#the first thing google suggested to me when i searched 'what to do after eating coconut mold' was 'don't do it'

[curarems]

Moist 'fake it till you make it' von Lipwig

[nejiverse]

Hi! I was thinking, I know it’s not suggested take dinner very late but I’m always cooking at midnight so may I request a scenario with tecchou making dinner at midnight (very soft please ^^)

12 AM

Tecchou Suehiro

Midnight sounds like an ideal time to have dinner to me 😆😆

cw: none

600ish words

You tossed and turned in your sleep, your arms reaching to your side but you couldn't feel him. The oh so charming Tecchou.

You scoffed. Last time this happened, Tecchou was outside in the cold without any jacket and was watching a colony of ants randomly.

He claimed that they were more active in the night and the colonies would be bigger.....he ended up catching a cold and you were burdened with a whiny Tecchou who never stopped complaining for a whole week!

Getting out of bed, you groggily walked out of your room, a faint smell of curry lingering in the air.

You narrowed your eyes suspiciously when you saw Tecchou stirring the pot gently. You couldn't see what he was making since his bare back was facing you but your reckoned curry rice. It's the only thing he knew how to make after all.

You noticed his head nodding up and down occasionally which made it known to you he was trying to fight away his sleepiness.

"What're you doing?", you spoke in a quiet voice seeing as it was literally the middle of the night.

Tecchou's shoulders jerked up not expecting to hear your voice at all.

" 'M hungry", he muttered, his lids barely able to stay open.

You wrapped your arms around his torso. "Why don't you sleep first. You can eat in the morning".

Tecchou pointed to the clock ticking away on the wall. "It's morning already".

Yeah, real funny. "I mean when the sun is actually up".

Tecchou frowned. "I need food now". As he said that, he used a spoon to scoop a bit of curry up and blowed on it before offering you a taste, in which you happily obliged.

Your face immediately tightened. You didn't know what it tasted like but it definitely wasn't just curry.

"Did you add something to it?", you asked hesitantly. You weren't sure if you actually wanted to know. The smell was so normal that you forgot about Tecchou and his weird food combinations.

He nodded innocently. "A bit of chocolate and kiwi".

Your mouth fell agape.

"Why would you do that?!", you exclaimed.

He shrugged his shoulders before putting a finger up in the air in a matter-of-factly manner.

"It's supposed to make you stronger".

...

You gave him an unimpressed look. "And how'd you find that out? By one google search?", he nodded affirmatively.

Tecchou nonchalantly placed some rice and curry on his plate, offering you a plate too but you kindly declined when you saw the kiwis inside still had the skin on them.

He let out a small huff, grabbing a spoon, along with a fork. You were confused as to what he needed the fork for but decided to pry no further.

Tecchou sat down at the table and you figured the least you could do was sit with him, even if you knew he'd just be sending you glares for turning down his food.

"...what're you doing this time".

The man currently had the fork up to his right eye, closing his left eye in front of you so he could see you through the fork.

"You're in jail for not eating my curry".

"You mean your chocolate kiwi curry?".

"Yeah!!".

masterlist :)

a/n: I saw the fork thing on a pinterest post and thought it was too cute for me not to add

[harryspurpleloofah]

Till death do them part: husband!Harry Styles oneshot

TW: reader gets constant scares of her and Harry’s life together being short, apart from that all pure fluff and him making her feel better. A cutesy honeymoon shot. 💜

Y/n’s wedding day with Harry was the best day in her life. It felt cliché. It felt basic. But it was the truth. Their vows were taken under the moonlight rather than at daytime in a beautiful rose garden with close family and friends and then the next day they had a proper wedding reception and she got two dresses for fun. But it wasn’t the dresses, or the roses, even the cake that they had both picked after hours of tasting to decide on a flavor it was him. Mr Harry Edward Styles was the highlight of the day. She snuck glances at him anytime she could to catch him smiling as wide as she was, reminding her how he painfully loved her just as much as she loved him.

They honeymooned in the Middle East going from UAE, to Turkey to even some parts of Saudi Arabia. The traditional places to go would be Rome, Paris, Athens maybe. But both y/n and Harry loved Mediterranean and middle eastern food and they deeply respected and admired the culture of the area so they thought it was a perfect place to see together for the first time.

Their honeymoon had basically ended now but Harry really wanted to take her to Cornwall. He loved it there and vividly remembered walking through the beautiful streets of the quaint towns and imagining what it would be like to come here with someone he deeply adored and now he had found her. And his dream had come true. Her hand was in his as he led her along the streets, pointing out his favorite sights from time to time. She had to admit; Cornwall was beautiful and she didn’t regret a single part about coming here.

But she did regret trying to cram all that in for a week and a half. They were both exhausted you could see it on their faces. Luckily, fewer people recognized them in the Middle East but fans still existed and the odd one wanted to chat or have a picture. They were happy to do that but it got very tiring after a while and now that they were back in England it was even worse. It didn’t help that you couldn’t look your best in a raincoat with your socks wet and your drenched hair sticking to your face and when it wasn’t pouring it was so windy that at certain points she was sure she would actually be carried away by the strong Cornish winds.

“Harry?” She softly asked, “can we take a break?”

His eyes softened as he looked over to his wife understandingly. His gaze flickered down to his watch. “Yeah baby if you want to. We’ve got a good hour to kill before the ferry takes us back. You wanna grab lunch?”

“Yes! Are there any restaurants around here?”, she eagerly asked

He smiled slightly and stepped out of the path of people strolling. Leaning against one of the buildings, he pulled out his phone and quickly google searched a few things. “Well there’s a restaurant like half an hour away from here but then we’d miss the ferry and have to spend another hour here…or if you want we could just keep walking and then when we get back to our air bnb we can see the options and have a proper big meal.” He suggested. She pondered for a second.

“I’m not sure…what do you think?”

“Your choice baby honey but I think we could have tea and then eat dinner after we get back yeah?”

“Tea?”

“Yes..?”

“How is tea meant to fill me up?”

“How is it not?”

“It’s a cup of warm water with dirt..”

“Oh darling I don’t mean tea as in a cup of tea!”

“Huh..?”

“Baby, in Britain tea is like…a meal..it’s tea but you have sandwiches and-and cakes! And little pastries too.”

“Oh…cool..then where can we get tea from?”

“I’ll check.” He opens his phone again, entering in the sickeningly sweet password of the day he met her. “Right there’s one tea place down the street and there’s a better reviewed one if we hike a little bit up the mountain.”, he explained. The place they were in was basically a town built on a mountain so the walk was quite steep and definitely hard.

“I don’t care about reviews,” she sighed as her stomach grumbled, “I need food.”

He grinned, “down the street it is darling.”

She had to admit. Teatime was a lovely tradition she’d definitely like to continue. She didn’t think about it much yet but sometimes the thought did cross her mind that maybe she’d grow old with him. They’d become bored of obsessing over the same rock musicians. They’d slowly become interested in eating digestive biscuits and watching the news together. They’d have kids maybe…maybe even grandkids, and watch them grow up while they grow old. It was scary to think that one day she was gonna lose him…or he was gonna lose her. It was always a thought at the back of her mind that came back to haunt her at moments like these in pure bliss with her husband but that’s when she needed to push them away the most and focus on the fact that the beautiful man in front of her was her husband. The caring, kindhearted soul she talked to everyday was now her partner in everything till death do them part. …..till death do them part. She snapped back to reality as she heard Harry’s spoon clinking while stirring his tea.

“It’s very hot..” he muttered before blowing on it a bit, “do you want to try any of the pastries love?”

She smiled, “I’m good for now. Thanks though.”

He smiled back at her. “Come on. You can’t have made me walk all the way here and not even appreciate Cornish pasties. Hm?”

She let out a small chuckle as she finally agreed and let him force her to try a few different things she’d never even seen before and oddly enough she ended up liking all of them. She just couldn’t get her old thoughts out of her mind.

“Do you ever feel bad for your mum?” She gently asked

Harry looked up in confusion, “what’d you mean lovie?”

“As in..she divorced your dad and then….her husband passed away before they even got to see their first grandchild.”

Harry sighed and ran a hand through his hair, “I mean yeah I do feel bad in that aspect I guess..but I’m sure she’s alright now…why are you asking?”

“Do you ever get scared that’ll happen to you? Like—are you ever doing things with me and then you get sudden anxiety or realisation that one day you’ll do this exact same thing without me—”

“Hey—woah..babe where is this coming from?”

“I don’t know…it’s weird I guess but I do think about it a lot…and it’s really scary.”

“Hey..” he takes her hand and runs over it softly with his thumb, his cold silver wedding ring clashing with her warm skin in a an uncomfortable comfort. “These are just thoughts, they should be pushed to the very very back of your mind for now okay? We are so lucky we have everything we could ever want were financially stable we’re happy and healthy and we have so many opportunities and supportive people around us..we’re lucky enough to not need to constantly worry about any of those things you hear me? The odds of any of us-heaven forbid-dying before another twenty years AT LEAST is minute, tiny tiny tiny. So you don’t need to worry. Ok?”

“But Harry..”

“Shh! No buts. I never want you to worry about anything happening to either of us again. If this is making you so uncomfortable that you can’t enjoy the things we do anymore…you need to rid yourself of that love. It’s nice to think sometimes, but all the time isn’t healthy my darling. I assure you you won’t ever be alone in any lifetime again. I found you here, now didn’t I? I’ll find you again in a thousand years when we have flying cars and what not. Yeah? I’ll promise, when you have a flying car I’ll be the first guy to crash into you and we’ll meet again.” He chuckled slightly, hoping to get something from her too. She cracked a bit of a smile, “honey,” he continued, “my point is I will find you just like I did now just like I did hundreds of years ago. Whether that was as Romeo and Juliet, Mary and Percy Shelly, heck even as Courtney love and Kurt Cobain.”

Harry’s voice was now tinged with humor, “my point is, you chose this. You’re stuck with me now whether you like it or not Mrs Styles” he flashed her a grin.

God this man was a catch

[sleeplessinpnw]

Good morningggg

Just got back from my psych appointment. It went pretty well. I realy like my psychiatrist. She seems like she would be fun to hang out with outside of the work area. She's always really helpful and insightful on things. She made me feel better when she told me that she didn't use her first degree. She made the comment that she was slightly checked out and going through things so she would do whatever was the easiest way out which I related to tremendously. To be fair, I was going through a lot of mental changes with the development of my schizophrenia at the time so we had very differrent things going on but I related non the less.

I think I want to go back to school. I don't know what for... I need to find something that strikes my interest. She suggested woofing which is a farming opportunity. You travel with all expenses paid for in exchange for working a few hours a day. I think I might look into it. She also thinks I would be a good peer advisor with a place like Cascadia. Options!! I'm nervous about working with people but maybe it would be good for me. Learning how to talk to people who also have mental illness who need someone to work with. I just need to become a morning person and then I would be set! lol

Still need to find a new therapist. Apparently my most recent therapist takes OHP which is awesome. It would be nice to still get to work with her. I would have to do video appointments though because she's not in the city anymore. After this post, I'm going to look into it more.

On a side note un related to mental health stuff, I'm making pizza for breakfast lol. I need to return a pair of shorts I bought for my trip to St. Croix to target but I didn't want to take the freeway so I came home and started chores instead. Decided the frozen pizza I had in the freezer sounded good. It's 11 now though, people totally eat lunch at 11.

I'm so nervous for this trip. I hope my energy and mental health hold up while meeting all of my relatives. I've been so sluggish these days. I want to make a good impression since it's probably going to be one of the only times I meet some of them. A lot of talking is about to happen and I'm sooo nervous. I havent been my normal chatty self this past year. At least I wont make weird comments about voodoo anymore. I hope that word doesn't even come up during the trip. UGH lol still recovering from that. I am still chugging along and trying to be a better person. Burned a lot of connections and what not. ANYWAY.

Going to google search some stuff now from my appointment. Hopefully I'm drawn to some of it. Who knows, maybe woofing or a job through the government will be what sparks my next adventure. Hmmmm.

[yrcanisrunsfromzombies]

2023 and Why I don't Eat Gluten & Dairy Anymore...

Happy Day Errbody!

So last I left it, we caught up on my tumultuous fitness journey of the last 7 years. If you read it, you're amazing and I appreciate you for taking the time! I write like I talk: ALOT.

This post is dedicated to my journey this year. 2022 was recovery from a fractured right scapula and pulled right shoulder, worked on endurance and building strength... and I did that. The workout was rigorous, my diet was all over the place, but I was consistent!

ENJOY and BE PROUD SMALL VICTORIES. I really did. I was grateful I was strong and I was mobile. My shoulder was better than ever. Although sometimes when I work a makeup job, my shoulder would get tired. Regardless, I was running, lifting and indoor bouldering.

However, towards the end of the 2022, I took a promotion at work and it was our busiest time. Learning a new management position AND it being the busy season really took a toll on my rest, diet, fitness regiment and specifically, my immune system. I ate SO MUCH SUGAR AND JUNK because of the stress... and I was really looking forward to my mini vacation: the snowboarding trip in January!

Once I got back from the trip I realized, my left wrist started hurting. I had 2 hard bumps that looked like bug bites emerging on my right shin. I rationalized, "Well, I did fall on my left wrist getting off the lift. I should rest it before hitting the gym back up again. And the bumps are probably from how tight the Snowboarding boots. Maybe the skin was sensitive." After a couple of days, when I woke I felt pain in the same spot, BUT on the right wrist. I KNEW for certain, I did not fall on that wrist. I knew for certain something was amiss.

WHAT A MYSTERY...

