#they also called that era ‘the milk fic days’ which.

[pansy2005]

saw someone on twitter talking about 2015-2018 bandom and that “new fans will never understand” they should let me kill people im so serious. how are you not embarrassed having a superiority complex about a genre/fandom you were already ten years late to. grow up

[yoredoesmore]

hallooo,it's me again:)) may I request soshiro x reader forced marriage angst but happy ending

I hope I'm not bothering you:). it's ok if you don't want to make it

a/n: i could never say no to such a beautiful request! i love writing angst muahaha

pairing: hoshina soshiro x blind!reader

cw: forced marriage, physical and emotional abuse

genre: angst/ hurt comfort/romance/fluff [wc: 2,9k ]

a/n: this story takes place in the meiji era!

a/n: i am so upset the fic idea in my head was so cute but now that im proof reading its ass 😭 i am so not satisfied with this but maybe a part two will safe it idk rip 😭 and i have to post something can't have u guys go to bed/work/whatever unfed 😔

edited a/n: is this even forced marriage omg 😭🐵

still, enjoy!

A Vision of Love | Hoshina Soshiro

The world around you had long lost its colors. Your vision was plagued, cursed to pick up the world in vibrations and tones instead of images.

The gods have plotted against your existence long before you had been born, cursing the path you were destined to walk on with failure and hardship.

“You are no child of mine!”

The feeling of your father's hand was imprinted in both your memories and mind. A gruesome sensation, one that had no problems seeking you unannounced. On some days the beast would simply barge into your chambers, striking you to his heart's content.

And for what? All for being unable to carry out his legacy.

“Blind and weak, we should have killed you the second we saw those impurities!”

No day passed by when he wasn't cursing your existence but you had been all too used to it..

You sat kneeled on the engawa of your estate, scrubbing the long corridor facing the entrance. It was one of the many tasks given to you which had to be completed by noon. Pearls of sweat accumulated on your forehead, dripping down the side of your face and staining the cloth of your clothes but that told you that you were almost done.

You heard voices chatting in the distance. Some belonging to your family members and others to the Kaseifu, yet you were able to make out three voices foreign to your ears.

“Please come this way.”

Your father greeted the guests with fake hospitality. It irked you immensely, listening to him put up an act of dishonesty but there was nothing you could have done about it.

As soon as you finished up your work, you brought away the cloth and the rag and hurried back to your room using the back entrance. No using the main entrance when guests are around– another strict rule you had to follow.

They stopped bothering you a long time ago, the harsh rules and strict regulations forced upon you by your family. It was unfortunately not just your father who harassed you but also your mother and siblings– though their approaches of breaking your spirit were more subtle. They whispered and gossiped, calling you all kinds of names to lower your spirit.

All to make themselves feel better.

Your family was a renown clan known for its fighting skills and birthing people of strong flesh. In the world of Kaiju slayers, your family stood on top with another handful of carefully selected clans. But as dysfunctional as you were, ripped of your vision at birth and your laughable body, there was no place for you in the limelight. Thus you had been hidden away in the back of your clan, mixed with the maids and housekeepers to keep the knowledge about your existence to a minimum.

But all that was about to change.

“Lady Y/n.”

The voice of Madam Kiyoko called out for you, the only woman to treat you with kindness in this place.

“Yes, Madam Kiyoko?”

The woman's voice was gentle and sweet, like honey and milk. It calmed your heart and made you feel loved in a way you were unable to experience anywhere else. But this time something lingered in her voice? A hint of grief? Frustration? Even without seeing her face, you somehow knew that the woman was not displaying a smile on her lips.

“I was sent by your father. ..You are to pack your things immediately and prepare yourself for permanent departure..”

“Permanent..excuse me?” The tone in Kiyoko's voice painted your ears, so much that you wished to cover them and hide away.

“Your father has..given you away to another family, therefore I wish to congratulate you on your engagement.” The fabrics of Kiyoko's Kimono shifted, hinting to you that she had gone down to her knees.

There was no word that could properly describe the look of horror on your face. Pain, disgust and vexation– all these emotions tugged on your heart, forcing it to fall into unbearable agony. You suddenly felt all strength leaving your legs, forcing you to fall to the ground.

Hot tears ran down your face as you allowed muffled cries to escape your mouth. You wanted to scream and curse, run over to your father and rip all air from his lungs..

But you of all people knew too well that this day would have come sooner or later.

How else were you going to get engaged? You, who was unable to leave her house without supervision. You, who was seen as garbage in her own home. This was long overdue.

“Lady Y,n..we mustn't waste any time.” Madam Kiyoko spoke, her arms wrapping around yours to lift you back up.

“No..I don't want to, they can't do this!” Although living here was torture, it was the only home you have ever know. A small part of you always hoped to just die here. Life was cruel but at least there was food and a bed waiting for you at the end of each day. There was no telling how the people outside these gates were going to treat a blind woman like you, especially a family selected by your father. The unknown was much more intimidating than the familiar horrors.

“Child, I beg of you to grasp your heart and look at the future with confidence.” The woman tried to encourage you to take the situation with pride. But you couldn't. The fact that someone had accepted you as a wife could only mean that they were worse off than you. Who else would accept such worthless and weak soul into their family? Or perhaps they were like your family, looking forward to abuse and make use of you.

“You musn't refuse your duty as a woman, Lady Y/n, as a daughter of this house. I beg you.” Madam Kiyoko pulled you back up and dusted your Kimono.

“I know that this treatment is unjust and sudden, but anywhere in this world is better than here.”

“But I don't mind the horror! The pain and the humiliation..because I have you..”

Once again the tone in the woman's voice tugged on your heartstrings. The truth in her statement tasted bitter on your tongue. You did not wish to admit that she was right, that living here was a hell your body couldn't bear much longer.

Madam Kiyoko walked you to your chambers and helped you pack your belongings. There wasn't much, only a few essentials which you held dear. As you were preparing for your departure, you heard a soft chuckle from behind you.

“I heard that the Hoshina clan is as good as useless in this modern day and age, since the Kaiju have grown in size.” One of your sisters snickered from behind you.

“Yeah, and that their sons are as incapable as they come.” Your brother mocked.

Their voices were mere background sounds, easy to blend out. Your fingers traced themselves over the silver hairpin in your hand, a gift from the Madam.

“I will forget all about you once I leave this home. The memories, your voices and your scent. What a blessing it ends up being to be born blind, as I have no faces which I will have to wipe from my memories.” Your words stung your siblings in the guts. One of them stepped forward, your brother, ready to strike you down. But madam Kiyoko quickly extended her hand to shield your body from the abuse.

“Do not dare touch the Lady. She is an engaged woman now and therefore no longer under the rule of this household. Striking her would mean raising your hands against the Hoshina clan and I highly suggest that you do not make yourself an enemy of them.”

“She won't survive a week outside these gates. Compared to the people outside, our treatment was merciful. In this day and age there is no space for those who cannot protect themselves, tsk.” Your brother gave you one last glare before he and your sister left your room.

“This family can no longer harm you, child. So look at your future and smile, don't listen to his nonsense.” The warm hands of the woman embrace you in a comforting hug. If only you could take her with you and start your new life together..it was a hopeless wish but one you hung onto regardless

x

Nobody came to send you off besides Lady Kiyoko. With your bag packed and your heart set to leave, you approached the front gate. You refused to look back as you walked into your new life, each step feeling foreign and intimidating.

You were raised in a traditional household. From the building to the rules it reminded you of the old times. Therefore standing in front of the public transport with no navigation or sense of familiarity deeply frightened you. You could feel them all watching, the people on the train. Surely they were judging your lack of vision and pitying your weak form.

It took you quite some time to arrive at the destination, the lack of any known directions making the journey much more treacherous. But after two hours, you finally arrived at the Houshina estate. If it had been for the old couple you met at your station who guided you all the way here you would have been lost for sure.

“That is just the path we wanted to take!”

They said and took you by the hand. It felt strange, putting your trust into two unknown strangers. For a good minute you believed that they were leading you to a nearby cliff, for whatever reason. But your doubt slowly vanished as they began to talk about their day and all the errands which they had to run.

You took a deep breath and fixed your Kimono before knocking at the gate. There was no guarantee that anybody was going to hear you but this was the only way you knew how to make yourself known.

After around five minutes and almost giving up hope, you heard a shift in motion. The gate opened and before you stood a stranger. They didn't say anything and simply looked you up and down you assumed. Then they spoke up.

“Oh, it's you.”

What an interesting dialect..

Unsure of who was standing before you, you went down on your knees to show your respects.

“My name is L/n Y/n and I am the betrothed of Hoshina Soshiro. It is my utmost pleasure to meet you.”

“There is no need to be so formal, please. And get up, ya Kimono is getting all dirty.” A pair of strong hands suddenly placed themselves on your shoulders and helped you find your way back up.

A scent so sweet was attached to the stranger, one that had a strange note to it. Yet you stayed focused and continued the conversation.

“Did you come here all by yourself??” The stranger sounded almost appalled.

“Yes..is there a problem with that?”

“Your family reassured us that they were going to send someone with you, since you are..”

His eyes locked with yours. Light gray orbs sat in your sockets, robbed of all light. Yet there was a glimmer inside them, one that shone brighter than the sun itself.

“Excuse me for asking, but who am I speaking to?”

“I am just a housekeeper. Anyway, let's get ya inside and perhaps, you must have a long journey behind you.”

“Thank you very much.” The housekeeper took your hands in his, a soft warmth spreading over your entire body. His bold action startled you slightly but you did not allow your discomfort to display on your face.

“Not having an official wedding must be quite frustrating I believe?”

Is this..smalltalk?

“I never clung to the desire of partaking in such festivity. I was told from a very young age that I wasn't deserving of a wedding, let alone marriage. My father eventually giving me away to a family with no future was to be expected.”

“A family with no future?”

“Oh my, I didn't mean it like that! I apologize for insulting your masters..”

“No offense taken. I understand what ya were trying to say.” The soft sliding of wooden doors indicated to you that you were now entering the building. Almost immediately you were greeted by the sweet scent of lavender and tangerines, two odors that completed one another perfectly.

The housekeeper continued to guide you through the building, holding on to your hand so tight you feared he was going to melt into you. Yet despite his grip being so fierce, his touch was gentle and almost protective. You were not used to such kindness, therefore you found it difficult to express your gratitude once he let go when you arrived in the space which you believed was your room.

“When will the rest of your belongings arrive?” The housekeeper asked while taking the bag from your hands. Your silence said all he needed to know.

“If you need anything, don't hesitate to–”

“Young Master? A letter has arrived from the Anti-Kaiju Defense Force, requesting your presence. Oh and has the young woman arrived already? We heard the gates–”

..Master?

Your head turned to meet the voice at the door. A young woman, you assumed, stood at the entrance of your room, her words and turn indicating that she was talking to the housekeeper.

“Oh, she is already here?? Why wasn't your father notified!” The woman scolded.

“Thank you Ayame, I will see to the letter shortly. And I wanted some alone time with her first, I'm sure my father will understand."

All the woman did was sigh, as if she was too used to his behavior and excused herself from the room.

It didn't even take you five seconds to realize what was going on. Your face froze up upon realizing, a soft gasp leaving from your lips.

“I..apologize for deceiving you.” Soshiro sighed. “I didn't know how to properly introduce myself when I saw you back then and just went with the moment.”

Embarrassed? Shame? Anxiety? You did not know what to feel first. The words you spoke only minutes ago suddenly came back to hit you like whiplash. You just told your soon to be husband that you had no faith in his family, to his face, the gods were probably laughing at you right now. Not just them, but also your siblings and parents.

Their voices rang through your ears, eating at your consciousness. Not even a day had passed and you already managed to screw up, what a twisted joke this was.

“Ya ain't upset with me, right?”

All thoughts suddenly started to disappear into thin air as his fingers once again wrapped themselves around your hands. Only now did you realize how soft they were, like sunflower petals. And the distant scent of vanilla that lingered on his skin, it was soothing in a way you could not describe.

In an instant you found yourself calming down and remembered that you were no longer in that household. Five minutes have been spent in this foreign place so far, yet it felt much more comforting than your old home. Why was that?

“Saying that your family has no future when I am the one who lacks the ability to function properly..I am so very sorry..”

“Don't tell me yer apologizing for being blind?” Soshiro placed one of his hands on your head, gently caressing your hair with his fingers.

“I don't know much about ya or what you went through before. All I was told is that your family did not think highly of ya and therefore signed you away to the next available family. But just by looking at ya I can tell that you are much more valuable than ya think.” And with that said, Soshiro gave your head a light squeeze.

These gentle touches were so new to you. Being embraced in such a loving way and taken by the hand as if you were too important to lose– and not to mention by a man you just met..it all felt quite unreal.

Soshiro suddenly started to move away from you, the lack of his warmth mildly bothering your conscience, but he had somewhere important to be.

“We shall converse more once I return from my appointment, most likely together with my father. The others will want to meet you so prepare yourself for that. If they barge into your room feel free to send them away”

“Send them away? I could never do that” Hosanna laughed although you didn't say anything funny?

“Im looking forward to future interactions.”

“I..me too.”

To have something to look forward to..did you ever have that in your life? The feelings in your heart were difficult to describe. Was it truly possible for you to find happiness in a place full of strangers and foreign emotions? To seek comfort in the arms of a man you barely even knew? As Soshiro walked out of your room, you quickly searched for the hair pin that Madam Kiyoko had gifted to you. Your fingers embraced it tight, trying to recreate the warmth which you felt moments ago.

Something deep down in your heart wanted to trust his words and believe that you too could experience true happiness in this lifetime. Therefore you desperately held onto this vision of love, in hopes that one day your future would be painted in its beautiful colors.

[charmwasjess]

Twenty Fanfic Writer Questions Okay, this is embarrassing, because I got tagged in this like two weeks ago when I was in time zone stupor, copied the prompts out, and then forgot, and I think it was @stellanslashgeode who tagged me - if not, I will cry with embarrassment so don't tell me if I'm wrong.

And :'D I don't remember either who was tagged when it was going around, so here's some no pressure tags (and hop in if you want to play and I didn't tag you!) - @bolithesenate @calcedon79 @purple-ant @reconstructwriter

1. How many works do you have on Ao3? 

10!! :D Which is totally amazing to me. Where did they come from?! Who made them?!

2. What’s your total Ao3 word count? 

Oh god, almost 300k… I don’t have any explanation. 

3. What fandoms do you write for? 

Just Star Wars! I can only handle one frenzied obsession at a time.

4. What are your top five fics by kudos?

Sitting in the Dark, Five Days to Murder Sifo-Dyas, The Thunder Answered Back, Milk Run, and hey, aww, wow, Jedi Nights?! 

I’m a little surprised any of my Sifo-Dyas/Dooku stuff beat out anything else, it’s such a little tiny ship!

5. Do you respond to comments? 

I do, it's my favorite part. I get a tremendous amount of inspiration and energy from engaging with people who take the time to talk to me about my work. And friends, too! I have been in my fandom since I was like 11 or 12. I’ve made lifelong friends out of my comment sections.

6. What is the fic you wrote with the angstiest ending? 

I'm a sucker for a happy ending so a lot of them end on an upbeat note, but I can’t imagine The Thunder Answered Back ending on anything other than a mixed note. I'm not gonna be able to undo Order 66, you know? It’s a salvage job, not a fix it. If Jocasta gets through the fic without killing Dooku, we will call it a happy ending.

7. What’s the fic you wrote with the happiest ending? 

My corny Five Days to Kill Sifo-Dyas probably has the most classical happy ending for the saga but my favorite is the one in Sitting in the Dark - Qui-Gon waking up on the couch with Rael asleep next to him, and listening to Dooku and Jocasta and Sifo-Dyas wash up after the party. That little kid feeling of being safe and sleepy with your adult family happy and laughing softly nearby. 

8. Do you get hate on fics? 

Ohhhh, if I had a dollar for every time one of my friends made some joke about me writing Count Dooku porn! But I don't care about that, if they actually read my shit, their pervert asses would become terribly addicted to it. They’d be begging at my door. “More old man yaoi! PLEASE!” (This is a joke, my local friends have been very nice about my return to fic writing and the teasing is loving.)

Weirdly, the nastiest hate comment on a fic I’ve ever gotten was in the Before era, when I was writing fic on my old teen account. It was on a young Knight-age Dooku/Jocasta one shot. It was a simple, very vanilla romantic moment with a T rating at best so I don't really get why the person was so worked up about it? I think they just couldn't get around Dooku and Jocasta (OLD PEOPLE?!?) written as young and attractive. For years, I was horribly embarrassed about the fic, like it must really actually truly suck to have someone spend so much time writing such an extensive hate comment. I must have really fucked up. 

I went back and reread it recently and realized: oh, no, it's a regular fic, they were just a fucking loser.

9. Do you write smut? If so, what kind? 

The…sex kind!!

But yes, I do! Mostly Sifo-Dyas/Dooku these days, but also Jocasta/Dooku and once or twice the holy Trinity of the three. 

I was REALLY shy about posting it at first and I still kind of can’t believe I did, but it was absurdly good for me as a person. Great for my religious purity culture baggage, my teenage years as a closeted queer person, just a really freeing experience. 

And it’s hot. And you get to think about Dooku saying or thinking the word “erection,” which is worth it just for that. 

10. Do you write crossovers? What’s the craziest one you’ve written? 

Nah, I’m boring.

12. Have you ever had a fic translated? 

Nope, but I have been lucky enough to help with the English in bringing several of Purple Ant’s remarkable works over from Russian. 

13. Have you ever co-written a fic before? 

Yep! In the Before time, I cowrote a lot, although I don’t think I posted much. One stands out: I remember this big rambling self-insert (we called them Mary Sues back then) I did with my bestie where we were transported to Star Wars world and we had to… I don’t exactly remember, but I think Obi-Wan falling in love with one or both of us was a big part? I went back and deleted it years later because it was so cringe. But that’s silly too - we were like twelve, of course it was silly and cringe! 

14. What’s your all-time favorite ship? 

I tend to be pretty fucking stupid about Syku. 

It’s just. Two people who manage to collectively destroy their own universes together. They’re so connected in such strange, powerful, frightening ways, they know all of each other’s secrets, they were there on the worst days of each other’s lives, and will go on to be each other’s worst day of their life. And the way, even as they change, they can’t get away from each other, even though they both really try, it’s like they’re stuck in two orbits that have to cross. 

And then you read the dumb book, and see that they’re just stupid funny and cute together, idiots who finish each other’s sentences and call each other little nicknames… augh, the bizarre sweetness of it?! It kills me. It’s the narrative doom, but also the weird, enduring love that has Dooku giving Sifo-Dyas a Jedi funeral or trying so earnestly to tell Obi-Wan his crazy version of events with his death, or how Sifo-Dyas goes running back to him for the Clone thing after he already knows so much about how Dooku factors into the end game... 

15. What’s a WIP you want to finish but doubt you ever will? 

I will definitely finish The Thunder Answered Back but I kind of doubt I’ll get to the two years worth of content and every individual character’s endgame storyline I envisioned out of it. I'll stick with Dooku, Jocasta, Scout, and Asajj.

16. What are your writing strengths? 

….this is embarrassing, but I tend to think I’m occasionally really funny. 

Even though my fics are really serious and I haven’t written any crack, I really try to put in moments of humor, depending on my POV character’s dialogue or internal monologue. I think my best humor comes about when I can get Dooku and Sifo-Dyas in A Situation, slinging shit back and forth. Those two just take off. 

17. What are your writing weaknesses? 

I overwrite. My fics would be a lot more successful if I tightened up and left more on the cutting room floor. I get over attached to small moments of character at the expense of the plot (and let's be honest, word count.) 

18. Thoughts on writing dialogue in another language in fic? 

Hmm, does sign language count? That has been really fun in Rabbit Heart. A huge chunk of the fic happens in sign language. 

19. First fandom you wrote for?

Star Wars!

