#specifically ''happiness found after a lifetime of emptiness''

[thegreatyin]

Oh wait did The Scoundrel change to she/her pronouns while I wasn't looking? Congrats on her (non bat kind) transition

the scoundrel uses any pronouns! always has ^w^ i just tend to default to it/its or they/them, just for simplicities sake

[sharuruwrites]

Another

I'm in love with the idea Of dying with you in my arms But not like this - The Bird song by Noah Floersch

Tags: Osamu Dazai x Fem!Reader, Angst, inspiration from BEAST manga, unedited, Reader works as a florist, lots of deaths, Dazai being a Yandere in one of his past lives?, Unalive oneself, fluff

A/n: haven't read the manga, but hearing these specific lines from that song two days ago while driving to home, made me write this. I do recommend to look up hanakotoba or Japanese Flower Language after reading this one shot.

------------------------------------

The ability to experience and remembered all past lives sounded a good idea in theory. However, one must expect that not everything would be the same as one hoped it'll be.

Unfortunately, Osamu Dazai was blessed? or perhaps cursed? He really didn't know at this point as he lost count in how many lives he started and ended. Dazai was too busy studying the lady's beautiful features behind the glass window of a flower shop.

Someone was so lovely and brimming with life, but so far within his reach. The carefree smile on your face never changed either.

Yes, this wasn't his first encounter of you. In fact, in every life he experienced, a very special constant existed. He unexpectedly believed he would get his desired ending.

You.

Despite your profession being the same through the many lifetimes, you always have a different favourite flower and a different ending.

In the first book, the scent of red roses was constant to him as you always greeted him with it. It was a fall at first sight. Stolen kisses, intimate conversations, and silence filled with affection. Love and Passion -- those two words described what his first relationship was like with you. Just the existence of you was enough to fill the void he found in his tiring world.

Yet, his enemies found out his 'weakness', and the last thing he remembered from that life was rage and anger directed at everything after your corpse was delivered to him.

In the next book, your first meeting, Dazai brushed his fingers against yours as you were reaching for the soft hydrangeas. Memories from the previous book haunted him, and swore to himself that he would do everything to keep you safe. The moment you fell for him he ensnared you, and locked you up in his apartment like a caged bird.

Dazai took advantage of your kind heart by threatening to take his life if you dared to go outside. His fear of losing you and his stubborn pride drove you to insanity. Instead of an obedient and dependent beloved welcoming him home, he found you dead with an empty bottle of sleeping pills.

In one of the books and after many more tragedies, Dazai vowed to not fall for you, but fate was a such a cruel mistress to suffering. Everywhere he went, you were there, wearing a metallic spider-like flower brooch.

Since when fucking Yokahama city became a small town for him to see you so easily?

Dazai avoided you like a plaque, but it's unavoidable as you were somehow acquainted with the agency's mad doctor, Yosano. During your visits in the agency, longing still filled him as he caught glimpses of you. Dazai yearned to be the one who makes you smile effortlessly.

After he gathered the courage to approach you, he witnessed a car crash as your body flung across the busy street of the city. His mind screamed at him to get close to you, but he stood still as his eyes locked onto the bloodied flower brooch on your dress.

That's where realization hit Dazai. Whether it be from the start or from the end, you and him were doomed. He's enamoured to a dream -- to die alongside of a beautiful lady. But, if it meant a countless partings with you attached to your tragic end, why would he wished for it?

Although all hope may seemed lost, Dazai dreamt of a very peaceful scenery last night that ignited his hope of a happy ending with you.

"I know we just got married," Dazai cupped your face, and his thumb caressed your cheek. "But, will you marry me in our next life?"

You leaned further to his touch with your eyes getting misty. "Well, as long as you hear me say yes."

With a deep breath, Dazai walked into your flower shop. The bell rang, and the flowers' scent filled his senses. He took a moment to enjoy the sight before him—the roses, carnations, and lilies, all so pretty. He felt himself smile at the sight, as if he hadn't seen them in years. He had never thought much of flowers, but after he met you, he found himself falling in love with them.

"Welcome!" you called from behind the counter, greeting him. "How may I help you?"

"Instead of help," Dazai plucked a cluster of small blue flowers from a nearby vase. "Can't I just give a beautiful lady like you a flower?"

"Oh," You meekly accepted the flower. "How did you know that forget-me-nots are my favourite?"

Dazai chuckled. "A lucky guess?"

[thefirstknife]

They're killing me with Echoes.

Some stuff from the exotic mission that is really interesting. I'll start with the stuff you can only get after you've done it once and you can start finding secret chests. On runs after your 1st, there will be a conflux in one of the side rooms that is otherwise empty.

Once you activate that, there will be a small puzzle and then a chest will appear. This will also change the room slightly and activate several Vex portals, turning the room into a sort of a nexus that will be used for other chests. More under, spoilers and long:

This is the room, btw, when you first run it and there's no conflux:

Okay. Although a lot has been altered, they're continuing with the trend of stripping away Mercury for parts: this is the base layout of the inside of the Lighthouse. Kicking and screaming and throwing things and eating through my walls.

Anyway, after you activate the conflux and the puzzle, the extra gates around the area will transform like this and the area will get a name "Ancillary Transit Nexus" :

This will later be used as portals to go into areas with other chests. There's two extra chests this week and we go through two of these portals, but there's a third as well. I'm assuming it might be some sort of a rotation by week.

The second chest you get this week is where the interesting part starts because you return back to this area, use one of the portals and go back to the area where the mission started where you do a puzzle and then get the chest. But when you do all that, you get new voice lines. This time... From Chioma Esi; one of Chiomas that got simulated by the Vex:

Aspect lore book fans stay winning!!!! So this is the format of how different iterations of the 227 simulated Ishtar scientist teams were designated and how they communicated with each other. Two of these teams are also specifically mentioned in Aspect. We don't know about .130 (130th iteration), but we do know .59 and .97. A devastating one for .59:

227.59 You lose Maya. You mourn. The thought of all the other Mayas out there doesn't help. They weren't the Maya you'd puzzled with over living basalt flowers, a world with seventeen moons, a continent that Shim had sworn up and down was sixteenth-century Australia and that Duane-McNiadh couldn't be dissuaded from calling Pangaea. You'd found a simulation with a city where you discovered a jewelry store, picked out a necklace, brought it home to her, and wished her a happy pseudo anniversary. Maya didn't like bracelets, said they always fouled her work. Her hair had been getting shaggy again and was due for a trim. She could never decide whether or not to grow it out. She laughed at you lifting weights to maintain simulated muscle, but she spotted for you all the same. There are other Mayas out there, layers of them, all the way up to the original, wherever she is. You hope they're doing well. But that doesn't stop you from missing this Maya, missing whatever arguments and discoveries you'd have shared in the rest of the lifetime you'd promised to one another. Shim and Duane-McNiadh pull you up from beside Maya's marker. A basalt lily rests on top of it, petals thin enough to let light through. You go on.

And .97:

227.97 Here's how it goes: you and Maya and Shim and Duane-McNiadh take your first cautious, sliding steps out into the Vex information network. You get your footing. You've got to translate everything into metaphor to understand it, here, and this is like tightrope walking on a greased line. You and Maya lean into each other. Shim slips, and you help him up. You explore. You go on.

They're both in the same lore tab. These groups were so distinct between each other and experienced vastly different things, so much that Praedyth could differentiate between the groups and knew which voices belonged to which number of them. These groups communicated with him to coordinate their potential escape.

The interesting bit is that in the voice line from this week we see .130 Chioma calling the Chioma from .59 (the one that lost and buried Maya), asking about the .97 group with whom they've apparently lost contact. And in Aspect, we see the .97 group doing fine. At least here at the beginning. But it appears that the idea is that at some point they either died or simply vanished, as they're not responding.

The third chest is the same; you go to the nexus and from there to another room where there's a puzzle and when you solve it, you get a chest and voice lines, this time from one of the simulated Mayas:

This Maya is from the 65th iteration and she's telling us that a lot of inviduals from each team are vanishing. We don't really know what that means and what is happening, but we do know from Aspect that at the end when they attempted their escape, there were significantly fewer individuals, possibly whole teams either vanished, dead or simply unreachable:

A hundred and sixty Mayas reach for the Chiomas by their side. A hundred and fifty-eight Chiomas reach back.

Down to 160 from 227 is a lot (and only 158 Chiomas). We never really knew what this meant and we still aren't sure now, but this might be an explanation. Something was happening to them in the network.

What makes this even more interesting is that this Maya mentioned "our singular friend." This can be none other than Praedyth. He wasn't a simulated copy, he was just one Praedyth, communicating with them from the Vault of Glass and helping them escape; a singular friend.

One Praedyth, waiting for the conductor's baton to drop.

Interesting word to use in this lore from 5 years ago. There's also no way that this is it and that they won't give us more lines about this because it feels like just the start of the explanation so I'm going absolutely bonkers insane. We have to get more lines next week and the week after since this is also all a way to get the pieces for the exotic gun. And there's one more portal that we haven't gone into so there has to be some sort of rotation and more information on this.

Besides this, the mission had another gut punch with Maya and Chioma, namely showing us Conductor!Maya experiments with Exo!Chioma; basically booting her up and checking her with personal questions until she finds the Chioma she wants. The lines are truly something else:

So that's fine. A few points that are interesting. Parthenogenic incubation! Really interesting look into the Golden Age technology; this is basically a way to reproduce without the need to fertilise an egg which allows for, in this case, two women to have biological offspring. Degaussing is also an interesting word to use; it's a complete destruction of data by affecting the magnetic field on magnetic storage. This is basically what the Veil was doing to Exos to erase them.

That aside, yeah. Maya was booting up Chiomas and testing them, then erasing them if they were proven to be unsatisfactory in some way which is obviously upsetting to Chioma who would at that point be a fully conscious person. She was also being booted in really bizarre hybrid Exo-Vex bodies like this:

Yeah.

Now we need to keep coming back to this place to find out more. I'm hoping for more exceptionally fucked up voice lines like this and also more voice lines about the whole simulated scientists part because there's no way that this is all we'll get. Maya is going through the network, searching through simulations for her Chioma, or at least a Chioma that he thinks is the best of them, as narrated at the start of the act. She wants not only to bring a Golden Age to the whole system, she wants to have her personal Golden Age with the woman she loves.

And ofc at the end with the seasonal lore book page, we get some insight into this as well, more about Maya, her using the Veil, ending up in the Vex Network, making herself a body and how she was looking for Chioma.

I left the reach of the Veil's threads when I collided with the familiar angles of the Vex network… didn't I? Yes, I did.

Maya also seemed genuinely convinced that Chioma would be amazed and proud of this and that she would join her. But we know from Veil Logs that Chioma was instead horrified. And the Maya that entered the network and shaped herself a body and realised that she can command the Vex? Her first impulse was to search for Chioma. I am crying!

"TELL ME HOW LONG HAS PASSED SINCE I LAST ENCOUNTERED THE VEX." They do, through the Vex at my feet; they whisper it in unencoded ease. The number is gargantuan. I begin to panic. It is impossible, and my first thought is of her, her— "TELL ME WHERE CHIOMA ESI IS." They search, and they tell me the woman who holds my heart in her hands has laid in a grave for hundreds of years. In a rage, I tell them to mutilate one another. The milk at my feet boils in violence. My Chioma would not depart so mundanely. My Chioma would come find me, my Chioma is still here. My beloved does not rot in a grave.

And the thing is... She's correct. Her Chioma didn't depart mundanely. We know this from Veil Logs. Chioma called the Vex to take her.

Chioma Esi: Years ago, back on Venus, the Vex simulated copies of us — Maya and I. Trapped in a virtual hell. After so long, even hell can look like heaven, can't it? [chuckles] I'm tired. I'm done. Maya has to be out there. The Maya I remember. And all I want is one more moment with her. To hold her in my arms. Tell her that I love her. So she can tell me to "hush" one more time. If… if we learned anything from the Veil, it's that eventually… we all have to learn to let go. So… I made contact with the Vex. I'm ready. And it's time to say goodbye.

So there's a Maya looking for this Chioma and a Chioma looking for this Maya, somewhere in the network, among other 227 copies of them that have been through so much and some of them are also vanishing. This makes me insane. Hello. From this week's lore tab:

Chioma, my world, my life, cannot be dead. She must have joined the VexNet again; she would have searched for me there, sorted among the hundreds of copies of us to find the TRUE version of myself, HER Maya. So, too, will I search. I love her, I would know her in the darkness of a cave and the blinding glare of a sun. She is unique in all ways, precious and without fault. I know the real Chioma is alive.

Why are we here? Just to suffer about old woman yuri? Yes.

We also now know what "primary query" is:

"PRIMARY QUERY; FIND THE TRUE CHIOMA ESI," I command through my tears.

And yeah, the parallels with Osiris and Saint? So deliberate. I will explode. Osiris noted so a long time ago, also because of Veil Logs, how much Maya was similar to him. And they basically had the same goal; find the person they loved who was lost to them. Except Maya is doing this in a way that's deeply unhinged and hurting Chioma, while Osiris did it also deeply unhinged, but hurting himself. And listening to the Veil Logs and Chioma's perspective affected him greatly and genuinely was one of the biggest points for his development when he realised just how much obsession could've destroyed him and all he loves further if he didn't stop it.

It's all about Chioma and Maya. They're such an important piece of lore literally for ten years and now we're getting so much about them and their interactions together and all the pain and suffering. Please please please this has to end with them reuniting somehow. Please.

Anyway, wanted to point out some of these things that are connecting to older stuff, especially Aspect and also Veil Logs. I will be running this mission maybe another 100 or 10000 times. Looking forward for extra stuff in the next two weeks.

[magicalbats]

Fantasies Play Out

Rating: R-18+

Word Count: 18.921

Warnings: aphrodisiacs, pining & yearning, pathetic soggy men. femdom, overstimulation, handjobs, PIV, cowgirl position, dacryphilia, rimming, anal fingering, prostate massage, edging & orgasm denial

A/N: Alright, here's my longest comm yet. I'm so, so happy the commissioner gave me permission to post this because I simply MUST continue to spread my femdom agenda, and what better candidate exists for tribute than Kaveh? lol This was written using one of the lovely @tearsofcalamity's OC's, her name is Jeanne and she's ... quite the woman, haha. If you're anything like me you shouldn't have any problem at all self inserting with the text left as is so ... please enjoy! ❤️

⭐

Peering sullenly into his open wallet, Kaveh breathes out a single lamentable sigh over how much lighter it now was. Practically empty by all accounts, and what little mora he did have left would go very quickly. This he knew a little too well. 

He was struggling. No ifs, ands or buts about that. Between trying to stay caught up on the rent and his considerable debt payments (which hardly even put a dent in the total sum he owed to the renowned Lord Sangemah Bay) as well as the quite necessary bottles of wine he purchased for himself at the taverns and the shops, it was all going to be gone again in frustratingly quick order. And he’d only just returned from his most recent job out in the arid desert too. What a shame. 

It couldn’t be helped though. He’d needed these components for Mehrak and there wasn’t any getting around the costly price tag that came with them when one was working with a piece of complicated machinery as old and mysterious as his little helper was. He couldn’t exactly begrudge her for that. Mehrak may have been a costly sinkhole, an extra expense he hadn’t needed, but she was also an exceptionally good assistant. And, well. Perhaps she also helped chase away some of the isolated loneliness he’d felt closing in around him since he’d lost everything he’d worked so hard for, but there was no sense in dwelling unnecessarily on that. 

Mournfully clasping the purse shut and tucking it away into the safety of his pocket, Kaveh says to the ironworks shopkeep, “Thank you, Rahid. I appreciate you always keeping these bits and baubles on hand for me.” 

Because of course Mehrak needed parts of a very specific dimension that weren’t found anywhere else in modern Sumeru so they needed to be custom made. A costly sinkhole indeed. 

Sitting behind the counter, the elderly man sends him what can only be a sympathetic look from under the bushy, dusted gray droop of his eyebrows. He was happy to make the petite screws and nuts, and odd shaped bolts Kaveh needed since it kept food on his family table but evidently he wasn’t without his scruples. He’d certainly been around long enough to recognize when someone was limping steadily towards his last leg, yet he could only discount his wares so much without giving them away for free.

His sympathy just makes the blond’s stomach flip in on itself though, and he quickly busies himself with gathering up the handful of metal pieces laid out between them on the counter of the small shop. Pity was the very last thing he needed right now. 

“You should take it easy, old friend. You’ve been working an awful lot lately.” Rahid says in his usual low rumble, his voice permanently raspy after a lifetime spent working the forges, breathing in all the hot steam and iron smoke of his craft. 

“Ah, thank you but I’m afraid I don’t have any time for that at the moment. Someone is always in need of an architect, aren’t they? Busy, busy, busy.” Kaveh tries for nonchalant, tries to laugh it off like it’s no big deal as he slips Mehrak’s new screws into his other pocket where they wouldn’t stab him the next time he reaches for his wallet, but Rahid hardly seems convinced. 

In fact, the way he stares at him over the counter would seem to suggest that he could smell bullshit from a mile away, and he wasn’t impressed with Kaveh’s attempt at deflection. 

His deliberately casual laughter quickly morphs into nervous chuckling. “Hey, now. What’s with that look, huh?” 

Rahid narrows his eyes as if he wanted to give Kaveh a right and proper tongue lashing but says instead, “Well, as true as that may be - and I don’t doubt that it is given the quality of your work - you should still make some time for yourself. Take it from an old coot like me. You’re still young and capable. Don’t get so focused on your livelihood that you forget to live a little. You’ll regret it when you get to be my age. Surely there are some girls around the city who have caught your eye that you’d like to get to know?” 

Well, there was one, but she wasn’t from the city, or even Sumeru for that matter. 

She also wasn’t what Kaveh would call a girl either. 

Thoughts drifting idly to Jeanne only to inevitably take up camp there, Kaveh decides that she’s all woman and what a woman she was. 

Fontainian by birth and blood, she was an enforcement officer of the Maison Gardiennage who came to Sumeru on business with some amount of regularity. What that entailed was more often than not tracking down scoundrels that thought escaping to the opposite shore of the vast sea would save them from her wrath, or mora hungry merchants with a penchant for trouble and a bit too much free time on their hands. 

They’d happened to run into each other during one such incident involving a Fontaine trader who was underreporting his earnings to avoid paying all the taxes he owed. Having been in the wrong place at the right time, Kaveh, young and just as naive as he was now, had very nearly gotten duped out of a month's worth of pay by the shady businessman. But then Jeanne suddenly appeared like the hero in a storybook to interrupt the transaction before it was too late, saving him from what, in retrospect, had clearly been a scam. She’d made quick work of the lout and the two of them had become fast friends after that. Even now it struck Kaveh as being curiously fateful, that initial encounter. Like he was some hapless damsel in distress and Jeanne the noble chevalier of justice. 

But that was about where the fanciful tale ended. Years later they were still just friends despite Kaveh’s occasionally wistful thoughts to the contrary of someday being more and it’s not as if anyone could really fault him for that. 

Jeanne wasn't only pretty, she was downright stunning. And not in spite of the bisecting scars that ran across her face but because of them. He’d never seen someone quite so beautiful or captivating, and he more than anyone else had an eye for that sort of thing. There were very few in this world who understood the concept of aesthetic objectivity quite like he did, especially when others were much too focused on their own predefined subjective tastes to look past that. In many ways, Jeanne was the kind of woman he could see himself wanting to spend the rest of his life with. 

Unfortunately for him, she was unflappable and largely oblivious to the puppy faced looks of wanting he’d sometimes catch himself leveling at her, especially when they were drinking together. She always seemed to think it was just the wine talking, influencing his behavior and making him more needy (and whiny) than he normally was. Of course she wasn’t exactly wrong about that, but it was beside the point. While Kaveh undoubtedly appreciated her willingness to humor him in her own curious way during such moments, it didn’t exactly do much to soothe the yearning in his heart. More than anything he wanted Jeanne to take him seriously, but it looked like that was never going to happen. 

He's so caught up in these spiraling thoughts that he doesn’t even realize he’s letting out another groaning, long suffering sigh until Rahid chuckles a knowing sound in return. 

“That bad, eh?” 

Kaveh snaps his attention up, surprised at his own slip. “What? No. Nothing’s bad. Everything’s great, in fact.” 

The aging ironworker pins him with a critical, wisened look that seems to speak volumes. Clearly there would be no fooling a man nearly triple his age who’s been around long enough to have already seen and done it all, but that doesn’t exactly make Kaveh feel any better about being so damn transparent. 

“I’m afraid there’s no hiding it, boy. You can lie to yourself if you like but there’ll be no pulling one over on this old dog. I’ve heard that kind of sigh before. You’ve got a little sweetheart, don’t you?” 

“Don’t be ridiculous.” He huffs, fluster quickly creeping up on him like a potent, thrumming buzz. “She’s not little. Th — I mean. I mean she wouldn’t be, if there was someone like that. But there’s not. I don’t have the time–“

“Alright, alright,” Rahid mercifully cuts off his floundering with a wave of his wrinkled hand. “I get it. There isn’t a girl you’re soft for.” 

“A woman.” Kaveh can’t help but correct him even when he knows he’s only digging his own grave deeper still. 

“Yes, of course. But if there was … what would be stopping you from courting the young lady? Surely you don’t lack for confidence? A handsome and successful architect such as yourself should have no problem getting anyone at all you set your sights on.” 

The blond hesitates, opening his mouth and then closing it again in favor of chewing on his bottom lip instead. He was tempted, oh, he was very tempted to lay it all bare. It’s not like he had anyone else to confide in about this sort of thing without running the risk of being laughed right out of the room. Or worse, stared at in contemptible silence and wordless judgment by the likes of that blasted Al-Haitham. He’d sooner take all his secrets to the afterlife before ever trying to have a discussion like this with the scribe. 

But Rahid was an old friend whom Kaveh has known for many years now and a decidedly trustworthy individual. He’d never sold him faulty parts or tried to price gouge him, hadn’t even asked what he needed these peculiar components for like many others might have. If there was anyone who could be trusted with this information it was probably him. 

Cautiously, Kaveh sends him a slow look of consideration. “Hypothetically speaking?” 

The old man nods in agreement. “Aye. Hypothetically.” 

“Well … if there were someone — and do keep in mind that this is purely speculative conjecture — if there were someone like that and they genuinely didn’t seem to realize I wanted to pursue them, what else could I possibly do to get my feelings across? Especially if they don’t even live here and I only get to see them on occasion …” 

Rahid lifts his brows in surprise. “She’s not from Sumeru?” 

“Hypothetically!” 

“Hmm. Well, I can see how that might cause you some trouble then. Trying to make a long distance relationship work is always hard. But, tell me boy, have you actually told her what you’ve just told me?” 

“I — I have, just … not in quite so many words, I guess.” Feeling his cheeks grow hot at the unbidden memory of grumbling out a half baked attempt to flirt with her the last time Jeanne had been in town, Kaveh drops his gaze and anxiously shifts from one foot to the other. It hadn’t worked, of course. He’d been so drunk and vibrating with liquid courage that he couldn’t even remember what exactly he’d said to her. All he knew with any certainty was that she’d softly tutted at him that he’d had enough for one night before wandering off to fetch him a glass of water. The lingering embarrassment was almost enough to make him feel faint. 

But at Rahid’s pressing sound of encouragement, Kaveh jumps at the chance and recounts the whole sorry tale to him in an impulsive rush that comes pouring from his mouth, unable to stop it even if he’d wanted to. He tells the old man everything; how they met, how simultaneously wonderful and imposing Jeanne could be at the same time and yet how oblivious she still seemed regarding his feelings. He even lamented, ad nauseum, how she never lost her composure while they were drinking long into the night together and how he couldn’t figure out how to crack her shell because of it. 

Eyes brightening at that last bit, Rahid abruptly leans forward against the rickety counter as if in great interest. “That right there sounds like your chance, boy. If she won’t hear you out sober, then you should do it when her guard is down. Everyone is more open to suggestions when they’ve got alcohol in them.” 

“But that’s the problem. No matter how much she drinks, she never lets her guard down. I don’t exactly consider myself a lightweight but she’s got the tolerance of a bear!”

“I see.” Murmuring thoughtfully, Rahid leans back to cross his arms in consideration. It’s clear he’s pondering over something with all the appropriate weight and gravitas the situation calls for. But he reaches his conclusion surprisingly quickly — much more quickly than Kaveh could ever make up his mind — and he stands with a soft scrape of his stool against the shop's floorboards. “Give me a moment. I think I may have something that could help you.” 

Blinking owlishly, Kaveh tracks his steps over to a stout cabinet pushed up against the side wall where he slides open one of the drawers with a dull jostle. 

“What do you mean? Don’t tell me you’ve got some hundred year old snake wine waiting on standby for just such an occasion or something?” 

“Ehh, not quite. But this should do just as well, if not better. Here we are.” Pulling out something that remains unseen in his blocky fist, Rahid closes the drawer back up and returns to the counter. Kaveh isn’t quite sure what to expect, but the petite glass vial he holds out to him is somehow the very last thing he could have guessed. There’s a faintly pinkish liquid inside that sloshes against the interior at the slightest shift and, squinting, Kaveh leans closer to get a better look. 

