#which also if people are interested in hearing about that i will more than happily discuss what that's like

[aroaceleovaldez]

one of the interesting things about having run a pjo askblog for 7 years is because i started it before TOA was even announced but after HoO, when TOA started coming out with each book i then had to start balancing the weird combos of pre-existing blog canon from before TOA, addressing new TOA canon/storylines as they were being published, the weird coincidences of askblog canon lining up perfectly with TOA canon, and the TOA canon decisions that I’m looking at and just saying “no, we’re not doing that”

so it ends up really weird, which i guess is fun because it means i get to tell a new unique story instead of just following TOA verbatim. and it also means i’ve had 6 years to plan out the plot of weird TOA canon-divergence but in a visual format, which is also weird and fun

[mantou-rin]

The moment the boys realise they are head over heels for you

Characters: Kenma, Sugawara, Yaku

A/N: The amount of things I am able to come up with while at work should be studied. As usual not proofread I am sorry but I hope you like the silly thoughts that go through my head on a daily basis.

KENMA

Kenma couldn't help but look up from his game to stare at you.

You were at the other end of the classroom talking with a few of your classmates. Your voice wasn't exactly loud, but your presence was more than enough to catch his attention. Kenma admired the way you spoke and the way your face lit up everytime someone said something interesting. You weren't exactly an extrovert, but you had a bubbly and bright personality, and often got along well with pretty much anyone. 

Kenma kind of envied you for that. Not that he was the kind to draw attention to himself, but being able to comfortably talk with people sometimes seemed nice. 

From the corner of your eye, you caught sight of him looking at you, and you turned to give him a smile while waving towards him. He instantly panicked, and quickly turned his attention back to his game console, trying his best to calm his rapidly beating heart. 

He wasn't sure for the longest time about this feeling he had towards you. Was it fascination or just admiration, or was it something more than that. To him, you seemed so interesting, almost as if he wanted to study - no, get to know you better. His racing heart finally confirmed it as a crush, but how does he even begin to ask you out? 

“Kenma”

He nearly jumped when he heard that familiar voice of yours. Slowly he put down his console and directed his attention to you. You were standing next to his desk, the sunlight hitting your face gave you the prettiest glow he had ever seen. 

It was real, he wanted to get closer to you, he wanted to understand everything about you. 

“There's a new cat cafe that just opened, would you like to go there together? I hope you don't mind that it'll just be the two of us.”

Two of us? Did he hear that correctly? Of course he wouldn't mind, if anything he was more than happy that it was just the two of you.  

“Mhm.” Came his silent reply, to which you happily told him that you’ll message him the details when you get home. 

Turns out that your feelings for him were mutual as well. 

SUGAWARA

Suga was not having a good day right now. He felt he didn't do a great job at practice just now and now he couldn't get rid of the constant worry that his team would be disappointed in him. For the most part, he knew the Karasuno boys would never be upset with him, but what if today it was different. 

Before he left just now, Daichi had already told him to cheer up and not think about it, but he just couldn't help himself. He wished he wasn't the kind to mull over his mistakes over and over, but unfortunately, he wasn't that kind of person. 

He really wanted to call you right now. He often told you how you were his comfort after a long day, and he felt that he really needed you today. He was about to make the call when he realised that you told him that you were going out to run some errands that night. 

Right. It wasn't polite to disturb someone when they were busy.  Suga figured to simply drop you a text instead, the both of you could talk about it later tonight.

Sighing, he shoved his phone back into his pocket and looked up at the sky. It was so quiet and calm, contrary to whatever his mind was right now - noisy and chaotic. 

“Suga!” He heard someone call from behind him. 

Hang on. That voice was familiar, one that he has heard many times, there was no way it was - 

You.

Suga wasn't sure why he nearly cried when he saw you, heck he wasn't even sure why you suddenly showed up. 

“Sorry if I’m a little late, but I saw your message and figured that I should come right away. Also sorry I couldn't get something better, but I got you some ice cream from the convenience store on the way here.”

Suga panicked a little, he worried that his message to you came off as something that needed immediate attention, that wasn't what he intended for it to be, although now that he saw you the chaos that was in his mind just now seemed to have died down. 

“Eh, I thought you had to run errands? Sorry if I bothered you.” 