20. Favourite fic you’ve written? 

It’s got to be Milk Run, by a long shot. I’m really proud of that fic, but it was just such a blast to write. It was so fucking fun. And there’s all these little moments or tiny funny things I’ve left myself in it that are probably only funny to me, but they’re so funny to me. 

….Like, so, at one point in the fic, Sifo-Dyas is pissed at Dooku because he can tell he and Jocasta have been sleeping together, again, and this always happens, and he always has to clean this mess and play mediator when it inevitably implodes (and also maybe he is in love with Dooku a little bit?). So he’s furious about it, but pretending not to be, and so he bitchily tells Dooku the name of his ship is The Haru-Spicy, as in, a cooking pun, instead of the real name, The Haruspicy. And then Dooku spends the entire rest of the fic just wildly mispronouncing the name of the ship in his own POV chapters and to other characters? 

I love to imagine him saying it, all declarative, “The Haru-Spicy!” And everyone just stares like “do we correct him… or…?” Sifo-Dyas quietly soothing himself, chuckling over this small pettiness. Cracks me up.

[hopeworth]

*rolls in late* talk to me about hurricane jason :]

wip tag game

you've actually gotten snippets from this wip before sun :] but i never really expanded on it

this fic's working synopsis is 'seasonal depression vs hurricane named after yourself' which is a very descriptive synopsis. jason's in the throes of seasonal depression when dick calls him like 'turn on the news RIGHT NOW' and it's hurricane jason here to ravage the US. the days leading up to the hurricane (as it increases in category to cat5) is full of conversations and muted, low-key moments between dick & jason. it climaxes, right before the hurricane makes landfall where dick drags jason off to one of the batplanes and they fly through the hurricane turbulence and into the calm Eye.

this is the product of me being a geography nerd + Romantic Era poetry enjoyer, where this beautiful and immense force of nature is like a balm for the depression (KEATS WAS RIGHT WHO NEEDS THERAPY WHEN NATURE IS RIGHT THERE)

also i'm rereading this wip and i really did just quote keats in the middle of it huh

snippets :3

[He opened his eyes and looked down at his steeping tea. He fished out the teabag and tipped milk into it to get the familiar colour of late nights after patrol. Light brown. He watched his hand stir it once, twice, then tap his spoon against the lip of his mug. Dick bought the mug for him, the blue Nightwing symbol emblazoned across the black porcelain. It’s the only one he had, which meant that if it broke he might just kill himself.

He suddenly did not want to drink the tea. His tongue tasted sour in his mouth, and Jason didn’t want to feel or taste the liquid at all. 

The rain came down harder and Jason did not like this memory. He wanted to be done with this memory, go forward into a time where this was only a memory.]

also i love applying geography into how the superhero world will interact with it, which off topic has on multiple occasions give me ideas about it. i forgot i had some poly titans in the bg as well

[Forty minutes later Jason was somehow sitting on his couch again while Dick had put on his nature documentaries when he heard a loud clang from the fire escape outside. Dick—who had been watching the documentaries with Jason before he had to continue to do the laundry—seemed to have heard the unmissable noise as well as he came out of the laundry room to lightly jog over to the window. He deftly unlocked Jason’s security system to open it, and Jason watched Dick talk to someone from the corner of his eye.

Jason recognised the man by the ink-like scars over his eye, matching that distinct identifier to the rolodex of players in the capes’ world he kept in his head. Tempest was dripping everywhere and Jason was glad Dick hadn’t invited him in. At least the plastic bag he handed over to Dick was miraculously completely dry. Jason turned his gaze away when it looked like Dick was going to kiss the Atlantean. The window closed again.

“Why didn’t you ask one of your flying friends?”

Dick said, “It’s raining.”

“Or West.”

“He’s on hurricane duty.”

Ah yes, hurricane duty – or the rotating roster of superhumans tasked with helping the areas in the hurricane path prepare for the oncoming destruction, either to make sure evacuations run smoothly or to set up sandbags as quickly as inhumanly possible. Robin once asked Batman why they couldn’t just stop the hurricanes in its path or divert its path, but Batman merely said it was a bad idea especially after the last time. So bad they have been officially requested to not interfere directly with any tropical storms. Robin had sensed a story.

“But Tempest can’t fly.”

“It’s raining,” Dick said as an answer. Jason nodded. “Now eat.”]

[renaerys]

22. for reds 🤡

This is 100% not what you asked for (yet...👀), but I give you part 1 of what we're calling the Weird King AU. I'm turning this into a proper multi-chapter High School fic because I love you and I'd jump on any bandwagon for you.

xxx

Like most young, conventionally attractive Supervillains, Brick had made a bit of a habit of failing upwards. It was pretty easy in a town full of simpering morons content to project their own narrative assumptions onto him, and who was he to crush their dreams when they made his life a little easier?

For example, dating.

“You can tell me, you know.” His cute date, Tracy, sipped her milkshake across from him.

“Tell you what?”

She softened and reached her hand across the table. “Your tragic backstory. I’ll listen without judgment, I promise.”

Brick tried to think of something tragic, but it all seemed pretty underwhelming as far as Supervillain origin stories went. “You mean like how I was born in a toilet?”

She made an oh shape with her lips. “We all have those days where we feel like we were born in a toilet, Brick.”

He’d dated Tracy for three months before she broke up with him out of the blue in tears: sorry she couldn’t fix his baggage, she just wasn’t strong enough to handle all that tortured darkness, but she wished him nothing but health and happiness. Brick deleted her number from his phone and spent twenty whole minutes staring at the toilet in his bathroom, wondering what the lesson here was.

But everything changed when Mojo got out of prison and moved Brick and his brothers back to Townsville, where he enrolled them in the local high school alongside their former arch nemeses, the Powerpuff Girls.

Suddenly, everything Brick did pre-supposed ill intent. These people remembered him as the pest who had graffitied their local monuments and blown up their cars and endangered their children. They held no love for him, and at best they feared him. This was not Citiesville, where he’d been a tall, cold glass of Voss water in a sea of recycled Dasani.

He found himself thinking about his birthing toilet again as he stepped into the cafeteria alone and the conversation quieted down as his new classmates watched him from the safety of their tables. His next moves here were critical. He was no longer at the top of the food chain, but fear and mystery surrounding his origins and character gave him a certain power over his peers.

“Yea, though I walk through the valley of social suicide, I will fear no cringe,” he said to himself.

The jocks were out. Capable though he may be, Brick was not much of a team player unless there was a blood contract involved requiring his participation on pain of satanic torture. The drama kids were also a hard pass, not because he thought drama was lame, but because they had barely noticed him walk in, and Brick did not have the energy to deal with people more self-involved than himself. Some of the unaffiliated tables could be safe, but without a good understanding of the nuanced social dynamics in the high school, he could be heading toward irreversible doom, and that was a risk he was not willing to take.

He saw his salvation just ahead. It was the only option, all else being equal. In an environment where he couldn’t be certain of his baseline status and potential for upward mobility, there was greatness to be had only by association and certainty only in the devil he knew.

Brick helped himself to the empty seat directly across from Blossom Utonium to a chorus of gasps and staring.

Blossom did not startle like her table mates had. She watched him critically behind a head full of bangs as she balanced her soup spoon in her hand. “Really.”

Brick unwrapped the burrito he’d purchased in the lunch line and brandished it before him. “Really.”

He took a bite of the burrito. It was not hot enough. The two girls to Blossom’s left whispered to each other about that bad boy and he’s hot, though.

Blossom daintily spooned soup into her mouth without spilling a single drop as she continued to watch Brick for signs of his imminent dark side transformation.

The guy next to Brick was brave enough to ask him what his next class was. Brick had a mouth full of disappointing burrito, so he passed the guy the printout of his class schedule in lieu of answering.

“Wow, all APs, huh? Hey, we’re in U.S. History together next period, nice. I’m Mike Believe, by the way. Brick Jojo, right?”

Brick didn’t answer him immediately on account of the burrito currently occupying his mouth hole, and Mike took it the wrong way.

“Oh, yeah, we all know who you are. Blossom sort of filled us in.” He winced like he’d inadvertently revealed a terrible secret.

Brick swallowed his food and washed it down with a gulp of water. “Saves me some time.”

Mike looked super relieved. “For sure! Hey, I could lend you my notes if you want to catch up. Gershwin’s giving a quiz on the Progressive Era on Friday, and she’s a hard-ass who definitely won’t care that you just transferred…”

Brick chewed on his lunch as Mike continued to talk at him about classes and other vaguely helpful, albeit uninteresting, information. But Mike seemed normal enough, a little chatty but not in an overeager sort of way. Blossom was no longer clocking his every move and seemed to be absorbed in her friend’s latest swim team cheating scandal, until Brick reached for his water bottle and she suddenly laser-focused on his wandering hand.

Her keen attention to him was honestly flattering, if expected. It was in his nature to be noticed, and in this narrow respect she was no different from anyone else whose head he turned. If she chose to feed her interest with the flames of suspicion, then it was no difference to him.

But if she was anything like him—and on a chemical level she was probably the closest to him that a person could get—he suspected it took tremendous effort to hold her full and sustained attention. The world they inhabited was as vapid and mundane as the humans that surrounded them, and even the most gracious of gods grew bored of worship. Which explained all the smiting and fucking and generational curses upon entire households in everything from Greek mythology to the Old Testament.

Brick was pretty deep into a fantasy of Blossom going full Ixion and the Wheel on the swim team when Mike tapped his shoulder. “You ready to go?”

It took him a moment to realize the bell had rung and he had a class to get to—AP U.S. History with Mike, apparently. Brick gathered his tray and his bag and followed Mike. When he looked back at the table, Blossom was already gone.

xxx

That whole first week was painfully boring. No one bullied him, or pranked him, or picked a fight with him, of course. But no one really approached him, either. His brothers were more determined to make an effort. Boomer announced he was trying out for the soccer team because there was no rule saying a Super with extremely well documented ties to active criminals and the forces of Hell couldn’t kick a ball around a field. Butch had gotten himself invited to a midnight screening of Snakes on a Plane in some rich kid’s home movie theater, but only after that same kid had accidentally spilled milk on Butch and burst into tears in front of a cafeteria full of Juniors and Seniors. Brick declined the invitation Butch extended to him. He had that AP U.S. History exam to study for on Friday, anyway.

He shared all of his classes with Blossom. Even in the classes where her assigned seat was behind his and he couldn’t see her, he could feel her lobotomizing stare at the back of his head whenever she glanced up from her notebook. And while Mike’s notes were perfectly adequate and the friendly gesture counted for more than the content (a gesture Brick would not soon forget), there was a far more efficient way to accomplish his goal of murdering the class averages while also taking the edge off his loner doldrums.

“Can I borrow your class notes?”

Blossom rose from her seat and pulled her hair tie out to re-do her extremely long ponytail. She held the elastic between her teeth as she worked. Her teeth were very straight, he noticed. Some pretty nice girl-teeth, generally speaking.

“Which class?”

“All of them.”

He watched her wind the elastic around her hair with quick, adroit fingers. “That’s a lot of notes.”

“You’re the top of every class. No point in asking anyone else.”

She moved toward the hall. He followed her out. “Why would I help you?”

A legitimate question delivered without venom. Unlike her sister Buttercup, who’d “run into” Brick after school on Monday and told him to watch his back, Blossom didn’t have to do anything but maintain a general proximity to make her superiority complex known. Which was the kind of flex he could fuck with.

“Isn’t helping people sort of your mandate?”

They had arrived at her locker, which she opened with enough force to rattle the hinges. “I help the helpless. Are you helpless, Brick?”

Brick smiled at her baiting. Had she ever actually said his name at a normal volume before? It sounded good even in her baseline bitch timbre. “Critically helpless. I’m the new student who transferred in the middle of the semester, and you’re the only person who knows me.”

A couple other students clearly trying to get to the lockers Brick was blocking hovered just out of reach. They whispered to each other, but neither of them actually worked up the courage to ask Brick to move. He ignored them.

Blossom rummaged in her locker for the binder she would need for the next class. “Make friends.”

“Working on it.”

The locker door slammed and she faced him. There was something confrontational in the way she held herself before him that kicked him in the nuts back in time thirteen years to their more uncouth days when all he wanted to do was destroy her so he’d be the only one. Now they were older and wiser and he actually did need her notes to study, so destroying her was not high on his list of priorities.

“You want to be my friend.”

“We have so much in common.”

“So do lions and hyenas.”

“Both are apex predators, so.”

She took a step closer and peered up at him. Brick did not move, although he wondered what was so interesting about his face. She probably just thought he was hot. She was probably as bored as he was. She probably—

“You have lettuce in your teeth.”

Brick pulled back and covered his mouth on instinct. God fucking damnit.

Blossom was already walking away from him by the time he’d picked the food from his teeth. “I’ll expect my notes back in mint condition before first period tomorrow morning.”

Brick pressed a fist against the lockers and quietly fumed. “Dumbass…”

“Um, sorry, but do you mind…?”

The student who’d been waiting for her locker space to clear up had her palms up as if to assuage a feral stray. Brick pushed off the lockers, but his fist left a dent where he’d unleashed some of his impotent self-pity. He looked back at the girl, and she shook her head.

“It’s fine! It, uh, it happens sometimes.” She pointed a couple lockers down to Blossom’s, which was dinged up worse than the others.

Brick stared at Blossom’s locker, and then back at the girl. Her narrow, dark eyes were wide, but not out of fear. She was waiting for something, and like an idiot it took him a moment to catch up. “You’re trying to make me feel better about fucking up your locker.”

She laughed nervously. “I mean, it’s really fine! You just looked so miserable for a second there, and I just thought…”

Great, he was moping so hard he had an audience.

The five minute warning bell rang, and a flood of students rushed past them on their way to fourth period. Brick stepped aside so the girl could get to her locker.

“Hey, you’re the new guy, right?”

The new guy, yeah. How quaint. Except, she was waiting for a response, which wasn’t the absolute worst thing that had happened to him all week.

“Brick,” he said. But of course, she already knew that, and she was just being nice.

“I’m Kim. Kim Chan.”

“Okay.” He didn’t have anything else to say to her, so he decided to get his shit and get to his next class.

“Welcome back to Townsville, Brick.”

Brick shoved his hands in his pockets and stalked off. It didn’t occur to him until later that Kim was the first and only person who had properly welcomed him back home.

[avelera]

I think my final weird historical ramble of the day As Brought to You By my research for Lights Out/Old Guard Nicky/Joe fic into the Crusades is how seeing Europeans as like a colonizing force during the Crusades or the Crusades as a “Clash of Civilizations”, East vs. West, Muslims vs. Christians, etc etc, the way many people view it in the US and indeed the way I was initially taught to view that conflict, is wrong because apparently it gives way too much credit for how haphazard, pathetic, and primitive the Europeans actually were.*

I mean, far from being some unstoppable European war machine of CONQUEST and EMPIRE, these hapless European, barely-more-than-barbarian-tribes, forces basically stumbled into establishing a Latin Christian presence in the Levant mostly because of internal political strife on the part of the defending Fatimid Caliphate + the Fatimid’s conflicts with the Seljuk Turks (both Muslims and often conflated by Westerners - basically, the players were Latin Christians and Byzantine Greek Christians, who were often infighting, Seljuk Turkish Muslims and Arabic Fatimid Caliphate Muslims, who were originally fighting but then later once the Europeans arrived were sometimes allied but also each of them respectively were sometimes allied with the Latin Christians once those forces got their feet under them and began to operate as just another political force in the region and ANYWAY THE POINT IS, this whole thing was a MESS and not a clash of two monoliths AT ALL at least not for the first HUNDRED YEARS of the conflict).* 

(*according to several lectures I have listened to, please do not consider this comprehensive knowledge, it’s a product of around 100 hours of research, not a PhD)

The thing is, the Europeans didn’t set out to “conquer” the Middle East when they answered Pope Clement II’s call to “liberate” Jerusalem (which was more of a favor that Clement was doing for the Emperor of Constantinople anyway and it backfired for that Emperor in so, so many ways). The Casus Belli really was just to “liberate” the Holy City from the “pagans” (no mentions of Islam as a faith that they were fighting but, interestingly, the Latin Christians, at least the Italians, may not have even really seen Islam as a separate faith as such in fact some may have seen it as a heretical Christian sect which is kind of wild but also, like, a little closer to the reality in that both faiths are Abrahamic as compared to incorrect interpretations that it’s just an entirely “pagan” religion??). So the Christian forces were mustered, it seems for the most part, by Clement inspiring them based on the incredibly devout faith of the Europeans who stepped up for the call, NOT as much by inspiring in them the the hopes of gaining money or territory, except for by a few minor princes who figured out that there was an opportunity to gain territory only AFTER they were there. So, to characterize this conflict as financially motivated on the part of the European Crusaders is to ascribe modern motives to an ancient, truly religiously-motivated conflict. 

Now, financially, fortunes WERE made in a very cynical way as a result of this conflict, but it was the CHURCH milking the Crusaders, not the Church expecting to gain any wealth from the Holy Land. They became a de facto bank lending money to Crusaders could buy equipment and horses in exchange for loaning or selling their lands and livestock to the Church (I’m sure Jesus would have LOVED that!) BUT the Crusaders all did so at a HUGE disadvantage because, uh, supply/demand kicked in because there was a TON of land suddenly up for sale and EVERYONE needed a horse (or 3) and weapons and armor and food so you see where this is going the Church made BANK and the Crusaders went BANKRUPT for this cause that they were pretty much doing JUST out of a desire to save their SOULS, NOT out of hope of plunder!

So they eventually get to the Holy Land, probably like 50% of the *knights* who set out to fight there die along the way, let’s not even get INTO the Peasants Crusade or the camp followers/civilians who tagged along. And really, the plan was to kick out the “pagans” from Jerusalem, in theory hand the territory back over to the Byzantine Christians in Constantinople and just... go home. Then a bunch of stuff happened and they stayed. 

BUT to go back to my original point, acting like it wasn’t a total haphazard mess that led to the conquest of Jerusalem, let alone holding it, that the Europeans had any idea what they were doing, that they were anything more than just ANOTHER band of smelly barbarians rolling through, setting up some short-lived fortresses and then fucking off again once any kind of serious local resistance gets organized, is to give the Europeans WAY too much credit. They’re not the sophisticated war machines of modern era Imperial Britain or France, these are barely more than Frankish clans and German feudal lords along with a bunch of whackadoodle Christian believers, getting tricked more or less by their religious leaders to go maraud to a random place on the other side of the world, bankrupting and/or killing way more than half of these hapless guys, for reasons that were largely baffling to the more sophisticated governments currently “in power” (for a certain value of “power” given internal divisions in the Fatimid Caliphate). 

TL;DR The Europeans were basically a barbarian hoard, who lacked the manpower to do more than cling to the edges of the coast for barely a century before being driven off again. If this was the Romans and the Gauls we’d consider this occupation a footnote, if not for the long-term ramifications that we continue to suffer from this event, but more from the PERCEPTION of this event more than the material reality of it, for the last 1,000 years. 

And anyway, as an Ancient Rome/Greece nerd primarily, this has been an interesting thing to learn!

[livesincerely]

I’m very sorry for all of the asks Madam Sincerely, but I’ve just recently gone on a binge of all of your fics, and I don’t think there’s any more questions on the ask game, so can I ask here: Do you have any ideas on future works that you haven’t started writing yet? If so, can we hear some? I was scrolling back through your tumblr to cheer myself up yesterday (my country’s gone back into lockdown) and saw you mentioned a few ideas, like the one in the SubDavey ask? Sorry, just curious <3

No need to be sorry, the asks are lovely! I’m sorry to hear that things have shut down where you are, I’m sure that’s incredibly difficult. Sending all the positivity your way 💕💜✨⭐️💕💜

The Domestic au is the QUEEN of inspiring random story ideas and dangling plot threads. There’s several floating around in the domestic au/ideas for later tags but if I was going to narrow it down to a handful of ideas that have a good chance of existing in the near-ish future, then I’d say 1) the Jack and Davey preparing for college fic 2) the Davey picking Race & Charlie up from the elementary school because Jack’s sick fic 3) the Race and Charlie needing a cuddle pile fic and 4) the bedsharing fic where Jack is struggling under the pressure of fighting for custody and needs some comfort.

