#this probably took long because i decided to colour it and draw a background

[culssi]

ITS OFFICIAL OMG OMG OMG YESS LETS GOOO

Why did I do this idk but I got a bit (that’s an understatement) excited. It’s currently 2 am when writing this. Help.

I spent 1 hour of this crappy drawing why.

[crimsonender]

Mikaila Orchard sucks at Paneling

I debated making this a video or not. But, I decided against it. If you guys are interested in me making videos about this sort of thing, let me know and perhaps it's something I could cover in the future.

So Mikaila Turkleson aka Mikaila Orchard has always made... questionable art. To me it seems like a weird amalgamation of Equestria Girls and Sophie Labelle's art. Anatomy bad character design bad etc etc. I don't however see a lot of people talk about her paneling.

Recently, Mikaila and presumably her partner, Lily Orchard started a new art endeavour. I assume to turn over a new leaf and bury the now-infamous Pokemadhouse. You can find it over at bhaalspawnfunnies. It appears as if the blog will focus around the player character of Baldur's Gate 1, Gorion's Ward, and their half sister, Imoen. This is the first entry.

Source

Where to start? My first impression is that this is very poorly drawn, and low effort even by Mikaila's standards. The speech bubbles are low contrast against the background. The ground/floor blurry blob looks extremely bad. As a fellow artist I get the distinct impression that Mikaila did not want to draw this piece.

Moreover, there's a huge issue with the panelling and pacing. Comics are really cool in that you can kind of use panelling and negative space to "time" jokes, leading the eye where you want it to go and using framing and other art tricks to make a punchline land a little better.

This "comic" has none of that. There is no pacing, there is no comedic timing. It's all bland and presented as a block. I took it upon myself to re-panel this piece, and I've made two versions: One, with Mikaila's art style and visuals, but with the panelling slightly adjusted to be more punchy and effective, the other I completely redrew, using the same joke.

Excuse the sloppiness. I'm not going to expend too much energy polishing and gilding this turd.

That being said, this is already a huge improvement. Even if Mikaila isn't at the technical level of a professional artist, this is very attainable with only a few more minutes of effort. The timing is punchier, the speech bubbles draw your eyes down the page, and even without colour coding, it's clear which of the characters is talking. This isn't exactly a hot take but in my opinion you shouldn't need colour coding on a comic page to denote who is speaking. It should be very obvious! Moreover, speech bubbles should be included in the composition, not added as an after thought.

I'm guessing the original comic took her less than an hour to make. I think I'm being generous here, honestly if this took her more than twenty minutes I would be concerned. Being generous though I gave myself one hour to make a version completely redrawn.

This was again, very quickly put together and of course is in no way perfect, but its to demonstrate what a little bit of thought can do to improve a comic page. I decided to change the pose of Gorion because making family guy references should be a a cardinal sin for artists, as well as make the characters a little more recognizable. "Aryana" is, notably, Lily's OC and bears little resemblance to the canon character of Gorion's Ward, but considering Baldurs Gate does allow character customization and dialogue choices, I decided to make their gender a little more ambiguous so players of any gender could see their version of Gorion's Ward in the comic, but kept the elf with long dark hair appearance from Mikaila's original. I also looked over the pic after I was all done and ready to upload and noticed some small flaws I could easily fix, and went back and did those things. You should always go over your pieces when you're finished them with fresh eyes before you submit them as a final piece.

Again, this certainly isn't perfect and I'd probably put more effort into a piece with characters I care about and a joke I actually find funny, but I hope this demonstrates that pacing and expression really are everything in comics.

[cartoonistcoop]

ShortBox Comics Member Interview: Tan Juan Gee

Throughout the month of October, the Cartoonist Cooperative will be sharing interviews with members of the Co-op who have a new comic available at the ShortBox Comics Fair 2024! 

NOTE: The Cartoonist Cooperative is not affiliated, associated, authorized, endorsed by, or in any way formally connected with ShortBox.  

Today’s spotlight is Tan Juan Gee ( @juangeedraws ) and their new comic for ShortBox, See You in Hell.

We’d love it if you could introduce yourself and tell us about your background in comics.

Tan Juan Gee: Hello! I’m Tan Juan Gee, a Singaporean artist. Right now I’m in my final year of university, studying sociology and fine art history. I’ve been drawing since I was little, but really only got into digital art after getting my first drawing tablet five years ago. Most of my work involves illustrating for indie tabletop games. I got into making comics around 2021 through online comic tournaments (or ‘OCTs’) and have had some great opportunities to draw comics professionally since–including last year’s ShortBox Comics Fair (SBCF 2023). Now I’m back with another comic for the fair this year!

Tell us more about your new comic.

TJG: Two girls with a messy past fight to the death in an abandoned city. It’s a short 16-page, fully coloured comic, with about ten pages at the end for an exclusive “making of” artbook and variant covers from friends!

Tell us about your creative process; how did you develop this comic and what are the steps you took to bring it to the final stage?

TJG: I won’t spoil too much because my comic PDF this year actually has a bonus “making of” artbook at the back that answers this question. Long story short, I had to scrap my initial draft. It was a story about two legendary criminals getting back together for one last job. I shelved this original idea for several reasons: it was too long, I kept introducing more characters, and I couldn’t settle on how I wanted the ending to go. With not much done at the end of my school semester I decided it would be far more productive to hone in on the key ideas of this first iteration and make a very tight and focused comic. I drafted out a comic that met SBCF’s minimum page count of 16, then finished it in two months while travelling.

This version leaves much of their past relationship and the current social, economic, and political climate of the setting they are in up to interpretation. But fundamentally the core of the comic remains unchanged–one angsty dynamic between two girls! I even got to reuse the design of the tall elf lady, which was great news. Don’t tell the short sword girl, but the tall elf lady is my favourite.

What were some challenges you faced with this comic and how did you overcome them?

TJG: You’ve probably noticed that my characters don’t have names. I tell myself it’s because the story means so much more to me when it’s two pathetic nobodies trying to kill each other. The truth is I really struggle with naming characters a lot! I also really struggle with dialogue. I blame this on the fact that my ideal character is a dark and brooding stoic lady who doesn’t speak. But can you really fault me? That kind of character is so cool!

Read the rest of the interview HERE! And dont forget to check out the Shortbox Comics Fair to support these lovely creators!!

[ambyandony]

shortcuts I took to make drawing the squatizi comic easier

Used a photo reference for the backgrounds (note: this actually made it harder, I couldn’t figure out which beach was in the picture I was looking at so I only had one angle)

(note 2: I didn’t trace the photo or anything but I did colour pick from it)

made Squalo’s towel fall off his shoulder because it looked awkward and it remains on the ground for the rest of the comic . That stupid fucking blue towel.

for fun I made it visibly do this like you can just see it slowly slide off

didn’t overline the background characters and made them all a solid colour cause fuckem

didnt even draw the background characters in one of the panels even though the lesbians probably still should’ve been visible . I just have to assume Squalo is in the exact position on the frame where they just aren’t visible behind him

there’s a rock in the background but I didn’t draw it at all when the camera angle was facing only tiziano because I fucking hate that rock

If I don’t like how something looks and it’s inconsequential to the overall panel and in a corner I just deform the panel so it’s covered. Cause fuckit

covered one of Squalo’s hands with Tiziano’s hair while they were hugging because it looked wonky and I redrew it too many times

accidentally drew Tiziano’s hair wrong in one panel. That wasn’t a shortcut I just fucked it up and by the time I realised I’d already coloured and shaded it and it sucks and I want to fix it

used speech bubbles to hide shit I didn’t like

used a grid to write most of the dialogue

chibified the boyfriends for 2 panels but that was more because the panels were very tiny.

I would say having Squalo’s arms covering his chest for the first half but that was intended and not a shortcut

One side of Tiziano’s hair was originally over his shoulder but it was very annoying so I scrapped it . Except for exactly one panel where I could not draw his neck/collarbone right in that exact area.

the other side IS partially on his shoulder but not fully. I just think it looks more elegant that way but it has the added benefit that I don’t have to think too hard about shading his neck . Thank fuck for men with long hair 🙌

Tiziano’s hair length is inconsistent because I was having trouble making it not look awkward in certain poses

not drawing the lips

Tiziano takes his stupid sunglasses off for exactly one panel because I could not make them look good and then he puts them back up on his forehead because he needed a free hand and had nowhere else to put them. He is not shown doing this

I save Squalo’s freckles till the last step. Squalo’s freckles go on when I’m done with everything else so I have GOT TO REMEMBER TO PUT THE FUCKING FRECKLES ON ITS GONNA BE SOOOO ANNOYING IF I POST HIM WITH NO FRECKLES

The background characters with speaking roles have the exact same hair and skin colour and I drew their faces simplified even when they’re visible up close for one panel because speaking roles or not they are still background characters. Even though I named them.

as an artistic choice I didn’t refine the lineart in the central panel of page 1 (inadvertently made it easier it was actually a choice for the aesthetic of the panel)

Didn’t try very hard to draw the back of Squalo’s hair.

things that did not make the comic easier

Adding extra panels . and reworking all the dialogue from the previous version because it was awkward

themed dialogue fonts

I HANDWRITE ALL THE DIALOGUE MYSELF ALL OF IT. AND I DECIDED TO FUCKING MAKE THE TITTLES ON THE IS AND JS CUSTOM FOR SQUALO AND TIZIANO. AMONG OTHER THINGS. HELP ME

drawing Squalo’s stupid nose broken

the last minute inclusion of the Portuguese Man O’ War

not knowing how to draw nipples

changing background character with speaking role #2’s swimsuit top and not knowing how to draw boobs

THOSE STUPID FUCKING SUNGLASSES

I draw Tiziano’s eyes so fucking detailed. Because he is beautiful

Emphasising Squalo’s musculature

not saving the base skin colour I used for Tiziano OR Squalo before I started shading

drawing them hugging. 3 1/2 times.

making this post instead of finishing it

[nonuggetshere]

If you don't mind asking, what was the longest time you ever spend in a drawing? -🦂

Oh jeez, I think it must be this one commission I did for a friend that took me like 19-20 hours (painted background, detailed shading, all that jazz). But it's very possible that it's actually a different commission for the same friend that was all painting, but unfortunately, I don't have the raw file anymore to check the time. But I think it'd also be around 20 hours

These are the extremes though, most of my fully finished artworks take around 3-7 hours to complete, depending on the polish and the detail. The longest I took on a non-painting drawing is 9 hours, and it's this one

Didn't even do the background, lol, it's just an edited photo I took. I fully blame the jacket for that time

If we're counting other art projects, my Brutus animatic, Poplar St MAP part, She Wants Me (To Be Loved) MAP part and Spiral of Ants MAP part 22 triumph over anything else. I can't give you the exact numbers but I can make an estimate

Brutus I made in 3 days, barely sleeping and just chugging through that bad boy like my life depended on it. It was fully made in FlipaClip so I'm not sure about the exact time but excluding the time I slept, rested and ate, it probably took like around 12-18 hours. Which is insane considering how unfinished it is compared to the other projects on this list LMAO. I just remember it took a long time and I was exhausted by the end.

She Wants Me (To Be Loved) took me around 6 hours and 35 minutes to draw character references, then 15 hours and 35 minutes on all the frames, then putting it all together in FlipaClip and tweening it probably took me like another hour? So around 23 hours total.

Poplar ST was my first fully lines and coloured frame by frame animation. The references for the characters took me 4 hours and 15 seconds, and all of the scenes combined took me 26 hours and 12 minutes, then I had to put it all into FlipaClip and animate it which I'd again estimate to around an hour of work, makes it an around 31 hours long project.

Spiral of Ants part 22 was a massive beast, but not even because of the finished product but mostly because I almost finished a different version of that part before losing momentum and deciding on something else entirely. The three frames (one of which is lost to time) of this original concept took 12 hours and 27 minutes to make. Unfortunately, the reference sheets were on my old phone so I don't know how long they took, but seeing how long the other references took me and considering the amount of characters in this, I'd say 4-5 hours is a fair estimate. Then after that didn't pan out, I made two storyboards for my ideas for this part, which took me 3 hours and 54 minutes. Then the references for that took me 4 hours and 51 minutes. Then making the frames for that took me 11 hours and 30 minutes, and tweening I'd say took me around 2 hours in total. In total, that's roughly 40 hours of work for one MAP part.

But these are all animations, so it's a given that they'll take way longer than a singular artwork

As a bonus, have these frames for the original Spiral of Ants concept that never was and some of the refs that survived Nuking (phone change)

(that fire frame alone took me 6 hours)

[genmakesmedia]

alternative narrative project ideas: my planning process

By now, I've spoken about how long it takes me to choose an idea in several posts, so I figured I’d give an example to back that up! Because my creative process sure is a process.

Okay, a bit of background about this project: we decided as a group that our theme would be "Reflection of Childhood" on the 20th of February, and the project was due in on the 10th of April. This gave us roughly a month and a half to conceptualise and produce our artefacts, alongside coding the website and writing our reflections.

I finalised my concept maybe two or three weeks before the project deadline.

You might be wondering: what happened? It's a good question - a great question, even - and I'd also quite like to know, to be honest. So let's examine:

My original idea was a physical stop-motion animation drawn entirely on paper with crayons. After some sketches, and experimenting, this turned out to be a logistical nightmare. For a start, to produce 60 seconds of smooth animation I probably would have needed an entire tree's worth of paper, and that felt expensive and wasteful.

So then I altered my idea slightly - I would complete the animation digitally doing what I'd initially planned, and just using brushes that looked like crayon to produce the same effect - easy fix! I now knew I wanted to work with the idea of “firsts” as my age bracket was so young, and so a lot of planning took place here.

However, when it came to actually animating, I kept finding that nothing was really looking how I wanted it to. The style didn’t lend itself well to much movement, apart from an animation boil of flat colour, and that felt lazy - though I did end up with some pretty cool title and transitional frames I wish I could have used:

I thought about how I could have a more visually interesting concept that still fit the era of childhood that I was working with, and that was when I came up with the idea of working in the style of a children’s tv show - I felt it almost fit better thematically, honestly, because I’m a lot more nostalgic about the shows I used to watch than any drawings I might have done. So I mocked up a few example animations. Unfortunately I only have screenshots from them, as Tumblr has a 1 video per post rule, but I was pretty happy with myself for this idea (though truthfully was worried by both my technical ability and the timeframe I had to work with, as animation takes a lot longer the more detailed it is).

I finally figured out an idea I liked after absently experimenting with a simple animation of a character spinning around - this ended up being the final frame of my actual animation (read that post here) which ironically enough I finished first. First of all I storyboarded, and then put together a Google slideshow with some references for bits of animation and concepted the character in full so I knew what her personality should be like.

It doesn’t look like so much when it’s all laid out, but I also spent an extensive amount of time thinking about the project and doing work that I’d end up deleting a couple of hours later because it wasn’t looking right.

My process looks similar every time I have a creative project, and I’ve been thinking hard about how I could reduce the time it takes. I think maybe taking the time to create a mindmap and visually get out as many of my ideas as possible could help me to figure out which ones are the most possible/realistic faster, so I’m definitely going to try that next time instead of just jumping straight in to my first idea.

[ballorawan740]

SCP Scenarios: When their kids swear at them (REQUESTED)

Main Masterlist | SCP Scenarios Masterlist | My Works Masterlist | Rules | Request | Socials | My Original Post

Requested by: @Astro_KeySimp

WARNING: Swearing (sorta)

Ok so I kinda made the reader into the child since don't remember if you wanted the reader to be a child or not, so if it wasn't to your liking, then I'm sorry, but I can make a separate version on where the reader isn't the child

It kinda became more of the SCPs and doctors being dads than their reaction to their kids swearing

SCP 073 (Cain)

Cain was walking around with you since you were bored and there wasn't anything to do

Being unaware of what some of the staff were saying, ye went over to grab you some food for later in case you got hungry

Once you both went back, he watched you play with some Legos and was talking as if it was your Lego friends talking to you

Cain looked away for just 10 seconds and heard you shout out "Wow! He said that her baby's such a bi-" which shocked him as he heard it

Cain looked around and made sure that nobody was around the room and was somewhat surprised that you was the one saying this

Being a good dad he is, Cain explained to you carefuly that you shouldn't say that word because it's bad

And being a sweet shy child, you obliged and stopped saying the word

Til this day, Cain had no idea about where and who you've heard the word from and is very much more self-aware

SCP 076-2 (Abel)

Abel is that type of dad who would teach you all the bad words and encourages you to say them

It's the researchers who had to teach you top not to say those words

One time, Dr Glass came in to examine you and had rewarded you as usual since you were so cooperative

You drew a picture of you and Abel talking in a garden with bright coloured flowers

Simon asked if he could see your drawing and saw that the conversation you and your dad had was those of swearing

This surprised Simon since you knew so many at such a young age but wasn't totally shocked since he knew that you were Abel's child

And knowing him, he wouldn't teach you to be nice, so Simon took the job as a mother hen and taught you to not use those words around people

SCP 999 (Tickle Monster)

Ok, so I'll keep this SCP short since I, again, don't know what I should write for this adorable, squicky, neon-orange, bubby blob

Another SCP who doesn't cuss

This adorable squishy boi here was about to have a heart attack when he heard you swear fir the first time

He had to ask you worryingly where you heard that phrase and you just said some guy wearing a white jacket

999 sighed knowing that you'll grow and couldn't do anything to stop it

He did, however, mention that you should try and avoid saying those things to anyone and that they'd most likely have a heart attack since you were his child and you won the genetic lottery for being the cutest and outgoing child in the world

The only other person who knew of this was Dr Glass (sucks to be him ngl, he do be a mother to everyone) and he had to help poor 999 with teaching you better words

SCP 682 (Hard to Destroy Reptile)

YAY! Another SCP who would teach their kid to swear

682 has such a dirty mouth like 076 and would 100% teach you all the words he knows

Similarly to what happened with Abel, you were taken for an interview with Dr Sophia Light since she was assigned to you

She's such a sweet and kind doctor to be around and would teach you anything and everything you would probably need to know all the while keeping an eye on you in case you become overly aggressive like 682

You were just eating some sweets Lights had given you for good behaviour and overheard some researchers swear

Remembering what your dad had taught you, you just repeated those curse words while clapping at your achievement

This had shocked Sophia and that researcher since you were known to be a moderately shy and quiet child who normally wouldn't say those things despite being 682's child

Sophia had to ask if you understood the meaning of those words and shook your head as an indicator for no

She had to carefully find her words and told you to never speak of those words again and took you back to 682's cell

You went and hugged your dad and told him that you learnt from the doctor that those curse words were bad and neither of you should say them

682 had a headache after that

SCP 049 (Plague Doctor)

I have a hard time thinking that 049 would teach his child to cuss and would avoid swearing in front of them at all cost

Like, he barely swears anyways but he wants to stay classy and sassy for his innocent child

Just like the other day, his kiddo, you, was curious about the whole surgery thingy he does on the dead bodies, so you asked him to teach you and so he did (like the good father we nevah had)

So you learnt some new, yet difficult, words (cuz we all have a nonexistent pea-sized brain) and somehow, you managed to fit in a curse word

This did surprise 049 as he had remembered that he didn't teach you those foul words

He had to give you a talk about using such words and you teared up since you thought that people used them to express their affection to others

Unsurprisingly, 049 took his sweet time looking for the guy who 'taught' you this and wanted to use him as a case study for your future lessons

SCP 035 (Possessive Mask)

Another parent with such an amazing influence on children

035 would teach and enable you to use swearing as a form of expression

So you were free to say whatever you want as long as they aren't directed to our mask here, especially if it's in a negative way

Otherwise, you'd be punished (No not like that! He'll just ground you from your favourite TV show/movie)

The researchers were surprised, not about you swearing, but how you use them through expression

Except for this poor guy who was new to the foundation and bumped into you by accident

This rookie found himself listening to you cursing like a sailor (maybe not that much but more or less on the same level as Samuel L Jackson)

Word got out and everybody laughed at the poor rookie and told him more about your background and how you love to swear (apparently swearing will prolong your life, so you'll basically be immortal here)

035 was impressed by the whole ordeal and rewarded you with more shows to watch whenever you're both free

SCP 105 (Iris)

Iris would accidentally swear in front of you and whenever she realises it, she would tell you to not swear at people since it wasn't very nice

So she would use words to replace the swearing like "oh fudging hell not now" and "no sugar honey ice tea"

The foundation felt that it was slightly unnecessary but went with it anyways

They'd even go as far as saying that it's ridiculous, but who are they to judge?