“I can always go another day, besides, you having a bad day is something more important than the groceries I have to buy.” 

Suga wasn't aware, but he was sure he let a tear slip out of his eye when he felt your hands reaching towards him to wipe them away. He never noticed because he was always the one doing the comforting, but right now with you next to him assuring him that everything was going to be alright, his mind became a reflection of the night sky - calm and quiet.

“I'll go run your errands with you tomorrow, and will you allow me to bring you out for dinner afterwards?” 

YAKU

Yaku was glad you decided to join the volleyball team as a manager. Even though the two of you were childhood friends (and neighbours), any extra minute he got to spend with you meant a lot to him. 

You were attentive and smart, always promptly taking care of the team’s needs and giving out advice as needed. Your presence alone sometimes helped boost the team’s morale. 

Water was running low? You had already prepared new bottles for the boys long ago before they even noticed they were running out. 

There was a spot on the court that seemed a little slippery? The next thing Yaku knew you were ready to swoop in with the mop to clean it up. 

The team needed extra balls for practice? There was nothing to worry about because you would have a new basket of volleyballs ready by the side.  

You were talking to Yaku halfway after practice when you excused yourself to find the coach for something. Yaku couldn't help but glance over at the extra bag he had seen you carrying around recently. You happened to leave it open, and Yaku caught sight of a pair of knee guards - specifically the ones he was using. Yaku didn't want to peek, but he was too curious as to why you had that in your bag. He pried the bag open slightly and saw a towel as well as a pouch filled with first aid supplies. 

Perhaps you were playing volleyball too? 

When you came back, Yaku asked if you started playing volleyball too, referencing the items he saw in your bag. 

“Ah, no it's just emergency stuff in case you get injured. I've seen you getting many new bruises because of practice so I wanted to be ready just in case.” You replied softly, slightly embarrassed by the fact that you had been found out. 

Yaku felt his heart do about a thousand backflips. He was always under the impression that you cared for each team member equally, but now knowing that you put in a little more effort to look out for him made him somewhat flustered. 

“Ah, thank you.” Was the only thing he could splutter out.

There was a brief silence before he mustered up his courage to speak again.

“Would you like to go get dinner together after practice tomorrow?”

[brooooswriting]

hiii it’s my first time making a request and I saw that you were looking for Leighton Murray x reader requests.

So I was thinking about Leighton x reader, where reader knows Leightons dad and he tries to match them up. And she’s like the whole package, she plays soccer with Whitney, is an Lgbt advocate and also joins Leighton’s advanced math class. Leighton feels threatened so it’s like academic enemies to lovers.

You're better than me

“Hello,” you greeted Leighton and the other two people in the room as she walked into her advanced math class. She was new in there after her family forced her to take harder classes. The other two greeted you happily while Leighton only rolled her eyes. You had to hold in a scoff, even if she wasn't the biggest fan of you, was it so hard to say hello?

While Leighton wished that this was the only time that she had to see you, it wasn't. You were also on the football team with Whitney and you often visited the women's center. So, she wasn't safe anywhere cause Whitney liked to bring you into their dorm to study since you were pretty good in all your classes.

This was precisely why Leighton could not be more excited for the family weekend, which was crazy because her family was exhausting. But at least you would be busy too, or at least she guessed that you would be.

“Hey Dad,” she said as her father got out of the car. He immediately walked up to hug her, holding her too close for her to get any air.

“Hello, how are you? How is Essex treating you?” he asked, not really hearing the answer as she had to mumble into his chest. “I can't wait for dinner tonight, I want you to meet somebody” he added as he finally let her go.

“Meet somebody? Please tell me you don't have a side chick.” She frowned looking at him.

“Leighton! No, of course not. Now, let's go. I believe we have a packed schedule.” She nodded and followed him into the building, constantly thinking about who she might have to meet. The blonde had to say that the day went quite well, it mostly did when she was alone with her dad. They talked about college, her mum and Nico, about what she might do after her years at Essex and how his job was going.

After some long hours, it was finally time to go eat and she would finally see who he would want her to meet. As they walked into the restaurant her heart stopped when she was to whom her father was walking. There you sat in a women's suit, with some makeup and heels. God, she hated the fact that she was attracted to you right now.

