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scribblertown · 2 years

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Fates of the Fateless Ch. 6: New Faces New Places and a Horse

The gang grows a little bigger and you get to know others a little more.

ao3

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“The life at sea is a grand and hard. Harder than anything we’ve faced here on land.” Pearson was going off on one of his sailor tangents again. Every time he did you couldn’t help thinking of an old man desperate to relive his glory years. “The fear in your gut wondering if you’ll have enough to last you till next port is beyond imagining.” You’ve heard this story before, more than once actually. Next, he’s going to bring up eating seal meat. “The waters up north are absolutely teaming with seals.” Yep, here we go. “Their meat is real’ greasy you know, has a certain flavor to it. Like a mix of duck and veal.” As he reminisced on his voyages you were stuck cutting and peeling vegetables, nothing you haven’t done before. But the amount to be prepped today was more than usual. Like, an exceptionally larger amount. “I still get cravings for the stuff, can’t find it anywhere ‘round here.”

His droning tales began to fade away as your mind wondered. Your eyes drifting back and forth to the Juniper tree that sat just behind your tent. The fixation of your attention for the past couple of weeks.

Peel, peel, peel. A glance at the tree. Chop, chop, chop. A glance at the tree. Peel, peel. A glance. Chop, chop. A glance. It had become an obsession at this point. Every time someone would drift a little too close to the tree, you’d feel yourself tense up, unable to look away until they finally move onto another part of camp. You weren’t sure what would happen if anyone stumbled upon your little secret hidden away in the winding tangled roots of the grand and old juniper. But after witnessing Arthur’s more than adequate show of putting down a man three times your size, you couldn’t help but snatch up that precious pistol. It almost seemed like life had deliberately sent it in your direction, right there at your feet for the taking. At least, if it really came down to it, you had a chance at defending yourself.

“Once you’re done with those potatoes, throw them in that pot of water. Give the skins to the chickens.” Pearson had swung around with his freshly skinned and cleaved rabbits, the choice meat around these parts apparently. He then does a quick count on his fingers muttering softly under his breath. A gradual scowl crosses his face as his brow furrows, his mustache consumes his mouth in a frown. “Hmm… we’re not gonna have enough for the next week at this rate.” That didn’t seem right.

“This seems like a lot of food for just us.” Sure, you may be new to the ways of life in the 1800’s, but your pretty sure meal prepping wasn’t a concept of the time beyond canning.

“It ain’t, Dutch made some connections with some of the mining men up in Bingham. Should be here by nightfall.” Oh great, more strange men. “Rigorous work like that, tends to give one quite the appetite.” He’s quick to grab what carrots and onions you have done before tossing them into the cast iron with a big glob of some sort of animal fat. The smell of it was always a little gamey. “I’m hoping this means more money. More money means better eatin’.” Pearson was nice enough; he had a sweet face and a nice singing voice. You got the impression he was desperate to socialize. Which might work to your advantage.

“What kind of work does Dutch do?” Maybe you’d get a different piece to the puzzle. “I hear he does dangerous work.”

“All work is dangerous in this day and age.” Damn it.

“Have you been traveling long? No place to call home?”

“Dutch and couple of the others have been out on the road a lot longer than me. I only just joined up maybe… four years ago.”

“Four years?!” You gaped at him flabbergasted. Four years of this same boring routine of grueling work, of never having a roof over their head, and rarely socializing outside of the camp circle. Is that what your future would be with these people? “And you never left?”

“No, and I’m not sure I ever want to.” He collects another batch of vegetables from you. “I had made some desperate money decisions, borrowed from a few fellers thinking I’d manage to make up what I owed and some extra to get back on my feet. I didn’t, not even close and some real mean-spirited men were sent after me. Forced me to marry a woman and took everything I had to my name. I’m sure they would’ve taken my life as well had Dutch and Hosea not stepped in.” A smile began to slowly build on his lips, and his eyes became misty and soft. “They paid my debts. Some lowly, good for nothing-nobody they knew shit about. But they saved me anyway.” His eyes then drifted to yours, his brow was tightly furrowed and his gaze suddenly bold and serious. “Everyone here has a similar story, many of them worse than mine.” His voice is deep and breathy. “This world is a cruel and unforgivable place, one that don’t want folk like us. People will do what they have to for survival, but folk like Dutch. Like Hosea. They do what they have to for more than just themselves. They do what they have to for us.” He didn’t say much after that. Leaving you with a new worry in your gut.

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When the sun had begun to paint the sky a plethora of warm colors, the men came. Talking loudly and cheerfully. Lead by Dutch, Arthur, and William on horseback. Five new dark silhouettes grew closer before they dismounted their horses just outside of the camps main grounds. You tried to keep yourself from staring, pretending to be all too focused on redoing the seams on a jacket arm. Settled just a few feet from the cooking pot accompanied by Tilly with her own sewing project. The smell of the rabbit and vegetable stew you’d prepped drifting from its large confines of black iron as the two of you observed in silence.

“Mmmm! Something smells damn good!” The voice that cried out was an unfamiliar one, a bit shrill. His voice sounded quite young.

“It’s been so long since I’ve had a decent meal…” An older man, rough and worn.

“Gentlemen, as the first day of our partnership, I would ask you eat to your hearts content knowing that your lives are now you’re own.” Dutch led the line of men towards the large pot, striking a match on his boot. The quick flicker of flame illuminating his face for a quick second before fluttering into a soft glow as he lit a pipe. The group hooping and hollering as they swarmed the area. Two straggled behind a bit. A man and a woman.

“I’ll getchu a bowl Agatha, you just take a seat and rest a spell.” The man donned bright red hair, swept to the side and styled with some sort of hair grease. His face was angular and skinny, with a decoration of freckles that covered his pale face. He cradled the woman in a gentle and intimate manner.

“Alright, but I want you to get yourself a bowl first.” The woman spoke in a broken and course voice. A dark bruise around her left eye, barely hidden behind her dark locks that draped freely down her back and shoulders. They bickered softly for a moment before she finally took a seat on a spare crate near the chicken coop as he joined the rest of the men. A deep sigh fell from her lips as she practically melted into her seat.

“I certainly hope that bruise isn’t from one of these boys…” Tilly commented under her breath, watching the new group like a hawk with critical eyes scanning every little exchange and movement. You replied with a hum. Out of the corner of your eye Arthur could be seen slipping away into the shadows with a fat saddle bag hefted over his shoulder with a rambunctious William at his tail. Your eyes curiously trailed them as they ventured towards the camps outskirts before your view was cut off by a large figure.

“Well well, I wasn’t expectin’ lovely ladies in your band of gunslingers Mr. Van der Linde.” This man was the tallest of the lot, taller than even Arthur or Dutch. Stocky in build with an equally round and stocky face, short salt and pepper hair without a single strand out of place parted down the middle, a thin pencil mustache sat upon his upper lip and sunken light brown eyes that had that familiar predatory stare. An all too happy smirk on his face as his eyes openly wandered your bodies. You unconsciously leaned towards Tilly to block her from his view, before sending him a death glare from under your lashes. “Oooo… Now you don’t wanna go ruinin’ that pretty little face of yours with such an ugly scowl hm?” He chuckled teasingly before bringing another scoop of stew to his mouth full of rotten and crooked teeth. You could just smell the infection on his breath. “Not very lady like.” Bits of food flung out as he spoke.

“Can’t you be a dumb hunk of shit somewhere else?” Tilly snapped at him brandishing an equally fiery scowl. The rest of the men let out an explosion of laughter. The man’s face quickly became red and tense. Gripping his spoon with enough force to almost bend it in his meaty sausage fingers.

“Stupid bitch I oughta-” He begins to swing his arm back preparing to strike, you tense spreading your body around Tilly as much as you can awaiting the blow but before he can get enough momentum Dutch is quick to slip between you and dickhead.

“Wow now Mr. Samson!” His hands are up and his posture relaxed in a mock surrender, “I’ve got rules in my camp, and that includes causin’ trouble for the girls.” His hand drifts to his hip, sweeping aside his jacket flaps exposing his lavish pistol. “You don’t wanna go ruinin’ a beautiful friendship before it even starts.” Samson stares at the pistol a moment before returning to Dutch’s face. “Do you, Mr. Samson?” His face twists before he let out an angry huff, marching off to no doubt sulk in the shadows.

Hosea then emerges seemingly out of nowhere with John, Arthur, Grimshaw, and William in tow. The saddle bag nowhere to be seen.

“Been awhile since we’ve had this many people.” Hosea’s eyes wonder over the group of newcomers, rubbing his chin with a small smile. “Guess I better go say hello.” In a matter of seconds of him entering the circle, the men fall under the sweet old man’s charming spell.

“Just more mouths to feed, and smaller shares for us.” John sulks with a scowl on his face, clearly not happy with the change in guard.

William has a similar distasteful look, “More like sheep dan men if ya ask me.”

Dutch comes up behind the two, his hands coming down onto their shoulders with a fierce grip, his pipe nestled between his teeth. “Ooh you boys were just like those poor souls once upon a time.” He spoke through his teeth with a smile. “In fact, I recall you two being a lot more pathetic.”

Grimshaw then steps forward, “Dutch I take it you still want us to be packing up to move soon?”

“Mmhm, after tonight’s haul I imagine word will get out sooner than later. Rather not be so close to town.”

“What? We’re moving already?” You were just beginning to settle in. “Why?”

The look of surprise on Dutch’s face made you wonder if he hadn’t realized you were still lingering. “Miss (y/n)! I almost forgot you could talk!”

“No kiddin’, she’s a real bore.” William shrugs Dutch off his shoulder. “All work ‘nd no play.” That puts a frown on your face knowing full well William’s idea of fun is hassling anyone and everyone he can. “Don’t even know how ta ride a horse. Can ya believe dat?” He’s still going on about that?!

“At least I don’t smell like one…” you mutter.

“Dat’s another ting! I know ya go down to the creek for your precious baths princess. Every day!” Your face immediately goes flush and hot. “No one should bathe dat much.”

“Have you been spying on me?!” You’re standing now, hands clenched in tight fists glaring him in his good eye. He just grins. Which is quickly wiped off his face as Grimshaw swoops in to tug at his ear with a harsh pull.

“Ooowowowow!” He cries out as she twists him downwards, casually turning to you.

“Why don’t you girls get yerself something to eat and call it a night. I’m going to have a word with Mr. O’brien.” She gives another hard tug, leading herself and William away. “Goodnight gentlemen.”

“Ow! What’re ya doin’ ya crazy old hag!” William’s cries of protest fading with each step. Dutch and the other boys simply laugh at his expense.

“C’mon (y/n) let’s grab some stew and sit by the fire.” Tilly tosses her fabric to the side, quick to jump on her feet and excitedly veer towards the pot.

Thankfully there was still a decent amount of stew left sticking to the bottom of the cast iron pot, bubbling on the brink of being caramelized and burnt. The two of you quickly found a spot around the main fire where the other men had collected, Uncle balancing a banjo on his knee as he laughs and plays a familiar tune. Out of the corner of your eye you spot John awkwardly standing a decent distance away from you before finally deciding to sit down in the spot to your right.

“Hi John.”

“Hi…” He’s not looking at you as he watches his spoon lazily push around a hunk of rabbit. Soon Arthur appears to take up the spot next to him with a hunk of bread in his mouth. “I-I could teach you.”

“Huh?” John was still staring down at his food, his eyes darting back and forth from his bowl to you, his mouth opening and closing like a fish as he struggled to speak his next words.

“To ride a horse.” He turns his head to make brief eye contact before they divert to anything but you. “I could teach you how.” You’ve only ever gotten a hello out of the guy and now he’s suddenly offering you free riding lessons.

“I don’t have a horse.”

“You can ride mine, or… one of the spare work horses.” He clears his throat before shoveling a large spoonful into his mouth. Just past him you can see Arthur giving him a strange side eye. “Y-yeah, I think… I think you should learn how to ride is all.” He takes another huge mouthful.

“Alright. That would be very helpful actually.” You sit up a little straighter, turning your body towards him with a small hint of a smile. He visibly freezes hunched over; eyes downcast before he quickly shovels the rest of his food down as fast as he can. He then bolts from his seat, walking almost fast enough to have to break out into a slight jog shouting over his shoulder.

“Alright I’ll see you later then!”

“Ok…” a bit baffled at the blunt and brief conversation.

Arthur scoffs out a slight chuckle, “I would find a different teacher if I were you.”

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You were grateful for the early bedtime rest as it seemed Grimshaw felt the need to wake you up earlier than usual.

“Up up up! It’s time we start packin’!” another swift, sharp kick to your shins only increasing your rising annoyance to such a rude awakening.

“Alright alright!” you take a second to rub the lingering sleep from your eyes. Blinking slowly to find it was still relatively dark out. Grimshaw who was somehow fully dressed, hair done, and with a pep in her step marched off to wake her next victim. “What time is it?”

“Is it gonna make you get up faster if I tell you?” Tilly is somehow already on her feet and messing with her hair pins. “I’d get going now if I were you, don’t want that pig from last night getting a glimpse at us in our undergarments.” She moves like lighting twisting and readjusting the pins in her hair before she’s rummaging in your shared chest for her skirt, she grabs yours as well and throws it in your face. “Well? Hurry up!”

“Hold on, I gotta wash my face first.” You crumble the bunch of clothes in your arms and unhappily get to your feet. Nights in the desert were surprisingly cold, only made getting up all the more difficult. It left any and all the water ice cold, a splash to the face was enough to finally bring you out of your groggy state. Shaking your hands to rid yourself of the lingering drops of chilled water you spotted the woman from last night timidly approaching you. “Good morning.” Your sleepy voice coming out deep and low.

“Good morning.” She gave a small smile, reaching for the ladle that hung off the lip of the barrels opening and taking a gracious drink. You stood there a little awkwardly unsure if it would be more rude to just leave or start some sort of petty small talk.

“I’m (y/n).” You seemed to have made the right decision as her eyes lit up with a smile.

“My name is Agatha.” She gave a brief pause, hands tucked neatly in front of her, “I’m happy to see there are other women here.”

“Oh, believe me, I thought the same thing when I first joined up.”

“Have you been here long?”

“Well…. Not really, only about 3ish months.” I think… “I wasn’t expecting a woman to come from Bingham mine. I figured we’d just be getting men.”

“Oh, I’d follow Joseph to the ends of the earth. But I’m happy to be away from that place. They were working him to death.” You couldn’t help but stare at the bruise on her eye, she seemed to notice. “This was a parting gift from my previous employer.” She touched the purpling skin delicately. “Joseph was sure to give him twice the beating.”

“Sounds like you picked a good one.” Just past Agatha you could see Grimshaw prowling about. You’ve been taking up too much time. “Uh, I gotta get to work but let’s chat some more later, ok?” You start to walk backwards as you spoke.

“Of course! It was nice to meet you.”

“Nice to meet you too!” You shouted over your shoulder before bolting back to your tent. Tilly had already rolled up your sleeping pads, thankfully leaving the chest and tent up for you. You glance around to find no one else was nearby. You quickly slipped to the Juniper tree crouching down and delving into the roots, fiddling around blindly until the cold steel met your fingertips. Swiftly wrapping the pistol in the change of clothes you had engulfed in your arms. Acting nonchalant as you pretended you were simply packing away your belongings. Careful to bury it at the bottom of the chest where only your belongings laid. Quick to actually get dressed and begin the grueling process of carefully taking down the tent, folding it properly and playing a game of tetris fitting it all into the wagon. Next came everything else that wasn’t absolutely needed. Tables, clothes, personal belongings, most of Pearson’s dry goods and cooking ware. If it wasn’t nailed down or on a horse, it goes in the wagons.

“Careful vith my equipment! It’s very fragile!”

“Relax Strauss, I know how glass works.” The camp was bare and empty now with only remnants of footprints and the old campfire among the red sand. The sun was now only just starting to come up as you hefted the last bit of supplies into its rightful spot. “You want me to take your bag too?” you reached out a hand, eyeing his medical bag that he carried around. He cradled it close to his chest with a distasteful look.

“No, it stays vith me.”

