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bbugyu · 3 years

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of all the views you had seen, there was little that could compare to him.

6.2k | cavalry captain!jeonghan x gn pyro!reader, genshin impact au, fluff, adventure, drinking, so much flirting, mentions of trauma, honestly this is the sweetest i'm ever gonna write jeonghan

happy inazuma release day!!! it's your local kaeya trash, because i predictably fall for gay bastards that lie straight to my face (example: jeonghan), and i'm here to give you a fic i wrote AGES ago and just polished up a bit to celebrate the release of what is likely going to be my FAVORITE region in genshin impact. i'm japanese so 😅 i have a soft spot. if there's any other gaymer carats out there, enjoy this one. if not, sorry! you can actually probably still read this and understand it for the most part, though you might miss a bit of context of the landscape and the lore.

ps. go tell @babiemingoo that wonwoo xinqiu 🤭

your work with the adventurer's guild was always efficient. you received your commissions, you carried them out, then returned for your reward, usually before the sun had even peaked. the rest of your day was generally spent either basking in the eternal sun of mondstadt, feeding cats in inazuma, or enjoying a hard earned meal in liyue, depending on where you decided to stay that week, finding board and paying for it with the commission you had earned that day. your tendency to wander came less from choice and more from nature - you could call yourself a nomad, but generally, you just got bored, and preferred seeing everything teyvat had to offer rather than settling in one place. adventuring was simply what you were meant to do, your mother had told you at a young age.

she, too, had wandered for most of her youth, and didn't stop just because you had come into her life. you remembered getting scooped up because you had wandered off a bit too close to the railing at wangshu inn as a toddler, playing with dogs at the docks of liyue harbor. you remembered the ludi harpastum and the first time you had ever had a sweet honey roast, and the way it made your eyes grow ten times in size before you dug in for more.

when your vision was bestowed upon you, you already knew how to use a sword. it was important, your mother told you, that you knew how to protect yourself. she had a vision as well, younger even than you had, and you had come to recognize the static in the air as a sign that she was angry - whether it was because of an altercation with someone on your journey or because you had secretly eaten the last hashbrown without consulting her first.

she used her vision and a sturdy blade she had owned since before you were born to protect the two of you on the road, but when she felt you were old enough, she taught you how to weild. a two handed weapon that was far too big for you when you were only fourteen, but when your reckless abandon got paired with a spark, you suddenly became far more dangerous than even your own mother. she scolded you for nearly starting a forest fire when you tried to pair the two skills for the first time after receiving your vision, and you both agreed that training was a beach activity from then on.

your mother settled eventually, after you were old and skilled enough to take on the road alone, pulling the many favors she had gathered in her travels to build a home in a small neighborhood south of liyue harbor, nestled in the foothills of mount tianheng, where you visited as often as your wandering allowed.

you had become much better with your vision. more careful but just as hot. quick to scan situations and strategize in the moment, hardly taking a second before jumping into action, slaying hilichurls like you were getting paid. well, you were, you supposed, but you had been doing this long before you had discovered the benefit of joining the guild. you were good at it. you were built for adventure, but revelled in leisure. there was good reason you were able to take afternoons off, and you milked every last second of it.

"you're back in town?"

you grinned, leaning your sword against the wall and dropping your bag off your shoulders before settling at the bar. "for now."

rubin often served you alcohol - when you were in mondstadt, at least, however often that may be - but never questioned you deeply. he would ask how your travels were, and listen to your stories from regions beyond his knowledge, of the cultures that he had only heard of from people like you. he enjoyed them just about as much as any, if not a little more, purely because your tenacious personality brought something more to the table. he wondered, though, how long you intended to keep living day by day, sleeping in different beds every week.

"what's wrong with sleeping in different beds?" you teased, laughing into your wine glass. "if i didn't know any better, i'd think you were shaming me, rube."

rubin simply laughed, knowing your tone by now. "i just wonder if you ever intend on digging in your roots, or if you'll continue travelling forever."

"if i dig roots, you may never see me again. is that what you want?"

"what," he said. "you don't like mondstadt?"

"i love monstadt," you assured him. "but i also love inazuma. and my mother is in liyue, though she might be upset with me if i try to settle too close to her. perhaps natlan would suit me more?" you shrugged finally, the door behind you opening as you finished with "i suppose i'll settle when i've found a reason to love one place more than the rest."

rubin shook his head, a chuckle falling from his lips. "a wanderer through and through." his attention was quickly drawn to the man entering the bar. "ah, captain! the usual?"

"please," the decorated man said, quickly taking a seat beside you despite the rest of the bar being available. "would you like another, wanderer?"

you eyed him cautiously, studying what you could see if his face around the black eyepatch, gaze skimming down his elaborate clothing before looking down at your emptied drink. "sure."

"another for your wandering friend, rubin, on my tab, please." your brain swirled, considering the brief information you had been given and wondered how you had never managed to meet this regular during your past visits. "are you just drinking dandelion wine, or something more fun?"

"more fun?" you asked. "what are you drinking, then?"

"well, a death after noon, of course," he stated. "don't tell me you haven't had one."

you blinked at him. "i haven't."

you turned towards rubin when he laughed at the back and forth. "shall i make two, then?"

"definitely," your new drinking buddy said, then gestured to you. "you trust my taste, right?"

you said nothing, but he accepted your silent smile as an agreeance. "captain," you said finally, thinking of how rubin had addressed him. "of?"

the man turned towards you, his elbow planted on the bar and his cheek on a fist. despite his get up, he had a playful smirk across his lips. "you mean, my reputation doesn't precede me? you really are a wanderer. everyone in mondstadt knows my name."

"everyone but me," you corrected. "as i'm currently in mondstadt."

his teeth shone behind his smirking lips before he sat up straight. "well, allow me to introduce myself." he saluted, his arm extending from his side at an angle - a salute you recognized from the guards around the city. "i am jeonghan, the cavalry captain of the knights of favonius."

"ah, the knights," you smiled briefly, before letting your eyes wander as you thought, crossing your arms over the bar. "i don't see much of a cavalry in the city, though."

he let out an amused exhale. "so i have a bit more free time these days."

"i'm sure the acting grand master is jealous of all your free time," you teased. "poor guy, looks like he's staving off a panic attack every time i see him. you should probably help him more."

"so," he sighed, leaning against the bar again. "you know of the acting grand master but not me?"

"jihoon?" you asked. "of course i know of him. he's all anyone ever talks about around here."

jeonghan nodded once, thanking rubin when he placed two drinks before you. "people talk about me, also, you know."

your lips stuck out in a pout. "jeonghan, you said? doesn't ring a bell."

he rolled his eyes and picked up his drink, holding it out for you to cheers against. you giggled, clinking your glass against his before taking a sip. the golden liquid was sweet, but not like the dandelion wine you had grown to love in this region. it had more depth, a subtle bitterness to it, and a refreshing bubble. you stared after the glass when it left your lips, then looked over to find jeonghan grinning at you.

"i see why it's your usual," you said, taking another sip before placing the glass on the bar. "i could drink too many."

"will you?" he asked.

"not tonight," you replied coolly. "i haven't asked sana to put me up at the guild yet, and if i get there too late, i'll get a cot instead of a bed. unless rubin finally wants to come clean about something?"

the bartender laughed. "how many times do i have to tell you? we don't even have rooms to board."

you squinted at him. "i know there's something upstairs. i'll learn your secrets one day, rube."

"i wouldn't be a very good bartender if i didn't know how to keep them."

"so you're in the guild?" jeonghan asked as rubin attended to another patron. "an adventuring wanderer."

you smiled vaguely at him. "i am. i have to pay for my travels somehow."

he shrugged. "there's other ways to make money. probably more profitable, too."

you eyed his teasing smirk. "i'm not sure i know what you're implying."

"as a captain of the knights of favonius, i assure you, i'm implying nothing at all," he said, exhaling sharply and adjusting on his stool. he leaned over towards you before speaking in a quieter tone. "but as jeonghan, i think you know exactly what i'm implying."

you only laughed, recognizing the thinly veiled attempt to worm a secret out of you. "i outgrew those means a long time ago. besides, when mora gets tight, i can always board up with my mother. i like liyue enough."

jeonghan studied you as you drank again. "liyue's home, is it?'

"for her, yes," you said, looking over to him, but you found yourself looking away again when his steely blue gaze met yours. you thought carefully about how much of yourself you were willing to reveal to this stranger, especially considering how important he was in the rule of the city. "she was a wanderer, too, and ended up falling in love with liyue harbor."

jeonghan made note of the way your face softened as you spoke about your mother. "and what about you?"

you met his intent look again, thinking about how his covered eye somehow made him even more intimidating. perhaps that was its purpose. "what about me?"

"what have you fallen in love with?"

a smile crept onto your lips as you processed his question. "oh, archons, what have i not fallen in love with? the smell of the open ocean in inazuma, the breathtaking temples in sumeru - have you ever been to waterfall city?"

jeonghan merely shook his head at you, the corners of his mouth turning upwards as he put his cheek on a fist again, leaning against the bar. "beautiful?"

you exhaled, eyes wide as you thought of the towering falls and the light mist that covered the city, trying to come up with an apt description. "humbling. there's nothing like it."

he watched your expression, head tilting further. "what a wonderful way to describe a place. tell me more."

your gaze went to him, then away briefly, feeling suddenly shy as you noticed his look. "about waterfall city?"

he shrugged a fur covered shoulder, shaking his head lightly. "about anywhere. describe your world, wanderer. i'd like to hear whatever you have to say."

you wondered if the heat that ran through you was because of the alcohol or the man, but you just took another drink and cleared your throat lightly, thinking of more places you had discovered in your travels. you thought of qingce village, one of your favorite places to visit, because the people are kind and welcoming and the fields are so beautiful. you told him about a tea shop owned by an old man - he insisted you call him pops so fiercely that you weren't even sure you had caught his given name - and it was probably the most relaxing cup of tea you ever had.

"it's been a while since i've gone," you sighed. "i think i'm overdue for a chat with pops and his tea."

jeonghan was smiling when you looked at him again. "the tea in liyue is unmatched," he said, reaching for his drink. before taking another sip, he gestured for you to continue.

so you did. you told him about sakura pond, about celestia city, about the volcanic black beaches. you told him liyue had your favorite people, but inazuma had your favorite food. he clicked his tongue at you.

"what about mondstadt? do we have one of your favorites?"

you smiled, genuinely. "sunsets. the night sky is different here than it is anywhere else. i think mondstadt is the closest we can get to the stars without joining the archons."

jeonghan studied you briefly, his blue eye flicking over your face as you finished your drink. "i think that's an apt observation. it seems your eyes are always wide."

"i travel for the views," you exhaled. "i don't plan on missing any."

he thought a second. "have you been to starsnatch cliff?"

your eyes lit up. "not in years," you said, in complete shock that you could have forgotten such a place. you pushed from the bar slightly, turning towards him, and he noticed the flash of a red gem strapped to your right thigh for the first time. "my mother took me there when i was a kid, but i haven't gone since."

"it never gets old," he said, sipping at the end of his drink. "i've yet to see that view and not be in awe."

"i'll go before i leave mondstadt again," you decided.

he looked to you. "when will that be?"

you sighed. "not sure, yet."

he just chuckled. "would you like another drink?"

"oh, no," you said, standing and stretching your spine. "i should make my leave. i don't like sleeping on cots. i just came by to let my ol' pal rube know i was in town again."

jeonghan watched you pull your pack onto your back, grabbing the handle of your sheathed claymore from where it was leaning against the wall next to the bar. "perhaps i'll see you again tomorrow?"

you looked at him, a vague smile on your lips as you strapped your sword back on. "perhaps you will, captain."

"jeonghan," he corrected. "but i don't believe you ever shared your name?"

"that was by design, captain," you said, and he swore he caught a glint in your eye as you bid rubin a farewell and stepped out of the angel's share.

jeonghan spun back around on his stool, immediately looking to rubin. "do you know their name?"

"no, sir," he said, looking at the closed door. "they've never said."

jeonghan's gaze went to the empty glass you had left behind, thinking about your stories, your sword, and the signifier of your vision on your thigh. "fascinating."

you got lucky - sana had a private room for you, and said you were welcome to rent it for your stay. she said not many people were travelling to mondstadt these days, and that more often than not, the adventurer's barracks in headquarters went unused. ever since the fatui had holed up in the grand goth hotel, it had been harder for you to make extended stays in mondstadt, but it seemed that something was telling you to stick around longer than usual. you laid on the hard mattress - a feeling that was more comforting than most, thanks to your continuous travels - and thought of the charming captain that had made a night of questioning you. you wondered if he really had any interest in anything you had to say, or if he had been hoping for details about something pertinent to an investigation.

you packed a lighter bag in the morning, only bringing along the essentials as you set out for your commissions for the day. that afternoon, you wandered around mondstadt and asked questions. questions about the simultaneously well-discussed and mysterious cavalry captain that had listened to your tales of travel, and answers came easier than expected, though they didn't contain all the details you were looking for. that night, you waited up at the angel's share to brag about your newfound knowledge to the captain that never showed, and you did your best to not let that hurt your ego.

the next day, you made a detour on your way back to the city after completing your commissions, stopping by springvale to enjoy a well deserved lunch and catch up with some locals. you sat in the grass with a skewer of grilled meat, watching the windmills of mondstadt steadily spin in the distance as time passed, thinking about how rubin had asked you if you didn't like it here.

you did, you decided. mondstadt felt different than anywhere else you had been. untouched, almost. wilder. freer. despite being born in inazuma, your first memories being in celestia, or your mother being in liyue, mondstadt felt comfortable. felt like a home. you wondered to yourself what that might mean.

sana greeted you happily when you returned much later than you normally did. she told you to go ahead to the guild and come back, filing away your reports and retrieving your rewards. you dropped off your things in your rented room, quickly, practically galloping back down the steps towards the entrance of the city to continue your conversation with the adventurer guilds' mighty receptionist without your sword weighing you down. you crossed your arms on the counter, comfortably lounging as you chatted with her, having always enjoyed her conversations more than most. like rubin, she was a reason mondstadt always felt comfortable.

"fancy meeting you here," an all too familiar voice said, and you pulled your eyes from sana to find jeonghan leaning his side against the counter next to you.

"good evening, cavalry captain!" sana chirped, placing your reward - your room free already removed - on the counter and bowing politely. "can i help you with anything today?"

his icy gaze flickered from your lightly curved lips towards sana. "oh, no, my dear. i'm just coming back from an investigation near springvale"

"interesting," you said, eyeing him. "i was just there and didn't see you."

"i wouldn't be very good at my job if you did, wanderer," he grinned. "knight business, you wouldn't understand. got the assignment yesterday."

"ah," you shifted to your side to face him, making him eye the vision on your thigh. "is that why you never showed? rubin was worried."

he looked you up and down. "rubin was, huh?"

you rolled your eyes and adjusted your posture to face away from his smirk. sana looked between the two of you twice before clearing her throat as quietly as possible, making jeonghan let out a chuckle before he directed his attention to the guild's receptionist.

"how goes holding the post, sana?"

she looked almost frightened when the attention was directed back to her. "good, captain! in fact, one of our most capable adventurers-" she gestured to you, "-just returned from taking care of some of our more difficult commissions - no one else would take them."

jeonghan looked at you. "why did sana have to tell your secret?"

your eyebrows quirked upwards. "what secret?"

"that you're good at this. shouldn't you be bragging?"

a chuckle spilled from your lips, and jeonghan watched you as you looked away. "i'm not the bragging type."

he studied you a moment. "what type are you, then?"

you considered the question, wondering exactly how to answer. what type were you? if not a teller, than surely you must be a shower, but that didn't seem right either. you exhaled. "the quiet type. see you later, sana."

he laughed, pushing off the counter as you tucked your mora into your waist bag, wishing sana a good evening and following you towards the fountain. "you sure talk a lot for being the quiet type."

a smirk landed itself on your lips as he fell into step beside you. "maybe private is a better description."

"that one i can see," jeonghan said, looking over to you. he thought of how you had spent nearly an hour telling him about the best views in teyvat, yet he still didn't know the most basic information about you. "do you share your name with anyone?"

you thought. "my mother."

he scoffed. "anyone else?"

you looked to the sky. "rubin."

"wrong," he retorted. "he doesn't know your name, either."

you laughed, looking over to him as you came up to the fountain, spinning and sitting back on the ledge. "you asked?"

"of course i asked," he said, planting one foot on the ledge beside you and placing his arms on his knee. "i asked other people, too. almost everyone knows you, but they don't know anything about you. bits and pieces, but never the full picture."

you just smiled up at him from your relaxed posture on the concrete. "what's wrong with a little intrigue?"

he just smiled back at you. "nothing. i tend to keep a bit myself. did you know there's a large number of people in this city that were shocked when i said you wield a claymore?"

you hummed, dipping the tips of your fingers into the fountain. "did you know there's a large number of people in this city that consider you the most eligible bachelor in not only mondstadt, but in all of teyvat?"

his lips parted slightly as you spoke. "so you snooped, too."

"i was bored yesterday. it wasn't hard," you exhaled. you flicked a drop of water towards his foot. "jeonghan yoon, the cavalry captain of the knights of favonius since he was only nineteen. who loves wine and whose adopted brother runs the biggest winery in teyvat, yet they're hardly ever seen speaking. who comes from a far off land on a different continent, but has come to love mondstadt like it was his home. who wears an eyepatch but has never told anyone why."

he chuckled at the assessment and pulled his foot off the ledge to sit beside you. "so when do i get to learn about you?"

"i told you about me yesterday," you said.

"you told me about teyvat," he corrected. "and while i was able to infer some things about your character, i still know close to nothing about you."

you thought for a moment, realizing no one had ever noticed how little you truly shared despite always being willing to tell stories. "sometimes it feels like i am teyvat. it's hard to think of things that are just about me."

"you could start with that vision," he said, nodding at the strap across your thigh. you looked down at it, exhaling.

"what's there to tell? you know what it means, and that's more teyvat than me, too."

he leaned back on a hand, looking you up and down in curiosity. "how old were you."

you chewed your cheek. "fourteen. you?"

his lip quirked upwards. "sixteen."

you bumped his shoulder with yours playfully. "beat you."

he laughed. "how'd it happen?"

you paused. "you go first."

he just chuckled and looked away, watching a dog wander past the general store. "another day, then."

"no fun," you sighed, brushing your hands together as you leaned forward. "what about the eyepatch?"

he met your eyes, mouth slanted in a smirk. "another day."

you clicked your tongue. "if you wanna learn about me, you have to be willing to give up some details, too. i value a fair trade."

"then stop asking questions that you know i won't share the answer to." jeonghan noticed the color of the sky, then suddenly pulled a pocket watch out, checking it quickly to confirm that there was enough time and stood. "come with me?"

you stared up at him. "where?"

he grinned, extending a hand to help you to your feet. "you said mondstadt's sunsets were your favorite, correct?"

you generally weren't prone to following mysterious men into back corridors, but jeonghan easily convinced you with no words at all that sneaking around the sight line of the acting grand master was completely normal behavior, sushing you with a grin as you giggled, taking refuge around a corner after the two of you made it up to the second floor of the favonius headquarters. he tugged your hand with his, pulling you into a steep maintenance staircase behind a door.

"this feels like it's against some rules," you said, climbing the stairs behind him.

"nonsense," he said, looking back at you and grinning. "are you suggesting that a knight of favonius would break rules just to impress a mysterious traveler?"

you laughed quietly, wondering if he really meant that he wanted to impress you. "not most, but maybe this one."

he only thought for a split second. "if anyone asks, we're on official knight business."

he opened the door and you found the sky again, beginning to glow orange as the edge of the sun began to hide behind the cliffs. you stared in awe at the way the few fluffy clouds reflected pink and gold, then readjusted your focus when jeonghan spoke again.

"i hope you aren't afraid of heights," he said, walking over to the parapets that surrounded you. "the best view requires a bit of a climb."

you looked up at the tower, and while it wasn't much higher than where you stood, you also recognized that you were well above most of mondstadt already. "you climb up there?"

he paused, studying you. "we don't have to, we can just sit on a merlon-"

"no, we can climb," you said, walking over to where he was and eyeing the small gap between the parapet and the adjacent roof. "hop over?"

he laughed, stepping over the gap and holding a hand out for you. "watch your step."

and though you didn't need it, you accepted the hand anyways, and it stayed on yours as you walked over the roof to the tower, as if making sure you didn't misstep several stories in the air.

"would you like to go first?" he asked. "i'll catch you if you fall."

you rolled your eyes at him, dropping your hand from his grip. "you go first. i want to see where the handholds are."

he just grinned at you. "very well," he said, tugging on the wrists of his fingerless gloves to make sure they were taught against his skin before taking hold of a brick. you watched him as he took foothold after foothold, and he resisted the urge to show off by speedily scaling the wall in favor of making sure you had the chance to see where he gripped. when he reached the opening in the tower, he pulled himself up and spun around, exhaling with a grin as he seated himself at the ledge with his legs dangling above you.

"your turn."

you adjusted your waist bag as you sighed in amused annoyance, spinning it to be behind you and out of your hips' way to climb the wall. it wasn't much - a couple meters, maybe - and you had definitely climbed further, but jeonghan's presence made you slightly nervous. that nervousness, however, just fueled you to prove yourself.

you scaled the wall easily, making jeonghan whistle and jokingly call you some kind of adventurer, and your only hesitation came when his hand was in your face. despite your initial inclination to ignore it, you put your left hand in his, allowing him to help you pull yourself up on the ledge and sit beside him.

"impressive," he commented.

you laughed, brushing off your hands. "you, too."

"c'mon," he said, gesturing his head over his shoulder before making moves to stand. "the view's on the other side."

you sighed, looking over the view of mondstadt shrouded in golden light as he stood and walked to the other ledge. "never a moment of rest with you."

"if you want to miss the sunset, be my guest."

you leaned back on your hands and laughed, pulling your gaze away from the city to look at where jeonghan had seated himself on the other end of the tower, and subsequently the view of the rolling hills beyond him that were glowing golden in the evening sun. you blinked for a second, realizing you hadn't seen the sunset the night before, and quickly got to your feet to join him before you missed this one, too.

he gave you a soft smile when you sat beside him, and you briefly wondered how many he had in his repertoire. the wind was stronger higher, whipping gently through his hair and alleviating any uncomfortable warmth you may have had from exerting yourself on the way up. you watched the dregs of sunlight skip across the grassy hills and the sky turn deep orange and bright pink, feet swinging lightly over the edge of the tower.

"i was fighting with my brother," he said suddenly, causing you to look at him with a start before you realized he was telling you about his vision. there was a slight smile on his face as he looked out on the fields. "hyungwon. it was bad. he already had his - he's a pyro, like you - and we were both young and stupid and just lost our dad. we were sword fighting and it came to me when i needed it. it probably saved my life, honestly."

you blinked at him. "you think he would have killed you?'

he exhaled, leaning back on his hands. "i think if the roles had been reversed, i would have tried to kill him, too. i'm grateful it didn't go that way, though." he coughed abruptly, clearing his throat. "we're on speaking terms, and i do love him as a brother, but i generally avoid him."

you let that thought ruminate as you watched the sun sink, halfway beyond the horizon. "my father was in a gang in inazuma, but my mom ran away when she found out she was pregnant. didn't want to raise a kid in that world, i guess? we ran into him when i got older and he wasn't very understanding." you paused, remembering the detail too well. "they were going to take her vision. that's what they did to traitors. probably take me, too. they weren't expecting me to start setting fires."

jeonghan's gaze was on you as yours was on the horizon. "just a couple of survivors."

you looked over at him, a smirk on your lips. "a couple?"

he laughed waving at your implication, thinking he would have said the same thing in an attempt to fluster you just as you were to him. "like, more than one and less than four."

you only laughed back. "fortune favors the weak, i suppose. the archons saw we needed help and extended a fig branch."

"is that what it was?" he asked, a laugh on his lips. "we were both fighting people. that's hardly an offer of peace."

"look for the deeper meaning, jeonghan. we were fighting for our lives," you pointed out, and he realized it was the first time you had addressed him by his name rather than his title. "i was fighting for family. for freedom. is that not the greatest pursuit of peace?"

he watched you as you pulled your knees to your chest, putting your feet on the edge of the stonework surface you sat on. he studied the way the golden rays lit your skin and made your eyes sparkle. "i suppose so."

you paused in that moment for a long while, and jeonghan allowed the comfortable silence as the two of you watched the sun disappear beyond the cliffs of mondstadt. the sky was turning a deep shade of purple when you told him your name, and jeonghan thought that it was quite possibly the best news he had ever received, but he kept that joy to himself as he confirmed your name, and you rolled your eyes.

"are you gonna answer my other question now?"

he scoffed. "about the eyepatch? is it really that interesting?"

"not any more interesting than my name," you retorted.

"completely untrue," jeonghan insisted. "i've never been so excited to be told a secret, and i get told a lot of secrets."

you eyed his smile warily. "my name may be unknown, but it's no secret."

he sighed and shook his head lightly. "you really wanna know the reason i wear it? it's probably not as dramatic as you're hoping."

"yet you hide it?"

he laughed. "what's wrong with a little intrigue?"

you looked away, recognizing the parrot of your own words. "whatever you say, captain."

"no!" he whined and grabbed your arm, making you start and look at him with big eyes. "you just started calling me jeonghan, don't go back to captain."

you stared at him, only breaking to laugh, dropping your legs over the edge again. "you won't show me what's under the eyepatch, so i thought we weren't on first name basis."

his hand on your bicep was warm and gentle, but his gaze was piercing as he thought it over for a bit longer. you did your best to hold it, but you felt yourself shrinking when he quietly muttered, "go on, then."

it took you a second to register what he meant, and you reached out slowly, fingers hesitating before they brushed upon his cheekbone. jeonghan closed his eyes, resigning to your touch as you gently lifted the eyepatch. his eyes opened again, slowly, and you thought your heart might have skipped a beat.

"like chocolate," you commented, and a smile spread across his lips.

"that's the kindest reaction i've gotten."

your fingers fell upon his temple, brushing down gently as you inspected his singular brown eye. "since birth?"

he nodded, his eyes flicking down to your lips briefly before he spoke. "heterochromia. it's a characteristic of my family."

you studied his face. "not the one here?"

he sighed. "not the one here."

the icy blue of jeonghan's eye had always struck something in you. it made him mysterious. commanding. it felt like he saw more than you despite having one eye covered. but now, you felt warm. you felt his gentleness. there was comfort hidden away behind that black patch, and you told him that you understood why the cavalry captain had chosen to hide the eye he did.

but to you, he was willing to show anything that would keep you around longer, he said.

"why me?" you asked, studying his expression when he looked away. the sun had retreated behind the hills, leaving the sky a deep blue.

jeonghan didn't respond right away, and you wondered if he himself even knew the answer. "we're birds of a feather, you and i."

you looked out to the view again, watching the subtle movements of the wild hills. "did you travel much before you came here?"

"it was all i knew," he told you. "i was thirteen when my father left me here."

your neck snapped, your eyes on his profile when he leaned back on his hands. "left you?"

he almost laughed, a smile on his lips when his eyes met yours. "i was slowing him down, i suppose. hyungwon's father found me and took me in."

"so you stayed?"

"i didn't always want to," he assured you. "i had the itch to leave for years. as soon as i was able, i always told myself." he paused, eyes dropping. "then father died. then hyungwon turned down his position with the knights. and i was their second choice."

you pursed your lips. "you stayed for a job."

he laughed. "it's not that simple."

you smiled at him, enjoying the warmth of his eyes on yours as the sky cooled. "are you sure we're birds of a feather?"

"listen," he said, getting off his hands and brushing them off on his thighs. "i accepted the job so that i could set the story straight. i didn't want to run from the people that believed that hyungwon tried to kill me to avenge our father."

you studied him. "i'm sorry."

"don't be," he said, nudging your shoulder. "i was still planning on leaving, but then i fell in love."

you looked away, trying to sort out the way your stomach flipped. "are they still around?"

"not with a person," he laughed, then nodded towards the now dark hills. "with the views. besides, i get free reign whenever i leave for missions. i have fun adventuring, and come home to the best sunsets in teyvat. there are worse places to call home."

your eyes scanned the horizon, remembering the brilliant rays of sun you had just seen skip across it. "that is tempting."

"how tempting?" he asked.

you thought on that for a moment. "almost as much as a death after noon right now."

jeonghan laughed, slightly proud that he had hooked you on his favorite drink. "shall we go see rubin, then?"

you hummed, smiling at the captain. "as long as i don't have to sit alone again."

"that's a promise," he told you as he stood, holding out a hand that you took without hesitation, though he withheld his intention to make sure you were never alone again.

#hehe i came up with a whole thing #this was basically me wanting to write kaeya fanfic but knowing i would wanna post it so writing it about jeonghan instead #caratwritersclub #jeonghan scenarios #jeonghan imagines #jeonghan fluff #seventeen fluff #seventeen scenarios #seventeen imagines #hannie #genshin impact au #jeonghan is kaeya and im just right #i wrote dis

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mandospace · 4 years

Text

Fooled Around (Din Djarin x Reader)

Request: Hi! I was wondering if you could do a Din x female reader inspired by the song "I Fooled Around and Fell In Love" by Elvin Bishop?Hope u can do it 💕

Requested By: @pepperlen

Word Count: 4,680

Warnings: Some mature content (mention of sex and brothels), extreme pining by our one and only Mando

A/N: I have never written an entire fic in one character’s POV, so I hope it turned out okay! My requests are open for both Din and Boba. I hope you all enjoy!

MASTERLIST

The galaxy was immense, the stars and planets innumerable. People of all races were still trying to understand just how big it was, to what depths the black and empty space stretched out before them. Sometimes, the distances between each point of light were immeasurable, too far for any humanoid to comprehend, no matter how hard they tried. Within the galaxy, there were trillions upon trillions of souls- each with a name and story to tell. One of those souls was a lone bounty hunter that traveled the immense space between the points of light.