“Y/n, it's so lovely of you to meet us here,” her dad said as he hugged you, making her nearly gasp. You gave him a smile as you hugged him back.

“No problem, Henry!” you told him and again the blonde nearly gasped. You turned toward her and sent her a big smile. “Hey Leighton, it's nice to see you,” you said as you pulled out the chair for her. Henry did not tell you that he would bring Leighton tonight which made the whole thing kinda awkward. You actually liked her but she seemed to hate you.

She sent you a tight-lipped smile and sat down, you and Henry then joining. “So, it seems like you two already know each other,” Henry said, giving you both a big smile while his daughter rolled her eyes.

“Yeah, we do. But, just out of interest, how do YOU TWO know each other?” the girl who hated you asked, aggressively pointing between you and him.

“Oh well, after you came out your dad wanted to know what to do, and how to act. You know it can be hard for parents of gay kids, even when they accept their children for it. They never know what is too much and what is not enough” you started to explain but didn't get far.

“Can you maybe skip all this shit and just answer my question?” she snapped making her father furrow his brows.

“Yeah, of course. Since I am an LGBT advocate your dad asked me for help” You gave her a short nod when you finished your explanation.

“Why would you ask her dad? And why would you want me to meet her?” It wasn't hard to see that she was annoyed, by you, her dad and just life in general you guessed.

“Well, she's a great woman Leighton. She plays football, has a scholarship for it, she is great at math, she is part of the lgbtq and she is exactly your type” You wanted to disappear so bad right now and it seems like Leighton wanted the same thing. For you to disappear. Her eyes were wide and her brows raised as she stared at him with disbelief.

“Dad! I told you we’re not gonna talk about my dating life. Not ever. Got it? And especially her” well, that hurt. Henry gave her an unhappy look before giving you a sorry one. You only gave him a short nod to signal that it was alright.

“Leighton that’s enough! I’ll go to the restrooms real quick before we eat” he stood up and walked away. As soon as his back was turned towards you the blonde was on her phone.

“Look,” you started and pushed her phone down so she could look at you “I know that you hate me for some weird reason but your dad was really nice and asked me to come so I said yes. I didn’t know that you were coming alright? So how about you use some manners and act like you can at least stand being in a room with me huh?” She only picked up her phone again making you sigh. “I don’t get why they talked about you so nice in the women center” you mumbled out making her look up from her phone.

“What did you just say?” She couldn’t believe your audacity. Who did you think you are that you go and talk to her and about her like that? Especially mentioning her ex. God, she hated you. You were so annoying and she didn’t even know why.

“I said that I do not understand why they said that you were nice and shit. I was really happy when I heard that you were in my advanced math class, but you only acted like a bitch the whole damn time. You even do it when I visit Whit, and the only thing I ever said to you there was ‘hi’” you ranted, happy to finally say what you’ve been thinking of for so long. Luckily for you, Henry came back before the blonde could say anything else.

“So, did you guys decide what you want to eat?” He asked as he sat down.

That was one of the most exhausting dinners you ever had. And after hours, Leighton still kinda ignored you and Henry ordering his drink extremely weird you were finally out. “Are you sure you don’t want us to drive you back to college? It’s quite far” the man asked again making you chuckle.

“Yes Henry, thank you tho. I’ll walk, need a bit of fresh air and exercise” it was a lie. You didn’t really feel like walking but the thought of sitting in a car with Leighton was not even close to what you dreamed of, so walking seemed like the best idea.

And after a really long discussion with Henry, he finally let you go. “Wait, I think I will walk with her dad. Then you can make your way back home, it’s late already and I could use the fresh air too” you sighed internally but didn’t want to make this awkward in front of the older Murray.

You waited for them to say goodbye before making your way back to college. “Why?” You just asked after a few moments of walking as you just couldn’t keep your curiosity at bay anymore.

“Didn’t wanna discuss this whole thing with him” you chuckled at her answer, it was clear that she didn’t wanna talk so you just shut up and kept walking. At some point you looked over to see the blonde hugging herself, goosebumps covering her arms. You closed your eyes and took a deep breath before deciding what to do. Right now, you hated her as much as she hated you. Why did she have to be so endearing and cute while being a goddamn asshole at the same time?

“Here” you mumbled as you draped your jacket over her shoulders, making sure that it would stay.

