#surprised but delighted that this is the kind of question my fic raised

[mari-lair]

if aka had met kou before teru and befriended him would kou get a crush on him?

Absolutely. It would take him waaaaay less time to fall than Teru.

Kou is attracted to a person with a cute smile, and Aka has the same smile as Akane. In canon, Akane's smirk makes him go 'uyguygtuft', just look at his blush and how Akane was drawn super pretty here.

and now compared it to when Hanako is the one doing something he considers pervy.

So he isn't blushing about Akane's insinuation, is the smirk IT'S THE SMIRK THAT GOT HIM. You bet Aka's constant smiles and smirks would tick Kou's "have a cute smile" box.

Aka would also follow Kou around, make him feel special by saying things like "you are the ONLY ONE who can see me, you're so important to me", while having complete mastery of a power Kou finds cool, always willing to help Kou out of tough situations with a level of confidence/bluntness that makes Kou flustered/nervous to some degree.

Aka would be a guide to the supernatural world, a world Teru had forbidden him to explore, so a Hanako with less morality dilemas packed into.

Aka also has a lot of issues to activate Kou's "I can fix him" complex. Kou would have gotten at the very least a short puppy crush on him for sure.

[skateordiebitch]

hiii! i love ur fics sm.. don’t stop making them. i honestly just wanted to request something about being best friends with dom, nothing weird at all. but he’s always there for reader and stuff, they’re close and childhood friends :)

IDIOT || D.F. x reader

summary: dominic fike, your childhood best friend; part time 'crisis manager'. full time idiot.

a/n: thank you sm! i don't plan on stopping, don't worry LMFAO. this request made my heart so happy. this reminded me so much of my best friend, who i'm away from rn :') miss him dearly so this was very nice to write!!! hope u guys enjoy!! <33

It was 2 a.m., and you were curled up on your living room couch, a half-eaten pint of ice cream in your lap, your favorite bad movie playing softly in the background. 

The door to your apartment swung open without warning, and Dominic strolled in, his hair sticking out in every direction, still wearing his pajama pants and a hoodie.

“Dom!” you said, startled but not entirely surprised. “Geez, ever heard of knocking?”

He dropped onto the couch beside you with zero hesitation, stealing the pint from your hands and taking a spoonful. “And miss the element of surprise? Never. I have a key for a reason.”

You rolled your eyes, smacking his arm lightly. “You look like shit. What are you even doing here? It’s the middle of the night.”

“You texted me, remember?” he said, wiggling his phone in front of you. “Something about an emotional crisis and needing someone to comfort you.”

You groaned, burying your face in your hands. “Dude, I didn’t think you’d actually show up. I was just venting.”

Dominic grinned. “And yet, here I am. Lucky for you, I’m an excellent crisis manager.”

You couldn’t help but smile despite yourself.

That was Dominic: always there, no questions asked, no matter the time or place. You’d been inseparable since you were kids—sharing snacks in kindergarten, passing notes in middle school, and now, navigating adulthood together.

“Okay, crisis manager,” you said, reclaiming the ice cream. “Fix me. Please.”

“What happened?” he asked, his expression softening as he turned to face you fully. 

“It’s just…” You hesitated, toying with the edge of your blanket. “I’ve been feeling kind of stuck lately. Like, everyone’s moving on and doing amazing things, getting into relationships, and I’m just… here.”

Dominic’s brow furrowed. “Are you kidding? You’re like, one of the smartest, most talented people I know. And trust me, I know a lot of people.”

You snorted. “Yeah, okay. You’re only saying that because you’re my best friend. You basically have to tell me that.”

“I’m serious,” he said, nudging your shoulder. “Remember in high school when you built that entire art project out of soda cans and won first place? Or when you aced that internship interview because you quoted your favorite movie? You’re like, actually capable of doing things.”

“Dominic, that was years ago,” you said, laughing despite yourself, “And what about relationships? All of my friends keep shoving their boyfriends in my face, and it’s making me wanna download Hinge, again.”

Dominic leaned back, his head resting against the couch as he let out a dramatic sigh. “Oh God, you’re single. The horror.”

“Shut up,” you said, throwing a pillow at him, which he easily caught. “I’m being serious.”

“So am I,” he replied, tossing the pillow aside. “Why are you stressing about this? Being single isn’t some kind of failure. You’re not competing with anyone.”

“I know that, logically,” you said, running a hand through your hair. “But it feels like… I don’t know, like everyone else is figuring shit out, and I’m just here eating ice cream at midnight with my idiot best friend.”

“First of all, rude,” Dominic said, pointing at himself. “I am a delightful idiot, and I’m sure many girls would kill to be in your place… Thank you very much. Second, that’s a load of crap.”

You raised an eyebrow. “What is?”

“This idea that you’re ‘falling behind,’” he said, sitting up straighter. “Everyone moves at their own pace. Just because your friends are in relationships doesn’t mean you’re supposed to be. Maybe you’re single because you haven’t met someone who deserves you yet.”

You snorted, shaking your head. “That’s such a cliché, Dom, really. You should write a book or something.”

“Yeah, well, clichés are clichés for a reason,” he shot back. “Look, you’ve got standards—and you should. You’re smart, funny, kind, and, despite everything, pretty tolerable to be around.”

“Aw, thanks, Dom,” you said with mock sarcasm. “Such a glowing review.”

“I’m serious,” he said, nudging your knee with his. “You’re a catch. And the right person’s gonna see that without you having to bend over backward to prove it. You just have to stop beating yourself up for not settling.”

You blinked, caught off guard by how earnest he sounded. “You really think that?”

“Of course I do,” he said, shrugging. “And I’m always right. Ask anyone.”

You rolled your eyes but felt a warmth spreading in your chest. Dominic always knew how to say the right thing, even when you didn’t want to hear it. 

“So, what? I’m just supposed to wait for some magical person to show up and sweep me off my feet?”

Dominic smirked. “Nah, I think you should keep doing you. Focus on what makes you happy. And when the right person shows up, you’ll know. Until then, you’ve got me to watch crappy movies and steal your snacks. Don’t download a fucking dating app.”

“Lucky me,” you teased, but the smile on your face was genuine. “Thanks, Dom. I needed that.”

He gave you a playful salute.

“Anytime,” he said, slinging an arm around your shoulders. “Besides, if you ever really get stuck, I’ll just carry you around and tell everyone you’re my much cooler best friend.”

“Obviously,” you said, leaning into him. “That’s been the plan all along.”

The two of you sat there for a while, the weight of your worries easing with each ridiculous comment he made. 

Dominic had always been your rock, the one constant in your constantly changing world.  

“Move over, loser. You’re hogging the blanket,” you grumbled, nudging Dominic with your foot as he sprawled across your couch like he owned the place. 

“Excuse me?” Dominic shot back, raising an eyebrow. “You invited me over, remember? You’re lucky I’m even sharing my popcorn.”

You grabbed a handful of popcorn from the bowl on his lap without breaking eye contact. “Your popcorn? You wouldn’t even have it if I didn’t buy it. Idiot.”

Dominic gasped in mock offense. “Wow, okay. Name-calling? Really mature, Y/N. What are we, twelve?”

“Pretty sure you were worse when we were twelve,” you shot back, grinning. 

“Fair point,” he admitted, tossing a piece of popcorn at you. It bounced off your forehead, and he burst out laughing.

You retaliated by throwing one back, but it went wildly off course, landing somewhere on the floor. 

Dominic shook his head, feigning disappointment. “Terrible aim. No wonder you didn’t make the basketball team in middle school.”

“Oh, shut up,” you said, snatching the blanket and draping it over yourself, leaving him with only a corner. “I made the team, thank you very much. I just quit.”

“Yeah, after you tripped over your own shoelaces and—”

“Do not finish that sentence,” you warned, though you were already laughing too hard to sound threatening. 

Dominic chuckled, pulling the blanket back over his lap as the opening credits of your favorite movie played on the screen. “Alright, fine. Let’s watch this masterpiece you’ve been hyping up for weeks.”

“Don’t act like it’s your first time watching it,” you teased. “You’ve seen this at least five times with me. You even cried during the ending last time.”

“I did not cry,” Dominic protested, though his face betrayed him with the slightest blush. “I had something in my eye.”

“Sure you did,” you said, rolling your eyes but grinning. “Big ass tears that would’ve scared all the girls away.”

He grabbed a pillow and lightly bopped you on the head. “Keep talking, and I’ll ruin the ending for you.”

“You wouldn’t dare,” you said, narrowing your eyes at him.

“Try me.”

You lunged for the pillow, laughing as he held it out of reach. The two of you wrestled for it for a moment, the blanket and popcorn long forgotten, before collapsing back onto the couch in a heap of giggles.

Once you both settled down, Dominic leaned back, his arm resting casually along the back of the couch. “You know, this is why we’re best friends.”

“Because you like losing pillow fights to me?” you teased.

“No,” he said, flicking your arm. “Because you’re the only person I know who can call me an idiot and make it sound like a compliment.”

You smirked, nudging him with your shoulder. “Well, you’re my favorite idiot. Don’t forget it.”

He grinned, his gaze softening for just a moment before he turned back to the screen. “Alright, let’s watch this thing. No more distractions.”

The two of you sat there, sharing popcorn, laughing at the same jokes you’d heard a hundred times, and tossing the occasional insult back and forth. 

It was the kind of night that reminded you why Dominic was your best friend—because no matter how chaotic or ridiculous things got, you always knew you could count on him to be there, making life a little less serious and a whole lot more fun. 

[elvisabutler]

OK, I'll bite: since your requests are open, may we please, with all the cherries on top, get a Dove pregnancy fic? If you have the time and energy, of course - I know your WIP list is crazy, and I'm sure you have all kinds of things going on irl too, as we all do! 😘

if your child needs a daddy, i can help

summary: you find yourself pregnant with your first kid and you and austin make room for them in your lives despite how sometimes the whole pregnancy makes you feel emotionally and physically. fandom: austin butler | elvis ( 2022 ) rating: m, i suppose. he does get his finger inside of her. pairing: austin butler x priscilla actress reader ( little dove verse ) word count: 2261 warnings: the normal warnings apply for this verse. daddy kink. dom/sub dynamics. brief mentions of past relationships that were not at all pleasant. anxiety. negative self talk. pregnancy kink. breeding kink. THESE WARNINGS MAKE IT SOUND MORE SMUTTY THAN IT IS. but it's actually quite fluffy. austin's just horny for his wife. referenced/implied fingering. future and past p in v sex referenced. author’s note: consider this canon for the main verse? obviously set in the future so- god maybe 2024/2025? generally speaking i loved this prompt and technically meant to keep it short or at the very least fluffy but uh- well austin's a horndog is really what happened. thank you anon for this prompt, truly, i'm really trying to get up the courage/gumption to restart actually actively writing for dove and austin and stuff like this and the asks really help more than you know. also thank you for acknowledging my crazy wip list. didn't actually think i'd write this as quick as i did, and truly i meant to have it up on mother's day when i realized how quick i was writing it but this past weekend. lord she was a doozy in my work real life. anyway i hope you like it and anyone who actually wants to be tagged for this verse, either hit me up in my ask box or my dms or someway. i didn't do my normal austin tag list for this because i know this verse has been known to occasionally bother some people and i don't want to put it in your face if you don't want to read it, you know?

It happens- as all things do with you and Austin- quickly. It comes within the two months of you telling Austin you want to make Austin a real Daddy. A daddy who can hold his child and rock it and sing it little lullabies until it grows up to be and strong like their parents. You'd think since you're a grown woman and a surprising amount of your life has become regimented in ways it wasn't after dating and then marrying Austin that you wouldn't miss your period and not notice. You wouldn't miss it one month, two months and only realize something's strange when you go to visit Austin to see his show and hiss and practically yelp in pain when he presses up against your chest. They were bigger but they always got a little bigger around your period, it was fine. But then Austin is murmuring in your ear and pressing his hand against your stomach where he can feel a firmness where there wasn't one before.

"Are you pregnant?"

That's a weird question to ask, you're due for your period any day now, you think, thinking that you're close enough to the beginning of the next month that you're due for one soon. Not that it'll be your third missed period in a row. You shake your head, "no, I'm due for it next week, I think."

Austin raises an eyebrow and presses against the firm spot, waiting for it to give only to realize it's staying firm, there's something there. "When was your last one, Dove?"

You open your mouth to answer once, twice, three times before you look down at his hand against your stomach and see how your breasts are practically spilling out of your bra and you let out a noise of delight and shock rolled into one. Your voice is soft when you answer him finally. "I don't remember."

The squeal of delight you let out and the way Austin laughs and laughs and laughs twirling you around before setting you back down so he can kiss your belly is something the cast talks about for the next week or two.

It's a flurry to try and get things rescheduled, have projects pushed back or dropped all together as your belly starts to curve outward, becoming harder and harder to hide as the weeks go by. You and Austin had made an agreement to not announce a single thing before 12 weeks. It wasn't a guarantee nothing would go wrong but it put you in a safer territory than you would be if you announced earlier. Austin argues every so often that you shouldn't make an announcement, not because he doesn't want people to know but because he's so fiercely protective over your private life with him beyond what the two of you have to show that exposing your child to this nonsense fills him with dread. He worries about the judgment he figures you'll get over having a baby like this. Worries about how if you want to book something short that people may look at your belly and realize that it's not worth it. Maxwell and Simon, your agents and managers and pseudo dads rolled into one promise to get you just one more thing even if you'll have an obvious belly for them because they care about you and your career almost if not more than Austin does.

You tell him- no, you explain to him that you can't do that, you can't go into hiding because you're pregnant. You want to be able to tell the world that you're carrying his baby, that your belly is growing because you told him you wanted a baby. This baby may not be their child, but they're your fans and what would you be without your fans? No, you have to announce it so that you can finally stop hiding in oversized hoodies and dresses tailored to hide your bump. Besides, you've been known to read the gossip blogs and the magazines while waiting for your doctor's appointments. You know very well there's theories as to what's going on and how people find it suspicious you've gone from full body shots on instagram to above the waist shots. There's theories about why you had to drop out of a film that you'd be filming while nine months pregnant and ready to pop if you did. This is the only real way to put them to rest.

"Looking forward to this little one and I having many more mother's days to come. Your daddy and I can't wait to meet you." is the caption you go with on Mother's day with Austin's hands and your hands on your stomach. The comments make you cry though if Austin asks you're only crying because of the hormones. Not because of your little Elvis family bombarding your comments with congratulations or the way any negative comments get overwhelmed by happier comments. Even Kaia and Vanessa say congratulations and you feel something in your chest loosen at the knowledge. You feel the fear that had gripped your heart deep down that whispered how you'd have to hide this pregnancy like you hide your submission to Austin- like you hid your relationships with your other doms- disintegrate and evaporate into thin air.

Austin knows the second he sees your smile and sees your response to a few messages that he's doomed, he's lost the fight of getting you to remain a little more private about the pregnancy. Truthfully he's just thankful you agree with him that the two of you are going to try your absolute hardest to keep the baby themselves out of the limelight. And - as he murmurs, cupping your growing bump one night- their three siblings. Your feed is split between promoting your new project, random other things you'd do and posts about your growing bump, your occasional sickness and how pregnancy isn't really all it's cracked up to be even when you want a baby.