“Alright well… I guess pick your ride and we can get out of here.” You keep yourself from rolling your eyes and dropped your hand, he hadn’t lifted a finger to help out, didn’t even take down his own tent. “And William calls me princess…” you mutter under your breath as you settle onto a pile of fabric tightly rolled together just outside of the wagon opening. Strauss hesitates a moment before also climbing aboard, sitting adjacent to you, cradling his bag in his lap. Your eyes wandered to find most everyone else has loaded up and found their respective spots to travel. The wagon just in front of you holds Agatha and the red head you now know as Joseph, feet dangling off the edge, their horse tied just in front of them with their personal belongings on its back. You gave her a wave; she gave one back. Thankfully it seemed Samson wasn’t around, along with the regular bread winners. Arthur wasn’t around, nor were John or William. You took some comfort in that.

“Good morning!” Pearson’s chipper chubby face appears as he hops up onto the coach, scooching over as a young man takes the spot next to him.

“Hello.” His voice was hushed and smooth. Kind dark brown eyes, clean shaven with long silky black hair tied in a braid down his back and donning a simple looking leather hat to keep the sun out of his deep tan face.

“Ah Guten Morgen Mr. Pearson.”

“Have you met Jay yet?” Pearson glances over his shoulder at the two of you, the reins resting limply in his hands as you all await the caravan to move along.

“It’s Jie, Mr. Pearson.” The man corrects him with a smile, he meets your eyes again, “Jie Liu. It’s nice to meet you.” His face carved deep lines up from his jaw and into his cheeks when he smiled.

“Hallo, Jee-eh, I am Doctor Leopold Strauss.” The poor man’s names get butchered again mixed with Strauss’ heavy European accent, it makes you cringe a little. But Jie just smiles and nods at him seemingly unbothered. Turning to you next.

“And I already know who you are. Your little confrontation with Mr. O’brien was enough for us to quickly learn your name.” He has a slight accent, it’s very subtle, though it’s noticeable with certain words. “What’s the saying? Cleanliness is close to Godliness!” He laughs. You feel a little embarrassed to remember you had an audience watching your little fight last night.

“You know I’m pretty sure that’s the most emotion I’ve seen you show since you’ve gotten here.” Pearson has a sly glint in his eye. “Seems some of Grimshaw’s charm is rubbing off on you.”

You roll your eyes. He just laughs. The wagon in front of you starts to move. You all jolt forward slightly as Pearson snaps the reins.

“Jee-eh, I take it you’re an immigrant, yes?” Strauss is holding a book in his hands now jotting something down as he speaks.

“Yes, I am originally from Hong Kong. I take it you are also an immigrant Mr. Strauss?”

“Austrian. But like everything about this country, I’ve been consumed into the American masses.”

Jie gives a chipper response. “It is quite the country.”

“Hong Kong huh? That’s so far away, how and why did you come here?” You ask.

“My home, the little neighborhood I grew up in wasn’t exactly a good one. Big cities like that tend to attract a lot of… bad people.” He pauses a moment before picking back up again. “I lived their most of my adolescent life but… there’s nothing left for me there.” There’s a sadness in his voice, and the implications of what that might mean makes you wish you didn’t ask.

“I’m sorry to hear that…” You spoke softly, awaiting his next words with reverence. The other two remain silent.

He lets out a long sigh, “So, I ended up leaving the country to come here. I was swept up into the work most migrants end up doing. I met a friend who got me into the mining business at Bingham, lost him in the cave ins and now I’m here.”

“Agatha mentioned something about the mine almost working Joseph to death.”

“It’s definitely work I hope to never have to fall into again. It paid decently but when you take into account how much goes into food, housing, and medicine, you lose it just as quickly as you gained it.”

“I haven’t had the chance to talk to the other new recruits. I take it they left under similar circumstances?” Pearson asks curiously.

“To be honest, I am not very familiar with the others beyond their names. But yes, considering the recent cave in and other issues arising from poor work conditions, I’m actually surprised we didn’t have more men take up Mr. Van der Linde’s offer.”

“They vere fools not to.”

“Oh, Strauss you can be a very cold man sometimes you know that?” Pearson lets out a holler, “We got a lot of miles to cover and so much to talk about. You know I was a sailor on the seas once upon a time. Back when I was far younger and had a little more on my head and a little less on my stomach, AHAHA!”

Dear God no… Not again…

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This was by far the farthest and longest you’ve traveled so far. It was a shift in driving wagons, sleeping when night fell, and getting back on the road before the sun even came up. Swapping places here and there so you weren’t stuck with some of the more miserable members of your mysterious caravan. Encountering the two other men you hadn’t had a chance to talk to. The oldest of the bunch was an aged and worn man by the name of Crisoforo Abadiano. His skin was dark and sun damaged, deep lines in his face from years of wear and tear. He was the older than even Hosea it seemed. His dark eyes framed by heavy lashes and a sad distant look to them. Hair short and combed back with slivers of silver amongst his jet-black hair, covered by a large brimmed hat. He never really talked much and when he did it was usually single word responses. While very quiet he was the type you could be comfortable in silence with.

“You have any hobbies Mr. Abadiano?”

“No.”

“Really, nothing at all?”

“Cards.” He was fantastic at ending conversations before they really began.

And of course, Joseph with Agatha practically attached at his hip. He was quite young, younger than you at least. Both ambitious and optimistic, excited to exchange stories and meet new people.

“How did you two meet anyway?”

“Well, I was working at the mining town’s saloon as a waitress and card dealer, you get good commission when all the men want to do after work is drink and gamble all they’re earnings away, sometimes they’d forget I’d already been paid.” Agatha gives a giggle. “Well one night, I was having particular trouble with a tenet who’d pulled a knife on me, accusing me of cheating him out of his winnin’s. I thought I was ‘bout to be gutted when a strapping,” Agatha breathes in a hushed voice as if just the memory of this incident left her breathless, looking dreamily at Joseph, “strong, young, and handsome hero stepped in to save me.” She lets out a long sigh as her lashes flutter in a half-lidded look. “I knew he was the one for me.”

“Oh Agatha, you’ll never know what joy your words bring to my foolish heart.” Joseph, whose face was red as a tomato and clearly flustered was now cradling Agatha in his arms with a similar look of intense love in his eyes. “I love you, Agatha.”

“I love you too, Joseph.” The two then shared a chaste kiss leading to another and another until they were holding each other long and tender. Leaving you to uncomfortably look around at anything but the spontaneous make out session you had the misfortune of being an audience for. They were cute and easy to talk to but… they were just too… lovey dovey.

Other than the small talk, watching the scenery slooowly pass by and napping were your pastimes. (That and avoiding Mr. Samson like the plague personified). It was so incredibly boring to be traveling at a snail’s pace with nothing to occupy yourself. You started to pick up on some of the mannerisms of many of the others.

Uncle at any point you were caught in his presence was buzzed 9 times out of 10. Bessie had impeccable posture seemingly always sitting straight as a plank. Hosea never seemed hot, even on the hottest of days, you’ve never seen him break a sweat. In more ways than one. Dutch and Annabelle were usually resting against each other, shoulder to shoulder, whispering and giggling to each other. You even managed to catch some poetry from Dutch. It actually wasn’t half bad.

The bread winners had returned during the night on one of your rest stops, suddenly just there one morning around the coffee pot after having been missing for so long, it had caught you off guard. John was as awkward as ever giving a small hello without looking you in the eyes, Arthur was a bit grumpy and just grunted, and William had that distinct sneer he’d always give you, not saying a word. The stupid bastard.

They led the rest of the way to a secluded canyon, the jagged red and pink sand rocks speckled with an assortment of desert trees and shrubbery, towering on both sides of a large level bed of rock with two openings that split off into two different directions and a third that you all entered through. It was shaded and cool, quiet and untouched.

Dutch and Annabelle were excitedly taking in the view of the grand open space, as the rest of you began to unpack. “Quiet, secluded, no nosey neighbors. This place is perfect Arthur!”

“Thought you’d like it.” Arthur gave a smirk, pulling up a match to light a cigarette perched on his lips. You assisted Pearson with unloading, watching Tilly curiously survey the campsite before boldly stomping up a cloud of dust.

“I’m claiming this spot for the women!” She announces with wide smile. The area just to the right of the opening to the north.

“Oh? And where will you be sleeping?” Uncle teases her, he had a box in his arms seemingly pitching in with the labor before realizing it was full of liquor.

Back and forth, back and forth. The camp slowly came to life. Dutch’s tent went up first, next was Bessie’s and Hosea’s, and then Arthur’s and so on and so forth until only yours was left.

Only problem is it was smothered under an unfamiliar large wooden chest. Sun bleached in places and chipped in others. Barred by rusted iron hinges and simple looking. Only issue was how unexpectedly heavy it was. Even with both hands you barely managed to scoot it an inch.

“Hmpphh!” You give a harsh pull, causing whatever’s inside to slide and tumble.

“Wow, there miss.” Arthur slides into view, hands quick to find the handles, his calloused fingers grazing yours slightly, tickling the little hairs on the back of your hands. His hat shrouds his face from you. “Let me get this out of your way.” He picks it up like it weighs nothing, and heads off towards Dutch’s tent. You watch as Dutch’s eyes light up at the sight of him. Quick to swoop him into his tent and draw back the canvas curtains, shrouding them from view.

Odd. Very odd.

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You could feel eyes on your back as you awkwardly finish ramming the final stake into the ground. Giving the twine a good tug before making yourself recognize the presence.

“Hi John,” you toss the hammer back into the wooden tool box, wiping sand from your hands. “You uh… need something?”

“Let’s go riding.”

“Oh, you wanna do the lessons now?” your eyes wander around looking for Grimshaw, you’d rather not wander off without her approval. Not worth the scolding you think.

“Yes.” He’s quick to start a march towards the horses looking back at you, still unmoved from your spot. “Come on then!” He yells in haste. You stand there hesitantly shifting your weight from one foot to the other. Taking a moment to consider if John is someone you want to be alone with. I mean he’s just a kid, but…

“But Grimshaw won’t like it if I ditch work!”

“Your chores will still be here when you get back.” He lets out a huff, clearly anxious to get going, “Now come on!”

“Can Tilly come?”

“Huh?” Tilly juggling an arm full of pots and pans shoots you a look of absolute confusion. “I got stuff to do around here!”

“But I don’t-“ You step a foot closer to her, voice low enough only she can hear. “I don’t want to be alone with a strange man er-boy!”

“John ain’t gonna do nothin’. He’s as dumb as a bag of dirt but he ain’t bad.” Her hand jumps to catch a cast iron pan that was slipping from underneath her elbow, snagging painfully on her finger. You relieve her of the heavy pan and find it a more convenient place in her jumbled arms. “You’ll be fine. Although I’m not sure you’ll actually learn anything.”

You can see his horse patiently awaiting its rider, a big and burly warm brown stallion already harnessed. Next to it was one of the driving horses, even bigger than John’s horse and rippling with muscle. Black and white like a cow, towering over everything and everyone else.

“Uum, isn’t he a little big?” Your eyes scan the big beast, just how in the hell are you even supposed to get on this giant?

“Horses are for riding. He’s a horse, so ride him.” A blanket is tossed onto the curved slope of the horse’s back before a saddle follows. He’s quick and efficient as he pulls and ties the various leather straps into place, clearly very familiar with his way around a horse. “Alright, hop on up.” You’re a bit hesitant as you nervously approach.

Please don’t kick me, Mr. Horse.

Your first instinct is to grab the saddle horn, which is barely within your reach. Next you pick up your foot to awkwardly sit in the stirrup leaving you hanging off of the side like a monkey.

“You’re doing it wrong.”

“Huh?” you peek over at John, fidgeting with his suspenders. “How?”

“Well, uh, you’re just getting on wrong.” You look down at your right foot twisted in the stirrup at an angle, then at your hands tangled together before looking at him quizzically. “You hafta swing your leg over… so you gotta…” He’s at a loss of words, mind clearly working overtime, his face beginning to redden. “Just watch me! Ok?” He places his left foot into the horse’s left stirrup before swinging his right over and finding his perfect perch atop his horse. “Like that.”

“Ooh.” You readjust yourself to place the correct foot in the stirrup before hopping once, twice, and thrice heaving yourself up and your leg over the seat of the saddle. “Oomph!” your leg only hooks itself at the knee, leaving you to depend on your arms to pull the rest of your body upwards, hands barely having enough room to hold onto the tiny saddle horn before finally getting into your seat. Already looking like an idiot. You scoop the reins into your hands gingerly, actively making sure they are lax in your grip afraid you might cause the horse to move before you’re ready. “Now what?” you ask.

“Now, we get a move on.” He clicks his tongue and turns his horse out toward the open desert. He gets a ways out before realizing you’re not following. “Are you coming!?” He yells.

You’re digging your heels into the horse’s sides, clicking your tongue, pulling on the reins trying to get the thing to move, but he remains still. “How do I get him to move!?” you call back.

“Squeeze his chest!”

“Squeeze his chest?” pondering for a second, you almost give the big guy a hug before it clicked in your brain to use your legs, he moves almost immediately. “He’s doing it!” Your smiling, excited with your small little accomplishment. “Good boy.” Caressing his long wispy mane as you slowly make your way toward John.

“There we go, now try and keep up with me.” John goes from a simple walk into a trot. You give his chest another squeeze with your legs, your pace remains the same, you then give a go at digging your heels in. That gets him going a little faster. John goes from a trot to a sort of jog, so you follow suit. Your lower back and bottom bouncing up and down on the saddle uncomfortably.

“Aren’t we going a little fast?” You cry out. John peeks over his shoulder with a blank confused look.

“Uh, no? We can go way faster.” His eyes drift off before looking back at you, “Did you wanna go faster?”

“No, I think that would be a bad idea. I don’t even know how to stop this thing.” Oh my lord, Tilly wasn’t exaggerating. John pulls to the side and slows down, keeping pace on your right. His horse was a considerable amount shorter than yours, causing his head to only reach as high as your shoulder. He sits up a little taller.

“You know, I’m the one who found the spot.”

“Hm? The campsite?”

“Yeah, I’m the one who found it. Not Arthur.” He spits out Arthur’s name with some disdain.

“It’s nice.” A pocket of silence fills the air.

“The foods been better, and I noticed my shirts are not so full of holes.” He clears his throat. “You do good work.”

“Why are your shirts so fond of holes anyhow?” Your mind drifts to that notorious green shirt. “I swear some of the clothes have had blood on them too.” You watch him carefully from the corner of your eye. Trying to keep a casual, calm air about yourself. “You ought to be more careful.”

“We uh- get into fights sometimes.” His response isn’t very confident. “But! I mean- we don’t start ‘em.” He steers his horse into yours, “Lets take a left up here.”

Just what kind of fights are you getting into?

“Arthur’s good in a fight. I got to see that first hand.” John gets quiet. You dared a peek to see his face was in a scowl. “Where we goin’ anyway?”

“There’s another spot I found, thought you’d like it.”

“So that’s where you boys went? Sight-seeing?”

“It ain’t like that, someone’s gotta make sure the way ahead is safe.”

Safe from what?

“Can’t say I’m not jealous. A break from camp would be nice every once in a while.”

“Well, we can go riding anytime you want.”

“I’m sure Grimshaw would not be too keen on the idea.” Another round of silence. The area around you is beginning to become much greener, blooming cactus, flourishing sage brush and a particular earthy smell permeates the air like a delicate perfume. Each step forward becomes an oasis of thriving plant life, and just as your about to ask how, you see it.

A great pool of water extends the majority of the horizon, reflecting the bright light of the sun and creating a perfect mirror image of the surrounding environment. A small group of Big Horned Sheep could be seen taking a gracious drink off the tranquil water’s surface. Various kinds of birds nesting in the blooms of the Joshua trees providing a sweet melody. Everything was flourishing.

John’s horse maneuvers itself in front of yours, bringing you to a stop and putting said riders face right in your line of view. “I figured you could come here when you need to… ya know.” His face flushes red. “Bathe.”

You let out a huff of a laugh and a smirk. “You know, bathing isn’t my whole personality. But I appreciate it.” You both sit in silence as you take it all in. It actually began to make you emotional, tears brimming to the surface of your eyes. You attempt to keep composure but it’s in vain as John clearly notices.

