#the worst part about this fic is that it ends💔

[bitchkay]

This whole fic series altered my brain chemistry.

🎸 out of my mind ! 💿 track five: the battle of the bands

guitarist!ino x drummer!reader

summary: it's the annual battle of the bands at the fix, your college campus's iconic live music bar, and this year you're taking the stage as the drummer for indie rock group cursed technique. you know the competition is strong, but no part of you is ready for lead singer and guitarist takuma ino. you lock eyes at the edge of the stage, and something starts—something that might make you feel alive even more than the beat of the drums.

warnings: language, alcohol, DOGGOS, yuji literally is just a ray of sunshine 24/7, mentions of drunk driving, so much fluff, ridiculous amount of kissing tbh, short time skip at the end, FINAL CHAPTER! || sfw. 8.8k words.

FOR THE FIRST time in a long stretch of busy days, you wake up not to the chirp of your alarm but to soft rays of Saturday morning sunlight seeping through the cracks in the blinds, painting your eyelids orange-gold. You crack an eye open and find Takuma stirring beside you. Right.

“Morning,” you whisper. For a moment, when Takuma opens his eyes, he looks surprised, and then he seems to remember why and how you got here and his expression melts into a soft smile.

“Morning, Skip.” He yawns. “Time’s it?”

You shrug. You’re pretty sure your phone is dead.

“Eh, it’s Saturday,” he mumbles. “S’fine.” You chuckle, daring to reach out and ruffle his hair. You don’t know what this is, the unspoken thing in the thin slice of air between you. You know what you want it to be, though.

For a while you both lie in comfortable silence, letting the sounds of the awakening house float up the stairs toward you. Murmuring, clattering around in the kitchen, the front door opening and closing, cars outside.

“Hey,” you say eventually, making eye contact. His eyes are a very deep shade of brown, dark but warm in a way that reminds you of old bookshelves or tree bark after the rain.

“Hey back.”

He’s relaxed, every part of him unhurried, and you take the image of it and stamp it into your mind over the memory of the night prior. “I’m glad you’re okay.”

Takuma smiles. “I’m glad you’re here.”

Maybe it should be more awkward, the fact that you’re here in his bed in his clothes and you haven’t named whatever it is that stretches out in the silence. But it’s not. It’s just… easy.

“Skipper?”

“Hm?”

“I really, really like you,” Takuma whispers. The words wrap themselves around you, warm when you didn’t know you were cold.

“Yeah?” You bring a hand up to his face, trace the line of his jaw. His cheeks are a little colored in the mix of light slipping through the window and the cracked door. “I really, really like you too, Takuma.”

He cups your face in both hands, pulls your lips to his, and your whole body responds, pressing up against him in the too-small twin bed. Your hand goes to hold the back of his neck, deepening the kiss, and this is what people write love songs about, you fucking get it now, all the metaphors and cliché words you thought were exaggerations but no, they’re not, because you’re feeling all of them all at once and you don’t ever want to leave this moment in time.

“Like” doesn’t feel strong enough, not for this. You’ve only known him for a month. Is it really possible he’s already become so integral to the structure of your heart?

You’re kissing in the early morning light and it’s hungrier than you thought your next kiss would be, because even though all the rest of your days are rolling out before you, you don’t know how many there are. He twists so he’s above you on his knees, one of them between your legs, and it’s like a reversal of that night on the roof, like you can feel the night air even in the golden midmorning hours.

“Kuma,” you murmur between kisses, and he grins against your mouth, takes your next breath and makes it his.

At some point you’re interrupted by the startled growl of your stomach, and you break apart, unable to stifle the giggles rising up in your throat. “Well.”

“Well,” Takuma echoes, grinning. He stands and offers you a hand. “Breakfast?”

Downstairs, the house is alive with idle chatter and the clinking of silverware. Kirara is seated atop the counter, legs swinging as she eats a plate of eggs, and Hakari stands beside her leaning against the cabinets. Megumi scrolls absently through his phone at the table, the dogs looking up at him expectantly from either side, and Yuji is digging through a bunch of take-out boxes. When he sees you, his whole face lights up.

“Morning!” he practically sings. “Here, eat food.”

“Where’d this come from?” Takuma asks.

“My friend dropped off breakfast,” Yuji chirps, pushing a Tupperware container of pancakes toward you. If it weren’t for the brace wrapped around his wrist, you’d have no idea anything happened. He’s his usual golden retriever self.

You smile, forking one of the pancakes onto a plate. “That’s sweet.”

Your phone buzzes, and it’s Tsumiki sending you the link to the news brief. You frown at the headline, not out of any disrespect for the writer who stepped up to cover it, but more at the fact that it’s unfortunately true.

JU senior issued DUI after crash on 34th and Olson Blvd Friday night

“What’s up?” Takuma asks, immediately noting your expression. You slide the phone across the counter, watching its screen catch the light from the kitchen window. Kirara leans over it as well and starts reading off Junpei’s story halfway through.

“Zenin, who according to a campus police report was driving under the influence of alcohol, was on the phone with an ex-girlfriend when he swerved into the opposite lane.” Her dark brows knit together in some combination of anger and disbelief. “Jesus.”

“That’s fucked,” you murmur.

Someone’s phone rings, and Megumi glances at his screen and blinks, seems to hesitate. Then he gets up and disappears down the hall. You glance at Takuma, but he just shrugs. It’s probably Gojo.

The rest of you eat and eventually make your way to the living room, scattering yourselves across the couch and carpet and chairs.

“That single last night,” Takuma says, letting Kuro jump up beside him on the couch. “Concept. Make it the title track of an EP.”

You blink for a second, startled. “Wait, for real?”

“Yes!” Takuma says, sitting up straighter. “Think about it. Cover art is one of those name tag stickers, you all sign it, wrinkle it up and crease it and take a grainy film photo. And you put the song on it with Next Fix and a couple of your older singles you and blow up.”

“Or you print one off that says hello, our name is,” Kirara pipes up, seeming excited by the idea. “Ooh, you can have an intro track like that.”

“All caps. Just to match the energy,” you say, picturing the EP cover in your mind. “HELLO MY NAME IS. No punctuation either.”

“I like it,” Kirara nods. Takuma’s got that excited shine to his eyes, and you realize he’s very in his element in this conceptual space—he really will be a good producer. He has the mind for it.

Megumi slips back into the room looking a little haphazard, disgruntled, looking anywhere but into anyone else’s eyes, and Yuji cocks his head in question. Not Gojo, then. “Who was that?”

“No one,” Megumi lies, waving him off and turning back toward the kitchen to avoid everyone’s questioning gaze. Hm.You know better than to ask, and it seems that’s the consensus, because nobody pushes it—Megumi will open up in his own time. You hope he figures it out soon.

For your part, it’s a lazy Saturday, hanging out with Takuma, Yuji, Megumi, Kirara, and Hakari, gaming and talking and generally just existing in each other’s presence. After the chaos of last night, it seems to be exactly what all of you needed.

It’s not until late afternoon that Kirara broaches the topic of the band.

She gestures at Yuji, a flapping motion that misses the mark a little because Kirara is sprawled upside-down in the beanbag in the corner. “Itadori, can you, like… drum with that?”

He shrugs, looking down at his injured wrist. “Yeah, probably!” You frown. So much of drumming is in the wrist, and you kind of figured Kirara’s question was rhetorical. You realize abruptly that Shibuya Incident is still going up against Black Flash in the finals on Friday, and if they don’t have Yuji, they’re fucked.

“Psh, don’t look like that, it’s fine,” Yuji insists, grabbing two Wii remotes and wielding them like drumsticks. He goes to bang them around, mimicking a rock beat, and you watch as his face twists into a grimace and he drops one of them. “Okay, so, update: never mind!” He grins sheepishly.

Kirara is the first one to look at you, and by the time you’ve processed what exactly it is she’s trying to say, everyone else has their eyes locked on you—including Yuji.

Oh, shit.

“Whaddaya say, girl drummer?” Kirara asks, pointing a finger gun at you.

“Oh, guys, I don’t… I don’t know, it’s your band. Yuji—”

But Yuji is the one who seems the most excited about it. He’s abandoned both Wii remotes on the floor and is now looking up at you with bright eyes and his eternal grin. “No, Skipper, please? It would be so fun! I can still do aux and stuff. But we could play together! It would be so awesome!”

“Is that even allowed?” you ask, glancing at Takuma, who’s trying and failing to hide a boyishly excited smile. “I mean, I already got eliminated.”

“Hang on,” Hakari says, pulling out his phone. It takes you a minute to realize who he’s asking. “Yeah, no, Panda says it’s whatever. Better that than not have a battle at all.”

Takuma nudges you with a knee, looking at you with steady eyes. It’s your choice, he seems to say.

“I think,” you say slowly, “I should talk to my band first. But… I’m not opposed.”

Yuji whoops so loudly you flinch a little and Takuma grins, putting his arm around you and squeezing your shoulder.

“I probably should head out,” you say, a little reluctantly. “Kinda left the roommates high and dry last night.”

Kirara salutes you, her face red from the blood rush of still being upside down, and Yuji chirps out a happy see ya!

“I’ll walk you out,” Takuma says, standing when you do. You say bye to the band and the dogs and he follows you to the front door, going as far as to step just outside with you. The door stays open just a crack as you linger, his hand coming to rest on the small of your back. He pulls you in and kisses you right there on the front step, and you smile against his lips.

“Are we, like…?” Takuma murmurs when he pulls away, cheeks flushed from the question or the cold, you can’t tell.

“Are we what?” you tease, shoving lightly at his chest.

“You know.”

“Well, if you don’t say it I’m gonna beat you to asking—”

This seems to zap whatever hesitation Takuma had right out of him, and he cuts in, “Willyoubemygirlfriend?”

“Sorry, what was that?” You know you’ve got a shit-eating grin on your face, but you can’t stop it. “Couldn’t really hear you—”

“Oh my god. Will,” he says slowly, drawing out the word, “You. Be. My. Girlfriend?”

You can see your laugh fanning out before you in a puff of warm air, and you tip your head forward into his chest, grinning. “Yes, Takuma, I would love to be your girlfriend.” You pull back and look up at him, lacing your fingers together. “I was kind of trying to get you alone all week so we could figure out what the fuck was going on. But it worked out, huh?”

“Yeah,” he grins. “It worked out.” He reaches up and ruffles your hair, laughing when you go to swat his hand away. “I was trying to get you alone, too,” he admits. “I like spending time with you, Skip. I’m pretty sure you’re the coolest person I’ve met, like, ever.”

“Ever,” you echo. “Those are some pretty lofty expectations to live up to.”

He shrugs. “You meet them all.”

Despite yourself, heat creeps up to your cheeks again.

“That was less scary than I thought it was gonna be,” Takuma confesses. Your phone rings in your pocket, and you glance at it and see Maki’s name sliding across the screen.

“Think that’s my cue.” You plant one last kiss on Takuma’s lips and turn around, throwing a “bye, boyfriend” over your shoulder. You glance back and catch him mid fist-pump, and he sheepishly shoves his hands into his pockets when he realizes you saw.

You’re still wearing his clothes, you realize as you answer your phone. Guess it doesn’t really matter, since they’re your boyfriend’s.

“Hey,” Maki says in your ear. “You comin’ home anytime soon? No rush, but we’re making lunch so we figured we’d ask.” In the background, you can hear Toge singing what you think is a dramatic rendition of Kristoff’s song from Frozen II, but you aren’t entirely certain because none of the words are right.

“Yeah, I’m literally walking through the door in thirty seconds,” you say, and Nobara’s face appears in the kitchen window. She waves excitedly and you raise a hand in return.

“Oh, sick.” The line goes dead as you open the front door. “Hey!” Maki shouts when she hears it click, and you slam it closed against the rush of cool air trying to sneak inside with you.

“Hi!” you call back.

Yuta pokes his head around the corner and grins at you. “Welcome home, our favorite breaking news reporter.”

“I didn’t actually report on anything,” you admit, kicking your shoes off and padding into the kitchen. Toge is somehow balancing cross-legged on one of the high stools, and Maki is making tacos. “Conflict of interest once I realized who it was.”

“Yeah, I saw the article,” Nobara chimes in, glancing up from her phone. “Yikes. Frickin’ Naoya Zenin. What an asshat.”

You snort. What an understatement.

“Hope he rots in jail,” Maki says in a sing-song voice, not even looking up.

“I love family,” Toge says.

You fill your friends in on the crash and the aftermath and Yuji’s wrist, leaving out some of the details about Takuma, because that feels a little invasive. And then Yuta asks the big question: “What about the band?”

“About that,” you say, taking a deep breath. You’re not exactly sure why this makes you so nervous. Maybe it’s just that these are your people, your band, and you all worked so hard and then went down together. It doesn’t seem fair that you get to go back on stage and try again and the rest of them don’t. “So. They asked me to fill in—“

“Yes!” Nobara shouts, pumping a fist in the air. “Oh, that’s so awesome!”

“Well, I didn’t say yes yet—”

“What? Why?” Toge asks incredulously. You laugh, feeling the weight lift off your shoulders. Of course they’re okay with it. These are your best friends. They’ll always have your back.

“I wanted to check with you guys,” you say, feeling silly about it now. “Just—I don’t know, to make sure. Since it’s not our band, and I didn’t want you guys to feel like I was, I don’t know, like…”

“Musically cheating?” Maki chuckles. “Skipper, this is great. You should say yes.”

Yuta solemnly puts a hand over his heart. “Avenge us.”

“Thanks, guys.” You grin as you hop up on the counter next to Nobara, pressing your shoulder to hers. “I love y’all.”

“Sap,” Maki says, which means love you too.

—

Using a drum set that isn’t yours is always a weird experience. You feel like everything is just ever so slightly off, and Yuji’s kit is an absolute patchwork of different brands of heads and shells and cymbals. You have to lower the stool because he’s taller than you. But it’s just for rehearsal, at least—you can use your own kit at The Fix.

