#that I didnt 'earn' the walk by doing my errands first

[coldgoldlazarus]

.

Annoyed at myself for sitting on my ass until the bank closed and then being so annoyed over that that I'm still sitting on my ass instead of doing any of the other errands I wanted/needed to run and still can do, which is annoying me further

And then I pissed off a friend by turning them down when they wanted to vc because I had plans already and now they've gone offline... and I'm still sitting on my fucking ass

[peachiikawa]

Fly | Route Selected: N. Yuu

genre: mafia au

warnings: violence, guns, blood

word count: 3.2k

Fly Masterlist

“I..I choose him”

You made eye contact with the short man with a blond streak in his hair

“What?”

The distaste in his voice was evident

It was so silent in the police precinct that you could hear a pin drop

Daichi cleared his throat to try and cut the tension

“Ok well if thats your choice then thats that. Nishinoya, make sure they get home and get them to work tomorrow. Dismissed”

Nishinoya nodded his head

“Yes, sir.”

You were surprised that he had little objections about it

But you were soon pulled out of your thoughts when he roughly grabbed your wrist

“Stop daydreaming lets go”

He let go once the car he called came for you two

And as soon as the door closed and the car was moving he pinned his arm against your neck, almost choking you

“I dont know who you are or what youre doing here but i swear to fucking god if i think youre going to hurt anyone here then i will kill you. Nod if you get it”

You nodded your head as fast as you could and he backed off of you

You were too terrified to say anything after that you basically tried to make yourself as small as possible in your seat

After about ten more minutes the car finally arrived at your apartment

“I’ll..um..see you tomorrow nishinoya. Oh im y/n by the way!”

He just grunted and waited for you to shut the door

After he left you went to your room and just fell onto it while taking a deep sigh

Just what have you gotten yourself into?

Nishinoya was at your house at 8:00 AM sharp. He was leaning against the hood of it, checking his watch every two seconds waiting for you

You knew he was there but your nerves refused to let you go down there

Only when you two made eye contact from your window did you know that you had to go

“Sorry im late!”

He said nothing as he got into the car

The car ride was awkward to say the least

You could hear your own heartbeat, could he hear it too?

You were so caught up in your thoughts that didnt even realize the car had stopped

“Hey”

You snapped your head toward him

“Yes?”

He rolled his eyes

“We’re here so get out already”

You undid your seat belt and tried to keep up with him

Where were you exactly? You looked up at the building in front of you to see ‘Sawamura Inc.’ plastered on the front of it

Your eyes widened, you were working here now?

“Get your ass inside”

Noya brought you out of your thoughts once again and you hurried yourself in

You were then stopped by an intimidating looking man

“Hey im asahi and ill be training you today.”

Between nishinoya and him you didnt know who was more intimidating

Actually it was nishinoya, dont know why you even had to ask yourself that

But despite asahi being the one to train you, nishinoya never left your side

You could practically feel his eye burning holes into the back of your head the entire time

This continued on for weeks

Nishinoya always made sure you were within his eyesight

You were printing some charts out for suga and noya was leaning against the doorway

“Nishinoya, can i ask you something?”

You took his silence as approval

“Dont you have other work to do? Im sure that you probably have better things to do that just watch me run errands for everyone”

You were right, he did have other things to take care of

But you were his number one priority during the day

“I can just take care of my other things at night. I was ordered to watch you so i am. Besides you chose me so if you have a problem thats your own fault”

You shook your head

“I dont have a problem with you, dont misunderstand, i just hope that im not being too much of a hindrance to you? I just mean...i know you didnt ask for this so..im sorry if ive caused you any problems”

You took the stack of papers from the printer and turned towards him with a smile on your face

“But thank you for taking time out of your day to watch over me, whether you were ordered to or otherwise”

You walked out and he just stood there for a moment processing your words

He just scoffed

Why would you be thanking someone who threatened to kill you only a few weeks ago?

You were strange

He thought it was weird that you had absolutely no sense of danger

But hes noticed a ton of weird things you do over the days hes been watching you

How you scrunch your nose when you dont understand what youre doing

Or how you play with your fingers when youre nervous

All of these little actions were so annoyingly cute--

Wait no. not cute. 

Definitely not. He had to focus. You could still be a threat to the mafia and he wasnt going to let anyone, no matter how cute they were, hurt his family

But watching you interact with the rest of the mafia made him feel as if he didnt have to be as hard around you anymore

He thought it was funny how you teased kageyama sometimes actually

And he almost wanted to join in on the fun

But he knew his place

Right now was one of the rare instances that nishinoya wasnt on you

So you turned your head to asahi who was sitting across from you doing his work while you had the chance before noya came back

“Hey asahi?”

He looked up at you

“Whats up y/n?”

You fiddled with your fingers

“Does nishinoya not like me? I mean i can understand since i take up a lot of his time but i feel like theres a wall between us that he wont lower no matter how much i try and talk to him”

Asahi just let out a deep sigh

“Thats not surprising. He...hes slow to trust. Out of any of us here, hes probably been with the sawamuras the longest. His loyalty is unparalleled”

You nodded along as you followed his words

“Then..i guess ill just have to earn his trust!”

That didnt happen for a couple more weeks though

It had happened when some grunts that worked in the office barged into the break room to get some coffee

They had shoved you out of the way to get to the counter

Luckily nishinoya caught you before you could fall

“God can you believe Daichi is pulling out of the shiratorizawa alliance? What a dumbass move”

“Yeah maybe hes going stupid in the head. Knew he wasnt cut out for this”

They both started laughing and you could feel noyas arms going stiff

“H...hey!”

You stood up from the ground before noya could jump in

Both of them turned their head towards you with scowls on their faces

“You got something to say?”

You kept your gaze firm

“Actually yeah, i do have something to say. Daichi is a good boss and he always does what he thinks is right for everybody. If he thinks that pulling out of the shiratorizawa alliance is whats best then i trust him on that and you should too! I mean, you two work for him! Dont you think you should show him a little respect?”

They just both busted out laughing

“Respect? For him? Hes nothing without his father. He never wanted anything to do with us anyways. Hes a weak bastard”

“Yeah well at least hes a better man than you two will ever be”

Maybe you provoked them too much

“You wanna say that again bitch?!”

You raised your hands to cover your face bracing yourself for the impact

But you opened your eyes when you heard their strangled voices cry out

“Dont touch them”

Nishinoya was in front of you, the man who was gonna hit you on his knees with his wrist in noyas hand

A sickening crack heard in the room

“Leave. I dont want to see either of your faces here ever again”

Both of them scrambled out of the room as fast as they could

You let out a shaky breath

“Thank you nishinoya”

He turned towards you with his hands in his pockets

“It was nothing. Just doing my job”

After that he wasnt as abrasive with you anymore

Talked to you more at work

Even joined in on teasing kageyama with you!

It made you smile every time he helped you with something as simple as bringing you a drink in the morning

Seeing you smile in the morning started to be something he would look forward to

He trusted you more now

And eventually it led to him knocking on your door at 3 AM on a friday night

You opened the door to your apartment still only slightly aware of what was happening

“Hello?”

You immediately perked up at the sight in front of you

Noya looked like he was about to collapse from the amount of bruises and cuts on him

“Can i come in?”

You quickly got him inside and sat him down on your couch

“Um stay here and undress ill go get my first aid kit

He just nodded his head as you ran off

Once you came back you poured some alcohol on a rag and went for the bigger slash on his side

But you stopped at what you saw

He had so many scars

You unconsciously brought your hand up to one of them and ran a finger over it to which he shuttered under your touch

“Y/N?”

You pulled your hand away and focused again

“Sorry, this might sting”

You saw his face grimace and his hand tighten around his shirt

“Did that hurt too much?”

He shook his head

“No its fine keep going”

Once you were done disinfecting and bandaging all of his wounds, you laid him down on a pillow so he could rest

“Oh! Let me go get you some water”

But once you came back he was already asleep

You set the water on the coffee table and grabbed a blanket from your room and laid it on top of him

You sat on the ground next to him just taking in what had just happened 

He looked so different when he was asleep but still just as handsome

You slowly fell asleep with your head leaning against the edge of the couch cushion

Noyas eyes slowly opened due to the cracks of sunlight coming through the window

When he turned his face he was only a hair length away from yours

Which startled him so he shot up from the couch which made you bolt awake

“What is it? Whats happening??”

You looked around looking for the fire only to see that noya had woken up

“Oh good morning nishinoya. Sleep well?”

You stretched your arms out and yawned

“You can take a shower if you want. Ill go get you a towel”

He was about to object but you left too fast

He stood up and looked around your apartment and saw some photos on a shelf

He picked up the frame to see a young you, probably around five or six with two adults sitting beside you

Your parents

He suddenly realized how...ordinary your life must have been

“Nishinoya?”

He snapped his head towards you and put the photo down

“Cmon ill show you the shower”

You had a smile on your face that made his heart do something weird

He didnt understand it

After he got out you were sitting on the couch with your first aid kit

“Do you need help rewrapping your bandages?”

He nodded his head and made his way toward you to sit down

You started wrapping him up, trying to be careful not to irritate his wounds

He just stared at you

Normally someone would be curious in this type of situation

So why werent you saying anything?

“Are you not going to ask any questions?”

You just kept applying ointment

“No, unless you want to talk about it but i know it doesnt really concern me as im not..officially in the mafia with you guys. What happened is your business, i know you handle your jobs at night since youre busy dealing with me during the day”

He was kind of shocked at how understanding you were

His hand reached out on its own and pulled you into a hug before he knew what he was doing

You froze as soon as he pulled you in

Just what was happening?

You both slowly pulled away from each other, hints of reds and pinks covering both of your cheeks

“Im done wrapping you up so I’ll um go shower now. If youre hungry feel free to look in the kitchen for something to eat”

You rushed off with a hand covering your face

Noya sat there confused

What had gotten into him?

He put his shirt back on and left before you could come back out

He wasnt being himself and needed to leave

Monday came around and you hadnt seen or heard from noya since saturday morning

You were shocked to see that he was gone when you had come out of the shower

But at the same time you were relieved to see him gone after that awkward moment together

Noya had picked you up like usual though and he acted like nothing had happened

So you decided to just follow along and did your job as usual

It was kind of awkward between the two of you

The only thing breaking the silence between you two was nishinoyas phone notification going off

“I have a meeting with daichi. Ill be back later”

You nodded your head

“Ill be here”

He quickly left the room and you let out a sigh

Noya quickly made his way to daichis office, clutching the area above his heart

Why did it race around you now?

You didnt even do anything

You were just...there

“God what the hell is wrong with me?”

He ran a hand through his hair

You on the other hand finished all your tasks for the day

You looked at the time...only half past two

There was a bakery right around the block, maybe you could pick something up real quick for everyone

So you went on your way grabbing only your wallet since it was so close

As soon as you turned the corner though you felt something was wrong

You picked up the pace, hoping to get to the bakery before anything happened

But as soon as you picked up the pace so did your stalkers

You yelped when you felt someone yank on your arm, pulling you into an alley

“Someone help! Nishinoya!”

You tried to kick whoever was holding you

“Shut them up we need to get out of here”

A white cloth came over your mouth and you were quickly unconscious

Itd been hours since noya had last seen you and he could feel his stomach dropping

Where the hell were you?

Kageyama said he last saw you finishing up a report for suga and suga said he received that hours ago

Noyas foot wouldnt stop tapping the ground, he couldnt sit still and everyone around him was starting to notice how antsy he was

“Hey noya whats up?”

Asahi was just trying to get noya to calm down from whatever was bothering him

“I havent seen y/n since my meeting with daichi. For some reason my chest gets tight when i think that something bad mightve happened to them. When they smile my heart races and i cant stand the idea of anything bad happening to them”

Asahi just let out a deep sigh

“Nishinoya, have you ever considered that you might love them?”

He...loved you?

Suddenly everything made sense to him

How he caught himself smiling whenever he saw you teasing kageyama or how when he woke up that morning in your apartment he wanted nothing more than to wake up like that every morning

He loved you

A ringing sound echoed in the room and noya pulled out his phone

An unknown number

Unease settled in him as he answered the phone

“Hello?”

“This Nishinoya?”

His hand tightened around his phone

“Yeah. Whos this”

“Meet us at the warehouse on 6th near the port in thirty minutes and come alone. If you dont then itd be a shame if something happened to y/n”

Noya could hear your strangled whimpers before the phone call ended 

His blood ran cold

“Asahi..someone took y/n”

His voice was low and feral, it sent chills down asahis back

“I'm going ahead. Bring backup ill send you the details”

Nishinoya grabbed his jacket and left the building 

His feet hit the ground as soon as he got there, he couldnt care less about his own safety right now

The cold metal pushed against his hands as he opened the door to the warehouse

“Y/n?!”

He felt his heart stop once his eyes landed on you

Blood ran down your face, your beaten body limp on the floor

“Took you long enough. They werent as fun as we thought they were going to be. Glad you got here before we broke ‘em”

Noyas jaw tightened as he instantly recognized them

How dare they touch you

He had shown them mercy the day they almost hit you in the break room

But now he knew that was a mistake

“What do you want with me?”

They both had disgusting smiles on their faces

“You got us kicked out of the mafia, something that was important to the both of us. Of course we had to return the favor, though we’ll be taking them”

The man gripped your chin and noya saw your eyebrows twitch from the discomfort

“Dont touch them!”

Red flooded noyas vision

He hadnt felt this amount of rage and fear in a long time

But as soon as he moved one of them had a gun pointed at him while the other was on you

“Theres no way you can win this. Just sit and watch”

“Is that what you think?”

Noya turned around at the sound of daichis voice

Hed never been so relieved to have backup before

In their shock the karasuno mafia quickly got the upper hand against the two former members

And as soon as noya could he lifted you into his arms and wiped away the blood on your face with frantic movements

But you slowly grabbed one of his hands and intertwined your fingers with his

“Thank you for coming nishinoya”

His lips quivered as tears flowed down his face and onto yours

“Im so sorry y/n”

You shook your head

“Its not your fault noya. Please believe me when i tell you that”

He nodded his head and tried to stop his crying

“I love you so much y/n. You wont ever have to go through this ever again, i promise”

His brought your hand up to his lips and he kissed your knuckles

“I love you too, noya. Now cmon, lets get home im really tired”

He lifted you up and carried you out, not bothering to talk to anyone as he left and no one talking to him either

For the first time karasunos guardian had something else he wanted to protect

And he was going to love and treasure you for as long as he was alive

taglist: @the-ironic-me​ @multisun​ @my-mass-hysteria​ @sugawsites @youbloodylegendyoudidit @sinthxy @celamoon​ @tinymouth @fait-de-fleurs​ @tsukifanbase​ @69owo​

[ngame989]

“Brew” - TGG SVTFOE Fanfic Collection Ch. 6

Writing: @ngame989​

Art: @toxicpsychox​

Editing: @toxicpsychox​, @seddm​, an IRL friend

Alternate fic links - FFnet, AO3

Summary: After close to a year on Earthni, Tom's been dragged back into the princely life, and it's a lot less exciting than he'd expected. With Star and Marco away on urgent business, can Janna help him turn a boring errand into a fun adventure?

Comic Page

Masterpost

This one’s a nice change of pace from the last two chapters, I think. TGG’s still a Starco-focused work, expect these to be the exception not the norm, but I think it’s important to strike a balance. See below for the text, hope you enjoy!

