#tell me about the time you flew to mars

[tojiscrack]

IM BACKKKK

'yeah ykw, tumblr needs to come up with a feature that basically alerts us of when our asks are answered 😐 like why is that not a thing already?'

lowk it alr is but like it gets buried by my notifs 😭😭😭

'i wanna go to canada so bad ☹️ i heard that the british-accent privilege over there is a million times better than the british-accent privilege in america 🤧 i’d be favoured so nicely over there 🥴'

YOU HAVE A BRITISH ACCENT??? YOU'RE BRITISH???????? BRO GIVE ME MY JEWELS BACK!

but ur so right ab the britsh accent privilege thing tho. i was at a coffee shop and this one guy had a british accent and the entire staff was talkin ab it

'such a cutie patootie and does no wrong. i’ll defend my son till i die he’s older than me but idgaf.'

ACTUALLY???????? bro i started watching jjk when yuji was older than me and now im older than him... it makes me so emo

'i have a deep, deep hatred for that four-armed tarantula ‘cause of his random vendetta against my yuji 🌝'

BYE R U TALKING AB SUKUNA??? i was thinking ab this a second ago but yk how like sukuna is canonically yuji's uncle? YOU SHOULD IMPLIMENT THAT LMAOOOO... LIKE YUJI GETTING POSESSED BY HIS DEAD UNCLE OR SOMETHING HAHAHAHA

'omg trade dealllll! i do those with my friend so often but she does me dirty every time. i put her on an awesome sitcom, but she said she refuses to watch it until i watch saltburn.'

oh thats hell. that's so hell. i tried to watch saltburn and had to stop during the vampire scene....

'so i think m*les in the usa and m*les in the uk are different breeds, ‘cause when i tell them to leave me alone or give clipped, straight to the point, honest and dry responses, they go away 🌝'

no yeah here they love that kinda shit... it's how i got 2/3 of my exes i fear...

'whatever girlypop, i just know that from the way you speak, you’re gorgeous'

STOP ILY

'if you ever did go with him, it’d be those couples i see on the street and my first thought is ‘he makes me laugh’ ahh relationship.'

i'm ngl my justification for liking him whenever my friends asked was like 'no i dont find him physically attractive but he's rlly funny... and nice... and we talk a lot...' so...

'honestly, i’m being dramatic 😭 like the angst is bad and the ending MIGHT be bittersweet, but it won’t evoke tears.'

THAT IS STILL HEARTBREAKING. I NEED MERCUPINE TO HAVE A VERY EXTRA HAPPY ENDING...

'just think of malakai (i don’t think you participated on the kai hate train so i’m saying this with a grain of salt lmao)'

LMAOOOO i find malakai so fucking funny. he makes me giggle

'i’ve got the most plainest life ever. the most you’ll get that i can even strain to think of ‘cause that’s how little lore there is to me is that bad grades will put me in a coma 😔'

thats so real actually... except i'm a senior so my grades have been SHIT this semester... my 95 gpa is now barely a 91.... if i'm lucky...

'i was gonna jump a middle-aged man for being rude to my mum at home bargains?'

HELLO?? HOW DOES THIS JUST HAPPEN??

anyways life update! my friends r coming over for secret santa today and i requested literally nothing but instant noodles so i'm rlly hoping i get 25 bucks worth of instant noodles bc i rlly want them.

i got my person a little snoopy figurine THAT WAS 25 DOLLARS??? but it's so cute so i cant even be mad

HELLO AGAIN 😋❤️ (i love how we’re gossiping about ur love life and talking about random nonsense in between through my inbox and not dms LMAOOO)

THAT’S A FEATURE? omg that means everyone i’ve sent asks to is just ignoring me wtf 🤨

☝🏽😲 … 😐

never sending asks to entitled mfs ever again 🫨

‘YOU’RE BRITISH????’ — born and raised… unfortunately 😬 and i’ve literally never stepped off english soil 😟 bUT I’M NOT UNCULTURED I SWEAR 😭

‘i was at a coffee shop and this one guy had a british accent and the entire staff was talking about it’ — i’m literally gonna hijack a plane going to canada, i swear 😕

‘ACTUALLY????’ — omg not now, no it’s the same as you. like when i first started watching it, i was younger, and now i’m older, but i mean irl. like yuji’s birth year (alongside his friends) is around 2002-2003.

i was born a few years after that 🌝

‘it makes me so emo’ — i’m literally gonna go out into society as an emo one day just for the feels 😭

‘BYE ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT SUKUNA’ — WHAT OTHER ABNORMAL CREATURE IN JJK HAS FOUR ARMS? HE’S SO GREEDY, LIKE WTH DO YOU NEED TWO OF EVERYTHING FOR? 🤨👎🏽

‘i was thinking ab this a second ago but yk how like sukuna is canonically yuji's uncle? YOU SHOULD IMPLIMENT THAT LMAOOOO... LIKE YUJI GETTING POSESSED BY HIS DEAD UNCLE OR SOMETHING HAHAHAHA’ — oh i’ve got smth all right 😭 the second it came out in the manga that they were related, the cogs in my brain started moving so fast 🌝

‘i tried to watch saltburn and had to stop during the vampire scene’ — EW DON’T EVEN REMIND ME AGAIN 🤢 and ykw, you ended it at the perfect time bc it didn’t get any better the more the movie went 😭 i still can’t get this one scene out of my head and i’m not even gonna tell you what it is ‘cause you probably wouldn’t know it (seeing as you were wise enough to drop the movie before it came up).

‘i’m a senior so my grades have been SHIT this semester’ — senior in high school? girlypop, we’re in the same academic year group 😋 (seniors in high school are second year college students in the uk)

wait i’m not aware of how the us gpa system works. isn’t 91 still good???

‘HELLO?? HOW DOES THIS HAPPEN??’ — literally my exact reaction 💀 he kept saying my mum was touching him at the till, like this woman is married, why would she touch a homeless-looking-m*le like you? the standard he had of himself is way too high 😀

felt bad for his kid tho. he was silently watching me yell at his dad :/

‘anyways life update!’ — 😋

‘anyways life update! my friends r coming over for secret santa today and i requested literally nothing but instant noodles so i'm rlly hoping i get 25 bucks worth of instant noodles bc i rily want them’ — STOP I LOVE INSTANT NOODLES 😟 I LITERALLY BOUGHT TWO LARGE PACKS OF THE BULDAK HABANERO LIME RAMEN ONES RIGHT AFTER THE M*N INCIDENT 😭 lmk what you get for ur secret santa tho 😋

‘i got my person a little snoopy figurine THAT WAS 25 DOLLARS??? but it's so cute so i cant even be mad’ — no bc figurines shouldn’t be that expensive 😕 my catoru gojo plushie was like £15, and it’s not even that big so?? 😭

like i get it, it’s gojo, it should be worth a shit ton more, but i’m broke so spare me 🥴

they need to bring all these prices down bc rich ppl don’t even enjoy the same shit broke ppl do 🤨

[phantomrose96]

So my mom's birthday was this week and I flew down with Patches to visit her for a few days. Patches, while a verified hater of the airport, really loves my mom's place because there are so many more closets to explore and birds to watch and cobwebs to dust with her stupid little face.

My mom also goes to bed earlier than anyone I know, so for the evenings it was on me to monitor Patches' activity. And she's very good. She's 99% good. She's 1% "could use improvement" good and the 1%, which I'd forgotten about, is tomatoes.

Patches will leave most things alone. (And by "alone" I mean she'll absolutely bitch slap them onto the floor, but they will leave the ordeal with just as many or few surface punctures as they had before the encounter started.) Not tomatoes. Patches has it the fuck out for tomatoes.

So when I noticed her batting something around on the ground I realized that my mom had left a sole, roma tomato in the fruit basket on the counter and it was now experiencing the life cycle of a pingpong ball between Patches' paws.

I take it away from her, like a fucking evil woman, and now I'm like "okay actually, where do I hide this." See at home I have an anti-Patches cabinet, which is for things that have no business living in a cabinet but which WILL have business dying at Patches' hands if left accessible. And this is WEIRD to have such a cabinet but it's my own home.

I'm scanning my mother's cabinets going "is this weird here? can the tomato go in my mother's dish cabinet?" And I briefly consider sticking it in the fridge, as a normal location, but the audacity of altering this tomato's ripening process is an audacity I do not possess. So I go with cabinet. I go with the first eye-level cabinet, which is the coffee mug cabinet, which is perfect because the tomato will not be lost to cabinet purgatory there, since my mom opens it every morning for her coffee. I will simply tell her in the morning that the tomato is there.

Next morning. Seeing as my mother goes to bed at the butt-crack of dusk she ALSO gets up at the ass-crack of dawn. This means I trail down like 2 hours after her with my work laptop and Patches. This is also now her birthday. I'm sharing the sofa with her for a good 15 minutes when I think to myself I'd like some coffee, and I remember I put a tomato in the cabinet. I tell my mom as much. I put the tomato in her coffee mug cabinet.

And the look I get is one I can't really figure out on spot. But she says "Chrissy this is the best birthday present you could have given me" which is a very weird response to the already weird statement "Oh you probably saw, but I hid the tomato in the coffee mug cabinet because Patches has it out for tomatoes."

So I do not at all know how this makes for a good birthday gift. My mom tells me how a week or two ago, she came home unloading groceries. At the end of putting everything away she could not for the life of her find her phone. Absolutely nowhere. She pinged it from her iPad and it started singing. From the fridge. She opened her fridge. Her phone was in the fridge.

A couple days later she lost Ash's collar. Spent three days looking for it. Couldn't remember where she'd taken it off or what she did with it. Showed up in the grass when she remembered she took it off to let him play fetch in the lake.

And then this morning, her birthday morning, she came into the kitchen, made her pot of coffee, opened the cabinet to fetch her coffee mug, and found... tomato. Singular. Tomato in the cabinet. Tomato she had no memory of placing in a cabinet. Tomato she could not possibly fathom having a reason for being in the cabinet.

She was like Chrissy I cried. She was like this is it, time to send her to pasture. She's a harebrained old lady now and there is no coming back from this. She's the lady who accidentally puts tomatoes in the cabinet. Awake before God, standing in the kitchen, signing her life away over this tiny roma tomato. (Roma tomato with little cat vampire teeth marks in it).

I was like oh. No. I put it there. Because Patches was going to commit war crimes against it. I put it there because I did not stop to consider "Will finding a single tomato in the coffee mug cabinet somehow be the very specific thing that undoes my mother this morning?" I put it there out of careful consideration for the life of this tomato, and with no consideration for the extremely esoteric way that a tomato in the cabinet could be received like a horse head in the bed, Godfather style.

We made a salad with the tomato. Happy birthday Mom.

[deadsetobsessions]

Ghost King Phantom was an odd addition to the League. J’onn was often the last to find others odd but from the get-go, Phantom was the only quiet spot he’d have in his telepathic field. At first, it was off putting as most of the people that slipped beyond the reach of his immediate field tended to be villains and the like. But as Phantom remained in the Justice League, J’onn had come to learn to appreciate the calm spot in the turbulent sea of his friends’ and coworkers’ thoughts.

“You have taken to me faster than the others. Why is that?”

Phantom hummed purringly, another peculiar sound that J’onn had yet to see any of his human or alien heroes recreate with any success. They sat at their usual spot, face facing the cosmos and backs guarded by their friends. Plus, J’onn and Phantom could look directly into the sun without painfully loosing their sight.

“I guess I’ve always been fond of the stars. Of space, and everything in it. What about you? Why did we become friends so fast?”

J’onn shook his head, a human motion he’d learned a long time ago to imitate. “No, we became slower friends than most, as my telepathic abilities allow for easier communication and understanding of one another’s motives. With the exception of Batman but I have found he is often the exception to most expectations.”

“That checks out,” King Phantom laughed. “Well, I’m glad we became friends. It’s very cool to meet a Martian. Space is one of my Obsessions, you see.”

J’onn nodded. “I see. I am sorry that I am the only Martian you will meet.”

“You are?”

J’onn nodded again, slower. Sadder. His facial muscles, in this form, does not imitate human patterns well and he knew that most people could not pick out his emotions without his verbal expression.

Intuition tells J’onn that Phantom knew regardless.

“Would you mind telling me what happened?” His voice is gentle, the emotions that Phantom pushes at him are gentle and questing, but not demanding. It has been a long time since anyone has asked him of memories he clung to. And so, J’onn J’onzz speaks in the way that was natural to him, the way his people communicated.

With his mental voice flowing into Phantom’s head, J’onn tells him of the wonders that used to be his home. He provided images and sounds of how his home shone as the sun rose, how the shadows that fell when the sun dipped beneath the horizon felt as comforting as a Martian’s first telepathic cradle. He tells Phantom of his twin brother, grief and agony entwined in the memories of someone he had loved. He spoke of his wife and their daughter, and their cozy home on the windswept plains of Mars.

King Phantom sat still with him as the Watch-Tower moved along, around a king and his friend who was recounting the stagnant grief of his past.

J’onn tells him of the virus, borne of his twin’s hatred, and how he watched everything around him burn. How he had desperately tried to prevent his wife and daughter from using their telepathic abilities. He spoke of his failures. He wove together a tapestry of insanity and grief, built upon the burning bodies of his wife and their beloved daughter. He tells Phantom how the Mars now was just ashes and dust of his former home. How he could not look upon the planet and not see the shades of his wife and daughter and parents and friends, walking upon a barren planet that no longer held anything familiar to the last Martian.

Phantom had hummed again, a soothing rumble. Sadness dripped from the edges of his consciousness.

“If it was not for the Doctor, I would be dead and shattered.” J’onn spoke for the first time in three hours. “It is… less painful to live. I have purpose.”

“I am glad that you are not either of those things.” Phantom stood. “Come with me. I have to show you something.”

J’onn trusted Phantom, and thus followed the king into the glowing green portal.

They flew past many doors, Phantom often glancing at him before shaking his head and changing directions.

They stopped at a door that felt familiar. J’onn knew it from somewhere.

“Go ahead, open the door. But know that you can’t stay long. You don’t belong to this realm quite yet. Not for quite a while.” Phantom moves, hand gesturing towards the door without a knob.

“How..?”

“How else? You have telekinesis, don’t you?”

J’onn blinked. Right. He opened the door and- oh.

The door warped with the screaming storm of grief and love and oh-how-I’ve-missed-you that J’onn unleashed.

Because there in front of him were M’yri’ah and K’hym, his wife and daughter.

The door was an imitation of his home, back when he had not known true loss.

“Impossible,” he stumbled back.

“You are in the realm of the dead. You didn’t think the title of the Ghost King was for fun, did you, J’onn?” Phantom smiled and- a move J’onn would definitely engage in petty payback for, later after he’d gotten over the shock- pushed him flying right into the room.

M’yri’ah and K’hym cradled him with telepathic swirls of love and husband!-dad!-love-love-love-safe!

And J’onn shuddered and gathered the his world in his arms to say goodbye.

——

[quintinh43]

Fucking Canada | Luke Hughes

Summary: Luke is out with an injury, Y/n is on break from school. Obviously, the only logical thing is for them to head down to Vancouver to visit Quinn.

Pairings: Luke Hughes x Fem!Reader

Warnings: Meantions of Anxiety, Drinking (drink responsibly kids), Some light suggestive content. Use of the name Mariana. Let me know if I missed anything!

Wc: 4.9k

This one's for @toasttt11, stay awesome 🫶🏼

---

Luke had been been out with an injury for a week. And it was driving him insane. He had begged and begged the trainers to at least allow him on the ice with the team. He'd batted his long eyelashes and given them puppy dog eyes and the famous Hughes pout, yet somehow they resisted and firmly told him he was not to touch a pair of skates until after his two-week check up.

And that was only if his check-up came back all ok. So in his boredom, he flew down to Michigan to spend time with you, and then decided that as soon as your break started he was flying both of you down to Vancouver for the week, because fuck he missed his big brother.

He rolled his wrist around in its brace, and you smack him in the chest. "Stop doing that. You're gonna aggravate your wrist and make it worse."

"Baby, I swear its fine," he whined, "The trainers don't know what they're talking about."

You snort, and grab his arm, pinning it beneath your torso, being careful to ensure that the strained part of his wrist was not under you.

"Baby, please," he whined, tugging his arm gently. "Let me up,"

"Only if you promise to stop rolling your wrist." You glare.

"I promise" Luke mumbles shifting towards you to run his lips along your jaw. Your stomach flutters, pink dusts across your cheeks, and you let him go immediately. He leans on his elbows and kisses down your neck.

"Luke" you whisper breathlessly.

"Hmm" he hums, nipping at the sensitive skin along the column of your troat.

You bite your lip, debating telling him off. But kissing Luke is much much better than studying physiology, and you haven't had a break in a while. You slam your textbook shut, and all but kick it off the bed.