“What is that, some sort of alchemical potion?” 

“You’re not wrong, but you’re not exactly right either. Just take it. Trust me. You’ll be grateful you did the next time this young lady is in Sumeru. A few drops of this in her drink will have her, uh, loosening up quite a bit and you’ll have your chance to talk to her as much as you want.”

Kaveh shoots him a plainly horrified glance. “Are you telling me to drug her? She’ll kill me, Rahid, have you lost your mind?” 

“Archons above, this isn’t going to incapacitate her or nothing like that. Relax. My wife and I use this stuff to get in the mood with one another in our old age, that’s all. It just helps us with the warm up, if you get what I’m saying.” 

The blond offers a soft sound of enlightenment as if he understood perfectly now but, given the way Rahid critically eyes him, it’s clear the older man isn’t entirely convinced he does. 

For better or worse Kaveh is much too preoccupied with staring at the small vial in rapt fascination to notice though, and his hands idly clench into greedy fists where they’re braced against the counter. Regardless of his understanding or not, there was no denying the wisdom in Rahid’s suggestion. If Jeanne wouldn’t allow herself to drop her walls naturally then giving her a little nudge in the right direction was just the logical next step, wasn’t it? He was always much more loose lipped with a few drinks in him so if he could coax her into being the same … 

This really might be the thing that would finally tip the scales in his favor where the Fontanian woman was concerned. 

“How … how much would you want for that?” He finally brings himself to ask. 

“Nothing, old friend.”  The soft note of sympathy in his voice is clear as day, and it brings Kaveh’s attention up with a snap. Ignoring his hurried protests, Rahid reaches across the counter and bullies the glass bottle into his fumbling hands, adamantly refusing to take ‘no’ for an answer. “Like I said, just take it. You need it more than I do, don’t you boy? My wife and I can get by without. Besides, it sounds like your situation is much more dire anyway. Just promise me you’ll take a break from working so much and put it to good use, eh?” 

Gently cradling the vial in his palms like it was some sort of precious, highly fragile artifact, Kaveh gropes for something to say. He couldn’t very well let it slip that he didn’t have much choice and reveal just how far from grace he’d fallen in the process, not without permanently staining his reputation as a capable and respected graduate of the Akademiya. 

But the greater meaning behind this gesture is not lost on him. Not by a long shot, and he finally settles on, “Thank you, Rahid. A thousand times, thank you. I hope you know how much I appreciate this.” 

Dismissing him with a brief wave of his hand, the old man quickly turns away, giving him his back. “Not another word about it, Kaveh. Now get out of here. Before I change my mind.” Then, like an afterthought, he adds, “I’ll make sure to have more of those components on hand for the next time you need them. Take care of yourself out there.” 

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

The little bell over the door chimes a merry sound as he steps out into the street and the humidity dense, year-long heat of Sumeru. The city is a constant buzz of noise and bustling activity, myriad smells from nearby cafes and vendors, but Kaveh hardly notices any of it while he makes his way down the road. His attention is all for the petite vial in his hand, so slight yet monumentally heavy against his palm. 

It was strange to think that something this small and seemingly benign could potentially be the answer to at least one of the many problems in his life. But as they say, matters of the heart are some of the most significant and challenging one can face, and he was inclined to agree. 

Financial problems could be parsed and sorted out in due time. Hell, even his living arrangements seemed stable enough for him not to have to worry about it too much at the current moment. Al-Haitham, for all of his bad attitude and unreasonable nature, seemed perfectly content with the way things were, even if Kaveh did sometimes suspect he’d only reached out a hand to lorde it over his head. Did that really mean it was okay for him to be expending this sort of energy on the issue of Jeanne rather than any of his other troubles though? 

“Well,” He murmurs softly under his breath, consideringly turning the bottle this way and that to watch how the rosy liquid inside reflects in the sunlight. “There’s no telling when I’ll even get to see her again so I think this should be fine. At least I’m prepared now.” 

Which was more than could be said before that exchange with Rahid. He’d have to remember to thank him properly for it later when he was back on his feet again, especially if the mysterious concoction ended up working a veritable miracle. Hopefully that wouldn’t be too far out in the future.  

Moreover though, the implication of what he was holding in his hand was a bit too tempting for him to think any better of it or reconsider his ready acceptance of this gift. Rahid had only said it would loosen her up but what exactly did that entail? He’d never seen her lose her composure before so Kaveh had no idea what that might look like. Would a truly inebriated Jeanne be clingy and soft with him? Prone to whining, the way he sometimes was? Or perhaps she would allow herself to laugh more openly, more freely without her self imposed walls there holding her back. 

The thought alone makes him huff a quiet laugh as he makes the turn into the packed market square, intending to cut through to get home a little quicker. “Yeah right, maybe when shroomboars sprout wings and fly. That would be awfully cute though …” 

And if her lips were loosened enough to coax a long anticipated yet never realized confession out of her? All the better then. She may not have taken him or any of his prior attempts at flirting seriously but surely she wouldn’t discredit her own actions once everything was said and done, right? 

Feeling oddly optimistic about the situation, Kaveh lifts his head to pay attention to where he’s going only to damn near drop the bottle in surprise when his eyes immediately alight upon a tall figure. The height as much as the manner of dress makes her stand out in the crowd, a feathered cap and a heavy coat worn over the shoulders that are at complete odds with the common attire. The burgundy red hair is what truly strikes a familiar note of wanting in his heart though, and he comes to an abrupt, lurching halt to stare at her in disbelief. 

She hasn’t noticed him just yet, only halfway through the motion of turning away from the owner of the shawarma stall she’d stopped at, but it didn’t really matter. He still recognized her on such an intrinsic, bone deep level that a shock of static electricity promptly surges through his entire body to set him abuzz from head to toe. Mouth going drier than the desert plains, he openly gapes at her like a beached fish. 

She notices him standing there another heartbeat later and, blinking at him in her closest approximation of startlement, Jeanne moves to face him. “Oh, what a coincidence. I was just on my way to pay you a visit. How have you been?” 

Kaveh fumbles desperately for something intelligent to say, coming up decidedly empty handed. It was like just the sight of her had short circuited his brain so beyond repair that no amount of trying to kick start it back into gear was working. There was simply no way, no way she’d just so happened to appear before him like this though. Was someone playing a cruel joke on him? Or had he finally cracked under the building pressure piling up around him and he was now hallucinating the singular object of his desires? 

But the longer he goes without responding the more her usually stoic expression pinches in vague concern, and he finally has to force himself to clear his throat with a rough cough so he can speak. “I - I’m fine. Good. Better than ever, in fact. What about you? I wasn’t … I didn’t expect to run into you like this.” 

Her suspicions evidently alleviated, Jeanne allows her expression to fall back to her usual neutral mask again. “I'm well. I thought about sending you a letter of correspondence prior to my arrival but I figured a surprise would do just as well. It’s not often I get the chance to drop in unexpectedly like this, after all. And for the better, it seems. Were you just on your way home?” 

“Oh, yes, I was just …” Kaveh trails off when a cold note of terror races down his spine. She didn’t yet know he’d lost everything. All of his furniture, his house, his beautifully maintained garden on the veranda that now belonged to someone else who’d no doubt swooped in like a vulture to buy up the gorgeous property he’d had no choice but to sell. He didn’t have a home to go back to unless you counted Al-Haitham’s largely minimal space and there wasn’t a god strong enough in this world or any other that could make him take her there. Even if she had sent him a letter there was a very real chance he never would have gotten it. 

“Kaveh?” Jeanne’s voice breaks through the muddled mess in his head as abruptly as if she’d sucker punched him, and he snaps out of it with a jolt. “Are you quite alright? You look a little pale to me.” 

“I’m fine!” He insists, a bit more loudly than he’d intended, only to grimace when she narrows her eyes again with renewed suspicion. “Sorry, sorry. I promise I’m fine, honest.” He quickly tries again, much more softly this time. “I just got back from a job out near Aaru Village, that’s all. I guess I’m still feeling a bit fatigued but it shouldn’t be anything a glass or two of wine won’t fix, haha… Come on. What do you say? For old times’ sake?”  

At his nervous attempt at laughter, Jeanne breathes out a quiet sigh and shakes her head. “Wine isn’t the solution to all of life’s problems, Kaveh. Haven’t I told you that before?” 

“Well, you’re not wrong of course, but in this case it most certainly is. You’ll see. Why don’t we just go down to Lambad’s for a drink? You’ve already got a snack to go with it.” 

Kaveh gestures towards the single serving of shawarma clasped in her hand and, as if she’d forgotten she was even holding it, Jeanne contemplatively glances down at the shishkabob skewer. Taking his chance while she’s not looking, he covertly slides the little vial into his pocket and safely out of sight before she can notice it. He hadn’t quite gotten so far as figuring out how he was going to slip a few drops of the mysterious substance into whatever she was drinking but thankfully she wouldn’t have reason to question him about it just yet. That solved at least one of the many problems her sudden appearance had presented. 

Now he only needed to stall her long enough to decide what he was going to tell her regarding his living situation. One issue at a time here. 

“I suppose I could do with a drink.” She says, bringing her attention back up just as he’s withdrawing his now empty hand from his pocket. “But you need to hydrate yourself before anything else if you’re feeling unwell after your travels. Promise me you’ll make sure to drink some water when we get there?” 

“Deal.” He gratefully blurts even as his heart gives a dully subdued flutter inside his chest. Jeanne, feared enforcer of Fontaine and scourge of all wrongdoers, worried about him? Kaveh would’ve been tempted to giggle over it like a schoolgirl had he not been so weak in the knees with relief. As long as he could keep her distracted enough that she didn’t start asking any prying questions, there was a very real chance he could still salvage this. 

Nodding once to indicate that the decision has been made, Jeanne leans down as if to grab the stately, heavy looking luggage at her feet. But even in his frazzled state Kaveh is still quick to jump into action and he lunges forward, snatching it up off the ground before she can. He falters though at the weight, a small grunt leaving him when he encounters more resistance than he’d anticipated. He quickly recovers though and bounces upright again with a victorious grin aimed at her even as his arm threatens to buckle under the weight of his new burden.  

Not looking particularly amused, she levels him with a frown. “You needn’t concern yourself with that, Kaveh. I’m perfectly capable of carrying my own suitcase, seeing as I’ve been doing just that up until now.” 

“I know that but please, I insist. Isn’t this what they call chivalry back in Fontaine? I’m just making sure you feel at home, that’s all.”

She tries to fight it but a brief, rueful smile still manages to grace her mouth. It’s as beautiful as it is fleeting, and Kaveh has to work very hard to keep his free hand from coming up to touch at the spot over his chest where his heartbeat is pounding out a staccato rhythm. He really did have it bad. Not that that comes as a surprise when he’d already known full well but there was something reassuring in having such a tangible confirmation that his feelings for her haven’t changed or lessened one bit since the last time they’d met for a meal and drinks. 

It fills him with a fresh surge of hope for the prospects of this unexpected chance encounter as they start to make their way down the road together. Still, though, he can’t shake the feeling that something seemed a bit unusual about her demeanor this time. Far be it that he was complaining but Jeanne wasn’t typically in the habit of being so laid back or relaxed, and that makes him shoot her a curious look. Her posture was as proud as ever yet seemingly less severe in the set of her shoulders and the sure sway of her hips. Most anyone else probably wouldn’t have caught on that anything at all was different but he certainly had. 

“You must have only just gotten here if you haven’t even dropped off your luggage yet. Talk about good timing. And forgive me for being blunt but you seem to be in a good mood today. What kind of job are you here for this time?” 

Another small smile pulls at her mouth, but this time it doesn’t immediately disappear. “There is no job. I’m on vacation. Lucky me, right?” 

Kaveh’s lips slowly part. She’d been given holiday from her obligations within the Gardiennage and she’d decided to spend that time in Sumeru? With him? He almost doesn’t believe his own ears even as he blurts, “Oh, that’s wonderful! You’re always working so hard, you’ve certainly earned yourself a break by now. But … you could have gone anywhere, right? Why here?” 

Jeanne sends him a lingering glance that he can’t decipher quickly enough before she turns her attention forward again with a quiet sniff. “Why not? I like it in Sumeru, and it’s not a very long trip. I’m familiar enough with the roads and the people that it just seemed like the logical conclusion.” 

“Ah, right. The old stomping grounds, eh?” He laughs, trying to cover up the distant note of disappointment that creeps in. Of course she wouldn’t choose to come here for him, specifically. He was just one of probably many faces that made up the familiar tapestry of the foreign city in her mind. His wishful thinking was going to get him in trouble some day. 

The physical manifestation of that was a heavy burden in his pocket that he couldn’t ignore when each step seemed to emphasize the weight of the vial resting against his thigh. Perhaps accepting Rahid’s offer had been a mistake after all. If there was nothing there in the first place then no amount of loosening up was going to improve his situation with her, would it? 

And that was to say nothing of the fact that he still had no idea what to tell her about his descent into poverty. 

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

Lambad’s Tavern isn’t particularly busy in the middle of the day but it’s not quite empty either, so Kaveh makes a point of picking out a secluded booth seat in the far back corner. He’d cited wanting to be away from the oud player and the crowd naturally drawn in by live music when she’d given him an odd look, but in reality he’d needed the relative privacy to get his head on straight. 

Over an hour later and he still hasn’t quite accomplished that, nor has he made a single decision on how to proceed from here. Not whether to tell her the truth or come up with a convenient excuse as to why he couldn’t invite her back to his place for a nightcap as he customarily did. Not whether to slip her some of the pink concoction when she wasn’t looking or toss it in the trash at his earliest opportunity to be rid of the evidence. Kaveh wasn’t normally this hesitant or irresolute but the situation was so littered with proverbial land mines that he feared making the wrong move a little too much to make any move at all. 

And Jeanne, in all the splendor and glow of the relaxed mood brought about by her holiday away from the court of Fontaine, was not making it any easier on him. 

“I did miss having your company, you know. Since I’m not on the clock this time I say we try to make the most of it while we can. I think we should go sightseeing together, actually.” She says, perfectly casual about it while she picks up her stout goblet from the table and takes a sip. He can’t help watching from the corner of his eye how the elegant line of her throat daintily bobs with the swallow but he quickly averts his gaze before she can notice. 

There was very little he wouldn’t give to press his mouth to that pale strip of flesh and nuzzle into her pulse. He felt like he was going mad. Jeanne de la Roche herself wanted to spend that much time with him? Willingly? It almost seemed too good to be true. 

“It occurred to me that I haven’t ventured out from the capital city or the port towns very much,” Jeanne goes on, idly swirling the glass in her hand now. “But Sumeru is a rather large country, isn’t it? I should think I’d like to see more of it.” 

Eager to busy himself with something so he can hide his jittery nerves, Kaveh leans forward to take up the decanter from the table and refills his own cup. He knew he was drinking a little too fast for a situation as precarious as this one but it couldn’t be helped. It would’ve seemed far more strange if he’d hardly touched his wine at all after pleading with her to come here. 

“Why, of course we can.” He tells her as amicably as he can manage. “I already have a few places in mind that I’d love to show you. I’m probably not the best candidate to play tour guide but … if you think you’re up for it, I can probably move some stuff around in my schedule.” 

Never mind the fact he didn’t yet have another job lined up after only just completing the last. His financial troubles had forced him to be a little more cautious about where and how he spent his time. Long gone were the days where he could leisurely mingle at the parties and grand openings hosted by wealthy businessmen or dignitaries who were keen on networking with him lest he run the risk of his secret getting out. Reputation was, unfortunately, a key factor in such stuffy social circles and he’d largely distanced himself from that particular crowd under the guise of being too busy to humor them. It was a vicious cycle and he could feel the pressure steadily closing in around him even now. 

But Jeanne didn’t need to know that. She’d probably understand it, given her own experiences dealing with courtiers and unreasonable noblemen who were accustomed to things being done a certain way, but he didn’t want to unload all of his woes on her. Not yet. 

Or preferably ever, if he was lucky enough to get out of it entirely. 

And she seems pleased enough with his willingness to accommodate her that he’s certain he’s made the right choice. Her smile is private and brief when she flashes it at him, but the teal of her eyes takes on a stunning warmth that very nearly makes his heart give out on the spot.

“Excellent. Of course I won’t take up all of your time though. I know just how busy you usually are but I must admit I’m looking forward to it. Are you certain a day or two of exploring Sumeru’s countryside together won’t hurt your productivity too much?” 

“Certainly not.” He swallows hard. “I’m looking forward to having a break of my own. All the better if it’s with you.” 

Offering up a brief sound of agreement, Jeanne thoughtfully glances down into her cup with that same secretive smile still in place. It strikes him as oddly curious, like there was more at play behind her good mood than just the vacation or the drink, but as always she doesn’t allow him enough time to parse what it might mean. 

Unfolding her legs where they’d been neatly crossed one over the other, she sets her goblet back down on the table and rises to her feet. “Then it’s settled. Excuse me for just a moment. I’m afraid I need to visit the powder room.” 

“Please, take your time.” He murmurs, attentively watching as she steps out from the booth before disappearing further into the tavern. Kaveh feels vaguely like a clingy puppy at the vague sense of loss that comes with watching her go but he quickly snaps himself out of it. 

This was his chance, wasn’t it? 

Surreptitiously, he glances at the glass she’s left behind. It would be all too easy to slip a few drops into her drink and no one would be none the wiser when their table was sequestered in the far back corner, away from where any prying eyes would be able to see it. Except he still hadn’t quite made up his mind yet. Was this a step too far? Would he be breaking some unspoken trust between them if he went through with this? 

The clock was ticking. He’d have to make his decision fast. 

“Dammit,” Cursing under his breath, Kaveh fumbles to get his hand inside his pocket. The glass vial feels warm from his own body heat as he wraps his long fingers around its slight circumference but he hardly even notices it in his flustered state. If he really went through with this … if he actually slipped her something without her knowledge … 

Oh, Jeanne was going to string him up like a solstice turkey if she ever found out. 

“I can’t do it.” He murmurs, hating the sinking feeling of defeat that makes his stomach feel like a solid lead weight yet he knew this was a line he just couldn’t bring himself to cross. No matter how badly he wanted to see her punch drunk and giggly (if such a Jeanne even existed) there was simply no way he’d ever be able to reconcile it with his conscience. In truth, he felt something like a slimy creep for even considering it in the first place. 

So he sits there for the next odd minutes, just sullenly regarding the little vial in his hand until she comes back and slides into the booth next to him again. His slumped shoulders must catch her attention, because she leans close to him to inspect what it is he’s looking at. 

“And what is this? Some sort of alchemical potion?” 

That manages to make him smile. “Hah. I said the same thing, you know. A friend gave this to me. He said a few drops in your drink would increase the efficacy and make it more potent.” 

Or something like that. Kaveh had been drinking a shade too fast since they got here to properly remember what exactly Rahid had told him. Not that that had been much to begin with, in retrospect. 

“Hmm. Interesting.” 

He’s not sure why he does it. Perhaps it’s the wine making his head feel fuzzy and muddled, or perhaps it’s nothing more than a last ditch effort on his part to win her over, but he holds it out to her in offering. “Wanna give it a try? I’m not sure how much effect it’ll actually have on you but …” 

She noises a brief sound of consideration, making up her mind surprisingly quick, and giving an elegant shrug. “I don’t see why not. I can’t even remember the last time I felt truly drunk.” 

“I’ve noticed that.” Numbly passing it over to her, Kaveh watches in disbelief as she uncorks the petite stopper and lifts it up to her nose for a sniff. He can hardly believe the situation would turn out this way after all the indecisive grief he’d endured leading up to this moment. 

Not only had he saved himself from dealing with the long lasting guilt of doing something so nefarious behind her back but she was also willing to drink it on her own accord? It truly seemed too good to be true. 

But, to his continued surprise, she does indeed reach out to position the vial over her waiting cup. A deliberate turn of her wrist sends a few pink droplets falling into the wine, dying it a faintly rust color in the center where it slowly starts to bleed out towards the edges. Jeanne appears to hesitate though, and at first he assumes she’s rethinking this decision – which he couldn’t exactly fault her for if that were the case. But then she tips the glass bottle again, spilling another healthy dose into her goblet, and his brows take a very expeditious trip up to his hairline.

“Uh, don’t you think that might be too much?”

“We’ll find out, won't we?” She shoots back, and he doesn’t realize she’s teasing him rather than issuing a challenge until she sends him a confidential smile. “It’s just as you said, Kaveh. There’s no way to know how much effect this will even have on me so I don’t see what harm it could do. You’ll have to forgive me though if I start acting like a fool. Can I trust you to watch over me if that happens?”

Kaveh starts to open his mouth, wanting to reassure her that everything is fine, of course he would, and to not give it another thought. But before he can even get a single word out she abruptly leans forward to snatch up her glass. In one smooth motion she brings it up to her mouth, tips it bottoms up, and drains what must be a good half of its contents all at once. 

Eyes widening to the approximate size of dinner plates, the blond lurches forward to grab at her elbow. “Woah, woah, hey! Slow down, there’s no rush is there? Don’t — you can’t drink it that fast!” 

She lowers the goblet enough to say, “And why not?” before decisively lifting it again. 

“Because -“ He fumbles for something to say, anything other than the humiliating truth, even as he grips her tight in an attempt to stay her hand. It’s no use though. She’s much too strong, stronger than him by a very noticeable margin, and there’s nothing he can do to stop her from taking another healthy swig. 

Such a realization probably would have hurt another man’s ego, left him feeling emasculated and lesser than. But Kaveh, on the contrary and much to his growing horror, only feels a dizzying rush of sharp edged excitement swell in his gut when her bicep powerfully flexes under his fingers. It’s like she doesn’t even notice he’s holding onto her at all and it is with a great deal of buzzing trepidation that he realizes just how easily she could have overpowered and pinned him down. It wouldn’t have even been much of an accomplishment. Despite the biological advances he naturally possessed as a man, he never could have gone toe to toe with her and hoped to come out on top. 

He quickly yanks his hands away as if she’d scalded him, his breath coming out in a quick rush now. His cheeks feel like they’re positively blazing while he watches in dismay as she finishes off the rest of the wine before reaching for the decanter. This wasn’t so strange for her, in truth. Jeanne seemed to enjoy dropping some of the stuffy aristocratic manners she’d been raised on when she was with him and she could hold her alcohol perfectly well under normal circumstances. But he had no idea what effect that strange liquid was going to have on her, especially not when she’d consumed so much of it all at once. 

And that was to say absolutely nothing of the unmistakable tendrils of arousal curling hot in his lower belly now. 

Practically shaking, Kaveh self consciously huddles into the corner of the booth and tries to get his bearings straight again. He’d known Jeanne was physically fit and strong, of course. It was a big part of the attraction, after all. But he hadn’t fully comprehended the actual differences in their strength, not like this. He’d never had it quite so poignantly displayed right in front of his very eyes before. 

And something told him he’d just made a grievous mistake when he decided to open up Pandora’s Box with that mysterious concoction. 

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

Thirty minutes later and Kaveh knows beyond a shadow of a doubt that he has indeed made a monumental mistake. 

Jeanne, to her credit, doesn’t appear to be drunk or even particularly tipsy for that matter — not the way he and many others get, at any rate. She was still a steady, unflappable presence sitting next to him in the booth, neither faltering in an intoxicated daze nor slurring her speech like most did when they were inebriated. By all accounts she seemed to be almost entirely sober. 

Except the way she looks over at him is so hungry and pointed that he feels vaguely like a cornered prey animal staring down a half starved beast. The change had come on gradually at first and then more quickly when whatever he’d slipped her really started to kick in. Now she looked like she was seconds away from pouncing on him right then and there, and he wasn’t so sure he would have had the strength of will to tell her no. 

If this was Rahid’s idea of ‘warming up’ with his wife Kaveh was going to have to have another long talk with him. 

In the here and now, he fumbles for something to say. Anything at all to diffuse the situation and give him a chance to figure out how to fix this newest screw up in his long list of a track record. It seemed that no matter what he did, he really just kept digging his grave deeper and deeper. 

“Are you alright, Jeanne? Y - you look thirsty. Why don’t I grab you some water?” 

He quickly stands, but Jeanne is just as quick to grab his wrist and tug him back down. Her fingers are reminiscent of iron manacles, and he rather helplessly collapses into the seat again. Surreptitiously glancing into her darkened expression, he decides that this would have been a rather terrifying experience had he not been so embarrassingly aroused by it. There was clearly something very wrong with him. 

“No water.” She murmurs, her voice noticeably huskier than usual. If he didn’t know any better he’d think it was the sultry, intimate tone she would use with a lover in their most private of moments, and that doesn’t do much to help him fight down the erection trying to spring up in his pants. He needed to think fast. 

“Alright. Can I … can I get you something else, then? Maybe something to eat? That might — it might absorb some of the … wine in your system.” 

Jeanne gives her head a slow shake, burgundy forelocks swaying gently with the motion. “No. I’m not hungry for food, but thank you.” 

