#was reminded by the really cool one of soul from earlier
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WIP lil art that i wanna finish but dunno which to use {might do both but idk what to start with}
[I drew these like, 2 months ago so they a lil old apologies]
#im indecisive help#i don't usually post WIPs but dunno what do#also these are based off the wheel of fortune tarot card#these aren't for the one that's a collab btw im not cool or brave enough for that lol#this is just my own thing#was reminded by the really cool one of soul from earlier#go look at that one its rlly rlly cool#chonny jash
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Hey, a while back you did a bunch of Genshingirls walking in on their S/O with a body pillow of them. Why don’t we flip the script this time? S/O walks in to see the girls (or guys!) with a body pillow of *them*!
One character I do ask for is Bernadetta.
(Genshin Impact/FE3H) Furina, Ayaka, Yae, Shenhe, Kokomi, Bernadetta, Edelgard, and Marianne with a body pillow of their S/O
The implications of someone making a body pillow of yourself is both hilarious and terrifying.
Furina's eyes go wide once the door opens, leading her to rush something underneath the blanket seeing her S/O.
(S/O) "Hey, I'm ba-...Furina?"
She has her usual smug expression as she dramatically blew a kiss to them.
(Furina) "Ah, welcome back dear! I must say you are home far earlier than I expected!"
(S/O) "Is everything alright? You're sweating a lot."
(Furina) "Ah? This? I just summoned one of my little friends to cool me off is all!"
(S/O) "On our bed?"
...
S/O walked over to them and immediately put their hand on her forehead, stunning her for a moment.
(S/O) "Your face is burning hot! Jeez, no wonder you needed them. Let's get you a change of clothes-"
(Furina) "W-WAIT!"
S/O ripped off the blanket and saw themselves on a pillow, forcing them to make sure they weren't going insane.
Furina for her part was doing her best impression of a tomato, with her two fingers awkwardly tapping the blanket and doing everything in her power to not look them in the eyes.
(S/O) "Why do you...H-How...?!"
(Furina) "L-LISTEN! YOU WEREN'T HOME AND..."
Furina began pouting as she put the blanket up to her face, probably about to explode from embarassment.
S/O was flattered at least, but...who even gave this to her?
(S/O) "Where have you been hiding this whenever I have been home?"
(Furina) "...Closet."
Her muffled voice responded.
Ayaka felt that having a body pillow of her S/O felt so...strange.
It was so weird, who even has this kind of thing of their significant other?!
But...it was not too dissimilar from keeping a picture of them, so maybe....?
Ayaka hides the pillow from everyone, and not a single soul besides her knows about it.
Whenever she was missing them, Ayaka would hold onto the pillow, counting the days until S/O could return.
...Until her door slid open.
(S/O) "Surprise! I'm here early-"
Ayaka's absolutely mortified expression speaks for itself as its inches away from a picture of S/O, pasted onto the pillow.
The two said nothing as they kept unblinking eye contact.
(Ayaka) "...Please don't tell anyone about this."
Yae commissioned an artist that she knows to put S/O onto a pillow.
There was something similar going on with Ei, which gave her this idea to begin with.
Yae put the pillow right smack in the middle of the bedroom and waited for S/O's arrival that night.
She could already imagine their reaction, but why imagine it when you can just see it?
Finally, Yae could hear the door creak open, and her smirk increased tenfold.
(S/O) "Yae, I'm home. Hm, what's that on-"
Yae bursts out laughing when S/O pauses and their face scrunches up upon seeing themselves.
Wiping away a tear from her eye, she greets S/O.
(Yae) "Is something the matter, I thought you'd appreciate me always thinking of you."
(S/O) "Why is it so well drawn?"
(Yae) "I paid someone a substantial amount of Mora to get your likeliness down well, little one.~"
She starts laughing again seeing their exasperated sighing.
Shenhe was gifted a body pillow of S/O, strangely enough by Cloud Retainer.
(Cloud Retainer) "One believes that you would appreciate a reminder of your loved one in physical form. At least, that is what the Traveler has spoken."
And Shenhe not really knowing how ANY human interaction works, took it at face value as well.
After all, Shenhe does feel that strange longing in her heart for S/O, there was at least this nice picture of them to keep her satisfied until now.
S/O eventually comes home to find Shenhe hugging the pillow of themselves in the living room, making them do a double take.
(S/O) "...Shenhe?"
(Shenhe) "S/O. It's good to see you again."
Her eyes slightly narrow.
(Shenhe) "Is something wrong? Your expression is changed."
(S/O) "Is...that a pillow of myself?"
(Shenhe) "Yes. It was a gift from master."
S/O noticed how tightly Shenhe was holding onto the pillow, before they came in, and she proceeded to hug them just as tight.
(Shenhe) "It brings...some comfort when you are not here."
S/O sighed, but gave her a smile.
(S/O) "That's touching...in a weird way."
(Shenhe) "How is a pillow of you weird?"
(S/O) "Hoo boy..."
Kokomi's body pillow of S/O: +1000 Energy
It embarrasses her to no end that the pillow actually boosts her energy.
But if she couldn't cuddle with her S/O, then there was the next best thing!
At least, that was the plan until the real one walked into her hideaway.
(S/O) "Kokomi, I brought some sna-"
She was so tired that she didn't even notice them.
Kokomi has a soft smile, hugging the pillow of them tightly as her shoulders relaxed.
S/O walked up to Kokomi, unsure to call her name again or tap her in the shoulder.
Both would equally startle her, considering.
They would have to do neither, as Kokomi opened her eyes and saw them standing in front of her.
(Kokomi) "AAAGH?! S-S/O?!"
She quickly tried to hide the body pillow behind her before giving up and sighing.
(Kokomi) "I'm...s-sorry."
S/O gave her a smile before hugging her, letting her relax into their embrace.
All the while, respectfully not looking at themselves.
(S/O) "...How long have you had that pillow, Kokomi?"
(Kokomi) "Please don't tease me about that, dear."
Okay, even Bernadetta could admit that having a pillow of her boyfriend/girlfriend was weird.
But...it brought her comfort, and no one really entered her room anyway, so who cares?
It's not like anyone was gonna see it.
She holds onto the pillow like a lifeline, sighing in content.
(Bernadetta) "Oh, Pillow S/O, thank you for bringing me comfort in my times of need..."
(S/O) "...I don't do that?"
(Bernadetta) "Of course you do! Like nothing el-"
She realized that it spoke up, and slowly turned behind her.
(S/O) "...H-Hi."
Bernadetta was completely frozen in place, eyes widened in absolute terror.
(S/O) "Please tell me you didn't get Ignatz to draw that for you-"
(Bernadetta) "I-IT WAS A GIFT, I SWEAR!"
(S/O) "I'm...not sure that's any better, sweetie..."
It was absolutely disgraceful to Edelgard to have a pillow of her S/O!
The Emperor of Adrestia needs to have more tact than...whatever the hell this was.
But at the same time...she didn't have the heart to throw it away.
She instead keeps it, but WELL out of sight of anyone that could find it.
Honestly, Edelgard would rather a thief find her gold than this pillow.
Unfortunately for her, someone worse found it.
(S/O) "Edelgard, is my clothes in the closet? I can't seem to find my jacket."
(Edelgard) "Hm? Oh yes, it should be-"
Her eyes shoot wide open as she quickly spins around, and rushes to the closet door.
She slammed it shut, giving S/O a panicked look.
(S/O) "WOAH! W-What's gotten int-"
(Edelgard) "B-BY THE EMPEROR'S DECREE, I FORBID YOU FROM OPENING THAT DOOR!"
As if on cue, the door instead fell over to the side from Edelgard's strength, and out flopped the body pillow of S/O onto the ground.
(S/O) "..."
(Edelgard) "..."
Marianne truthfully didn't even want this body pillow.
It was gifted to her by Raphael, and she couldn't say no.
The picture portraying S/O was tasteful and quite well drawn, but who keeps a picture of someone they love on a pillow?
It just felt extremely awkward, and Marianne did not want to deal with it.
She was in her room with Hilda, not sure what to do.
(Hilda) "Wow, okay that's kinda creepy. But sweet too, in a weird way!"
(Marianne) "I suppose, but it seems rude to throw it away if it's so well crafted."
(Hilda) "Iunno. Maybe hang it on a wall? It is a picture after all!"
The door to her bedroom opened, and both of them saw S/O enter.
(S/O) "Hey Mari-...Oh, Hilda! What are you doing in here?"
(Hilda) "Heya. Just trying to figure out what to do with this gift."
(S/O) "What gi-....Oh."
All three of them stared at the picture, unsure what to do.
(S/O) "Um...did you?-"
(Marianne) "I did not make this..."
(S/O) "O-Okay good..."
(Hilda) "Well whatever you guys decide to do, just don't let Claude se it!"
Marianne and S/O gave each other an awkward glance, putting it gently into their closet and deciding it'd be best to figure that out later.
They forgot about it, and Marianne gets jumpscared by the pillow of S/O sometimes.
A/N: OH MY GOOOOD IT'S SO NOSTALGIC WRITING FOR 3H AGAIN
#genshin impact x reader#fire emblem three houses x reader#furina x reader#ayaka kamisato x reader#yae miko x reader#shenhe x reader#kokomi x reader#bernadetta x reader#edelgard x reader#marianne von edmund x reader#furina genshin impact#ayaka kamisato#yae miko#shenhe genshin impact#kokomi sangonomiya#bernadetta von varley#edelgard von hresvelg#marianne von edmund#genshin impact imagines#genshin impact headcanons#fire emblem three houses imagines#fire emblem three houses headcanons
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When Y/n Met Alessia
W.C.- 13,8 k
Warnings: angst
A/n: I don't have all the life expericence for this but oh well.
June 26th 2017
Stepping into the airport, the cool air a contrast to the uncommon but not unwelcome air of the hot and sticky June day. It wafts over your exposed skin, arms and legs free for the world to look at as you avoid the early morning traffic in the large London airport.
You drag your suitcase behind you in a hurry as you look for gate 23, flight towards the so-called “land of dreams” waiting for you to board it. This time last year, you were looking at the mail telling you that you had the chance to play football in America on a full ride scholarship and further your ability to play the game.
The cheapest flight you had been able to find was one that required a stopover in North Carolina before taking you to LA, and UCLA. You didn’t mind the extra time it took to get to your final destination, always able to entertain yourself one way or another.
Finally arriving at the gate, you sit down for a breather. To the left of you there was an older gentleman and to the right was one of the most gorgeous people you’d ever seen, the girl taller than most with blinding blond locks and glittering blue eyes able to captivate any soul.
“Gate 23 boarding now! Gate 23 boarding now!” You hear over the intercom, reminding you of whenever you’d travel with your team as a youngster. Loud sniffling from your right has you looking up and towards the young woman, obviously saying goodbye to her family standing around her. You stop looking at them when you once again hear the boarding call, standing up and walking to where you get your tickets scanned.
Sitting down in the comfortable seat beside the window, you put your bag under the seat in front of you before clicking the seatbelt into place and leaning back in the chair. Louis Armstrong’s strong vocals flow through the headphones placed on your head as you take a moment to relax after the hectic morning. You feel the shaking of the seat as another person sits in the seat beside you, their soft arm grazing yours as she accidentally kicks your shin.
Peeking out one eye, you see the gorgeous blonde from before in the seat beside yours, the young girl sighing as she runs a hand over her face. Deciding to start a conversation, you quickly think of a point of conversation. You pull your headphones down around your neck, the music still playing loudly and providing a soundtrack to the whole scene.
“Grape?” Holding out the bag of grapes to the stranger, who looks at you with a rather astonished look on her face. As expected, she shakes her head and you simply shrug, popping one right in your mouth and chewing on it for a second before spitting the core back into the bag.
“So, tell me the story of your life.” You’re nothing if not persistent, and right now you were persistent on speaking with the girl who seemed about your age. Looking on as she sputters and throws out different filler words, you continue to eat your grapes.
“We’ve got 12 hours until we reach North Carolina” You add on to your earlier comment.
“The story of my life? It won’t get us very far, that’s why I’m going to North Carolina.” There was a slight hesitance to her voice as she vaguely told you about her plans. You’re quick with your response.
“For something significant to happen to you? Pray tell, what?”
“I’m on a scholarship to play football, so that’s what I’ll do.” She snaps back.
“So you can go and play professionally later?” It wasn’t really phrased like a question, rather a statement.
“Yes, if I get the right opportunities then I will.” Her mind goes to a different place for a second, while you suddenly feel that drop of the stomach associated with rollercoasters. You hadn’t even noticed the plane moving, too caught up in your conversation with the pretty stranger.
“Suppose that doesn’t happen, suppose you don’t get those opportunities and instead of playing football you live out the rest of your life behind a desk until you die one of those tragic deaths that no one notices until the stench of death becomes overbearing, what happens then?” You knew it was quite harsh, but it was something you had to live with as a footballer, the fact that you might not get those opportunities that someone else might get.
The girl looks at you for a second, surprise clear in her expression before it turns slightly sour. She doesn’t even bother answering you as she puts on her own headphones and picks up a book, not paying attention to you anymore. You shrug as you return your headphones to your ears although keeping one off your ear, still eating your grapes.
“You have a dark side” Comes from the pretty blonde next to you, making you snap your head up in her direction.
“What?” She wasn’t expecting you to hear what she said as she looks towards you with a deer-in-the-headlights kind of look.
“A…A dark side. I said that you have a dark side.” Your eyes express a certain kind of playfulness unable to be expressed by your tone.
“What a peculiar thing to say to a stranger. Nonetheless, it’s not like you’re wrong, the dark side is what draws them to me.” Your tone was full of mirth as you took in her closed off stature.
“Draws who to you?”
“The lasses, of course!” She looks at you skeptically, like she doesn’t really believe you before giving you a small smile. You shoot one back at her, feeling like she’s opening up slightly.
“Why don’t you have a dark side? I bet that you’re one of those people who dot their I’s with small hearts.” Somehow, it’s like the statement of her personality makes her open up fully to you.
“Hey! I’ve got just as much of a dark side as anyone.” The smile on her face gives you the indication that she in fact does not have the proclaimed dark side, instead being a ball of sunshine.
“Oh really? D’you want to know what I do when I buy a new book?” You don’t even give her time to answer before telling her. “I read the last page first so that if I die, I atleast know the ending. That, is what you call a dark side, my sweet stranger.”
There is a pause in the conversation as she thinks over what you’d just said, before she answers you with just as much confidence.
“Well that doesn’t mean you’re deep or anything, you know? So what, I’m a happy person-”
“Me too” She glares at your interruption before she continues. “And frankly, I don’t see anything wrong with that at all.”
“No, you’re too busy being happy to. Do you ever think about death? More than just a fleeting thought.”
“Yes” She responds, albeit a little nervously.
“Sure you do, pretty girl. I spend hours thinking about-” The footballer besides you blushes as you call her pretty girl, which you make sure to take note of, the reaction making it all more fun for you.
“That’s what makes you such a great person?” She scoffs as she interrupts you like you did not too long before.
“No but when it happens, I’ll be prepared for it, unlike you. That’s my point”
“So you’re ruining your life in anticipation for an event which could be years, millenniums away?” Her tone indicates that she thinks your thought process is ridiculous and with that she turns back to her book.
After dozing off for a few hours, you awake to the sound of the flight attendant asking you what meal you wanted. As soon as you get a hold of the meal, you dig into it, being hungry after your little nap.
“So, pretty girl, is there any chance for me to take you out for coffee?” You speak up between bites, the airplane food not really to your liking as you frown in slight disgust.
“What?” The fact that she isn’t laughing at you or optionally throwing her water in your face is a good sign to you.
“A coffee? You know the hot beverage you drink?”
“I know what coffee is, you moron” Holding your hands up beside your face in an ‘I’m innocent’ gesture, you don’t feel hurt by the remark in the slightest.
“So, coffee?” She runs her hand down her face once again before answering you.
“We are just going to be friends, okay?” She sounds serious, but you can’t help the small sting that comes with the rejection not really used to being rejected. Yet you slap on an unbothered tone when you say;
“Great, friends. The bestest of friends.”
The two of you eat in silence for a second before you once again interrupt it.
“Y’know, two attractive people can never be friends, which means that we can’t be friends”
“What? Why not?” She responds just as quickly.
“I don’t want you to think that I’m coming on to you or anything, but it’s just the attraction that comes between them” Alessia can feel herself losing brain cells as she listens to your commentary of friendship.
“That’s not true. I have a multitude of attractive friends who aren’t attracted to me.” Her irritation just serves as another reason to spur you on as you continue to babble on about attraction and how everything is made up. Under the short time you’ve spent together, she’s managed to learn how to tune you out and let your voice be part of the background.
“...And that’s why you can’t be friends with hot people as a hot person.”
“Mhm, yeah whatever you say.” You can tell that she’s tired of your constant babbling so you decide to just shut up and listen to your music. That leads to you once again falling asleep, although this time you sleep until the end of the long flight.
Coincidentally, it’s Alessia who has to wake you from your deep slumber, the woman muttering apologies as she accidentally hits you slightly too hard and making you wince. As you rise from your seats, you pick up the bag that you left before following Alessia out the plane.
You give her a small smile as she says goodbye, starting to walk away from you and effectively your life. That is when you realize that you hadn’t even introduced yourself before jumping right into the deep talk.
“HEY! Pretty girl, wait up!” She slows her steps when she once again hears your voice echoing through all the chaos, waiting for you to catch up to her. She hears rapid footsteps coming towards her as you seemingly run as fast as you can.
“I never caught your name.”
“Alessia, that’s my name” Trying it out on your tongue, you decide that you adore the name she was given.
“Y/n, pleasure to meet you.”
And with that you went your separate ways, at least for a little while.
3 months later
After a good start to the college season you had been called up to the U20’s squad along with a multitude of people. So after packing enough clothes for a week, you set off back to your home country of England along with a certain forward you’d been keeping your eye on.
After another gruesome couple of hours sitting on a plane, this time next to a screaming baby and a grumbling old man, you finally arrive at the London airport where you’re later picked up by a staff member. The drive towards the hotel is a relatively short one, and when you step out of the car you suddenly feel as though you don’t belong there. The hotel is big, much larger than any hotel you’d ever been to before with tens of different floors and a humongous lobby.
You get greeted by the concierge as soon as you walk in the doors, the place having been a drop off center for the footballers. Looking around the lobby, trying to recognise a few faces you suddenly feel a presence beside you.
Your eyes flit over to the left of you as you see one of your childhood friends from the Arsenal youth program talking with the gorgeous girl from the plane, Alessia the North Carolina footballer. You decide to slide up to the pair subtly, not interrupting their conversation as they laugh and talk. There is a pause as Lotte finally looks in your direction, gasping as she quickly takes you into her hold for a tight hug until she excitedly pulls away, ready to introduce you to one of her other best friends. Looking directly into Alessia’s breathtaking eyes for the first time since that flight, you decide to pretend to not recognise the girl who’d you kept up with even through all the time apart.
“Alessia, this is my childhood best friend Y/n Y/l/n, we played together on the Arsenal youth squad. And Y/n, this is Alessia Russo, we play together for UNC” Lotte introduces you to each other and you see as a flash of recognition passes her eyes, remembering you from the plane ride. Smiling, you stick your hand out for her to shake as a gesture of politeness.
“Lovely to meet you Alessia Russo, I would stay to talk but I’ve got to talk to one of the coaches so I’ll see you both later.” The woman clutches your hand in a tight grip before letting go so that you can walk away from the two of them.
You feel a slight sense of déjà vu as you walk away from them, your suitcase rolling behind you like it had done the first time you’d met. Overhearing part of their conversation even after you’ve walked away, you hear Alessia tell Lotte about your behavior on the plane 3 months before.
Eventually, after talking with your coach to get a clear picture of how camp was going to go, you are informed of the meeting taking place in a couple of minutes meaning that you had to run to get there in time. Barging in through the doors, the only open seat around the large circular table is one between a brunette girl who’s name you hadn't learnt yet and Lotte. Much to your luck, Alessia is sitting next to the girl who looks up as you take your seat beside her. The head coach jumps right into the meeting when everyone is present, explaining which countries you would play and a couple other things you’d already known about from your earlier talk.
Leaning your body forward to look around that of the girl’s, you try to get Alessia’s attention with a quick but quiet enough whisper.