I began to really worry when I went on a simple hike. The next day my hips began to hurt in the morning. This is a week after the initial wrist pain. After waking up with pain in both my wrists and hip and having the bumps for 2 weeks, I decided to go to my primary doctor. I knew something was wrong, I was finally listening to my body and taking action. She ordered some blood tests and says it could be a number of things and to wait a couple of weeks as the ‘bruising’ could clear on it's own. During this time I was doing hypnotherapy and shadow work and some were suggesting my trauma was leaving my body and physically manifesting in this pain. I really was hoping this was the case. Cure the trauma, cure the pain, right? It wasn't... as the pain grew and spread to my knees and ankles, every morning I kept losing hope that this was temporary. However, I was in complete denial this maybe permanent too.

The bumps were in my front & back knees and ankles joints, every bend and movement felt like a super painful mosquito bites. I research and found the morning pain in my joints were Arthritis. By mid-end of February, I did a video chat with another doctor who I felt really listened to me. She ordered an ANA blood test which is "a blood test that looks for antinuclear antibodies in your blood. Antibodies are proteins that your immune system makes to fight foreign substances, such as viruses and bacteria. But an antinuclear antibody attacks your own healthy cells instead." (google search) AND x-rays for my wrists. The blood test came back positive and my wrists looked normal except they were inflamed. They referred me to the Rheumatology Department.

Mind you, the whole time I was doing so much research on my own as to what this all could be. The internet told me what I could have before the doctors told me. I was thinking it was Rheumetory Arthritis. What I needed the doctors to tell me is what do these tests really mean!

I saw the Rheumatologist the first week in March, by this time so many bumps in my knees and ankles appeared. Pain in the joints (wrists, elbows, hips, knees & ankles) every morning. She ordered more blood tests to rule out what she thought I had: Lupus. (An inflammatory disease caused when the immune system attacks its own tissues. Lupus (SLE) can affect the joints, skin, kidneys, blood cells, brain, heart, and lungs.) THAT SOUNDS TERRIFYING. It does run in my family as my aunt has it and my mother has Grave's Disease (Graves disease is an autoimmune disorder that involves overactivity of the thyroid (hyperthyroidism)) She also said I definitely had Arthritis and inflammation in the joints. And asked me which I wanted to work on: arthritis or inflammation. She told me the options and I picked arthritis, since this would allow me to at least move my body more painlessly. They started me on Hydroxychloroquine, but it could take weeks to kick in. She also told me to remain physically active by doing alternative workouts like biking and swimming which are easier on the joints. And if the pain was terrible to take, Advil or Tylenol (which I tried my hardest to not take consistently).

(Photo: the worst it’s ever looked and felt)

ALL THIS absolutely broke my heart, I felt like I died inside. Will I be able to lift weights, again? Snowboard, again? Rock climb? Pole Dance, ever again? Are we saying at the age of 34, I can't revisit my favorite physical activities?

And Running? Out of the question! It's terrible on the joints even without arthritis. I didn't know that last time I ran 5K would be the last time... My heart was ripped from me! That was what started this blog so many years ago and now... I can't do it anymore. I mourned me and these activities like they've passed away.

As I awaited the results, I did what she recommended. I got up in completely pain and tried to head to the gym to get my body moving. It was a mental and physical challenge as moving equals pain, but it also helped alleviate it. Tell me...how do I tell my brain this workout is good for it?! That more pain equals less pain?! I felt crippled and what normally took a 5 minute walk to the gym took 15... each step felt like walking on broken glass. The first time at the gym that March, I cried on the rower machine for 30 seconds because it hurt going down the stairs from the cardio area. No one noticed.

Moving my body was/is a part of me, I learned that about myself just a few years before. I really felt like my life was all over. I cried constantly. Was I going to do any activities ever again? Did I do this to myself? Or was this going to happen regardless? So many feelings. I yelled at my parents. I felt like no one understood. I felt my Aunt understood me best. She has Lupus. She and my sister were my biggest support during this time. I kept this from the socials (No ones post when they are sad) and only told those around me like coworkers (they could tell my energy wasn't the same), my immediate family and my aunt. I still felt alone and probably the loneliest I've ever felt. I had to pushed out that feeling because I did have people around me who wanted to help, had to continue working, and I had to rest a lot before a shift. I was fighting myself like my immune system is fighting my body.

My Massage Therapist Angel offered to give me Lymphatic Massages to help with the blockages the inflammation caused. My sister listened to me whenever I was upset. My parents helped with paying medical costs for testing and seeing a specialist. My cat, Emilio, for being annoying and doing things to get me out of bed :P. I could always count on him to get my day started when I feel low, even when I don't want to. It was hard to constantly remind myself how to be grateful.

That is very important to do everyday... even when you don't have anything terrible happening because that could very well be the reason why things aren't so terrible. When I remember I try to write down 3 things I'm grateful for that day and it helps.

I made a phone appointment with Rheumatologist around 2 weeks after my first visit with her, so she could tell me her diagnosis. She asked if I had developed any other specific symptoms like dry mouth and dry eyes. I said no as I was drinking ALOT more water than I was when this year started. She then diagnosed me with Undifferentiated connective tissue disease...

I was like....WHAT IS THAT???

(More like what the fuck is that? But I can’t curse at a doctor)

Well, the doc said something like this:

"Undifferentiated connective tissue disease is a clinical entity defined as serological and clinical manifestations of systemic autoimmune disease, however, not fulfilling any criteria of defined connective tissue disease. This disease is considered a diagnosis of exclusion." (Google)

It sounded like a bullshit diagnosis to me. I don't have any of the specific ones? Just this rando generalization? I was confused, but I felt better having any idea what it is. I think the not knowing was part of the frustration and sadness.

Even feeling this way, I decided to work on my diet. Food is medicine. I had to figure out how to heal this inflammation since the medication can only help so much with that. One day in the beginning of April, the arthritis pain stopped. I kept researching what things cause inflammation. It seemed like everything did! Tomatoes, cheese, & bread are the exact ingredients for a pizza, my favorite food. How was I suppose to navigate that? I found cauliflower or gluten-free crust, vegan cheese and pesto (without cheese) pizza. If I didn't eat that, I ate lots of strawberries, blueberries and blackberries or mandarins if I wanted a dessert or Pad Thai with tofu. I lost a lot of the muscle mass I worked so hard for the year before. I went from weighing 141 to 132 lbs and what I lost was mostly muscle. Then, I looked into finding an Anti-inflammatory Protocol cook book to cook from. This included leaner meats and A LOT of Veggies. I began cooking more for myself between March and April. I sprinkled working out here and there. Now I'm slowly building which I will share. End of April beginning of May, I went back home for a visit and that when my inflammation had completely gone away. I learned that dairy and gluten really flared me up, specifically egg yolks. I also learned my mental health was better than before I got sick. When you fix your gut health, you feel better and you don't think everything is so terrible. Go figure.

I think my digestive system was inflamed before I got sick. I always felt bloated when I drank my protein shake after a workout. I lifted so much weight and never lost any fat. There's dairy in whey protein. My body couldn't handle it anymore. I'm so grateful I figured this out. I wasn't listening to my body. It was telling me all the time this wasn't right, but to me discomfort, exhaustion, and stress were normal.

It was the worst time and pain of my life. Now everything after it doesn't seem as bad. I felt vulnerable, sad,weak, hurt and sensitive. These are things I don’t like feeling. Vulnerability being least favorite. Ya know if I had to pick favorites 😜

When I found out what I have I asked my dad, "Why is this happening to me?" He replied, "This is just life. It's apart of life." Things are going to pop up. This blog is not just a diary to me, but a reminder to whoever that: LIFE IS SO FUCKING LONG. So much is going to happen, there are gonna be ups and downs, pauses and non-stops. You have to be kind and patient with yourself. Sometimes you get in your way by not resting and managing stress. I'm a example of it.

I want to inform whoever is on this journey with me, Physical and Digestive Health are so important for Mental Health. If you are going through something similar or just trying to get back to moving your body or there's a bodily mystery is afoot, be easy on yourself. There will be ups and downs, stops and goes. I hope this is helpful to you in someway and you feel less lonely. You never know what someone is going through.

But now going forward from here, I will post tips and tricks, recipes I love and my progress. Especially now that we are all caught up. Thank you for reading, Darlings!

Until the next post… be patient with yourself🫶🏽

[vigilethefabulous]

Attempts to fight my extremely sensitive sense of smell

I kinda want to documwn this for my friends, since I'm the first one among us to get pregnant.

Oh and yeah, I'm 14 weeks pregnant. :) But announcing it here is OK because there isn't really anybody else around.

Anyway, back to the point of this post. Starting at 8 weeks, I've been having an extremely sensitive nose. Anything that is cooked in our apartment somehow sticks to the walls and stinks to high heaven for days. I can't even enter the kitchen anymore without gagging (though I've learned that breathing through my mouth helps if I really have to venture into the kitchen).

Just the other day, my husband and I went for a walk to the nearby bakery to have some cake and beverage because he noticed that I have an appetite for sweets (and nothing much else). It was tasty, the cake. And we were both pleased that I finished my slice - I haven't been finishing anything savory recently. But when we got back to the flat, the moment he opened the door and the odor of yesterday's cooking hit my nose, all that good cake went down the toilet.

That story actually indicates that my attempts at combating my hypersensitive nose has yet to be successful. But let me at least tell you about the things I've tried:

Airing the flat

Charcoal

Citrus fruits

Airing the flat

Airing the apartment is a very common practice in Germany. Most landlords insist that tenants "luften", i.e. air their whole apartment, multiple times a day. And by airing, I mean opening all the windows for at least five minutes. The purpose is to allow stale air to leave the apartment and fresh air to come in, and also, to let all the moisture inside the flat out, avoiding molds. Molds are a big thing here in Germany, and can cause health risks - something I learned the hard way.

Similar to airing clothes to remove unpleasant smell, airing the apartment is usually good enough to remove an unwanted stench... When you're not pregnant. In my case, airing the apartment does nothing, except make me cold (winter is no excuse not to luften).

Charcoal

Something my mom suggested was to place bowls or charcoal around the flat. Apparently, charcoal can absorb unpleasant odors. An easy Google search will tell you that activated charcoal is the most effective for odor removal, but I didn't know how to get that so I settled for normal charcoal.

My husband and I went to the nearest depot and bought a medium-sized bag of charcoal from the grill section. We thought that was a lot of charcoal. But actually, it only filled several bowls. The big bowl I left inside the kitchen, and the rest I spread around the hallway, the second stinkiest part of our flat.

Did it work? Well, I guess a little. But it wasn't really enough to make be breathe easily in the apartment without gagging. But maybe I also did it wrong. Maybe the air near the floor was fresh, but not further up. Maybe, I should've put the bowls at nose-level? That would require some furniture shopping since we didn't have that many tables in the apartment.

Long story short: operation charcoal was a failure. (And suddenly we had all this charcoal that we didn't know what to do with - grilling in the winter isn't really a thing.)

Citrus fruits

My mom also suggested: when there is something that smells icky, that I get myself a citrus peel (like a clementine or lemon peel) and smell it. It works. The downside is that I'd always have to have a fresh rind with me, and would have to smell it constantly.

At the beginning, it was not such a big downside, because clementines (aka. ponkkan in Filipino) were one of the few things I actually could eat a lot of. Whenever I got hungry or nauseous, I'd eat a clementine. Which means, I always had clementine peels nearby. And many of the rooms I stayed in had peels lying around, which probably made the room smell like oranges.

Gradually though, I started getting tired of clementines (after eating dozens a day), and the fiber in them started to leave a bitter taste in my mouth. So I waned off of them for a bit, and had less and less access to citrus peels. Seems like a waste peeling a clementine only for the skin, and I can't expect my husband to eat it (he already eats everything else I can't finish). So smelling citrus peels works, but wasn't a very sustainable solution.

My mom-in-law, however, suggested another way. She said I should try peeling and slicing lemons and placing them in bowls around the house. A similar concept to the charcoal, except it's not to absorb the bad odor, but to cover it with a pleasant smell.

I thought that might work, because I recalled that the rooms where I ate clementines in did have a nice orange-y smell shortly after. The question is how long the smell will last, and how many fruits do I have to cut up per day to keep it up.

I only started this strategy a few hours before writing this, so I can't tell you yet whether it is successful, or for how long. I can tell you though that a few hours after placing two small bowls of peels and slices of one lemon, it still smells stinky in our hallway, and I don't smell anything citrus. Maybe it takes more than a few hours to work. Or maybe I have to peel the lemon in the hallway instead of in a relatively odor-free room. Or maybe, it has to be nose-level. I'll test the different theories, with different amounts of lemon, and give an update. 👍🏽

Fingers crossed!

[subspencer]

spencer has been on a case for a couple weeks now, and he’s coming back tonight. his plane was delayed so he wouldn’t have gotten home until really late so you try your hardest to stay awake by doing different things that google says helps, and eventually you fall asleep reading a book or something and when spencer comes home he sees you and just moves you to get comfy and kisses your head, then you wake up and then some fluff or smut doesn’t matter<33

hiii i wrote this all last night! it’s a bit of both fluff and smut! 

wc: 1.4k    

According to Google, the scent of pumpkin was known to arouse men, especially when combined with the scent of lavender. So you lit a bunch of different candles, a few of both scents, plus dozens of smaller ones to line the windowsills. 

Chocolate is another aphrodisiac, as you’ve heard. You hand-dipped fresh strawberries in the fanciest chocolate money could buy, plating them up next two two champagne flutes and a chilled bottle of bubbly. It was the least you and Spencer deserved after weeks apart. 

Everything looked great, until he texted you at nine-thirty in the evening, at the time you were expecting his plane to land.

I’m so sorry, a massive storm came through. Plane never left. We’re getting back on now, hope to land in a few hours. 

Well, fuck. You were so prepared for him; all dressed up, glasses already poured, candles lit, and a set of new lingerie on.  

But it was only three hours. That’s all that separated you from Spencer, and after so many days, you could manage to busy yourself for a few hours. He was worth the wait. 

