#sugar free chocolate brands

[cococart19]

Savor the Perfect Blend of Indulgence with Hot Chocolate Coffee from Cococart 

If you are a gourmet of pleasant liquids, prepare to embark on a adventure of natural indulgence with the delectable fusion of hot chocolate espresso. At Cococart, we gift the ideal marriage of smooth, rich hot chocolate and the invigorating kick of premium coffee. This pleasant concoction is certain to delight your taste buds and warm your soul, making it the ultimate treat for comfy moments and loved gatherings.

What is Hot Chocolate Coffee?

Hot chocolate Coffee also called mocha or chocolate mocha, is a luscious blend of top notch coffee and creamy warm chocolate. This impossible to resist concoction combines the wonderful flavors of roasted coffee beans with the highly-priced sweetness of top class cocoa, growing a harmonious symphony of flavor and aroma. 

The Cococart Difference: Exceptional Quality 

At Cococart, we believe in handing over best the finest components for an unforgettable hot chocolate espresso enjoy. Our cautiously curated coffee beans are sourced from respectable areas, ensuring robust taste and aroma in every sip. The top rate cocoa used in our hot chocolate is of the highest first-rate, providing a velvety smoothness that complements the espresso's richness perfectly.

Indulgence Meets Comfort: The Perfect Blend

Hot chocolate espresso gives the satisfactory of each worlds. The comforting, familiar flavor of hot chocolate harmonizes with the invigorating warm temperature of espresso, creating a beverage that soothes and revitalizes in same degree. Whether you are looking for a relaxed treat on a chilly day or an energizing choose-me-up, hot chocolate coffee is the answer. 

A Beverage for Every Occasion

Versatility is another hallmark of hot chocolate coffee. It serves as an incredible beverage for leisurely mornings, a pleasing accompaniment for your preferred desserts, or a comforting nightcap earlier than bed. Its adaptability makes it an ideal preference for gatherings, where it caters to a numerous array of flavor options. 

Making Your Hot Chocolate Coffee Extra Special 

Personalization is prime to growing a certainly memorable hot chocolate espresso revel in. At Cococart, we inspire you to personalize your drink to perfection. Add a dollop of whipped cream, a sprinkle of cocoa powder, or a drizzle of caramel sauce to elevate your hot chocolate coffee to new heights of indulgence. 

Conclusion 

Embrace the epitome of indulgence with warm chocolate coffee from Cococart. Our expertly crafted mixture of premium espresso and pricey warm chocolate promises a sensory experience to be able to captivate your senses and heat your heart. Whether you are savoring moments of solitude or sharing loved memories with loved ones, hot chocolate espresso is the right accomplice. At Cococart, we invite you to explore the art of fusion and embark on a adventure of taste and comfort with our excellent warm chocolate coffee. Order now and find out the last indulgence that awaits you with each sip. 

[waldau-archived]

mine — jeon wonwoo | 1,318 words | fluff

inspired by @boorines' post about bf!wonwoo :)

gender neutral reader. warnings: none.

wonwoo doesn’t mind doing grocery runs as a punishment for making you wake up late on weekends, mainly because he doesn’t consider them as a punishment at all. it’s not his fault — work knocks him out like a log, and he loves spending all of his free time with you. he doesn’t leave bed till you’re out, but he doesn’t let go of you till he’s had his fill of holding you in his arms. it’s a win, either way.

he trails behind you on lazy mornings you spend at home, adoring the way you ruffle his bedhead and make it even messier, only because it brings a smile to your face. he loves when you place his glasses on his face so he can see you the way you deserve to be seen. he also loves when you make him sit and watch you move about the kitchen, letting him help every now and then and feeding him bites in between your cooking so he can gauge how it tastes.

it’s safe to say wonwoo’s smitten with you to the point he’d do anything you asked of him, which is why he hasn’t once considered the option of getting groceries home delivered ever since you moved in with him. he just loves being around you, however he can. and if it means walking around your local supermarket dressed in last night’s pajamas, it doesn’t matter, because he’s with you.

wonwoo loves spending precious time arguing about what brand of headphones are the best and debating about the benefits of skimmed milk. every single trip to the store always ends up with both of you buying a slab of this particular chocolate you hooked wonwoo onto a while ago. maybe it’s a good thing your niece is a sugar maniac, because you’re visiting her later this afternoon.

what he doesn’t love, however, is how he’s feeling right now. you’re not even doing anything wrong. you’re just talking to some guy in the frozen foods aisle, a carton of ice cream in your hand and your basket in the other. wonwoo’s itching to take the basket from you for two reasons: one, because he wants you to enjoy shopping while he carries your stuff around, and two, because he can’t think of a better way to break up the conversation between you and whoever this man is.

this man, who’s making you laugh on a saturday morning that should be spent with wonwoo, teaching you the ropes to the latest game he’s found on steam, tickling you till he hears that laugh, and having you rest your head on his shoulder when he’s reading.

not this.

he’s not jealous. of course not. but there’s no way this guy is funny enough to make you laugh the way you currently are. wonwoo knows you’ve laughed at lesser stuff he’s done and said, so he doesn’t really see what this guy possibly has on him.

he looks down at the packet of ramyeon in his hands before walking up to the two of you. he can’t help but grudgingly notice that the guy does look good, and henceforth, is a bit of a threat. wonwoo doesn’t have a grand plan, per se, to get this random stranger to leave you alone, but he begins by clearing his throat.

“your favourite flavour,” he says, dropping the packet unceremoniously into the basket you’re holding.

your conversation stops — which is kind of what he wanted — but now he’s faced with two sets of eyes staring at him.

“um,” he says, fazed by the sudden attention.

“thank you,” you say with a smile. wonwoo feels himself frowning. you didn’t call him baby or any of the usual endearments you do when you’re talking to him. not even his nickname. just thank you, like he’s some friend of yours.

which brings him back to the person at hand.

“did you want something?” you ask.

wow. yes, actually. “no,” he says, backing out slowly. “i’ll just…be there,” he says, pointing in the general vicinity of whatever’s to his left. you raise an eyebrow. he realizes he’s looking at the seafood aisle. ah. shit. “yeah.”

wonwoo could blame his grogginess for the stupid thing he’s just said, but he knows he’s far from groggy and that you can see through him better than you can see through glass. he just resigns himself to buying some of your favourite snacks so you can let him off the hook.

however, he is as curious as a cat and can’t let it slide when you’re done loading your groceries in the backseat.

“so, who was that?” he asks, starting up the car.

“i didn’t know you were okay with seafood,” you say. he doesn’t need to look at you to see you’re trying not to laugh.

“that doesn’t answer my question,” he huffs, looking into the rearview mirror. the lot is empty. he wonders if he can spot the guy around.

“that was chan,” you say simply, rolling down your window.

“chan?”

“mm. old friend from college.”

“how come i’ve never heard of him before?”

“because i haven’t met him in a long time.”

“so that’s why you were all…”

you turn to look at him. “all what?” there’s the beginnings of a grin on your face. a mischievous, i know what you’re thinking grin. he’s been caught, and he doesn’t like it. he refuses to answer.

the rest of the drive home is spent in silence, thankfully.

“oh, no,” you exclaim a bit sadly, when you finish putting away the last of the groceries. “we forgot the chocolate.”

wonwoo can’t hold back any longer. ignoring the surprised noise you let out when he lifts you up, he carries you to the kitchen counter and puts you down, hands on either side of your body trapping you in place.

“i think you’re forgetting something else,” he says, eye to eye with you. he loves the height difference you have, but he also loves it when he gets to see you flustered from this close.

“i’m…what?”

“mine,” he whispers, before he captures your lips in a kiss. your hands immediately find their way into his hair, pulling him closer with a tug.

“you’re mine,” he says again, pulling away to cup your face in his hands. “only i can make you laugh like that.”

you blink up at him. “you want me not to laugh every time someone else cracks a joke?”

wonwoo huffs. “there’s no way he was that funny.”

you let out a little giggle, the one he loves so much. “you’re being silly, baby,” you chide, taking one of his hands off your face and pressing a kiss to it. he’s the one who’s supposed to be doing that to you, but now it’s his heart that’s fluttering. “and besides, chan already knows about us. we reconnected a few weeks back, and he’s been wanting to meet you.”

wonwoo feels silly now. “i didn’t…know.”

“yeah. now imagine if he invites us out for dinner to that seafood place next week.”

wonwoo lets out a groan and leans down to put his forehead to yours. “i’m an idiot.”

“i know that.”

he glares at you. “i thought you loved me.”

“i do! besides, you know my niece is going to kill me if we ever break up, so we’re stuck together. forever. get it? forever?”

wonwoo pulls away to look at you, and he’s sure the lovesick gaze on your face matches the one on his. “i get it,” he says, sealing his promise to you by pressing another kiss to your lips. “and i’m yours, too.”

you smile at him. “want to go get that chocolate before we see her today?”

wonwoo’s already picking up his car keys before you finish your sentence. how could grocery runs ever be a punishment, when he gets to do them with you?

taglist: @bookyeom @wootify @strnsvt @cloudycaramel @thepoopdokyeomtouched @minnieminshi @nonononranghaee @hrts4hanniehae

[rainbowbarnacle]

Please make a tea post so I can save it especially the pineapple ice cubes I need more info

Oh, like, different teas I like to make? Okay! :D

🍍Pineapple Tea🍍

The way I do it is really simple:

Buy a giant jug of already-made tea (I like gold peak!)

Buy a carton of pineapple juice

Freeze the juice into cubes, pour a little of it in the tea for extra flavor

And that's it. That's aaaall you gotta do.

There's all kindsa ways you can dress it up, but nine times out of ten I just do this and drink it by the gallon when it's hot out.

If you wanna get fancy with it, feel free to cold brew your own black (or green) tea, add actual hunks of pineapple fruit in there, add some orange juice, add some honey, add some coconut milk or sweetened condensed milk, whatever sounds good! (Also, pairing pineapple tea with coconut cookies? SO GOOD.) Put mint in the pineapple cubes if you like mint! Add a bit of boiled ginger root or some brown sugar and cinnamon for a little kick! Heck, last summer I used blue peaflower star-shaped ice cubes just because they were pretty.

(Peaflower petals don't taste like much, but they make a GORGEOUS blue, and if you put something acidic in there like lemon juice IT TURNS PINK. :D)

🍓Strawberry Tea🍓

I find this stuff sort of difficult to find where I live, so often I go the same route as the pineapple tea: grab a jug of black tea, grab a jug of strawberry juice, (ocean spray has a really nice cran-strawberry one I like) freeze the juice, mix, and enjoy. Super simple.

If I can't find strawberry juice, I dice some strawberries up and put it in a jar with some water and a bit of sugar for a few hours, then add *that* to the tea. (heck, it's really nice all by itself!)

What goes with strawberry? ANY DANG THING YOU WANT. I am particularly fond of lychee. Jasmine tea and rose petals pair really well with it too. Again, if you like mint, it's *really* nice with strawberry. And you know how if you put black pepper on strawberries they taste even strawberrier? (If you haven't tried this, go do it, it's magic.) Same goes with the tea, add some peppercorns or a teeny bit of chili powder or some ginger.

If you wanna drink it hot or cold brew a batch of your own, here are some brands that are also nice:

1. Strawberry Sensation

2. Adagio Strawberry Tea (this is also where I got the peaflower petals)

3. Any of Lupicia's Strawberry Teas they are HEAVENLY

🍏Apple Tea🍏

As with the pineapple and strawberry teas, it's totally fine to just go find some ready-made tea and mix it with some apple cider or apple juice for tasty low spoons fun. If you drink it iced, a bit of sugar and lemon juice brings out the apple flavor nicely!

I prefer drinking this stuff hot though. You know that Fall Drink post that was floating around? IF YOU HAVEN'T YET, TRY IT, IT'S AWESOME.

☕Chai Tea☕

So here's the thing about chai for me personally: I don't tend to drink it iced or sugary, but if you do like it iced and sugary, there are a couple of really nice chai tea concentrates:

Oregon Chai Latte

Tazo's Chai Latte (Forget the "skinny" nonsense, I just wanted to include an option with no milk so you can add whatever you want to it)

Pacific Chai isn't concentrated, but you can use it to make hot or iced chai and it's really lovely, not too sweet and super easy to work with. As for dressing up chai, I don't tend to! There's already so much going on with all the flavors, I just drink it as-is most days. Play with milk-to-tea ratios or sugar amounts all you like, figure out what's your jam.

I do know that mixing chai and coffee together (or chai and chocolate together) is guaranteed to make a feeling groovy kind of morning, at least if you have two thumbs and you're me. Iiii think that's all the tea blather I can think of for right now. Thank you for asking, anon, it was fun! Anybody reading this, feel free to add your own favorite things to do with tea. :D

[kalims]

sugar

flushed — when you fluster them and how they act.

do you want a 'kiss' — not an actual kiss, the chocolate.

falling (asleep) — you fall asleep on their shoulder.

w/ malleus draconia

commissioned by paru !

flushed — when you fluster them and how they act.

typically if it was anyone else, they'd have a really hard time to gauge out a reaction from malleus when the most they'll get is probably a barely evident crease, or raise in his brows.

in this case tis our very lovely mc who malleus is very much already on the ground from how fast he fell. you could do just about anything, give him a rock or something, and he’ll thank you eternally and keep it in a room above the most eccentric gifts he's ever gotten.

(god forbid if sebek ever enters, and sees some random rock on a pedestal meanwhile his gifts for the master is just.. there on some table like malleus didn't even think twice to leave it there then worship that rock!)

^ well thankfully, out of respect. sebek believes that someone like him simply is not privileged enough to enter the room of his esteemed master.

anything remotely affectionate from you would definitely send malleus to cloud nine for the whole day, he's practically emitting comical hearts every second you're together. they're trailing after him as he's following you around.

so you have a variety of choices! a heartfelt compliment, a hug, maybe even a kiss. whatever you choose will only feed on the overflowing glass that's called; 'malleus' love for mc'. trust me if you think he's like 67% in love with you, you're WRONG.

it's actually 101% and it's still increasing I swear 😭 

well the glass I was talking about is probably overflowing right now, and it's also probably going to start drowning everyone.

as in… everyone's just stuck to witness malleus' insanely endearing reactions to your shenanigans. should they be scared that malleus would probably do it in a heartbeat if you asked to take over the world??

yeah they should tbh.

in this case, I believe a close hug then a whisper in his ears would really make that arrow hit straight to his heart. you can't just whisper 'doritos' though! /j but you shall instead proclaim your love for him instead with a single 'I love you'.

it's funny to see his face completely freeze. you can practically hear his brain absolutely blowing up. there's a wobbly grin stretching across his face, the tip of his ears turn a shade of pink.

he looks… shy, but oddly pleased.

hellour congratulations malleus will not stop till you're both bound for life 💀 trust me he won't take anyone else if it isn't you anymore. he loves you THAT much.

malleus is not aware of the feeling blooming in his chest, it's foreign. he could even describe it as addictive. he's clueless really, but what he's sure of is that he wonders if you'd feel that too if he did the same to you.

oh well.. you've exposed him to such a euphoric feeling. it's only natural for him to return the favor. 

so honestly just expect him to be the rizzlord for the rest of your existence, he's rizzing you up every chance he can get. and the fact that most of it is just him not trying at all, and just being himself.

which is also funny cause when he does try to 'charm' you it ends up in fail.

like who let him bring you the 'rewards of his hunt' as a courting offering.

and when he tries to recite a letter he wrote for you, it's very endearing, and flattering but he's been talking for quite a long time now and you're concerned.

do you want a 'kiss' — not an actual kiss, the chocolate.

*malleus holding a big ass bowl* yes pls

^ but that's if he knows it's chocolate, and still wants the legit kiss. in a way that's the amount he'd want if it was the real deal.

not that he does know! cause malleus isn't exactly educated in the chocolate culture. as horrifying as it sounds, i doubt he snacks on chocolate in his free time.

I guess he didn't have much time to be a child :(.

he's tasted it before though! but knowing specific brands doesn't really cross his mind. for malleus chocolate is just chocolate. 

so he definitely doesn't know that there's a brand of chocolate called kisses.

so when you ask him if he wants a kiss he's like: yes. IMMEDIATELY. 

ok maybe not immediately but he gives you this certain look, and when he registers your silence at his face he realizes that you're being serious. 

malleus rn: well I mean ur offering so 

WHEN DID HE EVEN FINISH EATING A MINT CANDY.

jokes aside it's almost sad to think how he'll react when it's in fact, not a kiss.

when you pull out some kind of thing wrapped around in some kind of foil and place it inside malleus' palm he's just confused. where are his kisses?? why are you giving him this thing??

malleus spots the 'kisses' label on it and blanks.

oh.. so that's what you meant.

okay he's happy to receive anything from you but that's foul play!

but he really likes you so he won't comment on it 😞 you didn't even elaborate so it's partially his fault for jumping into conclusions.

no one can explain, not even you when there's a visible aura radiating off malleus. something gloomy, and he won't tell you even if you point out that you've noticed him constantly glancing at your face.

well your lips but you also don't know that.

falling (asleep) — you fall asleep on their shoulder.

would refuse to move at all.

first of all, he's honored that you trust him this much to lower your guard, and fall asleep on him. malleus is aware, sorta. he doesn't stop talking but instead slows down his words.

he doesn't want to wake you up, does he?

so he just settles on rambling in hopes that even in your dreams, his voice would reach you. you'd dream of him day, and night.

but when he's done malleus makes very little movement, hyper aware that you've fallen asleep on him. so when he finally assumes a position most comfortable for you, (plus one where he wouldn't crane his neck too much to peer at you) and he just stares.

he's done this plenty of times when you were awake so he doesn't know why he's doing it now. maybe it's because he sees you awake every time, and when you were, he could see the slightest bit of exhaustion present in your eyes.

this way he can be at peace knowing you are.

he recalls your certain features, he'd love to just gaze into your eyes right now and see himself in it but the fact that he can feel all your weight on him is better than anything he's ever felt before. 

cold, rainy days in nrc are just a blessing from grace.

but you now just discover that rain here is a lot stronger than your local pour back at home. to make everything worse, you had no idea it was gonna rain this hard, and if you did you wouldn't have taken the time to visit the city on a sunday.

now you're stuck waiting under a cover outside a shop. your patience honestly starting to run thin. from your legs sincerely, you're immensely thankful for the random bench under it cause you're sure they would have been quaking from the amount of time you spent waiting.

but you do like the weather, cold weather is rare to see when the sunny days reign over many.

you should have brought a jacket or something.