Iris was your mother and she's a single mum too, so she felt the need to be overly beating but would occasionally let you decide on your own since you were only 12

The foundation members did tell her that you will eventually grow and more of these words will be used but she just hesitates

As a teen, you did begin to use foul words more often and Iris would argue about how you're using them, especially towards her, your own mother

Needless to say, you both felt bad and made up

SCP 106 (Old Man)

Now this old man right here doesn't exactly speak, or at least very rarely

And if he does, he'll most likely be talking to you or the foundation staff if he needed some help finding you

He'll most likely be able to understand what the researchers are saying, even if they aren't speaking English

My own personal hc is that 106 understands English, German, Spanish, French, Chinese, Arabic and Indonesian and probably many others

Every now and again, somebody would come in and teach you new words and give other lessons like maths and poetry (our favourite)

You came back home to tell him all the things you've learnt as he watched you in awe as he braided your hair

You've even used some new phrases, including swear words while talking and 106 was pretty impressed

I feel that he's quite neutral with swear words since words are words and are used as a form of verbal communication

So I don't think they'll be much change in his behaviour to whether you're swearing or not

SCP 096 (Shy Guy)

Now with 096, all he does is scream

So basically, somebody else would have to teach you some words

It's not to say that 096 is a dumb animalistic creature with no soul and just kills people who look at his face

He isn't stupid since he manages to find anyone who looked at his face from the other side of the globe

And he seems to understand what the researchers are saying, or at least on a more intermediate to moderate level

You'll learn about swear words from the other researchers, whether they'll be teaching it to you intentionally or you've overheard them

The foundation could really care less, but would at least prefer that you chill a bit if you got carried away

096 would act all cheery when you learn more new things as it's not like the foundation would let him out anyway, so he'll be living the outside world life from you (How relatable, but more with babysitting and dating, cuz I'm too pretty for anyone to date XD)

Like with 106, I don't think 096 would have any special reaction towards swearing, but would probably be screaming internally for a bit since he knows that it isn't a nice word

Dr Jack bright

This mf right here is one of those parents who would be kind but firm

Bright would most definitely give in to your curiosity and teach you whatever you want to learn but would warn you of the dangers

Depending on what it is, he would even go as far as giving you your own personal guard who would stay with you and train you

And unfortunately, this guard has such a foul mouth, so you're constantly exposed to such words

Luckily for the both of you, Jack Bright doesn't really care about swearing as long as you're not being extremely inappropriate if you were to work

He would even joke around with you sometimes and would even start the conversation with swearing

For instance, he'd just surprise you with a "Yeet his mf outta my sheithole"

And yes, you did laugh at his antics

Some would even say that you're an exact clone of him but more stable (for now)

Well, Bright is an amazing dad, but I'd say just below Dr Glass

Or maybe even on par with him

Like Bright is a goofy dad that has all the terrible dad jokes and Glass would be the type of dad to look out for his kid

Dr Simon Glass

Dr Glass would most definitely avoid using swear words, especially if you were under 15

Even if you were over 15, he'd still avoid swearing unless he wants to make a joke or 2

So most of the time, you'd learn all the swearing from other people and SCPs

Sometimes you would swear by accident and Glass would just look at you, slightly disappointed

I'd say he doesn't exactly care about you swearing per see, but would rather you avoid it

It's cuz Simon is the best dad a dad could ever dad and nobody could prove me wrong here

He's also one of the top best dads compared to the others on the list

He's basically your best friend so he'd let you vent and its the 1 time he'd let you swear to show your emotions

Simon would 100% know your thoughts and behaviour

He's just that good at reading people, especially you - almost to the point where people would say he's an SCP cuz I swear he's just empathic and telepathic

As mentioned before, Glass would be the type of dad to care for your mental health

It's not that the others don't, it's just that Glass is a top their God of Psychology and would come to you before you even know you have depression

He would even crack a joke sometimes

So every so often, he would shout out "LANGUAGE!!!" from across the room before you could even bat an eye and say anything

Dr Alto Clef

Another top tier dad, but swearing addition

Your godfather would literally be Jack Bright

Then it's Kondraki and Glass

He would let you swear on a daily basis and would join you

Sometimes you be looking at your Oppas/Noonas and be like: "Oh fxxk me!" and Clef, who's in the next room, be like: "Yeah, fxxk me too!" (Yes but no sis! No incest pls!)

Other times, you would be in the same room as Clef and Bright and you'd join them in being chaotic

And poor Kondraki  is just there at the back trying to do his work peacefully

One time, Kondraki had to grab a Simon Glass to help stop the chaotic trio

And OML did it end so well

You were easy to manage tbh, with the exception of you swearing

Clef and Bright would most definitely encourage you to swear more

Especially Clef since he does have a twisted sense of humour

Dr Benjamin Kondraki

Kondraki is totally the type of person who would tell their kid to mind their own language

But he secretly doesn't care and his child knows it

His style of parenting is similar to Simon's

And yes, Simon is your #1 godfather/uncle

You'd go to him for emotional support since Kondraki sucks at that

Sometimes you'd swear at him and he'd get mad though

So yeah, running to Glass is a wonderful idea

And we all know that Kondraki doesn't mean what he said

He's just extremely introverted, but he's rather sensible - Usually...

Anyways, he would ask Simon on tips and advice on how to get you to stop swearing so much and he just gave Benjamin a parenting book (Like fr guys, let Glass have some rest, he's tired of babysitting over 100 dozens of pets in the zoo and all the other babies who work in it)

[orangesartblog]

I have decided to no longer let people (mostly of the past) dictate what I can and can't post and that it's okay to enjoy creating things and to want to share them. So here's Bob and Tony being adorable.

Their hair is different because I typically draw them in the 1950s but for when this photo is set (1960s) the style was different so I imagine their hair changed a bit. Basically I wanted a excuse to give Bob long hair cause it suits him lmao.

I like to imagine a future crew finding out small bits and pieces about the past crews and stuff.

Anyway, I have a little silly fic under the fold as well as a colour version cause I'm proud of both aha.

._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._.

I don't have any names for the modern crew so please bare with aha

"I found this tucked away in a old box in my apartment. Might be interesting to you, I know you like sodor history", the stationmaster said, handing him a box. She sat down on the table across from him and the fireman.

Thomas' driver opened it and gasped. Black and white pictures of old workmen, and letters to one and other. He picked up the first: two men in front of the E2, one kissing the cheek of the other, one of them in mid sentence. "this must be the old crew Thomas mentioned", the fireman mumbled, as the driver placed the photograph gently on the table.

He picked up another, this one was blurrier then the first: a blonde yardworker sat on the shoulders of a brunette stationmaster? Or perhaps one of the assistants? The two were laughing, with two other people laughing at them in the background. but it was clear the yardworker was probably dropped moments after the photo was taken.

The fireman took out a small letter, it had a drawing of what looked to be a drawing of Edward on the front. With messy cursive handwriting on the back

"Sid

You sappy sod!

Your gonna be the death of me one of these days.. you just keep being so wonderful and loving, hiding these cheesy as fuck love letters in my locker.

I mean it when I say, I bloody love you.

-Charlie

"these are... Incredible" the two crew men whispered, gently placing the letters back on their box. "I knew you'd find them interesting." The stationmaster laughed.

"you should talk to Edward or Henry about some of them. I know they're good at remembering that sorta stuff."

[fumingspice]

All The Things She Said

Pairing: Lana Winters x Reader

Request:  student x teacher au fic with lana, billie or cordelia?

Note: Added in a little sparkle with a soulmate AU. Those who are lucky enough to have a soulmate are assigned a necklace with a small pendant. No one knows where they come from or how they’re decided; they just appear and will match your soulmate’s identically. Also, yes the reader is eighteen, and yes there will probably be a part two.

Requests are open!

Your routine was like clock-work; every morning without fail. 5am you would get out of bed and go on a run. There was no reason, really. You weren't someone who was that interested in athletics, it was just a way to clear your mind and wake up your mind and body before going to school and having the energy sucked out of you.

You adored the way the sky looked this early in the morning as you ran through the country park. The heat gave you an extra kick of gratification as you watched the sky dance in colours of orange and pink, painting everything in shades of gold. The sun crept through the mountain like liquid glory and you couldn't get enough of it.

Realising the time, you made your way back to your neighbourhood, waving at neighbours you often saw at this time of morning.

You saw many of the same people on morning runs that you eventually learned by name while running past them, shouting a greeting and waving as you sped past them. This morning, you noticed that the home a few lots down from your own had been purchased; the new inhabitents were outside, speaking with a contractor.

As you ran, you noticed the woman watching you. Breaking your glance, you made a mental note to introduce yourself later.

The shower couldn't come soon enough as you lathered the cool water on your body. Cold showers after a run provided that little extra adrenaline rush that you needed to get you through the day, and boy would you need it today.

After months of persuasion, you had finally given in to skipping the end of school and heading to a gay bar with your friends Emmett and Heather. Being the model student you were, you had declined the offer time and time again; but after catching your boyfriend with another girl and the subsequent break up of one of the most liked couples in school, you decided that now would be the best time for it.

The school day rushed in and at 12pm on the dot, you and Emmett made your way to Heather's car, where she sat impatiently tapping her foot.

"You two took your sweet time," the blonde muttered, pulling on a pair of sunglasses and revving up the engine.

The plan was simple; Heather's parents were out of town for the week so the three of you planned to stay over. Today would be spent getting ready and having a few drinks before hitting the bar in order for you to have a "drink in celebration" for breaking up with your ex-boyfriend.

The bar was lively, and you could smell the mixture of cheap cigarettes, alcohol and weed and hear the music from the street behind. Emmett compared the similarity of the three of you strutting to the bar to the Sanderson sisters from Hocus Pocus.

Heather nudged you yet again, her elbow hitting a nerve in your ribs and making you bounce.

"Will you quit that?" you snapped, realising your fourth cocktail was making you slightly irritable.

Heather glared at you and pulled you over to whisper in your ear. "The brunette at seven o'clock has looked from her phone to you at least four times," she hissed, releasing you and nodding her head in the direction.

You nodded in understanding and gestured for her to tell you what to do. Picking chicks up at a bar wasn't exactly something you were accustomed to, after all.

"Go up to the bar and order something-" she looked at your outift, "-I don't know. Some business casual-sounding drink. Like an Old Fashioned or something. Make a joke about how much you've drank and if she's warm then ask if she's here with someone. Then go in for the kill and Emmett and I will be your wing-people when you break your seal."

"Break my what?"

Heather practically shoved you off your chair.

You shrugged and walked towards the bar, standing close to the brunette, but not close enough so that she knew what you were up to. The bartender approached and you smiled at her.

"Hey, could I get an Old Fashioned pl-"

"And get me another piña colada while you're making your move!" Heather called, acting more drunk than she was in an effort to hint off to the lady. You glared at her, and in return, for some added effect she lent into full view of the lady, shot her a cheesy grin and gave her a thumbs up.

You spun on your heel to see if the lady had noticed, and to your dismay she had. She looked at you with a raised eyebrow.

At least she didn't look disappointed.

"Was that for me?" She chuckled, taking a tip from her class. You grinned as casually as possible, looking down at your hands. You finished off your order and paid, waiting for Heather to get her drink to no avail.

"You know what, yeah I think it was for you actually," you replied. Keeping it cool was the buzz phrase Heather had been using all day. "I'm sorry but my friend claimed that she had seen you checking me out a few times and was pretty insistant that I come over and talk to you."

You sat in the stool, leaving one between you.

The lady chuckled. "It's fine," she said, taking another sip. "I'd be grateful for the company."

"You're alone? You're more than welcome to sit with my friends and I," you offered.

You cut off immediately by Heather collecting her drink, standing between you and muttering, "don't you fucking dare," into your ear before walking over to the woman and leaning over her shoulder.

"Now, you see, Ms- I'm sorry what's your name? Jesus, Y/N! When you flirt it's basic manners to ask for a name," Heather muttered.

"It's Lana," she replied, smiling at you.

Lana. A pretty name.

"Awh, that's a lovely name actually, I wish my parents liked me enough to call me something like that. Anyways, enough about me. So, anyways, my good friend Y/N here just got two-timed by a piece of human trash that she's way hotter than and everyone warned her against dating but hey- you know our Y/N, she's balls-ier than a dodgey testical. So, all I'm really gonna say is we came here because we really want to get her laid so she doesn't need to feel like she got the short end of the bargain so, you know-"

At this stage Heather was trying to communicate through a series of dramatic gestures. Emmett strod over, took Heather by the shoulders and apologised to Lana before walking your drunk friend back to your table.

You were both a little shell-shocked and you feared that Heather's drunken rant had ruined any sembelance of a chance that you had with getting anywhere with this.

"I- I'm so sorry. She doesn't get out much," you said. Lana's smile returned as she waved it off.

"Has anyone ever told you that you look a lot younger than twenty-one?" she asked. You couldn't tell if she was being genuine or if she was trying to hint that she thought you were younger than your ID said.

You nodded. "All the time," you say, it's not like that's a lie. "How old are you? If you're not offended by my asking."

"I'm twenty-nine. I hit the big three-oh in November," she replied. Lana reached into her bag and pulled out a box of Newport cigarettes. "I'm sorry, I've had a long day and I'm dying for a smoke. Care to join me?"

You sat still for a moment before excepting the offer. The club was absolutely packed and you could barely follow Lana through to the balcony without getting separated from her. She noticed and turned around, taking your hand and keeping you close so that you didn't get lost in the crowd.

Lana lent over the metal fence, cupping her hand over her lighter. You watched how her cheeks sucked in, defining her cheekbones and her jawline. You mirrored her position against the fence.

"Hard day at the office?" You asked, declining the cigarette she offered you. "Thanks but I don't smoke."

Lana smiled down at her cigarette. "I like a smart girl. Stay away from these for as long as possible," she took a long draw. "And to answer your question; I moved into a new house today only to find out that none of the plumbing was actually installed and contractor has no idea why."

"My house was like that too; turns out the pipes are just in really weird places," you replied. You turned to face in the opposite direction, laying your elbows onto the bar and watching the crowd. "What do you do? Career wise?"

Lana blew out a puff. "I'm a teacher. French and English Literature."

Ah great; a French student trying to hit on a French teacher. This was gonna be a fun story to tell the group.

"You're kidding? I'm studying French," you replied. 

Lana laughed. "Damn, Y/N. This just has to be written in the stars," she replied, you could sent the well-meant underlying sarcasm in her voice. "You think I have that chance?" You ask, your eyes dart down to her hand. Her ring finger, although bare had an imprint on it as if she had only recently removed a ring. She noticed you looking and brought her hand into a fist.

"Don't look at me like that, Y/N. We're getting divorced," she said. She bit her lip and looked down into the woods beneath. 

You felt slightly guilty. "Oh, I'm sorry." Lana shook her head in response.

"I'm in a gay bar for Christ's sake. We definetly weren't compatiable," she chuckled, reaching for another draw of her cigarette. She turned around, some noise in the background catching her attention. Her sleeve dropped a little bit, revealing two bruises at the side of her wrist that she had clearly tried to cover with foundation. Lana turned back around and you dropped your eyes before you noticed, unaware if it was your place to ask.

"If I'm honest, I don't really like bars. I know this really nice café a few places down. Do you wanna come with me?" You asked. Lana's head cocked slightly, her eyes scanned you as if they were looking for some alterier motive. "I'm not trying to get laid, Lana. I just don't like clubs and I don't think you do either."

Lana's shoulders relaxed, as if trying to decide. "Sure," she nodded. "I'd love to."

You walked back in through the bar, telling Emmett what you were doing. He made you promise to turn on your location and to call him to pick you up when you were ready to leave.

"It's nice that you have friends to watch your back," Lana said as you walked down the street. The air was now cold, nipping at your cheeks and nose. Lana slid her arm through yours after asking if it was okay to do so.

The café in question was small; dimly lit, decorated with plants. It was warm inside and the candles lit everything in orange. It was peaceful. You heard Lana sigh with relaxation as you asked her what she'd like to drink.

Two lattes later, you and Lana lay on the same old, green, springless couch. You giggled and talked for what could have been hours.

Lana noticed your Soul Necklace. “I have one too,” she said, touching the stone delicately. “I’ve never worn it though.”

She told you stories from high school and college while you sat and listened to her in some new form of fascination. You could listen to her talk forever. Your head rested on her shoulder, and hers rested on your head. There was an echo of peace which bounced around the both of you.

Eventually there came a moment when you had finally plucked up enough courage in a moment of silence between you to lift her chin with your finger and close in for a kiss. It was short and sweet, but you could still rellish the feeling of her lips kissing back against yours in a gentle passion.

She waited on you while Emmett drove back to get you, with an extremely drunk Heather in the backseat. 

"Are you free tomorrow night?" Lana asked before she walked away. You nodded. "Would you like to maybe go out? On a date?"

Her final question was asked with a shyness that you found adorable, and giving her a kiss on the cheek as

The next day you went to school in a good mood. Your run was better than ever. Your breakfast was tastier. The sky was more beautiful. You couldn't contain your giggles as Heather drove you and Emmett to school.

"I cannot believe you've landed yourself a date with a teacher," Emmett said as the three with you walked to your French class. You practically danced down the corridor with happiness. The three of you were slightly late to class.

You pushed the door open harder than you intended, making it crash against the wall with a loud bang. You muttered an apology while your friends laughed at you and the teacher settled them down, chuckling under her breath.

That it until she looked up at you.

And you looked up at her.

Lana muttered a profanity under her breath as she realised that she had asked one of her students on a date.

taglist: @its-soph-xx​

[bloededhoine]

world building cause twn doesn't part 8: nonhumans

this is easily the geekiest part of the series. and it's a Very geeky series. because sapkowski's worldbuilding is waaay more extensive than i have the time, ability, or desire to convey, i'm sticking with races both sentient and important

colour code cause i fucking love colour codes - already happened/introduced, probably s2, important background info, stuff that might be in the prequel, extras

series masterpost

dopplers

dopplers, also known as vexlings, shifters, mimics, doubles, imitators, or pavrats, are a nonhuman race that can take on the appearance of nearly anyone they encounter

before mass migrations of humans, dopplers primarily inhabited the forests and plateaus around the city of novigrad, where they would transform into wolves and pack animals to hunt

their abilities are pretty impressive, dopplers can not only mimic appearance but also voice, personality, skills, behaviours, and knowledge. dopplers can even turn parts of their bodies into pieces of clothing or other objects

however, there are some limitations

dopplers can't transform into someone/thing with dramatically more mass than they have, are burned by silver, and can't drop anything they created (if they did it would kind of turn into a fleshy goop)

we've already met a doppler in twn, this sexy sexy man

BUT

it is important to note that this doppler is a huge deviation from sapkowski's lore. dopplers are pretty much always exceptionally kind and gentle. a lot of times they use their abilities to appear threatening (big teeth, sharp claws etc) because they really don't want to hurt anyone.

when dopplers aren't mimicking another form, they aren't exactly pretty. they're bald, short, have beady yellow eyes, and kinda look like they're made from soft clay

here's the hexer doppler

the most notable doppler is dudu biberveldt, who i mentioned as the halfling dainty biberveldt's fake cousin. dudu's actual name is tellico lunngrevink letorte, but dainty decided to help dudu live in novigrad by adopting him as his fake cousin.

dragons

dragons are fucking awesome. you know it, i know it, and zerrikanians know it. witcher dragons are especially awesome

they are the only being, other than cats, that can naturally harness and absorb the force of chaos

there are multiple subtypes, but most dragons fall into one of four: black dragons, green dragons, red dragons, and white dragons.

black dragons are the largest, and primarily live in swamps and wetlands where they bathe in mud. they have extremely hard scales and don't breathe fire, but an acid that causes burns similar to those from mustard gas.

green dragons (right there) are the most prominent yet smallest species of dragon, mainly living in forested areas and breathe highly flammable chlorine gas.

red dragons mainly live in hills and mountain caves and can breathe fire hot enough to melt metal

white dragons are one of the rarest species and live in the far north, and can breathe frost

however, if you watched the witcher netflix as i assume you did, you may remember golden dragons. these dragons are so rare and exceptional that they are not usually included with other species. they breathe steam and fire and can shapeshift into any living being

all dragons communicate through telepathy, although golden dragons can speak when they are in the form of a species that can speak

humans are pretty divided on the topic of dragons, with zerrikanians worshiping them and nordlings hating them.

because they are incredibly intelligent and emotional, witchers (generally) refuse to hunt them

borkh three jackdaws, also known as villentrenmerth, is the only golden dragon we know. there he is right there.

