#this piece was before my doodles of Habit making this the first time I drew him

[chromadicc]

Im not gonna be finishing this gif a for bit so here it is! There is meant to be something going on the sides but I don't feel like doing it.

And here he is in png form! (Click on it for better quality on both)

[ebi-noodle-doodles]

Do you have any advice/tutorials on how to make healthily round characters? You do them so well!

Hi I really want to answer this with like my doodles and stuff but I’m out (might reblog the stuff later) but so want to say just use a LOT of references. I got used to not using references most of the time because Ive build a somewhat small mental library in my head but certainly its not absolute or perfect, but If I want to focus on a certain piece I really look for references! OR use the mirror.

My main advice

Build a mental library full or references; Even if the reference you compiled are not the same body type/shape, you soon learn to incorporate them in actually drawing round characters.

You can try building this mental library not just by searching online but ACTUALLY STUDYING ONESELF, by that I mean your body. Try taking videos of yourself and pause on frames that could potentially make a good dynamic reference!

Build a habit of drawing different character bodies. I cant say I’m an expert nor really follow this rule since I lack understanding, really but one of my discovered inspirations before I drew characters like these is the Dungeon Meshi Artist. They draw different shaped characters so well, take inspiration from them!

Pay attention to distribution of fat and muscle. (again I’m not an expert!!!) Pay attention to HEIGHT and WEIGHT of the character. What I usually do is that sometimes I estimate how much torso is going to on or legs so it looks proportionate

I learned that chibi is similar to what Im doing. I guess I learned chibi with round shapes aka bunch of circles and ovals, but irl those are more of chunky sausages(?)

BE CONFIDENT on your SKETCHES. I usually start small in sketching like big canvas/paper small lil “chibi” characters. Practice a pose u like then choose what you want to focus and render on

I feel like I’m saying this more for myself hut fundamentals! fundamentals, fundamentals fun d a ment a l s ! In anatomy, lighting & generally in art is key component to everything really!

Welp might reblog this with some visuals hopefully when I get home! I do think I still need more practice despite all the drawings I made, I feel like it still lacks dynamism that would be appealing at first glance.

if it contributes to anything, I think my coloring also makes the piece “look” soft.

[blu3-ja3]

Hello! So I want to establish O'Connor a bit more and how she views each member of the 141. All of these will be in first person not my typical 3rd person limited. We're going youngest to oldest so Soap up first.

!TRIGGER WARNING! Panic Attacks, Misguided Grief

1) Smart but Forgetful

Soap is a smart young man, in a way that's terrifying at time. I've watched MacTavish make a bomb from fertilizer, random metal scrap and a broken lighter. Ghost seemed turned on proud of his sergeant on that particular mission. It never fails to amaze me to watch MacTavish work out how much it would take for him to level a building. But he also has a nasty habit of not wearing proper protective gear when dealing with demolitions on and off the field. On the field I can let it slide but when we're on base it worries me to no end.

I've scolded him a great many times before I just started scolding Ghost as well. More often than not the two were together when Soap goes about his explosive work. Price found it hilarious that I've made it a rule that everyone has to carry a set of closed fingered gloves for Soap, that way if they're on field with the man and he starts his work they can give him the gloves so I don't have to treat chemical burns that could easily be prevented.

2) A Simple Gesture

The first time the young sergeant saw my scar he was kind and far more interested in my sleeve. It was late out. I couldn't sleep and figured working out until I was ready to collapse would be the best course of action. I was in a compression sports bra and sweats, I wasn't expecting anyone to be awake so I didn't bother wearing my typical long sleeve turtle neck. I was distracted and didn't notice Soap appearing in the door to the workout room.

"Who did your ink Cap?"

"JESUS, MARY, AND JOSEPH! MacTavish where the hell did you come from?" I practically jumped out of my skin as I turned around.

"My room? You okay Doc? You seem a bit jumpy." Soap tilted his head to the side with a concerned smile on his face. I suddenly felt very aware of the fact that the sergeant could see my discolored and scared arm and body.

"I'm fine, I'll just leave you to your work out sergeant." I made a move to grab my bag and leave

"Wait! Captain I didn't mean to make you uncomfortable, I can leave. I was just curious about your sleeve. I've seen some glimpses of it, I'd like a better look but it makes you uncomfortable then I'll leave." Soap offered with a shy smile

" My son, William, drew most of them." I relaxed a bit as Soap approached

"He's an incredible artist, would it be okay if I got a closer look?" Soap asked as he gestured to my arm.

"Would you like to help yourself to one of his sketchbooks? I have one in my office if you'd like to get a better look." I laughed as Soap took my left arm turning it staring intently at the pieces.

"If Will doesn't mind, I don't want to intrude."

I smiled "I'm fairly sure he wouldn't mind Suds"

3) A Mother's Grief

It hurts how similar Soap can be to William, both are incredible artist who are constantly doodling on any scrap of paper. But the similarities didn't seem to stop there, they're both terribly smart and passionate. They care deeply for those they've befriended and had a mischievous streak to them. I think often about what kinda of shenanigans the two would get up to with the other sergeants.

At times though it hurts to be around the young man. He makes me wonder what William would be like as he got older. I cried for hours the night Soap called me, mom. I felt guilty, so incredibly guilty. I thought I was replacing Will with the young sergeant and it killed me. I went to Price after another night of tears and guilt.

"Maevis you alright?"

"No, no I'm really not John."

"What's wrong? Did Oliver do something?"

" No, Jesus, it's about Sergeant MacTavish."

John tensed "What about him O'Connor?"

" He called me, mom last night, he was having a rough go of it. I found him and did what I could, I eventually took him back to his barracks. I tried to convince myself he just called me ma'am but Soap has never called me Ma'am. I feel like I'm being eaten alive by guilt! Like I've replaced William without me realizing. How could I? Will was... Is my baby, he's my boy. I love him! How could I do that to him?" Tears streamed down my face I couldn't stand to look at John.

"Oh Maevis, you muppet. You've done nothing wrong. You still love William, I know you do because you still have the charm made of his ashes. MacTavish called you mom because you did what you always do. You're a care taker Maeve, a mother by instinct and you treat everyone like your child. You haven't replaced your son, you would have done the same thing if Will was alive. You're being too hard on yourself Maevis." John had pulled me into a hug until I finally stopped shaking.

"We both know if Will was here he'd be instant friends with the boys. And he'd hold no ill will towards you being a mother to them."

"Yes you're right, you're always right John."

4) An Artistic Collaboration

Soap is constantly coloring in the tattoos on both mine and Ghost's arms. He was a very tactile person, constantly platonically touching everyone in the 141. MacTavish was quick to notice the missing piece on my sleeve, a decent sized spot above my wrist.

"So what's going there Doc?"

"Well it was ment to be another piece William was drawing specifically for me but he never got around to it. There are simple sketches in his last sketch book but nothing finished."

"Do you mean the horse?"

I nodded in confirmation as Soap turned my arm to start coloring another tattoo with the skin safe markers he was given by Roach.

"Yeah, I wanted to get a kelpie or an undead unicorn. William was enthralled by the idea and wanted to draw it for me. He uh... You know..."

"Yeah, if you'd like I could finish it for you. Why the clovers as filler? It makes coloring you so difficult!"

"I like clovers, used to call Will my lucky clover. Sergeant?"

Soap looked up from where he was focusing on my arm, his hand stilling as he removed the light green marker from my skin.

"If you'd like to, I'd be honored to have your artwork complete my sleeve." I watched as MacTavish's eye lit up with excitement.

"You're not joking Cap? You'd get my art tatted on you?" I nod smiling as the sergeant moved to grab his leather sketchbook.

" Id still like the undead unicorn or kelpie but you're free to do what you'd like with the concept... Are you going to finish coloring my arm or am I going to walk around with a half colored arm?" Soap waved his hand at me as he continued to draw. I chuckled before getting up to leave to go do my rounds.

5) Motherly Advice

I'm sitting in my office filling out paperwork and going through the medical bay inventory. I see my door open from the corner of my eye. I see the tall tale mohawk of one sergeant MacTavish

"How's she cuttin' Suds?"

"Um Mom? Can I ask you a question?" I smiled a bit at the name before calming myself. The boys only call me mom, outside of the usual teasing, if something was serious.

"What's wrong Johnny Boy?" I turned to face the man , setting down my pen as the scott sat across from me.

"You've been in a relationship before right Doc?"

"Um well yes but it wasn't the best example of a relationship..."

"I know but it was with a man, yeah?"

"... Yes? MacTavish can I ask what's this about? Because it may be better to ask Price, lad"

" How did you know you were gay?!" MacTavish seemed to be flustered as his cheeks were a bright pink.

"You were married to a man, yeah? And now you look at so of many of the nurses with such infatuation or at least you stare at any woman like she's the best view you've ever seen! I know what that means Doc.... So how did you know? Cause for most of my life I liked Bonnies but Gho- someone has made me question everything!"

"Tav my boy deep breaths yeah, do you want me to be honest?" Soap nodded furiously.

"I don't know, Oliver was my only partner for a very long time... I was only 16 when we started dating, got married just before I was deployed at 18 and I divorced him when I was 20. I didn't date while I was raising Will, I was so busy being a single mom while active duty, I was recovering from this," I gestured to my heavily scared body. " Then Will passed, I couldn't bring myself to go out let alone date... But you're right I taken a liking to many of the lassies I've seen. But I truly don't know if that makes me gay."

" Is it only ladies that catch your attention?"

"It seems so, yes... But why ask me John? Why not talk to Kyle or Price, the two who are in a very openly gay relationship. Both of them are most definitely more qualified in both regards..." I mumble the last bit.

" I don't know, you were the first person I thought of. "

" Let me ask you this then. This someone, does he make you happy?"

"Yes..."

"Do you trust him?"

"More than anyone I've ever met."

" Then what does it matter if you're gay, straight, bi, whatever?"

"What if he doesn't like me back?"

"You're talking about Ghost, right?"

Soap blushes furiously before replying "Yes I'm talking about Ghost... "

" I know he's not the most expressive or forthcoming but he's different with you John. You know that right?"

Soap nods before something seems to click, he stood up rapidly and rushed towards my office door.

"I'm sorry, I've just remembered something I've gotta go! THANK YOU FOR THE TALK DOC!" Soap's voice echoed down the hall.

A few days later, Ghost and Soap made an announcement that they are dating.

"Wait, you weren't before?" Roach asked

"No, what made you think that?" Soap asked

"Well you were constantly leaving the Lieutenant's room after some very... Loud activities..." Roach smirked "You two seem to forget who's barracks are next to Ghost's!"

It was evident even through Ghost's mask that the man was blushing.

"Oh quite your teasing Roach! Honestly we're happy for you boys, you two deserve happiness!" I smile sweetly at the two young men.

I'm happy that everyone has found someone, and while I'm happy to have helped the young sergeant he's helped me realize my neglect towards myself and my relationships.

[fleouriarts]

thinking about how ill go about posting art again when i come back cus i dont want to be gone forever but like. if going back to my normal habit of "post whenever stuff is done" hasnt fixed my brain every other time then clearly something has to change

i thiiiiink what ill do is start posting like "highlight reels" every first of the month (or space out a few posts over the first week) of things i liked from the month before. idk i have two whole months to make up my mind but itll probably be like a few finished pieces posted separately and then a doodle dump. having a schedule with such a long gap between postings will HOPEFULLY keep me from feeling like a lab rat cus i wont be able to essentially just hit the post button for dopamine when i feel bad

plus itll also keep me from just... posting things im not proud of. ive had way too many nights in the past where i drew something in one sitting and had it turn out shit ass but posted it anyway cus 'i spent all this time on it, if no one sees it then that time went to waste'. NO!!! THATS NOT WHAT ART IS ABOUT!!!!! very tree falling in a forest type dilemma. id rather let myself just walk it off when i make something i dont like rather than posting it cus of sunk cost

anyway all that being said i shall see you guys in 2024... still holding onto that timeframe so i dont come back too soon. i do have some stuff i really like that im so tempted to post but i need to stay strong so my brain can hopefully rearrange itself For Real this time. ok im going back in my hole bye

[neon-junkie]

I PRESENT TO YOU: MY BAD BATCH HC'S

-Hunter has to sleep with noise-canceling headphones to not wake up with a headache

-Whenever Omega has a bad nightmare, she'll usually crawl into Hunter's bunk and fall back asleep

-Has happened so often that it becomes a routine and Hunter barely wakes up each time she crawls in

-Crosshair loves to read and can be found reading late at night or in any free time they have

-Whenever the batch is out in a city, Wrecker has made it a habit to put Omega on his shoulders so they can keep track of her, and also he knows what it's like to be amazed by new surroundings so he wants to give her the best view to look at everything

-Hunter and Tech would teach Omega different alien languages. Cross would abuse that power and teach her all of the curses in each language. Always has a shit-eating grin whenever Omega says it to anyone rude to them while Tech and Hunter's faces pale

-Wrecker would introduce a bunch of movies to Omega and they both make it known when movie nights are happening and that the whole squad better be in there otherwise Wrecker will be yeeting their asses in there.

-Echo would be the first one to discover Omega's love to draw and will always get her art supplies whenever the batch makes a run for supplies. Echo and Wrecker let her paint on their helmets as do the rest of the batch. Crosshair always surprisingly seems to have protective vanish around whenever Omega paints onto his armor.

-Since having the chip removed, Crosshair becomes more on edge and increasingly protective over his brothers and Omega. Having lost his vision from the engine, he becomes more alert and can sometimes sense things before even Hunter can.

- As another result of the chip, Crosshair has found it harder to get close or open up to his brothers, having intense waves of guilt for what he has done. However, his brothers are quick to make him realize that he is still their brother no matter what happens. It does take Omega's help to get the batch back together like old times though. It ended up with Hunter being the last one to fully 'forgive' Crosshair but it is mostly him trying to forgive himself for leaving his brother behind.

-Crosshair will go on long walks with Omega whenever they have free time to explore new planets, sometimes they'll go just to talk or to find Wrecker cause he managed to get lost 

-Crosshair and Wrecker come up with the idea, and when the rest of the batch hear it for the first time they join in, having Omega's artwork tattooed onto their bodies. Each one is a symbol that is close to them. 

-Echo would get a blue neon arrow tattooed onto him, right where he has Rex's handprint tattooed, that is the same arrows from the weapon he helped teach Omega how to use.

- Hunter would get the moon dragon Omega was able to track down for the first time tattooed onto his arm and it would wrap around his forearm up to his bicep. 

- Tech would get Omega's first-ever sketch tattooed onto his bicep, it would be a band with 99's three codes written in Mando, the outside of each band lined the dates of each mission they go on. 

- Wrecker would get all of Omega's doodles tattooed onto him,  his favorite being Lula’s face that is combined with the skull of the batch's symbol with herbs surrounding it were lined along their favorite shop to go get Mantell Mix. 

- Finally Crosshair, would get one of Omega's proudest pieces she created, it being the batch's symbol and it being surrounded by the neon lights from Cid's bar to moon phases and stormy clouds on Kamino, where she drew all the images she saw in the clouds when she got bored and let her imagination run wild. 

I hope you find them as fun as I did when I was writing them teheh, up next is my Bad Batch Western AU if you are interested!! I hope you have a wonderful day babes!! 💕💖💕💖💕

girl you are always killin' it with this content!! wonferful headcanons, i love all of them!! thank u for blessing my inbox with these <3

[nyaitsu-writes]

I feel spoiled with how many es blogs i'm finding- anyways, can I ask for some fluffy headcanons with ritsu, natsume, kaoru, and suou stumbling across their easily flustered fem s/o's sketchbook and complimenting her for her artistic abiltiy please? (like she downplays her abilties because of how shy she is) and thank u!!

sooo this is one of those requests that has been sitting at the very bottom of my askbox for a whiiile now ahaha i'm sorry.... since i write for 3 charas max i just chose the first 3 i had an idea for... and kinda ran with it... for 2k... (*/ω＼*) i relate to this rq on a personal level so it made it really easy to just,, write a lot about it <333

✧ kaoru, natsume, ritsu | finding their s/o's sketchbook ✧

RITSU SAKUMA;

✦ ritsu has the habit of accidentally stealing people’s stuff. since he can be found laying/resting virtually anywhere, no secret is safe with him (and his naps!). there’s also the fact that he’s stuck to your side 24/7, keeping watch of every little thing so he can protect you <3 protect you and that little sketchbook you keep carrying around, of course!

✦ ritsu will lean on your shoulder, putting his arms around your dominant hand to try and restrain you just to peak into the pics. because he knows just how quick you are when it comes to hiding this particular notebook! if this attempt doesn’t work out, he’ll resort to cute whining and being (adorably) annoying until you let him see. he’ll call your name and poke your cheek so softly yet so insistently i’m giving you 5 minutes before you sigh in defeat. ritsu sakuma, master of persuasion ( ‵▽′)ψ

✦ so you end up placing the sketchbook on your lap, quietly flipping through the pages under ritsu’s attentive glance. you would think that ritsu being ritsu will stay quiet during the entire flip through but he keeps pointing at his favourite doodles and asking about the story behind them. about what you were thinking about when you drew it, about what that character means to you: he’s putting genuine interest into it!