"child of man?"

you blink when malleus tilts his head at you, a thin smile playing upon his lips. his shoulders seem to ease up at the sight of you. your eyes fly above him, weirdly enough it's like there's some invisible force protecting malleus from the weather so he's completely dry.

albeit weakly, you still make an effort to give him a half hearted wave. 

of which he notes.

malleus makes his way over to you, and your beloved bench you had started acquainting yourself with. "may I?" he gestures beside you, and you take that as an initiative to move over.

he takes a seat next to you right after.

"how are you faring?" his eyes crinkle, he stares deeply into you. 

you chuckle. "well I'm stuck here for a while I guess. I already miss my bed,"

the man beside you raises his brow before lightly raising his shoulder, leaning towards you a little for emphasis but you're sure that's just another excuse to take up more of your space.

you get what he's implying in a second. "oh no, no," you shake your head. that would be… embarrassing. 

but your yawn betrays you, and malleus easily coaxes you into using his shoulder. with or without your will, you can't even remember what happened until you blearily open your eyes, and realize the rain has passed by.

when you wake up you feel like you've had the best sleep in your life. but you're sure you would have frozen to death by now.

your hands feel the fabric between your fingers, previously taken over your shoulders. ah.

… as well as a pair of eyes staining into your existence.

wc. 1.5k

[followmybadreligion]

"Je te laisserai des mot"

a valentine’s day date with your sweet, sweet boyfriend.

“Hyunjin, come here.” You called as you dusted your hands free of the white, cakey flour that’d made a thin coat over them. Your voice bounced off the tall walls of your apartment and played back in your head like a loud, jarring record that disturbed the once quiet, peaceful atmosphere, and you immediately regret not just going to get him. 

In front of you sat a large bowl of chocolate chip cookie dough, which you’d spent the better half of the morning preparing– from scratch. On the side of that lay two pink, heart-shaped baking trays, one for you and one for him. You’d already coated them in butter (The only non-stick agent you had) and sprinkled a thin layer of brown sugar across them, and now all that was left for you to do was preheat the oven.

“Three seventy-five,” you whispered to yourself, spinning away from your work to assess the settings on your oven. It was brand new, much like the rest of the place, but the controls were easy enough to work with the typical dials traded for a sleek screen. You tapped it once and waited for it to illuminate before pressing the “Bake” option promoted on its right side and setting it properly. 

A small smile spread across your lips as you looked at the cute, white fixture nestled among brown cabinets with tops of beige wood. Its once-dark interior lit up with an orange hue, courtesy of the heating panel built into the bottom, and you could just barely feel the heat begin to radiate from it. Just a few minutes before you’d be able to get your treats in there and baking— that was if Hyun were to hurry. 

You moved over a few feet to an empty counter space, lifting yourself onto it and crossing your legs over one another as you waited. The wood was warm underneath your exposed thighs, pressing into you firmly enough to leave marks for sure. You giggled as you thought of his reaction to seeing you like this. More than likely, he’d be a little surprised at the sight— you, in his Dear Daniel tee, your panties and socks, and virtually nothing else, lightly dusted with flour and sugar— it’d be a trip for sure. But knowing him, he’d love it. He always loved seeing you in his clothes, and he loved seeing you work on your hobbies even more. 

From your spot on the counter, you had the perfect view from one of the living room windows to the incoming sunrise. The sky swirled with beautiful shades of orange and pink, contrasted with the masses of gray and yellow underneath it. Skyscrapers, hoards of cars, lively apartment units— all of it did little to dull the beauty of the new day, and you took a few minutes to bask in it. 

You could faintly make out the sound of beeping, rushing cars, even from how high up your flat was, but somehow that only added to the ambiance— warmth enveloping you at all sides, a show of such pretty colors, and the sound of what felt the most like home— Seoul. 

But oh, this moment would be so much better with your boy. 

You sighed deeply, realizing it’d been a good few minutes since you’d called his name and he still hadn’t answered. You turned towards the oven again, catching sight of the pink, square-shaped clock resting above it on the spice rack. It read 6:34, which was no surprise to you with the sunrise and all. What was a surprise, however, was that Hyunjin still wasn’t up. Normally, he’d already be at the window with his sketch pad, drawing whatever subject had come to mind (It was almost always you) while he sipped away on his coffee or tea of the morning. 

You pushed yourself to the edge of the counter, allowing yourself to slide over the edge and onto your feet before you took off towards the stairs of your loft. The railing– a black, thin fixture– was crisp and loud under your touch, prompting you to let go of it as you climbed the remainder of the stairs. You wanted to wake him as softly and sweetly as possible, especially today. 

A soft smile adorned your lips as you approached your bedroom, eyes locking on the adorable sight that was your boyfriend. He was sprawled out over the bed, arms clutching your pillow to his chest in his sleep. His face rested on your other one, buried under a mess of long, dark hair, but from what you could make out— his pink, swollen lips and red, flushed cheeks— he was sleeping peacefully. Several large windows fixed across the space poured in more of that golden hue, making him seem even more angelic than he was, and for a moment, you just wished you could draw as well as him. 

“Honey,” you called, this time a lot softer as you approached his resting figure. He hummed softly in response, but his eyes still didn’t open. 

Crawling into bed next to him, you grabbed the pillow he clung to and pulled it away to catch his attention. He whined at your antics, stirring more as he reached for something else to hold. 

“You gotta wake up now.” You said through a smile of pure admiration. He looked so cute to you like this, and there was little you could do to stop your hands from coming up and fanning through his pretty locks. You started at the front, lightly combing away the strands that obscured his pretty face— a face sculpted by some Greek god whom you’d thank every day for the rest of your life. Then, you brought your hands back to gently fluff up the rest of his mane, giggling at how he whined more under your touch. 

“I have a surprise for you.”

He blew out a deep breath, eyes clamping shut for a few seconds as he struggled to wake up fully. After a few more moments of silence, his eyes opened in a squint, dark brown irises magnified by light tears. He didn’t speak and opened his mouth in a wide “O” shape, letting out a soft yawn that only made your heart grow softer.

“What surprise?” he whispered, hands coming up to wipe the sleep out of his face. 

“You’ll have to come with me to see.” You whispered back, beginning to raise yourself from the bed. 

His touch against your thigh immediately halted your actions, the warm sensation sending a small jolt of electricity up your body. It was jarring— the feeling of his hand squeezing into you— but it was also incredibly welcomed, and you immediately allowed yourself to sink back into the plush surface beneath you. 

“Wait,” his voice was soft but raspy, still stale from the lack of use overnight, “Will you lay here with me for a few more seconds, please?” 

“Baby, I-” but before you could finish your sentence, he was pulling you into his bare, broad chest and laying back down with you. 

“Just a few more minutes.” 

-

You weren’t sure how long you spent nestled in Hyunjin’s arms before you realized you’d still had that oven on. While the boy rested peacefully above you, you slid out of his grasp as swiftly as possible, as you knew he’d only pull you back if he were to wake. 

Then, you were back downstairs, without your boy, right at square one. 

You sighed as you glanced around at the setting you’d created for the two of you: mugs of hot chocolate (That’d long gone cold) with heart-shaped marshmallows floating in it, festive cookware, pink and white candles, your Polaroid loaded with red and white film; a cute baking date for the two of you to bring in Valentine’s day, and yet you couldn’t get him down here. 

Sunrise had long since passed, and now, a pale, white light poured into your kitchen, adding a lighter feel to the scene you’d set. It still looked just as pretty to you, even though you hadn’t envisioned it like this, and you were itching for Hyunjin to see it as well. 

You racked your brain for what to do, contemplating going up and trying to get him a second time before your eyes ghosted over the light pink vinyl player you’d set up when you were decorating. You immediately walked over to it, looking through the few records you sat out. Most were by Lana Del Rey, a guilty pleasure of Hyunjin’s, though he never seemed too guilty. The only one that was different was one with a brown and beige cover, depicting a man and woman who you could only assume were from the Victorian age. The man was on his knees, facing away from an unknown woman who used his capped head as an armrest or a leaning post. The image of the two was encased by dark, interlinking tiles, snaking from one end of the vinyl to the other, leaving a space at the bottom where you’d penned in a simple titled: “Je te laisserai des mot.” 

After lifting the needle, you slid the vinyl from its casing and delicately placed it on the player, taking a second to wipe away any dust that’d settled on it. Then, you dropped the needle to its proper position, lifted the volume slider to its maximum setting, and pressed play. 

The melodic humming of a man filled your mind immediately, accompanied by the few keys of a piano. The feeling fluttering through your heart was hard to explain; it was lovely, like a mix of bliss and happiness that possessed you as you melted into the chords, but there was also a sense of pain and longing etched into it.  

Your eyes clamped shut as the song forged on, his humming growing quiet as a symphony of strings and piano overtook him. When you first saw the record, you thought that perhaps you’d left it out by mistake. You’d always found it to be a particularly romantic song, and it did remind you of Hyun, but part of you felt as if it were too sad to play at a moment like this. However, now you could see why you’d chosen to leave it out. 

When you listened to it, moments that you and he had shared flashed through your mind like pretty scenes from a movie: driving in the rain with your hands intertwined, slow dancing in the living room as the city lights shined on you, staring at each other until you both got shy and laughed the feeling away: all those beautiful things that the two of you had done moving by like a montage. But you didn’t want the moment you two were about to share to be a part of that; you wanted it to be the scene itself. 

Just as the symphony faded and the man’s voice bled back in, you began to hear shuffling from upstairs, which snapped you from your sudden idleness. 

You turned to the two mugs of cocoa and put them into the microwave to heat for a few minutes, excitement coursing through you. 

The song continued to lull in the background, the man’s words echoing through your head. 

Je te laisserai des mot 

“I will leave you with notes,” you translated out in your head. You didn’t speak French, no, but you’d listened to the song so often that you made it a point to look up translations of the lyrics, and you now knew just about everything he sang by heart. 

En-dessous de ta porte 

“Underneath your door.”

En-dessous de les murs qui chantent 

“Underneath the singing walls.” 

You began to sing along with the lyrics lowly, admiring the way your voice seemed to blend in with the silkiness of the singers. At the same time, you could hear how Hyunjin shuffled out of bed, taking a few seconds before he walked towards the stairs. He paused at the top of the case for a few beats, almost as if to get a better listen, before hurriedly skipping down them two steps at a time. 

You looked his way, smile gleaming as you took note of his disheveled state. Despite your smoothing earlier, his hair was back to being a mess, some of it making a curtain over his eyes while the rest swooped and curled about. He still wasn’t wearing a shirt, and the several love bites you’d given him the night before were very visible, making your cheeks heat a bit. The most amusing part of it all, though, was the boy’s face. Even with his tired appearance, his eyes were wide with shock and excitement, and his lips formed a small circle as he analyzed the kitchen for himself. 

“You did all of this, baby?” He finally quipped after a few seconds of staring. You couldn’t suppress your giggle as you moved to stop the microwave, gently grabbing the handles of the mugs and placing them on the counter. 

“Of course I did.” You replied, walking towards him. “Happy Valentine’s Day, my boy.” 

A soft smile spread across his face at your words, and he began to walk towards you, meeting you in the middle and wrapping you up in his arms without a second thought. You could feel how fast his heart was beating against you, the beat so clear with your head against his chest. Even after dating for so long, being that close to you never failed to make him nervous. 

“I love you.” He whispered, breaking the brief silence that’d settled between you. His hands squeezed your waist tighter at his statement, and you could feel how bated his breath was as the words left his mouth– almost like he was scared. 

You paused for a second, giving yourself the time to pour over his words. He’d told you that so many times. So, so many times, yet it caught you by surprise each one. 

You pulled back for a second and ran your hands down from his neck to his bare chest, allowing them to rest there as you looked up at him.

The song still hummed in the background, a soft, melodic humming drifting through the air as the two of you gazed upon each other. You fought against yourself, wanting nothing more but to press your lips against his and pour as much of your love into as him could, but you knew that you couldn’t. He knew what it felt like. He needed to hear it now. 

“Hyunjin,” you started, watching as his eyes widened a bit as he became more eager to hear what you’d say, “there aren’t words strong enough to describe the way I feel about you.” 

“I mean…I need you.” You continued, tilting your head slightly as you moved your hands up to play in his hair. His eyes blinked closed a few times at the sensation of your fingers against his scalp, causing you to giggle a bit, before he diverted his attention back towards you. 

“I adore you.” A blissful smile crossed his face at that, eyes crinkling at the sides. 

You inched your face closer to his, standing up on your tippy toes in an effort to level with him more. 

“I love you, baby.” You finally whispered, voice as smooth as honey. “I love you so much.” 

And with that, your lips were against his. 

-

“What’d you write on yours?” You questioned, looking over only for him to shield his pan with his arm. 

“Not yet!” He exclaimed, lowering his face closer to his work as he moved the piping bag along as slowly and carefully as he could. 

“Hyunjin…” you whined, tapping his arm slightly to his panic. You’d long been done with decorating and were now standing off to the side, sipping on your second mug of hot cocoa of the morning. 

You knew how particular Hyun was when it came to his art, and it was always something that you admired, but it was killing you that he was being so secretive, especially because you hadn’t expected him to take it that seriously. It was food coloring and frosting after all. Not oil canvases and watercolors. What was taking him so long? 

You shifted away for a second towards the record player again, noticing how Lana’s dreamy voice had faded out and the record was starting from the beginning once again. You flicked the pause button and lifted the needle, bringing your finger down onto the vinyl and letting it scape against its surface as it came to a stop. 

“Do me a favor, please.” Hyunjin pipped up. 

You paused, looking back at him as you waited for him to continue.

“Play our song.” This time he looked back, piping bag in hand as he met your gaze. 

You threw him a soft smile before you turned back, putting the first vinyl away and grabbing the all-too-familiar beige cover. 

For the fourth time that morning, you loaded it onto the player and began to play it, humming softly as you did so. Hyunjin joined in, voice softer than yours, but still there. He always did that when you sang– joined in with you, softly enough to hear you, but loud enough to let you know he was there. 

Just as the man’s voice began to fade in, Hyunjin broke away from the song, and whispered a simple, “Come here, baby.” 

You did as he asked, sitting your mug down on the counter in front of you and turning to approach him. You rested your head against his shoulder, one arm draping across his shoulder as you peered down at the pink, heart-shaped pan that rested right next to yours. 

In his, lay a heart-shaped cookie cake, covered from top to bottom in light brown frosting. It was perfectly smooth, not a single dip or line in its foundation, and you just knew that Hyunjin had gone over it time and time again to make sure of that. Around the edges of the cookie were white, interwebbing vines that crawled up the sides and stopped just shy of the upper edge. The most captivating part, however, was the top that was particularly bare, away from thirteen, white cursive words. 

“I will always leave you notes if you will always pick them up.”

Je te laisserai des mot.

A/N: Hey y'all! This was meant to come out on Valentine's Day (I'm a day late and a dollar short, I know🥲) but I've been swamped and had to push it back. Still, I hope you guys enjoy having a late V-day with this sweet boy. Thanks for reading! -M'k <3

[idontwannabeyouanymore]

my fav safe (and low cal) foods! <3

so im someone who shoots for 700 cals a day bc i'm a server (lots of walking, lifting, always on my feet) and im also a college student! so in order for me to literally not pass out everywhere i go, i eat in somewhat larger volumes of super low cal foods! i try to focus on protein, carbs, fiber, and low fat. here are the foods i eat almost every day, if not every single day in different combinations:

quaker lightly salted rice cakes: 35 cals per rice cake and good for energy (the flavored ones are also amazing but differ in cals)

starkist light tuna in water (the packets!): 70 cals per packet and like 17g of protein

strawberries: low cal, good for when i have low blood sugar

light n' fit greek yogurt: 80 cals per yogurt, they have the best flavors, i think like 12g of protein? and they're great in smoothies

good culture lowfat cottage cheese: 80 cals per 110g (1/2 cup) and the BEST cottage cheese texture ever

english cucumbers: crispier than a regular cuc and rly low calories for super large amounts

healthy choice soups with BONE BROTH: usually like 190 cals for the whole can and they have more protein than the progresso light soups (which i also like)

barebells chocolate dough protein bars: 200 cals per bar but they hold me over for like 6 hours during work and the chocolate dough literally tastes like a candy bar

bob evans liquid egg whites: 25 cals per 3 tbsp and the bob evans brand has no fat, no carbs, and no cholesterol!

franks red hot original hot sauce: no cals (but lots of sodium) super clean ingredients and i rly do put this sh!t on everything. im a hot sauce wh0re

kraft zesty italian fat free dressing: 15 calories for 2 tbsp and super flavorful! my go-to for dipping veggies and i also put it in my tuna??? no judgement its good

sugar free jello: 5 cals per one jello cup and lowkey i like it better than regular jello its FIRE

pb fit powdered peanut butter: 60 cals per 2 tbsp of this stuff when dry is CRAZY its literally less than half the cals of like JIF reduced fat. doesn't taste as good but add like a tiny bit of honey or concentrated apple juice sweetener and its fire on a rice cake

seasonings are SO important for me bc i like flavor. seasonings usually have very low or no cals so try them out! don't make urself more miserable by eating some bland ass chicken

for drinks, i shoot for water, bigelow green tea with mint, coke zero, zevia, and monster zero sugar (esp the peach flavor!!)

annnnnnddddd i think thats pretty much what i eat! idk who's seeing this but i hope this helps someone who's not sure what to buy @ the grocery store! also if anyone has other low cal foods that they love pls lmk cus im always looking to branch out :)

edit: i also measure all my food in grams using a cheap scale i got at walmart and i log my meals in myfitnesspal... helps me have peace of mind when budgeting cals

edit: ALSO GRILLOS DILL PICKLES SPEARS they're 5 cals per spear (i fkn love these pickles)

[eldritch-spouse]

Eating at my own fingers for some Berle smut 😫😫😫

[Don't worry, he'll eat your fingers for you.]

