#until my friend promptly made me change course

[tincanton]

apologies, i will not be continuing my jrwi liveblog tonight, i am in the middle of a very important... assignment...

..

OKAY FINE IM PLAYING HADES SHUT UP IT WAS 50% OFF.

[juniperskye]

The Nanny

Based on the following ask: @itzvenus04I was thinking of like sunshine soft girl reader x cloudy and broody serious Aaron meet as he hires her as Jack nanny because Jack liked her the best and of course Jack thinking his nanny is perfect he tries everything he can to get his dad and nanny together which ends up working and Jack is happy because he has another mommy now, not to replace Haley but to love him like a mom because a kid always needs his mom no matter what age

Aaron Hotchner x Nanny! Fem Reader Fluff Word count: 2185

REQUESTS ARE OPEN - not edited - please be kind. Requests are open and feedback is welcome if it's constructive!

Warnings: My blog is 18+, minors DNI, significant age gap (non-specified, but legal), Sunshine! Reader, Grumpy! Hotch, reader is a nanny, Jack being the ultimate match maker, boss-employee relationship/blurred lines, let me know if I missed anything.

I do not consent to having my work translated or reposted to any other site. That being said I do not own the characters portrayed in this story.

You had been working for Aaron Hotchner for the last six months. You’d gone out of your comfort zone and signed up for one of those nannying sites, the ones where parents would go on and select your profile…almost like online dating. The only thing is, you were looking for a live-in nanny position, see, you’d just graduated college and had been living on campus and now that you had graduated, you needed a place to stay until you found a permanent residence. You could only stay in your friend’s studio apartment for so long.

Aaron hadn’t been too sure about hiring a nanny, especially a live-in one. Jessica had suggested it, seeing as she’d become increasingly busy helping her dad and taking on additional shifts at the hospital. She told him that it would be good to have someone at the house taking care of Jack, running him to and from school and soccer, someone who’d cook and clean and…the more she described it, the more Aaron thought it would be like hiring a 50’s housewife.

He sat on the idea a while; he hardly thought it would be appropriate for a man of his age to hire some young woman to come into his home and play wife while he was out working all day. He figured the best thing he could do would be to look into one of those sites that match nannies to families based on needs.

That is how he had chosen you and honestly, you couldn’t have been more grateful for that fact. Jack had been the best kid and getting to watch him felt more like hanging out with a child of your own…he’d made you feel so welcomed and it filled you with joy.  You’d enjoyed the Hotchner boys, although you didn’t see Aaron all that often, when you did, it always stirred up a fuzzy feeling within you.

--

Aaron was out of town at least once a week each month, those weeks were hard on Jack, but you’d made sure to fill the time with building Legos, coloring, baking, and soccer practice in the yard. You’d made all of Jack’s favorite meals and read him and extra bedtime story on nights Aaron was out of town. Anything it took to make things easier on him.

Truthfully, you liked the weeks when Aaron was out of town, it made your life a little easier, because despite that fuzzy feeling Aaron gave you…he wasn’t always the sweetest person in the world. He was kind of a grump.

In the six months you’d been working for him, you had learned that Aaron was an FBI agent, more specifically the Behavior Analysis Unit. You knew he was in charge of the team he worked with and that they travelled quite frequently. Jack constantly referred to him as a superhero. You learned that he loves the Beatles and the most important thing in his life is his son.

The other thing you had learned in that time was that he detested you. He’d made an effort to learn as little as possible about you, promptly changing the subject any time you’d said anything, even remotely personal. Little did you know, Jack was sure to fill his dad in on all the wonderful things he’s learned about you.

--

Jack had formulated a plan; he was going to get you and his dad together. In the short time you’d been working with them he’d been able to see that his dad was happier and less stressed out. His dad had more time to spend with him when you were around. He also loves you; you are sweet, and you take care of him, and it reminds him of his mom. That had made him sad at first, but very quickly, he came to appreciate it.

So, he decided he would help you by giving you insight into his dad’s favorite things. On the other hand, he’d talk you up to his dad in hopes to break his walls down just enough to let you in.

--

“Alright Jack, your lunch is all packed, can you run and grab your shoes and your backpack?” You asked him.

“Okay! Did you put one of our brownies in there?” He asked, jogging down the hall.

“Of course I did!” You called after him. “Mr. Hotchner, I packed your lunch as well. I was planning on going to the grocery store after I drop Jack off, was there anything in particular you’d like for dinner this week?”

“Whatever works.” He huffed.

“Okay, well I will email over the menu I had in mind then and if there’s anything you don’t like, just let me know.” You offered.

“Will do.” Aaron grabbed his bag and turned away. “Bye buddy, have a great day today.” Aaron pressed a kiss to the top of jacks head before ruffling his hair and heading out to work.

“You ready bud?” You asked.

“Make a pot roast with mashed potatoes.” Jack said.

“What?”

“It’s dad’s favorite.” Jack smiled.

--

You were putting the finishing touches on dinner while Jack was working on his homework at the kitchen island. You had taken his suggestion and went with a pot roast for dinner, figuring it couldn’t make matters worse.

“Alright bud, go wash your hands and put your homework in your folder.” You requested.

“Okay!” Jack made his way down the hall.

You set the table with three perfect place settings, you’d poured jack a glass of chocolate milk, yourself a small glass of wine, and Aaron his usual scotch. You plated up the food, mashed potatoes, pot roast with carrots, and a small salad. It was moments like this, waiting for Aaron to some home that your mind drifted to thoughts of truly sharing this domesticity with him.

You imagine him walking through the doors, placing his briefcase down, coming up behind you, snaking his arms around your waist as he presses a gentle kiss to your shoulder. Complimenting how good the food smells and asking you about your day. In these little daydreams, he was warm and sweet, not his usual grumpy self.

--

The door opens and you immediately hear the huff that escapes him. Exhaustion surely seeping in after a long day of work. This is part of why you loved this job, despite his coldness, you enjoyed taking care of the Hotchner boys. It made you happy knowing that he could come home after work and not worry about anything.

“Daddy!” Jack hollered.

“Hey buddy.” Aaron knelt down and lifted Jack into his arms.

“It smells good in here, what’s for dinner?” Aaron asked.

“Well, Jack informed me that pot roast is one of your favorites, so I changed up the menu a bit and made that for dinner. I uh – I hope that’s okay.”

“Oh, that’s – that’s fine.” Aaron let out an awkward cough.

So, the three of you sat and ate dinner. While you ate, Jack rambled on and on about his day and all the things that happened while he was at school. You were desperately trying to attend to the conversation, but you couldn’t help but be distracted…Aaron’s gaze had been lingering on you for the last ten or so minutes.

“Hey jack, why don’t you put your plate in the sink and go get ready for bed huh? I’ll come up in a bit to read a story with you.” Aaron said, his gaze never leaving yours.

Jack nodded his head and followed the directions his dad gave him. All the while Aaron continued to look at you, surely profiling you. You were becoming uneasy, sitting there under his gaze.

“What is it?” You asked.

“Nothing. Thank you, for dinner, it was delicious.” He complimented.

“Oh, um of course! I’m glad you liked it.” You blushed.

--

It was a rare day that Aaron had off, on these days he likes to let you off the hook. This allows you to shop, go out with friends and get lunch, get your hair and nails done, the whole nine yards. Jack thought that a day out with his dad would be the perfect time to talk about you. They had been talking about how you helped him study for his spelling test this week which led to him getting 100%.

“Hey dad?”

“Yeah buddy?”

“Why do you hate her?”

“What I don’t – I don’t hate her. I just, I ugh…I don’t know bud. I don’t hate her, she’s great.” Aaron stumbled over his words.

“You aren’t very nice to her though. Which is weird because she’s really nice and she makes us both happier, I can tell.” Jack smiled.

“I’m nice to her!” Aaron defended.

“No, you’re not. But you can be! Her birthday is coming up, we should have a party!” Jack suggested.

--

It was your birthday, you had been thankful it was on a Saturday this year, and Aaron was off which meant he’d likely give you the day off and you could spoil yourself a bit. So, after sleeping in a bit later than usual, you made your way to the kitchen only to be met with the Hotchner boys making pancakes.

“Well good morning!” You greeted.

“Happy birthday!” Jack shouted, wrapping his arms around your neck from his position on the counter.

“Thanks bub! Are you making chocolate chip pancakes? You know those are my favorite.” You teased.

“Yeah! It was dad’s idea to make them.” Jack informed.

“Oh – um thanks.” You were caught by surprise.

“Of course. Happy birthday.”

“Thank you.” You shyly smiled.

The three of you sat and enjoyed breakfast together, it had felt different than usual. Aaron had been different today, happy almost.

“So, I figured, since I’m home today, perhaps you could take the day off?” Aaron suggested. “I do have something to do around 6 though so if you could be back by then?”

“Really? That would be awesome, I really need to get my hair and nails done.” You laughed.

--

You had texted a few of your friends and met them at the nail salon, getting your fingers and toes done while filling them in on the latest…more specifically Aaron’s new kind side that he’s been showing.

They had told you it was because he likes you, to which you were quick to shut down. They all knew you had a soft spot for the older man, and they were sure he liked you back, especially when he was pushing you away. One of your friends claimed it was because he probably didn’t want to “corrupt” you.

 After getting them to finally relent in their teasing, you had suggested lunch. The girls treated the whole day, nails, lunch, hair and lastly a new dress from your favorite boutique.

“You should wear that one home.”

“Why?”

“For Mr. Hotchner…show off your hot self. Maybe get some for your birthday!”

“Oh my gosh, stop! It’s not like that.” You shook your head.

“Girl maybe it could be…just wear the damn dress!”

And so, you did. You changed into the new dress and had your hair perfectly styled and your nails done. You knew Aaron had somewhere to be at 6, but you figured you could at least catch him off guard prior to then.

--

You parked your car and made your way around to grab your bags, then headed up the two little steps that led into the house. Before fishing your key out of your bag, you paused, inside you could hear Aaron and Jack talking…something about balloons and streamers. You smiled to yourself, quietly letting yourself in.

“Hey guys! What’s all this?”

“You’re early!” Jack said.

You looked around and felt nothing but warmth radiating through you. There were balloons and streamers decorating the living and dining rooms, sat on the table was a birthday cake along with a few gifts. Pizza from your favorite place was sat on the coffee table and the living room had been rearranged so the guestroom mattress was laid out with cozy blankets and pillows, while your favorite movie was queued up on the TV.

“You did all this…for me?” You gasped.

“Yeah! We wanted to show you how much we love you.” Jack said, hugging you.

“You do?” Your gaze met Aaron’s.

“Yeah, we do.” He said.

--

That night the three of you ate pizza and laid on the mattress in the living room, watching movies. Before it got too late the boys made sure you had cake and opened your gifts, Jack had picked out a paint set for you, knowing you enjoyed watercolors. Aaron, well, he’d gotten you a first edition of your favorite novel. You’d been rendered speechless.

The three of you made your way back to the living room and laid down to watch a final film. Jack had been snuggled up to you, quickly falling asleep, and you fell not long after. Aaron smiled at the sight of you two, it had gotten him thinking that having you around may not be so bad after all.

Taglist: @bernelflo@pastelpinkflowerlife@just-moondust @khxna

[gloomwitchwrites]

Kyle "Gaz" Garrick x Female Reader - Coworker AU

Content & Warnings: Coworker AU, Halloween Store AU, friends with benefits, oral sex (male & female receiving), unprotected piv, creampie, friends to eventual lovers, free use, overstimulation

Word Count: 1.5k

A/N: For Kinktober 2024 (Free Use)

While working at a Halloween store, you make an agreement with your coworker, Kyle Garrick: free use of your body for covering shifts.

ao3 // main masterlist // kinktober 2024 masterlist

"Another shift? I'm starting to think you're only working here for my cock."

"Kyle Garrick," you hiss, smacking his arm.

Laughing, Kyle grabs your wrist, bringing your knuckles to his lips. “The deal still stands.

"I'm fully aware of the deal," you mutter with a smile, removing your hand from his grasp.

"Any place. Any time."

"I know."

Kyle grins and aggressively clicks the end of his pen until you roll your eyes. "Just do it you big idiot," you mutter.

Putting pen to paper, Kyle scratches out your scheduled time and moves the shift elsewhere.

This time, he clicks the end of the pen once. "Behind the changing rooms."

"Now?"

Kyle tilts his head to the side, a sly smirk on his face. Of course, now. He doesn't mean later. He never means later.

Within five minutes, you're leaning over a stack of delivery boxes with Kyle deep inside you.

All around you is the overflow of popular items. Couples have been coming in exclusively to purchase Scream masks, and it seems that every child that walks in with their parents wants to be a superhero. You're surrounded by masks, fake weapons, and numerous packaged costumes for every age.

You bite down on your bottom lip to stifle every rush of air that threatens to escape your lungs. Kyle's muted grunts are slowly turning into groans.

"Fucking hell, love,” he mutters, his thrusts quicken pace. The boxes beneath you shake and shift. They'll topple over, taking you with them if he isn't careful. Kyle exhales, his hips grinding against yours, holding there as his cum floods your pussy.

This is the agreement. The arrangement.

When you need a shift moved or covered, Kyle will happily do it. But he has free use of your body whenever he wants and at any time.

Kyle gently thrusts, pushing his cum deeper into you.

"We need to go back," you groan, attempting to catch your breath. "There's probably an insane line at the register."

Kyle chuckles. "There wasn't a soul in the store when we came back here."

You glance over your shoulder and scowl. "How long have we been gone?"

With a brief squeeze of your ass, Kyle eases his softening cock from your body. His cum follows him.

As you stand to adjust your clothes, Kyle's arms embrace you.

He kisses the top of your head. "Don't worry your pretty little head over it."

You groan and shove at him. "You're insufferable."

"But you like me," he teases as the two of you exit the small storage space, grabbing a box on the way out.

"On your knees."

You turn and almost scream.

Kyle is standing right behind you wearing one of those goddamn Scream masks. It's one of the red ones with horns.

"What are you doing? You scared me."

You're standing behind the counter at the very back of the store. The only customers are near the front, browsing and oblivious to your work in the back. Most don't even realize they can make a purchase back there.

"On your knees."

You blink. "The cameras, Kyle."

"They're off."

You cross your arms over your chest. "How did you—"

"I have my ways." He nods toward the floor. "On your knees."

You promptly fall. The counter is high enough to obscure at a distance but not if someone walks directly up to it. But you made an agreement with Kyle. If he tells you to get on your knees, you do it.

You present your mouth, and Kyle reaches for the front of his jeans. He opens them up, and then you take him into your mouth. With his hand on the back of your head, you suck and tease, swirling your tongue around the head before taking him all the way to the base.

Kyle starts to groan, and then clears his throat, head on a swivel as he watches the store. You keep at it, finding your own pleasure in the task of pleasing him. The mask certainly doesn't harm. You understand why it's so popular now.

One moment you're throating him, and the next you're pressed against the counter, Kyle quickly adjusting to lean forward, blocking any view of you. He pushes the mask up to reveal his face, grinning widely at whoever is standing there.

"How can I help you?" he asks, voice charming and smooth with zero indication that his cock is down your throat.

Inwardly grinning, you continue to suck him off. This is what he wanted after all. Why not give it to him?

"I'm looking for this," comes a woman's voice.

Kyle leans forward a bit like he's peering at a phone. "Those are in stock. Just over there."

"Over where?"

You take him down to the hilt and his hips jerk in response. "Front of the store. Left-hand side. Second row." He chokes on the last two words, barely getting them out.

You hear footsteps moving away, and then Kyle is glancing down at you, shaking his head softly.

"Swallow," he whispers. "Do it."

As he says it, his release hits your tongue. Relaxing your throat, you allow the cum to slide down as much as possible before you swallow the rest. When every drop is down your throat, he pops his cock from your mouth.

His pants are buttoned and back into place in seconds. You start to get up but his hand lands on your head, pushing you back down.

"Ready to check out?"

"Yes."

"I'll meet you up front."

You watch him go from your spot on the floor. You wait a full minute before checking to make sure it's clear.

"I—I can't. Kyle. Please."

The customers are gone. The registers have been counted. The front doors are locked and all the lights are off. Except one. The one on the desk in the back office.

That lamp is on, casting a soft glow over your naked body. Kyle kneels between your spread legs. All you can see are his eyes. His mouth is busy with other things.

A swipe of his tongue and you're gone. Eyes rolling into the back of your head, you moan loudly, fingers clinging to the edge of the desk. You're supposed to be in your car, driving home. Instead, Kyle is giving you your third orgasm.

"One more," he murmurs against your sex. "One more."

You can't do one more. You really can't.

There are a few second reprieve before Kyle returns to his work. Every limb is shaking, overstimulation thudding through you so hard it's bordering on pain. You finish quick and loud, screaming out into the tiny room.

Kyle is standing and sliding into you within a few brief moments. The old desk creaks under the sharp thrusting. Kyle has one hand on your inner thigh, keeping you wide while the other rests firmly next to your shoulder. He leans over you, panting just as hard as you are.

Kyle's eyes are heavy-lidded with lust. "Feel so good," he groans.

Pushing up onto one elbow, you reach out for him, hand grasping the back of his neck. Kyle grins as you tug, closing the distance. His lips meet yours and it is perfect bliss.

"Finish inside me,” you sigh. “I want to feel you."

Your little admission does something to him. Kyle's groan softens to a sound you've never heard from him before. He kisses you again, and there is deep possession in it.

The two of you might have an agreement. It's the same agreement you’ve had with him last year and the year before. In between the stores closure and opening, there are flirty texts and occasional fucks but nothing serious. Nothing that feels like...whatever the fuck this is.

With a loud groan, Kyle grinds his hips forward, sealing your bodies together. His lips part, and you dip your tongue inside to taste him. Together, your connected bodies feel as one. There is no beginning or end here. There is only simple knowledge of pleasure.

Kyle returns your kisses. Each softer than the last. His arms circle to your waist and then lift, bringing you to an upright position. Dragging you to the edge of the desk, Kyle keeps himself firmly inside you, as if unwilling to part just yet.

He goes in for another kiss. This one on your lips. The next, your cheek.

"Need another shift covered?" he asks.

His heat is nice. Comforting. "Not at the moment."

"Pity," he croons, seeking yet another.

This time it deepens, becoming hot and heavy all over again.

"We don't have to do this, Kyle."

He presses his lips to your exposed shoulder. "What do you mean?"

"We could just...do this. We don't have to do all the other stuff."

"All the other stuff?" he grins.

You punch his shoulder and his smile only widens. "You interested in that, love? In me?" There is a hint of hope in his voice.