Oh. 

Unsure what else to do, Kaveh lets out a threadbare little laugh. “Ah, I - I see. Then are you in the mood for something else? I can get you whatever you want. On me, of course.” 

It’s not like he had the extra money for that but it doesn’t really seem to matter. She only drops her gaze as if in thought, deeply considering something that only she was privy to in that moment. 

Those cool, sea-green eyes snap back up almost immediately though. 

With a single minded decisiveness that makes his heart lodge itself in his throat again, she nudges closer to him in the booth. Stammering, he quickly brings his open hands up to indicate surrender but she just reaches right past them to grab his chin without so much as pausing. Completely ignoring the surprised squawk he lets out, Jeanne rather demandingly angles his face up at her as she leans in, pressing her body right up against his side until he's practically pinned back into the seat. 

She looks like she’s about to devour him whole, her entire frame practically vibrating with the urge to act on whatever is going through her head, but she manages to stop at the last possible moment. Visibly holding herself in check she takes a deep, faltering breath and lets it out on a slow exhale, trying to regain her composure.  

“I’m not sure what's happening but … I think we need to leave.”

“A - are you alright?” 

“I don’t know. I just suddenly feel so damn hot.” She slowly shakes her head, clearly unable to make any sense of it. It is with a great deal of effort that she forces her fingers to unlatch from his chin and she stiffly returns to her side of the booth, panting softly under her breath. 

Kaveh can’t help the worried guilt that rushes over him as he takes in her new demeanor, the hunched set of her shoulders and the fine sheen of sweat starting to form across her face. If he didn’t know any better he’d think she was suddenly coming down with a cold. This was not at all what he’d expected to happen based on Rahid’s vague description but, well. She had consumed more than just a few drops worth. He just hoped it wasn’t making her sick. 

“It’s okay, Jeanne. Let me pay the tab and then we’ll get out of here,” He tells her, consolingly reaching over to place his hand across her back. “Your place is closer than mine so lets - -”

“No. I’ll pay.”

“But I already said it was my treat - -”

In lieu of a proper response, she merely reaches up lightning quick to snag his wrist and Kaveh can’t quite help the startled yelp he lets out in response. Unperturbed by his reaction, she stands up in a rush and half drags him after her. Another blinding, white hot surge shoots through his body at the demanding way she steers him out of the booth, stopping just long enough to snag her luggage up off the ground before making a beeline up to the front counter. He’s helpless to do anything but follow along right in tow when she’s got an ironclad hold on him like this, and Lambad sends them an odd look from behind the long bar at their approach. 

“Leaving so soon? It’s not even been two hours yet.”

“O - oh, you know,” Kaveh nervously laughs, scrambling for an excuse that wouldn’t sound as incriminating as the current scene looked, but Jeanne is quick to cut across him. 

“We might come back tomorrow. I’m not feeling very well, unfortunately.” That much is clear in the way she shivers just ever so slightly as she sets her suitcase back down so she can dig into her pocket. The fact she refused to let him go, as if she was worried about him making a break for it, is not lost on him but there wasn’t much he could do about it at this point. 

A handful of mora is slapped down on the counter with enough force to make Kaveh wince and then she’s physically dragging him towards the exit. By the time they make it outside and step into the dense heat, Jeanne is full on panting like she couldn’t quite catch her breath, and the two of them stumble to a halt just on the edge of the road. Realizing she was hardly in any condition to navigate the city streets on her own, the blond cautiously steps closer to put his uncaptured hand on her shoulder, hoping to steady her a little bit. 

“Here, let me lead the way. Do you feel like you’re going to be sick? Maybe I should take you to a hospital …”

“No. That's not necessary.” She groans very softly, keeping her head hung forward so that her hair keeps her face mostly hidden from him. “Just want to go home. I think – I think I need to lie down for a while.” 

He was decidedly in agreement with that, so he gently coaxes her into motion until she at last gives in and shuffles after him on heavy feet. Luckily the house she rented year-round for her stays in Sumeru while on business was conveniently closer to the tavern than his old home would have been, so that saved him from having to break that particular news to her just yet. It was one of the very few breaks he seemed to be getting today. 

More importantly though he isn’t quite sure what to do with her in this state. She’d said she didn’t need a hospital but was she sure about that? Did she have the presence of mind to make those kinds of calls right now? In many ways this was the exact opposite of what he’d been hoping for. Instead of a clingy, affectionate Jeanne he’d gotten one who looked like she was either going to collapse or start retching everywhere. For all he was aware, she might even end up doing both and he had no clue how to handle any of it. 

But for once the gods seemed to be on his side because they eventually make it to her single sized home without incident and only a few curious stares from people wondering what was going on with the Fontainian woman. There was no telling what kind of rumors about them might be circulating around the city come morning but that was the least of his concerns. With her help, he manages to get the door unlocked and the two of them stumble inside. 

Immediately dropping her luggage, Jeanne moves to lean heavily against the wall while he gets the door closed. Even with her hair hanging forward he can still make out the furious flush that stains her cheeks and he cautiously approaches her, idly noting that when she was slumped like this they were at almost perfect eye level with one another. 

“Are you positive you don’t want me to fetch a doctor for you, Jeanne? I’m worried about you.” 

“Don’t be,” She insists, lifting a sluggish hand to vaguely wave off his concern. “I’ll be fine. I must have just drank too fast. I wasn’t expecting that brew to hit me so hard.” 

Deciding that was a major understatement, Kaveh reaches up to tug her coat off her shoulders. That probably wasn’t helping her current condition much, and it strikes him as oddly domestic. Like he was a housewife welcoming her hardworking husband home from a long day. 

His belly painfully clenches at the thought and, struggling to fight down the erection that tries to spring to life in his pants, he tosses her jacket on the nearby coat rack and then stiffly takes her by the shoulders. “Come on. Let’s get you to bed before you collapse on me.”

Much to his relief, she complies without a fuss and pushes off from the wall. Leaning into him for support, Jeanne allows Kaveh to guide her further into the house and down the hall. He’d only seen her bedroom once or twice before in passing, when he’d helped her with her luggage on previous trips, but this time there’s enough static tension hanging in the air that he can’t quite stamp down the mounting excitement in his lower body. It’s a shameful thing to realize his self control was this bad but he makes a valiant effort to keep it at bay while he gets her directed over to the waiting bed. 

“Here we are. Once you’re settled in I’ll go get you some water to drink.”

She doesn’t immediately sink onto the waiting mattress though. Even at his encouraging nudge, she just stands there breathing heavily, and he anxiously bends his head close to try and get a better look at her. 

“What’s wrong? Do you feel like you’re going to be sick?” 

“No.” 

“Then why don’t you - -“ 

It happens much too fast for him to comprehend any of it. 

One moment he’s standing on his feet, helping Jeanne support her weight, and the next she’s flipped him forward to hit the bed, sprawled out on his back. Kaveh barely has enough time to draw a sharp gasp as he bounces once before she’s on top of him, pinning him down against the sheets. Staring up at her, he’s so surprised in the aftermath of that sudden rush that he doesn’t even have the wherewithal to do anything else but gape at her. 

What in the seven hells was happening now? 

“Kaveh,” 

He gives a slight jolt. “O - oh. Yes – yes, Jeanne?” 

“I’m going to kiss you.” She announces with so little fanfare that he very nearly does a double take. 

“W - wha —“

“Kaveh,” She cuts across him, the strict command in her tone making the blond obediently snap his mouth shut. Apparently satisfied with that, she goes on. “I’ve thought about doing this for a while now. Quite a while, in fact. I’m not sure what was in that vial but I want you far too much right now to deny it any longer. I won’t force myself on you though, so speak up if you don’t want it. This is your chance to reject my advances. If you don’t take it I’m going to kiss you.” 

His eyes grow so impossibly wide it looks like they just might fall right out of his head and go rolling off across the floor, and with it comes a sudden realization. What Rahid had said about that pink concoction. He’d never come right out with it but he also hadn’t stated that it would make her drunk either. That had been his own jump to conclusions on the matter. What he’d told Kaveh was that it would warm her up and that he used it with his wife in their old age. He’d said it would give him plenty of time to prove to Jeanne that he was serious about wanting to pursue her. It wasn’t an elixir for drunkards, it was an intimacy potion! 

Kaveh’s brain stumbles over that thought, hardly even daring to believe it, but the proof was looming over him with a hungry, voracious look of wanting darkening her face. That explained everything. Why she was so short of breath and her skin flushed with perspiration. He’d thought she was feeling ill after ingesting all that wine on top of the mystery fluid but clearly that was not the case. She was so worked up because she was indescribably aroused. 

And he was the sole focus of all her attention? 

The poor architect very nearly faints dead away on the spot. 

Desperately groping for some semblance of a hold on his composure though, he starts to open his mouth. He’d wanted to tell her he would rather talk this out instead of making any rash decisions when she was so obviously under the influence and her judgment was clouded, but his silence must have stretched on for much too long at that point. Because Jeanne abruptly swoops in and he just manages to suck in a surprised gasp before her lips crash into his. He violently jerks as if she’d electrocuted him but, in truth, she doesn’t even seem to notice it. She’s much too busy trying to devour him, claiming his mouth and dominating the kiss before he even has a chance to try and take the upper hand for himself. Like her role of total power and control in their dynamic was already a foregone conclusion. 

Hell, maybe it was. 

In a truly dizzying rush, white hot static surges through his system with all the subtlety of a powerful explosive going off and Kaveh instantly gives over to the intense, bone rattling yearning he harbors for her. Tipping his head, he hungrily kisses her back, softly groaning into her mouth. His lips tremble under the demanding push and pull of hers even as he instinctively brings his arms up to wrap them around her shoulders, clinging to her while his long fingers dig into the soft fabric of her blouse. Noising a brief sound of approval, rewarding him for his eager response, she gives his bottom lip a taunting bite before lowering herself to languorously stretch out on top of him.

There really isn’t much difference in their builds, he suddenly realizes with her body pressed up tight against his like that. They were almost the same height and her shoulders not much wider despite the obvious strength residing in them. In truth, they probably would’ve been just about evenly matched if only Kaveh had taken Al-Haitham’s advice and he’d spent a bit more time exercising his muscles instead of hunching over his drawing table late into the night on various projects. Not that it really mattered now, at this crucial juncture. It was clear he’d be no match for her in his current state even if he’d wanted to fight and wrestle with her for dominance. 

He doesn’t, though. He really, really doesn’t want to pretend to be something or someone he’s not, especially when Jeanne herself never made any qualms about who she was either. This was in many ways exactly what he’d been dreaming of. To have her on top of him, pinning him down and taking whatever she wanted from him, so he happily surrenders, all but melting against her and letting her set the pace however she saw fit. 

And she doesn’t hesitate to do so, either by virtue of her proud, natural inclination for being in control or perhaps it was just in response to his submissive body language. Where once they’d barely touched each other beyond an occasional friendly brush of their hands, Jeanne now shamelessly presses herself flush against him like her claim on the blond man was already a bygone matter of fact. It was as if every single one of his shameful fantasies was coming to life in real time and he almost chokes on the boiling rush of emotion that swells in his chest. 

A pathetically small whimper escapes him and in response the hand that had come up to possessively wrap around his throat relaxes before falling away altogether, sliding up to cup his cheek instead. Her fingers are feminine and dainty yet rough with worn callouses. The grip she usually used for holding her sword is especially powerful, and it has him shuddering against her as blunt nails dig in just enough for him to feel the pinprick, drawing another muffled gasp out of him. But she quickly releases his face in favor of reaching further back to sink her fingers into his hair. Closing her fist at the back of his head, Jeanne gives it an experimental yet no less insistent tug that has his lips warbling open with an accompanying mewl. 

To his groaning surprise, she doesn’t hesitate to take this chance and she plunges her tongue into Kaveh’s mouth to suggestively caress over his in a long, wet swipe and savor the taste of him on her palette. The buzzing daze that encompasses him only grows stronger still and he feels downright delirious even as he dips his head back against the sheets to better accept her conquest of him. 

She's quick to pull away though, leaving him sprawled out and panting underneath her. Issuing a faint groan of disappointment at the loss, he cracks his eyes open to peer up into her face. 

He’s only slightly surprised to find Jeanne’s breath is coming even quicker than before, her cheeks flushed hot in what he now recognized as eager excitement, but somehow she still didn’t look half as worked up as he felt. It probably would have made him laugh, if only he’d had the extra oxygen to do so. Even when that blasted potion was wreaking havoc on her self control she still managed to keep some hold on her composure. It was in many ways astounding. 

“You … you didn’t have to stop.” 

A quietly strained laugh rises in her throat, soft and husky, to accompany the slow lift at the corner of her mouth. 

“Oh, is that so? What an unexpected surprise this is turning out to be.” She murmurs, uncharacteristically doting in the way she speaks to him now. Looking confident and svelte in her eager glow, she pushes up to get a better look at him. “I must admit, there was a very real part of me that hoped things would turn out this way eventually. I didn’t want to approach you with unwarranted expectations though. We’ve already danced around each other for far too long for me to start making assumptions now, wouldn’t you agree? But I suppose I had nothing to be worried about this entire time. You’re a good boy, aren’t you Kaveh?” 

His throat cinches shut, making him cough around the startled sound that materializes from his mouth unbidden. She doesn’t seem to pay it much mind though, shifting her weight more to the side so she can glance down the length of his body with a pointed look. Obediently, and not knowing what else to do, Kaveh hesitantly tears his eyes from her face and follows suit. 

The straining tent in the front of his pants comes as more of a shock to him than it does her. She’d probably felt it as soon as she’d flattened herself to the front of him but that doesn’t stop Kaveh from sucking in a sharp, deeply embarrassed gasp. His cheeks feel like they’re on fire as he shyly draws his knees together in an attempt to conceal his arousal from her but it’s no use. He’s much too hard, and the tent remains. The sharp sting of humiliation almost brings tears to his eyes, and he whimpers softly in his distress. Not only was this unbelievably shameful but he also feared the possibility that she might dismiss him from her presence because of it. This wasn’t exactly the kind of overly enthusiastic reaction most women would want out of their potential partners, was it? 

But Jeanne, evidently, is not most women. She practically purrs, in fact, when she brings her hand down to gently trace the center line of his chest, down over his nervously flexing stomach and even further than that to finally reach the jutted bulge between his legs. Possessively, she curls her fingers around it and palms him with a subdued, taunting squeeze. He almost sobs right then and there, whining softly at the first glorious touch of her hand on him. 

He’d been anticipating this for so long, dreaming and fantasizing about what this exact moment might look like, and he was ashamed to realize how dangerously close he already was to busting in his pants. This was the effect Jeanne had on him. This is what she turned him into. 

“My, you’re certainly excited aren’t you? And to think, I hesitated so much for fear that you might not reciprocate my interest …”

“P - please,” 

“Hush, Kaveh. Now that I’ve finally got you in my bed I won’t be letting you go anytime soon. You’re going to be good and do exactly as I say, aren’t you?” 

He quickly nods, swallowing so hard it almost makes him gag. “Yes. Yes, ma’am. I will. Anything.” 

Jeanne draws a slow, carefully controlled breath in response even as a distant shudder of anticipation wracks through her. “Ooh, look at you. Already so eager to please me. Is it possible you’ve also thought about this before?”

At his needy little whimper she offers another soft, velvety laugh that rushes straight to his cock, making it twitch in her hold. He’s so hard it almost hurts but he can’t quite bring himself to complain about that right now. Not when she was holding him like that and he could still taste the glorious flavor of her mouth on his tongue. So out of his mind with sharp tinged arousal, all he can do is offer up a faltering moan to accompany the dazed nod of his head. 

“I see. Then we are both fools, aren’t we? But are you certain you want to do this, Kaveh? I’m not the type of passive woman who will just indulge you long enough to get you off. If I’m to have you then I’ll have all of you.”  

He quietly seethes at the suggestion of what she was saying. It made it sound like he was some kind of honorable maiden about to be bedded by a chivalrous knight of the court, and the way his cock jumps in her hand makes it quite clear just how much he liked that idea. It was unlike anything he’d ever experienced and yet so deeply attractive that he wasn’t so sure he would’ve been able to reject anything at all she asked of him from here on out. She could have told him to go jump off the highest point of the Akademiya’s tallest spire and he wouldn’t have given it another thought. 

“I … gods, I think I’d be mad if you didn’t at this point. Please, Jeanne. I’m yours, however you want me.” 

Humming a brief sound of approval, she gives his straining erection one last, lingering squeeze before dragging her hand up to fiddle with the brooch that holds his mantle in place over his shoulders. While she works on that, she leans close again and brushes a teasing, featherlight kiss over his lips. Struggling to keep his breath evened out, Kaveh needily kisses her back but no amount of desperation on his part manages to prepare him for when she abruptly sits upright and throws one leg over his middle without any further buildup to that pivotal moment. 

Settling on top of him, she shoots him a sly little smile even as she reaches down to take his slack wrists in her hands. Folding them up above his head, she pins them down to the bed with her weight before hunching close again so she can claim his mouth the way he’d been hoping she would. Jeanne’s hunger is obvious in the way she kisses him as if she were trying to consume his very life force, and in the way she not so subtly grinds her pelvis against him. Even through the many layers of clothes still separating them he can feel the intense heat radiating out from between her legs, and he issues a soft whine when his balls draw up in warning. 

This wasn’t good. If he shot off in his pants before she even properly touched him skin to skin, he was never going to forgive himself. She may not have been very put off by his other shortcomings but he had a feeling this was one she wouldn’t be quite as willing to overlook. 

So with a great deal of effort he tears his mouth from hers, sucking in a ragged breath. “Nghn, J - Jeanne … I might - -“

She unexpectedly shoves her face into the line of his neck, nipping at his pulse, and he physically shakes straight down to his toes. This was exactly what he’d thought about doing to her back at the tavern and the irony of that isn’t lost on him. Having the roles reversed so completely, being on the receiving end of such amorous attention … 

“Ooh, I think — I might need a moment, please.” 

“Aww, what’s the matter, Kaveh? Do you already feel like you’re going to cum for me?” She purrs against his skin, laughing softly when he trembles so violently in response the bed distantly rattles. “Don’t worry. I know exactly how to get you ready for another round if I need to, so there’s nothing to fret about. You’re in good hands, I promise.” 

“W - what does that mean?” He squeaks, unable to keep the nervous trepidation out of his voice. 

Ignoring the question, Jeanne sits up on his stomach and lifts her hands to make quick work of her red tie, her finely made courtiers jacket and then her blouse which she practically rips off in her rush to get undressed. Kaveh, feeling unexpectedly scandalized by the unprecedented strips of creamy flesh being revealed to him, almost brings his hands up to shyly cover his face. He can’t quite rip his eyes away though and he outright stares at the full cups of her satiny brassiere in something not unlike disbelief. He’d never been so blessed with a more tantalizing, beautiful sight in all his life. 

“Now it’s your turn.” She murmurs, hungrily licking her lips as she sets her sights on the sash at the front of his waist. Giving it a good tug is all it takes to have it loosened and then she’s flipping the bottom of his flouncy shirt out of the way so she can get at his pants. 

Kaveh starts to protest, wanting to ask her to at least slow down, but a quick look at Jeanne’s expression makes him think better of it. She was going to chew him up and spit him out one way or another, there probably wasn’t any point in stalling the inevitable. 

Clenching his hands into tight fists, he simply watches as she gets his slacks unfastened and then roughly yanks them down. A soft whimper rises in his throat but she pays it little mind, much too focused on getting them yanked off right along with his shoes. She doesn’t hesitate to come back for his underwear and his cock is soon springing up to arc through the air with a rigid bounce, making him hiss at the sensation as much as at being suddenly exposed. Feeling rather self conscious of his sudden nudity, he snaps his attention up to fretfully gauge her reaction. 

The pleased smile that slowly pulls at her mouth catches him off guard, and he nervously fidgets under the watchful spotlight of her attention. 

“Well, Kaveh, I must say you’ve got a rather pretty cock, don’t you? I expected as much given how lovely you are in the face, but …” 

Eagerly, Jeanne reaches out to wrap her fingers around him and he jolts at the abrupt contact, teeth clenching in an attempt to stave off his impending release. She hadn’t seemed worried about it but he really had no idea what she’d meant by knowing how to get him ready for another round. He wasn’t so sure he wanted to find out. 

“Mm, and you’re sensitive too. How delightful. I wonder what would happen if I just …” 

With a tauntingly slow motion of her hand, she tugs up on his cock and drags her hand from about mid shaft up to the head. Kaveh gives a full bodied, lurching jerk in response, letting out a gutted moan when her fist makes the foreskin bunch over his tender glans. He clenches his toes so hard it actually hurts, desperately trying to will his orgasm away, but if she felt any sympathy for him she certainly doesn’t show it. She simply pulls her fist down, retracing the path she’d already taken once, and he outright chokes when it draws the skin back from the glans entirely with a sticky wet click. 

“Oh my,” She breathes out, sounding a little surprised and a lot excited. “That’s quite a lot of precum, isn’t it? You must have really wanted this bad.” 

“I - I’m sorry,” He whimpers, his flat stomach dramatically flexing under the tension. “I can’t — I don’t think I can hold it …” 

“Is that so? And if I tell you I’ll give you a reward?” He shoots her a harried look of confusion and Jeanne smiles rather magnanimously in return. “If you can avoid cumming for the next five minutes, I’ll treat you to something really nice. How does that sound, hm?”

Archons above, she was trying to kill him! 

At his helplessly weak nod, she offers a quiet sound of approval and an encouraging squeeze to his shaft. His hips fruitlessly buck under the sensation but he quickly stills them again when she starts to drag her hand back up at a painfully sedate pace, caressing him in torturous slow motion. Full on wheezing, Kaveh screws his eyes shut and forces himself to stay still even when his muscles start to vibrate with the intense urge to give in. To follow after her grip and thrust into her fingers, to let loose and spasm for all he was worth. Even putting aside the reward she’d mentioned, he just didn’t want to disappoint her. 

So he simply lies there and takes it while she jerks him off at such a staggered, halting pace he really feels like he just might go mad. It was hard just to breathe around it let alone think, and as a result the only thing he can do is focus his cotton stuffed head on not cumming. He repeats it again and again, like a lifesaving mantra, but he’s so close that it feels like a lost cause. His balls are heavy and they ache fiercely where they’re drawn up tight against his scrotum, so close to shooting off but forced to hold back. This was hell. Glorious, mind numbing hell and it existed squarely within the confines of this bed. 

“Such a good boy you are,” She coos another moment later, making him heave and desperately arch up off the bed at the inviting sound of her voice. His narrow, shaking hips are the only part of him that stays rooted to the mattress while the rest of him desperately twists with back bending need, grunting at the effort of trying to stave off his release. “You’re doing so well for me. I can tell how close you are. Wouldn’t it be nice if you could just let go and - -“ 

Cutting her off with a strangled, partially horrified moan, Kaveh can’t stop himself from thrusting up into her grip any longer and he does so with such force it makes something in his lower spine pop. That’s all it takes, just that one hurried rush of movement, and his cock pitifully erupts in a sudden stream of milky white discharge. He cums with a hardly dignified sound, gutted and elated in equal measure. Spurt after spurt, it just keeps coming to paint her knuckles white and stain the bottom of his loose fitted shirt, until finally it runs dry with one last aching twitch that leaves him desperately wheezing. 

“Oh, god!” Bonelessly, Kaveh collapses back into the bed, feeling dizzy and overwhelmed. It takes him a prolonged moment to get his bearings straight, or at least enough to comprehend that he was still alive and Jeanne was very much not a figment of his imagination, and he slowly lifts his head to glance down at her. 

Smiling slyly, she rather daintily releases his cock and holds her hand up to show off the incriminating evidence coating her hand. “I’m afraid you only lasted about two minutes and thirty seconds but …” 

“Please, I’m sorry, I’m so sorry!” He says in a rush, but she continues on as if he hadn’t even spoken. 

“I’ll admit that was still longer than I thought you’d manage to pull off. With the way you were acting, I’d half expected you to lose it in under a minute.”

Practically withering in shame, Kaveh shyly draws his knees together but Jeanne is quick to palm his legs apart again. A soft whimper escapes him at the sticky smear she leaves along his thigh, like a reminder of his failure. This was not quite how he’d envisioned this unfolding. 

“Don’t fret, now. I told you I’d take care of you, didn’t I? Besides,”

Peeking up at the pointed tone in her voice, the blond warily follows her line of sight down to his groin and a soft mewl escapes him at the sight of his cock, still half hard and stirring with interest. He’d cum so hard he almost felt numb from the waist down now but there was no getting around what he was looking at. It wasn’t going to take much to have him at full strength again. That much was obvious. 

“I can go again,” He quickly stammers before she can jump into action and take care of it for him. “I’m sure I’ll last longer this time too. But you should — you should really let me take care of you first. I promise I’m good with my mouth.”

“I’m sure you are.” She agrees, smiling at him like she knew he was stalling for time and she thought it was cute. “But I don’t think that will be necessary. You’re going to take care of me another way, Kaveh.” 