“Alessia, psst, Alessia, don’t ignore me.” As the last syllable falls from your lips she snaps her head towards you harshly and you’re surprised that she doesn’t get whiplash from the sudden movement.
“What?” Her whisper is albeit a bit louder than yours, attracting the attention of the footballers around you as they watch the interaction.
“How’s life at UNC?” You reply back as she rolls her eyes dramatically, obviously annoyed by you talking to her. Before she can say anything, the brunette girl between you cuts in with her own question.
“Oh, do you two know each other?” She shifts her attention between you and Alessia, while you gesture for Alessia to answer.
“We sat together on a plane to America for 12 hours a couple of months ago” She grumbles out quietly, not wanting to pull more attention from the girls around her.
“Would you two like to sit together?” The girl offers.
“Yes” “No” Even with Alessia’s no, the girl gets up from her seat as you trade places subtly.
“So how’s life been at UNC? Have you found love yet?” You ask her excitedly, nosy and ready for some insider information.
“Not that it’s any of your business, but yes I have a girlfriend” Her tone is nonchalant as she speaks, her gaze turned forwards so as to not give you any indication of what she’s thinking at that exact moment. After a few seconds of silence, you replicate her as you turn your gaze towards the front of the room.
“How about you then? Have you found someone?” Like a parrot, she repeats your earlier question.
“Yes, I met a lovely girl the first week of being there.”
“You found a girl who actually likes you? I guess every dog gets its day” Your mouth drops open in shock at her comment.
“First of all, rude. Secondly, I’m a terrific lover, just ask your mother.” The stunned silence was interrupted by the coach clapping his hands to signal the end of the meeting. Alessia stands up abruptly, picking up her luggage and walking out the room without another word.
You quickly do the same, picking up everything and walking out the room at a fast pace to be able to catch up with the tall girl. Thankfully, your own legs were pretty long so it didn’t take long for you to be walking side to side with the blonde girl who was visibly annoyed at you. You laugh slightly as you speak up to get her attention;
“Hey wait up pretty girl, I’m sorry, sometimes my mouth moves faster than my brain can comprehend. How about you let me take you out for dinner as an apology?”
She sends you a glare at the suggestion, making you put one of your hands up in an ‘I’m innocent’ gesture before you turn back to the conversation.
“As friends of course” You gesture wildly with your hands to prove your point whilst she just continues to glare forward.
“I thought two attractive people couldn’t be friends” She quotes your exact words back to you, and seeing the opportunity to tease her even more, that is exactly what you do.
“So you think that I’m attractive then?” Out of the corner of your eye, you see how she splutters, trying to think of a reply before you decide to save her from the misery you created. But she seemingly gathers herself before you could speak the words on your mind, the girl obviously having some sort of resentment towards you by now.
“You’re insufferable, you know” After that she picks up her pace, walking away from you and effectively the conversation. It wasn’t like you didn’t know that you could be a bit unruly and insufferable sometimes, but that didn’t calm the sting any less.
You leave the blonde girl alone for the rest of camp, not wanting to upset her even more than you already had. When you return to America it’s with the promise of getting called up more and a slightly bruised ego.
5 years later…
“She broke up with me, said she fell in love with her co-worker. I don’t know what I did wrong and it’s not fair that she gets to go and be happy with someone else when I wasted five fucking years of my life on her” You pace the length of the living room of your teammate’s apartment in Frankfurt where you were staying for a bit. As soon as your girlfriend - now ex - had revealed that she was in love with someone other than you, you packed up all your necessities before leaving the apartment you had called home for the last two years. At first, the only emotion coursing through your veins was sadness and genuine misery but that quickly transformed into rage at how she possibly could have done this to you.
Now you weren’t really sure what to feel, rambling to your absolute best friend since freshman year of college who never failed to lift your mood. After the uncertainty of the 2020 college season, you did as many other internationals did and signed a contract with a club in Europe who could ensure top level football. That’s where Eintracht Frankfurt came in, signing you before any other club could even offer you a contract.
After spending the last two years in the German league and your girlfriend breaking up with you, you needed new scenery and people to surround you with. Your preferred destination was that of your home country, after experiencing your first major tournament at home you quickly realized that very few things could compare to winning on home turf. And with your contract ending later in the season, you were pretty sure that you would get your homecoming soon.
But until that, you’d have to play in Germany seeing as the transfer window was still a few months away.
“Jess, honestly I just want to go back to England and play. This city reminds me way too much of Heather, and it’s painful” The pure fatigue expressed through your voice over the crackling connection of her phone has Jessie worrying for your wellbeing.
“I think that it would be good for you to do what you want. I’m not going to tell you to stay or leave, do what feels right for you.” You stay quiet for a second, catching a glimpse of the clock situated near the entrance makes your eyes widen and you rush to apologize for taking up so much of her precious time before hanging up.
Slapping your hands over your face and sighing, you sit down on the couch while feeling the tears well in your eyes again. The emotional toll the last few days had on you put you right to sleep, unaware of the similar situation in your home country involving a certain blonde forward.
4 months later
Getting off the plane from Frankfurt to Manchester was a relief, even with the short duration it was a nightmare. A toddler seemed to think that the back of your seat was the perfect target for his feet to hit over and over, the young couple in front of you had decided to argue the entire time and give you a pounding headache, and to put the final nail in the coffin there was a horrible whistling sound that even your headphones couldn’t drown out. So to say that you were slightly regretting your decision to go on loan to the red devils was an understatement.
Instead of going directly to the hotel you would stay at while your living arrangements were in order, you were on your way to the training grounds for the mandatory signing pictures with the higher ups and to meet the team.
It was tedious to have to stand with all the men and pose for signing pictures but alas, it is part of the job, but what happens after that is what you’re looking forward to. Meeting your new team is usually a time where you get to know new people and a time of fun that you always take advantage of, which is exactly why when you stand beside the older man waiting for practice to end, you are practically bouncing off your feet in anticipation.
The whistle shrieking loudly wakes you from the slight daydream you were experiencing and you finally exit the tunnel behind the executive of the club. You can hear a faint introduction and how Marc tells the team about the arrival of a new player, trying to amp up the excitement of your new teammates.
As you come into view you hear a shout of excitement and you quickly brace yourself for the imminent hit of the Spanish girl’s body. Still, when her body slams into yours it knocks the air out of your lungs. She wraps her legs around your waist as you wrap your arms tightly around her midsection so that she wouldn’t fall.
“I can’t believe you’re here, I mean what are you doing here?” Her sweet accented voice expresses in disbelief, not really believing you were there.
“Onita, I’m the new player.” She releases her koala hold on you as she jumps down to the ground, but she doesn’t let you go too far before she wraps her arm around your waist while eagerly pulling you towards the rest of the team, who were watching the interaction with faces full of confusion.
Ona and you had a rather peculiar history, you’d met when you were vacationing in Spain when you were 7 years old. The two of you hit it off directly and that led to your entire vacation being spent with the Batlle family, culminating a great friendship between your families that led to you spending your summers in Spain. If you had international tournaments during the summer, then both you and Ona would take the same plane back to Spain, even if one of you had been knocked out earlier in the tournament. Her family was your family and vice versa, there was no denying how close the two of you were.
You timidly wave to the large selection of women before your rather lanky frame is pulled into yet another grip, this time into the strong grip of one Mary Earps who is clearly happy to see you there. Soon enough, you’re surrounded by the women in red asking question after question, to which you give answers.
Alessia hangs back, letting her teammates swarm you as she sits down on the grass pitch. She picks at the grass, pulling it out of the ground and twisting it between her long fingers as she waits for the team to be done. Eventually she hears everything quiet down as they vacate to the locker room to change and shower.
She hears the muted sound of you sitting down next to her, more flopping down onto the ground than sitting down you suppose. Alessia doesn’t give you any attention as she continues her minstations to the ground beneath her, although one question peaks her mind.
“How do you and Ona know each other?” With swift attention, you look at her before answering with a question of your own.
“The long or short version?” Your eyes stay glued to her side profile as she thinks, and your eyes ultimately meet hers when she turns her head in your direction.
“Long” With that you start telling the story, gesturing vividly with your hands to emphasize events and points of the story.
When the team finds you, you’re both laughing despite the cold settling deep into your bones, and they decide not to disturb you. If they’re being honest, they hadn’t seen Alessia that happy and at peace since she had been broken up with.
At last, the two of you notice how dark it suddenly had become and as you look at the time displayed on your phone, you’re quick to get up. Holding out your hand, you pull Alessia back up to her feet, telling her the time and seeing as her eyes widen exponentially.
“I’m so sorry for taking up so much of your time” Her gaze softens as she looks up at you with her big doe eyes.
“Don’t be, I had fun. Now come on, I’ve got to change and then I’m taking you home” You open your mouth to protest, but she gives you a stern look that tells you she’s not going to change her mind.
A soft smile grazes your face as you stand outside of the locker room, waiting for the girl you had been so desperate to befriend, the girl who hadn’t given you the time of day during all the camps since the one in late 2017.
“You ready to go?” You just nod your head instead of giving her a verbal response, not trusting your voice after you’d seen the way her eyes shifted around your face and how her wet hair was spayed out over her shoulders.
“So how’s the girlfriend?” She asks you, the question innocent in its own right, but it digs up some emotions you’d rather not deal with at that exact moment. So instead, you push them down, telling her about the break up.
“She broke up with me, something about falling in love with one of her co-workers. I wasted 5 years of my life with her, but it doesn’t matter anymore because I’m over her. How about you? How’s it going with the missus?” Alessia’s heart broke for you, spending 5 years of your life with someone only for them to betray your trust and fall in love with someone else while still in a relationship.
“Oh, we broke up. Grew apart, and it just didn’t work out the way we wanted.” Somehow, even after the revelation of your relationships ending the mood wasn’t dampened as she drove you to the hotel you were staying at and waved goodbye with a promise to pick you up for training in the morning.
—-
“No, the order goes like this nr 1 the original Die Hard, then Die hard 2, after that it’s Die hard 4, Die hard 3 and last of all Die hard 5. It’s the only acceptable order to rank the movies in, I can’t believe how much you butchered your list.” You exclaim as you’re exiting her car, closing the door with a little more power than usual as the two of you march towards the training grounds side by side. Alessia had been over at your apartment the last few days for your movie nights, and you had been watching Die Hard together which led to this exact discussion.
“What!? The second Die Hard movie is superior, it beats the first one by a noticeable margin.” She notices the offended look on your face as she continues. “It has more suspense, better bad guys, better storyline, superior cinematography and is just an all around better movie” By now, you’ve entered the locker room as she argues her point.
“No, you’re all wrong-”
“Girls, girls, leave your nerdy arguments outside of this locker room please.” Ella slid in between the two of you, looking much smaller beside two of the tallest players on the team. She reaches her arms up to wrap around you and Alessia's shoulders, nearly hanging off the ground as you and Alessia lower your heads slightly. You look at her quickly, communicating with her through your eyes as you both come to an agreement.
“Die Hard 5 is the worst one in the series, right?”
“Right” She responds.
—-
A morning without training meant that you and Alessia went out for breakfast together. You walk to the small local coffee shop together, talking and laughing along the way. After ordering your small breakfast sandwich and a coffee, you sit down outside to wait for Alessia to order whatever she wants.
The little bell above the door rings when Alessia exits and walks over to you, she sits down in the chair opposite your own. You sit in a comfortable silence for a while, waiting for the waiter to bring you the breakfast you’d ordered. When it finally arrives, you don’t wait a second before biting into the fresh bread.
“Lessi, when are you going back out on the market? I mean it’s been a couple of months since the break up, are you ready?” She sighs at the mention of her love life, knowing about the date Ella had set up for her later that day.
“Ella set me up with a blind date later tonight, so I can only hope that she chose a good one for me” That usual teasing look was back on your face as you tease her relentlessly for her date.
But when you’ve finished teasing her, you fix her with a soft smile, promising to help her get ready for the date itself. A decision you later regret as she looks between 2 shirts who in your opinion, looked the exact same.
“Less, they look the same. Choose one of them and move on, it’s not that hard. If you don’t hurry you’re going to be late.” She finally decides on the one she’s holding in her right hand and as she puts it on your jaw is on the floor, the girl in front of you looking nothing short of incredible.
“Well, what do you think?” She asks, sounding like she’s speaking under water as you just look at her, not uttering a word. She twists her rings around her fingers nervously as she awaits your reaction, but based on how you were looking at her she could only assume that she looked at least okay.
“You look…incredible, the woman lucky enough to get a date with you should be happy.” Her beaming smile and slight blush tells you everything needed to be known.
“Now, come on, you have to go or you’re going to be late. Be sure to tell me all the details later.” She blushes slightly before she rushes out her front door without closing it, already knowing you have a key to lock it all up behind her.
“So Lessi, how’d the date go? Was she everything you dreamed about and more?” You teased as she arrived at the training center the morning after her date. You had walked to training that day, not wanting to bother the blonde girl after her date.
“Horribly, she couldn’t stop talking about her ex and then she expected me to pay for everything. I don’t think I’ll ever find love again.” She exclaims dramatically, waving around with her hands before dropping them back to her side. You giggle slightly at her over dramatic behavior before you cut in with your own suggestion.
“Well, how about you join me for a double date? I have a friend who I think would be perfect for you.” At first, the girl beside you feels the need to decline the generous offer before she thinks of her friend who she’d consider your perfect match.
“Deal” She reaches her hand out for you to shake as to close a deal.
—-
Walking into the restaurant with your friend by your side, you look for Alessia’s familiar blond hair which you find after a second of looking. You walk over to where she’s sitting with her friend, her friend who seems more interested in your friend than you. The seat beside Alessia is open and you push your friend towards it, while you sit down in the chair opposite her.
“Less, this is Olivia. Olivia, this is Alessia.We play together for United.” You introduce the two women to each other as they look each other up and down, trying to see if the other matches their type. Alessia soon realizes that it’s her turn to introduce you to her friend.
“Y/n/n, this is Ava. Ava, this is Y/n. Ava, you and Y/n studied the same thing at uni.” Alessia tries to get you and her friend talking before trying to engage with Olivia.
“Oh, really? What did you study?” You turn towards the girl while speaking to her, curious about her major when she was in school. She shoots you an awkward thin lipped smile before telling you.
“Uhm, I had a major in journalism and a minor in sports science” The girl tells you, albeit a bit nervously.
The 4 of you around the table converse with each other the rest of the meal, bonding slightly and seeing the different things you have in common. But when the desserts come out is when the real party starts. You’ve all had a couple glasses of wine, to the point where you could be considered somewhat tipsy and conversation is flowing nicely. Your date, Ava, seems more interested in moving her dessert around on her plate than talking to you, talking at all. That is until the local paper is named, more specifically the send-in segment of the paper where you could send in all types of questions to be answered. You didn’t even know that anyone actually read the physical copies of the paper anymore.
“I read that for a successful date you need spontaneity, discovery and quality time.” You overhear Olivia tell Alessia, who nods diligently instead of responding. Out of the corner of your eye you see how Ava perks up at what was said.
“Wait, where did you read that?” She asks, making Olivia look at her instead of the fishtank behind you.
“In the local paper, why?” Olivia responds confusedly, not knowing where the conversation was going.
“No way! I wrote that” Ava exclaims excitedly, happy that someone was interested in her work.
Alessia and you give each other a look as the women beside you jump into talking, leaving the two of you out of the conversation. It goes on for a while before you all decide to wrap up the date, paying and walking out the door with your respective dates by your sides just all talking. Both you and Alessia pull your friends away to separate corners of a building after walking for a while, you and Olivia going to the left corner while Alessia and Ava go to the right.
“Are you planning on calling Ava?” She quickly asks you, hope present in her eyes, hope that spreads around her entire face when you shake your head no.
“But, just restrain from doing it tonight. Alessia just got broken up with and she’s still a little sensitive, y’know.” You respond, but your words just seem to go in one ear and out the other. Across the walkway, Alessia holds the same conversation with Ava.
“What do you think of Olivia?” She asks eagerly, Alessia seeing her friend's excitement.
“Meh, not really my type. I probably wouldn’t go on another date with her, but if you want to then it's totally fine. I’m just a little worried about Y/n, make sure you don’t reject her now, she’s going through a kind of rough patch you know.”
“Yeah okay, I understand.” She responds as the two groups join together again.
“Well, I don’t really feel like walking anymore, I’ll call a taxi.” Olivia waves her hand, much like they do in New York and luckily for her, a cab stopped for her.
“I’ll go with you” Ava exclaims as they cram into the back of the taxi together.
You laugh at their antics, slipping your fingers between Alessia’s as you pull her along with you.
“Come on, I’ll walk you home.” You and Alessia talk all the way back to her house, stumbling over your own feet a couple of times before reaching your final destination. You walk her up the steps before looking on as she opens her door.
Turning away, you start your descent down the steps you hear Alessia call out your name, and you turn back to her as she’s beckoning you over. When you finally reach her she puts her hands on your neck, pulling you in for one of the softest kisses you’ve ever received, from the best pair of lips you’d ever felt against your own.
“Bye Y/n”
—-
Two weeks later
You and Alessia were standing in the middle of the everything store as you called it, looking for the perfect present for one of your teammates birthdays. Your arm is slung around her shoulders as you look at the multitude of different stuff littered around the store.
Your eyes catch those of a woman standing in the middle of the store, her eyes displaying hints of recognition as she stares at you. The man beside her follows her gaze and his eyes widen exponentially at the glare he’s shot. It wasn’t like you didn’t recognise the girl you’d been dating for over 5 years and the man she’d apparently fallen in love with while still with you.
Alessia notices the lull in conversation and it makes her follow your gaze until it lands on the now approaching couple. Your fight-or-flight response kicks in as soon the woman stands a couple of steps in front of you. Alessia looks on in question as you refuse to meet her gaze, instead just looking at the woman you once called your own.
“Hi Y/n” She says and the sound of her voice revolts you to a point where you barely can hold back a giggle of disgust from escaping your throat. But despite your vivid reaction, the blood still drains from your face as you continue to look at the girl who broke your heart all those months ago and where she stands in the new town you now call home.
“Hello Heather, what are you doing in Manchester?” Your voice is strained and out the corner of your eye you see Alessia’s confused expression ease slightly.
“Oh, William and I are just out here visiting family to tell them we’re expecting.” Heather turns to her side, showing off the bump that came with being pregnant.
“Expecting what? A fucking demon? Well, have fun with that and one more thing, I never want to see you again so bye” You send them one last glare and a very sarcastic glare as you pull Alessia with you out of the store and down onto the sidewalk. You clutch her hand tightly as you move your quickest to get as far away from the store that held Satan and Satan’s spawn in it. You’ve reached the park where the old people reside when Alessia starts to call your name.
“Y/n. Y/n. Stop, we need to talk about this instead of running away from it.” She tells you, trying to get you to slow down. When you don’t, she pulls her hand away from your grip making you look at her.
“Who was that?” Alessia’s tone is as soft as a feather when she asks you, not wanting to spook you. When she sees the light sheen of tears covering your eyes, her heart breaks.
“That…was my ex” You confirm her earlier thoughts before continuing, “Fucking hell, I can’t believe her. How fucking insensative can you be to fucking do that to someone? Demented psycho.” You speak mostly to yourself.
“Hey, maybe we should go somewhere else for this conversation. There is a time and place for this, and it’s not now nor here.” She concludes.
“Well, next time I run into my ex I’ll make sure to schedule it and make sure it’s before your next lesson.” You say rather loudly, and make a few lingering couples look at you from their park benches.
“Hey! Don’t take this out on me, it’s not my fault that you ran into your ex.”She tells you in a more intense tone than before.
“I think I’m pretty entitled to throw anger pretty much everywhere, especially when I’m told how to live my life by Miss happy-go-lucky.” You know that your anger is directed at the wrong person but when you’ve started, it’s hard to stop. Alessia exhudes annoyance as she continues the conversation.
“What’s that supposed to mean!?” She asks you harshly, like she’d done in the beginning when you’d met each other.
“It means that you’re never upset! Over anything! Nothing bothers you, not even your ex.” Her expression shifts into one of anger at your words.
“You’re insufferable” She turns her heel, ready to walk away from where you stand with your arms crossed loosely across your chest, but that’s before she hears your apparent question.
“So you’ve told me! But tell me this, if you’re so over your ex then why do you not go out with people? Meet your match.” She stops in her tracks and looks back at you, fury prevalent in her gentle baby blue eyes.
