#the colors look so nice and the whole scene seems so cosy

[marimayscarlett]

By all means *eyes emoji*

Hi 👋

I took this ask as an invitation to figuratively dive into Richard's coat closet, and tried to compile every coat he wore in the last 30 years.

And oh boy, this man surely loves a good coat. He's the one member of this band who consecutively wore a coat on almost every tour and really takes a liking in the dramaturgical effect of wearing long (often times dark in color) coats and later reveiling additional outfits underneath, especially in later years. It fits his somewhat dramatic stage presence and he started quite early with these kind of stage outfits!

I subdevided this overview in two sub-topics to give this post somewhat of a structure, because this will be long.

1.) Richard's coats on stage (organized by year and tour)

1.1) Firstly, the plain black coat from the Herzeleid tour which he wore in 1995/1996. It's from what I could find the first time he wore a coat on stage while playing for Rammstein.

1.2) Addtionally, he wore the shiny red and silver coat during the Herzeleid tour as well as partly on the Sehnsucht tour in 1997. Same as the black coat before, he forwent any additional outfit underneath.

1.3) Also on the Sehnsucht tour, Richard wore the somewhat futuristic (reminded me a little bit of Star Treck costumes) black and silver coat which is clearly visible in Live aus Berlin. It suited the whole style of this era quite nicely and fit into the vibe of Till's cyborg/futuristic jacket as well.

1.4) For his outfit during the Reise Reise tour in 2004/2005, Richard settled for a black military-style coat. The button rows seem to be reminiscent of french military uniforms from the 17th and 18th century (as well as the button lines and the embroidery on the collar of the underjacket) and his pants were designed in a similar style. The lining of the coat is bright red, a theme which would occur numerous times over the years.

1.5) During the LIFAD tour, Richard wore a grey-mottled coat made out of a somewhat leathery material, adorned with silver buttons and a red armband - again he incorporated a red element in this coat, just like with the one before. On a sidenote: He once mentioned that Michael Jackson was an inspiration for this armband because Richard liked the cool look of it - his leg-belts (visible in the right picture) also kind of resemble the harness Michael wore on stage and in some videos during his Bad era.

1.6) An absolute personal favourite of mine: The studded coat Richard chose for the 2013 part of the Made in Germany tour, oftentimes paired with the torn black and red top underneath. This one also got red lining, as well as a fine red line near the cuffs of the coat.

1.7) In 2016 for the Festival tour, Richard wore coat in a more cosy and snuggly style, which marked a break in the clean cut coat-aesthetic up to this point. It was more in the style of a cardigan with a zipper instead of buttons. The armband made a reappearance as the signature red element (mirrored by a red band on his pants), and red lines along the seams added this colourful accent.

1.8) For the 2019 tour leg of the Stadium tour, Richard mixed things up by wearing a two piece combo made out of a leathery material, with a studded cap on the right shoulder and red elements in form of the usual arm band and a red folding in the front. The lower part of this outfit was removable, so the upper part remained as a jacket.

1.9) In 2022, he wore an all black coat with a belt and flaps along the shoulders, as well as snap fasteners as buttons; it overall resembled the typical look of a trenchcoat and seemed less rigid then the previous ensemble.

1.10) A true fandom favourite appeared on the scene in 2022 when he presented the infamous chicken coat. This one was already known from the "Freeze my mind" music video (from 2021) from Richard's side project and other band Emigrate. Different than in the music video, where a vest completed the look, Richard again after years went on stage without any outfit under it. This coat was used by him also during this year's tour leg.

1.11) Another personal favourite of mine is the black coat with red lining which he wore during this year's tour. Affectionatly dubbed "the vampire coat", this coat appears to be quite clean cut and simple, but has a very nice and dramatic effect on him (choosing gifs this time to underline this sentiment).

2.) Richard's coats off stage

Here are some of the coats Richard wore off stage during band fotoshoots and outings. Not counting normal jackets or parcas here.

2.1) The fur-lined coat during the Rosenrot fotoshooting:

2.2) The reoccuring black coat with fluffy fur elements, worn by him while being presented with awards in 2005 in Berlin as well as during the Echo award show in 2009:

2.3) He wore another black coat which looked pretty similar to the one before but is still slightly different during a signing in Paris 2004:

2.4) And a brown/beige kind of trenchcoat was his style of choice for the Fashion rock night in 2009:

2.5) During the outdoor shooting for the LIFAD album, Richard wore another black coat:

2.6) And lastly, the fancy embroidered coat Richard chose for promotion pictures for (I think) his first album with his band Emigrate:

Not sure if I was thouroughly enough and found every coat he ever wore, but I think the presented ones here really express his love for this piece of clothing in general 😊 I'm looking forward to either seeing a new coat on Richard next year or a return of his vampire coat 🦇 (Still hoping to see the studded coat someday again).

(Used picture sources: Rammwiki and the Rammsteinworld gallery - wonderful rabbit holes to get lost in.)

[aesthyuckic]

AVENOIR | l.dh - VIGINTI TRES

(gif not mine - credit to rightful owner)

Genre: High School AU (at beginning) ; Tarot Reader!Witch!Hyuck

Word Count: 3.7K

Warnings: (bold if in use) slow but with a purpose, belief contradictions, mentions of r*pe, blood, swearing, violence(??), mentions of abuse

Pairings: Lee Donghyuck (Haechan) x Reader (F)

KNIGHT OF WANDS: action, adventure, fearlessness

The birds could be heard chirping clearly that morning. The sunlight that came through the white curtains was warm and refreshing as it had kissed Donghyuck’s skin. Something about just made the half awake boy even cozier in the sheets of the bed as he wrapped the blanket around him more as he snuggled his face into the soft pillow.

Usually the autumn mornings were gray and colder but this one was almost perfect as is. The boy realized shortly after he wasn’t going back to sleep. His slowly opened blurry and out of focus as he saw the familiar window on his half of the room. Though, maybe it wasn’t ‘his half’ anymore as much as it was now a shared space since him and Cosimia were officially together. He remembered that every morning and it still made him smile to himself in his groggy state.

With that he sat up in the bed and stretched. He rubbed his eyes while yawning a bit before he even noticed Cosimia was sitting on the other side of the bed looking outside the other window. Her mother sat beside her, staring at her daughter. What an odd thing that she wasn’t annoying the boy for once. The quietness almost made him uncomfortable, yet it was still nice.

He turned his attention back to the girl and found it a heavenly sight to see the way the morning sunlight cascaded over her. Her hair had reverted to a natural brown that seemed to go red in the sun while her eyes turned a beautiful gold color under the light as well. She glowed like an angel... The scene had caused him to smile lazily at him in his half awake state, still feeling the familiar fluttering of his heart when it came to her.

He only then noticed the books that laid all around her on the bed, one she even held in her lap as she just seemed lost in her stare outside the window. They were his old ones about witchcraft. She had been reading them lately and he stopped practicing since he had gotten out of the hospital. He knew she didn’t want to be like her mother in the regard she didn’t want to be a witch, she said it many times. Yet, she read the books and he knew it was because since her abilities were given to him, she no longer felt anything was special about her. Just something that was a big part of her identity was ripped away and she felt hollow in places she kept trying to fill with other things and one of them was trying to take after what he use to do.

She never looked pleased reading them, always had a frown on her face and he always got why... He felt a pit of guilt within him at times like these even though he knew it was out of his control, then and now. But he remembered every time how she said she’d rather have him here above it all...

They were back in Southern California to rest for the season and only in spring would they start traveling again. Though, the good thing was it tended to be warmer there so they’d still be working regularly even if it wasn’t as busy as it would be. Luckily, they were given the day off to settle even though it had been a couple of weeks since they got back. It seemed peaceful that morning until the sound of fireworks started to go off occasionally.

She didn’t notice the boy until he gently wrapped his arms around her waist while he rested his cheek against her shoulder, comfortably half asleep. The familiar sound of young laughter could be hear outside along with the running footsteps and more fireworks.

“Did they wake you up?” She asked, referring to fireworks that were being set off by their friends.

He shrugged as he sighed dreamily, “Maybe.”

She hummed in response she continued on with the book in her lap. Her mom had said something to him about how upset she was that morning. He guessed it was one thing he was thankful for.

“Hey,” He said as he came to sit beside her on the bed before he took her hands in his which left that book forgotten for the moment. “Why don’t we go do something fun?”

She laughed, “Huh?”

“The others sound like they’re having fun...” Donghyuck pointed out. “Why don’t we join them? That’s sorta what the day off is for, right?”

It didn’t take much more persuading for her to surrender to him and get dressed. When they stepped outside, the sky was cloudy and yellow, similar to the color of dust. Hand in hand they followed the noise that filled the morning and the sky with brief moments of light. She seemed preoccupied in what was above her, the dusty yellow color reflecting within her own brown eyes, full of light themselves it seemed like glass. Though, Donghyuck was lost in that image alone, it left him with a smile and that familiar ping in chest he felt whenever she did something he adored.

They had made their way to the dry, desert clearing where all their closest friends’ trailers were. It seemed like everyone else was there by the amount of people they say running around with sparklers and setting off fireworks before running away. There was also quite a few kids with water guns and water balloons chasing each other around as it was a warm day despite it being November.

Jaemin, Jeno, and Xiaojun were sat under an umbrella on a blanket in front of their trailers that were now decorated with lights and other things you might’ve found at the party supply store. Kun was cooking on the barbecue with Jaehyun helping him. It looked nice and inviting in all honesty. Donghyuck had looked over at Cosimia and she seemed to look happier than before which made him feel better.

Meanwhile, Lucas and Hendery were having a water gun war with one another and some of the other younger ones. He was laughing and smiling as he sprayed the others around him. Though, it wasn’t long before he was surround by everyone against him and ended up drenched. His hair stuck to his forehead and his clothes to his body while he was out of breath from the combination of running and laughing. He could heard Hendery yelling out of victory with the others and celebrating with them.

He was catching his breath when he noticed something in the corner of his eye. He turned his head to see it was Donghyuck and Cosimia standing there, holding hands which wasn’t unusual to see. Though, it was when he saw the two give each other a quick kiss before she went off did his smile drop. It was only second though before a new one came about.

Donghyuck only noticed when his girlfriend left his side that Lucas was looking at him from far away. The older waved at him and he was hesitant to return it but he did in the end. The boy was quickly knocked out of the awkwardness when he felt something cold and wet on his clothes that startled him. And there she was with a water gun in her own hands just with a mischievous smile on her face.

“Oh, you’re gonna get it.” He muttered.

She started to run but he was quick to gently grab her waist and pull her back while she laughed loudly as he hugged her. She escaped rather quickly and he grabbed a water gun before he went chasing after her to get his pay back. Lucas has watched it and it made him chuckle to himself before he went to go hunt down Hendery.

The whole thing went on until dusk. Everyone started to retire to the fire in front of the trailers with towels in an effort to dry off and be warm. Some kids were still setting off fireworks, mostly with the help of the Jeno, Jaemin and Hendery at that point who were doing most of the work. Cosimia was off talking to some of the other girls since it was really the first time anyone was really aware of the relationship being official. Of course, people wanted to know more.

Her boyfriend was leaned up against one of the trailers alone, eating some of the steak Kun had cooked that tasted so good. He happily ate away while he had no knowledge of who was talking about him and even chuckling at how cute he was.

Lucas had come over to stand next to the other boy which he acknowledged right away, “I’m happy for you guys... You both seem to make each other really happy... Its nice to see, you know? I don’t think I’ve ever seen Cosimia smile the way she does now or be so comfortable with someone.”

“Oh...” He said, mostly because he was nervous on what he’d say about the matter after the brief talk they had in summer earlier that year. “Thank you...”

“Listen,” The taller boy said. “The guys put a little something together for you two behind of Hendery’s and Xiaojun’s trailer. It’s kinda a surprise sort of thing but you can look it before you bring her or don’t... You know, that’s up to you.”

He gave the other a thumbs up and a wink before he walked away. What he talked about in all honesty left the boy incredibly curious but also very nervous at the same time. It was long before he went to go look at what it was simply because he couldn’t help himself. All he saw behind the trailers was a ladder that lead up to the roof of one of them.

He couldn’t find anything else around so he decided climbed up the ladder. His peaked his head up to the roof and was shocked to see a nice, knitted blanket spread out across the top as well a picnic basket, presumably that had food in it made by Kun.

“You can take credit for it if you want.” He heard Xiaojun say which startled him and almost resulted in him falling.

“Fuck, you scared the shit out of me.” He huffed as he climbed down.

“Sorry,” Xiaojun chuckled. “Didn’t mean to but again, you can take the credit. We just wanted to help you out a bit...”

“Thank you, honestly. The fact that you did means a lot to me. I know Cosi is really special to everyone and y’all want to make her happy but nonetheless, thank you again.”

“It’s not just for her, you know? We’re friends too, duh. Why else would do this if we weren’t friends as well?”

The words made him smile slightly and just feel comforted. He just nodded in response to the older. Shortly after, he went back out to where everyone else was and he saw his girlfriend was still with her friends, talking. He had to step in between groups of other people to get to her. It seemed like all them became quiet as he tapped the girl’s shoulder to which she turned around to see him.

“Oh, Hyuck.” She smiled as she grabbed his hand and looked up at him. “What’s up?”

He bent down to whisper in his ear. “There’s a surprise for us so when you’re ready meet me behind the trailers, okay?”

She nodded as she let his hand go so he could walk away. He could hear the girls’ hushed ‘oohs’ and teasing as he walked away which kind of just left him chuckling.

“Be quiet.” Cosimia blushed. “He can probably hear all you guys.”

“Go on!” Lia encouraged the girl, pushing her lightly.

“Yeah!” Choerry chimed in. “Who knows what the surprise is. Haechan is a really sweet boy.”

“And you’ve constantly brought up how he’s a romantic.” Giselle scoffed.

“Shut up!”

Her friends all giggled at how red her face got at the teasing.

“Seriously, though,” Giselle said. “Go.”

“Are you sure?” Cosimia asked. “I didn’t even really get to say much.”

“Definitely.” Choerry nodded. “There’s always tomorrow.”

“Plus, there will be more to tell us then too.” Lia added with a grin.

They waved goodbye as the girl as she stumbled passed the people that surrounded them. It was much quieter as she rounded the back to see the boy leaned up against the metal of one of the trailers. She noticed there was a ladder next to him that shined a little with the moon light. He turned his head at the sound of gravel moving and a big smile appeared on his face as she got closer.

“So, where’s the surprise?” She teased.

He gestured toward the ladder behind him now, “Up this way, m’lady.”

“What a gentleman.” She giggled, playing along.

She approached the ladder in which he helped her up by holding it with one hand and holding her hand with the other. He could hear her let out a small gasp from the roof before he came up. He sat beside her and she seemed too speechless to say anything. He could see the faint pink in her cheeks even though it was dark. Her friends had spotted her and waved with such assuming at the scene. To him, seeing her like this was such a treasure. All blushing and shy because of the teasing from friends, taken back by the gesture... Mostly because he never really got to see that part of her before or see her act her age because she was too busy with other things that hadn’t allowed that to be a thing.

He didn’t check what was in the picnic basket before and was shocked to pull out a sparkling cider bottle along with a piece of cake they ended up sharing in the end after the small dinner that was prepared for them. They sipped on the cider for the rest of the time being while looking up at the moon, the stars and just the sky the girl had always had such a liking too.

It was as if the others had caught on to the little plan when the starry night sky was light up with fireworks displayed in such a way it showed a pink heart. Her eyes seemed to light up as her jaw dropped before fading into a smile.

“Hyuck, did you really do all of this?” She asked, almost breathless as she sat up and put her glass down beside her.

“Mm... more of a happy accident.” He answered. “The boys did most, actually all the work... They said I could take credit but I really can’t, honestly. It gave me ideas, so next time it will be me. It was nice though anyway, right? Really nice of them too...”

He couldn’t look up, kind of embarrassed at the fact that he wasn’t the one that came up with it but treated like such at first. He ran his finger around the rim of the champagne glass in an attempt to distract himself. He was surprised when he felt the girl his cheek.

“Thank you.” She murmured, softly in the night.

“For what?” He questioned.

“For bringing me up here.” She started with a shrug. “For not lying to me, even when it’s a little lie. For pushing me to come outside today. For making me feel better. A lot of things...”

“Is it... kissing rewarding thankful?”

He smiled, sheepishly at the girl. She rolled her eyes before leaning over and giving him a kiss that was long than expected. She couldn’t seem to help herself, not that he’d ever complain about it. He felt like he was floating whenever they shared a kiss and his heart would feel so light. Her lips were always so soft and warm and they tasted so sweet like sugar every time. It just made him feel like he was in heaven.

“I love you, too.” She admitted.

“What?” He breathed.

“I love you, too...” She repeated. “You said it that one night... Hopefully it still reins true... I’m sorry, I just didn’t know how-“

He lean in and captured her lips, gently, one again. Though, it was him getting lost in it this time. Something about the passion in it made her whole heart skip so many times before he pulled away, slowly to rest his forehead against hers. He tucked a strand of hair behind her ear.