I’m just in the mood for some stuff set in the high school/college era of that au, probably because ‘it’s beginning to look a lot like...’ has got me in the mindset. All of these would be one shots, just showing more landmarks in the boys’ history since ‘it’s so easy (too easy) to love you’ sort of just drops you right into the ocean as far as circumstances lol. And also, there’s a lot of family building that goes on before Jack and Davey get together that I’m very interested in exploring! I think Race describes it as ‘eight years of waiting for Jack and Davey to get their shit together?’ Yeah. So definitely lots of domestic au in the upcoming year.

I’ve talked the tiniest bit about ‘there’s you and me (and everyone else)’ and ‘a few letters off’ but after doing the first bits & bobs for each of them, I got distracted by other projects as I so often do, 😅 so I’ll talk about them here. Actually, I’m not even sure if these had working title ideas last time I mentioned them here, it’s been that long lol.

Anyway, these two fics are very similar, but just different enough to need separate fics. The first is a modern, high school au that features different examples of Jack and Davey being the accidental co-parents of their friend group while obliviously pining for each other. I’m thinking it will be individual scenes tied together by the theme; I’ll put the original idea post here and the bits & bobs here. Besides what I already talked about, I also think I want to include a scene where Albert and Crutchie are going on a first date (a pairing that is absolutely inspired by @agentsnickers, you’ve converted me) and they both separately approach Jack and Davey for advice on what to do/wear/etc. Like, a total ‘our-kids-on-their-first-date-get-the-camera’ type thing, plus Jack being an overprotective older brother and giving Charlie a curfew because he’s ridiculous.

“Be home by nine,” Jack says, a little surly. “Nine?” Davey asks, incredulous “They’re seventeen not seven. Eleven o’clock.” “I’m supposed to trust Albert with my baby brother at eleven o’clock?” Jack asks, scowling. “That’s just asking for trouble.” He says trouble in the sort of ominous tone other people reserve for imminent nuclear meltdown or battlefield heart surgery. “What do you think Albert’s gonna do, stick his hand down Crutchie’s pants the moment they walk out the door?” Davey says with a scoff. “It’s Albert.” “Ten-thirty,” Jack eventually offers. Davey nods, then looks back at Albert and Crutchie, who have been following this exchange like a tennis match and are both now a little pink in the face, and shrugs, trying to convey something like ‘pick your battles’. “Great!” Crutchie squeaks out, sounding absolutely mortified. “Great, ten-thirty it is, oh my god, Albert let’s go before theykeeptalking—“

Oh! And I want Davey to full name someone in the ultimate you-fucked-up-and-mom-is-pissed move. I even went and made full names for everyone just to be prepared 😊

Then, ‘a few letters off’ is the Jack-and-Davey’s-friends’-perspectives-on-the-nonsense-that-is-Javid fic. I’ve basically finished the Buttons scene, but I’m also hoping to include one each from the povs of Katherine, Crutchie, Racetrack, Spot, and Albert at minimum.

I’m thinking:

Katherine - catching Jack painting/drawing Davey while Jack tries to cover and deny

Spot - The aftermath of him and Jack getting into a fight with the DeLancey’s and him watching Davey fluttered worriedly around Jack, scolding him for being a reckless but still dabbing carefully at his injuries.

Racetrack - comes home to find Jack and Davey watching a movie, except that Jack’s fallen asleep halfway through, head in Davey’s lap, and Davey is adamant that Race doesn’t wake him.

Crutchie - watching Javid eating lunch together and noting how totally domestic it is: stealing food from each other’s plates, Jack gives Davey his extra fruit cup then swipes his milk carton and Davey doesn’t even say anything because it’s so routine, and how they’re able to move in and around each other effortlessly while eating and holding two separate conversations.

Albert - watching Jack and Davey flirt/bicker from the backseat on the drive to school.

And then some sort of culminating/getting together scene at the end.

There’s the infamous quarantine fic, which I waxed poetically about for all of two seconds and then never expanded on. (Here and here) The reason I haven’t done anything with it yet is because it will be a multi-chapter and between tie fic, take a shot fic, and now the domestic au holiday fic, I’m really at my limit for multi chapters at the mo’. But I do still want to do something with this once I finish tie fic and DAUHF, as take a shot knows no bounds and cannot be quantified by earthly means.

Then, as for the idea I mentioned in the sub!Davey post.... I think I’m going to be able to repurpose the general scenario/concept I was imagining for the final, E rated chapter of Tie Fic, so I don’t think the original idea will ever make it to a final cut. (I won’t say never because anything’s possible lol) But, I’m happy to put the bit I have here! Things don’t quite get E rated in this excerpt, but they’re definitely a solid M. This would’ve been an addition to the Tease series and I think this has been sitting in my drafts for almost as long as the letterman fic, and it hasn’t been edited in at least two years, so yeah 😅

00000

“I really wanted to work on my thesis proposal, that’s why I was in the library most of the day,” Davey says suddenly, pushing Jack down against the couch and straddling him, his voice light and conversational. “It was nice of you to check on me so often, though I’m sorry I wasn’t very good company. I was trying to stay focused, you know how it is.”

Davey looks at Jack expectantly, making it clear that he’s waiting for a response. Jack stares up at him, his expression equal parts confused, transfixed, and aroused. He swallows heavily, then nods.

“But I did warn you, didn’t I?” Davey continues, bracing himself with a hand on each of Jack’s shoulders, rolling their hips together as he presses closer. “That I had a lot of work to do? That this paper is really important to me and that I wanted to get a head start? That I really needed to focus and didn’t want to be distracted? I distinctly remember warning you about all of that.”

He nuzzles down the curve of Jack’s jaw, then nips at his neck. “But you didn’t listen,” he says against Jack’s pulse point. Davey smooths his hands down Jack’s chest, then back up to his throat, tugging at his collar. He unbuttons the first few buttons of his shirt.

“In fact, one could argue that you did the exact opposite of what I asked you to do,” Davey says, working his way slowly through the buttons on Jack’s shirt. “Trailing your fingers across my arm, rubbing a thumb across the nape of my neck, sneaking a hand up my shirt… I would call all of that distracting, wouldn’t you?” He finishes unbuttoning Jack’s shirt and pushes it off his shoulders, admiring his muscular chest.

Davey glances up sharply. “Answer me, Jack.”

Jack blinks himself out of his daze. “I-uh, what did you ask me?”

Davey leans forward. They’re so close that he can feel the warmth of Jack’s breath against his face. “I asked you,” he starts, wrapping his arms loosely around Jack’s neck, “whether you thought constantly caressing someone while they were trying to work would distract them.”

It takes Jack a long moment to respond. “Yeah.”

One of Davey’s hands trails up the back of Jack’s neck. “You agree that doing something like that would be impossibly flustering?” Davey asks in that same, unaffected voice—as if clarifying a statement for a news article—threading his fingers through Jack’s hair. “That it would thoroughly divert that person’s focus? That it would leave them feeling unbalanced, frustrated, and downright agitated?

He leans impossibly closer, so close that the barest tilt of his head would press their lips together. “That it would drive them so crazy that all they could think about was how desperately they needed to be fucked,” Davey growls out, and his voice low and rough.

“Christ, Davey,” Jack groans, his pupils blown wide. He leans up to kiss him, but Davey anticipates this and tugs sharply on his hair, holding him in place. “So, we’re in agreement?” Davey continues in his casual voice, letting go of the dark strands and pulling away slightly, ignoring Jack’s groan of disappointment, “that all of those actions would, in fact, be extremely distracting.”

He trails his hands lovingly across Jack’s shoulders and down his chest, his movements unhurried. He licks a hot stripe up Jack’s neck, then sucks hard at a spot just under his jaw.

“Considering both of these facts, I can only conclude that you were distracting me on purpose.” Davey presses a line of kisses along Jack’s collar bone, delighting in the moan that tears its way out of Jack’s throat. He scratches lightly at the tanned skin of Jack’s chest, then sucks a bruise just above his collarbone.

“Were you doing it on purpose, Jack?” he asks, then before Jack can answer, rolls his hips hard and slow against Jack’s, grinding their erections together. Jack’s hands spasm, then tighten, clenching hard against Davey’s sides. Davey continues his ministrations, circling his hips against Jack’s, teasing him with the friction. Then, just as Jack seems to catch on to Davey’s rhythm and starts to move with him, Davey stills. “Were you teasing me on purpose?”

Jack’s mouth opens and closes, his throat working furiously. “I-yeah.”

David hums in acknowledgment, then continues his slow perusal of his boyfriend’s chest. He nibbles lightly across his sternum, then draws the flat of his tongue across one of one Jack’s nipples. Jack arches into him but Davey pushes him back, using his leverage to hold Jack down against the couch cushions. He sits up, admiring the mess he’s made of Jack’s neck and torso.

Jack stares up at him, chest heaving, waiting for Davey’s next move.

....

Davey runs his hands down Jack’s stomach and between his hips, fingers brushing gently against the front of Jack’s jeans.

Jack lets out a guttural noise. “God, Davey, let me—“ he starts, one hand slipping back to kneed at Davey’s ass, the other inching towards Davey’s fly.

“No,” Davey says firmly, moving Jack’s hands back to his waist. “This is what you wanted, isn’t it?”

00000

That’s all that comes to mind at the moment! Oh, and the Brooklyn Davey AU idea, but I got a different ask about that, so I’ll just link it. (Here)

@saysflora

[watatsumi-island]

Random thoughts I have and things I do with ABSOLUTELY NO CONTEXT:

*Wakes up* "Wig. LET'S GO LESBIANS."

"Ok but like...It's missing Blades hours."

"Am I mentally stable?"

*Hums Platinum song and cries while brushing teeth* "WE'RE LIVING IN THE HEADLIGHTS, HEADLIGHTSSSSS. 😭"

"Men are TRASH WHY DO I LIKE THEM-"

"....I'm so fucking gay."

*Quotes meme*

"I think I need a therapist."

"MATH SHIT MATH SHIT MATH SHIT."

*Yelling in Creole*

"OMG shut UP."

"....Wait what class do we have again-"

"This is too much."

"...Well THAT can be taken out of context-"

"OK BUT BLADES-"

"Do I like girls just because of hormones or- "YEAH I DEFINETLY LIKE GIRLS."

"SIS SNATCHED."

*Signs "Whore" at my little sister in Sign Language*

"America is dead."

"Do I dislike men because of what some of them do or because of what society conditions me to believe as a Bi woman that I'm only valid if I prefer women?"

*My teacher who just wanted me to say if I'm present* "Uh-"

"BIG BRAIN TIME."

*Decides to watch a Blades playthrough and turns into a hot mess within 0.009900929201000010019310100000 seconds.

"OK BUT THINK ABOUT THIS: IF THERE WERE NEWS CHANNELS IN THE RENAISSANCE ERA. HENRY THE 8TH'S DIVORCES AND BEHEADINGS WOULD BE EVERYWHERE."

"....I'm-"

"Wait you aren't white?"

"My black ass is TIRED."

*Listens to ACoR soundtracks and promptly cries*

"OK BUT WHAT IF TYRIL'S MOTHER -WHO IS NEVER MENTIONED- RAN AWAY. IMUTRA'S FATHER -WHO BECAUSE OF ORCISH CUSTOMS DIDN'T HAVE TO STAY WITH HER- RAN AWAY. MAL'S FATHER RAN AWAY. AFTER NIA'S PARENTS SEND HER TO THE TEMPLE OF LIGHT THEY RAN AWAY. AND AERIN'S MOTHER -WHO IS ALSO NEVER MENTIONED- RAN AWAY. HELL, WHAT IF MC'S PARENTS DIDN'T DIE AND THEY JUST LEFT MC AND KADE. WHAT IF THEY ALL JOINED THE EMPIRE OF ASH. AND THEY'LL BE SOME OF THE MAIN VILLANS IN BOOK TWO AND THEN IN THE END THEY SET THE BoLaS GROUP OF COURSE WHICH LEADS TO A BOOK 3. THE POWER OF MY BRAIN."

"₩häŤ đØ ýÕů MěĀŅ ÝoŲ fÖřğőt øÜr ÃŇnïvərsăŕY?¿?¡?!¿¡?"

"How many children do you have?"

"I'm a simple girl. I seE cuTE hOoman, I sEimP."

"I miss Open Heart."

*Voice cracks* "i'm fiNE-"

"No one's listening but like Bi and Pan men are hella valid let's gooo."

"...I think the main reason I might like BoLaS is because it shows me a world that I want and nothing else like that world makes me that happy so I hold onto it like it's my mother but that isn't the point rn."

"I don't WANT the new Google Assistant. I WANNA SEE UGLY FISH."

*Cries over that one fic from that one random website*

"WIG."

"....I'm so Bi."

"No ❤"

*Talks to multiple personalities about stuff that is always talked about with multiple personalities*

"Hijabs are gorgeous ngl."

*Aggressively questions sexuality*

"...So anyway I started blasting."

*Looks up pictures of Native Indians with long hair because "hnGG"-*

"This place is a hellsite."

*Hears a deep music line and creates a whole fanfiction idea from it but never writes it down*

"Blades 2 has me thinking about way too much crap for my age."

*Crashes in bed* ...So-

*Looks up a meme that I can't find*

"Gays too precious to risk in combat lmaoooooooo."

"Ok but what about the day when the world will call 2020 "BACK THEN IN THOSE AWFUL TIMES."

*Goes to the Blades of Light and Shadow tag* "SEROTONINNN!"

*Talks to multiple personalities again*

"Sleep is for people with answers. And I have questions."

*Sips tea* "I already got tea sissss."

*Looks on in irritated black girl*

"Why do people call Grapefruits, Grapefruits? It doesn't look like a Grape, it doesn't taste like a Grape, it doesn't have the same godsdamn SIZE of a Grape. IT'S NOT EVEN UNDER THE SAME CATEGORY OF FRUIT AS GRAPES. WHY-"

"NON-VIRGIN AT 14."

"I am....Tireddd."

*Laughs in Triracial*

*Recreates embarrassing past scene in head and makes it turn out that I look like a badass so I forget that when said embarrassing thing happenee I just when like "HGNN."*

*Looks at clock* WHEN DID THE CLOCK REACH 11AM-

*Thinks about that one slightly embarrassing thing I said when I was 10 that no one heard but still*

*Drinks milk* ....Maybe I should sleep-

[fantasiavii]

I was tagged by @milkcrates to share 10 things about myself!! Thank you so much!!  💖 I really loved learning about you and can guarantee I rambled just as much 😅

1. I love the theater. I was never a theater kid but some of my ballet friends were. I grew up dancing classical ballet and while I was never good at it, I still love it very much. Now, I don’t dance or anything, but I love going to see all kinds of theater and hope I can again soon. Lowkey wish I could work in theater but I don’t know anything about tech stuff and can barely sew for myself

2. Most of my music taste can be filed under “alternative” and “pop” but I have this weird, deep love of swing-era jazz and Frank Sinatra. It is my opinion that if your otp can’t fit at least one sappy Frank Sinatra love song, you’re doing it wrong

3. I’ve gotten a lot of new followers since my senior year of college when I lived-blogged thesis-ing so: hi, I study religion, with a focus on Islam, and I wrote my senior thesis by going into France’s graveyard and digging up the bodies receipts of how and why France has institutionalized Islamophobia. It was a really hard process and made me depressed for a Long Time. I was going to go to grad school but then pandemic and now I just flinch real bad every time I see the news coming out of France 

4. Even though I study religion, I hadn’t ever really studied Daoism or Buddhism before watching the Untamed and have since been trying to make up for that! It’s been fun but has also filled me with regrets because one of the professors at my college was an expert in ancient Chinese religions AND depictions of hell...perfect for my Orpheus and Eurydice AU research...if only I’d taken his classes. Now I just have to scrounge around JSTOR (which won’t even let me download pdfs anymore for some reason 😭)

5. I’m still learning to sew but I can crochet and embroider pretty well! I’ve sort of lost motivation for most of it recently but hopefully I’ll get it back one day

6. Every time I travel I come back with new foods that I like, even if they’re really simple. When I went to Hawai’i, it was guava (I’d never had it before). When I went to France, it was goat’s cheese and honey (on crepes or bread). When I went to the UK, I discovered that milk and sugar in tea are good actually. (Rip to me and my lactose intolerance for the last two--but I take lactase supplements)

7. I used to work for the community health organization at my college and my entire job was to patrol campus on weekend nights and give people water and snacks. Okay, that’s kind of a lie, I was also responsible for helping anyone having a medical emergency due to drug or alcohol-related problems, but mostly my job was to make sure those problems didn’t happen in the first place (by giving people food and water). As a result, I know a lot about safe drinking and drug-using practices even though I’ve never done either. (Before you ask--no, I was not reporting anyone either unless I needed to call for medical help, in which case there was the medical amnesty policy.) This job is also why I’m very passionate about safe drinking (and drug using) practices and get really worked up by fics being like “he’d had five drinks in an hour but only felt slightly buzzed” because that is not even close to how it works.

8. I absolutely adore historical costuming and fashion history and know Way Too Much about it for someone who doesn’t really sew... I have some abandoned projects I need to finish rip. I get really passionate about natural fibers and accurate corset/stays representation and fast fashion because of my love for fashion history

9. I relate to texts-like-a-grandpa modern au Lan Wangji so much because I also don’t know how to text like a normal (young) person. If you have ever interacted with me online and it’s come off awkward, I am so sorry; despite being on here for years I have never learned how to be casual and use slang and anything I’ve said or done is the result of many fraught choices that may have been bad

10. I can understand French well enough to read most things I see online but I suck at speaking it and Arabic is going exactly the same way (rip)

Tagging: @midshipmank , @fishfacethegrand , @yvain , @zoanzon , @whereisyourcahier , @orestesdreams-pyladesloves and anyone else who wants to do this!! No pressure of course

[luvdsc]

tag games ;

tagging :: @eggyukhei ; @jaemericano ; @aqiaquas ; @forehead-enthusiast ; @choerrypuffs ; @latetaektalk ; @winetae ; @taeyongtime ; @nochanchu 🌼

—

TAG GAME ONE

tagged by :: @njmin thank you, lovebug! ✨

— tell me the first song that made you stan your current fave group and why did your faves attract you so much?

omg ok it was april 2014, and I was procrastinating on homework and scrolling through youtube. shinee’s lucifer mv was recommended for some reason, and I was intrigued, so I clicked on it. From there, it just spiraled out of control. I was blown away like there’s this one dance move where they all lined up and taemin does this hand motion so fluidly and I was like “this is it.” More shinee mvs were recommended after I clicked that one, so I kept going and watching all the other ones until I watched them all. Their music is just so different and unique, like even after all this time, I can’t find another kpop group who mimics the music style of shinee. and all their solos are absolutely god tier, too!!! they really are gonna be my first and last kpop group. shinee withstood through my stan eras for other groups. I don’t think I’ll ever stop being their fan.

I also found snsd through shinee because their mvs were recommended after I clicked lucifer too. the first one I saw is the iconic gee. taeyeon stood out to me in those mvs. her voice is so distinct, and I’ve been a fan of her ever since. She didn’t have a solo then, but I searched up all her drama osts, song features, everything because I loved her voice so much even back then. so yeah, taeyeon and shinee will forever be my faves, and I love them a lot 💓

TAG GAME TWO

tagged by :: @latetaektalk thank you, linh !! 💖

rule :: answer the ten questions and write your own!

— how are you today?

