#the guy who came to help me actually told me he's a fisherman and i wanted to be like oh so you've got the right outfit!!!!

[coquelicoq]

just had an intense unflooding-the-street experience. i actually got out there before the storm drain was completely covered, only to watch it cover before my eyes in a manner of minutes as i futilely removed leaves at a much slower pace than they were coming due to the insane speed and volume of the water. then i had the standard experience of removing a handful of leaves at a time and having to stop and retreat every time someone drove through so they didn't splash me, and then wait for the waves to die down so that i could get close enough to the drain without filling my boots with water, and then here comes another car, etc. this time there was a crew here doing work on my building, and one of them offered me a rake, which was very nice and did eventually come in handy, but i had to make some progress on the drain first to reduce the amount of water in the way, which took forever for the aforementioned reasons. the best part (sarcastic) was when a guy who had parked on the street came over to complain that he couldn't get something out of his car, and i was like "if you want this to go faster you could stand over there and direct cars not to drive through here," and suddenly it was all oh i can't i'm busy. lol. some nerve to come and complain about the situation to the one person trying to do something about it and then not be willing to do anything at all to assist. the actual best part was when another guy came over, and he said something about the drain on the other side of the street and i didn't hear him exactly so i thought he was just complaining that that one was also blocked, which like, no shit, so i was like yeah i'll get to that one next, and then he held up the rake he was carrying that i hadn't noticed and was like no i mean, can i help you out? and i was like omg yes please!!! it went much faster with two people and was also excellent for morale. i was in such a rush to get outside before the street completely flooded that i didn't have time to eat first and am now just completely soaked with rain and my own sweat and like. shaking all over lol. so i'm going to try to take a shower without fainting. wish me luck.

[ofstarsandvibranium]

That Unspoken Thing

Fandom: The Mandalorian

Pairing: Din Djarin x GN!Reader

Summary: You and Din have this unspoken thing. You're attracted to his leadership, compassion, care, and strength. He's attracted to your assertiveness, passion, wit, and gentleness. He also likes your firey attitude, albeit it does get you guys into trouble a lot. Based off my imagine here.

Warning: mentions of drowning and

Water. You hated the water. You'll wade it in and drink it. But you would never sail in it...until now.

Din was following a bounty and, to be fair, he did warn you about where the disk was leading him. But you, stubborn as ever, still insisted that you and Grogu follow him.

Now you're on a boat holding onto it for dear life, hoping to whatever beings above that the boat won't topple over and you'd end up in the water.

The fisherman was nice enough to let the three of you on his boat to head to the island where the bounty was supposedly hidden. You couldn't fly to the island because, whoever this bounty was, was skilled enough to send out a signal to shut off any craft flying towards the island. Boats were the safest bet.

A blanket gets draped over you and you look up to see Din staring down at you. You gesture to the fabric, "What's this for?"

"You were shaking like a leaf, cyar'ika. Figured you'd want something to keep you warm." Cyar'ika. He's been calling you that a lot more lately. You asked him what it means and he told you it meant 'close friend' but you're not sure he's fully telling you the truth. When you see Bo again, you'll have to ask her what it means.

You scoff, "Thanks, but I'm not shaking because of the cold. I'm actually sweating like a bantha on Tattooine."

"What's wrong?" you hear the immediate concern in his tone. If you could see his face, you imagine his brows are furrowing right now.

You've always wondered how he'd look. Apparently, he's already had to take off his helmet a few times in the past, but that was before he knew you. You wonder if he would ever take off his helmet for you. It's not like you would ask him to. You respect him and his code. But you can't help but wonder...

"Hey? You with me?" you look back up to see Din standing closer to you, "What's going on?"

You sigh, "Just never been fond of the water. It's dangerous, there's a lot of unknown stuff down there. Plus, I can't swim so I won't survive long if I fall in."

Din's head falls forward and he shakes his head, "If you can't swim, why did you come with me on this bounty?"

"Someone's gotta watch your back! Right, kid?" you look to Grogu and he nods, "See! He agrees with me!"

Din gives another shake of disapproval, "You shouldn't put your life in danger like this. I'm not worth it."

"Of course you are, and you put yourself in danger for us all the time. Someone needs to take care of you too, Din." You look at his visor, hoping that you're staring into his eyes and you're silently telling him how much you care for him.

"Brace yourselves! We've got some pirates headed our way!" the fisherman yelled.

"Pirates?!" you stand up in disbelief.

You rush up to the fisherman who's trying to speed the boat up, "What do they want?"

"Anything we may have valuable."

Din appears at your side with Grogu in his arms, "Take Grogu and go below."

"What? No! We can help!"

"Do as I say and go!" he hands you Grogu and pulls out his blaster. With his jetpack, he's in the air, firing shots at the oncoming pirates.

You look down at the little one in your arm and he's looking back up at you with concern, "We're helping him." You set him down on a crate and pull your own blaster and knife out.

A group of them are piling onto the boat and you're firing off your blaster. You look over your shoulder to see the fisherman also came prepared with a blaster of his own.

When you turn back around, you see a Rodian headed towards you. You run in its direction as well, immediately jumping and kick it with all of your might. You two fall back and you swiftly get up, kicking it in the head to knock it out.

You're immediately grabbed from behind and they're a lot bigger than you.

You're kicking and yelling. Your hand goes to your holster and your blaster isn't there. You see it on the ground, too far away for you to get.

You stomp the the creature's foot, causing it to howl in pain. You're released from its hold and you yell in triumph, "Take that, you brute!" In anger, the creature marches back towards you, picks you up, and throws you overboard.

Once you hit the water, you're done for. You're flailing your arms in a panic. You're swallowing water. You hear the sounds of blasters firing off in the distance. Your heart is pounding in your chest.

You get tired quickly and the waves of the water are too powerful.

You find yourself sinking. The surface of the water moving farther and farther away.

This is it. This is how you die.

You see something else enter the water. It's probably a pirate.

You hope that Grogu and Din are safe at least. You close your eyes and accept your fate.

__________________

Din saw you get thrown overboard and his heart sunk. You can't swim.

Adrenaline hits him tenfold and he's able to immobilize the last bit of pirates left. They're either unconscious or thrown overboard.

With his jetpack, Din dives into the water where you landed and he spots you immediately. He grabs onto your hand and pulls you into his arms. The jetpack doesn't do well under water but it has enough power to bring the two of you to the surface.

The fisherman throws down a rope and Din holds onto it with one hand and you with the other. With Grogu's help via the Force, the two of them manage to pull you and Din back onto the boat with no problem.

Once back up, Din immediately lays you on your back, leaning in to listen for you breathing. You weren't.

He didn't give a second thought as he immediately took off his helmet and proceeded with mouth to mouth.

"Come on, come on!" he cries out as he breaths into your mouth and pumps down onto your chest, "Wake up, please. Please, cyar'ika!" Beloved. You were his beloved and he can't lose you. Not now. Not when he hasn't even told you how he felt.

You can't give up on him now. You two had gone through so much together. You were there for him during the period where Grogu was away. You watched his back. You care for him and he cared for you. Kriff, did he care for you so much. You were there and if you're not there anymore...he doesn't know what he'll do.

You suddenly spit up water and your eyes are open. They're wide with shock and a little bit of fear as you're coughing and gasping for air. Din couldn't help but give a breath of relief.

"Hey, hey. It's okay, cyar'ika. You're okay. You're safe now."

You look up at the man reassuring you. He has stubble on his face, brown eyes and brown hair with some grey littered in it. You try to register who this man is. When you open your mouth to speak, the first thing you say is, "Who the hell are you?!"

Din can't help but chuckle at your reaction, "It's me, cyar'ika." Even after nearly drowning, you still have that attitude of yours.

Your eyes widen in surprise, "Wait, Din?"

You reach out, but hesitate. With a gloved hand, Din brings your hand to his cheek. You can't help but gasp. His skin was warm, you feel the prickle of his stubble against your palm.

"Wow. It's you," you say in disbelief, "You're not ugly at all."

Din's brows furrowed in confusion, "You imagined me ugly?"

"No, I mean, you said you didn't think you were much to look at, but I highly disagree."

Din playfully rolls his eyes, "Well you're clearly fine." He goes to reach for his helmet but you stop him, "Wait. Lemme-Lemme just look at you for a little longer." You sit up and hold his face in both your hands. His eyes flutter shut as your fingers begin to trace over his jaw, his nose, his brow. He feels his face heat up from this. Your touch is gentle and soft. This is so...intimate.

He suddenly feels your forehead pressing against his. His heart starts to flutter. He knows you know what this means. He told you himself what it means after seeing a few mandalorians do it themselves.

You lean back, eyes open and staring at Din. His breathing is heavy now. He's so overwhelmed with what just happened, this mind flooded with you.

"Cyar'ika, I-"

"It's okay. I know." You reach down and grab his helmet, "Thank you, for saving me." You press a kiss to his helmet and hold it out for him.

"Always," he says with a nod, his eyes soft, but you know, you know what he means.

He promptly slips the helmet back on and stands, helping you up on your feet as well.

You sigh and glance at Grogu, "So much for helping him, I guess," you give a shrug and proceed to help the fisherman toss off any incapacitated pirates that were left on his ship.

[galaxy-lilies]

I have no idea what ginger island is but I love the Stardew valley au so yes please!

Ginger island is an unlockable area where the player is able to explore the island, gain another farming area, collect golden walnuts, and explore the volcano dungeons. To first unlock it, however, the player needs to fix up the old boat in the fisherman's back dock.

Philza is the fisherman in this AU and reaches out to Sapnap for some iridium bars and battery packs. In the meantime he asks Karl to collect some hardwood to help him fix the boat. The three fiances gather the materials quickly, quackity helping out karl with chopping down trees while sapnap smelted the iridium ores.

When they arrive at Philza's shop they're greeted by Wilbur who motions that Phil was in the back repairing anything else he needed before the fiances came with their supplies. That's how they find Phil surrounded by a bunch of crabs but otherwise fixing the glass panes on the boat.

He thanks the three for helping out and promises that the boat would be fixed by tomorrow. Karl pipes up and asks where exactly the boat led to and Phil explained it led to an island he actually grew up on.

"I was raised by the birds there, collecting mangoes, bananas, and golden walnuts. It was also there I met my wife!"

Quackity blinked. "Wait. YOU'RE MARRIED???"

Philza laughed at the reaction. "Indeed I am. I haven't seen her in a long time, and I unfortunately don't think I will anytime soon.

Not in this lifetime, at least."

"Either way, I'm allowing you three lovebirds to use my old hut I have over there. It might be a little dusty but it should be fine. Plus if you're looking for another project there's an old resort location right off the dock. So many hurricanes have destroyed it since but it should be easy to repair.

And sure enough the next day they were off. Clad in gaudy hawaiian shirts, swim shorts, and flip flops they arrived on shore to first see the destroyed resort.

"Damn, Phil wasn't lying when he said it was destroyed," Sapnap said, crouching down by the rubble.

The three head west to find Phil's old hut and an expanse of unused soil. They cleared some of the debris and entered the hut. It was quite homey and large enough for the three of them. There were some old notes and photos on the walls, throughly faded from time. Karl grabbed one to look at and his eyes widened. He silently puts it in his satchel and goes back to the kitchen to meet up with sapnap and quackity.

"Well it seems to be in good shape. If anything we can probably stay here the night if we wanted to explore more tomorrow."

They wander around the west side of the island seeing a shipwreck north of the beach and a few tide pools. They head eastward to see the jungle and a huge parrot group taking over an abandoned tree house.

On the way to the treehouse, however, quackity stopped to look at a plant with a golden walnut in the middle. He plucked it off and shook it, the walnut jingling like a bell.

"Hey guys check this out-"

Suddenly they were swarmed by the flock of parrots, one of them taking quackity's beanie, the other eating the golden walnut from his hand.

Once they dispersed and Quackity realized he was missing his beanie he exclaimed, "HEY THAT'S MINE, GIVE IT BACK!"

The parrots only squawk playfully and flew off, heading towards the volcano. Quackity starts running ahead of them, sapnap and karl calling out for quackity to slow down. The parrots squawked again and flew through the entrance of the volcano. Quackity ran in blindly before letting out a yelp. Concerned and confused karl rushed in after.

And that's how they found quackity sputtering in a water pool with a parrot squawking happily at quackity's demise. As a cherry on top it dropped his beanie into his lap getting it all wet. Quackity huffed, putting it on.

"Thanks for that, I truly enjoyed it." he snarked, getting out of the water pool to return to his partners.

Now they were met by the entrance of the cave. A river of lava split the entrance and the first level of the dungeon. All of their farming supplies were back home and sapnap was the only one who brought a his sword.

As quackity and sapnap tried to figure out a solution to get across, Karl glanced to the side and found a barred door. On the other side was a button and an entrance leading to somewhere in the dungeons. He closed his eyes and felt his human form fall. He blinked and looked down seeing his colorful noodle arms again and snaked his hand through the bars. He hears a click and a clang and the door was gone.

Alerted by the noise, Sapnap and quackity whip their heads around to see a smug, multicolored karl showing the opening. After a few pecks on the cheek and a flushed karl, they all enter the opening revealing a huge, mechanical forge. Karl and quackity couldn't hold back a smile as Sapnap started gushing over how cool it looked and how it functioned.

"Dear Yoba, if I could only bring this back to Pelican Town..." sapnap said, trailing off.

They notice and collect a few more golden walnuts nearby before finding another exit. Curious, they find a level of a dungeon with a similar bar door and button mechanic. After Karl snakes his hand through and unlocks the door, they're met with a myriad of monsters ready to fight them. Karl did his best to placate the tiger slimes, but they were more rabid than the normal slimes back in the mines. Quackity yelped as a magma sprite came down to swipe at his head and Sapnap swung his sword to scare off the sprite.

"We're outnumbered," sapnap said, swiping at another magma sprite. They were starting to swarm around the trio, stunning and burning them in the process.

All of a sudden there was a squawk and the very same swarm of parrots came to the rescue. They scared away any remaining monsters and ushered the trio out of the dungeon and back to the entrance. One of the parrots stayed behind and sat on top of quackity's head, snuggling into his beanie.

"Looks like you've got new friend," karl teased earning a groan from quackity.

The three agree that they should go back to Pelican Town for the day and called up Phil to pick them up. Once they return to his fish shop, karl told quackity and sapnap he would meet up with them after he talked to phil.

Once alone, Phil asks what was up and Karl presented the picture.

"...Where did you find this?" he whispers, running his fingers over the creased edges of the photo.

"It was on the wall of your old hut," karl explained, leaning on the counter, "I was the only one who saw it, by the way, your secret is safe with me."

Philza stashed the photo in his cloak. "I see..."

Karl analyzed Phil's face before continuing. "So tell me Phil...

How exactly did you marry the Goddess of Death?"

[animeyanderelover]

Canyou write number 26 to Alois trancy?

What a fun prompt to use for him. Just remember that Alois will be aged up in this.

Warnings: Yandere themes, unhealthy mindset, unhealthy relationship, possessiveness, obsessiveness, bipolar behavior, manipulation, delusions, paranoia death, kidnapping

Prompt 26: “...Why do you cry?! Who made you cry?! Tell me their fucking names so I can rip their heads off for making my angel cry!!!”

“(y/n)!! Why are you visi-“ Alois stopped his excited rambling the moment he saw your crying face. His eyes widened shocked before a dark and dangerous look crossed his face. “...Why do you cry?! Who made you cry?! Tell me their fucking names so I can rip their heads off for making my angel cry!!!” His voice was filled with hatred and rage to whoever made you this way. “Can I-can I first come in?”, you sobbed. Alois quickly let you in. “Can I do something to help you?! Tell me what I have to do to make you feel better!! I’ll do anything!!” You shook your head quietly, nothing could help you right now. “Claude!! Come here immediately!!”, Alois called his golden eyed butler who appeared only seconds later. “Yes your highness?” “What can I do to help her?!” Claude raised an eyebrow slightly in surprise. “I suppose you should listen what exactly made her upset. A tea to calm her nerves down wouldn’t be a bad idea either.”, he answered. “Then start working!! Make her a tea!!”, Alois yelled at him. Claude bowed and left the both of you alone. “Let’s bring you to my room so we can talk in private!!”

“And-and if I don’t p-pay the money back in-in a week I-I’ll have to close my shop. B-but then I won’t b-be able to pay my-my rent.” What had happened you might ask? Let’s start from the beginning. Your day had actually started like every other. You had stood up and had started working in the little bakery you owned. Like every day you had sold the many sweets and other things you always made for your costumers. But today someone else had visited your bakery. Who? Some noble from whom you had read in the newspaper before. A very rich and arrogant lady. You hadn’t known why she was here, but you only knew that you had to be careful now because one wrong move might ruin your business. You had asked her politely what she had wanted. She had ordered cake and tea and had sat down in your shop. During the whole time you had been a nervous mess, but you had managed to serve anything without making yourself look like a fool. Everything had looked perfect until you had served another of your costumers tea. That was when it had happened. You had been so loaded with tea and cake at that moment that you hadn’t really seen what was going on in front of you and one thing had led to another and suddenly you had tripped over your own feet and had everything you had been holding in your hands flying. And it had all landed on the noble lady, ruining her expensive looking dress. To say that you had been scared was an understatement, the look that she had been giving you was enough to tell you that you had doomed yourself. She had screamed at you in front of all of your costumers that you would pay for this dress, but when you had heard how expensive it really was you had begged her to show mercy and she had given you one week to earn enough money or else she would make you close your little shop. But how the hell were you supposed to earn that much money by selling your cakes in just a week?!

Alois hadn’t spoken a word, just listening and letting you cry in his shoulder. “I’ll pay.”, he suddenly said. You looked surprised up. “A-Alois! You don’t have to pay! I was the one who messed everything up and-“ He interrupted you by putting his index finger over your lips. “(y/n), money is really not the problem with me. I would be more than happy to help you with your problem so just let me handle everything.” The look written on his face told you that he would do it even if you would tell him not to. “Thank you! How can I pay you back for this?” Alois seemed to think about it for a while before answering:”Promise me to visit me more often! And bring some of your cakes with you! They’re delicious!” You nodded, feeling more than thankful to have Alois as your friend. “Of course! You’re the best!” Alois face brightened up when he heard this. “You’re the best thing in my life too! You’ll stay forever with me, right?!” When he asked this he grabbed your hands firmly and had a bit more desperate tone to his voice. It wasn’t the first time that he had asked you such a question. Sometimes he needed reassurance from you since he was really scared to lose you. “Of course Alois. I’ll always stay with you, no matter what happens.” Alois gave you a hopeful look. “Promise?” “Promise!” The promise you gave him that day would later on ruin your life.

“A-are you sure? She-she’s rea-really...?” The officer nodded firmly. “We heard that there was a week ago an incident in your bakery. Witnesses told us that Misses Smith threatened you to close your shop if you wouldn’t pay her back in a week. We wanted to know where you were yesterday between 10pm and 1am.” You were glad that you had a waterproof alibi. “I was staying with my friend Alois Trancy. He and all of his servants can confirm that.” One of the officers raised surprised an eyebrow. “You’re friends with this Trancy boy?” You nodded slightly confused. “You sound so surprised.” The officer waved his hands in defeat. “It isn’t like this. It’s just that...” He stopped for a few seconds and glanced shortly at the older officer as if asking him if it was okay to continue. “I suppose since she’s friends with him it’s only her right to know it. She would have been questioned some day anyways about this. It’s better to prepare her now so she won’t be caught off guard later.” You tilted your head confused. What were they talking about? “Can someone explain what’s going on?”, you asked confused. The younger officer slowly looked around as if wanting to make sure that no one was listening. “We suspect Alois to be guilty in a lot of murders.” Your eyes widened. “What?!” The other man nodded. “We had a lot of cases where Alois was the main suspect, but we never found clear evidence. It was terrible to always need to tell him that we couldn’t arrest him because we couldn’t find anything against him. He always made fun of the police after this. In my opinion he’s a brat.” “So please be careful near him. Even though so far it wasn’t proofed that he was guilty.”, the younger man pleaded you. “Alois would never hurt me!”, you told him, getting quickly defensive over your friend. “You do like him a lot, don’t you? Well, I suppose tastes are different. But in my opinion he’s just a spoiled brat. I still remember the time when I needed to report to him that he was spoken innocent in the old watchmaker case. I’ll never be able to forget his arrogant grin.”

You suddenly froze. Old watchmaker? You remembered this guy, he had disappeared a few months ago only to be found shortly after in a river, every evidence about how he had been killed nearly erased by the water. The only thing that had given his cause of death had been the prominent markings on his hands, making it very clear that he had been strangled. “Yeah! You told me about this. Do you remember the seamstress case? Or the fisherman case?” The both men lost themselves in old stories, talking about cases where they had suspected Alois as the killer. You on the other hand felt a terrible feeling rising at the pit of your stomach. You knew all these people and what was even more terrifying was the fact that all of them had managed to upset you in some way before they had disappeared. And as far as you could remember you had always told Alois about the people who had managed to upset you. But that couldn’t be true! You admitted that Alois could sometimes be very mean and cruel, but killing people was on a whole other level!! “E-excuse me. May I ask a question?”, you interrupted both men. “Yes, of course. What is it?” You hesitated for a moment, playing with the thought of just ignoring the growing voice in your head. But you couldn’t. “I know that this isn’t my right to know this, but could you tell me more about the cases where Alois was suspected? I might be from help.”

“Miss (y/n)? What are you doing here? I can’t remember that young master mentioned that you would come over tonight.” You panted for air and glanced at the lavender haired woman who had just opened the door. “I’m sorry if I came without letting all of you know! Did I come at a unfavorable moment?” Hannah quickly shook her head. “No! Of course not! The young master always told us that you can come at any time. He’s currently a bit busy, but I’m sure he’ll drop his work immediately as soon as he hears that you’re here. Please wait in the dining room.” She clapped her hands and instantly the triplets appeared out of nowhere. “Prepare the young miss and our master a small dinner. I’ll get our master.” The theee of them bowed and disappeared into the kitchen whilst you walked confused into the dining room, sitting down and waiting impatiently for Alois. “I’m a really terrible friend to even suspect him of doing such terrible things!” But why did you still feel this nagging suspicion inside of you? You knew that there was only one way to find out.

“I’m so happy that you came to visit me!! I didn’t expect it, but it’s such a pleasant surprise!!”, Alois told you excitedly whilst taking a bite from his steak. You tried to give him a not too awkward looking smile whilst poking with your fork in your food. You didn’t feel like eating. Alois noticed this. “Don’t you like it?” You quickly shook your head and replied:”No! It isn’t like this! It’s just that I don’t feel very hungry.” You took a sip of the tea, trying to calm your jittery nerves at least a bit down before deciding to finally start the conversation you had planned countless times in your head. “To be honest I-I came here for a reason. To talk with you.” Alois heard your serious undertone, slowly putting his cutlery down and looking you directly in the eyes. “What is it you want to talk about. You know you can talk about everything with me my little angel. Is there someone who’s bothering you? Just tell me.” You gulped all your nervousness and fear down. You still had the chance to not ask him. You still had the chance to forget all of this. But once you had made up your mind there was no turning back. “D-did you hear the news that the mistress from a week ago went missing?” Alois blinked confused. “Yes, I did. That’s really too bad because I’ve sent her the money for the dress already. To think that she’ll never receive it...” You pressed your lips together. “Alois, earlier this morning I was asked about this case from two officers. I talked a bit with them and also got in contact with the servants and the husband from Misses Smith. They told me that you never sent them any money.”

It became nerve wracking silent for a few seconds. “What do you mean?”, Alois asked you with a smile, but you noticed that it somewhat looked forced and his voice sounded the slightest bit panicked. “That’s not all. They also told me that you were suspected countless times in the past of murdering civilians. Why did you never tell me?” “I didn’t want you to worry. That was not your problem and I was scared that you would get involved as well. If these officers threatened you in some way just tell me so I can-“ He was interrupted by you. “This isn’t what I wanted to say!” Alois flinched when you raised your tone at him and you yourself were surprised. “I-I’m sorry. It’s...it’s just that...” You didn’t know how to continue despite the fact that you had planned beforehand in your head how to ask this. “The officers were friendly enough to tell me more about these cases and I...noticed that all of the victims had something in common.” You glanced at Alois who was staring with an intense look in his eyes at you. “All of them were people who I knew before and who had somehow managed to make me sad or angry before they just disappeared. And...and they all disappeared after I came to you and told you about my problems.” By now it felt like Alois gaze would set you on fire in every second. You took a deep and shaky breath before finally asking the important question. “Alois...were you involved in this? Is that what the police suspected of you is true?”

You had the feeling that you would break under the heavy weight of the silence that was surrounding you. “Did you tell the police of this?”, Alois suddenly asked you. You felt again the nagging suspicion raising inside of you even higher. He was avoiding your question!! But why?! “I didn’t. I wanted to ask you first about all of this.”, you answered him truthfully. “Please say that you didn’t do anything!!”, you begged silently to him. “(y/n)...”, Alois started and you listened closely to him, still hoping that he would start laughing and say that you were just paranoid,”I hope you understand how important you are and that I want to protect you. Every time I see you in pain I suffer as well. And no one has the right to hurt my angel!” He hissed the last sentence and for the shortest moment an expression of hate and anger crossed his face before being replaced by a too sweet smile. “You understand, don’t you?” You stated at him with wide eyes, almost having the feeling that they would pop out of your skull at any second. What had he just been talking about?!?! It almost sounded like he had...indirectly confessed. All of your alarm sirens were ringing in your body, screaming at you that Alois was dangerous. You slowly stood up. “I-I almost forgot how late it already is. B-bye Alois.” You quickly hurried to the door, intending to leave as fast as possible. “Where do you think you’re going?! You promised to not leave me!! Claude!!!”

In only a second his butler suddenly stood right in front of you, blocking your way through the door. “Claude! Let me through!” Your voice sounded panicked and you tried to push him away, but he was like a wall. You heard suddenly how Alois stood up from his chair and walked towards you. You wanted to quickly run somewhere else in the room, wanting to create as much space between the blonde and you as possible. But you didn’t come that far because Alois caught your wrist and pulled you violently against his back, sliding his arms around your waist and keeping you in place. “Do you think I’ll let you leave me just like this?” You couldn’t help, but start shaking at his sinister tone. “You-you killed them, didn’t you?”, you asked with a shaking voice. “They deserved it. Hurting my precious angel is with trying to take you away from me the worst crime a person could ever commit. That’s why I punished them accordingly.” You were frozen in fear, not wanting to believe what you had just heard. They had been right!! For a few moments you just stood there in his arms, not being able to move, your body refusing to listen what your brain wanted him to do. It took a lot of your willpower to finally force your body to move. “How could you?! I thought you were my friend!!! Leave me alone!!! Let me go!!!” You started wiggling in his grip, wanting to escape under all means necessary.

“You won’t leave me!!! Not you as well!!! From all persons I have in my life you’re the one I can’t lose!!! By the way, don’t you remember what you promised me a while ago?!” For a moment you didn’t know what he meant before it finally clicked. From the way you were tensing up Alois was able to tell that you did remember. “You promised that you would never leave me! So you need to keep your promise! If not I’ll make sure that you keep it!” With every sentence he hissed his tone became darker and his grip tightened around you. “S-stop! Please! You hurt m-me!” Your voice seemed to bring him back to reality and his grip around you loosened slightly, enough that it wouldn’t hurt you anymore. “I’m sorry, but...but just the thought of losing you terrifies me!!” You had stopped moving in his grip, instead grabbing one of his hands around your waist. “Alois, please let me go. We can still fix this.” You prayed so dearly that the Alois you knew was still there and that there was some hope left, but all of it was crushed when you heard his answer. “I’m afraid that I can’t. You already know too much and I don’t want to take the risk of you telling the police or trying to run away from me.” Wait!! He wasn’t to...?! “I was thinking about kidnapping you for a long time now. Like this I could make sure that no one would be able to hurt you or take you away from me! I could finally treat you like the queen you deserve to be treated at! And I could finally show you how much I love you really! We could finally break out of the friendzone! Finally become the couple we were always meant to be!” The longer he spoke the more excited he sounded and the more terrified you became. He was completely serious about this!

“I guess that you must be a bit confused about all of this, but very soon you’ll understand. We’re just perfect for each other.”, Alois told you in a softer voice to calm you down. You weren’t able to think of a sentence to say to him. What were you supposed to say in such a situation?! “I’m sorry for doing this.” Before you could think about what he exactly meant he suddenly nodded at Claude. The golden eyed butler came quickly closer. “Stay away from me! Stay-“ With a swift move Claude hit some nerves on your neck which made you see stars for a few seconds before everything started to turn black. The last thing you remembered were Alois arms embracing you tightly. “I love you my sweet, little angel.” With these words he pressed a kiss on your forehead.

[littlestarofthewest]

A guy insert where he got hurt or kidnapped (just something bad) and he's really scared/anxious and waiting for Arthurs help while Arthur is also extremely worried. Angst😤

Not sure this is angsty enough, but I gave it a try. And we don’t talk about how old this request is 😅

Morgan’s Wrath

Pairing: Arthur Morgan x male reader | Word Count: 1909 | Rating: Mature

You can barely breathe, the fabric around your face cutting off the air. Strong hands claw into the flesh of your arms, dragging you forward. You kick and scream, trying to get out of their grip, but it's two on one, and these guys clearly mean business.

They push you down on something hard, and before you can decipher your surroundings, they tie you down, rope cutting into the skin on your arms.

Someone rips the fabric away from your face, the bright light hurting your eyes. You blink away the pain, desperate to see where you are.

"Look at you," a voice says. "Morgan's little friend."

Your insides freeze now that you know who's talking to you. Finally able to open your eyes, you look at the O'Driscoll. He's smiling, showing off his remaining rotten teeth.

The last time you saw him, you were in Valentine with Arthur. He didn't dare to do anything but spew hatred back then since he was alone, but now, he's surrounded by four other guys.

"Didn't catch your name," Foulmouth says, raising his brows.

"Probably couldn't hear it over your own stench," you say, looking him up and down. "Ever heard of a bath?"

You see the blow coming, but it still hurts like hell. The taste of blood tells you that it must have split your lip, and it burns when Foulmouth grabs your chin to make you look at him.

"You're going to tell us where Morgan is, or I'll make you."

You remember this morning when you stood next to Arthur by the campfire, both of you enjoying your first cup of coffee. Arthur told you how glad he was that you joined the gang. There's no way in hell you're going to betray him.

"Good luck with that," you say, waiting for the next blow.

----------

"Y/N," Arthur shouts into the woods near camp. He knows it's a long shot, but you sometimes go there when you want to be alone.

When there's no answer, he heads back, finding Tilly and Mary-Beth sitting by their wagon.

"Sure you haven't seen him?"

"We've told you already," Tilly says, furrowing her brows. "Arthur, what's going on?"

"I'm not sure," he admits when the girls keep looking at him with worry. "Just a bad feeling."

"Have you asked Pearson?" Mary-Beth asks. "I think Y/N thought about fishing or hunting today. We're low on food again."

"I'll ask him. Thank you."

Arthur quickly makes his way over to Pearson, anger brewing in his stomach. He told Dutch that they were running low and that he wanted to take you with him for a little hunting trip. Of course, Dutch thought bringing in money was more important.

Instead of spending time with you, Arthur's been away from camp for three days. His whole way back, he's been thinking about seeing you again. Arthur tries to tell himself that he just wanted to get home, but worry is turning his insides, and he has to admit to himself that he likes you. He likes you a lot.