"What if I am?" you counter, matching his smile.

taglist:

@glitterypirateduck @km-ffluv @tiredmetalenthusiast @miaraei @cherryofdeath

@ferns-fics @tulipsun-flower @miss-mistinguett @ninman82 @eternallyvenus

@beebeechaos @smileykiddie08 @whisperwispxx @chaostwinsofdestruction @weasleytwins-41

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@itsberrydreemurstuff @cod-z @keiva1000 @littlemisscriesherselftosleep @blackhawkfanatic

@sammysinger04 @kylies-love-letter @dakotakazansky @suhmie @kadeeesworld

@umno-yeah @jackrabbitem @arrozyfrijoles23 @lovely-ateez @spookyscaryspoon

@ash-tarte @enarien @gingergirl06 @certainlygay @greeniegreengreen

[ameenvie]

I Think He Knows - Jamie Tartt x fem!Reader

masterlist | ao3 | ko-fi | fic recs

"his hands around a cold glass makes me wanna know that body like it's mine"

Word count: 4.6k Warnings: nsfw, smut, minors DNI! kind of angry sex, unprotected sex (wouldn't recommend irl), oral(male receiving), fingering, p in v sex, praise kink, dirty talk, slightly dom!Jamie(?), hickeys, possessiveness Tags: smut Prompt/Summary: You go out to get your mind off work and Jamie - but to your surprise he shows up at the same bar as you. Things happen. Put me in horny jail. A/N: This is the first smut I've written in a hot minute, and my first ever Jamie fic, so I just hope it doesn't suck! 😭❤ I still have to get the hang of how to write him. Maybe the intro/non-smut part is a bit too long, but idk I kept rewriting this so much. :') I hope you enjoy nevertheless! ❤❤❤

It felt like thousands of hammers were beating down onto your head. You were staring at your computer screen, trying to grasp what you were looking at, but the stress, the flickering office lights, and the constant noises of talking made it impossible.

“I need a break” you exclaimed as you promptly stood up from your desk. The conversation next to you came to a halt as Keeley gave you a worried look.

“Are you alright, babe?”

“Sure, I just need a little fresh air” you answered with a sweet smile. Even though Keeley was your boss, she was also one of your best friends, and you were thankful to the universe that you met her.

You were the social media manager at KJPR responsible for the AFC Richmond brand. And as fun and exciting as it was, there were moments when you just wanted to run away and never look back. Such as today.

The team had a new brand partnership deal, and few of the players had to post to their socials about certain products. It was really nothing extraordinary, but it was a big brand so it was crucial that everything was on schedule. Now you were in the reporting phase, and you haven’t received the necessary info from one of the players yet. As you stood outside the office building, leaning against the wall, you picked your phone out of your pocket and dialed him. It rang once, twice… and he hang up on you. You rolled your eyes and cursed under your breath as you headed back to your desk.

“Need any help?” Keeley asked with the sweetest, most concerned voice you’ve ever heard, but you just shook your head.

“Nothing I can’t handle! I’m headed to the dog track if that’s alright. I need to take care of something.”

“Give ‘em hell!” she replied and left you alone.

You jumped into your car and drove over to Nelson Road, where you knew the boys had their training at the moment. The man at the front desk recognized you and let you in, and you headed to Rebecca’s office first to say hello, then went to the stands and took a seat to wait until the team was finished with practice. When Ted noticed you, he gave you that huge moustachy smile of his and waved at you. You mirrored the gesture before your gaze wandered back to the players.

You sat close enough to the pitch to make out his facial expression when he saw you. First, he seemed annoyed, then he gave you the most dramatic eyeroll you’ve ever seen before he ran away laughing.

You weren’t sure what he expected your reaction to be, but you knew you just looked annoyed.

“Whistle! WHISTLE!” You heard coach Kent scream at the players, and you chuckled. The team gathered around the coaches then made a beeline towards the changing room. You knew this was your cue to follow them as well.

You leaned against the wall as you waited for Jamie, hugging your bag. Of course because he was aware that you were waiting for him, he’d be dead last to leave. You weren’t sure if it was against your person or just the fact that he hated to cooperate. Maybe both. A few of the players started to leave and they waved and smiled at you as hey passed.

After what seemed like an eternity, he finally stepped out of the locker room – as you predicted – dead last. He stopped in the doorway with his hands in his pocket.

“I tried to call you.”

“I know” was all he said, and you raised your eyebrows at him. He was so cocky, you kind of wanted to punch him in the face, but that wouldn’t look too good on your resume.

“Alright, I guess you were busy then.”

“Nah, not really” he answered, and you saw a shit-eating grin spread on his face. God, Jamie.

“Look, I hope you don’t think I enjoy this, but I need the results of the campaign, okay? And you can only blame yourself, because you are the one who insisted that nobody can manage your account other than you. It would make all our lives much easier if I could just check the data myself.” You knew you were rambling and maybe talking a little too fast, showing how annoyed you were. You didn’t like giving people the satisfaction of knowing they got under your skin, but Jamie was world class at that.

“A’ight” he mumbled and started searching for his phone, then handed it to you. “If you want to check it so bad, go on, be my guest.”

You swore your eyes shot daggers at him. You grabbed his phone and took a seat on the bench next to you. He followed suit without a word, hands in his pockets.

You unlocked his phone and opened Instagram, but as you were navigating through it you saw a notification pop up from a girl with a text saying: “try me 😘”. Just a tiny glance at her profile picture was enough for you to conclude that she was gorgeous, and you felt your stomach do a flip. Were you… jealous? Of one of Jamie’s flings? C’mon.

You shook your head as if you could shake the thought out of it as you proceeded to check the necessary info. You didn’t realize, but while you were doing this, Jamie’s eyes searched your face like it held the answer to the universe’s biggest question.

You sent yourself a mail from his phone and shoved it back at him. He looked at you with a look you’ve never saw on his face before, and you could swear for a second that it was guilt sitting in his eyes.

“Thanks for nothing” you said as you grabbed your bag and left.

“Nice seeing you too!” he shouted as you slammed the door behind you. Your blood was boiling in your veins as you were walking back to your office. You dropped yourself onto your chair and buried your face in your palms. What a fucking day. He always finds a way to mess with your head. The sounds of Keeley knocking on your door snapped you out of it.

“Come in” you sighed as you looked at her with a defeated expression.

“Jamie again?” she asked sympathetically as she sat down in front of you.

“Always” you scoffed and started fiddling with a pen on your desk. He’s taking the piss out of me, always trying to get under my skin!” Keeley didn’t say anything, she just gave you a knowing look. “Stop looking at me like that, I know what you want to say!”

“I’m not saying anything” she replied and locked her mouth with an imaginary key and threw it away.

“That’s what I thought” you chuckled and took a deep breath. “I’ll be done with this by the end of the day, and then we can open your not-so-secret stash of champagne in your office, what do you say?”

“Sounds perfect, love!” As she left your office you delved into your work and tried not to think of Jamie. It was so silly – you thought. You felt like you were in school, arguing with yourself about your feelings, and having a crush on the guy who pulled on your ponytail. There was no way you were jealous right? Jamie was insufferable in general – cocky, arrogant, full of himself. Hard to work with. Attention seeking. But he had his moments where he was also funny. Caring. Honest. Compassionate. He was an amazing footballer.

You groaned out loud. You were wrapping up your day as you decided you’re going to put an end to this madness. You went home, picked out a nice dress – nothing too fancy, but it still made you feel like a million bucks. You called yourself an uber and asked them to bring you to one of your favourite bars. You were excited to finally grab a few drinks and let your hair down for a night, and maybe even go home with someone handsome to take your mind off your annoying feelings that started to bubble to the surface.

You took a seat at the bar and ordered your favourite drink. The bartender winked at you, and you chuckled. You propped yourself up on your elbow and started to look around. People were mingling, talking, laughing. Some couples were hiding in the more secluded corners of the room, whispering sweet nothings to each other.

You got your order but before you could thank the bartender for it, you heard a voice all too familiar.

“That’s on me. And another one, will ya’?” You turned around to face him as he was smiling down at you. Your heart skipped a beat as your eyes locked with his – you could never exactly pinpoint what colour they were, sometimes they seemed blue, sometimes grey, even green. You felt like you could stare at them forever. This wasn’t happening. You weren’t even sure if you ever saw him out and about like this. Instead of his usual tracksuit or puffy west he was wearing a white button-down shirt, with a few of its buttons unbuttoned, its sleeves rolled up, showing his tattoos. His hair was let loose, and a few strands fell into his eyes. You felt your heart drop into your stomach, and you were so shocked you couldn’t think of a single word to say, like your brain just short-circuited.

“Wow, Jamie, so nice to see you here, what a lovely coincidence! Come, join me for a drink!” he said, grounding you back to earth.

“Very funny. What are you doing here?” The words came out a little more accusatory than you meant, but you couldn’t help yourself. You came here to take your mind off him, and here he was, hotter than ever, standing so close to you that the scent of his cologne made you feel lightheaded. You wished the earth would just open up and swallow you whole.

“Just blowing off some steam. Celebrating my free weekend, I guess.” He shrugged.

“Alone?” Your question seemed to catch him off guard, as he raised his eyebrows. Your answer was just another shrug. “I see, I see, you don’t have to explain yourself to me, I know how this goes.” You waved with your hands in front of you, like you could shoo the image of him with other women out of your brain. You felt like you were going insane. In the meantime, he got his own drink, and he nursed it on the bar top with his left hand, the other in his pocket as he faced you. He looked even more gorgeous than usual, the way the shirt hugged his muscles ignited a flame in your body you never wanted to acknowledge.

“You know you’re being very judgmental now despite the fact, that you are alone as well.”

“I mean, it’s not my DMs that are full of gorgeous woman inviting me to tango” you scoffed, but immediately after you said the words out loud you scolded yourself internally for sounding so pathetic. Fucking hell.

“Are you jealous, love?” He grinned as he took a sip out of his drink. You rolled your eyes and stood up from your seat, but not before you managed to take a peek of how his lips touched the glass as he drank, and how perfect his jawline looked as he tilted his head slightly. FUCK.

“Maybe in your dreams, Tartt.”

“The lady doth protest too much” he laughed. You were quite shocked that Jamie Tartt out of all people would quote Shakespeare to you, but you were too angry to acknowledge that. You shook your head and turned your back on him, trying to get away, anywhere. You walked to the back of the big room and found yourself in a smaller conversation room – it was empty.

You took a deep breath, and you turned on your heels to head for another, more populated spot, but as you opened the door he stood there, one hand leaning against the doorframe, his drink in the other. He seemed like he was thinking.

“Jamie, I swear to God-” You couldn’t finish your sentence because he pushed himself into the room with you. You felt your heartbeat in your throat and heard it drumming loudly in your ears. He was so close. You closed the door behind him, and you only realized what that suggested after you saw his cocky smile. You didn’t immediately leave the room. You stayed there with him. It was painful to admit – even just to yourself -, but you wanted to be there with him.

He stepped closer, practically caging you between the door and his body. You felt your heart racing and your head spin as you looked up at his gorgeous face. Neither of you said anything, you were just searching his face, eyes darting between his gaze and his lips as you weren’t sure what to do. You didn’t realize he was looking at your lips as well, his breath fanning your face. He slowly leaned in; his lips were barely hovering above yours. Your heartbeat went into full overdrive, and you let his lips linger there for a second before you closed the gap and kissed him.

It all seemed to happen so fast you weren’t even sure it was real. You wrapped your arms around his neck and buried one of your hands in his hair as he was locking the door behind you. In any other circumstances he would be fuming about you ruining his hair, but not now. His hands were tracing your body as he pulled you into him – from your back to your sides, leaving goosebumps in their wake before they finally settled on your bottom as he pulled you even closer. Your nerves were on fire, and you felt waves of arousal wash over you.

When you broke away to get some air, he wasted no time and started to plant small kisses on your cheek, slowly moving to your throat before settling at the soft spot between your neck and clavicle. You moaned his name which made him smile against your skin. You couldn't help but smile too. Somewhere a tiny voice in the back of your mind scolded you for being so euphoric about this whole situation, but you didn’t care. All you cared about is Jamie’s lips on you and the way his hand sneaked under your dress and drew hot circles on your skin.

“My name never sounded so pretty before” he mused before he pushed the strap of your dress aside to kiss a mark onto your skin just above your breast. Your breath hitched as you tried to make him stop.

“Stop it, people will see” you whined, which just encouraged him even more. You felt the prickling sensation on your skin, you were sure he’s going to leave a mark. When he finished, he adored his masterpiece before planting a soft kiss on the red spot he left behind.

“Maybe I want that, love” he whispered against your ear as he caressed your thighs. “I want everyone to see that you’re my girl.”

The sudden possessiveness caught you off guard and you let out a small whimper. Your common sense was thrown out of the window a while ago and at that moment that was all you wanted as well – everyone to see that you were his girl. He stopped for a second to look into your eyes. He placed his hands on your cheeks and pulled you in for another kiss. You saw stars as he kissed you with the passion of a starved man, his tongue gently caressing your lips before he went all in.

You wrapped your arms around his neck, and in a second, he lifted you by your thighs. You wrapped your legs around his hips which caused one of your shoes to fall off as he started to back towards the sofa. While doing so, he bumped into the small table, knocking his drink over. You both chuckled before he finally sat down, with you straddling him.

Your dress was ridden all the way up your thighs, making your black lace panties visible, and it didn’t go unnoticed by Jamie. His gaze seemed hungry, like he was ready to devour you any second, and you felt the heat creeping up to your ears.

“I see someone was planning on getting laid tonight” he said teasingly.

“Oh, fuck off, Jamie!”

“C’mon love I’m just messing with ya” he smiled at you before he put his hand on the back of your head and pulled you in for another kiss. He was smiling into it, the bastard. In this position you couldn’t help but feel his bulge press against you, which made your blood boil in your veins. You wanted him so bad. You let out a shaky breath as you unconsciously started to grind yourself against his clothed length. Jamie moaned under you, and he furrowed his brows like he was trying to focus on the sensation, nothing else.

You slowly unbuttoned his shirt, leaving kisses on his chest as you progressed, and when you finished you slightly pushed it off his shoulders. You were mad for him, and even though you didn’t want to admit, you wanted nothing more than him fucking you right then and there. Little did you know that Jamie was feeling the same.

He looked at you with those gorgeous puppy eyes and you couldn’t help yourself anymore. You planted open mouthed kisses on his sharp jawline, neck, down his chest. You felt bold all of a sudden, and started to suck a mark onto his neck, which he rewarded with a groan. You took a second to examine the red mark you left on his skin before you licked it softly to ease the pain left in its wake. Jamie was a moaning mess under you, bucking his hips into you involuntarily, his hands gripping your thighs for dear life. You felt bold, wanted, sexy. Like a million bucks.

“Jamie, I want you to fuck me” you whispered into his ear, and you thought his soul left his body in that second.

“Fucking hell, angel” he answered and instantly one of his hands was in your hair, pulling you into another kiss, his other hand pushing your dress higher on your body, until your whole ass was exposed. “Such a greedy lil’ thing, aren’t ya?”

He looked at your dampened underwear as he hovered his finger over it, then swiped one big stroke from your entrance to your clit through the damp fabric. You shut your eyes and threw your head back from the sensation. Finally feeling his touch on you was like heaven. The flames of need were eating away at your body, and you weren’t sure how long you can stand the teasing.

“Please, Jamie”

“You’re fucking cute when you beg” he said, a cocky grin on his face, but before you could say anything, he hooked one of his fingers into your panties, and pulled them aside, exposing you completely. You felt flustered, your confidence wavered. He didn’t leave you time to overthink, because he pushed one of his fingers into you without any difficulty. You let out a moan which he mirrored before he spoke. “Shit, all this for me? I don’t deserve you.”

“You’re damn right you don’t” you chuckled as he started to pump his finger into you, before quickly adding another one. He smiled at you as you rested your forehead against his, slowly riding on his fingers. With his free hand he managed to pull down the strap of your dress enough to free your breast and he started to kiss and nib on your sensitive skin, leaving another hickey just above your nipple.

You hissed at the sensation and bucked your hip a bit harder, making him press into you deeper. Jamie’s fingers felt like they were made for you, and he damn well knew how to use them. As you started to ride him a bit harder, he started to curl his fingers inside you to press against your sweet spot and started circling his thumb against your clit with just the right amount of pressure, it made you see stars. You were a moaning, whimpering mess as his fingers fucked you senseless, pushing deeper and deeper with every movement.

“I know, love” he whispered between kisses. You bit down on his lower lip before you tongues started to dance around each other, and he moved his free hand to cradle your breast and caress your hardened nipple. It was all too much – his lips on yours, his hand on your tit and his fingers fucking you like there was no tomorrow.

You felt tension build in your body, your nerves wind up, ready to be released any second. You started riding his fingers harder and faster, chasing that high you felt was so close.

“C’mon angel, come for me, that’s it. That’s my good girl” he whispered against your lips, and just after a few more pumps of his fingers you came crashing hard with Jamie’s name falling from your lips like a prayer, your veins filled with fire as your vision turned white.

He wrapped you in his arms and started to draw circles on your bare back as you came down from your high while he placed small kisses into the crook of your neck and on your temple. After a minute of collecting yourself, you sat up and kissed him again as you started to undo his belt. You definitely weren’t unaware of the huge bulge in his pants, and you wanted to ease his suffering.

He just watched you do it, with one of his arms spread across the back of the sofa. He looked mesmerized by how beautiful you were. After you finished with his belt you undid the buttons of his slacks and pulled them down with his underwear. He just watched you and you could swear he was holding his breath.

You bit your lip as you took the view in, before you started slowly stroking his hard member. He threw his head back and he moved his hand to caress your cheek. You continued to slowly jerk him off, but you couldn’t help yourself. You licked the tip of his dick, and you made it a show. It was slow, sensual, and you looked at him for the whole time. When he caught your eyes he let out a shaky breath and involuntarily bucked his hips towards your face.

You swiped your tongue against his shaft before you took him fully into your mouth and started bobbing your head. His hand moved to tangle in your hair as he guided your rhythm slowly. He moaned under your touch, loving the way your lips felt around him. You started to pick up your pace a little and he rolled his hips against your face. His hand started to push you deeper onto his cock, and the feeling of his length in your throat made your eyes swell up, and you moaned around him.

“C’mon love” he said and guided you away from him, back onto his lap. You straddled him again, his now bare dick pressed against your wet pussy, and you saw stars from the sensation. “Maybe next time we’ll finish that, yeah? But now I want all of you” he said as he aligned himself to your entrance.

Next time was all you heard in your head. You leaned down to kiss him before you slowly lowered yourself onto him. You relished in the sensation of his cock filling and stretching you inch by inch, it was delicious. Jamie’s lips parted slightly as he threw his head back, enjoying the moment just as much as you did. As he bottomed out, you kept still for a second, barely moving before starting to roll your hips, slowly lifting yourself before coming down again.

“Jamie” you whined, and you held onto his shoulders for dear life as you rode him. His fingers dug into your skin at your hips where he held you. You moved so perfectly in sync it was like you were made for each other, the way he rolled his hips into you made you see stars.

“So good for me, love. Taking me so well, my good girl” he whispered against your lips after he sat up, wrapped you into a tight hug and kissed you. He swiped his tongue against your swollen lips, and you bit down on his. You dug your fingers into his hair as you started moving faster and faster, getting overwhelmed by the sensation.

Jamie moved his hand from your hair to your cheek, swiping your lips with his thumb before pushing it into your mouth. You licked it slowly before he pulled it away and moved it to your swollen clit. You gasped at the perfect feeling of his finger being on you again, before he started to circle his thumb around the sensitive bud. You felt your walls tighten around him, which ripped a moan from his lungs. He never stopped his movements, he fucked into you like he never wanted anything else.

“Taking me so well, babe. So tight for me” he whispered against your burning skin. His words poisoned your mind, and they ran through your veins, igniting everything inside you. You buried your head into his shoulder as you felt your climax approaching. He was filling you up so perfectly, his dick hitting your sweet spot with every thrust. He was gripping your thigh so hard you wondered if it’s going to leave a mark. You kind of hoped it would. You felt the knot in your stomach tighten, and his name fell from your lips like a prayer.

“Jamie, I-“ you gasped and you dug your nails into his shoulders.