“I go out with people” She exclaims angrily, walking towards you in the park. Her finger digs uncomfortably into your chest.
“Oh, you do? How many people have you been on a date with since your ex? Excluding our double date, the number is pretty low right?” Her finger digs deeper into your sternum, to the point of it hurting as she becomes even more infuriated. You see as her eyes gain their own light sheen of tears. That’s when you realize you’ve gone too far, never wanting to make the blonde girl you liked oh so much cry. But in your own misery you managed to cross that fragile line, going too far yet again. You know what they say, ‘misery loves company’ and this time your misery succeeded.
“What does that have to do with anything?” She questions, moving closer to you, so close that you can feel her breath wafting across your face. “Going on dates has no correlation to getting over someone, I can’t believe you sometimes” She shakes her head as a tear slips out the corner of her eye and tracks down her cheek, where you wipe it off with your thumb softly.
“Are you finished now?” The soft look is back in your eyes as you look at the sweet girl in front of you.
“Yes” She responds shakily, her voice matching her nervous expression.
“Can I say something?”
“Yes” She repeats.
“I’m sorry” You tell her, pulling her shaking form into your arms and comforting the shorter girl. “I’m so sorry, my love”
—
A week later, both you and Alessia had been invited over to your skipper’s house for team bonding. This time around it consisted of playing board games with the entire team. At the start of the night, Katie had the entire team get into groups of 2, you and Ona pairing up while Alessia and Ella paired up. Much to your ‘surprise’, Ona and you dominated every game. Monopoly, yes. Twister, definitely but you had been sat in quite the awkward situation with Alessia when you had to basically lay on top of her. Uno, you and Ona had always paired up for the game ever since you were 8 and you’d been winning ever since.
“Alright, gather around, gather around we’re going to play pictionary. Alessia, you’re up so take a card and draw.” Katie says as you all look towards the blue eyed beauty. She walks up to the drawing board, card in hand as the time starts. She draws different unintelligible squiggles and shapes, the seemingly randomly placed lines not making much sense. The time soon runs out and without anyone able to guess what it was she had drawn, Alessia sighs defeatedly.
“Come on, it’s a pirate in his ship” She throws out her explanation haphazardly and a few people around the room let out ‘ahhs’ in recognition of the now understandable picture.
“Y/l/n, your turn” Katie calls out for you to go up to the board placed in the middle of the room. You stand up taking a card from the holder, before you pluck the pen from Alessia’s hand as you send her a teasing wink. Her face darkens exponentially with the blush that covers it, breaking your eye contact as she looks away from you.
“Watch and learn how it’s done, love” You tell her cockily, starting to draw as soon as it’s called out that the timer has started. Within a few seconds Ona had been able to correctly guess what you had started to draw, your scattered teammates claiming the two of you cheated. As you sit back down in your previous seat beside Ona, you send another stealthy wink towards Alessia.
A few more rounds of the game go by, Ona and you guessing right a few times and effectively gaining a couple points. Eventually, Katie concludes the game making Ona and you the winners of yet another game. You were just on the same wavelength.
It had managed to get really late by that point, time for you all to return home. But before that there was a small prize ceremony, you and Ona being coined the queens of game night where you were given a small trophy each and jokingly gave thank you speeches. You all helped clean up before calling it a day, leaving the house in herds.
Just as you were beginning to start your walk back home, still not willing to buy a car even after 3 months back in your home country, Alessia calls your name.
“Y/n, come on I’ll drive you home.” She tells you, and once again you realize that you don’t have a choice on the matter when you turn around and look her right in her eyes. Sighing, you follow her back to her car where you see a barely conscious Ella Toone sitting shotgun meaning you would have to sit in the backseat.
The music played over the radio is quiet and the silence between the three of you serene. You enjoy it thoroughly following a night of shouts and loud noises. After a while Alessia stops the car to let Ella climb out of the car and go back into her house, before continuing the drive towards your apartment building. When the car is standing still at a red light, you climb into the front seat that Ella previously occupied, still not saying a word. In fact, you don’t utter a word until Alessia pulls up to your apartment building.
“Thank you Less” Out of the corner of your eye you see her smiling softly at you and you can’t resist the urge to press a kiss to the corner of her lips, all the summers in Spain making you pick up on the overly affectionate nature.
“Good night miss Russo” With that you exit the vehicle, hearing a faint “Good night miss Y/l/n” back.
—
Watching a rerun of an old game alone in your apartment, you suddenly hear the specialized ringtone you set just for Alessia echoing throughout the apartment. You look at the device in confusion before pressing the green button to accept the call. The first thing you hear is her labored breathing coming through the speakers of your phone making you perk up. The next thing you hear is her desperate and tear filled voice,
“Y/n, can you come over? I need you”
There isn’t even a second thought as you tell her you’ll be over as fast as you could, hanging up you pull on a sweater hanging loosely on a chair in the corner of your room before rushing towards the entrance, your socks sliding across the floor a couple of times. You shove your feet in your shoes, throwing open the door and nearly forgetting to lock up the apartment in your rush. There is nothing else you can do other than sprint all the way to her apartment, and for the first time since you arrived in England you curse yourself for not investing in a stupid car.
You’re fully out of breath by the time you knock on the large wooden door, the run extremely tiring despite you being an athlete. The tear tracks on her face stand out against her fair skin, a sharp contrast from her usual look.
She pulls you into her house as she continues to sob violently, your heart breaking a little every time she lets out the heart breaking sound. After closing the door behind you, you follow her into her bedroom where she lays down on her bed. Sitting down beside her splayed out form, you put your hand on her shoulder which makes her sit up slowly. She gives you a sad look that has you pulling her body into your own, rubbing slow comforting circles into her back as she cries into your neck. The skin there quickly becomes wet with a mixture of snot and tears.
After a while, you pull her face away from its hiding place, holding her at arm's length.
“What’s wrong my sweet girl?” You ask her, wiping away the tears that just seemed to flow continuously down her cheeks.
“My ex is getting married” She sees the confusion on your face so she explains further, “it means that it wasn’t that she didn’t want to get married, she just didn’t want to marry me.” A new wave of tears flow down the premises of her cheeks as she mutters out the words that had been eating away at her conscience.
“Hey, Hey, Alessia let’s backtrack okay. Did you ever ask her to marry you?” You question the girl softly.
“No, but we always talked about how pointless it was and how we didn’t want to be stuck in a loveless marriage.” She whispers back to you, her energy low from crying.
“Okay, now would you want to marry your ex?” She shakes her head vigorously to make her point. “So if you don’t want to marry her, then why are you getting so worked up?” She gives you a small shrug in response, not really knowing what to say.
“Less, there are millions of people who would marry you in a heartbeat if they had the chance. Your ex is a very incredibly stupid person for letting someone as good as you go.” You reassure the forward softly, looking her directly in the eyes to show her that you’re telling the truth.
“Do you really think that?” She asks you timidly.
“No” You respond, “I know it.”
Alessia’s eyes flicker between your lips and your eyes, leaning in towards you. You stop her when her lips are millimeters from your own, feeling like you would be taking advantage of her vulnerable state.
“Lessi, I don’t know if this is the best idea. You’re not thinking clearly.” You whisper against her lips and she closes her eyes.
“I’m thinking more clearly than I ever have, and what I’m thinking is that I want you right here right now. Trust me when I say I’ve been thinking about this for a long time.” She moves your hands along with her words, and if your conscience was a little stronger maybe what transpired past that point wouldn’t have happened.
Alessia takes your face in her soft hands, pulling you with her as she lays back down on her bed. You lay on top of her, kissing passionately before moving your lips down the column of her neck kissing and sucking deep and dark marks into the skin. Alessia lets a multitude of pretty sounds escape her lips as she writhes underneath you.
You trail your kisses back up to her lips, mouths moving together in harmony and creating the perfect balance between pleasure and lightheadedness. The kisses you place on her move down her body yet again and as you reach the hem of her shirt, you pull on it slightly to signal that you want the piece of clothing removed from its place on her upper body. You look at her body with such an intensity that she squirms, moving around on her bed. After looking at her for a bit, you go back to kissing her neck and running your hands all over her body…
Waking up nude as the day you were born in your teammates bed wasn’t something that happened often, despite being known for being somewhat of a “playboy” you rarely ever took anyone back to bed.
So when you wake up to an unfamiliar ceiling and a weight pinning you to the bed, a weight with blonde hair nonetheless, you go into what can only be described as panic mode. Looking at the clock beside her bed, you realize that you’re really fucking late for the photoshoot you had planned with United’s management. Both Ona and you had missed the first shoot for the new kit, so now the two of you had to go in during your day off to do it so that the media could release all the pictures.
Carefully, you slide out from the death grip the forward had on your torso, replacing your body with a pillow. Quickly and soundlessly, you collect your scattered clothes from the ground and pull them on as you go. Just as you’re pulling your pants up to cover your legs you hear the slight rustling of the bedsheets, signaling that Alessia now in fact was awake.
She sits up, covering her upper half with the covers as if you haven't already seen everything, as she watches you getting ready.
“Were you just going to leave me while I slept?” She asks in slight disbelief.
“No, I was just going to put my clothes back on to get, y’know decent, before waking you. I have that shoot with Ona today, the one I told you about a few days ago.” She nods her head, remembering you telling her about it just a couple days before.
“I’ll take you out on a date after, okay?” She nods once again and you kiss her on her forehead before leaving. The first thing you both do after you close the door to her home is call your respective best friends. Ella and Ona both get a call at the same time, Ona in her car on the way to pick you up and Ella still in her bed. Both you and Alessia tell the women about what had transpired the night before and give them the full rundown of the happenings. You both end the call by telling them that you’d tell the other that the night was a mistake and that it didn’t matter. In her car, Ona laughs before quickly changing direction to instead drive to Alessia’s place.
As Ona pulls up in front of Alessia’s house, she sees the absolute state you’re in. Dark hickeys painting your neck and lips still swollen from the kisses you’d shared with the blonde the night before. She snickers loudly as you enter the car with tired limbs flying all over the place.
“Shut up” You demand softly, a small smile still creeping up on your face.
“I didn’t even say anything!” She responds but continues to give you more than telling teasing looks throughout the entire ride.
When you arrive where the shoot is supposed to be held, the make-up artist sighs and glares at you playfully when she notices the deep dark blueish purple bruises on your neck.
After having about 1000 different photos taken of you in the new kit and all the accessories, you and Ona are let go. She drives you back to your house to get ready for your date, well you get ready for your date while Ona plays games on her phone listening to you rant about your situation. You wear a simple dress shirt with a pair of black slacks and a black belt to accompany it.
Walking over to Alessia’s in good time, because you still didn’t have a car and you didn’t want to bother Ona more, especially when she was slumped over snoring softly.
Like usual, Alessia would be driving as she trusts very few people with her car. Knocking on her door, she steps out looking like she had just stepped out of the most prestigious fashion magazine, wearing a sleek black dress that hugged just the right curves. It knocks the wind out your lungs and you nearly regret your decision to tell her what happened didn’t matter, but it was the right thing to do. Messing up team dynamics was not something you were keen on doing.
The drive passes in comfortable silence and you reach the restaurant within 10 minutes. You get seated as soon as you walk in and you both order a drink that you sip on, waiting for the other to speak up.
“It was-”
“Last night-”
You let out a chuckle at the coincidence of you both speaking at the same time, motioning for her to take the stage and speak first.
“Last night shouldn’t have happened, it was a mistake” Her voice conveys a thousand different emotions, but you choose to focus on the truth in her voice and tune out all the other emotions. Alessia’s eyes tell you more than her words ever could, that she didn’t regret it and that she definitely enjoyed what had happened, but that like you she didn’t want to mess up dynamics.
“I agree” You speak up, just as many different emotions in your voice as there had been in hers.
“Alright, then. Now with that out of the way, let’s enjoy this outing.” She ends the conversation by starting another one directly after and you just go along with it. For the rest of the date Alessia and you converse about all things possible, everything from football to how the photoshoot had gone.
—
A small injury you sustained before international break left you unable for selection, and frankly making you that much more miserable. Two weeks had already passed since the ‘incident’ and the two of you had continued to act as normal as you could with the obvious shift in your relationship.You acted like you had before the shift around your friends, but the very minimal communication outside of training hurt more than you could’ve imagined. She no longer picked you up for training, meaning you either had to walk or have another teammate pick you up. The picking up part didn’t bother you all that much, the extra walking good for your health and stamina, it was the no communication that bothered you. Nonetheless, you knew she was there for you if you needed her.
But despite her going AWOL on you the first two weeks after it happened, except for training, you still expected her to call while she was away at camp or atleast check in with you from time to time. Much to your dismay, that didn’t happen.
You chalked it up to her just being busy and not finding any time to speak with you, national team duties and all. And even though Ona teased you relentlessly every time you checked your phone, looking for a message or a notification for a missed call (even though you had the volume all the way up to be able to hear if she called), you still did it. You couldn’t care less about looking desperate, because you were. And it was Ona’s fault she had to deal with your sulking, it was after all her who decided that she was going to live with you during the break to help out.
When everyone arrived back from the break, you all decided that a night out at the local pub was a great way to celebrate that. What more could you want other than a nice night out dressed up to the nines and the ability to down a lot of alcohol.
You and Ona arrive fashionably late, and together seeing as you had basically stuck to her side the entire break. The both of you are dressed your best, the traffic slowing you down significantly. Everyone was already there when you walked in the doors, mingling with each other and drinking different types of fruity drinks. You and Ona were deep in conversation, speaking catalan with each other like you usually did when you didn’t want the others to understand what you were talking about, it was a language you had picked up at the same time you learned Spanish. This time you two were talking about your favorite blonde’s absence.
Your captain waves you over to where most of the team was standing, your eyes immediately searching for Alessia’s as soon as you entered the small circle that had been created. When you can’t seem to find her, you quickly realize that she wasn’t there.
It doesn’t take long for you to be swept up in a conversation with Lucía in her native language, distracting you from your search for the blonde you adored.
You eventually notice Alessia moving towards the group, looking like she owned the entire universe and you couldn’t keep your eyes off her.
After a couple drinks, you finally gain enough courage to go over to the star-eyed forward whom you can’t get enough of. You come up behind her as she’s talking to some random girl you don’t recognise.
“Excuse me, can I steal this lovely girl away from you?” The unfamiliar girl looks slightly weirded out but she leaves nonetheless, taking up the space she occupied just a second ago.
“Hello” You greet her, albeit a bit awkwardly and like you hadn’t just scared away the girl she was probably flirting with.
“Hi” She replies just as awkwardly as you had.
“So, are you seeing anybody?” You ask her lightheartedly, aimed at the girl who she’d been with. Alessia stares back at you with slight annoyance present in her eyes.
“Y/n”
“What?” You retort with the same lighthearted tone as before, despite her annoyed one and the clear annoyance growing on her face.
“I don’t want to talk about this.” She tells you seriously, her voice leaving no room for the questions you ask either way.
“What? Why not?” Your tone quickly loses its lightheartedness, getting replaced by a seriousness that isn’t quite you.
“I don’t want to talk about it.” She once again repeats and you sense her reluctance to talk about what happened between the two of you. You sigh, already tired of the conversation despite it not really having started yet.
“Can’t we just get past this? Or are we going to continue to act like nothing happened?” You ask the question that’s been playing on your mind since about 2 weeks back. “It’s been forever” You continue talking.
“Forever!? It just happened!” She exclaims angrily, throwing her arms up like she always does when she’s exasperated.
“Lessi, it happened a month ago!” Alessia seemingly didn’t have anything to add as she stays silent, not even looking at you and giving you the silent treatment.
“Y’know a year to a human is like 7 years to a dog” The statement regains her attention and makes her put on a sickeningly sweet smile, most likely sarcastic though you can’t really tell.
“Is one of us supposed to be the dog in this scenario?” Despite her sarcastic expression, her voice is appalled at your obliviousness. How could you possibly make this worse for yourself?
“Yes”
“And who, pray tell, is the dog?” She speaks nonchalantly, almost luring you into a false sense of security and almost making you feel like you’re out of the danger zone. Spoiler alert, you aren’t.
“You are” And that’s how you effectively made it worse for yourself.
“I- I’m the dog!?” She asks almost threateningly, not making you question your safety yet but definitely making you feel a little unsafe.
“Yep” There you go, making it even worse for yourself.
She grabs your hand in a death grip, pulling you in the direction of the bathroom where there’s more privacy and easier to hear each other. Alessia has to scream to be heard over the loud music as you near the bathrooms.
“I don’t see how I’m the dog, if anyone's the dog here then it’s you. It’s you who wants to act like what happened didn’t mean anything” She shouts into your ear, the music a bit overwhelming.
“Hey, I’m not saying it didn’t mean anything, it definitely meant something to me. What I’m saying is that it doesn’t have to mean everything. I mean, why does it? Have to mean everything?” That’s what you don’t understand about the girl, why did it have to mean everything?
“Because it does” By now you had reached the much quieter bathroom, able to speak to each other normally. “Not that you would know, you walked out the door as soon as it happened.” The muffled music serves as a nice distraction from the conversation, the thick walls of the bathroom shutting most of it out.
“I didn’t walk out” You quickly retorted, defending yourself from the accusation.
“No” Alessia responds, “you sprinted.” She concludes her argument.
“One, I was very late that day and two, we both agreed that it was a mistake.” She looks at you with so much venom in her eyes you would think she was part of the MCU.
“The worst mistake of my entire fucking life” Alessia manages to spit out in fury and through clenched teeth. By now the argument was just going in circles, a tiring back and forth that you had little interest in continuing.
“What do you want from me Alessia?” You ask her through a sigh,carefully choosing your words so that you wouldn’t agitate the woman even more.
“Nothing, absolutely nothing.” Her response just confuses you all that much more, as does her sudden protective stance.
“Fine, fine. You want nothing from me, but let’s make one thing clear, I did not go over to your place that night with the intention to make love with you. That is not why I went over there. You wanted to do what we did just as much as I wanted to do it, I mean you still wanted to do it even after I told you that your judgment might have been clouded. We’re both adults here.” You run your hands down your face, just wanting the ground to swallow you whole.
“I can’t believe you sometimes, you insufferable prick!” Her eyes fill with tears as she turns around, not wanting to let you see her vulnerable.
“Alessia, come on” You get out, before she turns around and slaps you as hard as she possibly can, rings and all still sitting on her pretty fingers. After that she storms out of the confined space, searching after Ella needing the comfort she provides. Tears once again run down Alessia’s face as she pulls Ella away from the dance floor, her best friend understanding exactly what she needs and she leads Alessia out of the club arm around her shoulder while whispering comforting words into the blonde’s hair.
Back in the bathroom you’re splashing water onto your face, the mark from her perfectly manicured hands making its very red way onto your face. You observe the handprint in the mirror, Alessia’s rings cutting deep into your skin and making it look all that more gruesome. One of your fingers come up to press on the rapidly bluing mark on your face, it hurts but maybe that’s what you deserve for fucking everything up yet again. You spit out the small amount of blood that accumulated in your mouth, wiping your lips with your sleeveless arm and the blood now stains the skin there instead of your mouth.
At last, you walk out of the bathroom to find Ona and go home. Many of the patrons scattered around look at you with a mixture of pity and concern as you move towards where Ona stands, talking to a pretty girl. You can’t help but feel bad for her, having to take care of you because of your dumb decisions, but like the pact you had made at 14 led ‘your dumb mistakes are my dumb mistakes’.
A drop of blood lands next to Ona as you place your hand on her shoulder, and she can’t help the way her eyes widen at your state. She apologizes to the girl, telling her that you were family and that she had to help you home. Much to Ona’s relief, the girl reassures her that she understood, having her own friends to take care of.
She leads you out to the car, opening the door for you and helping you buckle in before moving towards the driver's seat. You slump quietly against the car door, not acknowledging anything, not even as she takes you to her apartment instead of yours, not wanting to leave you alone to your own devices.
She leads you up to her apartment, kicking the door closed behind her before she takes the familiar route to her bathroom. Ona pushes you to sit on the toilet cover as she gets her wipes from the cabinet under her sink, gently taking your face into her hands as she wipes away the dried blood and remaining sweat from your face. When she’s done she tells you to remain seated as she fetches a pair of your old shorts she had stolen from you many years ago and one of her oversized t-shirts. Your eyes fill with tears at the help you’re receiving from the shorter girl, and one of them escapes your eye when she gives you a kiss on the forehead. She wipes it away, telling you that you could sleep in her room if you wanted. You decline, taking the couch more than enough for you. A lingering goodnight later and you’re sitting on the couch in the pajamas you had gotten.