“You don’t have to apologize.” He cooed. “I said it really soon... and it’s different for everyone, you know? But of course, it’s still true.”

“Really?” She asked.

“Really,” He reassured. “I can say it again if you want. I’ll say, I love you. I’m in love with you, Cosi. I’m positive of that. Do you want me to say it to everyone? Because I can. I’ll stand up and shout it right here, right now in front of all of our friends if you want me to.”

“No, that’s fine. I believe you.”

It was always nice to hear her laugh. He stroked her cheek with his thumb.

“Okay.” He shrugged with a moment of slience before he sat straight up. “I love Cosi-“

She was quick to grab him and cover his mouth before pinning him against the roof.

“Shhh!” She whispered to him. “Everyone is gonna hate us because we’ll be that couple!”

“So, let them.” He giggled. “We deserve this don’t we? I’ll gladly make them sick to their stomachs with how cute we are.”

“You’re something else.”

“You’re really beautiful.”

She looked down at him in silence, his eyes wandered around her face as he looked up. Her hair hid them as she was on top of him, pinning his arms down so he couldn’t get up to go yelling again and she so happened to have more strength than him. She leaned down and laid a kiss on his lips as her gripped loosen on his arms. His hands had found their way to her waist to pull her closer. He smiled into the kiss and she was left breathless by the skipping heat in her heart he caused with what he did. It wasn’t long before they felt each other soft lips on one another again. Something about the whole thing was so easily to get lost in and so intoxicating. One thing lead to another and they ended up making out, which was the first time they went beyond passionate, long, loving kisses since weeks prior.

Though, it was cut short when a empty soda bottle was thrown at them and bounced off the roof which startled the both of them out of each other’s embraces.

“Get a room!” Hendery yelled. “And no baby making on my roof!”

“This is your fault, deal with it!” Donghyuck retorted.

“You can keep the blanket!” Xiaojun added. “We don’t want it back.”

Luckily for the couple, most people had gone back inside with how late it was. Their stay was cut short after the moment of embarrassment but they still thanked everyone for the surprise. It was eerie walking home, but in a good way. It felt similar to walking home after trick or treating on Halloween as a teenager. It felt like one too with how happy and bubbly they were on their short walk... To them it felt surreal,. They’d never been in such a place, let alone together before. They laughed, trying their best to be quiet with the people sleeping as warm of each other’s hand keep their fingers from falling off.

The air was cool and the night sky was noticeably a deep purple color as they walked away from the light. The wind started picking up as soon as they stood in front of the trailer and it seemed to get worse once they were inside, sheltered from the cold. It howled outside the windows in a creepy manner.

The boy threw the blanket on the chair near the door once they were inside.

“Haechan.” Cosimia’s mother called to him.

Before he could even ask her what it was, Cosimia had wrapped her arms around his neck to bring him down a bit just to continue where they left off before they were interrupted. His hands were quick to find her waist once again just to bring her closer as he tried to not smile against her lips. He’d never felt such a way before and he just felt so high...

“Haechan!” Her mother repeated herself again, only louder while stomping her foot on the floor.

He tried to waved her off as his arms had wrapped around the girl’s waist. He could hear the woman scoff and presumably roll her eyeballs as well at the sight as the kiss just seemed to get deeper. He could feel Cosimia smile too at that point. It was unfortunate that they were interrupted, again at that, by the sound of something hitting the floor. The both of them stopped to turn their attention to the noise.

A shadow started to stop out from the darkness of the small hallway. The two of them both went pale and wide eyed at the sight of Cosimia’s dad only standing a few feet away from them. Donghyuck was the one to notice that large knife in one of the man’s hands that glinted under the dim light from the lamp in their living area that barely reached that edge of the kitchen.

“I was trying to tell you.... The mother sighed.

The boy’s breath hitched in his throat as his anxiety and adrenaline raised within a moment. His grip on his girlfriend’s hand tightened. He stepped in front of her once he saw the distraught expression on her face as she froze in her place. She looked much like a ghost, like her mother with the way the color drained from her face. He looked back at her father, who hadn’t moved but now had a sinister grin. His eyes were black, full of darkness and death... Everything about that man screamed ‘lunatic’ and it was absolutely terrifying with the way he started to twirl the knife in his hands.

It was his turn to protect her now though.

[yourdreamscenarios]

When you fall and hurt yourself

∙ Requested ♡ ∙ Word count:

∙ Jin

“I’m done, if this is how it’s going to be I’ll just stick to where we’re living right now.” Seokjin complained, sitting down on top of one of the brown boxes piled up in the room which was supposed to become the living room. You raised your eyebrows at him, mainly because he was being dramatic, secondly because the box he’d just sat down his butt on clearly read breakable on the side. “It’s just a one time thing. As soon as we got all the boxes inside the worst part is over.” You reminded him while rolling up the sleeves of your shirt towards your elbows. Seokjin had immediately turned up the heating as the two of you had put food inside of the house, and by now you were both sweating. It was one thing to run up and down from the car towards the house and back, but it was something else to do so with heavy boxes in your hold. But you’d been delaying this for too long now. And since you both had a few days to spare in your schedule, it seemed the perfect timing to finally get into moving out. 

All your friends thought it crazy that you’d bought a house almost two months ago but the two of you hadn’t even started moving out of your separate places until two weeks ago. But they didn’t seem to understand there was nothing as depressing as moving your stuff into a huge home while your significant other wasn’t there to help you along with it. You’d bought this house so you could spend more time together, see each other more often, not to fall back into old habits. “You’re lying. You realize we still have to unpack all this later, right? That’s going to be the hard work. Since you’re never pleased with where I put things. Which I still don’t understand. That zebra would have fit greatly next to our lamp.” You pulled a face as him, thinking back of the time the two of you had gone furniture shopping together and he had tried everything inside of him to convince you to buy a huge zebra statue. The fact that it had been a zebra wasn’t the problem. It had been it’s flashy pink color which had bothered you. Thinking about Seokjin decorating even one room in the house caused your heart to speed up. 

“I could ask my mom for help, she’d love to.” You recalled, thinking of the offer she had made you last week. Your father was out on a business trip and she was at home by herself, staring at the walls. Usually you didn’t want her all over your things, but in this case it might actually be convenient. You could tell he found the idea quite appealing, sitting there on his box. You rolled your eyes at him before turning your back on him and marching mack towards the front door. “Take your time, I’ll get another box.” You called over your shoulder as you made your way through the door and down the porch steps. You’d known a long time before you bought the house that this was a place you where wanted to live. It was a nice neighborhood and since Seokjin was so popular, you couldn’t just pick any place to live. He needed a secured area, somewhere he felt at ease bringing his kids home to one day. To him, the style hadn’t really mattered, he just wanted something safe and private. So he’d left that up to you. And you loved every single detail of this house. It was big, but not too huge. 

It had enough room to invite friends over, but not enough to brag about it being a villa. You loved the huge windows, letting sunlight rest against the walls throughout the entire house. The garden was fresh and cosy, a small pool attached to it. You’d never asked for the luxury you had today, but Seokjin insisted that he’d use his fortunes for your future and so you accepted anyway. As an author you had your own money. Your books sold well, the last one making it into the YA top thee for a whole year. You could live on this for the rest of your life, but you’d never been a person to put it on display. You put your money in more discreet things, like charity and buying nice things for your parents and sister. You didn’t have the amount of money Seokjin had, but nothing about that mattered. It was nice to be able to love someone for who they were, without thinking of what they had. Stopping in front of the trunk of a small van you’d hired for the day, you looked at the small stacks of boxed that were left. The two of you had moved many of them over the timespan of two hours. If you kept moving like this you’d be done by tonight and still have time to order some takeout. 

Pressing one knee into the trunk you tried your best to reach for one of the boxes in the back. At least you’d get a good night of sleep tonight. You weren’t the type to work out and you were sure your muscles were going to be sore tomorrow. But it would be worth it, knowing you’d finally be able to move in with the man you wanted to spend your future with. You’d both still be busy, but there’d be a much bigger chance you’d wake up or get to fall asleep beside him once you’d live together. It were those tiny things you missed when he was not around. And the thought you’d have to miss those no longer made your heart race. Slowly you tugged the box out of the trunk and positioned it inside of your arms. Just like the others it was quite heavy. You had packed as many things inside of each box as possible, hoping you’d be done faster if there would be less boxes to carry. But you were damned either way. Dragging yourself towards the porch you stared at the children near the end of the street, playing football. They seemed careless, their laughter ringing through the air causing your spirit to grow wings and be lifted. 

You had definitely made the right choice choosing this house. You scared up when you heard the sound of your phone coming from your jeans pocket at the same time your sneaker lost its grip on the concrete. Screeching you felt the ground slip from underneath your feet, and hobbled down two steps before your butt landed on the sidewalk. “Fuck.” You groaned, inwardly hoping the children were too far away to hear you curse. While trying to wrap your mind around what just happened you pushed yourself up until you were sitting on the first landing of stairs. At least there hadn’t been anyone close enough to witness your failure. Sighing in frustration you pulled down the waistband of your jeans, where pain was throbbing at your hip. A bruise was forming around the skin, probably the spot which had come down first and had caught the blow. “I’m so sorry! I swear I had no idea you’d fall!” Seokjin’s voices reached from behind you and before you had the time to turn your head and look at him, he came racing around you and kneeled down in front of you. “Are you hurt?” He asked, panic visible inside of his eyes as he held his hands in front of him, wanting to touch you but not sure if he was allowed to do so. “I think so, I guess the box broke the worst part of the fall.” You said, wincing as you tried to push yourself up to stand. A stabbing pain exploded from your hip and forced you to lower yourself back onto the cold stone. 

“Shit, I’m so sorry I shouldn’t have texted you, it’s ridiculous. I could’ve just waited until you got back inside.” He rambled, and you blinked your eyes at him in surprise as you tried to understand what he’d just told you. When you realized you couldn’t, you blurted “What?” Guilt pooled inside of his dark irises as he stared at the spot you were clenching your side. He nibbled his bottom lip, his eyes darting back and fort as he tried to think of what to do. “We need to get you to the hospital. They need to check up on you.” He said, patting his pockets until he found the keys of the car. As much as you wanted to deny his words, you knew he was right. You needed a doctor to check on your hip. So it seemed like you’d have to put aside your distaste of hospitals for once. “Can you walk?” He asked, running over towards the van to open the door. 

Clenching your teeth together you pressed yourself up from the floor, a wash of relief coming over you when you realized your hip wasn’t as painful anymore as it was before. Perhaps it would all be fine after all. Seokjin wrapped his arm around your middle and tugged yours across his shoulders before he wobbled you towards the passenger seat. A bit further ahead the children had stopped kicked the ball and were staring at the scene the two of you had made. You were sure that by tonight the neighbors would all have figured out their first impressions of you two. “Wait, what did you text me about?” You suddenly remembered, and as you turned to look at him you could tell he was avoiding your stare on purpose. His cheeks turned pinkish as he settled you down against the seat and leaned over you to fasten your seatbelt. His lips were only inches away from yours as he spoke. “I found that zebra online, it was on sale.”

 ∙ RM 

“I’m sorry, I just don’t like you. I never wanted to hurt you, but I think it’s best if you stop trying to reach out for me.” The pity inside of his voice caused your feet to remain glued to the floor, no matter how hard you wanted to run. You blinked your eyes at him, wishing the tears wouldn’t come. The last thing you wanted was to cry in front of him. You told yourself he didn’t deserve any of your tears. Yet, that wasn’t what your heart felt. You’d liked this guy for years, had thought of only him for months straight. You couldn’t imagine your life without him being a part of it. For all this time, you had been foolish enough to think that a guy like him could like someone like you. You watched the way he turned around, planning on leaving you all alone in the middle of the hallway. You should be pleased there weren’t any people around, any of the other students who could watch you being rejected by Park Jimin. This moment would be meant for just the two of you, and you hoped he would respect that instead of laughing about it later with his friends. A deep part inside of you had been afraid this would happen. 

There were so many girls who adored him, you had no idea why you’d thought for even a minute that you would have a chance with him. Still, you’d tried to prove your love for him for weeks, sending him secret notes and leaving him letters in his locker. You’d watched him read your messages with a little smile on his face. You knew he’d secretly enjoyed reading them. You’d thought they’d started meaning something to him, that he’d started looking forward to them after all this time. Yet, it didn’t seem to be enough. He’d probably expected his secret admirer to be someone else, someone prettier and more like him. Because unlike him you weren’t a part of any large groups at school, you didn’t particularly enjoy going out at night and getting drunk. You didn’t put layers and layers of make up on your face to hide your flaws, you didn’t pretend to be anyone you were not. Even though you were different, you’d always stayed true to yourself. In your mind you had always thought that if Jimin would give you a chance and would try to get to know you, he would realize the two of you would fit well together. But it had finally become clear to you that you would never figure it out. The dream which had been developing in your own head for weeks was just unraveling before your eyes. 

You lingered down the hall for a while, not knowing where to go. You wanted some peaceful place to crawl up and cry, but there was no way you could ditch classes. If your parents would find out you’d walked out on your duties while you were supposed to be at school, no matter what he reason, you’d be grounded for weeks. And the thought of being stuck in the house right now threatened to suffocate you. “Idiot.” You whispered, inwardly calling yourself worse names but not wanting to get caught saying them out loud. The halls were deserted, but it wouldn’t take much longer before the bell would ring and students would start dripping out of their classrooms. And you definitely wanted to get out of here before anyone would see you in the current state you were in. The last thing you needed were any rumors, and for things to spread. Turning on your heel you speed walked further down the corridor, walking past shut lockers in an ocean of blue. You deliberately turned your head the other way when you walked past Jimin’s locker, the one you’d been deposing your feelings into for the past few weeks. 

You felt like a fool and you knew you were one. And once again that awful part of your mind started wondering about who he’d wished his admirer had been. Had it been that beautiful girl from art class? Or that rock chick who sat two rows in front of him at science? You guessed you’d never find out. And perhaps it was better that way, so you didn’t have anyone to blame but yourself. The loud screeching of the bell rang inside of your ears and/or heart did a double one inside of your chest as you sped up. A door crashed against a wall down the hall, chatter filled the air and you knew you just wouldn’t be able to handle it. Before anyone could spot you, you raced through the huge doors, and stumbled into the afternoon air. The cold hit you straight in the gut and before you even realized what happened you could feel your feet trip. And there for a minute, you seemed to be floating into the air, as if like drifting on a cloud. Time was standing still in that moment, and for a minute the world stopped turning. Yet, soon that cloud was replaced by the hard grind pressing into the palms of your hands and scratching throughout the material of your jeans. You wheezed, feeling the sting of damaged skin travel down your nerve system. 

Tears welled up inside of your eyes and you blinked rapidly to force them back. You knew that you needed to get up, before anyone would notice you laying on the ground. Not only would they find out you’d fallen, but someone would figure out you were supposed to be in class and would surely tell a teacher. But something caused to to stay limp, either it was your self pity or your pain. “Are you alright?” The voice broke through the noise inside of your head, and a blurred face appeared through the mist of your tears. You tried to remember if you’d ever heard that voice before, but you could barely summon it. Demanding your tears away you stared up inside of the worried gaze of Kim Namjoon. Shame slipped through you because you hadn’t recognized him by the sound of his voice, even though you had always loved the sound of his voice in your English class. He was one of the students who’s speech project you liked the most and he always kept your attention. Though it wasn’t like you really knew him. Namjoon was known to be a bit of an outsider. He never stuck around after class to talk with his friends, and during free moments he could be found spending his time in the library, surrounded by books. 

And just like everyone else you’d never really put much effort into getting to know him, simply because you’d thought that he didn’t have the need to do so. But those were simply your interpretations. “I think so.” You mumbled, feeling embarrassed because he’d seen you fall. Yet, there wasn’t a single sign in his expression which seemed to be making fun of you. Instead, there seemed to be actual concern inside of his eyes and you could somehow feel your heart quiver inside of your chest because of it. “That was a nasty fall you took there.” He reminded you, but once again there was no cruelty inside of his voice, he said it as if he was simply stating a fact. Your cheeks reddened as you watched him extend his hand to you, waiting for you to take it. Letting a breath slip past your lips you accepted his gesture and laid your fingers inside of his. With a strength you hadn’t expected to come from him he tugged you upright until you were standing a few feet in front of him. He shot you a tiny smile before taking a step back and granting you your space and releasing your hand. You were surprised when a warmth you hadn’t known you’d felt disappeared together with his touch. “Let’s check out your hands.” He suggested and you turned your palms upwards to check upon the damage. 

Small pieces of gravel were stuck against your skin and small droplets of blood tracked your wounds. You’d have to explain what had happened once you got home. “It’s fine, they’ll probably heal fast enough.” You tried, not wanting to bother him. Yet, he ignored you as he ran over to a bench he’d apparently been sitting on all this time and went to fetch his bag pack. As he made his way back to you, he grabbed a bottle of water he’d been keeping inside of it. You watched him in silent gratefulness as he gently held you by the wrists and rinsed your hands with his water one by one, erasing the dirt from them. The wetness stung, but you ignored it as you looked at his face while he focussed on your hands. You had no idea why he was being so nice to you, to a person who’d never bothered being nice to him in return. But he just did what he thought was right, no matter who you were. A certain admiration for him blossomed inside of your chest, for this stranger you’d never spoken to before. “You’re in my English class.” You said, simply to say something. You probably sounded like an idiot, but he still smiled never the less as he fixed his gaze on yours. 

