#sorry not sorry for the dash cleaner images

[next-autopsy]

A/N: Well, hi there! It's ya girl back with more! This chapter's a bit dark but like its for the plot so....

Based on the actors portrayal/hbo show and written with no disrespect to the real life veterans. Also all images found on Pinterest.

TW: Swearing, threatening, verbal assault, (lmk if i need to add something here!)

Made of Glass

Chapter seven: Smooth

Latrine duty was worse than it sounded but at least she wasn't alone. Five men were on their knees next to her.

George Luz and Donald Malarkey were the only guys cleaning latrines that she was previously friendly with. Birdie had officially introduced herself to Tipper and Shifty while scrubbing toilets. She'd tried not to think about it too much when she shook their hands, grimacing.

And lastly, tormenting her in the lavatories was Joseph Liebgott.

She had only ever butted heads with him and it didn't look like it was going to stop any time soon. He rolled his eyes when she spoke and she made faces at him when his back was turned.

George caught her sticking her tongue out at the behind Liebgott's head once and burst into uncontrollable laughter. Which had caused her to giggle and caught the man's attention, he scoffed at the pair who were apparently laughing at nothing.

“You're doing it wrong.” Liebgott told the woman in the stall next to him. Birdie audibly sighed,

“By all means; do it for me, then.” She invited but instead of taking over her task, he decided to fling an underhanded comment her way.

“Aren't women supposed to be good at cleaning?”

“Yeah? Well that's why I'm here and not a ‘good little housewife’ for some sorry fool.” Birdie was starting to reach her limit of face time with Liebgott. She brushed off everything he said with her own witty reply but she could only take so much of his attitude before she began souring, he was actually starting to piss her off.

“The man who marries you would be a fool.” Joe mumbled loud enough for her to hear. Birdie was about to retort when another voice interrupted.

“Children, children, please! Enough with the bickering, just kiss already!” It was George who tried to break up the endless insults between them, although his tone was full of delight. He attempted to keep the mood up but he was enjoying their spiteful remarks a little too much.

“Good thing I’m kneeling over a toilet, cause I just threw up a bit.” Bernadette fake gagged to emphasise her point.

“Oh yeah? Well you-“ Liebgott began but the Liebgott-Birdie banter was cut off once again.

“Oh my God! I can’t take it anymore!" Malarkey called out.

“These two are going drive us all insane!” Tipper added earning chuckles from the group excluding Birdie and Liebgott who glowered at each other and returned to their work.

Maybe ignoring one another was the best course of action.

——————————

Sparkling lavatories meant the six cleaners were released, permitted to spend the rest of the Saturday afternoon as they pleased.

Bernadette had dashed for the showers, making an effort to rid her body and hair of the lingering smell; a sickly mixture of sweat, cleaning products and an outhouse.

She let her damp hair hang down her back, allowing it to air dry on her way to her barracks. Birdie had decided to spend her time off replying to the multitude of letters she had begun receiving from her hometown. The latest letter accrued that very morning was from her oldest sister, Helen and she was itching to read it.

Her mind was off in the clouds, wondering what her relations were up to and what news might be waiting for her. Birdie's legs automatically took the route to her sleeping quarters, now known off by heart. She rounded the corner, still a few minutes away from her destination and noticed a group of uniformed men circled around and passing smokes between them.

Birdie gave them a brief smile and no second thought, aiming to cruise past them. It seemed as though they had other plans in mind.

“Well hello, beautiful.” The tallest man of the group smiled and the three men with him chuckled along as if he was a comedian. Whatever joke he was telling did not fill Birdie with joy. She slowed her pace and swallowed the salvia forming in her mouth, suddenly anxious to return to the women's building.

“Afternoon.” She spoke curtly, stepping around them only to be stopped when he moved in her path.

“Now, where do you think you're going, huh? We just want to talk.” His grin made Birdie jittery, she looked around hoping someone she knew would walk by, she'd even found herself wishing to see her CO so that he would send her up Currahee, far away from these strangers.

She heard a shuffle of feet behind her and kicked herself when she realised two of the guys had split off and come up at her rear.

The four men stepped to her, until they were close enough that she could feel the exhaled puff of their cigarettes on her from all angles.

Birdie tried her best to glare at them, the tallest man in particular. He raised his hand toward her and gently brushed his fingers against her cheek, cooing a: 'Come on now, girly.'

The second his skin touched hers a nauseating feeling churned in her stomach, she slapped his outstretched hand away and growled aggressively, “Don't touch me!”

This only caused the men around her to laugh at her and spurred two others to reach out at her, skimming her arm or toying with her hair. The southern girls heart pounded, she began imagining the most efficient way to smack him up side the head and which direction to sprint in.

“Don't be a fuckin' tease.” One hissed into her ear, she flinched away from his voice and curled her fist up, ready to punch her way out of the men encircling her like a pack of lions hunting down their prey.

“The fuck?” A familiar voice vocalised from the direction she had come from. She could have cried out in relief when three Easy company men came into her view.

Tipper, her newly formed acquaintance, stood by Liebgott and a man she was yet to converse with, labelled Grant.

The trio advanced aggressively towards the surrounded lady, causing three of the men to stumble backwards away from the brunette lady.

The leader of their gang pressed himself closer to her before her comrades reached the two and simultaneously pulled on her arm, causing her to lose her balance and lean into him. She let out a yelp at his quick action.

“This isn't over. Watch your back.” He whispered, then adding louder, “Bitch.” The offending men disappeared and Birdie was left stunned.

All three Easy guys arrived which arms reach, too late to fend off her would be attackers. They took slowed steps in her direction like they were scared of spooking her.

“You okay?” Grant asked her gently. She feet were welded to the spot they left her in and her eyes couldn't be torn away from the area she last saw them.

“Who were those guys?” Tipper wondered.

“Fuckin' assholes.” Liebgott answered, glaring in the direction they scampered off in. He turned to the clearly shaken girl, “Are you okay?”

“I'm fine....” Bernadette murmured, she was still in a state of shock, playing through the events in her mind. Why hadn't she done something sooner? Was her first instinct really to freeze up like that?

“Birdie, if they-”

“Jesus! I said I'm fuckin' fine.” The woman raised her voice, something none of the men had experience yet.

“I was just asking if-” Liebgott was cut off again by her harsh voice.

“Well stop askin'. I can take care of myself.” Her body shifted into action, finally thawing out enough to move and she stomped past them in the direction she was headed in to begin with. It was Joe's turn to huff this time. He was just trying to be nice and check on her, what was her problem?

“Yeah, it sure looked like it.” The second he said the words, he regretted them. Grant and Tipper tensed and Birdie stopped in her tracks.

“Fuck off, Liebgott.” And she was gone. Joe was left to watch her figure retreat with a pit of guilt settling in his stomach.

“Smooth.” Tipper pretended to hide his comment in a cough, which earned a stern look from his friend.

————————————

Her mail was forgotten in her footlocker for safe keeping.

Bernadette sat on her cot listening to her friends conversing. She smiled and nodded, hiding any indication that something was amiss. The last thing she wanted was the women questioning her or trying to convince her to tell someone. She would happily move on an ignore the events of the day.

“Hey.” A honey sweet voice pulled her focus from the larger group of women. The blonde girl who slept in the cot next to her had gained her attention.

“How you holding up?”

“Huh?” Had someone told her what happened? Were rumours spreading already? Birdie's breaths quickened awaiting an explanation from the sweet medic who had moved to sit on Birdie's bed with her.

“I heard about the night duty.... and the extra PT... and something about a circle?” Her brow quirked upwards, a warm smile curled into her lips.

Oh. “Oh!” She smiled back at the Dog company blonde.

“Yeah, um... my CO... he's just testing me, I suppose.” Birdie chuckled. She didn't want to speak too badly of Sobel in case things got back to him or Sergeant Evans was hiding under her bunk (she wouldn't put it passed him).

Constance asked Birdie more about adjusting to Easy and in turn told her about Dog company. The two shared a story or two about home, Connie spoke about her five sisters, they were all nurses taking after their mother.

“And then my oldest sister told him to shove off!” The pair cackled like two hens. Birdie grabbed at her stomach, her cheeks ached from laughing so hard. She had to grab onto Connie's arm to stop her from rolling off the single cot as she giggled, wiggling too close to the edge. This only caused another bout of laughter between them.

“Oh! My sister!” Birdie's laughter died down when she recalled the unopened letter and dove for her footlocker. She ripped it open and took a second to scan it. Her small smile turned into a mammoth grin the further down she read.

“Good news?” Connie inquired, curiously.

“My sister's havin' another baby!” Birdie declared, the room full of women heard her announcement and cheered, congratulating her on a second niece or nephew. That sparked the ladies to pull out family pictures and talk about their loved ones proudly.

Birdie reveled in this moment, all the women were chatting happily, forming the bond only close friends and sisters shared.

Francesca stood between the door and the butt barrel, watching and puffed away silently. The faintest hint of an amused expression found it's way onto her face. She locked eyes with Bernadette and the two shared a pleased look. Francesca gave the southerner an approving nod; she recognised Birdie as the glue pulling the group together.

Birdie winked at the woman then turned to review a photo that had been shoved in her direction.

A/N: I purposefully haven't named the shady guys in this chapter and they will stay unnamed cause why would I waste time on assholes like that? Till next time x

~ next-autopsy ~

Chapter eight

[magebastard]

ship: lane wheatley x seven (past lol)

wc: 406

rating: g

notes: infamous if has such a grip on me gang

It’s always like this.

Lane isn’t particularly defensive of their public image—they try to maintain integrity as an artist but beyond that, there’s too much inherently vulnerable material for them to be anything but themselves. The world gets free rein to pick apart the shorn, stark body of their thoughts and feelings and they have to sit and lap up the conspiracies like it’s all a big joke.

That’s the deal when you write your own music. It’s the job. Lane gets that.

But screaming out the chorus of what happens to be their saddest and most popular song somehow always feels like they’re lancing a wound in front of a crowd.

They should know by now; the world loves Seven almost as much as Lane does. There’s no one else they could be singing about. The world screams their aching regret with them.

“I don’t care that I look stupid.

And I don’t care that you don’t want me.

And I love you forever.

God, I’m fucking sorry.”

He came and went and Lane won’t question why right now. Even if it feels like a hot coal is lodged, jagged in the center of their chest. Sweat drags the makeup from their skin and this is somehow the most exhausting performance they’ve ever given.

Lane takes a knee and reaches out to hold the nearest fan’s hand. She clutches it tight and wails “God, I’m fucking sorry,” until the guitar peters out and it’s over.

Somehow it always ends up this way. They haven’t even made it off the stage, the final note from Rowan’s axe hasn’t stopped echoing, the crowd is still roaring.

And Lane already feels so lonely.

Fronting the band alone was never what they wanted. They recognize why it helps the image. It’s cleaner. It makes more sense.

But Lane bows over with the Herculean effort of choking back tears. Their friends are so close but, fuck, this part is always a minute calamity.

Why do you hide it? Why do you have to hide it?

Lane drags a wet palm over their hot face. They wave and jog offstage—casual until clearing the hurdle of the crowd, then they sprint, dashing out to the parking lot.

He wouldn’t still be there.

He wouldn’t. Of course not. Lane doesn’t find Seven’s car. They don’t expect to. And what then, if they had?

They press their forehead to the cold concrete building.

“Fuck this.”

[kylekreepsmeout]

Does anyone else do this??

Drawing in the margins of your notebook, something every kid has done at least once in their life. But does anyone else do it like, excessively???? I have this weird habit of drawing specific body parts over and over in the margins until they fill up the whole space or when I fill the page with notes.

[nctsworld]

in a king-size, say i’m your queen

✩‌ renjun ‌x‌ ‌reader‌ ‌|‌ prince!renjun | fluff | smut | ‌3.4k

SUMMARY‌ ‌⇾‌ you’re drawn to the kingdom’s prince staying at your family’s inn. on the night before he leaves, you exchange good-byes in the form of a kiss and more. WARNINGS‌ ‌⇾‌ ‌smut (near the end), unprotected s*x, f*ngering, oral s*x (m receiving), mentions of alcohol/drinking, commoner!reader, dash of angst RATING‌ ‌⇾‌ mature PROMPT ⇾‌ prince/royalty au // fluff + smut REQ BY ⇾‌ anonymous   ‌

⇾‌ gif created by me, please don’t repost or share without credit!

“Prince Huang, this is my family, who will be looking after you during your stay.”

Your father awoke everyone from deep slumber in the middle of the night, hollering at everyone to put on their work clothes in a hurry. Little did anyone expect the actual prince himself to be taking a rest at your family’s inn, for several days apparently.  

As the youngest and only daughter among your kin, your father introduces you last in line to greet the prince and his companions. With sleep still in your eyes, you curtsy as gracefully as you can, once towards the prince and another towards his followers.

The sleep in your eyes disappears as your eyelids suddenly bloom at your first clear look at the man standing a few steps across from you.

Everyone within the kingdom obviously knew of the royal family, but being this far from the mainland never granted you the chance to see them in-person. There were rumours far and wide of how captivating and beautiful the family was, especially the prince, but you assumed they were exaggerating, fueling the propaganda mill that all royalty were gorgeous, godly beings.

Oh, to be absolutely wrong.

Air’s snatched from your lungs when his warm smile burgeons, warming the room more than the fireplace ever could.

He holds his gaze on you, placing a palm on his chest and saying, “My dearest apologies for disturbing your dreams. It was a must though; we haven’t stopped anywhere in days and finally found your inn.”

Your father replies to his words, while you blink observantly at the royal figure. You wonder if it’s due to the lack of sleep or simply all in your head, but you swear his glances waver over at you more than your other family members.

“Well, I will retire to bed now and won’t be requiring your services until morning. Please resume your slumbers, and I wish you all the sweetest of dreams.”

Puffing his cheeks cutely, he bends his head slightly towards your family, while all of you dip and bow to him. When you two jointly look up, your gaze surely connects with his.

Funny enough, his wish comes true as his beauty rules over your dreams, molding them into sweet ones, for the rest of the night.  

On the second morning of his stay, you watch him relaxing at the back of the inn among the luscious greenery. In a loose white-button up, he’s sitting by himself, save for a guard nearby, and lounging in a chair under the spring sun.

Prior to starting on your tasks for the day, you stroll towards him with a jug in hand. Smiling freely, his eyes are shut as you approach him.

“Sorry to disturb you, Your Royal Highness—”

His eyes flutter open at your divine voice and his smile deepens.

“But would you care for some lemon juice?”

The boyish man hums in acceptance and he’s glued to how you carefully pour the liquid into his chalice. His eyes track the path of your departure after you leave the jug on the table and head towards a group of trees in the farther end of the garden.

Though he delights in the picturesque image of you skillfully picking the yellow fruit, which he assumes are lemons, off the tree from your wooden ladder and dropping them into the bucket hanging from your hand, a desire simmers in his stomach to be in your presence. The prince's guard follows behind him discreetly as the handsome individual makes his way over and speaks to you from below.

“May I assist you?” he offers.

His appearance startles you for a moment, then your stare unintentionally drops over the exposed skin of his upper frame. You ponder over the smoothness of his skin and imagine yourself leaving kisses upon his clavicle, on his chest, going downward further and further...

Clearing your throat and shaking your head to focus, you airily laugh at his question. The highness’s eyebrows crease, perplexed by your response.    

“Prince Huang—”

“Call me Renjun, please,” he interrupts, laying a palm against his chest. “I insist.”

“Prince Huang,” you reiterate, not wanting to breach the formalities. “It’s my duty—and an honor if I may add—to pick these lemons for you, not yours.”

“Well, as prince,” Renjun gently seizes the bucket away from your grasp. “I order you to allow me to assist you.”

Incredulously, you stare at him for a lingering moment and he engages equally, delving into your glowing aura.

Since you can’t reject his order, you yield and continue to pick the lemons off the tree, now plopping them into the bucket held by Renjun. Throughout the comfortable silence, he doesn’t take his eyes off of you for one second, admiring how elegant you are with the light breeze blowing through your hair.  

He wonders to himself if you’re aware of your devastating beauty.  

A couple of nights pass and during one evening, in the shared resting area, you find Renjun situated adjacent to the fireplace, reading a book alone (with a guard lurking close by, of course).

The prince’s features are already so soft, but he seems ethereal with the fire’s glow against his face. You’re reminded of the first night he arrived.  

As you usually do, you query if he needs anything before you retire to your room.  

He replies negatively, but then adds, “Would you like to hear some of the story I’m reading before bed?”

Shaking your head, you tuck some of your hair behind your ear. “Oh, I wouldn’t want to impose—”  

“Not at all,” Renjun beams. He gestures for you to sit in the seat beside him, and you do so with prickling cheeks.  

His fingers flip a few pages back and he tells the short story from the beginning. Your cheek tips into your palm as you listen intently. Yes, the story is intriguing, but you’re also focused on Renjun’s voice. It’s soothing, yet lively with the specific parts in which he modulates his tone to flow perfectly with the storytelling.

And then you drift over his plush, kissable lips. You will yourself to focus on the story, rather than the reader.

In between his reading, he peers up from the pages to see if you’re still interested to hear the rest of the story, not wanting to waste your time nor bore you to death. He reads the dazzling expression on your face as a signal to finish until the very end.

When it’s over, Renjun asks if you enjoyed it. You hum positively and stand up, excusing yourself to formally leave for the night. You exchange pleasant good-nights and sweet dreams. While you shuffle off, before you’re past the doorway, he pipes up—

“Perhaps I can read you another story tomorrow evening?”

You turn around by the end of his sentence, grasping onto the doorframe.

Renjun continues, his grip tightening around the closed book. “If you wish.”

Your lips press together, in hopes to suppress a grin. It doesn’t work too well.  

“I’d like that very much.”

Time flies, and it’s already the second to last day before Renjun’s departure. Your family decides to arrange a party at the inn, inviting the fellow townspeople to join as well.  

Fittingly, Renjun sits in the middle of the long table alongside his associates and is entertained by the spectacle of the event. After the townspeople grant him gifts and dinner is served, the dancing commences. Throughout the evening, he keeps a constant eye out for you.

All night, you serve the guests and barely have time to properly eat your own meal. However, as the night lengthens, your parents urge you to live a little. In the middle of the hall, you rush to unite with your close friends, clasping onto their hands and dancing around in circles to the merry music.

The royal figure radiates, enticed from the scene of you laughing and jumping in joy, having never seen this side of you before. His heart flops at the endearing sight and an itch overcomes him. Taking a sip of his wine, Renjun anxiously wipes his mouth with the back of his hand and heads towards you onto the dance floor.  

Gasps trail behind his steps as he floats through the domino effect of bowing people. He casually says his thank you’s to everyone in passing and as the domino effect finally reaches a stop within the middle of the room, you’re the last one to formally greet him.

“Your Royal Highness,” you curtsy with a small smile.

He acknowledges with a bow of his head and shocks you by holding his palm out.

“May I share a dance with you?”

Your heart pounds in your ears as you glance around the room to ensure he’s talking to you and not mistakenly someone else. Additionally, you’re surveying the prospects because you are definitely not the most worthy to dance with royalty; the mayor’s daughter should be owed this dance, not you. You also shamefully touch your work outfit, wishing you were wearing something cleaner and more extravagant.

“Prince Huang, are you sure you want to dance with me?” you murmur, despite how everyone quieted down and can hear what you’re saying.

“Of course,” he stretches out for your hand and possesses it in his.

“Who else would I want to share a dance with?”

Your friends and all other parties now disperse and surround the two of you, dancing to their own fulfillment as you’re left in an imaginary bubble with just Renjun. Every twirl, spin, and bounce generates endless vivacious laughter from the both of you. You dance deeper into the night until your faces and feet soon ache, until it was almost only the two of you on the dance floor.      

Because of the aching, you stumble at one point, crashing into Renjun’s body.

He catches you in his arms. You look up into his eyes, then at his lips merely fingertips away from yours. Renjun’s liquored panting fans your face and you drown in it without reservation.

His eyes flicker to your lips too, and he gulps. Bravely, he raises his palm to caress your cheek, but as his skin touches yours, it jolts you to your core, popping you out of your secluded bubble and dragging you into reality.

Pulling apart from him, the prince asks if you’re okay.

You nod thoughtlessly, quickly thank him for the dance, and spew that you should begin to clean-up the hall, leaving him on the dance floor.

Renjun brings a finger to his lips and watches you run off.  

The last evening of his stay finally arrives. In your nightgown before bedtime, forgetting to ask if he needed anything before you changed out of your work clothes, you knock on his room’s door with the guard on-duty beside it.

His muffled voice beckons you to come in, and you open the door ajar to creep your head through the space. Noticing it’s you, he immediately drops the book he was reading onto his bedside table.  

“Prince Huang, did you need anything else before you leave tomorrow?”

Legs dangling off the largest bed at the inn, he thinks to himself for a few moments. He twists his mouth to one side, tapping a finger on his chin.

“I think I have everything in order...”

Then, he tilts his head to one side and puckers his lips. He darts onto his feet and adds, “Can you come in for a moment though? And please shut the door behind you.”

You’re taken aback by his request. Nevertheless, you fulfill it and close the door behind you as you walk in. Renjun’s eyes widen at the sight of you in your nightgown, clicking together why you didn’t fully come into his room in the first place.  

You rub one of your arms. “Sorry for my indecent clothing—”

“No, I’m sorry, uhm,” he palms the back of his neck nervously. “I just wanted to say a few words, so I’ll be quick.”  

He steps closer to you. Both of you stand in the middle of the room and he continues.

“Before I leave, I want to make sure you know that I quite enjoyed my stay here because of you and your family’s fine service, but I enjoyed it even more because of your cordial company.”

At his earnest appraisal and personal compliment, your cheeks flare and your jaw dangles. You bow with your head. “Thank you, Prince Huang.”