"Hey there, Arthur," Pearson says when Arthur draws near. "Good to have you back."

"Have you seen Y/N?"

Pearson throws some ingredients into the stew pot, furrowing his brows. "This morning. I think he thought about going on a quick fishing trip down by the lake."

"Well, did he think about it, or did he actually go?"

Arthur's harsh town makes Pearson look up with worry. "I'm not sure. The sun was just coming up. I could barely see out of my eyes."

"It's the middle of the day. He should be back by now."

"I'm sorry, Arthur," Pearson says, looking around as if he might spot you any second. "I don't-"

"I'll check the lake," Arthur says. "He has to be somewhere."

"But Dutch-"

"I don't care," Arthur shouts, feeling sorry when Pearson flinches. "I just- I'll go find him."

Arthur storms to his horse, not taking anything with him but his rifle. He reaches the lake in record time and travels along the shore, checking the spots where the gang members usually try their luck with fishing. 

Aside from a lonely fisherman who claims that he hasn't seen anybody for hours, Arthur doesn't see a soul. He's about to turn his horse around when he remembers how you told him about your favorite fishing spot. There's a little enclosure with trees that must have fallen over in a storm. The branches reach into the water, sometimes trapping a bunch of fish.

The second Arthur reaches the spot, he knows that something's wrong. He finds your fishing rod broken on the ground and drag marks in the sand, leading into the trees. Arthur's heart beats faster, and he takes his gun out before venturing into the trees. A quick look around tells him that he's too late. Aside from some squirrels that flee his presence, nobody else is there.

Arthur fetches his horse and tries his best to track down where you went. There are hoof marks on the ground, flattened grass, and broken twigs. It becomes clear that someone came through here in a hurry. It's the only good thing in that goddamn bitch of a situation.

While following the tracks, Arthur keeps scolding himself. He should have known that the O'Driscolls wouldn't give up. He just didn't think that they would actually grab one of the gang. It probably would be a good idea to go back to camp and get reinforcements, but Arthur's worried that you don't have that much time. It might already be too late.

Arthur spurs on his horse, forcing it through the trees at a dangerous pace. It won't help anybody if the poor thing breaks a leg, but Arthur can't bring himself to go slower. His stomach is in such turmoil that he feels like he might get sick. If anything happened to you, it's his fault, and he's worried about what he might do.

Arthur's so caught up in thoughts about you that he doesn't spot the man hiding behind a tree. He fires a shot, grazing Arthur's arm. Surprised by the sound, Arthur's horse bucks and throws him off. He manages to roll over, but stones and twigs dig into his skin. His whole body feels like it's been crushed by a giant's fist.

Another shot sounds and dirt flies up next to Arthur's face. He rolls over into a nearby bush, drawing his gun and squinting into the trees. A man comes running, gun drawn, but time seems to slow down when he lifts it up. Blood rushes through Arthur's veins, pumping so loud that it drowns out all other sounds.

In a red fog, the man in front of Arthur glows like a beacon, becoming the perfect target. Arthur aims without thinking, and before he's aware that he pulled the trigger, the man is already falling to the ground.

Arthur takes a few deep breaths before getting up and running over to his attacker. The man is clearly dead, and although Arthur has never seen him, he's sure it's an O'Driscoll. 

It can't be a coincidence that he's here. Whoever took you must be around there somewhere. It's too bad Arthur can't ask the dead guy. He looks through his pockets but doesn't find much, so Arthur whistles for his horse.

After taking his rifle from its saddle, Arthur ventures into the trees without it. If the man was a lookout, there'd be more O'Driscolls about, and they must have heard the shot. Arthur still has a hard time breathing, worried that he might have just signed your death warrant.

Blood is soaking his shirt by now where the bullet tore up his flesh, but he doesn't have time to stop. Despite his whole body aching, he sneaks through the trees, watching out for more O'Driscolls. He doesn't have to go far. Arthur can hear voices, men arguing with each other.

"You're paranoid, that's what that is."

"I heard gunshots, you idiot. What if there's someone coming for him?"

"He's just a little fish. They wouldn't bother."

"We should just shoot him and leave. Now!"

Arthur's heart might beat out of his chest any second. They must be talking about you. He breaks into a run, not caring that somebody might see him.

"Last chance, boy. Tell us where Morgan is, or we'll shoot you," one of the earlier voices says.

"Go to hell!"

Arthur feels like screaming. You sound horrible, but he'd recognize your voice anywhere. It can't be that he's too late.

"Hey, cowards!" he shouts, breaking through the trees.

One of the O'Driscolls stands right by the trees, and without thinking, Arthur hammers his rifle's grip in the guy's face. He falls to the ground with a loud thud, making the other men look over to Arthur like startled deer.

----------

You can barely see, one of your eyes swollen shut. Still, you'd recognize Arthur anywhere. The shape of his body, the way he moves, and even more so, his voice. You wish you could be happy to see him, but worry consumes you. Arthur fights three against one, and there's still the lookout somewhere in the trees. There's no way Arthur can win.

Foulmouth and his man finally move, but Arthur shoots Foulmouth right in the face before they can draw their weapons.  You get to your feet despite the chair, and without thinking, you throw yourself into one of the men. You both go down while Arthur knocks out the other one. Before the guy next to you can get up, Arthur moves over and grabs him.

"Please, let me go," he whimpers, raising his hands. "I have a family."

Arthur takes the gun out of his belt and shoves him. "Get out of here before I change my mind."

The man scrambles to his feet and runs while Arthur turns to you, cutting up the ropes around your wrists.

"Are you okay?" he asks, helping you to your feet.

"Well, my pride is a little dented. Otherwise, I'm fine."

Arthur's eyes roam over your body before focussing on your face. "Except for this."

He reaches up as if to touch you, but then he takes his hand away. You shrug. "That'll be gone in a few days."

"Sorry I didn't come sooner," Arthur says, watching the ground. 

You can't believe that he thinks it's his fault. From what you can see, he fought tooth and nail to get to you. Blood is soaking through the fabric on his arm, and his whole body is covered in scrapes and cuts. You reach up to pull a small twig out of his hair.

"Not your fault," you say, letting your hand cup his face. 

Arthur looks up, and the way his eyes bore into yours makes your knees go weak. You might regret doing more, but at this moment, you can't help it. 

"Thank you, Arthur," you whisper before leaning in and planting a soft kiss on his lips.

He lets out a soft hum, something you've never heard from him before. Then he goes back to staring into the ground. "Just thought- You know, if anything happened to you-"

"Let's take care of that scratch first," you say, your fingers closing around his wounded arm. "And once we're back, I'll take care of you."

Arthur doesn't say anything, but you've rarely seen him fetch his horse that quickly.

[shyrose57]

Brothers anon. Sorry about the previous ask I get nervous easy and feel like I need to check im not annoying anyone at times. If I am ever annoying you though or you want me to do anything though please tell me!

Watson is close to everyone from the group, because he's seen as the dad figure and an easy person to talk too. Besides from that Jackie and Grievous are close and often train or play games together, and Jackie and Ran are close, they don't do much expect just hang out and since their both the youngest that helps them feel a bit closer. Ran and Grievous aren't really close, though Grievous wants to make attempts to become closer to Ran, potentially by inviting him to training sessions or game nights.

The other fighters from the Pit are still around! They mostly aren't around the Pit as they have jobs and other stuff to take care off, but they try to vist often. Like Genevieve and Levi come over on a regular basis to train with them all and just hang out. And sometimes Genevieve and Levi participate in the Pit's fights just for fun.

He was kept in a room in Mizu. The room was reminiscent of a jail cell, with no glass in it, and a door that required a key to be opened, he wasn't completely chained down but they did put cuffs on his wrists to prevent him from moving around to much. Benjamin honestly just kind of felt like something was off, because most people don't commit mass murder without a reason and he couldn't find a reason for Ranbob doing it. And he has reported multiple times (along with the others) feeling a strange weightless feeling near dreams room, almost like their getting sucked into a void, while also hearing a distant voice in their head calling them to come closer. When everyone said they heard the voice, with Ranbob even saying from where he was that he heard the voice but much clearer, and sometimes he feels like he doesn't control what he's doing. Benjamin and Isaac decided to block off the room and nearby rooms and made it a rule that if anyone heard the voice or felt like that to report it to them and where they felt it so ot could be blocked off.

Because Ranbob said he heard the voice too Benjamin started thinking that maybe Ranbob wasn't in control and there's something deeper going on. They specifically figure out its the mask when Charles finds it and brings it up to the group, where reports of the voices and feeling come back ten-fold, and even Ranbob who was starting to show progress and become a bit more willing to talk harshly backtracked to where he almost tried to attack anyone who came into the room. So Charles quickly puts it back as far from the group as possible, with Cletus following him to make sure he actually puts it back. Later they talk about destroying it but the question of what will happen to the possession on it stops them, as what if when they break it, the possession type thing (its not actually a possession I just forget the word oop), moves onto another object? Maybe even connect to them or Ranbob?

Ranbob does learn how to sew! Charles helps him learn actually and it helps the two get close! Cletus and Isaac are forbin as of now to return to Mizu, there are talks about going back later in time but for now everyone agreed it'd be best to hang back and avoid Mizu no matter what.

Life in the house is very hard to adjust to at first for Ranbob especially, its mostly awkward and learning boundaries. But after a few weeks to months living with the fishermen Ranbob becomes much more comfortable to open up a lot. Closest to Ranbob is definitely both Benjamin and Charles, as Benjamin is the one who recognized what was happening to Ranbob and Charles is the one who he spends most time with (mostly teaching Ranbob random skills).

Even after the fight ends Ran is still incredibly mad, and when Ranbob is so much as mentioned he growls and gets more aggravated. The fishermen are mostly surprised, Ranbob did mention there was a survivor that he remembers almost killing before they escaped, but because it seemed like a sensitive topic they never pressed him to tell them more. They never would've expected the survivor was his brother though. And the gladiators are completely surprised, expect Watson, Ran told Watson his past about Mizu and his brother (because I like to think Ran has night terrors due to Mizu and Watson is often the one to comfort him). Its only once Ranbob gets taken off to the medical bay and Ran goes to blow off steam in the training area the two sides talk. Where what they've been told is shared and connections and understandings are made. And they all manage to agree to try to get the brothers at least on talking terms, so they can talk about what happened and at least attempt to fix their relationship.

They are not! Other enderman hybrids do exist but their very rare due to complexity with passing the enderman genes. Though Ran and Ranbob did have a family of 6 they where apart of (the 2 other siblings where younger than them) but not every member had enderman genes.

They do notice how Jackie looks similar to Tubbo but they mostly just brush it off, as if Cletus takes off his head gear he looks like Quackity and of course Ranbob looks like Ranboo with the mix of black and white skin.

Hey, don’t worry about it, seriously. I do the same thing with people, so I kinda get it. I really do enjoy reading these, so really, I should be thanking you for sending them!

The bonds between everyone sound interesting. So Watson’s just generally the dad friend? How does he feel about that? Has he just unironically adopted all these dorks? Is it something of an inside joke? Jackie and Grievous sound like quite the combination. Honestly I can imagine these two either being very chill, or very chaotic, depending on the day. Ran and Jackie just hanging out sounds neat, what do they do together? Do they play games like Jackie does with Grievous, or do they just nap and cloud-watch, or something similar? And Grievous trying to bond with Ran sounds nice, how does that work out for him? Do they find some sort of activity that brings them closer?

I saw you mentioned Ran and Jackie were the youngest, which brings up two things. One, does the height difference remain? I’ve seen a lot of art depicting it as such, and honestly, the thought of some new fighters being tossed into a fight with these two, and A, seeing this short kid next to this ridiculously tall guy, and B, their expressions when being told Ran’s not an adult is very amusing to me. 

And two, what exactly is the age limit for going into the Pit? It’s probably not incredibly young, but how old are Jackie and Ran to be stated as the youngest? In their early teens? Late? Older? What kind of rules are there in the fights, no deaths aside?

The other fighters still being around is pretty cool, how do they get along with the gladiators? I imagine fairly well, since you’ve said they hang out, but are they close with anyone is particular? And what exactly is the Pit, besides a tournament? Do people fight for money in there? Do they just fight to fight? Is it open to a lot of people?

So the fisherman hung around Mizu and talked to Ranbob? It must have been strange, seeing the change in their would-be murderer. It does bring up the question of how in control Ranbob was when he first met them. Was he relatively himself at the start, and only begin to fall more under Dream’s thrall later, or was he under it from the start? And how do the fishermen feel about this? 

Actually, how young even is Ranbob? I believe you mentioned him to be Ran’s older(?) brother, but as previously said, Ran’s among the youngest of the gladiators, so how much older is Ranbob?  How old was he when he was led to kill the residents of Mizu?

I believe the word you’re looking for is possibly spirit? I’m assuming? And yeah, pretty smart of them to get away from it. Do they ever end up dealing with that in the future, or is it a ‘let’s just agree to never go near that thing again.’ kinda deal?

Charles and Ranbob bonding! Very nice! What other skills does Charles have, and where’d he learn them? Actually, what’s the general backstory for the fishermen? Is it anything that could tie in later, or no?

But that adjustment period can’t be easy. As we saw, the fishermens’ house was pretty small, and for Ranbob, to go from literally being the only person there in a huge city, to such an arrangement, well. It can’t have been easy. How did it affect him, and how did the fishermen deal with it?

In relation, how did Ran deal with going from Mizu to outside it? I imagine the lifestyle was a bit different from what he was used to.

So the relationship isn’t so easily fixed, hm? Y’know, all things considered, that’s pretty fair. How do the two groups get along, once they’ve decided to get the two brothers back together? And what kind of plan do they come up with? Perhaps deciding to travel together? Or maybe stick around and fight more? How does that work out for them? 

How does Ran feel about the brother that almost killed him being around his new family? And how does Ranbob feel about finding him again? Did he even think he was still kicking, or believe him to be dead?

So Endermen hybrids aren’t that common huh? Does that happen to be why Porkius was so interested in them? And are any of the fishermen or gladiators hybrids as well? Philza’s often shown with wings, and honestly, I’m curious to know if your AU’s Watson is a similar hybrid, or otherwise. 

Also, how do the gladiators fight? Are there double battles and team ups? Is there anyone they fight better with? What’s their general strategy? 

And how does Porkius feel about these new developments? Does he know? Help out, or let them sort it themselves? What’s going on with our resident king?

[365days365movies]

March 15, 2021: Clash of the Titans (1981) (Part One)

This one’s personal…sort of.

Other than the fact that this is based on Greek mythology (previously well-established as one of my favorite subjects), this movie is, in a way, responsible for my existence. And that is because, according to legend, this is the film that my parents went to on their first date. And apparently, it went very well, because I came into being 10 years afterwards. So, yeah, this film is personal, like Dirty Dancing.

And also like Dirty Dancing, I HAVEN’T SEEN IT? I don’t know HOW I escaped seeing this movie. And that’s especially considering that I’ve seen the new one. And that movie was...not great.

Maybe not the worst film I’ve ever seen, but it’s definitely not a good movie. But OK, what’s this one about, exactly? Y’all ready for “The 365 Greek Mythology Hour” again? OK, then, here we go. SING IT LADIES

Clash of the Titans concerns the myth of Perseus, one of the greatest Greek heroes ever. Before Heracles, there was Perseus, son of Zeus. Yeah, Zeus, as he is wont to do, came down to Earth and had some good time with the princess of Argos, the beautiful Danaë. He came upon her while she was locked in a box by her dad, Acrisus, king of Argos.

Yeah, the Oracle at Delphi, ever the wisest, was visited by Acrisus one day, who wanted a son instead of a daughter. The Oracle spoke with Apollo (AKA huffed some of that SWEET SWEET ETHYLENE GAS), and told him that his daughter’s son would kill him. And so, he did the most logical thing: he locked her in a box. Yup. Dick. SPEAKING of dick, Zeus appeared to her in the open box as a golden shower. NOT THAT KIND OF GOLDEN SHOWER. I mean a literal shower of gold. Although...I wouldn’t put it past Zeus, of all gods. Dude was kinky.

So, Perseus is conceived, and Acrisus responds to this with his usual tact; he stuffs Danaë into a SMALLER box, and shoves it out to sea. She gives birth to a boy in the box, and the two eventually wash up on the shore of an island, where a fisherman finds them and takes them in. The boy is named Perseus.

Years go by, and Perseus’ mom is sought by his adoptive dad’s brother, and the king of the island, Polydectes. Polydectes is kind of a dick, and Perseus, now an adult man, doesn’t like him. The feeling’s mutual, and Polydectes has a plan. He holds a banquet, and forces all invited to bring a gift of horses. Perseus, being pretty poor, cannot bring this gift, but promises on his honor to bring whatever Polydectes wants of him, no matter what. And Polydectes asks for the head of Medusa.

Fuck.

Medusa’s one of your classic Greek monsters, a Gorgon. She’s one of Athena’s victims, formerly a vain temple priestess who was, well...raped by Poseidon, let’s be honest. However, since Athena’s priestesses were meant to be celibate, she was the one who ended up being punished. Fuckin’ YIKES. But OK, literal ancient gender politics aside, Athena cursed her with snakes for hair, and the ability to turn her victims into stone with a gaze into her eyes. Classic. And sure death for anyone who went after her.

So, Perseus is fucked. He’s gotta kill Medusa, and he doesn’t even have a way to get to her place. And that’s when he gets a favor from none other than Athena, goddess of wisdom and wartime strategy, as well as Perseus’ half-sister. I love Athena (other than the Medusa bullshit, obviously), and this is one of her most prominent roles in mythology. Well, that and the creation of spiders. That was also punishing a woman for her vanity, by the way. She has a type.

First, Perseus was told to find the Hesperides, nymphs of the dusk and dawn who would give him weapons. He got their location from the Greae, more colloquially known as the Gray Sisters. Weirdly enough, you may know them from Hercules, where they were combined with the Fates. They don’t have the future gimmick, but they do have that whole “sharing an eye” thing. Also, they share a tooth. Neat.

Anyway, Perseus takes their eye hostage, which makes them tell him where the Hesperides are. He goes to them, and they give him a bag to hold Meduga’s head. Then, the gods step in. Zeus decides to be a good dad for a change, and gives him an indestructible sword, and Hades’ Helmet of Invisibility. Hermes, another of Perseus’ half-brothers, gives him a pair of winged sandals to fly with. And Athena, technically Perseus’ patron, gives him a mirrored shield.

Perseus heads to the cave of Medusa, uses the shield, then goes up to her and cuts off her head. From her neck, for some goddamn reason, and golden sword pops out, alongside this guy.

Yeah, he’s not made out of clouds. He’s actually the, uh...he’s the result of Poseidon’s crime against Medusa. Fucked up, innit? Pegasus flies up to hang out with Bellerophon to kill the Chimera, and Perseus heads back to...actually, he goes to ANOTHER king who was a dick to him, and turns him into stone with Medusa’s head. Kings hate Perseus, seriously.

Perseus heads home after that, and goes through Ethiopia. There, he meets the King and Queen, Cepheus and Cassiopeia. Cassie’s gorgeous, but she tells Perseus that her daughter Andromeda is, like, WAY hotter, as beautiful as the sea goddesses. Which PISSES OFF POSEIDON (who is basically the villain of Perseus’ story, let’s be honest), and he send a sea monster named Cetus to destroy the kingdom, UNLESS they sacrifice Andromeda to it. And, because kings are assholes in this story, they do, chaining Andromeda to a rock. But, because Perseus believes that all women are queens, he goes to rescue her, and kills Cetus using all of his things. He weds Andromeda, and turns his romantic rival Phineus into stone using Medusa’s head.

Usually, that’s where retellings end, because there’s a recurring trend to Perseus’ story after that. A king is an asshole, Perseus whips out the head, asshole becomes statue of an asshole. However, there is that prophecy to contend with, about Perseus killing his grandfather. See, Acrisus basically retired by this point, and lived in the kingdom of Thessaly. But one day, he went to see some games, in which Perseus was competing in the discus. Well, wouldn’t you know it, Perseus isn’t great at it, and loses control of the discus, which hits Acrisus, killing him instantly.

Utimate frisbee, man. It’s dangerous.

There’s another version where Perseus uses Medusa’s head to turn his dad into stone, surprise surfuckingprise there. But yeah, after that the story varies. Sometimes he becomes a king, sometimes he doesn’t. He basically always marries Andromeda and has kids with her. Sometimes he founds a city of his own, sometime he doesn’t. And in one ending, where he’s lived to be an old king, he fulfills his ultimate destiny and turns Medusa’s head on himself. Geez.

So, yeah, there you go. That’s the story of Perseus. Let’s, uh...let’s see what the movie does, huh? This is another Ray Harryhausen joint, so I’m...tentatively excited for it. We’ll see how badly they mess up the myth, and whether or not it works despite that. So, ENOUGH of me lecturing you guys, huh?

SPOILERS AHEAD!!!

Recap (1/2)

We begin approximately where most iterations do: King Acrisius (Donald Houston) has just cast his daughter Danae (Vida Taylor) and grandson Perseus into the ocean, containing them within a wooden chest in order to “forgive his daughter’s crimes”. Yeah, sure, OK, buddy. Whatever helps you sleep at night.

This also pisses off Zeus (Laurence Mother Fucking Olivier), who consorts with the rest of the Olympians on what to do to Acrisus. Said Olympians include Hera (Claire Bloom), goddess of marriage and women; Thetis (Maggie Mother Fucking Smith), goddess of the sea and leader of the Nereids; Athena (Susan Fleetwood), goddess of wisdom and strategic victory; Aphrodite (Ursula Andress), goddess of love; and Poseidon (Jack Gwillim), god of the sea.

Hera tries to defend Acrisus, noting his prior years of devotion to Zeus and the other gods. But Zeus ain’t HAVING that shit, and tells Poseidon to destroy the city of Argos in revenge. This is to be done by...releasing the last of the Titans? Which is apparently the Kraken. I mean...no, a thousand times no, but whatever.

This little tantrum is Zeus’ way of showing his love towards Danae, whose child Perseus is his. This is helpfully pointed out by Thetis, who seems...a little spiteful, as much as Hera is about Perseus. Seems like she’s stoking some fires. Hmm. She is Queen of the Nerieds, so she may play a larger role later on.

Beneath the sea, Poseidon readies himself to set loose the Kraken and destroy Argos, at Zeus’ command. Zeus, meanwhile, kills Acrisus by using a clay voodoo doll of sorts to strike him down. And that’s when Poseidon lets loose the Kraken for the first time. And the Kraken...

Guys, the Kraken looks...actually, I’ll spoil his appearance later on. The Kraken destroys the city, and Zeus kills Acrisius. So much for the goddamn prophecy that explains why Acrisius did what he did, but fuck me, I guess. Danae and Perseus, meanwhile, have safely arrived on the shores of the island of Seriphus, at Zeus’ insistence. There, Perseus grows from child into a fine young man, with Zeus always watching over him...and with Thetis and company always watching over Zeus. Interesting.

The adult Perseus (Harry Hamlin) lives happily on the island, much to Perseus’ delight. Thetis, on the other hand, asks about her mortal son, a young man named Calibos (Neil McCarthy). Apparently, Calibos is a bit of a monster, and while he’d been set to wed the princess Andromeda, he’s also managed to kil all living things on the island that he’s been given, save for a single winged horse named Pegasus. Hence...he is to be punished.

Calibos, by the way? Entirely original creation of the film, and there’s nobody like him in Greek mythology. Anyway, Thetis is crushed by this, and decides to exact revenge of both Perseus and her son’s would-be fiancee, Andromeda. She pledges to open up Perseus’ eyes to grim reality, and does so by placing him in the kingdom of Joppa, where Calibos was originally set to rule alongside Andromeda.

Here, in an amphitheatre, he encounters a mysterious masked and robed figure, who quickly reveals themselves to be Ammon (Burgess Meredith), a poet and playwright. Apparently, Ammon wears his disguise to scare off trespassers. He tells Perseus that all of Joppa is in a tizzy about a curse of some kind, and that the story of the fallen kingdom of Argos is a famous legend.

Ammon tells Perseus to go back home to Seriphus, but Perseus tells Ammon that he’s promised to restore his mother’s old kingdom, and decides that Joppa would be a good start. Despite his drive, though, Zeus is pissed off at Thetis for plopping Perseus down unprepared. He tells the other goddesses to give him gifts to help him claim the kingdom of Joppa as his own. This includes a helmet from Athena, a sword from Aphrodite, and a shield from Hera. I mean...OK, that’s super goddamn weird, but OK.

After Zeus leaves, the goddesses rightfully complain about Zeus’ constant womanizing, but note that he probably doesn’t remember Danae at this point, is is most likely acting out of stubborn pride for his “handsome son”. Their words, not mine.

In Joppa, Perseus finds the gifts by the statues of their grantors. The sword from Aphrodite is adamantine, like the original myth, and slices through marble without a blemish. The shield from Hera...talks. Yeah. The shield bears the visage of Zeus, who tells him that the weapons are gifts from the gods, and that the helmet from Athena turns the wearer invisible. I mean, fuck Hades, I guess, but OK. Technically Athena did give the helmet to Perseus, so OK.

Armed with his new gear, an invisible Perseus immediately takes off to see Joppa, sans his sword. We only see his footsteps in the sand as he leaves, which is legitimately a VERY neat effect, and I’m not sure how they did it, but it’s neat as hell. Off to Joppa, a vaguely Phoenician/Persian kingdom, despite the fact that the original Joppa, or Jaffa, is a port city in Israel.

There, he meets a soldier, Thallo (Tim Pigott-Smith), who tells him of the situation. Since Calibos fell to Zeus’ wrath, Andromeda rejected him, allowing any suitor to try for her hand, whether they be royal or not. To do so, they must answer a riddle. If they fail to answer, the would-be suitor is burned to death. This is lorded over by Queen Cassiopeia (Sian Phillips), while Andromeda (Judi Bowker) lives in the tower of the palace.

Which is why Perseus IMEDIATELY uses the helmet to go into her room that night! CLASSY, PERSEUS. There, he sees...a giant vulture bring a cage to Andromeda’s balcony. No idea where in the fuck this is going, but that’s a damn good looking vulture. God, I love Harryhausen.

Anyway, the vulture is here for Andromeda’s soul, which leaves her body and goes to sit in the cage. The vulture takes off with it, al as the invisible Perseus watches on. He takes this opportunity to touch Andromeda’s face in her sleep (stop, Perseus, for the love of Zeus), then decides that winning Andromeda is his destiny. And so, his simpin’ journey begins.

The next day, Perseus asks Ammon how they can follow the vulture, who has apparently headed to the marshes to the “marsh lord”. To follow the vulture, Ammon suggests that they find and capture the last of the winged horses, known as Pegasus. And we’ve officially lost the track of Greek mythology at this point. Shit.

Well, with Ammon’s help, Perseus captures Pegasus and rides him through the skies. Meanwhile, in Corinth, some dude named Bellerophon is just having a stroke, I guess, because he’s totally fucked now. Whatever. The next day, the vulture comes back to Andromeda’s place and takes her soul to the marsh. But this time, Perseus and Pegasus follow them.

In the marsh, the marsh-lord and riddle-maker is revealed as Calibos, who is still in love with the beautiful Andromeda. As she cannot love him, he provides to her another riddle to give her would-be suitors. In tears, she memorizes the riddle and its answer, Calibos touches her uncomfortably, even as Andromeda asks him to lift his curse and show pity. But he refuses, in pain from his love. Jesus, this movie should be called Clash of the Simps, goddamn.

Perseus was watching the whole thing, though, which Calibos immediately figures out when he sees Perseus’ footsteps in the dirt. As Perseus goes through the swamp looking for Pegasus, he’s found and attacked by Calibos. Calibos, by the way, is a guy in pretty solid makeup in close-up shots, and a Harryhausen model in far-away shots.

The two struggle, the helmet is lost in the swamp, and Perseus draws his sword. But we suddenly cut away to see the daily ritual of the presentation for Andromeda’s would-be suitors. Perseus steps in, having survived the attack from last night, and offers his hand to Andromeda, who recognizes Perseus from a dream. She gives the riddle, which is ABSOLUTE BULLSHIT. Here, I’ll prove it.

In my mind’s eye, I see three circles joined in priceless harmony. Two, full as the moon; one, hollow as a crown. Two from the sea, five fathoms down. One from the Earth, deep under the ground. What is it?

Any guesses? Anybody?

NO MATTER WHAT YOU FAIL. Because the answer is Calibos’ ring! HOW IN THE SHIT WOULD ANYBODY HAVE GUESSED THAT? It’s a golden ring with two pearls on it! WHO KNOWS THAT SHIT? I call complete bullshit, and the only reason that Perseus knows it is because he spied on this last night! Also, because he cut off Calibos’ hand, and made him renounce his curse, which is...never really specified, now that I think about it.

With that, Perseus has both Andromeda’s and Calibos’ hands! HA! Calibos is not as amused, as he preys to his other Thetis, at a temple of hers. He demands that Thetis take revenge on those whom Perseus loves, specifically Andromeda and the city of Joppa itself. He demands justice, but Thetis identifies this correctly as revenge. All the while, Perseus declares his love for Andromeda, and they seal their union with a kiss and ritual.

During this ritual, in which Andromeda and Perseus are essentially married, Queen Cassiopeia, LIKE A DUMBASS, says that Andromeda is more beautiful than the goddess Thetis herself. Yeah. BAD FUCKING MOVE, especially because she said that IN FRONT OF THETIS’ FUCKING SANCTUARY. At least that dumbass move was kept from the original story.

Well, Thetis tells Cassie that she can only atone for her stupidity in one way: sacrifice your daughter to the Kraken in 30 days. Later on, Perseus speaks with Ammon to figure out how they can defeat the Kraken. Ammon suggests speaking with the “Stygian Witches”, who I’m assuming are our Grey Sisters for the night. However, according to Thallo, they have a taste for human flesh. Still, Perseus is going, as are Ammon, Thallo, and Andromeda. But not Pegasus.

Well...shit, man. That changes a few things, huh? But that’ll be addressed...IN PART TWO! See you there!

[prorevenge]

Ruin my fishing fun? Guess I’ll have to try and catch something else.

Back when I was in high school (must have been about 14 years old) every Wednesday afternoon we got to choose a sport and we would all be bussed out to various locations to go have fun. There was plenty of shitty options and a few that were very sought after, with the most popular choice being ‘fishing’, because we would mostly go to a wharf that also had a fish and chip shop that the teacher let us use.

Most people would pick this sport to sit on the wharf and eat junk food and not actually fish at all, and with their being a pecking order in place on who gets first choice for choosing their sport selection, it took me YEARS before I even got the opportunity to go fishing at school.

I was a pretty keen fisherman at the time, spending a lot of my free time at rivers and beaches blissfully throwing a line in the water. I was over the moon and brought some of my more expensive gear and my flashy new rod and a cheap hand reel to use for spare lime. The teacher who took us out that day was an absolute pushover, and couldn’t care less about what was going on with us students.

About five minutes after putting my line in the water, some kids my age showed up from a rival school (they were skipping class) and starting annoying us. Teasing us, stealing food from some of the other students, and a barrage of other teenage antics. Me, being scared of confrontation and built like a wet sponge, went to go and get the teacher to ask for some help getting the other kids to piss off and let us enjoy ourselves. He huffed and puffed but eventually came over to where they were harassing us and in a half-assed sentence said ”Stop annoying -Nitrous-, he wants to catch a fish.”