“So are you.” His reply caused the corners of your lips to curl upwards as he reached for a paper tissue inside of his bag and used it to carefully pat your palms. A cloud shifted above you and a ray of sunlight fell down around you, lighting up the world that seemed to have gone grey to you a few minutes ago. You couldn’t believe that you’d waisted your time falling for someone who never would have done this for you if he’d been the one seeing you tumble down the stairs. “My name is ______________.” You introduced yourself, feeling like that was the right thing to do. He released your hands, pleased with his work as he put the leftover tissues back inside of his bag. He swung the strap casually over his shoulder before he turned towards you, his face open and friendly as he smiled. “I’m Namjoon.” He said and you blinked in surprise as he bumped his elbow against yours as if it was a normal thing to do. He stared at your stunned expression and chuckled, a low and songlike sound. “Doesn’t seem like the best time for a handshake. But never the less, it’s nice to meet you.” You ignored the drill of students flowing past you as another bell cracked up around you, signaling the school day was over. You just stood there, perfectly content inside of an ocean of people, staring inside of the most gentle eyes you’d seen in a long time. 

∙ J Hope

“You’ll do great. You practiced all week.” He assured you, waving his hand in front of your face to comb a piece of hair away from your eyes and behind your ear. You shot him a shy smile as his fingers lingered a few seconds against your skull before they retreated. Hoseok had been the perfect man all week, surrounding you with positivity and motivating you to keep going until the very end. Promotions had been a mess this time around, and now that everything was finally coming up to the finale, you were a giant ball of stress. No matter how hard you had practiced your vocals and your choreography, you were simply afraid one of you was going to mess it up. And that someone didn’t necessarily have to be you. You’d been a part of a band for two years now, but these trust issues seemed to be something you simply couldn’t get rid of. Thankfully your members had never blamed you for it, and they accepted the fact you were someone who pushed them to work harder than they might think possible. Besides, you were harder on yourself than you were on anyone else. 

“Thanks for helping me out though. I couldn’t have done this without you.” You said, scrolling through the conversation on your phone you were having with your local friends from home. Everyone seemed to be talking about this comeback, which didn’t seem to make it any easier. You had been slaying your last project and people seemed to expect no less form these promotions. Once again you had tried a completely new concept, forcing yourself to try new things and dig for a different and new part of yourselves. Hoseok kept trying to convince you that your company was supposed to let you stay true to yourselves and figure out your own style and flow. But you’d more than once explained to him that after only two years of being a band, you all didn’t have a clue about what that style or flow was. So for now, experimenting seemed to be the right thing to do until you could stuck to the thing you felt most comfortable with. “Sure, you’d do the same thing for me. Besides, it was fun to see you sweat.” He grinned, and you pulled a face at him as you thought back of all the times he had been practically torturing you in the practice room. 

Hoseok was one of the best dancers you knew and you wouldn’t want to accept advice from anyone else but him. He’d helped you to make every move as perfect as possible, correcting you each time he thought you could do better. Days had been long, for you and for him. Especially since he’d made time to help you out after his own schedules. Two nights ago the two of you had fallen asleep at Big Hit’s practice rooms, until Seokjin had walked in and had woken you both up with his cheerful morning greetings. So you guessed you were both quite pleased this was about to come to an end, even though none of you said it out loud. “I think they’re ready for us.” Lily muttered inside of your ear, her hands landing on top of your shoulders and giving them a gentle squeeze. She smiled casually as Hoseok, who gave her a polite nod. Your band members kindly accepted your boyfriend’s presence around stages and practices, knowing that once they’d start dating someone they expected you to do the same. And you had to say you often enjoyed having him around, yet you still didn’t want it to become a habit. The two of you saw each other when you had mutual schedules, but you rarely invited him over when the two of you didn’t have a stage together. Mainly because he simply didn’t have the time to show and had his own stuff to deal with. Secondly because you didn’t want to mix your career with your love life. And it seemed as if the two of you had come to an unspoken agreement about that. 

Hoseok patted your thigh, ignoring the face you threw him in the process. Your thighs were body parts you were insecure about, and he knew this all too well. Somehow he’d gotten the idea that if he showed them enough love you’d eventually accept them as a part of yourself you should honor. There was still quite some work to be done before such a thing could be achieved. “Good luck, I’ll see you when you’re done.” He said, groaning as he pushed himself up from his seat beside you on the coach and swiped away the imaginary dust from his trousers. “You don’t have to wait here, you could just go home. I’ll be fine.” You assured him, not wanting him to sit here and wait out the entire process of performing, filming, cutting and do-overs. He deserved his rest, especially after everything he had done for you. You didn’t want to keep him away from home longer than necessary. But he just shrugged and instead of heading towards the exit in search for a quiet place to sit or where perhaps he could find a few of his friends to hang out with. You sighed, but smiled never the less. Hoseok always did his own thing, you could never force him into certain directions. He had such a headstrong person, you kind of admired him for it. 

“Let’s go, I’m so excited!” Hanna squealed, clapping her hands together as to prove her point. You followed them out into the hallway, once again checking your ear ins and your mic. Everything was set, everything was on point, now you only had to make this work. You all huddled together, sharing some enthusiastic last pep talk with each other before you got your cues and gathered in front of the stairs, getting ready to run up stage. A deep voice announced you and you knew you had to get up on that stage quickly if you wanted to get into the right position. The lights went out and you members quickly started moving up the steps in front of you, giving you no choice but to follow. But the space was cramped and before you knew what had happened, you misstepped, your feet missing a landing. A strangled noise came over your lips as you caught yourself with your hands, a terrible sting traveling up the entire length of your arm. “Are you okay?” Hanna asked, standing behind you, waiting for you to get up. You nodded, forcing a smile onto your face as you blinked away your tears. You cradled your wrist against your chest, and looked back to see Hoseok standing a few feet away, one foot in front of the other, as if he was at the point of running over to check on you. 

But you shot him a reassuring smile, which seemed to settle things for now as you continued up the stairs and took your place upon the stage. At first it was a weird tingling sensation creeping through your arm, but it soon changed into some kind of pinching, which worsened and took your breath away when you tried to move your wrist. You felt lightheaded as you held your mic inside of your hand, forcing your fingers to close around it. The performance went by terribly slow, yet you seemed to be in some sort of daze the entire time. There was only one thing you could seem to focus on and that was the pain you felt. You knew something was wrong, and one look down at the joint made all the blood drain from your face. It was all bruised and thick. The choreography was far from perfect, mainly because of the mistakes you made. The hours and hours of practice for nothing, but you couldn’t bring yourself to care. As soon as the lights went out you sped backstage, wanting to get away as quickly as you could. Tears were clouding your view, conjured by disappointment and hurt. “What the hell was that?” Jennifer seethed, trying to reach out for you by grabbing your shoulder and stopping you as soon as all of you were at the back. But before you could say anything Hoseok had suddenly appeared in front of you, suspicion written all over his face. 

“What is it?” He asked, knowing better than anyone, that if you’d been in your right state of mind, this never would have happened. He was there, spending all of those hours with you in the practice rooms. He knew how hard you had worked, knew how nervous you had been. Your bottom lip was actually trembling as you held up your arm, and instantly a staff member came in helpful by pointing his flashlight at it. Some people gasped, and you could see Jennifer press her hand against her chest in shock as she stared at your wrist. “God that looks terrible.” She said, pulling a face at it. All of a sudden everyone was trying to give you some kind of advice. “Put some ice on it.” “Don’t let it hang down your side, it’ll only swell more.” “You should have said something!” But in the end it was your boyfriend who wrapped his arm around your shoulders and who let you away from all the commotion. He steered you down the halls, leading you towards a small room where you knew the paramedics were. There were always a few of them backstage, just in case something did happen. 

“Was it when you fell?” He asked as he got you inside, two women and one man immediately all ears as they gently placed you on a chair and gingerly tried to take a look at your wrist. You nodded, trying to flex and bend your fingers like one of the women instructed you to do. “I caught myself, I felt it straight away, but I didn’t think it was this bad. It was only midway through the performance the pain got this bad.” You explained, trying not to take the judgement in Hoseok’s face too personal. You knew he’d understand as soon as he was over his concern for you. After all, he had seen his band members do the exact same thing, and he had done the same thing as well. It was a part of the job, pushing yourself, even though you knew you shouldn’t. “Alright honey, I’m going to give you some painkiller alright. Now, I don’t think it’s broken, just sprained. But just to be sure we should get you up to the hospital to take some x-rays. We don’t want to miss anything here.” She explained, reaching behind her before putting two round pills inside of your uninjured palm. She smiled kindly at you while presenting you a glass of water. 

You thanked her and swallowed the pills down, hoping they’d lessen the throwing of your arm soon. You hadn’t eaten much before the performance due to stress, and you could feel your head swaying. “I’ll take you.” Hoseok assured you and you nodded, using his help to get up from your chair. He carefully placed your jacket over your shoulders before wrapping his arm tightly around you, pulling you close. If you had been glad that he’d been here before, it was nothing compared to how you felt now. “I’m sorry, this is such a mess.” You muttered, heaving a deep sigh as the two of you made your way towards the exit and his car. He waved your apology away and shot you a sweet smile, trying to make you feel better. “It’s all going to be fine. You’ll be better soon.” He tried to reassure you and brushed his lips past your temple. He opened the passenger door for you and carefully helped you get inside of the car. You were flustered as he reached down to help you fastened your seatbelt, but he ignored you when you told him you’d be fine by yourself. As soon as you were clicked in safely he patted your thigh, causing you to frown at him. “It’s a good thing I didn’t go home after all.” He joked and you swatted at him with your good hand. He was just in time to get out of the way, snickering softly. 

∙ Suga

Coming soon

∙ Jimin

Coming soon

∙ V

Coming soon

∙ Jungkook

You moaned contently as you rolled over in bed, feeling the way you got tangled up inside of the covers. You had slept in shamefully long, but you couldn’t bring yourself to feel bad about it. The past few weeks, your schedule had been packed and you had been rushing from one point towards the other. Sleep had been a luxury and you thought you had deserved a nice and long night in bed now that you finally had a day off. You pressed your face deeply inside of the soft pillow, realizing that you had rolled over towards your boyfriend’s side of the bed as you smelled his cologne all of the sheets. It was a sad fact that he wasn’t here with you right now. But unfortunately, as you worked for different companies, it was almost impossible for the two of you to match your free days to each other. And so you had vaguely heard him get out of bed early this morning, had softly felt his lips press down at the side of your head, before he had gotten up and left the mattress to turn cold beside you. As a girl, you had been used to having a queen size bed at your parent’s place. So a very small part of you was secretly glad to have this much space again. 

But it was nothing compared to the part of you which was missing your boyfriend. A battle went on inside of your head as you wondered if you should get up and get some stuff done, or if you’d stay in bed just a little bit longer. As you sneakily opened one eye you stared straight at the alarm clock which stood on your nightstand. Your heart leaped slightly inside of your chest when you saw it was almost noon. Talking about sleeping in. Instantly you were wide awake, feeling sheepish because you you hadn’t taken better control over the situation. But you’d been exhausted, and the sleep had done a great job on your mental and physical state. Last night you had felt droopy and forgetful. Your body had ached at places you hadn’t known been possible. You’d been having mood swings which were out of your control and headaches had become your best friend. Today, you felt as if you had become an entirely different person. Your muscles had popped back into the right place, your head felt clear and light. You felt better than you had done in weeks. So you decided not to feel bad about sleeping this long, and decided that this was simply something your body had been in terrible need of. 

After stretching your arms above of your head, you pushed yourself up into a sitting position. You had messed up the sheets, one side kicked off of the bed completely. You pouted, wondering how you’d been able to do such a thing without waking up before you flipped your legs out of the bed and got up. Reaching for the curtains you tugged them open, being greeted by wonderful rays of sunlight. You smiled, thinking about all the things you could do today with a weather this nice. Perhaps you could go grocery shopping, fill up your fridge which was currently stored with leftovers. Jungkook would probably like a freshly prepared and healthy meal tonight. Turning on your heel you went back towards the bed, tugging the blankets straight and tugging them in at the sides. As soon as that was done you marched over towards the bathroom, to freshen up. You took a quick shower and got into some comfy clothes before gathering your hair together on top of your head into a ponytail. It was a typical ���stay at home look but still be able to get out of the door to do something practical and be seen by paparazzi’ kind of look. You applied some lipgloss and took one look into the mirror before you decided you didn’t really care about how you looked and you flicked off the lights after collecting the laundry. 

Muttering a song that magically popped inside of your mind you snapped your phone from your nightstand and walked out of the room. Propping the laundry basket underneath your arm you scrolled through your notifications, deciding which ones needed immediate attention and which ones could wait until later. You had a text from one of your band members, telling you that one of your photoshoots had been rescheduled for next week. You quickly switched the dates in your agenda, knowing you’d never be able to remember otherwise. There was a text from your mom, asking if you wanted some left over soup and she could bring it downtown for you if you wanted. And then there was one from Jungkook, asking to call him once you woke up. You frowned as you made your way down the hall towards the stairs. Had something happened? You checked the time, and saw he’d sent you this text almost two hours ago. He probably hadn’t expected for you to sleep in this long. You’d definitely have some explaining to do. Curiosity took master of you, and you knew you’d have to call him back as soon as possible. Perhaps he had something important to tell you? Maybe something had happened? Or maybe…

Your stream of thought was instantly cut off when your feet hung in open air, missing the step of the stairs it was supposed to take. You shrieked, lost your balance and before you knew what was happening you were tumbling down the stairs. The laundry flew everywhere and when you came to a sudden halt at the bottom on the stairs you realized you had been clamming your phone inside of your hands like crazy, holding onto it for dear life. Shock was the first thing that came over you as you tried to take in what had happened. Your heart was beating like crazy inside of your chest, your hands trembling. You had never fallen down the stairs before. Letting out a deep breath you realized this could have ended up entirely different. If you had fallen down headfirst, this could have been a true disaster, especially with nobody at home to find you here. You sat back and tried to calm yourself by chuckling softly. Of course this was something which had to happen to you. The adrenaline slowly wore off, which was when you began to feel all of the sore spots on your body. 

Twisting your arm you could tell your elbow had scratched against the wall, blood bubbling up from the nasty scratch. The side of your knee was swelling and the skin was transforming into a bruised color. You blinked away the tears inside of your eyes, which were partly caused because of the fright and partly because of the pain. “Stupid. Why would you text while walking down the stairs?” You scolded yourself, trying to push yourself upright. A loud help escaped your lips as soon as you tried to put some pressure on your left foot. Soon, the tears which had been clouding your view were rolling down your cheeks, the pain coming as a complete surprise to you. You quickly rolled down the longs socks you’d been wearing to keep your feet warm and actually gasped when you saw the size of the joint. It looked nothing like it had done before. Instantly hundreds of thought were penetrating your mind. How you had just messed up your schedule by getting injured. How you had abandoned your members by being so careless. You’d have to get to a doctor, but there was no way you could drive like this. 

On autopilot you reached for your phone, dialing the first number popping up on your screen. It rang for an eternity before finally your name sounded on the other side of the line, the voice familiar. “______________!” I’m so glad you called! I wanted to talk to you. Why did it take so long for you to get back to me?” Jungkook’s voice was cheerful, which only added to your guilt of having to call him like this. “Jungkook!” You were barely able to hold back a sob as you said his name, your voice coming out all wry and crackling. Instantly a silence rang at the other side, since he clearly hadn’t been expected a greeting like this. He had expected you to sound happy after a good night of sleep, curious about what he was about to tell you, not as if you were about to burst into tears any second. “What’s wrong?” He asked, his voice worried as he hushed his members, who were probably there in the room with him and who were tracking the conversation. You tried to slow down your breathing, tried to come up with a plan to get towards the car. You could hobble, you had a good balance, you’d be able to make it on one leg. But there was no way you’d be able to drive using only one foot and just the thought of using your injured one made you feel like throwing up. 