It’s your first time in the shabby basement of Takuma’s house, and it looks distinctly different than your own. They’ve pinned old rugs to the walls as a type of sound deadener, not dissimilar to your own setup, but their lighting is a collection of Facebook marketplace floor lamps and a little disco ball that’s apparently Yuji’s. Your basement has string lights and a bunch of stools and beanbags, and this one has extra blankets all over the floor where Yuji and Kirara have made themselves at home.

Learning Shibuya Incident’s songs isn’t difficult—you’ve heard enough of their music to anticipate what’s coming, and Yuji’s there to give you pointers. Their three-song set for the final performance isn’t actually done, because they don’t feel like they have a good enough finisher, and after you’ve run the first two songs several times you mess around with potential chorus lines.

“What about that?” Kirara says after plucking out a new melody. “It’s hype enough, I think. Or it will be, once we add the rest of you.”

“I like that.” You tap out the rhythm on the snare rim, humming. “You have lyrics?” You look at Takuma, who’s staring at the ceiling like it might have all the answers if he just squints hard enough.

“Somethin’ about, like… losing your head a little bit because you caught feels,” he says. “Like, you’re down so bad you can’t function, to be dramatic about it. That triplet at the beginning of the chorus, Kirara—”

She plucks it out again, down-up-down. “On my own,” Takuma echoes, down-up-down. “Every little move I can’t pin down…”

The words tumble past your lips before you can stop them, because they’ve been circling your head for a week now. “Friends with all the dead in my ghost town.”

He spins around to look at you, a grin spreading across his face. “Yes! It’s like I’m going…”

“Going,” Kirara echoes, and they go back and forth—going, going, “out of my mind!”

“Whoo!” Yuji cheers, pumping a fist in the air. “Holy shit. That was crazy.” Takuma grabs the nearest beat-to-hell spiral notebook and starts scribbling.

Megumi starts laying out a bassline, subtly driving the beat forward a little, and you clamp the hat down on two and four to keep time. Kirara comes in with something that must be the verse, and Takuma reads off, “You left in the morning after eight, I got into work two hours late, I can’t see the sun without your face.” Bass, bass, bass. Megumi nods along and Yuji is practically dancing from his spot on the floor.

“One day and I run fresh out of light…”

Hm. You add, “Twelve hours without your hand in mine.”

“I’m dizzy and overworked and tired,” Kirara sings lowly. All three of you sing the chorus again, and you feel just like you’re at home in your own basement, writing a song in real time with Nobara and Maki and the boys.

“Oh, that slaps,” Takuma practically shouts. “Jesus. We’re gonna win.”

“Don’t get cocky,” Megumi warns, a wry quirk to his lips.

Kirara glances at her phone. “Food’s here. Break time, freaks.” She bounds up the stairs and Megumi follows to help her grab the bags—you DoorDashed Taco Bell, since Yuji never got his beloved crunch wrap on Friday.

You leave your sticks on the snare and move around the drum set, flopping down on the ground beside Takuma. “You’re good at that,” you tell him honestly, pulling the notebook away to read what he’s writing down. I met you across the darkened stage, you shook up my life, you got me made, you’re drivin’ me crazy night and day.

You can’t help thinking of the night you met him, locking eyes while he sang from the edge of the low stage at The Fix, lit up by purple-red stage lights and putting you in a trance. You scribble a few more lines after his and hand the pen back.

“You’re a poet,” he tells you, and you laugh.

“I’m a journalist.”

“Woman of many talents,” he says, echoing Maki’s words from that first night you met.

“Itadori!” Kirara shouts down the stairs.

“Coming!” Yuji leaps up and disappears up the rickety basement staircase, leaving you and Takuma alone.

“Hey,” he says, tapping the pen on the page. You glance up at him, nodding for him to keep going. “Can I take you out? Like, on an actual date?”

Something light and quick kicks around in your chest, a hummingbird loose in your ribcage. “I would not be opposed,” you say, as if the idea doesn’t make you want to kick your feet like a little kid. “When are you thinking?”

“Mm, you’re in night class prison tomorrow,” he says, tapping the pen against his lip now. “Tuesday?”

It shouldn’t make you so irrationally happy that he remembers your schedule, but logic seems to go out the window where Takuma Ino is concerned. “Tuesday’s good. Where do you wanna go?”

He shakes his head adamantly, tapping you on the nose with his pen. “Leave it to me.”

—

The only things Takuma’s told you about your date tonight are dress warm and bring your board. He meets you outside your place at four, his bag definitely bulkier than usual, his own skateboard under one foot.

You’re wearing a denim jacket over a hoodie and your favorite cargo pants with your boots, and you tucked a beanie and gloves into your bag just in case, but it’s surprisingly balmy out for late October. The wind is the worst of it.

“Hey, pretty girl,” Takuma says when you coast down the driveway and come to a stop beside him. The greeting makes you blush as much as his smile does, and he chuckles as he pushes off. “This way.”

“Where are we going?”

“Crazy,” he says. You roll your eyes. Sounds like the kind of dad joke Yuta would make.

“Well, then.” The two of you make your way down the street and around the bend, and you realize he’s taking you to the skate park. But at the entrance he keeps going, around the pit and a few of the ramps and to the largest one, back in the corner—not the one Sukuna deals under, but the one opposite. And you stop in your tracks, your longboard making a protesting schkk under your feet, when you see it.

Battery-powered string lights loop around the posts and down the underside of the ramp, and blankets and pillows are spread out across the ground. The area is sheltered from the worst of the wind, and you know your jaw is hanging open a little as you watch Takuma unload his bag—JBL speaker, two thermoses, and a bunch of food.

“Takuma,” you say, not knowing what other words suffice. “I—oh my god.” You did not peg him as being this romantic.

Then you think about his song lyrics and think maybe you should have.

He grins at you from where he’s sat down on the blankets, holding out one of the thermoses. You leave your board by one of the poles and sit down beside him, taking it and letting the warmth seep into your hands. “What is it?”

“Hot chocolate.”

“Mm.” You scoot closer to him, staring up at the layers and layers of graffiti and marker art covering the underside of the ramp. “This is maybe the sweetest thing ever.”

“I’m glad,” he says. “I had no idea what I was doing.”

“I wouldn’t know.” You take a sip of the hot chocolate—still warm. “It’s romantic. Big fan.”

“Really?” He points to where somebody drew a dick on the far side of the ramp.

“Okay, well, you didn’t have to point it out,” you smirk. “You ever done graffiti?” Looking at his mischievous smile and the beanie tugged over his head, the skateboard abandoned a few feet away, he does look like the type.

“Tagging?” He shrugs. “No. I would, though. Maybe we should.”

You hum, staring up at the arcing bubble letters and jagged black lines all over the ramp. You think you’d be horrible at graffiti, but you’ve always appreciated it, the way it sends a message and doesn’t ask for anything in return.

“This is like… alternative aesthetic stargazing,” you muse, lifting a finger and tracing the sharp lines of one of the illegible words in the air. You could stare at all this art for hours and never find all the intricacies of it.

Takuma digs around in his bag and produces a Sharpie with an “aha!”

“You’re gonna graffiti with a Sharpie?”

He throws it at you and you catch it in one hand, instinctively twirling it like a drumstick. “We’re gonna graffiti with a Sharpie,” he corrects.

And so you do.

The nearest part of the wall is covered in bright pink paint outlined in black, and it takes you a moment of squinting and tilting your head to realize it says LEAVEYOURMARK. Seems as clear of an instruction as any. So you do—scooting forward, you start to draw flowers into the thick bands of pink lettering, and soon they’re shifting to music notes, percussion notation, aimless squiggles. Takuma queues up a laid-back playlist with a few artists you recognize and many more you don’t, and you pass the pen back and forth, adding tiny notes to messages around the ramp, doodling in the empty space.

You’ve been on dates before, but this feels wholly different. With Takuma, you’re not stressing over conversation starters, worrying about commitment, wondering if you picked the right outfit, trying to gauge your shared interests with carefully planned questions. It’s just easy, existing with him like this.

After a while, you’re on your back in the mess of pillows and blankets, staring directly up at the massive painting of a skateboard with a face. Takuma is drawing something on the wall behind you.

Squinting, the green streaks under the skateboard look like that loss meme Toge sends you at least twice a week. You take a photo with the intention of showing it to him later, though maybe you shouldn’t—he gets way too proud of himself for versing you in what he calls Reddit culture.

You crane your neck to see what Takuma’s drawing and find the thick, dark strokes of a city skyline, towers and domes and boxy apartment buildings.

“Artsy,” you tell him, smiling when he appears in your line of vision upside-down. “You sure about this computer science thing? You’re too creative.”

“That’s what my mom said,” he chuckles, capping the Sharpie and sitting down beside you. As you sit up, he leans back on his hands and glances over at you. “I told her about you. She’d love you. I mean, I’m pretty sure she already does.” He hesitates. “Is that weird? Too soon?”

“No,” you grin. “I—that’s really sweet, actually. I would love to meet your mom.” Your gaze softens at the relieved smile that crosses his face. “Gotta thank her for raising a guy like you, anyway.”

You realize you want Takuma to meet your family too—you want to show him all the corners of your too-small town, show him the place you grew up. It made you who you are—it led you here, to him, after all.

“So,” you say, tilting your head. “When you say you wanna be a producer. Where do you mean? Like, LA?”

He shrugs. “Probably. But I’m sure it’s more competitive there than anywhere else. I feel like the major hubs are there and New York, but I wouldn’t mind somewhere quieter, either.” He loops an arm around you, and your head finds its way to his shoulder. “What about you, world-class journalist?”

You grin, thinking of all the places you haven’t been, all the places you want to go. “Anywhere and everywhere. I just wanna see it all. I wanna travel.”

“You should!” He sounds genuinely excited about the concept, and you lift your head, taking in the expression on his face—he looks the way he did when he was talking about making an EP, like the world is full of possibilities and he wants to see them all play out. “You’d be so good at it. Being a travel writer or international correspondent or whatever.” He clears his throat. “I read some of your stuff, y’know.”

“What?” Suddenly you’re racking your brain for every piece you’ve published in the JU Journal, overly critical of your own work in hindsight. “I didn’t know.”

“It’s good. Really good, Skip, seriously.” He reaches out and tugs a wayward strand of hair behind your ear, and you find yourself leaning into the contact.

You aren’t sure what to say, so you settle on a soft, “Thank you.” Somehow, the idea of Takuma going out of his way to read your work feels personal on the same level that writing a song together does. Taking in your words, your ideas, internalizing them. What is intimacy if not that intellectual exchange?

“I think you’re going to be a really good producer.” It’s his turn to blush. “I mean it. Not everyone has the perspective for it, or the ear. But you do.”

“Ah, well, I—”

“Am not good at taking compliments?” you cut him off, raising a brow. “Mm, we’ll fix that.” He laughs, and you’re leaning in to kiss him like it’s the most natural thing in the world. Maybe it is the most natural thing in the world.

It’s late October, and you are not the least bit cold.

—

Your hands need to stop sweating before you lose a drumstick or something.

Shibuya Incident has about twenty minutes before you’re all due on stage for the finals, and The Fix is alive with students and lights and drinks and music and chatter. You’re out on the floor tonight, off to the side for easy access to the stage once Black Flash clears out.

“We’re kicking off with the reigning champions of the Battle of the Bands,” Panda booms, throwing an arm out as the band takes the stage. “You know ‘em, you love ‘em, they’re every genre and no genre, covers and originals, brass and wind. Give it up for Black Flash!”

You whoop just as loud as anyone else here, grinning at Nobara’s animated cheering from closer to the center of the floor. Miwa walks right up to the mic and takes it off the stand, the neck of her white electric in her other hand. “Hey, folks!” She brushes her bright blue hair out of her face and shouts, “Y’all ready to hear some good music?”

She has the sort of infectious enthusiasm that could work on pretty much anyone, and before you know it you and Kirara are spinning each other around to the beat of a synth-heavy pop song that sounds like it came straight out of the 80s. The instrumentals are simple but tight, and Miwa jumps around, engaging the crowd, belting like she doesn’t have a care in the world.

“They’re good,” you catch Megumi saying lowly, probably to Yuji, but Takuma’s the one who answers.

“If I tell you the power of friendship will lead us to victory—”

“No.”

“Well, okay, you’re no fun.”

Kirara turns around and plants a hand on her hip, looking at Megumi. “Fushiguro, we’re fine. We’re going out with a badass new single and not one but two percussionists. We’ve never sounded this good.”

“Just being the token pessimist,” he sighs, cracking a reluctant half-smile. “I know we’re good.”

Yuji elbows him playfully. “Mr. Realist.”

Black Flash segues into a second track, an ABBA cover that has you dancing without thinking, and Takuma catches your eye and grins, moving along with you. And all too soon it’s over, a third song come and gone, and Panda’s back up on stage and the five of you are hopping up over the side to make your way to your places. Hakari and another tech have already swapped out the kits, and you settle yourself in the comfort of your own throne, your own pedals, flipping on the snare and pounding the kick a few times.

Yuji’s bouncing on the balls of his feet, grinning at you. “You got this,” he mouths, shaking his tambourine at you.

You truly have no idea where he got a tambourine.

“What happened in Shibuya? Who the hell knows?” Panda shouts, riling up the crowd. “Give it up for Shibuya Incident!”

That’s your cue. You look at Kirara, who nods with a conspiratorial smile, and then Megumi, who plucks out a few notes in answer. Yuji’s already giving you a grin and a thumbs-up. And Takuma… he’s already stepped into his on-stage confidence, all relaxed, easygoing performer, and the look he gives you has energy coursing through your fingertips like an electric shock.

You hold your sticks above your head, clicking them loud on the lower end of the shaft, and shout, “One, two, three, four!”