✦ ritsu finds art to be a really really good hobby. why you ask? because you can be together! he’ll be kind enough to lean on your non-dominant hand this time so you can doodle properly~ he thinks the sound of the pencil gliding against the paper is comfortable… makes him sleepy <3 that is what he says but as soon as you start sketching at his side he will rest his head on your shoulder and look at the pic. he thinks your art is beautiful and wants to see more and more of it. and he is not afraid to compliment you for it!

✦ i think that ritsu can become a bit of a hoarder sometimes. this means every time you’re working on a sketch that you don’t like as much and rip it off, he will ask to keep it. this probably takes you by surprise the first time. and the second time. because you know, he’s not asking for the almost finished pics (he is too, but not now) but rather the messy doodles you gave up on halfway through! you try to say no but ritsu won’t accept no as an answer. if he has to stand up and grab the wrinkled piece of paper, he will （｀ 3 ′） this shows just how stubborn he is into taking care of your pictures!!

✦ he has this cute little folder in his room with the doodles he has managed to snatch from you. it’s like a dragon hoarding a big treasure of gold coins and jewels but it’s ritsu sakuma collecting a lot of your sketches <3 i think he wouldn’t be opposed to hanging some on the walls of his room. imagine going to his room and finding up this nice frame and when you try to look into it you find your art… no matter how much you ask him to please, please take it off because it isn’t even done he’ll shake his head…

✦ “mrmm it’s a placeholder then. i like seeing your art every day… i might reconsider putting a full illustration if you don’t like this one… i think it’s pretty though~” see he tricked you. it’s all a trick so he gets more of your art. he’s so smart isn’t he!

✦ all in all i think ritsu is very supportive of your hobby (❁´◡`❁) he tries not to be too pushy but he still wants to see everything you do, to learn more and more about the things you love. he understands what “not being enough” feels like and he knows just how important it is to have someone by your side reminding you that you are enough. skills take time to develop! but you don’t have to be the very best. if it’s your passion and it makes you happy, then that is good enough!

NATSUME SAKASAKI;

✦ they say curiosity killed the cat but that doesn’t apply to natsume: once he catches an interest in something he’ll be fixated on it until he’s completely satisfied. call it a scientific method, call it him being nosy and wanting to find out everything: both are right! (●ˇ∀ˇ●)

✦ you keep spending your free time together with him in the secret room, sitting down on a comfy corner with a notebook in your hands and natsume didn’t even think too much about it until now. it’s always the same notebook, same cover, decorated with the exact same stickers. and as soon as he walks by and turns his head just by the tiniest bit, you’re already turning the sheet or closing the book right on his nose. so he’s growing more and more curious by the minute. if he were to snatch your notebook…?

✦ but there’s no need to! one day his prayers are heard as you have to run for a quick errand and forget it right on his table. right next to his stuff. look, you got this one on yourself. he is most definitely not prying around your stuff, you knew exactly what was going to happen if you left your stuff unsupervised!

✦ so natsume opens the notebook with the utmost curiosity only to find out it isn’t the kind of notebook he thought it would be. instead of pages full with scribbles and notes, he’s surprised to find little doodles and half done illustrations. it’s actually a sketchbook!

✦ natsume isn’t even trying to be coy about this. you’ll come back into the room and catch him sitting in your favorite corner, happily flipping through the pages and nodding along with every pic. you don’t get a chance to complain about him stealing your notebook (because you forgot it yourself, he reminds you), but rather he goes straight into asking.

✦ “and so? how long were you planning to keep this hidden from me? ah no, i’m not giving it back it’s mine now” camera pan to natsume keeping the sketchbook away from you while he keeps staring intently into each and every page. maybe when he’s done,, he’ll consider giving it back. maybe. if you’re good <3

✦ so from that day onwards, he keeps getting just a tiny bit closer to you when you’re doodling. like yeah he does have stuff to do but mayyybe he can take a bit of a break. no he’s not staring at you?? you’re just making things up jeez (he’s is indeed staring at you)

✦ methinks natsume is good at art, maybe in a different sense than you are? it does of course depend on your style and the things you like drawing better! but this little man here can draw some pretty impressive rune circles and stuff so he knows what good art looks like when he sees it <3 and even if what you do were to be totally out of his area of expertise you won’t even realize until he’s done some proper research about it ehehe

✦ he’s also comes across as a biiiit rude sometimes… natsume kind of rude. maybe not rude but painfully honest? you don’t downplay your skills in front of him because he can and will roast you into accepting that you are wrong. that you are wrong in thinking you are not good, that’s the right thing ( ˘︹˘ ) oh wow a bit of a twisted argument isn’t it? but it somehow works. he keeps using logical arguments and things you can’t quite deny to prove that you are indeed a good artist and just painfully modest. but who needs modesty? just learn to accept yourself with your good and bad points (mostly the good ones, like he does but shhh) and you’ll be happier and safer. good advice from your local fortune-teller / boyfriend! be sure to listen to him!!

✦ if those kind of arguments don’t work on you, it’s natsume we’re talking about! he surely has some tricks up his sleeve to make you finally accept that he is right and you need to love yourself a bit more. if has to… tease you into accepting, he will. maybe he’ll pull just so close to you, so close you can see every golden sparkle in his eyes… so close you can almost kiss! only to try something along the lines of “now, if you talk nicely about yourself for once i might consider giving you a reward? do we have a deal~?” here we have it,, another master of persuasion in all his glory www

KAORU HAKAZE;

✦ ohhh kaoru. this is going back to ritsu square: won't stop whining and being annoying (but in a cute kaoru way) until you let him see. if puppy eyes are needed and some adorable "babeee pretty please let me see?" then he won't stop until he gets his point across.

✦ he is just so surprised. like, he knew you could draw (he is surprisingly smart at realizing people's hobbies, actually) but not at this level! he's literally showering you with compliments. That's some real talent!! ♪(´▽｀)

✦ so kaoru finds in art a couple bonding experience. that is, he asks you to teach him how to draw. other than a couple silly doodles he really can't do much but he's excited to try! Sitting together for a chill afternoon, just doing your best at doodling each other. oh yes! be sure to get his right side, okay? and then you can exchange the pictures. more like, he’ll ask to take your picture with him, just to keep it somewhere safe. getting your s/o to draw you in their style,, he’s getting this precious little fluffy feeling in his chest, he couldn’t be any happier

✦ kaoru is the absolute king of boosting people’s self-esteem no matter the situation. i’m sorry but that’s the rules <3 seeing as constant compliments don’t really work, he tries to shift his strategy and rather asks you why you think so badly of your art. first of all he calls your half-done doodles art (and that is utterly adorable) but then he asks why. why do you? maybe you feel like your skills aren’t good enough or you keep comparing yourself to other people. maybe you’re just shy… but worry not! best boyfriend kaoru hakaze will work with you on getting rid of whatever makes you feel like that. he’ll be your personal cheerleader!

✦ he would also like to be your personal model if you don’t mind? he’s always up for the offer ( •̀ ω •́ )✧ …oooor that is what he says. because they day you actually say yes he’s even more surprised than you are for finally accepting. please don’t look at his blush please don’t look at his blush please don’t— suddenly his heart started beating so much faster than usual? lucky for him it only takes him a couple minutes to recompose and smile brightly. well, you did accept after all! and kaoru is positive when it comes to his looks <3

✦ he will try to mask his nervousness by aggressively flirting with you, cute winks included. “heh, you love me so much you can’t help but stare, can you? that’s cute…~ (๑・ω -)～♥” which could have worked had kaoru remembered that he is… modeling for you. that. that’s the entire point of it, you know? as an idol he is used to, it’s just,, he wants to do it well for you, okay?

✦ also! kaoru makes some really good company at all times but when you’re casually doodling? absolutely awesome. you can play some light music in the background while you listen to him talk about his day, about work or anything he might remember. it brings this sense of comfort… of feeling at home no matter where you are, as long as you’re together (❁´◡`❁)

✦ would it make him a mean person if he said he likes the way you blush? you really make the cutest expressions when he says something nice about your drawings… which only prompts him to say even more sweet things about them. of course he means it! it’s just your cute reaction is extra points for him ehehe indulge him a bit! <3

[everafterkeiji]

HI i love ur writing A LOT! feel free to ignore, can i ask for a mikey hcs with and artist s/o that likes to draw anything anytime? and her/they/his sketchbook is full with drawings of toman members ( mostly mikey ofc) ?

helloo!! so sorry this was so late cnsjnf but thank u so much for loving my work(´∩｡• ᵕ •｡∩`) thank u for requesting and have an amazing day!! stay safe always mwah o((*^▽^*))o

𝐌𝐈𝐊𝐄𝐘 𝐖𝐈𝐓𝐇 𝐀𝐍 𝐀𝐑𝐓𝐈𝐒𝐓 𝐒/𝐎

PAIRINGS: Mikey x gn! reader

GENRE: FLUFFFF (not proofread hehe)

♡ 𝐌𝐈𝐊𝐄𝐘's eyes always seem to be caught by you even if you weren't keen on listening to the teachers discussion. If you're left to answer, he's got a glimpse what you've been doing and he has been struck by your drawing, admiring every piece even if you were quick to answer to the teacher, fumbling with your words at your lack of focus to it so you were instructed to seat down and Mikey was left to wonder about that piece that you drew.

- He's going to be a bit intimidated by you at your first encounter because he feels that you are tremendous at what you do and even if he wanted to compliment you on that matter, he still needed a better approach since he surely didn't want to come off as a creep.

- He's got his chance by lunch when you left school your sketchbook as you went to go and get some food and some people were trying to look over it without your permission so Mikey sat at your table, sending them a smile before he's closing your sketchpad and takes it to his side knowing they weren't in your group of friends.

You come back with a tray in hand and a dazed expression, questioning how the blonde managed to sit with you when you weren't as interactive with each other.

"Hey—I'm sorry for just sitting here but some of our classmaters were peaking through your sketchpad." You were happy to hear how he noticed that habit of yours to be timid around others when they'd ask to skim through your notebook so you sat beside him with a kind smile.

"Thank you, you're Manjiro right?" You asked him and even if he was preferred to be called Mikey, he just beams at you and answers, "Yep!"

- Ever since then, you're smiling to each other once you lock eyes. He can sense how the atmosphere was still new so he had to think of others way to let you feel comfortable around him even if you saw him as a person to get along with easily so he'll pass by with some compliments to your work.

- To show some of his humor whenever he sees you frustrated by a drawing, he can tell it in how many times you're licking your lips, erasing everything as you go so he's grabbing a paper of his own to scribble on it, a figure of himself as tiny and comprehendible as he can make it before he's writing a note to it at the bottom. He proceeds to fold it into a paper plane and when he's done, he's flying to your seat while it lands to your desk so you took a glance at him and he's just pretending to look back on his notebook.

'I don't know how to draw but hopefully this shows that you've inspired me to take some risk to it so I wouldn't want my rolemodel to be stressed - Mikey.'

Now that he still wasn't looking at you, you're standing up from where you are with your annoyance deflating as you made your way to him and you're placing your sketchpad to his empty desk.

"Well, I think I'd need some help with it." You said, offering him a pencil as you took the vacant chair in front of him and Mikey swore he felt a sudden jump to his heart by how you looked at him so he takes the pencil, using eraser part of it to tap your forehead.

"Okay then, if this turns out to be cool then you just found yourself a competitor, Y/N. "

- Then the random sketches at the back of your notebook began to increase since then. Random back and forth doodles from the two of you, sometimes the casual game of tic tac toe—even going through multiple rounds just because you two paid more attention to it than the lesson occuring in the background.

- Soon, you found yourself being more natural with him now that he succeeded in making you know that he truly was a friend that you could be with and that's where he's taking you to a Toman meeting but he promises you that it was okay if you didn't come. You insisted anyway just as long you were in the sidelines to avoid any conflict or being too intimidated.

- You knew about Draken so you found at least one other person to come to but seeing that they're a 100 membered gang, you still felt that sense of intimidation especially when all of them bowed to their leader as Mikey walked in the middle with his uniform coat blazing in the air as he stood at the top of the stairs, looking proud and there's that sensation that goes through you at the sight so the idea sticks to you, the excitement rising to you for you to go home.

- Mikey takes you home that night and he was curious about what's got you to be in a rushed state but the moment you stepped inside, you were already letting the pencil move to the scenery you just saw, spending perfect time for each detail.

- Of course the next day strolls in and Mikey is greeted by you covering his eyes with your sketchbook on his desk.

"What's this about?" He asks chuckling, finding it cute that you were being like this.

"Tada!" You said, dropping your hands and he's faced to face with a drawing of the Toman meeting, the colors that were done in their uniform and hints of red on the background with the same writings embedded on their clothes were drawn through paint and two blondes had their jaw to the floor.

Draken is the first to say how amazing you did it and he'd love to have it framed if he had the chance but you turned to Mikey who was holding it close to him, eyes still prancing around it so you tapped his shoulder. "You okay?"

He just responded by setting the notebook down to embrace you while you're stood frozen but reciprocate it and both of you mirrored the same smile.

"You're the best, Y/N. Never failing to make me starstruck." He whispered to you just as your heart collapses under his words.

- A few more meetings to Toman and getting to know the others, in that span of days, you're feelings for each other was just strengthening that you find yourself drawing Mikey. Even if you have a few sketches of the other members since they kindly requested, Mikey's leadership and his influence to them always stood out and to not draw him would be a waste of time.

- You drop by to their meeting the upcoming night and the vice and division captains are approaching you, praising you for the news they'd heard that you drew their previous meeting and they kindly asked if they could see your drawings and from knowing them for a long time now, you allow them and each page they're already complimenting you and teasing each other how good they looked to which you laugh and thank them. Mikey just watches from afar with a smile of his own, happy that you were getting the recognition you deserved.

"That's Y/N for you." He mutters as Draken nudges him to let him know that he was heard by him and Mikey just rolls his eyes not caring since he knew it was true.

- He's aware that you draw him but he doesn't want to check it yet but he sees it in the way you stare at him, staring at every corner of his features and it makes him flustered at how it's been happening for a while now so when he asks if he could take a look to it and you just let him roam free at it, his heart doubles its pace at how you're just drawing him like that—various of designs to show how he's been racing in your mind and Mikey knew right then and there that he had to show his admiration to you more than just taking you home.

- He'd be even more energetic with you, a sudden growth to his joyousness because of you drawing him and he definitely feels like he owns the world because he had you. He feels like it was an honor to be drawn by you so with any chance he gets, he lets you know just how much you mean to him.

"Everything you do is just—magic, no I think that's understatement, Y/N. I love everything you do."

"Thank you so much, Mikey."

"And I am one handsome model, huh?"

"Can't argue with that one."

- He's offering you to a date in the afternoon, which causes a panic to your heart but you loved how he brought you to a café where you were able to paint so he's got an excuse to gawk at your focused mode as you were busy with your canvas. Mikey just draws what seemed easy to him, palying around with the sizes of the brushes and as usual, he'd be placing paint to your face and scurries to his seat so you can't disturb him but of course you took revenge.

- Mikey gets distracted just by the sight of you that day. He can't seem to forget how you beautiful you looked, sat on the chair as effortlessly that captivating to simply exist so he knew that his feelings had reached the peak of it's intensity towards you.

- So that's when he's taking you out on more dates, more memories that were meant to make you both cherish with how every night and every day were just painted in the prettiest smiles from both of you and vivid laughs turned into colors.

- But with every date, Mikey takes a photo of what you painted that day just like he takes a photo of you when you're painting or drawing and he likes to compile it.

"Hey Y/N?"

"Hm?"

"Can you draw us?" He asks with a sheepish smile and you're wondering how that could be since you don't usually take that much photos together. "Well we might need a photo for that but sure, Mikey." You answered and he's softly tugging on your arm to take you to a photobooth.

- Then the chaos in your heart begins when you and Mikey were sat on the photobooth, smiling at first for the first photo. The second photo was taken with Mikey staring at you with a smile while you were looking at the camera. You noticed this so you turned to him and the blonde just smiles before he's kissing your cheek which your reaction to it was the perfect shot. You laughed, which to you your third photo was a favorite because you two were laughing. The fourth and fifth photo were just silly faces and the booth is over.

- Mikey wrote something at the back of the photo, instructing you that you shouldn't look at until you were done drawing so you just obeyed. Your heart was just fluttering as you draw, the memories from that night refreshing your mind like usual and by a few days you were done so you let Mikey know.

- He visits your room with a notebook in hand and some flowers which was absolutely took a turn to your hand and he explains how you should open the notebook just for you to see the photos of yourself painting and some silly photos he took of you two and the doodles from the back of his notebook all in one compilation with little insights of what happened that date.