It comes to a head one day when you're seven months pregnant with your big long baby that Austin felt the need to gift you with all his height genes and you're posting something about how this week has just been rough.

"I'm not speaking for everyone, obviously, and all you infertility moms can tell me I'm wrong, but for me- I'm- society gives us all some rose tinted glasses when it comes to pregnancy and from what some of you guys have told me, motherhood." You sigh, wincing as your daughter kicks your rib cage and does this somersault that has your stomach rolling and twisting. "I want more kids but- this hurts. This hurts and I feel huge and I can't breathe sometimes because they're pressing on everything and I know you guys have seen the pap photos, I can't even really hug Austin right any more."

Austin for his part knows better than to interrupt when he hears you talking to yourself and despite his better judgment waits outside your shared bedroom door until he hears words that stop his heart.

"It's selfish, I guess, but I worry sometimes that he doesn't- he isn't going to like me nearly as much when the baby comes out. We've all heard about how guys do that and Austin's but- I don't know. I'm being melancholy and that's not what you signed up for today." You lift up your shirt to show your bump as your daughter does another roll that you manage to catch on camera. "I guess they wanted to show off at the expense of mommy. You are definitely your father's kid."

When it's been silent for a few minutes and he hears you grunt in pain he finally walks inside the room to see you standing in front of the mirror, cupping your bump before running your hands over your chest. There's a part of him in the back of his head that finds the action arousing beyond belief but he sees the look on your face and sees how you're playing with your necklace as the hand that was on your breast moves up. You're so engrossed in looking at your body and allowing your mind to whisper things to you that you don't notice Austin until he's up behind you and his hands are lifting up your belly just so.

"Oh, Aus- Fuck, Daddy, keep your hands there." You moan, the relief palpable in your tone. "That feels so good, she's been-"

"Growing too fast and too big for my little Dove?" Austin's tone is light and playful has he kisses your neck, watching the two of you in the mirror. "The joys of having me as the other half of the genes. Two more months and then she's out of you and you're free until the next one."

Your jaw tenses just a little at the words. It's not that you don't want another baby but who's truly to say he's going to want you enough to make one. The silence after his joke is what makes Austin pause and has him kissing at your jaw. "What's wrong?"

Because something is wrong and you have to communicate with him, if you need something you need to tell him, that's always been the rule in your relationship. A sigh leaves your lips. "There's- you're not going to find me attractive-" you pause and try to take a breath before the first thought that comes to your mind leaves your mouth in a rush. "Elvis didn't like Priscilla after she had Lisa."

Austin drops your belly gently against your protests and turns you to face him while shaking his head, taking your head in his hands. "Dove. Don't- we're not them, remember?"

"I know that!" You practically whine before rubbing at your eyes that are quickly filling with tears. "I know we're not! I know you're Austin and I'm me but I look and feel like a beached whale and my boobs are huge and will probably sag everywhere-"

Austin places his finger on your lips before shaking his head. "I'm going to stop you right there and tell you to look down." He watches you as your eyes slide down his torso and stop between his legs. He's- he's hard just from looking at you and touching you. There's his arousal staring you in the face in his grey sweatpants and you can't help but bite your lip. It twitches a little.

"You're- Daddy."

"I'm hard. You know how I've been the bigger you get. I thought you were attractive before but carrying my baby? Watching your belly swell and seeing your boobs escape every bra you put them in? Dove, if my dick had it's way you'd be pregnant every second you could be." He murmurs, allowing his hands to slide down your neck to your chest where he gives your breasts and nipples a squeeze before sliding down to your stomach. "And when this belly is gone? When our daughter is suckling at your chest? I'm going to remember that you did this. Going to remember how my wife grew our daughter and is feeding her from her own body still. I'm going to know that you're strong and perfect. And I'm going to remind myself we have a baby schedule to stick to. That I can't just immediately put another one inside of you."

His words cause a shudder to ripple through you and Austin smirks just a little, moving his hands down lower and lower, "Dove, if I put my hand between your legs how wet is it going to get?"

You feel your breath shakily leave your mouth. "Soaked. Please, Austin-"

A kiss cuts off your words as Austin's hand slides in between your leggings and your skin, inching ever so closer to where he's ignited a fire. He pulls away just a hair and shakes his head. "Try again, lil Dove. Please who?"

The eyeroll you give him holds no malice but you can't help it even as your arousal threatens to overwhelm you. "Daddy, please."

"I'll always give my Dove what she needs," he murmurs, finally sliding his fingers inside of you with a low groan from both of you.

It's funny how after that night your sex life with Austin up until the end of your pregnancy became a little more intense. More frequent as if to reassure you any time the voice inside your head got too loud and any time every trick your therapists taught you failed. Austin loved you and there wasn't a single doubt about that. Even if there was, the way he was by your side throughout your labor with your daughter would have done away with any doubts. There wasn't much more you could ask for in a partner than what he did for you that day and what he does for you as you recover.

It's a week before any of you are ready to take a picture but you're thankful for Ashley recommending a good photographer for the newborn pictures despite Austin's protests that he could take his own. After all, you wanted him in some of them, and you didn't trust an autotaken picture for this. When it comes time for Austin to post that your daughter's been born he goes for a simple picture that shows your hand on top of Austin's and Loretta's on yours with a simple caption: isn't she lovely, isn't she wonderful.

He saves the other photos for you to post.

[renlyslittlerose]

I have idea from the Big List you posted, if it strikes your fancy. No obligation!

Holiday!Fic, but make it Obi-Wan going out of his way to surprise Anakin by celebrating some Tatooine tradition or holiday. Not to tell you what to do but I have a feeling everything would go terribly wrong but Anakin would appreciate the crap out of the gesture regardless (even if he has no idea what it is Obi-Wan is talking about because it wasn’t something he and his mom celebrated/observed). It would be a super endearing and sweet show of love but it’s up to you how Anakin shows his appreciation 😉

Thanks, peach! Hope this delights! 💗

---

Obi-Wan looked down at the cake.

Well, what was supposed to be a cake.

Obi-Wan was certain cakes were supposed to have a bit of integrity to them, and not look like some amorphous blob had taken over the centre of the plate, spilling its runny contents over the edges and on to the counter.

Obi-Wan had followed the instructions carefully, even going so far as to ask one of the cooks in the temple for the correct ingredients, not wanting to rely on ‘good enough’ and ‘that’ll do.’ Baking was a science - or so he’d always been told. Just follow the directions and you’d produce the intended product.

So why did it look so goopy?

“What’s that?” Anakin asked.

Obi-Wan had told him to meet him in their shared communal space at three o’clock sharp, much to his future self’s ire. He should have made sure it actually looked good before presenting it to his Padawan as some sort of gift.

“It’s a cake,” Obi-Wan explained. “Or, it’s supposed to be.”

Anakin gave it a suspicious poke and a sniff. Obi-Wan smacked his arm.

“What’s it for?” Anakin asked.

“It’s in celebration of Kova Naduha.”

Anakin looked up from the cake, one brow raised in question. “Kova Naduha?”

Heat spread across Obi-Wan’s cheeks. “Have I gotten the date of it wrong?”

“No,” Anakin said quickly. “But I uh, don’t know why you’re giving me a cake for Kova Naduha.”

“Well, I read that it’s tradition to give a loved one a honey and cheese filled cake for Kova Naduha. You know, as a sort of… good luck to the next year blessing?”

Anakin broke out into a smile, lazy and boyish. His padawan braid slid across his ever broadening shoulders as he glanced back down at the cake. He let Obi-Wan linger a little longer over the precipice, lounging in his knowledge and delighting in Obi-Wan’s ignorance, before he let him in on the joke.

“Kova Naduha was a fertility goddess on Tatooine. We give these cakes to newly married brides, in hopes that it will make them more fertile. Hence the well-wishes into the coming months. You know, to give health to the prospective mothers and their babies.”

The heat across Obi-Wan’s cheeks spread to the back of his neck. He was certain if he was stripped the blush would show up on his ass.

“I uh, didn’t read that far, evidently,” he said quietly.

Anakin looked back up, blue eyes framed by golden lashes that brushed the tops of his cheeks when he blinked. He was still smiling, his amusement evident. “I still appreciate the gesture, Master. It was kind of you to try and bring a bit of home here, to Coruscant.”

“I only wish that I’d picked a more appropriate cake to give you. And perhaps actually baked the cake properly. But in my defense, I don’t have the proper equipment nor—”

Anakin kissed his cheek. Obi-Wan’s mouth snapped shut.

He was certain he was red all over at this point.

“Thank you, Master,” Anakin said as he pulled away.

Resisting the urge to touch his cheek, Obi-Wan remained next to his deflated cake, attention fixed on Anakin’s beauty mark on the corner of his chin.

“As I said, it didn’t come out the way it was supposed to.”

“You still gave me a gift,” Anakin said. His smile crept back on to his lips, and when Obi-Wan finally locked eyes with him there was a familiar glint in them.

“And what is that?” Obi-Wan asked slowly.

“You just proved to me that you are capable of failure. That there is something out there that you’re terrible at.”

Obi-Wan glowered. He tried to do the nice thing, and Anakin dared mock him?

“I’m perfectly capable of baking,” he shot back. “It’s just, this recipe was made for a completely different climate.”

“Yeah, sure.”

“And the sugars you use on Tatooine are completely different from the ones on Coruscant.”

“Uh-huh.”

“And I was strapped for time - you know I’ve other duties to see to, rather than spend all day baking a cake.”

“Obi-Wan?”

Obi-Wan clenched his jaw. “Yes?”

“Thanks again.” His tone softened, his cheeks a delightful shade of pink that poked out from beneath the bronzed tones of his skin. “Really. It was a kind gesture. Just the smell of the spices… well, it reminds me of my mum’s house.”

Obi-Wan returned the smile and relaxed his shoulders. “You’re welcome. Though you can just enjoy the smell - you don’t have to eat it.”

“Oh thank the Gods.”

Obi-Wan smacked his arm again.

[kirythestitchwitch]

Klaroline WIP Wed - freaky friday time travel fic

my prompt was the future Caroline Mikaelson and Caroline Forbes swap places and I was like, okay, I am going to shoehorn an entire plot in here after prom but before graduation. author is loading canon and firing it into the sun

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

The package was sitting innocently enough on the porch swing when Caroline got home from school. After a weird day of fielding concerned questions from her peers about Elena’s whereabouts–Stefan and Damon locking her in the Boarding House all weekend after prom was a last-ditch effort that looked like it wasn’t working–Caroline wasn’t really in the mood for a surprise. 

When a cautious sniff towards the box brought her the acrid smell of oil paint and turpentine, though, she had to bite down on her smile. The smell liked to cling to Klaus after he’d been painting all morning, as she’d discovered two days ago, the morning after prom. She’d been crossing the Square, coming from the Sheriff’s department toward the Mystic Grill to meet Matt for lunch and flashcards, when her name being called pulled her head back to the here and now.

“Caroline!” Klaus’ smile was delighted to see her as he crossed the street to meet her on the grass, dimples brighter on his face than the sunshine, and god wasn’t that cheesy and ironic, just like her agreement to be friends with the nightmare creature that had plagued their lives for months. Even stranger, that she actually wanted to. Okay, maybe he hadn't been plaguing their lives very hard recently. What with the others unleashing Evil Dead and Elena taking home all the queen bitch prizes previously scooped up by Katherine, Klaus had almost seemed like your friendly neighborhood serial killer in comparison. 

She waited until he caught up, swinging a large brown paper bag by string handles. “A word of advice?” she offered. He raised his eyebrows in intrigued curiosity. “Don’t go loudly chatting up the Sheriff's teenage daughter in the middle of town when you look like… that,” She gestured at all of him, including his loose-necked henley and comfortable jeans liberally smeared with paint, “Unless you want to get called a dirty old man behind your back.”

The laugh was practically startled out of him. He looked like an artist grad student at most, the kind that would debauch you on the furniture props, but judging by the slightly judgy looks from a few faces she could see around the square, that was too old for just barely eighteen Caroline. Oh yeah, Liz would be hearing about this before the day was out, and wasn't that just what Caroline needed?

Klaus leaned forward slightly, for all the world looked like he was sharing confidences with her. "Do you find me old, sweetheart?" he asked, dimples on display.

"Ancient, decrepit," she deadpanned.

His voice dropped a little softer, and unconsciously this time she leaned in a little to hear him. “You know our kind don’t measure time in years, sweetheart, it’s more about experiences.”

With a scoff and an eye roll, she leaned back. “Oh my god, you did not just ‘Age is just a number’ me. It’s jail for you, sir.”

“Mmm, they haven’t built a prison that can hold me yet, but if you prefer that sort of role-play, I'm sure I could think of something,” he said cheekily.

“Wow, okay!” She laughed, trying not to think of ‘Klaus’ and ‘role-play’ in the same context, “You are feeling much better than the last time I saw you.”

He seemed to sober, tension pinching his soft mouth. “Silas hasn’t shown himself that I’m aware of. Elijah is refusing to hand over the cure to either Rebekah or myself. Her on the grounds that she failed her trial, and me…” Klaus glanced away.

Caroline tried to dredge up some sympathy, really she did. “Well, we are all very much hoping there will not be an apocalypse hell-on-earth. I never met your parents and I would like to keep that track record going, thanks.” Klaus ducked his head, laugh soft, and Caroline nearly preened. “So, what’s in the bag? Thumb screws? Arsenic? Stolen lollipops?”

“Your imagination is a never-ending delight, love. There’s an art supply shop down the street that orders my paints for me. Which is fortunate, I was getting low on Cadmium Orange.” His fingers fiddled with the bag string.

“That is a very specific color,” she teased gently.

He tilted his head to the side in a self-deprecating sort of way. “Well, I need it for a very specific bit of shading, you see. The fall,” he gestured vaguely with one hand at some unseen painting, “Isn’t quite right. I’ve been working on it all night.”

Wrinkling her nose at him, she adjusted her purse on her shoulder. “Is that why you have that ‘freshly bathed in linseed oil’ smell?” Knowing she was about to set the tongues wagging but unable to resist the look it would put on his face, she reached out and snagged his hand, flipped it over backside up. Bright yellow paint was smeared on his skin. “You missed a spot.” she pointed out helpfully.

He rumbled softly in his throat. “So I did.” When Caroline looked up, his hungry blue eyes were on her, quiet, watchful of what she’d do next.

“So,” she said, drawing out the vowel, “I’m supposed to meet Matt for lunch.”

“The human?” Klaus managed to fit a world of disgruntled judgment into two words.

“Ugh.” Caroline dropped his hand with a bit of force. “Matt is failing some of his classes and needs a study buddy. I happen to be queen of the flashcards, thank you very much. Finals are next week, and I just want…” She paused, emotion clawing up her throat and she swallowed. Blinked. The sun that seemed so bright before–but not warm, never warm, never again–seemed a pale imitation of itself. Out of the corner of her eye, she could see Klaus’s hand hovering next to her arm as if wondering if his touch was unwelcome.

This wasn’t helpful, this wasn’t what she needed, in the middle of the day, in the middle of the Square, for god’s sake. Her chin raised, she looked Klaus in the eye. He looked solemnly back. “I just want us to make it through graduation. All of us. So.” She pasted a smile on her face. “I do what I can, which means flashcards.”