You are alive.

The first track is another pulled from their EP, and you’ve listened to it probably an embarrassing number of times—you know Yuji’s part down to the sixteenth note, the roll, the rest, but you don’t hesitate to put your own spin on it, and he’s alight with the same energy beside you, messing around with a tambourine and a few other aux instruments near a mic of his own, since he’s also doing backup vocals tonight.

Your hands are moving fast, your feet pumping the pedals of their own accord, an instinct, and it’s over before you know it, a sheen of sweat already forming under the stage lights. You grin, catching your breath, wiping your hands on your jeans as Takuma introduces the band.

From your place near the back of the stage, you get more of the low feedback than anything else, but you definitely hear when he says Shibuya Incident and the crowd responds raucously in kind.

“That’s Kirara Hoshi on guitar and vocals,” he says, pointing to her as she does her little riff.

“Yeah, Kira!” You have no idea where Hakari’s voice is coming from, but it’s unmistakable.

“We got Fushiguro back there on the bass,” Takuma continues, and Megumi gives the crowd an unbothered nod, showing off his own instrument for a moment. “Itadori’s back here on aux and vocals.” He pauses to let the crowd shout for Yuji and then adds, “And filling in for him on kit, we’ve got the legendary drummer from Cursed Technique. Everyone give it up for Skipper!”

You do a quick roll, laughing as your own band goes crazy—you can’t see them in the glare of the lights, but you (and everyone else) can definitely hear them.

“I’m Ino, we’re Shibuya Incident, and this next one’s gonna slow things down a little.”

This one starts with Megumi, a laid-back track with a similar vibe to the first song you ever heard Shibuya Incident perform, but a little smoother. It’s over before you know it, and then you and Kirara are launching into the new single. Even Yuji looks like he’s having the time of life on backup vocals.

“On my own,” he and Kirara harmonize, Takuma taking the lead, and you nail the next two lines with punchy cymbal-tom hits, “all the shadows look like a death threat, everybody’s waitin’ to get hit, it’s like I’m going (going) going (going) out of my mind!”

All your worries melt away as the beat drives your movements. You’re not thinking about dropping a drumstick, missing a measure, losing the competition. You’re doing what you love with people you love, and that’s all you’ve ever wanted to do.

“Think I’m seein’ double in one eye, startin’ to think this air is spiked, no one told me that’s what love is like.” Takuma lets the guitar hang and grips the mic in one hand and the stand in the other, leaning with it as he engages the crowd, and you definitely hear Nobara screaming. “You got me going (going) going (going) out of my mind, yeah, yeah.”

It’s over so fast you can barely breathe, and you’re laughing before you know what’s happening, Yuji throwing his arm around you and shouting, “You killed it!”

Takuma turns around and locks eyes with you, and you see that same adrenaline high in his gaze that you know is in yours, and when the band stumbles off stage in Panda’s wake, he grabs your hand and pulls you into a hug. “That was crazy!” he practically shouts, which is probably good, because your ears are ringing so much you probably wouldn’t have heard him otherwise.

“Guys,” Megumi says, deadpan as always, but you can see the effects of the performance even on him, his usually stoic expression unable to mask his own excitement. “I think… we might have a shot.”

“Holy shit,” Kirara says. “Skip, write the story. Resident pessimist breaks vow of negativity—”

“Oh, shut up.” Megumi elbows her as she dissolves into laughter. In the wings, you can hear the indistinct sounds of Panda’s instructions as he starts voting, and music kicks up over the speakers. Ten minutes. Ten minutes.

It’s the longest and shortest wait of your life, and then you’re back on stage with Black Flash and Panda, and it’s fucking time.

You wonder if everyone else can hear your blood roaring, too.

“Once again, an insanely tight vote,” Panda says, a hush falling over the crowd as they wait for the verdict. “Phenomenal performances from both of our final bands, but someone’s gotta win. Give it up for the champions of this year’s Battle of the Bands…”

You imagine Maki hissing under her breath for Panda to hurry it up, Nobara’s hands clasped together as she anxiously bounces on the balls of her feet, Yuta biting his lip and trying to get Toge to shut up.

Takuma’s hand is on your shoulder, Yuji on your other side, Megumi and Kirara behind you. You glance at Miwa, and she gives you a knowing look that you can’t interpret.

You almost don’t hear it.

“SHIBUYA INCIDENT!”

You don’t know which screams belong to who—maybe one of them’s yours—but you’re swept into a massive pile of musicians drunk off victory, and you’re laughing, and Miwa’s jumping up and down and saying how that was insane, guys, you were amazing, and even Mai nods at you in congratulations, and Yuji is abruptly on Todo’s shoulders, and as the stage lights turn down a bit you finally catch sight of your own band, losing their minds on the floor.

“That’s our girl!” Maki hollers, and Yuta whoops as Toge pumps a fist in the air. You realize you can’t see Nobara, and two seconds later your questions are answered when she somehow materializes on the stage, launching herself at you with a massive grin on her face.

“You did it!” she shouts. “Holy shit, Skipper!”

Everything around you is chaos and laughter and noise, but something in the center of your being is incredibly still, and you think maybe it’s contentment. In this moment, you would ask for nothing else. It is perfect.

Nobara detaches herself from you after more profuse congratulations, turning to Miwa, and the bands make their way gradually off stage. Takuma’s hand is in yours—you don’t know when that happened—and he pulls you past the band, past the wings, all the way into the drum storage room backstage.

“That was fucking amazing,” he says. “You’re fucking amazing.” His beanie is off, tucked into his pocket, his hair as wild as his eyes as wild as your heart.

You close the door.

It’s a pulse. That’s the only way you can describe it, the rush of living energy that comes with kissing Takuma Ino behind the stage of a shitty campus bar, the heat shooting through your veins in time with the throb of the bass from distant speakers. Breath on your teeth and hands in your hair, the warmth in your gut from skin-on-skin proximity, ears ringing with the sound of your name on his lips and love-blind eyes, you’re alive and addicted to a feeling you know you’ll chase forever.

—

TWO MONTHS LATER. DECEMBER 19.

The house is alive with laughter and chatter and Michael Bublé’s Christmas album spinning from the record player. The semester is over, and tomorrow you’ll scatter for winter break, home for the holidays. Nobara insisted on throwing a party before all the inevitable road trips and flights, and the main floor is strung with multicolored lights and tinsel—Yuta’s plant, Rika, even has a tiny Santa hat on.

In addition to the actual residents of the house, Takuma and the band are here, as well as Hakari, Panda, Tsumiki, Miwa, and a handful of other friends. Megumi’s even brought the dogs, who have both taken a liking to the loveseat by the window and claimed it as their own. You’ve informed Megumi that they’re going to stay here with you forever (he said no, but you don’t take orders from him).

“Okay, I’m dropping you off at ten, right?” Yuta quadruple-checks. You’re huddled in the kitchen with him and Maki—Toge was here a minute ago, but he heard someone in the living room mention Just Dance and ran off to assert his dominance or whatever.

“Oh my god, yes,” Maki answers for you. “Yuta. You wrote it down. It’s in your calendar. You live in the same house as Skip, you’re not gonna forget.” She bumps her shoulder with his and he sighs in admission.

“I know.” He smiles at you. “Just gotta make sure she gets home for the holidays. Can’t have you turning into a sad Christmas cliché on us, Skip.”

You salute him with half a gingerbread cookie. “Appreciate it.” He’s taking you to the airport tomorrow for your flight home and refuses to take your gas money, so you’re already planning on beating him to paying for the first grocery run when you get back.

“Things with Mai are good?” you ask, glancing at Maki. She shrugs noncommittally but doesn’t correct you, which is a good sign. She and her sister met up the week after the Battle of the Bands for coffee, which you genuinely thought was a joke when she told you about it. They’re both going home for Christmas and have apparently decided to try and like each other a little more openly. And she actually showed up tonight, which you have to admit you weren’t entirely expecting.

“Yuta!” Toge hollers from the other room. “You have to come do Rasputin with me!”

Yuta groans, looking pleadingly at Maki like she can get him out of this, but she just grins. “You heard him.”

“You hate me.”

“Yeah,” Maki says fondly. Yuta, defeated, goes to join Toge in the dance of death. Maki whispers to you that she’s going to record it for blackmail and slips out after him.

Tsumiki appears beside you, drink in hand, and leans against the wall. She tilts her phone screen toward you and you see it’s the Journal website analytics.

The top story right now is yours. You grin. “Oh, wow. I didn’t realize.”

“I expected it,” she admits, tucking her phone back in her pocket and gazing out across the room. “Look, I’ve been meaning to tell you. We won’t start the application process until spring sem, but, if you want it,” she glances at you, a grin tugging at the corners of her mouth, “I really think you should apply for editor-in-chief, Skip.”

Your mouth opens and closes without anything of use coming out, and Tsumiki laughs. “You don’t have to, but—”

“No!” you blurt, grinning. “I—I want to. I would love to. I was planning on it. I just didn’t know you… wanted me to.” Kusakabe’s just the advisor—when it comes to actually hiring the next editor, Tsumiki has the final say. Her endorsement is as good as a job offer. “I… thank you, Tsumiki.” You look down, suddenly overwhelmed by the words. “Big shoes to fill.”

“Aw, none of that,” she says, stealing a cookie from the tray on the counter next to you. “I literally can’t think of anyone better.” With a wink, she disappears through the doorway, where Kirara and Nobara are talking animatedly. Nobara gestures to you when she catches your eye.

“Dude, our listens are shooting up!” she says, shoving her phone into your hands. Your EP dropped mid-November, six tracks recorded in the studio with Takuma and Hakari, and you’ve performed better than you ever expected. The analytics show a sharp uptick that’s probably in large part due to Panda playing your stuff on the radio station.

You whistle, leaning on Nobara’s shoulder. “Awesome.”

Kirara leans against the wall, considering. “You guys thought about what you’re gonna do next year?”

Truthfully, you’ve really tried not to. The idea of Maki and Yuta graduating is so bittersweet. But graduation means Shibuya Incident will have a hole in their band, too. Kirara will be gone.

“You know, I’ve been thinking,” Nobara muses. “We could join forces. If we lose Maki and Yuta and Kirara, the only thing we’re doubled up on is drums and lead.”

It’s not a bad idea. And if Yuji is track captain next year and you get that editor job, neither of you will have as much time for the band—switching off could actually be very helpful. You hum, considering. You’ll have to talk to the others.

“Oi,” Kirara says, reaching out to poke you with a socked foot. “Your boyfriend’s in lost puppy mode over there.” You glance into the living room to see Takuma scanning the room next to Megumi and the dogs, probably looking for you.

“Dumbass,” you say fondly, and nod goodbye to Nobara and Kirara before making your way over to him. The boys are halfway through Rasputin and Yuta is, much to Toge’s chagrin, kicking ass. Toge looks like he’s just run a half marathon.

Takuma lights up when he sees you, a mischievous smile appearing on his face as he intercepts you by the hall entrance.

“Oh, wow, what is that?” he asks cheekily, and tilts your chin up to see a piece of mistletoe hanging from the ceiling. That was definitely Nobara’s doing. “Crazy that we just happened to—”

You cut him off, dragging him in by the shirt and kissing him, and makes a surprised sound that has you smiling against his lips.

“Crazy,” you repeat after you pull back, relishing the flush on his cheeks. Even after dating him for two months (as of today), every reaction you get out of Takuma makes your heart rate bump up a few beats. “Oh!” he says, suddenly remembering something. “Wait, c’mere, I have something for you.”

“Takuma!” You swat at him. “I told you not to—”

“Boo hoo,” he says, sticking his tongue out and dragging you toward your room, where he dumped his stuff earlier. You quietly close the door behind you as Takuma digs around his bag, standing up with his hands behind his back. “It’s Christmas and it’s been two months. You have no defense. Close your eyes.”

You do, giggling a little as he grabs your hand and presses something into it—something soft. “Okay,” he says, and you open your eyes to see a little stuffed penguin perched in the palm of your hand. It’s fucking adorable.

“Oh my god!” you cry. “Oh, he’s so cute! Takuma.” You cradle the penguin to your chest with both hands, grinning.

“It’s you!” he says, laughing. “Not official Madagascar merch, but I thought it was pretty cute. Your own lil’ Skipper.”

“I love it,” you say, making the penguin do a little dance in the air. You grab its tiny wing and poke Takuma on the nose with it. “Thank you.”

“Merry early Christmas.” His nose scrunches up a little in thought. “Early Merry Christmas? What’s the right way to say that?”

“Happy early nondenominational holiday of your choice,” you say teasingly, because the public university won’t actually say Christmas despite the decorations all around campus.

It’s a running joke among the entirety of the student body that the massive tree in the arts lobby is not a Christmas tree but a secular modern art installation. There are variations of insane alternate tree names on the school meme accounts. The knockoff JU Barstool page even got in on it, and the student groups hosting the Hanukkah and Kwanzaa celebrations.

Takuma’s answering laugh is bright and it follows you as you cross the room to your desk, pulling a box out of the second drawer. “Your turn.”

“What?” He has the audacity to look confused. “Skip—”

You hold up the penguin. “Objection denied!” The box is light and square, and you watch excitedly as he opens it.

“Oh my god,” he says when he realizes what’s inside. “No way. These are the exact ones—how did you even—?”

You had to do some investigating to figure out the precise guitar strings he uses, but what's your journalism degree for if not this?

“Who knows?” You shrug playfully. “Maybe it’s the psychic powers, maybe it’s the housemate I begged to sneak into your room and find out.”

Kirara was more than willing. “Good thing you came to me and not Itadori,” she laughed. “That kid can’t be subtle to save his life.” Takuma’s strings have been on the brink for a while, and you’re honestly shocked none of them have given out yet.

“They’re perfect,” Takuma laughs, setting the box back on your desk. “I love them. I love you.”