TW: Foodplay; Dubious consent

Berle's steps echo around the inside of the manufacturing area.

" Lollipop! My sweet little gumdrop, my tootsie pie! "

Oh he wants something.

Finishing helping a fairly depleted chocolate flavor into a vat, you seal the exhausted slime in there and shiver as you come out of the frozen rooms, rubbing some warmth into your arms. It's crazy to think how much it must cost to keep this place so cool in the middle of literal Hell.

" Yes? "

" There you are! "

He announces, so close to the skin of your back that it nearly frightens the soul out of your body.

" Come come come- I need you to taste something immediately! "

That's half of your job nowadays. Running around taking note of which flavors are depleting, take them to the vats, and put a variety of sweet ice cream novelty flavors in your mouth. You're really hoping there's enough magic in these things to prevent you from getting cavities. Or maybe that's why he's always buying you "the best toothpaste out there for humans".

Part of you thinks sometimes Berle isn't even making you taste-test new flavors, he just wants to feed you. Which is fine by you, less time actually working.

You're dragged to the front of the shop, sort of. More like the area where people can choose to have independent scoops of ice cream from non-living samples. A sort of tasting booth, to make sure you don't just call a slime-cream to your table, taste them, only to make a face afterwards. You'd feel mildly offended in their place.

The thing is, "free tasting", in Gluttony, is about three or four fat scoops on an already large cone. You've been living here for a while, and less than that would probably be considered insulting.

In turn, that is also what Berle regularly attempts to shove in your mouth.

The prince is behind the balcony, reaching for a fresh container and twirling an original brand spoon in his hand. More than the excitement in his eyes, his own tail seems to dance behind the demon.

" New flavor? " Your eyes widen.

Berle hums brightly. " Perhaps! Oh yes, maybe! But not yet, too much to test, too much to think about legally ahah, providers, but I wanted you to test it out for me just this once, okay? Really fast- "

It's only after he retrieves a spoonful that you can see the ice cream itself. It looks creamy, swirls of soft lavender and salmon blending together nicely, a sugary sweet scent to it. Berle has such a talent for making any kind of ice cream look appetizing. This gift of his has made you reconsider an embarrassing amount of bizarre flavor mixes.

" Open wide! "

You do. Probably wider than you should have.

But it's reflex at this point. Like most gluttons, he's got this habit of simply overfilling a spoonful. Loading it with so much that one would guess his intent is to make you choke. But no such thing, Berle insisted when you pried, he merely forgot your limitations. He loved you, so he wanted you to have more, always.

Recently, the prince has gotten better with dosing for humans, in no small part due to the growing popularity of his establishment, bringing in customer diversity. You however, have choked and coughed food back out enough times to trigger a brand new survival mechanism at the mere utterance of 'open'. Your jaws part as much as your feeble human anatomy allows them to, sometimes popping in the process, and your tongue hangs to further keep things unobstructed.

Berle is bad at masking what pleases him.

He enjoys that you've learned to do this.

Seen by the tint to his cheeks as he eagerly shovels the spoonful into your mouth.

Predictably, it's so much that it makes your cheeks puff humorously, but it's manageable. You don't choke, just shiver at the coldness and try not to bite down. You let it sit in the gradually decreasing warmth of your mouth, mulling on the flavor.

Sweet, incredibly sweet, but light all the same. The burst of sugar isn't long enough to let you get sick of it, fizzing away to a pleasant freshness. You can't tell the ingredients used in this. Funnily enough, you almost never can, aside from the most common flavors such as strawberry, chocolate and caramel, for example. Maybe it's just that you don't have the same complexity in your tastebuds as a glutton does, so your brain mixes and mashes signals into something unreadable. You're aware of lot of Berle's subtle work goes entirely unnoticed to your dull palate- That he keeps trying to provide new taste experiences for you in spite of knowing you'll never get as much pleasure from any as one of his own is a testament to the prince's morbid love.

" So? So? " He grins so incredibly wide that his cheeks strain, offering you a second spoonful that is slowly accepted.

He's graced with a response as soon as you're not nearly drooling. " Amazing, as usual. It's not as heavy, I feel like I could have a lot more of this one than anything else but... "

" But...? " The demon's malleable horns shift as he tilts his head.

" But, I can't really tell what it's made of. " He hasn't even told you the name of it either, so there's hardly a hint.

" Ah yes yes, I expected you wouldn't. See, it's more uhm- Synthetic, than my usual work. Not at all like me, I think you'd know that of all people, lollipop, ahah- But part of my work does involve branching out, constantly, right? I'd usually be against something so err fabricated, so... Implicative, but I just couldn't pass this up! You understand, right? "

While he blabbers, you begin to sense a slight increase in temperature. You know damn right that Hell would blink out of existence faster than the air conditioning in this establishment could fail, so something's clearly amiss.

" -Especially after they said it would be perfectly safe for human consumption! Of course, I can't just sell this willy-nilly without being sure that things won't devolve into a rampant mess, it could be weaponized I know this- But perhaps as an offer to couples who come here together on their cute little meet-dates, right? The effects then would be harmless, like now- "

It's getting really hot. You're sweating. Should probably take that jacket off.

Wait, what did he say just now?

" The what-? "

" Hm? " Berle pauses.

" You said... " A fog clutches the creases of your mind, massaging it into a fine, aimless pulp. God fucking damn it, what did he just make you eat? " ... Effects? "

" Mhm, right right! This type of ice cream is made using material from a person, causing whoever eats it to feel madly infatuated for said person, ehh needy, if you will- This means it has to be commissioned obviously, so there's a certain wait time and the material has to be handled carefully! It could be blood, I think most people will want to use their blood, but I personally used... " Berle's peppy expression turns into something much less innocent as he watches you squirm in place, trying to keep up with his chattering. Your eyes linger on his mostly bare form and satisfaction carves its way into those mismatched eyes.

" Something else, you know? "

There's a flicker of recognition in your gradually muddling brain. You manage to offer the royal infernal an annoyed, near frigid look, reminiscing about the unsavory part of your role here. Getting to taste-test flavors is a euphemism for being a bit of a lab-rat. And while you're sure that Berle wouldn't deliberately feed you something he thinks could genuinely cause harm, he's not above this type of scummy behavior either.

A pulse of want has your teeth clenching while your legs propell you to him, causing the prince to all but giggle loudly, putting the spoon and container away when you grab onto his stupid pink apron.

" Let me... " You murmur, fevered with the desire to have him. Any way, any part, you have a strange urge to get Berle into your mouth. Flashes of you kissing and biting and tasting every inch of his skin assault your mind.

Bizarre, as if out of nowhere, you developed an erotic oral fixation that was simply overwhelming in intensity.

" Oh hoo hoo, working well working well! How are you feeling, gumdrop? "

It starts with a searing kiss.

It's less genuine affection and more of a need to cram your tongue as deep into him as you can. A laughable objective, given Berle has a tongue that puts plenty of his own kind to shame. If that weren't enough, he's always enthusiastic, so you never had a semblance of a chance. He kisses back and, sensing your fervor, generously supplies more of that multicolored muscle into you. You choked aggressively the first few times he was stupid enough to do this to you without thinking, nearly threw everything back out, but your time inside this Ring has changed you in many ways. Not only have you become more voracious, it's as if your gag reflex is often muted in select moments. Given the thing dragging over all crevices of your mouth and throat, you should have started to flinch and panic, but all that's there is an unnerving breed of glee and mild oxygen deprivation.

Berle dominates, much to your slight frustration, pulling you back when the embrace simply becomes too gross to prolong. Not that you care if your chin is soaked, not that you care if the taste of all the cloying sweets he had today is now imprinted on your own taste buds.

A shameless hand darts down, feeling what it had hoped to.

Behind the rather thin fabric of Berle's apron protrudes the very thing you're sure he'll have no problem letting you stuff yourself with. Berle shares a concubus rib somewhere in his lineage, that's likely why he wears so little all the time, why he even thought of this flavor as an appealing suggestion. It's also the reason he somehow always seems to be able to tug you away for some quick tomfoolery.

There's no doubt he's the one pleasantly surprised when you drop to your knees and swipe that apron aside.

Berle's now throbbing length has the exact same coloration as his tongue, that borderline rainbow-like hue, like a pastel gradient of sorts. You've asked him before if he was born this way, as unlikely as it seems, but he doesn't ever provide a straight answer. Rainbow body parts are something you'd expect of a mermonsters and fey types. Not a demon, certainly.

Part of you believes he just got body modifications because it makes his cock look like some kind of rare candy cane. Somewhat of a dangerous gambit, given another glutton could get confused enough to bite him, with those infernal teeth...

But you're no glutton.

All you do is lick across the length of him like he really is no more than a rainbow twister lollipop, earning yourself a shaky gasp, before putting the very tip in your mouth and swirling around it. You have no idea why this is what you want so bad, why it's making you so happy, you just know you needed to feel him exactly this way.

For all his usual rampant excitement, all Berle can do now is grab onto the counter and watch you work a sizable portion of his girth into your throat. Another perk of your prolonged stay in Hell, you could say. The you from a few months ago could never swallow this much of a partner without crying and gagging real ugly.

" O- Ohhn- I do thhink maybe some alterations should be made -Ahahn- For humans specifically? Mmmm it seems to be taking you by stohh- "

You can feel Berle pulse within the walls of your mouth, lips flush against the root of his cock, kissing his slit. Normally, this would take some effort from your part, some warmup. A nasty noise follows as you slurp all the way back to the top just to chase that hint of tang. Berle's eyes roll back for a second and a choked moan escapes him. You're relentless, pumping him while catching your breath, only to dip back down with a dirty vigor, proudly feeling him hit deep spots within you.

Berle has learned not to fuck your mouth. All larger infernals must learn this sooner or later when they pick smaller partners, and the prince is no exception. But that doesn't mean he's not digging his claws into the counter for dear life and flexing his legs for control.

The only thing that makes you pop off his candy cock is when the confectioner's phone starts ringing, this jarring tune reminiscent of a festive jingle, breaking the mood. Berle himself looks annoyed, studying the caller ID before smiling and making a 'continue' motion.

Alright then.

He's talking immediately.

" Old friend! " Pause, one hand falls to the back of your head. " Yes yes yess- " That last one must have been for you. " I did get the sample, tested it already- Why, with a volunteer of course, I have my ways... "

His scummy ways.

Perhaps it's mean of you, but you take the opportunity to tease Berle and drag him across your lips like some pervert's version of lipstick. He nearly frowns, exerting some pressure to make you quit it. Whatever gargle of surprise you make is covered by his loud tone.

" Yes- Uhuh- Look though, we'll have to tone it down a bit. " He gasps. " No, it's just- My volunteer was human, and it really took them for a spin, y'know? No, I'm serious! Not even two spoons in, they were already under, that's fast! Very fast hhnoly shit- "

You would have laughed at that slip up, but all that happens is a devilish contraction around his shaft.

" N-No, it shocked me. " Berle coughs. " You should have seen-... I don't think so, royal lineage wouldn't make it stronger just on hhh its own. I think maybe you could make it a little less sudden, give it a little buzz period, y'know, hahahn Lords fuck- "

The person on the other side of the call appears to be blabbering just long enough that Berle feels confident in distancing the phone a bit and growling, making the most out of their rant by urging you to move faster with curt bucks of his hips. Sometimes he slips out of your mouth entirely, frustrating for the two of you yet desperate in a whole other dirty way.

When Berle pays attention again, the person must have been calling for him.

" Ah- Ahah, sorry yes I'm here- Excuse me if I sound muffled I'm always running around you know it's just how the job is it never stops please continue yes- " How does he fit that much air into his lungs?

It feels like he's close to cumming. Normally, Berle would be moaning and snarling about it, but he can't be nearly as vocal right now, so all you have to guide yourself is the oscillation of his composure and his tensing lower abdomen.

At some point, the prince throws his head back and appears to lean onto the counter as if to balance himself, blowing steam through his nostrils in a way the caller might mistake for exhaustion. His tail wraps around your chest loosely, getting to your neck and squeezing briefly.

That's the cue.

No mercy.

" Hrrhn... Nno no, it's perfectly fine, I know how it is with newer products. It's perfectly fine no one got injured at ALL- It's totally okay, I'm not disappointed no nooh- " He slams a fist on the counter, mad that the call is going on for as long as it has.

You've never actually seen Berle get angry from a lengthy conversation. It would be hilarious if you weren't so fixated on getting him to cum.

" I have a lot of faith in you guys I'm sure everything will work out and I'dlovetoworkwithyouallinthefutureokaybyebyegottagotoodles- " He launches the phone at some unfortunate wall. " My pretty pretty lollipop you're gonna suck the soul out of me like that- "

And you do. Because his usual yapping is cut short only a few seconds after, becoming nothing but senseless noises as Berle hunches and pants open-mouthed, giving you the rewarding rush you wanted. Much to his distaste, you pull back to get to taste it, regretting it when it's predictably too much and forces you to pull away. The prince makes a mess of your cheek and neck, ruining even the top you had picked, before you try to get the last of it on your tongue again.

And as soon as you swallow, the urge that had possessed you earlier releases its clutches, the cloud of need turning your vision pink fading suddenly.

You're left with sore knees, an aching jaw, and the moderately gross sensation of hot ropes on cooling skin.

" Couldn't you at least have asked before starting all t- "

You're interrupted by Berle's cumstained fingers wedging into your mouth. Not even this you're allowed to waste.

" But aren't surprises so much more entertaining? I really think they are, didn't you have fun? Besides, it'll be my turn soon, don't you worry lollipop, what kind of lover would I be if I didn't thank you for such wonderful feedback- "

You wonder who that supplier is...

[sgiandubh]

For no particular reason: Lola's homemade chocolate

Today is Lola the Corgi's presumed birthday. We chose it approximately, while at the vet's, because Lola's story is nothing short of a canine miracle. She jumped in my cab, somewhere in the humble outskirts of Bucharest, on Saint Nicholas' Day. The driver asked, absurdly, if that was 'my dog' and I simply answered 'well, now it is'.

Little did we know the shaking, stone cold and scared to death puppy was a very rare Cardigan Corgi - this came later, when a British friend was amazed at the recovery and pointed it out adamantly. She could have been stolen or simply lost, but we will never know and we never looked back.

All our dogs had Spanish names (except for cats, always boys and always Pasha, namesakes of a beloved Shipper Mom's childhood pet), simply because they are easy to learn and remember. In her case, Lola is for...

for well... for obvious locomotion reasons 🤣 #LolaFlores. Twelve years with a supremely intelligent and empathic friend deserved a batch of my homemade chocolate, don't you think?

Too bad she can't try it. But enough babbling, here goes.

You will need: 2 cups/ 250 grams milk powder - I recommend Nestlé's Carnation, if you can't get hold of Rarăul, the obscure, Communist local brand (so damn good); 2 sticks/200 grams full fat butter (I recommend Irish butter, always with excellent results), at room temperature, cubed; 7 Tablespoons/50 grams cocoa (Dutch, if you can, but I prefer either Ghirardelli or the Greek Ion brand, which I think are the best on this planet); 2½ cups/ 500 grams Demerara sugar (or caster sugar). A dash of instant coffee, for decorating. You can replace sugar by stevia sweetener (measure accordingly - I used this, because I was also cooking for a severe diabetic who can't control herself), with very good results. Optional: crushed tea biscuits or cookies in the US/chopped hazelnuts/pine nuts/walnuts/peanut butter (in swirls) - sky is the limit. For the adult version, feel free to add a hefty swig of brandy/rhum/whisky/bourbon/vodka/limoncello or hey, let's be totally dirty (sssh!), Bailey's.

In a nonstick pan, gently simmer 3/4 cup or 170 ml cold water with ALL the sugar. Stir nonstop (only with wooden spoon or silicone spatula, never metal - it lends a foul taste!) until you get a sort of thin syrup - basically the sugar should dissolve, nothing more. 2 to 3 minutes should be enough.

Add the cubed butter, stir gently until it melts and incorporates completely. 10 minutes max, but never stop stirring!

Take the pan off the heat. Gently pour dry milk in small batches, stirring and incorporating continuously. It should immediately thicken, sticky fudge consistency.

Gently mix the cocoa, with slow, ample bottom/top movements (you don't want it anywhere else but in that pan, for sure). Right consistency should be a thick ribbon, pouring from the spoon.

Back to the heat for about 30 to 45 seconds, stirring all the time. I have no idea why, but my grandma always insisted it was very important, go figure. Take off the heat and immediately add the nuts and (if you choose) the alcohol, mixing vigorously.

Pour into a well buttered loaf tin. Dust with instant coffee. Let cool, put into fridge for 6 hours minimum (overnight is better). Only cut with a wet knife. Devour and don't think about the damn calories.

I am sorry for the very, very old pic (2010, I think). Tonight, it was impossible to take a proper one 😱.

This is what we do call 'homemade chocolate' all over Eastern Europe, but to be honest, it's rather some very, very good fudge. The dry milk is a dead giveaway of the real age of the recipe, which is around 1945 - postwar rationing, of course.

You are welcome. You won't regret the 45 minutes you're likely to spend making it.

[chokedonaturtle]

my humanized cars headcanons

Cereal Choice Edition

▀▄▀▄▀▄▀▄▀▄▀▄▀▄▀▄▀▄▀▄▀▄▀▄▀

Strip: he ain’t allowed to eat cereal it makes him hyper. Lynda makes him oatmeal instead and he throws a tantrum every time.

Cal: he ain’t allowed to eat cereal, eats POPS in moderation when supervised (he will eat the entire box)

Lynda: Oatmeal. she don’t really care for cereal.

Tex: Great Value Apple Fritters Cereal (it’s discontinued and he pays $60 on ebay each time he needs another box.) Usually just has Blanton Gold Label for breakfast (it’s whiskey).

Lightning: Cocoa puffs, Reese’s Pieces Cereal, anything incredibly sweet and borderline life threatening. The occasional Cheerio.