"I'm not good with drawing but I hope this was okay. Once you reach the last page, can you read what I wrote on the back of the photo?" You nodded, fighting the urge to stop smiling so much because your cheeks were starting to hurt from it. Seeing the last page, it was the set of pictures you took from the booth, you turned it around and you swore your heart couldn't handle anything else.

"This was the day I knew I wanted you to be mine." You read, looking at him with soft eyes as he chuckles.

"I figured that it'd be best if that drawing of us would be the first thing to put on a new page, that is if you let me be yours?" Mikey asked with that smile of his and you're purely nodding, at a loss for words as you take him into your arms and he immediately hugs back even tighter.

"Yes Mikey, thank you so much. " You whispered to him and he takes a glance to your drawing and his heart knew he found the right person.

"That's my Y/N, never fails to make me fall in love."

TOKYO REV : @strawberrieas @kwrg @raya-sano @kimrena-stuff @heavensbeloved @rosewood1999 @beezebub @l-luci @bekky06 @keiisukebaji @tomanjirouu @smileysmileysmiley

OVERALL: @stesphy @itsmeaudrieee @crapimahuman @meguroshi @floydenai @dai-tsukki-desu

[clotpole-art]

Retrospective: Illustrated Merlin Alphabet Challenge

Finally finished the Merlin Alphabet Challenge, so here's the artist notes no one asked for! See below the cut for comments on each piece by order of creation. Be warned folks, it's a long post.

Before we begin: credit to @merlin-gifs for the challenge, which can be found here. It's awesome, go do it.

First thing you should know is I did probably 80-90% of these while on phone calls or in Zoom meetings and that's reflected in the simplicity of most pieces -- the compositions aren't complicated, the lines aren't refined, the coloring is slapdash. If you noticed variation in quality of the pieces, that's why!

Second: I tried to focus on trying something new for each drawing. Didn't always happen, but this challenge did succeed in helping me push me out of my own comfort zone.

Without further ado...

A is for Arthur Pendragon

Textures, baby! Brushed metal of his armor, scratchy linen texture of his shirt, wispy softness of hair and skin. I'd recently gotten my tablet out of storage after a year of figuring out where the hell I was going to live and this was one of the first pieces of digital art I spent time on. Glad it was Arthur kicking us off!

B is for the Beginning of the End (1x08)

Fun fact, I did not draw this with my tablet. I drew it with my work computer's touchscreen. It was awful, would not recommend.

C is for Camelot

I wanted to get used to different brushes, so landscape of the castle it was! There are brushes that help with drawing grass; I did not use said brushes and my wrist hurt afterward. That being said, I really enjoyed working on this and it was one of the few pieces I didn't do while multitasking.

D is for Daegal

Also drawn on my work computer's touchscreen, not my tablet. I didn't learn my lesson from B and the experience was even worse. This is my least favorite piece which sucks because it's Daegal so I'm slated to redo this sometime in the near future. Gotta do our boy justice.

E is for Elyan

Oh, I adored drawing this. Elyan often gets shafted in terms of fandom appreciation so I made sure to choose Elyan for this prompt and to participate in the Elyan fest. Plus, I love a good ghost story and figuring out a way to include the druid spectre was fun. Didn't multitask on this piece because Elyan deserved my full attention.

F is for Freya

Ho boy. This piece. I have such mixed feelings on this drawing. Really really didn't like it after I'd decided it was done and very nearly scrapped the whole thing. I had a vision in my head that I just couldn't render into reality and it frustrated me SO MUCH. Looking back, I like it much better than I did when I first created it.

G is for Gwaine

What can I say, he's pretty when he's cold. I didn't stretch too much with this one -- it's my normal drawing style, I was just trying to find a brush that mimicked the softness of pencil.

H is for Hunith

Another one that didn't stray too far from my comfort zone. I was stupid sick and slammed at work, so a motherly Hunith manifested herself. I blame the bad brush choice on the cold medicine.

I is for Isolde

I woke up and chose violence! Tried to vary my figure drawing style a little in this piece but my brain resisted, resulting in... this. Not mad at it, but not happy with it either. Poor Isolde.

J is for Juggling

Ah, this lovely piece was drawn during a particularly vexing meeting at work. Fun fact, there's another version of this line art that's less about Merlin's stress and more about mine.

K is for Knights of Camelot

Continuing the theme of doodling through bad news and shit meetings. Like I said above, normally meeting doodles aren't complex because I'm concentrating on something else. This one was more involved because I didn't want to concentrate on the meeting. I have a few issues with this from a technical standpoint (perspective, my nemesis) but it's still one of my favorites. Tried some funky coloring technique, didn't hate it.

V is for Vibrant Colors

And here is where we said fuck the rules and started going out of alphabetical order! This one was really fun to do and I loved kicking off Albion Party with this as my first submission. The colors were a challenge (as I hoped they would be) and this is the first time I had to do some color tweaking midway though and after finishing the coloring process. Vibrant Arthur, my beloved. This started as a multitask doodle but took dedicated time to finish.

O is for Old Religion

The concept for this one was buzzing in my head for a bit before a quote-prompt solidified it. I adore the thought of more visible, tangible representations of Merlin as the son of the elements, of "magic itself" -- not just sun-gold eyes, but sea-water hair and sandstone-skin. A complement to the vibrant Arthur portrait.

S is for Sorcerers

When I said I wanted to challenge myself, I wasn't kidding. Ho boy, this was fun but frustrating. I wanted to completely illustrate a gif. So I did. Will I do something like this again? Maybe. A while from now.

M is for Morgause

See above -- same illustrated gif style so at least I was able to reuse some drawings. Poor Morgause ended up looking a little wretched here because I was mentally done with this when I was drawing her. Love the concept of tarot cards + Merlin but others are doing it so I won't continue this series.

Z is for Zzzz

This one was specifically done to test out some custom brushes I made in Krita to make abstract background drawing easier for me. I think they turned out well! Plus who doesn't love bb iridescent Aithusa.

L is for Leon, P is for Percival

Quick, minimal doodles of the boys! Mentally, I was going for a Brady's-style retro ensemble cast TV show credits feel. Not mad at it! Some boys look closer to their actors than others (I think my brain broke drawing Percy, my apologies to Tom Hopper).

T is for Tristan

It wasn't until after I posted this that I realized there was more than one Tristan in Merlin. Could have drawn Isolde's bf but I drew Ygraine's dumb jock undead brother instead. Had some fun with dark greys and blacks here regardless.

Q is for Queen Annis

Best royal in Albion, bar none. I tried a different coloring technique here and I kinda like it! may make it my go-to but we'll see. Old habits are hard to break. Also: our queen deserved more badass clothes.

X is for Arthur X Merlin

Oh, be still my shipper heart. Doodled and colored during a meeting. I had hoped to spend more time on it outside of multitasking but alas, work is a bitch. This one is slated for a rework sometime in the future; I adore the concept too much to let it go without creating another version of this that isn't an utter mess.

U is for Uther's Ward

And here's my attempt at forgoing line art. Not fun, do not like.

Y is for Young Warlock

Channeled some pain into this one. Those are the dead eyes of someone who had been told that he'd succeeded when his friend died. That the destiny he'd been expecting to carry on his shoulders into old age was done and dusted before he turned 30. Grief plus the existential dread of the aimless immortal. Oof. One of my favs.

N is for Nimueh, R is for Rising Sun, W is for Will

And we end on this sorry offering. I was away from home for a while without my tablet and I just got tired of waiting. So, pen doodles at the airport. This was a challenge in its own right because 1. pen only and 2. I wasn't able to pull Netflix up for a reference on the fly. Which is why Will's face is obscured and Nimueh looks.... not like Nimueh lol.

In summary: this was a goddamn joy to do. I finished 26 letter prompts in approximately 21 weeks, which exceeded my own unspoken goal of filling one letter per week. I found a good, happy corner of the Merlin fandom after a years-long hiatus away from being a fandom creator. If you did make it this far with me, thanks for reading my inane comments and giving this little project even a moment of your time -- I'm so grateful.

[uwua3]

Hello! Sunflowers hold a really special meaning for me so when i read the "sunflower dreams" My heart was so happy!! I havent felt this happy in a long time since quarantine started so thank you for taking the time to write it! It really made my day. If i could request a kazunari x reader where they're both artists that would be amazing. Maybe the reader can be a famous anonymous art influencer? Its up to you! Again thank you so much for writing "sunflower dreams" 💜

i’m so happy i could make you smile ‧⁺◟( ᵒ̴̶̷̥́ ·̫ ᵒ̴̶̷̣̥̀ ) it’s messages like these that absolutely make my day! thank you so much for taking your time to even read it, i’m glad to know it touched your heart ♡ i hope you have a good rest of your day—please know all of a3! love you vvv much!!! ｀･ω･)9 i hope this makes your heart happy just like before! thank you, anon, for everything

summary: every time you fell in love, you made a new art piece

author’s note: please smile from this absolutely soft and endearing kazunari fluff! in times like these where negativity is all around us, it’s good to take a break and purposely give yourself happiness. i hope this is a light in your day and makes you experience all the goodness of love! ♡ — concept based on “to all the boys i’ve loved before”

word count: 3,389

music: i like me better – lauv

to everyone i’ve loved before.

🌻🎨 miyoshi kazunari

you created art every time you had a crush so intense, you didn’t know what else to do

no matter how big or small it was, or how long or short it lasted, love is love. even if it was a random stranger you’d never see again or someone you knew for a lifetime, love is love

therefore, there was no exact total. because even if you didn’t remember every single person you’ve made art for, you clearly remembered what it was like experiencing the euphoria of love. the phenomenon of your heart selflessly beating for someone else. the attack of getting hit by cupid’s arrow out of no where. the rush of emotions unlike any other

love was everywhere and you made sure to create something that was a memory of it. that was when you decided to practice art after being unable to recall a person’s face a moment too long

it was your form of a love letter. a picture spoke a thousand words you couldn’t write, and art was the perfect way to convey that. online for everyone to see were your love letters in art form: portraits of everyone you’ve loved

you fell in love again and again, a new art piece posted soon over the years of your life. under the username, to-everyone-ive-loved, a lifelong project was in the works for all of social media to see

unknown to the rest of the world, you were the artist behind the blog “to-everyone-ive-loved” who created portraits from memory

but, you didn’t mean to fall in love with another artist as well

all it took was one comment and you were theirs

it was one of your most recent posts, a finished piece on a stranger you saw. you found yourself in veludo way, the ideal street to find people you’d never forget. after witnessing a sudden street act, only one actor caught your eye that day

you didn’t know his name, but you didn’t need to. you were in love

you immediately rushed home without a second thought, the inspiration and creativity infectious after watching him perform. something about his energy was wildly entertaining and bizarre, like a modern pop song as a person. he was effortlessly trendy, popular, and charismatic just from the few minutes you saw him

the moment he stood up on that street corner like it was a stage, all eyes were on him and he knew it. as you sketched into the day, you remembered the small details clearly. dirty blonde hair with no dark roots in sight, glittering green eyes, wide welcoming smile. he had the face of an actor, that’s for sure

when you posted it right after finishing, you didn’t expect any major attention. on average, your posts got 100 likes or so. while it was an impressive feat, nothing could’ve prepared you for that one comment

kaz-PIKO: i’m in love with your art ♡

as your popularity and fame grew before your very eyes, you clicked on his profile and realized it was him. the actor you had seen earlier at veludo way

you didn’t know what happened, but all you knew was you couldn’t forget this one person, miyoshi kazunari, no matter how hard you tried

no matter where you went, you couldn’t draw anyone else except that boy named kazunari. after scrolling through his entire instablam account, you found out he was an actor for mankai company’s summer troupe. he was a star in his own right, with a stage presence like the spotlight was constantly on him and a heart of gold

this was the first time you ever got so caught up on someone that they didn’t leave your mind. hours became days, and days began becoming a week before you let yourself follow him back

everyone you had ever drawn had never recognized themselves before. it was all because a follower connected the visual similarities between your art and kazunari’s unique traits that kazunari knew you had seen him before

if only he wasn’t a social media influencer with followers reaching the hundreds of thousands. at least, his popularity attracted attention to your profile...

this was a problem, however. because if you couldn’t draw anyone else, what could you do? once again, you stalked kazunari’s blog once again like it was a habit

it was never really a rule to make one love letter per person, but you never had wanted to make another for the same person. until, now

video after video. picture after picture. story after story. you could see kazunari’s face even when you closed your eyes. what about him made you daydream about him constantly? was it his charming voice that could make anyone stop and stare? his intricate piercings that were different every day? his ability to make you feel at home? whatever it was (or maybe it was an accumulation of everything and more), you had to draw kazunari again

when you posted it, you typically didn’t add more to the caption than the date and time. except this time, you felt like all your rules were being broken over someone who had no idea who you were

to-everyone-ive-loved-before: XX/XX/20 (3:33 A.M.) — social butterfly

you watched it upload. it was a piece you had never done before. glowing butterflies of all colors surrounded the center of the masterpiece, a smiling kazunari

hopefully, this would solve whatever feelings you were having and the world would go back to normal. you’d move on, fall in love with someone else, and repeat

it didn’t work, because some time later, you woke up to a comment that made you feel the butterflies in your stomach

kaz-PIKO: like a butterfly, i’ll fly to you, wherever you are~ ���

and for some reason, you wanted kazunari to find you

you had never felt so motivated to draw before. however, your muse was the same. a beautiful boy named miyoshi kazunari who was slowly capturing your heart without even knowing it. you watched the pages in your sketchbook lessen and lessen. the corners of assignments and napkins and anything in between was covered in doodles. if there was a writing instrument in your hand, something related to kazunari would come out of it

it was a fascination. a fixiation, even. you had only seen one performance before falling in love. was it because kazunari responded that it made you feel like you had a chance?

you wouldn’t admit it, but it was becoming embarrassing with how much you were staring at the few unread messages from kazunari in your dm box. they came in right after you had followed him back, and more arrived when you posted the “social butterfly” piece

what was stopping you from talking to your muse? you knew the answer without thinking: what if these feelings were real?

obsessions and crushes come and go, but... love, love stayed. there wasn’t any possibility you could love someone from afar without knowing anything about them, right?

but, then again... you did know some things about kazunari. you knew kazunari was the best actor of all time, with expressions and gestures the equivalent of art. kazunari was art—in every single way possible. everything about him made you want to draw and draw and draw

you only drew kazunari for a certain time, no matter which stranger crossed your path. people you knew you would’ve sketched simply became passer-bys, and it was all because of kazunari’s sunny smile that you were in love. or, what you thought was love

the more you thought about kazunari’s unread dms, the more you wondered what this was. why did kazunari make you so happy? was this truly the first time you were experiencing... a crush?!

for the first time since that street act, you found yourself in veludo way. while half of you was hoping you’d randomly bump into summer troupe’s moodmaker, the other half was petrified about how kazunari was a real person. a very much popular, recognizable person

it was the weekend, and the burden of university projects was telling you to go back and focus. yet, with a sketchbook in one hand and a pencil tucked behind your ear, you were very much prepared to draw to your heart’s content

as you tried to flip to a clean page, you heard something that made your heart flutter. despite the noise and busy atmosphere of veludo, a distinct laugh was audible above the crowd. when you looked up, your eyes barely registered a deep blue jacket before walking straight into the person

you nearly tumbled to the ground before two hands steadied you, a surprised “whoa!” leaving their mouth before being followed by a gentle laugh. the usual embarrassment didn’t set in until you went to go thank the person, only to stop

oh my god. you had just bumped into miyoshi kazunari, your muse for the past month or so

kazunari grinned, even though it faltered slightly at your wide-eyed expression and awkward silence. he didn’t seem to mind as he adjusted his black top hat, pocketing his phone and confidently meeting your gaze

“i’m so sorry~! i hope you’re okay, i’m kazunari!” kazunari introduced and you realized he didn’t know you were behind to-everyone-ive-loved-before. you quickly adjusted yourself, pretending as if this wasn’t the highlight of your entire week

when you introduced yourself, kazunari’s eyes sparkled with interest as he easily led you into conversation. despite being a bit of a socially awkward artist who preferred being alone over anything else, kazunari was... comfortable. you didn’t feel self-conscious of how you acted, because he readily accepted how you were with a smile

was he like this was everyone or... did he find you to be a work of art, too?

standing off to the side, you finally noticed several members of mankai were advertising their latest play. bright, aesthetically pleasing flyers were being handed out to everyone walking by, and you seemed to look a moment too long before kazunari followed your gaze and suddenly snapped his fingers

“oh! are you interested in theatre?” you really weren’t, but you nodded anyways just to see kazunari’s excitement. he pardoned himself for a moment just to snatch a flyer, returning to show it off with a proud smile

“please come to mankai company’s summer performance!” kazunari’s smile sparkled and before he looked around to see if anyone was watching, he winked. kazunari covered the side of his face that was facing his troupe members, pretending as if you two were sharing some big secret

“plus, i’ll be there. if you come, i’ll make sure to do my very best~” kazunari bargained, even though you already knew he was already planning on wowing the audience with his charisma. you took in his genuine want to impress you and the butterflies came back

“i’ll come.” you agreed without even checking the date or reading anything. now all of you just wanted more & more opportunities as the person kazunari was surprisingly interested in, not as the artist who was basically in love with him

agreeing right away was worth it when kazunari shot you a grateful, blinding smile in return. you stumbled over your words with how taken back you were, but asked anyways, “do you like flowers?”

kazunari’s eyes softened for a moment, his usual energy suddenly gone before returning. he seemed genuinely moved by your question, and you wondered how many flowers it’d take to see him smile again like that

“i do, especially if they’re from you.”