He says it so easily it takes you a moment to realize what just happened. He freezes, mouth opening and closing like he doesn’t know what words he’s looking for.

“I—uh,” he says eloquently. “It’s—I mean. I didn’t mean to—I mean, I didn’t mean to say it like that but I did mean it, you don’t have to say it back, if it’s too soon or you—”

Instead of cutting him off verbally, you grab him by the shoulders and press your lips to his. His eyes are wide when you pull back, despite the way he relaxed into the kiss on instinct.

“Hey,” you laugh, one hand trailing up to the back of his neck. “I love you, too.”

The excited smile that spreads across his face is slow and hesitant, like he can’t believe you reciprocate. You pull him back in and feel his grin against your lips, his hands coming to rest at your waist, warm.

“Thank god,” he murmurs between breaths. “Because I keep almost accidentally saying it, and it was gonna happen sooner or later.”

“Least it didn’t happen over the phone,” you grin, your hand skating down his arm and coming to rest in his.

Sheepishly, he admits, “Almost did. Yesterday.” Your laugh is bright and so is his answering one, and you perch your little stuffed penguin atop the guitar strings and tug Takuma toward the door.

“Okay, lover boy. Back to the outside world.”

“Lover boy, huh?” he teases. “Kay, pretty girl.”

“Couple of cheesy ass romantics we are.”

“Mm.” He presses a kiss to your temple, the action so casual and unthinking you want to melt. “Wouldn’t have it any other way.”

The second you step back into the living room, Yuta grabs you by the elbow and presses a Wii remote into your hand.

“Oh, no. Yuta—”

The song’s been chosen for you, and Toge has passed the remote to Maki, who looks like she’d rather die than give a rousing performance of TiK ToK by Ke$ha.

“Well, at least it’s you,” she says. Toge tries to discreetly pull his phone out, but Maki gives him a death glare that could send a grown man to his grave. He nearly drops it in his hurry to shove it back into his pocket.

You snort, patting Maki sympathetically on the shoulder. “Let’s kick ass.”

Three hours later, everyone has somewhat settled down, sprawled across furniture and countertops and the carpeted floor. Yuta’s grabbed an acoustic from the basement and it’s being passed around, goofy Christmas songs overlapping with the still-spinning record player.

You enrolled here with the intention of building a new life, finding a new purpose—new faces, new music, a new place to call home. And you feel like you’ve found it. This is the point of college. You’re surrounded by the best people you’ve ever known, and your heart is practically overflowing with how much you fucking love them all.

After all, your heart is not a finite thing. You’ve just got an endless supply of affection, and you’re not scared of it.

Love is the right word, you think, letting your head fall onto Takuma’s shoulders, legs tucked up beneath you on the couch.

“I love you,” you whisper, just to say it. When he whispers your name, your real name, in the shell of your ear, something in your chest sparks a little. He makes it sound like a song.

“I love you, too.”

directory | prev.

jjk taglist open: just send me a message!

@shutuppeter @mikikkoo @reactwithjan @theclassbookworm @lilactaro @bisforbuse @risararelywrites @idkidk32 @gojodickbig @stargazing-with-choso @anonymity-222 @honeyyhuggs

a/n: that’s a wrap on out of my mind! ahh! i loved this one a lot, and it has so much spinoff potential i’m going a little crazy with it—keep an eye out for the megumi spinoff dropping soon. if you want to be alerted when it drops, lmk and i’ll put you on the jjk taglist. also, greta wrote a sukuna spinoff here—go read!

@bitchkay i need you to know your reblog tags give me life and you were fucking RIGHT ON THE MONEY with these developments

i’m not sure if i’ll start writing other fandoms or not—if y’all would want to see attack on titan or blue lock do let me know!

[vraisetzen]

Ooo I see! Glad to be the one who asked then 🤭 how about Kokupuffs reaction to reader getting hurt/wounded by another demon whilst she was away on a mission as a hashira (more-so if thought to be followed in the same storyline of one of your written work ‘Notte stellata”; when Koku’s twisted need and lust for the reader just began, like in the early chapters, seeking her out at night, only now finding her returned with wounds from an earlier encounter, the other demon’s scent reeking off of her, almost replacing his own markings upon her body..? (As if it’s some pest messing with HIS ‘prey’, if it makes sense)

Or, perhaps, any smutty, yandere type short fic of Michi in a modern au setting and reader? (TBH, would love to see more yandere Kokushibo or Michikatsu x reader fics/hcs💔 love to see just how they’d depict he’d act..)

𝑼𝒏𝒅𝒆𝒓 𝒀𝒐𝒖𝒓 𝑺𝒌𝒊𝒏 — 𝑨 𝑲𝒐𝒌𝒖𝒔𝒉𝒊𝒃𝒐 𝒙 𝑹𝒆𝒂𝒅𝒆𝒓 𝑰𝒏𝒔𝒆𝒓𝒕

Authors's Note: Thank you for the request! I recently completed a Yandere!Kokushibo fic (that you can find here, if you have not seen it!), but I also wanted to go back to your first prompt, which was too good to pass up — writing Kokushibo in the early parts of Notte Stellata was such a throwback!

Tags: NSFW, 18+, Mature content (steamy, but no smut), Mentions of blood and wounds, No use of (Y/N), Early Notte Stellata interlude — but it can definitely be read as a standalone!

Summary: Kokushibo is a little more possessive than he would let on.

One of the things you dreaded the most after a mission was tending to your wounds; even though you were a Hashira and therefore escaped the worst of any demon attacks, especially those on the lower end of the hierarchy, it was inevitable that you returned home, some way or another, with a scratch or two — nicks on your arms from snagging your sleeve against a thorned bush, scrapes on your knee from dodging a Blood Demon Art.

It was part and parcel of your creed, and you had long become accustomed to sitting in the darkness of your kitchen, lit by the flame from the stove, as you dabbed these small wounds with a soaked linen cloth of carbolic acid before wrapping them up in bandages. Unlike Sanemi, you took no pride in the scars that littered your body; as a young woman, they invited too many unwanted stares and questions from older women in town, and thus you took extra care for them to heal properly.

The back doors to your kitchen swung open with a bang, shaking the windows and rattling the pots in a frazzled din. Startled, you turned your hear around in fright, eyes wide as you beheld the silhouette that stood in the whipping wind and the light of the moon, hands hovered between tucking the bandage around your arm and throwing the bottle at the intruder.

Kokushibo crossed from the moonlight into the threshold of your house, his grand stature partly aglow by the same flickering balefire that cast your wounds into clarity. Gathering yourself, you returned to your bandages, slipping the knot beneath the layers as you kept your eyes on him. Though Kokushibo never extended you the courtesy of a greeting on his visits, his silence, coupled with his wandering gaze as he took in your presence, seemed to precede something withheld on his end.

There was a sizzling tension in the air not unlike the running currents you felt when standing beneath an electric lamp — a trepidating heatwave that lingered closer to your skin than static. The layered strands of Kokushibo's hair stood in a dark halo around his fearsome countenance, the all-seeing look of his eyes depthless and revealing not a single word. Your gaze studied his dark expression, breath hitching as you cleared your throat, breaking the spell of silence that fell over the two of you.

"It's alright; nothing more than a scratch," you assured to nobody in particular; you had no idea why you chose these words — only that you felt the need to shatter the frost that had glazed over the both of you.

Kokushibo took a step forward, the hem of his hakama brushing against your bare calves as he glared down at you; typically you would have caved under the intensity of his overwhelming presence, your knees folding beneath the weight of his unnatural gaze, but you kept your feet planted firmly on the floor, your hands curling into fists.

"Would you like to wait inside?" you added — another redundant statement. "I'll be re-"

A squeak escaped you when Kokushibo suddenly lunged for the juncture between your neck and shoulder, burying his nose into your collar and taking a seething breath. His exhalations fanned hotly over your skin, and at once you clung onto the front of his kimono to stop yourself from being knocked off your feet.

"Wha-?" you eeked out, but your words were cut off by him once more as he gritted into your ear:

"Who was it?" he demanded, arms wrapping around your back as he tugged you close against his broad chest, the heat of his body seeping through both your clothes. A trickle of sweat rolled down your neck as you released a shuddering breath, words failing to come forth.

"Who?" Kokushibo pressed, the thrum of his baritone sending a shiver down your spine.

Then, without warning, he placed his lips over a nick on the side of your neck, drawing a hiss from you as the sting of his tongue painted over the salty tang of broken skin. The groan that escaped his lips was one of displeasure as Kokushibo tightened his grip on your shoulder.

You knew instantly what he was referring to — the demon who had drew these nicks and grazes on you. In truth, it was no more than a lowly creature, dispensible with a few draw of Breaths and the quick slash of your blade; but he had been rather troublesome, his Blood Demon Art being some small, seed-like bullets that he expelled from his clawed nails. You had managed to dodge most of them, but the ones that had caught on your uniform had dug into your skin, stinging as much as an ant's bite.

Could the lower demon have left his scent on you? An Art, perhaps, for him to mark his victims and trace them in the event they tried to escape? As far as you were concerned, you could not smell a single offensive note on you. Kokushibo's response, however, suggested otherwise. His scarlet irises glowered at you as he expected your answer.

You took a deep breath, hands loosening from the front of his kimono. "Just a demon. A weak one."

"And you killed him," Kokushibo said, more as a confirmation of fact than a question.

Despite your flustered state, you were rather affronted by the insinuation of his words. "Of course I did — I am a Hashira, you know."

"Good," Kokushibo groused, angling his face to bestow a line of kisses across your jaw, each more insistent than the last. His hair tickled your chin, while yours on the nape of your neck prickled in anticipation when he finally landed on the corner of your lips. "Because I would have killed him myself had you not."

With those words, he sealed his lips over yours, stealing any words of protest from you. His fingers brushed up your arm to where you had tucked the knot beneath the coil of bandages, unfastening it with a dismissive flick of his wrist. The strips of cloth fluttered down between your feet.

Kokushibo took a step forward, and then another — cajoling you back until your tailbone hit the wooden counter. His hands were impatient, but sturdy, as they undid the silver buttons of your uniform and revealed your pallor beneath: smooth, though marked by small flecks of red from where the tiny cuts had already dried. Conscious of how he was looking unflinchingly at you, you hovered your hand over your front, uncertain of how to proceed as your ear suffused a deep pink.

It's not as bad as it looks, you wanted to say, although you know that your wellbeing was the least of his concerns. The darkness of Kokushibo's gaze deepened as he edged forward, placing his parted lips on your neck once more; this time, you felt the scrape of his canines on your skin, and you tensed in anticipation.

Yet, the sting of his bite — so familiar when he decided to be rough with you — did not come. Instead, Kokushibo suckled over the small marks peppered over your skin, breaking them again with his lips as if drawing poison from a wound; he lavished wet kisses over them as he drifted over your front, ripping your underclothes with the ease of running his fingers through a field of silvergrass.

One by one, he pored through each mark no matter how small, leaving no patch of your skin unturned as he tasted the fresh scars and replaced them with his own. On your thigh, you felt the twitch of his cock as it stirred with arousal — and once more Kokushibo growled, this time rich with hunger and lust. The bare salt of your skin, together with the tang of your blood, was an alchemical potion of desire, turning his irritation into shadowed passion with each bite and lick.

You released a shuddering breath as he coaxed you backward still, his hands slipping from your perked nipples and the tense planes of your belly to the back of your thighs. In one heave, Kokushibo guided you onto the table; keeling backward like a cornered lamb as he encroached forth, you spread your legs for him to stand between them.

You dared not cast your eyes down to your front despite the cloud of desire that shadowed your bodies for fear of glimpsing the bruises he left over in place of marks you gained. Instead, you met your gaze with his and licked your lips, your pants coming in sharp bursts.

Tipping your chip with his index, Kokushibo kissed you fiercely on this mouth — the table creaked beneath your weight and his sudden movement, and you clung onto him for fear of tipping over. But he remained steadfast as you seized the opportunity to divest him of his kimono, shrugging them inelegantly over his shoulder and tugging them down his arms.

With a careless toss, you threw his clothes to the side, and instantly hear glass crashing.

Pulling away sharply, you looked over to find that, in your haste and clumsiness, you had brought both the bottle of carbolic acid and Kokushibo's clothes to the floor. The air reeked of antiseptic, and you pushed yourself up with your hands.

"I need to clean this up," you muttered as Kokushibo leaned forward, nonchalant to the mess you made.

"That can wait," he beckoned, a hand firm on the small of your back to hold your frame against his. As if to reiterate, you felt the pulse of his erection along your inner thigh, in tandem with the first twinge of arousal in your sex. "Come."

His offer was almost impossible to resist, and you felt your arms slacken for a hair's breadth before clearing your addled thoughts with a few forceful blinks. Palms on his chest, you said: "No, I have to — there's glass all over the floor. What if we hurt ourselves?

"I won't."

"But I could."

The kitchen was stark silent as Kokushibo took in your words, and you wondered if you might have taken a step too far; his eyes, amber with dilated irises, seemed more frightening than ever, though you could now read beyond the words carved on them. He was not angry, no; he had not been when he had seen those marks on your body, and while he might have been bristled by this unexpected interlude, you remained silent and firm.

Eventually, Kokushibo took a step back; he shirked himself of his underclothes, and retreated further until you could slide off the table. Briefly, you looked up at him through your lashes, and caught a clandestine second where his eyes dropped for a split second to your body, the language behind his gaze unchanged, a tome's worth of words that you have only begun to decode. But with a flutter of his lashes, you found it indecipherable once more, their definitions slipping from your outstretched fingers.

You contented instead with grabbing a rag from the counter to sop up the spill.

"Don't keep me waiting," he said, with hardly a glance back at you, slipping past the kitchen doors to where your bedroom awaited.

Thank you for reading! For my longer writings, visit my AO3 here.