Mater: anything you put in front of him. whether or not it’s edible is not important.

Bobby: actually doesn’t like cereal. mostly just doesn’t like milk and won’t eat it dry.

Brick: Frosted Flakes but ONLY the ones that are travel sized. He said they don’t taste the same as the big box. Also says that if they’re bought in the store, they taste different than the ones from the hotel breakfast line.

Sally: Honey Smacks, Choco Chimps. thinks the chimp is cute. drinks a glass of orange juice with her cereal and it drives Lightning insane.

Doc: He’s a doctor and only eats Raisin Bran and Cheerios because sugary cereal is bad for you…………

Cocoa Krispies. he likes when they go *pop pop pop*

Sheriff: he’s a simple man and doesn’t ask for much.

German cereal Vitalis Schoko Müsli Klassisch, Kelloggs ICEE cereal and Peeps cereal. makes Doc cry. who tf introduced him to those.

Sarge: MRE Future Essentials Corn Flakes Cereal #10 Can. man has not shit in six years.

Fillmore: organic gluten free sugar free preservative free strange crunchy objects. no milk.

Flo: prefers granola, mixed with cream and some fruit. makes a bomb parfait.

Ramone: eats whatever Flo is eating. if Flo is not eating he WILL starve.

Red: Honey Nut Cheerios, Apple Jacks….. Gerber snacks for baby. they’re fire and he won’t tell you otherwise.

Lizzie: has literally never heard of cereal, is shocked every time she sees someone eating it. it’s been 40 years of this.

Luigi: Swissli, but hasn’t found a good enough alternative in the US. Cheerios will do.

Guido: Doesn’t care for cereal, makes a real breakfast instead.

▀▄▀▄▀▄▀▄▀▄▀▄▀▄▀▄▀▄▀▄▀▄▀▄▀

lmk if i forgot anyone i wasn’t looking :p

ta ta !!!

<3

bonus !!

thomasville eats cereal too

Smokey: puts straight granola in milk. adds chocolate chips and maybe some fruit.

River: Honey Bunches of Oats, Honey Nut Cheerios, anything honey flavored

Louise: There’s a discontinued brand of strawberry yogurt Cheerios that she used to love. She swears on her life it existed and the boys like to mess with her and swear otherwise.

Junior: also fucks with Gerber snacks for baby. Prefers apple sauce from the squeeze tube--

is this man an actual child ???

[mxrtified777]

Oh, should I...

Challenge accepted :)

Alright, right off the bat for Morro, I'm thinkinggg something with tea notes, leaning towards the fresh-spicy end of things. Maybe some smoky/incense accords? Nothing too sweet, definitely trying to avoid gourmands for him. We'll get into all of the sugary colognes with Cole.

Either Black (Comme des Garçon) with notes of black tea, black pepper, red pepper interestingly enough, incense, violet, and moss or Armani Eau de Cèdre (Giorgio Armani) with notes of sage, bergamot, cardamom, black tea, and suede seem to be fitting for him. Personally, I find the former to be more interesting.

Now for some gourmands with Cole; as a gourmand guy myself, I could not be more excited and also worried considering that there are almost too many to choose from. I can absolutely just find a cake fragrance for shits and giggles along with something that's actually intended to be tailored to him. I'll try and stick to the pastry side of things here.

FUCKIN' KNEW I COULD FIND A CAKE COLOGNE, LAST BIRTHDAY CAKE (TOSKOVAT), BABY; with notes of hazelnut spread, brandy, cake, tonka, vanilla bean, brown sugar, and custard, as well as some more... odd notes (this fragrance comes from a brand known for basically writing stories with perfume; the lineage of each fragrance projects a specific moment or event, specifically here, blowing out candles on a birthday cake (I'm assuming)) such as cork, milk, and malt. The second cologne is definitely more of a day-to-day fragrance, with hearty notes of hazlenut, dark chocolate, and roasted coffee beans laying on a base of leather and cedar.

This has been Chris Mashing His Interests Together Like Play-Dough Part 734. Thank you for joining me. If you'd like to see me do this with any other characters (including your own!), feel free to send a request to my ask box :)

[uzumaki-rebellion]

The Offering Part 3

Need to catch up? Masterlist HERE.

"I know he loves me

I know he cares

Cause he's all mine

And soon he'll be knockin'

At my door

Things will be alright"

Juicy – "Sugar Free"

Lebadi slid the fingers of her right hand over the monorail console while watching a monitor to gage the flow of traffic in the wide Birnin S'Yan street. Her left hand rubbed on the swollen belly that was ready to pop with a strange mutant's baby.

"Everything good?"

Lebadi turned her head and watched a lanky, reed-thin male co-worker saunter in to take over her shift. Mantso quirked up his thick lips and handed her a warm chocolate coffee along with a hot-out-of-the-oven seasoned meat bun. She accepted both and shifted her weight out of the chair so he could take over.

"Slow night. Thank you for this," she said.

Taking a huge bite out of the round bun stuffed with ground beef and yellow potatoes baked inside, she wiped her lips when the flavorful juices spewed out onto her chin. Mantso studied her belly.

"You are ready to burst," he teased.

"One more month."

"When does your leave start?"

"Next week."

A rumble outside the wide glass window announced the arrival of the midnight lift in the city center.

"I'll hold it for you," Mantso said.

Lebadi grabbed her sweater and waddled out of the control room taking an escalator to the surface street. Saturday nights were a busy festive time and she passed through crowds of young people out for a night of dancing and drinking. She missed doing that with her friends back home in Birnin Zana. If she hadn't gotten pregnant, she'd be attending Dora Milaje training with Okoye and going out with her crew to their favorite clubs and night cafes.

Chewing on the tender meat of the late night snack Mantso gave her, she gripped her cup of cocoa-rich coffee and sat by herself on the monorail. It was a short fifteen minute ride to her cottage nestled behind a row of luxury villas. She jostled her big belly around exuberant party-seekers and munched on her food while admiring the bright lights and music spilling out onto the public sidewalks from flashy clubs. Ten minutes later she rounded a corner that led to the opening of a quiet suburban street twinkling with tiny nightlights decorating the clipped hedges lining the path she followed. Tall rust-colored trees blotted out the noise of the main street behind her.

Approaching her home, she noticed a figure hidden in the shadows of her small porch.

"Who's there?" she blurted.

No one answered and she took a step back, cradling her stomach in a protective stance.

"I see you!" she shouted to make herself sound tough.

The figure moved toward the light of a street lamp and Lebadi sucked in her breath.

Okoye.

"It took me some time to track you down here," Okoye said, eyeing Lebadi's burgeoning midsection, "Why didn't you tell me you were pregnant?"

Lebadi entire demeanor slumped with shame.

"I'm your best friend, Lebadi. You can tell me anything in confidence and I would never judge you."

"I know…but…"

"But what? Who is the father?"

"No one you know."

"Are you still seeing this person? Are they going to support you and this baby?"

"No…I'm not seeing them anymore. This wasn't planned."

"I know it wasn't. You were supposed to be training with me."

Okoye's eyes softened. Lebadi glanced at the new shaved head that highlighted the perfectly round skull of her friend. A brand new v-shaped crimson tattoo crowned the top of Okoye's forehead. She had passed the first level of Dora Milaje training.

"Open your door. The neighbors should not hear our conversation," Okoye demanded.

Lebadi shuffled past her and onto the porch. She swiped her kimoyo beads over the door handle and stepped aside to let Okoye in first. The motion sensor lights in the living room flickered on and she hung up her sweater on the back of the door. Setting down her coffee and half-eaten meat bun on a side table, she faced her bestie full on.

"Sit," Lebadi said gesturing to a chair near the couch.

Okoye glanced around the neat cottage living room before sinking down into the chair.

"I have to use the restroom. I'll be right back."

Lebadi excused herself and went into a small hallway that led to the cramped bathroom. She closed the door and gripped her hands on the sink. She wasn't prepared to let anyone know her secret. For the past four months she had hidden in Birnin S'Yan where no one knew her or her family. She kept her interactions among family and friends purely through vid chats at low angles to conceal her stomach. She joked about eating too many meat buns that the city was famous for to explain away her plump cheeks and wide moon face. Stories were made up about being busy with work and taking advanced art classes at the University of S'Yan that rested above the cliffs overlooking the sea. Many questioned why she'd move so far away, but most assumed it was because she was disappointed about not being accepted into the Dora Milaje Corps. She let that lie fester to dampen the pleadings of returning to the Golden City.

Lebadi needed to give birth in a place where she was a stranger, and the fast pace of seaside life was the perfect hideaway. She hired a private midwife and planned to give birth at home. Beyond that she had no further plans. It all depended on what came out of her vagina in thirty days. If the child looked human, she'd give it away to the midwife to find a good home. She used a fake name in the city and no one would be able to trace a baby back to her. However, if the child came out a mutant…

She shook away the thought with splashes of cool water on her high cheekbones. Okoye would ruin all of her plans. Wiping her face with a towel, Lebadi stared at her frightened eyes in the mirror. She had saved up enough money to pay a bribe to the midwife to keep the birth off of the formal hospital registry. The only problem was that she couldn't decide what to do with a child if it came out like him.

K'uk'ulkan.

Lebadi shivered at the mere thought of him and the baby inside of her moved. She touched the spot where it kicked her. The child was strong in there. So ready to come out.

"Lebadi, are you hiding from me?"

Okoye's voice sounded more hurt than accusatory.

"Coming," Lebadi chirped.

Okoye studied her every move coming back into the living room. Lebadi took a seat on her lumpy couch adjacent to the chair and finally gazed into her friend's eyes. They were watery and her lips trembled.

"I was worried about you. I didn't know what it was, but I felt like something was wrong. I needed to see you in person and ease my mind," Okoye said.

"Now you see why I stayed so far from home."

"Having a baby out of wedlock is not shameful anymore."

"The father and I are not together. He doesn't know about this baby."

"He has a responsibility. You are from a prominent family—"

"No one will know about this child. When it is born I will give it away."

"Give it away? Are you mad? You are descended from the first family that stood by the Udaku clan when Bashenga created the nation. You have grandmothers and grandfather's written about in our history books…you cannot just give a baby away with your bloodline, Lebadi. It would be sacrilegious! A sin in the eyes of Bast."

"I cannot keep this baby, Okoye."

"Why not?"

"Because its father is a foreigner. Not a Wakandan."

"Foreigner? How?"

"He slipped through our borders."

"No one slips through our borders. Do not lie to me, Lebadi. I am your friend."

"I met him at the Mama Wati Festival. Two years ago. I fell pregnant eight months ago. We were secretly meeting here in Birnin S'Yan. You cannot tell anyone."

"This is a national security threat. I cannot sit here and ignore that. I work for the palace now. This man could be a spy using you."

"He is not a spy. There's nothing in Wakanda he wants… not anymore since he left me. I am begging you Okoye. Nothing will happen to the nation if you keep quiet about this. I am no longer seeing him. He is long gone away from here."

"How was he able to even get through our protective dome from the outside? Lebadi? Answer me!"

Lebadi burst into tears and covered her face. To not have her lover pained her heart. She struggled to regain her composure and became frantic when Okoye tapped her kimoyo beads. A sharp discomfort in her side distracted them both and Lebadi clutched under her stomach and sat back in her seat.

"Lebadi, what's wrong?"

"I'm okay…you are stressing me out and it disturbed the baby."

"Should I call your doctor? Uh..the midwife?"

"No…I am fine now."

"I'm sorry."

"Please…just leave this be. Keep my secret."

"You cannot give your baby away. If you need help, W'Kabi and I can do that. We're getting married next year…we could adopt your child and keep it close to you—"

"No."

"How far along are you?"

"Eight months."

Okoye palmed her hands together and let the tips of her fingers rest under her chin.

"You have been dealing with this all alone?"

"Yes."

Okoye lowered herself to her knees and clasped Lebadi's hands.

"I see that you're frightened. I will keep your secret, but I will return to help you when the baby comes. We're figure out what to do together. Your child deserves a good home…with you."

Okoye thumbed away the tears that pearled out from the corners of Lebadi's eyes.

"Do you need anything right now? Money? Food?" Okoye asked.

"No. I'm tired and want to go to bed."

"I will stay for the weekend and return for my training. No more keeping secrets from me. Promise?"

"Promise."

Lebadi squeezed Okoye's hands.

The moment Okoye left the cottage Sunday evening, Lebadi packed up all her clothes and called a private cab to ferry her to the marina. She tossed her kimoyo beads in a sewer run-off after telling her mid-wife that she was going home and would no longer need her services.

Lebadi knew Okoye had a good heart and wanted the best for her, but the reality spoke of newer alliances. She couldn't trust that her friend wouldn't go searching for breeches in security and ring the alarm. It was better to go away and give birth alone on the sea away from prying eyes. Telling her that the father was foreign was bad enough. It was a stupid mistake on her part.

She rented the same boat she had used for two years sneaking away to see Namor. It was an older model that most people bypassed for the sleek newer ones all over the marina. She paid for a three month rental and the woman releasing it didn't bat an eye at her condition or the crinkly bills she paid in cash from a fat purse stuffed with more Wakandan money. It took Lebadi four trips to load the boat with supplies of food, water, and things she would need for a baby. The last item she carried on board was a peach and sand-colored conch shell that Namor gifted her. She wanted something of his with her.

She set sail on a Monday evening to cloak herself in darkness, taking the boat off radar once she was past her target area to hide from any drone surveillance.

She programmed the boat to glide her to her favorite spot three miles from the coast. For three days she used radar from the boat and her own binoculars to scan for anyone coming after her. She left a month's worth of pre-programmed holo vid messages for family and select friends to keep up appearances until the baby came. Using the boat ramp, she dipped her heavy body into the water when the weather was too hot and spent most of her days lying in her berth to keep cool. She limited the use of the air-cooling system to keep traces of vibranium energy surges to a minimum in case it captured the attention of the Wakandan Coast Guard.

A pod of dolphins passed by her boat her second week out at sea and they lingered to frolic for a few hours before heading out to the growing swells. Shading her eyes with her hand, she pondered moving the boat when it was bumped by something that didn't feel like a strong wave shoving the starboard side. She tottered on bare feet to investigate if she hit a reef and was shocked to find a large orca nudging the hull with its massive head.

Lebadi held onto some rope looped around the inside of the hull to keep her balance. The orca opened its mouth and echolocation clicks bounced at her along with high-pitched whistling sounds. It snapped its mouth closed a few times making jaw claps and she ran to the control room to move the boat away from the sea creature. At a smooth twenty knots, she left the orca in a wake of white water, but it gave chase. She aimed the boat back toward land but the orca kept up and then cut her off, forcing her to head further out to sea. She white-knuckled the control console when the orca slammed itself under the boat.

Cutting her eyes to the ocean, the boat stuttered to a complete stop. The odor of something burning came from the stern. She shut everything down and checked the back. The boat belched blue-black smoke and the orca peered at her from the water with a menacing brown eye under a patch of white marking on its slippery skin.

"What the fuck did you do to this boat?"

The orca clicked and rolled its dark body upside down in the foamy turquoise waters. Before she could curse it again, it flicked its wide tail and tossed Namora onto the deck. Soaking wet, the Talokanil woman stood to her full height and sea water dripped from her feathered headdress and the jagged spear she carried. Lebadi turned away trying to hide her stomach, but Namor's cousin spotted the forbidden fruit of their union. She stuck the tip of her spear against Lebadi's stomach.

"Ba'ax le ts'íiba' utia'al?" Namora spat out from behind her breathing mask.

Lebadi nodded and stepped back from the spear. Namora lunged forward raising her spear at an angle that would slice the child out of her womb.

"Don't! Please!" Lebadi shrieked.

The harsh rays of the sun and the muggy heat draped Lebadi in an uncomfortable cocoon of dripping perspiration. Short of breath, and frightened, she urinated on herself and lost control of her knees. Namora tossed away her spear and caught Lebadi with her strong but gentle hands. Her piercing dark brown eyes were the same as Namor's.

"Yaan teen," Namora whispered in Lebadi's ear.

"Please don't kill my baby," Lebadi pleaded before the world went black and she collapsed in the Talokanil's arms.

Lebadi woke up to the delicious aroma of something being cooked in the galley. She glanced around the berth before touching her belly. The baby still protruded from her midsection and it moved when she lifted up on one arm. From one of the circular berth windows, Lebadi noticed that the sun had vanished ushering in a muggy evening calm. How long had she slept?

A soft slightly muffled humming voice drifted into her ears.

"Namora?" Lebadi called out.

The humming stopped and the sound of feet padding across the creaking floor took over. Namora entered the berth carrying a steaming bowl. Her headdress was gone and her long dark hair sat loose on her shoulders.

"Ma'lob ak'abtal," Namora said.

Lebadi nodded at the evening greeting and sat up further, grimacing at the weight on her bladder. She dangled her legs over the side and shoved a pillow behind her to support her lower back. Namora held out the bowl.

"Bix a u'uykabáa? Wi'ijen?" Namora asked.

"I'm fine…yes, I'm hungry…um…wait, you don't understand that…give me a minute."

Lebadi closed her eyes to think better. She imagined Namor being with her in the kitchen and the words came back to her. She reached for the bowl with both hands.

"Dios bo'otik, Namora."

Lebadi stirred the spoon in the bowl and chunks of chicken floated in a savory-smelling soup. Yellow rice, caramelized onion, and chopped greens from her food supply filled up the spoon. She ate the first spoonful and her tongue detected a pleasant fishy taste with the greens. Seaweed.

"Good," Lebadi said, scooping more soup onto her spoon and funneling it to her hungry mouth.

Tilting the bowl back to slurp up the liquid, Lebadi wiped her mouth after finishing the meal.

"More?" Namora said.

"You know my language?"

"Chen jumpit," Namora said holding her thumb and index finger close together. She knew a little.

"I would like more…"

Lebadi gave the bowl back to Namora and the Talokanil woman smiled beneath her breathing mask. It made her eyes light up. She returned quickly with another tasty bowl and Lebadi took her time eating it. The silence between them was pleasant enough although Namora kept sneaking glances at her protruding stomach.