Suddenly you’re reminded of how you had been in the same situation all those months ago when you had just been broken up with. Sitting on a friends couch (although the friend was more family than friend) in deep fucking misery and feeling like your life was over.
—
Over the next month, you and Alessia don’t say a word more than necessary to each other, you only speak when absolutely vital and only put away your dislike of the other during games. Your teammates notice the more than obvious shift between the two of you, going from carpooling together everyday to not even saying hi in passing.
It wasn’t that you didn’t try, it was all you did the first two weeks but all Alessia did was ignore you, ignore your entire existence. Ella was also glaring at you now, a lot. Wherever you went you could feel Ella’s glare situated firmly on you. Another thing you noticed was how Alessia had seemed to want to make your life as much of a living hell as possible, tackling you hard every chance she got in training and making sure you got a fresh set of bruises every day you went home , most of them covering your legs and ribs.
Now the only two people you hung out with were Ona and Maya, who you had grown really fond of during your time spent at the club.
During all this time all you tried to do was make everything right again with Alessia, calling her every evening and making sure to leave a voicemail when she inevitably didn’t answer. The voicemails consisted of telling her about your day, small jokes Maya had told you, random facts and stupid things Ona had done.
What you didn’t know was that Alessia listened to every single one of them, laughing at certain points and catching herself smiling at your voice and sometimes even letting the sound of your voice lull her to sleep. Every night she listened to them she worked up the courage to answer the phone.
One day, after the last game of the season had passed she finally gained enough courage to pick up the phone when you called.
“Hey Less, no, hi Alessia” She hears you mutter into the receiver, clearly not having heard her accepting the call.
“What do you want?” Alessia cringes at her harsh tone.
“OH, Alessia, hi” You were obviously surprised when she picked up the phone, being used to it going to voicemail. “I called to say that I’m sorry, and to ask if you had a date to the end of year party tonight?” Alessia can’t help but roll her eyes at your stupid question, hanging up before you can say another word.
On the other side of the line you look up at the ceiling, defeated. The phone in your hand rings again and you look at it hopefully, but seeing Ona’s name splayed across your buzzing screen leaves you to flop back down onto the bed. Either way, you accept the call, Ona’s comforting voice flooding through the speakers.
“Are you done yet?” Her accented voice asks hopefully.
“I’m not going Onita” You hate to break her hopeful heart, but you do.
“Why not?”
“I kind of do not want to get a hole glared into my head the entire night.”
“Oh, okay. We’re still on for España right?” You smile at her through the screen.
“I wouldn’t miss it for the world”
“Bye”
“Au revoir”
Over at the venue, the party is in full swing and people are dropping in like flies to a light. Alessia’s attention is on the door, waiting for your lanky form to stumble in. She perks up when Ona walks in but she quickly goes back to sulking when she notices that you aren’t behind the small fullback.
Throughout the entire event her eyes flicker towards the door, just willing you to walk through them with that stupid crooked smile on your face. Much to her chagrin, that doesn’t happen. She even resorts to asking your closest friends about your whereabouts, but all she gets is a mean glare in return.
Back in your apartment, you’re watching videos of the ‘96 Bulls championship games, something you’d picked up from your father. When either of you needed comforting, you’d watch the old tapes on the box tv in your basement.
Throwing the tennis ball up into the air before catching it and repeating the process all to help you think more clearly, you suddenly get to the point in the video you’d been waiting for.
“Y/l/n takes the buzzerbeater to complete the three-peat in a sweep. The ball is soaring towards the net, aaaaaaaand she misses to give the sonics the win in game 4.” You narrate as you throw the ball towards the plastic ring on your wall, missing the target slightly as you groan. The familiar feeling of a bad idea runs through your body, and you follow it without a second thought, your body on autopilot.
Pulling on your shoes, you sprint out of the apartment building, this time definitively forgetting to lock the door. But that doesn’t matter, not when you have a girl to get. You sprint all the way there, taking multiple wrong turns before finally arriving at the venue.
All while you had been running to get there in time, Alessia had started to prepare to leave, even going as far as to tell Ella that she was going home. Luckily enough for you, Ella manages to get Alessia to agree to stay until midnight.
But as the clock nears the little 12 at the top and you still haven’t shown up, Alessia decides to call it a day gathering her things and saying goodbye to Ella. She starts to make her way towards the entrance, looking down at her phone.
The doors slam open with a loud BANG, and like she had wished the entire night you enter through the opening. People turn back to their conversations as they notice that it wasn’t anything dangerous, just a lovesick girl.
Your frantic eyes search for the blonde head of hair that you’ve come to recognise, and you move towards her as soon as your eyes meet. Alessia turns on her heel, moving back into the party but you’re faster than her catching up easily and taking hold of her arm.
“Alessia, wait!” Your grip holds her in place as she turns towards you. “Listen, I’ve been doing a lot of thinking and the thing is, I love you” Out of all the things Alessia expected to come out of your mouth, those were not on her list. She thought you would berate her, tell her you’re sorry or maybe even tell her you were going, but not that. All she can say is a confused:
“What?”
“I love you”
“How do you expect me to respond to that?” She asks you.
“Well, how about you love me too?” You respond with a question of your own.
“How about ‘I’m leaving’?” She asks the last question as she turns back around to walk away from you only to stop when you exclaim:
“Doesn’t what I said mean anything to you?” Your voice conveys the desperateness you’re feeling as she’s walking away from you, not knowing what else to say to get her to come back to you.
She walks back over to you, her voice a bit quieter than before.
“I’m sorry Y/n. I know you’re feeling lonely, but you can’t just show up here, tell me you love me and expect everything to be alright. It doesn’t work that way, it just doesn’t” By now the desperation has seeped into your facial features.
“Well how does it work then?” You question her.
“I don’t know, but not this way” She lets out.
“How about this way? I love the way your nose scrunches when you laugh. I love how you’re so bright. I love how you’re always blaming me for stuff I had nothing to do with. I love how you wear my shirts and how the sleeves are always too long. I love the smell of your perfume and how it sticks to my clothes. I love the way you laugh at my dumb jokes. And it’s not because I’m lonely or because you’re leaving that I came here this evening. I came here because when you realize you want to spend the rest of your life with somebody, you want the rest of your life to start as soon as possible!” By now the blonde girl has moved closer to you. So close in fact that you can see every spot and freckle spread across her face.
“I hate you. You know that is just like you Y/n, you say things like that and you make it impossible for me to hate you but I do.”
Her actions contest her words as she moves closer to you, her soft lips brushing against yours as she slides her arms around your neck, yours settling around her waist. You don’t wait another second before pressing your lips together firmly. The kiss isn’t like the ones you had shared before, it wasn’t rushed or quick, instead slow and patient testing the waters. It tells a story of two lost souls finding their way back to each other through the hardships of life. It’s an apology, a confession but most importantly, it’s a promise. A promise never to hurt each other the way you had ever again.
“Wow…that was fucking amazing” Are the only words able to come out of your mouth after you’ve pulled away, and Alessia laughs slightly pulling you into another kiss before telling you:
“You’re a dork, you know”
this is based on when harry met sally (1989)
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The Fire in the Sin
Bonus Chapter 1 - The Library
Word count: 3,133 Read on AO3. Series Masterlist. <- Please read first, this is bonus content for a long fic and will not make sense as a stand alone one shot.
Summary: I couldn't make this chapter fit with the flow of the story for season 1, but I still really wanted to write it out. Just for fun. So here is some of Alastor's perspective earlier on in the plot line and some fun library smut. For reference, this is a PRESENT DAY chapter and takes place AFTER Mina and Alastor begin sharing a room again but BEFORE Mina founds out about him selling his soul. So it's early on in the plot when they are "back together" but going through a rough patch still.
Bonus Chapter 1 - The Library
Despite how rough the first couple weeks of Alastor’s return had been, things had been steadily improving between him and Mina for a multitude of reasons.
He had agreed that it was best they share a room and had used his magic to combine their separate quarters into two. In hindsight, he should have never chosen a separate room to begin with. Mina had been in such a state of emotional turmoil when he had first arrived at the hotel and he had misread her anger and her tears, thinking she wanted some space from him. Now he could see that had only hurt her more. It had cemented the idea in her mind that his absence of seven years had been far easier for him than it had for her and that just wouldn’t do.
If he couldn’t tell her what had happened, he had to be better at showing her how happy he was to be back. And most importantly, he had to stop getting so defensive when she got angry with him. Every time something reminded Mina of what had happened, she became damn near unbearable to be around. She’d snap at him, insult him, push him away, and purposefully try to wound him. And the worst part was that it worked.
Since he’d laid eyes on her, all Alastor wanted was to have her back, to have her shower him with the same amount of trust and affection that she once did. After seven years of being gone, of having his sheer lack of freedom and willpower shoved in his face day after day, having the love of his life blame him for it was too much. She was the only person capable of hurting him that way, of getting under his skin and past every single one of his defenses, and hurt his feelings.
It was preposterous and degrading and humiliating. And he owed it to her. So he was trying to suck it up and stop getting angry in return. If it became too much to bare, he’d just excuse himself and give her space until she cooled off enough to accept some form of affection from him.
That was a pattern that seemed to work and he clung to it, using it regularly to keep them both happy as they continued to heal the wounds of their marriage.
But the thing that seemed to really make Mina the happiest and most docile was the sex. And as much as Alastor had ignored the teasing and debased comments from some of the other hotel residents, it had been a rather long and lonely dry spell for him as well.
Before Mina, he’d never held sex in high regard. It was awkward, and messy, and required getting far too close to people for his comfort. But with her, it was lovely. He didn’t crave it quite as much as she did but from a purely logical standpoint, he could see the benefits of it. It was an easy way to shower her with affection, to focus his attention solely on her, to let her see and feel the affect that only she had on him. And from a much more emotional, intimate point of view . . . he had really, really missed his wife. Seven God damned years was too long to go without the touch of the person you love. And now that they had recovered that aspect of their relationship, Alastor couldn’t get enough of her.
That first night, after realizing she had been shot and he hadn’t even known it until well after the fact, was like a dam breaking. Every last wall he had put up around his defenses when it came to her was shattered. How he had managed to not scoop her up and carry her off to the nearest horizontal surface that very first day of his return was beyond him at this point. He had kept himself so closed off from her, and for what? To save himself from having to face how much he had hurt her? It was cowardly. And he had only hurt them both more by doing so.
These were all the thoughts racing through his brain as he left the kitchen that morning, leaving Mina and Niffty to their task of preparing lunch. He reminded himself again and again that this was only temporary. That Mina’s anger was justified and it would fade. If he just held out a little longer, everything would work itself out.
____
Earlier that day . . .
“Ah, there you two are. We missed you at breakfast this morning,” Alastor said as he found the two women working together in the large industrial kitchen of the hotel.
Niffty was adding seasonings to something that smelled wonderful in an oversized slow cooker and Mina was chopping vegetables. The two women were a delightful sight for sore eyes and after the morning he had had, Alastor was glad to see them doing something he was happy to join in on. He loved cooking. It was one of the few innocent hobbies he still held dear to his heart, but he didn’t miss the look Niffty and Mina shared when he walked over to them.
“And where did you two run off to this morning?” he asked.
“Just to Rosie’s to pick up some meat,” Mina answered.
Niffty gave a little giggle. “Don’t tell Charlie where we got it. She still doesn’t trust us after the thing with the heart.”
The two women shared a smile and rolled their eyes, remembering something that must have happened before Alastor joined the hotel.
“Rosie’s?” Alastor asked, fighting the feeling of being left out. “I haven’t seen her since the meeting.”
Mina stiffened, clearly reading between the lines and quickly getting defensive.
“It was just a quick errand.”
“If it was just a quick errand, why didn’t you say something before taking off?” Alastor said, hearing the annoyance in his own voice growing with every word. “I thought we agreed- ”
“Couldn’t find ya, now could we?” Mina snapped, letting her knife hit the kitchen counter with a loud smack. “That’s what happens when a woman wakes up alone almost every damn mornin’. Do I have to waste time tracking you down, bright an’ early, just to tell ya I’m going grocery shopping?!”
Niffty looked nervously between the two of them.
“We go every Wednesday. You can come next week, if you want,” Niffty offered.
“Every Wednesday? Since when?” he asked.
Mina huffed again.
“Just a thing we started doing together in the last few years.” She’d stopped yelling, but her tone was cold and she’d turned her back to him, resuming her task with the vegetables.
“I see,” Alastor said simply, catching the meaning behind her words. It was something that she and Niffty had started doing, in his absence. Maybe even as a coping mechanism. He’d hurt them both when he’d gone, after all.
“Next Wednesday it is, then.” He looked at Niffty, who returned his smile, before turning to Mina. He’d been making an effort of being more casually affectionate with her since his return, so he pressed a quick kiss to her hair, grateful that she didn’t pull away or shrug him off. “I’ll leave you two ladies to it.”
____
He found her later on in the library, curled up on the little sofa in there, a singular sunbeam from the window gracing her body with its warmth.
It had taken some time for him to track her down after lunch and he eventually had to resort to having his shadow help him find her. He had marched in here, ready for a proper argument, to remind her that disappearing just out of spite was childish and unnecessarily cruel, when he’d found her dead asleep.
His shoulders slumped as all his anger melted away.
She was positively cute like this.
Mina had taken off her knitted sweater and folded it up as a makeshift pillow and toed off her shoes before she had laid down, and had obviously fallen asleep reading a book. Alastor’s eyes lingered on her, adoring the rich brown skin of her pointed limbs, the leopard spots that danced across her pale shoulders with every slow intake of her breath, the way her slender tail wrapped itself around her hips, and the subtle way her feline ears twitched as she dreamed.
He decided then and there he would spend the rest of the afternoon by her side and slipped into shadow, the blackness melting across the floor, before following the body of the sofa upwards and solidifying himself sitting upright so that Mina’s head rested in his lap.
She shifted a fraction, barely disturbed by the change, and still deeply asleep, began to purr.
Picking up the book she had dropped, he read the synopsis and learned that it took place in New Orleans. His smile softened even more as he turned the cover back over and read the title. Out of the Easy.
For all her cold stubbornness towards him, it was times like these that he knew it was just a reflex against the pain of losing him. Mina still loved him, still sought after little ways - like this book - to remind herself of him, even when she was angry.
Alastor was a few chapters in when she finally woke. He’d been absentmindedly rubbing her ears and running his fingers through her hair, absorbed in the book. She shifted onto her back, keeping her head resting on his leg, as she blinked up at him.
“I have to say, this is a remarkably accurate description of the French Quarter,” Alastor started, as if they were already in the middle of a conversation. “Obviously I died well before the 1950’s, but it seems well researched. This Josie girl is terribly naïve though, reminds me of our Charlie.”
“Since when do you read Young Adult fiction?” she asked, her voice light and teasing.
“Well I can’t say no to a story set in my home town.” He raised an eyebrow as he looked down at her. “And it seems you can’t, either.”
“Oh, shut up.”
She sat up, reaching for the book, but he held it high above his head.
“Alastor!” she said with a laugh, sitting up on her knees to reach higher up but he used his long arms to hold it behind the couch and well out of her reach. “Give it back!”
“Ah ah ah,” he said with a shit eating grin. “You didn’t say the magic word.”
Mina grabbed his face with both her hands and pulled him into a hard kiss.
Alastor’s eyes went wide and he felt his ears stand straighter but only out of sheer surprise. He quickly relaxed and returned the kiss, dropping the book behind the couch and pulling her against him.
The book, the open door behind them, and the tension of the morning were all quickly forgotten as the kiss heated up. He parted his lips and she took the invitation, letting her tongue dance across his, her sharp teeth pressing down for the occasional teasing nip, but never fully biting.
After several minutes of what had become a properly indecent make-out session, Mina pulled away, panting for air.
“You know,” Alastor said, as equally out of breath as she was, “you could have just said ‘please.’ But I suppose that was an adequate substitution.”
She was still in his lap and looking far too good to halt their activities, so Alastor leaned towards her and began sucking on her neck.
Mina tried to talk to him, all the while he left wet, open mouth kisses along her throat.
“I’m sorry . . . a-about earlier. I know you’re . . . trying. I am too, I just . . . Al’ . . . love . . . Alastor!”
“Hmmm?”
He pulled away, raising his eyebrows innocently at her.
“What are you doing?”
“Enjoying myself,” he answered before pulling down a strap of her dress and continuing his parade of kisses down her shoulder.
“I’m trying to apologize here,” she sighed but then moaned a little when he suddenly turned his head and nipped the back of her jawline, his teeth gentle and merely suggesting what they could really do to her flesh if she let him. “And you’re acting insane.”
“You want insane?” He took her hand and she let him guide her to the tent at the seam of his pants. “Insane is how much I want you right now.”
“Alastor,” she breathed his name and blushed, but she palmed his erection despite the hesitation in her expression. “Anyone could walk in here.”
Without even having to snap his fingers, he made the door to the room swing shut.
“It doesn’t lock,” she protested and he rolled his eyes before letting his hands wander up her legs and underneath her skirt.
“No one but us ever comes in here anyway. And you’re already so wet.”
She was. His fingers had found her clothed sex and the fabric of her panties were soaked. He stroked her long and slow, teasing her until her arousal was undeniable. He could feel it in the dampness on his fingertips, see it in the flush across her neck and chest, and hear it in the way her breath hitched when he pressed into her core just a little harder than before.
“Go ahead, tell me to stop. But if you don’t, I’ll take you right here on this couch.”
“Oh you smug bastard – oh . . .” she whimpered as he pulled her panties to the side and slid two fingers into her, pumping and stroking just beyond her entrance. No where near filling her up but enough to hit the most sensitive parts of her.
“You started it,” he said with a laugh. “And you know what they say. You should never start something you don’t intend to finish.”
“You are lucky,” she said, shifting her weight so she could undo his buckle and pants and free his erection from the constricting garments. “You are lucky I love you, because you truly are insane.”
He ripped her panties in two as she moved to straddle him, sliding down on his cock with an amount of ease and grace that could only come from two bodies knowing each other as well as theirs did.
“Believe me, Mina, I know,” he said, his voice breaking with static as he grabbed a fistful of her hair and pulled her forehead down to his. “I know just how lucky I am.”
She might have been hesitant at first but once she had him fully sheathed within her, she eagerly began rocking her hips.
This was so far beyond what he knew she would ever expect of him and Alastor could see the thrill of it in her eyes, the excitement of something new after all this time turning her on as much as his touch had.
Sure, they had done some rather debauched things to each other in the past, especially when she was in heat or he was in rut. And there was that time in Kassandra’s church . . .
But this was different. Despite their notoriety in Hell, both he and Mina were incredibly private people. And she hadn’t been wrong, anyone could walk in on them at any second. The door wasn’t locked and this library was in the same hallway as Angel and Niffty’s rooms; both of whom would come knocking if they heard anything worth investigating.
Like the moan Mina had just let out.
“Ssshhh,” Alastor whispered to her, bringing a hand up to her throat and squeezing. “Unless you want someone to find us like this.”
She shook her head, her cheeks blooming with the most beautiful red blush as he restricted the blood flow of her neck. He loosened his grip once he was sure she would stay quiet and she leaned forward, capturing his lips into another passionate kiss.
He groped at her breast still covered by her dress, feeling it bounce in his palm with every rock of Mina’s hips against his. Pulling away from her mouth, his teeth latched onto the upper swell of her cleavage, leaving a red and purple mark surrounded by a halo of shallow indents. She whimpered, so quietly he could hardly hear her, as she ran her fingers through his hair, holding his face to her chest.
It was like she was cradling him, holding him to her as she stroked his ears and nuzzled her face against the base of his antlers, all the while never losing her rhythm as she rode him, bouncing on his cock with such perfection that all too soon, Alastor felt his end drawing near.
She came just seconds before he did and with little warning, given how quiet he had forced her to be. But he recognized the tension in her back and the way her hips moved in shorter, quicker thrusts. And when her inner walls clenched around his cock, he found his own release, emptying his seed inside her depths as she came down from her own high, still slowly pumping herself on him until she was sure they were both spent.
They stayed like that, still kissing and holding each other, for several moments longer; well after he had softened inside of her.