You passed eighty minutes by watching some tv, another twenty while playing a game on your phone, and twenty more by going back to the tv. Two hours down, one more to go. But you made the fatal mistake of having some of that champagne while you waited, and staying awake seemed harder to do with every passing minute.

With no coffee in the house to keep yourself up, you resorted to the internet again. The first search result was a listicle of tips and tricks:

1. Get Up and Walk Around  

Okay, done. And while you walked around, you also accomplished tip number four, “Eat a Healthy Snack to Boost Energy”. With a whole, peeled carrot in one hand, you paced around Spencer’s apartment while chomping on the vegetable for a good ten minutes. 

It worked, but only a little. So, you tried another item.

5. Start a Conversation to Wake Up Your Mind

It was a total bust. At goddamn eleven forty five in the evening, on a week night, not many people would be excited to pick up the phone. You tried a few numbers and all of them went to voice mail. 

On to the next one.

3. Give Your Eyes a Break

Okay, so no screens. You put your phone down, shut the television off, and walked over to Spencer’s bookcase. Running your fingers along their spines, you were in awe of how many books he had. It was too many to pick from, so instead, you went to his bedside table and picked up the book he was last reading in bed. 

You almost fell into the trap of sitting in bed to read it. You knew if you did that, you’d fall asleep right away. So you took it to the couch, grabbing one of his sweaters off his armchair on the way, and tossing it overhead.

In a bid of hope, you never got out of that lingerie you put on for him, but now it was starting to get chilly. You promised yourself to take it off the second you heard his keys hit the door; he’d never have to know you were anything less than the perfectly seductive piece you were dressed up as. 

But, Jesus fucking Christ. Spencer reads some boring books.

Not boring, maybe, but ones that have words just in the damn title that you don’t even understand. You strained your mind through four of the pages, which took at least another twenty minutes anyways, and decided that was more than enough. 

You checked your phone again, hoping for a miracle. And it came to you in the form of a text from Spencer.

Just landed! 

Got news that all the roads are blocked off. Trains are closed, Morgan’s gonna drive me home, but it could still take at least an hour :(

There wasn’t even a moment to be excited about the first part before you swiped out of the messages app and angrily pulled up that listicle again. All the other suggestions were rubbish; you weren’t going to go exercise in a snowstorm, there wasn’t any fucking sunlight at past midnight, and you’d already drank tons of water. 

There was one item on the list you hadn’t tried yet.

2. Take a Nap to Take the Edge Off Sleepiness

That was tempting. Spencer did say it would be another hour, and as he’s informed you many times before, a twenty-minute nap was all it took to get the optimal nap in. 

You caved. But you made sure to set your phone alarm for twenty minutes out, and yet another after that just in case. Fluffing Spencer’s sofa cushions up, you tucked one under your head and laid down.

-

You woke up just moments before Spencer came home. He walked in to find you waiting for him, clad in the hottest red lingerie he’d ever laid eyes on. After weeks of being apart, he didn’t have the time for words. He dropped his bags at the door and wordlessly stormed over, bringing his hands to either side of your face and gripping you tightly as he covered your mouth with his own. 

Your mouths worked furiously together, and his hands dropped low on your hips before throwing all caution to the wind and palming your ass. With both hands just below your ass, he picked you up, wrapping your legs around his waist as he walked you to the wall and pinned you against it. Your pussy was leveled perfectly against his hard dick. He grinded himself against you, moaning at the sweet friction. His head was buried in your neck, sucking so deliciously. 

“Spencer,” you moaned his name, low and rolling, as he shifted your panties aside. “Mmm, feels so good baby.” 

He carefully set you down and dropped to his knees, putting his face between your legs instead. His tongue pressed along the length of your seam. You let your eyes close as you dropped your head back onto the wall.

“Fuck, Spencer!” you couldn’t stop moaning it. Every other breath became the sound of his name. 

And then, you felt a kiss on your forehead. And a palm on your shoulder. Your eyes flickered open, fully and for real this time.

Next thing you knew, Spencer was kneeling on the floor. Not between your legs, but by your side while you were laid out on the couch, gently shaking you awake.

“Hi,” he smiled as you finally blinked your eyes awake. “Havin’ a good dream, I hope?”

You grumbled, disappointed both that it wasn’t real, and that you’d fallen asleep. “No, no, it wasn’t supposed to be like this!” you pouted, sitting up. “I was supposed to wake up and, and –”

“Be ready for me?” He quirked a brow as he surveyed the room. 

There were dozens of blown-out candles under the open windows, carrying a cool evening breeze. An untouched plate of chocolate strawberries, and a less-untouched bottle of champagne. You, clad in something silky and red, that made you look like a present waiting to be unwrapped. And also, his chunky knit sweater. 

“I tried, I promise. I did everything, I even read that book of yours,” you gestured to it on the coffee table, barely cracked open.

“Well, it’s no wonder you fell asleep then,” he laughed. 

“I’m so sorry, Spence.” 

He only shook his head and pushed your shoulders back down until you were lying on the couch again. 

“Don’t apologize.” He pulled your knees closer to him, hooking the leg closest to him over his far shoulder and nestling himself inside. “To find my girlfriend waiting for me, in my home,” he stopped to kiss the inside of your knee, “in my sweater,” and then the other one, “and in this, too?” 

Spencer pushed up the hem of the sweater, exposing the fancy lingerie you had under. His large hands rested on your sides as he dove in to kiss your belly, right above the mesh garter belt you wore. From there, he kissed a line all the way down, stopping before reaching your panties.

“Well, that’s all I could’ve asked for.” He gave you a smirk before hooking one finger into your panties and pulling them to the side. He dragged his tongue over you. “So, why don’t you tell me what that dream was about?” 

[dinosaurtsukki]

haikyuu!! buzzfeed unsolved AU

OK THIS IS THE LAST BUZZFEED UNSOLVED RELATED HEADCANON SET I PROMISE 

[edit: check out the link at the bottom of the post for more buzzfeed unsolved au content :)]

hinata and kageyama:

90% of the show is them yelling and nobody watches it with earphones on

both of them believe in ghosts but that doesn't mean they want to see one

hinata will literally go to the bathroom five times before going to the spooky house and kageyama gets mad at him for it but there is Fear in his eyes

producer: 'were you scared?'

kageyama: 'pfft, no'

cameraman: *points camera down to show that kageyama's legs are shaking*

they also bring a shit ton of food with them when they stay the night at a place and they'll deadass be eating while talking about the history of the place

‘this house *crunch crunch* was built in *crunch crunch* 1972'

the producers tell them to stop bringing snacks but fans of the show love it

sometimes they'll shoot a mini mukbang video

SPICY, BARBECUE POTATO FRIES | Mukbang at the Waverly Hills Asylum'

hinata: *looking up how to do a seance on wikihow* it says we gotta offer some food for the spirit

kageyama: *spills the doritos he was eating on the table

*after 20 minutes*

kageyama: fuck this

hinata: *starts eating the doritos*

producer: ...

the ghosts: ..................the, audacity

tsukishima and yamaguchi

pretty much a ryan and shane duo right here

yamaguchi: we'll be visiting this place as part of our ongoing investigation on the question, are ghosts real?

tsukishima: *shakes head*

yamaguchi just wants to see the look of fear in tsukishima’s eyes at least once

yamaguchi: *hears a random thump sound* fUCk tSuKkI a gHoSt!!!

tsukishima: *sees a chair being tossed across the room* huh, the wind is pretty strong today

he likes to stick his head into attics to scare yamaguchi

yamaguchi always carries a water gun full of holy water

yamaguchi: i have holy water with me and i'm not afraid to use it! but i'm also sorry you had to die such a horrible death i hope you find peace soon

tsukishima: *walks into a basement that is supposedly a portal to hell* fuckin’ take me already

so many 'yamaguchi being an angel and tsukishima being a demon for 10 mins' video compilations 

daichi and sugawara

a very chaotic buzzfeed unsolved duo

suga, who is satan’s child himself, and daichi, who needs a raise

daichi: hello everyone! this is daichi,

sugawara: and suga

daichi: and you’re watching...

sugawara: jackass!!

daichi:...buzz...buzzfeed unsolved??

daichi started out being afraid of almost every place he had to walk into but after having to deal with the chaotic mess that is suga for an entire season, he no longer Feels Fear

this is because suga will deadass film a tiktok dance video no matter where he is

daichi: suga, someone was literally axe-murdered there

suga: *dancing along to ‘I’m a Savage’ or whatever that tiktok song is called*

daichi: *at cameraman* do you see what i have to deal with every day?’

suga is only genuinely scared by ghosts when his followers point out that a ghost was caught on camera in one of his tiktok videos

suga: *watching the video*

that was the end of suga’s tiktok career

tanaka and nishinoya:

another bunch of loud bois but they are much louder than kageyama and hinata

they’re very much into proving the existence of cryptids and are most known for that episode they spent hunting bigfoot by dressing up to look like bigfoot

tanaka: ‘you know that thing they do in cartoons where they stack on top of each other under a coat so they look like just one big guy?’

nishinoya: ‘ryuu i love you so fucking much’

other guy there who is also trying to catch bigfoot: oMg ItS bIgFooT *takes picture with the blurriest camera he could find*

both of them are very committed in their investigation of the supernatural and they’re very unconventional approaches

nishinoya: *lying on the ground in a creepy basement* EAT MY HEART DEMONS! WE’LL PUT THE VIDEO ON YOUTUBE!

tanaka: *takes out a spirit board* *spells out O-M-A-E  W-A  M-O  S-H-I-N-D-E-I-R-U*

ghost: *spells out N-A-N-I*

tanaka and nishinoya: *screaming*

kuroo and kenma: 

kuroo deadass flirts with any ghost or demon they encounter and kenma would sleep over in a haunted asylum for ten bucks

kuroo: *sidles up to the infamous annabelle doll* hey there little lady, what’s a pretty thing like you doing in a locked, glass case with a ‘don’t touch’ sign like this?

kenma: kuroo, there’s a demon inside her

kuroo: well, i’m a bit of a demon myself

kenma: she attempted to choke a guy in his sleep

kuroo: oooh, choking. i can get behind that...

kenma: *looks at camera*

the demon in annabelle: d-daddy??

“kuroo flirting with demons and kenma looking at the camera for 5 minutes”

kuroo’s actually a huge fucking scaredy cat and kenma secretly tries to push him over the edge

kenma: *plays computer-generated screams of the damned on his phone*

kuroo: WHAT WAS THAT?

kenma: ...I didn’t hear anything *looks at the camera as if he was on the office and plays the sound again*

kuroo: i was too scared to close my eyes last night

kenma: i was actually able to catch a bunch of pokemon last night. who knew the winchester mansion is such a hotspot

producer: did you catch any evidence of ghosts?

kenma: ...i caught a gastly

bokuto and akaashi:

bokuto is a die-hard mothman fan and akaashi is emotionally involved in proving that ghosts exist he will stop at nothing

akaashi: all of the evidence on the shadow figures and orbs spotted in this place can only suggest one thing...

bokuto: mothman did it

akaashi: no

bokuto: yes

akaashi: mothman is literally five states away

bokuto: he has wings

during their individual investigations, akaashi has already foreseen how bokuto is going to react

producer: it’s been quiet for a while. do you think bokuto’s no longer scared?

akaashi: oh no. he should be screaming right about now...

bokuto, inside the haunted house: *screams and waves his flashlight around*

akaashi:  and then he’s gonna call for help

bokuto: AKAAAAAASHIIIIIIIIII

*few hours later*

bokuto: i saw my life flash before my eyes in there

akaashi: *muttering incoherently near his ‘evidence wall’ full of blurry pictures and red string*

bokuto: i must’ve stared into the abyss at one point

akaashi: this place is fucking haunted. can i go back? it’s for sale right?

ushijima and tendou:

ushijima’s knowledge of ghosts is based on hollywood movies and tendou has exorcised places just by vibing

ushijima: *brings out a pottery wheel* if there are any ghosts in here, you know what to do

he’s actually never watched Ghost he just knows That One Scene

tendou: *naruto-running through the goatman bridge with a go-pro strapped to his head* IT’S MY BRIDGE GOATMAN, IT’S MY BRIDGE!!!

the Goatman Himself: i’ve never felt so fucking scared in my entire fucking life

ushijima believes that chanting in latin will Summon the Ghosts and tendou takes full advantage of that

tendou: *handing ushijima a slip of paper* here, apparently this will summon a full-bodied apparition

ushijima: thanks *begins chanting*

producer, interviewing tendou to the side: okay, what did you make him read this time?

tendou: i typed out ‘let me eat your ass’ in latin on google translate and went from there

cameraman: *zooms in on ushijima chanting*

the ghost haunting the castle: *is confused in French*

in the end neither of them get evidence on ghosts

ushijima: well, we'll have better luck next time

tendou: maybe even revisit this place ?

the ghosts: i know i'm dead but this is the first time i've been scared for my life

[EDIT: for more buzzfeed unsolved au content written by me, check out The Search for the Mysterious Mothman, a headcanon set feat. bokuaka]

[lilac-and-lemon-whumps]

3.5 I Can Be Fair

Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3

Pertaining to the phone call referenced in Part 3 

Cw’s: vampire whumper/dubious caretaker, human whumpee, references to old injuries, forced feeding, medical whump--non-explicit, it used as a pronoun, dehumanization. 

The problem with working remotely left too much time on Diego’s hands. 

He’d finish his emails within an hour, write off the remaining shipments within the next. Between phone calls with coworkers, Diego idly watched a broadcast of a human colony’s protest that somehow hadn’t let up in the past couple days, despite the strong pushback from the authorities.

The sun had only been set a few hours when Diego completed everything he needed and for a moment, he wondered why he ever bothered going into the office when he could have had this time on his hands all along.

But that’s not all it was, of course. Diego only had to make his way down the east corridor of his house, the section he cordoned off for the new human, to remember that he had other pressing issues to take care of. 

The first being: making sure his pet wasn’t broken.