Renjun then faces the floor and picks at his fingers, trying to formulate his thoughts.

“I don’t normally do this and I’m about to ask the following not as a prince, but as a normal man. And let me preface it by saying that, as a man of my word, you are not obligated or pressured to agree to what I’m about to ask; you have every right to say no.”

He sputters everything so fast, it takes a bit for you to process his words. When it sinks in, you’re still unsure exactly what he’s talking about. Worried, you raise your eyebrows, anticipating his inquiry.  

Noting your confusion, he exhales a lengthy breath and goes straight to the point.

“As a send-off and to demonstrate my gratitude…”

He meets your gaze.

“May I kiss you?”

Your jaw, along with your eyes, hangs this time. Awestruck, you blink rapidly and inhale sharply as you stay frozen in place.

“I know it may be one-sided, but at yesterday’s gathering, I thought we shared a special moment and perhaps it’s my fault I acted upon it since we were among people, so I apologize for that—”

“You may kiss me,” you cut him off, relieved to hear his thoughts, and close the space between yourselves.

It’s his turn to don the rapid blinking.

“Are-are you sure?”

Cautiously, his palm cups your cheek, mirroring the memory of last night, then he adds his other.

“Yes, Pr-”

“Renjun, please.”

“Yes, Renjun—”

You collide as he captures your lips. He exudes innocence and it shows in his kissing; he starts off gently and barely expands his mouth. Each movement is lovely and oozes affection. Your fingers tug lightly at his nightwear, body humming emphatically in response.

However, as he tests the water, his kissing is soon stripped of innocence and is replaced by a sinful hunger. While his tongue slips into your mouth, grazing against your teeth, his hands traverse your body and confront your waist and neck, squeezing them upon arrival. You eagerly reciprocate his change of pace, desperately running your fingers through his hair and angling your neck to better the searing, open-mouthed kisses.

Since there aren’t many layers covering either of you, you’re blatantly aware of Renjun’s growing desire against your body.

Pressing his forehead against yours, he pants, “May I take you to bed?”

You bob your head fervently and croak, “Yes.”

“Yes…?”

You grin into the next kiss at his playfulness.

“Yes, Renjun.”

In retrospect, being taken in a guest room at your family’s inn was strange, but you couldn’t think much of it within the moment.

At the moment, all you yearn for is Renjun’s weight on you, locking your body into the bed with his. Lip-locked as he lays you down, he satisfies your yearning hastily.

While he dominates your neck, one of his hands is rashly underneath your nightgown and ascends to the haven of your breasts. You gasp at the initial contact, your fingers tightening in his hair and over his shoulder blade.

He kneads the meat of your tits momentarily, but he’s more fixated on attending to your nipples. Renjun’s thumb tenderly rubs over them prior to his loving pinches. At this point, his mouth zones in and nibbles on your earlobe, so he listens to your rising panting and erotic moans crystal clear.

Following his massaging and playing of your other breast, he withdraws from you to disrobe your layer in one-go and you return the favour to peel away his.  

Renjun’s purity ignites once more as he reveres your bare body, lovingly scanning all your curves and lines.

“Do you know how beautiful you are?” he whispers.  

Fluttering your eyelids, you lightly bite your bottom lip between your teeth. Truly, it was too easy for him to make your cheeks spark this often. He converges with your mouth sweetly before he wraps his pretty lips around your nub.

“Oh, my God, Renjun—”

Because your eyes snap in gratification, you can’t see the smirk on his face. He indulges in you calling him by his first name, especially so melodiously and within this context. A hand finds purchase upon the neighbouring breast, and another hovers under your warmth. Your hips buck heedlessly, begging for his fingers to dive further.  

They do so when he switches his embrace upon your breasts. Although you know he must feel it, the obscene, loud sounds of him fingering your sex confirm how wet you are for him. Renjun peeks an eye open to your wanton self. He adores the view in addition to your dripping pleasure contracting and spilling over his digits.  

Moving ahead, he retreats from you and mounts himself on the bed on his knees, stroking himself to harden himself for what’s to come. Despite still being breathless from your high, you rise onto your knees to match his stance in front of him.

Your dominant hand grasps his possession, taking over for him. Simultaneously, your mouth finally has the chance to reign over the smoothness of his frame—his neck, his carved clavicle, the expanse area of his chest, and his soft abdomen. He sighs blissfully, eyes batting.        

Your mouth proceeds lower to where your hand is located and aids to the swelling of Renjun’s desire. He gawks, mouth hanging, at the beautiful arching of your back and your enthusiasm as you engulf him.

Gripping him by the base, you stroke to the measure of your bobbing. To keep him enraptured, you occasionally focus on his tip, such as with the swirling and flicking of your tongue and initiating vigorous, targeted sucking. Not wanting him to reach climax yet, you pull away from him with a pop, but not before you leave a delicate kiss upon the glossy apex.

Once again, you recline downward onto the bed, except now with spread legs. Renjun pumps his wet length and lines it up with your glistening crevice. You stare at his cock upon penetration, and the flood of sensations from the impact causes you to crane your head into the pillow.  

Hands encompassing your waist, the lover thrusts gradually at first, allowing you to acclimatize to his girth. After some time, he surrenders to his carnal urges and plunges deeper with speed. Your chest heaves as your nails dig into his shoulders, leaving half-moons on his skin. Lowering himself, he secures your lips for a fleeting, sentimental moment.

To your surprise, Renjun picks up the rhythm even further, leading you to wail his name and incoherent noises repeatedly. In hopes to quell yourself, you lightly bite down on the meat of your index finger. It only partially helps since whimpers still trickle out from you.  

Both of you are nearing. Aching to be even more intimate with you, his hand flees from the flank of your body and over your head to lace his fingers with yours. His intertwining compresses alongside the pinching of his face. With your finger in pain, you release it and let loose. As one, you moan in sync with Renjun and you break together. He extracts himself, painting your stomach in white ribbons.  

Inhaling much needed air, you settle upon Renjun’s chest with his arm around you. He trifles with your fingers in his before he kisses the back of your hand.

“If you ever have the chance to come by the kingdom, I implore you to find me.”

Peering up at him, you agree enthusiastically. “Of course, Renjun.”  

With pink tinting over his face, he cups you by your chin.

“Promise?”

Hesitancy pumps through your blood. You know the chances of you ever leaving your home town would be very unlikely, and even if you could, you two could never be together for he is of royal blood, and you of none.

Nevertheless, you dare not to break the twinkling, awaited expression upon his face, so you reply—

“I promise.”

Sharing another kiss, you stay with him in the bed for a little while longer, savoring the brief amour as much as possible.

[mooniefics]

— gaps of sunlight

pairing : armin arlert / reader

word count : 2.9k

tags : heavy angst, fluff (just for a moment lol), tragic romance, death, hurt / no comfort

warnings : detailed descriptions of injury to the reader

summary : every good thing must come to an end, you both knew that. but armin wished that it didn't have to happen like this every single time.

— originally posted 2 / 1 / 21 on ao3 —

armin had been absolutely glowing.

you couldn't get the image of his entranced expression when you saw the levi squad approaching from atop his horse, flushed cheeks and gleaming eyes framed by fair, blonde hair. he was shining in the light of the setting sun, barely pulling his steed to a stop before he was clambering off of it, dashing over to throw his arms around you. he was so warm, nearly squeezing all your breath out of you as he laughed, a sound full of wonder and delight, a cold, briny scent clinging to his skin and clothes.

"the ocean." he said breathlessly, burying his face into your shoulder, smiling into you, "we saw it. we saw the ocean."

but as the evening had wound down, your friend still seeming to be digesting such an experience as he stared off into nothing at the table during dinner, hands stuck in his pockets, fiddling with something for the entire meal. you'd saved your prying questions until you'd both showered and changed into your night clothes, now squeezed beside each other in the space of his bunk, narrow but just enough for the two of you to share.

"it was everything i always thought it would be!" he beamed, throwing his hands up towards the ceiling, turning his head in bed to look at you, "the water was actually salty, it stung my eyes and made my mouth so dry!!" even in the dim light, you could see the unrelenting gleam in his eyes. "it was so much colder and cleaner than the canal, blue and green as far as the eye could see—and it was frothy and white when it washed up on the shore, i wish i would've taken a bottle to bring some of it back!"

he was enchanting to gaze at, the luster of youth having finally returned after all this time it had eluded him. you'd remembered how he'd cried when he had lagged behind during cadet training, after his first few scouting missions, speaking about the untimely deaths of his family, the nights after he'd been chosen to receive the serum and acquire the power of the colossal. and every time you came to hold him, assure him that his pain was real and it was okay to cry, he would always try to tell you that he would be fine on his own, that everything would work itself out in the end without him having to bother anyone. but he never objected when you would gently hold him against you, whisper soft reassurances and let him silently sob, so young yet so full of such an endless turmoil. to see him wearing such an infectious look of glee was enough to make you smile back just as wide.

"i remember when you used to tell me about it when we were younger." you murmured, "all that feels like so long ago.. i'm glad that if any of us could make it to see the ocean, it was you."

you felt confused when you saw his face flush, smile faltering, looking almost sheepish, arms falling back to rest on his chest. "i'm sorry.. it feels unfair to gloat about it when you haven't even been able to see it for yourself."

there it was—the shy, selfless boy that was always there no matter how many battles or brushes with deaths you both saw. somehow, even after achieving his life-long dream, working so long and finally getting a taste of the joy that life should really bring, he was concerned about making you upset by expressing that happiness to you.

"armin, you're so silly." you giggled softly, reaching over to place your hand over his, "this is the one thing that you've always held onto, from the day that we first met in cadet training and all the way to now. seeing you happy could never make me upset. i'd listen to you talk about the ocean forever if it meant that you kept smiling."

his cheeks were a brilliant shade of red, heart beating fast in his chest, shining eyes large and full of gratitude. he reached into the pocket of his pajamas, leaving the hand under yours where it was, presenting you with a small leather pouch. "here, for you..!"

you took it, pulling the drawstring free, carefully tipping out its context into the palm of your hand. your eyes widened at the sight of something unfamiliar, a pale spiral dotted with rounded peaks, such a detailed creation of delicate beauty despite only being the length of your little finger, the hollow interior a smooth expanse of soft pink, light and fragile like glass.

"armin.. what is this..?"

"i don't know! they're all over the beach, hidden in the sand, but it's beautiful, isn't it??" that enthusiasm had returned, a familiar flutter dancing about in your chest, "i only took two, one for me and you, because i want there to be enough for everyone when we all go and see it together!"

you couldn't help your fascination, running your fingers over every ridge and twirl of the foreign token, cheeks nearly aching from the face-splitting beam that you had no way of containing. but you didn't know if it was this relic in your hand that was making you feel so happy, or the fact that he'd been thinking of you in his brightest moment, held you close enough to his heart that the sole memento he brought back from his trip was for you. you couldn't imagine feeling any other way, lying together, murmuring together, sharing such a rare moment of tranquility with the other now that there was a chance for your people to see past the walls that you had thought would confine you for the rest of your life.

"it's beautiful.." you carefully stowed it away into the small pouch, tucking it into your pocket until you thought of somewhere safe to keep it, turning back to face him, "thank you, armin. i love it."

i love you, you thought to yourself. and, staring into his eyes, returning your hand to clasp around his, you were sure that he was thinking it too.

─── · 。ﾟ☆: *.☽ .* :☆ﾟ. ───

paradis' first victory had been secured late into the night.

you'd been welcomed in the airship by your fellow soldiers, tugged into hugs that were almost more unpleasant than comforting due to the clanks and jabs of your gear hitting theirs, shouts and cheers shared in the main cabin over the first step being taken to secure the future of eldia and the island, but all you could think of was armin. you had been shocked when he'd accepted the role of disabling the harbor, your head filled with the memories of his despondent expressions when he was pulled from the body of the colossal, face steaming and gaunt and so terribly miserable.

you remember how you'd felt your heart jerk into your throat at the blinding flash from across the crumbling city that your squad had turned into its battle ground, debris raining from the sky and a massive crater where the buildings that had previous stood were crushed under armin, the sole survivor of the explosion being the looming figure of sinew and flesh that towered over everything below it. it only took you seconds to realize that he was in the private room near the cockpit reserved for the superior officers and the orchestrators of the siege, resigning to impatiently waiting for the duration of the ride home to speak with him.

for the moment, you tried to join in on the celebrations for having survived the night, turning your attention at jean's demand for everyone to quiet down. but before you could respond with your question of why, there came the sound of something rolling across the wood floor, the deafening crack of a rifle being fired, then the heavy thud of something hitting the ground.

"sasha!" connie screamed, a barrage of bullets coming from beside you, and the sharp ping of metal ricocheting on metal.

there were footsteps around you as you fell back, a sudden, searing heat burning across your stomach, through your entire body, knees giving out and sending you tumbling onto your back. though the ceiling was just above you, it was almost an incomprehensible image, the sound of voices shouting your name distant and murky, like your head had been dunked underwater. you barely caught jean's face, twisted with agony, his hands jostling you as he pressed hard into your abdomen, pain flaring dully up your spine.

"that hurts, jean.." you coughed, something warm and metallic coating your tongue, speech slurring, "why are you screaming..? what was.. that sound..?"

you didn't understand the sudden wave of exhaustion that was suddenly blanketing you, heavy lids falling shut, only to feel yourself being shaken awake. "open your eyes, don't close your eyes!" jean shouted, voice ringing about in your head, far too close to be speaking to you so loudly.

"tired.. just let me rest... just for a minute.."

you tried to remember where you were, why you were so fatigued, why jean was apologizing so frantically and pushing so firmly down on your stomach. you tried to swallow down the liquid gathering in your throat, sputtering and coughing, watching droplets of red spatter across jean's pale, tear-stained complexion, arm unable to lift and wipe them away like you wanted to. you forced your gaze to steady, squinting up at the lantern above your head, trying to pick out a coherent sound between the shouting voices and pounding footsteps.

the sight of another person falling into view left you blinking, struggling to focus on their face with the halo of light that had been cast around their figure, the spotty darkness clouding the edges of your vision making it almost look like the rays of sun that would stream through the canopy of the forest where you trained with your gear in your cadet days.

"armin.." you whispered, smiling when you realized that he was there, not minding the full-body ache that you felt when he pulled you into his arms, "are you okay? why.. why are you crying? we—you know we won..? we did it..."

you wanted to take his face in your hands like you had so many times, wipe away the tears dripping down his cheeks and hold him against you, but every limb felt like it was weighted to the floor, the thought of even lifting a finger feeling like a monumental effort. but he didn't speak like he usually did, didn't tell you what was troubling him so you could choose the right words to make him feel better, just stared down at you with wide, terrified eyes, obscured by his bangs.

"your hair.. getting too long.."

it was hard to breathe now, the blood pooling thick in the back of your mouth, eyes threatening to roll into the back of your head with every slow blink. you remember when his hair had gotten long enough to fall at his collarbones, how he'd come to you with scissors and a sheepish smile on one of your free days, asking if you'd help him cut his hair.

you'd always helped him cut his hair after that, even if he didn't ask, just sat him down whenever you saw that it'd grown long enough that you had to start brushing his bangs from his eyes or away from his forehead to press a soft kiss there. you wanted to be there—not here, staring up at him crying with nothing to do, but in the comfort of his tidy room, in his warm bed, talking back and forth into the early hours of the morning until you reluctantly left so you could get enough sleep in your own bed. why did you always leave? why didn't you ever allow yourself to stay?

you let your eyes fall shut, concentrating on that memory of home, the sound of his voice calling your name becoming more and more distant despite how his warmth felt so vivid, the fresh linen scent of his sheets and clothes, the sound of snipping scissors and the soft locks of his hair threading between your fingers, falling away from his shoulders and fluttering down at your feet.

when you crawled into his bed this time, you threw your arms around him, the covers settling around you, protecting you from the world just outside of his door. you were so tired tonight, but you didn't have to worry about keeping yourself awake to make it back to your room—you could just stay here, sleep peacefully and wake up with him to go to breakfast in the morning.

you really did love being close to him like this.

you really did love armin.

─── · 。ﾟ☆: *.☽ .* :☆ﾟ. ───

armin didn't go to your funeral—he couldn't.

he'd gotten dressed that morning, showered despite how he'd never felt entirely clean after having your blood soak into his uniform and stain his skin, put on his nicest clothes, and yet he couldn't bring himself to leave his room—not when he knew the service would be starting soon, not when someone came knocking at his door to let him know that everyone was leaving then, not even as he watched his friends begin the walk away from the scout dormitories from his window.

every time he closed his eyes he saw your face, low-lidded eyes, lips and teeth stained red, dying yet only concerned with asking about him. he couldn't sleep without reliving that night, or dreaming of all the moments you'd shared together. he was so angry, so upset that he hadn't been able to manage even a single word to you before you were gone forever, didn't beg for you to hold out until you got home and you could get proper care on a medical tent on the ground, couldn't have even told you he loved you one last time. it was unfair, that you had always been there to comfort him for years and yet he couldn't offer anything in return for all that time you'd wasted on him. he couldn't understand why he hadn't been able to speak, why he still hadn't let you go after you became limp and heavy in his arms and stopped wheezing in weak, strained breaths, why he couldn't even honor you by commemorating your memory at your funeral. he had never changed, he had always been a coward. maybe that was just who he was meant to be.

and despite such a deep, ceaseless shame that weighed like lead deep in the pit of his stomach, that murmuring voice in his head that told him over and over that it should've been him instead of all his fallen comrades, instead of erwin, instead of you, he still numbly trudged away from the window and out of his room. he didn't know where exactly his feet were taking him until he was turning open the knob on a door, taking in the sight of your quarters.

he felt his eyes sting, warm tears spilling down his face as he stepped out of his shoes, letting out a small sob as he crawled into your unmade bed, still waiting just as you left it for your return home. he buried his face into your pillows, wrapped himself in your blankets and shuddered despite the warmth enveloping him. he could still smell you on the fabric, forcing his eyes shut and trying to remember what it was like to feel your weight on the mattress beside him, hands reaching out even though he knew there was no one beside him to pull close.

he couldn't believe it had only been a few days without you, it had felt like almost like an eternity. he didn't realize just how much he looked forward to your presence during the day, waited for your soft knocks at his door to let him know that you were ready for breakfast, or how your laughter and words filled the air at mealtimes and kept him company in the night when you would whisper together in his bed. though the curtains had been drawn shut, there were still small gaps of sunlight streaming through the sliver between the drapes, illuminating your bedside table, letting him see the gift that he'd gotten you all those years ago, unaffected by time despite its fragility.

and he could only cry harder as he took the small thing into his hands, carefully clutching it to his chest, remembering how delighted you'd looked when he gave it to you, gazing at him with such gratitude and wonder. he would've given anything to go back to that time, where the most pertinent matter on his mind was whether they'd one day be able to make it across the sea and not mourning the deaths of two of the few friends he had left after all this senseless violence.

he wept until he had no more tears left to cry, shivering and pathetic as he laid there, whispering apologies that you'd never hear, trying to memorize the lingering scent that always comforted him when you held him close, letting himself fall asleep in your bed in the hopes that he could find a shred of deliverance in a dream where you were alive and smiling, even if only for that moment in his mind.

[shyneanon]

Aaaaand guess who’s been writing a lot this week? THE HAREM FIC, entitled The Skeleton Magnet, HAS NOW BEGUN! Hoo boy! I’m not sure how much I’ll be posting it on Tumblr, because like the MF one, the chapters are long. We’ll see. But IT IS ON AO3. The one-shot that started it ended up being the first half of chapter one, so I’ll post the second half of chapter 1 here on Tumblr this time. Enjoyyyy.

---

You were right about your boss’s response.

He was a good guy. He was… pretty horrified that you’d willingly gone up to that house despite the obvious signs that it was bad news. You’d gotten a good scolding, as if he were your dad or something, but you appreciated it. Even though he knew the customers who’d ordered the pizza would be pissed, he was just glad you were safe. He made a joke about how he’d be in trouble if you went missing on the job, but you knew that he actually cared.

Still, the image of that one red eye was burned into your mind.

At least you had a creepy story to post online?

Since you were still shaken up, the next day felt way better than usual, even though it was just as busy as most weekdays. Nobody had a giant hole in their head, which was nice. Even the meaner customers felt like nothing.

Eventually, there was a delivery to a nice suburban neighborhood nearby. You knew the way there without having to check your GPS, so that was nice. You were able to get there with the pizza box still warm. Nice.

You knocked on the door and heard some yelling on the other side, followed by the thumping of a pair of feet eagerly making their way towards the door. It was swung open— and for a split second you had a ‘Nam flashback to last night. This guy… had the same shape.

It only took you a millisecond to relax.

Not only was this guy shorter than the last guy— he looked to be a little shorter than you, even— but he looked significantly friendlier. No hole in his head. Good start. He also had a pair of eyes rather than one, and they were shaped like big stars. The grin on his face was more sincere and rounded, and his clothes were immaculately clean. He was dressed almost like… a funny soldier? But in white and blue, and with a big bandanna tied around his neck. He beamed, and you instantly felt a lot better than you had half a second ago.

“HELLO, PIZZA DELIVERY HUMAN!”

You started a bit. Oh geez, this guy was loud. Kind of like the tall guy from last night, actually. Still, you smiled. The big stars in his eyes were endearing. “Hi there.”

“WOWZERS! YOU MADE IT HERE EARLIER THAN EXPECTED! YOU ARE VERY GOOD AT YOUR JOB!”

… For some reason, that made your whole night seem so much better. “Thanks,” you said. “I’ve delivered to this neighborhood a lot of times.”

“YOU HAVE? AW. I’VE NEVER SEEN YOU!” His smile had disappeared for a moment, but it quickly returned in full force. “WHICH IS TOO BAD, BUT NOW I FINALLY HAVE THE CHANCE TO MAKE YOUR ACQUAINTANCE AND BECOME YOUR FRIEND!”