“what kind?”

someone called kazunari’s name, insisting they were going to be late for practice. kazunari shouted back an agreement by telling them to go ahead first, before putting all his attention on you once again

“hibiscus.” meaning delicate beauty

before kazunari could ask for your socials, with his hand already reaching for his phone, you cut him off, hoping your voice wasn’t off

“next week. 7 P.M., mankai theatre. i’ll be there, front row.” you promised and took off, rushing off with a wave as kazunari stared after you for a second before waving back enthusiastically

as you left, kazunari was about to leave before he noticed something on the ground. it was a plain sketchbook, unassuming at first but it was nearly bursting at the binding with how many pages there were

when kazunari picked it up, he was about to flip to the first page before mankai called his name again, impatient this time. kazunari held onto the book and sent one last glance towards your direction before disappearing, hurrying to make sure the director wouldn’t penalize him for being the reason everyone was late

when you arrived home, you instinctually reached for the pencil behind your ear. at the same time, you put your hand in your bag, attempting to feel the familiar edges of your sketchbook

then, after turning your bag inside out and finding nothing, you collapsed onto your desk chair with shock and disbelief

you lost your sketchbook in veludo way the moment you met kazunari. what if he had it?

you drew another piece and stared at your screen, wondering if you should post it. it was kazunari once again with a yellow hibiscus flower behind his ear, the same gentle smile you couldn’t perfectly capture gracing his lips

you typed the caption and backspaced before settling on something that only you and him would know

to-everyone-ive-loved-before: XX/XX/20 (8:01 P.M.) — delicate beauty

you hesitated before deleting the post a second after. maybe, you’d keep some artwork to yourself

kazunari had the sketchbook open next to his bedside, his phone in his hands and your profile open. he could recognize your art style a mile away, and the moment he saw the first sketch after practice, he couldn’t believe it

did this explain why he felt such a natural attraction to you? when you bumped into him, kazunari swore he could see the sparks flying. you made him feel like he was falling in love and you only proved him right when you two talked earlier. he wanted to know everything about you, he wanted to see you again

was this what love at first sight felt like? kazunari giddily typed a message over and over again, the unread messages of his filling his screen

kaz-PIKO: heya!! ★>d(,,･ε´-,,)⌒☆ just wanted to say i LOVE your art fr!!! we should totes collab, you know???

kaz-PIKO: thanks for drawing me btw :0 does this mean you live near veludo? let’s meet up!!!

kaz-PIKO: ,,, i don’t usually say this but, that social butterfly piece was breathtaking. you must really like me, huh? (･ω<)☆ jk haha

kaz-PIKO: no but really, it’s beautiful. thank you, honestly. it made my day, you make me happy ♡

kaz-PIKO: you must be really beautiful, too. i would want to draw you as well. lmk if ur up for that haha

kazunari read back his previous messages, all of them delivered but unopened. he realized how... how open he already was with the anonymous faceless artist, despite never interacting with them

now that he knew what you looked like, it only reassured his intuition that he was rightfully head over heels for you

kazunari typed something before deleting it, closing out of instablam and throwing his phone somewhere on his bed

kaz-PIKO: i was right, you are beautiful. i may have fallen in love, too

some things were better left unsaid. after all, you two had until next week to figure everything out

for the rest of the week, all you and kazunari did were think about the other person. a small part of you was afraid kazunari wasn’t the dream boy you imagined, but he was much more. you noticed he started posting more often and turned his notifications, wanting to be one of the first to see his practice videos and university selfies

you didn’t post any of the art you made of kazunari, making it the longest you hadn’t posted ever. kazunari couldn’t help but refresh your account every now and then, hoping he’d see his face again, as selfish as it was. kazunari wouldn’t know how’d he feel if he saw someone else had your heart

the longer time went on, the more you were certain. every fascination you had with someone was temporary, and you remembered the feeling rather than the person. but, with kazunari, you liked him for who he was. everything kazunari made you feel was new and exciting, but even when that went away, you still liked him

kazunari was your first crush, for real

kazunari liked making people like him. so, your online confession through art wasn’t exactly a surprise. but, yours was different. it was earnest, honest, and everything he didn’t know he was needing

kazunari looked through your sketchbook again and again, tracing over the notes you wrote in the margins and admiring your skill

kazunari liked you, and he was certain he would’ve still liked you even if you weren’t to-everyone-ive-loved-before

when showtime arrived, kazunari was oddly nervous. peeking from behind the red curtain, kazunari could already see you were one of the first sitting front row, just like you said. he had practiced his lines a thousand times and summer was fully prepared, why was he nervous?

before he went on, kazunari ignored the urgency of the mankai staff and quickly texted a message to your profile, hoping you’d at least see the notification this time

kaz-PIKO: i like you, too

(when you felt your phone buzz, you quickly silenced it)

the show moved you to a standing ovation, just like everyone else in the audience. as summer walked out to bow and express their gratitude, you watched kazunari’s eyes search for yours as he tilted his head towards backstage. you nodded, knowing you’d do anything to see this kazunari. actor kazunari, who was on cloud 9 with his performance and glowing from praise

you wanted to see, to experience, to draw, all versions of kazunari

after the applause, you looked around backstage before feeling a hand on your arm, the feeling reminiscent of the first time you bumped into kazunari

“you came.” kazunari breathlessly stated, as if he was surprised. before he could say anything else, you presented him with a bouquet of hibiscus flowers. the same shade of yellow you drew him with

“of course, i wanted to see you again.” you honestly admitted, knowing it made you flustered. kazunari carefully took the flowers before grinning, gently placing then beneath his chin. he looked like a vision, you wish you could’ve asked him to stand still so you could capture this moment forever

“i wanted to see you, too.” kazunari softly said, all the energy of being on stage gone. it was tranquil and peaceful, like you two were the only people in the entire theatre

kazunari took a moment to admire you before realizing something, taking something from behind him and presenting it to you. it was your sketchbook on the bottom, but a smaller version was on top of it, signed in silver sharpie. kazunari’s signature was glittering like his eyes as you took it

“next time, let’s draw together.”

kazunari’s sketchbook was filled with you. anything from small doodles to encouraging messages was found inside, with tens of post-it notes of just thoughts about you. kazunari’s art was colorful and extremely out of the box compared to his usual traditional style. it made you smile

kazunari watched you flip through it, already knowing this was the greatest act of love he could’ve declared this early on. he anticipated for you to reach the end

when you landed on the last page, you saw a note

do you want go on a date with me?

“next time, respond to my dms! that way i don’t have to write everything~!” kazunari teased and you two shared a laugh, knowing everything was going to be okay

“yes.”

“yes...?”

“yes, i’ll respond to your dms. and yes, i’ll go on a date with you.”

eventually, you ended up closing your blog for good. your last post was a picture of you and kazunari, with one caption

to-everyone-ive-loved-before: XX/XX/20 (3:33 P.M.) — to the one boy i love now, i love you

kaz-PIKO: i love you, too ♡

[dzamie-oc]

14 - Sea

I just... I really like that "here there be dragons" thing, okay? It got the imaginations of old timey bards and seafaring boasters going, and it gets me thinking about dragons, too.

Length: 1600 words Rating: G Summary: A sailor goes exploring in what he thinks are uncharted waters. He finds them perfectly charted.

-----

William checked his boat’s navigator against the old map spread on the table. It wasn’t a treasure map, and a lot of the handwriting on it was barely this side of legible, but it was one of his father’s most prized possessions, and he intended to finish it. The old man had always insisted to him that it already had been, but Will was no fool. Written on the space just - he checked his speed - just five minutes away was, in large script, “Here There Be Dragons.” He’d tried to explain to his dad that that was what old cartographers would write in unexplored areas, where the unknown was speculated to have fantastical, unreal beasts, but all that ever got him was a condescending smile and a shake of his head.

He wasn’t going to deface the map, of course; he was raised better than to mistreat old heirlooms. He was, however, going to fill in the region on a copy he’d made. Probably with some little doodles of fish, unless an island popped up real soon. Until then, of course, there was little reason not to enjoy the salty sea air, so Will set the navigation computer and strolled out onto the deck to watch and listen to the waves.

The sun shone splendidly down with only a few clouds in the sky, and its light glittered off the wide, open waters. Will half wished he’d brought some fishing equipment, though admitted to himself that it would mostly be there for habit - an excuse to just sit back and relax while pretending not to be wasting time. After motoring to the middle of the “Here There Be Dragons,” noting the surprisingly shallow depth on the fathometer, and anchoring his vessel, the amateur sailor went around the deck, trying to see anything of note in the area. He thought he caught a glimpse of a fish over one side, but other than that, nothing, after the better part of half an hour. 

He made a note of the somewhat shallow water on his map, and went to draw the anchor back up. However, the thought of relaxing in calm waters tugged at his mind, so he stayed his hand and instead settled himself in a chair outside the cabin. After all, he reasoned, he had budgeted ample time to explore an uncharted island or a somehow still-floating derelict, so he might as well use it for a nap. And like that, to the sounds of the waves ebbing and flowing atop the water, and gently slapping against the boat’s hull, he let himself fall asleep.

“...rwater? Captain Bradley? Is that you? Wow, time has been good to you!” a female voice said, rousing William from sleep.

Groggy, the sailor stretched, then squinted towards the voice, shading his eyes with his hand. “Miss? Who... why are you out so far? There’s nothing here.”

The voice made a confused noise. “Hm? I live here, don’t you remember? Oh no, did you somehow lose your memory?”

William shook his head. “Gimme a second, here.” He rose from his chair and stumbled slightly, catching himself on what felt like damp leather. “Thanks, but ma’am, you’re soaked!” Finally, he was able to clear his vision and adjust to the sunlight once again, and nearly fainted dead away at the sight.

“Well, SOME of us swim through the water,” said the scaly, blue-green... creature. One forepaw was outstretched to keep William balanced, and her hindlegs were easily a dozen feet past that. She resembled an eel, with her long body and her even longer tail, sporting a single fin down her length, and her head was almost avian with its triangular shape and beak-like muzzle, except she was absolutely covered in scales, and sported a single horn right below her eyes. The shape of her face didn’t lend itself to smiling, and nor do many animals express themselves with a smile, but the tone of her voice told him plainly of her happy, playful attitude.

Will realized he was staring, and tried to figure out whether it was more important that he was staring at a very large, potentially carnivorous creature with claws and what must be a powerful tail, or staring for an awfully long time at someone who thought she was familiar with him. Before he could come to a conclusion, however, the creature drew back and veritably strutted about the deck, striking a pose and showing off the profile of her horned head. “Hey, I hardly blame you for looking, when what you’ve got to look at is a dragoness as beautiful as me. But, seriously, are you okay, Bradley? You’ve hardly said a word.”

“Sorry, who do you think I am? I’ve never been out here,” Will admitted, then took a careful step towards the cabin. “Please don’t kill me.”

“You’re not Captain Bradley Clearwater?” the dragon asked, “then... why do you have his boat? And look just like him?”

“No, I’m William Clearwater,” he replied, half out of habit, “Bradley was my fa-”

The two of them stopped and stared at each other in shocked silence as the pieces clicked into place.

“Bradley had a kid!?” she shouted and rushed towards Will. “And he didn’t TELL me!?”

Will, to his credit, displayed a phenomenal reaction time, diving away from the lunging sea monster. Peering out from the cabin door, he saw her hesitate, then take a step back. “Also, uh,” she said with less energy than earlier, “I’m not going to kill you. Or, well, I’d rather not. Decency aside, Bradley would be pissed if I killed his kid.”

The sailor took a tentative step out of the cabin, though stayed close by and warily eyed the dragon. “Okay, first thing’s first, I’m dreaming, right? Fell asleep on the open ocean, and my mind is making up some sort of benevolent sea monster who knows my dad?”

The creature shook her head. “I don’t think so, unless you’ve been asleep for longer than you’ve been alive. I’m just one of the only dragons who let humans see us. How is Bradl- your dad, anyway? It’s been awhile.”

“He...” Will sighed. “He passed away a few years ago. That’s why I have his boat.”

“Oh. And you came to tell me the news?”

He shook his head. “I didn’t even know you existed - er, no offense. I just came because of a map he made that had been bugging me.”

“Ooh, a treasure map?” She stepped forward, her body lightly wiggling from nose to tail. “Can I see?”

Will looked at her still-wet body, and thought of the aged paper map. “I’ll... here, let me show you the copy I made. It’s not a treasure map.” He ducked in, grabbed his map from the table, and walked over, holding it so they both could see. “See, the only difference was that his map had a “Here There Be Dragons” in this empty spot, so I came to finish exploring.” He blinked, then looked at her. “Also, I don’t think I caught your name?”

“Well, if you were your dad, I wouldn’t have needed to tell you, so I haven’t yet. I’m Carol,” Carol said. “If that’s the only difference, I’d say it is a treasure map.”

“Wait, what?” Will stared frantically all over the map, looking for some hint or clue or anything that he might have missed, that Carol had somehow seen immediately. “How?”

“The real one says “Here There Be Dragons,” right?” She stepped back and raised a forepaw to her scaly chest, standing proud. “I’m the treasure!”

“No, it’s a shorthand that medieval cartographers used to represent... ah, nevermind.” Will smiled. “In that case, I think I’d like to get to know this treasure, at least for a couple of hours before I head back.”

“Awesome, I love talking about myself!” Carol chirped. “Plus, you definitely have to catch me up on the last... three hundred moons or so?”

“Sounds like a plan.” Will returned his map to the cabin, then emerged onto the deck once more to pass the time with his unexpected guest.

-----

Dragon and sailor spent the next few hours talking, teaching each other about their cultures, and just hanging out in general. By the time William had to leave, he had grown bold enough to ask if he could feel her scales - on purpose, this time, and Carol was more than happy to show him just where on her head to rub, and then joked that now, he was obligated to do that more, the next time he visited. After he said his goodbyes, Carol dove over the side of the boat and into the water. It surprised William, how little her leap made the boat rock back and forth, and what small splash she made, in spite of being easily four or five times as long as he was tall.

Carol helped lift the anchor, even though William tried to explain that it was an automatic thing now. Once it was all up, they bid farewell one last time, and then William started up the engine. With Carol keeping her neck and one forepaw above the water, the two waved at each other for a bit as they receded into their respective distances, and then the dragon vanished beneath the waves, leaving the man to his thoughts.

William looked at his map, thinking about his original plan for the trip - to prove to himself (and his father’s memory) that the map really was incomplete. He stared at the little mark he made on his map, noting the unexpectedly shallower waters he dropped anchor in. And, with a confident, humorous smile he suspected looked like the one his dad gave him whenever he brought up the old map, William put pen to paper, making sure to write in the correct place, and write legibly:

“Here There Be Dragons”

[randomfandomdrabbles]

Eruri Headcanons

Y’all seem to like my Levi Ackerman NSFW Headcanons so here’s a little piece by me to my fellow Eruri shippers (LeviHan is next!)

Erwin is very understanding towards Levi and his habits carried over from his past. His cleanliness, his standoffish attitude, his reluctance to socialize, things of that nature don’t bother Erwin because he knows exactly why Levi is that way and he loves these things about Levi.

I feel as though they would never make their relationship official, but everyone just sort of knows not to go after either of them. Like, they’ve never said they were a couple, but it can just sort of be seen in their actions.

Levi has shown Erwin little talents of his without even thinking about it at first, but he’s also shown things to Erwin to impress him that he was very aware could be impressive.

One example would be the knife game. You remember the knife game? Where you press your open hand palm side down on the table and stab around your fingers to the tone of a song. Yeah, I wanna say Levi did that around Erwin to try and impress him when they were just starting to get along

It scared the hell out of Erwin because he thought his best soldier was going to stab himself, but he was, and he’d never admit it aloud because he doesn’t want to make Levi do it again, pretty impressed by the end when Levi had no cuts or pricks or stab wounds in his hands. 

Erwin and Hanji taught Levi how to read/write, but Erwin taught him cursive/calligraphy and how to develop his signature for paperwork

He also thinks Levi has a beautiful signature, even though it’s literally just his first name written in a pretty way

Levi laughs around Erwin quite a bit. He finds Erwin to be really funny and laughs at his jokes when they’re alone. 