Din lost track of how many planets and towns he has been to. The number ranged in the hundreds, if not thousands. Each planet and town was all the same though, even if their topography differed greatly. Every planet held small backwater towns where the scum of the galaxy seemed to hide, evading their captors. In those backwater towns, there was always a lone cantina that sat on the edge of town. Locals and vagrants alike frequented the establishment, where there was always an old bartender. At that bar, drunks of every race tried to drink their worries away in the same liquor every night. Desperate people wandered amongst the booths, looking for work, money, and sex. Sometimes, all three if you met the right type of person.

No matter the planet or town, it was always the same. The lone hunter had fallen into a pattern, one that he upheld almost as strictly as his Creed. Pick up a job, track down the bounty, capture the scum, and haul them back to the Crest. Depending on the job or planet, sometimes Din would wander back into the cantina looking for something to keep him entertained. Sometimes it was fighting amongst the drunks- eager to release his pent up adrenaline from the hunt. Other times, he looked for other means of releasing the tension that constantly laid beneath the shining beskar. More often than not, this release was found in the company of women who too were looking for company.

He wasn’t proud of the numerous one-night stands that he had during the length of his career. It was nothing personal- both participants looking for an escape from the dreary life the galaxy offered. No questions were asked of either party, both just eager to feel something besides the numbness that surrounded them in their everyday lives. While Din wasn’t proud of his many encounters, he certainly wasn’t ashamed of them. Each was a necessary means to an end- a way to break the tediousness that was bounty hunting. A way to feel something besides anger and violence.

When the kid entered Din’s life, his well-adhered schedule was practically thrown out the window. He was no longer the lone bounty hunter that jumped from planet to planet in search of quarries or release. Now, he was a single father that fended off the remnants of the Empire that was hell-bent on taking his foundling away from him. Din was tasked by the Armorer to reunite the foundling with his own kind- even if he had no clue what kind of creature the small green foundling was. It was declared that they would be a clan of two: branded in the Mudhorn signet on the tempered beskar of his pauldron. Wherever he went, the child followed; even into dangerous situations.

After too many close calls with the little womprat, Din started to realize that he couldn’t do this on his own. When foundlings are taken in, the whole covert would raise and care for them. Show them the ways of the Mandalore: how to fight, how to protect the covert. Din didn’t have his fellow covert that he could rely on to help raise and protect the foundling. He was always out-matched in terms of fighting and raising the kid. When it came to fighting, Din couldn’t be as ruthless as he needed to be when he was constantly concerned for the child’s safety. When it came to raising the kid, the little green booger seemed to out-wit him at every turn. How could he discipline the small child that had Din wrapped around his tiny little clawed finger?

He couldn’t rely on the covert that seemed to have disappeared into thin air. Mandalorians were rare already, and the only ones he knew had vanished without a trace. Kuill was Din’s next option before he remembered the early demise his close friend had met because of his relation to Din. Cara was on Nevarro, wiping up the last remnants of Empire scum. Greef had resumed his position at the Guild; and besides, Din didn’t want the kid anywhere near him. Peli was running her hangar on Tatooine, too busy scamming pilots out of their credits over small repairs. He had quickly exhausted his very short list of allies that he could trust with the kid. It had become apparent that he would have to look for outside help.

Din wasn’t looking for anything specific in a caretaker, just someone that seemed competent enough to handle a child. He wasn’t even actively looking for someone when you literally stumbled into his life.

He was in one of the many familiar backwater towns of Dantooine, leisurely strolling through the open-air market that lined the town’s only street. The kid was nestled in the pouch Din had draped over his shoulder, dark eyes peering over the burlap sack. They were in town looking for some supplies, food and medicine mostly. The child had eaten up Din’s entire stores, though he wasn’t sure how he could eat that much. He was only a 50 year old baby, after all.

When they were landing on the outskirts of the small town, Din had noticed that there was a local brothel that appeared on the holo-map. It had been months since Din last had any form of release- caring for the kid and evading the Empire had taken up his entire time. Even though he desperately wanted to relieve some stress, Din couldn’t. The kid was too important to risk taking his eyes off of him for even a moment.

Distracted from the tension and stress that lingered underneath his beskar, Din didn’t realize that he was on a collision course until he collided with your body. You had been carrying a basket full of fruit that was piled high above your head, hence why you didn’t see the intimidating hunter in silver beskar. When the two of you collided, you fell onto your bottom with a groan, fruit rolling out of your basket and onto the dusty ground. Din just looked down in shock at you, surprised that he didn’t even see that you were right in front of him.

“Do you ever watch where you’re going?” You groaned, rubbing your backside in pain.

He just looked at you, blinking slowly behind his helmet. You were beautiful, even though you were scowling up at him. Your hair was tousled from the fall and dirt was coating your clothes. The sun was bringing out the highlights in your hair, and Din longed to card his fingers through it. He had barely known you for two minutes but Din was already fantasizing about the feel of your skin under his, the soft breaths that would leave your lips. Stars, it had been too long.

“Hello, Dantooine to Tin Man?” You were waving your hand in front of his visor, trying to get some type of reaction out of him. “Mind helping me with this?”

All he could do was nod as he dropped to his knees and started to help you pick up your spilled fruit. Your hair had fallen into your face when you bent over and he wished he could tuck it behind your ear. He silently chastised himself. He hadn’t even said a word to you and there he was, dreaming about touching you while you were picking up the fruit that he spilled.

“So, what’s your name?” Your soft voice pulled him from his thoughts as you looked up at him. Din couldn’t breathe when you locked eyes with him- even though you had no way of knowing where his eyes laid under the black visor. Your eyes, though, were mesmerizing. “So you’re the silent type, then?”

Din cleared his throat and offered his hand. “I’m Din.” What was he thinking?! He had never revealed his name to another living being voluntarily, and yet here he is, freely and openly giving his name to a beautiful girl he had just met.

“(Y/N),” you smiled and took his hand in yours. He was shocked at how small your hand looked in his, but even more shocked at the overwhelming sense of rightness that flowed through his veins at the sight of your hand in his leather-clad one. “Oh Maker, who’s this?”

Din hadn’t realized that the kid crawled out of his satchel and started to waddle over to you. He moved to pick up the kid and put him back in his bag, but you had beat him to it. You easily swooped the kid up into your arms, setting him down on your lap. The kid just stared up at you, offering a toothy smile. “Are you hungry, little guy?” Riffling in your basket, you picked out the juiciest looking fruit before handing it over to the child. “There, enjoy that, little guy. He’s precious. Is he yours?”

“Sort of,” Din admitted as he shuffled to his feet. He offered you a hand to pull you to your feet which you gladly accepted. The kid was still cradled in your arms, munching on the fruit. Since your hands were full and the kid looked too happy in your arms to take him away, Din picked up your fruit basket instead. He was amazed at how easily you interacted with the kid. You hadn’t even known the small child for more than five minutes but the little womprat was utterly enamored with you. It had taken Din weeks to gain that level of trust with him and yet here you are, plucking another fruit out of the basket in Din’s arms and feeding it to his kid. “Do you want a job?”

Confusion flashed across your features before a blush settled on your cheeks. “Look, sir, I’m not that kind of girl...”

Embarrassment flooded Din’s system. “No! You misunderstood me. I would-” he almost said ‘I would never ask for that’ when he realized that he has asked for that in the past. He cleared his throat, trying to dispel the awkward tension. “What I meant was, you seem to be really good with the kid, and I need some help looking after him. I can’t provide for the both of us when I am constantly worried about him.” You just stared up at him, the child wiggling in your arms while he reached for your necklace. “I could pay you, and you wouldn’t have to worry about food. I would just need you to look after the kid while I hunt after bounties.”

“You’re a bounty hunter?” Din regretted telling you that detail, afraid that it would scare you off. Bounty hunting wasn’t the life for everyone.

“Yes, but I-”

“Do you travel the galaxy?” You eagerly asked, eyes shining bright at him.

“Of course, I often have to go to lots of different planets to track down my quarries. Why-”

“I’ll do it.” You had cut him off again, but he didn’t care. You had just said ‘yes’ to him without really knowing him at all. You were either crazy or a very trusting person. Maybe both. “I’ll meet you at the south edge of town at sunset with my things.” Handing the child back to him, you swapped the kid for your basket of fruit. You started to head off in the direction of what Din assumed was your house before you turned around to look at him. “Thank you.”

“For what?” Din was puzzled at the girl that was smiling back at him. The sun caught your hair, illuminating the soft highlights hidden within the locks. He wanted to reach out and touch it again.

“For giving me an adventure.”

___

For the past three months, Din has been in an almost constant state of agony.

He thought that bringing you on board would be a good thing: a much needed help in raising the kid. And it was a good thing, for the most part. You were always helpful, willing to do more than was asked of you. Many times Din would come back to the ship and you would have a warm plate of food waiting for him, the kid already asleep in your arms. The first time you did this, Din had to explain his Creed and why he couldn’t eat in front of you. You had nodded along, taking in his words before walking out of the hull and up the ladder leading to the cockpit. Before you had shut the doors, though, you called out to him and told him to eat his food and not to worry. You would take care of the kid and put him down for his nap. That miniscule kindness that you had shown the lone bounty hunter shook him to his core- a warmth seemed to have spread over him and his heart stammered in his chest. You did that for him every night, for every meal.

Not only that, but you were amazing with the kid. Suddenly the rambunctious little green womprat would mellow out any time you walked into the room. He would be fussing in Din’s arms, crying about something and you would just walk up to the hunter, take the kid into your own arms, and he would immediately calm down. It was like a sixth sense you had- you always knew the right thing to do to get him to calm down. When you started to sing the child to sleep every night, that’s when the warm feelings inside of Din’s chest turned to white-hot agony.

It was his favorite kind of torture, listening to you sing softly to his kid. Din was never in the room when you did this, he always kept far away because of his fear. Your voice was so soft, so melodic that if Din heard it directly, he would surely fall even harder for you than he already had. He would gladly succumb to your siren’s call and let you lure him to the vast depths of the ocean.

He wasn’t used to this, feeling something for another person. Sure, Din had cared for other people before, namely the little green foundling in his care. But he had never felt this deep, aching pull inside of him. Whenever Din was with other women, it was to get over the stress and tension that came with his bounty hunter life. The feelings he felt for those women were purely physical, purely surface level. A temporary lust that would dissipate the next morning after he had released his frustrations. Din had never felt these feelings that were emotional, deeper than any he felt before. When he looked at you caring for his kid or making dinner for the three of you, his heart would stop in his chest. With every smile you gave him, Din felt those at first insignificant, warm feelings grow and burn until they developed into a raging fire. He felt like he was swallowed whole by flames and every glance or touch you gave him was only adding kindling to the fire burning in his heart. If your little smiles and touches piled twigs onto the fire, he couldn’t imagine what feeling your lips on his would do to him. He would probably combust into a flaming inferno.

Din tried to ignore the white-hot agony being around you brought. He tried to reason with himself that he wasn’t that type of man. The type that brought home flowers to their lovers just because. The type that would rush home from work just so they could wrap their arms around their lovers and kiss them. The type that would actually want to settle down and start a family. Every time he looked at you though, he imagined what it would be like to have that type of life instead of the violent one he lived. He imagined that he would come home from work, and you would be cooking dinner for the three of you just like you do now, except things would be more permanent. The three of you would actually have a house- he didn’t care on which planet, you could choose any one and he would gladly build the house for you from the ground up. The child would attend the nearby school and make friends with kids his own age- well, kids that were actually kids and not 50 years old and still a child. He imagined that you would be cooking his favorite meal, that he would be able to come up behind you and kiss your neck and pepper kisses across your face because he no longer wore the helm of a Mandalorian. He imagined that you would laugh at the feeling of his stubble tickling your skin before you would turn around in his arms and truly kiss him. You would hold his face against yours and on your left ring finger there would be a simple band of beskar wrapped around it. He imagined that he would have a similar band on his own finger- a symbol to the galaxy that you were his and he was yours. He imagined that he wouldn’t be able to pull you flush against his chest because of your rounded belly, swollen with his child...

“Din?”

Reality came crashing down around him at the sound of your voice. The image of the two of you in his mind faded and was replaced with the very real image of you staring at him, a worried expression etched on your face.

“Did you hear me?”

“No, sorry, Cyare.” Din cleared his throat. He hadn’t meant to call you that affectionate Mando’a nickname, but it just felt right. He hadn’t meant to do a lot of things, namely fall for you.

“I asked if you could pass me the wrench.” Wheeling yourself out from under the ship, grease had smeared across your cheek. Just like you were an amazing caretaker for his son, you were also an amazing mechanic. The place where the ship needed maintenance was too small for Din to get under, but you were just the right size.

Din grunted in response and handed you the wrench. The tips of your fingers just barely grazed the tips of his leather-clad ones, but it was enough to set the Mandalorian on fire with desire. He couldn’t take it anymore. He couldn’t deal with the agonizing feeling of being this close to you but not being able to touch or hold you like he wanted. Before he could do something stupid, like ruin the only friendship he’s had in decades, Din bolted up from the crate he was sitting on.

“I’m heading into town, I’ll be back later.” Din didn’t pause to listen to your concerned questions on if he was alright. This wasn’t the first time he had just bolted mid-conversation.

The Razor Crest quickly disappeared behind him as Din trudged into town, looking for a distraction. It was all the same, each town he visited. He didn’t even need a map to find his way through the dust-covered streets. His feet just took him to the nearest cantina that sat on the edge of town. It was loud inside the bar, music blaring and people laughing. Din didn’t pay attention to any of the people- he just trudged to the corner booth and sat down. His head was swimming with thoughts of you. Even miles away, he could still smell your sweet perfume. It had somehow lodged itself in his helmet’s filters. He would have to change them out soon if he were to ever be able to focus on a hunt.

“You here alone?”

Din glanced up at the woman standing before him. She had some drink in her hand and a lazy smile on her face. Her hair was pulled up into a knot on the top of her head and was the same color as your hair. In the dim cantina lights though, Din was almost positive that your hair would look prettier, much prettier. It was always so shiny, smelling so good.

“Yeah.” His voice sounded gruff through his vocoder. He wished he could drink something, but he wouldn’t be able to in this crowd.

“Want some company?” The woman smiled at him, and all he could do was shrug. People could do what they wanted, it was a free galaxy, after all. “What brings you here?”

“Work.” He didn’t mean to be so short with the woman. Din was just preoccupied with his thoughts of you.

“No,” the woman laughed, resting her hand on top of Din’s. His eyebrow quirked under his helmet. “I mean what are you doing here?” Her thumb started rubbing circles into his worn leather. His brow raised even higher.

“Escaping, I guess.” Her thumb continued to rub over his hand. She gave him another smile.

“Really? Me too. What a coincidence.” The woman grabbed his hand then, intertwining her fingers with his. She pulled his hand until he stood next to her. “Why don’t we escape together?” Her hand started moving over his silver cuirass. Din knew he shouldn’t go with this woman, but as the thoughts of you started to swirl through his head, desire pooled low in his stomach. If he couldn’t have you, he might as well go with someone who wanted him.

So he followed her out the cantina’s back door and into the dark alley. The sun was just starting to set on the town and Din realized that he has been gone from you much longer than anticipated. You were probably worried, wondering where he was.

“Relax, baby,” the woman purred, running her hands down his chest. “Let me make you feel good.” The woman pushed him up against the alley wall and started to palm the front of his pants. It had been so long since Din had gotten the release he’d been craving. His eyes slipped closed under the helmet.

The woman continued her ministrations, hands roaming over his beskar-covered body. His eyes stayed closed the entire time as he imagined that you were the woman that was touching him, running your hands over him. Her hand slipped into his trousers and cupped his growing length.

“(Y/N)...” Din moaned, eyes screwing shut even tighter. Your smile flashed through his mind, adding more kindling to his fire.

The woman stopped dead in her tracks and removed her hand from his pants. “My name’s not (Y/N).”

Her voice broke the carefully crafted illusion that Din’s mind had conjured. His eyes opened to reveal the woman from the bar in front of him, not you. In this lighting, Din noticed that her hair actually wasn’t anything like yours. Hers was a much duller shade, lacking the shine yours held. Her smile wasn’t as radiant as yours. Din’s illusion shattered into pieces before him.

“I-I have to go.” Din adjusted himself in his pants before making his way out of the dark alley. The woman let out a disgruntled cry, but Din didn’t turn back to offer his apologies. Instead, he pushed his way through the crowd of locals making their way back home. The people that saw him jumped out of his path, terrified of the Mandalorian stalking through their town. He didn’t care, though. The only thought Din had on his mind was you.

By the time he got back to the Razor Crest the sky was black- only the stars lit his path home. With a press of a button on his vambrace, the ramp started to descend. He didn’t even wait for it to fully touch the ground before he jumped into his ship. His eyes swept the hull until they landed on you standing near the ladder leading to the cockpit- eyes wide with surprise.

“Din, where did you go?”

He didn’t say anything, only slammed his fist against the button next to the ramp to close it. Din strided over to where you stood, pressing another button on his vambrace. The ship fell into darkness.

“Din, what are you-” Before you could even finish your sentence, Din had ripped his helmet off and tossed it to the floor. His gloved hands reached for your face and pulled you to him, crashing his lips against yours. Din could feel you freeze under his lips for just a second until you melted into his touch. A breathless sigh slipped past your lips and Din breathed in your sweet breath. His heart was slamming against his chest as he kissed you. Your kiss acted like fuel to an already raging fire that warmed him to his core. His left arm wrapped around your waist, tugging you tightly to his chest. Din’s right hand cupped the back of your neck, holding your lips against his whilst he drank you in. Your lips were so soft against his chapped ones and with every brush of his against yours, shivers ran down his spine. Your arms had wrapped around his neck, trying to pull him even closer to you. The way your fingers carded through his hair and lightly tugged made Din moan in pleasure. His grip on you never loosened as he continued to move his lips against yours. When you sighed for the second time, Din took the opportunity to lick into your mouth. He loved the way your tongue tangled with his. Din felt like he was a raging inferno- a star burning brightly in the dark limitlessness of space.

You had moaned his name against his lips when he pulled away for some much-need oxygen. He sighed your name into your skin, peppering kisses down your throat. His name continued to fall past your lips while his made their way back up your throat and to your lips.

“Sweet, sweet girl,” Din breathed against your skin before capturing your lips once more. This kiss was shorter than the last but still held the passion shared in the first.

“Not that I’m complaining,” you smiled against his lips as you held his face in your hands. Your thumb was rubbing soothing circles into his cheek, goosebumps left in its wake. “But why did you kiss me? Why now?”

Your question weighed on his mind before the answer became as clear as transparisteel. “I’ve been wanting to kiss you ever since I’ve met you. I finally decided that I couldn’t wait a moment longer.”

Din could feel your smile against his lips. “I’m glad you became impatient, Tin Man.”

He felt a chuckle rumble through his chest at the nickname you had given him the first day you met. Din couldn’t see you through the darkness of the ship, but he was sure your smile was radiant and would surely blind him if he gazed upon it. He never meant to be the type of guy who fell in love. He always thought that he would be by himself, following his Creed until the day he died. The only future that had stretched out before him was one of loneliness and hunting. Now that the kid and you had entered his life, another path had revealed itself. One where he wouldn’t have to be alone. Instead his future was much brighter: fueled by your kisses and surrounded in the warmth you gave him.

“Me too, Cyare,” Din nudged his nose against yours, fingers grasping your chin. He tipped your face towards his and brushed his lips over yours. “Me too.”

#din djarin x reader #din djarin imagine #din djarin x you #din djarin x y/n #din djarin drabble #din djarin oneshot #din djarin one shot #din djarin fanfic #din djarin fic #din djarin masterlist #mandalorian x reader #mandalorian x you #mandalorian x y/n #mandalorian imagine #mandalorian one shot #mandalorian oneshot #mandalorian fanfic #mandalorian fic #mandalorian masterlsit

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emelywrites · 4 years

Note

Hi!! I would like to make a Fred x female reader request where they are really good friends and she goes on a date with cormac but he just uses her and is rude etc. And Fred witnesses this and gives cormac a piece of his mind and he takes her on a real date so it’s angest and lots of fluff and cuteness at the end :) can’t wait to see it! I know it’ll be amazing! :)

Hi! Thank you for that trust, I hope I’m able to live up to that, here you go!

Warnings: Language, toxic relationship

A Good Guy

Fred was your best friend. If he ever had to choose between you and George- well he’d probably choose George, but you’d understand, you’d probably tell him to, because you were Fred’s best friend. So when he saw you at the Three Broomsticks one Saturday afternoon in a booth with Cormac McLaggen, after he hadn’t seen you since breakfast, he sure was surprised, to say the least. Sure you’d seemed a bit giddy at breakfast but he just thought that was because you had just finished your OWLs and were now good for the last three weeks of the school year. He couldn’t keep his eyes off you as you were telling Cormac some story while he was staring down your neckline.

Fred found himself growing angry. It wasn’t that he was jealous - maybe a little, but that’s not where his anger came from. It was that Cormac obviously wasn’t listening to your story, even though you were talking so animatedly. It was that Cormac was staring at your boobs instead of actually caring about you. It was that you deserved better than Cormac McLaggen. You deserved a good guy. Someone like- Someone like him. Yeah, maybe he was jealous.

Only then did he notice the open book and the parchments in front of you. You weren’t even telling him a story. You were trying to tutor him and he wasn’t listening to you. Cormac started kissing your cheek and down to your neck as you were playfully pushing him away and giggling.

„Fred? Mate, you alright?“, George snapped his fingers in front of his face, trying to regain his attention as he had been talking about some awesome prank he was planning to play on Filch.

„Sorry, I was just- I was just distracted“, he swallowed his anger and tried not paying attention to you anymore.

He tried his best to ignore you and Cormac. But he rarely saw you anymore and when he did you were always talking about how charming your boyfriend was. He bit his tongue because even though Cormac was a little shit, you deserved better and he was completely and utterly in love with you, you seemed happy.

He let that go on for another two weeks but he noticed that you looked more tired and stressed. You even stopped talking about Cormac’s charm. He didn’t quite understand where it all came from. You were done with most of your schoolwork for the year. It was mostly just preparation for the next year and leisurely repetitions of what you’d already learned. You didn’t play Quidditch, you weren’t in any other clubs and you weren’t even spending time with him or George or any of your other friends. How was one person tiring you out so much?

Finally he found you in the library one day. You were alone, late at night, sitting in the corner and writing on some parchment.

„What are you doing there?“, he asked when he sat down with you.

„Writing a Charms-essay“, you responded, not even looking at him.

„You don’t have anymore essays to hand in this year, you told me that.“

„It’s not mine.“

„What? Why would you be writing an essay that’s not yours?“

„Because Cormac asked for my help. Now if you would excuse me, there’s only half an hour left until curfew and he needs to hand this in tomorrow.“

„(Y/N), don’t you think he should be writing his own essays?“, he took your hand so you had to stop writing.

„How is that any different than that time I wrote your Herbology essay last year?“

„Because that was one time and I’m really bad at Herbology. It was also half as long as this one“, he looked at the long scroll of parchment, unrolling it and realizing that you must at least have been sitting here all day, „Besides, I paid you back in sweets and thank-yous. What’s McLaggen given you?“

You looked down in thought. Then you whispered: „I don’t know.“

Fred took the quill out of your hand and laid it down. He then took your arm to lead you back to your common room and didn’t leave until you had gone inside. Even after he stuck around a few more minutes, just to make sure you wouldn’t run right back to the library. Only then did he go back to his own common room.

The next morning as he entered the Great Hall he saw you being diminished by Cormac.

„I failed that Charms essay, why didn’t I hand one in? You fucked up, (Y/N), big time. I should’ve never trusted you with this. Because obviously you can’t be trusted“, he yelled at you, loud enough to intimidate you, but too quiet to have anyone step in, or at least no one did. So Fred decided to do it.

„You didn’t hand in your Charms essay because you didn’t write one, you little piece of shit. Start doing your own work and maybe it’ll pay off. Or maybe it won’t. I don’t care either way, but stop using (Y/N) so you can be lazy. Now toss off and stay away from her, wanker“, he turned around to see you behind him, tears in your eyes, but a smile growing on your face as Fred was protecting you.

You both sat down for breakfast and the weight of the past two weeks fell off your shoulders as you got back into a conversation with Fred and all your other friends. When you were about to get up to go to class, Fred caught your wrist in his hand. You turned back around to him and smiled.

„Maybe on Saturday I could take you out to the Three Broomsticks? You know, a proper date, with a good guy?“, he smiled.

Your smile grew as well as you leaned back down to him. „I would really like that“, you pressed a kiss to his cheek and then turned around with a new swing in your step as you went off to class.

Fred was your best friend. If he had to ever choose between you and George he would probably choose you, because you were the love of Fred’s life.

#harry potter #fred weasley #fred weasley x reader #cormac mclaggen

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dhwty-writes · 4 years

Text

Surprise the Child Surprise

It's my birthday and I can't celebrate because of Covid. So, I decided to treat myself (and you guys) to some self-indulgent birthday fluff. The last scene is a bit emotional but besides that nothing bad happens, no angst, no drama, just 4,6k words of happiness. Enjoy!

Summary: Jaskier and Geralt almost forget Ciri's eighteenth birthday and Jaskier just won't have that. He plans on celebrating it as it should be. Everything goes horribly wrong - until it doesn't.

Read on AO3

Jaskier woke with a start, cold sweat pooling at the base of his spine with the dreadful feeling that he had forgotten something.

Now, that wasn't unusual, not really; he forgot things all the time. Only this time his mind cleared with the horrible certainty that it was something important.

He sat up, heaving in the mild spring air while he took stock of his surroundings, desperately searching for whatever he had misplaced. It wasn't his bag, that was beneath his head, and it wasn't his lute either, that was tied to Roach's saddle – which meant that he hadn't forgotten his witcher either (not that that happened often, but, to his shame, it had been an occurrence in the past). They hadn't forgotten Ciri either, she was sleeping peacefully on the other side of the fi- ‘wait a fucking minute.’

"Geralt!" he hissed quietly. The witcher grunted in his sleep and blindly groped around to pull his lover close. Jaskier jabbed him sharply in the ribs. "Geralt!"

"What?" he snapped and opened his eyes, alert for any danger. "What the fuck, Jaskier?" he growled when he noticed that they were the only ones around. "It's the middle of the night."

"I know!" Jaskier whisper-shouted. "Be quiet or you'll wake Ciri!"

He groaned and flopped back down. "Don't I deserve the same courtesy?"

"Shh!" he made again. "It's about Ciri!"

"What's about Ciri?"

"It's almost Belleteyn," he informed him solemnly

"So?"

"So, your child surprise is about to turn eighteen years old."

"Shit happens," Geralt grunted and turned to his side. "Lie down and go the fuck to sleep, Jaskier."

"What do you mean, shit happens?" he gasped, doing a very poor job of keeping his voice down. "We have to do something about it!"

He sighed exasperatedly and rubbed at his temples. "We can't stop a birthday, bard. Now get back here, so I can sleep."

"I don't want to stop it, idiot!" he hissed. "I want to celebrate it."

"Jaskier!"

"What?"

"Not now!"

"Right," he mumbled dissatisfied and moved to lie down beside him in his outstretched arms. He sighed content when Geralt wrapped himself around him, and even threw one leg over his hips to keep him in place.

And while Jaskier's body settled down, his eyes drooping tiredly, his mind wasn't quite able to shut down. There were a lot of austerities on the Path, Jaskier knew. His foot started tapping nervously. In the past twenty-eight years he had learned to live with the blisters on his feet and the reappearing holes in his clothes as well as the occasional dry spells, both in a literal and a figurative sense. But not celebrating Cirilla coming of age? That surely went too f-

"Jaskier," Geralt groaned.

"Yes, my dear?" His foot stopped twitching as he focused on the rumbling in the chest behind him.

Geralt nuzzled his neck gently. "You're thinking too loud."

"Right, I'll just stop doing that!" He rolled his eyes. "Great idea, Geralt, why didn't I think of it myself?"

He groaned wordlessly and tightened his grip on him. "Please," he whispered, "mercy. Anything to let me go back to sleep..."

Jaskier sighed. "Just keep holding onto me?" That usually helped him ground himself. He knew that Geralt was right. It was no use driving himself crazy now. He only hoped that his tireless mind that knew no rest would come to the same conclusion soon.

In the end, he must have fallen asleep, for Jaskier woke the next morning with a terribly foul mood that usually came with not enough rest. Ciri was joking around with him, completely unsuspecting of anything and Geralt didn't stop shooting him reproachful glances that he translated as ‘told you so’.

They broke camp a bit slower than normally but soon they were back on the Path again. Ciri galloped off on her mare a few times while Jaskier and Geralt enjoyed a more leisurely pace, Jaskier using her absence to continue conspiring with a hushed voice: "Geralt," he hissed and leaned over to him.

Geralt rolled his eyes and pushed at his shoulder. "You're going to fall off," he chided.

"Pfff, fiddlesticks!" he scoffed. Still, he sat upright in Pegasus' saddle again. "We need a present," he determined. "A good one."

The witcher shook his head disbelievingly. "I still don't know what all that fuss is about."

"She's coming of age, Geralt!" He threw his arms open wide, tugging sharply on the reins in the process and Pegasus snorted in annoyance. "This is a special day!"

"What are you two talking about?" This time Jaskier truly almost fell off.

"Ciri!" he exclaimed while trying to regain his composure. "Melitele's tits, you scared the living daylights out of me!"

She snickered mischievously. "Twenty-eight years on the Path, Jaskier, and still that jumpy. By the looks of it I'll soon be the one protecting you!"

"Well, that only speaks of your prowess with that sword of yours," he answered light-heartedly. "But I assure you, I won't be in need of your defence in the near future."

Geralt snorted. "You couldn't handle anything more dangerous than a very determined squirrel."

Jaskier gasped in mock offence and swatted at him while Ciri laughed. "How dare you?" he bristled. "I could handle a very determined rabbit at least! Besides, I trust that you will burden yourself with the duty to rescue me from any further possibly lethal situations. Just as you did in the past."

Geralt hummed quietly but it was a soft hum, the kind that always managed to set butterflies loose in Jaskier’s stomach. ‘After all these years,’ he thought happily, ‘I am still the luckiest man on the continent.’ And how could he not, with his quiet witcher by his side, who showed his love daily in a thousand ways that never required words.