Pulling back from him completely, Jeanne takes a moment to withdraw a handkerchief from the pocket of her trousers with her unsoiled hand and she uses it to wipe the cum off the other. Carelessly tossing it aside, she then sets her hands to work on her pants and he tenderly winces when his spent cock bobs with growing excitement at the implication of what was to come. She genuinely was trying to kill him, he decides. And she was doing a spectacular job of it so far. 

“Be a good boy and take off the rest of your clothes for me, hm?” 

It takes everything Kaveh has not to outright sob as he obediently sits up and starts tugging off his shirt. Soon the both of them are completely naked, save the sleek black bra Jeanne leaves on for the time being, and he self consciously brings his arms up to wrap them around his chest when she returns to him on the bed. He feels more than a little foolish for it, like some awkward maiden that wasn’t used to being seen in such a vulnerable state — and, really, that actually wasn’t far from the truth — but she doesn’t seem to be half as disappointed by that as he may have once feared she would be. 

If anything, Jeanne actually looks quite pleased with the blond in her bed, and she reaches out to gently take his shoulders once she’s kneeling next to him. “Lay down?” 

He complies, eager pinpricks erupting along his skin where her hands touch him. Of course he’d known he was pathetically, regrettably weak for her long before this, but looking up at her now he knows beyond a shadow of a doubt that she really was the one for him. Who else could even compare? No one was as strong as Jeanne, nor as pretty. No other woman came from a background of aristocratic opulence while behaving like she did. She was — everything, wasn’t she? 

“Good. Now, be good for me and let me have my fun, okay?” 

Swallowing his nerves down, Kaveh offers a single nod and Jeanne coos at him very softly in response, assuring him that he was making the right choice for once in his life. Bracing her hands against his narrow chest, she confidently throws her leg over his middle again but this time she keeps her pelvis angled up rather than immediately settling on top of him. He feels downright hysterical when she reaches for his cock and possessively wraps her fingers around it. Despite the fact he was still recovering from his first orgasm, it immediately flexes in her hold to stand at attention. Obedient and loyal, just like his heart was, apparently. 

He seethes softly under his breath at the ache in his overwrought loins but doesn’t try to fight it as she angles him towards her cunt and the glorious thatch of red hair there, a shade darker than that on her head. A vague sense of panic does make his chest expand with a sharp gasp though, and he fumbles his hands down to grab hold of her hips. So soft and womanly under his fingers, yet indescribably powerful when they flex with the motion of lowering herself onto him. 

Truthfully Kaveh hadn’t thought it was possible to get any more worked up then he already was, yet the first silky soft brush of her wet lips against his glans has him feeling dangerously close to passing out. Contrary to his earlier statement, he was not going to last any longer than he had the first time. 

“W - wait —“ 

“Are you nervous, Kaveh?” She laughs, the sound so inviting and teasing it very nearly has him going cross eyed with the intense surge of fresh arousal that sparks in him. “Don’t overthink it. Just lie back, relax and let me have my fun, hm? You want to please me, don’t you?” 

“Ahh … y - yes, ma’am. I do.” 

Breathing out a clipped, anticipatory sigh, Jeanne sedately drags him back and forth through the wet folds and creases of her cunt, ensuring that he was nice and sticky too. Not that he thought he needed it when she already felt like she was soaked so penetration was sure to be a nonissue, but it certainly felt good. Heavenly, actually. 

Fingers sinking into the soft give of her hips, he silently pleads with any god willing to listen for his stamina not to give out at the worst possible time. 

Another anticipatory moment later, she finally angles him back towards her entrance and starts to sink the rest of the way down. The blinding rush of heat that all at once envelops him damn near sends him careening over the edge right then and there, but he valiantly holds it back with a sobbing little hiss. Clutches at her like his life depended on it, and it very well might, while Jeanne gradually takes him deeper and deeper into her body one inch at a time. Just as he’d suspected, she was already perfectly lubricated and he gives a powerless curse under his breath, stealing a harried glance between them to watch her swallow him down to the base. Her thick curls are a poignant contrast to his coarser, ashen brown ones, but they look right at home mingling together like that. 

“Bless the seven - -!”

“Mmnn, you feel so good, Kaveh. You’re just where I want you to be.” Giving a taunting wriggle of her hips to make him sensitively wince, Jeanne reaches for one of his hands. Slides it around to the front of her abdomen and presses down on a certain spot along her lower stomach. “Right there. Can you feel it? That’s how deep you are.” 

The wordless noise he lets out is rife with distress, and he sucks in a horribly frazzled breath in an attempt to steady his nerves a little bit. She just laughs though, another soft, liltingly husky sound that makes him want to cry out. 

And he does, mewling a huffy noise into the statically charged air when she leans forward to square her balance in the center, on her toes and with her hands palming his chest. She starts to move then, keeping her motions short and experimental at first while she gets a better feel for him and how he hits her most pleasure inducing spots. It doesn’t take long for her to pick up the pace though and she begins to bounce in earnest, taking him in long, drawn out plunges now. 

Flicking her long braid over her shoulder mid bounce, Jeanne pins him with a salacious grin. “Yeah, right there. You’ve got it. Ahhn, you’re such a good boy for me. You’d better not, nghn, bust as quickly as the first time. Not before I get mine.” 

“J - Jeanne —“ 

He sounds incredibly whiny even to his own ears but he can’t help it. Not when he could feel his cock throbbing inside her, still tender from getting hard again much too soon after already cumming once, and she didn’t seem to care. She was clearly much more concerned with her own pleasure now, enthusiastically chasing that gratification on top of him, but that just seems to ratchet his own excitement up even further. The more she took from him the more he wanted to give, the higher his arousal seemed to climb. 

It is with no shortage of horror that Kaveh realizes he’s going to cum again, not because she was riding him so expertly, but because she was using him for her own pleasure and that was getting him off more than anything. Even in all his fantasies and wistful daydreams, he’d never imagined that having her treat his cock like her own personal toy would turn him on quite this much. 

“Oh! Shit! I - if you don’t slow down, Jeanne, I’m - -“ 

Her hips start to come down faster, harder in response, and the sharp slap of skin meeting skin rises louder in the air. He practically chokes on it, squirming underneath her as every muscle in his body rapidly tenses up in preparation to blow another load and simultaneously to try and stave it off. It wasn’t just overwhelming, it was downright mind numbing, and he pathetically whimpers even as his eyes start to roll back in his head. 

Too much. It was too much. 

“Please — please —“ He’s babbling, his mouth running on autopilot now, but still she doesn’t seem to care. 

His cock was hers to use however she saw fit and it was clear she wanted it thrusting deep into her guts right now. It feels like every ounce of blood in his body rushes down to his groin all at once, making it swell to uncomfortable proportions as his balls tightly draw up again. He tries to hold back, really, but it’s all too much for him to bear. The wet warmth of her body gripping him like a vice, the breathy sounds that slip from her mouth and the all encompassing smell of her cloying on the back of his tongue. He was powerless before it. 

And he cums again, just like that. His strangled, frantic moan is high pitched and bordering on frantic as he shoots off inside her but even then she just keeps going. Even when his cock finishes spraying her inner sleeve with white, creamy clumps, she just keeps riding him. The only response he gets that indicates she’s even aware of it happening is a low, huffy groan in the back of her throat but it doesn’t so much as make her pause. 

His hands practically cramp up from how hard he’s clutching at her, roughly sucking in a series of wet, faltering breaths. His body can’t take it when every conceivable inch of him was painfully throbbing in protest at the continuous stimulation. The sensation is sharp and stabbing, and he finally throws his head back against the sheets to helplessly wail up at the ceiling. 

“Oh, Kaveh,” She finally murmurs another moment later. “Are you crying?”

His eyes snap open so suddenly it takes them a heartbeat or two to catch up and make any sense of the visual input. Just in time to watch Jeanne lean over him, getting close to his face and alternating her previous bouncing motion to a slower, more savory grind that makes him wince in his oversensitized state. She doesn’t seem to pay it any mind though, her teal eyes taking in his face with obvious delight. 

“You poor thing,” Breathing out softly, she slides one hand up from his chest, over his neck and higher still to cup his cheek. “You really are tender, aren’t you? I wasn’t expecting to make you cry until at least the third round.” 

Kaveh’s taxed heart nearly gives out right then and there. “T - third round? You … you can’t be serious - -“

“I’m very serious, I’m afraid. I’m not sure what else you expected when you gave me an aphrodisiac though. Don’t tell me you’ve bitten off more than you can chew?” 

“Aph - wait, you knew?” 

“Well, I didn’t at the time but I’ve certainly figured it out by now. In all honesty, I picked up very early on that you were acting rather strange today but I hadn’t expected you to go to such lengths just to get me into bed. All you’d had to do was ask, you know.” 

He just gapes up at her, big, wet glistening tears beading along his lash line to make them clump together. What she was saying wasn’t just inconceivable, it didn’t make any sense! If she’d suspected something amiss, if she’d had any doubts about his intentions then …

His eyes suddenly go big and round. “You — that’s what you meant earlier … about unwarranted expectations?”

She smiles at him, a vaguely mischievous, sly little smile, and exhales a savory sigh. “Yeah, but I’d say that’s a moot point now, wouldn’t you agree? I’ve already made you cry so …” Closing the distance, Jeanne’s tongue flicks out to lap up a salty tear from his cheek and he startles like she’d shocked him. That only makes her laugh though, and she pulls back to sit upright again so she can reach behind her to unclasp the hooks on her bra. “Let’s continue, shall we? I’ve got something special in mind for that overly eager cock of yours.” 

Satiny cups fall away, revealing her bare breasts to him at long last, and Kaveh sucks in such a harsh, flustered gasp it almost sounds like he’s choking. Pleased with his reaction, she tosses the garment aside and then much to his slack jawed surprise, she moves to dismount from him. His spent cock slips free humiliatingly fast and wetly flops down to rest across his lower belly, completely soft now. 

Self consciously, Kaveh reaches down to gingerly cover himself from her scrutiny but she merely turns to climb down off the bed as if it were none of her concern. Maybe it wasn’t, and he practically withers at the thought. 

“Get on your hands and knees for me.” She says, not bothering to look back at him while she tugs open a drawer on the nightstand. 

“Please, Jeanne, I don’t think I can handle another round so soon.” He groans, even as he slowly pushes himself up to sit. It wasn’t just his cock that felt sore and achy, his entire body hurt at this point. “If you just give me, I don’t know, an hour, I’m sure we’ll have much better results.” 

“You really expect me to wait that long?” 

“W - well, no, but - -“

“Hands and knees, Kaveh. Now.” 

Whimpering softly, he does as he’s been told and turns over to assume the position. He wasn’t sure what, exactly, she had in store for him but there were certainly a few sinking suspicions running through his mind, and he wasn’t sure if he was prepared for any of them. Mentally or physically, it seemed he really had bitten off more than he could conceivably chew. 

She soon returns to him, evidently having found what she was looking for and crawling up onto the bed to kneel just behind him. He can’t quite bring himself to look back at her, a little too embarrassed by everything that has already happened here today as much as the unseemly pose he was currently in to face her head on. He was also more than a bit nervous too, and he decidedly did not want her to see that reflecting back at her in his expression. Sure, Kaveh may have been fruitlessly grasping at straws here, but he was dead set on preserving whatever minuscule amount of his pride he still had left. 

Which was decidedly not much at all. 

“Relax for me. I’m not going to hurt you.” 

“I know that …” 

But did he really, though? He trusted her, yes, but there was a very real part of him that didn’t know what to expect in the coming moments and that made him understandably a bit jittery. 

That fact is very poignantly highlighted when she touches him, placing her hand along his lower back, and he jolts so hard he nearly comes right up off the bed. Chuckling softly at the reaction, Jeanne rubs comforting, coaxing circles into his skin as if she were encouraging an overly skittish pup to settle down. 

“So jumpy. Have I actually done anything to make you this nervous yet?” 

He grumbles a low, noncommittal sound, not entirely sure he trusted himself to speak when he was as naked as the day he was born and spread out on her bed on full display. His reticence quickly proves to be a moot point though, because when she drags her hand down to the cleft where his ass starts, he outright yelps in surprise. 

“Wait - -“ 

“Unfortunately I don’t have the time or the patience for that right now. You said you were going to be a good boy for me, didn’t you?” 

“ I — I did, but …” 

“Then do as I say and relax. I promise you aren’t going to hate this half as much as you think you will.” 

Groaning softly, Kaveh hangs his head in a clear sign of defeat and Jeanne takes that chance to readjust her position behind him, settling directly between his knees now. Both of her hands come up to cup his cheeks, giving them each a savory, appreciative squeeze, and he mewls very quietly when she spreads them apart. His face positively blazes with the knowledge that she was looking at his most private areas uninterrupted and he restlessly fidgets as a result. 

He feels her lean close then and he braces himself — for what, he isn’t sure, but it’s certainly not the wet swipe of her tongue across the tight pucker of his asshole. The sensation is unmistakable and jarring, and he instinctively tries to shy away from it with a frazzled yelp. 

“Jeanne!” He shrills, further embarrassing himself with the high pitch of his voice. 

“Goodness, you really are like an innocent virgin, aren’t you?” 

He doesn’t exactly have a comeback for that, not when he was certainly acting like one, so he just settles on a vague sound of disagreement. 

Chuckling, she leans into him again and, now that he actually knows what’s coming, he clenches his teeth to stay any of the humiliating sounds that rise in his chest at the next swipe of her tongue. It’s a bit less shocking this time but no less confusing when he can’t make any sense of why she would be doing this. Surely she wasn’t … she didn’t plan to - -

“Don’t tense up so much,” She murmurs against him, warm breath fanning over his skin and tickling the sticky wrinkle of his hole. He feels a slight twitch in his groin in response to the featherlight sensation but it’s not near enough to have him springing back up to full attention again. 

So he simply takes it with as much grace as he possibly can, passively letting her lap at him without protest until he can eventually feel the tight rim start to puff up under her ministrations. The muscle was slackening and giving way, allowing her more freedom to poke and prod at the center to tease the suggestion of penetration. He wasn’t sure how he felt about that or any of this, but he doesn’t protest even when she seals her mouth around him and gently starts to suckle. Now he felt overwhelmed in a completely different way than before, and he wheezes quietly under his breath. This was unfamiliar territory for him, completely uncharted, but it is his implicit trust in Jeanne that keeps him from bolting like a frightened rabbit. 

And just like the easily frightened hare, he all but quails when she finally pulls back some moments later to fiddle with something behind him. He didn’t want to look, couldn’t bring himself to look, but he quickly figures out what she’s up to when her fingers come up to touch him and they’re unnaturally sticky with grease, genuine surprise making his heart stutter a beat. 

Dear god, she was really going to do this! 

“Ah, J - Jeanne, are you sure that’s - -“ 

She carefully pushes, dipping one digit just inside the tight ring of muscle without stopping long enough to hear him out, and he instantly blurts out a wordless sound of startled shock. Unable to stop himself anymore, he snaps his head around to peer over his shoulder at her but she just offers up a vaguely conspiratorial smile. 

“You’re tensing up again.” 

“Well, can you really blame me!” 

“No, not really. But trust me, you’ll find you’re much more keen here in just a moment.” 

He doesn’t believe that. He doesn’t believe that at all, not when his hole was weakly pulsing around the intrusion in a way that made him feel panicky and trapped, and that was to say absolutely nothing of the sharply felt pangs of embarrassment he could feel creeping up his neck. 

But then she pushes in a little deeper, slipping in down to the second joint, and his entire body seizes in response, igniting a red hot, tingling sensation low in his gut. His mouth drops open in surprise but nothing comes out, his chest rapidly contracting with the quick gasps he pulls in. It still didn’t exactly feel good, or at least he’s pretty sure it doesn’t, but he felt … something from it. Something that takes his breath away and threatens to suffocate him. He’d never been penetrated like this before but to have Jeanne doing it, carefully fingering his body open, it occurred to him much too late that she was probably right. He probably was going to like this if she was the one doing it. 

“Oh, oh, oh,” He wheezes, fighting the instinctive urge to pull away when she just keeps going, dipping her finger further in until he feels the obvious press of her knuckle flush against his hole. Swaying unsteadily on his hands and knees, he frantically gropes for his frazzled thoughts for something to say. “That’s — hold on, please, just … take it slow, okay?” 

“Didn’t I already tell you I don’t have time for that, Kaveh? You’re going to take what I give you however I see fit to give it. Do you understand?” 

Not waiting for him to respond (as if he even could respond to that), Jeanne angles her finger down and gently massages along his inner wall. The sensation is strange and he still can’t quite decide if it was pleasurable or not, so he just squirms in place while she feels along his guts. At least it didn’t hurt. That seems to be his one and only consolation in this confusing situation he’s gotten himself in, and for that he was thankful. 

“Ah,” She suddenly blurts. “Found it.” 

He almost finds himself asking what it is she’s found in his ass of all places but he doesn’t quite make it any farther than opening his mouth. She abruptly angles that insidious digit downward, digging into his interior wall, and a shock of static electricity immediately shoots through his entire system with enough force to damn near bowl him right over. He comes very close to full on wailing in response even as his hips subconsciously buck under the pressure and his cock gives a distant, muted twitch. 

Icy fear promptly races down his spine. No. No, it couldn’t be — 

She repeats the motion, massaging down into that unimaginably sensitive bundle of nerves with a forceful curl of her finger, and his knees almost give out in response. He understood now what it was she wanted but he was helpless to stop it at this point, outright sobbing while she expertly turned his own body against him. No matter how much he tries to fight it or will it away, his cock was slowly coming back to life with each twist of her hand even when it hurt to do so. He was still much too sore after two consecutive orgasms but even through the discomfort he still gradually starts to harden again. 

Left with no other choice, Kaveh finally allows his upper body to sink down onto the bed where he folds his arms and buries his face in their protective cradle. He’d never be able to look Jeanne in the face after this. It had already started off bad enough when he’d shot his load in under four minutes but it had only continued to get worse from there, and now she was fingering his asshole to coax yet another erection out of him. 

Somehow it doesn’t even come as a surprise when the tears start up again. 

“There you go. Just look at you.” She murmurs approvingly some odd minutes later when his cock has finally finished filling out and it was now a heavy, hanging weight between his legs. “If I didn’t know any better, I wouldn’t even think you’ve gone one round yet.” 

“Nnghnoogh, please, Jeanne. This is hardly, aghhn, the time for jokes.” 

“You’re right. Well, let’s get you fitted then.”

Kaveh blinks through the tears, wondering what she was talking about now, but he doesn’t get the chance to ask. She starts to slowly pull her finger out without any further warning and he whines at the resulting drag against his guts when the muscle tries to cling to her on the way out. It’s like she doesn’t even notice though, or perhaps she doesn’t care, and she slips free with a tiny little slurp from his clenching entrance. Physically cringing at the sound, he shoves his face further into the comfort of his arms and tries very hard not to sob. 

He can hear her fiddling with something behind him but he’s a little too far gone to wonder about what the next trial might be. He’d find out sooner or later anyway, and in this case it turns out to be quite soon. 

Carefully, her hands slip something over his rigid cock and draws it up to the base. It feels vaguely like leather, and that thought is quickly solidified in his mind when she tightens it until the material cinches around him in a tight squeeze that is resoundingly uncomfortable on his already nerve sensitive skin. Sucking in a sharp breath, Kaveh shoves himself up on his elbows so he can peer down at himself. Sure enough, the black thong secured around his scrotum is obvious and speaks for itself. The message was clear. If he couldn’t control himself enough to hold back his orgasms until she was satisfied then she’d help him out. Give him a nudge in the right direction. 

He absolutely hated how familiar that sentiment sounded. 

“You can’t — you can’t do that, Jeanne! It’s too tight and … that’s not fair, is it? I could have used my mouth.” 

“Ooh, are you whining, Kaveh? Such a sad little thing you are. Unfortunately it’s not your mouth I want right now though.” Rising up, she leans over him so she can press herself flush along his back. Her hand comes around to curl under his chin and manually turn his face up at her, and he offers her a tiny little sniffle to go with the puppy eyed face he makes. “What I want is that pretty cock you’ve got between your legs and you’re going to give it to me, aren’t you? Hm?” 

“Nnghn … yes, ma’am.” 

“Good. Now switch me spots.” 

She peels away from him so she can move up a little higher on the bed while he gingerly gets himself situated on his knees. Even just a brief glance down at the state of his poor cock, swollen and darkened by the tight band cutting off the circulation to keep him hard and ready, is enough to make him feel light headed with overwhelm. He’d wanted this though, had practically begged any god willing to listen for even just one real chance with Jeanne, and he knew better than to fight it. He’d dug this hole for himself so, with an accompanying sniffly, he compliantly moves to position himself between the bend of her knees when she gets settled on her back. And looking down at her spread out like that, he dully realizes that he’s never been happier in all his life. 

It wasn’t just that she was pushing his body right to its limits while simultaneously keeping the important bits of him grounded in reality, although that was certainly gratifying in its own right too. It also wasn’t a simple matter of fulfilling and acting on his long held attraction for her, making his fantasies a reality. Rather, there was something about this power dynamic between them that just made him feel whole and complete, like he’d been born just to play this role for her. He’d experienced felt anything quite like it before, and it is with an immense amount of nervous anticipation that he lines himself up with her entrance. 

“I’m going to do it.” He announces, thinking it was for her benefit, but she immediately shoots that idea down when she tsk’s very softly in response. 

“What did I tell you about relaxing, Kaveh? Don’t worry. I’m confident you’re going to do an excellent job.” 

As if to prove that, she reaches between them and wraps her fingers around his straining length, giving it a tight squeeze. He shudders, feeling every little thing in high definition when the nerves were so sensitized and swollen with excess blood. It’s hard just to breathe through it but she helps him with this as well by gently guiding him back into place and encouraging him with a slow tug. 

Clutching her soft thighs in a death grip, Kaveh follows the suggestion with his hips and pushes forward, spearing into hot creases and folds in torturous slow motion. He can’t quite bring his body to move any faster than that and he lets out a frazzled, high pitched keening sound when he starts to sink inside her body again. It felt even more intense than it did the first time, and he surely had the black thong cinched tight around his scrotum to thank for that. Almost like having a transcendental experience, it makes his soul feel like it’s flickering out at the edges.  

He keeps going though, a little too far gone within the heightened daze of his arousal to think of anything else other than burying himself as deep into Jeanne as he could reasonably go, and he doesn’t stop until his pelvis is flush with hers. Letting out a wounded, faltering grunt, he sways unsteadily over top of her. Tries to ground himself to no avail. He wasn’t going to come out of this on the other side the same person he’d once been. Of that he’d never been more certain.  

“Kaveh,” She says his name so soft, so dotingly, as her hands come up to cup his face and angle it down at her. “You’re crying again, my love. Do you really like being inside me that much?” 

Numbly nodding his head even while the tears continue to streak hot tracks down his cheeks, the blond fumbles for something to say before finally settling on, “I do. Of course I do, but … I want to make you feel good too.” 

A slow smile curls Jeanne’s mouth, more sly and knowing than it is sweet, but like a loyal dog Kaveh is just happy to get whatever he can. He doesn’t mind the way she looks at him like a hungry, powerful predator sizing up its prey and he doesn’t mind the way she reaches down to possessively grope at his chest either. Despite him being almost totally flat and lacking in much to grab, that doesn’t stop her from pinching at his poor little breast until he hisses, half in discomfort and half in pleasure. This, too, he was happy to be on the receiving end of. 

“You are making me feel good, you silly thing. But I’d feel even better if you started moving already. I’m not much for cock warming, you know.” 

He blushes straight up to his ears, stammering out a quick apology. Unconcerned, Jeanne slides her hand further down and then back to reach for his tight ass, giving it an appreciative jostle. 

“Quickly, now. If you don’t act soon I’ll have to fuck you instead and show you how it’s done. Considering the way you reacted just from having my finger inside you I don’t think you’re quite ready for that yet, are you?” 

“N - no, ma’am. I’m not.” 

“Didn’t think so. Then get moving.”