She hummed as his lips found her neck again and she returned his affection; first kissing his cheek, then his forehead, and his mouth for one last kiss before she pulled away with finality, though she still kept her arms around him.
“Will you take me to our bedroom now?”
“You want more? In the middle of the day?” he asked.
“No,” she laughed. “But that’s funny, coming from the guy who just insisted on an afternoon lay. No, I just think I deserve the privacy of my own room to clean up after riding you that good.”
“You do, indeed. Can’t have my own wife doing something as indecent as a walk of shame.”
“I would never find making love to you to be shameful,” she said sweetly but then wrinkled her nose. “But I don’t fancy the idea of cum running down my legs as I get to where I’m going. You shredded my knickers, remember?”
“Oh these?” he asked, lifting up the remains of her panties and then stuffing them in an inner pocket of his jacket, before lowering his voice suggestively. “I wasn’t planning on giving them back, anyway.”
He dissolved them into shadow before her smart mouth had a chance to come up with what he knew would be an absurdly bratty reply.
@saccharine-nectarine @whoknowswhoiamtoday @redvexillum @visara-valentina @reath-solia
#hazbin hotel#hazbin alastor#hazbin hotel alastor#alastor hazbin hotel#alastor fanfiction#alastor the radio demon#alastor x oc#the radio demon#alastor#alastor hazbin#the fire in the sin
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Ep 5, rage, and time
This was a FASCINATING episode. We’ve got a lot more questions than answers right now— about exactly the nature of Fig’s curse (we know it hopped to her from Gilear, but how does the armor of pride play into it), the exact nature of what happened to Cassandra, and what kind of big bad god (???) was talking to Kristen after the fight— so I don’t have a snappy thesis about this week’s ep. But I have some themes buzzing around my head like persistent flies. So let’s talk about them.
I saw someone earlier point out that rage and anger seems to be a dominant theme of the season, after Kristen got advantage for leaning into anger at her parents, and I think we know for sure now that that’s true. I refreshed myself on what happened to Lydia— she sealed a dangerous demon inside a soul gem and embedded it in herself to keep the demon from escaping. She was in a permanent rage to keep herself alive, and the impact of that disabled her. As a disabled fan I have always loved this rep, because the gem functions like a chronic illness, and I personally have used anger at the medical system and the ableist world to survive being chronically ill. (She also refused to have the gem removed and risk releasing the demon, which is a great refutation of the magical cure trope). Anger is a dirty fuel though, and if you burn too much of it you’ll end up burning yourself, and compromising your own mental health, in the process.
That reminds me of the kind of things we were circling from the beginning of the season— burnout, exhaustion, being past where you can fight. And if people heap enough stress on you (from schoolwork or otherwise) a kind of natural response to that is to break into rage at some point.
I don’t exactly understand the mechanisms of the star bursts that originated within Cassandra and then made her monstrous. Were parts of her anger embedded in them like the demon was in Lydia’s soul gem, and then when they re-entered her they turned that rage into something uncontrollable? Why did they affect Kalina that way and why did she mention Ragh’s name? I’m really not sure, although I do hope that this means that Lydia will play a larger role this season and we’ll see more of her and her cool wheelchair soon.
The other things that’s bouncing around my head is the theme of time (a recurring Elmville theme; chronomancy is the greatest magic of all after all). I think this season is concerned with time, and what it means to run out of time, even more than freshman and sophomore year. We have Arthur and Ayda traveling through time and the quadrangle situation. Now we have the Synod clock and a verifiable time loop (side note: I did ABSOLUTELY burst out laughing when Brennan exasperatedly said “anyone can roll arcana to understand time loops” when the PCs were confused, like GOD haven’t you all seen this in a million science fiction stories by now??? A deeply relatable moment when the players aren’t picking up the lore you’re putting down). But maybe more importantly, we’re seeing the consequences of not having enough time this season, or maybe what happens when the clock keeps running after the adventure is supposed to be over. No one has enough time to do all the assignments on their plate. Everyone missed out on fun, school planning, and relationship stuff over the summer because they had to be fighting the night yorb and didn’t have enough time to go home. (Also, side note, the night yorb turned everything to night therefore eliminating a way we have to tell time. No more days, just one long bleed of an adventure). And everything we’re doing right now feels like we’ve somehow hit the end of time and then kept going— Cassandra was never supposed to turn back into something akin to the nightmare king again. Kalina was never supposed to come back in the same form and taunt Riz again. The whole thing feels like a lesser, diminished time loop. Even the main high school antagonists, the rat grinders, are like a weird version of the bad kids who are stuck just looping over and over again, grinding out xp and repeating themselves infinitely.
I don’t really know how these two themes are going to hook together yet exactly, but I have a feeling they’re going to. Whoever was on the phone with Kristen feels like a hook for underlying plot, if not an outright big bad, which I honestly wasn’t sure we would get at all this season. So I’m gonna be so interested to see how these themes coalesce as the season goes on.
PS- I think The Seven is also extremely concerned with time (especially that sequence in the penultimate episode, which is my favorite in all of D20 I think. No spoilers if you haven’t seen it, but it is truly transcendent), and especially what it means to grow and change. I love that this theme keeps popping up in Elmville- it’s such a lovely frame for the kind of coming of age stories that get told there.
#dimension 20#d20#fantasy high junior year#fantasy high#d20 fhjy#episode analysis#my meta#if anyone has additional thoughts on these themes I would love to hear them!
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After re-reading chpt 426, I had... emotions. 🥺 So, even though I posted the full fic here earlier, I thought everyone else might like to see Dabi finding peace at last. Like all the other League in this series, this excerpt is when Shig comes to pick up his party member. As a bonus, it can be read in a way that complies with the current canon circumstances. (As a double bonus, there's a cute moment with Shoto💕.) Without further ado: Dabi rejoins the League:
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
“Dabi,” his name brought his wandering focus back to Shigaraki, “We already know you’re an asshole. You don’t have to try and talk me out of bringing you back.” He leaned closer and met Dabi’s eyes, bloody red to clouded crystal. “I see you, Dabi. We see you, Dabi. We’ve always seen you. We want you anyway. Magne, Jin, Toga, Spinner, Kurogiri… they’re all waiting for you.”
Those words hit him like a punch to the gut, wringing out a soft sound of pure longing that he didn’t know he was capable of making.
Arms— hot and cold, slim and thick, both of them ghostly— wrapped around him. He suspected them of trying to comfort him, but he didn’t need comfort. Shigaraki wanted him. The League wanted him. They didn’t care that he wasn’t perfect, that he had been born to be a failure, that he was a broken, twisted caricature of a human being. Knowing he was wanted despite all that… it healed a wound in his soul that had been bleeding as long as he could remember, and suddenly it didn’t matter that Endeavor was still alive.
The League wanted him. They were waiting for him.
And he was tired.
So very, very tired.
Even so, he mustered up the strength for one last bit of snark. “So… you… expect me to… just, what? … Waltz into Hell… with you?”
Shigaraki raised his eyebrows. “You could stay, if you'd rather.” His eyes flicked to the blurry people around Dabi, lingering on the ones who seemed to be embracing him. “Your family would prefer that, I think. They seem really upset. It’s your choice, though. It’s always been your choice, Dabi. We'll still be waiting if you want to stay for a little while longer.”
Dabi considered for less than a second. “Let’s go, Duster.” He’d been toying with that nickname for months, now seemed like the perfect time to use it. Judging by the pleased light in Tomura’s eyes, he was right.
Grinning, Tomura held out his hand.
Dabi felt something shift inside him, the pain and numbness retreating, replaced by a kind of pleasant, tingling feeling. But when he tried to reach out for Tomura’s hand, he could barely raise his arm an inch. He tried again, and still couldn’t. Sudden frustration and anguish made his already dry eyes sting.
“I can’t reach you! Tomura! Fuck!” Why couldn’t he do this? Just this one, last, final thing?! Why was it so hard to reach the things he wanted the most? “I… I c-can’t…”
Then his arm was being lifted, supported gently by someone else.
Surprised, he looked in the direction of the red and white blur that held his damaged arm so tenderly. The blur wavered and came into sudden, sharp focus. It was Shoto. Shoto, his youngest brother, his father’s perfect masterpiece, the kid he barely knew but had tried his best to kill… and Shoto was crying. Crying so hard he had snot coming out his nose and his pretty porcelain skin was all blotchy. The sight made Dabi chuckle, even as it reminded him of Toga’s sad eyes.
“Hey, little hero, don’t cry,” he said, and found that speaking didn’t hurt. He sounded like his old self too, the words clear and firm. Still raspy, but that was just the way he talked. “`S like I told Himiko. It doesn't matter whether we laugh or cry, the sun’ll still rise tomorrow... so you should choose to smile, baby brother.” Shoto’s lips wobbled as he tried to obey. Dabi smiled back and thought it probably looked like a nightmare, but for once, he felt genuinely happy and didn’t hold himself back. “That’s better.”
Dabi was distracted from any reply his brother might’ve made as a cool, dry hand wrapped around his, and pulled him to his feet.
~*~*~*~
please reblog if you enjoyed! thank you for reading!
#dabi#mha chapt 426#toya todoroki#shigaraki tomura#mha shigaraki#mha dabi#shoto todoroki#my hero academia#boku no hero academia#fanfiction#my writing#it's all about the people you're with#league of villains#happy endings#mha#bnha#if they canon won't let them be happy I'll do it my own damn self!#and there's a lot worse things out there than partying forever in the next life#they'll give the devil a run for his money!
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HELLO!!! congrats on finishing the intellect skills!!! :D!! this ask is your free pass to share any INT quotes you didn't get to share this week >:3!!! i would LOVE to read all of your cool quotes!!! <33 (if you have more than can fit in this ask i CAN AND WILL SEND YOU ANOTHER if you want me to!! hkjg <333)
hello voli!! ooh... I like this. You also get my not-asked-for comments on them, yay!
fair warning that most of these are probably 'less good' quotes since i had to pick and choose the ones I liked best to put in the posts. but. anyway.
making a cut here because it's gonna be loooong
lots of Logic ones! he has the most passives of all the skills so...
hehe logic won't let you mess up some important stuff!
this second one, Kim will stop you. And if Kim's not there, Reaction Speed will stop you (easy). And if RS doesn't fire, Logic stops you haha.
he gets so excited! very rarely!
go go logic deny it!
big one, but I love when so many talk at once. yeah logic, why didnt you think of it?? hmm??
as always, it's you who's dumb! never ever logic
it's endlessly funny to me when the skills ask the others to contribute and then they just... dont show up.
good question...
This one is SO funny. Logic. ily. this is also a Medium check!! I completely missed this one when searching through earlier. I wish fayde could just bomb my computer with all the logic dialogue so I could sift through 80 pages of it, instead of limiting it to 100 results :(
(this shows up if the query is too big - Sorry, all the words from your query were filtered out. Please use less common words, and ones which are longer than 1 letter (partial and mid-word matches count, you see, so searching 'd' would return everything with a 'd' in it, and that's like 53,000 records, you won't want to read all that!) and, like... no, no, you are severely underestimating me. I actually do want to read all that, desperately)
anyway.
Logic passive fails my beloved
is he not creative enough to make something up?? echem, drama, and inland come up with times for him
hghhk the great serotonin jackpot. I'm super normal about electrochemistry. who is NOT an int skill and will have to wait. logic's comment heals your morale!!
ah yes, very normal things for a joyrider to have in their car. ty logic!
his love of jigsaw puzzlessss
what could go wrong??
related:
this is a different check! but thank goodness for these guys and their stupidly brilliant ideas. saved the day in my 1 INT run.
wow! sarcastic logic my beloved. one second before empathy throws moralism at you
mmm, this one isn't super logic focused, but you can't get this dialogue without passing the challenging Logic passive... and it's really interesting.
this is about to get really rambly but I read a story once about if when you die, your soul travels to a timeline where the flow of events was different and you didn't die. But as your life progresses, avoiding death becomes less and less likely... (eg, avoiding death by getting hit by a bus would take you to a very similar timeline. But avoiding death from old age...) and by the end, the world was unrecognizable. It was a bit sad... I wish I could remember what it was called.
This dialogue reminded me of it. Of the improbable futures. A world where you hit that 3% chance on the dice over and over and it slowly changes everything.
anyway!!
if you didn't deduce that the 2mm hole in the world is a baby pale, a Legendary Logic passive can deduce that it's really off that your radio is catching entroponetic crosstalk all the way in Martinaise.
If you deduce the pale in the church, Soona comments that the recording in the electronic doorbell is likely crosstalk, and Kim makes a comment about often getting crosstalk on the police radio as well.
But it doesn't seem like anyone else has come to the same conclusion...
Harry knows a lot more about the pale than he should.
The final rest state for reality.
hustler logic!!
Logic... come on man. this is not helping. The whole dream is so horrible. He's so nonchalant about it too.
Look at this! The variable is called volition tea... Conceptualization imagining the yummy ginger tea for you is so sweet
I love this. Poor Kim...
Thank you Conceptualization. We would be lost without you.
:(((
poor harry
KIM don't take away concy's poetic name!! >:(
I love these twooo.
and that's apparently 30... uhm. I got extra logic and conceptualization ones in at least..?
you can feel free to send another ask if you actually want even more haha
I was supposed to spend tonight assembling volition quotes!!! and then I somehow got sidetracked on this for (checks clock...) 2 hours. oops. but it's okay cause I picked up lots of other great quotes to shove into my giant doc!
ok :) that's it. thank you for the ask!!! hopefully you don't regret asking (though if you do... you should have known better lol)
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WIP Wednesday
pretend this isn't the fourth thing i've posted in the past like... two hours
but this is so cool! Thank you @zerokrox-blog for tagging me!
So this is a Soulmate AU that has been in my head for YEARS, and I've finally started writing it down so... here's the first chapter or maybe only part of it? I'm not sure yet. But here it is :)
A few weeks earlier…
Steve sprints to the window, unlatching it easily and jumping through just to tuck and roll onto the soft carpet of Robin’s bedroom.
“What the-” Robin starts to yell until she catches sight of Steve who holds a finger to his lips. He signals for her to close the windows and curtains quickly while he lays on the ground wiping the rain water mixed with blood out of his eyes.
Robin quietly freaks out as she locks the window and pulls the curtain tight. She flicks on a lamp then digs under her bed for a first aid kit that makes Steve want to squirm away, but he can’t deny the need for some type of treatment for his wounds. As she’s carefully putting bandaids on what he assumes to be a large cut on his forehead, she whispers out, “What the hell happened?”
Steve breathes out and does a quick assessment of himself. Nothing appears to be broken at the moment, but his vision is slightly swimming as the adrenaline wears off. He lets his eyes close as he leans into Robin. “Turns out I’m going to college with you after all.”
He doesn’t have to open his eyes to know that she’s giving him a weird look, but he opens them to let her know he’s serious about this. “Robin, promise to never call me ‘Steve’ again, okay?”
Robin freezes and lets her hand fall from where it was smoothing out a bandaid. “What?”
“Please,” Steve pleads and looks around frantically. “Call me… call me…” his head is pounding and his stomach slightly churns, so he relies on the last thing he saw, a name too unique to belong to any soul, “Call me Keys.”
“Okay… Keys,” Robin says testing out the name as Steve’s eyes lull shut. “Now tell me everything.”
Now
Moving in sucks. Well, moving Robin in sucks. Steve had told her that she didn’t need to pack her entire room, but she insisted, “Keys, I will not be returning home after my first twenty-four hours away from it! And maybe I’ll need the whistle I got in elementary school! You never know.”
Steve just sighs and hefts up yet another box from his car, carefully glancing around for anyone familiar before heading up to Robin’s dorm. He curses the broken elevator but realizes it likely wouldn’t have been much help since everyone else is moving in at the same time. He swerves just at the last second as some hyper dude with long hair runs down the stairs past him and Robin. For some reason, he feels a weird draw to them, but they probably just remind him of Dustin who he would’ve yelled at to slow the hell down. He misses that kid.
Steve huffs as he makes his way to the third story of the building and spots the door to Robin’s room slightly ajar. Robin shoots him a look and they rush over to it only to slow down as they approach. Steve sets down the box and riffles through it settling on grabbing a random plaque from... “Your fourth-grade spelling bee, really?”
“It’s one of my greatest accomplishments!” Robin whisper yells at him and nudges his shoulder.
Steve rolls his eyes but takes the plaque and holds it up. He holds up his hand signaling three... two... one...
Steve shoves the door open and yells as a blonde girl starts to scream. Steve quickly realizes his mistake and puts the plaque down on a nearby table and holds his hands up. “Woah! Oh, shit. Sorry. You must be Robin’s roommate. I’m Steve,” he introduces himself cautiously holding his hand out.
Only, the girl doesn’t take it. Instead, she seems frozen as she glances over Steve’s shoulder.
Steve’s hand drops and he looks over his shoulder to see what's happening but he’s only met with the sight of Robin staring longingly at the other girl. Steve looks back at the girl and sees it. “You must be Chrissy,” Steve breathes out.
The girl nods slightly, and happiness alongside jealousy churns in Steve’s stomach. “Well, it’s been great meeting you. And I’ll just... see myself out. Robin, we can get the rest of your stuff later. I’m just going to head to my dorm.”
Robin slightly nods, mirroring Chrissy’s same nod from earlier, and Steve is almost positive that neither of them are getting any of what he’s saying. Damn soulmates.
Steve heaves Robin’s box through the doorway and lightly shoves her in before closing the behind her. This is certainly not how he wanted his college experience to start.
He rushes down the stairs and tries not to think too hard about the whole Robin finding her soulmate thing. Like, yes, it’s great. He’s glad she has the perfect roommate and a soulmate who clearly just by first looks is crazy about her. But this means... fuck.
Steve might be abandoned. He knows it’s unlike Robin, but he’s heard the soulmate stories. Christ, they’re literally a person’s other half, so of course they’re going to want to spend all their time with them which leaves Steve... alone. Or awkwardly third wheeling, but the sight of happy couples makes him irrationally angry.
Well, with everything, Robin says that he should be reasonably angry about the whole soulmate thing, but...
Steve shakes his head as he climbs into his car and watches that same long-haired boy heave a box up towards the building. Eddie. A voice in his head unhelpfully supplies, and Steve shakes it away because that would be impossible.
He forces himself to tear his eyes away and look at the campus map. Sadly, he and Robin aren’t living in the same residence hall, but the buildings should be about a five-minute walk away. He spots his building and takes a deep breath as he thinks about dealing with parking. Luckily, he only has about one trip worth of things with him.
He finds parking and curses under his breath as he rechecks his dorm number and pockets the key they gave him a few hours earlier. He pushes around the few boxes Robin has left so he can get out his one box and old backpack. Hopefully his roommate doesn’t judge him too much.
The trek to the building isn’t horrible from the parking lot, but Steve is definitely thankful that he lives on the first floor.
He finds his room fairly easily and digs his key out of his pocket so he can unlock the door. He sighs when he finds it’s already unlocked and prepares to meet his roommate. He tries to appear pleasant as possible and even tightly smiles as he enters the room. Half of it is filled with weird shit like posters and drawings that Steve thinks that Dustin would like. And he’s definitely gotta ask why the hell he has a giant sign that says “Corroded Coffin.” He whistles low when he spots the guitar propped in the corner of the room. He knows nothing about instruments, but he can tell it’s well taken care of.
The only thing that he finds odd is the lack of a roommate in the room, but maybe he’s in the bathroom or something.
Steve doesn’t think too hard about it because he’s filled with relief of finally being alone so he can breathe. It’s not that he isn’t a social person it’s just... he needs time to process the whole Chrissy and Robin thing. More than anything he wants to rant to someone about it, but his options of ranting are: Robin.
But there’s probably a landline in the common area and definitely pay phones nearby so he can call Dustin eventually.
He tugs at the leather band around his right wrist for a few minutes as he thinks before realizing the anxious tick and trying to stop. He needs Robin to go back to flicking him in the head every time he does it. Soulmarks don’t like being suffocated he guesses.
He unpacks the few things he has, stuffing the few pairs of clothes he has in the supplied dresser and slipping sheets over his mattress and making up the thin comforter (curtesy of Robin’s mom) and pillow (also Robin’s mom) to make the place look somewhat like a home. He gets a framed picture of him and Robin out of his box and puts it on his desk lastly before turning around and walking towards his door.