“That’s it, angel. Come for me” he moaned against your ear and you knew he held himself back. You rolled your hips against him once, twice, all your nerves wind up before they inevitably snapped, and another orgasm washed over you. You moaned into Jamie’s mouth – your vision went white, your muscles clenched around him as you came, which gave him what he needed to reach his own high as well, hugging you tightly onto him. The silence in the room felt deafening all of a sudden. You nuzzled your face into the crook of Jamie’s neck, and he started to slowly caress your hair as he hugged you close.

After your nerves calmed down a bit you started to collect yourself and he helped you to clean up the mess. He took your hand and kissed you, before looking into your eyes.

“So… do you want to get out of here?” His grin was the widest you’ve ever seen and you laughed.

“Yeah, sure” you chuckled as he wrapped his arm around you.

***

The next morning you woke up to your phone ringing. It was Keeley.

“Yeah?” you asked in a sleepy voice, looking over at Jamie who was laying next to you, his arm wrapped around your waist. You were in his bed. He was already awake, looking at you with a sheepish smile.

“So, I know you don’t want to talk about this” Keeley started, her energy through the roof, she spoke so fast you barely had time to acknowledge her words, “but I think you should talk to Jamie. You should tell him you’re into him!” A very telling laugh found its way past your lips before you spoke and you heard an audible gasp on the other side of the line.

“I think he knows” you said to Keeley while looking at Jamie, who was now chuckling next to you as he kissed your free hand.

[yeetfanficccc]

How bout a dance? Wicked Boq x Reader

Authors note- bro 2 fics in 2 days who am I? Reader can be read as gender neutral. I wrote this in one sitting so sorry for any mistakes- enjoy fellow Boq simps (in this house we simp for the simp) AU where Nessa doesn't like him because that's too complicated my guy. Did I give this (Y/N) my kind of oblivious, a bit stupid personality? Yes.

There he was again. Within the day Fiyero had been at Shiz University, everything seemed to change. Classes felt shorter as students slacked off, the library had books scattered every place a book shouldn’t be, and people were dancing, genuinely dancing, with glee. It was the most fun I’d had in years. I needed more

“He’s kind of cute isn’t he? That Fiyero.” It was a question, but it felt like the most obvious statement in the world. Literally everyone, boys, girls, probably Oz himself, found Fiyero attractive. He was a magnet sucking the world in, and I wanted a taste of what that was like. 

Next to me Boq, my first friend at Shiz, pouted, “I don’t get why everyone is freaking out so much. He’s just some guy.”

If I was being honest with myself, Boq was way more my type. Kinda shy, kinda nerdy, with freckled cheeks, unruly red hair, and a genuine smile. The type to make you feel special. But, I saw how he looked at Galinda, like she was the most beautiful person in the world. So, I resigned myself to the flirty, pipe dream Fiyero. It made me feel less sore inside. 

“Boq, I have a plan. A stupid, crazy plan.”

“You’re implying that all of your plans aren’t stupid and crazy.”

“Crazy I’ll give you,” I smiled, “but not stupid.”

His lip curled, “(Y/N), you thought it would be funny if we told people we liked their hat for a week when they weren’t wearing one just to see when they crumble.”

“The best thing you can take from someone is their reality, besides it was harmless.”

“One guy started crying by day 3.”

“To which I promptly apologized.” 

“Oz,” he laughed, that honey suckle laugh. The one I could never get out of my head. I shot my gaze away. “You’re impossible.”

“Do you want to hear the plan? Or should I find someone else?”

“No,” he shot so fast it sent me back a bit, “I’m your guy. I’ll do anything for you. We’re a team.”

I ignored the heat rising on my face, “you know how a bunch of people are going to the OzDust tonight?”

“Yeah…?”

“And you want to get Galinda’s attention?”

“I did. But now I don’t know. Things have changed.” He wouldn’t meet my eye when he said the last bit. I frowned. 

“If you’re worried about Fiyero don’t be. That’s my part of the plan.” 

“What do you mean?” 

“We pretend to be in love, so much so that everyone is jealous of how desirable we are. Fiyero and Galinda are the type that need the spotlight. So, they will each see us as their ticket back to the center of attention.”

“You want us…. to be in love?” homeboy looked dazed. 

“Only pretend of course! Just until our respective person sees how great we are.” 

“I don’t think this plan will work.”

“Do you not think we can convincingly be in love?” I questioned.

“No. We can do that.” And there went his eye contact, “I just don’t think we can convince Galinda and Fiyero to be with us.”

“Maybe you’re right. Sorry,” I deflated, “I was just really zoned out and this idea came to me”

“I’m not saying we shouldn’t try… for research.”

“Really! Boq you’d do that for me?”

“I’d do anything for you…” this time, his eyes meet mine. Brown, like fine Earth melted in amber. I felt a stir in my chest. No, too complicated. Fiyero is brainless, fun- way less emotional investment. That is, hoping this plan worked. Which I definitely wanted!

“See you tonight!” 

That night, the OzDust

The OzDust was more magnificent that I imagined. Music swirled in the air, as crowds huddled around a gleaming dancefloor. Every color of the rainbow, and then some, was fashioned into skirts, suits, and corsets moving in rhythm. 

Boq wore a red velet suit as I dawned blue. Opposites, that somehow end up together.

“(Y/N), you look so stunning,“ Boq grinned his smile lines even up to his eyes, “like a painting or something.” Damn he’s a good actor.

“And you are the most handsome munchkin boy I’ve ever seen.”   

“Just munchkin?”

“Okay fine. Most handsome boy, no superlatives!” I teased bopping his nose. This clearly surprised him, but he quickly went with it. 

“My angel” he leaned in to kiss my cheek. I nearly fainted, the heart palpitations were back with a vengeance. Do it for the bit (Y/N). Do it for the bit. “Am I doing a good job?” 

His whispered words made me remember this is all an act. But he had such a puppy dog smile, like all that mattered was pleasing me. Damn… no Fiyero think unobtainable Fiyero. 

“You’re doing great. But I don’t think we’ve gotten their attention yet. Permission to turn it up a notch? If this is making you uncomfortable though, we can stop.” 

“I’m not as shy as people think I am, not when I’m with you.”

“Well then, let’s dance.”

“Let’s” he reached out his hand. 

The song was upbeat, fluid. Boq took me in his arms and glided me around the dancefloor. I felt like I had wings and was zooming through the clouds. 

“Is this, okay? Am I dancing too fast?” Boq asked. 

“No, you’re perfect.”

“Well then, I’m turning it up.” He laughed, “get ready (Y/N) (L/N), we’re going turbo mode.”

His goofy smile turned to a devilishly handsome grin. He spun and held me to the song perfectly like it was a big, rehearsed dance number. I couldn’t remember the last time I felt so alive, so free. And it was all because of him. Just then, the song turned more jazzy, low, seductive. The notes caressed my ears as I could feel Boq’s hot breath on my cheek.

He dipped me. Something within me snapped, I leaned forward and pressed his lips against mine. Warm honey.  Once I realized what I did, I pulled away, 

“I’m so sorry. I got caught up in the moment.”

“(Y/N), I can’t keep lying to you. I like you, like a lot. I’m sorry if that ruins things but-“

“No. That ruins nothing. I like you, like a lot too.” My heart raced.

“But what about the plan?”

“It was a stupid and crazy plan. I only liked Fiyero because I needed a distraction. I haven’t even talked to him. I like you, this whole time I have.”

“Oh.” Boq blushed. It sent me to heaven.

“But I thought you liked Galinda. So, I didn’t think anything would happen with us.”

“I did. But then you came along and showed me I’m good as I am. You make me so happy.” 

“Boq, you are so sweet.”

“Can I be sweet… as your boyfriend?”

“Yes!” I shot, “please.”

“I’m sorry your plan didn’t work.” he placed a hand on my cheek, "you were so excited about it. It was really cute actually..."

“To be honest, I don’t think Galinda or Fiyero looked our way once. They were too busy with eachother… and themselves. It was a bad plan.”

"Or maybe you were secretly seducing me this whole time and playing mind games to make me jealous." Boq baited.

"Boq, I'm about as dull as brick when it comes to you how would I have found the sense to play mind games?"

"For the record, I was jealous when you wouldn't stop talking about how attractive Fiyero was."

"Now you now how I feel when you wouldn't shut up about Galinda when we first met!"

"It was a phase! A weird, weird phase."

“Well, I’m glad. Because now I have you. And you're stuck with me.” I gave him a light kiss on the cheek, he turned someone even redder.

"If you think I was kind of weird and obsessive about her, you have no idea how much I yapped about you whenever you weren't around."

"My handsome, silly Munchkin boy...."

We danced the rest of the night in each other’s arms, holding on to the joy in our hearts.

[haosweater]

crimson white snow

content: seongjoong x gn! reader, angst, soulmate au, hanahaki au. warnings: profanities, descriptions of throwing up, mention of blood.

summary: when your best friends are each other’s soulmates, how do you tell them that your red string is tied to both of their pinkies?

word count: 4.3k words

note: this initial idea came to me in 2021 and i let it collecting dust until a few days ago lol. i hope you guys enjoy this one!

in a friendship– a trio, specifically, you believed that each person represented either the sun, moon, or stars.

in your case, seonghwa was the sun, hongjoong was the moon, and you were the stars. the three, inseparable friends who loved each other more than anyone else to ever breathe on earth.

but when they all turned sixteen and were blessed with the gift of the sight of their red strings, everything changed.

when seonghwa looked down at his ring finger, candles blown out, he found the red string to be very much shorter than he expected. as his eyes trailed down the string, he looked up at hongjoong, tears brimming in the corner of his eyes.

that’s when you all knew.

hongjoong’s birthday came around, and the sight of his red string connected to seonghwa relieved him. there was a sort of euphoria and satisfaction that filled them both. unspoken feelings that had blossomed into something more were now affirmed by the universe itself.

you, of course, were elated. the two boys you’d considered your best friends for years were soulmates. their souls were intertwined, bound to love each other for eternity. the twinge of jealousy in your heart was quickly ignored as you celebrated their love, congratulating the two.

most, would call it fate.

but your birthday confirmed that whatever god there was had made a mistake. a very horribly, big mistake.

it was snowing.

you remember because hongjoong was flushed when he came in your room. he only turned red– both cheeks and ears, when he was embarrassed or cold.

he sighed, promptly making himself at home. laying on your shoulder, the warmth of his breath tickled your ear. you shivered, your grip on his hand tightening promptly. he didn’t mind. hongjoong liked holding your hands strangely enough.

“i know it’s your birthday,” hongjoong mumbled, snuggling against you. “but you’ll indulge me for a bit, yeah?” he asks as you chuckle.

“of course, joong. anything for you.”

the boy hums in satisfaction, letting out a soft sigh. he shuts his eyes, mumbling about how seonghwa was late because he got delayed at his club, or something along those lines.

you hum in acknowledgement, knowing that your other friend was definitely getting you a cake. you’d overheard the two discussing it a week prior.

the soft footsteps that grew closer alerted you of seonghwa’s arrival. it was funny– while hwa was indeed very quiet, the sound of his socks against your wooden floor was unmistakable.

hongjoong yawned, sitting up. the soft knock you anticipated came as you chuckled. “come in, hwa.”

the sight of seonghwa pouting as he entered made you laugh even harder. “how’d you know it was me?” he asked, carefully balancing the cake box as he closed the door. “it was joong, wasn’t it?”

“hey man, i didn’t say anything,” he raised his hands, proclaiming his innocence.

“you both aren’t that slick, you know,” you mumble, rolling your eyes. seonghwa laughs at your reaction, putting a smile on your face.

“humour us, sweetheart?”

you pretend to contemplate, humming as joong cackled beside you. “hmm, i’ll cut you both some slack,” you announce. hwa rolls his eyes, but the grin on his face speaks volumes.

turning your attention to the box, you watch as seonghwa opens it, taking out the most beautiful cake you had ever seen. “oh my god,” you marvelled at the sight of it.

the heart-shaped cake was pure white, similar to the snow that fluttered down outside. the crimson red icing that decorated he cake made you smile. it was a beautiful cake, an image that would be etched into your memory forever.

“this is beautiful, seonghwa,” you whisper, glancing up at him. “thank you.”

he smiles back, placing a gentle kiss on your forehead. “anything for you sweetheart. we know how much you’ve been waiting for this day.”

you sat in front of your cake, hongjoong and seonghwa across you with the biggest smiles on their face. blowing the candles out, you look down at your hands, filled with excitement. finally, it was your turn to find out who your soulmate was. however, when you look down, you are stunned.

to your complete and utter horror, you see two strings tied around each of your pinkies.

eyes gazing down at the crimson red string, you nearly choke on air when you see one end tied to seonghwa’s pinky, while the other, was neatly wrapped around hongjoong’s.

“what’s wrong?”

seonghwa’s concerned voice snapped you out of your thoughts. you felt sick to your stomach. oh, how cruel the universe was. how cruel fate was.

“i- i… what the fuck?” you whisper harshly, tears brimming in the corner of your eyes. “i don’t have a string,” you lie so easily, straight through your teeth. “i don’t have a soulmate.” you lied so well.

that was the first lie you ever told the two, but there was no guilt in the lie. all you could feel was confusion and anger. nothing else.

hongjoong takes your hands into his with a sad smile. “and that’s completely fine, y/n. we’re always here for you,” he reassures you calmly. seonghwa does the same and you feel like crying even harder as you see your strings tangle.

you relished in their touch, their fingers feel so soft, skin warm against your cold hands. you felt safe in their presence, the comforting aura they let out never failing to make you smile. it was bittersweet.

if only you didn’t detest the sight of the red strings around their pinkies. the crimson red thread, a painful reminder to you that this was a reality you couldn’t escape.

there were always myths about the poor souls that the universe decided to curse: the one’s with no soulmates.

if people with no soulmates were cursed by the universe, how about the one’s with two? how about the one’s whose soulmates were each other’s forever, but not theirs? how about you?

you didn’t know.

so you left.

after graduating, you moved overseas. of course the two were there to wish you goodbye. being friends for thirteen years made it harder for you to leave.

you chuckled as seonghwa engulfed you in a tight hug, his tears soaking into your jacket. “don’t cry,” you whisper, stroking his head as hongjoong holds back his own tears, lips trembling. “i’ll be back before you know it.”

that was the second lie you ever told them, but there was no guilt in the lie. all you could feel was pity and self-hatred. nothing else.

you started a new life for yourself, burying yourself in studies, jobs and everything you could imagine to avoid going home.

despite all that, you never felt satisfied. there was this hole inside your heart that couldn’t be filled with materialistic goods, academic achievements nor work-place success.

there was nothing that could fill that hole seonghwa and hongjoong once occupied in your heart.

another problem had presented itself through all that turmoil, however, and that was the disease of unrequited love everyone so detested.

one would certainly think flowers were a congratulatory gift .

it started as a tightening feeling in your chest. your once light pants turn into desperate gasps for air before a sick, nauseous feeling takes over. a pounding headache, blurry vision, tears brimming in the corner of your eyes before the most sickening feeling begins to build in the pit of your stomach.

it grows and grows, bubbling like a cauldron before exploding, petals flying out of your mouth. elegantly prancing through the air, crimson red blood dripped off the petals, staining the pure white marble floor. the feeling would go on for another half an hour, or even longer. all you knew was that you wanted it to stop.

years passed, and yet, you could never grow accustomed to the wretched, metallic taste that lingered fervently on the tip of your tongue.

lilies and black dahlias now littered your bathroom floor, the once white marble tiles now painted in a mix of white, black, and crimson red.

still, you told nobody. your friends, family, coworkers– none of them knew about what you were going through.

god forbid hongjoong and seonghwa find out.

on a cold winter’s night, you had gotten an unexpected call from the two. five years had passed and not once had you gone back to see them.

guilt haunted you, always hovering around and never truly leaving. you wanted to see them. you wanted so desperately to throw yourself into their arms and never let them go them. if you were to loosen your grip, perhaps they’d slip through the cracks of your grasp and fade into nothingness.

you wanted to keep hongjoong and seonghwa for youself forever, but you were a fucking coward.

your phone rang. you had propped it up against the potted plant (orchids, your favourite) in the middle of your dining table. the plate of pasta in front of you was warm when you clicked your screen to receive their call.

“hi guys, sorry i’ve been so busy, work’s been crazy!” you immediately spew an apology to your friends, twirling the pasta with your fork. their lack of response has you confused and you look up. a loud gasp escapes you, fork clattering against the ceramic plate as it slipped out of your grasp.

“what the fuck?”

seonghwa’s ring finger is adorned with a beautiful sapphire stone, simple yet utterly gorgeous. the grin on both of their faces has you gaping at them, utterly speechless.

“you- you’re?” your gaze switches between the two males. you were so shocked you didn’t even realise seonghwa had bleached his hair. you were so shocked you didn’t even realise the tears that began to roll down your flushed cheeks.

“oh, no, y/n,” seonghwa coos with a frown. “don’t cry, sweetheart,” he whispers. “don’t cry.”

you sob, desperately trying to wipe the tears away. “i’m sorry, oh my god,” you inhale a sharp breath. “i’m so happy for you both– congratulations!” you smile, trying to hold back the building feeling in your chest.

seonghwa’s expression doesn’t change, but his eyes soften. “thank you darling,” he whispers with a sad smile. “you were the first person we thought of telling, y’know?” he chuckles softly.

god, seonghwa looked so beautiful smiling. you always loved how rosy his cheeks were, his eyes scrunched into the crescent moon. seonghwa’s smile was radiant, shining even brighter than the sun itself.

hongjoong takes the phone, eyes twinkling under the night sky. you recognised his apartment’s balcony all too well. “come home, y/n,” he says softly. it’s the most tender you’ve ever heard him. “come home for us please?”

your heart breaks. you’d never heard hongjoong so desperate. he was longing, yearning for you. he was pleading for you to come home– how could you refuse the request of your soulmate?

“of course, joong. anything for you.”

when the call ends, you run to your bathroom. you can feel the rising of petals, the all too familiar pain scratching your throat.

your knees hit the cold, marble flower, head hanging over the toilet bowl as you hurl out petals and vines. they scratch your throat, a permanent reminder of the unrequited love you faced.

the white and black petals scattered across the floor, blood dripping off them. it was a beautifully gruesome scene, like something out of an artistic horror movie.

you slump against the cold wall of your bathroom with a groan, wiping the blood dripping from the corner of your mouth. how you were going to be able to hide this from them? you had no idea.

unfortunately, you still hadn’t one when you walked out your gate.

it was a cold, cold day. you had a sweater on, hoodie layered over it for the extra warmth. palms clammy and sweaty, you gripped your bag tightly. god forbid hongjoong and seonghwa recognise you before you were emotionally and mentally prepared to see them for the first time in six years.

had they grown taller? were they as youthful as they once were? has their smiles stayed the same? had their voices deepened? did they still have the same dreadfully boring style? did they still wear the same cologne that clung to their clothes back then? were the bracelets you made them still sitting on their wrist all so beautifully? had–

“y/n!”

you jump at the shout of your name, looking up in shock. in front of you, just standing a few feet away, were kim hongjoong and park seonghwa.

eyes glistening with surprise, you look at them, voice stuck in the back of your throat. oh god, they looked so beautiful.

hongjoong hadn’t grown much, but he stood with confidence. his dark hair looked soft and silky, eyes bright and filled with twinkling stars. his cheeks stayed plump and full of life, a dusty pink that made you want to kiss them.

apart from seonghwa’s bleached hair, the next most obvious change was his height. he had grown almost a head taller, and yet, the sparkle in his eyes had remained. his cheeks were rosy, pink, plump lips curled into a bright, ethereal smile.

you feel years of emotions come crashing down on you. sadness, regret, pain, guilt— love. you burst into tears, wrapping your arms around the two men (not boys, you had to remind yourself).