⭐

Crossposted: here

[celestiaras]

‧₊˚✧ ❛[ free birds of a feather ]❜

ft. dokibird x f! reader — indie vtubers

╰₊✧ the look in her eyes promises a lifetime of adventure┊2.2k words (prt two coming soon)

contains: lots of exposition, forbidden friends to lovers & it’s very idealistic, mentions of getting spanked (in a non-kinky way) & kicked out, getting together & first kisses, running away together, probably ooc doki, (please don’t make any niji mentions, you will be blocked, let’s celebrate where she is now instead of dwelling on the past like she said she wanted multiple times 🏆)

➤ author's note: happy birthday doki!! this one goes out to all the girl kisser dragoons who fell into a sapphic panic after this model came out, prt two will be smutty

she’s earlier than usual, strolling down the dusty road while watching the puffy clouds float by the blue skies with the gentle breeze in the air. you noticed her approaching figure as soon as she came over the horizon, glancing every now and then between the sheets tossed over a line of rope while securing them with wooden clothespins. there were some other people nearby, but they skittishly left the premises once they caught sight of her out of fear that she would steal them blind of all they had on them. it did take a minute for you to recognize her since she completely changed her look a week ago: her blonde hair cut short at her neck in sharp edges, white pants, and a teal button-up with a leather jacket, gloves, and boots layered on top that gave her more of a tomboy appearance instead of her previous long twin tails, cute blue dress, and matching flat cap. she looked a lot more like herself.

doki is her name, or at least it’s the name that everyone knows her by, infamous throughout the entire nation for being a thief so unstoppable that most give up trying at all when they see her. while she would never steal from random people on the streets, she’s so invincible in her trade that the government had to make a deal with her, allowing her to break in and take from any bank or museum that she wants as long as she only does it once a year. this was a ridiculous deal that she didn’t need to abide by since she was equally good at evading the authorities, but she accepted the terms anyway for some unknown reason. perhaps she was in a merciful mood to allow citizens to breathe a sigh of relief when they know they are safe from her for another year when they hear the news of her latest heist.

while she travels the world to perform these robberies, she always returns to any one of the quaint country villas she has listed in her mind to focus on her art hobby. typically, she goes to the one that is nearest to the spot she just looted, but she found herself going the extra mile(s) to travel to your little town specifically because of how beautiful the scenery is. she chooses to ignore the fact that everyone avoids her and just accepted that it comes with the job. people like her were always separated from the rest of the flock for the most part, destined to walk their path alone before taking flight in an entirely different direction that no one expected them to follow.

unlike her, you were born and raised in these parts and never even stepped foot outside its borders just like the many generations before you, expected to live and die somewhere that isn’t on most maps without ever seeing the outside world you only read about in books. that was your fate even though doing farmwork and acting as a nanny to your younger siblings was boring, tedious, and repetitive. you gave up trying to convince anyone that it was worth abandoning the life you had to seek out something new, but there was always a desire in your heart to run away in search of an adventure and to do it with someone who saw that you could do more than be a farmhand or a future housewife.

you sighed, shook yourself out of your thoughts, turned around to grab the now empty wicket basket, and jumped out of your skin at the random appearance of the very girl occupying your thoughts earlier. “hey~ caught you staring earlier,” she teased, voice slightly raspy as she took another casual step towards you. you didn’t even realize that your vision was fixated on her until she was right in front of you. “are you finished with your chores yet?”

“almost, i just need to make lunch for all my siblings then i’ll be free until dinnertime.” she must be a phantom of sorts, there wasn’t any other explanation for how she was such a good bandit and managed to run over to you without making a sound— no matter how outlandish it might seem.

everyone avoids her except for you. admittedly, it wasn’t intentional as you didn’t know who she was when you first introduced yourself (you never kept up with ongoing news, much preferring to read books of all genres not including current reports), but it started a beautiful friendship once you slowly became close after her carefully built walls began to collapse due to your persistence. even if you did already know, you don’t think it would have changed anything. something about her was just magnetic to you, someone who was considered “dangerous” meeting someone who was seeking more. sure she looks intimidating, but you learned that there’s so much more to her. she makes you laugh so easily, performs the funniest pranks on the townsfolk, manages to bounce off the walls with energy even when tired, tells you the most entertaining stories about all that she’s witnessed, and most importantly, she makes you feel seen. it’s incredible how two people the same age have led such different lives yet managed to click so easily.

and her smile, god, her smile. it’s no secret that doki is incredibly attractive with handsome features of smoldering pale green eyes with a flirtatious glint in them framed by long lashes, a fit athletic build hidden under her baggy clothing, a strong jawline matched with a cute button nose, and so much more, but her smile is by far her best feature. from toothy grins that showed her fangs to mischievous smirks that knew something you didn’t to joyful beams that lit up the room, they always had you finding a rising heat radiating from your face whenever you looked at her and made you avoid eye contact while stuttering in your words.

you aren’t stupid enough not to know that these feelings toward her transcended past platonic friendships between two girls, yet you were just dumb enough not to know if it was the same for her. you know she likes girls that way since the topic once came up in passing, but you had no idea if you were her type or if she saw you as anything more. besides, what you had right now was so precious and the last thing you wanted was to destroy it in the pursuit of something greater, even if it meant you had to swallow your desire and could only feel her embrace in your dreams.

“i’ll go wait for you at our usual spot then!”

“sounds good!” 

humming a tune on your lips in excitement as she turned on her heel and left after a wave, you went into the kitchen to prepare something quick for your family since you didn’t want to keep her waiting. the early afternoon sun seemed to shine brighter now that you were going to spend time with your crush. crush is such a childish word when you’re both adults, but there isn’t any better way to put it. you felt like a little girl whose heart quickens from just the thought of her.

“young lady,” your mother’s stern voice came from the doorway, one that you were far too familiar with at this point. “how many times must i tell you to stay away from that crook?! she’s nothing but trouble, i would hate for her bad behavior to rub off on you— imagine what people would say if they saw!

you simply scoffed at her concerns, not even bothering to turn around to look at her. this was a conversation held more times than you could count and was really a waste of energy to try for a different conclusion. “i know you don’t want to accept it, but i’m an adult now and i’m allowed to hang out with whomever i please. you don’t know her like i do, and doki is a wonderful person.”

“as long as you live under my roof, you follow my rules.” she walked over to you and pulled you away from your task, forcing you to look at her, “and i forbid you to see her again.”

it seemed like she was trying to put her foot down about the situation, but you had long grown past the age to fear a spanking or getting grounded so you simply walked past her. she shouted something along the lines of “once you leave, you can never return,” but you just brushed past like you always did and went on your way to see your friend.

the usual spot was actually just a hill that overlooked the entire area with a large oak tree rooted at the very top, branches twisted and sturdy enough to climb on. she’s normally already on one of them swinging like a monkey, but today she was just leaning against the thick wooden trunk. she seemed aloof and deep in thought about something even when you called her name, chewing on a strand of wheat and idly throwing a mixture of seeds on the dirt road to feed some birds, completely absorbed in her own world and missing from yours.

“doki?” you called out her name a second time before she finally turned to you.

“you know if you aren’t allowed to hang out with me… you don’t have to… i really don’t want you to get in trouble…” for the first time, the untouchable doki seemed to be defeated with a saddened expression and words spoken in a low murmur.

it broke your heart that she overheard. “don’t say that, i’m not gonna stop hanging out with you because my family said so! they don’t know anything about you: saying that you’ll steal from anyone when you only rob banks that are corrupt or museums whose displays are stolen from their home countries! i’ve tried to explain to them so many times that you weren’t a quarter as bad as the gossip makes you out to be, but they won’t listen! they’re more scared that i’ll be influenced into wanting to leave more than anything, but they just don’t know that i’ve been wanting to leave way before i even met you!” you let out an exasperated sigh and flopped onto the soft grass next to her, scaring away the birds that weren’t already flying away from your raise voice earlier. “sorry for ranting, i just tend to get defensive about these kinds of things. my family doesn’t know anything, and i’m not going to stop hanging out with you no matter what they say.”

“what if… what if you ran away with me?”

your eyes went round at the sudden suggestion, “really?”

“we could go see the world together!” she seemed to be filled with energy at the thought, moving to walk around the tree instead as her mind began to buzz with excitement. “there are so many cool places i could show you, all the different cultures with tasty food, and so many cool people i want you to meet too!” she slowed her pace and looked at you with a certain sparkle of magic in her eyes, full of confidence and passion. “only on one condition though.” “name it!” you would be stupid to decline her generous offer placed in the palm of your hand when it was everything you’ve ever dreamed of: to escape from the expectation to live out your entire life in this boring small town, to explore the wonders of this planet both natural and man-made, and to all of it with doki!

“i want you,” she paused for dramatic effect. “to be my girlfriend!” she continued before you could respond, rather bashfully, “once i realized that i had feelings for you… i found that i couldn’t get very far away from this area knowing that we were only friends and not anything more… it just stuck to my mind, all the time…” you thought you were dreaming from how unreal the situation was until she reached out to hold your hands in her own, “so, how about it? i’m a great tour guide and an even greater partner, but you wouldn’t know how good i am unless you accept!” 

there it was, her signature smirk that you’ve fallen in love with a look in her eyes that promised a lifetime of adventure: a promise to show you how far the borders of the earth went past this town and how beautiful it would all be with her by your side. “oh, doki, of course, i will!” there wasn’t a second of hesitation that came when you agreed, jumping up and into her arms in a tight embrace that you thought would never happen in this lifetime.

she cupped your face in her gloved hands and kissed you, the first one of many more to come. it was clumsy and uncoordinated, but absolutely perfect nonetheless. you know that it’s so idealistic and stupid to run away from home with a criminal, so many things could go wrong and life wouldn’t be easy by any means, yet it felt so right and freeing to do. something deep within told you that there would be no regrets, that everything would be alright as long as you were with her.

[paxton-brady]

PAXTON BRADY

Full Name: Paxton Charles Brady

Nicknames: Pax

Pronouns and Gender: He/Him, Cis Male

Age and Birthday: 33 years old, February 28th

Birth place: Stillwater, Minnesota

Sexuality: Homoromantic Demisexual

Status: Dating

Occupation: Comics Emporium Attendant / Freelance Illustrator

Education: BFA in Illustration w/ a minor in Sequential Art

Residence: Fisher's Cove

Family: Carin Brady, Weston Brady, sibling to be named

Time in Aurora Bay: 20 years

Face claim: Dylan O'Brien

tw : body injury, car accident, amputation, temporary amnesia, subtle mental health issues mention, divorce mention, single parent mention

HISTORY —

Paxton has had a rather peaceful, mundane life. There isn't all that much that has happened between Stillwater and Aurora Bay. Raised with two parents that doted on him, he never had to want for a thing. Not in the spoiled sense considering the moment he could handle simple tasks, he'd been taught the discipline of chores and basic household responsibilities, but the fridge was never empty, he never had to fear homelessness, and he always had a shirt on his back.

His father remarried to the woman that is his mother, giving Paxton an older step-sibling that flitted in and out of his life. Things had been mostly amicable between them despite how the relationship could sometimes feel strained. Forced good will between children and all, trying to create a blended family just exhausted them both from time to time.

When he'd hit his teen years, Pax better understood the pressure put on his sibling. Bouncing from home to home for holidays, having to make time for each parent, and living with their mother was, though stable, could only provide a fraction of what Pax received. There was no hate for his father as the desire of a divorce had been a mutual decision, and both parents wanted to keep things peaceful for the sake of their kid.

Aside from his sibling, Paxton mostly kept to himself. He had few acquaintances, even fewer friends, and he opted for solitude most times. It is where he developed his skill in drawing - alone, scrawling away on paper and creating characters and stories into the early hours of the morning. His academic grades were average, he didn't join any clubs, but he would spend hours in the art studios creating.

The thing was, Paxton focused on a very specific type of art. Still life drawings weren't his privy, nor were painted self portraits, or charcoal sketches of landscapes. He liked to draw from his mind, and he contributes that to the array of comic books he'd been gifted throughout his childhood.

At twelve, his parents decided they wanted to escape the cold winters of Minnesota. One can only handle so many snowstorms in their lifetime, and Pax didn't care either way. He had no friends he'd miss, and his half-sibling had just gotten their acceptance letter for college. A change of scenery could be good.

It was, at first. The sunshine was nice, it boosted his mood, and he'd been a fairly happy kid finishing his teen years there. The education system seemed to have a lot more in their curriculum, too, which had been an added bonus. With more resources for illustration and visual story-telling, of course he'd find himself at home their.

When he was eighteen, Paxton had been biking home from school to Fisher's Cove. It was in mid-November, so the sun had already started to set, and he was difficult to see on the shoulder. He'd been struck crossing an intersection when the other car didn't see him and allow him the right away.

The details of the accident are lost too him, but all he'd remembered after enough time was waking up to white walls and fluorescent lights, with that antiseptic smell assaulting his nostrils and his mouth feeling like he'd been sucking on nothing but cotton. Paxton found out he'd been out for six days. He also quickly found out he'd lost his right leg from the knee down.

The car that had hit him caused enough damage when he rolled under the front wheel that a transtibial amputation was necessary. It'd been a shock, putting it lightly, and nothing could prepare him for the road ahead. Adapting to the lost extremity, recovery, physical therapy - Pax barely felt like he could get through it. Even with the funding of a prosthetic.

Despite that, he did make it through the trials and tribulations. With a fair amount of physical therapy and psychological help, the distorted body image issues and insecurities, though not entirely negated, have been quieted so that he can function day to day. After enough years it had just become a part of him, and Paxton made a late start to college at age twenty-one.

A Bachelor of Fine Arts in Illustration and Visual Story Telling had been his focus, and he earned his degree in four years. Following graduation, he had a brief stint up in the animation studios in Los Angeles and Burbank until the insane work hours had him quit and return back to Aurora Bay.

He lives with his parents still, and they happily house him while he works at the comic shop and is a freelance illustrator on the side, waiting for his art to kick off where he can put all his energy into that.

TRAITS.

+ Empathetic, focused.

+/- Reserved, gullible.

- Escapist, people-pleasing.

HEADCANONS.

⊹ Paxton enjoys drawing action images the most. Any chance to get commissioned to draw anything vaguely comic book esq is his favorite sort of work to create.

⊹ He still reaches out to his half-sibling from time to time. Every month that passes the messages get more scarce, but he does try.

⊹ Paxton, despite finding a love for putting together compositions, does have the obstacle of Anomalous trichromacy color blindness. It is the mildest form, but color theory courses had been a struggle.

⊹ Paxton worked in world building in a big animation studio in Los Angeles. He enjoys illustration, but visual story-telling falls right under the umbrella.  

⊹ The family dog is a Boykin Spaniel named Duke, and he is just on the edge of turning twelve this year. He'd been a gift after the move so that Paxton wasn't always alone. He also has a pet tree frog he named Carafroggio (sorta like Caravaggio but definitely not).

⊹ Paxton's favorite food is garlic butter pasta, and his favorite snack is french fries dipped in chocolate milkshake.

⊹ He is not aware that his romantic attraction is towards solely men. The obstacle of navigating something under the asexual umbrella has left him stuck with compulsory heterosexuality, so while he's aware he is romantically attracted to men, he hasn't ruled out women. Give him time, he'll get there. (this is why in the past I don't mind dates and such with female presenting muses)

⊹ Paxton will have a new tattoo sleeve as of his birthday, done by Mack. Looks like [ this ].

⊹ He cannot listen to Bob Marley's 3 Little Birds because it was the last thing he heard in his headphones before he dozed off when he was hit by that car. It's not a trauma flashback issue, it just makes him mad because the universe has a cruel sense of humor.

CONNECTIONS.

romantic connects will be added in the future once I get Paxton more established. I am open to any exes connections, or even an 'almost' or 'what if' that fell off! I also don’t do any sort of pregnancy plots on a whim - scares, accidental, planned, etc. I need more in game interaction and chemistry and heavy HEAVY plotting for those because hey, it never feels right if it's forced.

♡ @kaylatullz - mikayla came into paxton's life like an unexpected earthquake. hard to miss and very present. admittedly, she'd been overwhelming to him as he was freshly new to Aurora Bay and California and hurting over leaving his home state, but he quickly warmed up to her — as if given a choice at all in the matter — and kayla had been the first person to not make him feel so bad about being the odd kid out. because they both were, together.

♡ @sterlingxlevin - paxton appreciates sterling's creative eye. they are current project partners for some of the town's upcoming events, and he really enjoys her perspective when it comes to fleshing out an idea and making it come to life. he will forever envy her ability to work with three-dimensional art.

♡ @hcnter - although having gone to the same high school, the years between them made it so paxton didn't officially meet hunter until his late twenties. shy but wanting, they ended up tangled in the sheets together, but paxton left it at just a hook up. not because he didn't like hunter, but because he's emotionally occupied elsewhere, given the lack of closure in things from his past. this does not mean there aren't any lingering feelings as paxton has a tendency to attach bits of himself to any person he experiences so intimately.

♡ @cricketcampbell - cricket had been hired by his mother to cook for a few family evens, but now it's turned into carin inviting her over for wine and dinner, no work necessary. pax enjoys her company, he doesn't mind playing messenger between the two, even if he is half certain his mother loves cricket more than him.

♡ @leomlarson - the attention leo gives him is nice, but what began at surface level flirting and paxton blushing has definitely turned into a little crush. it's hard not to, with how charming, talented and charismatic leo is. he does seek his friendship above all else, because pax thinks he has a lot to learn from him in terms of art, and he hopes he keeps coming around the comic shop or invites him out more often.

♡ @buddywellls - ex-boyfriend, when they started dating it was great. pax loved the energy, all he could think about was buddy, and he wanted nothing more than to be with him. until he didn't, then they slowly fizzled out and they stayed together long past the relationship's expiration - which let to a rough break up.

♡ @esmemaxwcll - high school ex-girlfriend, they dated for a bit until pax felt like it just didn't suit them. he wanted to keep her friendship, though, and he's her friend to this day.

♡ @ziggykyeons - there is never a dull day at comic emporium is ziggy is on shift. pax can attest to that. either it's all fun and light-hearted goofing, or there's an off chance some fans are in there causing a touch of a ruckus looking for their beloved streamer. his confidence is forever an enviable trait, pax can only wish to carry himself with even a fraction of what ziggy exudes.

♡ @masoncambridge - little brother older brother vibes. mason was a senior that helped little freshman paxton around when this kid, all too nervous, came in with his knees knocking to big bad high school.

♡ @kennyxtamblyn - old classmates, and two kids who started a little lgbtq+ club temporarily in high school. more tba

LINKS.

⊹ pinterest.

⊹ inspo.

⊹ playlist.

⊹ personal tunes.

@aurorabayaesthetic

[threeinchthunderthimble]

Radiohead - Creep

Another day, another morning jukebox...

I’ve been thinking about this song lately. I used to think it was one of those red-flag songs for me. Like, if someone really likes the song they’re not gonna be a good fit dating wise. 

When you were here before Couldn't look you in the eye

There's something about it I found super creepy. And of course, I think thats certainly a part of the song. Its objectively creepy.

You're just like an angel Your skin makes me cry

Whoever this person is, they have an incredibly uncomfortable obsession with their object of love. I’ve never been the object of a stalker’s obsession, but if there were lyrics that simulated that level of obsession, these surely would be them, even more so than The Police’s Every Breath You Take. It would always bring out this visceral sense of being trapped and every time it would come on I would change the channel (or have to suffer through for karaoke).

You float like a feather In a beautiful world

That is until I went to karaoke at one of my local gay bars.

I wish I was special You're so fuckin' special

The night was put on by my local Pup group, and when I heard the song come on I groaned internally.

Great, the stalker song, I thought.

But I'm a creep I'm a weirdo What the hell am I doin' here? I don't belong here

A few weeks before I had gone out after a hash to a local sports bar. Typical sports bar milieu- cis het straight folks with cis hetr straight politics. While I love dive bars, I knew this wasnt a place where queer people were specifically made welcome. They wouldnt be denied of course, but it was a cis het kinda place.

I went into the bathroom, which was cramped and dirty. No surprise there. I use the stall in the men's since I’m not equipped to be able to sue the urinal- which the stall itself was crammed into an available space that was blocked by the door when open. This is important.

3 drunk people came in helping their friend to throw up. There was some confusion as I was wedged in by the sink, but their friend made it safely to the stall and summarily began emptying the contents of his stomach. But they are hanging out and blocking the door and they look at me and ask me if I’m gay.

She's running out the door (run) She's running out She run, run, run, run

Where I come from, being asked that in a men’s restroom might mean you're gonna get your head bounced from porcelain.

I froze, filled with adrenaline, but something welled up inside me. I was angry. Angry that I should be considered broken, lesser than, a threat. I figured if I was going to be beaten, or die, I would go down being exactly who I am. So I screwed up my courage and said, “yes, I am”.

They started to laugh, then started to get me to date their cousin. So, no biggie, but I left that bathroom with shaky legs. I felt hollow and old all night.

Whatever makes you happy Whatever you want

You're so fuckin' special

I wish I was special

I’m gonna be honest- sometimes I struggle to feel right when I’m in queer spaces. A lifetime of religious trauma sucks man. 

But while I was listening to that person sing, something began to happen. Its like everyone in the room had the same thought, the same feeling. Of loneliness, of longing, or not living in a world that is made for them.

I suddenly understood the song.

But I'm a creep I'm a weirdo What the hell am I doin' here? I don't belong here I don't belong here

[bbiwon]

the plus side to working an unconventional job in a world that strives for straight conventionality was that you had this specific type of freedom that most other people wouldn't taste once in their lifetime. the liberty and independence that, once tasted, you would get addicted to it, only wanting more of it, having found the personal pot of gold; the prospect of it disappearing being a literal living nightmare he would experience. as such, this was another of those days where he could reap the benefits of his unconventional life. the management was kind enough to give them a mostly free day, where they could enjoy watching the opening acts of the festival as they happen.

(after every joy came a period of gloom and as such, jaewon knew that the night which followed would be spent on him cramming the subject of temporary tattoos: the airbrushing tool was to be used, the precautions and what family-friendly designs they could offer for curious teens. all because the idea of offering them during the festival period — for those who want the experience without actually committing to it, and of course, promotion of barracuda and acceptance of the craft — was brought up.)

in spite of it, jaewon didn't allow the thoughts of tomorrow pose as an obstacle to the fun of today. so, he took on the spring festival with an open heart and an open wallet; trying out whichever small arcade game offered a free spot, despite the luck not being exactly on his side, though he did carry along himself one of those happy-slash-angry squids. eyeing food around him, indecisiveness settling inside his body alongside the low rumble of an empty stomach. the mall and its size were overwhelming on a regular day, even years later, and now, with the pizzazz, colours and the mixing noises of music & the crowd, everything was only stronger tenfold.

to say he found quietude somewhere secluded and quiet would be a lie, as there was not a single spot alike that presently for him to take. still, armed with a cola and a corndog, he found one spot — not too far away from the vendors — where he could enjoy his moment of peace.

that was until he heard the call of his name — recognizable amidst it all as if it were a decibel made for his ears alone.

"zhuhr—" he called out as he turned around; mouthful of the food filling his cheeks into a roundness. raised hand went to cover his mouth, allowing him to bow swallow with a gulp & hide what would otherwise be an unsightly smile on his end. then, same hand wiped away the few crumbs that lingered around his lips. "yeah — yeah! i never thought even more people could spawn and appear at the mall. but, uh, zurie did you ——— did you just finish your shift?"

dinner plans ft. @bbiwon

zurie had been gutted when she found out she was working the afternoon shift the same day the spring carnival was popping up in the mall's main plaza. she'd become resigned to the fact that she'd miss out on the busiest periods of the festivities, which may have been a plus for most. zurie could only mope about the prospect of less people, however. as she exited sephora, she was surprised to hear continued commotion coming from the plaza. she hurried over to the side of the mezzanine to see that the sky was tinged with dusky hues and the twirling lights of the carnival were still in full effect, enhanced by the impending nightfall.

like a child on christmas morning, something zurie had ironically never really experienced, she journeyed down the countless stairs it took to get there with eyes widened. the scent of various carnival foods hit zurie like a freight train and she nearly sped off in that direction immediately, but she knew she had to be strategic. the main reason zurie was even hitting up the carnival, aside from the company, was to fill up on free food so she didn't have to buy or make dinner later. some people thought she seemed like an airhead, but she was always calculating her best bet for survival out of habitual necessity. still, she'd save all that for later, as she didn't want to tackle any rides on a full stomach.

it also occurred to her that coworkers and friends would likely be attending too, and as if on cue, she spotted jaewon among the crowd. "hey! hey, jaewon!" she waved to him like a maniac, as if anyone would be able to miss her. she took initiative to slide through the crowd to greet him, getting uncomfortably close to many people only to simply cast an oblivious and innocently enthusiastic 'hi!' their way. it was in that moment she realized she still had smudges of lipstick test trails on the back of her hand from her most recent consultation. "jaewon, isn't it exciting?" she inquired of him, still brimming with joy at the amount of people around.

[samcky]

Okay, I need more about this Hades/Persephone AU STAT 👀 (pretend they're blurry eyes)

Hi Mexi! I'll tell you about Hades!Sam bc that's the one I've started writing for now.

So last week I was lucky enough to see the absolute unit of a statue by Benini, called the abduction of Proserpina and it inspired me so much I hat to write something about it and the idea came to me that Sam is chasing Bucky throughout the worst after catws not because he's Steve’s friend, but because they are reincarnation of Hades and Persephone and Sam is chasing his Persephone.

There's this one specific scene I have in mind of them looking at this statue and Sam telling Bucky how it's not true and how he didn't kidnapped him, but that they feel in love. Idk anyway. I AM FERAL FOR THIS AU

Here's a small snipped and the picture statue:

Sam’s been looking for her for over a hundred years now. He’s always looking for her. He doesn’t find her every time, sometimes she’s already gone or hasn’t been born yet, and sometimes she’s perfectly happy by the time he finds her. But he’s always looking for her.