“Welker speaking, how can I help you?” 

“Faria, it’s me.” Diego was in the laundry room, sorting through the mini fridge he’d ordered for the pet. Part of him considered just putting the damn thing in the human’s room, but considering that it wouldn’t eat anything unless Diego quite literally shoved it down it’s throat, that would probably be pointless.

“Hey, Diego. Sorry, I didn’t realize it was you. Hands are full at the moment.” 

From the call’s other end came a sound like someone was crying. Diego frowned. “Is this a bad time?” “Nah, it’s all good. Client just came in a bit ago, pet broke it’s arm. Theo’s setting it in the back.”

“Ah.” Faria worked as a vet tech in the city, and was probably the only reason Diego’s human was even still alive. She’d been the one to recommend the right meds and stitch a couple open wounds when Diego had first received it after Gabi’s death. And she only charged him for the cost of travel. 

“As much as I love you, D, I’m going to go out on a fang and guess you’re not calling about going for drinks with me and Joe. Is this about your little friend? How’s it doing?”

Diego huffed noncommittally and finally chose a cup of applesauce from the mini fridge along with a packaged bar of human-friendly nutrients. The first looked absolutely revolting, but multiple google searches insisted that it would be an easier option when it came to feeding a stubborn pet.

“I don’t like the silence, Diego. What’s going on?”

Diego sighed. He hated being out of his element. But more than that, he hated admitting it. 

“Nothing,” Diego started. “At least, nothing’s changed. It still won’t eat on its own. It won’t come out of its room, even though I keep the door unlocked while I’m working. I still don’t know it’s damn name, even though it can obviously understand me and talk. It doesn’t make sense.” From the other end, Diego could hear Faria hum as she thought. In the past couple weeks since Diego received ownership of Gabi’s pet, he and Faria had many conversations over the human. Faria seemed to be under the assumption the pet was depressed, which wasn’t unusual when an owner died. Diego wasn’t expecting the thing to cuddle up to him immediately, but the hunger strikes and refusal to talk ninety-percent of the time wasn’t going to cut it.

“You can always give it another name,” Faria suggested. “It’s more than normal.”

“Yes, but…” Diego didn’t know where he was going with the statement so started over. “Surely Gabi had a name for it.”

“What does that matter? Give it a new one. I’m fond of ‘Bambi’ myself, actually. Have you ever seen a human with such big eyes?”

“Ri, it’s the principle of it all. If it can speak and understand me, there is no reason why it can’t just give me a simple answer.”

“We often give humans less credit than they deserve,” Faria stated. “Keep asking. If it’s that important to you, just give it time.” 

Growing frustrated, Diego leaned against the washer and sighed again. 

“Time isn’t the issue,” he admitted quietly. “Ria, it’s fucking terrified of me.” 

Faria made a sound between a scoff and a laugh. “Yes, well. That’s to be expected. It doesn’t know you well. And it’s only going to stay scared until it realizes it doesn’t need to be.”

“And how am I supposed to do that? Just trying to feed it is akin to torture, with the way it looks at me.” Diego tapped the applesauce pack against the counter, thinking. “And don’t get me started on when I healed its wrist.” “What?” Faria snapped into the phone. “Did it get hurt?” Diego rolled his eyes. Faria could be…a little too soft about pets. Must come with the vet territory, but still. “It’s fine. Just scratched itself in the ties a bit ago.” He didn’t mention the nightmares his pet seemed to have every couple of days, or that Diego heard it talk more in its sleep than ever awake. “I licked the scratches closed, didn’t even need venom or anything. You would’ve thought I held a bone-saw to its arm, the face it made.” “Ties,” Faria repeated. “You’re still using zip ties? I told you to only use those the first few nights at most. Human skin is too sensitive for—" “I don’t need a lecture, Ria.” A headache was forming at Diego’s temples. He needed to feed soon. “Besides, the ones you recommended came in yesterday. They’re all padded and soft.”

“If—“ Faria was cut off for a moment by a loud wail, and then a gentle shushing sound from a male in the background. “Sorry, they’re just about done. Anyway, if you don’t need a lecture, what do you want me to say? I can only give you the advice I tell every client. If you want a scared and obedient pet, you do what you’re doing now. You want one that’ll look you in the eyes, maybe even speak up—provided they were trained that way—then treat it like a child. Speak gently to it. Take it out of its room, tell it explicitly what it's allowed and not allowed to do. If you have to punish it, be fair.”

“Fair.” Diego ran the word over his tongue. “I can be fair.”

“I hope so, D. Hell, when you first called me that day and I saw it’s injuries, all I could think—“ “Don’t start,” Diego cut in. “I know you didn’t like Gabi, but I will not hear you talk about my dead sister—“

“All I’m saying,” Faria stressed, “is I see too many clients who act like ‘fair’ isn’t in their vocabulary. Please, Diego, don’t be that guy.” 

Diego laughed. “It’s not their fault you’re the one with a bleeding heart for humans. Next thing I know, you’ll be saying we shouldn’t feed from them.” 

Faria was quiet for a moment, probably busy sorting files or whatever the hell vet techs did on a slow day. “Do you need anything else, Silva?” She finally asked. 

“I suppose not. I’ll let—“

The line cut off. Diego frowned. She must have been more busy than she claimed.

“Fair,” Diego said to himself, carrying the applesauce and nutrient bar down the hall towards the all too quiet room. He pitched his voice, nasal and high. “Faria, the fairest fair of them all.”

He chuckled. 

What a word.

.

Taglist: @mylifeisonthebookshelf @thecyrulik @deluxewhump @melancholy-in-the-morning @pumpkin-spice-whump @cicatrix-energy @nicolepascaline @whumpy-writings

[gemsofgreece]

Hey!

I'm traveling with a group of friends to north greece for a hiking trip (Metsovo, Papigo, Monodendri, Vradeto and we finish with 2 days in Athens.)

I was wondering if you have any tips for our trip,like your last ask...

Thank you!

Ooooooooh these are my kind of places! You're essentially hiking through the Vikos - Aóos National Park and make stops in villages surrounding it. I love this plan.

Like I told the previous Anon, I don't have very specific tips (lol) and since you read my previous answer, I'm gonna approach this answer in a form of similarities / differences:

Similarities:

The food, even more so in your case. This region has a lot of taverns with a strong traditional character. Check tripadvisor. If you eat meat, then you should opt for stews. Try seasonal salads and appetizers with cheese. The whole region of Epirus specializes in cheese and there are many types beyond feta. Check out the shops with local products and herbs.

Having cash on you also applies even more for you as you're going to a more remote, "old school" region.

Differences:

For the aforementioned reason, learn some very basic Greek phrases. You're not gonna have a problem in the hotels and restaurants but in case you need to talk to a local on the road, you never know. I've made a list of basic Greek for travellers here.

You didn't tell me something important; when are you going there? I don't know what type of temperatures you are used to, however you need warm clothes with you. While you hike at noon, you might need to get rid of some layers but as soon as the sun sets, you absolutely need to have clothes that protect from cold / wind. Take also an umbrella with you. The altitude of all these villages you are going are around 950-1350 m (3110 - 4430 ft). In the park there will be various altitude drops and gains, depending on which trail you choose. If you are going in the summer, it should be pleasant, in spring it will be cold. Then again, IMO spring is better because you may get snowy peaks and more flowers. But don't worry this is a place that remains very beautiful all year round. I'm giving you an average climate table for Métsovo, the other places shouldn't be very different. Vradeto could be colder.

© WeatherSpark.com <--- A lot more info there.

Other info:

Since you come from a different country to hike, I bet you are more acquainted with hiking than I am so I don't have much to tell you. Here is a great info page for 24 hiking trails in the region, has many details on length, difficulty, needed equipment, where to leave a car , weather and also whether a trail is well maintained or not (if a "make an account" pops up after a while, simply copy paste the links to a new page).

That would become too long if I recommended attractions for each place separately. I think it's a good idea to search all these places in Tripadvisor or on google with a query like "Metsovo things to do" etc

Alternative idea:

You know, if you haven't entirely fixed your reservations and time schedule yet, I would probably switch Athens for Ioannina. Then again, if you come here for the first time it is understandable to want to see the capital or the ancient landmarks. But if you do it mostly as a city break, consider Ioannina instead. Ioannina is the major city in the region you are visiting. Personally, I would move there on the spot, given the chance. It's 40 minutes from Metsovo. Athens is 4h 40 min from Metsovo. The reason I am suggesting this alternative is because after days of hiking, Ioannina is a much closer and less tiring destination and it is aesthetically more consistent with the rest of your trip. Then again, Athens will provide a stark contrast. Two days aren't much for Athens, stick to Acropolis and the surrounding area, the Acropolis Museum and the National Archaeological Museum. Benakis Museum too if you manage to squeeze it in there. Don´t get concerned about what I said if you really want to see Athens or because you just want to decompress in Athens before getting the plane back home! I only suggested it because it´s closer and worth it too, that´s all.

That's about it! I believe you're gonna love this region!

Astraka towers in Papingo by PANOS ANDREOU on 500px.

[paralleledmediaexperience]

right before my birthday back in May someone made a post about Jack needing more love and hugs, and I had this idea in the tags and then went and wrote about a thousand words of this and then. forgot it existed!! anyway I’ve mostly polished it up now. enjoy Jack telling one of his dads he loves him and then not only being hugged but also hearing it back!! it’s what our boy deserves!!!!!

Now with part two!!!!!

-

Jack hadn’t meant to fix everything, in his defense. Yes, they’d defeated god with his powers, which had unintentionally released Amara, who had agreed to take her brother’s powers from Jack and then let the world mostly be as long as she got the chance to see him every once in a while. She’d returned the universe to normal, with a few additions for their happiness, as Amara had said. Dean had choked out Cas’ name, and Amara had frowned before replying that it might take a bit more time. 

They had gone back to the bunker and then the bunker had been thoroughly overrun the whole next week by- it seemed- everyone the Winchesters knew, including a few faces who were apparently as back from the dead by Amara’s hand as Mary was last time she owed a Winchester a favor. Through it all- old friends and odd allies and more- Jack knows Dean isn’t doing well. Isn’t sleeping well. There’s only been one night- well, Jack hadn’t seen Dean drinking but he’d heard Sam’s arguing and Dean’s short, choppy answers, and it was familiar enough.

He’d googled “what to do when my dad misses someone and we can’t talk to them yet,” and wikihow had good suggestions- he’d read through the sections for both short-term separations, and managing the death of a loved one. He hadn’t really been able to figure out which would be more helpful. It had turned out to be the death of a loved one, which… shouldn’t be surprising, no matter that Cas would be back. Soon. 

He couldn’t make Dean do any of the things on the list, but it had suggested that the person would like to feel loved during their time of grieving.

And when he’d searched “how to make someone feel loved,” the first article had said the easiest way was simply to tell them. So when Dean hands him a plate of pancakes with the bacon cooked just how Jack likes it, Jack thinks it’s such a small thing to make his heart feel so big and warm. And he smiles and says, “Thanks Dean. I love you.”

Unfortunately, Jack hasn’t actually grabbed the plate when he says this, and Dean’s hands drop it. The sound of the plate shattering on the tile is only half as upsetting as the wounded look in Dean’s eyes as he looks back at Jack. And Jack isn’t sure why it went so wrong but he looks away immediately, the shame of causing that hurt somehow and the slow horror of realizing he’d ruined the breakfast that Dean had made him turning his stomach into knots. He steps back almost unconsciously before remembering the plate had just broken, and in just his socks, a piece of ceramic jabs into his heel and slices him open, and he actually can’t help the small cry of surprise and pain that slips out.

“Jeez, kid,” Dean breathes out, and Jack gets pushed into the nearest chair. “Get that out of your foot while I clean this up.”

The warm feeling in his chest was gone, pressed into something cold and tight in Jack’s throat. He’d just- the article had said it makes people happy to hear they are loved in times of grief. 

He watches, silent as Dean turns off the stove and sweeps up the wasted food and plate pieces, soundly dumping it in the trash before digging under the sink for a second and coming out with a clean dishrag and a box of bandaids. It’s only when he sees Dean stop and take a quiet, private shuddering breath to forcibly relax his tensed shoulders that he lowers his gaze again. He picks the sharp sliver of plate out of his skin through the sock before peeling it off to examine the cut it left. Very shallow, but it still stretches two inches along on the inside of his heel, the blood sluggishly dripping out. 

It’s not bad, but very inconvenient, so he almost heals it before remembering that Amara had said not to use his powers after she took Chuck’s powers. Not until she returned and okayed it, at least. He sighs, pinching it together with his fingers, half heartedly wishing it had been more awkward and antagonistic between his aunt and his dads, so he could have maybe convinced Dean that they shouldn’t listen to what Amara told him to do. It probably wouldn’t have worked anyway.

He hears Dean turn the water on to damp the cloth, but he can’t make himself look back up again. His gaze goes back down to the floor as Dean starts to turn back toward him, focusing on the small smear of red on the floor, where Dean had dragged the broom through the spots of blood he’d left.

He raises his hands as Dean approaches, ready to be handed the stuff to bandage himself up, but Dean just beats them away as he sits down next to Jack, hunching in as he grabs the injured foot. Jack still feels unbearably small in the silence between them, both him and Dean leaning in and feeling small and unwilling to speak as he wipes away the blood and then dries the skin around it. Jack grabs two of the bandaids and opens them, and Dean wraps them around the cut before patting it and drawing away, and Jack doesn’t know what else to do.

“Sorry,” He says softly, because he isn’t sure what he did wrong but it hurt Dean. And he wasn’t even angry, Jack could tell, cause his shoulders hadn’t tensed the way they did when Dean was trying not to lash out- they’d tensed the way they did when Dean was trying not to fall apart. Jack’s felt like he had to know the difference for a while now.