He stops and takes a breath before turning around and taking in his sad display of a room, but he can’t help but smile. Nothing can be worse than his room from a few weeks ago.
All the sudden, the door swings open and collides with Steve’s back causing him to stumble forward and curse.
“I’m so sorry. I didn’t know you were...” the man trails off as Steve turns around.
It’s the same long-haired guy he saw before, but close up he’s absolutely...
Eddie. Soulmate.
Steve’s entire being feels drawn to him, and it’s like he understands what all the soulmates mean when they say as soon as they saw them they just knew. And it feels so right. He’s somehow everything that Steve had always dreamed of since he first got his mark, and nothing at all like what he expected. He’s about to finally say that it’s him, it’s Steve, when he finally shakes himself out of it.
No, it’s not him. It’s not possible. He’s already met Eddie.
So, Steve sticks his hand out and says, “I’m Keys.”
And something about his name must falter whatever is going on in the man’s head as he reaches out and replies, “Kas. Uh, you must be my s- roommate.”
Steve smiles tightly as the label doesn’t rest well with him. He shakes his hand and can’t help but notice the way his hand feels right in his, but he’s also wearing a band around his wrist that kind of jostles with Steve’s and it feels so wrong like he needs to pry them both off-
“My roommate who I just hit with the door. Shit, I’m sorry, man, I just got some crazy news that my best friend found her soulmate. At least, I think that’s what I was witnessing because she was just making out with this other girl, and I don’t know, I just kind of ran like hell. And I wasn’t thinking and bam hit you with the door,” Kas rambles out and it’s overwhelmingly endearing to Steve especially when he pulls his hair in front of his face and continues, “Sorry, man, I’m just kind of freaking out.”
And Steve knows exactly what he means. “I can’t blame you. I just had the same sort of shit happen. My best friend just found her soulmate, and I’m at a loss. I know I should feel happy for her, but I can’t help but think I’m going to be abandoned or some shit.” Steve stops and wonders why the hell he’s talking so much and basically spewing his soul to a stranger. “Sorry,” Steve apologizes and shakes his head, “I don’t usually open up so easily.”
“Neither do I, but that’s just because I have to keep up my dark and mysterious persona,” Kas says with a bright smile as he raises his hands and wiggles his fingers.
Steve can’t help but laugh.
Kas’s smile falls, but more in a dramatic way than a hurt way. “What? Do you not think I’m all dark and mysterious?”
This makes Steve laugh even harder. He has no idea how this man with the energy of a hyper puppy and the biggest brown doe eyes he’s ever seen has ever appeared threatening or rather “dark and mysterious.”
Kas sighs and frowns at him, but that just further drives home the point. Steve can’t help but try to stifle his laughter and reply as seriously as he can, “Oh, you’re dark and mysterious alright.”
Kas lightly shoves him as a blush comes to his cheeks, and Steve doesn’t remember ever feeling so connected to someone as soon as he met them. He can’t help but think that Kas is thinking the same thing as they stare at each other, both smiling as something like hope stirs in Steve.
He wishes more than anything that soulmates didn’t exist.
“Hey, Kas!”
“Keys!”
Kas and Steve jump back as they stare at the two girls in their doorway who glance back at each other. “No way,” Robin and Chrissy both say together and laugh.
It takes Steve a moment longer than everyone, but then he’s looking at Kas with wide eyes as he realizes how cruel and kind the universe really is.
#steddie#steddie wip#eddie munson#steve harrington#stranger things#robin buckley#chrissy cunningham#soulmate au
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Darewoof the Dazed Dynamic Doggo
Zach was surrounded by milkshakes, burgers, a lot of chatter, and his group of friends. All of them were laughing and joking with each other, and he looked around, smiling and appreciating the moment. And he wanted to appreciate it more, but he couldn’t help but shake the thought that there would only be so many more days like this before all of them would move on with their lives, and such a thought made it hard for him to stay in the moment, to enjoy himself.
Little did he know, his phone buzzed on the table, his screen flashing on as a notification appeared.
Master Morpheo
Attatchment: 1 image.
Zach knew exactly what this was about and what the attachment was. A lump formed in his throat, knowing he had no choice but to leave his friends, but at the same time: he somehow felt a weight lift from his shoulders. Just for today, he wouldn’t need to tell his friends how he felt, and he wouldn’t need to remind them that they had little time left together.
“Uhh, Guys?” Zach spoke up. “Sorry, I gotta go. Emergency at work.”
“Oh come on!” Gabe grumbled. “Don’t be such a party pooper.”
“No really, my boss will kill me if I don’t get take this.”
Or, something else will kill you, Zach thought to himself.
“No, I get it,” Cece said. “Good luck!” She smirked at Zach, which made his face go red with embarrassment. Cece knew Zach’s secret and she always teased him for it, no matter how much he told her to stop.
Zach stood up from the table, threw twenty bucks onto the table, and sped out the door of the diner. Cold air hit his face as he jogged, and the silence that was probably calm to some was deafening to him, bringing up his sense of urgency even more. He slipped into an alleyway, and pulled his phone out of his pocket. He unlocked his phone, and clicked to download the gif that he received. The image was sent in this way on purpose, so Zach wouldn’t click on it by accident, triggering it prematurely. When the image downloaded, it expanded to fill his screen.
A lime and dark green spiral swirled before his eye. His muscles relaxed, and his breath slowed down, an overwhelming calm taking over. His eyes widened to look closer at the spiral, trying to make sense of the way it spun and to focus on one part of it, but the more he looked, the more it confused him, the more his mind became foggy, the deeper he fell into trance, the better he felt.
“Grroof!”
A doggish bark forced its way from his throat like a hiccup. At a point in the center of his mind, a seed emerged. It was seed of desire, a desire to be something different, a desire to obey. It was a seed of thoughtlessness and of calm. The seed cracked open and expanded outward, its slithering through his soul, branching out to every corner of his mind. His lips curved up into a smile, and his tongue lulled out of his mouth. He began panting like a dog.
As he continued watching the spiral, he was brought back to the time he was hired.
Weeks earlier, an old bearded man came to the campus for an event for school. He was a hypnotist who wore a top hat and carried a pocket watch. He hypnotized groups of people, and did things like make them forget their name, make them talk backwards, and made them do silly dances when a certain word was said. At the end of his show, he asked for a volunteer from the crowd for a special act. Zach’s friends pressured him to go up on stage and be hypnotized.
“Man,” Gabe had said. “You’re gonna look so stupid, I can’t wait.”
“Gabe, shut up,” Cece retorted. “Zach, you’ll do great! It’ll be fun!”
With some more coaxing and convincing, Zach went up on the stage, which garnered applause from the other college students in the audience.
“Thank you for coming up!” The old man said, “It’s very brave of you. What might your name be, young man?”
“Zach,” he replied. He tried to play it cool and act cool, but his stomach churned in that moment, realizing he didn’t know how to act and didn’t know what to say.
I look ridiculous, he thought, I already look ridiculous.
“Okay Zach,” The man said. “Like I said, I have a very special show for you, so if you could kneel down, we could get started.” He knelt on the ground before the hypnotist, and looked up at him. The spotlight from the stage irritated him, but soon enough he didn’t notice it, as he watched the pocket watch swing back and forth. Zach saw a green light emanate from it. His entire body felt warm, and his muscles melted.
“Allow yourself to fall into trance. You’re feeling better and better the deeper you go… going deeper and deeper the better you feel. You’re not thinking about exams, in fact forget your exams… you are here now… You remember nothing. You know nothing but now.”
Zach had always considered himself to be a dork, or just a social outcast.That lead him to being a man of few words, which lead some of his peers to think he was weird, and others to think he was mysterious and cool. Zach had thought “fake it until you make it,” and played into this “cool guy” that people thought he was. He had worn more dark colors and bought a grey hoodie. He spoke little of himself because he thought little of himself. But that was what synthesized into who “Zach” was that day.
And that Zach disappeared.
He wasn’t Zach, he knew nothing. He let himself melt further and his eyes followed the pretty green light.
“You’re not a college student now,” The hypnotist said, “You’re a dog… aren’t you? Yes, you’re a dog. And you have so much joy and love. You love belly rubs and chew toys. You love playing fetch.”
As the hypnotist spoke, Zach felt the words manifest themselves as truth. His skin tingled as an intense warmth spread across his body. The tingling briefly got more intense and then subsided as a layer of fur broke the surface of his skin, all over his body all at once. His stomach as well as his the bottom of his face, his chin, and his neck all became covered in white fur. Everywhere else, he became covered in brown fur that matched his hair color. The skin on his nose and on his palms became darker and softer until his palms had black paw-pads, and his nose was the soft wet nose of a dog.
There was was a brief but intense pressure in his lower back. His jeans ripped as a tail emerged and wagged wildly. He didn’t realize what he was doing, but the more he wagged his tail, the happier he felt.
The green light felt as if it seeped into his brain, taking roots in the forefront of his consciousness and silencing his loudest thoughts. As the tendrils of light continued seeping deeper into his brain, more and more thoughts and memories subsided. He tilted his head with confusion, trying to make sense of what was happening, but his mind wasn’t working, and his confusion was replaced with pure joy. He felt the green light swirling around in his brain, emptying his mind and replacing thoughts with doggish excitement.
His nose and mouth effortlessly extended forward, growing longer into the muzzle of a dog. The tips of his ears extended and grew pointy, folding and becoming concave at each of their tips, and moved to the top of his head. The final change was in his feet, as his shoes morphed under the pressure of his growing toes, before it burst open revealing fully formed paws. His tongue lulled out of his mouth and he began panting with excitement. All he could see was green light. His head was empty.
The hypnotist snapped his fingers. Zach snapped his head back upright, eyes wide and still panting with joy.
“Speak,” the hypnotist commanded.
“Grroof!” Zach replied
“Shake.”
Zach offered a hand covered in white fur.
“Good boy,” The hypnotist said, scratching Zach behind the ear. Zach nuzzled up to him, feeling immense joy and comfort. He didn’t know what was happening or why he felt this way, but he loved the way he felt. Zach’s ears perked up at a squeaking sound. He looked up and saw a blue ball held in the hypnotist’s palm. He pointed his muzzle toward it. The hypnotist moved his hand to the side. Zach jumped up and followed the ball, keeping it in his gaze. The man threw the ball into the audience. Zach bounded through the crowd on all fours, and picked up the ball in his maw. He was rewarded immediately by pets from the audience, He rolled over for belly rubs. He shook his arms and legs as each pet tickled him. He felt an intense love and appreciation he hadn’t felt in years. He was in heaven in that moment, in a world without any worries or fears, just joy.
The hypnotist snapped again. The dog was gone in an instant and the college boy was back. His tail fur and muzzle were gone. There was joy lingering, as if a friend had told him a joke that left a smile on his face even as his mind wandered elsewhere. Zach spat the ball out of his mouth, eyes widened as he processed what had happened. His mind had gone, and he wasn’t himself… but he was still himself, and he knew what he was doing as he did it. Was it an act? Thinking about whether or not he wanted to be a dog in that moment: the answer would be no, but when in trance the answer was yes. He wanted to do this… it was fun…. And he sort of wanted to do it again.
There was applause as the hypnotist took a bow, and walked off the stage. Slowly the crowd began filing out of the small theater on campus, and then the hypnotist walked right up To Zach and gave him a business card.
“You put on a great show,” the hypnotist told him. “If you ever want to be a dog again, and you’re looking for work: call me.”
Zach snapped back to the present moment, and looked up from his phone, up away from the green spiral, still panting with his tongue lulled out. His short nose in the middle of his vision was replaced with a long doggish muzzle. He was covered in fur once again, his feet were paws, and his tail wagged wildly. Most importantly, however, he was wearing a green shiny spandex suit, with muscular padding on his abs and arms, and a shiny cape flowing behind him in the wind. He stuck his hands on his hips, and puffed his chest out.
Another suggestion echoed in Zach’s mind, one that Master Morpheo told him when he officially gave him a job.
“You are a super hero, fearless, enthusiastic, and strong. You expect and accept treats and headpats from those you save, and you can never resist a game of fetch. You have the ability to fly, laser vision, super strength, a super sense of smell and hearing, and a super heart.”
“You. Are. Darewoof.”
Zach tilted his head back, let out two barks, and then howled in pride. He crouched down, and then rocketed upward, taking to the sky and flying across town, holding one fist out in front of him as he flew. Cars and houses zipped by him in his vision. The college students below either stared up in awe, pointed at him, or waved to him.
A distant high pitched scream pierced his ears. He jerked his head to the side to see where it came from and did a loop de loop in the air to fly toward it. screams were coming from one small house on the edge of campus. As he got closer to the house he saw holes in the roof and in the walls, students evacuating and scrambling, and he saw a big bulky figure holding a giant metal hammer, smashing holes into the walls.
Whoever this was wore a jet pack, allowing him to float, and also wore a spandex suit, however it was purple blue and black, and had a big blue spiral in the center of his chest. His eyes were concealed by a high tech visor that glowed a pinkish purple in the darkness. More importantly: his skin was a deep pink, his ears were floppy, the tip of his nose pointed upward like a snout, he had hooves instead of feet, and two big gleaming tusks jutted out from his jaw.
The big pig man brandished his hammer and snarled at the dog hero.
“Hello, Darewoof.”
To be continued?
#Furry#transfur#hypnosis#personality change#dog#superhero#pendulum#hypnotist#supervillain#pocket watch
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signal -> classmate! oh haewon
-the 6 step guide of confessing to your crush
warnings: it’s very rushed; i lost motivation at the end 😭
genre: grain of angst, fluff
notes: i love haewon
1. begin the process
sunny day, what a beautiful time to be alive. at least it would be beautiful if you weren’t currently on your way to the nurse’s office.
you got hit by a ball after staring at a certain someone for far too long during p.e. the girl that attacked you was getting scolded by the teacher (you felt a little bad for that- hence you were the one not paying attention) while the cause of the problem was trotting after you.
“…you should be more careful. look around every once in a while or you’ll get hurt more.”
‘i was looking at you.’
“i know. i just thought i saw mrs kwon on the field.”
‘smooth.’ you mentally cheered for yourself.
“kwon yuri? wasn’t she taking a absence? if she’s back already i should probably report to her…”
‘not smooth.’
“o-oh well, maybe it was someone else?” you didn’t have to look at her face to know she wasn’t convinced.
“are you any close with mrs kwon?”
“i guess… i go to her for piano lessons every thursday, why?” you weren’t that close with the teacher, but could probably be called one of her favourites.
“she asked me to make a report of the orchestra’s activities this semester. if she comes back unexpectedly, could you let me know? give me your phone, i’ll type in my number.” your steps halted. she turned to look at you with confusion painting her face.
“number?”
“yeah, so you can text me if mrs kwon comes back. is that okay?” you could only pray she couldn’t see the reddening of your cheeks.
“yeah, it’s cool.” it’s very cool to get your crushes number.
2. get rejected
“let me get this straight.” lily moved her plate away to focus all her attention on you. “haewon gave you her number all by herself? months of pinning just for that?”
“i mean, she wants me to contact her if mrs kwon comes back earlier from her leave, not to chat casually…” as if on cue, you phone let out a low buzz, informing you of the new notification.
“ooh~ that might just be the love of your life!”
“i will remind you that my friendship with jinsol is quite solid and i can tell her about your little crush on her anytime.” earning a eye roll from the older girl, you unlocked your phone.
much to your surprise, the text was actually from the number labelled as ‘oh haewon’.
“i was right!”
“hush for a second, will you?” biting your lip, you opened the notification.
‘mrs kwon texted me she’ll be coming back next week.’
“oh.”
“ouch… rejected before you could even try.”
“lily jin morrow.”
“i’m sorry.” she laughed.
“i’m calling bae.”
“i said i’m sorry!”
3. restart the process
mrs kwon did came back earlier than expected. for you it only meant that your piano sessions will be back. for the others? every band suddenly had to rehearse.
they probably delayed practicing when suddenly the head of the section came back.
mrs kwon came back on friday, couple days later you were packing your things after your usual practice. the teacher left already, probably needing to see some pour soul who was failing the semester.
“i’m really sorry i can’t stay with you and help. i tried to get mom to pick my brother up but she won’t make it in time and i can’t just leave him like that…” you looked away from your sheets to see two figures approaching the classroom.
“i understand, yoona. i won’t hold a grudge because of that, don’t worry. family emergencies happen and it’s very much normal. go, i’ll fill out these by myself.” the taller out of the two figures moved away.
that left you alone with the girl. she hadn’t noticed you yet, as you awkwardly stood next to the piano in the room. she suddenly looked up.
“oh, hi y/n.” at first you were surprised she actually knew your name. on the other hand, it wasn’t the first year the two of you were classmates.
“ye- um, yeah, hi.” you waved lightly.
“did mrs kwon leave already? i wanted to hand her the paperwork today but if she’s not here…”
“she’ll be back after finishing with the upper grade. that shouldn’t take more than an hour.” haewon threw a sceptical gaze at the pile of papers in her hands.
“there’s no way i’ll fill all this out in an hour. they are due today so i might finish them at home and send mrs kwon the scans.”
“maybe i could help you?” her eyes held no emotion as she turned her head. then suddenly, her face looked softer.
“your help would be greatly appreciated. sit with me.” she patted the chair on her side. gladly, you walked over to join her in filling out the paperwork.
maybe in a normal situation you wouldn’t be glad to have to work on so many pages. but now, that haewon was so focused on filling out the forms, you could stare at her in peace, without worrying a ball would hit you again.
4. fuck it up
one might wonder does the lighting strike the same place twice, but you just proved that the ball can in fact hit the same person twice.
twice can you also be led to the nurse’s office by the same person. so many coincidences in your life, maybe you should start listening to twice?
“how do you expect to be any help to me if you’re constantly getting hit?” you laughed lowly in response.
“it’s you who insisted on keeping the window open… n-not that i blame you of course!”
haewon stopped in her tracks and sighed. “is everything okay?”
“what?”
“we aren’t necessarily close, but i’ve noticed that while interacting with me, you seem more distracted. does my presence bother you?”
“n-no, it’s not-!”
“if you would like to put a stop to our friendship-“
“i like you, haewon!”
5. hide
“y/n…” lily sighed, putting her hand on your shoulder in a comforting manner. you ran away from haewon and the older girl was the first person that popped into your mind.
“i fucked up, didn’t i?”
“…i mean, you haven’t seen her reaction?” even she wasn’t sure of her words.
“lily, you’re really bad at comforting, you know?”
“…yea.” you shook your head. the situation seemed bad, you just confessed to a girl that was trying to end your friendship. and she barely knew you.
“it couldn’t be worse!” groaning, you hid your face in your palms.
“it actually could?” lily received a sharp glare from you. “i’m just saying! besides, your phone’s been buzzing for the past five minutes.”
“that’s always a bad sign…” just as you took the device in your hand, someone called your phone.
‘oh haewon’
“…are you sure you want to pick that up-“
“um, hi haewon?”
“i like you too.”
6. smile and wave
you sat with your best friend in the cafeteria. while she was busy staring at a certain girl a couple tables away, you glanced at your phone every few seconds. noticing that, lily let out a mocking sigh.
“if i knew you’d be so busy when you get a girlfriend, i wouldn’t help you.” she whined.
“help me? when did you help me?”
“my mere presence was a blessing.”
“the so called ‘blessing’ doesn’t seem to work on you tho. bae still hasn’t fallen for your charms.” you mocked the older girl, receiving a angry ‘yah’ from her.
“what are you fiddling with that phone of your for anyways?”
“…haewon said she’ll pick me up for our lunch date.”
“aww! it’s a special occasion?” as if on cue, you felt a hand being placed on your shoulder. with a smile you looked up to meet your lover’s gaze.
“we’ve been together for a month today. ‘monthiversary’? i think that’s what they call it.” said haewon. both you and lily snickered quietly. “not important, let’s go love. the more time we get, the more we can-“
“just go!” the eldest of you groaned again. “stop rubbing it in my face that i’m single…”
“yeah, we’re going. see ya!” you smiled at the girl and waved. haewon took your hand in hers. she also gave you a smile of her own.
and even though you stared at her again, no ball came to hit you this time.
#haewon#nmixx imagines#nmixx x reader#bae#lily morrow#jinni#jiwoo#kyujin#sullyoon#oh haewon x reader#haewon x reader#kpop x reader#idol x reader#oh haewon
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Six Hearts vs. Fullbringers: Rukia vs. Tsukishima
Yeah I’m legit mad this isn’t what we got.