Wow, this little guy moved fast, huh?

A much quieter, more relaxed voice sounded from inside the house. “Already becoming friends, huh?”

“YES, OF COURSE! MAKING FRIENDS IS WHAT I DO BEST! AND I’M GREAT AT EVERYTHING!”

So he had a bit of an ego, but it seemed harmless enough.

“WHAT IS YOUR NAME, HUMAN?” The stars in his eyes somehow got bigger.

“I’m (y/n),” you told him, still smiling. Those big stars really were endearing.

“IT IS GREAT TO MEET YOU, (Y/N)!” He gestured to himself, and somehow the bandanna kind of looked like it was blowing in imaginary wind. “I AM THE MAGNIFICENT SSSSSSSBLUEBERRY.” As he said it he seemed to catch himself, the little lights in his eye sockets shrinking slowly the longer the S sound continued. But he perked up again right after he said it, raising an eyebrow. “I COULD SEE HOW YOU WERE STARING AT ME EARLIER!”

Uh oh. He’d noticed that? He didn’t look pissed about it, so why—

“I CAN TELL THAT YOU OBVIOUSLY FIND ME VERY HANDSOME! WHICH IS NO SURPRISE, SEEING AS I AM!”

Well, that… hadn’t been the assumption you’d been expecting. You felt your face get a little warm, but his confidence was so endearing that you couldn’t be too embarrassed. In fact, you decided to indulge him, tsking in disappointment. “Oh boy, I thought I was being subtle about it.”

“YOU WERE NOT, BUT IT IS UNDERSTANDABLE! IT MUST BE HARD NOT TO STARE AT SOMEONE AS DASHING AS MYSELF!”

His smile seemed to soften, and… was he blushing a blue color? Wait, did skeletons have blood? Blue blood? But they were made of magic, right?

“Y… YOU YOURSELF ARE QUITE BEAUTIFUL!”

… Oh my gosh help he’s so cute.

That same voice from earlier called out, but this time you saw someone approaching the door. “Man, you’re really putting the moves on her, huh? I gotta see this girl if the Magnificent Blueberry’s so interested.”

Blueberry’s blush only got darker, and you got a look at the new stranger. Again, you were hit with a pang of fear that dissipated quickly once you got a better look at him. He looked like the tall guy from last night! But not quite as tall, and cleaner. Not super clean, like Blueberry— the orange hoodie he was wearing had some stains on it. But it was nothing compared to last night. Still, these two looked uncannily similar to the former skeletons. Just if the creepiness was removed and “Sans” was actually super adorable.

“... You OK?”

You realized you’d been staring again. “Oh. Yeah. Sorry. It’s just… You two look… really similar to some guys I met yesterday.”

“OH!” said Blueberry. “DID YOU MEET VANILLA?”

Who? “Um,” you said, “no. These guys were creepy.” You winked. “Unlike you.”

Blueberry blushed again, which seemed to amuse his companion as much as it did you. Still, said companion looked further into the house.

“Was it Red and Edge?”

Blueberry frowned. “I’M SORRY YOU HAD TO DEAL WITH THEM. WE’LL TELL THEM TO LEAVE YOU ALONE.”

Nope, not them either. “Oh, uh, no. I’ve never delivered to this house before. These guys were living outside of the city. Even their house was creepy.”

They seemed surprised and even exchanged a glance, but they relaxed quickly and the taller one held his free hand out. You noticed the other one was holding a cigarette in between two fingers.

“Well, my name’s Stretch.”

You focused on shaking his free hand rather than wondering how a skeleton could smoke if they didn’t have lungs. “Nice to meet you.” You swore these were the friendliest customers you’d ever had.

“It’s berry nice to meet you too,” he replied with a silly, contagious grin.

Blueberry responded by making a loud, indescribable noise of indignation. “PAPY! REALLY?”

“Sorry, buddy. Couldn’t resist.” He looked at you for a second. “I see why you were flirting with her, bro. She’s definitely something.”

You could tell he was (mostly) kidding, but your face still heated up when he gave you a casual wink. Not sure how to respond (you weren’t fantastic at witty banter), you held their pizza out to them. “Hey, I bet this is getting cold.”

“Oh yeah,” said Stretch, and took the box of pizza. “Man, that smells good.”

Blueberry put his hands on his hips. “MY BROTHER EATS TOO MUCH GREASY FOOD! I USUALLY EAT MUCH BETTER! IT’S IMPORTANT TO KEEP YOUR BODY FIT!” He grinned. “BUT TODAY IS MY CHEAT DAY!”

He let out a funny laugh— “MWEH HEH HEH!”— and you were pretty sure your heart was going to explode.

On a more observant note… so they were brothers. It made you wonder if the guys from last night were also brothers, but it made no sense to make assumptions like that. Those guys were a separate set of people. It’s not like these two were actually the same guys.

Even if they really, really had a weird resemblance to each other…

“We’ll let you get back to work,” said Stretch. “I bet we’ve distracted you for long enough. We paid online, right, bro?”

“YES!” said Blueberry. The soft blue color returned to his cheeks. “BUT, UM… I— I WAS WONDERING IF PERHAPS I COULD ASK YOU SOMETHING.”

You? “Sure, Blueberry, anything.”

He beamed, no longer looking shy. “IT WOULD BE WONDERFUL IF YOU COULD GIVE THE MAGNIFICENT BLUEBERRY YOUR NUMBER! FRIENDS SHOULD KEEP IN TOUCH!”

You actually hesitated. He seemed like he had a crush on you— which was kind of flattering, in a way— but you didn’t want to lead him on. That said, he had called you his friend. But he had thought you were admiring him earlier…

To be safe, you decided to respond with, “Sure. Platonically.”

Thankfully, he didn’t seem disappointed at all. “OF COURSE! AS I SAID EARLIER, MAKING FRIENDS IS MY SPECIALTY!”

He pulled out his phone and held it out to you, and you put your number in before handing it back. He seemed thrilled.

“THANK YOU!”

You smiled. “No problem,” you told him.

Stretch spoke up: “Mind if I text you too? Any friend of my bro’s is a friend of mine.”

He shrugged casually, so he didn’t seem to mean anything by it either. “Sure.”

“Thanks.”

“OOH!” said Blueberry. “I ALMOST FORGOT THE TIP! I AM SO SORRY!”

He pulled out some money from his pocket and handed it to you. “Thanks,” you said, casually glancing at it— Wait, is that a twenty-dollar bill!?

“Um!” you said. “I think you gave me the wrong bill.” You showed it to him.

He cocked his head, seeming confused. “NO, IT’S THE RIGHT BILL!”

You looked back at it, then back at him.

This man is an angel.

“Thank you,” you told him. Seriously, you have no idea.

“IT IS NO PROBLEM FOR ALL OF YOUR TROUBLE!” He beamed. “HAVE A GOOD REST OF YOUR NIGHT! THANK YOU FOR THE PIZZA!”

Stretch casually saluted you with two fingers. “See ya.”

You waved, and once the door closed you realized just how wide your smile was. Man. This was so much better than last night.

Well, time to get back to work. But the rest of your night would feel brighter from here.

When you got home, you checked your phone to find several messages. You could see that both threads were from unknown numbers, and that one had way more messages than the other. The first one was also from way earlier in the night than the other.

Unknown number: HELLO, (Y/N)! IT’S ME, BLUEBERRY!

Unknown number: I HOPE YOU HAD A GOOD DAY! I FORGOT TO ASK HOW YOUR DAY WAS!

Unknown number: THE PIZZA WAS REALLY GOOD!

Unknown number: WOW, I JUST REALIZED HOW LATE YOU WORK! DO YOU WORK ALL NIGHT? THAT SOUNDS HARD!

Unknown number: MY BROTHER COULD NEVER WORK THAT MUCH! ALL HE DOES IS SLEEP ALL THE TIME!

Unknown number: BUT I LOVE HIM!

Unknown number: ANYWAY, I HOPE YOU’RE DOING ALRIGHT! AND THAT YOU’RE NOT READING THESE WHILE YOU’RE DRIVING! YOU SHOULD PAY ATTENTION TO THE ROAD! GOODNIGHT!

That was really sweet. He was obviously not asking you about how you were to be polite, he cared. It made you feel special. So you went ahead and added him to your contacts. You considered some type of pun, but seeing as Blue didn’t seem to like puns, you instead added him as “Mweh Heh Heh!” The laugh was just… too cute.

You responded by telling him your night was good, you hoped theirs was too, you were glad they liked the pizza, and that yes, your job could be rough.

You checked the other thread.

Unknown number: hey.

You snorted. There was no need to guess who that was. Well, you wanted to use a pun for him, but… Stretch….

You settled for “Orange You Stretch?” and did your best to give him a snarky reply.

You: You’re chatty, huh?

Alright. Now was the time to go to bed. At least you’d made some new friends.

You could never have too many of those.

[springsfordays]

Le Princess Isabella

Hello, Hello!! So I wrote an au fic and my very first one for Phineas and Ferb. I’ve had this idea for an au for a while so I finally wrote the first couple of chapters.

I’m posting the first chapter here and let me say it’s very boring dnndndjdkn. But I wanted to post it anyways. For future chapters I’ll probably just link it. Here’s the synopsis:

In a faraway place laid the noble land of the Tri-City State Empire where in the capitol of the nation, Danville, the castle of the royals resides. Among the rulers is the heir to the throne, Princess Isabella Garcia-Shapiro ward of King Monogram, wishes to escape her life of strict rules and the pressures of royalty for adventures beyond the horizon of her castle. What the princess does not know is that the journey she craves would come a lot sooner then she expects and in the worst way possible.

Read on AO3 if you want though! Hope you enjoy!!

_______________________________

In a distant land far away from the rest of the world in the oceans laid an Island called Danvillious. There the kingdom known as the Tri-City State Empire was thriving. The inhabitants lived a peaceful way of life with seemingly no worries of a threat to their daily lifestyles. Those who lived in land, or the low country, were farmers, weavers, town folk who took care of the vast rivers and waterfalls that flowed through valleys. The people who lived along the costs were fishermen, sailors who surfed the large waves that were as crystal clear as the sky was blue. Then there were those who lived in the cities. They were mechanics, inventors, scholars and..

"A bunch of snobs! Ptooe" a young boy spat onto the ground scowling at the passer bys that walked around him. He very much despised the city folk for their "high way of life" and despised them even more since the only way they get to have that high life is because he does all the dirty work for them.

"ugh, Buford just because you come from the low country doesn't mean everything said about city life is true." A younger boy walking beside Buford pushed up his glasses as his brows furrowed in annoyance. Buford grunted holding up a pointed finger at the other boy "I could'a told you that much 'Jeet. It's always said that the city is the prettiest place to be but all I've seen is grime, garbage, and a lot of fake perfume. Plus how would you know anything? Oh wait! Maybe you would seeing how you're some high and mighty academy student!" Baljeet rolled his eyes "I'm a professor's apprentice Buford but you're a cleaner. Garbage is your whole lively hood."

As the two boys walked they came upon a small brick building right between two large apartment complexes. A sign hung loosely from the top to above the door reading "Flynn-Fletcher Antiques and Mechanics". Buford spoke in a low voice as he opened the door for the both of them, "I didn't always have to rely on garbage y'know. I helped farm the ingredients used to make the food the people here throw away without finishing."

Baljeet turned to him "I get that you miss the country side but you are here now. Try to make the best of it. Like, I bet you weren't able to go flying in a custom plane made by the Flynn-Fletcher boys on your farm right?" He smiled pointing towards the back of the shop. Buford shrugged "Yeah I guess. You and the other two are alright I guess."

With that the two walked through the- in Buford's words- creepy shop full of knickknacks and old relics from over time on the Island. Srnnnnk. At the counter a teenage girl had her feet over the register and the newspaper over her face snoring deeply. The boys walked up and stared at her for a moment. Baljeet whispered in disgust after a particularly deep snore, "Eek she sounds like a broken radiator." Buford sighed a wistfully "Yeah.. A broken radiator with pretty ginger hair.."

"What?"

"Uhh I mean.. Uh"

Ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding.

Buford smashed the bell placed on the counter repeatedly startling awake the sleeping teenager sending her knocking back over. "Gah! What the hell??" She said moving her head back and forth. Baljeet cleared his throat getting her attention. "Oh it's you two. What do you want?" She said rubbing her eyes irritably. "Hello Candace we were looking for Phineas and Ferb, do you know where they are?"

BOOM!! PRSSH!! CRASH!!

Candace put her head in her hand, "UGH Where do you think they are? Being annoying as usual." Baljeet and Buford glanced at one another then back at Candace. "Aren't you going to try and 'bust' them for making so racket?" Baljeet asked in confusion. "Why bother? Mom and Dad are visiting the capital today on a 'special antique assignment'. No point" The boys shrugged and entered the back of the shop where the Flynn-Fletcher boys, Phineas and Ferb, worked welding a metal sheet onto whatever contraption they were working on now. The two covered in oil stains and dirt all over their blue overalls looked up from where they were working over to their two friends.

Phineas lifted his mask smiling widely, "Hey fellas! You're just on time! Come look what we've added to the wings." He walked towards the other side of the custom small plane to point out the paint job. On the wings the paint a fiery shape along the edges in bright red and orange colors. "Oooooo" the other two boys said seeing the paint. "Right? It was Ferb's idea he thought it needed a more badass look to it." Ferb walked over joining the huddle around the wings. "Well Ferb always has an eye for that sort of thing." Baljeet stated running a hand over the design. Ferb held up a pair of finger guns at him clicking his mouth.

"Yup. Now all we need is to finish the welding which should be done soon. Y'all could wait right over there so the sparks don't get you." Phineas said pulling his mask back over and beginning to weld again along with Ferb. Buford and Baljeet went to the corner of the room where a pile of old magazines, Newspapers and torn books were, Baljeet picked a book and began to read. Buford not one liking to read scrummaged through the papers. "I want to look at the funnies!" He continued shuffling until a single photo fell out gliding to the floor. Huh? Buford leaned over picking up and turning over the picture. On it he saw an adorably beautiful young girl no older than him staring somewhat thoughtfully back at him. The girl was dressed in all white, in huge contrast to her features, and sported gold and red medals and large white coat hung loosely on her shoulders.

"What the? Who is this?" Buford showed the picture to Baljeet. He corrected his glasses analyzing the picture. "Oh! That's Princess Isabella!" Buford's eyes went wide, "Wait! That's THE Princess Isabella?! Ward of the King?!" Baljeet nodded "Yup! That's her, I forget that not many pictures of her actually exist so most people don't even know what she looks like." Baljeet grabbed the photo scanning it some more with a curious look, "Which begs the question how a rarity such as this is in these newspaper clippings. Hey Phineas! Ferb! How'd you guys get this??" He shouted over the welding noises gaining their attention. "Huh? Oh! That picture! Be careful with it!" Phineas dashed over yanking the picture from Baljeet's hand. "Whoof! Possessive much?" Phineas blushed "Sorry It's just it’s the only picture we have of her." He said twiddling his fingers. Ferb walked over "Our folks got it from their last trip to the capital." Phineas continued for him "Yeah Mom and Dad sold the photographer a clock and when dad saw the pictures he knew he had to buy it. Y'know since she apparently isn't allowed outside the castle walls."

"Wow you're dad scored big time! I bet you could sell it for a ton of money!" Buford said excitedly. Phineas furrowed his eyebrows holding the picture away from everyone. "It's not for sale Buf!" Buford held his hands up "Damn okay! What's your attachment to this thing anyway?" Phineas face nearly went as red as his hair. "Well, I just like looking at it that's all. I don't want give it away." Baljeet giggled, "I don't blame you! She's very pretty."

Phineas sighed holding the picture up and staring longingly at the girl on it. "Yeah. What’s not pretty about her?" He moved around the room with the picture in hand, "That long luscious raven black hair. The olive toned skin. Those large deep brown eyes and that cute smile she has.. Besides the things I've invented she's the only girl I've ever loved." Phineas ran a hand over the photo. Buford groaned in disgust, "Oh my God, you're in love with a picture?? What is wrong with you man. I bet she ain't all hugs and kisses in real life. She's royalty, she's probably a brat!"

Phineas stared at Buford with narrowed eyes "Well you don't know that do you? Leave me to my crush on this photo alright?" Ferb and Baljeet looked at one another and covered their laughs. Buford rolled his eyes "Yeah, yeah. Whatever can we get this bad boy into the sky now and leave the princess talk here?" The other boys nodded in agreement and all went to start rolling the plane out to of the back of the shop. Phineas lingered behind staring at the picture once more. The girl's eyes somehow burned through the stilled image. He smiled Simply beautiful aren't you? He carefully folded the photo and stuffed it securely into his front overall pocket and ran up to join the others.

[surviiived]

Guidelines

If you don’t agree to these rules and don’t want to follow me back—and if I have already followed you—please just HARD block me. It’ll help keep my dash cleaner, as well as make sure in my forgetfulness I won’t follow you again. Don’t worry, I won’t be upset lol. Thank you so much for looking at my rules!! 🖤🖤

Basic Rules:

-SEMI SELECTIVE AND MUTUALS ONLY.  This is for my own safety and feeling of security. If you want to roleplay with me, follow me. I will do the same for you if I’m willing to interact.

-OCS, AUS, AND ALL OTHER CHARACTERS WELCOME. I don’t care who your muse is. I’m all for OCs, crossovers, AUs, anything!! Just know I’m a bit more selective towards fandoms I don’t know about lol

-NO ONE-LINERS. I need some more interest in our thread from your end so I don’t lose muse as well. One-liners are fine for crack threads, but nowhere else. I’m fine with single to multiparagraph, and that’s how I will be writing.

-NO GODMODDING. I cannot express this enough. It’s my biggest pet peeve. Just don’t, or I’ll end the rp immediately.

-PLEASE USE CORRECT GRAMMAR. I’m a bit of a grammar freak, so seriously. At least try. However, If English isn’t your first language, I COMPLETELY understand.

-MULTIVERSE, MULTISHIP. Every thread is a different verse, every ship a different verse. Simple.

-DONT REBLOG THINGS FROM ME. Honestly, guys this just gets on my nerves. It’s a bit irrational...but also irritating because when I check my phone and see a notification from a mutual, I get excited because I think it’s a reply! But then I realize you just reblogged that meme/musing/whatever. Please, only reblog threads from me and everything else from the source. This includes memes, musings, pictures, and promos. Also, pls don’t reblog my PSAs, if you agree with them let me know so I can post it to my rp memes blog, which I would LOVE for you to reblog it from!!

-REBLOGGING ASKS AND TRIMMING THREADS. I’m not as strict as a lot of people over this, but some mutuals of mine are so please trim your threads when you reply to me. If you are in a situation where you can’t, that’s perfectly fine. However, thanks to this new Tumblr update I cannot trim asks because I don’t have xKit. So I ask for you to trim them for me, and if you can’t either then I’ll figure something out. Also with asks, I’m fine with you reblogging an ask to continue it. I will turn it into a separate thread for my friends’ sake.

-UNFOLLOWS. There’s a low chance I will unfollow someone, and the only reasons I can think of are spreading drama, being inactive for over a month without a hiatus, something else that annoys me, or too many OOC posts. The latter is why I am hesitant to follow back personal blogs who roleplay on said blog, but it’s not impossible. I won’t follow personal blogs from side blogs, but if you let me know you are a side blog I will gladly follow where you roleplay.

-DONT INVOLVE ME IN DRAMA. I hate drama. I’m the type of person who wants absolutely nothing to do with it. If I ask about what’s going on, then you’re welcome to tell me, but other than that, don’t talk to me about it. I won’t take sides. I won’t tell other people what’s going on. I’ll only act like nothing’s happening.

-SPOILERS. This is kinda hard with an Identity V blog... I don’t really anticipate there being any spoilers on this blog?? But if a new diary entry comes out or a deduction for a new character, sure, I’ll tag it for a couple of weeks.

-REQUESTING MUSES. If you don’t request a specific character in an ask or a starter call, I won’t write it. I just don’t have the time to go to you and ask which character you want, nor try to guess what you were thinking when you sent something in or liked a starter call. So I just won’t respond to whatever it is. This is the case when requesting one of my muses or picking one of your muses, if you’re a multi like me. Sorry..!!

Romance Rules:

-NO SMUT. I can’t stress this enough. It’s not that I’m a minor (which I’m not), it’s that it makes me uncomfortable. You will never see smut on this blog. I’m fine with heavy make out scenes, but when the clothes start to come off is where I request a fade to black.

-I LOVE TO WRITE ROMANCE THREADS. I’m a pretty big hopeless romantic, as that’s where most of my muse is generated from. I may want to add a ship to our thread at some point, but will never force it.

-REFUSALS. NO pedofilia, NO incest, NO rape, or ANYTHING nasty like that. I understand that sometimes in writing dark situations occur, as some of these things are in my muses’ backstory. So, if you write any of those things, I’m not going to block you. However, if you request to do any of that stuff with me, I’ll say no. Press the issue, I’ll hard block you. I shouldn’t have to hear you request it the first time, as it’s right here in my rules and that means you didn’t read them. But I’ll go easy until you cross a line.

-THERE MUST BE CHEMISTRY. Don’t bother trying to make a ship work that just won’t click, it’s a waste of time. But I’m more than willing to try things and see how they work..!!

-PLEASE RESPECT MY MUSES’ SEXUALITIES. You can tell a muse’s sexuality by what it says on their about. Most are bi/pan, but a few may be different.

Rules and things about me:

-I HAVE LOTS OF WRITING EXPERIENCE. I’ve been writing since I was maybe even seven years old, played games where I pretended to be a character irl since I was five, and have been actually roleplaying for approximately 7 years now. I’ve been roleplaying on Tumblr for three years. I really love writing, you know?