“A-are you ok?” He sounds almost frightened. No doubt caught off guard by your sudden decent into sadness.

“I-I’m sorry.” You turn away from him, dabbing away at your eyes. Face scrunched painfully as you try your hardest to hold back the sob desperately trying to come up your throat. “I-I don’t know what’s come over me.” Your voice cracks as you speak. It’s an awkward silence as you fail to keep your feelings at bay. You almost don’t feel the couple soft taps on your shoulder.

“It’ll be okay…” John attempts say comfortingly, though it comes out sounding more like a question. It was… very sweet of him.

Your horse seems to dislike the change in mood as he winnies in agitation, swaying side to side before moving suddenly.

“WHoawhoa-WHOA!!” You shriek in surprise as your horse bolts forward with vigor, your hands yanking on the reins causing him to simply jerk his head and rip them from your grip. “Ah!” your hands desperately grab for his neck, looping around the large and taught muscle before you feel your legs turn cold. Your horse had felt the sudden need to plunge himself directly into the water taking you with him. Your wide eyes meet John’s still in shock.

“Guess he was hot.” John remarks. The horse let’s out a long grunty sigh that vibrates from underneath you. You’re up to your shoulders in water, soaking you from your socks to your underwear.

And you laugh.

A long joyous slip of bliss from your lips, the first in a long time. And it goes on and on and on. Leaving you breathless as you pitter down to little giggles, only to rev back into a fit. Slapping the horse gently on his side.

“You-hoohoo silly horse- ahahaha!” You can hear John letting loose a few laughs as well.

“Well, lookie here!” A new voice arises from the shoreline. It’s Arthur. Basking down at you from atop his trusty mare, leaning forward and a twinkle in his eye.

“What’re you doin’ here?” John doesn’t look happy, eyeing Arthur up with a challenging look in his eyes.

“Lookin’ for you two.” He attempts to smack John, who swerves harshly out the way nearly falling off his saddle. “You’ve got night watch.”

“So do you!” John retorts in annoyance.

“Yeah, and you better not fall asleep on me!” Arthur goes for another swing, this time landing upside John’s head with a smack.

“Ow!” John’s face scrunches up into a scowl, he retaliates with a smack of his own that causes Arthur’s hat to fall forward into his face. You let out a soft giggle at the sight.

Like a couple of toddlers.

Arthur adjusts his hat back into place, clearing his throat before speaking to you in a much more tender tone.

“You need some help there, ma’am?”

“uhh…” you grab for the reins floating just on the water’s surface, giving them a pull upwards, backwards and to the side. But the horse simply remains submerged and relaxed. You swing yourself off it’s back, now soaking every inch of you completely. Wading towards the bank as both young men dismount to meet you. Arthur has his hands extended before John practically shoves him out of the way causing Arthur to exclaim an irritated “Hey!”. You’re assisted up and out of the pond, John’s hand lingering in yours long after your clearly on dry solid land.

“Thanks.”

John nods with an eager smile. “Course!”

“You can let go of my hand now…”

“Oh uh! Yeah…” He stammers a bit, looking at your intwined hands before finally releasing you from his grip.

“What about him?” You motion to the large horse still sitting unmoved.

Arthur looks to John and nods his head towards the water. “You get him.”

“What!? No way, you do it!”

“I know you chose the horse. So, you get to pull him out.” Arthur corrals you to follow him back to Boadicea, throwing in one last remark to John before placing you just behind him. “Maybe you’ll finally learn to swim!”

John flips him off leaving Arthur to laugh as the two of you ride away.

“He can’t swim?” You ask genuinely worried.

“Yeah, so don’t go askin’ for lessons.”

“Is he gonna be ok?” I mean you did just leave him all alone surrounded by a large body of water.

“Little John knows how to take care of himself. Drowning won’t be what kills him.” You look back to see John hollering and waving a carrot around trying to get the horse’s attention.

You only give an uncertain hum, falling quiet. You try not to get too close, for both personal space and to not soak his entire back with your still sopping wet clothes.

You’d be lying if you said Arthur didn’t scare you. Out of everyone in camp, you knew the least about him. And with his clearly appropriate label as the muscle of camp, it worried you to think if and when he’d use that muscle on you.

“We haven’t really had a chance to talk much, you and I.” Arthur speaks.

“Well-“ You exhale, “-it’s been a strange couple of months. Not like I’ve been in the mood to talk anyway.”

He responds with a hum. “How ya holdin’ up?”

“I don’t know… I’ll feel ok for a while and then out of nowhere I’m having a mental breakdown.” You fidget with the sleeve of your blouse. “I’m not sure holding on is something I can do for too much longer.”

“Well… it hasn’t been that long ago since… ya know. But things will get better miss. These things just take time.” He perks up a bit, “And hey, being able to laugh in your situation, I’d say you’re well on your way to healin’.”

Your lips twitch into an almost small smile. “I sure hope so, it’s a lot to adjust to… And I can’t say how much I appreciate you all taking me in and giving me so much.”

“What happened to you? If you don’t mind me askin’?”

“I…I got lost…”

“Lost?” He sounds confused.

“But I can never go back home. I can never…” Your throat constricts with the thought of people you once knew flash across your mind. “I-I don’t want to talk about it…”

“Sorry, I shouldn’t have brought it up.” And you both fall back into the awkward silence. The only sound being the muffled trotting of Boadicea’s hooves on soft sand.

Arthur suddenly pulls Boadicea to a stop, causing you to squeeze his waist extra hard and smooshing your face against his broad back. Catching a whiff of cigarettes and… Oh god he needs a bath.

“What? What’s wrong? Why are we stopping?” you quickly slip your arms away as he dismounts, grabbing a rifle from the saddle. You freeze up in fear as he meets your eyes and puts his finger to his lips.

“Sshh…” he shushes softly. He lowers himself to the ground. Soft careful steps in the direction of a large cluster of brush. Your eyes scan the area finding nothing, fixing back to Arthur confused as to what in the world he’s doing.

He stops, stock still. Lifting the rifle to his shoulder before BANG and then another BANG. Making you jump each time. He proceeds to jog over to whatever he decided needed to die. His face is a light with a smile, rifle over one shoulder and two rabbits dangling from his hand held up with triumph.

“Dinner!” he calls out. Swinging the carcasses over his shoulder. Making his way back to you, you spot dark splotches beginning to form on his shirt.

Oh my god. It’s animal blood!

A wave of relief falls over you, hand at your chest as you let go of so much stress and anxiety over that damned bloody shirt.

“I was wondering where that blood came from.” He looks at his now red stained shoulder as he ties a rabbit to each side of the saddle.

“Oh yeah… sorry about that.” He attempts to wipe the blood off his hands before remounting, his hands now a bright pink. “I’ll wash this one, don’t worry about it.”

“Oh? You know how to do your own laundry?”

He laughs, “Yes, I know how to do laundry. Susan made sure of that.”

“And you’re on a first name basis with her too it seems.” You notice the damp imprint you made on his back and can’t help but distance yourself from him a little more.

“We’ve known each other a long time. I mean she practically raised me.”

Raised him, so he was a kid when he joined up. My god that’s a long time.

“Did you know your parents?”

“I don’t remember much of my Mama, but my Daddy… I wish I didn’t remember much of him.” A bad father figure, not much of a surprise.

“Must have been hard…”

“Hard for everyone isn’t it?”

“Yeah but… doesn’t mean it hurts any less.”

He stays quiet for a moment before he speaks again, softly this time. “Your right… it don’t.” The conversation dies down after that. You make no effort to change that.

You start to descend where the camp lies, completely hidden from view until you were basically walking in the front door. Once on the ground you utter a small “thank you” to Arthur. Turning to his horse

“Thank you, girl.” You stroke her side gently; she eyes you with curiosity as if waiting for something. “Sorry I don’t have a treat for you.”

“Here, give her this.” Arthur fishes around his bag before pulling out a round pale thing. You take it in your hand, inspecting it a moment. It was light and delicate. A rice cake without the rice. You offer it to Boadicea, palm open as she plucks it up with her big whiskery lips. And you let out an air of a laugh through your nose as she tickles your hand.

“It was nice talking to you miss.” Arthur speaks with a smile, eyes shrouded by his hat, but you can still see the bright glint of his eyes. The two rabbits hanging over his shoulder.

“It was nice talking to you too. I hope you sleep well.” You both awkwardly nod a goodbye as he departs.

The second Arthur leaves your side, a new body takes his place. Samson towers over you and far too close for your liking. Taking two steps back, only for him to take two steps forward.

“I’ve been meaning to talk to you.” He utters with a far too innocent look.

“What do you want?” you blurt out your question with no effort in sounding in the least bit interested in what he has to say.

“I want to apologize for the terrible first impression I left on you that first night.” He waits for a response from you, you don’t give him one. “I don’t want us to start off on bad terms, I’m really not a bad fella.” You roll your eyes, it’s the stupid nice guy bullshit even in this era. Turning to leave before you feel his disgusting giant meaty paw clamp onto your forearm like a vice. “Wow wow! I’m not done talking!” He barks angrily, yanking you back to your spot right in front of him causing you to yelp. “I think we could be real good friends. But it takes two my dear.”

“I don’t want to be your friend!” You spit out at him, yanking your arm only causing him to grip it even tighter. He smiles wide.

“Good. Neither do I.” Your stomach twists at the way his eyes linger in intimate places as they rave up your body before they fall behind you. Smile dropping and hand quick to release, causing you to stumble back. Gentle hands find themselves cradling your shoulder, pushing you behind a body.

“What the hell do you think you’re doin’?!” Arthur’s voice comes out deep and low. Eyes staring daggers into Samson as your hidden from view. His shoulders taught and raised like the hackles of a cat. In the moment Arthur seemed to tower over Samson.

“Nothing, just a friendly chat.” Samson feigns ignorance. “Not like it’s your business anyhow.”

“When it comes to the safety of the women, it’s my business.” Arthur barks loud and gruff. Samson seems to notice the little exchange is drawing attention, eyes from others peeking around corners and watching. He fidgets.

“She’s fine, ain’t no hair out of place or bruise on her.” He dares to meet your eyes again, but his view is blocked by Arthur’s body once more. “Like I said, it was just a friendly chat.” And with his final statement he finally leaves.

Only once he’s out of sight does Arthur relax. “You alright?” His voice no longer holding the animosity he had only seconds ago. Now soft and hushed. You cradle the arm, no marks or bruising. But the feeling of that dirty hand lingers like a burn.

“Yeah… I’m ok.” Your eyes remain fixated on your hand now rubbing your forearm. “Thank you for stepping in…” Despite the tense situation, you didn’t feel uncomfortable. You felt safe, secure, calm. You can see him fidget in your peripheral. Shifting from foot to foot.

“If he gives you trouble, you come to me, Alright?” You finally look up into his eyes, kind and concerned. Nothing like the way Samson was looking at you. You nod slowly.

“I’ll come to you…” His eyes drift from each of your eyes a moment more, before he nods his head.

“Ok… You be well Ma’am.” You watch as he leaves, hands twitching and shoulders adjusting themselves. He approaches Dutch and Hosea who were sitting and chatting away with cups of coffee. There smiles dissipate as Arthur speaks. Their gaze looking off in the direction of Samson and then they turn to you. Your eyes meet there’s for a split second before you turn away quickly. Wondering off to find a nice sunny spot to dry off and lie low for a while.

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dylanakamura · 5 months

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La La Land - Epilogue and Art

Obvious Spoiler Warnings for the ending of La La Land and many components leading up to it. I implore you to go watch this masterpiece as soon as you can!! Now onto the post!

The Epilogue to La La Land is one of my favorite scenes ever. Besides the context of my watch, it just culminated in such a beautiful feeling throughout my whole mind and body watching the whole 10 minutes play out. And the most outstanding part is how the scene has no dialogue, no lyrics, just music, and vision to carry to us a feeling you can’t really put into words.

To set the stage I want to share the context leading up to the ending very briefly through my own lens. We had just followed Mia and Sebastion through a rollercoaster of emotions leading both on the path to their respective life goals and were left on a cliffhanger, a will they/won’t they fork in the path when it cuts to 5 years later. We get so teased by the environments and parallels to the beginning of the movie and hints that they both have succeeded but no confirmation of the real meat and potatoes. Are they still together after all this time? Then we finally see that Mia is married to a rich man in a mansion with a baby at home. Him and her leave their child with a babysitter for a fancy dinner out. While they’re out they hear the murmur of a jazz band from inside a club, and they both heed the call and go in. You could cut the pure tension and anticipation with a knife at this very moment. What’s it called? Is it Seb’s? We see the familiar logo in neon light but the band doesn’t show anyone familiar until the song ends and he walks up on stage. Their eyes meet.

This moment is when a candle long forgotten begins to burn once more, and we get to accompany them both on the ride down memory lane, a memory lane that never was. Kicked off with the very tune that brought the two together, we see an idealized revision of their first meeting, many scenes from the movie shown in caricature with little to no friction between Mia and Sebastion. We even see them move into a nice home together and share smiles. We get to see how things could have looked if they stuck together when Mia got her role out of the country. Not a single moment shared with us is without a smile on their two faces. They even find themselves dancing among these boisterous sets and even the stars themselves. This whole time we get these familiar reprisals of the film's entire score, not one to one but with just enough familiarity to each melody that we recognize we’ve heard this before, we’ve felt this before.

Through a filter like an old family camera we see the two watching themselves raising a child together, their child. This scene really kills me every time because it hones in on that feeling we all get looking at childhood pictures and videos, that layer of the past that we breathe in that teleports us back to that time. It’s such a special scene, and the cherry on top is a reprisal of City of Stars accompanying this montage. The final moment being of Mia and Sebastion prancing among beautiful flowers and sharing a tender embrace behind a bush, before it fades to a very familiar scene, this time it’s Mia and Sebastian leaving the baby with a sitter to have a nice dinner. They take the same exit and run into the same club playing jazz, where Mia sits in that same seat embracing the man next to her and listening to her and Sebastion’s song being played to them once. The circle completes.

The song ends and they part ways once again, but before leaving they look at each other one last time, each with a smile on their faces.

What I really Love about this ending is the feeling that we got to experience a Life that never was totally composed of a Love they both shared for each other. And the feeling that regardless of which path they would have gone down they would have ended up there, that same night together, feeling that same way, content with their lives and happy for the time they got the privilege to share with one another. It’s art at its core that I think this scene captures so well. We read a book or watch a movie to view from a window a life not lived in the way we live our own lives, but still a story that we resonate with in a very real way, just like the way the epilogue of La La Land acts for Mia and Sebastion. None of what happened in those 10 minutes were real per se, but the feelings behind them were authentic, just like Mia and Sebastion’s real lives aren’t real in our world, but the feelings of those characters are authentic as well. Love is such a powerful force and this movie paints a beautiful picture with that feeling and sensation we all know and feel.

I really thought the ending to this movie was a sad one when I initially finished it. The pair I was rooting for didn’t end up together. That’s so frustrating!! But as time has passed since watching the movie, I’ve begun to realize how hopeful the ending really is. It’s supremely hopeful to know that even coming out the other side of a hard life-altering decision, you’ll be okay. You’ll be exactly where you need to be. And that Love you felt, that passion for someone or something that embodied your whole being isn’t just gone. It will always be around in our memories and our creations. That’s such a truly beautiful thing to me that I’ll never forget because of this movie.

#la la land #movies #movie review #film #film review #damien chazelle #ryan gosling #emma stone

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ayliamc · 1 year

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Italia

Day 6 - On the Arno

Steps walked: 18,216

Flights climbed: 12

Vehicles ridden: 1

Points of interest visited: 3

Leonardos spotted: 3, depending on whom you ask

We woke in Venezia this morning to the sound we fell asleep to last night: a canal beginning to stir with the signs of life. Both of us were so tired so getting out of bed was a bit of a chore. But we were the first to breakfast at our hotel and our benevolent host greeted us as joyfully as ever, making us a cup of tea and a double espresso (for me and Dan respectively) while we put together a full and yummy breakfast.