I’m doing really good! I’m enjoying my summer, and my day is pretty lax. I’ve been facetiming friends, watching chopped, making banh bao with my mom, and doing my daily cardio ✨

— what book has had the biggest impact on your life?

the princess knight by cornelia funke. my elementary school did this thing where your parents can buy a book to donate to the school library under your name for your birthday. this was the book my sister chose for me when I was in kindergarten. I loved that book; I borrowed it so many times and kept rereading it. It’s a children’s picture book about a princess who secretly learns how to joust. the king tries to give her hand in marriage to the knight who wins the competition, but she defeats them all and chooses to marry the gardener’s son who she loves 💕

— what is something you think everybody should have done once in their life?

Travel. There’s just something so wonderful about going to a new place, whether that’s halfway across the world or just the town a few states over. It’s a lovely feeling embarking on an adventure to a place unknown to you where you can meet new people, try new foods even if it’s just a random dish at a restaurant you’ve never been to, and make memories with strangers that no one back home ever has to know about. There’s just something intriguing about being able to go somewhere else and be someone else for an hour or a day or a week before you return back home.

— what story are you the most proud of and why?

on my previous blog, I wrote a fic called the universe of us, and it’s 21k+ wc. I poured my blood, sweat, and tears into that fic, and although I can’t read it now without cringing, I really am super proud of myself for pulling through and writing that. The concept of it was unique, in my opinion, and I would love to rewrite it someday! 💫

on this blog, I am most proud of the dumbing down of love. that fic is personal to me because it is literally comprised of my college experiences in written format and the characters embody my friends. I wrote that over the span of 3-4 nights, and that’s the fastest I’ve ever written a fic of that length. the words just flowed so easily for that fic, and the quesadilla scene was the first thing I wrote, and I’m quite proud of that scene!! 💓

— what has made you really happy recently?

I graduated uni!!!!! 💛💛

— what is the first thing you want to do after this whole pandemic is over and it’s safe to go out again?

I want to eat sushi LOL I haven’t had it in four months, and I’m craving it so badly.... I also want to go out with my friends again! I miss being able to see them everyday and our late night shenanigans ):

— if you had to make a soundtrack/playlist based on your life, how would you call it and which songs would you include?

honestly, these are just a bunch of my favorite songs throughout my entire life. some of them don’t relate to me personally, but I remember listening them on repeat, and I still know all the lyrics to them 💘

title: cue the soundtrack of my life

songs: complicated ⋆ avril lavigne ⋮ check yes, juliet ⋆ we the kings ⋮ the way i loved you ⋆ taylor swift ⋮ a daydream away ⋆ all time low ⋮ that’s what you get ⋆ paramore ⋮ i won’t give up ⋆ jason mraz ⋮ holy ground ⋆ taylor swift ⋮ lucifer ⋆ shinee ⋮ don’t go ⋆ exo m ⋮ 1000 years ⋆ shinee ⋮ breathe ⋆ taeyeon & jonghyun ⋮ coffee ⋆ bts ⋮ you are in love ⋆ taylor swift ⋮ walk you home ⋆ nct dream ⋮ i ⋆ taeyeon ⋮ tell me what to do ⋆ shinee ⋮ mad city ⋆ nct 127 ⋮ gravity ⋆ taeyeon ⋮ blueprint ⋆ stray kids

— what is your favourite breakfast food?

omg it’s this one dish that I order every time I go to the diner near my university, and it’s a smoked salmon eggs benedict with hollandaise sauce and hash browns 🤩🤩

— how did you get into writing and is it something you would like to do as your job?

I’ve always enjoyed writing, and my teachers sent me to the young authors’ faire every year from kindergarten to 8th grade. You don’t really get to write creative stories in class when you’re older though, and I stumbled upon fanfiction, and here we are. It’s not something I want to do as my job though. Writing is simply a fun pastime and hobby for me!! If I was forced to write or profit off of it, then that’d take fun out of it ):

— did you remember to drink enough water today?

yes, I did!! I make sure to drink 6-8 large cups of water a day :’) stay hydrated!!! 🤍

my questions for you:

what’s your favorite jelly bean flavor?

if you hated your child, what name would you give them?

do you pour cereal first or milk first?

do you like pineapple on your pizza?

if you could be a celebrity for the day, who would you be and why?

what are three dealbreakers for you in a relationship?

what’s your favorite word and why?

would you rather punch your ult bias in the face full force or lick the porta potty that hasn’t been cleaned after Coachella weekend?

which song(s) would you cut out from nct’s discography?

what’s the most unique/interesting food you’ve ever eaten?

TAG GAME THREE

tagged by :: @pwarkhans ty, sweetpea! 🌸

rule :: bold the statements that apply to you, italicize your aspirations, then tag nine people.

AIR ༉⋆͙̈

i have small hands / i love the night sky / i watch animals and birds when i pass them by / i drink herbal tea / i wake to see the dawn / the smell of dust is comforting / i’m valued for being wise / i prefer books to music / i meditate / i find joy in learning new truths from the world around me

FIRE ༉⋆͙̈

i don’t have straight hair / i like to wear ripped jeans and overalls / i play an organized sport / i love dogs / i am not afraid of adventure / i love to talk to strangers / i always try new foods / i enjoy road trips / summer is my favorite season / my radio is always playing

WATER ༉⋆͙̈

i wear bracelets on my wrists / i love the bustle of the city / i have more than one set of piercings / i read poetry / i love the sound of a thunderstorm / i want to travel the world / i sleep past midday most days / i love simply lit dinners and fluorescent signs / i rewatch kids shows out of nostalgia / i see emotions in colors not words

EARTH ༉⋆͙̈

i wear glasses or contacts / i enjoy doing the laundry / i am a vegetarian or vegan / i have an excellent sense of time / my humor is very cheerful / i am a valued advisor to my friends / i believe in true love / i love this chill of mountain air / i’m always listening to music / i am highly trusted by the people in my life

AETHER ༉⋆͙̈

i go without makeup in my daily life / i make my own artwork / i keep on track of my tasks and time / i always know true north / i see beauty in everything / i can always smell flowers / i smile at everyone i pass by / i always fear history repeating itself / i have recovered from a mental disorder / i can love unconditionally

[pandora15]

3-5, 7, 9, 10, 13, 17, 21, 26, 27, and 38, please?

3. Favourite character from Prequals?

*shifts awkwardly* I think y’all know the answer to that one, right?

it’s obes kenobes

4. Favourite character from original trilogy?

Han Solo!  I read quite a few fics focused on him before I got around to watching the prequels and getting obsessed with Obi-Wan.

5. Favourite character from sequal trilogy?

Hm...it’s hard to say, I think it’s a tie between Rey and Finn.

7. If you could choose any profession to have in the GFFA, what would you be?

Hmmm......I’d like to be away from all the drama and death and stuff, so maybe I’d be a farmer or something? But knowing me, I’d probably not like that very much. *shrugs*

9. What food from Star Wars would you want to try?

Blue milk sounds really cool, ngl.

10. Which character do you feel is most like you?

Oh jeez, I have no idea.  I feel like I can identify with quite a few of the characters, and also exactly none of them.  Does that make sense?

13. Would you want to be a force user?

Oooh that would be really cool - but I’d have to be really careful about it.  Definitely don’t want Palpacreep getting on my trail.

17. How were you introduced to the fandom?

Hm...So let’s backtrack to my very first semester of college, circa October 2015.  I was studying for a chem exam with people in my dorm, my friend walked up to my table and asked us if we wanted to see the midnight show for TFA in December.  Despite not really wanting to see it, I agreed because I basically had no social life and I was desperate for friends (yikes).

Keep in mind, at the time, I’d watched the OT maybe once when I was really little (and remembered very little of it) and ROTS when it came out in theaters (which I remembered more of because of Mustafar and the realization that Luke and Leia were siblings).

So yeah, I got to see TFA right when it got released, and I loved it.  Then, over the winter break that followed, I told myself I’d (re)watch all of the previous Star Wars movies so I can fill in all the gaps and refresh my memory.

I watched the OT in January 2016, liked it, and found myself really liking Han’s character!  Then, I tried to start TPM, got stuck on a scene that jarred me a bit, and decided I’d get back to it.  I ended up giving up on it because I had to go back to school for the spring 2016 semester.

Throughout that semester, I kept thinking that I couldn’t call myself a Star Wars fan without even watching the prequels.  So as soon as the spring 2016 semester finished, in May 2016, I watched TPM on one night, and then AOTC and ROTS back to back two nights later.  By the time I finished, it was really late so I just fell asleep and that was it.

And then, two days later, it hit me - Obi-Wan Kenobi.

And yep, that’s it.  I started reading a bunch of fics, realized that there was a whole bunch of Obi-Wan content in TCW (including Maul returning?? which intrigued me to no end when I first learned about it), and binged TCW that summer.

And the rest is history! :)

21. Which heroine is your favourite?

Ahsoka!!!! I love her!

26. What type of job would you want?

I feel like this question is really similar to #7?  But I guess it would be cool to do something math-y or technical, since there’s a lot of technological advancements in Star Wars, especially in the PT era.

27. Top 3 planets to visit?

Naboo, Coruscant, and Alderaan!

38. Fic recommendations?

Oh, jeez, I mean I made a post a few weeks ago here.  But here are a few that I’ve read recently and enjoyed:

somebody to someone by katierosefun

Asleep In The Morning Snow by UnderABlueSky

And Now They Walk Alone by LazarusII

Unexpected Kindness by wr0ngsideofreality (slothlover42)

And there’s a whole bunch more I’m definitely forgetting, but yeah!

(star wars asks)

[subharryempire]

Hello! We hope you enjoy this omega Harry fic rec that includes over 70+ fics. Please remember to give authors comments and kudos for their amazing work. Happy reading!

1. When The Wolves Come Out by [ rosemarianthyme ] (1k)

It didn’t matter that Louis would never once pop a knot or that Harry’s slick was always artificial. When Harry was whining desperately against his neck and Louis was growling low in his chest he could only grab Harry’s hips and pant out 'Omega.'

2. Drape Me In Your Warmth by [ fookinglousers ] (2k)

TMH era fic where Harry is an omega whose heat comes a little earlier than expected and really, who is Louis to deny him his knot?

3. The Nearness of You by [ theweightofmywords ] (2k)

Harry and Louis' baby is due any moment. Harry just wants pretty toenails, and Louis just wants to help.

4. freaks from the internet by [ jaerie ] (2k)

Harry sells his breast milk to freaks on the internet. Louis turns out to be one of those freaks. He also happens to be Harry's ex.

5. 'Cause Your Embrace Keeps Me Warmer by [ scribblewrite ] (3k)

Louis and Harry meet for the first time and, being soulmates, Louis's rut and Harry's heat are triggered. 

6. 5 Golden Rules by [ @iflovewereall ] (4k)

Harry thinks surely he hasn't got a chance with Louis, after all he's a gorgeous Alpha and royalty to boot. His salvation comes in the form of an antiquated guide to courtship.

7. taste on my tongue (just can't get enough of you) by [ messyjessy08 ] (4k)

Harry and Louis just had a baby and it's been a while since they've had sex.

8. Willow City by [ blahthelarry ] (4k)

Harry's got a secret. A secret so big that it could end his career before it even starts.

(Or the fic where Harry is an Omega, Louis isn't an Alpha, and Niall just wants someone to fuck.)

9. The World will Open its Arms by [ @lululawrence ] (4k)

Harry scrubbed at the countertop. It wasn’t even dirty, but it was three in the morning and the girl who was supposed to relieve him over an hour ago never showed. He was now on hour ten of his shift and his feet hurt and his back ached and he was trying not to cry, thanks to more fucking judgmental alpha truckers who could smell it on him.

Of course they could. He practically lived at the diner. The entire place reeked of it.

Unbonded pregnant omega.

10. I'd Go Out of My Way To Make Sure That You're Okay by [ littlepinkbow ] (4k)

Harry's embarrassed about going into heat, but Louis decides it's up to him to teach Harry to be more open about what he wants.

11. turn the sky black into a sky blue by [ thispieceofmind ] (5k)

Harry forgets that noses exist. Louis is a badass motherfucker. They bang.

12. Give Me What I'm Begging For by [ @sugarbabyomega ] (5k)

Omega Harry is a professor at a uni. Louis is his alpha mate, whose rut is coming up soon, so Harry has to take a week off from school to be with Louis. He tells his students it's a vacation but they all can tell the truth and tease him about it. Then Louis' rut comes and they both spend a week at home to fuck it out.

13.  Baby, Sweat is Guaranteed by [  sailingships ]  (5k)

Alternatively the one where Harry forgets a few doses of his suppressants and, consequently, goes into an unexpected heat at the Eagles concert whilst fulfilling publicity duties with Kendall Jenner. An entire afternoon of sex ensues and Harry just wants Louis to stay.

14. Too Hot (Hot Damn) by [ louissass ] (5k)

“I’m what?”

“You’re in heat, baby,” He repeats, frowning when he catches the look on Harry’s face. “I thought you realised?”

Or, the one where Harry goes into heat in the middle of a concert but doesn't realise because of the heatwave.

15. From Homeless To Being Loved by [ leonietjeeeee ](5k)

Harry is put on the streets after his parents found out he was an Omega. After years of being on the streets, so broken he wishes that death would come sooner, he meets boyband One Direction. And one member may turn out to be a little more than just a hero to Harry...

16. All these Lights, They can't Blind me by [ harlequinnharry ] (5k)

Harry's a singer song writer omega who doesn't want to mate. It's not until his new Manager Louis Tomlinson, that he reconsiders.

17. A Tentative Peace by [ colourexplosion ] (5k)

“I dunno.” Harry’s not whining, he’s not. He pulls himself free, finally, turns away and busies himself again with the dishes. “I didn’t want it to be weird.”

“It’s not weird,” Louis says, appearing in Harry’s periphery when he leans against the sink. “Biology, innit? You know I’m always here for you.”

It stings. Louis won’t sit and have a conversation with Harry, but sure, he’ll fuck him through a heat like it’s nothing. “It’s a little more than biology,” he mumbles, but Louis either doesn’t hear him (not likely) or flat out ignores him (very likely).

18. Peace So Sweet by [ @shyshyserious ] (5k)

Louis is visiting another pack. On his quest to find the guest room he finds a nesting omega instead.

19. Just Wanna Taste It by [ rosemarianthyme ] (5k)

“It gets you hot, doesn’t it Darling?” Louis asked and Harry whimpered softly. “You like imagining that I’m your alpha?” “Yeah,” Harry nodded, feeling as if he could cry. “You wanna be my omega, Baby?” Harry nodded again. His eyes were prickling with overwhelmed tears. “Want it,” he said, voice thick.

Harry loved being Louis’ baby, his good boy, but sometimes he wanted more. He wanted to be his omega.

A prequel to When The Wolves Come Out

20. your body's telling me don't let go  by [ @thepriestthinksitsthedevil ] (5k)

Louis gets off early from work on his birthday and surprises Harry with dinner and wine. Harry is pleasantly surprised, and even happier with it when he and Louis get up to some amorous activities.

21. How Much My Heart Depends by [ @lululawrence ] (6k)

Louis is an alpha working as a fraud analyst who keeps having Bad Days. Harry is an omega working in Quality Support who shares a cubicle wall with Louis and only wants to help. Maybe this is the perfect chance for them to finally meet face to face.

22. Zero Means Nothing When I'm With You by [ WhiteClifford ] (6k)

Louis doesn't know what he's looking for until he finds it.

Harry just knows he may defy his gender norms, with his height and clumsiness, but that doesn't mean he doesn't want litters of pups running around while he does domestic things all day long.

In other words, boy meets boy and no one can stop pining.

23. Boys Fall Like Dominoes (6k)

Harry slips into an early heat while riding the tube. Naturally, that's when he meets Louis. 

24. to wrap me in paper by [ @juliusschmidt ] (6k)

Louis hasn't been keeping track of his ruts, but, it turns out, Harry has.

25. Between the Shadow and the Soul (6k)

Harry and Louis spend a month apart.

26. I heard this life is overrated, But I hope that it gets better as we go by [ louisnuggets ] (7k) 

"Harry this is not something we're going to argue about. I decided to do it. It's a sure thing." Harry remembered his words. The sure look in Louis eyes, the way he balled his fists, the way he talked. His Alpha voice coming through. Everything. How could he ever forget? It was one of the worst days of his life. After Harry's heat, which included five days of a lot of orgasms and even more cum, Louis and Harry had been laying in bed. Louis' knot slowly loosening in Harry. Harry's back against Louis' chest. Harry was sated and happy until Louis threw the bomb. "Baby I have to leave again. Longer this time. I know you don't like this but this is really important for my career." Some may think, what's so horrible about that? But Harry knew what that meant. It meant Louis would leave. 

27. Put It Into Words (7k)

“It’s a good storm though, our families,” Louis says, flopping down on to the bed and cuddling close to Harry. He tucks his arm around Harry’s waist, kissing his temple. “The Cheshire house is perfect to raise the baby; your mum’s close, and my mum can stay in the guest bedroom when she visits.”

“And until then we have the long weekend to ourselves.”

Or, Harry and Louis go on a babymoon.

28. Looking In The Dark (7k)

This carries on from the same verse of Boys Fall Like Dominoes.

29. This Thing Upon Me (howls like a beast) by [ @sadaveniren ] (8k)

Harry and Louis weren’t meant to be together. They’d met when they were put together through their university’s AO MatchUp, a program that set up alphas and omegas based on the schedules of their ruts and heats so they had someone to help them through it. It was pure luck that they were put together.

30. drunk on rose water by [ brainwaves ] (9k)

It’s the first time in a few years that Harry has a strong desire to risk everything for something he loves.

The last time, it was being a fashion model. This time, it’s Louis.

31. Even Your Honey Dew by [ @horsegirlharry ] (9k)

It probably says something about Harry that he’s so obsessed with another omega’s arse.

32. And I Will Steady Your Hand by [ kiwikero ](9k)

All first year university students who had not yet presented were strongly advised to join the Fire Away meetings, a support group for so-called 'late bloomers.'

They were not, however, advised to fall in love with someone else at the meetings without knowing what they might eventually present as.

33. You Know I'll Be by [ JustAnotherShadow503 ](9k)

Louis Tomlinson, 27, is the personal photographer for well-known model Harry Styles, 21. Louis, an Alpha, has been in love with Harry for years, though the younger man has seemingly not presented yet.

Or, the one where Louis is in love with Harry, tries to be a martyr at his own expense, and is a hopeless romantic.

34. Just Jump by [ jaerie ] (9k)

Finally, after years of suffering alone, the insurance plan at Harry's new job covered omega heat services. As a grown omega adult, it finally felt like the right time to try it out. And, since taking an entire week of heat leave would really put him behind at work, using a service to shorten it seemed like a responsible decision. At least that’s how he rationalized it. He was nervous about his decision but it was too late. The doorbell rang.

“Hi!” The alpha said again and Harry took the hand he offered and shook it firmly. “I’m Louis from Omega Services. It’s nice to meet you.”

35. with his educated eyes (and his head between my thighs) (9k)

"We're...we're not the same," Harry says softly, looking at his hands. "I don't care," Louis replies back, fire and fury in his eyes.

or where Harry is just a little boy in a world full of arseholes, Louis is in way over his head, and destiny is a bunch of shit.

36. All I Needed by [  FallingLikeThis ] (9k)

Harry is the omega captain of the Slytherin quidditch team with a team that won't listen to him. Louis is the alpha captain of the Gryffindor team who doesn't know how to offer help without seeming like a knothead, pushing his opinions on Harry. When he comes up with a rather questionable plan to try and get Harry to ask him for help, they may just both get what they need.

37. you took your toll on me (you got a hold on me) by [ messyjessy08 ] (9k)

Harry and Louis have the weekend to themselves, they make the most of it.

38. I Just Want You to Stay by [ SadaVeniren ] (34k)

“Remember the vet job up in Edinburgh I interviewed for right before your rut?” Louis nodded. “She just called me back. I got the job. I start next year.” Harry let out a shriek as he said the word year and he clapped his hands in delight. “Isn’t that great! Full time vet job! New animals to meet! A new environment!” He settled his eyes back on Louis, who was still standing there in front of him with wide eyes. “Isn’t it great, Lou?”