And she’s always the same, always filled with love the moment she sees him, happy to have been found even though she didn’t know someone was searching for her. No matter how many lives they live, his only desire remains to be with her, no matter what shape she takes, will it be a young girl with hair as dark as night, or a soldier maimed and tortured by his life. Sam has always loved her and he always will.

This time though, the soldier's eyes were empty, with no sign of recognition in them, no light shone behind them to let Sam know that his Persephone was finally found. Sam sighs, he feels like he’s lived a lifetime in just a day, and it’s just the afternoon.

[wandawxdow]

A Kidnapped Soulmate Part 6

The snow crunched under your boots as Tomas, the camp leader, led both you and Aleksander to your quarters. The men conversed during the walk, but you were too distracted by your surroundings.

The camp was truly a sight to behold. After nine days spent travelling with a set amount of people, the busyness of the camp was refreshing. People talked loudly, unrestrained and casual despite camping so close to the Fjerdan border. It reminded you of your hometown, with people happy despite their circumstances, and despite your homesickness, you found yourself cheerful. You didn't process that the man, Tomas, had left until Aleksander’s study hand on your back nudged you into your shared space.

For being a temporary room, it sure was extravagant. The bed immediately drew your eyes and you could almost feel your mouth gape open. It was mid-afternoon by the time your group arrived, and the full day of non-stop travelling had left you weary. You could feel your soulmate’s eyes on you as you wandered around the room in awe.

“Do you like it?” he questioned once you finished your inspection. You tilted your head and raised your brows; what did he think?

He put on a gentle smile before explaining, “I have some things to do, but I'll be back soon.”

“Sure, ” you muttered, still entranced by the large space. Kirigan let himself out, and you sat yourself down on the foot of the bed.

Only a an hour later, you found yourself bored; Which for you isn't surprising at all.

You'd tried to read some old book you found for entertainment, but it didn't worked. So, you found your eyes drifting over to the plush bedding. Just a short nap, you reasoned with yourself as you peeled back the thick covers.

As you suspected, within moments the softness of the bed lulled you into a deep sleep.

A bang woke you later. Lazily, your eyes peeled open, expecting to see Aleksander. He had told you that he would return soon. The room was, disappointingly, empty.

Another bang reached your ears alongside a collective cheer. Sitting up in the bed, you looked over at the closed curtains serving as a door; Nothing out of the ordinary. Slipping your shoes back onto your feet, you stood approached the exit.

The curtain pulled away to reveal the outside world. With your head peeking out, you looked around. Two guards were stationed at the door and staring ahead. Beyond them, a flurry was activity was transpiring.

A trio of colours swirled together as Grisha seemed to dance together in a symphony unheard of by you. They were sparring as the sun set - dodging and attacking with a grace practised for years. While small groups fought, others stood around in a perimeter and cheered on. Truly, a sight to see.

You took a few tentative steps out of the tent, and without a reaction from the guards, you directed yourself over to the group. Despite your excitement, you recognised the two Heartrenders following behind you, likely as instructed by Aleksander.

You stood with the mob, gazing at the lighthearted sparring. A Tidemaker and Squaller were throwing punches in front of you with two Heartrenders battling it out beside them. In awe, your eyes couldn't leave the sight. Sure, you've seen people fight before. But no one so trained, so graceful, and so talented. No one who incorporated Grisha powers effortlessly with combat.

Little did you know that your own Grisha had returned and was staring at you in awe. Aleksander Morozova was used to being shamed for his powers, was used to Grisha being shamed by those who feared them. The look on your face though wasn't fear but amazement. You didn't fear their power, and neither did you fear him.

Men and women parted for him as he walked through the crowd to you. “Enjoying the show, ” he teased, alerting you to his presence. Spinning around, you smiled up at him. “Of course.”

Noticing some badly hidden looks, Aleksander offered his arm to you while looking clearly at the crowd. They'll all know you're his. It’ll be their only warning.

Oblivious to the possessive gesture, you happily looped your arm with his and followed as he led you away. Though you enjoyed the display, it paled in comparison to Aleksander, your very own Grisha.

Wordlessly, he walked you both back to the large dwelling, opening the curtain door for you to enter first. You do, noticing Aleksander freezing at the doorway. “What’s wrong, ” you inquired worriedly, tracking his eyes to the bed you’d woken from.

As your mind spun, as did his with thoughts of you and him and the future. The simple unmade bed brought him a flash of images of the life the two of you could have together; getting to wake by your side each day, and protect you at night. He wanted it.

Your wavering voice broke him from his fantasy, “We don't have to - I mean - I can sleep” Your foot tapped against the group nervously as you tilted your head to the bed, hoping Aleksander would get your meaning.

Was it too much, too fast? Maybe the other night was a fluke and he doesn't want you.

“No.”

You let out a breath at his short grumble, watching as he walks even closer to you.

“I want you to sleep wit- by my side.”

His eyes locked onto yours, waiting for a reaction. He posed a silent question, telling you that he's ready if you are and if not, he’ll back off. He’ll wait.

You felt your cheeks flush at his wording. You gave him a short nod, noting his expression change to one of relief. Not-so-subtly your eyes trail down his face to his lips. A smirk graced Aleksander’s face, and you barely got to look him in the eye before he leant even closer.

His eyes searched yours at that moment and once again, you slightly nod as encouragement. You’ve been ready for your soulmate for your entire life, and now he’s here in front of you. You’re ready.

His hands of your cheeks sent a buzz through your body, as though it's finally awakened after a lifetime of slumber. Their warmth sunk into your skin with the cold contrast from his silver ring. Most spectacularly, his lips pressed against your own filled every dream you’ve had since childhood. Your soulmate was there with you, and he wasn't letting go. So, neither would you.

Kinda thinking I should leave the story here...Thoughts.

For those of you who read my last part, I think I’ve worked out why I can’t tag some people. These specific accounts are the only ones who have never posted or reblogged anything. I'm thinking I can't mention them because tumblr thinks the account is fake/inactive.

Tag List - @savannah-elliott @sonnensplitter @coldlilheart @louweasleymalfoy @tranquilitymoon @daybleedsintonightfa11 @auggie2000 @thenightfallingstar @evyiione @mylittlecrazyworldofinterest @navs-bhat @kaqua @kykymyeon @cap-just-said-language @spideylovin @maliasblue @ladyblablabla @fandomstuffff @kaitlyn2907 @cityofstaars @honeyofthegods @coolninjavoid @remugoodgirl @sorrowfulfragmentation @degeathesaviour @bloodyprincess22 @rvgrsbrns @mandos-crest @sophistjo @poulterfilms @the-real-comically-insane

[imaginativeamateur]

Hi! Congrats on 500 followers! I absolutely love your blog, and I'm so happy to see it grow and achieve new milestones!

I would love to make a visit to Ramen Ichiraku :)

Table 1, 1 bowl of Shoyu ramen with Chashu and Wonton, with some Green Tea, please!

Arigatou gozaimasu!

[Kakashi Hatake X Reader] Let the Rain Kiss You

|500 Followers Event|

Order: Table 1: Shoyu Ramen with Chashu and Wonton, Green tea

Pairing: Kakashi Hatake x fem!Reader

Note: Hey!! Thanks for placing an order! This one is a bit different from the style that I've been writing in, I wanted to try something different :D So definitely let me know what you think! Without further ado, please enjoy your ramen!

Mid-summer rains were for flowers to bathe their shying petals in serenity.

Mid-summer rains were for memories to drop by and once again relive…

You were having an uneventful day at the bookstore where you were landing a part-time job at. It was summer and dewy raindrops pounded at the front steps melodically. Your bookstore was located in the outskirts of the village, quite far from where the downtown hustle was, making it even more solemn on days like this. The sky started to pour at four and it was six by then with customers so few that you could recall which sections they stopped by without hesitation.

One more hour until closing time and you found yourself bending languidly across the desk, eyes gazing over the green grass just outside the glass window. The ticking of the clock and dulcet songs playing in the background brought reminiscence to you as you watched the clear droplets hitting the leaves then gliding smoothly against the flourishing surface. You remembered the first time you came here and immediately fell in love with the tranquility the place possessed, from the wooden shelves packed with paperbacks to the windows that would glow misty every time it rained—it was relict yet refreshing in a mesmerizing way.

Your thoughts were disconnected when faint footsteps approached the entrance. A silver-haired man calmly shrugged off his drenched flak jacket and got inside the store. The droplets of water fell from the tip of his hair and trailed the outline of his sharp jaw. One of his eyes was covered with a forehead protector—the Konohagakure symbol shining brighter with a layer of water atop. Though you were unfamiliar with Konoha’s Shinobi and never went outside of your village for the entirety of your lifetime, you were able to detect a powerful aura emanating from the man.

You stood up from your seat abruptly to welcome the newly arrived customer with a bright smile, “Hello, how may I help you?”

He scanned the whole storey and put his hands into his pant pockets, seeming dejected. “I don’t think what I need to find is here.”

“May I know what books you're looking for?”

He thought for a moment and looked around once again before clearing his throat, “… Some poetry would be fine.”

You were puzzled. Your store was full of poetic compositions, from hundred-year-old ones to the most recently published ones, but he just said what he was finding was not here. Albeit confused, you made your way around the desk and walked closer to him. Only then did you realize that he was dripping wet.

You wearily offered, “I think it’s best if you can come in and dry yourself a little.”

He nodded and smiled humbly, “That’s very kind of you.”

-----

In fact, Kakashi was on a journey for his mission when it rained and he could not find a roof to seek asylum—none besides a lone storey that stood out at the border of the forest, not too far from the center, but distant enough to preserve its own peace and quiet. When he came closer, his hope faltered when the place turned out to be a bookstore, not an inn. But the girl was benign enough to offer him some hospitality. Though he noticed that she was cautious of him, she still guided him through the hall and into a larger room, surrounded by old bookcases with a mystic scent of forgotten beauty.

“Please wait here if you don’t mind,” she whispered, “I’ll go get you a towel.”

Kakashi settled himself on a bench, resting his head against the side of one of the shelves when she stepped out of the room. He could see the last weakling rays of the day shining through the glass windows, casting a warming yellow tone on the ancient volumes neatly placed on the bookcases, pleasant to the eyes. His thoughts slipped at the slight cracks of her footsteps approaching and the gust of wind that billowed into the room once she opened the door.

She carefully handed him a plain white towel, her gaze never left the floor in the process. The space was accommodated with comfortable silence and the rhythmic raindrops being the only sounds making their way through the little creak of the partially agape glass panes. Kakashi dried his damped hair with the towel, inhaling the subtly sweetness from the soft fabric, the furrow of his brows unconsciously loosened themselves.

The last exquisite glimmers finally dimmed, leaving the warm lamplight draping the room with pleasant hues of amber. She had long disappeared behind the shelves, swiftly strolling along rows of different compositions, looking for what he—an unexpected, special customer—asked for. Kakashi did not notice the moment his visible eye started trailing her petite figure across the room, following her lithe steps as she turned side to side in her search. He could not help but wonder the peculiar thoughts that quickly entrenched his mind—Kakashi suddenly felt oddly sedate.

-----

You came back with five books of different thicknesses and covers in your arms, sweats glimmering on your forehead from the quite strenuous expedition. You placed the books down one by one while explaining with faint pride, “I didn’t know what you like specifically, so I picked out five different styles for you to choose.”

You looked up with glinting orbs but your face immediately flushed a deep shade of pink when you saw his still slightly wet top glued to his defined frame, outlining the muscles underneath the thin layer of black fabric. Your eyes drifted outside the large window, pretending to admire the night rain, clearing your throat in embarrassment. He seemed to have noticed your flustered state, a low chuckle vibrated in his chest as he leaned forward to draw in one of your picks. The sudden closure of the distance between your body and his made you flinch, instantaneously stepping back, and missing your footing carelessly.

His hand flung out of instinct, grasping tightly around your wrist, pulling you back from landing on the hard wooden floor. Yet, with the strong force that he was used to exerting in his training, your dainty figure was forced into his bosom in a mere second, too fast for you to register everything. When you finally realized that your palms flattened themselves against his broad chest to cushion the impact and the beating of his heart was right under them, you gasped in surprise.

-----

Kakashi peered down at her with his only visible eye, sophisticated gaze scanning her body for any injuries. Seeing that she was still staring at him in shock, her hands right on his chest, he felt another surge of warmth flowing through his heart, leaving his mind in a daze. Kakashi gave her an assuring grin, and she snapped back into reality, hastily standing up from his lap, looking at him timidly as she scooted farther away. He felt empty when she escaped from his embrace. The cold air surrounded Kakashi almost instantly after she got up made him a tad unsatisfied.

He reached forward again for the leather-cover book, flipping through the first few pages with elegance. She stood there and watched silently, not daring to make a single noise. Though his eye was fixed on the pages, his focus was on the figure standing at the other side of the table that was rubbing her hands together out of nervousness.

“I like this one,” he blurted, trying to assuage the invisible tension.

Her eyes lit up and the familiar smile returned to her lips, making Kakashi smile too.

“This one is an old publication,” she explained as she led him back, “I remember seeing this one around when I was four or five.”

He took the paperback with one hand, the other grabbing the green flak jacket hanging from the hook, “It’s probably a great one for sure.”

Kakashi left when the rain stopped, with poetry in his hand and her smile in his heart. When he was finally able to find an inn and settled in for the night, he held the book once again in his hands, smoothing the cover with adoration. The title graced in silvery read, “Let the Rain Kiss You.”

-----------------

Taglist: @dai-tsukki-desu @thenightfallingstar @animepickle7 @simping-master-69 @tirzamisu @rinnegankakashi @the-tiniest-one @greenshirtimagines @theacevampire

[umai-town]

~ The Offer of a Lifetime ~

🌸 Nights with demons are strange and eventful in many ways. All He wants is to turn you. Will you let him?~🌸

🌒 ~ The Offer of a Lifetime ~ 🌘

[ Various Demons x Human Reader]

Warnings - Manga Spoils Ahead, Some characters are not in the Anime so keep this in mind, Mild cursing, Light NSFW, Love interests, Stalking, Talk of the Cult, physical stuff, Turning demon, Bad luck man, And anything else you find in this reading!

Featuring - Akaza, Gyutaro, Muzan, and Doma!

- He stubbled upon you 100% on accident

- Unlike most humans he admired you, he could see you were strong willed and he could feel how much he threatened you, Showing you were willing to fight him [ Not as a slayer just a normal human]

- For that reason alone he offered you the "deal of a lifetime" of becoming a demon, and he was shocked by your reply

- "I am not sure~ Ill have to think about it." It was not a Yes or No, meaning he still had a chance with Turning You

- He kept you around as his "Plus 1" and you stood by his side watching his life as a demon. [ So you could choose a answer based on what you seen]

- Akaza never planned anything, He always did what he wanted when he felt like it

- He was truly free of All human responsibility, You loved the idea of freedom of death and Pain

- When he would go out killing you watched closely, You rather enjoyed watching him do his thing

- "Are you ready for this power?" or "Don't you want to live forever with me?" are questions he would ask you every other night. You always teased him with your reply's of "maybes" And "What if's"

- After a while of this you fall for the demon and his power

- You finally give him a "yes" one night while you were both out and about, While he was Raiding a small village

- After his Raid he brought you all kinds of gifts to express his joy of being able to finally turn you, Which he wasted no time in doing so

- Once you turned Demon you joined him in his Raid to display your new found power and he showed you the "Perks" of Being demon

- The only reason he knew of you was because Daki [His sister] was threatened by you and your Charming looks and growing popularity

- Originally, She sent him to "take care" of you one night while she was taking care of her own, that alone was a sign to him

- He hardly gets away from his sister to make his own time and decisions, so as soon as he got this change he took it

- When he first saw you he was took back at your stature, he looked down at the fact of your power was gained simply because of your looks, he wanted to see more than that

- So When you first met him face-to-face, you were disguised more-so than scared because of the way his body was shaped, not because of his actual looks

- You sparked his interest, there was no getting rid of him now

- He now spent more time on his own following you every chance he got, his sister was in rage by this, he didn't care either

- After a while you took notice of him and became comfortable with his company You noticed he wouldn't leave you alone till you said something

-You even started to engage in conversations with him at night when you were alone, Him telling much about the life of a demon, you were interested

- After months of this, you fell for his personality and you and him both messed around with his sister, you enjoyed each other

- He later offered turning you into a demon, You say Yes almost imminently, Thus he did so [ This made his sister more than Pissed]

- Now you and his sister fight for dominance in the Red District, Him supporting you of course

- He now calls you his One and Only~ At your side ever chance he gets

- As soon as he laid eyes on you, he knew he wanted to turn you

- He didn't care if you wanted to turn willingly or not, he was going to have it his way or no way at all

- You met in in town one day while you were struggling with carrying some bags to your home, he helped you and walked you home [ it was late at night after all]

- He charmed you with his words, his looks, and with empty promises, Like the devil in disguise he was

- You ended up meeting him more often on small dates and outings, after a while it seemed off, the mood got weird the more he talked

- He stalked you, that is the only reason he knew so much about you and your humanly struggles, that explains the feeling of being watched you get daily

- You end up trying to cut ties with him because of this, but it only made matters worse for you [ he made sure of it ]

- After a while of not seeing him, bad luck seemed to follow you. Money issues, you lost your job, your mental and physical state got worse

- You find yourself at his feet much later as he prayed on your pain

- Giving you the "Offer of a Lifetime" So you will no longer struggle as a Human but rise as a Demon [ the cost? being by his side at all times]

- You agree, he turns you, and you become more than you could ever imagine

- You were grateful for him, you worshiped him for his "Blessing" of power and everlasting life

- From then on you were by his side, becoming his "Favorite" and all demons below him treated you like a Queen/King

- You loved every second of it, as he loved every second of you

- Douma was very picky when it came to turning humans to demons

- He looked for specific factors in what even made a human a tenth of what a demon should be

- That was until he saw you for the first time, he fell face first for you, worshiping the ground you walked, the breath you breath

- Never in his many years of life had he ever seen a human so charming, determined, and willing to give him their everything

- Your dedication to him only added to his feelings for you, thus he began to give you much more attention than anyone else

- He always had you by his side, he let you touch him, he even began to sit you on his lap and hold you close when he could

- He would tell the members of his cult to treat you at the same respect as they did him This was Something he had never done for anyone before

- One night after he made love with you, he gave you the "Offer of a lifetime" in becoming a demon and being with him forever

- Forever with Douma, that was music to your ears~ And you told him yes with no hesitation

- He was happy and wasted no time at all in doing such, raining nothing but pure bliss over you afterwards

- You ruled along side him for what felt like ages, You enjoyed him and everyday with him was different never the same

- You two were a true Power couple, and all demons below you knew it, he made sure to show you off as much as he could to the others, Especially Akaza

[hxwks-gf]

» 𝖘𝖆𝖋𝖊

𝖑𝖊𝖛𝖎 𝖆𝖈𝖐𝖊𝖗𝖒𝖆𝖓 𝖝 𝖗𝖊𝖆𝖉𝖊𝖗 

𝚜𝚞𝚖𝚖𝚊𝚛𝚢: 𝚕𝚎𝚟𝚒 𝚠𝚊𝚒𝚝𝚜 𝚏𝚘𝚛 𝚑𝚒𝚜 𝚜𝚘𝚕𝚍𝚒𝚎𝚛 𝚝𝚘 𝚌𝚘𝚖𝚎 𝚑𝚘𝚖𝚎

𝚐𝚎𝚗𝚛𝚎: 𝚏𝚕𝚞𝚏𝚏, 𝚊𝚗𝚐𝚜𝚝 𝚒𝚏 𝚢𝚘𝚞 𝚜𝚚𝚞𝚒𝚗𝚝 

𝚠/𝚌: 𝟸.𝟷𝚔

The heavy winter rains wrought havoc on the old wood of the scout’s barracks. The storm had caught the regiment by surprise, the darkened clouds arriving to drown the sky in grey not long after Hange’s squad had deployed to the field. Pretty soon the street’s gutters were awash in murky rainwater, washing the cobblestones clean for the first time that season. Every few minutes, the sky would be illuminated by lightning, and soon after the thunder would rattle the window panes. 

Levi sat at his desk, surrounded by paperwork; reports that needed signing, applications for new gear that needed his approval, the list went on and on. He reached over and picked up his teacup as another round of thunder shook the barracks. He had always hated thunderstorms. 

Truthfully, he was drowning himself in his work because he needed something to distract him from the growing worry that plagued the pit of his stomach. But after a while, even his tea began to leave a bitter taste in his mouth. Levi sighed heavily and pushed away from his desk, running his hands over his tired eyes. He didn’t understand why he couldn’t focus. His thoughts kept wandering to Hange’s squad, and how they had most likely been caught in the storm somewhere on the other side of the wall, somewhere he couldn’t reach them, somewhere he couldn’t protect them. 

Levi got up from his chair and moved to stand at the window. The glow from the candle on his desk illuminated the raindrops that raced themselves down the glass, and his own reflection beyond them. He looked like hell. 

He could just barely make out the black, looming structure in the distance that was Wall Rose. Somewhere out there, he knew you were stuck in this rain, probably cold and miserable. An unexpected pang of anguish hit him in his chest, and he could feel his fingernails digging into his palms. Why did you go on this mission? Why didn’t you ask him to come with you? 

Levi turned away from the window and went back to his desk, pushing his dark hair out of his eyes. Of course, he knew why you went. Hange had asked for your help specifically in testing some new technology for capturing Titans for research, and Levi knew you were more than up for the task. You had proved to be a valuable soldier; adept in the field as well as the classroom. You were smart. Tactical. Refined. Of course Hange would ask for your help, anyone would. 

But that didn’t stop him from worrying. 

He poured a fresh cup of tea and mindlessly stirred it as he looked over some of the documents in front of him. A few moments later, he found himself glancing up and staring at his unmade bed--the sheets twisted and tangled with the pillows. He imagined you laying there, sound asleep, maybe with an arm hooked around one of the pillows and the blankets tucked in around your shoulders. You’d be snoring softly while he worked nearby, and he would silently curse you for being such a loud sleeper. But...you’d be safe. 

Levi stared at his empty bed for a few minutes more before swallowing roughly and glaring at his paperwork again. He no longer desired his tea, and he no longer desired working. He leaned over and blew out the candle, dousing his bedroom in darkness. 

“....Hange’s squad is expected to make their return this afternoon,” Erwin was saying, but Levi wasn’t paying attention. He stood at the window in the commander’s office with his arms crossed and his eyebrows knit together. 

“Levi,” Erwin said. 

“What?” he snapped, not looking at him. 

“Did you hear me?” 

Levi glared at the rainclouds that still hadn’t left the sky. The rains hadn’t stopped, not once since last night. He clenched his jaw and forced himself to look away from the window and focus on Erwin. “Yes,” he said, “I heard you.” 

“You seem unusually cross this morning.” 

“I couldn’t sleep.” Levi turned back to the window. “Damn thunder kept me up all night.” 

“I see.” Erwin flipped through some paperwork on his desk, reaching for his quill. After a few minutes of silence, the commander looked up at the captain again. “See anything interesting outside?” 

Levi made a noise of disgust and kept his grey eyes focused on the front gates, waiting to see it lift up and reveal you coming back to him--safe and uninjured. However, he knew it would be hours until the squad returned, and he would have to find something else to do to pass the time. Levi brushed some invisible dust from his black shirt and turned to leave Erwin’s office. As Levi muttered something to explain his departure, he heard frantic footsteps approaching the door. A moment later, and another scout burst through with a fearful expression on his face. 

“Sir!” he said as he saluted both men. “Hange’s squad was spotted from the wall, with a captured Titan in tow.” 

Levi’s heart leapt into his throat. He didn’t wait to see what else the scout had to say; he shoved past him and immediately made his way toward the armory, ignoring Erwin’s protests behind him. Levi expertly hefted on his ODM gear, not bothering to grab his coat, and promptly left the scout’s barracks. He barely felt the freezing rain pelting his cheeks and soaking his hair as he launched himself up the wall, landing gracefully on the surface and looking out over the wet, rolling hills beyond. 

There, in the distance, he saw the enormous Titan being carted along the muddy road. Alongside it were the squad members on their horses, making sure the straps held it in place and it didn’t break free. Levi did his best to try and count how many riders there were, but it was impossible in the rain. He only hoped you were among them. 

“Captain!” one of the soldiers on the wall called to him. “Sir, it’s freezing out here! You really should be wearing a coat--” 

“Binoculars,” Levi growled. 

“Y-yes, sir,” the soldier stammered, and held out his pair to him. 