We bid our host adieu and — after some deliberation about whether or not to take a water taxi to the train station, barely faster but more for the novelty of it — ultimately walked to the train station. We tried again at the coffee shop that reportedly had some vegan croissants and were early enough to snag a few for the train before they ran out. It ended up being a delightful midday snack on the train as we approached Firenze, some of the lucky few on the train who didn’t have someone sitting next to them.

‘Twas after lunch and we’d had the croissants (Italian croissants all have filling in them; there’s no such thing as a plain croissant here) to keep us from getting grumpy, but lunch was a priority. On the way we happened upon a cool old church. We took a picture with it and moved on. More on this later.

Here I am, unimpressed.

We had found a vegan restaurant kinda on the way to our Airbnb. (Now we’re in real cities, I will only patronize VEGAN RESTAURANTS!) So we trudged to Nirvana, a vegan restaurant close to the Arno, the river that runs through the heart of Florence. Florence’s Thames or Seine, if you will. I finally got to order the ravioli that I’ve been craving and Dan got a big plate with some kind of plant-based meat and some of the best potatoes I’ve ever had. Simple but so good.

Sated, we walked the rest of the way to our room, which proved to be a picturesque walk along the Arno where I could imagine that what I was seeing had once been seen by Leonardo himself. Many of the buildings certainly look old enough to have been here when he was.

Firenze is similar to Venezia in that feels fake, like a toy town or something from a movie or storybook. But they’re different in that Venezia has a kind of wrongness to it. That sounds more harsh than I mean it. But I don’t exactly know how to explain it. (Side note: i do feel kind of guilty as I imagine my friend Sean reading this and my thoughts about his dream city are that it shouldn’t be real.) But Firenze feels more like I’ve been transported back in time. But so have a LOT of other people. Other people from my time. So we’re all just a bunch of 2023 people walking around the 16th century.

I marveled at a bridge we had to cross in that there were literally apartments built onto the bridge itself, only to shortly thereafter discover that our rented room was one of those apartments! We are literally suspended over the Arno, on the Ponte Vecchio. We can see the Galleria Uffizi from our bedroom window, just down the riverbank. We later tried to identify which window is ours from the Uffizi.

So yeah, great location but it has a price: namely the shower (more on that later) and the wifi (whose connection is so bad they’re forcing my blog posts to come late because there’s literally not enough bandwidth to upload them).

The Galleria totally caught me by surprise, in terms of its existence and the items inside. For some reason I became very anxious and irritating (yeah, you read that right; irritating, not “irritable”) and I feel bad for Dan. Honey if you’re reading this, I’m sorry. Thanks for putting up with me. But we got our tickets around 3:30, got a little lost and ultimately found our way, despite the museums inexplicable lack of paper maps in lieu of digital maps you can only access online, but there’s no wifi. (A docent shared in my exasperation at this. She said, and I quote, “Don’t expect things to make sense in Italy.”) Turns out this gallery holds a lot of awesome stuff. About a million and a half Roman statues, plus the mother-flippin’ Birth of Venus!

Two works from Verrocchio’s workshop that Leonardo had a hand in! (Though they straight up credited Leonardo for one of them in its entirety. They’ll really slap his name on anything now if it helps them.) And one unfinished Leonardo (that I think also had been painted in part by others)!

A Rembrandt and a Michelangelo and Caravaggio’s Medusa and a Melzi. Melzi was likely a sort of apprentice to Leonardo, and a kind of adopted son. I also learned the etymology of the word “hermaphrodite” which as soon as I learned it seemed so obvious I felt stupid.*

Here I am with the Melzi.

After the first floor (which was actually the second floor) Dan announced, “That was fun, wanna go to a cafe?” To which I replied, “That was only the first floor!” But it was indeed the second floor. You can see the confusion. In any case we spent about two hours in the museum before slowly meandering around the Uffizi square and looking at all the sculptures before walking to another vegan restaurant for dinner. Universo Vegano, this time. More good food, and we could see the Duomo down the street. (The Firenze Duomo, not the Milano Duomo.) We also took advantage of the superior wifi here (over what was offered at our apartment) so we looked up a few more points of interest and discovered that the random fancy church we passed earlier houses some tombs of note. We’ll be sure to go visit it properly tomorrow.

After dinner (with stuffed croissants in hand for breakfast) we walked by the Duomo, the one where David was originally meant to be displayed before being declared too magnificent. (We’re seeing that tomorrow.) Cool building to be sure.

A quick stop in a nearby market so we could pick up a few breakfast and snack foods** and then back for an early night over the Arno. We got to relish in the challenges of showering in an old building where the water took 5 minutes to get hot, stayed hot for about four minutes, then got cold again and stayed cold. There was a brief war as we shut out the lights when I heard a mosquito buzzing around. We tried in vain to remove her but alas. ‘Twas a comic failure. I’ve already been bitten a bunch while we’ve been here and don’t relish waking up to more welts.

Our apartment also has a window that opens down onto the Ponte and it doesn’t close — I think it’s for ventilation — so we went to bed to the sounds of a live musical performance at the bar below us and the hourly chimes of a nearby church before the city joined us in sleep.

*Hermes and Aphrodite had a child who was born both male and female. Their name? Hermaphrodite. As in Hermes + Aphrodite. You get it. So do I.

**Dan wanted to buy a bottle of wine or beer, but it was all sealed off in the market because of a soccer game… all sales of alcohol in glass or aluminum containers were forbidden in Firenze’s historical district until 7am the following day. Crazy.

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animehouse-moe · 1 year

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No Longer Allowed In Another World Volume 2: Ningen Shikkaku

The stage is set, a world in front of the characters with infinite futures at their fingertips. All it takes is a single step, one small stroke of a pen to begin. But, since this is a parody series, it goes nowhere and a whole bunch of ridiculous (equal parts comedic and cool) happens. The real question is where to begin?

How about with the titular Osamu Dazai himself? The writer of "No Longer Human" (which this manga's title is a parody of), as well as other novels such as "The Setting Sun" or "The Flowers of Buffoonery", though some may know him as the lead character in Bungo Stray Dogs. Osamu Dazai is a twisted man, himself seeing the irony in his own existence.

Would I say I'm disappointed in his characterization? Sort of, yeah. They sort of glorify his appearance as the suicidal novelist, which I don't really mind, but they drop a lot of his more negative aspects, which I feel help contextualize much of his reason for acting. Without that layer of depravity it feels like Osamu Dazai's.... sort of a good guy? He provides life lessons to those around him, and even supports people for the sake of "good". Without any sort of negative aspect to his character, you don't get the sentiment of pity or salvation that should arise from good deeds. You don't get the feeling that Dazai is acting to absolve himself, to delude himself into believing that he can still be a normal person.

Alas, this is a parody manga and not many people read much of Osamu Dazai's work so I don't really expect much more, but for once I wished to throw my words into the void.

Moving forward, the comedy is still fun, and with a proper direction and foundation under its feet it can do really well. Runnings gags already arise, and the whole straight man act works pretty well for it.

Even though I griped about Dazai's characterization in this manga, I really must admit that it's enjoyable in its own way. I think if you just take the overall "idea" of Osamu Dazai as the suicidal novelist it's very enjoyable. It's just that it's a far cry from Osamu Dazai. His personality is still very prickly, and pivots to focus on scaring others with his actions. In truth, it's miles better than a lot of genuine isekai protagonists, so maybe they should start taking character inspiration from famous historical figures.

While on the topic Osamu's character, I want to drift over into art for a little bit. The overall world is somewhat simplistic, but the characters have a nice degree of charm to them when there's a concept in mind. However, as you can see with the young boy above, when there's not something strong to latch onto, they can end up rather vague and stereotypical. The worst part of the art though is building exteriors. It's well hidden with angles and other details, but they're more than likely just models copied over from some 3D software.

A good example is this great scene. The camera angle, the layout, how it leads the eye and the feeling it elicits is really good, but the buildings (especially the church) stick out like a sore thumb.

Now, the meat and potatoes of this volume: where it's going and what it wants. I've got to say, I think it's a really fun idea that incorporates a name drop for the series and incorporate some of Dazai's passion for writing into it. The idea of the "fallen angels" and exploring the depravity of humanity instead of what wrests inside of Dazai is fun, and having the girl he died with on the other side is a really nice plot point. At this point it's more a matter of how they execute on it if it's able to be good, but I have faith they'll find a way.

All of this said, I really don't think my stance on the series has changed between volumes. No Longer Allowed In Another World isn't a catchall manga, it probably doesn't even have a huge audience. It's a sort of trashy but rather fun isekai parody that plays off a gimmick to establish substance and a comedic routine. If you don't like parodies and non-sequitur humor, this probably isn't something you'll like. If on the other hand though, you do find those aspects interesting, you might enjoy reading this series.

#no longer allowed in another world #no longer human #isekai shikkaku #ningen shikkaku #osamu dazai #manga review #manga recommendation #anime and manga #manga

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malusrecord · 21 days

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~"What's a small thing that you miss from the Commonwealth? Like the first thing you're gonna go and get the second we get back?" She really just wants some light conversation to ease her burdened heart (for Hedwyn from my Reader oc ;;; )

The slump of his dear friend's shoulders coupled with the dejected tone of her voice---a voice that was normally so cheerful despite their overwhelming circumstances---was enough for Hedwyn's heart to race. It's not your fault. It's not your fault. It's not your fault. It's not your fault that any of this is happening.

"....." Hedwyn sighs softly, the blackwagon creaking slightly under the nomad's weight as he moves to sit close beside Miche. What did he miss? What didn't he miss was the better question---not to mention something infinitely harder to answer with mere words---and yet the Reader's need was clear: She needed him. She needed reassurance, no matter how soft or simple, when all Hedwyn wanted to do in that moment was to shout aloud how it wasn't fair, not one bit of it, and that she should be able to go free alongside everyone else and that HE'D DEFY THE SCRIBES THEMSELVES A THOUSAND TIMES OVER DOWN TO THE VERY LAST STAR TO MAKE IT HAPPEN and---

"....I miss having real food. I want to be able to make something for you and everyone else without the fear of it crawling out of the pot while cooking it, something good and memorable, with meat and potatoes and the freshest of vegetables." It was, undoubtedly, an expected answer coming from him but EVERY WORD OF IT WAS TRUE. Hedwyn then slides an arm around his friend's shoulders and draws her in close, pressing their sides tightly together as he rests his cheek against the top of her still slightly bowed head. "...I won't leave you down here, my dearest friend." He squeezes Miche as he speaks and when she shudders underneath his touch and a small sound---a gasp at first and then a barely held in check sob---ekes out from underneath her hood Hedwyn squeezes her even tighter. "You said it yourself just now: We. Not you, but we. We're going to get out of here---all of us---we just....have to keep trying."

And when his words make Miche cry in earnest the hand that had been holding onto her shoulder shifts to pluck at the top of her hood, fingers gently pulling the worn cloth away from her crown so the nomad can press a gentle kiss to the top her head and murmur into her hair soothingly. "It's alright....EVERYTHING IS GOING TO BE ALRIGHT. Let's just sit here for now, okay? Just like this." I'm here for you. I'm here for you. I'm here for you. I'm here for you, now and always.

#;;ask response: ic hedwyn #;;ask response: with squiggles #anonymous #LISTEN OKAY LISTEN!! I'm sure you wanted something lighthearted but no!!!!!!!!!!!!! no ;;;;;;;;;;;#it's for us okay.... ;;;;;;;;

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gallusrostromegalus · 4 years

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If you ever want to do a "Top 10 home gardening tomato cultivars" segment, I'm here for it. (My folks mostly plant Early Girls, but they have a ridiculously short growing season up there. I grow Sweet 100s, because they taste good enough and I gave up on growing anything other than cherries due to bastard squirrels who like to take exactly one bite out of larger tomatoes.)

IT IS NOW TIME TO INFO DUMP

CONSIDER YOURSELF WARNED

Ok so the actual thing with tomatoes is there are- checks google- about 10,000 tomato cultivars out there and every single one of them is different, so you should tailor your tomato breeds to what you actually want to do with them. 10K is a lot a breeds to break down, but fortunately, there are ways to Do That:

1. Determinate vs. Indeterminate

Determinate tomatoes grow to a genetically predetermined size and start fruiting. Pros: Tends to have a short time between planting and fruiting, don’t get bigger than a certain size if you only have so much space. Cons: Once they’re done fruiting, that’s it. you really only get the one crop out of them. Also tend to have sad, watered-down flavor.

Indeterminate tomatoes grow as big as the space will let them, and start fruting when they get around to it. Pros: Maximum Plant for minimum investment, which can be like 10x as big as a determinate plant. Will KEEP fruiting until it gets too cold, so if you can get it in a pot you can move inside you could potentially still be harvesting tomatoes after thanksgiving like my MIL was this year. If you live somewhere warm like SoCal or AZ, you could keep it alive all year. Cons: MUCH longer time between planting and fruiting. Indeterminate tomates Get there when they get there. Also may be more prone to disease and pests than the more-modified determinate plants.

There are determinate and indeterminate tomatoes in all 5 of the Greater Tomato Archetypes. Speaking of:

2. The 5 Tomato Archetypes

I’m so good at segues!

So tomatoes come in 5 basic types, each which is generally better for something culinary than the others. You CAN substitute different types of tomato but your food generally doesn’t come out as good.

1. Cherry: Cherry tomatoes produce fruits that are about the size of cherries. Some people put Grape and Saladette tomatoes in here but they are WRONG, both of those belong in the “Round/All-Purpose” group because Cherry tomatoes specifically have thinner skins, more soluable pectin, and more dissolved glutemates, which means they cook VERY differently. Cherry tomatoes also produce a shitload of fruits at a time and might be some of the heaviest producers. Tend to be more heat-tolerant. Good For: Fresh tomato sauces (i.e. takes less than 20 minutes to make), salads, snacking on directly off the vine like you are a small tarsier discovering a hidden bounty of fruit.

Top reccomendations are: -Indigo Cherry or Dwarf Black Krim if you can find it. I always reccomend dark-pigmented tomatoes as I find they have better flavor, pest resistence and UV tolerance. Taste fruity but not over-sweet and Very Tomato-y. -Sweet 100/Super-Sweet 100/Sweet Millions: All varietals of the same mass-producing Cherry Tomato. Makes absolute buckets of Tomatoes, sweeter and more fruity than the Indigo cherry, good disease resistence and long growing season.

2. Paste: Paste tomatoes are thin-skinned, meaty and soft tomatoes that... well, they make good tomato paste, the basis for all long-cooking tomato sauces and recipies. They tend to be kind of Oblong and sometimes grow in fun extras like lil tomato “dicks” or weird cthulian shapes, but this doesn’t effect the flavor or nutrition There’s a shitload of great varietals in this category, I’ve yet to hear of a Bad Paste Tomato, just Less Excellent ones. Good For: Long-cooking Tomato-based dishes like: Bolognese, chili, ketchup, BBQ etc. Also can and freeze well.

Top Reccomendations are: -Amish Paste: MEATY, and well-suited for growing in a variety of conditions. Paste is smooth and velvety. Good for Chili, BBQ and Bolognese. -Opalka tomato: Russian Tomato, little more on the acidic side, grows well in places prone to surprise late frosts. Paste isn’t as smooth but very thick. makes great ketchup. -San Marzano: THE tomato for making Marinara Sauce (also does good bolognese). Sweeter and lighter, with a slightly runnier paste that clings well to pasta. cans and freezes excellently, does well in places with HOT summers.

3. Beef: Beef tomatoes are BIG motherfuckers that kind of take a long time to grow but are very rewarding. Beef tomatoes are firm, have a very solid meat and are best eaten raw, typically sliced onto a sandwich or seared under a broiler for a NZ Mousetrap. Not only are the fruits big but so are the Plants, so they take a long time to reach maturity and the fruit takes FOREVER to ripen but if you like a sandwich, they can’t be beat. Also they look hella impressive on instagram. They also tend to be more prone to Blossom End Rot (which is just a calcium deficiency- just make sure to fertilize with some eggshells and don’t over-water them), and despite the size, don’t tolerate cold well. Good for: Slicing on sandwiches, eating raw like you’re biting into the still-beating heart of your nemesis and enjoying that sweet, sweet revenge, searing quickly under a broiler or putting on a Kabob.

