#they r so important to me actually…they drive me up the wall

[festering-bacteria]

jfkonfucius brainrot.,.they r so real and canon

[maxinesgun]

taste of you ୧⋆ ˚｡⋆

pairing: shane mccutcheon x fem!reader

summary: after you come home from work, shane gets you back for being a tease earlier that morning.

cw: nsfw, fingering (r!receiving), oral (r!receiving), edging, overstim, dirty talk, established relationship, cursing, slightly mean!shane, reader is a corporate girl. 1.4k

a/n: this took me wayy too long to finish, but i've been in a bit of a slump so ofc i had to write a short n sweet shane smut!! need her to edge me and mock me abt it tbh ugh

“I’m sorry, did you want something?” Shane asked in mock-innocence, her brows drawn together in a question as she gazed down at you.

You were sprawled against the pillows of the couch beneath her, your hands knotted in the front of her shirt, preventing her from getting off of you. A whiny, frustrated sound left you, and you hated how desperate you sounded, how helpless.

Shane, however, was enjoying it. She loved seeing the flush on your cheeks, the way you dissolved into a needy mess for her beneath her touch. She was settled between your spread thighs, her hand buried beneath the hem of your skirt as she traced slow, teasing circles over your aching clit. It was cruel, was what it was—giving you just enough to stir the heat coiling in your stomach, but holding back what you really needed.

“Don’t be like this,” you half-whined, half-panted, looking up at her with a pout. “You’re driving me crazy.” You tried to give her a pleading look through your lashes, but got distracted by the way her lips pulled up in a slow grin, and now you were staring at her mouth, picturing it doing other things.

“Mm. Should’ve thought about that this morning,” she admonished in a low voice, still with that mocking edge. “When you decided to be such a tease.” Her fingers dipped down into your slick heat, teasing your entrance briefly before moving back up to your clit. You were so wet that it was audible.

“You enjoyed that, didn’t you? Knew I’d be thinking about this pretty cunt all day.” Her fingers pressed into you a bit harder, her movements speeding up. You arched into it, a soft moan falling from your lips involuntarily as you lapped up the increased stimulation. “And then you had to go and wear this fucking skirt,” she groaned, glancing down at the black pencil skirt that was pushed up around your thighs. “Not cool.”

“I told you,” you breathed, pushing your hips into her hand, “I was going to be late. I had an important… mmph… meeting.” It was getting difficult to focus on words with the way she was working you. Already, that coil of heat was growing stronger, making your breaths falter. With the amount of time Shane had been inching you closer to the brink just to bring you down from it again, it didn’t take much.

She hummed low in her throat, nodding. The expression on her face was one of pure sarcasm. “Well, you know, I think I actually have somewhere to be…”

You let out a breathless laugh mixed with a groan as you panted for breath, your grip on her tshirt tightening just in case. “Not funny,” you moaned shakily.

“I’m not laughing,” she said simply, her fingers working you harder, faster. The wall of heat was building quickly now, its intensity so delicious that you were letting out all of the little sounds that Shane loved, your eyes shut in pleasure. You didn’t have enough of a grip on yourself to hold them back—with each expert stroke she drew out another breathy moan from your lips, no longer hushed but rising in volume.

When your eyes fluttered open for a moment, you saw the amusement on her face, a self-satisfied smirk on her lips as she watched you unravel. “Aw, does that feel good, baby?” Her voice was soft, coaxing, the sound of it only driving you higher as you let out a whimper. “Are you gonna come for me?”

Your head was tilting back, your hips beginning to jerk erratically as that wave rose higher, higher… “Yes, yes, fuck, yes—” you gasped. So close. So, so close—

—and suddenly her touch was gone.

“Shane,” you practically cried out in frustration, the high slipping out of your reach yet again. Your hips tried to thrust forward, seeking the friction that had been jerked away from you, but her own thighs were pinning yours in place, keeping them from moving.

She leaned in closer until your faces were inches apart. Her eyes drifted down to your mouth, lingering there for a few moments before lifting back up to your eyes. “Anything you want to say?”

“I’m sorry,” you panted, voice tight with need. You were almost tempted to reach a hand down to finish yourself off, but you knew Shane wouldn’t allow it. “It was bad. Mph… very, very bad.”

A slow grin curled over her lips, and she placed a few small kisses along the corner of your jaw, her teeth nipping at your skin. “There, that wasn’t so hard, was it?” she mumbled by your ear. As her hands hovered around your waist, taking their time bunching your skirt up higher, she drew back slightly, so close but still just out of reach. “What do you want?” she asked, her voice still a low rumble.

“Your mouth—fuck, please,” you breathed, far too desperate and wound up to play at your usual coyness.

She let out a low snicker, pleased by your eagerness as she began tugging your tights down your thighs. “Oh, yeah? You’re lucky I’m feeling generous.”

After what felt like an eternity, Shane had pushed your tights down around your calves, just enough to give her full access to you as she kneeled before your open thighs. She kissed a slow trail along the inside of your thigh, making you shudder with anticipation before her lips finally reached your aching heat, pressing an open-mouthed kiss there.

You gasped, a bolt of pleasure shooting through your core as her tongue brushed against your sensitive clit. Instinctively, your hands went to bury themselves in her hair, using her for purchase as she began lapping at you expertly, her tongue running along your slit. Shane glanced up at you through her lashes with a wicked smirk, watching you with darkened eyes as she worked you with her mouth. You could only imagine what you looked like right now—face flushed, chest heaving, one leg hooked over the back of the couch, splayed open for her—and found that the mental image was just as much of a turn on for you as it was for her.

Well, maybe not quite as much.

You breathed a curse, your mouth dropped open in ecstasy as she licked and sucked at you eagerly, relentlessly, as if making up for all the torturous teasing she’d put you through. She held your thighs open, keeping your hips from thrusting forward into her face as they trembled in her grasp, the heat within you mounting. The pleasure almost became unbearable when her lips moved directly over your clit, wrenching a louder moan out of you.

“Oh my god,” you whined, eyes squeezing shut. “Fuck, like that.” Her lips were closed around your bud, the pressure of her sucking and her tongue stroking it in quick motions almost overstimulating. Your hands moved to grip the couch cushions beneath you as you drew closer.

Shane hummed against you, and the sound vibrated against your core in a way that made your toes curl. Your body was tensing with the rising pleasure tugging at your abdomen, and as if she sensed it, she suddenly slid two fingers inside you, pumping them into you and curling them against your walls rapidly as she continued her relentless ministrations to your clit.

It was all so good, too good, and you weren’t even aware of the words you were crying out moments before you came. The next moment, you were coming undone, your hips jerking and your voice rising to a breathy cry as an almost explosive wave of pleasure crashed over you.

When the height of it had subsided, you slumped back into the pillows, your body going limp with a heavy relaxation. Exhaustion stole over you, and you drew in a deep breath as your breathing began to slow.

Shane was leaning back, watching you as she wiped her glistening mouth with the back of her hand. She looked like the cat who’d got the cream. And you supposed she had… literally.

“Don’t look at me like that,” you said a bit breathlessly, a grin tugging at your lips despite yourself. Your head dropped back against the pillow, your lids feeling heavy. It would be at least an hour before you moved from this spot.

Shane stood, bracing a knee against the couch as she leaned over you again. She tugged your tights back up your legs and pulled your skirt back down around your thighs haphazardly. The smile she shot you was both amused and fond. “Now we’re even.”

[danikamariewrites]

Omg can I ask for Xaden Riorson x reader fluff you write him so well!

Xaden x reader Relationship hc

A/n: thank you anon! I thought I’d do a hc for him bc I haven’t done one yet

Warnings: none just fluff ☺️

I think Xaden would be stand offish at first

He would want to ignore his feelings to keep the tough guy facade up

But you broke through his walls and gained his trust

“Fuck y/n, you drive me crazy. I can’t stop thinking about you, when I’m not around you everything just feels wrong.” “Xaden, I feel the same way. I’m stupidly in love with you and want to be with you. Please say you want to be with me too.”

When Xaden finally gave in he grabbed your face and kissed you like he was going to die if his lips weren’t on yours

From then on you two were attached at the hip

His arm was always around you

Xaden is a total gentleman

He worships the ground you walk on, he thinks you’re the most badass woman he’s ever met, and he never hides you away or thinks you can’t stand your ground

Xaden let’s you bejeweled 🤗

While he’s tough in front of the other riders he’s actually a big teddy bear behind closed doors

If it’s just you two or with friends he’s not afraid to cling to your or show affection

You don’t mind the tough guy act, you two have talked about it and it’s best to protect you both that way

But let’s talk about what affection with Xaden looks like

I think the physical stuff is important to him

Knowing you’re always with him and when you lean into his touch Xaden’s heart skips a beat

Our boy is tall! So you have to get on your tiptoes to kiss him so he doesn’t have to lean down too much

Piggyback rides with Xaden are the best! You love hugging him super tight and resting your head on his back

I think he also likes acts of service are one of Xaden’s love languages (the violets in the jar next to Violet’s bed so she didn’t wake up alone like r u kidding me🥺)

Xaden loves zipping up your flight jacket and gives you a kiss on your forehead, “There you go, all warm and snug.”

He also helps you lace up your corset for parties and lacing up your boots

When he laces your boots in the morning he kisses up your shins to your knees, “those feel tight enough?” He asks while rubbing your thighs lightly and smiling at you. “Yup. Thanks babe.” You kiss his cheek and slide off the bed. Xaden’s hand envelops yours as you walk to breakfast together

Xaden sharpens/cleans your daggers for you when he notices they need it

Sleeping together you guys usual switch between your room and his

You both keep extra clothes in each others rooms. Xaden cleared a draw out in his armoire just for you after you got together

You’re a big cuddler

Xaden wasn’t at first, but the first night you spent together you laid your head on his chest and wrapped your arms around him falling right to sleep

Xaden was frozen at the fact that someone could be this close to him. That someone wasn’t afraid of him

The fact that he brought you comfort brought silent tears to his eyes. He let them fall as he smiled down at you, wrapping his arms around you holding you close to him all night

[fryingpan1234567]

malconnor...hcs... for the soul... pls...

oh ANON, I would LOVE to

SO

(AAAAAAA I GOTTA FREAK OUT FIRST MY BOYS)

k anyways

I think at some point Travis comes back to camp to visit, and while he was gone Malcolm and Connor had gotten together

so over the course of the first few days he was like huh that’s funny my little brother made a new friend

huh that’s funny they’re really good friends

huh that’s funny they are making out against a wall “hEY C O N N O R !”

the shovel talk help😭🫠

anyways Travis gets used to it eventually it’s fineeee

I was actually about to write a Home Alone AU for the two of them in which they’re the only two at camp because Malcolm’s dad is on a cruise with his new gf, Connor’s mom is on a mission too dangerous to have company, Travis is at Katie’s family’s for break, Dionysus is back on Olympus, AND Chiron goes off to visit some of his relatives. Bad time for an invasion but yk they handled themselves fine

Malcolm is a California boy FIGHT ME

beach drives with all the windows down help

the parallels… between Percabeth and Malconnor… “I’m so sick of your shit (affectionate)” blond Athena kid… “too bad you get to deal with more of it” dark haired little shit who is taller and loves bugging blondie while they’re trying to do homework… hhrngh the PARALLELS

Malcolm of course finds it attractive when Connor actually uses the brain cells he has… but a part of him will always find it so fucking adorable when Con turns to him with the most bewildered face and say “Mal… my math homework has letters in it”

(bonus: “it’s algebra, babe”

”I dropped out of algebra”

”…algebra is the grade standard tho”

”oh fuck me I have a hard enough time with letters in English”

”let’s…….. put the homework away for now. Mario Kart?”

”OHOHO YOU ARE GOING THE FUCK DOWN PRETTY BOY”

”I THINK NOT, HE WHO ALWAYS PICKS TOAD AND THE STUPID TOY CAR”

”DON’T TALK TO ME DEFAULT SETTINGS LOSER” I’m getting off track I had a very similar conversation with my brothers the other day but it’s fine)

hmm something about Connor being obsessed with the Heartstopper comics and Malcolm loving the Solitaire novel series

they are firm believers they’d win the Hunger Games together too

NOT MAL RECHARGING BY SITTING AND READING AND CON RECHARGING BY WRAPPING AROUND HIM LIKE A SLOTH AND PASSING THE FUCK OUT

symbiotic relationship, Malcolm would say

(another bonus: “shut the fuck up you’re making us sound like Venom”

”we could be as good as Venom if u really wanted”

“we’re better than Venom, baby”)

Malcolm loving the Marvel Comics is just something so important to me

Hermes gripping Malcolm by the shoulders and going “listen. that’s my boy. he pulled a Tartarus napkin out of a fireplace. do not hurt him” and Mal’s just like yeah man I was there

also Athena eyeing Connor and whispering to Malcolm, “is he smart?” and Mal kinda gives a half-nod-half-shrug, Con grins at her like an idiot (it’s giving golden retriever), and just like that she loves him

anyways my boys💖💖💖

[sommerregenjuniluft]

lune baby i want to hear ALL about your saphic bartylily, bartylus, bartyregulily. please please please 🙏

royal hi ily i booted my laptop back up to answer this cause i have Things to say:

starting with sapphic bartylily this goes famously well along with this post i made a while a go with mtf barty. i just see them sitting on a roof of the school, smoking together, maybe even sharing one and just,, b noticing the look lily gets in her eyes, like she wants to kiss, and she's immediately closing off, playful razer sharp smile fading away and she goes "I'm not a boy." and lily looks her right in the eyes responding "I know," and then puts her face right in front of bee's....... like it's salvation and utter ruin all in one for b to experience someone truly seeing her and wanting her despite of everything and because she is the way she is. like,,,,, i'm so insane about this. and they won't last. and while lily might not, b knows it. she's going to show lily a new side of herself, help her overcome the struggles of feeling like she has to fit in because she's likeable enough and fills the criteria. they will go on adventures adn they will have fun and they will grow close. they will intertwine and then lily will grow farther. she will move on and bee will stay there because that's what b does. she doesn't really have the ambition to get somewhere and no matter how hard lily tries and fights to show b that in return, that she deserves to dream of something bigger and strive for more, she leaves unsuccessfully. all the conselation lily gets, is knowing she made b's life easier even if just for a while. and that bee will carry that around with herself forever with a genuine smile tugging at her lips. big fan of bee calling lily red as a nickname in that one. (love me a lily with truly dark red, auburn hair)

for bartylus i'm refering you to this microfic. there's not a lot of difference to mlm bartylus to me. they're still a secret third thing and inexplicably linked. mentally, physically, in their soul. barty still likes poking fun at regulus but will always, always protect her tooth and nail. they're probably more bad for each other than they are good but they need each other still. barty is comfort for regulus, she is distraction and whiplash and the adrenaline rush in regulus' blood stream. she's what keeps reg going and vise versa. barty lives to protect and entertain regulus and let herself be reigned back in by her. they're guard dog and owner. they're god and a person kneeling in the pew (cough mitski reference). they're worsties. they're each other's most important person.

last but not least bartyregulily. actually have not thought about these as a dynamic together so far so this will be a little rougher probably. regardless of whatever they are, i just know barty is constantly in heaven. she is absolutely just thriving. just two cute little things on either arm at all times. she's won the lottery. she's ascended, she's in heaven. dont call dont text she is probably busy eating pussy as we speak. barty probably first takes notice of lily because of regulus bitching about her and noticing the small notes of intrigue in her condescending tone. probably starts bothering lily from then on all the time, getting on her nerves and in her way on purpose and regulus always hangs around with, throwing in one or two snide remarks, reitering what barty's doing and only driving lily up the wall more. but then some times barty and reg will just plop down next to lily at lunch or in the library and actually be kind of funny and entertaining and cute when they're not actively trying to make lily's daily life a misery. all that probably ends with barty shoving herself into a cleaning closet behind reg and lily as they bicker and demand they stfu and kiss about it. like,, literally tuck a piece of lily hair behind her ear and whisper all close, taking one of regulus' hands and setting it on lily's jaw. shuffling up behind her and pulling reg closer by the hips until lily and reg are just a hair width apart. then barty makes out with reg over lilys shoulder which is all kinds of world altering and panties wetting and exciting. yeah idk i will report back with more thoughts on them probably fkfjlsdf

[robbiefischer]

i p r o m i s e i will send you more of these tomorrow after i have slept but for now... what about 📚 🚫 💘 🎂 for my boys alexei and elijah????

Aaaaaah tysm for sending me this for my boys (and for all of your lovely asks) ily! I welcome anything else you want to send me about anyone.

📚 BOOKS — what level of education has your oc most recently completed/is currently in (GED, undergraduate, grad school, phd, etc)?

