like you were filled to the brim with pleasure.

When you came back to your senses, the first thing you felt was his cock, hard and heavy, lined with your core, your legs wrapped around his waist, his hands on your ass supporting your weight and crushing you between his body and the wall. He looked at you to see if there was any hint of discomfort but when he couldn’t find any, he kissed you while pushing his cock deep inside you.

You had to admit that he was bigger than any guy you’ve been with and the stretch was just oh so good. He kissed you, nibbling on your lower lip til you got used to his girth. You clawed at his shoulders and the now not so short hair at the nape of his neck.

“Fu-uck Jensen. Move please. F-fuck me.” You begged not caring how desperate you sounded.

Jensen let out an animalistic growl upon hearing your words and pulled all the way out, only leaving the tip in and slammed back into you in one thrust. You let out a cry when his cock hit your g-spot with fucking precision.

He kept up his deadly pace, pounding into you so hard you were sure you’d feel it for days, that had the coil in your lower belly wound tight in no time. He hid his face in the crook of your neck. Only the sounds of his heavy breathing and grunts ,which to be honest should be illegal, and your moans and panting could be heard around the large set.

“Look at you,” He grunted in your ear, “taking my cock so good. You’re so tight. Fuck.”

You couldn’t help but clench your pussy hearing those words pouring out of his mouth.

“I’m not gonna last long. Come for me one more time Y/n. Come on my cock. Squeeze it.” He grunted, pushing one of his hands between your bodies and rubbing rough circles on your clit.

You came with a scream of his name. Your orgasm was so fucking intense that you knew in that moment no one will ever be able to make you come so hard other than this man. He fucked you through your orgasm. A few hard thrusts later he stilled deep inside you and came with a grunt that you’d remember till the day you die. He spilled hot ropes of cum and you milked his cock for all its worth.

When you both came down from your highs, you untangled yourselves from each other and cleaned yourselves the best you could. You quickly and quietly got dressed, the air filling with awkwardness.

When you got dressed, you bent down to pick up your stuff which had fallen and turned to leave when suddenly Jensen caught your wrist and turned you around so that now he was caged between you and the wall. He kissed you and it was all sweet and soft this time while you wrapped your arms around his neck and leaned your body into his.

“Don’t you dare think this was a one time thing. You and me. Dinner at my place at 8. Sounds good?” He asked, sincerely and sweetly.

Your brows furrowed and you opened your mouth to reply but before you could the walkie in your hand came to life and a voice sounded from the other end, “Jensen Ackles is needed now at the wardrobe. Jensen Ackles is needed now at the wardrobe.”

“Looks like I have to go.” Jensen said and pecked your lips once.

He walked backwards and shouted, “My place at 8. Don’t forget.” He gave you a wink before finally going out of your sight.

You stood there confused as to what had just happened in the last hour of your life.

*****

[redhoodedwolf]

Sterek prompt! “Have I entered an alternate universe or did you really just crack a smile for me?”

Stiles saw the twitch of Derek's lip before he immediately schooled his expression. If he hadn't already had his eyes on Derek he never would have seen it, but he had and he did. Never mind the reason he'd been staring at Derek's mouth, he saw it.

He, Stiles Stilinski, got Derek Hale to break.

In all of their five years of doing shows together, Derek Hale had been nothing but exact with all of his actions. Anytime he was given a note, he took it seriously and never reverted back to the previous habit. He had a scary good memory for blocking. And everyone knew that if you had Derek helping set your props, they would never be out of alignment.

But today, during a show, Derek Hale broke character. To smile. At something Stiles did.

To be fair, Derek laughed and smirked at Stiles often, and the character Stiles was portraying, the goofy sidekick, was meant to be laughed at. Stiles had gotten nearly everyone in the cast to break character or unfreeze from their pose due to his dramatics during rehearsals. He'd never dreamed of getting that reaction from Derek, however.

Stiles was the worst, admittedly so, in the cast about maintaining a freeze-frame. His body detested standing still the moment he paused, and it was always a fight. His directors over the years had learned to shove him in the back in these scenes, and face him away from the audience so he could at least move his face.

He'd been so happy with his role that allowed him to skip all of the freeze-frame spots in this show.

Derek was the best statue he'd ever witnessed in all of his years of community theatre. So it felt like the world tipped when Derek cracked that smile. Derek's gaze was directed at him, as every actors' was, so Derek knew Stiles saw him do it.