Erwin loves Levi’s laugh and his smile and tries to get him to laugh a lot. Sometimes, if he’s lucky and being really funny, Levi will laugh hard and it sounds like, to my best descriptive abilities, David So’s laugh

Before they started their not so official relationship, Erwin found himself doodling Levi’s face quite often. After their relationship started, he openly drew Levi while they sat in his office and Levi was amazed by it

He never had anyone draw him before, by the way.

Levi brings tea to Erwin’s office and they sit in there and work together when they have piles of paperwork to get through

Since it’s canon that they share a room, I wanna say Levi keeps little things from his past hidden in a box under their bed and Erwin is mindful not to touch it or let anyone else know it’s there

I wanna say Levi hides a lot of things so no one finds them because of his past and Erwin ends up randomly finding little things hidden here and there in their room

He won’t say anything or move the things found, he just goes about his day because he doesn’t want to make Levi feel nervous about his things being found

Levi doesn’t say that he loves anyone word for word. He says it differently and, with Erwin, he tells him that he trusts him and will follow him to the end. 

Erwin loves to wrap his arms around Levi’s waist and rest his head on top of Levi’s head. He also loves to kiss the top of his head

Levi may beat the fuck out of someone for calling him “shorty” but he loves the height difference between himself and Erwin. Something about it makes him feel protected by his big boyfriend and he loves being manhandled by his big boyfriend during sex

On that note, Erwin was genuinely worried about hurting Levi the first time they had sex, so Levi had to keep reassuring him that he was okay and he could go harder and faster or choke him or pull his hair or anything if he wanted to

Levi never understood why Erwin would give him his clothes when they were obviously too big and what the fuck, don’t you need those clothes Erwin? Then he learned that it was something done in relationships and Erwin had plenty of clothes and fuck his clothes smell good so he just accepted it

Erwin loves to hear stories about Levi’s past, whether they’re sad or not. He gets to learn more about his little lover

Levi loves hearing stories about Erwin’s childhood, especially his time in school.

[alphasmoonlit-selfships]

🍃 🐚 ⭐️

Hello mystery anon! Thank you so much for the ask! I forgot as I was writing that that were asks meant to be answered by me for my F/o, but considering my recent f/o takeover by my dearest Atsushi, he answered a few of the asks too! UwU;

"It is a shared blog between us, Darling," Atsushi commented lightly, resting his chin a top the petite brunette, "I'm sure they won't mind at all!" 🥰

"Well let's just jump right into it, shall we?"

🍃:  Do you live together? If not, would you like to? How would you or how do you decorate?

Atsushi: We do live together actually! You can know more about that here in this ask!

Though the second question is new to answer; it was a slow and gradual process to decorate our place after it was entirely cleaned and ready to inhabit. We started with basic things we could afford, the Agency definitely helping us to get a few other things to fill in the space and make it feel more homey. Which we were grateful towards nonetheless!

Even so, I think the decorator between us is Dany, she usually suggests colors and what might fit well with the setting of a certain room in our condo. As well as how the layout should be. Of course, I pitch in my own suggestions that she usually considers and takes full validation of 😄 it definitely helps her figure things out as she often hits a dead end and is left a bit irked when she runs out of ideas 👀

We often buy things at random that might make the condo more homey, be it buying some items for the living room or dining, some plants to make the place more lively, either inside or on the balcony space, or paintings and frames. Which might I add, we have hung some pieces we worked on together!

It was some quality time building when we painted and made a messy, yet nice piece done! I may not be much of an artist, but Dany does know how to boost someone’s confidence when it comes to the subject U///w///U she is very sweet, comforting and patient.

But yeah! We are a bit of a mix of traditional, minimalist, and modern through the home!

🐚:  Which one of you brings the most physical or emotional energy to the relationship? Are there ever times where it’s overwhelming to the other, or are you pretty evenly matched?

Atsushi: I think Dany and I have shared a decent amount of offering each other that physical and emotional and mental energy to our relationship. It varies a lot with what we experience individually, but overall it is evenly match. We have a deep understanding of one another and share a few similarities when it comes to how we think and want to act on our emotions and affections.

I think Dany gives more of the physical energy as she isn’t one to always put things into words as it sounds in her mind. Her affection is warm, sweet, comforting, it’s soothing and brings out any tension I feel personally after a bad day. She often sings and hums to offer a bit of vocal response, or asks questions for me that give me the door to open if I want to talk about something. She doesn't press instantly and allows space for me to figure out what I would like to say.

I do worry that sometimes I may be a bit overwhelming for her; she is rather emphatic and has the tendency to take other’s emotions that often do drain her later on. It..often leads her to be apathetic when she feels her own bad days.

Which leads to the opposite of me, she is more withdrawn from speaking about her struggles and worries. Always giving a lot of herself to me or others that she forgets about herself. That’s where I have slowly began to draw her out of that mindset, I can understand where she comes from in that regard and offer what she usually craves the most; To be listened without being interrupted or bringing up an assumption she hasn’t stated. She use to apologize,,, frequently for how she just kept rambling about some feelings and teared up out of emotion. She still does occasionally, but not as often as before.

We have been through a lot, uncovering old wounds and healing together. Giving each other that reassurance and validation we both crave more than anything. I think that’s a great positive to our relationship, is how well we share a wavelength in our emotions and how we naturally crave physical bliss from each other. It’s a steady and comforting recovery to just cuddle in bed together after a draining day, for either or both of us.

On a positive note, we are very affectionate and sweet together, so a lot of other people tend to say. Sometimes saying how we are wholesome, or adorable together. It is nice and validating to hear. I tend to be more loving in public when given the chance, Dany isn't much into PDA as she doesn't like so many eyes on her. But has gradually learned to not care too much on it. She has gotten more confident in that regard 🥰 especially with surprise kisses U///w///U

I think the first time she ever kisses me a bit...passionately in public was when someone was apparently flirting with me? I didn't have a clue about it if I have to be honest 😅 and I do think her wolf ability may have given her that forward reaction to kiss me. Surprised I was, but not at all opposed to it~ it was so cute to see slowly realize what she did later and how she practically combusted into embarrassment for her forward action. She definitely needed some reassurance and words of encouragement from me 🥰🥰🥰

Needless to say, she is adorable and I love my darling, tiny lover UwU <3

⭐️: Does your FO have any habits that you only noticed after spending a significant amount of time with them? Do they notice any of yours?

Habits eh? Hmm, Atsushi has some peculiar ones that are caused by his tiger ability... I mean so do I, but I'm normally like that since I was a child. 😅 He is like a cat sometimes and it is honestly endearing to witness and very comforting 🥰 he purrs when we cuddle and has these big eyes sometimes when I give him praise and kisses UwU. Sometimes dilated during more... affectionate times~

He also still bares some habits that stem from his time at the orphanage that I never noticed until we started living together. Such as his early sleep and morning wake up schedule. I’m not much of a morning person in the slightest 😅 I can be very irked and tense and need at least an hour to mentally wake myself up as I move about the place. I especially need coffee and some sort of protein with my food to wake me up.

I’m not very lively and may look irritated to a fault 😔 the amount of times I worried mi Tigre at the start because he thought he did something wrong ;;;w;;; of course with time he understood and got use to it and definitely gave me the space to compose myself. He definitely makes it easier to wake up with a few affectionate kisses and preparing breakfast ;;;w;;; I, of course, in the rare times do the same for him, I just have to be up prior to his now 6am wake up 😮‍💨

Hmm.. he also has his bad days, usually when a memory of his past flickers in his mind he kind of shuts down and it leads to nightmares occasionally. They were more frequent earlier on when we moved in together in the dorms and the first few weeks in our new home and have gradually slowed down. But sometimes I would wake in the middle of the night to him gone, immediately picking him out cowering away in a closet. Huddled in a ball and attempting to stifle his tears when I find him..

I was concerned, but not overly as before when he first did this prior to our relationship. Instead I joined him and offered him my comfort to ground him back from his terror and memory. Usually wordless, gentle comfort and letting him cry out all the emotions that twist and pained his heart. Once he calmed a bit, I offered any words of validation and usually pitch the question if he would like to talk about it. Sometimes yes, sometimes no, either or I don’t let up holding him and keeping him steady to present time.

It’s definitely helped a lot, mi pobre tigre… he feels bad sometimes for the disrupt sleep or mental toll it brings me. But I always remind him, gently but stern, that in those moments he is the one that matters and I am not about to abandon him in his time of need.

Maybe it’s because I understand him deeply in that sense, while our lives may not have been the same, we understand the toll our traumatic past takes on us, individually.

Atsushi has definitely been there for me a lot of the time, I have a lot of self doubt and need plenty of reassurance. I’m..overly sensitive too so I don’t like arguing or any rise in anger, it’s hard for me to…really stand up for myself in that regard; hee..to literally not cry because I am trying to make a point…

Ah sorry, about the small downed turn this took; I don’t normally talk about these things. Am trying to get better by talking more about it, especially with mi Tigre who honestly listens when so many … often don’t.

Nonetheless, some more positive, funny/cute habits from the last; Atsushi tends to ramble on about new things he learns and enjoys telling me more about it. I remember he spoke for a whole hour about chameleons, I drew him some cute doodles as he told me more about them. He keeps the image somewhere in his phone. He also rubs his neck or cups his chin a lot when confused, nervous or in deep thought.

He on the other hand has noticed how often I tend to sit on my legs, that I don’t have a single perfect posture no matter where I sit. Could be the most comforting chair or very stiff, hard ones and I still keep my legs up with me. I just can't for the life of me sit still at all, it'd last like less than 5 minutes at most 😅 but he finds it adorable and cute how often I can just curl myself into what looks like an awkward position to others but for me is rather comfy and just how I prefer to sit.

His lap is the most comforting place to sit tho 👀👀

Atsushi: You also have the bad habit of biting your lips, Darling 👀

👀...Noooo... okay yes I do, a lot, like a lot more as of recent,,, And I crack my fingers a lot too...and tap my feet, more so in public out of nervous jitters I think...

Well, that's enough of that~ we greatly appreciate the emoji asks and honestly love doing these kinds of asks 🥺 it gives me so much more of a chance to explore the dynamic and relationship between mi Tigre and I ❤️😍🥰 Leaves me warm and fussy and soft. A melting puddle of silly and foolish love U///w///U...

Please by all mean's don't be shy to send asks or talk with me! I do my best to respond when I can and want to give all my love and support to every self shipper! Till the next asks! Take care!

[musictrash0426]

Killing Stalking

 My name is Elizabeth Stevens, I’m 17 and it is one month until my senior year of highschool. Most of my friends are going crazy trying to plan out their futures. However, unlike my peers, I've known what I've wanted to be since I was 13. I want to be an artist, my parents fully support my decision which is nice. They have bought me plenty of professional quality supplies since my 14th birthday when they saw all the hard work I put into my art. I've even started selling prints of my work on Redbubble. I also have quite the following 

Overall I live in a pretty good neighbourhood. It has great people, including my best friend Kai who lives a few streets over. My family and I live in a pretty large house. It has three floors which is a little big if you ask me. There are only the three of us living here, me, mom and dad. But with that being said my parents gave me the entire basement on my 13th birthday. They also helped me set up every room down here the way I want. Not much has changed, even after being down here for four years..

When you come down the stairs you are greeted with my lounge area. Where  we have a couch, tv, game system, large bookshelf and some other things. Next we have my room where I have a fairly minimal look. I have a large bed, large dresser, a walk in closet, and my vanity where I do my makeup. The next room is probably my favourite; it's my art studio. Like I said my parents have supported me over the years so I have a lot of supplies. Honestly I couldn't be more grateful for them and everything they’ve given me. I have a full easel, desk, and a lot of supplies, markers, colour pencils, paint (water, acrylic, oils), alongside my new drawing tablet.

This morning when I got up, I went to my art room and started sketching. I've gotten into this habit as it helps me get into a creative mindset, along with getting into drawing for the day. Once I stop doodling I start to make a list of the things of supplies I had recently run out of. 

As I was about to leave, I asked my parents if they needed anything. My mom told me to get her a drink from Starbucks on my way home as she knows I’m planning on going there anyways. 

I get into my car and drive to the art store. Luckily this store is only 10 minutes from my house. I walk into the store and look for the supplies on my list. While going through the store, grabbing the things I needed, I decided I also wanted to try out a new paint while I was here. I got some winsor and newton acrylics in red, blue,yellow, sienna, black and white along with some mixing pallets. I also got a canvas as I want to make a large painting later. 

My mom texted me asking if I could pick up milk and eggs. So I ran into the supermarket and picked up the few things she wanted. I then went to starbucks, got both my parents, and myself a few drinks, and went home. 

I got out of my car balancing shopping bags on my arm,the drinks in my hand and I went inside. I put the milk and eggs in the fridge, gave my parents their drinks and made my way down to my art room to put my supplies away. I started brainstorming ideas of what I want to paint and I finally came up with a concept I liked. I open my sketchbook and I start to draw the rough copy of the picture before blowing it up on the canvas and painting it. While I am drawing out the picture I'm watching lavendertowne’s creepypastas series as it's one of my favourites on youtube. 

In my concentration, I lose track of time, and before I know it it’s 4:30 pm. My mom walks to my art room saying her and dad are going on a trip for the next week. So I get the house to myself, which is cool. I've been home alone before. “Elle, you can have Kai over to stay for the week if you want.” mom said. “Also I transferred some money into your account so you and Kai can just order some food if you guys get hungry.” 

“Thanks mom,” I say “ I love you.”

“Love you too sweetie.” 

I walk upstairs with mom as her and dad are about to leave. I hug them goodbye and tell them to have a safe trip. 

I decide to take mom up with her offer and invite Kai over for the week. Lately I haven't been wanting to be home alone. So I called him and he said he’d be over in 10 minutes. 

I grab a glass of water and wait, before I knew it there was a knock on my door and it was Kai. I give him a hug and he smiles. 

“It’s like we haven't seen each other in a while.” Kai teases me. We saw each other yesterday and I called him late last night because I just wanted to talk to someone. 

Kai has literally been my best friend since we were both in diapers. Our moms grew up together so it was bound to happen that we would too. He’s my biggest support system, he’s one of the only people who know how I got into art. I watched a lot of anime growing up, I still do, and the art style is what got me into wanting to be an artist. 

“Have you started a new piece yet?” Kai asked 

“Yeah I have! And I just finished the rough copy” I say.

“Can I watch you work on it?” 

“Of course you can silly,” I say with a grin. I show Kai the canvas to let him gauge what I’ve been working on. 

“It looks really good!” But his face saddens a little bit. “Are you doing alright?” I give him a confused look. “You tend to draw horror pieces when you're trying to get yourself into a better place.” 

Horror pieces are my favourite to draw. I don't have an explanation for it, but I've always liked them. Maybe it's because I loved horror shows growing up but who knows. I look back at all my works and Kai’s right. I tend to do these pictures more when I'm not the best headspace. 

“You really know me, at this point it's mostly subconscious” I laugh “I was also watching creepypasta videos so the idea could have come from that. Anyways, what do you think about it so far?” 

“I love it of course!” Kai says

I work on transferring it onto the canvas and after about 2 hours the pencil sketch is laid out. Once that's done we decide to go to the movies. We went and saw whatever Kai wanted to see. He picked some rom com which I wasn't mad at as I enjoy these types of movies. 

After the movie we went to a sushi place for dinner. I wasn't that hungry so I got the rest of mine to go. Then we went to the supermarket to get some candy and pop for tonight. We decided that we were going to stay up quite a bit of the night so I can work on my artwork and we can just talk about life and stuff. We pull into the parking lot and head inside. This store is open 24/7 so we have plenty of time to get our stuff, but still it is 11:30pm and something makes the air feel very eerie tonight. 

After walking around the store Kai and I look at eachother and we both feel like something is off because this uneasy feeling Kai and I hurry up and grab what we wanted. Kai and I decided to pick up Sour Patch Kids, gummy bears and some chips. We then went into the drink aisle where I picked out Dr. Pepper, and ginger ale. Kai picked out diet Pepsi and cream soda. We picked out the four flavours that we both love. We then decided to get a tub of cotton candy ice cream. As we were turning there was this lady who crashed her cart into ours as we were on our way to check out. I looked up and noticed that it was the same lady that had been in each aisle with us, which honestly didn’t make any sense as we just went to the isles we needed. 

We check out of the store and head back to the car. After putting everything in the trunk of the car, I look up and see the same woman still there. What the fuck?

“Hey Kai, can you take the cart back please?” He nods and I get into the car and lock it. 

I hear a knock that startles me and I look up. It was just Kai. I unlocked the door and he got in. “Wanna tell me why you had the door locked Elle?”

I look over and the woman gets into the car next to us oh great my horror brain made something out of nothing. She was also probably having a movie night with some of her friends.

“It’s nothing Kai, I think I’m just psyching myself out.”