“i’m sorry,” you apologise as hongjoong starts to cry, wrapping his arms around you. “i’m sorry joong, i’m sorry,” you buried your face into the crook of his neck, sobbing.

seonghwa comforted you with tears in his eyes, patting your head gently as he whispered sweet nothings to you. it seemed like deja vu to you, the whole scenario. if you hadn’t inhaled that sweet, floral scent that haw always wore that was mixed with the woody, musky scent hongjoong did, you’d think it all a dream.

as snow began to fall outside, the warmth radiating off the bodies of your soulmates made you realise how harsh this winter would be.

harsh it was indeed.

you’re about to pull your hair out before the ceremony begins. chewing at your bottom lip, your eyes dart around the venue, mind racing faster than you can comprehend.

“y/n.”

hongjoong’s voice sounds eerily deeper than you were used to. it sent shivers down your spine which made him laugh. “what’s wrong with you?” he asks in a cheeky manner as you huff.

“don’t blame me for not being used to your voice,” you lament, resting your elbow on his shoulder out of habit. “i still can’t believe how much you’ve changed.”

you look at the man with a grin and take note of the suit he’s wearing. it’s tailored to fit him perfectly, the details on it intricate and beautiful. the embroidered sun and stars, flowers and snowflakes adorned his clothing. you loved how he and seonghwa had gotten both their suits modified to have a more personal touch to them. it was artistic, elegant yet somewhat nostalgic.

the man sighs, glancing up at you. “it has been almost six years since we last saw each other,” he reminds you.

your body stiffens, rigid and filled with guilt. hongjoong notices this and frowns. “i didn’t mean it in a bad way,” he says and you nod.

you knew that. you knew that hongjoong wasn’t holding it against you, but you were holding it against yourself. the file was eating out you inside out, like a parasite clawing at your skin and tearing your flesh from bone.

“hey, y/n,” he says softly, hand reaching out to grab yours. “it’s okay,” he whispers, looking into your eyes with the most soft and genuine smile. “it’s okay.”

you nod again and he pulls you in for a hug. hongjoong’s embrace had always felt so safe. you feel yourself melt into it, and if you had closed your eyes, the both of you would’ve been sixteen all over again.

“i love you, y/n,” hongjoong whispers as your eyes widen with surprise. hongjoong had never told you that before. “never forget that,” he pulls away with a wink before bidding you goodbye and going to greet his coworkers.

you stood there, still stunned by his words. your heart was screaming, yelling at you for being so foolish as to not have said it back. however, ‘i am so painfully and desperately in love with you, kim hongjoong’ seemed a bit hard to shout back in the setting you were currently in.

“now, what on earth could you be thinking about right this moment that isn’t related to your two boyfriends?”

you’re snapped out of your thoughts by a warm, teasing voice. “yunho,” you smile at the blonde man who’s dressed nicely in a suit. “glad you could make it,” you lean in and hug him tightly. “haven’t seen you since high school.”

he chuckles. “yeah, you left right after graduation– i couldn’t make it to see you off,” he feigns a frown as you laugh, slapping his shoulder. “and please, as if hongjoong would let me live it down if i didn’t come,” you can’t help but roll your eyes at the oh-so-true statement. “you okay?”

“huh?” you look at him confused. “why wouldn’t i be okay?”

yunho shrugs. before you can question him further, you are distracted by yeosang’s mint hair. he walks over with a smile, waving at you. “what’s with that look on your face?”

you huff. “yunho asked me if i was okay and won’t tell me why he suspects otherwise,” you grumble as yeosang’s eyes widen. he shoots the taller male a flare and you stare at him in shock. “is there something i should be worried about?”

yeosang sighs. “well,” he begins, pausing as he pondered silently. “you have to promise not to take this badly,” he warns as yunho sends him a worried look. you nod slowly, anxiety filling you like water gushing into an empty bottle.

“you see, back when we were all in high school,” he begins hesitantly. “we all thought you had a crush on either joong or hwa,” he says as you feel your heart sink into the out of your stomach. “but we didn’t speculate, of course.”

you brush it off with a scoff. “me? like them?” you fake a laugh. “never. they…” you train off, looking at hongjoong who’s smiling from ear to ear, cheeks a rosy pink.

it’s oddly bittersweet to see the boy you once bickered with in elementary school now getting married to the boy that snuck jellies to you in class. turning back, you give yeosang a sad smile. “they’re made for each other.”

after greeting the rest of your old friends (and stopping wooyoung and san from crying before the wedding actually started), you leave the garden to visit seonghwa in his private suite.

one of seonghwa’s many request was for you to walk him down the aisle. it was sickening masochistic for you to accept the proposition, now that you thought about it. then again, who were you to back out now?

one, two, three knocks.

“come in,” seonghwa’s silky smooth and sweet voice fills your ears. you tap your keycard, opening the door gently. “hello sweetheart.”

you feel your cheeks warm up, heart fluttering. “hey, hwa,” you whisper, taking in how gorgeous he looked. adorned in a white suit, flowers, clouds, the moon and stars embroidered on the sleeves, the inner mesh material iridescent. “you’re breathtaking. like an angel.”

seonghwa’s cheek turn a darker shade of pink as he clears his throat. “thank you,” he whispers as you giggle, holding his hands. your thumbs traced his knuckles, admiring how slim and long his fingers were. “we missed you so much, y’know?”

you didn’t dare look up and remained silent. “we didn’t know how to go on with life as usual without you by our side,” he hummed with a small smile. “but i don’t care about all that now. i’m just glad you decided to come home.”

home.

you felt the pit of your stomach churn (you were certain it was your heart). to you, hongjoong and seonghwa were home. no matter how long you stayed in your chic studio apartment overseas, it never felt right.

hongjoong and seonghwa’s embrace did. it felt warm, comforting, lovely. you had to promise yourself to not get too attached to it.

“i’m sorry,” is all you can find yourself saying and thinking. “i’m sorry, hwa.”

seonghwa hushes you, his fingers brushing against your skin ever-so gently. he tucks your hair behind your ear with a smile. “it’s okay, y/n,” he leans forward, resting his forehead against yours. “you’re here now. that’s what matters.”

you wrap your arms around the blonde, tears threatening to spill at any moment. “i love you both so much,” you confess (unbeknownst to him). “i love you, park seonghwa and i am so happy for you.”

he smiles, hugging you back as a tear slips down his cheek slowly. “i love you too, y/n. i love you so much.”

relishing in the moment, you’re determined to make sure their wedding was perfect. you were going to push aside all personal feelings, ignore all the pain and sadness, and make sure that seonghwa and hongjoong had the best day of their life.

you were certain that nothing was going to go wrong that day.

oh, how wrong you were.

“i’m sorry, i can’t do this.”

seonghwa’s voice is soft, but audible. your head snaps up so fast, your neck could’ve broken. to be honest, you weren’t particularly paying attention to whatever the officiant was saying, assuming that both men were going to say ‘yes’ immediately.

you furrowed your brows in confusion, the gasps around you loud. lifting your head to look at the man, you find that he’s already looking at you.

“what are you doing?” you mouth, gasping softly at the sight of tears rolling down the blonde’s cheeks. “don’t cry,” you whisper, frowning at the male.

seonghwa turns his attention back to hongjoong, pain and regret in his eyes. “i can’t lie to you, joong. i can’t lie to you and say that i love only you.”

a sinking, disgusting feeling bubbles in your chest as you gripped your forearm tightly. the look on hongjoong’s face tears you down and rips you apart. he looked betrayed, hurt, but somewhere hidden in his eyes, there was a sort of relief.

you didn’t like this.

you didn’t like this at all.

seonghwa turns to look at you and your heart instantly drops. “i can’t lie to you, joong, and say that i’m not still in love with y/n as well.”

the guests gasp in shock once again, eyes wide as they stared at the three of you. an interestingly dramatic turn of events, one would say.

but not for you. the shock on your face couldn’t have been more evident. it felt like your heart had stopped beating and instead froze in time.

had the bleach sunk too deep into his skull? what was he thinking? why was he revealing this now? when did seonghwa realised he felt this way? what the hell was he thinking? had park seonghwa really just said that?

“hwa…” hongjoong looks at him in pain, holding onto seonghwa’s hands tightly. “i can’t lie to you and say that i’m not in love with y/n either.”

with only two sentences, you felt as if your whole world had come crashing down. you stare at the two boys, tears pooling at the corner of your eyes.

“oh my god!”

san and wooyoung’s voices erupted from the crowd as they point towards the two grooms. following their gaze, you gasp at the now visible strings tied around their pinkies.

your gaze followed the strings (as did everyone else’s) and you were utterly horrified to see them tied to your ring finger.

finally, your soulmate strings could be seen.

looking up at your two best friends, shaking, you see the sadness, betrayal and relief written all over their faces. truth be told, it was hard to through a blurry vision. tears streamed down your cheeks, fear gripping you by the throat.

hongjoong stares at you with pain in his eyes, tears streaming down his cheeks. “we’re your soulmates?”

seonghwa is crying. “and you didn’t tell us? how long have you known?”

you stare at them, words stuck in your throat, refusing to come out.

“did you lie to us on your birthday?” seonghwa seems to come to the realisation. “is this why you chose to lie to us both?” he asked softly, pointing at the two strings. you could only nod.

“is this why you left?” hongjoong seems to not even want to believe his words. “is this why you never came back to visit?”

you nod again.

“why, y/n? why didn’t you tell us?”

you stare at the two men in silence. your voice was stuck in your throat, refusing to come out. a metallic taste filled your mouth and you knew what was coming.

“i—”

and before you could speak, petals flew out of your mouth, blood dripping down your chin as you look up at the two boys.

everyone gasped, staring at the flowers on the ground. lilies and black dahlias soaked in your blood. the very flowers that adorned the wedding venue– hongjoong and seonghwa’s favourites.

you look at your best friends, taking in their looks of pure horror. tears streamed down their cheeks, mouths agape. they’re paralysed in shock.

forcing a smile, you look at them. all the memories began to flood back as your vision grew spotty, your body slowly giving up on you.

god, even when death was knocking on your door, seonghwa and hongjoong still looked angelic.

“i’m sorry.”

and so on this cold, hauntingly beautiful day, crimson red blood soaked into pure white snow: a permanent reminder of the pain of unrequited love.

[deconstructthesoup]

What's been in my head lately is a Fantasy High pirate AU. Not a Leviathan AU, an actual pirate AU.

Bear with me---

Adaine is a bookish princess of a kingdom by the sea, and while she has everything from an outsider's perspective, she's neglected by her parents as the second child and is incredibly lonely. Her only real friend is Kristen, who's a representative of the church of Helio and is kind of Adaine's unofficial lady-in-waiting, and both of them are fairly sheltered... until one fateful day, while the two are enjoying a small day of freedom, they get captured by a motley crew of pirates.

Fabian is the captain and the son of the fabled Old Bill, and he's been making his own mark on the seven seas via sheer charisma and chaos. He's trying to build up a reputation of being a ruthless thief and murderer like his father was, but it's pretty plain to see that he cares a lot more than he lets on... like, for instance, upon realizing that Adaine's parents don't care enough about her to pay for ransom, he immediately offers her a spot on his crew. And once Kristen has a very public crisis of faith, she's granted a spot, too.

The other members of Fabian's crew are as follows:

Riz, his first mate and best friend. He's a son of two prolific spies from the goblin kingdom, and he initially wanted to take down the vast network of pirates across the world, but quickly changed gears once he realized that working for the monarchy was a lot more morally corrupt. He kind of acts as the voice of reason, while simultaneously being one of the most feral members of the crew.

Ragh, the ship's chef and the other first mate---Fabian couldn't decide between him and Riz. His mom used to be a pretty prolific pirate herself, and he and Fabian have known each other since they were kids... and, yeah, their relationship has changed from "best friends forever" to "work husbands" over the years. They have some good times.

Gorgug, the ship's resident gunner. He grew up in a family of blacksmiths, couldn't find a lot of honest work, and eventually got a steady position on Fabian's ship. He's happy to be here, he's happy to show off the fact that he's a beast in combat situations, and he's one of the most technically savvy members of the crew. Also, he's a surprisingly good listener.

Fig, the musician and "dark sorceress" of the ship. She used to be a traveling singer-slash-songwriter and used an elven disguise to blend in, but eventually decided "fuck it" and took on her true form as a free-spirited tiefling pirate who kicks ass, takes names, and curses anybody who badmouths her. She's great.

Tracker, the ship's surgeon. She was raised in the church of Helio before being bitten by a werewolf, after which she promptly left to learn under her uncle, who was a prolific pirate himself before he retired. Nowadays, she's learned the secrets of both witchcraft and medicine and made a name for herself as a skilled healer and fighter, and is pretty happy where she is.

Gertie, the ship's other chef and resident wildlife expert. She's definitely one of the most friendly members of the crew, and even though she butts heads with Fabian a lot, she's a pretty core part of the crew. And yeah, between her and Tracker, Kristen is definitely getting a big lesbian awakening.

There is, of course, still a version of Leviathan out there, and Ayda still lives there as a librarian... which is the reason why the crew regularly makes stops there, though getting more supplies is also a plus. Garthy is also there, along with Sandralynn and Jawbone (and Hallariel and Gilear, much to Fabian's displeasure). The Seven are also around---they're a fierce crew of pirates who have a bit of a friendly rivalry with Fabian's crew, though it's never escalated into outright battle.

[mybutcheredtongue]

I'll Love You 'til the Grass Around My Gravestone is Deceased

Harry Potter timeline Sirius Black x fem!reader

CHAPTER TWO (see full series list here)

"'Sup, Moony."

You step into the tiny cottage Remus Lupin inhabits, smiling at him.

"Hello."

There's a keen scent of lavender in the home. Remus has always kept the place well and tidy. His tidiness has always been something you've envied. However, you know well that there's a small basement locked away beneath the cottage that's considerably less tidy, because werewolf Remus is not as orderly as normal Remus.

It'll be a few weeks until his next transformation. You've always made sure to plan your days together around the cycle. Sometimes you wish people would make their plans around your cycle too, but that's besides the point.

"Ready?" You ask and he nods, smoothing down the front of his sweater, picking at a small ball that had formed on it.

"Yes, let me just grab some change, I'll be right back," he says, skipping off to another room.

You sigh gently, studying a photo on the wall. It was a photo James had took of yourself and Remus, sitting on the common room couch reading a book together, and then promptly getting into an argument because Remus flipped the page too fast for you. You're both in fits of laughter.

Remus returns, coins jingling in the pocket of his trousers and you turn back, smiling. "Where'd you get that photo? It wasn't here last time."

"Found it in one of my old textbooks," he replies.

You give him an amused but skeptical look. "What were you doing looking through your old textbooks?"

"Just a bit of light reading."

You snort, placing your hand on the back of his shoulder blade and gently pushing him through the door. "Light reading."

⁠✧⁠*⁠。✧⁠*⁠。

"How are you?" Remus asks as the two of you sit down at a small, circular table in a quaint cafe not far from his cottage.

For such a small cafe, it's quite busy. Small groups chat around the tables, cutlery clinking against plates and the cash register rattling every once in a while.

You shrug your satchel off your shoulder, dropping it to the ground with a gentle thud. "Yeah, I'm alright. How 'bout you?"

A waiter wanders up to your table, flipping open his small notebook and nodding at the two of you. "Now, what can I get for you?"

"A pot of tea for me, please," you say.

"Can you get me a cup too? And, uh, some chocolate."

The waiter nods and hurries off, leaving you to level with Remus' awaiting eyes. He doesn't say anything and you widen yours in question.

"What, Moony? You look like you're dying to say something."

Remus raises his eyebrows at you. He says your name gently. "Talking helps. You know that."

You sigh, drumming your fingers on the table, looking away. "Yeah, alright, fine. Can't say I'm doing all that well."

Remus says nothing, silently imploring you to continue.

"It's just...Harry, he's...it's just hard to...I don't..."

"I know."

You swallow hard. "Spittin' image, the spittin' fucking image of him. I'm almost half expecting Harry to turn around and tell me to 'go shag Sirius'."

You laugh dryly. The humour is lost on you when your mind thinks of Sirius.

Remus chuckles gently, if not with an added tension to his jaw. You're aware of his feelings on the matter. Remus doesn't hold the same confidence in Sirius that you do, he's always stipulated that he would need hard evidence ro prove his innocence before he believes it.

Any mention of Sirius tends to remind Remus of what he considers to be 'bad believing'. He thinks it's bad for your health to not move on.

He's probably right.

"Yes, well, that was one of James's favourite phrases."

"And — and — that troll I mentioned? Yeah, Harry defeated it. Along with the help of two friends, of course..." a smile lifts your face. "He's got a good heart. As good as his parents. I'm glad the Dursleys didn't take that away from him."

The waiter arrives down with your pot of tea, the porcelain clanking as he places it on the table. You smile and utter your thanks and he hurries off again.

"It's just tough, you know? I mean, my own godson, and I can't even talk to him properly?" You say. "I know Dumbledore's right, his judgement is always right, but still..."

"I would feel the exact same if I were in your place. He is, after all, the closest thing we could have to James and Lily." Remus takes a sip from his tea, wincing, before glancing around himself at the muggles sitting around you.

He pulls the cup down beneath the table and secretively pulls out his wand, muttering a quiet spell under his breath to cool it. He sips again, nodding. "I miss them too. The autumn and winter months tend to be the hardest."

There's a small silence between the two of you and you sigh, stretching your arms out behind your head. "Look, enough about all that. How's the job hunt going?"

Remus groans. "Horrendous."

You bring your cup to your mouth, eyeing him over the rim. "Hogwarts is always looking, you know. I'm sure Dumbledore'd be happy to take you on."

He raises his eyebrows unenthusiastically at you. "And what could I possibly teach?"

"Anything! You're a smart bloke, y'know," you reply. "Charms? You've always been great at that!"

Remus shakes his head in amusement.

"I'm being serious, you know! You'd be a great teacher. Ooh, maybe you could even be my assistant!"

Remus chuckles. "That would be torturous."

"Oh, shut up," you scoff, laughing. "Seriously though, consider it. You'd be brilliant. And I'd actually have someone my own age at work."

"It can't be that bad."

"It is! Severus is the only one, and we both know how much he hates me," you tell him. "I mean, everyone's lovely and all, and I do occasionally have tea with McGonagall, but she was my teacher! Can't fully relax around her, if I'm honest. And Dumbledore can be a bit barmy at times."

"Barmy?"

"Just a bit. Tends to get a bit distracted during conversations."

Remus just laughs, and you feel certain worries lift from your shoulders.

He's right.

Talking does help.

✧⁠*⁠。✧⁠*⁠。

Later, you and Remus part ways. He walks down the road towards his cottage and you spin on your heel, checking the street before Disapparating.

You land in an alleyway, stumbling on your feet before steadying yourself. You wince, trying not to focus on the turning of your stomach. You breathe in, before stepping out and onto a street in London. In front of you is the window to an abandoned department store. The sign above reads 'Purge & Dowse Ltd', though the paint is flaking and faded.

You sidle up to the ugliest mannequin there, wearing a wretched green pinafore dress, and whisper, "I'm here to visit the Longbottoms."

You watch as the mannequin nods and beckons you forward. You glance around to make sure the coast is clear before stepping through the glass.