This fueled the fire unsurprisingly , and they ramped up their game ten fold. They got in my face and started mocking me, then one of them had a bright idea, and they kicked my hand reel into the water. Before I could do anything they scampered away and hid under the wharf. I shed a tear but didn’t have the guts to say anything to them. I walked over to let the teacher know what had happened, and he unsurprisingly said “Well you need to be more careful with your belongings” and that was that.

Being a hot summer day, those annoying kids began to swim underneath the dock (it was a rocky, oyster-y mess under there but whatever) and were giggling like mad, but I tried my best to ignore them. I want to catch a fish.

One of the other kids who was fishing a few metres away from me called out and said ”Aw man, I had a fish but it got away, and it snapped the whole line!”. That sucks, but doesn’t effect me, I’m a professional. I had expensive braided line that was quite hard to break. A few minutes later a kid on the other side had the same thing happen to them. And then seconds after that, I felt a big tug and boom, my line snapped. I thought to myself, huh, that’s weird because there’s only small fish in here, nothing big enough to break a line. That’s when I saw one of the kids from earlier peak out from underneath the wharf with a small pair of scissors, and it all made sense.

I went and tried to sob to the teacher, who in no uncertain terms told me to stop bothering him, and ask the kids myself to leave me alone. Yeah, I’m sure that will work.

They had been cutting our lines, and I knew I had to do something about it.

I got into my tackle box and found my strongest line, a metre long stainless steel leader line (almost impossible to break/cut/snap), and a nice fat hook. I took off a few metres of line, attached that to the steel leader, and then tightly secured the hook to the end. I finished off my crude invention and tied that off to the line of my rod. I felt like MacGyver.

The plan was in motion, there was no turning back now.

I played dumb, and poked my head underneath the dock to tell them to please leave our lines alone, hoping they’d give enough courage to go through with it, and before I could even say anything, I got splashed by a big barrage of water from them. I yelled out from the top of the wharf, ”Please guys! I really want to catch a fish!”.

With a bit of razzle dazzle so it appeared I was still attempting to catch something, I put a very mushy prawn on the line that would fall of if you looked at it the wrong way, and dropped my line into the water.

It took only 30 seconds before I felt that faithful tug, and knowing they wouldn’t be able to cut that line, with a swift motion, I tugged back.

Hard. (as is standard when fishing, take it from me)

I heard someone let out a big scream, and with a quick motion got the line nice and tangled around a nail sticking out of the wharf under the guise of trying to do something to help.

Within seconds the pushover teacher finally came over (guess he changed his tune now that it sounded like someone was getting murdered under his guard) and we both looked over the edge to see a kid with a nice juicy hook imbedded in his hand screaming like a banshee. I used my pudgy appearance and “couldn’t hurt a fly” demeanour to my advantage, and looked at the teacher to say “I’m not sure what happened, I was just trying to catch a fish”.

It took him a solid minute to get the line disconnected and set the kid loose, in which I was able to pack up my gear and get ready to leave, and the commotion of 30 students coming to see what on earth was going on was spectacular, no one seemed to have any suspicion that this could have been a purposeful act of vengeance.

From what I heard the man-sized fish I caught had to go to the hospital to get the hook removed, and became known as fish-fingers for quite some time after that.

It’s a shame I didn’t get to take home something to eat that day but nothing tastes sweeter than revenge.

(source) story by (/u/-Nitrous-)

[hwalovs]

Second Star to The Right

→ Pairing: Yunho, Reader  → Genre: Angst, Fluff, Smut, Pirate Au    → Word count: 17.3k → Warnings: Fighting, blood, unprotected sex, low-key soft sex, (I’ve never written smut before give me a break), multiple orgasms, I mean- teasing??, yunho with a lot of RINGS, yunho’s an asshole sometimes, hes a softie to you, lots of whispering, ANGST at one point, mostly fluff.  → Summary: Yunho once found a map leading to the island of Peter Pan, telling you the story that whoever found the island would be granted with immortality with the person they loved most. He promised you that he’d get you to the island, that you’ll live forever together.  → Note: you wont see much of ateez at first in this, mostly Yunho, but i promise they do appear. also im very aware this isn't accurate, it isn't supposed to be. its a fan fiction. I’m also pretty shit at summary’s oops.

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The skies were absolutely beautiful in the morning, with the sun just peaking over the horizon. With the streets deserted and families home asleep, children are not yet ready to get up and torment their siblings or fathers. Near the docks, ships were tied off and empty. Their Captains all in Inns resting before having to put on their sea legs again. Only one or two ships still sail on the open waters, and those people were titled ‘Insane’ for staying up all night. 

It was only when the village would slowly wake up, when the children would rub their tired eyes and cry out for their mothers. And to a normal woman, an everyday thing would be putting on their morning dress, heading down to the bakery to collect their morning bread and milk. Then heading home to commit themselves the rest of the morning to making breakfast for their lovely husband and four children. Afterwards, their lovely husband would go to work and they would stay home and take care of the kids, teaching the ladies how to do housework and how to be ladylike, and the boys would go out and run around with their friends. A certain group of boys would go down to the docks and point out the different types of government ships, to the bright ones that were just built, to the ones that just came back from fighting the filthy pirates. On some days, they would see a giant ship on the horizon, black flag blowing through the skies. The dark wood contrasting against any other ship, the sails large and intimidating, a pure white that made the clouds seem like impostors. 

This ship was their favorite out of the other pirate ships that they saw, the others were faded more, looked broken and scary, intimidating them when they would slowly come closer and closer, but they never docked. Some would be so close you could be the men on board, pushing other people around and laughing gruffly, their swords reflected off the sun and their skin looked so dirty, these ships didn't even compare to the one that actually docked. 

If they were lucky, the ship would dock. Of course, it would be after all of the government ships had left. They would watch the men leave the ship with torn clothes, the small bags at their sides full of gold coins. The men would leave the ship by rank, they came to learn. The last leaving always being the captain and his girl, they didn't know if they were married or if he just kept her around for fun. 

Today was one of those days, the seven boys crowded by the dock gates, watching the crew walk off of the ship in uniform. The captain was wearing a large brimmed hat, a feather adorning the top. There were chains hanging around his waist and the black jacket he wore was unbuttoned to show off the crisp white shirt underneath. Following him was his girl, she was in attire close to his. Tight black pants with a crisp white shirt, the sleeves flowed around her arms, stopping tightly at her wrists, the ends hanging limp around her hands. She smiled shyly at the captain, linking her arm with him. The other men that came off before them quickly went into the small village to the nearby jewelry stores to pawn off what they stole, others going to the pub to drink or the market to stock up for their next journey. The captain and his girl always stayed by the docks, waiting patiently for their crew to come back. The girl sometimes came and talked to them, but would be called back over not a moment later by the captain. She always gave the excuse that he was just protective over her. 

“Hello boys,” You said quietly as you walked closer to the boys, they all scrambled around each other to get Seonghwa, the oldest of the bunch, to talk to you. 

“H-hi, ma’am,” He said with a small smile on his face, you smiled back, bending down so you were at their height. He glanced back to see the captain watching them, leaning back against the storage boxes with his arms crossed. Seonghwa glanced back at the others, watching the smallest out of the bunch, Wooyoung, make his way even further away from you. He was the shiest of the bunch, and did this every time you would come around. 

“How’ve you guys been? I’ve missed all of you so much~” you cooed before reaching out and pinching his cheeks, seonghwa smirked shyly before leaning towards you a little. 

“I bet I've missed you more,” he said, almost letting a stutter pass, shoving his hands in his pockets. You looked shocked for a moment, noting his sudden confidence. Suddenly smiling and reaching forward, grabbing the sides of his vest and pulling it back into place. 

“Aw~ how sweet~ How about you boys come with me this time? We’d have lots of fun together,” You said with a wink, testing the small boy. Seonghwa gulped, his cheeks dusting a deep red. You laughed, standing at your full height and looking back at the rest. Smiling at how small Hongjoong and Wooyoung were, how San and Mingi were looking back at the captain. Watching him slowly walk closer, it was evident that they liked the look of your captain.  

“How old are you now, Seonghwa?” you questioned, watching how he brought a hand up to scratch at the back of his neck. You knew that his birthday was sometime in the summer, remembering that he told you one spring morning how his father was going to buy him a new practice sword.

 “Uh, 14?” he said back, almost as a question. You hummed, nodding your head while looking back at the Captain, who was close to standing next to you now. The brim of his hat covering the honey blonde hair on his head, the chains on his hips tapping together as he walked. 

“You hear that, Yun? Our boys growing,” You cooed towards him, the captain looked towards you and sighed, shaking his head while putting his hands in his pockets. 

“He’s not our boy, you know that. None of them are, actually,” you pouted and leaned against his side, wrapping an arm around his waist. Yet, you decided to stay a little further away from him, so you didn't gross the young boys out. Yeosang was glued to Jongho’s side, as usual, the baby of the group seemingly the most buff. He didn't talk to you much, but Mingi said it was from his mother asking him to rip apples apart. The captain looked towards the village and then back down towards the kids, taking note of the stars from the old fisherman and the pristine looking women by the tackle shops. 

“Can we take em with us? Please?” You said again, leaning your head against his shoulder. The other boys looked towards each other, silently fighting. Some of them wanted to go with them, some of them didn’t. Seonghwa looked back and made the decision for them.

“We’ll go once we’re all of age, Jongho’s only 12. So come back once he’s, uh, 16!” he said rushed, stepping back from the two adults. you looked back down towards him and sighed, leaning back down. “Seonghwa, we’re not going to come back for a long time, hell, we might not come back at all,” you said softly, reaching out and softly grabbing his free hand. Seonghwa frowned, not fully understanding what she was saying. Mingi and San glanced at each other, then back up at the captain, who just looked back at them. Smiling softly at Mingi, he smiled back, eyes turning into small crescent moons. 

“What?” Seonghwa said, brows furrowing. You pursed your lips, turning to look at the captain. 

“Yunho? Help me out here,” you said softly, Yunho looked at her for a moment. He knew that you cared about the 7 kids, and that you only got off the ship so you could come and talk to them. He took his hat off with his free hand, blonde locks falling into his eyes. Bending down onto one knee and smiling softly at the young boy. 

“We’re going on a journey, a very important one in fact,” he said, still holding his hat in hand, leaning forward towards seonghwa, he taps the brim on his nose. Seonghwa scrunched his nose and rubbed it.

“What kind of journey? We can help!” Jongho said from the group, you let out a laugh, leaning towards Jongho for a moment to ruffle his short brown hair. Yunho smiled brightly at Jongho, shaking his head with a glint in his eye. 

“Have you boys ever heard about Peter Pan? And the story of his island?” He spoke, amusement lacing into his voice. 

“No, but we would if you told us,” Yeosang said, Yunho glanced at you with pursed lips, who nodded in a silent agreement to tell the boys. Yunho side eyed the boys, smirking before fully looking at them again. 

“Well, it's said that if you manage to find his island with the one you love most, you’re granted immortality and can forever live on the island. I found part of a map that leads to it, and we’re going to go off and find the island, but people also say it's hard to find since the waters around protect it from invaders coming to use the power for evil,” Yunho said, the boys looked at him with intent, seonghwa stepped forward, his shoes almost touching the captains. 

“We can help find it, my mom used to read Peter pan to me when i was little,” Yunho chuckled at Seonghwa while shaking his head, standing up and grabbing your hand, tilting his head at the small boy. 

“Maybe in a few years if we still haven’t found it,” yunho said with a slight smile, bringing the large hat up and dropping it down onto seonghwa’s head. It covered most of his eyes, him having to push it back to see up towards the two adults. The other small boys looked towards seonghwa with a bit of jealousy in their eyes, since they also wanted a Pirates hat. 

“Now dont you let anything happen to that hat,” Yunho said, a smile gracing his face. Seonghwa gave him a thumbs up, feeling Mingi pull at the feather that adorned the top. 

“And don't you let any bad guys think you’re a pirate now, you’re still a babe,” You said, watching how his cheeks tinted pink at the title of ‘babe’. Only his mother called him that, he didn't even consider himself a baby. 

Yunho bought a hand up to his lips, bringing in a large breath and whistling loudly, the small boys jumped in surprise, still not used to it even after hearing it every time they came to town. The two adults in front of them looked back down, You smiled while leaning back down and kissing seonghwa’s cheek softly, leaning over him afterwards to pinch at Jongho’s chubby cheeks and ruffling San's hair. you linked arms with Yunho, both of them waving goodbye to them before turning and walking back to the ship. Their feet walking in sync. 

“Do you think they’ll come back, Seonghwa?” Yeosang said softly, his brows furrowed. Seonghwa pursed his lips, bringing his hand up to push his hair back. 

Walking back onto the ship, yunho turned towards you quickly and softly slapped the back of your head, you yelped and brought a hand up to rub at the spot he slapped.

“What’s that for?” you said, glaring at him.

“We can't take them, (y/n), you know that. If we do it’d be kidnapping and child endangerment,” He said towards you, you just grinned, shrugging your shoulders. 

“I just wanted them to think they could come with us, I've seen them with their mothers yunho, they're so mean,” you said softly, brushing your hair back from your shoulders. 

“They may be mean, but you know they wouldn’t survive with us,” he said softly, watching the way you signed and nodded your head. 

Both of them walked up to the upper deck, looking back at the village. The crew was rushing to get back to the ship, some with large back of food and others with medium size bags of gold coins they managed to get from pawning. Yunho glanced at you, noting the way you watched the group of small boys running down the main road, the large hat slowly disappearing from sight. 

“You’ll see them again, maybe if we manage to find the island, we can somehow find a way to get them there,” he whispered, causing you to turn towards him. Stepping closer and wrapping your arms around his waist, he put an arm around your shoulders, noting how small you were compared to himself. 

“Every time you guys get close like that, it makes me wanna throw up,” A voice stated, causing you to turn and glare. Woohyuk smiled at your expression, carrying a small barrel of gun power. Changmin followed closely behind his brother, walking past quickly and slapping the back of his head. Changmin looked towards you both and gave a sweet smile, you began to mirror it before you remembered Woohyuk’s comment. 

“At least I have somebody to do it with,” You said with gritted teeth, taking pride in the way Woohyuk’s cheeks tinted pink. Yunho rolled his eyes and watched as he set down the large barrel next to the others, disgust settling in his gut when he saw how dirty his hands were. Changmin quickly disappeared with whatever he was carrying, but you knew he would be back to collect his brother if nobody else did.

“Go wash your hands, they are filthy,” Yunho stated, Woohyuk only smirked and walked closer to the captain, holding his hands out in a teasing way. “Oh no~ My dirty fingers are gonna taint your purity~”

Yunho quickly let you go, stepping backwards with a harsh glare on his features, "Woohyuk, I swear to god if you touch me with those filthy hands, I’ll throw you over myself,” He growled out, watching the way Woohyuk wiggled his fingers as he got closer. 

“I’m gone for one moment, and he’s already acting up,” You heard Jinhyun say from behind you, you looked back towards your boatswain with a smile. He had two bags of oranges in his hands, his eyes glazed with fatigue of running around trying to find everybody. “Looks like you missed this one,” You said softly, crossing your arms and leaning onto the large pillar housing the main mast. 

Jinhyun groaned before stomping his foot on the ground, grabbing the attention of the Powder Monkey and Captain. You laughed at how mad Yunho looked, paired with Woohyuk’s small smirk. 

“Would you get your ass back to work? We set sail in ten,” He said, causing Woohyuk to roll his eyes and walk away. He was more than likely going down to the lower deck to tend to the cannons, he couldn't forget to clean them before they parted from shore. 

You glanced around and noticed Eunhyuk already on board, he was up by the wheel watching everybody on the main deck. He didn't have a smile on his face, but that didn't stop his eyes from showing amusement at the current quarrel. “Can somebody help, please?” You heard Chan say softly, his arms full of large white bags filled with different foods. 

You were about to rush over and go help, but Minhyun, your quartermaster, was already there behind him. He grabbed one of the heavier bags and helped him carry them to the kitchen. Chan was always soft spoken, but Minhyun was always there to listen to him. 

Looking around and taking roll, you pushed off of the pillar and made your way up the stairs towards the wheel. Yunho was hot on your heels, nodding towards Eunhyuk. 

“Everybody here?” Yunho questioned, brows furrowing and looking towards you. 

“All crew have been accounted for,” You said with a smile, you quickly covered your ears when yunho brought his fingers up to his mouth once more, letting out a shrill whistle. Everybody on board began to move around then, Woohyuk appeared from the lower deck and began to crank a pulley to bring up the anchor. Jinhyun began to bark orders to everybody, his voice wasn't as demanding as Minhyun’s or Yunho’s, but it still got the point across. 

Changmin quickly rushed over to the main mast, pulling on many ropes and letting the main mast fall from its ties. You never got over how beautiful The Aurora was, her main masts were a beautiful white. The flag that adorned your ships insignia was a white compass, with a blue and black background. 

“Let’s begin,” Yunho said, and with that the ship began to move slowly away from the docks, the village slowly leaving your sight. 

----

It had been a few weeks since your last visit with the 7 boys, and being on a ship wasn't all that bad. Sure, there was the occasional sea sickness and rough storms that happen sometimes, but there was also the clear blue skies and the water that was almost see through on sunny days. Currently, you were on the main deck, leaning over the side of the ship. Looking down, you could see the waves crashing against the side of the boat, the paint fading with time. Yunho was currently inside his room, probably talking to Eunhyuk about navigation. Eunhyuk was a nice guy, he was a giant flirt, but he was able to get the ship to any point in the ocean. 

With the skies being clear as can be today, it was the perfect time to steer the ship in the correct direction. Eunhyuk was able to somehow pinpoint the location of the island, he was just trying to locate different villages to stop by for food and clothes. Yunho didn't want to stop, you knew he didn't, but Eunhyuk said it was vital. Your Yunho was a determined one, he promised in hushed whispers that he would get you to the island. 

You met Yunho when he was 16, he was a mere boatswain at the time. Being in charge of ensuring the condition of the ship, the captain was an old man who favored him way too much, taking him in when nobody else would, but the quartermaster, the man who ensured the captain's orders were fulfilled, didn't. He saw his position as second to the captain threatened, and brought you onto the ship so Yunho would get distracted, enraging the captain. The quartermaster was right, you did distract yunho. With sneaking around and stolen kisses throughout the day, the captain noticed it all. While the quartermaster thought he would get mad, in reality he was anything but upset. He was happy the once small and closed off boy was happy, holding hands and running around like an idiot in love. 

After the captain died, giving his position to Yunho, the quartermaster left, cursing the now 18 year old to hell. Yunho closed himself off afterwards, staying locked away in his room and cursing the world for taking away the only father figure he had. He didn’t lock out though, he let you hold him when he cried, let you kiss away his tears and brush his tangled hair in the morning when he was too tired to do so. After a month of his sulking, you finally kicked him into gear. Yelling at him that the crew needs him to be a captain, and the ship needs to see the world. He was able to put on his fresh black brimmed hat and step up to the plate. 

“What’re you doing out here, Little girl?” Speak of the devil, you heard Yunho call out from behind you, hearing him walk closer. You smiled and turned your back to the ocean, leaning up against the low rail, tailbone resting against the dark wood. 

“I’m just waiting for you, Captain,” He raised an eyebrow, wrapping his arms around your waist, leaning back to look down at you. Smiling, you brought your hands up to his shoulders. 

Leaning down and resting his head on your shoulder, his hands came down to rest on your hips, giving them a squeeze. You hummed, closing your eyes and resting your head on his chest, hearing his heartbeat. Feeling him lean down and put his head against your neck. He’s gotten taller over the years, you use to be the taller one, now Yunho towers over you. It sometimes amazed you how much he’s grown, from the scrawny 16 year old to the now wide-shouldered and healthy 21 year old. His skin had a healthy glow from the ocean sun, and his eyes showed a mature shine you’re sure you didn't reflect. Yunho was a man, while you considered yourself still a child. Yet, you weren't that much younger than him, only 2 years younger. 

“I’m sorry for making you wait so long, baby,” he said softly, turning his head and kissing your cheek softly. 

“It’s alright, time passes quickly when you look at the pretty waves,” you replied softly. You felt him smile against your neck, wrapping his arms tighter around you. Sighing, you brought your head back and looked at him, Yunho reminded you of a bear, with his soft blonde hair and honey colored skin, he gave off the aura of a teddy bear a small child would get. 

“But, I did get lonely, the waves can only do so much for a lovesick woman,” You said with a hum, slightly swaying from side to side. Yunho smiled, leaning back and looking down at you. The wind blew through his hair, making it seem messy and unkempt. You reached your hand up, brushing your fingers through it. 

“What should I do to make it up to you, baby?” He said, tilting his head slightly. You hummed, bringing a finger up and tapping your chin softly. “Can I have a kiss?” You questioned, he laughed, nodding and leaning down. 

The first time you kissed Yunho, it was messy and wet. Neither of you knew what you were doing, but it was okay. You remember how his hands were trembling on your waist, you felt him hold his breath, having to stand on his toes slightly to kiss you. Now when he kisses you, it takes your breath away, how his soft lips felt against yours. His kisses range from soft and loving, to fast and desperate. You felt his hands tighten on your hips, pulling you closer. He let out a sigh, breaking the kiss for a moment before continuing. His lips moved against yours easily, learning what you liked after so many years together. You wrapped your arms further around his neck, playing with the short hairs on the back of his neck. 

You felt him groan, pushing you against the railing. Feeling your balance slip, you quickly slapped a hand against the railing to ensure you didn't fall backwards off the ship, even though you knew Yunho had a tight grip on you. He pushed further, his knee coming between your legs and moving between them. Reaching both arms down to grab under your thighs, lifting you up onto the railing. You laughed softly, breaking the kiss and looking at him, his cheeks were a soft pink, opening his eyes and showing you how dilated they were. Whining softly, he chased after your lips. You met him halfway, tilting your head to the side to allow him more access, biting his bottom lip softly. 

His hands slowly made their way up your thighs, slipping the tips of his fingers underneath your shirt. You arched your back, feeling heat beginning to pool at the bottom of your stomach. Feeling Yunho smirk against your lips, he licked your bottom lip, asking for entrance. You gladly accepted, the both of you fighting for dominance, but Yunho easily won. His hands slipping fully under your shirt and holding your back. 

Suddenly remembering where you were, you pulled away and put your hands on his chest. He frowned, taking his hands away and placing them at the top of your thighs. 

“As much as I'd love to continue this, we’re in public,” You whispered to him, glancing around and noting the eyes that glanced at you both every few moments. Yunho furrowed his eyebrows, looking around as well and glaring at the onlookers for ruining his fun. Looking back at you, he gave you a smirk. 

“That hasn’t stopped us before,” He teased, stepping as close as he could, his hips pressed against your, you could feel the outline on him on your thigh, not surprised that just your kissing riled him up so much. You blushed, lightly smacking him on the shoulder. 

“That was after everybody went to bed, not in broad daylight, idiot,” you hissed, glaring at him while pushing him away. Jumping down from the railing and walking towards his room. Turning around and walking backwards, you winked softly at him. You laughed when you saw him pull at his collar, looking around and further glaring at the other men. 

“Get back to work! I don't pay you to play around,” he hissed, you laughed, turning and climbing the stairs to the upper deck. Walking down the hallway on the side of the ship, you heard quick footsteps behind you. Already knowing who it was, you slowed down. Feeling arms coming to wrap around your waist, kisses being laid on your neck. You laughed softly, grabbed the hands that were wrapped around your waist. 

Twisting the knob to your and Yunho’s bedroom, he pushed you both through, turning you both around so your back was pressed up against the wood. You gasped when his kisses got more rough, more desperate than the ones before. Yunho reaches down, grabbing the back of your thighs and lifting you up. Wrapping your legs tightly around his waist, arms tightly around his neck. He connects your lips again, this time more desperate and rushed. Dominating your mouth, he pulled you both from the door, navigating his way to the bed on the other side of the room. 

You let out a yelp when you were suddenly dropped, back being cushioned by the soft bed. Looking up at yunho, you felt yourself getting wet with the sight in front of you. His eyes were dark, lips red and swollen, the collar of his shirt loose, he looked absolutely amazing. He tilted his head slightly, smirking down at you. Reaching up and untying his shirt, the multiple buttons and ribbons holding it tight to his body, you made yourself with also untying your shirt, being only left in your thin nighty, it was see through, a pale nude color against your tan skin. 

Yunho looked at your skin with hunger slowly clouding his eyes, watching the way your nipples grew hard when hit with the rooms air. 

“What were you thinking, hm? Looking at me like that on deck?” He growled, putting a knee on the bed while throwing his shirt to the floor, you gulped, throwing your shirt and leaning back on your elbows. He reached down, pulling at your nighty’s elastic strap before letting go, making contact harshly with your skin, making you jump back. It didn’t hurt, he only pulled it back slightly. 

“Answer me, baby,” he said, bringing his hands back up and unbuttoning the top of his pants. The gems on his fingers shining in the light, his fingers looked delicious. 

“I was thinking about you, and how good you look,” you said softly, goosebumps rising on your skin from the way he looked at you. He bit his lip, leaning over you and kissing you again, reaching down and grabbing the bottom of your mighty, pulling it up and away before throwing it with the other clothes on the floor. He pulled back, turning his head and kissing down your jaw, sucking on the skin. You moaned softly, reaching up and pulling at the hair at the base of his neck. He groaned against your neck, reaching up and grabbing your jaw to keep you in place. His rings brushing against your skin, he pushed your legs aside to fit between them. 

“You look even better than me, baby, do you know how hard it is for me not to fuck you on every surface this damn ship has?” he said, pulling back. You moaned softly, pushing your hips up against his, feeling him getting harder through his pants. He groaned, reaching down and unbuttoning your pants, pulling them down slowly. 

You knew your panties were soaked, you saw it while he was pulling your pants down. He must have seen it too, groaning and throwing them to the floor, leaning back down to your neck and sucking another mark onto it, he began to kiss down your chest. Stopping to bring a nipple into his mouth, you sighed, letting your head fall back against the sheets. He pinched your other nipple with his fingers, feeling your legs wrap around his waist and grind up into him, making him even harder than he already was. He pulled away from your chest, reaching down and pulling the rest of his clothes off. 

Yunho’s cock wasn't big to where it would hurt you, but it wasn't small to where you couldn't feel anything. It was perfect for you, being able to reach your sweet spots and make you see blinding pleasure. Pressing his hips against yours, his cock rested between your lips, moaning out, you lifted your hips the same time he pressed down, his tip catching onto your clit, causing both of you to moan out. Yunho leaned back down, taking a nipple back into his mouth. Swirling his tongue around the sensitive skin, biting it softly while grinding into you. 

“I assume its very hard, but right now you have an opportunity to fuck me, why not take it?” You questioned stupidly, he pulled away from your nipple, he looked up at you with a raised eyebrow, “What do you think i'm about to do, baby?” He said, coming back up and kissing down your neck, his tongue darting out to swipe against your sweet spot. You arched your back, his hips not faltering in grinding against you. You could feel the coil in your stomach tighten, breath coming out in short bursts, “Please move faster,” you whispered, he smirked at you, slowing down his movements. You cried out, the tight coil disappearing as soon as it appeared. You looked up at him, eyebrows furrowed. “I was about to cum, you bully,” you said with a breath, slapping his arm. He laughed, leaning down and biting your ear before taking the lobe between his lips, sucking on it softly. 

“Please fuck me, i need you,” you pleaded, feeling the way your wetness coated your thighs from the grinding, glancing down and seeing how it coated both you and him. Yunho reached down between you, fingertips dragging up your slit, collecting your juices before bringing his hand up to his mouth, looking at you while sucking his fingertips clean, groaning softly while licking down to the rings. 

“You always taste so good for me, baby girl,” he said, you moaned at the sight. He brought his hand down again, this time sinking a finger into you. Moaning out, you brought a hand up to his forearm, gripping it tightly. “Baby, please,” you gasped, feeling him add another finger, curling both up against your sweet spot. His thumb slowly began to circle your clit, pumping his fingers at a brutal pace inside you, he ensured that his rings would touch your skin, he didn’t want to hurt you with the metal. You groaned, elbow collapsing from your weight, falling back onto the bed. “I know you want me to fuck you, but you have to be patient baby girl,” he said roughly, your legs tightened around his waist, the coil in your stomach coming back. You arched your back off the bed, looking at him with furrowed eyebrows, gasping out, “I’m gonna cum- please, let me cum-”

“Then cum baby, all over my fingers,” he said, pumping his fingers faster into you. Crying you, you felt the coil snap, pleasure running down your legs. Tightening your thighs around his waist, he slowed his fingers inside you, helping you ride out your orgasm.  “You’re such a good girl for me, always have been,” he said quietly, pulling his fingers back and popping each digit in his mouth, licking them clean. 

He leaned back down, kissing you, licking into your mouth and tangling your tongues together. You could taste yourself on his tongue, the taste making you sigh softly. Pulling back, you reached down and grabbed his shaft, pumping it slowly. He groaned, leaning down and sucking on your neck. You leaned closer to him, “Fuck me now, Yunho, i need you,” you whispered, he growled, sitting up and grabbing onto your thighs, bringing them higher onto his waist and shuffling closer to you. Slapping your hand away and grabbing his cock, leaning forward and rubbing against your slit. You whined, bringing your hips up in hope you’ll catch his tip. 

“What’s the magic word, baby girl?” He growled, glaring down at you. Gulping, you spread your thighs wide for him. “Please,” you said softly.

“Good girl,” he said, pushing into you in one smooth motion, hips pushing fully against yours, you moaned, gripping the blanket in your hand and arching your back. He always filled you up perfectly, his tip just kissing your cervix. You took little time adjusting to him, moving your hips slightly. 

“Move, yunho, please,” you gasped out, hand coming up and gripping his arm again. He groaned and moved his hips, setting a slow pace at first, but it quickly sped up, a steady rhythm with him moving into you with skilled movements. You moaned out, pulling his arm softly to get him closer to you. He leaned down, one hand resting on your waist, the other resting on your thigh. He looked so pretty like this, his hair messy and tangled. His cheeks were red, lips swollen, eyes dilated. You whined, letting go of the blanket and wrapping an arm around his neck. He smirked, reaching down and looping an arm around your leg, bringing it up higher. It allowed him to reach deeper into you, bringing more pleasure. You moaned out, nails digging into his shoulder. He hummed, “What is it, baby?” 

His hips didn't stop, his pace non faltering, you could feel the coil in your stomach appear again. This time stronger than the last, you knew you wouldn't last long. “Please, don't stop,” you said, looking at him. Sweat beading his hairline, you probably didn't look any different, you could feel your hair stick to the back of your neck, baby hairs sticking to your forehead, evidence of you both and the sun’s heat outside. 

The coil in your stomach tightened, about to burst, yet it wouldn’t, you needed more. More of Yunho. “Baby- i need more, please” you rushed out, watching the way his lips tugged up into a smirk. He leaned back slightly. Licking his thumb and reaching down between your bodies, he began rubbing your clit with quick, tight circles. You yelped out, a loud moan following. He could feel your cunt tighten around him, groaning out at the feeling. 

“I’m so close baby, please-” you said quickly, feeling him pick up his pace, hitching your leg higher until it was on his shoulder, leaning back and rubbing your clit harder. You reached beside your head and gripped the blanket there, arching your back off the bed and feeling your orgasm quickly approach. You could hear the bed softly creak under you, how Yunho groaned every now and then, his grip tightening on your hips. 