-WARNING, I WRITE GORE. I tend to go into detail about pain, suffering, death, and just very demented topics. That’s just a warning. If you have a problem with that, you may not want to follow me…

-TAGGING. Gore, murder, suicide, and other dark and triggering things will be tagged, but swearing will not. I swear far too much for me to remember to tag it. Also, I don’t post NSFW images or threads on this blog, so don’t worry about that, but I will tag asks and memes that can be perceived as nsfw. I tag things like this (using death as an example): “tw: death”. If you have any triggers, PLEASE let me know so I can tag them. There’s always a chance I might forget about something, and if I do please tell me. I’ll make sure not to forget a second time. Also, I ask you all tag vomit mentions, even if it’s just written, and ESPECIALLY TAG VISUALS OF THROW UP!!!! That is my ONLY trigger. Thank you.

-RESPONDING TIME. I’m a college student, high school student, and I work, so my responding time isn’t what it used to be lol. Please don’t pressure me over that..!! I also post most threads via queue unless I just need to send it out ASAP. I won’t bother you if it takes a little while to reply. We all have lives outside of Tumblr!!

-I’M NOT GOING TO SEND IN PASSWORDS. It just adds to my anxiety, and I don’t like that. That’s why I don’t ever ask someone to send a password in and just ask that they like my rules post! Just know I will always read someone’s rules before interacting.

-I’M ALWAYS HERE IF YOU NEED SOMEONE TO TALK TO. Honestly, I want to help! If something’s wrong and you want to tell me about it, I’m all ears. I hate being upset or depressed myself, so I like to try to make others feel better. It helps with my own sadness.

That’s all for right now..! Happy roleplaying~!!

like this post if you have read it and agree to it, please.

Hello! My name’s Kiki. There isn’t really much to say about me, except that I love to roleplay!! That and write, of course. And draw. And sing. So I guess I love a lot of stuff lol. Also, I am diagnosed with ADD (attention-deficit disorder), so please bear with me..!! One last thing, I’m 18 as of November 2020. 

If you ever need someone to talk to, I’m right here and always accepting PMs!!

My main account is twx-sid3d, but I’m rarely ever on there so here is the best place to contact me. I also have a multiverse oc sideblog @hxlf-bred​ that’s connected to my multi, @nycttophilic.

Thanks for reading! Have a nice day~!

[loveaurapearl]

Steven’s Nightmare

(Yes, the title is unoriginal, but I couldn’t think of something better. One shot of Steven Universe Future, set after Prickly Pair. Also sorry for not adding this earlier: But trigger for Diamond Essances for a subsitute for drugs. If you don’t want to read something like that, read another fanfic.)

Steven growled as he stomped his way through the house. He was angry, he was upset, he could feel like he could explode. His mind thought back to cactus Steven to try and justify this rage, but he himself didn’t know exactly why he was angry. All he knew as this rage. The house was empty. ‘The gems are most likely off at Little Homeworld, fixing MY mistakes.’ His mind thought as he stepped on the teleporter. Light flashed around Steven as he floated away. The light dissipates as he finds himself in the Garden… Pink’s Garden. However, it wasn’t in ruins. The plants were still alive, the area was clean, and the structures were still in tack. With a swift movement, he began to walk away from the warp. He couldn’t care less why he was here or why the garden was in tack, he just needed someplace. Someplace where he could let out this ANGER! He soon felt a presence. He stopped and looked around, but nobody was there. He began to walk forward, when he suddenly noticed Spinel in front of him, surprising him. He should have been surprised that she was back looking like her rejuvenated form, but he was more annoyed at her than anything. “Hey, best buddy of mine! You look stressed, wanna play a good old round of juggling? OH! How about a game of Hide and Seek?” Spinel asked with a naïve innocence to her. Steven groaned in frustration and pinched the sides of his nose. “Spinel, I’m not in the mood to play a game. Just let me go to my special place and once I’m done, we can play,” He stated as if this was a normal occurrence. Spinel’s eyes sparkled. “Oh, can’t I at least go with you this time? I know you don’t want me to get hurt, but I promise not to stay too close. Besides, I’m your BEST FRIEND and yet I never get a chance to see what’s in your special place. I just want to see what you hide in there.” Spinel said in a kind of worried tone. Steven looked away then sighed. “Fine but promise me you won’t stand too close. I… I don’t want to hurt you.” Steven said as he looked at her. Spinel nodded and the two walked deeper into the garden. They twisted and turned on the path until they were a hand-shaped pedestal with the Diamond Insignia on it. The young Teen placed his hand on the machine and the area shocked. The land near them transformed and what’s looked to be an elevator appeared out the ground. The door opened and the two went inside.

“So… where is this thing taking us?” Spinel asked after a few seconds of waiting.

“Inside this asteroid, that way, I don’t hurt anyone. It was created by the Diamonds so I could… vent to myself without wrecking homeworld… (whispers to himself) again. (Louder voice.) Anyway, I’ve been using this area to invent things to make the Diamonds see what I’m capable of.” Steven said in a cold voice. Spinel ‘ooh’ed at this revelation. “Cool!” Spinel said. Suddenly the elevator stopped and the two exited. They had reached what looked to be a hallway with three fairly large-sized doors. There were three exactly, one on the left, one on the right, and one in the center. “It’s so big!” Spinel said in shock. Steven chuckled. “I’ll show you around once I get this rage out.” He said, heading towards the central door. Spinel quickly followed him. “Okoye Dokoye!” She agreed. They entered the room and it was large with another hand pedestal in the center. “Stay here. I’m about to do some damage.” Steven ordered her. Spinel nodded and stood perfectly still with a smile on her face as Steven walked towards the center. He placed his hand on the console. “Execute system routine, 9421, but this time, do not go towards the door nor the walls and only target me.” He ordered, then go of the console.

Suddenly four machines’ popped out of the ground that oddly looked like the same machine that attacked him and Connie way back when they first went to Rose’s secret armory. Spinel gasped in shock. The machines began firing volleys of electric balls towards Steven and he smirked. A dome of Diamonds appeared around him and bounced the projectiles back into the machines, causing them to explode. “WOOH! Go, Best Buddy!” Spinel yelled. Steven glared at her, and she zipped her lips. Then four ruby holograms appeared before Steven and then merged into one large ruby hologram. It roared and punched towards Steven. He laughed and put down the dome and formed punching bubbles on his hands. He dodged the punched and quickly used three strikes on the giant, the final one landing so hard, the holograms defuse. The ruby holograms get back up, roared, and rushed towards him. “Is that the best you got!” He yelled, then throws his shield at them. Two were sliced in half, causing the holograms to disappear. The other two still rush towards him, causing Steven to jump into the air and land behind them. “What the?” The holograms said in robotic confusion. Steven smirked and punched the two holograms with his boxing gloves again, causing them to poof into nothingness. Steven turned around and saw a large Jasper with the same gem style and placement as the one he knew. He growled as his anger began to boil, his body becomes engulfed in pink light. “Go get her!” Spinel yelled, hoping now was an appropriate time to cheer. Steven rushed towards her, but she dodges. She then jumps back and spins dashes towards him. Steven catches her punch. “Nice catch,” The hologram said, but it was Jasper’s voice, not a hologram’s.

“You should see me through!” He quipped back then threw her into the air. He punches her in the face, but she begins to laugh. Steven uses his shield to bounce his momentum and to keep hitting her. He does it repeatedly until he was above and yells. “STOP LAUGHING!” He yelled in anger and slammed his fists into her back. She crashes into the ground and gets back up. “Is that the best you got!” Jasper yelled. Steven growled and lands next to her. “UGH!” He held his head as his head began to buzz. “You can never beat me, weakling! You’re not a Diamond! You are not worthy to hold that gem! You’re not worthy of a colony!” Jasper mocked him. Suddenly he felt something snap inside of him and he let out a horrible, blood-curdling scream. The floor crakes underneath him, the room shakes horribly, a shock wave knocks the hologram over and winds to blow harshly on Spinel. Steven pants as he falls to his knees. He looks up and the hologram staggers up, and then falls over and disappears. Steven lets out a sigh of relief. ‘It’s…It’s over.’ He thought to himself as he returns to his natural color. He then looked at Spinel, who looked shocked, but the look quickly changed to one of happiness and excitement. “WOW! That. Was. AMAZING!” She yelled then rushed over to her friend and hugged him. He chuckled. “R-really? Y-you’re not scared of me doing all of… this?” He asked in utter bafflement as he looked at her. Spinel shocked her head. “Nope, although I do see why you wanted me to stay back. I could have gotten really hurt, especially with that weird shock wave thing. But seeing you attack those holograms, it was like I was watching something really, really cool!” Spinel said with enthusiasm. Steven chuckled. “You… you really think that?” He blushed from her complement. Spinel nodded.

“Yep ser dee. But I’ve never seen you do this before, is it a normal diamond thing? Do you go out on missions, using your super special powers to attack enemy bad guys? If so, why not use them as the holograms instead of images of our own kind?” Spinel questioned. Steven looked down in shame. “No Spinel, it’s not normal… At least, that’s what the other Diamonds tell me. They say that I should stay calm and collective… that I should only use my powers when necessary. Besides, I… I don’t go on missions. Diamonds don’t go out into battle, that’s… that’s not what we were made for.” Steven said.

“Then how come you have these powers if a Diamond isn’t meant for battle?” Spinel wondered, twisted her arm around in loops, twisting it to loop and scratch the top of her head. Steven sighed and held himself. “I… don’t know. The diamonds never tell me anything. They don’t trust me. They NEVER trust me with IMPORTANT STUFF!” Steven sneered, rage pouring out of his mouth. Spinel soon boops his nose. “Don’t worry, a dear old buddy of mine. Spinel is here to cheer you up! Why don’t we explore the other rooms? I don’t think there’s anything else here.” Spinel said as cleaner robots appear out of the walls and began to use green goo on the walls and floors to repair the cracks. Steven nodded and got up.

They exited out of the room and head to the right room, which would be the one on the left from the direction they had come from the elevator, and inside was an armory full of pink destabilizers, axes, scythes, swords, helmets, armor, and at the end, a work desk with drawers and a pink box. “Wow. What’s this place?” Spinel asked as she looked around. “An armory. Homeworld has a slew of their own for the quartz soldiers, but… well, eventually I will have my own army, so I decided to make my own armory here. I don’t want to rely on Blue, Yellow, and White for these items. Besides, just look at it. Isn’t it neat?” Steven said with glee. Spinel poked one of the scythe’s softer ends. “Isn’t this a little, much? I mean, you haven’t gotten your own army yet.” Spinel said. Steven clutched his fists. “I know, Spinel. Don’t remind me.” Steven said, anger in his tone. Spinel froze and whistled to try and ease the mood. Steven shocked his head and headed to the table. “Anyway, I want to show you something special. A device that I created! Kind of like how Yellow created the destabilizers.” Steven said as he grabbed the box.

“Yeah knows, it’s weird that White and Blue haven’t created stuff based on their powers yet.” Spinel wondered. Steven laughed. “That’s because they’re not as smart as Yellow and I.” Steven boasts, as he opened the box and grab a rod. He put the lid back on and turned towards Spinel. “Spinel make sure you stay back. Cause, this will blow your socks off.” Steven said with excitement. Spinel smiled and stepped a few feet back. “Okay, ready when you are!” She yelled. Steven smiled, but he looked demented as he pushed the button. Suddenly it transforms into a long scythe with pink energy bursting out. A familiar sight for both. “Oooooh! …What is it?” Spinel asked, not knowing or recognizing the weapon. Steven stared at it intensely. “I call it a rejuvenator. One swipe from this bad boy and any disobedient gem is reset to their original purpose. All their pesky memories are whipped clean. They… they’ll be back to normal. No messed-up minds… no… no more rebellions. They’ll be just how they used to be.” Steven said with a smile. He laughed, but it didn’t sound right. Spinel looked down. “No more happy memories.” Spinel said with worry. Steven blinked and looked at the weapon. Guilt filled his stomach as he turned off the device. “You right, Spinel. All their memories will be whipped, so that means all their good memories will be gone too.” Steven said, then an image of Volleyball entered his mind. He shocked the image away. “I didn’t realize that while I was creating this thing. I… I just wanted to get rid of the bad memories so badly, that I didn’t think about it. Unfortunately, I don’t know how to make this thing not remove the good memories. I’ll only use it as a last resort then. Besides, I won’t use this on you, Spiny. Only on the gems who try and hurt us.” Steven said with a warm smile. Spinel looked at Steven and smiled back. Steven put the rejuvenator back in the box, and they went to the final room.

They see a giant Pink injector with a clear solid pink gemstone top connected to tons of tubes, electronics, and a console. Below them was a hatchet so the injector could exit the room without needing to use the door. Inside the injector was a familiar glowing pink liquid, however, it was only half-way filled. “Wow! An injector! But… it doesn’t look like any of the ones you’ve shown me before.” Spinel said in confusion. Steven chuckled. “That’s because of this… This is my masterpiece. The thing that will make the Diamonds RESPECT me! The thing that will make EVERYONE respect me!” Steven said with a wicked smile. Spinel looked at him with wonder in her eyes. “SOOO… what’s different about this one? Also, it looks like there’s something inside, what is it?” Spinel asked as she twisted her fingers on her cheeks. Steven chuckled and walked up to the injector. “That pink stuff is a… special poison… It’s very toxic to organic life so I can’t have this thing near the garden, but once I find a good enough place to dump all this waste, I’ll put my oils into it to make gems! It’s controlled through a special voice command that I’ll tell once we are done and will be twice as fast as the ones at home. If I can perfect the device, we can improve the production of gem kind. More soldiers, more special gems like Sapphires, more gems for you and me to play with! We won’t be lonely anymore!” Steven said, then hugged Spinel, tears flowing down his eyes.  Spinel's smile grew wide and wrapped her arms around Steven. “Yes! Yes! YES! Oh! I’m so glad you brought me here, Pink! Blue, Yellow, and White are going to be so proud! They’ll give you your own colony in no time!” Spinel yelled out loud. Steven laughed. “Yeah, my own… my own…” Steven began to say before her words dug into his head. “Colony?” He looked at her and then rubbed his eyes. “Yeah! You’ve been begging the Diamonds for so long. Is something wrong, Pink?” Spinel asked. 

Steven stepped back in fear. “No… no. NO! I’m… I’m not her! I’m Steven! I’m Steven! I… I’m…” Steven looked at his hands, but they were covered in gloves. Soon realized that he WAS Pink Diamond. He… She clutched their head. “No. NO! I’m her! I’m not her! Stop making me see these memories!” Steven yelled, his voice coming out of this female form. Spinel was very scared. “Pink...” Spinel began to say. Steven glares at her. “DON’T CALL ME THAT! I’M NOT HER! I’M NOT MY MOM!” ‘He’ yelled, then holds ‘his’ head. Pain, anger, hatred, it was all building up again. It was getting harder and harder for ‘him’ to breathe. His body then flashed into Rose Quartz. “Pink, is something wrong? You can tell me.” Spinel said as she reached out to touch the ‘boy’. ‘He’ growled and slapped her hand away. “Don’t touch me!” ‘He’ yelled. Spinel stepped back as tears formed in her eyes, causing Steven flashback into reality as his body becomes his own again. “Spinel, I’m…” He began to say in guilt, reaching out for her, but she soon turned away and ran. “Spinel!” He called out but she already left the room. Steven held his head. “UGH! What’s wrong with me!?” He asked himself, however, there was no reply. 

The boy opened his eyes. Maybe he could catch up with her and apologize. But he soon realized that the whole area had gone way, the injector was gone, and all he could see was an endless landscape with black skies. Suddenly he heard a piano song playing in the background, it was complex and full of hard cords. “Huh?” He let out as he looked around. He soon saw Bluebird, Mean Lapis, Jasper, and… Nice Lapis in a group? They were looking away from him. Steven was very confused. Why was ‘Nice’ Lapis here? Did Lapis’ threat not get to her? Were their attempts to reach her failed and she’s back with Mean Lapis? Why were those two with Bluebird Azurite and Jasper? Why were Jasper and Bluebird together? His head was now pounding. “Hahahaha!” They laughed as if they were mocking his pain. “Oh, my Stars. You are not going to believe what I heard about Pink Diamond’s son.” Jasper said to the others. He rushed towards them and got ahead of them. He was about question them when he saw their faces. The group had glowing moths, gems, and eyes. Steven froze up. “Pink Diamond’s Son? Are you kidding me?” Bluebird questioned the others. The twin Lapis laughed. “I know. It’s like he thinks he’s the savior of gem kind.” ‘Nice’ Lapis said in a mocking tone. Bluebird laughed alongside them. It was like they didn’t even notice he was standing right in front of them. The young boy gritted his teeth and covered his ears. “He is SUCH a jerk!” Mean Lapis said. Bluebird nodded. “Yeah! He is SO annoying! I don’t see how ANYONE could follow him!” Bluebird questioned.

“From his hair to his sandals, that brat thinks he can boss us around!” Mean Lapis said in a condescending attitude. A pink bubble formed around Steven to try and block off the noise, but it did nothing. “Pink Diamond deserves SO much better than some weak, pathetic kid who needs FUSION to stand against us!” Jasper stated, the words digging into Steven’s head. He could feel his body was on fire and the pain was excruciating. “I heard he needs to control humans and gems in order to feel anything. He doesn’t even know what a gem likes.” ‘Nice’ Lapis said. Jasper stood in front of them. “Wait, wait, wait. I heard he got fired from that School he was running.” Jasper said with confidence. The Lapis twins and Bluebird gasped in shock. “No way!” Bluebird gasped. Mean Lapis laughed. “Yeah! And I heard he broke his mom’s Pearl! What kind of lunatic is this kid?” Mean Lapis asked. Steven's body was soon engulfed in pink light. He knew these were lies, but each one dug into him like a dagger. “I heard he’s no longer a couple with his girlfriend, AGAIN! That boy can’t connect to anyone, let alone his ‘best friend’.” Bluebird said. Those words shattered Steven’s heart. ‘No…NO! Connie… Connie loves me. I…I didn’t… I’m not…’ His head tried to process what was going on.

“I heard he turns Pink now and he screams a LOT!” Jasper said. Then the group laughed. Steven couldn’t hold it in anymore. “AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHH!” He screamed, the floor under him becoming one giant crater as pink shock ways dispel the images of those gems and his body becomes engulfed in rage. The boy wakes up in his bed; however, their laughter still filled the room. The pain, the rage, it had not left him. All he could think of was ‘I need to find something to soothe this pain’. “Over and over and over and over and over and over. OVER and OVER and OVER and Over and OVER and OVER. Over and Over and OVER AND OVER and over and over and over and over AND OVER AND OVER AND OVER AND OVER. ANDOVERANDOVER! YEHAHAHA!” Steven sang/screamed as he got out of his room. He wasn’t exactly sure where he was going, but he had to get to that place. His voice became softer as he walked through the main area of the house. The gems weren’t there, and he was glad for that. He goes into the kitchen and grabs a straw, stuffing it into his coat pocket. He enters the bathroom and walked over to the sink. He looked at his reflection as the last part of his ‘song’ was playing. He opened the cabinets and saw the three bottles of Diamond essences and an empty cup for brushing his teeth. His mind went blank as he grabbed and opened the bottles. He poured some of each bottle into the container and for the final touch, put his finger into his mouth and then his spit into the ‘drink’. The four liquids let out a soft, soothing sound as they mixed. He picked up the cup and pulled out a straw out of his jacket. He then placed the straw into the container, but instead of his mouth to ingest the strange concoction, he stuck the straw into his nose and snorted the liquid inside. He let out a sigh of relief as all his pain disappeared. 

The young boy put the cup down and then realized what he had done. “Wh-what was that? Why? Why did I do that?” He questioned himself. A part of him was wondering why he had to use his nose in order to ingest the liquid, meanwhile, another part of himself was just questioning why he did this to begin with. But then, he noticed something. The pain, the laughing, the fire… it was gone. His mind… was at peace again. He pinched himself to make sure he was awake, and… he was. He put the caps back on the bottles, cleaned out the cup, and placed the items back into the mirror. He looked at himself then held his head in shame.

“Is this what my life has become? Am I… like those corrupted gems? I’m not broken. I… I just needed something to soothe me.” He asked himself before shutting that thought down. He thought back to his childhood. He thought back to having fun with Lars, Sadie, Onion, the Cool kids, Connie… His mind flashed in fear as he remembered what one of the gems said. He shocked his head. “No. Connie and I are still close. We’re still friends! They were just LYING!” Steven told himself. He breathed in and then out. “Everything’s going to be fine. I’m fine. I’ll figure myself soon enough. I… I know I will.” He looked at the mirror, whipped his nose just in case some of the liquid was coming out, then said. “Because I’m Steven Quartz Universe.”

(For those who were wondering, the part with Jasper, Bluebird, the Lapis twins, Steven’s meltdown/consumption of the diamond oils is based on Zach Callison’s “Franticity (interlude i)”. The part about Spinel’s injector and the hidden base in the asteroid is base off of AJ Universe’s Theory. Link to Theory: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zURqk_WYO1w. I hope you liked the fic.)

[nycttophilic]

Guidelines

If you don’t agree to these rules and don’t want to follow me back—and if I have already followed you—please just HARD block me. It’ll help keep my dash cleaner, as well as make sure in my forgetfulness I won’t follow you again. Don’t worry, I won’t be upset lol. Thank you so much for looking at my rules!! 🖤🖤

Basic Rules:

-SEMI SELECTIVE AND MUTUALS ONLY.  This is for my own safety and feeling of security. If you want to roleplay with me, follow me. I will do the same for you if I’m willing to interact.