Levi snatched them up and raised them to his eyes, focusing on the approaching team of scouts. He inwardly groaned at the sight of the Titan, it was a wonder they captured it at all. He could see Hange riding nearby, shouting orders at the rest of the squad with that strange, excited expression they always got whenever Hange was near a Titan. “Insane,” Levi muttered, and moved from face to face until--

His breath caught in his throat. There you were. The hood of your green cloak was pulled up to protect you from the rain as you gracefully trotted atop your horse, but it looked like you were absolutely soaked to the bone. Despite being in the freezing weather, you had a flush to your cheeks as you and Hange exchanged a silent, excited conversation, no doubt about what sort of tests you’d run on the disgusting creature first. You were spending entirely too much time with Four Eyes. Levi felt the worry slowly start to ebb away in his stomach when he decided you were safe, and you were almost home. He watched you through the binoculars a few minutes longer, and felt the ice that encased his heart begin to melt when you smiled and laughed at something Hange said, despite the rain dripping down your wet hair and over your cheeks. How is it that someone could be so...happy? In a world like this? Levi didn’t know if that made you weak, or if it made you strong. He would decide later. 

Once you and the rest of Hange’s squad made it to the gates, Levi shoved the binoculars back into the soldier’s hands and launched himself off the wall, swinging and gliding through the rain before landing effortlessly onto the street and waited for the stone gate to be lifted. 

It felt like a lifetime had passed when it finally was high enough to allow the captured Titan through, along with the rest of the horses surrounding it. Levi stood there with his arms crossed, his dark hair flat against his head from the rain. 

“Levi!” Hange gleefully shouted, but he dutifully ignored it. His eyes searched the squad for you, until they finally landed on their prize. 

“Captain!” you greeted as you slid from your horse, and Levi noticed the violent shiver that rocked through your body. But you grinned as you approached him, flexing your stiff fingers. “What are you doing out here? It’s freezing!” 

“Yes, it is,” he growled, glaring at you. “You were supposed to be back last night.” 

“Well, yeah,” you said, turning to pull your saddlebags from your horse. “But the storm came out of nowhere and we had to make camp. Worst night of my life.” 

Levi’s nostrils flared. “You couldn’t send a rider?” 

You frowned at him. “Is something wrong, captain?” 

“No,” Levi said, rolling his shoulders. The cold was starting to sneak into his muscles. He turned away from you. “There’s some reports I’ll have you fill out, once you’ve had your gear inspected and the horses are brushed down. Come by my office later.” 

“Yes, sir,” you replied, still holding that confused expression. 

Levi said nothing else and began making his way back to the barracks, frustrated at Hange’s carelessness and the freezing, stinging rain. Why didn’t he take his coat with him? 

Hours later, Levi was back in the warm safety of his bedroom, finishing up the reports from the night before with a fresh pot of tea nearby. A knock sounded at the door. 

“Come in,” he said, not looking up. 

“Sir,” he heard your voice reply. No doubt you were standing in a salute, waiting for his instruction. Such a devoted little soldier. Levi set his pen down and looked up at you, and nearly fell out of his chair. 

You had changed out of your wet cloak and uniform, and opted for a fresh, clean pair of pants and a soft looking shirt that exposed part of your shoulders. Your hair, still wet from the rain, was slowly drying around your face, framing those flushed cheeks and bright eyes. Levi exhaled through his nose and gestured to a few loose pieces of paper, to which you picked up and pen and began signing your name at the bottom of each one. He watched you intently as you did so, admiring the way your hair fell over your shoulder. A minute later and you stood back, pushing the papers towards him. 

“There you go,” you replied, smiling. “Anything else?” 

“No,” Levi found himself saying. “That’s all.” 

“This might sound strange to ask,” you said, shifting from one foot to the other, as if afraid to say the next few words. Levi waited for you to finish. “Do you mind if I sit down for a moment? It was a rough mission, and my muscles are sore.” 

Levi blinked, but gestured to his bed nearby. With a grateful sigh, you sat down on the edge and fell backwards with a whump. 

“I’m tired,” he heard you say softly. “And cold.” 

Levi didn’t know what to reply with. Isn’t this what he wanted? For you to be safe and warm in his bed? “I was...worried about you,” he said aloud, staring at your elegant signature on the paper in front of him and clenching his jaw. “I was waiting for you to come home, to me. I know you’re a strong soldier, but that didn’t stop me from…” He pinched the bridge of his nose in exasperation. “Look, what I’m trying to say is--” 

A gentle snore sounded from where you lay on his bed, and he realized you were asleep. Levi rolled his eyes and sighed. He set his pen down and walked over to his bed, staring down at your sleeping body halfway curled up underneath his blankets. He reached out and pulled them over the rest of you, carefully tucking them around your shoulders, his fingertips softly grazing the line of your jaw. 

Levi returned to his desk, picked up his teacup, and watched you sleep. The thunderstorm outside had subsided to a gentle pattering of raindrops on the window, and the flames that crackled in the fireplace nearby flooded the room with warmth. He watched the way your chest rose and fell with each breath you took, and listened to your quiet breathing and soft snores. As he picked up his pen to finish his reports, he had one thought in his mind: you were safe. 

That’s all he could ever ask for. 

[chihomichannel]

of candy wrappers and unprecedented endings

| pairing: choso x reader | genre: angst & fluff | warnings: mention of death; sad things blended with happy things | word count: 2330 words | a/n: hi! this is clem! this is the 3rd and final part of “bittersweet lollipops” so read the first two parts before this but it can also be read as is. this wasn’t my first plan for the 3rd part and i had actually written a lot when i realized that i don’t want it to be the 3rd part lol. so i rewritten this today and here it is! hope you guys like it!

◄ previous |

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Time has always been the limit for humans. We were born and raised, thrown into the world and built our lives only for everything you’ve worked hard for to be left behind once death came right by your door. And for sorcerers like you, death has always been just a step behind, ready to take you once it was your time. But in your case, you miraculously lived long enough to know you would die with no regrets.

Feeling the hand clung onto yours, your eyes woke from its slumber. Your eyes were met with the bright sunshine that illuminated the whole room, the white of the ceiling shining brighter than ever. Your head turned to your side to see Choso sitting asleep by your bed, his hand on top of yours while the other held your family scrapbook. The page was open, showing a picture of your family at its early stages. It was you and Choso both holding onto your newborn with your friends by your sides. You remembered it was your first born’s first birthday and you smiled at the vivid memory that crossed your mind.

You thought back to that day when everyone was present, celebrating and just pure happiness. You remembered Megumi tackling Yuuji when he was about to feed your baby he didn’t know your daughter could not eat. You remembered Panda with your baby lying on its stomach and Inumaki shoving toys to your daughter to amuse it. You remember Gojo arriving late with a bag full of sweets to which Choso took eagerly. You remembered Nobara continuously flaunting her outfit. You remembered Maki and Nanami just being there. And you remembered looking at everyone, just taking in that moment and storing it inside your treasured memories. You remembered the atmosphere, the calm and the chaos in the house. The hot rays of the sun shielded by the window pane. You remembered that moment and longed to return to that day.

Blinking, you were snapped back to reality. You took note that the atmosphere was the same as that day. You smiled, eyes tired even though you only just woke up. You glanced at Choso’s hands that clung onto yours, it was tight but he held you as if you were fragile glass. You knew he’s worried and so you moved your hand and intertwined it with his. Choso stirred awake, licking his dried lips as he leaned up from his position “Hey” he said, his voice cracking slightly. He looked tired, the look in his eyes told you they’ve lived for so long. They’ve seen so much yet his face was still the same. His body looked the same, everything looked the same. His youthful face hid the hundreds of years he’s lived.

He smiled- oh his smile. His smile is something you never got over. When you first knew Choso, you would have never guessed that he could be so expressive. With his indifferent mien, even at the start of your relationship, you would always be so surprised to see another expression on his face. You loved it especially when he has this confused, wondering face. You always found it so cute. You found everything he does cute. It scared you just how much you’re in love him. But you could never imagine nor wish for a better life because the life you have with Choso by your side is a life you would never bargain anything for. You are content and you are in love. You didn’t even realize it but Choso became your life. The little world and family you’ve built with him, it’s yours and his. No life was better than this.

“Morning” Choso scooted his seat closer to your bed, he had his elbows on the soft mattress, taking your hand to his lips. “It’s afternoon, silly” You weakly told him, softly chuckling. You felt him smile in your hands and you gazed at him adoringly “I see you’ve been looking at the scrapbook again”

“Yeah” Choso pulled away from your hands and flipped the scrapbook to the next page “I guess I fell asleep while doing so” He mused. He stopped and you looked at the page to see a picture of you and him decades ago. It was a selfie when you two eloped that one fateful night. The two of you never planned for a wedding nor did you think you would ever get married. It was never a thought in your mind but during that night, Choso looked so beautiful. Even with his mouthful of tacos you grabbed on the way to Panda’s birthday, something about the night with the streetlights and the swarm of people highlighted Choso in your eyes. And at the bus stop, just as you were about to get on it, you pulled Choso into a halt and waited until the crowd got on the bus before you spoke “Will you marry me?”

You both skipped on Panda’s birthday and got married. It was a decisive decision but no doubt the best you’ve ever made. A year later after that, your daughter was born and you swore, Choso had never glowed brighter. Your heart felt soft whenever you see your daughter and husband bonding. And the sight of your daughter cuddled up against Choso made you feel so thankful that these beautiful people are part of your life. Because of them, life was so much brighter.

You and Choso bore four more children after that. To say that life is noisy is an understandment but the noise made you happy anyway (albeit stressed). You stopped at baby number 5, with your eldest being 15 at the time. As expected, your daughter became a sorcerer, proving to be much stronger than either of you with a cursed technique she invented on her own. Your second didn’t follow onto the jujutsu society and made a life of his own outside the dangers of your reality. Your third inherited Choso’s blood manipulation and was almost bought by the Kamo clan but of course, you and Choso shielded your child away from the mess that is clan families. Your fourth also became a jujutsu sorcerer and your youngest inherited your cursed technique. All in all, your children now had lives of their own with all of them being fully fledged adults.

With a sigh, you yawned, reaching out for the scrapbook and putting it on your lap. You flipped to the next page and a grin etched on your face. You giggled, motioning to Choso the scrapbook. It was you and Choso all those years ago before you were married. It was that day out when Choso kissed you on the ferris wheel. It was when you two were sitting on the sea wall when he secretly snapped a picture of you looking the other way. A glint flashed through Choso’s eyes, his lips mirroring your grin. Choso traced the design by the photo, it was a bunch of lollipop wrappers you two had been eating when you were designing this specific page. He remembered you chastising him for almost emptying the packet of lollipops. Chuckling, he turned to look at you to see you looking at him so lovingly “I love you” you told him and Choso felt his chest tighten. It was a wonder how you still had so much effect on him when you had literally spend your lifetime together “And I love you”

Choso examined the wrinkles in your eyes when you smiled. Your once smooth skin was now wrinkled out of old age. Your once vibrant hair is now a dull white. Both your eyes now have a cataract that clouded your sight. And your lips remain chapped no matter how many times you apply a lip balm. But even with all these things you’ve obtained as you aged, you still looked so darn beautiful. It was no secret that his never changing youth made you insecure. You wished he could age up with you but realized that was selfish and so you brushed off these thoughts. What you didn’t know is that Choso also wished the same. He wished he could grow old with you and get wrinkly together.

It was cruel how he couldn’t age with you. If you thought about it, he’s actually more than a century older than you yet here you are, minutes away from letting go. Choso clutched your hands, his eyes shaking as you breathed frailly. He breathed out your name, tears brimming in his eyes. He let out a whimper when you called his name, hiding in the cold of your hands “Choso” You repeated, feeling a pang on your chest. You leaned forward to embrace him, trapping him in your arms resulting in Choso to lean on your shoulder, letting out a quiet cry.

You cooed, kissing his temple before hiding your face in his hair, his locks drying the tears that fell on your cheeks. “Don’t go” He cried, his voice muffled “Not you too” His voice cracked causing your arms to tighten around him “Choso, Choso” With that, Choso looked you in the eyes.

“Please never be alone-” You paused, composing yourself. Choso held your cheeks as you continued “-find someone-” “I could never love someone else other than you” Choso said committedly. You gave him a look before you continued “-please, please don’t blame yourself” You held his cheeks, giving him a soft smile as you plead “And please don’t be sad”

You broke, Choso catching your tears with his mouth. Planting kisses on your face, Choso savored you in. The both of you could feel it. It was the worst feeling ever. But thinking back to your life, it was never short of happiness. Choso was the pill that gave you the energy to live your fullest. He was the reason you found a purpose in life and became a mother of five. He was the reason you ever felt true happiness. And thinking back to all those memories, you can confidently say that you left this world with no regrets.

 ๋࣭     ࣪ ˖        ⋆ ࣪.     ˖ ࣪⭑      ˖ ࣪ ٬     ุ๋ ⸱ ๋࣭     ࣪ ˖        ⋆ ࣪.     ˖ ࣪⭑      ˖ ࣪  ๋࣭

A snowflake fell on Choso’s nose causing it to twitch at the contact. It was cold and Choso stood in the midst of the crowd, unmoving as stone. He sighed, a cloud forming in front of his mouth. Yuuji had called him to meet him in the plaza in front of the huge clock that stood tall in the middle of the park. Choso scanned his surroundings and took note of the large crowd that flocked together at night. It was the night before Christmas eve and Choso was alone. His children all had their own families to tend to. The original plan was to celebrate at his home but plans tend to change and Choso ended up alone. If not for Yuuji, he would probably be asleep by now.

“Choso!” Hearing someone call out his name, Choso turned to see his brother and his friend, Megumi, heading his way. Yuuji’s pink hair is now white, his smile now has wrinkles on them. It was the same with Megumi and Choso remembered he couldn’t age. It made him sigh, wanting nothing but age together with the people he cares about. It bothered him so much, especially with his eldest child looking much older than him. It was unfair, Choso wailed to the gods.

Choso let them pull him wherever, going along with the flow. But even with the boisterous laughs of his brother and the chatter that filled his ears, he felt alone. He was surrounded by people yet he felt so cold. Sighing for the umpteenth time that day, Choso going along wherever his companions went.

This didn’t go unnoticed by Yuuji. He was worried about his brother which is why he called him in the first place. His legs hurt from old age but if it means his brother would feel better, he would go out in the cold to walk with him. Megumi already went home and Yuuji is walking Choso home. He noted the faraway look Choso held. Yuuji felt sad at the sight. He remembered how Choso shined when you were still alive. But the Choso walking beside him now was nothing but the shell left of his body. His eyes held no soul, that is until Choso’s eyes landed on the ferris wheel.

It was the same ferris wheel as back then. Like before, it flickered in different lights, switching its color as it rotated. Choso held a cry, feeling a lump in his throat. You. Oh, you. He is so in love with you still. He saw that yellow pod, though unsure if it was the one, his heart ached at the memory of you. His heart always aches every second of the day. You, he thought of you. He felt the linger of your touch on his skin, your breath as you laughed against him. He felt your kisses and the love you felt for him. The clutch of your fingers as you held onto him. He felt you.

He breathed in the cold air, taking his eyes off the ferris wheel into the night sky. The jet black sky was painted with the white of the snowflakes that fell. One dropped on his cheek and rolled down the same time a tear fell down from his hollow eyes. A breath left his throat, a smoke coming out of his mouth. He will find you, he is determined to find you. No matter how long it takes. No matter what millennia he meets you again. He will be there and you would be in his arms again. He will tell you the stories he’s lived and live another lifetime with you. No matter how many lifetimes, what matters is he’s with you.

Another set of tears run down his cheeks. He misses you but he will live on. He will live on.

He will live on.

tag list: @lawlesshedgehog

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[remsmoonlight]

— title : candy coated promises

— word count : 2.6k words

— pairing : daryl dixon x reader

— summary : a chance conversation between you and daryl leaves you realising just how much of a sponge daryl’s mind is when he comes back from a run with an unexpected gift.

— warnings : mentions of alcohol, light mentions of deaths of loved ones

“ Daryl x reader. Daryl comes back from a run and has found readers fave chocolate and keeps it hidden all day until they have watch together then surprises them with it and gets a big awkward hug from them, making him blush like a tomato on the outside and feeling happy on the inside. “

            ✧･ﾟ: *✧･ﾟ:*   requests are open ! / requested by @phoenixblack89  *:･ﾟ✧*:･ﾟ✧

A rugged backpack is slung lazily over the shoulder of Daryl after a successful run , as relaxed as Daryl could find himself those days, the stress and alertness still molded every inch of his body as if they’d been there since day one. Perhaps they have been, he contemplates. After all, growing up, his life had not been a beautiful, tangled mess of fairytales and light, rather it had been the inspiration for nightmares. Still, he doesn’t dwell on that life unless he has to, the world has chosen to live a different life and that does not hold space for past memories.

For him? The past can be a painful reminder of a way of living that has long since been deceased — focusing on what once was is the best way to take away the focus of living in the present.

Only a few days had been spent at the prison, the majority of the time had been spent making it somewhat fit for purpose, despite no life being there to tend to its upkeep. They’d been burning through what little the group had of their stockpile of supplies, preferring to stay inside the barbed wire fences. To enjoy the moment, how little it may be. He couldn’t remember the last time they’d been able to just rest without the need to tread into a dangerous path .. perhaps it had been at the farm? It feels like it has been a lifetime since they’d had somewhere to regroup, to rebuild their strength to its optimum.

Being cooped up with his group, as much as he thought of them as family, he had slowly began to feel suffocated by the prison’s metal gates — even in the apocalypse do they still do their job well, even a day away has given him the much needed space his soul craved to breathe. Respite that had sorely been needed.

Daryl’s mind wanders off to a conversation had a few months prior, something so insignificant to you yet it stuck to his mind like glue.

“ If I knew the world was gonna end and we’d spend the rest of our lives trying not to get eaten by walkers, I’d have stocked up on my favourite things. “

The hunter turns his eyes to you strangely, almost in confusion as it inks itself into his features as he continues to stare at you. You understand why he’s so confused, it had rather come out of the blue since you had been enjoying the company of the other — a language without words that you are fluent in when the other is around.

“ Huh? “

“ Well, “ you begin, your eyes widen momentarily as you shift to face him, your knees complaining silently at the movement. “ Life is difficult as it is, but you know what makes it a little less hard? “

“ Booze? “ he guesses immediately, his shoulders shrugging with little liveliness.

“ Okay — ! You got me there .. technically ? “ you pause, your brows furrowing as if to allow your mind to thoroughly work through that answer. Your mind retreats back to the days where you spent nights where you should have been studying, to parties where the alcohol appeared to flow without a limited supply.  “ But, your favourite things make this nonsense easier. “

“ Same shit. “

“ You’re no fun today. “ You complain hopelessly, a wispy sigh dancing off silently in the summer’s breeze never to be seen again. Again, you shift your position and allow your chin to rest on your knees.

Night shift of being on watch had been left to the two of you, if anything you enjoy taking the night watches. Your heart takes comfort in a certain tranquility the night brings, leaving time for you to gather your thoughts and to reflect on the day and everything it had brought. The empty space the farm brought only adds to the charm.

Many of those watches had been accompanied by Daryl, in the beginning he’d seen you as nothing more than a nuisance who couldn’t keep quiet. Of course, with the movement of time brings change. You’d found a wavelength where there was less and less venom sent your way. Edges that had spent more time bathed in a haunting concoction of hatred and hurt began to dissolve little by little as he spent more time above air, an understanding had been reached.

“ Ain’t much to be laughin; ‘bout now. “

“ Hm, I suppose you’re right. “ You nod to yourself, your eyes scan the endless horizon of the farm, following the eerie trail the moonlight leaves as it grazes the Earth below. “ Still, I would kill for my favourite chocolate bar. I’d stock up on them if I ever get the chance. “

“ Yeah? Wha’s that? “ He questions you lazily, carrying on the conversation while turning to face you momentarily.

You tell him the brand, going into specific detail as you try to replicate the taste on your tongue from nothing, itching for a momentary break in a world painted red with the blood of the living and the dead. It’s a silly belief, yet anything that helps you to build a fog of a perfect illusion for no matter how long is worth it, the human brain can only take so much darkness surrounding it before it takes a hold that feels as if it will never succumb to the light.

“ Keep y’eye out. Y’might get lucky one day. “

“ Luck is a rare thing to have nowadays, Daryl. “ you whisper, more to yourself than the man who sits by your side. A twinge of pain buried deep within the arms of your words, though not hidden enough as Daryl spots it swiftly. “ It’s becoming rarer each day. “

“ Guess y’gotta make y’own luck then. “ He offers lightly, unknown that his mind has already stored the information away.

He’d developed a fondness of you, his original opinion had been turned on its head and he hated to see even the slightest hint of suffering penciled into your features — unspoken, he’d decided, even in this world, you were made to smile. He’d seen the light and joy that you brought to others, it’s only right that you should experience the same. Even over the smaller things, which is why he would promise to himself he would be on the lookout for the very chocolate you have your heart set on experiencing once again.

Heavy thuds punish the gravel beneath him as he treks back to their new home, observing the complete transformation in their expressions. Even after going through a lifetime’s worth of trauma with these people, realising people who are genuinely glad about his presence returning, even happy to have him there, is still something that he’s to get used to. Every time he finds himself faced with this situation, Daryl recognises the uncomfortable prickling sensation that begins in his fingers and inches outwards, under the veil of self preservation. But Daryl knows better. He has been the fool to such emotions before and that has only left him lost in a sea of silent distress, powerless. No longer does he listen to that mischievous voice in the back of his head that gorges greedily on his self sabotage.

Searching for your whereabouts had been the original plan on his mind, but he’s quick to rid that thought from his mind. Unable to bring himself to just be ready for the surprise on your face.. Or lack of. The conversation had been so long ago that he wonders if it had been no more than a passing wish, left forgotten as a passing fancy that holds more weight to him than you.

The day romantically dances with the dusk that slowly rolls the night on, stars shining so bright without the bright glare humanity brought with it.

“ You’re on watch tonight, they’re already up there. “ Rick informs Daryl with a pat on the back, of course, the smirk that paints his mouth so gleefully is hidden in his retreat.

Steps to the peak point of the guard tower felt as if they have shrunk, the distance feels lesser than normal, he notes to himself. Better now than never, he silently remarks. The confectionary lays safely tucked away in his side pocket, he’d have physically clipped his ear himself had he forgotten to bring it, he’s warmly thankful of his memory in this case.

“ Daryl! “

Closing the door with a lone click the noise alerts you to the presence that joins yours in the darkness. It feels like months since you’d laid your eyes on him, when in reality it had been little over a day. But when you spend twenty four hours with people you now call your family, even the hours you do not see them, time flows at a hauntingly slow pace. Had you your way, you would turn those hours into minutes.

“ When did you get back? “ You ask with a beam, your eyes more colourful than ever.

“ A few hours back. Got ‘nough supplies till a group can go out. “ Daryl answers simply, moving to lean against the railing of the guard tower.

“ You know, you could have taken one of us along. “ You offer, hoping the need is left out of your voice.

Uttered only to Maggie, you’d divulged your fear of losing people. The fear of never seeing those you’ve grown close to clouds your senses, the beating of your heart unable to rest until they are in your line of sight — a thought that if you go with them, you can do something constantly swirls in your vision. Of course, you know that won’t always be the case, but it’s all you can think of when your family temporarily misses a few members.

Winter had brought many challenges, and there had been times when you’d see them come back with scrapes and bruises that would leave your heart aching.

“ Nah, needed to do this by myself. “

“ You sick of us already, Dixon? “ There's a coating of humour as you question him, a smile accompanies your word hand in hand to assure him there’s nothing but humour.  “ I’m telling you now, you’re never allowed to be sick of me at least. “

“ You’d be the first person I’d have’ta get out of my hair. “ He answers back with a gruff, his hand reaches up to ruffle your hair slightly.

“ Don’t be so mean. “ You whine, pushing his hand back with a short burst of laughter with a richness that could rival the purest of golden honey.

A silence overtakes the two of you after the rare display of playfulness that you know most would not associate with the rough looking hunter of the group. It’s in these moments you find yourself looking up and feeling your heart full to the brim with an intense amount of gratitude, that he’s comfortable enough around you to allow you to peek into a different side of the man. This is not something you will ever take for granted.

“ You come back with much today? Or did it look like vultures have hit the spots? “

“ Wasn’t too bad. “ Daryl responds, shaking his head as he speaks. “ We got enough for a while, till we can get a group out. “

“ Hopefully we can make a home out of this place, I don’t think I can take any more of this moving about. “ You confide weakly, your nails pick at each other as you remember the time between the farm and the prison.

Daryl agrees with a huff, the winter had been hard on everyone in the group. The more he studies everyone in the group, the more differences he can see between them and those who had been on the farm. No one is the same as the people they were months prior. Daryl argues that is for the better, a certain amount of ruthlessness is now a tool required to breathe for an extra day in this world.

“ Ain’t my idea of home, but beggars can’t be choosers now. “

“ If we weren’t, I’m sure we’d all be in one of those huge mansions now. “ you sigh heavily, yearning for all the comforts you had come accustomed to. They are long gone now.

“ Y’know, I came back with sumn’ for ‘ya. “ Daryl starts, rugged fingertips descend to reach into his pocket, touching the plastic wrapper that protects the sweet treat. “ ‘Don’t know if y’want it though. “

Your eyes light up at the possibility of a gift, they rival the stir of the stars in the night sky that illuminate the darkness with their might. They may as well cower from the blinding shine as they witness the colourful wrapper come into your view, the audible crinkle brings out a quiet giggle with the grace of a ballet dancer as it twirls away into the air.