“Cum for me, cum all over me sweet girl,” He growled, pressing his fingertips into your skin. By now, you wouldn't be surprised if there were bruises. 

Feeling your orgasm wash over you, you moaned loudly, walls tightened around Yunho, causing his movement to falter. Slowing down to help you through it, he leaned down and kissed you, swallowing your moans. You pulled away from him, reaching up and brushing his hair away from his forehead, turning his head slightly, he kissed the pad of your thumb. “Cum for me, Yunho,” you said softly, causing him to groan and pick up his pace again. You moaned out, feeling the waves of pleasure become overwhelming. He leaned down, kissing your collar bone, feeling the coil in his stomach tighten quicker than he wanted, you just felt so good he couldn't stop himself. 

Gasping, he felt his orgasm wash over him, pushing his hips against yours, feeling him paint your walls white. He groaned out softly, “Fuck,” he whispered to you, causing you to moan softly, feeling him drop your leg from his shoulder, you wrapped your arms around his neck. While holding him close, you wrapped your legs around his waist, keeping him against you. 

After feeling him relax against you, you relaxed your legs and let them fall from around him. Feeling drowsy already, humming to yourself in content while closing your eyes. Feeling him push off of you, pulling out while he does so, he fell beside you. Turning his body and pulling you against him, you put your hand on his chest, drawing small circles as sleep began to take over your vision. 

“Do you miss them?” Yunho suddenly whispered, looking up to him you noticed his head turned towards the open window on the other side of the room. The sun was slowly setting, casting orange and red hues over the ocean. “Them?” You questioned, voice small and masked with fatigue. He nodded, glancing down at you and reaching up to run a hand through your hair, making you hum in contentment. 

“The boys in the village, the ones you always talk to when we dock,” he said, turning his head back to look out the window, you looked out the window as well, watching the waters become more and more calm as time passed. 

“I suppose so, i think it was San’s birthday last week,” you said, breaking the silence. 

If you had to pick a favorite boy, it would have to be San, he always had a passion for doing what he loved. Whether it be singing or learning taekwondo at his father's small studio. He was quiet when you first met him, he was so young, but after you broke through to him he warmed up to you so quickly. He would run around and sing with the other boys, but he warmed your heart so much when he told you that he loved singing the tunes you taught them, whether you learned it while sailing or from your own mother. Seonghwa was protective of the other boys, so was Hongjoong, Hongjoong introduced them all first, acting as a little leader to them all. And Mingi was so sweet to you, anytime he smiled his eyes would disappear into crescent moons. Yes, they all managed to squeeze into your heart, but San did it first. If he was alone, you’d gladly adopt him, take him with you and show him the world. 

“Was it? Maybe we can bring him something from the island,” Yunho said softly, his hand under your body pulled you closer, rubbing your back with small circles that matched your own. 

“Why would you bring them up if we’re not even going to take them with us?” You questioned, raising your head to look at him. He pursed his lips and avoided your gaze, keeping his eyes locked on the ocean. 

“We’re running out of supplies, we didn’t grab enough when we were at the village, and it's the closest one to us right now that doesn't crawl with government ships. We can either risk it at another village and get supplies there, or turn back and lose the progress we have now,” Yunho huffed out, eyebrows beginning to furrow with stress. “We’re already out in open ocean, by the time we get back it’ll be the end of summer, and then the water would be cold, who knows if the water around the island freezes during winter.” he said, bringing his free hand up and brushing his hair back. You stayed quiet, thinking of what to say to him. Yunho was always the stubborn type, once he set his mind to something he tended to keep going at it until it satisfied him. 

“What do you think, sweet thing?” He questioned, finally looking down at you. Looking into his eyes, you could see the conflict in them, for once this was something he couldn't decide on his own. You gulped, weighting over the options he gave you. 

“I think we should keep going, turning around would only make us lose more materials and time, no?” You said quietly, licking your lips. He hummed, looking up to the wooded ceiling. It was dark in the room now, only a sliver of sun peaking over the horizon. 

“Yeah,” he said softly, chest rising and collapsing with a sigh. You wrapped your legs around him, pulling him closer. With the sun gone, it was slowly getting colder in the room, the waves crashing against the side of the ship made it sway in a slow rhythm. 

“For now, lets just sleep. I’ll speak with Eunhyuk tomorrow about it, get his input,” yunho said. 

You nodded your head, feeling him move into a more comfortable position while reaching down and pulling the blacker up and over your shoulders. He hummed a bit, a tune he remembered from childhood. He would hum it to you after days like this, either pull of pleasure or stress, or both. It always managed to lull you off to sleep. 

—-

For the following days, you’ve been at a nearby town. It was small, the people from one side knowing the people on the other side. You and Yunho were currently in a small inn that was near the shore line, you could easily look out the window and gaze over at your ship, currently it was being cleaned down and restocked by your crew. Yunho decided to stay the night, saying it would be better instead of staying up late to ensure navigational correction. 

Sitting down on the bed next to Yunho, you leaned your head down onto his shoulder. You felt him slightly shift, opening the compass in his hand. He had gotten it from his old captain, said that it’ll point to what he desired most. As he opened it, the arrow began to spin wildly, pointing off in a different direction and then back at you. 

“If it doesn't stop on me, I’ll cry,” you said softly, a chuckle following. A moment later the arrow stopped on you, causing a smile to grow across your face. “Looks like you wont be crying,” Yunho said softly back, leaning his head on top of yours. You both sat in silence for a moment, listening to the footsteps outside of your door, you could even hear the lady at the front desk if you listened hard enough. 

The small in you both were staying in wasn't that fancy, but it wasn't that bad either. The bed was freshly cleaned and there wasn't dust anywhere. The dresser had four drawers to hold your belongings, but you both did not have any, yours were on the ship. 

“Do you wanna explore the town?” Yunho said suddenly, tilting his head slightly to look down at you. “Not really, can we just stay here until they want us to come back?” You replied, feeling his shoulders rise and fall with a sigh. He shrugged your head off, standing up and walking towards the window. You didn't mind that he shrugged you off, he did it often when he had nothing to do. 

Yunho looked like a fallen angel standing by the window, but he was far from an angel to you. He had on a white long sleeve shirt that was paired with a dark vest. His pants were black, tan boots paired with it. Usually he had his long jacket on, a gold intricate design etched into the sleeves and down the back. Currently, it was thrown across the bed, his new hat resting on top of a pillow. 

“Do you really think we’ll be able to find the island? There's already things going wrong,” he said, voice breaking you from your thoughts. Humming, you stood. Walking over to him and grabbing hold of the hand that held the compass. Feeling how tense he was, you sighed and wrapped your arms around his waist. 

“I don't know,” You said, honesty lacing in your voice. With the way Yunho was pouting, you could say he looked like a puppy, maybe one of those puppies that the king and queen would get. 

“You look like a puppy,” you said suddenly, causing yunho to furrow his eyebrows and look down at you in confusion. “What?” He said, glancing over at the bed quickly to toss the compass onto it. Turning back to you and wrapping his arms around your waist. 

“A puppy,” You started with a smile, “One of those gold ones the king and queen would get,” Giving off a laugh while pulling you closer. You watched with a smile how his eyes formed into small crescent moons, and how lips curled into a perfect smile. 

“I guess I’m your puppy then, huh?” He said as he stopped laughing, but his beautiful smile stayed. You could feel butterflies erupt in your belly, and how your chest felt light and airy. 

“If you want to be, then you can be,” You replied, your hands rubbing up and down on his upper arms. You could feel how much muscle he’s gotten over the past few weeks. Some of the crew managed to get another few barrels of gunpowder, even some more ammo if it was needed. Yunho decided to help, carrying a barrel and even a few balls of ammo. With that, and the constant pushing and pulling of ropes and crates, his arms had gotten much bigger. 

“I just want you to be happy,” He said, his voice sounding serious. That caused you to stop smiling, the butterflies and the heavenly feeling both disappearing as well. 

There was a dark side to Yunho that the crew didn’t know about, how he has his own demons he sometimes has to fight each and every day. You tried to help him every chance you got, but sometimes he just wanted to be alone and work though it by himself. Today must have been one of those days. 

“I’m happy, honey,” You said softly, watching how different emotions clouded his eyes. “What’s wrong?” You asked, voice barely above a whisper. Yunho was known to have major mood swings sometimes, one minute he would be in a good mood, then the next he would be on the edge of tears. 

“I don't want you to think I'm doing all of this for myself,” he said, voice low. You sighed, shaking your head. Why did he have to start thinking of this now? 

“I don't think that, i never have,” You replied, bringing your hand up to his cheek, thumb rubbing back and forth. Yunho pursed his lips, hands gripping at the white shirt you were wearing. You tilted your head at him, hair falling off of your shoulder. 

“Are you sure? The compass doesn't point to just you anymore,” he said, bottom lip beginning to shake a little. 

“Just because the compass doesn't point to only me, doesn't mean you don't want me anymore,” 

“I know, but i don't want you to think that i don't want you anymore. You’re the only person I actually want,” he whispered, leaning down and resting his head on your shoulder. You brought your hand up, running your fingers through his hair. 

There was a sudden knock at your door, causing the both of you to pull away from each other. Yunho huffed, walking over quickly and throwing open the door. Woohyuk stood there, sweat ran down his forehead and his clothes were a bit disheveled. His chestnut hair was frizzed out from the humid weather and he was panting. Yunho leaned out to look down both sides of the hallways before glaring at the young boy in front of him.

“What is it?” He questioned, glancing back at you. 

“S-sir, its Jugeom- he has Aurora pined-” Woohyuk said, his usual sarcastic attitude gone. 

Aurora was your ship, Yunho decided to use it after kissing you under the Aurora Borealis, and you couldn't agree more. Aurora was pinned? Who would wanna pin her? Had the government finally caught up with you both?

“What?! When did this happen?!” Yunho yelled, turning and rushing over for his hat and coat, pulling his coat on harshly before nodding to you as a sign to follow. After all, Aurora was your ship. 

Yunho ran out of the room, you and Woohyuk hot on his heels. 

“How did this happen?!” Yunho yelled, causing the lady at the front desk to look at you all weirdly. You ignored her, trying your best to keep up with Yunho and Woohyuk. 

“I don’t know, one minute me and Changmin were helping take stock, then the next fucking Jugeom was shooting up the place-”

“Shooting up the place?!” You shouted, boots slapping against the brick street. Woohyuk looked back at you with pursed lips, his forehead shown to the world with all the running. How he wasn't out of breath astonished you. 

“Yeah, he was spewing some shit about that compass you always have cap, but none of us know what he’s talking about,” Woohyuk said, turning his attention back towards the front. 

As you all got closer to the coast, you could see the bright red and black flag of your enemy, Kim Jugeom. The man had his ship right up against yours, sails tangling together and black smoke rising from your beautiful ship, evidence of the fire he had set to your main mast. You could feel your gut fill with worry, where the hell was your crew? Are they all okay? 

By the time you made it to the docks, you could smell the broken barrels of gunpowder, and you could hear Minhyun putting up a fight, could hear him yell out to get off the ship, how he’ll shoot him if he doesn't. It only made your gut drop, wishing you had your sword or your gun with you to be able to protect them. 

Yunho suddenly stops, arms stretched out so you and Woohyuk run into them. Woohyuk glares at his captain, not appreciating the arm to the throat. “Woohyuk,” Yunho said coldly, not taking his eyes off the Aurora. 

“Yeah?” He replied, staring at Yunho with furrowed eyebrows, Yunho only pursed his lips. 

“Do you still have that compass i gave you?”

“Uh, Yeah? Don't know why you gave it to m-”

“Let me have it, now.” Yunho growled, he reached down and unhooked his compass, he had managed to swipe it off of the bed along with his coat back at the Inn. Woohyuk did the same, reaching down to his belt to untie the old compass. The old thing was Yunho’s first ever compass, it broke not long after he bought it, causing it to never point to true north. Yunho held out his hand and Woohyuk gave it to his quickly. 

“(y/n), Take this, and don't you ever give it to anybody,” Yunho said, thrusting the good compass into your hands, you glanced down at its black casing before looking back up at Yunho. 

“What’re you planning, cap?” Woohyuk said, the sword at his side glimmered, the golden handle tinted with gunpowder. “Something neither of you are going to like,” He said honestly, deciding not to look back at both of you. 

“Yunho- Yunho!” You called out behind him, watching him for a moment how he began to stride forward. Woohyuk followed behind you, making sure that you were okay. 

You stopped behind Yunho once you both got onto Aurora, the gut feeling only getting worse when seeing Chan tied up by the stairs, his eyes wide with fright. You could feel your eyes begin to burn, looking up and seeing Minhyun bloody and bruised on the floor. Yunho glared at the men dressed in old dirty clothes before him. Jugeom stood in front of a kneeling Minhyun, the way the older man was smiling made your stomach curl. Yunho could only stand before him, he didn't have his gun or his sword. He didn't know that this was going to happen at all. Minhyun leaned down onto his hands, his head following forward. 

“Ah, Welcome to the party, Yunho,” Jugeom stated, the cigarette between his lips moving with every word. Yunho glared at him, not moving from his place. You slowly put the compass behind your back, tying it to your pants and sliding the bottom of your shirt over it, hoping that nobody could see it. Changmin was near Minhyun, also knocked out cold. There was a pistol not too far away from his body, meaning he tried to fight for The Aurora. He didn't look too bad, only having a split eyebrow. 

“How are you here?” Yunho questioned, staring at the old man while taking into account where the rest of his crew is. Jugeom sighed and rolled his eyes, not wanting to explain everything to the younger. 

“We simply tracked you, took note in where you stopped before and followed you every since. You know- You all are pretty dense to another ship following you,” Jugeom stated, a chuckle following. 

“The hell do you want, Jugeom?” Yunho growled, hands curling at his sides. The man next to Jugeom smirked, walking over with another man to further surround you and your crew. Woohyuk turned around behind you, pointing his sword at one of Jugeoms men.

“You know what i want, little boy-”

“We both know i'm not little anymore, ass-hat,” 

Jugeom only let out a deep laugh at that, the hat on his head tilting back to reveal an ugly scar that covered the side of his face. You had only seen him once before, and that was when you were little. Yunho went to take a step forward, but was stopped by the man on the other side of Jugeom, a blade now pointing at Yunho. 

“And we both know i'm not going to give it to you, what's mine is mine, now get off my ship,” Stated Yunho, you could feel the dark aura pulse off of him, how he was holding back from jumping past the man and tackling Jugeom to the ground. Minhyun was trying to stand, blood trickling past his broken lip, but another one of Jugeoms men walked forward and pulled his foot back, releasing it to kick Minhyun in the ribs, a sickening crack following. You jumped, tears forming in the corners of your eyes from how Minhyuk cried out in agony. You didn't look at how he slumped to the ground, how the same man kicked away his sword before stepping back in line with the others. 

“But I have a proposition for you, little boy!” Jugeom said with a smile, glancing back and nodding his head. Yunho furrowed his eyebrows, hands relaxing at his sides. You peered around his body, feeling dread creep up your spine with what you saw. 

Seonghwa looked horrible, his hair was matted and he had a black eye beginning to form. His clothes were torn and his skin a sickly pale, tripping over himself. He came out first, the other boys soon following, but they didn't look any better. 

This is when you rushed forwards past Yunho, but his arms circled around your waist to keep you further away from the sick man in front of you. Jongho and Wooyoung cried out for you, trying to rush forward and into your arms. Yet, the men that held them pulled them back, causing them to fall onto each other. 

“You’re sick!” You cried out, gut curling with the way Jugeom only smiled at the way you were acting. Yunho quickly put you down, yet pushed you behind him and into Woohyuk’s awaiting arms. You continued to cry out and yell, but they soon died down when Yunho turned and looked at you. 

“Now, if you want the boys, then you give me what i want,” Jugeom stated, nodding towards the boys and then back at you. Yunho cursed under his breath, the last thing he wanted was to give him the compass and the maps leading towards Pans Island. Even if he gave him the items, he would more than likely kill the boys before letting them go, Yunho knew Jugeom way too well. 

“What if you take me instead, they won't be able to find it without me. I’m the only one who desires it the most. Plus, we both know you won't leave unless blood is spilled,” Yunho stated, stepping forward while holding his hands out. You could feel all the air leave your body, you could only hear static after he said that. 

“Are you fucking crazy?!” You yelled out to him, yet Yunho didn't look at you. You could feel the way Woohyuk froze behind you, and how your other crew mates were staring at Yunho like he grew three heads.

“Hm, and whose blood will I shed, eh?” Jugeom questioned, stepping forward and shrugging his shoulders. 

“You already beat the kids, and Minhyun. You’ve burned my ship, and now you’ll get the captain. Yet, once i go with you, you’ll never bother The Aurora again, or i'll kill you in your sleep,” Yunho growled, watching the way Jugeom’s smile turned into a smirk. 

“Yunho, we can figure something out,” Jinhyun said, you hadn't even noticed he was tied to the main mast. Next to him was Eunhyuk, the younger having a cut running down the side of his cheek. Yunho shook his head slightly, sighing through his nose. Jugeom had a sick smile on his face now, his teeth an ugly yellow. 

“Not this time, we’ve been avoiding confrontation for awhile now, haven't we, Jugeom?” Yunho said, his voice was hard. You could feel your energy draining, you couldn't even tell if you were breathing or not. 

“I suppose we can solve it with you coming with me, huh?” Jugeom said, making you look up at him. Even with your vision blurred with tears, you could see how the boys looked petrified, how Wooyoung and San were trying to cling to each other. 

“You let those boys go first, then i'll go,” Yunho stated, watching the way Jugeom sighed and looked at the seven kids. 

Once Jugeom nodded his head, the boys were released. Each one flying past Yunho and into your awaiting arms, Woohyuk let you go slightly to let you grab onto them. You clutched them to you, a sob escaping past your lips when you felt their hands grip at your shirt. You looked back up at Yunho, but already found him looking back at you.  “Please, don't do this,” You said softly. 

Jugeom’s other men slowly began to make their way back onto his ship, their smirks and smiles made Chan’s eyes fill with tears. Minhyun was still losing blood on the main deck, his body looking broken and beaten, the wood underneath beginning to color red. Jinhyun had a hard glare on his face, his hands red from being tied tightly. Changmin was slowly starting to wake up, but was kicked by one of the men that was walking past, causing him to let out a grunt before losing consciousness again. 

“I’m sorry,” you heard him say softly, causing your heart to shatter. You could feel the tears beginning to fall down your cheeks faster, the boys you were holding hid their faces in your shoulder, some being held by Woohyuk’s free arm. “Yunho!” You cried, but he ignored you. Walking forward and coming nose to nose with the other captain. Jugeom smiled, bringing his hand up and patting his shoulder. 

“No! Yunho- please!” You yelled, attempting to free yourself from the smaller boys, but with Woohyuk’s arm around you, you couldn't go anywhere. 

Yunho glanced at you once more, his eyes rimmed with red. Another sob escaping you when you watched him turn around and walk onto the neighboring ship with Jugeom, the thin board connecting the two looked close to breaking from the mean body weight. 

The last man following your Yunho and Jugeom held a gun up, pointing it at you and Woohyuk. Changmin was still knocked out cold, you could hear Chan cry quietly, his arms probably rubbed raw. Jinhyun and Eunhyuk stayed tied to the pillar, tears falling down their faces slowly at hearing your cries. 

“Yunho!” 

----

“(y/n)?” 

There was a knock at the door, the soft voice and knocks breaching through your silent sanctuary. You were curled up in bed, eyes swollen and probably red. The thin blanket was wrapped around your body making you seem like a butterfly in its cocoon. You knew that whoever was on the other side didn't leave, you knew they’d come in anyways, just like everybody else did. 

Yunho has been gone for three days now. 

The yunho shaped wound left by him still stung just as bad as the day he left. Each time you closed your eyes you could still clearly see him walk away, not even giving you a second glance. Why did he have to go? Why couldn’t he just give them the stupid compass? 

“(y/n) I’m coming in, please be dressed,” you heard the voice say again, but you didn't shift your eyes away from the window. The soft blue and pink tones gave off the first glimpses of the new day. The beginning of the fourth day without Yunho there, without Yunho to kiss you goodnight or mess around with Eunhyuk or Minhyun. 

“Good morning, sleepy head,” with the voice clear, you knew it belonged to Chan. Suddenly, you could see how scared he looked when tied up. How his wrists were bleeding when Woohyuk took the ropes away, how his lips trembled with fear of losing his life. He was young, he had never experienced an enemy ship boarding. 

The bed dipped behind you, and you heard Chan sigh. “How’re you feeling?” He said softly, his voice cutting through the air like a thick knife. You didn't say anything, didn't move, just kept breathing. That didn't stop Chan though, he kept talking like you were going to respond. 

“The little ones are doing okay now. Sure, they’re still shaken up, but they’ll manage,” He said, a chuckle following. 

He swallowed, licking his lips. He knew that you weren't going to respond, not after Yunho leaving. He watched the way you broke down, how you cried until your throat was cracking and raw. He was the one who got you to drink and eat his food, though it was difficult at first. You cried for hours on end, he and everybody else was there for you. 

“We need you, (y/n). Y- He may have been captain, but you’re our first mate. We need somebody now,” he started, turning to look down at your form. You still hadn't moved, your breathing still even. It made him wonder if you were asleep, or just ignoring him completely. 

“Minhyun said that once the ship is in working order, we’re heading for him. Seonghwa said that the village’s gone. It was in flames by the time Jugeoms ship left the dock, seonghwa said that they don't have a home to go back to; so we’re going to have to take them with us,” Chan said, his eyebrows furrowing. He listened closely how your breathing stopped for a moment, then how your shoulders began to shake. Small whimpers passing by your lips. 

“Just come out when you’re ready, please, we miss you,” Chan said while standing up quickly, walking to the door and exiting quickly. He shut your door softly behind him and walking back out onto the main deck.

“Any luck?” Minhyun said, Chan responded with a shake of his head. 

Minhyun had been the first to get treated after Woohyuk had untied Chan, after recognizing that his wrists were injured, he ran to Minhyun’s side, evaluating him and yelling at Woohyuk to get a crap ton of bandages from the med room. Currently, he was leaning against the railing right by the wheel, his waist was wrapped with bandages, and his face had been clean and stitched. 

“You know, i might as well become the new damn captain if she isn't-”

“She’s devastated, Minhyun!” Chan yelled, his eyebrows furrowing in anger. The other boys on the deck stopped what they were doing to look up at the two. 

Chan had only raised his voice one other time, and that was when Woohyuk took it too far with him in the kitchen and almost blew the entire ship up. Now here he was again, making Chan yell. 

Minhyun could only stare at Chan with a glare etched onto his face, hazel eyes covered in a mix of pain and anger. Chan couldn't match up to his glare, but his dark brown eyes showed guilt, sorrow, and pain. 

“You need to understand where she's coming from,” Chan seethed through gritted teeth, he clenched his hands (even though he could feel pain pulse form his wrists, wrapped in a layer of gauze). 

Minhyun lost his glare for a moment, looking at him like he was crazy. “I have two broken ribs, a cut eyebrow, and a cut lip. You really think i don’t know where she’s coming from?” 

Chan was then reflecting the look he was given, his eyebrows furrowing and eyes closing for a moment to recollect his thoughts. 

“She practically lost her husband, she actually lost the love of her life to the enemy,” Chan paused for a moment, lowering his voice, “Usually they kick ass together, but i think seeing us all hurt and unavailable made him recall his shots, and i guess she thought the same after seeing all the kids she practically calls-” Chan stopped himself, knowing that he was starting to rant off. Minhyun sighed and brought his hand up, rubbing at his jawline where it didn't hurt. 

“Calls her own, i know.” Minhyun said softly, his hand falling down to his side. He glanced off to the side, looking down at the kids, one or two of them being tended to by the remaining crew on board. 

“They all talk about her like she’s their mom, or older sister. They’re really worried” Minhyun said softly, looking back at Chan. 

The two of them stood in silence for a moment, listening to San’s small giggles at Changmin. Even though they were all hurt, emotionally and physically, they pulled through in the last four days. The sun was beginning to peak over the horizon now, the blue hues turning into beautiful golden rays. Tonight was the first night everybody stayed awake, all telling stories to take their minds off of the chaos around them. 

Eunhyuk had found that the map room was ransacked, they took the maps leading to the Island. He was devastated, even almost started crying if it wasn't for Yeosang who came up and held his hand for comfort. Minhyun was trying his best to keep everybody together, from the maps to the compass, he really was trying. He talked to the boys a little bit, learning about each one. Jongho was his current favorite, but don't tell Wooyoung that. 

“She’ll come around, she just needs time,” Chan was quiet when he spoke, but Minhyun was able to hear him. The amount of comfort in Chan's voice made his stress levels decrease just a bit. 

--

The next following days had some, peculiar progress. You had managed to come out of your room, a frown was still etched onto your face, but the Seonghwa and Wooyoung managed to make a smile crack onto your features. 

The ship had managed to get back into shape, and was now at sea. The mask was ripped in a few places, and the flag that bared the ships insignia was still burned on the edges. You managed to take over as captain of the Aurora, but you let Jinhyun and Minhyun do most of the heavy lifting. There was still a dark shadow over your heart, the events of that day still haunting your every waking moment. 

The boys had found home on the ship, the makeshift bunk beds on the lower deck was more than enough. They were read to before bed, Eunhyuk did that. He would read them some of his books he used to study English literature with; he would read the books when the sky was clear, and when the seas would rock the boat slightly to give off the illusion of the rocking chair his mother used when he was a baby. 

Chan went back to cooking, his mind getting lost in the various ingredients and combinations of different flavors. Hongjoong would help with the cooking, but he was in charge of watching the water and telling Chan when it was boiling. Mingi also helped, his job was to mix all of the chopped vegetables together in one large bowl. Jinhyun went back to barking out orders to everybody, and Changmin went back to the lower parts of the ship where he and Woohyuk played poker every moment. The two brothers were inseparable, Woohyuk would always win the games, making Changmin yell so loud everybody on board would be able to hear him. 

Although, with Yunho gone, there was a constant shadow. Not just over your heart, but over everybody's. Eunhyuk was trying his best to find out where they might have gone with the remaining maps that were left, and he once said he was close to a theory on where they could be. 

That was where you were currently heading, off to a nearby village that was fairly small, but made profit off of their large fishing market. Eunhyuk said that when he got a glance at the ship before they boarded, they looked to be low on materials. You jumped onto the idea quickly, telling him to take the Aurora there as soon as possible so they wouldn't miss them. 

It had already been a week, you knew that if you were lucky they would still be there. It was a long shot, but you were willing to bet Yunho made them stay for a dumb reason. 

You were sitting next to Seonghwa, his hands had gotten dirtier over the days helping Woohyuk and Changmin clean spilled gunpowder from the lower decks. You were leaning against the railing, elbows perched on it. Seonghwa was more daring, sitting directly on top with his legs dangling over the edge. You had yelped in fright when seeing him jump up onto the railing, instructing him to hang onto the rope that connected to the main mast next to him. Stating that if he were to fall, he would be able to hang on until you saved him. 

Your eyes were closed, listening to the waves crash against the side. You imagined for a moment, that Yunho would come up behind you and wrap his arms around your waist while peppering kisses down your neck. 

“I really like it here,” Seonghwa said, causing you to turn your head slightly to look at him, cracking one of your eyes open. Smiling softly, you hummed. 

“Everybody's really nice, and everybody likes it here too,” he said again. By everybody, you guess he meant the other boys. You knew they did, from the way they all ran around and had fun. To the way their laughter filled the empty parts of the ship, and how they brought the bright aura back. Almost chasing away the lingering sadness, almost. 

“I’m glad,” you said softly, turning back and closing your eyes. Drinking in the sun and hearing the birds sing above you. The little boy next to you was silent though, but you knew his mind must have been working a million miles a minute. 

“Do you think I belong here?” you suddenly heard seonghwa ask, you opened your eyes and turned to him. He pursed his lips and looked at you creepily. 

“Hm,” You hummed, furrowing your eyebrows. Seonghwa sucked in a breath, holding a hand up to you. 

“It’s just that- well- after what happened to my village I- we,” he paused, eyes brimming red for a second, “We don't have anywhere we belong,” he stated, his voice breaking off at the end. 

“Well, nobody really belongs anywhere,” you began, watching the way his eyes snapped to meet yours, “we all choose where we want to be, we all choose our path in life. I think that wherever you want to be the most is where you belong. Whether that belongs with us, or with a family in a village,” you said, thinking of your Yunho. 

He had said those same words to you once, when you were both young and stupid. He had taken to the back of the ship, kissed you senseless and made you breathless. Whispering how much he loved you, how much he wanted to run away with you and get married. How he wanted to get your own ship, name it after you and let you run it all by yourself, a woman captain. You had asked him suddenly ‘where do i belong then, with you or the ship?’ 

Even though you said it in a teasing way, he only smiled at you, pulled you closer and kissed your nose briefly. Telling you that only you could decide where you belong. 

From that moment on, you only wanted to belong to him. To grow older with him and marry him, but now he wasn't here, and you felt so lost without him. 

“Then i wanna stay with you and the captain,” seonghwa said suddenly, causing you to look at him in shock. He smiled at you, teeth a bright white, eyes a cute crescent moon. You smiled back at him, leaning over and pulling him into your side for a small hug. You paused for a moment, looking over at the horizon with teary eyes. 

“Yunho,” You said, it was the first time you uttered his name since the day he left. It felt like heaven leaving your lips again, but it hurt all the same that it wasn't Yunho himself you were saying it to. 

“What?” seonghwa questioned, looking up and raising his eyebrows at you. Laughing for a moment, you licked your lips, a sad smile taking over your face. 

“The Captain, his name is Yunho,” you said softly, tears quickly blurring your vision. You blinked a few times, successfully making them disappear. 

“I never really knew the captain,” he said in a hushed voice, lips forming a small line. You looked back out towards the sea, the sun's reflection making it seem like there were a thousand diamonds floating on top. 

“Can you tell me about him?” He said again. His voice was hesitant, as if he was scared to ask you. 

You only smiled at him, bringing your hand up and brushing his black hair out of his eyes. “When we get him back, you’ll be able to talk to him all you’d like with the others,” You said. Leaning your weight on one foot, crossing the other one over. You hand went back down to support your body weight against the railing, and you were sure there would be wood indents on the bottom of your arms. 

“You’re going to let the others stay too?” Seonghwa said excitedly, a smile creeping onto his cherub face. 

You nodded, “of course, i love all of you guys, how could i not want you all to stay?” he couldn't help the smile that fully took over, looking at you like you blessed the world with candy before looking back out to the open water. 

Glancing behind you, you noticed Chan coming out of the door that led to the kitchen. He looked towards you and smiled, raising his hand and waving. He then turned and rushed up the stairs, going towards the bell and grabbing the short robe connecting to the pendulum inside. Covering the ear closest, he began to swing it widely, the high pitched ringing breaking the calmness the ship possessed before. Seonghwa jumped, eyes wide with shock from the sound. You laughed, pushing yourself away from the railing and grabbing his hand to help him off. 

“Let’s head to eat, I'm sure you're starving.”

---

With the sun just peaking over the horizon, blue water painted a gold. You saw the village, the small homes dark and the streets empty. The sight of Jugeom’s worn ship made your stomach twist, the thought of Yunho on board making you sick to your stomach. You were standing beside Eunhyuk, his hands gripping the wheel so tight his knuckles were turning white. Changmin was sitting with Minhyun not too far away, and you turned to them slightly. 