"So, what were you talking about?" Ciri asked curiously and brought him back to the present.

"You don't want to know," Geralt grumbled the same moment that Jaskier winked exaggeratedly and said: "Oh, nothing, dear."

She wrinkled her nose. "Gross," she declared and spurred off again.

As soon as she was gone, Jaskier shot Geralt a pointed look that said as much as 'Do you understand why I wanted to talk about this at night now?' and the witcher sighed.

"Fine," he conceded. "But no dramatics."

Jaskier gasped and clutched his chest dramatically. "I would never!" A wide grin spread on his face. Secretly, he had been making plans for months. He already knew what gift he would present her with, he knew what cake he would order in a bakery. He even knew a nice quiet clearing with a lake in the area where he had once deflowered a fair maiden but now it would be perfect for the birthday celebration of the Lion Cub of Cintra – who he really should stop calling Cub, now that she was a woman grown, come to think of it. With the xenovox he even could invite the rest of their little family.

“Jaskier…,” Geralt growled as warning but it only made him grin wider. He was sure that everything would go just perfectly.

~*~

"This is horrible!" Jaskier croaked and sniffled.

"Come on, Jaskier," Geralt said softly, "it's not that bad."

He coughed violently and clung to his lover. "I'm sick, Geralt," he lamented in a whisper, the loudest sound he could manage, "I'm sick and can't sing. This is a catastrophe as terrible as there ever wa-" The rest of his tirade was drowned out in another fit of coughing.

"Shhh," the witcher made and rubbed his back soothingly. "Don't overexert yourself. And stop talking, you're only making it worse."

"You sound entirely too pleased with my miserable condition."

"I assure you; I am not. I prefer your singing to your whining. I mean it, though. Stop talking."

He rolled his eyes and shot him a look that said as much as 'as if that's ever gonna happen'. Judging from Geralt's snort the witcher found his own joke hilarious, too. "You're horrible!" He swatted at him. "I am lying on my deathbed and-"

"I assure you; you are not."

"-you are still treating me badly. I don't even know why I put up with you!"

Geralt smirked. "I've been asking myself the same thing for the past three decades..."

Jaskier let out a strangled shout and punched him weakly in the chest. The witcher only laughed and responded with a kiss. 'I guess it does have advantages to have a lover who can't get sick,' Jaskier mused.

"You're cute," Ciri said fondly as she stepped through a portal onto the clearing.

"Ciri!" Jaskier exclai- well, tried to exclaim and whispered instead. "Oh, I am so sorry that I am in this wretched state today of all days," he said and tried to scramble to his feet only to be promptly pulled down by Geralt again. "Stop that, you donkey arse, I'm trying to wish your daughter a happy birthday."

"The sentiment is very much appreciated," Ciri told him and squatted down beside him, "but I am not the incapacitated one." She smiled softly and held out a vial. "Got you medicine. Drink up, Jaskier."

He scowled angrily which undoubtedly resulted in a ridiculous pout, but didn't try to resist too much when Geralt uncorked the vial and held to his lips. He did complain, though; it was one of his greatest strengths after all. "That tastes like piss," he lamented.

Ciri laughed and arched an eyebrow. "And you know what that tastes like because...?"

He winced. "That's a story for when Uncle Lambert gets you drunk the first time this winter."

Geralt's grip on him tightened. "No, he won't."

"Sure," Jaskier drawled and winked at Ciri who grinned excitedly. 'Just you wait,' he mouthed and made grabby hands towards her. "Can I give you your annual birthday hug at least?"

"That you can!" She wriggled closer and batted Geralt's hands away. "Scoot, you can have him again, later. Right now, it's my turn for the best hug on the Continent."

Pride welled up inside him when he heard that as if he had just won the Oxenfurt bardic tournament. And even though he was not willing to admit it there was a tiny tear in the corner of his eye when he pulled her close. "Happy birthday, Ciri," he whispered, the tears stealing his voice as much as his ailment. "I'm so, so very proud of you, cub."

"Thank you, Jaskier," she answered, her voice just as heavy as hers.

It felt nice and Jaskier allowed himself to sink into that feeling until- "Who are you and what are you doing to my daughter?" the sharp voice behind him startled him and he tried to scramble away.

"Yennefer, what the fuck?" he croaked hoarsely.

The sorceress just laughed and even Geralt snorted amused. "Gets you every time. What is that, a knee-jerk reaction, or-!"

"Oh, ha ha, very funny," he rolled his eyes only to be pulled into another hug.

"Oh, shoo!" Ciri said and held on tighter. "I'm not done here yet and I'm the birthday girl. Besides, I'm his as much as I'm yours."

'Huh,' Jaskier thought as he closed his arms around her again. ‘Whatever she means with that.’

To his even bigger surprise, Yennefer agreed: "Yeah, we did a pretty damn good job raising that little rascal." There was a tiny pause. “All three of us did.”

Geralt hummed and closed his arms around him again. 'Oh,' Jaskier thought as he realised what they were saying and there was no stopping the tears now. He had never thought himself as part of Ciri’s chosen-few of educators doubling as parental figures. ‘And yet,’ he thought, ‘here we are.’ “Are you serious about that?” he whispered quietly enough that he hoped Yennefer didn’t hear.

“Sure am,” Ciri answered and squeezed him tightly.

"Are you crying, bard?" Yennefer mocked, but there was no true edge to her voice. "That's pathetic."

He sniffled and raised his middle finger in response. The sorceress laughed and Ciri slowly let go. She got up and walked over to her to receive her birthday wishes, too. Jaskier used the time to get comfortable in Geralt's lap again.

The witcher had already congratulated her early this morning when Jaskier had still been certain to meet death on the damp forest floor somewhere in Kovir of all places. After ten pathetic minutes of his whining, Ciri had taken pity on him and opened a portal to go get medicine somewhere. He hadn't asked where but knowing her mother — or rather any of her parents — there was no way there wasn’t some level of illegality involved.

"So, I guess we're staying here for today?" Ciri asked, turning towards them again.

"That was the plan anyways," Geralt mumbled.

"The plan?" Ciri asked disbelievingly. "You had a plan?"

"Now come on, Cub, that would hardly be the first t- yeah, shutting up," Jaskier mumbled as he saw the three pointed glares directed at him.

"Please," Ciri mocked, "you don't do plans. None of you."

"That's untrue," Yennefer chimed in, "we do, in fact, do plans.”

Jaskier added: “Alas, they’re always deferred by fate.”

“They’re shitty from the start,” Geralt concluded.

They all shared a hearty laugh which ended in another coughing fit from Jaskier. Geralt fell silent as once and glared at him angrily. "If you don't stop talking now," he growled, "I'll gag you."

Ciri and Yennefer gagged in unison. "Gross," Ciri declared. Ridiculously, he was relieved to see that. 'Come on, Jaskier, she's not a completely different person just because of one stupid day,' he reminded himself. But when Geralt squeezed his hand, he knew that he was not alone with his thoughts.

"So," their daughter asked as she sat down against a log, "what was the plan?" She looked at them expectantly.

Geralt 'hmmed' and made no apparent attempt to start talking. Jaskier rolled his eyes but determined to elude a smelly rag shoved into his mouth – he had no doubts that the witcher would go through with his threat – he kept his mouth shut and began jabbing him in the ribs with his finger instead while he gazed at him pleadingly. "No," the witcher said sharply but began talking at least: "Jaskier wrote a song for you. Wanted to serenade you. Pity he can't do that now."

Yennefer snorted. At least Ciri smiled sympathetically. "I'm looking forward to hearing it. Once you can hold a note again."

Jaskier hit Geralt sharply in the ribs with his elbow and made grabby hands.

"Will you be able to keep from singing, if I hand you your lute?" the witcher asked doubtfully.

He nodded eagerly and Yennefer shook her head, laughing loudly. "Liar."

Geralt patted Jaskier's head but made no attempt to fetch him his lute. Defiantly Jaskier crossed his arms. Not that anyone of the present people cared for it.

"There's also cake," Geralt continued. "Jaskier insisted."

"Where?" Ciri arched an eyebrow. "With the horses?"

"Hmm."

"Ah. I think you mean to say there was cake." She pointed her thumb at where Roach was happily munching out of- the black saddlebag the cake was stored in.

"No!" Jaskier croaked and jumped to his feet. "Bad horse!"

But before he could dash over to her, Geralt caught him by the scruff and pulled him back down. "Bad bard," he growled. Yennefer and Ciri didn't even try to hide their laughter.

"This is the worst birthday I've ever planned," Jaskier moaned woefully. That alone sent the two women into another fit of laughter and once Geralt clamped his hand over his bard’s mouth and they resumed their discussion with wide gestures (Jaskier) and pointed glares (Geralt) they were positively howling with laughter.

"So," Ciri said, once she had recovered. "You wanted to stay here for a whole day doing what? Listening to one song and eating a cake?"

"Of course not! Who do you take us for, Ciri?" Yennefer asked. "I wouldn't dream of punishing you with one of the bard's mediocre songs as your only present."

He showed her his middle finger. Again.

She smiled brightly and continued: “There’s a banquet table waiting for you behind another portal. With proper cake.”

He held up his second middle finger, too, for good measure. At least until Geralt pressed his hands down again.

"Show her," he told Yennefer and Jaskier sat up a bit more. Geralt had refused to provide him with so much as a hint for whatever he had planned for Ciri's birthday, but judging from his secretiveness it had to be huge.

"Are you sure?" the sorceress inquired. "It was your idea, after all."

The witcher just shrugged, and then Yennefer shrugged, too, and handed Ciri a velvet pouch. "Happy birthday, ugly one," she told her with a soft smile.

The girl looked at them questioningly before opening the little bag. She turned it upside down and Jaskier leaned forward to get a better look. They gasped in unison when the silver chain slid out. "Where did you get that?" she asked disbelievingly as she traced the wolf's head on the medallion with her thumb.

"Found it years ago," Geralt said simply as if he hadn't just gifted her an incredibly rare artefact of his school. "Was waiting for the right moment. Gave it to Yen for safekeeping. Thanks."

"Well...," the sorceress said, "I might have... modified it."

"Yen...," Geralt said reproachfully but she only raised her hands in innocence.

"Don't worry! None of the original qualities are lost. I know this stuff. After all, I've done it before." She tapped the amulet around her throat. "Remember Ellander, Ciri?"

She nodded, her eyes still on the medallion. "I couldn't look away from it."

Yennefer smiled. "This is just the same."

She raised her eyes. "Geralt..."

Jaskier felt him shake his head behind him. "It's nothing. You're a witcher, aren't you? Trained in Kaer Morhen like the rest of us. You're meant to have one."

Without any sort of warning, Ciri flung himself at Geralt, trapping Jaskier awkwardly in the midst of their hug. "Thank you," she said over and over again, "thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you."

Jaskier uncomfortably cleared his throat. "Umm- D'you want me to?"

"Shut up, Jaskier," they said simultaneously. Ciri let go with one arm to point at Yen. "And you! Stop pretending and join the hug!"

"Now that's no way to talk with your mother-" Ciri and Jaskier groaned and rolled their eyes. "Fine," she decreed. "Just don't think too much of it." But then, to Jaskier’s astonishment, she came over and hugged them, too.

Ciri sighed happily. "This is the best birthday I could have wished for," she confessed. "And the best family, too." And, in the end, that was all that mattered.

Yennefer stayed for the rest of the day but when they all woke up on the next morning, she had already said goodbye to Ciri and vanished without a trace. Geralt insisted on waiting for another day but Jaskier wanted to hear none of that. He was feeling well enough, he claimed, and they could resume their travels.

~*~

It took a week for his voice to fully return and another for him to find a quiet moment to finally give Ciri her present. Geralt had gone off to- do something, he was sure and he approached Ciri nervously.

"Hey," Jaskier said softly and sat down next to her, gently nudging her with his shoulder, "watcha thinking about?"

"Hmm," she made stoking the fire until sparks danced up into the night. "Just... stuff."

He nodded. "I imagine," he agreed but made no attempt to press her further. She wasn't like Geralt in that aspect. He knew she'd open up eventually.

After a while she asked: "Do you think we'll ever know peace?"

"The continent? I'm sure of it."

"No," she shook her head. "We. You, me, Geralt. Yennefer and Triss. Lambert and Eskel. All of our little family, I mean. Do you think we'll ever have a place to call home? Where we won’t have to fear?"

Jaskier laughed at that. "Who knows? There's nothing certain in life, little cub, you should know that. There might come a day when you and Geralt sheathe your swords. A day when the last portal closes behind Yennefer. Or there might not be. There's something that won't change, though, and that's a promise."

"And what's that?"

"Wherever you go, my songs won't be far behind. You'll never be alone on your Path. And that's a little bit like home, too, isn't it?

Ciri smiled. "I guess it is."

"Now, I believe I promised you a song, didn't I? Would you like to hear it?"

"Yes, Jaskier, I very much would."

"Great!" He shot up and wheeled around, lunging for his lute. He slung the lute strap over his shoulders and bowed with a flourish that made Ciri laugh. "Ladies, gentlemen and noble steeds," he announced, "I present to you my newest creation: The Ballad of the Lion Pup." He hesitated for one moment. "Just- this is for your ears only, Ciri. I mean every word of it, but no living soul must ever hear it. Do you understand?"

“I know.” She nodded solemnly and tipped her head back to gaze at the stars. "Just sing it already, Jaskier."

"Right..." he said and gingerly plucked the first few notes of the song. Then, he began to sing:

In a time of dark and blood and war

There was a princess fair.

And though she knew the woes of life

She did never despair.

When the White Sun rose above our heads

And the Lioness did fall

The Lion Cub then quickly fled

To escape from Nilfgaard's thrall.

For years she ran, for years she searched

For a wolf as white as snow.

And when they met, their fates entwined,

It was the end of all their woes.

Up north inside the White Wolf's den,

The Lion Cub did grow.

Amidst the stone and winds and ice,

New life and love did rise.

And though she had arrived a Cub,

She never left as that.

The Cub did turn into a Pup,

Part of the White Wolf's pack.

The White Wolf was the first to love,

His destined Child Surprise.

And so, the Wolf both strong and rough,

Held the young girl when she cried.

The wise Grey Wolf taught what he knew,

As he'd done for all his life.

So, in the Den life grew anew,

The pack again did thrive.

The Strong Wolf and the Small One, too,

Loved their Pup just as much.

For after years of grief, they knew,

The glory of a laugh.

Then there joined into the fray,

A lonely Griffin in his nest

At night they loved to sing and play

Whatever they loved best.

In sorcery she was well trained,

For witches she knew two.

And so, the Pup a sister gained

And then a mother, too.

Do trust that this whole song is true,

For I was there, as well.

And I loved her 'til the end of time,

So, believe the tale I tell.

In a time when our whole world burned

There was a princess fair.

But she was loved and loved in turn

So, she did never despair.

The last notes drifted off into the night and Ciri looked up at him with tears in her eyes. "Thank you," she whispered.

There was a quiet harrumph from the edge of the trees and Jaskier spun around. "Geralt!" he exclaimed happily, taking in the fond expression on his face. "Did you listen?"

"I did," he confessed quietly opening his arms for the bard. He quickly set his lute down and hurried over to him.

Ciri got up with an exaggerated sigh and roll of her eyes. "Ughh," she said and grabbed her bedroll, "I'll set up camp elsewhere."

"Don't go too far!" Jaskier called after her.

"Don't be too loud," she replied, obviously doing her best to sound annoyed and failing miserably. "I fucking hate it when you're loud."

Jaskier snickered quietly and turned to loop his arms around Geralt's neck. "Just like her father," he whispered against his lips, "feigning annoyance to mask her softness."

"Hmm," Geralt made and kissed him. "I'm doing a better job, though."

"No, you're not. And I love you for it." He pecked him on the mouth.

"I also seem to recall another father of hers who's horribly dramatic. And whines three days about splinters up his arse after sitting on a log I told him not to sit down to."

"That's not fair." Jaskier wrinkled his nose. "You see, you don't have all the facts."

"Which are?" the witcher asked and pulled him closer.

"That I happen to be endowed with a rather shapely arse," he replied grinning cheekily, "which you aren't allowed to touch if there's so much as a sliver of wood in it."

"Hmm," Geralt made contemplatively and lowered his hands to grasp his backside firmly. "I'm not convinced. Might need to get a better look at it."

Jaskier laughed loudly and dove in for a kiss. "That you shall have," he promised and tugged him towards their bedrolls.

When they laid side by side afterwards, as naked as the day they were born with tangled limbs and mingled breaths, Jaskier sighed contently. "So," he said, pillowing his head on Geralt's chest, "some review? Three words or less."

"Shapely arse indeed," he mumbled, his voice heavy from exhaustion and bliss.

He slapped him lightly. "Not that, you idiot witcher. The song. Did you like it?"

"Hm." Geralt buried his face in Jaskier's hair. "Loved it. Love all your songs."

"Really? Because I seem to remember some comment about my singing and its resemblance to a fillingless pie."

He groaned. "Fuck, Jaskier, that was years ago."

He snickered. "Always love to tease you about it."

"I'm aware." After a short pause he added: "Can I ask you something?"

"Always, darling."

"In your song... It's not like the songs you sing about me. It's not about... her deeds."

"No," he agreed, "it isn't."

"Why"

"Because the people needed reminding that you were their protector all along. With Ciri they need reminding that she is more than just their protector. As does she herself." He propped himself up on one elbow and gently stroked Geralt's hair. "In a century or five or ten, stories of her will fade. They won't remember the colour of her hair, or her favourite food or that she fell in love with that lovely girl three months ago." Geralt shot him a bewildered look and he sighed. "Though I can hardly hold it against them if her own father didn't know."

Geralt scowled. Tired as he was, it was the most adorable effigy of a pout. "I still don't understand."

"They will always remember her heroics," he explained patiently. "That's not what's important, though. The important thing is that she's loved and loves in return. And that she never forgets it."

"Hmm," he hummed and frowned even harder. "I love you."

Jaskier blinked stunned for one moment. 'Oh Geralt,' he thought as soon as it hit him, 'you only needed to ask.' In his mind there were a thousand odes to Geralt's love already, a myriad of songs that had never been sung, never out loud, at least. Not even when it had been only him had he dared to do that, but now- "And I love you, too," Jaskier sighed contently and snuggled closer. He kissed him on the cheek. A promise, a sacred oath between them, understood without ever saying the words. 'I'll sing of your love, too.'

His mind was already drifting off to sleep when he heard Geralt whisper: "There's peace in your arms for me. There's a home in your songs. With you, there’s nothing I fear."

With a content smile on his lips, Jaskier slept. Peacefully.

#my writing #this is my birthday present to myself #and to you guys #there be TOOTHROTTING FLUFF #also #if you want to make my day #maybe send a prompt my way?#I've literally got not plans for today #geraskier #geraskier fanfiction #geralt/jaskier #geralt x jaskier #geralt of rivia #Jaskier #cirilla #cirilla of cintra

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poptod · 4 years

Note

hey can u do a snafu x reader where she’s a marine corps engineer stationed with him and he’s likes her and hits on her but she always rejects him and when new recruits flirt with her he scares them away bc she’s “his girl” and like fluffy at the end? i know the engineer thing is weird but i’m an engineering student so... yeah. thanks and i love ur work! also i know i typed “she” but it can be gender neutral

Notes: I have a fic similar to this called 'Trouble won't let you forget' but i really wanted to write this anyway. it seems like a super interesting prompt and i've never written an engineer type character except once, but that was only kinda, so thanks for requesting! i don't feel fantastic about this but i hope you like it anyway. also sorry for the length.

You'd bet good money that out of all the soldiers on this godforsaken island, you'd been here the longest. There was hardly any question about it – you set up the original tents. You built the bridges, you set the trenches, you planted the landmines, and that made you an original. It was high time for you to be sent home, but the order never came, and all you could do is keep working.

The perks of being here since the beginning numbered few, but the one that gained you the most attention was the fact that you knew everybody. Every single person here had personally come up and had a conversation with you, filled to the brim with questions, wondering of how life worked and what exactly they'd be doing. Oftentimes people would come up and ask about other people – it was one of those ways people tried to know someone without actually talking to the other person, and you were happy to oblige. From this dependency on your library of knowledge, a deep-rooted respect had grown for you in the encampment, a respect that very few people dared to break.

There was a man who, like you, had yet to be sent home, and had been on the island for a good amount of time. Not as long as you of course, but a fairly long while. You didn't get on particularly well with him, which was unfortunate, considering it was likely neither of you were going to be sent home anytime soon. It wasn't that you wholly disliked him, either – it was more that he didn't like you. He never trusted you with anything. You'd get orders to build something, to scout out a new area, something like that and he always insisted on joining you, spouting bullshit about how you couldn't do it yourself, despite the fact that you've done this far more and for much longer than he has.

"Every single order for the past month, every one of them you've sent me on that dickhead -"

"Don't get snarky, Corporal," your CO interrupts you, his arms crossed as he sits leisurely behind his large, wooden desk, looking like he thinks he knows everything.

"You have to see my side of this, though," you plead, practically ready to get on your knees and beg.

"He don't have ta' see anythin', jus' that ya can't be left alone," Snafu, that asshole, that fuckface, drawled, a mocking laugh leaving him. You didn't bother to glare at him – it never worked.

"It's better for your own safety anyway," your CO says, a technically valid point, but your distaste for Snafu had grown that validity didn't matter. "Can't carry a gun in your arms if you're settin' out trenches."

With your fists curled so tightly that your nails almost dug through your skin and into your blood, you turned and left, seething with annoyance. Snafu followed after, walking by your side with that trademark smirk that did nothing but make you want to punch his face. You wouldn't, of course. Probably.

"Let's get this over with," you grumble, grabbing pikes out of one of the large, wooden crates sat beside your CO's tent. Stuffing them into your bag you turn, stumbling backwards when you find Snafu directly in front of you, close enough for your chests to be touching. Now greatly unsettled you circle around him, watching him the entire time to make sure he wasn't going to try anything.

You make your way through the camp, avoiding the larger crowds before finding yourself (and Snafu) in the wilds of the forest. Looking to your left you find bare ground, rich with fallen leaves and crumbles of dirt and mud, and to your right you see the already-dug trenches filled with puddles and forgotten trinkets. Pulling out one of the pikes you set it into the ground, stabilizing it just enough so you could stomp your foot on it, digging the marker deep into the earth. Snafu doesn't help – no, all he does is watch you sweat in the humidity caught beneath the canopy of trees, with his gun slung over his shirtless back and his boots pressing large footprints into the ground.

About halfway through you begin to have difficulty, which is fortunately something you expected. Thirst gets the better of you with your empty flask, but you don't dare ask Snafu for help, as you know exactly what his response would be. Something about how helpless you are, how you need him – something that both demeans and makes fun of you. You bite into the inside of your cheek in hopes of the preemptive anger dissipating. Instead of saying anything at all, you set another pike in the ground, practically pile driving it with the heel of your own boot.

"Lookin' pretty sweaty there," he says in that soft voice, that wonderfully soft voice that you would've adored, had you not understood the words he was saying.

"Cause you're such a prize? Look at yourself. You're sweatier and fuckin' filtheir than me too," you grit out, digging into the earth with your bare hands until you finally pull out the large rock in the way of your plans.

"No need ta get angry, doll," he laughs, pulling a cig out of his pocket and lighting it. With the obstruction his words are even harder to understand, slurred and blurry, and you already have enough issues with the left side of your face, what with the eye injury and the bomb damage. "Want one?" He says as he offers a cigarette to you.

"No," you mumble. "That shit'll kill you."

Considering the amount of times he's called you doll, one would assume you know what the nickname means. You don't. Most people call you Foxeye, and Snafu calls most people by their usual nicknames, but not you. Nope, he has to make your life harder in every aspect, so of course that means giving you a new, separate name that you have to respond to. Even the way he speaks that name is demeaning – like you're something precious. Like you'll break.

"Why don't you make yourself useful and actually help me for once?" You ask when your trail begins to circle back to camp, pounding another pike into the ground.

"Nah... I like t' watch ya sweat," he says with an obnoxious grin.

"I can't wait till you go home," you grumble.

"Me too, doll."

To your dismay, neither you nor Snafu are sent home before the next installment of men comes in. You're sitting on the beach, trying to draw one of the crabs scuttering about on the sand when you spot the massive boat, first only a grey speck on the distant horizon. Over time it grows closer, and by midday you can tell for certain it's a boat with a new installment. By the afternoon it docks near the bridges you helped to build, and the men come out. Each of them have fresh haircuts, with clean-shaven chins and bright eyes. It isn't the hair or the happy eyes that sets them clearly apart from the others, though – the major difference between you and them is that they're clean. You can see the actual color of their skin, and their clothes are neatly pressed.

From your spot on the beach you admire them. Love for men is not something you share with many people. Actually, you don't share it with anyone, as any mention of it would seriously damage both your reputation and your relationship with your CO and the various companies gathered here. Still you watch in silence, heart racing when a brunet with a sharp jawline and dark eyes meets your gaze and smiles. He smiles at you, and instantly you can feel blush fill your cheeks. Nothing will come of it, you know that, but it's a pleasant feeling that has you upbeat the rest of the day.

Several days later you happen to have an actual conversation with the man, but it's nothing more special than what people usually talk to you about. The sun overhead burns warmth into your skin, and as you stretch out in the back of one of the trucks, your eyes close. Heat is generally despised around here mostly because it's always hot, but every now and then it can be pleasant. This is one of those times, where a quiet happiness bubbles in your stomach. One of the men the handsome stranger is walking with notices you, mumbling something you can't quite hear, but the group approaches you. When one of them clears his throat you pop open your one good eye, sitting up when you notice all of them looking at you.

"You're Foxeye?" One of them asks with a furrowed brow.

"What gave it away?" You say with a pleasant yet distant smile. Reaching for your hip you pull out your flask, unscrewing it and taking a long sip, one you know shows off your own jawline and your permanently bloodshot left eye.

"You've got quite the name around here," the handsome one from before says, leaning against the truck in a positively tantalizing way. You're good at not letting it show, so you just shrug, turning to him with a soft grin that manages to make his cheeks turn a pretty pink.

"Seems like you know me already. What are your names?" You ask, doing a quick survey of the group before turning back to the handsome stranger.

"I'm Mark. Lester," he says, offering his hand for you to shake, which you gladly accept.

The others introduce themselves after him, and although you try to remember everyone's names, the introduction is cut short by that guy. Snafu worms his way through the crowd, pushing anyone who tries to stop him out of the way. You try to ask him what the hell he's doing this time, but before you can say anything at all, he grabs your wrist and pulls you down from the truck bed, pulling you out and away from the group of new soldiers. Trying to yank yourself out of his grasp you pull, scratching at his fist and groaning with the effort.

"What the hell are you doing!?" You finally ask when the group is in the distance. Only there does he release you, turning round to face you with almost... angered eyes. Why would he be angry with you?

"I ain't doin' this for myself," he tells you, gritting the words out. "Captain wants t' speak with ya."

"Oh," you mumble. "You could've just told me, instead of fucking – it looked like you were gonna kill me."

He doesn't say anything. He doesn't even smile, and he certainly doesn't carry his usual lax body language, something that does its' job of unsettling you. All he does is turn and leave, leaving you alone in front of your CO's tent. All you want is for him to like you, but no, he has to refuse, and further than that he has to be an asshole about it. Slow with shock you open up the door, entering the tent to find it empty, many of the classified documents scattered about his desk. It doesn't interest you greatly – most people are already willing to tell you their secrets, considering how well you keep them, but what does interest you is what you see past the mesh of your CO's tent.

Snafu's talking to Mark. Neither of them look particularly happy, but you couldn't imagine any situation where they'd get on anyway, what with their massive personality differences, but this isn't normal. They're pissed. Snafu doesn't get incredibly angry, but now he looks outraged. You're too far away to hear what they're saying, but soon their words turn to yelling, and you can do nothing but stand there and watch as other men start getting involved. One group is trying to calm Snafu down and the other is trying to reason with Mark, and as they yell louder you can just barely make out their words.

"You're a fuckin' pussy, Marky!" Snafu yells, kicking his legs into the air as two men grab underneath his arms, lifting him up and trying to carry him away.

"I'd rather be that than an asshole as fucked up as you," Mark says, spitting at the ground.

His actions do nothing more than rile Snafu up further, till he's writhing in his friend's grasps, pushing and pulling so harsh that he falls to the ground and starts in a dead sprint towards Mark. Mark is fittingly terrified by this, backing up into the large gathering of men behind him, but it's not enough. He ends up falling back into them as Snafu practically launches himself at the man, landing on a pile of bodies that quickly squirm out of the way as Snafu pounds his fist into Mark's face.

"You fuckin' touch 'em, even look at 'em ever again I'll give you a real beating," Snafu says when he stands, leaving Mark in a daze from his fist. To finish it off Snafu lands a harsh kick to his chest, dramatized by the heavy fall of his boot, drawing a harsh cough and breath from Mark.

It's only when the crowd disperses that you realize your mouth has been hanging open, quickly rectifying that with a quiet embarrassment. In a reflex you pull your flask from your hip, opening and taking a long swallow from it. Part of you wants to go help Mark, another part wants to go yell at Snafu, but the part that wins over is your curiosity. You don't want to ask Mark what happened, and you don't want to ask Snafu either – Mark may be handsome, but you don't know enough about him to trust he'll give an accurate description of events. Snafu likes to make your life a living hell, so you can't depend on him for truth either, leaving you with one choice.

Wandering around the camp you find a group of men smoking together in general silence, a group neither Mark nor Snafu is in. There you stop, not bothering to ask if you can sit down with them before you do so. Again, you're well known – no one besides Snafu has any issues with you. So you ask them.

"What the hell were they fighting about?" You ask amidst the quiet, knowing they would all know who you were talking about. One of them looks up at you, a pipe hanging out of his mouth, and a single eyebrow quirked.

"Are you being serious?" He asks you as the others pointedly ignore your conversation.

"... yes?" You say, feeling less sure of yourself the more he stares at you.