-OCS, AUS, AND ALL OTHER CHARACTERS WELCOME. I don’t care who your muse is. I’m all for OCs, crossovers, AUs, anything!! Just know I’m a bit more selective towards fandoms I don’t know about lol

-NO ONE-LINERS. I need some more interest in our thread from your end so I don’t lose muse as well. One-liners are fine for crack threads, but nowhere else. I’m fine with single to multiparagraph, and that’s how I will be writing.

-NO GODMODDING. I cannot express this enough. It’s my biggest pet peeve. Just don’t, or I’ll end the Rp immediately.

-PLEASE USE CORRECT GRAMMAR. I’m a bit of a grammar freak, so seriously. At least try. However, If English isn’t your first language, I COMPLETELY understand.

-MULTIVERSE, MULTISHIP. Every thread is a different verse, every ship a different verse. Simple.

-DONT REBLOG THINGS FROM ME. Honestly, guys this just gets on my nerves. It’s a bit irrational...but also irritating because when I check my phone and see a notification from a mutual, I get excited because I think it’s a reply! But then I realize you just reblogged that meme/musing/whatever. Please, only reblog threads from me and everything else from the source. This includes memes, musings, pictures, and promos. Also, pls don’t reblog my PSAs, if you agree with them let me know so I can post it to my rp memes blog, which I would LOVE for you to reblog it from!!

-REBLOGGING ASKS AND TRIMMING THREADS. I’m not as strict as a lot of people over this, but some mutuals of mine are so please trim your threads when you reply to me. If you are in a situation where you can’t, that’s perfectly fine. However, thanks to this new Tumblr update I cannot trim asks because I don’t have xKit. So I ask for you to trim them for me, and if you can’t either then I’ll figure something out. Also with asks, I’m fine with you reblogging an ask to continue it. I will turn it into a separate thread for my friends’ sake.

-UNFOLLOWS. There’s a low chance I will unfollow someone, and the only reasons I can think of are spreading drama, being inactive for over a month without a hiatus, something else that annoys me, or too many OOC posts. The latter is why I am hesitant to follow back personal blogs who roleplay on said blog, but it’s not impossible. I won’t follow personal blogs from side blogs, but if you let me know you are a side blog I will gladly follow where you roleplay.

-DONT INVOLVE ME IN DRAMA. I hate drama. I’m the type of person who wants absolutely nothing to do with it. If I ask about what’s going on, then you’re welcome to tell me, but other than that, don’t talk to me about it. I won’t take sides. I won’t tell other people what’s going on. I’ll only act like nothing’s happening. 

-SPOILERS. I will tag spoilers for everything that’s not in the anime. For example, if a post contains something in the BSD fandom that’s not in the anime, I will tag it. I doubt I will tag threads for spoilers, and if there’s a character that’s manga only I won’t tag it (ESPECIALLY if I write that character, like Daki.)

-REQUESTING MUSES. If you don’t request a specific character in an ask or a starter call, I won’t write it. I just don’t have the time to go to you and ask which character you want, nor try to guess what you were thinking when you sent something in or liked a starter call. So I just won’t respond to whatever it is. This is the case when requesting one of my muses or picking one of your muses, if you’re a multi like me. Sorry..!!

Romance Rules:

-NO SMUT. I can’t stress this enough. It’s not that I’m a minor (which I’m not), it’s that it makes me uncomfortable. You will never see smut on this blog. I’m fine with heavy make out scenes, but when the clothes start to come off is where I request a fade to black.

-I LOVE TO WRITE ROMANCE THREADS. I’m a pretty big hopeless romantic, as that’s where most of my muse is generated from. I may want to add a ship to our thread at some point, but will never force it.

-REFUSALS. NO pedofilia, NO incest, NO rape, or ANYTHING nasty like that. I understand that sometimes in writing dark situations occur, as some of these things are in my muses’ backstory. So, if you write any of those things, I’m not going to block you. However, if you request to do any of that stuff with me, I’ll say no. Press the issue, I’ll hard block you. I shouldn’t have to hear you request it the first time, as it’s right here in my rules and that means you didn’t read them. But I’ll go easy until you cross a line. 

-THERE MUST BE CHEMISTRY. Don’t bother trying to make a ship work that just won’t click, it’s a waste of time. But I’m more than willing to try things and see how they work..!!

-PLEASE RESPECT MY MUSES’ SEXUALITIES. You can tell a muse’s sexuality by what it says on their about. Most are bi/pan, but a few may be different.

Rules and things about me:

-I HAVE LOTS OF WRITING EXPERIENCE. I’ve been writing since I was maybe even seven years old, played games where I pretended to be a character irl since I was five, and have been actually roleplaying for approximately 7 years now. I’ve been roleplaying on Tumblr for three years. I really love writing, you know?

-WARNING, I WRITE GORE. I tend to go into detail about pain, suffering, death, and just very demented topics. That’s just a warning. If you have a problem with that, you may not want to follow me…

-TAGGING. Gore, murder, suicide, and other dark and triggering things will be tagged, but swearing will not. I swear far too much for me to remember to tag it. Also, I don’t post NSFW images or threads on this blog, so don’t worry about that, but I will tag asks and memes that can be perceived as nsfw. I tag things like this (using death as an example): “tw: death”. If you have any triggers, PLEASE let me know so I can tag them. There’s always a chance I might forget about something, and if I do please tell me. I’ll make sure not to forget a second time. Also, I ask you all tag vomit mentions, even if it’s just written, and ESPECIALLY TAG VISUALS OF THROW UP!!!! That is my ONLY trigger. Thank you.

-RESPONDING TIME. I’m a college student, high school student, and I work, so my responding time isn’t what it used to be lol. Please don’t pressure me over that..!! I also post most threads via queue unless I just need to send it out ASAP. I won’t bother you if it takes a little while to reply. We all have lives outside of Tumblr!!

-I’M NOT GOING TO SEND IN PASSWORDS. It just adds to my anxiety, and I don’t like that. That’s why I don’t ever ask someone to send a password in and just ask that they like my rules post! Just know I will always read someone’s rules before interacting.

-I’M ALWAYS HERE IF YOU NEED SOMEONE TO TALK TO. Honestly, I want to help! If something’s wrong and you want to tell me about it, I’m all ears. I hate being upset or depressed myself, so I like to try to make others feel better. It helps with my own sadness.

That’s all for right now..! Happy roleplaying~!!

like this post if you have read it and agree to it, please.

Hello! My name’s Kiki. There isn’t really much to say about me, except that I love to Roleplay!! That and write, of course. And draw. And sing. So I guess I love a lot of stuff lol. Also, I am diagnosed with ADD (attention-deficit disorder), so please bear with me..!! One last thing, I’m 18 as of November 2020.

If you ever need someone to talk to, I’m right here and always accepting PMs!!

My main account is twx-sid3d, but I’m rarely ever on there so here is the best place to contact me. I also have a multiverse oc sideblog @hxlf-bred and an Identity V multimuse at @surviiived.

Thanks for reading! Have a nice day~!

[bangtansdoc]

Into the light

Part 2.

Pairings:Park Jimin (BTS) x reader.

Genre: Fluff, horror, very confused Y/N, vampire!Au, CEO!Au

Warnings:Uh a really creepy scene with some disgusting stuff if you're easily triggered and easily scared, blood.

OST:Joy(red velvet)- OMG!(Ost of the Great seducer)

Synopsis:You need money. Park Jimin has money. You end up getting a job as a housekeeper in his gargantuan mansion. But what secrets might the handsome CEO be hiding under his flashy image?

A/N:Well, it's finally out. This update took a lot of prayer, meditation and formatting to get out. Like this is the third time I'm typing it to post. The forces of evil will not prevail. Anyway like I said this is going to be a long fic and I hope you all can follow through to the end. Enjoy!

❇️❇️❇️

Park Jimin.

He looked nothing like what you had seen of him. The pictures did him no justice at all. He was a hundred times more gorgeous in person.

You sat in your room after Park Jimin had told you to treat yourself to something warm and change your clothes.

You sat biting your fingernails and your thoughts wandered. You remembered his intense gaze on you while he wrapped his strong arms around you.

You remembered his soft eyes burning with curiosity as he had led you out of the pool.

You screamed in frustration.

How the hell were you supposed to focus on anything now?!

God.

You needed air.

You stood up and made your way to the window, before opening it wide. You breathed in the clean air and tried to clear your head. You glanced downstairs and your eyes caught the CEO moving quickly into one of the cars in his driveway and zooming out of the estate. He was leaving already? But he just got here. You took a deep breath and ran out of your room, bumping into Taehyung. "Y/N! What's the rush?" He asked, puzzled. "Uh the CEO, he's leaving already?" Taehyung looked understandably confused.

"I see you've met him."

He studied you, a suspicious look on his face. "He had an emergency."

You blinked, embarrassed.

"Oh."

God you felt stupid. What exactly were you rushing out to do? Kiss him goodbye? 'Pull yourself together Y/N.' You whispered to yourself.

"Are you okay?"

You looked up and met Taehyung's eyes. He had this look in them. A look you didn't understand. "Did something happen?" He asked again slowly, carefully choosing his words. You thought of telling him about the Incident in the pool and bit your lip. "I,uh,fell in the pool. And he rescued me." Taehyung's brows creased in worry. "It's a shallow pool." "I know, I just... panicked." There was an uncomfortable silence. "Is that all?" You met his eyes again. "Yeah." He smiled. "Okay." You turned to go but stopped, curiosity getting the better of you.

"CEO Park..." You began and Taehyung turned to you.

"Are you close to him?"

There was no expression on his face.

"I'm his PA."

"Does he come home often?" You continued without thinking. "It depends."

Shut up Y/N.

"Why does he live alone? Where is his family? I mean the rumors are that he has no family but this house is big enough for ten families so there must be some kind of explanation right?" Your brain screamed at you to shut the hell up but your mouth kept moving. Taehyung's face hardened, then he broke into a disturbing smile.

"You ask too many questions Y/N."

Your breath caught in your throat and you suddenly felt uncomfortable, and very, very afraid. You scampered back to the pool. Maybe Joon was right. Maybe the CEO was hiding something dangerous. You drained the water quietly, feeling as though someone was watching you. But each time you turned around, no one was there. You became sure that you wouldn't stay long in this house.

❇️❇️❇️

He watched her from the trees. She was dressed in black, but she shone brighter than the sun. Her eyes were as fierce as the blade on her dagger. It wasn't the first time he had watched her and it wouldn't be the last. She smiled triumphantly as she pounced on her kill and his heart lurched. He wasn't allowed to love her, but he already did. All he ever did was watch, too afraid to approach, too entranced to stay away. He was torn, so all he could do was watch.

❇️❇️❇️

The days passed by uneventfully, you hardly saw the CEO again, as he was barely ever around, and on the days you noticed his shoes at the doorway, you steered clear of him. Taehyung you saw everyday now, as he had made an annoying habit of getting in your way anytime you were working and watching you when he thought you weren't looking.

For Christ's sake.

You must have been really out of line that day to warrant this. Taehyung seemed kind enough, but then you didn't really know him. You were barely a month in an already fed up. School resumed(thankfully), a respite from your monotonous way of life. Namjoon brought life and light to your days but you always found yourself back in that mansion, bored and alone, with no one to relate to but Taehyung, who wasn't much company.

You sighed.

You would soon start naming your cleaning equipment.

You quickly finished your bagel and dusted your hands on your skirt. You stood up from the patio and walked into the living room. You plugged your iPod in , and put your earphones in your ears. You scrolled through your playlist and tapped on Somi's 'Birthday'. You fired up the vacuum cleaner and soon became lost in your own world.

"Oops, you're not invited!, yeah you're not invited!."

You sang along terribly, shaking your body to the tune and catchy beats. You turned the vacuum into your dance partner and imagined yourself on 'Dancing with the stars.' You breathed heavily, turned around and your soul almost left your body.

"Oh my God!!!" You yelled as you stumbled and fell backwards. You stared in shock at CEO Park, standing a few steps in front of you, who was also staring back.

What the hell?

How long had he been standing there?

He continued staring at you, this time however amusement mixed with the same curiosity that filled his eyes from your incident at the pool.

"Pre- president Park?" You stuttered, thoroughly confused as you stuggled to get back on your feet. He just stared at you silently, doing this for so long that you began to feel uncomfortable. Where was Taehyung when you needed him?

"Uh, I'm sor- sorry." You choked out again, unsure of what to say to the handsome man standing in front of you, who still hadn't said a word. He closed the gap between both of you, until his face was inches a way from your yours.

"Let me make something very clear miss Y/N." He said, his voice heavy in dialect. "This is not your house. It is a place of work. The next time you want to fool around, I suggest you take it outside." He said firmly and you gulped, unable to speak.

Where was the person that had rescued you in the pool? Surely it couldn't be the man standing in front of you.

"Do you understand?" He asked again.

"Y- yes sir."

He gave you one last stare, and you tried to read his expression. He didn't seem angry, just a little bit uncomfortable? He finally turned around and walked away. You let out a sigh you didn't know you had been holding. It felt as if someone had punched you in the gut. You didn't know what you had been expecting. A warm reception?

He was still the CEO after all, and you were his employee. Just because he had rescued you didn't mean that you two were close.

Then why were you feeling so disappointed?

You slowly tucked your earphones and iPod into your pocket, the air in the room feeling colder than the air outside.

****

"Hey there dork."

Joon smiled at your sleepy face from the phone screen, and you smiled back.

"Hi." You muttered drowsily. Namjoon's face twisted with worry. "Oh geez babe. You look awful."

"Thanks. I know."

You pulled your face with your palms.

"I'm exhausted."

Namjoon looked at you with pity. "You need to get out of that house." You laughed bitterly. "I don't really have a choice do I? I signed a contract." "Well they definitely knew what they were putting you up to." You scoffed and rubbed your left foot. "You know, living here would even be bearable if the CEO was.....I don't know....human? I mean he saved me alright, and.....I don't know. I wish he would give me something more,he's so stoic all the time,it's driving me crazy."

You sighed.

"I probably sound stupid don't I? Like I have no idea what I'm talking about." Namjoon raised an eyebrow in a smirk. "What? You can't expect me to flatter you right? You sound stupid all the time." You laughed. "God I love you so much, you idiot." "I love you too babe."

A sudden cry of anguish pierced through the air, forcing it's way into your room and into your ears. You dropped your phone in shock.

"Y/N? Y/N! What the hell was that?! Y/N!"

You picked up your phone shakily. "I -I-don't know."

The scream came again, a horrible shriek of agony similar to that of someone in unimaginable pain and torment.

"Oh my God! Namjoon what is happening?!" "Get up. Lock the doors! Whatever you do don't leave your room!" Your already panicked thoughts somehow drifted to the CEO. "But what about the CEO? He could be in danger! I have to go make sure he's okay!" "1st rule of horror movies Y/N! Don't leave your room when you hear a suspicious noise! Please just stay where you are! Forget about the CEO! You could get hurt!" "But I can't just stay here! I...." Your battery suddenly died.

"Joon? Namjoon? Namjoon!"

You gulped, forcing back tears as the horrible scream rang through the air again.

"Okay Y/N. Calm down. I- I have to get help first, have to call the police. CEO Park. I - I have to check if he's okay."

Whatever you do don't leave your room.

Namjoon's warning rang through your head as you pulled open your bedroom door and dashed out in a mad frenzy, running blindly up the stairs until you got to the CEO's bedroom. You ran towards it in Joy but stopped short as the scream rippled through the air again. Your heart stopped in your ribcage as you traced the sound in dread.....it was coming from the room. His room. You stepped forward numbly, blood pounding your head so loudly you almost couldn't hear your brain screaming at you to run and not look back.

The door was slightly ajar. You peered in and saw him, crouched on his bed,his hands matted wildly in his hair.

He was shirtless and you could see veins criss crossed on his back, with several wounds that were opening up again, and you grimaced in disgust.

He was rocking back and forth, groaning in pain and you gasped, making him stop.

His head turned to you slowly and his eyes met yours.

That person didn't look like park Jimin. That person didn't look like him at all. His eyes were blood red with a hunger so fierce it knocked you off your feet. You stumbled and landed on your bottom, about to scream when a pair of arms grabbed you, lifting you up and covering your mouth to stifle your scream.

"Get back inside your room. NOW."

Taehyung was holding a vial with a dark red substance inside.

You stammered incoherently, fear numbing your brain and tears rolling down your cheeks. Taehyung gripped you firmly, jolting you back to your senses.

"Please Y/N you have to trust me. Go back to your room and lock the doors. Go! Now!" Taehyung pushed you towards the stairs. "Go!"

You turned and ran, running as fast as your legs could carry you, not stopping until you reached your bedroom, and then bolting the door, propping chairs up against it. The scream rang through again, and you covered your ears and curled on the bed, futiley trying to block it out,while shinning brightly in the sky, was a blood red moon.

You woke up the next day to a peaceful morning. The sun was shining brightly and the birds sang happily, as if nothing had happened the night before. You as well almost began to think that you had just had some crazy dream, until you saw the chairs propped up against your bedroom door and your heart sank.

You hadn't been dreaming.

You carefully opened your room door, stepping outside slowly. Everything looked so normal. You felt sick.

You ran down the stairs and towards the front door and saw Taehyung talking to someone behind the door. His gaze fell on you.

"Ah, here she is officer. Come here Y/N."

You shuffled your feet to his side and came face to face with a police officer. "Safe and sound. Just as I said."

The officer looked you over gently, his stare boring into you and you averted your eyes to his name tag. Min Yoongi.

"Are you really okay miss? You know that if there's something wrong you can tell me." You gulped, your throat suddenly dry and using every ounce of will power left in you to force the lies out of your mouth. "N- nothing's wrong officer. Everything's fine." He smiled at you. "Your friend sent us over. Sounded really freaked out on the phone. We were here last night and tried the door bell, but no one answered, so we decided to come back in the morning. I'll be sure to let him know that you're alright. Sir. Ma'am." He said as he tipped his cap and walked away. You turned and began to walk away too but Taehyung's voice stopped you.

"Y/N. We need to talk." He said as he made his way past you and into the parlour. You followed and sat opposite him.

You stared at your knees, avoiding Taehyung's eyes.

"Are you okay?"

You didn't reply.

"Well, I guess I deserve that."

Silence.

He cleared his throat.

"About yesterday, you were really startled right? I'm sorry you had to see that. The CEO has a heart condition you see, and yesterday he forgot to take his meds so...."

Anger welled up in you. You had been scared senseless yester night and you were pretty sure that what you had seen was not normal, yet Taehyung had the guts to sit there and lie? Did they think you were a fool?

"Really? A heart condition? That's what you're going with? I thought you'd be smarter than that Taehyung."

You stood up.

"Where the hell is the CEO? Shouldn't he at least be here to clarify or explain things to me? I guess even in this situation he still sends his lackey to cover up!" Taehyung remained quiet but you saw a pained expression flicker across his face.

"I know what I saw. There was someone.... something in the CEO's room. Something happened last night! Don't try to make me look crazy! And what about what you said Hun? You practically begged me to get back in my room and lock the doors. How do you explain that?!" "What do you think happened?" Taehyung asked quietly. "You tell me! And stop answering me like some God forsaken lawyer!" You yelled harshly.

"Y/N. You are understandably upset. I get it. But I assure you..." "Where the hell is he?!" You raved, stomping out of the room. Taehyung grabbed you roughly.

"Let me go! Let me go you son of a...." "Trust me Y/N. It will be much better for both of us if you just let this go." He said through gritted teeth, his voice coming out in a pained whisper. He let go of your hand.

"What the hell is going on here? What are you so afraid of?" You asked, your voice quivering.

"The CEO has a heart condition. He forgot to take his meds. That's what you saw yesterday. Nothing more." He said and walked out of the room.

You slumped into the couch, defeated. You glanced at the calendar. Just two more weeks till the month was up.

Fine. You'd play their game. Just two more weeks and you were out of there.

❇️❇️❇️

You lay sprawled on Namjoon's bed while he fumed beside you.

"I can't believe you're still going back to work there. You must be crazier than I thought." You sighed.

"I am. For the umpteenth time Joon, I signed a contract. I can't bail till the month is up." Namjoon scoffed. "But you could be in danger. You promised me you'd quit once something felt off. And what happened was off raised to the power of a hundred." You chuckled. "Hey can I borrow your laptop?" Namjoon handed it over to you. "Thanks." You said as you googled park Jimin.

"Trying to get to the root of things hun?" "I don't even know. I need some kind of explanation. Taehyung said to let it go. But I just can't." "Yeah well this Tae whatever character is making a lot of sense to me. Just do your job and shove your resignation letter up the CEO's butt crack once the month is up."

You scrolled through through the page. "Hmm. Nothing in here about him having a heart condition. Not that I believed that anyway."

You closed the laptop and fell back on the bed. "Let me just crash here till Monday morning." "Make yourself comfortable."

You slapped your forehead.

"Right. I still have to finish my project. And my laptop's in the house of horrors." "You can borrow mine." "Nope. I left my flash there too. Let me quickly run back to get it. Geez. Park Jimin is turning me into a scatterbrain."

You grabbed your coat and dashed out of the room. "Be back in a minute." "Be careful!" Namjoon shouted after you.

By the time you arrived at the mansion, it was already dark. You let yourself in, but stopped short when you came face to face with CEO Park. Your first instincts were to take off, but you held your ground. "I,uh, forgot something." You murmured quietly and began to walk past him.

"Y/N?"

You stopped abruptly, wondering where the sound had come from.

"I actually need you to uh, do something for me."

"Today's my day off."

"I know, I just.... forgot something at my office. It's not really that far from here. I need you to run down and get it. I have something really important to take care of now."

You stared at his face, completely confused at his change in attitude. However, you felt a part of your insides(the part no one ever wants to talk about and always pretends like it doesn't exist when in reality that part is the real controller of everything)warm at his new persona.

"Uh, sure,sure. Right."

The ghost of a smile formed on his face as he whipped out his phone and texted you the address. You sighed and made your way to the from door.