Tsukishima isn’t the main villain of the story, but he pretends to be for a good portion of it, and he’s got an absolutely terrifying power that drives directly at the heart of the arc, the relationships between Ichigo and his friends. Tsukishima slowly tears them apart, first by participating in the assault on Uryu, and then by brainwashing every single human in Ichigo’s life, until he’s in a murderous state and actually fighting Chad and Orihime.
And then, in the semi-main event of the arc, he fights...Byakuya. A person who Ichigo has barely spoken to, and could probably go very happily his entire life without speaking to again. The guy who has spent this whole arc winning by subverting interpersonal relationships winds up failing, ironically, because Byakuya doesn’t actually value those relationships as much as he values abstract ideals, and so blasts his chest out without hesitation. It makes sense, I guess, but it doesn’t really do anything in the context of the story.
To the extent the Byakuya-Tsukishima fight does have symbolic relevance, it’s in regards to Ichigo’s relationship with Soul Society. Soul Society (and Byakuya) were going to execute Rukia. Ichigo fought to stop that, and reminded Soul Society that principles are more important than process, that governing isn’t just a mandate to preserve one’s government, but also a responsibility to do right by others. Rukia being sacrificed at the altar of justice would have perverted the very concept itself.
Which, cool and all, but if Rukia is the central character in all that...why isn’t she the one in this fight? If we’re going to test Ichigo’s relationship with Soul Society, shouldn’t it be through his oldest and closest ally? It’s a subplot that’s present in the earlier parts of the arc, though it gets forgotten. Keigo specifically brings up Rukia not being in touch as a reason Ichigo’s being such a grouch. He remembers her when thinking on his past pride as a Soul Reaper. He hears her voice when generating his Fullbring.
And in this final battle, especially when Ginjo is revealing how Soul Society was less then trusting of Ichigo, this should all be paid off! After all, Rukia might not have known about the badge when Ukitake gave it to Ichigo...but she’s Ukitake’s lieutenant now! I’d find it hard to believe she wasn’t told at some point in the last 18 months. So this fight should thematically not just represent Ichigo’s trust and relationship with Soul Society writ large, but also his friendship with Rukia specifically.
So much work has already been done to set it up! Rukia has probably the most well-developed past out of all the characters in the story-- we’ve seen flashbacks to her childhood, her academy days, and her time with Squad 13, and she’s been in the story since the very first chapter. So unlike Byakuya, we’ll have a wide range of old scenes for Tsukishima to insert himself into, to really scare the reader with how essential he can make himself to her life. Imagine Tsukishima giving her Kaien’s speech on heart, or Ukitake’s speech on honor, or saving her from Aizen on Sokyoku Hill. We were already a little worried about Rukia’s feelings toward Ichigo given her lack of communication, and what Ginjo has revealed about Soul Society...now that Tsukishima’s the most important person in her life so far, how could she possibly win?
Well, because of the Heart, duh. Tsukishima pretty consistently shows that he doesn’t understand or practice two-way relationships-- he was dependent on (and used by) Ginjo, something he reproduces with Moe, but there isn’t a sense of mutual support for either of those relationships. It’s one-way fealty. And he does the same thing when he paints himself into the pasts of Ichigo’s friends: it’s always as the provider, the beloved mentor, the patron.
And so in rewriting Rukia’s past I don’t think he’d bother to change her relationship with Ichigo much. Sure, he’d make it so that he came to Soul Society and stopped the Sokyoku, but all that stuff that happened before? Where it was just Rukia giving her power to Ichigo, and teaching him how to use it, and guiding him through this new life he was completely ill-equipped for? Why bother?
Well, because that’s where the bond was formed. Because personal relationships aren’t a transactional, tit-for-tat exchange of goods and services. Rukia might have had the power vis-a-vis Ichigo in those early days, but by being that person for him she grew, taking on a responsibility that allowed her to feel for the first time in decades like she was a strong, independent person. And this, combined with Ichigo time after time proving himself worthy of her powers and guidance, created such a trust that no pilfered monologue can shake. We saw it when Aaroniero was cosplaying Kaien back in Soul Society-- yes, he meant something to Rukia, but Ichigo means something to her today. She trusts him implicitly, because he earned it. And this fight is where that becomes explicit.
So yeah, this fight would have a whole lot of cutting Rukia without bleeding, and a whole lot of Tsukishima-insert flashbacks, and would maybe be intercut with Ginjo expositing to Ichigo about Soul Society’s nefarious spy device. And while Ginjo is trying to convince Ichigo that Soul Society (and by extension Rukia) are evil and out to get him, Tsukishima would be trying the reverse, avoiding Rukia’s established powers before trying to convince her that, considering Ichigo’s done nothing for her in her life, she should really be fighting him instead.
Rukia admits that Ichigo hasn’t done what Tsukishima has done for her. Then she blasts him through the chest with Soren Sokatsui, without the incantation. Something she admits to Tsukishima that she’d never even attempted before. But she believes in herself. Because she believed in Ichigo. And that’s why she still believes in him.
#Bleach#Troius fantasy books Bleach#also this would solve the problem of me not believing Tsukishima could ever match Byakuya in a swordfight#like come on#who would win: the several hundred year old most powerful ever head of the kuchiki clan#or a literature undergrad
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WuWa spoilers under the cut!! I just finished I think the first act? I just need to get this off my chest. There's still a lil more but ill probs edit this when i finish that yippee
EDIT: so there wasn't a lil more they just stick your character in a chair and when you get out quest over. Lil weird but alright.
So. The story itself is intriguing - the exposition dumps really weren't great tho like my eyes kept glazing over but i think I got the general gist. It isn't the strongest start, but I can only hope it gets better from here cause i still really really enjoyed myself.
I'm not sure if I was meant to do Lingyang's quest earlier + meet Yuanwu earlier cause they just kinda,,, showed up in the final stretches and like i've never met them in the story before. It was a lil jarring
Also.
Havoc Rover.
One-winged Angel Rover..... i want to wait until enough time has come out but you know i'm drawing that. I do need to get a handle on his playstyle though im so used to spectro rover jfdnjkhdilk
The Threnodian (?) Puppet (??) boss was literally so cool i can already see WuWa's enemy designs being in my top top favourite of enemies designs and I am not even kidding. It was so like,,,,, cool and freaky and oufjdjsglfk gushing about them. I wish there was a way to see that model somewhere like in an archive but im begging i wanna look at it when im not fighting for my life.
Also side note: the fighting in general, combined with enemy designs weirdly reminds me of the dark souls games??? Like to me it feels like it smooshed genshin + dark souls together and y'know what, i needed that. Ik it's stupid to compare it to dark souls just cause it has a dodge + parry mechanic and the enemies, but i don't know how my brain works dude. it just does that
Also the domain was sick as shit im so ill rn. You can't use cameras in the domains i think (rip) so this was the only one i got. I also hope they have the cutscene on yt or something cause there's like one frame which is gonna replace my argenti wallpaper (sorry bb)
The new area - Norfolk Barrens - also looked super cool. I adore wuwa's environmental design. I've only been through it during the story, but I'm excited to explore. Once I'm free of story and quest stuff, I'm gonna go on my 100% everything spree like in genshin lmao
I'm tempted to pull for Jiyan but I kinda wanna save? he is super fun but I'm trying to be more like,,,, ig reserved when it comes to pulling in case there's someone who I prefer later on. I wanna focus on building lingyang + Havoc Rover for now. I don't care too much about the meta but i still wanna survive in combat yknow
despite the bugs and stuff i've encountered, im having a super fun time and can't wait to see where it goes!!
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Bittersweet
Niko Ikki x Reader
Quote: "Fall in love with someone bringing you forward." & "Fall in love with an attentive heart."
Someone You Loved Featuring: The Bookkeeper
There was a nervous sort of feeling that filled Niko Ikki to the brim as he entered the building. It wasn’t his first time attending an art exhibit but it certainly felt so. There had been plenty of art exhibits he had been invited to (mostly yours) but this would only be the third he’s chosen to attend and (he’d like to point out) not for a lack of want.
The free time of an athlete, contrary to popular belief, was quite limited. Much of his free time was spent either muscle conditioning, reviewing hours of film and honing his practical skills. Not to mention when he did have games there was no way he’d be allowed to miss it, even if he was injured or sick. All of which accumulated to a small number of days he absolutely had to miss and even more when taking into account what he couldn’t stand to miss.
But, luckily, it had been the midst of the off season when the invitation arrived in the mail.
It was a pretty card, swirling coffee and chestnut browns boarded a picture that Niko was certain you’d taken. His name, so carefully and dutifully written atop the page, written by none other than you. He can tell it’s your writing from the way you dot your I’s and swerve your k’s. Almost immediately after receiving the letter did he send a reply in response.
Niko, being the ever punctual and attentive soul that he is, arrives precisely on the time which has been listed atop the card. Which means he arrives exactly an hour later than you and a half hour earlier than all the other guests. You, being the main headliner, meant you would obviously have to arrive earlier than the guest in order to make sure everything was running smoothly. And, all the other guests arriving exactly half an hour late is what all artists like to call arriving fashionably late.
Niko never really understood the term ‘fashionably late’. One of his teammates, the rich fellow that grew up in this kinda world, had tried explaining it to him but the fundamental idea of arriving late was just something Niko couldn’t get with. As an athlete, arriving late was basically a prison sentence to the bench if not the death of your career.
He looked around pensively. The room was mostly empty, if not for a few of the staff running around the back of the room trying to put the last finishing touches on everything before the exhibit was filled to the brim with people.
The small vase of red flowers makes Niko stand out like a sore thumb against the coffee gray walls and dim lighting. He thinks that maybe the flowers would match the room a little better if not for the fact that he’s chosen a bright blue vase.
“Niko!” Your voice floats through the presently empty building like the melody of a long forgotten favourite song.
He smiles, ever so slightly, “(L/n).”
“I’m so happy you decided to come.”
“Me too.”
“Have you been waiting long?”
“Just arrived.”
“Oh, that’s a relief! I was supposed to be waiting for guests to arrive but then I had to use the washroom and then by the time I realised it, it was already time to open!” You smile sheepishly, rubbing the back of your neck, “most people don’t arrive on time but they're always eager folk like you.”
Perhaps that was what drew you to Niko in the first place?
His punctual presence?
Niko’s expression betrays his persona of a cool and calculated man as a smile turns his lips upwards, “and isn't that your favourite thing about me?”
“Not when I’m running late!” You exclaim.
“Oh, that reminds me,” Niko holds the blue vase of red flowers out to you, “congratulations.”
You smile, not that practiced one that you usually greet others with, nor the one where your eyes close when you're embarrassed. You smile a pretty and genuine smile as you take the blue vase from him, “thank you Niko. You shouldn’t have.”
Niko’s heart skips a beat, “don’t think about it too hard.”
“Give me a moment to put these away and then I’ll show you around the gallery.” You say, “you’re going to love some of the photos I did this year. Definitely some of my best work. Much better than the landscape one you went to last year.”
“Don’t worry about me.” Niko I can look around well enough on my own. You focus on entertaining those art critics you’re always worrying about.”
You look torn, looking between Niko and the door before finally sighing, “you’re staying for the reception, right?”
Niko chuckles, “only for you.”
You smile thankfully before making your way off towards a door near the back of the room.
Truthfully, Niko had only planned on staying for an hour or so. He’d never really been a big fan of art and though yours was an exception there was still only so much time he could stand still staring at pictures. Unfortunately, he wasn’t able to say ‘no’ when you made such an expression. Actually, he’d never been very good at saying no to you in the first place and part of him is certain you know that. The other part of him doesn't care. It’s you, afterall.
Everything feels much more abstract in this particular album, though Niko supposes it would be so with a title like ‘The Poet’. Poets are, afterall, weavers of words and creators of worlds left only to be seen in the mind. There’s no definitive person in any of the photos but it’s obviously all relating to a single person with a title like ‘The Poet’ falling into your collection of Muses.
One photo, for example, has the hand of a man holding a plastic paint brush dipped in the darkest of black paints. Letters, Niko supposes, are sprawled across leaving what he assumes to be a poetic message but the language isn’t anything he recognizes. Not that it matters anyways. He’s much more focused on the yellow edges of the paper, the corners wrinkled and ripped and torn ever so slightly. The photo’s titled ‘Between You and Me’ in golden plating at the bottom of the frame. It’s pretty.
“Bookkeeper!”
Niko turns to the loud voice letting out a deep sigh when he comes face to face with the loud and boisterous, “Dancer.”
The Dancer is a man with bright coloured hair. Not so orange yet not so red. Never quite blonde but neither a brunette. His hair is untamed and runs off in every direction it so pleases like a lion’s mane. Niko’s seen folks from all around the world but he never can seem to place where exactly the Dancer might be from. He’s well dressed, in a black suit with a splash of colour in the form of an orange tie. Niko thinks it goes well with his hair. His blue shades, on the other hand, contrast with the look and are at the least tacky. Looking very stupid inside a dark venue such as the one you’ve chosen.
What you ever saw in such a boisterous and obnoxious man is far beyond even Niko’s wildest imaginations but he supposes he’s never asked you before. Niko never doubted your choice in Muses except for perhaps this man here.
No, that’s a lie.
There are plenty of you Muses that Niko wouldn’t have picked but he does have to admit one thing. You have an eye for people that draw attention - which is why, for the life of him, he couldn’t understand why you had picked him in the first place.
Hopefully your taste hasn't once again been led astray with the Poet.
Niko can only hope.
“What’re you doing in a place like this?” The Dancer asks, “I thought Soccer players were kept in jail cells in the offseason.”
Niko rolls his eyes, though he doubts the Dancer can see it, “football.”
“Hm?”
“Football, Dancer. Not soccer.”
The Dancer shrugs, “football. Soccer. Same difference.”
Niko’d say something about Americans though he doubts that’s where the Dancer is actually from, especially from his accent. Besides, he’s certain the Dancer is doing it on purpose. Always did find some sick form of amusement from annoying others. Anyways, it would be an insult to Americans to lump this obnoxious man among them. Even right now Niko has half a mind to flip this man off or say something rude. He obviously refrains from doing so as he’d never want to ruin your big night (or just do anything to make you upset in general) but the idea is enough to cheer him up, if just a little.
“What do you want, Dancer?” Sighs Niko.
The Dancer feigns an expression of pain, “why, Bookkeeper I’m hurt! And here I was thinking we were finally friends.”
“I definitely wouldn’t have come here if I’d have known you were coming.”
“Just imagine our little photographer's expression if she heard that!”
“I’m certain she’d understand.”
“Always let you get away with little things like that.”
“That’s because I’m actually nice to her.”
“Hey! I’m nice to her.”
Niko smirks, “if you say so.”
The Dancer looks as though he wants to say something more but bites his tongue. His eyes move across the room landing on you as you’re in the middle of a conversation with a couple. You’re pointing out something about the photo the three of you are standing in front of before laughing at a joke you must’ve just told. He knows you must’ve been the one to tell the joke from the way you cover your mouth with the back of your hand.
“So what’s your consensus on the Poet?” Asks the Dancer.
Niko turns to face him, “haven’t met him. You?”
“Haven’t met him either. His name’s listed in the agenda and credits but there’s no photo of his face.”
Niko smiles ever so slightly at that, “so he’s camera shy.”
“He’s certainly not the only one.”
Niko has a jibe at the forefront of his mind but holds his tongue as you and the couple you’re talking to pass by himself and the Dancer. So instead, he turns towards the nearest photo plastered up on the wall, “any guess on who it might be?”
The Dancer points to a man standing in the back of the room with blonde hair, “what about him?”
“No,” Niko shakes his head, “his features are… plain.”
“Perhaps that’s why his face isn’t in any of the photos.”
“There’s nothing about him that screams ‘sparking’.”
“Ah yes,” says the Dancer, “sparking,” as though it’s his first time tasting the words upon his lips.
“How about him?” Asks Niko, pointing to a man close to him with gray eyes.
“Hm,” the Dancer inspects him for a bit before pulling back, “no chance.”
Niko doesn't disagree.
The two men spend more time looking at the different party guests than they do looking at the pictures containing the man they happen to be looking for. From boys looking to have just entered their early twenties to men whose hair has begun to turn gray.
Eventually they both settle on a brunette with brown eyes. The tips of his hair are dyed a green that strangely seems to go very well with the coffee brown walls of the room.
Niko shares a look with the Dancer.
Then the Dancer is off with another word, making his way towards the Poet without another word.
The Poet is tall and attractive. Perhaps not jaw dropping attractive but attractive enough to garner the attention of a female or two. Perhaps even three if he knew how to play his cards right. He’s looking around the room like a deer in headlights, shifting his weight from one foot to the other constantly. He looks nice, if not a little timid. Exactly what Niko would expect from someone too shy to actually have their face featured in any of your photos.
Some of your photos don’t even feature him in the first place like the photo title ‘Again’ for example. There’s a black book left alone on a coffee table, propped open to a page somewhere in the middle of the novel. The words ‘Friend or Foe’ are written in neat black font on the top of one page while the other side, where the author’s name would be, is covered with a black pen.
Niko assumes that the same black pen is the one responsible for leaving words scribbled along the margins of the page. Some of the words are crossed out while others are highlighted, underlined and circled. That strange letting from the photo before can be found here again. Niko wonders if it might be the same word but doesn't care enough to ask.
The Dancer, Niko notes, makes quick work of teasing your latest Muse. The boy goes from a nervous pale to a bright red in a matter of moments.
Eventually, when the Dancer has had enough tormenting the Poet (or at least Niko assumes so) he leaves to view the rest of the gallery.
Now, Niko has never really been one for confrontation but he did suddenly find himself very curious. In truth, there was only so much he really knew about you and perhaps… he might even be able to learn something new about you from the Poet. Perhaps he had managed to see something with eyes that Niko hadn’t used. And even if the Poet knew nothing he’d like to at least see why you had chosen this man to be your latest Muse.
So, Niko approaches him and greets him with a simple, “you look nervous.”
The Poet brings an arm to the back of his head, smiling sheepishly, “was it that obvious?”
Niko grins, “very.”
He’s green, thinks Niko. Almost as green as you had been when the two of you first met.
“What do you do for a living, Poet?” Asks Niko.
The Poet raises a brow, “me?”
“You are the Poet, aren’t you?” Niko lets out a nervous laugh, “unless I’m mistaken.”
“You’re not.”
“That’s good.”
The Poet looks around, eyeing Niko as though he’s scared that Niko might suddenly turn feral and decide to attack him. His unease is enough to calm Niko’s own nerves.
“And you’re the Bookkeeper, right?” Asks the Poet.
Niko shrugs, “I’m not a big fan of that particular title but yes. If it helps you to identify me.” The only one that ever really calls him that is the Dancer, but he supposes if anyone else were to use that to identify him it might as well be another one of the muses. ”So are you an author?”
“An aspiring one.”
There’s that amused smile picking at the corner of Niko’s lips again. Someone that gives flowery words to mundane things reduced to something so simple, “ironic then, isn’t it?”
“Huh?” There’s a look of confusion on the Poet’s face but it’s quickly replaced with one of recognition, “I suppose. So what do you do Mr. Bookkeeper? I don’t suppose you’re a librarian, are ya?”
Finally, Niko laughs, “I guess a title like that would cause an assumption like that! But no, I’m no librarian. In fact, I don’t even work with books. I’m a professional football player.”
“Wow!” The Poet’s eyes widened, “I wouldn’t have expected that!”
“Yeah,” Niko smiles sheepishly, “I’m not the most popular player because of my position but I do enjoy what I do.”
“So how’d you end up getting such a title in the first place?”
“I’m not so sure myself. I think it has something to do with where we met and the photos she ended up taking. I’m not even an avid reader in the first place.”
“Maybe it has to do with maintaining records. Like with banks?”
Niko shrugged.
“Maybe you should ask her about it.”
Niko eyed the Poet. Looking him up and down before finally saying, “you haven’t known her very long, have you?”
The Poet looks offended as he exclaims, “what gives you that impression?”
The familiar feeling of amusement bubbles up in Niko’s stomach, “she never answers questions the way you want her to.”
“Oh,” the Poet looks almost disheartened, and it almost makes Niko feel bad, “I guess I never really noticed that.”