"Just go ask Snaf. He'll tell you better," he says, and after that he returns back to his magazine. A small sigh leaves you as you stand, brushing off your already dirty clothes.

Every part of you screamed that Snafu wouldn't tell you the truth, so you leave it at that. You're happy to stay in the dark as long as it means you avoid having another excruciating conversation with that man. You’re done trying to win his favor. For the next several days you even do your best to avoid him, ducking out of the mess tent when he enters and walking the other direction when you see him down the path. In fact, you do such a good job of it, that you only talk to him again when you're setting up the rest of the trenches. Once more he's managed to convince your CO to send both of you on to chart out the remaining trenches, even though the job is rarely dangerous, and you did it fine before he ever even came to the island.

Once more you find yourself ignoring his incoherent ramblings, drinking a long swig from your flask before letting out a sigh, driving another pike into the ground. Sometimes you can barely even hear him – this is one of those times, and these times make it easier for you to do your job. If you cared about Snafu you might've made an effort to understand him, but you don't care about him. At all. He could choke on his dinner and you wouldn't raise your head.

"I've got a question for you," you grunt out, knelt beside a pike that just won't go in. There you begin to dig at the earth with your hands, trying to find the hard ground or the rock stopping it.

"Go ahead, doll," he says when you pause in concentration.

"Jesus –" you mumble beneath your breath, your annoyance spiking at the nickname. "Saw you and that new recruit duking it out. What was that about? No one's willin' to tell me."

He went silent.

Snafu never goes silent, especially when the subject of a fight he won is brought up. Even when you move onto the next pike he doesn't speak, so you turn to him, sitting down in the dirt and looking up at him.

"What? I say something wrong?"

He still doesn't say anything, but he drops to his knees, almost right between your legs as you looks to you with a reverence so deep and pure you think you're imagining it. But you blink, and he's still there, one hand wrapped around your ankle and the other right beneath your raised thigh. Your breath catches in your throat, but from what you can't tell – is it surprise? Horror? Intrigue? All you can feel is the way his bare skin moves against your clothed legs, clouding out all thought of your racing heart.

"Y' ever hate someone?" He asks in the softest voice you've heard him use. Words fail you, so you nod, thinking only of him. "Is it me? I don’t blame you."

Well, you don't hate hate him – it was more of a he hated you, so you hated him in return situation. Nonetheless you nodded, curious to see where this was going.

He surges forward, and in one fluid motion he's kissing you, pressing you up against the bark of the tree behind you. Your immediate reaction is to try and crawl backwards, try to get away from him, but you're stopped by the tree, and he uses it to his advantage. The hand around your ankle moves, coming up to your head and tangling in your hair. There he pulls, drawing the smallest whine – not a moan, you won't let it be a moan – from your unwilling mouth. He presses himself impossibly close to you, till you're chest to chest, his hips practically grinding into yours. The way his lips move – soft against your own, needy and full of an ardor you didn't know could exist, especially not within him, but it's there. God, it's there, it's all you can feel as he nips at your lip, soothing the burn he leaves with his tongue. In that tiny motion, that semblance of caring you melt. Only then do you return his kiss, letting him pull at your hair, letting him have this control that is so rare to find in such a place as this.

"I told him you were mine," he mumbles when he pulls away, his breath warm against your cheek as he moves to whisper in your ear, all the way leaving tiny kisses. "Fucker thought I was lyin'. You're mine."

"Yeah," you breathe out, regaining control of your limbs just soon enough to hold his cheek in your palm, drawing him back to you and pulling him into a kiss you control. "I - I thought you hated me."

"Nah," he says, chuckling against your lips. "Jus' lookin' out for ya."

Now that was a surprise – and for once, it’s one you like.

#merriel snafu shelton #snafu x reader #the pacific hbo #rami malek #rami malek character #gender neutral reader

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myfriendscallmecoelophysis · 4 years

Text

The Fears of a Goddess

Part 1 of my Dark! Ianite fic

Part 2

Enjoy and as always

Find me on Ao3:

Selenejessabelle12626 for the tame stuff

Lady-Spieroles for the less tame stuff ;)

It wasn’t often that Tom felt like warnings of any sort were worth heeding. People often overreacted. ‘Don’t touch that’ ‘Don’t climb that high’ ‘Don’t challenge him to a fight’ ‘Don’t taste that weird green goo’, blah blah blah, always so boring. No one was willing to have any fun. But the warnings he did at least give a bit of consideration to were the ones from his God. Dianite may not really care about Tom but as long as Tom was useful, Dianite had to have some sort of interest in his continued survival. So when the book was left for him saying that Ianite may not be all that she appeared, Tom actually took it into consideration.

But really? Ianite? Jordan’s dodgy eyed, bubbly Goddess? Evil? Sure the Ianite of Ruxomar had caused the taint and destroyed the entire city of Dagrun with it and all that but she’d been chill whenever Tom had spoken with her. He didn’t admittedly have much experience with the Ianite they’d saved in their first lives either, really just causing a bit of mischief whenever she showed her face. Though there was that one time she took the sword Dianite had given him and killed him with it.

Eh, he’d go with Dianite for now. No harm in pretending to join her side and just using it as an excuse to spend more time with Jordan.

It was when Mianite warned them, all of them, of some sort of evil shadowy force that could be in any one of them that Tom gave Dianite’s worries a second thought. Maybe this was what he’d been thinking of? Maybe this evil had gotten it’s grip into Ianite? Should he say something to Jordan?

“Karl?”

“Yeah?”

“Did Mianite, say anything else to you about this evil thing that he didn’t tell us?”

They were sailing together back to their islands after the Mianite Games. Sparklez had flown ahead already, he stashed his elytra in that stupid ender chest and brought it along instead of leaving it behind like they’d been told.

Karl took a moment to reply, a moment too long for his words to be anything but suspicious. “No. Just what he told all of us.”

“Nothing about, Ianite or anything?”

“What do you mean? Why would he talk to me in secret about Jordan’s God?”

Tom frowned, turning back towards the front of the boat. “Nevermind, forget I said anything.”

His suspicions don’t fade, but he hid them well enough, he’d always been a pretty good liar when it actually mattered. Dianite had said nothing to him since before the Trial. He’d said he needed time to figure out what was happening and while Tom did feel a bit abandoned, he didn’t fault the God. He knew his own sister better than Tom did, he would know if she was acting off. So he played his part, gave Ianite the pearls she wanted, knelt before her and pretended to swear his loyalty despite Jordan frowning down at him from her side. For the foreseeable future he wouldn’t destroy anything or kill anyone or cause unnecessary chaos. There were greater things at work that he didn’t know about. Dianite would come back when it was time.

“Jordan, you trust me don’t you?” Ianite asked him out of the blue one day. She was sitting on the stairs in his tower, watching as he rummaged and crafted. Hunter, the stray cat that Ianite had adopted (despite it living in Jordan’s home), sat in her lap purring as she stroked it.

“Of course.” Jordan said without looking up from what he was working on.

“I think my brothers are plotting against me.” He paused, pulling back the ingredients he’d been about to mix at his brewing stand.

He turned around to look at her and asked “What do you mean?” confused by why she would say such a thing.

“They’ve stopped speaking to me. But I see them speaking to each other.” Jordan felt a twinge of pity for her, he knew what it felt like to be left out of conversations. Tom and Karl did it often enough, swapping secrets and inside jokes.

“I’m sure it’s nothing milady. They’re your little brothers, little brothers do things like that sometimes. Or so I’ve been told.”

“I’m scared of what they may be planning.” At her admittance, the pity he felt doubled. He set aside the potion and moved to sit on the stairs next to her. “I’m scared of what is to come if they come into their powers.”

He’d told her of the theory he and Tom shared. That they’d come backwards in time to a point where the Gods they would know as powerful had not yet grown into their abilities. She’d asked him endless questions about that life and he’d told her, once she’d shared that she knew some of it already. The Ianite of Ruxomar had told him what would happen when she scattered her quintessence, that she would become one with all her lives across all dimensions and realities. It made sense that this version of her might have glimpses of those other lives. She knew that for Dianite to be defeated in the far-flung future, his evil ended once and for all, she would have to rot in a crystal prison cell for millenia unknown. He would steal her heart and hide it away, leaving her weak and broken, a shell of a Goddess and of herself. It was no wonder that she was worried.

In all likelihood Dianite had already gotten a similar story from Tom about the future where they’d come from and knowing Tom, it did not paint Ianite or Mianite in a very kind way.

“It’ll be alright. The fact that I’m here is proof that it will be. I saved you then and I will do it again. Over and over as many times as I must, in this dimension and all others. You have my word. I swear it to you as your Champion.” He was not often one for physical contact, but hazarded a chance to take one of her hands in his, giving what he hoped was a comforting squeeze.

She smiled and squeezed it back. “I know you will. You always have. I see the other mortals and I wonder how I got so lucky to have a Champion as loyal as you. I’ve seen into those other worlds, in my dreams. I’ve seen the world where she loved you, where I loved you, well not you but another you.” “Spark. He was called Spark.” he chuckled, explaining to save her the confusion.

“But in that world I saw what became of her after he was gone. The destruction she caused without him by her side. But then she met you, this you. You did so much for her, for us. The others were so cruel to you but you only did what you felt was best and best for her.” He looked away from her then, but did not let go of her hand. He was ashamed of some of the choices he’d made in the name of balance. Cruel, foolish, selfish choices justified by claiming they were for the greater good. “And I was wrong. She-” He swallowed, closing his eyes “-she died. Because I couldn’t help her. Because I wasn’t strong enough.”

“Jordan.” She sighed, looking to him with empathy in her eyes. “It’s not your fault. Such things are bigger than any one man. You did everything you could to help her and keep her safe and happy until it was her time and still even after. But there was nothing more you could have done. It is the nature of fate. We all have our destinies to face. Be they discorporating or spending a thousand years in chains. There is nothing we can do to change them.”

He knew she was right, that they had to simply accept what was to come. He and Tom had discussed it soon after coming to the understanding that they were in the past. They could not tamper too much. Who knew what might happen if they accidentally changed the timeline? But now Jordan was realizing something.

When he arrived on that Island of ‘Mianite’ where Tom and Tucker had decided to create their land, Mianite and Dianite both had been alive and well. Ianite had been the one languishing in a prison at Dianite’s hand, her heart stolen and hidden away. Ianite’s followers had been the ones to die under Furia’s attacks. Ianite’s temple and holy city had been what had burned. Ianite was the one who’d been neglected and forgotten by the brother that was supposed to be the ‘Good Guy’. How in any way was it considered balanced for the Goddess of Balance to undergo such trauma while her brothers went about their lives with leisure? And even in Ruxomar, it had been Ianite who’d sacrificed herself to return the balance to the realm after Mianite and Dianite had sent it into flux. Why was she the one who must always suffer?

“But what if,” Jordan said slowly, the words already tasting treasonous on his tongue, “we changed yours?”

When she was a young girl, Ianite had a dream of a crystal castle in the sky. She dreamed of the castle often, of its beautiful impenetrable walls and decoratively barred windows. To a girl it seemed enormous, an endless maze of hallways and corridors. But try as she might, she could never find the door. As she got older the castle in her dreams grew smaller and smaller until it began to feel not like a palace, but a prison. Burning shackles began appearing on her wrists each night, searing and branding scars upon her skin as she struggled to escape. What had once been a dream became a recurring nightmare.

Mother, despite having never heard Ianite’s dreams, told her bedtime stories of a woman who was locked away in a crystal tower, awaiting rescue from a hero. He would come and it was with only his help that she would come into her own and reach her truest potential. It didn’t take long for Ianite to put the pieces together. This was not a fairy tale, but one of Mother’s visions. It would be her fate to see that dungeon and it was only by surviving that she would grow to become the Goddess she was destined to be.

From that moment on Ianite vowed that she would subvert her fate. She would never lay eyes on that place, not if she had anything to say about it. She may not have access to the fullest extent of her powers but she was still a fledgling Goddess. She would fight tooth and nail to reach the potential that was promised to her, with or without the hero.

Her own visions began after Mother was gone. They were not prophetic, not like Mother’s had been. It took Ianite some time to realize that she was seeing glimpses into other realities. She was always herself, that much she knew, but in every reality things changed. In some she was a Goddess, in others a human, in yet others still she was neither. One of these visions was different from all the others, so much so she was not sure it was the same thing at all.

She was in a cavern lit only by scant torchlight. Before her was a hooded figure, sat at a writing desk. She heard the scratching of a quill on parchment then the tap of the quill being set aside. “I wondered when I might see you.” A man’s voice greeted. He stood and stepped away from the desk, turning to face her. His face was shrouded in darkness in the depth of the hood but still she felt as though she could not break his gaze. “I’m so pleased that you have begun to come into your powers, my daughter.”

“Father?” She’d never known her father. Mother had never spoken of him aside from passing references twisted within her prophecies. She did know enough to know he was powerful, far stronger than she or her brothers. Mother had claimed it was their destiny to defeat him and rid his darkness from the world but only after they reached their fullest potential and strength. A task which could not be accomplished without the help of a mortal hero. Something Ianite was trying to avoid, seeing as it required her to be imprisoned for Gods knew how long.

“You are unhappy with your destiny.” He stated. She said nothing, frightened into silence. She could feel the sheer force of power that radiated from him, dark and roiling like a deep turbulent sea. “No need to speak my child. I know what you seek. It’s why you have come to me. You, a daughter of creation, are scared of a lifetime of suffering and pain. Scared of relying upon another to free you from what would otherwise be an eternal prison.” he turned away, back towards the desk. She saw now that upon it lay a book bound in crimson leather, the ink within still shiny and fresh. “I’m not surprised by your fear, young one. Your Mother, while she possessed a great many qualities, tact was never one of them. But it is no matter. I am able to offer you what you wish. In fact, you could not have arrived at a more opportune time. I have just finished crafting the only spell you will require.”

Wariness filled Ianite, she’d paid attention well in her lessons despite working against her future. She knew that no magic, particularly magic this strong came without a price. If her feelings were correct, this price would be a costly one. But if this were to be her only option, what choice did she have? She watched as he closed the book then turned it so the spine rested upon the desk. He lifted a candle the color of the deep black void from its holder, tipping it so that wax dripped upon the fore edge and both covers, sealing it shut. He pressed a seal into the cooling wax then laid it back on the desk.

“But, I fear, you are not yet ready for it. A pity, truly.”

“I’m ready.” She’d found her voice but the words did not hold the conviction she had hoped, coming out wavering with nerves.

He didn’t even entertain the thought, scoffing in disappointment. “You are weak. You and your brothers both. I could kill you with a thought. But I will refrain, simply out of interest to see if one day you might be strong enough to tame my magic.” He turned back to her and raised a hand. “We will meet again one day my daughter, and perhaps then you shall impress me.” He flicked a finger and then she was waking up back in her bed.

She had a path now. A goal to strive towards. She would find that book and learn the spell. She would not allow her destiny to come to pass. No matter what it cost.

When the mortals arrived many many years later Ianite was just as surprised as her brothers. Her visions in the days leading up to their arrival had been filled with images of a man who changed little from reality to reality. In one he was her husband, in another her caretaker, her knight, her son, her servant, her confidant, many things but always close and always trusted beyond measure. When she opened her eyes in that temple, he was before her and suddenly she understood what the visions had been trying to show her. He was the hero from Mother’s prophecies. He was the one who was destined to save her from that crystal prison. He was not just her hero in that time but in all times, he was her Champion. Her one true follower.

She got to know him over the next weeks. He was clever, shy, funny, strong, quiet, patient, driven, level headed. She enjoyed simply speaking with him of everything and nothing. It was during one of their conversations that she learned of the life he’d lived before this one, of the world of far advanced magic and technology. It fascinated her to hear the details from a world she’d only seen glimpses of, but this led him to admit that that world had not been the first. That was when the theory he and the Zombie shared came to light. She understood then, he came from the future Mother had prophesied. A future where Ianite had been unable to accomplish her goals. They’d not yet figured out why they’d come back in time but it was then that Ianite’s plan became clear.

It was with his help that she would finally accomplish what she’d worked for almost her entire life. She’d felt her strength growing with each day she spent with him, with him at her side she would return to her Father’s temple and find the spell that would free her from her destiny once and for all.

She got her first peek of what potential her Champion had when the Zombie renounced Dianite. Jordan didn’t entertain even a scrap of belief that it was the truth, his cleverness turning calculating in a single moment. She felt his anger when she gave Syndicate a chance, saw the building fury in his eyes when she insinuated her faith may be placed in the newcomer. Yes, her Captain, while clearly a kind and good man at heart, had the potential to be the knight and warrior she needed him to be.

Her reassurances that his loyalty to her was not misplaced and that he would always be her favored champion were enough to calm his frustration with her but did nothing to temper his suspicions towards Syndicate. He stood at her side with his sword drawn as she formally accepted Dianite’s Fallen Champion, ice in his eyes. He was not happy about this, not at all. For what it was worth, she wasn’t either. It had been far too abrupt a shift to be anything but on purpose. Dianite had something in the works.

She’d heard nothing from either brother for weeks, since before the mortals had arrived. She was under no impression that they did not both have plans of their own. She doubted they had the conviction she did however. They had very little to avoid in their futures, perhaps Dianite may fear giving into his chaotic nature but Mianite had nothing to be concerned about. She was the only one of the three with such high stakes. Which was why she was the one who must be the strongest. If either of them were able to over power her they would put a stop to her plans. If she changed the future for herself it would most certainly change it for them as well. She had to contain and surpass them before they could do the same to her. She did not think they knew exactly what her goal was, did not know of the existence of Father’s spell, but she had no way to know for sure. It was the reason she’d accepted Syndicate’s fealty. Let Dianite think he had her fooled, a man who thought his actions were going to plan was a man who let his guard down.

She did learn another important lesson about her hero during this endeavor. Even in his anger, he remained far too good a man to willingly go against his friends or the other Gods. She had his loyalty but how far would that last if she asked him to take up arms against the others? No, if everything she’d heard of his past dealings with the other versions of herself was true, asking him outright to do anything of that nature would go against his sensibilities. She had to approach this a different way. Slowly, patiently, carefully she would get him more used to who she was in this time. She was not the scorned woman she was destined to become, nor was she the desperate pivot of balance in a world crumbling to ruin. She, this younger version of herself aiming to change the future, was the Goddess of all facets of Balance. She was a Goddess of Justice and of Vengeance. Justice for herself and the suffering she was fated to endure. Vengeance against the brother who would lock her in that cage and the brother who would do nothing while she faced millenia of torment. For in her Captain’s timeline, such a thing had already occurred. That was reason enough to get her revenge.

His loyalty to her would be the factor that led to her triumph. The lives he’d lived prior to this would be all she needed to convince him to see her side. Surely a loyal man such as him would not want to see her suffer. Surely he would not want to send her to that fate when he knew even more of what had happened than she herself currently did. The guilt he felt for ‘failing’ the last Ianite he had served would only aid her now. A man presented with a chance for penance would almost always seize it. She just had to get him to agree.

“But what if,” Jordan said slowly, tentatively, well aware that what he was saying was not what he should be suggesting , “we changed yours?”

“Jordan, what are you saying?” Ianite asked, pouring sweet and sickly innocence onto her voice. “We can’t change the future. It’s not right.”

“Neither was Dianite locking you in that prison for who even knows how long.” His voice was gaining certainty as he looked up from his hands and to her. “We have a chance to keep you from living through that. What if that was why I was sent back to this time? To prevent that from ever happening?”

“None of the others will allow it. My brothers want that future. They want a future where they are strong.” “But why do you have to suffer so they have the chance?” There is was, the spark of anger in his eyes when faced with injustice. She’d seen it for more mild matters before but it was exactly what she’d hoped to bring forth. Weeks of subtle manipulation and reinforcing her own views of balance were coming to fruition. “Who decided that you were the one who had to lose so that they could win?”

“It’s no one’s choice. It simply is. My Mother’s prophecy saw what must happen. The three of you heroes are to lead us to our fates and our truest strength, for my brothers it occurs now, for me it is once you return my heart to me.”

His eyes narrowed in determination and he squeezed her hand again, getting to his feet.

“Good thing I’ve never put much stake in prophecies.”

#Mianite #Mianite fanfiction #mianite is back yall #mianitian isles #syndicate #Captain Sparklez #ianite #dianite #dark!Ianite #my writing #part 1 #part 2 coming soon #words words words

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chibimyumi · 4 years

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Hi I have a question if you don't mind I would like to know what your thoughts are on the musical Marie Antoinette and what the story about and what for character Axel von Fersen is and what he does in the story? Thank you for answering my question

Dear Anon,

TOHO’s ‘M.A.’ is either my favourite or second favourite musical EVER. The story and script are SO well written, and the characters feel so real, I have never seen anything like it in the stage media form.

The story focuses on two women with the initials M.A. (Marie Antoinette and Margrid Arnaud). These two women are legit the titular characters and never get their spotlights stolen by others. They are both equally strong and flawed characters in their own rights, no bullshit like ‘she is strong because of GIRL POWER’ or ‘she is strong for the sake of romance’. The writers had the guts to make Marie stupid and Margrid a vicious snake, but also had the skill of never dehumanising either.

I really hope that more people could watch this musical (I offer free English subtitles for A-Version in exchange for proof of legal ownership), so I without spoiling anything essential:

Prologue

This show starts with Fersen receiving news of Marie’s execution. He is well aware that the revolutionaries have grossly dirtied her name for the sake of propaganda, and mourns how the slanders about the Queen will be passed down as canon history. Indeed, the infamous phrases ‘let them eat cake’ or ‘madam deficit’ are what most of us get taught about her, but recent historic research has found that Marie Antoinette was in fact innocent of most claims against her name.

In the prologue, Fersen reminisces about Marie as he knew her, and serves as some kind of narrator of the opening scene. As Fersen sings he brings the audience back in time to meet Marie Antoinette and the events before the revolution broke out.

Main Story

The main story opens on one evening in Paris. Margrid storms into a party organised by Duke d’Orléans where the Queen is also at. Margrid communicates the dire situation the common people are in, hoping that the people with the power to make a difference would open their eyes. The nobility however, seemed most unconcerned, and that event becomes a catalyst of the French Revolution.

Conflict

One of the most amazing things about this musical is the antagonist who wishes to remove the King and Queen, Duke d’Orléans. He has his own view on politics, and just like the people, he can no longer bear to watch France perishing under the incompetence of Louis XVI. This person is the man who would later be known as Philippe Égalité.

He is played by Yoshihara Mitsuo, and the only single actor I have seen in ALL versions that managed to make this ‘villain’ a character so three-dimensional he could be the hero of his own story. In an interview Yoshihara said in accordance with his own performance:

“Can you imagine being the person who has the potential to provide for the French people, but having to witness the country suffer while doing nothing? From d’Orléans’ point of view, if he had not stood up to fight for the legal power to make a difference, he would have been the bad guy here.”

Margrid and d’Orléans decide to cooperate. With intelligence, ambitions and fierce hatred combined, their growing team manage to use the people’s bias against the foreign Queen to turn her into the scapegoat of the toxic monarchy.

Hans Axel von Furusen

Anon, since you asked, I shall do a mini-deep section on Count von Fersen played by Furukawa Yuta. (I only watched the version with Tashiro Fersen once, so I only have an ‘impression’ of him. If you are interested in Tashiro’s Fersen, I trust @wildandwhirlingwords would fill you in on him ^^)

⚠️ If you don’t want to spoiled then stop here! ⚠️

Role

Many would think that Fersen is the love interest of Marie Antoinette, and would therefore fulfill a main role in the musical, perhaps the tragic hero to whom the two M.A.s are the fuel of his heroism. But no, just like I said above, the two M.A.s are the legit titular characters of this production, and Fersen is support cast. Though a phenomenally important role, he never even threatens to take over the main spotlights.

The script for him is relatively minor in comparison to the two leads, but Furukawa’s amazing eye for detail has managed to flesh him out so thoroughly you still know exactly what type of person Furusen is. This ‘fleshed out result’ is something that I have yet to see in any other version of him, even in other musicals, mangas and movies.

Background and Personality

Fersen played by Furukawa is calm, fiercely intelligent, and a jaded war veteran. Having seen the American revolution first hand, he understands the mechanisms behind mass dissatisfaction and the power of people’s anger. Furusen rushed back to Marie from whom he has separated for years to warn her against the dangers he foresees. As isolated as she is however, Marie cannot manage to understand what the war veteran is warning her against.

“I have witnessed a revolution with my own eyes. I learned that much more than any cannon or rifle, it is thoughts and words that are powerful.”

Except worldly savviness, Furusen is likewise characterised by restraint. As Furukawa himself puts it:

“I tried to approach this role from a platonic perspective. He loves Marie deeply, and he realises very well that only by loving her platonically can she remain safe. Rather than proximity, the more sustainable way of love for them is restraint.”

Indeed, Furusen's love is not a fiery romance, instead it is more akin to courtly love. He constantly tries to maintain a safe distance from the Queen.

Finally Marie and Fersen manage to reunite after many years, and she eagerly grabs for his hand. Furusen’s expression however communicates clear concern, and he respectfully takes a step back.

Furusen is not aloof towards Marie because he doesn’t love her anymore. In a later scene it becomes clear that his restraint is his ultimate display of love; he knows too well how Marie’s reputation can’t afford any more blemishes.

After they sing “because my love for you will never disappear,” Marie attempts to kiss him on his lips, but Furusen quickly dodges, silently reminding the Queen of their respective statuses as Lady and vassal. This is a very noteworthy detail that can only be seen between Furukawa’s Fersen and Sasamoto’s Marie. #HyperDetailedActing

Frustration

Another characteristic of Furusen is his immense frustration. Furusen is constantly desperately trying to find a way to save Marie. But with the ever-growing rumours of Marie whoring around, he finds himself bound hand and foot. If he takes action to help her Marie will be hurt; if he does nothing Marie will also be hurt.

Instead, this famed strategist finds his chances reduced to... being passive-aggressive... After d’Orléans had his first clear victory and the Royal entourage take their leaves, Furusen makes a show out of going up to his foe to warn him. They don’t exchange a single word, but the tension and history between these foes are clear as day.

Furukawa and Yoshihara were very passionate about their roles, and they shared in a talk-show how both of them spent hours together discussing their histories. The amazing chemistry between them cannot be described in words, but the result of their character-building are self-evident in the musical. (Click here for an in-joke between these actors.)

Masculinity and Aura

Furusen displays a very gentle, non-toxic kind of masculinity. As discussed above, he knows when to restrain himself, and he knows when to admit wrong. He is also not shy to show vulnerability, COMMUNICATE, and shed some genuine tears.

Generally he just displays a very elegant type of masculinity, never taking up more space than anybody else. It is very pleasant to watch!

Sass

Furusen is not just elegant though! He also displays a very sassy and sarcastic side that are evidence of his highly critical mind.

In this post I expanded on Furusen’s sass, but to put it very short; Furusen is REALLY funny too. In the race against the clock to evacuate the King and Queen, the King steps out of the carriage and suggests they go for a leisurely picnic, and dismisses Fersen. Unable to defy the King’s command, Furusen then makes a cross while ROLLING his eyes.

So yes, I can’t tell you why exactly M.A. is one of my all time favourite musicals without spoiling the critical things, so I highly, HIGHLY recommend you buy the musical for yourself.

I know this DVD is very expensive, and normally I would not dare suggest anybody just spend this amount of money based on my word. But please, this one will surely NOT disappoint you!

If you really are unsure, @wildandwhirlingwords hosts live-streams from time to time, and she told me she is also willing to take requests if she has the time/capacity. She hosts the streams without subtitles out of respect for me (thank you, dear), but she does give live commentary to explain the essentials. Her blog is absolutely great and contains lots of interesting info about Japanese musicals, and M.A. specifically ^^

Here is the purchase link of Version A (Furukawa x Sasamoto x Sonim) from TOHO Mall.

MASTERPOST How to buy DVDs/BDs, and get Free English subtitles from me.

#Marie antoinette #DVD #MA #TOHO #Imperial Theatre #TOHO musical #MA Musical #Sylvester Levay #Michael Kunze #English subs #summary #review #Furusen #Furukawa Yuta #Yun #Sasamoto Rena #Yoshihara Mitsuo #Sonim

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such-a-melt · 5 years

Text

➳reluctant

Pairing: Bobby x mc

Summary: you’ve convinced yourself that Bobby is too perfect to be true, and with thoughts of a single tweet fueling your paranoia, it’s hard not to be wary of the hypothetical player. (Takes place on Day 8, after the mean tweets challenge)

Warnings: a lot a bit of angst turned fluff, cheating, Bobby is sad:(

Note: REQUESTS ARE OPEN!! Bobby mentions that he’s been burned in the past but it’s never specified, so I assumed he got cheated on. And in this the mc also got cheated on in the past, cus what’s better than bonding over mutual suffering?

ps. I was listening to Blue by Troye Sivan on repeat, which makes this 100 times more emotional.

pps. thank you for all the lovely responses on my other fic! You guys really made my day and the comments encouraged me to finish this faster, so thank you again!

You didn’t think being alone with Bobby would ever feel like a punishment.

And yet you found yourself sitting across from him, a heavy silence hanging over the two of you. The heated water of the jacuzzi lapped across your skin, bubbles dancing across your legs before rising to the surface in a flurry of air. A sweet fizz invaded your tastebuds as you downed your glass of champagne, and from the corner of your eyes you saw Bobby enjoy his own glass, only more leisurely than you had. The two of you were meant to be bonding, relishing in the reward of winning the afternoons challenge, but you couldn’t bring yourself to start a conversation.

‘Calling it now, Bobby is the biggest player on this year’s Love Island.’

Every thought you had centred around the one phrase that managed to flip your world upside-down. Okay, maybe not your whole world, but it still stung. Your mind seemed to be mocking you in a masochistic melody, ‘he’s a player! he’s a player!’; the cruel voice sung out.

You knew you shouldn’t trust a random tweet from a random person online. It was so stupid. Not only that, but the tweet said ‘calling it’, so nothing had actually happened. ‘Yet,’ your paranoia replied.