“Okay.” With that we drove back to my place right in the nic of time too as it just started to rain. We shut off all the lights and lock the doors and windows upstairs. We head back down to my studio and I set up everything to begin painting.

I wanted something in the background while I was working so I put on Another. Kai and I have already watched it a few times but we didn’t want to start something new since I wouldn't be able to give it my full attention. Also it's a horror anime so it will put me in the mood for my painting.

I looked down at the outline I drew; it was a girl who had gone psychotic and had a knife in her hand. My plan is to add blood to her once the painting is completely dry, but first I start by painting the eyes. When they are finished they look very dead and already mentally gone inside. I take a break and lay my head on Kai’s shoulder.

“Tired?” he asks me.

“No, I just wanted a break.” We continue watching the anime after two more episodes. There was a bang of thunder and a flash of lightning, I looked out the small window and saw what looked to be a figure of a woman. I looked back to get a better look but she's gone. I must just be seeing things.

I brush it off then get back to my painting. About an hour later I finish painting the skin and I see another flash out of the corner of my eye. I think to myself how odd that is  because there was no thunder. I brushed it off as the volume of the show probably just covered the sound. I decided to be done with painting for the night, so we moved out into the lounge area and continued watching Another. There was another flash and in the window we saw her. The woman from the supermarket was in my window.We were going to call the cops then with another flash she's gone.

We decided we couldn't take anymore horror tonight so we put on Ouran Highschool Host Club a few hours later we were on the episode where a character named Tamaki was trying to figure out his friend Haruhi’s biggest fear. When we see a flash of lightning in the episode, it also flashes here, and we see her silhouette again and she vanishes with the lightning once more. 

Creeped out we went to my room and lay in bed, I cuddled into Kai because honestly I was shaking and needed comfort.

In the morning Kai and I woke up to banging on the door. I checked the time and it was 8:30 am. We got up and checked no one was there, but there was an envelope that said Elizabeth Steevens and Kai Kalua I brought it inside.

“Ummmm Kai?”

“Yeah?”

I turn the envelope to show him. We were both scared and didn't know what to do. We opened it and there were at least 40 photos of us, starting from when we were coming out of the movie. There were photos of us at the sushi restaurant, the grocery store, and the worst ones of all the ones that were taken looking into my house. Ones of us in my art room, in the lounge, and ones of us asleep in my bed.

Panicked, I call the police and they tell us to come down to the station. Since neither of us knew the woman's name they said there was nothing they could really do for us except to have us tell them if something else happens. Some help they were, I thought.

Kai and I went back to my studio and I continued working on the piece. This time our show of choice was Miria Nikki. As I was painting the hair I saw another flash and considering what happened last night we decided to go to my parents office and check the security cameras and lo and behold she's there on the property.

“Kai whats that in her hand?”

“I don’t know,”

I looked closer and saw that it was a knife. We once again called the police and this time they came, but hearing a car must have scared her. They came inside and asked to watch the cameras with us. Only this time she was at the back door that's connected to the kitchen and of course I happened to leave it unlocked…

“Oh Elizabeth, Kai, come out come out wherever you are..” The woman sang out menacingly. Her voice rang through the house loudly causing me to look to one of the officers for advice

He nods for Kai and I walk out.

“There you two are,”

“Do we know you?” I ask, genuinely confused as to who this woman is.

“Yeah I don't know who you are either.” Kai said just as confused.

“I'm Chloe. I am in your art class.” She says.

We were both confused; we don’t remember having ever seen her before. Our art class had six people in it, us two, three other of our friends and some weird girl who doesn't talk to anybody.

“... you’re the weird girl in our class aren’t you?” Kai questions.

“What did you call me?” She asked with a defensive tone.

“What did you expect him to say, you literally refuse to talk to us. Then whenever the teacher praises my work, you get angry. Besides who goes around taking pictures of people in their own house! That is fucking creepy.” I say

“I get angry because you always get the spotlight! Give someone else a turn.”

“Elle gets the attention because she actually shows her artwork, you just sit in the back of the class and do nothing. If you want attention why ignore us when we try talking to you? What is your problem? And why do you have a knife?” You can tell Kai is starting to lose patience with the situation, as his questions get increasingly aggressive.

“So I can get rid of my competition,” she smiles sweetly.

“What competition? There is no competition Chloe” I ask 

“What competition? I have liked Kai forever!” Chloe says frustrated, slightly getting closer to the two of them with the knife.

Kai puts one hand out towards her, while using the other to pull me back with him a couple steps, creating distance between her and I before he speaks again.“I will never like you. Besides there is only one person I like, and hate to break it to sweetheart but it's not you.” This makes me curious who Kai was referring to.

“Then who is it then?” she asks angrily

That's when Kai kissed me. I kissed him back, albeit slightly flustered. This caused Chloe to become enraged, she came towards us with the knife and that's when the cops came out and told her to put the knife down. She complied and dropped the knife as she didn’t realize that the police were here. 

One of the two cops took her away as the other came and told us they were going to hold her and do a mental assessment on her. He also checked to see if Kai and I were okay. After we tell him we are he also leaves, leaving Kai and I alone to deal with this new revelation.

“Do you actually like me? Or were you just saying that to get her to stop…” anxious about the answer since I have liked Kai for a while, but didn't want to make things awkward with him.

“Elle I have liked you for a while but I didn't want to lose you.” Kai says as he pulls me closer to him.

I don't know how to respond, all my mind was telling me was ‘kiss him’. I pull him in by his shoulders to another kiss, quickly dispelling doubts either of us had. Kai placed his hands on my waist and melted into it. He pulls away and leans his forehead against mine, just holding me. For the first time in a few days I felt safe.

“Kai?” I ask in a quiet tone almost a whisper.

“Yeah sweetheart?” 

“Can you stay while my parents are gone?” I don’t feel safe enough to be home alone, and you wanted to stay in the comfort that he gave you.

“Of course I can angel.”

[lightsupinthenorth]

Read me like an open book part 1/2

Hey! :) Here is the first part of a two-part (at least I think ah ah) Harringrove fanfiction. It’s set a few years after the events of the third season (which Billy survived, obviously ^^). It starts on Steve’s birthday just because it’s my birthday today :p 

I hope you’ll enjoy ;) 

*

Read on AO3 

“It’s presents time, bitches!” Robin said, getting up from the floor, where Steve was still sprawled with Billy half-laying on top of him. 

They might have overdone it a little on the weed. Steve didn’t really care, though. He was relaxed and happy. So far, his twenty-first birthday had been the best birthday ever. Robin and Billy had organized a surprise gathering in their shared flat, inviting the kids, Nancy and Jonathan, as well as Joyce and Hopper. After everyone had left earlier in the evening, Robin had gone to her room and had come back with a bag of weed bought by Billy and her for the occasion, and they had gotten positively baked. 

Billy and Robin had insisted to give him his present when it was just the three of them instead of doing it at the same time as the others. When Steve had seen the weed, he had understood why. So, he was confused when Robin mentioned presents. 

“What presents?” 

“Your birthday presents, dingus. I know you’re high right now, but I didn’t think you were high enough to forget your own birthday.” Robin cackled. 

“Hey, I haven’t forgotten. I just kinda thought… wasn’t the weed the present?” 

“Pfff, no.” Billy replied. “What kind of present would that be? As if we didn’t already smoke weed on the regular.” 

He made them sound like potheads. They didn’t smoke that often… Then again, it did happen more frequently than their respective birthdays. 

“Yo, Buckley, can you go to my room and fetch my present for Steve too, now that you’re at it. It’s in the drawer of my bedside table.” Billy yelled, a lot louder than was necessary considering Robin was just in the next room. 

Steve whined. Billy’s voice was reverberating in his head. 

“Sure, you lazy fuck.” She yelled back, just as loud. 

They were so noisy!

“Open mine first!” Robin said as she sat down on the floor again, extending a rectangular package. 

Steve had to detangle himself from Billy, ignoring his mumbled complaints, before he tore into the brightly colored wrapping paper. He uncovered a thick book with a beautiful cover representing a sky full of stars. It was titled Long live the King. 

“I know you’ve taken to reading, these days, and this novel is amazing.” Robin assured. 

“It’s really not that good.” Billy grumbled, with a roll of his eyes.  

“Oh, you read it too?” Steve asked. 

“Uh… yeah, I did.” 

Billy was staring at Robin when he said it. And he was frowning. 

“Don’t listen to him, Steve, he’s being a buzzkill. You’re going to love it.” 

“I’m sure I will. Thanks Rob.” Steve hugged her.

He hoped Billy would still agree to help him with the book, even if he didn’t like it much. Ever since he knew Steve had trouble with written words, Billy would read to him all the time. It had become their thing. Steve loved his voice. Well, Steve loved everything about him, but that was off topic. 

“Now, here’s Hargrove gift.” 

Robin basically dropped the gift in Steve’s lap. The wrapping paper had multi-colored stars on it. Steve unraveled it carefully and found a set of pencils and a beautiful sketchbook. Billy and Robin’s gifts kind of coordinated aesthetically speaking, which was nice. Indeed, on the cover of the notebook was a drawing of the night sky, with the sea represented underneath. “My sea of stars”, was written on the front. 

Steve used to doodle distractingly during class. He’d been doing it since primary school. After he had graduated, his doodling habit had spread to his daily life. He would draw lines absentmindedly while he was on the phone or trace random shapes on discarded pieces of paper when he was watching TV but was too fidgety to focus. He hadn’t been seriously committed to drawing, though. He had only started making it into a real hobby after Starcourt. Billy had been the one to suggest it, in fact. After he’d literally come back to life, Steve and he had become good friends, and Billy had noticed his little habit and had bought him a sketch pad. Drawing helped Steve a lot. Gave him something to do when he was feeling restless, which was the case more often than not after the whole ‘Upside-Down and co’ experience. 

Steve was frustrated by his lack of technique, at first, and had almost given up on several occasions. But Billy had always been there to cheer him up and keep him going. He was certain Billy hadn’t even realized his compliments and encouragements had prevented Steve from calling it quits at least a dozen times. They spent hours together in their living room, on the couch, Steve drawing while Billy wrote in his huge notebook, with his feet on Steve’s lap. Steve was eager to spend many more hours that exact same way, drawing on the new sketchbook Billy had offered him. 

“It’s… it’s really nice, Billy. I love it. Thank you.”  

“You’re welcome, Pretty boy.”

They hugged, and Billy didn’t let him go, half-climbing on him again as they laid back down. 

“Ugh, guys, seriously, get a room.” Robin complained, which led to Steve blushing and Billy flipping her the bird. 

Steve would have attributed Billy’s behavior to the weed, but they had gotten more and more tactile since the beginning of their friendship about two years prior, so the weed didn’t have much to do with it. Except that maybe Billy would have waited for Robin to go to bed before attaching himself to Steve like a koala, if he hadn’t been high.

Either way, Steve was far from complaining: the more Billy touched him, the better. 

Before he went to bed that night, Steve took his secret sketchpad – the one in which he drew his best friend page after page (like an obsessed creep) – from under his mattress, and drew the version of Billy he had seen earlier: high Billy, with his lax body and hazy eyes.

A few minutes after putting his paper shrine back in its usual hiding spot, Steve fell asleep with a smile on his face, and the smell of Billy’s cologne on his own skin. He hoped all his birthdays to come would be similar to this one. 

*

When Steve got up the next morning, Billy and Robin were eating breakfast in the kitchen. 

He heard Billy say:

“Stop it, Robin. I can’t tell him, I just can’t.” 

It made no sense to him, since he had missed the beginning of the conversation, but his interest was picked. 

“You can’t tell who, what?” He asked as he went to the cupboard to get his favorite cereals. No way he would eat oatmeal like Robin and Billy. What a depressing way to start the day. 

“I, uh…” Billy started. Robin interrupted him, though: 

“He can’t tell his coworker that his new haircut looks stupid.” 

“Yeah… ‘Cause it would be mean, you know.” Billy added, before putting a huge spoonful of oatmeal in his mouth. 

“Uh… well, it’s true. It wouldn’t be a very nice thing to say, Rob.” Steve agreed. 

He put his box of cereals on the table and sat down next to Robin, in front of Billy, who was looking intently at his bowl.  

“Why do you think Billy should tell the poor guy his hair looks weird?” 

If anyone said that to Steve, he’d be devastated. That was for sure. 

“So he can let his hair grow back and have it cut in a more flattering way.” Robin explained. “It would be doing him a favor, in my opinion.”  

Steve hummed. “Makes sense”, he said. He was more focused on his fruit loops, though. It wasn’t like he cared about the guy anyway. He hadn’t even met him. 

Robin hadn’t either, so Steve didn’t know why she was so pressed on Billy giving him hair advice. Whatever floats her boat, he thought. 

His roommates were weird, sometimes. Nothing could be done about it. 

*

The next weekend, Steve and Billy were both off from their respective work, and Steve really wanted to start reading the book Robin had gotten him for his birthday. 

Billy was occupied with a novel of his own next to him, and Steve didn’t want to be a burden, so he started reading on his own. After a few pages, he was already hooked, but he got tired quickly, as he always did. Frustrated, he fidgeted a bit on the couch and brought the book closer to his face, as if it would help the words stop swimming in front of his eyes. 

Billy sighed. 

“What’s up, Pretty boy?” He asked, only then looking up from his own reading.

“I just… would it be okay… would you read to me? Please.” 

Billy sighed again, a bit louder. Steve’s face fell. It wasn’t that big of a deal, but Steve always looked forward to Billy reading out loud to him. 

“Sorry… I know you don’t like this book… I’ll ask Robin to read it to me when she gets home.” 

“No! I… I’ll do it, I’ll read for you. I really don’t mind.” Billy exclaimed. 

Steve was agreeably surprised by the amount of enthusiasm Billy displayed and he smiled at him when he handed him the book, letting their hands brush. 

“Thank you!” 

Steve kissed Billy’s cheek and laid his head on his shoulder.

“Don’t mention it, Pretty boy.”  

“Sure, I’ll mention it. It means a lot, you know.” 

Billy cleared his throat. “Right… if you say so.” 

Steve could feel the heat of Billy’s blush. 

He always downplayed the nice things he did, but Steve wouldn’t have it. He would keep showing Billy he was grateful for every little (and not so little) attention. Declaring his undying love to him would be a very effective way to make Billy realize how much Steve really appreciated him, but that would also do a lot more harm than good. Steve had to focus on the big picture, here. 

Billy began to read where Steve had stopped, and if Steve didn’t already know Billy disliked the book, he wouldn’t have been able to tell at all. He put his heart into it as he always did. Not only that, but Steve felt like Billy’s voice held even more emotion than it usually did. 

Steve fell into a sort of trance. The story was told in first person, from the point of view of a magician in a fantasy land, and Steve imagined himself as the narrator. In his mind, he could see everything Billy was describing: the village, the fields, the magnificent castle surrounded by a dark forest in which creatures lurked, the King who lived in the castle and whom the enchanter was secretly in love with.

Hours passed before Billy stopped reading. Still, Steve had to refrain himself from begging for one more chapter. He couldn’t be greedy; he didn’t want Billy to tire of him. 

“Here you go, Stevie.” 

“That was great. You’re the best.” 

“It’s just reading, Pretty boy. I didn’t hang the moon.” Billy mumbled. 

Steve nearly said “You might as well have”, but said: “It’s far better than ‘just reading’”, instead. That was a close call. 

They went to the kitchen to make dinner, and Robin came home from work right before the oven beeped. 

Steve ate his meal slowly, without really tasting it, and he didn’t say much, letting Robin and Billy do most of the talking. He was still somewhere far away, in a fantasy land ruled by a beautiful king. And, if the king was a carbon copy of Billy, it was nobody’s business but Steve’s. 

*

On Thursday, Billy went to Indianapolis, and Steve went with him. Apparently, Billy had been asked by his boss to go check and fix a few collection cars over there, and Billy had invited Steve to come with him. Said it would be fun. They’d spend the morning together and Billy would go to his work appointment after lunch.  

“Not that I’m not glad to have the opportunity of going on a fun little trip or anything, but couldn’t that guy find a garage in Indianapolis to take care of his cars? There must be more than a few.” Steve asked Billy, who had just started the car. 

“That’s because I’m the best in fucking Indiana, baby.” He said with a cocky grin. 

Steve rolled his eyes but couldn’t hold back his fond smile. 

“Right. Forget I asked.” 

“To answer more seriously, I don’t really know. But who gives a fuck? The guy paid extra… I mean like, a big wad of cash. So, fine by me.” 

Billy shrugged. 

Steve found it quite weird, but it was fine by him too. It wasn’t any of his business, anyway: he was just tagging along. 

He turned the radio on, and then Billy and he bickered for ages about what station to choose. That was somewhat of a tradition every time they were in a car together. 

“I’m driving, so I choose. It’s driver’s privilege, Pretty boy. Suck it up.” 