“What the fuck? What the fuck am I supposed to do with your cheap ass jacket?” She asked, but her voice wasn’t as harsh as it usually was as she noticed the goosebumps now covering your arms.

“Get warm. Just accept it, it doesn’t mean that you have to like me or anything. Look, I’ll even fall back ok? You can walk in front of me so nobody realizes that we were somewhere together” you immediately slowed down and let her walk to get some distance but she stopped too.

“This is a bit much don’t you think? It will be even weirder when we do it like that”

“Why do you hate me? I’ve been nice to you, you hate me. I ignore you, you still hate me and try to bully me. Why? What did I do to you? I was really excited to meet you” you looked her straight in the eyes, this time you weren’t going to break it first.

“No particular reason” she shrugged but it was a lie, this time it was obvious. So you just kept staring at her, challenging her to go with her lie. “Fine, I just feel like you may be smarter and a bit more academically advanced than me which made me… I don’t know. I just don’t like it, and then you also have to be hot and trained, I mean even now I can see your damn abs” you couldn’t help but grin as you finally knew why she hated you.

“You know, if you really feel like I am smarter than you, then I can’t say anything else other than would happily tutor you” you joked, breaking out in laughter while Leighton hit your shoulder, an unamused look on her face. “Alright, I’m sorry. But I think the same thing about you, you’re extremely smart. Way smarter than people think you are and as if that wasn’t hot enough, you also look hot. Like damn. But I was so excited to meet you because I’ve been crushing on you since you came to one of our games” you smiled, this time it was a real smile.

“And… even after I treated you like shit, would you still be open to… you know?” She asked, her voice unsure.

“Otherwise you wouldn’t have my jacket right now. So, do you wanna go on a date?”

“You really still wanna go?”

“Yeah, I do”

“Then I would love to”

“Finally” you mumbled as you walked closer to her, one hand slowly going towards her waist. You moved slow enough for her to move away, but were more than happy when she stepped closer too. After she didn’t make any sign of discomfort you leaned in and pressed your lips to hers, kissing her softly.

“I should have stopped being a bitch way earlier” she mumbled before kissing you again, the kiss getting more passionate.

You walked her home, your hands brushing against each other every now and then making a warm feeling spread in both of your stomachs. “Alright, so we will go out tomorrow after math?” You confirmed, smiling when she gave you a nod. This time she leaned in first, kissing you again before giving you your jacket.

“I cannot believe you beat me by one point in this damn math game” Leighton complained on the way to the restaurant you were taking her. You chuckled as this had been going on for about 15 minutes.

“Well you said it yourself, i am smarter than you” you joked, petting her back to assure her that you were joking. By the time the blonde finally shut up about this game you had arrived.

“Go y/n, go Whitney” Leighton screamed as she stood up while watching you and her roommate play, her body clad in your soccer jacket. The sight making you smile every time. After the game was won you quickly ran to Leighton pressing a kiss to her lips. “You did So well” she praised.

Her roommates watched from the other side as you and her smiled at each other, a similar happiness adorning your faces. A happiness no ex of Leighton had ever put on her face.

You couldn’t wait to see Where this relationship would lead.

[spoilmesweetieforficssake]

hi hi hi!! I love your fics so much and i don't know if you're still taking requests but if you are could you write a Melissa x reader where the reader is madly in love with Melissa and everyone kind of knows except for Mel. And when Mel starts flirting with Gary reader starts going on random dates to try and get over Mel, but Mel gets jealous and hates every person that reader tries to date. And their friendship gets all angsty but they of course end up happily together and everyone at Abbott is like "finally took you two long enough"

I feel like saying this has taken forever isn't actually an exaggeration - but better late than never! I hope after all this time that this is at least close to what you were looking for. I admit though, I got a bit indecisive with the ending, so there are actually two and you can pick which you prefer.!

~

Melissa and Gary are a thing, and you hate it. Worse, you hate that you hate it.  You want to be happy for her, you really do, but you can’t help the way your heart clenches painfully every time you hear her talk about what she and Gary are doing together, or apparently the nausea that comes with seeing them together.

Still, you weren’t raised without manners and in love with your friend though you may be, you are Melissa’s friend first and foremost.  So you slap on a smile and endure the looks of sympathy from your colleagues. 