“No results.” Huh? Three eyes narrowed at the screen in frustration. Maybe a different search term? “No results.” Alright Tom, no big deal, man. Maybe you just spelled something wrong. Annnnnd… there. “No results.” How could there be nothing?

Tom leaned back in the chair and sighed, exercising restraint over the little anger demons inside him as he’d trained himself to do. In the past he’d needed a physical bunny to pet if he wanted even a hope of keeping his cool, but at this point suppressing the urge was such reflex that most would think he just had a regular Mewman quick temper and nothing more in all but the most extreme of conditions, but he was getting pretty close to that point now. Grandpa Relicor’s study had everything, or so he thought, but this was the first time he could ever remember being here where it come up short. He’d checked every shelf, everything he could think in the computer, had even fireblasted a few of the shelves just to see if there were any hidden switches or anything. Even Relicor had been at a loss and had been screeching in distress on the floor for long enough that Tom’s brain had graciously tuned it out. What could be so important about this book his mom needed? He hadn’t even had time to change his casual graphic tee from a cartoon he liked, simply tossing his maroon jacket over it before heading out at his mother’s behest. He wasn’t one to say no to her, but it had been hours since he’d shown up here and he was no closer to figuring this out than he had been this morning.

Suddenly his phone buzzed, displaying the familiar beaming face of his ex-girlfriend close up to the camera. A toothy grin erupted as he picked it up, holding the phone up for a video feed. “Heya, Starship.”

“Hey, Tom!” Star beamed into the camera. “How’s it hanging? Long time no see. So,” she rambled out in one breath, “I may have a teensie weensie wittle problem.” She backed up to reveal her hair in complete disarray, sans horns, and black marks all over her light blue dress. Before Tom could even ask the question, her other hand held up charred fragments of her headband. “Someone still hasn’t learned how to use an Earth oven properly!” she forced out through gritted teeth.

“Look, gurl, I said I was like, so sorry! All the Cloud Kingdom kitchens are powered by glitter and horn blasts, like that’s just how ovens are supposed to be, that is all I am saying here,” Ponyhead’s indignant voice chimed in from behind, punctuated by a snort.

“Anyway, we just finished putting out the fires and I need a new headband and their website says they’re almost out of stock and I’ve wanted to show Marco around the Underworld for a while and- wait, is that screeching in the background? Where are you?”

Tom shuffled away from the elder demon still writhing on the floor and cleared his throat. “Just in Grandpa’s study trying to find something for my mom, she really wants it today. I don’t know if I can go- but I can still send the carriage for you guys, if you want.”

“Do you need help with that?” Marco inquired as he peeked his head into the frame, casually wrapping an arm around Star.

“Naaaah, no big deal,” Tom shrugged. “You two should go, though! I can just fly over whenever I finish this.”

Star and Marco looked at each other hesitantly. “Alright,” she said. “Carriage to our house in maybe five minutes?” A fire alarm went off behind her followed by a scream from Ponyhead and an even girlier one from Marco. “Maybe ten,” Star sighed, burying her face in her free hand.

“You got it,” Tom chuckled.

“OK, bye!” Star said with relief before hanging up. He rolled his shoulders from inside his jacket and ran his hands through his hair before stepping into the main foyer, taking advantage of the space to summon the carriage and its horses, the incantations coming effortlessly to him. Demons had been fortunate enough to retain their powers on Earthni, but the location underground and the relative lack of portaling methods available left them even more isolated than previously. While most of the other kingdoms had dissolved or integrated into a loose coalition of government covering all of the Echo Creek area, the Underworld had been content to stay completely under the banner of Lord and Lady Lucitor, and Tom found himself pitching in more and more in his role as Prince. In truth, he would have appreciated the company his friends were offering, but he knew how much it had meant to Star to be able to give this life up, and he didn’t want to drag her - either of them, really, considering Marco had earned an official title on Mewni himself - back into the boring thick of regal errands. Was Prince Thomas Draconius Lucitor really going to let some stuffy old book collection get the best of him? Hah, as if.

With a flick of his wrist, the half-demon shuttled the carriage to the surface in a pillar of flame, barely looking and instead pulling out his new phone. He was still getting the hang of the new and improved Reflectacorp’s Earth tech integration, but he’d at least learned how to open yesterday’s text conversation thread from its new message notification.

Janna: anti-gravity potion attempt 4 failed. affected bottle glass itself and launched into sky. note to self: work under roof. star and marco’s suggestions didnt work either. not all bad though, it went towards cloud kingdom lol

Tom: careful, don’t hit pony’s ego and make it fly even higher ·;) btw pony + starco are going shopping in underworld soon. im stuck working for mom though.

Janna: stores r lame. even in underworld. and srsly dude u gotta stop using starfans dumb name for them. otoh it bugs them so actually nvm go 4 it

Tom: it was mine first >·:( it saves letters when they’re together!

Janna: which is always

Tom: exactly. speaking of which, they’re here ttyl

Star stepped out of the carriage in a nice white polka dotted green dress, quickly followed by Marco, the pair’s fingers remaining intertwined until they gave him a hello hug, and Tom honestly wasn’t sure they’d stopped holding hands even then. Ponyhead burst out a moment later with her phone floating in front of her pointed at herself, and she was in the middle of a monologue to no one in particular.

“-so yeah anyway as you all can see we have now arrived in the Underwoooorld. So yeah this is, like, basically the best place on all of Earthni to go shopping as I’ll be showing you today. Oh yeah, I guess some demon boys live here too. Oh my goodness, say hello you guuuys,” she rolled her eyes as she butted in between Star and Tom, side-eyeing him for a split second before grinning back into the camera. After all this time Pony still hadn’t dropped the passive aggression over his and Star’s messy history; Tom had to admit it was a bit understandable, but did she really have to keep it up in such an annoying way? He rolled his eyes - it was Ponyhead he was thinking about here. “OK, the Ponyhead Experience will be taking a short break. Tune back in soon! Love y’all, buhbye!” She snapped the phone shut and caught it with her tongue. “Ugh, why do all of my vlogs with you dorks get like ten times as many viewers? Tom, you were in the shot for like three seconds and do you know what happened? 2000 more people tuned in! What the heck! It’s like, just because I have one less horn and one less eye I’m not exciting to you? But I can’t stay mad at my adooooring fans.”

“Must be the Lucitor charm.” He flashed a toothy smile and a pair of finger guns at her, accidentally flinging his phone across the room in the process. “Totally planned,” he blurted out with a much less authentic grin. Marco chuckled and picked it up, handing it back and patting him mock-sympathetically on the shoulder while holding back a smirk.

Star giggled but tapped her foot impatiently, looking around the room nervously. “OK, great catching up, but on the way here I checked the website and the headband shop is almost out of stock! We have to go, now! Let’s move it, people! Tom, can we borrow the carriage for the day?”

He shrugged nonchalantly. “Fine by me.”

“Thankyouthankyouthankyou, you’re the best!”

“You sure you don’t need anything?” Marco inquired again.

“You heard the girl, Marco, my audience wants to see us get our shop on!”

Tom blew a raspberry, pushing them towards the carriage. “Relax, it’s nothing. I’m practically done already! Tooootally almost done!”

Marco finally relented, nodding his assent. Star was bouncing up and down so much that she looked ready to launch around the room. He giggled as she wrapped both her arms around his middle and kissed his cheek before hauling him the rest of the way into the carriage. “C’mon boo, mama needs a new pair of horns. Plus we can get whatever you need, too! I saw a few things in the catalog that would look preeeetty good on you,” she sing-songed, walking two fingers up his chest to boop his nose after they plopped down onto the seat together. Ponyhead mimed vomiting at Tom, who silently laughed in response; they were so engrossed with each other that Tom was fairly certain they wouldn’t have noticed even if he’d shouted his laughter, though. He blankly stared at the spot the carriage had been for a few seconds after it exited in a blaze.

“Pretty gross, right?” Tom started and launched a fireball in the direction of the voice, hovering away from the intruder. A split second after, his vision caught up with his instincts and saw Janna in her usual green shirt and beanie and yellow skirt, sans jacket, nonchalantly sidestep the flame. “You do the same thing every time, you really need to work on that,” she chided with her arms crossed and a devious smirk on her face.

He rubbed his temple and gestured at her in sullen disbelief. “How did you-”

“Roof of the carriage.”

“Huh.” An eyebrow up in surprise, studying her expression. “You never usually, you know, answer that.”

She shrugged, kicking a boot into the hard stone floor. “Whatever, guess I’m just bored. Besides, half the reason I do that is to get a rise out of Marco,” she slyly snickered, and Tom couldn’t help but join in. “Alright, demon boy, what adventure are we going on today?”

Tom crossed his arms apprehensively. “Just trying to find a book for my mom, not really much of an adventure.”

“Like I said, dude, I’m bored and shopping is dumb. I don’t mind hanging out here for a study session or whatever, your family’s got great taste in decor.” She picked a skull off the ground and tossed it back and forth between her hands. He grinned back at her, grateful for the company. “So what kind of creepy curses are in this book?”

The pair started walking back into the study as their conversation continued. “Don’t think there are any. It’s called ‘Historia Homewnum’, according to my mom, so it’s probably a history book but that’s all I know.”

“Darn. Demon history’s bound to be pretty cool, though.”

“You’d be surprised how little actually happens down here, it’s just a lot of maintenance. Last month the most important thing I did was a ribbon-cutting ceremony at a new boba cornshake shop, it’s really caught on here since the Cleaving. But man is it good! Marco was right, the little pearls are just so tasty, I like the creamed corn version best.”

“What is it with you and corn, seriously...” Janna shuddered.

“Don’t knock it ‘till you try it.” He knew he’d gotten distracted thinking about the delicious creamy beverage, but that didn’t seem like an adequate reason to look so horrified, especially coming from Janna. Not able to figure out any other reason she might be disgusted by his comments, he got his thoughts back on track. “Really don’t know why she wants this thing so much. Anyway, I already checked the entire study for it, and the search archives don’t have anything either. Oh well, what can you do, might as well just give up and-”

“Found something,” Janna piped up, somehow already in the computer chair with her feet on the desk.

“Really? How?” he asked incredulously, throwing his hands in the air for emphasis.

“OK, I didn’t actually find the book, but maybe we should check this place out.” He leaned into the screen to see a Mewgle search for ‘how to find weird book in underworld’ on the screen.

“I already tried that, Janna!”

“Yeah, but your antivirus was blocking this link to some place called the ‘Librarinth’.”

Tom slammed his palm into his forehead. “Of course, the Librarinth! How could I not think to look there, that’s where all the oldest books are. Why was it getting blocked?”

She clicked on the link and both recoiled at the sight: an abhorrent patterned background with almost unreadable randomly colored text and low quality cartoon images scattered all around the page. “Yeah, it’s awful,” she said in response to his obvious horror. “Seriously, whoever must made this website must be, like, a thousand years old.”

“Probably , yeah, but why does that have anything to do with-” His eyes widened in realization as he clapped his hands together in contemplation. “Right, humans and their lifespans. Go on.”

“Look.”

She scrolled past the despondent, blurry faces of demons of all shapes and sizes in the staff section until she arrived at the catalog, folding her arms triumphantly. Tom excitedly butted in, typing into the search box and being greeted with a loading wheel. “Uh, Janna? It’s not working.”

“Pfft, yeah, I might actually be dead by the time the search finishes. But that doesn’t matter because they have our book. It’s the header image for the whole catalog.” He squinted and brought his face closer to the monitor, and to his surprise the title was clear as day on the cover of the book, although all the other information was too difficult to make out. “Alright, let’s go. Main page says the Librarinth is on Floor 216.”

With a snap of his fingers, the demon elevator was summoned into a bookshelf much as it had been the day they had dealt with the Blood Moon. Relicor’s shrieking, which had slowed to a whimper since they’d left, resumed in full; fortunately they began descending, which quickly put them out of earshot. Tom awkwardly stretched his arms, unsure what exactly to say. She was his friend, yes, but he was never the best at small talk, and Janna being Janna didn’t make that any easier. After long, messy years of broken hearts and misguided feelings, he finally felt comfortable forging friendships, but even though they got along quite well there was something about Janna that made that vibe a lot less effortless than with Marco or even Star. Thoughts of his other friends reminded him of something. “Uh, by the way… how did you even know about the carriage earlier?”

“A girl’s gotta keep some secrets.”

“Pony was posting about it every 15 seconds,” he guessed, calling Janna’s bluff.

“Touché. Every 10, though,” she coolly responded. “Ha, now she’s just flipping out because Star and Marco have way more likes than her selfies.”

“Figured you’d have him bugged or something,” Tom chuckled as he scooted over to get a look at Janna’s screen, and sure enough there was a picture collage of Star sitting in Marco’s lap with tens of thousands of likes and comments already. They were laughing their butts off at themselves in a mirror in front of them with novelty sunglasses, fake mustaches, goofy props, and even a few absurd full-body costumes; Ponyhead joined the fun for a few but just as often butt in trying to take over the mirror by herself.

“Ew, no, I disabled it all months ago. Boyfriend Tom was already too cutesy for me, and you two just had a little flirty fling. Do you think I’d really want to see or hear whatever Star and Marco have going on? They’re, like, deeply in love, or whatever, and it’s gotten even worse in the last few weeks.”

He murmured in tacit agreement. Now that he thought about it, they had seemed even more affectionate than usual, but he wasn’t too keen on uncovering why that might be. The ding of the elevator saved him from any further speculation, and he and Janna stepped out of the elevator into the lobby, which was empty with cobwebs coating most of the weathered stone walls. Janna looked at him with a quizzical expression. “Anyway, so the Librarinth is basically a combination of a library and a labyrinth-”

“Right, I got that,” she curtly retorted.

“The legends say that some ancient librarian demons wanted to challenge any who sought knowledge, so they hid all the books in a giant maze that only the worthy could navigate. But everyone who made it still decided to organize it thoroughly for some reason, and you still had to check out the books and bring them back and all that.”

She ran a finger over the dust on the front counter, and the surface of the desk sizzled in response, causing her to pull her hand back before poking the bubbles that formed with a curious smile. “So why is it completely empty?”

Tom rubbed the back of his neck. “Weeeeeeell, after a few people went missing or insane, everyone realized it really wasn’t a great way to, you know, run a library. Grandpa actually started collecting books to try and get them away from this place. No one really knows what goes on in there, but as far as I know it’s still maintained even though no one uses it. The kingdom stopped staffing the lobby but they could never just shut it down because anyone who tried, well-”

“Went missing or insane. Sounds cool, I’m in.”

“You sure?”

“Dude, you brought me to a wicked hell maze filled with psychotic demon nerds. Maybe there’ll be bottomless pits or a wicked dungeon boss. If I didn’t know any better, I’d say you’re flirting with me, Mr. Lucitor,” she purred, running a finger up his chest and flicking his nose.