That seemed to jolt Louis out of his thoughts and he nodded immediately, opening his arms up for Harry to dive into. “Holy shit, yes. Congratulations. Come here,” he wrapped his arms around Harry and cuddled him close, pressing his nose into Harry’s neck. “Holy shit,” he whispered.

aka Louis and Harry have been roommates for four years, comfortable in their routine and their relationship. But all of that is about to change.

39. I Can't Hear You by [ @flamboyantommo ] (9k)

"I’m not supposed to be built this way!" Harry said. "I’m supposed to be shorter than you, and you’re supposed to be stronger than me and-“ “Harry!” Louis tried to interrupt. “And what if I’m not supposed to be an omega? What if my body screwed up somewhere or something? What if I’m not supposed to be your omega?” --- Or, the one where Harry is self-conscious about his body because it's not the 'typical omega body' and Louis shows him why he loves that.

40. Dear Blue by [ TheIfInLife ] (9k)

Harry wasn’t sure what he was expecting to be on the living room table but a stack of papers definitely wasn’t it.

The paper on top was a plain piece of notebook paper, Louis’ scrawl all over it.

41. A Firm Believer and a Warm Receiver by [ @horsegirlharry ] (10k)

a few months ago, Louis had his first heat. It was no big deal, aside from it being awkward and weird and all the other things it was supposed to be. He figured he would present as an omega, so he wasn’t exactly surprised or anything.

But then, last week, Harry had his first heat, too.

42. resolutions and lovers in the kitchen (10k)

harry teaches little kids and louis writes sports articles. they're trying for a baby.

43. Everything I Do (I Do It For You) by [ @harrysspookyshorts ] (10k)

"It's gonna be perfect," Harry whispers, taking Louis' face in both of his hands, nosing close but not yet kissing him. "Always is. You always make everything perfect."

"Good. Whenever your heat finally kicks in, I'll make sure to treat you perfectly too... I'm gonna bond you so hard."

or, Harry's heat is coming up and they've planned to finally bond, so Louis decides to plan a very eventful and loving week leading to said bonding.

44. through the wire by [ @a-writerwrites ] (10k)

“Mate. He’s like. I don’t know how to describe it.” Liam’s voice was on edge, a tremble in it that indicated he was either very nervous or extremely excited; unsure of what to do next. It was probably both.

All Harry could think about was LouisLouisLouis. He needed him so badly his body ached with it. His skin was crawling and his entire body felt explosive, ready to ignite at the slightest touch.

“Ok. Li? This is what you are going to do…” Louis took a deep breath, the intake of air audible through the wire, as he prepared to guide Liam through what was probably going to be the strangest most erotic, and possibly most awkward experience of his life.

45. Make It Work by [ fanshae ] (10k)

Arranged marriage AU. Harry is an omega who has reached the age where he must be married due to his family's income status. Only the aristocratic omegas are exempt. His parents try to hide him but eventually the government gets word and in punishment, gives the omega to a spoiled aristocrat son of a lord, Louis. Louis is more than thrilled to have his own omega and once Harry goes into heat, he explores the boy with fascination and unintentionally impregnates him. This leads to a boy used to living carefree and drinking the day away with other nobles to having to face fatherhood.

46. Our Lips Are Made Of Candy by [ Waking_dreams ] (10k)

“Your knot, please, Louis,” he managed to whine. He needed it, that extra stretch and burn that made him Louis’.

“Fuck,” Louis moaned, and his thrusts became unsteady. “Can’t do it here, baby, Hazza, can’t—“

Or, Harry accidentally missed a few doses of his medicine that controls his heat and starts his heat in the middle of Biology. Oops

47. The Bond That Can't Be Broken by [ louisgrindsonharry ] (10k)

Louis’ an alpha and Harry’s an omega. They never really stood a chance.

48. i'll be hurt from the heat (running from the heat) by [ itiswhatitisbutterfly ] (11k)

It's engrained into him, nothing else matters, protecting Harry at all costs is what pumps his heart and floods his veins. It’s just, he didn't count on the one thing Harry would need protecting from would be himself.

(Harry and Louis are in love, and they are probably soul mates. They just can’t be bond mates because despite the undeniable pull, it's them against the world.)

49. Fill My Heart With Sweetness by [ harryisquirkeh ] (11k)

Harry's a late bloomer, but since his luck is shit, it's no surprise that he'd be the last to get a heat, but the first to get pregnant. In high school.

50. I’ve Always Liked the Fireworks by [ @becomeawendybird ] (12k)

When alphas and omegas reach the age of twenty-one they are required to attend a Proving Day ceremony. Omegas watch as alphas do their best to compete in events, show off their skills, and prove how good a mate they can really be. The whole thing is a bit ridiculous, but Louis Tomlinson has always dreamed of finding his mate. He's got two unsuccessful Sheffield Proving Days under his belt and decides to go for the much more competitive one in Manchester. His goal is to play his best, leave it all out on the pitch, and hope that one of the omegas watching just happens to be his mate.

51. Come In and Change My Life by [ lightswoodmagic (sarah_writes) ] (12k)

He’d had the same neighbours since he’d moved into the building, a lovely, wealthy couple in their late sixties who had always invited him around for tea on Sundays. Martha had dropped off homemade biscuits the day he’d moved in, so Harry figured he may as well repeat the sentiment. He could hear someone getting closer to the door just as a flush ran through his body; oh fuck. His heat was close, too close to be knocking on a potentially unknown alpha’s door, but it was too late. The door swung open, and Harry’s mouth dropped. He’d never been overly interested in football, couldn’t find the fascination in watching men run around after a ball for hours aside from their uniforms, but he knew who this was. Louis Tomlinson, alpha, captain of Manchester United, star in a number of Harry’s heat addled fantasies, was his new next-door neighbour.

Or, Harry and Louis become friends when Harry looks after Louis' cat during away games, until one night at a party changes everything between them. It's just a shame Louis' going to be away for the FIFA World Cup for three months.

52. come on over, we've got something to share by [ jaerie ] (12k)

Even as an unbonded omega with a four year old, Harry had everything he needed. His beautiful son, a nice apartment, money to pay the bills -- oh, and an alpha next door always willing to knot his brains out.

53. Bentley Station, Now Arriving by @londonfoginacup (13k)

Harry Styles, omega. Owns a bakery on a train station in the middle of nowhere.

Niall Horan, meddling friend who wont leave him or his love life alone.

(lack of love life).

There's a ball coming up, and Harry is going to attend. Niall will make certain of that.

54. Christmas, Baby by [ nikogda ] (13k)

His life was going exactly how he’d wanted it. Exactly how he’d planned it. According to his life plan, he would be adopting a puppy in the next year.

Except one little detail. Harry was holding a positive pregnancy test. He was going to have a baby. He blinked a few times He, Harry Styles - husband and omega to Louis Tomlinson - would be carrying a human inside of him.

“How?” Harry asked himself as he shook the plastic stick a few times as if the results would magically turn negative. Or, The one where the exact thing that Harry thinks is derailing his life plan might be exactly what he needs.

55. Next To You by [ @homeofsavannahblue ] (14k)

When Harry Styles won the X-Factor he quickly became the latest pop sensation. When Louis runs into him at a party, he quickly realizes that Harry Styles is nothing like his reputation of womanizing alpha. Turns out, Harry Styles is an omega. And Louis' mate.

A story about love, support and being proud of who you are.

56. Restless Lane by [ lululawrence ] (14k)

Louis had grown used to his boring life back in Mississippi as a stand-in father figure to his siblings. He never expected his childhood friend to show up on his lawn with the heat of summer or that he would remind Louis how much of himself he'd tucked away and neglected. He also never expected to find himself caught up in a tangled web of feelings or secrets that just might break him. Maybe he had never known Harry at all.

57. Prince Harry and the Expert in Motorcycle Maintenance by [ @juliusschmidt ] (16k)

Louis puts the truck back into drive. “I’m going to ask you one more time. Where do you want me to take you?”

“To the Royal Palace.”

“The hospital psych ward, it is, then,” Louis says, though that’s a forty-five minute trip and a lecture on tardiness from his stepfather that, in the end, will definitely not be worth the trouble.

an abo cinderella au in which prince harry rides a motorcycle and louis, a simple mechanic, fixes it.

58. Stars Will Align For Us by [ @2tiedships2 ] (16k)

"The serial monogamist is single," Niall said by way of introduction when he sat down across from Harry in the canteen.

Harry sipped his chocolate milk. "What are you going on about?"

"Your alpha dream boat," Niall said. "That tiny little footie player? I heard from Hannah that he's broken it off with his boyfriend so he’s single and ready to flamingle. Now's the time to make your move."

Harry sipped his chocolate milk harder to keep himself from replying.

Or the one where Harry is an omega at a loss of how to get past his pining and gain the attention of Louis...especially considering the alpha is always in a relationship.

59. and the truth shall set you free (...maybe) by [  jaerie ] (17k)

Betism: A religion based on the belief that the beta gender has been chosen by God to protect and defend the purity and dignity of the human race by resisting and condemning the lustful ways and flawed biology of the alpha and omega

Harry is a Betist and Louis is an alpha who runs with a bad crowd. This is what happens when two worlds collide.

60. I Want You S'more by [ 2tiedships2 ] (17k)

“I think Harry’s like a wanna-be alpha,” Louis stated as he handed over Niall’s nachos.

“What the fuck does that mean?”

“I mean, as the alpha in this, um, possible platonic friendship, I’m supposed to be the one initiating any flirting. In a platonic way. I’m supposed to be the one taking care of the omega and sending off calming pheromones.”

“For argument’s sake, are you living in the eighteenth century? Maybe even nineteenth century?”

“What the fuck are you talking about?”

“Mate, it’s the twenty-first century. Sure, most alphas insist on taking the lead and taking full control over their omega. Like, they’re always wanting to be the one to comfort and take care of the omega. Which is cool and all. But can’t it be the other way around? Or at least compromise?”

Louis shoved a couple nachos in his mouth to avoid responding.

Or the one where the least alpha-y alpha and the least omega-y omega show that secondary genders aren’t set in stone and sometimes it works when you kinda share that.

61. Love will tear us apart by [ notasawrap ] (20k)

"Look, alpha," the green-eyed man starts contemptuously. "I know you're upset and that this sucks, I fucking know.” Harry breathes deeply. "I'm trying to do my best because she hasn’t stopped asking about you since yesterday, but I cannot do much if with everything I say, you're gonna react like a psychopath or whatever. I don't know what you want, Louis!" He alleges frustrated. "And if you just stop acting impulsively -contain your instincts or whatever, we could solve this in a way that benefits all of us, but if you're not willing to do that, the best thing is going to be to forget you even know about this." Harry ends up, turning to leave, but is again stopped by the alpha, his grip much softer this time.

"I want to meet her." Louis recognizes, more calmly. His scent slightly softer than before. It momentarily catches Harry in a spiral, but he drives away the sensation and concentrates on looking at the alpha.

"I know." He says sincere. He had expected it. "So does she."

or Louis and Harry have a past and now it's time to face it.

62. solid as a stone (when everything is gone) by [ louisnights ] (20k)

“Why’d you take me with you?”

Louis startles at the question, the car almost swerving off the road in the process. He holds his breath as he waits for the twins to wake up and start wailing, but they don’t. They keep sleeping on peacefully, covered in the family blanket.

Harry’s looking at him with an unreadable expression.

Louis takes a minute, mulling it over. He answers quietly. “I hate to say it, but as much as we hate each other, I can’t bear to leave you alone to deal with this whole thing all by yourself.” and I wouldn’t be able to bear it if you died, he adds in his mind.

or, it's the zombie apocalypse and Louis is stuck with Harry, with whom he shares a complicated relationship with.

63. hard to confess by [ @hereforlou ] (24k)

One, they only did it without a condom once (and a half) and not during his heat. Never during his heat. Two, he never once forgot to take his birth control (he’s almost sure). Three, his plan is to be married for a year before he even starts trying for a baby, and not only is he very, very single, him and Louis aren’t even sleeping together anymore. Which brings him to reason number four why this can’t be happening: Louis. Louis doesn’t want a baby with Harry.

(Or, the one where Harry knows he messed up and Louis knows nothing.)

64. Stay Close, Hold Steady by [  jaerie ] (26k)

Found on the banks of the Mississippi as an toddler, Harry goes on a quest to find his biological family. Louis tries to be supportive, but maybe he just doesn't want to be left behind.

65. Let’s Embrace The Point Of No Return by [ sweaterpawstyles ] (33k)

Louis was a whole new scale of beautiful, he was richer than Harry could've ever imagined, and he was the most powerful, dominant alpha that Harry had ever come in contact with. The only problem now is that Louis is also Harry's boss.

Louis believed Harry was an alpha, and had no idea about how he had lied about his status just to get an interview with Louis. He was in too deep now and he couldn't look back.

Or

Harry is an omega intern at an all alpha company. Louis is his boss. There's some complications.

66. All These Lights by [  MediaWhore ] (34k)

“People vote for alphas because they’re strong and they’re not only beautiful but also mesmerizing. They make you want to give them all of your attention, make you want to beg for some of theirs back. They’re shiny, oozing sex appeal and a commanding presence, and people always want more and more. Omegas are enticing too for sure, but it’s not the same. It makes people uncomfortable. It doesn’t make them want to root for you.”

the canon fic where Harry is an omega and dreams come with a price.

67. I Sail With You by [ @afangirlfantasy ] (35k)

Against his wishes, Omega Prince Harry Styles is arranged to mate with someone he doesn’t love, much less knows. Though he pleaded to his parents incessantly, they not only refuse to comply but force him to depart on a ship days later. Harry prays for fate to step in, to change what’s to come, however, the answer he is given is not exactly in the form he had hoped.

Enter Will Tommo – deadliest pirate captain of all seven seas.

68. Watch the Sun Coming Up by [ @sadaveniren ] (36k)

As Louis approaches his thirtieth birthday his pack is desperate for him to find a mate.

Harry has always expected one day he may settle down with a nice alpha and they would continue to live in his small hometown.

Together they somehow will make this work.

69. I Think You're Already Home by [ jaerie ] (38k)

Seeing Louis Tomlinson today, it would be hard to guess that he was ever once a member of the world's most famous boyband. These days he doesn't even the leave his own house. The truth is he can't leave his own house. He can't even remember the last time just standing at an open door didn't send him into a debilitating panic attack. But, against his friend's advice, Louis is ready to add meaning to his life again. He's ready to start a family. So what if he doesn't have an omega? There are plenty of surrogacy services just waiting to help the rich and famous become parents. He just has to find the right one for the job.

70. We Got The World Shaking by [ FutureMrsHaroldStyles ] (39k)

Suddenly Louis is taking Harry’s hand in his own and turns to his sister. “I’m taking him to my room. Don’t worry I’m going to take care of him. Now go and enjoy your party, little sis!” And with that Louis leads Harry to the elevator. The thoughts in Harry’s head are going wild but they all come down to Fuck am I really gonna spend my heat with Louis Tomlinson?

Or the one where Harry goes into heat at his best friend Lottie's birthday party and her big brother helps him out.

71. Seeing Blind by [ @sugarbabyomega ] (46k)

Louis finally turns his head in Liam’s direction, knows his face is showing the longing he’s been aching with ever since it took root in his chest. “What the fuck do I do, Liam? He wouldn’t want me like that, but I want-” his voice cracks, and he turns his face back downwards. “What do you do when you’re not perfect for the person who’s perfect for you?”

OR the one where Harry’s an independent omega who likes to have his fun and Louis is the blind alpha that changes Harry’s priorities.

72. I'll Be Here Waiting on Forever by [ sweaterpawstyles ] (46k)

A Romeo and Juliet AU where Louis is an alpha prince who falls in love with Harry, an omega prince from the neighboring kingdom

73. Si Pudiera Volar by [ messofgorgeouschaos ] (68k)

When Harry’s fiancé leaves him for his cousin, he looks the other way for the sake of his happiness. He’ll do anything to forget about him, including joining a monastery. It isn’t until his cousin’s former lover, a pirate, appears that he realizes everything is not as it appears, and an honest pirate might be the only person worthy of his heart.

Or, a fic loosely based on Corazon Salvaje.

74.  A Distant Hazy Light by [ green_feelings ] (76k)

Life’s pretty ordinary for Harry. He lives with his best friend, got into university just like he’s planned, and manages to support himself just fine for an unbonded omega. If he sustains that lifestyle by getting paid to help alphas through their rut every now and then, that’s nothing to be hung up on. Until he’s hired by an alpha that turns everything upside down.

Or, Harry’s working on taking Louis’ walls down, until he builds his own up.

75. Face Your Fears by [ SadaVeniren ] (92k)

Harry is a single father, pretending to be a beta after his alpha mated him and left him. He’s getting by just fine raising the twins when Louis walks into his bakery. Too bad him and Louis will never be a thing.

76. Pretty Please (With Sugar On Top) by [ angelichl ] (113k)

Harry is a sugar baby omega who cons rich alphas for a living. Louis is a rich alpha with too much self-control.

77. Take Me As I Am by [ lovelarry10 ] (117k)

“Suppressant? But… why would I need a suppressant? Alphas don’t take suppressants.”

“You’re right, they don’t.”

****

Secrets. Lies. Deception. Betrayal. Self-discovery.

Alpha. Omega. How far will they go to hide the truth?

78. But Please, Don't Bite by [ @shyshyserious ] (122k)

"Melodic little jingle sounded from a bell hanging over the doorframe and warm indoor air curled heavily around his shivering body for the first time in months. Harry suddenly felt a sting in the corners of his eyes and had to force down a broken sob. Fuck, he was a mess. Such a mess. He had to focus." 

79. sometimes green and sometimes blue by [ itsmiz ] (511k)

Harry's an omega, and Louis is an Alpha. They're best friends growing up together on the outskirts of Washington, D.C., but they've always been a bit more than friends.

[unorthodoxsavvy]

West Side High fic Part 2

This story still doesn’t have a title but as I’ve seen it being referred to as the “West Side High fic”, I think we’ll stick with that for the time being.

In our last installment, which happens to be the first one, we set the stage of our two protagonists, Dan Howell, leader of the Ghosts, and Phil Lester, leader of the Lions, an overall punk punk vs jock narrative, but where the two rival gang leaders are promised to each other in an arranged marriage. Our story takes place in an era where time is fluid and many historical events (some of which have not happened yet in our time) are going on at once. When we left these two a few days ago, Phil had just visited Dan in his room to discuss the upcoming marriage in an unorthodox play on a Romeo and Juliet-type narrative. With that in mind, let us see how their story plays out.

It’s Wednesday morning. Dan has managed to finish his math homework without the aid of the Other Side in spite of being interrupted by his eventually-will-be-husband. If you’ll remember, we discussed how although Dan acted as if this marriage was of no immediate concern to him, he was in fact lying. This is why, as he sits in his first period history class, he ruminates over Phil and his predicaments. Though it bothers him to be on the same side as his arch rival, he understands it’s in both of their better interests.

As a warlock, his first instinct is to contact figures from the past to ask for advice. There are a few spirits he’s rather close with, but he needs someone with experience in this matter, and preferably someone who isn’t pre-occupied with any other going-ons in the afterlife.

For this, Dan was going to need to do some research. He figured although Phil was interested in a solution, he wouldn’t want to stick around for the leg work, which was, obviously, work, and spending more time with Dan than need-be. Also, thinking about it, not having Phil around to help would be better with avoiding raising suspicions. 

After planning through all of this, and feeling better about things knowing he had a plan in mind, Dan turns his attention back to his history class.

You might be wondering how a class like history works in a time period like this. Although many things are happening in this time period at once, it’s not to say that things haven’t also happened in the past. And although they learn about those things, they learn very much about what is happening in the day-to-day world. For example, Hitler is currently taking over Poland. Also going on is construction on the Colosseum. If we head over to Phil, who is in an art class he’s not the biggest fan of but still enjoys, we can see he’s listening to Mozart’s latest single. He’s really come a long way from our time considering inventions such a music programs on PC connected to MIDI keyboards. He does still enjoy a classic piano every now and again, however. So perhaps calling this class a “history” class wouldn’t make as much sense as calling it a “world events” class, but you know how hard it can be to change things so that they make more sense. People are very stuck in their ways, even in a world so rich and full of change as this one.