"You're such a menace," you huff, he wraps his uninjured arm around you, and drags himself fully on top of you, kissing gently down your neck.

"You know you love me," he grins.

"You're lucky I do, Hughes. Now get back to kissing me,"

"Yes ma'am," he chuckles, lips dancing along your collarbones.

There's a knock on your door and before you can tell whoever it is to fuck off, your roommate and best university friend; Mariana barges in.

"Enough sexy time, kids!" she says, ignoring the murderous glares both you and Luke throw her way, "If you still want a ride to the airport, we are leaving in ten." She walks out, leaving the door open. You sigh, nudging Luke with your shoulder, to get off of you. He pecks one last kiss to your cheek and rolls off you, pulling you to your feet so the two of you can get all your things together.

You slide your laptop into your bag, grab all your chargers, and make sure you have an extra set of headphones. Because God knows the worst thing that could possibly happen is being stuck on an airplane with no muisc. After double and triple checking that you have everything, Mariana ushers you out the door hurriedly.

The ride to the airport is nothing special. You and Mariana sit in the front while Luke is banished to the back. You stretch an arm back to hold his hand, and he leans his head on your seat to be closer to you.

"Have fun in Vancouver Babe," Mariana says giving you a tight parting hug, and kiss on the cheek.

"Better take care of my girl Hughes, or I'm coming for that other wrist" She threatens, giving Luke a hug. Luke laughs, patting Mariana's back.

"You know it, Mari," he grins, winking at you.

"Text me when you land, ok?" She says, squeezing your shoulder.

"I will. Thanks for the ride, Mar." You hive her one last squeeze goodbye and take Luke's hand as you head through the airport.

Everything goes smoothly, thank God, and soon you and Luke are boarded the plane. It's a fight over who takes the window seat. You think Luke should have it cause he has longer legs, and Luke thinks you should have it because you deserve the best seat.

After convincing Luke that as long as you're sitting beside him, you do have the best seat, he reluctantly takes the window seat. And makes sure to tell you that if you want to switch at any time, just tell him.

You nod, knowing that you absolutely won't be doing that, but what Luke doesn't know won't hurt him.  You're set to arrive just before Quinn's game tonight, which means that the two of you won't get to see him until later. After going through your mental checklist, making sure everything is organized, you stick your headphones in and rest your head on Luke's shoulder and promptly pass out.

Luke is shaking you awake gently when it's time to get off the plane. "Wake up, Baby, it's time to get going," he says softly.

You sigh, rubbing the tiredness from your eyes, "Alright lets go,"

You grab all of yours and Lukes belongings from the overhead compartment, much to his dismay. "Baby, let me help,"

"Luke Warren, I swear if you touch any of this luggage with that wrist, I'll chop it off," you say sternly. You hand him his backpack, and he slings it over his shoulder with a pout.

You grab his injured hand gently, lacing your fingers together as best as you can with his brace on, and head off the plane. As you step into the Uber, both your phones buzz with a text from Quinn.

Q: I left a key for you guys with the front desk, Luke just has to show some ID.

Q: You guys are coming to the game right?

Luke: Yep, excited to see you Q

You: Were just heading to your place now, to get settled and then we're on our way. See you soon!

Q: Excited to see you guys too.

You arrive at his apartment, and Luke shows his ID to the front desk, and they hand over the key. Quinn's apartment is nice, but it's so clean. It looks like a place out of a modern decor magazine, except for the photos of his family scattered here and there.

There's a two jerseys folded neatly on the bed with a sticky note that says 'Don't be a little bitch' on top. "Nope" Luke says as he immediately lays eyes on it, "I'm not wearing that, nither are you."

You roll your eyes at him, but don't argue. It makes sense that he wouldn't wear it. Players have a thing about not wearing another franchises merchandise. He unzips his suitcase and pulls out two black hoodies with white stitching that says Hughes 43 on the back. Except if you look carefully, the devils logo is stitched on the sleeve.

You shake your head with a smile and take the hoodie from him. "Let me just change into something better, and we'll head out."

Luke nods, digging around for a pair of jeans for himself.  The two of you make quick work of changing, and then you're on your way to the game. Quinn, smartly left the tickets under your name, lest someone spill the beans that Luke Hughes is in Vancouver to watch his brother play.

Your seats are right by the glass. When Quinn notices you, he skates over, unable to keep the smile off his face. "Bitches" he mouths with a smile, as he takes in the lack of Canuck blue in your outfits.

You grin and flash him a heart with your fingers while Luke flips him off, making sure he can see the devils logo on the sleeve. Quinn shakes his head at Luke and skates off to finish warm-ups.

Thankfully, no one really takes note of the interaction. Luke has a cap pulled low, so unless someone is really looking for Luke Hughes, then he shouldn't be recognized. The atmosphere is electric. Canadian hockey really hits differently.

The game is nerve-wracking, and for most of it, you and Luke are on the edges of your seats, grabbing at eachother hands, and slapping eachothers knees in excitement whenever something particular exciting happens. And when Quinn picks up a goal, the two of you are jumping and screaming.

The game ends with a canuck win, and as you two make your way down to the locker room to greet Quinn, you're chattering excitedly about all the good plays that were made. Especially Quinn's. He picked up a goal and three assists, making him the top point scorer of the game.

As he walks out of the locker room, he can't keep the smile off his face as he lands eyes on you and Luke. As much as he doesn't mind being on his own, seeing his family is always the best. You've been around the Hughes boys since you were growing up. From Toronto to Michigan. Your family's were really close and still are to this day.

He pulls you into a hug first, "Good to see you Y/n" he says, patting you on the back.

He goes to hug Luke, and in true brotherly fashion, he can't help but make a jab at him as does so. "I swear to God, you get taller every time I see you." Rather than standing on his tip toes to throw his arms around Lukes neck, he hooks his ankle around the back of Luke's knee and Luke's knees buckle.

Quinn catches him in a hug before he can hit the floor. You and Quinn are laughing, while Luke grumbles. He snatches Quinns hat off his head, making his hair stick up in every which way and holds it as high as he can. Quinn rolls his eyes, not taking the bait, and starts to walk.

Luke huffs and throws his hat back at him. "How did y'all get here?"

"Uber," you say, throwing an arm around Luke's waist as you walk. He drapes his arm around your shoulder, fingers brushing patters against your shoulder.

"The team is going out to celebrate. Do you guys wanna join, or do you want a ride home first?"

"Well, come with," Luke smiles, "Good game, dude, you made some nasty moves."

Pink dusts Quinn's cheeks, and he changes the conversation. "How's the wrist?"

Luke rolls his eyes, and before he can roll his wrist, you glare at him. "It's completely fucking fine."

"It's not" you say

"The trainers don't know what they are talking about." He mutters.

"They do" You add poking luke in the side.

Quinn scoffs, "Yes, im sure the people whose literal job it is to treat your injures don't know what they are talking about."

Luke pouts, "I can't believe my girl and my brother are ganging up on me like this,"

"Well, maybe if you weren't so stubborn." You and Quinn say simultaneously, looking at each other with a grin.

Luke grumbles unintelligiblly and Quinn throws his bags in this trunk. Luke takes the front seat, and this time, he's the one reaching his arm back to hold your hand. You smile, lacing your fingers together. Quinn rolls the eyes at the two of you with a smile.

The drive to the bar is filled with the light chatter of the three of you catching up about life. Unsurprisingly, Quinn has nothing interesting happening in his love life. The man eats, breathes, sleeps, and lives hockey. Luke teases him about becoming an old spinster while he glances at you lovingly. No doubt envisioning the magnificence that your lives will be together.

The bar is absolutely packed. Not surprisingly. It's a Friday night and the Canucks won. Some of the team is already there, in a roped off Vip area. They wave Quin over urgently. He grabs your hand and you grab Luke's so as not to get separated in the crowd of drunk people.

Quinn greets his teammates with hugs and back slaps and inside jokes. Some of them grin at you and Luke, wiggling their eyebrows at you and dragging Luke into hugs.

"So why are Mr. And Mrs. Huggy Jr. Here?" Brock asks, swirling the liquid in his glass.

Luke smiles at that, tracing his finger over the back of your left ring finger. "Luke is out injured, and I'm on a break from school," you shrug, playing with Luke's hand in yours.

"I'm going to get a refill," Luke hums, kissing the tip of your ear as he detangles himself from you, "want anything?"

"I'm good for now, baby," you say, kissing him on the cheek. When you turn back to the guys, they are all leaning close to you, batting their eyelashes like a group of High-school girls waiting to hear the latest drama about your crush.

Petey is the first to speak, "So when is he proposing?"

Millsy slaps him in the back of the head, "How is she supposed to know when he's proposing dumbass?"

"That man is so fucking whipped for you," Brock smirks, and you can't help the blush that colours your cheeks.

"You guys will have some cute babiess," Garland grins, just the slightest bit tipsy.

"Alright, alright, leave her alone. That's my sister-in-law you're bullying" Quinn says, coming to your rescue. He throws an arm around your shoulders, squeezing gently.

"You ok?" He asks quietly, the guys already forgetting the previous topic of conversation.

"Yeah, thanks Quinn," you smile, squeezing his hand back.

"Well, I'm absolutely beat, so I'm gonna go home. Do y'all wanna stay, or are you ready to head home?"

"We'll stay I think, me and Lukey are having fun, and I have yet to drag him to the dance floor. Are you ok to drive home?"

"Yeah, I haven't been drinking," Quinn says, smiling softly at your concern for him. "Sorry to leave y'all hanging."

"Don't worry about it, Quinn, we'll see you tomorrow. You played a good game, go get lots of rest," you smile, wrapping him in a quick hug.

He hugs you back and turns to address the guys. "I'm heading out if anyone wants a ride," Before the sentence fully leaves his mouth, Petey is practically throwing himself at Quinn. He stumbles into the two of you, and you both reach out to make sure he doesn't eat the floor. "I drank too much," he mumbles.

You laugh, patting his back, as Quinn stabilizes him. "I'm making you do bag skates next practice," Quinn says with entirely too much joy, as he practically half carries Petey out of the bar.

With Quinn gone, you dip out of the Vip section to find Luke, you spot him sitting at the bar, cheeks flushed, empty shot glasses littered suspiciously close to him. He's holding another glass that looks like soda, and there's a girl leaning much to close to him. He's leaning back slowly, looking very unimpressed.

Until he spots you. His megawatt lady killer smile appears as he all but pushes the other girl out of the way, and practically sprints to you, as well as someone can sprint in a crowded bar. Your hands rest on his arms, and you can smell the alcohol on his breath.

"Luke, are you ok?" You ask concerned, eyes flitting across his face, "have you been drinking?"

"Y/n!" He is way too giddy to be sober, "I know we said, we weren't drinking, but then I was sad about my wrist and someone said that the alcohol would make me feel better, so drank a little teeny tiny shot, and then another one cause somone got me another one, and then this group of girls asked me if I wanted to do shots with them, and I was gonna say no, but then they already ordered the shots and then-"

You cut off his drunk rambling, your voice laced with concern. "Luke baby, do you remember how many shots you took?" You ask, the calmness of your voice not giving way to the absolutely disastrous thoughts swimming in your head.

"Four, I think!" He grins, trying to count the glasses that were littered on the bar top in front of where he was sitting. There were five. Your eyes widen almost comically. He was barely gone for half an hour. He took five shots of straight alcohol in less than half an hour. Fuck.

Now it wasn't as if Luke hadn't drank before, undoubtedly he had. But definitely not that amount of alcohol in that span of time. Plus, it wasnt really recommended for professional athletes to drink anyways, so the amount of alcohol he'd consumed since the beginning of the season probably didn't even equate the amount that he'd drank tonight alone. Double Fuck.

And on top of all of that, Quinn had already left. "My wrist feels so much better!" Luke says happily, "I can take off my brace!" As he reaches for straps on his brace, you grab his hand.

"Absolutely not Luke." You lace your fingers with his to keep him from taking off his brace while you try to figure out what to do. Before you know what's happening, there's another full shot glass in front of you, and Luke is knocking it back. Triple Fuck.

"It burns," he pouts, shaking his head like he just ate something sour.

"Luke, how did you even get alcohol? we're underage!" The disbelief is evident in your voice.

The bartender hears your statement and decides that he'd better clear up that misconception before he gets into some kond of trouble. "No ma'am," he says, leaning over the counter. "I checked his ID, says he's twenty, that's legal"

Suddenly, you are very pissed that the bartender is telling you how old your own boyfriend is. Just as you're about to snap at him for clearly not being able to to his job correctly, if he thinks twenty is legal, you remember that you're no longer in the States.

You're in Canada. Fucking Canada. Racking your brain, you try to recall the legal age in British Columbia. You feel so stupid. It's nineteen. Ninteen year olds are legally allowed to drink in B.C. Luke is twenty. Fuck fuck fucking fuckitty fuck.

Before you sprial into a full-on panic, you take a deep breath. Luke is drunk out of his mind, and he needs to get home now, and you panicking will not help the situation. You slap your card down on the bar top and tell the bartender to close Luke's tab.

You don't trust Luke to be left to his own devices, so you sling his arm around your shoulder and half drag him to where you left your phone and purse with Brock. You gently guide Luke to sit on one of the chairs. He does so shakily and wraps one arm around your chest, pulling you flush against his body.

His knees are squeezing your hips, his fingers are tracing over your collarbones, and his face is tucked against your neck.

"Woah! is Huggy Jr. drunk?" Brock asks, grinning madly as he hands you your phone and purse.

"In the span of time that he disappeared, he took six fucking shots" you grumble, as you order an Uber to get home.

Brock almsot chokes on his drink. He stares wide eyes, "oh so he's fucking blackout," he takes his phone and snaps a photo of you and Luke. The glare that you send him is so murderous that if looks could kill he'd be six feet under.

"Sorry," he shrugs with a shit eating grin that says he's not sorry at all, "I need some proof of this for when he wakes up hating his life tomorrow."

"Alright, well, at least send it to me." You grumble, Brock laughs, and your phone buzzes with a notification from him immediately after. "And hey, please don't tell Quinn anything right now. He's probably home and in bed by now, and I don't wanna stress him out unnecessarily."

Brock nods, "Don't worry, kid, my lips are sealed." He sighs like an older brother, "if I was sober, i'd be driving you home."

"Oh Brock, don't worry about it. You guys had great games, and you deserve to celebrate. We'll be fine, I promise," you smile. Your heart melts a little, you've only met the canucks a few times but from the instant that you did they treated you like family.

"Alright, alright, just let me know when you're home safe, I'll feel much better."

"You got it, Brocky," you smile, standing on your tip toes to give him a friendly kiss on the cheek. Brock grins like a school boy who just got a kiss from his crush. Thankfully, drunk Luke doesn't decide to make an appearance. Otherwise, he might have absolutely decked Brock in the face.

Not that he would've succeeded, based on how drunk he is. You're almost sure he's fallen asleep. Until his lips start moving against your neck. Quadruple fuck. You have to bite your lip to keep from moaning out loud as he nips at your throat with so much care you'd think he was fully sober.

His fingers start to make patterns along your collarbones, dipping lower toward the curve of your breasts. You don't want him to stop.

"Luke," you whisper desperately, laying your head atop his gently.

His hum of response reverberates against your skin, and pleasure melts down your spine, stomach fluttering.

"Luke," you try again, voice strained as his teeth screen against the sensitive spot between your neck and shoulder, "not here baby, we're in public."

" 's go home" he murmers into your skin, "wanna fuck my pretty girl."

Your cheeks go red faster than you thought possible. What a time to find out Luke is a horny drunk.

"Luke," his name is a prayer on your lips. The fingers of his injured hand burn as they press into your waist.

" 'm starvin for you baby," he mumbles, the tips of his fingers brushing under the waistband of your jeans.

Heat coils in your stomach, and you bite your lip to keep a whimper from spilling from your lips. As if some Devine power is on your side, you get a notification that your Uber has arrived.

"Our ride is here." Your voice is practically a squeak.

"Want you to ride me." Luke says, and you can feel his lips turn up into a smirk against your skin. You have to cover your mouth with your hand. Luke chuckles darkly. "Pretty girl has to cover her mouth so everyone doesn't know what a dirty girl she is." he hums nosing at your neck. If you're here any longer, you might actually combust. You make sure you have everything because you can quite literally never return to this bar every again.

You help pull Luke out of his chair and drape one of his arms over your shoulder. You wrap your arm around his waist to keep him steady. "Gonna eat you up when we're alone," he mutters, his grin all teeth. He's so fucking beautiful it makes your troat go dry.

You're blushing like a school girl as you help him out of the bar. He's leaning most of his weight on you while he whispers dirty things in your ear. You're surprised that you even manage to get him out of the bar on your own, mainly because his comments are making you weak in the knees. And partially because he's a 6'2, 185-pound man.