Top Reccomendations Are: -Brandywine: Hefty, great fresh tomato flavor, and PINK. -Big Zac: Goddamn Massive Tomato. A Real Heckin’ Chonker. meatier flavor and lots of firm flesh with few seeds. -Beefmaster: One problem with Beef tomatoes is that a lot of them are heirloom varietals that aren’t as widely available. Of the ones that are easy to get your hands on, Beefmaster is the best, but it lacks the flavor punch of Brandywine or Big Zac, but it’s not a BAD tomato.

4. Round/Early/All-Purpose: The Workhorse of Tomatoes, the Round Tomato does it all- sauces, salsa, sandwiches, salads, and snacks. But it doesn’t do them quite as well as the other, more specialized tomatoes. Also, some of these tomatoes have been Over-Worked and bred to fruit early and transport well, at the expense of it’s Flavor. I’M TALKING ABOUT YOU, EARLY GIRL AND BETTER BOY, YOU FLAVORLESS TENNIS BALLS, YOU INSULTS TO THE MIGHTY HOUSE OF NIGHTSHADES. Love yourself, don’t get Early Girl or Better Boy. If your season is too short for anything but the earliest of tomatoes, it may be better to grow Something Else than put all that effort in for Disappointment. That said, there are many types of Round/All-Purpose tomatoes that haven’t been overbred into corporate blandness, and I can reccomend them in good concisence if you’re not totally sure what you want to do with your tomatoes: Good For: Indecisive people, people just learning how to grow plants, using one plant for a variety of purposes, people who are not yet prepared to enter the world of Tomato Opinions. Top reccomendations are: -If you really must have an early-fruiting tomato, the Wayahead is an heirloom that people swear comes in early with good size, flavor and firm structure. I have not personally tied this varietal but people I trust like it. -Black Krim: GOD-TIER TOMATO. It’s got it all- flavor, high yields, firm structure, pest and disease resistence, fucking purple stripes. Cans Well, Freezes well, seeds well and breeds true. Fuck yes. Other tomatoes fucking WISH they had what this Hot Bitch has. -Invincible is a damn-hard-to-kill tomato that isn’t very large but fruits reliably and preforms well all around. it also ripens 3 fruits at a time so you’re not constantly overburdened with Tomato. Probably my top pick for beginners that need an Emotional Support Crop.

5. Fun: This is not, strictly speaking, a traditional type of tomato, but I feel like it’s an important category for people who want to do something different or really enjoy all Tomatoes have to offer. Good For: Trying new things, taunting the garden gods with my hubris, showing off at the garden FB group, discovering new flavors of plant.

Top Reccomendations: -Mr. Stripey: it has a goofy name, it’s yellow-and-pink striped, and it smells and tastes almost exactly like pineapple, but it doesn’t try to digest you back. I love it. -Japanese Truffle: Dark Brown tomato that looks like someone tried to make ferro rochers at home and bungled it, and has a LONG maturation time, BUT it’s got a chocolately flavor and even at maturity has green insides which give it this. Lightness? it’s hard to describe but it’s a fascinating flavor. The plant also is more branched and elegant than most tomatoes. Very different, very cool. -I have not personally tried Cherokee Purple but I have heard good things about it. We’ll see how it does in the garden this year. -Tomatillos and Ground Cherries: Not actually tomatoes, but closely related. Neat herbaceous sort of flavor, like thyme but to the left. Also comes in a fun Organic wrapping paper. -Ketchup ‘n’ Fries: a Sweet 100 tomato top grafted onto Kennebec Potato rootstock, so it grows both tomato AND potato! Grafting was invented prbably about a week after the concept of agriculture was, and consists of taking two or more closely related plants and taping a cutting of oone into a hole in the other until the plants heal together. Like that one gorilla-dude from Umbrella academy, but without the angst. You can get them pre-made or attempt to make them at home if you’re feeling adventurous and are OK with potentially killing a bunch of starts while you learn.

Good Luck and Happy Gardening!

#Long post #tomatoes #the garden of earthly HOA violations #njelruch

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weaselle · 4 years

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cooking for people who have no idea what they are doing (or are just, like, real depressed)

Okay, I’m a professional cook, but also, I get depressed. This is the cooking I do when I’m depressed, because I need the simplest path to a whole meal.

This is not for vegetarians, because, while I wholeheartedly support people choosing vegetarianism, and also enjoy cooking for vegetarians, for me, the simplest path to a meal includes meat. Perhaps when I am less depressed I will work on options.

A lot of recipes focus on achieving food that is in some way special, using special techniques, or using a precise list of carefully measured high-end ingredients... and that’s not this, this is all the parts of cooking that are not those things.

First, shopping

Meats Starches Veggies Sauces Breakfast/Snack

For a whole week you’re going to want

3 kinds of meat, with five portions each. So, for example, five chicken breasts, 10 sausage links, and 2-3 pounds of ground beef. Other possibilities include pork chops, salmon, some kind of steak, whatever.

You’re going to want up to 3 starches. Honestly I usually stick to just rice, but you can go with rice, potatoes, and pasta. If you want to use quinoa or polenta or something, thats on you.

And, you’re going to want about 3 types of vegetables, again, about 5 portions each -- and try to stay green. So personally, I usually get 5 medium zucchini, 2 medium heads of broccoli, and then either yellow squash or mushrooms. A bag of salad greens is also a good option, and I have an easy way to make a good salad, which I will do as a separate post.

Next pick something easy that works as either breakfast or a snack. For me this is a loaf of bread, a jar of peanut butter, and a bunch of bananas. Sometimes it’s nice to have an additional option here, like cereal or yogurt.

Last, you’ll want 2-5 sauces in bottles. I would definitely recommend a low sodium soy sauce be one of them, and maybe a BBQ sauce for the other. I usually also include worcestershire and sriracha but go with whatever you want, teriyaki sauce, A1, whatever you know you’ll eat. Hell, you can use Italian style salad dressing as a cookable sauce if you really want.

Oh, and If you don’t already have some at the house, you’ll need pan lube: butter and/or some kind of cooking oil.

Okay! we’re done shopping! Affordability isn’t the main focus here, but is undeniably important -- I live in a very expensive area, this shopping trip is going to feed me well for a week and costs me about $100 bucks. When I was living in Alabama, it probably would have cost me more like $70. You won’t need to get stuff like the sauce and rice and peanut butter every week, so you’re definitely looking at a monthly grocery bill of something like $300 depending on where you live, and that’s not too bad.

Prep

hell no, I’m depressed, the only prep I’m doing is putting two packages of meat in the freezer and the rest of this stuff in the fridge. You CAN box or bag each portion of meat separately so you can really alternate what you eat -- me, I’m gonna eat chicken for two or three days, then beef for two or three days, etc.

and listen, don’t fuck around with microwave settings or running water on things to defrost them. If you package the meat all up separately, just move a portion from the freezer to the fridge each time you cook dinner. Or, if you do like me, move the whole package when you go to cook your last portion of the previous stuff, and just deal with the fact that it will probably still be a tiny bit frozen when you go to cook next.

Tip: When you cook dinner, you’re going to make enough for lunch. That just leaves you one small meal - I often smear peanut butter on a peice of bread and wrap it around a banana like a taco - fast, easy, practically no dishes, relatively healthy

____________________________________________________________

Cooking (this is going to take about 25 minutes)

You’re going to need

ONE frying pan, medium size w/ lid ONE boil pot, medium size w/ lid knife, a spatula and a cutting board.

If you want to be fancy, you can include a big spoon. Looks like this

No matter what the specific ingredients you’ve chosen, the basic format is going to be:

Start your starch heat pan, put meat in the pan flip meat and add veggies, cover with lid remove meat and add sauce finish starch put everything on a plate while it is still too hot to eat and you are standing in the kitchen anyway, wash the like, 4 dishes you’ve gotten dirty. eat.

Okay, before you even get everything else out, start your starch. For rice this means rinse the rice and put it in the cold water and set it on high heat, for pasta this means put your salted water on the stove on high heat. For potatoes, you can use my perfect mashed potatoes recipe (I’ll do that as a separate post) or, honestly, you can wait until you’re halfway done with the rest of everything and microwave the sucker for like 8 minutes. I would never do that in a restaurant, but trying to feed my lethargic depressed ass? Absolutely.

easy rice: Fill your smallest coffee cup with rice, put it in the pot. Rinse. Fill the same cup twice with water, add to rice. Bring to a boil, give a good stir, turn heat all the way down, put a lid on it for something like 15 more minutes.

Okay, now lube your pan. Butter, olive oil, whatever. You’re probably looking at an amount more than a teaspoon and less than a table spoon of whichever you use. Personally I try to use as little olive oil as possible, so I pour a large coin sized amount (a quarter in the U.S.) into the pan, ear off a piece of the paper towel I’m going to use as my napkin for the evening, fold it up tight, and sort of paint the oil around so a little goes a longer way.

Pan lubed? Great, turn your burner on. highest heat will work but is not ideal, medium heat will work better but is still not ideal. Halfway between the two is perfect for chicken, a little hotter for beef, a little lower for fish.

Now remove two portions of your chosen protein (that way you’ll have tomorrow’s lunch too). By the time you get the packaging open and stuff, your pan is probably hot. If it’s not, let it get hot. You don’t want the oil to start smoking (warning, butter will burn faster than oil) but if you shake a single drop of water off your finger into the pan, you want it to sizzle.

If your pan is hot, put your meat in. The more you do this, the more you’ll perfect the timing, but you’re going to cook it for ~about~ 7 minutes before you flip it, maybe a couple minutes longer if it’s chicken or pork, maybe a couple minutes less if it’s beef.

Now that your meat is in, prepare your veggie. Rinse it off, cut off any part of it you don’t want to eat, and then cut what’s left into pieces the size of a large bite. Don’t worry, it’s going to get a little smaller when you cook it. Take your time, you’ll probably finish in less time than the meat needs.

Time to flip your meat? Great. Do that, and then dump your chopped up veggie in the pan. It does not matter at all if the pieces are not touching the bottom of the pan -probably most of them will not be, a bunch will be on top of the meat, that’s fine.

Put a lid on it. Now add your pasta to the water, or put your potato in the microwave, or check your rice. If following my perfect mashed potato recipe, mash now.

Rice tip, checking: eat a grain, you want zero crunch. If it’s not done and there’s no liquid, add a splash of water and stir. It it’s done or close to done, but it is still very wet, give it a big stir and leave on the stove with the lid off for a couple minutes.

Your meat still has like, at least 4 minutes, so rinse off your cutting board and chef knife, get out a plate, table knife and fork.

Meat done? Great. Take the meat out of the pan, leaving the veggies in. Add sauce to the pan. I like to also use a little wine, because it’s usually already in the house, if you have some and want to, pour a large swallow of wine in the pan with the sauce. I’ll often mix a couple sauces, like worcestershire and soy (makes something similar to teriyaki) or hot sauce and BBQ

Stir the sauce around with the veggies. This, called deglazing, is an important step for two reasons, 1: it will get up a lot of the flavorful stuff that has stuck to the pan and make your sauce better, and 2: it will make washing the pan much easier. Okay, put the lid back on for one to two minutes, maybe stir a couple times. Basically you want the sauce to stain the veggies.

Your starch should be done, turn off the burner, put a portion on your plate, and stick the rest in a ziplock or tupperware or something. Go ahead and throw the second portion of meat right in there with it.

Turn off the stove and scoop the veggies onto the plate, and pour the sauce from the pan over everything.

Now, while it’s too hot to eat, and you’re standing in the kitchen anyway, wash the pot, pan, and spatula. It should be very easy because of the way you used the sauce and because nothing has had a chance to harden. This usually takes me about 2 full minutes.

__________________________________________________________

OKAY! it’s been 20-25 minutes, you’ve got dinner and tomorrow’s lunch (just add another cut up veggie, pour a different sauce on, and put it in the microwave for two or three minutes) AND there’s no danger of dishes piling up on you :) You can even add “washing last night’s plate and fork for use tonight” to where you rinse the cutting board to really keep it full circle.

It’s not gormet. It IS accessibly healthy, affordable, and easy.

If you are extra depressed, forget the starch and use more veggies; this cuts what little work there is by up to half

Using this format, you can have three good meals per day and only spend 30 total minutes a day in the kitchen — including clean up! (dishes piling up tends to exacerbate my depression and makes cooking your next meal harder)

And it’s easy to give yourself a wide variety, from soy glazed chicken, zucchini and rice one night; to steak, mushrooms and pasta the next; followed by BBQ pork chops, brocoli and potatoes... I suck at math but there’s probably a hundred options

Just to recap, because I know I was very detailed and this might seem overwhelming, once you read through the above to answer any questions you might have, simply

-Start your starch -lube & heat pan, put meat in the pan, about 7 minutes -flip meat, add veggies, lid, about 7 minutes -wash knife and cutting board -remove meat and add sauce to veggies, re-lid, 1-2 minutes -finish starch, refrigerate extra meat and starch -put everything left on a plate -wash pot and pan -eat.

#cooking #food #depression meals

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shwazzberryswriting · 3 years

Text

Fleeting Reunions

Pairing: Johnny x Original Female Character|Reader

Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, Romance, Fluff, Angst, Porn With Plot

Summary: Johnny and his girlfriend spend Thanksgiving Break together

Word count: 4.4k

Rating/Warnings: Mature / Explicit Sexual Content, Non-Happy Ending *Part 6 of my "The NCT Frat House Series"*

Author’s Note: Please enjoy my first Johnny fic! I feel like this one is a bit different from other fics in this series, but I really enjoyed writing a story for Johnny! I tried my best in my proofreads but apologies if I didn't catch them all.

------

The weather. Mai hated the weather in the Midwest, and every Thanksgiving and Christmas visit back to her hometown was a reminder as to why she left Chicago for Miami. Once she made it into the passenger side of the silver Toyota Camry, she wiped the rain water off her face. She felt grateful that it was just rain, and not snow.

“Welcome home!” her boyfriend exclaimed as she looked at the driver. Johnny’s smile was as sweet as ever, but his once dark brown hair was a blinding gold blonde, his growing dark roots clashing with it.

She wanted to comment on it, but instead leaped forward and planted a big wet kiss onto his lips. Her tongue licked him, and his lips parted to capture hers. He sucked on her lips as she ran her fingers through his hair. A loud honk brought her back to reality, and she broke the kiss.

“I missed you,” she breathed against his lips.

“I missed you more,” he replied before giving her a soft kiss on the lips. “Buckle up. It’s the law.”

She laughed and did as she was told. Johnny was always confident on the road, even in bad weather. He talked about how he passed his week so far at home with his mom and aunt, going on endless store runs. It was always a produce or cut of meat missing as they prepared for the Suh Family Thanksgiving. His mom had been merciful and given him the day before Thanksgiving off to pick Mai up from the airport.

“We’re still on for my family dinner at 4:00 PM?” he asked her, looking over his shoulder as he merged into the left lane. “Your sister invited us to her Friendsgiving at noon, right?”

“Yup,” she replied. She stared out the window and shivered. Even with the heat blasting, the images of the freezing rain pouring outside made her cold. “My parents purposely went on their trip to California for the holidays. They were afraid Sue would invite them over to her place, and Mom can’t refuse. Otherwise that would mean she is mad that Sue moved out.”

“What’s out in Fresno, anyway? Farms and dirt?”

“Relatives,” she said with a grin. “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t talk about my family’s drama. Who’s making the turkey at the Suh Family Thanksgiving?”

“Whoa, touchy subject, babe. We should avoid my family’s drama, too.”

She laughed, and he joined in as he seemed satisfied that he was able to lift her spirits.

“That bad at the Suh household?”

“Any time someone needed a sack of potatoes or a thing of cabbage, I was running out of the house to HMart. Yesterday I made four trips to three HMarts to buy pork belly.”

“What about Costco or Sam’s?”

“They don’t come with the skin, which my mom and aunts like. Don’t try to shortcut, babe. HMart or you’re not a real Asian.”