The person that had saved you at the pool had suddenly miraculously resurfaced after two weeks of torture on your part. His warm eyes and that soft and gentle way with which he had addressed you forced a blush to creep up your cheeks.

The image of the man with blood red eyes flashed through your mind, and you shuddered, suddenly wondering if you were going crazy.

You found the company quickly, with the files exactly where he had said they would be. Security had let you in pretty easily and you wondered why. You grabbed them and made your way to the main road when you spotted a group of drunk things standing along your path.

You groaned.

It wasn't safe to pass by them this late in the night, so you decided to wait for them to move along. You hid in an alley way and waited...and waited...but it seemed like they had no intention of leaving.

Oh no.

You couldn't sleep here.

You didn't know this area. You began to panic. What if they didn't leave? What if they found you hiding? You grabbed your phone, hesitating, before dialling CEO Park's number. The line trilled for a whole before he picked. You heard his soft voice on the other side.

"Hello?"

"Pre - President Park? I - I'm stuck here! There's some thugs right on the path outside of your office and I'm too scared to pass by them! You have to come get me!" "Come get you? Just find some other way out of there or wait for them to leave. Why on Earth would I come get you?!" "Because one, you sent me out on my day off, two, I don't know any other way out of here, and three,if I get hurt it's your responsibility!!! I'll sue you for everything you're worth! I'm hiding in the back alley way. Come get me now!" You whispered furiously before hanging up and praying silently.

You waited in silence for what seemed like hours before your ears perked up at the sound of voices. The thugs were heading right in your direction. You heaved and gasped, grabbing a rusty bolt from the trash and arming yourself. You suddenly felt an arm grab your shoulder.

"Ahhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!"

You screamed and swung, before twisting your ankle and falling backwards on your bottom.

"Are you trying to take my head off?!"

CEO Park stood above you, his eyes betraying his concern. So far most of your meetings with him involved you landing on your butt.

"You - you came. You actually came."

He shrugged, not meeting your eyes. "So you were bluffing the whole time on the phone?" "I had to say something, but I still didn't expect you to fall for it." You tried to stand to your feet, putting pressure on your left ankle and then yelping in pain.

"Can you walk?"

"M - maybe. Did you bring your car?" He stared at you, amused at how freely you were conversing with him. You'd be Happy to tell him you were as confused as he was.

"I did, but it's a long walk to the parking lot. Are you sure you can make it?" "Well what are you gonna do, carry me?" CEO Park looked... flustered? At your response. Your eyes must have been playing tricks on you.

"No that wouldn't be convenient I guess." He said after clearing his throat.

"Come with me."

You limped beside him as the two of you made your way to the parking lot. You took your time to study him closely. You had no idea what could have happened to have made Park Jimin seem a lot different than what you knew of him - at least what you thought you knew. You tried to picture the person you had seen that night, but the image had been replaced by that of the flustered Park Jimin, and the Park Jimin that had tried to hide his concern for you with irritation.

You are so weak Y/N!

You decided not to get your hopes, after all he had surprised you before. He turned and caught you staring at him. You averted your eyes quickly, biting back a blush.

You heard him sigh beside you and he crouched down. You stared at him, confused, although being confused was not a new thing anymore. You welcomed the feeling with nostalgia. "What are you doing....sir?" "Get on my back." What? "I don't under..." "We are still a few metres away from the parking lot, and you are already staring at me like you are probably going to blame me if your injury gets worse, so hop on." He looked up at you and for some reason you ran out of breath....and brain juice.

"Get on already."

You slowly obliged him and got on his back, awkwardly holding on to his shoulders. He stood and jerked you up suddenly, forcing you to wrap your arms around his chest.

"Are you comfortable?"

You barely choked out an answer.

You were very much not comfortable! Your boss was giving you a piggyback ride for heaven's sake, the same boss who had been cold to literally everyone not too long ago. The whole scenario was too strange and foreign to you.

But the most annoying and confusing part however, was how fast your heart was beating and the blush that had crept up your cheeks.

You unconsciously squeezed your arms around him tighter and you felt his shoulders tense. You then heard him scoff.

"I think you're enjoying this way too much Y/N." You didn't know if it was humanly possible to blush harder than you already had, and you couldn't help the smile that formed on your lips.

****

You both sat quietly in the car as CEO Park drove back to the mansion. The atmosphere was awkward and you chewed your lip, desperately looking for something to do. Namjoon had already blasted your phone with panicked calls and you had to reassure him that you were okay. The CEO cleared his throat and spoke up.

"Taehyung told me you were quite upset."

You turned to face him, alarmed, and he glanced at you.

"What's with that look on your face? I'm not about to fire you." You blinked, remaining quiet.

"I just want you to know that whatever it is you might not understand now is for your own good. If you feel like Taehyung or I are keeping secrets from you, you are absolutely right."

Well, at least he was being honest.

"Don't expect any of these secrets to be revealed to you. Trust me when I say that I'm not about to make the same mistake twice.

Trust me. Those words have been going around a lot lately. Ah. So that's what it was. He was being nice because he wanted to pacify you.

You had never understood when people said that their hearts shattered into a million pieces, but the feeling was clear now. You had told yourself not to get your hopes up hadn't you? But how do you not get your hopes up when you have a crush on someone? It's impossible.

"With all due respect President Park, I think keeping me in the dark is a very silly move. You say it's for my own good, but knowledge is power. I can take better care of myself if I know what I'm up against."

CEO Park glanced at you again, an amused look on his face. "Well I can't force you to understand. You have the right to your own opinion." He was totally stonewalling you.

You folded your arms stubbornly.

"I can't work in an environment where I'm probably not safe. Mind you I haven't forgotten about that night. And frankly I don't feel safe in that house anymore."

There was an unreadable expression on the CEO's face. "You're free to resign then. I won't stop you. I believe you were paid a months wages in advance right? When the month is up I'll release you from your contract. Then you can leave." His words hit you like bolts of lightning. He literally just told you that he wasn't going to stop you if you tried to leave.

He pulled up in the driveway and moved to open the door for you put you pushed it open rudely, desperately forcing tears back into your tear ducts. "I can do it myself." You stood to your feet, careful not to put any pressure on your strained ankle.

"You have every right to be angry Y/N. But you're better off letting your curiosity go. There are some things that aren't meant to be discovered." You huffed angrily.

"So what happens now? You really are some kind of diplomat Mr CEO. Acting all warm and kind when you want something. You'll probably go right back to behaving like I don't exist by tomorrow morning."

He just stared at you, his expression softened. "I'm sorry if you feel that way." You scoffed again as you limped your way into the mansion, letting the tears flow freely. You would take him up on his offer.

The minute the month was up, you were kissing this job, this house, and this CEO goodbye.

*****

Part 3 will be out soon! Hopefully!

Comments would be appreciated!!!

[nolongerbeneaththemoonlight-a]

Roleplay Rules

Okay, so here’s my Rp rules.

Basic Rules:

-SEMI SELECTIVE AND MUTUALS ONLY.  I’m really not that selective, however. Just please, if you want to Rp with me, follow me and I’ll check you out!! I’m mutuals only for my sake. If someone follows me first, they can only interact with my muse(s) if I follow them back (a little harsh, sorry..!!). However, if I follow someone first and they aren’t mutuals only, then this rule isn’t that important so don’t worry too much. THIS IS A SIDE BLOG. FOLLOW BACKS COME FROM TAINTED-FLCWER.

-OCS, AUS, AND ALL OTHER CHARACTERS WELCOME. I don’t care who your muse is. I’m all for OCs, crossovers, AUs, anything!! Just know that if I’m unaware of the fandom, you’ll have to bear with my ignorant ass lol

-NO ONE-LINERS. These just make me feel like you don’t care about the thread. I’m okay if it’s on occasion, but not every single time. Small paragraphs are 100% okay with me, and I will on occasion write small responses when I don’t have much room for a reblog. Thank you. And another thing that goes with that is to try to keep it interesting. I’ll put in the same amount of effort you put in. And if you put practically nothing in, I can’t promise that I won’t just end it only a few responses in. And of course, in a crack thread, one-liners are perfectly fine lol.

-NO GODMODDING. I cannot express this enough. It’s my biggest pet peeve. Just don’t, or I’ll end the Rp immediately.

-PLEASE USE CORRECT GRAMMAR. I’m a bit of a grammar freak, so seriously. At least try. However, If English isn’t your first language, I COMPLETELY understand. ^w^

-MULTIVERSE, MULTISHIP. If you know anything about the Tumblr rp community, it’s that a lot of people are multiship and multiverse. I am no exception. My boys would never cheat on someone—unless we talk about it beforehand cuz, aNGST??—and every thread is a different au for them. Simple enough. X3

 -REBLOGGING ASKS AND TRIMMING THREADS. To be honest? I’m pretty chill when it comes to this stuff, so I won’t be picky. However, many of my mutuals may indeed be strict, so if you can’t trim the thread or respond to an ask in another post, I’ll gladly do it for you so my other mutuals don’t get annoyed. 

Romance Rules:

 -NO SMUT. Sorry, but it grosses me out. I’m a biromantic asexual, the kind that just doesn’t like sex. I’m okay with saying it happened, but I don’t want to be around when it does. I’m just fine with heavy make out scenes, but please, fade to black after the clothes start to come off.

 -I LOVE TO WRITE ROMANCE THREADS. Just a little warning… I typically lose interest if there isn’t a romance. I’m a very hopeless romantic…. ^^; Just know that  my muse usually generates from fluff/feels/angst/whatever lol. I’d love a romance once our muses become acquainted. And of course, NO pedofilia, NO incest, NO rape, or ANYTHING nasty like that. That is horrible and disgusting, and I refuse to take part of it. I will not stand for it happening in any of my threads. This also means that I won’t do a romance ship with any Kyoukas, but I’d love a brother-sister relationship with them. However, I am extremely selective when it comes to Dazushi. I ship it with one person, and it will most likely stay that way.

 -THERE MUST BE CHEMISTRY. Okay, I really hate being so selective of my “mostly romance” rule, but I’m serious. There must be SOME chemistry. Now, I am completely okay with over time changing my characters slightly to fit the other person, for character changes are awesome. However, I’m not going to just entirely reconstruct my character. That also means you shouldn’t be too stubborn with your muses, if you want a ship. For instance, if you want to ship Osamu with one of your characters, you must know he is an evil man and just as untrusting. It will take time to get him to trust your muse, and he will hardly make it easy. And Atsushi is so oblivious to love that you may have to make it a bit obvious for my boi lol. 

 -PLEASE RESPECT MY MUSES’ SEXUALITIES. This isn’t as much of a problem on this blog as it is on my main Rp blog, but it still counts. Atsushi is panromantic and demisexual, and Dazai is a disaster bi. 

Rules and things about me:

 -I HAVE LOTS OF WRITING EXPERIENCE. I’ve been writing since I was maybe even seven years old, played games where I pretended to be a character irl since I was five, and have been actually roleplaying for approximately 6 years now. It’s kind of my passion, you know? 

 -WARNING, I WRITE GORE. I tend to go into detail about pain, suffering, death, and just very demented topics. That and I write heavy make out scenes (when the clothes start to come off is where I draw my line and fade to black). That’s just a warning. If you have a problem with that, you may not want to follow me… Plus, this is a Dazai rp blog, so the topic of suicide is heavy. Don’t follow me if you can’t take it.

 -IM NOT USED TO TAGGING THINGS. Gore, murder, and other dark and triggering things will most likely be tagged, but suicide and swearing will not. I swear far too much for me to remember to tag it, and you’re looking at an Osamu Dazai blog. His whole character was based off of suicide, as stated before. Also, I don’t post NSFW images or threads on this blog or any, so don’t worry about that, but I will tag asks and memes that are nsfw. I tag things like this (using death as an example): tw: death

  -RESPONDING TIME. I gotta warn you, I’m usually freakishly fast with my responses. If it’s been over 24 hours since I responded to a thread, I NO DOUBT lost the response lol. Just hit me up with a friendly pm! However, just because I respond quickly DOES NOT AT ALL mean you have to!! Take your time, I completely understand. ^w^

 -I’M ALWAYS HERE IF YOU NEED SOMEONE TO TALK TO.Honestly, I want to help! If something’s wrong and you want to tell me about it, I’m all ears. I hate being upset or depressed myself, so I like to try to make others feel better. It helps with my own sadness.

That’s all for right now..! Happy roleplaying~!!

like this post if you have read it and agree to it, please.

If you don’t agree to these rules and don’t want to follow me back, if I have already followed you, please just HARD block me. It’ll help keep my dash cleaner, as well as make sure in my forgetfulness I won’t follow you again. Don’t worry, I won’t be upset lol. Thank you so much for reading my rules!! 🖤🖤

[imagineclaireandjamie]

How about a Modern AU where Jamie and Murtagh own a business together? :D

Thank you to @bonnie-wee-swordsman for entertaining my wee idea

As Yet Unread: Prologue -Part 1.i:

Driving through the pelting rain, Jamie pulled his small white van up on the side of the curb, honking his horn and flashing his headlights into his uncle Murtagh’s small apartment building. Their small carpentry business had been quietly milling along for two years. In the aftermath of the recession, both Jamie and Murtagh had both been laid off from their job at the only printers left in Glasgow leaving them both with an awful lot of free time. That’s how ‘Fraser’s Fixings’ had sprung to life. Combining their pay out’s, the men had brought a van and the materials needed, Jamie had completed a college course and Murtagh had renewed his license from his school days and they had set to work building a client list.

It had been hard at first, competing with other, older and well established companies but now they’d become firm favourites locally and had just secured a good bit of business at a large manor house just a few miles away from both of their homes.

“Come on, Murtagh,” Jamie muttered to himself, tapping the clock on the dashboard as if that might halt time and afford them a few more minutes. “We’re going to be late if ye dinna-”

“Sorry!” Murtagh interjected, pulling open the van door and shaking off the stray droplets of rain as he crawled into the cab beside Jamie. “Suzette couldna get wee Fergus down at all last night and I slept like hell. Missed the damn alarm.”

Shaking his head, Jamie pushed the van into first, indicated and pulled off onto the deserted streets. “He’s definitely teething then, aye?”

“Och aye, like a fiend! Puir Susie isna resting well at all. He’s crabby and restless and it’s making her antsy.”

“Ach, wee bairn. Dinna fash though eh, uncle, this too shall pass,” Jamie answered wisely, stopping for a red light as the rain continued to thrash around them.

The drive out towards the property wasn’t too arduous, and although the weather kept the skies dark well after sunrise, Jamie and Murtagh found some joy in singing along to old-school Oasis tunes blasting through the ancient stereo system. A soaked and muddy main pathway awaited them as Jamie turned off the main road and down towards the house itself. Pulling up besides a larger beemer, he turned the ignition off and he and Murtagh prepared themselves for a dash to the door.

Without hesitation, Murtagh launched forwards beneath the small covering that hung over the front door and rang the small doorbell. Tiny droplets of rain fell from the arches above them, dripping rhythmically onto the dry stones which lay beneath their feet.

“It’s days like these,” Jamie joked, “that I’m grateful we do an indoor job, aye?”

As the large front door creaked open, Jamie and Murtagh stood and tried not to look shocked at the youngish man who opened the door. As with most older properties, the proprietors tended to be more of Murtagh’s age and up than Jamie’s, but the man who stood in front of them couldn’t have been much older than thirty.

“Hello,” Jamie said with added charm, “are ye Mr Randall?”

“Yes, and you must be Mr. Fraser then?”

He was charming, a glint in his eye and a quirk of his brow, all smooth words and solid set shoulders, but Jamie got the distinct feeling that all wasn’t as it seemed. Still, it wasn’t for him to judge a man he’d met simply on a feeling so he shrugged off his concerns and shook hands with Randall adding a warm smile to his already relaxed demeanour.

“Aye, we both are. I’m Jamie and this is Murtagh,” he added, pointing briefly towards his uncle.

Tipping his imaginary cap, Murtagh smiled tightly and bowed his head.

“I won’t be around much, I’m sure you understand.” He said, getting straight to the point. “I have a lot of business out of town but I wanted to be here when you first arrived, obviously.”

“Ach, that’s alright, you can trust us, Mr Randall,” Jamie said relief coursing through him. The jobs where clients left them alone often ran smoother.

“I don’t need to micromanage you, I’m sure. So,” he said, clapping his hands together decisively. “Shall I give you the tour and show you the rooms that need the work, though you’re consummate professionals, you’ll certainly see the position we’re in on the ground floor.”

Following Mr Randall through the property, Jamie took mental notes of the current state of affairs, seeing plainly the thorough job they’d need to do in order to finish their task to a high standard. As with most restoration projects, care would be needed not to ruin any original features, but some of the structural damage to the floor would be unsalvageable.

“…the kitchens are, of course, slate and tile, so you needn’t bother yourselves with those. I have specialist cleaners coming in to scale away some of the more recent damage on those. But the hall, the front reception rooms, dining hall and lounge area will need some work. As will the smoking room - for obvious reason. That one might need an entire overhaul. Just do as you see fit. I’ve heard amazing things about your skill at replacement and restoration from a good friend of mine, Lord Thomas? I believe you did his private house near Edinburgh?”

Jamie glanced proudly at Murtagh and then back to his client. “Aye! I remember Lord Thomas, a verra good customer. It was one of the first large scale jobs we completed. But he was certain we were the right men for the job. It was a pleasure.”

“Yes, well,” Randall went on, looking at his watch and tapping his wrist as if harried, “I’ll leave my work number with you so if you’re desperately worried about anything you can contact me. I’ve an email address too, I check it frequently so that’s probably your best port of call for any immediate contact and you can send images there if either of us needs to ascertain information or update one another on progress.”

“It sounds as if yer ready for us to begin then, aye Mr Randall? Is there anything else we need to know, afore we get started?” Jamie asked, glancing upwards as he heard the patter of feet above him.

“Ah, yes.” Randall replied, watching cautiously as Jamie and Murtagh both looked back towards him. “That’ll be Claire, my fiancée. She’ll come and see to your needs; keep you plied with tea, coffee and biscuits I suspect. She and I use the upstairs as active living quarters but it’s off-limits to anyone else - you gentlemen included. Claire will come to you. She’ll make herself known in good time.”

“Nay bother, Mr Randall,” Jamie replied having no desire to snoop where he wasn’t needed.

“And one more thing,” Randall added, grabbing for the suitcase he’d stashed against an old sideboard in the hallway, “Claire doesn’t often venture far. It isn’t something I usually need to disclose since strangers aren’t often inside the house for prolonged periods of time, but since you, Mr Fraser, will be, I consider it good manners to inform you both. I’d appreciate it if you didn’t ask her for anything that requires her to leave the property since it isn’t something she’s comfortable with…and this *is* her home, after all.”

“Och, of course, sir,” Murtagh interjected politely. “We’re prepared, I promise ye that.”

“Absolutely, Mr Fraser.” Passing Jamie his card, Randall smiled an uneasy smile and plucked his case from the floor. “I’ll only be away for one night this time, so I’ll see you at some point tomorrow but there will be times -later on- when one night turns into one week. But for now, I have to dash.”

Exiting without so much as another look, Jamie and Murtagh glanced at one another and then back towards the now closed front door as Randall left.

“Where to first then, lad?” Murtagh asked, pulling the tape measure from his belt and pulling the end away slowly.

“I think we go from the back to front,” Jamie suggested, pushing the end of the measure so that it flew free from Murtagh’s hand and slapped noisily back into its cradle. “That way we leave the hallway free for traffic - for the moment.”

“Yer the boss. Let’s get going…” Murtagh whistled, tossing Jamie the tape measure and turning on his heel to collect the rest of the equipment from the van. “…dinna want Randall to think we’re slackers, aye?”

It wasn’t long into their first day when the sound of footsteps on the stairs brought Jamie and Murtagh to a standstill. They’d both been beavering away, measuring and taking stock of the various rooms towards the back of the house whilst noting down the initial observations. The sounds from above had blended into the background and both had managed to completely forget there was someone else still in the house with them.

“Hello,” a small feminine voice piped up from the doorway one of the vast reception rooms. “Would you like anything to drink?”

Turning, Jamie placed his tiny pencil carefully behind his ear as he smiled across as the tall but tiny brunette who’d greeted them so discreetly. ‘Randall, you lucky bastard,’ he thought, his eyes unblinking as he took her in. She had a small waist, delicate features and long, shapely legs. Her whisky-brown eyes twinkled in the faux-candle lit light of the room and her smile was wide and inviting.

She was captivating.

“Hi!” Murtagh answered, slapping Jamie -not so gently- on the back as he half beat him out of his stupor. “I take it that yer Claire?” He asked, wiping his dusty hands against his trousers as he walked purposefully across the length of the room and held his hand out to shake hers in friendly greeting.

“Yes,” she said, her tone docile yet well mannered. “That’s me, Claire. Lovely to meet you –Mr Fraser?” she added sounding unsure.

“Aye, weel,” Murtagh said, his Scottish accent becoming more pronounced, “we’re both Mr Fraser, ken? But I’m Murtagh and this,” he continued, pointing in Jamie’s direction, “is my boss *and* nephew, James…Jamie to his friends.”

“Dinna be so daft,” Jamie responded, finally finding his voice. “Naybody calls me James these days, aside from my father. Hello Claire, I’m Jamie. Owner and founder of Fraser’s Fixings. Verra good to meet ye.” Scratching his head, he shuffled forwards a little but waited for Murtagh to step back before crowding her anymore. She took his hand gently as he offered it, placing her smaller palm directly against his own.

“Charmed,” Claire said with her smile still successfully in place. “Now, back to the question at hand, tea?” she ventured, her British manners kicking in. “Or coffee? We also have water, squash or some strange orange, mango and passionfruit smoothie that frankly looks dicey.”

Murtagh snorted and then held his hand to his mouth as he tried to cover it up. Jamie laughed and shook his head as the haze began to clear.