“We need swords, guns, and ammo. Make it happen before we anchor down,” You said, eyes narrowing when looking back up. Changmin nodded before shooting up and running to the lower decks as quiet as he possibly could

You managed to make it to the village unseen, the familiar sight of Jugeom’s boat caught you off guard since you thought he would have made a break for the island by now. You told Eunhyuk to anchor the boat further away from the docks so you wouldn't be seen, and you left Chan to watch over the six boys. Although they were sleeping currently, you knew that wouldn't last long. 

You quickly turned and rushed back to your room, slipping on your jacket and switching out your deck boots for the thicker boots you use when you go into any type of battle. The compass Yunho gave you was sitting peacefully on your desk, untouched since you took it off the day you stumbled into your room and sobbing mess. Looking beside it, you saw Yunho’s favorite ring. He wore it when he knew he would be fighting a battle that was going to be difficult to win, just like you were now. The band was thick and silver, while the diamond placed in the middle was a beautiful blue, there were engravings on the side, and even a few smaller diamonds placed throughout. You smiled softly, sliding the ring onto your thumb. Reaching over and grabbing your glove. 

While Yunho often held a sword with his left hand, you held it with your right. He said it felt more natural that way, but you still called him weird. One day a year or two ago, he brought home a pair of gloves, one being bigger than the other. He stated that the leather will help with gripping the sword better, and he thought that it’d be cool for the two of you to be matching while kicking ass. So your right hand now adorned a glove, while the left held a gun. 

“Are you sure about this?” Minhyun asked while you walked out of your room, you nodded your head. The only sounds in the hallway was the clicking of your boots. 

“We’re getting him back, not tomorrow, not the next day, today.” You seethed, wanting to get yunho back as soon as possible. You knew Minhyun was worried, after all, he wasn't able to go with you. It would just be you, Changmin, and Eunhyuk. 

“It’s dangerous, (y/n),” Minhyun said, voice hard. You glared at him, seeing Changmin holding guns and swords in his arms. 

“Yunho would do the same for any of us,”

“But Yunho would want everybody to be safe-”

“All i want to do is slip in and out- even though i really want to kill the son of a bitch, i won't. Right now, my main priority is getting Yunho,” you said harshly, not feeling sorry for how Minhyun flinched. 

The three of you made your way off the ship, stopping to give Minhyun a quick hug. The sword on your hip tapped against your thigh as you walked, and the pistol strapped against your thigh itched to be used. Eunhyuk and Changmin walked closely behind you, their feet in time with yours. 

As you got closer to the small town, you took in how pretty it actually was. The houses were different colors of an off white, light blue, brown, and even some soft pink. All having the same brown details, white curtains hanging on the inside to bring out the windows. The roofs a dark brown, sloped towards the sky. The streets were paved with stones, flowers and bushes occupying some corners. 

To ensure that you didn't get caught by any of Jugeom’s crew, you stayed pretty close to the sides of the streets, making sure to quicken your feet as to not alarm anybody who could have just woken up. You stopped for a moment, turning sharply into an alley with the two other boys to talk to them. 

“He has to be at an inn somewhere, any ideas?”

“I saw a town map at the entrance, there's only one,” Eunhyuk said, you sighed in relief for his keen eyes, since you didn't see it. You raised your eyebrows and waved a hand around for a moment, “Well? Where is it?” you said, causing him to let out a quiet “oh,” before looking around a moment, pointing down one of the adjoining roads. 

“It could possibly be down that way, i could be-” You didn't give him time to finish, already making your way out of the alley and to the street. Changmin chuckled softly while slapping his shoulder lightly, rushing over to keep up with you, “wrong.”

The inn was an adorable place, the building a soft pink while the shutters were a pristine white. It shocked you for a moment to think that Jugeom would actually stay there. You noticed two of his men sitting out at a table, the umbrella still up from the previous day. One was a blonde, he was sleeping with his head resting against his arms on the table. The other, a brunette, was sleeping on a chair, his head rolled back uncomfortably. 

Changmin coughed softly to get your attention, “should we kill em?” he said, unsure of what you wanted to do. You shook your head, pursing your lips, “Yunho wouldn't want that, but do it if they are in the way,” you spoke softly, making sure to keep your eyes on the sleeping pair. 

“Damn,” Changmin whispered, you could feel a laugh rise in your throat, having to swallow it down. 

You huffed a breath, crouching down slowly and rushing to the side of the building. There was a window that overlooked the harbor, the curtains open slightly from the inside. You peered inside and saw an empty bedroom, quickly ducking and going to the next. This window was open slightly, the curtains’ edges softly kissing the morning air. Walking closer and peering in, you quickly pulled back once seeing who was inside. Turning around and heading back to where the other two boys were across the street. 

“He’s not over there, and there's no windows on the other side. We’re going to have to go inside,” you said, causing the two boys to nod. Eunhyuk's fingers danced over the hilt of his sword, the gold fading into silver from how much he had to grab it. 

“We’re going to have to sneak by those two idiots, once we make it inside, leave the doors cracked,” as you spoke your voice got lower and lower, pursing your lips once the boys gave you an agreement. 

Turning back around and walking closer to the main double doors, you could hear the soft snores of the men get louder and louder. The main two doors were wooden, you were certain they opened to a large empty area. 

Slowly getting closer, you managed to make it directly next to the brunette before he began to stir, you froze in place, feeling fear creep up your spine, but his head fell to the side, hand coming up to rub at his nose before his movements settled down again. 

You let out a silent sigh of relief, reaching your hands forward and grasping onto the handles, slowly turning them and pushing the doors open slowly, the hinges creaking loudly once or twice before going silent. You stood corrected, the doors opened up to a restaurant type area, a few tables and chairs being draped over with table clothes. There was a podium by the door, probably where a server stood to sea you. There was a hallway to your right and left, probably leading to bedrooms. 

You glanced back at the boys and watched how the doors were left slightly cracked, giving them a nod and heading down the right hallway. It was the hallway that didn't have any windows, you assumed they’d put Yunho here so he wouldn't know where he was. 

Stopping by the first of three doors, you grabbed the knob slowly. Turning it, only to find it locked. You grimace, if they were to keep Yunho here, of course they'd lock him up.

That meant you needed a key, you needed to find Jugeom. 

You had already done that, peering in through the open window that faced the ocean. You had also noticed how he was awake, sitting on his bed while looking down at maps. You leaned your head forward and placed your ear against the door. 

Changmin and Eunhyuk had taken to the two entrances of the hallway, eyes peering out and feet ready turn turn and rush back if one of them saw anybody. 

You couldn't hear anything, not breathing, not rustling, nothing. It was dead silent and you breathed a small sigh of relief that the doors were so thin. Moving onto the middle door, you grabbed hold of the door knob slowly, turning it. You cheered internally when finding it wasn't locked, and pushed the door open softly, the hinges did not creak. 

Walking in, you almost started to cry. Tears welled in your eyes, breath choking. 

On the bed in the far corner, was Yunho. His body curled against the pink tinted sheets, hair matted with blood, hands and feet being tied together, that must have kept him from running. He wasn't wearing a shirt, his body only being covered by the pants and boots he put on so many days ago. There was an oil lamp still lit, giving off just enough light to see around. You brought a hand up to your mouth, keeping in the small whimper. He looked asleep, with his body slowly rising and falling with his breathing. 

Picking up your pace towards him, you brought your hand down to touch his shoulder. His body shooting up, eyes wide with an emotion you couldn't quite decipher. 

He froze when he saw you, and you took that time to give him a proper look over. His jaw was bruised, eyebrow cut along with his lip. Red marking covered his neck, his chest had a large cut across it. From the look of him, it made your stomach clench with dread and breath come out in short spurts. 

When he finally regained himself, he reached as far as he could forward and grabbed onto your shirt, pulling you harshly forward. You did your best not to hurt him as you circled your arms around his shoulders, hugging him as tightly as you could. Tears fell freely down your cheeks, emotions bubbling to the surface quickly. You could feel his tears hit your neck, his hair covering his eyes. 

“I knew you’d come for me,” he whispered, his voice so quiet and broken you almost didn't hear him. You smiled, pulling back to crash your lips against his. His lips were dry, but that didn't stop any of the love he felt for you to be shown through the kiss. You felt his hands grip at your shirt harder, a sigh escaping from both of you. 

You heard a throat clear from behind you, turning harshly and snapping your hand down to your sword. Your eyes met with Changmin’s, his arms up in a surrender. 

“Hey cap,” Changmin whispered, Yunho only nodded his head back, knowing that if he were to try and speak, his throat would be too dry to produce any words. 

Changmin looked to you, “the suns almost fully over the horizon, it's time to go,” he rushed out, turning around and quietly walking down the hallway to tell the same thing to Eunhyuk. 

You turned back to Yunho, taking a step back before unsheathing your sword. He knew what your plan was and held out his hands, pulling them as far apart as his strength would let him. You slipped the tip of the blade between the ropes, stepping to the side for an anchor and using a quick motion to easily cut his hands free. He pushed the now cut rope form his wrists, reaching down and pulling it away from his feet. 

You chose not to sheath your sword, having a bad feeling about trying to leave with Yunho injured as badly as he was. You noticed the bruising on his rib cage when he stood, stomach lined with black and purple splotches. Taking a step forward and wrapping your arm around his waist, he holds onto his stomach with the other. 

“Let's go home, Yun,” you said softly, walking out of the room quietly. Eunhyuk and Changmin were waiting at the end of the hallway, watching with worried eyes and sad smiles at the two of you. 

Your small group began to walk out into the main room, the main doors still cracked just like you left them. The room was starting to brighten with the rising sun, the rays shining through the windows. Getting Yunho back to the ship seemed so close, you just had to pass through the main doors and down a block or two. 

Suddenly, the main door were slammed shut, and a chuckle was heard from behind you. Your stomach dropping as you turned, Changmin and Eunhyuk unsheathing their swords. 

“If you really thought you’d be able to get away that easily, you’d be mistaken,” Jugeom said, three of his men appearing from the shadows. You let go of Yunho, dropping your hand to your side. While your fingers slowly traced your gun, you spoke out, “We knew it wouldn't be easy, yet that didn’t stop us, now did it?” you managed to pull your gun from the holder silently, turning it so the handle brushed against Yunho’s fingers. 

Jugeom kept talking though, his old eyes not being able to detect the transition you just made, “that boy belongs to be now, he gave himself to me,” he seethed, his hand reaching up and unsheathing his sword, his men followed. Eunhyuk and Changmin focused their attention on one crew member each, yet always managed to glance quickly back at you, waiting for your signal. 

“He doesn't belong to anybody but himself,” you growled, rushing forward and lifting your sword. 

Eunhyuk and Changmin took that as the signal, quickly raising their swords and rushing towards a crew member. Yunho stood, gun pointed at the last. His eyes holding a fire of pure rage, finger pressed unhesitatingly against the trigger. The man in front of him widened his eyes, beginning to drop his sword and raise his hands, but it was too late. Yunho pulled the trigger and he let out a painful scream, filling to the floor while holding his shoulder. 

First it was the gunshot, then it was the sound of your sword hitting Jugeom’s. The blades cutting across each other once, before hitting twice. It was almost like a deadly dance, whoever misses a step, death for them. Jugeom’s sword was bigger than yours, but that just meant it was harder to use. While you were quick and nimble, cutting at his arms and body. He was slow and steady, only able to cut at the air around you when you were able to dodge his attack. 

Yunho felt his legs give out then, the lack of food and water taking a toll on his body. His knees hit the floor first, and when he raised his gun back up at the man in front of him, his arm was too tired to take aim and fire. Then, as quick as a bee, Eunhyuk dashed in front of him and slid his sword across the man's chest, his shirt ripping and skin tearing under the blade. He yelled out again, his blood dripping down onto the wooden floors. 

You were still fighting with Jugeom, his actions still going strong. You were becoming tired, getting a few cuts on your arms. You could feel your thighs go numb from having to push your body in different directions to dodge some of his fatal attacks, but he wasn't letting up at all. “You should’ve heard him cry out for you,” Jugeom seethed through gritted teeth. The remark made you chest tighten, your other hand coming up to hold the blade. You tried to stay focused, “shut your damn mouth,” you growled out, anger rising further in your chest at the sight of his damn smile. 

“Oh, and you should've seen the blood,” you glared harshly, kicking your body into full gear. He was now the one to block your attacks, the both of you jumping and pushing tables and chairs around, “his blood was so red too-” That made you snap, a cry reigning from your lips as you kicked your leg up and into his side. 

His body fell into a table then, the top breaking off. His body fell to the ground, white shirt tinted with blood from the cuts littering his body. You could hear Eunhyuk and Changmin behind you, swords meeting. You could also hear the cries form his men, their knees hitting the floor. 

“I could kill you,” you said, fury laced deeply in your words. The sounds from behind you drawing down into small groans and whimpers from Jugeom’s wounded men. 

The man in front of you only smiled, teeth on display. You brought your foot down harshly again, this time the toe of your boot came into contact with his face. Pulling it away, you saw the way his nose was turned the wrong way. How blood quickly spilled from it, his eyes still having that teasing look. 

“Then do it, i won't stop you,” he said. 

You brought your sword up then, but hesitated, remembering that if you killed this man, you’d be a murderer. You had never killed anybody before, you only injured them and left them for the government to let them be arrested. Yet, with the way he took Yunho, how he almost beat him to death, it made your chest fill with rage. 

“You got in the damn way of my happiness, you vermin,” you said, bringing the sword down quickly. The blade impaled into his throat, his hands coming up and gripping around the blade, palms being sliced int he process. His eyes widened, the life slowly beginning to leave them. He choked out, blood spilling from his lips. 

Pulling the blade, you cringed at the blood the dripped off the tip. When you looked back down at Jugeom, his eyes were lifeless, hands limp by his chest. 

“I thought you said no killing,” You heard from behind you, looking towards Changmin, you glared at him. 

“This was different, leave everybody else for the government,” you said, yet when you looked towards the kneeling Yunho you felt all the anger in your chest be replaced with worry. Sheathing your sword quickly and rushing over to him, you helped him up. He groaned at the pain that spread from his stomach, the large cut on his chest being split open from the sudden movements. 

“We need to get back, you’re lucky there was nobody here, but,” Eunhyuk started, coming up to Yunho's other side and taking the gun from his grasp, throwing it to Changmin. He lifted Yunho's arm, draping it over his shoulder, “Chan’s gonna have a field day when we get back,” He finished. 

Yunho smiled, trying to keep up with the quick footsteps as Changmin threw open the door. He lifted the gun in his hands, cocking it quickly and firing two shots in the two waiting crew boys who were asleep this morning. He shot them in the stomach, blood beginning to stain their shirts as they fell to the ground. 

Some women on the streets screamed upon seeing you four rushing down the street, but none of you cared. Yunho did his best to keep up, but his feet slipped a few times, leaving a wince to cross his face from the pain that would bloom in his ankle at the feeling. 

When the boat finally did come back into view, Yunho felt relief. He was finally home, with you and everybody on board. 

“Chan!” You yelled out once you got close enough, seeing the man's head pop out, he did have a smile on his face, but it vanished once seeing the state Yunho was in. He rushed away, coming out a few seconds later with a pillow case type bag filled with all the types of bandages and medical items a doctor would love to have. 

There were a few boys awake, but they were still downstairs in their room. Woohyuk and Minhyun came running right behind Chan, their hand coming up and stabilizing Yunho to the best of their abilities. 

“Take him to the bedroom, i’ll help him the best i can,” Chan managed to get out, you quickly let go of Yunho, letting the other boys take him back into your bedroom. Yunho turned his head to look back at you, lips turning into a small smile before all the boys disappeared into the bedroom. 

---

“(y/n),” You heard Chan call out from behind you, you spun around quickly. He looked tired, eyes lined with red. You glanced down to the boys, you were telling them a story about one of your childhood stories. 

“Can i?” you said softly, with a smile Chan nodded. You took off in a rush towards your bedroom, knowing that Chan would stay and keep the small boys company. Minhyun was leaning against the wall outside of the door, giving you a small smile paired with a nod before opening the door for you. 

It had been a couple hours since you brought Yunho back, the Aurora was back on the open ocean, heading in the direction of the island. You figured that with Yunho around the strange compass he left with you, and the maps, you’ll be able to head straight for the island. 

“Hi baby,” he said, a smile gracing his beautiful face. He was tucked in nicely, his wrists and arms wrapped in bandages. His head had a bandage around it, but his lip was still cut. His jaw was still bruised, but that didn't stop him from smiling beautifully. 

When hearing his voice, his pure voice. Not the one from the room, the one that sounded broken and fearful. You could feel the way your chest swelled with this bright light again, eyes brimming with tears again. It only increased when he reached his palm open. You rushed over to his side, interlacing your hand with his and bringing it to your lips for a kiss. He chuckled at that, pulling you forward and making you crash down on top of him. 

Pulling away from him and lifting yourself up, you finally smiled at him. Even though your vision was blurred with tears, he loved your smile. He reached up, thumb wiping away the falling tears. 

“Welcome home, my love,” you said softly, leaning down and capturing his lips in a chaste kiss. 

“It feels good to be back, but i won't fully be back until i can lead again,” he said, helping you when you began to lean over him so you could lay down beside him. Your fingers were still interlocked. 

“You’ll always be captain, just because you can't yell at people freely, does not change facts,” you said, your voice quiet. He hummed, leaning forward again and kissing you. 

You didn't blame him for wanting to kiss you, you wanted to kiss him just as hard. You wanted nothing more than to lay down and kiss him until your lips were swollen and numb, but he needed rest, you knew he did. He pulled away from you with another sigh, his nose rubbing against yours. 

“We’re heading towards the island, the boys are coming with us-”

“I know, Chan told me,” Yunho said softly, kissing the tip of your nose. 

“You’re alright with it?” You said, slightly shocked that he would just agree so suddenly. He nodded his head, licking his lips. 

“I don't want them to go somewhere they feel like they don't belong, and if i remember correctly, Chan also mentioned something about them wanting to stay. I don't mind, I think it'd be nice having them around-” he paused for a minute, collecting his thoughts while closing his eyes. 

“You don't mind having kids run around?” You said, him nodding in response. 

“I’ve already thought about, you know, our kids running around. I wouldn't mind having them here too,” he said softly, your heart warmed at the mention of your future kids. Yunho only mentioned kids with you once before and that was right before he became captain. 

“And the island?” You said, chest already so full with happiness. 

“It was my goal to get us there,” he said, and you furrowed your eyebrows suddenly. “Now it’s my goal to get everybody there.”

The sun had managed to hit the ocean just right, the reflection caused streaks of light to invade your room. It made Yunho look ethereal, like he was an angel sent down to love and cherish you and everybody around. It almost looked like a scene out of a fairy tale, the light shining into the room, making shadows more prominent, you and yunho curled up together on the bed whispering sweet nothings to each other. The day was spent with just you and him together, occasionally one of the boys would come and talk. Seonghwa stayed the longest, and the way Yunho and him spoke and looked at each other made your heart flutter. Mingi also stayed for a long time, Yunho and him made a connection rather quickly. 

“Hey,” he said suddenly, making you open your eyes and lift your head from his chest. 

It was now sunset, the sun casted beautiful colors into the bedroom. The boys were gone, probably helping Chan make dinner, or help Eunhyuk read maps. Yunho smiled at you, bringing his hand up and running his hand through your hair, stopping to cup your cheek. 

“I love you,” he said softly, and you smiled back at him, reaching your hand up and lacing your fingers together. 

“I love you too,” You replied, the sweet warm feeling returning to your chest. 

Stay Tune for the next one!

Next: On my fingertips (Wooyoung)

ending note: This is my very first story I’ve every done, so im sorry if it isn’t that great, but I’m proud of it no matter what. 

My asks are open 24/7 

[softboywriting]

Haven Port | Chapter Seven| Shawn Mendes

Summary: Shawn and his pack have moved to your tiny town of Haven Port. You’ve never met werewolves other than your dad before and you’re infinitely curious. You may be only half werewolf but you and Shawn have a connection that will send you on a wild romantic journey in this small town you call home. [hybrid reader] [werewolf shawn]

Word Count: 1.8k

|Masterlist In Bio|

Since the founding festival things have been going smoothly. The weather has eased up, the snow is starting to melt. Haven Port is beginning to see the first signs of spring, and with spring comes the ships. Triple the number of ships that you see in the winter months to be more accurate. More boats means more business for the shop.

Tia suggests making the shop a cafe a few weeks after the festival. She knows how to get permits and she is willing to help you run it. The only issue is money. You've got a little bit in savings but you're not too keen on taking out a loan from one of the banks in the city. Tia has savings too and she is willing to go in with you but ultimately it's your call. Making the shop a cafe will be a big undertaking and a huge change from just using and buying dry goods. You're going to think about it and sort out everything that will need to be planned.

It's a Monday morning and you head down to the docks to take Shawn some lunch. He's been working overtime since the weather has gotten nicer. You know he's been putting everything extra into savings but you don't know why. You hope he isn't doing it to help you make the shop into a cafe, you told him you wouldn't accept his help on it and the only reason you'd take Tia's help is because she will be a partner.

The water is choppy, loudly slapping up against the undersides of the old wooden docks as you make your way down the hill and across the port. Shawn works in hangar two, on the far side. You can see dark skies on the horizon, a storm that's churning up the water. Hopefully it stays out there.

You wave to a few of the guys you know as you pass, men your father worked with when you were a kid. Just as you pass dock six you see a group of guys getting off of a boat. Usually this wouldn't catch your eye, people come and go every day, but one guy in particular has your attention. At first glance you thought it was Shawn, but you're not close enough and why would Shawn be on a freshly docked boat? You speed up, trying to catch up with the group before they disperse into the crowds of fisherman and workers near the hangar entrances.  No luck. The guy is lost in the sea of people. Maybe Shawn was just helping them fix something. You turn down the walk way and head for hangar two, if Shawn isn't there one of the guys will know where he went.

Hangar two is packed when you arrive. There is a ship up on risers being worked on and it looks terrible. If this thing sailed into port like this you're shocked they weren't towing it off the bottom of the harbor right now. You look around at the crew, defined by their blue work shirts that say dock crew on the back. There isn't a ton of actual crew but more fisherman than you can count.

"Hey! Cat girl!"

You whip around and glare at the direction the insult came from. You knew forgetting your headwrap was a mistake, especially when the docks are teaming with unfamiliar people. "Get fucked!" You shout and head for the office door at the back.

In the office there are a few of the upper management guys taking a break and you spot Bruce the manager of hangar two.

"Bruce, have you seen Shawn?"

The older man turns and smiles brightly. "Of course! He's on the port side welding a patch on the hull."

"Thanks!"

Bruce motions to the lunch bag you have in hand for Shawn. "No treats for me?"

"No, just for Shawn. Maybe next time? I'll make some cookies."

He laughs boisterously. "I'll hold you to it!"

You shake your head and smile before turning out onto the work floor and heading for the ship. If Shawn is welding that means he was not the guy out on the docks, so whoever you saw earlier was a strange look alike.

Sure enough Shawn is up on the scaffolding welding. You grab a pair of the tinted safety glasses and put them on before looking up to get his attention. "Hey!"

Shawn shuts down his torch and lifts his face guard. "Hey sweetheart. What's up?"

"Lunch." You lift the bag of food up for him. "Come down."

He puts his stuff aside and descends the scaffold carefully. "I was gonna go home for lunch. Bruce is giving me a half day since I've been working so much. He wants me to have some time away."

"Oh, I won't argue. We'd have the house to ourselves for a while."

Shawn wipes his hands on his jeans and tosses his welding gloves aside. "Sign me up." He wraps his arms around you and noses your ears. "It's about time we got some down time together."

"Check out with Bruce and we'll head home."

"Yes ma'am."

___________________

Nearly an hour later and you and Shawn are laid together on the couch at the pack house. You decided to change things up, to give him attention. So you have him laying between your legs and you put your hands in his hair. It's so thick and it feels longer since you first met but maybe it's just because you don't do this often.

"This is nice." Shawn purrs, rubbing his head back against your chest.

You scratch gently with your short nails and he groans, body becoming heavier as he melts into your body. "You like this? You like when I scratch your head?" You flex your fingers and he moans softly.

"I've never had this."

"What? No one has ever played with your hair?"

He shakes his head. "I always do the playing. I guess an alpha is expected to provide."

You snort. "That's some shit." You tug his hair gently and he growls soft and lovingly. "Alphas deserve to get as much as they give.”

Shawn turns over, rolling between your legs to lay with his face on your chest. "You're making me weak."

You giggle softly. "An alpha weak for a hybrid? Wow you must really like me."

"Iloveyou." He mumbles, rubbing his face against your boobs.

"Hmm?"

Shawn pulls back and looks up at you, face red from his groaning and rubbing. "I love you."

You cup his face and he crawls up so he is over you, face close to yours. "Y-you love me?"

He nods. "I've been trying to say it since we met but I've been worried about how you would take it. I know we've discussed the mate situation but saying it out loud is something entirely different."

"I love you too."

He leans in and presses his lips to yours. You giggle and he presses in harder, hands going to your hair. You wrap your arms around his back and grip, making him press down into you. Things get very heated after that, hips rolling desperately into each other and kisses traveling across your jaw to your neck.

Just as you're about to suggest going up to his room there is a knock on the front door. The sudden interruption makes your heart stop and everything feel cold. Shawn pushes up and looks to the door.

"Who is that?" He mumbles, crawling off of you. "Usually the others let me know if they're expecting a package."

You sit up and fix your shirt he had messed up with his hand under it. "Maybe it's someone who's lost."

Shawn pulls open the front door and you peer over the back of the couch. "Shit."

"Who-"

A man steps in and he looks just like Shawn, the spitting image of him like a clone just waltzed out of a lab. You have no doubt this is Shawn and Peter's other brother, Raul. He's got on a beanie and suddenly you realize that he is the guy you saw at the Port. He's the one you thought was Shawn getting off a boat.

"You're hard to find Shawn." Raul says and shrugs his coat off. "I just happened to come across Ryan and Lindsay and they told me where you were."

"What do you need?"

"My family." Raul pulls his beanie off and you let out a soft gasp that gets his attention immediately. He has ears just like yours but they're dark like his hair and much smaller and closer to his head than yours.

"Shawn, you didn't tell me he was like me."

Raul crosses the room and you both stare at each other intently, eyes raking over one another curiously. "She's your mate?"

"Yes, and Raul just didn't come up, I didn't think anything of it." Shawn walks over and stands very close, almost wary of his brother's gaze upon you.

"How?" You ask, looking between the two of them. "You and Peter aren't..." You reach up and run a hand over Shawn's head as if you could have missed them. "How?"

Raul reaches out and touches your ear, fingers gliding up the side delicately and you shiver, not hating the touch but also not entirely comfortable.  

Shawn stiffens up beside you.

"Our parents are an alpha and a hybrid. I got the hybrid and human genetics and the other two didn't. Luck of the draw I guess, it could have been much worse considering we're triplets. You're stunning by the way, I haven't seen many hybrids look as gorgeous as you."

"Thanks?" You step closer to Shawn as he wraps his arm around you and Raul pulls his hand away from your ear.

"Why are you here again?" Shawn asks, changing the subject.

"This." Raul lifts his sweater and reveals a large bandage around his middle. "Hunters tried to kill me in my apartment and I got away but a bullet got me in the side." He drops his shirt. "I figured being with my brother would be safer than being alone."

"Brothers. Peter is here too." Shawn says and Raul's face lights up. "He brought a wolf with him, but the rest of his pack was taken down by hunters as well."

"Everyone?"

"All but Tia, but she found Peter after the fact."

"Shit."

Shawn presses a kiss to your head. "You're welcome to stay, but keep the flirting to a minimum."

Raul grins and winks at you. "Of course I will. I'm just curious, it's been a long time since I saw another hybrid."

"Keep your curiosity to a minimum then." Shawn growls and wraps both arms around you. "Now excuse us, we're having some alone time."

Raul raises his hands and wanders off toward the kitchen. No doubt you and Shawn will just cuddle a while longer and then take a nap. You know Shawn won't take things further with anyone in the house, but that's fine, your mind is elsewhere where now.

____________________

Please send feedback in asks, replies or reblogs. Let me know if you’d like to read more of this story. Thank you so much -A

*****Note: none of my works should be posted anywhere outside of my linked accounts. I do not give permission to repost with or without credit to my accounts. Please notify me of any reposted fics.*****

[sheadre]

The Rogue Cultivator Part 1 (WWX x Reader x LWJ)

Summary: You’re a rogue cultivator who ran away from home because you were accused of a crime you’ve never committed. You find yourself at Burial Mounds and accidentally in the Yiling Patriarch’s bed. What happens?

Warning: mentions of sex, blood and violence

Word count: 2000+

You felt like your feet were about to fall off. You were traveling since months now and you felt exhausted. Your sword was on your side and the small bag you managed to pack was on your back as you climbed the mountain. This place was your last hope of escape. Your brother was trying to catch you because everyone thought you killed his fiancée. The truth was that the woman went suicidal instead of marrying your brother. Rumours said she was already in love with a fisherman’s son by the time your brother noticed her and started courting her. Of course, her family wanted her to marry into your family for the wealth and fame.

You tried to open your eyes again as exhaustion seemed to take over you but was unable to. Your body was so heavy and you felt like your soul was leaving it. The wind caught in your robes and pushed you to the ground before everything went black and unconsciousness took you over.

…

You heard faint rustling from your side. A hard surface was pushing against your back and you smelled the dry grass that filled your pillow. Some happy voices chatting away further from your spot as something wet and cold touched your forehead. You hissed in surprise and tried to sit up but was pushed back by a gentle hand.

“Stay put, please” the female voice added “please” reluctantly. You slowly opened one eye and then the other before you cleared your throat and tried to speak.

“W-where am I?” your voice sounded rough like it wasn’t used in ages.

“You should tell us why are you here in the first place” her voice grew cold and cautious. “You’re the one who was trespassing our territory.”

“I’m-I’m (Last Name) (Courtesy name)” you replied coughing. Your throat was so dry but it was like she knew what you needed. The woman handed you a cup of water, her delicate hands steadying it in yours. When you looked at her a second time, you noticed her lean features, her flawless skin, the deep brown eyes that held concern and cautiousness at the same time. Her lips were pursed as she watched you gulp the water carefully. “I came from Guihai (last name) shi… they’re looking me for something I haven’t done.”

“Oh, really? What are they accusing you with?” a male voice asked. It sounded… cold and hurt. You couldn’t look at the young man because turning your head was almost impossible with how much it hurt by just moving it a bit. You sighed with a pained smile on your lips.

“They think I killed my sister-in-law” you said. You had nothing left to fear for and at this point you considered just letting your brother execute you. You were tired, lost everything in seconds months before… you had no future to hope for.

“Did you?” the guy asked again his voice closer now. You felt resentful energy surrounding you choking you a little. You took a deep breath trying to calm yourself. Your father and mother were murdered by resentful energy… someone’s resentful energy.

“No” your voice was firm as you bit the word out. “I had nothing against her. She was just an unfortunate soul who had to marry my brother.”

“Then what happened to her?” he asked the resentful energy subsiding some. He was standing next to you, you could smell his scent.

“She committed suicide” you replied. “She hated my brother for he took her against her will, forced her into the marriage when she was already about to marry a fisherman. He practically took her from the wedding reception telling people that he had the right as the sect leader.”