“Why so much pork belly? Is someone making jeyuk bokkeum?”

“My mom,” he said. “She went to see your parents before they left for their trip. She wanted a bag of your grandma’s garden Thai peppers. She also, um, made sure your fridge was prepped for your return.”

“Babe, she didn’t have to,” she said, a familiar pit in her stomach pressing down onto her gut. “I’m only home until Sunday. Besides, my mom transferred me money on Venmo, in case I had to do any shopping for the house.”

“I know,” he replied. “Your mom told me the same thing, but I can’t stop my mom from doing what she does.”

“I’ll have to bake her a strawberry shortcake for tomorrow’s dessert.”

“Can you also make pumpkin cheesecake?”

“Of course, anything for you, babe.” She reached over and tucked his hair behind his ear. “When did you bleach your hair?”

“Erg, this stupid piss colored hair,” he groaned. “I lost at the Fall Lantern Fest Drawing Competition and Jisung bleached my hair as punishment.”

“Your NCT frat antics sound like so much fun,” she said, chuckling. “I’ve met Jisung?”

“No, he’s one of the newer members, youngest kid.”

“How long before you can dye your hair back to...not piss blonde?”

“Kun said after Thanksgiving, but my mom said before the Suh Family Thanksgiving.”

“What will Kun do if he finds out you did it before Thanksgiving?”

“Nothing. Can you help me dye my hair?”

“Of course,” she said, smiling at him. Her mind drifted to the empty house that would greet her. “It’s funny. Before college, my parents always wanted me home, but now that I’m in college, it’s like, they enjoy me out of the house so much they can’t stand it when I come back home.”

“Don’t think of it like that,” he said, glancing over at her. “You and I will have your parents’ house all to ourselves today. Just you and me, babe. You know how long I’ve waited to see you again?”

“85 days,” she said immediately.

The last day they saw each other was one day before he had to start school again. She’d been able to spend the last 2 weeks of her summer with him at his university, meeting his NCT fraternity brothers, sleeping in their chaotic house. She’d missed him immensely every day since he dropped her off at the airport.

When they arrived at her parents’ 2 story house in the outskirts of Chicago, Mai and Johnny took off their boots at the front entrance, and she locked up as he carried her suitcase up the stairs to her bedroom. As she checked the thermostat to make sure the heater was working properly, she heard Johnny rushing down the stairs.

“I’ve missed you so much,” he said, wrapping his arms around her body from behind. One hand snaked up to grope her breast while the other reached between her legs.

“John, babe,” she sighed out, reaching one hand up to grab his hair. His lips landed on her neck. “I’ve missed you, too.”

She moaned as his hand slid along the heat between her legs, his thumb pressing down on her clit. Using all the willpower she had inside of her, she grabbed onto his wrists and shoved his hands off of her. His lips had been sucking on her neck, and he gave an audible, “Oof,” as he lost contact with her.

“I think I should bake the desserts first,” she said breathlessly, shaking off her wool jacket. “And then we can dye your hair. Dinner, then sex.”

“Everything on a schedule,” he said, shutting his eyes, grimacing slightly. “Dinner at 3:00 PM sound good to you? I’ll order us a pizza from Piece. The extra fee on Grubhub is worth it, right?”

“That sounds perfect,” she replied, putting her hair up into a messy bun. “We should dye your hair before we eat. Maybe we should have gone to Target before coming home. We need to buy you some hair dye.”

“We’re not going to Target the day before Thanksgiving, are you kidding me?”

“Fine. You want to take me to Sally’s Beauty or Ulta?”

“Hey, my hair is part of who I am. I’m not going to let it be touched by another box dye kit.”

“Jisung traumatized you,” she said, throwing her arms around his neck. “Let’s go to the store first, so I can buy stuff to bake after we visit Sally’s. We can avoid the delivery fee and pick up pizza when we come home.” “See? This is why I need you here with me,” he said, wrapping his arms around her waist. “We know how each other think, and make the perfect plans together. So, it’s stores, bake, dye, pizza, and then finally, the most wonderful, sought after, sexiest of all pastimes, sexy times.”

“You’re such a goof,” she said with a chuckle.

Their lips collided as they both dove forward to kiss. Her hands were at his waist, tugging his shirt up while his fingers fumbled to undo the buttons to her jeans. She moaned against his lips as her fingers touched his stomach and the side of his body.

“Naked, now,” she breathed out when their lips parted. They broke apart and she began undressing as fast as her shaking hands and clouded mind would allow her. She was slipping her pink bralette off when Johnny pulled her to him, taking her hand into his and directed it to his half hard cock. He kissed her as her hand wrapped around it, and she stroked him a few times before reaching over with her other hand to massage his balls.

“God, you’re big,” she muttered when he broke their kiss to breathe in a loud hiss.

“Don’t,” he warned as he pressed his back to the wall, his knees shook as she began to stroke him faster. He had a point. She was too horny for foreplay, too. Just playing with his cock pissed her off that he wasn’t inside of her.

As if reading her mind, he took her hands, making her release his cock, before his arms reached down and lifted her left leg to wrap around his waist. She held onto his arms as his free hand reached down and slid two fingers into her cunt. He breathed heavily through his mouth as he captured her slick heat, letting it slide down his fingers.

She watched him cover his cock with her heat before he directed his cock into her. She thrust forward as his cock warmed her insides. He kissed her neck, and she wrapped her arms around his neck, mirroring his kiss. She grunted into his neck as she felt him shift them around so that her back was pressed against the wall.

Both of his arms hooked under her knees, and he thrust up into her, pushing her up against the wall. She moaned out his name, and his tongue licked the crook of her neck. She planted her hands onto his neck, moving up to cup his face. He pulled up and she captured his gaze as he continually thrust up into her. He shut his eyes and she moaned as she felt his cock hit her sweet spot.

“Babe! Yes!” she moaned out before pulling him in for a sloppy kiss, her tongue licking his lips.

Their lips were locked, his tongue pushing against hers when he pushed deep into her, causing her to come. She held onto him, and clamped her walls down on his cock. He grunted as he slammed into her in hard, haphazard thrusts. They came down from their orgasms together, their kisses turning soft. He was peppering gentle kisses against her lips when she rested her head onto his shoulder. He carried her to the couch, laying her down as he sat beside her.

“I missed you so much,” she was the first to speak. She sat up slowly, wrapping her arms around his waist.

“Are you going to apply to grad school at Berkeley or NYU?” he asked. “Or are you thinking of staying at Miami State? I heard they have a good Psychology Studies program.”

“I don’t want to talk about that,” she said, shutting her eyes. The uncomfortable pit had returned, just as she’d forgotten about it.

“Why not?” he asked, nudging her. He rested his hand onto her chin, lifting her head up to look at him. She opened her eyes to see him frowning slightly. “We have to talk about what we’re going to do next year.”

“Not now?” she said. She tilted her head up further and gave him a gentle peck on the lips. “Today is our blissful day together. After Thanksgiving will be our adult talk. Is that OK with you?”

“On your schedule,” he said with a sigh. He kissed her. “We’re supposed to be going out for hair dye and pizza.”

“I couldn’t help myself with you looking so sexy,” she said, running a hand over his stomach. She felt herself grow warm as her hand drifted up to his chest. They kissed.

“You better stop,” he said against her lips, “or we’ll be fucking on the couch.”

“Stop me, then,” she teased, her thumb brushing against his nipple.

He groaned, pushing her down onto her back. Their lips met as he entered her. Their kisses were a sloppy, saliva filled mess as he thrust furiously into her. He came quickly, and as he pulled out of her, she sat up to grab some tissues from the coffee table. They did a crappy job cleaning up, but they changed before leaving to run their errands.

----

Mai was watching Johnny eat a slice of the leftover cheesecake, his legs stretched out before him. He was wearing nothing but a tshirt and boxer shorts, even having taken off his crew socks. After an early morning shopping, they’d taken an early afternoon nap. When she woke up in the late afternoon, Mai found Johnny in the kitchen, serving himself one of the last slices of pumpkin cheesecake. They’d settled down in the front living room once they made some hot chocolate. Johnny sat on the floor while she sat curled up on the couch.

“Mom says thanks for the flowers,” Johnny spoke up, looking away from his phone. “You ordered her flowers?”

“As a thank you,” she replied, lying down on her stomach so she could wrap her arms around his neck. She kissed his cheek before resting her chin onto his shoulder. “She hosted a lovely Suh Family Thanksgiving. She deserves to be shown some gratitude. I put your name on the card.”

“Babe,” he said, putting the empty plate onto the coffee table, “you’re going above and beyond this year. What’s up?”

“Nothing,” she replied, running her hand through his chestnut brown hair. It’d taken her no more than 30 minutes to get Johnny’s hair to a more natural brown color the night before Thanksgiving. “I’ve missed you a lot.”

“You don’t even know,” he said, turning around slightly to grab her arms and pulling her onto his lap, “how much I missed you.” They kissed, his hand cupping her ass, reaching under her shorts. “Fuck, babe, your ass feels nice.”

“Like a plump turkey?”

He kissed her and broke their kiss with a chuckle. She placed her hands onto his shoulders as she moved around to straddle him. He made an approving noise as she slowly rested her core against his crotch. Her lips parted slightly as she gave a soft moan as the heat of his cock radiated against her.

“More like my girlfriend’s beautiful, luscious, hand-warming ass,” he replied, kneading her ass cheeks with his large hands. She kissed him, thrusting her hips gently against him. “Don’t stop,” he breathed between kisses, his hands reaching under her shirt.

“I’ve missed you everyday,” she said before taking her shirt off. His cock was growing hard as she continued to gyrate against him, her clit throbbing angrily.

Between rough kisses, Johnny shifted his boxers down to his thighs before grabbing the pink shorts covering her pussy, and sliding it aside with the fingers of his left hand. His right hand slid down her core and she moaned as he captured her clit between his index and middle finger. He squeezed it as he curled his fingers against her folds. She moaned as his touches made her body shake.

“Fuck me now,” he commanded. She took his cock in one hand, and helped guide him into her entrance. His hands grabbed her hips, and held her in place as he pushed in deep. She swore with a moan, throwing her hands up to grab his neck.

She kissed him open mouthed, humming a moan as their tongues touched. His tongue pushed against hers, invading her mouth. She whined into his mouth as she felt the sting of his hand slapping her ass. Her tongue slid against his before she turned her head aside to break the kiss. His hands grabbed her wrists as she turned to look at him, and he smirked as he stopped moving his hips.

“B-babe?” she asked in a shaky breath. His cock made her feel full inside, and the heat coming from him lit her nerves up in sensitivity. Feeling sweat gliding down her back and neck drove her clit wild.

“I like it when your tits bounce,” he said, his eyes drifting down to her bare chest.

“Like in a porno?” she asked, scrunching up her nose. She kissed him, licking his lips with the softest of flicks of her tongue. “Fine, but you have to come quick, because it hurts my boobs.”

“I love you, babe,” he said,wrapping an arm around her waist. “Thanks for indulging me.”

“Oh, fuck,” she moaned as she leaned back, reaching behind to grab onto his knees before tucking her legs under his thighs.

She started a slow rocking with her hips, and he moaned as his hands grabbed her ass cheeks and pulled her deeper into him. They moaned together as she found a good angle, arching her back and shifting so that his cock hit her a little to the right side. She bounced up and down, building up speed quickly as she threw her head back.

With her eyes shut tight, she heard Johnny cursing and moaning out her name. His hands kneaded her ass. She gave out a groan as she felt the pressure hit a wall; it felt nice, but it was no longer building. Stopping her bouncing, she returned to thrusting back and forth, hoping the change in motions would assist her in finding her climax.

“Fuck, I’m going to come,” he groaned.

“Yes, babe, I love that,” she panted as Johnny’s thumb drew circles against her clit. She moaned, and felt her strength leave her as he bent down and captured her left nipple into his mouth. He sucked on it before flicking it with the pointed tip of his tongue.

“I got you,” he panted into her ear as his arms wrapped around her back, one hand gripping onto the back of her neck. He had their bodies pressed together and she felt his mouth sucking onto her neck.

She whimpered out his name when she came. Her cunt clenched onto his cock as he continued to push up into her. His teeth grazed down from her neck to her shoulder when he came, his arms having wrapped around her waist. They managed to pull apart to kiss before collapsing against each other. Her arms were wrapped around his neck, one hand holding onto the back of his head.

“Carpet strands are probably imprinted on my ass,” he said after a while, his breath tickling her shoulder.

“Come on, Varsity Captain,” she teased, keeping her hold around him firm. “Show me how strong you are. Carry me to the bathroom.”

----

They still had an entire Saturday to be together. It was Sunday that was supposed to be the day in which they cried and faced how awful it would be to be apart for another few weeks before returning for Christmas. But Mai couldn’t sleep.

After dinner, they continued to try to make up for lost time and spent a couple hours making love. Despite feeling like her body was filled to the brim with bliss, there was still a pit at the bottom of her stomach that seemed to only grow stronger with every hour. Staring at her phone, she sighed, and sat up as she saw that it was nearing 1:00 AM.

The doubts she’d been running away from had finally caught up with her, and she felt tears well up. She loved Johnny so much, being with him for the last 3 days were the happiest she’d felt in a long time. But knowing that this happiness had an expiration date - and it was coming fast - made her resent coming home for Thanksgiving. Their relationship was a plant deprived of water and sunlight, only to be given all of it for a short period before it was to be deprived of it again.

It wasn’t a question of whether or not the plant would die being treated so inconsistently, but when?

“Mai?” Johnny had turned around in bed and sat up slightly as she turned on the lamp on the nightstand. “Babe? What’s wrong?”

The pit in her stomach was weighing her down, and she knew she had to make a decision.

“We need to break up,” she sniffled out through her tears. She shut her eyes and gave a sob.

“What?” his alarm was clear, even through the thick fog of drowsiness in his voice. He rested a hand on her elbow.

“I can’t do this anymore,” she said, brushing her tears away so she wouldn’t have to feel his touch. “I love you so much, but knowing that...that this is going to end, I can’t.”

He sat up and ran a hand through his hair. She wanted to fall into his arms. He was warm, and secure. Instead she stood up to grab tissues from her night stand.

“You want to give up on the last five years?” he asked. “Three years of this, and suddenly now you can’t anymore? You think it’s easy for me? I’ve been fucking miserable without you.”

“What’s going to happen when we graduate?” she asked, feeling annoyed. “Can you guarantee we’ll finally be together when we graduate next year? I mean, we can’t even make concrete plans on where we’ll be when we graduate. Will I remain in Miami? Will you remain in LA?”

“We’ll figure something out,” he said, moving to sit up at the side of the bed, placing his feet onto the floor.

“When? Because I just keep thinking, ‘When? When? When?’ and it’s stressing me out.” She felt the tears welling up again. She wiped her eyes and nose with a tissue. “This short reunion is so nice, but all those months I had to wait to get here? And knowing that I’ll have to do it for another month before I see you again? I didn’t even know about your blond hair, and how long did you have it?”

“We’ve been busy, it’s been like that before.” “And every time I hate it. It gets harder to put up with every time.”

“You really want to end things,” he said. She felt her heart drop as tears fell down his face. “You wanted to show me a good time so that the breakup won’t be so bad?”

“No,” she said, sitting back onto the bed. She took his hand and gave an ungracious sniffle. “I wanted to enjoy every moment with you because I missed you a lot. But just right now, when I was trying to sleep, all I can think about is how this happiness is so fleeting. Come Sunday, it’s back to this gaping hole inside of me where I’m so miserable because I miss you so much.”

He was quiet, though they held hands.

“It doesn’t have to be goodbye forever,” she said softly. “But I want you to be happy, John. I love you so much, but we need to live our separate lives.”

“Right,” he said. He let go of her hand and she felt more tears surface. “I should go.”

She wanted to protest, but cried softly as she watched him gather his things and walked out the door. Once she heard the front door slam shut, she fell down onto her bed and cried. Her chest hurt as she struggled to breathe through her sobs. Her bed and pillows taunted her, emitting Johnny’s scent into her nostrils.