You successfully get him into the backseat and give the driver Quinns address. Thank God he lives close. A ten minute drive at most. But unfortunately for you, it feels like hours.  Because Luke had been very perceptive as to how his advances were making you react and continues them with no mercy.

"So pretty f' me" he mumbles, hand trailing up your thigh, lips fluttering over your neck, "gonna let me fuck you pretty girl?"

"Not here, Luke," You whisper, grabbing his hand. You kiss the back of his knuckles and looks at you with such desire in his eyes it takes every ounce of self control not strip and let him fuck you in the back seat of this random car. Your eyes flick to the driver and you swallow the nervous lump in your throat, and say a prayer for forgiveness as your lips trail up his hand.

You close your lips over two of his fingers, and he groans, his head falling against your shoulder. "Gotta be quiet, baby," you murmer, squeezing his knee with one hand before closing your lips back over his fingers.

"m' quiet, m' quiet," he murmers against your neck. Then he's grinding his hips against yours, and there's a whimper caught in your throat. The car comes to a stop in front of Quinns building, and you are hopping out of the car like it's on fire and dragging Luke out behind you.

He stumbles into your back, an arm wrapping around your waist, his lips reattach to your neck, and you can't help the moan that slips out. As soon as the elevator door shuts, Luke pins you to the wall with a knee between your legs, and you drag him down for a desperate kiss.

He tastes like alcohol and cinnamon and home. And you never want to let him go. Then he's hissing with fire, a yearning, pleading fire as he grinds his hips against yours. All you want to do is let him have his way, but he's so so drunk. And no matter how many years the two of you have been dating, and how many times you've slept together, you made your decision way back at the bar that you wouldn't go further than kissing and grinding.

The elevator opens on Quinns floor, and the two of you stumble out. You pat your pockets for the keys to his apartment, and fuck- they aren't there. They must have gotten left in his car on the way to the bar.

You knock on the door nervously. One hand wrapped around Luke's waist, and the other braced against his chest. His uninjured hand is tracing up and down your side and in a way that makes it hard not to squirm as he places tender kisses along your jaw.

Quinn opens the door, looking oh so tired, a toothbrush hanging half out of his mouth. Clearly, he didn't expect you back so soon. His eyes go wide at the sight in front of him, and he resists the urge to gag, lest his toothbrush fall out of his mouth.

"Whad da fack!" He exclaims, spitting into the kitchen sink and closing the apartment door behind you. "Is he drunk?"

"Yes, just let me get him into bed, and I'll explain," you say urgently.

"Only going to bed if you're coming with me," he murmers, squeezing your hip, "need m' pretty girl."

"Do you have advil?" You ask Quinn, ignoring Luke's statement, Quinn wisely chooses not to comment as he grabs advil and a glass of water.

You deposit luke on the bed, huffing from his weight. He pulls you down with a smirk. "Wait, baby, let me get your clothes," you say quickly.

Luke wiggles his eyebrows and lets you undress him. You strip him of his jeans and t-shirt leaving him in his boxers. "Be good and drink this for me," you say, sliding the advil into his mouth.

"I'm good for you, baby," he mutters after he swallows.

"So good for me," you assured as he slipped under the blanket. As soon as his head hits the pillow, his eyes are fluttering. " 'm tir'd."

You stroke his hair back from his forehead softly. "I know, baby, I know,"

"Still want you," he pouted.

"I know, baby, and you'll have me tomorrow. It's sleep time now, ok?"

"Mm'kay," he mumbles, barely audible. You stroke his hair and mutter sweet nothings to him as he falls asleep. You change into a pair of sweats and one of Luke's devils' hoodies before shutting the bedroom door with a quiet click.

Quinn is sitting on the couch, with two mugs of steaming tea. You flop onto the couch, leaning your back against the armrest and tucking your feet under his legs. He hands you a mug of tea, and you take it gratefully, holding it close to your face and letting the steam warm you.

"So what the fuck happened?" Quinn questions.

"After you left, Luke still wasn't back and I went to find him, I don't know what really happened on his end, but he said he was sad about his wrist, and someone convinced him alchool would make it better." You sigh, taking a sip of your tea.

"Anyways, by the time I got him, he had had six shots in the span of a half hour."

Quinns eyes practically bulge out of his head. He looks like he's running calculations in his head, and his jaw drops. "I know," you grimace, "I'm sorry, I should've watched him better, I knew he wasn't happy about his wrist, and I let him -"

"How did he even get drinks?" Quinn asks, "He's not 21."

"Hush, Y/n, it's not your fault. He's a big boy he knows what he's doing." Quinn says softly, drawing you into his arms.

"Quinn, you don't feel bad either, ok?" You say softly knowing Quinn is beating himself up on the inside. He sighs, purses his lips and doesn't say anything for a long minute.

"It's Canada," you mutter like that explains everything. And to Quinn, it does explain it all.

"Fucking Canada" he mutters shaking his head.

---

Hi guys!! I was very excited while writing this, so I hope y'all like it. Comment comment comment! I love comments, I wanna hear all your thoughts! They always make my day a bit brighter.

On that note, I'm going on a bit of a writing break for a week-ish cause schools getting a bit busy with midterms and final papers and whatnot. I'll still be active, tho (unless i feel like it's distracting, then I might fall off the face of the earth for a bit).

Anyways, with that, I hope y'all have a lovely, lovely evening. Love Soph ♡

[lostbetweenvampiresandmusic]

Would it possible if you can write a Lost boys(poly if your comfy with it) with a Carrie!Reader (2013 ver) who like, is bullied severely at school, crappy parents and discovers they have telekinesis. they run into the lost boys on the boardwalk, hangs out with them and stuff? But they don’t tell them the bullying or anything about their home life because reasons(make some up if you want lol) or their powers until they run into their bullies in a empty part of the beach and they terrorize them and they snap? And the boys watch and fall in love and kick their feet and twirl their hair? David wants them to turn now even more (falling in love aside) because ✨Power✨ Dwayne wants them because ✨Safety✨ Paul wants them to turn because ✨Sexy✨ and Marko because ✨Crazy✨. Basically their dream girl who is as soft as silk but a lil fucked up?🥺🥺🥺

Also how’s your day been? How you living? You drink water today?

Hi! Yes, this would absolutely be possible! First off, I have to say, I am so sorry for the incredibly long wait. I was busy with work (multiple jobs and only 7 days a week aren't an easy thing to combine with free time), and I prioritised finishing Changes. But now that Changes is finished and all the chapters are written, I finally have time for this request because I've read this several times now and I just think it is so much fun! Anyway, I hope you'll forgive me for not writing this sooner and that you like what I've written! Have a nice day/night/holidays!💜

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

The alley was silent. Three bodies laid on the ground, blood splattered everywhere from the ground to the walls on both sides. One body, a female no older than twenty, came without a head. Or at least, it used to have a head, but what was left of it was barely recognisable as such. There were two male bodies, one twisted and turned as if it were moulded in clay, the other drained as if all liquid inside the body spontaneously decided to evaporate.

Needless to say, it was a mess.

I stood between those three bodies, not knowing what to do. In all honesty, I was still not entirely sure about what happened. One second, they began to call me names - again, like they always did - and the second I felt my anger flare up and poof - there they were gone. Dead. I shook my head as I stared at the blood, unable to keep a single tear from falling down my face.

I blinked, a small frown on my forehead. I was terrified. Not of what scene laid before me, but because of what had happened. I had done this, and I didn't know how. I had killed them, somehow.

"That's quite a mess."

I jumped, turning around. My heart was beating in my throat as I saw David, Marko, Paul, and Dwayne standing behind me. I frowned slightly. It was the closed off side of the alley, so if they'd walked past me, I would have noticed it, right?

"We flew," was Dwaynes answer to my questioning look. I nodded, remembering how they'd told me what they were a while ago.

I had known the boys for quite some time now, running into them once while they were in the videostore. Marko had just grabbed the tape I wanted, talking - well, there's no other way to put it - shit about it. When I had asked for the tape, he had refused to give it to me, instead opting to give me a better alternative. He had been right. Where I had initially wanted to see a B movie called Zombies from Mars, he had given me Return of the Living Dead. It was awesome. The next night, I searched for them on the boardwalk to thank him for the suggestion, and they invited me to hang out with them. Ever since I did so, every night, whenever I could. I told them everything, I was closer to them than anyone else I knew. Well, everything - i couldn't help but chew the inside of my cheek. I had never told them about being bullied. It felt silly when I hung out with them. It was silly when I could deal with it. It was calling names, being pushed into the showers, locked inside rooms, and losing my lunch sometimes - it could have been worse. Some other kids in school were bullied worse, and they didn't complain, so why would I?

"What happened here?" Paul asked as he looked at the bodies.

"I don't know," I said quietly, my voice weaker than I'd liked, "I got angry and then they were just like that."

"They bothered you?" Marko gave me a pointed look, and I knew that I had no choice but to be truthful now.

"They bullied me."

"Bullied? Why did you never say anything?"

"I don't know," I shrugged, not looking at Marko, "it felt silly, and I could handle it."

"Yeah, that much is obvious," David answered, a sly grin on his face. "Has this ever happened before?"

I shook my head. "It scares me. I just killed three people and didn't even notice it."

"Just a regular night for us, am I right?" Paul chuckled, earning himself some glares. "Sure, it's a shock that it happened, but honestly, Babe," he grinned, "it is kind of hot."

"I killed someone, Paul."

"So? We do too."

"And you're certain you've never done anything like this before?" Marko asked, and once again, I shook my head.

"If you can do this without practice..."

"Practice? This was an accident, I don't even know how it happened or -"

I stopped when I felt myself panic, and slowly but surely, I saw the droplets of blood rising from the ground, floating in the air. I stared at it with wide eyes. "Am I doing this?"

"Yeah," Dwayne appeared behind me, taking my hand in his. "Calm down, alright? You're fine, and you're going to stay fine."

"I don't understand..."

"You're telekinetic," Marko grinned, "you could burn this whole town to the ground if you wanted without lifting a single finger."

"I- I don't think I want that?"

"But you could!"

I couldn't help but smile a watery smile at that. "Why are you four not freaked out?"

"Vampire." Was all David said as he looked at me. "Which you could still become, the offers still up."

"I don't know..."

"As a vampire it would be easier to control your powers."

"And we'd be able to keep you safer if they get out of control."

I sighed, looking between David and Dwayne, not knowing what to do.

"But what if I loose control and hurt you? Any of you?"

"You won't," Marko answered, "besides, I never shied away from a bit of pain."

I blushed, shaking my head. "You're incorrigible."

"You know it," he grinned. "You should go home, well clean this up for you."

"I- i can't really go back home, my parents, they are eh-"

"I meant the cave."

"What?" I frowned, looking at Marko and then at Paul and the others.

"You'll live with us," Paul said simply, as if it was the most obvious thing in the world.

"You're one of us," David said, his voice holding more kindness than I'd heard before, "so come with us."

I smiled softly, nodding as I let David and Dwayne lead me away from the crime scene. Paul and Marko stayed behind, cleaning up the bodies and the blood, neither of them minding the sight of it.

"Pretty damn cool, this power of theirs," Marko grinned, as he swept some brain matter off the wall.

"Definitely. Makes you wonder what else they could do with this gift," he chuckled with a smirk, causing Marko to roll his eyes.

[lonelydiary]

22. Kara

" Jeju, I've seen something sooo cool today!"

Alura just smiled tenderly at her 10 years old exited girl. She barely had time for opening her arms, but Kara already flew in them, hugging her tightly.

"And what was that, inah, can you tell me?"

"I saw beautiful flowers from Venus, they were blue at daylight and purple at night, can you believe it?!! And I also saw this creature from Mars, who had big claws and it opened his eyes for me!!! And I saw pictures from Saturn's polar lights, ukr told me we're gonna see them next year!"

"Wonderful, my sweet girl, I hope you will take me with you to see them?" Alura was just teasing her daughter with a smile on her face. But Kara was very serious, when she answered.

"Of course, mommy, and also we can take uncle Jor and aunt Lara with us, can we?! I can't wait!"

"Yes, without a doubt, honey. Now, what else did you see?"

"I saw this strange rock, jeju, and I...Can I ask you a question?" little Kara's hopeful expression and a small crinkle was hard to say no to. When her mother nodded, Kara continued.

"It actually had two halves - one white and one black. And when combined, they form a perfect round circle. Dad told me, that they are called Ying and Yan. And he told me, that they complement one another perfectly, like two souls. And that we all have our perfect match, the other half of our soul, our soulmate. Is it true, mom?"

For a couple of minutes, Alura was at a loss of words. Because, how can you even begin to explain to your child the natural flow of life? The complications of a relationship between two individuals?

"Yes, honey, there is an old legend, that believes that every one of us has a soulmate. That soul complements us in every way, better way, actually. Believes in us, encourages us, and most importantly loves us just the way we are. But it's incredibly rare to find one. Not everyone has this luck to find this person."

"But what about the Matrix? I thought it helps to find this person for everyone?"

"While yes, sometimes it can find your soulmate, but most of the time Matrix simply is searching for someone to share your believes, tastes, views on life, etc. It's not always your soulmate, but can be the next best thing, inah"

"But did you find your soulmate? Is it dad?"

"Yes. To both of your questions" Alura gently touched her daughter's cheek. "And I'm sure you'll find yours one day".

"But how will I know, if it's them?"

"Oh, you'll know immediately, inah, believe me" her mother smiled and kissed Kara's forehead. "This feeling can't be missed or described."

"Tell me something else about soulmates, mommy!"

And as the evening progressed, Alura was talking with her daughter about new planets, heroes and duty, believing she was meant to do great things, along with her soulmate by her side.

[getouyuri]

Hii 😋

Omg suddenly I'm feeling kinda shy like what am I doing here 🧍‍♀️

But I was thinkingg for a while and I swear I have one song in my mind like 25/8 and that's "Our First Time" By Bruno Mars and I swear it's so 😛😝😻🤩😍🙇‍♀️🐶🛐🛐

So I was wondering about maybe like how jjk characters might react to the first time with reader or sum 😌😇

And if you're not feeling this then maybee confession would be cute 🙈🙊 Idk if it would happen if either reader is tipsy or maybe sober or maybe something else, it's up to you 😛

And if you're not feeling this one either it's okay no worries 😍😇

Sorry if you are struggling with understanding something, English is not my first language 😵‍💫😵‍💫 Thank you so much for reading this you seem like a really cool person, bye 🫶🩷

firstly ur english is perfect ml don’t worry about it and no need to feel shy either!! 😙😙 secondly u got me blushingggg and thirdly oh my goddddd I forgot about that song… just flew back in time

JUST GO WITH IT JUST GO WITH IT JUST GO WITH IT AND I WILL GO REAL SLOW WITH IT SLOW WITH IT ITS OUR FIRST TIME 😫

thank you for the headcanon request 🥳🥳 i got a lil carried away cos i was having fun LMAO

characters: satoru gojo, suguru geto, toji fushiguro, choso kamo, shoko ieiri, yuki tsukumo

content: loss of virginity, gn!reader for the boys, fem!reader and wlw for the girls cos they’re sapphics, oral sex, penetration, fingering, humor

18+, MDNI

satoru gojo:

• “you’re a virgin??” “yeah” “and you want your first time to be with your beautiful amazing devastatingly handsome pookadookasnooks meow meow snugglemuffin???” “yeah 😕” “SAY LESS!”