Something bitter tilted his mouth. “The talents of a general and they have you tutoring the quarterback.”

Caroline scowled at him. “It’s not a waste of my time to care about my friends. You certainly benefited from that.” With a huff, she turned to go, and he stepped sideways into her path.

“Admitting you care, love?” There was something predatory about the glint in his eyes.

Raising her eyebrows loftily, she pushed past him, trying to ignore the heat from his body that seemed to cling to hers. “In your dreams, Klaus,” she shot over her shoulder as she headed toward the Mystic Grill.

While her vampire hearing might have been bogged down by the noise in the Square, she was annoyingly attuned to Klaus’ presence. His parting words reached her easily: “Someday, you will.”

[rainbowdolphinrealm]

Last But Not Least Part 2

Thank you to everyone that left me likes and comments on Part 1. I don't know if I'm just not good at writing this pairing or what. Maybe I'm trying to rush it too much. Honestly, I do better with family fics and I'm trying to get to that "good stuff" for all our couples. This is primarily an Elucien submission with references to Feysand, Nessian, and Azris. Thanks in advance for reading and please feel free to leave feedback!

************************************************************************

Elain was enjoying herself immensely on her outing in the city with Lucien. He had returned in 45 minutes, just as promised.  He was dressed casually, but more put together than how he’d arrived at the River House initially.  His forest green trousers and matching coat were like deep green of summer, just before the leaves started to turn.  It was a beautiful contrast to his red hair that he still had pulled half back by a leather thong.

As they wandered aimlessly through Velaris, they clearly didn’t have a destination in mind.  They were just walking and talking.  She learned that he liked to read history.  She asked him questions about the type of history he studied, and he explained how he was learning more about human history since living with Queen Vassa and Jurian.  He said he wanted to understand more about the culture she’d been raised in.

She told him about all the things she’d discovered since becoming Fae.  He seemed to find her analysis of things like food and drinks and animals amusing because he chuckled often.  He also promised to show her other new things if she was interested.  As an emissary he’d been to all of the courts and knew about many of their particular wonders.  He also knew where their best gardens were located.

As they sat in a small café, finishing a delightful lunch of sandwiches and fresh salads, they watched as the people of Velaris passed by. 

“I still can’t get over how normal life is here,” Lucien said with a shake of his head.  “They weren’t untouched by the war, but they’re so resilient, you’d almost never know.”

“Maybe that’s why Feyre does so well here,” Elain suggested.  “She’s resilient.”

Lucien nodded.  “Then no wonder you’re doing so well here too.”

Elain blushed and looked at the napkin in her lap.  “I feel better today than I have in awhile,” she confessed.

“I’m glad,” he said.  “I only want to bring you happiness.”

“What about you?” she asked.  “What would make you happy?”

Lucien was quiet for a moment which surprised Elain.  She half expected him to proclaim being in her presence was all he needed to be happy.  But instead he said, “I’d be happy to have everyone that matters to me find peace and a purpose that fulfills them.”

Elain blinked, processing that answer.  “Your happiness is truly tied to others,” she said.  “It’s so selfless.”

“Well not quite,” Lucien admitted with a soft chuckle.  “It’s all in an effort to have peace of mind.”

Elain laughed lightly and then they paused in their discussion as a little family of fairies passed by, a little boy holding each of his parents by the hand, face lit up like it was the best day of his life.  Elain couldn’t help but smile at that image.  Just like with Feyre and Nyx earlier that morning, though, she was struck by a chord of longing.

“You’d like to have that one day?” Lucien said softly, nodding to the family.

Elain looked at her napkin again, self-conscious that he could detect things like that down the bond.  “Yes,” she answered softly before looking up at him.

He smiled at her.  “I’m glad we’re on the same page about that.”

“Do you have any experience being around children?” she asked, still curious about what kind of father Lucien would be.

Lucien shook his head.  “Honestly, no.  There aren’t many children in the Spring Court, and I was the youngest in my family.”

Elain nodded, listening.

“But I’d like to try.  I have to believe that I can,” and then he stopped himself short.

“Can what?” Elain prodded gently.

Lucien shook his head.  “It’s been such a nice day.  I don’t want to spoil it.”

Elain frowned.  “You won’t,” she promised and then, without thinking about it, she reached across the table and laid a hand on Lucien’s.  “I understand if you don’t feel like talking about your family in general, but you don’t need to shield me from it.”

“I feel like I want to protect you from the ugliness that is the Autumn Court,” he told her.

“You really don’t have to,” she said.  “Even as your friend I want to support you in navigating that part of your life.  You don’t – I mean I don’t want you to hide it.  Heck, we’ve subjected you to Nesta,” she said with a little dry humor.

Lucien let himself laugh as he turned his hand over just enough to gently clasp her fingers.  “She’s got enough fire in her to rival any of the females of the Autumn Court.”

“Maybe we’d better hope for a boy then,” Elain suggested with a broad smile of her own.  “Between both our backgrounds, we might end up with a spitfire of a little girl.”

Lucien shrugged.  “There are worse things.”

They locked eyes for a long moment before Elain smiled nervously and gently took her hand back.

Lucien cleared his throat, also seeming a bit nervous and motioned to the café hostess that they were ready to pay.

As they resumed their walk through the city, Elain reached down and took Lucien’s hand in her own.  He looked down at their hands and then to her face in surprise.  She smiled at him.  “I think we can skip ahead a little,” she said softly.  “You’ve proven yourself to be respectful and patient with me.  I’ve already made you wait so long.”

“That doesn’t mean that we have to skip ahead,” Lucien assured her.  “We’re fae.  We have all the time in the world.”

Elain had to smile at that.  “I’m comfortable with this, though.  I promise.”

Lucien seemed to read her for a moment and then nodded.  He brought her hand up to his lips and gave it a firm kiss on the back.  “Now,” he said with a sigh as they continue to walk, “What else can I tell you about myself?

Elain smiled.  “Are you a morning person or a night owl?”

“Ooh!  Good question,” he replied.  “I’m definitely a night owl.  I can be up early if I need to, but I prefer to work late than get an early start.  You?”

“I’m afraid I’m more of a morning person,” she confessed apologetically.

Lucien shook his head.  “Maybe that works out for the better,” he said.  “When we have a little one, I mean.  I can handle late nights and you can handle the early mornings.  I’ve heard babies tend to be around the clock little creatures.”

Elain laughed.  “If Nyx is any indication, yes,” she agreed.  “I wasn’t sure if Fae babies were going to be any different than human babies.”

“And?” he asked, clearly curious about a verdict.

“They seem the same,” she said.  “Feyre said that fairy children mature more slowly though?”

Lucien shook his head.  “Some species of fairies do,” he explained.  “The High Fae mature like humans, though.”

Elain frowned.  “I had hoped that maybe being Fae meant I would get to have little ones a bit longer.”

“Well technically you can,” Lucien assured her.  “You’ll be healthy and young enough to bear children far longer than you would as a human so you’ll be able to have more, if you want, but you won’t have to have them all at once.  There are decades between my eldest brother, Eris, and myself.”

Elain hadn’t thought of it that way.  There was a certain appeal to the flexibility of raising a family like that.

They fell into a companionable quiet for a few minutes until they passed a jewelry store and Elain found herself drawn to the front display window.

“What kind of jewelry do you like?” Lucien asked quietly in her ear.

She looked back at him with a wry smile.  “I’m not going to tell you that right now.”

He feigned offense.  “Why not?”

“Because these are plenty for the time being,” she said, touching the pearls at her ears.

Lucien pursed his lips.  “They’re old news.  I’ll need something to give you in a few days.”

Elain frowned in confusion.  “You will?”

“The Autumn Equinox is coming and in my court, it’s a gift-giving occasion,” he explained.

“Oh!” she replied in surprise.  “I had no idea.  I was merely thinking that it was a festival to celebrate the harvest and drink warm things like cider and mulled wine.”

Lucien laughed lightly.  “Well that too,” he agreed.  “But just as we give thanks for the gifts the Mother provided through the year, such as crops and good weather, we honor her by giving gifts as well.”

“That’s a nice way of thinking about it,” Elain replied with a smile.

Lucien nodded slightly.  “So my question stands.  What kind of jewelry do you like?”

“Absolutely not,” Elain replied with a smile.  “You can get me something more reasonable, if you really feel compelled to get a gift.”  At the same time she was beginning to wrack her brain for something she could get for him.  She’d neglected him the last two solstices.  It needed to be very special.

Lucien sighed dramatically.  “Alright.  You’re forcing me to guess and I might guess wrong,” he threatened in a teasing sort of way.

“You did just fine last time,” she told him with a smile and looped her arm in his before guiding him away from the window.

They were on their way back to the River House when Cassian suddenly landed in front of them.  “Lucien, you should hurry.  It’s your mother.”

Elain felt him tense beside her and he let go of her arm.  She grasped him by the hand, though, instinctively wanting to maintain contact with him.”

“What’s happened?” Lucien demanded urgently.

“Eris brought her to us,” Cassian explained.  “She’s in bad shape.  Feyre is doing what she can, but Az has gone to get Madja.”

Lucien looked to Elain and then across the river towards the house.  He was clearly pained at the decision before him.  Elain didn’t think twice, though, and made the decision for him.  “Go, Lucien,” she said, finally releasing his hand.  “I’ll be right behind you.”

“I’ll fly her back to the house myself,” Cassian promised.

Lucien nodded, stooped to kiss Elain on the cheek, and then winnowed away.

Cassian turned to Elain.  His look of worry momentarily replaced by curiosity.  “You two seem a lot friendlier than the last time I saw you together.”

“We are,” Elain answered simply.  She realized that she’d moved quite a bit further along down the affection spectrum in just one day.  Maybe she’d been on the cusp of accepting Lucien before and spending some time together was making the bond stronger, easier to obey.  Regardless, she had a feeling that she needed to get to the River House as quickly as possible.

“Ready?” Cassian asked as he took a step closer to her.

She nodded and let him lift her into his arms before taking off into the sky.  Cassian flew them directly to the River House and landed on the front steps.  They hurried inside and found the doors to the sitting room closed.  In the hall, Nesta was bouncing Nyx in her arms as he cried.

“I don’t know if he can sense all the angst in this house, but he’s absolutely inconsolable,” she said over the crying baby.

“What’s happened?” Elain asked urgently.

“Beron,” Nesta answered simply.  “Eris just said Beron was to blame.  He’s in there with them.”

Elain turned and looked at the closed doors.

“C’mere, little guy,” Cassian said as he gently lifted the baby out of Nesta’s arms.  “Give your aunt a break.”

“Thanks,” Nesta replied gratefully.  She walked over and put an arm around Elain’s waist.  “How was it going?”

Elain nodded.  “We were having a good time,” she said quietly. 

Suddenly the doors opened and Feyre, Rhys, Eris, and Madja emerged. 

Eris looked murderous.  “Rhys,” he said simply.

“Tell me what you want us to do,” Rhys replied solemnly as Feyre took Nyx from Cassian.  “Agreement or no, this can’t be allowed to stand.  Not in the Prythian we’re trying to build.”

Eris scrubbed at this face.  “I’d like to say that my personal armies, along with my brothers', are enough.  I just . . . I need to know you’ll support me in case disposing of my father turns into a civil war in Autumn.  I don’t want the entire court to fall into chaos.”

Rhys nodded.  “We’ve got your back,” he promised.

Azriel walked out of the shadows stone-faced.  “He’s fortifying the Forest House against an attack,” he reported.

Eris nodded.  “I expected as much.”

“I’m going with you,” Azriel said firmly, making it abundantly clear that he wasn’t up for debating the issue, with Rhys or with Eris.

Eris looked like he wanted to argue but then a look of gratitude washed over his face and he merely nodded.  He reached out a hand to Azriel who took it and squeezed.  Elain had almost forgotten that the two of them were mates.  They had been keeping it a secret from everyone but the Court of Dreams’ inner circle and one of Eris’ loyal brothers. Beron would have had Eris and Azriel murdered, or at least tried.  To keep the peace in Autumn, Eris had decided secrecy was best for the time being.

“He won’t get away with this,” Azriel promised.

“Cassian, get a legion ready and start heading south,” Rhys ordered in his High Lord tone of voice.

Cassian nodded, kissed Nesta on the cheek, and then headed out the front door.  Elain was surprised that Nesta wasn’t running after him, insisting the Valkyries be included.  She didn’t spend much time dwelling on that, though, her eyes drawn back to those closed double doors into the sitting room.

After several long minutes, the door opened a crack.  Eris rushed for it and went in urgently, closing it behind him.

Elain stood next to Azriel as they both waited.

Unfortunately it was a short vigil.  The door opened again and Eris stormed out.  “Let’s go,” he said to Azriel in a low, deadly voice.

Azriel gave Elain’s hand a quick squeeze before he joined Eris and they winnowed out.

Lucien was moving much more slowly, staring at the ground.  He looked like he was in shock. 

Elain would never know exactly what happened in her heart that day.  It wasn’t as if she was still waiting for the bond to snap and yet it was like it did, but for real this time.  She took one look at Lucien and all she could see was that her mate was in pain and that she felt compelled to comfort him anyway she could.  She rushed to him, arms outstretched, and enveloped him in a tight embrace.

Lucien wrapped one arm around her waist, as if he didn’t have the strength for anything more, put his forehead on her shoulder, and wept quietly.

She reached up and caressed his head soothingly as she held him.  “I’m so sorry,” she whispered in his hear.  “So very sorry.

“He always had a temper,” Lucien said hoarsely.  “He always took it out on us to varying degrees.  But I never thought . . .” He finally wrapped both arms around Elain and held on tightly.

Elain just stood there, fighting to keep her temper under control.  She was so angry at Beron Vanserra for murdering his wife and for making her mate feel like this.

Surprisingly, though, Lucien lifted his head after only a minute or two.  Now it was his turn to look murderous.  “Did Eris already go?”

“Yes,” Rhys said taking a step forward.

“Lucien you don’t have to . . .” Feyre started gently.

Elain glared daggers at her sister.  “If that’s what he wants, he can go too,” Elain snapped.  Feyre and Rhys both looked at Elain in shock, but Elain ignored them, and turned back to her mate.  “Whatever you need,” she said softly to him.

Lucien looked in her eyes and nodded.

“Just make sure you come home to me.”

He bent his head close to her, gave her a soft kiss on the cheek, and then winnowed out.

Elain turned to see her sister and brother-in-law still staring at her.  “How long will something like this take?” she asked Rhys.

He recovered before Feyre and put his hands in his pockets.  “It depends,” he said.  “Beron is powerful, but I don’t know if he can withstand the combined power of his sons.  Then of course is the secondary conflict.  Eris and his third brother, Gerod, will be allies, but the remaining brothers might try to fight Eris for power.  In that event, this could be come a long, bloody conflict.”

Elain swallowed hard.  “So it’ll be Eris, Gerod, and Lucien against the other two?”

Rhys nodded.  “Hopefully Finn and Isak will accept Eris as the new High Lord and spare everyone the fight.”

“Alright then,” Elain decided with a firm nod.  “Then I’d better get to work.”

Feyre stepped forward and reached out a hand to Elain.  “Doing what?”