You felt disgusted that you shared the same blood with him. How shameless he was to do such a thing! You spit his name out angrily but pain shot through your head making you hiss in pain.

“Aiya!” you grabbed your head and groaned in pain. Hands grabbed at you laying you back down carefully. His hands were large, his fingers slender but his face was what caught your attention. He was handsome… you thought you stopped finding others attractive since your first love rejected you. You thought you would never feel anything after him… but this guy… he was unique. Darkness took you again as you blinked.

…

It took you another day to completely gain consciousness. You felt like yourself again as you stretched and moved carefully on the bed. You looked around for the first time noticing it was a cave, not a room. The guy now sat at a fireplace tinkering with something. He was tall and lean; he was wearing black robes and his hair had a crimson red ribbon in it.

“Have anyone told you that staring at others is rude?” he asked without turning to you.

“Well, if the scenery is pretty, who could blame me?” you asked back jokingly. He straightened up his posture telling you he was not only surprised but flattered making you roll your eyes with a smirk. “Anyway… it is time for me to thank you for taking me in.”

“They’re looking for you” he said suddenly standing up and turning to you. You huffed in annoyance and stood up carefully.

“Then it is time for me to depart” you replied grabbing your sword and small bag.

“You don’t even want to stay? Hide?” his question made you laugh mirthlessly. Where could you hide? There was no place where your brother wouldn’t find you sooner or later. You would die a painful death but you could prevent innocent people getting caught in the middle.

“There’s no place for me to hide” you shook your head. “But what I can do is not letting innocent people get in between me and my brother. I don’t want to be responsible for their deaths.”

It sounded selfish and dismissive but you felt like he knew your motives, knew your true intentions. His brown eyes looked back at you with genuine concern and softness.

“He cannot break in here” his only reply reverberated in the cave. “You shouldn’t take too much burden on your own. Trust me, I know.”

“Then at least tell me your name if we’re going to be living under one roof” you smiled warmly at him.

…

Months passed in peace. You taught the young girls how to embroider clothes and helped Wen Qing out whenever she needed you to. You got along with everyone and helped them as much as you could. Wei Wuxian was tinkering with something which ended up exploding again. You coughed as you approached the cave with your heart in your throat. He managed to wound himself last time which you had to take care of for two weeks. He had no golden core which caused him to be more vulnerable.

“Don’t come inside! Stay out everyone!” his voice was distant.

“Wei Ying!” you cried out as you made your way through the fog coughing hard.

“I’m fine, I’m fine!” he replied coughing and a large black mass bumped into you tumbling both of you to the ground. You groaned as you held onto his black robes. Large hands squeezed your hips making you yelp in surprise and you felt something heavy resting on your chest, between your breasts. When you looked down you immediately went red in the face.

“When did you get so soft, (Last Name) guniang?” his voice rumbled through your stomach as his chest was pressed against it.

“Well… around thirteen or fourteen, girls start to develop certain curves naturally” you said trying to hint at where his face was resting. Wei Wuxian jumped up grinning sheepishly at you making you lift your eyebrows unamused. He helped you up on your feet avoiding your gaze. You waved around in the air with your hand to clear the air as the others ran inside concerned.

Wei Wuxian made everyone see that no one got hurt ushering them out. Meanwhile, you became overwhelmed with a strange feeling. Your pulse elevated, your heart pumping rapidly and your whole body felt hot. What exactly was Wei Wuxian experimenting with? A hand circled around your upper arm drawing your attention to a flushed Wei Wuxian.

“I told you to stay outside” his voice sounded husky. His usually brown eyes looked almost completely black, his lips parted, his nostrils flared. “You should… we should stay separated… the powder…”

“What were you tinkering with?” you asked irritated and nervous. You had a slight recognition of what it could be but you tried to deny those thoughts. Your eyes kept wandering to his plump lips just like his followed yours.

“A potion for the chicken… to ensure the eggs were fertilized” Wei Wuxian averted his gaze as the redness crept up on his neck to his face.

“An aphrodisiac?!” you cried out incredulously. You were trembling by then. You couldn’t deny your attraction to him but ever since you saw him interact with Lan Wangji who visited the Burial Mounds a couple weeks ago, you knew there could never be more than friendship between the two of you. Maybe this way… you could know how it would feel and then it would be easy to deny any feelings saying it was all the aphrodisiac. No… using him was out of the question. Wei Wuxian was your friend, your saviour who kindly took you in and let you stay. No… no… but he looked so enticing standing in front of you. You could smell him… feel his presence.

Suddenly the opening of the cave was closed off by something large drawing your attentions to it. Wen Qing’s voice came from over the barrier.

“We’ll quarantine you guys because there was something fishy with that fog, stay alive please!” your eyes widened. What the actual hell?! You weren’t horses because this was exactly like when horse breeders wanted their horses to have offspring.

“This is the worst idea, Wen Qing! Let us out or let (Last Name) (First Name) out! She needs to be away from me!” Wei Wuxian cried out desperation in his voice. Your heart sank at that. He must know what would happen if the two of you were closed in together for long… and he sounded like he dreaded it.

“Sorry, but we cannot risk getting infections or anything!” Wen Qing replied and you heard everyone quickly fled the scene. Wei Wuxian suddenly whirled around, looking at you with his eyebrows knitted together.

“(Name), please stay away from me… I have no clue what will happen if we…” he gulped as his eyes landed on your chest, his cheek turning pink. He screwed his eyes shut as he turned away and went into the other end of the room where Wen Wing liked to keep herbs. You watched him search the sack hurriedly. “You have to take these, every twelve hours… in case… we… um…”

“End up having sex?” you asked quirking an eyebrow. You were aware of the bright blush covering your cheeks and the tight feeling in your chest. You licked your lips as you watched him straighten up from his crouch and turn to you. You had no idea what came over you as you walked up to him. You took the herbs from his hand and bit out a chunk chewing before swallowing the sour tasting vegetables. His brown eyes flashed with arousal as he watched your Eve’s apple bob. “Is it so horrifying to imagine that happen? Are you disgusted? Are you repulsed by the idea?”

His lips parted at seeing your angry and hurt expression. You turned around to leave him alone as much as you could now that you were locked inside the cave. Thud. Wei Wuxian pulled you back into a hug, your back to his chest.

“I only thought about Lan Zhan like this… but you… you’re different (Name)” he breathed. Your heart throbbed in your chest knowing it was only the aphrodisiac speaking.

“Let me go, Wei Ying” you mumbled as you tried to get out of his hold but he only tightened it.

“The aphrodisiac is not meant to cloud our minds” he said. “It is to strengthen up the already existing.”

Your eyes widened, your hands falling to your sides. His arms loosened around you just to slide down your arms and hold onto your hands. Wei Ying pressed against you, lowering his head into the crook of your neck, his nose brushing your skin. “I dreamt of you before… never thought it would come true…”

Your breath hitched in your throat as his hands left yours and slid up your waist towards your breasts, cupping them through the fabric of your robes. You felt his lips press soft kisses on the skin of your neck. The heat inside your chest rising. “Would you become my wife?” Your breath hitched at his words. Wei Wuxian was the only one spinning in your head ever since you arrived to Burial Mounds. But were you ready to bond yourself to him forever? Were you ready to give everything to him? You turned around catching his gaze with yours and you knew. You were ready, even if he would leave you one day for someone else.

Your lips pressed against his in a soft, unsure kiss which he responded by deepening it and leading you. His hands were all over you, pulling you in, pushing you away, caressing every inch, worshipping you. Your bodies moved in sync on the furs covering the stone he used as bed. His muscles rippled under his porcelain skin as he moved, your pants filling the cave as pleasure took over your minds.

     Months later ~  

You were out of town looking for herbs when they left. When everything turned upside down. When Wei Wuxian went to fight the sects all alone. You arrived back to the Burial Mounds just to find it completely empty. By the time you reached Qishan, the battle already erupted. Bodies laid lifelessly on the ground; the crimson colour of their blood flowed like river. You saw Jiang Wanyin clutching on his sister’s corpse, crying hopelessly. Hanguang-Jun was fighting off attackers, most people didn’t even know who to attack.

It took you quite some time to find Wei Wuxian trying to gain control over the corpses but he was struggling. People just wanted the Stygian Tiger Seal but they had no idea what to do with it. Only knew that it could be powerful. Corpses attacked you too as you tried to make your way to Wei Ying. No one knew who you were or how could a female cultivator be so powerful as you practically cut down zombies without any effort, walking through the battlefield like it was a clearing in the forest. You had to protect your husband and if today was your last day, then you will happily die with him. Your conscience was clear. Your brother was trying to hunt you down with fabricated charges.

“Wei Ying!” you cried out as you saw him standing at the edge of the cliff. As you jumped after him to catch your husband, the memories of your few months together flashed before your eyes. Tears ran down your cheeks as your hand grasped his firmly. You gritted your teeth as you strained to keep him from falling into the abyss.

“A-(Name)” he breathed with a smile that held such sadness, such pain that broke your heart into another million pieces. You felt yourself slowly slide forward because he was always heavier than you. You cried out in pain from the strain but you were ready to fall after him while holding his hand. There was nothing for you to stay. However, a strong hand grabbed both of yours, pulling at them. You could smell the scent of sandalwood under the sweat and blood that filled your nostrils.

“Wei Ying!” Hanguang-Jun tried to pull him up with you but in vain. Jiang Cheng appeared out of nowhere and was about to strike down with his sword when your husband wrenched his hand out of your grip. It was like someone slowed the time down. Tears fell from your eyes as you watched him disappear beneath.

You had no idea how you got out of the battle or how you managed to get back to Burial Mounds. You crawled on your hands and knees into the cave leaving blood stains behind. You knew that you were about to die. Someone managed to stab you even if you only fended off corpses. You leaned your back against the stone bed the one you slept in with him. You heard rustling coming from the entrance but you had no energy to defend yourself.

“Y-you…” you heard the deep voice of Hanguang-Jun making your eyes widen in surprise. You never expected him to come after you.

“Han-Hanguang-Jun…” you spluttered out some blood as you looked up at him. His eyes looked back at you with such intensity you felt like you would burn alive from it.

“Who are you?!” he asked.

“There’s no time… please let me go” you mumbled as darkness took you. But it wasn’t cold as you expected. It was warm and welcoming.

><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><

You sat up gasping for air. You felt the soft fabric of bedding underneath your hands. Warm breeze hit your skin as it passed through the open window. The place was unfamiliar to you as you looked around. Soft footsteps approached, your head turning to see Hanguang-Jun stopping in front of you.

“Now we have time” he said quietly but his tone was firm. You smiled sadly up at him and nodded. Fate had different plans for you.

     End…?  

[fuckyeaharthuriana]

“Cursed” minor spoilers review

This is basically most of the points I talked about when I was at episode 8, plus something extra because I actually finished the series. You can also read my super long spoilers up-to-ep8 opinion here.

GENERAL STORY + THE SHOW

The show is generally enjoyable. While it starts slow, in an attempt to explain what all the characters are, it finally picks up by episode 5, when the characters finally collide in one unique storyline. The scenery is pretty, the world building is vague but not as vague as other shows in some parts (*coff*Merlin BBC): the show has a lot of information about gods (and not the vague “old religion”), even if we still don’t know everything about it, furthermore we know that the “new religion” in the conflict is Christianism and the show uses historical elements (the Church).

I am not usually a fan of religious conflict unless done very well, and I wish the show had focused a bit more on the political aspect of things. We never know how the kingdoms are distributes, how powerful they are, what are the relationships between the various forces and powerful allies/enemies. Where are they? How big is Uther’s kingdom? Did the Pope travel to England?? The mix of historical with fantasy facts, doesn’t work very well when there is not a lot connecting the dots and filling the gaps. Characters move through speed-movement and instant teleportation, and any character can virtually be anywhere at any time (example: when Nimue manages to reach Arthur and the Green Knight during their battle), without showing us how effortless/or full of effort that journey was. This annoys me because it lowers the stakes of what is happening, as, if every character can instant travel then everyone can be instantly saved or ambushed by everyone else. To combat this, the show could have easily started by showing us a map, with the classic exposition voice over that delineates the kingdoms and the power conflicts, and where all the main places are. Or, instead of the plot-transitions, we could have had map movements transitions.

The show doesn’t show

Maybe because of budget, the show ends up not showing a lot of things. We know that the fae have magic, but Nimue is the only one using it, while all the other fae show no sign of magic. Maybe they don’t all have magic? In that case, why are they persecuted? Is it because of their religion? It cannot only be because of the way they look, as many fae are just as humans. The show never explains it, and leaves me wondering if the fae actually have magic and the show didn’t have budget, or if magic is something rare.

Another thing the show doesn’t is... showing. There are some battles that are not shown, and I wanted to talk about a twitter that the Netflix Cursed account recently published, showing how “wow, we are so surprised at knowing who the widow is!!”... the problem is that we cannot be THAT surprised when we don’t know the rules of being a widow: is it a title? what are the limitations? Why is it that being the Widow is a bad thing? Sounds like a great deal to me! Furthermore, the big battle that ends up with the new Widow is never shown, we are simply told that it happened, and we are supposed to be surprised.

The same happens with the Sword. We are told many times how many kings want the Sword but we don’t really know what is the position of the Sword in the world. They never explain if everyone knows about it, if some people do, what people know about it, which ends up making me go “okay”, when I am surprised to say something like “oh wow! THEY have the sword now!”.

The plot

I really enjoyed the idea of the Sword, as I generally love good characters being corrupted (or bad characters getting redemption). I found the rest of the plot (religious war) a bit generic, but I suppose it makes sense to give conflict to the story, but the addition of Uther ended up clashing a bit, for me. I think it was too much (and the tone of his character was all over the place). Regarding the end, it seemed a bit like cheating to me, as it looks like the main political points of the world never changed and are still the same. At least the characters end up with an interesting journey. 

Characters’ arcs

My favorite part of a show are usually the characters, and I enjoyed a lot of Cursed’s arcs. Arthur had, in my opinion, the best character arc, even if his character was introduced so weirdly (it was like the show was afraid of introducing him as a thief/kind of opportunist and cowardly decided to never actually go there), but ends up being quite well defined by both his actions and his past, not to mention that the show actively demonstrates how he could and will be a great leader, and shows us his increasing easy with leadership.

In second place, definitely Morgana, as she started from the most interesting place to end up into what we would expect will be her path of corruption (maybe?). I cannot say much more, because of spoilers, but I can say that even if the show played with the bury your gays trope, I still enjoyed finally having a wlw Morgana on screen (not to mention that the show buries other character’s love interests). She brings the personal conflict of rage and duty to the show!

Uther was also one of my favorite even if it felt like he was a bit unnecessary in the first part of the show. I suppose his character arc will be necessary for the second season, but I wish they had picked one feeling (comedic vs serious) for his scenes. And now that I am talking about Uther, let me add that I found Merlin useless for most of the show. I am not sure what the Fisher was supposed to achieve, why we needed so many Merlin scenes? It felt more like the show wanted to talk about these characters, instead of telling a story about Nimue.

The Green Knight was lovely as well, he had a nice character arc that I really enjoyed, and same for the Weeping Monk, they both starts from one point and ends up completely different by the end of the show so it was excellent.

Now, regarding Nimue, I am not sure what to think. She doesn’t really grow, or at least, I couldn’t tell. She starts from one point (hating her village because she is discriminated) and ends up helping the fae, but the discrimination part is never resolved and never come back again, as she is later readily accepted by all the other faes. So I wasn’t really sure why we needed to see her people hating her at the beginning, if not to add some angst that she didn’t really need. For the rest of the story, she seems a bit taken by the flow. She immediately accepts anything, and doesn’t seem to interested in learning more, she just accepts her fate, accepts her mother’s quest, accepts that she has to do this etc. Sadly, she felt like a necessary bland character, and clearly the story would not progress without her, but she had some good moments when she interacted with Morgana and Kaze.

About the Arthur and Nimue, while I didn’t mind them together that much, I felt like the best of their characters came out when they were interacting with others, and not each others. The show seemed to really want us to see Arthur and Nimue as lovers, and never gave them the chance to interact in anything but love scenes, while, on the other side, we had Nimue showing her leadership skills to Morgana, learning from Kaze, confronting Merlin, and we see Arthur overcoming the Green Knight’s prejudice, showing his valor to the fae, even analyzing some deep character trait with Morgana. 

Arthurian elements

I was very VERY annoyed by the constant switcheroo. A character would get introduced and then would reveal their real arthurian name, and this happened at least five times if not more. Other arthurian elements were mixed in a bag and picked up at random (Bors? the Fisherman if he is the Fisher King? The Green Knight?), which is nothing surprising.

Also I had to actively force myself to forget anything I knew about Arthur’s family to be able to enjoy the show, and someone the show decided that Kay was not necessary at all, instead we have a guy named Charles, because, who cares, right?  

Also, we are told Merlin is so smart, but the show doesn’t show it to us, we just see him telling us that he is smart and old and powerful.

[thecandywrites]

Jewel Of The North Part 2

So in case you missed it Part 1. Again, many thanks to @monstersandmaw​ for sharing the concept of ice orcs with me and letting me run WILD with it. I’m having so much fun with this. 

Ok, so Zara Kingsley, top left, top right- Doug Kizzo and just under him is supposedly “Wolf Eye” which is a brand of whiskey I made up just for this story. Fun fact- there is actually a high end brand of whiskey called “Wolves” and they sell whiskey the way designer limited edition sneaker/tennis shoes are sold ($150 a bottle and you have to “register” to even get on a list before they’ll send you a bottle, *sigh* rich people, but I am not a rich person in real life which would explain why in every fantasy story I write, I can change that about my character) anyway, I didn’t know was even a thing until after I wrote this and as a point of curiosity, I double checked to see if Wolf Eye whiskey was a thing so I didn’t have to worry about copyright (Which is why names are Like That in this story) And that beautiful plate of seafood is what I envisioned a “king’s platter” would look like vs. A fisherman’s stew which is the picture right above the little girl who I’ve chosen to represent Sakura in this story and we have the lovely Taylor in the bottom left. 

Now let’s go shall we? Off to the Arctic Tundra!

Jewel of the North 

Part 2 

You woke up earlier than you thought you would, mostly because you were still in your Great Lakes time zone. So what was 10am to your body, it was 7am there. You crept out of bed and snuck into the bathroom to brush your teeth and your hair and put a bra on under your pajamas and then as quietly as you could, unpacked your gifts for Taylor and her family and arranged everything on the table as you quickly made a pot of coffee and some toast for your pre-breakfast and the smell of coffee was what roused Taylor and Greg at about 8:30.

“Good morning.” You greeted them warmly as they were both still obviously groggy but both happily shuffled over to the coffee pot to drink their coffee.  

“What’s all this?” Greg asked as he looked at his table which was almost overflowing. 

“Presents, Taylor told me to bring seeds.” You answered. 

“Did you...like...clean out a greenhouse?” Greg chuckled as he looked at the sheer amount and variety you brought. 

“Mmm...more like 5 but that’s not important besides I got to a lot of them just as they were closing out for the season so I got a bunch of it for mere pennies on the dollar and it was just a matter of being in the right place at the right time with money in your pocket.” You giggled with a dismissive wave of your hand. “I don’t do anything small or by half.” You shrugged before you handed him a wrapped present. 

“Oof, that’s heavy.” He realized as he took it from you. “You didn’t have to get me anything...oh my gods, you got me Kraken!” He practically squealed when he opened it and pretended to cry as he hugged the gallon jug. 

“My precious.”  He impersonated Gollum as he pet it which cracked you and Taylor up before you handed her- her own gift as she gasped and tried not to squeal too loudly as she unwrapped a bottle of raspberry peach Grand Marnier. “Thank you, thank you, thank you!” She practically bounced in her spot, hugging the jug too before she leaned over and hugged you too. 

“Alcohol is so stinking expensive up here it’s ridiculous, thank you so much for bringing this.” Taylor thanked you. 

“Yes, it’s very generous of you, thank you.” Greg mirrored. 

“You’re welcome.” You beamed. 

“You know, we really shouldn’t keep all these seeds for ourselves. We should gift these at the festival. That way all the clans can benefit from this.” Greg realized. 

“I was thinking the exact same thing, I told her that last night when she told me about them.” Taylor nodded in agreement. 

“You got a box we can put it all in for now?” You asked before Taylor grabbed the biggest box she had and the three of you packed the seeds away before you grabbed your other crate that had all the seasonings in it. 

“There’s more?” Greg laughed. 

“Well yeah, Taylor said the local grocery stores are pretty limited on spices so I brought enough of everything that it should last you until we see each other again.” You shrugged. 

“It’s like you brought a spice store with you.” Taylor swooned as she opened some of them and sniffed them before Greg did the same, both of them grinning at the scents in their noses. 

“French toast for breakfast?” You suggested. 

“Hell yeah,” Greg immediately agreed before you and Taylor began to make breakfast before the scents of breakfast woke the kids up. 

“Good morning guys!” You greeted them cheerfully as they stopped and stared at the stranger in the kitchen. 

“This is Zara, she’s a friend of ours so you can call her Auntie Zara and she’s going to be staying with us for about a week.” Taylor introduced you. 

“And I’m really grateful you guys opened your home up so I could stay with you, so I brought you guys presents.” You told them which made all of them gasp in excitement. 

“So, you must be Katie, the sensible older sister.” You asked as you pulled out the presents that had their names on them. 

“Lovely to make your acquaintance Katie,” you greeted her formally as you handed her the wrapped gift. Because tweens always loved it when you treated them like little adults. 

“And you must be Matthew.” You deduced as you handed Taylor’s son his gift before you got on your knees so you could be eye to eye with the toddler. 

“Is your name Jamie?” You asked as Jamie hid his face behind his mother’s leg as Greg and Taylor laughed at his bashfulness. 

“Do you think you could take this gift from me Jamie?” You asked as you held it out to him before he took it and ran away. 

“You got me a race car!” Matthew exclaimed and promptly high fived you as Katie’s jaw dropped at her present. 

“Your mom said it was ok to give you girl pampering stuff, so there’s a few face masks, some nail polish. Fancy hand lotion, a few bath bombs and stuff.” You explained as you pointed everything out before Katie happily enveloped you in a hug. 

“Thank you so much.” Katie thanked you gratefully. 

“You’re welcome sweetie.” You grinned just as Jaimie squealed in delight at his new toy and came running in and nearly knocked you over giving you a hug which got you to cackle laughing so you were left to sit on the kitchen floor while Jamie hugged you before he left to go play with his toy as Matt was already racing his car around the house before the family finally got to sit down to breakfast as the kids got to know you better by asking questions about you and your family and where you lived as you showed them pictures of your own kids and how you were a widow now and what you did for living and your horses and pets and things as Jamie happily ate his breakfast from your lap and stared at you adoringly and practically inhaled half your breakfast which you didn’t mind one bit.  As long as babies ate well, they should thrive and you remembered how your own son Xander was practically a bottomless pit. 

Then the calls started to come in on Greg’s and Taylor’s cell phones, all asking if you were there yet. 

“Yup, Noah flew her in yesterday.” You heard them both say as their phones then started to blow up from texts. 

“Uh, babe…” Taylor looked at her husband in a meaningful look that bordered on concern because word had spread like wildfire as they showed each other their screens, the same people texting both of them, but mostly Taylor because they were hoping she would give better answers than simple yes or no’s that Greg was giving. Except to his brother Doug, who Greg was giving him just about everything that you were sharing with his kids as Doug was already claiming “dibs” to the others. 

“Want to go out to dinner?” Greg offered. 

“Sure.” You nodded. 

“In town there’s really only a few restaurants, Eska’s which is a mom and pop- grandma’s food in a tavern, the bar- Kesuk’s.” Taylor began to list off. 

“Is it the place that has the ‘kitchen sink nachos’?” You asked. 

“Yes.” Taylor beamed. “And it’s not a “dive bar” but it is very much the local watering hole. Now there is a “dive bar” and that is Goose’s. I wouldn’t go to the bathroom there but we will get takeout from there because they make the best double cheeseburger while White’s has the best wings.” Taylor explained. 

“But Swanson’s has the best steaks, but it’s a bit pricey, it’s right next to Gold Horn’s which is the biggest and nicest fishing and hunting retreat around.” Greg explained. 

“And one of the nicest butcher shops because most of the hunters can’t take all that meat home.” Taylor added. 

“Anyway, the locals around here will go to Swanson’s for weddings, anniversaries, birthdays and stuff, pretty special occasions.” Greg continued before they continued to list off all the places around to eat before you decided on Eska’s because it sounded like the ‘safest’ option and spent the afternoon getting ready while you happily walk Katie through your ‘routine’ of getting ready as you, with Taylor and Greg’s permission helped her get dressed up too and put some simple makeup on her as her new ‘auntie’ and by dinner your nerves were already a little frayed because Taylor told you that you were meeting ‘the family’ meaning not only hers but Greg’s too and you had picked up on the hint of Greg talking about his brother and his accomplishments and such and you gave Taylor a meaningful look to which she looked back apologetically. 

If you were honest, you were used to it. If your friend’s mates had failed trying to flirt with you or whatever, often you were ‘introduced’ to so many brothers, friends and especially brother in laws. 

You got to dinner and the ‘family’ was already there, waiting for the table to get ready while ‘Doug’ was running late getting ready and there had to be 20 people there, all of them there to meet which you didn’t mind as you did your best to meet and greet everyone before the table was ready and Taylor had you sit at the end of the table as Greg and Taylor made sure that the seat across from you was Doug’s seat and you asked Katie to sit next to you so you wouldn’t be all alone since there was an empty seat next to Doug’s seat because he liked to “stretch out” as you met Greg’s parents and Taylor’s parents and got got catch up because Glenda, Taylor’s mom had missed your mom and to see pictures of your mom on her horse with your kids made them all happy as they got to know you a little as you kept an eye on the door, waiting for ‘Doug’ before an older woman came in with the cutest little girl you had ever seen in your life then a familiar face came in behind them. 

Noah. 

You instantly blew out a breath of relief at seeing him before a relieved and happy smile plastered itself on your face and you noticed they were walking by you and Noah seemed to see you shortly after you saw him as he soon mirrored your smile as he seemed equally excited to see you. 

“Hey Stranger.” You greeted. 

“Hey, fancy meeting you here, this is my daughter Sakura, this is my mom, Summer.” He introduced. 

“But you can call me Nana Hun.” She warmly smiled at you as you shook her hand. 

“Lovely to meet you Nana, and it’s so lovely to meet you Miss Sakura.” You excitedly greeted them as you crouched down to take a knee so you could be eye level with Sakura, she couldn't be much older than 5 and your heart ached at the thought of her losing her mom so, so young and how hard that must have been for her but you didn't want to bring it up because you didn't want that to be upsetting. 

“You should be really proud of your Daddy, he did such a great job flying me here yesterday.” You praised to Sakura.  

“He’s the best pilot ever!” She agreed which got you and Summer to laugh as Noah chuckled bashfully at the praise. Goodness was she precious. 

“I agree!” You confirmed with a very exaggerated head nod. 

“So you’re Paradise?” She asked in awed wonder as she stared at you. 

“Uh...oh, are you talking about how I look like a paradise orc?” You asked as you ran your hand over your skin of your exposed arm and she nodded before you nodded in confirmation. 

“My Grandma’s tea leaves told her that my daddy would be meeting Paradise yesterday.” She proudly informed you as you could see Noah turn a deep sapphire as his smile turned slightly nervous as he gave his mother the side eye. 

“Your Grandma reads tea leaves? Mine does too! Only the way my Grandma does it, I think she reads them wrong because they tell her things like my son was ‘a ball’, which, to be honest when I was pregnant with him, I looked like I swallowed a ball and when he was six months old he was almost as wide as he was tall and very, very round because he was a fantastic eater and he’s still practically a bottomless pit but he’s turned out pretty normal so far, he doesn’t ‘bounce’ too much.” You shrugged with an easy grin which got Sakura to giggle at the joke which got you to laugh as Noah and Summer chuckled too. 

“But that was really cool that your Grandma’s tea leaves told her that I was coming,” You nodded solemnly. “Did they tell her anything else?” You whispered as you leaned forward as she smiled and giggled and nodded. 

“Can you tell me?” You asked hopefully as she looked up to Nana for permission before Nana nodded her permission as well- completely ignoring Noah who looked particularly terrified at the notion and was shaking his head subtly to his mother and his daughter ‘no’ but it was like they couldn’t see him before she came up and put her hands over your ear. 

“They said that you were the best mom ever.” Sakura whispered and your heart melted and you almost wanted to cry. 

“Well I try, really hard, every day- to be the best one I can be so that’s true.” You confirmed. “And you know what? I tend to adopt every kid that’s around me, so if you see me and if you need or want anything at all, you just let me know ok? And I’m not offering that just to be nice, I mean it. I don’t offer anything unless I’m prepared to be taken up on it. I’m only here for like a week and a half but while I’m here if I’m needed somewhere to either help your dad on the plane or help watch you, I’ll happily do it ok?” You generously offered because you just instantly adored this child and could tell she was just a sweetheart and you just...loved her. The way your love surged for your children when you got to hold them for the first time, that same love was surging for her. Something about her found every heart string you had and pulled on them and made them into a bow and you would happily wrap yourself around her little delicate fingers as you just stayed there smiling at each other before Doug cleared his throat which made you turn your head away to see Greg next to what you assumed was his brother who was dressed really nicely as they both smiled expectantly at you. 

“Hi, be with you in a minute.” You greeted them with a polite smile before you turned back to Sakura. 

“Now, you go enjoy your dinner ok Sakura?” You urged her before she launched herself into your arms before you gladly caught her and hugged her, grateful you had taken a knee so you weren’t knocked backwards. 

“How did you know I loved hugs?” You cooed as you hugged her tight and rubbed her back and just held her until she let go first because you knew that some kids just needed a good long hug and you didn’t care if you were making Greg and Doug and everyone else wait, all that mattered was Sakura and the poor baby just needed a hug. 

When Sakura finally pulled away she was smiling and her eyes were just a little glassy from unshed tears before you reached into your purse and got her a tissue and your business card. 

“This is my cell phone number. You call this, and if I’m working when you call, just leave a message and I’ll call you back as fast as I can and if I’m not working when you call, I’ll pick up ok? I’ll always pick up.” You offered and it only felt odd as an afterthought that you just met this child and you were kicked so hard and so high into mom gear that you would already go to the moon and back and bend over backwards for her but it felt like the right thing to do and the best thing you could do for her. 

“Thank you.” She thanked you graciously. 

“You’re welcome Sweetheart.” You cooed to her as you squeezed her little hands in yours before you reluctantly let them go because Greg cleared his throat again before Noah took the hint and ushered his family to sit in the booth directly behind where you would be sitting. Which was nice that they were so close as you stood to your full height. 

“Thank you so much for your patience. I’m Zara Kingsley, the LMT from the Great Lakes.” You introduced yourself to the man who had a familial resemblance to Greg as you politely shook his hand from across the table. He was handsome, that usual olive green skin, gold amber eyes, jet black hair, he was obviously younger by the way he styled his hair and his hipster- black t-shirt, black blazer, skinny jean look and the way he proudly carried himself, his chest puffed out all proud, like a peacock showing off his plumage. You could tell he knew he was one of the most handsome men in the room and his ego was too big for the place. You knew from Greg that he was practically a decade younger than you too. His ex wife had been one of the prettiest women in the Arctic Tundra but they divorced after five years and two kids because they both were having affairs. 