[jwirecs]

RECOMMENDED NCT FICS OF AUGUST 2023💖

hello, hello! here are my nct recs of august! hopefully these beautiful stories get more recognition as well as the writers 💝

** anything in parentheses and bolded are my thoughts that can be disregarded if needed **

🔞smut || 💔angst || 💕fluff || ✅completed || 🔄ongoing || 💯favorite

Drunk In You || @hyuckiefluff💕✅

↳ was Mark Lee’s new haircut really the drop that would tip the glass over and make you spill how you really feel about him?… Well, the haircut and also the alcohol.

Flustered || @daydreamingyuta💕✅💯

↳ Prompt: 17 “Please help me pick out an outfit.”

Listen To Me || @daydreamingyuta💕✅

↳ Prompts: #1 “I couldn’t be more in love with you.” and #11 “It’s two in the morning, why are you here?”

Live A Little || @writemekpop💕✅

↳ You knew that a holiday with your best friend Ten would be wild… you just didn’t expect to fall in love with him.

It's Raining, It's Pouring || @elix8r🔞💔✅💯

↳ Hating Mark could almost be considered your part-time job ever since Taeyong adopted him. But on one fateful night, a raging storm strikes, and with Taeyong nowhere to be found, you find yourself seeking an unlikely source of comfort - your annoying cheetah roommate.

Sorry, Who Is Mark Lee? || @dropsofletters💕💔✅

↳ she swore up and down on the night of her graduation as a doctor that she would never work with dr. mark lee. not under any setting. after all, she’s not here for people who get everything served on a silver platter just for being…nice? however, years after their graduation, mark comes back into her life not brushing his hair and talking about a new project that they are supposedly going to be working on for the next three weeks, and all hopes of not working with him die down when she realizes…maybe, she had not truly known who he was. sorry, but who the hell is mark lee?

Anon Request || @yeow6n💕✅💯💯

↳ Anon Req: have you seen the tiktok of a girl who made her boyfriend a little sprout to put on his gaming headset ??? its so cute and reminded me of hyuck 🤏🏻

Concert Tickets || @onyourhyuck💕✅💯

↳ Your boyfriend Donghyuck is a massive Bruno Mar’s fan, so you bought two concert tickets.

I'd Give Up Forever To Touch You || @martiniblues💕✅

↳ while mark is away on tour, you find yourself looking back at old memories of you two. you have grown used to spending these moments alone while mark is gone, but little do you know he is doing the same thing miles and miles away.

Love On Me || @neocitybooty🔞✅

↳ You have to choose between fulfilling the needs of your lovable boyfriend or finishing your work for the day. 

Stolen Kisses || @writemekpop🔞💕✅

↳ Sneaking off to have sex is tough with a kid in the house.

Surprise Visit || @mingyuonthemoon🔞💕✅

↳ mark pays you a surprise visit after not seeing each other for awhile

Taking Care Of My Baby || @onyourhyuck💕✅

↳ Your boyfriend Jaemin takes care of you while you’re bed ridden with a fever flu.

Two Makes A Team || @sxcret-garden🔞💕✅

↳ When both your boyfriends distract you by asking you for kisses, one thing leads to another and what you had planned to be some alone time with a good book turns into something even better…

Where Were You || @onyourhyuck🔞💕💔✅

↳ Your sweet loving boyfriend is always by your side during your bad days. What if one day, he can't be there for one of your worst?

Your Red Lipstick || @ihaechans💕✅

↳ Kisses, kisses, kisses. That’s all your boyfriend wants. When you refuse to give him the one thing he craves, he won’t leave you alone, begging and begging until you give in.

Worth A Lie || @ruwriteshour💕💔✅💯💯💯

↳ Always wallowing yourself in self-pity, you start to doubt yourself and you think it's time to end your relationship with Mark with a lie. He'll have no choice but to move on from you. It will work... right?

His Karma || @onyourhyuck🔞💕💔🔄

↳ (no summary, but really do give this one a read!)

Adult Time || @nctsplug02🔞💕✅

↳ Anon Req: hihi i'm not sure if requests are open but can you write more of milf reader with jaemin + sungchan as the kids? ♡

Bruises and Ballet Shoes || @luvyeni🔞💕✅💯

↳ jeno gets into a fight and almost misses your preformance

Close The Door Behind You || @jadeobvi🔞✅

↳ Jeno is your strict older brother who has banded Jaemin from dating you, let alone looking at you. But one night you both can’t take it anymore. All the tension has finally exploded, but you have to be careful. God forbid Jeno hears.

Fever Pitch || @nctsworld🔞💕✅💯💯💯

↳ your world is shaken up (literally) when you meet the handsome man guilty of the accidental baseball smack to your head. after a comforting meet-cute and realization that he’s the city’s ace pitcher, you two go on a date. and by the end of the night, mark thinks he’s falling for you faster than any pitch he’s thrown before.

Forget Me Too || @yutaholic🔞💕💔✅💯💯

↳ Back home after years away, you just want to fulfill your obligations as your best friend’s maid of honor and split. You don’t want to see Johnny, though you are guaranteed to run into him at some point. You broke his heart not too long ago and the last thing he ever said to you was that he hated you. And you don’t blame him.

New Religion || @suhnnyupsidedown🔞✅💯💯

↳ something along the lines of Taeyong being a married professor and him ending up sleeping with one of his students? who also happens to be sleeping with Johnny?

Racer || @smileysuh🔞💕✅💯

↳ You feel like a chew toy caught between two rottweilers, and it kills you to give Jaehyun one last look before turning your back on him, following your brother to his car. Jaehyun is watching you as you get in, and when you close the door, you let out a deep breath you hadn’t realized you were holding. “I know, what a killer race,” Johnny grins, starting his engine. “Could have been better though, he could have actually died.”

Sin & Obsession || @onyourhyuck🔞✅💯 (pt 2)

↳ You’re a faithful good girl. You attend church and you stay out of trouble. Mark is a guy that attends your church and what you don’t know is that he’s been obsessed with you for a while…

Two For One || @goldyeokki🔞💕✅

↳ you come home after a long day to your two boyfriends in skimpy maid outfits. while they fussed over you, you had completely forgotten that it was your birthday. good thing that they had something special prepared for you on your day.

Volleyball For Dummies (In Love Edition) || @jaeminvore💕✅

↳ Mark Lee has been called many things. Dedicated was one of them and that dedication lead him into joining NeoTech College's well coveted Women's Volleyball team, the NeoTech Tigers, as their manager in hopes of winning the infamous setter, Y/N's heart. But there was one problem, being academically inclined did not come with the extensive knowledge of anything related to the sport and to put it simply, Mark Lee doesn't know shit about Volleyball.

Boyfriend Material || @mochidoie💕💔✅

↳ Although you and Jaehyun had never spoken a word to each other before this class project, he asks you to be in a fake relationship in order to prove to his longtime crush that he is boyfriend material.

Getting Even || @ofjunemoment🔞💕💔🔄

↳ Haechan is notorious for his pranks. Who can forget about the one time the campus fountain was bleeding red? You were weary of never getting on his wrong side, but when you get to know him better, it seems like behind all that front he's a sweet and caring guy. That is until you get a bucket of water dunked on you straight after he promised he wouldn't pull something on you. You're not only pissed that he had fooled you like this, but that he chose such a simple prank.

Just Friends || @lonelyharmonies💕✅

↳ what happens when you wake up in someone else’s bed after getting drunk in a party?

What The Puck || @choerrypuffs💕💔✅

↳ you hit the university’s star hockey player with your car. shenanigans (and maybe even a little romance) ensue. 

Mark Texts || @justalildumbpling💕✅

↳ (just some cute ol mark texts)

NCT 127 Texts || @12926💕✅💯

↳ sending a nude & saying "it wasn't for u"

NCT Dream Texts || @ohmygs-blog💕✅💯

↳ “last night was amazing. oops wrong person”

NCT Dream Texts || @ohmygs-blog💕✅

↳ “sorry can’t hangout w you this month, haven’t gotten paid yet!!!”

NCT Dream Texts || @hugs2doie💕✅

↳ nct dream when you hit them up with a “we need to talk”

NCT Dream Texts || @hugs2doie💕✅

↳ “i was talking to my other boyfriend” prank on the dreamies

Do check out all of the other NCT Fics that i have reblogged as well!!

** if there is any fics that you guys would like to recommend, please do! i am slowly running out of fics to read **

[rahleeyah]

How do you handle it when you get comments on your stories that are hurtful/upsetting? I just started posting and I'm having a hard time handling this! I don't know how you do it 😥

Oh friend I'm sorry you're dealing with hurtful comments that's the worst 💔

If it's genuinely mean, delete it. If they're a registered user you can block them and they can't leave any more comments. If they're really trying to hurt you, the worst thing you can do is respond; don't feed the trolls. When they realize you won't rise to the bait, they'll get bored and move on.

I find i don't get a lot of intentionally hurtful comments, but I do pretty regularly get comments that I think are meant to be encouraging but come off hurtful instead, and that's harder to deal with. Like for example I get "this chapter was too short!" pretty regularly. And I think what people mean, in the context of the rest of the comment, is that they enjoyed what they got so much they didn't want it to stop, but it comes off accusatory instead. My long fic chapters are always, always, always, for the last seven years, 2000-2500 words. Always have been. That is how much I can write in an hour after work and that is how much time I have to post in a day. I've got one hour from 430-530 in which to post and I do it as often as I can, and being told it's not enough starts to weigh on me. Especially bc it's the same amount it's always been! It's tempting when something like that comes up to point out how hurtful it is. Most of the time I don't; if I keep getting it from the same person over and over, though, sometimes I snap and say something about it. I always regret it; the person (usually) didn't mean any harm, and after I point out that it's hurtful, usually either they end up hurt, or I do, and it doesn't do any good.

We've talked about this before; I don't respond to every comment because I get overwhelmed and anxious and overthink it. I am grateful for each and every one, and I desperately need those comments in order to find the motivation to keep going, but I get too scared to respond. Sometimes I think if people see too much of me they won't like the work any more. So I don't put the me into the work. I let it speak for itself.

Hold on I've gotten off track the point is

Don't assume malice on the part of the commenter. It's very human, especially in this day and age, to be defensive, to be on the look out for people trying to attack us, but they often aren't. If there's any chance the comment was meant in good faith, take it as such, and leave it alone. If you're unsure about it you don't have to respond; you can let it lie, and time will pass and you'll forget about it. 99% of the time, this is how I handle comments that I find hurtful but are not overtly mean. Sometimes I slip up (this is especially likely if it's first thing in the morning, 6 am Leah is a terror) and I can say, from experience, you'll be happier if you let it go.

A thing my dad always says: be the duck. Let it roll off you like water off a duck's back, and keep moving. Don't let it weigh you down 💜

[hermesserpent-stuff]

Posting here to not forget. Just snippets of ideas and their order. Spoilers ahead

Killing the red queen and then Hiccup's out and down

Clelia sails towards the Acumens home island at Ryker's request, they are going to talk to the soothsayer about their futures and if they are a good match

Harsh winter (forgot what I called it in fic) comes early and she gets wrecked on sweet swarmer island

Ryker is : 💔💔💔💀

Hiccup is out cold till mid harsh winter

Clelia makes friend with dragons after murderizing a threat dragon- she still plans to go back yo Ryker (building her as a foil to worst mom of the year award winner 20 years in a row valka)

Harsh winter ends and hiccup is a bit better.

Hiccup and Dagur shot down but only hiccup and toothless are capture by the grumborns

Clelia flies from the island she's been stuck on with a sweet swarmer scout which is a sub part of the species interested in starting a new hives.

Clelia lands on the bloodwrath island and ends up looking after Dagur for a tiny bit before convincing him to let her go talk on his behalf to the Grimborns + " if Ryker was knowingly trying to kill you, despite having looked so hard for you, he is not the man I thought had won my affections."

????

????

Profit.

And gods

[devilagent]

💔Least favorite ship for the muse?

i think out of all the pairings with him, i'll say the most least favorite that came to mind which is Nicholas/Angelique

i got a separate ask regarding the both of them so i will save a lot of my ramblings for when i reply to that one! but i'll keep this one a bit more brief for now.

i have expressed this privately already, but i view nicholas and angeliques relationship as disastrous siblings. i am aware that nicholas being her brother is merely a ruse ( which i will also discuss more in the other reply ) - but even with that being said i enjoy viewing their dynamic from a #worst sibling ever lens

i may been influenced by not so lovely fics i have read on this pairing as well, most often ending up abusive on nicholas' part toward angelique ... which doesn't really sell the ship for me. i do understand the appeal that people have towards them in a romantic sense, as for me i view their relationship in a more nuanced way than that!

my secondary choice - which may come as a surprise to some people maybe considering how passionate i am about them - is Maggie/Nicholas

don't get me wrong, there is no doubt in my mind that nicholas would treat her like a queen and she could do no wrong in his eyes, it is already canonly established that he treats her with upmost love, tenderness and devotion. and his feelings for her are sincere, the closest he has ever been to sincerity. but even with that being said, i cannot see them together as an actual couple. for multiple reasons, none of which has to do with nicholas feelings or how he'd act in a relationship with her. nope! his devotion to maggie is unquestionable.

a very glaring reason would be the fact, simply put, that nicholas butted into maggie & joes pre-existing relationship together and sabotaged the both of them. he inflicted a lot of suffering onto joe in particular, not only to get him out of the picture but to appear like a compassionate shoulder to cry on for maggie. it is very much on purpose, because joe is a good man, and nicholas wanted to appear the same way to attempt to win over maggie.

another reason, which is probably the biggest factor of all, is that maggies heart belongs to joe. that is not to say that she doesn't have any feelings for nicholas, i do believe she does even in spite of the fact nicholas set it up that way, however her feelings for him really pale in comparison to her absolute love of joe haskall. he is truly the love of her life! and he was with her long before nicholas entered into the picture.

maybe in an AU scenario it'd be interesting, although i don't really have much interest to explore that personally. i have said this many times privately, but i think nicholas as a character would benefit greater by accepting he cannot be with her.

i do feel that he will always love her though, no matter whether he can be with her or not. it'll be difficult for him. but for the sake of progressing his character forward and allowing character growth, he needs it. his character circles around maggie whereas i think she was a good catalyst for his character vs revolving around her.