But what if? What if this random person happened to have an intuition so strong they could tell he was playing you from a single glance? Doubt filled you to the brim, clogging your throat, clouding your common sense, sealing your mouth shut. You recognised these strong emotions, but you didn’t think you’d feel them around Bobby, at least not so soon. You felt like you were drowning in a sea of your own feelings, your life line waiting for you just out of your reach, but all you could do was drown.

“What’s on your mind?” Bobby asks, effectively snapping you out of your thoughts. You looked up at him with a shy smile, almost guilty for the thoughts that seemed to take your mind over. He had no fault in this, really. He had been completely loyal, even when he was picked by Priya; one of the most stunning women you had seen, may you add.

“Just the challenge, I guess,” you responded, leaving out your less than stellar thoughts about his intentions, “it gave a lot to think about, didn’t it?”

Bobby hummed in agreement, “it gave me an idea of what the public thinks of us. It’s weird, you kind of forget about all the cameras in here, but now I’m suddenly aware of them again. Especially after that tweet about Hope and Noah.”

You scoffed, pouring yourself another glass of champagne, “I mean I was surprised at first, but after thinking about it for a while...”

Bobby gave you a look of disbelief, but if the smirk on his lips was any indicator, he was more amused than shocked, “So you actually think Hope is playing him to get to the final?”

“Well, not necessarily..” you sighed, taking some time to phrase your next words carefully, “they’ve got issues. And they’ll have a lot more. Hope is too bossy and Noah’s too reserved. They seem like a good couple.. but it makes you think. What are they like when we aren’t watching?” You took a sip of the cold bubbly, “it’s funny. People on the outside see more than we do, but they don’t see everything either.”

Bobby gave a sound of understanding, taking your words into consideration, “So you reckon those tweets were onto something?”

You took note of how carefully Bobby was watching you as he waited for your answer. Were they all true? Even the one about Bobby?

Looking into those gorgeous eyes, you almost wanted to slap him. God you liked him so much, but why was everything so complicated all of a sudden? Within just a week, this man had managed to become a very important part of you life. His affections seemed to grow on you, and he crept his way through your defences, a hefty root burying itself in the soil of your heart. Your instincts were telling you to run, to shut him out, that he was too good to be true. You wanted to believe that he was genuine, that he liked you just as much as you liked him. But what if? What if the tweets were all true?

“Oh, definitely.”

Bobby snickered, “So you think I’m actually a player?”

“Are you?” Your eyes stared straight into his, almost challenging, but he remained unfazed.

“Only time will tell..” he giggled, fingers wiggling in an attempt to be comically mysterious.

The uneasy feeling settled in your stomach once more. You knew he was trying to lighten the mood, but you broke the eye contact to look away, anywhere else. Tired of his cryptic answers, you just gave a thoughtful hum, not knowing how to reply.

He appeared to sense the mood turning sour, because his smile faltered slightly. You felt his feet poke yours through the warm water, tickling yours teasingly. You hated how you couldn’t stop yourself from cracking a smile.

“Hey.. are you mad at me?” He asked so innocently, like a little child getting scolded for the first time. As if he couldn’t get any more adorable, he pouted his bottom lip out, eyes pleading with you. He was giving you the most adorable puppy eyes, and you could tell he was trying his hardest not to laugh.

“I don’t appreciate the emotional manipulation,” you joked, but he could tell your heart wasn’t into it.

“I’m gonna keep annoying you until you tell me..” he grinned, and it become harder and harder to avoid the way his feet tickled yours beneath the water.

You groaned, looking up in exasperation, “fine,” you huffed childishly, “you’re a little leach, you know.”

“One of my many talents,” he retorted, “now are you gonna tell me?”

You hesitated, but knew it was best to just tell him. It was now or never.

“I know it’s dumb, but that tweet actually got to me,” you sighed, “I know it shouldn’t have, and I do trust you, but there’s just that doubt, you know?” Your voice suddenly took on a softer tone, exposing a vulnerability Bobby hadn’t seen up until now, “I guess it just reminded me of the way things ended with my ex. We had been together for a long time, and trust me I’m over him, but the way things ended..?” You sighed and stared into your glass of champagne, circling the rim with the tip of your finger, not knowing how to finish your sentence.

“It just makes you second guess everyone’s intentions,” he finished for you. You felt the water swish as he placed his glass on the side and moved to sit directly next to you, “I get it.”

He hesitated slightly, but eventually his hands clasped yours under the water. You felt him trace faint shapes with his thumbs, the simple touches comforting you. Your drink was long forgotten as you relished in the simple affection he provided.

You met his eyes, and just like that, you knew he understood.

“I was dating this girl, and I was convinced we’d be together for a long time. Turns out she had been cheating on me for months with a guy I thought was one of my best friends.” He sighed sadly, “and same as you, I am over her. But it still left a mark on me. And I guess... it’s since then that I’ve found it really hard to see anyone as more than a friend. Maybe because it was hard for me to accept that anyone could actually have real feelings for me.”

You were left stunned, anger bubbling up in your chest. Tears gathered in your eyes at the way he spoke, at just how broken his heart had been. The fact that anyone would dare wrong him so deeply -and more importantly, the fact that you had doubted him so hard- hurt you more than you thought it would.

“Fucking shit Bobby...” you wanted to find words to comfort him, but they seemed to get stuck in your throat. Instead, you leaned over and wrapped your arms around his torso, enveloping him in the warmest hug you could muster. Without hesitation he returned the gesture, arms wrapping around you securely. You leaned into his warm embrace, cheek flush against the skin covering his heart.

“I’m sorry. I was dumb and doubted you without thinking..” you whispered.

Incredibly, he still mustered up a dry laugh, “you don’t have to be sorry, MC. I wasn’t exactly helping my case either, was I?”

You smiled softly, leaving the softest peck on the freckles across his chest. The two of you remained that way as the sky’s colours shifted to an array of pinks and purples, the full moon watching over you, and in that moment you knew you had nothing to worry about after all. You suddenly felt really lucky to just be able to hold him under the night sky, a gesture more intimate than the most desperate kiss.

note: damn I really am a fool, making myself cry like that

#litg bobby #love island the game #bobby x mc #whos a player now huh #yall are all fools #our mans would nEVEr cheat on us #LISTEN TO BLUE BY TROYE SIVAN GODDAMNIT

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maerose-late-at-night · 5 years

Text

Everything (comes back to you)

THIS FIC ON AO3

He’d been sitting there for about an hour, very intently not watching Callum on his date. Instead he sat at the bar with shoulders hunched and folding in on himself. Watching as the line indicating how much beer he had left sunk lower and lower toward the bottom of the bottle. Mick sent him a worried glance every now and then, before sending an equally worried look over Callum’s way. At least, that’s what Ben told himself.

He’d passed tipsy-but-alright miles ago. His head was now filled with smoke and fog and no way out, occasional wisps of Callum’s voice cutting through it like a piercing blade (or maybe like a ray of sunshine). Heard him huff a quiet laugh at something the other bloke said – and it hurt, it hurt – but he couldn’t help but feel a little vindicated. See, Ben knew every possible nuance to the vast repertoire of Callum’s laughs and this… this was just being polite. Because Callum would never leave someone hanging, too afraid to offend their feelings.

Ben… well, Ben could ease a proper full-body laugh out of him, head thrown back and eyes watering, nearly cracking his skull against the headboard after a particularly intense round of hanky-panky. Callum loose-limbed and sated, Ben the happiest he’d ever been, drawing lazy circles on his boyfriend’s chest. He knew that if anyone had taken a close enough look at him, they’d have found actual stars dancing in his eyes.

His fingers travelled to the bottle once more, tracing the path of a droplet of condensation falling down. He swiped at it, pressed it into the paper label that had become a little bit soggy from time passed. He started picking at it, annoyed when it didn’t come clean off, leaving sticky residue against the green and on the tips of his own fingers.

He should let this happen.

Give Callum a fresh start and a clean break – a break he’d forced himself, mind you. Pushed at Callum, pushed at him some more. Try to blink away the tears in his eyes and the knife in his heart and the look on Callum’s face. The feeling of safety and belonging that had engulfed him just a few days ago, pressed close together in the portacabin. He’d wanted to disappear forever, leave everything behind. He’d vaporize, and just stay nestled in the crook of Callum’s elbow or the ticklish spot behind his left ear. In the dip between his thumb and index finger, stroking Ben’s cheek tenderly.

He ventured a glance to where they were sitting. Callum’s date was leaning closer to him than he’d been before, but he – of course – remained completely oblivious. Even after all this time, Callum still didn’t understand the effect he could have on people. It was one of the softest things about him. Ben loved it so much, he needed to protect it, and every other little inch of him. Even if it meant killing himself in the process.

So he couldn’t really explain why he suddenly found himself at their table. “Right, we need to talk.”

Callum looked at him, a little confused and a lot fed up. “Now’s not really a good time, Ben.”

“Oh, no, now’s the best time.” He threw a dirty look in the direction of Callum’s plus-one. “Terribly sorry, needs must and all that. Callum?”

“Hang on,” the stranger said. “Who d’you think you are?”

Not able to bear being labeled ‘the ex’, he bit out “I’m his mate, alright?”.

Callum huffed at that, bit his lip and looked the other way. Shook his head almost imperceptibly, then pushed from his seat and stormed out, Ben following at a leisurely pace. A lot of eyes watched their actions unfold, no doubt wondering as to how Ben would mess it up even further. Though some, he hoped, might be rooting for him, just a little, too.

Callum’s features made a stark contrast to the night air and what little light shone down from a half-waxed moon. He was pacing excitedly, right in the middle of the street. It made Ben worried for him, but mostly it was making him dizzy, the alcohol in his system catching up to him in a swift rush.

He closed his eyes briefly. “Sorry, would you mind stopping for a second?”

Thankfully, Callum did, though the action seemed to shifted his mood as well. He went from anxious to angry in the blip of a heartbeat.

“So you’re my ‘mate’ now, that it?”

Ben chuckled at the way Callum had used those gorgeous long fingers to add pressure to his words. “Those are some pretty intense air quotes, babe.”

Callum deflated at the endearment, all the air and all the fight going out of him in the second it had taken for Ben to unthinkingly use it. He blinked slowly, averted his eyes. “You can’t keep doing this, Ben.” He looked at him, trying to make him see – some sort of sense, he supposed. Futile. “You can’t keep pushing me away then making some claim on me when...”

“I know,” Ben said, taking a step forwards, holding his hands up in a sign of surrender. “It’s just… I know I’m not good enough for ya, but that idiot in there ain’t come close either.”

“Right.” Callum nodded, his eyebrows pulling together. “And you can tell just by lookin’ at him, can ya?”

Ben gave him a look that said it was perfectly obvious. “He don’t know ya.”

“Maybe if you hadn’t -”

His head was still spinning. Surely the alcohol should’ve dissolved by now? “No he couldn’t.”

“Right.” Callum said again. He was so close to Ben now; both of them were shouting. When had that happened? Ben couldn’t remember. “So you’re not good enough, he’s not good enough. Anyone ever going to be?”

“No, they ain’t.” Ben said, placing his hands to either side of Callum’s face, cradling it softly. It was the best prize in the world, and he couldn’t have it.

“No they ain’t, Callum. Because you’re beautiful and kind and amazing in just about every way. And I’m completely in love with ya. And there’s never gonna be anyone in the world that actually deserves all the stuff you give out.”

Callum stilled. “Hang on, say that again?”

“Orright, calm down big ego.” Ben rolled his eyes. “You’re beautiful an’ kind and amazing. And I know for some reason that still comes as bloody news to ya..”

“No…no, not that.” He smiled. “The part you said you’re in love with me.”

Panic rose in his chest. His hands dropped immediately. Damn beers. “Errr… don’t think I said anything of the kind, mate.”

“Yes you did.” Callum was beaming, a grin so wide it would no doubt split his face apart if he kept it on for too long.

So Ben told him just that.

“You know if the clock strikes your face’ll freeze that way.”

He felt defeated. “Look, even if I did, it don’t change anything, do it?” He balled his hands into fists by his side to keep from shaking. “You’re still too good, Callum, I’m not gonna ruin ya.”

“You’re wrong,” Callum said. “ it changes everything. It proves I was right, you’re just scared. But I’m not letting you go.” His hands closed over Ben’s, Callum’s fingers caressing them until they unfurled from their clenched position. “I’m not letting you go, Ben.” He repeated. “Whatever it is you’ve done.. I’m not sayin’ I don’t care, but we’ll get through it. You can’t deal with this on your own, it’ll break ya.”

Ben bit his tongue, turned away. “Well, whatever you’re thinking, it’s worse.”

“Your dad punched out Jack ‘cause he though he was the baby’s dad, yeah? I don’t imagine he’d let Keanu breathe when he realized.”

Ben raised his eyebrow at the matter-of-fact way the words’d been spoken. Like it was no more than a fact. With no consequences or blame or possible jail time.

“Copper like you can hardly have a boyfriend with that on his record, can he?”

Callum gave him a small and private smile. “See, the thing is…I’m not gonna be a copper no more.”

That was even worse. “Giving up your dream to be with…”

“Nah, see..” Callum interrupted him. “I’ve been thinking these past few weeks, being away from ya. ‘Bout why I wanted to be a copper in the first place. And I just… I want to help people, Ben. Be ‘of service’, like. I’m not doing that at the parlour where I just apply balm after the wounds, I wanna stop the hurt from happening in the first place.” He squeezed Ben’s hand. “I don’t wanna save people from criminals, Ben. I wanna save ‘em from themselves.”

His eyes were wide and trusting. “Like when I talked Bobby down. Or who I was before I met you. Or who you’d be if it wasn’t for ya dad. I’ve been there, I know. I think I might be good at pulling people out.”

“And I’m not perfect like you think, Ben. I’m broken same as you…”

When Ben started to protest this, he shushed him. “No I’m not. D’you wanna know how many times I still wake up from nightmares ‘bout what I did in the army?”

What? “You never…”

“Never when I’m with you.” Callum acknowledged. “Wanna know why that is, Ben? It’s ‘cause you make me feel safe. I’m not scared when I’m around you.” He smiled at him. “You do that for me.”

“Callum…”

“I’m gonna kiss you now.” Callum said, without even the slightest tremor in his voice. Only confidence and – Jesus Christ, so much love shining through. “We’re going to forget these past weeks ever happened.” He gave Ben a cheeky smile. “And you’re coming home with me tonight.”

Ben grinned. “Bit confident, are ya?”

“Got every reason to be,” Callum told him, taking the smaller man into his arms. Ben suppressed a shiver as Callum kissed the top of his nose, nuzzled the tender spot between his eyes, before pulling back. “This guy I like just told me he loves me back. Don’t need to know anything else, really.”

He paused.

“Now come ‘ere you big grizzly bear.”

The statement was followed by small laugh.

This, Ben knew, this was one of the good ones. He’d treasure the sound forever.

(Later, there’d be a discussion about how Ben in NO WAY could qualify as a ‘big grizzly bear’. Callum would tease him, attempting every pet name within the realm of possibility. He was thinking something along the lines of a fuzzy, cute koala bear. But they didn’t need to settle on anything just now, he said. They had years and years and years.)

#ballum #ballum fic #fix it fic #13.01.2020 #okay so this is how I imagine the whole date-scenario thing #my boys #ee #eastenders #ben mitchell #callum highway #benxcallum

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tiaragqueen · 5 years

Text

At Leisure

✂ Pairing: Yandere! Kim Taehyung x Noona! Reader

✂ Word Count: 1,8k+

✂ Trigger Warning: Mentions of possessiveness, seduction, Noona kink, dom! reader, hints of light smut

✂ This story is fictional and for amusement only. I don’t believe any of the members would do this in real life. As always, thank you for reading and I hope you have a good day!

Do not re-upload my writing to another website or use it without my permission.

[Edited]

***

Anon asked: “What about a sub!yandere!tae ?? No smut if you don’t do it joe want to.”

Sub! Tae might be my favorite thing now. That guy is a perfect combination of both dominant and submissive. And I kept blushing when I was writing this.

Song: BTS - House of Cards

If you like my writing, please support me on ko-fi!

“Grab me tightly and shake me, so I can’t snap out of it. Kiss me on the lips, lips. Our own little secret.” - Blood, Sweat, And Tears [BTS]

“Noona!”

There he went again.

For the past thirty minutes, Taehyung had been trying to attract your attention to his deprived self. However, you kept ignoring him in favor of reading a new book that you bought yesterday. You had thought that he would quit after the third attempt due to your unresponsiveness, yet it merely fueled his determination instead.

And you didn’t know whether you should be flattered or annoyed.

Taehyung skipped towards you and plopped down beside you. You felt the extra weight on your lap as he rested his head and looked up to you with glittering eyes.

“Hey, Noona.” he greeted innocently, as though he hadn’t been shouting your name earlier. You were sure the neighbors must have heard his constant calls due to his loudness. However, you decided to humor him a little. Who knows, he might grow bored and finally leave you alone.

Even though it sounded a bit far-fetched for you.

“Hello, baby.” you murmured, stroking his smooth hair. Taehyung closed his eyes in contentment and proceeded to nuzzle his face into your stomach. If he were a cat, he would be purring by now.

“Noona,” his deep voice came out muffled against your shirt. Frowning, he leaned back and pulled the annoying clothes up to reveal a strip of skin. Satisfied with the little bareness, he hid his face again and drank in your natural body smell.

He always did that, you noticed. You always thought you smelled terrible. It wasn’t like you bothered to wear perfume at home either. However, with how deep he took a breath, he made it seem as though he was inhaling a fragrance. Or crack. Taehyung always did look... deprived whenever he was unable to smell you.

You admitted you were scared that he might be a bit too addicted to you. Sometimes you wondered what would happen if you, say, left him. What would become of Taehyung later? Would he still be the whiny man-child you grew to love over this past of few months? Or would he get depressed instead?

It was highly probable since he seemed to adore you so much. But the thought didn’t bring you any reassurance whatsoever. Not that you planned on breaking up with him anytime soon, though. You were simply curious, after all.

Not that he would let you leave him, either. But you were oblivious to it because as far as you knew, he was a charming man with the mentality of a three-year-old child. Possessive, yes. However, it was justifiable. We all feel a bit possessive to those we love, so why should he be any different? If anything, you should consider yourself lucky for having him as your boyfriend.

If only you saw the darkness that clouded his eyes or the way his arms tightened around you whenever you talked to another person. Men or women, it didn’t matter.

“Noona, I’m bored. Can we do something, please? Or maybe, we can watch the anime instead! Free! Iwatobi Swimming Club released the new season last night. So can we watch it together, please?” Taehyung blinked and smiled hopefully, assuming the cliché expression of ‘puppy look’. “Pretty please? With a cherry on top?”

You glanced down at his – frankly speaking – adorable face. Any other day you would’ve loved to relent and indulge in his couple fantasies, but today wasn’t one of it. You had been giving him a lot of attention lately; it was time for some much-needed privacy.

“Not now, honey. I’m busy.” You quickly dismissed him by averting your gaze back on to the new book.

“But you’ve been busy since this morning! I just want to cuddle with you. Is that too much to ask?” Taehyung jutted out his bottom lip in hopes of appealing to you. However, you refused to budge.

“We can always do that later. For now, I want to have some ‘fun’ by myself.”

A sheen of tears coated Taehyung's dark irises as he frowned sadly, head dropping like a kicked puppy. “Does that mean you no longer consider me as fun to be around?”

The frown on your part wasn't out of sadness like him. It was more of a confusion and a slight surprise. You knew that Taehyung could be quick to jump into conclusions, but sometimes his assumptions were just plain ridiculous.

“What? Of course, you’re fun, Taehyung,” you assured him, though you were aware that he wasn’t fully convinced with your statement.

Any kind of displeasure that you expressed, however small it might be, would be taken at face value by him. That was when he would go ‘overdrive’; begging you to not abandon him with tears streaming down his flushing face. Once, he bought bouquets of your favorite flowers and snacks as an apology for whatever mistakes he’d done. And while you were flattered to know the depth of his love, you admitted that even it was a bit overboard. He feared losing you so much he was willing to do anything for you and had you weren’t as kind-hearted, you would’ve taken advantage of him.

He would never know that you used him, anyway. And honestly, you didn't doubt that he wouldn’t care very much. As long as you were still his, everything else didn’t matter.

“Then, why wouldn’t you let me have fun with you too?”

Sighing, you resisted the urge to pinch the bridge of your nose. Even though you understood his need for affection, Taehyung couldn’t easily comprehend the idea of privacy sometimes. Everything else had to include him in it, otherwise, he would either throw a tantrum or sobbing his eyes out.

“Just because I want to have fun by myself, doesn’t mean I’m bored of you, Taehyung. You know, I want to be alone too. I can’t always be with you at all times.” you explained patiently like a mother to her curious son.

“Why? I want to be with you, though.” he whimpered.

“I understand,” you patted his head affectionately. “But that’s the point of ‘me-time’, you know? So I can resupply my energy battery. You don’t want me to neglect you, right?”

He shook his head, already dreading the thought of you ignoring him. It would surely drive him crazy, no doubt. Your voice was the greatest sound in the world – especially when you were cooing like this – and he wanted to spend the rest of his life listening to it.

“Then give me a few minutes to read. After that, we shall cuddle on the bed.”

Taehyung nodded obediently and got up from your lap, seemingly satisfied with your proposal. You watched his hunched back shuffled towards your shared bedroom and closed the door behind him with a long creak. The guilt weighed in your chest, but you immediately dispelled it. There was no need to regret something when he already accepted it. And besides, it wasn’t like he would go out anyway. He always used whatever free time he had with you, mostly asking you to coddle him.

In a way, he was like your figurative child.

You never thought that the first lover you had would be a sub. Constantly following you everywhere, even to the bathroom. In bed, he liked to give the reins to you. Taehyung believed one hundred percent that you would never hurt him, and obviously, you didn’t plan on abusing that trust any time soon. Such a man, whose face was enough to turn on many people at first glance alone, was rare to find. Maybe you would discover more had you tried hard enough, but why should you do that when you already had Kim Taehyung, the mysterious yet eccentric guy who most women admired? You’d be a fool to let him go when he had done nothing but giving you his blind devotion.

The sound of a piano wafted softly into the living room. The door from your room opened, revealing Taehyung with messy red hair that was mussed to enhance his overall seductive look. A white button-up shirt clung on to his tanned body, with the first two buttons left loosened to display a glimpse of his broad chest. It was tucked into a dark and tight pants pressed against his full legs.

You should've known that he would never settle on a simple promise, and you definitely shouldn’t have underestimated his determination.

Despite that, you wouldn’t lie that you did enjoy the sight he happily bestowed.

You could feel warmth traveled south into your nether region as you watched him lick those luscious lips of his. However, you still had the dignity to keep your words.

“Taetae, no. I told you that I will cuddle with you later.”

However, your warning fell on deaf ears. Instead, Taehyung purposefully sang the first line of House of Cards with a deeper voice than usual.

“Insecure again, dangerous again.”

Through your peripheral vision, you could see him slowly advancing. Once in a while, he would run a hand through his disheveled hair or bite his bottom lip. The way he did those things – not to mention, the way he practically made out with the toy microphone – prompted a rush of blood to color your cheeks.

“So bad (why?) us, yeah.”

You clasped a hand over your mouth, attempting miserably to conceal your heavy blush. “Taehyung, stop.”

It was a half-hearted plea, he knew that much. That was why he smirked and continued singing as though he wasn’t trying to wreak havoc on to your poor heart.

“Enduring more, holding out.”

“Please, stop.” It was unfair of him to look perfect at seducing while you had to endure the mental breakdown he gladly gave to you. You weren’t sure if you could sit here any longer without indulging in your desire to simply tackle him and have sex right here and there.

“So hard (hard), we can’t.”

However, you weren’t exactly patient either. So before he could purr the next line, you already seized him down.

“What’s this, baby?” you asked, chin lifted and eyes narrowed haughtily.

Instead of answering, Taehyung merely smirked. He was provoking you, and you would make sure that he realized the consequences. You’d been dying to do that anyway ever since he stepped out with that kind of outfit.

You nodded, running a hand down the expanse of his chest. Well, as wide as his shirt could allow. No matter, you would soon throw it away.

“Are you trying to seduce me, baby?” you taunted. “Well, that just won’t do. Don’t think that you can get away after showing such a bold show on me.”

“What if I want to?”

“Oh? So now you’re challenging my authority?” You clicked your tongue, scowling slightly. “What a brat. It almost feels as if you’re looking for punishment.” Tilting his chin up, you bared your teeth evilly. “But if that’s what you’re looking for, then be prepare for a painful night ahead of you.”

Taehyung's eyes lit up like a child at Christmas. It wasn’t the punishment he wanted, but the prospect of you finally spend your time with him. Nodding vehemently, he grinned. “Yes, Noona.”

#Yandere bangtan sonyeondan #Yandere bts #yandere kim taehyung #yandere kim taehyung x reader #yandere taehyung x reader #yandere taehyung #yandere kpop #Kpop yandere #yandere kpop au #Yandere v #Yandere v x Reader #yandere bts story #yandere bts one-shot #yandere bts au #bts yandere au

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psychosistr · 5 years

Text

Los Caballeros Malvados- Episode 2: Can’t Buy My Love

Summary: Donald and the other future-caballeros con Sheldgoose out of his home and belongings then go shopping for some new outfits. When they get home, however, they find something...strange beneath their new home.

Notes: Decided to change the episode title a bit more drastically this time because I couldn’t see them finding a way to go to the labyrinth without Xandra. So, instead, we get some light-hearted bonding via shopping and putting together the outfits they’ll be wearing later on. Also, sorry this one took a bit longer to write, but it was over forty pages by the time I was done XP

-First Chapter-

<-Previous Chapter Next Chapter->

“Pardon me, my good man.” José said while walking up to the anxiously waiting goose still standing perfectly still on their lawn. “But, I believe we have found the book you described.”

“Finally!” The goose said, exhaling a sigh of relief as he allowed his tense body to relax. “I’ve been standing out here for over an hour! Where is it?” He looked at the smaller bird expectantly, even leaning side-to-side so he could see if the book was hidden behind the parrot somehow.

“My apologies, senhor, but before we hand it over, we have some matters to discuss.” He saw the goose visibly stiffen and chuckled with a shake of his head. “Do not worry, it is nothing of that persuasion…this time..” He said the last part quietly, but with an air of danger and warning that did not go unnoticed by the larger bird. Smirking momentarily at the shudder that went down the goose’s spine, José turned his head towards the cabana and snapped his fingers. “Amigos.”

On cue, Donald and Panchito walked out of the small building, each of them using one hand to carry the ornate book.

“Is this the one you were talking about?” Donald asked when they reached the other two men.

The goose’s eyes sparkled as he took in the gleaming gold and glittering jewels of the book’s finish. “Yes! That’s it!” He said excitedly before catching and composing himself again. “Ahem, I mean..yes, that appears to be it. Now then,” He pulled out his check book and pen. “I believe we agreed on the price of one million dollars- for the book, the cabana, and its contents?”

José held up one hand to stop the excited goose from writing on the blank check. “Um momento, senhor.” Once he was certain he had the goose’s attention, José looked back at the book. “We would like to re-negotiate the terms of our agreement.”

The goose looked stunned. “You want MORE money?!” He asked in disbelief.

“No, no, no, not at all.” José assured the man before his shock could turn into outrage. “The price you set is quite fair, seeing as most of these collectibles are not exactly in mint condition. However, I am afraid we have all had some rather unfortunate incidents regarding checks and are more than a bit..wary of accepting such a large sum on paper when it would leave us with nowhere to go and nothing else to sell to make ends meet. You understand, sim?”

The goose gasped, looking as if they’d just insulted his entire family line. “You dare to accuse ME, Baron von Sheldgoose, the PRESIDENT of the New Quackmore Institute, of writing a faulty check?! Why, I could go to the bank at this very moment and withdraw the cash, if that’s what you’d prefer! The very idea that I-!!”

José held his hands up in a placating gesture. “Calm yourself, my friend- we mean no insult to you. As I said, we are merely being cautious after a few bad experiences.”

“Yeah.” Donald joined in on the conversation. “I trusted my boss, but he bounced my paycheck at least three times!”

“That’s better than me!” Panchito added. “I’ve never gotten a check that turned out to be real!”

“Very well then.” The goose conceded, but still did not look happy about his honor and finances being insulted in such a way. “What would you like in exchange for the book?”

“We would like to barter- half of the payment in money, the other half in material goods and estate. Certainly a man of your affluence and intellect could appreciate such a deal, sim?” José said with that charming smile of his that seemed to make anyone he turned it on weak in the knees.

It seemed the goose was not immune to José’s charms either, because he tugged slightly on his collar with a very mild flush to his cheeks. “I-I suppose we could..work something out, then. What, ahem, What did you have in mind?”

José snapped his fingers again and the lawyer who left them the cabana walked out of the small building. She had a freshly printed, several pages long contract in her hands that she presented to the Baron.

“Greetings, Mr.Sheldgoose. I am the attorney representing these three and their estate.” She handed him the papers and began rapidly flipping through them as she spoke, barely giving the confused goose a chance to read over the multitude of words presented to him. “We have drawn up a contract stating that, as my employer previously described, you shall receive the book and the cabana, as well as some of the cabana’s other contents, in exchange for half a million dollars as well as material belongings and estate that are equal to no less than another fifty thousand dollars. The provisions of this agreement allow for both parties to choose which material possessions they wish to include in this agreement.” She held out a pen towards him and pointed at the dotted line on the bottom of the final page. “Simply sign here and we will be on our way.”

Sheldgoose looked at the contract with an uneasy expression. “I should really have my own lawyers read over this before I agree to anything..”

José nodded in understanding. “Of course. You are free to read it at your leisure.” He turned away, concealing the smirk on his face. “However, you should know that we already have other buyers lined up for the book and, I am afraid, it will be a first-come first-serve transaction.”

“What?!” The goose looked up from the papers in alarm. “But-But you just found the book! How can you already have other buyers?!”