• way too excited about the whole thing because wow. he’s the first person outside of yourself to, well, touch allll up on yourself

• he can tell you’re embarrassed about the noises so his loudmouth self puts on a show as if they’re starring in a porno. exaggerated wet noises bounce around your ear canals like a ping pong ball as he kisses you everywhere with pronounced ‘mwahs’ and he moans LOUD AS FAWK as if he’s the one getting groped and fondled for the first time

• satoru’s sosososo sweet, asking what you want and how. he also keeps going “oooh hold on this’ll feel really good too, watch this” and generally just makes sure you’re feeling comfortable And having a good time; because intimacy is so much better when you can laugh and have fun with it too

• you end up sinking down onto his cock while he reclines on his back, gripping your hips but letting you steer the wheel for the most part. doesn’t stfu and endlessly praises you as you ride him, and he’s cheeeesing because he’s happy that you’re enjoying your first time

• once you cum he flips you over and takes you to pound town, cheesing even harder because your whimpers are sooo cuteeee when you’re overstimulated. but at some point satoru notices it gets to be too much and he doesn’t want his pretty baby to be in pain, nuh uhhhh

• pulls out to cum all over your tummy then drags a finger through the mess and brings his dripping finger up to your lips. “one gojo special, coming right up. and don’t worry about taste— i’ve been eating lots and lots of pineapple juuust for this ;)”

suguru geto:

• you may as well kiss all of your bodily functions goodbye the second he lays you down on the bed

• like its joever man

• suguru’s gonna make you pass out from the head rush you get as he makes you describe exactly how you feel as he’s touching you, petting over you. he doesn’t let you leave out a single detail. chuckles and teases you when your voice cracks or you look at the ceiling instead of him after spewing the raunchy shit that he wants to hear. edges tf outta you when you Don’t

• “aht aht, use your words, sweetheart. i can’t take care of you properly when you aren’t telling me what you need”

• because don’t you worry! chivalry is not in fact dead; not when there’s a gentleman between your legs. suguru’s far from a selfish lover— this is about you and the trust you’ve placed in him to take care of you, which he already does in every other aspect of your relationship. and he’s more than happy to do the same during their time in bed

• has you cumming on his mouth, then his fingers, then his cock that he sinks into you in missionary so that he can watch how your irises visibly tremble as you look up at him and the way the soft pink of your lips shapes his name

• everything you want you get, and more. he leaves you wanting for nothing. suguru pamperssss you and takes you to the moon

• but oh my fucking god are you alive?? are you even on earth anymore???? you’re twitching and shaking and gasping for what feels like hours

• “i think i saw jesus for half a second,” and he’s chuckling again, entangling your fingers after he’s cleaned you up, hand fed you some chocolate, and tipped your head back so he could dribble water into your mouth for you. he guides your fingers to his hair. “think that might’ve been me, angel. i’m the only long-haired man in the room.”

• you smack his chest

toji fushiguro:

• “oh word?” is all this man says when you announce that you’re ready on a random thursday afternoon: he doesn’t look up from his phone (he was really getting into the house restoration tiktok he was watching) until you confirm it

• you’re promptly thrown over his shoulder and he hauls you to bed

• though he’s a straight shooter and goes for what he wants whenever he wants, toji slows himself down for you because he knows ur internally shitting bricks. you don’t even gotta see his cock to know that he’s PACKING and you’re already praying to your ancestors that you survive. his sharp eyes catch the subtle bob of your throat as you swallow and the spiraling staircase spelled out in your eyes

• “jesus, doll, ‘m not gonna fuckin’ tear your ass up and wreck your shit just yet.” he’ll save getting his dick in your stomach for a rainy day. “but a man’s gotta eat.”

• the second he’s between your soft thighs, your fingers laced through his hair while his mouth drops down to where you’re leaking, toji shows you exactly why he’s the best at what he does. and no he does NAWT mean killing sorcerers

• though this is gn!reader, he’d definitely eat fem!reader from the back

• he’s as gentle as a man like him can be as he goes down on you ‘til you cum, then he whips his cock out to take care of himself when you offer to help him out. and who is he to look a gift horse in the mouth?

• toji guides you, shows you exaaactly how to stroke him right, squeezing on the upstroke, screwing your free palm against the tip. you daringly take half of him into your mouth and he pulls you off to cum on your face cos well. he’s toji

• “we’re doin’ this again the second i get myself back up”

• oh fawk

choso kamo:

• “guess that makes two of us” is what he casually says when you tell him that you’re a virgin

• contrary to popular belief, no, he’s not clueless when it comes to sex. he’s got what he’s seen on TV, what he’s personally looked up, and the memories of his host’s body all on his side

• so in theory both of you know how sex works, what goes where and whatnot . in practice? all of that knowledge seems to fly out the fucking window to join the birds

• choso lit some vanilla-scented candles to set the mood, because this moment is super special for both of them, right? everything needs to be perfect. romantic

• you’re gripping the shit out of a bottle of cherry flavored lube, which you bought because gojo and yuki swore to them both that it’d make things more fun, as if someone’s gonna take that shit from you as you clamber onto his lap. and then they both stare at each other. “lovely, how should we…” “let’s just make out and go from there??”

• you both get into a rhythm, hands skirting beneath clothes as you swap spit

• kissing while you straddle him turns into him lying back, their palms glued together with sweat as their hands entangle on either side of his head. which turns into grinding and whiny moans

• both of you nut in your pants like teenagers

• round two starts with breathy laughter and awed gazes as soiled clothes get tossed to the side so that you can explore each other’s bodies and properly pin down the other’s preferences this time. and the lube finally gets put to use

• choso’s more preoccupied with your needs than his; a puppy born and bred to please, and reaaaally fawking eagerly. pawing at your erogenous zones that he discovers after some trial and error, and you do the same to him. it’s all sooooo sweet, so gentle, even though both of you are fumbling and giggling

• “is this okay? faster, slower? whatever you want.”

• he doesn’t last long once he sinks inside of you, but choso manages to make you cum again before he busts a second time too, so hey, win win

shoko ieiri:

• honestly she’s not really surprised that you’re a virgin. she knows damn well you’re not the type to wander off to some bar and pick some rando up for your first time. and there’s not a large roster of sorcerer women to pick from, either

• luckily she’s your girlfriend. and she has enough experience to know what the hell to do

• which is why she busts out the double-ended dildo and tosses it to the side of the bed. you stare at it with big ass eyes and she just chuckles as she guides you to sit between her legs, your back squishing her boobs

• not only is she gonna show you how good it feels to be touched by someone other than yourself, she’s gonna show you exactly how she touches you

• holds your legs open with her own legs, spreading you niiice and wide so that you can see yourself in the mirror while shoko fingers you and narrates every. single. thing. that she’s doing. mostly to watch how flustered you get

• makes you cum on her fingers multiple times until you’re drooling because you deserve nothing but the best. she’s very happily getting off on your pleasure

• then shoko smiles to herself as you, lashes shading your spacey gaze and muscles still erratically twitching beneath your skin, turn around and eat her out to return the favor. that’s when your body really registers that she absolutely destroyed your kitty and wore down your mind and body. you practically fall asleep with your mouth on her while her hand scratches at your scalp as if you’re a kitten

• “tired already, cutie? guess we’ll save the double-ended dildo for next time.”

• YOU’RE UP

yuki tsukumo:

• they’re making out on a flannel-patterned blanket that they laid out on the grass when yuki goes to worm her long fingers down your pants when you tell her that its your first time

• “you’re telling me that people weren’t lining up around the block to get a piece of this ass and a taste of it too before we started dating?? ohhh bunny… that’s criminal.”

• “good thing yuki thee stallion’s happy to take her cute girl for a ride!”

• because if anything she’s JUICEDDDD that she’s your first. mentally she’s kicking her feet, carving your initials into a tree, rolling down the slight incline of the hill where they’ve been pointing out constellations and shooting the shit on. little do you know that they’re gonna have a spring wedding and todo’s gonna be her best man

• hauls you up her body so that you can sit on her face out in the open. sure they could just scoot back to their hotel room on her harley but mmmm… semi-public sex with no one else around… its her shit

• she’s already plotting ways to tease you when they’re Really in public

• you’re thinking, ‘wow, how can this possibly get better’ while jerkily riding her tongue when she brings her fingers into the mix and you squirt, just like that. yuki must be floating in the heavens up above them because WOW HOLY SHIT this is the best day of her life. what a treat

• she pulls you back down, all smiles and sunshine as she coos praise. but are y’all done? helllll naw. yuki flips you over, shuffles out of her jeans, and introduces you to the art of scissoring while she mauls your tits like a dog with a new chew toy

[mjonthetrack]

O11

Pensacola,Fl

“Get the fuck out my house!”, the woman’s screams alerted her sisters who came running scared and confused seeing their oldest sister losing her composure pointing a gun at both David and Josh. “Marsie, what’s going on?!,” Saturn said her hands shaking as she kept them up in the air. Venus saw her sisters face distraught and the tears that fell erratically down her cheeks,”sissy what’s happening?!”

David decided to capitalize on the opportunity,” baby she started acting crazy waving the gun around I think she hadn’t been taking them anti depressants like you mentioned.” Mars widened her eyes looking at the youngest with teary eyes of disbelief,” you been telling people I’m crazy Violet?! You all think I’m crazy huh?!” The sisters backed up when Jey yelled for them to,” he’s the one who killed your parents he confessed.” Violet’s mouth flew open in shock,”that’s a lie right babe tell me that he’s the one from the streets that did this not you.” Jey winced hearing how she felt about him but tried to focus on Marcella,” baby give me the gun, I can explain just give it to me.”

The distraction was all David needed he flipped himself up to his feet and snatched the gun from Marcella now pressing it to her temple holding his free hand around her throat. The sisters screamed out lunging forward but he pointed the gun in their direction,” don’t come any closer, I’m not against blowing her fat ass apart.” Jey was on his feet quickly thinking high pressure stakes like these were commonplace in his time serving, he held his hands up defensively,” let her go bruh, this was meant to be me so take me instead.” Marcella’s whimpers came as she was confused and scared, she heard him offering himself making her heart stop,”no Josh just shut the fuck up!” she gritted shaking in the skinny man’s hold.

“For fucks sakes,” the British man’s voice came surprising the sisters and Marcella,” both of you shut the fuck up!” When Mars managed to throw a strong elbow to his ribs David cussed snatching her hair roughly tugging her head to the back as he pressed the gun to her cheek,” I swear I should’ve eliminated all three of you wastes of semen when I killed your parents, stop crying Violet your incessant whining and need for approval is disgusting.” The youngest sister gaped in shock,” you’re joking this is all a prank?” David groans loudly,” you’re fucking useless, I needed you to have a way to get close to your sister, and you were so bloody insufferable with your disgusting daddy issues.”

Marcella took a deep breath looking over where Josh’s eyes met her she mouthed,” I’m sorry’ his eyes widened in realization. Marcella put all her strength into stomping harshly on David’s foot, the man yelled out in pain,” you fucking cow!” She sent an elbow to his ribs and moved quickly trying to snatch the gun from him bravely. The loud echo of a gunshot rang in the woman’s ears, she could hear a blur of voices and felt the man’s foot sending a sharp kick to her ribs. Marcella could hear Josh’s scream for her name his face burning into her brain. She heard a few more bangs but her eyes had shifted to the pool of scarlet that was soaking her shirt. Marcella coughed warm blood spilling from her full lips as her eyes widened in fear her hearing was taken over by ringing in both ears, she saw her sisters screaming and crowding over her. Her head fell to the side, she saw Josh angrily firing a gun into a laid out David, then everything went black.

——————-

Cops and emergency services showed up, they’d taped the crime scene, both sisters were inconsolable though wrapped in safety blankets getting checked for injuries and asked by cops what they saw and heard. Jey was being let out of handcuffs when they’d determined he wasn’t a threat and the sisters vetted that he was defending their lives from an intruder in their home. Roman even came though lurked unseen making eye contact with Jey his eyes busy with thoughts he hadn’t spoken aloud. The different crime scene analysts were there proving the alibis of the sisters figuring they were talking the truth as the hospital’s mortuary and medic staff were tugging out a body bag for the one laid out upstairs claiming there was no way someone could survive so many shots at close range. The police chief apologizing to the sisters for what they’d loss. Jey saw the body bag and was instantly on his feet throwing himself in the direction but some of the medics held him tightly as he screamed out,”I need to see her, don’t take her away from me, I didn’t get a chance to thank her -,” the sounds of the different ambulances leaving the scene with both bodies only fueled the three witnesses reactions.

Jey didn’t give a fuck about what Roman wanted, he didn’t give a damn about the fifty million questions that were being rapidly fired at him, he just wanted to see her, one last time. His heart ached at the thought, none of this shit could be real, that woman was too damn good for this fucked up world she had to be alive, he couldn’t make sense of it. Jey glared at his cousin it was his fucking fault if he hadn’t baited him at this target she would still be here. Then his eyes went to the youngest sister and he clenched his jaw if she wasn’t so fucking desperate for male validation her sister wouldn’t have been shot down. Then he saw the image of his face in a reflection of the ambulance he was sat in and he cussed, if he would’ve just died in that parking garage none of this would’ve happened, it was his fault.

[youkaigakkou-tl]

The TRUTH behind the soul pieces

Preamble: I started writing this expecting nothing, but I actually found something??? not clickbait???? gone right???

Warning: the expected reaction of reading this is “damn. I’ve never seen someone grasp harder at straws” and “I dunno about this one chief”

So. "The soul pieces aren't exactly what we're told they are" is an idea I've had for a while now. (I wouldn’t even call it a theory, it’s just a passing thought.) Not that "they're manifestations of Haruaki's traits" is wrong, but I think there's more to them than immediately obvious. I just haven't talked about this much because even I don't fully buy into it and it kinda verges on horoscope-type confirmation bias territory. It’s kind of a, I THINK there’s more to it but I don’t know what exactly is more.

A brief recap

First one shown is his "worldly desires", animal trio vs Seiryuu.

Second is his "freak athleticism", that Kurahashi's team and Ebisu just ran into.

With just these two he runs off to find Sano

Third is his "cowardice", found by Sano's team and Byakko, which gets away and hides in Sano's pocket.

Fourth is his "memory", originally found by Hijita's team and Genbu, which gets picked up by Genbu and then the whole Heian flashback happens.

And last is his "intelligence", which for some reason is also the one that can use his exorcism power.

So immediately a couple details stood out to me.

Why is "memory" here?? I wouldn't call that a trait exactly??

Also, when it first broke apart and flew off in five directions, it's specifically pointed out that it's "like a five pointed star" (even though it's not really if you look at the actual locations on a map lol)

And the sticking point, if it was as clean and simple a split as “Haruaki’s traits”, why do the traits bleed into each other? “Athleticism” is into sailor uniforms too, and “Cowardice” and “Intelligence” are pretty quick by themselves. Also, even without his “Memory” at the time, he remembered that conversation with Seimei in ch87.

The five pointed star detail, considering everything in the arc heavily relates to the Four Gods and Seimei's star, which relates to Wuxing, almost begs to be referencing that too.

What is Wuxing?

Wuxing, five elements, five phases, gogyo, whatever other name for it: I’ve talked about it briefly in my Kyoto arc analysis

(Wait. Is this actually all I mentioned regarding Wuxing in that analysis???? This tells you nothing!!)

(Tbh I think I had a longer explanation about it but I cut it because I thought it was irrelevant)

Wuxing 五行, roughly translated as five elements or phases, is a concept that comes from Taoism. The five elements are Wood, Fire, Earth, Metal and Water and describes the interactions between them. Here’s the wikipedia page if you really want to get into the details.

The “xing” means movements/moving, and the entire concept of Wuxing comes from the five classical planets’ (Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn) movements affecting… things? In general? (It’s horoscopes)

In fact, the names of those five planets in Chinese and Japanese are tied with the Wuxing:

Mercury = 水星 water star

Venus = 金星 metal/gold star

Mars = 火星 fire star

Jupiter = 木星 wood star

Saturn = 土星 earth star

You’re taught these as a kid but not the reasoning behind it (because it’s hella irrelevant lmao) but I guess it kinda makes instinctual sense? (Venus = yellow, Mars = red, Jupiter = stripes, like tree rings?? Saturn = brown. Mercury = it looks like there’s rivers? idk how much detail they were seeing in the BC times)

And just to sate curiosity, the planets that were discovered after telescopes were invented are just based off the English names

Uranus = 天王星 sky god star

Neptune = 海王星 sea god star

Pluto = 冥王星 underworld god star

By the way, this is also why the days of the week are named after elements in Japanese; it’s not actually the elements, rather it’s referring to the celestial bodies: those 5 planets + the moon and the sun. It’s the classical Chinese system that Japan adopted around the 5th century AD, and they haven’t changed it since then. (Chinese uses stuff like “weekday 1” for monday now.) And China itself adopted the Greco-Roman system of the 7 day week, days named after celestial bodies around the 4th century AD, which is also why the planets and days line up if you look at the English and Japanese names now.

Would be crazy if they independently decided to have 7 days in a week and name days after celestial bodies and assigned the same planets to the days huh.

(Also, TIL from looking at this chart that the sun (taiyang) is indeed called that because it’s the “great yang star”, and the moon is called the “great yin star”, you know, like yin-yang)

I’m remembering why it’s so hard to research and write about this stuff now. Everything is so inextricably connected to everything else its hard to talk about one thing in isolation. Thanks for indulging my astronomy tangent I love astronomy.

(I always got saturn on da mind when I think about Seimei cus of this art…)

The only useful part of this essay

So. Wuxing. Here’s a pretty standard diagram of it so it’s easier to visualise

There are five types of processes Wuxing describes:

Generating: Wood feeds fire

The reverse side of generating: Fire burns wood

Regulating: Wood grasps earth

Excessive regulating (destruction): Wood depletes earth

The reverse side of regulation (exhaustion): Earth rots wood

And here’s a full list of it, from wikipedia

With this in mind, you’ll notice that it pops up all over the place in Kyoto arc!