“I fell down the stairs.” You said, feeling stupid. Frustrations were searing through you as you shoveled forward on your butt, hoping to get towards the kitchen so you could at least grab a tissue to press against the scratch on your elbow. The blood was now slowly leaking down your arm, creating a mess on the floor. A snort could be heard next to your ear, and you scowled. You couldn’t believe he thought this way funny. “Did you get hurt?” He asked, laughter clearly audible inside of his voice. Him making fun of you only caused you to feel worse, and your volume got louder as you spoke next time, your words ringing with some sort of panic. “I can’t get up.” You moaned deeply as you bumped your injured feet into the side of the table as you finally managed to get inside of the kitchen. Instantly the laughter stopped, and you could hear him getting up and collect his things. “What do you mean you can’t get up?” He instantly sounded serious and the ringing of car keys was audible now. You leaned against the door, grabbed your leg and tried to breath in and out slowly, dizziness coming over you. “It’s my ankle, I can’t put any pressure on it. And my knee, it’s looking weird.” Once again you started tearing up, feeling miserable and helpless. “God, I’m sorry. I didn’t know who else to call. I know you’re busy…” 

He immediately silenced you, telling you you shouldn’t apologize, that he was glad you’d called. “I’ll be there as fast as I can. Just stay where you are, I’ll take you to the hospital.” He assured you, and you hung up after saying your goodbye’s. You were such an idiot, always causing trouble like this. How were you supposed to tell your manager that you had been able to get yourself injured on your day off? You bumped your head against the wall once, then decided against it, after all the last thing you needed was a concussion to add to the problem. Instead you waited, focussing your ears on the sound of a car stopping on the driveway. And soon you heard a key getting jammed inside of the lock, the door smashing against the wall at the speed to get it open. “Where are you?” Jungkook’s voice rang through the apartment and you called out, leading him towards the kitchen with the sound of your voice. He speed walked into the room and his eyes immediately fell on you, sitting against the wall, your leg laying out in front of you. He crouched down in front of you, his fingers gingerly reaching out to your swollen knee. 

His face contracted, as if only the sight of it was enough to cause him pain. “What happened?” He asked, looking up into your face in concern, his hands reaching out to wipe the tears from your face. You rolled your eyes at him, a bit of your own self returning now that you were no longer alone and he was here with you. “I was reading your text, missing a step. Before I knew it, I was on the floor.” He made a small ‘ah’ sound, and it was clear that he wanted to tell you off for using your phone instead of watching where you were going. But he said nothing, at least for now. “Let’s get you into the car. You need to let someone check up on that leg.” He said, positioning himself so that he could slip his arms underneath you and lift you from the floor. You sighed, and let your head lull back against his shoulder as he carried you towards the car. “I’m so stupid.” You muttered, feeling your ankle throbbing with every step, your face contorting a little in a hurtful expression. “Yeah…” Jungkook mumbled, but smiled as you glared at him, placing a small peck between your brows. 

∙ BTS Masterlist ♡               ∙ Masterlist ♡

[preserving-ferretbrain]

When Harry Met Enid

by Dan H

Wednesday, 20 December 2006

In which Dan dismisses Harry Potter as a jolly hockey-sticks boarding school romp.~

My childhood was almost embarrassingly suburban. We lived in a semi-detached house with privet hedges. I spent my evenings doing my homework, watching Children's BBC or reading. To fully round out the picture of cosy BBC normalcy, I should add that my preferred reading material, as a child, was a mixture of Roald Dahl and Enid Blyton.

I always preferred Dahl. His stories were strange, macabre, often surreal. His worlds were familiar yet peculiar, whimsical and disturbing. They were nice places to visit, but you most certainly wouldn't want to live there. It is perhaps interesting to note that, Great Glass Elevator aside, Dahl never went back to his worlds once the book had finished. His stories were self contained, they began at the beginning, and stopped at the end.

Blyton, of course, created a very different world. Teams of children with solid dependable names like Dick and Anne had very proper adventures while drinking lashings and lashings of ginger beer. Unlike Dahl, Blyton did write long-running series, the St Clare's and Malory Towers books followed the same cast of characters through their stint at boarding school, and of course the Famous Five and Secret Seven had endless adventures. Unlike Dahl, Blyton's world was ultimately a safe place, and gender aside I would have been quite happy to spend a summer term at St Clare's. I was and still am guiltily fond of Enid Blyton's 1950s utopia: it's nice sometimes to forget about the troubles of the real world, and escape to one where hardened criminals get their comeuppance at the hands of a gang of plucky twelve year olds.

A lot of people (JK Rowling first amongst them) like to talk about how much more there is to Harry Potter than to other children's books. They talk about the real danger that Harry faces, about how terribly, terribly dark Rowling's world is, and about how it's all very serious and mature. One Times reviewer, comparing Potter to the Worst Witch series writes:

But though Mildred, the Worst Witch, like Harry Potter, gets into scrapes with bullies and teachers, there is never a twinge of real terror in Murphy's imaginary world. Harry Potter experiences not only the ordinary trials and triumphs of the boarding-school genre, but repeated attempts to murder him.

This critic, I think, misses two important points. Firstly, while I admit that my memory of The Worst Witch is a little hazy, I am fairly certain that there actually is a villain in TWW who actually does have a plan to kill everybody in the school. Secondly, the repeated attempts to "murder" Harry are carried out by the most ineffectual, bungling, non-threatening group of incompetents ever to grace the pages of a children's book. Harry Potter's encounters with the Death Eaters are no more frightening than the Secret Seven's frequent run-ins with thieves and smugglers, and they represent no greater physical danger.

Now, I don't think this is a weakness in itself. When Harry and Ron confront the troll in Philosopher's Stone it's a genuinely exciting scene. We understand that Harry and Ron are willing to risk their lives for their friend thereby displaying the cardinal virtues of Courage and Friendship and Pluckyness. This scene is in no way marred by the fact that I do not on a rational level actually expect Harry, Ron, or Hermione to be killed. However, I do not think that the troll-fighting scene involves any more danger or sacrifice, or has any greater merit than (for example) the bit in The Naughtiest Girl in the School where Elizabeth risks detention in order to buy a birthday present for her less wealthy best friend. Both sequences involve the protagonist choosing to place themselves in danger (either physical danger in the case of Harry, or social danger in the case of the Naughtiest Girl) in order to help a friend. It doesn't matter whether the risk is of death or of detention, the point is the decision that the character makes, and the consequences that follow from it.

Thinking about it, it's this fixation on the physical events of the series (Harry Gets Attacked, Harry Goes Into The Dark Forest, Harry Fights Death Eaters), rather than the narrative points behind those events, which is responsible for most of the utter tosh that gets written about Harry Potter. The fans say "Harry Potter is placed in real, physical danger, this means that the Harry Potter series is Dark and therefore Good" the detractors say "Harry Potter is not placed in real, physical danger, this means that the Harry Potter series is Not Really Dark and therefore Not Really Good." Both of these groups of people completely miss the point. Harry Potter is a children's series about the importance of friendship and courage. Whether it chooses to illustrate those points with midnight feasts and ginger beer or with trolls and dragons and the occasional deaths of significant characters is completely beside the point. It is what it is, a children's adventure story set in a boarding school, with some wizards in it.

And that should be the end of it, and it would have been had something peculiar not happened to the series around about book four.

Harry Potter books 1-3 are excellent children's books. They combine exciting adventure with boarding school cosiness to produce thoroughly engaging stories about wizards and magic and the importance of friendship and courage. Books four to six (and I strongly suspect book seven will follow suit) are sub-par fantasy about Wizards and Magic.

Normally, this wouldn't annoy me as much as it does. It'd be a shame, but I'd cope. However I actually think that the course taken by the Potter books has actually had a detrimental effect on Children's Fiction as a whole.

It is absolutely right and correct to say that books for children are in no way inferior to books for adults. It is absolutely true that children are capable of dealing with issues far more complicated than adults give them credit for. Unfortunately this leads some people to the conclusion that there should be literally no difference between children's books and books for adults or, worse, that the merits of a children's book should be weighed according to how similar it is to a book for adults.

So many of the things which the later Harry Potter books are praised for the richness of the world, the complexity of the overarching plot are attributes which belong to adult, not children's fiction. That is not to say that children's fiction cannot be complex, but that its complexities should lie in areas other than the intricacies of the backplot and the precise functioning of Horcruxes.

To put it another way: Snape in the first book is complex in precisely the right way for a children's book. We start out thinking that he is Bad, but it turns out that he is Good. This is a nice twist, and children are smart enough to appreciate the moral complexity of it. Snape is horrible, but he is a good person. Snape in the later books is "complex" in precisely the wrong way for a children's book. He is a tangle of conflicting motivations, which may or may not actually make very much sense. He's probably going to wind up having been in love with Lily Potter, and blame himself for her death and blah blah blah.

Now I'm not saying that children are incapable of understanding characters with complex motivations. I'm saying that children won't gain anything by being asked to understand characters with complex motivations (particularly when said motivations are spurious and rather cliched). When you hear children talk about the Potter books, they always talk about how much they love the wizards and the broomsticks, you hear remarkably few people saying "well I'm really interested in the formative childhood experiences of Severus Snape."

Just look at the great classics of children's literature (particularly fantastic children's literature). We aren't asked to analyse the motivations of the Mock Turtle, or wonder whether the Queen of Hearts is really as bad as she seems. Nobody expects us to be interested in the political climate of Oz (well ... Gregory Maguire does). Children's books shouldn't be preoccupied with the same petty minutiae which fill up so much adult literature (particularly fantasy literature). In pandering to the fans' desire to speculate about the inner workings of her magical world (guess what folks, it doesn't have any, it's completely nonsensical) Rowling is breeding a generation of "book lovers" accustomed to the worst excesses of the fantasy genre.

Dahl, Carroll, Baum and the others may not have had the "moral" heart of the Harry Potter books (at least, that's Miss Rowling's analysis), but they had an imagination which far exceeds the few simple ideas which JK spins out over the Potter series. They may not have had long running plots, or complex character arcs (like the "Lupin shacks up with Tonks" arc or the "Harry goes out with Ginny for all of five minutes" arc), but for pity's sake children get enough of that sort of thing watching Eastenders.

JK Rowling is raising a generation of children to value world above plot, plot above meaning, and volume of written material above everything.Themes:

J.K. Rowling

,

Books

,

Young Adult / Children

~

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Rami

at 14:07 on 2006-12-20I don't read Harry Potter, but I agree with your points about Children's Fiction As A Whole - it *shouldn't* just be adult fiction with shorter words and more colorful packaging!

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Wardog

at 13:04 on 2007-01-01And Harry Potter, of course, has its range of "adult" covers, as if to further distance itself from the rest of children's fiction. As I shall surely write in an article of my very own, JK seems to be no longer writing books for children, she's writing books for Harry Potter fans which is actually a completely different thing.

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TheMerryMustelid

at 17:59 on 2012-04-21"Snape He's probably going to wind up having been in love with Lily Potter, and blame himself for her death and blah blah blah..."

Wow! You're a prophetic genius! How _do_ you do that? ;)

You hate JK Rowling as much as I hate Dan Brown. Let's get together and do coffee! :) Though I actually enjoyed the Potter series *ducks* I recognize it for the big magic soap opera it is. I have no illusions that it's great literature, but I think fellow fantasy writers like Terry Pratchett are just a _mite_ jealous that she captured the youth market before they did.

Whatever you may think of Rowling, you gotta give her credit for getting young kids around the world excited about

reading

. That's no small feat. Sorry if the visual image of a 5 year old hugging the latest Harry Potter tome to their elated breast gives you the vapors, but I find it inspiring. :P

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Dan H

at 22:32 on 2012-04-21

Whatever you may think of Rowling, you gotta give her credit for getting young kids around the world excited about reading.

Obviously getting kids to read is good, but I'm genuinely not convinced JKR actually increased the amount of books read by children - I strongly suspect that the sorts of kids who read Harry Potter are the sorts of kids who would have been reading anyway. I think the anecdotal evidence gets skewed here in the sense that for kids-who-read, there is likely to be a particular author who you remember as being the author who got you into reading (for me it was Dahl with a side order of Pratchett) and while I think there's a generation of kids for whom that author was Rowling, I don't think that's quite the same as Rowling getting kids to read. It's like the Yoko Factor in reverse, the kids got themselves to read, Rowling was just there at the time.

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Arthur B

at 00:31 on 2012-04-22Plus: getting lots of kids to read is benign enough. Getting lots of kids to

all read the same stuff

brings me out in chills.

As a young person the most valuable books I read were the ones which were strictly speaking not actually intended for people my age.

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Sister Magpie

at 06:03 on 2012-04-22I could swear I remember reading some actual research about this idea with HP. The basic result was, unsurprisingly, that while HP did certainly get kids interested in reading those books (just as Star Wars got kids interested in seeing Star Wars), the number of readers (meaning kids who read for pleasure) was basically the same.

So essentially the same idea--there are now a lot of adult readers whose first amazing books were HP, but the generation that were kids when HP came out don't have a higher percentage of readers as a result.

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James D

at 06:56 on 2012-04-22Man, that's kind of depressing. There must also be kids out there whose 'first amazing books' were the Twilight series.

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http://fishinginthemud.livejournal.com/

at 15:17 on 2012-04-22Yeah, some kids are just readers. They'll read whatever's in front of them, whether it's Harry Potter or the cereal box. Kids who don't like to read because reading is hard or boring will just wait to see the movies, as always.

I'm honestly impressed with Rowling for tapping exactly the right cultural vein at the right time. I mean, the woman literally wrote books that managed to appeal to *every kind of person everywhere*. Even people who hated the books enjoyed hating them, and often for very different reasons. She tried to give everyone everything and failed spectacularly, but she did manage to give everyone something. And she did it just by being herself and writing the kind of books she would want to read.

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TheMerryMustelid

at 16:22 on 2012-04-22I'd like to see those statistics about how the number of kids reading Potter were "reading kids" anyway. I'm writing from the states and let me tell you, seeing American kids

under

7 years old _pack_ bookstores (and I'm talking the

big

chains here) just to read a story was a new phenomena to me. Kids that young usually are not into reading as a rule.

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Arthur B

at 16:25 on 2012-04-22

I'd like to see those statistics about how the number of kids reading Potter were "reading kids" anyway. I'm writing from the states and let me tell you, seeing American kids under 7 years old _pack_ bookstores (and I'm talking the bigchains here) just to read a story was a new phenomena to me. Kids that young usually are not into reading as a rule.

Were they packing the bookstores year-round or just around the Potter release dates? Because if it's the latter, that might just be a side effect of them all being keen to read the same books by the same author rather than being particularly more keen to read than their forebears.

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TheMerryMustelid

at 16:28 on 2012-04-22

James D: Man, that's kind of depressing. There must also be kids out there whose 'first amazing books' were the Twilight series.

I see what you did there. :P

God, that would be even

more

depressing, wouldn't it?

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Sister Magpie

at 17:17 on 2012-04-22

Were they packing the bookstores year-round or just around the Potter release dates? Because if it's the latter, that might just be a side effect of them all being keen to read the same books by the same author rather than being particularly more keen to read than their forebears.

I don't have the actual statistics, but the upshot of what I read was the opposite. It wasn't that the books were read by kids who were readers anyway. They were also read by non-readers because they were a huge thing everyone wanted to read. But they didn't get kids interested in reading so much as interested in Harry Potter. So it didn't create readers, it created HP fans who read that.

Though in my experience having worked at a kids' bookstore there are plenty of kids who would pack a bookstore to hear a story. There just aren't huge events where a specific book coming out brings in the crowd all at once--which of course was true for adult readers with HP too.

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http://fishinginthemud.livejournal.com/

at 17:21 on 2012-04-22I think if the goal was to get kids to start reading Harry Potter and then graduate them to actual good books, it didn't work. There are kids who read Harry Potter and nothing else, which doesn't quite make them "readers."

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http://roisindubh211.livejournal.com/

at 20:09 on 2012-04-22

I have no illusions that it's great literature, but I think fellow fantasy writers like Terry Pratchett are just a _mite_ jealous that she captured the youth market before they did.

That was never the problem- Pratchett, at least, was annoyed at the way she was presented in the news as if she was the first person ever to put MAGIC in books for CHILDREN, etc, in pieces obviously written by people who do not read fantasy (and yet think they know what's what in the genre).

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http://lonewolf-eburg.livejournal.com/

at 21:07 on 2012-04-22The main problem with Harry Potter isn't that the books stop being "children's books" halfway though. "These books are no longer for children" is a statement that implies something that is nor positive, nor negative.

The problem is that in the later books, "childlike" elements inherited from earlier ones uncomfortably mesh with the new "adult stuff". I'd argue that in HBP and DH this is particularly noticeable, though two previous books suffer from that as well. As a result, both the series and every particular post-PoA book taken in itself have a hard time realizing who the hell is their primary audience. That results in a lot of dissonant Mood Whiplashes, aborted storylines and themes as the narrative merrily goes from "childlike" to "adult" and back again, and inconsistent characterization.

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TheMerryMustelid

at 21:19 on 2012-04-22TheMerryMustelid:

I have no illusions that it's great literature, but I think fellow fantasy writers like Terry Pratchett are just a _mite_ jealous that she captured the youth market before they did.

http://roisindubh211.livejournal.com/

That was never the problem- Pratchett, at least, was annoyed at the way she was presented in the news as if she was the first person ever to put MAGIC in books for CHILDREN, etc, in pieces obviously written by people who do not read fantasy (and yet think they know what's what in the genre).

Didn't Pratchett also take Rowling to task for effectively saying her books

weren't

fantasy? Like she was trying to distance her series from the "taint" of the genre or something. If she did say something as bone-headed as that, I don't blame him for jumping down her throat.