“Haha, very funny. And it’s Prince Lucitor,” he sarcastically chided, poking her arm in response before crossing the room with her following, but he couldn’t help but hide that he was flustered. Seeing Star and Marco’s relationship in the past year had reinforced his already-firm convictions about romance: he wanted someone with whom he could be life partners in all ways, not just handholding and rooftop picnics. Otherwise, what would be the point? He’d made that mistake enough times, and even just a light jab at the notion of him casually flirting struck made him feel self-conscious about that past. Finally his reflection was halted when he found what he sought: a large wrought iron door furnished with ornate demonic symbols and various carvings of mythological creatures dwarfed them both. With a soft, steady flame for light, he brought his hand up and ran it over the rusty engravings. He jumped back with a gasp as the fire spread into the lines of the door, lighting up the patterns on it and causing it to creak as it slowly opened.

“Nice,” Janna muttered in awe before strolling inside, with Tom hesitantly following. She was the most eager of their little group to dive headfirst into the unknown, even more than Star most of the time, but he trusted her gut.

They started walking down the long, cramped hallways, hearing only the sound of their own footsteps on the cold floor. Janna peeked her head into a small doorway that appeared to their left, earning herself an explosive blast to the face and getting knocked onto her butt. Tom slammed the door shut and leaned in to read an inscription next to it. “Incinerator for any books too damaged or damaging for further use. Probably not the right place.”

Janna huffed, brushing herself off and finding scraps of paper among the char. “I can see that. Seriously, what kind of labyrinth labels its doors?”

“Maybe one run by book nerds,” Tom offered, gripping her hand to help her up.

“So it’s just as bad at being a labyrinth as it is a library. Neat. Great adventure.”

Tom pressed on, keeping his focus ahead of them. “Hey, I’m just here to help my mom. You’re the one that said you were fine with anything.”

“Fine, fine. Just saying, I could be working on my potions or something.” She pulled a glass bottle full of purple liquid from her skirt pocket and casually tossed it at a wall. Janna snickered at Tom’s yelp when it shattered, but found herself joining him in backing away when a chunk of stone quickly deteriorated and slammed into the ground at incredible speed. She went over and carefully kicked a pebble, finding it impossible to even budge. “See, this was just a stupid pro-gravity potion. Worthless.”

He leaned against the stable wall opposite the hole, sighing. “I’m sure there has to be something interesting here. What if we, I dunno, make it a competition or something?” His frustration with both the situation and Janna were there, yes, but he still wanted to try and get something fun out of the day.

“Go on,” Janna said, eyes flickering up from the bottle that she was tossing between her hands nonchalantly.

OK, maybe he should have thought further ahead. His arms flailed as he scrambled to come up with an idea. “OK, so, uh, whoever finds the weirdest thing in this place in the next hour wins. Just call them out if you think you found something. Or whoever finds the book, whichever comes first, yeah. Mom still needs it.”

“Momma’s boy. I respect that. You’re on, Tom.” Janna cocked an eyebrow, staring at him for a second before pushing off the wall into a sprint, opening the first door she could find. “Empty. Another empty. Three empties, dammit.”

Tom used his flight to travel more smoothly from door to door on his side of the corridor, but still found himself losing ground as he took the time to read the sign posted by each threshold. The ‘Demonic Studies’ room had a very ornately ghoulish aesthetic, with macabre skeletal models throughout. Definitely something to show Janna on the way out just for the aesthetic, and it’d have been weird for most humans, but it wasn’t any more abnormal than what the two of them were used to as a daily routine. Another room for astronomy had an exquisite planetarium dome, but it turned out to be rather useless as the Underworld did not, in fact, contain any stars since it was underground. There was, however, a plentiful selection of guides to stalactites stocked on the shelves. The next four whole sections were devoted to anger management self-help books, which only made him waste precious seconds cringing at old memories.

His pace picked up as he kept going from door to door finding nothing but normal library fare, although he had to admit it was certainly well-maintained. On any other day he might actually enjoy some of the things here, but today he was on a mission to get out of here so they could actually have fun elsewhere.

‘Bookworms’... now that had potential. What sorts of hybrid creatures could lurk behind the inches of wood? “I think I might have found something!” he shouted, throwing open the door only to receive a harsh shushing. Within were only elderly demons in cozy sweaters reading by candlelight, all now glaring at him with an intensity that reminded him of his mom’s own rare reprimands. “Never mind,” he loud-whispered back out into the hall as he gently closed the door and found Janna in a nearby corridor. “Ugh, why is there nothing interesting here?” Sparks trailed behind him from his mounting anger as he paced.

“Tell me about it, even ‘Wormbooks’ was just a bunch of regular novels, somehow,” she sighed. “I was hoping for a big long chain of open books slithering around on the ground, now there’s a party.” She slumped down against the wall next to the streak of flame he’d left on the ground, idly stamping it out with her boot until Tom sat down beside her.

“Wouldn’t a wormbook be the opposite? A big fat worm in the shape of a book?”

“Nah, it’d totally be a book made of a bunch of little flatworms all working together, duh. Still pretty lame.”

OK, now he knew something was up with her. “Janna, is- is something wrong?”

Her body slouched further down until she was almost horizontal on the cold floor, staring ahead of her like a zombie. “Being weird has just felt so pointless lately. Everything’s weird now, all the time! I’m wasting all my time trying to brew potions when there’s a shop that sells them on every corner. I got so bored that I even passed that same dumb test Marco did and now I’m done with high school, like, for real this time.”

“Hey, don’t be so hard on yourself, that’s pretty impressive.”

“It’s easy if you know who to blackmail.” Tom blinked a few times, not sure why he’d expected anything different. “Everyone else is moving on with their lives, but I’m still feeding the same old possums and picking up the same old tennis balls. The whole point of my routine is that it’s different, it’s me, it’s my Jannanigans or whatever Star calls it, but it’s just not the same. I’m still into all that stuff, and Earthni’s actually really cool, but… ugh.” With that, her head fully sunk to the ground.

Tom brought his palms together over her head, opening and shutting his hands while wiggling his fingers around. “It’s a wormbook,” he said hesitantly, not really sure what he was doing. It was silly amusement, but perhaps that was just what she needed right now. Janna frowned and rolled her eyes, so he snapped at her arm with his hand puppet wormbook a few times.

“Alright, I get it,” she barked out, but her sullen demeanor slowly cracked under the onslaught of frivolity as she sat back up with an unusually ponderous look at him.

“Remember that time you took me bootsledding?” She nodded. “You told me that I needed to find a life outside of Star, and- and it was really great advice. Didn’t mean I still couldn’t like spending time with Star or anything, heck, I still do! But I just needed to get out of that rut of depending on it. Maybe you just need to do that, too. If doing your weirdness by yourself is normal, then adding something normal might be kinda weird.”

“That’s it.” Janna leapt to her feet, looking very suddenly invigorated. “That’s it!”

“Well, uh, glad you liked it. It was nothing, really, just trying to be a good pal-”

“Yeah, yeah, that too,” she waved dismissively, and he couldn’t help but feel a bit scorned. “If weird is normal then normal is weird. We were looking for the craziest things we could find here, but everything that should have been weird was normal, so we should be looking for the most painfully boring room here!” All three of Tom’s eyes blinked a few times as her words sunk in. Could it be…? “Tom, over here!” He hustled over to a particularly plain wooden door. Janna pointed at the plaque on the wall, which was far more faded than the others had been. “Look. ‘Government Records’.”

A burst of energy coursed through Tom’s blood, sparking life in him once more, and he could see the same reflected in Janna’s determined brown eyes. “And the book Mom wanted has something to do with history. Maybe it’s political history! Janna, you might be a genius!”

“Pfft, ‘might’. Now we just gotta…” She grabbed his arm, aiming it at the door, and he looked at her incredulously. “C’mon, dude, who knows what’s behind there. We’re gonna bust in with a demon blast, duh. Pew-pew!”

He rolled his eyes, but the corner of his lip turning up in a begrudging smile gave away his agreement. The pair aimed at the door and blew it off its hinges before charging in through the smoke.

“I see you two have finally solved the grand riddle of the Librarinth!” A deep, booming voice greeted them from the smoke. “Janna Ordonia, Thomas Lucitor, you certainly took your time. I expected you to book it here much more quickly. No matter, for this room shall be your tome!”

“How do you know my-” Janna stammered.

“Uh, don’t you mean tomb-” Tom started at the same time before realizing the wordplay and groaning in misery. Wait a second… Epic threats, an obvious personality quirk…

“Dungeon boss!” the teens cheered together, glancing back and forth between each other and the remainder of the room in front of them obscured by shadow.

“It is I, the bookkeeper of this place. I guard the most sacred treasure of all… knowledge!” Paper rustled loudly, echoed throughout the cavernous space, far taller and wider than Tom had noticed when they first entered with a massive array of bookshelves many times taller than him in a single row near the back wall. The ground beneath them began to shake and Tom tossed a puff of light in front of him, exposing the wide chasm that had just opened up in the ground, swallowing all the shelving in the room. Neither were prepared for the sight that greeted them: a coiled mass unfurled from the abyss and slithering with purpose along the ground, finally raising itself up to stand at fifteen feet tall, swaying back and forth with enough force to create an artificial wind within the space. A closer look showed that the body was made of some peculiar segments of… books, of all shapes and sizes. The volume at the top of the chain was much larger and far more ornately embossed than the others, and on the blood red surface of the cover Tom could make out a set of eyes. As the picture became more and more clear, he could finally see what they were up against. Now THIS is a bookworm.

“Aren’t libraries supposed to be, like, public and free?” Janna blithely inquired.

“You are correct, child, but perhaps try reporting that to your friend there! The Lucitor family is the sworn enemy of this great Librarinth! That fiend Relicor pilfered our collection for his own use for millennia, and the rest tried to shut this place down for good. But worst of all, in the most egregious display of contempt I have witnessed since the dawn of writing itself… Prince Lucitor and his ilk have amassed twenty-six dollars in unpaid fees!”

The tension in the room nearly evaporated in a heartbeat as Tom and Janna paused momentarily before bursting out into raucous laughter.

“Seriously, dude? I could just, like, repay it.” He fumbled in his pockets for his wallet for a moment before being interrupted once more.

“Do not condescend to me, children! It is far too late to make up for these sins with mere currency. Revenge is my fee most overdue, now prepare to meet… Overdoom! I shall harness the power of the written word to spell your demise!”

Books were hurled from the depths of the crevice en masse. Tom stepped in front of Janna to blast them away, but they had taken on a life of their own and homed in on him, covers flapping in the air like wings. Behind Tom, Janna snatched one out of the air to thwart a flank attack. She grabbed his left arm and pointed it up, tapping his elbow frantically. He spared a glance and saw the paper tornado coalescing, and understood her intention. Demon flames surged out of both hands with Janna calling the shots for the left side and Tom focusing on his right. They used the opportunity to back up to a wall, letting them cover every attack vector but creating a stalemate they were sure to lose in time as the seemingly endless offense droned on. Overdoom for the time being simply floated out of the abyss, glaring harshly at them as more and more papers kept emerging.

“Wait, Tom, look…” Still using his hand, she pointed to a shelf that had fallen at an odd angle and hadn’t collapsed into the abyss. There was a large, torn-up poster on which he could barely make out the word “Historia”.

“That might be it,” he breathed out, starting to feel the burn from minutes of nonstop vigilant defensive demon blasts. Oddly, none of the books in that corner were joining the assault. Almost as if...

“It’s making them magical in the chasm.” Tom’s heart leapt up in his chest at the revelation, hope and adrenaline mixing in his veins to keep him fully alert. But charging in was a suicide mission and they clearly couldn’t win on raw firepower.

“Have you had enough? Are you children yet ready to come scrawling on your hands and knees to a-tome for the sins of your forefathers?” the imposing figure growled, bristling impatiently.

“Did it seriously just use the tome pun again?” Janna griped, running her hands past her eyes and down her cheeks in disgust. “For a word nerd, that’s just awful.”

“Yeah…” Tom absent-mindedly responded. He knew she was right, though. Book, tome, scrawl… even if the creature’s summoning powers were off the charts, and it wielded them with calculated ease, its cocky wordplay taunts left something to be desired. It struck him then: what if they’d been approaching this all wrong? If the battle couldn’t be won by blows, then they had to find another option, and Tom was ready to put his plan into action.

He quickly shook off Janna’s rather tight grip on his arm and stepped forward, mustering up a confident expression masking any fears he still had left. “Nice try, Overdoom. Your words aren’t scaring us. Learn to read the room!”

Its “body” immediately began wiggling violently in the air as it crawled a bit forward towards them. Tom paid careful attention to its back end, which had climbed a few feet out of the ground in the move. “How dare you! Petulant brats!” Literary fire and brimstone rained down upon them with more fury than ever, and the two backed up into a corner which was the best they could do in a room largely devoid of any cover.

“What the hell-” Janna whispered through gritted teeth. Tom wriggled his tail out and waved it in front of Janna’s face momentarily. “Now is not the time to-” She was cut off when a barrage of index cards launched at them with enough force to somehow chip the stone behind them on impact. Tom forcefully nodded his head towards the worm’s tail, waggling his own once again. Her eyes lit up much like his had and she nodded in understanding.

“Come on, is that the best you got? I’ve heard them all before, at least give us something novel!”

Janna stood beside him, and her grimace even managed to spook Tom a bit. “I’d alphabet you couldn’t do better even if you tried!” Not what he would’ve gone with, but hey, if it helped tick Overdoom off then who was he to say no?

“You can talk up a storm all you want, but no matter what volume of air you blow, all I feel is a not-so-rough draft!”

“ENOUGH!” Overdoom’s tail launched out of the chasm faster than either could follow, crossing the room in a heartbeat. Tom shoved Janna out of the way before it wrapped itself around him, dragging him much more slowly towards the abyss. His jacket and jeans mercifully protected the paper edges pressing into him, but it was still a painfully tight squeeze that left him gasping for air. His arms were uselessly pinned inside the embrace as he was dragged headfirst, but their hypothesis had been proven correct as all the books around them had dropped to the ground lifeless.

“Tom!” Janna called out. He strained his head to see she’d removed her beanie and had something purple in her hand that she lobbed at that moment. Through the haze of pain he recognized it as another of her potions. The arc was due to miss until he summoned his energy reserves and redirected it with a weak burst of flame from his boot. Though the glass was durable enough to not melt or shatter, the demonic heat changed the potion into a bubbling olive green milliseconds before it contacted a random segment of the behemoth they were fighting. All at once, its hold on Tom and the rest of its body went limp as it began floating lazily into the air before bouncing off the ceiling a few times like a balloon. Janna ran over and helped Tom up as Overdoom screamed inarticulately from many feet above. They traversed the chaotic mess towards the pile they’d spotted previous. After some digging around, he found ‘Historia Homewnum’ miraculously unscathed and protected by a large, sturdy slab of mahogany that had fallen flat on top of it. “I got it!”

“Cool, potion is wearing off. We need to go.” Janna calmly stated. Twin jets of fire erupted from his feet as he swiftly passed the book to Janna and scooped her up in his arms, carrying them across the room towards the door. After setting Janna down, he hesitated for a moment as she stood in the doorway.

“Do you think I should still pay the late fee? I feel kinda bad and-”

“TODAY MAY HAVE BEEN YOUR VICTORY, BUT TOME-ORROW WILL-”

Tom sighed in resignation with a very unimpressed expression. “OK, yeah, never mind.” And with a quick slam of the door, they were both out scot-free. They didn’t stop running until they arrived back at the elevator. Once inside, they slumped down onto the ground as they began the journey back up to the main surface of the Underworld.