"I am much better now. This food was wonderful."

Namora watched her face and Lebadi couldn't tell if there was real comprehension so she stuck with handing back the empty bowl. She followed Namora into the kitchen galley where a big pot of the soup stayed simmering.

"You eat now," Lebadi said, pointing to the stove.

Namora shook her head and turned off the burner under the pot. She cleaned Lebadi's bowl and spoon and placed them on the draining rack. Pointing a stern finger back toward the berth, Namora ushered Lebadi back to bed to keep her off of her feet. The soup in her belly calmed the baby, making her eyes drowsy.

Lebadi fell asleep.

She dreamed of home, her parents, and Okoye. Strange images intermixed surreal images of water and whales blending into amorphous shapes. She woke up to the sound of water lapping against the boat.

"Is anyone here?" Lebadi shouted.

She didn't want to be alone anymore.

"Ma' k'a'abet a yaantal sajakil, teen le."

Namora's voice traveled to her from the deck. Lebadi wiped her forehead and huffed. It took a minute longer than usual to pull herself up from the bed. She ambled over to the small restroom and let out a steady stream that relieved her screaming bladder. The extra effort used to clean her privates made her yearn for relief soon. She fumbled her left hand against the sink to help lift up from the toilet. Washing her hands quickly she returned to the berth to find Namora waiting for her. She scrutinized Lebadi's face noticing a grimace.

"Ba'ax yaan ma'alo'ob tu láakal?" Namora asked.

"Everything is alright. The baby is fine…le paalo' ma'alob," Lebadi said.

Namora looked unsure. Lebadi doubled over.

"Oooff!"

Lebadi jammed a hand against her side. A strong contraction nearly bowled her over. She squeezed here eyes shut and breathed through the pain. Namora helped her get back to the berth and made her as comfortable as possible. She ran back into the kitchen galley and rummaged through a few cupboards before running back with another spoon and a glass jar filled with honey.

"Kaab…this… for pain," Namora said.

Namora dipped the spoon inside the dark thick honey and held it up to Lebadi's lips. She accepted, and swallowed the richness taking the spoon away from her.

Namora held out her hand toward Lebadi's midsection seeking permission to touch.

"Béet?"Namora said.

Lebadi nodded and Namora unfastened the loose pale blue dress that she often wore for the Mama Wati ceremonies. Pushing the gauzy material aside revealed a heavy burden. Namora gently ran her hands over the front and sides, feeling the warm skin until she grinned.

"I want you to know I didn't plan this. My country has the best birth control…I just think my annual shot couldn't protect me from his genetics…"

Namora didn't understand and looked at Lebadi with bright eyes.

"Ch'úupale' juntúul chan paale'," Namora said, rocking her arms like she had a baby.

Lebadi blinked rapidly, recognizing the words she spoke. Her two years of rudimentary Yucatec Maya with Namor flooded her brain with comprehension.

"How do you know it's a girl?"

Namora fastened Lebadi's garment back up.

"The baby comes. I bring him here."

"Bring who here?"

"K'uk'ulkan—"

"No!"

Lebadi grabbed Namora's hands in a vice grip. Namora jerked away and her eyes narrowed.

"He must come to his daughter," Namora insisted.

Lebadi whimpered and pleaded but the Talokanil woman ignored her. Another contraction rendered her helpless on the bed. She felt the boat move as if it were being pushed. Namora called out what sounded like names and the boat moved faster. Forcing her body to get up, Lebadi lumbered out onto the deck.

Namora stood on the top of the bow with her hair blowing in the night wind. Silver moonlight illuminated her shape and that of the pod or orcas pushing the boat along a route that only they knew. Lebadi rubbed her stomach and regulated her breathing as another churning contraction shot through her midsection. Gravity helped to pull the baby down in her womb.

They arrived at a small, hidden island seventy miles away from the Seychelles Island archipelago.

Lebadi's birthing pains subsided on the trip there, but kicked back into high gear the moment Namora helped her off of the boat and into unnaturally warm waters. Namora set up a little campsite near a natural hotspring and the orcas pushed the house boat away from view on the other side of the island. There was enough non-perishable food stacked nearby and a cooling container held plenty of fresh water bottles.

Namora lifted Lebadi to her feet and moved her into the large natural pool closest to the sea where cooler water mixed in making it a comfortable temperature. The water helped offset the weight she carried and the soothing warmth helped with the contractions. Namora pulled off all of Lebadi's clothing and her nakedness felt natural as she squatted in four feet of water to relieve the pressure on her cervix.

"Why do you have that?" Lebadi asked.

Namora raised up the conch shell Namor had given her two years ago. She removed her breathing mask temporarily, puckered lips, and blew into the narrow end creating a haunting sound that gave Lebadi chills. Looking over the horizon, she glimpsed the pod of orcas shifting their bodies so that their tales were the only things visible on the water. Lebadi counted seven of them in total. Namora brought her spear over to the hotspring and stabbed it into the bottom. Lebadi gripped it as soon as another contraction struck her womb.

Namora lowered herself into the water and wiped away sweat dripping into Lebadi's eyes. She demonstrated calm breathing through her mask that Lebadi followed. The fearsome warrior seemed so protective of her. But it made sense after Lebadi thought about it more. The child inside of her was Namora's blood relative, a baby cousin. They were a family linked across the big waters and different cultures. Lebadi realized she had been a fool to think she could give birth alone at sea. She needed family with her and Namora had become that kinship. She cooed soothing words and cradled Lebadi's face to encourage strength in bearing the new life making her way through.

Lebadi tried to picture what her daughter would look like, and in the imagining, the dawning realization crept upon her. Okoye was right. There was no way she could give her baby away no matter what she looked like upon earthly arrival. Lebadi hunkered down all her weight and endured her birthing pains for another hour.

From the sea, the orcas whistled and twirled their now upright bodies in a circle. Water churned in a frothy seafoam green rush creating a mighty whirpool.

"He comes," Namora said.

Namor shot out of the water and flew so high in the sky that Lebadi had to squint to track his form against the blinding sunlight. Her breath caught in her throat and hot tears blurred her eyes as the baby moved further into the birth canal.

Namor swooped down from the blue skies and took in the picture before him. She began to ugly cry feeling so bad for herself. He floated down, the wings on his feet whirring rapidly. His spear dropped onto the sand and he floated closer until he settled onto the ledge of the wide pool of warm water. Namor's brow furrowed and he stared at her struggling in the warm liquid until his features softened with the glimpse of her belly. His facial expression could not fathom the truth of what was coming. Lebadi watched his confusion transform into full understanding and acceptance once the side of his mouth quirked up into a slight grin. Pulling Namora's spear out of the sediment under the water, he tossed it and moved behind Lebadi, his strong arms surrounding hers, helping her squat better. Namora removed her mask and dove under the water to tend to Lebadi's stretched vaginal walls.

"I'm sorry…I'm sorry…" Lebadi cried into his neck.

"Shh…Lebadi, I am here. Push…"

"I didn't want to hurt you…you lost children when they grew old and I know you don't want that pain anymore."

"Hush."

She couldn't stop crying and apologizing. He kissed the side of her temple and held her lovingly. His hands reached under the water to feel her stomach and he chuckled at the size.

"It's a girl," Lebadi whimpered, slowly relaxing into his presence once more.

He stroked her forehead and hair, kissing her cheek repeatedly, his strong body giving her the momentum and strength to bring life into the world.

"I love you both," he whispered before nuzzling her cheek.

Namora rose up, gasping from the foreign air.

"She is almost out."

Namora dove back down and Namor encouraged Lebadi.

"Push…in yucanaj…push…" he said. "Ma' a faltará mix ba'al…understand? You will want for nothing. Neither of you."

A contraction rippled down from her womb into her vaginal opening. Lebadi peered at the top of Namora's head under the water, her hair flowing with the swoosh of the current adding more water into the balmy liquid. She strained with all her might to get those lower muscles to cooperate with her will, and they did. The fullness was expelled from between her legs in a rush of newborn liquid as a little caramel brown and yellowish vernix body with a head full of satin ebony waves burst free from Namora's hand and floated to the surface attached to her umbilical cord. Water washed over their daughters face and she squirmed in the clearness as it cleaned away the blood and creamy protective vernix on her skin. Namora rubbed away the slippery coating and the baby's skin was even more brown and beautiful.

Lebadi reached for the baby and lifted her to her breast and immediately the child gasped and struggled to breathe. Her skin turned ashen and before Lebadi could nuzzle her nose onto the little face, the baby girl stopped moving. She never opened her eyes once.

"No!" Lebadi cried out "Nonononononoooooo!"

She wept uncontrollably as Namora checked the baby's neck. Namor remained silent as he touched the little limbs, lifting her hands and feet. There was webbing between the tiny fingers and toes and the small budding of wings on her precious ankles. She even had his pointed ears.

"Why would Bast do this to me? Bring me this far only to take our baby away?" Lebadi lamented.

Namora reached for her breathing mask and placed it on her face again. Lebadi cradled her nameless baby girl against her breast. Her nipples leaked milk and the absurdity of that action threw Lebadi over the deep end. She closed her eyes and wallowed in sorrow.

Namor touched his daughter, wiping away vernix from her nose, checking to see if anything obstructed her nostrils or mouth. He placed his mouth over the child's mouth and blew air into it as Namora pinched her button nose closed. That didn't work to stimulate breathing. They even tried rubbing her chest for light compression to get the baby's heart to pump. He used the warm water to clean her soft hair and Lebadi lowered the small body under the water feeling miserable and lost.

Namor's chest shuddered and he exhaled a long drawn out breath.

"It will be okay, Lebadi. Maybe we are too different to produce a healthy child."

Lebadi whimpered and his body trembled against her sharing the loss.

"This is cruel. If I had to lose a baby, it should've happened before I held her. Why couldn't I miscarry in the first trimester? Why…?"

Lebadi's voice drifted into a mournful wail and Namor held her tighter until the sun moved from over them. Namora tapped Lebadi's shoulder and softly spoke Talokanil. He translated for her.

"We should bury her now so she will be at peace," Namor said.

"Not yet…please…I need more time."

The cord had been cut an hour earlier and Namora did her best to be respectful and discreet when she buried the afterbirth. The baby had lost more color and her skin began to turn gray.

"Her skin still feels warm and soft," Lebadi said.

"What name should we give her?" Namor said with sadness in his throat.

"Lewatle. Her father came to me from the ocean, and the ocean is where she will return."

Lebadi glanced at Namora.

"I don't want her buried on land. I want you to take her into the water…far below. I will give her to Mama Wati."

Namor translated the words again and then flew up out of the hotspring carrying Lebadi and Lewatle to the edge of the island shore. Although weary from giving birth, Lebadi willed herself to walk into the water carrying her baby. Namor and Namora walked at her sides as the water licked at their feet and rose up to their waists. Lebadi clutched Lewatle to her breast.

"Mama Wati, please take care of my child. I am a child of the sea, just like my grandmother and her grandmother before her. I offer you my little one who could not survive this journey. Please care for her as you have cared for my people for generations. May her spirit live on with you…"

Lebadi's voice trembled and she stopped speaking to the waters. The pain of her grief became unbearable and she handed the baby to Namor. He tucked his daughter into the crook of his arm, then bent over and kissed her forehead. Lebadi fell to her knees in the water. Namor lowered himself to join her. She gathered up the baby one last time.

"Be good for Mama Wati my sweet little girl…"

Lebadi lowered her head to smell the baby's hair and the water surrounding them rose higher in a swirling mass.

"Are you doing this?" Lebadi asked.

Namor shook his head and Namora rushed forward, her gaze studying a wave of water rising from the sea. They all moved backward toward the sand, but the swell corralled them and snatched the baby from Lebadi's arms. She screamed and clamped a hand over her mouth. A water funnel lifted the baby above their heads. For a heartbeat they all witnessed the shimmering, glassy water take on the pulsing shape of a giant manta ray that formed into a watery woman with blue-black fluid locs radiating from her head holding the baby in dark azure arms before dissolving into warm salty rain falling on top of their heads. Lewatle floated gently under the water, her tiny limbs flailing and her eyes wide open. Lebadi lifted the baby and the child gasped, choking on the air. Quickly dropping onto her backside, Lebadi held the baby to her breast under the water where the child latched onto her nipple and suckled.

"Mama Wati claimed her and spared our baby's life!"

Lebadi stared at Namor who stood bewildered. Namora laughed and clapped her hands together. Namor knelt beside her and caressed Lewatle's head.

"She is like your people, Namor. Can't breathe on land. A true child of the sea," Lebadi said.

He lifted them both up again and placed them back into a shallow hotspring where the baby nursed underwater as Lebadi sat and breathed above it.

"How will this work?" Lebadi asked.

The grateful thrill of having a live baby once more gave way to worry. Namor stared at his cousin. Namora put her hands on her hips.

"They can live with me," he said.

"Not in Talokan," Namora said with sadness straining her voice.

"I can't separate mother and child. Lebadi and Lewatle will live in my cavern. My child is a mutant, see?"

He touched the buds on her ankles that unfurled tiny wings.

"She may eventually learn to breathe air too, but it is safer to keep them hidden near Talokan until we see what she becomes as she grows," he said.

Namora nodded.

Namor sat next to Lebadi and hugged her with one arm, watching his child nurse and his woman relax into returned motherhood.

"Your offerings into the sea gave our daughter her life back," he said with wonder in his voice.

"Mama Wati heard me and blessed us. She will look over Lewatle now."

"As soon as you are strong, I will take you to the place where I live away from our capitol. There is a pool entrance that I use that we can convert into a living space for the baby. The water is warm for your comfort and shallow enough in parts for you to walk in as the baby swims. I can't lie…this may be difficult for you. I have crossed a line having a child with a surface dweller."

"Will your people try to kill me again?"

Namora climbed into the hotspring with them.

"No one will harm you," Namora said.

"My people may try and look for me. I don't want them to think I'm dead."

"They will have to believe that. Lewatle can never go to Wakanda. Even if you created an environment for her near the sea, she is too different to pass among your people," Namor said.

Lebadi held her daughter's hand and shifted her body to allow the baby to sleep on her chest covered by water.

"I didn't mean to give you a hard life, Lewatle," Lebadi whispered.

Namora brought over a thick blanket and made a soft floor bedding in the hotspring. They had to place heavy rocks down on the four corners to keep it from floating away. Lewatle slept below the surface on her back, and Lebadi gazed down at her daughter's form as light dappled across her round face. Namor stroked the swirling hair of his child. He was proud, but a somber energy shadowed him.

Namora spoke to Namor quickly and removed her mask, spooning around the infant.

"Come," Namor said, "you must rest. Namora will sleep with our baby and wake you in a few hours to feed her again."

The calm in his voice made it easier to leave her newborn's side. She was exhausted and flooded with mixed emotions. Birthing a mutant child that could only live in water became a stressful mindfuck.

Namor made them bedding only a few feet away from the hotspring and they faced one another. He kept stroking her damp hair and wiping tears from her eyes. They didn't speak, only gazed at each other in total wonderment. There was a bloodline connection between them.

Lewatle's hungry mouth fed from Lebadi as the new mother walked in the calm sea. Every few minutes she dropped under the water holding her breath so her baby could see her face clearly. Lebadi was blessed with the ability to hold her breath for six minutes because of her surfing skills and she used it to bond as best she could underwater. She rubbed her nose against the baby's nose, kissing her cheeks and forehead, and Lewatle laughed with bubbles near her mouth, her bright ebony eyes tracking every movement Lebadi made with her head. Lewatle was strong and quite adept at swimming on her own. Lebadi wondered if it was a evolutionary trait of Namor's people, much like baby giraffes and newborn impala fawns in Wakanda that had to walk soon after birth to avoid predators. The webbing on her fingers and toes gave the baby graceful movement the few times Lebadi let her go to test her swimming abilities. No matter where she moved underwater, Lewatle swam close to her, automatically reaching for her breasts to suckle and stay protected in her arms. There was no sense of helplessness. She assumed all Talokanil children were that way at birth.

Fear gnawed at her insides.

Could she leave Wakanda and never return?

She adored her family and hiding in Birnin S'Yan had been the hardest time in her life after finding out she was pregnant. As much as she loved Namor, she worried that homesickness would break her spirit if she went to his world. Looking down at Lewatle, her own personal concerns vanished for a time. The baby was physically like her father and could only survive with his people. She had to do what was best for Lewatle.

Namor eased along her side and she handed the baby to him. He dunked under with Lewatle and stayed down for a long time, allowing Lebadi to tread water peacefully with the sun baking her face a darker brown. Namor cradled his little one and bonded in the sea with her. No…she couldn't stay in Wakanda. She had to go with him to give their daughter her best life.

"You are a good mother," Namora said.

Lebadi glanced over at Namora. She looked young without her headdress. Namor told her that his cousin was twenty, but she acted much older, her warrior spirit giving her the presence of an elder instead of a young woman.

"It's only been one day."

"One day is a good day. This baby is not like his others."

"The others weren't mutants?"

Namora shook her head.

"I think she will live a long time. Maybe as long as him. He is happy," Namora said watching the shape of Namor swimming with Lewatle below the surface.

Lebadi leaned back and floated, staring up at the sun. Namora brought her fruit and fresh water after a time and she left the water to rest on land, sunbathing and taking naps. Namor brought Lewatle to her inside the hotspring for a late afternoon feeding.

"I will have Namora go to Talokan and bring things we need to move Lewatle to the entrance of our home. We will destroy the boat you came here with, but you may take what you need from it."

"Can't we just bring the boat? We could use it for me. I can't stay in a cave all the time. I need a life above the surface or this won't work," she said.

Namor thought about it.

"We may be able to fix it," he said.

"I think the orcas damaged the bow thrusters. There's a self-diagnostic module on the boat and I can use it to help repair it. I have to keep it in a secret place—"

"Because of the vibranium."

"Yes."

He pondered that.

"We could change the boat to accommodate the baby so you can be outside with her away from other surface dwellers."

"We can make a life together."

He kissed her temple. "Yes, we can be together as a family."