What was that?

Stiles managed to get through the rest of the scene without looking stupider than his character was supposed to, but the sight had shaken him far more than he'd ever imaged it would.

Two scenes later, the curtain fell for intermission. Stiles snagged Derek's wrist as soon as he got the chance and pulled him down the hallway and shoved him into the stairwell leading up to the old dressing rooms that were only used now as overflow storage for costumes form past productions.

"What?" Derek growled at him, but his downturned gaze told Stiles he wasn't as confused as his statement presented.

"What happened? Are you okay?"

Derek's eyes met his for a second, and they widened in what Stiles read as surprise, before the narrow glare and scowl was back. "It was a decent first act, we all did well. I'm fine, of course."

"No, seriously Derek." Stiles swallowed and licked his lips. He double checked that his mic pack wasn't glowing red indicating it was on, just in case, his paranoia never allowing him to cease to worry, before catching Derek's eyes once again. "Did I slip into an alternate universe or did you crack a smile at me?"

Derek's mouth opened, probably to snap some kind of "funny looking" joke, but Stiles held up a hand.

"Derek. What did we talk about?"

Derek exhaled heavily and ducked his head into his chin. "Stiles, it wasn't... I swear, I'm fine."

Stiles bit his lower lip, gaze roaming over Derek's costume, as if he could spot the imperfection that caused this rip in the space-time continuum.

Derek went on after an awkward minute of silence passed between them, still avoiding Stiles' gaze. "Did I ever tell you what I think about during a freeze? To avoid, um, breaking?"

Stiles shook his head and hummed a negative. He was curious, though.

Derek was rubbing the back of his neck now, and he looked a tad bit flushed, even under all of the foundation over his cheeks. "I run through the scene as analytically as possible. Thinking about the words being spoken, the steps that everyone is making, and by concentrating on that I zone out, basically."

Stiles nodded slowly. "That... makes sense. But it... didn't work?" Stiles asked.

Derek was definitely blushing now. Was Derek embarrassed? "No, it worked. I was thinking about the scene. But--" he cut himself off to clear his throat. The stage manager announced places in five minutes, and they both called back, "Thank you five," instinctively before resuming their conversation.

"But?" Stiles encouraged.

"I was thinking about the scene, but then I remembered us, uh, running it."

Now it was Stiles' turn to blush.

On Sunday, the last rehearsal-free day before tech week began for their high school spring musical, Stiles and Derek had been running through the script, making sure the other was securely off-book for blocking and dialogue. Derek had been avoiding being home recently due to some family issues, and Stiles was always down for some extra practice.

Derek had helped Stiles go through the scene, sitting perched on Stiles' bed, script in hand, as Stiles stood and marked his blocking as he paced the room, acting with invisible counterparts and using random things in the room as prop stand-ins.

There was one box side-step move Stiles tripped up on often enough in rehearsal he didn't feel confident not to do so on stage, so he'd asked Derek to stand still next to him as he practiced it over and over until he got it just right.

Derek stood perfectly still as Stiles moved around him for the eighth time, repeating his lines flawlessly (if he did say so himself) and then finished with a flourish, cocking his head back to look at Derek. But instead of the usual neutral Derek expression, or the more somber Derek that had been present lately, Derek was beaming at him.

"Five perfect runs in a row, I think you've got it," Derek had said, teeth on display in his genuine smile.

Stiles had stepped forward and kissed him.

Now it was Friday, and they'd kissed several times since then (most of them that Sunday), but it was still very new; they hadn't even told anyone about their relationship evolving from friendship (though Stiles was pretty sure his father suspected).

So the memory had been enough to slip Derek's concentration on stage, something that Stiles doubted had ever happened before.

"You like me," Stiles teased, leaning into Derek's space. "Derek, how embarrassing."

"It's not," Derek refuted, which shut Stiles up and filled him with warmth. Derek squeezed his fingertips lightly as their hands brushed, the only PDA they had allowed themselves in the past week, the business of tech week not allowing much of anything else.

"I forgot to separate you from the script, that's all. It won't happen again," Derek assured.

Stiles nodded faux-gravely. "Of course not."

Derek glanced behind Stiles towards the stage and smirked.

"Don't you have a costume change?"

Stiles heard the SM declare, "Two minutes to places!" and exclaimed a swear that he was sure the audience could hear before sprinting to his dressing room, Derek's laughter following him.