I love Pratchett and am happy to see him finally getting a wider audience in the States. For many years it seemed he was almost the American fantasy geek's best kept secret. I used to sneer at Terry Brooks readers while I clutched the latest then-hard-to-find Pratchett tome. But that was way back and Pratchett has had good american distribution for at least a decade now.

Ogg is my Co-pilot. :D

To get back on topic, if it's statistically true that Rowling didn't inspire more kids to read beyond her series, that is too bad, but is it necessarily her fault? One of my little pet theories is that fantasy in general has benefitted from the Harry Potter frenzy, because during the waits between Potter books & after the series ended, readers needed something to fill the void. So in effect, Rowling did help other fantasy writers by making fantasy more popular than ever before, even mainstream.

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Sister Magpie

at 00:04 on 2012-04-23I don't think anybody would say it was her fault. It came up, I think, because there were a lot of people crediting her with single-handedly boosting literacy rates etc. That idea has gotten repeated a lot, so it just gets corrected. Blaming her for not performing that feat is like blaming her for not actually being able to fly a broomstick--I don't think anybody could do it!

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Dan H

at 09:37 on 2012-04-23

The main problem with Harry Potter isn't that the books stop being "children's books" halfway though. "These books are no longer for children" is a statement that implies something that is nor positive, nor negative.

I think I disagree, but only margainally. I think "these books are no longer for children" does in fact imply something negative, simply because it implies - well - all of the stuff you mention later.

The reason I would suggest that it was bad for a series of children's books to become a series of books for adults is simply that it is inevitable that the "for kids" stuff doesn't fit with the "for adults" stuff. Part of the problem here is that people seem to forget that you can have a dark, serious story in which bad things happen to people which is still fundamentally a children's story, or a lighthearted wacky romp which is still for grownups.

Rowling's error - essentially - was that she mistakenly believed that the only way to engage with the "serious" themes she wanted to engage with in her children's stories was for her to stop writing children's books.

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http://lonewolf-eburg.livejournal.com/

at 15:16 on 2012-04-23I agree that JKR's OMGADULT!change was always going to have some problems, but I also think that she could've done more to alleviate the problem of thematic discordance. She didn't seem to be aware that she has a problem that needs fixing at all.

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Frank

at 17:04 on 2012-04-23I, too, recall reading that HP did not increase readers. My understanding is that the series may have increased literacy within age groups. Increasing one's ability to read books does not necessarily make one a reader of books.

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http://fishinginthemud.livejournal.com/

at 17:24 on 2012-04-23I agree that after about book three Rowling was no longer clear which market she was targeting, and it didn't matter because she was solidly hitting all of them. I can imagine her and her publishers having their minds blown by their success and wanting more of it, without really being sure what was working and shouldn't be changed and where they had room to let her go crazy and do what she liked. There may not have been a conscious choice to turn the books "adult," but an organic growth in that direction, which no editor ever bothered to sit down and take a good look at and realize just how fucked up it was.

Basically, I think Rowling was a decently talented newbie who was deeply injured by her early success, and it'll be interesting to see whether she ever recovers from it as a writer.

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http://fishinginthemud.livejournal.com/

at 17:34 on 2012-04-23

She didn't seem to be aware that she has a problem that needs fixing at all.

I think closer to the end, her only thought was "finish these fucking books so I can get the fuck on with my life." It's probably more that she simply didn't care what she wrote anymore as long as she got words on paper, and her editors cared even less.

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http://scipiosmith.livejournal.com/

at 20:06 on 2012-04-23

She didn't seem to be aware that she has a problem that needs fixing at all.

Given that her next book seems to be a satire on the State of the Nation, I'd say she does at least realise that a work primarily for adults will allow her more room to engage with the ideas she wants to in the manner which she would like. As Dan and others have noted, the social commentary in HP was hampered by the fact that it was ultimately a story about the Chosen One defeating the Dark Lord.

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http://lonewolf-eburg.livejournal.com/

at 20:29 on 2012-04-23I think that Scipio is correct here. To make her later books truly "grow" and be consistent at least in themselves (even if we disregard the earlier ones), JKR needed her books to change from "ultimately a story about the Chosen One defeating the Dark Lord". But while some fanfiction writers could do that (with varying degrees of success), Rowling, understandably, couldn't afford it.

That's why GoF and OotP weren't as bad as DH. In then, JKR could allow herself to deviate a little. HBP, IMO, is just plain badly written.

"I'd say she does at least realise that a work primarily for adults will allow her more room to engage with the ideas she wants to in the manner which she would like"

To be fair, sometimes fantasy can be a good vessel for real-world commentary. But then, see the previous points made on the thread.

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http://scipiosmith.livejournal.com/

at 19:05 on 2012-04-24

To be fair, sometimes fantasy can be a good vessel for real-world commentary. But then, see the previous points made on the thread.

Oh, definitely. One of my favourite fantasies of the moment is Shadows of the Apt, which tries very hard to engage with race, privilege and the nature of prejudice and discrimination in general. I just think that a series for children is perhaps not the best medium for that sort of thing.

[thejokersenigma]

Loki x Reader - Birthday Party (Guest Post)(1000 Follower Writing Challenge)

Hey guys, the wonderful @so-say-xandra is the first person to submit a piece for my writing challenge and was more than happy for me to post it (yay!)

I hope you guys enjoy it! I’ll leave a little feedback at the bottom if you all don’t mind?

(I haven’t changed/edited this in anyway (pinky promise) other than putting in a few spaces between words where the formatting had removed them!)

———————–

BIRTHDAY PARTY

In response to @thejokersenigma writing challenge to celebrate her much deserved 1000+ followers !

I hope the characters are not (too) ooc and please excuse my English as it is not my native language. I tend to mix both US and UK >< so sorry !

[WARNINGS] : None

Summary :You are hosting a birthday party for Thor at your place. And while your guests (Avengers & Asgardians alike) are enjoying themselves, Loki takes you away from the gathering and asked you for a favor. 

“You did good, kid.” said Tony Stark going out of your kitchen, licking a spoon full of chocolate.

“What were you doing back there?” You asked him sternly.

“Nothing.” He quickly answered, hiding the evidence of his crime behind his back.

You decided to let it go because you knew, nothing in the world would come between Tony Stark and food. Thankfully, you had made more than one cake, otherwise he would have tasted your wrath more than your impeccable recipe.

“That’s more than enough Peter, thank you.” You called to the teenage boy hanging a colorful banner across your living room.

“What about the piñata ?” He asked you, slowly sliding from the ceiling, upside down.

“You bought a piñata?” shouted Tony from the kitchen, back to the scene of the crime.

“Wemadea piñata.” answered Peter with a proud smile. “You wanna see it Mr Stark ?”

“You betcha !”

The man promptly burst out of the kitchen, another spoon full of chocolate dough. And followed the boy to the balcony outside.

“Hey [Y/N] ? Where do you want these ?” said Natasha Romanov from your entryway.

You turned around and see the spy carrying a massive wooden crate full of bottles. You pointed the bar you had installed near a brick wall.

“Do you need a hand ?” you asked concerned about the heavy weight.

“I wouldn’t mind !” declared another voice.

Clint Barton followed by Steve Roger and Saw Wilson, was struggling with his load. Before you could make a step, Peter Parker bursted into the living room.

“Lemme help.”

“Uh uh no way, get outta of here kid.” said Barton turning around in order to avoid Peter touching the bottles.

“Come on, I just want to help.”

But Barton wouldn’t let him anywhere near alcohol, too aware of Stark’s protective behavior towards the boy.

“Would you look at that !” exclaimed Tony holding the piñata shaped to look like Mjlonir, Thor’s hammer.

“Ain’t she a beauty ?” said Steve with an amused smirk. “Where do you want the rest ?” he gently asked you.

“The kitchen will be fine. Thank you.” you answered.

Clint managed to escaped Peter, moving swiftly to the side, like a football player. Tony raised an eyebrow while contemplating the massive amount of liquor brought in by the three men and Natasha.

“You have outdone yourself Romanov.”

Before she could answer, a huge clunk shook the walls of your Queens apartment, followed by a loud growl.

“Hulk, stuck.” complained the green giant, folded in your entryway.

He too, was carrying his share of wooden crates. But instead of one or two, like the others had, he hold a dozen of them.

“OK — now you’ve outdone yourself.” Tony said to Romanov.

The red haired woman grinned.

“Well, we all have seen how Thor parties. It’s the least I could do.” she winked at you.

Not only could the god of thunder hold his liquor, but it seemed that earthling alcohol could never quite do the trick. It was nothing compared to Asgardians drinks, you imagined. And that was why, you let Natasha in charge of finding the best and finest spirits on Earth.

As you and the others, except Peter who was banned from even thinking about alcohol, helped the Hulk, you looked at your place. It was warm and cosy, with cushions thrown all over the sofa and the soft carpet on the floor. It smelled of the cakes and cookies you’ve been baking all afternoon.

Peter had arranged fairy lights inside and out of the apartment, while you set the long diner table. You went for a light white and golden theme,placing candles here and there.

It was no Stark tower, you thought, remembering all the parties you went to there. But Tony’s place as great and big as it was, lacked a little something. To celebrate your friend’s special day, you went for a homely feel. Even if it meant a crowded place when all the guests would have arrived.

When Bruce Banner came back, you handed him a blanket, and showed him the bathroom where a fresh stack of clothes awaited. Then, you walked back to the kitchen, only to find, Tony studying one of your baked cakes.

“Would you get out of here?” you reprimanded him.

“I was just admiring.” he said raising his hands in the air, in false innocence.

From the living room you could hear Peter telling the other Avengers what to do and how to do it. You chose him to be your assistant not only because you liked this goofy teenager, but because his eagerness to please had simply the better of you.

“So ! That’s quite a party you planned kid.”

“Yup.” you answered, focused on your baking.

He strolled around the crates on the floor, taking a measure of what was about to come.

“Do you think you had enough?”

You honestly couldn’t tell if his question was rhetorical or not. You shrugged, your hands full of cookie dough.

“Well, I also invited Sif and Brunhilde so…”

“Say no more.” Tony answered with a raised hand. “Wait! Did you…did you invited Antlers too?”

Your heart skipped a beat at the mention of Loki’s infamous nickname, but decided to ignore it. Of course you had extended an invitation to Thor’s brother.

“I don’t know kid.” Tony mumbled. “I don’t like him ambling around here.”

“You don’t like him, period.” you answered a bit coldly. “And I thought it would do him some good.” you finally add, not clarifying whom you were referring to.

“You’re too nice, for you own good, kid.” he replied before leaving the kitchen to monitor the final settings of the party.

As expected, your apartment was crowded. Full of Avengers and Asgardians getting along just fine. You could not help but feel proud of yourself as you watched everyone having a good time. Being the host of the party, meant you could not quite enjoy it though.

You made sure there was food at all times and kept a close eye on the booze. You did not want anyone getting wasted before the big dinner.

“That is a splendid feast you thrown me [Y/N] !” claimed Thor in his loud and jovial voice. “Maybe you could help me about something.” he said looming over you, placing his friendly arm around your shoulders.

“Shoot.” you encouraged him gladly.

“I heard talks and whispers about a fight of some sort. Against something called a pintata ?”

“Piñata,” you corrected him, feeling your cheeks burn. “It is not a– a fight, per say. But beating is involved, yes. Wh…who is talking about it exactly ?”

“Who’s not talking about it, you mean !” he bursted. 

Thor clapped his massive hand on your back, making you cough upon the blow.

“Was s’pose to be a surprise…” you muttered between your teeth. As he left you to join the others, something caught your attention near the bar. There, you spotted the valkyrie, carelessly handing a glass to young Peter Parker. You raced through the crowd, and at the last second, snatched the glass from Peter’s hand and drank the whole thing down.

The beverage barely touched your lips and yet it burned them, firing its way down your throat. Your eyes watered and you seemed to have forgotten how to breath. 

“You’re quite the party animal, aren’t you !” guffawed the Asgardian, holding tight a half-full bottle of liquor.

You raised a finger to her, ready to lecture her about earth rule as not to give any strong beverage to a minor, but you could barely speak, your stomach burning like hell fire. Instead, you turned to Peter, the glass still in your grip.

“I didn’t do anything.” he said raising his hands.

“Just…Stark…” was all you could say at the moment.

You watch as the teenage boy ran away from the bar. Finally air seemed to have find a way back to your lungs. You swipe out the tears at the corner of your eyes and turned back to the valkyrie who was opening another bottle all for herself. She grinned at you.

“T’shit…too strong…for (you scarcely hold a burp back) him.”

“As it is for you as well.” answered drawled voice behind you.

First, you saw a pale white hand reaching the glass you still hold in yours. Then, you felt the brushing of his cool fingers upon your skin as he took it away. Your eyes followed up and landed of Loki’s green ones, his face crossed with a devilish smile. Without breaking eye contact with you, he poured himself a drink, and began to slowly savor it.

“Refreshing.” he purred with a cocky grin.

“Show off.” you answered to his provocation, hardly hiding your amused smile. “Glad you could come.” you said, your throat still burning. Loki nodded and bowed his head.

“You have better taste in spirits than I ever thought you would.” he said raising, now, his glass to you.

“Did you know there will be fighting too ?” announced Valkyrie. Loki raised an interested eyebrow while you buried your head in your shoulder.

“I don’t know what a piñata is,” she added “but I can wait to see Thor fight another force of nature. It’s like we’re back on Sakaar!” she laughed before taking a long gulp of drink.

Loki shivered.

“A force of ? No, it’s just a – urgh… forget about it.” you gave up and soon went to check upon the other guests.

You had found a place to sit, next to Natasha on your living room small bench. Thor, surrounded by Sif and Steveon the sofa, was telling a story about a battle the three of them fought not long ago. Everyone in earshot was hooked to his epic tale, except for Valkyrie and Sam Wilson who had heard the story a thousand times already, and found themselves partners in booze at the bar. Even though you have heard it as soon as he returned to Earth, you listened to Thor’s story as well as the others.

Piles of presents took up too much space on the diner table, but you did not mind. On the contrary, you were glad to see your friend being that spoiled and you could not wait for him to open yours. Out of the blue, you sensed something strange. Overcome with a feeling that someone was behind you. A dark presence getting closer and closer to your back.

Right before, you turned your head to check above your shoulders, Loki leant forward, his long dark hair touching slightly the bare skin of your neck. 

His cold breath smelled of the spirits he had drunk, was enticing to say the least. Your skin crawled as he whispered to your ear.

“Which one is yours?”

You swallowed with difficulty. Your lips were surprisingly dry and your tongue heavy in your mouth. Yet, you managed to answer him, your eyes flickering to his – way – too close lips. Your gift was the square one, with the silver paper carefully wrapped around it.

“Are you…satisfied with it?” he then ask, seemingly closer than before.

You couldn’t help yourself, and closed your eyes, feeling the overwhelming presence of Loki’s tensed and lean body just an inch away from yours.

You would have shrugged your shoulders but you did not dare move more than just a slight, so you nodded, unable to speak either.

Without warning, Loki put his hand on the small of your back and whispered in a husk and yet urgent voice: “come with me.” Your skin crawled so much at his touch, that you suspected it to want to go away altogether. As he broke contact, you caught a breath.

He did not wait for you, and swiftly went out of the room, raising no one’s attention. But when you got up, it was another story.

“You okay sweety?” asked Natasha looking concerned.

“Oh yeah!” you answered dismissing her concern with a wave of your hand “a host’s work is never done.”

You excused yourself and smiled your way out of the living room and walked as naturally as you could to the kitchen. You looked around you, not seeing Loki anywhere. Where was he? Moreover, why did you followed him so blindly?

Loki hissed, calling your attention. He was standing in the dark corridor, waiting for you to come along. As you approached he quickly grabbed a hold of your bare forearm and led you to the bathroom. Once the both of you inside, he closed the door and turn the key in the locket.

Your heart pounded in your chest, felt the sweat from your pores as you tried to wrap your mind around what was going on. By now, you got used to Loki’s presence. You even, hanged out quite a bit. But always in a casual atmosphere, with a lot of space around you. You realized, that until now, the two of you had never been left alone with each other.

The proximity of the god in your tiny bathroom, where only a small bathtub, a sink and the toilets were enough to fill most of it, made you nervous. Nevertheless, you were determined to act as usual, and stopped being – what? Afraid? mesmerized maybe? 

“Care to tell me why you just pulled me into a room and locked the door?” you gestured towards the handle.

“I must require your help.” Loki answered in a hushed voice.

“You have weird way of asking for it.” you said crossing your arms on your chest. “What do you want from me?”

For a quick second you could have sworn Loki eyed you greedily, but as you studied his face, there was nothing but seriousness.

“It is of the upmost importance that you do agree.” he warned you.

“I can’t if you don’t tell me what is it first!” you exclaimed impatiently.

His eyes couldn’t stay in one place, which was not like him. When he chose to focus his gaze on you, you did not blush. You were too annoyed for that. 

“Everyone has brought one.” he muttered in admittance.