“Does every kid treat you like a visiting Disney Princess?” He asked pleasantly which got you to chuckle. 

“Yes, very much so, which I don’t mind at all.” You shrugged. 

“Well it’s understandable, with a name like Kingsley, it’s kind of a given you should be treated like royalty everywhere you go.” Doug flattered and you heard Noah cough a ‘damn’ behind you like he had just gotten hit in the gut and even you had to admit that was a pretty smooth line. Although it wasn’t the first time you heard that. 

“Thanks,” you nodded. Oh gods. This was going to be the longest dinner ever. He was just going to spit game at you all night and you just wanted to turn around and invite yourself to dinner with Sakura and her family as you slipped back into your seat because you were not about wait for Doug here to come around the table to pull out your chair because you were pretty sure he’d try to sneak a peek into your cleavage as he would try to too. The game was on and you were in no mood to be chased by Doug. 

Noah though, no he could chase you like the silver fox he was because he was just barely getting a few gray hairs on the sides of his head  and it made him all kinds of distinguished and made you all hot and bothered and you could already fantasize his head between your legs, with your thighs resting on his broad shoulders- your powerful thighs clamping around his ears as his tongue…

Oh, that’s right, Doug was talking to you. Damn it. 

“I’m sorry what was that?” You asked as you tried hard to refocus on Doug and what he was saying, thankfully the restaurant had gotten louder since Doug sat down directly across from you and started talking and it was kind of hard to hear him anyway. 

“I asked how you’re liking the Frozen Tundra.” He repeated. 

“Oh it’s wonderful. It’s gorgeous and the people are lovely, very kind and generous and welcoming.” You grinned politely as the waitress came over. 

“What can I get you to drink?” She asked you. 

“Anything sweet and fruity?” You asked hopefully. 

“Lethal too or just light?” She questioned. 

“Ooh, lethal.” You couldn’t help but giggle because you would need it to persevere Doug’s advances as Doug started to grin a little wolfishly. Ha! Like he had a chance of scoring with you tonight. 

“For sweet and fruity and lethal you have two choices, cloud berry punch or purple peach punch.” 

“Purple peach.” You ordered. 

“Half or full?” She asked. 

“What’s the difference?” You asked curiously. 

“A half is served in a tumbler. A full is served in a mason jar and has an order limit of three.” She answered. 

“Oh yeah, my kind of drink, a full please and thank you.” You ordered gleefully. 

“Do you want your usual Doug?” She asked moving onto him. 

“Actually could I get a glass of Wolf Eye?” He asked and you nearly snorted a laugh and covered it up with a cough. May the gods grant you patience to deal with this pretentious asshole. While Wolf Eye was a decent whiskey, it was only popular because celebrities thought it was awesome and the bottle was *couture*. Just like any other designer name brand. 

“Do you like whisky?” He asked. 

“I do.” You nodded. 

“Could I also get her a glass too?” He asked. 

“Sure.” She nodded before she got everyone else’s drink order. 

“Wolf Eye is one of the better whiskies.” You appraised. 

“Have you ever had it before?” He asked. 

“Yes I have. My sister Blossom is a whiskey geek/ whiskey snob, my sister Blossom’s husband is a whiskey geek/snob too and my own parents and my brother are all beer snobs while my baby sister Anya is a bartender and she gave me a shot of it once. Usually it’s too rich for my blood to order it though.” You confessed. Even though you had three bottles of it at home from your wealthier clients. 

“What about you? Is there any kind of alcohol you’re really into?” He asked.

“It doesn’t really compare to Wolf Eye.” You answered as you realized you probably looked bashful, when really, you were dreading being judged. 

Every guy- without fail who got you a glass of Wolf Eye were trying to show you how fancy and couture they were- thinking that because you were jewel orc- you somehow should have very refined, expensive tastes. When in reality, you didn’t. Honestly once those guys heard what you loved- they thought less of you. Or the guys who found out what you liked and weren’t pretentious assholes somehow felt that because you didn’t have “refined” tastes in wine or other booze, that that spilled over into your taste of men which couldn’t be farther from the truth. You were picky as hell when it came to men. 

Although if you were honest, you loved your clichés- the bubble gum pop music, sweet fruity wine and cocktails and peppermint mochas and sappy romance novels and romantic comedy movies and you would preferably have all of those at the same time while in the comfort of a bathtub with a bath bomb fizzing away. But that was a world away from this. 

“Oh don’t feel bad, you like what you like.” He reassured you but you laughed that laugh that said ‘oh you don’t know what you’re really asking’. 

“No I insist, I promise not to judge you based on your answer.” He vowed and you didn’t believe him one bit. 

“Ok. So, honestly, in my family- food wise, I’m the queen because I love to cook and I cook really well and my brand of hospitality is you are not allowed to leave my house hungry but drink wise, I’m like the black sheep of the family because I love flavored alcohol, the kind of liquor that’s low on the proof and mostly flavoring, so flavored moonshines and flavored rums and vodkas and especially liqueurs and things like that. The cheap ones that you just pour into some juice and it’s instantly a fruity cocktail. That’s my speed. Sweet and fruity.” You shrugged as the waitress came back and gave you your drinks as you graciously took the glass that had whiskey in it and sniffed it and swished it around the way your sisters always did before you took a tentative sip. 

Yup. It was whiskey. Could you tell the difference between a scotch, a whiskey or a bourbon? Nope. Could you tell the difference between a $20 bottle of whiskey or a $70 whiskey, hell to the nope. The only thing you noticed was if it burned or was smooth or not. You knew that all scotches were whiskeys but not all whiskeys were scotches and that was the extent of your knowledge. Honestly if this glass was full of peach whiskey you’d probably like it better. But you knew how to be a gracious recipient of a gift. And you had your manners to keep. 

“Very good.” You praised, pretending you knew what the fuck you were drinking as he took a sip and practically moaned and for some reason, that noise coming from him was making you want to gag and one look at Katie who frowned at him was nearly causing you to burst into laughter. Even she could smell his bullshit, which to you was hilarious and part of the reason you wanted her close. Having someone like a niece or a sister or the best ones - a mother or a grandmother, or someone close to whoever you were paired with tended to keep whoever it was- in line- and would keep them from asking inappropriate questions or delving into inappropriate topics of conversation. It was a strategy you learned to employ often in these circumstances. 

“So Greg told me that you’re divorced.” You put to him. 

“I am divorced and I have two kids, two boys, Doug Jr. who we just call Jr. and Kent, Jr is 5 and Kent is three.” He answered. 

“Aw, they must be adorable, where are they?” You asked. 

“They’re with their mom tonight.” He answered. 

“Oh, well I would have loved to meet them, I love kids, I also have two of my own, Xander and Skylar, but they’re a bit older, Xander is 9 and Skylar is 7.” You answered before you pulled out your phone and showed him as he showed you his kids. 

“And Greg said you have joint custody of your boys?” You asked. 

“Yup, they get to spend the week with their mom and the weekend with me.” He answered. “And their mother is about to remarry so the bitch won’t bleed me dry with alimony and child support for too much longer now.” He groused and you took a measured deep breath in to keep your face neutral as you heard Summer murmur into her drink. ‘Lucky woman’ and somehow you got the distinct impression that his ex-wife was lucky to have divorced him and to have gotten alimony and child support and just seeing Doug and after knowing him for a whole 2 seconds- you could agree with that sentiment. You could just sense that he was a narcissistic asshole. And your late husband had been one of those and there was no way in hell you were ever doing that again. 

“But I understand you don’t have that problem because you’re a widow. Obviously a young one.” He returned as you could tell he was trying to age you. 

“Yup, that’s true, my late husband Andrew was in an accident at work about two years ago, but I’m not that young. I’m 35.” You answered and he paused. Greg had told him early thirties, you were mid thirties. You looked great for mid thirties but that was practically middle aged and you only had what- another 5 years of child bearing age left in you? Not that long. But you were supposed to be a rich widow who worked in some kind of spa and had married into a rich family and drop dead gorgeous, he could work with that. 

“Wow you really good for your thirties. How long have you been dating since then?” He asked. 

“I haven’t really been dating much or for very long, just in the last couple of months actually. I wanted to give myself and the rest of my family time to grieve properly and not rush into anything that not only I wasn’t ready for but that my kids weren’t ready for and it wasn’t until a couple of months ago that they let me know that they were ok with me trying to date again because they are the most important people in my life and I’m really picky about who I let around my kids too. So I can understand why you didn’t want to bring your kids to meet me.” You answered as Greg was kicking himself for not bringing his kids because obviously you connected to kids and if his kids would behave long enough and well enough you could have bonded to his kids and made him a shoe in and this could have been a done deal already. 

“So, Greg told me that you work in the fishing industry.” You prompted him. 

“I do, I’m a sales executive for First Star, which ships all kinds of seafood all over the world.” He answered proudly. “And the pay is really good and there’s always sales incentives and I get bonuses often.” He grinned smugly as he fingered his heavy gold chain necklace around his neck and he put on way too much cologne. It was almost burning your nose and making your eyes water a little.  

“Wow, do you have a business card?” You nodded, pretending to be impressed before he very proudly pulled out his wallet and you could see from his billfold that he must have had at least a thousand dollars on him. He was flexing for your benefit and judging by his gold rings and gold banded tusks and just the general decked out nature of his attire. He was definitely showing off for you as he handed you a brand new business card. It was fancy but...not as fancy or as nice as yours. 

“Very nice. Remind me to call you before I leave so I can buy a case or two of crab and ship it home and have my mom put it in my deep freeze freezer.” You urged him. 

“Oh, you won’t have to buy them, I’ll happily gift you whatever you want.” He generously offered. 

“Aw, that’s very generous of you. Thank you.” You thanked him even though the way he said that you were pretty sure he had another "payment" in mind but this was polite company and Katie was right next to you and you didn't want to expose her to what you assumed was that particular side of her uncle just yet but if he exposed himself that was on him. 

“So being a sales rep does your income base itself on how good the fishermen’s catches are or is it pretty stable, like no matter what they catch, you’re bringing home a salary?” You questioned thoughtfully. 

“Oh it’s a salaried position and it’s all year long, unlike the fisherman who only run on the boats for a fishing season, like the different kinds of crab have their seasons and the different kinds of seafood all have their own seasons.” He answered. “Or even the pilots who only fly during the spring summer and fall, which is only like a three month window up here and have to live off of that all year long.” He answered as he cast a look past you to see Noah who was pretending to enjoy his own beer instead of eavesdropping. 

Oh this son of a bitch had to go for the low blow of putting others down to build himself up. Ok. Honestly you were grateful he was telling on himself like that. 

“So are we ready to order?” The waitress asked as she came over, after having gotten Noah’s order already and you were following along with the menu and you already decided that you wanted the same thing because it sounded amazing. 

“Yes can I have the King’s platter?” Doug ordered. 

“It’s a huge platter, we could share it.” Doug offered to you. 

“Oh, no thanks, can I just get the fisherman’s special with the seafood stew?” You requested sweetly. 

“Sure thing.” She nodded as she wrote that down and continued to get everyone’s meal. 

“So I understand you’re a masseuse?” He asked excitedly once the waitress left. 

“No. I’m a licensed massage therapist, LMT for short.” You gently corrected. 

“What’s the difference?” He frowned. 

“A masseuse uses “massage” as their cover for being a prostitute, which honestly if you’re going to be in the oldest profession, just be honest about it and don’t call it massage. Which, again, if you chose to do that,  I don’t judge, I have strippers as clients because they take self care to a whole new level and everything they get from me is a tax write off for them so it’s a win win. However, a licensed massage therapist actually went to massage school and has a license to practice massage just like a doctor has a license to practice medicine and we are held accountable to a board or in my case- to the state medical board just like any other nurse and doctor and an LMT never gives happy endings or has sex with clients in any way shape or form.” You answered with a proud smile. 

“Oh,” Doug nodded and even you could see he was trying to hide his disappointment. 

“So, are you able to make any kind of real money off of massage or is this just a hobby for you?” He asked and you were ready to dump this overpriced whiskey in his face, but that would be alcohol abuse and an insult to the whiskey itself. 

“Well massage has been a passion of mine since I was a kid, so you could call it a hobby that turned into a career. But I’m more interested in what constitutes as “real money” in your opinion.” You posed curiously. 

“Anything more than forty or fifty thousand a year.” He patronized. 

“I take it you make more than 50 thousand a year then.” You deduced as you overheard Noah whisper to his mother. ‘I barely make ‘real money’ then.’ 

“Oh I make a few times that. I make about two hundred thousand a year.” He bragged. 

“Yeah I can see you’re wearing most of it.” You appraised and Noah snorted his beer and nearly choked on it trying to cover up his laugh because your unimpressed tone was giving him life as you heard a hissed ‘yes’ from Noah. 

“You’re one of the lucky ones then. I make about the same. A little over 200 thousand a year actually.” You answered evenly like it was no big deal. 

“What? H-how?” Doug frowned in shock.

“Well I have four businesses, all four of them are solely in my name and I own all four outright and none of them have any debt while each of them have their own assets, so my massage business which makes me about a hundred- to a hundred and twenty five thousand dollars a year, my esthetician business which makes me another fifty to sixty thousand dollars a year and then the sales of my massage products, essential oils and esthetician products, skin care line, makeup, all that goods stuff to round it out with another thirty five to fifty thousand dollars a year and the fourth business is the shareholder for all three businesses and I only have to work about thirty to thirty five hours a week in total to do it too and I only work about 9 to 10 months a year.” You beamed proudly as Doug’s eyebrows practically went up into his hairline as you heard Noah murmur a ‘damn’ which you imagined was muffled because he must have said it into his fist behind you. 

“W-why?” Doug stuttered as he struggled to wrap his head around all that.  

“Well,  when my husband was alive, he made about a hundred and twenty five thousand dollars a year and when he died, I turned all four of those businesses which at the time were the side businesses I had to earn my own spending money into my full time career to replace his income when he died because you see I specialize in…” You began as you brought out your business card and listed everything off from the back and added to the additional certifications that weren’t on the card.  

“Not bad for a “hobby” huh?” You asked with a smug grin as you heard Noah practically whistle lowly behind you and clap ever so softly and you would have given anything for a mirror to see his face, hoping he was at least impressed. 

“Uh, nope, not bad at all.” Doug had to admit. 

“So if you got remarried and the man you married could provide you with his income that would either equal or surpass your own would you still continue to work or would you scale back? Retire?” Doug asked thoughtfully. 

“It depends.” You answered simply.  

“On?” Doug prodded. 

“It would depend on the circumstances and the person.” You specified. 

“Such as?” 

“Well, I’ve been very lucky in that I have the four thriving businesses and because I have a very good and very expansive client base where I live and I fill a niche that very few others can fill in my area and because I live just 20 to 30 minutes outside of few major cities because I’m centrally located in the country in between all of them and I work out of my own private space at my home and the home I work out of is my dream home, it’s a home that my late husband and myself designed together and it’s awesome and the only way I’m moving is if I find a home that’s even better than the one I have and that criteria is pretty extensive plus I’m very well supported and well known and have a reputation that I regularly bank on every year and speaking of support, I have my parents who live right next door and my in-laws live only 15 minutes away and all of them are very involved in my children’s lives. So honestly, I’m not gonna move unless I find circumstances even better than the ones I already have and the person I would be moving for can give me things that I don’t already have which is basically at this point- unconditional love, respect, recognition, dignity, sympathy, empathy, kindness, understanding and freedom to keep my independence that I already have so that if I so choose I could basically start my businesses over again in a new area.” You specified. 

“So...what is your criteria for a potential mate?” Doug asked, hoping that you would list off things that he could try to shoot for. 

“Well, whoever I choose to marry- he can’t drink to excess, he can’t do drugs, he can’t have a bad temper, he can not yell or scream at me or my children, he can’t be abusive in any way shape or form or I will kick him to the curb faster than lightning strikes but he doesn’t have to make as much as I do or make more than me or whatever. If he had a job that he was passionate about and he loved it as much as breathing which, for me, that’s what my career represents to me, I do what I do because I love it, it’s what I was put on this planet to do and I’m really good at it and to a degree, it’s a skill I can practice anywhere as long as I have a pool of clientele to pull from so there’s some flexibility there.” You mused and you saw Doug nod along with your train of thought so at least it was making sense to him. 

“But for me to give it all up for someone and be absolutely dependent on my partner for everything- probably isn’t going to happen because there is inherently a power dynamic that I’ve been on the losing side of in my past marriage. Because my husband had a great job with fantastic health insurance and other benefits and shouldered all the financial responsibility of the family which had its perks because that freed up my time to pursue what I wanted to and he could afford to send me to school to get all these licenses and certifications. But because he made all the money, he felt he had the right to demand whatever he wanted in return and he had a say so on how I spent the money he gave me to care for- as he put it- “his house” and “his vehicles” and such because he’s the one that paid for it all and he was a controlling narcissist. Now, was he all bad? No, he was a fantastic father and he was decent enough as a husband in that he didn’t beat me, didn’t drink to excess, didn’t smoke, didn’t gamble, didn’t do drugs, didn’t cheat on me and didn’t scream at me or cuss me out in front of the kids but I couldn’t get a credit card in my name without him knowing and he tracked me on my phone everywhere I went and if I wanted anything “extra” I had to “earn it”, like a child earns extra screen time for doing their chores kind of thing. It was all about a power dynamic and if I didn’t support him in everything he said, he got after me for not being “a good submissive wife” or “a team player”. And after 13 years of that, I’m done. I’ve had more than enough of that and I will be damned if I ever let that happen to me again. I’m not interested in that dynamic at all. No matter what side of it I find myself on.” You specified as Doug just stared at you, a bit guiltily as he was rather speechless and blushing profusely like you had just pulled his pants down and exposed him and you didn’t feel any guilt for it either and the look on Katie’s face told you that you hit the nail on the head and were preaching truth and her smile of adoration and awe was priceless.  

“I have clients that easily double, triple, quadruple even- my own salary because they’re doctors or surgeons or executives or whatever. But they’re the kind of men who feel emasculated when a woman they’re with earns anything because their income is what they base their own masculinity on which is a very dangerous and stupid thing to do in my opinion. And while these men may be really good at earning an income, that’s all they’re good at. Otherwise they’re shitty husbands and fathers. They feel that because they earn so much money that they don’t have to help out at all around their own homes. Heaven forbid they change poopy diapers, do any dishes or laundry or especially scrub a toilet and if they do any of those things, by the gods they will piss and moan and gripe and complain forever and feel “owed” that they did more than their “share”, which is bullshit. They would rather hire someone else to do any or all of that because they feel that’s beneath them as manly, masculine men and feel that a wife’s only job is to stay in their home, raise their kids and clean their house and look flawless while doing so and feel that the only support they need to give her is financial. Which, in my opinion is complete and utter fucking bullshit.”  You explained as you watched Doug’s frown get deeper and deeper the more you talked as you heard Noah hum in agreement to that sentiment. 

“So... you’re basically just looking for a Mr. Mom?” Doug asked and you could tell by his tone he was offended and incensed just saying those words. 

“To a degree, yes. But what I’m really looking for- is a partner who will view and treat me as an equal instead of a lesser or a supporting cast member while they’re the star of the show. Right now I do everything all by myself because I have to and I will continue to do so for as long as I need to because my children need me to be their everything. If I’m going to enter into any kind of romantic relationship, I would look for someone who’s willing to put in work. Someone who will happily and willingly pick up slack and support me as much as I support them. Someone who will work to gain not just my respect and admiration but my children’s respect and admiration as well and it doesn’t matter how much I like or even love a guy, if my kids are uncomfortable around him or just plain don’t like him. I’m not going to force the relationship onto them. Now there have been a couple of guys who my children really clicked with but I didn’t because they were either immature or had other issues and I’m pretty sure the only reason why my kids liked them is because these guys never told them ‘no’ and bought them whatever they asked for which is no way to raise children. There’s ways of telling them no and explaining your reasons why you’re telling them no without belittling them, hurting their feelings, implying they’re stupid or annoying for asking.” You explained as you heard Noah murmur an ‘Amen’ from behind you and instantly you saw all the hope and lust in Doug’s eyes die because he realized that this wasn’t going to work out for him just as dinner came. 

Conversation dissolved into idle chit chat while he practically wolfed his food down as quickly as he could and drank his whiskey and excused himself and quickly paid the waitress for his meal and only his meal and begrudgingly- your wolf eye whiskey too, saying he had work to do at home and you were so grateful when he left and so relieved when you peeked over your shoulder to see Noah still there, finishing up his dinner as Katie got up to go to the bathroom, leaving you alone at the end of the table as Sakura and Summer went to the bathroom too. 

“Do you like whiskey?” You asked him hopefully as you leaned backward in your chair towards him. 

“Yeah,” he confirmed. 

“You ok drinking after me?” You put to him. 

“Yup.” He nodded before you took your glass of Wolf Eye and put in on his table. 

“The whiskey’s good, I just can’t enjoy it knowing a pretentious asshole bought it for me, but I don’t think you’ll have that issue enjoying it yourself. Enjoy.” You beamed at him which got him to laugh. 

“Cheers.” He offered before you got your own drink and clinked it with his. 

“Cheers.” You mirrored. Even though dinner didn’t go as planned, you got to share a drink with Noah and that was more than you hoped for before Sakura and Summer came back. 

“Nana, I forgot my bow.” Sakura realized as she reached up to find that the bow she had been wearing in her hair was gone. 

“I can go back to the bathroom and help you look for it.” You happily offered before she took your hand and led you back to the bathroom as you grabbed your purse too. 

“Are you going to date Mr. Kizzo?” She asked you as you went into each stall, looking for her bow. 

“No, absolutely not, he is not the man for me.” You shook your head adamantly. 

“Oh good, his boys are mean.” She pouted. 

“Have they been mean to you?” You asked as your protective urges surged again. 

“They play really rough and they knocked me down and they didn’t even say sorry!” She complained and you gasped in horror. 

“No! How rude! Well if we ever go anywhere together and they’re there, point them out to me and I’ll protect you.” You insisted before you found her bow sitting on top of the toilet paper dispenser in the last stall before you quickly sprayed some sanitizer on it before you had her take a seat in one of the chairs in the bathroom so you could brush her hair and get it looking gorgeous again because you kept a little brush in your purse. 

“My Daddy likes you.” She blurted as you brushed her hair out. 

“Aw, I like your Daddy too, he’s a really good guy, he’s sweet and caring and protective and I can tell he loves you a lot and he works really hard to take care of you.” You praised as you smiled happily at her in the mirror. 

“He cries a lot.” She revealed. 

“Well I cry a lot too,” you nodded. 

“He cries because he misses my mama,” she added.

“Well, I can understand that because your Daddy and I both lost our marriage mates and we miss them sometimes and the happier we were with them and the more we loved them, the more we miss them and the more it hurts to lose them. Do you cry a lot too because you miss your mama?” You asked gently as she nodded. 

“I’m so sorry you lost your mama sweetie, I can’t imagine how much that must hurt.” You sympathized with her before she got out of the chair and reached her arms up before you readily picked her up and held her tight as she started crying before you took the seat in the chair and just held her as she cried on your shoulder and you just held her and rocked her gently and comforted her before Nana came into the bathroom. 

“What happened?” Nana asked. 

“I was brushing her hair and she told me her daddy cries because he misses her mama and I completely sympathize.” You told her as you did your best to keep your composure but you were failing spectacularly because you were an empath, her pain felt like your own as Summer pulled up another chair from the nursing mother’s area as she shot Noah a quick text just as Taylor came in looking for you and seeing how Sakura was crying in your arms, she instantly knew what was going on. 

“Noah and Anarra, or ‘Neena’ as she was better known as- were basically Frozen Tundra’s sweethearts. Neena still is greatly missed, she took care of a lot of the older ones whose kids have moved away or are on the coast making their money on the fishing vessels and when she got sick, everyone rallied around her but...by the time she started showing signs she was sick- it was too late. None of us have been the same since she passed away. Noah puts on a pretty strong face but he’s probably the most fragile.” Nana revealed as you nodded in understanding as Taylor nodded along too. 

Taylor had told you about “Neena” because Taylor and Neena were best friends and you didn’t put it together until just now that Anarra and Neena were one and the same which would explain why you and her had gotten so close so quickly because you had bonded over your losses as Sakura’s cries turned into whimpers and sniffles as you just held her and pet her head and her hair and held her and rocked her as she curled up in your lap and happily soaked up all your affections as you kissed the crown of her head affectionately as she clung to you as Nana and Taylor filled you in on the situation. 

“Neena had brain cancer. One day she was fine, the next, she had such strange symptoms and doctors around here are rare and expensive and by the time we found it, it was too late, there wasn’t anything we could do. She barely had enough time to make some videos for Sakura. She died holding her.” Taylor said as she nodded towards Sakura in your arms as you wrapped your arms tighter around Sakura as your heart effectively broke in your chest. 

“Her last words were how much she loved her and Noah.” Nena added as you passed around your thing of tissues because you were crying your makeup off. 

“My husband’s last words to me were a ‘honey do’ list, which was- ‘do the dishes, do the laundry, clean the bathroom and to brush my damn cats’ who he hated and I’m so grateful they outlived him, I know that sounds awful but they love me more than he ever did and he wasn’t dead a week before I went to the local shelter and adopted a dog for each member of my family and another cat so that there’s three cats and three dogs and we were renting from his parents at the time and before it was only because I bore them their only grandchildren that I got the ‘privilege’ of having the two cats before. And they didn’t dare argue with a new angry widow about ‘protection’ dogs for their only grandkids and didn’t want me moving away into a new place just to get them animals while we waited for our house to be built.” You revealed. 

“Did he at least have life insurance?” Nana asked which made you nod emphatically. 

“Yeah Andy wasn’t an idiot or heartless, he had a life insurance policy through work and a private one as well and because it was an accidental death at work, it paid out even more and his parents had a life insurance policy on him too that they handed over to me because they had the good sense to have life insurance policies on me and him so that if anything ever happened to the both of us, they could raise our kids comfortably and at the time, I was working for another outfit and even I had my own life insurance policy on him so we’re all set, the house is paid off, all debt is paid off, all the vehicles are paid off, I own everything outright. Other than utilities and of course food and insurance, which I can easily take care of myself, we’re ok.” You answered. 

“Did Neena have any kind of life insurance?” You asked and Taylor and Nana both shook their heads no. 

“No, Noah barely had enough money at the time to cover the funeral. When she died in the fall, at least he didn’t have to work and could stay home with Sakura and he already knew how to take care of himself and her because Neena was always caring for others, which he was very proud of her for doing and he supported that. He was always helping her to help others because so many ice orc men have moved away chasing “better lives” anywhere other than here and ice orc women are left to either do the same or stay behind and have to deal with the others who come up here, either looking for gold or fish or lumber or other resources and it used to be every summer solstice that all the tribes would get together and alliances were maintained and marriages made but all the young people are rejecting those practices because they feel they don’t have a place in the modern world. Our ways are dying, our languages are dying and Neena was one of the few women who embraced the old ways and was teaching all the kids the native languages. And when she died, a lot of the same older ones reached out to Noah and helped him with what they could and unfortunately after Neena died, some of the older ones she took care of followed, but they left Sakura everything because Neena was like a daughter to them and because she took care of them, all they could do is leave her what they could leave behind and when Neena died, that left Sakura as heir in her mother’s place, but she’s a child. She’s had so many men come back to claim what they felt was their birthright, which is mostly land at this point but thankfully the courts upheld Sakura’s rights as heir since their parent’s had the good sense to get it writing with the local lawyer who fights for the clan’s rights.” Nana explained. 

“That’s...that’s a coincidence, I know exactly how that feels.” You nodded. 

“How?” Nana asked as she tilted her head. 

“When Andy died, I was really close to several older clients as well, I got to work on them when they were at retirement age and came into my work and when their health declined, I stayed with them because they were close friends and I wanted their last moments to be in peace and as pain free as possible. They didn’t have any family to take care of them either and I endeared myself to them enough so that when I lost Andy, they all individually entailed everything they had to me too because I was their favorite person and they wanted to make sure I wouldn’t financially suffer because of my husband dying. Within six months of losing Andy, I lost almost all of them within a span of only three months. So the nine months that followed Andy’s death were just...the worst. But then to meet with dozens of lawyers and get check after check, after check, and deeds and titles and property and vehicles, I was so...numb. It didn’t mean anything to me, but man did I sure learn a lot very quickly about how to handle my newfound fortune. But the worst of it was the vultures circling because it felt like the minute I inherited all that money and property myself, suddenly every vulture of a guy somehow found me and circled me like wolves. Cause I was this “hot young desperate lonely widow” who didn’t know how to handle that much fortune and here were all these ‘knights in shining armor’ coming to “help me out” and “be there for me”. It was ridiculous, as if I couldn’t see right through them and what made it even worse was the way Andy died at work, it was a freak accident that killed not just him but five others. So the company he worked for sued the company who built the crystal grower because this was a known and very well documented issue. And the company used my picture because I was ‘the prettiest of the widows’ in the news and in the courts and they won and I got the lion’s share of the settlement because I was the one who was the public face of it and because I was the public face of it, I had organization after organization reach out to me to try to help me out too and by that point I had 5 very good lawyers and a private investigator in my pocket who were more than eager to be at my disposal. So I know exactly what it’s like to be an unwitting heiress. It’s really, really hard, thank the gods my in-laws are so great with money because they’ve been helping me structure it and organize it and keep it all and make it work for me.” You revealed lowly. 

“Could you teach Noah and Sakura any of those lessons?” Nana asked hopefully. 

“I would be more than happy to, I feel I need to at this point.” You admitted. 

“Because no one else around here knows what to do or how to help. Even now Noah’s dad Ukluk works as guide at Gold Horn and pilots his own bush plane for the hunters but it doesn’t pay as well as others, Noah’s brother Nago works for the postal service but he and his family are in June Neau. And now even Neena’s parents are no spring chickens. I know they would really appreciate it if they knew you could protect Sakura and Noah with what you know.” Nana insisted. 

“Consider it done,” you agreed. 

“So are you ever gonna get married again?” Sakura finally spoke up. 

“I would like to.” You answered honestly. 

“What are you looking for?” She asked. 

“I just want to be with someone who makes me happy and loves me for me and loves my kids as their own too who won’t hurt us but will protect us.” You answered. 

“What if they already have kids?” She asked. 

“Then I would hope that their kids would like me too, I do love being a mom, it’s the best job on the planet in my opinion and if those kids would let me love them as much as I love my own- even better and if my kids and those kids could get along, oh man, I’d be so so so happy. You see it doesn’t matter he’s rich or poor or whatever, money doesn’t matter to me. Who and what kind of person they are and how they treat others- that’s all that matters to me.” 

“And if they happen to be well endowed enough so that when...” Taylor double clicked her teeth. “Happens, you can’t walk straight after...” She hinted which made Nana raspberry her laugh. 

“That’s a bonus.” You readily agreed which made you start to laugh through your tears which made them do the same. 

“Well Noah’s you know,” Taylor implied as she clicked her teeth and winked which got you and Nana to start busting out laughing. 

“He’s what aunt Tay-tay?” Sakura asked as she turned to look at Taylor.

“Handsome, he’s very handsome.” You quickly supplied which earned you a solemn nod and an appreciate grin from Nana. 

“Ok, no more tears, let’s get cleaned up.” Nana insisted which prompted you to gently get Sakura off your lap so you could rinse the rest of your makeup off in the sink before all four of you left the bathroom to see Noah looking particularly worried. 

“Everything ok Pumpkin?” He asked his daughter. 