“Jack,” Dean says, and it’s so sharp that Jack jerks up to look at him. Had he read that wrong? Was Dean angry? But when he meets Dean’s eyes it’s still that hurting, the one that Jack could remember all the way from back when he was a newborn, or something close to it. “No, you don’t-” Dean lifted a hand to his face and dragged it down with a rough breath, and Jack wasn’t expecting him to look back at him but he did, eyes burning into Jack’s. “You don’t have to be sorry. That was on me- I dropped the plate.”

Jack tries not to squirm, because it’s not about the plate, is it? The food had been thrown away and the plate had hurt him, but he’d said he loved Dean and that had made him drop it. “I’m sorry that I-”

“Jack,” Dean cuts across again, and this time his brows are drawing together the way they do when he’s angry. But he looks away from Jack again, and he can tell somehow that it’s not anger at him. Dean doesn’t even want Jack to be looking at this anger. “You say whatever you want, okay? I’m not upset that you said it.”

It isn't that he thinks Dean doesn’t mean the words, but Jack’s also not sure Dean believes them either. “I am, though,” he says, petulant, crossing his arms and letting his foot fall back down to the ground, ignoring the bite of pain from treating the cut so roughly. “If it hurt you, I shouldn’t have-”

Dean cuts him off again. “No. Jack, that’s-” He struggles for a second, but Jack just wants to understand. Unbidden, he holds his breath and Dean draws his in, trying to find the words.

“You get to love me if you want to,” Dean grinds out, and Jack realizes there are tears gathering along his lower lashes. “And you get to tell me if you want to. This hurt ain’t about you.”

That does clear it up, somehow, and Jack nods and looks back down at his hands, realizing there’s still blood on his fingers, too. Dean turns away enough that they can almost pretend he’s not rubbing the tears out of his eyes. “I won’t say it if you don’t want me to either, though,” he says, and he grabs the cloth from the table where Dean had left it, finding a clean spot on the damp corner and using it.

“That ain’t how it works, kid.” He doesn’t elaborate. He just grabs the box of bandaids and closes it before gathering up the paper wrapping. It gets thrown out, and the box stowed back under the sink, and then Jack is just staring at Dean.

“How does it work?” 

They both stop. Jack didn’t expect to actually let the question out, but it’s off of his lips before he can seal them. 

Dean is frozen, staring at him.

“Not like that,” Dean says eventually, weariness dripping from each word. “Jack, do you… do you want us to say…”

He doesn’t say it, the kitchen fan blowing white noise into the quiet air between them. Jack knows that he could ask and Dean would say it right now. Dean always gives the people he loves what they want, what they need, and this would just be the next thing he could offer. Something he could give.

“I don’t need you to.” Jack says, honestly. “I know. I just wanted you to hear it, because I don’t think I’ve ever gotten to say it to you.”

Dean squints at him. “You... “ His eyes are wet again. Without warning, Dean grabs him and pulls him up, into a hug, and Jack grabs back as tight as he can, feeling lost. But it’s good, it’s good just like every time Dean hugs him. He squeezes his eyes shut tight as if he can’t feel the tears welling up in his own eyes, hot and stinging. “I love you too, Jack. I don’t get- you and-” Dean sputters off, still holding him. “If you want to hear it, you let me know. I’ll get better at it.”

“Maybe every once in a while,” Jack says, trying not to let his voice sound like he’s crying. It does anyway.

“Alright then,” Dean says, and he squeezes him one more time before letting go, turning away abruptly and bustling back to the stove. Jack wipes his eyes on his sleeve, his whole chest feeling empty and full all at once. The rag had fallen out of his hands sometime in their conversation, and he leans down to grab it, pausing to wipe up the blood on the floor. Dean comes back a minute later and pulls it out of his hand before passing him another plate. “Here, since the last one humpty-dumpty’d.”

They don’t continue the conversation. Jack eats his breakfast as Dean fixes himself another cup of coffee, and they sit quietly, waiting for Cas to come home.

[c-e-d-dreamer]

Happy Oct. 1 and the start of Halloween! Please enjoy this spooky inspired Nessian fic! :) 

It had been an accident. A complete and absolute accident. Cassian had agreed to host a mini Halloween party at his loft apartment. They would order food in, play some drinking games, maybe binge some horror movies. It was going to be fun, and Cassian simply wanted his place to look the part. So he had bought those fake spiderwebs and hung them from the lamps and across the curtains. He bought some fake skulls and plastic pumpkins to set about the living room and kitchen. 

And he simply thought it would be funny to draw a pentagram on the floor. It looked just like in those cheesy Halloween movies, and he knew Azriel would get a kick out of it. He even set some candles around it to really make it look the part, and he couldn't help but put on his best 'spooky' voice as he said some words he'd read in one of Rhys' musty books in his library, some language he'd never heard of but sounded cool. He didn't think anything of it. 

And that's how Cassian ends up with a woman standing in the middle of his apartment. 

Cassian has no idea who she is, but he can’t deny that she is breathtakingly gorgeous. Her golden brown hair is braided up into an intricate crown, a few wisps of hair falling against her temples and framing her face. It brings out the cut lines of her cheekbones. She’s wearing a form fitting dress, the black fabric hugging her curves and arms before it flows into a deep blue at her feet. But Cassian’s eyes get stuck on her eyes, as dark as night as they pierce into Cassian’s own. 

"I am the Goddess of Death, Princess of Decay,” the woman says, her voice seeming to boom and echo in Cassian’s apartment. “Who are you who commands me?"

"How did you get in here?"

The question seems to give the woman pause, and she blinks at Cassian for a few seconds. Cassian watches as her head tilts slightly, her eyebrows pinching. 

"Excuse me?" the woman asks. 

"I mean my front door is locked so I'm just confused how you got in here."

"You summoned me."

"I summoned you…?" 

Cassian takes in where the woman is standing, right in the middle of the pentagram, her too dark eyes, and the way power seems to radiate off her in a way that rumbles in his own bones. Finally, his brain catches on. 

"You're a demon." 

The woman crosses her arms, her weight settling on her left leg. She raises her eyebrows at Cassian, her face cold and unimpressed. It pretty clearly reads ‘no shit.’ 

“I summoned a demon?” 

“Are you asking me?” 

“I summoned a demon,” Cassian mutters, mostly to himself. 

“What are you expecting? Congratulations?” the demon-woman quips. “Look, just tell me what you want.” 

“About that…'' Cassian starts, clearing his throat awkwardly and rubbing his hand against the back of his neck. “I actually didn’t mean to summon you. It was an accident.” 

“Is this a joke?”

“Unfortunately not. But I don’t need anything from you, so I guess you can just go back to wherever it is demons live.” 

“That’s not how it works. I’m tied to you until you banish me.” 

“And how do I do that?” 

“You don’t know how to banish me?” 

“I just told you I summoned you by accident. I’m not even sure how I did that.” 

The demon-woman closes her eyes and lets out a long sigh through her nose like she’s trying to stay calm. Cassian can’t help but wonder what would happen if she doesn’t stay calm. Would she attack him like demons in movies? Are the representations of demons in movies accurate? Would it be rude to ask her? After a moment, the demon-woman takes a deep breath and smooths back her hair before settling her eyes back on Cassian. 

“So, let me get this straight,” the demon-woman says. “You summoned me by accident, you don’t actually have any biddings for me to do, and you don’t know how to banish me.” 

 “Yes,” Cassian replies, chuckling sheepishly. 

“Great,” the demon-woman mutters. “I was summoned by an idiot.” 

“But I can Google it,” Cassian promises. 

It turns out, Google isn’t that helpful when it comes to actual demons. Cassian tries various different searches, but all that he’s able to come up with is a bunch of television and movie references, a Buzzfeed article comparing different celebs to demons, and a weird article about making deals with the devil. Luckily, he is able to find a local witchy shop that’s only three blocks down from his apartment. Unfortunately, they’re closed and don’t open until the next morning, so he and demon-woman are stuck together for the time being. 

He had moved to the sofa when he started his Google deep dive, and the demon-woman had stepped gracefully out of the pentagram to sit on the opposite end. She hasn’t said anything since their initial talk when she appeared, and Cassian can’t help but steal glances her way out of the corner of his eye. She looks like a queen the way she’s perched on the cream colored sofa cushion. 

“So,” Cassian drawls into the silence. “Do demons eat? I can order pizza.” 

The demon-woman turns to him, one eyebrow poised. The look sends a shiver down his spine. He's not entirely sure it's out of fear. 

As it turns out, demons do in fact eat, as Cassian learns. He also learns that this particular demon prefers her pizza topped with veggies and that her name is Nesta. 

“Have you always been a demon?” Cassian asks, taking a bite of his pizza slice. 

“Seriously?”

“You’re the first demon I’ve ever met. You can’t blame me for being curious, sweetheart.” 

Nesta’s eyes snap to his, a scowl pinched across her lips. The expression pulls a smile across Cassian’s own face, which only makes Nesta’s eyes narrow more. Cassian’s fingers itch to reach out and smooth the lines between her eyebrows. The desire is so sudden that Cassian busies himself with grabbing another slice of pizza out of the box to distract himself. 

“First of all, don’t ever call me sweetheart again,” Nesta starts. “And to answer your question, no. I haven’t always been a demon.” 

“Then how did you become a demon?” 

“I made a deal.” 

“Was it worth it?” 

Something passes over Nesta’s face then, like ghostly fingers leaving a haunting trail against her skin. Her spine straightens like steel, and when her eyes meet Cassian’s again, there’s a guardedness to her expression that speaks volumes yet leaves Cassian with even more questions. 

“Most days,” Nesta replies simply. 

~ * * * ~

The witchy shop is decidedly less spooky than Cassian had envisioned, but perhaps that’s just his biases and what movies taught him coming into play. He expects cobwebs and weird animal parts in slimy jars, and maybe a black cat that screeches at him when he steps inside. Instead, there’s an aisle dedicated to herbs and another dedicated to crystals. He squints at the black scrawled writing of the placards declaring what each crystal is for. He supposes it would be a bit too easy if one just said ‘banishing demons.’ 

Nesta sighs loudly from over his shoulder when he picks up a candle to smell. When he glances her way, her arms are crossed and that scowl from before is back plastered across her face. Slowly, he turns back around and sets the candle back down on the shelf. 

“Do you mind?” Nesta quips. 

“Alright, alright,” Cassian acquiesces, keeping his voice down to avoid attention. Another thing he learnt last night was that only he could see and hear Nesta.

He heads for the counter of the shop where a young woman is arranging jewelry in the display case. As he approaches, the woman looks up and offers him a friendly smile. Cassian tries to offer one back, but he’s sure it must look more like a grimace. Once at the counter, Cassian clears his throat, shoving nervous fingers through his tangle of hair. 

“Hello,” Cassian starts awkwardly. “This is probably a weird question, but you wouldn’t happen to know how to banish a demon, would you?” 

“Do you have a demon problem?” the shop worker asks. 

“Something like that.” 

“Well, is the demon powerful?” 

Cassian looks over his shoulder to Nesta, raising a questioning eyebrow at her. In response, she merely smiles. It’s all teeth and the exact opposite of innocent. It stirs something deep in his gut. 

“Very,” Nesta bites out.

Cassian turns back to the shop worker. “Very.” 

“Wait,” the shop worker replies. “The demon, is he here?” 

“She,” Cassian corrects. “And yes.” 

“But how did she get past my wards?” 

Cassian’s gaze follows the shop worker’s own, to the silver trinkets that twist and clink together softly above the shop’s door. He can hear Nesta’s scoff at the suggestion, and he doesn’t need to be looking at her to know that she’s rolling her eyes. 

“It would seem they don’t work,” Cassian offers sheepishly. 

The shop worker gapes for just a moment before she turns on her heel, pushing past the beads hanging over the doorway to the backroom. When she returns, she has a box of crystals that she sets down on the counter, a bundle of herbs labeled ‘sage’ and a folded up piece of paper nestled on top. 

“You’ll need to draw a circle and set these crystals around it,” the shop worker explains. “Make sure you charge the crystals under the full moon and don’t wait. Do it the next day. That’s when they’ll be the most powerful. Burn the sage to cleanse and say this incantation, and you should be free of your demon.” 

“Great,” Cassian exclaims, pulling his wallet out of his back pocket. “I’ll take it.” 

After paying and gathering his items, they head out of the shop. Cassian feels lighter already. They have a plan. Plus, the fall weather today is gorgeous and that always helps to lift his spirits, the cool breeze and canopy of yellow and reds above their heads. It definitely helps that fall and Nesta look amazing together, the golden rays of the sun bouncing off her hair. Cassian can’t help but offer her an easy grin as they walk side by side. 

“See? That was super easy. We’ll have you banished before you know it.” 

“And when’s the next full moon?” Nesta asks dryly. 

Cassian startles slightly at the question. He shifts the weight of the things he just bought to one arm and digs his phone out of his pocket with the other. A quick Google later, and Cassian takes in the date glaring back at him on the small screen with a frown. When he looks back up at Nesta, she’s staring back at him unimpressed, clearly already knowing the answer. With a roll of her eyes and what sounds to Cassian like a muttered ‘idiot,’ she takes off ahead him back toward his apartment. 

It’s going to be a long two and half weeks. 

-- 

And Cassian simps the whole time for those two and a half weeks. And there’s feelings. And Cassian makes a deal of his own to save Nesta’s soul. And they live happily ever after. 

[spideyhexx]

take a chance on me - b.b.

here's something I wrote for @buckyblues 4k writing challenge! I've been wanting to get back into writing, so here's my first go at it :)

using the song prompt "take a chance on me by abba." @edenslibrary

be sure to let me know what you think :) reblogs, likes and comments are appreciated 😊

bucky barnes x reader

summary: bucky has a crush on you. he's doubtful of himself, messes up, but turns it around.