You scrunched up your nose, not understanding what he was saying when it hit you like a truck. Your eyes widened and a mocking grin ran across your face.

“You forgot about it, didn’t you? You forgot your brother’s birthday!” you laughed.

“Would you please lower your voice?” he hushed.

“You’re a bad brother!” you mocked.

“I am well aware of that, thank you.” he said looking genuinely hurt.

A laugh died in your throat as you looked at him. He looked at you, practically begging for your help without saying anything. How did he do that? You wondered. How could he go from merciless killer vibe to cinnamon roll in need for a hug in an instant?

He stood tall, but somehow fragile. As his long body against the door, blocking the only way out, you felt powerless. You studied his face a little while longer, looking for something – anything – that might tell you it was a bad idea.

“Fine.” you sighed. “What d’you have in mind Dory?”

“Well – I was thinking we could pretend your present was in fact, my present. So I have something to give my brother.” he flashed a smile, back to his confident, pretentious self.

“Oh hell no!” you screamed appalled.

“Why not?” he asked genuinely surprised you did not immediately agreed with his idea.

“He’ll think that I forgot his birthday!”

“He will not.” dismissed Loki “You are the reason we are all gathered here, are you not?”

It was true and you were aware of it. Nonetheless, you were the kind of person to go out of your depth for loved ones. It meant nice gestures as well as gifts and parties.

Loki saw the scowl on your face and left his spot against the door to take a step towards you.

“Better you than me.” he whispered, fully aware of the effect he had had on you earlier.

“You mean to throw me under the bus.” you turned your head and stare at him.

You hold his intense, almost burning, gaze. Yes, you were willing to make an effort, as you knew the god of mischief had a hard time adjusting to life on Earth since Thor brought him back. Even though you were more than glad to see two brothers grew closer there was a limit, Loki was dangerously close to cross. And you would not let him get away with it.

“I assure you.” he simpered “My brother holds you in high regard. You will hardly disappoint him.” he paused “Unlike me.”

Here it was again, the flash of hurt feelings in his eyes. His jaws were clenched in a cold bitterness, and as he let a heavy breath out, he asked you, almost implored you if you would do it for him.

“Why? I mean why did you pick me over” you paused, thinking “Tony or Steve? They’ve know Thor for a longer time than I have. Hell, why didn’t you ask Sif? She is obviously the one to go to.”

“Because you have taste.”

“Don’t lie to me.” you immediately answered smacking his arm with the back of your hand.

Loki tittered a bit. By now, he was accustomed to your habit of smacking people who annoyed you. Sometimes, it seemed that he was purposefully provoked you, as you often found yourself clapping him on his arms or shoulders. He smiled again, briefly, but you caught it anyway. 

“Because you are my brother’s friend. Even more so, you are mine.”

His? Your brain froze for a moment where his voice echoed, low, almost like a seducing growl.

“And I am surely not their friend.” he smirked.

“Friends don’t steal from one another.” you reminded him.

“I had no intention to steal from you.” he assured you, taking another step closer to you. “But now that you mention it, perhaps it would be…”

“Don’t you dare!” you warned him with another smack on his forearm.

You gazed into each other eyes, knowing all too well, you will not refuse him.

“Fine!” you surrendered. “But, and I insist on it, we’ll pretend it came from the both of us. Deal?” you extended your hand in front of you. Loki raised an eyebrow and stared at your serious face. You could not tell if it was pride or amusement that lighted his features, but he soon took your hand in his. His soft, frosty skin against yours made you shiver once more. Your heart pounded in your chest so loudly, you thought the god could hear it too. 

“Deal.” he said shaking your hand once but not taking it out of yours.

You stood like this for what seemed to be endless seconds, when the laughters from the living room forced you to come to your senses.

“We better get back there.”

“Right !” exclaimed Loki as he, also, emerged from a dream. “After you, my lady.”

He slid over to the side and unlocked the door he opened for you. As you walked past him, you shook your head at his banter.

You rushed through the corridor, Loki at your heels when you asked “By the way, what’s in it for me?”

“The satisfaction of helping a friend in need.”

“Nah.” you answered unconvinced and unsatisfied.

Before entering the kitchen which led to the living room, you straightened your back, and combed nervously your hair with your fingers. You looked around and thought about coming back with a plate of sliced tomatoes and salmon to announce the beginning of diner. But before you could move, Loki’s hand brushed your elbow, his fingers slowly gliding back to the palm of your hand. His touch teased the tip of your fingers. Then, he leaned over you, his lips against your ear and whispered in a silky voice “How about…anything you want?”

You managed to get through diner without eyeing too much in Loki’s direction. The joyous guests getting most of your attention were a big help. At the end of each course, provided by Stark’s caterer, Steve and Peter landed you a hand, as they were the only ones, alongside you, sober enough to be trusted with plates. 

Sometimes, when you gathered the dirty plates, Loki would completely shut you out, ignoring your presence beside him. Other times, he would raised his head to you, smiled and politely give you his plate, saying “Thank you, my lady.” You rolled your eyes, unable to give him the smack he deserved.

“Why is there a smudge on your cake?” asked Steve Rogers examining the desert you had prepared for Thor’s birthday.

“Stark.” you cursed his name through your teeth as you lighted the candles all around the tasty nine realms you baked.

You carefully placed the massive tray on Steve hands and forearm. In the living room, you nodded at Peter so he could shut down the lights. The room was lit only by candles and the fairy lights hanging here and there, reflecting the starry sky outside.

Perfect, you thought as everyone started to sing happy birthday to the god of thunder.

Natasha and Clint cleared the space in the middle of the diner table, allowing Steve to put the tray down. At the end of the song, they all clapped cheerfully. You glanced at Loki. He had a bitter smile on his face. Still he played the part, and joined the congratulations, only politely.

“Don’t forget to you make a wish before blowing out the candles Point Break” laughed Tony in front of Thor’s mesmerized face.

“Why would wish upon blowing some candles out?” he asked in disbelief.

“It’s tradition.” replied simply Natasha.

“It is known Khaleesi.” said Peter, making you burst a laugh.

“Make haste your majesty,” jested Brunhilde. “I can’t wait to see you kick some piñata.” clearly no one had thought best to tell exactly what a piñata was to the Asgardians.

You were standing at the end of the diner table, next to Loki, a camera in your hands. You pressed the video recorder button. That way you were sure to capture the moment. When Thor successfully extinguished the small flames the whole crowd applauded. You walked around the table, taking pictures of your guests when you noticed a sulky, silent Loki whose eyes were lost in some gloomy patterns of thoughts. Most likely he felt envious of his brother’s happiness while everyone cheered and asked for cake.

You kneeled as his side and startled him a bit when you ask for his help bringing the gifts to the table. Nonetheless, did he agreed and quickly rose to his feet. You took him by the arm, initiating for the first time since you’ve know each other, a physical contact that did not involved playful and annoyed smacking.

“When’s your birthday?” you asked bluntly.

“Why? Do you intend on making me hit a strange shaped objet full of sweets as well?” he smirked.

“Maybe.” you shrugged with an amused faced.

“That’s not exactly my style.” he precised.

You beamed your smiled at him and started putting presents on his arms and took a bunch yourself. Another trip will be needed, you realized.

“When is yours?” he asked softly on your way back to the table.

“A lady never tells.” you answered playfully.

The ritual of gifts unwrapping had started as soon the last slice of cake was eaten. You were seated at Thor’s left side, giving him his birthday presents one by one. Between each one, Thor insisted to rise and hugged in thanks. So after quite some time, when finally your gift showed up, you suddenly felt very anxious. 

What do you offer a god? You had asked yourself while tossing and turning on bed at night. It was an impossible question and yet you found the answer when you asked yourself instead what do you offer a friend?

You were sure of your choosing until this very moment. You watched carefully his large hands examining the silver paper, touching every angle of the gift, trying to guess what it could be.

He had already received amazing, pricey and thoughtful presents. You glanced at Loki who was eyeing you expectantly, his face showing a slight of nervousness as well.

Not only did you want to please your friend, make him happy. But now, after the bathroom deal between you and Loki, you felt like the fraternal relationship was hanging in the balance. The pressure on your should became more and more unbearable.

“How marvelous!” boomed Thor’s voice.

He showed the book 1001 Places You Need To Visit he had just received for everyone to see.

Thor turned to you and grabbed you by your shoulders, pulling you in his muscular arms.

“I love it [Y/N]. I shall visit every places listed on this guidebook. Thank you!”

“Actually” you coughed when he released his embrace. “It’s from Loki and I.”

“What?” would have exclaimed a surprised audience in a cheap sitcom comedy. But you were not on TV, and the guests, despite having drank a bit much, knew how to behave.

“You remembered!” yelled Thor in disbelief.

“How could I forget?” Loki answered with a false innocence.

Sneaky bastard, you thought, repressing the urge to wipe his triumphant smirk away from his gorgeous face.

“Stranger things have happened.” said Tony sipping his drink.

“Truth is” you said “the book is from me but, the rest was Loki’s idea.”

“The rest? Is there more? What is it brother, please tell me.” he asked impatiently.

Loki looked at you, daggers in his eyes. If he could, he would have murdered you on the spot, you had not doubt. But to his brother’s face he was all smiles.

“I – uh…”

“He wants to visit all of these amazing places with you. All of them.” you insisted.

Thor and everyone else around the table were baffled. All eyes turned to Loki.

“Oh how nice.” said Bruce Banner.

“Yes. It is a very lovely thought.” added Steve Rogers with a warm smile to Loki, making Tony coughed in his drink. Clint and Natasha looked at you, not quite buying the whole brotherly time, but if they did not voiced their suspicions.

“Brother! I – That’s wonderful. I can’t believe it.” he said shaking his brother by the shoulder with a warm, and yet painful, grip.

“Neither can I.” muttered Loki.

It was four in the morning and you were leading a sleepy teenage boy through the corridor.

“Go to sleep Peter. I’ll finish tomorrow.”

“No, but – uhm – I don’t…mind.”

“Sleep. Now.” you commanded as you let him fall upon your bed. You took off his shoes and put a blanket over him.

“Thank you.” he said in his sleep. “Great…party.”

You gently closed the door and headed towards the kitchen. It was still a mess despite your efforts of cleaning it throughout the entire evening. It seemed like it would never be clean again. While that depressing thought crawled into your sleep deprived brain, Steve came in with an empty crate he started filling with emptied bottles. He was relentless, determined to give you a hand until everything looked like it was before.

You began to gather all of the bottles as well, ignoring the headache slowly throbbing . From where you stood, you watchedTony’s head on Bruce’s shoulder as they were both soundasleep.Thor and Sif drinking what was left of alcohol and talking. While, outside on the balcony, there was Sam Wilson singing some Marvin Gaye’s songsto a drunken and merry Valkyrie.

“Where are Clint and Natasha?” you asked realizing you haven’t seen them.

“They just left,” answered Rogers. For Budapest.”

“Oh – Of course.” you shrugged, a bit sad they did not wait to say goodbye.

“Budapest! That’s on our list too brother!” yelled Thor from across the living room raising his glass up in the air.

“Joy.” said Loki with a stern face. He was seated on one of the two stools you had behing the counter of your kitchen island, playing with crumbs of cake.

“Can’t you, at least, use your tricks to speed this up?” you heard Rogers asked the god of mischief as you left the kitchen in desperate need of peace and quiet.

You were sore but content with yourself. As you walked to your bathroom, you decided to take a steamy shower and then put an all nighter. ‘I’ll sleep when they’re gone’ you thought to yourself. Anyhow, you had not many options as where to sleep. It was either the carpet on your living room floor or the smallest bathtub ever in your bathroom. 

As you closed and locked the door behind you, your headache seemed to calm a bit. Finally you were alone with yourself for the first time since…since forever. You did not mind the constant buzzing of work at Tony’s compound and the guests at your place, but sometimes you just wanted to be in your quiet bubble.

You turned on the hot water and soon the bathroom was warm and steamy, making your eyelid excruciatingly heavy. You started to undress yourself. First the pants and then your shirt. With your hands you tried to dry the head mirror when you noticed a dark figure had appeared behind you. 

“You tricked me.” growled Loki’s voice behind you.

“Never heard of knocking, Candyman?” you jumped out.

You turned to face him, struck by how close your practically naked body was from his. Yet, you defied him with a scornful gaze. The god of mischief took a small step forward, reducing the distance between the two of you.

You were about to demand him to leave the room, when he slipped a hand under your chin. Barely touching it, he made you look up to him. His other hand now skimming the skin of your exposed stomach, giving you goosebumps all over your body.

His green eyes flickered to your lips and went back to your gaze. You could feel his tantalizing breath upon your mouth, his nose almost touching yours as he slowly leaned over you. 

“You tricked me.” he purred with a satisfied grin. His lips brushing yours.

——-

I really did love this idea - and the main content is great! I don’t want to be too critical because I don’t want to discourage you in anyway, but there’s a few grammatical errors, tenses a bit mixed up, words in the wrong place - but who cares about that niggly stuff (I mean I can hardly talk! And you’ve already explained English isn’t your native language! ) when the main content is this fun?! After all, it didn’t stop me from reading and enjoying it!

Wonderful job, hun, I hope you continue to write and use this wonderful imagination of yours!

[stray-writer-glitch]

Flowers and late night tea

Member/group: Minho/Lee Know Stray Kids

Word count: 1,126

A/n: This is a quick pick-me-up drabble for @stray-kiddxs Hope your day gets better luv!!!

You felt so dead. Feet sore and face tired of holding up a smile, you dragged yourself to your apartment. Slightly sluggish you turned the key and went inside immediately kicking off your shoes and going to get the shower started.

A few moments later found you preparing a warm cup of tea. You had changed into a comfy oversized shirt and sweats, damp hair thrown up in a ponytail/bun hybrid. Having set the water to boil you rummaged in the cupboard for tea, only to come up empty handed.

"I can't believe it." You mumbled to yourself.

Dragging yourself to the door you decided to ask Mrs. Kim across the hall if she could spare any tea. She was a nice old lady that was really an angel in flowery dresses and wrinkles. However after knocking for a whole five minutes a door to your right opened.

"What in the world is your problem?" Asked a clearly pissed off voice.

You were caught off guard, the guy was new and you haven't talked to him beyond a quick greeting. His tone set something inside of you off. You were about to bite back at him when a familiar voice interrupted from inside his apartment.

"Minho, honey, that's no way to talk to a neighbor."

"Sorry, Mrs. Kim." The guy, Minho, called back.

"Now, what's all the noise about?" The old lady waddled into view. "Ah! Hello luv, what can I do for you, sorry for not answering the door, this young gentleman invited me over for tea."

"Sorry to interrupt, that's actually exactly what I was looking for. I ran out of tea and hoped you'd have some you could spare." You explained yourself somewhat embarrassed about your attire.

"Well of course dear, let me just get some." She moved to get her door.

"No need." Minho spoke up. "She can just join us."

"Really?" You asked kinda shocked that he'd offer that. "After I interrupted your tea and caused this much of a rucks?"

"It'll be even more trouble to have Mrs. Kim fetch you tea when we already have it prepared." He reasoned ushering you inside. "Besides, the more the merrier." He gave you a brilliant smile.

"I like your thinking." With those decisive words Mrs. Kim headed back to the warmly lit kitchen/dining area.

Pausing in the hall to take your shoes off you shivered at the cool air of Minho's apartment. Minho led the way to the cosy corner and as soon as you walked in you noticed how the scent of tea mixed with that of the bouquet in the middle of the table. The flowers were surrounded by a pot of tea, sugar, a few plates of sweets and two cups. The scene was completed with Mrs. Kim smiling at them over the flowers, with all the love of a grandmother for her favorite grandkids.

"Come along, the tea is growing cold." She hurried you along since you froze on the threshold.

You nodded sitting down across from her watching Minho get another cup. Your eyes wondered about the room until they settled on the flowers in front of you.

"Quite pretty, aren't they?" Mrs. Kim smiled, noticing the focus of your attention.

You nodded. "It's a very beautiful arrangement."

"Thanks." Minho sat down next to you, handing you your cup. "I hoped they'd be bought though, not taken home."

"Wait." You processed his words, your brain was tired after a long day. "You made this?"

"Hmm" He nodded.

"That's really cool. The colors fit so well together, and the smell is so sweet without being overbearing..." Your words came to a stop. "Sorry, I'm rambling." The depths of the teacup suddenly became very interesting.

You looked up as you heard a chuckle across from you.

"Luv, I think you made him speechless." The old lady laughed over her cup. "Quite the accomplishment too."

"Hey!" Minho whined.

Mrs. Kim just laughed. You couldn't help but join her.

"This is not fair." Minho said looking between you and the older lady. "I'm outnumbered!"

You descended into giggles. Laughing away the emotional tiredness of the day away.

"You - have - no idea" You managed between gulps for air. "how much I needed that today."

"Laughter is the best medicine." Mrs. Kim said nodding wisely. "I'm telling you this as a woman who seems to need medicine for every type of pain an older person can possibly get."

That made both you and Minho laugh again.