ASSASSINS OF KINGS SPOILERS NEXT TWO BULLET POINTS

the other dragon from twn was a green dragon named myrgtabrakke, borkh's mate. their daughter is named saesenthessis, also known as saskia the dragonslayer (an alias she took to explain her extensive knowledge of dragons) and the virgin of aedirn

because saskia is part golden dragon, she can shapeshift, although is much more limited than her father. she can basically only be a human looking woman with blonde hair or a huge dragon.

cut because this part is getting REALLY long

godlings

ah godlings. i love them so much. they're adorable and precious. they usually look somewhat like a human child, but with blue skin and large amber or green eyes. they don't wear much clothes, their focus is in accessories like jewelry, flowers, or tattoos

that's johnny, a holding in wild hunt.

godlings are incredibly rare, and are easily confused with young goblins. they primarily live in swamps near drowners, but aren't afraid of them.

they're quite mischievous but kind hearted, many have happy go lucky personalities and love just having fun. i adore godlings. i've said it once and i'll say it again.

higher vampires

definitely the most important group on this list, higher vampires are incredibly powerful and intelligent. they can shapeshift within certain limits, generally either looking like a human or a large terrifying bat. they also have some telepathic abilities - they can basically make you fall asleep and forget stuff

scary wooo

higher vampires do not need to drink blood to survive. some don't drink blood at all. when they do, it's like a human drinking alcohol. on full moons, groups of higher vampires go out partying and get white girl wasted

although all higher vampires have the same basic abilities, each individual has one skill they are exceptional in.

most find humans harmless but annoying, like mosquitos. they don't really like interacting with humans, which works out pretty well as higher vampires can blend in very well, even a witcher's medallion can't detect one

higher vampires also have three distinct cultures, the tdet in the far east, the ammurun across the great sea, and the gharasham in the northern realms

they are really really hard (or impossible, depending on canon) to kill. based on the books, you basically need to disintegrate them. based on the games, only higher vampires can kill other higher vampires, but humans can get close

we only meet one in the books, emiel regis rohellec terzieff-godefroy. he goes by regis for short. regis was an "alcoholic" in his youth, and has since abstained from blood or any other substance. he's incredibly old, by the end of twn season 1 he'd be 425 years old. as for regis' "special ability", he's just kind. he's an incredibly gentle and loving person. that's it. i love him.

merpeople

probably one you're already familiar with! merpeople are intelligent humanoids that inhabit the great sea. mermaids are notably gorgeous, having green hair and tails, and their scales are prized alchemy ingredients

sapkowski's mermaids can breathe above water, but the sun burns their skin so they don't stay at the surface for very long.

merpeople are incredibly powerful, they can summon krakens and the sea-dragon like race of vodyanoy respect their authority

they use their own language that's quite similar to hen llinge, but more lyrical sounding.

nymphs

nymphs are a humanoid race primarily based around nature. they have 5 subspecies, dryads (including hamadryads), leimoniad, naiad, nereid, and oread.

dryads, called eerie wives by humans and aen woedbeanna by elves, are the most prevalent, primarily living in the brokilon forest. some have human skin with olive undertones, but others are green. they usually have dark brown or green hair which is usually worn in dreadlocks (breaking my promise of not being overtly and annoyingly political in this series yet again - the dryads, especially in the netflix adaptation, are classic magical n*gress stereotypes. but more on that later.)

this is a lore-accurate one that i LOVE

dryads have incredibly strong connections with nature and magic, although it is really rare for a dryad to be a source. dryads are able to draw energy from trees, but rarely do because they don't want to hurt the trees. support dryads and take the bus.

all dryads are women. all of them. they make babies by basically luring men into the forest and doing the adult hokey pokey. also why dryads aren't really a fan of witchers, who don't make the baby butter (i am so sorry)

however, dryads can also turn a girl of another race into one of their own through the use of magic. the water of brokilon has some mutating quality that makes young girls forget their human past and physically turn into dryads, although it is less effective as the girls are older. the dryads tried to do this to ciri, but given that she's a source, nothing happened. generally, this process is done to girls who wander into brokilon, but some dryads will abduct peasants from outside the forest if they need more dryads.

here's twn dryads... yikes

this is where i think the whole racism thing becomes a bit too obvious. "uncivilized" women who live in the forest and have dreadlocks and abduct young girls from "civilized" areas?? in twn they leaned even further into this, having one of the two black women they cast be a dryad and replacing the usual bows and arrows with spears, a less sophisticated weapon. again, this series is about the lore, not the political implications of it, but it is important to keep in mind

dryads are excellent at archery, shooting anyone who comes within 80 metres of the forest. through their connection with nature, they have highly advanced medicine and use glowing fungi as a source of light.

hamadryads are a specific type of dryad that is incredibly connected with her tree. because of this connection they have exceptionally strong magical and healing capabilities, but will also go insane and die if their tree dies.

like merpeople, dryads use a more melodic dialect of hen llinge

leimoniads are a type of nymph that lived exclusively in meadows, but are practically extinct due to wars with humans

naiads, also called rusalki, are nymphs that live in lakes and rivers, although a few live with the dryads in brokilon. naiads are very similar to dryads, although they tend to have very light skin with very dark hair, webbed hands, and can dry out on land

naiads rarely speak common, live in small groups, and have highly developed telepathic abilities

nereids are nymphs that inhabit the great sea, often living closely with merpeople. they usually have blueish skin with either blue or white hair and have some telepathic abilities, though not to the extent of naiads.

oreads are nymphs of the mountains, which, like leimoniads, are nearly extinct due to human conquests.

succubi/incubi

succubi (female) and incubi (male) are creatures which look like incredibly attractive humans but with horns and goat legs. they seduce humans, first in dreams and then physically, using their prey's energy to sustain themselves, often to the point of the human's exhaustion or death

our man eskel has a soft spot for them...

sylvans

sylvans, another race we already met, are exceptionally rare. like, practically extinct. they live mainly in the woodlands of the northern realms and have goat-like faces with yellow eyes, horns, cloven hooves, and tails

my man torque is quite possibly one of the last sylvans on the continent

they are distantly related to elves, and the two races tend to coexist quite well

generally quite mischievous and merry, highly enjoying pranks and parties. they can use simple spells and are mainly herbivores

sylvans live around 100 years and are highly sought after by dryads for their... ahem... reproductive capabilities

unicorns

yep, we got unicorns! i fucking love unicorns and still kinda think they're real. camels are real and those lumpy fuckers are way weirder than a horse with a spike on its head.

anyways

unicorns are highly advanced beings, they can travel between worlds and use telepathy. they don't really like the "less advanced" races, mostly staying around to observe them. they have distinct societies led by a council of elders and tend to avoid evil

these unicorns are badasses

unicorns strongly despise the use of the force but encourage the power of destiny. in the context of pavetta's betrothal feast, a unicorn would not be happy with pavetta's little source hurricane thing, but would encourage geralt to follow the law of surprise

in of the witcher, unicorns are very important because of their world-hopping capabilities. the aen elle, unfortunately, realized this and began enslaving unicorns to help them plunder other worlds. this turned into a massive conflict between the unicorns and elves.

[anika-ann]

A Cup of Truth (S.R)

Type: One-shot, a bit of coffee shop AU

Pairing: Steve Rogers x fem!reader    Word Count: 3000

Summary: Your favourite pretty blond comes in every day to get a cup of good ol’ joe. You flirt on occasion; mostly you, because your suit of armour – which people boringly call an apron – and his smiles give you confidence.

When the band of dumb goons picks your damn workplace to attack, your confidence flies out of the window. Well. Good thing that the resident Avenger heroes save the day including the one in his all-American star-spangled glory.

Prompt: “You can’t mask that ass. I’d know it anywhere.” (Bold in the text)

Warnings: hostage situation, violence, non-consensual drug use/injected, hospitals, slightly crack-ish humour (?) and some fluff

A/N: For marvelcapsicle’s challenge. Thank you for letting me participate, darling, may you gain more and more sweet followers in the future ♥

⊱⊶⊷⊶⊷⊶⊷⊶⊷⊶⊷⊶⊷⊰

Here’s a thing: Steve Rogers had a lot of fight in him. Before or after injected with the serum, no matter his shirt size, no matter if he could swing his fists effectively or not, he would punch bullies in their face.

When it came to people close to his heart, that rule amplified tenfold. No one touched the people he cared for. And while he would not necessarily call all of them friends, he would go rabid should any harm come their way.

To be fair, the list of ‘his people’ who were still alive wasn’t long; he could almost count them on the fingers of one hand. Tony. Natasha. Clint. Thor. Bruce. Probably Fury. Really, his circle was a bit monotonous, people who could protect themselves just fine at most times, but simultaneously with high-risk job of being the first defence line for the world’s greatest threats.

And then there was you.

You, with your inviting smile whenever he appeared at your counter at the café he had discovered during his endless walks.

You, handing him a drink different to his usual ‘boring’ cup of joe once a week, because that was the deal you had offered and Steve, caught in his curiosity about today’s world and your adorable challenging expression, agreed.

You, with your pretty eyes, irises twinkling at his attempts at flirting, no matter how awkward and out-of-time they sounded, graciously returning the favour… if he was reading the situation right.

You, always grinning wide when discovering a doodle he had left on his napkin, taking it with you back to the counter.

You, blissfully unaware of his double life, genuine in your demeanour, dealing with plain old Steve Rogers, and perfectly safe; at least as safe as one could be on Manhattan.

You in a headlock, as five rogue SHIELD agents decided to crash into the café you worked at of all the damn places, choosing it with deadly precision and nearly driving the poor Captain America into a cardiac arrest.

Not that you had any idea your life mattered to the proclaimed Star-Spangled Man more than anyone else’s. You were the exception to the rule; you were the precious outsider Steve caught feelings for, the one that was not supposed to learn about his other persona for at least a while longer and sure as hell was not supposed to get herself in a mess like this one.

Steve stood frozen as Natasha had two men at gunpoint, Clint fighting another, the last one having been already knocked down by Steve himself. The only injured people were the few customers, scarce at the hour, and the employees; some bruises and insignificant bleeding wounds between all of them.

The worst problem still remained; Perez had his arm around your neck, visibly squeezing your windpipe at least partly if the colour of your face – one stained in tears and Steve could kill at the moment, kill with no remorse – was anything to go by.

He gripped his shield tighter, staring the man down with his jaw clenched and his heart beating its way out of his chest, the syringe at your carotid scaring him more than the reduced airflow to your lungs.

“It’s over, Perez! Let her- let the woman go,” Steve howled, knees slightly bend in posture allowing him to spring forward at any second, to throw his weapon, to punch the living daylight of the bastard that not only betrayed SHIELD, but put his hands on you.

Big, big mistake. He really shouldn’t have done that.

“I like her exactly where she is, Cap,” Perez snarled, a wicked smile on his bloody lips, only his eyes giving away a fraction of his fear. “Move and she gets a ticket straight to hell.”

Perez was outnumbered and he knew it; even if he managed to escape, they would find him easily with Tony Stark’s system of surveillance. Yet, he tightened his grip and with you involuntarily acting like a human shield for him, he started backing away, gaze flickering between the three present Avengers.

Natasha’s right arm twitched as if she wanted to shoot him on spot – but she didn’t want to risk leaving the other two without the threat of immediate death for even a second.

And then several things happened at once; Clint knocked his opponent down with the construction of his bow; Perez who saw it lost his nerve and swiftly slammed the needle into your neck, piercing your skin easily, as easily as Steve’s panicked shout ripped from his throat.

The next second, an arrow was sticking from Perez’ shoulder as he jerked back with a cry of pain and Clint put another arrow through his hand, adding one to his thigh for a good measure. Two gunshots sounded in the background, Natasha’s aim as unmistakable as ever.

Perez fell to the ground with a scream, not even reaching for the gun in his holster before Steve was there to knock him out with a brutal hit straight to his face with his vibranium shield. The crack sounding at the impact was like music to Steve’s ears, the blood spurting from Perez’ nose a pleasant visual.

Yet, it didn’t feel half as satisfactory as Steve hoped as you had stumbled and toppled over your own feet. He barely managed to slow down your fall, gloved palm shooting up under the spot between your shoulder blades, his other hand holding your shoulder. He supported your enfeebled weight as you practically lied over the unconscious man.

Steve didn’t bother paying attention to his surroundings, knowing that the noise around him was Romanoff and Barton apprehending the remaining thugs. Instead, his gaze scanned you head to toe, focusing on your face and neck when he couldn’t find any other injury.

You were pale, eyes misted, unfocused, skin worryingly cold to his touch.

“Hey-- hey! Can you hear me?” Steve demanded urgently, lightly patting your cheek.

At that, your pupils zeroed on him, wide with disbelief, and to his immense shock, a lazy smile spread on your lips.

“Steve?” you breathed out his name and blood crystalized in his veins, his heart, already panicking, speeding up. How did you know his name? Perhaps the drug, the whatever liquid in the syringe was taking effect and you were turning delirious? Shit, they needed a doctor-- “You’re the pretty blond. Steve. My flirty Steve… my hero. Everyone’s hero.”

Steve’s horror escalated with each word. Good news: you were still breathing and apparently quite lucid, even if your speech was more of a mumble. Bad news: his secret identity just blew up.

Luckily, he considered the good news much more important; and lucid he would like to keep you, so he shot Natasha and Clint a meaningful glare, wordlessly asking them to call help. He wasn’t sure whether it registered because both of the spies were staring at him wide-eyed as the woman in his arms just outed him like the café’s regular… one that flirted with her, no less.

Steve cleared his throat, focusing on his mission – to keep you talking. There was no much point in denying it, was it?

“Eh... yeah, it’s me. How-how did you know? I wear a mask-“

“Muscly… real muscly… and that ass,” you muttered and Steve nearly choked on his spit, certain that he just turned red all over, including the area you pointed out.

Wait, did that mean that you had been checking him out?

So not important right now.

“Oh, uhm- how are you feeling? We have to-“

“You can’t mask that ass. I’d know it anywhere,” you continued babbling as if you hadn’t heard him and Steve gulped, feeling his teammates, who still hadn’t called a doctor, what the actual hell- watching you with interest. ”…could bounce a penny off it… no, that ain’t right, a quarter off of it, that’s it… Dream of it sometimes… biting-“

Clint coughed loudly to cover his laughter, finally springing into action after that uncomfortable remark that gave Steve quite a visual he wasn’t sure how he felt about just yet.

“Alright, as amusing as this is, we should get her some medical attention…”

Steve only took his eyes off of you for a moment, shooting Barton a look that screamed ‘You think?!’

“I want to touch it… please lemme touch it—just once,” you pleaded quietly, swaying even in your practically horizontal position, straining your neck to catch a glimpse of the object of your interest. “The best I’ve even seen-“

“I think it’s ethanol she got injected with…” Natasha announced, sniffing the syringe with disgust in her voice. “High concentration.”

And Steve felt like he just got hit by Thor’s hammer… in his head. Seriously?

“…alcohol?” he asked, dumbstruck and utterly relieved, the heavy weight in his stomach lifting a bit. “You think she’s merely… drunk?”

“Well, alcohol straight to the bloodstream is seriously nasty on its own, S-“

“Alcohol nasty, yesss. And this really hurts,” your voice interrupted Natasha and Steve’s heart clenched uncomfortably when the surprised grimace appeared on your face, your eyes indeed clouding in pain, looking up at him, doe-eyed, so vulnerable and trusting.

“Hey, no sad Steeb! Your eyes pretty too. Little pictures you draw… so suuuper cute. I like your hair. You came in the day, wind blew, so messy-- like bed hair, wanna try top that-- I betcha I can do better-“

“Sounds drunk enough to you?” Natasha hummed casually and Steve didn’t even have to look at her to know she was smirking, while he was both fretting over your state and blushing to the roots of his hair because of your blunt compliments and unfiltered fantasies.

You turned your head slowly to Nat as she spoke, a crooked grin curling up your lips. “Hey, you’re pretty too-“

Much to Steve’s annoyance, the Russian spy had the audacity to chuckle and wink at you.

“Why thank you-“

“But prefer blonds,” you babbled again, lowering your voice conspiratorially. “He’s real nice. His biceps are like… huge. Bigger than my head-- ow, my head… spi-spinning- I think-? Whoa— oh… “

Steve called out your name in panic as you went limp in his arms, your body pliant, folding like a house of cards.

“I like her,” Clint noted as he jogged to Steve’s side, kneeling to take your pulse on the unharmed carotid with a furrow to his brows. “The medics are on their way, she’ll hold on until then.”

Steve sighed in relief when Clint nodded in affirmation again, feeling your heart still beating.

Steve’s grip on your tightened, hand sliding behind your head to cradle it gently rather than letting it dangle in such unnatural angle. He manoeuvred it so your cheek rested against his chest, his newly free hand sneaking under your knees so he could lift you with ease as he stood up.

“Nice, Rogers. Keep going like this, squads with weights, and you’ll keep that exceptional ass of yours in shape,” Natasha teased him, but when he turned to glare at her, she gave him a soft smile and beckoned towards your nearly motionless body. “She’ll be okay. Let’s go get her some help.”

⊱⊶⊷⊶⊷⊶⊷⊶⊷⊶⊷⊶⊷⊰

Your head was pounding. The right side of your neck was itchy as hell and felt extremely stiff. The beeping sounding in your ears was a thing from nightmares, echoing in your aching skull.

You felt like shit and honestly, you could cry when you tried to open your eyes and the sharp light hit them, making you swiftly close them again.

A realization slowly crept at you that there was a presence of an intrusive smell too, making you want to puke— or was that just the brutal hangover? Because you felt unbelievably hungover on top of everything. The world seemed to be spinning even behind your closed eyelids and you couldn’t but groan, deciding to only curse the universe mentally since your throat resembled a Sahara Desert.

“Oh, hey gorgeous,” a female voice greeted you from your left and you snapped your eyes open with a startle, staring with shock at the beautiful redhead sitting by your bedside.

For few long seconds, you wondered if you died and went to heaven, because there was a non-descript angelic-like creature watching over you.  You quickly brushed that thought aside, because there was no way Heaven looked like a hospital room and provided you with such shitty sensations attacking your poor body.

So you asked the only logical question, ignoring the dryness of your mouth which soon cause you to cough.

“…who are you?”

A plastic cup with a heavenly cold liquid landed in front of you, the straw sticking from it directed to your lips as the stunning woman frowned discontentedly.

“Oh, you don’t remember?” she asked, seemingly hurt. “My heart is breaking! You told me I was pretty.”

You blinked slowly, finally adjusting to the light, finally able to talk without pain (that much pain, that was) and your head started pounding some more, embarrassment filling every fibre of your being.

What the- oh god, you had really got drunk, hadn’t you, and now you had a total blackout on what you had been up to in your questionable state.

“Eeeer… I did? I mean, you are… but-“

“But you prefer blonds, yeah, I know,” the mysterious woman finished your sentence to her liking and your eyes went wide. How did she- and who was she again, sitting in your hospital room like that? Had you really got so smashed that you didn’t remember her when you should have? When had you met? Shit, your mind was so foggy… “And you think Steve’s a bit prettier. And his ass is the best you’ve ever seen, so I get it…”

“The hell?!” you squealed in utter horror, sitting up straight as the words registered, a flash of blue, red and white flickering in the back of your mind, followed by a sharp stung in your temples. A nauseatingly strong pain resembling an intense cramp – only like ten times worse – shot up your neck as you moved so quickly, ripping a startled yelp from your throat.

A hazy image of the café you worked at blended into a picture Steve’s beautiful eyes – did this woman know your regular, your handsome flirty blond regular? –, sensation of gentle hands cradling your jaw, a sting in your neck—

“You need to be careful with how much you move. Your neck took quite a hit, they had to perform a surgery on you, you got a transfusion. They worried about your brain too. They’ve been monitoring you for four days now and this is the first time you’re awake,” your stranger explained patiently, voice full of compassion.

Your hand involuntarily rose to massage the incriminated place, still unsure of what the woman was talking about, the images in your brain confusing the hell out of you. You still had no idea who she was, but her face was starting to feel a bit familiar – you assumed that whatever had happened, she had been there too, possibly helping you.

And there was something in her green eyes, cautious yet somewhat calming, making it easy to trust her for some inexplicable reason.

“Steve’s gonna be pissed at me for missing it,” she added and grinned. “I made him leave to take care of himself before he could actually start taking roots in here. He’s been worried too. A lot.”

The amount of question marks in your head just doubled, but at the same time, your heart fluttered. Steve had visited you? Often, apparently? That was really, really sweet of him. The thought of him guarding you – and didn’t he have a physique of a bodyguard, once mentioning he was in private security when asked –, brought a dreamy smile to your face.

Perhaps it wasn’t only about flirting for him either…?

“Keep looking so lovestruck and I might forgive him that he hasn’t mention you before. Though I guess I can’t blame him, wanting to keep— anyway. I’m Natasha. Nice to meet you,” she extended her hand towards you at last and you automatically accepted it, telling her your name in return.

Even though that was probably beside the point seeing as she had been found at your bedside in a hospital.

“Hi, Natasha. Nice to meet you too… I think.”

The redhead burst out into a quiet laughter at your hesitance. “Fair enough. After Steve comes back and explains what exactly happened – because it’s not quite my place to tell you –, call me back for the good details. It’s fun to make him blush.”

Despite just only having met this woman, you decided that you kinda liked her and nodded in acceptance of her offer. Steve might be sweet – perhaps even sweet on you it seemed – but some harmless teasing could never hurt. Not when it apparently had something to do with his glorious ass.

⊱⊶⊷⊶⊷⊶⊷⊶⊷⊶⊷⊶⊷⊰

Here’s a thing: Steve Rogers had a lot of fight in him. Before injected with the serum or after, no matter his shirt size, no matter if he could swing his fists effectively or not, he would fight for what mattered.

His teammates and friends certainly fell into the category. The somewhat relationship he had been trying to build with you was right there with them, definitely worth fighting for.

So, after revealing his identity – an action which become inevitable at that point, really – he had a delicate confession to make and a bold question to ask in an almost shy voice. He still asked it, because he would be damned if he gave up on you.

You said yes, your confession about certain harboured feelings matching his.

You said yes, you would like to go out with him very much, because you liked him too.

And no, it wasn’t just because he owned the best backside you had ever seen. Steve Rogers was, according to you, quite memorable and worth fighting for in general too.

(Steve, over time, might have developed a bit of a love-hate relationship with the fact you were getting along with Natasha so well. It was good news and bad news at the same time, seeing as it often resulted in the two of you teaming up against him. Once again, the good news won him over… because he simply loved how easily you fit into his world and how surprisingly well he fit into yours.)

⊱⊶⊷⊶⊷⊶⊷⊶⊷⊶⊷⊶⊷⊰

S.R. masterlist

⊱⊶⊷⊶⊷⊶⊷⊶⊷⊶⊷⊶⊷⊰

Thank you for reading :-*

It’s once a again a bit different from my usual writing; it’s short (like wtf me? short?) and it’s with a quote that is hard to do justice to... so I hope you liked it at leats a bit. Feedback always appreciated :-*

[slothssassin]

I was tagged by @vermiliondrug to do this, thanks a lot ♥ Tagging @starsandskies @briarfox13 @alyssalenko and whoever else wants to share their review :)

I posted 1.997 times in 2021

127 posts created (6%)

1870 posts reblogged (94%)

For every post I created, I reblogged 14.7 posts.

I added 1.659 tags in 2021

#q - 436 posts

#mass effect - 359 posts

#dragon age - 201 posts

#fallout 4 - 171 posts

#lol - 98 posts

#dai - 89 posts

#my art - 89 posts

#happy tag - 84 posts

#vtm - 66 posts

#artblog reblog - 66 posts

Longest Tag: 121 characters

#not to be pissed or anything causw then theres someone calling me begging for likes again but what the hell happened here

My Top Posts in 2021

#5

WIP Day

Yet again, a WIP of Em. Will I ever get tired or drawing her? No, I certainly won’t.