“Woo!” Tom was caught off guard by Janna expressing visible joy, and it was immediately infectious. “Now that’s an adventure. Of course, demon fire is what makes the potions work. Makes a lot more sense. Stupid ink smudge, I burned all those lemons for nothing.” He belly laughed, falling over to the floor and clutching his gut as Janna kicked him in the arm.

“Sorry, sorry, couldn’t help it.”

Her foot backed off after one last good hit. “So now you just have to give that book to your mom?”

“Yeah, should only take a minute. Want to come with?”

“Dude, she’s half a story tall and cries lava. I’d be honored. Oh crud, Pony’s current stream title is ‘WHY Y’ALL CARE MORE ABOUT EARTH TURD AND B-FLY THAN ME?!?!’” Janna showed him the notification on her phone. “That can’t be good.”

Tom pulled out his phone and called to see what was up. Pony picked up after only one ring and didn’t even bother with a greeting as she screamed so loudly that he lost hearing for a moment in his right ear. Her voice carried through the elevator car even without being put on speakerphone. “Yo Tom, why do all my Pony Pals just want to watch those two idiots kiss and cuddle? What is up with that? I even gave my fanbase a stupid nickname, they eat that stuff up, so why won’t they looooove meeeeee?” Business as usual with Pony, it seemed. “An-y-way, this whole shopping spree was amaaaazing, I am all kinds of extra fabulous now. B-Fly and Earth Turd took over the stream cuz the viewers, like, wanted a Q&A sesh but I’m only giving them twenty minutes! Hmph!”

“Might as well just make a whole show about them,” Janna chimed in, rolling her eyes a few times for good measure.

“Wait, demon boy, is Janna there? What the heck have you two been getting up to? Don’t tell me you too are getting your freak on too, I could not handle that T.M.I.-”

Yeah, there was nothing more to gain from that conversation. Tom flipped his compact shut, disconnecting the call. Wait, ‘too’? Did she mean- he shuddered involuntarily. You know what, nope, just not going to think about that one.

“So glad I turned off the cameras,” Janna mumbled, curling up into a ball on the floor, clearly not wanting to touch that whole situation either.

He opted to make contact with the other group via Marco instead - why he hadn’t just done that in the first place, he’d never know - and sent a quick text. “Marco wants to get dinner at the Waterfolk Kingdom in, like, an hour and a half. Apparently Star found some earrings she wanted at the last minute, and Pony got arrested for shoplifting three seconds after I hung up.”

Janna cackled in response. “Let’s just meet them there. My jacket got ripped to shreds by the possums last week, might as well get a new one while I’m down here. Been thinking about changing it up. I kinda like that style.” She lifted up his arm and poked at a button on the sleeve of his own.

“Uh, yeah, sure, I can show you where I got it.” He stumbled over his words, still caught off guard by this new normal-person-Janna. The elevator dinged and the teens began their trek through the Lucitor castle in search of the queen. “So, the Librarinth... we’re definitely going back there at some point, right?”

“Totally, bet’s still not over. We should do this more often, you’re not so bad a friend.”

“You too, and yeah, we should.” Looking back on the day, it had honestly been one some of the most fun he’d had in a while, despite almost dying at least once. Tom still wasn’t sure what to make of this friendship brewing between them, but if it meant more days like this to look forward to? Maybe he could get used to that.

[hazelolive]

It was a day like any other Kera was walking down the street heading to a shop. She was out doing someone errands namely picking up some food and spices because it was there turn to cook and thanks to her forgetting to stop beel from raiding the fridge it was now complety empty and she had nothing to use if they wanted to eat tonight.

His twin decided he was bored and going to tag along with her.

"Hey Kera can we should stop by Hocus Pocus on the way back. There was something there that caught my eye last time and I wanted to see if they still had it."

"If we have time I want to be back with a little time before dinner. So I have plenty of time to get these unloaded and dinner cooked." She said as she put the list of items she needed back in her pockets.

"It wont kill them if they have to wait a little a little bit for supper. Well it might my brother but I'll be able to feel it if he gets to hungry."

"Belphy no that's inconsiderate to the others."

"Fine stupid responsible human." He said with a little bit of a pout to his voice.

She could go on and pout but that wasnt going to change her mind. It was just a tiny bit cute though. The pair continued to stroll down the street a bit. Intill they were stopped by some random demon.

"Belphy that you." The demon called out with a friendly wave. "Hey!"

He didnt seem that interested but still turned towards the demon.

"Its been a while were you been?"

He let out a sigh "Away."

The demon looked confused but otherwise let it go then noticed her.

"Who's this?"

"Oh im-" Kera was about to speak up but was rudely cut off by the demon who face was lacking any of that happy go lucky charm it had a minute ago.

"Oh your that other exchange student huh the one that can barely do magic?"

How dare he! She start to clench her teeth and ball her fists. She might of not known how to do magic when she first got her but she had been practicing hard and can do quite a few spells now. Granted it wasnt anything super elobarate yet but she wasnt going to let some random demon walk all over her! She was right about to show him how much better she had gotten but was stopped.

"I think the whole thing is stupid what's the point in letting humans down her the whole things just a insult to us demons. At least the sorcerer can almost hold his weight but I dont see any reason to let some weak defenseless girl."

It had happened so quickly. Belphy pulled him closer by the scruff of his collar.

He licked his lips and said "Listen here you little punk. I'm going to give you about 5 seconds to apologize. She is anything but some weak helpless girl."

"But I heard you say-"

"I dont give a dam what you heard me say. You have to earn the right to tease kera and theres just something's you dont say. Hell I havent even really earned the right to tease her myself but for some reason she puts up with my bullshit. That woman is a saint and I wont stand to here you call her anything else. Now get out of her before I let her tear you a new asshole." He said then shoved the demon away.

And He ran! I'm not sure who he was more scared of at that point belphy our the mage that had been gathering a smoky purple aura around herself.

She released the energy she had been building and let the purple smoke started to dissipate. She was fully prepared to defend herself but didnt expect him to jump in like that.

She turned to belphy still a little angry from that idiotic demons statements.

"You know you really didnt have to do that!" She yelled but then she let out breath. "But thank you." She had a hard time accepting help from others sometimes because she wanted to prove she could do it on her own but also was glad she had backup if she needed it.

She took his hand and started to walk down the street.

"Aww is that all I get?" He said in a play mocking tone.

"I dont know what your talking about." She said feigning indifference.

"After I defended you so bravely I think I've earned at least a kiss."

"Shut up and keep walking or I wont even hold your hand."

He laughed some then rolled his eyes as they continued down the street. A minute or two passed and she quickly turned to him to kiss him on the cheek. Causing the semi surpised boy to blush a tiny bit.

"What was that-"

"Come one we have Groceries to get!" She said letting go of his hand and running down the street causing him to chase after her.

[ghost-nabbers-imagines]

Carnival Date Larry x fem reader

Him and Sal came up for the idea while in town together.

Lisa and you were at the apartments and she sent Larry into town to look for a part.

The two discussed the idea over lunch

"So you said you wanted my advice on something?"

"Oh yeah! So dude my 1 year anniversary with (Y/n) is coming up and I want to do something special but I've never been good at that romantic shit. I thought maybe I'd take her to a nice restaurant but that's so cliche."

"Did (Y/n) say she wanted to do anything specific? Maybe just ask her?"

"I would but I know exactly what she'll say. She'll tell me we should spend it in our pjs cuddled up in my bed watching a movie or playing games."

"Ha she really is perfect for you huh?"

"Exactly she's perfect dude! And we do that most weekends we hang out. I want to do something special for her because of how amazing she is to me. I mean do you know what shes doing today?"

"What's that man?"

"She's helping mom clean up Charlie's old apartment. I guess Mr. Addison wants to get it cleaned up for new tenants. When mom and I were in there this morning and she realized she'd need the parts from the hardware store (y/n) volunteered to help her."

"She is really nice. Plus she seems to make you a lot happier."

They finished their quick meal still unsure of what to do leaving Larry a tiny bit frustrated.

Despite a few decent ideas between the two they weren't able to come up with anything that he felt was good enough for his girl.

When the two were checking out at the local hardware store Larry noticed a particularly colorful flyer in the window.

"Hey Mr. Wilks is that carnival flyer new?"

"Oh yeah some of those carny folk came by and hung that up just yesterday. They also gave me some to hand out if you'd like."

The colorful flyer made a brilliant idea pop into his head.

"Sure man I'll take one."

"Sweet a carnival would be fun."

"What if that's what if I took (Y/n) there for our anniversary?"

Sal nod happily seeing the brilliance in the idea also considering asking Travis.

Grabbing both the flyer and the bags the boys left the hardware store picking up some lunch for the girls before heading back go the apartments.

Two weeks had passed and if was the Saturday of Larry's and (y/n)'s year anniversary.

Larry had saved up some money for the last two weeks.

He did anything and everything to earn even a little money.

Mow lawns? Yep

Run errands for older residents? Definitely

Stand out on streets and sketch people? Every Friday.

Selling his supply of pot? You bet.

You would join him for dinner thinking that was all that was planned.

Lisa had helped him prepare a really nice meal.

Despite it being like your millionth date together he was still nervous redoing his hair at least ten times

When he opened the door to you, you were dressed so beautifully he felt his actual jaw drop.

"Woah you look fucking amazing love!"

Ash had helped you pick out an outfit of a black cami tank top, a high waisted purple plaid skirt that went slightly above your knees, knee high tights with ribbons on the knees, and of course your black converse. I

ts moments like these that made Larry realise how much of a goddess you truly are.

"I'm a lucky bastard."

You giggled with a blush before standing on your toes to kiss him on the cheek.

"You look amazing too Larry." You beamed.

Larry was dressed in a dark red button up and his ripped black jeans. I gently grabbed her hand leading her to the table that was nicely set with everything all out and warm.

With the wonderful smell and how beautiful the Johnson dinner table looked you smiled turning around and wrapping you arms around Larry.

"Oh Larry this is so nice!"

He hugged you back but let out a small chuckle.

The two of you took your seats and began eating.

"This is just dinner babe the real fun comes later tonight." He winked giving you a quick kiss on the lips in between taking bites.

You blushed letting out that adorable laugh that Larry loved.

"I figured Lar it's not one of our dates without something happening in the bedroom."

He quickly realized you had thought that he was making one of his pervy jokes.

"Wait no no no! We're going somewhere after this. And it's not a sex thing."

This made you perk your head up confused and interested.

You smiled playfully pushing his arm.

"Are we gonna go see a movie? I didnt think the theater was showing anything you'd like."

"Nope and I'm not telling you so eat." He chuckled making you fake pout your lips.

Once the food was finished he grabbed his wallet and keys as well as a black sanitys fall jacket in case you got cold.

The whole car ride he teased you about where you were going.

"Please just tell me Lar!" You pleaded with a giggle.

"Nope. Sorry love you'll just have to wait and see." He chuckled.

Soon enough he pulled into the parking lot turning to face you once he shut off the engine.

Your eyes were already huge and filled with excitement.

"You're taking me to the carnival?!"

"Yep Sal and I found the flyer in town and thought it would be perfect." He said with a nervous laugh.

He was really hoping this idea would be special enough for you.

"Larry that's so cool! Thank you!" You cheered leaning over and hugging him tightly.

He hugged you back letting out a relieved sigh, so good so far.

Once the two of you got your wristbands you decided to head to the games section first.

You both played a few of the games together having a bit of a friendly competition.

At the last booth there was a Teddy Bear with a little plastic guitar.

As soon as Larry Saw it he knew it had to be yours.

Since it was a basket ball game it didnt take Larry too long to figure out out.

Sure enough after like 6 tries the small bear was yours.

He turned around handing it to you proudly

Of course you responded by hugging him tightly and kissing him on the lips.

The first ride you both rode was a roller coaster, Larry's favorite.

He made sure to hold onto you tightly whether you needed it or not.

The next ride was the tunnel of love they had set up.

AS you can imagine Larry got quite handsy making out with you the whole time.

The last ride was of course the ferris wheel and Larry had timed it perfectly that you were on the ferris wheel at sunset.

The first thing he did was take out his phone and take a photo of the love of his life followed by a selfie of both of you.

The next thing he did as the temperature had dropped quite a bit was wrap his jacket around your shoulders.

"You always look so hot in my clothes."

He smiled leaning down and kissing you softly.

When you two pulled apart you laid your head against him and he wrapped an arm around you.

"This has been so perfect Lar thank you so much."

"Honeslty love I should be thanking you. Everything is perfect with you by my side. Ever since you and I met my lofe has been so much brighter, happier, and all around better. It's like before you came around I was wondering around in one of my drawings. Life was flat, black and white, and sometimes pretty scary. Then I met you, and all of a sudden my life was colored in and beautiful. You're like the Sunshine breaking through the grey storm clouds. I was gonna buy you something nice but my mom suggested this instead. It was what my dad gave to her on their 1st anniversary. I replaced the chain but basically when he gave it to her he said that she was his sun because his world would be incomplete without her. And I think that's so accurate for how alone I'd go back to being without you."

He held out a box with a beautiful necklace with a sun pendant.

You pulled out your own gift for him but it was in an envelope.

"I figured you would be so concerned about doing something special for me that you would forget these just went on sale."

"Holy shit! Holy shit!"

With a perked eyebrow he took the envelope opening it up carefully to reveal three Sanitys Fall tickets.

"It's for their show in a couple months. And theres a ticket for all three of us."

Lardy didn't hesitate to hug you tighter than ever before

"Holy shit I love you! I love you so much!"

You giggled hugging him back.

When you pulled apart he helped you get the necklace on and you couldn't help but admire it.

As you two were walking out to his car that night he lifted you up on his back the whole way.

On the car ride home you ended up briefly falling asleep making him admire you as much as possible without wrecking.

"I'm so gonna marry you some day love."

[skizmin]

Ravenclaw Seungmin

(my sweet sunshine i hope i can do you justice)

Genre: fluffy as FUCC yo, seungmin is a precious baby, he’s book smart then falls in love and has nO fuckin idea what to do, ugh hes so cUTe, confident til you (my lovely gender neutral reader) come along type shit lmao sue me

Words: 6330 holy shit

A/N: alrighty so i put some more effort into this one bc apparently yall didnt appreciate my woojin one (lookin at you you well rested hoes) and yeah. for the love of coke please stop sleeping on woojin and seungmin it hurts my heart.

this all sorta starts in the middle of exam season

seungmin is lowkey stressed

okay possibly highkey stressed

especially when his friend hyunjin drags him out of the study hall to go see some quidditch game

“hyunjin seriously i need to study” 

but hyunjins carrying seungmin over his shoulder screaming about something called stress relief and fun

but anyway, here seungmin is in the stands very begrudgingly 

thinkin about that lil song he made to remember how to pronounce that one pet hair expelling spell lmao

when he sees you

he knows you of course, always coming extremely close to his top mark in all his classes

once, in second year, you even beat him in defence against the dark arts which seungmin felt a bit down about for 3 weeks but also he knew you had an immense interest in jinxed plants which was the topic of half of the test

rip seungmin

anyway, he’d always sorta just ignored thinking about you unless it was his competitive side coming out 

for real once he almost gave up studying for a divination in class essay but was reminded you were in that class and just nYOOMED to finish his final draft

he only ever really thought about school anyway, much to the dismay of his friends who for once just wanted to get to know him more and take him out to hogsmeade or something

okay so anyway, hes in the stands and he sees you

he doesnt exect you to be there lol like

you study just as much as he does, right? 

not only are you there, but you arent even watching the game

youre in it

seungmin chokes on his motherfuckin pumpkin juice

hes all

W-WHAT

NO WHAT

HOW

hyunjin looks at him like wtf bro

seungmins just

“Y/NS IN THE QUIDDITCH TEAM? BITCH? WHAT??”

hyunjins like what???? ohhhh y/n?? dude theyre like one of the best chasers in the damn school

seungmin just looks from hyunjin to you (trying to intercept a pass from the other team) with wide eyes

“seungmin why do you look so shocked? do you know them?”