“Yup, we were telling Paradise about Mama.” Sakura told him. Every trace of sadness now gone as a happy smile plastered itself on her face. 

“And she brushed my hair and braided my hair and held me and comforted me and everything, can she come over to our house to watch me?” She asked. 

“If she wants to.” Noah answered. 

“I would love to, just give me the address, I’ll be there any day you need me there, free of charge.” You immediately offered. 

“Work an extra long day tomorrow Daddy, I want to watch my movies with her.” Sakura insisted which got Nana to snicker a laugh. 

“Uh,” Noah stuttered. 

“I can do tomorrow.” You immediately agreed. 

“You could have Taylor and her kids come too, because usually Taylor watches her on Tuesdays.” Nana added. 

“We’d love to.” Taylor immediately agreed as well. 

“So it’s a date. What time should I be over?” 

“He leaves early, like six in the morning.” Nana informed you. 

“Won’t be a problem. I’ll be there at like 5:30 then.” You insisted. 

“I won’t be there that early, I’m going to sleep in until a decent hour and come by later but we’ll drive by and show you where Noah lives and you could walk there if you wanted to because he’s like a ten minute walk away, five if you run because normally, she spends the night so that I don’t have to get up that early.” Taylor added. 

“But my body is still on Great Lakes Time Zone so 5:30 am here is only 8:30 am to me which is a normal time for me to wake up. So it’s not a problem at all.” You reassured Nana and Noah. 

“Ok, thank you, very much.” Noah nodded as he avoided Nana’s smug grin that screamed ‘I told you so’. 

“Well good night then, sweet dreams guys, I’ll see you in the morning.” You offered as Taylor tugged on your arm as Katie peeked her head back into the restaurant and gestured for you and her mom to hurry up. 

“What about my bill?” You asked her. 

“He got it.” Taylor answered as he gestured to Noah. 

“Aw, thank you for dinner!” You thanked him as she had to take your hand and pull you out of the restaurant.

“I really love Paradise.” Sakura said dreamily as she watched you go. 

“Well she is lovely.” Noah admitted as he got his box of leftovers and got out of the booth. 

“She likes you back, she told me so.” Sakura informed her Dad as she took his hand in one of hers and continued to hold your business card like a beloved photograph. 

“Oh yeah?” Noah returned, pleasantly surprised to hear that. 

“And she’s an heiress like me and she promised that she would teach me what she knows about it.” Sakura revealed. 

“Really?” Noah turned to look at his mom to either confirm or deny that. 

“Oh yeah, she knows how to deal with not just foxes but wolves and vultures too. The gods sent us the perfect person to help. And I have a feeling she won’t leave until everything is well taken care of and we will be hearing from her and seeing her very often from now on.” Nana predicted. 

“How?” Noah asked. 

“Just wait and see.” Nana simply grinned. 

[megara-the-jedi]

A/N: This is just an OC story. If you wanna read it, you can, If you wanna make suggestions you can. I've been working on this character since the shoe came out, but I'm just now getting to writing it. The only thing that's really a big decision is either just have her end up single or with someone, so we'll see. 

OC's name is Carlie Brooks. Her family has money, but due to her parents being out of town constantly for work, she lives with her grandma. Her older brother, Carson, is out of town for college. She happens to have a Jeep Wrangler, but like the rest of the Pogues, takes rides with John B.  I'll explain more as we go.

That Summer

If you were a normal person living on the Outer Banks, when you thought of Carlie Brooks, you thought of her bright personality and her even brighter smile. However, if you were a “kook” on the Outer Banks, you thought of her as a traitor when she barely considered herself a “kook.” If you were a “pogue,” she was the friendliest person you could meet.

Her parents were considered kooks, while her brother and her were considered pogues due to the people that they hung out with. It didn’t matter though as her parents were barely home during summer except for social events and they weren’t there during the school year either and the fact that she was basically living with her grandmother.

The sunrise was beautiful, Carlie thought to herself as she took another sip of beer as her friends walked around a beach house that was being built. John B. was trying to balance on the roof, JJ was sitting on scaffolding next Carlie, and Pope was messing with the tools. Kiara, or more commonly known Kie, was walking through the house, looking at everything.

“That’s what, a three-story fall to the deck?” Pope said, looking up at John B. “I’d give you about one-in-three chance survival.”

John B. hummed in response, stuck his finger in his mouth, brought it back out to test the wind. Carlie leaned forward against the railing of the scaffolding. 

“Should I do it?” He asked.“Yeah, jump.” 

Pope raised the drill in his hand, “I’ll shoot you on the way down.”

“You’ll shoot me?” responded John B.“

They’re gonna have Japanese toilets and towel warmers.” Kie came out of the house and onto the porch.

JJ scoffed, “Of course. Why wouldn’t they?” Carlie laughed. It all sounded ridiculous.

“This used to be a turtle habitat, but who cares about the turtles?” Kie said, taking in another look around the construction zone.

“I mean, I can’t have cold towels.” JJ remarked.

Carlie laughed. “Yeah, ‘cause that’s what’s important here.” JJ nudged her arm with his.

Kie turned to look up at John B, “Can you please not kill yourself?”

“And don’t spill the beer,” JJ said, following that with a swig of his own. “I won’t be giving you another.”

This statement, of course, was followed by John B dropping his beer.

“Of course, you did. Right when tell you not to.” John B groaned at JJ’s comment, while Carlie laughed and took a swig of her own beer. 

Pope walks over to the side of the back porch. “Uh, guys, security’s here.” Pope turned to face them, “Let’s wrap it up.”

Carlie looks at JJ, shoving him to move, before making a move herself to jump off the scaffolding.

“The boys are early today” John B remarks as JJ turns to him, “let’s roll, Humpty Dumpty.”

Carlie lands on the wood and walks towards Kie, who says “let’s go boys.”

JJ thought that this would be a good time to mock the security guard.

“Hey Gary, is that you? It’s me! Good to see you!”

Carlie called out, but couldn’t stop smiling, “JJ, stop it!”

“You’re asking for it” Kie added.

“JJ!”” The guard, Gary, yelled out.

JJ took off, the rest following. Carlie, thankful that she was wearing actual shoes for once.

Gary yelled for them stop, but they didn’t, laughing as they ran and zigzagged through the house’s structure. 

JJ almost running straight into the guard, luckily avoiding any hand that Gary had out. Carlie, who was following JJ, managed to avoid Gary, by running past JJ. She barely heard Gary call out, guessing that there was another guard.

“Go Pope! Carlie go!” That she heard, JJ close behind.  

Carlie, happy that she had a running start, went over the fence gracefully. Well, as gracefully as one could who had been drinking and was basically running on pure adrenaline at that point. 

She heard JJ yell something at Pope, who had fallen, and she ran towards the van. She hopped in and JJ and Pope followed closely.

“Look, Gary’s going for a raise!” John B laughed.

The door hadn’t closed yet, so JJ took another opportunity to mock the guard.

“You guys are gonna give him a heart attack.”

Carlie crawled into the front seat, knowing that JJ was gonna be a handful.

Eventually, JJ threw a beer towards Gary, who had caught it.

“They ain’t payin’ you enough, man.” JJ said as Kie pulled him back in.

Soon enough, they passed the Outer Banks sign.

Underneath the town name were the words “Paradise on Earth.”

In a way, it was. To Carlie, it was home. It was where her parents weren’t, as they were always away on business. It was where she grew up, living with her grandmother. She had a great group of friends here.

However, there was a slight difference in her family and friends.

Her parents were considered “kooks,” which meant they were rich, but only because they both worked. They also had a house on the Figure Eight. Lucky for Carlie and her older brother, Carson, their college and other things needed were paid for. Unfortunately, Carson and Carlie hated the “kook” lifestyle. They, like their parents, rather earn their keep. However, while living with their grandmother, they didn’t have to due to their parents giving them money. In return, Carlie used the money on her friends when she could, but mainly used it for her Jeep Wrangler. She saved up a majority of her money for that car. 

She was considered a “pogue” because she lived on The Cut side of the island. All of her friends were there and her grandma, too. She felt more at home and at peace on this side of the town than the other.

Carlie watched as the Figure Eight went and turned into The Cut. The scenery only really changing when it came to the homes on the sides of the road.

This may be the time to introduce the friends she mentioned earlier.

John B. Routledge, basically the leader of the group. He drove the gang everywhere. His dad went missing while searching for a shipwreck off the coast nine months ago, so his house was always the hotspot of their hangouts, but it was like that beforehand.

JJ Maybank, also known as John B’s best friend. He was Carlie’s as well. He came from a long line of fisherman and was great surfer, but nobody tells him because it would inflate his ego if he knew. 

Carlie had known JJ and John B since elementary school. Her grandma would look after them when their parents would ask. When those two would go off and get in a mess of their own, Carlie was right there beside them. In a way, they were the reason that she had a taste of freedom and was never going back. 

Pope Heyward, the only one in the group with a scholarship and a possible way out of this town. Very intelligent, very reliable. His dad was pretty lit, though. If you needed anything, you went to Heyward.

Kiara Carerra, or as everyone calls her, Kie. She was constantly trying to save the turtles and the environment. Carlie wasn’t exactly sure why she hungout with them, but she couldn’t judge Kie as she was they were the same with the rich parents shit. Only hers were involved in her everyday life. Kie’s parents actually owned The Wreck, a local restaurant that was a hit with the tourists. Also, all the guys in the group had some kind of thing for her.

Life was going on. Although, John B was being threatened with being tossed into foster caee due to his father’s absence and the (true) rumors of him living by himself. 

And then Hurricane Agatha came.

[iwillbeinmynest]

Seeing Ghosts? - Frank Castle x Reader(f)

Author’s Notes: This is for @sgtbxckybxrnes​ Fall Writing Challenge! I had fun with this one so I hope you enjoy!!

Word Count: 2.4K

Notes/Warnings: Mentions of cheating, mentions of drinking, kissing, anxiety, aggression, fluff.

Masterlist

 For the love of all things. Y/N knew from the moment she started getting ready that tonight was going to be a disaster and now what was supposed to be a girls night was turning into a “Let’s see how many of us can find guys to go home with” night.

  Y/N rolled her eyes and sipped on what was left of her one and only drink. No way was she getting tipsy and ending up on a walk of shame tomorrow. No, after things ended with Sean there was no way she was going to rush into anything else for a while. The last thing she wanted to deal with was another guy. 

 Which was also why the fact that this girl’s night was less about the girls and more about guys ticked her off. 

 “Oh my gosh.” Raychel stood up at their table. “You know what we should do?”

 The table waited for her to answer herself. 

 “Go ghost hunting!”

 There was a mix of responses from the group of eight. 

 Y/N shook her head. “Absolutely not.”

 Raychel tilted her head and smirked. “Why not?”

 “Because ghosts aren’t real and it is a colossal waste of money.” She downed the last of her drink. “You guys do what you want but I’m going to call it a night.” She stood from her seat only to be pulled back down.

 “Um, no.” Jessa sassed. “You’re coming. Last thing you need is to go home and sulk. You need to find a guy and what’s the most guy-ish thing to do on a night like tonight? Ghost hunting.”

 “And that’s exactly why I’m not going.” She replied. This crisp and gloomy fall night was perfect for getting into something spooky and that’s why she refused. No way was she willingly going to get herself into trouble.

 Jessa shook her head. “You’re going. I’m buying and you aren’t going to complain.” She gave Y/N a look that didn’t leave room for arguing. 

 Y/N rolled her eyes and huffed.

 At her submission the rest of the girls cheered.

******

 An hour later and the group was standing in the lobby of Ghouls and Haunts Tours waiting for their tour to begin. 

 “Alright,” Began the tour guide. He was a rather round man with a fisherman’s vest on. It was loaded with all kinds of gadgets and blinking lights. He was the kind of man Y/N expected to believe in ghosts. “So, since we usually do large groups we are going to have all of you join together since each of your individual parties isn’t large enough to book a solo tour. So, get comfy people.”

 Everyone in the room looked around. Some offered small smiles and some were clearly annoyed. There was a group of four who were on a double date as they were wholly attached to their respective partners, and a group of maybe ten guys who Y/N guessed where a bachelor party and, of course, Y/N’s group of friends.

 It came as no surprise that her friends were blatantly eyeing up the boys. Jessa nudged Y/N in the ribs and raised her eyebrows in the direction of a man who seemed to be just as miserable and annoyed as Y/N was. 

 “He’s perfect for you,” She chuckled. “Maybe you two can be mopey and sulky together.”

 Y/N rolled her eyes. “No, thank you.”

 ******

 The tour started just as stupid as Y/N thought it would. The guide, Toby, told everyone the history of the abandoned button factory and of all the “odd goings on” that happened on a nightly basis and how everyone should keep an eye out for any moving objects. Y/N was convinced it was all rigged.

 Another few minutes and Toby was bound and determined to cram the whole group of twenty-two people into a small room where, apparently, two orphan kids were kept and chained to a small table as they were forced to work until they died three years later.

 “Pack it in people! The more of you who are in here the angrier these kids get and I’d hate to rob you of the opportunity to see them.”

 When Y/N stood with crossed arms and pursed lips outside the door, Toby lifted a brow. “Don’t you wanna see this?”

 She shook her head, “I’m good, Thanks.”

  Toby rolled his eyes. “Whatever. Just don’t wander off, kay?”

 “Sure thing.” She huffed a laugh. 

 Toby closed the door behind him and Y/N could hear through the walls as he started his dramatic story telling.

 When a movement caught the corner of her eye, Y/N noticed the man that Jessa had pointed out to her earlier. He was smoking and leaning on his side with his shoulder against a cement pillar.

 They made eye contact and he nodded politely before taking one final drag, flicking the bud to the floor and stepping on it to put it out. He shoved his hands in the pockets of his well-worn black hoodie and walked over to her.

 “Too scary for you?” He asked, clearly feeling like he had to say something to avoid an awkward silence as they both waited for the tour to continue.

 Y/N was slightly offended. “Um, no.”

 He chuckled. “Sorry. I was just curious.” His crooked smile was actually gorgeous.

 “Are you? Why are you out here? And don’t pretend that it was for a smoke.” She pressed. If he was gonna be nosy, so was she.

 He smiled and nodded. “I mean it’s a pretty good excuse. Gives me a break from a lot of stuff I don’t wanna do. But no, I’m out here ‘cause I can’t listen to that guy anymore. Twenty minutes is plenty enough.”

 It was Y/N’s turn to smile. “Yeah, he’s a real piece of work.”

 “I’m Frank, by the way.” He didn’t extend a hand but turned to face her fully.

 “Y/N.”

 “Nice to meet you.” He nodded. “So, what brought you out here? I couldn’t help but notice, in the lobby, you looked like you were forced to come.”

 “So did you.” She countered.

 He sighed. “That’s fair. Yeah, a buddy of mine is getting married and this was what his best man picked as part of the bachelor weekend. So, no choice.”

 “Ah, well, I’m in a similar boat. My friends wanted a girl’s night and one too many cosmos later, here we are.” She gestured to the empty factory.

 “One of them getting married?”

 “Nope. Actually, they are all single and looking to go home with someone. So they picked the most guy-ish thing they could think of. And low and behold we got grouped with a bachelor party.” She laughed and he chuckled too.

 “What luck.” He sniffed and ran his hand over his short, dark, beard.

 “For them, maybe.” She shrugged.

 Frank inhaled to ask another question when the door flew open and a couple of people ran out of the room. 

 The door had slammed so hard against the wall that, instinctively Frank grabbed Y/N and shielded her from whatever he thought was going to happen next. When he remembered the tour he let go of her shoulders immediately. “I’m sorry.” He said obviously embarrassed.

 Y/N nodded, she had been startled by the sudden movement herself but then, when she realized there was no threat, she smirked up at him. “I thought you weren’t scared?”

 He backed up from her as the rest of the group poured out. “Ha. Ha.” He rolled his eyes with a grin. “I was just-”

 “You were just...Uh-huh, sure.” She grinned.

 The group was full of mixed emotions, some were laughing and others looked genuinely frightened. One girl was crying, it was Raychel. Serves her right for picking this stupid place, Y/N thought. 

Jessa was rubbing her shoulders and trying to calm her down.

 When Y/N looked for Frank he was back with his group but was watching Y/N. She smiled at him and then turned to follow the tour.

***** 

Up a questionable staircase and onto the second floor the group was once again escorted into another room to probably be told another embellished story of someone who had died doing something.

 And once again, Y/n and Frank held back- much to the protest of their respective friends. 

 “What did you mean earlier when you said it was lucky for them that my group was here?” Frank asked as he sat on some old boxes.

 Y/N shrugged. “I meant that they are looking for some single guys and that’s, generally, what you get with a bachelor party, so…” 

 He leaned his head back, understanding. “So, they are going to be trying to hook up with my friends.”

 “Unfortunately, yeah.”

 “Anyone my boys should steer clear of?” He smiled and leaned his elbows on his knees, clasping his hands together.

 Y/n thought about it. “Not really, but Sarah is one hundred percent on the hunt for husband material and she gets clingy, real fast, so maybe watch out for her. But other than that, there are no crazies to speak of.”

 He nodded. “And you? Are you on the husband hunt?”

 Y/n snorted and laughed, which made Frank smile even bigger. “No. Definitely not. No, I just got out of a really bad relationship a few months ago so, I’m trying to stay away from guys for a while.”

 He hummed and his smile dropped ever so slightly. “What happened?”

 Y/N took a deep breath. She didn’t even know this guy and yet, she wanted to tell him everything. Maybe just a brief overview of the traumatic split. “Uh...three years together and I guess he got bored. He proposed and then three weeks later said he wanted to break things off. Turns out he’d “fallen in love” with someone else. Actually, I’m pretty sure, now, that he’d been cheating on me pretty much the whole time.”

 Frank frowned. “So why’d you stay? Why’d you say yes?”

 “Because at the time I had no idea he was cheating. I only found out when he broke things off. He implied that he’d been seeing other girls so…” Y/N swallowed hard, embarrassed.

 “Well, you got no judgement from me so, don’t look so ashamed.” 

 When Y/N looked up at Frank she could see just how sincere he was being. She nodded. Another tour group headed towards them and the stairs. Y/N glanced their way and her eyes widened as she gasped.

 Frank jerked and followed her gaze. “What?”

 “That’s him,” Y/N swore. “That’s Sean, my ex!” She whispered and began to fidget. “What do I do?!”

 Frank looked from the group to Y/N. He didn’t know which one was Sean but he knew that Y/N was in need of a save.

 Frank grabbed her face and pulled her lips to his.

 Y/N gasped through her nose but quickly seized the opportunity to not look panicked in front of Sean and she’d be lying if she said this wasn’t a darn good opportunity.

 Frank’s hand tangled in the hair at the base of her neck as his other wrapped around her to rest on her back and pull her even closer. He felt Y/N relax into him and he kissed her more. He pulled back a little and peppered her lips with quick soft kisses before he rested his forehead on hers. Both of them sat there, just breathing in the cold fall air.

 “Y/N?” A voice called as it came closer.

 Frank felt her stiffen and looked up to see her looking at him. “You got this.” He whispered.

 She gave the slightest of nods before she looked up as she wiped her mouth from where Frank had claimed it.

 “Sean.” She said flatly. 

 Sean smiled but it didn’t reach his eyes. He crossed his arms as he eyed frank quickly. “Hey, who’s your friend?”

 Frank stood up quickly and all but grimaced down at Sean, who he was taller than. “Frank Castle. Who are you?” He crossed his arms.

 “I- I’m Sean Galloway,” He seemed confused. He looked to Y/N who hadn’t gotten up and was very much not thrilled to be having this conversation. He looked back to Frank. “She hasn’t mentioned me?”

 “No, why? You some one I should know about?” Frank turned slightly and held out his hand. Y/N took it and stood up beside him. Frank wrapped an arm around her, sticking his hand in the back pocket of her jeans.

 “Well, Y/N and I...We - Uh.”

 “We what Sean?” Y/N waited for him to actually say it.

 “I guess,” Sean’s head ticked to the side and he sighed as he shoved his hands in his pockets. “I guess it was nothin’.”

 Y/N nodded. “That sounds about right.”

  Sean shook his head in disbelief. “You’re really gonna pretend we didn’t date, that we weren’t engaged?” He was clearly getting agitated.

 “Listen, Pal, you better get goin’ ‘cause you’re makin’ my girl real uncomfortable and I don’t like the tone you’re taking with her.”

 “Your girl? What is this the fifty’s?” Sean chuckled. “You two goin’ to the sock-hop later? Gonna share a milkshake, too?”

 Frank let go of Y/N and stepped up to Sean. “I’m gonna say this one last time.” His voice was low and all threat. “Get lost.”

 Sean swallowed and nodded. “See you ‘round, Y/N.” He spoke softly and defeated.

 “No, you won’t.” Y/N and Frank said in unison.

 They stood quietly until Sean disappeared. When he was out of sight, Y/N sighed and sank back down to the boxes they’d been sitting on. She leaned over with her head in her hands.

 Frank sat beside her and put a hand on her back. “You okay?”

 “I believe in ghosts, now.” She muttered to the floor.

 Frank huffed a soft laugh. “Do you?”

 “I’m pretty sure I just died so, yeah.”

 Frank pushed her shoulder back so she’d sit up and look at him. “Seriously, you good?”

 She took a deep breath and nodded. “Yeah, I think so.” After a moment, she added. “Thank you for that. I don’t know what I would have done if you hadn’t...kissed me like that.” She blushed.

 “I didn’t go too far with the whole...pocket thing, did I?” He wondered.

 She shook her head. “No, no. It’s fine but I appreciate you asking.”

 He nodded. “I swear I was this close to punching the life out of him.” He scoffed. 

 “You wouldn’t be the first.” She smirked.

 He raised his eyebrows and leaned back slightly in surprise. “Have you punched him before?”

 Y/N looked at him proudly. “Yes, I have.”

 Frank cursed and chuckled. “Good for you.” He looked at her hard. Was he falling for her?

 Y/N laughed. “Seriously, thanks for helping me.”

 Frank smirked. Yes. Yes he was. “Hey, I’m happy to help, anytime you need me.”

 “How’s next weekend sound?” She chuckled as she scooted closer to him. “My parents are trying to set me up with their dentist’s son.” She leaned in closer.

 “I’m free next weekend.” He smiled and leaned in and pecked her lips. “And this Monday,” another kiss,  “And Tuesday,” Another kiss, a little longer this time.

 “How about Wednesday?” Y/N smiled as she wrapped her arms around his neck.

 He hummed, “Mmhmm,” as he kissed her deeper. 

 *   *   *   *

Forever Tags:

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Frank Tags: (I don’t actually do character taglists but I figured I’d throw yall on here from the last Frank fic I wrote)

@evilxcupcakexnik @harrysthiccthighss 

[theyearoftheking]

Book Forty-Nine: Black House

“Here is a true American loner, an internal vagrant, a creature of shabby rooms and cheap diners, of aimless journeys resentfully taken, a collector of wounds and injuries lovingly fingered and refingered. Here is a spy with no cause higher than himself.” 

After almost fifty books, The Talisman still stands at the top of the leader board as my favorite Steve book. It’s richly layered, full of memorable characters and horrible villains, with a satisfying conclusion. It’s the type of book fantasy and horror lovers alike are eager to escape into. 

It’s sometimes hard to embrace the sequel to a book you love so much... I mean, I can be bought, but my criteria are stringent:

Consider setting the book in Wisconsin... perhaps the beautiful, sad, remote, desolate western part of the state right along the Mississippi river.

Maybe a Dahmer reference? 

Scratch that. Instead, go with an old-school serial killer no one really talks about anymore. How about... Albert Fish? He’s pretty gross. 

On second thought, reconsider a Dahmer reference. Maybe an evil spirit that links Dahmer and Fish together? 

TONS of Dark Tower references. 

If Steve and Pete were to consider writing a follow up to The Talisman with all these elements, I might consider reading it. 

Spoiler! 

Dark House contains all this goodness, and more. 

It’s so fucking dark, y’all. I don’t think I’m ever going to be able to drive past a long-term care facility and NOT think about an old man inside wanting to eat the buttocks of small children.

Oh hey, trigger warnings for cannibalism, and violence against children. 

So, Dark House is set in fictional Coulee County, Wisconsin (not a place). But Steve and Pete (I need to start giving Peter Straub some shout outs as well) describe the western part of the state magnificently. Not too long ago I had a sales job that required me to travel the entire state, and I always loved my jaunts west. I’d park right along the Mississippi, eat my lunch and just soak up the isolation. I’d much rather make the drive to Pierce county than the Quad Cities, which my current employer is asking of me. *Silent scream for help*

Despite Coulee being fictional, the actual Wisconsin references are thick:

De Pere (where we recently found out Steve spent a few formative years)

The Brewers 

Miller Park 

Kingsland Ale- while fictional, it’s a nod to Wisconsin’s rich brewing history, and favorable climate for microbreweries

Dahmer (several times, actually)

Racine. Y’all. I have no idea what Steve’s obsession is with Racine... it comes up in multiple books. It’s really not that great. Take that from someone who spent a brief period of time working there. Honestly, my favorite thing about Racine is the authentic Thai restaurant right in downtown, Sticky Rice. If you find yourself in Racine, please go check them out... their red devil curry is amaze-balls. 

So, yes... lots of Wisconsin. Also, lots of Dark Tower:

Eye of the King

Crimson King

The Tower

Red roses

Breakers

Little Sisters 

Gunslingers and their weapons

Roland and the ka-tet

Monos! Blaine and Patricia

Chief Breaker Brautigan- who allegedly tells hilarious stories about his escapes. I miss him already. 

I have questions about how Steve convinced Pete to include so many Dark Tower elements into this book...

Steve:  “Pete, bud... I know you might have a different vision for how this book plays out. Buuut what about if we make it part of the Dark Tower universe?”

Pete: Stares for a long minute. “Um, I thought that series was dead in the water. Do we really need to use Dark House to resuscitate it?” 

Steve: “Remember the car accident? You know, the one that almost took my leg?” 

Pete *Oh fuck, he’s bringing up the car accident as a bid for sympathy, and to convince me to make this a Dark Tower book...* “Of course I remember!”

Steve: “Well, it shook some things loose. I’m about ready to finish the series. I just thought it might be fun if we make this book a lead-up to the finale” 

Pete: “It’s intriguing, but I’m not really sure it’s the direction I want to go in. I was thinking more-”

Steve: “I ALMOST DIED IN THAT ACCIDENT!” 

Pete: “Cool, Dark Tower book it is!” 

I should write fan fiction. I’ve obviously got a gift. 

Black House is told from a birds-eye narration view. Literally... there’s this fat, evil crow named Gorg flying all over town, giving us the lay of Coulee County. Bad stuff has been going on: little children have gone missing, and only a few of their bodies have turned back up mutilated and broken. 

The chief of police, Dale Gilbertson, knows he’s in over his head, and keeps trying to convince his pal, retired police detective, Jack “Hollywood” Sawyer to come consult on the case.

Jack isn’t having it. He retired young and moved to Coulee County from Los Angeles after tracking down and arresting serial killer Thorny Kinderling. The majestic beauty of western Wisconsin caught him by surprise, and he happily invested in reasonably priced (read: cheap) real estate with a view. 

Upon moving to Wisconsin, Jack befriended Dale’s blind uncle Henry Leydon; who voices several radio programs, including The Wisconsin Rat, which plays indy screamo bands and has plenty of shock-jock antics. The two hang out together, listen to jazz music, and sometimes Jack reads to Henry. Henry was able to use his elevated senses to study Jack’s speech pattern and figure out Jack’s mom was THE Lily Cavanaugh; the Queen of the B’s. 

While Jack and Henry are reading Bleak House, Charles “Burny” Burnside is wandering around the Maxton Elder Care Facility, pretending to have dementia, and dragging children into The Territories for Lord Malshun to either use as Breakers, or for Burny to snack on if they have no Breaking skills. So, Burny’s a bad dude who did some suspicious things in Chicago; but an evil spirit (the same one who invaded Albert Fish and Jeffrey Dahmer’s bodies) is what’s causing his kidnapping and cannibalistic urges. I know I say this every ten books or so, but Burny might be the worst King villain ever. I was not upset later on when his intestines were violently ripped from his body.

A sweet little boy (with strong Breaker powers) named Tyler Marshall goes missing outside the Maxton Elder Care Facility. While he was being pulled into the bushes by Gorg who kept repeating his name; his mother, Judy receives a taunting package and letter from The Fisherman, which sends her over the brink, and she’s institutionalized. 

Tyler’s disappearance really amps up the town outrage, and Jack agrees to help the police department out. He’s starting to suspect there’s some Territories nonsense going down, and he can help. 

From here, the book goes at break-neck pace and includes everything from micro-brewing bikers, a dog bite that causes one to dissolve into a foamy puddle on the couch, our old friend Speedy Parker showing up as a gunslinger, the world’s most annoying newspaper reporter, plenty of flipping between worlds via the creepy old black house hidden in the woods, and a happy(ish) ending. Honestly, there’s a warning at the end of the book, which allows you to choose your own ending. You can stop reading five pages before the end, and enjoy a happy ending where the good guys win; or you can get the real world ending. Both are satisfying... I recommend reading all the way to the end. 

So, just a few quotes for you... 

“Wolf died of a disease called America.” 

This line gutted me. I didn’t realize how much I loved Wolf as a character, until I had to read a follow-up that didn’t include him. His soul was too clean and beautiful for a fucked-up world like the one we currently live in. 

“He doesn’t like the cell phone to begin with- twenty-first-century slave bracelets, he thinks them...”

No explanation needed. 

“Why must life always demand so much and give so little? Parkus answers her question with a single word: ka.” 

Again, no explanation needed. 

Was this book as good as The Talisman? 

No. 

Did I want more? 

Absolutely.

But was I satisfied with the end?

You bet your (un-chomped on) ass.

Total Wisconsin Mentions: 33

Total Dark Tower References: 50

Book Grade: A-

Rebecca’s Definitive Ranking of Stephen King Books

The Talisman: A+

Wizard and Glass: A+

Needful Things: A+

On Writing: A+

The Green Mile: A+

Hearts in Atlantis: A+

Rose Madder: A+

Misery: A+

Different Seasons: A+

It: A+

Four Past Midnight: A+

The Shining: A-

The Stand: A-

Bag of Bones: A-

Black House: A-

The Wastelands: A-

The Drawing of the Three: A-

Dolores Claiborne: A-

Nightmares in the Sky: B+

The Dark Half: B+

Skeleton Crew: B+

The Dead Zone: B+

Nightmares & Dreamscapes: B+

‘Salem’s Lot: B+

Carrie: B+

Creepshow: B+

The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon: B

Storm of the Century: B-

Cycle of the Werewolf: B-

Danse Macabre: B-

The Running Man: C+

Thinner: C+

Dark Visions: C+

The Eyes of the Dragon: C+

The Long Walk: C+

The Gunslinger: C+

Pet Sematary: C+

Firestarter: C+

Rage: C

Desperation: C-

Insomnia: C-

Cujo: C-

Nightshift: C-

Gerald’s Game: D

Roadwork: D

Christine: D

Dreamcatcher: D

The Regulators: D

The Tommyknockers: D-

Now I move onto From a Buick Eight. I’ve had an advanced reading copy since the book came out, but never had the urge to actually read it. That should tell you everything you need to know about my level of enthusiasm right now. I’m hoping it’s not a Christine 2.0. 

Until next time, Long Days & Pleasant Nights, Rebecca