Alexei got his bachelor's degree in English Lit, then completed a teaching credential program. A couple of years after he started teaching, he went back to school to get his M.Ed because he's crazy like that. That's the last thing he's done although in the future he's going to do an MFA in creative writing. He enjoys being a student. Yeah, I don't know where he gets it either.

Elijah got through undergrad and got his bachelor's degree. He wasn't especially interested in going to college (he'd managed to build his streaming stuff up really well throughout high school, and was signed to a pro esports team), but his parents insisted and he wanted to shut them up. He majored in art partly because he's actually really interested in it and it would make the four years tolerable, and partly because he knew it would drive his parents up the wall (they really wanted him to major in something more serious and "grownup", and kept trying to push him into premed like his sister) and make his father's forehead vein pop.

🚫 PROHIBITED — does your oc drink/smoke? do they do it regularly, or is it more on occasion or for special events?

Neither of them are big drinkers. Elijah may have the very occasional hard seltzer if he's doing a fun, chill stream, or something if they're out on a fancy date night but he's just not a big fan of it overall. Alexei's pretty similar - might have a cocktail if they're out on a date or if he goes to a happy hour with his co-workers. If he does have a drink, he likes his sweet, fruity and preferably with a tiny umbrella.

Neither smoke, but they both enjoy edibles on occasion. It's usually a weekend thing - Elijah will make them some fancy snacks, they'll both have a gummy and spend the day catching up on a favorite show or watching movies together and just hanging out. Sometimes they'll go out for a walk in the park near their apartment and commune with nature, do a little people-watching, grab lunch together and chill.

💘 HEART WITH ARROW — what and/or who do(es) your oc consider the most important to them?

Elijah's absolute favorite people in the entire world are Alexei, and his older sister, Lucy. He's also ride-or-die for all of his teammates (Jude, Apollo, Omar, Flora, Nico and Noelle) and his boss, Rosa, who's basically a second mom to him (he's been working at her coffee shop since he was about 15 and she adores him).

Alexei is very family-oriented and, next to Elijah, his moms, younger brother and older sister are the most important people in his life. After that, it's Chase and Reiko. Chase is a teacher at the same school, and they've become incredibly close friends. He took a few of Reiko's classes in undergrad (and is going to take more with her when he goes back to get his MFA), she really took him under her wing and mentored him as a writer and they've developed such a close friendship.

🎂 BIRTHDAY CAKE — when is your oc's birthday? how old are they? what are their sun, moon, & rising signs (if known)? what about their tarot card, ruling planet, & ruling number (if known)? do they fit the typical traits of these sun, moon, & rising signs?

Alexei's 29 years old, and his birthday is on July 19th. He a Cancer sun, Libra moon with a Virgo ascendant. He embodies his big three traits pretty well. He's very family and relationship-oriented, is nurturing and compassionate, hates conflict and is a natural peacekeeper. He tends to be really well-liked no matter who he's around - he's just got fantastic, soothing energy and tends to be very diplomatic so he can get along with almost anyone. He's hyper-organized, especially at work. He's absolutely that teacher that has weeks of sub plans stashed away if he needs them, and they're all incredibly detailed. He can be a bit fussy sometimes, and a little indecisive when he's stressed. He can definitely be prone to having some very Cancerian big feelings, but the Libra moon tamps those down a bit and mostly keeps them on the inside.

Elijah's 26 years old, and his birthday is on November 18th. He's a Scorpio sun, Leo moon with a Gemini ascendant and he's classic. Think all of the Scorpio intensity and emotional depth, with the charisma, creativity, desire for recognition and self-confidence of a Leo. Throw in a twist of restlessness, curiosity, adaptability and such a way with words and you've got Elijah. Those traits can definitely clash a bit sometimes, and he has to keep himself from flitting from one thing to the next rather than being focused on one big goal, but he usually manages to strike a good balance and make it all work together cohesively.

[flying-elliska]

tidbits from the webinar with Leigh Bardugo :

- With her writing, she wants to show there isn’t one kind of strong female character, that there are lots of different ways to be badass, among men as well. You don’t have to be super tough or a brooding dickhead. She wants to show fantasy doesn’t have to belong to one type of hero (white able bodied straight guy). She mentioned jk*r and seeing the heartbreak among her readers and thought she never wanted to be a part of causing that. Ppl talk about diversity as an artificial construct but it’s just...how the world is, and it’s how you tell a better story. When they announced they were casting a half-Asian Alina ppl were like  ‘why don’t you want her to look Russian’ and she was like ??? “have you ever looked at Russia on a map ?”. And borders are porous, there isn’t a firm line/wall in reality, and in the world of the series, in the border town near Shu Han Alina comes from, people are doing business with each other, falling in love across the border...it’s just what naturally happens.

- The Crows in this first season of Shadow and Bone are not the same as when we meet them in Six of Crows, they’re not quite as badass yet. We are getting some of the backstory that is in the books but not all of it, they wanted to keep some for next season (hopefully)

- You cannot write about thugs and thieves without being aware of the social/economic/political dynamics that created them

- When writing a book, she often starts in one place and ends in another, with Six of Crows she started wanting to do a fun blockbuster-y fantasy heist romp and then Kaz Brekker was ‘riding his brother’s corpse to freedom’ lmao

- Advice for writers : research can be dangerous, it’s easy to get lost and stay away from the draft. for shadow and bone she gave herself two months to really get lost in research, look into folklore, old cookbooks, to really get into the vivid details.

- Writing short stories is a really good way to better your writing

- To get somewhere you have to be bad at things. The bad days when you’re in a process are a good sign, because you are trying to do something bigger than you’ve ever done before. She had to learn to sit with the discomfort of not being good when she started writing.

- Writing process : beat sheet with main elements > zero draft, in which there is still discovery left about the characters. Everybody’s process is different, the key is to finding yr own. The process of writing a novel is so long, you have to be in love and stay in love with that idea, remind yourself what made you excited about it in the first place, and wait for the moment where you fall back in love with it. If you get haunted by another idea that won’t go away you can wonder what appeals to you about it and you can put it in your current project.

- The greatest gift you can give yourself is to finish a draft. When you’re stuck, go for a walk and talk to yourself (you can put in earphones to not look crazy lmao). Or shift POV. As a writer a critical voice is often what blocks you. You need to remind yourself that the first draft is going to be bad and you have to let it be, you’re telling the story to yourself, it’s fine to have placeholders and go back.

- When you’re a young writer the important thing is that you keep being in love with writing, there is no expiration date on your talent. When you’re in prep school mode, you’re told your value is in being young and brilliant, at some point you’re not the youngest one in the room anymore, you’re no longer the wunderkind, but that’s not where your value is. You still have a story to tell.

- She says she is a mix of Kaz (because she uses a cane, she’s a planner and she keeps a grudge for a long time) and Nina, or at least Nina is who she would like to be, the best part of her.

- She likes writing about women who get their revenge.

- Ketterdam treats people as commodities and expendable, it’s the protestant work ethic taken to extremes, and so ppl like Kaz and Inej are going to have the experiences they had. She didn’t want to do misery tourism, it was very important to approach these with caution and do a lot of research. She found it important to donate to organizations linked to things she has written about, so like against trafficking when she was writing Inej’s backstory. Writing those backstories were some of the most harrowing stuff she ever wrote as a writer. The scene with Kaz and Inej and the bandages was probably the hardest scene she’s ever written, she wanted to be respectful of what those two characters had been through, she’s written a lot of versions of that scene. It’s fun to talk about ships but she doesn’t want trauma to be ‘healed by love’, it wouldn’t feel respectful, the journey towards healing is a slow one, you backslide, etc.

- She struggled a lot writing Crooked Kingdom, she was kind of in a burnout, and wondered afterwards if it even was good. Importance of the drive to get better so you don’t stay static.

- She loooves a slow burn and had to put the brakes on the show writers several times lol when it came to kissing and such.

- Her fave episode of the show is episode 7

- She likes giving the names of her friends to characters bc they supported her so much during the writing process

- The first books are generally the easiest to write because you can throw your ideas at the wall and see what sticks, you can kind of do what you want, and after that in following books you have a lot more threads to pick up.

- Pet peeve : people talking about how this character didn’t “deserve” this : in her experience the people who deserve to go don’t and often the loving kind ones are those who lose, she’s experienced a lot of loss in her life, and she’s not going to write a book about war and danger without being honest about how these things go, it would feel disingenuous. She’s not going to stop killing people (lol).

- One fan talked about how she felt really helped by Nina being a curvy girl who is presented as charming and confident and very lovable. Leigh talks about how she’s been a lot of different sizes, she heard there was a famous author saying disparaging things about her weight and disability behind her back, she was like that’s not even original, and actually fuck being ashamed of that, she wants the culture to change and wants to participate in that. She wants it to be known that she is a very successful, adored fat woman with a partner who helps her up stairs, she also wants fans to know that they’re so much more than their appearance. (that moment was so badass, it reminded me of Kaz giving advice to Wylan about his disability)

- Our culture is garbage and you’re at war everyday with the people who want to make you feel bad about yourself so you buy things. Find people who make you feel strong and amazing, who don’t just tolerate you but who think you’re the best.

Anyway this was a really cool moment honestly, it made me even more of a fan.

[chongoblog]

whats going on with the gamestop stocks? is reddit destroying capitalism or something?

Okay, so I’ll try to give a response in a way that makes sense because I’ve been posting about it a LOT and I’m sure it’s confusing. I’ll do my best to explain it here (and even then it’ll probably be REALLY simplified, so finance nerds don’t attack me)

First thing, if you don’t know how stocks work (because knowing that is VERY important), basically a stock is a VERY small part of a company. The better a company does, the more valuable its stock is. If you buy a stock for a Company like Netflix in 2005 let’s say you bought it for $5. Today, since Netflix is HUGE, the stock is probably now worth $200. You can sell it today and boom. $195 profit! However there’s another thing that effects the price of a stock, and that’s how many people are buying it. If more people are buying it, it becomes more valuable. So basically, someone buying stocks causes its price to go UP. Selling causes its price to go down. The goal is to buy stocks at a low price and then sell them at a high price.

Now I have to explain “shorts”. Let’s say an apple costs $5. What you can do is you can say “Hey, tell you what. Mind if I have that apple for free, and I can pay you back for it on Friday, plus a little bit of interest?” So you take the frankly overpriced apple and sell it IMMEDIATELY, netting you $5! Then Friday rolls around and you see that the price of apples have dropped a lot! Down to $2! So on Friday, you pay the apple salesman $2 because that’s the price of an apple now and boom! You’ve made a profit of $3! Basically, it’s a sneaky way of betting AGAINST a company’s growth. If you think a stock is going down, you can find a way to make profit this way. However it’s also pretty shitty and predatory, since it’s kind of like taking out a loan, and taking stocks from that company.

So billionaires over on Wall Street basically set aside a good portion of their money just to short companies like this, increasing their wealth (these are called “hedge funds”, which is another term you’ve probably seen flying around). And one particular group of billionaires took a look at Gamestop and thought “Wow! That business is going down the drain! I’m going to short them SO GOD DAMN MUCH” shorting out billions upon billions of dollars in Gamestop shares. It’s SUPER pricey, but they were almost certain Gamestop’s stock would keep decreasing, gaining them some good profit.

A group of redditors known as “r/wallstreetbets” (which is basically if 4chan was only SLIGHTLY less edgy, did all of the cocaine, and then started stock trading) saw that these rich asshats were basically doubling down absolutely CERTAIN that Gamestop was doomed. And they did something incredible. They bought SO MUCH GAMESTOP STOCK. So much that the stock EXPLODED in value.

How much did it blow up? Let’s say you hypothetically bought stock in Gamestop about 6 months ago. You bought about......$100 worth in stock. If you were to sell that right this second, it would be worth roughly $6000 (or if you sold at the peak it would be worth a whopping $11,750)

So now if you recall, the rich people have to pay the stocks back. They sunk BILLIONS into this short, and now they’re legally obligated to pay for them at today’s price. They’re going bankrupt. But when they DO pay BILLIONS back to Gamestop, the price of the stock will only go higher.

I wouldn’t go so far as to say they’re actively destroying capitalism, but a movement on this level against the wealthy elites is actually somewhat historic. And the elite are fighting back by preventing people from buying Gamestop trade on apps owned by their sister companies, plus you have the elites crying about “they’re....they’re manipulating the market :’(” despite the fact that this is exactly what hedge funds do all the time. And it isn’t just Gamestop anymore. AMC, Build-A-Bear, Nokia, all of these companies had HUGE shorts placed on them by hedge funds and in response people are using their stimulus checks to purchase stock in these companies, driving up the price to fuck over the billionaires who placed the shorts.

Hopefully this explanation made sense! It’s got a lot of finance jargon, and tbh money isn’t real.

[pingutats]

could you write a really fluffy bit on harry kissing every single self harm scar on your body? like, stroking them and cuddling with you and reassuring you that your body is beautiful and okay even with scars? 🥺

thank you for requesting this! this was genuinely quite therapeutic to write so i’m glad i did it — it’s longer than i meant it to be at about 2.4k words, but anyway. here’s a difficult conversation with new boyfriend!harry. 

major trigger warning for discussions of self-harm and scars. this is not a story for everyone, and could definitely be triggering if you are not in the right headspace. please be responsible and look after yourselves <3 

this is also pretty unedited so forgive any mistakes. okay!! onwards!

It’s getting late when Harry asks you, ‘Do you want to spend the night?’

The meandering film you found on Netflix is drawing to a close, finally. The characters are on a boat, drifting away into an Italian sunset. You barely have a grasp of how they got there — mostly, you just listened to Harry talk over the dialogue about a pretty little café he knows just around the corner from where this scene was filmed, or how cool the water gets at night there and so the actors must have been shivering. All of it wrapped up, of course, in a quiet suggestion to take you there someday so you can see for yourself. You get a little thrill every time he says something like that. It means he’s thinking of a future with you, which means he wants one, even though it’s only been just over a month since you’ve been seeing each other.

He trails his fingers up and down your arm, bringing up goosebumps beneath your sleeve, and looks at you. ‘Or I can drive you home, if you’d rather sleep in your own bed.’

You hum. ‘No,’ you say. ‘I’ll stay. I’d probably end up falling asleep in the car anyway. I’m so tired.’

His dimple appears. ‘Good, because I’d probably fall asleep at the wheel.’ He grabs the remote and turns the TV off, then pushes himself off the couch with a groan. He holds his hand out for you. ’C’mon, then.’

You grab his hand and he hauls you up, his other arm coming up to your back to pull you into his chest. You fall against him, grabbing his biceps to steady yourself. The two glasses of wine you’ve had tonight have thrown your balance off. He presses a kiss to your hair as you giggle. Then he brings his hand up to your jaw to tilt your head up to look at him properly. You nearly melt at his green eyes.

‘Hey,’ he says. ‘I can sleep on the couch.’ His gaze is completely sincere.

You haven’t slept together before, both in the literal and figurative senses. You haven’t had sex with anybody at all, actually, and Harry seems to have picked up on your hesitancy. He’s never asked for anything. He lets everything stay on your terms. 

That’s what makes you trust him.

‘You don’t have to do that,’ you tell him.

He holds your gaze for a moment longer, just to make sure. ’Right,’ he says, breaking into a smile.

He finds a new toothbrush in his cupboard for you, and you brush your teeth together. It feels like a big step to do these nighttime rituals with him. It’s so domestic. He shares his cleanser with you and offers his moisturiser that smells like vanilla. You imagine spending every night like this.

As he leads the way back into his bedroom, he pulls his shirt off. ‘I get hot at night. D’you mind?’

You giggle — you can’t help yourself, at the sight of his muscled torso with all of its tattoos. He’s so handsome. ‘Not at all,’ you tell him.

He throws the shirt into a hamper in the corner, and the birds on his chest seem to fly with the movement of his shoulder, then looks back to catch you ogling him. He chuckles, and the sight of his dimples gives you butterflies.

‘You like?’ he asks.

You narrow your eyes. ’Are you flexing?’

He relaxes. ‘Yeah, a bit. Just wanna impress you.’

You snort at that. ‘Like you need to do anything to impress me.’

He grins. ‘D’you want something more comfortable to sleep in?’ He rummages around in his drawer for a moment, then pulls out a t-shirt and holds it up for you. It has an incredibly faded image of Flinstones characters on the front. ‘How’s this?’ he asks.

You smile at his courtesy. ’Perfect. I love your t-shirt collection, by the way. Where the hell do you find things like this?’

‘Oh, you know… Here and there.’ He tosses it to you.