“Tea would be lovely, thank ye,” the men agreed eventually, letting Claire leave their company to wander off back upstairs to fetch them their chosen beverages.

“She’s verra pretty, aye?” Murtagh whispered, elbowing Jamie in the side as he picked up a stray screwdriver and threw it in the air as if he were performing some sort of elaborate circus trick. “Do ye think she’s afraid of leaving the house, one of those anxious types, ken?”

Shrugging, Jamie sat on a box and surveyed the empty reception room with some thought. “Canna say, Murtagh. But she seems a canty lass. Anyway,” he continued, stomping his boots against the floor, testing the strength and listening for anything that might suggest ruptures or warps beneath the surface of the old wood, “tisna for us to say. I dinna think Mr Randall is one to be crossed wi’out igniting some English aristocratic rage so I wouldna want to be the one who came under fire for flaunting the rules,” he half-joked, leaning down to mark the boards with small crosses in order to establish potential dud-wood - the irreplaceable sections that would need measuring, lifting and refitting before they could even tackle the refurbs.

“True,” Murtagh returned, mimicking Jamie in the other corner of the room. “Still, it’s a shame the lassie isna single, isn’t it my wee nephew?”

Choosing to ignore his irritatingly correct uncle, Jamie simply smirked and continued on with his task, his mind trying to extinguish any fanciful thoughts of sonsy lassies with hypnotizing hazel eyes.    

In the weeks that followed, Randall came and went leaving the men for longer periods of time in between his extended business visits. The more he was away, the more Claire would pander to them, conversing for longer and longer, plying them with tea and biscuits as they finished one room and moved onto another seamlessly.

Jamie enjoyed her company, revelling in her quick wittedness and dry humour as she became increasingly more familiar with him. Murtagh would often roll his eyes at Jamie, ignoring the gnaw of fear in his belly that grew larger over the month. Jamie was falling for her, that was plain to see, but Murtagh worried what would become of his nephew once their task was done and dusted.

“Ye’d better be careful wi’ the lass, aye?” He said calmly on their journey home one evening, his words a light warning as he sat comfortably in the passenger seat. “You ken it canna lead anywhere. She’s engaged - to your current boss nonetheless. Can ye imagine how bad it would be if he caught ye flirting wi’ Claire? He could do the business some serious damage, aye?”

Rolling his shoulders, Jamie smiled sadly and nodded, his hands clenching tightly on the steering wheel as he pulled onto Murtagh’s road. “I ken well enough, Murtagh. I willna put our work in jeopardy, rest assured.”

“Professionalism, lad,” Murtagh replied, patting Jamie on the back as he reached back into the recesses of their messy van to find his rucksack before pushing open the door. “Ye can admire her, talk to her and be friendly but ye mustna skirt that line. Trust me, they’re from a different world entirely, Claire and Jack Randall. Even if she wasn’t wi’ him, she’d be with another of similar ilk. They run in circles, ye ken?”

“Aye, I ken,” Jamie answered mournfully, waiting until Murtagh had bid him farewell and closed the car door safely behind him. Driving home, Jamie found himself picturing Claire in his flat. Randall had said she didn’t leave and since then himself and Murtagh had come up with a number of equally implausible suggestions for her imposed imprisonment. But having spoken with her at length on many varying topics, neither Jamie nor Murtagh could pick up on anything odd that might cause her to hide away.

Murtagh, in one of their more sensible conversations, had suggested that she might be agoraphobic and that seemed the most likely reason but her demeanor didn’t seem one of a person afraid of much at all; though impressions were often deceptive and just because she put on a seemingly strong front didn’t mean internally she wasn’t filled with fear.

One room completed turned into two and then three until the days seemed to be flying by. Murtagh and Jamie found their flow, a pattern that kept them on track. As the floors towards the back of the house began to take shape, Murtagh started to take a few more weekdays off to take Susie and Fergus out meaning that Jamie worked alone. He was used to this arrangement having agreed with Murtagh that it would be good for him to spend as much time with his young family as possible whilst Fergus was still a wee bairn.

It was on these days that Jamie would crank the music up and work long and hard to make up for the loss of manpower but he was still making good progress. Being careful not to disrupt the inhabitants above, he’d use his headphones so that he could have the volume turned up really loud.

Standing in the doorway of the smallest reception room, Claire watched as Jamie pottered about shimmying his hips in front of her as he half-danced half-worked on uprooting the last stubborn floor panels. More and more she was finding herself drawn to the handsome Scot. On the days he came in alone she ached to monopolise his time but she knew she had no business occupying him for any longer than necessary.

Jamie jumped, pulling the headphones from his ears as he caught sight of Claire out of the corner of his eye. He smiled shyly and flicked a stray piece of hair from his forehead as he took her in. She was dressed more casually than usual in loose jogging bottoms and a baggy hoodie but she still looked beautiful.

“S-sorry,” she stuttered, “I didn’t mean to startle you.”

“Ach, dinna be daft lass. It’s nice to see another human being after being on my own all day,” he replied, pulling his iPod from his pocket and pausing it mid song, “puir Murtagh has a sick wife and bairn on his hands so it’ll probably just be me on my own for the rest of the week.”

“Oh dear,” Claire returned sympathetically, her eyes glancing briefly at the floor before looking back up at him once more, “Jack’s going away too, He’ll be gone for at least a month this time.”“Business keeps Mr Randall busy, aye? Does he enjoy all the travelling?” Jamie asked, trying to continue their conversation with topics that didn’t venture into dangerous territory - like trying to tempt her to run away with him. Jamie coughed, the air escaping from his lungs at the sudden appearance of that notion.

“He likes the variety of it, certainly,” she replied, her hands playing noiselessly with the front pocket in her jumper. “He’s very intelligent. He manages the whole Randall estate as well as having his own business so anything that keeps him on his toes is good for him. Having a portfolio of properties as well as multiple investments all over the globe means his mind is always concocting various improvements to every individual cog of his finely tuned machine…” Smiling nervously, Claire trailed off as her cheeks turned a vibrant shade of fuschia. “I’m rambling, aren’t I?” She asked, embarrassed.

“Claire…?” Randall called his voice carrying down the empty corridors.

Claire’s eyes widened infantisemally before she turned and disappeared in a flash. Jamie quirked his head to the side as he continued with skimming the edges of the final beams for the floor. Thinking nothing of it, he spent the remainder of the afternoon finalising the remaining back room leaving him only the front couple and the hall for the last month or so of their contract.

The next few days ran as he thought they would. Murtagh stayed at home nursing Suzette and Fergus through their bout of flu whilst Jamie started on one of the lounge rooms off the hallway. Settling himself to the task, he didn’t even notice when Claire didn’t show herself. Instead, Jamie simply worked through the day getting over half of the room finished, though it had been one of the easier rooms since the condition was decidedly better than the others they’d been working on.

“Good evening, Jamie,” Claire whispered as she stood half in, half out of the lounge. She seemed different, less confident, but Jamie tried to brush off any worries he had when he turned to see her stood in front of him. She was stood with a cup of tea resting between her fingers, her cheeks slightly pinked as if she’d been worried about coming to talk to him. But it was only a slight change in demeanour that kept Jamie’s eyes pinned to her.

“Evening, Claire,” he returned, letting a smile flickered at the corner of his lips, “have ye had a good day so far?”

“It’s better now, thank you,” she said, licking her dry lips and passing the tea over carefully, “I just haven’t been feeling very well. I hope you haven’t felt neglected.”

“Not at all!” Jamie replied quickly. “You dinna have to worry about me, aye? Are you sure you should be up if yer sick?”

He could tell now that the colour in her cheeks wasn’t as healthier glow as he’d originally thought. With the cup warming his hands, he held the handle in his right hand as he reached his left out to rest over her damp forehead. She didn’t feel excessively warm but she was hotter than normal.

Leaning into his touch, Claire closed her eyes as the dizziness started to ebb. She’d seen Jack off the day before. When she hadn’t been where he could see her, he’d called her through. There were various cameras strewn through the house so she was never undetectable but he only needed to call her and she’d make herself known. Jack hadn’t approved, though, of her more casual attire and he’d felt the need to remind her that their guests shouldn’t see her if she wasn’t suitable. Since then she’d had this gnawing sensation in her belly that she couldn’t seem to rid herself of.

“Go back to bed, Claire,” Jamie said soothingly, pulling his hand slowly away from her flushed skin, “look after yerself, lass. Is there anything I can get for ye, medicine? Some comfort food? Though I’m sure yer well provided for…” he trailed off, not wishing to insult either her or Randall.

“Oh, no thank you. I have everything I need. But are you sure? I don’t want you dying of thirst down here all alone,” she joked.

“I willna, I promise. Ye’ll ask though, if ye change yer mind and want me to bring ye something from town?”

“Yes, of course.” She acquiesced, walking quietly away and leaving Jamie to pack up his tools for the day.

He stayed long enough to finish the drink she’d so very kindly made him but he didn’t loiter long after that. With another room nearly complete - and in just a week no less - he was steadily getting closer to finished the entire job and Claire being absent was helping him to break the small bond he’d been creating in his own mind. He had no clue as to whether she felt the same, but he knew it would be hard to say goodbye to her.

Later that evening, sitting in front of his large lounge window, Jamie looked over the twinkling lights as Glasgow lit up under the moon. His dad had managed to procure him his flat, one with views over Kelvingrove and the university, and it served him well if he was ever feeling thoughtful.

Picking the phone up, he dialled Murtagh’s number and waited for it to connect before sighing down the phone. “I’m screwed, Murtagh.” He said helplessly. “She hadna been down all week and I didna realise until she popped up wi’ a cuppa how much I bask in her company, what do I do?”

Chuckling morosely, Murtagh cradled the phone between his ear and his shoulder as he handed Fergus back over to Susie for a feed. “Nothing, laddie. I ken it isna the answer you want. Ye recall though,” he continued, “what ye said to me when we started the job, aye? Randall doesna seem the sort to be crossed wi’out heavy repercussions. She’s his fiancée. Beyond that, she doesna even leave the house.”

“Aye,” Jamie answered, letting his head fall forwards as he nodded on the other end of the phone, “thank ye, Murtagh. Do you think you’ll be back wi’ me on Monday?” He asked, changing the subject back to something more palatable.

“I should think so, Jamie lad. Everything is mostly back to normal here,” he said, winking across at Susie as she stuck her tongue out at him, “plus,” he said with an added dash of humour, “it sounds like ye need the help afore yer head and yer heart get ye into deep water.”

Jamie sniggered and kicked his bare feet against his plush carpet. “Give my love to Suzette, aye? And I’ll see you first thing Monday.”

“See ye soon, laddie.” Murtagh replied before hanging up the phone.

“Is Jamie alright?” Suzette asked, switching Fergus as he nursed silently.

“Oh aye,” Murtagh sighed, putting his arm around his wife and pulling her closer against his side. Having spent the whole week caring for them he was actually looking forward to getting back out to work now they were both on the mend. “He’s only gone and fallen fer the wee lassie who lives in the property we’re renovating. Nothing major.”

Hitting his arm gently, Suzette tisked under her breath. “You are cruel to your poor nephew. He has a large heart, yes?”

Murtagh nodded, swallowing his words under Susie’s semi-harsh gaze.

“Then have some sympathy. Has he ever been in love before?”

“No, I dinna think he has. He’s seen love, though. His parents, aye?”

“You and I?” Suzette added, smiling widely at the memory of their own meeting and consequent wedding.

“Aye, mo chridhe, and you and I. I just worry--”

“Though you told him not to?” Suzette interjected, her large blue eyes trained on Murtagh.

“Weel, I’m his godfather, it’s for me to carry some of his woe when he has a lot to bear. But I do worry that he’s the kind to mate for life. Ye ken Ellen and Brian’s story, right?”

“About how they eloped because Ellen’s father didn’t approve?”

“Aye, that’s the one. She still hasna spoken to her brothers since they cut her off. She doesna mind it so much though. She has my brother and their children. But that was it for them, ken? They met, fell in love, ran off to Gretna and settled at Lallybroch wi’ my parents blessing. What if Jamie, remembering the tales Ellen used to tell him when he was a bairn, tries something similar?”

“Then you just have to be there for him, through thick and thin.”

“Even if she breaks his heart?”

“Especially then. That was your oath as his godfather, Murtagh.”

“I love ye, Susie,” Murtagh whispered, curling around her and pulling the blanket around them so that they were all safely cocooned.

“Jamie will be fine, darling,” she cooed, closing her eyes and laying her head in the soft spot between Murtagh’s chin and his shoulder. “I’m certain of it.”

…TBC.

[ruffsficstuffplace]

And The AWRD Goes To... (Part 44)

“A vacuum cleaner monster...?” Diana muttered. “Seriously?”

“Told you they can get kinda ridiculous!” Akko said.

Diana groaned. “Honestly, merits for creative application, but come on!”

“It actually makes a lot of sense considering how the rest of the world works,” Ruby said. “C13O did mention that most Automa are only ever built for the one specific job, with the brains to match.”

“Okay, that I can get, but then how do they suddenly know how to effectively weaponize their tools in times of crisis?” Diana asked. “Aren’t they only suppose to be smart enough to do their one job, and little else?”

“Maybe they put in space for combat subroutines?” Ruby replied. “Look, Diana, I’d love to discuss and debate with you, but C13O and Dash are finally fusing and I really want to see what they look like combined.”

Diana sighed. “Fine, we’ll do this some other time… these inconsistencies are so jarring and common, it gets so hard to enjoy this!”

“Do you want to change shows again after this episode, Diana?” Weiss asked from her new position, sitting beside Ruby’s bed with Ruby’s scroll and quill in hand.

“No, I really want to see what happens next,” Diana replied. “These two have been bickering and coming to blows since they met, this fusion can’t be anything but a complete and utter disaster until they find some way to compromise—if they even do!

“Not to mention how they’ll act from here on out...”

Weiss chuckled “Getting attached to Dash and C13O, Diana?” she asked.

“Look, they’re both jaded, disillusioned individuals trying to grow past their initial programming and technological limitations, whilst running headfirst into new and strange experiences with the intention to adapt and grow, and I really admire that, okay?!” Diana cried.

Quietly, she added, “C13O’s really cute,  too...”

Conversation stopped as Dash and C13O went through their transformation sequence.

Ruby and Akko watched in awe as their new form took shape, Weiss added official images to Ruby’s notes on the MagiMon designs and their mechanics, Diana chuckled both Automa said the fusion speech through gritted teeth (or whatever the mechanical equivalent was).

“Oooh, that’s so cool!” Ruby cooed as the fully fused MagiMon was showed off. “C13O’s like a cockpit over Dash, and now the wheels are attached by magnetic levitation and electric currents! I wonder what sort of powers they’ll have now?”

A few moments later, Diana chuckled. “Evidently a vastly expanded ability to disagree and argue with each other...”

Weiss smiled. “It makes you wonder how many curse words the VA’s wanted to throw in.”

The action picked up again, Ruby dictated her notes about about the impressive if impractical/impossible mechanics of the battle to Weiss, Akko and Diana cheered and reacted as was appropriate, the former much louder than the former.

“Well, that climax was about as ridiculous and convoluted as I though it would be,” Diana said as the dust settled.

“Agreed!” Ruby chimed in. “If they didn’t suddenly get that power boost, they’d have probably gotten sucked in, not abused the cyclonic suction to vastly increase their own momentum and thus their wheels’ cutting powers.”

“I disagree, actually,” Weiss said. “There’s a lot to be said about mindset keeping you from your full potential—or in this case, spending more power arguing with your partner than dedicating it to… well, whatever is moving their wheels like that.”

“An electromagnetic suspension field, most likely, though with a WHOLE lot of that ‘Magia’ everything runs on to excuse the violations of basic mechanical principles,” Ruby replied.

Diana smirked. “… And of course they immediately resume butting heads after they defuse...” she said.

“Maybe the writers want to use the fact that they hate each other for a few more fights, before they get along,” Ruby said.

“If they ever move past their alliance of convenience.” Diana replied.

“Oh, they will, but it will be very slowly and painfully drawn out,” Weiss said. She sighed. “I always hated that about this series, you know, their establishing how limited the intelligence of MagiMon are to excuse them barely learning anything each time.

“What’s the point of building majority of the plot around the characters growing beyond what they used to be if they never actually make any significant changes over the season, and they’re basically acting almost exactly like they did in the start, until you’re almost to the end before they finally stop making the character-flaw-inflicted mistake for the 57th time?”

She sighed. “It’s really sad that the fanfiction writers who do their craft for free can do a much better job than the writers who were actually paid to do it.”

“What’s fanfiction?” Diana asked.

“Stories written by the fans of a series,” Weiss explained. “Setting, characters, or plots are really the only constant; they can go any direction, and some of them to TERRIBLE, dark, awful places.” Her face turned serious. “From a veteran to a newbie: beware, and ideally have a guide with you, for what you might find, how it might change you.”

“Can it really get that bad...?” Ruby asked.

Akko and Weiss both nodded grimly. “Don’t bother trying to see if there’s a bottom,” Weiss said. “There is none, only an endless, ever deepening abyss, some fandom’s deeper, more awful, and wider than others.”

“I get the feeling you’ve both seen some things.” Diana said.

“Because we have.” Akko replied. “Please, don’t ask.” she said, Weiss’ haunted expression saying much the same.

Diana and Ruby decided not to.

Lunch and came and went, as did various nurses. They spent the rest of the afternoon going through the rest of the first season of MagiMon, and were still watching it by their tutoring session at 5:30.

“Is that MagiMon?” Blake asked as she came in with a bag full of books and other teaching materials, a foldout table under her arm.

“It is!” Akko replied.

“Wow, I never thought I’d ever see that show again ever since I left grade school,” Blake said as she set up the table.

“The designs are really cool!” Ruby said. “Horribly impractical and sometimes in blatant violation of common sense, but you can tell the artists put a lot of love into them, and I can appreciate a passion project.”

“And simplistic, immature, and at times amateurish as it is, it’s got its charm,” Diana said. “I’m especially fond of C13O.”

Blake’s ears twitched. “Ugh, was she floating robot ball that was their leader?” she asked as Lotte set up beside her.

“She is,” Diana replied. “I’m sensing you don’t like her?”

“She was too much of a bitch,” Blake said. “The moment I learned that word was also the moment I could finally accurately describe what I thought about her.”

“Okay, I’ll admit that, but you have to consider the constant stress she’s under and the people she has to work with makes it difficult to maintain patience and calm at all times!” Diana countered. “There’s also her good points, like her willingness to adapt and step up to new situations.”

Blake scowled, her ears flattening menacingly. “Yeah, just because you’re the leader doesn’t give you an excuse to start behaving badly when your job gets hard, independent of your good points.”

“So!” Lotte interrupted, squaring up a stack of papers in her hands. “You guys ready to switch from cartoons to schoolwork?”

“Let’s do this!” Weiss cried as she shut Ruby’s scroll, slotted the quill back in. “Ruby’s got me all warmed up to take notes since we started, just let me get the remote…” she said as she stood up and set it aside.

“Aww, and it was getting close to when a new MagiMon usually shows up...” Ruby muttered.

“Priorities, Ruby,” Weiss said as she grabbed the remote. “Same to you, Diana,” she added, smirking.

“I know, I know!” Diana replied. “I’m just a little displeased at the timing, but I’m ready to go back to my studies!”

The videos were paused, and AWRD tried to study as best as they could with only one of them able to write, the rest having to make do with listening to Blake and Lotte, or reading from their own notes through their beds’ screens.

And if it was any consolation to Akko, they were a LOT more forgiving of her zoning out than all of their professors.

6:50, Blake declared the session over and started packing up. “Okay, I think that’s enough for today; I’m sorry I can’t tell you how to do it exactly, but try and do some reading on your own; Dr. Freya might not appreciate hearing you’re using the CCT as a primary source, but it’s better than when you don’t know the answer, period.”

“We know,” Akko and Weiss replied, nodding.

“See you all on Wednesday!” Lotte said, waving goodbye. “Hopefully, I can have enough ingredients for another song of healing by then.” She sighed as she hoisted her bag back over her shoulders. “There’s just so many vendors here, I can hardly find a decent supplier at my budget...”

“I know someone who can help with that!” Ruby said. “She pretty much knows EVERYTHING there is to know about Mistral, especially the markets in the lower cities.”

Blake’s ears subtly twitched, but otherwise her expression betrayed nothing

“Oh, that’d be great, but definitely some other time!” Lotte replied. She sheepishly looked down. “I don’t really have much to spend at the moment...”

“She can help with that, too, actually!” Ruby said.

“We’ll keep the offer in mind when we’re not as busy, Ruby, thank you,” Blake said.

Blake and Lotte left the room, Weiss looked over her notes, the reading assignments they were supposed to be doing if they weren’t in the hospital. “Well… anyone want to try having a group reading session?” she asked as she looked up. “I could just project to all of our screens and scroll for all of us.”

“A good idea in theory, but it might not work in practice,” Diana said. “Akko and I alone have vastly different reading speeds, it’ll likely be an exercise in frustration and futility.”

“Tell me about it!” Akko said. “You just burn through books like I do umeboshi, and that’s really impressive!”

“It’s not really that hard once you get enough practice,” Diana replied. “Better still if you start learning how to skip the parts where the authors wax poetic.”

“She’ll probably be out of the hospital by the time she gets good enough to make a difference, though,” Ruby said. “Maybe it’s just better if we go back to MagiMon.”

“Yes, more MagiMon seems the better option!” Diana said with a nod. “I’d really like to see how C13O deals with these new ‘Illogic’ Rogues, anyhow.”

“MagMon it is!” Weiss said as she picked up the remote, and brought the show back on. Just before she   pressed play, however, there was a frantic knocking on the door, before it was clumsily opened.