“ This is for me? “ You confirm, your hand hesitantly reaches towards his as if waiting for him to tell you that he is playing a silly joke on you.

Only that doesn’t occur.

“ Yeah.. I remembered a while back y’said that ‘ya wanted one. “ Daryl explains as he hands you the chocolate bar, the other hand reaching back to rake his nails against the back of his neck — almost as a distraction technique. “ Thought y’might’a forgot. “

Your teeth plunge deeply into our bottom lip, attempting to quell the grin that is moments from overtaking your features. Even if he’d been unsuccessful in apprehending the chocolate, even the thought that he remembers such a trivial conversation is enough to send a burst of adoration further than any galaxy reached by the heart of a dying star.

“ Daryl.. “ A whisper is spoken as you begin, turning  your sight upwards to meet the man. “ You didn’t have to. “

“ Wasn’t any trouble. “

“ Thank you. “ Gratitude is expressed, you speak with a warmth in your words as you do. “ I mean it. “

Daryl doesn’t speak, it’s not a case of having nothing to say, but rather what he should say. His actions are not done with the intent of receiving appreciation, he does it because he wants to and in his mind, is what’s right. He shifts his weight from one foot to the other, unable to take in the intensity of the affection sent his way.

The attention of the hunter is lifted back into reality as he feels a weight against his, arms tangle themselves behind his back and strands from a headful of hair tickle his nose as he realises you’re currently hugging him. The change is slow as he tentatively relaxes into the action, it’s so faint the two of you barely realise it’s happening until a weight sits lightly on each side of your body. He has never realised until now how much he has needed human contact that comes with no ties until now, a connection that doesn’t hinge on the deal of giving and taking as a nothing more than a cold transaction. A content breath of air slowly tiptoes away into the weak breeze that blows through the prison at a leisurely pace, of course, the air does nothing to suppress the heat that burns the cheeks of the man.

“ ‘S nothin’. “

“ Daryl, even if you came back with nothing, you still had the thought there. “ You stress from your position, your grip tightening on the man. “ You wanna share this with me, or what? “

As the night marches on, you wonder if the chocolate could ever be sweeter than one Daryl Dixon. Though, in your heart, you know that may be a fight easily lost against him.

[saphirered]

Ok sooo I have a request for a Verin x reader fic where the reader is in love with Verin but since she’s a human she thinks she’s not good enough for him so she accepts a proposal from someone else. Inspired by Speak Now by Taylor Swift, Verin stops the wedding 🥺🥺🥺

The reader is a part of the M9 and her family is poor so she thinks she has to marry this awful guy. There’s a moment when she’s getting ready in her dress and she just breaks down :’( and Verin runs off with her 👉🏻👈🏻 I know it’s really specific but I think it’s cute ☺️

Okay, whoops... I may have gone a bit overboard. This is a long one but I hope you enjoy regardless. 😘

Making a name for yourself through adventuring with a group of ragtag misfits from everywhere who’ve earned the favour of many powerful individuals and have risked more for the Empire, the Dynasty and perhaps even the world than the majority of its key players within its governing circles, certainly earns a reputation and attention. No longer are you the girl from nowhere, with nothing to her name and no opportunities for a better life. You’re a hero, people praise you, you’ve earned your say and influence, the listening ears of many a noble. You’ve got more coin that you’ve ever had in your life, more than your family has ever had in their lives combined. You could buy a new home, pay for educations and invest or even start a business.

Though, all of this comes with a multitude of risks and your coin won’t last a lifetime. You can’t remain an adventurer forever and quite frankly, you don’t want to. People are going their own ways. You’ve seen the world, faced fears and dangers beyond imagination. You’ve met people; enemies, friends and something more… And despite all you put on the line, at the end of the day your past follows you. Love is a luxury coin or titles can’t buy. It’s also something those of your station can rarely afford, a one in a million chance and a lottery you did not win.

You dream sometimes; dream of a future where you could have real love without consequences or strings attached, in a place where it could be just you and your lover. Those are just dreams. Never will they be anything more. Still, you look back on those moments you had. Those were no dreams or figments of imagination. Those were real. The embrace and endless string of kisses, reuniting after having been apart for a while, the wandering through the streets of wherever, discovering together, trying new things, the smiles and suggestive looks whenever you were sure no one was paying attention. Waking up in that warm lovers’ embrace, arms wrapping around a little tighter as a lips press against skin and the mutterings of ‘good morning’ sound; you miss that one the most.

No matter how big or small the bed, it always feels empty. It always feels cold. This day is no different. You’re awoken by the gentle shake of your shoulder. For just a moment you bask in the feeling it might be that lover’s touch but you know better. You’d recognise it. It’s anything but. You feel dainty fingers squeeze your shoulder lightly, the scent of breakfast reaching your nostrils. When you sit up the curtains are pulled open revealing the early morning sunlight. Your maids rush into the room attending to your every whim. They’re more gleeful that usual, more bouncy and all round happy than usual. Excited for the big day. Your wedding day. If only you could feel their joy. You’ve tried. Gods, you’ve tried. You’re doing the right thing. Just keep telling yourself that. Maybe that feeling of dread, pain and regret will disappear.

The emissaries of the Kryn Dynasty were surprised to find the Taskhand Verin Thelyss ready to attend and celebrate the union between the hero of Wildemount and the son of the lord of one of the more respectable and influential houses within the Empire. It was no royal wedding of course but still the Bright Queen found it necessary to send emissaries to represent her blessing of the union and with the Shadowhand gone, the responsibility to lead said party had fallen to Verin. He’d been sulking ever since the invitation had reached him but had done well to cover his heartache and internal conflict in the company of others. That doesn’t mean it doesn’t bother him.

No matter how many times he repeats that last encounter between you and him, it never gets easier. At the end of the day, it was your choice and he respects that. You had your reasons and while he might want nothing more than have you by his side, your paths have diverted. Verin debates wether he should have asked for someone else to attend in his stead. He doesn’t know if he can watch you walk down that isle to marry another man. Nevertheless he’ll be happy for you. If this is the path you choose, if this is what makes you happy, no matter how much it might break him, he’ll be glad you’ve found the place you desired. You’re doing the right thing and so is he. No matter how much he tells himself that; it never gets easier. The pain and dread never disappear.

After having assured your maids you’re quite alright and just nervous when you refused to eat more than a few bites of your breakfast they helped you get dressed, lacing you in a gown of the finest fabric you’ve ever felt, embellishments and all, gems and precious metals draped around your wrists and neck and pinned in your hair. All of this-of course a courtesy of your fiancé. The maids, the lavish bedroom at his estate, the clothes and jewels, all luxuries you could never even have dreamed of. Yet still that estate feels like a prison, those maids and servants like guards and wardens and the jewels like chains binding you forever.

You look beautiful. They’ve really outdone themselves making sure not a hair is out of place and not a crinkle to be seen and when you look into the mirror and see yourself you have a hard time keeping it together. Then a maid makes a comment about how your fiancé can’t do anything but fall in love with you over again. You break down. They rush to tend to your needs, comfort you but you send them out of the room, You need a moment alone. Once they are gone you push the mirror aside, dropping to your knees, face in your hands as you let the sobs rake through.

The man you’re set to marry doesn’t love you. The lord’s son loves your reputation. You’re nothing but a prized possession to gain the attention and favour of others. You’re nothing but some kind of performer to be gawked at, laughed at and be treated less-then for the rest of your life. The man himself is an arrogant self-centred prick who could spend hours looking at his own reflection. He’s completely and utterly dull and has no regards for your own needs. Nevermind the fact that he’s slept with half of Rexxentrum and doesn’t plan to quit doing so after you’re officially married. The only good part about that is his father paying his flings for their silence and the fact you won’t have to be sharing more time than necessary with the simpleton.

Verin along with the other emissaries is welcomed by the lord and his son. By the brief interaction he finds it difficult to say anything nice about the man you’re to marry. The way he holds himself, talks and boasts, treats people he deems below him as less than. Verin blames these observations on the jealousy he’s been trying to keep in check. He’s been doing alright but still, he cannot fathom what you had ever seen in a man like this. Quite literally the only good thing Verin could say; the man isn’t too terrible on the eyes and knows when to listen to his father to navigate political matters so at least he has some faint shadow of a working brain.

Servants rush by, one asking for the son’s attention. They step aside and Verin can’t help himself but tune into the conversation. Call it curiosity. Call it a blessing from the Luxon itself for what he overheard.

“The lady’s maid just informed me, her future ladyship has dismissed all her maids and sent them out of her chambers. It appears your fiancée is in duress, sir.” The servant states. Verin didn’t know what he expected; confusion, asking for an explanation, concern for his wife-to-be, an order to make sure you’re alright if not to go check on you himself? Instead the fool grumbled, anger crossing his face.

“Tell her to get her act together. Cold feet will not reflect well on anyone. Offer her whatever she needs to convince her to see this through. If she refuses, I don’t care if you have to drag her out, I don’t care if you’ll have to pay off the Assembly themselves to put her under a spell; I refuse to be made a fool of.” The words make Verin’s blood boil and he excuses himself, claiming to need some fresh air.

Strolling around the garden of the estate Verin is thankful for the burning sunlight to distract him from his raging mind and the desire to pummel some sense and respect into your fiancé. After his eight pass through the same path he decides to sit down on the small stone bench, closing his eyes and asking the world where it went wrong, where you felt you needed to break up with him and completely distance yourself from him all together. You were happy before, you hardly ever fought or argued and always resolved your conflicts, you loved each other, respected each other, supported each other. When you were together neither of you wanted for anything but each other. So where did it go wrong? What made you make that decision?

“For the love of the Wild Mother, I do not need to have another bath in rose water for having a brief cry! May I have a moment of bloody peace and quiet!” You shout, about ready to wring the life out of the head-maid insisting on yet another thing you don’t care about. You just need to breathe. When she comes for you with a bottle of some kind of oil or perfume, you push her hand away. When she tries again, more firmly this time, nodding to one of the other maids to hold you in place you get up and despite the somewhat restrictive dress, get their hands off you, wring the bottle out of the head-maid’s hands and throw it through the paned window hearing the satisfying shattering of glass in the courtyard.

“Out. Now.” Your voice is enough to send the maids scurrying out of your room once more, not brave enough to face the ‘hero of Wildemount’ but the old bat is more courageous than you gave her credit for. When you grasp one of the hairpins brandishing it like a weapon and repeat your threat once more, she leaves too, to rat you out to your fiancé no doubt but you’ll take this moment of peace and quiet. You’ve had your cry, now what remains is anger.

Fumbling with the unpractical dress you manage to pry it off your body and exchange it for a simple robe to cover your undergarments. Without a second thought you decide you need fresh air and are very intent on getting it. Credit to your fiancé for giving you a room with a perfect view from the balcony, you open the doors and step out. Second floor is not so bad, nor is it too high so you take a breath, and leap over the edge, landing on the soft grass of the gardens below. Once securely on the ground you lay down in the grass for a second before you move on strolling about barefoot. You’d be in for another scolding and a bath once you return but it’s still a good two hours before you’re supposed to be out anyway. You can take fifteen minutes.

Shattering glass pulls Verin out of the trance he had slipped in, he looks back to see a shattered bottle not too far off from where he’s sitting, accompanied by some shouting. He keeps an eye out but pays no further mind to it… Not until he sees a figure on the balcony. Not until he sees said figure expertly jump down the balcony and land with a grace he has not seen in some time. It takes him a few minutes to adjust enough to confirm but it is undoubtedly you. Verin ponders wether he should or not as you begin wandering around.

You find a rose bush, pulling one of the roses off and taking the petals, plucking them off one by one dropping them on the path. Some damn wedding. Ridiculous. That’s what this ostentatious show of wealth is. That’s the life you’ll have to live in. But you’d make that sacrifice for the right reasons. You’d rather live this life than let the man you love watch you wither and die while he lives on. You would not put him through that loss. You’d give your family the stability and support they need while you’re at it. That’s what you’ve been telling yourself; doing it for your family, but in all honesty you can’t face the reality of having Verin face losing you if by some miracle you’d be a suitable match for him. One day he’ll have to marry someone too, and you don’t have anything to offer him, nothing his den and family would accept at least. You’d be a bad match.

“Aren’t you supposed to be pampered by ladies and friends right now enjoying your last moments of freedom?” You have half the mind to tell your demons to fuck off, half the mind to tell them they must be so cruel to so accurately imitate his voice. You turn only to stand face to face with the drow, eyes squinted and hand shielding his vision from direct sunlight. You don’t know wether to laugh or cry.

“What in the hells are you doing here?” You ask as Verin gives you one of his trademark smirks but it doesn’t fully reach his features. He looks completely and absolutely miserable and while you try to shove it off on the face his sensitivity to sunlight does not serve him well in the bright afternoon, it’s not the sole reason. It makes you wonder if he must have chosen this time and place to give an excuse for his appearance; a facade he can no longer sustain?

Regardless of his reasons you begin dragging him along to the gazebo at the centre of the garden somewhat covered by a maze of hedges to give yourselves some cover. If you’re already in for a scolding you do not want to deal with the knowledge of being seen with an emissary of the Dynasty looking like you do in your morning robe. Verin is thankful for the shade offered by the foliage and the roof above his head and suspicions confirmed; still miserable. You cross your arms, tapping your foot impatiently as you await an answer to your question.

“The Bright Queen thought it only right to send her best wishes and blessings. I, among others was sent to deliver said blessings.” Verin explains. He’d missed that thing you do when you’re waiting for answers. He knows you only do so when you’re in the right company so he’s happy you at the very least still consider him that.

“Well, blessings received. If that is all, I’d like to get back to my day now. I’m to be married in two hours after all.” And then his heart sinks. The tone you use with him you’ve only ever used when proper manners and rules of social engagements apply. Not a hint of real friendliness. Not a hint of your usual warmth. You excuse yourself and make it to the edge of the gazebo.

“Are you happy? Does he make you happy?” Verin calls after you.

“I’m very lucky to be engaged-to be married to such a respectable man. How could I be anything but?” The answer you’d given a thousand times now, but you have not the heart to face Verin, not like you’d faced those countless courtiers with a bright smile clinging to the arm of your ‘lover’. All of them had bought it, you’d sold the lie without any issue but you can’t bear to face Verin when speaking that lie.

Verin knows a bullshit answer when he hears one yet his mind tries to shove it off on you just having wedding jitters. It’s only natural on what is supposed to be the happiest day of your life. He understands that pressure and tension very much akin to going into battle. Though it may not be a battle of blood and steel, the guests he’s seen and heard would be attending leave little room for mistakes. He’d much rather face the dangers of the barbed fields than… this. He’s pretty sure you share his sentiment but you chose this life and if anyone can survive and thrive it’s you.

“Where are your friends? I’d thought they’d have come to see where you wandered off to by this time.” Verin jokes and he notices your face drop as you bite your tongue.

“They’re not here. In fact, they don’t even know I’m getting married. The whole proper ceremonial thing, not really their thing. Besides, I doubt my husband-to-be would like them causing a scene.” In fact it was exactly that asshole that forbade you from even inviting your friends and family. You’d be all on your own with the maids he provided, the ladies he’d selected and the bridal party handpicked by him and his father to assure each and every one of them would be respective enough to overcome your ‘shortcomings’ as he had said, and assure everything would be prim and proper, accepted and approved off by the esteemed company you’d be living among. It doesn’t matter how strongly you may disagree or try to counter; you need this marriage even if that means you’ll have to pretend to agree with what these assholes say.

“That doesn’t sound like the you I know.” Verin says and whatever shards of your heart remained shatter into dust as you take in a deep breath, with a curtsey you back off and walk to the edge of the gazebo. You can feel his eyes follow you, burning into your back but you fight the urge to turn around. You can’t stop yourself from halting right at that edge of the gazebo knowing that one more step in either direction will change your life forever, your choices forever following you so you stop.

“Then perhaps you do not know me at all, Verin. A lot has changed. I should go.”

“I think I do know you, so I will ask you once more and I will beg on my knees for an honest answer.” Footsteps lead closer to you but still you face away from him. A hand touches yours, lifting it from your side so gently, so lovingly and then you hear the soft thuds against the wooden panels. From the corner of your eyes you look to your side to see the warrior on his knees, eyes pleading holding you hand like a lifeline, like you’re divinity embodied; begging you for salvation and enlightenment, looking at you like only you can provide the truth he’s looking for because after all; you are the only one who can do so.

“I will ask you once more; are you happy? Please, tell me you’re happy and I can rest knowing you will be so for the rest of your life. Grant me this one last blessing and if you wish it you will never have to see me again.” Your mind is trashing, screaming at you; tell him. Tell him the truth. You can’t. You can’t do that. You can’t love someone you can never have. You can’t allow Verin to live your lifetime with you and mourn you. You have nothing to offer him. He’ll have to make the choices that benefit his family, his den and live up to what’s expected of him. He cares about his family, and you know they’re already losing their prodigal son, Essek. They can’t lose Verin too, wether Verin knows the extend of it you don’t know but you can assume. Verin cannot afford the luxury of love if his heart is set on you. You love him too much to break his heart. You love him too much to watch him live the life expected of him; a life without you. Selfish, maybe but you can’t. Rather hurt now and spare him the pain later, you keep telling yourself.

But there he is, on his knees. It was a mistake. You can’t look away. Your eyes are drawn to his, the pain in them, it suffocates you. You can’t lie to him. You can’t. Oh gods. Your breath hitches as you repress a sob. You can feel tears burning but you refuse to shed them. Instead you pull your hand from his grasp and step down from the gazebo into the sunlight.

“Don’t allow him to put you in a box. You’re too good for him. He doesn’t deserve your heart.” Verin calls after you but this time you know better than to look back. It takes all your energy to fight the urge to turn and run back to him, begging him to take you far away from here and live in the bliss; however long it may last, but you fight tooth to nail.

“And you are? Do you deserve my heart?”

“No. Your heart belongs to you alone. Only the ones you hand it to are deserving. If you deemed me so, we would not be standing here now.” A hand is placed on your shoulder and you resist the urge to lean back into it as his voice sounds closer this time.

“I’d have given you my heart if only you would have it.” Verin says. You can’t. You can’t do this.

“Goodbye, Verin.” Your voice breaks and this time you feel the tears run down your cheeks but you push yourself. You push yourself to keep walking even when Verin calls your name once more. You leave him there. Leave and never look back. You can’t. You’re making the right choice. You’re doing the right thing. He can never have you just as you’ll never be able to truly have Verin. Not forever. No happily ever after for you two. Only heartbreak, regret and a dream of what might have been were your lives different.

And with that you return to your lavish chambers not daring to take the usual entrance to avoid wandering people you climb up to the balcony. Stepping inside you close the doors and slide down, the cold glass against your back as you cry and mourn one last time until your tears run out. By the point the head lady’s maid comes in you’re completely numb and going through the motions as she berates you for your state; your mud covered feet, hair out of place, dirt under your nails, puffy skin, the dirty morning robe. Calling in the others they rush you to get cleaned up, redoing the work done and moving on, getting you back into that dress, jewelled pins fully on display, elegant necklace around your throat and those bracelets around your wrists, chains. They’re just pretty chains. When you look in the mirror you don’t even recognise yourself. You don’t have the energy to force that life and light to your eyes and you just look… empty.

Time passes quickly and before you know it you’re standing in the corridor of your new home, a bouquet of pretty flowers in your hands as you wait for the doors ahead to open and lead you into the lavish room filled with guests from all over with some kind of repute and titles to their names. The majority you don’t know. The others you can hardly care enough about to remember their names. And then there’s the emissaries from the Kryn Dynasty. You wonder if Verin stayed. Wonder if he’d witness you getting married to another man. You hope not. You don’t think you can handle that. Let the gods have mercy upon you. You pray to all that’s sacred for some kind of final sign that you’re doing the right thing and this will lead you and your family to a prosperous life and spare Verin the pain of losing you or having to sacrifice everything for you.

Verin thought long and hard about his next course of action. You’d made your choice but you were falling apart at the seams by the second. If he couldn’t be the one to get you to be honest and make sure this is what you were content with, he’d need help. There was a reason why you didn’t invite your friends and doing his on recon after you left lead him to learn it was not your idea at all to not have the Mighty Nein be invited let alone aware of your wedding. He’d pried that information out of the lord himself. The lord had also revealed he was discontent about his son’s choice of partner and referred to you as a plaything the young man would get bored of eventually but a decent enough match for him to approve of. Those comments truly made Verin’s blood boil.

So Verin did what he thought best and contacted his brother, asking for guidance, advice, anything. What he did not expect was the entirety of the Mighty Nein showing up bombarding him with questions, berating him for not taking action and stopping this whole thing and then vowing to correct this mistake. He tried to get them to back off saying to respect your choice but the Nein wouldn’t be the Nein if they told him to go fuck himself and save you from a terrible terrible fate.

There you stand, in that corridor waiting. You are breathtaking but even from the distance Verin can see your shaking hands and gaunt features, you’re like a ghost. The others notice too, commenting; you better turn into a runaway bride fast and an eternity away from this gilded prison will do you good. Verin is breathless regardless a push to his back from the halfling makes him catch his step, the noise alerted you and made you turn your head. Your breath catches and his name sounds from your lips like a whisper as you notice the company behind him.

A sign of the gods you asked for. A sign of the gods you received. How could you let yourself be removed and isolated from your friends; your found family? How could you abandon them all? How could you leave it all behind for wealth and security? There’s other ways. There have to be and even if there are not, you know the Nein will go above and beyond for you and your family like they have done for those among them and countless others. It’s time to leave every place better than you found it again. You’ll leave this place better than you found it by never returning, by exposing your so-called husband-to-be for the asshole he is and give him and his family the reality check of a lifetime.

‘And so the bride drops her bouquet, turns from the doors and runs to her warrior lover, his hand reaching towards hers. She ignores it and instead throws her arms around him. She presses her lips against his in a desperate passionate kiss; starved of the genuine affection for too long.

“Please get me out of here fast and help me burn this dress as soon as possible.” The bride laughs, eyes once more filled with light and life.

“It would be my honour.” The warrior says as he turns his gaze to the wizards. In a flash the adventurers disappear, returning to the sound of gulls and waves in the distance, the beautiful singing of the former courtesan welcoming them into a life of freedom to love whom they choose without expectations. Without boundaries. Just the two of them. Happily ever after, after all.’

“It’s a wonderful story, Jester.” You smile as Verin’s arms wrap around your waist a little tighter.

“It is. Though, I’d have to say it sounds a little familiar.” Verin chuckles as he kisses your cheek when you nudge him back. Not much he can do about it when you’re sitting in his lap and he knows it. Not like he’d want to do anything about it. He’s happily content.

“What? No. It’s a totally original story I came up with on my own. I mean, the main characters don’t even closely resemble anyone I know!” A deep dark blush spreads across Jester’s cheeks but changes to a sly grin fast when she she sees the two of you together sharing a similar look.

“I’m with Jester on this one, darling. I think the runaway bride would never have let that ladies’ maid touch her hair without putting up a fight.” There’s a brief moment of reminisce between you and Verin; a story you’d told him about involving you nearly clawing the woman’s eyes out after she messed with your hair the way she did.

“On second thought, I think you’re right as always, dear. The bride is not nearly as ferocious, generous, magnificent and outright divine as you are. And of course I am much more handsome than the warrior.” This earns a couple laughs from the others.

“Oh shut up you.” You say leaning over your shoulder to kiss your warrior on the lips. The kiss deepens but not enough to be considered inappropriate among the company you’re with.

“What do you think became of them? The runaway bride and her warrior that is.” You muse when you pull apart. Verin’s fingers dance across your ribs making you jump.

“I think I have an idea.” Verin returns as you shift placing a hand on his cheek stroking it along his cheekbone. You lean in but instead of going for his lips you brush your lips over his cheek to his ear.

“Perhaps so do I.” You pull away and get up, striding away from the table and you friends giving Verin a look daring him to follow. You can already see Caleb console Essek as the drow dies from the cringe. Jester furiously takes notes no doubt planning the sequel to her novel as Fjord downs his drink. A hoot of encouragement from Veth and Kingsley deepens the smirks on your lips, it dawning on Caduceus what’s going on with a brief ‘oh’ and shake of his head. Beau hands Yasha a few coins as the barbarian smiles in victory pressing a kiss to the monks cheek.

“You guys are disgusting!” Beau shouts after you as you walk up the stairs.

“You’re one to talk!” You shout back but the shout ends in a squeal as you’re lifted off your feet and carried up the stairs by your warrior. Such a show off. But you love him for it. Once out of sight to spare the others you once more press your lips against Verin’s this time unrestrained, deep and passionate throwing in all the love within your heart. He’s given you his heart. You’ve given him yours. However long your days together might be, whatever the future might bring, you’ll face it together. You’re deserving of each other. You’ll make this work because happiness, love, that’s a luxury that you can afford. And that alone makes you richer than kings.