You catch it with some semblance of grace — you’re proud of yourself for that. ‘Thanks.’ You glance at the bathroom door. ‘Alright. I’ll just… get changed in here,’ you say, slipping through the ajar door.

‘Alright, love.’

You shut the door, and realise you’ve forgotten to turn the light on, leaving you in pitch-black. You grope against the wall for the switch and turn it on, and take a deep breath. Why are you so nervous, so frazzled? It’s just Harry. You shimmy out of your leggings, then pull your sweater over your head.

You look at your reflection. Well. There’s a problem. It’s easy for you to forget when you’re alone, or wrapped up in layers of clothing — it’s just a part of your body now. Artefacts from a different time, years ago. Even the memory of how you got them — how you gave them to yourself — is slipping away, thank God. It’s all a haze. These scars were carved by a girl that you don’t see much anymore. They aren’t really a painful reminder anymore, just a fact of life. You know they're there. The problem is, no one else expects it.

You stare down at your wrists, seeing the lines that never faded. Maybe if they were all like the thin white lines, barely visible until you look closely, you wouldn’t mind. You’re going to sleep, anyway, and it’s not like he’s inspecting your forearms. No, it’s the three darker ones, hard twisting scar tissue that you can feel even through sleeves. Times where you went just a little too deep, were a little too reckless. The ones you regret the most. They’re big, and ugly, and too obvious. He’d notice them right away.

But he gave you his t-shirt.

You look at your reflection in the mirror, furrowing your brows. You adjust your pose, twisting your arms around so the inside of your wrists are hidden, facing behind you. You look ridiculous. You know, as soon as you see Harry, you’ll reach for him, and he’ll see.

Would that be so bad?

You look down at your arms again. It’s been years, and they’re still there. They’ll probably be there forever. They’re as permanent as the tattoos on his skin — except those are beautiful, and what you have is not. You can’t show this to him. The world where these scars exist, and the world where he exists, should never cross over. It wouldn’t be right.

You pull your long-sleeve back on, covering them again. Then you put the t-shirt, which is long enough to be modest on you. This is fine, right? It’s better than any alternative, at least.

You leave the bathroom holding your folded sweats up to your chest, nervous now realising that you are standing in front of Harry in just your underwear, more naked than you ever have been in front of him.

He’s checking something on his phone as he sits on the bed, back against the headboard and long legs stretching down the covers, but he brightens up at the sight of you. His gaze drops to your legs — which makes your cheeks burn, but his boyishly excited expression dissolves your nerves — then rises up again to your shirt. He frowns at the long-sleeve. 

‘Are you cold?’ he asks. ‘I thought it was pretty warm but I can turn the heat up if you need.’

You shake your head, dropping your sweats on the floor beside the dresser. ’No, it’s fine.’

He sits up straighter, swinging his legs over the side so his feet rest on the ground. ’Can’t be comfortable to sleep like that.’ He hesitates. ‘You didn’t have to wear the t-shirt if you don’t want to.’

‘No, I want to. I do.’ You wrap your arms around yourself, trying to figure out how to navigate this situation in a way that won’t end in him being annoyed or disgusted. ‘It’s just…’ You trail off, but one glance at his frown, at the way he leans forward and hangs on every word, makes your resolve crumble. You’ll have to have this conversation at one point or another. ‘Okay. Shit, Harry, can I talk to you about something?’

The way he answers immediately makes you want to cry. ‘Yeah, of course. Anything.’ He sits up straighter, pats the covers next to him, inviting you to sit down.

You sigh and cross the room to sit next to him, not daring to meet his eyes. How the hell do you explain this?

He moves his arm behind you once you’re sitting. Not touching you, but enough so he’s close. ‘What’s wrong?’ he prompts. ‘Do you need me to drive you home instead? Because I didn’t—’

‘No,’ you interrupt. ‘It’s fine. It’s just, I kinda…’ You take a deep breath. ‘Okay, please don’t freak out?’

He frowns. His next words are measured. ‘I’ll try not to. Is everything okay?’

‘Yeah,’ you whisper. It feels like the greatest effort in the world, but you curl your fingers around the end of your sleeve and pull it up, revealing your wrists. ‘So, I have these…’ Your voice shakes.

‘Oh, baby,’ Harry says quietly, and that’s all you need to hear. His arm behind you reaches around and pulls you into his chest, hugging you close to him. His thumb rubs circles into your shoulder as you sniffle, his other hand resting on top of yours.

‘It’s in the past, you know,’ you say, muffled into his shoulder. He smells good, you notice. Not that it’s really important right now, but you appreciate it all the same. ‘Not a big deal. Just didn’t want to scare you or anything. ’S embarrassing.’

‘Listen to me,’ he says, pulling back and holding your face in his hands. He waits until you manage to look him in his eyes. They’re watery, you realise, and that might be the most painful thing about this night. ’It’s not embarrassing, alright? I don’t want you to feel like that. They’re part of you, and I really like you, every part.’ He smiles. ‘I really do, you know.’

You sniff, wiping at your cheek with your fingertips, trying to calm your tears. Suddenly all your fears seem ridiculous. Did you really expect him to turn you away, disgusted? Ask to never see you again? You knuckle at your eyes. ‘Okay. I’m sorry.’

‘Hey.’ He springs from the bed to grab the tissue box from the dresser and brings it to you, pulling out a tissue and dabbing under your eyes himself. He’s so gentle. ‘You’ve got nothing to be sorry for. I’m sorry, that you were worried to show me.’

You chuckle, grabbing a tissue from the box and blowing your nose. What more can you say to him? He’s so wonderful to you. It’s early days still, and you’re wary of moving too fast and coming on too strong. You aren’t experienced with relationships in the same way that you know he is. But you love him. You’re sure of it. You’ll tell him, one day. Soon.

‘You don’t need to wear my shirt if you don’t want to,’ he repeats once you’re calmer.

‘I’ll wear it.’ And to show him, in your sudden burst of confidence, you undress right next to him, taking off both layers and then putting the only t-shirt back on. You turn to him, and giggle. He’s turned his head away. ‘You can look,’ you tell him, nudging his knee with yours.

He looks back with a sheepish smile. ‘Didn’t want to be a creep.’ He scoots backwards onto the bed, settling his back against the headboard. ‘C’mere.’

You crawl over to him, settling with your back against his chest, sitting between his legs. His arms wrap around your middle, anchoring you to him. He presses kisses to your neck, the scruff on his cheeks tickling you. You curl up, twisting your neck away, giggling.

‘Harry!’

‘Sorry, love.’ His hands relax, and find your own. He rests his chin over your shoulder, and gently turns your palms upwards, so your wrists are visible to him.

You shiver, but allow it. You feel this is important. You don’t want to hide with him.

‘Y/N…’ he says quietly. You feel his chest push against your back as it expands with a breath. ‘Am I… am I allowed to touch them?’ he asks.

You’re surprised. You thought he would want to avoid them. You nod, then, realising he can’t really see you, you add, ‘Yeah.’

Your fingers are tense. You can’t help it. His thumb presses into your palm, massaging the tension away. He pulls the back of your hand to his lips and brings it back to your lap.

You close your eyes.

When he finds the first hard lump of scarring with his thumb, he pauses. He takes a shaky breath, then he runs his thumb up and down the length of it.

‘Y/N,’ he says softly.

You squeeze your eyes shut tighter. ‘Mm?’

‘You’re beautiful, you know.’ He pulls your hand back up to his lips, but instead he kisses the biggest scar on your wrist. ‘No matter what. You are.’

‘Harry,’ you whisper, because you don’t know what to say.

He kisses the scar again, then trails his lips up your wrist, covering them all. ‘I don’t want you to be ashamed of anything. You survived. That’s a wonderful thing.’ He drops your hand and cups your jaw, turning your head towards his. He leans around your shoulder to face you properly. ’I’m so fucking proud of you, you know?’

You never were good at taking compliments, so you just cross the distance between the two of you and kiss him.

When you’re lying together in the dark a little while later, with his arm thrown over you protectively and his soft breaths hitting your neck where his t-shirt doesn’t cover, you feel safe. Your arms are bare, you’re with another person, and you feel safe in this situation for the first time in years. It’s a wonderful feeling. All because of Harry.

You can’t wait to wake up in the morning and see his face again.

[stay-midnight]

Royals. I

Hyunjin x Male Reader

(Late Hyunjin Day Special)

a/n: Look at me and my late ass post again 💀, Anyways, this would be split up into two or tbree parts cause it’s gonna be a bit long than my other fics. So enjoy this for now 🤧 Smut would be on the second part which would be posted in a week or two (No promises though cuz 🤡)

Things to note: Royal AU!, Insult Fight, Implied Changsung (BinxSung), All of skz is here/mentioned, Implied Hookups, TXT is mentioned, Y/N’s a bit of a dick, Hyunjin is barely mentioned here yet, Minho is also a bit of dick, flirty Minho, Minho and Y/N tension, maybe some Seungmin x Y/N here and there too-. Prince! Felix, Jeongin, Changbin, Jisung, Hyunjin, Seungmin, Y/N and Knights! Minho and Chan. Y/N’s last name here is "Hyangsu"

W.C - 2.9K

A prince of the Hwang Kingdom is having their 21st birthday and you were invited, you were a bit salty about this since you really just wanted to relax after these past weeks of taking different lessons from your oh-so-called studious teacher.

As a prince of Hyangsu Kingdom, you were called to attend the Hwang Prince’s birthday ball, and attending this party was of your at most displeasure since you just wanted to have a relaxing break from your studies.

It was a 21st birthday after all, the age where you’re supposed to find a possible suitor and you just didn’t want to see girls fawning over someone.

You sighed in annoyance as your butler comes rushing with different clothes from your wardrobe, ranging from the royal-tailored attire, elegant clothing to a more casual one.

“Just pick me something that looks presentable as Prince, please.” you mumble to him as you glared him down causing him to tremble at your passive-aggressive tone.

You didn’t even know why they’re so serious about this, you’ve went to many royal banquet and events before, and none of them have ever got your parents or workers so.... worked up.

Is it because the Hwang Kingdom was one of the most powerful in the continent? You wanted to scoff at that thought but you may not be wrong.

In the end of playing a game of picking clothes with your butler, he picked a white suit with gold lines tattered over it, it had a gold plating at the shoulder, a red silk belt matching with the red silk long half-blouse, and white pants accompanied by white boots with a red sole.

After getting dressed you walked down to the lounge, waiting for the caravan to arrive.

You were a bit rude and snappy to people, you hated if they interrupted you one bit, not to mention you were sarcastic and people find it hard to win arguments about you. The only things people really liked about you are your looks and brains, you actually had a brain, unlike those snobby rich prince and princesses — who thinks they own the whole world, and the only aspect that are important to them are looks and money.

You sigh as you wait for the royal caravan to arrive.

. . . .

After minutes and minutes of waiting, “Sire?! The caravan is here, the carriage you are going to stay in is ready outside the palace gates.” your butler said fast, fixing his tie and cleaning his monocle afterwards.

You nodded and stood up to walk over to the gates, without command or words exchanged — the guards opened it as soon as they saw you walk down the path. Bowing respectfully at your presence which you answered with a simple “Thank you.”

You hum at the sight of the royal carriage — colored white with intricate designs and patterns made with real gold and of course, the family crest at the side of it.

A knight in a silver suddenly came out of the royal carriage, removing his helmet and smiling as he waved at you.

You let out a small smile back to him, Ah, the one and only Lee Minho, “Minho.” you spoke, reaching out to shake his hand, to which he gladly obliged.

“Y/N. Always a pleasure to see the prince. Well, if you were a bit more excited about this.” He teased, letting out a few snorts. Petting your head while constantly laughing amusedly.

“I’ll stick a fork in your eye one of these days, you stupid knight.” You gave him a death glare as a warning.

“Ah, Prince, you’re so kind~” he grinned, winking at you too, you rolled your eyes at his behaviour. He was always like this, flirty and sometimes egotistic. You didn’t mind it though since he is an amazing duelist and mentor. He isn’t a King’s guard for no reason.

But one day, his cocky attitude is gonna bite him in the ass.

You grumbled and moved forward to the royal carriage, “Lino, you should move, we can’t be late remember?” You tsked, giving Minho a smirk.

“Whatever.” He spoke up in an sassy tone, you snorted at him, to which he glared at you.

He entered inside the carriage, with you slowly following right after.

After entering inside, you sat down at one side while Minho sat near you. It was spacious inside as expected and a small window was also in place.

You had no interest in staying awake for 3 hours during the ride so you decided to take a nap.

~

“You could use my shoulder, you know?” He teased, patting his shoulder while smirking at you.

“Shut up.” you mumble as you shifted a bit so your head could rest more comfortably against the wall.

As much as you wanted to just sleep laying down at the long couch-like thingy where you’re sat at, you can’t because this stupid knight is watching you.

And the last thing you want is him, teasing you for being less than ‘formal’.

Slowly, the sounds around you seem to deafen itself out causing you to relax your shoulders and fall asleep regardless whether Minho is there watching your every move.

~

Opening your eyes as you felt someone poke your cheek, your eyes drifted slowly to the side. You were eye to eye with the knight, faces inches apart.

Your recently droopy eyes from sleeping — shot open in panic, “W-What are you doing!” you stuttered, leaning back from him which made him grin.

“We’re at the city, prince~” He pets your hair, running his hand through it softly.

You glowered and slapped his hand away, “Ugh, keep your hands to yourself, Lino.” you tried to glare the knight down.

“Ah, Feisty.” he smiled back at you to which you responded with a scowl making him laugh loudly.

“No need to be so aggressive~” Minho winked making you just look away and give up, you ignored him and looked out through the window, finding the surrounding endearing.

The loud chattering from the outside is muffled by the walls of the carriage, from at first glance, this was a very happy city.

It has a warm and vibrant tone to it.

. . .

The carriage comes to a sudden halt after riding in what seems to be a hill due to how it felt riding it earlier, the ground was sloped upwards.

The coachman driving the carriage suddenly spoke up, “We’re here, sire.” he spoke up, muffled by the wooden walls but you caught it.

With a sigh, you opened the door and slowly stepped down — your eyes widening at the sight of the towering castle.

It had a wonderful structure, the stone bricks perfectly fit into one another and of course the Hwang family crest adorned the flags that were raised.

Your kingdom’s castle was in no means small but it pales in comparison to that.

Looking around at the surroundings, you saw that a lot of royals were around, some you recognized and some that you had no idea where they came from.

You looked far and noticed the view of the capital at the city which you saw while taking a ride.

.

“...Prince Y/N.” After getting lost in a little bubble after staring at the refreshing view, Minho was nudging your shoulder.

“Hm? What is it?” you said, looking at him with raised eyebrows as you fixed the tie of your suit.

He rolled his eyes, “Did you even hear what I said?” he glared, tapping his foot on the ground multiple times.

“Would I be asking you if I did?” you shot back, clicking your tongue in annoyance as you waited for his answer.

He groaned at your attitude, “You have to sign up to enter the castle. Lose the attitude too, prince.” he said in a careless tone, looking at you with his icy glare.

“Who are you to talk like that to me, knight..?” you scowled at him as you stood your ground firmly.

What was happening now was in contrast to earlier, this was a more serious battle between you and Minho. These were times were usually one of the houseworkers back at your kingdom, steps in to stop both of you and succeeded most of the time.

To be honest though, this fight shouldn't escalate at all.

. . .

From the distance though, someone was watching both of you in amusement, “The party hasn’t even started and they’re bickering all ready.”

“Chan if you could stop them, please?” The man with long black hair commanded to the person next to him.

The knight fixed his posture and nodded, “Of course, my prince.”

“You can call me by my name, you know? We’ve been friends for a long time.” the long-haired man chuckled.

“Still need to use honorifics, sire.” the shorter smiled at the taller before leaving to stop the heated glare-down and exchange of insults at the entrance.

He took one last glance at the royal that was bickering with a knight, finding him amusing but at the same time, he found him interesting.

“Might need to keep an eye on that one.” he hummed to himself before going back inside the castle.

. . .

Minho just recently called you a brat and undeserving of being called a prince of your kingdom, he even mentioned your brother, the crown prince — next in line to the throne — he says of how your brother is just better than you in every way. This sends a devastating pang to your heart as this was not only hurtful to your pride but in a way, he also disregards all your hard work.

“Fuck you. You have no rights to tell me this. You are not my brother nor my parents. You are merely a fucking knight!” you said, shouting the last part.

Your own eyes are tinted with anger, wanting to choke the life out of your escorting knight.

“What, isn’t what all I said was t—”

An applaud was heard from the near distance, cutting Lino off and causing your head to turn to the source of sound.