“Hi girls!” Taiyang said, sweating and out of breath as he rushed in with an armload of devices. “Managed to borrow some head-pointers, mouth-sticks, and accessibility scroll mounts from the Bunker! Gonna need them all back as soon as you guys are able to start using your hands again, though!”

He set them down by Ruby’s end table, kissed her on the forehead, before making his way back out. “Would love to stay, talk, and help set these up, but visiting hours are already over and they’re not letting us extend again!”

“The management felt it would begin to set the wrong kind of precedent with all the other patients,” the nurse explained as Taiyang weaved his past her. “I am, however, ready to assist you with setting these up, whichever of these two options will suit you better.”

Weiss looked at the others. “Well… I guess that’s our studying problem fixed! So, who’s bowing out?” she asked.

No answer.

“Diana?” Akko asked. “You sure?”

“Yes,” Diana replied. She sheepishly looked away. “… I really want to get back to MagiMon.”

The nurse smiled. “Is there anything else I can assist you with, then?”

Everyone answered no, the nurse excused herself, and they went back to the anime, until they fell asleep.

Early morning the next day, Weiss was sitting beside Diana’s bed, helping her take notes. The mouth-sticks worked well enough for checking messages, browsing the CCT, and making short replies and searches, but as soon as Diana needed to type anything longer than a handful of words it became a chore, not to mention not having access to her numerous custom gestures.

“Did you ever think of setting up a system of voice commands, Diana?” Weiss asked as she had to make yet another intricate gesture over Diana’s scroll.

“I had, it was too inefficient,” Diana said, still gripping the mouth-stick between her teeth. “I could work faster and use them more easily if they were physical movements.”

“Taking a page straight out of Basic Combat Training?” Weiss asked.

“’Repeat, repeat, repeat, until it’s as instinctive as breathing,’” Diana replied. “Cycle twice, please.”

Weiss put her finger to the surface, circled her finger around twice to her note-taking app.

“Thank you,” Diana said, tapping away for a moment, before she said, “Stick.”

Weiss took it out of her mouth and held it for her. “Need to dictate something again?” she asked, holding up her scroll with her other hand.

“No, I’ve just had enough of tasting plastic for a while,” Diana said, before she shuddered, then sighed. “I truly, deeply feel for whoever has to use these things on a regular basis...”

“Lucky it’s only temporary,” Weiss said as she wiped down the grip, before setting it aside.

“Luckier still Ruby’s father procured them for us without prompting,” Diana said. “Dust, it feels so good to be able to function at somewhat normally, I can’t wait to get out of this cast.”

“Ugh, I know how you feel; being laid up in the hospital is the absolute worst,” Weiss said. “About the only good thing was that someone was that Akko was almost always there with me, or visiting as often as she could.”

“You two got into a lot of misadventures before, I’m gussing?” Diana asked.

Weiss smiled. “Plenty. Back in Hoshiko, Sanctum, especially now here in Haven, we were always getting into trouble—generally because of Akko’s poor impulse control, or my own terrible decisions, but sometimes trouble just can’t seem to help but find us,” she said, looking at the Shiny Rod on the other side of the room.

“Speaking of which: how are you holding up?” she said as she turned back to Diana.

“Well enough, I suppose?” Diana replied. “I mean, I’m currently in a full body cast, lagging behind on all my classes, and I just know the Shiny Rod’s probably going to be attracting more Grimm and assorted trouble to us like a superpowered magnet pretty soon…

“… But, you’ve all been excellent friends and teammates; we’re setting ourselves up for quite the comeback by midterms, if Constanze’s machine works as well as I hope it will; and I’ve discovered the joy of anime.”

She looked up at the ceiling. “Never would I have thought I’d feel so attached to, and care so much about what’s essentially a malfunctioning secretarial AI, determinedly leading a group of assorted misfits.”

Weiss chuckled. “That’s art for you!” Her voice softened. “Really don’t know what I’d do without it, which is why it’s number three on the Big Three things I can’t live without.”

“What’s number one and two?” Diana asked.

“My family plus a handful of friends like Akko, and...” Weiss blushed and looked away. “… Yuri.”

“What now?” Diana asked.

“Yuri—it’s a Tenjin term for lesbian romance,” Weiss explained, still blushing. “Look, homoerotic subtext is fine, but I really prefer homoerotic main text, even if I can’t always handle it.”

Diana chuckled. “Colour me completely unsurprised.”

Weiss scowled. “Speaking of which…” her expression softened as she reached and touched Diana’s shoulder. “If you ever need someone to talk about it, I’m here for you.”

“Talk about what, exactly?” Diana asked.

“You know, being too gay for something?” Weiss replied. “Trust me, the first handful of times I watched a lot of sequences with Eluna, I had to pause the stream and physically leave the room till my face stopped feeling like it was melting.

“Even then, some scenes are just too...” she sucked in a breath, and blew it out her nose. “… Yeah.”

Diana looked at her in confusion, before her eyes widened in realization, and she said, “Weiss, I’m not gay.”

Weiss stopped, and blinked. “Wait… you’re not…?”

“No, no I’m not,” Diana replied, matter-of-fact. “As I mentioned, I’ve got bigger priorities than romance, which is why I haven’t really had the time nor the interest to explore my sexuality.”

“O-Oh!” Weiss stammered. “I’m sorry, it was just that, I… uh...”

Diana sighed, her cheeks getting a light dusting of red. “Did you assume that because of all the fanservice in Rune Rangers, and how I reacted to it?”

“Yes…” Weiss replied, nodding. “I suppose that was just culture shock?”

“Yes, yes it was,” Diana said. “As I’m sure you and Akko are aware of, Atlas is a rather conservative kingdom, and that aside, I… never really chose to seek it out myself, so it’s rather more shameless and extreme that what I’m used to.”

“Oh. Okay. Thanks for clearing that up.” Weiss said. “Offer still stands, though, in case you find out it’s not just culture shock!”

“I’m firm in my plans to not get into a relationship or involve myself in romance, Weiss, I’m sure it won’t be a problem,” Diana said flatly.

“And I believe you, but I thought the same way before I met Aqua,” Weiss replied. “Sometimes, it really only takes the one person to change your life forever—kind of like how I was, before I became friends with Akko.

“Never hurts to have a plan just in case, doesn’t it?” she asked.

“I beg to differ: there’s such a thing as opportunity cost, after all,” Diana said.

Weiss nodded. “Well, whatever your opinion, my offer still stands.”

“The thought is appreciated, Weiss,” Diana replied. “Stick, please.”

Weiss picked up her mouth-stick, wiped down the handle again, before putting it back between Diana’s teeth.

Ruby and Akko woke up some time later, they had breakfast and resumed watching MagiMon, and the conversation was—for the most part—forgotten.

C13O stands for “Comptroller 13 Omega,” her old position before the events of the series. Though she retains her spelling as reminder of where she came from, it’s always pronounced as “Cleo.” Calling her either by her full designation or reading out the code as you should is a surefire way to activate her new found “rage” subroutines.

Dash used to be “Deliverer 507 Iota” (D507I) before the actions of this season’s villain caused her to voluntarily turn Rogue from Central. Her outright refusing to bow to any sort of authority, period, is the basis for her joining the protagonists and not the Rogues, and is the frequent cause of her clashes with C13O, who was, in a literal sense, an extension of the arm of Central and the Overseers there.

Yes, I have in fact constructed massive details for this world, how it functions, the conflicts, and even an AU with Dash and C13O where they're humans working at a crappy start-up, and have an "on-off, but mostly off" relationship.

Yes, there’s gonna be a Big Gay Panic for Diana, but it’s mostly going to be in the sequel. Doesn’t mean none of these girls won’t get their Big Moments this story, don’t worry.

[writingwell]

Don't know if you're still taking these but here goes. Three word prompt: POL kids edition.

#312 (Dash Universe)

-----

The loft is too quiet, even with Rex waiting for her at the door.

Kate Castle puts her briefcase on the floor and drops her keys, squats down to rub at Rex’s ears, pet his long body, love on him as he bumps his body into her. Silently, all of it, not even a woof or yip in greeting.

It’s no fun being the one left behind. “Work sucks,” she tells Rex and the dog squirms into her arms and between her legs. “Let me change and I’ll take you out for a run. Some small consolation.”

Rex barks at her then, jumping away and then back, prancing on his paws like a pony.

“You’re as weird as your boy,” she laughs, standing up to step out of her heels. Rex noses into one and sniffs hard enough to make him sneeze. “Oh gross, my shoe. Rex.” She pushes him away her foot. “Get. Go on. These are expensive and you have chew toys nearly as.”

She leans down and picks up her heels just in case, swipes at the inside of the left shoe where Rex’s happy slobber has sprayed. The dog follows her back to the bedroom, and inside the bathroom even, watching her.

“You’re just happy to have one of your people, aren’t you? I know, it’s lonely with everyone gone.”

Rex growls back at her, his happy noise, like a cat purring only it’s the dog’s way of rumbling in his chest with all his joy. She washes her hands and strips off the silk shell, tosses it onto the pile for the dry cleaner’s. She skims off her slacks and folds them a little more carefully, replaces them on the shelf.

She changes into running shorts and sports bra quickly, grabs a tank from the drawer and has to check the tag to be sure it’s not Ellery’s. Back in the bedroom, Rex reappears with his leash - she could’ve sworn she put it back in the laundry room, hanging up - and she laughs and praises him for it anyway.

“Good boy, smart boy.”

Kate reapplies deodorant, smears sunblock on her shoulders and nose, her forehead where that damn vein has reappeared. She needs to eat a little better, put some calories back in her body. Castle will kill her if he comes back to find her haunting the place.

“Okay, minor correction, Rex, sorry. I need a protein bar or something. Didn’t have time for lunch.” She bobs the top of his head as she passes, moving quickly down the hall for the kitchen. “I’ll get you a treat and then we’ll go. Promise.”

She passes the entry and scoops up her phone, texts the group chat home, missing you guys, taking your dog for a run, wild man even as she fishes a protein bar from the pantry.

The first week was wonderful; she won’t lie. Everyone out of the house, out from underfoot, no more fighting or bickering or shrieking, dinner wherever the hell she wants, working late and not having to worry about disappointing anyone.

It got old fast.

Now she misses her baby. She even misses Rick’s dumb face. And his warm body making the bed too hot. And making coffee with Dash. And trying to-

Her phone vibrates, and the alerts come in all at once, one after another, from everyone.

She unlocks her phone, half a protein bar in her mouth and she sees Rick, Ellery, and Dash have all texted her.

Proof of Life

Proof of Life

Proof of Life

There are three photos, selfies, one from each of her family: Castle mugging on a deck chair by the pool with his mirrored shades, which show his phone and Dashiell crowding in close; Dashiell treading water in the pool with the phone raised so high that his goofy narrow face fills the whole screen; and finally, her baby girl, Ella, those too-long legs, the black two-piece, flashing a peace sign with her shades on.

Kate swallows a lump in her throat and lifts her phone, reverses the camera so they can see her face. For a moment, the image projected back at her couldn’t possibly be her.

But it is. She looks tired and thin and unhappy. She remakes her face and lets the proof life shine through instead. The joy of seeing them outside, in the sunlight, having fun.

She squats down with the dog and corrals him around the neck, pressing in close, and she takes the picture even as Rex licks her face. She sends that, and when she finally looks at it, her eyes are squeezed shut, a laugh erupting, Rex’s long tongue against her temple.

She bites her lip, watches the photo go out into the ether.

She clips on the dog’s leash, pats his side, and then her phone vibrates right as she stands.

From Castle, and only Castle, a private chat.

That’s my girl. Come up this weekend. We miss you.

-----

[victorluvsalice]

AU Thursday: As Long As You Love Me -- First Meeting

Okay, Dirk Gently featured prominently at SDCC this year -- at least on my dash, where my friend @dont-offend-the-bees reblogged a few of the new clips -- so let’s have some of the DGHDA AU that’s not the Holistic Coffee Shop! Here’s the snippet of Victor and Alice’s first meeting. A bit of context -- Victor’s been kidnapped by a bunch of rough types, and is behind held for ransom in a mysterious warehouse. The leader, Hugo, is just about to start on more drastic measures to get William and Nell to pay up -- when one of his men bursts in with news:

"Boss! We've got an intruder!"

"Intruder?" Hugo repeated, straightening. "Police?"

"I don't know!" Scott cried. "Just Todd radioed me about somebody coming, and before he could say anything else. . ." He cringed. "It d-didn't sound good."

"Shit," Hugo hissed. He shoved Victor's chair back into the closet – Victor yelped as his head bounced off the wall. "Shut up! Lemme deal with this." He pulled out his pocket knife and unfolded the blade, holding it level with Victor's eyes. "And then we'll get back to convincing your parents that they should pay up."

Victor whimpered, hands clenching into terrified fists under his bonds. Hugo smirked, then shut the door, leaving him in a private sea of darkness. "Scott! Let's show this bastard how we do things around here!"

There was the click-click-click of guns being readied, then footsteps tramping out of the room. Victor shut his eyes and prayed that the intruder was indeed a policeman. Though to survive against this lot, they'd have to be a SWAT member. . .please, please, I want to go home. . .

BANG! BANG! BANG! "AAAAAAAAAAUUUUUGHHH!"

Victor's eyes flew open. That – had been an awfully loud and tortured scream. And it was quickly followed by a number of others:

"Scott! Fuck, I – shit! shit shit shit–"

BANG! BANG! click "The fuck, I just–"

"How the hell is she doing this?!"

"I dunno, I just – glurkkk. . ."

"Oh God – fuck this noise! I'm – AAAAH!"

BANG! "This – this can't be – fuck!"

A clatter, and then the footsteps were back, this time running in the opposite direction, toward his closet. There were followed by a rather measured pair, slowly advancing on the runner. "No! No no no!" Hugo's voice came. Victor's eyes went wide – for the first time since they'd met a fortnight ago, he sounded panicked. "Look, look, we can – we can negotiate, right? We can – here! Here, take it, take it all!"

There was a soft little thwap, like a leather wallet hitting concrete. The slower footsteps paused. "Yeah, see?" Hugo said, a touch of relief in his voice. "Loads of money. And I got more coming on the way, I promise! You leave me alone, and – and fifty-fifty cut of the profits here. O-once I get some new guys. But fifty-fifty. Hell, sixty-forty. We make a good buck. I-It's an investment!" Victor could picture him trying to smile. "That sound good? We got a deal?"

A moment's silence. Then – "No."

And then the world outside the closet was nothing but screaming and a distressingly meaty series of thwucks and thwunks and the occasional crunch. Victor gaped, eyes locked on the door. Oh God. . .whoever this mystery woman was, she was certainly not a policeman. And she could take on Hugo? Apparently without a gun? His brain started flashing images of hulking bodybuilders before his eyes, women who could lift him above their heads and snap him in two without even trying. And one was right outside his door, slaughtering the toughest man he'd ever met. . .

The screams trailed off into a cold silence, followed by one last thwunk. "I do thank you for the money, though," the woman continued. "I was running a bit low." Another thwap of leather on concrete. "You can keep the wallet, I have my own. Now, let's see. . ."

Victor held his breath as he heard the woman stand up. Oh God – was her bloodlust sated? Or was she now on the hunt for a new victim? Would she think to look inside his closet? Please don't, he begged. Please don't please don't it's just vacuum cleaners and mops in here nobody else please don't please don't –

The door opened. Victor squeaked, blinking at the change in light –

Then blinked again as he got his first proper look at the woman who'd taken on Hugo and all the rest. Instead of the expected muscle-bound madam, the person standing before him was a rather small and slight young lady about his age. She was dressed simply, in a white t-shirt and jeans, a blue jacket tied around her waist, and a leather knife sheath peaking out from beneath it. A tangle of dark hair fell around her face, and she had honestly the prettiest green eyes he'd ever seen – bright and sharp. Honestly, Victor would have had trouble believing she was the killer if it weren't for the knife still clutched in her hand –

And the blood covering her body from head to toe. Victor hadn't seen so much red on a person outside of a slasher movie. Worse was the fact that the woman herself was completely ignoring it – as if this happened often enough that it wasn't even registering anymore. "Curiouser and curiouser," she commented, looking him over. "You don't look like a broom and bucket."

Victor whimpered. Part of him wanted to plead for his life, say that his parents would likely give her a reward if she brought him back in one piece – but that hadn't helped Hugo any. He could see in graphic detail just behind her legs how much it hadn't helped him. Maybe it would be better to just stay silent and hope that granted him a swift and relatively painless death. "Can't you talk?" the woman continued. "They do seem like the sorts who–"

She stopped abruptly, head turning toward an empty spot of floor beside her. "I beg your pardon?"

Victor blinked. Now what? "I–"

"Not you," the woman said, holding up a hand, eyes still on the floor. "You want me to – why?" She listened for a moment, then frowned at her unseen conversational partner. "Important? You're sure?" Another pause, leading to her putting her hands on her hips with an irritated scowl. "Well, it wasn't like I was just going to leave him here! I just don't get why–" She sighed at a silent interruption. "Fine, fine, if you're sure. . ."

With that, she loped around Victor's chair, knife at the ready. Victor shut his eyes tight, waiting for the bite of steel in his throat. Please, I'm begging you, just make it quick –

Zzz-zz-zzz-snap! Zzz-zzz-zz-snap! Zz-zz-zzz-snap!

That – definitely wasn't his neck. Victor's eyes snapped open again as the ropes around his wrists fell away. On automatic, he stretched the stiffness from his shoulders, then rubbed the aching lines cut into his skin. She'd – released him? But why? Was the hunt not any fun for her if her victims couldn't fight back or run away? Or – against all hope – was she letting him go?

It can't be that – you've seen her face, the more pessimistic side of his brain pointed out as she moved to the bonds around his legs. She's probably recognized you, realized what was going on, and decided she can be the one to get the ransom. She took Hugo's money, after all.

Yes – but – why let me up from the chair, then? Victor asked himself through another round of zzz-zz-zz-snap! Wouldn't it be safer to guarantee I can't run?

His eyes found the bloodstained knife again. She has other ways of making sure you don't go anywhere.

The last rope yielded to the blade's teeth. "I hope that hasn't blunted it too badly," the woman murmured, testing the edge against her finger. Those bright green eyes met his. "Do you think you can walk?"

To Victor's continued bafflement, she sounded absolutely sincere – even a bit concerned. "I – I don't know," he admitted. "It's b-been a while since I was let up. . . ."

"Right." The woman slid the knife into its sheath and stood. "Well, I don't think it prudent we stick around too long, so allow me."

"Allow – oh!"

Strong arms wrapped around his waist, and hoisted him over her shoulder in a fireman's carry. Without another word, she turned and carried him away, like a sheep to the shearing. A very large and awkward sheep, admittedly – his head was about level with her bottom. Which, unfortunately, gave him an excellent view of the carnage she'd inflicted on Hugo. He gulped as he watched the cooling blood drip out of the stab wounds. "G-goodness. . ."

"Evilness," the woman corrected. "I have no pity for him, or the others. They had no pity for their victims. Do you know what business they were in, or were you stuck in the closet before you could find out?"

"Um – m-movies, of some sort," Victor said, recalling the few times he'd been out of the closet long enough to see the camera equipment stored in the little warehouse.

"Snuff porn," the woman replied, without preamble. Victor's jaw dropped. "One of their recruiters gave me a business card. Last thing he ever did."

"Want to be in pictures, Van Dort? Bet I could make you a star." Victor shuddered as Hugo's words replayed themselves in his head. He'd guessed that they were almost certainly making pornography, but to learn they'd tricked innocent people into being killed for a shot at fame. . . They entered the hallway, and while the bodies strewn around were gruesome, Victor had a lot harder time feeling sorry for them. Would something like this have been his fate if his parents hadn't paid the ransom? Or even if they had? He didn't like to think about it. Especially with so much blood and gore so close to his face.

It was a thankfully short walk out of the building – soon they were in the parking lot under cloudy skies, passing the remains of Todd (who seemed to have been let off with just having his throat cut – probably because she'd been in a hurry to get to the others before they could prepare for her arrival) and heading towards an old red convertible. The woman opened the passenger side door and dumped him in his seat. "I do hope you'll be able to move on your own soon," she commented, going around to the driver's side. "I can't carry you everywhere, you know."

"I know," Victor murmured. He glanced across the expanse of gray concrete and white lines. He could make a run for it now, he supposed – but he didn't trust his chances of getting more than a few feet before tripping or getting tackled. Or stabbed. "I'm sorry."

"Not really your fault, you've been in a closet." The woman started up the car. "Seat belts. Not that I think we'll crash unless we're meant to, but just in case."

Victor obligingly buckled up. "The police are a-already looking for me," he said, wondering if it would actually make a difference. "I'm sure of it."

"Well, of course. I imagine your family wants you back," the woman said, unconcerned. She shifted the car into drive and peeled out of her space. Victor grabbed onto the door to steady himself as they whipped around toward the road. "And I'll get you to them. Eventually."

Victor gulped. "I – I don't have my phone. H-Hugo took it. I don't know how you'd c-contact them for the ransom."

The woman gave him a funny look. "Why would I want a ransom? I just got five hundred dollars off that idiot. I'm not pestering some poor couple for more."

Victor's thoughts screeched to a halt. "I – you – you don't know who I am?"

The woman shook her head. "I've been out of the loop for about twelve years, and even now watching the news or celebrity talk shows is not on my list of priorities. If you're someone famous, I'm afraid you'll just have to suffer my ignorance." She zoomed onto the quiet highway. "Of course, since Cheshire seems certain that we need to stick together for now, I guess introductions are in order." She gave him a nod. "Alice Liddell."

"Victor," Victor managed to get out after a further moment of astonishment. "Victor V-Van Dort. I – I g-guess you don't like canned fish?"

"Not particularly. Do you?"

". . .Not really."

She flashed him a smile. "Then we'll get along just fine."