Now that we’ve spent some time with Dan while he figures out his next step, we’ll visit Phil in his favorite class: gym.

The gym, much like the entire school itself, wasn’t a pretty sight by any means. The basketball hoops looked as if the slightest breeze could knock them off balance. The Ga Ga Ball pit’s sand had solidified for some unknown reason. The hockey sticks had cracks up and down the shafts and the VR section had only five working lenses (this would be something that’s after our time currently), meaning only five people could play at once.

The school didn’t have a mascot or motto or anything painted on the gym floor, as somewhere along the line it’d been decided that having mascots to represent schools was offensive, and had been outlawed. It doesn’t matter to Phil, though. His gang and many others within these corrupted halls have their own mascots, and play for their own teams. They don’t belong to this school, they belong to each other. And Phil, against his will, belonged to Dan.

It was a little to not-at-all known fact in the school that Dan and Phil had once been much closer than they were now. That’s why Phil is confident that Dan will be able to find a way out of their predicament. Since their families are close (close enough to promise their sons to each other) they had spent many childhood moments together. They knew each other better than either would like to admit.

Because of this, Phil also trusts Dan enough to let him work on his own. Frankly, at this point, Phil didn’t care how he got the job done, as long as it worked out in the end. He considers it a sense of personal growth that he didn’t let the things Dan did and continues to do bother him anymore. No use crying over spilled milk, and no use caring about it if it didn’t want to clean itself up anyway.

It was these thoughts that were running through Phil’s head as he dribbled his basketball along the shabby wooden gym floor that creaked at every step. The ball slapping the floor echos in a cacophony of other balls slapping the wooden floor and the sound of sneakers creaking along the floorboards. Dribbling a basketball has always helped Phil think, and it continues to do so now. He finds such a sense of peace being able to do such a mindless act, such an ingrained natural repetitive motion. There’s no music, as the speakers broke long ago. Just the sound of groups of students making their way through their day-to-day life, each thinking about their own things. 

Now that we know Dan has a plan in mind, we can revisit this narrative at a later time and see how his plan goes. The next time we visit our protagonists will be after school. Until then, my friends.

[darpok]

Blog Post: On Fan Fiction and Other Storytelling Traditions

When I was twelve or thirteen years old, and even our family finally had DSL internet, I discovered the joys of fan fiction. In case you haven’t been living under the same rock as I have, allow me to explain. “Fan fiction” refers to stories written by enthusiasts of a particular book, TV show, or other creative work. While most “fics” – as my friends and I would call them – take place within the particular universe of the original story, others take known characters and put them in an entirely new setting. (That’s how 50 Shades of Grey was born.) There’s also fan fiction that doesn’t deliberately draw on any work but revolves around real, famous people in imagined situations. (See Graham Norton and Daniel Radcliffe discuss this type on the former’s show.)

The stories that interested me ranged from shorter “one shots” to multi-chapter epics, but most were placed in the Harry Potter universe and nearly all were tales of romance – if you could call it that.

The pairings I read about (and often ‘shipped’ – a verb that comes from the ‘ship’ in ‘relationship’ and means “hoped would bang”) – whether true to canon (i.e. the original books), such as Lily and James Potter, or wildly inventive, such as Hermione and a Tom Riddle to whom she has traveled back in time – usually engaged in the kind of love/hate banter that sends real couples to therapy. The pair would glare at and insult each other (often employing strangely American turns of phrase for a pair of ostensible Brits), their apparent mutual disgust hiding a deeper attraction. For my friends and I, it was riveting stuff.

While I was mainly a Lily/James shipper myself, you can’t talk about Harry Potter fan fiction and not mention Dramione. The fan-invented romance between Draco Malfoy and Hermione Granger was a tale of forbidden passion, a defiance of Hogwarts housing norms and the mandates of Potter canon itself. Draco did need to be less of a whiny loser to be a deserving match for Hermione, but this could be arranged without too much trouble. In the fan fiction world, Draco was dark and brooding, and he didn’t bring his dad up in conversation quite as often as in the books. Hermione was clever and empathetic, and although she was rarely depicted with less than Yule Ball-level beauty, her looks were not her main characteristic.

Sometimes fan fiction Draco and Hermione fell for each other while at Hogwarts. In other fics, they met again under changed circumstances years after the fall of Voldemort. Then there were the AU fics in which a brilliant young paralegal named Hermione Granger begins work at the firm where successful lawyer Draco Malfoy practices. You get the idea.

Photoshop creations starring Tom Felton and Emma Watson (no credit belongs to me). The purple one in particular has stayed in my memory for years, and brings on a familiar feeling of excitement at all the great content to peruse in the world. It was the banner for a website that allowed fans to nominate and vote for their favorite Dramione fics.

A particularly sexy iteration of the Draco/Hermione story was called Water by kissherdraco. In it, Draco and Hermione are Head Boy and Girl at Hogwarts. Of course, this means that they must live sequestered in their own dormitory, with its own entrance, common room and adjoining bathroom that ensure they see each other in a state of partial undress when the story demands it.

Water was held by many to be the pinnacle of the genre. It had lust and angst in equal measure, executed with a liberal dose of swear words and aggression. Moreover, Water took the common flaws of the Dramione world’s characters and actually explored them, allowing character to drive plot. In the story, Draco is brooding and cruel as ever, but these traits are linked to vicious abuse at the hands of Lucius. This backstory is not seen as an excuse for Draco’s behavior and he is forced to grow and change as the story progresses (although not quite enough, tbh).

I never finished the story, perhaps because my young brain was alarmed by all the hate-sex, but I revisited it with curiosity for this piece. Here is a relatively benign excerpt from the text, although please skip if you’d rather avoid themes of physical dominance:

“You’re crying,” growled Draco, leaning in and flicking his tongue onto her cheek. He tasted salt.

She struggled then, and he brought his hands to her shoulders to hold her still. “Don’t, Granger,” he warned. “I fucking need this. I can’t fucking…” He trailed off.

He never would have noticed before. Not like he did now, at least. Her lips were wet. They were red and moist and magnificently ripened for him. So full of blood. Hot, heated, sullied blood. He couldn’t take his eyes off them.

Other fics situated romance within a larger plot about the politics of the wizarding world. Prelude to Destiny by AnotherDreamer took place in the Marauder era (i.e. the time of Harry’s parents) and focused on the coming-of-age of Lily Evans and her role in the battle against evil. It begins, “Two cultures and a thousand miles from you, there is a castle on a hill…”

Another fave began life under the title Ancient and Most Noble and is now called Druella Black’s Guide to Womanhood. It is about the diverging lives of the three Black sisters — Bellatrix, Andromeda, and Narcissa — in the early years of Voldemort’s power. The sisters confront the crumbling of the their easy closeness as they make different choices in a changing world.

”It’ll be a laugh, you’ll see,” Bellatrix whispered into her ear, her breath sweet and thick from wine. They were curled in the cool grass, tangled in the layers upon layers of lace and satin that were their dress robes; it had taken them an hour to get them on right and just ten minutes to unsettle them. Andromeda’s head was spinning: from the liquor, from the heat, from far too much dancing. “It’ll all be just like this,” Bella was murmuring, her lips brushing against her ear. Stars whirled by overhead, maybe close enough to touch. Close enough to try.

“Always just like this.”

—

Andromeda swore as she stepped off the train. From inside the nicely cool travel car, summer had looked so charming, green and bright and gloriously school-free…

I was most interested in these fics, the ones that revolved around the generations before Harry’s. There was something compelling about the knowledge of forthcoming tragedy for many of the characters…Plucked away from the happy ending of the books, these fics became an exploration of why life is meaningful even in its flawed and finite scope.

I look back on my fan fiction experiences as belonging to a beautiful time when the internet was less like Janet from The Good Place* (if Janet were selling everything she knew about us to profit-hungry corporations and belligerent, militarized governments), and more like a library you went to when you felt like checking out a book. Nobody knew what I ate and where I went every minute of the day, because I didn’t put that stuff online, nor did I (to my knowledge) carry a tracking device with me when I went downstairs to play with my friends. At 5 pm, our moms would have to call each friend’s landline to reach us and remind us to stop home for our daily glass of milk or what-have-you.

*Janet is a humanoid presence in the afterlife who holds all knowledge in the universe and can create objects out of the void.

Fan fiction was a commerce-free creative space – devoid of ad revenue and the quick accumulation of likes. Since there was neither money nor social capital to be gained, everyone who participated did so out of pure interest. One did have the hope of raking in reviews from other community members, but these were about more than validation; reviews allowed people to have conversations about a shared passion and often included constructive criticism along with praise. There was little need for bitterness – if a fic was well-written, everybody won, since it meant they got to read it.

Below are some examples from the reviews section of Prelude to Destiny. It’s certainly no Twitter.

Written by rach on chapter #13. (March 28th 2009, 5am) Hey,

So I’ve read your whole story before, and now I’m reading it again, because I saw it spotlighted on the site. And this chapter is amazing. I love the end…I’ve never (well, before I read this the first time) compared Lily to Mrs Crouch. But it’s so true. They both gave their lives for their sons and…this chapter is phenomenal. Just thought I’d let you know

Rach

Written by Smith on chapter #26. (April 29th 2008, 11am)

…If I am to find any fault in the story, then I should say that Remus was rather dull. Not that it was completely out of character, but I imagine him being funnier and also good Lily’s friend. Their friendship is mentioned by Lupin in the third film and, I should think, in the book as well, though I don’t have a copy right now and thus can’t provide a quote. Pity, that. [Given my extensive knowledge of canon, I can tell you that the reviewer is mistaken on this last point.]

Thank you very much for writing this story. Reading it was an enjoyable experience that I might repeat in the future. You’re brilliant, to put it short.

Author Response: Thanks for the review!Yeah, Remus was a bit dull. Actually, I didn’t intend for Lily to be friends with any of the marauders besides James. I just wanted them out of the way. But I know what you mean. After Sirius entered the story, Remus was even duller in comparison. Plus, I wanted to make Peter seem like he fit in, and Remus just fell by the wayside, you know?I’m enjoying writing Gertrude again after taking over a story from my friend who used my characters. Anyway, thanks again!Miranda

For me, too, fandom was a more than a casual hobby. Since I was only allowed an hour of internet use a day, I would spend the time copying and pasting chapter after chapter of fan fiction onto Microsoft Word, allowing me to read all I wanted later. (As you might imagine, Water was not stored on the family computer.) I remember scouring for new fics on fanfiction.net and clicking through page after page of fan art on deviantart.com (both of which retain their early-2000s layouts, unlike Mugglenet or JK Rowling’s official site), very differently from how I scroll through Instagram today. I admired works of fandom the way one appreciates springtime’s first flower, or the décor of a friend’s bedroom – I admired the stamp of individuality they bore and that inspired me to create something myself, to express my joys and sorrows, to be a part of the world.

RIP old websites

When I did put Harry Potter-inspired art out there, somewhere around age fourteen, it was of course in the form of fan fiction, writing being my weapon of choice. I wrote two one-shot pieces, one funny and the other sad — or such were my intentions, though perhaps the results were inverted. While some friends wrote longer stories, I never felt talented or inspired enough to commit, which is a typical self-doubting move of the kind I am trying to leave behind. (I now plan to write no matter how untalented and uninspired I may be.)

One piece was about a character of my own invention, a Slytherin guy with the requisite pure-blood, Dark magic-loving family, and a perky, ponytailed Huffelpuff girl on whom he develops an obsessive crush. It was intended to be a BBC-inspired mockery of the character, taking all the gloomy sexiness of the Dramione universe and making it ridiculous. It was also a thorough exploration of really wanting to make out with somebody sitting in the same classroom as you, not that I’d know anything about that myself.

The other short story was a sincere ode to the books and an exploration of some of their core questions on death and loss. It followed Harry in an imagined scene that takes place (SPOILER ALERT lol) after Dumbledore’s death in the Half-Blood Prince. Harry is climbing the steps to the Owlery with a package in his hand, thinking over his relationship with Dumbledore. As I wrote, I found that I absolutely had to include excerpts from a fairly unexpected source, a chapter in the first and most overlooked of the Harry Potter books. The chapter is “The Mirror of Erised,” whose titular object reveals to the onlooker their deepest desire.

“Professor Dumbledore. Can I ask you something?”

“Obviously, you’ve just done so,” Dumbledore smiled. “You may ask me one more thing, however.”

“What do you see when you look in the mirror?”

“I? I see myself holding a pair of thick, woolen socks.” Harry stared. “One can never have enough socks,” said Dumbledore. “Another Christmas has come and gone and I didn’t get a single pair. People will insist on giving me books.”

It was only when he was back in bed that it struck Harry that Dumbledore might not have been quite truthful.

In my story, Harry gazes out at the Forbidden Forest for a little while, wondering who Dumbledore had been behind the mask of calm wisdom and pondering the burden of those left alive and grieving. Harry then ties the package he’s been holding to Hedwig’s arm and sends her off, chuckling a little through tears. In the last line it is revealed that – OMG – he has just sent off a pair of thick, woolen SOCKS. To DUMBLEDORE. Even though Dumbledore is DEAD. Isn’t that profound?

Two years later, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows was released, and to my complete surprise, it delved deep into some of the questions about Dumbledore that had tumbled out of me, stream-of-consciousness-like, in the story I wrote. The text even includes part of the above excerpt from “The Mirror of Erised”. At the outset of Deathly Hallows, Harry learns that Dumbledore’s childhood was a difficult one, the true details of which remain murky and contested by his admirers and critics. Harry regrets never having asked Dumbledore about his past, but recalls that, after all, the one personal question he had asked Dumbledore was not answered honestly…

While writing my story, I had imagined Harry’s pain and longing to know Dumbledore better. Because fan fiction allowed me to externalize my interpretation of the text, the questions in my mind took on concrete form. Their answers, when the next book presented them, became all the more striking and emotionally impactful. It was as though I had written a letter to the series of books that had shaped me and received, in a way, a gentle but meaningful response.

In 2004, JK Rowling released a statement about the phenomenon of fan fiction. She was flattered by fans’ desire to write about her characters, and her only caveats were that fan fiction should remain suitable for children (unfortunately that ship had already sailed, and Water was truly the least of it), as well as a non-commercial activity so that fans’ creative pursuits would remain unexploited. Other authors have not been as accepting, and have asked for fan fiction based on their work to be removed from popular websites. After all, in our current world, a story is classified as property. A sentence, a verse, a character’s name, can belong to someone the same way as the furniture in their house and the dollar figure in their bank account.

In the long history of storytelling, however, ownership is a relatively recent idea. Bear with me while I make an analogy – in pre-industrial Britain, every town had a commons, an area of land where anyone could gather firewood, take their cattle to graze, or hunt and fish to supplement a year of poor harvest. Storytelling has historically functioned as a kind of commons of ideas, one that anyone could pull from when the time came to tell a tale. Want to warn your kid against going near a well? Tell them about the hungry demon that lives in it. Were you hired to entertain a crowd at a wedding? Maybe you dust off an old poem about a prince and princess who meet one evening in the forest but spend years apart, not knowing each others’ true identity until it turns out they were betrothed all along.

Nobody invented well-dwelling monsters or estranged lovers for the first time – they simply existed in a shared cultural space, available when needed (or when it was particularly enjoyable to use them), ready to be shaped into something new and old at the same time. Even today, no one questions the use of familiar tropes in books and movies; we know that all storytelling involves a certain amount of borrowing and repetition, and we deem this acceptable as long as the storyteller has put an adequately original spin on the themes they utilize. The legal line is drawn once you get to the particulars – character names, or sentences and dialogue. These must be brand spanking new if you want to avoid a lawsuit and getting dropped by your publishers. (Does anyone else remember How Opal Mehta Got Kissed, Got Wild, and Got a Life?)

But for thousands of years, people told and re-told stories of beloved and familiar characters, not just unnamed archetypes – characters like Odysseus and Arjuna, Gilgamesh and King Arthur. The Sanskrit Mahabharata (Maha-BHA-rata) an epicly long, genre-defying story from South Asia, especially challenges the idea of a single, canonical text (much like other ancient story traditions from the subcontinent). It was told so many times by so many people that modern-day folks are not always able to agree on what the Mahabharata even is. The story is like a vast ocean — recognizable to all, but appears different depending on where you happen to be standing.

In the 20th century, some scholars collected Mahabharata manuscripts from all over the subcontinent, extracted the most commonly occurring parts to form a text, and detailed the many variations of each verse in footnotes that turned out longer than the text itself. No one can quite agree whether to treat this resulting (multi-volume) “Critical Edition” as the essential Sanskrit Mahabharata tradition, or as some kind of strange, post-colonial Mahabharata scrapbook. All this so that whenever somebody wrote an essay about the story, there was a single text, pieced together as it was, to use as a point of reference. (My Bachelor’s thesis was one of the lesser works of this scholarly genre.)

The plot of the Mahabharata goes like this: The five Pandava brothers, namely the prone-to-gambling leader Yudhishthira, morally-conflicted archer Arjuna, lovable beefcake Bhima, and something-to-do-with-horses twins Nakula and Sachdeva, along with their badass wife Draupadi, are exiled from their kingdom and forced into a year of disguise after a rigged dice game that Yudhishthira loses, and in which Draupadi is stripped and humiliated before a hall full of men. Eventually the Pandavas regain what they lost through a bloody war that leaves both sides devastated and questioning the point of all this conflict. The End.

Does my summary reflect my biases a little bit? For somebody else, the Pandavas might be perfect heroes, Draupadi a whiny ungrateful shrew who won’t stop yelling at them. To me, she is the moral backbone of the Pandavas, unafraid to call for what she feels is right even as everyone around her takes the coward’s way out of trouble.

Interpretations of Draupadi from various traditions

But it’s not just me who has a take on the story: the Mahabharata itself reflects a range of interacting and conflicting views, which might indicate that people from various backgrounds heard it and were able, in some way, to influence it. For example, although the text generally upholds hierarchies of caste and gender, it also pulls at the listener’s heartstrings with stories of characters who must confront these oppressive norms.

There’s Amba, who is stolen from her future-husband at her wedding and rejected by him when she manages to return; she later chooses to be re-born as a man in order to kill her kidnapper in battle. There’s Ekalavya, the talented archer from a forest tribe who trains with the Pandavas in youth and asks to prove his devotion to his archery guru any way he can; the guru, who favors the upper-caste prince Arjuna, asks Ekalavya to cut off his right thumb. There’s Kunti, who finds herself pregnant after an illicit affair with a god and places her baby, Karna, in a river; Karna is adopted by a lower-caste charioteer couple and goes on to fight against Kunti’s legitimate sons in the great battle that destroys the universe. And there’s Satyavati, whose husband/baby daddy pretends not to recognize her in front of his kingly court but gets completely schooled on how not to be an asshole.

“You know very well [who I am], your majesty; why do you say that you don’t, lying like a common man? Your heart knows the truth, and knows your lie. A man who does something wrong thinks, ‘No one knows me,’ but the gods know. If you do not do what I ask, your head will burst into a hundred pieces.” She discoursed at length on the reasons why a man should honor his wife, quoting the dharma texts.

(from The Ring of Truth: And Other Myths of Sex and Jewelry by Wendy Doniger)

Perhaps, among the traveling bards and indulgent grandmas who told the Mahabharata over centuries, there were some who identified or empathized with the pain of oppression and through whom otherwise-marginalized voices could ring out into the millennia.

The many Mahabharatas, along with the many conversations inside the Mahabharata, illustrate how the human imagination is prolific and messy, not content with merely absorbing information but impelled to remake, to take inspiration, to create, create, create. Isn’t that what happens when we read? We see the world we are reading about in our own way. We make up something in our own head as we go along, and that’s where the entertainment lies. The book itself is but a wonderful tool.