Tagged by @starsandskies @briarfox13 @commandershepardshtole and @coronerandundersheriff thanks a lot! Tagging you guys back and also @scarlettkat86 @liaorban-art and @its-sixxers but no pressure as always!

38 notes • Posted 2021-02-13 14:36:35 GMT

#4

OC Introduction - Nancy Rhine

I made this template a while ago but thought it’s time to bring it back as I miss reading and talking about OCs - feel free to use it! Tag me if you do, I’d love to learn about your OCs! For now, I’m tagging @djfatchip​​ @its-sixxers​​ @liaorban​@tarberrymentats​​ @briarfox13​​ @obvidalous​​ @mayihavethisdanse​​ @starsandskies​​ @bellaciaofallout​ @lookbluesoup​ @charomiami​ @alongtidesoflight​ @vixils​ @elvhenfairy​ and whoever else would like to introduce one (or more) of their OCs. No pressure as usual! And beware, it’s very long :D

Fandom: Fallout 4

Role: Sole Survivor

BASICS

Full Name: Nancy Elena Rhine

Nickname(s): Nance, General. Danse calls her “Darling” sometimes, but only when they’re alone.

Pronouns: She/her

Sexuality: Straight

Occupation and Titles: General of the Minutemen

Birthday & Age: 5th of May 2045, 32 in 2287

Physical description: Tall & lean; white skin; jet black hair with soft waves, usually in a bob up to her chin, in the Wasteland it gets a bit longer and she often keeps it in a bun instead; bright and piercing blue eyes

Clothing style: Functional in the Wasteland - jeans, leather jackets, tops, armour, boots. Loves fingerless gloves. When she’s at a settlement for a longer time she also likes wearing colourful blouses and sometimes even a dress. Mostly dark colours, blue and green tones.

BACKGROUND

Nancy grew up with her parents and her two brothers in Pittsburgh. They were a happy family and got along well until Nancy’s mother from illness died when she was only 16. It was hard for the Bakers, but they tried to live on. A few years later Nancy moved to Boston to study law. She worked as a lawyer for a short time but never really felt happy about it. One day she was brave enough, quit her job and went back to university to study her true passion - biology. After graduating she worked as a researcher on insects - during this time she also met Nate Rhine. They got married 3 years later and, even though Nancy suffered from a miscarriage, they were leading a happy life in Sanctuary together with Nate’s brother Noah, his wife and their son Shaun.

After the events in Vault 111, Nancy is left alone, scared and broken. She can’t believe her eyes when she meets Codsworth again - they both know they should look for Nancy’s nephew, but they allow each other some time to calm down. Nancy suffers from a major episode of depression during that time, only starting to feel better after meeting Preston and the Minutemen. Hesitantly, they all decide to make Sanctuary their home again. Nancy loosely follows the trail for Shaun - she thinks she probably has to accept she doesn’t have a nephew anymore. Only with the help of the people she meets along the way she starts to see the future in a brighter light again.

Her relationship with Danse grows slowly - especially because she doesn’t trust the Brotherhood at all. When she took him with her, she even started to dislike him for certain things he said, and she thought that feeling was mutual. After a few days though they got to know each other a little better, Nancy learnt she could rely on him and started to suspect that he’s not sharing every view with the Brotherhood and that he had quite a few doubts in them. She learnt that he had never known a real life outside of the BoS and that she should consider how important they are to him. After that point, he grew on her quickly, especially for his elaborate speech and for the amazement with which he looked at old things from the days before the war.

It takes a long time before they get together, but they become inseparable. To fully commit to their relationship, Nancy gifts Danse Nate’s old wedding ring.

COMBAT & SKILLS

Preferred fighting style: 2 Pistols for quick combat, but usually she uses a Sniper Rifle and fights from a distance. She prefers to stay in cover and tries to kill as many enemies as possible before being seen

Favourite weapon(s): Pistols, Sniper Rifles. A knife if she has no ammo at all. 

Special skills: She’s fit, can run quickly and hides well. She had her troubles after leaving Vault 111 but became a skilled fighter after some time. She’s also good at crafting things and often works on improving settlements. Plus she’s a great cook.

RELATIONSHIPS

Family: Her parents (Elena and Michael Baker) both died before the bombs fell. She had two brothers, Patrick and Marcus. Patrick had a wife and a son. Both brothers moved to Canada before the bombs fell - Nancy doesn’t know what happened to them but is quite sure they both died. When Nancy was in her mid-twenties she married Nate Rhine. They settled down in Sanctuary with Nate’s brother Noah and his wife Cindy. While Nancy lost a child, Cindy and Noah had Shaun. Codsworth is part of her family too.

Love interest: Danse

Best friends: Nick, Deacon, MacCready and Preston

PERSONALITY

Positive traits: Intelligent, cooperative, charismatic, confident

Negative traits: Critical, mistrusting, overthinking, materialistic

Likes: Insects, especially bees and butterflies. Animals. Makeup and pretty clothes that remind her of the good old times. A fine drink.

See the full post

45 notes • Posted 2021-01-06 14:44:51 GMT

#3

Look at this gorgeous Commission of Remy and Shane I got from @didiher ♥ Aren't they cute? And the chicks in the background I'm so in love! Thanks so much @didiher I totally love it!

50 notes • Posted 2021-10-30 13:33:30 GMT

#2

I commissioned @codenameyan to draw my two Fallout 76 OCs Emilia Goodridge and Marius Lind and I’m so in love with how they turned out! 😍

This is the first art I got of Marius and it’s exactly how I imagine him, that cute smile kills me! And Em looks so beautiful and thoughtful! Thank you so so much Yan, I absolutely adore how they turned out ♥

54 notes • Posted 2021-01-24 18:46:51 GMT

#1

Dash is dead, or full of long text posts and nothing else.

I have a need of new blogs! Could you please like or reblog this if you post:

Stardew Valley! I'm currently so into it!

Fallout, especially 4 and 76

Bioware aka Mass Effect and Dragon Age

Skyrim

Harry Potter (Hogwarts Mystery)

Horizon Zero Dawn

Ghost of Tsushima

Games, games are good

Memes

Also I loooooove seeing other people's OCs and learning about them! And art!

251 notes • Posted 2021-02-09 10:37:37 GMT

Get your Tumblr 2021 Year in Review →

[ashenlights]

From planning to posting, share your process for making creative content (part 2!)

RULES: When your work is tagged, show the process of its creation from planning to posting, then tag 5 people with a specific link to one of their creative works you’d like to see the process of. Use the tag #showyourprocess so we can find yours!

Thanks for tagging me @vishcount! :D Here’s the process of my Liu Sang art which I drew for your birthday (and which is technically named “Waterfalls of the Sun” in my files ^^) This drawing wasn’t as neat as the process of my LWJ art that I showed in the last post -  I didn’t have a super clear idea of where I wanted to go with it at first, so it really evolved a lot as I drew!

1. Planning

Step 1 of planning was to brainstorm and try to find a quote/lyric that captured his whole character in a nutshell. I had 2 other ideas at first - one was to take inspiration from his character song The Man in the Rain (雨人) (with the lines “Maybe if I listen to the sound of rain, I will then be able to face the inevitable separation”) and draw him in the rain with an umbrella. The second idea was to take that quote from Liu Sang to Wu Xie: “One good ear is enough for me in everyday life. Consider the damaged one as my present to you”. But in the end, I couldn’t find a solid translation of his song and I found both of these ideas a little too depressing/tragic to draw and wanted something a little more positive for your birthday present ^^; So I went with the excerpt from Dogfish by Mary Oliver which you used in your edit x instead! (”You don’t want to hear the story of my life, and anyway I don’t want to tell it, I want to listen to the enormous waterfalls of the sun”). I have to mention here that your edit was a huge inspiration for this art and I purposely referenced its aesthetic a lot, as you’ll see later on in my process! (You can see it in the colours, the forest/water aesthetic and the flowers).

2. Sketch/ Basic colour plan

A messy sketch as usual! The plan was to have him use his hearing abilities - him drawing out the map of some tomb while listening and working out its structure. I knew I wanted the sun/circle as the major focal point of the composition. It’s probably impossible to tell from my scribbles, but originally I was thinking of going a bit more abstract with the background. Along the edges (in dark teal), I was going to draw those bronze pieces from that giant bell structure in s2 and have those illuminated by the golden light of the sun. But it ended up looking too busy and geometric, so I scrapped that idea.

3. Some painting and thinking about the background

Here, I slowly started to paint and shade things. Not sure if you can tell from the scribbles, but I was thinking about having a more organic nature-y background- those scribbles are flowers and trees XD This is also where Mary Oliver’s quote came in and helped a lot! As you can see on the left, I was going to have more abstract tear drop shapes as the “waterfalls of the sun” and then some reflections of the golden sun on the lake waters. But the composition really didn’t work and got too busy, so then I thought - wouldn’t it be cool if the sun was dripping like an actual waterfall? Which is where the right picture came in! This is also when I did some flower research to try to figure out which flowers to draw. I wanted something that would fit into the colour scheme and also had suitable meanings for this present and for Liu Sang - I ended up going with hydrangea for gratitude and daisies for innocence. I was also going to have a border at first! I wanted it to be like the maps Liu Sang drew in his notebook, but that also ended up looking too geometric/busy so I took that out.

4. More painting! And considering borders again

Mostly more painting and detailing of the face and the flowers here! And I was considering no border vs border and going slightly crazy trying to decide XD

5. Final painting steps and overlays

I ended up going halfway - I got rid of the fancy border and stuck with a plain rectangular one. And I placed the daisies into the scene, floating on the water! I also finally figured out the dripping sun! I had so much trouble with it in step 4 (where it looked really thick and plasticy?) But here, I discovered the perfect solution - I erased bits of the “drips” with my brush, and then blended them into the empty layer, which produced a really nice wispy fade effect ^^ And the final step was adding a few overlays - some highlights to make the sun and its waterfalls really glow, and some extra shadows here and there to clean things up. And that’s it!

6. Posting

This time I didn’t end up posting it right away because I had to wait until it was your birthday in your timezone haha. But I didn’t have to wait long - I actually only ended up finishing it the day before ^^

Bonus speedpaint!

And a speedpaint because my iPad actually recorded some of the process! I wasn’t expecting to share any of it when I was drawing, so it’s not the best and not totally representative of my whole drawing process  ^^;  Some parts are cut out because I turned off recording to check references and forgot to turn the recording back on again haha. But maybe you’ll find it interesting to see anyway? At least you can see my million other border ideas that I briefly considered but scrapped XD

[dontmindmyshadowhunting]

Welcome to Faerieland (Fan Fic) - Chapter 9 - The house in the hollow hill

This is Chapter 9 of “Welcome to Faerieland”, a sequel to my Kitty Fan Fic "To never being parted" although it can be read as a standalone story.

AO3 Link to the full story here.

****

“Livvy? Livvy, is that you? I should have guessed I would be the first one to join you.”

The girl - the one he had met in the weapons room, the one from the drawing - shivered in his arms. Ash tightened his embrace, shielding her as best as he could from the chill and the wind as they soared through the night sky. He flapped his wings harder and winced. It felt as though a thousand needles were piercing through them, but he couldn’t slow his pace. He needed to get her to safety and tend to her wounds. She didn’t have much time, the demon poison was spreading through the long gash in her leg. Already, she was hallucinating.

“Livvy.” She sighed and smiled. Her eyes were half-open, but they were blank as stones. “I have so much to tell you.”

Ash could now see a familiar landscape stretching ahead of them, up to the white sea cliffs and the hollow hill in which the golden cage he called home stood. It was risky to bring her there. Save for the usual cleaning and kitchen staff sworn to secrecy, there had never been anyone but him, J, and very occasionally his mother in this house since they had moved in three years ago. But he needed the potion to draw out the poison in her system.

“I am… I am not Livvy,” he whispered back.

She blinked but her blue-green eyes remained unfocused, their pupils fully dilated. Her gaze set upon his wings.

“Are you an angel?”

Ash swallowed the lump in his throat.

“If I were, it would be the fallen kind,” he replied grimly.

Her eyelids were heavy now. She was mumbling something but it no longer made sense. Just as he thought she would pass out again, she jolted back to consciousness. She was suddenly staring into his eyes, a look of recognition flashing across her face.

“Clary?” She said, startling him, before she blacked out, her body once again limp in his arms.

****

When Dru came to, she registered dimly that she was no longer flying but half lying, half sitting on a mattress - much softer than what she was used to at the Academy or even at the Institutes - and propped up against plush cushions. There was a funny taste in her mouth and she idly remembered having been forced to swallow a liquid. She no longer felt cold, and she realized that a silk blanket had been pulled over her.

Was that what the afterlife was about? An everlasting sleep in a comfortable bed? What a letdown.

When she blinked her eyes open, she was greeted by a beautiful sight. Her faerie prince was staring at her with his grass-green eyes, a lock of his tousled fair hair falling across his outrageously handsome face. He brushed it away with an impatient gesture, tucking it behind one of his pointy ears, and she noticed that his refined velvety clothes had been replaced by a plain long-sleeved black shirt.

“You,” she breathed. She narrowed her eyes. “I knew it! I knew you were too hot to be real!”

“Er- What?” His lips parted. He looked utterly dumbfounded.

Dru’s hands shot up and she started pinching his sharp cheekbones.

“What- what are you doing?” He tried to articulate, but she made it somewhat difficult, as she was squeezing his face and kneading his cheeks.

She could not help it. She giggled.

“Look at you. You are so… perfect. This is ridiculous.”

One of his blond eyebrows raised.

“So that’s the part where we kiss and there are fireworks and romantic music playing in the background?” Dru pursued.

She grabbed him by the collar, drawing him closer and his breath hitched. When their lips were so close they were almost touching… he turned his head away in a swift motion. She was left staring at his jawline - again, she marvelled at its sharpness - and noticed a wide X-shaped scar on his neck that had been hidden by his collar when she had first dreamt of him.

“What is it? I am not your type?” She said jokingly. Maybe her fantasies involved a bit of resistance to make things more fun.

He slowly turned to face her again. There was no trace of humour in his expression. His gaze was intense and serious.

“Not my type? On the contrary. You are exactly my type. You defined it, actually.” The sharpness and bitterness of his tone startled her. She swallowed.

“Then... why won’t you kiss me?”

“Because I don’t kiss girls who are under the influence of alcohol, drugs or - in this instance - demon poison.”

He started standing, but she grabbed him by the arm and almost cried out at the sudden throb in her right leg. She blinked and noticed for the first time that she had a long gash across her limb. The bleeding had stopped but it still looked awful. Several Iratzes had been drawn on her skin, near the wound. She remembered the searing pain she had felt as the demon’s claw had ripped across her flesh… It all came back to her then. The battle. Ty. Kit. Jaime.

“We need to go back! My brother and friends are still out there on the battlefield!” She clapped a hand over her mouth. “Raziel, how long have I been out?”

The faerie lifted his hands hesitantly to rest them awkwardly on her shoulders. He stroked lightly in a reassuring gesture, as his green eyes bore into her.

“The battle is over. King Kieran’s knights and the Wild Hunt swooped in, right after you were injured, and saved the day.”

She exhaled a sigh of relief as she fell back on the soft cushions. She felt dizzy.

“They are all alright.” A dark veil seemed to have covered her eyes. “I can’t-” I can’t see.

“Shhh. Stop talking. Spare your strength. Get some rest.”

It was suddenly all dark. An unbidden image came to her... black wings smeared with blood flapping furiously against the cold wind...

“You carried me… Your wings… you are hurt,” she said, before she fell back into unconsciousness.

****

Dru woke to a soft breeze tickling her skin. She immediately sat up, wincing at the pain in her right leg, and took in her surroundings.

She was in a vast high-ceilinged bedroom, illuminated by a soft light that spoke of dawn. The windows were equally huge, framed by velvet curtains.

Bookshelves were covering almost every inch of wall, and though they were entirely filled with books, there did not seem to be enough space for all of them.

More books were stacked in piles, others scattered haphazardly across the floor.

A latest generation laptop was resting on a large mahogany desk in the corner, as well as several tablets - what was the point of having so many? Dru wondered - video game consoles and controllers, a huge sound speaker in the shape of a silver skull and… more books.

The room harbored several collections of various items, weapons mainly, but also figures from comic books and fantasy novels. A real size shiny C-3PO seemed to serve as a valet stand, a black leather jacket comically wrapped around its shoulders.

The contrast was odd, as if an enthusiastic teenager had decided to set up his headquarters in the ballroom of a palace.

A pillow and a crumpled white blanket had been spread on the floor, next to the bed. They were tainted with smears of blood that could be traced on the thick carpet toward a half-open wooden door. Artificial light was pouring through the gap.

With strenuous efforts, Dru whirled her legs out of the bed. She blushed as she realized she was no longer wearing her dress - which had been torn and covered in ichor anyway - but in a plain black shirt. On her, it was long enough that it covered her thighs. She tried not to think too much about who must have dressed her and picked a long staff made of oak wood, probably a rokushakubō, that was resting against the wall. She used the weapon as a walking stick as she limped across the bedroom, looking out the windows as she passed them. All she could see in the dim light were large stretches of green grass. She was still in Faerie, she knew that much at least.

When she reached the half-open door, she peered around and... gasped.

It was a bathroom, much bigger than her own bedroom at the Academy, and to say it was luxurious would be an understatement. Everything was built in the most precious and refined material, even the taps looked like they were shaped from gold. The blond fey was seated at the edge of a huge circular bathtub with his back to her, only wearing boxer shorts. His pale skin was covered in Marks, some freshly inked, others faded, as well as battle scars. He was clutching large cotton pads and seemed to be struggling to clean the wounds on his black wings. Vials filled with different colours of liquid were scattered all over the marble floor as well as boxes of dried herbs. He whipped his head at the sound she made.

“I- I am sorry,” she said, feeling her cheeks flush at his nakedness.

“Sorry for what?” He replied, in his euphonious voice.

“I didn’t know you were…” She replied, waving her hand at him.

“Didn’t know I was what?” He looked puzzled.

“Naked!” She rolled her eyes.

He just stared at her for a few seconds before he let out a short back of laughter.

“I don’t mind,” he finally said and went back to tending his wounds.

Dru swallowed.

“Let me help you with that,” she said, as she slowly crossed the distance, and sat behind him. She picked a few bandages and started working on the cuts on his wings that were the least accessible to him.

They remained in companionable silence for a moment.

“You are a Shadowhunter,” she eventually said, breaking the stillness. “Why didn’t you tell me so when we met earlier?”

He shrugged. “You didn’t ask.”

“That’s not it. Your skin was covered in clothes. You are hiding it.”

He tensed. “So were you. I assume you had your reasons. I have mine.”

Okay… He had obviously decided to close the subject. And she didn’t want to pry. She redirected the conversation.

“About earlier… What I said…” She swallowed and blushed at the memory of her throwing herself at him. Ugh. How pathetic she had been.

“Did you speak earlier? I didn’t hear a thing,” he replied, casting a knowing glance at her over his shoulder, his lips suppressing a smile.

She exhaled.

“Thanks,” she said. “You know what, I do think you are beautiful. But so are Michelangelo’s sculptures. And you won’t catch me snogging them.”

He was still sitting with his back to her and she couldn’t see the expression on his face but he seemed to be smiling as he replied. “Message received.”

“So… is this where you live?”

“It is.”

“Alone?”

“No. It’s just me and my uncle J, though.”

She fell silent for a moment and he heard her unspoken question.

“I hardly see my mother. And my sorry excuse for a dad is dead. Good riddance.”

She flinched at that. She had noticed there was a darkness about him and wondered if it was linked to all the scars on his body or his evident hatred for his late father. Or both.

“I guess I never thanked you. For saving my life earlier.”

“Don’t mention it.”

“I am Drusilla, by the way. Drusilla Blackthorn. People call me Dru, though.”

He nodded, as if it confirmed something he already knew.

“I am Ash.”

“Ash…?”

“Just Ash.”

“Don’t you have a last name?”

He shrugged. “Does it matter?”

“What's in a name? That which we call a rose by any other name would smell as sweet.” She playfully quoted Shakespeare.

He chuckled, shaking his head.

“Your turn.” He suddenly stood and turned to face her, folding his wings. Dru realized that it brought her gaze right at the level of his… She swiftly turned her face away, blushing. When she glanced back at him, shyly, he was sitting seiza-style on the floor, in front of her. He gently lifted her right leg to rest it on his lap, a small smile playing across his face. She could not catch the look in his eyes, under his silvery eyelashes, as they were focused on inspecting her injury, but she was pretty sure he knew exactly what was going on in her head. He slowly brushed his long and deft fingers across her skin while his other hand cupped her calf, and she couldn't stop her leg from shaking. Holy crap. He had barely touched her and she was already a flushing mess, her breath now coming in short gasps. She was very much aware that her toes were nudging at the waistband of his boxer shorts and that if she brought her foot a few inches lower…

They both startled at the sound of a loud banging on the bedroom door.

“AAaaash,” uttered a man in a slurred speech through the wooden material. “You self-righteous b-bastard. Open the f-fucking door.”

The voice sounded familiar but Dru couldn’t pinpoint exactly where she had heard it before. It didn’t help that it belonged to a man who was obviously inebriated.

Ash cursed. He brought Dru’s leg down and put a finger over his lips.