WARNINGS: sfw. fluffy. some tiny tiny angst. bucky being self deprecating. huge hate of chekhov. bookstore owner!reader.

word count: 2.3k

Bucky replays his conversation with you a billion times within the couple of minutes it takes for him to walk from the quaint little book shop to his apartment.

After his favorite bookstore closed, Bucky took to finding a new one and stumbled upon the Murky Lime. He thought the name was strange, a little off putting, but as soon as he walked in, Bucky knew he was going to enjoy spending his afternoons there. It always smelled like hazelnut or vanilla, a scent he found so incredibly comforting that he bought a hazelnut scented candle for his home. Although it was a small shop, the shelves were loaded with books and he was able to find a hidden corner to sit down and read for a couple of hours, unbothered.

Not to mention the pretty girl that worked at the main desk and seemed to be the owner. You were there every afternoon that Bucky stopped by. He noticed how you would paint your nails when there weren’t as many customers. How kind your words were to anyone who asked for help. It took him a couple of weeks to work up the courage to ask you to help him find a book, even though he knew exactly where it was.

Bucky remembers when he complimented your bracelet and you smiled, stuttering out a thank you. The first time he saw you nervous. It gave him hope that maybe you were into him, but Bucky pushed away those thoughts as quickly as they came.

He couldn’t fathom how someone would truly want to be with him. Besides, he had enough on his plate, what with helping Sam on whatever mission he called him on and dealing with the occasional nightmare that haunted his mind.

That’s why he keeps on replaying the conversation. And cursing at himself for being so stupid.

…

“Hey Bucky!” Your words were cheerful, causing heat to rise up on his cheeks. You loved how a simple greeting seemed to get him all flustered. He’s still not used to even hearing his name come from your lips.

“How’re you doing, doll?” He lets the endearment slip, hoping he’d get to see you smile, and you do, before turning away and pointing at a box.

“I’m alright! And if you don’t mind, and you can totally say no, but I got a whole new set of Chekhov plays and I need to bring them to the play section, which is the furthest point from here and the box is a bit too heavy and I was going to make multiple trips but now you’re here and-”

“Of course I’ll help,” Bucky responded, chuckling at your babbling. You sighed, secretly hating your rambling habit, but it was hard not to when a handsome man was standing in front of you.

“I thought you hated Chekhov?” Bucky asked, picking up the box and following you to the play section.

“Oh I do, but a customer has been calling in for the last three weeks, asking if we have Chekhov and I thought I should finally put my Chekhov hating ass aside to appease the people who adore him,” you told him.

You couldn’t remember when you told Bucky you hated Chekhov, but you did not necessarily need to say it for someone to understand your distaste for the author.

“Or they could’ve just gone to a different bookstore,” Bucky mumbled, but you heard and let out a laugh. He put the box down and leaned against the opposite book shelf, hoping you would continue talking to him as you put the books away.

“So, I had another question for you,” you said, sneaking one glance at him before looking away.

“Go for it.”

“I was wondering if you wanted to go out sometime? Not sure where but we could just go get some coffee? Or go out to dinner?”

This was it, the penultimate moment Bucky had been dreaming about ever since he laid eyes on you. Yet his mouth began speaking before he could really take it in.

“Um, no,” he said, immediately widening his eyes at your expression. Your mouth dropped to say something, but you weren’t sure what to even say.

“I mean, I don’t know. I don’t think I can, right now, maybe?” You raised an eyebrow at him and smiled softly.

“It’s okay to say no, Bucky.”

“I know that, I know. I think I’m just not ready right now,” he said, his voice quieter as he said the last part. His brain was screaming at him to retract everything he had just said to you and to tell you he would go on a date, but Bucky could not do it. He already felt like he had failed and saw no point in trying.

“That’s okay. But...if you ever change your mind, let me know, I’d still be down,” you said.

You were slightly disappointed, but understood his reasoning even if he didn't give you an exact one.

Ever since he first came to your shop, you knew exactly who the tall, blue eyed man was. It was hard trying to comprehend everything James Bucky Barnes had gone through. You knew asking him out might’ve been a big step from having occasional small talk. A small part of you hoped he would take a chance on you someday.

...

Bucky throws his jacket haphazardly onto the couch as soon as he gets home, not caring that it ends up falling to the floor. He lights the candle on the kitchen counter and collapses onto the couch face first, letting out the sigh that was building up in him ever since he left the Murky Lime.

How could he do that? Was he actually not ready to date? He told himself he wasn’t, that’s why he felt like he had to say no to your date. But god, does Bucky want to go out with you and hold your hand and kiss your cheek. He hasn’t felt this feeling in a long while.

All the therapy sessions with Dr. Raynor flood his mind. The ones where she encouraged him to try dating and finding new friends but he brushed it off, feeling like he was unworthy of it. How could a sweet girl like you see something in him, he simply did not understand it. But you liked him enough to ask him on a date and he fucking said no.

Bucky sends Sam a quick text that’s more like an entire paragraph explaining the situation and what he should do. He throws his phone to the other side of the couch and drops his head into his hands. His phone pings a few seconds later and Bucky scrambles to grab it.

I think you’re just afraid of dating buck. You’re definitely ready, you’ve done so much work to be yourself again and I’ve seen that in you. If you like her AND she mentioned still going out if you changed your mind??? Go get her, man. Take the chance. If it doesn’t work out and you really aren’t ready, then that’s okay too. But it’s clearly eating you up that you said no, so just go to her.

...

You button up your coat and stuff your phone into your pocket, straining your head to the side to double check the time. Closing the store required a particular routine that you perfected, but you did not expect to see Bucky’s face at the front door. He did not notice you looking at him and you see the hesitation in his hands before he opens the door.

“Hey,” he says, shoving his hands into his jacket pockets.

“Hello again.” Bucky gives you a stiff grin and rocks on his feet for a few moments. The silence is deafening and it’s just about too awkward for you to handle.

“Is there uh..something you want?” He glances up and your eyes lock with his pretty blue eyes. You feel like you could gaze into them all day.

“Yeah, if you’re still up for it, I would like to go on that date with you. I’ve been afraid to put myself out there, but you’re so kind and beautiful..” his words trail off and he’s distracted for a moment at how you’re biting your lip nervously.

“I wanted to take a chance, so yes, let’s go on a date.”

“Do you wanna go now?” Bucky raises his brow and nods. You run to the back door to make sure it’s locked. When you come back, you see that Bucky took it upon himself to turn a few of the lights off and he hands you your purse.

“What a gentleman, huh?” He blushes and moves to open the door for you. You lock it up and turn to him.

“Does a walk in the park sound like a good idea?”

“Perfect.”

Since it was almost evening time, the park was not as busy. Bucky prefers it that way, and you do too. He’s so close to you, you can smell the little bit of cologne he must’ve put on. You want to tease him for it but decide not to. Instead, you purposely brush your hand against his own and Bucky immediately takes your hand in his.

“Maybe after this we could get dinner,” Bucky suggests.

“That would be nice. You can pick where.” Bucky thinks for a moment before responding.

“There’s this diner..a couple of blocks from your shop actually. It was there back in….you know.” Now that he’s thinking about it, he wasn’t sure you knew. He doesn’t wear gloves to hide his vibranium arm anymore and it’s an easy google search but you never showed any indication you knew about his past.

“I know about your past, Bucky. I won’t ask anything about it if-”

“No, it’s okay. I can talk about it.”

You nod. You're not planning to scour his brain about the haunting details of his life as the Winter Soldier, but you were curious about his life before that.

“Does it look the same as it did back then? The diner, I mean.”

“For the most part. There’s some newer technology in there and updated furniture but the style is all the same. It’s kind of nice to go somewhere familiar.”

The two of you walk over to an empty bench and take a seat. Your hands are still intertwined, resting on Bucky’s thigh.

“One more question about the 30s and 40s and then we can head on over to the diner,” you say, making Bucky laugh and nod his head at you to continue.

“How were dates back then? Like would you do the same thing we’re doing now or was there anything different?”

“It’s mostly the same,” he tells you. Bucky looks down at your hand, admiring how you rub your thumb against his hand.

“But there were these dances. I haven’t seen anything like them nowadays.”

“I think the closest thing we have to that is nightclubs. I’m gonna assume that is not your scene,” you say, giggling at his disgusted expression.

“It isn’t. I like forties music. I tried to listen to newer stuff and it’s not all terrible, but still not my favorite. I don’t think anyone in a nightclub will play Tommy Dorsey or Dinah Shore.” You ponder that for a moment as he turns to observe what else is going on in the park.

Quickly, you take out your phone.

“What are you doing?” All you do is smile at him, setting your phone down on the bench and standing up in front of him. He raises an eyebrow suspiciously as you hold your hand out.

“Mr. Barnes, can I have this dance?” Bucky takes a look around. There were a few people around who seemed to not take notice of the music coming from your phone.

“Gladly,” he accepted, taking your hand. Bucky placed one hand on your hip and pulled you in closer to him.

“I must admit, I know this was my idea, but I don’t know how to dance,” you whisper to him. Bucky shakes his head, smiling so wide he thought his mouth would start hurting. He slowly moves his feet side to side.

“Just this is fine,” he mutters. He tries not to take his eyes off yours, but you’re so close and Bucky can’t help but look at your lips, slightly parted and letting out deep breaths. He moves your hand rest on his shoulder, both of his own now holding your hips.

You trail your fingers from his shoulder to behind his neck, clasping your hands there.

“Thank you for this,” Bucky says and he hums along to the song playing, ‘Be Careful, It’s My Heart’ by Frank Sinatra. You smile at it, so he keeps humming. Bucky leans his forehead against yours.

“I know it’s not perfect-”

“Doesn’t matter. It’s with you. And this is...it’s nice.” You feel like your heart is going to burst. His eyes keep flitting down to your lips and Bucky leans in.

As his lips ghost against yours, you move your head, so he ends up kissing your cheek. He pulls back, a confused look on his face.

“Save that for the end of the date, honey,” you tease, leaning up to kiss his cheek. You linger your lips against his skin before moving away from him and his scoff turns into a laugh.

“I’m holding you to that,” he says, biting the inside of his cheek.

“I hope you do” you mumble and Bucky pulls you in close to him, making you squeal. He twirls you and brings you back into his arms, his lips touching the top of your ear.

“Let’s go get some dinner now.” You nod and grab your phone, opting to let the music keep playing. Bucky doesn’t hesitate from telling you random music facts about the artists as you make your way to the diner.

And as you ramble on about your own favorite singer, Bucky thanks the heavens that he took a chance on you and that it was going better than he ever imagined.

[captainshadowgirllostfan]

Sheldon Cooper vs Abed Nadir

I like Sheldon believe it or not. I think his unlikability is what makes the character unique and unfortunately in putting in a google search of Sheldon vs Abed (from community), this is one of the biggest reasons people say that Abed is a better character than Sheldon and I think that’s ridiculous.

While I agree there’s a racism issue in Hollywood and the reason Parsons got an Emmy and Golden Globe for Sheldon Cooper while Danny Pudi got nothing for Abed definitely might have a lot to do with the color of their skins, I do think Parsons deserved his reward for Sheldon Cooper because Sheldon Cooper is a unique character and Parson did a great job acting as Cooper. Even after the writers kept butchering the character from Season 5 onwards, Parsons is still able to bring in a human quality in Sheldon and it’s partly why there’s articles written about Sheldon and his psychology because he’s a fascinating comic character.

Unfortunately his role in the Big Bang Theory is to be the pun of all jokes. His autistic trait is treated as a joke. It’s not accepted, it’s not valued, it’s demeaned and picked on and even gives people the excuse to say Sheldon deserves to be left out all because he’s “unlikable”

And this is why I despise this argument that Abed is a better character because he’s “likable”. I don’t think actual autistic people are supposed to be likable. I mean I’m not saying they aren’t capable of it but from a brief look at how parents struggle to care for their autistic children and the difficulties with behavior, to claim that an autistic character is only good if he’s “likable” is fucking dehumanizing to me. What? You’re gonna only give anybody a credit of your time and acceptance if he’s “nice”?

Sheldon, unlike Abed, doesn’t just have to deal with struggles of connection. This is Community touches on with Abed, a lack of connection with people because he feels like an outsider and can only observe, but with Sheldon, his issues are much more. Sheldon has misophonia, he also seems to be suffering from OCD or OCPD, in which everybody must fit into his routines precisely because he believes this is the way things are supposed to be, he’s compulsively neat and ordered and he needs things to be that way. 

I saw a video of a little boy (who either has OCD or is autistic I don’t remember) who couldn’t even eat his food if all his food touches each other. He literally was crying to his mother. He couldn’t even drink his juice if all the silver top wasn’t ripped off. This is Sheldon and you’re saying Sheldon is a bad character because he’s not “likable”. That by wanting things to fit his sensitivities because he can’t handle touching his food, it makes him narcissistic?

I’ll admit there are some bad behavior Sheldon does that I wish the showrunners would have addressed. He does take advantage of Leonard, and then later Amy. And the creators excuse this. They excuse so much with Sheldon and yes I agree he doesn’t grow. 

Meanwhile Abed seems to grow. Everytime Abed shows some bad “unlikable” trait, there’s an explanation behind it because the creators give him a voice, and most of all his friends respond to him with compassion, kindness, and support.