“Practicing a meal to serve him when he comes home,” she said simply and headed for the kitchen.  She had wanted to love her mate.  What she hadn’t realized was that she already did.  She cared deeply for him because of the bond.  But through Feyre’s stories and his own actions of love and respect, she’d actually fallen in love with him.  Seeing him heartbroken had somehow made her realize that and she couldn’t think about anything else besides accepting the bond and declaring to all the world that Lucien Vanserra was hers and she was irrevocably his.

[adelha-mathilde]

Adelha X Asmodeus (Obey Me!) NSFW fic

meant for mature readers only

summary: Adelha is swept away to marry Asmodeus with a very sweet gesture.

Asmodeus had spent days planning this out. Getting advice from the many cousins Adelha had in her clan to also speak with Adelha's adopted father figure. Flying down from above to soon open the second floor window of Adelha's Apothecaries as the Devildom slept. Asmodeus had chosen a night when all of her pets were away in the Human World. The Currier clan having taken all five puppies with them to a hiking trip in Germany. Leaving only a single spoiled kitten for Asmodeus to deal with. The kitten already at the window for him to smile as a mew of question escaped the tiny creature. So Asmodeus scooped Aqua up in one hand to give her face kisses and sweet words. Soon setting the adorable fuzzy feline back down onto the couch to let her lounge.

Asmodeus snuck his way through the living area and right to Adelha's bedroom. But he doesn't get very far before the bedroom door flies open. The dragon maiden charging right for the intruder with broadsword poised as Asmodeus let out a slight squeak of surprise. So it is that the broadsword thunks into the wall right next to Asmo's neck. His hands up and smile coy for him to gaze at the woman before him. Adelha had that thoughtful smirk on her painted lips to be staring right into his eyes. Those striking azure blue eyes so fierce and gorgeous. It made Asmodeus shiver as he chuckled at Adelha. "Surely you didn't intend to do my lovely self harm, Margaret. I do recall you told me that I am welcome whenever I so wished to visit. Unless my sneaking in without calling means I am going to have my head removed from my lovely frame?" Adelha huffed out a laugh to inch closer and just barely nick Asmo's neck with the blade. Her words molten and hinting at amusement. "Possibly. I was warned by all of your kin to never take chances while living here. So I might just strip you bare and tie you up for a torturous interrogation."

Asmodeus gave a hum of heated intentions to look very keen on asking for just that kind of punishment. But he instead places a hand to his heart to bat his eyelashes at the Fae lady with deep intonations. "Letting you have your way with me would be a delightful pain I would gladly savor. But I would instead tempt you to accept my own offerings this eve." Adelha raises an eyebrow to then go wide eyed in realization. Since Asmodeus reaches into his breast pocket to remove a glittering ring covered in rainbow hues. Making Adelha gasp to carefully remove the broadsword and sheathe it. "Asmodeus! You actually went through with the commitment and made a ring for me?!" Asmodeus nods to then giggle as Adelha blushes from nose to toes. His gaze warm and focused entirely on the woman he intends to capture for his own. "Solomon and Eugene gave me a full run down of how to make this. Although Eugene never approved of me doing so. My title as the Avatar of Lust seems to have him think I would not be one for monogamy for centuries. So I will prove my intentions with action."

Adelha shivers to have tears well in her eyes as Asmodeus stepped all the closer to her. A smile of pure abiding love there on his face as he spoke. "My moments with you over these years have been priceless beyond all measure. Making memories and savoring your presence is a joy. One that I would claim for us from here on into the rest of our lives. Margaret. One who of the dragons and the vampires of the Fae lineage. I offer you this ring made with metal and my own heartstrings to bind us together in marriage." Adelha drops the sheathed broadsword as she sniffles and nods her head yes. Her own hand holding up a similar ring adorned with multiple bands of varying colors. Her own words sweet and molten as she cries. "Asmodeus. With this ring made of metal and blood as well as magic. I would make two into one under all existence. As per traditions of the Fae and my family, I wed you in the here and now. Husband and wife are we now for as long as we dwell in this life."

Asmodeus soon had their rings exchanged to sweep Adelha into his arms to kiss her tears away. Soon lifting her up off her feet and into the bathroom suite. His touch to her frame gentle and considerate as he sat her on the rim of the jacuzzi tub to wipe at her eyes with his sleeve. "Oh sweetie. There there. I wasn't expecting you to cry this much, love. Perhaps I waited too long to do this. But enough of waiting for both of us. Would you me the priceless honor and teach me how to make love with you?" Adelha shuddered to be blushing a deep red. Yet she reached up to undo the braided bun for her hair to come undone. Those cascading waves of silver white hair falling around her head for Asmodeus to watch and feel his desire burn through him all the more. So Adelha looked up at him to hold her arms wide in offering. "My groom. My beloved soul. Devour me."

That's all it took for Asmodeus to let his passion roar to life. Yet he was attentive and sweet as he all but ripped Adelha's dress to free her frame for the confines of the material. His own clothes tossed up and away for him to begin the act of making love to his bride. Asmodeus took his time with slow gestures and heated breaths against pale skin and scales. The woman that was now his wife keening in a shy yet aching want. So Asmodeus began the dance of consummation. Teasing with words, touching with care, tasting of sweet breath and lips to feather his breath against his dragon maiden. Asmodeus was a patient lover as he tested and explored what Adelha would enjoy. Savoring her every reaction and sound as he worshipped her body with his own. A few whispered words in Latin escaping his lips as he made them vulnerable in this intimate and intricate way of loving and being loved. So it was that Asmodeus captured his cherished lady to have them tangle around each other in the bathtub. The two of them making love with each other for uncounted amounts of time. A generous exchange of bliss and joy out of the love two souls share between them.

By the time Asmodeus is finished enough to be aware of how spent the two of them are, both of them are well and truly sated and exhausted. Both of them soaking in the hot water to hold each other close. Adelha was all but melted to be dozing against Asmo's front. Yet he was just as happy to be humming to the tune of the most recent symphony Lucifer had been playing in his office. The Avatar of Lust not surprised when Aqua sneaks her way into the bathroom suite. The adorable kitten soon nestled right by his head to lick and chew on his hair. So Asmodeus giggled to shake his head a little so his hair would tickle the kitten. "Naughty little kitten. I should scold you. But I think that would take too much effort right now. But be warned. I will be scolding you later."

**********

The House of Lamentation was full of unbridled elation this day. Since Asmodeus and Adelha had come to spend the weekend with the brothers. The Paw Posse currently in the back garden for Beelzebub and Mammon to be tossing balls for all five pups. While Luke and Solomon helped with keeping all five pups in the yard. Satan was in the living room to be cuddling Aqua and giving the feline tons of face kisses. Belphegor and Leviathan were also in the living room to have made a giant tent fort. The two of them currently cuddling a little Fae child to hopefully get them to take a nap soon. Belphegor holding a five year old boy with blue hair and antlers on his head. While Leviathan was holding a three year old girl with pixie wings and purple hair. Both Fae children openly smiling as they waved little toy wands over an empty pot to be 'cooking a magic potion' for everyone' as their uncles watched. Simeon and Lucifer moving the feast they had been making into the living room where tables had been set out. With Asmodeus currently knelt down next to the loveseat to massage Adelha's swollen ankles and feet. Since she was currently very pregnant and unable to do so herself at this point. While Eugene Currier walked in with a toddler in his arm. Lucifer looked pleased to see the head of the Currier clan to point to the fold out crib so Eugene might place the little human baby down. Which Eugene did soon enough to then sit himself next to Adelha. His smile bright as he wrapped an arm around her shoulders to kiss her cheek. "Ah. My darling Margaret. I am sure my cousin and his wife are beaming with joy in eternity. Truly your parents would be so happy for you and your groom at this life you have made."

Adelha chuckled as Simeon walked over to hand Eugene a glass of iced tea. The Fae gentleman nodding in gratitude as Simeon hummed a happy notation before speaking. "We are glad you decided to come and visit with us, Eugene. Adelha has been going over the huge family album to tell us more about her parents and childhood. Your illustrations of them are immaculate." Eugene sighs to then place a hand on Adelha's baby bump and smile. "Elias and Muriel are dearly missed by all who love them. Yet I hope I have done my best to raise there greatest treasure well. I know that Adelha has been my greatest joy to walk beside and love as my own. Yet I am sure she will be an exceptional mother for all four of these blessings." Simeon grins to then move when the baby in the crib begins wailing. So the angel scoops the bundle up to cradle close and give a few soft words. "It's all right, Audrey. We didn't leave you behind." The baby calms down right away to wiggle and yawn. While Leviathan pokes his head out of the tent to then smile at everyone. "Congratulations on the adoption finally going through for you, Eugene. I would also like to say how glad I am that you helped Asmo and Addy adopt these two. Ulysse and Althea are so sweet and adorable that I wish we all lived together." Eugene chuckled as Lucifer walked over to tent to scoop up Althea and cuddle her. Which has the three year old pixie squeak and laugh to give Lucifer sloppy kisses. Asmodeus turning as Ulysse jumped out of the tent to run to him and give him a tackle hug. Which Asmodeus was all to glad to receive as he toppled over to lay on the ground and snuggle his adopted son tight. "Yes. I see we've gotten all the food and drinks set out. So then. Is my darling little scamp hungry enough to have his lunch?"

Ulysse nods to squeak in excitement as Simeon watched the demons herd the children to the table. While Eugene helped Adelha stand to actually lift her up bridal style and hug her close. Asmodeus soon beside Adelha on the other side to join in the hug and place a kiss to her forehead. The Avatar of Lust soon saying to Eugene, "We were hoping you would stay for the birth of the twins. Since we all know it's going to be any day now. Would you be willing to be there to welcome my girls with my bride?" Eugene grins to nod and look elated. His words deep and rich with eloquence. "I wouldn't miss it for any reason."

[late-to-the-magnus-archives]

Uh-oh, I'm back on my self-indulgence

—-

Psst: it’s ready!

AO3 || Tumblr

Anybody want a feel-good one-shot Malevolent fic involving thought-provoking movies, surprise visits, brutal murder, and Arthur being REALLY clever?

I need to read it over again, but I think it'll be ready to post tonight.

Have a snippet.

Full story coming tonight!

--------

The movie is called Dancing Lady, and Arthur already knows nothing will ever be made like it again once the Hays Code has its way.

It’s a ridiculous love triangle, a “tarnished” woman (a concept Arthur finds absurd) torn between a rich sponsor and a poor lover, both of whom, at least, see her talent for what it is.

There are some scenes in this one. At one point, Clark Gable massages Joan Crawford’s leg, raising it above his shoulder, only hinting at the things that must surely be on display from Gable’s point of view.

Yowza.

It’s hard not to imagine Joan Crawford making the kinds of faces John describes, and Arthur can’t help a little bit of distracting response.

He focuses on his popcorn instead of anything else prone to explode.

“Those guys are a lot of silk hats and silk socks with nothing between,” says Clark Gable on screen, and Arthur laughs.

John huffs. Why are they being so particular about this?  

“Particular about what?” says Arthur.

Tod, Patch, Janie. Why the fuck doesn’t she just lie with both of them? Why do they give a fuck?

Arthur is completely taken aback. “Well, it… I mean… she can’t do that.”

Why not?

Arthur has never in his life considered this question.

It’s about offspring, John decides.

“Ah… no, it’s not really - “

They demand monogamy so there can be no question of inheritance.

“She’s a dancing girl. She has nothing to inherit.”

Sure, but Tod does.

“Yes, but… that isn’t it, John.”

Then what is?

Arthur’s really not sure how to answer. What’s he going to say? That it isn’t the Christian thing to do? “I… it just isn’t done that way. Generally.”

Though in his musician days, he witnessed some truly unique romantic configurations.

It’s a lot to think about.

Stupid, pronounces John with fiendish delight, and continues to tell Arthur everything that’s happening on screen even though Arthur does not reply.

#

In February, John says, Arthur, I want to see a movie.

Arthur sighs. “John. I’ve been fucking stabbed.”

Only a little, says John. The three stitches are fine. You’re fine.

He is fine, honestly. It wasn’t that bad, and in the end, they took out the giant bug-thing that poked him.

He’s pretty sure he isn’t poisoned. Maybe that alone deserves celebration.

Arthur sighs. “Well. I suppose an evening of distraction isn’t such a terrible idea.”

Of course it’s not a terrible idea. It’s mine.

Arthur rolls his useless eyes, but can’t help a little smile. 

#

This movie, though. This movie hits a little different.

Death Takes a Holiday is about Death himself, who is tired of being misunderstood, and decides to go slumming among humans for a few days to see if he can figure out why.

And he falls in love. 

With a human.

Which can’t end well for that poor lady.

Arthur forgets his popcorn.

The drama is absolutely contrived and thoroughly effective.The struggles of the inhuman to understand the human - 

The choice of the human to understand the strange -

“And tonight, I must go back to my distant kingdom,” says Fredric March, whose portrayal of Death is passionate, quiet-spoken, and rife with tortured drama.

“Will you take me with you?” says Evelyn Venable, who plays Grazia, the love interest, and whose name means grace.

“Take you?” says Death, who is pretending to be something he is not, who is carrying on a wild con with the goal of… enlightenment? “Take you? I should be so unhappy alone. Take you? Oh, no, no… don’t tempt me. But Grazia, give me one hour of you - let me hold you once, and feel your life.”

Holy shit, Arthur thinks, because he’s pretty sure he knows how Grazia feels.

Sort of. He’s no damsel, and whatever he and John are isn’t romantic, but still?

“Now you see me as I am,” says Death, at last revealed as shadow, as monster, as darkly divine.

“But I've always seen you like that! You haven't changed,” says Grazia.

She chooses him, knowing what he is.

She chooses him, knowing what it will cost.

The music swells, and Arthur finds himself tearing up. “Then there is a love which casts out fear, and I have found it! And love is greater than illusion… and as strong as death!”

John cheers. She goes with him! She went with him! Yes, Arthur!

Does John see the parallels, too?

Arthur isn’t brave enough to ask.

He wipes his eyes, amazed, moved. Almost envious of that stupid made-up girl.

Yeah. This one hit different. 

He can’t help wondering, silly as it is, if this movie was based on something that really happened.

Death and Grazia, reaching across the gap.

It’s not him and John.

But then, who can say just what they are?

[orangepanic]

Thanks for the tag @nyamadermont! A belated sort of year in review whose questions I thought were interesting.

1. Number of stories posted to Ao3: 46 added or updated in 2022

2. Word count in 2022: 508,999

3. Fandoms I wrote for: Avatar: The Legend of Korra and Avatar: The Last Airbender

4. Pairings: Iroh II/Asami Sato (25) and a smattering of other pairings in dribs and drabs like Mako/Korra (3) and Jet/Ty Lee (2)

5. Stories with the most:

Kudos: Severance, the Irosami ghost story

Bookmarks: Smoke, the Equalist Asami Irosami story

Comment threads:  Also Smoke, followed by Severance

Word count: Same as above. So clearly it was a year of two long fics. I’m thrilled people gave them a chance.