If we take lightning as aligned with metal (because Byakko = metal = lightning user), this is the regulating interaction of metal -> wood

Metal cuts wood, but wood also dulls metal

Water… nourishing wood….???

Water destabilizes earth

(“This is just pokemon lol” WRONG!! Pokemon types and every other element system in videogames came from Wuxing!! (Or Godai))

Back to the soul pieces

So you see, it’s incredibly tempting to connect the five soul pieces with the five elements of Wuxing. It’s basically begging for it. The Wuxing has been associated with lots of things that come in sets of five, including things like senses, tastes, smells, emotions, mental qualities, periods of one’s life, body parts. It has applications in divination and traditional chinese medicine after all. If there was a clear, 1-to-1 match between the soul pieces and the elements, you bet I would have talked about it more by now. But the connections are tenuous at best, and even I don’t really believe it. They might, probably, just be the traits we’re told they are. So this really is just to humor myself, and maybe someone can glean something more from this.

Let’s lay out the things surrounding the soul pieces:

“Desires” was at Arashiyama (a bamboo forest) and Seiryuu was present, both associated with Wood

“Athleticism” was at Ginkaku-ji (silver pavilion), none of the four gods were present, no obvious element associations here.

“Cowardice” was at Mount Kurama (mountain = earth?), Byakko was present (metal?)

“Memory” was at Kiyomizu-dera (clear water temple), and Genbu was present, water association

“Intelligence” was at Kinkaku-ji (gold pavilion), and none of the four gods were present initially. (gold = metal?)

The other thing I’ve yet to mention is all the soul pieces seem to be of different points in Haruaki’s life. (Well. Four of them at least.)

“Desires” and “Athletics” seem to look and act younger (as much as you can tell with chibis…), both wearing simple t-shirts, and “Athletics” t-shirt and shorts look like what Haruaki wore as a kid in the Miki arc flashback. Adding on to that, we’re constantly told how into sailor uniforms Haruaki was as a little kid (literally whenever his childhood gets brought up: Mamaaki talking about it in ch8, him saying his first cry as a newborn was “sailor uniform” in ch43, the ch51.5 extra) (ok to be fair. his sailor uniform fetish gets brought up at every opportunity. but i feel like it’s Pretty emphasized here) Also I feel like “Desires” especially talks like a kid.

Meanwhile “Cowardice” and “Memory” are dressed the way he currently does, and “Cowardice” seems to parallel the way Haruaki was at the start of the series. It’s Sano’s team that runs into him, he acts like how Haruaki did early on just amped way up, and he ends up hiding on Sano.

IQ-kun… still don’t know what to make of him and how he fits into this lol

Put like this, doesn’t it almost seem like, in the order they appear, they represent points in Haruaki’s life too?

Or, this could all be nothing, because they’re all wearing the same thing in the jacket for Volume 14.

So anyway, from this angle, it seems like Desires and Athletics line up fairly cleanly with Wood and Fire respectively, but Cowardice, Memory and Intelligence are a little murkier. Cowardice only somewhat lines up with Earth, and both Memory and Intelligence could align with Water, while Memory could also be Metal. (I dropped the quotation marks bc they were getting distracting)

Here’s a diagram to illustrate.

(See it’s kinda, pick-and-choosey, horoscope-type shit)

Immediately a couple problems arise. First and most majorly is the horoscopey-ness of it all. And then there’s the matter that, if the four gods represent four out of five of the elements and earth is the outlier, wouldn’t it also make sense if IQ-kun as the outlier would be assigned that?

There’s also the possibility that the first four are a set, and IQ-kun makes up the “yin” to the rest of Haruaki’s “yang” (But then what would the first four correspond to individually? idk….)

We’re getting nowhere with this analogy, so let’s look at some adjacent philosophies in sets of five, just for fun, and see if they line up any better.

Traditional Chinese Medicine

This one is the most related to Wuxing, there are five main “organs” in TCM that have associated Wuxing elements. They might be called the same names as the anatomical organs, but they’re actually more like concepts only roughly correlated with locations on the body. This is stuff codified thousands of years ago before modern knowledge of the human body, mind you.

Heart (fire): stores the “aggregate soul” (the mind)

Spleen (earth): governs transportation of qi and blood, and governs muscles and limbs

Lung (metal): stores the “po 魄” (physical soul)

Kidney (water): responsible for willpower or fear

Liver (wood): governs free flow of qi, blood and emotions. Stores blood, which stores the “hun 魂” (ethereal soul)

(The wikipedia page I linked has more in depth descriptions)

And if we sorta line up the attributes…

Desires = Liver/wood

Athleticism = Spleen/earth

Cowardice = Kidney/water

Memory = Lung/metal

Intelligence = Heart/fire

Something like this? It doesn’t line up particularly nicely either, and certainly doesn’t line up with the first theory…

But reading up on this actually brought something useful to my attention: the concept of “hun” and “po”

See, there’s this Chinese compound word “hun po 魂魄” that generally just means “soul”, but if you get really semantic they’re two different types of souls?

The “hun” is the yang-aligned “ethereal soul” typically understood as the wits/mind of a person, whatever constitutes the personality, and is the part of the soul that leaves the body on death.

The “po” is the yin-aligned “physical soul”, sometimes described as the “baser animal spirit” of a person, and is attached to the body.

This could explain why Haruaki’s soul is also Seimei’s soul, but also Seimei is in the underworld?

This scene I got real hung up about in my Kyoto arc post?

It lining up and being a reasonable explanation is one thing, but whether sensei is deliberately referencing a property of Chinese linguistics that doesn’t have an equivalent in Japanese kanji is another thing. And honestly, I could see Tanaka “I’ll have to read up on Chinese history, but off the top of my head Byakko and Seiryuu are from 4000BC and Suzaku and Genbu are younger” Mai could and would do it. (Good god, what I wouldn’t give to see sensei’s notes. Yohaji fanbook explaining every cultural reference PLEASEEEE IM BEGGINGGG)

Godai

Godai (“the five great (elements)”), while also a thing with five elements that features prominently in Japanese culture, differs from Wuxing in that it originates from the concept of Mahābhūta in Indian Buddhism, and features Fire, Water, Earth, Wind and Void. It’s a more inert definition and describes the elements as building blocks, contrasting with Wuxing which is more concerned with the balancing and interaction between the elements and the changes they cause in each other.

Godai also isn’t ever depicted as a star (and Wuxing is only depicted as a star as a byproduct of all the arrows denoting the interactions, sometimes the 5 elements are arranged like the 5 side of a dice with lines connecting everything) and is typically depicted as a Gorinto, a stone structure.

In order from top to bottom, it goes Void, Wind, Fire, Water, Earth, and represents the structure of the universe in Buddhism.

So. Attributes and if they line up any better.

Earth: unmoving, stability

Water: fluidity, adaptability, motion

Fire: passion, power, energy

Wind: growth, freedom

Void: the spirit? thought? there’s not really a clear description of this one. To begin with, originally in Buddhism, it’s just said that “from void emerged air, from air emerged fire, (etc)”

I could see wind = Memory and void = Intelligence, but the rest… I dunno man

The five aggregates in Buddhism

And now, following the thread back from Godai, to the Buddhist concept of Skandhas, or the “five aggregates of clinging”, described as the five factors that make up a sentient being’s personality. (Hey, this sounds like it could be onto something here!)

The five aggregates are:

Form or matter: the material form of a person

Sensation or feeling: the five senses + intellectual sensation, and the feelings that occur whether pleasant, unpleasant or neutral

Perception: cognition and recognizing what has been previously noted

Mental formations: dispositions, or something that motivates a person to take action (or sometimes described as the influences of a previous life?!)

Consciousness: cognizance, or the base that supports experience, sometimes translated as mind, intelligence or life force

Wait… This kinda… lines up…? No way…?

Form = Athleticism

Sensation = Cowardice

Perception = Memory

Mental formations = Desires

Consciousness = Intelligence

This… kinda works? They all basically line up and it’s not too tenuous, and there’s enough matching details in the descriptions of the five aggregates that it’s kinda scary…?

I’ll be real, prior to writing this section I hadn’t actually read the descriptions of each of them too carefully (I had the tab open and roughly noted the descriptions kinda worked) and I entirely expected to end this essay with a “in conclusion: no conclusion i learned nothing lol” but there’s actually something here????

And Tanaka Mai is known to reference Buddhism a lot, so this could entirely be intentional…??? I’m kinda shaken rn tbh

I mean, I guess I should have looked to Buddhism first considering sensei’s track record, what with how the arc opened with Haruaki getting put under a waterfall to get rid of his worldly desires, and how 3 out of 5 locations were Buddhist temples, but Buddhism concepts usually use their Sanskrit names and I don’t know how to google for that… (making excuses. classic)

Um. Hope you enjoyed reading this and that you learned something? Here’s all the relevant wikipedia pages if you want to go down your own rabbit hole:

Wuxing (Chinese five elements)

Godai (Japanese Buddhism five elements)

Mahābhūta (Indian Buddhism five elements)

Hun and po (two concepts of souls)

Skandha (five aggregates that make up a person)

Twelve Nidanas (didn’t mention this one, but it’s related to skandhas)

If you read all this you should read all my other long rambly things too if you haven’t, they’re all under the #rambles tag 👍

[bookaddict19]

Sleeping with the Enemy (Part 3) | Fred Weasley x Reader

Rating: Mature…eventually. I don’t know.

No hate, please. But if you like it, let me know and I will continue adding to it. 

Part One Part Two

As Y/N stared at Draco, her mind searched for some plausible excuse for why she was huddled together in a hospital bed still gripping Fred Weasley’s hand. “It’s not what it looks like,” she whispered. To whom, she did not know.  But the words escaped from her lips as if by their own provocation.  Though her gaze never left Draco’s, Y/N felt Fred’s hand slip out of her own as he tensed at her words. Her mind raced and tried to forget the dull ache echoing in her chest at the loss his of touch.

“What does it look like, Y/N?” Draco breathed slowly. A deadly calm had settled over him. Though his hand still cradled his bleeding arm, his features had hardened. The lines on his face seemed to be etched in stone. The muscles in his back and shoulders coiled in torchlight as his injured arm slowly, perhaps unconsciously, made its way to his wand. The playful boy that she had left at the party just hours before was gone and the rigid outline of a Deatheater had taken his place.

Y/N put on her best haughty smile. Fred had left the hospital bed that they shared to make his way to his brother’s bedside. Y/N didn’t dare look at him but felt his gaze burn on her back as she timidly approached Draco.

“Still a little drunk,” she grinned at him mischievously as the lie burned in her throat. “I haven’t really learned my way around the castle yet. I thought the kitchens were around here somewhere. I’m suddenly in the mood for something deep-fried and smothered in chocolate.” She forced her smirk to remain despite the way her stomach twisted when she looked into his hollow gray eyes. She hated lying to Draco and, worse, she was terrible at it.

“What a disappointment,” Draco murmured. His eyes left hers to briefly glare at the Weasley twins. Y/N didn’t dare turn around. “It’s impolite to intrude, Draco dear,” she said sweetly. “Come along,” she took his sleeve and began to pull him out of the room. “I can bandage you up and then we could go find something to eat.” The great mahogany doors closed behind them.

They were only a few paces down the hallway, Draco trailing slowly behind her, when he pulled her into an empty corridor. He pinned her to a wall, his hands blocking her exits. Blood still ran from his injured arm and onto the stone floor but he didn’t seem to notice. Y/N stared into his darkening eyes defiantly in a desperate attempt to keep face.  

“Do you want to tell me what was going on back there or should I let my imagination wander?” he hissed to her, his eyes moved to the bloodied bandages on her arms where her excessive use of magic had marred her skin. Her forced grin had slipped into a tired grimace. She opened her mouth, another lie on her lips, when his hard look softened.

“Magic,” he asked, his eyes softening as they bore into hers. “Or…the other thing.”

“I’m fine,” she said, looking anywhere but in his eyes. “I’m just stressed and, under the circumstances, I think that’s a bit reasonable.” She looked down. Blue sparks flew out her hand. A flame had started to dance in her palm. Though the blaze licked her fingers, she did not feel anything. Not heat, nor cold. Nothing. The irony, she thought miserably.

“And Weasley,” he trailed off, looking at the flames in her palm.

“It’s nothing,” she mumbled, balling her fist and quenching the blaze. “It’s just a little bit of fun. A distraction. It doesn’t mean anything.”

“We can’t afford to be distracted,” Draco scolded, leaning on the wall across from her.

“I know that,” she mumbled, her hand moving down to scratch her Dark Mark. Draco stared at her for a minute and she wandered if he was seeing her or thinking about his own scar-faced distraction. She didn't have much time to process it when Draco turned on his heels and marched down the hall without another word. Y/N looked back at the great doors of the hospital wing; the look on Fred’s face as she dropped his hand burning its way through her mind as she turned to follow Malfoy.

                                                          ***

The halls of the castle overflowed with a river of students as Y/N made her way to Charms. Draco was a few paces ahead of her, his pale head bent in deep quiet conversation with a few 7th year Ravenclaw boys.

Lost in her own melancholy, she found herself in a broom closet. A large freckled hand was pressed against her mouth muffling her protests. She looked up in alarm, into Fred’s dark eyes. Despite the tip of her wand pressing firmly against his throat, Fred was smiling. Y/N was slow to lower to wand. Almost as slow as she was to free herself from Fred’s hold.

“What do you want, Weasley?” she said defeatedly. She moved to the other side of the small space, placing her wand and her hands firmly in the pockets of her robes. Fred’s smile was gone. “You’ve been avoiding me,” he stated.

“You’re flattering yourself,” Y/N spit. “There’s nothing between us to avoid.”

“Y/N…” Fred started towards her.

“No,” she said, backing up so abruptly she crashed into the shelves behind her. Spare buckets and cleaning utensils fell from rafters. “Damn it!” she stumbled forward in an attempt to avoid the falling objects. Fred caught her. “Get off,” she pushed him away, her hands sparking. Thunder clapped in the distance.

He raised up his hands in a surrendering gesture. “Just talk to me,” he whispered. She had rarely seen him like this. The humor and sarcasm that usually lit up his features was replaced with genuine concern. It made the guilt in her stomach twist like a knife.

“Why?” she asked. “We’re not friends. Up until a few weeks ago, we had barely even spoken. Now, just because I’ve saved your ass a few times, suddenly we’re besties? Face it, you don’t even know me.”

“But I’m trying too,” he said, his voice cracking with anger. His face flushed as he gestured between the two of them. “No matter how hard you’re making it.”

“What’s the point?!” she shrieked. Blue sparks flew from her hands; she had started to shake. “What do you get out of this?! Huh?! To prove you’re some rebel for daring to hang out with a Slytherin? Or is it enough that every time he sees me with you, I have to lie to the one person who has ever given a damn about me?”

She slammed her fist against the stone wall. More sparks flew. Pain radiated from her hand but the scorched mark that she left on the wall gave her a brief satisfaction and fed her ravenous rage. “You don’t get it! I break things! Can’t you see that? Can’t you see that I’m not a good person? No matter how hard I try to do the right thing, I always end up fucking everything up.” The Dark Mark pulsed on her forearm. “I wish that I could close my eyes and open a joke shop and pretend that everything going on in the world right now was just part of a bad dream. But I can’t.” The rage was draining out of her. Tears filled her eyes and all of the pent-up emotions from the past few weeks threatened to spill out. “And I hate myself for it sometimes.”

Fred slowly moved towards her, worried she might spook like a frightened animal. His own anger had faded rather quickly when she had begun to break apart. He had watched her tirade with a stunned despondency. Y/N was breathing hard but the sparks in her hands had begun to fizzle out. She flinched when Fred put his arms around her but didn’t pull away. Instead, she leaned into the hug, pulling him closer and resting her tear-soaked face in his chest. They held each other for a while, neither daring to break the trance and return to a reality where they might one day very soon be facing off on a battlefield. His face was buried in her dark curls and her breath caught when he planted a soft kiss on her head. She looked up at him, brushing the hair and tears out her eyes.

“I’m sorry,” he said and began to take a step back. Y/N stopped him, taking his hand in hers but not looking him in the eyes.

Then she kissed him. Slowly at first; just a soft brush of the lips that caused his stormy eyes to flutter close and the corners of his mouth to perk up into a mischievous Weasley trademark smirk. Sensing his grin, Y/N reached onto the tips of her toes to kiss him again. More passionately this time. Her eyes closed as she pulled herself closer to him. Her hands wrapped around his neck; her fingers inched their way into his flaming red hair, twisting and pulling the amber strands as his lips melted into hers. He tasted so much of cinnamon and spice that she briefly wondered if he had been in the kitchens again.