“You. Are. Not. Here.” He mouthed to her, his green eyes suddenly deadly serious, all of the earlier playfulness gone from one moment to the next, and she almost cringed. He stood and swiftly exited the bathroom, closing the door behind him. She grabbed the staff and lifted herself up from the edge of the bathtub to get closer and hear the conversation.

“Asssh,” the voice repeated. “I know you are ho-home. You left a m-mess in the infirmary. Anything you wish to tell m-me? You got into a f-fight again?”

Dru heard the bedroom door open with a creaking noise.

“What about you, J? Went out for liquor again?” Ash’s voice replied sharply.

“Ash. I d-don’t tell you where to put your d-dick. You d-don’t get to tell me what goes into my m-mouth.”

“The fact that you just said that with a straight face is evidence that you had one too many, J.”

“F-Fuck you, Ash.”

“Hmm… I’ll take a rain check on that. Not that I don’t find you attractive, but you know I don’t screw drunk guys. Come on, let’s get you to bed.”

When she heard the door close behind them, Dru came out of the bathroom, in search of her phone, on the off chance it had survived the battle. There it was, resting on the nightstand, plugged in for battery charge. That was… thoughtful.

She grabbed it, swiped the screen open and tried to call Ty, but there was no service. Crap.

She rummaged through Ash’s drawers to pick a pair of shorts that she pulled on clumsily, and gathered a few weapons. She headed for the door, opened it and… ran straight into a pale white torso. Ash clutched her arms to steady her, then brought his lips against her ear. “Going somewhere?”

Dru jutted her chin out. “I need to find my brother. He will be worried sick.”

He didn’t move his mouth from her ear as he softly whispered. “You only need to ask.”

She stepped back to stare into his green eyes. His expression was unreadable.

“Okay,” she replied hesitantly. “Can we… go now?”

“Whatever you wish. Can I show you something first?”

She smiled at him. “Hmmm sure. I have to tell you though, I have four brothers, including one who has absolutely no issues with nudity. Trust me, I already know what it looks like.”

He laughed softly, shaking his head, and went to confiscate C-3PO’s black leather jacket. He put it on her shoulders. The sleeves were so long she had to roll them three times so her hands could peek out of them.

As Ash shrugged on his black shirt and black jeans, Dru cast a quick glance at his body. He had broad shoulders and was definitely muscular, as all Shadowhunters were, but not in a bulky way. His long and pale limbs emphasized his tall, overall narrow figure. He was like a spear, shooting up and deadly.

He caught her watching him, and gave her a lopsided smile. In turn, he allowed himself to look her up and down, but it was quick, efficient and not in the lazy, lingering, creepy way guys usually eyed her.

“You look good in my clothes,” he said finally. He came to stand in front of her, and gently grazed her cheek with his knuckles.

“Your skin is so translucent that it feels like a splash of red ink leaked from a pen underneath when you blush.”

She was pretty sure the red on her cheeks must have spread even farther, the colour brighter, and she did something she had never done in front of a man before. She looked down.

“Grab my neck,” he said, and she complied.

In a swift motion, he swept her off her feet and carried her in his arms like a damsel in distress.

He moved to the open window and… jumped out.

It was different now that she was fully conscious and aware of her surroundings. She let the wind blow through her hair, allowed herself to be overwhelmed by the surreal feeling of being suspended in the air without the fear of crashing to the ground.

She whooped in excitement, crying out “I am the queen of the wooooorld!” and he laughed.

They landed on a narrow patch of grass on top of a cliff. A nightmare for anyone who had vertigo, but Dru didn’t mind great heights.

They both sat at the edge, enjoying the landscape. It was absolutely breathtaking, an unobstructed view of Faeries lands, patches of dark forest, small lakes and plains of green grass extending farther than the eye could see.

Dru understood why Ash loved this spot. It looked like you could see everything while not being seen. It was a spot no one could access, unless well, they had wings…

“Look,” he said, pointing towards a chain of rocky mountains. The sun came out lazyly, spreading its first rays to scout the sky before making its glorious appearance and altering all the colours of the picturesque landscape from one moment to another.

Her breath hitched and she grabbed his hand reflexively.

He whipped his head around to look at her and she pulled it back immediately. “Sorry,” she mumbled.

“Don’t be,” he said gently. He cocked his head, a questioning look on his face. “Do you have a boyfriend, Drusilla Blackthorn?”

She smiled at his use of her full name. “I don’t.”

“A girlfriend, perhaps?”

“Nope. No boyfriend, no girlfriend.” She exhaled. “There is a guy, though…”

She looked up at him and he was staring back, his expression unreadable.

“I have had this crush on him since… Well, since forever. He seems to like me too, but he won’t act on it. I think he’s afraid of my brothers.”

He lifted his eyebrow. “He’s a bloody coward, then.”

She punched his arm. “Don’t say that! You don’t know him.”

He shrugged. “The question is… does he know you?”

She looked at him then, and was struck by the intensity of his gaze. There was a hidden message there, as if what he had really been asking was “Does he know you like I do?” But that could not be it, right? They had just met. It would be quite presumptuous of him.

“That’s not all. There is another reason, I think, and that’s why I haven’t made a move myself. I think… he is still figuring things out about himself...”

“Clearly,” Ash muttered.

“...And of course, there’s the issue of... my age.”

She waited for a change in his expression, a question, but he remained silent, his gaze steady.

“Aren’t you going to ask me how old I am?”

He shrugged. “Does it matter? Age doesn’t really mean anything in Faerie. I’d love to know your birthday, though. So I’ll know when to throw you the most decadent party you’ve ever been to.”

She let out a free, careless laugh. It was as if a weight had been lifted, that she didn’t even know had been there.

“What about you? Do you have a girlfriend or a boyfriend?”

He crossed his arms against his chest. “I don’t date. I screw around, though. A lot.”

“Why don’t you date?”

He shrugged. “I guess I have major trust issues. Oddly, it’s the only way I know how to get close to people I will never see again anyway. And of course…” He smiled crookedly. “I like sex. Don’t you?”

“I wouldn’t know.” She cleared her throat, rubbing her thighs nervously. “So... I am ready to go when you are.”

“Sure, your carriage awaits. Where to?”

“If possible… the New York Institute?”

He tensed. “Is this where you live?”

“Oh no, I was just there to attend a birthday party. I study at the Academy, so that’s where you can usually find me these days. My real home is the Los Angeles Institute, where my family lives.”

Ash didn’t say anything. He was watching her with a thoughtful expression. She looked down, at the frightening drop into emptiness.

“Is this the moment in the movie when the guy turns out to be a psychopath and leaves the wounded girl on top of a cliff and she is left to choose between jumping and starving to death?”

“You have a lot of imagination,” he said, his expression still musing. He grasped her chin to lift it slightly toward his face. “I rather thought it would be the moment in the movie where they kiss and there are fireworks and romantic music playing in the background.”

“Heeey! I thought you hadn’t heard anything !” She swatted at him and he grabbed her wrist in a motion so swift it was almost a blur.

“Heard what?” He said, and she didn’t reply, she couldn’t reply because the next moment he was kissing her, his incredibly soft lips hesitant at first, leaving her plenty of occasions to withdraw. She didn’t.

The kiss grew deeper and it was as if the ground was a rug that had been swept from under her, she was in a free fall, tethered to reality only by his gentle fingers holding her chin while his other hand moved to cup the back of her neck. He smelled like the best Faerie had to offer, all at once, rocks warmed by the sun and fresh grass, luscious petals twirling in the wind, a storm turning a gentle stream into a torrent.

They both jerked away at the sound of an ear-splitting noise.

Before them, a giant eagle was flapping its wings steadily, observing them through narrowed eyes. Josephine, Dru vaguely remembered. And it was not alone. Behind it, an even larger creature, that made the first look one like a fly in comparison, was hovering.

“Drusilla Blackthorn?” The smaller bird screeched.

“In the flesh.”

“I am Josephine. And this is my father Rocky. These are the names Tiberius Blackthorn blessed us with. Our real names cannot be spoken by your mere human tongues. Your brother is looking for you and we are to bring you to him. You can ride on my father’s back.”

“Wait, are these… rocs?” Ash said in awe, his green eyes glittering. “These are thousands of years old legendary birds of prey thought to be extinct. The most dangerous predators among birds. And your brother actually named one Rocky? How cool is that guy?”

“Where is Ty now?” Dru asked.

“He is with my mother, looking for you,” the bird answered. “But we are to meet him at the polyamorous cottage.”

Ash turned to look at her, amusement mixed with curiosity plain on his face. “The polyamorous cottage?” He mouthed.

She elbowed him playfully.

“Okay, let’s go,” she said with more confidence than she felt.

“Wait-” Ash shot an arm in front of her. “I am not sure how I feel about you riding on an unearthly predator.”

“What do you suggest?”

He pondered for a moment before giving her an answer, his expression clearly torn. He finally sighed, seeming to have come to a decision.

“Well… You can ride me,” he said, gesturing at himself and giving her a wicked grin. “And that’s not a one-time offer.”

She rolled her eyes but could not help to feel relief.

“Are you sure you are up for it ?”

“Are you kidding me? A private invitation to the polyamorous cottage? And of course, I can’t wait to meet your brother Tiberius. It will be fun.”

She threw her hands up. “Wow. Don’t get your hopes up. My brother is very difficult to befriend. I love him, but “fun” is definitely not the word I would use to describe him.”

Ash turned to look wistfully at the two giant creatures waiting in front of them. There was a mischievous glint in his eyes.

“Well, he sounds pretty fun to me.”

****

Tagging @gabtapia and @bookeater34 ;)

[osamiiya]

Pairing: Kaminari Denki x Reader, mentions of Bakugou x Reader

Type of fic: Angst, Hanahaki AU

TW// Mentions of blood, vomiting petals, mentions of surgery, death

Summary: Hanahaki Disease; an illness born from unrequited love, where the victim's throat slowly gets filled with flowers, sometimes coughing up petals, or even worse full flowers covered in blood. The only ways to treat it is to get surgery in which you forget all of your memories and feelings disappear along with the petals, or to have your feelings returned. If neither is chosen the victim's throat will become filled with flowers causing them to suffocate and die.

Length: 1.8k

A/n: The way that this has been sitting in my drafts, and it probably the longest thing I've ever written. 🤡

Growing up, Kaminari thought you would end up together. "I'll marry you y/n." He would laugh, front teeth missing, electricity sparking around him. Kaminari eventually forgot about this incident, but it still acted subconsciously on his mind in whatever he did.

The two of you spent almost all your time together, from birth to the hero exam, eventually getting into UA.

"Y/n!" He called, slightly out of breath as he stumbled next to you, tie crooked and coming undone, the other people at the bus stop stopping to stare at the bright haired boy that just barreled in disrupting the peaceful atmosphere that had been created as a product of the previous quiet, the only sound the birds chirping away in the sky, the still, cold spring morning nipping away at your nose.

"Denki." You sigh as he flashes you a playful grin. You move to fix his tie, not consciously aware of how Denki heated up slightly, chest puffed out as his heart sped up.

You looked up at him through your lashes as he cleared his throat, an eyebrow raising in question.

"I wasn't late." He looks proud of himself, like the meeting time wasn't thirty minutes ago.

"If you say so, Denki." You dust his shirt off, trying to get rid of the wrinkles and lint before smoothing your own uniform out, breathing out shakily.

"Nervous?" He nudges you with his elbow, drawing a giggle from out of you.

You look at him, challenging as the bus comes to a screeching stop in front of you, doors opening with a pshh.

"With you by my side? Never."

A couple months pass by, everyone busy to improve in the class and with the threat of villain attacks.

At this point you've moved into the 1-a dorm, comfortably sitting in the common lounge, phone sat in your hands as a movie plays in the background.

What you weren't expecting was a certain blond haired hothead sitting next to you.

You cough nervously and slight a little, flustered in the presence of the boy you're starting to harbor a crush on. In no way would you call it love, no way. He was just a phase.

Mentally nodding to yourself, you smile at him as he nods back at you, leaning into the couch, throwing his arm across the back.

You inhale and exhale deeply in relief as Denki comes in, the atmosphere going from tense to playful as he teased you and Bakugou about, as he says, "A blossoming relationship with the two strongest in the class."

You miss the way his eyes flash with disappointment, too absorbed in the fact that your crush wasn't outright denying his attraction to you in a disgusted manner.

Denki then uses his butt to nudge in-between the two of you, Bakugou grunting in protest as you just rolled your eyes, smile plastered on your face as you made room for your best friend.

"What are we watching?" He asks, looking at you and then Bakugou before the TV.

"Some romance movie, It got boring so I went on my phone." You shiver slightly, someone must've messed with the thermostat.

Both boys notice, but Bakugou is quicker in taking his sweater off and offering it to you, refusing to meet your eye as Denki's eyes widen, hands paused on the hem of his sweatshirt, before slowly taking them off and watching the exchange happen in front of him.

The movie ends quicker than he'd like, although the two of you did snicker and Denki made jokes in your ear about the characters and plot, sometimes even about the background character's hair.

His heart pangs, but he chalks it up to jealously, usually Denki gave his sweater to you.

Denki Kaminari's pride dosent allow him to admit that he stole glances to you as the movie continued, watching you snuggle into his sweater, breathing in his scent.

Denki's chest fills with disappointment everytime you look over to Bakugou to see if he found it amusing too, smiling brightly when you do catching him smiling slightly.

By the second movie Denki decides he can't take anymore and claims he's tired and heads to his dorm.

---

By your third year Denki's become a third wheel.

It was always Bakugou this, Bakugou that.

He had come to terms that he liked you in his second year, but unfortunately the day he was going to tell you he was met with you running down the hallway shrieking about how Bakugou asked you out.

Denki remembers how he felt, his throat itched and his chest hurt.

When visiting Recovery Girl, she only frowned and teared up slightly as she told him he had the early stages of Hanihaki disease and still had time to get it treated, at the expense of all his memories and feelings of you, beautiful you, or die of heartbreak.

He refuses with a pained smile and grabs his bag, slinging it over his shoulder as he trys not to tear up. Making his way to the boy's bathroom where he finally let it all go. He wasn't loud, no, his tears were silent as reality came crashing down around him.

He could never forget you, his whole life included you somehow. All of his birthday parties, his first kiss he had with you because "Denki, I need to get ready what if a boy kisses me and I'm a bad kisser."

He had made his mind up already, he was going to die.

He didn't leave the stall, feet propped up on the seat as he tucked his head into his knees, feeling them get soaked with tears.

'Oh God, Oh God. How do I tell everyone?' He shakes his head, if he told you he knows you would blame yourself.

It's later that night that he explains everything to Aizawa, sobbing into his teachers arms, shaking with the fear of dying. Aizawa let a couple tears loose too, his student, only in his second year, already sentenced to death over something he couldn't control.

And it was at the end of second year when the first petal was coughed up.

He was texting you, and it was when you send;

'I think I really love him Denki.' That the itch in his throat turned into pain, like needles scratching his insides as his chest and stomach burned.

He only made it to the sink, throwing up bloody petals, body heaving with exhaustion.

They were yellow, ironic right? You had told him your favorite colour was yellow, that it matched his hair and reminded you of him where ever you went. How utterly ironic that what used to be a comforting reminder turned painful in an instant. Reminding him that he would, in fact, die soon.

But Denki continued to go to class, even as his body started deteriorating and he frequently ran out of class making it to the toilet just in time to throw up more bloody yellow petals. He was as determined as ever to act like nothing was wrong.

Kaminari Denki would not cause burdans and pain to his other classmates, they had enough to worry about as it is.

In third year it got worse, he was unable to attend class, hunched over his dorm toilet as he heaved and heaved.

The class was told that Denki had contracted an illness and would get better soon. Aizawa knew that wasnt the case. In fact, every UA staff member knew about the unfortunate boy that fell in love too early.

You made an effort to visit his room, stopping outside his closed door to talk with him. Aizawa forbid everyone from going inside, Denki had told him that he didn't want anyone to see him like this, especially you.

At this point, living was exhausting. He hoped, wished for death to take him, but it refused. Letting him suffer at the edge for God knows how long as his parents and teachers begged him to get the surgery.

And he finally agreed. You see, the longer you have the disease, the less likely of a chance you have to live through the surgery. It was something like 10% when he was rolled into the surgery room on a cot, too weak to walk himself in.

You joined his family at the hospital, his mother wanting you there just in case you were the last thing he saw.

And you finally looked, Denki's eyes which used to sparkle with mischief and playful flirting, were dull, glassy, and unfocused. Almost like he didn't know what was going on.

He was thin, all the muscle that he had built for the hero course had withered away, leaving him almost literally, skin and bones. His skin was paler than it usually was, the healthy glow gone and replaced with sickly yellow tinge.

His hand shook as he waved, finally catching eye of you. And that's all it took for you to break, Denki's mom pulling you to her side crying with you, whispering comforting words into your hair.

"What's up beautiful?" He smiles thinly, lips chapped as he attempts to comfort you.

You sob harder, not knowing how to look at him in the eye while he was in this state.

Denki glances at his mom before continuing.

"Don't worry about me. Im strong y/n, you know me. Just give it a little time and I'll be back on my feet, running through the halls to get you to tie my tie."

He's trying to joke, of course he would. Selfless Denki, who was scared out of his mind of death, was comforting you and making sure you weren't scared on his behalf.

"I'll see you in a bit, I promise." With that he turned away from you, coughing up a yellow flower, wet with blood.

Denki's mom shielded your eyes, she knew he didn't want you to see him like this. Or worse, hate yourself for the feelings he couldn't control.

Denki never made it out of surgery.

The flatline echoed in your head, head filled with cotton, not even registering the screams of Denki's mom next to you.

The haunting screams of a mother who just lost her son.

You didn't attend school the rest of the week, barely talking and sleeping. The picture of Denki alone and scared as he took his final breath too much to bear.

His funeral was held later that month, a beautiful ceremony that all of his classmates, friends and teachers attended. You stood holding Bakugou's hand as tight as you could to keep your hand from shaking, grounding yourself.

It's only later that night, as you read a letter from Denki, words messy and shaky, explaining what had happened that you feel it.

A full scratch in your throat that led to coughing, and then shock as a bloody yellow petal sat heavy in your hand.

Permanent Taglist:

@sachirou-senpai @prayerofthehaim

[justimajin]

Something Smells Fishy 

› Pairing: Taehyung x Reader 

› Genre: Fluff & Angst, Crack (a very nice dose of it) - part of Bangtan Boardwalk’s fic event 

› Words: 14.1k

› Summary: Summer is finally here and vacation is on the rise. Spending some quality time with your friends and having a joyous holiday is something you’re definitely looking forward to, but a sudden turn of events proves you otherwise with the addition of a surprise guest that you’re not exactly keen on seeing. You suppose it could be worse, worse than having to lose two of your precious limbs and growing a ginormous fish tail out of nowher- wait WHAT?!

› Warnings: pg13, not much aside from fish jokes

The sound of wheels rolling against the wooden floor resonates through the dorm. 

Your giant black suitcase has been tightly packed and filled to the brim, nearly appearing on the verge of exploding soon enough. There’s a pair of peach coloured sunglasses resting against the bridge of your nose with skin that glows from sunscreen overuse and a straw floppy hat perched on top of your head. Dressed in a tank top and a pair of shorts, the adventure you’ve planned is pretty obvious at this point. 

That’s right. You’re going on vacation. 

And you won’t be alone this time. 

The red SUV is parked along the sidewalk, sunlight highlighting it’s sheer capacity. You smile when a head of blonde sticks out from the window, her arms erratically waving at you. 

“Y/N!!” She hurriedly unbuckles her belt and pushes against the car door, welcoming you with open arms. “I’m so glad you could make it!” 

“Me too Eunha.” A hand tugs at your suitcase and you release your grip, letting her prop it up into the back of the car. She squeezes it in with the rest of the luggage, gesturing for you to open the peripheral door. 

“I think Sunyi’s still sleeping back in there.” She remarks with a smirk. You frown, brows knitting together as you go to yank at the door handle. Inside, you find her passed on a handful of snacks - presumably ones Eunha probably grabbed for all of you. 

Eunha circles behind you, her hand pounding against the roof. “Hey! Sleepyhead! Wake up!” 

You chuckle as she barely stirs and Eunha apologetically smiles, “I swear she totally wanted to meet you.” 

“Uh-huh.” You lean over and rip open one of the bags, letting the scent fill through the congested car. Within moments, Sunyi’s eyes flutter open and she’s staring back at you like a child being offered a toy. 

“Really?” Eunha scoffs as Sunyi grabs the bag, scarfing down the contents. “That’s all it took?” 

“What? I was hungry.” Sunyi defends, but her eyes land right on top of you and instantly she’s lunging for you, bag all forgotten. “Oh my gosh, Y/N!!” 

Eunha sighs as you hug Sunyi back, glancing at her watch, “Well kiddos, we got approximately an hour to get to our destination. Are we picking up the guys too?” 

“Is that even a question?” Sunyi counters. You settle down into the passenger seat as Eunha takes the wheel. The engine roars and she applies pressure on the accelerator, reversing the car out. 

“I dunno, ever since lover boy came into the story we haven’t been able to hang out as much.” Eunha honestly adds much to Sunyi’s reluctance. 

“Sorry about that guys…” 

“It’s alright.” Eunha waves it off, putting on her sunglasses, “As long as you and Hoseok aren’t sucking face every five minutes while we’re trying to talk, I don’t really mind.” 

“What?” Sunyi’s eyes are narrowed, offense written all over her, “We do not suck face every five minutes.” 

“Hm, keep telling yourself that hon.” 

“What?” Sunyi interjects again, turning to you this time, “Do you seriously think me and Hoseok are like that, Y/N?” 