[porkcutletbowl44]

Took me a while to finish reading chapter 15 and 16 since I literally forgot I had tumblr or any social media this week, but I finally read them and I'm crying so much now-

The way you mix aganst with comfort in chapter 15 made me cry a whole sea. I'm currently on my period so whenever mama was upset I was sobbing even louder than her😭 and I fucking loved the chapter. I didn't think it was possible for me to hate even more Simon on this fic but you proved me wrong, AND HE MAKES ME FEEL SO CONFUSED TOO. I mean, dude why the fuck are you acting like that??? It makes me so mad when he's saying "Oh, I was just playing with you like we used to-" you divorced her without even giving an proper explanation to her and engaged with another woman. I'm really frustrated that he only notices he's making things worse when they're already bad💔 but Keegan's a sweetheart compared to him.

Honestly I love whenever he's in scene, he's just better than Simon in many ways and it makes me so emotional when there's comfort/agnst with him involved. A great thing about chapter 15 in my opinion it's when mama says she misses Simon, even when he's being a huge asshole, because it makes her seem even more relatable to. Had a very shitty partner in the past, and as someone who has attachment issues, it's hard to forget and move on even when they did some traumatizing stuff (I better now btw), and the fact that's noticeble that she's still struggling to move on makes her so more real than most of MC in fanfictions. I'm very excited to see her moving on from her past relationship and fully giving a chance to have a new one with Keegan, they deserve a happy ending😞💔. I also liked the fact that mama's slowly knowing a bit more about him, and I hope in the future we see a bit more of these "silly" and calm interactions between them.

About chapter 16, it make me feel so many mixed feelings. It made me sad, frustrated, happy and so many other things I can't quite tell. The first part(when mama and Keegan are with the Ghosts) made me so happy, mostly because Hesh is my favorite character in CoD Ghosts and I was itching to see more of mama's interactions with them since the last time they showed up in the fic. I was so mad when Ghost showed up after that, he only appears in the WORST moments😭. I was shocked when Simon implied that Keegan would do anything with her without her consent, I even had to reread it because I was in pure disbelief on what I had just read. It also made me even more confused and curious about his behaviour towards mama. He acts like they're still married sometimes, and in chaptee 15 he even showed that Collen makes him annoyed, like if he was going to replace his ex-wife with another woman, couldn't he at least pick a more tolerable one??? His behaviour makes me even more furious and confused, and I really wish we see some of his reassons to have a divorce soon because it's making me so gsjdhskshsihxs(idk what else can describe what this man makes me feel besides of that😞)

And talking about words, I'm fucking obssessed with your writing and the variety of words you use to portray feelings, places and EVERYTHING. Don't think I mentioned it before but it's amazing to see different words being used to talk about the same things, helps me a lot to increase my vocabulary. And btw I'm the annon who made you cry after sending a gigant text about chapter 14 and Far From Perfect as a whole, sent a annonymous ask first because I was lowkey worried I would get ignored because my ask was ridiculously big(already happened once with another writers💔) so I decided to send a annon ask first. But going back to the fanfic, the flashback we had with Price made me start to inquire if Simon had ever commented about anything related to the divorce, engaging with another woman to him or anything related to it, even if in a rhetorical manner. I think that's the first flashback that made me truly curious about Simon's past and what made him decide to have the divorce, before that mostly they only made me feel melancholy about it, and probably it's my favorite flashback so far.

Anyways, I hope you can continue with this wonderful fanfiction since it makes me insane(in a good way) to see whatever happens next, and I also hope you can fully recover from your ear infection soon💞💞💞

Okay first off, I love you. JUST TAKE IT, I DONT NEED IT 🤲🏻🩷🥹

I do promise there will be lots of interactions with Keegan and mama just chilling, hanging out and relaxing, the fluffy stuff, there will most definitely be more GHOSTS and 141 stuff.

And I feel as though I should say that I probably won't ever delete a ask, I haven't received any negative feedback in my inbox or double questions that I'd have to answer twice AND I ABSOLUTELY WILL NEVER DELETE A ANON RANT BECAUSE THEY MAKE MY WHOLE DAY 😍

I'm sorry for your sadness (there will be a lot of angst) BUT THERES COMFORT AND FLUFF TO EVEN IT OUT

I'm low-key just obsessed writing the interactions, Fawn and Keegan is TOO CUTE TO NOT WRITE, And soft Johnny EUGHHH💖 (I also can't help but write the confusing stuff for Simon just to hear the theories 👀)

Simon's just a little silly, don't mind him 🫢😅

PLEASE TAKE CARE! AND THANK YOU FOR THIS WONDERFUL SUBMISSION! 🫶🏻

[rrxnjun]

(im really stupid but i hope u like this fanletter 😭)

hello <3 this is for my favourite writer on tumblr; to the the same writer who does not realise how much their works could mean to someone, the lovely @rrxnjun 🎀 !!!

so, i found your blog at the beginning ot this month– november, 2023, and now that the month's about to end, i have nearly finished reading all your nct works.

to me, this month is the most special one of this year. why? because i found your blog, your stories– some pieces of your mind. i found you through one of those nct fanfic recs, 'take the stairs - njm' being the first work i read from you. it was sweet, it made me happy. and then i read the other two parts of the 'simplify romance' series, which will always hold a special place in my heart.

this year has been the worst for me, with no one for me to lean on to, weird identify crisis shit, and losing myself in this tiring process of growing up. but you know what? you saved 2023 for me. when no one's words could speak to me, yours did. you make me feel a little less lonely.

im a silly teenager, who never read sad/mainly angsty stories before i found you because i was scared, i was confident i'd cry. and i did. i gathered the courage to read angst only because you'd written it, and it was so worth it. ive stayed up so many nights this month just to read your works in peace and privacy, hidden from my family, and then spend the days thinking about how you literally create art, and telling my bestfriends about it. you are blessed. you are phenomenal. no amount of thank yous or i love yous could be enough for me to express my gratitude. you've made me feel so at peace with my thoughts sometimes and you've made me feel like i'm not alone. you have magic in your hands. i owe you so much, i wish i could gift you something, but sadly im still a minor and theres a few years until i finish uni and then get a job, and then i promise i'll get you something, because i am so lucky to be able to read your stories for free. you deserve so much more than followers, likes and reblogs. each one of your fics have made me tear up and all of them are too special for me.

this month ive read all of your nct dream '00 line fics, and my favourite was 'happier than ever' which i finished a week ago— AND I SWEAR THAT FIC DESTROYED ME 😭😭😭 it had me bawling my eyes out for two hours on a school night i love it so so fucking much, i literally think about it daily and i told all my friends about it and im so in love with it, please tell me, for my inner peace that renjun and the reader ended up getting together and being fine because im gonna cry over it for the rest of my life IDC IF THEY DIDNT END UP TOGETHER please lie to me and tell me they did 💔💔💔💔💔😭😭😭😭😭😭😭

i want you to know, and to remember this whenever you feel even a little like giving up— you have magic, bar, don't ever let go of that magic.

your stories make me want to heal and to help everyone heal. to be loved and to love everyone. to be cared for and care for everyone. your magic helps me survive my days with a little smile. thank you so much for everything you've done for me, without realising you're helping me live.

every single word i wrote here– i swear on everything i have, i genuinely mean it. you are the best thing that happened this year :) i hope that one day someone will love you as much as i love your blog.

(me when i talk about your work)

P.S. permission to take a screenshot of your blog and paste it to my scrapbook by which i can remember my teenage years that your stories mended, please?

thank you for reading, ily ❤️

- your biggest fan (hopefully no one's more dedicated!!) 💘

when i saw this in my inbox i got so emotional i couldnt reply immidiately because i genuinely wanted to sob. this is so so sweet and it mustve taken a long time to type out and i appreciate you a WHOLE lot, not only for this, but also for supporting me sm over the last month. :,)

take the stairs is a very sweet and fun fic and i am glad you found my blog through this one, haha. the simplify romance series holds my favorite fics and i PROMISE to finish jeno's entry at the beginning of the next year!! it HAS to be done. it means a lot to me that you took the time of your day to read my works and that you enjoyed them so much to let me know.

i am happy to hear that my work could help you through some hard times. as a reader on this platform as well, i do know that feeling very well and i could never imagine being that person to someone, but i am glad my words could be there for you when no one else could. hearing this makes all the effort feel worth it, and it's something i'll think of whenever im having a hard time with my work again. i also hope life is nicer to you in the future, and if you ever need someone, my inbox is always open.

having my fics be called art is something i never imagined could happen. it's beyond what i think about my work, but i am honored to hear this compliment, truly. despite being a writer i cant find the words to express my gratitude towards you and your supportive words right now >:( it does mean the whole entire world to me. please do NOT worry about "paying me back" or something, i do this because it's what i love doing and sharing my work with others makes me happy, so an ask like this is more than enough for me. you made me feel really appreciated and i will remember and treasure your kind words forever.

happier than ever is definitely a heavier read, since it's partly from personal experience, hh. i tend to project on renjun a lot so take this as a warning for my other renjun fics LMAO. TT this fic has a special place in my heart and hearing you talk so highly about it makes me all warm on the inside hhhhh my love langugage is words of affirmation stop this or ill cry. i enjoy leaving my fics open-ended to interpretation of the reader, so whatever you feels fits their story is how the story ends for you. <3

i will definitely use this ask as a reminder to not give up when i feel like doing so. it really brought me a lot of strength :) thank you for calling my writing magic. i never imagined someone describing it that way, but it does feel good to hear haha

knowing that my work helped somebody and made them heal and feel all sorts of emotions inside makes me feel at peace. thank you so much. SO much.

also u really make me want to bawl with that scrapbook comment. cant believe im an important part of someone's teenage years :((

once again, words cant express how much this means to me. thank you and i hope my fics continue to be a source of good things for you :) i will think of this often. ily

[valkyrieandstrangeridingaragorn]

I had to look up that "The House Rules" song (I've never heard that before lol), it's such a cool bop 🔥🔥

It is absolutely disheartening when the character tags are so saturated with shipping that it's like those two characters can only come in ~romantic~ package deal. Just refreshing the newly updated fics on the "Doctor Strange (movies)" tag on Ao3 is enough to see what's the preference...

Yeah I've always preferred to go for platonic stuff 😂 for quite some time I managed to put up with shipping long enough to enjoy some fics on that side, but now I'm going through a period of complete romance repulsion. In times of desperation I've even sifted through "not Steve friendly" things, but never managed it for long :P

I want to shake your hand for managing to survive as a fan of Doctor Strange, Steve Rogers and Loki while being anti Tony Stark 🤝 That must be even more rough than just not enjoying shipping 💔

At this point I should probably sign myself. Hm. Perhaps an emoji. (goes through the food emojis) I effing love nigiri. Here, have some nigiri XD

- 🍣

I'm glad you liked the song, it's a classic!

I don't use Ao3 but I can assume all his tags are with Clea. It's very tempting, not gonna lie, given that it's Charlize playing her and she's such a fantastic actress, can't really blame the fans there 😜 But from what I remember when I used to browse the site, it was kind of difficult to find something that wasn't Stephen with Christine or Stark or someone else. It's not easy to navigate when you're in the middle of a "romance repulsion" as you put it but all you see is ships everywhere. I think that's one of the reasons I stopped reading fanfic altogether.

And the worst part about this is that every time I've seen someone try to discuss the overabundance of ships, things get heated so freaking quickly. It shouldn't be so hard to try and understand each other, I'm sure shipping is great for those who do it but there's nothing wrong with someone saying they don't like romance or they would like something else or they prefer their characters to stay as friends and nothing more. It almost feels like for some people it's part of their identity and they see it as a personal attack whenever we express we prefer platonic stuff to romantic, which is a shame because at the end of the day we all want the same thing: for those characters to have a connection of some sort.

I commend you for browsing the 'not Steve friendly' part of fic though, I could never do that myself! I've tried... but I'm so biased when it comes to Steve and it would just make me mad 🤷‍♀️😂

It is rough to be a fan of those 3 and not like Stark, I can assure you. The IronStrange ship shocked me the first time I saw it and it still does, I just don't see how people can think Stephen would like Stark or worse, they claim they're the same? I don't get it, they're nothing alike. They say the same about Steve even though he spent most of the movies looking at him like he was a pest or something, but since he was never allowed to call him out in later movies (especially in IW/EG where he went from trying to stop him from murdering his best friend to calling him "Earth's best defender") it is assumed he realized his mistake and started to like him. Um... I don't think so!

Oh, and thank you for the nigiri! You're my nigiri anon now 😂👌

[gojonanami]

Sab, my dearest, my beloved, the light of my life,

I know I'm two weeks late (and that a certain professor would be on my ass for it) but I had the wonderful idea of re-reading the whole Prof Geto series before reading part 6, thinking it would make for the best emotional impact and after doing just that I have to say... my hypothesis was correct. There wasn't a single second where I regretted my decision (except, maybe when I had to read the breakup scene again 😭), not a single dull word in the +90k masterpiece you wrote (isn't that the length of a novel!?), the flow of your writing is just so good, the dialogue, the internal conflict of the characters... I loved all of it, Sab. This series holds a special place in my heart and I'll probably read it time and time again in the future ❤️❤️❤️

And this chapter– god. I really have no words, it was just a whirlwind of emotions. I was giggling and kicking my feet in the hair like a teenager and I even cried at some point. I loved the beginning, the raw emotion of seeing each other again after what happened, the longing... the way Suguru and Yuta felt so conflicted about their feelings for the reader, and her getting jealous over Mei Mei... omg.