6. Work I’m most proud of (and why): I think it might be The Return, a Korra/Asami/Iroh II story. The premise is that Iroh and Asami marry and start a family sometime before book four, but he’s killed when he ignores Raiko’s order to surrender to Kuvira. Asami eventually gets together with Korra to raise the kids, only to have Iroh return from a secret POW camp years later. I’m proud of the story because I hardly ever write poly and had to really think through what that dynamic would be like between the three of them, the kids who didn’t know Iroh, and how they’d all react as the family changed. It wound up being much more about Korra and Iroh’s relationship than I expected. I got some very nice comments from people who don’t typically like Iroh/Asami as a ship, too.

7.   Work I’m least proud of (and why): All the ones I haven’t finished yet!

8.   Share or describe a favorite review you received: I love and treasure every single comment I get, but I’d like to leave a special shout out for @myargalargan and @devildogdemon for leaving long comments on every chapter of some of my multi chapter fics. It’s so amazing that they spend time and effort on that and I’m glowing.

9.   A time when writing was really, really hard: Isn’t it always? But the end of Smoke is killing me. This fic is going on three years and I know what needs to happen and it’s really hard not to mess it up. 

10. A scene or character you wrote that surprised you: Hiroshi and Yasuko Sato in How I Always Loved You are an absolute fucking delight and also such a surprise. Hiroshi Sato in canon is a kind of one-dimensional asshole who serves the purpose of being a villain (heck, I’ve written him like this myself) and Yasuko is just a photograph we see once who is usually assumed to be a carbon copy of her daughter, Asami. Getting such strong personalities for both of them has been so much fun, especially when it turned out both they and their ship dynamic was so different from Irosami. 

11. A favorite excerpt of your writing: I wrote a sequel to an Irosami vampire AU I’d written the year before. There are lots of parts of it that I like, but really liked seeing Iroh balance the human and more animalistic vampire urges. I did a ton of research for this fic because I decided vampires are like leopards with territories and stuff.

“I found it,” Iroh said lamely. He let the ball drop to the ground in quiet submission. He didn’t want Asami to take it away. His scent might be everywhere, but this was technically still her territory. Everything in it belonged to her. That was another thing Iroh had noticed. Concepts that before he’d only attributed to animals, like “prey” and “territory,” now seemed perfectly natural. 

He saw Asami stiffen slightly at the tone of his voice. She looked suddenly wary. 

“You can have it,” she said slowly. “I haven’t seen that ball since I was a kid. It’s probably been out here twenty years.” A slight pause. “Do you play?”

Iroh let his body relax; a signal to her that he wasn’t a threat. “Not since the Academy,” he said. “And that was mostly a bunch of us blowing off steam. Not a lot of kemari on ships. It’s too easy to lose it overboard.”

He saw Asami mimic his posture as she studied him from across the flat grassy area where he’d been playing. A de-escalation of sorts. Good. Not that Iroh had intended to challenge her. In truth, he wasn’t sure what he’d intended. It was only a ball. He was a guest here. Republic City was Asami’s to hunt… wasn’t it? And never mind that he was larger and fit and, an embarrassingly sexist thought, male. None of that mattered. Or it shouldn’t. Spirits, what was wrong with him?

“Do you?” he asked. The words seemed to have more weight than they ought. 

12. How did you grow as a writer this year: This (Avatar) fandom can be really hard on people in a lot of ways, and one of those ways is with a certain ideological purity that seems to pervade a lot of it and which is meant to dictate who can write what, and what can be written. This year I wrote a character with a physical disability (Tis the Sea Sun for Love) and I did a lot of research for what was a rather lighthearted holiday fic. I think a year ago I’d have been too scared someone would come screaming at me that I wasn’t allowed. 

13. How do you hope to grow next year: I find ending multi-chapter fics difficult. I feel like a lot of them go on too long and kind of fizzle out. So I’d like to work on my endings.

14. Who was your greatest positive influence this year as a writer (could be another writer or beta or cheerleader or muse etc etc): my discord server is a pretty awesome group of internet humans, I must say. Love u absolute cracky gorgeous degenerates.

15. Anything from your real life show up in your writing this year: I’m sadly susceptible to dares. The Only Thing I Ever wanted was bet you can’t write a soulmark AU, The Spares was bet you can’t make Korroh work, Big Fish was bet you won’t really write mermaid smut, Do You Have a Better Idea was bet you can’t make Iroh/Asami/Kuvira smut, etc. I’m very much like this in real life, too. 

16. Any new wisdom you can share with other writers: Your characters are people! Do what you can to get to know them as individuals and their unique dynamics in relationships. Think about their quirky likes and dislikes and weave those in. Know what they’re afraid of and what they want more than anything but tell no one. Imagine what they’d pick out at a store, or how they’d behave at a party, or what they’d be like in a group at a board game. You may never use the content, but it will help you find their voice and distinguish them from everyone else. There should (in my opinion) be very few plots that work the same for multiple ships. 

17. Any projects you’re looking forward to starting (or finishing) in the new year: I have a couple of big fics that I really want to start, but I have to finish some big fics first. If I can do that, the two I’m most interested in are one about the Equalist trials and another about 20-30 years post canon as the question of whether Raava can still reincarnate comes into question.

18. Tag some writers whose answers you’d like to read:

And anyone else who wants to!

[avatarmerida]

Window Shopping

Not enough fake dating fics for this ship so this is me trying my best to fix that. Takes place after King’s Tide in the human realm. Here some light and fluffy Huntlow. As usual, blame spelling or formatting issues on me being on mobile writing this at 2am lol I also kind of hate the title but whatever ✌️

———

“Psst, Captain,” whispered Hunter so loudly it could barely be called a whisper.

Willow looked up from the clothing rack she was scanning to face Hunter. “Yeah, what’s up?”

“Don’t look now but those girls over there know we’re witches,” he said, failing at looking inconspicuous.

“What? How?” Willow’s eyes frantically darted around to see find who he meant. They had been so careful to cover their ears and blend in, when had they slipped up?

“They’ve been whispering and pointing in our direction for the last few minutes,” he said, pretending to look at the clothing selection. “Why else would they pay such attention to us? They’ve figured it out. It’s only a matter of time before they alert the local authorities.”

“Hunter, are you sure...?” Willow heard them giggle again and raised her head to look, watching the girls shush and shove each other she instantly understood what was really going on. Her face softened and she smiled.

“They’re not looking at us, they’re looking at you.”

“Me? Why me? Should I act as diversion so you can get away? When do-.”

“They’re looking at you becaue they think you’re cute,” said Willow simply.

“They think- what?”

“Hunter, you’ve got nothing to worry about,” laughed Willow. “That’s what teenagers do; they see someone cute and they act strange. Guess it’s the same in every realm.” She shook her head, taking delight in the reality. But Hunter was not convinced.

“No, that can’t be it,” said Hunter, continuing to worry. “Humans and witches have similar features and beauty standards, it must be something else.”

Willow dropped the cardigan she was holding and looked at Hunter with utter surprise. “Hunter? Are you serious?” She asked, genuinely taken back. “You’re very handsome, you know that right?”

“What? Me?” He sputtered, shooked to hear these words at all, flustered to hear them from her. “I-I probably just look like someone who is handsome. I mean, look at me!”

“I am,” she chuckled. “You’ve always been handsome; is this the first time someone has told you that?”

“Well, I mean I guess...” the question had so many layers, he don’t know which one to tackle first. “I’ve always worn my Golden Guard mask so I guess no one has had the chance? But even if I didn’t, I have so many scars-.”

“Hunter,” she stood closer to him, her voice calm but fierce. “Don’t be silly; you’re very handsome. I wouldn’t lie about that. If your scars are something you choose to hide or not mention that’s fine; I can understand and respect that. But they don’t make you lesser than and they certainly don’t make you ugly. Do you know how many students were asking me about you after our flyer derby game?”

“Asking what?”

“If you were single,” she laughed. “I told you that your flying skills were sick; you impressed a lot of people.”

Did I impress you? He wanted to ask, which was silly. Of course he had, that’s why she asked him to join the team in the first place. But now he wondered if she was only impressed by his flying. He wanted to know: did he still impress her?

“So, uh what did you say?” Hunter asked instead.

“That is was none of their business,” she shrugged. “I also didn’t know for sure so-.”

“-I’ve never had a girlfriend,” he interjected quickly, regretting it the second he said it. It was the truth, but why did he word it like that? Why did he care so much if Willow knew his romantic past (or lack thereof)?

“O...kay...” Said Willow with an unsure chuckle as she went back to looking at the clothing rack. “That’s kind of surprising, actually. Though I guess it makes sense, since you didn’t go to a regular school. If you ever came to Hexside you’d be getting stacks of love letter everyday, probably.”

“Oh, well, I don’t know about that,” he said, growing more flustered by the minute. “I don’t think I’d even know how to react or what to say if that happened.”

“Well, if you ever did come to Hexside, we’d have to tell everyone- oh my Titian! I never told you what they did, did I?”

“What who did?”

“Well, oh my titan it’s kind of embarrassing, please don’t be mad,” started Willow, starting to blush. “But uh, we were trying to recruit a suitable replacement, which let’s face it is practically impossible, and everyone just kept asking about you. Skara and Viney were getting tired of it, so to put an end it they told...” Willow started to laugh nervously. “... they told everyone you were my out of town boyfriend.”

“R-really?” Said Hunter, laughing nervously for a different reason.

“Yeah,” said Willow, with a sigh. “I mean, if we told them you were the Golden Guard, it would only inspire more questions. But once everyone thought you were taken, we were able to focus on try outs.”

Taken, the word buzzed over and over in his mind. What did it mean to be taken exactly? And why was he so sure that he some way he already taken by the witch in front of him?

“And everyone believed it? That I was your boyfriend?”

“For the most part yeah,” she said with a shrug, then her face turned sour. “Well, of course Boscha made her usual comments about how the only date I could ever get is with a fern-.”

“Well Boshca sucks,” grumbled Hunter, aggressively pushing hangers aside.

“You don’t even know Boshca,” laughed Willow.

“Anyway,” said Hunter who didn’t need to know Boshca to know that she sucked. “W-were you okay with that? I mean, like, I don’t know if maybe you had a boyfriend who was maybe jealous or-.”

“I think one of those girls is gonna come talk to you,” interrupted Willow, stealing a peek.

“What? No!” He whispered in a panic, ducking down.

“Whaaat? You don’t want to talk to a pretty girl?” Willow teased.

Had Hunter been smoother he would’ve said he thoughts which were: I already am. But he knew that even if he could muster up the courage to say that, he wouldn’t have any left over to speak to her the rest of the week. Instead, he remained silent. Luckily, Willow could tell he needed help averting the new and awkward and social situation surrounding him.

“Okay, well I think I owe you one so here’s what we’ll do,” smiled Willow, pulling him up. “Pretend you’re talking to me.”

“But, I am talking to you?”

“No, pretend we’re talking romantically,” she said, standing closer to him and giving him a playful wink. “If they think I’m your girlfriend and we’re on a shopping date, they’ll probably move on.”

“Right! Sure! Of course!” Hunter chuckled, feeling like he was going to melt. “You’re my girlfriend and we’re shopping together. Totally normal!”

She took two shirts from the rack and held them up to Hunter, making a spectacle of deciding which one looked better. “Now pretend I’m shopping for a new shirt for you.”

“But we are shopping for a new shirt for me?”

“But pretend we’re doing it romantically,” whispered Willow. How was he supposed to do that? How could a mundane task be romantic?

Willow suddenly let out a loud but shallow giggle, Hunter knew instantly it wasn’t a genuine laugh and the action left him confused. Willow read his inquisitive expression.

“Girlfriends always laugh at their partner’s jokes,” she whispered with a wink. He knew her laugh well, he wondered if that meant anything. “I’m pretending you said something funny and charming.”

“Oh, I see,” he said, starting to get the gist of it. “Maybe I should tell you how pretty you look in that dress, how it brings out the green of your eyes,”

“I mean, maybe,” said Willow with a blush, pushing a strand of hair behind her ear. “But I don’t think they can hear us though.”

“Oh, well, just in case,” sputtered Hunter, clearing his throat. “Y-you do look really pretty in that dress.”

“Thank you, Hunter,” said Willow, smoothing her skirt subconsciously. “You know, for a guy who’s never had a girlfriend, you seem to be pretty good at it.”

“Guess I’m just a natural,” he laughed, rubbing the back of his neck hoping he appeared more modest than nervous. The nervous part of his brain was on fire, but the part of his brain that liked order and rules treated it like a mission. He searched his mind for intel and resources, things he observed couples doing in passing.

“I think it’s working,” whispered Willow, looking back at their audience who seemed to be losing interest, but Hunter couldn’t stop looking at her. He was enjoying spending time with her so much that he had nearly forgotten their rouse, and part of him didn’t want it to end.

“Yeah,” he said dreamily, and then summoned his boldness. “Maybe I should hold your hand?”

“Oh! Good idea!” Willow said and she quickly slipped her hand into his, and intertwined their fingers. Hunter prayed she didn’t notice how sweaty his palms were, but if she did she made no indication.

He treated each thing as checklist. Compliments? Check. Hand holding? Check. What else had he seen couples do? His mind went back to Luz and Amity at the house, as annoying they were they were a great source in this covert operation. Oh!

Without thinking, he leaned down and gave Willow a gentle kiss on the cheek. She let out a small gasp and a pink blush crept onto to her cheek. She turned her head to look at Hunter, who when he realized exactly what he had done, had started to resemble a tomato and his eyes grew wide at his own impulsiveness.

“Sorry! Sorry, was that okay?” He whispered frantically. “Was that too much? I should’ve asked, I guess I just got caught up, ya know I’m really good undercover, I mean that’s how we-.”

She cut him off by rising to her tip toes and planting an equally gentle kiss on his cheek. “I don’t think they saw,” she explained plainly. “Just in case, ya know?”

“Yeah,” he murmured with a soft smile. “Better safe than sorry.”

-

After they finally found a few good shirts for Hunter and made their way to the checkout without Hunter having to have any awkward conversations. Not with any humans, at least.

“Thank you, by the way, for being my girlfriend today,” he said as normal as he was able to as they walked down the sidewalk back to the Noceda house. He couldn’t help but notice they were still holding hands. “You were uh, really good at it.”

“Thanks,” laughed Willow, swinging her shopping bag in her free hand. “It was a lot of fun actually.”

“It’s good practice for when we get back home,” continued Hunter. “Let’s see Boshca try and doubt you now!”

Willow laughed. “You’re up for pretending to be my boyfriend when we get back home?” She asked. “You’d have to keep it up for at least like two years, you know that right?”

“I’m willing keep it up as long as necessary, maybe even longer!” He said enthusiastically, caught up in the moment and his love of planning. “We may have to do more research, but I think we have a solid foundation in place. I think I’ll have to look further into terms of endearment and anniversary rules, but I think we have potential to be a flyer derby power couple!”

Willow noticed how his eyes lit up when he talked about this hypothetical and it made her heart leap. Her heart always did this whenever he spoke about something was passionate about, and sometimes still when he didn’t speak at all. She noticed now how he rubbed his thumb across her hand absentmindedly and she hoped he didn’t notice how sweaty her palms were.

“I’d like that,” said Willow, contently resting her head on his shoulder. For the bit, she told herself, just in case those humans are still nearby. “Besides, we could always just tell people we broke up, in case you meet someone you wanted to really date.”