That evening passed much better than you had ever hoped. Your neighbors were much funnier than they seemed and it was such a great stress reliever to just chat and joke around with them. You didn't even notice how it grew to be late.

"Well," Mrs. Kim said standing up from the table. "You young people go ahead and talk some more, I need to head home. A busy day tomorrow." She smiled at you.

Minho, ever the gentleman, insisted on walking her to the door. You were left alone for a moment and your eyes drifted back to the flowers. You raised a hand to touch the soft petals, leaning in to take in the scent.

"You know if you like them so much, just take them." Minho said from the doorway, startling you.

"Don't tempt me, I'll do it."

"Yes, disrupting public peace and barging into an apartment isn't enough, add taking flowers from innocent people to the list." Minho joked.

"Hey, you invited me and just told me I could take them." You countered.

"I didn't hear you deny the first charge though." He smirked at you. "Come on, while you're here, let's watch something."

"How is my being here factor into the decision of watching something?" You questioned following him out of the kitchen.

"Otherwise I'd be talking to the screen." Minho shrugged. "Makes me sound crazy."

"And we can't have that, now can we?" You teased. Plopping down on the couch and immediately wrapping yourself up in a blanket you found on it.

"You're awfully at home here." Minho mused getting a movie up.

"If tired enough, I can be at home anywhere."

"That sounds accurate." Minho nodded settling in beside you. "Now, what are we gonna watch."

The rest of the night saw you criticizing the stuffing out of a sappy romance with Minho. You were sure that if you had popcorn he would have thrown some at the screen as some points. Overall you had the most fun you'd had in what felt like ages. It was about three movies in that you started to feel your eyes droop. In no time you were asleep, leaning against the arm of the couch, still wrapped up in the blanket.

Masterlist

[sassysweetstories]

Rivalry //Shawn Mendes Series

Summary: You are a demigod that’s been brought to Camp-Half Blood in hopes to find yourself and learn more about your powers. In fear of being bullied, much like before, you intend to stay behind closed doors until there in no choice but to come out about who’s child you truly belong to. 

Ship: Shawn Mendes x Fem!Reader

Warnings: angst, fighting, swearing, fluff, blood, etc. 

Notes: none of these gifs are mine. i saw another fic about demigods and i wanted to try and make it a series. the thoughts been festering in my mind forever now. i hope you like it. (also, none of the demigods and gods are really related. because of the parents fucking around, it’s not legitimate in this series. I ALSO RECOMMEND YOU TO LISTEN TO THE PERCY JACKSON SOUNDTRACK WHILE READING THIS. IT’S SO COOL) 

Your P.O.V

Camp-Half Blood. There is was, staring back at me like some haunting horror movie scene. The outer perimeter only being lit by two burning fires alone gave me a strange mix of home despite the ominous setting. I belong here. I tell myself the same thought that I’ve been repeating the whole drive here. I belong here. This is the golden arches for the odd and weird kids, a place to feel accepted. A place where it’s okay to be different. Or, at least that’s what I was told. But I knew if there were teens here, people my age, there would still be judgement. There always is. And the trip here was nothing but ridiculous. This place seems to fall off the edge of the earth and right under the nose of humans. And yet, I feel a pull towards the location. I know in my heart that I belong. 

Despite the nerves that start to fester, I take a deep breath and walk forward. It’s dark and quiet but the second I pass through the veil, I feel a sense of comfort or warmth wash over me. You are safe here. It seems to say to me. Lugging my one suit case farther in, I find myself following the main pathway. That is until my eyes come across a centaur. He’s fucking huge, twice if not three times my height. "Mr. Brunner, I presume.” I say seriously. Everything about me screams business, not pleasure. But he ignores it and gallops up to shake my hand in mutual respect. “Please, call me, Chiron. You’ll be seeing me quite often. Might as well get on a first name basis.” I give him a hardy shake and follow him along the dark pathway, my heart beating with excitement and nerves. 

“Welcome to Camp Half Blood, (Y/n). I realize, as you’ve said before, that you do not want to disclose your parentage to anyone, but here in Camp Half Blood, we categories and home you according to your abilities. That is, until I realized who you belonged to-” He pauses, wary of his next words. “-We don’t get many rare demigods here, so in the interest of your discretion, and for you, and the safety of others, we will not disclose that information until it becomes absolutely necessary.” The second the words leave his mouth, I feel a weight being lifted off me. If anyone knew who I belonged to.. Gods, what a nightmare that would be. Mr. D continues to educate me on what exactly I would be doing here and the longer he spoke, the more excited I became. 

“Tomorrow (Y/n), I will personally show you around the facility, but for now I will take you to your living quarters, which are located not too far from the other kids but a good distance for privacy.” I want to look up at him and thank him but I’m so in awe by everything, I can barely form words. Instead I give him a small nod and unpack, mentally preparing for the next day to arrive. My house, since I’m the only one living in it, is a lot lighter than I thought it would be. It’s an odd mix of colors but nothing like I had anticipated. In one room it is black with shades of bright purple. In the other, it’s a vibrant orange/yellow with blue and green flowers the cover the ceiling which brought an odd contrast. It’s surprisingly warm and cosy despite my first wary impression. Everything about the room alone is far much nicer than I’d ever had. I can’t help but lean against my bed headboard and smile. I was home. 

The next morning I’m up bright and early, too excited to even hide it. I’m practically bouncing off the walls as I slip my shoes on. But the second Chiron shows up, I suppress it a little bit. I don’t wanna come off too strong, after-all. I’m not even outside before the sun is happily shinning down on us. The trees all gleam in delight under such warm and bright weather. I can’t help but smile at the sight. Birds fluttered above my head, singing their normal song. The trees around us sway against the wind and tower over my head like mountains. The longer we walk, the closer we come to the middle of the camp grounds. Kids of all ages and colors run by us in a hustle and bustle, not without giving me a once over, if not stare at me as if I had horns or something. 

For some reason, I’m something entirely new to them. It’s as if they know. Instead I stand up straighter, demanding respect and even scowl at some who dare to give me pointed looks. And instead of making the situation worse, I focus on Chiron’s words. “You will be training like the rest of the students. But before you get to that, you have a schedule with certain classes to obviously learn about your parents and the other gods here.” As we walk by, a boy with bright eyes and dirty blonde hair eyes me up and down like a piece of meat. He nudges his lacks and they look in my direction and have the audacity to howl at me. Instead of causing a scene, I clench my fists in frustration. Deep breaths. In and out. 

Finally pulling my gaze away from them, I can’t help but stand up straighter, as if I was trying to prove something to them. I can tell behind their cocky stares that their curious about me and what I can do. Who do I belong to and what I have to offer. But I hope they never find out. But all I know is that I do, in fact, belong. But if I wanted to show that, I would have to be on the field and in the classroom. My first class is Gods & Goddess and their powers. Before I even came to Camp Half Blood, I had always been fascinated by Greek mythology. 

I use to spend hours after school reading up on all sorts of stories only to find out I was the child of one them. Chiron escorts me to the class, if that’s not awkward enough. But when I enter, more than fifty kids look directly at me. I can practically feel their judgment filled expressions pressing down on me like an anvil. I suck in a breath of air, letting Chiron speak for me. “Professor Ryan, this is your new student, (Y/n) (Y/L/N).” I give him a hardly shake and give him my signature smile. I swear I hear a group of girls in the front sigh and swoon. Aphrodite kids, I’m sure. 

“It’s nice to meet you, Miss (Y/L/N). You can sit right next Mr. Underwood.” I glance up at the large college build lecture hall before my gaze falls on the satyr I saw early. He looks nice, giving me a warm and playful smile. I can’t help but return it because in all honesty, it’s quite contagious. When I take a seat, I pull out my hand for him to take. “(Y/n). Nice to meet you.” He grins and takes it before shaking it lightly. “Grover. Grover Underwood. Likewise!” It’s not as bad as I thought it would be. Grover whispers comments at me the entire time, practically shit talking the professor. It takes everything in me to not burst out laughing. Once class is over though, we walk out together and the conversation flows comfortably. 

“Hey (Y/n), I wanna introduce you to my best friend, Percy Jackson.” A boy with ocean blue eyes waltz up to us, showing me an equally warm smile. I take his hand and give him a hardy shake. “Nice to meet you, Percy. Cool name. I’m (Y/n), (Y/n) (Y/L/N).” Percy is just as nice as Grover and they make me feel at home. He’s son of Poseidon apparently. Which took me by surprise. “You’ll meet the rest of the gang later. Until now, you’ll have to settle for us.” Percy says jokingly but I can already sense a slight insecurity. “I like your guys’ company just fine.” But the second the words leave my mouth, I see Percy and Grover ease up. The sight makes me chuckle. It was only the first day and I was already making friends. 

Grover has taken it upon himself to show me every nook and cranny of the camp, saying Chiron was an old fart who didn’t know any of their secrets. Pointing over to a warm pink lit dorm, he gave me a cheeky smile. “Aphrodite’s daughters. Hello ladies!” He gives them a wave and some of them giggle in response. I’d be lying if I said none of them were attractive. The art of beauty and seduction was always something they perfected apparently. Some even wink at me as we walk by. I can’t help but blush as we shuffle across the way. “Aphrodite’s daughters are nothing but wild, especially in the sheets. Stay away from them. Or don’t. I mean, I don’t stay away, haha. Not far from them is Athena, girls and boys are separated but that doesn’t stop us much. You’ll meet Annabeth later. She’s a child of Athena.”

We make our way over to the dueling field and the girl he was talking about, whom I believe is Annabeth, is dueling with three other opponents. I watch in awe as she beats them with ease, not a bead of sweat to cover her gorgeous features. I can’t help but gape as she strides over to us, looking nothing but powerful. “That was amazing.” I spew out before my mind could even think. Before she seemed more cold and wary, but the longer she eyes me, the more at ease she becomes. “Thank you. I’m Annabeth.” I take her hand, still gaping. “I’m (Y/n). That was incredible. Can you teach me how to do that?” She laughs at my genuine awe. “Of course, in due time. We have to meet up with the others.” 

“The others?” I can’t help but ask in curiosity. They all smile as Grover spoke. “Luke and Shawn. Luke tags along with us occasionally but he mainly sticks to the more jock type crowd, ya know? He’s more brutes than he is brains. But don’t tell him I said that. Besides, he only sticks around with us because he fancies Percy.” Percy shakes his head, chuckling lightly as we walk down a different pathway. “He’s my friend. They’re both really great. You’re gonna love Shawn. He’s super chill but can be a bit cocky at times. He’s also got a killer voice. Shawn might seem a bit off but he’s pretty down to earth-” Annabeth practically snorts. “And he’s not a dick like Luke.” I can’t help but laugh at the comments being made towards the young boy. “Is Luke the one with dirty blonde hair? I may have seen him this morning howling at me. What a douche.” They snort at my comment before nodding. 

We head over to the weapons hall and as we enter, I can’t help but gape in awe. Weapons from all shapes and sizes layer each side of the walls, some even attached to the ceiling. Running my hand over some, I can’t help but smirk at the glint of light they all give off. “Beautiful, ain’t she? You’ll start combat soon but before you get your hands dirty, you’re gonna need a weapon, eh?” Grover says to me, motioning for everyone to follow him. We do so and listen to the folk lore behind all of the swords and knives without homes. That was until a bright black shine caught my gaze. Without realizing it, I drifted away from the group to get a better look at it. Black as night, the sword stretches a good few feet with a dark red leather handle and small, thin white swirls etched across the blade. 

I feel a pull towards the blade, like it was meant for me. I’m so enthralled by it’s treacherous beauty I almost don’t hear the manager comment, “Gorgeous, isn’t she. Five carbon steel, practically unbreakable, with a dark red handle that’s both comfortable yet firm enough to grip.” I graze the outside of the handle and smile at the sensation. That was until the manager commented, “I wouldn’t try to pick it up. It’s the heaviest weapon we’ve got and you look pretty nimble.” I could stand men trying to down grade women. Instead of listening to his warning, I take the sword with one hand and lift, expecting it to be heavy for my too “nimble body” but instead it practically floats under my touch. I twirl it around and it feels like I’m holding air. “Are you sure it’s the heaviest? It feels light to me.” 

The look on his face is nothing but priceless. Jaw dropped to the floor, face white he manages to scrape the last bit of testosterone he had and heads to the front. I take the sword with a smile, intending to check out before I came to an abrupt halt. The blonde douche I saw early, Luke, I believe, was speaking to another boy in a hushed manor behind a stack of knives. He had chocolate brown hair and equally as appealing eyes. “I don’t know Luke.. We don’t know anything about her-” He said softly, scanning over the weapons. Luke replied hastily. “She could be a great ally when we have the battle Friday.” The chocolate haired hunk scoffed. “We don’t even know if she can fight yet! Nor do we know of her abilities! What could she possibly offer for the win?!” Luke rolled his eyes and nudged the boys arm jokingly but he didn’t seem to enjoy it. “Don’t worry. With my suave persona, she’ll be confessing everything in no time. We’ll win this fight Friday, Shawn.” 

Were they talking about me? They must be. Quickly and quietly, I slip away from them without making a peep and head to the check-out line. “Looks like you found one!” Percy exclaimed happily, eyeing my weapon of choice. Annabeth nods her head with pride. “That’s a beautiful sword. You’re sure about it though? Once you choose a weapon, it becomes like your mate.” Percy and Grover share a confused glance before shrugging at me. I look down at it with my own sense of pride, happy with my choice before nodding. “Yeah, I’m sure.” Percy’s eyes wander to someone over my shoulder. “SHAWN! LUKE!” He exclaims, smiling at the two. I don’t make eye contact with them yet. Instead I hand over my sword to pay. 

The cashier nearly drops the sword, half dragging it across the floor to scan the price-tag along with the belt attachment. “Do you need help?” I ask, trying not to smile at his struggling state. He puffs and curses under his breath, arms bulging in hopes to lift the weapon I’ve handed to him. “Nope, ugh, I- I’m f-fine-” The interaction has unfortunately caught the groups attention and Grover can’t help but ask, “(Y/n), did you get the biggest one?!” I glance over at him and nod. “Yeah, what can I say, I like big things.” The sentence was meant to be a casual response but all four of the boys turned bright red with embarrassment while Annabeth burst out laughing at their reactions. As I’m about to look back at the cashier, my gaze meets Shawn’s. 

His eyes are bright despite being a chocolate brown. They almost have a flicker of light to them. One I can’t particularly describe. He’s different, I can feel it. I give him a small smile which he returns with a mediocre smirk. “Hun, why don’t I take that before you pull a muscle-” I wrap the holder around my waist and tie it before taking the sword from him. He sighs, almost happy to not have to carry its gargantuan weight any longer. But before I can slip my beautiful weapon into its case, Luke saunters up to me with a cocky grin. “You must be the beautiful, (Y/n). I’m Luke. Would you like me to carry that for you?” Annabeth and I exchange a knowing look. What did this boy expect from me? To just drop my panties cause he decided to be nice? Pff. 

I give him the fakest, most innocent smile I could before sighing sweetly. “Oh my gosh, that is so sweet. Thank you.” I take a step back and toss the blade at him. He lefts out an “Oof!” before falling to the ground, coughing and grunting as he attempts to hold the weight up. I walk around his immobile body and stick my hand out for Shawn to shake. “I’m (Y/n). Nice to meet you.” The moment he takes it, I feel a shock run through my body, itching up and down my spine before it dissipates. What the hell was that? “I’m Shawn. Likewise.” When he lets go of my hand, his is warmer than when we first touched. I wonder if I rubbed off on him? He glances down at me with wonder and curiosity. We duel with our eyes, examining one another before looking away.

I strut over to Luke who is still thrashing on the floor before I lift my sword off him with one hand. He sighs in relief, taking massive breaths of fresh air to accommodate for the ones that have been taken from him. Sheathing my blade, I look back at Annabeth with an innocent smile. “Annabeth, hun. Would you like to go practice dueling?” She laces her arm through mine, waving at the boys as we walk out. “I think we’re gonna be very good friends.” I can’t help but laugh with delight at her statement, feeling the boys eyes follow us the whole way out. I can’t help but look back at Shawn and ponder. Who does he belong to? 

Annabeth and I head out to the battle arena to change and practice fighting. “So-” I say while adjusting my gear. “-who are Luke and Shawn’s parents.” Annabeth tosses me another accessory for combat before replying. “Well, Luke is Hermes kid. You wouldn’t have guessed it but he, like most kids, hate their parents. He despises his dad, which is understandable. And for some odd reason, he gets super defensive and competitive when it comes to battles. Thinks he has to prove something to someone because he thinks his parent isn’t the strongest. It’s all about titles to him.” 

I nod along to her words but ask about the other boy, not caring much about the first. “And Shawn? What about him?” She talks while she ties her boots. “Well I think Luke just hangs out with Shawn because of his parental title-” I sheath my sword, standing up straighter. “What do you mean? Who is his parent?” When she looked back at me, I expect her to tell me the name of a small god but instead it’s someone who rattles me. “He’s the son of Zeus.” I drop my shoe in shock, nearly dropping the rest of my stuff. Annabeth laughs. “Yeah. He usually has that affect on women.” I scoff, shaking my head before resting my hands on my hips. “Pff. No! I was just surprised. Um, that’s pretty rare, isn’t it?” 