You wistfully smile and shrug, “I’m afraid I’m with Eunha on this one.” 

Eunha laughs and Sunyi whimsically deflates in the back, throwing her hands up in exasperation. “I can’t believe my friends hate my boyfriend.” 

“If we hated him that much, I wouldn’t be driving to his place to pick him and his friends up.” Eunha points out, but a vibrating sound pulls Sunyi out of it. 

“Speak of the devil~” She sing-songs, flicking out her phone with giggles. You and Eunha simultaneously sigh, aware that she was going to be out of reach for a while. 

“So what’s been going on with you, Y/N?” Eunha asks, shaded eyes still trained on the road, “Last time we spoke, you were pretty busy with finals.” 

“Eh, just the usual.” You shrug, stretching your arms and leaning back on your seat, “Aside from college being a nightmare, not much has been going on.” 

Eunha hums, “I’ve been looking forward to this though, we haven’t gotten together in so long and I’ve been needing a decent vacation for a while.” 

“So you’re okay now..?” Eunha cautiously says, her voice barely making out from Sunyi’s loud one in the background. 

A sad smile flickers on your lips for a brief moment, but it vanishes just as quick. 

“Of course I’m okay.” You smugly smirk, raising a brow, “What did you take me for?” 

“I know, I know.” Eunha scoffs, so used to your triumphing vibe, “I just get worried. We hadn’t heard about you in so long and then you said you didn’t want to come-” 

“I was just busy.” 

“I know.” Eunha glances at you, “But I still need to ask.”

You hum, acknowledging her concerns. 

“Well I can assure you I’m fine now, Eunha.” You playfully grin at her, warmth spreading through your features, “I’m just looking forward to spending a good time with my favourite girls after so long.” 

Eunha smiles at your confidence, but it’s broken by Sunyi’s high pitch. 

“Aww, of course I love you baby! You’re my hopeful sunshine! My darling cutie patootie!” Sunyi coos loudly, sounding more like she was talking to a child instead of her boyfriend. You and Eunha warily exchange an odd stare, right before the two of you burst out laughing much to Sunyi’s protests. 

“Hopeful sunshine? Darling cutie patootie?” Eunha enunciates sarcastically, gawking at Sunyi from the rear mirror, “That’s a lot of words for a guy who spilled his coffee on me, Sun.” 

The memory of the incident causes you to chuckle. “You guys are just jealous!!” Sunyi huffs, resuming her phone call. You assume Hoseok asked her about the random ruckus in the background because she goes on to explain that she was in the car with the two of you. 

“Jealous?” Eunha snickers, “Of what? That I don’t have a boyfriend who spills coffee on my friends?” 

“Didn’t you go on a date with one of his friends?” You bring up, recalling her sending you a picture of him, “What was his name? Junghyeon…?” 

“Jungkook.” She corrects, “He was alright. I think I could see him more as a friend than someone I wanted to date.” 

“Fair enough.” 

“I think he’s actually coming too.” She adjusts her position, looking at her rear mirror, “Hey Sun, which of Hoseok’s friends are coming with us?” 

“I’ll ask right now!” She exclaims, sweetly repeating the question to her boyfriend on the line. You and Eunha patiently wait for an answer, but silence is all that greets you. 

“Sun?” Eunha cranes her neck back for a moment, “Who’s coming?” 

“Y/N…..” She whispers, voice cracking. You twist around as well, brows furrowed at her meek tone. 

“What?” 

“Uh, well you see…” Her eyes fall onto the ground, “Hoseok was surprised to hear you were coming. I think it was because we made this plan before you confirmed so he didn’t know and-” 

“Sun, what is it?” You ask sterner this time, her pale expression drawing concern out of you by the minute. 

“H-He’s coming.” Sunyi gets out, “I’m so sorry Y/N, I wish I knew before, I-I would have said no.” 

“What do you mean he’s-” Your words die out at her guilty expression and you silently eye Eunha for a moment, who has annoyance etched onto her features. A heavy silence enters the car, and long gone is the surreal joy. 

Eunha’s lips twitch. 

“Y/N, you say the word and Hoseok will tell him not to come.” Sunyi opens her mouth as if to counteract, but the stiffening of your shoulders renders her unable to suggest anything. 

“No, it’s okay.” You state, “You guys didn’t know if I was going to come until last minute so Hoseok probably didn’t think twice to invite him.” 

“Are you sure Y/N?” Sunyi presses on, “I can still ask if it’s uncomfortable.” 

You shake your head. Although the onslaught of new information did take you by surprise, you can’t simply brush away that he was closely associated with Hoseok. 

You look at Sunyi with a smile, “Nah, it’s fine.” 

“O-Okay.” 

Sunyi sinks back into her seat and Eunha focuses back on the road. Sunyi eventually ends up falling asleep midway through the drive and Eunha occasionally chimes through with pieces of conversation for you, but you can barely respond as your eyes narrow down on the bits of scenery passing by your window. 

You hadn’t been expecting this, at least, expecting it on a vacation that you ultimately decided would have been in the best interest when it came down to clearing your mind. But you would be foolishly lying to yourself if you were prepared to face him, since he was basically summer personified and regardless to say, a deep wedge in between you and your vacation.

The ride to Hoseok’s place is exhausting long, so the moment you set your eyes on the familiar house, a deep sense of relief cascades through you. 

Hoseok is standing outside by the time Eunha pulls in, his hands energetically waving you over and a cheerful smile painted on his lips. He wears a bright blue beach shirt that has imprints of a sunset, and brown cargo shorts with matching sandals. His black hair has been pushed back with a sheen of hair gel, oddly giving him the mixed appearance of a frat boy and a tourist at the same time. 

You keep that opinion to yourself when Sunyi jumps out of Eunha’s car in enthusiasm, reaching out to hug him instantly. Although you and Eunha have always had your fair share of making fun of the duo, moments like these draw a genuine smile from you at their display of affection.

“Y/N! Eunha!” Hoseok greets you with a friendly smile. You return it and he gestures for all of you to follow, “The guys are inside, I’ll just call them out.” 

Eunha nods and sits down on Hoseok’s red suitcase, huffing as sweat starts to accumulate at her temples. You laugh when she begins to exaggerate her breathing and starts dramatically fanning herself, your laughter only being cut short once a man in a black shirt and similar cargo pants pops out. 

“Hurry up guys, we’re going to be late!” He shouts behind him, placing his large bag onto the ground with a scoff. You narrow your eyes at the size of it compared to the suitcase Eunha was sitting on, an interesting military design covering the exterior. 

He looks up, eyes immediately widening at the appearance of your group until his sight halts at Eunha. 

“O-Oh hi...” You raise an eyebrow at his sudden shyness, only able to fully connect the dots once your eyes land on Eunha’s bashful expression. A huge smirk crosses your lips and Eunha glares at you, but that simply serves to increase it. 

“Hi.” She warmly replies, catching him by surprise. Before you can experience any more awkward air, another person runs out of the house. 

“Sorry Jungkook! My bag’s zipper got stuck.” He pouts, sight landing right onto you. He’s dressed in purple hoodie and black shorts, bright orange hair poking out from underneath the hood. 

“Hi!” He reaches out his hand for you to shake, “I’m Jimin.” 

You smile and take his hand before he goes around introducing himself. Jungkook does the same towards Sunyi and you have to admit, Hoseok’s friends don’t seem so bad. 

Sunyi grins at you like she can read your mind, ecstatic that something’s worked in her boyfriend’s favour. You roll your eyes, just glad that you’ll be spending your vacation with some decent people. 

“Let’s go, we need to hit the road already!” Hoseok’s voice chimes from afar and he emerges out into the driveway. Judging from Sunyi’s averted eyes and Eunha’s surprised ones, you can already assume who the last friend to leave the house is. 

You turn around at the sound of deep laughter, heartbeat spiking up and rapidly thudding against your ribcage. Your eyes come into direct contact with the familiar shade of blonde hair and sun-kissed skin, only now he also has pink shades on and his hair has been pushed back with a headband. There’s a faint marking of red and blue at the side of his neck, your eyes enlarging at the realization that the markings formed into the shape of a butterfly. 

It makes him look drastically gorgeous and to see him appear like that in front of you now, makes you sick to your stomach. 

You watch as he stops laughing at Hoseok, lids dropping down and face contorting back to normal. You watch as his vision lands straight on you and how all the joy in his expression moments ago, contorts into utter surprise. 

You wonder if there’s a nearby bush you can hide yourself in. 

Sucking in a sharp inhale as he draws closer, a strained smile is plastered onto your lips, “Hi...” 

“Hey.” He playfully smiles, hands stuffed inside his short’s pockets. Compared to you, he doesn’t appear to be as frazzled, just merely intrigued. “I didn’t know you would be here.” 

The surprise is apparent in his voice too, “I was a last minute addition.” You clarify and he hums, sending an understanding smile in your direction. The air becomes mute between you for a split moment, right before Jimin comes rushing forward. 

The orange haired boy scratches the back of his head, “Taehyung, can you help me load the suitcases into the car? Hoseok’s going to check into the place soon.” 

“Oh yeah, sure thing.” He follows Jimin to Eunha’s car and Sunyi quickly grabs your arm soon after, ushering you closer to the group. 

After contemplating how long it’ll take to arrive, you decide on getting into the two cars and making your way over. The place you’ve chosen for your vacation is actually an area of land that Hoseok’s family has owned for several years and occasionally rent out to people in need for some time off. Sunyi has originally suggested you all visit there together at least once, but both yours and Eunha’s schedules were always too far off from ever actually making plans. 

Needlessly to say, you’re pretty excited. The opportunity right now is perfect for all of you and although the trip has taken a turn of events you’re not particularly fond of, you’re simply here to relax first and foremost. 

Slipping into Eunha’s passenger seat, her car consists of you along with Sunyi and Hoseok in the back. Jimin and Taehyung are with Jungkook in his black SUV, closely following behind. 

Hoseok has his phone planted against the side of his face, his lips pursued. “That’s strange.” 

There’s a crease in between his brows as he stares at the device.

“What is it?” Sunyi wonders. 

“The call’s not connecting.” He tries again, but the call cuts off, “I need to confirm that we’ll be arriving soon, but it’s like they don’t even have a signal.” 

You peer behind you as Hoseok continues to fiddle with his phone until Sunyi offers to try calling through hers instead. Hoseok takes the suggestion and tries again, but the attempt ends up failing as well and the distress is clear on his features. 

“This is so weird.” Hoseok scorns, scanning both of their phones. You assume that the connection problem has something to do with the line cutting off completely, so another idea sparks in your mind. 

“It's family owned, right? Why don’t you try calling your parents?” You propose, “They’ll probably know what’s going on.” 

Hoseok hums, “That’s not a bad idea.” He places a call in his own phone and patiently awaits. The sound of a woman resonates through the phone and Hoseok instantly recognizes her. 

“Hey Mom, it’s me.” He confirms, “Do you know what’s been happening at the lodge? I’ve been trying to call to check in but no one seems to be picking up.” 

You and Sunyi patiently wait for an answer, but Hoseok's dejected expression soon surfaces. 

“Oh...I see…Alright, thanks for letting me know.” He deeply sighs as the line cuts, facing the two of you with regret in his eyes. 

“Sorry guys, but the area’s been closed down because of a recent drought.” 

“What, really?” Sunyi asks right away, and Hoseok nods. You and Eunha let out a collective sigh. 

“Well that sucks.” She chimes, briefly looking back at the Hoseok and Sunyi, then you. “I guess the only thing we can do is turn around. Vacation time is over, folks.”

“Argh! I was so looking forward to this!” Sunyi rants and you groan in agreement. 

You’ve only started on this trip and it seems like whatever needed to go wrong, has gone wrong. You wonder if being around Taehyung is already bringing you misfortune again, but that thought clears up once your eyes fall upon a vast expanse of water. 

“....is that a beach?” 

Blinking, you point towards the grey sand covering the land, the black-blueish water next to creating waves. There’s small teal specks glittering in the water, something that makes you wonder if your eyes are playing tricks on you. 

Hoseok and Sunyi hum in acknowledgement and Eunha raises an intrigued eyebrow. “Why don’t we check it out?” 

“I don’t know…” Eunha whispers, “I’ve never seen this place around here before.” 

“Yeah and that water...” Sunyi narrows her eyes at the way it appears sparkling dark blue in the middle of the day, “Looks sorta of creepy…” 

“It does.” Hoseok whispers, sounding in disbelief. Lips thinning, your eyes stray around before they land on the large house near the shore. 

“Look! They even have shelter!” You point out, though your group still seems a little unimpressed. “How about we at least go down there and have a look, hm?” 

Eunha frowns, her hands tightening on the steering wheel, “Okay, but tell the guys too.” 

“Roger that.” Hoseok confirms, presumably calling one of them as he lifts his phone to his face. You observe the water again, honestly not seeing what all the fuss is about. 

“I guess it does look pretty.” Sunyi mentions and Eunha hums. 

“I really don’t want to drive all the way back, so I don’t think there’s any harm in checking it out.” 

You smile, glad there were on board with your idea. Truthfully, you were prepared to set up a tent right here and now just for the sake of getting a vacation, so you’re not really on par for questioning the place at the moment. 

~

It’s actually quite decent. 

After Hoseok explained the situation to his friends, they all agreed with you in at least seeing what it had to offer. And as it turns out, it’s a lot better than you would have initially imagined from far away. 

The house is warm and cozy, right next to the salty shore. They rent out rooms on a daily basis and the original ominous appearance of the ocean ends up being a purpose, the “unique theme” of the place that’s meant to draw in customers, as the generous owner remarks. You end up leasing three rooms in total - one of your trio and two for the guys - and everyone is content with the notion that their gracious vacation wasn’t on the loss of being cancelled due to a mere drought. 

Hoseok in particular, is ecstatic with the idea and this shows with his constant cheerfulness in his interactions with Sunyi, to the point where you eventually have to drag her into your shared room for some much needed rest. All of you settle in for the night, planning on resuming your blissful vacation in the morning. 

The crisp sun rises bright and early, a clear blue sky greeting you. All your friends are dressed in their swimming attire, ready to enjoy the most of the beach as they can. 

Hoseok runs and dives head first into the bluish waters, plunging into it through a huge splash. Instead of floating, he ends up sinking into the water and resembles something akin to a dead body, an action that has Sunyi bursting out laughing until he finally manages to poke his head out. 

Jimin and Jungkook are together, engaging in what you suppose to be a water splashing fight that Jungkook inherently seems to be winning. Eunha passes by them, keeping her head out of the water and spinning around to face you. 

“What are those two even doing?” She laughs, clearly watching in with you. You shrug from afar, finding shade underneath a giant tree and keeping your feet dipped in the chilling sea. “You sure you don’t want to come in? It’s really nice.” 

You shake your head right away, raising your legs, “The water’s really cold, I’ll come in once it gets warmer.” 

Eunha hums, “Okay, I’ll be here so just let me kno-” 

Her voice cuts off and all you see is a blur of water splash by you, two concerned faces emerging. 

“Y/N, are you okay?!” Jimin hurriedly questions, kneeling down at your thoroughly soaked form. You clench your teeth, preventing them from chattering in the midst of the freezing cold water sticking to your skin. 

“I’m fine.” You get up, attempting to shake off all of the excess water droplets as you do. Eunha pops out from behind you, holding onto your arm. 

“Here, let me take you inside.” 

“It’s alright.” You wave her off, “If I sit in the sun, my clothes will dry up.” 

“Are you sure? You might catch a cold, Y/N.” 

You shake your head, pointing towards the blazing sun, “It’s hot enough out here to cook an egg out here, I’ll be good.” 

Although wary, Eunha lets you get out of the shade into the warmth of the sun and slowly heads back in the water. Jimin pesters you with some apologies but you don’t take too mind with it. Truthfully, it was probably not the best decision to sit right beside a huge body of water if you didn’t intend on getting soaked. 

The decision ends up being a great one, since you can already feel your skin beginning to dry within minutes. However, that’s when you feel a shift in the sand, a heavy weight flopping conveniently right next to you. 

Taehyung is dressed in a blue beach shirt and colourful shorts, his peach pink shades still resting on the bridge of his nose. He looks like he’s just woken up, hair a bit disheveled and eyes lowered. 

The sound of a shutter catches your immediate attention, and you notice him squinting his eyes and sticking out his tongue as he continues to snap away images of the large body of water with his camera. 

“You still take pictures?” You reminiscence in a joking manner, the words blurting out without thought. Immediately, you contemplate if striking up a conversation was such a good idea, but you suppose it can’t do much harm if you’re going to be spending so much of your vacation with him. 

Though, you truthfully don’t expect him to twist around and place his camera down on the sand. 

“Well, you know me. Have to carry my memories around somehow.” He retorts with a smirk. The action draws a smile on your lips, his voice mimicking your playful manner. 

You point towards the water. “Don’t accidentally drop it though, it won’t be a great price to pay.” 

“I guess that’s when I’ll have to go fishing.” 

“You can barely swim.” He raises an eyebrow at you from that, “What? Those were your words.” 

A pout surfaces onto his lips, immediately correcting you in defense, “I’ve improved.” 

“You want to test out that theory?” Gesturing to the large body of water in front of you, Taehyung immediately hugs his camera closer to his form. 

“You’ll have to save both me and my camera if you really want an answer.” 

“Is that a way of saying you still can’t swim?” 

He frowns, “It’s a way of saying that I’ll need...some assistance. Just in case.” 

“Assistance in what? Drowning?” 

“No!” He immediately protests, “I can still float pretty well.” 

“Hm, sure.” 

Taehyung sighs, already knowing that you haven’t been fully convinced just yet. As a result, when the waves slowly push the water closer to you, he dips his feet into it for a split moment. He grins at the immediate result, cheekily glancing at you. 

You roll your eyes at his supposed accomplishment and he laughs, raising up his camera again to continue taking pictures of the scenery. The gesture seemingly spreads a genuine smile on your features, something you couldn’t have imagined he still had the ability to do. 

Your smile instantly drops and that sick feeling begins to swirl in the out of your stomach again. You get up with a deep breath, calling it a day and heading back to the cabin. 

Yet in the midst of your action, you don’t notice how Taehyung’s no longer capturing pictures of the rare waters. Instead, his camera remains on the ground, his gaze following your disappearing form. 

~

“I think you should just go for it.” His friend leans back in his chair, currently in the midst of eating through a take-out box. “Be honest with her.” 

Taehyung rolls his eyes, “Like that’s going to actually work.” He picks out a piece of Jungkook’s fried chicken and sighs. 

“I think Jungkook’s right, Tae.” Jimin plops down next to him, “You said it yourself, you felt like this was a chance to fix things, right?” 

Taehyung lets out another sigh. He did say that, but that thought only sparked within him once news broke that you would be joining them on this trip. Initially, he assumed that it would be a bad idea, that there would be too much friction between the two of you and it would cross the limit of being unbearable again. But he can’t help but think about running into you at the beach and how you clicked right back in, like nothing had ever been wrong between you. 

It’s made him consider a lot of things, one of which he wonders how he can outright declare that he’s still in love with you, how he thinks fate is on his side for once and telling him to set things right now before it’s too late. 

“Maybe you guys are right…” 

“Of course we are.” Jimin quips, cheekily smiling as Taehyung pouts. 

“I’ll at least apologize to her…” He urgently declares, already snatching up his grey hoodie and throwing it over his head. He quickly peers at the window outside, the sun having already set and a dark forecast slowly beginning to take over the sky. 

“Good luck Tae!” Jimin exclaims, watching him hurry out the door. 

After spending a majority of your first moments in bed twisting and turning with no luck of falling unconscious, you find yourself strolling along where the ocean water meets the dry sand. The cool breeze passing by gives off the salty scent of the ocean and the night sky makes the area’s unique appearance even more entrancing from broad daylight. 

Leaning down closer to the splashing waves, your eyes attach onto the way the bright algae glows within the waters, appearing like fireflies fluttering underground. You reach out to faintly touch a piece, observing the way the teal orb glows brightly within your hands before getting swept up by the currents once again. 

You smile, letting your hand splash around in the water. 

“Mind if I join you?” 

Your breath hitches and you nearly topple over into the giant seaway, but an arm quickly grabs onto you before you do. 

“S-Sorry.” Taehyung stutters, sheepishly staring down at the ground, “I didn’t mean to-” 

“It’s okay.” You simply say, having steadied yourself thanks to his help. You continue to play around with the water, a little unsure at what to say with his sudden appearance. 

He eventually speaks up, but it's with a suggestion that has your brows raising. “Do you want to go swimming?” 

“Now?” 

He nods, pointing over the dark waters, “I didn’t get a chance to swim this morning.” He gets up, swatting away remains of the grey sand from his shorts and reaches his hands out for you to take. 

You shake your head, “I really don’t want to.” 

“Aw come on!” A giant pout crosses his lips, voice raising up a pitch, “You’re still no fun!” 

Your mouth drops wide open, offense written all over your features. Gazing back at the water, you suppose it would be better than to swim during the hours of hot sunlight, so you opt out for getting up as well. 

“Okay.” You point an accusing finger at him, “But for your kind information, I am tons of fun.” 

Taehyung smiles at you like you’re going to have a hard time living up to that statement and that only fuels your need to prove him wrong. You’re dressed in a simple sundress and you suppose it should be enough to swim in, but by the time you turn around Taehyung’s already taken off his shirt and diving head straight into the waters. 

“I thought you couldn’t swim?!” You shout in disbelief, rushing to meet him halfway into the body of water. It’s cool temperature immediately spikes a trail of goosebumps down your arms and legs, but you bite back the shivers when your eyes come into contact with his smug expression. 