You breathe in the clinically clean air of St. Mungo's Hospital for Magical Maladies, watching as nurses and visitors bustle about. It's not long before you've made your way up to the Janus Thickey Ward for spell damage and are seating yourself down on a rickety stool between Alice and Frank Longbottom.

You sigh, gently taking Alice's hand in yours. "Hello, lovely."

Alice's face is no longer the healthy, bright face you used to know. It's now sallow and sunken, dark bags dragging under her eyes. Her clipped hair, which you remember her cutting during the war to keep it low-maintenance, is missing tufts in certain spots and clearly hasn't been cut in a while.

She rises at the sound of your voice, sitting up in her bed and looking about in confusion. She turns her eyes to you, but she's not really looking at you. It feels like she's looking through you, unfocused.

"How are you today?"

Alice blinks before nodding slowly a few seconds later, a blank expression on her face.

"Brilliant."

This is often how your 'conversations' with Alice go. She doesn't know what's going on at all. It's a cruel living.

Still, it feels good to visit. Part of you feels that if you keep returning to these two, they might gain some of their former sanity and health.

"Well, I'm good. Your young lad has started at Hogwarts, though I'm sure Augusta's told you that already." You turn your head to Frank, who is also sitting up but dreamily staring off at a potted plant in the far corner of the room. "Did you hear that, Frank? Neville has started at Hogwarts."

Frank blinks at you, then looks back at the potted plant, muttering something incomprehensible to himself.

"Frank?"

"N...Ne — vuh," Alice utters slowly with great effort.

You turn and smile encouragingly at her. "Nev, yes. Little Neville. Such a sweet boy, you two. You'd be so proud of him, being placed in Gryffindor! He's clearly as brave as you two!"

Silence. You look down at Alice's hand in yours, and gently pat the top lovingly.

"I talked to Remus today. We both miss you very much."

Still no response. Alice has now fixated on your hands and you can practically see the cogs slowly turning in her mind as she works to...think.

You've read plenty of articles on the Cruciatus Curse, looking for anything that might help your friends, but nothing ever comes up. You have found that some healers believe that the state that most victims end up in, the one that Alice and Frank are currently in, is like dreaming. They feel like they're in a dream. Not entirely in control of anything, especially their mind.

A healer walks up to Alice, a potion bottle in her hand, full of vile-looking yellow liquid. She notices you and gives you a sympathetic smile.

"Lovely to see you, professor!" She greets brightly and you smile in response. She turns to Alice, laying a gentle hand on her shoulder. "Have you seen your visitor, Alice? Isn't it nice to get visitors?"

Alice doesn't say anything.

You sigh, stepping off the rickety stool and sliding your satchel up over your shoulder again. "I'll get going, Alice," you say to her. You nod at her husband, "Frank. Can't be missing dinner."

"Here, drink this, Alice," the healer says softly and raises the bottle to Alice's lips, who thankfully parts her lips without objection and the healer tips the contents down her throat. She turns to you. "Thank you for visiting. It may not look it, but it does wonders for them."

You nod in understanding. "I hope so. Thank you for taking care of them so well. I'm sure I'll be 'round again soon enough."

She smiles and you take your leave, giving Alice and Frank one last departing look as you exit the ward.

The healer is giving Frank the same potion and Alice has already fallen asleep and you bite your lip, sighing. At least she's asleep now.

Peaceful.

🤧

✧*⁠。✧*⁠。

->-> read chapter three here!

→ all kinds of interaction appreciated ♡

[burning-academia-if]

Hello and welcome to me yapping about BA. I know this is late, but better late than never! (I have been sick since the end of November, so I also didn't get anything done during December fasdfja). This is pretty long, and I mostly wrote it for myself, since I like giving myself something to look back on in the future + reflect on my work. Feel free to skip this, especially because it is over 2k words LMAO

Brief content warning, there will be a very brief mentioning of health at the end. It won't go in to any detail since it is personal, but it is present! There will be a warning right before I talk about it, but I just wanted to give a head's up! Now onwards, to my 2024 look back: Burning Academia edition.

But first 14 years ago

It's the summer of 2011 (or 2010), and you've just discovered the Persona series for the first time. One day, at the mall, you see a copy of Persona 3 Portable on the shelf in the store, and you beg your very Christian mother to buy it for you, watching as she gives a very hard stare at the blatant "M" rating on the case. By some miracle, you manage to convince her to buy it for you, and then proceed to binge and finish the game in 5 days. Your mom promptly takes away your PSP, which is fair enough in hindsight. You'd played at least ten hours of it each day.

It's the summer of 2011 (or 2010, my memory is Bad), and you also discovered flash dating sims on DeviantArt, which also led to your discovery of otome games in general. Both this and P3P merge together into a story idea. One that you note down in a document full of other story ideas. The notes look like this:

Back then, thirteen year old me imagined an otome game mixed with the classic turn based RPG combat system, but made at a much smaller scale. There were 7 boys, and whoever you romanced changed what the final boss looked like.

It was also centered in a high school, and MC was a lot more of a blank slate sort of character, with no real background. They just happened to find a Weird Book at their private high school and got dragged into nonsense. There were still Wraiths (originally called Night Specters) who you fought during the three month span of the game. Said Night Specters were also controlled by the Resident Voice, who was not a love interest in the original.

Baby Em daydreamed about this idea a lot, for most of summer and throughout eight grade honestly. But it fell to the wayside for things I could actually do (basically, just my writing) and that was pretty much the end of that.

Until it wasn't

Flash forward to 2023, where I was having a rough time and unemployed and to give myself joy I went back through a lot of old files on my Google Drive. I'm not really someone that's ever been ashamed of my creative work, and questionable stories and art I drew are things I'm more fond of than anything. When I stumbled upon this, my brain latched on to it, so I took it, and ripped out it's guts to create the current version of Burning Academia.

Rook and Beck are the only "original" ROs from all that time ago. But even then, they've been changed A Lot, to the point where the two of them are completely different from what they used to be. Rhea was always a character (originally named Wish), who acted as the Best Friend/Guide for MC. She also completely changed to the point of being unrecognizable to the original. And Zoe was a random NPC who worked at the library. I took them, reworked them, and decided on these four as the love interests. Four was a perfectly manageable number, and BA had also changed a lot storywise that romance wasn't even the point anymore.

Of course, there clearly isn't four ROs LMAO

So, the Voice. They were also in the OG as the Villain controlling the Specters and manipulating your heart as a means to get whatever they were after. I'll be honest, I don't remember what they were originally after. But I've always liked villains whose connection to the hero is one where they dig their claws deep into them. It's how I got the idea of making them essentially 'haunt' MC. Then, the more I developed that, the more it just made sense for them to be an LI to me. The reason they're the only gender selectable one is because they're the one most reflective of MC (and the one who would change the least regardless of gender). And then that was it! We had five, I was done.

Which leads to Lars, I guess.

He ended up becoming a RO at the last minute, as in, a week before the launch of the blog last minute. He was kind of just this antagonist asshole whose primary job was to make sure you didn't do anything too stupid and who hated your guts. I'm going to be honest, I'm not that big of a fan of the asshole archetype, especially as a romance option. But then I got to chapter 5 in the outline of the story and it objectively just made sense. I can't say why because of spoilers, but I think I've mentioned all the ROs and MC are interconnected with each other and are meant to reflect certain aspects of each other in some way. With Lars, it would have felt off to me not to add him in, considering the type of character he'd grown into. So, with a sense of reluctance, I threw him in.

I think Lars is the funniest RO to me, because there was a point in time where he was the most popular on the blog, and I was like 'woah, him.' asldfakjldfjka. Over the past year, he's definitely grown on me in ways I haven't expected, and I think I almost find his awfulness endearing somehow. (To be honest, I think writing the scene of punching him in the face did wonders for my own perception of him).

As for the story changes, this clearly isn't set in a private boarding school ft teens. The original idea was just Persona 3 Portable all over again, because 13 year old me had a problem (I would proceed to replay the game over a dozen times over the years, so I still have a problem). And while I love the themes in P3P, I also feel like some of the things I wanted to write about just made a lot more sense with people within the college age range. I also decided to tie it in to a long standing world of mine, so that way I already had a solid basis of world building and lore. Placing it in what I dub the 'World of Fairytales' really anchored the story in my brain. I looked at all the other stories I'd written or developed that took place here, and I realized I'd yet to write one about death. And that's the focal point of BA:

It's a fairytale about death.

The Reception

I'm going to be honest, when I released BA I just expected it to get the same reception as anything else I'd written up to this point. I think when the demo dropped back in October 2023, I'd released two games, a game demo, and I think my novella and short story collection were out at the time. I'm terrible at marketing myself because I'd much rather vibe and make things than have to talk about it online, which is definitely part of the reason most of my work didn't even hit five hundred plays, save for one which had hit a thousand at that point. But you know, that does make it easy to keep making things when you don't feel like you have a bunch of eyes watching. (At least, for me. I know a lot of creatives feel the weight of loneliness of creation, especially when you pour so much into something only for no one to pick it up. I personally tend to release things on a whim though lol there's plenty of finished works I have laying around that I have no intention on sharing.)

Anyway, I thought Burning Academia was going to be much the same. So imagine my surprise when I post the intro post and I got eight hundred followers in a week.

My immediate thought was "I'm deleting the blog." After a year of making things no one paid attention to, eight hundred followers in a week for something was an overwhelming jump. At the time I'm writing this, we have apparently just crossed two thousand followers(???), which again, I was not expecting lol

I've been reading IFs for years now, dating back to about 2015. I was aware of the general community and vibes, although I wasn't fully in the community and just followed authors I liked. Still, I didn't realize how quick word gets around for a new IF. Especially when all I had was an intro post. Granted, I'd at least already had most of the prologue written and just needed to figure out Twine to code it in, so there was a sense of relief there that I wouldn't keep people waiting. But I did genuinely want to close up shop as quickly as I started.

Part of me is still a bit surprised I'm at where I'm at. I don't really care about numbers, be it mine or others, but I think at this point I'm closer to a mid sized author(?), which I can't comprehend. BA is more of a vibes story, with heavy themes that aren't for everyone. I also know there are certain aspects of BA that just aren't appealing to the overall IF community (it not really focusing much on romance, or the RO options being what they are, or just how bleak the first few chapters are).

I don't necessarily think it's like a niche idea, since it's just a fantasy dark academia, but I just assumed some of the details would make BA not noticed.

Anyway, clearly I'm normal about it now and my blog still exists. I do think if I knew where I'd land at, I might have waited longer to post everything, so I had a bit of backlog and more for people to play in the long run and it would have felt like a shorter wait on the player side. But also, in my defense, I did not expect 2024 to go the way it did.

What I wanted to achieve vs what I actually achieved

So, I wanted to have chapter 3 done before the end of 2024, and maybe even have chapter 4 started. It was a perfectly reasonable goal for me, in any other year where my body was better at being a body. I won't go into detail with health since I know it's a heavy topic for some, but I will briefly mention it since it was a major component to my creative output. Just skip the next paragraph if you don't feel like reading.

//

I got sick pretty much every month in 2024, with multiple of them being pretty bad infections. The second half of the year was a lot worse than the first half of the year, and that's why if it seems like everything slowed down after June/July, it's because of that. From November to now, I've been sick to varying degrees. It's why I did nothing in December because I spent it split between working still, the holidays, renewing various certifications for work, and trying to get some degree of rest between it all. My sister in law is a nurse, and she said I probably have an auto immune deficiency. Whether it's that or not, I'm going to get some tests done, and hopefully 2025 is a better year for me health wise!

//

Of course, I'm not upset with myself. Perhaps a little annoyed because I could have hit the goal I wanted if I hadn't been feeling awful for so much of the year, but I'm not annoyed with myself. Just the circumstances. I'll always be the type of person to take care of myself instead of forcing myself to do anything. Especially with something like this, which would just last to potential burn out.

So, I released 2 chapters of BA, a handful of the RO backstories, and a little short about MC's sister Marlowe. Including the unreleased chapter 3, I managed to write over 150k last year for BA. Which is a pretty solid number, honestly.

Depending on how life goes, I'll be aiming for up to chapter 4 this year. It'll also be a shorter(?) chapter than 3, or at least a little more manageable since chapter 3 just ended up having a decent chunk of branching. I won't give any estimates for chapter 3 since when I did, I missed all of them LMAO It'll release when it's ready, and I'll be chipping away at it during the times I feel alright.

Final Thoughts

This is already pretty long, so I'll bring it to a close here. If you read this far, thank you for listening to my yapping. And also just thank you to anyone whose played BA and decided to follow along for the ride!! I love BA a lot, and its both very fun and amazing and weird to see others enjoy it with me. The fact I've gotten so many asks, or fanart (please know if you drew fanart, it has been imprinted in my brain forever and also saved in a little folder on my desktop lol) is still a little surreal. So uh yeah, thanks for being here.

For my last trick, since you made it this far you can have an assortment of mindless doodles I have made of BA in questionable quality because I'm bad at photographing my art LOL

(Some of the few digital art doodles I haven't shown. Ft. mirrored Rooks and an unfinished comic page of Rhea)

The Rook pages

The scribbles ft Beck and Lars

The kinda mirrors ft Beck and Rhea

Aaaand that is all because I hit file limit (sorryyyy to Zoe I think I've already shared all the doodles of them I liked throughout the year sjsjsk)

[dreadfulgentleman]

what's the story behind knowing & living with the director of meet the robinsons

Time for a long story. I cannot shorten it.

In 2014-2015, I was miserable. I was working at WDW in FL at the time and going through the worst depression of my life. Everything bad that could have happened to me seemed to hit all at once. Losing my fiancee, losing housing, dealing with significant trans-related dysphoria, having work-related issues, having complications with unsupportive relatives, etc. The only thing keeping me going was the movie "Meet the Robinsons". More specifically, it was the character Bowler Hat Guy and the 'keep moving forward' quote that provided a crutch for me as I hung onto life by a single thread. Things came to a head when I thought seriously of taking my own life. I remember being in that moment, going through all the questions in my head of what would happen if I made that choice: What would happen to my stuff? What would my family think? What would happen at work? None of the answers to those questions mattered to me at all. It wasn't until I arrived at the very last question I asked myself that something changed. I asked myself, "If I could choose, what would I put on my tombstone?" Immediately my mind said, "Well, Keep Moving Forward, of course." But no sooner had I said that did I realize the irony of those words. How could I put those words on my tombstone and yet also take my own life? It made no sense. I thought, "What would the director think if I did that?" So I made the decision to put the knife down.

Several months later, I was dressed as Bowler Hat Guy to a Halloween party at Magic Kingdom. Someone came up to me very excitedly explaining that they were so happy to find someone who knew what MTR was. We laughed together and quoted the movie to each other and generally had a silly interaction based on fandom-sharing. Until suddenly she came right up close to me and said, "No, you don't understand, my cousin is the one who directed that movie." Well, of course, I freaked out. Immediately I clasped my hands against her shoulders and told her he and that movie had literally saved my life. I begged her to put me in contact with him in order to thank him directly. She said she absolutely would. Several days later and sure enough, there's the director in my inbox talking to me. I was starstruck. I told him why Meet the Robinsons was so important to me--how it had literally saved my life. As it turned out, he and his family were going to be visiting WDW the following month so he offered to meet up at a starbucks to chat. I was over the moon.

That starbucks meeting was three hours long. The entire time was chatting about how the movie was made, how he felt about it, how I felt about it, etc. I'll never forget that the first thing I asked him was, "What's BHG drinking in the playtime planet cup?" to which Steve replied, "What do YOU think is in the cup?" When I told him I had always imagined it was chocolate milk, he said, "Well, then, I guess it's chocolate milk." It was both a kind and humble thing to say as well as frustrating because that meant there was no canon answer (Ha!).

We inevitably left starbucks that day but remained friends on social media. A few days later was Thanksgiving. Steve's wife Heather found out that I was going to be alone that day so she told Steve they should both go out to dinner with me. So I was promptly invited to a pizza place with just the both of them. That dinner ended up being five hours long--I suppose we just had that good of a time! I was awestruck by their generosity and kindness. They felt like the real Robinsons, being automatically welcoming, encouraging, and supportive. I felt inspired by them and I was overjoyed that they had taken the time out of their vacation to hang out. When I walked out to the parking lot with them, feeling awed and humbled by how incredibly nice these two people were, Heather said something to me that I'll never forget. They both knew by now how many terrible things had occurred in my life up until then. They knew how much the movie meant to me. Heather said, "Would you like to be an Anderson?" Naturally, I cried on the spot and said yes.

The question at the time had simply meant to be one of general support and encouragement. But little did we know what would be coming next.

I was invited out to their house the following spring. It was only meant to be a week-long visit to see what California was like (I had never been before). Well, we were having such a good time that I extended my trip another week....... and then another....... and then suddenly the question was asked: "Would you like to just move in?"

So I did. I packed up all my stuff in FL and drove my car to CA just to be in their tiny guest room. A fresh restart in life. I legally changed my middle name to "Yagoobian" and we often joke that the five hour pizza dinner on Thanksgiving was my adoption interview. (Though for clarity sake, I'm on good terms with my actual relatives and this situation isn't meant to be a literal adoption scenario. My blood family and the "Robinsons" get along very well)

We are now in a bigger house where I have my own upstairs apartment and life is extremely akin to a real life version of The Robinson household. We're all artists so Steve is still working on movies, Heather sews and sometimes works on costumes/cosplay with me, I make short films (that sometimes Steve and Heather both help me with), and we thoroughly enjoy picking apart movies that we all watch together. We most certainly discuss MTR regularly and really enjoy looking at fanart or reading headcanons online (although it's mostly Heather and I, especially on tumblr. Steve unfortunately cannot be told most headcanon things for legal reasons, but we show him fanart all the time). I'm calling her out right now so you can ask her Robinson things if you'd like :P -- @bowler-hat-gal

This scenario sounds stranger than fiction, I know. And it is. I would never have guessed I would be where I am now. I often feel like I'm in the timeline where BHG had taken up the offer to live in the Robinson Household, being given the chance to restart his life and be happy. And I AM happy. I'm really glad to have found the place that feels like home.

All I can say is I'm so glad I put down that knife.

I'm so glad I chose to Keep Moving Forward.

[maple-the-awesome]

Friend or Foe || Part 2/3

Part 1 || Part 3

Pairings: Time, Wind, Wild x GN Reader

Overview: Link visits an alternate world without its hero and, more importantly, a version of you without your Link. Unfortunately, it seems even the smallest of details can lead to disastrous results. In spirt of Halloween, I've decided to do a little evil prompt because none of the Links have enough emotional damage yet😈

Zelda Masterlist 💙Fandom Masterlist

Time may not remember everything that has occurred over his many, long adventures, but he does remember the day you met. Only children then, you both made an innocent promise to marry once adults. Now, Time may be a lot of things, but he has always been a man of his word. How could he not be when presented the perfect chance to spend the rest of his life with his childhood crush? You’re the one person he can trust with his every secret - the reward at the end of every troubling journey. He lives to see your joy and dies to see your sorrow, even when it isn't exactly 'your' sorrow...

It's difficult business keeping track of eight young boys and men, especially when they're all cursed with the same adventurous spirits that are easily distracted. Of course they’ve managed to disappear here. He can only blame himself for not having questioned their silence sooner, although he’d be lying to say he doesn’t feel disappointed, notably with the older boys, Twilight and Warrior, who are usually more responsible than to simply wander off without a word of explanation. Alas, even they’re nowhere to be seen, his only hint of other life nearby being a giggle that echoes off the vast number of gigantic trees.