Niko gives the Poet a strong tap on his shoulder, similar to how he might do when trying to cheer up one of his teammates, “I wouldn’t worry about it too much. So you plan on staying for the reception?”
“I don’t think she’d forgive me if I skipped.”
“Yeah,” Niko chuckles, “I don’t think she would either. See you around.”
“Yeah,” the Poet sighs, “see you around.”
Looks like there wasn’t much to be gained from that conversation for Niko. Though he supposes that’s how things have always been between him and you. Him watching and learning about you from a distance - you are just barely out of reach.
A blue vase of red flowers sits atop a stand in the corner of the room and it makes Niko smile. Not one of those amused of practiced smiles but a real one and his heart flutters a little. And it’s bittersweet, just like those flowers.
Fall in love with someone bringing you forward.
---
Bittersweet
“Do you think you could raise your head a little?” You asked, your eyes darting from the lens of the camera to his face.
If Niko had known, agreeing to a photoshoot would have taken this long.
“Like this?” Niko asked, raising his head.
Or been this demanding.
“A little more to the left?”
“Here?”
He certainly wouldn’t have agreed.
“Now a smidget down.”
“A smidget?”
He, contrary to what the average person would believe, was quite familiar with being behind the lens. Any professional athlete was used to being recorded while in the midst of their job. Known that they were constantly being broadcasted to the rest of the world.
There was also the factor of Media Day, where all the team's players would gather together and take a series of photos that would be shown to the public.
Those two experiences though were nothing like this. Not so personal and sporadic. None of the photographers (or cameramen) he’s ever had to deal with had been as particular or picky as you.
“Hm,” you took a step around your set up, careful not to disturb anything around him, before making your way towards him. Your hands were gentle as you repositioned Niko’s head into what you deemed was the perfect spot. You face only inches away from his own. You brought a hand to your chin as you leaned back to inspect your work. Smiling when you were finally satisfied.
None of his other experiences behind the lens had ever been quite like this.
You pulled back, a cute sorta smile on your face as you raced back to the lens. Niko’s own face flushed a bright red.
Quite this… intimate.
“Is that the last one?” Niko asked.
“Well,” you smile sheepishly, “I was hoping for one more photo but… if you’re done then we can end it here. I’m sure I have enough film to pull something together for the first half of the album.”
Niko can feel a certain warmth ebbing away at his chest as he looks at your expectant smile, “find. One more, but that’s it.”
“Thank you!” You beam, bouncing up to move your camera to another spot of the room, “I promise it’ll be quick.”
Niko chuckles, “I can only hope.”
You make a show of rolling your eyes but Niko can see the hint of a smile on your lips.
He’s barely a year older than you but sometimes it feels like a lifetime. You’ve just always seemed so full of youth and life. So excited for everything you get the chance to do. From the moment he first met you until now. Of course, he thinks it might be related to how the two of you were raised. The things in your life that influenced you up until now.
His own upbringing had forced him to grow up in conventional and crazy ways; and almost everything in his life had seemed to revolve around football. European football, that is.
Your own, in comparison, seemed almost tame. Sure you did suddenly rise to fame at the ripe age of 19 but everything else before then seemed almost ordinary. You often spoke to him about the childhood friends you had growing up and the different hobbies you’d cycle through when you were young.
“So how many other albums have you done?” Niko asked, repositioning himself to face the camera.
You fiddled around with the lens, poking your head back and forth from the view of the camera to the view behind, “three.” You pulled out a small compact mirror from your pocket holding it up to the sky before quickly closing it and throwing it back into your pocket, “do you think we should open the window?” You make your way there, not bothering to wait for a response from Niko, “yes, definitely. It’ll make it look like a photo from another day.”
Niko opened his mouth.
“No, maybe that would be too tacky. You are wearing the same thing after all,” you began.
“(L/n).” Niko hummed.
“Maybe you should take off the tie?”
“(Y/n).”
“Oh, but I do quite like the tie. The look isn’t quite complete without it.”
Niko let out a laugh.
You pause, stopping suddenly, “Niko?”
The look on your face is enough to send the man into another bout of laughter.
When he first heard about you people had told him you could be quite a diva. So easily swayed one way or another. That your temper was easily nudged and almost everything someone else did could set you off. Those were, of course, rumors but rumors all have truth stemming from somewhere right?
He’d been so weary of bumping into someone with such a fickle attitude that he hadn’t even realised he first met you when he did.
Niko had bumped into you head first, sending you sprawling to the ground and breaking your camera in the process. He panicked, of course (as any sane person would have) and immediately attempted to replace it. You had agreed to the replacement of a camera but hadn’t been able to save all the photos in the camera which is how he agreed to be here in the first place.
You were so calm when he first bumped into you. A gentle smile on your face as he attempted to help you up. Niko, at one point, wasn’t even certain of what to say. Finding himself both at an impasse and loss for words. It was, afterall, not everyday that one bumped into a girl as pretty as yourself.
Both versions, the emotional and eccentric one from the rumors and the calm sweet girl he bumped into the other day, seemed like such a stark contrast from who you were now as you scrambled around the room in an attempt to take the perfect photo of him in a short amount of time. It was cute and almost heartwarming in a strange kinda way.
“Haha,” you pouted, “keep laughing.”
And he did, of course. But it wasn’t as though he needed your permission in the first place. An expression like that already seemed to do the trick well enough.
‘SNAP.’
Niko’s laughter stopped, as he looked up at you curiously, “(L/n)?”
“Oh, not so funny now, huh?” You teased.
Niko chuckled, “of course.”
“Now are you ready?”
Niko gave the camera his best smile, “like this?”
You smiled apologetically, “do you think you could raise your head a little?”
Niko made a show of sighing but his heart did a strange little thumping pattern as he watched you from afar, fiddling with the lens.
For you, he’d do anything.
---
“What’re you doing out here, (L/n)?” Niko asked, taking a step out from the warm lodge lobby and into the cool outdoors.
Thick fluffy white puffs of dust, known as snow, fluttered down from the sky. There was no music but a slow and lethargic rhythm to the snow as it fell. Here, Niko imagines, is where the protagonist in a romantic comedy would get down on one knee and finally profess his love for the girl that he’s been slowly falling in love with over the past week. The climax to all the emotions that have been building up through the course of the film.
Here, Niko imagines, is where someone like you ought to exist.
In the midst or ordinary and supernatural. Of reality and fairytale. In the very pinnacle of Romance and immigration, where the lives of so many seem to meet.
You’re not dressed particularly warm but you don’t seem very bothered by the cold despite the tip of your nose dipped a shade different from the cold. There’s a scarf wrapped around your neck that looks to be more made for males but Niko doesn't care enough to know or ask. If you cared enough to tell him then you would.
“It’s snowing.” You answered.
“You can watch the snow from inside too, ya know.”
“I know.”
Niko took a deep breath of the cool air, moving to stand beside you, “but it just isn’t the same?”
You smiled, “yeah.”
Niko never really thought much of snow and when he did it was mostly of the cold weather in general. Cold weather meant he’d no longer be able to go out and play football with his friends. Meant he’d have to stay indoors or find some indoor football gym which was far and few between.
Right now though, spurred on by your own attitude, Niko finally took the time to stop and look around.
It was pretty, in a etherial sorta way.
Like those photos his mother used to love looking at when he was young. The kind of photos she’d point out to him and speak about missing when she was young. And it did remind him of his youth. A time when everything seemed so much simpler than it was now. So much more out of reach.
You’re a little bit like snowflakes, Niko thinks. So beautiful, seeming as though you’ve fallen from heaven down onto earth. Something meant to be admired. Even if people like him ignore you there will certainly be a moment when he’s forced to stop and admire you, like now.
He held a hand out, reaching out for a snowflake falling down.
‘Snap.’
Niko pulls his hand back and turns to look at you.
You’re holding a small instant film camera, smiling sheepishly as the camera prints a photo. Likely a photo of him.
“(L/n).” Niko hums.
“Niko.”
“Can I see that photo?”
“Are you going to give it back?”
He smiles, “of course.”
Hesitantly, you hold your arm out and hand the photo over to him.
It’s still mostly black but blotches of white and grey are starting to appear. He can begin to make out the snowflakes amongst the grey clouds of the sky and the contract of the scarf against his own skin. He thinks that… It's actually a rather nice photo of him. Usually, Niko has to try for ages to finally be happy with a photo of himself but this one captures him well. Not appearing too soft or harsh for the lens.
Perhaps if every photo of him were like this he’d be more well known in the football community. Of course, he doesn't care all too much about popularity but it certainly wouldn’t hurt to be well known.
He’s reaching out for a snowflake in the photo, a half sorta grin on his face. His eyes can’t really be seen through the mess of bangs but Niko thinks he prefers it that way. Some would call him out on it but it seems fine to him. And it seems fine to you as you’ve never said anything about it otherwise.
Finally, he hands the photo back over to you.
You reach into your pocket and pull out the compact from before. He peeks over your shoulder, surprised to see neither a mirror which he expected or makes. Instead, he sees three photos, similar to the one you’ve taken of him tucked in. One of the three photos looks slightly faded with yellow edges but otherwise in good condition.
“Can I look?” Niko asks.
“Hm?”
“Can I look at the photos?”
You turn to look at Niko, then back at the photos in the compact. You look torn and Niko wonders if he’s suddenly stepped over that invisible line. There is, in society, a line between oneself and everyone else. The delicacies of society and the individual is to figure out just where that line is for every person.
It seems that here is yours.
Melting after being in his hand for a little too long.
Eventually you hand the compact over to Niko.
The slightly faded photo is of a young boy whose expression seems to be a mix between a smile and scowl. Niko finds the expression quite relatable. He wonders if this is the childhood friend you’ve always talked so much about.
The next is a man with dual coloured hair. He’s resting his head on a dark table as he stares into the lens of a camera with a dreamy expression. Niko thinks he recognizes him but can’t quite place his name.
Lastly, there’s a salmon haired man who's been captured mid laugh, a bright look in his eyes. He’s younger than Niko is in the photo and seems a little like you. Filled with a sense of youth that Niko has long grown out of.
“So did you always want to be a photographer?” Niko asks, handing the compact back over to you.
“Well,” you hummed, “I did always want to see the world. I just sorta figured out the photography thing along the way. Did you always want to be a Football player?”
“I always enjoyed Football growing up and I guess somewhere along the way I realised my dream was to go professional.” Niko smiled, “guess we aren’t as different as I thought.”
“No,” you say, “we most certainly aren’t.”
Fall in love with an attentive heart.
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HEY LINDS this is my Official Attempt to sway you towards perciver i hope you like it and that it doesnt turn you off them forever, now first off!
general relationship potential:
percy and oliver are in the same year and as far as we know they are the only boys in gryffindor in their year which makes them not only roommates but also the only boys in their room. for seven years.
percy is incredibly misunderstood by his whole family pretty much always, they all avoid him or are rude to him or just misunderstand him completely. with oliver's proximity its very likely hes the first person ever in percys life to properly observe him and understand him!!!
percy is the most career driven singleminded ambitious motherfucker in gryffindor.... second only to oliver!!! who is the most quidditch obsessed bitch on this planet and arguably has more solid career goals of anyone in that entire series. they are hyperfocused! they are girlbossing! they are not getting a wink of sleep bc they both get so lost in their work they forget what time is!
classic jock/nerd combo except oliver is a jock who is secretly a nerd (think of all the quidditch stats!!) and percy is a nerd who is secretly a jock (percy is a master spellcaster and nobody can convince me otherwise, that man fought multiple death eaters on his own at the battle of hogwarts and you do not get that kind of skill from just sitting behind a desk)
idk theres honestly a lot of directions one could take them but theyve just got so much chemistry and so much in common but also different and theyve got so much potential
(in my head they are the definition of autism/adhd solidarity but i know that not everyone hcs them that way which is cool too)
now for fic recs!!!
Twenty-nine - 85k - Endrina
percy weasley-centric fic that is honestly one of the most creative interpretations of him ive ever read, it goes deep into his past and his canonic decisions and stuff but theres a twist to it that is just gold, also its a whodunit where oliver's been framed for murder and only percy knows hes innocent its very very good and definitely played a huge part in me falling in love w percy's character
A New Life - 89k - AnotherAuthor, myroaringtwenties
percy and oliver meet post-war and help each other get their lives moving forward again, its very well written and very sweet but mind the tags its kinda heavy at points, it doesnt shy away from how hard the war was on everyone but the community that the weasleys and the quiddich players have is very warm and i love it
At least he has great abs - 12k - Irisen
this one is a cute shorter nonmagic soulmate au where oliver is a famous footballer and percy is a politician and they end up being soulmates, its very funny and light and i just enjoy it
(also i am technically writing a perciver fic rn its called Rely On Me and the first two chapters are up on ao3 but its my first fic attempt and i havent updated it all summer bc Life so pls dont feel obligated to read it i just felt like it would be weird if i didnt mention it)
anyway! i hope you enjoyed this if nothing else and if you read these or find other perciver fics or just wanna talk about em lmk bc i am always down to talk perciver i love them with my whole heart and soul <3
josephine hello. is this from literally ten months ago? perhaps it is. but i'm here now.... you mentioned perciver earlier and it reminded me that this has been sitting in my inbox for SO LONG
alright let's get into this
• iconic of them to be alone in a dorm for seven years together that already screams soulmates
• you're so right these two get their minds set on something and they're going to get it they're going to achieve whatever they want (tbh i already think they should put that energy toward like Getting Together but i distress)
• nerd jocks! a slay tbh
• i see the autism adhd thing i get it
• i also think like yeah i agree they have a lot in common when you dig into them but from one glance it's like ? these two? really? but then you see who they are at their core and it's like oh of course how could you think anything else (i have a lot of characters and dynamics that this sorta concept applies to i get it)
also love the inclusion of fic recs which i will check out when i am back to reading <3 consider myself convinced (it did not take much you already convinced me by just sending this ask)
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HELLO. I AM HERE TO TALK ABOUT KROMER/CANTO 3
kromie is one of my Favorite characters Of All Time and if i see one more person horribly misinterpret her & her story & her motivations i am for real going to distort
FIRST AND FOREMOST
CANTO 3 ISN'T ABOUT ABLEISM
(it's not about racism either. she's not "cyborg racist". god damn it.)
canto 3 is about
religious extremism & societal pressure
PROSTHETICS IN THE CITY ≠ DISABILITY
prosthetics in the pm world are pretty obviously NOT the same as prosthetics in our world, and using them to point towards kromer being ableist is one of the weakest arguments i have ever seen in my entire life. give me ONE piece of evidence of kromer being ableist that doesn't mention prosthetics i fucking dare you
look at that. it's not about needing a missing arm replaced, or legs that you can walk on; it's about doing away with all of the inefficiencies of a flesh and blood body. you can get so much more work done if you don't need to eat or sleep!
unfortunately, there are many ways to be ableist and if she truly was, to the point where it was an important part of her character with an entire canto centered around it (like hating pm-prosthetics is), then i feel like maybe
just maybe
she would express this in other ways
that don’t involve slaughtering people that just happen to be made of metal.
just a thought.
which brings me to my next point
Prosthetics in the City are about class and money and the societal pressure i mentioned earlier
UNNECESSARY PRESSURE TO CONFORM TO THE AESTHETIC
WORTHLESS SURGERIES THAT POOR PEOPLE CAN’T AFFORD AND YET FEEL THE NEED TO GET ANYWAY
SINCLAIR’S BODILY AUTONOMY BEING STRIPPED AWAY FROM HIM SO THAT HE MATCHES HIS FAMILY
sinclair's family even turned their DOG into a robot for god's sake
it's a fad! it's cool to turn yourself into a robot! it's the new thing everyone is doing, so now you have to do it too to fit in with everyone else! even sinclair himself acknowledges this when talking about his family
also adding a ruina screenshot from this post i saw a while ago that i think you all should read
was hesitant to include it because i wanted to make my point without dragging ruina into this, to prove that you don't NEED the context from ruina to understand kromer's beliefs and motivations, but like. look at this. what the fuck.
"adjust emotions" "completely shut off desires" look me in the eyes and tell me this has ANYTHING to do with disability. i dare you. this is some rich people shit
prosthetics are a LUXURY for some, and a TOOL for others; something for rich people to enjoy, and for poor people to either get a shitty version of, or to sell their soul to afford, so that they can survive in the capitalist's dream world! kind of reminds me of cars, actually
(the extra info abt prosthetics from ruina helps, but as someone who has mostly only played limbus & doesn’t have the full context of the other games, it’s obvious even to me that they're not a disability thing)
in conclusion;
kromer is not ableist
she just really really really likes flesh and is super weird about it
to paraphrase/add to something someone said in that post i linked earlier: the district has an "ideal form" for the human body, and kromer has an "ideal form" for the human body, but these "ideal forms" are not the same
she prefers the human body the way it is, and when she sees this "ideal form" that's like the exact opposite of HER "ideal form" starting to take over, she resorts to being a violent bloodthirsty cult leader about it because she sucks ass and is incapable of being normal
she is a bad person and you are allowed to hate her ofc but please for the love of god hate her for something she’s actually done. stop making shit up
#just like my earlier post about dante my thoughts are very jumbled and disorganized#and i wrote this out of order and then pieced it all together in a way that i hope makes sense#so if the pacing or the order things are written or whatever seems weird that's why#limbus company#project moon#long post#myth posts#i've had this rant rattling around in my brain for a while but i'm only writing & posting it now because i've reached the#''too many people are misinterpreting my fav'' breaking point. i can't take this anymore. augh#kromie i'm so sorry people are misinterpreting you like this. get behind me i'll protect you
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the unwanted guest thoughts
OBSESSED with the format as a stage play... makes so so much sense for ianthe and the third house
funeral part is so cool and sexy and i wonder if thats insight into how funerals actually are on the third
palamedes' mask being shattered and glued together like his skull....
ianthe slaying in all her fits... wait this reminds me of a dream i had a while ago in which ianthe duelled someone and did a ton of costume changes... i literally predicted it
ianthe being the lady and the master of the house... unprecedented levels of gender
significance of 7 coffins?? bc of 7 original lyctors??
the VOICE!!! my first instinct was dulcie but how?? so i thought maybe babs or someone else?? but i was right!!
still unsure of significance of "did your tingue ever toungle" maybe shows ianthe not being in complete control??
not the playing strip poker with harrow...
fascinated by ianthe and pal's differing views of the job of the cavalier... to die for vs protect the necromancer
"because you never stop to check the price tag" FUCK
is palamedes actually shocked by the third house assigning cavaliers as babies or is he pretending to get ianthe to share more?
oh ortus... blown up for being sad
would love to read about one of ianthe and corona's insane birthday parties
should have seen earlier how much the gideon nav description was shaped by babs, it makes so much sense
something about ianthe disqualifying her opponents as a form of winning... she never plays fair
the more we get of her the more i LOVE DULCIE!!!
DYING to know what happened to dulcinea after harrow's river bubble collapsed
"I loved you. I love you still. I would have worked out how to love you better over time." "It would have been very beautiful. Camilla would have had to cook. But I didn't just want beautiful..." "This again? From you and her both? That merely by loving you, I added to your torments?" FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK IT REALLY ALL COMES BACK TO LOVE ALWAYS...... DYING
cant stop thinking about how ntn must have been such a cruel mirror to the domestic life they dreamed of with dulcie
"You two were my best friends, and that was real. I loved real, ugly, unfinished things. Gracelessly uncompleted things. There's freedom, too, in not ever being completed." FUCK DULCIE I LOVE YOU
its a river... there are two shores... still so curious about the river
"Was I cute?" "You're perfect." AAAAAAAAAAAAA <3 <3 <3
"would you have used your sister instead?" YES!!! THAT IS THE QUESTION!!!
"Or... Coronabeth herself is part of your goal. You can't spend her, because you'd invalidate the very thing you were trying to buy." WOAGHHH i am so so curious about ianthe's plan
THE FINAL QUESTION... THE FINAL REVEAL...
the implications of souls bleeding and mingling... first of all for the OG lyctors... how much of what we were seeing was alfred and cristabel and pyrrha (though its probably slightly different for them)?? how much of pyrrha is g1deon??
and this has SO MANY implications for the gideon harrow alecto nona situation... simultaneously makes things clearer and a lot more complicated, if there doesn't have to be an actual transfer of soul bits, but they just do it naturally when together
overall SO GOOD!!! so much analysis potential of course and also just gutwrenchingly, horribly beautiful, like everything she writes
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