Perhaps if I had a right-wing patron who paid me to tell stories, I would tell the Mahabharata a little differently from how I do here, focusing on how the Pandavas were self-made men or how the ethnic minorities they killed were thieving encroachers. Or if I were telling the story to children, I might leave out anything particularly frightening. In the telling of a story, the will and whims of the teller have influence, as do those of the listener (or reader) and the financial benefactor (or publishing house).

What remains inevitable, however, is that rarely is a story told the same way twice. Even in our post-printing press, post-internet world, where stories are replicated identically again and again, we continue to dissect, analyze, and change them, whether it be through everyday conversations, online forums, or the prestige lens of a critic’s review. (A perfect example is the adaptation of works from one medium into another, be it from literature to film or from film to theater.) Sometimes the authors themselves continue to tweak and interpret their work – Virginia Wolf was known to make changes to her books prior to reprinting, and we all know that JK Rowling can’t leave the Potter universe well enough alone (love you Jo!).

For me, fan fiction is a grand storytelling and textual tradition not entirely unlike the Mahabharata. Fan fiction not only illustrates the malleable, generative nature of stories, it also provides a rare space, in our capitalist global economy, for storytelling to be that malleable, generative thing it has always been. It allows for democratic engagement in the storytelling traditions of our time, free from the boxes of profit and ownership. It lets us expand the possibilities of our collective imagination. Importantly, it allows voices from the margins into the story, where our canonical texts routinely fail us.

I’m also thankful to fan fiction for being a rare space, outside overpriced college English classes, where literary discussion can thrive. When I say discussion, I don’t mean mere binary criticism – like book reviews, or the Goodreads star rating-aggregates that help determine book sales. I mean questions about how a text makes you feel, what it reflects or critiques about our world, the things that literary characters, beloved and abhorred, may teach us about our shared humanity and flawed choices. And yes, some of these conversations involve Hermione Granger and Draco Malfoy as co-Heads of Hogwarts, using the same bathroom.

Are you a reader or writer of fan fiction? Have you you dabbled in fan art? Or do you engage in a non-online form of fandom, like a book club? Please share!

Thanks for reading.

[allwaswell16]

This is the masterpost for my fan fictions. You can also find and subscribe to my fics here on ao3. My word count so far is: 388,316. All pairings are Harry Styles/Louis Tomlinson unless otherwise specified. Thanks for reading! <3 <3

Faded From This Touch | explicit | 7k | read here on ao3

Pop star Louis Tomlinson is about to make his long awaited return to music. Unfortunately, his label and manager feel his long hair isn't in tune with his pop star image. When Louis goes to get a hair cut at a posh London salon, he unexpectedly finds a very handsome reason to keep returning.

Today’s the Day (Winter Drabble Series) | G | 300 words | read here on ao3

Polar-Harry pines for the beautiful boy he sees in the coffee shop. Radiator-Harry meets the beautiful boy in the coffee shop he has been pining over. Melt-Harry talks to the boy in the coffee shop he has been pining over.

Be My Homeward Dove | explicit | drarry | 7k | read here on ao3

It's almost Christmas, and Draco must find Harry the perfect gift. It's much more difficult than he'd imagined.

We’re Dancing On Tables | explicit | 5k | read here on ao3

Last week, Louis went on the very best date of his life with the hot guy from his chemistry lab, which was great until the guy never texted him or called him afterwards. Everything is great. Everything is fucking great. Now this guy has the nerve to show up at Louis’ house party, which of course forces Louis to plot to ruin his night.

Staring Across the Room | explicit | 26k |  read here on ao3

Harry Styles has a great life. He’s a children’s librarian at the New York Public Library, he’s got wonderful friends, and he loves cooking, green tea, yoga, and his collection of bow ties. He doesn’t mind that his life seems a little structured, maybe even a little boring. But when Louis Tomlinson joins the library staff as the new Installation Coordinator, things become a lot less predictable. Louis gets under his skin right from the start, bossing Harry around, making noise during story time, and eating the last cupcake in the staff lounge. Louis may be almost offensively attractive, but Harry will not be succumbing to Louis Tomlinson’s charms, even if the rest of the library staff have.

Do You Smile To Tempt a Lover | explicit | 18k | read here on ao3

Pairing: Nick Grimshaw/Louis Tomlinson

Nick Grimshaw is entranced by Louis, his very beautiful, very cheeky new coworker at The National Portrait Gallery. He watches him day after day, wondering what he’s furiously typing on his laptop over lunch. With a little help from the very bored barista in the gallery cafe, Nick finds himself growing closer to Louis than he ever dreamed possible.

Let You Lick the Lollipop | explicit | 4.4k | read here on ao3

Louis may be throwing a Halloween costume party for a lot of drunk college students, but that doesn’t mean he can’t also hand out candy to trick-or-treaters. He just has to keep people from stealing all the candy--especially the very hot guy in a toga who won’t leave his candy alone.

This is Halloween, everybody make a scene | general | 2k | read here on ao3

When Louis takes his son trick-or-treating in a stormtrooper costume, little does he know by the end of the night he will end up gaining a Luke Skywalker, a Chewbacca, and a Rey. He doesn't mind the additions, and if Rey's very hot dad wants to come along as well, he doesn't mind that too much either.

Just Hear This (series) | explicit | 46k | read here on ao3

Former boy band member Louis Tomlinson can’t stand pompous indie artist Harry Styles, but with a new record label to launch he is going to have to endure his pretensions to snag up and coming new artist Liam Payne, who happens to be Harry’s oldest friend. Luckily, Liam seems to be very interested in 78 Records and maybe a little more than interested in Louis’ best friend. Too bad Harry won’t be making this easy on any of them. Or a modern day Pride and Prejudice.

You’re the Light (series) | explicit | 39k | read here on ao3

Before beginning a new graduate school in the fall, Louis Tomlinson decides to spend the summer working in Chicago as an editor’s assistant for the Chicago Tribune newspaper and staying with his old college roommate. What he finds on his first day of work is a tall, gorgeous editor named Harry who has the most beautiful green eyes he’s ever seen—and who also happens to be his new boss.

Looking Through You (series) | explicit | 49k | read here on ao3

Just as Louis and Liam were starting out in the music industry, writing and producing for up and coming artists, a fateful meeting with new pop singer Harry Styles changes everything. Four years later, just as Harry is set to embark on his next world tour, a drunken confession causes a rift between once inseparable friends. As Harry tries to make sense of his feelings for Louis, he begins writing his next album to express them as it may be the only way to break through the walls that Louis has built between them. 

That’s How I Know | explicit | 17k | read here on ao3

Louis Tomlinson has just landed his dream job, coaching soccer at Augustus University. When he moves into a new house near campus, he meets his very fit new neighbor, English professor Harry Styles. Although their first meeting leads to an instant mutual dislike, the more Harry gets to know Louis, the more he likes what he sees. Or the one where Harry’s African grey parrot spills his dirty secrets to his very hot neighbor.

I’ll Be There | explicit | 5k | read here on ao3

Louis is less than thrilled to find out his roommate has coerced his nemesis to check on him whilst he’s sick in bed. However, Harry seems to take great pleasure in taking care of Louis. Maybe this green smoothie drinking, hot yoga instructing, hair in a bun wearing, pretentious art history studying wanker isn’t so bad after all. On Monday, Louis thinks Harry’s a twat. By Friday, he’s thinking of reasons for him to stay.

One Day You’ll Say These Words | mature | 10k | read here on ao3

Growing up together in Yorkshire has led to a lifelong friendship between Louis Tomlinson, the future Marquess of Rotherham, and Harry Styles, the heir to a viscount. When Harry suddenly inherits his uncle’s title and estate much earlier than expected, Louis must watch his friend struggle under the weight of these new responsibilities, including searching for a wife with a dowry large enough to save his estate. However, sitting idly by as Harry looks for a bride brings some unexpected feelings to the surface. A friends to lovers story set in the Regency era.

Sound Like a Song | explicit | 14k | read here on ao3

Part 1 of When We Were Young Series: In high school, Louis Tomlinson lit up Harry’s world like nobody else, even if Harry did most of his pining from the safety of his tightly knit circle of friends. Ten years later, Harry is ready to make some changes. He’s tired of having so many regrets and not taking charge of his life, and he still hasn’t forgotten how brightly Louis shines. He’s about to get a long awaited second chance.Or the one where Harry helps out at a farmer’s market and gives Louis free vegetables. Featuring Elton John songs, many vegetable puns, way too many zucchinis, and being right on time for the love of your life.

Look Like a Movie | mature | 10k | read here on ao3

Part 2 of When We Were Young Series. Louis lights up Harry’s world like nobody else. Harry just wishes he could be brave enough to ever ask him out. Although Harry’s high school life is fraught with anxious encounters, he gets by with a little help from his friends.Or a prequel taking place ten years before ‘Sound Like a Song.’ Featuring school dances, soccer games, overeager lab partners, crushes, and being ten years too early for the love of your life.

How Could I Ever Forget | explicit | 14k | read here on ao3

After his boyfriend leaves him for a job in New York, Harry vows to move on with his life. A year later when their best friends announce their engagement, Harry knows he’ll be forced to see Louis again and face the truth he’s been trying his best to hide–even from himself. Or a Vegas AU where Ziam’s bachelor party turns into drunken karaoke, winning thousands at slots, washing your clothes at the laundromat in your underwear, and making life altering decisions that you can’t remember in the morning.

You Really Got Me Now | explicit | 6k | read here on ao3

Louis is the best older brother anyone could ask for. He knows this because he’s agreed to help chaperone his younger sister’s school trip to Rome. As it turns out, Italy is full of surprises. Fizzy’s Italian teacher is surprisingly hot, Rome is surprisingly interesting, and Louis is surprisingly falling in love with more than just the city.

You & Me | general | 3k | read here on ao3

Louis Tomlinson doesn’t have much faith in fate. Unfortunately, his mother does. She thinks he’s destined to be with her best friend’s son. Louis hasn’t had much luck in love, so he decides to finally meet this boy his mother thinks is his match. As fate would have it, he encounters an intriguing stranger to confide in before he meets with destiny.

1D Very Silly Chat/Email Chain (series) | (im)mature| 7k+ | read here on ao3

(1) Danger in the Produce Aisle, (2) Caramel Apple Peeps, (3)The OT4 Email Chain, (4) Email Chain OT4, (5) Screaming, (6)The Brits & Always You, (7) Is Neil Available?

Read emails sent from : donnysoldier28@gmail.com, TheRealBatMan@aol.com, CraicDirection@hotmail.com, and randysdonuts@savethewhales.org

Important topics including: frightening fruits, no milk for Louis’ tea, hacking, being jealous of Steve Aoki, way too many poo jokes, Niall screaming, dogs Liam doesn’t Instagram, Harry’s floofy hair, Liam’s chains, Instagram aesthetics, and much more!

Now That I’ve Found You | mature | 6k+ | read here on ao3

Harry Styles has a great job working for his brother-in-law’s construction company. He has just one small problem. His concrete sub-contractor just quit, and he needs a foundation built as soon as possible. One fateful turn brings him exactly what he’s been looking for—an experienced concrete construction company that happens to be owned by the most beautiful man he’s ever laid eyes upon.

For You I’d Bleed Myself Dry | explicit | 3k+  | read here on ao3

After a public and humiliating breakup, Louis Tomlinson finds himself on his would-be honeymoon with his best friend, Niall. However, this St. Lucian paradise is not all that it seems. Louis may be particularly vulnerable to an unusually handsome predator.

On a Day Like This You Know It’s Meant To Be | t&up | 2k+  | read here on ao3

One year ago Harry Styles met Louis Tomlinson, the man of his dreams. Harry is certain he’ll never see him again, even if they did make a pact to reunite should the Chicago Cubs win the World Series. Harry has one small flicker of hope left when it appears the Cubs might actually win it all. But will Louis fulfill his end of this fateful bargain?

Won’t You Please Come Around | mature | 5k+ | read here on ao3

Harry has lived in London for a month, and so far the only friend he’s made is his sister’s cat, Mr. Whiskers. When the lock on the window breaks, Mr. Whiskers begins exploring his new neighbourhood a bit too thoroughly and brings back mementos of his escapes. Or a Valentine’s Day story where Harry has a really fit neighbour, and his cat is a thief.

Let Me Kiss You | mature | 3k+ | read here on ao3

Harry Styles is on top of the world. He’s moving to Chicago to live in a kick ass apartment that he’s sharing with his old college friend, Niall. When their old college crew makes plans to hang out, Harry realizes he will be coming face to face with his unrequited crush, Louis.

haven’t you heard | explicit | 8k | read here on ao3

Harry Styles has been in love with Louis Tomlinson since they were eighteen. After six years together, Harry is ready to propose to the love of his life. The holidays strike him as the perfect time for a romantic proposal, but his well-meaning friends and family (including his self-appointed best friend, Niall) seem to thwart him at every turn. Or the four times Harry tries to propose, and the one time he gets it right.

but tonight (you’re on my mind) | explicit | 36k | read here on ao3

Pairing: Nick Grimshaw/Louis Tomlinson (Tomlinshaw)

Nick’s friendship with the lead singer of Seventy Eight has come with a new circle of people including an entrancing, blue eyed drummer. But what brings them together can also tear them apart.

And I Could Hear the Thunder | mature | 1/? WIP | read here on ao3

Harry prepares to inherit his family’s estate, and Louis is the mysterious boy living in the manor to the north.

[liw-the-melancholic-apple]

How it may have gone - Humble Beginnings

A fic taking place in the marauders era. While the political climate seems to head to a conflict, James, Sirius, Remus and Peter are still just teenagers. Dealing with typical teenage problems.

But this year their little group grows. Who would have known that more prefects would be a good thing?

Masterlist

Three: Nightshift

It was definitely light out when I woke. Judging by the shadow of my bedpost it had been light out for a while. I made a content noise, turned around and snuggled back into my blanket. Weekends. How I loved them. Sleep as long as you want. Spend the whole day in bed. Go to breakfast in your pj’s. Laugh at the prefects who have to attend all meals.

Oh crap! Prefects have to attend all meals. Including breakfast. How late was it? I sat up, all of a sudden wide awake and checked the muggle alarm clock on my nightstand. Nine. I relaxed a bit. On the weekends breakfast was served until ten o’clock, so I had not yet broken the rules. Partially involuntarily I got out of bed and to my wardrobe. My clothes all looked equally less comfortable than my pyjamas, so I blindly went for a pair of jeans and a jumper. Both dark in colour. I mainly dressed in black, grey, burgundy, dark blue and dark green. The only light colour that made it into my closet was white.

I had just finished dressing when Blair came back from the bathroom. She waved at me and smiled but didn’t say a single word. I signed to her to give me five minutes, got ready in record time and went to breakfast together with her. The other three still laid in their comfortable, comfortable beds.

Mainly, I liked being a prefect. A lot of the things I was obligated to do as a prefect I had already done in other years of my own volition. The only negative aspects of the gig were the nightshifts, one of which I had tonight, and that silly meal-rule. I really wasn’t a fan of that. And I couldn’t quite understand it. Why did I have to be present at breakfast? What good did it do if the others knew I did not sleep in?

To my delight Blair didn’t look all that happy either. She was way more of a morning person than me but she was gone for the entire afternoon with her sister and had disappeared right after dinner again. I didn’t hear her come back to the dorm and Milla and I had stayed up forever. One more reason to not go to breakfast but sleep until lunch.

Silently we plummeted on the bench at our table and both blankly stared at the dishes in front of us. I had no idea what I wanted to eat because my body was still in sleeping-mode and I guessed that Blair felt the exact same way. A way too happy face sat down across from us holding a big pot in its hands. The face laughed, grabbed two clean mugs and filled them with the holy dark liquid from the pot. Then, it put the mugs down in front of Blair and me and started smiling even wider. “Bottoms up, beautifuls!” I cracked a smile as I took a sip. Blair inspected her cup first, but found that the happy face had remembered how she drank her coffee and filled the mug with more milk than caffeine. She, too, smiled up at the face that now twitched its eyes between her and me with a crazy grin.

Sleep deprivation affects people differently. I, for example got grumpy and quiet and didn’t want to do or think anything. Crick, on the other hand, went into overdrive and thought, talked, smiled and clapped like there was no tomorrow. The crazy grin on the other side of the breakfast table was his. He had worked the prefect’s nightshift from Friday to Saturday and it showed.

“Good morning to you, too”, I finally interrupted his endless words after my third gulp of coffee.

“How was your night, then?”

“Oh, nothing special. Nothing special. Callaghan was on my floor. That was pretty relaxed, yeah, pretty relaxed, nothing really happened. Found two seventh years trying to sneak around, but we commanded them back to their respective dorms. Nothing special noth…”

“Oh, for Morgana’s sake Nathaniel, speak less, or more quiet!”, Blair shouted, still grinning at him but also pained by his joy this early in the morning.

“You never call me Nathaniel, Blair Caroline, why start now? Huh? I actually like being Crick and I don’t think I’ll react to Nathaniel at all anymore. You could try Nate if you don’t like Crick anymore, that’s what my parents call me but nobody else does. Not even my brothers. But I could of course get used to it if you just stuck with it long enough”, he laughed like maniac and Blair shook her head chuckling.

“Forget it. Crick’s fine by me.”

“Yeah, he is!” He exaggerated a wink at Blair and straightened the collar of his shirt which sent us both into a fit of laughter we couldn’t recover from for a while. While we were trying to Crick had two more cups of coffee and a toast with jelly and chocolate spread. Fuelled by all the caffeine and respectable amounts of sugar he kept us company a bit longer, before he saw Magnus and Chloe enter the Great Hall and jumped up to wish them the best of Mornings.

I watched amused as Chloe duck under his arms to join us and Magnus greeted Crick with a cold hard “No. Not now. Go away.” Which didn’t seem to faze Crick in the least and he followed Magnus against his protests to the other sixth years a little further down the table. They were met with a collective groan.

Chloe took Crick’s spot across from us and fished the last croissant from one of the baskets. While she buttered it she said: “We need to get your shift plans hung up in our dorm, Jette. I don’t want this to happen to me when I’m not prepared. Did you see he nearly hit me? He’s a danger to the public… Morning by the way.”

“Morning”, Blair and I mumbled into oud bowls of porridge. “I can get a copy tonight, if you want. But I doubt anticipating his madness will make I more bearable.”

“How were you in love with that?” Nica sat down next to Chloe, clearly having overheard our conversation. She looked at me with very judgemental eyebrows. I sighed.

“First of all I was never in love with that”, I gestured vaguely to the sixth years, “I had a very cute crush on it. And Secondly when I had that cute little crush on it, it was in fourth year and not yet a prefect, so I didn’t know that that”, again I pointed down the table, “would ever come into existence.”

“Fair enough”, Nica bit into her raisin roll. “Buf”, she said right after, “I fill fink fat hile it’s stranfe you woulda been a cue couple.” She swallowed. “I can see it before me: Crick and Jette– prefects in love. Perfect wedding, perfect jobs, perfect kids, perfect life”, she dreamed, earning an irritated look from me and amused ones from the other two girls.

“It only seems strange because we’re not used to it. If they ever were to get together we’d be used to it in not time and it would only be cute”, said Chloe. “You all said I was being ridiculous when I told you I fancied Magnus and you don’t find that weird. Right?”, her voice got a little higher there.

“No, you are just adorable together. Nothing weird about that”, Blair reassured her with a warm smile.

“You haven’t talked to the Potter-posse all day, yesterday”, Nica then scolded me and I assumed that the group had just walked through the door causing her to stop nagging me about how I should start dating Crick because she would love to see our babies. She did that regularly ever since I confessed to have had a crush on him in third year.

“Yes I did. Had a lovely chat about History of Magic with Remus yesterday.” She stared at me with her thick eyebrows narrowed.

“When? And why didn’t you tell me?”