"My, my. One more left I see?" Time leaps back, hand already on his sword when he hears the voice, “Oooh, and look at you! So handsome! So fierce! I’m digging the scar - it makes you look so tough. And those muscles, too! You seem like you would really know how to -”

“- Where are you?!” Time demands, getting his answer promptly when a figure swings down from a branch mere feet away from his face.

“Wow! You’re even hotter up closer!”

Time's eyes widen in surprise due to both their sudden entrance and their physical appearance. This mysterious person has wild hair that sticks out in every direction with their body lacking a healthy weight or color, yet Time immediately ignores all of that in favor of focusing upon the mask they wear - one he knows all too well but wishes he didn’t. He thought, for a second, that he may have recognized their voice, too, yet he’s more certain that he must be mistaken in that regard. No way it could be…

“Hey, you were traveling with those other boys, right? So maybe you’ll be nicer by giving me the answers I want! You see, beautiful stranger, I’m looking for a special friend of mine. We made a promise a while back and I intend to fulfill it if I could just find him first. None of the travelers I’ve found in these woods so far are him, so I was beginning to lose hope until I overheard those friends of yours mention his name, but they -”

Time can’t move, his body overcome with a chilled wave that ends with his feet cemented to the ground. It would be reasonable to say he misheard the first time, and he could keep denying it if he wants now, but that wouldn’t change the fact that he does recognize this person’s voice. How could he not when it’s the same that belongs to his own person angel? It’s a disordered version of yours, however this person isn’t you. This can’t be you because last he checked, you were safe back home where you promised to wait for his next return. How could you suddenly be here in this world, kept under the binding influence of Majora’s Mask?

“- Hey, are you broken?!” This person - who still so eerily sounds like you despite Time’s refusal to admit such a thing - knocks a fist against his forehead, barely flinching when he jerks back with a gasp, “Sooo? You gonna help me or just be difficult like your friends, eh? I don’t have all day, miser!”

Perhaps this ‘you’ is simply a figment of his imagination created by the forest to torment him; that must be the answer. He just has to play the game - no matter how much it messes with his head - to find out what happened to the boys. He’s dealt with enough Skull Kids before, this would be a piece of cake.

“I -...This friend of yours, who is he? Someone you’ve lost in the forest?” Time asks carefully, doing his best not to react too much outwardly, after all he’s seen first hand how Majora’s Mask can affect the mind of its wearer, and this ‘you’ before him has already clearly been put through the wringer.

“If I knew where I had lost him, I would’ve found him!” You snap in irritation.

Time swallows, “...Right, that does make sense, but perhaps if you could tell me his name, I could offer you better help in finding him?”

You seem pleased by this answer, swinging yourself upright on the branch where you become illuminated only by the glowing eyes of your mask, “Link.”

“L…Link?” That cold feeling from before returns, making Time suddenly feel sick to his stomach as the dots finally begin to connect in his head. This is no figment of his imagination - no trick of the light or evil illusion. It really is you…not the same version of you he married, but the other he promised to…

In Wind’s world, you're an adored teacher on Windfall Island. You’re kind, caring, and very knowledgeable about Hyrule's history which came in handy whenever he needed pointers during his early adventures. Yes, you would express concern over a child of his age partaking in such dangerous affairs (you thought it was all a joke when he first told you) and you've let it slip before that you aren't the biggest fan of pirates, although beyond your mother-like worry which you’ve adopted towards all your students (even the unofficial ones like Wind), you’ve ultimately supported him every step of the way. You've always been a huge role model for him, so this shift in personality is more than unexpected...

Wind was excited to show his new friends around what he thought to be his own Hyrule and relieved to discover they weren’t alone on this island they’ve found themselves stuck on after wandering through another portal. A pirate ship anchored on shore - the very ship belonging to Zelda’ crew, as Wind foolishly assured the others despite their caution. Now, thanks to his impatience and eagerness, he sits saddened and embarrassed next to the rest of the heroes as they remain tied to the ship’s mast. 

It’s confusing. The pirates of this ship are the same as Zelda's crew, yet they claimed to not at all recognize the younger pirate regardless of his attempts to jog their memories. Instead, they had rounded him and the rest of the Chain up the second they approached their dock, taking them prisoner where they currently wait for 'the Captain's reaction'. 

The Captain. This made Wind feel relieved again. Zelda. He doesn't know why the other pirates are acting so strangely, but Zelda will be able to clear this whole mess up, in fact here she comes, dressed in her normal pirate attire Wind's accustomed to seeing.

"ZELDA! Goddesses, am I glad to see you! I don't understand what kinda trick the guys are trying to play on me, but this isn’t the time! My friends - they're all heroes of courage like me and we could really use your help to -" The words come so quickly from Wind's mouth that Zelda barely has time to look disgusted. 

"How hard did you exactly hit this guy?" She asks while looking to Nudge then back to Wind with a smirk.

"Wha - I'm serious! This is urgent, Zelda -!"

"- Who?" She places her hands on her hips, generally seemingly confused which makes Wind's blood run cold, but not as much as it does when another voice speaks.

"Oi, what's the ruckus out here, eh!? I thought I told ya' lot to keep it down - Oh. What do we have here, umm?" The doors to the Captain's cabin burst open, out walking a figure dressed head-to-toe in a bright red uniform with a large black, white, and magenta feather sticking out from their hat.

"Captain," Zelda immediately backs off from Wind, "These guys were just caught after trying to rush our ship."

"No, that’s not what we -!"

"- Little thieves. 'thought they could just follow us here and steal our treasure!" The pirates hiss together, although you take more time to look over the boy in front of you along with his companions.

"You all look familiar…" Your statement - as disinterested as it sounds - almost gives Wind hope. Almost, "Lock 'em up in the cellar where I won't have to listen to their annoying bitching. Gonzo, set a course for the Forsaken Fortress. I think Ganondorf would like to meet these boys. Tetra, you stick with me."

"YES, CAPTAIN!" An assortment of shouts follow, both from the pirates who follow your every order loyally and the heroes who express their dismay. Wind, however, can only stare in complete disbelief and betrayal as you look back at him once more, your eyes dark from underneath your hat's shadow which is a sharp contrast to the usual warmth that he knows you for. 

Wild lives with a lot of heavy regrets weighing him down, perhaps the most unspoken being his missed chance at ever telling you his true feelings. You were an ever-so-dear friend to him before the Calamity - someone who never expected the impossible from him and always offered a shoulder to lean on should he need one. He loved you quite a bit; something he remembered almost as soon as he remembered you. He has often visited your grave, replaying past events in his head while suffocating in his own guilt from not having protected you. He has sometimes begged the Goddess to let him see you again, even if just to apologize, but this isn’t what he had in mind - far from it…

Wild’s version of Hyrule is chaotic and messy; a land that thrives off of quiet hope and the shattered remnants of a once mighty kingdom. Zelda has mentioned the theory before: that like Hyrule, Wild needed to become something else - something different and unruly in nature because if you can’t beat it, then join it. 

With that said, he’s accustomed to using a lack of forethought, at least in any way comparable to his past self (which is what he tells himself, anyway). As far as he knows, before the Calamity, he was as straight-laced as they come, always concerning himself with his public image and focused on never letting anyone down. He’s nothing like that now, often running into danger head first with messy hair and a blaze of fire following his trail. You would think after the amount of concussions and scars he’s gained, he would’ve long learned his lesson, but alas, he raced through this dungeon with little worry as he’s done many others because his confidence - or perhaps his dull wit - has once again outweighed any common sense. 

Now this is the price he must pay for his own ignorance: a nightmare reanimated before him as it taunts and tortures his inner conscience…and all he can do is accept this horrid punishment in frozen terror as you stalk across the room towards him.

When he raced ahead of the others and turned the key, he expected to be greeted with the typical dungeon boss - an overgrown bokoblin or fiery wizard. He didn’t expect it to be you, crumbled on the ground with gloom affecting your entire body. He didn’t expect for you to react so harshly to his presence, throwing him across the room with a blast of magic when he tried to reach your side, desperate to know how you’re alive and if you’re okay.

You look as angry as you have every right to be, your face curled into a snarl as you come closer, eyes narrowed in an orange glow and a sword in your hand…yet Wild could do nothing but let his knees buckle from underneath himself and dig his nails into his scalp as he asks himself over and over again how this is possible. How are you here? How are you alive? How were you affected and how does he fix you? …He can’t, though. He let you down then and has no idea how to save you now despite having been granted the gift of your presence again - the very thing he’s been begging for.

“I’m so sorry! I’m so sorry!” He cries, not sure if it’s for you or himself as he sobs your name with the same heartache he would over your grave, “I’msorry! I’msorry!”

“IT’S AN ILLUSION, WILD! IT’S NOT THEM!” Someone shouts from behind - someone who he’d usually easily recognize as Twilight yet his mind is in too much of a rush to even listen to his concerned friend’s words, let alone care about his identity. 

Wild can only think of his final moments with you. The day you ‘casually’ told him about plans to try a new restaurant in Castle Town and how you were looking for someone to join you. Foolishly - ever so foolishly - he asked if your sister wouldn’t go, generally confused that you, someone so kind and loved, would have trouble finding a willing companion for any aspect of your life. 

Bashfully, you agreed to ask her, and that was it. You walked off, leaving the poor hero to wonder why you looked so dejected and heartbroken. The next time he’d see you was a mere picture an old woman showed him, curious if you happened to be the one he ran into town desperately searching for. The woman - your niece, as it would turn out - confirmed his worst fears, explaining that while you had survived the initial attack during the Calamity, you like many others soon succumbed to an illness Purah now theorizes to have been a result of close contact with gloom. 

Wild can only imagine your final moments, poisoned by gloom and betrayal much like this other version of you is. If only he had done his job properly, you would have never felt such pain. You, like your sister, would have grown old and lived peacefully as you deserved. He, himself, wouldn’t have to forever live with this guilt he bears from your death - guilt that tries convincing him it would’ve been better if Twilight hadn’t pulled him away from the danger, instead allowing you - even if not truly you - to get some sort of revenge for his mistakes. 

[crushedsweets]

Do you have any headcanons of Lyra and Toby’s relationship?

this has been in my inbox for like over a week by now because this is a big task in my head. i will focus more on the family itself, but obviously the siblings r there.

ROGERS FAMILY HCS UNDER THE CUT... tw for abuse and addiction, of course

ok. WE'RE GETTING PERSONAL HERE. im the eldest daughter of 3 so the way in which i project into older siblings is insane. ive also had an addict father(no where near like frank though let me clarify) so in general . . the story.. makes me feel very...... basically their relationship is very personal to me.

lyra is about 2-3 years older than toby.

frank's dad was in the vietnam war, his grandparents were in wwii, his grandparents in wwi, etc. so he went into military service right after marrying connie. for a long while, he was SUPER military strict. those kids were up, made their bed, and down for chores by 6am everyday. he made them do military time rather than civilian time. he was incredibly traditional, expected a perfectly clean household, a polite soft daughter, a strong bold son, perfect wife. he wanted the 1950s nuclear family model. so toby and lyra grew up in a very clean, strict, traditional household.

in my au, frank wasnt outright abusive until the kids were around 8-11. it was after he developed his addictions and lost his job. the kids really didnt understand what was changing at first, and legitimately were like 'omg dad isnt making us wake up at 5am everyday..... this is so cool'.

theyd start having sleepovers in eachothers room, slacking a bit on chores, going to sleep late, sleeping in. toby didnt develop his tourettes until he was around 7, so lyra and toby would walk home from their elementary school together. sometimes, theyd walk another friend home first, stop at convenience stores to get candy, pet a cat, etc. frank didnt say a thing for the first few months, just drunken grumbles along connies worried 'WHERE HAVE U BEEN'. if they weren't walking around the area, they were in the backyard playing soccer.

eventually the abuse began, and all of those little freedoms were quickly stripped from the kids.

toby developing tourrettes around this time was a painful coincidence, because not only did he experience abuse at home, but awful bullying at school. he was promptly pulled out after completing 3rd grade. he was only 8.

lyra would practically run home from school everyday, as fast as a 12 year old girl with a backpack could manage, just because she spent all 7 hours in school worrying about toby at home. connie had to start working to pay bills, so..

when toby was around 11 and lyra was around 13, toby started kinda just. being more distant. he was kind of a dick to lyra for a period of time, half because of everything he was going through, half because puberty is rough. his room started getting messy, lyra had to start picking up chores he was slacking on , etc. lyra isnt perfect and began to resent toby for this, and eventually, the two were kinda at eachothers throats for like 6 months. which isnt a lot, but for kids, its an eternity.

when franks abuse evolved from ''just'' verbal abuse, to shoves, to slaps, to full on beatings, toby started egging frank on. just to get him off of lyra and connie. obviously he couldnt feel it, and while it sure took a fucking mental toll, it was so much easier to just wait it out rather than listen to the girls cry.

lyra didnt even realize toby was doing this for a while, she just thought it was all part of him going through his little hormonal asshole phase, until one day frank made a fucked up comment about 'youre lucky that boy is always causing trouble. was supposed to be you'. then it kinda clicked and she very quickly tried to fix their relationship back to what it was.

frank eventually scared connie so badly that there'd be periods of time where she'd take the kids in the middle of the night, and run off to either her parents place, or even a random hotel in another city. she'd use cash, force the kids to keep their phones at home, leave literally everything behind and often make the kids pick out new toothbrushes at a random walmart. etc. it would only last a few days each time, and lyra fought so hard to stay strong while her mom cried and toby closed himself off.

she'd try to get toby to come to the hotel pools with her, try to get him to watch tv with her, try to get him to just fucking talk to her. he was often catatonic during these little runaways, once the confusion adrenaline and fear wore off

it wasnt until they went around a month without seeing their father, and frank had some weird fucking. 'those are MY kids too' thing and went to connie's parents house while all the adults were out, and forced the kids back home. this was the first time lyra was full on sobbing and begging and pleading in years. that was what shifted something in toby, too.

now tobys 13, lyras 15, and theyre on better footing. theyre starting to understand eachother. tobys back on keeping up with chores, knowing that either him lyra or connie was going to get beat if they were missed. sometimes he'd just silently come into lyras room and lay down and watch tv with her. they'd talk about books, about school, their trust was built right back up and toby ended up being the first to know about lyras school drama, gossip, boys, etc.

toby wasn't really socialized properly, since he's been homeschooled for 6 years by now. all the time, he'd hear lyras stories, and wish he could go to school. his mom would be horrified anytime toby asked, because all she could remember was her sweet boy coming home and crying into her arms after a day of being mocked and pushed around by peers.

so he began to live through lyra, in a sense ? he almost became a diary for lyra, and he kinda loved it. she was like a sitcom to him.

frank wasnt a good father by any means during this period, he was still awful, but he wasn't constantly looking for trouble. the kids kept to themselves, connie did everything she was expected to, he didnt give a shit about their grades or social lives. he couldn't even recgonize when lyra was coming home late.

lyra got her license the second she turned 16. the house had two cars, and its not like frank was ever going anywhere, so she was always going everywhere. she adored the freedom, and took toby wherever he'd let her. he only really left the house if he was going grocery shopping with his mom or something, so it was kinda weird now that he was just. going to malls. going to restaurants. going to parks. just Hanging Out. every now and again he'd stick around when Lyra was with her friends, but he didn't like them so it was rare.

sometimes theyd just drive together for a long time. at night, she was the one to take him to every hospital visit, she even got him to volunteer at a pet shelter she worked at for a bit. 3 years and they become so close again, and lyra is tobys best friend. she's his entire world because who else does he have ? he loves his mom, but she's married to the man he hates more than anything

toby was 16 and lyra was 18 when frank strangled toby till he passed out. thats finally when connie kicked frank out, forcing frank to go live on his moms couch. lyra was mortified and started spending an absurd amount of time with toby. she took online community college courses just so she could spend even more time with toby, and it didnt hurt to do so since frank wasnt there anymore. things were getting better for the family, frank was gone, lyra was in college, connie was working, toby was volunteering at shelters and even had a few acquaintances he'd talk to now and again.

lyra picked toby up from the shelter he volunteered at when the accident happened.

lyra and connie had matching silver necklaces with a circle pendant that had their initials. toby didnt cuz frank would get pissed if toby tried wearing jewelry, but when lyra died, toby immediately clung to it. he wears it religiously. the only time he takes it off is if he knows he's going to kill someone that day. otherwise, its always on him.

lyra died and was buried in colorado. toby lives in alabama now. so he really doesnt visit her grave often. only on her birthday, he'll scramble together some money and get brian, tim, and kate to agree to cover his uh. 'shifts' with slenderman, and take a few loooonnnggg train rides over to colorado.

he'll leave two bouquets of flowers. one for lyra, one for connie.

connie just feels in her heart that its toby. she has no reason to believe it, they've never bumped into eachother (toby's visiting at like 2am and falls asleep near the grave for a few hours), but she knows nobody else whos visiting lyras grave and leaving two sets of the same flowers.

toby and lyras childhood home was put on sale shortly after it was reconstructed from the fire, and connie moved in with her sister. lyras bedroom door was the only one that was shut and left unscathed after the fire (legitimately keep your doors shut if you ever have a housefire it can save entire bedrooms and even lives). the rest of the house was ruined, but not lyras room. connie kept every single one of her belongings, but she's put some photos out on the grave. tobys taken them, and connie believes it was him. again, she has no reason to believe it other than the flowers and 'why would someone take a photo of my dead daughter.'

anyway hi. in tears. i love them. sorry. i just retell their story over and over and get sad everytime

[bunnylovescat]

Taming of the Shrew (aka 10 things I hate about you) WangXian edition

LQ, being the reasonable, strict pseudo parent he is, would be absolutely against either the the Lan brothers dating until they were like. Forty. But of course Lan Xichen doesn't want to wait that long because have you seen his friend group? (NMJ? JGY? Both? Neither? No one outside of those three really know, and quite frankly are scared to ask)

Tired of listening to Lan Xichen negoiate and beg (albeit in a very Lan like fashion citing various research studies about socialization in young people, finding out what he likes in safe spaces before going to college, etc. etc. etc., all while using the verbal equivalent of Chicago AP Citation), Lan Qiren looks around and is like. Wait. Lan Wangji doesn't like people in general, I have found my solution. So Lan Qiren sits them both down at Family Dinner Night (TM) and tells them both the rules have changed. As long as Lan Wangji dates, so can Lan Xichen.

Problem solved, right? Except...

Well. Lan Qiren forgot about the neighbor who's always causing him grief by being overly helpful in the backyard garden and has no sense of self-preservation or volume control. And, let's be real, it's Lan Wangji.

Who promptly takes one look at his brother, nods, and rushes off (in a Lan like fashion involving excusing himself, washing his plate off, and putting it in the dish washer) to make Plans(TM).

The next day, he tells Wei Wuxian they're going to the movies on Saturday, and WW thinks nothing of it because 90% of his personality is just

Jiang Cheng meanwhile is like. Dude. Are you dating now? And Wei Wuxian is like. No? Lan Zhan didn't tell me we are, so this is totally a platonic thing, I mean, what?

Lan Wangji, meanwhile, walks off to tell his brother he's going to the movies on Saturday with Wei Ying. Lan Xichen is just like...

Just a regular Saturday then.