“I have some reliable connections.” José said with a casual shrug. “I have made a few calls, but who knows when we will hear from-“

Not missing a beat, the trio of colorfully clad girls ran up to the others, each of them holding a phone up. “We’ve got buyers!” They said unison as they swarmed the trio.

May held her phone up first, standing beside José. “I’ve got the CEO of Waddle Tech on hold- he says he’ll give you thirty grand and a condo in Cape Suzette for the book.”

“Oh, my guy says he can beat that!” April said while holding her phone out towards Panchito. “The head of Glumgold Industries says that he can give you fifty thousand and your own mansion in Duckburg.”

“Guys, guys, guys!” June piped up excitedly while holding her phone up to Donald. “I’ve got THE Scrooge McDuck on the phone! He says he’ll pay you one million in gold coins AND give you your own PRIVATE ISLAND!!”

Donald resisted the urge to laugh at that last one, making a note to tell them of his relationship to the multi-billionaire later. “Our own island?!” He asked in fake astonishment.

“Wow!” Panchito gasped. “I’ve always wanted one of those!”

José gave a low, impressed whistle. “That is quite an impressive offer. Of course, it will take some time to draw up the contract for such a thing, but it would certainly be worthwhile-”

“Here!!” The goose suddenly shouted with a desperate edge to his voice, shoving the signed contract and the filled-out check into José’s hands. “I signed it, so that means the book is mine!”

José looked at the contract with a smug smile. “Ah, I see. Well, we will simply have to tell the other buyers the bad news.” He nodded towards the girls who all hung up at once with matching smiles on their faces. “Now then, here is your copy.” He said when the lawyer handed him a copy of the paperwork. “You have thirty minutes to gather your belongings and relocate to the cabana.”

“Yes!” The goose said with a victorious smile on his face. “The book is mi- wait, what was that last part?” He had a confused look on his face when the smaller bird’s words sunk in. “Why on earth would I move into that dirty little shack?!”

“Why, because we now own that building over there.” José said while gesturing broadly to the large building. “And you, my friend, own this one over here.” He turned the sweeping gesture of his hand into a point with his thumb at the run-down cabana. “As I said, we have bartered for estate and material possessions. It is all right there in the contract.”

“What?!” He asked while trying to find where in the contract such a thing was written. “But-But- you can’t do that!”

“Too late, sucker, we already did!” Donald said with a satisfied grin, thoroughly enjoying the look on the larger bird’s face. “Now, go move out so we can move in!”

“Or WE get to throw YOU out this time.” Panchito said while cracking his knuckles with a big grin.

The goose tried to read through the contract at a frantic pace, searching for any possible way he could back out of the agreement. “What-What if I back out? You can keep the book and everything else!”

“I am afraid that trying to forfeit or void this contract would end poorly for you, sir.” The lawyer spoke up as she pointed at a particular paragraph in the contract. “As you can see, failure to do as stated will result in the forfeiture of ALL of your assets- financial, material, estate, and otherwise.” She rolled up her sleeve to check her watch. “Now, you have twenty-seven minutes and thirty seconds remaining to comply, otherwise it will be considered a violation of the contract’s terms and conditions. You have the freedom to choose which of your possessions you bring with you to the cabana, so I suggest you have them ready at the designated time- afterwards, everything remaining in the mansion that is not expressly listed and registered as property of the Institute shall go to my clients.”

The goose looked between the lawyer, the smirking pack of birds, and the crummy cabana. “I..I..oohhhh, you will pay for this!” He exclaimed angrily before running back towards his mansion.

Donald laughed at the overweight bird’s retreating figure. “What a sucker! Hahahaha!”

Panchito joined in on the joyous laughter, patting him on the back. “You said it!”

José chuckled a bit as well. “This will certainly be a lesson he will not soon forget.” Turning to the lawyer, he pulled a check out from his jacket. “Your payment, as we agreed, senhora- just wait until we have deposited our share before cashing it. You have our thanks.”

“It was a pleasure doing business with you, Mr.Carioca.” She took the check offered to her and handed him a card in return. “Do give me a call if you are in need of legal counsel again.”

“We shall keep you in mind, my dear.” He gave her hand a kiss and winked at her before taking the card.

She blushed at his suave charm and fanned herself with a quiet laugh as she walked away.

Before José could turn back to the others, he suddenly had two sets of arms wrapping around his shoulders.

“That was a great plan, José!” Donald smiled brightly at the parrot from his right side.

“Yeah, I never would have thought of tricking that gordo idiota into giving us his house like that!” Panchito congratulated from his other side.

José smiled at his companions in return and patted their arms in thanks. “Obrigado. Now, we must grab everything of value while we can- we do not wish to be late moving into our new home, sim?”

“Yeah!” The other two agreed wholeheartedly before running off to grab what they wanted from the cabana.

On his way to the door, though, Donald spotted something faintly glowing in one of the junk piles on the lawn that caught his eye. “Huh..?” He walked up to the pile and pulled a small box from it. Opening the box, his eyes widened when he saw an ornate golden ring with a rather large purple gem stone. “Woah! This looks expensive!” His eyes reflected the purple light that shimmered from the ring and he was having trouble telling if the light was simply an effect of the bright sunlight above him or something more..

“Donald? You coming, amigo?” Panchito called from within the cabana.

“Ah!” Donald was startled out of his staring and nearly dropped the ring, managing to catch it after fumbling for a second with the box. “Yeah! I’m comin’!” He called back once the box was safely in his hands again. He snapped the box closed and joined the others inside, sticking the box into one of the cardboard ones marked “keep” and muttering to himself. “Can’t believe we almost left that behind…”

Hiding behind a pile of previously tossed aside books, their little red housekeeper looked at the box in question with a troubled frown. He muttered some gibberish to himself and tried to slink closer to it, attempting to grab the small box from the top, but let out a startled scream when he realized Donald was looking at him and quickly disappeared behind the nearby couch.

As Donald took the box outside of the cabana, Ari peeked through the window and made a noise akin to a whine at seeing the little box and its contents leave the property.

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

Thirty minutes later, the two trios of birds were waiting on the sidewalk with their boxes of gold, silver, and jewel encrusted trinkets to be sold off later. As they waited, they saw Sheldgoose and two burly bodyguards packing a limousine with as many boxes as they could fit into the long vehicle.

Donald rolled up the sleeve of his shirt to see his watch and counted down the last few seconds. “Three..two..one. Time’s up.”

José looked at Panchito. “Care to do the honors, amigo?”

Panchito grinned as he nodded excitedly. “¡Sí!” He drew one of his guns from its holster and fired it into the air to get the former tenants’ attention.

“!!!” Sheldgoose and his dog bodyguards jumped at the sound, the dogs doing their job and shielding their employer while looking towards the rooster. They growled in warning, glaring through their sunglasses.

“I am afraid your time is up, senhors.” José said as they walked up to the small group. “Kindly vacate the premises.”

“You heard the guy. Scram!” Donald added before sticking his tongue out at the bodyguards. Gosh, it felt good to get some payback.

“Fine, we will be on our way.” Sheldgoose said while the bodyguards opened the door of the limousine for him. “But mark my words: This is not the last you’ve heard from Baron von Sheldgoo-EEE!” He yelped and ducked into the limo when another shot from Panchito’s gun whizzed past his head. “Let’s get out of here!!”

His bodyguards followed suit, one getting in the driver’s seat and the other in the passenger’s seat as they quickly peeled out of the driveway and away from the probably-psychotic birds watching them.

“Hmph, good riddance.” Donald picked up one of the boxes and made his way to the front door.

With a satisfied grin, he opened the front door and stepped inside. It was just as amazing as he remembered it- and this time it was actually his!

Well, technically his and the other guys’, but he was more than happy to share it with them after their kind words and encouragement earlier.

“Woooow!” June said while looking around at the spacious foyer with wide-eyes.

“Gotta say, I wasn’t sure about tricking that guy out of his house and junk-” May began, her other sister happily finishing the sentence.

“But it was totally worth it!” April set her box of stuff down and looked around as well. “Now we each get our own room!”

The triplets shared a knowing grin before they all started racing off into the mansion. “Dibs on the master suite!” They yelled in unison, playfully shoving each other out of the way.

Panchito watched them take off and laughed. “Wow, they look excited!”

“What child wouldn’t be after being told they got to live in such a luxurious palace?” José said with a grin, taking his flask out of his jacket again and taking a celebratory shot.

Donald busied himself with picking up the boxes of stuff the girls had left and shoving them into a nearby closet. “Yeah, it’s always cool your first time.”

“First time?” José asked after putting his flask away and assisting Donald with his task. “You say that as if you have lived in one before.”

“Well, I used to stay in my uncle’s a lot when I was a kid.” He said while trying to place a box on the top shelf of the closet that he had trouble reaching.

Luckily, Panchito joined the cleanup effort and took the box from the duck so he could put it up there himself. “Your uncle has a mansion? He must be pretty rich.”

“Well he is the richest duck in the world..” Donald mused with a slight chuckle, remembering all of the times his uncle had received the title in magazines and newspapers.

“Really?” José asked with a curious look at the white bird. “I am surprised he did not simply buy you a new house when you lost yours.”

“I didn’t get a chance to ask, but he probably would have just said no.” Donald shrugged and closed the door once they had all of the boxes loaded inside. “He likes having money, but he hates spending it. Growing up, I never really went shopping unless it was just a quick trip for groceries. Then Daisy would make me take her out shopping for clothes and stuff once we started dating- I’d never even set foot in a mall until a few years ago!” He joked with a grin. However, when he turned to look at his new friends, he noticed that they were giving him concerned and intrigued looks. “What? Was it something I said?”

The two looked at each other before looking back at him again, José being the first one to speak. “Have you really never gone out shopping for yourself just for fun?”

“Or had someone take you out and buy YOU stuff?” Panchito added on.

Donald paused to think the question over, tapping a finger against his bill as he did. “Uhhh..I don’t think so. Why?”

The colorful birds grinned at each other before they each grabbed onto one of his arms. “Shopping trip!” They told him with matching grins.

“Wha..?” He was confused by their sudden shift in attitude, but allowed himself to be dragged off in the direction of the garage.

“¡Vamos chicas!” Panchito called back towards the stairway.

“We are going to the mall!” José shouted back before they took the side entrance into the garage.

A pair of excited shouts and hurried footsteps was their answer.

The two birds guided Donald into the garage, pleased to see that Sheldgoose had been forced to leave behind a rather nice looking black Cadillac convertible with the keys for it still hanging on the wall.

The older trio were soon joined by the younger one as the girls admired the sight of the expensive sports car.

“Cool!” April said while opening the back door and climbing in.

“Can any of you guys actually drive?” May asked while looking at the older birds with a raised eyebrow.

José glanced away with a slightly nervous smile. “Legally? No, not in this country…”

Panchito shrugged. “If you don’t mind crashing, sure.”

Donald took the car keys off of the hook on the wall before either of them could even think to reach for them. “I’ll drive. Get in.”

There were no arguments from the others as they all filed into the car. Donald took the driver’s seat and adjusted all of the mirrors, José joining him up front in the passenger’s seat after beating Panchito in a game of rock-paper-scissors. Panchito and the girls had a bit of a tight fit in the back seat, but it felt a lot less cramped once Donald figured out how to open up the roof.

Once everyone was settled, Donald drove off down the road, whistling at the impressive amount of horsepower the car had behind it.

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

One trip to the bank later to deposit most of the check in Donald’s account (as he was the only one with an American bank account at the moment) and cashing out a good portion of it for immediate spending, the group arrived at the New Quackmore mall.

The ritzy, high-dollar shops were a far cry from what Donald was used to back in Duckburg. Then again, he hadn’t been to too many malls besides the cheap thrift-store laden ones that his girlfriend- ex-girlfriend, he quickly reminded himself- would drag him to.

José declared that the first thing they all needed to do was treat themselves to some new clothes. The girls happily took their share of the cash (plus a little extra that José gave them after whispering some instructions for them) and went to a nice boutique to buy some formal party dresses for themselves, leaving the boys to do their own shopping.

Panchito and Donald were both lost causes when it came to fashion, according to José, as most of what they purchased was the same sort of stuff they already wore- Panchito sticking to bolero style pants and a few new shirts while Donald, by some odd coincidence, found a shop that sold sailor suits and he picked up a few in different colors.

After the third time the pair of fashion-senseless birds picked out something they already had, José heaved an annoyed sigh and rubbed at his eyes while muttering to himself. “Kalfu give me strength..” He took in a deep breath before looking at the other two again. “You two do know that you have the money to afford something different from what you already wear, sim? Why not try something new?”

Panchito and Donald looked at each other in confusion before looking back at José with the same look and speaking in unison. “Like what?”

“Like a nice suit for a party, or something dashing you would wear on a date. Have you never been to a nice tailor and had something fitted for you?” He put his hands on his hips while waiting for an answer.

They thought it over for a minute before they both shook their heads. “Nope.”

“I’ve never needed a suit before.” Panchito admitted with a shrug.

“I wore some when I was younger, but they were always presents.” Donald admitted while rubbing at the back of his neck. “After a while, I just started wearing my uniform all the time..”

José grabbed his fashion-illiterate friends by their hands and led them towards a store that specialized in men’s formal to semi-formal fashion. “We will be fixing this NOW!” He declared as he took them through the shop and began picking out nice clothes for his friends.

They spent a good amount of time in there, trying on different outfits. José happily explained the different cuts and styles of clothing, what colors looked good with each other, and how to tell the material of something just by touch. By the time he was done with his clothing crash-course, the other members of his little trio had a much better understanding of what counted as acceptable fashion for different situations.

Panchito ended up picking out a red suit with a black button-up shirt and matching black gloves that made him look very dashing (Donald actually felt something skip in his chest when the rooster grinned at him while wearing the outfit). Donald, on the other hand, found a deep navy-blue pin-stripe suit jacket that he paired with a white button-up shirt and a black and blue bowtie that he felt comfortable in- judging by the whistles and cheers the others gave him, they approved of the outfit, too.

José, satisfied that the other two could fend for themselves properly now, was the last one to pick out an outfit from the store. He grabbed a simple light yellowish-brown suit to replace the one he currently wore, thinking that would be it.

However, on the way out, something else caught his eye: It was a dark brownish-red jacket with matching pants. He touched the fabric and gave a pleased hum. “Oh, cashmere..this is quite nice..”

“Oh, I saw a belt that would look good with that!” Panchito looked around for the accessory in question and returned with a simple light red belt, holding out his find proudly for José’s inspection.

José nodded as he took the red leather. “An excellent choice, my friend.” He gave the rooster a pat on the head, chuckling at the bright smile the other gave him.

“Maybe you could wear it with this?” Donald’s voice caught the parrot’s attention and he turned to see the duck holding up a purple button-up shirt.

José walked over to him and looked the garment over curiously. “An interesting choice, amigo- why that color?”

Donald looked at the shirt, and then at the rest of the outfit that José held in his hands. “I just thought it would look good on you.”

José smirked at the duck in that suave, charming, border-line flirtatious (or was it really only borderline?) way, one eyebrow cocked as he questioned the duck’s choice of words. “Oh really? Well then, I certainly want you to think I look good.” He gave the increasingly flustered duck a wink.

“Just go try it on!” Donald shoved the shirt into José’s arms with the rest of his clothes, stubbornly looking away from the chuckling bird as he disappeared into the fitting room.

Within a few minutes José emerged in his new outfit and, as Donald suspected, the shirt looked good on him, along with the rest of the outfit. He’d kept his gloves and hat, as well as his necklace- the latter of which now being fully and proudly displayed as he’d decided to leave the jacket open and the upper portion of the shirt unbuttoned to show off both it and his chest. The combination of colors from his clothes brought out the deep hues of his green feathers, further adding to the bird’s naturally exotic charm.

“Woooooah!” Donald and Panchito were in awe of the Brazilian’s new look.

“You look great!” Panchito gave his friend two thumbs up to show his approval.

“Yeah, you should wear it out!” Donald agreed with the rooster with a grin before something caught his attention. “Huh?” He leaned close to the parrot when he walked up to them, paying special attention to his face. “Did you put on eyeshadow?”

José chuckled and shot Donald another wink with one of his now-purpled eyelids. “Ah, you noticed?” He chuckled and reached into his pocket, pulling out a small make-up kit. “I wanted to match this nice shirt you picked out for me- an excellent choice, by the way, it is actually silk and quite comfortable.” He took the tags off of each item so he could go to the counter and pay for them. “I may have just found my new favorite outfit. You both have my thanks for putting it together.”

Donald smiled more at the sight of his new friend so happy. He’d gone shopping with Daisy plenty of times before, but she’d never really let him offer any input or pick anything out for her. The knowledge that something he’d chosen for José made him genuinely happy left Donald with a warm feeling in his chest.

As he watched the parrot talk (and likely flirt) with the cashier, he was overcome with a desire to do something more in exchange for that happy feeling he was blessed with..

“That’ll be $450.99.” The female meadowlark said between giggles at whatever José had just told her.

“Ah, a fair price from a fair maiden.” He winked at the giggling girl, making her blush as he reached for his wallet. “You have my tha-”

“Here.” Donald cut him off when he suddenly walked up next to him at the register and handed the cashier the requested cash.

José stared at the duck in surprise. “Donald, you did not need to do that- I still had plenty left.”

“I know.” Donald said with a shrug, trying not to let on how good it made him feel to spend money on the other man. “But I wanted to.” He took his change and receipt from the cashier and handed the slip of paper to José with a bright smile. “If you hadn’t been there, we’d probably be stuck in that stupid cabana- you deserve this.”

José stared at the duck, looking positively awe-struck. “Donald..” His look slowly shifted into a smile that was different from the charming ones he normally presented- becoming something tender and adoring. “Obrigado, meu amigo.” He took the receipt, his fingers trailing along Donald’s hand for a moment longer than what was probably necessary.

Donald just smiled more at the contact, glad he could make his new friend so happy.

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

After getting their clothing situation settled, José said that the next thing they should buy were cell phones- a luxury that Donald had not been able to afford for a long time, if the fact that he’d only had a land-line phone back at his last house was any indication. The parrot, however, left the task- and the money he was chipping in for it- in Donald and Panchito’s hands, saying that he had to meet up with the girls for a reason he decided not to disclose at the moment.

As the pair walked to the electronics store, Donald noticed the nervous stares they were receiving from the mall’s high-class patrons. “Why does everyone keep looking at us?”

Panchito shrugged, appearing indifferent to their attention. “It’s probably me- people always stare at me.”

Donald looked up at the rooster with a quirked brow. “Really? Why?”

“Beats me.” He shrugged again, his cheerful smile not faltering in the slightest. “Maybe it’s because I’m exotic like José?”

Donald glanced around at the various people watching them, taking in the nervous and even slightly scared faces he saw. “I dunno..” The more he watched them, the easier it was to confirm that, yes, they were indeed staring at Panchito, but no, it wasn’t in the same fawning or intrigued way that people would stare at José. Following one skittish looking older dog’s gaze, he finally understood why and he momentarily froze. “Uh oh..”

Spotting one of the people nearby going to a security station, Donald quickly grabbed Panchito by the arm and dragged him off towards one of the small side-halls that led to the restrooms.

Panchito gave Donald a confused look, but allowed himself to be pulled along. “What is it? You have to go?”

“Your guns.” Donald said while peeking his head around the hall’s corner to see if anyone had followed them.

“My guns have to go?” Panchito tilted his head to the side in confusion. “Don’t be silly- they aren’t alive!” He laughed at the absurdity of the idea before a stern look from Donald silenced him. “??”

“People are staring at you because of your guns!” He clarified while gesturing to them. “At this rate, they’re gonna call the cops on us.”

Panchito’s smile turned into a daring smirk as he placed his hands on the holstered weapons. “Let them come- I can take them, no hay problema!”

Donald groaned and rubbed a hand over his face in mild irritation. “That’s not what I meant..” He looked at the source of their current predicament while trying to come up with a solution. “Maybe we should go leave them in the car..”

“No!” Panchito stated firmly, startling Donald and causing him to look up at the normally happy gunman’s suddenly serious face. “My pistols stay with me- I need them!”

“Why?” Donald was a bit confused by the conviction in the other’s statement. “We’re at a mall- nothing’s gonna happen.”

“But it could!” He gripped his precious weapons where they rested in their holsters. “Someone could come for me any moment! I need my pistols to keep me safe! Los necesito para mantenerte a salvo, también!” His serious look started to turn mildly panicked as he shook, his eyes darting around and fingers twitching over the holsters as if he was about to draw his guns and shoot at enemies that weren’t even there.

“Panchito.” Donald placed his hands on the other man’s face and tilted it so he was looking down into the duck’s worried eyes. “Look at me- breathe.” He inhaled and exhaled slowly a few times, silently encouraging the anxious gunman to do the same.

It only took a couple of seconds for Panchito to pick up on the rhythm. Within a few breaths his shaking had stopped and his grip over his guns had relaxed.

Once he had calmed down, he actually looked a little ashamed for his behavior, avoiding eye contact with his friend. “..Lo siento…”

“Está bien.” Donald gave the rooster’s face a light pat of sympathy, smiling at the surprised look the Spanish reply earned him. “I’ve dealt with that, too.” He released the rooster’s face and started to walk off down the hallway and back towards the shops. “Wait here- I’ll be right back.”

He gave no further explanation for where he was going, leaving a stunned Panchito behind in the hallway to press a hand over his surprisingly warm cheek.

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

When Donald returned to the hallway with a new shopping bag- one that featured the logo of the same shop Panchito had gotten more bolero pants from earlier- in his hands, Panchito was sitting on the floor with a bored expression, idly flicking one of his spurs to make it spin.

His look brightened instantly when he heard the sound of the duck’s webbed feet on the ground and he looked up at the other with a big smile. “Did you bring me a present?” He was joking, of course, and was actually surprised when Donald placed the large bag in his lap.

“Yep.” Donald looked down at him with a grin. “José got something, so you should too!”

Panchito still looked surprised, but he eagerly opened the bag and rifled around inside to pull out his gifts. “??” His eyes widened with an excited gasp when he saw the interesting articles of clothing the duck had brought him. “Ah! I haven’t worn one of these in years!” He held up a dark red serape accented with pale stripes that contained a pattern of red zigzags with yellow dots. The fabric was soon draped around his shoulders, making him feel warm and cozy in the overly-air conditioned mall. Then, he spotted something else in the bag and pulled out a larger item. “You got me a sombrero, too?” He happily removed his own sombrero and placed the new one comfortably on his head while the old one went into the bag, the small pattern along the top of the new one complimenting the color of the serape quite nicely. Lastly, he spotted something black at the bottom of the bag. “Huh? Are these gloves?” He reached inside and pulled out a pair of black fingerless gloves, looking them over curiously. They felt soft, but they had a lot more weight and padding then he’d ever seen in a pair of gloves before.

“They’re gunner gloves.” Donald kneeled down so he was on the same level as Panchito. He carefully took one of the rooster’s hands in his own and grabbed one of the gloves, sliding it over the other’s white hand with ease. As he did so, he pointed to the padded areas along the palm. “Those help stop blisters- plus they’re a little magnetic, so it’s harder to drop your guns.” He smiled and slid the other one on as well, looking up at Panchito once they were both on securely. “How’s it feel?”

Panchito was awestruck, staring at the dark fabric and moving his hands around to fully take in the feeling of the new gloves. “These are amazing!” He declared with an excited smile. “They are so soft and airy- it’s like I’m not wearing anything at all!” He looked at Donald, beaming with joy before hugging him tightly. “¡Gracias amigo!”

Donald grinned, feeling that same warmth that he’d felt earlier when buying José’s outfit for him. “De nada.” He chuckled and briefly returned the hug, getting to his feet and offering Panchito a hand up as well. “Now let’s go get those phones before José comes looking for us.”

Panchito happily took the other bird’s hand and pulled himself to his feet, scooping up the bags before Donald could beat him to it. He insisted that carrying them was the least he could do after Donald bought him something so nice.

Truthfully, Panchito was even more touched by Donald’s gifts than he could express.

The sombrero and serape were certainly well-made, perhaps even hand-crafted and likely quite expensive- but what it was the thought behind them, rather than the price, that touched his heart: As they walked through the mall now, the serape cleverly hid Panchito’s pistols from the prying eyes of the public, giving him a way to walk around without drawing unwanted attention while still keeping his beloved weapons close by. That, combined with the gloves that he couldn’t wait to try out properly later, showed that Donald really did understand how important his pistols were to him, and wanted to make sure that he would feel happy and comfortable with them nearby.

When Donald walked ahead of him on the way to the electronics store, Panchito couldn’t help but smile and gaze fondly at the duck in front of him.

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

The group reconvened in the mall’s food court for a quick lunch of iced coffee, smoothies, and soft pretzels. With their main shopping done, they were free to wander around the building at their leisure as they ate. They popped into one or two other stores that caught their eye, buying inconsequential things like movies to watch later or small toys that someone (mainly Panchito) found interesting.

Donald happily followed along after the others, nothing in the shops really calling out to him- at least, not enough to make him want to spend any money on himself like that. He was quite content to just watch the others get what they wanted or to just do some window shopping.

That is, until they walked by a comic book store and he saw something in the display window that caused him to stop and stare.

“I think that is enough shopping for one day.” José announced to the rest of the group after depositing his empty coffee cup in a trashcan. “We should return to the mansion and get settled in, right Donald?” When he didn’t receive an immediate answer, the confused parrot did a quick head-count of their little group to confirm that they were indeed short one duck. “Donald?”

Panchito and the girls looked around for their missing member as well, June being the one to spot him. “There he is!” She pointed to a store they’d passed a few feet back.

Donald had his hands pressed against the glass of the shop’s window, empty smoothie cup and half-eaten pretzel lying forgotten on the ground as he stared with stars sparkling in his eyes at something the others couldn’t see from their angle. “Wooooww..” Whatever it was, it seemed to have left him completely awestruck.

More than a little curious as to what had elicited such a reaction in the duck, the others joined him in front of the comic book store to take a look as well. “????”

In the shop’s display window, they saw a duck-shaped mannequin wearing what appeared to be a black and blue super-hero outfit: The spandex suit on the body was pure black, as was the small mask on the mannequin’s head. For the hands, it had a pair of dark blue fingerless gloves accented with lighter blue lines, the color scheme and pattern being duplicated on the matching cape with the outside being dark blue and the inside being the lighter blue- creating an interesting two-tone effect. There was also a matching light blue utility belt of some sort around the mannequin’s waist, a black fedora on its head, and a pair of dark shoes on its webbed feet.

Panchito was the first to look away from the mannequin and return the attention to Donald. “Do you like cómicos, Donald?”

“Yeah..” Donald answered with a nod, his eyes never leaving the display and an excited smile spreading across his face the more he spoke. “That’s an exact replica of the outfit that the Duck Avenger wore back in issue #313- ‘Dark Venger’ when he got hypnotized by the Phantom Blot and turned evil! I’ve never seen it in real-life! It’s so cool! They even got the belt right!” Suddenly, he seemed to remember who he was with and he actually looked embarrassed for having such a dorky and excited outburst. “Sorry, I got distracted. Did you guys wanna head back?”

“……” Panchito and José looked at the embarrassed expression on Donald’s face that contrasted so much with the adorably excited smile he had a moment ago. They looked at each other and seemed to come to a silent understanding once again, giving one another a firm nod before they each grabbed onto one of the duck’s arms and dragged him into the store.

“Wha-?” Donald looked between the pair, feeling extremely confused as they took him inside.

Instead of answering him, José just looked to the teenage dog leaning against the checkout counter and snapped to get his attention off of the comic he was currently invested in. “Pardon me, my good man.” Once the dog set his issue down and looked at them, José gestured to the display in the window. “Our friend would like to try on that outfit in your window. Do you have another, or may we have that one?”

“We’ve only got the one.” The clerk said while looking them over. “And you can only try it on if you’re gonna buy it- store policy.”

“Then it looks like we are buying it.” Panchito took out his remaining cash, José doing the same to show they were both serious on the matter.

Donald looked between them with wide eyes. “You guys don’t have to-!”

José placed a finger to Donald’s beak to shush him while the clerk went to retrieve the outfit. “We know that we do not HAVE to,”

“But we WANT to!” Panchito finished with a smile, mirroring Donald’s words to José from earlier. “You bought us presents, but it is YOUR birthday- let us get you a present now!”

“Sim, you deserve it, amigo.” José agreed with a matching smile. He took the offered outfit from the clerk when he returned and gestured to a fitting room towards the back of the shop by a few racks of other superhero/supervillain themed costumes. “Now, go try it on and let us see.”

“Okay, okay, I’m goin’.” Donald begrudgingly (though it was really an act to hide his embarrassment) took the clothes that José placed in his arms and walked back to the fitting room.

While they waited for him to change, the young trio of girls showed the older birds how to use their new phones and their many basic features- namely the camera.

“So I just press this circle thing to take the picture?” Panchito asked before his thumb tapped right on the area in question, making him snap an accidental picture of April’s hands. “Oops..well, I think I’ve got it now!” He gave April and June, the main ones who had been helping him, a proud smile over his mastery of the new device.

Meanwhile, leaning against the wall nearby, the third triplet was conversing idly with José, who needed far fewer lessons on how to use his phone. “So, we’re all just gonna take pictures of him when he comes out, right?”

“Mhm.” José hummed in confirmation, pointing his phone at the changing room and adjusting the zoom appropriately. “He needs some encouragement after what happened this morning.”

“Yeah, about that..” May didn’t look up from the social media app she had open on her own phone, but, when José glanced down at the monotone-voiced girl, he noticed that she wasn’t actually reading anything on it. “We may have overheard what you guys talked about at the yard sale earlier…”

“Is that so..?” He kept his phone up as he spoke, their voices low enough not to warrant the attention of the others a few feet away.

“Yeah..” She rolled her eyes a little. “Look, for what it’s worth, we don’t exactly like what Aunt Daisy did either. She overreacts. A LOT. We came when Donald called because we figured the two of them would be back together in a few weeks, anyway..but..” She spared the parrot a sideways glance, giving him a once-over before shrugging and looking back to her phone. “Whatever. You guys seemed pretty attached to him already, so, yeah..”