The man with the curly locks and a pretty face bowed to your direction, “The opening ceremony of the party is starting soon, Prince Hyangsu Y/N. I suggest you sign the guest book and head on inside.” he smiles at you, dimples shown causing you go soften your look.

“While you,” he said sighing after, pointing to Minho with a finger.

“...Fellow knight, let’s chit chat for a bit.” he coughed and grabbed Minho’s hand — dragging him away despites the struggling knight's protest.

You looked around and noticed some of the royals still outside, staring at you with a hint of disappointment probably because of your fight with Minho.

You grumbled, annoyed and angry at the disrespectful knight — you'll most likely have to talk with Minho after this god-forsaken party.

. . .

A yawn almost slipped out of your mouth as the host of the party or ball, at this point you question which is it. The speech lacked any entertainment of the sorts causing you to just listen with half-lidded eyes.

Then came the introduction of the Prince that is having their born day.

A tall man suddenly came out of the curtains, aura filled with confidence and pride, gleaming and filling the room. You inspected his face and not gonna lie, he was indeed pretty, prettier than most princes you have seen — Long black locks neatly tied up in a ponytail, alluring eyes, thick and kissable li— You snapped out of your little bubble after noticing that you were checking the Hwang, this is not good.

You turned away from the center of attention and looked for your small group of friends but felt as if someone was boring holes into your skull.

Turning back, only to see no one staring at you but instead just the continuous blah blah blah’s by the Hwang Prince.

Sighing, you continue to scout the palace room for any signs of a certain fox-eyed brat, someone who dressed too dark and a ray of sunshine.

You clicked your tongue in annoyance when you still haven’t spotted the trio.

. . .

The Prince finally stopped talking and just announced that the dance will start in about an hour, giving his guests — free time to converse with one another.

After going through a sea of screaming princesses that want to marry him, you sighed in relief and just wished to leave this place. That is, until you finally caught a glimpse of a familiar royal. Finally.

.

You poked the shoulder of the foxy prince which startled him, almost causing him to spill his red drink over his royal wear. “God, Y/N, couldn’t you just approach me like a normal person.” he tutted.

Then returned his dimpled smile, he hugged you with one hand unable to engulf with his arms due to the drink he was holding.

“I thought you didn’t go to this clownfest.” you sighed, your words having a sarcastic tone.

“Me? Yang Jeongin wouldn’t miss a ball, especially one that is hosted by one of the richest kingdoms.” he laughed, taking a sip of his drink.

“Is that wine or juice? Also, why are you talking in third person?” you stared at him with confusion.

“This is red water.” he sassed mockingly causing you to roll your eyes and flick his forehead a bit too hard with your index finger.

“Ow!” Jeongin squinted his eyes at you.

He pulls on your ear at payback which you took easily before yawning and looking at the clock impatiently. You wanted to return home and sleep, and also give Minho a lecture.

“Where’s Bin and Lix?” you piped up before taking a seat at the small seat near a pillar, curiously scouting the again for signs of them.

He sighed and sat down right next to you, “Felix-hyung is hunting for more exotic food, since he liked the Shark meat a bit too much and well...” he trailed off, taking a sip of his drink and clearing his throat.

“Bin-hyung is getting flirted slash hitted on again by Prince Jisung of the Han Kingdom. I thought the he already gave up but nope. He still pursuing the Bin booty.” Jeongin chuckled, calling over a roaming waiter for a refill to which the worker happily obliged

You laughed at that since Han has been shooting hearts at Changbin for a long time and always had flirted with him at different parties. Changbin had always rejected his advances though.

“Also they sent a new representative from the Kim kingdom. I’ve never seen him before. Looks cute though, might be your type.” Jeongin said, nudging your shoulders and pointing at a specific direction. Your eyes raked over the prince’s form, charming and handsome but at the same time cute — He was leaning back at the wall, also drinking something.

You grumbled though, this is once again Jeongin trying to hook you up with someone again. It didn’t end well last time — The last prince, Jeongin hooked you up was Prince Yeonjun — All he wanted was sex though, causing you to immediately cut off ties with said prince, leaving a bit heartbroken at that since he only said that he wanted sex after you already spent the night together.

“Not this again, Innie.” you tsked, crossing your arms around your chest.

“Come onnn~.. I thought Yeonjun liked you a lot, he stared at you a lot during Taehyun’s party” Jeongin mumbles since he knows, that you don't like fooling around with people who didn’t even have a single interest on being on an actual relationship.

He felt bad matching you up with him, since he thought that was time you actually would get out of the singles’ list.

He nudged you and tilted his head to the Kim prince’s direction, “He’s walking over here.”

Your head immediately snapped to him, “Did he notice me staring at him earlier?!” you whispered nervously.

He raised his shoulders as he doesn’t know but you could already hear his evil mind spouting not-so-good ideas when he let out a grim grin.

“Well.....~ Y/N, I have to go find Felix, I kinda wanna try the shark meat, Ok byeeeee~” he said as if he was in a rush but this was just a part of his scheme.

“Jeongin, wait, don’t lea—” You couldn’t even finish your sentence before he was out of sight, the man was already extremely near you, his eyes never leaving your own.

You gulp, not knowing what to do in this situation.

In a mere second, you were face to face with the unfamiliar prince. He looked down at you with a emotionless face before sitting down next to you.

“My name is Kim Seungmin, yours?” He spoke with a honey-laced voice crossing his legs as he looked at you with curious eyes.

A smirk was starting to form at the corner of his lips before you opened your mouth to speak.

But nothing came out

He was attractive but he had soft features and an aura that resonates well with his features. He had this cute puppy-look to him but by that smirk he isn’t all that rainbows and sunshines.

Now, this is totally not good.

Little did Y/N know someone was watching this interaction in the distance, a prince than seems to be allured to you ever since he saw you within the crowd. He doesn't seem happy though~

~ tbc

[cartoonsaint]

Mr. Gordon Freeman for the ask game? 👉👈

ooo! i'll answer for both Gordons, but my thoughts about the original are relatively shallow whoops

Canon Gordon Freeman

FAV CANON TRAIT: i see his work w teleportation as a metaphor for his drive :) he WILL go from point A to point B, however it can possibly be done. doesn’t always take into account ”common sense” limitations, which is sort of awesome for science but not for personal health (thank god for the suit). sometimes clever puzzle solving is the answer, but sometimes the most efficient way is to go straight through the goddamn wall.

LEAST FAV CANON TRAIT: omg, that he’s in an apocalyptic first-person shooter w zombies? SO not my thing, but somehow i ended up here anyways. mostly i think he deserves a hot shower and cozy pajamas and not to be covered w blood.

FANON PET PEEVE: i’m baffled by characterizations of him that don’t take into account the facts that he is capable of great violence as well as dorky playfulness (the snark idle animation! vent races!). also i have blocked SO many people for being weird about shipping?? like HL2’s freemance thing kinda squicked me out too but damn dudes, come on

Gordos Feetman

FAV CANON TRAIT: he's SO concerned about how he appears to other people while simultaneously being the LEAST SELF-AWARE CHARACTER IN THE SERIES, my GOSH. man has no IDEA how to talk to people: comes striding into Black Mesa like he's the one in charge (“move! move, i’m running late”), rude about the kind and friendly Dr. Coolatta, overly familiar w every scientist (even when Bubby flat out tells him to shut the fuck!), when questioned by benrey goes "i'm perfectly okay! i am perfectly healthy, and smart," like that's anything close to what a normal person would say, ever. then the first chance he gets to actually sit down with the Science Team over coffee he goes straight to, "you guys got families? ...what was your childhood like?" hello? 24 hours later he asks "what're your guys' hopes and dreams?" HELLO?? buddy the unspoken social rules... my god. he does not know them

plus his "nobody likes me. nobody likes me! i've dealt with that my whole life." like... aw dude. thank goodness the Science Team is full of weirdos too. they can jive with his off-beat social skills and seem to get that at his heart, Gordon Freeman is just a pretty nice semi-loser who wants to goof off and help take care of the people important to him ;-; ...and who will also commit murder at the slightest suggestion from others that it's fine

LEAST FAV CANON TRAIT: i wish he'd been more consistent about joshua! wayne has mentioned retconning the framed picture as just gordon being a nervous fuckin weirdo, but :( on my first watch-through i was like "hm. something about the way gordon tries to shepherd the Science Team with a weirdly optimistic, know-better attitude despite the fact that they all totally ignore him feels familiar..." and then he was like "i have a little kid!" and i went "OH NO WONDER," bc at the time i was also a 27yo spending a lot of time w a small child who preferred not to listen to my somewhat hysterical requests to not Do the Thing.

so like i'm fond of joshua's existence. and i get that trying to fit him into hl2vrai would be difficult but... plz wayne don't kill him. not again D8

FANON PET PEEVE: sometimes artists draw him like he’s 45, which is odd to me, but to be fair his model does make him look terrible for a 27yo. otherwise i wish there was more exploration of how much of a fuckin WEIRDO he is, bc despite being relatively normal compared to the Science Team he’s NOT normal compared to like anyone else. and i‘d love to see more of gordon struggling and benrey having to learn to help, rather than things only going one way. and more of him goofing off, even in awful situations! like i’m fascinated by him messing with the ribs of a dead dude on the ground next to benrey like “ooo i’m gonna touch em haha... u ever been to chili’s” buddy u r NOT normal <3

OK! thank you for asking about the gordons, it is fun to stir up my feelings about these characters and try to synthesize them this way :) anyone interested in my favetrait/leastfavetrait/fanonpetpeeve for other characters can send me an ask if they like. thanks :D <3!

[flying-nightwing]

Fluff Alphabet - Jason Todd

Hello guys! This is my first alphabet because I saw everyone do it and i wanted in. I took this alphabet. I had a lot of fun to indulge in Jason, because well. Do I need to explain? 

Anyhow, enjoy this little thing inspired by my feelings for Jason Todd!

Disclaimer: This is my vision of the character and in no way an universal truth

Check out my masterlist in bio // pinned!

A = Attractive (What do they find attractive about the other?)

Your eyes. Jason could get lost in them by a simple glance. They say eyes are the windows to the soul, and he found it to be very true the second he met you. He will sometimes doubt he’s worth your love, but your gaze is enough to reassure him at every turn. He also can’t get enough of that spark that lights up when he makes you laugh, it draws him in. Your eyes are so kind and loving, the rest doesn’t really matter to him.

B = Baby (Do they want a family? Why/Why not?)

Let’s be truthful here, Jason is terrified of having kids. Everytime the discussion gets even close to the topic of family, he gets vivid images of his own father with him and it fills him with dread that he'll end up just like him. Then, he thinks about his lifestyle and how just being the Red Hood (or having been, as a matter of fact) could endanger his family. But I think deep down he craves having a family, having kids (whether they’re biologically his or adopted), because he’s just that natural caring person.

C = Cuddle (How do they cuddle?)

Continuing on that natural caring person wave, Jason will usually cuddle as the big spoon. His large frame makes it ridiculously easy for himself to wrap around you completely, and he loves to see you curled up around him, safe and comfortable in his arms. He likes to know he’s shielding you from any potential danger, it just eases his conscience. But sometimes he’ll have a bad day, or a rough patrol, and he’ll wordlessly slip in your hold in bed. It surprises you every time how small he can make himself, with his head on your chest above your heart and latched around your waist holding for dear life. Then, he’ll rely on you to make him feel safe, and he’ll fall asleep like that (he also likes when you play with his hair when he gets like that).

D = Dates (What are dates with them like?)

Jason is insanely romantic, nobody can prove me otherwise. With the amount of novels and books he read, it would be hard not to know how to be an exemplary lover. However, doing grand gestures in public and/or expensive shits is not his style. So it isn’t rare to come back home from your job after a tough week, to see Jason lighting up candles on a rose petals covered table, smiling at you and telling you to get changed in your pajamas and relax a bit before he finishes cooking (probably one of you favourite meals, or something new he knows you’ll like to surprise you). Dancing on your building’s rooftop or driving outside the city to take a walk under the stars are also his ideas of dates. It’s always something private and meaningful and a proof Jason is a hopeless romantic.

E = Everything (You are my ____ (e.g. my life, my world…))

“You are my reason to keep going on.” I believe at some point after he came back from the dead, Jason had a really hard time finding a reason to keep living (finding out he was replaced as Robin, that Batman didn’t kill the joker, etc…). He was in a really dark place and numb to everything. But then, he met you and suddenly life wasn’t so terrible. After a while, he even finds himself excited to get up in the morning (or early afternoon if he’s been on a long patrol) and smiling at random times. He wants to make an effort for you, because you deserve his best self and the least he can do is try (you still love him at his worst though, and he still can’t wrap his head around it but he’s insanely grateful for it).

F = Feelings (When did they know they were in love?)

One night, Jason woke up in sweats and screaming his lungs out. He had a nightmare where you were kidnapped and tortured by the joker the way he was; it was the first time you were the victim in his nightmares (usually it was faceless people or himself, and even sometimes his brothers. But never you). He found himself wanting to have you in his arms, needing to have you in his arms, and that’s how he knew it wasn’t just a crush anymore, that he was in deep with you.

G = Gentle (Are they gentle? If so, how?)

People have this misconception that Jason is rough, judging by the everything about him. But you would have never foreseen him to be so delicate and gentle with you. He is very strong and can be rash sometimes, but with his lover, he is always careful. He has enough pain and hurt in his life there is now way he’d put the most important person in his life through that. You have to almost beg him to be rough with you, and he’ll only let go if he’s 100% sure you’re okay with it.

H = Hands (How do they like to hold hands?)

Absolutely. He’s not big on PDA but he always wants to hold your hand, especially in public. He can get uncomfortable if there are too many people around, and the little subconscious squeezes of your hand never fails to bring him back to reality and help him focus on you instead of feeling trapped. Also he’s afraid of losing you in a crowd, even if he’s tall and could spot you easily. So yeah, his hand in yours is a constant.

I = Impression (What was their first impression?)

Depends on how you met really. It’s hard to say really, he might have seen you as an angel, or as a simple acquaintance until he discovered your character and you grew on him. He’s a versatile boy in the people he falls for.

J = Jealousy (Do they get jealous?)

Not jealous per say, but insecure. Everytime he sees you talking with someone who seems to be (subconsciously or not) flirting with you, he gets this feeling you’ll suddenly realize you could do much better than him and leave him for someone less broken, less messed up than him. It creeps in his chest and hurts like a heart attack, and it only dies down when you inevitably come back in his arms and look at him like he’s your world. Then, the storm dies and he knows he at least got one more day with you. And as much as the idea of Jealous Jason showing you who you belong to (wink wink) is appealing, I don’t think it would happen unless it has been established both of you were into that kind of foreplay and he knows for sure you’re in for the long haul with him. Then it becomes a game rather than an actual insecurity thing.

K = Kiss (How do they kiss? Who initiated the first kiss?)

Jason’s kisses are soft and wholesome. You can feel every ounce of love and admiration he has for you, and even if they do get emotional or even dominant at some points, it’s never forecefull. Who initiated the first kiss is nebulous, I think it was more of a mutual thing than an unilateral decision. I like to think it happened in a magnet effect, where both parties met halfway because Jason is a very respectful person in general (except if you piss him off for real) and he wouldn’t make you uncomfortable by kissing you without your consent.

L = Love (Who says ‘I love you’ first?)

It’s gotta be you. Jason, who’s afraid of saying it and getting rejected/mocked would definitely not want to get his feet wet first (what if you laugh? What if you leave?). He will show it in his way, but he’d wait for you to say the words first. But once it’s out there? Hooty hoot. He’ll say it like a mantra. He’ll never ever stop saying it at every occasion he gets. 

M = Memory (What’s their favourite memory together?)

At the fair in your city. Spending the afternoon going from attraction to attraction, having fun in the small roller coaster you were pretty sure was one heavy loaded train away from toppling down. After sun down, you went from game booth to game booth, collecting small and colorful stuffed animals and eating everything sugary and fat you could get your hands onto. You were convinced you could beat the rigged shoot the duck game, and when you couldn’t, Jason stepped in and absolutely made the smug smirk drop from the guy’s face. You walked away with a giant Panda, sleepy as hell after you sugar rush, and Jason had to carry you out of the car bridal style. That picture you took on top of the ferris wheel is on his nightstand and is his favourite possession of his. 

N = Nickel (Do they spoil? Do they buy the person they love everything?)

No, he’s not that kind of guy. I think he’s much more into meaningful acts and gestures than buying your love. He would sometimes spoil you if the occasion came to it, but I don’t think he’d be the type to open up his wallet as a demonstration of love.

O = Orange (What colour reminds them of their other half?)