I also loved how Geto helped her with the citations of her dissertation (they were my worst nightmare during undergrad) and hated how Yuta broke up with her right after she presented it. How could he ruin such and special day like that!!! (Ofc I know it made sense to have it happen right then, but gosh 😭💔) but anyway, regarding Yuta... I love how you've set up his part. I'll love to read it when the time comes ❤️❤️

Oh! And the way Yaga *knew*. Now I can't believe that the whole reader assigned as a T.A thing wasn't tampered by him in some way– he had to play a part in that, and I bet he wasn't too fussed with them sharing a hotel room, as long as Suguru was happy hahah.

And then, the passion in his office, the reconciliation and the ending... I had to stop reading a couple of times because I was getting way too emotional, Sab. It was beautiful. I can't wait to see more of them in the extra credit fics (!!) I really hope you make a proposal one <3

I wanted to thank you for writing this series, I've loved it more than I could ever expect to and I believe it came to me in a point of my life where it just... made sense. I was stressed and unsure about continuing in academia and I believe I told you a few months back that I was applying to grad school... well, I got accepted and then hired as a research assistant at the same university!! This is as close as it gets to me living reader's life though I'll keep living vicariously through her for a while longer, I think.

Anyway– I believe I'm babbling now. I just want to thank you again for writing this wonderful series. I'm so excited for Prof Gojo and all the wonderful things you'll write in the future, Sab ❤️

baby, love of my life, the sun to my earth

haha I think prof geto would more than forgive you — especially after the diligent work you did rereading — dare I say he would be very impressed—and I am too omg

I cannot believe you read all 90K+ that’s insane and it means so much to me 😭🥹 thank you so much — it truly means the world to me because I had so much fun writing it!! it was really a special series to me and will continue to be as I write more extra credit fics :).

ahhh I can’t believe you cried 😭 I’m sorry but also thank you haha. it’s the biggest compliment 😭🥹 I really wanted to convey both yuta and suguru’s conflicted emotions — and I’m glad they came across 😭 writing mei mei was so fun because it was very spur of the moment — and I love jealous reader 🥹🫣

citations are truly a nightmare and when I thought of the idea to have that be reader’s crisis, it was so perfect because I think so many of us in academics can relate to that 😭 we all deserve a suguru. I can’t wait to write yuta!!! it’s def gonna have stuff from prof Geto like the repercussions of his relationship with reader and it will be fun :)

hahah yaga knowing was also spur of the moment — it just felt full circle since so many times he’s also pulled them apart in some way 😭😭😭

thank you 🥹💕 I’m glad you enjoyed the reconciliation scene — it was so important to me to get that so right. and I really took my time and I’m glad you think I got it right 🥹💕💕I’m def writing the proposal!!! Don’t worry :)

aww baby thank you for reading 😭🥹 I’m so glad this series could help you in any small way that it did. omg I do remember and that’s amazing!!!! Congratulations I’m so so proud of you (and professor geto is too)!!!

writing this series also came at the perfect time for me because it just was such a wonderful thing to post a new part and see everyone’s reactions — it truly made my day. I especially loved your asks as well 🥹💕

thank you for being here and sticking around. I can’t wait to start writing more of professor gojo — I think you guys will really like it 🫶🥹💕

[uglypastels]

the yearning in the escort fic is gonna make me vomit from sadness. i know they probably would never see each other again and that’s the worst part like damn imagine thinking about someone every day and you’re never gonna see them again. OH MY GOD YK WHAT lemme just make it even more tragic, so yk the inspiration behind before sunrise right? how the writer met some girl and they hung out for a day and he wrote the film and tried to find her only to find out she ended up dying💔what if eddie or reader tried to find each other years later on and it turns out something tragic happened to one of them WHY AM I DOING THIS TO MYSELF IM SICK😭

Ngl it took me a bit of a readthrough to realise what you meant with the reference because i actually never saw before sunrise, but ive heard of it so i kiiind of get it. Also, oh i fucking love this. The more angst the better imo gimme all of it.

For this scenario- my bet is- years down the line, she gets married but its not a very happy marriage, so those thoughts bring back the memories of eddie. Obviously no idea of how she could ever find him. Maybe, luck would have it, she stumbles into steve. Doesnt recognise him immediately, until she remembers thats the guy she was supposed to hook up with all those years ago. She dares to ask him about eddie- would he even know him? Remember him? But oh yeah, Steve knew eddie. They got into the business together. They bonded as 2 young guys in a city that was actually too big for them. Especially too big for eddie. He got completely lost. So lost until he couldnt be saved anymore.

[viovio]

10, 16, 18, 22 dinoverse?

10. worst part of fanon

You cannot belieeeeeve how much misogyny there is about Vanora that they'd make shit up about her.

You'd think reading her thoughts and input as the player character would make people's insight about her line up with canon but the whole thing is that she grows more and more out of player control and into her own choices as the chapters progress. Do not go into the vtsom fic tag worst mistake of my life but also someone had to be at the devil's sacrament.

Like yea she did. in fact. kill Vincent (deserved but also wooooooo my god... it was bound to happen to either of them and at the rate she's going she's gonna keep climbing bodies to get kicked down by Myers.) and manipulate Draco at the end to do the same but calling her abusive WHILE referring to their relationship before is insane I mean neurodivergent. His fixation and disillusionment of her isn't healthy💔

16. you can't understand why so many people like this thing (characterization, trope, headcanon, etc)

Chaser Victor and happy family dads vinvic + son Draco for many reasons.

Mira's said this before but because I like Victor to an unhealthy degree (just like him fr) I'm kinda bummed he doesn't have any character outside of Vincent.

Which sort of makes sense within the context of his character and their til-the-end partnership but he's been having problems ingrained into him before RMU for sure. I'd like to see that it's insane I mean neurodivergent how they know each other better than anyone and are still stuck in the past. They're back at square 1 with never moving forward. (What's he gonna do when revenge goes through? Look at himself? no.)

Anyways I'm getting off-topic it creates conflict for sure which I love. If integrated into canon which is the direction it seems to be getting I'm sure dino will write in more for him but the way people write a chaser Victor just feels very ooc. You mean to tell me he would not tell Vincent?

That parts already gotten long so I'll summarize this stupid family shit + my kind little fucked up homonculi weapon who's also my brother and I make into my butler. I don't think they would make good parents so its so sucks when they turn Draco into a baby in fanart stop this madness

18. there should be more of this type of fic/art

ZALMONAAAAAAA ZALMONAS JOURNEY IN PROVING HER INNOCENCE. PLEASE PLEASE YOU'RE NOTHING SHE TALKS ABOUT A COUPLE OF AMUSING INCIDENTS IMAGINE G4S MOST WANTED CRIMINAL TELEPORTS INTO YOUR BATHHOUSE WITH YOUR COCK OUT PLEASEEEEE.

Honestly like who give a shit about the other districts that's something Dino should be writing about can we PLEASE get speculation on how the watch works. Is there a catch? does she get dizzy? What was her detective work like. I wanna replay chapter 3 because she's only had surface level info about Myers from the news so she had to do a lot of digging pleaseeeeee a parallel of her investigation and Vanora at Myers trying to cover stuff up would be so sweet.

22. your favorite part of canon that everyone else ignores

Being in the tranches it's same as above where is.where the fuck is Zalmona where is her meanness her brashness. Where is that that never contradicts her kindness, if you reduce her to the strong dumbass trope I'll kill you. I miss my wife Nini.

I wanna say in that same vein would be Vanora but I'm pleasantly surprised by the amount of art she gets, maybe it's bcoz of my mutuals but it's nice. Zalmona gets that too but it's not to the same degree tbh. I dontlike most dinoverse fans honestly

[nimata-beroya]

MY THOUGHTS ON TBB 2×07 "The Clone Conspiracy" & 2×08 "Truth and Consequences"

Let me start by saying that these episodes didn't go as I expected. I had a whole (not very clear) plot in my head that did not happen. At all. But I love them! It had me on the edge of my seat the entire time!

My thoughts and reactions are below the cut

2×07 "The Clone Conspiracy"

I gasped when I saw 79's. In a weird way, I was surprised that was still functioning, which is stupid. Of course, it's still open. The Empire is trying to rid of the Clones, but they're not gone yet, so they still need a place to get hammered. Now, more than ever, I think.

As these 2 clones talk (Cade and Slip, my beloveds), it hit me that that bar played a part in another conspiracy. Argh! 😩 The feels!! Why?! 😭

And I'm now headcanoning that this guy here is either Cade or Slip (probably, Cade since he was the one who had second thoughts first)

*sighs*

Anyway, let's continue…

It hurts so much watching the clones deal with all the crap the Empire makes them do. I just want to hug them and protect them at all cost.

As much as it hurts, I knew Cade wasn't going to live much longer. And my thought at that moment about the assassin was, "please, don't be Crosshair. Don't be you. PLEASE!!" And the scope didn't look like his but I was not sure until they showed the helmet. Of course, then the question was who the hell is that?

Wait! They're saying that Kamino fell because of a massive storm?!?!! that's the worst excuse ever! like, how not everybody automatically knows that it's a big fat lie?! Kamino? A planet used to horrible storms, so their building were made for resisting those. That Kamino?! Honestly, Rampart has absolutely no imagination or logical thought.

Of Course! It's about that recruitment bill 🙄

BAIL!!! Bail is here!

RIYO!!! WOOHOO!! THAT'S MY GIRL, FIGHTING FOR THE CLONES!! I'm so ecstatic to see her (I knew she would, since I saw that leaked pic of her with Rex and the boys) and it's so good to watch her doing what she does best.

(My Foxiyo shipping heart is wishing to see Fox too, or at least that she mentions him or something. Just a tiny hint. I know it won't happen but dreaming cost nothing)

Hmm… Rampart, I see trouble coming your way. The Emperor has no patience for failure, and you are on very thin ice. And how apparent is that you know absolutely nothing about Riyo if you think she'll be appeased so easily. Oh boy! Your end is near, I think… Unless you have a card up your sleeve, which I doubt. Oh, I'm going to enjoy watching you fall so much 😈

Harsh words from Riyo, but true. You're not getting any younger, my dears. You're getting older twice as fast, in fact. I think not only the clones are guilty of ignoring that fact. In real life and when you're young, you think that it won't happen to you, until one day you get up and say "oh Fuck" and you're old. The sad thing is that as things are going, the clones won't have enough time to enjoy life before that happens 😣

Slip, what are you doing? Oh calling Rex? Yes, yes, yes!!!

Be careful Riyo, Rampart is a snake. Actually, that's an insult to snakes. But the sentiment applies. Good thing you're not stupid and didn't believe a word he said.

Ooooooh! Bail, nice! The King of clandestine meetings. This reminds me of the fic I need to finish writing. Opps! 😅 I'm all for Organa-Riyo secret rebel meetings.

Oh fuck! Riyo move!!! No no no no no, Slip come back! No! 😖😭😭 I knew it! RIP Slip 💔

Now, Riyo, RUN!!! Run like hell! AAAAAAAAAHHHHHH!!!!

YES!!!! REX IS HERE!!!!! Just in time. Phew!! Now let's see who this guy is.

Wait! Oh my goodness! 😳 he killed himself. Who's this guy and what happened to him, because this seems a little too extreme for a normal trooper. Even if as a "believer". Could've he been reconditioned? Is he one of the cadets of Kamino that went through a harsher brainwashing? What??!!

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!! They can't leave it there!!! How dare they!! Thank God they released the next episode, too, or it'd have been a hell of a week waiting.

2×08 "Truth and Consequences"

Hey!! The boys! Finally! (Well, actually the previous ep was too good, and I missed them much less than I should have)

Oh, My boy Wrecker is taking a nap. But baby, in that position you'll get a kink on your neck. Mine hurts just by watching you.

GONKY!!!!!! Thank goodness you're all right! I was afraid that he was fried for good.

Oh, Omega is meditating. Nice (hmm, I can imagine what everyone fond of the idea of her being force-sensitive will say about this. I'm not on that wagon, tho) There! From her own mouth! She's not force sensitive.

Oh, Echo!! 🥺🥺 Can I hug you?

Ok, here we go.

Well, I'm just saying that Hunter have a point. The last place they should put a foot on IS Coruscant. He's not wrong about that. BUT... also with Rex's expertise of going in and out of it without raising alarms should reduce the risks. And it's for a very good cause, so, go, go, go.

That's how it's pronounced?! I've been saying Riyo wrong all along 😕

LOL! Omega always being cute with her little wave 😊

I love that Echo is ready to testify but, yep, that wouldn't go well. Deserters don't have much of credibility. Sorry Echo.

awwwww my girls together, yes! (and that's why Omega will see Palpatine. It makes sense now)

Riyo and Omega in the Senate reminds me of Padme and Ahsoka doing the same thing.

Wait! Shouldn't have Rampart recognize Omega? Sure, he can't even imagine CF99 is in Coruscant and Omega could be any girl, but like didn't he read the reports of every incident involving them? I'm sure in one of those says there's a girl, with Omega's description, among them. Or watched a surveillance footage, something, I don't know. Right? I mean, great that he doesn't recognize her, but it's weird.

Oh, yes! The ice under your feet is getting thinner and thinner, Rampart. I can hear it cracking 😈 Oh, your arrogance is your downfall. Nothing that Riyo can do? HA!! You won't know what hit you

Ugh! Omega, my poor innocent baby. Still so naive to the unfair reality of being a clone. My heart weeps for you

Hehe, Omega tailing along to the meeting with Bail. Such a confidence in her brothers.