The mottled gray leviathan rose from the deep and Lebadi gasped watching the fifty-foot female humpback whale breach the surface near her house boat. After a week of recuperation and adjusting to raising Lewatle on the small archipelago, time had come to travel to her new life.

She'd left a cryptic message to her family about needing more time alone to get her life together and recorded a series of vids using the houseboat's comm system to send out a monthly schedule of recordings. Lebadi had four older siblings and her parents held important positions in the Udaku Royal Court. No one would be alarmed by monthly vids from her with their hectic schedules. She had at least seven months of physical vanishing time before anyone would become truly alarmed. Unless of course, Okoye interfered. There was no time to weigh the possibility of that.

Namora fussed with the baby, making sure she was secure inside a baby carrier made of slippery neon blue seaweed and soft cloth. Namor helped tie the carrier tight on Namora's back. Lebadi filled bottles with her milk on the boat with her breast pump and stuffed them in a bag attached to Namora's hip. Namora would ride inside the whale's mouth with the baby guarded by the two orcas through a series of underwater vortexes that would lead them to Namor's hidden enclave. Two young male warriors waited to accompany Namora on the outside of the humpback, one of which wore a large hammerhead shark crown on his head. His name was Attuma and Namor treated him like another relative. Attuma stared at Lewatle in the water with such fascination that he lost all pretense of being a menacing-looking threat. He touched her fingers and toes and laughed when she tried to grip his hand.

From the deck of the boat Lebadi watched the whale open its maw and fill it with enough water to look like a small pond. Namora dove inside with the baby on her back and for a split second, Lebadi's legs buckled.

Her baby rested inside a whale's mouth.

Attuma and the other warrior faced Namor from within the sea and held their hands up like a shark's mouth. It was the same gesture she witnessed before two years previous when they honored their sacred K'uk'ulkan.

Lebadi held onto Namor's arm as the whale swam further out to sea and dove under with the men on either side holding on to the barnacles embedded in the marine animal's flesh. It waved the giant tail like a farewell, exiting with an explosive splashy wake.

"Ready?" Namor asked softly.

"Yes," Lebadi answered with bated breath.

"Go sleep. When you awaken, we'll be with our daughter again."

Lebadi walked inside the boat and crawled into her berth. Namor activated the spectral camouflage cover to hide the houseboat, and within seconds, there was the sensation of rising up in the air. Lebadi could only imagine what a sight he must've been, flying with the houseboat on his back. The ebb and flow of air pockets created light turbulence on their journey rocking her to sleep. At least three times she woke up checking her swollen breasts dripping with milk, expecting a feeding.

Her rest took a full hold and her sleep was untroubled. A waning moon greeted her eyes through a window as Namor woke her up.

"We are here. You will have to hold your breath to get past the barrier. The houseboat is hidden safely and my attendants tell me Lewatle is well, waiting for us."

"Thank Bast and Mama Wati," Lebadi mumbled sitting up.

She swiped a hand over her twisted hair, thankful for the sleep that refreshed her energy.

"You are shaking," he said, reaching for her hands.

"I'm nervous…a little scared. The opening looks like a snake's mouth."

Namor embraced her, helping to calm the jitters coursing through her body.

"It will be a new world for you, but the only one Lewatle will know. We must be brave to guide her. I'm nervous too."

"You?"

Lebadi pulled back from his chest.

"You've been a father before," she teased.

"Every child is special and different, but Lewatle is a miracle. A precious gift. This time will be strange and wonderful for me too."

His expression was tinged with nervous energy. They were embarking on a momentous experiment raising a unique baby.

"Do you feel strong?" he asked.

She nodded.

"How long do I need to hold my breath?"

"Four minutes."

"Easy."

"We will go to a depth you may not be used to, so don't panic. I will carry you to get there quicker. Without me, it would be impossible for you to get there on your own without having to hold your breath longer. Come."

He carried her in his arms while flying off the boat. They drifted down into night water. Three Talokanil men anchored the houseboat under a canopy of tropical foliage that blended it with the surrounding lush topography.

They all swam above the surface hidden by drooping vines and tree leaves the size of elephant ears. Their only light was the small lamps they held that glowed a turquoise blue filled with vibranium energy. The small entrance to his world looked like a tiny pool of inky black water. Lebadi breathed harder.

"Put your arms around my neck," Namor said.

She hung them loosely at first until he pulled her tight against his chest. The shine from the lanterns glowed in his eyes. The low covering of the cave entrance caused a claustrophobic reaction to kick in with all the intimidating darkness that the lamps couldn't illuminate.

"Don't be afraid," he whispered, kissing her lips. "Think about Lewatle. She can't wait to be with us again."

Lebadi's eyes welled up thinking of her baby mermaid.

"Do you think she can hear my voice under the water? I press my lips against her cheek and say her name. Will I ever be able to hear her call me Mama?"

Namor rested his forehead on her temple.

"She knows her mother loves her just by feeling the vibrations you make under the water. She can hear you above the water and she has always known your voice when she was swimming inside of you."

Lebadi grinned and wiped away a tear.

"I'm ready," she said.

He nodded and she gulped in air, slamming her eyes shut and pressing her face into his shoulder. The temperature of the water dropped after fifteen seconds, but Namor's body heat stayed constant and she was warmed by it. Pressure pushed in on her ear drums and she focused on the sensation of colder water rushing over her body. There was a steep drop and right when the strain of needing more air took hold, they flew up into what looked like a small beach inside of a wide open cave.

Soft sugary white sand met her feet when Namor put her down. She followed him past a wondrous enclosure of stalagmites and stalactites. The long icicle-shaped deposits of limestone and calcium carbonate glowed the same neon blue Lebadi recognized from her home.

"Oh…my goodness…"

Her eyes nearly popped out walking through another part of the interconnected cave system that felt like a warm cozy sauna filled with giant glow worms that wiggled their bioluminescence, illuminating the mural-sized paintings that depicted the life of the Talokanil.

"Is that you?" Lebadi asked, stopping in front of a mural where a young boy a floated above kneeling people. Namor nodded, and her eyes followed the story of the ascension of K'uk'ulkan to the throne of Talokan.

All sorts of creatures in stylized Mesoamerican images decorated wall after wall as she walked holding Namor's hand. Her eyes grew even wider realizing that her idea of cave-dwelling was vastly incorrect. Each cavern gave a palatial feel, and she could only speculate at the grandeur that Talokan must've been twelve thousand feet down below in the depths of the ocean. Whatever imaginings she held about perpetual darkness hiding from the surface world was erased.

A gust of cooler air wafted down in another connected tunnel and when her eyes adjusted to that section of the cave, she clearly saw the shapes of tall trees growing high above nearly reaching the opening at the top that let in the light of the moon. Attuma held up his lamp and Lebadi recognized the shapes of abundant fruit growing from the branches.

"Almost there," Namor said, squeezing her hand as they entered a new well-lit area that felt more like the vestibule of a grand manor.

Two female attendants wearing pale peach-colored dresses waited for them. One held a garment across her arms, and another held a small round cup made of jade. They lowered their heads to Namor. He took the cup and bid Lebadi to drink from it. The warm, sweet liquid had a slighty chalky aftertaste that reminded her of cocoa powder.

"This is what our women consume after having a newborn. It helps with the milk and gives the mother strength," Namor said.

The attendants led them to a majestic room with smooth polished walls decorated with exquisite blood-red shells and pictures depicting an extraordinary underwater city.

"Is that Talokan?" she asked.

"Yes. It is the capital city…and there, in that structure, is my throne room. Here, change into this and I will meet you right outside. They are going to summon Namora to bring Lewatle."

He kissed her cheek and left her holding the thin coral gown. Looking around the room she marveled at a low platform bed covered in a soft orange blanket. She pulled off the blue covering that she wore leaving only her panties on. The new dress went down to her ankles and supported her tender breasts well.

Namor returned.

"You look beautiful."

"Thank you. Is this your bedroom?"

"Yes."

"It's lovely. Peaceful."

He held out his hand for her and she clasped it, eager to see their child.

They passed by shelving housing ancient books and rolled up maps on old faded yellow parchment. Another section held an unfinished mural and her wandering eye caught sight of something that halted her steps. It was a mural of an ancient map of the southern hemisphere and Wakanda was outlined in gold and vibranium. Namor pulled her along and the smell of seawater became pungent. The glow of cerulean blue water lapped at damp sand inside a vast room that appeared to be a comfortable living area circling the pool of hypnotic liquid. They stood together at the edge, and the water surface stirred. Namora emerged pushing a floating baby bassinet that rested under the water. Lebadi released Namor's hand and rushed into the pool, splashing water everywhere to get to her little one. She burst into tears lifting her daughter and allowed her body to sink down into the luxurious warmth, pulling away the top of her dress to feed Lewatle. The baby squirmed and then settled in her arms.

"Thank you…thank you!" Lebadi said, reaching for Namora's arm and holding it.

Lebadi could barely get her words out as relief spilled into her.

"She did well?" Lebadi asked.

Namora smiled and patted Lebadi's hand.

"She slept all the way," Namora said.

Namor jerked his head and the attendants walked into the pool moving the water bassinet near the edge and mooring it to the sand with heavy iridescent sea crystals. Namora slipped away and changed into dry clothing that matched the color of the attendants.

Lewatle fell asleep in Lebadi's arms and she rocked the baby until Namor approached her holding a small mask that resembled the ones all of the Talokan wore on the surface.

"Let me see if this fits her," Namor said.

He knelt down and slipped the breather over Lewatle's face. The baby fussed and shook her fists, but quickly settled back down, becoming accustomed to breathing in a strange way above the water.

"You can feed her in the water and bring her out when you are done. She will sleep here and everything you need will be brought to you. I will go down to Talokan and inform leading elders from far and wide that an heir has been born," he said.

"Will you take her down there?"

"Not yet. I want you both comfortable first."

"Do all of your people know about me?"

"Only the ones Namora brought to your boat two years ago."

"They will be angry…feel betrayed. You hate us. How can you have a child by an enemy?"

"You are Wakandan. I do not see you or your people in the same way as the others. Our people are too similar. I'll explain it to my elders and our nation. It will be easier to accept once they see my child. She is a reflection of me."

"Will you paint her on your walls?"

"Of course. I will paint you there too. It is possible that you and Lewatle can be a bridge of eternal peace between our nations one day. United by blood and understanding of who our real enemies are."

Namor helped her stand, and Lebadi accepted a small baby dress from an attendant to clothe Lewatle in. It finally turned somewhat normal to hold her baby on land freely.

Lewatle's eyes held Lebadi's gaze and she smothered the baby with kisses. Her daughter's smile from under the breather made her heart swell. She sang a Wakandan lullaby and rocked the baby while walking around the living area. Very little furniture was present, and the pieces that did decorate the space were simple and colorful: A few small tables holding statues of Yucatec Maya gods. A simple set of low stools surrounding a small hearth where a pot of food simmered over a low fire. Lebadi sat there for a moment to watch the bubbling mixture. Her thin dress dried quickly and the dampness against her skin evaporated.

Namora brought Namor a bowl of steaming fish stew from another cooking area beyond the hearth, and he shared it with Lebadi sitting on the other stool, feeding her with a wide scooped golden spoon, pampering her every need. The stew had lots of red pepper flakes and small, soft seeds with bright green slivers of onion that tasted sweet in the lightly salted broth. She didn't know what kind of fish she ate, but it was cut in thick flaky chunks.

Namor gave her a long piece of red cloth and Lebadi tied Lewatle to her back with it. She followed him around for another tour of his private respite away from his people. Old relics from the past dazzled her eyes and she became enthralled with the history lesson he gave her about his part of the world. When Lewatle whimpered from hunger again, she returned to the pool and Namora showed her how to clean the baby and pointed to where she could use the restroom herself. There was a bacteria the Talokanil placed in the water that fed off of the urine and feces from their waste release and Lebadi was happy to know that she would never have to worry about diaper cleaning. They gave her little cloth strips to put on Lewatle, and when they were soiled, the women dropped them into a closed off part of the cave away from the main body of water. The bacteria ate away the waste material and the diaper was pristine again in an hour or so.

Once Lebadi became weary from the feeding, Namor led her to his bedroom and held the baby. She crawled onto the soft cover and he snuggled next to her, adjusting Lewatle's breather making sure it was secure.

"Today was a long day for you both. Sleep. You are home now," he said.

Lebadi drifted off into bliss.

"Lebadi, the elders are coming."

Lebadi climbed down from a papaya tree. She shifted the netted fruit bag around her shoulder and faced the fearsome warrior woman.

"Do I look okay?"

"Teech ka wilik ma'alob," Namora affirmed in the positive.

Lebadi handed Namora her bag of cave fruit and smoothed back the new sleek twists she palm rolled her thick hair into. Her long orange over-the-shoulder dress was adorned with shells and beads that once belonged to Namor's mother. She scurried behind Namora through the twists and turns of the cavern, her sandaled feet slapping against the cave floor until she met Namor standing poolside.

Dressed in his full king's regalia with a feathered serpent crown, he held Lewatle in the crook of his arm swaddled in the colors of royalty. All she could see of the baby was a head full of glossy black curls that became thicker in texture after the three weeks they had been living there. Tiny gurgles came from behind her small breather and the bundle moved in Namor's arm as if the baby were anxious. Three attendants carefully smudged the air with hand-sized incense cones. Tendrils of smoke created a hazy yellow atmosphere with the cloying scent of purple sage and cinnamon.

"Stand behind me, Lebadi. I want them to see our child first," Namor said.

She did his bidding and watched the pool water churn as shadowy figures came into view below the surface. Lebadi leaned into Namor's back as thirteen mature-looking individuals climbed out of the water in full feathered headdresses dripping with ropes of vibranium jewelry draped around their blue arms and necks. Five men. Seven women. She recognized an individual that could've been non-binary that happened to be the eldest one standing in the center. Water dripped from their bodies but that didn't cool the flames of curiosity in their eyes as they peered down at the small wonder in Namor's arms.

"Lela' in waal," Namor said holding out the baby with pride in his tone.

Namora slinked over to Lebadi, and her presence helped relax the tight knot in her stomach.

"Bix u k'aaba'?" the non-binary elder asked.

"Lewatle," Namor answered.

He reached back for Lebadi's hand and pulled her forward.

"Lela' u na' in waal…Lebadi," he added.

The elder stepped forward and looked Lebadi square in the face. Their gaze came across intimate, as if they were trying to see into her soul. The attempt to assess what kind of person Lebadi represented ended as Lewatle gurgled in her father's arms, her fingers grasping at the air.

"You were willing to stay here and never see your home again?"

Lebadi tilted her head with surprise. The elder spoke fluent Wakandan.

"You know my language?"

"We know many languages," another male elder piped in from behind.

"These are the governors of the twelve cities of Talokan. Chacc is the vessel that holds our spiritual connection to our ancestors," Namor said, staring into the face of the non-binary elder with kind eyes.

Chacc glanced at Lewatle.

"May I?" Chacc asked, gesturing toward the baby.

Namor handed Lewatle over and Chacc cradled her against their chest with tender affection. They turned to the other elders who circled up to study Namor's heir.

"She is just like him," an elder woman said, her blue face lighting up with amazement.

They touched the webbing in her fingers and toes and lightly stroked the tiny wings on her ankles that made Lewatle bubble with laughter that echoed around them, forcing laughter from some of the other elders. The pointed tips of her ears completed their inspection.

"She is the color of the sacred ocean jasper," one of the elders said in awe.

Lebadi looked down at her child from over their shoulders. Lewatle's skin tone rested in the middle of her parents, a perfect blend of Black and Brown.

"Her name means 'Ocean' in Wakandan," Namor said.

"Why did you hide this from us?" Chacc asked.

"He didn't know about her…she was not planned. I tried to prevent anything like this from happening, but Bast and Mama Wati had other plans," Lebadi said.

"Bast and Mama Wati?"

"Those are her people's gods, Chacc. One of them saved our daughter. When she was born, the air above took her life. But it was returned because she is one of us," Namor said.

Chacc carried the baby over to Lebadi and bounced her gently in their arms.

"You are human and cannot live in our capitol. Lewatle will be raised Talokanil. Do you accept that? She will learn your mother tongue as well as ours, but she will never be Wakandan. Not the way you may like," Chacc said.

"I have accepted that she will live here, but you are wrong. She is Wakandan too. I will teach her about my people, and one day…maybe… she can see my world—"

"Never!"

A middle-aged looking male elder eased next to Chacc. His headdress was made of the long-spined sea urchin.

"Usukan, watch your tone with her. She will become my wife. Address her with the same respect as you do your K' uk'ulcan."

Usukan and the others jerked their heads to stare at him the same way Lebadi did.

"Forgive me…I am only pointing out the obvious. Lewatle can never interact with those people, K'uk'ulcan. The child is royalty, a deity in her own right. Blood of your blood. Flesh of your flesh. She bares all the markings of your lineage. This child belongs to Talokan."

Namor held up his arms and Chacc placed Lewatle back where she belonged. He turned to Lebadi and gave her their baby. The other elders lowered their heads, understanding without words that the child was hers too. Wakandan.

"I will tell the people in three days that I have an heir. You were summoned here to meet her first so that you may prepare all the cities for a celebration."

A small woman wearing a crown of sea stars, who refused to look at Lebadi from jump, raised up her voice.

"When will you marry the surface dweller?"

"Her name is Lebadi," Namora said.

The other elders gave the small woman and two other men who shared the same grim faces furtive looks of discomfort. No one wanted to anger Namor.

"Yes, Namora…Lebadi. I ask again, when shall this union happen, K'uk'ulkan?"

Namor took a step forward and glared at them all.

"When she tells me she is ready, I will tell you."

Chacc glanced at Lebadi.

"Is this something you would like to happen, Lebadi?" Chacc asked.

"We haven't talked about it. Right now, we're bonding as a family. But I love him," Lebadi said, ducking Namor's direct gaze and circling her toe in the sand. Her face became warm and her stomach shivered.

Chacc nodded and lowered their head. All of the elders held their hands up in their way of supplication.

"Líik'ik Talokan," they said in unison.