Insert regular teen movie shenanigans and miscommunications here, involving Wei Wuxian being a general lovable pest to Lan Qiren, a side ship of Jin Zixuan being absolutely, hilariously uncool around Jiang Yanli (going so far as to start going to Home Ec class, only for JY to find out near finals that he doesn't even go here), and Jiang Cheng and Nie Huaisang both being over their family members' infatuations. Wen Ning being dubbed the Bro General (see what I did there?), Jiang Cheng getting at least one win in a Sport, Wen Qing quietly overthrowing her uncle as principle, and Nie Huaisang running the school's largest betting pool.

Until prom, where both Lan Xichen and Wei Wuxian realize that no. Lan Wangji and Wei Wuxian are dating (Lan Xichen at least has a plausible excuse; Wei Wuxian... y'all've made out several times, you should have at least clarified about where you two stood).

Epic confessional at the end, where Jin Zixun gets punched, and still no one knows what's going on with Lan Xichen's dating life (NMJ? JGY? An entirely unknown character? No one in school knows, but they all agree:

[a-french-coconut]

Luke Castellan (Part 2)

Each day, his forces grow a little stronger, demigods joining them from all over the country, even Camp Half-Blood.

It's time.

Already ? It's only been one year.

He's in his office, seated next to a golden coffin that grows more visible every time a demigod pledge themselves to Kronos.

Our army is strong and with Jackson on his father's side, we need another piece in the game.

He stays silent, reaching for a piece on the chessboard on front of him.

Would it really work ?

Will it bring her back ?

Yes, the Golden Fleece is a powerful artefact.

They why didn't Chiron, or even Dionysus, ever told him ?

He would have went on that quest without hesitation, he would have saved her !

I feel your anger rising, good. Remember, Chiron, Dionysus and all the other gods don't care about you. With her dead, they thought they could avoid the Great Prophecy.

He clenches the piece in his hand, his familiar hatred boiling in him again.

They had killed her, valued her as a defective object that needed to put down.

I shall inform our spy at Camp to proceed.

If Silena didn't change her old calendar, she should be horse riding now.

"Silena, do you copy ?" He asks her through the charm bracelet.

"Hi Luke."

As always, the daughter of Aphrodite have this sweet voice, one that could work on many guys but Luke couldn't be more indifferent to it.

Silena Beauregard is not his type of girl but he can't risk having her offended by a rejection.

"Hey Lena, I need you to do me a favor."

"Of course ! Anything you need." Comes back the answer, cheerful and hopeful.

"The poison Lila gave to you last time you two met ? Use it on the target."

"Oh, okay." She sounds disappointed but frankly, she should know better than expect him to like her, daughter of Aphrodite and all that. "Are you sure you want to do this ?"

"Of course I'm sure," he frowns, "why are you asking ?"

"It's going to hurt her Luke, deeply. It's like she'll die again."

"She isn't going to die" he snaps at Silena, voice cold and harsh, "a quest will be issued to save her. Now go do your job and stop questioning my orders !"

He abruptly cuts contact, not caring about how it might affect Silena.

He looks at the piece in his hand.

Kronos wants a new pawn to balance the careful game they are playing.

"Castellan," an empousa barges in, "Torrington is asking for you on deck, he needs you to teach the soldiers a manoeuvre."

"Tell them I'm coming Kelli."

She nods, promptly leaving him alone.

He gets up, puts some light armor before gripping Backbiter and getting out of the office.

On the table, away from the chessboard and its pieces, stands the dark queen, as proud as the girl she represents.

--------------------------------

He dreams of her, of the pine's leaves slowly turning gray, the bark rotting and falling on the ground.

He wonders if she can feel it.

(When he faces her again, on a mountain top surrounded by ruins, he'll know that he made her suffer.)

As expected, Chiron is fired and Tantalus takes over the leadership.

Luke thinks he knows why Kronos chose him. Indeed, they seem to share the same culinary taste.

"How long until the poison kills the tree ?" He asks Alabaster who created it.

"One week, depends on what cure they will administrate it." The son of Hecate shrugs, clearly unconcerned with Thalia's fate. "Don't worry Luke, they should make it time."

"They better," he mumbles under his breath, "if Thalia dies, there is no way for me to convince Annabeth to join us."

"About that," Alabaster fidgets, "Are you sure she'll want to join ? She seems pretty loyal to the Olympians."

"When Thalia joins us, she will too." Luke assures his second in command, "why don't you go find Ethan ? Last time I heard he was still pining over you, looking at you with awe in his single eye."

He snickers slightly when his friend's face turns red, promptly leaving to find the son of Nemesis.

"This is a waste of time," Kelli scoffs from the corner of the room, "why aren't we sending our own forces to get the Fleece ? It would be a lot more productive."

"Because" he glares at the monster who languidly gets closer to him, "they need to ultimately have the Fleece and they are not going to accept it as a gift from us. Hence, they need to find it by their own."

"If you say so, Castellan." Kelli sighs, seating on his armchair, "the girl you keep talking about, Talia or-"

"Thalia" he corrects her, slightly uncomfortable with her proximity.

"That," Kelli narrows her eyes on him, her talons tracing lines on his shoulder and arm," what does she mean to you ?"

"She's a dear friend," he quickly gets out of the chair, earning himself a scowl, "and a powerful ally to have."

"I'm sure she would make quite a feast," Kelli smiles, "Zeus' blood is always so delicious-"

"Don't kid yourself" Luke cuts her off curtly, "you don't stand a chance against Thalia."

"Is that so ?" she hisses, "then maybe I should pay her visit when she's done housing birds and squirrels, to see her worth."

With the speed of a son of Hermes, Luke unsheathes Backbiter and furiously slashes at Kelli but she jumps out of the chair and the only thing damaged is now his furniture.

"Thalia is an essential person in our plan, do you want me to tell our Lord that you wish to harm her ?" He snarls, pulling off his sword from the wood.

"Oh, now" Kelli chuckles nervously, "there's no need for such rash action, I have no intention to go near the daughter of Zeus."

"Good," he says firmly, "now get out, I have work to do."

She hisses at him, hair burning a bright orange but nonetheless hobbles her way out, the sound of her bronze leg hitting the ground echoing in the corridor.

He forces himself to breathe, to squash down his fury against that damned empousa.

His charm bracelet heating up, the signal Silena is trying to contact him, distract him from his insider turmoil.

"Silena," he says rather irritably, "Lila is in charge of receiving your infos, I have enough work to do."

"I thought you would have wanted to hear this but fine, I'll just transmit to Lila and she can tell you." The daughter of Aphrodite says with a snappy voice.

"Wait," he calls to her," what it is ? I'm not busy right now."

A lie since he has to prepare a meeting concerning their sponsors but he is curious about what is so important.

"Clarisse got a quest and she's leaving first thing tomorrow morning to retrieve the Fleece."

"Clarisse ?" He frowns, "why would they send Clarisse when the Fleece is on an island in the Sea of Monsters ? Jackson's obviously a better choice."

"Tantalus isn't very fond of him."

"Tell that idiot that Percy must come." Luke hisses, furious against the new director. "it's the perfect opportunity to trap and kill him."

"It's too late, it would be weird for him to suddenly change opinions." Her voices curls in distaste, "how are we going to keep him Luke, the guy gives the creeps."

"Then avoid him because he is going to stay as long as possible."

"But", her voice wavers, "he might want to hurt the kids."

"Kids" he scoffs, "that are on the opposite side Lena. We are bound to fight them sooner or later."

"We want a better word for all demigods," she stresses her word, "even them, do we not ? I don't see how Tantalus fits into our vision."

"He does for now" he grits out, "anything else ?"

"No, Percy has arrived at camp but he isn't going on the quest. Oh ! Wait, no, I have something to tell you-"

"It'll have to wait," he eyes Chris who just entered and mouthing to him they are here, "I really need to go, please inform your official agent of any new developments and not me."

"Our spy ?" His brothers asks, tilting his head.

"Clarisse has been sent to retrieve the Fleece," Luke eyes carefully his brother's face, "dangerous quest, some might say lethal."

"Clarisse's strong," he mutters quietly, not looking in Luke's eyes, "she'll get through it."

"One day, we are going to fight her, are you sure you'll be able to do so when it happens ?"

"Yes, my loyalty is to Kronos and you."

Chris looks at him with a hardened gaze, grim determination etched on his face.

"I'll do whatever you need me to if it means getting retribution."

"Good," he smiles," I'm please to see your faith in me."

When he passes in front of him, he puts a comforting hand on his brother's shoulder.

"Kronos will appreciate that kind of loyalty once we win the war, brother, be sure not to lose it."

As he leaves to greet his guests, he doesn't see Chris carefully taking a picture of his trouser's pocket, with on it a girl with a bright red bandana hugging with one arm a younger Chris.

-------------------------------

"Well, I have to say I didn't expect you here."

He looks rather amused at the trio confronting him.

"Percy, I should have known you couldn't stay far from me for too long, Annabeth," he looks at her, properly seeing her since he left, "you've grown and-"

His voice dies out as he looks with disbelief at the boy in front of him.

Except he's not a boy.

No, he's monster.

A cyclops.

"Really, Annie ?" He says rather hysterical, earning himself a weird look from everyone except Annabeth who's red with shame, "of all monsters, a cyclops ?" He pronounces it with such disgust, such hater towards that kind.

"Don't talk to Tyson that way !" Percy angrily say, struggling against Agrius's grip.

"Why ? Fond of him Jackson ?"

To that, the son of Poseidon stays quiet, the same red Annabeth has colouring his cheeks.

"Well, as fun as this is, I'm afraid it must come to an end." He sighs, "Agrius and Oreius, take them downstairs, I heard the monsters were hungry."

But the cyclops breaks free and sends Oreius tumbling on his brother, giving Percy to opportunity to escape.

"Catch them !" He roars to his soldiers but they have already bolted out of the room.

He can only watch them, seething, disappearing on the horizon on one of the emergency life boat.

He had them...

They were on his boat, unarmed and outnumbered and they escaped.

Shame and rage churn his stomach, make his body vibrate with fury and Alabaster is the one to pay the price.

"Torrington !" he bellows at the son of Hecate, "they were three and you had six demigods and two monsters at your commands !"

"The monsters don't listen to me !" he protests, looking straight into Luke's eyes, "I'm the General of your demigods' army."

"And what have you been doing all those months ?" he hisses, "how come they were completely useless to stop them !"

He sees Alabaster's eyes glower and green ruins appear on his jacket. He reaches for Backbiter but a little girl suddenly puts herself in the way.

"Stop this ! Please !" she begs, looking fearfully at Luke.

"Lou," Alabasters says softly, "get out of the way."

"No, I'm not letting you fight with him !" Lou crosses her arms defiantly, stubbornly not moving.

"Your sister ?" He asks his general who curtly nods, still eyeing him and ready to fight.

But Luke only looks at Lou.

She's small, black-haired and has startling green eyes.

If he has to guess, she must be eleven years old, younger maybe.

And yet, despite her young age, she looks at him warily and ready to protect her brother.

He sheathes his sword to Alabaster's great surprise.

"They'll have to come back once they get the Fleece, we'll catch them then."

He leaves the deck and Torrington's confused face to isolate himself in his cabin.

He spends the next hour twirling a cheap ring on his necklace, thinking of a young blond girl with startling grey eyes and wondering if she would too protect him if he needed it.

-----------------------------

He doesn't remember falling asleep.

And yet he is chained upside down, with an unbearable heat burning his face as he looks at the cauldron below him.

He remembers that place.

It's when they were on the run and Thalia and he got captured by a cyclops.

Annabeth had been the one to save them, stabbing bravely the monster and freeing them.

"Luke ! Stop looking like an idiot and use your powers !" A voice next to him snaps in the air.

She's there, looking wildly alive, face etched into a scowl and gleaming from sweat.

"Thalia..." he whispers with a broken voice.

"Is the heat making you lose your mind ?" She says harshly, a worried frown appearing on her features, "yes it's me, Thalia. The girl who is about to buzz you if you don't find a solution."

It's been so long since he heard her talking and not screaming.

The way her eyes pulse with electricity.

The way her freckles are a constellation adoring her pale skin, contrasting so much with her spiky jet black hair.

The way she's pulsing with life, trashing against the chains restraining her and not cold dead on a forest's floor.

"Thalia, I-"

He wants to tell her everything, like he did before, to tell her about Kronos and his rebellion against the gods.

"Hurry, Luke !" She trashes even wilder, a small edge of fear in her voice.

He knows what happens next.

The cyclops comes back, failing to lure Annabeth in his trap, and as he's ready to cut their bonds, to let them fall into the boiling steaming pit below, the monster screams in pain and Luke seizes his chance.

He gets out of the now loosened chains, managed to free Thalia despite only using one hand, the other firmly gripping the chain, and the both of them jump onto the cyclops's arm.

That's when he sees the cause of the monster's pain.

Annabeth had stabbed him in the toe, his little sister looking terrified but determined to fight the beast.

Quickly, Thalia and he climb down the screaming monster until they're on the ground and help Annabeth kill him.

Then, she punches him in the gut after praising Annie.

"What the fuck Thals !" He groans, doubling over.

"What was that back there, huh ?" She asks angrily, irritated enough for not scolding off for the bad word, "why'd you froze like that ?"

"I didn't freeze, my powers were just useless." He winces when he feels his abdomen, it's definitely going to bruise.

She scowls but doesn't push him further.

"Come on, we have to go, Grover is waiting for us outside." Annabeth urges them, dragging them to the exit.

"It's too late."

Both Annabeth and Thalia look at him with utterly confused faces.

"What do you mean it's too late ? Too late for what ?"

"Forget I said anything," he mumbles hastily, pushing them aside to reach the exit, "it's nonsense."

A hand on his shoulder stops him.

It's not like her punch, no.

It's a prolonged contact, one where her hand barely touches his skin and yet, it is warmer than the boiling cauldron.

"Luke," he hears her say his name with worry, "what's wrong ?"

"Nothing's wrong Thals," he reassures her, not looking in her eyes. "We have to go, the monsters are gaining on us."

But she doesn't let go of him and her hand gets closer to his neck.

He doesn't turn, can't bear to look at her.

"You can tell me anything, you know that right ?" She whispers, her voice centimetres away from his ear.

"And I will," he replies, "I will but not today."

He terribly wants to face her, to tell her everything but he can't waste any more time.

It's stupid of him to think that maybe, in this dream Thalia makes it to Camp alive. It's like jumping off the cliff again when he knows he'll break himself on rocks below.

Yet, he hopes.

--------------------------------

"Welcome back to the States, cousin." He smiles at Percy, holding Backbiter under his throat, "I'm the welcoming party."

"Really wasn't necessary."

"So uncivilised," he shakes his head, "come aboard, all of you."

This time, Grover is with them. Luke doesn't know why he is there, surely something Silena could explain, but he doesn't particularly care. There's only one thing he wants, and it's within his reach.

"Where is it ?"

"Where's what ?" Percy asks innocently, the ghost of a smile floating on his face.

"The Fleece, Jackson." Luke patiently says, "give it to me."

"I can't, it's gone." He says, his smile now very visible and irritably smug.

"It can't be gone Jackson, you are all here," Luke snaps before a horrible idea dawns on him, "no, there's no way, you didn't-"

"Yes," Percy says glowing with satisfaction, "Clarisse is already on the way to Camp with the Fleece. You lost Luke."

"What where you planning to do with the Fleece, anyways ?" Annabeth asks him coldly.

"Well, since none of you are getting out of here alive, I suppose I can tell you," he shrugs, trying to hide his growing panic at the perspective of telling Kronos he failed again, "I was going to use the Fleece to resurrect Kronos but I would have given it back to you after."

"Really ?"

"Of course Jackson, I know why you need the Fleece and I wouldn't have stopped you."

"That's rich," he scoffs, "considering what you did."

To his grand surprise, Jackson hurls a coin at him. One he easily dodge, the drachma falling in the water behind him.

"You betrayed me, betrayed DIONYSUS AT CAMP HALF BLOOD !"

"Old news Jackson, why are you doing this ?"

"Did you poison Thalia's tree ?"

"Of course I did !" He snaps at Jackson, utterly confused, "but you-"

"So Chiron had nothing to do with it ?" Jackson presses on.

"As if that old man could ever hurt his Camp !" Luke rolls his eyes, "why are you doing this ? You already know all of that !"

"I do, but now all the others do too."

"What others-"

His voice dies at he turns and sees the whole Pavillon of Camp Half-Blood looking at them, dead silent, through an Iris Message.

"See Mr D ? Chiron is innocent !" Percy says behind him.

"I suppose so Peter," the god sighs, "well then, goodbye Tantalus."

He waves his hand and the earth opens, swallowing the man whole.

With a furious scream, Luke slashes the Iris Message, making it pop in a cloud of mist.

"Chris !" He barks at his brother, "ready my stallion, I'm going after the Fleece."

His brothers nods and hastily leaves the room.

"As for you all, Oreius and Agrius are in dire need of fresh meat."

"So you're just leaving us here, not even able to kill us yourselves ?" Percy yells at him as they go on deck where a black pegasus awaits Luke.

"I have more urgent matters than you Jackson, believe or not."

"Why don't you fight me, eh ? Scared you'll lose like the first time ?" The son of Poseidon taunts him.

It's an impasse and they both know it.

If Luke declines, he loses credibility and if he accepts, he doubts he'll manage to intercept Clarisse.

"Very well, Jackson. Give him back his sword."

He arms himself with Backbiter and a shield and faces Percy.

"It's not fair Luke," Annabeth protests angrily, "at least give him a shield too !"

"The world's hardly ever is fair Annabeth," he snarls, "I had hoped you would know that by now."

He looks at Percy, scanning for weak spots and when he finds one, he attacks.

"You've gotten better Jackson" he grunts, blocking Riptide with his shield, "but there's not water trick to save you this time."

He kicks him in the leg and sends Riptide flying out of reach.

He hears Annabeth screaming, the cyclops bellowing and Grover bleating as he lower down Backbiter to stab Percy in the stomach.

Water slaps him, sending him tumbling backward and loud screams and confettis ?

Dozens of centaurs are on his ship, trampling his forces or throwing party hats and shooting paintballs.

One hits him on the stomach, splattering his shirt blue and bruising his skin.

Amidst the chaos, he registers Percy mounting Chiron while the others are on other centaurs, his old mentor whistles and they're all gone as fast as they came.

"Chris !" He roars, face red with fury, "the horse, where is it ?"

"It left with them," his brother groans from where he's sprawled on the floor, covered in paint, "saw Percy talk to him."

He feels like he might explode from shame and rage.

It's the second time Percy escapes him, the second time a thirteen years old beat him, an experienced twenty years old demigod.

"All of you, clean this mess ! I have to inform our Lord of this recent development."

He closes his office's door rather harshly, taking a few minutes to calm himself before contacting Kronos.

Master.

Next to him, the coffin glows and he feels him stirring, his presence lingering in the air.

You have failed.

Luke feels his throat drying, yes master.

And yet we are still successful.

I... I don't understand Master. Without the Fleece, you'll take more time to fully awake.

Foolish boy, do you think I cannot wait a few more years ? I have spent eons awaiting for this moment, I do not lack patience.

It was never about you, Luke realises, all you wanted was for the Fleece to reach her tree.

And it has, soon, we'll have another pawn in the game.

----------------------------------

Far away, on a hill overlooking Long Island Sound, a girl opens her eyes under a grand pine tree for the first time in seven years.