UGH!! That old, obnoxious hag?! I hate Burtoni. Altho, I admit that she's caving in more easily than I expected, all thanks to Omega

Ok, Rex, who are those contacts? Wolffe? Cody? Or even Crosshair? Anyone we know? Tell me!! I wanna know!!!

Oh, poor my boy!! He's not having a good day. First, zapped when he bumped that machine and now dealing with his fear of heights. I must say that Wrecker is braver than anyone. He doesn't let his fear stop him.

Hurry up boys!! Ooooh!! More plans. And combined?!

Oh my gosh, Tech!! 😆😆 "I was off by 6.4 meters. Not my best."

Definitely not the best day for Wrecker. He deserves a hug from me 😊

Get him, Riyo!! You're so done, Rampart!

Oh, fuck! Palpatine 🤬

Told you Rampart! You're done (Altho, I thought he'd be around a bit longer, but his fall fits nicely with what I think it might be the rest of Crosshair's arc, so I'm ok with this. Of course, I wouldn't have complained if they had dragged Rampart's misery for a bit longer)

Ah, of course! I'm not even surprised that Palps spinned this to his favor anyway. I know clones are doomed no matter what they do. *Long-suffering sigh*

Wait, what? Echo? what? No!!! you can't leave 😭😭 I'm with Omega here 😭😭

😭😭😭 They're hugging!!!!! 😭😭😭😭😭😭

Noooooooooooooo!!! Omega looks so sad 😭😭😭😭😭😭😭

I did not expect this to happen and, even if I don't like it, I get it. It's something Echo needs to do for himself. My only solace is that, happening now by mid-season, it almost certain that Echo will be back sooner than we think.

And I have very important questions after these episodes...

Crosshair, is he safe? Is he all right? Where is he?!!!

[jwirecs]

RECOMMENDED NCT FICS OF OCTOBER 2023💖

hello, hello! here are my nct recs of october! hopefully these beautiful stories get more recognition as well as the writers 💝

** anything in parentheses and bolded are my thoughts that can be disregarded if needed **

🔞smut || 💔angst || 💕fluff || ✅completed || 🔄ongoing || 💯favorite

Late night Company || @daegall💕💔✅

↳ in which the Gods give you a shit day, and Aphrodite makes up for it.

Safety Net || @fadedncity🔞💕✅

↳ (theres no summary but short description from me - friends to lovers + clowns)

Between Us || @neowinestainedress🔞💕✅

↳ you find yourself tangled in the life of the Suhs after Mr. Suh starts working as an English professor at your father’s university. You don’t understand why they float around you so much, but soon enough, you can’t get enough of that secret, dirty game anymore.

Birthday Boy || @writemekpop💕✅

↳ It's Renjun's birthday and all you want is a moment alone, but other people keep getting in the way...

Homebody || @daydreamingyuta💕✅

↳ bf!Jeno spending a relaxing day at home with you instead of going out.

Mine || @milliewrtes💕✅

↳ in which your boyfriend saves you from unwanted, horrible flirting

My Exception || @armysantiny💕✅

↳ Renjun’s reading time is sacred; a dedicated few hours every weekend spent with him, his wax melts, a book, and a hot drink. Though he can make an exception for y/n. He can always make an  exception for them.

Spidey Boy || @martiniblues💕💔✅💯💯

↳ mark has tried to hide his secret identity from you for as long as possible, to keep you safe, of course. little does he know that you’ve untangled his web of lies long ago and will do anything in your power to get him to admit it. just when you've had enough of him lying to you, he ends up getting caught in the act trying to save your life.

Sweet Like Pumpkin Pie || @potatocitytechnology🔞✅

↳ One fall day, you decide it's time to let go of your worries. Turns out you're a natural freak in the sheets and Johnny loves it.

Target Run || @kyufessions💕💔✅💯

↳ shopping with chenle can be exhausting, especially for your first apartment together

Don't Test Me || @peanutpinet💕💔✅💯

↳ Haechan was always known as the funny, sunshine one of the whole of NCT. But that doesn’t mean that can’t go serious. Especially when it comes to his lover who is actually the opposite of him. Quiet, reserved but anxious.

Protection || @peanutpinet💕💔✅💯

↳ NCT was developing a new technology to help them expand more and help them to always be one step ahead of their enemy

12-7 Room || @zh-lele💕🔄

↳ Surviving a week to Donghyuck's charms and jokes can't be so hard... Worst case scenario, you end up completely falling for your brother's best friend.

Ghostie || @smileysuh🔞✅💯💯

↳ As one am rolls around, you start to realize that maybe tonight you won’t get a call. He is a frat boy, and this is Halloween weekend.  You’re disappointed as you get into bed, frowning as you scroll on your phone, hoping that if you wait another five minutes, maybe he’ll catch you. Five minutes turns into ten, turns into fifteen, and you find your eyes beginning to shut. You’re starting to understand how much you truly have come to depend on Ghostie as part of your nightly ritual. It hurts not to get a call from your favourite voice-modulated anonymous frat boy.

I Saw Her First || @astayinwonderland🔞✅

↳ you are tired after a long day of meetings but you step into an elevator with jaehyun-- however, you don't know mark has his eyes on you too

Send In The Clowns || @smileysuh🔞✅💯

↳ “She’s not the reason we’re dressed as clowns,” Hyuck is quick to insist. He’s such a good liar. Jungwoo would almost believe it, if you hadn’t told him your Halloween clown plan. It’s no secret to you that your three frat friends all have crushes on you, so you’d decided to tell Jaehyun about wanting to fuck a clown, just to see who would actually follow through with the costume. You’d expected one, maybe two- but here are all three men, dressed as exactly what they are: clowns. And it’s obvious to Jungwoo that they think this is their own idea. As if you’re not the puppeteer behind this all. God, Jungwoo loves having you as a best friend, even if your bucket list includes a frat clown Halloween orgy with three of his best friends.

Somebody's Watching Me || @neocentral🔞✅💯

↳ (no summary, but somnophilia)

The Only Exception || @jaylaxies🔞💕💔✅💯

↳ mark was overprotective and he didn’t fail to show it, warning all the guys to stay away from you, his best friends were no exception. so, how will you make it work when you return back after graduating school, only to find that your crush is paying more attention to you than ever? it most certainly doesn’t help that it’s lee donghyuck, to whom, you are strictly off limits.

Treat You Better || @luvyeni🔞💕💔✅💯

↳ renjun hates your boyfriend, he certain he can treat you better

ASAP || @yeonjunszn💕✅💯💯

↳ you’re not exactly the best barista at zhong coffee, but for some unknown reason (his massive crush on you), mark thinks you can do no wrong. sick and tired of his favoritism and your lack thereof due to absolute obliviousness, your coworkers are determined to fix this problem. asap.

Enchanted To Meet You || @liliansun💕💔✅💯

↳ college was enough to deal with, barely passing classes and struggling to keep up with what was going on in each was a daily struggle. not having time to catch someone’s eye was fine with you, that was until you met him. there was something about him that was enchanting, so you went out to find him, hoping you kept him up the same way he did you.

The Deal || @xrenjunniesx💕✅💯

↳ when a boy you didn’t know all too well asks for your number, you decide to make him work for it. when he asks for the second time, you make a deal with him.

NCT 127 Texts || @kumoseiza💕✅💯

↳ Couple Costumes

10:04AM || @gyeomsweetgyeom💕✅

↳ (soft renjun is superior)

16:47 || @lovesuhng💕✅

↳ "Don't be afraid to cry in front of me, I've got you."

9:35PM || @gyeomsweetgyeom💕✅

↳ (hyuck is a menace but hes their child)

Do check out all of the other NCT Fics that i have reblogged as well!!

** if there is any fics that you guys would like to recommend, please do! i am slowly running out of fics to read **

[nonclassyparty]

Okay so I just stayed up till 3am reading starring role and after putting it off for a while and honestly I can’t believe I ever did that?!?! Something wrong with me fr but this fic is just 🤌🏽🤌🏽🤌🏽

Okay let’s start of with our main girl!! I just want to hug her so bad. Although nothing excuses her behaviour towards Boyoung, I get why she’s the way she is especially to someone like yeosang. I hate how everyone seas as this ditzy, rich girl with no brain. But the worst has got to be her parents - her mum and me will throw hands I swear. And what’s even more heartbreaking is how you can tell she clearly misses her brother but like wtf happened? I can’t wait for the reveal for that? I can only imagine it’s drugs related but knowing her I’m sure she took it up a notch. In a time where she probably needs her brother the most he’s not there and I’m sad about it.

Okay Choi fking San, like you warned us, but honestly makes my blood boil ESPECIALLY after he had the absolute gall to come BACK to her after his failed relationship. Again nothing excuses the reader to say what she said to Boyoung but nothing excuses San to say what he did either. And his friends are so mean and for what? But now with the reveal of why Yeonsang is the way he is I’m excited to see what he does or says to her now. I just saw someone ask if San will leak her secrets after she confronted Yeosang and omg??? That will be honestly the worst thing he could ever do 💔 also when she realised that San is just some guy ™️ was actually so funny to me

I love Wooyoung and I just adore how close they became, he deserves the words and a sweet boyfriend!

Joonie is also another sweetheart, I love that he wants to progress her art work and just be her friend!!

Also not the stray kidz cameos 👀🫰🏽

Okay so now Mingi!!!!!!!!! This guy had my heart flip flopping all over the place it was unreal! Get why your pissed at her when she was mean to your bestie but then???????? Treating her like she a dumbass then being all sweet and generally making her seem like a better person and her valentines gift 😭😭😭 all for him to just spew out all that shit? Almost in tears 😔 He honestly needs to get his head out of his ass.

This fic is a rollercoaster and I really can’t wait to see what happens next and things getting revealed etc!! You’re amazing and have great day!

omggggggggg thank you so much!!!!

well yn isnt the nicest person in general😭 she's pretty mean and self-centered but that's her character so yeah she was pretty shitty to boyoung. she'll talk about seonghwa more in the next chapter and he'll have a pretty interesting arc by the end lmfao

i thought of writing a chapter from san's pov which wouldn't be really a chapter but something in the form of e-mails i guess?? but i decided against it bc my life is kind of a mess rn and i just want this story to successfully reach its end. but later on when i'm better and if i'm in the mood for it, i might post that chapter as an additional part bc i already have a good chunk of it written out...we'll see. i think it would be interesting to write from his perspective bc i know a lot of people wonder about him and it was pretty fun to write the bonus part

there will be so much of wooyoung in the next chp and it will be mostly sad but he's my baby so..

also in the last couple of chapters i've completely neglected joong but thats bc he was mostly linked to yn by mingi and professor ahn so when everything went to shit between them i kinda lost how to include joong in the story BUT i think he will also appear in the next chapter.

and mingi omggggggggggg i cant wait for him to come back, he'll be so pathetic and there's nothing i love writing more than men being pathetic and grovelling so i'm excited for that!

anyways thank you for reading once again and for this lengthy message!! have a nice day

[not-poignant]

🤯, 🤭 & 💔 for the kinkmeme

🤯 What's a genre you struggle with as a writer (ex. romance, action, etc.)?

The ones I'm not writing, lmao.

Okay but in all seriousness, I would say I struggle with mysteries, because I don't enjoy them in general. (I'm that person who always looks up the answer so I don't have to deal with the 'mystery' part which I generally find incredibly boring, so no, I can't really write the genre either). Ditto westerns.

I actually don't think I really struggle with romance, contemporary, action, fantasy, adventure, science fiction, erotica etc. I don't even struggle with hard science fiction. I don't think I'd struggle that much with horror or psychological or even supernatural thriller. Every time I've written elements of horror or thriller genres into my works, it's been pretty well-received actually. I'm just not really drawn to it. Genres are pretty easy to 'get' frankly (I did a media degree, I have done tertiary study of genre, so...formulas I understand). I struggle less with genre and more with base conceptuals that can be found in any genre - for example, I struggle with plot-based over character-based storylines. And that's true in any genre.

Oh! Actually I think maybe I struggle with procedurals and 'case of the week' style writing. That's what Eversion was supposed to be, and I profoundly did not like doing it, so basically removed Connor from the case and told a different story, lol, so I think that's one too!

🤭 Do you have a favorite tag to use when posting your works?

It's two and they go hand in hand: Angst and hurt/comfort. I think they're on just about every single one of my works. And they're usually among the first two I add.

💔 Is there a fic of yours that broke your heart?

Hmmm.

Strange Sights because it represents a time in my life that was extremely damaging for me, to the point where I nearly have deleted it several times (I won't though, it doesn't hurt in the same way anymore - time heals some wounds and all that).

All of The Ice Plague because it just did so badly re: engagement (Underline the Black is about to eclipse TIP 3 for kudos in almost a quarter of the time and far less words, lol, sigh), and it became the death knell of the Fae Tales canon, which was supposed to continue. I grieved that for years, on and off, until I finally accepted reality. In TIP 1, we could say it was just...teething issues. In TIP 2 (which did worse than TIP 1) we could be like 'oh well, these things happen.' In TIP 3, which has done the worst of any long fic I've ever written, across two separate accounts, I just put my head in my hands and never felt further away from trying to draw in readers and keeping my career going. I can't tell you how many times I nearly quit.

(I had some great times writing it, but I also had a lot of 'why am I even still doing this to myself' times while writing it too, and then I'd remember the readers that were engaging with it and commenting on it, and I'd remember like... I need to make a living, and I'd also remember that the characters deserved their happy ending, and I'd keep going).

Honestly, nothing else really comes close to TIP, especially TIP 3. I actually felt relieved when it ended. Everything I've written since has been more popular and drawn in more people. It speaks for itself. It just makes me sad as well, that proportionately, less than 1/7 of the readers of Game Theory ever got to read Augus and Gwyn's true happy ending and epilogue, in All that We Were, All That We Will Ever Be. It's just a massive drop off overall, and makes me feel like I let folks down.

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From the fandom meme