Namor pointed to Lewatle, and his eyes bore into the faces of the three elders who were less accepting. All of the elders lowered their heads again and repeated, "Líik'ik Talokan."

Namora lunged forward and pointed at the disgruntled elders.

"You will tell our people what you saw here and you will say her name with reverence. Our K'uk'ulkan has been alone for a long time. You may have wished for him to marry one of our women, but he fell in love with her, and she gave him a child who may bring him peace for himself. Do not be selfish and darken her name because you wanted him to unite with your daughter, Usukan…or yours Ixchel—"

"Namora," Namor cautioned.

Namora sauntered even closer to the trio she addressed.

"I will hold my tongue, K'uk'kulkan…but my spear will not be so obedient if I hear of any evil words spoken against my little cousin."

Namora returned to Namor's side and her entire body stayed coiled and ready. She locked eyes with Lebadi and nodded her head toward her. Lebadi felt sorry for anyone who crossed Lewatle's big cousin.

"You may leave now," Namor said in Talokan once more.

Chacc gave Lebadi a warm smile and followed the others back into the water where their skin turned back to the natural brown of their foremothers and forefathers.

"Do not worry, Lebadi. Chacc will set the others straight. They have seen that I have produced my likeness in female form. Lewatle will be exalted among our people," Namor said.

He stroked her cheek and palmed the curve of Lewatle's head. Lebadi walked into the water and lowered the top of her dress and removed the breather for the baby. It became a long feeding and she was able to think about her reception from the elders. She trusted what Namor said.

Namora swam up to her and watched her feed Lewatle.

"They will accept her," Namora said. "His word is law."

Namora checked for Namor who had taken off his crown and gone off to add more scenes to his growing mural.

"How long has he been alone, Namora?"

"Since my grandmother was a child. Our family is large, but he is the only one of his kind. Lewatle…she is important to him. I feel his love for her…so strong. I know he wants you to be his wife."

"This is all so fast. I'm still trying to get used to her."

"Do you truly love him?"

Namora's eyes were shiny. She tread in water up to her neck.

"I do."

"Then I ask that you marry him. He will cherish your life for as long as you live and he will have Lewatle by his side."

"Does he have grandchildren? Great Grandchildren?"

"No. His children were never able to have babies of their own. He lived with them in Talokan until they passed on, and then he moved here permanently. They were never like him…but Lewatle is. He sees a future that can be different. Being a ruler and nothing else is not good for him. I think…I think you and the baby are good for him."

"What about you? Do you want to have a family someday?"

Namora splashed water on her and swam backwards while laughing.

"Men fear me. I am a warrior. I protect Talokan and that is what I want."

"There isn't anyone you like in Talokan?"

"Oh, sure…many."

"And?"

Namora pushed water on her again wetting Lebadi gently. Lebadi let go of Lewatle to be with Namora and the warrior women twirled around slowly cradling the baby under the deeper end of the pool.

"She likes you a lot," Namor said.

Lebadi turned her head and Namor walked into the luxurious pool to sit next to her.

"To think she tried to kill me the first time she laid eyes on me. And now…look at her. She stays by my side every day watching over me and Lewatle," Lebadi said.

"We have many male relatives and very few female relatives her age. You are the closest to a sister she has."

Namor watched Namora play underwater. His mood had shifted to a relaxed state. The burden of revealing his daughter waned and he could finally shake the tension he carried in his body all morning.

"Will you marry me, Lebadi? Become my wife?" he asked.

He lifted her hand and kissed the back of it before rubbing small circles on her knuckles.

"I didn't think I could love another woman. Especially one from the world of my enemies. I heard your prayers in the ocean and you lured me to you. I became enchanted by your beauty and your grace. I don't know what kind of life I can give you here, but I will do my best to be a loving husband and father. I want you here with me. You can't go down to Talokan, but I can give you a taste of it here. You can draw, paint, and venture out from time to time when it is safe on the surface world. Look at her. See? Lewatle thrives. She will have a blessed life."

"What if you fall out of love with me?"

"That will never happen."

"What if I decide I want to go back home one day? Would you allow me to leave?"

"Leaving here means leaving Lewatle behind. I know you would never betray me and tell your people about my world. But if you left me, our child will remain in Talokan."

His tone was sharp and his eyes narrowed in that way of his when he wanted her to know how serious he was.

"If I marry you, would I become queen? How can a queen rule a world under the sea where she can never go?"

"The people will come to you."

"How? Squeeze them all in here?"

"Let me show you."

He helped her out of the water leaving Lewatle with Namora. Wandering through the connected caves, he took her to a route she was unfamiliar with that led down deeper into the earth.

"See?"

Namor left her standing among jagged rock formations as he flew down to a staged structure of carefully placed blocks of limestone that created a floating stage surrounded by beautiful azure water.

"As queen, our people will greet you here. I will place a great throne for you right there and our world will come alive for you to participate in important matters. We can be united here in front of thousands."

He flew back to her side.

"Give me time to think, Namor."

"I will not pressure you."

They returned to their living quarters and Namora had Lewatle tucked away in her water bassinet. A dark figure stirred in the water. The bones of a hammerhead shark came into view before the rest of the looming figure of Attuma broke the surface. He carried a small shark figure carved out of smooth soapstone. Attuma looked at Lebadi and then pointed at the baby.

"Go ahead," Lebadi said.

The giant man moved next to the bassinet and looked down at the baby. Namora watched him and smirked.

"Let him hold her," Namor said to Namora.

Namora placed the breather over the baby's face and lifted Lewatle who only wore a diaper cloth. She held her out for Attuma to take. He placed the soapstone figure inside the baby bed and picked up Lewatle who became a tiny doll in his massive hands. Attuma stood awkwardly as the baby squirmed and let out squeals of delight. Namora swam away from him and Attuma looked around the quarters with panic in his eyes.

"He's held babies before, but because this is my child he's nervous," Namor said chuckling afterward.

Lewatle stopped moving and stared up into the man's face.

"That is your cousin Attuma," Namor said.

Attuma raised the baby higher and closer to his face. Lewatle waved her arms and touched Attuma's mask.

"Leti' ki'ichpam…"

"Yes, she is beautiful, Attuma," Namor said.

Attuma stood for awhile, staring at the baby until he tucked her in his arm and rocked her, showing off the gift he brought for Lewatle to touch.

Attendants notified Namor and Lebadi that it was time for them to eat. Attuma put Lewatle back into her bed and Namora followed him under the water leaving Namor's realm on the surface.

Lebadi and Namor sat across from each other and he talked about growing more squash and beans in his cave garden. He ate food from the sea like his people, but he enjoyed eating the foods of his mother when she had once been human. The man was a verbose storyteller and she listened with avid ears. He asked her to share more about herself that he had missed while they had been apart. She spoke of her work, loneliness, and feeling out of place in her own homeland when he left her. Namor became quiet then. She reached across their plates of fried corn, black beans, and grilled squash and patted his hand.

"I understand why you chose your people," she said. "All those elders showed me that you are needed. Being selfish about us was out of my love for you. I wanted us to be together and losing you ripped my heart apart."

Namor reached a hand over and thumbed a tear away from her eye.

"I'm happy here. You spoil me and Lewatle. There is so much to do and explore within these caves. I have the houseboat and I will cherish my memories of Wakanda…"

Namor's face softened and he held her hands on the table.

"I will marry you," she said.

He squeezed her hands and his smile shined brighter than the jewels around his neck. A splash from the baby bed alerted them that Lewatle wanted attention. Namor strode across the room and pulled off his robes until he was stripped down to his green swim shorts. Lebadi peeled off her dress to her underwear and padded over topless, fitting her breather over her face. She dove under the pool water and joined Namor with their daughter.

Eight months into her new life, an alarm was sounded inside Namor's private abode.

Namora woke them up in their bed speaking the Talokan language so fast that Lebadi couldn't translate fast enough. She grabbed a covering and rushed out to Lewatle's bed where two women looked after the baby during the night.

Attuma and Namora stood at attention dressed in their battle regalia with four other male and female warriors. A gruff-looking soldier in a leadership position approached Namor with a solemn expression. Lebadi recognized him from private talks with Namor. His second-in-command of the Talokan army. Yaluk.

"K'uk'ulkan, the Wakandan military are moving in our territory in the north Atlantic," Yaluk said.

"What are they doing? Surveillance?"

"We don't know, but they have moved in several positions off the coast of Brazil, and the Caribbean territories. They have one aircraft that has entered the sea near the vortex that leads to Sayyil. We have a pod dispatched there to watch them. The vessel floats in one place…as if it were hiding."

Another soldier rose up from the pool of water in a rush. His voice sounded agitated.

"The king of Wakanda is on his way to the Sayyil territory!"

Namor went to a corner of the cave and brought out his spear.

"We will go see what the Wakandan king is up to," Namor said.

"Namor?" Lebadi said.

She held Lewatle against her chest. At eight months the girl was chunky and active, wiggling in her mother's arms.

"This is not war if there's no overt provocation. I want to see why he's there. Your King T'Chaka will need to stay away from our waters to avoid my army," Namor said.

He kissed Lewatle's forehead and nuzzled Lebadi's cheek. She knew not to ask how long he would be gone. There were global threats to their discovery at a more brisk pace. Especially among the western powers. Too many were testing nuclear weapons, polluting the oceans with chemical waste and human trash. Namor was adamant about killing his enemies from other countries on sight. He told her several times that Wakanda was a special case, but the fierceness he carried out with him when he passed by her made Lebadi doubt he would be civil if King T'Chaka acted rash. This left her torn with her allegiance. Perhaps she could be the voice of reason if something went awry with her former king. She was still Wakandan after all, even though she was married to the Talokan king.

Lewatle wiggled so much in her arms that Lebadi finally put her down. The baby crawled toward the pool trying to catch up with her father. Their attendants blocked the baby's path and Lewatle sat back on her rump and cried, her mask making her voice sound strangled in pain.

"Shhh..shhh…it's okay my precious little one. Yuum will be back in no time. Don't cry, Na' is here, I'm here…"

Lewatle cried and pointed to the water.

"Yuum!" Lewatle wailed.

Lebadi took the baby to the water and removed her mask so she wouldn't get frustrated and pull off her breather in a distraught fit. The water cooled down her angst and Lebadi walked around the pool with her daughter snug against her chest listening to her mother's heartbeat.

"Such a good girl, Lewatle. Yuum will come back home soon, don't you worry."

Once the baby calmed down, Lebadi returned her breather and walked out of the pool. She strolled the grounds of the caves and pointed out particular images on the murals.

"That's you! Yuum painted you so pretty."

Lewatle mumbled her baby talk and snuggled her head against Lebadi's neck.

"Look how handsome your father looks next to me. See? I'm wearing my wedding dress…and look there… see all the Talokanil that came to see us wed in the grand hall? One day if you want to get married to someone, you can wear my dress. I hope you will have a wedding in the same place as me, because Na' can't go down to Talokan in the palace."

"Up!" Lewatle said, raising her hand up above her head.

"Up?" Lebadi said in Talokan and Wakandan playing with her daughter's bilingual learning.

"Up, Na'! Up!"

Lebadi sighed. Her daughter wanted to go to the cave garden where she could watch for her father fly down from his journeys out into the world from the opening in the roof.

"Up! Up!" Lewatle insisted.

Lebadi took her child where she wanted to go and they stared up high above the tall fruit trees and gazed at the starlight filtering down in the semi-darkness. She rocked the baby on her hip and whispered sweet words in her ear, praying to Bast that Namor would remain cool, calm, and collected over the Atlantic. He ripped apart a foreign naval ship on previous trip away. Lebadi didn't know how many dead floated in ocean graves because of him over the centuries. She kept quiet about it. Namor was deadly and kept his killing business away from her.

For two days she walked and rocked Lewatle, wishing she could swim up to the surface and wait for her husband on the houseboat. A messenger sought out an audience with her in the grand hall waters, and she sat on her custom shark throne listening to the young woman fresh from the sea giving word that Namor would arrive soon.

"What became of his meeting with King T'Chaka?" Lebadi asked.

The messenger, Hun-Nal-Ye, fingered the shark-tooth necklace around her neck. Her flawless blue skin had dark moon-sliver scarring around the sides of her temples denoting her status as a citizen protector of Talokan. Her hair hung in long wet wavy strands past her shoulders and she held a small jade manta ray, a talisman Namor used to prove that his messenger's words were directly from him.

"K' uk' ulkan has rendered a treaty with the king of Wakanda. There will be peace between our nations," Hun-Nal-Ye said lowering her head.

Lebadi's favorite attendant, Tepeu took the talisman from Hun-Nal-Ye's hand and gave it to her. She palmed it and placed it inside the top of her dress against her heart.

"Thank you, Hun-Nal-Ye. You may leave."

Hun-Nal-Ye nodded and dove back into the water. Lebadi stood up and breathed deeply.

"Please tell El-Cuaj to dress Lewatle for her father and meet me in the cave garden," Lebadi said.

Tepeu lowered her head and left the grand hall.

Lebadi meandered her way toward the cave garden, patting her heart to feel the manta ray talisman pressed against her skin. Touching her hair, she fluffed out a puffy cloud adorned with cowrie shells and gold trinkets. Her royal indigo dress billowed behind her as she walked.

Sunlight illuminated dust motes high above her head, and the warmth teased her bare arms and face.

"Na'!"

Lewatle's voice broke Lebadi's reverie with nature.

"Let her crawl to me," Lebadi instructed El-Cuaj.

The attendant placed the baby on the soft earth and Lebadi sat down eight feet away from her.

"Come," Lebadi said in Wakandan and Talokanil.

Lewatle hustled her knees and hands, scurrying toward her mother. When she reached Lebadi, the baby used her hands to pull herself up on her feet with a wobbly balance. Lebadi touched the ankle wings that looked inflamed at the calmus root. There were traces of a sea-made poultice that the nanny El-Cuaj used to sooth the pain for the baby. Much like a new baby tooth, Lewatle's wings were growing and became a slight discomfort for the little one.

"Yuum, up! Na'…hmmm…." Lewatle murmured.

Lewatle's head tilted back instinctively knowing that her father would come down from the tiny bit of visible sky. Lebadi looked up too, awaiting a glimpse of Namor. The baby babbled and cooed and Lebadi entertained her daughter by holding her upper body to help strengthen her chubby legs.

A shadow loomed above them and Lebadi grinned.

"It's Yuum!" Lebadi said.

Lewatle looked up and Namor floated down from the top, hovering over seventy feet above them. Lebadi started pointing to him and gasped when Lewatle released her hold on Lebadi's arms and flew up six feet, her baby wings whirring like her father's.

"Oh Bast!" Lebadi squeaked, jumping to her feet and grabbing for her daughter's toes.

Lewatle's flight was wonky and off-kilter, but she held her arms high above her head, kicking her little feet trying to steer her trajectory. Like a bumble bee drunk from too much nectar, the baby zig-zagged in the air and Lebadi became frightened that she would fall and break bones. Namor dropped down quickly and wrapped his arms around his daughter.

"You miss Yuum that much?" he teased, kissing Lewatle's forehead.

Lewatle only squealed and babbled away.

"My queen," Namor said.

He landed softly by Lebadi's side and hugged her with one arm. She kissed his lips and rubbed her hand over his hair that held the warmth of the full sun that she missed for the days he was absent.

"I wasn't expecting her to do that so soon," Lebadi said.

"I started flying at this age. My mother had to tie a piece of rope around my waist to keep me near her when she harvested fruit on land."

"We should do that."

"Only when I am not around. I can catch her once she gets stronger and better."

"I'm so glad you're home safe. Hun-Nal-Ye told me it all went well."

"I don't know what King T'Chaka's true intentions are on the surface world, but we have an agreement about the sea. He will avoid encroaching in that area for their spying. Flying over it is not an issue. Going into the sea near there again will be seen as a threat by me. I will destroy any submersibles or lingering ships."

Lebadi listened and then closed her eyes to feel the sun again. Her stomach dropped as she felt Namor whisk her in his free arm and fly them all to the hole in the cave sky. They landed near the ledge of the tall hill surrounded by foliage down below. The sun danced on all their skin and Lebadi drew in a deep breath of fresh air. They were far from the snake mouth entrance of their underground dwelling, and isolated from humans who could never get through the dense canopy or the brush hiding them from the Talokan world.

Across the horizon, Lebadi studied the sea and thought of her family. The last of her vid messages had gone out the month before, and she was sure there would be a search for her. She debated about going to the houseboat and sending a final message telling them the truth. That she had run away with the love of her life and had a baby.

She fought back tears thinking of her parents worrying that she was dead in Wakanda somewhere. Her own people would consider her a traitor for falling in love with a mutant foreigner if they knew the fantastic reality she lived in. Another civilization had to hide their true selves and their powerful vibranium resource. Lebadi buried those thoughts in her heart, tucked them for back into a hidden place that she would never open again. She was now a Queen Mother and deeply in love with her husband and child. A time for mourning Wakanda had to end. She had made her choice the moment she floated into the sea with Lewatle filling up her belly.

On top of the hidden hill, Lebadi gave a final prayer to the sea's horizon, asking Mama Wati and her ancestors to comfort her family. She watched her loving husband play with their flying baby, enjoying the sight of Lewatle floating her chubby brown body above her father's outstretched hands. The wings on her feet buzzed and she flailed her arms in excitement. The reality of her daughter flying before walking made Lebadi laugh and she glanced at her husband once more. The joy on Namor's face and the precious squeals of happiness from Lewatle was worth the sacrifice of leaving Wakanda. Forever.

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[blurmie]

FASTING TODAY

ive been putting this back, but im not gonna lose any weight if i keep stuffing my mouth. so im really hoping for liquid only, but i know its going to be hard to just jump into that, especially with my boyfriend working out with me and stuff. so i have a list of safe foods!

i used to snack on some of this stuff during my fasts when i was younger, but i’m a little tired of them and want something more…filling? but not a lot of calories. so if anyone has any safe foods that i could eat during my fasts (especially around my boyfriend), i would really appreciate it!