“Told you I could at least float.” He giggles as you come closer, huffing against the resistance that surrounds you waist down until you finally reach him. He points towards the pit of the sea once you do, drawing your attention to the sparkling algae that has begun to spiral around your feet. 

“Wow.” You whisper, eyes racing in pure awe as they begin to collect. Taehyung smiles, scooping up a handful while you’re occupied with gazing at the bright lights and left unsuspicious. Before you know it, he’s tossed them onto you and they stick to your wet strands of hair. 

“What the-?” As you attempt to get them out, Taehyung loudly laughs. “Can you stop laughing and help me??” 

“Sorry.” He still giggles once he reaches out and takes one out, “I thought they would look nice on you.” 

“I’m exactly not sure what part of luminous algae you thought would look nice on me.” You pout as he continues to pluck and unwind them from your hair, but then he grins. 

“I meant in a pretty way.” He takes out a piece that’s managed to get behind your ear, leaning forward. You suddenly blink, realizing he was inches away from you and that even though the water was icy cold, your temperature has only spiked up. 

“Y/N?” Taehyung questions, wondering why you’ve suddenly shriveled up as he flicks the last piece away. You peer up at his eyes and that’s when it hits him. 

The perfect opportunity. 

He opens his mouth, about to spew everything on his mind before he loses his chance. 

Lightning cracks. 

You and Taehyung immediately push away from each other, heartbeats racing at the sudden sizzle left in the sand far from you. Staring up at the sky in terror, the clouds begin to swarm together and that’s when Taehyung grabs onto you, shaking your form instantly. 

“We have to get out of here!” He yells, but another flash strikes through the sky and is followed by a series of bulleting raindrops. It doesn’t take you another moment to nod at his words, following through with getting back to land as far as possible. 

Taehyung lets go of you.

It happens so fast that you can barely register it, whipping around to see Taehyung miles apart from you. He shouts something across from the water, but by the time you pick up on what he’s trying to say to you, his entire body plunges right into the water. 

“TAEHYUNG!” You scream, fiercely pushing against the water to get to him. The rain falling from the sky obscures your vision, but you keep going until you reach the spot he was sucked away at, glancing back and forth for any sign of him. 

“TAEHYUNG!” You yell out again when you fail to locate him, diving straight into the deep waters. The salt stings at your eyes and your blood runs thin at the lightning above honing down on you, but you discover a familiar face buried by the depths of the ocean and you don’t think twice in grasping onto his arm.

Holding onto your escaping breath, you propel your legs back up higher and gasp once you make contact with the surface. Taehyung’s form limps against your body for a moment, but your grasp on him instantly loosens. 

“Wha-” You breath, blinking away your clouded vision. A rumble of thunder echoes through your ears, yet the rain starts to slow it’s rapid pace, falling down gently on top of you until it completely comes to a halt. Glancing up in confusion, the dark grey clouds start to drift away from each other and eventually, leave the night sky all together. 

You shake your head, ignoring the pulsing sensation pounding through in it and blink your eyes again to find Taehyung. It’s easy to spot him this time, but his leaning bareback faces you instead. 

“Taehyung!” You shout in relief, arms splashing closer to him. He raises up a hand, leaving the other left to cover his face. 

“Don’t!” 

You freeze mid-way, hands dropping down. 

“T-Taehyung?” 

Tilting your head, he doesn’t budge. Although the rain has stopped and the lightning isn’t buzzing above your head anymore, you have to hold onto your arms to stop them from shivering. You attempt once more to get closer to him, but the throbbing in your head rapidly increases and before you know it, you’re the one sinking into the water this time. 

You can barely hear Taehyung when he shouts for you, you can barely feel him grab onto your trembling form and pull you out of your water, you can barely register being in his arms, slowly losing consciousness bit by bit. 

Among all this, you can barely make out the shining blue tail that sticks out of the water as he desperately swims back to shore. 

It’s still pitch dark by the time you come to. 

Your eyes flutter open at the sound of the tides continuing to push against the shore, mind spinning from the fabricated recollection of events that went down. Your very first instinct is to harshly cough, bubbles of congested water forming up from the seam of your lips. 

A hand gently touches your back, warily patting it as all water makes it way out. You heavily breathe, shaking away any remains of drowsiness. 

“T-Thanks Taehyung.” You manage to get out, shifting in the sand to face him. His hand instantly comes over to shield your eyes, his voice wavering. 

“W-Wait.” He stutters, “Don’t-...Don’t freak out.” 

You frown at what he could have meant at that, but then his hand drops down and your eyes widen into large saucers. 

You open your mouth to scream.

“Y/N!” Taehyung pleads, sighing when you pause mid-way, fear filling your eyes by the minute. His lips set into a firm line, and he gazes at you with desperation. “Please, just…” He raises up his hands, “Just calm down.” 

“W-What?” You breathe heavily, “W-What happened to y-you?”

He stares down at the palms of his hands in dismay, “I-I don’t know…” 

You gulp, nodding. Truthfully it’s difficult to believe what you are seeing before your eyes. 

Because right in front of you is Taehyung, but not Taehyung at the same time. 

His blonde hair has been completely coloured into a deep sapphire shade, the ends of it longer and curling at the nape of his neck. His eyes are no longer the warm brown hue you’ve become so familiar with, but now a striking green that almost appears cat-like. Along his neck, arms and torso are small strange teal aligned pockets, all of which trail down to his waist which has the most notable change. 

A long aqua blue coloured fish tail has completely engulfed the portion his legs used to once take up. 

It’s almost overwhelming for you to completely register. He lappears so strikingly different that you wouldn’t have recognized him hadn’t it been for the familiarity of his tone or touch. 

“Taehyung…” You whisper, having finally accepted reality. He seems to notice that you’ve calmed down, relief etching onto his features. “H-How did this all happen?” 

“I’m not sure,” He sighs, “One second I’m trying to grab you and get out of the water before the lightning hits us and the next, I’m being pulled down into the bottom of the ocean.” 

“When I came back up...this is what I looked like.” He stares at his hands again, unable to properly understand what he was either. 

You nod, eyeing his tail again, “You used that to swim…?” 

He hums and moves it for a second, causing you to flinch. There’s specks of gray sand starting to stick to it, presumably from him having to use it on land, “Surprisingly it helped me get back faster.” 

“I see…” You get up, dusting the sand off of yourself. You step closer to him, examining it further. 

“Don’t stare at it like that.” 

Your eyes widen, “Why?” You reach out to touch the new limb and he instantly flinches, moving it away from you. 

“Because it’s weird!” He flaps it around in the sand for a while, “I don’t even know how to properly use it, for all I know I could just-” 

He’s too late in explaining because the motion he’s used has managed to slap you across the face with the tail. 

“I’m so sorry, I didn’t-” This time it hits your legs and you fall down onto the sand, resulting in Taehyung becoming even more apologetic. 

“Okay, okay! Just stop moving for a second!” You protest, raising up your hands against it. Taehyung freezes the tail in mid-air, staring at you like he was on command and awaiting further directions. 

“I think we should focus on how to get you out of here.” You pinch the bridge of your nose, squeezing your eyes shut, “The others will be awake in the morning and I think trying to explain that you’re part fish is going to be a lot harder than it is.” 

“How do we do that?” Taehyung desperately asks, peering up at you from his spot in the sand. A thought sparks inside your mind, but you stare at him in dismay. 

“I have an idea...but I don’t think either of us are going to like it.” 

~

“I’m surprised Y/N.” Taehyung proclaims, “This is really romantic.” 

You can barely make out a clear answer, huffing and wheezing at the same time. Leaning against the wall, you attempt to catch your breath. 

“Hm? Y/N? Can you hear me?” Taehyung tilts his head and leans closer to you, but you jerk your head up and scoff at him. 

“Give me a minute, will you?! You’re not exactly a box of feathers!” 

“Well that was kind of harsh.” Taehyung pouts, reclining onto you and resting his head against your shoulder. You tighten your hold on him, careful not to let go of his new slippery side that’s been a pain in your rear for the past fifteen minutes. 

“I will leave you here and then you’ll have to flap your way back to your own room, you fish!” 

Taehyung gasps like you’ve just sworn at him but then you purposely loosen your grip on his tail and he instantly freaks out, “Alright! Just get me back in one piece!” 

“I’m trying.” You huff again, taking another step on the enormous spiraling staircase. You didn’t realize him and the guys wanted the top floor of this place so badly, and unfortunately it’s a decision you’ll have to pay the consequences for now. 

After an exhausting trip of losing your footing a billion times and having to repeatedly catch your breath, you make it to Taehyung and Jimin’s shared room. Fortunately, Jimin’s completely passed out by the time you do make it up there and you attempt to keep that way, watching your step as much as you can. 

Unfortunately, the man currently whispering in your ear is not helping much. 

“I can’t sleep here! What if Jimin wakes up in the morning and discovers my tail?!” 

“It’s better than taking you to my room that has three people staying in it!” You harshly whisper back, plopping him down onto his bed. Though you forgot how stubborn Taehyung can be, especially when he refuses to separate from you and as a result, drags you on top of him. 

“Ow!” You scold him, glaring down at the huge smirk he holds. The position you’re in doesn’t help the situation much either and you attempt to get yourself off considering the fact that you’re sitting on top of his scaly tail.

However, that’s when Taehyung’s bright green eyes narrow and for a second, you suck in your breath. You know he looks considerably different now, but you haven’t been able to pinpoint why he almost feels like a different person at moments, especially when he stares at you. 

There’s something incredibly alluring about him, something you haven’t figured out until you realize you’re leaning closer to him and hovering right above his lips. You snap out of it right away and by the looks of it, so does Taehyung. 

With a quick goodbye and a rough toss of a blanket over his head to cover up his strange appearance, you rush out of his room and shut the door. Spinning around, a hand presses against your racing heartbeat and you swipe away the sweat that has built against your temples. 

“You really expect me to wear that?” 

He points to the lengthy black skirt you’ve managed to rummage out of your suitcase, a floral design lining the edges. He’s seated on the side of his bed, already dressed in a long-sleeved white shirt that covers the imprints in his skin. 

You hum, “How else are we going to cover that?” 

You gestures towards the large blueish-green tail that sits on the ground, spread out and already taking up a large majority of the floor beneath his bed. 

Taehyung deeply sighs, letting out a groan before reaching out his hands in dismay. “Fine.” 

You smile once he takes it, attempting to balance himself enough to put it on. You immediately reach out and let him steady himself using your shoulders, helping him tug it on. 

“How come I got a fishtail and you didn’t?” He whines, growing frustrated with the utterly useless tail to have on land. You stifle back a laugh and he glares at you. “You’re enjoying this way too much.” 

“I’m not.” You truthfully admit, aiding him in tying the two connecting strands of the skirt. “I just didn’t think I’d see the day where you’d be wearing one of my skirts.” 

“It beats being half-naked.” Taehyung retorts, glancing down at his tail, “Even though the naked part doesn’t even look human.” 

You sigh and roll your eyes, close enough to helping him finish dressing. A low knock captures your attention and you freeze, whipping around at the door. 

“I-Is someone-” You’re too late, because not a moment is spared as the door comes barging open. You catch a faint hint of orange tucked away in a white hoodie and you step in front of Taehyng right away, unease crossing your features. 

Jimin pokes his head in, “Hey, I-” Your voice dies out when Eunha and Sunyi step in behind him, closely followed by Jungkook and Hoseok. 

“Oh.” Eunha says, staring at you and Taehyung. To be quite honest, the situation itself does seem strange - you’re standing in front of Taehyung and covering him up as he struggles to tug on one of your skirts in your room. 

You have no clue how to explain any of this. 

“Y/N?” Sunyi peers at you from behind Eunha, confusion maring her as well. You anxiously smile, quickly whipping up a flimsy excuse. 

“I-I was just helping him! You know, w-with finding some clothes because...uh….he lost his suitcase!” 

Eunha nods and you let out a low sigh. Taehyung emerges from behind you, a questioning stare in his eyes. 

“What brings all of you here?” 

“Woah.” Jungkook exclaims, “What happened to you??”

“What do you mean?” Taehyung questions, clearly having forgotten the striking colour his hair is and the shifted hue of his eyes. 

“U-Uh he’s been trying out a new hair colour! And has contacts!” You throw a glance at Taehyung with a nervous laugh and he turns into stone, finally realizing the error in his appearance. 

“Okay…” Eunha mutters, warily staring at Taehyung. Hoseok clears his voice, answering the former’s question. 

“We were going to head over to the beach again.” He points towards the window, “You guys down to swim?” 

You and Taehyung exchange a glance and for a moment, you could have swore you saw him visibly gulp. 

“I-I think we’ll pass guys…but thanks for the offer!” 

“You sure?” Eunha steps forward, concern on her. “Y/N, is everything okay?” 

You bite back the truth, “Yeah! I’m going to just stay back with Taehyung, so I’ll be fine.” 

“Really?” Sunyi asks, peering at said man. Something twinkles in her eyes and she places a hand on Eunha’s shoulder, bringing her away. 

“We should listen to Y/N, Eunha.” She appears baffled with Sunyi actions at first, but then the latter winks and she lets out a soft “Oh..” 

Eunha shrugs with a smile, “I guess we’ll leave you to it then.” 

You nod and one by one they exit the room. Once the coast is clear, you let out an audible sigh, pressing a hand against your chest. 

“That was close.” You turn to Taehyung, “We need to be careful.” 

He’s sitting on the bed now, arms crossed and a huge pout on his lips. 

He looks like a child that's sulking. 

“What?” 

“I miss my legs.” He moves his tail for a moment before letting it flop back down onto the ground. 

You sigh, growing weary already, “Let’s just see if there’s something we can do here.” 

Rummaging around the area, you seek to find anything that you can occupy yourself with for the next couple of hours. Although you had declined the offer of joining your friends for the sake of Taehyung’s situation, a part of you is growing increasingly dismayed with the fact that you have to do this in the first place. 

You were supposed to be on vacation - but now you’re stuck with the person you didn’t want to be with and have no hope of being able to relax. 

“I hate this.” Taehyung states from behind you, somehow being able to communicate your collective thoughts with only three words. You let out another sigh, revealing a stack of cards you found near Jimin’s suitcase. 

Taehyung’s still in the same state, brows furrowed and bottom lip jutting out. 

“I can’t promise it’ll get better but at least we made it back in one piece.” You offer, throwing the card stack onto his bed and flopping down beside him. “Now play a game with me before my mind explodes from boredom.” 

That luckily seems to bring a smile out from him and you begin to shuffle the cards, but then a slimy texture touches your legs and you immediately back away. 

“Can you put that somewhere else?” You gesture to his tail that brushes against you, but Taehyung innocently shrugs and grins. 

“It’s attached to me, there’s nothing I can do about that.” 

The more he smiles, the more you glare at him, “Fine, but maintain some distance at least, fish.”

He scoffs at the sound of the nickname you’ve adopted for his situation, but thankfully obliges so that it’s not all over the place. 

~

After having countless card game sessions with Taehyung (to which he won most of and you had to endure a plethora of his cheeky smirks as a result), the rest of your friends finally make it back. You’re pleasantly surprised to find out that Eunha and Sunyi took the liberty of bringing food as well, since you were worried that if you left to go eat something Taehyung would find some way to slip out of his bed and bounce around on the ground from his lack of being mobile-

That wasn’t supposed to be a pun. 

“We brought sushi.” Sunyi says, setting the trays down on the picnic table at the terrace of the cabin. It’s a nice place to dine together, small fairy lights brightening up the high roof and clearing out the now darkening sky. 

“I hope that’s okay.” Eunha hesitates, but you shake your head. You weren’t truly a huge fan of the dish since it was essentially rice wrapped up in vegetables and meat, but at this point you’re so utterly famished that you can’t bring yourself to care. Reaching over to grab the remaining bags, Hoseok and Jungkook come over to help you and you’re soon having dinner underneath the lights. 

However, that’s when Jimin pops up. 

“Hey guys, has anyone seen Tae?” He twists around, “He wasn’t in our room when I left.” 

“I think I saw him sitting down at the reception.” Jungkook mentions, “I thought he was going to come soon.” 

“Oh.” Jimin says, pursuing his lips. You raise an eyebrow at the information, already rising from your seat. 

“You guys keep eating. I’ll go see if I can find him.” 

“Do you need any help?” Eunha questions, but you shake your head. 

“Don’t worry, it won’t take long.”

Eunha nods and sits back down into her seat as you scurry off. You quickly climb down the stairs from the terrace, heading into the reception hall. 

Peering back and forth, it’s entirely empty. The appearance throws you off and for a moment, you assume it would be best to turn around and search elsewhere - but that’s when you hear a low groan. 

You swivel around, opening the door to a nearby room. 

Your eyes land on Taehyung right away. 

He’s on the ground, appearing to be struggling with lifting himself up from the edge of a table that he has a threatening tight grip on. At the sound of the door abruptly opening, he looks up, eyes widening. 

You rush over in an instant, holding onto his arm and helping him up. Guilt overtakes your features when you realize that you had completely forgotten about him up until this point, but Taehyung fortunately seems to notice your remorse. 

“Hey, don’t look so upset. I was actually doing fine until I accidentally got pushed into this room by some couple walking by, so it was kind of my fault for getting stuck.” He casually explains, but you freeze in your tracks and stare at him. 

“Your fault…?” 

“Yeah?” He stares at you, not really understanding why you look so concerned. You shake your head, focusing on getting him out right now instead. 

Making your way back to the terrace, Taehyung halts you in your steps. “Wait, how am I supposed to..?” 

He gestures to how you’re basically carrying him like a dead body, his whole weight limping onto you and the amphibian parts of him lazily dragging against the ground. His point does stand to reason and you suppose you didn’t really think this through before coming to aid him. 

Your eyes narrow onto his hands, an idea suddenly popping into your mind. 

“Should we just hold hands then?”

His brows raise, like he hadn’t been expecting you to offer that out of all things. When his speechlessness takes too long, you reach out and grab hold of him right away. He nearly slips and tightens his grip on your arm, leaning half of his weight onto you. 

“N-no one’s going to get the wrong idea, right?” Taehyung quietly laughs, but you’re more focused on the way that this position puts a lot more pressure on you. So you merely nod in response, trying your hardest not to collapse against having to hold onto him like this. 

Unfortunately, you forget the crucial fact that you’re walking into a room full of people aware of the history between the two of you. It draws out an array of spiked brows and agape mouths, but you nonchalantly help him sit and flop down next to him, nearly sinking from the sheer relief of not having your shoulder and arm be broken off. 

You eventually engage in conversation with Eunha and Sunyi, who persistently keep eyeing the man sitting next to you occasionally in between. You wonder if you should clarify to them the actual situation that’s been going on, but you think you’ve spoken too soon when a scream from behind you spikes up the hair on your body. 

Whipping around, Taehyung has his hands on either side of his face and he glances at the food in front of him in hysteria. 

You grab onto his shoulder instantly, “Taehyung, what’s wrong?” 

“H-HOW COULD IT BE?!” He picks up a roll of sushi, eyeing it in horror, “HOW COULD THEY DO SUCH A THING?!?!” 

“What are you talking about??” 

“THIS!” He gestures to the entire table, scrambling away from it and you at the same time, “They’ve cut them up into tiny pieces and wrapped them up in rice?! It’s horrible!!” 

You’re prepared to ask a million questions about his absurd reaction, but then you catch a glimpse of what exactly he’s referring to and suddenly, everything begins to make sense. 

The sushi has seafood in it. 

Taehyung looks like he’s on the verge of crying, fear filling him at the prospect of just sitting at the table. 

“H-How could they…YOU WERE A FAMILY OF FIVE! Now you’re here and your brother is too! How could they put you two beside each other when one of you has been fried?!?” 

You wince as he whispers towards one certain dish, not really distinguishing between the pieces so easily until he mentions it. However, that’s when you catch a glimpse of the entire table, the faces of your close friends informing you that you weren’t really doing such a great job at keeping his situation under wraps. 

Quickly reaching out, you begin to collect the seafood contained ones. You then turn around and hand them over to a confused Eunha, asking her to take them away because of Taehyung. Although you get many questions thrown at you from the reason and why Taehyung was acting up so much, you simply state that it was a result of a really bad allergy and that the food needed to go. 

More like I’ve-turned-into-a-fish-and-now-seeing-them-as-food-is-sad allergy, but you decide to keep your mouth shut about that personal opinion. 

Thankfully, Eunha reacts faster to your request that you had expected and all the seafood filled sushi is long discarded of. You then focus your efforts on trying to calm down Taehyung, who seems to respond to your eventual suggestion of seeing alive fish later at the shore to calm himself down. 

Taking a deep sigh, you slump down in your seat. It was getting harder and harder to manage this and you were beginning to wonder if there was even a way out of it, because so far the situation has just remained hopeless in front of both of your eyes. 

“Great to see you’re all having fun out here.” 

You turn towards the entrance of the terrace to see a middle-aged man in a tourist shirt and shorts, a pair of sunglasses resting on the bridge of his nose. He warmly smiles, standing at the front of your table. 

He introduces himself, “My name is Minho and I run this place. I thought I’d drop by to see how you’re all liking it so far.” 

Taking turns introducing your group members, Jungkook offers for him to settle down next to him at the table and the man cheerily obliges, darting questions back and forth about your stay. He’s surprised to hear that you weren’t originally planning on coming, instead derailed by your foiled vacation plans. 

“Yeah, we thought it was pretty weird looking at first but then we took a closer look and it turned out to be nice.” Hoseok explains, laughing a bit, “Honestly it seems better then where we were originally supposed to go.” 