“That’s ridiculous, why would I ever break up with you?” Hunter scoffed as if it was the most ridiculous thing he has ever heard in his life (because it was.) Willow hoped there would be more giggling girls looking at Hunter when they went out again. And if they saw even a fraction of what she saw when she looked at him, she knew there would be. And she was looking forward to it.

[writingbymoonlight]

music for an onigiri shop

ft.: timeskip osamu x reader

word count: ~1.4k words

a/n: my entry for @satisfactooru's the mixtape collab! bay, as promised, a fic that is slightly inspired by a harry styles song <3 thank you allowing me to join your collab!

Despite the shop being technically closed, light from within Onigiri Miya floods onto the sidewalk outside of the establishment and the sound of a volleyball match being played on the TV could be discerned by any passersby. 

Inside the eatery, Osamu steps out of the cramped kitchen and into the main dining area, which is typically bustling with lively customers. However, this evening, it’s just you and you’re sitting on one of the many stools lined up along the counter. Your posture is slouched and relaxed, and your eyes are glued to the MSBY Black Jackal match that’s playing on the old TV above your head. 

“Here ya go,” Osamu announces as he stands directly in front of you on the opposite side of the counter. He slides a plate of freshly cut watermelon and the concentrated expression on your face morphs into one of pleasant surprise. 

“Watermelon?” you question skeptically, raising an eyebrow at your dear friend. “I thought I was supposed to be taste-tasting your new onigiri flavors?”

Osamu casually throws the towel that he uses to dry his hands over his shoulder, and he rests his elbows on the counter before responding, “I don’t want ya getting bored of eating only onigiri, hence the watermelon.”

“Wow, free onigiri and watermelon!” you happily exclaim as you pick up a slice of the fruit. After taking a giant bite of the juicy watermelon, you teasingly add, “Someone is being unusually kind today.” 

“Hey, I always treat people, especially ya, with kindness,” Osamu retorts, rolling his grey eyes in mock annoyance. “Or do I need to remind ya of all the free food I’ve given ya over the past few years?” 

“Okay, okay, you’re right! I’m only kidding!” you laugh as you finish off your piece of watermelon and place the dark green rind back onto the porcelain plate. “You never fail to make sure I’m fed, which is why you’re my favorite twin.”

As if on cue, the sound of thunderous applause erupts on the TV and the onigiri shop owner’s gaze immediately flickers to the screen. His brother’s team has won the game against their opponent following a service ace made by Atsumu, who can be seen donning his signature cocky smile. 

“Smug bastard,” Osamu mumbles under his breath because he already knows that this win will inflate the setter’s already massive ego. Still, a part of him is elated to see Atsumu succeed, though he would rather go a week without onigiri than admit this out loud. 

“Hey, have you ever thought of playing something other than volleyball matches in Onigiri Miya?” you suddenly inquire, snapping Osamu's focus back to you.

“What do ya mean?” he asks, leaning forward so that he’s at eye level with you.

“Well, every time I stop by here when it’s open, I feel like you have a volleyball game on the TV,” you explain. “And the few times that the TV hasn’t been on, it’s just been…quiet.”

“It’s never quiet here,” Osamu huffs in protest as he scrunches his dark eyebrows together in confusion. “This place is usually crowded with chatty people.”

“But don’t you think it would be nice to have something playing in the background while people talk? Other than a volleyball game? Like music?”

“I don’t think people come to Onigiri Miya to listen to music.” 

“Oh, come on! It’ll add to the ambiance!” 

Osamu is tempted to argue further, but he is aware that that would be futile because you occasionally could be extremely tenacious. It is a quality he definitely admires about you, and he has the inkling that you are going to be stubborn about this matter. So, instead of firing back with some witty comeback, he sighs and runs a hand through his messy hair. 

“Okay, what kind of music do ya suggest then?” he reluctantly asks. This small victory causes you to squeal in delight and a small grin forms on Osamu’s face. How could he not smile right now? He’s always found your joyfulness over the small things endearing and contagious. 

“I think something upbeat, but also chill! Something like…”

You allow your sentence to trail off as you fish your phone out of your back pocket. After a few seconds of tapping on your screen, the chords of an upbeat melody commence playing and you slide your phone across the wooden surface towards Osamu and the former opposite hitter can see that the song is “Music for a Sushi Restaurant” by Harry Styles. 

“This is an onigiri shop. Not a sushi restaurant,” Osamu states in a deadpan tone as he removes his elbows from the counter and stands back up to his full height.

Unfortunately for him, you are lost in your own little world and not paying any attention to his words. You’re bobbing your head side-to-side and you’re lip-synching the lyrics as you hold your clenched first towards your mouth, as if there is currently a microphone in your hand. All Osamu can do is cross his arms over his chest and watch your “performance” with an amused smirk.

“You know I love you, babe!” you dramatically screech alongside the British musician, causing Osamu to finally break out into a fit of laughter that leads to tears pricking his eyes. 

Osamu wipes away a stray tear from the corner of his eye and, when he looks back at you, his heart swells with an indescribable emotion. You are beaming at him with your usual bright smile and sparkling eyes as the fading daylight trickling in from the window casts a golden halo around your head. 

“So pretty,” Osamu muses to himself and, as soon as this thought is formulated, his heart skips a beat, and he begins panicking. 

Did he really just think you, his close friend, are pretty? He’s always known, objectively, that you are very pretty, but this time was…different. Never did the thought of you being pretty randomly enter his mind. And never had he anticipated his heart to become overcome with such strong emotions while thinking about you in that way. 

“Don’t get hung up on the fact this song is called ‘Music for a Sushi Restaurant’ and not something like ‘Music for an Onigiri Shop’, ‘Samu,” you remark, bringing up the point he had made earlier that you did, apparently, hear. “Listen, how about I promise to make a playlist of music that is perfect for your onigiri shop that you can test out, if you want, as long as you promise to at least consider my suggestion?”

You show no signs of noticing the frenzy going on within Osamu’s head, so the Inarizaki alumnus attempts to temporarily push aside the confusing thoughts that are muddling his brain and he simply replies, “Deal.”

Breaking out in a wide grin, you extend your hand out to Osamu, wanting him to shake it and solidify your agreement. Osamu hesitates for the briefest of seconds before wrapping his calloused fingers around your hand.

This isn’t anything new. He��s held your hand several times in the past. Like, last week when you two watched a horror movie at your place and you got so scared that you grabbed his hand for comfort. Or that time he physically dragged you to the new restaurant down the street from his apartment that he was excited to try. 

As your fingers delicately touch the back of his hand now, though, it feels like he has been struck by lightning and he hastily drops your hand, which earns him a puzzled look for you.

“I better go get the onigiri from the back, so we can start trying them out,” Osamu blurts out and he can sense that his face is starting to turn red.

Probably because you are accustomed to Osamu’s sudden antics, you don’t make any comments about his bizarre behavior. Instead, you shrug your shoulders and say, “Alright.” 

And with that, Osamu turns on his heels and rapidly strides into his solitary kitchen. All the prepared onigiri sit on the workstation in front of him, surrounded by chopped ingredients and used metal bowls that he’ll have to wash up later. But he cannot bring himself to bring the onigiri out to you. Not yet. 

First, he must grapple with the question: is it possible to start falling for your friend in an instant?

[phoenixyfriend]

Time Travel ft. Leia and Vader

(Helped by @atagotiak)

I was reading a bunch of different time travel fics, and my brain slotted in that one "Vader hands over the Empire to Leia and is now her most devoted sycophant" dynamic and mixed it with the "Luke and Vader time-travel and Vader does the right thing but only because it would make Luke sad if he didn't."

I landed on "Leia time travels to prequels era, but her least favorite family member has also traveled with her, though it takes him a few months to find her because he has less resources without the entire Imperial Navy, but he's still a scary Sith in all black with a breathing mask and intimidating cape."

"Tiny angry lady who wants to force democracy and her giant Sith father whom she hates but has resigned herself to pointing at threats like a tank who inexplicably loves her" is a delightful dynamic.

The first few months included a lot of concern about "why do you know so much about Sith if you're not trained or looking to be one" and then Vader shows up and calls her 'daughter' and she insults him and it's like "Oh. That explains it."

Council Member: We have a Sith in the Temple. Vader: Former Sith. Leia: Listen. He is your best chance against Sidious. Also, do you want Dooku dead? Vader can make him dead. Council Member: Your father i-- Leia, scrunching up her face: Don't call him that.

Like Leia is deep in conversation when the Temple starts panicking because Vader just. Showed up? He snuck in, somehow? So Palpatine wouldn't catch him on video entering through the front door? And people try to keep her away from the trouble, because there's an entire array of Jedi Masters to deal with this Surprise Sith, except she can sense exactly which Sith it is and once she shouts "oh you have got to be kidding me!" she just starts running and, well, it's Leia. Nobody can stop her.

(Leia does have less combat training, at least less force-assisted combat training, than the Jedi. But then the Jedi don’t want to hurt here here. She's not fighting her way down, either, she's just running really fast and all the best fighters already left. They had a head start. So Leia's mostly running past random padawans and the like.)

She shoves her way to the front of the group of Masters who. Well, they're certainly ready to attack. But Vader is just standing there. Doing nothing. Still intimidating as fuck but he's not doing anything.

And then Leia bursts onto the scene like "You motherfucker."

She hits her head on a clipboard and whines because UGH he's a walking WMD and they could REALLY use him against Palpatine but also. She hates him so much.

She tries to hand him off to the Jedi council but he insists that he will only take orders from Leia herself.

Jedi: Wait, what. Leia, completely ignoring them: Did you follow me here? Vader, through the mechanical wheezing: I have no loyalty to my master and no empire to serve. You are all that I have left. Leia: Me? Me? I'm all that you have left? You committed a genocide that killed all the family I had except for the twin brother you later mutilated! Jedi: Wait what Vader, going to one knee: I pledge my loyalty and blade to you and only you, daughter. Leia, ready to explode: I. I just. Jedi, some of whom really want to say things but are slowly realizing that they just accidentally acquired a Sith Lord by proxy: What. Leia: I hate you so much but I can't even get rid of you, you're too useful. Vader: I live to serve. Leia: Yeah. Got that. Fuck. Someone get him a full medical rundown, I don't know the last time that mess of a life support system was updated. Jedi, agitated again: WHAT Leia: Listen, I don't like him, but I'm not stupid enough to throw away the second most dangerous person in the universe when I can point him at the most dangerous person in the universe. Especially not if he's going to listen to me. Jedi: But... he's a Sith. Leia: Please trust me when I say this: you might be able to take him down eventually, but he will take dozens of you down with him, and right now he's... honestly, I'm pretty sure he's more depressed than malicious. Jedi: You hate him. I can feel it. Leia: Yes, but I can be professional about it. Vader: They have not yet d-- Leia: Nope! No talking! Not until I've had a chance to process this mess!

There is a whole lot of Leia snapping at Vader to stop it whenever he starts giving off vibes like he wants to take the most violent shortcut possible.

She is not the gentle hand that Luke would be.

Leia isn't a Jedi or working for them but she's wormed her way into being an ally. They don't 100% trust her, especially not with Vader just showing up and declaring her family but like

How do you say no to a WMD walking into your house and saying "I will fight the monster you cower from at night."

There's a lot of Leia snapping off an admonishment that sounds just a little too odd and then when questioned she just says "He knows what he did."

tbh I'm not sure how long it takes for them to tell anyone that Anakin is Vader. They might hold it off in hopes that Anakin can just retire to be Mr. Amidala after the war is over.

Well, Leia hopes. Vader just lets Leia make that call and then glowers at his younger self every time they're in the same room.

I do feel like Leia tells Obi-Wan the truth first

Imagine. Imagine a Vader who’s past still isn’t known. But has gotten somewhat comfortable around the Jedi (not really but the bar for what counts and comfortable for him is low). And Obi-Wan habitually banters with darksiders, right? If Vader’s guard is down for a moment and he, without thinking, references an inside joke...

Might be the most fun in terms of ways to tell Obi-Wan "We're time travelers and Vader is what happens if you let Palpatine drive Anakin off the edge"

If Vader has decided to pledge himself to her orders after destroying her planet, then fine. She can work with that. She's not going to be happy about it, but she can make it work.

The Jedi Temple hates having Vader anywhere nearby but he is actually very good at hiding himself from people, including Palpatine And for all that Leia seems perpetually irritated with her apparent bodyguard, he does seem to listen to her.

Jedi council: We still haven't figured out how to handle Dooku Leia: Do you know his location? Jedi council: Yes. Leia: [sigh] Leia: Vader, deal with it. Alive if possible.

(Leia does need to clarify an acceptable level of violence against the people protecting Dooku.) (She needs to clarify... many things.)

Leia always says "Vader" and one time a poor fool just asks why she doesn't call him dad and she snarls out "He is not the man that raised me, and I am glad for it."

Someone less foolish later prods more compassionately and she lets them know she was adopted and didn't properly meet Vader except in passing until she was nineteen.

"And then he tortured you." "And then he tortured me, yes." "Damn." "Didn't even find out we were related until a few years later when he chopped my brother's arm off." "You... wow." "I know."

At least one exchange that is L: You mean when you tortured me? A: He did what. V: I was not aware of our relation at that time. L: Not the point! I am fully aware of your interrogation methods and I refuse to let you be the one to acquire the evidence for-- A: Wait no go back he tortured you? L: Move on, please, we already have. A: That means I'm... oh Force, I'm going to torture my own daughter what in the actual fu-- L: We're moving on.

(“I end up torturing my own daughter” If Leia’s feeling especially spiteful I can see her saying “you mutilate your own son too”)

Concept: Leia is very free with traumatizing details of her past re:Vader and Anakin thinks that it sucks but doesn’t think much of it bc Sith. And then some time later he finds out...

(I love characters who use the traumatizing details of their past to shut down conversations.)

It's such a wonderfully horrifying concept for him to try to awkwardly comfort this girl he kind of knows because having a Sith for a dad sounds like it would suck and Leia seems nice, even if she's kind of weird and uncomfortable around Anakin, but he saw her flinch around a few other tall people wearing black robes the way she stiffens around Vader so maybe it's just that!

It is not.

Vader does get a significant amount of medical treatment. Including a bunch of "holy shit, that's a lot of drugs" and similar. There is so much lightning damage.

hnnng I'm just really in love with the image of Tiny Tiny Leia sitting behind a desk for some fancy negotiation, the picture of professionalism, while Vader just stands behind her shoulder, looming, glaring expressionless death at whoever came to speak with his baby girl.

Not that he would call her that, because she'd just hate him more and he's really not sure how to fix that problem, other than doing whatever she asks with no complaints and hoping she appreciates it.

Vader: [looks at children wandering by, has complicated emotions] Leia, tired of his shit: What now? Vader: I killed them, once. Leia, closing her eyes and taking a deep breath: And you're not going to do that again. No killing children. Vader: I know that. Leia: Great. I am... regretting asking. I am so very much regretting asking.

I do really like the idea of someone asking Leia once if she wants Jedi training and she says, no, actually, she's fully aware of the fact that she's angry little ball of hate sometimes, especially towards her bio father, and she'd like to refrain from putting herself in a position where she knows enough about the Force to Fall. She wouldn't Fall. But it does make people shut up.