☆

Safe foods that i enjoy~ *none of these are my photos sorry if they’re janky ass pictures lmfaooo*

rice cakes- the chocolate ones (60 cals) i usually pair with some peanut butter or some low fat yogurt with some strawberries:)

boiled eggs!! (78cals) i usually just eat the whole egg, if i want to get more and make it a meal ill make sort of an egg salad sandwich with multigrain english muffin. if you use light mayonnaise and some everything bagel seasoning it’s around 250 cals, depending on the brand!

GUM!!! idk the science but i don’t feel hungry when i chew gum:))

sugar free jello. no sugar. just water and powered really. still good tbh and only 5 cals per currently

protein shakes!! i usually drink ensure max protein (150cals)

fruits-strawberries/blueberries/etc!!

coke zero. i usually dont drink this since i dont like coke, but the spiced brand i get (0cal) is actually really good

cucumber!! so many ways you can prepare a cucumber and it is delicious. barely any calories (8 cals) and so fucking good

protein bars. a lot of calories depending on your brand. i get the power crunch-which is objectively the best protein anything-which is 220 cal for an entire bar. but you can have this be your omad, that usually what i do:)

poppi soda. so good and really a good alternative if you don’t want to drink diet soda. an entire can is 25 cals and only 4 g of sugar. the raspberry is my fav🩷

TUNA!!! the best thing ever invented lmaooo. but i get the bumblebee packets which are 90 cals a pack. they’re cheap and so filling~

[shineonyoucrazyyandere]

Holy! 🫣🤯😳

I didn't expect to start a chain reaction, lmao. I am glad to share tad bit of my headcanons, and even more glad that the other anon enjoy it. I am happy to feed the 30 Jojolion fans out there. 

We've been starved of content for a while (from video games like: Asbr where only WoU and Josuke (whose moveset is quite outdated) are available for part 8 cast (unfortunately our grumpy and lovable plant appraiser, Kei, Josefumi, and Kira are not available *Big Sad*) to yandere content right here. Anyways, here’s part 2 of my blurb. Enjoy it. To the other anon; please don't come after me ;;

~~~

“One package of chocolate chips cookies and those Milky way sweetrolls, if you would please.” Mitsuba mused, pointing her manicured to the dessert hidden behind the glass panes.

“Right away, Ma’am. Anything else?”You asked calmly, as you complied to her request. The dark haired model noticed something peculiar about you; You were dressed in dark navy blue dress suit reminiscent of galaxy, a silver blazer on-top of it, dark pants, and a dark shoes with silver botanical design. Overall, your motifs resembled the moon. Which made sense, seeing the brand of your bakery.

Yet, it was your necklace that garnered her attention. It was similar to that of her husband. It was a two piece necklace, she deduced. Yours was the crescent, ever so reservered and wise. While Jobin’s was that of the glazing sun, ever so energetic and on the go. Perhaps.. Perhaps you were the friend he always referred to with fondness and nostalgia. 

Not only him, but Mr. Higashikita and Mrs. Higashikita as well. Mitsuba doubt that was the case, the probability you are the same person is undeniably low. Since the friend that Jobin spoke off has been gone for nearly 22 years ago.

Regardless, she admired the way that you handled your bakery. From the calming and beautiful interiors and atmosphere (with music; ranging from Classical to Country, to Rock), to the freshly made and unique pastries, and the decently priced products and offers. Buying three packages of any product, can guarantee you another free of price. No wonder her friends raved about this place.

She could observe you, as you handled her order with absolute meticulousness and care. Your hands were gloved, as you gently knead the dough. Once the dough was ready to rise, you punched it down and let it roll. Followed by you filling the inside of dough with vanilla (with added sugar) to resemble the stars of the milky way. 

Then started rolling the filled dough again into jelly roll style, followed by you painting the outside layer of the roll with dark blue and purple coloring so it resembles a galaxy. Soon after, you have set the pastry inside the oven. While the sweetroll finishes, you have handled the cookies.

Mistuba was rather impressed by your work ethics. Instead of giving her a ready to go (probably soggy) cookies and sweet rolls, you went out of your ways to make it fresh yourself with the help of your co-workers. Not only that, but she was given a free tea as her order is being done. Mhm~ Weren’t you a clever business person? She might consider become a normal patron, if this continues.

It took about 40 minutes, for her order to be processed. 15 minutes for the sweet rolls to turn golden brown, another 15 for the cookies, and 10 minutes to package it neatly and properly. With a card on top of it; “May your happiness and prosperity be as vast as the endless universe ~✨”

“Here you go, miss. I apologise if we were late. Please, enjoy.” You spoke with a nervous smile at your face. Waiting for one of your favourite models to respond. You could feel your heart tremor, as you remembered the saying “Never meet your heroes”, but that vanished as a smile appeared on the lady’s face.

“No need to apologise, if anything… I expected to wait more, and not to mention the stellar hospitality. I could probably wait more.. However, I have quite few questions before I leave? Mind if you answer it for me?” Mitsuba mused, finishing her green chai.

“By all means, Miss. Any question you have, I’ll answer it to the best of my capabilities.” You responded back feeling the heavy weight of disappointing a customer, as influential as Mitsuba, is slowly withering.

“Good. Good. What’s your name?” Mitsuba inquired, curiosity eating her mind. There’s something familiar of you, yet she couldn’t put her finger on it. As if she has seen you somewhere. She tried to chuck it as irrational feeling, after all this is her first meeting with you. Or was it? 

She remembers seeing a photo of a young Jobin —about six years old— and another child dressed as bettles and were enjoying theirselves with Kaato laughing together with another older woman. The photo was in the Higashikita’s family photo-book.

“My name is (Y/n) (L/n), I do hope that suffices.” You chuckled, unaware of the woman’s eye widening in surprise. You have the exact name as the child. She must bring Jobin, maybe he can recognise you. She doesn't want to rush in mistaking you for someone else, but it isn't a coincidence that you share the same name with Jobin’s childhood friends.

“Is something wrong, miss?”You questioned in concern.

“No. No. Not all, haha. Please don't trouble yourself.” That all she said, before fleeing the establishment and leaving a positive feedback on the questionnaire regarding customer service and the bakery in general. Which left you pretty confused.

‘Huh? What was that all about?’ 

(2/?)

—-

Okay, bettle boy didn't appear because I want to world build a little bit regarding darling’s bakery and tad bit of relationship with Mitsuba’s and drop a few lore along the way. Darling has a long history with the Higashikita. Did she forgot them? Did something happen to reader that made them forget about them? To be continued *Insert Roundabout here.*

—JJL 🫧

Once again some really good stuff going on here, I like the additional details with Mitsuba, it adds some extra immersion that makes me want to keep reading!

[rachelscookierecipe]

Vegan & Gluten Free Brownie Cookies

by Rachel (sort of)

Adapted myself from the ingredients of my favourite vegan & gluten free brownies, and my favourite brownie cookies. Credits at the end.

Ingredients (makes 35-40 21g cookies)

262g gluten free flour (I use Doves Farm/Freee brand, #notspon)

187g golden or light brown sugar

32g cocoa powder

¾ teaspoon baking powder

¼ teaspoon salt (a small pinch)

150g dark chocolate (I use dark cooking chocolate from Tesco that is soy based and dairy-free)

112ml vegetable oil

112ml vegan “buttermilk” (15 parts soy milk + 1 part lemon juice, details below)

Coarse/flaky salt for sprinkling (optional, so damn good)

Tools (and I don’t mean the one writing this)

Large mixing bowl

Medium bowl for dry ingredients

Smaller bowl for melting chocolate

A saucepan of similar size to your small bowl if melting chocolate on the hob

Wooden spoon (or if you have one of those fancy silicone spatulas, they’re perfect)

Dinner plate

Baking tray + baking paper

A few teaspoons for scoopin’

Measuring spoons (optional but very helpful for accuracy)

Recipe

So when I was a lad… just kidding. I do have stories about how I learned to bake, but this is my own recipe, so those stories are pretty irrelevant here.

Step 0: Don’t preheat your oven.

I usually don’t preheat my oven until shortly before I’m ready to bake, I don’t know why recipes always start with that.

We will not be baking anything for at least an hour, as the cookie dough requires chilling for at least 45 minutes once mixed, ideally longer. This helps prevent spread on the baking tray, and makes it easier to form into dough balls.

Step 1: Measure your dry ingredients.

I am very inclined to forget one as I go, so here’s a checklist:

Flour: 262g

Cocoa: 32g

Sugar: 187g

Salt: ¼ teaspoon

Baking powder: ¾ teaspoon

Add all the dry ingredients, except the sugar, to the medium bowl. Pop the sugar into the large bowl.

Step 2: Vegan buttermilk. Wait, that’s not an instruction!

We’re going to curdle some ‘milk’, for chemistry reasons I don’t really understand. Add 105ml of soy milk to the large bowl, then add 7ml (approx. 1 teaspoon) of lemon juice. I know, these measurements are pants. Don’t stress too much over the precision. The milk should ‘split’, and look gross! If it doesn’t, that’s fine too.

Add the vegetable oil, and observe hydrophobicity in action.

Step 3: Melt the chocolate.

I like to do this in a ‘double boiler’, which is a fancy way to say melting it in a bowl over a pan of simmering water. Feel free to do this in a microwave. If you do, be careful not to overheat it, do it in bursts until the chocolate has a silky consistency.

It’s harder to get wrong with the double boiler, for physics reasons, but it should only take a few minutes with a steady simmer. Once a knife can be pushed through the chocolate with no resistance, turn the heat off and stir the chocolate to ensure it has melted all the way through. Add the melted chocolate to the large bowl, and stir until combined.

Note: This is the one time before baking that we are adding heat to the mix. Before baking, I highly recommend the dough is cooled completely, so the hotter the chocolate is at this stage, the longer the mixture will need to cool.

Step 4: Add the dry ingredients and mix.

Shake or spoon in the dry ingredients gradually, stirring a couple times between each addition to avoid making a dust cloud. Once you’ve added them in, stir to combine, taking pains to scrape down the sides of the mixing bowl and incorporate large lumps of flour/cocoa powder. Small lumps (smaller than a pea) will bake out, so don’t worry about those. Your dough should be smooth, firm, and probably looking the way the cookies will look a day after you eat them. Sorry.

Step 5: Chill out.

Cover the bowl and stick it in the fridge. 45 minutes is the absolute minimum I would suggest, but if you can give it an hour or two, or overnight, even better. The next step is to scoop the dough into little balls, and that will be less messy and less of a f***ing nightmare if you just chill it for a while. Pro tip: Put your dinner plate in the fridge with the bowl. I wished I had done this every single time.

Step 6: Okay, I lied to you. The next step is actually to preheat the oven.

180°C conventional, 160°C fan. I don’t know what that is for gas ovens, sorry.

Step 7: Balls.

Using a spoon, maybe two, and your hands (unless you’re a magic space wizard who can do this with just the spoons), scoop a lump of the cookie dough out of the bowl and weigh it. My control weight for this recipe is 21g, but you could go larger if you wanted to. This makes a cookie of approximately- where’s my ruler? 5.5 cm diameter. I weighed each ball, because I’m a really fun person, but you can just weigh one and make the rest about the same size. Or weigh none of them, and guess the baking time adjustment! You feeling lucky, punk? If it’s taking you a while to get through this, and it probably will, I suggest covering the balls and returning them to the fridge for a few minutes before baking, as they’ve probably warmed considerably from being handled. Tee-hee.

Step 8: Prepare for baking.

Cover your baking tray with parchment. Put your balls on the tray, spaced 3-4 cm apart to avoid creating a colossal, all-consuming cookie mon- uh, beast. Unless you want that. I did this by mistake once, and don’t recommend it. Squish the balls down slightly into pucks, maybe 1.5 cm tall but I didn’t measure, this just makes it easier to sprinkle some coarse, crunchy salt flakes on top. Yum yum! I don’t know if I need to say this, but don’t overcrowd your tray. If you have more balls than you can fit on the tray, use another tray or wait until the first batch are baked and reuse this one.

Step 9: Bake.

Stick that mofo in the oven, for 8 minutes if you made them 21g like I said, or longer if you made them bigger. They’re done when they’ve spread out and the tops have dried up and cracked, revealing a darker, cakey interior. I’m drooling right now. If you poke them at this stage (careful, they’re hot, duh), they should give with little to no resistance. This is good! If they’re completely solid straight out of the oven they’re overcooked, and will be rocks by the time they have cooled down. I’m sorry if this happened to you! Take the next batch out just a little bit sooner. Let the cookies cool on the tray until the tray is cool enough to touch. This will take longer if your tray is thicker, but I promise you it’s worth the wait. Once the tray is warm but not hot, the cookies should be solid enough to transfer to a cooling rack. If you’re nervous, use a metal fish slice or a fork, slid underneath each cookie to avoid breaking them up.

Step 10: There were no more steps. This is the end.

You can eat them now! Alternatively, allow to cool and eat within… okay I don’t know what the shelf life is, but they’re cookies, they shouldn’t last very long. Anecdotally, when I did my last batch, I had some in the tin from three months ago, and they tasted fine, but I don’t recommend eating three-month-old baked goods!

And now: pictures.

Captions (and alt text) in the alt text.

Credits

Do recipes have credits? Not in my experience. This recipe however borrows heavily from:

Alison Andrews at Loving It Vegan: https://lovingitvegan.com/vegan-gluten-free-brownies

Janine Ratcliffe at Olive Magazine: https://www.olivemagazine.com/recipes/baking-and-desserts/classic-chocolate-brownies

/u/dundundah at reddit dot com: https://reddit.com/r/Baking/comments/97ag96/brownie_cookies/e46zinq

I’m Rachel. That’s as much detail as you’re going to get about me. K bye!

[auckie]

Ok no actually I wanna hear your Trader Joe’s opinions I’m really into the orange strawberry banana juice, the bruschetta sauce, the cranberry lime juice sparkling water and cinnamon schoolbook cookies

You and I agree on the CLSW (cranlime sparkling), haven’t tried the others but I’ll look into them. The normal lime one is also amazing on its own, as well as a mixer for both alcoholic and non alcoholic drinks. Summer must!

There’s so much shit I’m obsessed with, I’ll try and list the most important ones

English crumpets

Mango kefir

Brown sugar oat creamer

Chocolate oat milk

Simpler wines brand sparkling white canned wine

Pfeffernüsse

Chocolate babka

Brioche sliced bread

Danish Kringle

Pinks and whites shortbread cookies

Joe Joe’s gluten free classic Oreo knock off cookie

Madras lentils (boxed kind is good too)

Canned giant baked beans in tomato sauce

The non joes brand oat milk coffee and kombucha but you can get those anywhere

Their candles, two in one grapefruit mint hair wash (I despise two in one products but this one doesn’t foam and is more of a cleansing conditioner I use in between shampoo and regular conditionings), and many other non food items. I’ve bought their towels, seasonal decor (usually those felt garlands), face lotions and oils. Loved all of them. Usually I only restock on the lotion, hand soap, and lavender laundry bags. Their detergent is nice tho, and I’ve also gotten their wool laundry balls but you really only ever gotta buy them like once. They also usually have pretty cute cards at the checkout! I like their cheaper flowers too, but there’s also a lot of very cute seasonal items they carry that I just can’t justify buying bc of price (have you seen their felt sunflowers? So adorable)

Simpler times potato chips

Crispy Crunchy Champignon Mushroom Snack

Fruit leather bars

Dried orange rings

Lox (labeled as smoked salmon iirc)

Both their Tunisian and kalamata olive oil

Vodka sauce

Roasted red pepper and tomato canned soup

Canned vegetable soup

Gone bananas chocolate covered frozen bananas (gone berry crazy strawberries are good too but like a dollar or two more expensive)

Jasmine rice in the frozen isle

Lime popsicles

Steak and stout meat pie

Pastry Bites Feta Cheese & Caramelized Onions

Canned tuna*

*especially with the gluten free microwaveable mac n cheese (I’m not gluten free if you’ve noticed, I literally just prefer some of their gluten free products. Same with the oat milk. I’m not lactose free but I just really like it)

Most of the frozen wontons I’ve tried

Chimichurri rice (goes great with the aforementioned roasted red pepper box soup, and chopped onions, green peppers, and spinach cooked in a wok)

Chicken sausage

Butternut squash gnocchi, iirc the potato gnocchi is good too

Most of their dried pastas

Almond and chocolate filled frozen croissants

The bars of chocolate you find at the check out that come in packs of threes

The weird meat sticks at the checkout too

Frozen hashbrowns

For whatever reason, their frozen green beans and asparagus is so much better than other generic brands I’ve tried

Any of the canned olives but esp the kalamata

Sun dried tomatoes

The produce is okay, a little pricey but they had brown Mexican tomatoes once that fucked hard. The herbs trustworthy too but really where is it not

Any of their chocolate covered nuts

Their fucked up chocolate covered chips, sometimes found in their snack mixes

Peanut butter pretzel snacks

Their dried seaweed isn’t my fav, but it’s not bad. I think it’s overpriced tho but tbf I usually get huuuge, less flavored packs from Costco

Pine nuts but good Gd are they expensive

They have cute, weird heirloom hybrid squashes during the fall a lot too that are pretty tasty

Things I’ve gotten from there that I hated? I didn’t like their orange chicken, ANY of the cereals I’ve gotten from there oddly enough, their pecorino Romano only comes grated and mixed iirc and I didn’t care for it. Some of their beers have made me scowl but also those are all random brands. But their wine (yes, even SHAW. But shoutout to coco bon red blend and blue fin moscato RIP!) has never does me wrong…except for any other flavor of the simpler wines canned ones. I can only do the sparkling white and literally no else I've forced to drink it has liked it! some of their salads have done me wrong. the canned chickpeas and dolmas were off. and some of their pricy juice mixes left me a bit disappointed.

[fracturediron]

I'm sorry, but as a Brit, this literally made me go "WHAT??" out loud lmao.

I've never even heard of this brand until now, but New, mate. Pal. Buddy. If you were gonna bring your brother the most delicious snack in England, it definitely isn't this sugar-free Diablo stuff.

Where are the Hobnobs?!

The McVitie chocolate digestives?!!

The shortbread?!?

I'm sorry but you failed your brother again, you must atone for your crimes.