She nodded, grabbing her sword before following me out onto the battlefield. “Yeah, it is. Percy and him are the only two sons of the big three. There hasn’t been a third son but I’m hoping it’s a girl. I think Luke is using Shawn and Percy’s friendship to get ahead during the trials and fights. It’s vile.” I nod along to her voice. She was definitely Athena’s kid, brilliant and tactical. “Okay so, what are you gonna teach me so that I’ll be prepared. I want to be as good as you.” Annabeth took a few steps back, stretching her muscles. “That might take some time.” I drew my sword and grinned up at her. “I’m a good learning.” Before I knew it, she ran towards me and our swords crashed together. “Let’s get started.” 

Annabeth is a brutal teacher but she’s nothing like Ares teachers. They’re ruthless and cruel, just like their god father. I half expect them to have sharp teeth. We practice for nearly two days straight I almost don’t notice it’s been that long. With only fruits, vegetables and water to keep us going, we keep fighting. It’s nothing but exhilarating. We’re dueling and running circles around one another so much I barely acknowledge the ever growing crowd that’s decided to make their way towards us, intrigued by our fight and what we have to offer, what I have to offer. I barrel towards her, dodging whatever attacks she intends to throw my way before slamming my sword down on her. When they clash, sparks fly. Our faces a mere few inches apart as we growl at one another before separating again. 

“How long have they been going at it?” I hear Percy ask Grover. To which he responded with. “Two days straight. A few breaks here and there but I’ve never seen someone hold a fight with Annabeth and not fall over. It’s incredible.” Luke and Shawn stand near the other two boys, watching us closely. I almost feel bad for Shawn but I’m then reminded that I don’t really know him. “Getting tired yet?” Annabeth asks me with a shit-eating grin. I stand up straighter with an equally as warming smile before getting into my fighting position. “Not even close.” The sounds of our swords clashing together echoed all throughout the camp. There wasn’t one person who knew we were fighting. She slams her sword down and instead of hitting me, smashes the grass. 

I turn over my shoulder to dodge her attack before making one of my own. When I reach my sword out, hers matches my movements. The tips threatening to cut the others throat. “You’re a fast learner.” She says, smiling up at me. We mutually sheath our weapons and examine the others sweaty state. “Gods, I need a shower.” I say, wiping off the sweat that dripped down all parts of my body. “I think the boys disagree.” Turning over my shoulder to see what she meant, Luke stares at me like I’m a prize, like I’m meat to be won over. Grover and Percy look at me as friends do, with pride. But I can’t quite pin Shawn’s facial expression. His is a mixture of things. Some I can’t read, others I can. It’s pride for a friend but with a hint of attraction, lust. “I think you’ve caught the golden boys eye.” 

I eye him up and down and watch as he does the same for me. I can’t help but take Annabeth’s previous words into consideration. If this battle is as important to Luke as she says it is, than how important is Shawn to him. What does he have to offer? What are his powers? Do they have limits? What if Shawn isn’t as innocent as people believe him to be? What if he’s just as wrapped up about the hierarchy as Luke is? Annabeth and I head over to the showers, very much in need of some soap. But the whole time I can’t help but ponder that all of this seems to dive deeper than I think. 

(I hope you guys liked it! This is just the introduction to the series. I think I’m gonna make it a 2-3 parter series. Comment below! I love suggestions and feedback!)

[guessmonsta]

Now that the ask box is open again, I want to ask if you do soulmate AU's? If so, could you write an AU that you have the first words your soulmate says to you printed on your wrist. And that the words Tsukishima has on his wrists is something really negative. How he would react when he would hear his soulmate say those words. (Is this understandable? I feel like this was really confusing)

A) Soulmate AU’s are the reason I’m aliveB) Get ready for insecure Tsukishima Kei because that’s how I write this nut + this fits so perfectly for my headcanons of him I’m bawling y’all

Golden, silky cursive down the muscle on his wrist. It would’ve been so beautiful, if not for the words they said.

“You’re a failure.”

Words appeared during puberty, the peak of your hormonal blossoming. They started out faded, barely noticeable, and as time progressed, they became bold, powerful, the center of every pubescent teens sad, hopeful life. The very moment the faded gold ink first began to bleed into him at thirteen years old, Tsukishima Kei already knew he was beyond fucked. At thirteen years old he was lost, Jean Louise Finch in “To Set A Watchman”, discovering the bitter, cold truth. At thirteen years old he wasn’t ready for love, the only love he ever had washed down in the drain along with any jubilance he had left. At thirteen years old with the constant reminder of absolute pessimism lingering on his wrist while other boys fawned over sweet subliminal messages of infatuation, Tsukishima Kei lost himself more.

At fourteen years old he ripped himself apart. The gold ink that bled into his pale, scar shaven skin was still prominent, becoming brighter each time the flesh was bruised. He tried, he really did, to make himself the image of perfection. Knowing that one day, the person who he was to be tied to for eternity would think of him as a failure was just another weight onto his already collapsing being. Yamaguchi hit puberty later than he did, he peaked right after the first semester of their third year of middle school, and as he began to grow, the turquoise tangent on his wrist grew too. “Don’t be upset, I could name one hundred things I admire about you” it read, and Kei couldn’t help but wonder how Yamaguchi managed to be so fatefully tied to a woman of wisdom while he was anchored to a pit of pessimism.

When he was fifteen years old, he couldn’t take it anymore. When high school came, the hype of soulmates did nothing but erupt even more. Outside of volleyball, the only thing his volleyball team ever seemed to talk about was soulmates. Beautiful, funny statements in soft purples and reds and blues, they were all so lively yet Kei couldn’t wonder how his statement out of all of them was colored bright gold. As the year went on he grew tired, the eerie message doing nothing but causing him grief. He couldn’t help but dread recalling midterms, when all that went through his mind when he was studying is the cute gold calligraphy of ‘failure’. Yamaguchi found his soulmate, a lively one from a rival school, a kind, wise hearted soul just like Yamaguchi always dreamed. His friends, or acquaintances, as he liked to put it, we’re falling in love and finding themselves left and right, and by the time spring arrived and every first year on the team found his soulmate, even standoffish Kageyama who couldn’t talk to a female for his life, he drew the conclusion that he might as well be alone forever. That thought was ridiculous though, he knew it. He still had well over seventy years of his life left, and six years left of education, so not finding his soulmate in his first year of highschool would definitely not render him lonely. Although, he felt like it. He felt alone, and it made him feel pathetic. It made him feel like a failure just like those bloody golden words on his wrist prophesied.

He drove himself to move away at nineteen. He hadn’t found anything in his eighteen years in Japan and he hoped, and prayed there would be something for him beyond the borders of the familiar. So, he set off for Cornell, an Ivy League college in America. It was risky, it really was, even if he was the top of his English class. They had a good multicultural scene over there, he was told, and for some reason, that just dragged him in further. His wanderlust grew and grew the more and more he looked around into the vast world in front of him and by the time he was already settled into Cornell, he just wanted to pack his bags and travel somewhere else again. He couldn’t though, at least not until junior year. Cornell was treating him nice, a cosy establishment in the middle of nowhere and honestly, it reminded him a bit of home. If you traveled to the highest point on campus all you could see was miles of rolling hills and maple trees, crows flocking through the air at the break of dawn and the familiar chill down his spine in the winter. Although through it all, he still hadn’t met his soulmate. His brother encouraged him to still have hope through it all. “I didn’t find my soulmate until senior year, you still have time!” He would say, but Kei would just shake his head.

He was in his junior year of college and he was presented with an opportunity of international education, an opportunity every college student hoped and prayed to have. He was going to Copenhagen, and he knew exactly why. Out of 196 countries and tens of thousands of cities, he chose Copenhagen, the heart of a freezing Nordic wonderland. It was said to be the happiest place on earth and to be frank, there was nothing Tsukishima needed in his life more than an optimistic habitat. So, as soon as the second semester came, he didn’t waste a minute hopping onto that plane.

At first, Copenhagen was weird. It wasn’t that he didn’t like it, it was just unfamiliar. It was far too optimistic, streets lined with bars and old woman walking dogs, college students in beanies smoking weed on apartment balconies. Everyone carried an “I don’t give a shit” vibe and just as Tsukishima thought he would maybe, finally meet his soulmate, he was shut down. Everyone in this city seemed to be far too nice to utter such a thing as the thing on his wrist. He was ready to give up.

It was Friday morning and Tsukishima wanted to die. His roommate was already up, playing loud, headache inducing music from his side of the dorm. As much as he’d hate to admit, he got himself drunk last night, well really, his roommate got him drunk last night, it was the bastards idea to buy three crates of beer for a small frat party. He sat up in bed and groaned, not even attempting to hold back his displeasure. “I didn’t think you’d be such a lightweight, Kei.” His roommate snorted, turning off his music to slump next to Tsukishima’s bed frame. “You want a water or something, buddy?”“Don’t call me a fucking lightweight, I had eight beers.” He rubbed his eyes harshly, not sure if the stars he saw were from the rubbing or the alcohol that still lingered in his system. “But yeah, the water would be nice. Thank you.” Tsukishima really hated himself in that moment. He was never one to be late for classes, never one to drink on a school night. Tsukishima Kei was never, not once in his life, ten minutes late for an eight o'clock class on the other side of campus. Although today, he broke the lucky streak.“Oh, are you fucking kidding me?” He muttered to himself, mustering up all his willpower to get out of his bed. His knees wobbled underneath him as he wasted no time getting dressed, chugging an entire water bottle in second, and throwing the empty container right back at his roommate. “Don’t pee yourself out there, dumbass!”“Fuck off, Mathias.” Was his reply, slamming the door behind him and immediately regretting his decisions from right now and the night before. Everything hurt, absolutely ached, and he began to wonder if perfect attendance was really worth the torture he was sure to endure in the next two hours. He pushed himself though, because skipping out would just mean that he was a failure.

By the time he arrived he was thirty minutes late. People were gawking at him, obviously taking notice of how he looked like an absolute wreck. He knew his eyebags had to be atrocious, but he was hoping and praying that he didn’t look like the walking dead. He took a quick seat in the back of the room, hoping that once he sat down people would lose interest and forget him. They did, one or two students still making nasty remarks a few rows in front of him. If he hadn’t cared so much about his reputation (and his mother’s money) he would’ve thrown his textbook at the back of their heads. The girl next to him fidgeted, scooting down the bench slightly to get away from him. She looked a tad bit uncomfortable, and part of him wanted to feel a bit guilty for her. He probably still smelled like alcohol, he thought.

“I’m sorry, I’m a failure.” He snorted, once he caught her eye and got his things situated. Tsukishima didn’t know why he thought a self deprecating joke would lighten the mood, for her eyes just widened and looked down at the laptop in front of her. “Oh, sure, you’re a failure.” She commented back, her sarcasm blatantly evident. She pointed towards a pile of papers on her desk and said something else, but Tsukishima had short circuited far too long ago to process the words she said next. His whole life was a misconception. Six years of acceptance and self consciousness all derived from one, big, misconception. She was the one to bring the words on her wrist to his attention. Small, blocky orange writing stating “I’m sorry, I’m a failure.” He still couldn’t process words, his wrist feeling as if it were burning. His gut was roiling and he absolutely couldn’t believe the horrendous irony this situation reeked with. The professor kept talking, droning away about the history of a long dead African tribe, but he didn’t care.“I don’t think you realize how much these words have made me hate myself these past few years.” he muttered into her ear, breath shaky and languid from the adrenaline rush he experienced. “I don’t think you know how worried I’ve been for you these past few years.” She replied, her fingers absentmindedly running over her wrist. “I thought I’d meet you on a bridge.”“Don’t say that.”“Well, I thought I would.” She shrugged, nudging his hip and motioning him to collect his things. “Let’s get out of here.” She implied, already shoving her laptop back into her purse. “But I just got here.” He argued.“But I just met my soulmate. C’mon, nobody’s going to think you’re a failure.”

[arthurflecksgirl]

Arthur listening to jokes/ His POV

My version of the scene when Arthur is sitting in the audience at Pogos. In his Point of view.

The small, red lamps, the lightening. I always liked it here. Pogos is one of my fave places to go. Considering that its a small comedy club in Gotham it doesnt look as shitty at all. I would even say there is a cosy vibe to it. But I still feel uncomfortable, especially because the comedian on stage just pointed out how nice it is to see all these couples at his show. Does it look like there are only couples here? Because there is me, obvioulsy. And I´m sitting right there in the middle, feeling miserable about what he just said. Like he tells all these couples surrownding me how welcome they are, while I´m just there. In the middle but still in the background. Is the lighteining so bad that he can`t see me? Maybe they should change something about the lightening?

"I have a wife. We love to roleplay...."

Does he doing this on purpose? Reminding me of everything I do not have? I thought I liked this guy when he came upstage. People appove his look. And he seemed so natural, like all these jokes are just coming to him. But I bet it was hard work figuring them out. I wonder if he also suffers from insomnia, pacing around his room at night, working on jokes and facial expressions? His expressons are real good. Maybe I could learn from him. But I dont know about his jokes. I dont really get them. So I cant even tell if they are good or not.

Anyway that roleplay thing really sticks to my mind right now. Imagin having a girlfriend who is willing to roleplay with you. I would love to do something like that. I imagin my girlfriend dressing up as a cat lady, with those cute, little ears and a tight black costume...I would caress her body gently and she would lay her head into my lap, purring. There is something so sexy about a beautiful woman dressed as a cat. I fantasize about that a lot. I would also do roleplays for her. I mean I can act, right? I could be anything. A multiple choice.

He talks about how he acts as a proffessor and his wife is  a senior who needs to pass his class. I get this whole thing, like getting involved with your teacher and everything but I still dont get why people are already laughing? Was there a good line I was missing? I try to concentrate, I really do. Okay next time I will laugh with them. Or now. I´m gonna laugh right now. I dont want him to think that I dont find him funny. Thats kinda disrespectful.  I can totally imagin how it must feel to be up on stage, telling your own jokes, the ones you worked on the hardest and then seeing this guy at the audience not even laughing at them. I dont want him to experience this. No comedian deserves to be treated like that. I`m sure this guy works hard for his punshlines. Maybe he doesnt even have a wife. Maybe his is all in his mind. The roleplay, the games. Maybe he is lonely like me.

Guess I was daydreaming. Missing another joke. Laughing people all around me. Thats why I came here. For the laughs. To learn. But I wanted to be a part of it. I feel abandoned instead. Almost like I am not even in this room. Disconnected. It hurts.

Beside me there is a glass of water. I drank a bit of it. My mouth gets dry when i´m nervous and I am because I just feel that something here isnt quite right. I`m trying so hard to laugh at the same time as the rest of the audience. But I`m always behind. I dont get the timing right. Timing is everything. Especially for a good comedian.

Timing, timing, timing!

For gods sake, Arthur.

Taking some notes, putting on a happy face. Thats very much important too. If I was him, I want to see people smiling  at me. So I do it. For him. Even though I dont get the joke.

I`m getting confused, taking a look across the room to see if they`re about to laugh again. Nothing. Weird because I expected them to.

I wonder if there is something wrong  with my sense of timing or is it just his jokes? Am I out of timing when I`m watching the Murray Franklin show too? I have to make sure I`m not because that would be terrible. As a comedian myself I have to know when to laugh or not. But I will figure it out!!

Taking a closer look across the room makes me feel even more disconnected. Not just with his jokes but with everyone in this room. I wish there was someone sitting by my side right now. Sharing this glass of water with me. Looking at me, smiling. Maybe unable to concentrate while staring at me, asuring me that soon I will be the comedian up on stage. Someone beliving in me. Thats all I`m asking for.

I think I have to start with being a better comedian. People do really like this guy so I should learn from him. I`m taking notes so I won`t forget. I gotta check what I have written till now:

"Work the crowd "

Some more practice and I will be as good as him. And if you suffer from insomnia you surely have a lot of time on your hand to get better!

"Dress nice but casual"

People will like me more when I`m dressed just as nicely as him. Maybe a vest similar to his. But I prefer dark red instead of his blue one. Red is my fave color. It makes me feel confident. And confidence is important when you`re up on stage.

"Make observations"

Ok! I`m already good in this!

"Slick hair???"

Maybe its time for something new. I will definitely give it a try. I want my hair to look nice. I`m aware of the fact that i´m cutting my own hair but I dont think it looks terrible.

"Eye contact"

Something I have to work on more, especially when a beautiful girl is in the audience. I tend to get shy a lot and I dont want it to be obvious.

"Always make funny observations"

The big question here is how objective everything is. Thats a hard one. Like, what if they dont get the joke?

“Sexy jokes always funny”

Okay, that might answer the question. People always laugh about sexy jokes. Its their nature so I have to get better at this.... I`m not good at this subject. Lack of experience I think. Maybe I can think of one tonight. Or about cat ladies. Or both.

There is a lot of time to think about everything if you never sleep.

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