----

The clouds were still grey and the rain was as wet and cold as when she’d arrived. She was going to ask Sue to visit her in Miami for Christmas. Her parents had already announced that they’d be back in Fresno for the Christmas and New Year’s celebrations. With her breakup with Johnny final, Mai had no reason to return to the Midwest in a month’s time.

Sitting in the backseat of the Uber, Mai played the soundtrack to her high school senior year on Spotify, and tried to quietly dab at the tears that leaked out of her eyes. Memories of her friendship that blossomed into love with Johnny flowed seamlessly through her mind as she stared out the window. The world blurred by as she rested her head back.

Johnny had kept his distance, but they did announce to their families that they were taking a break via texts. Given how hurt Johnny had been at Mai’s announcement, she wasn’t sure if he’d ever forgive her enough to date her again. She wanted to give him a final farewell, though she felt anxious wondering what she would even say or do if she were to see him.

When she arrived at the terminal dropoff, she saw Johnny’s familiar frame standing next to the doors of the airline she was flying with. His height always made it easy for her to catch him, even from a distance. As he helped her carry her luggage, they remained silent, stepping inside.

“I can’t go far,” he said as they stood just behind the sliding doors, making sure not to block any paths, “but I wanted to come say goodbye.”

She took a deep breath, trying not to cry, but failed and threw her hands over her face. He pulled her into his arms, wrapping her into a comforting hug. She felt him rest his chin on the top of her head, and she pressed herself closer to him.

“I’m sorry,” she muffled out through her hands and into his chest. She sniffled. “I love you so much, but I need to focus on me.”

“I get it,” he said gently. He cleared his throat. “I feel lucky to have loved you, Mai.”

She sniffled loudly and they laughed together as she moved her arms to wrap around him. She held onto his warm, secure body, and took a few deep breaths before letting go of his body.

“Keep in touch?” she said. He nodded, letting go of her. She took his hand and kissed it. She shut her eyes and counted to ten before opening her eyes and let him go. “I’ll always be grateful for your love, Johnny Suh.”

----

Thanks, always, for reading!

#nct scenarios #nct smut #nct johnny #nct 127 #nct college au #nct university au #johnny smut #johnny suh #johnny x reader #nct fanfic #nct fluff #nct angst #fluff and smut #johnny x ofc #no beta read #smut with plot

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wakeupflawless · 3 years

Note

angst/fluff prompt: #86 <3

Season 4 Brio - no secret service, no wire, just vibes and family fun.

The smell of meat cooking on the grill wafts enticingly through Beth’s nostrils. From what she can see there’s a smorgasbord of steaks, burgers and ribs. Not to mention corn, rice, beans, potato salad… Vegetarians and keto-diet beware.

Children ranging from ages two to thirteen run rampant through the yard. The oldest kids scuffle over a soccer ball while the younger ones play tag. Among them is Marcus, who almost sprints by them if not for Rio scooping him up into his arms.

“Hey now,” he chastises his son, who doesn’t lose his toothy grin, “Where’s your manners at? Say hello to Mrs. Boland.”

Marcus waves sheepishly at her. “Hi Mrs. Boland.”

Beth can’t help it, always charmed by this miniature Rio, she smiles back brightly.

“Hi, Marcus,”

Rio nods in approval, setting Marcus down, but crouching low so they’re eye to eye. Marcus nearly vibrates in his father’s hold, eager to get back to his game of tag.

“Don’t go gettin’ all dirty, or your mama’s gonna be real mad.”

Marcus rolls his eyes. “But daddyyy. You brought me extra clothes just in case!”

“Yeah. Just in case.” Rio stresses, but his lips pull into a smile.

Marcus rushes off in search of his cousins, running through a small mud pile as he goes. Rio sighs.

Out of all their differences they do have one thing in common - the exasperation of being parents.

“Who taught your son how to be so polite?” Beth asks, “Couldn’t have been you.”

“Very funny, mami.” Rio bristles, gesturing for her to continue walking toward a group of adults standing in a circle, beers in hand.

He introduces her to each person. It’s a lot of hands to shake. All their smiles are so warm and genuine, there’s no way this is Rio’s family. They’re just so… nice.

This is not what she’d expected when he told her his “people” wanted to meet her. She’d expected something murkier like… like meeting at a warehouse or in the back of a business or... Even an alleyway for godsakes. Not his family reunion.

Turns out his “boss” is his grandmother. Who's the most lovely person Beth’s ever met. They have a long conversation about the benefits of a cast iron skillet - good for keeping those boys in line - Rosa had said playfully, nodding to Rio and his male family members. If only Beth could keep him in line.

The only person she has her doubts about is Nick - Rio’s…. Cousin? Brother? It was all very odd. However the tension had been broken when a boisterous male family member had announced it was time for the annual football game.

“It’s always held right before dinner,” Rosa explains to her, “Because those boys would be too full to play after!”

It’s six versus six. Beth grabs a seat next to Rosa and Rio’s sister. Sister!! Marcus sits happily on Rosa’s lap.

A few orange cones are set up on either end of the large backyard. It’s supposed to be touch football, but Beth soons comes to discover that it’s a full on game of tackle football after all the niceties (trash talk) has been exchanged between each team.

She watches in hidden delight as Rio takes down brother-cousin hard in the grass, causing Nick to fumble and one of Rio’s younger cousins to swoop the ball up and run it in for a TD.

Marcus and Beth cheer in unison. Rio stands, brushing dirt off his black t-shirt (his usual button down laid across the back of Beth’s lawn chair) He winks at both of them, causing Marcus to giggle and Beth to blush, before helping up his brother-cousin. Nick looks pissed at first, but quickly disguises his anger when Rio smacks him good-naturedly on the shoulder.

Rio’s team ends up winning on a pick-six, with Rio easily intercepting a pass and running to the other side of the yard. Marcus bursts from his grandmother’s lap and leaps into Rio’s arms at the end of the game.

“Daddy I wanna play with you next time!”

Rio hoists his son onto his shoulders, his large hands engulfing Marcus’s skinny ankles as he saunters toward her.

The sight makes her heart clench, Rio and his son wearing identical smiles. Her fingers itch to grab her phone and snap a picture, but no, that would be weird.

He swoops Marcus down his body and plants his little feet on the ground, then Marcus is taking off, distracted by the yellow labrador that’s bound out of the house, all the kids chasing after the poor dog.

Rio drops in the chair next to Beth, their elbows touching. He’s sweaty, and Beth makes a face, but she thinks it just makes him look even more handsome.

“And what about you, darlin’?” he asks, scooting his chair closer to hers.

“What about me?” she asks, genuinely confused.

She yelps, because one moment her butt is seated on the plastic lawn chair and the next Rio is hoisting her up and onto his lap. Beth sputters, completely taken aback. He hasn’t touched her like this since… since - and in front of all these people -

“Do you wanna play with me next time?” he whispers in her ear, and Beth blushes so brightly it must be blatantly obvious to everyone around them what Rio is saying to her. His family has all diverted their eyes, talking with each other and pretending to be interested in their drinks.

She glares at him. This is not the time or place. But he’s smiling at her so softly, so full of affection. Her heart hurts because she knows she doesn’t deserve it.

“I love your smile,” she hears herself saying softly. Before her mind can catch up her hand is moving to his face, thumb gently tracing his bottom lip.

He nips at her finger, patting her thigh.

“Let’s go get some dinner. I’m starving.”

The innuendo is not lost on Beth, in fact, she’s starving, too.

#prompts #asked and answered #we were ROBBED of Rio/Marcus interaction in that bbq scene #ROBBED!!!#he spoke to some random little shit kid instead

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thran-duils · 3 years

Text

I Crave Annihilation

Title: I Crave Annihilation Summary: Fem!Reader x Mafia!Dark Tony Stark. Tony works for the reader’s very influential politician father moving guns and drugs. She starts flirting with him and he is returning the vibes. She moves into her own place out of her parent’s house and texts him to come save her from a house party. Smut ensues. Words: 3,310 Warnings (for the fic in entirety): Smut, HUGE age difference, angst, violence, infidelity, possessive behavior Author’s Note: You know when things just pour out of you and you go with it? Yeah. Me too. This is that. I’m thinking this might just be a one shot like my Petal Castiel fic. Song inspo for this.

Part Two || Masterpost (mobile) || Fanfic masterpost

Are you busy?

You pressed send on the text to Tony, leaning on the wall. Your eyes moved across the kitchen, wandering over everyone taking shots, playing beer pong. You spotted someone bringing in the pizza that had been ordered and you jumped to acting, coming right up to them. The girl smiled and put it on the counter. She was cute – her name was Rihanna, you thought -- but you knew she had a girlfriend here; you had talked to them earlier briefly out on the patio while you shared a cigarette.

“Preference?”

“Veggie?”

“No, sorry,” she shook her head. “There’s cheese, pepperoni, and meat lovers. So, the complete opposite of what you’re looking for. Are you vegetarian?”

“No, I just was craving it. I’ll take pepperoni.”

She dug through the boxes, the crowd around the pair of you growing at all the other drunk party goers. She made an aha sound, finding it on the bottom and pushed the box towards you. You grabbed a piece and sunk your teeth into it.

You snuck your way through the group and leaned back against the counter, pulling out your phone. He had already texted back, much to your amusement.

Not particularly. Why?

So, he had saved your number. That was a great sign. Your heart was starting to beat faster with anticipation. Taking another big bite, you savored it and swallowed. You wanted something in your stomach instead of the jungle juice and multiple types of potato chips you had been ingesting for the last couple hours. You ate the piece quickly, eyeing the group, thinking you should have grabbed a second piece. But maybe you could convince Tony to stop somewhere if he could come get you. You had had a ride home, but she had started rifling shots when her crush showed up.

My DD isn’t a DD anymore.

You hoped he would show up with that invitation.

<><><>

Tony and you had been flirting for a long while, playfully at first and had gotten more bold as time went on. But it had to be kept under wraps, nothing real or physical, since he worked for your dad. He had patched over from another part of the mafia when they had merged a years ago, coming closer to your city to work with the crew here.

The first time the new guys showed up at your dad’s house with the veterans of the area, it was relatively late at night. Your father was a politician, a powerful one. You had been swimming in the pool and they had come through the gate to go towards the guest house to have a meeting. You surfaced hearing voices as you did laps.

“Don’t mind us, keep going, sweetie,” your father had told you as he walked by.

“Hey, Y/N,” Christian, the president of their faction said as he passed you.

“Hi,” you told him in response, coming to the edge of the pool. “You still owe me that $10!”

He stopped and turned around, a wide smile on his face. You had challenged him to pool last weekend and he had been so drunk he had forgotten to pay you when you won. He walked back towards you as the other mafia walked in, pulling out his wallet.

“You’re just like your father. Won’t forget a cent.” You shrugged as he pulled out a ten. “Want me to leave it on your towel?”

“That works,” you said just as you caught sight of new faces following in.

They all were looking at you and you knew if they knew you were your father’s daughter, they would not be staring so abashedly to not offend him. You were only 19, your 20th coming up soon. One in particular though, he was not taking his eyes off of you as he walked by. You locked eyes with him, a small smirk playing on your lips. He was handsome, terribly so. You did not back away from his lascivious look, meeting him in intensity.

“Hey!” Christian snapped his fingers at the guys, noticing them all staring. “Show my niece some respect! You bunch of lechers!” He was not really your uncle, but he might as well be. He tossed the ten onto your towel and said, “Watch out for these assholes. They’re a bunch of pricks.”

“Will do,” you vowed, crossing your heart. “I’ve got you to protect me anyhow.”

“You’re damn right,” Christian responded, laughing before turning and walking off with the group.

The same man though looked back, finding you still looking. You blushed despite yourself before averting your eyes and moving back away from the wall to continue your laps.

After that, he had come to the house a handful of times and every time the two of you had shared flirtatious looks, sharing sparse words to introduce yourselves. He was far older than you, early forties. At least twice your age but you did not care. He was dangerous and you liked that. And he was single as far as you could tell.

At a late-night soiree, you had come home, finding them all drunk in the back yard, which was a risk for your father, but he was not one known to always heed caution by being tied to this mafia openly. Especially when he got a few drinks in him. There were card games going on, some of the mafia swimming in the pool.

Tony had looked up from the patio, sitting at one of the tables, seeing you inside speaking to one of his guys, Thor. Thor was a flirt, but he was harmless, holding out a shot to you. You had spotted Tony noticing you moments before and you shrugged, taking the shot from him. You were still underage, but your dad let you indulge, especially if it was at home. And around people he could trust, his mafia. No harm would come to you here, so you were not worried about him catching you.

The two of you took the shot and you did your best to not grimace because it was scotch.

“Took it like a champ,” Thor complimented, a wide smile on his face.

“You mind finding me a chaser?” you choked out.

He laughed in response and said, “Sure.”

Thor left you and you took a deep breath, trying to swallow the taste of the scotch. It really was nasty stuff. You turned your head and found Tony blatantly staring at you from outside on the porch.

You moved outside and came up to him, eyeing the cigarette in his hand, hanging by his side. He breathed out some smoke and you held out your hand expectantly.

His lips twitched in amusement and he held it up to you. You took it from him, wrapping your lips around it sensually, keeping eye contact. You took a deep breath in before pulling it out. Your lipstick was lining the cigarette. You exhaled slowly; eyes still locked. He looked damn good in the white button up he was wearing, tight black jeans.

“Does your dad know you smoke?” Tony inquired.

You shrugged, “It’s a social habit.”

Tony did smirk then, and you took another drag before handing it back to him. He wrapped his lips around it, and you smiled seeing your lipstick mark disappear into his mouth.

“And I’m sure you can keep it a secret,” you added, putting your hands behind your back, exposing your breasts more in your small tank top. He did not refrain from looking down briefly.

“Sure, precious,” he responded, and your stomach fluttered at the pet name. You loved his attention far too much for your own good.

You held out your hand and he went to hand you the cigarette again and you shook your head, causing him to stall. He narrowed his eyes curiously and you said, “Your phone.” He rose a brow now and you explained, “If I’m having a secret keeper, I might need to call them for help sometime, right?”

Tony ground his teeth for a moment, giving you a scrutinizing look. He looked hesitant; no doubt thinking about what your father would do if he knew how much the two of you were flirting. You flexed your fingers quickly, gesturing for him to hand it over. That broke him.

He sucked his bottom lip in, reaching into his pocket and handing his phone over to you. You flipped through it, finding his messages and sending yourself a text with a winky face.

“That’s naughty of you. What if your dad saw that?” Tony asked the moment he saw the text you had sent.

“Well, do what you just promised me. Keep secrets,” you responded, giving him a wink before turning away from him and walking back into the house, leaving him on the patio.

<><><>

Things had not progressed far from then because you had moved out of the house after getting accepted into a nearby university quickly afterward. You just wanted to be away from the house, have some independence, and you were willing to take on the money needed to live in an apartment. You had not seen him because of this, you had roommates and how could you explain a forty some year-old man coming over. But you found yourself thinking about him a lot recently in the months since you had moved out. He had not texted you and you thought maybe he thought you were silly and had just been a small distraction for him. That hurt and you hated thinking about that. When your friends went for hookups, you turned down guys who had come onto you, not interested.

You wanted him. There was something about him that drew you like a moth to flame.

You need a ride?

Yes, please.

What’s the address?

He was being cordial, probably in case someone happened to see the text conversation. You hoped that would stop the moment you got in the car. You managed to swipe another piece of pizza – no stopping on the way home now – but also got pressured into drinking another cup of jungle juice., Thankfully, you were able to toss half of the cup into the sink and you left the empty cup on the counter. You were not going to risk leaving a half cup where any of the frat boys could come by and drug it, waiting for a poor girl to come pick it up.

When he texted he was outside, you told your friend you had a ride and she had protested, wanting you to stay. You told her she was too drunk and that your other roommate was going to hang out with her. She asked who was picking you up and you said a friend before pulling away from her.

You got into his Lexus, collapsing back into the seat. He was watching you closely and you turned your head to look at him, smiling. “Thank you so much. It was so loud in there.”