“It’s a special place.” The man remarks tenderly, eyes crinkling, “Beautiful, but full of mysteries and wonder.” 

“Mysteries and wonder?” Jimin repeats and Minho hums. 

“Have you folks heard about the legend?” You shake your head and he looks genuinely surprised, as if the information should have been prior knowledge. “Well, let me tell you that you haven’t even begun to understand where you are just yet then.” 

“Many years ago, this place was inhabited by a couple.” Minho speaks in a low storytelling tone, “The man and woman loved each other very much, and were hoping to spend the rest of their lives by the sea together.” 

“However, one day the man left to go fishing and never came back. The woman was left all alone and in worry, prayed every night for his safe return.” 

“Ultimately the man never returned and his body was later discovered in the sea. It was presumed he had drowned and the women fell into a deep sorrow, feeling betrayed and abandoned by the one person who said he would never leave her.” 

“The moon heard her call and was vexed by her desperate pleas of his return, so it cursed her to roam the corners of the very place he drowned in - the sea.” 

The entire table is dead silent and Minho drops the one fact that has your eyes widening. 

“They call it, the legend of the mermaid.” Minho turns, pointing to the intriguing appearance of the sea, “That’s why the water is darker and the sand has turned grey, because it’s believed her anguish still remains deep within the ocean.” 

You and Taehyung make eye contact in an instant and Jimin tugs at the man’s sleeve. 

“D-Does that mean this place is cursed?” 

The man chuckles, “Of course not! It’s just a legend! Didn’t you hear me say that before I told you the story?!” 

“It’s an interesting legend, I didn’t know this beach could be so meaningful.” Eunha remarks and Minho smiles at her. 

“Ah, see! She gets it!” 

Eunha returns his smile and Minho continues to reassure Jimin, who still seems startled with the new information. Meanwhile, you gaze at Taehyung, wondering to yourself how much of that story was truly a mere legend. 

“I swear, you only care about yourself!” You spit out, “If you didn’t want to live together then why did you say yes??” 

“Because you wanted it!” He shouts back, “I wanted you to be happy! I’ve always wanted you to be happy!” His once warm irises are dripping with spite, “But as of recently, living with you has turned into an actual nightmare.”

There’s a tense, held silence looming in the air. You’re in a similar state as him, the exhaustion keeping a dreadful grip on your bones. 

“How else am I supposed to talk to you then?” There’s hoarseness in your voice, soft before it spikes up, “You never tell me anything and act like everything is okay all the time! I can’t know if you don’t talk to me, Tae!” 

He shakes his head, appearing defeated. You’re expecting something, some hidden spark of hope that you can manage to work this out. But that immediately shatters once he reaches for his bag. 

A deep exhale leaves his lips, like he’s grown tired for too long. 

“I can’t take this anymore, Y/N.” 

“W-What?” You watch him grab his shoes, placing them onto the ground to slip his feet into, “So that’s it, huh? You’re not going to try to fix things with me and instead just run away?” 

“No, I’m not.” He glances up at you, a seething glare in his eyes that takes you aback, “I’m going to break up with you before I do.” 

You can only stare as he grabs his jacket on his way out, the door harshly slamming behind him. Water unconsciously begins to well up in your eyes and you slump down onto your knees, left completely alone in the room. 

“Taehyung?” 

“H-Huh?” He blinks, body unconsciously rolling over to you. You’re tucked in your bed, leaning down to see sleeping on the make-shift bed you’ve made on the ground for him after he had called you and complained he wasn’t able to properly sleep. 

“You were mumbling in your sleep.” A low yawn passes by your lips and you rub your eye, “Are you comfortable down there?” 

“Kind of. It’s been difficult sleeping like this.” He shuffles around a bit. 

“I’m sure it’s not too bad if you try sleeping on your side.” You lie down, facing him, “Just let me know if you need an extra blanket or two.”

“It’s not that....” He mumbles, letting out a sigh. 

You raise an eyebrow, “Then what is it?” 

“This.” He admits, turning to look at you. The moment dips into a steady silence and you uncomfortably shift, wondering why he was simply just staring at you. 

“I don’t get it.” 

“This.” He points to his eyes, “I don’t have eyelids anymore.”

“What?” You jump out of bed, shifting closer to him, “How do you not have-” 

Your eyes land right above his foreign green orbs and sure enough, the skin has become transparent. “I can’t close my eyes when I sleep anymore, so I just stare at the ceiling until I pass out.” 

“Wow that’s….” You have no clue what to say to that.

“It’s okay, go back to sleep.” Taehyung whispers, “I’ll have to wait until I can fall asleep again.” 

“Alright…” You bring your blanket backup to cover yourself, but occasionally your eyes drift over to Taehyung. It’s a little unnerving to find out he doesn’t have eyelids anymore and is practically a fish at this point, but you decide to let the thought slip away when you begin to ponder on more recent events. 

Namely, the legend. Although Minho had told your group as a way to draw out more meaning from the place you were at, you wonder if there was some way to figure out how to get Taehyung’s human appearance back from it, such as a gap in the story. But the most you can come with at the moment is simply retrieving the man’s body back for the mermaid to realize she wasn’t abandoned, but you have no clue how that’s going to help Taehyung. 

Maybe throwing him into the sea again and waiting around for a thunderstorm to take place would be more effective…

Your absurd thoughts are caught off guard at the sound of a low cough, “If you’re really having a hard time sleeping, I can just take you back to your room, you know?” 

He doesn’t answer you and you contort your brows, rolling over in bed, “Taehyung?” 

The very first thing your eyes land on is how he’s crouched down, lifting himself up on his shaking arms. You immediately throw your covers off and slide down, grabbing onto him. “Taehyung!” 

A chain of rough coughs greet you again and your eyes flicker when he begins to harshly gasp. Searching around, you notice that his usual crystal blue tail has dissolved into the shade of lime green and how the small openings on his ribs have begun to rapidly open and close. 

Your eyes widen and you catch a glimpse of the window for a moment, eyes surveying the ocean. Quicking grabbing a hold of Taehyung’s arm, you loop it over your neck and tug him up with a grunt, letting him rest his weight on you. 

“Hold on Taehyung.” You hastily get out of your room, heading out the hallway. The spiral of staircases tests your patience greatly on the way down, but when Taehyung’s head lolls to the side and he becomes completely unresponsive, you don’t give it a second thought. 

The moment your feet meet the grey sand again, you attempt to accelerate your speed. The extra dead weight doesn’t help in that matter, but nonetheless you rush towards the water and hold your breath. 

The icy temperature immediately spreads over your skin, drenching your cozy pajamas in an instant. You hurriedly poke your head out to the shore and look down towards the water, feeling Taehyung's limp hand sink down and slip away from your grasp. 

He lets out a loud exhale moments later, panting once he’s able to meet the shore as well. He glances in your direction, a look of surprise and relief flooding him immediately. 

“H-How did you know...?” 

You softly smile, “I assumed staying on land for too long doesn’t help much with your situation.” 

“Thanks.” He deeply breathes with a grin, pushing back his sapphire hair. You whirl around, about to head back before it gets too cold until you feel a jerk on your wrist. 

“Wait.” 

You turn to face him, “What?” 

“I-I don’t want to be alone here.” He whispers, quiet enough for you to barely hear it, “It’s scary.” 

Your lips form into a pout, thinking he was being absurd for a moment. However, your eyes begin to roam around, taking in how it’s pitch black outside, making the water appear more like ink by the minute. Save for the light sounds of the tides, it’s also dead silent. 

“Fine - but I can’t stay in the water for long, it’s freezing.” You honestly reply, your shoulders already starting to tremble. Taehyung nods in agreement, swimming over to you in an instant. You don’t expect him to encase his arms around you right away, pulling you flush against him. 

“Hold your breath.” He reminds you and you timidly nod, hoping he doesn’t notice the way your complexion has tinted rose. Luckily he doesn’t when he dives into the water, swimming at a speed that you barely get up to alone with your legs. Your eyes watch in fascination as his long tail moves in unison with his body, lighting up the dark ocean with it’s bright blue hue. 

Taehyung ends up taking you to a landscape of rocks near the shore, a place you wouldn’t have else found if you tried swimming there all by yourself. He hastily gets you out of the waters, letting you inhale as much air as possible just like you had done with him in the sea, before he remains at the edge of rocks and watches you settle into the small opening.

The temperature has subsided and is a lot better than the waters below you, but Taehyung seems to be at ease right in the centre of it. In comparison to before, now you can get a broad view of the ocean and all the little ripples that pass by the dark tides, the moon illuminating each and every wave with a pearly hue. 

“Ah-choo!” You sniffle, covering your mouth. Taehyung spins around, eyes widening. 

“Are you cold?” He immediately asks, but you shake your head. 

“I’m alrig-AH-CHOO!” 

Taehyung grins, “Doesn’t sound like it.” He latches onto the edge and lifts himself up, half of his blue tail still remaining in the water. Taking the bottom of his shirt, he tugs it over his head and places the soaked material onto the side, facing you. 

“W-What are you doing?” You immediately ask, but he glances at you in confusion. 

“What? I’m a lot warmer when I’m not wearing wet clothes.” He extends his arm and gently pushes you closer to him, “Now come over here, will you?” 

You pout but eventually oblige when a third sneeze leaves your body. It’s a little strange to be snuggling up to him like this after so long, but old habits eventually sink in once Taehyung places his hand firmly against your waist and your rest your head against his shoulder. 

You watch the tides hit against each other, roaring louder as the wind around begins to pick up. Unconsciously you loop your arms around Taehyung, not noticing the small smile that tugs on his features as you do. 

Eyes drifting over to the radiant moon, a question sits at the tip of your tongue. “What did you think about the legend Minho told us? The one about the cursed mermaid?” 

“I thought it was sad.” Taehyung confesses, “Instead of trying to help the mermaid with her grief, the moon made her suffer for the rest of her life.” 

You hum, “She never got to see the man again and ended up stuck in the place that took his life.” A cascade of shivers runs down your body, “I wonder if the legend could help us get you back to normal.” 

“I highly doubt it.” Taehyung stiffly chuckles, “Maybe after this vacation is over, I’ll spend the rest of my life in the ocean too.” 

“Please don’t.” You whisper, not wanting him to live out the same unfortunate fate, “The woman was cursed because the man’s death left her all alone. I don’t want you to feel the same.” 

Although you can’t see it, a soft smile casts itself onto Taehyung’s lips. It remains even as your lids begin to droop down, your head occasionally tilting to the side. When it completely lolls over, Taehyung separates from you, gently placing you against a smooth patch of rock that you instinctively curl up on at contact. 

He lowers himself into the waters, shoulders poking out as he glances up at the bright moon shining down on you. Pivoting around, he watches you completely get lulled into sleep by the comfortable sounds of the ocean ripples, a fond gaze running deep in his sea green eyes. 

Months later after breaking up with you, Taehyung returns back to the apartment the two of you once upon a time shared. There’s a clutter of open suitcases and things covered in bubble wrap, presumably you’re doing after you declared to him that you’ll be moving out soon and that he should begin packing his own things as well. 

It���s strange for him to enter an apartment that has countless memories woven into it, from the way he was so used to sharing his time, his room and even his bed with you. Now the apartment falls short of all of that, remains of what could have been left behind when he opens the door into the bedroom. 

Your things are all gone. Long removed and tided away. It’s just his own belongings that remain within the four walls anymore, seemingly the only thing left occupying the room. 

He’s all alone now, abandoned underneath the moonlight that peeks through the once joint window. 

~

You wake up the next morning to see Taehyung peering at the rising sun, a deep crease in between his brows. It takes you waving your hand erractively to draw his attention away, his eyes beaming up at your sudden awakening. After asking you if you were okay to go into the waters in pajamas again, you loop your arms around his neck and hold on for dear life once his head dips into the ocean, swimming back to shore at a racing speed. 

Meeting up with the rest of your friends, Eunha and Sunyi take the liberty of persuading you into swimming with them, not adamant about you refusing after last time. With one concerned look at Taehyung, the latter smiles and tells you to carry on after finding a giant blanket and spot in the grey sand to keep himself covered. 

However once you’re in the water, you can already see him sulking from a mile away. 

“Why don’t you come in?” You ask, swimming over to where he’s seated. The pout on his lips only grows more from your request, dejectedly shaking his head. 

“You know that’s only going to cause a lot more problems if I do.” 

“Then maybe we can come back during the night.” His eyes light up and you smile, “No one will be able to see you then, right?” 

He nods with a grin, “Okay.” 

You stay for a moment until Eunha calls out for you, sending a small bye in Taehyung’s direction. He tells you to have fun on his behalf and you happily oblige, racing over to your friends. Hoseok ends up bringing out a beach ball he stored in his car, tossing it over in your direction. 

You grasp onto it, raising it up high before launching it Sunyi’s way. She passes over to Eunha who then hands it over to Jungkook, before throwing it to Hoseok. 

Unfortunately, he barely hits it and it lands far behind him. 

“I’ll get it!” You instantly volunteer, hurriedly splashing against the water. In the midst of retrieving it, you notice Taehyung gazing in your direction and wave back at him, a soft smile on your lips. 

That’s when the throbbing begins. 

It starts off as a small pulse, but a sudden sharp ache shoots up your right leg and it completely stiffens. You gasp as the feeling intensifies, akin to someone wrapping their hands around your leg and twisting it as harshly as they can. 

Your hands slip off from Hoseok’s beach ball and before you even know it, you’re sinking straight down into the pit of the ocean. 

Water fills your lungs at an alarming amount and you attempt to kick away at the water, but it only results in a cascade of agonizing pain to run through your leg. You feel yourself slipping away bit by bit, barely any sunlight reaching you as the ocean continues to swallow you whole. 

A hand grabs onto yours right away. 

You squint against the cold waters to see a blue tail swimming closer to you, a shade of bright sapphire emerging and hurriedly lifting you up. Once you meet sea level, you wheeze and gasp, coughing out all the water that luckily bubbles out of your system. 

Taehyung keeps an arm against your back as you do, but your eyes grow alarmingly wide once your vision clears up. 

“T-Taehyung?” You promptly question, eyes flickering over him in concern, “You’re in the water, if anyone sees-” 

“I don’t care if they see me.” He interjects, “Are you okay?” 

You nod and his shoulders sag in relief. 

“Thank god.” He breathes, hugging you close to him. You’re a bit taken aback from how he tightly grasps onto you, as if letting go was the last thing on his mind. 

“Taehyung….” You whisper, slightly breaking away to look up at him. You keep forgetting how alluring his appearance has become, his sea green eyes and sapphire hair never failing to captivate you every single time. 

He sadly smiles, fear-filled eyes boring into yours, “I didn’t want to lose you a second time.” 

Your vision unconsciously glosses over and before you know it, you’re looping your arms around his neck and roughly pressing your lips against his. He seems stunned by the sudden motion, but immediately reciprocates as you begin to move your lips. 

It’s not somber, like how it was saying goodbye for the last time. It’s neither bittersweet, like how it was dumping precious memories into a suitcase and leaving the place you once tenderly remarked was your home. It’s instead reciprocal, like how it felt when you first fell in love with him. 

You part from him and he flutters his eyes open, as if still trapped in a daze. But once you pass along a genuine gaze in his direction, his rambles begin. 

“I-I’m still in love with you. Ever since we broke up. I’d never thought I would get the chance to see you again but then you showed up on this trip and I-” You lean forward to kiss him again, catching him off guard for the second time. 

“You’re not the only one who’s still holding onto feelings.” You smile and he returns it, “I’m sorry for what happened between us, I think I just got too invested in trying to live together that I didn’t realize how big of a step that was and ended up rushing you without thinking.”

“I’m sorry too.” Taehyung professes, guilt weighing down deep in his green orbs, “I used to always hate when we fought so I never took it seriously, but I didn’t realize how much that hurt you in the process. I should have just been honest with you and told you I wasn’t ready.” 

You share a mutual look with each other, something you don’t think you could have ever done when you were together. Taehyung hovers over your lips again and you flutter your eyes shut, but he freezes mid-way. 

“Taehyung?” You ponder, but his hand instantly reaches out from the water to cover your eyes. You catch a glimpse of blonde hair and suddenly you’re taken back to the night the two of you got caught up in a storm. 

“A-Are you-?” 

“Don’t.” 

His hand leaves your face, falling down to your shoulder. You slowly open your eyes, peeking out to see his sapphire hair and green eyes replaced with his familiar blonde shade and warm brown eyes. The corners of your lips curl in astonishment, but before you can say anything, Taehyung spins you around. 

His grip tightens on your shoulders, “The others will be here soon to find you, but don’t look down and get me some clothes asap.” 

Frowning at his instructions, your eyes suddenly light up and you’re swimming away, “Right!” 

As you leave, Taehyung sinks back into the water with an exasperated sigh. 

“Are you sure you’re okay?” Eunha asks, her hands resting against her hips. Sunyi sits on a chair next to her, munching down on a bag of chips in her lap that she had managed to steal from Hoseok. 

Pausing your packing for a minute, you swivel around with a sigh, “I’m okay Eunha, it was just a cramp. Taehyung managed to save me before I drowned so I’m alright now.”

“Oh yeah! You guys are together now, right?” Sunyi exclaims, resulting in a small smile to stretch on your lips. Eunha’s eyes widen and she places a hand on your shoulder. 

“Really? Are you serious?” 

You nod, “We made up during our time here. I guess this vacation was all we needed to resolve our old problems.” 

“Oh my gosh, this is amazing!” Sunyi smooshes the two of you into a hug, “I think this is the first time all of us will be in a relationship!” 

Your brows furrow and you drop the shirt you were folding, “All of us?”

Your gaze automatically meets Eunha and she suddenly grows bashful, pushing back a lock of her hair, “Ah, well you see....” 

“You and Jungkook finally got together?” A smirk crosses your lips and Eunha’s mouth falls agape, gaze falling to the ground. 

“W-Was it that obvious?” 

“Huh?” Eunha looks up to see Sunyi counting and passing you a couple of coins like it was the most normalest thing ever. 

“What? Seriously?!” A scoff leaves her lips, “You guys betted on whether me and Jungkook were going to be together?!?” 

“Hey, it was a fair deal.” You point out, grinning at Sunyi, “Which I definitely won.” 

Sunyi rolls her eyes, counting out the rest of your coins. A low knock draws you out of your thoughts, raising your head to see Taehyung leaning against the doorframe with a smug smile on his face. 

“All packed?” He asks and you nod, planting your suitcase onto the ground before scurrying over to him. 

“Just need to dry out our towels and find Hoseok’s shoes, but otherwise yeah.” 

“If that’s the case then….” He peers into your room, reaching out his hand for you, “Do you guys mind if I steal her for a while?” 

“By all means.” Sunyi says, both her and Eunha sending you sly smiles. You pout in response, but let Taehyung lead you away. 

He brings you outside near the shore, now easily able to walk along the grey sand with his bare feet. However, that doesn’t seem like the destination he has in mind as he brings you closer to the edge, near a rocky shore you recall snoozing for hours along. 

“You want to go back?” You ask in surprise, letting him reach out for you once he jumps down from a high leveled rock. He catches you as you jump, humming. 

“Even though we went there in the middle of the night, I want to go back one last time.” He pauses, turning around and smirking at you, “You know, without a tail and all.” 

You giggle, “But I thought it suited you.” 

Taehyung raises a brow, appearing offended, “Really? Last I recall, I was being called a fish left and right.” 

“You didn’t have eyelids.” You protest, but then Taehyung draws uncomfortably close to your head and blinks rapidly. 

“What are these then, huh?” He very obviously points to his now present lids and you laugh, pushing him off from you. 

“Okay, okay! You have eyelids now!” You clap your hands together, “What a miracle!” 

He shakes his head with a smile, carefully leading you to the spot he found that night. You peer around, noticing how the sunlight forecasted onto the shore in a way that brightened it even more compared to the moon. 

“It’s breathtaking.” You whisper, swiveling to look at where the shore meets the ocean. 

“It is.” Taehyung remarks, “I think I’m going to truly miss being part fish.” 

You lean closer to him, “Well, if you’re really going to miss it that much...I could toss you into the ocean right now and pray for a storm to take you away.” 

Taehyung places a hand on his chest, pretending to be teary-eyed, “You would really do that for me?” 

You snort, “Of course.”

Kneeling down, you dip your hands into the icy waters for one last time. Taehyung joins you, playing around harmlessly and then somehow accidentally splashing you with some of it. 

You scoff as he laughs, but you soon get your revenge in the midst of his laughter, to which he mumbles that he probably deserved that. You chuckle and he smiles, shaking the water droplets out of his hands before helping you up as well. 

“We should get going.” You remind him, “The others are probably waiting for us.” 

Taehyung hums, but it’s not long before he freezes and his content expression completely falters. 

A shaky hand is placed on your arm, drawing out your oblivious attention. 

Taehyung points to the ocean, where a pair of two green eyes are staring back at the two of you. 

Your eyes widen and you stagger back, nearly bumping into him if he hadn’t immediately caught you. The green eyes catch the movement, drawing closer to you. From afar, the long strands of sapphire hair flowing in the water and the blue tail shimmering within the ocean gives you a slight glimpse of exactly what you’re dealing with, but it seems like an afterthought once both you and Taehyung scream in unison. 

“That’s it! I’ve had enough of this place!” Taehyung shouts, racing away to get back to the steep rocks that lead back to the cabin. The green eyes continue to watch as you scurry after him immediately.

“Don’t leave me behind!!” You plead, following after him as quickly as you can. Along the way you managed to slip on a slippery rock, resulting in Taehyung lifting you onto his back so you can get away faster together. 

From a distance away, the girl with the green eyes submerged in the ocean chuckles.