José smiled slightly at the indirect permission that he and Panchito had been given by Donald’s pseudo-nieces. “It is hard not to appreciate his bravery and generosity. I may not be able to speak fully for Panchito, but I personally find it refreshing to have someone treat me with a sense of equality for a change..”

“Hmh..can’t relate- two sisters means we all get treated the same for everything, whether we want to or not.” She mused with another shrug.

“That is a shame.” José finally turned his head to look down at her properly, an understanding smile on his face. “Give us a day or two to learn your names and I promise we will treat each of you as you deserve.”

May glanced up at him, the corner of her beak quirked up in a half-smile half-smirk. “Good luck- Donald’s known us for years, and even he can’t get it right.”

Before José had a chance to rebuke her smart-mouthed comment, the duck in question pulled back the curtain for the changing room and stepped out.

They all turned their full attention on him, causing Donald to look a little less confident in the surprisingly well-fitting costume. “Uh..so..whattaya think..?” He asked with a smile that felt a little forced. He was so used to people making fun of him for his nerdy obsession- he couldn’t even begin to count the times Daisy had pretended not to know him when he eagerly talked about comics with a younger fan or had left him at a bookstore to sift through their collection because she found it boring or-

Panchito was the first to answer, letting out an excited grito and raising his phone to take several pictures. “¡Te ves muy bien!”

June giggled and took a picture too. “Wow, it looks great, Donald!”

“Yeah,” April agreed with her sister and snapped one as well. “Really suits you.”

“A little dorky..” May began before raising her phone to take a couple shots with her usual half-smile. “But kinda cool, too.”

José was the last to answer, looking the outfit over with a thoughtful expression. “Hmmm..it feels as if something is missing..” He thought the answer over before, with a snap of his fingers it came to him. “Aha! É isso aí!” He walked past Donald and stepped into the fitting room, grabbing something and returning with a triumphant smile on his face.

Donald watched the parrot curiously, wondering what such a perfectly constructed cosplay could be missing. “??”

To answer the unspoken question, José reached up and removed the black hat from atop the duck’s head and replaced it with Donald’s own blue sailor hat. “There, much better.” He said with a smile. “Now it has a touch of your own style as well!” Satisfied with the duck’s appearance now, José finally took a picture himself, proudly showing the close-up image to Donald. “This will be my new wallpaper.”

“Me too! I want one too!” Panchito rushed over with an excited smile and took a picture of the embarrassed but bright smile on Donald’s face to use for his own phone’s background. “¡Perfecto!”

An idea suddenly occurred to Donald and he grabbed his own phone out of one of the utility belt’s pockets that he’d stashed it in earlier, holding it out to May. “Take a picture of us!”

May took the phone with a roll of her eyes, but the slightly amused smile on her face contradicted the annoyed gesture and tone she used. “Gee, no need to say ‘please’ or anything.” She waited until they were all in position, lining up the shot so they were all in frame. “Say ‘cheese’.”

They gave a combined call of “Cheese!”, “Queijo!” and “Queso!” when they were ready.

The picture that May ended up taking had Donald in the middle with his hands curled into fists where they rested on his hips so that his chest was puffed out slightly in a “heroic” pose, José standing on the left (Donald’s right) with one of his arms resting on Donald’s shoulders as he winked at the camera while tipping his hat slightly with the other hand, and Panchito on the other side of Donald with his hand on the duck’s back beneath the cape. Also, right as she took the picture, somehow, a small breeze blew past them out of nowhere so that Donald’s cape and Panchito’s serape were billowing slightly in the wind, giving the image a more dynamic effect.

May handed the phone back to Donald, the happy mallard smiling eve more when he saw how good the picture had turned out. “Wow! We look so cool!”

“That mysterious breeze really helped.” Panchito pointed out while looking at the blown back fabric in the picture. “They must have just turned on the air conditioning.”

“Yeah..air conditioning..” May sounded as deadpan and sarcastic as usual, her eyes glancing at the picture on the phone- particularly at José and the symbol on his necklace that had a very faint veil of something black and shimmering around it in the picture that could easily be written off as a shadow or odd lighting, but she had a pretty good hunch that that was not the case…

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

They returned to their new home around the time that the sun was setting. Donald parked the car in the garage and Panchito happily carried most of their bags inside. The taller bird seemed happy to show off how strong he was by flexing his arms with the many bags hanging from his biceps- he even invited April and June to hang off of his arms as he walked, carrying them with ease.

To get her sisters back on track, May cleared her throat pointedly. “Aren’t we forgetting something?”

“Oh yeah!” June gasped, looking back at Donald. “It’s still your birthday, Donald!”

“And you still haven’t had a cake, have you?” April hopped down to the ground, her sister joining her shortly. “We need to fix that.”

“Stay out of the kitchen!” The girls called back simultaneously as they ran in the direction of said room.

“But, I don’t-”Donald watched them go before he’d even gotten a chance to say anything, chuckling and shaking his head once they were gone. “I guess a cake WOULD be nice..”

“That’s the spirit!” Panchito said while clapping his hand a little too roughly against Donald’s back, almost making the bird fall over when he forgot he still had the added weight of the shopping bags on his arm. “It’s not a birthday without something sweet!”

Thankfully, Donald was able to catch himself at the last minute. “I WAS gonna have pancakes for breakfast,” Donald recalled the big celebratory meal he’d prepared for himself, the reminiscing ending with a roll of his eyes. “But my boss called me and I didn’t get to eat any of it..”

José patted him on the back in a much more gentle manner than their other friend had a moment ago. “Well, you no longer need to worry about that, amigo- we will make sure that no one ever treats you with such disrespect again. Right, Panchito?”

“Mhm!” Panchito nodded while heading into the main parlor room to set the bags down. “No one is gonna mess with you while we’re around!” He declared proudly. As he reached his destination, though, the determined grin on his face changed into a look of confusion. “Hey, guys, did we leave the light-up statue on while we were out?”

“Light-up statue?” Donald and José repeated while giving each other a confused and perplexed look before joining Panchito in the doorway.

Peering inside of the room confirmed that, yes, the large goose statue’s eyes were currently lit up with a purple energy. On its hand, which had moved and lowered since they’d briefly seen it before, was a rather ornate ring that was glowing the same color as the statue’s eyes. The finger that the ring rested on was pointing downwards, towards a hole in the floor in front of the fireplace that Donald had sat at earlier that day. Instead of the chair that had been sitting there before, though, there was now a twisting spiral staircase leading down below the mansion.

“What in the world is this..?” José questioned as the trio entered the room, the parrot going over to the staircase to examine it more closely.

“Bad interior design?” Panchito suggested after setting down the bags and joining his friend at the top of the stairs to look down at the new hole.

Instead of joining the other two, Donald walked up to the statue to examine the ring on its finger. He squinted at it for a moment, trying to remember where he’d seen it before when- “Wha-?! This is ours!”

The pair of colorful birds looked back up from the hole in the floor at their companion.

“It is?” Panchito asked while giving the ring a curious look.

“It was in the yard sale.” Donald explained, trying to pry the ring off of the statue’s finger. “We almost left it behind, but I stuck it in..a..box..!” His words became strained as he struggled to pull the ring off, even going so far as to cling to it and pull while placing his feet on the stone figure’s body to push away horizontally- it was like the darn thing was glued to the statue or something!

José walked over to Donald and placed a hand on the duck’s shoulder, easing him off of the statue. “Um momento..”

Donald was confused, but he obeyed the softly spoken request and stepped off to the side to join their other friend. “??”

He and Panchito watched as José touched one hand to his necklace and the other to the ring while quietly saying the words “Kalfu me mostre a verdade.” repeatedly, as if it were a prayer or a mantra. Their eyes widened in surprise when a black aura began to form around the parrot’s necklace that traveled up through the hand touching it, around his arms and shoulders, and then out to his other hand that was touching the ring. The two different colored energies reacted to each other almost instantly, the purple glow around the ring shining brighter as if it was trying to repel the black energy coming from José’s hand.

It seemed to succeed, too, because not even a second later José was sent flying back as if he’d been physically shoved away by an unseen shockwave. “AH!!” The force was enough to send the parrot toppling down through the hole in the floor and tumbling down the staircase.

“José!!!” The other two cried out in alarm as they ran down the staircase to check on their friend.

The staircase was long and winding, the air growing colder the further down the pair of birds went into the depths hidden below their new home. They found José sprawled out on the floor by the final step with his head resting on what remained of the armchair that used to sit in front of the fireplace, looking disoriented as he rubbed his head but otherwise fine.

“You okay, amigo?” Panchito asked as he helped the green bird sit up, keeping a hand on his back to help steady him.

“I believe so..” The dizzy bird said quietly while opening his eyes and blinking a few times to clear his vision. “Nothing feels broken..”

“Good. Now,” Donald said with a relieved sigh, assisting Panchito with the task of pulling the other bird back up to his feet. “What the heck was that?!”

“Dark magic.” José answered simply, staring at the doorway beside them that he’d landed near with eyes narrowed as if he were preparing for another attack from the unseen force that had struck him upstairs.

Only an instant after he’d spoken the words, the darkness of the room beyond the doorway was lit up by a series of purple flames that sprung to life out of nowhere. The magical fires made a perfect trail that led to an altar of some kind, upon which a strange golden staff with a terrifying dragon-like face with purple eyes was standing straight up and staring at them.

An eerie voice filled the room, sending a chill down the trio’s spines. “So..you are the foolish mortals who have awoken me..”

With a startled squawk, Donald realized where the voice was coming from and pointed directly at it. “A talking stick!!!”

“I’ve heard of a WALKING stick before,” Panchito drew one of his guns, keeping a cautious eye on the glowing-eyed staff on the other side of the room. “But this is new..”

José flicked his wrist, a knife dropping down into his hand like before- except, this time, his necklace had that black aura around it that also vaguely reflected on the knife. “Stay behind me, both of you- that stick is a manifestation of pure evil and dark magic.”

“You are wise to fear me, mortals.” The staff’s eyes glowed brighter and its face seemed to shift into an evil grin. “For I am LORD FELLDRAKE THE TERRIBLE!” Purple energy flashed around the staff, accompanied by dark lightning bolts that flew out around it intimidatingly as it let out an evil laugh.

Donald gave the other two a confused look and a raised eyebrow, silently asking if the name was familiar to them. “??” At a one-shoulder shrug from José and brief head-shake from Panchito, Donald looked back at the staff. “Never heard of ya.”

The staff’s laughter died immediately and its face shifted into an angry glare. “What?! Never heard of me?! Have you nitwits been living under a rock?!!”

“I lived in a cave for a few months.” Panchito still had his pistol drawn, but seemed a bit less cautious now. “Does that count?”

“Well, it is made of rock..” The staff muttered before its eyes squinted, as if it was trying to see them more clearly. “You three look familiar..have we-?” It suddenly gasped as realization dawned on it. “The Three Caballeros!!”

“The three what..?” Donald was still lost and confused over the entire situation, and it clearly showed on his face.

“Don’t play dumb with me, Don Dugo!” The staff snapped at him, its eyes glowing fiercely as it fired a lightning bolt that just barely missed Donald’s head.

“!!” Donald let out an alarmed squawk and ducked his head down to avoid the attack. “Hey! Watch where you’re shootin’ those!!” He snapped back at the staff with a glare.

“Oh, I’m sorry- let me try again!” Its glowing eyes were the only warning they got before another bolt was being fired right at Donald.

This time, though, José was prepared. He stepped in front of Donald and threw his knife at the dark lightning. “Eu rejeito isso!”

The blackened knife made contact with the lightning bolt and cut it straight down the middle, ripping the energy in half as if it were paper. The magic holding the bolt together fizzled out and it vanished in the air. Then, with a snap of his fingers, the knife flipped around and flew right into José waiting hand.

That, at last, seemed to calm the staff out of its little hissy-fit and pique its interest. “Wait, was that dark magic?” It looked at the parrot in particular as it spoke, sounding suspicious yet surprised. “Since when does the ‘herói da luz, Senhor Carioca’ use dark magic?”

“I do not know who this ‘hero of light’ you speak of is,” José replied while keeping an eye on the staff, ready to block another attack if need be. “But I am José Carioca- ‘o bruxo da Bahia’.”

“And I’m not ‘Don Dugo’!” Donald stepped into the conversation, peeking out from behind the other’s shoulder to glare at the mouthy stick. “I’m Donald Duck!”

“Oh, are we introducing ourselves?” Panchito smiled brightly and waved to the staff with his free hand. “Yo soy Panchito ‘Pistoles’ Romero Miguel Junipero Francisco Quintero González III.” He pointed his thumb in the direction of his companions. “My friends call me Panchito,” His smile suddenly turned into an angry scowl and he pointed his gun back at the staff. “But you can call me sua causa de morte if you attack my friends again!” He fired a single bullet that hit the staff on its “forehead”, leaving a small dent in the metal.

“Okay, okay, I get it!” The staff’s eyes closed for a moment and it scowled from the impact. “So, if you three imbeciles aren’t the Three Caballeros, then why do you look just like them?”

“Beats me.” Donald shrugged while stepping out from behind José, feeling confident that the loud-mouthed stick wasn’t going to shoot anymore lightning at him.

Panchito lowered his gun, but didn’t holster it quite yet, looking over at the other two beside him. “Hey, didn’t that sleazy lawyer say something about us being direct descendants?”

“Ah, yes, that is right!” José looked at the rooster with a snap of his fingers as he remembered the lawyer’s words as well. “Donald’s great-grandfather said he left the cabana to him and the other descendants.”

Panchito smiled brightly at the other two. “I guess that makes us great-grand-friends?”

“I guess so.” Donald chuckled and smiled a bit as well at the excitedly happy look on the rooster’s face.

“Descendants, huh?” The staff questioned them while its eyes glanced aside in thought. “I guess I’ve been stuck down here longer than I thought..tell me, where are MY descendants? This building should still belong to the Sheldgoose bloodline.”

“Oh, we tricked that loser out of his house.” Donald answered the staff’s inquiry with a smug grin. “He traded it for some stupid book.”

“He WHAT?!!!” The enraged stick let out a frustrated yell, purple energy flaring up around it again in its aggravation. “That MORON!! First my great-great-great-great-great-great granddaughter betrays me and seals the entrance to my lair, and now her idiot of a grandson LOSES THE HOUSE?!!!!!” The purple flames around the room suddenly flared up to further show his anger before returning to normal levels when the staff gave a frustrated sigh. “So much for relying on my useless family to help enact my master plan…”

“Yeah, sorry about that.” Donald was not sorry at all for the jerk after he’d been shot at. “Anyway, we’ve gotta go.”

“Indeed- we still have not properly moved in.” José agreed, finally slipping his knife back into his sleeve.

“I haven’t even picked a room yet!” Panchito said while holstering his gun.

The three turned to leave, but the staff called out to them before they could finish retreating from the stone corridor. “Wait! You just discovered an ancient hidden chamber with a magic talking scepter under your house and you’re not even a little curious about ANY of it?!”

Donald looked back over his shoulder with an indifferent shrug. “Not really. I’ve seen plenty of weird old rooms before. All I’m curious about is how much money we’ll get from selling all the stuff upstairs and what flavor birthday cake the girls are making for me.”

“Ooh, I hope it’s chocolate!” Panchito licked his beak at the thought of the sweet treat.

“You fools want money, huh?” The staff’s face shifted into a smirk. “What if I told you I could get you money than you’ve ever dreamed of?”

José cocked an eyebrow at the mystical item across the room, turning with the others to face it properly again. “We would say that you have our attention. But,” He narrowed his eyes in suspicion. “We will require a proper explanation of who and what you are before we decide to trust your word: Beings of dark magic can rarely be trusted, after all.”

“You’re smarter than you look. I like that.” The purple light from the staff’s eyes grew brighter and spread out across the room, filling the large space and shifting around until it formed several swirling nebulas with stars and comets racing around the room. “I’ll start from the beginning.”

“Ooooh.” Donald and Panchito stepped further into the room, marveling at the light show with José following close behind them.

An image of the Earth appeared in the center of the room. “Across your puny planet and far beyond it are a series of mystic points-” Images of various creatures stretched out from around the hologram planet. “These are the places where your culture’s myths and legends are born.” The planet changed shape, turning into a familiar golden book encrusted with gem stones. “There exists a magic atlas that can access those points with ease, but-” An image of a beautiful woman clad in golden armor with long black hair appeared beside the book to hold it in her hands. “It could only be used by the goddess of adventure, Xandra.” He practically spat the name, his contempt for the beautiful goddess quite clear in his tone. “Centuries ago I, Lord Felldrake the Terrible, lived as a mighty and powerful dark sorcerer.” An image of a goose dressed in a dark hooded robe with glowing purple eyes appeared across from the goddess, wielding the very staff that was now speaking to them. “I was able to bind the goddess to her own precious book-” The image of Felldrake shot a beam of magic at the goddess that resulted in her being sucked into the book’s pages. “And turned her into my unwilling servant, forcing her to take me to those mystical locations!”

“Wow! Amazing!” Panchito gasped, the three of them quickly becoming wrapped up in the exciting story.

“Yes! It WAS amazing!” The staff let out an evil laugh as images of Felldrake going to different worlds and causing different disasters to unfold flashed across the area- him leading an army of possessed statues, stealing a totem statue from a pack of sphynx-like creatures as they cowered beneath him, opening the gates of Tartarus to unleash the ancient evil monsters within, and even stealing a pacifier from a giant sleeping baby. “I conquered many worlds, disrupted their pathetic attempts at harmony, and grew my army into a force of ultimate destruction!”

“No way!” Donald looked honestly impressed by the accomplishments of the powerful wizard. To think he was able to go so far was truly astonishing…and it caused an odd feeling of both jealousy and longing to form inside of the duck at the idea of doing the same..

“My victory was certain- ultimate power was within my grasp!” An image of Felldrake’s hands encircling the Earth appeared, the staff suddenly coming up from behind the planet to close its gaping maw around the blue and green sphere. “But then..THEY appeared..” His voice held the same loathing and contempt from when he said the goddess’s name earlier, a spark of golden light eclipsing the image of the staff to reveal three birds dressed in armor and wielding various weapons. “The Three Caballeros.”

“Booo!” Donald and the others shouted their displeasure at the three heroic figures showing up to thwart the powerful villain’s plans.

“Those three arrogant heroes stormed my castle.” The image of the three heroes raced towards a dark and twisted stronghold in the distance. “And, using the power of three accursed amulets,” The birds in question each held up a brightly glowing amulet. “They trapped me in my own staff!” Lights of blue, green, and red shot out from the amulets held by the heroes and hit Felldrake, the energy forcing him into the staff that now sat before them.

“Such a tragic fate..” José said with a slight frown, a note of genuine sympathy creeping into his voice.

“All seemed lost..” The staff- Felldrake, they reminded themselves now that they knew he was indeed a person- briefly closed his eyes. “However,” His eyes opened again and they saw the image of his staff being picked up by a group of hooded figures. “Even in defeat, I still had my loyal followers and family members. They spent years tracking the Caballeros’ adventures-” Images of the three heroes and their divine ally flashed by in front of them, the hooded vassals stealthily following them from the shadows as they endeavored to fix the many acts of cruelty that Felldrake himself had wrought. “Until, finally, they located the Caballeros’ hideout.” An image of a large grassy field with a hidden door built into the ground was shown, the hooded figures watching the Caballeros as they descended through the doors. “I ordered them to build my lair nearby, so that we could always keep a vigilant eye on them and await our chance to strike. But..I was betrayed!” His eyes set into a furious glare, an image of a female goose appearing in front of them. “One of my descendants decided that she was content with her family’s place in society and decided to seal me down here for good, claiming that she would get rid of the only key so that I could never be found again!” The glow from his eyes lessened until the images all faded away. “And I have been trapped down here ever since that day.”

As they were listening, José had pulled his flask out of his jacket and started sharing it with the others. Donald took a shot before handing the container to Panchito, who proceeded to tip his head back and take a few gulps before handing it back over to its owner. “Wow! This story has everything!”

“Mhm.” José took the flask and finally took a shot himself, draining the last of its contents. “Action, drama, romance!”

“Romance?” Donald gave the parrot a confused look at the last part.

“I have a crush on someone in this room.” He answered simply while stuffing the flask back into his pocket.

“Ha! Me too!” Panchito said with a grin in José’s direction.

They shared a knowing look at each other with Donald standing between them, still looking as lost and confused as ever. “???”

“I had hoped to one day use my family to regain my former power and rule over the cosmos once again..but, it would seem that fate has given me a DIFFERENT outcome.” Felldrake looked to the trio across the room from him with a devious grin on his stiff face. “The original Three Caballeros were a nearly unstoppable force of good that was capable of challenging the gods themselves- if you three were to join me, then we could rule over the entire UNIVERSE!” A dark glow surrounded the staff’s entire form. “All I require is one of you to act as my vessel so that my magic may flow through you!”

“I dunno..” Donald looked at José and Panchito on either side of him to gauge their reactions. “What do you guys think?”

José had a contemplative look on his face, idly running a finger along the symbol on his necklace. “In my experience, dark deities offering untold power and riches seldom follow through…but, the ones that do usually have good results for the ones they form contracts with.” He shrugged slightly, hands held out to his sides. “However, I am already under such a contract, and it is unwise to mix magic in such a way. I will leave the decision to you.”

Donald turned his head the other way to look at the rooster beside him. “Panchito?”

Panchito shrugged as well. “I don’t really care about the money- I’ll just do whatever you guys want to do.”

Donald huffed and folded his arms over his chest. “Great, it’s all on me…”

“Think about it.” Felldrake brought Donald’s attention back over to him. “You could be all-powerful. You could make time and space bend to your will. You would be revered as one of the most powerful beings in history! None would be able to look down on you or stand in your way!”

“……” Donald’s arms fell away from his chest and he looked down at the floor for a moment. Then, before he could lose his nerve, he walked with quick, determined steps over to Felldrake’s altar and picked up the staff. “Let’s do it.”

“YES!!” Felldrake let out a victoriously evil laugh. The glow from the staff spread down to Donald’s hand and up around his arm until it covered his entire body. “My power now flows through you!”

“Wooaaaah! I-I can feel it!” Donald trembled from the strange energy now coursing through his being.

It was strange, like having boiling liquid injected into his veins. But, as weird as it was, he LIKED it. As much as it burned, it left him feeling powerful- nearly invincible!

Donald turned to look at his friends, a confident smirk on his face and a slight glow to his eyes. He was pleased to find that they had crossed the room as well, and were now standing behind him with matching looks on their faces.

“Whatever you want, we will make it happen, meu amigo.” José placed one hand on Donald’s shoulder to show his support.

“That’s right- no matter where you go, we go!” Panchito’s hand went to the duck’s other shoulder.

“Thanks, fellas.” Donald grins, holding up the staff in his hand dramatically. “We’re the new Three Caballeros, and nothing’s gonna stop us!!”

Dark lightning flashed all around the trio of dark warriors, silhouetting their wickedly grinning faces in shadows.

<-Previous Chapter Next Chapter->

End Notes: I tried to make up for the lack of action in this chapter by putting in a few extra Ducktales/Disney Comics references x3 Hope it still came out okay, even if it ended up being pretty long ^^”

Translation Notes:

“Um momento, senhor.” - "One moment, sir."

gordo idiota - fat idiot

Obrigado. - Thank you.

“¡Vamos chicas!” - "Let's go girls!"

no hay problema! - no problem!

Los necesito para mantenerte a salvo, también! - I need them to keep you safe, too!

“..Lo siento…” - "..Sorry…"

“Está bien.” - "It's okay."

“¡Gracias amigo!” - "Thanks friend!"

“De nada.” - "You are welcome."

cómicos - comic books (though more of a short-hand for it, as the full version is el libro cómicos)

“¡Te ves muy bien!” - "You look great!"

É isso aí! - That's it!

“¡Perfecto!” - "Perfect!"

“Kalfu me mostre a verdade.” - "Kalfu show me the truth."

“Eu rejeito isso!” - "I reject that!"

‘herói da luz, Senhor Carioca’ - ‘hero of the light, Senhor Carioca’

‘o bruxo da Bahia’ - ‘the wizard/warlock of Bahia’

sua causa de morte - your cause of death

#the three gay caballeros #three gay caballeros #the three caballeros #legend of the three caballeros #donald duck #panchito pistoles #jose carioca #donald/panchito/jose #evil!au #Los Caballeros Malvados

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dramanovellife · 5 years

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Listening Snow Tower: Final thoughts

I finished watching Listening Snow Tower yesterday and well while it was nice I have a whole lot of rant accumulated. The first half was quite enjoyable but I somehow lost patience during the second half so I was kind of speed watching a lot.

The main characters Xiao Yi Qing and Shu Jing Rong are truly quite something as a couple... She kept distrusting him and he would just take it without clearing the misunderstanding even when she was asking about it... He’s maybe hurt she doesn’t trust him or maybe he just can’t be bothered but argh that was infuriating. No trust no communication. Even at the end, they did it again and I was seriously questioning her love towards him. In the end, turns out it was actually a show for the bad guys. That was a very convincing show ^^”

I feel so sad for Nan Chu. He was such a good shixiong :( Why did they have to kill him off...

On the other hand, Chi Xiao Tai’s ending is not that bad. Life confinement? Looks like she can still walk around inside the tower if she was just chilling in the armory. She’s been such an infuriating spoiled brat from beginning to end. She’s been in love with the traitor for a very long time and yet because she’s a spoiled stubborn brat who won’t stop until she gets what she wants, she wanted to get her shixiong’s love and ruined everything doing that. She kept going on about how mad she was that she can’t compare to SJR but why do they always love to compare really... It’s not even a matter of who is the most beautiful or the strongest. I really don’t get women in drama sometimes... They either want to kill the rival (like that will help) or destroy everything (cause hate is better than being ignored). I guess her biggest punishment is losing the one who loved her all along due to her stubbornness.

I really don’t feel sorry for Gao Meng Fei/Qing Yu though. He was quite likeable at the very beginning but I lost all hope for him the moment he abandoned his shimei. Selfish ambitious no loyalty. He fell in love with the wrong person and that brought out the worse in him. They do make a good terrible couple though.

Another disaster of a person is Ming He. Seriously drama parents, treat your children with a bit of love. It’s either spoil them until they rot or be so harsh they become psychopaths. She latched onto the poor Qing Lan who showed her kindness and was so handsome...and would never let go. Because ofc love is being together forever with the person you love even if that person might not be willing. She’s the worst case of *I need to kill my rival*. She’s a pitiful love craved person who could have had a chance with Qing Lan if she wasn’t so crazy and vicious.

This show is truly full of foolish people. Another great and infuriating example is Gao Huang & Ye Feng Sha and Ren Fei Yang & Shi Ming Yan. Walking around in the enemy territory? Leisurely shopping? Very good idea. Maybe the first couple didn’t think they would strike in broad daylight but second couple should have learned from it.

The worst is that dark crazy SMY blamed YFS and RFY’s deaths on XYQ... I can kind of understand for RFY cause his death might feel like it was nothing since XYQ didn’t attack the Moon sect. But YFS??? How can that even be blamed on him?? The girl decided to die together with the person the Moon sect was targeting. XYQ told them to leave Moon sect territory fast but what did they do instead? Shopping. No sense of danger here. SMY wants the Tower to rush at Moon sect but she clearly doesn’t understand that rushing with no guarantee or plan is a very bad idea. RFY pretended to be Li Consort’s son for nothing indeed but that was all because of GMF who ruined the plan.

Crazy as she is, SMY even broke her own legs. And for what? I can’t believe SJR gave her the almighty sword at the end lol To be wielded by a righteous person sure. SMY is far from what I would call a righteous person. Besides, she’s a disabled little girl who can’t even wield a sword to begin with.

Best girl in this show is Qian Mei, the girl who was to be married to the Long guy. She’s such a strong person who stuck to her principles. It’s a pity the show seemingly forgot about her until the last few minutes. If anything she’s more worthy of the almighty sword.

Oh well end of my rant xD Complained a lot about this show but it was still pretty nice and visually pleasing. I particularly loved the architecture in the Tower. So elegant. Very good ost as well. And well sickly but badass ML? Yes all the way xD It even had a happy ending :D

EDIT: OMG I almost forgot about XYQ’s mother. I’m honestly surprised at how weak and useless she was all throughout the show. Did they somehow strip her of her martial arts? Or did she just lose her mind after being confined for so long? Her decision to go back to Moon sect was the worst ever. I doubt it helped at all. It just launched her husband and son on a quest to save her.

#Listening Snow Tower #听雪楼 #Cdrama #my rant #my thoughts #final thoughts

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lesbian-octoling · 5 years

Text

Hey guys, Xeno drama ((you know, about the banner and hate and whatnot)) below the cut if you don’t wanna see it!!!

@mrkamabo--co Hello! I don’t know if you’re ever going to see this, but. It’s here.

First of all, yes, it’s me! lesbian-octoling, rhi-draws-things, whatever you wanna call me. I’m making this because I’ve heard through a friend of mine that I trust that you are a relatively good person, and while I don’t agree with everything you’ve done, I figured i might as well try to clear things up between us.

First off-

I’m sorry.

This is a 100% genuine, formal apology. I am sorry your medical issues are acting up, I understand completely. I had and almost identical use (albeit with chemical imbalances making me throw up, instead of breathing/heart issues, but both caused by stress), so I get it.

I’m not here to stress you further. In fact, I’m here to try and resolve the issue. I don’t want you to feel the way you do, and I don’t want to start more drama. I should know, i’ve been receiving nasty shit for a while. If you don’t want to read this- that’s okay! Don’t stress yourself, dude.

I just feel like this is important, because we never actually talked- and lack of communication often leads to violence.

But there are a few thing I wanted to address- first and foremost, the ‘xeno free zone’ banner, and the tags.

#‘you’re a coward cuz u wanna draw them with t^ddy’#i don’t do that in the first place lmao#and if you’re going to say:#'its actually scientifically accurate!’#nope it really isn’t #why?#why would squids/octopi evolve to have digigrades/muzzles/claws on their hands?#why would they look like goats with their eyes and muzzles?#they would have flat fish face!#have squid/octo hat heads!#like the third stage in their canon evolution!#exaggerate that if you want scientifically accurate squidlings/octolings/inklings!#otherwise.. yall just makin them into furries tbh#note: i have a surplus of fursonas#k peace

Ah, I hope you don’t mind me going off a bit, but I did want to say things!!!