“yeAH THEYRE THE ONE THAT BEAT ME ON THAT TEST ONCE”

“hmm? what in second year??? dude you have GOT to let that go.”

but by now seungmins not even paying attention to hyunjin, he’s watching you speed past with the quaffle and scoring almost effortlessly

seungmin had never really paid much attention to quidditch. now much at all

aside from happily congratulating his friends on their most recent win and smiling brightly along with jisung when he begins screaming about the new chudley cannons line up

seungmin never really followed the world cup or anything

he simply decided when he was sorted into ravenclaw that he would dedicate himself to his studies

and he struggled to get the grades he does even though felix’s favourite thing to say to him was “all you do is study”

but he was proud of his grades

seungmin never really paid much attention to quidditch

but now? watching you?

your house colours billowing behind you as you smiled to a teammate, listening to their instructions on your next course of action.

he was mesmerised

wholly?? fully?? mesmerised??

he didnt know why but his heart sort of ached

he thought, why would he feel like this?

he understood though that he simply felt completely and utterly inferior to you

hes fine with being inferior to you in terms of quidditch, he doesnt play quidditch

rarely has flown a broom actually, unless necessary

but in terms of school work?

he genuinely set his soul to do that

he’s wholly dedicated to studying to achieve the almost record grades he has

and you?

you were right behind him

dont get him wrong, he doesnt think you dont deserve it, not at all. he would never say someone doesnt deserve recognition for their hard earned work.

he was upset because, honestly?

he saw how often his friends practised their quidditch skills. the team practise, individual practise, game plans, codes, flying methods, opponent studies

all of it

it was very nearly the same amount of time he spent studying.

and his friends? 

he remembers the time his friends minho a few years back struggled to scrape by a pass due to his commitment to the sport. even with copious amounts of tutoring that drove him into the early hours of the morning so often

the stress ate away at him. it was a particularly busy year for slytherins team and he was on high demand. the lack of interest in school kicked in after his grades began dropping

it wasnt a good time, not a good thing to witness. eventually he passed purely on all nighters full of cramming before exams

all his quidditch playing friends struggled to get above average in their grades, no matter how enthusiastic they were about learning and magic 

how did you, who was on par with their skill, manage to follow so closely behind him whilst studying?

of course, he was prefect, but that consisted of simply once a week meetings and helping younger students with school related things. sometimes an odd counselling session here and there and some advice on how to handle situations

but that took up rarely any of his time

not nearly as much as quidditch would

he felt sort of empty, like he had lost some kind of purpose. 

how was he going to deal with this? how was he going to deal with the fact that you were so so so far above him in all ways possible? the one thing he fully applies himself to is now meaningless to him

he wants to be better 

“minnie?? the games over. y/ns team won.” hyunjin called from beside him, nudging him with his shoulder

“ah, right.”

hyunjin furrowed his brows at seungmins down attitude but shrugged it off because

it be like that sometimes

ya’know??????

,,

fast forward to one week later and seungmins friends were getting increasingly more worried. why?

his usually immaculate notes were empty, he went straight to bed instead of studying (yet the bags under his eyes were dark and prominent. one of his dormmates reports to jisung that he has been sleeping quite fitfully.), he sat for hours on the weekend in the study hall tapping his quill on the table but his paper remained blank

hell, he hadnt even borrowed a new book from the library after finishing his most recent read

it was at this point jeongin forced hyunjin to confront seungmin about it

“so uh, whats up?”

“huh? oh nothing just chilling.”

“no i mean recently, youre acting odd.”

“o-oh?? (worm)”

“yeah, so you okay??”

“definitely, just busy sorting something out.”

hyunjin smiled and left seungmin be at that

seungmin realised that was the last straw, he was going to do something about how this affected him

so the next day, after classes ended, seungmin made his way to the library. after that he walked down to hagrid’s, their groundskeeper and teacher of magical creatures’, hut. then after that he walked up to the hospital wing.

when he returned to the great hall and jisung asked him where he had been, he just smiled and shook his head

what had be been doing?

volunteering.

volunteering to help at the library and help madam pince 5 nights a week every fortnight, volunteering to help hagrid tend to the animals and feed them and give them exercise every sunday, and finally, volunteering to run errands for madam pomfrey for 5 nights every other week and to tend to small injuries that can be handled with a simple muggle first aid kit if thats what the student would like

anyway once his friends found out what he had done they were very happy!! and confused??

and also worried

seungmin had aways had this habit of overworking himself

,,,,

okay so 3 weeks later he was in the library volunteering

pushing a trolley full of misplaced books up the isle while yawning widely

he thought he was doing pretty well. he was more than confident on the two exams that had passed during the time he spent volunteering n stuff

he walked along, still yawning occasionally, blaming it on the warm cozy feeling of the library late at night

but he jumped as he felt a tap on his shoulder and whipping his head around so fast his neck couldve snapped off

and then he saw you, looking nervous as you twisted your fingers together in front of you

he swore he couldve melted right then and there

wait?????? what???????

“u-uh, hey! um. yeah madam pince she-, she told me to ask you. ask you where to find a b-book that is! ha. haha.”

seungmin watched as your face got red and his heart sorta swelled?????

“oh! u-uh yeah! sure! which book?”

you smiled at him widely, relieved you hadnt asked the wrong person. “magical mediterranean water plants and their properties???”

seungmins heart stuttered

he had never really paid much attention to you before he saw you on the quidditch pitch, thinking of you purely as competition. but recently

god, recently he couldnt stop thinking about you. your face. your smile. your laugh, remembering the rare times you would joke around in class.

was this what it was like to have you smile at him?

he would fetch you 1000 books if he got to see 1000 of those smiles

oh my oh my was his heart beginning to beat faster and faster

“o-okay, uh- follow me?” he turned around quickly and began walking. he’d memorised the library way before volunteering anyway, madam pince getting sick of him asking where books were every second day

he walked up 3 isles and turned right, walking up the middle before tugging out his wand from his robes and softly flourishing his wand

from a high shelf, a black leather book floating down gently, seungmin extended his hand to grab it before passing it to you, cheeks red

“is this it?” seungmin already knew that was the book you were looking for. he read it last term to jog his memory before a herbology test

fUCK THERE WAS A HERBOLOGY TEST COMING UP RIP SEUNGMIN

anyway

“yeah!! seungmin, right? thank you so much.” you shyly smiled at him

“u-uh yeah!! just um, ask me for help if you need it and you see me. y/n, right?” god his brain was a mess

“of course!! well, i’ll see you around yeah??”

seungmin nodded, cheeks getting slightly redder

and with that you walked away, cheeks equally as red as seungmins and hands clasping tightly around the book he got for you

anyway, in the next week you and seungmin sometimes exchanged small smiles and waves but nothing more

you highkey wanted to talk to him but you were too shy so

it was okay bc he was shy too so

but anyway, you had been in your care of magical creatures class, talking to your professor as you attempted to befriend a porlock

(a small horse guardian thing that doesnt quite trust humans)

anyway, simply you got onto the topic of how hagrid could possibly look after all his creatures constantly to which he replied with a smile and 

“well theres a ravenclaw boy that helps me now. seungmin. do you know him? he helps me care for all of them every sunday.”

you furrowed your brows, it couldnt possibly be

“kim seungmin?” you questioned

“thats the one!” 

you smiled, saying you knew him before getting lost in your own thoughts.

didnt seungmin already volunteer at the library? maybe that was a one time thing. right????

surely he wouldnt be volunteering at two places at once. thats impossible

not with his grades, he couldnt possibly keep up. how much overworking would that be?

you were taking out of you thoughts with a sharp stinging pain on your wrist

you looked down to see your porlock obviously angry and trying to escape the calming hold you had on him

hagrid noticed you gasp and his eyes widened as he saw the blood trickling down your arm

“oh no! are you alright????”

“i’m fine! just got bitten is all.”

“here let me take the porlock, you should get yourself to the hospital wing. the last period bell is gonna go anyway so take your bag too”

you were stunned at your professor being so panicked

“im sorry its just ive filled out three incident reports in the last week”

you laughed, tugging your satchel over your shoulder and holding your wrist with your free hand to stop the bleeding somewhat

you greeted you friends goodbye before climbing up the grassy hill to hogwarts on your way to the hospital wing

as soon as you reached the castle, chimes came loudly from the bell tower above

you groaned, you knew you had quidditch practise in half an hour so you began to speed walk through the halls that were filling quickly with students

reaching the hospital wing you pushed the big oak door open, searching around for madam pomfrey

“excuse me?”

madam pomfrey popped out from behind her desk

“oh! y/l/n! im just about to head out on an emergency. some kid ate sat on a firework from that pesky store. is it serious?”

“uhhhhh, no?? i can patch myself up.” you smiled at the frantic nurse

she nodded and walked passed you, calling out as she rushed through the door in a hurry

“the kits on my desk! and if kim seungmin shows up tell him i dont have anything for him to do!”

you smiled quickly to her before she was gone

wait a minute? seungmin? what would he be doing here???

anyway, you walk up to her desk and drag out the first aid kit

you knew how to use a first aid kit

you were Cultured

anyway you were looking for something to dress your arm, you found a big ol’ dressing with all that sticky shit

bitch yes

anyway as you were struggling to open the dressing up, the gigantic oak door opened suddenly and you almost dropped the dressing you were holding to see a panting seungmin

your eyes widened as he crouched over and spoke

“madam- madam pomfrey im so” large breath in “sorry im late i just-” another pant “a student asked me where vectors office was and-” 

he finally stood up, eyes widening when he saw you

“o-oh! y/n? whatre you doing here??”

“uh, porlock.” you replied dumbly. not thinking enough to elaborate bc wow kim seungmin was right there looking gorgeous n shit

“porlock?????? the animal??????” he furrowed his brows

you nodded and suddenly remembered what the nurse had told you

“oh! uh, madam pomfrey is out right now but she said theres um,,, nothing for you to do???” you asked him, sounding unsure to whether or not you heard her correctly

seungmin furrowed his brows “o-oh.”

you looked away, and began fumbling with your dressing and spoke up again “do you help out here too?”

“uhhh. yeah, i do.” he replied somewhat awkwardly

“hagrid said you help him as well. do you get any rest?” you asking, sounding exasperated

but like,,,

low key lmao

“oh uh. yeah i try my best i guess.” he sounded so??? nervous???

“wait! y/n, let me do that. its what im supposed to be doing anyway” seungmin sheepishly says as he walked up to you

oh god what now???????? uh???????? seungmin very possibly touching you and being that close??????? uh??? a bitch is scared for their health but shhhhh

“n-no! its fine!” you mumbled back, suddenly very shy under seungmins gaze

“y/n you cant even get it open, not to mention your arm and hand are still covered in blood.”

he had a point

“oh. right.”

seungmin moved you over to one side of the table as he pulled out a bowl and a washcloth from one of the cabinets next to it.

he mumbled a soft aguamenti, creating water from his wand into the bowl, smiling in accomplishment

then he dipped half of the cloth into the water and wrenched it to get the excess water out

“can i uh- can u have your arm??” he  stuttered, suddenly realising how close you were, cheeks dusting pink

you held your arm up for him and he started wiping at the blood on your skin, you didnt actually mind the cool feeling of the water at all.��

you decided to use the awkward silence to have a little conversation with him

“why do you volunteer so much?” you questioned

seungmins movements halted for a second before he started cleaning your arm again

“no particular r-reason. i-, i like it?” he replied, not meeting your eyes

“why do you sound so unsure?” your pried, wondering why exactly the question was difficult for him

“im not unsure!” he assured you, taking a glance at your face finally before dumping the cloth in the water because he was done

“alright i guess”

“i uh,” he started whilst ripping open he package to the dressing, “i didnt know you played quidditch.”

you were surprised by this, everyone knew you played quidditch

“oh! really?? i thought it was obvious.”

he began placing the dressing on your wrist, trying to make sure there was no crinkles in the plastic sticky part

(yes i dont know the actual term for it fucking SUE ME)

“ah, i dont really pay attention to quidditch so.”

“oh. how’d you find out then?” you were curious as to how he knew if he barely knew you and didnt even like quidditch

“hwang hyunjin, you might know him, hes in our year. anyway he dragged me out to watch and you were playing so.”

“ah right. hyunjin’s the slytherin right?” 

“yup!”

cue: silence

seungmin was smoothing out the dressing on your wrist 

“y-your robes...” seungmin started, picking up his wand from the desk and mumbling a short “tergeo”

suddenly your robes grew warm and the blood siphoned off of them cleanly into seungmins wand

you were now comfortably warn in your robes as you went to pull your sleeve down before seungmin stopped you gently with his hand, checking the dressing was on properly one last time

you shivered at the feeling of his cold fingers, and decided to return the favour of hhim helping you

pulling out your wand, you muttered a soft incantation of a heat charm, pointing your wand over seungmins hands that adorned a pink hue due to the cold of the water earlier

“oh my god thank you” seungmin practically groaned, rubbing his hands together in front of your wand

you laughed quietly at him, finding his satisfaction amusing before he looked up to your face and realised, blushing a deep shade of pink

okay imma keep it real with you chief

you liked seungmin a lot

idk he just??? made you feel so giddy. your stomach like,,, dipped when he smiled at you n stuff

i mean you werent the only one,, there were heaps of people in your year that fawned over the smart boy. hard-workers are always the most popular like come on

but you sorta just knew there was no chance between the two of you and you were perfectly happy being friends with the boy. his friends always hyped him up a bunch like he was some kind of god

you definitely agreed he was good company, even when you two werent necessarily comfortable around each other yet

but anyway, seeing him standing there blushing in front of you made you uwu SO HARD

and you were glad he knew you from something you loved, that being quidditch

wait

fuCK QUIDDITCH PRACTISE YOU ALMOST FORGOT

“seungmin!! im so sorry i have to go!! i have inter house practise!!”

seungmin’s eyes widened a little

i mean yeah you had to go to practise but like also

that was the first time???????? you’d said his name to him???????? excluding the time you asked him if it was in fact his name but like

oh my god seungmins blush got even darker because he didnt know he could like how someone said his name but he definitely likes him name 20 times more when youre saying it and and youre smiling and running out of the infirmary and waving to him and its all too much like his heart rn??? dead. his brain??? he doesnt know her, it turned to mush

seungmin walked over to one of the beds in the hospital wing and sat down, sighing

he was so fucked

,,,,,,,,

 “you’re friends with kim seungmin right?” you questioned jisung as you waited for the rest of the schools quidditch players to exit the change rooms

“yeah!! we’re close actually. why?” 

jisung was always so excitable and held such confidence in everything he did, he was comfortable to talk to

“oh nothing, i just ran into him at the hospital wing is all”

“hospital wing? he’s still volunteering there??”

you furrowed your brows, “yeah??? is something wrong????”

jisung sighed, scuffing his boot along the grass of the slowly filling pitch and tossing his bat up into the air before catching it nonchalantly (imagine being That Cool)

“yeah. he’s been overworking himself way too much lately. he used to only focus on studying but he’s trying to fit in all this helping staff out and he looks so tired all the time.”

looking back you do remember seungmins hair being a bit more dishevelled than usual, and under his eyes was a little bit darker

“why though? i mean its nice he is but like, he doesnt need to?”

jisung nods thoroughly at you

“thats what we all said! he wont tell us why he’s had this sudden change in heart though.” jisung pouted and you laughed lightheartedly at him

“oh well, he’ll come around right?”