“But that’s not fair!” Steve whined. “You insisted to drive, it’s not like I had a choice.” 

“Too bad. You lose anyway.” 

Steve crossed his arms over his chest and pouted, making Billy laugh. The cold bastard. 

When they arrived in Indianapolis, Billy parked, and they chose a direction at random to go wander. Steve got caught up in some window-shopping, stopping abruptly in the middle of the sidewalk to stare at the newest Adidas sneakers behind the glass. 

Steve used to be given everything he wanted. Well, everything he wanted that could be bought with money. Now that he didn’t speak to his parents anymore and was financially independent, however, he couldn’t afford many unnecessary expenses. These shoes sadly fell into the “unnecessary” category. 

Billy had not immediately noticed Steve had stopped walking, so he had to go back on his tracks a little. 

“Hey, Stevie, give a guy a warning, would you? I turned to talk to you and you were not there anymore.” 

“Sorry, sorry. I was just… I wanted to take a look at these.” Steve pointed at the shoes. “I don’t know why I did, anyway… it’s not like I’m gonna buy them.” 

“Right… it’s fine. Let’s go get lunch, Pretty boy.” Billy said, steering him away from the shop, but not without giving the shoes a good look himself. 

They ate burgers and fries in a greasy joint they had stumbled upon. The food was pretty good. As a testament to that, Billy kept trying to steal fries off Steve’s basket. At first, Steve batted his hand away, but he gave up after a while. When Billy gave him a wide smile after finally succeeding, Steve couldn’t even be mad at him. He’d gave up all the fries in the world if it meant seeing Billy smile like that. Steve smiled back at him. 

In the afternoon, while Billy was at work, Steve went to a coffee shop and bought a cappuccino for himself, and a giant raisin oatmeal cookie to go for Billy. He grimaced a little as he ordered the latter. Billy really had weird tastes, sometimes. 

He sat down at a table and put the cookie in his backpack, before taking out his book. He progressed slowly, really slowly, only managing to read a chapter before he had to meet Billy back at the car. Yes, Steve had trouble with reading to begin with, but the fact that this book was making him emotional was not helping him read it any faster. 

He related to the narrator a lot. He, too, was in love with someone close to him yet unreachable. He, too, had to admire them in silence. And the object of his love was as beautiful and as brave as the King was described to be. The only difference was that the King was said to have brown hair and eyes.  

What the characters were going through also reminded him of what had happened because of the Upside-Down, in some way. Life in Hawkins was (or at least had been) so strange that it looked like something out of a fantasy novel. How wild was that? Steve mused, as he was waiting for Billy near his car. 

When Billy made it to the car, he was carrying a thick brown envelope in his right hand and a paper bag in the left. 

“Want some help with all that?” Steve asked. 

“Uh… No, thank you. I’ll be fine.” Billy assured, transferring the envelope in his left hand so he was carrying everything on the same side and could fetch the car keys from his pocket with his newly free hand. He opened the trunk and dropped everything in it. 

Steve didn’t bother asking what was in the envelope, or in the bag. If Billy had wanted to share the information, he already would have. Steve definitely wondered, though. 

“I have an oatmeal raisin cookie for you, if you’d like.” He said once they were in their seats, as he rummaged through his backpack in search of it. 

“Oh yeah thanks! that sounds perfect.” 

Billy took the paper bag from Steve’s hand as he unparked the car. Steve would have scolded him for eating while driving instead of focusing solely on the road, but that would have been slightly hypocritical of him. 

“Well, that’s a relief, because no way I’d have eaten that if you didn’t want it.” Steve made a face again. 

“That’s ‘cause you have bad tastes, Pretty boy.” Billy said, taking a big bite of the cookie and putting crumbs everywhere. 

Steve laughed. If only Billy knew how much Steve loved him, he would certainly backtrack on what he had just said.

“It’s delicious, you don’t know what you’re missing.” Billy said in between bites. 

Steve was watching him with a sad smile, glad that Billy’s eyes were on the road and not on him. It took him a few seconds to reply. 

“Oh I know, believe me. I know.” 

*

The next morning, when he woke up, Steve found the brown paper bag Billy had come back with at the foot of his bed. What the…? 

The idea of Billy sneaking into his room during the night to put it there made something tighten in his chest, but Steve was mostly preoccupied with finding out what was inside the bag. 

He basically jumped out of bed, which was very unusual of him (he was the exact opposite of a morning person), and reached for the bag. There was a box labelled Adidas in it… no way! Steve opened it with shaky hands and his jaw dropped. 

What… how… why? Steve was confused. Billy had gotten him the sneakers he’d been looking at in the shop window. How had he paid for them? Why would he spend so much money on Steve? Especially so soon after his birthday… This was far too much. 

Steve exited his room quicker than he would have if it had been on fire. 

“Billy!” Steve might have called his name slightly louder than he meant to.

Billy, who was sitting at the breakfast table with his back to Steve, jumped and put a hand over his heart. 

“Damn, Pretty boy, calm down. You nearly gave me a heart attack.” 

“What the fuck?” 

Robin darted her eyes between the two of them and announced: “I’ll leave you to it”, before retreating to her room with her bowl of disgustingly bland oatmeal. 

“What gives, Stevie?” 

“You know what, Billy. The shoes. What the fuck? Why did you buy them?” 

“Isn’t that obvious? You wanted them, and I wanted you to have them. It’s not that big a deal.” Billy was not looking at him as he spoke. 

Steve’s heart nearly melted. Because that was so fucking sweet of Billy to do what he did, and then say something like that. He couldn’t possibly accept the gift, though.  

“Not that big a deal? They’re so expensive, Billy… I can’t … I can’t just take them… it wouldn’t be right.” 

“Look, Steve… As I told you, my client from yesterday paid really well, and it’s my money, so I get to decide how to spend it, and I wanted to spend it on these shoes, for you. So please, keep them. They’re your size and not refundable, anyway. Either you keep them or they’ll just rot in the cupboard. That’s up to you.”

Steve was almost certain Billy was bullshitting him on the “not refundable” part, but he didn’t argue. It would be no use: Billy always won.  

So, he just hugged him tightly instead. Billy froze for a second, but quickly let go of the spoon he was still holding to hug Steve back. 

“Thank you so much. I don’t know what I did to deserve that.” 

“You don’t need to do anything in particular, Pretty boy. Being yourself is more than enough.” 

Steve was not a crier, but his eyes were undeniably misty. Billy couldn’t keep being so sweet and expect Steve to reign his feelings in. They were on the verge of overflowing already. 

After finally letting go of Billy (not before leaving a kiss on top of his head, though), Steve put the sneakers on. 

“Steve, seriously… you’re still wearing your pajamas.” 

Steve’s pajamas consisted in frayed basketball shorts and a old Hawkins High t-shirt, so it was fine to wear the sneakers with them in Steve’s book. And he wouldn’t take these off until he absolutely had to. 

“So what?” Steve asked. 

Billy rolled his eyes, but his ears were red. 

*

About a week later, Steve’s nightmares paid him a visit. They had left him alone for a while, but Steve knew they’d be back eventually. He saw Billy die again, which was simultaneously his worst and most common nightmare. 

“Hey, Steve. Stevie. Wake up, please.” 

He was shaken awake.

Thankfully, Billy was the one to wake him up from his dream, so Steve instantly knew he was alive and well. Steve threw his arms around him, buried his face in his neck, and inhaled his scent to calm himself down. 

Billy held him close and rubbed his back, whispering reassuring words in his ear:   

“You’re okay, Pretty boy. You’re fine. It was just a dream.” 

Yes, Steve was alright. But the most important thing was that Billy was. That had been the object of Steve’s concern. 

“I’m sorry… did I wake you?”

Billy sighed. 

“How many times do I have to tell you that I don’t mind, Steve?” 

“As many times as I have to tell you the same thing.”

Billy’s room was right next to Steve’s. It wasn’t the first time he woke Billy up with his nightmare-induced screams. And Billy’s night terrors had woken Steve up a few times too. 

“Touché.” Billy said. “Do you think you’ll be able to go back to sleep?” He added after a pause. 

“I don’t know… Could you read to me again?” 

“Sure, if it helps.” Billy agreed. 

Steve snatched the book from his bedside table and handed it to Billy, who opened it where the bookmark indicated Steve had stopped. 

“You read all this by yourself?” There was awe in Billy’s voice. 

Steve was blushing, but in the low light of his bedside lamp, it was probably not very noticeable. At least, he could always hope. 

“Yeah… uh… I was really into it.” 

He had read about seven chapters on his own, which, added to the ones Billy had read to him the other day, only left three before they reached the end. 

“Steve, you did really good!” 

Steve blushed even harder. His face was burning at that point. Billy sounded so proud of him. 

“It’s not like it’s a great achievement, or anything… but yeah, I guess it’s progress.” 

“Hey, of course it’s progress. It’s a lot, Steve. Don’t diminish your accomplishments.” Billy said in a firm tone.

“Okay, okay. I won’t.” 

“Good.” Billy sprawled on the bed and leaned against the headboard. He then tugged on Steve’s arm. “Now settle down.” 

Steve did as he was told and settled right next to him, resting his head on Billy’s chest and putting an arm over his waist. Steve loved the feeling of Billy’s naked skin against his. When they had first moved in together, Billy wore long-sleeved t-shirts almost constantly, self-conscious as his scars made him. Now, he slept in nothing but shorts. Steve wasn’t the only one who had been making progress.

Billy was barely three sentences into the third to last chapter when his voice broke. He cleared his throat and resumed the reading as if nothing had happened. His voice was now breathy, though. 

“Are you okay?” 

“Yes.”

“You sure? We can stop.” 

“I’m sure, Pretty boy. Now shut up and let me read.” 

Steve effectively shut up and Billy got back to the task at hand. 

In the last three chapters, the King lost his kingdom, the magician finally confessed their love and found out it was in fact reciprocated. Then, the narrator described their first kiss with the King, a kiss that made Steve’s chest constrict with longing. The fact that it was Billy’s voice describing it only made the longing ten time worse. 

As Billy read the last words: “He was not ruling the kingdom anymore, but to me he would always be king. My king, my light, my love, my everything”, Steve was on the verge of tears. 

He regularly went through terrifying nightmares and found himself unable to spill a single tear, but this book might do the trick. And okay, it might have been a bit mushy, but Steve was really digging it, alright? 

He opened his eyes and saw a tear stain on the last page. For a second, he thought he had already started crying without noticing, but his cheeks were dry. It then occurred to him that the tear had come from Billy. 

Steve put the book away from him and had to straddle him so they could be face to face. He then wiped Billy’s tears, but they kept coming. 

“What’s the matter, Billy?” 

Unlike Steve, Billy was a crier. Steve had seen him cry a bunch of times, when he’d been particularly tired, or sad, or frustrated. However, there was something he was not getting: why had Billy pretended he didn’t like the book in the first place? It had to be the book. What other reason did Billy have to cry right now?

“I… I’m sorry.” Billy just said before he started properly bawling and hid his face in his hands.  

Steve was even more confused… and slightly panicked. 

“Hey… hey… please, tell me what’s wrong. I… I don’t know what to do.”

Steve circled Billy’s wrists to ground him, but he didn’t try to pull his hands away from his face for fear it might make him retreat further into himself. 

“I just… this book hits me really hard.” His voice was muffled, but Steve could still make out the words.  

“But… you said it wasn’t very good.”

Billy lowered his hands. His eyes were red and puffy. 

“I meant it… It still makes me sad, though.” 

Steve frowned. He didn’t think a book could elicit such reaction in someone who didn’t like it all that much. 

“Why didn’t you tell me?” 

Steve wouldn’t have judged Billy, he would have understood. He never wanted Billy to feel so bad, and even less if it happened because of something Steve had asked of him. 

“I should have… I should have said something. I’m sorry.” Billy’s breathing was uneven, and Steve could see his tears threatening to come back. 

“Hey, no. Don’t be sorry. You don’t have to apologize. Just tell me next time, okay?”

Billy nodded and Steve smiled at him tentatively. 

“Let’s go to bed.” 

“Yeah, sounds good.” Billy mumbled. 

Steve turned the lights off before moving from Billy’s lap to lay down. As Billy snuggled up with him, Steve couldn’t help but think about his recent behavior. Billy was acting a tad strange these days. He had gotten a lot better at expressing his feelings verbally in the last couple of years, and Steve was positive that the Billy he knew would have told him the book would upset him instead of pretending he would be fine. 

Steve would have to talk to him when he was more clear-headed. The last thing he wanted was for Billy to close himself off again.   

*

Thank you for reading :D 

[silly-nonny-fics-are-for-fandoms]

Overrated Love Stories

Summary:  Joe knew very well that Jay didn't like cliches. He didn't give flowers, he didn't think long walks on the beach were romantic, but that was nothing. That didn't mean he didn't love Joe any less. And Jow knew that. But it didn't mean he didn't want something every once and a while.

Read on Ao3

Jay had never been one for romantic gestures, be it towards him or doing it for his partner. He preferred to just tell him that he loved him, or slyly flirt with him rather than doing something big and romantic. Joe understood that. He was sometimes the same way, not wanting to have someone skywrite something for him or anything like that. But there were times where he wanted to have that feeling, the fuzzy warmth, and embarrassment of course, at knowing that the person whom he loved was thinking about him. He always made sure to let Jay know that he was thinking about him, sometimes with a little doodle or by making him food before he left for work or class.

He was lucky, he got to work from home, and all his classes were online. He could spend all day if he wanted on planning something romantic for Jay. Though, of course, there were days where he wanted to be told he was cute, or to be given flowers, or even just a note saying that Jay was thinking about him. But that wasn't how their relationship worked most days.

Jay came home to find Joe curled up on their couch, his laptop on his lap and drawing tablet pen barely being held in his hand. Soft snores came from his lover, his glasses askew. The blonde sighed, walking over to him as gently as he could. He saw a little doodle on the screen, his avatar giving flowers to Joe's, and he paused for a moment. Did Joe want him to get flowers? He'd never been one for such a thing.

He sighed, taking the pen from his partner's hand, saving the picture, and closing the laptop. Joe had a very bad habit of falling asleep on the couch where he often drew, or at his desk. Pressing a soft kiss to his forehead, he picked him up carefully. It wasn't too much of a burden, Joe wasn't particularly heavy, and Jay had brought him back to bed on many occasions. Once he was set on the mattress and glasses removed, Jay pulled the covers over him. Now, he would go to bed with him under normal circumstances, but he was curious about what he'd seen on the computer screen.

Did Joe want to be romanced? Did he want flirting and flowers and all that junk? They'd been together for almost two years and yet not once had this come up before in their relationship. Usually, they communicated all their wants and desires as soon as it happened, so they could make sure to keep one another happy and be sure they were taking care of each other. Why was this different?

Jay knew why this was different. It was because he had always found such things irrelevant, they were a waste. He liked to live in reality, where violets were purple, people died when their hearts skipped, stars only existed in the sky and in drawings, flowers weren't a good symbol of love because they just died in a week or less, and there was no way in hell one should eat breakfast in bed as it would just get crumbs all over the bedding.

It was so stupid. He'd always thought so, and Joe liked to laugh with him at some of the sentiments. It was fine with him. And as much as he hated the thought of it, Joe was more important to Jay than whatever prejudice he may have against romance, so before he could go to sleep, he got to work.

When Joe woke up in the morning, the first thing he noticed was that he was still dressed in the same clothes he'd worn the day before. Great. That meant he fell asleep on the couch again, and Jay had to carry him back to bed. It was a habit that Joe was ashamed to say that he was all too deep in, with most nights of his week ending on the couch and mornings still starting in bed.

He really loved his partner, and always made sure to thank him whenever he could. Speaking of, where was Jay? He sat up and blearily glanced around, reaching out for his glasses case on the bedside table, only to come into contact with a piece of paper that had definitely not been there before. When he pulled it closer so he could see it, he was slightly shocked to see what it really was. A note, from Jay. With a heart. A simple good morning message, but it was enough to send his heart all aflutter.

Something smelled amazing, he realized as he put his glasses on. Was Jay cooking? He never made breakfast. Lunch and dinner, sure. But not breakfast. What was going on?

"Jay?" He called out as he exited their room, heading down the hall towards the kitchen, "Jay, you there?"

"In here!"

Joe looked into the kitchen and his jaw nearly dropped. Jay was cooking pancakes, chocolate chip pancakes by the smell of things, and had already poured out a glass of chocolate milk for him. They almost never had pancakes. Always eggs or oatmeal, or some other thing which was healthy and supposed to give them energy. But something just decadent, like pancakes? No way, that wasn't how they normally operated, even if it was Joe's favorite breakfast food.

"Okay, what gives? You never cook breakfast."

"Nothing, really, I just wanted to cook for my boyfriend before I headed out to class today." He shrugged, handing him his plate with a kiss when he came over. "Because I love you."