Aqua blue. No other reason than the fact it’s probably the color the most opposite to red. While he absolutely loves to see you wear red things (it drives him crazy in the sweetest way), he doesn’t want to associate you with the darkest part of him. You’re the beautiful blue to his glaring red, because you’re the best thing in his life and he wants to outline and highlight you out as much as possible.

P = Pet names (What pet names do they use?)

I don’t think he has a signature pet name, he probably uses one that fits with the object of his affections and the history he has with them. He’d also be mindful of what you like and don’t like, and adjust them accordingly. 

Q = Quaint (What is their favourite non-modern thing?)

Libraries. The old ones that smell of paper and leather. The ones with the shelves that climb up to the wall and the old worn seats that are just perfect to sit into and read for hours. Jason loves a calm environment and a quiet victorian library does the trick just well.

R = Rainy Day (What do they like to do on a rainy day?)

Read, cuddles, adult cuddles... ;) I think Jason likes rainy days because it gives him an excuse to spend time with you at home. He’d probably bake something in the afternoon and you might or might not turn it into a flour war, make a mess in the kitchen but make a bonding activity of cleaning it up after (he and you know when to be kids and when to be mature and you both respect the line, and that’s why it’s so fun). Rainy days are domestic days and nothing is more pure or adorable than domestic Jason. It’s a hill I’ll die on. 

S = Sad (How do they cheer themselves/others up?)

That’s a tricky one, because when Jason spirals down he has trouble getting out by himself. But when you are down, Jason will go to hell and back to make sure you feel better. He’ll cook you your favourite thing, skip patrol to stay by your side, do a dumb tik tok dance to put a smile on your face or hear you laugh. He’d be attentive to your needs and do everything in his power to help you.

T = Talking (What do they like to talk about?)

Everything. Jason is a smart boy, he’d enjoy either talking about art, or about larger questions in the universe, or maybe about the birds that made a nest outside. Jason is incredibly easy to talk to when he’s receptive to the person talking to him, and that surprises anyone who knows him on the surface or less. 

U = Unencumbered (What helps them relax?)

Massages, but only by you. He trusts you, he is as comfortable as he can get with you seeing him shirtless with his scars (no professional masseur/se will ever get up close to him), and with you touching him in perhaps more sensitive or vulnerable places. He’d close his eyes and let involuntary moans when you’d unknot the tension in his muscles (and you’d secretly enjoy having such a force of nature all putty and soft under your hands). Then it’d be cuddle time and he would be relaxed as he’s ever been.

V = Vaunt (What do they like to show off? What are they proud of?)

That’s simple: you. You’re his beautiful partner, the only one he has eyes for, so the world should see how great you are. He’d find a way to place you in every conversation, whether it would be to point out that hey, you can do that too, or because he just can’t shut up about you. That earns him infinite teasing from his family on how soft he is for you, but he can’t bring himself to care because he loves you so much. 

W = Wedding (When, how, where do they propose?)

Jason wanted to marry you, and you had talked about it enough as a couple that he knew you wanted it too. But he wanted to wait for the right moment and he couldn’t plan that. The proposal probably happened at an unexpected moment, like when you tried to make him soup when he got injured and ended up messing it up bad. You came back to the couch and apologized to him profusely, and with stars in his eyes he asked you to marry him. Or when one of his enemies tried to take you while taking out the trash, but you chucked the garbage bag AND the metal lid to them, and Jason got down on one knee the second you finished recounting the story, out of breath from running back inside. The wedding was a private affair (Roy was his best man) somewhere quiet and meaningful, without too many artifices or big set up. It was perfect for you two.

X = Xylophone (What’s their song?)

This is a hard one. I feel like Jason would be into soul/jazz, in the style of Marvin Gaye, Nat King Cole or Frank Sinatra. To some extent he is a very old school person, and I believe music is one of the topics that falls into that old school side of him. It’s just a feeling, it’s how I imagine Jason. Unforgettable by Nat King Cole would be his to-go song when it comes to you. 

Y = Yes (Do they ever think of getting married/proposing?)

Oh yea. Jaybird’s got the ring in mind as soon as he knew you were the one. See Wedding above.

Z = Zebra (If they wanted a pet, what would they get?)

I don’t think he’d want a pet, because he can be absent often, or he wouldn’t have enough time. But if he’d have to, he’d get a cat, I think. Walking a dog morning and night would get a little bit much, especially since sometimes he might have trouble getting out of bed after patrol. But a cat, a rescue stubborn older cat who has seen others, that would be a match. The cat would be distant at first, but one morning he’d wake up with his grump of a feline curled beside his pillow and purring, or after a rough day the cat would bring him its toy and Jason would just. Cry. Because this little creature became his friend. And it’s so pure. (Also Jason building cat trees and climbing installations for the cat? Satisfying image).

[marmosa]

it takes two.

Fred Weasley x Fem!Reader

Word Count: 4.2k

Warnings: a little 18+ humor at a point, but it’s pretty low-key. 

A/N: this had some anti-olives discourse and i’m not sorry about it olives r fcking nasty. also [y/n]’s smell is daisy love by marc jacobs for reference, it’s a perfume i really like but i was like there is no way anyone knows what a fucking cloudberry is, so next time you’re at sephora or sumthin go get a whiff of it, it’s lovely. anywho hope you guys like it, i had tons of fun writing the banter in this one, hope it turned out as nice as i thought :) p.s i didn’t proof read this so sorry in advance <3

***

[y/n] hated potions. She hated it more than anything else on this planet and that was saying something considering olives were literally out there existing. Potions shouldn’t have been such a hard class for her, not when she had no problem in her other classes, and certainly not when all it included was following a damned recipe.

Which explained why she wanted to drive a dagger through her skull when Professor Snape announced they’d be spending the next few days preparing to brew amortentia. Not only was the romantic part of it so nerve wracking it made the entire class nauseous, but the prospect of messing it up and not smelling anything at all was even worse (for those who cared, at least).

“You’re dismissed. Make sure to study up on the potion before hand or you’ll sorely regret it,” Snape called out to the class in that tone of his voice that sounded like rancid milk. Was it mentioned that [y/n] also hated Snape? Yeah that too.

As [y/n] packed up her things, she felt a tap on her shoulder, “Speak of the devil.”

“I’m not the devil, I know you lot think ginger’s are evil, but I can assure you I am no devil,” Fred shook his head displeasingly, crossing his arms and leaning back against her desk, “Also, what a way to great someone, sheesh woman, you’d think you’d be more excited to see me.”

“Okay, firstly, there was no need for that whole spiel,” [y/n] held her hands up defensively, “Secondly, I only said that because I was just thinking about you before you arrived.”

Fred rolled his eyes at her back-tracking, but smiled smugly none-the-less, “Aww you were thinking of me? Nothing too naughty I hope,” he winked.

[y/n] flipped her bag shut and looked up at him with a deadpan expression, reaching up and punching his shoulder, “you wish, Weasley. The only naughty thing I’d be caught doing with you is tying you up to turn you in to the police.”

“Tying me up? Didn’t take you as the type for that sort of thing,” Fred grinned, biting back another remark as he watched her groan in annoyance but refuse to make eye contact with him, “but honestly, what were you thinking about?”

“Well,” [y/n] began, pulling at his sleeve to get him to follow her out of class, “You know we have this amortentia potion coming up and I’m doing shit in this class, but I was thinking you could help me study since you have a track record of being good in this class?”

“Hmm,” Fred pondered the offer, shrugging, “what’s in it for me?”

“You get to spend time with me?” [y/n] smiled sweetly, batting her eyelashes dramatically to emphasize the effect.

“That’s a shit deal,” Fred chuckled, raising his brows with a small grin at [y/n]’s frown.

“Yeah, it is,” [y/n] sighed, an idea popping into her head, “but if I brewed it successfully you’d get to find out who I fancy, I know you’ve been poking around there because you’re an nosy git who won’t leave me alone about it.”

Fred scoffed in mock offense, tilting his head to the side, “Rude, but not false. Y’know, that does spice up the offer, but what’s stopping me from just finding out by having you smell someone else’s brew? And who’s to say I’m gonna know who smells like that anyway?”

“You’re so difficult,” [y/n] groaned, sinking her shoulders, “you know what, just forget it. I’ll go bother George or something, y’know the better twin.”

Fred’s smile fell as he screwed his features together, ”Excuse me? You’ve got some nerve you little-,”

“I don’t-woah!” [y/n] yelped as Fred tackled her to the side of the empty hall, trapping her against the wall, his hand planted to the side of her head and his other arm situated above her head.

“Take it back,” Fred demanded, giving her a once over, amused at the way she silently reeled over the position she’d just been put into.

“And why should I?” [y/n] snapped back, staring right back at him as soon as she’d gotten her bearings.

“Take it back,” Fred repeated simply, his voice low as he tried to coax his desired response out of her.

“Again, why should I?” [y/n] hummed, relaxing against the wall and looking at him with a sly smile.

Fred rolled his eyes and straightened himself back up, pushing his hair out of his face with one hand, “you’re no fun, you know exactly why.”

“No I don’t,” [y/n] continued, chimed in amusement, “do you think George isn’t as good as you?”

“Now don’t you go putting words in my mouth,” Fred snipped, “you know just as well as I do that’s not true.”

“I don’t know, maybe it is, maybe it isn’t,” [y/n] shrugged, biting back a laugh at Fred’s less than amused expression, “I’ll cut you a deal. You help me with potions and I don’t tell George your dirty little secret.”

“That’s not-,” Fred groaned, his argumentative spirit draining out of his body as his will to spend time with her won out, “Fine. But if you ever tell a lie like that to George, I’ll feel no remorse telling everyone and their mother that you like being tied up for fun.”

“You wouldn’t dare,” [y/n] hissed, narrowing her eyes at him.

“What? It’s not like it’s true,” Fred teased, his smirk falling when she remained silent, “No way, [y/n] that’s got to be a lie.”

“So what if it isn’t? You’ll never know,” [y/n] giggled, biting back a smile.

“Now wait a minute-,” Fred began, startled at this random piece of questionable information, but was cut off as they arrived at [y/n]’s class.

“It was lovely chatting with you, but I will have to see you later,” [y/n] hummed playfully, giving him a quick hug before darting into her classroom leaving a shocked Fred to himself, “bye Freddie!”

***

“Do you think Fred likes me?” [y/n] rolled onto her stomach and looked over at her friend expectantly, bumping her ankles together to distract her from the rapid beating of her heart.

Nadya tossed her books to the side and slid her legs off the side of her bed, leaning forward to try and be level with [y/n], “Are you really asking me that right now?”

“What!” [y/n] scoffed, pouting, “it’s an honest question!”

“Of all things holy,” Nadya groaned, burying her face in her hands, “Of course he likes you? You really asked him to be your homework helper and he said yes. Who in their right mind willingly studies for potions?”

[y/n] chewed on the inside of her cheek, nodding along, “You are absolutely correct. But like, if he doesn’t, isn’t it going to backfire on me when he realizes I smell him in the amortentia potion?”

“Bold of you to assume that any man knows what he smells like,” Nadya chuckled, “Remember in grade school when the boys would wear that atrocious body spray? It was ghastly.”

“Again, you’re absolutely correct. But Fred has like a distinct smell, it’s like camp fires, caramel, and fire-whiskey,” [y/n] sighed, letting herself bask in the though of how lovely he was, “it’s wonderful.”

“Kinda creepy that you know how specific it is,” Nadya pursed her lips and titled her head to the side to avoid [y/n]’s flat glare.

“Oh yeah because yesterday you totally weren’t telling me about Sam’s ‘absolutely magical eyes’, your words not mine,” [y/n] hummed, a smug smile drawing itself across her lips.

“You’re a twat,” Nadya snapped back, rolling her eyes, “back to you, aren’t you suppose to meet him in the library in like 5 minutes?”

[y/n] glanced over at the clock on her nightstand and nearly feel onto the floor running to get her stuff, “Shit! Why didn’t you say anything earlier?”

“Because you were too busy talking about what Fred smelled like,” Nadya deadpanned, taking her turn to smile smugly.

“I would wipe that stupid look off your face if I wasn’t running late,” [y/n] narrowed her eyes teasingly, grabbing her textbooks, “see you at dinner?”

“See you at dinner,” Nadya affirmed, waving goodbye.

***

“Took you long enough,” Fred lulled, leaning back in his seat.

“I’m surprised you were here on time, especially for something as boring as homework,” [y/n] replied, setting all her stuff down and sliding into the seat across from him.

Fred looked at her dumbly, wanting to snap back but not knowing how to without admitting he was just excited to see her, “Shut up. Correct me if I’m wrong, but you were the one who asked for my help?”

[y/n] leaned her cheek onto her balled up fist and exhaled deeply, “Touché. You’re a handful Weasley.”

“You love it though,” He hummed, wiggling his eyebrows.

“That I do,” [y/n] chuckled, kicking his ankles playfully under the table.

“Well, if you need my help it’s counter productive to do it across from me isn’t it? You don’t want to be swinging a book around over and over again,” Fred mentioned while flipping through his own textbook to find the lesson.

“That’s a good point,” [y/n] shrugged, pushing all her stuff to the other side of the table and switching her seat, glancing over at his book to note the page number, “Y’know, I actually really appreciate you helping me out.”

“Hey, it’s no problem, volunteer work is important after all,” Fred teased, quickly back-tracking when she stared back at him blankly, “Kidding! You know I’ll always make time for you,” he mumbled, reaching over and squeezing her shoulder reassuringly.

[y/n] rolled her eyes and pretended to fish around her bag so he wouldn’t notice the embarrassed look on her face, “Thanks. Same for you.”

Fred chuckled softly, leaning his cheek onto his fist to watch her silently, admiring the way she looked out of uniform in her favorite sweater and pair of jeans. She practically glowed in the low light of the library, her hands constantly pushing a fly away of hair out of her face, her face screwing up in an adorable sort of annoyance. He was smitten, no doubt about it, and honestly- he was okay with that.

“What’re you looking at?” [y/n] muttered, catching his unwavering stare.

“Nothing, you’ve just got an eyelash on your face,” Fred played it off nonchalantly, reaching forward and brushing off the imaginary eyelash.

[y/n] tried her absolute best not to combust right then and there, thanking him quietly before redirecting his attention to the work, “So, what do you say we start here? The measurements are rather odd, wouldn’t you say?”

Fred bit back a smile and nodded, amused at the loss of her fiery attitude, his heart thumping loudly against his chest.

“Yeah, they are.”

***

“Fuck!”

Nadya glanced up from the journal sitting in her lap, the pair of eyes she was sketching seemingly following along with her as she located [y/n] standing in front of the mirror, looking ready to fall apart.

“What’s all this about then?” Nadya inquired, cocking her head to the side.

“We’re making the potions today and it didn’t seem like a big deal two days ago but the anxiety has finally caught up to me and I feel truly sick,” [y/n] shuddered, jumping up and down in place to try and shake out her prickling nerves.

“I know you’re worried, but what are the chances of anyone knowing what that smell is? By the way you described it, it’s so painfully specific that only someone who’s known him for ages would know,” Nadya reassured her panicking friend, smiling softly.

“I know, but what if-,”

“If you keep talking yourself into believing it you’re gonna be miserable. Just breath, go do your best, and have fun. Nothing will go wrong,” Nadya explained calmly, knowing just how much of a busy-brain [y/n] could get.

“Ah, you’re right, I’m only gonna make myself feel worse. I’ll stop, thanks Nadya,” [y/n] padded over and gave her a quick hug, “see you at lunch?”

“See you at lunch,” Nadya nodded, waving her goodbye.

***

“You’ve all finished brewing your amortentia I presume,” Snape spoke in that nasally tone of his, glowering at the class.

The class replied with a cacophony of “yes’s”, the anxiety of each person literally rolling off the walls in waves. People who had a fancy in that class practically had a neon sign above their heads that said so, while those who didn’t sat back and relaxed in peace as they pondered their grade.

[y/n] glanced over at Fred who caught her gaze, passing her an enthusiastic thumbs up, which she returned happily despite the knots forming in her stomach.

“Well then, if you’re done, get into your groups and test it out. Remember if you smell nothing that it doesn’t mean you failed the potion, you must reference the check list of properties before coming to a conclusion,” Snape explained, folding his hands behind his back, “is that clear?”

The class responded with “yes’s” once more and in an instant the room was bustling as the groups got to smelling their potions to test out the initial effects. [y/n]’s group agreed that they’d go clock-wise, leaving her last to test out the potion.

“It smells like honey, baked goods, and lavender,” Charlie spoke up, his cheeks tinging red as he probably registered quite who the scent was probably related to.  

“That’s a lovely combination,” Dina nodded, leaning forward and taking a whiff of their own brew, “truly I can’t smell much but there is a faint note of citrus,” they shrugged.