For example, I just finished Season 1 episode 21, “Contemporary American Poultry”, where the gang become power-high over Abed’s new job as the fry-cook and being able to get the chicken first. The chicken is apparently the only good thing the cafeteria makes. In the beginning of the episode, Abed says some blunt things that hurts Shirley’s feelings about her crush over the dreadlocks guys, along with some hurtful stuff to Britta about how her lack of flavor is a flavor itself when she suggest he thinks about the stuff he says and if it will be hurtful. Abed doesn’t realize what he says is hurtful but in some ways can recognize when someone isn’t happy with him. He’s the observer of the gang. When he gets the job as the fry-cook in the gang’s scheme to get the chicken first, it blows up into bribing the whole school for stuff just to get chicken. The gang gets power high through stuff Abed can get them through his new job which leaves Jeff’s ego hurt and him feeling left out since Abed pretty much replaces him as gang leader. Eventually Abed realizes he isn’t getting the respect he thought he was getting even though he was finally feeling liked in the group and gets back at them, thinking this is what Jeff would do. By the end of the episode, in a ploy to ruin the fry cooker, Jeff finds Abed late at night cooking tater tops which Abed says is the new thing because people are now tired of chicken. Instead of ruining the cooker, and thus ruining Abed, Jeff has a conversation with Abed and Abed reveals that he liked the job and giving chicken because he finally feels like people liked him for once and that he and the world was finally speaking the same language. The show gives Abed a voice and humanizes him from a robot that tends to hurt people with what he says to someone who just genuinely struggles to connect with people and need to use someone to gain a connection whether it’s chicken or movie references. And best of all, Community doesn’t have his friends mock him for his struggles or use it as a pun for jokes. It respects Abed. And his friends respect him too... even when he’s a jerk. They listen to him and try to understand him.

You don’t get that with Sheldon.

So there’s the difference in my opinion.

The difference between Abed and Sheldon isn’t that one character is better than the other, but the fact that the show each respective character is in treats them different. Abed is treated better, with kindness and support, while Sheldon isn’t treated well AT ALL.

For me, realizing that with Big Bang came around Season 3 episode 1 when Sheldon and crew comes back from the Artic. The crew’s ill-treatment and laissez-faire attitude for legitimately ruining a friend’s experiment along with actually considering to kill him makes me honestly wonder if they care about Sheldon at all. Nevermind how difficult Sheldon’s eccentricities are. Even if the writers wrote this, the fact no discussion was made over Sheldon’s feelings. The fact that Sheldon’s feelings was treated as “childish” according to Leonard, tells you everything you needed to know about how Big Bang Theory views Sheldon Cooper. He has NO voice. His voice doesn’t matter. He’s the wackadoodle, the “crazy” man. Anything he says, is just ridiculous and isn’t valid.

Is it any wonder Sheldon just grows worse as the seasons go on when surrounded by people who treats him as an insane person. And tbh Season 3 shouldn’t have been a wake-up call on that. Sheldon’s mental state has been the pun of jokes since Season 1 but since we don’t  legitimately see Sheldon upset, I didn’t think anything of it. It seemed like friends just making mild complaints over a difficult friend but who understands and still hangs out with him. But when Sheldon WAS upset, those same friends just didn’t care. AT ALL. And throughout they actively try to exclude him on their activities and complain about him all the same. When he goes through heartbreak, they go comfort his ex instead of him (at least that’s what I heard. I haven’t watch so I might be wrong but I gotta say I’m appalled but again unsurprised). I’d say out of the friend group his truest friends seem to be Leonard and Penny. 

Leonard because even though he has hurt Sheldon the most, demean him the most, and also whines about him the most, he does side with Sheldon at times he needs him and does show concern for him. Penny because she is the one we’ve seen Sheldon share his inner self the most and who responds and deals with him with the most compassion. I guess Amy also counts to because Sheldon does become vulnerable in front of her, from the bits of scenes I’ve seen of them anyway. And Amy for a time had been the one that seems to understand Sheldon the most until the writers gave Amy this desire to have se and have Sheldon be the one to do it when he’s been written to be repelled of it... you know for laughs. 

Amy and Leonard are hard to write in terms of saying their Sheldon’s friends because I feel like they also manipulate and treat Sheldon bad. They complain and whine when they don’t get what they want and I also think both of them like that Sheldon relies on them, and is co-dependent on them... and that isn’t healthy. But there’s no denying that these two are friends who care for Sheldon.

But anyway the others are only friends because their friends are friends of Sheldon... so why do they all treat Sheldon bad? Because when you watch Big Bang Theory, you realise as the episodes go on, that everyone in Big Bang Theory treats everybody bad. These are a toxic group of people and there is not growth. They’re stuck in this childish bubble and it’s NOT because their geeks who like nerd culture. You can be a grown-up and like Star Wars, Star Trek, Marvel and DC. But Big Bang says otherwise. No they say, you need to get married and have kids to be grown up and that’s such a stupid message to bring. This crew is childish because they’re honest to god just awful. They can’t have a conversation without putting someone down. They can’t get over their damn egos.

Community gives us a different aura of things... of course I haven’t finished the series yet and apparently the gang does become a bit toxic by the end of the series but it seems the showrunners and writers are aware of this while in Big Bang, there is either a blindness to this, or is written deliberatly because for some reason tv shows think toxic relationships are what sells funny.

It really doesn’t.

Anyway this turned into a rant. Let me just conclude.

Sheldon isn’t written badly. He’s just treated badly. Because his autism is the brunt of jokes and is meant to look down on. This is sad because out of the two characters being compared, I think he needs the support the most due to the myriad of issues he suffers from. 

Abed isn’t written badly either of course but unlike Sheldon he’s treated with respect by the writers of Community. He’s given a voice and his friends treat him compassion.

[corysmiles]

Little streamer AU prompts!

-Thinking they were all humans, either Wil or Phil bought tickets for them all to go to an amusement park....but Tommy’s too short to ride. Where does it go from there? Does Wilbur feel bad and sob out apologies? Does Tommy say it’s fine and that they can go without him, only to get kidnapped/lost? Does Tommy say f*ck it and try to sneak on with Tubbo? Your choice :)

-The bois at the arcade during the meetup. They try to cheat the games by having Tommy roll skeeballs into the best slot, or go inside machines to fix the game in their favor

-While Tubbo has Lani, and Phil has probably had like a borrower coworker or something, this is Wil’s first time heavily interacting with someone so small, and constantly watches the others and stays up at night googling how to best handle a borrower. Some of the suggestions he gets from online are way too formal and Tommy is confused as heck at where he’s getting these ideas. Like Wil you don’t have to wash your hands before picking me up if we’re RUNNING LATE C’MON LETS GO

-(the angst prompt) Tommy was so excited to meet others his size and during the meet up he doesn’t feel included or something, and he ahas a mental breakdown. Maybe he hides in a small space so the others can’t find/reach him

-If you don’t have plans for techno yet, maybe he’s also a tiny and thought he was the only one of any of his online friends, but the group FaceTimes him and he sees Tommy is small too but doesn’t make a big deal out of it, just a mentions it in the conversation at some point. Tommy feels instantly better. “Technoblade’s a bigger bad ass than any of you talk freaks!” “Techno was already the coolest, but none of you have a chance now.”

-Tommy wrestles with everyone’s hands

If you can’t tell I love this idea so much lol

-🦎anon

omg I love your ideas so much thank you and I’m so so sorry this post is so long I was gonna split it up but then I was motivated and got really excited (also pls forgive me for any spelling errors this is long and I didnt want to go back and edit it) :]

Little streamer au drabbles

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When Phil and Kristen had originally been planning out all the things they could do at the meet up they didn’t take into account the possibility that any of their friends might be well...tiny. So when the day came for the group to go to the amusement park and they were stopped by security at the first ride Phil knew the day wasn’t going to end well.

“Sorry sir,” the man said to Wilbur who currently had Tommy in his front pocket, “Tinies can’t go on the rides here, it’s too much liability for the park.”

Wilbur just stared at the man in mild confusion, “What if I hold him though, there’s no way anything could happen.”

The man just shrugged, “I don’t know it’s the park’s rules not mine so you can either stay out here with him or pass on rides for today.”

Wilbur looked down at the small teen in his pocket and could tell he was getting upset by the confrontation. Tommy’s shoulders drooped and he kept his eyes down as if to not show the others his disappointment.

“Its alright big man, go on I can stay down here,” Tommy whispered and patted Wilbur’s chest reassuringly. The attempt at comfort just made Wilbur’s frown grow.

“Hey it’s alright Will I’ll stay down here with Tommy,” Tubbo said, “I’m not the biggest fan of heights anyways.”

Wilbur reluctantly agreed and handed over the tiny to the other teen who walked over to one of the benches to wait for the others.

When Wilbur and Phil got off the roller coaster they panicked when they couldn’t find the two teens until they found Tubbo riding on a carousel horse with Tommy hanging off the pole.

Safe to say Wilbur didn’t let Tubbo take Tommy the rest of the day. (Sorry i didnt do angst for this one)

(More under the cut)

—————————————————————

Tommy was so excited to go to the arcade with his friends. When they got there though and Tommy saw all the prizes he could win he started to form a plan.

Tubbo of course would be the one to help him out though since he was the only one that was willing to let Tommy cause any chaos.

It started with small things like having him help them cheat on skeeball or hit targets with his hands on shooting games until they started to look for more ways to cheat.

For the final plan, Tubbo watched as Tommy climbed through the slot of a crane machine and tried to push a large bear toy into the hole.

When he saw the bear he thought Wilbur would like it and while Tubbo was usually opposed to crane games since it’s just a “waste of fucking money” he wasn’t necessarily opposed to helping Tommy get into the machine.

Everything was going fine until a woman with a child came over to the machine to play for themselves; immediately Tommy ducked down beneath the plushies so they wouldn’t get caught and Tubbo began to panic when he lost sight of the tiny.

It was at that moment that the rest of the group came over to Tubbo and asked where Tommy was.

“Uhhh hes in the bathroom,” Tubbo said nervously.

Phil tilted his head at the boy, “Uhuh...where is he Tubbo?”

“Ummmm so about that big man we uh-“

However, Tubbo was interrupted by his phone dinging and his face went pale as he read the text from Tommy.

-Pls get me out of here big man I can’t get this shit off me anymore-

“Uhhhh...oh fuck,” Tubbo muttered, “Um I have not the best news for you.”

“And what’s that?” Wilbur asked.

“Ummm do you have any coins on you?”

Phil looked at Tubbo with confusion, “Yeah, why do you ask mate?”

Tubbo turned back to the crane where the mother and daughter had left and laughed nervously, “well....ummm so by bathroom I kinda meant uh the crane machine? Yeah, Tommy’s in there.”

The adults immediately freaked out at the situation because what the fuck were the kids thinking. And when Tubbo told Wilbur they were just trying to get the teddybear for him cause Tommy thought he’d like it, he felt even more dread.

After almost an hour of Wilbur and Phil putting in money into the claw machine they finally got enough toys out of the way to see the tiny.

With one more try Tommy was able to grab onto the claw and let himself fall out of the machine. Wilbur immediately scooped him up to scold him for being a dumbass but when he saw that Tommy’s face was red and swollen he decided instead to just slip Tommy into his pocket to rest.

With the extra cheated tickets though they were able to buy Tommy a tiny plastic nerf gun from the arcade before they left.—————————————————————

Wilbur was surprised at how quickly Phil and Tubbo were okay with Tommy’s size. While Tubbo apparently had a tiny sister and Phil had had tiny friends before, Wilbur couldn’t recall ever actually interacting with someone so small expect for in passing.

He really cared about Tommy as both a friend and as a brother and he was so afraid of messing up with the teen. He didn’t want to hurt or offend Tommy in any way so of course he went to the best place to figure out what to do: wikihow.

The articles were strange for sure but anything to make Tommy feel more comfortable with him would be worth it.

So the next day when Tommy was supposed to be eating breakfast at Wilbur’s house and Wilbur wouldn’t pick him up to put him on the table he thought the taller man was just being a dick.

Then when Tommy asked him if he would pick him up Wilbur walked away from him to go to the bathroom instead of helping him.

After a minute the brunette man walked back and reached a hand down to lay besides Tommy. Tommy stepped onto his palm and expected him to pull him up towards him but when he didn’t he started to get really annoyed.

“Hey you can move what the fucks up witb you right now you’re being all weird and shit man,” Tommy grumbled.

“Huh? Oh I just...I was looking up some stuff about uh tinies and I thought maybe it would make you more comfortable?” Wilbur whispered with embarrassment.

“What?” Tommy laughed, “Why the fuck would you do that you were fine before I would tell you if I wasn’t comfortable big man you don’t have to worry about that.”

Wilbur felt his heart swell at the comfort and slowly lifted Tommy up to the table for them to eat together. It was still strange having someone so small around but Wilbur would get used to it for Tommy.—————————————————————

Tommy usually didn’t have any problems with having bigger people around. All his friends at home and his family were all humans so he knew he was overreacting about none of his online friends being tinies. But when they went out to dinner together and Phil, Tubbo, and Wilbur were all talking together while Tommy sat next to Wilbur’s cup something broke inside him.

The reason he loved streaming so much was that he thought he finally had met other people like him, but he guessed it was his own fault for never really checking.

As the three laughed loudly Tommy felt himself becoming more and more overwhelmed by the chaos in the restaurant. He couldn’t cry now though his friends were having fun, it would be a dick move for him to ruin the meet up for them just because he expected them to be tinies.

Throughout the meal and on the way home Tommy was mostly silent, he sat in Wilbur’s pocket as they arrived at the man’s apartment. Wilbur waved goodbye to Phil and Tubbo as he took Tommy inside.

Wilbur sat Tommy down on the counter as he changed and Tommy finally felt a few tears fall from his eyes. He heard the sound of a door opening and quickly hid behind a tea box so Wilbur wouldn’t see him in this state.

He started to shake as the tears kept coming while he heard Wilbur searching around for him.

“Tommy?” Wilbur called out but Tommy couldn’t even get a solid breath much less respond.

After a few moments Tommy felt the tea box he was hiding near shift as a large hand wrapped him up gently.

“Oh jeez Tommy are you okay?” Wilbur asked as he lifted Tommy to his eyes.

Tommy wiped his eyes and slowly nodded to Wilbur who looked heartbroken by the tears.

Wilbur sighed, “Do you want to talk about it?”

Tommy shook his head no and Wilbur gave the boy a sad smile.