,,,,

he didnt

its been 3 weeks since your conversation with jisung and you can guarantee seungmin was overworking himself to the max

he came into astronomy studies late and ended up falling asleep the other day. it was one of the easier classes to fall asleep in of course due to the whole jinxing the ceiling to look like a nights sky in a dark room n stuff but like still

seungmin never was late to class

seungmin never fell asleep in class

lately youve noticed him turning up to morning classes barely on time, tie askew and hair a complete mess

you’d find it cute if you werent worried for his health 

okay you did find it cute but YoU weRe sTiLL WoRRieD

anyway, so it was one day in herbology theory when he fell asleep again

sprout wasnt too happy but let him sleep anyway bc like. if you can sleep through her basically screaming explanations to the class due to her half deafness than yeah, you probably needed it

at the end of the class you packed your things and saw seungmin still peacefully sleeping at his desk and you frowned lightly

so you decided to let him sleep but you sat at your table for a while, using spare parchment and a scribing spell to copy your notes for him

after it was completed, you left it on the table next to him with a bottle of pumpkin juice you were saving for later, your eyebrows still furrowed

why was he overworking himself?

sighing, you just left, deciding it was creepy to be there for so long

anyway, that night you went to the library to find a book you needed for your ancient runes course test

you didnt really expect anyone to be there so late (it was almost curfew, you were forgetful)

and it sorta slipped your mind that seungmin volunteered there until

“need help?”

holy fUCK he scared you like boy you cant go sneakin up on people in an almost empty library and speak loudly like that

anyway so you violently flinched away and he started laughing whilst apologising profusely

you smiled bc he was cute adalsfafrfpi;fef seungmin omg stop

but yeah once he was done, he reiterated “sorry, but is there any book youre looking for?”

“uhhhhh yeah, ancient runes made easy??” you sorta felt dumb saying it out loud but oh well, you needed to pass this test

“follow me then!” seungmin led you out of the tall shelves confines to the middle corridor before delving into another set of shelves, this time he didnt pull out his wand to get the book down, instead he simply reached up and plucked it from the shelf

“here you go!” he handed it to you, it was indeed the book you were looking for and it was in mint condition. not surprising as basically no one took the ancient runes elective rip

you mumbled a thanks, cheeks sorta going a bit red as you stared at your feet because like

kim seungmin

(thats a phat mood btw)

“oh! i almost forgot!” seungmin started, dipping his head down a bit to try and catch your eyes. when you looked up, he smiled

“uh, thanks for what you did today. you know, the notes a-and the pumpkin juice and stuff.”

you watched seungmins cheeks get pinker as he went on

you were full on uwuing at this point

“its okay! really!” you blurted out like omgkimseungministhankingme

suddenly it fell into an almost awkward silence between the two of you

shoes shuffling on the ground and cheeks red

“um, what do you need help with in ancient runes? im all caught up. i could explain something if you want?”

and thats how you ended up on one of the large library tables after curfew with special permission from madam pince

seungmin legit took 15 minutes to explain some stuff to you but now yall were just chillin (in cedar rapids)

you began talking about nothing in particular really

seungmin asked about your quidditch, you asked about his volunteering which he brushed off almost immediately

seungmin and you felt like time didnt exist as you kept talking and talking

you subconsciously moved closer to each other until your thighs were touching

seungmins speech had slowed into a comforting lazy slurring of words, his voice getting heavier with the need for sleep. you felt the same though

his eyes stayed intently on you, even with his cheek in his hand as the conversation slowed to a pleasant silence

you yawned, a hand coming to your face. you knew you should go to bed but you didnt really want to at this point

you looked at seungmin to see him softly smiling at you and your heartbeat picked up. your obvious feelings for him going crazy

“youre really pretty y/n” he mumbled lowly, you almost didnt hear him

of how you wished you didnt hear him because now you were a mess, heart thumping in your chest and red creeping up your neck to your face

how do you reply to that? you were stumped for words honestly

seungmin didnt seem to mind though as he smiled wider, sitting up straight and stretching his arms over his head

“wait here, ill go put out the lamps and we can walk back”

you barely nodded, face still red as seungmin climbed from his seat to wander around, blowing out the candles lighting the library

on your walk back, it was silent. it was comfortable though and seungmin didnt seem to mind your lack of response to his compliment that still had your mind reeling 

seungmin waved bye to you as you parted ways, smiles on your faces

seungmin didnt study when he got into his dorm room, falling face first onto his bed and falling into a deep sleep almost immediately

,,,,

waking up, seungmin first realised he was late, only 30 minutes of breakfast left

and then, the memories of seeing you last night flooded it

mid throwing his covers off of his body, he groaned loudly, how on earth had he said that

his cheeks got red just thinking about it

this was a crisis. he dragged on his uniform and grabbed his satchel and sprinted the whole way to the great hall

once he made it, he spotted his friends at the hufflepuff table and dashed to them

“i have a problem”

jisung, hyunjin and jeongin looked up towards seungmin

“what is it?” jeongin asked, eyes lighting up with curiosity. oh did he love seeing his friends suffer

“so i was in the library with y/n last night” 

“waiT Y/N THE ONE YOU” hyunjin started before jisung harshly elbowed him in the side

seungmin loves jisung

“yes, shut up hyunjin. anyway i was really tired and not thinking straight and i called them pretty and they didnt even respond im so ashamed”

jeongin started laughing, hyunjin smiling along whilst rubbing the sore spot of his side

seungmin groans and stomps his foot, not happy with the lack of support from his friends

jisung tosses him a sympathetic look, “your problem man, i cant really help.”

seungmin pouts but sits down to eat anyway

,,,,,

okay so its been 3 days and seungmins worried

like seriously 

whenever he tries to talk to you your eyes just widen and you walk to other way before he can even get a word out

whenever he passes you in class or in the hallways, he prepares a smile only to be met with you ducking your head to look at the ground as you speed past him

his small waves in class seemingly go unnoticed

but he knows you dont hate him

how? simple. youre still leaving him notes and treats every time he falls asleep in class

so what does he do? like any other desperately in need boy he hatches a plan. 

today last period you both share astrology. he’s simply fake falling asleep and confront you whilst you left him the classes notes

seungmins game plan didnt really work tho bc he actually fell asleep like a dumbass

it was last period astrology and seungmin was lying on his books, passed out

the bell rang and you went through your normal routine, copying your notes which included your immaculately drawn sketches of the constellations you’d studied that day

you waked over to his desk and placed them next to his head, the corner of a page accidentally bushing his nose and you like,,, froze

bc he twitched and scrunched his nose up which wouldve been so cute if you werent terrified of him waking up

you put down a cauldron cake as well once he went back to looking peaceful and frowned bc

“seungmin why don’t you rest more?” you whispered

he exhaled deeply in his sleep and a piece of hair fell into his face, subconsciously you went to brush it away and carded your fingers ever so lightly through his hair

but then you halted bc like

wtf thats super creepy

you quickly turned to leave b-but uwu cliche

seungmin grabbed at your wrist yO SEUNGMINS DAINTY ASS FINGERS CURLING THEMSELVES AROUND YOUR WRIST IMAGINE

anyway

you squeaked and turned back around bc wtf it scared you

and seungmin was just sitting up now, arm outstretched grabbing onto yours, eyes wide and hair a fucking cute mess

you were like uhhhhhhhashlfbfkacbsdcbigev

“uh, dont run away, please?” seungmin said, super duper shyly aw hes so CUTE

you like just,,,, shakily nodded at him

seungmin smiled lightly and let go of you, climbing out of his set in lightning speed to stand in front of you

“i uh-, i just wanted to ask why you’ve been avoiding m-me i guess” seungmin started and you cringed

bc this was hella awkward like no 

seungmin cut you off before you could say anything tho with a 

“bc like if its because i called you pretty and stuff im so so so sorry i didnt mean to make you uncomfortable at all and i feel really bad bc i shouldnt have said it and i was really tired and my judgement wasnt the best and i accidentally made things awkward between us and i dont want that and i just feel really really bad like you dont even have to forgive me or anything i swear”

he said all that in like, under 15 seconds. eminem who???

anyway your eyes just went wide as you processed his words n n you lowkey got a bit emo when he said he said it bc he was tired n stuff n just :^((

“why dont you get enough rest seungmin?” you said blankly

“w-what?” seungmins heart rate SKY ROCKETED

“why dont you get enough rest?”

“uh-, i just um,,, i do get e-enough rest!” he was like, nervously laughing

“no you dont, you fall asleep in 40 percent of your classes.”

“i-, i uh-” “why can’t you tell me??” you questioned, eyebrows furrowing at his anxiousness towards the question

“its uh-, its sorta embarrassing” he replied, looking ANYWHERE but your eyes

“is it bad? did you get into trouble or something?”

“nO! god no!”

“then it doesnt sound that bad to me.” oooh go y/n hold ur ground bub

“uhhhh” seungmin sighed, defeated “okay ill tell you.” you just hummed in response and waited patiently

he exhaled loudly and stared blatanly at your feet before beginning

“i uh. you play quidditch really well and- and you also get near all my scores on tests and stuff and i just felt. idk, dumb or something so i wanted to prove to myself that i could do extra curricular sort of stuff like volunteering and still g-get top scores i guess.”

once he finished he looked into your eyes and you were like ????? what the fuck

you were so confused,,, he was volunteering bc you played quidditch and got good scores???

“seungmin i dont work nearly as hard as you do”

his eyes widened “what do you mean! yes you do! you’re like, on par with jisung and he practises religiously!”

you laughed a little and seungmin furrowed his brows

“seungmin, jisung is muggleborn. whereas my older sister is captain of the tutshill tornados. i dont need to train that hard in quidditch” oh seungmin

the pooor boy

after you made that comment seungmins face just went BRIGHT red lmao

“uhhhhh,,, uh,, uhhh” he didnt know what to say

“anyway seungmin, i suggest you take a break and get some rest so you dont keep saying things accidentally” you said, adjusting your satchel strap on your shoulder and preparing to leave

“what?? acidentally???” seungmin said, preventing you from leaving “you don’t mean me calling you pretty right bc like. i meant that” okay but how was seungmin now so confident especially when he said that

“w-what?” you said, red going ALL over your face lmao like everywhere

“i meant it when i called you pretty i just. i know there was a better time to say it probably” seungmin started getting shyer now like his ears going red he was so cute

‘you think im pretty????????” you were so confused like. kim seungmin?? the kim seungin? thinking youre pretty??? you discreetly pinched yourself, checking this wasnt a dream

“d-dont say it so forwardly like that!” seungmin exclaimed

“you said it forwardly first!” you laughed back at him, ngl you were feeling a little giddy 

seungmin just sorta sunk back into himself, feelin super duper shy

your face got even more red as words tumbled out of your mouth before your common sense could stop you

“f-for the record, i-, i think you’re pretty too”

oh my GOD

1) y/n sweetie thank you for telling seungmin this for all of us

2) yoU JUST CALLED SEUNGMIN PRETTY AND NOW HIS EYES WERE WIDE AS FUCK 

HE SQUEAKED

HE MCFRICKIN SQUEAKED CAN YALL IMAGINE

he brought a hand up to his mouth in surprise and by this point you were like

too shy to do anything lmfao

so you sorta just looked down at your shoes bc wow all of a sudden your black leather school shoes were immensely and intricately beautiful

not

anyway there was a bit of silence as seungmin regained composure and you were way to embarrassed to say anything at all

but then

but thEN

get ready omg

you dont even notice but suddenly seungmins  right in front of you and he’s leaning toward your face and and hes

hes kissED YOUR CHEEK

oh my GOD his cute ass lips just came in contact with your cheek, as quick as lightning but of my god it was worth it

your head whipped up and you gasped

seungmin stood there with an inCREDibly nervous look on his face and his eyes prompting you to respond

like,,,, in any way. pls y/n do something

your mind was fuzzy and the low swooping feeling in your stomach compelled you as you stepped impossibly closer to seungmin, yours and his cheeks radiating a magnificently bright red glow

and you kissed him

thanks again y/n for doing the world a good deed

you sorta squeaked afterwards and went to leap back bc seungmins face was suddenly too close and you were embarrassed and nervous and and

oh my god your heart was beating louder than ever jesus

but before you could leap back, seungmin was wrapping his arms tightly around you, hugging your body and preventing you from distancing yourself from him

his breathing was rapid as his mouth found home near your ear to stutter out a question that would make you squeal if it werent for the fear your legs might give out

“w-wanna go on a-, a date with me? maybe?”

as soon as seungmin felt you nod against him (you didnt trust your voice rn lmao) he smiled, easing into the hug more and essentially melting his heart with yours

uwu

hope you liked it!!!

[honeyfreckled]

❤️vday update (cw: 🎀relationship tmi stuff, k*nks⛓️)

our online orders are due to arrive today! it’s all the stuff we’re gonna use for the scene on vday. we wanna open it all up and make sure it’s all there and correct. and...maybe test out some of the items lol. 

kinda bad timing bc I have a lot of drs/errands during the day and in the night the weather is due to drop again which means I’m likely gonna flare up. we’re preparing/planning for it though. he’s gonna take my flare up essentials to his place and get some easy to handle foods and have all the supplies needed for play and clean up. he wants to cook this dish for me but idk. i’ve not been into eating much, and not rlly wanting foods that require alot of chewing bc of how badly the head i gave him fucked w my TMJ. 

we’re hoping to at least get to try out some of the ties and ropes since he’s been practicing the knots i taught him. and we know for sure the toys we got for him will get tested out. YES! he’s already prepping like oh fuuck i love him. for me, there’s a few things i won’t be able to handle until my hip is feeling better. which if i flare up tonight, i’m sure the last thing i’ll want is to use the more intense toys. i wont be able to handle getting gagged or spanked. but he says he’s down for switching or subbing so we might try them on him. and we’ll still be able to do non-penetrative sex and intimacy sharing. 

he won’t tell me which items he picked off my special wishlist, as he wants that to be part of my vday surprise. im so excited i cannot stop giggling every time i think abt it. and like we’ve been working each other up verbally. oof. i think my favorite pastime has to be leaving him speechless bc he talks more than i do (which is a lot lol) so seeing him reduced to stuttering is just *chef’s kiss* 

and then he just comes right back w something he says that’ll get me so geared up and then i’ll be a blushing mess too lol. it’s just. wow. u guys don’t understand. before him, i had the most awful track record. the sexual partners i had, the relationships, everything was totally unhealthy and awful. and w him ive found my true love. which i didnt think was a real thing before. it’s astounding how perfectly he matches my energy and how rare it is to find someone who gets u and shares the same kinks and has no argument against yr hard limits. someone who will do the most filthy fucking degrading shit to u, but still hold u in high regard and respect u and be willing to put in the work. 

the scene is growing into including more things from our list of special kinks. i finally admitted to myself and to him that this is still sometimes hard for me. i still struggle w fearing he’ll realize im trash and wanna walk away. that’s prob bc i never got therapy for what i went thru during my years as a sex worker. my past traumas keep trying to rear their ugly heads and it’s hard to fight those repressed emotions and intrusive thoughts/images.

i just have to keep reminding myself how far i’ve come. i wasn’t even able to fuck w the clothes off when we first started out. i was a complete mess from my traumas. experiencing repression on top of repulsion. i wasn’t able to do anything sexual without an extremely difficult crash afterwards. things are so different now. i’m vocal abt everything i need/want/expect and not afraid to say no to things and not afraid to ask for things. i’ve never felt more safe, heard, understood, loved, or cared for by another person in all my life. im able to be my authentic self bc i trust him. bc he earned that trust and works every day to ensure i feel nothing but love from him. even when he’s in the dominant role. even when he isn’t able to speak. i just feel so fucking loved ik this is like so corny but eh whatever im a corny person! i love my man!