[hanaluna111]

Be mean to me

Ryomen Sukuna/Female! Reader

Summary: After a chaotic party you decide to end your relationship with Sukuna genre: light angst, college au (reader is in college) warning: usage of alcohol, toxic relationship, foul language, mentions of cheating, MDNI! Notes: Can´t write for shit (!!!) but Sukuna has me in a grip, english is not my first (nor second) language, so bear with me :( Words: 4.1k

"Where is your boyfriend?" Nobara questioned, sipping from her drink as you both held a conversation in the kitchen, not ready to return to the party. You shrugged your shoulders, still irritated with Sukuna, who had decided to ditch you for his friends.

The semester's coming to an end, which meant the exams were around the corner, your days consisted of relentless studying and last-minute reviewing until the late night.

The last time you saw him was weeks ago and you would have preferred to stay at home and catch up with him when he invited you to his friend's party.

He had grabbed your waist and asked, “When was the last time we did anything together?”

His hot breath on your neck, “Just this once, can't you just put your studies aside and have some fun.” pressing soft kisses on the most sensitive part, causing goosebumps all over your body. You loved him, and he knew you would never want to turn down his wishes, even if it meant going against your better judgement.

As soon as you stepped through the door, he promptly disregarded you to catch up with his friend Uraume. “I'll be right back, babe,” he said, not noticing your dumbfounded expression. Unbelievable, why did he make you come here only to brush you aside? You really looked forward to spending time together, but it appears you were the only one.

Sukuna was not the man you typically go for. He always carried himself with a slightly arrogant attitude and smug sense of self-importance, attracting followers wherever he went. You bit the inside of your cheek, taking in how the crowd parted for him, the girls eyeing him up and down like fresh meat, oblivious to his taken status. Can you blame them? He had it all – handsome features, an impressive physique, dyed hair and those delicious tattoos, which only added to the allure of the “bad boy” image that he projected. He was the type of guy every girl would love to have but knew they shouldn’t, as heartbreak was never far from him.

When starting a relationship with Sukuna, who was never interested in serious relationships and changed girls faster than his underwear, you knew that it was a risk. However, you were willing to go all in and prove that Sukuna could change for you.

The majority didn’t believe you both would last long which made you desperately prove them the opposite.

The first time you saw him was as a model for your anatomy class, the memories of it come flooding back to you.

You had been excited for this course, finally elevating your skills on how to draw realistic figures and portraits. However, you would’ve never expected an utterly mesmerizing, one-of-a-kind men stepping through the door.

Reflecting back on that moment, it wasn’t a surprise for someone like Sukuna to jump at the opportunity to showcase his body as he craved the spotlight and thrived in it.

His face took your breath away; you found yourself mesmerized by the black lines tracing the sharp contours from his cheeks to his jawline, soft amber eyes gazing intensely at you, appearing almost crimson. The intensity of his gaze was almost overwhelming, you felt every memory and emotion of yours is laid bare for him to experience.

He was the first to break off eye contact to talk to the professor, and you slowly let out a breath you didn’t know you were holding. At once, your heart began to return to its natural beat as your body loosened from the intense grip of his hypnotic eyes, no longer victim to his spell.

You allowed your eyes to travel; the sight of his muscular physique fills your entire field of vision. The fabric of his black shirt was almost stretched to its limit, the outline of his well-defined abs prominent underneath, and his bulging biceps straining against the fabric, the seams ready to burst open any moment now. Protruding veins ran down his hands, where rings decorated his fingers and nails painted a deep shade of violet.

Your eyes travelled lower, feeling the tension building in your core, your mind going dizzy with desire. He wore loose grey sweatpants that hung low on his hips, and you just knew that his legs were muscular underneath. He moved slowly, starting to remove his clothes, and you weren’t sure if it´s just your imagination, but it felt like as if he was taking his sweet time stripping, showing off his bulging biceps as he moved his arms up. 

Now only standing in his underwear, you observed his body in its full glory, covered in a series of precise lines, tracing the outline of his muscles. You couldn’t help but think about what it would be like to run your fingers along his firm muscles, itching to trace every line and curve of his tattoos. Or how his long, slander fingers would dig into the soft flesh of your hips while your hands were busy roaming over his chiselled chest and broad shoulders. At this point every rational thought was thrown out the window, every fibre of your being in need of his touch. Sukuna´s toned body was the result of endless hours of intense training and dedication, that even the gods themselves would be envious of such perfection.

Raising your eyes once more, you were met by the sharp gaze of Sukuna, one eyebrow raised mockingly, and a smirk slowly spreading across his plush lips.

You felt your face heat up with embarrassment and your pulse rising. Shit, how obvious was it that you were checking him out? His smirk grew wider as he noticed you flushed expression, a malicious idea forming in his mind. While he was talking to the professor, he had felt you shamelessly admiring his toned physique. His need to humiliate you almost as strong and evident as his desire for admiration.

“Want me to take my underwear too?” he taunted you and made sure to stretch the fabric of his underwear with his thumbs, taunting with what lies beneath.

Utterly and completely mortified, you wished for the ground to open up and swallow you whole as you looked down on your blank canvas.

Asshole

"Y/N? Earth to Y/N, are you there?" Nobara nudged you in the side with her elbow, shaking you out of your daydream.

"Sorry, I was completely zoned out," you muttered, feeling a little embarrassed.

"Yeah, I can tell," she chuckled, "Felt like I was talking to myself for a second there.”

She grabbed your arm and gently pulled you out the kitchen. "Let's get moving, I can't stand seeing you waste your time sulking instead of partying.”

You were met with loud music thrumming in your ears, bones vibrating due to the heavy beat, immediately filling your body with energy. Nobara took you to the dance floor, pushing through the swarm of dancing bodies before turning to you and taking your hands in her. “Come on now,” she shouted “it’s time to bust a move!” you laughed for the first time since you arrived, putting your arms over your head and swaying your body to the beat.

The air was heavy with your laughter mingling with the pungent scents of sweat, perfume, and alcohol. Immersed in the moment, your worries dissolved as you danced your heart out, lost in the music, enjoying yourself despites your boyfriend’s sudden disappearance. The all-too-familiar aching feeling in your heart, which was a constant companion since you started dating him, slowly faded into the background.

As you lost yourself in the music, you didn’t even notice Sukuna walking towards you, his eyes followed each of your movements, appreciating the way your dress swirled and puffed around you like a wave as you spun. You were all he saw in that moment, the only thing that mattered to him, the sight of your twinkling eyes and your childlike smile brought out a soft grin across his face; there was something building in his chest every time your presence filled his senses, it felt like a pressure, restricting his oxygen flow. He didn’t understand why his chest tightened ever so slightly with each breath, but he also wasn’t afraid. Instead, he welcomed that foreign feeling, desperate for it to continue grasping him. He wanted more, he needed more.

Strong fingers wrapped around your waist and snapped you out of the dance as Sukuna greeted you with a sly smile across his face.

He drew your body closer, his heat seeping into your skin and making you feel hot. “Missed me?” he mumbled against your neck, his lips planting a soft kiss and sending shivers down your spine. You gave him the silent treatment as you couldn’t shake off the hurt of his abandonment earlier in the night.

When he attempted to kiss you, you moved your head at the last second. His hot breath touched your ear, a subtle sigh leaving his lips before locking eyes with you, a subtle twitch played on his smirk. “Why, is something the matter?” he asked, his grip tightening around you.

Annoyance flashed through his eyes, but as soon as he saw your crumbling expression, his attitude shifted drastically as he softly cupped your cheek, stroking it with the rough pad of his thumb. “Talk to me, baby.”

This wasn’t the first time that Sukuna had left you behind for his friends, you recalled the multiple times you had already spoken to him about this. God, it’s all so frustrating; Growing tired of his constant antics, you looked away, heat gradually crept up your neck. He should already be aware of why you were acting that way. Matter of fact, he should be the one to try and talk to you not the other way around.

Sukuna seemingly read your mind, understanding the reason for your upset. “I am here now, aren’t I?” he husks, angling your head towards his. You were frustrated with him, not liking the idea of brushing the issue under the rug once again and letting him get away without consequences. No, this time you wouldn’t tolerate his disespect. You were, after all, his girlfriend and not just a plaything.

The words had instantly left your mouth, your voice shaking with uncertainty as you felt him pulling away from you. “You keep doing this to me,” you pleaded with him, feeling downright deceived by his nonchalant attitude.

“Am I not a prior- “

“You´re making a big deal out of nothing. I'm here with you now, isn't that enough?” he huffed, his glaring eyes boring into yours. To him it was a pointless argument that didn’t need to happen.

His sudden outburst left you speechless and you were unsure what to say or do.

The sharp sting of his words clawing its way deep into your skin, leaving your emotions all tangled up in a confusing mess – was it not possible for you guys to have a conversation, why did it always have to end up in an argument?

Noticing the tears threatening to spill from your eyes, he ran his fingers exasperatedly through his hair, not sparing another glance at you. It was clear that he was through with the entire situation, disregarding your feelings.

“Come find me when you’ve calmed down.”

You wanted to call after him, but the harshness in his tone, and the way he abruptly turned and left you behind was to much for you to handle.

Instead, Nobara put her arm around your shoulder and guided you to the kitchen.

With emotions running wild, you found yourself pouring alcohol in your red cup and immediately gulping it down before pouring another.

A part of you wanted to chase him down and tell him that you were through;

but another dumber part of you wanted nothing more than to apologize him and take fault for the whole fiasco.

As if you did something wrong.

Your blood boiled at the pathetic thought, as you replayed the scene in your mind. Shame filled your mind, the realization that you were allowing yourself to be disrespected repeatedly made you more furious than the thought of him treating you with such.

“Son of a bitch, how dare he,” Nobara barked furiously, her loud voice echoed through the room. “His sorry ass should be glad to even breath the same air as you,” she continued, slamming her fists on the table with aggressive force, causing the liquids in your cups to slosh around, threatening to spill out.

She paced back and forth in front of you as she ranted, “He´s just- argh- I’m gonna beat him up.” The heat of her anger seemed to hit you like a blast of hot air. You’ve had only seen her so worked up before when Yuji went on a date with his former classmate Yuko, but she couldn’t longer handle the way her best friend was being treated in her relationship, taking every hit and blow. She always knew he was bad news.

Finally standing still, she puts her hands on your shoulders, a hint of frustration crossed her face as her eyes seemed to pierce through your soul, not giving you a chance to hide your emotions. „Are you happy with him?” she asked, her voice laced with concern. Your brows knitted together in confusion, having not expected that question, her words lingering in the air like a ghost.

It was those five little words that brought the truth to the forefront, releasing all the pent-up sadness that had built over time. Despite your attempt to hide the rough patches of your relationship from your friends and play everything off as alright (as they constantly told you to not involve yourself with Sukuna), you could no longer suppress your trembling within you, a sob left your lip shortly after.

It was as if the dam had broken, anger and hurt crashed relentlessly into you like strong waves to the point where you felt like drowning in an endless ocean of misery and despair, all for the sake of keeping the relationship afloat. In the expanse of your love for Sukuna, you found yourself submerged, desperately seeking to inhale fresh air, yet your lungs filled with salty water, the burning consuming you. Meanwhile he was standing safe and secure at the shore, looking down on you and simply watching as you struggled to keep your head above the water.

“No,” you replied quietly, your eyes darting around the room. “I feel like everything I say or do pushes him to the edge. He…He’s like a ticking time bomb.”

Shoko started shaking your shoulder, her tone stern. “You seriously need to-”

You interrupted her, admitting, “But…I don’t know if I am ready to leave him,” the internal conflict evident. Yes, you were be angry and hurt, however you still loved him enough not to want to lose him over something like this.

Those times when he didn’t act like a total jerk, he acted gentle and caring– a side not many got to witness, not even his younger brother Yuji. So, giving up on your relationship and leaving after he showed you his vulnerable side felt like betrayal on your part.

“Huh?” The air felt thick and heavy between you both. With her mouth wide open, Nobara’s face was frozen in a look of disbelief, as is she couldn’t believe what you were saying. How the hell did she miss the severity of your situation? She took a deep breath to gather herself, trying to find the right words before focusing her attention back on you. “How about we leave the party, hm? Sleep it off for now, and then you can tell me everything that has been going on with you two.”

Up to this point the alcohol hit you hard, spinning your head and clouding your thoughts.

You knew she was right, and you gladly accepted her offer, ready to end this chaotic night. But before that, “I need a cigarette.”

Exiting through the kitchen door, you both stepped into the garden, the warm summer breeze enveloping you, the air refreshing and calming. Looking around the garden, you spotted familiar faces such as Yuuji and Megumi, talking to each other. It has been weeks since you last saw them, and you wanted to catch up to them.

Suddenly, a fleck of pink caught your eye. You turned your head and saw Sukuna, leaning casually against the wall, an unlit cigarette between his curved lips. His eyes were fixated on someone before him, flickering with a flirtatious glint. When Sukuna looks at someone, he can make one feel like the only person in the world, the intensity of his undivided attention will leave you intoxicated, craving it like a drug you couldn’t live without. It’s the same look he gave you back in the early days when he´d forced you to talk after class with him. Now the same flirty look is directed at Mei Mei, who had positioned herself dangerously close to him. One hand lay rest on his bicep, while the other held the lighter, her eyes glued to his lips, waiting for them to curl to light up his cigarette.

A pang, no, explosion of jealousy seared through your body- a flaming hot flush spread from your cheeks down to your neck as your thoughts scrambled to make sense of what you were seeing. Tears started to form at your waterline. “This must be a bad dream,” you whispered to yourself, praying any seconds now you´ll wake up at your desk, your sketches splattered around as if no time had passed.

But as hard as you pinched yourself, the nightmare didn’t end, and instead you were haunted by their presence, her wandering hands on his arms, bodies almost flush against each other.

Your trembling hands clenched into fists as you tried to contain your anger.

You wanted to scream at the top of your lungs, but all the words are caught in your throat.  Even through the ringing of your ears, you could hear the sounds of their laughter, echoing in your head, as if mocking you.

Suddenly, you were embraced in a big hug from your friend Yuuji. “Hey Y/N, what’s up?” he beamed at you, his loud voice almost bursting your ears as it pulled you out of your thoughts, only for you heart to drop in your stomach as your boyfriend looked in your direction. While you half-listened to Yuuji's endless ramblings, your attention was solely fixed on Sukuna's stupid lips, losing their smirk, his stupid eyes widening for just a split second and his stupid hands finally pushing Mei Mei away. As he walked towards you, you couldn’t help but wonder, would he have kept on going if he hadn’t been caught?

“Don't make a big deal out of this, okay? Just trust me." Your mouth hung open in shock, your brain struggling to process what he just said. You would’ve thought he´d come here to at least give you a half-assed attempt at an apology, and maybe show remorse for his actions, but even that was too much for his pride. The way he looked at you, his eyebrows pinched together, made your pulse rise, your body ready to lash out and hurt him as much as he hurt you.

You were reminded of all the times you were sticking up for him, fighting tooth and nail for your friends and family to give him a chance. He promised to try his hardest for this relationship to work, and like a fool, you trusted him. You should’ve known that you can entertain Sukuna for so long before he gets bored. “You left me to hang out with your friends, after you convinced me to come. You´ve been shitty and moody, ruining my entire night. And now you have the audacity to ask me to trust you, after I caught you cheating on me?”

“I´m not fucking cheating on you,” he sneered, eyebrows pinched together. Being so caught up with your boyfriend, you didn’t realize that everyone around you was silently watching and listening. But he did as he whispered through clenched teeth, “And stop making a scene, are you trying to get attention?”

A dry laughter escaped your throat as you began to walk away, far away from him. “I guess you´re right.” The tears burned your eyes, but you refused to let him see them. At this point you had no energy left, exhaustion finally caught up on you, the only thing you wanted was crawling into your warm and cozy bed. “I´m done with you and done with this relationship.”

“What do you mean done?” he asked, his quick footsteps almost catching up on you and he was hoping that you would slow down. “Babe, just wait a damn minute.”  he called, an exasperated sigh followed. Soon he overtook you with his long legs, his big hand circling your wrist, his grip as firm as cement, in vain you tried to pull your hand away.

“I shouldn’t have let her put her hands on me like that, I admit it,” the timbre of his voice changed, showing his dire attempt to look apologetic. “Only you´re allowed.” You didn’t feel any comfort; his words rang empty.

“Yeah, right.” Your eyes glistened with unshed tears, remembering the scene earlier, tugging at your heartstrings. You saw it in his eyes, how he almost gave in to temptation if not for Yuuji´s loud voice interrupting them. How could he not? Mei Mei is beautiful vixen. It´s obvious to anyone with a set of eyes that she was trying to seduce him and even someone as smart and quick-witted as Sukuna isn’t immune to her charms, as he is, after all, just a man. “Did you forget that you are mine, not hers? Did your thick skull seriously forget you have a girlfriend again?!”

“No. But do you seriously expect from me to totally ignore other women, because you´re acting like a jealous bit-”

Slap. The crisp thud of your hand slapping across his face echoed in your head. There´s a lingering tinge of numbness in your hand, but every fibre of your being was engulfed by an intense flame, that it didn’t matter. Sukuna held his now red cheek, the sharp pain left him stunned.

“Don’t you dare insult me,” your voice rose. “You humiliated me in front of everyone! Are you that desperate to entertain any girl who looks your way?” chests flush against each other, your eyes shoot daggers as you tried to contain the rage you felt.

“Do you honestly believe I´ll just sit quietly and watch while you cheat on me?” Your voice cracked in the middle of your sentence. “You may think you´re some kind of king, who can do whatever he wants. Well, newsflash, you´re not. You´re a nobody, a mistake. It´s over now, you’ve had your fun with me.”

He stood tall and broad, his muscles quivered with barely restrained fury, like a force on the brink of explosion, but he still managed to display a vicious grin that promises nothing but bad intentions. “I can't say I had my fun with you, can I?” His breathing became unsteady.

“Didn’t even let me fuck your stuck-up ass,” he sneered, each word he spoke was like a thundercrack landing nearby, the impact making you flinch. It hurt. It hurt so much, that you were unable to stop the tears pouring down your hot, blotched face.

“Aw, don’t cry baby,” he taunted, his thumbs wiping the tears from your face, smearing them all over your cheeks. “It's cute how you thought I actually cared about you. You were nothing more than a project for me, you know? Just wanted to see out how long it'd take for little miss prude to open up her legs for me. I guess we'll never find out now.”

He leaned in, grinning, whispering in you ear like it was some secret. “What a shame.”

With your eyes growing distant, you felt his sharp claws piercing your heart, squeezing the life out of it. Like the cruel monster he is, Sukuna ripped your heart violently from your chest, held it in his hand and feasted on it with his sharp fangs. His eyes turned cold, relishing the pained expression on your face, enjoying the sound of your gasps as it was some kind of sweet music to his ears.

In a swift motion, you rushed out of the garden, leaving him with his heart still intact while yours is shattered into a thousand pieces, Nobara quickly rushed up behind you. Once you were out of his sight, she wrapped her arms around you in a comforting hug as you screamed all your pain in a torrent of tears and sobs.

[lixenn]

Okay so I declined the position which of course means I feel like I made a horrible mistake but it's over and done with no changing my mind now.

At least the guy was super understandable which was nice.

On the other hand I just handed in another application since that one is considerably more in my skillset so keeping my fingers crossed that they will answer.

It's at a uni clinic and tbh I've had good experiences with them answering promptly? but idk how it will work out in an official application.

Only negative side is that if they take me finding an apartment will be horrendous and I might actually be forced to move back into my uni city which... I honestly don't want to do that that place is kinda shitty. At least I could temporarly sleep over at my friends place until I find something.