[wyattjohnston]

fell in love with you in stages - joel farabee

note: this is a Feminine!Reader fic, not my usual style in case that's important to anyone. Thanks to @lulucanwrite @fuckyeahmattytkachuk and @princessphilly for helping me out in various ways.

This was written for @museinmind as part of the summer fic exchange 2k21. I hope you enjoy it!

word count: 2,348

summary: 4 times Joel realised he was falling in love with you + 1 time he told you.

1 –

Joel didn’t really know why you were there, sitting on TK’s couch laughing loudly at Karly and her baby-belly before finally moving the cushions so that she could sit with her. You were friends, presumably, with Karly; you’d barely spoken to anyone but her or TK all afternoon. They had introduced you earlier, by name only and not with any relation to anyone, but you had otherwise kept yourself.

Even when you were alone Joel had noticed that you never stopped smiling. It was contagious, seeing it reach your eyes.

He asked around about you, trying to get as much information as he could before he spoke to you—he liked to be prepared for everything which was a holdover from never being unprepared for hockey. TK was, maybe predictably, the only one who could help.

Joel listened intently to TK, even if he wasn’t looking at TK at all. He hardly took his eyes off you as he learnt about your job, your school, how you met Karly and that it had taken nearly twelve months for you to finally come to a party with the Flyers. TK didn’t seem bothered that Joel wasn’t looking at him.

You also didn’t notice that he’d been staring, thankfully, until Joel had nearly exhausted his questions. You did smile at him, though, when you realised. It was a small smile, shy, and definitely didn’t reach your eyes but it was kind and welcome. Joel didn’t even look back at TK as he slapped his shoulder and made his way towards you.

“I’m Joel,” he said calmly, though he was anything but.

“I know,” you smiled before introducing yourself.

“I know,” Joel mimicked. “I just had Teeks give me a crash course.”

You raised an eyebrow and asked, “Couldn’t let me give my own crash course?”

“You seem like someone who’s going to take me by surprise—I needed a head start.”

You patted the seat, your smile even more disarming up close. You turned on the seat cushion, tucking one leg under you so that you were facing him. Joel started to rattle off what he’d learnt—none of it particularly deep, though it was at the very least correct. He was truly delighted with everything he knew, and even more so when you added some extra details that Teeks could never know.

“You really find me that interesting, huh?” you asked joyously.

“I like how happy you are about all of it.”

That only served to make your face brighten even more.

2 –

Joel waited, impatiently, for the next time he’d get to see you. With the season picking up and the weather getting colder, it was harder to get everyone in the same place and even harder when hoping for people who weren’t related to the team to be there, too. December came, though, and TK and Karly had put together a small, Christmas-adjacent gathering. Joel was positive TK had only invited him because he hadn’t shut up about you.

Joel wasn’t complaining.

You were chatting in a corner with Frosty when Joel walked in, your smile just as eye-catching as that first day and your laugh just as hypnotising. He wasn’t even jealous that Frosty was the one to make you laugh, he was just happy that he was there to see it.

He did the rounds, saying hello to all his teammates and their partners, all along his path to you—and Frosty, probably but that was just lucky for Frosty.

Haysey noticed that he didn’t have Joel’s full attention when they were talking—unlike TK the last time. Haysey was smirking throughout their conversation, and it grew bigger every time he asked another question just as Joel was getting ready to move on.

“Alright,” Haysey conceded, noting the antsy twitching in Joel’s legs. “Go get ‘er, Tiger.”

Joel’s nerves decided to kick in on his walk over to you, a huge change from his excitement in the lead up. It shook him the way your eyes lit up when he stood beside Frosty, making himself known. Your smile reached the very corners of your eyes and he didn’t think he had ever seen anybody sign so sincerely.

“What’s happening over here?” he asked, remaining as casual as he possibly could. Which is to say, not casually at all.

“Frosty, here, was just telling me that you’re a SoundCloud rapper.

“No,” he said sharply in Frosty’s direction. “I just listen.”

“Sure, but I’d still like to hear what you listen to—I guess I can give you my number and you can send me a link to your page?”

Frosty disappeared at that, muttering something about his job being done, and Joel quickly ripped his phone out of his pocket to send you the link before you could change your mind. You didn’t look like you would, though, as you unlocked your own phone and saved his number when his text came through.

Joel readied himself to defend his music taste, something he’d never even thought to worry about before, when he watched you scroll through his most recent plays. You didn’t seem to mind, though, your eyebrows twitching in delight every couple of songs.

“Not bad, Farabee, not bad at all,” you nodded. There was a light sense of teasing in your voice that went straight to his chest, as if he hadn’t actually expected you to look at it. He hadn’t, though, he was expecting to send the link, for you to smile politely and then put your phone away.

His brain malfunctioned a little when you came across songs you hadn’t heard, asking him to describe it to you or tell you about a similar artist to get a good vibe. He managed, though, and did his best to actually tell you helpful information as opposed to just telling you that it was so good.

“I’m gonna create a playlist when I get home,” you announced when you reached the end. “Thanks for the new music.”

You waved your phone in the air, Joel’s eyes tracking the movement, as you started to think about what you were going to send back to him.

3—

You started popping up more regularly after that—even to nights out when Karly wasn’t there. Joel wasn’t entirely certain who had been inviting you because it could honestly have been any one of the meddling idiots on the team but no matter how quick he thought he was to invite you somewhere; you were already heading there.

He’d been texting you on the way to get smoothies with Frosty and thrown an invite your way in the spur of the moment. The text you sent back was just a picture of the smoothie shop’s sign; just the corner of Frosty’s face visible.

If he walked a little bit faster to reach it, that was nobody’s business.

You were practically bouncing when he rounded the corner. It was clear to everyone who spent any time around the team that you and Frosty had become thick as thieves and Frosty was one of the main people to invite out, so it wasn’t a surprise to know that he’d asked you to come. Frosty may also have been dropping numerous hints Joel’s way that he should just ask you out; he was getting there, alright? These sorts of delicate things took time and careful planning.

“Buzz buzz, motherfucker, you’re late!” you shouted, the distasteful looks from nearby parents not even registering, when you spotted him.

Joel stopped mid-stride just to burst out into laughter. Once he was able to gather himself, at least enough to breathe, he said, “You can’t be mad at me; I didn’t even know you were going to be here.”

“You invited me!” you shrieked

“Afterhe did,” Joel argued, pointing a sharp finger at Frosty. “You would have been late if you’d waited for me.”

“Gotta get in quick, baby, I’m hot property,” you said, the shimmy in your shoulders only adding to the ridiculousness.

Frosty was able to corral both of you into the store and into the queue despite the near uncontrollable laughter as you continued to buzz in Joel’s direction.

Knowing that Frosty’s drink order contained honey only served to make the laughter become so excessive that you and Joel had to stand to the side and let other people order their drinks while you calmed down. Between the two of you, you were also able to corral Frosty into your laughter with a few strategic finger pokes right into his ribs.

Joel could hardly stop staring at you when you finally sat down with your drinks, enamoured by the quick rise and fall of your chest as you recovered from another round of laughter and the brightness that seemingly never left your eyes.

4-

Joel had finally done it. He’d managed to invite you somewhere before anyone got in before him.

And okay, maybe that was because he’d organised it himself and you were the only person invited but you were both happy enough to ignore that technicality.

You’d mentioned once, offhand and fleeting, that you’d never been to New Hope. One of your friends had gone and come back squeeing, so you’d said something about finding time for a day trip.

Even though Joel was the one you’d mentioned it to— you’d been on the phone with him as you scrolled through Instagram and saw all the photos—you hadn’t expected him to listen let alone make anything of it. He did, though, and he picked you up on one of the few Saturdays he had free for a day trip that had been organised just the day before.

“Shotgun picks music?” you asked, being sure to smile as sweetly as possible.

“I don’t think that’s how it works,” Joel countered, albeit weakly.

“I have music to show you,” you said, waving your phone at him.

He conceded, easily, and you set up the Bluetooth connection while he was still working out the best way to get to New Hope—it would be inevitable that Maps would be brought up on your phone, but you were happy to let him think he would remember every single turn for a little bit.

His head lifted just as the Media Screen showed all your playlists, the top one being your latest playlist. Joel snorted just before a quiet ‘buzz buzz’ left his mouth. You turned your head quickly, a little shocked that he’d even seen it. You were even more shocked, though, to see the corners of his mouths tilted upwards and the tops of his cheeks tinged red.

“Buzz buzz,” you said back somewhat sheepishly, caught out by your own little joke.

It was a playlist for him, though, honestly, filled with music you’d found through him and music you thought he’d enjoy. It proved a success because once the drive finally began with Joel singing along loudly and proudly when he knew the words—and even louder and prouder when he had only worked out the ends of lines in the songs. It was enough for you to never want the drive to end.

New Hope did eventually appear in front of you, not without a few wrong turns, and it was everything you had imagined from your friend’s photo. Joel wasn’t feeling it as much, that was clear, though he took photos of you whenever you wanted them taken and made sure to point out anything that he thought might take your fancy. Not a single complaint was heard from him as you dragged him through every building you passed from the library to the Children’s Museum—not even when you batted your eyelashes at him and asked him to walk you through the orchard.

“You really like it here?” Joel asked when you finally sat down for something to eat in the afternoon.

He’d caught your eyes wandering around the street—you’d specifically asked for an outdoor table just so that you could keep taking it all in—and seen the awe and wonder as you took in every little detail.

“It’s different,” you said, a light shrug in your shoulders. “I like Philly and I like cities; it’s just nice to be somewhere else. With someone else.” You paused and made sure to make eye contact with Joel before you said, “Thank you for bringing me here.”

“Thank you for letting me.”

+1

The individual hang outs had become more frequent. Neither of you had called them datesyet, even though that’s what they were all beginning to feel like.

The coffees, the lunches, the reality TV he’d talked you into watching with him—every single second you spent together was starting to feel lighter and lighter. There was tension, sure, as you both waited for the other to say something or make a move, it just didn’t take away from the easiness.

You’re emptying Joel’s dishwasher to make room for the dirty dinner dishes, unexciting and repetitive, when the air changes. You wouldn’t have noticed had it not been for the clank in the sink when Joel dropped in a plate he was rinsing off, causing you to look up and pull a confused face at him.

He stares back at you, silent and frozen—for years, eons, eternities—before you stand up straight and drop the plate you’d been holding onto the table.

“Ground control to Buzz Aldrin?” you press when he still doesn’t speak. “Anybody in there, Buzz?”

Joel nods and then says, unceremoniously and without pause, “I kind of love you, I think.”

“You think?”

“Yeah. I reckon,” he confirms. He hasn’t moved from beside the sink, but his face looks freer, less distant.

“That’s good,” you say, quietly enough that it may as well just be to yourself. You speak louder, needing your next words to be heard. “I kind of love you, too.”

Joel’s smile was small, secretive, and still so sincere. “That’s good.”

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[stillness-in-green]

Chapter 361, Abnormal Happenings

Did this chapter feel extremely short, or is it just me?

On Tenko:

Honestly, the stuff I have the strongest reaction to is the sort of things I see other fans saying about Tenko, and I’ve resolved to try to get away somewhat from responding-to-responses in these posts.  So trying to look at only what’s going on in the story itself, my problems with Tenko are much as they have been.  He feels like a weird idealized vision that’s easy to look at and want to save when the truth of Shigaraki and his grudges are much more challenging and difficult to address.

I feel like Tenko could work better as a sort of metaphorical “pole” within Tomura, a representation of, if you will, his nature contrasting AFO’s nurture.  However, this would work better if the AFO inside him were also a metaphor, rather than a literal invading consciousness.  As it stands, Tenko and AFO don’t represent equal forces in Tomura—not in the sense of being equal in power, which I wouldn’t expect them to be, but rather, they literally aren’t the same type of entity, so they don’t feel like appropriate foils.

I have read at least one rather fun fic where Tenko is a quirk vestige—a quirk neither the Shimuras, AFO, nor Tomura himself ever realized he had.  And that would certainly be a twist, though it would raise the pressing question of where the vestige for Decay is.(1)

Though, one thing that would be an entirely delightful twist—and credit entirely goes to @codenamesazanka for this—is if Inner Tenko is the “lump of lead” Shigaraki talks to Ujiko about, the source of Shigaraki’s never-ending rage.  His anger predated AFO, after all; it was forged in his childhood home and on that long walk where no one helped him.  That holds, I think, even if AFO gave him Decay.(2)  You could even draw the parallel that AFO gave Tenko his family hands to preserve the negative feelings from that day, and here we find Tenko, still covered in those grasping, clutching hands even after Tomura cast off all but one of them months ago. And he certainly had quite the angry reaction to Mirio's statement about him lacking friends!

A huge chunk of the (English-speaking) villain fanbase would riot, but I would like it.

(Speaking of the friends bit, it has been pointed out by a chat buddy that while Mirio and Inner Tenko use tomodachi there, the word the League use for one another is that good old shounen standby, nakama. So perhaps it makes sense that what falls out of the messy amalgamation that is Tomura right now is an appeal to the tomodachi he once had, rather than the nakama of today. I have been mildly placated by this.)

That all said, I do wonder what’s up with this particular flashback here?

I had assumed that this moment was ShigAFO leaning down and using some kind of quirk to detect things underground.  He even gives that word of warning to Dabi, who charges ahead regardless.  But that doesn’t seem to be even slightly relevant to Vestige!AFO thinking about his and Shigaraki’s mind-meld, so....?

On the 3As:

Mirio continues to be a good kid.  His stammered apology is good stuff, and I love him thinking that he felt Shigaraki hesitate—making villains hesitate is, in fact, a great reason for heroes to try talking to them!

More significantly, I appreciate Nejire getting some actual development.  She went felt wildly underutilized in the Hassaikai arc, and her her big thing being winning a beauty pageant while Tamaki and Mirio were out there having big dramatic flashback-filled battles against villains was just insulting.  So I like her flashbacks here, and I particularly appreciate that it circles back to her weird nosy questions.  Frankly, given the sorts of questions she asked Class 1-A when she was first introduced—asking Shouji about his mask, Shouto about his scar, Mina about her horns—it’s no surprise she makes bad first impressions!

…It is a bit of a shame to just cram Yuyu into the background of that panel with Suneater and then exclude her entirely from people Nejire reflects on learning about at UA, though.  I suppose the generous read is that she’d been friends with Yuyu prior to UA, so she didn’t need the confines of UA to learn about her.  Still.

I also don’t love the ongoing adventures of giving the gals in this comic supporting roles to the dudes,(3) even though Nejire herself has the quirk that, on the surface, should have the most raw oomph of any of the Big Three.  Eh.  It’s a toss-up, but I do like the development, anyway.

Do your best, Suneater!  Though I expect about the best you can hope for is a result akin to burning AFO alive and then watching in horror as he evolves into his next form.  At least it’s one more form down before the final one?(4)

We'll see how that works out for you or doesn't next time.

--FOOTNOTES--

1: One of my assumptions about the difference between an original quirk and one of Ujiko’s lab-created replicas is that only the original has a vestige.  So I suppose Decay could be a created quirk AFO was just carrying long enough to pass it off to Tenko at the door.