[the-art-of-suffering]

knsfvknsfvknv

Hey u know these guys now. so smut from Ravel’s POV if U WANNA READ IT

Life had never been so simple.

When you realize that, essentially, the choices you make do not matter it becomes so much easier to live your life as freely as you choose.  When Facade drew me in and welcomed me into the folds of his plan he introduced me to myself. I realized that it was a waste to try and change what I am, because in the end it would not change who I am. It would not get rid of the urges to be depraved, or the dark day dreams. Those are not a matter of my breeding, but a part of me that I will never be completely free from.

I think that is why Vyse was such a beautiful distraction.

He was a snake. An absolute writhing mass of dark intent. He was my master after all. Oh, and how he adored my kind. The way we were so loyal, so distinctly his, and knew so well how to please him.  I’m sure that many of my brothers and sisters would have done anything to be in my place, and after all there were so many of them so much more deserving.  I had spent my entire life running from his influence, but in the end, upon meeting him, it became such a fool’s errand.

Vyse was so talented at coercion.  He could make you want to do anything. I imagine it’s only fitting, what sort of Wyrm would he be if he couldn’t tug at every string inside you?

He made me want to lick my own blood off of his boots, which I assure you happened more than once.  He would slide up behind me, so quiet as he wrapped his hands around my neck.  I never thought I would find anyone who could sate so many darknesses in me at once. My world would become filled with pains and pleasures I never thought I could taste, never...thought anyone would share with me. But that was the beautiful thing about Vyse; he could give you everything you wanted that you wouldn’t dare tell another soul. Somehow he knew how to pull out those filthy perverse needs and cater to them like a gluttonous god.  He would pin me down and fuck me silly, choke me, cut me, pass me around to countless associates of his, and in my blind world I was helpless to protest.  He would fuck Duraki while Duraki strangled my life out of me, bringing me so close, so very close to that abyss.  Sometimes I would see the stars at the edges of the darkness as I fell into unconsciousness, unsure if I would ever wake again, and those were the most wonderful of times; the euphoria drowning me as I would fall under.  

But Vyse is not the most secret of addictions of mine.  Oh, he was beautifully wicked and woke things in me that will never slumber again, but he was not the object of my deepest desire.

No, that was the man who spoke to deeper parts of me, to the monster inside of me that thinks too much and speaks too little.

Xero; he was the one that owned me, that controlled my every decision, whether he knew it or not. He was brilliantly concise and treated me like a child, but a child with potential. I wanted to be anything he asked of me. He was my king, my god, my master. He was my everything, unlike anything I ever knew.

He gave me drive. he gave me sight.  And When I saw him, oh when I saw him. He was the first thing I had seen since my dance down the spiral and he was perfect. Cold, calculated, conspiring.

I loved him, but in a way that an addict loves his drug. I couldn’t get enough of him, of his mind, his voice, and on the rare occasion that I could see it, his face.  Those silver eyes were all I could think of after that. It didnt matter who was ontop of me, whose hands were around my neck, It was his name I would whisper to myself as I touched myself, as I came, as I heaved hot air into the night. Always, it was him.

He was my everything. I wanted him in dark ways, innocent ways, beautiful and filthy ways.

There was nothing else in the world I yearned for more than an approving word from him, a glance that meets my gaze, heaven forbid he pay me any attention. It was such a terrible pleasure, the desperation I felt when ever he would speak to me. Ask anything of me. I would beg silently. Ask me to touch you, to brush your hair out of your face, ask me to kill for you, anything just ask it of me.

Never, though, did I imagine ever having him ask of me what he did.

It was a long winter, a cold one, and lonely. A white out confined us, radio silence left us isolated.  I was the only living thing left in the base with Xero and he called on me for every errand. It was bliss. But I began to notice a small change in him. His aloof demeanor would grow short and his words would be unplanned, course.

Thats when I learned his secret; his addiction. After so long without contact from the outside world it was impossible for him to find the silver he needed. and oh, how he needed it.

For a moment or two, when I knew what I could offer him I felt a strange rush, as if for once, I would be able to catch his attention and it was no small thrill for me to imagine what I could ask of him in return.

We Dancers, We have our own addiction to silver you see; Nothing scars like Silver, and Spirals relish carving our own flesh, painting our bodies with marred markings and maps of the madness we can remember from our nightmares. We are never without a silver blade, and we are keep it in flakes and powders to pack our bodies and blood with when we earn new scars.  I eagerly gave him everything I had. When I had given it to him all I could dare to ask in return was that he let me watch him use it. I wanted to watch his body shutter as it was given what it needed, what it desperately craved.  He was hesitant, but he agreed all the same.  We tore the base apart, looking for a way to heat the silver, liquefy it, and deliver it into his body. Neither of us were surprised to find much of the equipment required in Vyse’s room.

I sat on the mess of Vyse’s bed and watched as Xero stretched himself out in the armchair in the corner, his lengthly legs propped outward, his hips cocked forward as he reclined, measuring his dosage. He set the syringe aside and began to unbutton his shirt, pulling it off and folding it neatly on the desk. I could see the track marks, the burns where the silver tore its way through his veins. I could see every scar and they all intrigued and excited me.

“I want to know how it feels. I want...I want to try it, Xero.”

He looked up at me from binding his arm, a strange curiosity in his eyes as his gaze wandered over me. He stopped what he was doing, set down the rubber hose and crossed his legs, tilting his head at me in silence for a few agonizing moments.

“Find another clean needle, bring it to me.” A pang of guilty excitement shoots through me as I rush to stand, fumbling over the bed, searching through Vyse’s stash. I hear Xero moving about behind me and my senses are electric, tuned into his ever motion.

I give him what he needs and I wait, sitting between his legs. He is quiet as he works, his face empty and distant and I squirm below him as my eagerness grows un-containable.

He stands, finished and walks over me to the bed, sitting with his legs apart and his back resting against the headboard. He has both syringes and calls me over. In nervous anticipation I sit near-but-not-too-near him, watching every minute movement from the way his neck tightens when he breathes to the shift of his hips on the mattress.

His fingers press against his lips as he seems to look me over in a way he never has before. His slate grey eyes wandering over my form from behind the messy strands of rusty hair and its predatory and dark.

He bites his bottom lip and shifts as he clears his throat and speaks, his eyes piercing into me.

“Come sit here. Against me.” His legs spread out a bit more, and all I can watch is the taught muscles in his stomache as he moves. I hesitate only because my mind hardly registers the reality of his request, but I do not keep him waiting long. Slowly I climb into the bed I have spent many nights in and rest on my hands and knees between his legs, the world around me feels surreal. I turn about and sit with my hips against his thighs and he slowly, methodically wraps his arms around me, leaning me against his chest as he reaches my arm and begins to tap at the crook of my elbow, waiting for my veins to stir. His breathing is slow and steady and warm in the crook of my neck and I wonder if he can feel me trembling. Syringe in hand he seems to inhale sharply as he places it against my skin.

“ Are you sure?” His voice comes from so close behind me and it feels intimate, unlike anything I’ve ever felt and my voice catches in my throat, all I can do is nod. His hands do their diligent work, holding my wrist with unexpected force, and then the needle penetrates into me and the pain is exquisite even from the first moment. He depresses the liquid into me and it sends fire through my blood, pain like I’ve never felt, pulling a moan from me and setting my body to writhe against him. It’s too hot. Its unbearable and I love it, but I cannot overcome the instinct  to  recoil from it. Still he holds me solidly by the wrist despite my other hand fumbling at his fingers to release me. I whine again and I hear him shush me softly. The burning begins to subside but the fire still runs through my blood, burning me down from the inside. As I calm, he releases me and I leans heavily against him, panting, my head spinning as a dizziness takes me. I watch from very far away as he, with his arms still around me, finds his own vein and squeezes the fire into himself. I barely feel him react, and only a soft groan slips out of him as he pulls the needle out and sets it on the nightstand next to mine.  Between us there is only the sounds of my ragged breath as I press against him and somehow he allows it, this intimate moment, this lack of distance between our bodies.

We lay like tragic statues in the spinning room, my head swimming in the brightness, the stars at the edges of my vision sparkling like galaxies. The room grows warmer as if the fire inside us was spreading, catching on the sheets and shadows. It grows so hard to breathe and I have to sit up, desperate to strip my shirt. Every synapse is alight with the stimuli, every sense is intensified. It feels like I can feel every centimeter of my skin reacting to every atom in the air pressing against me. I’m panting, whining as I crumple forward on the bed, my legs getting tangled up in his as everything spins and shakes and I feel so hot. A glance backwards and I see him leaned back, almost smiling.  Light seems to come off of him as I stare and he’s all I can see, all I can feel, he’s the only thing in the room with me and I want to catch myself up in him.

Floundering on the bed, I sit up and lean inwards to him, its so warm in this room. I try to speak and words come out but I do not understand what I say. I’m not sure if Xero does either but he laughs and the sound of his voice makes me giddy. I think I ask him to say more things. He squirms a bit and bites his lip again and I want him more than ever.

I slide myself against him and press my lips to his, hard.  It’s too warm, I begin to unbutton my pants. At first it feels like he wants to pull away, but he never quite makes it, his hands begin to help me with my pants, because I cannot seem to figure them out on my own.

I’m cursing and salivating, drooling over the mattress as the combined efforts wriggle the lip of my pants down my hips. As soon as I feel my half hard dick bobbing free of the clothing I bring my hands  down, slowly beginning to fondle it. I need it so bad, I need to feel everything, and everything feels SO much. Suddenly I’m on my back, unsure of how I even managed to get there until I look up and I see his form looming over me.

I feel my heart stop as my eyes canvas over him, his taught shoulders heaving as he delicately works the buckle of his belt aside.

He arches downward bringing his lips to mine and the feeling is like electricity, I moan into his mouth and I feel him laugh into me.

“ I didn’t know you were so thin, Ravel.” He suckles at my neck and I run my fingers through his hair, breathing in the scent of him, like fresh rain and metal. I grind my hips upwards and I feel my cock barely rubbing against the bulge in his pants.  

His hands run down my ribs, and press down on my hips, grounding me. He lets his finger fondle the curves of my scars while he breathes his smoke and smolder into my ear, suckling at the base of it, making soft grunts and sighs that send my cock dribbling.

“I think I gave you too much. Just look at you; its like you’re in heat.” One of his hands grabs around my dick and squeezes softly. I let my hands wander down his back, feeling every muscle, tensed over me. I dig my nails into his hips, turning my head into his moans and biting at his lips, pulling them into a new wave of kisses. He maneuvers himself over me, while slowly, agonizingly massaging my begging dick and pulls out his own cock, fondling it lightly.

For a few moment we lay like this, both just watching as he softly strokes the both of us off. I feel like I could come any moment, but I want so much more from him. I want so much more OF him.

“Fuck me.” I gasp out, swallowing back the dry panting. He seems caught off guard, as if he hadn’t really put much thought into where these action would lead us. He stares down at me, and I feel so small.

“ Is that what you really want?” His tone is so commanding, so powerful and dark.

“I just want you. All of you. I need you.” I try to lean up to plant kisses along his neck but his hand on my throat shoves me back into the mattress. The stare that he lets glide down my body feels lethal and I choke on my breath.

“You don’t know what you need. You don’t know anything.”

Suddenly his hands are all over me all at once, and he flips me over, pulling my hips back until they slam into his and I feel his dick press against my ass, pulsing and thick.

He hunches over me, grinding against me, almost to the point of painfully as he bites at my ear and pulls back on it, shifting the angle of my head as I whine out. I hear him grabbing at things on the night stand and suddenly a cold wetness enters me. He moves a finger about inside of me, then presses in another. I’m eager and ready for him within minutes of his teasing.  I beg him to fuck me again, I cry it out over my shoulder, trembling, wanting so much to know what his dick will feel like inside of me. But he hesitates. And I whine again and I try to shift to look back at him, but when he meets my gaze his expression turns cold again and he sneers a bit as he focuses his attention down at my quivering hips. He lines himself up and hisses as he presses harder and harder against me until the thick head of his cock breaches me and the rest of him eagerly follows.

He starts out slow, steady, but by no means gentle, not that I was complaining. His thrusts are long and deep and every time he makes sure to grind his hips into me as if to assure me that I was going to take every inch of him whether I wanted to or not. It’s almost agonizing at first, the slowness, but the more he keeps his rhythm the more my body presses into it and the more I feel these strange guttural quivers of delight.

After what felt like hours of him grinding in and out of me, pulling whimpers from me every time his let the flair of his head tug against my entrance, the pressure building in my cock was outstanding, it was streaming pre and I hadn’t even begun to play with it.

I shift to get my hands under me but Xero protests, his hands grappling up my wrists and pinning them to my back. He leans back, his long fuck of me beginning to pick up speed and fervor. The way he moves his hips is calculated and measured, its not the sloppy humping I get from Vyse and his lackeys. Its perfect. He begins sliding in and out, faster, leaning further back, his cock grinding upward inside of me. Suddenly I’m aware of a pleasure that’s almost unbearable as he grinds inside of me, I feel like with every thrust, I’m seconds away from coming. Over and Over the feeling of Almost there slams into me and it’s a delicious agony. I’ve been moaning and repeating his name so long that the word itself has lost its meaning. Now its just the only thing my mind can think of to express the sickening pleasure. I want to cum, I need it I need it I need it and it’s not happening, I struggle against his hand pinning my arms I want so desperately to grind my cock into my hands I need to fucking come so bad it’s almost unbearable. I feel tears welling in my eyes and streaming down into the sweaty sheets and I sob out his name, begging him, Please.. Please just….anything. The thrusts begin to come faster now, hitting that spot inside of me that makes me want to scream and I begin trembling below him violently.