Fred’s hands moved to rest on her waist, pulling her by the tails of her skirt closer to him. Their bodies molded into one as his arms wrapped around her protectively. The closet was filled with the sounds of their breathing as they briefly came up for air after each embrace. Fred let out a breathy moan that was quickly muffled by their lips connecting again. Y/N tugged lightly on his hair one final time before moving her hands from his hair to his jaw line and down the hard muscles of his chest. Their kisses slowed. His fingertips traced the curve of her waist once more before dragging his hands slowly up her body in order to cup her face. They broke apart; their faces still inches from one another’s.

Y/N kept her eyes closed in an attempt to focus on controlling her breathing. Fred took this time to commit her face to memory. The way her dark curls framed her face. The way she nervously bit her swollen pink lips. He searched for imperfections. Some small scar or blemish that would prove to him that she was indeed real.  He could find none. Every mark, every flaw just added up to her. And in that moment, he couldn’t think of anything more perfect than that.

Fred smiled as Y/N’s eyes fluttered open. The chocolate irises that he had been expecting now blazed a bright gold. Apparently, anger wasn’t the only thing that made her lose a bit of control. He caressed her face, more intrigued than afraid. “Fred,” she started, her eyes flashed warningly. He kissed her again. She responded by pulling him closer by his robes, causing the both of them to crash against the wall.  The temptation to lose herself in Fred, in a broom closet, in the middle of the castle, was becoming more and more appealing. Either way, she was definitely going to be late for Charms.

Their kiss deepened. Coming up for air, she let out a soft whimper when his lips traveled to her neck leaving soft kisses and nibbles on the sensitive skin there. His hands slipped her robe from her shoulders and she smiled as the cool air hit her bare arms. His fingers traced down her forearms, over the spot of her glamoured Dark Mark. The sensation caused her to briefly come to her senses.

“Freddie,” she gently pushed him off. “Let’s slow down a bit.” He smiled at the nickname, his blue eyes glinting in the soft light of room, and backed away.

“Sorry, love,” he whispered dreamingly.

“Fred,” she started again, her face burning. “There’s something I need to tell you. Something that I should’ve told you before we…” she gestured between them, hoping the movement made up for her lack of knowing exactly what had just transpired between them.  Her breath caught in her throat. She couldn’t find the words. For some reason, she didn’t think “I’m a part of the group of psychopaths who are dead set on killing you and all of your friends…but don’t worry, it’s not as bad as you think” was going to cut it. Her hand moved to cover her left forearm. She was just going to have to show him. Once he knew, she could explain everything…almost everything…well…some stuff. And he would understand, and everything would be okay…

But it wouldn’t. And she couldn’t. The words would not come. She could not risk her mission here or, more importantly, Draco’s life for what? A few stolen moments in a broom closet with a boy she barely knew. Absolutely not. It didn’t matter if his kiss had made her feel more alive in the past few minutes than she had felt in the last few weeks. It didn’t matter…or so she kept telling herself.

Y/N took a deep breath and picked up her wand which had fallen to the ground with her robe. Fred seemed to be too caught up in looking pleased with himself to be paying much attention to what she was doing. She smiled at him sadly one last time before placing a soft kiss on his cheek. “I’m late for Charms,” she breathed into the small space between them. And then, without another word, turned on her heels and walked out the door as quickly and as inconspicuously as possible. Leaving a slightly flustered Weasley in her wake.

[scarletwitchproperty]

Can't remember what I used to fight for - Chapter 6 soft NSFW

a/n: Well, what do you know. Spicy times

masterlist

Pairing: Agatha Harkness x Rio Vidal x Wanda Maximoff

Words: 1.6k

Summary:there is...a wall involved...

Warnings: swearing, bottom!wanda, top!Agatha, top!rio (secretly bottom!rio but only for Agatha iykyk), somewhat of a soft smut scene against a wall ._.

One and a half hour later after the start of their grocery shopping trip, Wanda and Nicky are both back in the kitchen covered in various ingredients, numerous breakfast foods already cooked and served on multiple platters. 

‘’Wanda! You’ve got flour on your nose!’’ 

‘’Really Nicky? How about you? Oh no, I see you do not have any! Let’s change that!’’ Wanda grabs a handful of flour and throws it towards Nicky. The little boy is soon covered in the white powder, his little face marred with the cutest frown known to man. ‘’Oops, my bad.’’ 

‘’I’ll tell on you Wanda!’’ 

‘’Oh yeah, and to who?’’ 

‘’MOMMY!’’ 

The little boy is fast, Wanda can admit that. She’s off after him as soon as his feet touch the ground, laughing along with Nicky as he darts upstairs. Both his mothers are awake, this Wanda knows because of the sound of the shower running not long after they got home from the supermarket. The red head is blindly following Nicky, and is ready to follow him into his mothers’ bedroom when a body blocks her way and she can’t help but crash into it. Wanda has half a thought to get away and apologize, but two soft and strong arms wrap around her before she can even take a step back. 

‘’Careful there sugar, you could’ve hurt yourself.’’ 

And of course it’s Agatha she just crashed into. Wanda has another half apology almost out of her mouth when she sees that Agatha is dressed in only a white towel and her mind goes blank. She stares without any ounce of shame, eyes drinking in the sight of the other witch’s barely covered chest, her long legs still damp from her shower, the droplets of water running down her neck, tempting Wanda to do something she knows would absolutely get her in trouble in the most pleasurable way…

‘’Now what are you looking at sweet cheeks?’’ Agatha knows damn well she won’t get any reaction from Wanda, not with the way the Scarlet Witch is undressing her with her eyes full of lust and something else far more dangerous. She still tries, a thrill going up her spine when Wanda licks her lips. ‘’My eyes are up there sugar.’’ 

Agatha uses the tip of her fingernail to push Wanda’s head up, and if the younger witch had any restrictions before they all flew out the window the moment she looked into Agatha’s eyes. In a flash the red head has the purple loving witch trapped against the wall, arms trapping her in while her mouth hovers over Agatha’s pulse point. 

‘’You have no idea how hard it is to hold back right now,’’ Wanda whispers, tongue poking out of her mouth to finally get her first taste of Agatha. She almost looses it when Agatha grips her arms on both sides, the fingernails digging into her skin more pleasure than pain. ‘’I’m starting to think you’re doing it on purpose, trying to break me so that I…so that I…’’ 

‘’So that you what, Wanda?’’ Agatha has a pretty good feeling about where this is going, and she has no desire to stop it. ‘’Come on little witch, say it.’’ 

‘’You’re just trying to get me to fuck you, aren’t you?’’ 

‘’Oh honey, you’ve got this all wrong.’’ 

Faster than Wanda can blink Agatha flips their position and it is now her trapped against the wall, head thrown back as the older witch has no shame and latches her mouth onto her neck. Wanda’s hands immediately try to grab onto anything, successfully burying them in Agatha’s hair as she continues to suck on her pulse point, but as soon as she does her hands fly up against the wall above her head. Wanda looks up, sees her hands trapped by a bubble of purple magic, and lets out the loudest whine in existence. 

‘’You won’t do any fucking sweet cheeks,’’ Agatha doesn’t hesitate to grab Wanda’s ass with both hands, pressing her thigh right where she knows the younger witch needs her. She thrives on the noises Wanda tries to quiet down as she bites her lips, her own desire threatening to burst out of her at the display. ‘’I will. Rio will, and we feel generous you’ll get to have a taste, understood?’’ 

‘’Hhhmm…fuck!’’ 

‘’That’s not an answer sugar,’’ and oh Agatha shouldn’t enjoy the way Wanda tries to grind harder against her when she stops her own movement, but she does. As a warning, and because she has a bit of a thing with biting, she does it hard enough on Wanda’s neck to make her stop moving. ‘’Oh no little witch, you only take what I give you. If I stop, you stop. Now, I believe I asked you a question?’’ 

‘’Oh god, yes! YES! Whatever you want!’’ Wanda blushes at how loud she just yelled, eyes rolling to the back of her head when Agatha resumes her movements against her. She knows that her underwear and pants are soaked through by this point, feels it sticking uncomfortably against her skin. Seeing as they’re practically passed the point of no return, she voices her desire for Agatha to take it off. ‘’Aggie, please! Take it off!’’ 

‘’Take what off?’’ Oh Agatha knows damn well what the little witch is asking, feels the slickness gliding on her thigh as she presses harder and harder against Wanda. The Scarlet Witch could very well take her clothes off on her own, but it seemed to Agatha that she was too far gone to even think about it.’’Come on sugar, use your big girl words!’’ 

‘’My-you know what, fuck this!’’ 

In an impressive display of raw power, Wanda surges forward to crash her lips against Agatha’s, something unknown pushing the older witch’s body harder against her. Her legs wrap around Agatha’s waist, trying desperately to get even an ounce of relief. She gasps into the kiss, feeling Agatha respond to her attack, taking charge of the kiss as soon as she realizes what’s happening. Wanda is barely hanging on by a thread, her thoughts filled by the way Agatha is kissing her, how her hands are still holding onto her ass, how her body pushes into her, how her tongue dominates hers in every way possible, how her mind is filled with nothing but exploding stars. 

Agatha trails a hand down Wanda’s torso, going under the waistband of her pants, and it’s her turn to gasp. 

‘’Holy shit little witch, you’re soaked!’’ Agatha groans against Wanda, her mouth tracing a path down the other witch’s throat to latch right where her breasts start to peek out from her shirt. ‘’I can’t wait to get a taste of you sweet cheeks.’’ 

‘’Hhhm, holy fuck I- Why don’t you?’’ 

Agatha swears to the gods above that the Scarlet Witch really will be the death of her, and really she was about to get down on her knees to make good on her promise, but the sound of her front door slamming open prevents her from acting on her desires. She curses as multiple voices reach her ears, mumbling her discontent against Wanda’s skin. She soothes the hickey she just made right above Wanda’s left breast, swiping over it with her tongue and blowing on it just to see the other witch shiver. Agatha steps back from Wanda, freeing her from her restraint. She makes a move to go down the stairs but Wanda is apparently not done with her yet, as she grabs onto her face and kisses her soundly on the lips one last time. The red head bites on her lips, smirking at the groan Agatha lets out, before finally letting her go, this time for good. 

‘’Something to make you think of me.’’ 

Wanda honest to gods wink, sauntering away and down the stairs as Agatha just stands there frozen. She hears someone chuckling right next to her, and what a non surprise it is to see Rio standing there with that ungodly eyebrow raise of hers and trademark smirk. 

‘’She got you good, didn’t she?’’ 

‘’Oh shut up Rio, at least I got to kiss her,’’ Agatha flips her hair over her shoulder, walking by her wife to get inside their room. ‘’Where is Nicky anyway?’’ 

‘’Downstairs, in his room. Not that you noticed, as busy as you were doing the little witch,’’ Rio says as she goes after Agatha. She shamelessly watches her wife getting dressed, appreciating the way her lacy underwear covers almost none of what’s important. ‘’But color me impressed, you got her to break. Congratulations my Love!’’ 

‘’And what will my prize be for that?’’ Agatha turns to Rio as she buttons up her shirt, grinning when she notices her wife tracking her every move. ‘’Mmmh, watching you go down on her would be one hell of a prize, don’t you think?’’ 

‘’That can be arranged.’’

While Agatha and Rio sort themselves out, down in the kitchen and dining room another kind of conversation is taking place. Knowing that the two remaining witches will take their sweet time to join them, Wanda, Nicky, Lilia, Jen, Alice and Billy decided to start eating breakfast without them. At least that was before Billy noticed something on his mother that wasn’t there before. 

‘’Mom?’’ 

‘’Yes Billy?’’ 

‘’Please tell me it isn’t what I think it is.’’ 

‘’What are you talking about?’’ 

‘’Wanda, sweetheart,’’ Lilia turns to Wanda when she hears the concern and sudden anger in Billy’s voice, eyes going wide when she sees exactly what caused it. ‘’I think your son is talking about the hickey you’ve got going on down there’’ she points to her neck, mirroring the one Wanda has at the same place ‘’and there’’ another one right under her jaw ‘’and also here’’ this one right where her neck meets her shoulder ‘’and…oh god, also there.’’ 

Wanda turns white, rushing to the mirror on the wall by the kitchen’s entrance to check on the damage on her skin. Turns out, Lilia was wrong. Four didn’t even reach the full amount of hickeys covering her skin. 

‘’DAMN YOU AGATHA!’’ 

[hey-august]

It's not always a piece of cake to bake a pretty cake (Buggy x GN!reader)

Gif from monikanarnia

Description: Late one night you find Buggy in the kitchen growing increasingly distressed over dessert.

Word count: ~1.2k

A/N: One shot fluff with an established relationship. Gender neutral reader, no use of Y/N, pronouns, or physical descriptions. Based on OPLA buggy. Not beta read. Hope you like this! Let me know if you see any errors or typos. ♡

Warnings: Some light profanity, but that's about it!

˗ˏˋ ★ ˎˊ˗ ✩ ˗ˏˋ ★ ˎˊ˗ ✩ ˗ˏˋ ★ ˎˊ˗ ✩ ˗ˏˋ ★ ˎˊ˗

Lured by the sounds of activity at a time when most of the ship was asleep, you peered into the kitchen and finally found the person you were looking for. Buggy was hunched over the center island, deeply focused on the cake in front of him. He finished spreading the frosting and stepped back to observe his work. The scowl on his face and annoyed muttering were clear signals that he wasn’t satisfied. Despite being an artist, cake decorating was not his usual medium and it showed. Based on the amount of flour on his vest, pants, bandana, and in his hair, baking was also not his forte. 

Buggy ran a knife along the top of the cake, attempting to smooth out the white frosting. Instead the sweet coating stuck to the knife and lifted up to expose the bare cake underneath, as if he had wounded the confection. Trying to hold in the anger that wanted to burst from his mouth, Buggy’s fists flew to his head and he turned in place, stomping on the floor. Shouting was guaranteed to wake someone up and Buggy did not need anyone to see the absolute failure in front of him.

His glare flitted between the marred cake and the knife still in his hand before he flung the offending utensil towards the other side of the kitchen. The resounding clang caused him to flinch. He hoped it wasn’t loud enough to attract attention. A few heavy moments later, Buggy sighed and leaned over the cake. From where you were, you couldn’t tell if the weight in his rounded shoulders was from anger or disappointment. But you knew Buggy well enough that he wouldn’t give up yet. And you were right. 

With a cautious hand, Buggy began tapping at the lumpy frosting, nudging it into place. His gentle, feather-light touches showed a level of restraint and artistry that could only rival Michaelangelo chipping away marble, intent at bringing out the beauty only his fingertips could find. Finally satisfied with the coverage, Buggy assessed his work again. Despite being slightly worse than it was before the frosting incident, he was afraid of making an irreparable mistake. There wasn’t any more flour or sugar left in the kitchen. This wasn’t the first cake he baked. Or the second. But this was the first one that was fluffy and edible. Maybe if he decorated the cake with other things, the streaky, lumpy, crumby coating wouldn’t stand out as much.

Buggy stalked around the kitchen, rummaging in the cabinets and digging through drawers, looking for ingredients that were worthy of garnishing his confection composition. His frustration grew with each cabinet and drawer he opened and slammed shut. When he finally ripped open the fridge door he was greeted with the perfect gems, signaling the end of his kitchen treasure hunt. His greedy pirate hands pulled out some ruby red cherries. Buggy gave them a quick rinse in the sink and popped one in his mouth, finding satisfaction in the sharp snap and sweet juice from the ripe fruit. 

Moments later, the fruit adorned the top perimeter of the cake, each one nested carefully into the frosting. Buggy stared thoughtfully at the cake as he fiddled with the last cherry, lightly rolling it on the table with his finger. With an air of hesitation, he placed the red orb in the center of the cake. No one else would second guess the placement, but the pirate clown was overly sensitive about anything that could be mocking the one feature he had trouble accepting about himself. A feature that you never shied away from. If anything, you adored it. And while he couldn’t love his own nose, knowing you did filled him with warmth. You always brought brightness and sunshine to his dark and twisted world.

As you watched Buggy stare at the finished product with an expression you couldn’t see clearly, your interest got the better of you. The kitchen door released a tattling creak when you tried to gain a better view of the kitchen show. Thankfully Buggy did not have his knives on hand, but the glare he threw at the entrance was sharp enough to sting. His face softened when he realized it was you, before hardening back into a scowl that was equal parts annoyed at being interrupted and embarrassed that you found him.

“You’re not supposed to be here,” he chided, sending his hands over to push you out and close the door. Anticipating that he would do that, you ducked the flying appendages and slipped inside.

“I could say the same about you.” Buggy knew your comment was true. Despite being the captain, the kitchen was not his usual scene. “What are you up to anyways?”

Despite the innocent tone behind your question, the twinkling in your eyes told Buggy that you already knew the answer. You walked closer and looked at the cake, missing the wince that flashed on Buggy’s face. It looked alright, but it was not at all like he envisioned.