“I’m sorry Tommy, we’ll talk about this later okay,” he whispered as he tucked Tommy up against his chest. He held the tiny until he heard soft snores replace the sobs and promised himself that whatever made him this sad would never happen again.—————————————————————

Techno had been tweeting at the rest of the sleepy boys since the start of the meetup. The American wished he had gotten to meet up with his friends but sadly because of covid there was no way to safely visit the UK, so instead they settled for FaceTiming one night so that Techno wouldn’t feel as left out.

Techno grabbed his specially made phone and anxiously waited for the call. When Phil’s contact showed up Techno opened it immediately and was greeted by the familiar blonde human’s face along with Tubbo in the corner.

“Hey Techno!” Phil smiled as Tubbo waved aggressively.

Techno smiled and waved back, “Hullo.”

After a little bit of shuffling Wilbur appeared on the screen with something cupped in his hands.

“What you got there Will?” Techno asked with an amused expression.

“It’s me bitch! Ayyy Techno,” a loud and annoying but familiar voice yelled form the taller man’s hands.

“Oh hey Tommy,” Techno laughed, but besides that there was almost no reaction to Tommy’s height.

“That’s it? No big ‘wow you’re small’ or like ‘poggers’ or anything?” Tommy asked.

Techno hummed in response, “Nah why would I care your nothing special cause you’re small.”

Tommy huffed and crossed his arms at Techno, “I’m not special bitch? I’m the only tiny here I’m amazing!”

A small chuckle left Techno as he realized the situation.

“And why are you so sure you’re the only one huh?”

Tommy blinked wide eyed at Techno before a wide grin spread across his face.

“Wait you’re small too?” Phil asked.

Techno nodded to his friends who all had different ranges of shock on their faces.

“Oh fuck yeah!” Tommy screeched causing everyone to laugh.

“See I knew this is why you were so much cooler than these bitches were alpha men you see,” Tommy laughed.

“Yeah,” Techno smiled, “I’m sure that’s why.”

The rest of the call was calmer however Tommy continued to insist that Techno and him were much cooler than the rest of the them. —————————————————————

The first time Tommy had been grabbed to try to get him to calm down or stay still it had been by Phil when he was trying to cook breakfast and Tommy kept getting too close to the stove top. Phil placed his hand over Tommy to keep him still when he felt the kid latch onto his pointer finger and try to pull it away.

“Ay what are you doing mate?” Phil laughed as the tiny continued to struggle with his finger.

“I’m wrestling you big man can’t you tell, and I’m fucking winning!” Tommy grinned.

Phil chuckled at the kid before flipping him over with his thumb.

“Yup you’re winning sure,” he said slyly.

When Wilbur and Tubbo walked in to Phil trying to pin down Tommy with his fingers while the small boy laughed and pushed them away as much as he could they had no fucking clue what was going on.

[tbzhours]

home

sunwoo x you, soulmate au, fluff, implied smut  

[summary] feeling lost in a city, sunwoo never thought he could ever be so found (or soulmate au where you both live far from each other and finally meet) [words] 2.5k [a/n] i’ve been wanting to write something like this; enjoy ♡

Sunwoo loved the idea of visiting Eric’s hometown as a vacation because it was by the beach. Not that he had ever been there which was more than a thousand miles away from home but he loved the smell of the ocean because he felt that somehow it was related to finding his soulmate. That thought was always in the back of his mind, other than in his google searches. He felt that he was the type of guy who gets sentimental at the beautiful sight of the sunset over the moving water in the evening… Even if he’s in his leather jacket. 

He was walking by the empty park and ride, remembering how Eric and his friends had to leave early because there was a concert they wanted to go to for the night. Sunwoo decided to stay by the beach and assured them that he would take the last bus back to the parking location where they’d pick him up. 

The sun was setting already at his side and he took a look at it, swooned by the orange colors marked on the sky and the surface of the ocean. His hands were in the pockets of his jacket and he smiled softly. 

Seconds later as his steps slowed, he saw you leaning forward on the vinyl fence that lined up on the sidewalk. You were facing the sunset as he could only see the side of your sunkissed face. He finished his walk and stood next to you, his heart racing to meet yours. 

"Isn't it lovely?" Sunwoo asked almost cockily when he leaned forward like you. He turned to your gaze, his thick lips smiling still. You were wondering who this funny guy was because he made you smile back. All you heard was the ocean waves before he continued, "I'm talking about you."

You laughed away into the shiny sands in front of you. You slipped your fingers away from your connected hands and folded your arms over the fence. You tilted your head at him and asked, "I was so sure you were talking about the sunset." 

"Yes, yes I was too." Sunwoo nodded his head awkwardly, chuckling after. 

He scratched his head and turned back to you when you asked, "I don’t think you’re from here?" 

“What makes you think so?” His smile was blooming against the sunglow and you couldn’t help to notice how his eyes sparkled, as if they were meant to shine for you. Your eyes glanced down at his crazy jacket and he laughed again. He knew exactly what you were thinking. 

You didn’t realize a flower tattoo glowing on your ankle like the lilac skies on the opposite side of the sun. Sunwoo had the same flower behind his neck and it was shining like the orange side. You noticed. 

As you both watched people come and go from the park and ride, Sunwoo suggested to take a walk by the water before you both head back because, you know, it’s all about making the last of it. You rolled your eyes and shook your head with a grin before you followed him from his pressuring hand wave, getting sand in your shoes. 

From this little adventure, you both casually exchanged names. You quickly learned that he didn’t go to college after graduating from high school while you dropped out of college. It’s been at least two years now and you still felt like you were lost. Sunwoo understood that but he’s been trying to let it go because he thought restricting his interests wasn’t going to make him happier. You felt a connection there because maybe it was time for you to do what you thought was right for you, like taking the courage to hold his hand and run along the ocean waves. 

Sunwoo seemed like the opposite of what you’d think he’d do. Instead of staying at his so-called high school friend, Eric’s house, he actually booked a place for the little vacation. It was for Eric’s short break before the semester starts again in two weeks. Sunwoo seemed to be such a sweet talker too and your heart kept fluttering when he followed up your words with something witty and smooth. Plus, you wondered why he had a leather jacket on because everyone wears summer clothes at the beach. You got the answer when he set it over your shoulders when the nightly breeze picked up. 

You both had crazy ideas about wanting to watch the sunset turn into a sunrise, getting no sleep for a late night exploration and looking for weirdly-shaped seashells under the starry skies. He had crossed your mind that he’s definitely your soulmate, so those were just dreams. 

You both went for some ice cream afterwards, making sure to not miss the last bus back to the park. The ice cream stand was in the park and ride while other people were waiting. You both had a casual conversation about the place you work at and how you invited him to dine in with his friends before their trip was over. 

“I’ll ask the guys and let you know.” Sunwoo was eating his cone with a hand in his pocket. He looked cold from how tall his shoulders were but he smiled then he asked out of curiosity. “I forgot to ask, where exactly do you live?” 

You chuckled into a grin and answered him. “Why? Are you going to sleep over or something?” 

“If you don’t mind.” He turned to you nonchalantly with the cream wetting his lips, then he smiled, “I’m just kidding. Can I walk you home?” 

“Sure. That would be nice.” You smiled into his sparkling eyes for a long while. “And if we meet again, we can do that thing.” 

You paused, watching how his smile grew bigger because he knew what you were thinking of. 

“‘Watching the sunset turn into a sunrise’ thing.” 

You being Sunwoo’s soulmate had crossed his mind since then. He couldn’t sleep at all that night and it went on for days. Eric found him dazed and asked why he was always in his head when he finally noticed Eric staring. It was more like holding back a laugh but Sunwoo just brushed it off and tried to get back into the board game they were playing at Eric’s parent’s house. 

“Something must have happened that night.” Eric smirked, eyeing Hyunjae and Juyeon, who came along this trip. 

Hyunjae tried to laugh but he opened his mouth and glanced at Sunwoo then back at Eric. “Must be.” 

“Yeah, yeah. Whatever, let’s just keep going with this game.” Sunwoo avoided their stares, though he smiled. Juyeon nodded at the side, still focused on the game. 

It was quiet for a moment before Juyeon looked at Sunwoo, who was sitting next to him. Sunwoo looked back at him and Juyeon questioned, “Wait, something really did, huh?” 

Sunwoo blushed. He felt pressured to tell them but of course, when he came back without his jacket, it was obvious, and he would have to tell all about it. 

As for you, you forgot to give Sunwoo’s jacket back after he walked you home from the bus ride and you were eagaring to meet him again. It was left on the couch for days and you kept wondering if you should head out with it every time you see it. Finally for one of the days when you were working in the restaurant by your house, you decided to wear it. 

You slipped your hands into his pockets to warm them up but a seashell fit into your palm instead. How cute. 

You set the seashell beside your bed and headed out for work. 

After working that night, you walked out of the restaurant with your hands in your pockets. The sunset in the distance painted your face as it reminded you of Sunwoo. You knew you had to go to the beach nearby again. 

You got off the bus once you arrived at the beach. There were still some people around as you walked through the sidewalk where you first met Sunwoo. You turned to the ocean and you didn’t know why he was the first person you noticed playing in the sand with a soccer ball. 

You walked up to him, hiding your hands behind your back as your feet sank into the sand at each step. Your tattoo was shining as he turned to you. Before you could call for him, he caught you first with his finger up at you. He was staring at your jacket then he looked into your sun-glowed eyes. 

“You play soccer?” 

“No?” You slightly tilted your head with a tight smile. 

“Good. Let me teach you.” He’s been holding onto the soccer ball when he smiled at you. 

You laughed at the sudden offer and joined him because it was unavoidable. 

The evening quickly turned into night, playing soccer and running around in the sand. Your laughs filled the air from your chases and it felt unreal to hear the ocean waves at your side because it was too perfect of a night that you didn’t want it to end. 

“So,” You started awkwardly as you both were walking side-by-side beside the waves. “Do you always wear leather jackets?” 

“Why? Is it not fashionable anymore?” He chuckled, keeping his hands in his pockets. He brushed off some sand off his shirt before he turned to you. 

“It is. I just realized that.” You grinned at your walking feet. 

“Okay. My turn to ask you.” Sunwoo smiled, taking the opportunity. “Do you believe in soulmates? Because I do, and I think I found mine here.” 

“You don’t think I believe in them?” You chuckled, glancing at him after. 

“I think everyone believes in them.” Sunwoo nodded then his voice got quieter and slow. “I’m just wondering if you could see mine because I can see yours.” 

“Where is it?” Your eyes widened. You thought about how hard it was to live without knowing how your tattoo looks like until you meet your soulmate. It was no wonder that you felt a strong connection through Sunwoo that kept you close to him. You never want that feeling to leave when he stopped walking. 

“I’m not telling you.” He had a cheeky frown as you stopped and turned around to him. 

“Well then, I’m not telling you too.”

“Okay.” He nodded. His smile irritated you out before you started to chase after him. 

It didn’t last long because he caught you in his arms and stole your eyes from your racing hearts. The waves wet your feet as you gazed into each other’s eyes. 

Warmth steamed against your chest as a sizzle tangled in your stomachs. His gaze seemed to be asking for more when you didn’t hesitate to ask. “I know you can see them here but do you want to go watch the stars where it’s just us?” 

“You know a place?” His eyebrow lifted with your cheeky smirk. 

“My place.” 

You left Sunwoo’s jacket on the same spot on your couch while he was on your balcony, gazing at the stars first. It’s crazy to him how the place he booked was only a few blocks from your place because the night you walked you home, he actually had lost his way. 

You walked up behind him with two cups of warm drinks for the cool breeze at night when he heard your steps. He smiled and took a cup from you before you joined him, leaning onto the edge of the balcony. 

“It’s really the best place to see the stars.” He complimented. He smiled into his drink and took a sip. 

You hummed and turned to him. “I told you.” 

He chuckled and tilted his head to the side and back. “Yeah, and you still haven’t told me where my tattoo is or how it looks like.” 

“I can assure you it’s nothing crazy.” You set your cup down to the side and crossed your arms over the rail with a smile. 

“Sure, okay.” Sunwoo turned away and took another sip but he quickly looked back at you with a pleading look. He hadn’t noticed how you couldn’t stop staring at him, as if you were only up in your head and not hearing a word he was saying. He had a pout on his face when he asked, “Tell me, please?” 

“Only if you kiss me.” 

His eyes widened but it slowly softened. You knew he could read your heart when he cupped his hand behind your neck and connected your lips. His other hand set his cup away so he could pull you to him, closing the gap between your chests. He pressed you against the rail and danced his lips with yours, slow and delicate. 

Soon, you both were on your bed. He was below you and he kissed your inner ankle to tell you, that was where your floral tattoo was. He left a trail of kisses up your legs, to your stomach and chest, and behind your neck. You wrapped an arm over his shoulder and your other hand rested at the nape of his neck where your fingers hovered his floral tattoo. It was glowing as you reached your lips there, pressing a touch of love. 

From this moment with you, he knew he wanted to stay.

It was already 2AM. Sunwoo was cuddling you after noticing the seashell on your end table beside the bed, asking why you had if you stole it from him. A chuckle followed. He wanted to give that to you in the first place but didn’t because he got nervous whenever he looked into your sunset eyes. 

"I'm staying here." Sunwoo said after a long silence from the last conversation. 

"You have a place to stay?" You asked, trying to fall asleep but your heart was still racing with him here. 

He nodded, "I talked to Eric's mom. She's okay with it as long as I have a reason to be here."

“You can stay with me if you’d like.” Your voice sounded drowsy. You were ready to be knocked out. 

“You’re okay with that?” He was shocked and surprised because he wouldn’t mind that. 

“As long as we plan things around here together.” You looked up at him with your tired eyes. With a smile, you pressed a kiss on his lips, then you rested back onto his chest. 

“Hey.” Sunwoo whispered in almost a tease. You hummed and he smiled softly. “Love you.” 

You smiled, hearing his heartbeat against your cheek. “Love you too.”