[y/n] and Timothy exchanged knowing glances, a fancy probably developing in Dina’s life that they hadn’t quite registered yet.

“My turn,” Timothy exhaled, nodding stiffly as if to reassure himself as he smelled the potion. His eyes nearly popped out his head as he took a step back fanning his face slightly, “that has got to be the strongest smell of herbs I’ve ever smelled- he’s probably been spending extra time in the Green Room, that twat.”

The group broke into laughter as he gracefully excused himself to go stand outside to let the smell filter out of his nose. As soon as he’d left, the group look at [y/n] expectantly, all excited to hear what she smelled.

[y/n] swallowed thickly and leaned over her pot, her nerves finally spiking as she took a whiff of the brew. Her heart nearly stopped in her chest when she finally registered the smell, her face growing hot, as an embarrassed expression pulled itself onto her features- of course it was him.

“So, what did you smell?” Dina chirped enthusiastically, leaning against the table.

“Yeah [y/n], what did you smell?”

[y/n] felt her heart drop to her feet, her eyes nearly bulging out of their sockets and into the pot in front of her. Of course he was going to ask.

“You did promise you’d tell me,” Fred smirked, leaning against the table, a mischievous glint in his eyes.

“That I did,” [y/n] chuckled awkwardly.

“I’ll cut you a deal this time. You tell me what you smelled and I’ll tell you what I did,” Fred offered, raising his brows to emphasize his tantalizing offer.

“Deal,” [y/n] nodded, rolling her shoulder a few times, “I smelled a camp fire, caramel, and fire whiskey.”

Charlie and Dina exchanged wide eyed glances, quietly agreeing that the smell was certainly unique and equally lovely before excusing themselves to go get a final grade from Snape.

“What a unique smell,” Fred hummed, eyeing her groupmates oddly “Guess I have to hold up my end of the bargain then. I couldn’t really tell you the specifics, but definitely berries, daisies, and driftwood.”

“That’s even more unique than mine, whoever you smelled sure does have a refined palette,” [y/n] giggled, calming down as she realized Fred had no clue who she was talking about with her own smell.

“She sure does. I think it’s her perfume or something, she wears it everyday so I recognized it almost immediately,” Fred chuckled, shrugging, “But fire whiskey, I truly wonder who that could be, you wouldn’t happen to be willing to tell me? Would you?” he bat his eyelashes innocently.

“In your dreams Weasley,” [y/n] huffed, shoving him playfully.

“Ouch, tough crowd,” Fred pouted, turning so his elbows were leaned onto the table behind him.

“You know I’m only keeping it from you for my own sanity,” [y/n] chuckled, reaching over and shaking his shoulder softly.

Fred chewed his bottom lip between his teeth, glancing in the opposite direction from her, his mind clouded with doubt, wondering who this mystery person could possibly be- praying to everything holy that there was even a possibility of it being him.

Unbeknownst to him,  [y/n]’s internal dialogue was practically doing the same thing trying desperately to put a person to the smell he describe but coming up empty, her heart sinking slightly while she admonished herself for getting her hopes up too fast.    

“Well, you know I’m not gonna give up until I find out. I’ll sniff everyone in our year if it means getting my answer,” Fred teased, winking at her.

“That’s so creepy, you’ll be lucky if you can even get close enough to smell your own brother,” [y/n] laughed, letting her head roll forward slightly.

“Whatever you say,” Fred hummed, shimmying his shoulders to a silent tune, “better go get that grade of yours then, we didn’t do all that studying for nothing.”

“We might’ve since you couldn’t tell who I smelled,” [y/n] bit back a laugh when Fred glared back at her.

“You’re a twat.”

“I know.”

***

“Nadya! My dearest darling companion to ever to walk this planet, do you happen to know anyone who smells like caramel and fire whiskey?” Fred asked, throwing his arms around the two girls.

Nadya nearly spilled her drink at Fred’s sudden appearance, which didn’t particularly go down well with her, “Fred if you scare us like that again I’m going to hex you so severely you’ll be stuck in the infirmary trying to figure out how to get your wand out of your arse.”

Fred’s face drained of all it’s color (if that was even possible, being as pale as he already was), “Sorry Nadya, my bad.”

[y/n] stifled a laugh, continuing to munch on her piece of chicken, ignoring Nadya’s side eye that practically screamed “handle your own boyfriend”.

“But back to your question, I can’t say that I do, who do you have in mind so far?” Nadya humored him, trying her best to give leeway to both her best friend and her best friend’s crush.

“Well, as [y/n] so wisely said, it’s too creepy to go around and sniff people, so I’m just going off of hunches. Oliver seems like a likely candidate and so does Casper, but I’m still not sure,” Fred sighed, obviously already impatient in his search.

Nadya glanced over at [y/n] who was all to comfortable pretending she wasn’t a part of the conversation, happily sipping at her cider.

“I’m not gonna say anything, you can search for as long as you’d like, I’m not budging,” [y/n] shook her head, smiling all too amused, patting Fred’s head patronizingly.  

“You’re no fun,” Fred pouted, huffing and standing back straight, dusting off the invisible dust on his robes, “Well since I’m not gonna get an answer out of either you, I’ll take my search elsewhere, see you around.”

“Bye Freddie,” [y/n] chirped, waving goodbye to him, “So you were right.”

Nadya broke into laughter, elbowing [y/n] playfully, “I told you! You got so worked up and he hasn’t even gotten close to an answer.”

“Casper, he really thinks I’d like Casper? He’s lovely and all but imagine having to sit through him telling you about how handsome he is? That sounds absolutely awful,” [y/n] shook her head, giggling at the thought.

“I truly think he’s just lying to himself at this point, there’s no way he’d be that dumb,” Nadya claimed, refiling her cup.

“I think so too, you know Fred though, he love’s a good challenge,” [y/n] shrugged, taking another bite of her chicken, “well have to see.”

***

“Okay, I think I’ve figured it out!”

[y/n] groaned and pressed her palms into her eyes, sinking as far as she could into the couch that she thought was tucked at the very back corner of the library, “please, it’s been nearly two days! You haven’t given it up yet?”

“Not at all, it’s fun, irritating, but fun,” Fred beamed, skipping over and plopping down next to her on the couch, “See I think I’ve narrowed the search down to these three guys.”

[y/n] glanced down at the small sheet of paper he held out to her and then back at him, a tired sag in her eyes as she felt guilt start to push against her chest. Maybe she was in the wrong for letting him run around and play a fruitless guessing game that she knew he would probably never get the answer to.

“I’m thinking if you give me another clue, I could zero it down to-,”

“It’s not them Fred.”

Fred fell quiet as [y/n] pushed his hand down, taking the paper and tossing it on the small table to her side, pushing his fingers into a small fist that she held gingerly, “It’s not anyone you’ve guessed.”

[y/n] sighed and swallowed her nerves, deciding it was now or never, that if she didn’t say something now she would be tormented by regret and Fred’s relentless guesses for the rest of her life.

“It’s no one you know because,” [y/n] looked away, literally incapable of meeting the wide inviting look he was giving her right then, “it’s you Fred. I like you.”

When she was met with silence, the rock finally started to settle at the pit of her stomach, her brows knitting together as she bit back her bubbling emotions. She tried to pull her hand back but had it quickly snatched back by Fred who had threaded their fingers together.

“I knew it,” He grinned, cupping her face with one hand and pulling her to him, his lips pressing against hers extremely gentle for how abrupt the kiss had been.

[y/n]’s eyes went wide before sinking shut, her free hand wrapping around the back of his neck and pulling him impossibly closer. They sat like that for a while, the quite chatter of the other students background noise to the gentle kisses they passed between one another, the pent up impatience and nervousness draining out of them with each and every kiss.

The two of them finally pulled away, a red hue fanned over Fred’s face, his freckles even more noticeable now that she was up this close.

“Shit, I didn’t ask permission to kiss you, did I?” Fred mumbled bumping his forehead against hers, squeezing their still intertwined hands.

“It’s okay, at least I kissed back, yeah?” [y/n] whispered, thumbing over the small scar on his cheek, probably from a quidditch match.

“Yeah, you’re right. I’ll be better about it though,” Fred promised, tilting his head to the side to press a soft kiss to her forehead.

“Me too,” [y/n] smiled, adoration practically rolling off of her in waves, “wait- what did you mean you knew it?”

Fred pulled back and sat up straight, his lips pressed together so tightly he was practically forcing all the blood out of them, “Well, I kind of already knew from the time your tablemates sort of left us alone in potions. I just wanted to hear you admit it.”

[y/n] felt her face fall, her mouth getting stuck open in an o shape, as she stared at him dumbly, “you’ve got to be kidding me.”

“Unfortunately no,” Fred giggled, placing both of his hands on the sides of her face, “don’t be mad at me?”

“I’m not mad, just disappointed in myself, that shit’s embarrassing for me!” [y/n] groaned, placing her hands on top of his.

“Well it all worked out in the end didn’t it?” Fred chimed, his lips stretching out into a grin.

“I suppose it did,” [y/n] hummed thoughtfully.

“Now the real question is how you didn’t know what your own perfume smelled like,” Fred quipped, immediately bouncing back to teasing her.

“Oh for god’s sake, do I look like I research perfume scents in my free time?” [y/n] scoffed.

“A little bit,” Fred muttered.

“You know what never mind, don’t you ever try to kiss me again,” [y/n] shoved him off her playfully, scooting all the way to the opposite end of the couch.

“Now don’t be like that,” Fred groaned, crawling over to her.

“Nuh uh, nope,” [y/n] shook her head, sticking out her legs in a feeble attempt to stop his advance.

“Yeah, yeah, whatever, too late, come here.”

“I said no- fine! Fine, goodness gracious.”  

“Mhm, that’s what I thought, now give me another kiss before you have to go back to doing boring homework.”

“Fine.”  

[ellasadventuresinfandoms]

Okay, back in May @isolatedphenomenon asked me if I had an les mis fic recs and I went "oh boy do I !" and then promptly fucked off and disappeared from tumblr for like 6 months...

Anyway on the off chance people are interested, here is my vastly too long list of  my favourite les mis fanfic (that I'm almost 100% sure I'll have accidentally missed some of my favourites off of...)

The vast majority of these are main pairing Enjolras/Grantaire, so I've put those first, divided into multi-chaptered and then one-shots. Below that will be other pairings!

Multi-chaptered

• Witch Boy Series : magic AU, starting with Grantaire solving Enjolras' curse - this is just Incredible world building which gets better as it goes on - my favourite is the Babet interlude

• World Ain't Ready : you know how fandoms tend to have a fic that is just associated with it ? in my experience, for les mis this is it - and well deserved ! High school, fake dating AU with some of the most engaging writing

• BE : Enjolras is dragged back into theatre production, helping Eponine put on a production of Hamlet - really love the characterisation in this, and this is really one of those modern AUs that actually feels like real life - really good writing

• After the End : the definitive apocalypse AU in my eyes - les amis are an underground resistance to the dystopian government - really wonderful characterisation of Grantaire and the amis

• You never have to wonder; you never have to ask. : I tend to find fic by scrolling through bookmarks of a pairing, which means I often see repeats; this is a fic that if I see I just re-read cause I know I'll enjoy it - the amis sparked a failed rebellion, and now 18 months later Grantaire ends up staying at Enjolras' after returning to Paris for Marius and Cosette's wedding

• Your Heart on Your Skin : Soulmate AU with flower tattoos marking important emotions and events - wonderful concept and world building 

• Impatient to Be Free : Daughters of Bilitis AU - if that doesn't make you excited I don't know what else to say to convince you (aside from saying the author is a simply wonderful writer)

• You Dance Dreams : Okay. Not to be over dramatic, but this fic did genuinely qualitatively change my life, in that it was the first thing that got me looking up contemporary ballet and now that's like one of my favourite things and big hobby So. Also its really great writing; music/creative arts school les amis with Grantaire choreohraphing the ballet for Combeferre's opera, with a heavy emphasis on Grantaire realising he really never actually got over Enjolras

• philia : this one is an absolute classic to me, but not given nearly enough recognition - one of the more realistic college AUs ever written, and the writing of Grantaire is so good because it hits the perfect balance of sympathy and annoyance about his behaviour (that's a genuine compliment) 

• Coffee Hooligans : fucking tragedy this never got properly finished, Enjolras leads the amis as social justice vigilantes and tries to hide the criminal bits of his life from R

• Fighting the Hurricane : Pacific Rim AU that's less an AU and more just placing the les mis characters in the Pacific Rim universe. Really good and riveting read, also super interesting depiction of Grantaire

• Weaving Olden Dances : Fairy AU - Grantaire "claims" Enjolras to prevent his execution - really good writing, love Grantaires characterisation 

• Paris Burning : canon era (sort of) where cities have a physical being - Grantaire is Paris and becomes entangled in Enjolras' revolution - oh the world building is truly *chefs kiss*

• Euphoria is You For Me : Enjolras and Grantaire keep meet cuting in a wonderfully written Brooklyn - feels like a love letter to Brooklyn at times, and I really like the characterisation of Grantaire 

• so please just fall in love with me this christmas : Enjolras works for the environmental company Grantaire volunteers at, and keeps getting secret gifts at Christmas - I sound a little like a broken record but the Grantaire characterisation is very good

• You Are the Moon : Wild West esque Space AU - Grantaire has to call on the amis to help rescue Valjean and Cosette, despite Grantaire leaving the amis 6 months before. On re-reading the Enjolras characterisation feels a little rushed, but overall fantastic story telling and the Grantaire arc is a Delight 

• Pandemos : Enjolras is aphrodite, and seeks peace from all his suitors in R/Hephestus' cave

• Pining for You : Hallmark christmas romance - Grantaire returns home to work on his father's tree farm, and Enjolras is the lawyer helping prevent the farm being sold - cute as shit imo

• Once We're Kings : Fantasy AU - a country hosts a ball to marry Prince Enjolras and the rival country sends Grantaire as a fuck you - one of the best ways of doing Enjolras as a prince in a fantasy and just really nicely written

• Never Bitter and All Delicious : Fairy Godmother AU - yes really, yes its genuinely a very good read

• On One Condition : Fantasy AU - Enjolras is a bored knight who finally goes to check out the local dragon, which turns out to be Grantaire - I really like how they capture Enjolras' stubborn nature and it's such a well written soft growth of love between them

• That's How Easy Love Can Be : Les Amis work at a primary school; and its secret santa time! very fun portrayal of Enjolras

• The Lark and Her Lieutenants : re write of canon where Cosette is the leader of the revolution - just *chefs kiss*

• If You Tickle Us, Do We Not Laugh : Grantaire is Enjolras' secret android - really good at writing a relationship that's incredibly loving but just keeps being antagonistic and coming off wrong 

One Shots

• True Colours : AU where you leave colours on the people important to you - Enjolras and Grantaire falling for each other is so soft and gently written its lovely, this is genuinely one of my favourites

• Keep It Kind, Keep It Good, Keep It Right : this one is so good to me, because it builds off my pet hatred of everyone assuming Enjolras doesn't care about (or at least actively show he cares about) his friends

• blooming : very soft post-dystopian utopia that has just a really wonderful sense of hope and light to me

• and the wall leaned away (or: The Pros and Cons of Tilling) : perfectly realised characterizations of the amis, Grantaire needs a date to her final year art exhibition - deals with anxiety over protest in a way that actually hits for me

• not just one of the crowd : R helps run a leftist bakery and bike repair shop - very cute characterisation, and I think more les mis fanfic should link to anarchist essays

• Lovesickness : Enjolras is an idiot and thinks he's sick rather than having a crush - the writing of Joly and Combeferre in this is some of my favourite depictions of these two

• If there's a rocket, tie me to it : absolutely heartbreaking sci-fi AU about the amis as doomed mecha pilots

• Where I Fall is Where I Land : Enjolras is a Roman commander as Rome's power is leaving England, and then meets the pict Grantaire (+ fun soulmark stuff !)