“It looks good. The cherries were a great idea,” you said in earnest.

“Don’t lie,” Buggy snipped. Agitation bristled in his body, feeling scratchy and uncomfortable. Every muscle was fighting the impulse to throw out the cake and act like he hadn’t wasted hours creating something so far below his usual standards. 

“It’s awful! A disgrace! The shitty frosting isn’t smooth and it’s full of crumbs. It’s too sweet and I used all the sugar so I can’t make more.” The tirade increased in pitch as he continued, the tension in his body constricting his throat. The frown on your face slowed his monologue.

“Are you serious? This looks like one of those cakes you buy at a high end patisserie in the fancy part of town. People pay a lot of money for rustic cakes and fresh fruit.” Flattery was always guaranteed to uplift Buggy when he was in a bad mood, but these were genuine compliments that you shared with such conviction and admiration. A flush crept across Buggy’s face and tickled his ears at the intensity and sincerity of your praise.

“O-of course! I knew that, I just wasn’t sure if it was your style.” Yeah, sure, that’s what he actually meant.

“So it’s for me?”

“Who else would I do this for?” He responded quickly, since you already knew the cake was yours.

“I was going to give it to you later, but you ruined the surprise,” Buggy continued, rolling his eyes in mock annoyance. He slid the cake towards you and finished with a surprisingly gentle, “happy birthday.”

Although he was supposed to be showering you with gifts on your birthday, the radiant smile you gave was definitely a gift to him. He couldn’t tell if he wanted to look away from the brightness or continue staring into the sun, in awe of the radiance.

“Thank you, I love it,” you said, the words heavy with appreciation. Buggy watched as you plucked the cherry from the center of the cake and popped it into your mouth with a wink, feeling as though his heart was replaced with a bumbling moth, fluttering everywhere and bumping into everything. It was probably drawn to your brilliance, just as he was.

[gt-abby]

Mar and Jake - Chapter 15

I got a little free time in between entrance exams, so I managed to get this done at least

Here we go, I hope you're hungry!

chapter 14 chapter 15 (you're here) chapter 16 (coming soon)