I hear him beginning to grunt as the thrusts become rougher, and a bit of the measured tempo is lost, He starts to mutter under his breath, I can’t make it out but I don’t really care, I want it harder, deeper I want it so bad, I’m sobbing below him as the pressure becomes too much, the line between pleasure and pain blurring as my cock spittles glob after glob. It feels like an orgasm but it just keeps going. Then I feel it, The swelling of his cock inside me. It crushes that little button inside of me and I lose control. I groan out as my orgasm wrecks me, soaking the sheets below me. I Gasp for air as it keeps coming, over and over and over, and then I feel him start to cum inside of me. My cock still writhes, the orgasm still rushes through me but I simply can’t cum anymore. I hear his moan, feel his nails grip into my hip as he comes and the trembling of his body makes me want to scream. Finally he lets go of my bruised arms and pulls out of me and lets my weary body sag into the sheets. I watch him over my shoulder, weary, still just a touch dizzy from the ordeal. He uses a corner of the bedspread to wipe the cum off of himself. He’s panting and staring down at me, something wild in his expression, something dark and content and distant.

I hear him grunt a bit as he massages his still swollen cock, aiming it down towards my back and starts pissing on me, letting it splash down my back. It’s a short piss, just enough to trickle down into the bedding around me. He stands , walks around the bed and leans down, kissing into my neck.

“ Next time we should do it in my bedroom instead.” He straightens out, standing over me while I roll onto my back staring upwards at him, lost in the afterglow of whatever just happened. His gaze drifts over me and the way he looks at me makes me shiver, then without another word he turns and leaves the room, leaving me trembling and weak, the world around me closing in and burning up. He leaves me to drift off to sleep, praying to wake up with a clearer mind.

We get high and we fuck. That’s how it goes; the way Xero and I function as a couple. I get the itch, I go to him, and it happens. Since the very first time, over a year ago now, I haven’t fucked anyone else. Vyse was surprisingly quick to stop pursuing me, though I’m not sure what convinced him I wasn’t his anymore. It started out, once a month I’d come crawling to him, wanting to do it again, the silver. And he’d dose me up, then himself, and in those blurry moments, those burning nights, I’d beg him to fuck me, any way I could manage; sometimes more than once if I could convince him. When it was just us together, he was like someone completely new. That cold, calculated, aloof demeanor melted away and he was brutal; dark and unpredictable. But at the same time, he was a lot warmer. We started actually talking. Sometimes before shooting up, but mostly after. And soon enough, I started coming to him more and more. Once a month became once a week, and every time I came to him he’d lock us together in his bedroom and we’d play at one thing or another. It didn’t take him long to realize that it wasn’t the drug I was addicted to, not really. I was desperate for his touch, and… eventually we didn’t have to be high for him to fuck me silly. It was still a lot more fun when we were though. Xero, much like Vyse, enjoyed the perks of my masochism, but he took it to an entirely different level. More than anything Xero could be described as being… precise. He knew the limitations of our bodies and could measure precisely just how far he could push either of us.

“I want to cut you open.” We sit, leant upon each other in the silence of his room when his voice spooks me out of my daze, and once I realize what he says I laugh and slide down his side until I have my head rested in his lap. “Ok. Yeah sure. I’d like that.” I can’t help but stare up at him and think about much I love watching his mouth move when he talks. I reach up and press my fingers to his lips, feeling how soft they are. It always surprises you, you know? Someone like him, he looks so hard, so firm, but suddenly you get close enough to touch them and they give way under your fingers, just a little and its.. its amazing. He smirks under my fingers and opens his mouth letting one of my fingers slip in. He softly bites it before pulling his mouth away and smiling down at me as I let my arm go lip and fall. “no, I don’t mean that sloppy, surface bullshit that Vyse would do to you. I mean… I want to surgically pull your layers open and feel around inside of you, in your chest cavity.” I feel my cock twitch into attentiveness and I can only agree. I’ve never heard him talk like this and to be honest it turns me on more than I can possibly describe. I sit up and scoot in close, I lean in and let my mouth hover over his for a moment before pressing my mouth against the base of his ear. I leave a small kiss before whispering. “Only if you fuck me while you do it.” I feel a shudder run through him. He bites at my neck, nips the skin and I yelp, squirming myself into his lap as I pull back, looking down at him. He’s so perfect. He bites his lip as he looks up at me and makes that face; the one that he always makes when he’s thinking about grinding himself inside of me. “It’s a date then. But for now…” He reaches up, pushes me out of his lap, gently enough, and starts to unzip his pants. It doesn’t take me long to realize what’s on his mind and I can’t stop my tail from wagging as I maneuver to my hands and knees, waiting for him to pull his dick out. He watches my excitement and laughs at my eagerness. He can laugh all he wants but he can’t deny wanting the same thing I want. He unearths the half-soft cock and strokes it slowly, his free hand taking my chin and slowly guiding me down. “If you do a good job, I’ll let you sleep in bed with me tonight.” It’s no small secret that I’ve got it bad for him. He’s always made it so clear though that…the things we do, they don’t really mean anything. But then he goes and pulls things like that; little promises, or little touches just to string me along. Then again, who am I to complain? I sometimes think that his fucking with my emotions is a kink of mine too. With all the intent of winning that night in bed, I lean down, brushing his hand out of my way, taking the soft cock in my mouth and engulfing the entirety of it, suckling slowly, feeling it engorge and pulse slowly against the back of my throat. I let out a long, slow breath from my nose and my throat tenses as it tries to swallow despite the girth inside of it. One more deep breath and I start to pull my head back, agonizingly slow, until all that’s left in the warmth is the head of his cock. I tug on it just a touch and he hisses at me. He acts like he hates the teasing but he always comes so much harder when I string him along, and like I said; I aimed to win that night in bed with him. I hang my mouth open, letting his cock bounce heavily against my tongue as the cool air rushes in. With my hands delicately wrapped around the base I hold it at attention, marveling at the lengthy thing. It’s not completely hard yet, full enough to stand, but soft enough to sag a bit. It’s my favourite; when its like this. I press it against my cheek and feel it squirm, leaving little specks of sticky wetness. I nuzzle it into my cheek and turn my lips in to it,  leaving heavy, sloppy kisses along the shaft, at the messy tuft of pubes, and at the very tip.  I worship the damn thing, and all the while I hear him hissing and spitting profanities, his hips jerking below me. Nothing gets me harder than listening to his sex noises. As I finally give in and slide my mouth over the head again, I reach down and start to adjust myself, fondling at the already leaking member, adjusting it as I begin to slide myself up and down the length that throbs against the roof of my mouth. I feel him running his fingers through my hair, playing with a few strands as I suck him off. But after so long I can feel him getting impatient, I feel his hips beginning to buck in protest of my slow, offbeat tempo. He grabs one of my horns and starts directing me, to and fro; forcing me to move faster. I press my tongue against the shaft and let it grind; his hips begin bucking harder into my mouth and I start to lose control of the situation. And as much as I love a good face fucking, I want more out of this than just a couple more minutes of grunts and groans. I let it go just a bit longer, letting him hump into me, groaning, until suddenly I press my hands down on his hips, pinning them as I pull my head back, gasping in a lung full of air. As I look up, panting I meet his gaze and he’s gritting his teeth. His hand entangles itself into my hair, pulling to the side until he pulls me completely off of him, grinding the side of my face into the carpet. A gurgling laugh bubbles up in my throat and it seems to make him livid. He yanks me up by my hair and pulls me, half crawling up to his chest, where he stares down at me with a sneer. “You’re a little prick and I hate it when you do that.” “No you don’t” the words are more laughter than anything as I grin up at him. Any moment now and He’ll push me back down into his dick and I’ll make him scream my name. But that’s not what happens at all. Instead he pushes me up and stands, his mouth darting in to my neck, his teeth sinking in, drawing a cut-off yelp out of me. His teeth sink in and bruise the flesh and I feel my blood sliding down my chest in tiny trickles. He grinds his body against mine for a few exquisite moments while his hands trace secret pathways down my sides. He lets off, his mouth feral and dripping as it pants, his eyes looking over me like the wolf he is, stalking me, running me down. He shoves me backwards onto the bed and I fumble for purchase in the silken sheets, squirming until suddenly he is on top of me. He pins me down his mouth hovering over me so close I can almost feel his teeth cutting through the air above my skin. No matter how much he denies it, there is an animal inside of him and every so often, he slips and it gets lose.

His hand clenches around my arm and he flips me over onto my back, not hesitating a moment before lunging back down on my throat, so hard it chokes me and I fumble for air. I feel his jaw tremble, slowly pressing downward on my air supply. Then just as suddenly as he lunged downward, he retracts. He seems antsy, almost nervous, but I can barely notice. Everything spins.  When things finally clear I look over and see Xero digging into his desk drawer. He seems to find what he is looking for and turns towards the bed, approaching with sinister intent. I finally catch a glance at what it is he holds; a folding knife. His thumb rubs against its case almost too eagerly and I am suddenly aware that I am ever so slightly afraid of him and the dark way he stalks towards me, splayed out on the bedding. He stands at the foot of the bed and grabs my ankle, yanking me down the satin until my hips meet his at the foot of the bed. He flicks open the knife and watches me realize what it is. Its a gut hook knife; the delicate little swoop right behind the head gleaming as it trembles in his clenched hand. He takes the hook and slides its softly down my belly, barely touching my skin. The hook catches on the button of my pants only for a moment before it is popped clean off. He takes his free hand and starts to tug at the pants, I help him wriggle me out of them as fast as I can. He never lets the flat of the knife leave my stomach as I am undressed; the cold flat metal  pressing into me as a constant reminder.

" As long as I fuck you while I do it...that's what you wanted me to promise you, wasn't it?"

My entire body tenses and all I can do is stare down my chest at him. He couldn’t really be serious …could he?

Oh, but he was. Like an artist he let the smooth edge of the blade curve down my torso, a superficial cut. But it still stings and leaves a curled line of red bubbling up like fire down my body. I whine out his name and my body jolts with the sudden feeling, the sudden pain, but he holds down my thigh and watches me flinch. It’s some sort of deep curiosity in his eyes, and his mouth too; curling it into a taught, toothy expression somewhere between a smirk and a grimace. There is silence; stillness. I say his name again and it shakes him out of his thought. His eyes glance upward to meet my gaze just for a moment before dropping again to my body. Setting the knife down next to me, he runs his fingers down the fresh cut, pressing in on them, forcing little dewdrops of red to push up and begin dribbling down my side. His fingers find their way further down until they fumble upon my dick, dribbling as well; thick little gobs of precum as a testament to my excitement. He squeezes around the base and strokes it loosely a few time, watching me all the while; the heaving of my chest the desperate redness of my face. He watches my expression turn from needy and whining to utter surprise as I feel him pulling at my ass cheek, opening me up as he pressed the head of his dick against me. “Don’t forget, you asked for this, Ravel.” And he forces in the head. A few more inches, he pushes deeper into me; slowly, uncomfortably. But then a pause as he leans over me and picks up the knife, marveling at it. “ Are you…ready for this?” His voice seems a mix of excitement and apprehension. My mouth opens and I try to reassure him that I am, more than anything, ready but nothing comes out but a low whine and I resort to frantically nodding my head, squeezing my eyes closed. I feel the hook dig itself into my stomach, a bit above the bellybutton and I gag on a scream as it slices its way down me. I feel a nausea roiling inside of me as my insides suddenly feel cold air hitting against their wet, steaming surfaces The corners of my eyes start to sparkle with starlight. It feels so good, so bad, so much. I can’t control the near convulsion like tremors of my body as I listen to Xero coo and moan while my blood soaks his sheets.   He grabs my cock and starts to massage it a little and I moan out, near screaming. He laughs and I love the sound of it. Things are so dizzy, the pain taking the forefront of my cognition. But every time I hear his sounds it grounds me just a touch more with what he’s doing to me.  Then he starts to press harder and harder into me until finally he hilts himself and his dick presses against all my shivering walls.  I cannot see what he is doing but there is stillness again for a few moments. I close my eyes and imagine what must be going through his head right now. He could kill me. If he wanted to, or if he felt like it. It scares me more than I like to admit. I can heal from a lot but I can still die from blood-loss… it just takes an agonizingly long time; especially with a gash across the belly. But he could rip me apart, he could pull out my guts, he could destroy me. How far would I let him get? My thoughts are ripped away from me as he starts to fuck me. I look down and through the haze and stars I see him… and he is staring at me. I make eye contact with him, just for a moment before he closes his eyes and starts to thrust harder into me, starting to grunt and groan. He has one hand on my thigh, pulling it to his chest for leverage, the other rests over the gash in my abdomen, coated in my blood, pressing down just a touch into the wound. As he grows more unmetered in his thrusts, and his sounds get louder, he starts sinking that hand in, deeper. The skin folds around his and as he slips inside and the nausea returns as I feel him groping around inside of me. I have to close my eyes again. The motion of him fucking me becomes too much. He starts to pull things out of me, intestines I think, dropping them on my chest, leaving them to warm me in a sickeningly delicious way. A hollowness is felt as he pulls his hand out of me and for a moment I miss it until the hand is put to good use at my dick. Its strange at how inviting the pain is against the pleasure. I come faster than I have ever; the combination of his cock inside me, the air on my viscera, the thickness of my blood on his hand, stroking my dick. He keeps stroking me and it drives me crazy, too much tension, too much friction and at first it makes me want to scream, which I do, but as he keeps fucking me, the pleasure returns. Like a second wind I feel my cock start throbbing, sore but needy for more. I look down again, and there are his eyes staring into me. This time, though he looks hungry and when he meets my gaze it turns dark and delicious. “Put your hands inside, do it.” At first I don’t know what he means but it dawns on me. I am hesitant, but I obey. I slide a hand down my chest and feel the cut dip in. “Do it!” He raises his voice and it scares me as much as it turns me on. So I do it. I force my hand into my abdomen and it’s so warm, and everything is moving and quivering and I can slide my fingers along shapes and textures and I sort of, drift away into nothing but the feeling of my insides, swirling about as a background symphony for the best fucking I’ve ever had.  The pressure builds to a magnificent crescendo; I hear his yell and his cock tightens as it pushes out his hot cum in bursts, sending a tremble all the way through me. I clench my hand around something inside of me, my body turning ridged as I feel myself pushed over the precipice of a second orgasm and I barely have anything left in me to give but I splatter it against his chest and my own thigh and the orgasm lasts what feels like forever. Though it’s hard to really tell an amount of time when everything starts to swim and become dim and distant. I feel a stillness as he pulls himself out of me, and a coldness starts to settle in on the various fluids, but it all seems a bit far away as I become so tired. I drift to sleep, or something sleep like, anyway. Much to my surprise, I do indeed wake up.

I slip into consciousness almost as lazily as I drifted out of it. It’s warmly lit, and the room is familiar. This is my bed. I try to sit up but I can barely move. My hands feel down my chest to my stomach. Gauze, bandages…and my fingers catch at something deeper. After a few moments I realize; Stitches. Then I am startled by movement behind me and I jolt quite painfully up. And there he is. Sound asleep next to me. In my pathetic little bed. My heart pounds as I watch him. He groans and starts to feel around on the bed where I was until his eyes drift open. He stares up at me. “Lay down, let the stitches settle.” And his eyes close again. I lay down next to him and he gently pulls me closer. He runs a hand down and inspects the bandage. Satisfied, he gives a soft ‘hmm’ and lays his arm across my chest. As much as I would love to take it in and marvel at him in the moment the dizziness returns and I feel the weakness dragging me back down into the darkness of dreams.  I drift away with his smell and his warmth enveloping me and it is a comfort I have never known before. Whatever dreams would come to me would pale next to this moment.