• You Started Foreign to Me : Enjolras moves to america and R is the overnight grocery clerk who helps her learn Spanish - cute fluffy lesbians with a wonderfully written driven Enjolras

• Love Is Touching Souls : very cute soulmate AU - and one I really love for really truly considering the implications of soul marks and creating historical lore around it

• Ten Years : R is a musician, and it non-linearly charts his relationship to Enj from high school to 10 years later

• put up with me then I'll make you see : Grantaire lives above Enjolras, and its christmas - I find it to have a very fun interpretation of pining Enjolras

• A Cat Called Trash Can : this was one of the first les mis fics I ever read (yes I know it says it was published in 2020, but I think it has to be a re-upload or something?) and it does still have a special place in my heart - Grantaire rescues a cat, but Enjolras is the only one with an apartment free to look after it 

• Still I'm Begging to Be Free : inception AU where les amis have to rescue a sleeping R from his own brain

•I'm in it for You : cw: illness, cancer - R has cancer and is being a martyr about telling his friends so Enjolras drives him back from chemo

• walls come tumbling down : sky high au - a very good high school AU with the perfect level of campy superhero powers

• This brave new world's not like yesterday : Enjolras needs a job, so ends up working in a bowling alley with Grantaire and bonding

Enjolras/Grantaire/Combeferre

• In Defiance of All Geometry : les amis are a student co-op house, Enjolras and Combeferre are pining friends and Grantaire is the newbie

• Still the Same : this is very good writing and very compelling - if you can get over the (imo) plot hole of Enjolras working for the FBI. R was an art thief Enj put away and is briefly helping the FBI out, and Combeferre is Enjolras' husband

• To Kingdom Come : cw: war and PTSD from that, Enjolras and Combeferre are part of a group of refugees that have crossed into a more fantasy land, and Grantaire is a lone traveller from that land that attempts to help - that was a shit summary of this very emotional, wonderfully written fic about war and love in all forms

• Gonna need (a spark to ignite) : I always love a twist on a classic trope, and this is a very fun take on the soulmate AU - Enjolras loses feeling in his soul mark as a child, falls in love with Grantaire and then his soulmate, Combeferre, turns up

Eponine/Cosette

• Pretty Girls Don't Know the Things That I Know : simply stunning writing - perfect example of soft writing about a harsh world

• she knows her way around : Eponine and Cosette bond, ostensibly so Eponine can find out about her for Marius, and their interactions are so playful and realistic, its wonderful

• always find me floating on oceans : Cosette stows away on Eponine's pirate ship - I do always have a soft spot for eposette fics (not just cause I ship it) because they truly characterise Cosette in a really considered and interesting way

• There's No Making Love : I'm putting this under eposette even though there is some significant enjolras/grantaire content, because the Cosette characterisation is so fun and cute

• round and round again : this fic really beautifully translates Cosette's bad childhood and then isolated teenage years, and the impact that would have on her as an adult into a modern AU

• Underwater Thunderheards : this is based off the book The Scorpio Races, and is just a really nice short fic  about longing

• How To Change The World Without Taking Power : Marius has a crush on Cosette and she's tried being polite and subtle in turning him down, so just ends up fake dating Eponine instead

• blood red fruit and poison's kiss : Snow White AU - Cosette as Snow White

• The Winters Cannot Fade Her : Snow White Au 2.0 - Eponine as Snow White - this was written as a pair to the one above which is just so cute to me

• marriage à la mode : Cosette and Eponine run a bridal shop together and it's very cute !

• Temporary Hold : I personally find this a really fun and very unique take on Cosette - with exams coming up she decides she needs to get laid on the reg and so hits up Eponine to act as if they're already long term girlfriends

Combeferre/Courfeyrac

• better than you had it : fake dating but kick it up an emotional notch - Courf and Ferre pretend to still be together after breaking up for a family event

• take flight, come near : nice and cute low fantasy, where Combeferre runs a dragon sanctuary and Courf finds an injured dragon

Rare Pairs

• The Future's Owned by You and Me : cute Enjolras/Feuilly with actual radical politics and real life organising difficulties and wins

• First Dates and Other Dangers : Combeferre and Grantaire agree to go on a blind date and it's awkward until it isn't - just cute !

• after midnight : Combeferre has insomnia and meets Grantaire in various all night fast food chains

• as you are : Bahorel and Jehan getting ready together

• Almost Romantic : Jehan works at a museum, and takes Combeferre on a little tour

• Understudy : Jehan/Combeferre, with Combeferre's insecurities regarding being seen as second best to Enjolras

• Here There Be Dragons : Courf/Enj/Ferre - Courf and Enj are superheroes and Ferre is the doctor that patches them up

• To Let it Occur (Laisser Faire la Nature) : Feuilly has a stupidly long stopover in Paris and meets Enjolras

• rule of three : Courf/Enj/Ferre as spies and loving boyfriends

• Good Rhetoric : snapshots of cute cuddly courf/enj/ferre

• subluxate, dislocate, replace : found family and chronic illness with Joly/Bossuet/Musichetta

• Strike stone, strike home (like lightning) : so this fic took one minor piece of lore about Tolkien's dwarves and made a beautiful j/b/m fic from it

• Almost Inevitable : Bahorel/Feuilly friends-with-benefits

• god only knows (what I'd be without you) : Bahorel/Feuilly with a closeted Feuilly and a beautiful Feuilly and Eponine friendship

[straykidsreactions]

Reaction To: Their S/O Hugging Them During A Fight

S T R A Y   K I D S   R E A C T I O N   T O : You, their significant other, hugging them during a fight because you don’t want to argue anymore.

A/N: I hope it’s alright that I didn’t make this a gender specific reaction, by the time I realized you’d specified gender I’d already finished writing it😂 Sorry about that darling, and thanks for requesting! ❤️

Genre: a little Angst + Fluffy end

Chan: 

The likelihood that you and Chan actually ever fought was slim, most of your disagreements were minor and Chan wouldn’t be interested in verbal conflict with someone he loved- so getting to a place where a full-blown screaming match had broken out was an unwelcome rarity. It’d been over an hour at this point, and neither of you could really even remember why you’d gotten mad in the first place. It had started at Chan’s production studio when he’d promised to only be another hour, and 3 hours later you were both still there. It started the way fights with Chan always start, a lot of aggravated comments followed by tense silence- but it quickly escalated into raised voices and shouting hurtful things that neither of you really meant. The fight probably never would’ve gotten so out of hand if the two of you had just agreed to take a step back, or get some rest- but as it turned out the clock was striking 1:00am, you were both overtired, and the last straw had just dropped.

“Can’t you just handle not having everything be about you for 2 seconds, Y/N! Because I’m so tired of having to worry about you while I’m working! You’re supposed to be my (girlfriend/boyfriend) not my kid!”

“Are you serious!? I’ve been sitting here for over 4 hours waiting for you even though you know I have to get up early tomorrow and you’ll get pissed if I leave without you, Chan! I’m sick and tired of your career being more important every single time!” 

There were tears welling up in your eyes at this point as paced back and forth across the floor of his studio, silently thankful that the walls were sound-proof. You watched him as he ran a hand through his hair, taking a deep breath and staring dejectedly at the floor. You could feel the tears in your eyes, half out of frustration and half from pure exhaustion- and you realized fighting wasn’t worth it anymore. Sighing, you walked towards him, wrapping your arms around his torso and collapsing against him. Chan would be a little surprised at first, not expecting you to hug him after all the things you’d said to each other. After a moment, he’d smile softly to himself, running his hands over your hair and hugging your shoulders firmly against him. You’d just stand there together for a while, holding each other in comfortable silence as you pressed your cheek against his chest, listening to his relaxed heartbeat. 

“I’m sorry I upset you, Jagi...you know I love you. More than anything.”

*sighing softly to yourself as you nodded against his chest*

“...I don’t wanna fight anymore, Channie.”

*smiling to himself as he lifted your chin up to face him*

“Me either...let’s go, I’m done working- and maybe we can find a restaurant still open to grab some late dinner. How’s that sound, Jagi? Hmm?”

Minho: 

There was something exhilarating about a heated argument with Minho- and the reality was the two of you disagreed a lot. It was never on the big things, but when it came to the little things in life you rarely saw eye to eye and it was one of the things that made you such a good match- you balanced each other out. While a minor argument or dispute wasn’t uncommon, a full-fledged screaming match between the two of you was few and far between. Needless to say, however, they were anything but pretty. At this point neither of you could even remember what you were fighting over- somehow your date night at a little local cafe had been cut short, followed by a tense and silent car-ride, followed by escalated voices and offhanded comments that eventually lead to the two of you screaming at the top of your lungs in an otherwise empty dorm. 

“No I don’t even care anymore, Minho! I’m tired and you’re getting on my nerves, ok? Just take me home!”

“Yahh, you always do this, Y/N! Every time we fight you wanna leave and I let you but it’s stupid and childish!”

*you scoffed, running a hand through your hair as you paced back and forth across the living room*

“Oh I’m childish now? You’re the one who couldn’t even finish a simple date because you made yourself mad and wouldn’t talk to me the entire car ride home! We barely get to go out as it is! I’m so sick of your hot n cold attitude, Minho!”

Your raised voice was cracking at this point as you felt tears prick at the corners of your eyes, Minho’s gaze never leaving yours as he clenched his jaw and stared you down. Neither one of you were much for giving in when it came to fights, even when the topic of your argument wasn’t worth the quarrel in the first place. You took a few short breaths, feeling your hands shake with frustration at the realization that more than being angry with your boyfriend, you were angry that you couldn’t spend more time with him. You both had busy schedules and he’d be back to promoting soon- that was always the hardest for the two of you; there was never enough time in the day for you both to follow your dreams and spend time together. Losing a grip on the emotions you’d been keeping at bay, tears began to freely stream down your cheeks as you quickly ran into your boyfriend’s arms. He wasn’t necessarily expecting the reconciling action from you as it was slightly out of character- but as soon as you did and he heard your soft, muffled sniffles every ounce of his frustration towards you evaporated. He’d immediately become overwhelmed with the same feelings of frustration that your dating life was anything but ordinary, as well as an immense feeling of love because somehow you made it all worth it.

“Baby...I’m sorry I was being a dick tonight. That wasn’t ok...I’m just stressed with our comeback and- I know that’s not an excuse...”

*taking a ragged breath in as you shook your head against his chest, pouting at the mere idea of letting go*

“It’s ok, Minnie...I’m sorry too. I was being childish and all those things I just miss-”

“Shh...”

*Minho interjected, rocking the two of you back and forth gently as he caressed your head*

“You don’t have to say anything, baby...I know.”

Changbin: 

In your relationship with Changbin, you could probably count on one hand the amount of real fights you’d had. Of course there were little disagreements from time to time, but in all honesty (despite his dark image) your Binnie is a pretty passive guy. It would take a lot to get him to a point of wanting to actually argue with you, most things he wouldn’t consider worth discussing and would opt for stuffing them down rather than causing a scene by bringing it up to you. On those rare occasions where the anger bubbled to the surface, however, things were anything but pretty. Unlike some of the others, it wouldn’t be difficult to tell when something had set your boyfriend off- there would be very little build up or awkward tension. When you and Changbin argued, it was explosive.

You should have known better, you knew that there were certain things that would set him off quickly, but you’d been just a little too lenient when a JYP trainee a few years your junior had started flirting with you. It seemed harmless to you, and though it was no secret that you were dating Changbin, somehow the memo hadn’t spread to this helpless guy yet. Maybe it was the fact that you’d entertained him for a moment too long, or maybe it was the fact that when you finally shut him down you were a little too polite- but whatever it was when Changbin took note of the situation he was quick to pull you away, his tight grip on your wrist never wavering until you’d made it to a completely different floor of the company building where his private studio was located. At the very least, Changbin was not the kind of guy to start anything in public.

“Y/N what the hell was that? Are you serious right now?!” 

You couldn’t decide what had you more enraged, the fact that he actually thought you were considering flirting with a guy you’d never met, or the fact that he had the audacity to be upset when he hadn’t paid you a single ounce of attention all day. It didn’t take long for voices to raise and accusations to be thrown, all of which had the two of you exhausted and fully drenched into a heated argument that seemed to go on for hours.

“You’re acting crazy, Bin, he was just talking to me and when he asked me out I told him no! What is up for debate here?”

*taking his hands out from his pockets as he gestured towards the door, his dark gaze burning into yours as he fired back*

“This isn’t about what you said, it’s the fact that you can’t just be firm with other guys! Why do you have to be so polite to every guy who approaches you, Jagi, hmm? They haven’t earned your kindness but you give it away like it’s nothing and they’ll get the wrong message!”

*rolling your eyes as you folded your arms in frustration*

“Everyone knows I’m with you I don’t see why-”

“What about when I’m not here, Jagi!” 

*interjecting harshly, hearing the slightest crack in your boyfriend’s voice as his stance wavered, suddenly noticing the hurt behind his angry eyes*

“What about when I’m on tour...when I can’t be here by your side, baby...you don’t think it drives me insane thinking about leaving you alone?”

Silence fell over the small room for a moment as your walls came crashing down, realizing that his anger really only stemmed from a deep-rooted fear of losing you. In that moment, there was nothing left to say, and all you really wanted was to hold him.

*pulling him into your arms as his body stiffened in shock, glancing at you before turning away at the surprise change in behavior*

“I...I don’t want a pity hug, Y/N...”

*shaking your head as you squeezed your arms around his torso even tighter*

“it isn’t a pity hug, Binnie...it’s an ‘I love you and I’m sorry’ hug. I’m not going anywhere...I promise.”

*hearing him sigh deeply, his body finally relaxing as he hugged you back, pulling you close against his chest*

“You better not.”

Hyunjin: 

Both you and Hyunjin had a tendency to be a bit over-dramatic at times, but that didn’t mean that you didn’t get annoyed at the other when it had to do with something trivial. Usually it was something you could laugh at and brush off easily- but for whatever reason you weren’t laughing that evening when Hyunjin made a big deal of the outfit you’d put on to go out and grab food. Arguments between the two of you were rare, mostly because he’s such a non-confrontational person, so any off-handed comments he made were never intended to start arguments or upset you. Most of the time instances like this were just simple miscommunications where Hyunjin would quickly apologize, so when he made a comment about how you seemed under-dressed in your hoodie and joggers, you’d fully expected him to clarify that he meant no offense by his snide little remark. When he didn’t back down, however, you’d feel a little attacked.

“What do you mean under dressed? We’re just going to pick up take out...am I supposed to put on a red carpet look to pick up dinner?”

“Aishh, don’t be so dramatic, I’m just saying there might be photographers around and I don’t know if that’s how you wanna look when you end up all over the internet...”

*laughing sarcastically as you shook your head, grabbing your wallet in frustration as you gave your boyfriend a wary look*

“Is this about how I’ll feel, or is this about you not wanting to be seen with someone like me?”

That was all you had to say for an hour long argument to quickly ensue, your takeout order long-since expiring as the two of you spat back and forth, neither of you really accustomed to the environment of arguing with one another but both of you unwilling to call it quits. 

“Y/N you know that isn’t what I meant why do you think I’d care about something like that?”

“I don’t know, maybe because you’re this big super star who’s acting like suddenly you don’t wanna be seen with me unless I’m dressed to the 9′s- why’d you even bring something like that up when you know it’ll make me insecure!”

*taking off his ball cap momentarily to run a hand through his hair in frustration*

“Why are you acting like it’s such a bad thing to care about our image! It’s like you’re just asking for people to talk shit online! What don’t you get about me being worried, maybe you don’t see the mean comments but I do!”

It wasn’t until you looked up to see his watery eyes that you realized Hyunjin was on the verge of breaking, his soft soul exhausted from arguing and worried to death that someone might say something negative about the two of you online. You’d only ever focused on the flood of positive comments, you’d never stopped to think that maybe the few negative ones would strike a nerve with your boyfriend. 

“Jinnie...”

*murmuring under your breath as you fell into his arms, his warm embrace instinctively taking you in as you breathed in the warm smell of his cologne* 

“I’m sorry it’s been giving you a hard time, I didn’t know. You should’ve told me...” 

*feeling your boyfriend shake his head as he leaned his chin against your shoulder, breathing deeply as he pulled you against him*

“I didn’t want to worry you, baby...it’s stupid anyway, I’m sorry I blew up at you for something like that...forgive me?”

Jisung: 

Arguments between you and Jisung never really started as arguments, most of the time they were playful instances of teasing that had just been taken too far. He’d never intentionally meant to aggravate you, but that being said Han Jisung is a confrontational person and if an argument starts brewing between the two of you he isn’t the one to quickly diffuse the situation.

It had started harmlessly enough, the two of you were up late working on song lyrics for his upcoming album. Most of the time you helped him edit things that he’d written, but you wanted to take a stab at writing yourself and had begun to scribble down a few rough drafts on some note paper. Maybe it was the fact that it was late and you were both tired, mixed with the fact that you were still a bit self-conscious that your writing might not be good enough for your lyricist boyfriend, but when Jisung playfully snatched the notes you’d been working on to read something snapped in you. 

“Yahh, I wasn’t finished with those!” 

*jisung laughing as he waved the notes in your face, pulling them away playfully before you could grab them, not picking up on the frustration laced in your voice*

“Aww, did you write some lyrics of your own baby? Let me see, wahh- are they about me?”