tag list- @soakedmilkgt

~~~~~ 2300~ words

More weeks have passed, Mar’s condition hasn’t gotten any better, no matter how many times Lilly tried to heal her. After all, she couldn’t create new blood for her. Mar was barely able to move and spent most of the time lying on the ground, passing out and waking up again. She barely spoke, too. Mar almost lost hope that she was going to be rescued. She didn’t know where she was or how she could reach out to someone, anyone. Until one night, after a session of healing from Lilly, she suddenly shot her eyes open, and sat up, holding Lilly by her forearms.

Lilly!

“Wha?! What, what’s wrong?” Lilly almost spoke out, but she quickly shut her mouth with her hands.

You can leave! You can get out!

“Mar, we talked about this, I’m not going to leave you here alone, or any of the others. I swore I wouldn’t.”

No, you don’t understand, you’re free! You can go to Jake; you can tell him where I am! How did I not think of this earlier?!

Lilly froze then slapped her palm on her forehead. “Of course!”

Please, Lilly, help them find me… I’m on my last stand here…

“But how can they help? It’s not like two people can end this entire operation.”

I’m sure you’ll figure something out once you find them. What’s important now is that they know.

“O-okay… wow… I haven’t left in forever… I hope it’ll be okay.”

Everything will be great. Mar’s eyes welled up with tears. She quickly told Lilly her address and hugged her.

Go, please, I don’t think I have much time left…

Lilly nodded, then vanished. Mar was left alone yet with newly rekindled hope. She couldn’t wipe the smile off of her face.

Lilly appeared in the building’s parking lot. Her eyes had to adjust to the light of the fluorescent streetlights. The sun was rising, and she had to act quickly before the arriving employees could discover her. She rose into the sky and shot out towards the next city over, towards the humans Mar put so much trust in. As she flew, she began doubting how this could work. She hadn’t shown herself to any human in years. But Mar’s time was running out and she had to leave her anxieties behind.

After what felt like hours of following Mar’s instructions, she arrived at an apartment’s window. She hesitated, hiding under the sill.

‘Mar’s depending on me. I have to do this.’ She thought to herself. So, she peeked inside, seeing three people arguing in the living room. One looked like he was in his late 50s, sheepishly trying to calm the other two down. The other two, a young woman with purple hair and a young man who looked furious. He was visibly shaking, and even from where she was, she could see him fighting back tears. Mar told her about him, she figured that was Jake. But Mar said Jake was rather calm and collected. This didn’t look like that to her at all. And the purple haired woman was probably Emily. She could “sizeshift”, as Mar said, which is something Lilly was yet to see. But something about her was familiar. And it felt like she could feel it too, because before Lilly could react, she found her looking right at her.

Lilly’s blood drained from her face. Soon after the other two men were looking at her, and the argument was cut short. There’s no point in staying there, then, so she teleported inside.

“What the fuck?!” Jake almost fell to the floor. He would have thought he was imagining things if Emily didn’t point out the little fairy that was watching them from outside. When she got inside and closer to them, he realized he wasn’t looking at his tiny best friend. His heart fell to the floor. He was completely ready to grab her and hug her, and he then realized the gravity of his emotions.

“Umm… Hi….” Lilly spoke up for the first time in years. Her voice was hoarse, and she coughed.

“You’re… not her…” Emily said with disappointment in her voice.

“Yeah, I’m sorry, I came to you because of her. I-“

“You know where she is?!” Jake almost jumped at her, almost grabbing her in his hands. Lilly flinched and floated higher in a knee-jerk reaction. “Sorry.” He said quietly. “I just… really miss her.”

“I know,” Lilly said sympathetically. “I’m Lilly, I’m a vessel for the Deity of water.”

“The person in my dreams…” Emily mumbled. Lilly then realized why she was so familiar.

“You’re… a failed vessel…?” Lilly asked Emily. She was rather in great shape for someone who has been used by a god.

“I am?”

“You have to be, Mar said you can size-shift. There’s no way that you could have magic other than being touched by a god.”

Silence fell upon them as Emily took in what she’s just been told.

After what felt like forever, Jake piped up: “So… how is she?”

“Not well… the Cult of Revenge are experimenting on her on a daily basis. She might not have long. Either they’ll use her up or dispose of her by… well… killing her off…”

“Use her up, kill her off… what the hell… WHAT THE HELL?!” Jake was overflowing with rage. He almost flipped the coffee table over. He would blow a hole in the wall if he could. “This is way worse than I thought, what the hell do we do? Where is she? I’m going there right now.” He started walking towards the door, kneeling down to put on his shoes.

“Jake wait-“ Emily began saying, but he cut her off.

“Emily, for the love of God, did you hear what she said? How can you- “

“I’m coming with you.” Emily didn’t show her emotions until now. But she was shaking, too. She couldn’t hold it in anymore. She didn’t care anymore. She’d destroy them before they could do anything.

“Oh” Jake was surprised, as up until now she was the voice of reason. He was pleased to see she wasn’t as emotionless as he thought she was.

“Wait, no you can’t,” Lilly began, but her voice was too small to be heard over their rage.

Just as they were about to leave, the one person they completely forgot about beamed his voice:

“Would you two just use your brains for a second?!” James shouted all of a sudden. “What do you think will happen once you’ve gotten there? They’d just let you in? They’d just hold their hands up in defeat? They’d kill you both before you even got there! Seriously, calm down and we’ll figure out what to do in a second. We have a secret weapon over here, sit back down and let’s discuss it first.”

Jake didn’t expect that from him, that was for sure. But he did gain back his senses. James must be scared as hell for his daughter. He quietly sat back down on the couch with Emily like obedient puppies.

Lilly was pleasantly surprised. She didn’t know who he was, but they quickly filled her in.

“Please, Lilly, sit down. This might take a while.” Jake said in a calm voice, one he has yet to use in front of her. She felt uncomfortable, but did as he offered, sitting down cross-legged on the coffee table. Emily must have figured out her uncomfortable demeanor, because she shrank down and sat next to her, a little further away though, to give her space. Lilly stared at her for a minute.

“That was so cool.” She finally said, as she was finally at eye level with someone.

Emily smiled at her and Lilly smiled awkwardly back.

They began talking. Lilly couldn’t focus. Jake and James were pretty further away from her, but they were absolutely huge. She wasn’t used to it. All this time, she was hidden away in the pipes, in empty rooms etcetera, it has been years since she’d seen or had been in this close proximity of a fully grown human, and she didn’t really feel any good about it. The last time it happened…

“Lilly…?” A faint voice began sounding in her mind. “Lilly. Lilly! Are you okay? What’s going on?” Emily was leaning over her. She hadn’t noticed she’d passed out. She woke up in a gasp and sat up, with Emily’s face the closest, and Jake and James’ heads looming over up above. Lilly yelped as she saw them and instinctively teleported off the table and down underneath it. Her breathing began quickening. Her heartbeat becoming so fast she couldn’t think straight. She couldn’t hear anything but her breathing. Her head was spiraling. The floor was vibrating with the big people’s steps walking around frantically, making her panic attack worse.

Lilly ruffled the bumps of the carpeted floor, grounding herself to physical touch. She could finally breathe properly.

Relax, she told herself.

They won’t hurt you.

Even if they tried, you could stop it from happening. You are powerful enough now.

Mar needs you.

Lilly opened her eyes to find Jake’s face staring her down as he crouched down under the table to look for her. His brows were glued together in worry. She screamed, being spooked by him once again. He jerked up, holding his hands up,

“Wait no, I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to scare you… again… sorry, Lilly please believe me when I say, I won’t ever do anything to you,” he placed his hand on his heart, “I promise.”

Lilly didn’t answer. She wanted to believe him, she really did, from what Mar told her, he was the kindest person around. Except for that one time he placed her under a cup…. But that was a fluke, he wasn’t clear minded at the time. Is he clear minded right now?

 She stared down on the floor, clenching the bumps of the carpet in between her fingers. She was afraid to move. She was afraid to speak. She felt his eyes in her.

Jake saw the tears welling up in Lilly’s eyes. He didn’t move, didn’t dare to reach for her. He wanted to so badly but he knew that would make things worse. After what felt like forever, Emily came into view under the coffee table, placing her hand on Lilly’s shoulder. Lilly jerked up and turned around, but relaxed upon seeing it was a person her size. Jake’s heart broke. He hated that, so fucking much. That he was a monster to those people, he was someone they always viewed as a villain, a threat. If only there was something he could do to convince her that he meant her no harm, if only he could shrink down to her size to be less of a danger…

“Jake, I think you and James should go to a different room, I want to talk to Lilly.”

He said nothing and got up. He held onto James’ jacket and pulled him into his room and closed the door.

“Lilly, look at me,” Emily whispered, turning her around and held her by her shoulders and Lilly finally looked up at her. “What’s wrong? Did something happen? Please tell me, we can’t continue like this.”

Lilly only sobbed into Emily’s shoulder in relief and regret and stress for a while. Emily pulled her into a hug as she wept.

—

“Jake, what’s going on?” James spoke for the first time in a while.

Jake didn’t answer. And James seemed to have taken the hint. He sat on his own bed, crossing his arms. His feet tapping the floor in a fast pace. He couldn’t hold it in anymore. Slowly but surely tears came pouring down, and soon the flood gates burst open.

Jake couldn’t bare see another tiny person scared of him. He couldn’t bare see Lilly’s face, which haunted him in his mind’s eye, completely terrified of him. He was a monster, a fearmongering asshole, too big for his own good. All he wanted was to help them and care for them in this world that was way too big for them, way too dangerous, all he wanted was to keep them safe and far away from harm. He couldn’t even begin to bear the thought that he was striking fear in the hearts of such precious people. And the last time he saw Mar… her expression haunted his nightmares. He wasn’t even able to properly make it up to her before she was taken. He was useless, a useless friend and a useless asshole. What could he even do if they run away every time he approaches? What if Mar sees him and hides again, refusing to be helped by him? She hates him, she surely does. And so does Lilly.

—

“I’m sorry,” Lilly finally breathed out without her breath quivering. She wiped away her waterfall of tears and looked up at Emily, who smiled back at her.

“It’s okay, it was just a panic attack. I know them all too well.” Lilly smiled back. “But.. I promise you, Jake is a gentle soul. He wouldn’t hurt a fly, and even if you don’t trust him right now, you do know that Mar trusts him, right? And you trust her, so you can somehow… you know.”

“Yeah, I know… I just… haven’t been in the presence of humans in a long time, and the last time it happened…” She couldn’t finish that sentence.

“Lilly, you can tell me anything. If anything, it’s better to let it out and not keep it in. I’m here, and I’m not going anywhere. The big guys are in a different room so you can speak freely.”

Lilly nodded. “I guess you’re right.”

[toomagazineperfection]

In the sweetest fire, we are death gasping for her beauty. She is like a moon crying. She is. A burn of saddle eyes. Innocent eyes, a girl craves her burnt candy. She is so slow, like poised death. Of all the bustling eyes, I have never seen hers before. Life is weak before her. Lovely tinge blue eyes. Addictive like God's. And moving is her self. Driving me places I don't know. The centre of heart. The lover of mar. Kiss. I was just as a willow point breaking her apart. As. I draw pipes of my girl, singing in scenic drawing. I was killed before, like the break of time. Like all a girl can start a muscle of day. You are breathing and heating tea. What is all a loose breath a man can hold her too, do. Lizzy's sister and Alpine's death. How is a false death, a lesser mint. A dye can waste on you. Unforgettable. All I loose is a gathering wound. Like all passing visual archery. Visceral archery. I was. Ain't love a fair game? Throwing world down a poem. An end to a slow moon. Kiss ed me. Archer. I lived her. I was hers. I was all loose. I was all mousse. All teeth. All burnt. All, you. You. Death like a pine and oak marriage of rights and love capacity to ask of you. Flew me by. Hate to be all with, you. All poetry. Like a flowing game. Of vile. Night bale. Night Houstan. French Mountains and Death Montanna. Kisses like Rouge Taylor. Like Lily mentioning all places in her notebook. Senate rivers. I can't be the car Arabella drove too. Sao. All the red maids know. Too. Maiden Language. All fauna said was your Jesuit falling to his Lallah's wind. If I was walking away. Thought, enough? Would you like to dine at my house? Arena 100 and thousand soldiers died telling you? I loved you too. I was a black man today. I was his whitest teeth. I was slander. Black loves chess. White freckles over his neck nape. I touched you, hard love can't faint no more. All singers sin and gleam a poetess and a bride walks away. A night. A day. Was. A rud mud. His ickle rained us down. His Magda knew Butrym well. His fais. His dais. His dool. His atmosphere. His singing at the advocate's office, to pray for sin. Angelic. Praying like all beacon hope. And we were all death praying. How intense was he. His selfless life and his dead man. His allergies. His death and a wing man. His joke and his deed. How about you. Little bit of eye in hope and God in you. Life. In you. Girls walking mights and making her red bloom around her singing truth. You were apocalypse. He was epileptic. Selfless tea. Cynical seems off the manor names. Anugraha. Prayer child and juvenile diction. You.

Sunidhi

[thecomfywriter]

See, I won't ask you about Von Doro's simps because I get it this time, but what would you say her style of rule is? Is she more conniving, more a fan of shows of force, more willing to delegate or is she apt to do anything important herself?

hi ilia! you've got the first von doro ask for today. let's get straight into it, shall we?

day six of tcw's 12 days of askmas--von doro's ruling style [tov and sai spoilers]:

i'm going to start my answer off with an excerpt from tov, oops. from markum's words himself...

“She was… magnificent. Glorious could not describe those days adequately. Von Doro is much older than all of us, with centuries of experience on her roster, and she showed for all it in her geniality and remarkable leadership. She was made to be a Queen. Soilaila deserved nothing less than her and could receive nothing better. [...] Politics were her mother tongue, and she was fluent in the languages of peace and stability. The image you know of Von Doro is a democratic campaign to mar the great reign she truly inspired. Because if Soilaila remembers its golden age in under her rule, this democracy will seem pathetic. [...] Life was in balance when she was our Queen. They say she spoke for the Elements and that they spoke to her through the volcano. Nature was in harmony and Soilaila thrived in agriculture and magic alike with her reign. Dragons still flew above, with wingspans that combatted the clouds, and they roamed our streets like free beings. [...] Do you see the width of all our streets, boy? Makes no sense for the Bazaar to be so wide and large in now’s age, but then, both our population was robust, and the dragons were our friendly siblings. [...] What more can I tell you? The economy thrived in her wake, as the Bazaar acted as a trading hub between the dragons and the Families. With magic still very well alive and active, the Day of Gold still occurred every decade to bolster our queendom’s wealth, and the decennial volcanic explosions fertilized the lands so our resources were never lacking. [...] See our lovely abode, my boy? This was the architecture in her reign. These tall ceilings, these elmwood doors, these arches and curves—high beams and branches running along the entire spine. Its entire design was meticulous, crafty, and entirely aesthetic. The Artists of her era were inspired by her visions and conscripted by her Council for a remarkable city planning, not like the insultingly cramped slums the Jervees’ new architectural design inspires. [...] Do you see now, my boy? The glory of her era? The honesty of her character? You have not had the privilege to witness one of her courts, or you would never the mind to ever accuse Her Majesty of any wrongdoing. She was so noble and true in character, there was not a single claim she made without taking a blood oath in commitment. That is the nobility, the loyalty, the honesty of her character.” - Throne of Vengeance: Volume One, Chapter 18: ALAN and the monarchists

note: this quote is not all one paragraph in the book LOL. i just did it to condense the scene for you. the highlighted portions are to emphasize the most important parts. but now, let me actually expand on it.

von doro's monarchy was built on the principles of her indefinite authority, which was sponsored by the gods themselves. in exchange for providing soilaila with wealth, protection, and magic from the gods, she expected unshakeable loyalty to her rule and command. any deviations from this assumption, and she would rather call one of her limiouses to take care of the problem, or one of her counsellors. she rarely got involved herself, because von doro never left the volcano.

most of the common politics of the monarchy were discussed amongst her counsellors and advisors (the original purpose of the jervees), but the final decision was made by her authority alone. her counsellors couldn't overturn her rule, even if their objection carried the majority over her, simply because she was considered the voice of the gods. HOWEVER, once jer'vazir had entered von doro's courts, she considered his opinion worthy enough to challenge her own. therefore, if he opposed her, she would actually heed his counsel.

the blood oath part is a huge principle of von doro's monarchy, and why people to this day (in modern soilaila) retained their loyalties to her. a queen who was willing to sign every promise she made in blood was essentially her telling her subjects: "if i fail you, nature itself will take my life." the very fact that she still breathed was proof that she made no empty promises, which is why she was trusted.

THAT BEING SAID...

there's a reason why hilbert's debut in society as a limious started to shake the foundations of von doro's reign, and that's because he was the antithesis to her reign's weakest link: its opacity.

this isn't explored until markum and iyzela's memories in sai, where you watch the rise and fall of the monarchy first hand. i LOVE these chapters (i've said this so many times before lol oops) but MWAH MWAH. there's a line in iyzela's memories specifically where she basically tells markum "the reason why the pendulum swings his way is because he answers the questions about von doro she refuses to share. her mystery will be her downfall."

anyhow... i'm yambling at this point.

thanks for the ask, ilia!

-- the holiday limited-edition tag list --

@wyked-ao3 @an-indecisive-nerd @drchenquill

@paeliae-occasionally @theink-stainedfolk @inseasofgreen

@thelovelymachinery @the-letterbox-archives @illarian-rambling

@bunnymermaidwrites @the-golden-comet @sm-writes-chaos

@leahnardo-da-veggie @corinneglass

[please tell me if you don't wanna be tagged i promise i will stop 🥺]

[mystic-bookshelf]

Mistletoes are stupid, Ch.2

AO3

Now that I think about it it wasn‘t necessary to split this in two parts but oh well😂 Second part of my Secret Santa fic for @omnoramayday !!

Summary: An incident with a mistletoe makes Marinette leave the Christmas party at Adrien's house. She can find better ways to spend her night, for example delivering pizzas with her favorite pizza delivery person...

Sneaking back inside without being spotted by anyone had been easier than Marinette had anticipated. Adrien was enthralled by some story Nino was telling him and when Mylene had seen her, she did her best to distract Alya by dragging her to the buffet table. Marinette made a mental note to thank her for her service later.

Minutes later Ladybug flew over the rooftops of Paris, unphased by the cold due to the magic of her suit keeping her warm enough, looking out for akumas as she had promised. The city appeared to be safe for now, but even after she spotted Luka riding on his bike, several pizza boxes strapped onto the luggage rack, she suppressed the urge to immediately get to him and instead finished her patrol first.

That didn’t take her much longer and when she decided she was done, she returned to the area where Luka had been before. It sure had its perks that he was one of the few people who knew about her secret identity, because she could easily skip the usual detransforming in a nearby alley part and instead just land right next to his bike.

“Surprise!” Ladybug yelled.

“Wha—” Luka hit the brakes so hard that for a second she was afraid he’d fall over, but somehow he managed to keep his balance. Ladybug his her head between her shoulders. Maybe this wasn’t the best entrance she could’ve made. “Sorry, I didn’t mean to scare you.”

“Mar— Ladybug?” He turned around. “What in the world are you doing here?”

“I told you I had a surprise for you.” She grinned at him and threw her hands in the air. “You couldn’t bail on your job, so I bailed on the party to keep you company!”

Luka blinked at her several times, looking visibly confused. “You… left a party just to hang out with me? While I’m on the job?”

Ladybug shrugged and stepped closer to him. “I just thought you might appreciate some company. Delivering pizzas is probably more fun with a friend, right?”

Luka still seemed very perplexed by the situation, but something in his eyes shifted. They became softer, like he was genuinely touched. “You… god, Marinette, you didn’t have to…” He let out a chuckle, sounding a little overwhelmed.

This was probably the first time Ladybug saw Luka caught off guard like this, but she couldn’t help but smile at how cute he was. She stepped even closer to rub up and down his arm.

“Hey,” she gave him a warm smile. “I just want to be a good friend and look out for you. And also make you an offer you can’t possibly refuse.”

“Oh? And what would that be?” Luka raised an eyebrow.

“How about you forget about your bike and switch to a much more efficient means of travel? For example”—she pointed to herself—”a superhero escort?”

Luka’s smile turned into a wide grin and then laughter. “You really came all the way here to make me finish my job quicker? Oh, Mari— ah, Ladybug, you’re too sweet.”

“So that’s a yes?” She lifted her eyebrows and seconds later, the bike was leaning against a nearby wall, the pizzas in Luka’s left hand while he put his right arm around the superheroine.

“Ready for take-off!” She chimed as they were pulled up in the air by Ladybug’s magical yoyo.

Their tactic was simple: Luka told her the address, she’d land somewhere near the house to put him down and let him walk over to the door without her being seen. After the delivery, she’d grab him again and leap off to the next house.

“I gotta say,” Luka said in between the 6th and 7th pizza, “on top of this being way faster than my bike, we can huddle for warmth and keep each other from freezing!”

Lucky for Ladybug he didn't look at her face to notice her hot cheeks, which must’ve matched the red from her suit.

After all the pizzas have been delivered, Ladybug landed in the same spot where they had left Luka’s bike earlier and sat him down before saying her detransformation phrase and feeling the pink light washing over her as she turned back to Marinette.

“We’ve finished all the deliveries in under five minutes!” Luka exclaimed as he checked the time on his phone. “You can’t lend me Sass for my next shift by any chance?” he joked.

“That’s enough using miraculouses for reasons other than fighting akumatized villains!” Tikki puffed her cheeks while Marinette and Luka both laughed and poked the kwami.

“Don’t worry, nobody will use miraculouses for delivery jobs anymore,” Marinette reassured her little friend, whom she handed a macaron in order to recharge. Tikki immediately let go of her worries and made herself comfortable in Marinette’s bad munching on the cookie.

“So,” Marinette looked up at Luka and grinned. “How does it feel being a man free of responsibilities?”

Luka laughed again. “Honestly, I can’t complain. Seriously, thank you so much for helping me with this. You didn’t have to do this at all and I appreciate that a ton that you did anyway.”

He promptly pulled her into a tight embrace and tucked her head below his. Which Marinette appreciated, because other than her enjoying being so close to him, he wouldn’t be able to see her blush.

“It was nothing.”

“You’re being too generous,” Luka whispered. “You have no idea how grateful I am for you showing up.” He let go of her and took a step back in order to look at her face. “How can I make this up to you?”

“Oh, don’t worry about it, you don’t have—”

“But I want to!” Luka interrupted and put a hand on Marinette’s shoulder. “You completely went out of your way to find me and help me deliver pizzas in the cold even though you could’ve spent all night at the Agreste mansion where it’s warm and there’s food and good music. You always were the most selfless person and still, you outdo yourself every time and I find that so amazing about you. You’re truly amazing.”

Marinette’s smile turned into a grin so wide her face hurt and on instinct, she pressed her face against his shoulder. “You’re being too nice to me, Luka…”

“You’re one to talk,” he chuckled and laid a hand on top of her head to gently stroke her hair. If she were Lady Noire, she’d start purring right now. Without thinking too much about it she carefully raised her arms and wrapped them around his torso and huddled closer to him. They must’ve looked like a couple if anyone saw them, but she didn’t mind one bit. And judging by how Luka didn’t move away but instead rested his other arm on her shoulder, he maybe didn’t mind it either.

Her heart thundered in her chest, but despite that she felt at ease. Luka was the only one who hit that balance between the anxiety of having a crush and the comfort of a loved one.

“So… how can I repay the favor? Do you have something in mind?”

We could just stay like this.

“I can bike us to Adrien’s house and I’d still get to be at the party.”

Marinette froze. She had completely forgotten about the party, but at the mention of it she was reminded of the anxiety she had felt after the mistletoe incident. Oh no, she absolutely didn’t want to go back.

But on the other hand, she couldn't keep Luka from going if he wanted. That wouldn’t be fair to him.

She slightly pushed herself away from Luka. “I guess we can go back to the party. But…. uhm… okay, I thought of something. What if we make a stop at the Christmas market and you buy me hot chocolate?”

That seemed like a fair compromise. They could still hang out for a little while, just the two of them, kind of like a date, before they’d go back.

Luka tilted his head slightly and for a second she was afraid he’d ask any further questions, but then he just gave her a kind smile.

“Sure, let’s get some hot chocolate to warm us up.”

The bike ride to the Christmas market was rather quiet. Neither spoke much, Marinette just pressed herself against his back and enjoyed how close they were once again. The market was less full than Marinette had anticipated, which was honestly nice, because they didn’t have to wait long for their hot chocolates.

They walked around a little and enjoyed the decorations before sitting down on a bench sipping their drinks.

“It was a nice idea coming here.” Luka commented after a while. “I haven’t had time this December to go to the Christmas market at all.”

“Guess I made a good call then,” Marinette replied. They fell into conversation easily, talking about everything and nothing for a while.

At some point, little snowflakes were starting to descend to the ground.

“Oh, it’s snowing!” Marinette chimed. She looked around as the world around them slowly turned white. But when she looked back at Luka, who had little snowflakes hanging in his bangs making him look even prettier than he already was, he didn’t seem to listen to her. His gaze was fixated on something above them and when she followed his gaze her blood ran cold.

Just above their heads, a small mistletoe was proudly hanging from the tree.

Oh for fucks sake, how did she not notice this stupid thing earlier? Couldn’t they have sat on literally any other bench?

She looked back at Luka, who was staring back at her and even though Marinette’s heart made several excited jumps at the idea of kissing Luka, she didn’t want this. Not like this.

After a silence that started to stretch out for way too long, Marinette was the first to open her mouth. “Uhm… so—”

“We don’t have to,” Luka suddenly blurted out, then turned away and pressed his lips against his fist as if he regretted what he had just said.

Marinette felt a weird mix of hurt and relief. “Oh…”

“Sorry, that came out weird.” Luka shook his head. “Just… you looked a little horrified just now, so—”

“It’s not what you think, it’s just…I lied to you, something did happen at the party.”

Luka blinked at her and she couldn’t stop the words from coming out.

“I didn’t just come to you to help you out, primarily I just wanted to desperately leave the party because of that stupid mistletoe that Alya placed there and then I was suddenly standing below it with Adrien of all people. It was most likely a scheme to get us back together, and it was so awkward—not that it would’ve been any less awkward with anyone else but still—and I panicked and pushed him and ran out into the garden and then I called you but I didn’t tell you because I felt stupid and—”

“Hey, hey, hey” he gently laid a hand on her shoulder. “Slow down and breathe, will you?”

He slowly moved his hand up and down, breathing together with her. It helped her calm down.

“So if I get this right, you left the party because you were trying to avoid Alya or Adrien again after this mistletoe situation?”

Marinette sighed. “I stood around outside for an eternity—without a jacket I might add. Please don’t scold me for that, Mylene and Tikki already did.”

Luka shook his head. “Okay, I won’t.”

“And then I thought I’d feel better if I called you and it worked. I didn’t plan to leave the party early, I thought maybe I’d calm down and then confront Alya and solve the issue by communicating with her, but… I left. Like a coward.”

“You’re not a coward,” Luka argued. “It’s completely understandable you’d want space from her afterwards. If she ruined the party for you like that, you have no obligation to stay. Or go back there for that matter.”

Marinette sighed. “But don’t you want to go?”

Luka shrugged. “I mean, I would’ve loved to be there, but… I don’t think I’d have a good time knowing that you’re uncomfortable there. Besides, it's only a matter of time before Adrien invites us over again, missing one party isn’t the end of the world.”

“Ugh, I’m frustrated with him as well.” Marinette crossed her arms before her chest. “I saw he wasn’t into it either, but he still didn’t protest. He just told me that we should get this done with.”

“Why does that not surprise me?” Luka commented. “Looks like he still has a hard time standing up for himself.”

“Yeah, and that just added pressure for me.”

"I had a feeling something was up when you called me earlier. You could’ve told me about it, you could never bother me with your problems. I’m a good listener and I’d do anything to cheer you up.”

“I know,” Marinette gave him a smile and poked his side. “I appreciate that you’re always there for me. And I’m sorry I didn’t say anything."

“Don’t apologize.” He stroked her hair again. Marinette could get used to this.

“It’s just… so stupid, you know? The whole tradition with the mistletoe in general. It’s just forcing two people to do something sort of intimate and special with each other, even if they might not want to. I don’t want to kiss Adrien because some stupid twigs said so. And it’s the same thing with you, I’d hate a forced kiss like that. I want you to kiss me because you want to kiss me and not because some ridiculous Christmas tradition told you to!”

Luka stared at her for a few seconds. The christmas lights reflected in his eyes and it looked like his cheeks were dusted with a subtle blush, which might’ve been because of the cold, but Marinette was pretty sure it wasn’t there before.

“So just so I get this right”—Luka scratched the back of his head—“You… want me to kiss you?”

Now it was Marinette’s turn to stare. She hadn’t… wait, she had said that . She had literally admitted that she wants Luka to kiss her!

Despite the cold, her cheeks were burning. “Oh, uh… I did say that, didn’t I?” she let out an awkward laugh and scratched her neck. “W-well, I… would you want to… kiss me?”

When she slowly looked up at him again, she was met with his beautiful eyes staring at her with so much adoration and maybe even longing. “Marinette, you’re the song in my head that plays on repeat, the clearest musical note, the sincerest melody. You have been that since day one, and you still are.” He carefully took her hands in his. “Those feelings never went away, and I don’t think they ever will. So yes, I would love to kiss you. If that’s truly what you want?”

Marinette held her breath and closed her eyes shut. “I want that.”

His lips tasted like hot chocolate when they carefully brushed against each other, and hers probably did as well. His breath felt hot against her face and despite the cold, her entire body felt like it was on fire. Careful hands cradled her cheeks and she grabbed his scarf to keep him close to her.

The kiss was sweet, full of feeling and when she pulled away he chased her lips for a fleeing second before his eyes fluttered open again. They held each other’s gazes for a few seconds before chuckling awkwardly.

“So… you said something about repaying me earlier? I have another idea how you can do that.”

“And what would that be?”

Instead of answering, she leaned in a second time, now with more confidence. Luka gently kissed her back with just as much confidence. They embraced each other tighter and when they pulled away again, Marinette saw the Christmas lights reflecting in Luka’s eyes like stars. His cheeks were red, whether due to the cold or the kiss she wasn’t sure, but the way he looked at her with so much adoration made her whole body feel weak. Her lips curled into a smile so big her face hurt.

“You have some more repaying to do.”

“You can just say you like kissing me.” Luka playfully rolled his eyes. “But I’ll admit, the feeling is mutual.”

Marinette leaned in a few more times, holding Luka's face with both her hands to keep him there. Kissing him was like heaven and she never wanted to stop doing it.

“You like kissing me that much?” Luka asked in between kisses, sounding a little cocky. Marinette grinned.

“No, it’s just your face is really warm,” she said sarcastically, causing them both to laugh.

“That’s mean,” he replied. “But… let’s say we moved somewhere warmer, like the house boat for example, and then we’ll have warm faces outside of kissing. Would you still want more kisses in that case?”

Marinette shrugged. “Guess you’ll have to find out.”

As soon as they reached the empty house boat, neither wasted any time. They made themselves comfortable on the couch and soon found themselves in a lazy make out session, forgetting the world around them.