“Speaking of crushes, yours is getting a little scary”, Blair commented as she reached for the pumpkin juice.

“I didn’t tell you, because I didn’t think you’d be interested in his opinions on the goblin riots and I talked to him during detention.”

“Was James there?”

“No. Why would he have been? He’s got detention with Hagrid, remember?” Her spontaneous anger with me left her immediately and she concentrated on her raisin roll again.

“You’re gone with Mag all weekend, right, Chloe?” Blair clearly had had enough of all the boytalk and wanted to get to planning the weekend. Chloe hesitantly confirmed. “Not all weekend. I guess we’ll see each other at dinner.” Blair waved dismissively at her and turned to Nica and me. “But we’re still going to Hogsmeade, I reckon?”

“That was the plan. I need new hair ties and I would kill for a hot Chocolate with butterbeer”, Nica nodded enthusiastically.

“I’m in, too. But I don’t know how long I’ll stay. I really gotta take a nap before the nightshift.”

“What about Milla?”, Blair looked at Nica.

“Still slept when I left.”

“Check whether she wants to come when we get our stuff and get going as soon as possible?”, I zesuggested as I finished my third giant mug of coffee and felt like life wasn’t all that horrible at last. No complaints.

While Nica and Blair interrogated Chloe about her plans with Magnus I slipped away for a smoke.

“I really don’t see why you have to run as if death was after you”, Milla snapped for the eighth time. Now, I was a little difficult in the mornings, especially if I hadn’t slept as long as I wanted to but I was a heavenly delight compared to Milla after she was woken up against her will.

We had found her more or less awake when went back to the dorm to get our bags, purses and jackets. She said that yes, she really wanted to come but that she had to eat first.

That’s another thing with Milla. She turns into a monster when she’s hungry. So, before any of us had the courage to tell her that we had come back up because breakfast was no longer served we all went through our drawers to find what was left of our sweets stashes. We threw two pumpkin pasties and some whizzing whizzbees at her without saying anything. When she realised she’d missed breakfast her disproportionally big doll-like light blue eyes narrowed and she growled. But she got up none the less, ate her poor excuse for a first meal and got ready in record time.

It was obvious though, that she was at this point, halfway to the village, both: tired and hungry. And that was a very explosive combination. “We’re not running”, Nica snapped back for the eighth time but slowed down even more. At this rate we would arrive in Hogsemeade when I had to leave again to be back in time for my preparation nap.

“Why didn’t we just go later? We could’ve caught lunch at least”, Milla complained and I had to tell myself not to get too annoyed.

“I told you that you could meet us later – after lunch – but that I had to go right away because I got the nightshift today.”

“So what? Why can’t I have lunch if you have to work at night? No correlation!” There was and she knew there was.

“Again: You could’ve eaten lunch and met up with us later. But since I have to stay awake all night I wanna be able to sleep a bit before dinner and wanna go back around three, maybe half past. Which would not leave a lot of time if I had waited until lunch.”

“Why did you sign up for that whole prefect thing, if you’re not capable of doing it without ruining everyone’s weekend?”, Milla snarled and I gave up. Once we got her into the Three broomsticks and some food in her stomach she would calm down and apologise for being such a whiny pain in the arse. My not answering didn’t make her any happier though and the walk to the pub seemed hours longer than normally.

Happy as a child on Christmas Milla munched down on some Macaroni and Cheese as the rest of us enjoyed Hot ButterChocolate. It was a specialty of Miss Rosmerta's, she combined two thirds of chocolate with one third of butterbeer and topped it off with caramel cream. As soon as the weather got ugly between October and November I craved the stuff.

“I may have been a bit snippy back there”, Milla said shyly while chewing on the last noodle. “Sorry ‘bout that.”

“It’s fine”, Blair grinned. “We know that your impossible when tired and hungry. We were prepared.”

With Milla and consequently our whole group in better spirits we strolled down the main road of Hogsmeade, looking in the windows and popping in some of the shops to get the girl’s essentials. Once all that was done and our to-do-lists were all checked off, Milla and Nica dragged Blair and me into the little Quidditch shop just off the main road. No comparison to Quality for Quidditch in Diagon Ally but you could find every spare part for your uniform and broom. Besides they had coloured Quidditch sets that sparkled in the Hogwarts House colours as well as some bright neon varieties and a sickening orange.

Milla had been eyeing the neon pink set for ages, since she didn’t have any balls at home and used to practice her beating with footballs or stuffed animals which just weren’t the same thing as a bludger. The bright pink was just a bonus to her. She had inspected the price card on the bubblegum pink box the set came in at least a hundred times and so she did now, finding that to her disappointment the price hadn’t dropped.

“It’s so much money!”, she groaned.

“Do you have so much money?”, Nica stood on her toes and looked over Milla’s shoulder.

“Theoretically”

“Then buy the damn box. You’ve wanted it for ages and you can afford it.”

“I know but I could buy so many chocolate frogs for the exact same amount. It’s just so much money…” Milla grabbed and let go of her earlobe again and again like she always did when she got nervous or insecure.

“Christmas isn’t that far away”, Blair chimed in.

“Nice idea!” We high-fived.

“Just tell your parents you would like the set for Christmas and that you could buy it here and owl it over. They could give you back the money.” Milla still played with her earlobe.

“Or you pay half of it and ask them for the other half for Christmas”, I suggested.

“Nah, they’d buy it for me for Christmas. But…” I slapped my head against the shelf next to me. “You aren’t really afraid that they’ll take away your shopping spree if you wish for the balls?” Milla shrugged and we all started laughing.

On a day to day basis Milla wasn’t all that girly. She combatted her very doll-like big eyes, small frame and blond hair by using dark eyeliner, never wearing skirts or dresses in private and cutting her hair into a short pixie with adorable but wild fringe. That more sporty, one-of-the-boys-image was what she wanted but she couldn’t help that she loved pink and shopping.

The annual Christmas shopping spree with her parents was probably the highlight of her year and she wouldn’t miss it for the world.

“Just think about it. And if you don’t want to wish for it for Christmas, but still want to have it you’ll spend the money on the last weekend before the holidays. Then it won’t hurt as badly because of the shopping spree and any other financial aids you might get for Christmas.” Blair took the price card out of Milla’s hand and wanted to lead her out of the shop when she turned back around to me.

“Where’s Nica?”

I looked to my right, where Nica had just stood and laughed but she was indeed gone. I looked around a bit to find her but that was pretty useless. Losing Nica in a crowded place was pretty much a worst-case scenario. You could not find her again. Her head was about the same height as everybody else’s shoulders or even elbows. She was so short that you’d just overlook her.

Milla had directly skipped the visual search – because she knew it was useless – and shouted for Nica to come back. Unfortunately, to no avail.

Blair and I started our own trials but Nica remained gone. “Unbelievable!”, Blair scoffed and did a 360 to take in her surroundings just in case the crowd would part and reveal a short girl with an impressive afro. Of course it didn’t. Again we shouted, even if half-heartedly this time. The second round of yelling led to a couple annoyed and dismissive looks but also to a long arm waving us over. “Is that Lupin?”, Milla asked confused.

“Is it incomprehensibly tall and has sand blond hair?”, I asked her back while I tried to move out from behind the pillar that blocked my view of the body the arm was attached to. When I at last succeeded Milla had already confirmed that it was Remus waving but still didn’t have a clue why. His face was clearly visible as he towered over most other students and it showed his mischievous grin. He waved again and then pointed to his left where I spotted a birdsnest of black hair peeking out  from behind a shelf with gloves. As all three of us looked back to Remus he lowered his waving arm a fair bit and nodded and then pointed at the birdsnest again.

“Of course she spotted Potter!”, Blair scoffed again, took me by one and Milla by the other hand and guided us to the other side of the room where Remus waited for us still grinning.

“Lost something?”, he greeted us.

“How’d you get that idea?”, Milla answered while she struggled to keep her balance as a couple of thirdyears pushed past her. Remus caught her with a hand between he shoulders and put her back on both feet. She thanked him and then looked over to the glove shelf.

“I take it Nica’s over there?”, I pointed my eyes at Potter’s back. If she was over there he very effectively blocked my view of her.

“Yep, he bumped into her while they were both looking at the gloves”, he said knowingly and couldn’t help but admire Nica’s effort and strategy. And her speed, to be honest. She had seen him run over here and staged her little meet-cute in the same time that we had laughed about Milla’s shopping trip and decided to leave.

“I swear she has a sixth sense or something”, Blair giggled neck elongated to catch a glimpse of our friend. I copied her movement, it didn’t work in the slightest. Blair was a good bit taller than me.

“So, do we just get her?”, Milla asked a little insecure and began grabbing her earlobe.

“You can try”, answered Remus, “But she asked him about his strategies – mind the plural – for the game against Ravenclaw and he jumped at the chance. They were going over his ideas for the third minute, when I heard you call her…

“Morgana’s broom, we’re gonna be here forever!”, Blair leaned against the shelf in despair. I had to agree with her. It would likely be impossible to separate those two before they had been over the strategies for maybe an hour of the game. I knew enough about Nica to estimate that and I heard enough about Potter to take a good guess. We looked at each other a little lost, when a hand landed on Remus shoulder and pulled him back to widen the little circle we had formed.

“Let’s go to honeyduke’s or something. I told Prongs to meet us at the Broomstick’s at five. I’m done listening to those strategies. Get enough of it at practice…” Black didn’t even realise we were there. Pettigrew did, however, lifted his hand, smiled and said: ”Hey.” That messed up Black’s steady flow of complaints and he turned to find who Pettigrew was talking to.

“You”, he glared at all three of us. “This is your fault.”

“Come again?”, Milla requested.

“You brought her here and she asked him about the game and that’s why he goes over everything in thirty second intervals.” He still glared, when Blair went “Morgana’s Broom!” again.

Remus slapped Black on the back, then exchanged looks with Pettigrew. “You’re welcome to flee to the Broomsticks with us”, Peter then said. “I doubt that James would leave… Ni…ca… alone if they can’t find you. He’ll take her with him.”

“Deal!”, Milla smiled without consulting Blair or me. “Anything to get out of this crowd!”, she explained while Remus kept her standing up for the fourth time. “Thanks. Again”, she mumbled a little dishevelled and irritated but with a smile.

“Anytime”  Remus put his hands on her shoulder and steered her to the door, every now and then turning back to see whether we still followed him.

Outside I lit a cigarette and checked the time. Milla grabbed my smoke and kept it for herself when I leaned over to her to tell her I’d be off. “You two are gonna be fine, right? And Nica, too, I assume. If I leave now I can catch two maybe even three hours before dinner and I have a shot at not being a zombie tomorrow.” Both, she and Blair assured me that they wouldn’t die without me and sent me on my merry way.

As little fun as the way to the village was with Milla’s constant complaints, it was even worse on the way back. The clouds had taken over the sky again, keeping the sunlight and its warmth away and the wind had gotten stronger, too. With nobody to distract me from my misery I grumbled some curses under my breath and thanked God when I finally reached my common room.

It was basically empty. All students who were allowed to go to Hogsmeade had gone, this could be the last non-rainy, non-snowy day at the village and everybody who was still too young was either studying in the library or hanging out in the Great Hall. Our common room was only ever really used in the evenings.

The only living being in it right now was a mountain of blankets and pillows piled on one of the grey couches. I knew it was a living thing because it rhythmically breathed. Carefully, I got closer, with a very specific idea who I might find under the pile of comfortable. I reached out to his shoulder. He moaned but didn’t wake up.

“Crick, if you want to sleep through dinner you should probably go up to your bed. Otherwise they’ll all come through here in about an hour keeping you awake. Again, he moaned but this time he turned toward me, eyes still closed.

“How late is it?”

“Just after four o’clock.”

“Hm… But it’s so warm and comfy here”, his eyes grew big and pleading and could have belonged to a toddler rather than a seventeen year old.

“I’m not telling you what to do, I’m just suggesting you fall back asleep in your own bed so you can be left in peace until tomorrow.”

“Fine”, he shot me an annoyed look and sat up. “If you insist.” Then he flopped my topknot back with his hand and wished me a good night. I followed him smiling. Back in my pyjamas I couldn’t imagine any better feeling than laying in bed, when I pulled up the covers.

I was woken up by two equally unpleasant sounds: The aggressive ringing of my alarm clock and a high pitched shriek of surprise. I hit the clock and hesitantly opened my eyes to see who had died. As it turned out nobody had. But Chloe hadn’t anticipated my alarm.

She sat on her bed in a towel, two dresses laid out in front of her and gasped for air. “Sorry”, I mumbled and sat up. Apart from her the room was empty.

“No, don’t be.”

“Choosing what to wear for your date?”, I teased feeling a lot better than when I had to get up that morning.

“Hmhm.”

“What are you doing?”

“Nothing, really. Magnus has convinced the houseelves to let us take some of the food for dinner up to the planetarium.”

“Awwww, dinner under the stars! How sweet!”

“Yea, yeah, shut up.” She grinned.

“How did you get Sinistra to let you use it, though?” For all I know the astronomy professor was really protective of her planetarium. Word was that she had grown sick and tired of constantly being ill during the winter months when she had to teach on the windy tower and didn’t like it either that the other teachers blamed her for the cold epidemics. Sometime before we had started at Hogwarts she had gotten a second chamber in the tower and converted it into a fully functional planetarium to teach there in the winter.

Apart from the obvious advantage of a nicer temperature and less sniffles during class, it also meant that Astronomy could be taught during the day, which we had profited from not only in the winter but the summer as well. Anyway, Sinistra was extremely protective of that room and got unnecessarily mad when someone let an empty bottle laying around. I couldn’t imagine that she would let two students use is without her supervision. And I really didn’t expect her to show up to Chloe’s one year anniversary.

“Ehhhhm….”, Chloe started her answer and I realised that Sinistra did not let them use the room.

“How long are you planning to stay there?”, I couldn’t help but smirk.

“I don’t know, why?”

“Because we haven’t yet decided who takes which floor tonight and if you’re gonna stay the night or at least until after curfew I could take the eighth and ninth floor, so you won’t get caught disgracing the holy planetarium.”

“Would you do that for us?”

“Sure, why not.” I put my jeans back on. “But I can’t guarantee a safe passage back to the common room. Come to think of it, maybe it’s best if you stay there and just come back down for breakfast. If someone asks why you’re up there you can always say you looked for something or whatever…”

“Are you – a prefect – encouraging me – a student – to disregard the schoolrules on proper use of the facilities and the curfew?”

“See, I thought it was a great proof of my friendship but when you put it like that it sounds like I really should take back the offer."

“No! Nononononono! Please, don’t. I’d love to take you up on it. And I’ll make it up to you.”

“No need.”

I came out of the bathroom to brush my hair and noticed the emptiness of the dorm once more. “Where are the others? It’s not like them to not fix their faces before going to dinner.”

“I dunno. Weren’t here when I got back and haven’t been here since.”

“Curious”, I found.

“Right. Did something happen in Hogsmeade that would make them late?” Ah. The troublemakers.

“We ran into the Potter-posse. And by that I mean that Nica spotted Potter and orchestrated a situation in which she could put her Quidditch conversation plan in motion. When I left, Milla and Blair were going to wait for her in the Broomsticks with Remus, Pettigrew and Black.”

“Ah. Sounds like those troublemakers may delay them.” Great minds think alike.

“You’re not going to dinner, then”, I stated while putting my hair back into the topbun. “Nah… sorry.”

“No need”, I said again, checked my lipstick and repacked my bagpack. Clipboard, large bottle to be filled with coffee, my herbology homework, my trusty silver case of cigarettes, the zippo, an extra jumper and my robes.

I told Chloe I would let her know whether I got the eighth and ninth floor by knocking SOS on the planetarium door and left the dorm. My girls were neither in the common room nor in the Great Hall and it was already seven o’clock.

I sat with Joe and the Quidditch team and made a mental note to tell Chloe that she owed me a galleon since Joe was absolutely fine and not out cold for three days.  Sian was going on about the significance of the match between Gryffindor and Ravenclaw as the first match of the season in her infectious enthusiasm which made my dinner quite enjoyable despite being abandoned by all my friends.

I lingered in the Great Hall after I had finished eating but at quarter past eight none of my girls had shown, the dinner officially ended and I was expected in the prefects’ hallway at eight thirty anyways. Very confused and extremely curious I made my way to the fourth floor.

We sat in the conference room and waited for the Campbell siblings to arrive. Bonnie was the sixth year Hufflepuff prefect and her brother Hector was Headboy for Gryffindor. When Lily Evans had come she’d said that she passed them and they seemed to be discussing Christmas plans. They should come shortly.

Apart from them we also still missed the two teachers who were supposed to do the night rounds with us. When nobody showed up five minutes after the official start of our meeting Lily stood up: “Any preferences?” My hand shot into the air. Lily laughed.

“Yes, Jette?”

“Would it be alright if I took the ninth? I’ve been stuck downstairs the last few rounds and I like the view.”

“Fine by me”, said Jeffrey Snyder. Then he looked around. “Why not let the fifth take the upper floors?”, he suggested. I looked at Jasper and Annemarie from Ravenclaw and the surprisingly pleasant Henry from Slytherin who all were in my year. None of them found anything wrong with the suggestion and Lily quickly put our names on the simple list.

Jasper would be rounding the eighth floor which meant that he would probably ask me to hang out together either on his or my floor after about two hours into curfew. That’s how most of us did it. Especially on the floors that had no common rooms.

As if he had read my thoughts Jasper leaned over: “I got playing cards and Chocolate frogs.”

“Raise you coffee and two mugs”, I whispered back.

“Midnight at mine?”

“Sure thing.” That gave me more than enough time to warn Chloe and get my herbology homework done.

The sixth years had decided to draw straws on who had to take the first floor – which was closest to Filch on the ground level. But before they got to it the door flew open and the Campbells rushed in before McGonnagal.

“Sorry, we’re late”, Bonnie apologised a little out of breath.

“I’m afraid Professor Slughorn will be held up a while. I will patrol the dungeons and go up to the fifth floor, once he can relieve me. Would the fourth and sixth floor make sure to check on the fifth as long as I’m gone?” McGonnagal spoke very calmly but she had an air of fury around her. Her question was answered by affirmative mumbling.

Bonnie tapped me on the shoulder. “Mulciber and Black got into it again.” My eyes widened but she went to draw her straw.

When the the nightshift was fully organised and we were told to go to our floors, I held Bonnie back.

“What do you mean, they got into it again?”

“Well, they argued, then they yelled and in the end they hexed each other. Hector and I were just around the corner but we were to wrapped up in arguing about where we wanna go for Christmas – mum or dad – to notice in time. At some point they shouted and some other students screamed and that’s when we ran over. But McGonnagal and Slughorn were already there.” She bit her lip. “It didn’t end as well, as when you were there. Black’s got a really nasty slash on his cheek and I’m pretty sure that Mulciber has bunny ears now. You should’ve seen McGonnagal, man, she was furious. Slughorn, too. I’ve never seen him angry before. But, man, was he angry.

They’re at Dumbledore’s now.” In the annoying buzzing room, I guessed. Bonnie rushed off to her floor and I also climbed the stairs internally cursing younger Black for entertaining Mulciber’s need for attention and aggression. If he could just ignore the idiot. Though, I had to admit that it was really hard to not want to punch his stupid chicken-like face. I just hoped the slash wasn’t too nasty and that Mulciber got another round of really bad detention. I wanted him to get expelled but I knew that that wouldn’t happen.

Climbing staircase after staircase I came up with a couple of pretty good detentions tasks, that I should probably suggest to Dumbledore just in case Mulciber danced out of line again. A little out of breath I reached the ninth floor, went to the planetarium and knocked three times long, three times short, three times long which earned me a giggled: “Thanks, Jette! You’re the best!”

In order to not hear anything I neither was supposed to nor wanted to hear I decided to find an empty classroom on the other side of the floor and once I did so I got comfortable and started my exciting essay on the oh so fascinating flitterbrick-nodules.