*standing up from your seat as you feebly reached out to take your notes back, growing beyond frustrated when for the second time your boyfriend failed to realize that this was actually sensitive to you*

“Jisung please-”

“No let me read them! Maybe you’re the next big JYP producer, hmm?”

The teasing in his voice had no intention of actually hurting your feelings, but more than anything the fact that he couldn’t read the discomfort apparent on your face was the thing that set you off.

*your voice raising slightly in aggravation*

“Why don’t you ever listen to me!?”

The accusation was enough to get on Jisung’s nerves, and it wouldn’t take long for him to fire back. What had started as something playful had quickly devolved into a much larger argument. Most of it was baseless but you were both tired and feeling attacked by the other so, as most arguments of this sort do, it dragged on until both of you were tired and frustrated.

“I wasn’t trying to upset you, Y/N, I don’t know why you always expect to be so harsh towards you I only ever wanna support you...”

*sighing as you looked at the notes of lyrics still in his hands*

“I just wanted you to respect my boundaries...maybe it’s easy for you to share stuff you write with other people but I’m not like that, Bunny.”

You were both silent for a moment before you felt exhaustion wash over you, and all the frustration you felt at the situation you’d now directed towards yourself for being so childish about something minor. Just as you were about to extend your arms to hug your boyfriend, however, you’d feel him pull you into a hug of his own. Jisung wasn’t the kind of guy to diffuse situations quickly or smoothly, but he’d always recognize when he was in the wrong and when things had gone too far. It may have been more difficult had it been with anyone else, but there was something about you that made Jisung putty in your hands- you were someone he never ever wanted to hurt.

*breathing in the smell of his freshly cleaned clothes and body wash as you leaned into his embrace*

“I’m sorry...”

*stroking your hair as he pressed a small kiss to your temple*

“I’m sorry too, baby. I should’ve been more careful...”

*pulling away from the hug momentarily as he glanced at the note paper still in his hand, smiling slightly behind his face mask as he held it up, causing you to smile in return*

“Still want this back, jagi?”

Felix: 

Neither you nor Felix were a fan of arguments, most of the time the two of you were pretty good about diffusing things before they got out of hand because you were both a bit sensitive when it came to confronting one another. It would take a lot for him to actually want to confront you about something, but that night in the dance studio just happened to be one of those times. 

You hadn’t intentionally spent more time with Jeongin than him, you were just trying to be a good friend to the youngest member who’d asked you to help with him with some of the more difficult choreography by filming him and going over the spots he’d missed. You hadn’t wanted to distract your boyfriend, who seemed to be in his own world practicing, so you’d opted for helping your friend. You had no idea that that alone was enough to distract Felix’s attention for the rest of the night, his eyes darting over to the two of you frequently. It wasn’t that he thought anything was actually going on, he knew you were friends with his members and a part of him liked that they considered you close enough to ask for your help during practice. He was mostly irked by the fact that you’d come with him, yet all your attention seemed to be so easily moved to someone else. While he wasn’t one to get overly dramatic when it came to issues of jealousy, Felix is definitely the kind of guy who likes showing you off- so it stung a little when you weren’t giving the attention he was hoping for. He wouldn’t intend to bring it up right then and there, but when you noticed him being uncharacteristically quiet and Jeongin made an off-handed comment he’d immediately be set off. 

“Hyung, is everything ok? You seem so quiet tonight!”

*jeongin laughing as he took a break from practicing, grabbing his water bottle and leaving the studio momentarily before Felix could had a chance to say something back*

“Y/N...come here please...”

*his low voice laced with frustration as you innocently walked over to him, unsure as to what had him so tense*

“Is everything ok, babe?”

*folding his arms as he stared back at you, his frustration at you in particular becoming more apparent with his body gestures*

“Am I supposed to be? My (girlfriend//boyfriend) hasn’t even looked at me all night, I thought you came here to watch me practice?”

His voice was quiet, he wasn’t one to get loud during a serious conversation unnecessarily (despite his usual carefree and vocal personality), especially when he knew another member could be in ear shot. Sometimes that’s what made arguments with him the scariest, his whole demeanor would shift. You were quick to explain that you’d only been helping a friend, but it was too late- you’d both become frustrated with the other and it quickly devolved into an argument. 

*both keeping your voices low on the off chance that Jeongin would walk back in*

“It isn’t that hard to just do what you say you’re gonna do, Y/N- I get that he’s your friend but I don’t know why everyone has to be more important than me...”

*sighing as you watched your boyfriend’s serious face crack slightly, hearing the creak of the studio door open as Jeongin walked back in and headed towards the opposite end of the room to resume practice*

Felix grew quiet, lowering his head as he fully expected you to walk away and go back to helping your friend. His eyes widened in shock when, much to his surprise, you wrapped your arms around his waist and pulled him into a loving embrace. All the frustrations he’d been feeling immediately dissipated as Jeongin let out a teasing groan at the image of you and your boyfriend displaying affection, causing you both to laugh.

“Wh-what was that for, Y/N?” 

*smiling wide as his cheeks tinged red*

“I’m just sorry...and, I love you.”

Seungmin: 

To say that arguments between the two of you were rare would be an understatement. In fact, among all the members Seungmin would easily be the least interested in arguing with his significant other, he just rarely felt the need to bring something up in a confrontation way. In fact, if something did rise to the surface between the two of you, there wouldn’t be much dialogue at all. Neither of you were a fan of screaming matches or saying hurtful words unnecessarily, so more than anything things would just become tense and silent between the two of you.

In all honesty you couldn’t even remember what had started the mutual silent treatment to be exact, but you knew that Seungmin had been very dismissive of your questions about the Mnet performance on the car ride home and that had frustrated you. In the same vein, he’d become aggravated because he’d really only wanted some peace and quiet. Maybe he should have been more understanding of your curiosity, and maybe you should have been more understanding of his exhaustion, but either way it had quickly devolved into both of you growing angry with the other. When you finally got back to the apartment, you were quick to leave the common area and sit down in another room all together, folding you arms in frustration at your boyfriend’s behavior. When he entered the room behind you, knocking gently against the already open door frame, you glanced up, nodding halfheartedly as he walked in.

“Are we gonna talk about this or are you just gonna stay in here and be upset with me?”

*his voice calm despite clearly still being frustrated*

“I just wanted to ask about the performance...you never tell me about it and I’m just trying to show interest in your job, y’know...you always treat me like I’m stupid for not knowing stuff about the music industry...”

The last part came out as barely above a whisper.

“I don’t think you’re stupid, jagiya, I was just tired...I didn’t mean to make you feel like your questions weren’t important...”

He leaned down slightly until he was at your eye level, watching as your face slowly shifted from one of anger and hurt to one of loneliness. You’d always made a point to ask so many questions because it made you feel sloer to him and his work, but you’d immediately felt bad when you realized that maybe it was exhausting him unnecessarily. In a heartbeat the entire dispute felt pointless, and you pulled at the collar of your boyfriend’s button up as he collapsed against you into a warm hug. He let out a soft chuckle, reciprocating your embrace.

“I’ll be more understanding in the future, Minnie...I promise.”

*hushing you softly as he held you against him*

“It’s ok, Y/N...I should’ve never made you feel that way, Minnie’s sorry.”

Jeongin: 

Arguments between you and Jeongin weren’t entirely unheard of, you both tried your best not to let little things upset you but occasionally something would come up that left you both feeling dejected and annoyed. Your boyfriend was a master of trying to find the positives even in difficult and frustrating situations, it was just his way of handling hard situations. Most of the time you loved this about him, but it could become frustrating at times when you were trying to vent about something difficult going on in your life and he was only trying to find the positives. He hadn’t meant to act as though he were over-looking your struggles, he was only trying to give you positive feedback, but in the moment it had felt a little impersonal and disrespectful towards your situation. 

“Jeongin please just let me talk, ok?”

*you blurted out, slightly louder than you’d intended*

“I am letting you talk, what’re you talking about? I’m on your side, Y/N.”

It wasn’t the traditional sense of an argument, there was no yelling matches or insults fired back and forth, it was more of a frustrated conversation at best. Never the less, you were upset at his approach to handling your problems, and he was upset that you’d chosen to take out your frustrations on him. After 15 minutes or so of tirelessly going back and forth at what was quickly becoming a repetitive and somewhat unimportant arguing point- you took a step back, falling silent.

“What’d I do now, Y/N...did I say something wrong again?”

*shaking your head softly*

“You know I wasn’t trying to talk over you...or make you feel like what you were saying wasn’t important...”

*you nodded in response, growing tired of arguing as your boyfriend let out an aggravated sigh*

“I don’t know what else I’m supposed to say-”

Before he could say anything else, you collapsed your head against his shoulder and slid your arms around his torso, pulling him into a warm hug. His body stiffened for a moment before relaxing against your affectionate gesture, smiling brightly as the Jeongin you knew and love resurfaced.

“Y-you don’t have to hug me if you’re still mad at me, Y/N, really-”

“Shhh, I don’t wanna argue anymore, Jeonginnie...please.”

*nodding as he pulled you against him even closer, resting his head on top of yours*

“I love you, Jagi.”

[clefairymuke]

daydream | chapter one

next chapter

pairing: armin arlert x reader

themes: college/modern au, slowburn, friends to lovers, mutual pining, fluff, smut

tw: recreational drug use, drinking, explicit sexual content

word count: 1705

The clock was obnoxiously loud with its endless ticking as you struggled to answer yet another dreaded short response prompt, your eyes threatening to trail over to the paper next to yours. You cursed your professor in your head, wondering who had the audacity to dub them "short answer" when answering every nit-picking facet of the question required at least a page-long essay to respond to the prompt in its entirety. The pen would soon break through the paper with how aggressively you were pushing it down. Against your better judgement, you allowed yourself to glance at your friend's paper. All you were able to read was the scrawled cursive "Armin Arlert" at the top before it was pulled from the table and started its journey to the professor's desk. Armin shot you a side eye as he threw his bag over his shoulder, and you returned a feigned apologetic grin. You watched as he waltzed confidently to the front of the room. Everything was so easy for him.

You sighed as he laid his paper on Professor Hange's desk and left. You knew he'd be outside waiting on the bench by the sidewalk when you finally finished; it was looking like he would be there for at least an hour. You tried to focus. What exactly had you learned so far in Biology 220? As far as you knew, the answer was absolutely nothing. After another while of pretending to think while actually berating yourself internally for your lack of studying, you did what you do best: you wrote down 200 words of absolute bullshit and hoped for a passing grade. It had put you through a year and a half of school -- you hoped it wouldn't fail you now.

It made sense for Armin to do well. After all, he was a biology major on the premed track. You, on the other hand, chose English on the form last minute in order to take the least amount of science and math possible. Learning that general education required sequences instead of singular courses had smacked you in the mouth. You erased the last word and fixed your handwriting three times before you finally decided you were finished, taking the paper up front to join Armin's and relishing in the sunlight hitting your face as you left the building.

"How'd you do?" Armin asked sweetly, perched on the nearest of many walkway-side benches along the campus. You saw a coffee in his hand. As you got closer, you noticed one for you sitting next to him. You smiled.

"I honestly think I did fucking awful. I haven't retained anything from Hange's class at all. She's not even a bad teacher -- I think it just isn't for me," you answered, taking a seat and lifting the coffee to your lips. It was your favorite.

He sighed, rubbing the back of his head. He'd had a haircut only the day before; he always toyed with the prickly hair on the back of his neck for the first few days after one. You wondered if he'd ever get used to having his hair shorter. "I've offered to help you, you know. I always say I'll start studying with you, and you always say we will. Then I end up studying while you lay there on your phone halfway listening."

"Well, midterms are over now. Maybe I'll let you teach me a thing or two before finals. What's important is that spring break starts now." For a moment you could see yourself and Armin laid out on the beach, sun soaking into your skin with the soft crashing of waves present only a few yards away; that was the definition of heaven. You saw Armin grin as he started to pull his bag over his shoulder in preparation for your walk to his dorm. A common misconception about your friend was that he was a stick in the mud; however, this was decidedly the furthest thing from the truth. Although he was perfect academically -- 4.0 GPA, active in student organizations, one of the way-too-happy people that shows the freshmen around campus each year -- he knew how to have a good time. Perhaps it was years of corruption from you and your other friends (Eren and Jean, in particular), but outside of a god-awful science class, he was easily your favorite person to be around.

The two of you walked side by side across campus, chatting idly about the party you both planned to attend that night and the long drive that awaited you come morning. It was the perfect weather out, a sunny and comfortable 70 degrees. Armin was dressed in an old-looking T-shirt advertising some bedroom pop artist you were unfamiliar with, making it more than noticeable how much he had filled out since he bought it. Khaki shorts hung a few inches above his knees. You had to look up at him when you spoke, quite the contrast to the many years your friendship spanned before. His eyes, though, were still the same blue, and that was unlikely to change.

When you arrived at his building, you trudged up the stairs behind him, grateful you would soon be able to sit down. Walking everywhere was not your favorite activity, but the campus was quite small, and driving would be overkill. You waltzed into the room as you did nearly every day, throwing a hand up to greet Eren. He had his arm thrown lazily around a girl you didn't recognize, his half-up half-down hair falling in his face as he nodded back at you with a smile, eyes half-open and glossy red.

You practically threw yourself into Armin's bed, which was neatly made aside from the plush blue blanket that laid across the yellow duvet. You were quickly underneath it, making short work toward comfort as you nuzzled into a pillow. Armin took the time to put his things away and change into loose-fitting charcoal sweatpants before taking a seat at your side, fiddling with a time-passing puzzle game on his phone.

"I think we should just stay in instead of going to the party and taking that trip. I'm pretty comfortable, and I have plenty of sleep to catch up on," you told him, the joke barely present in your voice. He chuckled, leaning back across your legs onto the wall behind him.

"You're required to come to the party," Eren called over to you, taking his lips away from the nameless girl's neck. "We promised Jean. And you're required to come on the trip, because we can't afford the Airbnb without your charitable contribution."

"Besides," Armin chimed in, looking over at you, "you were lucky your request off got approved. Think of the poor souls that are stuck behind the register at Barnes and Noble this week. They wouldn't want you to use their vacation in vain."

"When you put it that way. . ." you laughed, checking the time on your phone. "What time did Jean tell us to come?"

"Nine," Armin responded quickly, switching from his game to Twitter. It was only 4:06, according to the white numbers above the picture of you and Armin at your high school graduation. You had quite a bit of time to kill.

"Want to watch a movie?" you asked the blond boy at your side. You were already holding the Xbox controller before he could reply. You got on Disney+, arguably your favorite part of being in Armin's dorm, then tossed the controller toward him to choose. He chose, as he always did, some superhero movie that you would pretend to hate and secretly love. He looked over at you and grinned wide, pressing play.

As the opening sequence rolled, you figured it wasn't the worst way to waste time.

---

The party was lame in the best way. Of course, no one outside of the typical circle had shown -- Connie and Sasha, Marco, the current girl hanging from Eren's hip (Ellie, maybe?), Ymir and Historia, and Eren's sister, Mikasa. Or, at least, he called her his sister. She was adopted -- and desperately in love with him -- and you wished he would avoid calling her that for the sake of saving face. Watching her sit angrily next to him while he toyed with the girl's hair was almost as awkward as the way Jean sat next to Mikasa, beer in his hand and flirting without shame. Connie, Sasha, and Ymir spent nearly the entire party trying to convince Historia and Marco to try smoking on Connie's new bong. Between all of these preoccupied people, you and Armin were left sharing a recliner, passing a blunt back and forth and discussing the plans for tomorrow.

Jean's apartment was trashed in the way a 19-year-old boy's would typically be, soda and beer cans lining the tables and clearly visible dust on his furniture. If you squinted, you'd see he was using his U.S. History textbook as a rolling tray. Professor Erwin would be disappointed.

Your thoughts had begun to become fuzzier and fuzzier. You could tell Armin was feeling the same by the way he giggled uncontrollably at a stupid joke Connie made across the room, causing you to chuckle. He was pretty when he laughed, white teeth poking past his lips as his clear blue eyes squinted into almost nothing. It didn't help that they were already half-closed, pink and red lining his blue irises. You and Armin were social smokers, and drinkers, and what came with that was the unfortunate fact that you were both very lightweight.

You listened absentmindedly to the soft R&B Jean was playing, obnoxiously enough, from Pandora on his TV. Every time an ad played, you died a little inside. You found yourself thanking those that didn't come tonight. Eventually, when you were all in some way intoxicated, you all gathered to watch a movie. You had never heard of it, but Jean and Eren were big fans, which meant it was likely some action film with a bit of plot if you squinted at it.

Before the title screen, you had your head laid on Armin's shoulder, gently drifting to sleep.

This was peace.