"What the heck? Did I forget some holiday? Is it our anniversary?" Joe whispered to himself, glancing at the calendar, and realized that their anniversary wasn't for another two months. It wasn't February, so not Valentines, and it wasn't either of their birthdays. So what was going on?

Jay's expression was unreadable, as usual. Either angry, neutral, or happy. Nothing new there.

"Do you really think that it only takes some holiday or special day to be shown you're loved?" Jay asked, his tone expressionless as he flipped the pancakes. "Is that really what you think?"

Joe sighed, setting his plate down on the table next to the glass of chocolate milk which had been set out for him. Jay was not a chocolate type of person, preferring orange juice with his breakfast in the morning. All the little things which made him, well, him. Those were what Joe loved the most. And he knew that Jay hated cliche romance, he hated it with a fervent passion. That was fine, Joe knew that, but he was also weak for those same cliches which his boyfriend detested.

"I just know you don't like this sort of thing, and the note was nice, but it doesn't seem like you. And knowing you, it doesn't feel like you want to really do this unless it was for my sake."

"You're right, I don't like doing this. But I love you more than I despise these stupid, overdone cliches, so it's whatever."

Joe wrapped his arms around Jay's waist, resting his head on his partner's shoulder after giving his cheek a soft kiss.

"I know you love me. You don't need to do anything big to prove it, you do that just by spending time with me."

He felt Jay sigh more than heard it, and the way he leaned into the hug only served to prove his point. Oh, he was sure that he'd find plenty of little notes telling him how much he loved him, or how cute he looked, or just of encouragement, and those were fine. He loved those kinds of notes, Jay would sometimes write them for him whenever he saw him having a hard time and didn't want people around. Jay wasn't a people person, but there was one person he loved more than his own biases, and that person had him in his arms then.

"C'mon, let's get some breakfast, you did put all this effort into making it after all."

"Eh, it's mostly from a box. I'm calling in sick from class today, I'd rather spend it with you."

"Well thank you very much," Joe laughed, "I'm honored."

"You sure you don't mind not having all the big romantic gestures?" Jay asked as he set the final pancake onto a plate, grabbing the butter and syrup to go with it as Joe released him so they could go sit at the table.

"Mhm, I don't mind. I've got you, and that's what matters to me. Sure, sometimes I'm bit by the romance bug, but that's the same as getting a craving for chocolate or whatever."

Jay couldn't help but laugh. This domestic romance, without the big gestures and cliches, as just the two of them together, that was all they really wanted. Because dear god, as much as they disliked cliche romances, they loved one another twice as much.

[guiltyhearts]

FIC: The Treasured Chest (KH)

I was fortunate to be involved in The Destined Oath: A SoKai Server Zine, which was made available on Gumroad for free back in January (You can get the zine here if you haven’t yet). Silly me didn’t put up their story on this site after the zine was made public. So for your reading pleasure, please enjoy my short story!

The Treasured Chest

Words: 2937

Summary: Sora may be a little older and making big moves in his life. But that doesn’t mean he doesn’t have time to go down memory lane.

-------

Time was funny. It always seemed to pass by much faster than expected. Days, months, years would all blur together, no clear distinction of where it started and where it ended. For Sora, this was no different. The years of grand adventures to other worlds were behind him and he was happily settled back home in Destiny Islands. He often felt that his adventures and battles had all happened recently, maybe one year prior. In truth, six years had passed since the final showdown with Xehanort and the new Organization XIII and he had spent that time content on the islands with his friends, old and new, finally settling into some semblance of a normal routine. The funny thing was, time now felt like it passed by him in a blur and it always caught him by surprise when a major event came up. In this case, it was preparing to move into his new house.

Sora was technically an adult now, and this meant it was time to make big changes and move forward, starting with moving out and setting up his own home. With moving day looming on the horizon, Sora had no time to dwell on the mix of emotions he felt over leaving his childhood home. Not when he had to sort through his possessions. As he had informed his mother, Sora had a system for organizing his things between those he would take with him and those he would leave behind.

One look into Sora’s bedroom and its current state would overwhelm anyone. Boxes in varying degrees of emptiness were placed all around the room, with clothes scattered across surfaces and most definitely not in his own closet or drawers. Bottles of different shapes and sizes that were never properly recycled but were certainly repurposed (according to Sora). His mother, who had long been since resigned with his habit for messiness, left him alone to sort through his possessions. But it only took half the day for Sora to organize all his clothes, he would have you know! While he grabbed a heap of the clothes he planned to get rid of, he discovered the fabric had been covering a bright purple treasure chest: a chest he had repurposed for his own use. It contained numerous trinkets, knick-knacks, whozits and whatzits galore. Items of interest that he picked up, or gifts he was given from each world he visited in the three years he had been away from home. He hadn’t looked at, let alone put anything in that chest in ages. Setting the clothes aside, Sora sat down across from the chest to open it.

The effect was not immediate, like a flood of memories hitting him at once. But to Sora’s credit, he did recognize each and every item in the chest as the feeling of rediscovering a past life and all the joys that came with it settled in deeply.

The first thing Sora picked up an off-white piece of parchment and unfolded it. The paper depicted a detailed pencil drawing of himself when he was younger and starting out on his intergalactic travels, standing next to Tarzan. At first glance, Tarzan in the drawing seemed stoic, but the finer details presented a lighter side to him like upturned corners of the mouth and relaxed shoulders. Sora was openly smiling with his hands behind his head. His face and cheeks were almost perfectly round. Had he really looked that young? Sora hadn’t seen him in a long time, but how could he forget Tarzan, the King of the Apes?

 ---

The Deep Jungle was home to a truly glorious array of flora - flowers, plants, trees and those of the sort. So Sora had been told. But it was hard to see for himself when these plants and trees were only a blur. His focus was squarely on what was ahead of him, and in this case, it was Tarzan and the fact that the man was leading by a slim margin. Sora would have to maneuver through the intersecting branches and speed ahead to overtake him. In what felt like mere seconds, Sora could see the opening that would lead to the campsite and he willed himself to keep going. He had to keep pushing and not lose his footing. He bent low before pushing off hard to leap forward, aiming to land right in the middle of the campsite. To his dismay, Tarzan landed before him by seconds.

“You won again!” Sora dramatically groaned. Tarzan beat his chest triumphantly and grinned back at Sora. 

“Keep trying!” Tarzan proclaimed cheerfully, even if the affirmation was brought down slightly by his smugness. 

Sora stretched his back and turned forward with a look of determination. “Fine! I’ll race you back!” 

“But Sora, we gotta go!” Goofy called out. He and Donald had been with Jane Porter while he went tree-surfing with Tarzan.

“Aww…” Sora pouted, feeling like a small kid again. He was having fun, too… 

“Where will you go?” Tarzan asked.

“I don’t know.” Sora answered honestly. Remembering what Donald said about the world order, he would have to choose his words carefully. “All I know is that we’ll keep going until we find our friends.”

Tarzan was quiet, seemingly in deep thought. Before Sora could continue, Jane approached them with papers in hand.

“Good luck on your travels. I hope you will be safe. Here,” she handed the stack to Sora. “I hope you’ll like these.” Sora went through the papers, pressed flowers and hand-drawn pictures of the animals and scenery. He stopped once he saw the picture of himself and Tarzan. Tarzan looked over his shoulder and-

“Tarzan! Sora!” He exclaimed, looking surprised and pleased. 

Jane smiled kindly, her cheeks turning pink. “Yes, that’s the both of you. How do you like it?” She directed the question at Sora.

“Thanks a lot!” Sora smiled graciously. “We look great here!” He and the others pored excitedly over Jane’s papers, which he now saw included individual drawings of Donald and Goofy. Through their pleased exclamations, Sora could have sworn he heard Jane say something quietly, thinking no one could hear her.

“He’s still so young…” 

 ---

Sora kept the drawing for himself, while Donald and Goofy kept the other papers. He had thanked Tarzan ten times over for finding and rescuing him when he was separated from the pair. Still, at times he wondered if Tarzan understood just how grateful Sora was to be found when he was alone again in an unknown world. 

He carefully folded away the drawing and placed it back in the chest. As Sora placed the item down, he caught sight of his membership card for the Hollow Bastion Restoration Committee. It rested on top of a pixelated printed picture of himself, Donald and Goofy, the latter being a gift from Tron. A thought occurred to Sora, and to confirm his suspicions, he flipped the picture over. On the back, a sequence of 0’s and 1’s filled two-thirds of the page. He didn’t have to look too hard to find another piece of folded paper, branded with “From Tron!” in blue letters and a cartoon doodle of Tron’s face that he drew himself. Grinning at the recollection, he unfolded the paper.

 ---

Sora, Donald, and Goofy were about to leave Hollow Bastion – or Radiant Garden, rather – for the next leg of their journey. They were saying their goodbyes in Merlin’s house when Cid came up to them, and said in his characteristic gruff voice, “You guys got something from Tron.”

“Really?” The trio looked up in surprise. 

Cid handed Sora a single sheet of paper with a picture of the threesome in a pixelated style printed upon it. Underneath the image, ‘Thank you!’ was written in large block letters.

“This is great! Tell him we said ‘thanks’.” Sora smiled happily at the picture.

Donald, shorter than the rest, could see the back of the paper. “What’s that?” he asked, pointing. Sora flipped the paper over and was met with a sequence of 0’s and 1’s running down the page.

“I have no idea,” Sora shrugged before looking back at Cid. “Do you know?”

“I’m just delivering the message. I don’t have to know what it means.” Cid replied offhandedly.

Donald squawked impatiently, “Come on! You do know what it means!”

Cid smirked as he suppressed a chuckle. “That’s binary,” he relented. “To grossly oversimplify for you punks, it’s computer language. It’s how they give and receive information.”

“Does that mean this is a message from Tron? How come it came out like this?” Goofy questioned out loud.

“Maybe he wanted to mess wi’ ya,” Cid added with a laugh.

“What does it say?” Donald asked again.

“Do I look like a computer?” Cid shot back. This kicked off a bickering session over computers, magic, and each other’s intelligence.

In the midst of this, Goofy approached Sora with a separate piece of paper in hand. “I found this on top of that keyboard-thingy,” he said quietly pointing over at Cid’s computer. “I don’t know how binary works, but I think this is what the numbers mean.” He showed Sora the paper. This time there were words that he could read and understand.

 Sora, Donald and Goofy,

I want to thank you once more for your support. I will not forget what you have done for myself and for the mainframe. It is thanks to you I am confident in my capabilities to assist the other Users.

I wish you safe travels in your journey.

Come back soon!

From Tron.

 ---

In the present day, Sora smiled, his chest feeling light with joy and wistfulness. He recalled Cid’s attempt to explain to the trio how binary worked (which Sora still did not understand to this day). He hoped Tron was keeping well.

Like with Jane’s drawing, Sora folded Tron’s gifts carefully and put them back into the chest under a toy-sized, yellow energy canister. Tucked to one side of the chest, a small velvet pouch caught his eye. It bore an unfamiliar crest surrounded by a border of alternating fleur-de-lis and diamond symbols. The unfamiliarity just as quickly gave way to recognition. Arendelle, it occurred to him. Opening it, a delicately shimmering crystal landed on his open palm. Sora had never seen a snowflake up close - all he knew was that no two snowflakes were identical. The crystal snowflake, now safely in Sora’s palm, was cool to the touch, but not quite as ice-cold as he recalled it had been when he received it.

---

“I don’t know how to begin to thank you for all your help.” Queen Elsa said as she held her sister’s hand. After a series of trials and tribulations, the two were finally reunited. Their sisterly bond was reaffirmed, the eternal winter spell (literally) was broken, and the world was safe.

“What about a knighthood!” Anna exclaimed excitedly. 

“A knighthood, you say?” Sora grinned at the prospect. Already he envisioned himself donning a classic suit of armor. Maybe even a fancy cape, if that was still a thing. A sharp tug at his pant leg broke the reverie and brought his attention down to Donald, whose look of disapproval all but told him to keep his mouth shut and to quit while he was ahead.

Donald cleared his throat and spoke with uncharacteristic formality. “That is most gracious and generous of you, Your Highness. We are honored, but we couldn’t accept.”

“Even if we can’t knight you, we still want to give you something.” Elsa replied instead.

“It’s kind of you to offer.” Goofy said with his usual warm smile.

Elsa brought her hands up, with one hand hovering over the other. She wiggled her fingers in a manner that Sora recognized as an act of magic. It poured from Elsa’s fingers like flurries of snow and twirled together tightly into a bright orb of light. The orb spun between her hands until it transformed again. The light had faded to reveal a shining, shimmering, cobalt-blue crystal snowflake. To say that Sora was awe-struck by the feat would be an understatement.

“For you, Sora.”  Elsa presented the crystal, now hanging delicately on a string, to Sora, who offered his thanks and cautiously reached for the crystal. What he hadn’t expected was for the crystal to be so cold to the touch. The shock of the cold on his exposed fingertips was enough for Sora to yelp and send the crystal flying out his hands. The snowflake was descending far too fast to Sora’s horror, prompting him to desperately scramble for the crystal. Donald and Goofy had the same idea. So three pairs of hands were grabbing at the crystal, resulting in an unintentional game of hot-potato. The crystal fumbled from their grasps and made a steady descent to the ground. Before anyone else could act, the crystal was suspended mid-fall by its looped string, hanging off a branchy arm.

“Safe and sound!” Olaf said cheerfully. The group let out a collective sigh of relief. Donald gently took the crystal from Olaf.

“Thanks, Olaf,” Sora smiled, partly grateful and partly sheepish. He bowed low in front of Elsa. “I’m so sorry.” Donald and Goofy took his cue and bowed alongside him. 

“That’s alright,” Elsa smiled kindly. She created two more crystal snowflakes for Donald and Goofy, who accepted them just as graciously and were far more careful with handling them.

“I hope that whenever you see these, you will remember us.”

 --

Sora carefully returned the crystal back into the pouch. He could never forget any of the people he met in his travels, especially not when he had these memories he could hold in his hand. He spent the better part of an hour going through the contents of the chest and revisiting his past. 

And then he saw it. When did I put this in here? Sora gently picked up the old thalassa-shell charm. He used to keep it in his pocket, but its presence started to cause as much anxiety as it did comfort. What if it broke, or worse, what if he lost it? It was likely why he kept it in the chest for his own peace of mind.

 “It’s my lucky charm. Be sure to bring it back to me.”

“Don’t worry, I will.”

“Promise?”

“Promise.”

Sora found it odd that he didn’t return the charm back to Kairi this time like he always promised he would. It had slipped his mind, though she never asked for it back. So he kept it away among the other trinkets. Here in his hands was perhaps his most precious possession. The charm was the promise of her memory and her unconditional devotion that he literally carried with him wherever he went. She had brought him back up on his feet and back to life more times than he could count. Where would he be without her, or Riku, Donald, Goofy, Axel, Roxas, Naminé, and all the other friends he made in his adventures? Probably long dead, for starters.

He closed the chest, but kept Kairi’s charm with him. Sora looked around the room once more: there were still some half-empty boxes, and his designated piles seemed to now make up one indistinguishable pile.

They could wait.

 ---

One phone call, one hasty apology to his mother, and fifteen minutes later, Sora sat on the porch of his new house. Their new house. He hadn’t waited long, but he was staring into space when a voice broke through the reverie.

“Sora?”

He looked up and there was Kairi standing before him. He shuffled to the side to make room on the steps, a silent offer. 

“You were cryptic on the phone. Is something wrong?” Kairi asked with a look of concern as she sat beside him.

“No, not at all,” Sora replied. “I wanted to surprise you, but I guess I made you worry.” He looked down in embarrassment. With his free hand, he reached into his pocket and pulled out the lucky charm. From the corner of his eye, he saw surprise on her face.

“I just thought I should return this. It is pretty long overdue,” Sora said, handing the charm to Kairi. 

“I wasn’t expecting this.” She said with a bemused smile.

“It’s yours, Kai. I did promise I would give it back to you.”

“Keep it. It’s as much yours as it is mine.” Kairi placed the charm back on Sora’s palm and closed his fingers around it. “It’s probably always been yours.” 

Feeling overwhelmed and flushed, Sora looked away. “I found it in a chest where I was keeping a bunch of stuff people gave me during my travels. I must have kept it there for safe-keeping. I was afraid I’d lose it.”

“I didn’t really care. I just wanted you to come back safely.” said Kairi. “I’m willing to bet your other friends would agree with me. As long as you’re alive. That’s what matters.”

“There’s no heart my smile can’t reach, right?” Sora grinned teasingly. 

It was Kairi’s turn to blush and pout, a look that said she regretted ever giving him the letters she wrote. “No teasing!” She lightly slapped his arm.

“Sorry!” He said looking appropriately apologetic. She seemed to accept this and rested her head on his shoulders. He instinctively wrapped an arm around her shoulders.

“I wanna see this chest. It sounds like it has a lot of good memories.”

“It does. Before or after we move in?”

“Yes.”

Sora laughed, falling in love a little more. “It’s a promise.”