2: It had better hold, anyway.  Making AFO the author of Tenko’s grudge against society would be this manga’s ultimate high crime against its own themes, the single thing it could do that would most succinctly scoop out all of its own meaning and impact.

3: See also: Tsuyu's job in the teamwork play at USJ being to get Deku and Mineta off the ship while the boys combine forces to actually deal with the villains; Kendo dispersing Mustard's gas for Tetsutetsu to get the finishing blow in; Momo providing the tracker that got the boys to Kamino but having no role in Deku’s plan to rescue Bakugou; Ryukyu and the girls staying outside at the Hassaikai compound to buy the all-male everyone-else team time to continue on inside to where all the character development is happening; La Brava powering up Gentle; probably a bunch of school stuff I don’t remember; Mina fumbling her dose of sedative just in time to give Kirishima an extra shot at it after he blows his own; and so on.  Even when this goes the other way—e.g. Kamui Woods trying to get Midnight up close to Gigantomachia; Lady Nagant using Overhaul to distract Deku—it seems like it fails a lot more often than the other way around.

4: Or, you know—spoilers for 361—it could have no effect at all.  I choose to chalk this up to the ongoing messaging about the futility of taking out Shigaraki with violent force and not the manga being deeply muddled in how much it actually values teamwork.  More on that next time, maybe.

[guardianofrivendell]

How the company reacts to finding out you and fili are married 😂

I loved this request and I decided that instead of making into a full blown fic - that would take me even longer to publish - I would do it headcanon style. 

Look at me making my way through requests 💪!

The Company Reacting to You and Fili being Married

Fíli x fem!reader 

Warnings: Fíli has one braincell in this one and he does not use it, open ending because it started to get too long but we all know it would turn out okay in the end, f-word, it is really silly I’M SORRY

A/N: It might not be exactly what you had in mind when sending in the request but it’s where my imagination took me 😆 This should not be taken seriously.

you were a last minute addition to the Company

Fíli and Kíli had kept the Quest a secret but you found out anyway, following them all the way to Bag-End

because there was no way they were leaving you behind

they were not happy - except maybe Kíli who was over the moon to see you

almost breaking his brother’s ribs when he shoved his elbow in Fíli’s side

wiggling his eyebrows while his eyes drifted towards you 

Fíli immediately regretting ever telling Kíli of his crush on you

little did he know you felt exactly the same

anyways

back to the Company

lots of protest from the other Dwarves because there was no way they were taking a woman with them

it didn’t take long for you to wrap each and every one of them around your little finger

them quickly agreeing on you coming along, but you had to promise not to be a burden to them 

Kíli blurting out that he and Fíli would look after you

that earned him a swift kick to the shins from Fíli

he made Kíli promise not to tell you anything and to not tease him about it

Kíli promised to behave and not embarass him in front of you

crossed fingers behind his back

during the journey Fíli had a hard time keeping it together around you

much to the delight of Kíli who found it all hilarious

at the slightest sign of danger, Fíli did his best to shield you from it

it kind of was exhausting really, keeping an eye on both you and his brother while also not trying to get killed himself 

as long as you were safe, that was what mattered most 

he thought he could pick up some signals from you that you might be feeling the same

or that could just be him seeing things

he was planning on asking you if he could court you as soon as they reclaimed Erebor 

so he still had some time to build up his courage

and he was sure not to tell his brother about this 

but everything escalated one night when Thorin decided to share some news

they were all sitting around the campfire, chatting after dinner

when suddenly the subject of marriage comes up 

Ori asking what a wedding ceremony is like, since he never witnessed one before

before anyone can explain, Thorin clears his throat

“You will find out soon enough. We will have a wedding once Erebor is reclaimed.”

Everyone looking at each other questioningly, shrugging shoulders when asked if they know something

“Who’s getting married?”

dramatic silence

then Thorin looks at Fíli

“As soon as Erebor is ours again, Fíli is to be wed to a lady of nobility of the Iron Hills.”

a few gasps were heard among the Company

Fíli had dropped his bowl of stew to the ground

Kíli sat wide-eyed beside him, his eyes flickering to you 

you were completely still, as if frozen in place

you should have known you didn’t stand a chance

Fíli is part of the royal family after all 

but then Fíli stands up with a jolt, as if bitten by something

“I can’t marry her.”

Thorin sighs, he knew this was coming

“Fíli, it is important to strengthen the relations with-”

“No, I can’t marry her because... because...”

his eyes landed on you and his heart broke 

your eyes fixed on the ground, hands tucked underneath your thighs and biting your lip 

in complete panic he said the first thing that came into his mind

“... because I’m ALREADY MARRIED!”

okay well

that maybe wasn’t the best thing to say 

seeing how Thorin was about to burst

“Already married? TO WHOM?!”

...

Fíli panicked again

think of a name think of a name think of a name

any name but-

“Y/N!”

your head snapped up and your jaw almost fell to the ground

Kíli screeched in excitement, clapping his back

“Way to go, brother! You never told me you guys eloped?! No wonder she was so keen on coming along.”

Fíli looked at him and was speechless

did he seriously believe he would marry someone without telling him

without telling anyone?

yes, yes he did

it appeared the whole company believed it

he received pats on the back, a shove here and there

lots of ‘congratulations’ and ‘well done’

Dori was tearing up

Glóin and Bombur welcomed him ‘to the club’

you received the same treatment but were still too stunned to react 

when Thorin stood before you, you almost cowered in fear underneath his stare 

he crossed his arms and gave you a stern look

“Are you pregnant?”

“NO!” both you and Fíli yelled at the same time, absolutely mortified

his lips started to twitch and to your surprise Thorin smiled at you

“It didn’t go the way I expected but... Welcome to the family!”

Thorin hugs you

I repeat

Thorin hugs you

meanwhile Fíli is having a small extensive crisis 

he meets your eyes and you’re shooting daggers at him

he fucked up big time

there was no way out of this 

not this time

after Thorin it was Kíli’s turn to give you a bonecrushing hug

your feet might have been off the ground for a few seconds

“I never thought he would finally grow a pair! I mean... he couldn’t even talk to you without embarassing himself!”

“Thank you Kee”

you locked eyes with Fíli again

“Excuse me, I need a word with my husband.”

you ignored the feeling in your stomach when you said that

how right it felt 

lots of hooting and hollering when you dragged Fíli out of the campsite

you raised an eyebrow at him in question

enter puppy eyed Fíli 

“I panicked”

“Out of all the names you could have blurted out it had to be mine?”

since he was already in too deep he could just as well tell you the truth

it’s not like it couldn’t get much worse at this point

“You’re the only one I’m thinking about.”

smooth Fíli, really smooth

you’re speechless but your eyes betray you

they’re filled with love and adoration

and Fíli’s heart fills with hope

maybe he didn’t screw it up that bad

his hand disappears in his pocket

here goes nothing

“I was going to wait until we were at the Lonely Mountain...”

he opens his hand for you and you see a blue and silver courting bead with intricate carvings

“But since we’re already married-”

 you scoffed, but couldn’t help the wide grin on your face

“Would you do me the honor of braiding your hair?”

Told you it was an open ending... but we all know how this one would continue :) 

Permanent taglist: @roosliefje @kata1803 @entishramblings @artsywaterlily @sleepy-daydream-in-a-rose @marvelschriss @kumqu4t @myrin1234 @dark-angel-is-back @the-fandoms-georgie @lathalea @xxbyimm @sokkasdarling @katethewriter @aredhel-of-gondolin @leethology @thepeanutcollective 

[malarki]

Harry Potter FanFiction I greatly enjoy (it’s just tomarry and sevitus)

Fair warning, I’m not good at describing stuff, and most of these are not complete (yet) but if you have similar tastes as I do then you’ll definitely like these stories.

Meddling of a Mischief Maker - by Athy

https://archiveofourown.org/works/5380535/chapters/12427268

I enjoy this fic because it shows a more human Voldemort with him still being an asshole as per usual. They do a good job of having Voldemort believably change into a not crazy murderous bastard haha. It also has Sirius interacting with Voldemort and for some reason I find those scenes hilarious in any fic I read.

“Harry's being a horcrux is a bit reworked here in this AU Story set during the summer after 5th year. A Mischief Maker intervenes in the Ministry during Voldemort and Dumbledore's duel, changing the course history. MorallyGrey!Dumbledore, Sirius, Restored Souls, HP/TR”

Draw Me After You (Let Us Run) - by ToAStranger @toast-ranger-to-a-stranger

https://archiveofourown.org/works/22327684/chapters/53334382

This story is a delight, it’s tone is very good and they do a great job of writing in the characters ‘voices’ for their pov’s. I especially like the posh way Voldemort talks and acts. This story is also hilarious on top of just being a very good slowburn, AND it has Sirius, which as you might have guessed, I love dearly. They also don’t bash any of the characters, and instead make them well rounded but flawed individuals, which I really appreciate.

“Harry Potter,” comes the soft, sibilant hiss of a voice he has heard in his dreams, in his nightmares, in his waking hours for years.

Slowly, carefully, Harry twists over and pushes up onto his hands and knees. He stays there, short breath fogging in front of his face, and his pursuer lets him. Harry has no doubt of that; he’s being allowed this respite. This small moment to catch his bearings, heart pounding in his ears, blood singing.

“It seems I have finally caught you.”

Consuming Shadows - by Child_OTKW @childotkw

https://archiveofourown.org/works/7040089/chapters/16011331

I’ve read two of childOTKW’s fics and both of them are fantastically written and attention grabbing stories. This one was the first one I read, and it has a very interesting take on lily Potter (one which I really enjoy) and the plot can leave you on the edge of your seat at times. The characterization is great, and the process of Harry and Tom getting to know each other is done very well.

“His attention skipped passed the students and moved to the politicians’ pavilion. His gaze locked with crimson, and he nearly faltered under the sheer hunger in those eyes.

It unnerved him how fixated the man was on his dirtied, exhausted figure.

But what troubled him more was the slight smirk he could make out on the man’s lips. It was almost pleased.

On the night of the attack, Lily managed to escape with her infant son, but at the cost of her husband’s life. Distraught and distrusting of her friends, she fled to France with Harry, to raise him away from the corruption in Britain and the rising influence of the Dark Lord. She trains him to the best of her abilities, shaping him into a dangerous, intelligent and powerful wizard.

But when Britain re-establishes the Triwizard Tournament, and Harry is forced to return to his once-home, he finds himself questioning whether he really wants to kill the Dark Lord. Voldemort finds an unexpected challenge in the child, and as his intrigue and amusement grows, so too does the desire to possess the spark in those defiant green eyes.”

A story that is kind of similar but not really: The Train to Nowhere

You Belong To Me (I Belong To You) - by child_OTKW

https://archiveofourown.org/works/11270490/chapters/25203408

This is a story inspired by the manwha ‘At The End Of The Road’ by Haribo. A comic I read before reading this, which is very good I recommend it. They do not take the exact plot from the comic though, obviously changing significant details for it to work properly as a Tomarry Fic, but one main thing stays the same, which is that this is a body swap. Honestly I really enjoy childOTKW’s works, and this is no exception. The characterization is wonderful as always, and Harry is Fantastic. Plus I’ve always been a fan of time travel fics. (Fair warning this is another slow burn and Harry centric)

“What I find absolutely fascinating,” Riddle said, stalking closer, “is you.” He marched forward, backing Harry up until he was pinned to the cool wall of the common room. “Do you know why?”

“No. And I’ll be honest here, Riddle, I don’t particularly care.”

The taller boy grinned at him, small yet infinitely pleased. “That. Right there.” One hand rose and brushed some of Harry’s fringe from his face. “Nathan Ciro was a spineless little boy too afraid of his own shadow to dare even glance in my direction. But you…”

He leaned closer, “You look at me like you want to stab me.”

“After an accident, Auror Harry Potter wakes up in the body of fourteen year old Nathan Ciro, a tormented Slytherin who recently tried to end his own life. Seeking answers to his strange predicament, Harry returns to Hogwarts, and causes quite the stir through staff and students - especially when they come to realise he is not the same boy as before.

He tries to avoid suspicion, but as his quest for the truth draws more and more attention to him, Harry begins to think that he might not like what he will discover.”

Some Bonus AU tomarry

A Thousand Paths Among The Stars - by Haplessshippo @haplesshippo

https://archiveofourown.org/works/12015060/chapters/27191238

This is a star trek au and it’s honestly my favorite tomarry au fic. Granted, I am a huge sci-fi fan. There’s also a bit of a twist at the end, or at least it surprised me, due to the way we usually expect tomarry plots to go.

“Harry Potter, newly appointed Captain of the Marauder and son of the famous Captain James Potter, was falling apart at the seams. His crew didn’t respect him, he was lost in the empty expanse of space, nightmares plagued his sleep, and his Commander deserved the Captain position more than he did. Good thing multiple attempts on his life and a vicious warlord after his head was all it took to turn it all around.

Alternatively, that space fic in which Harry Potter almost dies too many times, Tom Riddle slowly becomes the most smitten fool on the ship, and the rest of the crew are all just a bunch of assholes with popcorn watching the show. And exploding ships, don't forget the exploding ships.”

The Matchmaker - by TanninTele

https://archiveofourown.org/works/16507676/chapters/38664089

I am ALSO a huge true crime fan, and this story has a criminal that kinda reminds me of one that might appear in Hannibal (but with less murder). I enjoy the characterization, though tom is pretty tame in this compared to more cannon fics, considering he’s not the criminal and instead an investigator. Harry is also different from how people usually portray him, but I still like it.

“'The Matchmaker' is a serial abductor whose modus operandi consists of pairing two same-sex individuals together in a coffin, six feet underground - buried alive. He isn't a killer. He's a kidnapper with morals, and Detective Chief Inspector Tom Riddle finds himself obsessed with solving the case.

Unfortunately for Tom, the Matchmaker is just as intent on knowing him.”

And on to the Sevitus Stories

Far Beyond A Promise Kept - by oliversnape

https://archiveofourown.org/works/547431/chapters/974693

A classic, Harry stays with snape and unintentionally proves all his assumptions wrong and makes snape care about him. Both the stories have this aspect, but this one has snape a bit nicer from the get go. Probably because it takes place during the third book, so they’ve only known each other two years. It’s quite wholesome though, and I rather enjoy the progression of their relationship.

“Snape never wanted anyone to know of his promise to Dumbledore, but has realised that he can protect Potter much better by taking a less passive role in the boy's training. Actually liking Harry Potter has never been part of his plan. mentor/guardian.”

Crime And Punishment - by melolcatsi

https://archiveofourown.org/works/24102232/chapters/58018174

Snape and Harry have way more of a rocky start in this one, and Snape having to pick Harry up from the police station Really Doesn’t Help Snape’s opinion of him. This story very realistically shows the progression of their relationship, going from enemies to family, and near the ‘end’ (it’s not finished) it becomes very wholesome with Snape trying to help Harry with his mental and physical health after years of abuse/ neglect.

“Harry is accused of burglary. The Dursleys leave him to rot. Dumbledore sends Snape to remedy the situation. Harry finds himself in the care of an irate Snape. Not slash, gen-fic w/ focus on Sevitus relationship. Angst galore. Warnings: coarse and suggestive language, mentions of abuse/neglect. Un-betaed and un-Britpicked.”