“You’re telling me,” he said eyeing the house. “I’ll be surprised if the cops don’t stop by before 11pm. You can hear it out here.”

Trying to pretend like you could not see him running his eyes over your body – you had worn a black lace top over a black bra and a burgundy bandage skirt – you sat up straighter, giving an even clearer view of your tits.

“Yeah, well, good thing I’m dipping out then. Don’t need an MIP on my record. Not right before my 21st birthday.”

Tony snorted as he pulled away from the curb, taking off down the street.

“Seriously, it’s next month.”

“I know,” Tony chuckled.

You smiled and giggled, “You know my birthday?”

It was his turn to smile over at you. “Of course. How could I forget that 20th birthday? You looked perfect in that dress. I couldn’t stop looking at those photos.”

Your stomach was in knots hearing that. He had been looking at your social media. And for how long? Apparently for a long while. You wondered how often he was looking at the photos… and what he had been doing while he was looking at them. You could not help your mind going to dirty places, thinking of his hand wrapped around his cock, jerking himself off to you. That is sure as hell what he was insinuating. Maybe this was not such a good idea…

Tony’s hand slid across over to your thigh, gripping, erasing any doubt about where the night was heading. You let him, relaxing into the seat as best as you could, listening to the music.

You had instigated this, what was happening right now. So, why did you feel so nervous? You tried to fight off the feelings of doubt that were incoming hard the closer the two of you got to your apartment – you had not given him the address. But he knew where to go. That was a huge red flag, only compounding your nervousness.

His phone rang and he looked down at the middle console where it was resting. You saw Steve’s name popping up and you asked, “Should you answer that?”

“No,” Tony shook his head.

The call went to voicemail.

A few minutes later, the phone started ringing again. This time it was Thor. You narrowed your eyes, shooting him a look. You saw he saw the phone and you were wondering why he was not reacting.

“Maybe they need to talk to you?” you said carefully.

Maybe distracting him with work would stop what was coming at you like a freight train. You had dreamed about this for months but now that it was happening, you were just teetering on panic. He was so much older than you and he worked for your dad. What would happen if it ever came to light the two of you had sex? And what happened past this?

“He can get anyone to help them. Not everyone gets to be here with you, precious. You actually wanna turn it off for me?” He asked, nodding at the phone that had gone silent now.

“Are you sure?” you asked, staring at him.

“Yes,” Tony said more firmly. You reached down, picking the phone up and turning it off against your better judgment. Maybe you should have pressed it more but that was passed now. You placed it back down in the middle console and he winked, “Thanks, doll.”

He was at your back as you walked into the dark apartment, and you flipped on the kitchen light before kicking your shoes off and then walked to the freezer. “Do you want a drink?”

When you turned around he was right there, ready to pounce. His lips were on yours immediately and he pressed you up against the counter, his hands roaming and digging in to hold you close.

“I’ll take that as a no,” you breathed out when he gave you the space to breathe.

“Where’s your room?” he husked, still kissing you, cupping your ass.

You were still having second thoughts about this, but it was already happening, him riled up. You guided him to your bedroom, his hands barely leaving you. Your clothes were stripped from you and he wasted no time undressing himself too in the process. You laid back down on the bed, him weighing you down. You kissed him back, matching his fervor. You had wanted this for so long and it was happening. You fell into that memory, thinking of how much he desired you. This powerful, handsome man wanted you. Yeah, you wanted that. You wanted his attention. You spread your legs for him, holding onto him as he entered.

His guttural moans as he pounded you into the mattress caused you to dig your nails into his back, trying to match the shallow pain he was inflicting on you to even the score. Tony was relentless, even as he slowed his thrusts, his teeth were digging in at the base of your neck, sucking roughly. His hand came down in between the two of you and he began circling your clit.

“Come for me, precious. Come on,” he encouraged roughly, leaving bruising kisses along your jaw.

You whimpered feeling the coil in your stomach tightening as he massaged you towards release. That was new; no boy you had been with had even given a shit about you getting off. But he did. You were enjoying this, his regard for your orgasm.

He was skilled that was for damn sure and sooner rather than later, your legs shook, sharp, broken cries leaving your lips. He groaned loudly, his hand leaving your clit and he resumed a brutal pace as you clenched around him.

He let go in warm spurts, coating your walls. You were limp there, letting him use you like a doll as he finished himself. His head fell limp as well, his breath hot on your neck.

Tony laid a soft kiss at the base of your neck and you flinched slightly at the contact. It was where there was sure going to be a hickey tomorrow. He chuckled lightly and laid another soft kiss on your jaw before meeting your lips, pulling you towards him.

“Sorry about that,” he whispered. “Got a little caught up.”

Licking your lips, you asked timidly, “It was okay?”

Tony pulled away, looking down at you, his brow stitched, taking in your bashful face.

“’Okay’? You did perfect. So good,” Tony purred, and you felt warmth at his praise. He leaned back down, kissing you again, harder this time. “So fucking good, precious. You are a marvel.”

Maybe it had not been a mistake, you thought to yourself. He was holding you close, pinning you against him protectively.

<><><>

Tony got back in his car, pulling his phone out and turning it back on. He saw there were a lot of missed calls from Steve and Thor. Rolling his eyes, he pressed call back to Steve.

“What the fuck? Why weren’t you answering your phone?” Steve answered his phone, pissed off.

“I was busy,” Tony told him dryly.

“’Busy’. What the fuck are you playing at?”

Only hesitating for a moment before deciding eh could trust Steve, since Steve knew about their games, Tony answered, “Y/N. Picked her up from a party and gave her a ride home.”

Steve was quiet for a moment and Tony leaned back in the seat as he let that information settle in with him.

Steve finally scoffed, “Man, you better have been getting your dick sucked.”

“I got one better. If I could describe to you how tight she was, I would,” Tony said lewdly, looking back up at her dark bedroom window. He had left her in bed. She had been so cute, worried she had not done well. If he was not worried about all the phone calls he had been receiving before he turned his phone off to make sure he got to bury his dick in her tonight, he would have waited to go for round two. That would have to wait though. He was certainly coming back to collect on that. He could already tell he had her wrapped around his finger.

That actually drew a laugh from Steve, and he said more quietly, “You’re forgiven, you prick. But you’re gonna need to make up an excuse because Damien is going to want an answer. We had a shipment come in and you weren’t here.”

“You mean I can’t just tell him I was busy banging his daughter?” Tony asked sarcastically.

“I wouldn’t and I would advise you not to because I need your dumbass,” Steve retorted but Tony could tell he was smiling.

“Duly noted. I’ll think of something,” Tony said before hanging up the phone.

~~~

Forever tags: @coconutqueen21 @undecidedsworld

#tony stark x reader #dark tony stark #mob tony stark #marvel fic #dark marvel fic #dark marvel #my shit

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blownbybakugou · 4 years

Text

1K Special | The Chick From Chicken Hut|

Thank you all so much for getting me to 1K! Here is a gift from me to you!

Pairing: Hawks x Fem!Reader

Genre: Fluff

Word Count: 2k

The gentle breeze of the night lightly ruffled his feathers as Keigo shuffled quickly to his favorite fast food place; Chicken Hut. The chicken was the best in town, and despite it being mildly unhealthy, Hawks was obsessed with the chicken they had there. So much, that at 3am, if he had cravings for it, he’d go and get it. Much like now. Keigo strutted through the entrance of the meat scented shop and leaned against the front counter, not bothering to look at the cashier. “I’ll have my regular.” He claims cheekily, batting his eyelashes under his yellow face covering. “And that is?” A voice asks, tapping their fingers against the tabletop. Keigo flips around quickly, expecting the guy that usually knew his order. But instead, he saw you. The glowing, beautiful, alluring woman before him. “Sorry, I’m new. I’m guessing you come here often?” You ask softly, giving a small smile. Dumbfounded, Hawks just stares at your glossy lips, almost in a trance at how welcoming they looked to him.

“Uh, hello? Do you want me to call an ambulance?” You ask, waving a hand in front of his dazed orbs. “No, no! I’m fine. Can I have 2 large buckets of chicken legs, with a small side of mashed potatoes?” He chuckles, rubbing the back of neck that was hot from embarrassment. “Okay! That will be ¥2186” You exclaim, sending the order to the back. In a flash, around ¥10,500 was slammed down onto the counter. “Keep the change.” He states, a grin forming onto his lips. “Um, a-are you sure? This is 100 US dollars, sir. I can give you change-”

“No, you can keep it. I have money to spare.” He boasts, his big, scarlet wings twitching behind him. “Yeah, okay.” You grunt, putting the money away and going to the back to see if his food was ready. You honestly just didn’t want to have to make conversation with the cocky bastard, and you knew if you stood there with him, you’d obviously have to. He did oddly look somewhat familiar to you, like you had seen him before. You try not to let the thought cloud your mind for long, as the food was ready. Since it was 3am, the order was out relatively fast, and you were quick to hand the abnormally large bag of meat to the bird-like man.

“Thanks for coming to Chicken Hut, come again” You say, waving him off as he checked the contents of the bag. He gave you a quick wink when he walked out of the store, and it was just then when you realized why he looked so familiar. That was the pro hero, Hawks.

The next day, Keigo came back, this time bearing flowers. ust to make sure you would be there, he made sure to arrive at the same time he had beforehand, even though this time his craving for chicken wasn’t as heavy as before. “Hello, beautiful lady.” He chirps, sticking the flowers out for you. “O-Oh. Well, it’s not everyday that I get flowers from a pro hero. Thank you, Hawks.” You smile. You were still a bit irked at how much money he flaunted at you yesterday, but this action nearly made you forget about it completely. “Ah, so you do know who I am.” Hawks laughed, eyes crinkled from enjoyment. “I didn’t realize until you walked out yesterday. Guess I was a bit tired from all the late nights.” You claim, brushing back some out of place hairs. “Well, I’ll have-” “2 large buckets of chicken legs and a small side of mashed potatoes. Already put the order in.” You giggle, leaning your chest into the edge of the counter.

“So, I brought you these because I wanted to take you out for a cup of coffee. Get to know each other and stuff. Are you interested?” He asks, removing the yellow tinted goggles from his head. You felt heat rise to your cheeks and neck at the confession, but you covered it up swiftly by looking down at your fingers. “Yeah sure. I guess it has been awhile since I’ve gone out.” You mumble, finally looking up at the blonde hero. “Glad to hear, little bird. Is tomorrow at 3 good with you?” He grins. Your heart skips a bat at the nickname, but you do your best to cover it up with a snide comment. “Is it 3pm or am this time? Because I don’t know if I can keep up with your hectic sleep schedules.” You laugh, and watch as Keigo rolls his eyes. “I’m not the one who works at 3am.” He scoffs, then joins in on your laughter. “Okay, you win. Tomorrow at 3pm.” You emphasize the pm, giggling at the end to make him smile again. Because you were beginning to think his smile was addictive.

You were taking your sweet time getting ready, knowing that you didn’t have to meet up with Takami for another 30 minutes yet, and you also needed to make sure you looked perfect. You had given Hawks your number to tell you where you would be meeting up, and no more than 5 minutes after he had left with your digits, you got a message.

You entered the café, looking over the scenery and people, before spotting Hawks’ crimson wings near the window booth. “Hey, you made it.” Keigo smirks and gestures to the seat across from him. You gingerly sit down, and return the smile he gave you. "Yeah, well how could someone skip out on a date with the pro hero Hawks?” You respond. "A date?” Kei chirps up. You giggle, nodding while maintaining an evident blush across your cheeks. “You really know how to make a man bend to his will, ya know?” you brush off his comment with your own. “I work at Chicken Hut, the only way could make a man-bend to my will is by holding his order hostage” You roll your eyes. “I don't know, you caught my attention with one look.”

The date went on for hours, long after the café closed, until it was time for your night shift once again. “C’mon, not even a discount?” “Nope, sorry. You got to pay for your food like everybody else.” The pout on Keigo’s lips made you weak to your knees, and mindlessly, you walked to the back to retrieve his chicken.

“Here, take it.” You huff, your cheeks glowing a red that could make Hawks’ scarlet wings jealous. “Looks like my little songbird has a little crush on me” Takami hums, wearing a flashy grin that made your face burn a little hotter. “The fact that you’re referring to me as your songbird means that you feel the same way, idiot.” You backfire, jumping over the counter to face him. “What’re you gonna do about it, little chick?” He says smugly, looking into your eyes to take his dominance. “This.” You catch his lips, moving them rhythmically with him and drape your arms over his shoulders. The kiss was only a few seconds long, but you knew that you weren’t the only one who felt the flying sparks between you two. And that fact made your nerves calm down slightly, the nerves that were making your confidence shred to bits, and making the tips of your ears a bright shade of red.

“Aw, is my little chick embarrassed?” You turn away, only for him to grab your jaw, and pull you back towards him. His wings wrapped around the both of you, caging you in his arms. “Have you ever had a dream, little chick?” Keigo asks, his voice making you shiver. “Of course I have!” You mock. “What is it then, Ms. Confidence?” He shot back, chuckling. “I wanted to be a chef, or at least be the apprentice of one. But sadly, that kind o stuff requires real money. Money that I don’t have.” You mumble to him. The food prep team were all in the back, and you could nearly feel their gazes burning holes into your head, which was barely sticking out of the top of Keigo’s wings. “Looks like my little bird has an audience.” He purrs, stroking your hair with his calloused hand. “I think they’re looking at you, bird brain.” You roll your eyes, all while wondering how long you could keep up this faux act of assertiveness. Hawks clicks his tongue, tapping your bottom lips with his pointer finger. “Such mean words, songbird” He whines, releasing you from his wing-trap. “Anyway, I’ll be off now. Thanks for the free food babe” He winks, speed-walking out of the place, into the breezy night. But you were happy knowing that he would come back the very next early morning.

Oh how wrong you were. You may have gotten a little hopeful of your 3am fling, and that’s what drug you down when you saw that the blonde hero didn’t come in the next day. You had been so excited, that you had even prepared his food before he came in, and made sure to keep it warm in the back. You thought you were being smart, prepping it early so he wouldn’t have to wait long, but when he didn’t show, your efforts were wasted. One man and woman clad in tuxes entered the place, making your hopes completely drown. “Hello, what would you like?” You say, your voice dull and emotionless. “2 large buckets of chicken legs and a small side of potatoes” The female responded. Your eyes widened, but then the second one spoke up. “And we would also like permission to escort you to your new workplace.” He deadpans. “New workplace?” You ask. The agent look-a-likes don’t respond, only gesture to the door. Removing your uniform apron, you grab your coat and purse and follow them out.

You were intimidated by the large building they had brought you to, but you knew this building all too well. It was Harumi Kurihara’s chef’s school, the one you had been saving up to get in, for years now. “Ma’am, would you like us to walk you in? Or you would go in by yourself and meet up with Mr. Takami.” Your eyes practically bulged out of their sockets when you heard that name. “Hawks?” You chocked, watching as the female went to your side of the car and opened the door for you. “Indeed. We should go, he is waiting” You shuffled out of the car, and into the exquisite structure. “Hey, Bird-Brain!” You call out, treading towards him. “Mean-Lady, what do you think?” You lad into his arms, pressing your lips against him expertly. “Fuck you. I don’t like you because of your money, so don’t spend this much on me.” You grumble. “That was an awfully weird ‘fuck you’, songbird.” Keigo smirks. “And also, I didn’t spend money on you. Harumi and I are close friends.” You scoff, and give him yet another kiss, thanking him properly. “Thanks. But don’t do this again. I’m not the fondest when you flaunt your connections and money.” You deadpan, pecking his lips once more.

“I got other things I can flaunt, don’t worry.” His hands slithered to your rear to hold you up, and then he squeezes your ass suggestively. You suddenly hear the pattering of heels against the white marble tiles, and look over to see Harumi Kurihara herself. You shake, your nerves overtaking you.

“Don’t worry baby. You’ll always be the chick from Chicken Hut I love.”

#hawks x reader #hawks x y/n #pro hero hawks #mha hawks #bnha hawks #boku no hero academia hawks #hawks x female reader #hawks x you #hawks #mha x reader #mha x you #mha x poc!reader #bakugou x reader

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