Muzzles: Inkling beaks, IRL, are very long! they just look flat because.. well, squids are long! But if you put that into something shaped like a human head, they need a bit more room to stretch out.

Claws: they’re not actually claws, they’re hooks! Just like real deep-sea squids have hooks made of chitin that can retract back into their tentacles, which is why i made them like that. As you can see when they go back into heir squid forms, their arms and legs ARE just evolved tentacles!

Here’s a cool example of the hooks, as compared to some of my squid hands:

‘goat noses’: This is because… it’s not a nose! A real squid breathes through it’s siphon, which is one, large hole. That’s why their nose is like that- it’s not two nostrils, it’s one hole, but flattened down so it’s not just a big ol’ hole in their face. If it was, things might get into it, like dirt or bugs or.. i dunno.

Digigrades: admittedly, this is just because it’s fun, and theres no reason they shouldn’t. Any other similarities to cats is just… coincidental, really, as cats and squids have a lot of similarities (liking the sun, chasing lights, etc).

Eyes: Actually, this was a mistake. When i FIRST started getting into splatoon i was like ‘wait squids have horizontal pupils right’ and only found out later that no.. that’s octopi! But oh well, it was a bit late, eh? live and learn.

I’m not saying its fully scientifically accurate- hell, course it’s not! But its more biologically accurate than having them being made of ink. Mostly, I just think it’s fun, cus I’m a budding biologist and I think it’s cool to explore these concepts.

Ok! Thats all I gotta say. I just wanted a chance to explain myself, s’all! As for the banner itself… while it may have been joking in nature, I do think it was a bit rude. Kinda like swinging a bat at a hornet’s nest, yeah..? Like you said- “but yknow tumblr be tumblr, and i honestly expected This™”… you gotta watch out what you say sometimes. You could’ve made it more obvious that you were joking- putting ‘XENO FREE ZONE’ with bit red X’s and ‘feel free to reblog :)’ just has.. a very mean tone to it, and it rubbed a lot of people the wrong way, regardless of your intentions. It really didn’t sound like a joke, to a lot of people, including me.

Though, maybe, we’re all just a bit wary- I’ve been receiving asks telling me to- quite literally- kill myself, multiple times, over this. I also know several friends who have gotten the same messages (a few of which don't even draw xeno, but simply because they are my friends). I think me (and other xeno artists, though I cannot speak for them) have a right to be wary, when we’re so used to being bashed. A lot of people are scared, and it doesn’t make what some people said right, I’m just… telling you why that massive backlash happened.

And by ‘massive backlash’…. if I’m being honest- and I don’t mean to make it sound trivial- a lot of the responses to those posts weren’t truly mean. Some people sent a clown meme, a lot of people responded with ‘why are you hating us, were just having fun’. A few were pretty mean, yes, but I could count them on one hand. These were light hearted in nature, and nothing like some of the truly nasty things that could’ve been said. You wouldn’t believe the things I’ve received in my inbox…

I think a lot of this could’ve been avoided if your post right after had simply been an apology. Instead of playing the victim card, simply say ‘ah, that last post was a joke- i sincerely apologize, and I might’ve worded it poorly’. That’s it. And it could have been avoided if you said, in the tags ‘this is a joke post don't take it seriously’. But instead, you went on the criticize xeno aspects. Not saying you’re wrong, but pointing out why so many people took it the wrong way.

But.. the main thing I wanted to address was this post.

I.. can’t say I’m in the right, but I can’t say you are, either. I probably shouldn’t have made that post- but it was meant more as an off-hand joke. I didn’t mention you at all, as I didn’t want anyone to hate on you. It’s more of a running joke for my blog of ‘sexy tartar’, which is why it was funny enough that I brought it up.

#can’t feel safe#when i put an opinion out there#its easy.. to ignore a post yknow…? It’s also easy not to make a joke like that. Again- maybe you intended it as a joke, but it’s like one of those shitty april fools pranks where you tell somebody something bad happened. We got scared. Doesn’t make it right of us, but it doesn’t make it right of you, either.

But the ONLY thing I’m truly angry about- if you saying that ‘you, a minor, don’t feel safe because you’re being shat on by an adult’. The reason this makes me mad is because… I’m 18. Barely. And you’re 17. I’m… not even a full year older than you. I’m still in high school. The way you worded it made it sound like i’m a 32 year old getting off on sending hate to a 13 year old- and that’s not even close to the case. That is not cool, dude.

Anyway. Sorry about that, though I hope you can see why I’m.. unhappy with the wording. I’m trying to solve things here, not make them worse, ha…

And.. yes, I did block you. But not so you wouldn’t find out. You can still see my blog; i know this. I blocked you because I’ve been getting hate anons for the past few weeks, and I can’t be too careful with who I block. I’m tired of people telling me im ‘ruining the fandom’, so I tend to block at leisure, or when I have suspicion. And a big ‘ANTI XENO’ banner is reasonable suspicion, yes…?

Again, I apologize for that post, but i was not doing to to spite you, just because I found it funny. I didn’t contribute to the spreading of hate to you in any way- I am very anti-hate messaging, and very pro ‘block and ignore if you don’t like them’. Which is.. what I was trying to do, but I didn’t want to leave us on that sour note. I did not encourage anyone to ridicule you on your post, or send you any sort of messages and asks.The only people I complained to were my girlfriend and a select few close friends, who i KNOW would not participate in any sort of hate spreading.

I’m not asking you to be friends with me. I’m simply trying to clear off any misconceptions- I’m fully welcome to hearing what you have to say back. But…

All in all, I think the gist of what im trying to say is that we all made mistakes, and we should both own up to them. I’m very sorry about your heart condition- I sincerely, 100% hope you get better. And I’m hoping that by talking it out, we can clear things up and not let it stew..? I know that sometimes these things tend to eat at me until I fix them, and that is all I’m trying to do.

I’ve unblocked you for as long as it takes for us to resolve this issue, if you would like to move to DMs, or to discord. Either works. Or.. don’t respond at all, if you don’t want.

Have a nice night, and I hope you feel better!

#drama #please don't reblog this unless you're @mrkamabo--co #im tired and don't wanna fight; dudes

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dkronpa · 5 years

Text

Chapter 3: Journey to Despair, Grave Secrets, Grave Lies ~Daily Life Part 1~

THE LONG AWAITED CHAPTER 3 BEGINS

My bad for it taking so long I had a bad case of writers block half-way through but I have the whole plot for this chapter totally ironed out now. I’ll write as often as possible and hopefully I won’t leave you guys hanging like that again

Enjoy~

-Chapter 3 Daily Life: Dream Sequence-

It’s cold. Really cold. Winter, I think. No snow but the wind is biting at my skin. I’m staring at a car.

No, I’m staring at what’s under the car. The blood coming from underneath and the hand stretching from underneath. There’s someone crying nearby. Where am I again? What am I doing?

Why didn’t I do anything? Why? Why?

Whywhywhywhywhywhywhywhywhywhywhywhywhywhywhywhywhy-

-Chapter 3 Daily Life: Ryuu’s Room-

“Ugh!” I jolted up in a cold sweat. What was that? A dream? No…a memory? But surely something like that would be easy to recall, but I don’t remember that kind of event at all…it must have been a dream. “Y-yeah, a dream.”

I let out a shaky sigh and grabbed my E-Handbook. It was close to Monokuma’s morning announcement, so I may as well get ready.

…but should I even bother? After what happened yesterday…we could all be out of the killing game by now if I hadn’t spoken like that. It’s my fault we’re all still in the killing game…Hachi-san killed Irunami-san so we could all escape and I made both of their deaths in vain.

Even so…I should try my best to show face, shouldn’t I? Come on Ryuu. Pull yourself together.

-Chapter 3 Daily Life: Short numbered-

By the time I got to the cafeteria, I expected everybody else to be already eating breakfast though when I entered the room, there were a few people missing from the group. “Huh…? Is this everyone that showed up?” I asked everyone present.

“Shinko and Yokozawa said the same thing, they don’t feel like they can trust anybody here. So, they’ve locked themselves in their rooms and are refusing to leave. They’ll probably leave later to get food; they can’t stay in there forever.” Sly-san answered.

“Hmm? You went to check on them?” Asano-san inquired.

“We need to keep track of the group in this situation. Don’t read into it when it’s nothing deep.” Sly-san said.

“Graves-san isn’t here either…” Ram-san noted.

“I met her in the hallway earlier. She said she was going to keep her distance for a while. Doesn’t know who to trust anymore.” Kurohiko-san answered. This group really broke up after last night. And with those three not present right now…it really feels empty in here than how it used to be…

“Oi, Nagata. Did you sleep alright? You look exhausted.” Okanaya-san looked at me with worry. I instinctively touched the dark circles under my eyes. Ram-san looked over with concern as well.

“It’s nothing. Bad dream is all, woke me up early.” I murmured.

“One bad dream is not such a terrible thing, Nagata-sama. After all, it is better to get your bad dreams out of the way so that your eternal dream will be an enjoyable one.” Ishikawa-san smiled.

“Jesus, do you ever talk about something less terrifying? You realise what situation we’re in, right? We don’t wanna hear you talk about death all the fuckin’ time.” Okanaya-san snarled.

“I was not attempting to make anyone uncomfortable.” Ishikawa-san replied.

“Well you are, so shut up already.”

“Okanaya, that’s enough.” Sly-san said. Okanaya-san grumbled under his breath but dropped it. This group is starting to show cracks. Today it may only be three people that don’t show up, but what about tomorrow? What about the day after that? Will I even live long enough to see the day after tomorrow? What am I supposed to do-

“N-Nagata-kun…” Ram-san put her hand on mine.

“Sorry. I’m fine.” I lied with my best fake smile. I’m not sure if she believed it or not but Ram-san nodded slowly not letting her concern disappear from her expression. I wonder if anyone’s stealing glances at me? Do they hate me?

“Geez, what’s with the tension in here? So gloomy, it’s like you guys lost your chance at something suuuuper important.” Monokuma said, doing his stupid sudden appearance shtick. I’m over it. “…not even a yell from the pansy? Alright then. I was gonna wait until everyone gathered to tell you, but it seems like this is about as good as it’ll get.”

“Let me guess. Another building has opened up?” Sly-san said.

“W…wow, you aren’t just gonna let me have my moment, huh…?” Monokuma looked down with a sad expression. “Yeah…you got a new building. Feel free to explore it at your own discretion. Or don’t. Doubt you’ll find anything useful there anyway.” Monokuma shrugged before disappearing again.

“Eh? Why did he say that? About not finding anything useful there…?” Kurohiko-san asked.

“Probably because we won’t find anything useful.” Sly-san said.

“Or he is using reverse psychology in order to compel us all to investigate the new building. I feel as though that is a much more plausible answer. What shall we do?” Ishikawa-san said.

“It’s probably for the best that we investigate. The more we learn about this place, the better. Shall we all head over?” Kurosaki-san asked.

“Will you be included in that group? If so, I’ll pass.” Sly-san folded his arms and leaned back into his seat.

“I suppose it’s just the rest of us then! Have fun, Herr Knives!” Kurosaki-san smiled and gave Sly-san’s back a firm slap as he walked past him. I don’t think I’ve ever seen someone get so angry that quickly.

“Don’t touch me so damn casually!” Sly-san yelled. There was a moment of shock seeing as he’d never lost his cool before. Though he regained his composure just as quickly as he lost it. “…if you start pushing everybody’s buttons then you’ll just end up dead.”

“O-oi, Sly! No need to say stuff like that! I get your pissed, but…” Okanaya-san said warily. Sly-san crossed his arms and looked around the room.

“If you all want to be around that then be my guest. Just don’t cause any trouble for me.” Sly-san stood up and made his way for the door.

“Sly-sama, please wait-“ Ishikawa-san attempted to call out to him but he was already out the door by the time she found her voice. Even Sly-san is distancing himself from the group. Even though we said we’d all work together at the start of all this!

“Ah…that’s a shame.” Kurosaki-san murmured. “Shall we? We should investigate the building now.” He made his way for the door. There was this lost look in his eyes as if a difficult thought was stuck in his mind.

“I don’t think I’m ever going to understand what goes on in his head.” I said to nobody in particular. Ram-san gave me a look of concern, though she understood what I mean. I’m sure of it.

-Chapter 3 Daily Life: History has its eyes on you-

I walked to the building next to the Leisure building with Ram-san and Okanaya-san. To say the building exteriors differed would be an understatement. In contrast to the leisure building which appeared more like a fancy gym, this building was designed to appear like a medieval castle with four spires at each corner of the building and iron bars on the windows instead of glass and curtains.

The only part of the building that seemed out of place with the rest of it was the front door. A card reader was attached to the wall next to a glass sliding door that had no handle for us to open it with. “A card reader to get into the building? How come the other buildings don’t have this?” Okanaya-san asked.

“Are you wondering about my design choices?” Monokuma suddenly appeared next to us, me and Ram-san jumping slightly. “It’s a card reader, just use your E-handbook on it already!”

“But why is it only on this building?” Okanaya-san asked again.

“I like to give a unique thing to each of my buildings! The dorms are underground, the leisure building had the massive ventilation system…and this! The history building has a card reader to get in and out of it!”

“History building?” Ram-san repeated.

“Yep yep! This building has got all kinds of good stuff! There’s an archive filled to the brim with cool books to read! There are many exhibits throughout the floors for you to check out too! I’m sure nerds like Nagata will enjoy it!”

“H-hey!” I protested.

“Anyway, you guys get the gist, right? You gotta use your E-handbook to get in and out of the building! So…I’ll see ya later!” And with that, he was gone.

Okanaya-san sighed and pulled out his E-Handbook. “What a pain in the ass. This is so unnecessary.” He held his E-Handbook up to the card reader. The LED light above the reader went from blue to green and the door slid open.

The three of us walked in to be greeted by the discomforting atmosphere. The hallways were dimly lit by the fires of torches decorating the walls. I know Monokuma likes his themes, but this is way too much.

“Should we look for those exhibits that Monokuma mentioned?” Okanaya-san asked. Ram-san and I silently agreed and began making our way through the hallway of the building. I stuck close to Okanaya-san, as did Ram-san, though she was holding onto his sleeve and looking around nervously at the walls. There were odd red stains here and there decorating the stone…I didn’t want to think about it.

We entered the room at the very end of the hallway to find it decorated with displays of different weapons across the walls and in glass cases. It reminded me of a museum with how it was laid out. The head of Graves-san popped out from behind one of the displays and grinned widely at us.

“Yo, dudes! Can you believe this place?! How cool is all this?!” She cheered brightly. “I dunno how Monokuma managed to do all this. Some of these weapons are can’t get acquired by the public and some I’ve only seen drawings of. I never thought I’d get to see these kinds of old weapons for myself!”

“If that’s all true then I really worry about Monokuma’s sources.” I murmured.

“Ah…like whoever’s running this killing game? Someone rich, for sure. They’d need billions if they wanted to set something like this up. Not to mention actually constructing this area for us to play in…”

“Play?” Okanaya-san repeated.

“Well, duh! You ‘play’ a game, right? Even if it’s a killing game, it’s a game, nonetheless. So, we’re the players and we’re playing…right?” Graves-san spoke so casually about it that it actually threw me off a little. I suppose she’s in the same boat as Sly-san and Kurosaki-san. They all seem to have been through a lot to get to this point, so I shouldn’t be surprised if they aren’t so easily phased by the situation.

“Either way, the real problem is knowing who had the ability to set it up.” I jumped a little when Yokozawa-san spoke. How long had he been there?! He clearly noticed my surprise and formed a look of irritation. “Pay attention to your surroundings. I’ve been here the whole time.”

“Oh yeah! I totally forgot I followed you here!” Graves-san said.

“I don’t blame you. I don’t stand out, so it’s not like I’m worth remembering.” Yokozawa-san threw his arms up as if he were joking though I’m pretty sure he was being serious…

“Yokozawa-kun, we heard you weren’t going to be leaving your room anymore. Why are you out here? In fact, we heard you were going to keep your distance from us too, Graves-san!” Ram-san asked.

“It’s a new area. Even if I don’t wanna get involved with all of you, I should still investigate as new areas open up to us. Never know when we might find a hint about our situation. Unfortunately, I got spotted by Graves-san and now I can’t seem to shake her off.”

“Hey now! I know you appreciate the company! It can’t be too fun being alone all the time. Plus I have the same reasons for being here as Junpei, so I thought it made sense to go about with him.” Graves-san said.

“Speak for yourself. I don’t mind being by myself, in this situation, it’ll probably be better for my health if I keep my distance.” Yokozawa-san replied. “You’re all trouble for me…keep out of my way, alright? I don’t wanna end up like the others.” The blogger shoved his hands into the pockets of his hoodie and strolled out of the room.

“Hmm…he’s definitely lonely.” Graves-san nodded slowly.

“You can tell?” Ram-san asked.

Graves-san seem to take her time deciding her reply, “I guess…I used to be pretty lonely.” She muttered.

-Chapter 3 Daily Life: Fields of Knowledge-

We made our way up to the second floor and made our ways to the room marked with a book on the ElectroID maps. It was easy to predict that when we entered that the room in question was going to be a library, tall walls filled to the bring with books almost like an archive that was started as far back as the stone ages.

“Th-this is incredible…! Did Monokuma prepare this for us?” Ram-san asked, taking in the view.

“So many books…I guess we at least have something to occupy our time with. Though I’d rather find a clue to a way out of here.” I said. It was an impressive collection though; I couldn’t deny it.

“These are all most likely history books if this is the history building…even so, I want to have a look around and see if we can find anything useful.” Ram-san said.

“Good idea! Alright, Nagata, you take the centre part, I’ll take the left! Ram, we’ll trust you with the right side of the room!” Okanaya-san ordered out his instructions and without waiting for a response, ran off into the shelves of books.

“At least he’s always prepared to work.” Ram-san said before walking to the other side. I walked down the centre aisle of books. They were categorised by subject. Middle Ages. Roman Empire. Medical Studies. Even some 20th century crime novels. Even if Monokuma placed these here to give us ideas for murder, I still might read them at some point.

As I was nearing the end of the line of bookshelves, I felt myself step on something. Moving my foot out of the way revealed a polaroid photo laying on the middle of the floor.

“Wh…what the heck…?” I murmured as I picked it up. The photo showed Kibe-san, Hachi-san and Irunami-san all sat in a line together holding up peace signs to the camera, a large window with the sun shining in was in the background and in the corner of shot I could make out what seemed to be a classroom desk.

What the hell is this…? Did those three know each other before we came here? No, I’m sure Irunami-san would have mentioned knowing those two before coming here.

“Whoops!” Monokuma suddenly dropped down from atop the shelves. “Can’t believe I left this lying around, silly me!”

“E-eh? This belongs to you?”

“Umm…in a sense! A-anyway, give it back!” Monokuma quickly snatched the photo away. “Memories are important, you know! I wanna keep this one, so stop being so selfish!” Without making any sense, he jumped atop the shelves once more, most likely disappearing as he always does.

What was with that photo? The way Monokuma talked about it…is it a real photo? Not faked? A memory…

“Oi, Nagata!” I snapped back up and saw Okanaya-san waving at me from the end of the line of bookshelves. “What’re you standing around for?! Come on!” Whatever that was…I have a bad feeling about its implications…

-Chapter 3 Daily Life: Report back!-

We all sat down in the cafeteria. Or…all those that were still coming here. “Ah…we’re really short on people now…” Kurohiko-san commented.

“It can’t be helped. Plus without Tomoe-chan, we don’t have anybody here to give us maps to visualise our new locations…it sucks.” Amaterasu-san said.

“If it sucks so much, try to show it, will you?” Kurohiko-san sighed.

“If I may take the lead for our reports, please?” Asano-san waited to hear if there were any objections. “N…no? G-good. Shall we discuss our findings on the history building…? Myself, Kurohiko-kun, and Amaterasu-san all worked together when investigating however we could not find any such clue as to how we can escape.”

“So, the usual.” Okanaya-san sighed.

“That doesn’t mean there wasn’t cool stuff to see! On the first floor this had this amazing display of different weapons from across the ages! I’ve never seen anything like it! I love the history of weaponry!” Graves-san said cheerfully.

“E-even though that was all put together so it would be easier for us to kill each other…?” Ram-san said.

“Weapons can still be interesting, even if they aren’t being used.” Graves-san replied.

“It’s definitely less jarring than the torture room on the third floor. Filled with different kinds of instruments of torture. Iron maidens, stretchers, pliers, saws…it’s nasty.” Amaterasu-san said in her usual monotonous voice.

“T-torture stuff…?” Graves-san gasped. “I can’t believe I never went to check it out! I’ll need to rectify this mistake as soon as possible! The stretcher is one of my favourite torture devices, it should have been used in a Saw movie, for sure! I’ll take Junpei to see it!”

“Something tells me Yokozawa-sama would most likely decline that offer.” Ishikawa-san said with a giggle. “It is clear Monokuma-sama is far more direct now about wanting us to kill each other if he’s put all of that together. He also gave us supplies to make murder easier to commit.”

“What do you mean? There’s more?” Kurohiko-san paled a little. “G-geez…isn’t there already enough…”

“A room also on the third floor contains things such as special poisons, common things people are allergic, trip wires, chemicals, and far more.” Ishikawa-san explained. She was silent for a moment before pursing her lips, “I…feel as though we should steer clear of that building at all costs. It is far too dangerous to go near…”

“Oh…? I’m afraid I can’t agree to that. After all, that library is far too important to stay away from.” Kurosaki-san said. He was being unusually quiet this whole time, it was a little unnerving. “That library has a lot of valuable information if you know where to look. I plan on studying the contents there further afterwards…but I feel as though a clue to our situation is hiding in there. Somewhere in those books.”

The photo Monokuma snatched away from me came to mind. I could say something right now, but if I do…would that have good consequences? People might suspect the people in the photo are suspicious. But we all saw their bodies…

Kurosaki-san’s eyes flicked towards me. Does he know what I’m thinking? Do I look suspicious? How does he always seem like he knows what’s going on…?

“Very well, the library may be okay…but perhaps we can board up the other rooms? We should at least take some defensive procedures.” Ishikawa-san said.

“You think Monokuma would allow something like that? Don’t be an idiot. He’d change the rules in a heartbeat so that we aren’t allowed to block the entrances to the rooms in any of the buildings.” Kurosaki-san argued.

“He has a point. Monokuma’s goal is to kill all of us. No way he’d let us block our own access to the weapons.” Amaterasu-san said. Ishikawa-san fiddled with the sleeve of her dress and silently conceded defeat.

“If that’s all, are we done here? I plan on heading back into the library and continuing my studies…” Kurosaki-san stood up and made his way for the door. His hand resting on the door-handle, he looked back at the group, giving me a once over in particular. “We all have things we’re hiding…I wonder who’s hiding the fact that they’re the reason we’re here.” And with that, he left.

“What a prick. It would so much easier if he was one of the ones who died.” Okanaya-san cursed.

“Okanaya-kun, you can’t say something like that!” Ram-san puffed her cheeks out and glared at Okanaya-san. The tour guide took a moment staring at Ram-san’s face before letting out a sigh. Something about that expression seemed to stop him from arguing. “…ah, sorry, I just yelled at you like that!”

“No, it’s fine. You’re right…my bad.”

“…can I ask you guys something?” Kurohiko-san spoke.

“Is something wrong?” Ishikawa-san said.

“…if I’m honest, a lot is wrong. We’re falling apart as a group. Four of us are keeping their distance…Kurosaki-san…he just gives me a bad energy…I don’t know what to think anymore…”

“Kurohiko-kun, that is not the attitude to have.” Asano-san said. “I will concede that our position as a group is less than ideal but if we act like that then our situation will never improve. For now, we should give those people space to collect their thoughts before we try to ask them to re-join us in our routine.”

“…if you say so…” Kurohiko-san nodded.

“You guys are something else.”- Graves-san folded her arms –“I only came here to see what everyone had to report…but now I just don’t understand you all even more. So frustrating…”

“Graves-san?” I said cautiously.

“…oh well. Nothing I can do about it.” She shrugged, making her way for the exit. Guess it was going to take more to get her to come back into the group properly.

“She has a darkness inside her, do you not think? Right now, I would say Graves-sama is our biggest worry.” Ishikawa-san said.

“She’s a secret agent. Other than Sly-chan, Karma-chan is the one who’ll have the easiest time killing someone. Scary.” Amaterasu-san added. Yeah…scary.

-Chapter 3 Daily Life, The Cards in your deck-

The usual. We stood in the gymnasium after Monokuma made his announcement. Even those who were keeping their distance had turned up, though clearly not happy about the situation. Shinko-san was angrily tapping a rhythm with his shoe.

“That motherfucker barely even waits before giving us a motive. I’m sick a’ this shit!” He growled.

“Shinko-sama, do not give into those emotions of yours. Us 12 have been able to resist the past two motives. I am sure we will all be able to do it again. If we have faith in each other and work together, we will prevail.” Ishikawa-san reassured.

“God, that way you talk pisses me off. You can spout the same fuckin’ speech all you want, but if there’s a motive, someone will give into it. It’s just how it goes.” Shinko-san replied. Ishikawa-san pursed her lips and glared at Shinko-san. An unusual thing for Ishikawa-san to do but I suppose Shinko-san and Ishikawa-san have always been like oil and water…

“Yikes! Such a thick juicy tension! Can I get a bite?” Monokuma laughed into his paws. “I’m kidding of course! Tension is way too full of calories for a bear of my size!”

“Can you just quit with the jokes? They don’t even make sense now.” Amaterasu-san said.

“Not my fault you stoic chicks don’t get humour.” Monokuma shrugged. “Anyway, guess what time it is, kids! Motive time! And for todays motive…” Monokuma produced a set of cards. Each with the name of one of us written on the front.

“Ah…didn’t we already do something like this?” Graves-san asked.

“No! This is different! Just take it!” Monokuma handed out the cards to the corresponding student. I opened mine up to find a list of names…a list of familiar names. The names of my parents, my siblings, and one or two of my close friends.

“Oh…? It’s laid out like a polling card.” Ishikawa-san pointed out.

“It sure is! Because this motive is a game of choice! You each have a list of the people who are closest to you on the outside world, your job is tick one of those names as a sacrifice!”

“…sacrifice?” Sly-san’s expression clouded over in an instant. “That better be a joke.”

“Huh? Why would I joke? In 48 hours, you gotta have a name ticked on that card! If you don’t pick somebody…everybody on that card is gonna be sacrificed instead! And, well…you know the method in which you can prevent it from happening, right? It’s pretty obvious how to save everyone on that list.”

“E-everyone…?” I felt my hands begin to tremble. My family…? My friends…? One of them…or all of them…?

“Hey. I said that you better be joking.” Sly-san stepped forward.

“H-hey, Sly-kun…” Yokozawa-san warily.

“What.” Sly-san spun around, glaring at Yokozawa-san who stepped back from Sly-san’s glare. “Monokuma-“ He turned back to find the bear gone. “…dammit.” He clicked his tongue.

“H…how the hell am I supposed to pick…? H-how can I pick…?” Kurohiko-san whimpered.

“If you don’t know who you’re gonna pick, don’t pick. Simple as that.” Graves-san said. “I dunno if I’ll pick. Would I be fair to pick one person over the other…?”

“I can’t allow that…I can’t allow her to get hurt…” Sly-san murmured. “I won’t let her die. I’ll do what it takes…”

“Oh-ho? Herr Knives is getting so riled up! How unlike you!” Kurosaki-san smirked.

“If you’re gonna kill, try and kill me! I’ll give you a real good fight!” Graves-san said.

“D-don’t just say stuff like that, no way Sly-san would kill, r-r-right?!” Kurohiko-san panicked.

“I’ll kill anyone if I need to. I have no issues with killing any of you-“

“Enough!” A hush fell across the room, Asano-san held her arm in the air to grab everyone’s attention. Her arm was trembling a little with everybody’s eyes on her. “…w…we cannot fight like this. It is exactly what Monokuma-kun wants us to do. I’m sure there is a way out of this without killing anyone…we have 48 hours to figure something out so please do not be so irrational…please. I am sorry.”

“Haven’t you learned yet? There isn’t an alternative. Unless someone dies every single person on these lists is in danger.” Shinko-san said.

“I choose to believe otherwise.”

“Then you’re an idiot. Faith like that will get you killed.” Shinko-san shook his head. “…I don’t need this. I’m going back to my room.”

“Shinko-kun, wait!” Ram-san tried but he ignored her call for him and left the gymnasium, Sly-san and Yokozawa-san leaving silently afterwards.

Ram-san forced a small smile, “U-um…maybe we should cool off for the day…h-how about we all go to the pool or have tea-“

“No!” Ishikawa-san suddenly yelled, “I…no! I won’t…” She mumbled to herself before shaking her head and powerwalking of the room.

“E-even Ishikawa-san…I am sorry, I thought maybe I could help…” Asano-san sighed. “It seems my decisions are not helpful-“

“H-hey now, don’t say that. Even if things don’t work out the way you thought they would, doesn’t mean it’s your fault. Those guys are all really scared…I am too, b-but hearing you trying to be optimistic helped me a little…s-so, um…wh-what’s my point again? I can’t even remember…heh…” Kurohiko-san rubbed the back of his neck awkwardly.

“Yeah. Good work, Mami-chan.” Amaterasu-san added.

“O-oh…th-thank you, both of you.” She bowed slightly. I noticed in the corner on my eye that Ram-san was staring at Asano-san with awe.

“Asano-san…is really impressive, isn’t she? Even though she was taught to do what others said…she had the courage to speak up like that when someone needed to say something. Hey, Nagata-kun, isn’t Asano-san cool?” She smiled up at me.

“…yeah, she is.” I nodded. I think I wanted to be able to do what Asano-san just did.

#DKronpa #chapters #danganronpa #fanganronpa #fangan ronpa

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