When you start to distance yourself it’s not because you don’t want to spend time with the redhead, but as an act of self-preservation.  Your little Abbott family, who were annoyingly quick to pick up on the fact you were in love with the red head, are also quick to pick up on the shift. 

Barb is the first to say something out loud, offering to set you up with a nice girl she knows.  It’s unexpected and takes you by surprise.  “Thanks, Barb.  It’s really sweet of you but I’m not looking for anything serious just now.”

You miss the daggers being aimed at the kindergarten teacher behind your head and in making a break for the coffee machine you also miss the older woman’s raised eyebrow in response to a certain red head. 

*

“So, how many matches did we get?” asks Jacob like it’s some kind of team game, as he comes into the break room to find you on your phone. 

It had been games night the night before, but the board game had ended up set aside and Jacob and Janine got you set up on Tinder.  Melissa suddenly becomes very interested in your phone screen over your shoulder.

“You really think you need an app to get a date?”

“Well we can’t all have our other halves roll in with our favourite drinks, can we?” you quip, ignoring her jibe.  You keep your eyes on your phone, all too aware of the silence that has fallen over the breakroom at your comment.

You jump as Melissa suddenly leans over your shoulder, swiping at your screen.

“She’s too old for you.”

You turn to look at the red head with a raised eyebrow.  “Actually, I set the age range myself, so she’d have been just the right age.”

She huffs and you turn back to your phone, and if you swipe with a little more vigour than before, well, it’s certainly not to prove a point. 

*

You manage to set up a couple of dates via the app, but they’re terrible.  What you hoped could be a chance to blow of a little steam ends of being up being a few awkward drinks with people who are more interested in their image and talking about themselves than anything else. 

Not that you tell that to Melissa.  No, as far as she’s aware the string of dates you’ve on have been great. 

“Yeah, that’s why you keep going on new ones,” she quips one day.

“I didn’t say I planned on marrying these people,” you huff.  “But it’s not illegal to want a little fun!”

Melissa snorts.  “You’re not that shallow,” she smirks as she passes you on her way out of the room.

You lay your head on the table, groaning. 

“Those dates that bad, huh?”

Your head flies up at the words, eyes wide as you take in Ava pouring a liberal amount of sugar into her coffee.  Had she been there the whole time?  “They’ve not been great,” you admit.  “I don’t tend to well on dates when I’ve never really met the person, never mind barely messaged them,” you admit.

Ava cocks her head to the side.  “You let Tweedledumb and Tweedleditzy set up that account, didn’t you?”

You nod, not quite sure where she’s going with this.

“Yeah, you ain’t gonna get dates who just want to do the dirty and not expect breakfast in the morning with something they set up.”  She slides into the seat opposite you and holds out her hand.  “I can fix that.  Gimme your phone.”

She rolls her eyes as you flinch back.  “You know what?  Forget that stupid app.  I’ll get you a date.  You’ll love this one.  Trust me.”

You’re not entirely convinced you do as she waggles her eyebrows playfully at you, but surely anything has to be better than the dates you’ve recently been on?

*

You walk in to the bar and for a moment you think that Ava has somehow set you up with Melissa.  The red hair catches you attention first, the feminine curves a quick second, but then you realise the hair is not quite the right colour, the curves less pronounced.  The description of the outfit matches though so after taking a moment to compose yourself, you make your way over and say hi. 

Blue eyes meet yours as she stands and the woman takes a moment to look you up and down as you squirm under the attention.  How people can do anything other than blush and stutter under the scrutiny of a beautiful woman you’re not sure.  One thing you do know though, is that this woman is indeed beautiful.

“Ava said you might be a little nervous, so got you a drink.” 

You thank her, taking a sip only to realise that Ava must have also told the woman what you drank.  Your second sip turns more into a gulp as you proceed to down the drink.  “Sorry,” you say sheepishly.  “Could at least have asked your name before I downed the drink you bought me.”

She smiles at your embarrassment, extending a hand.  “Joanne,” she offers.  “Jo, if I decide I like you.”

“Here’s hoping,” you smile back, shaking the offered hand. 

*

It’s going well, you realise.  The conversation is flowing between you and can’t deny she’s attractive.  She seems to like what she sees too if her flirting and casual touches are anything to go by.  There’s just one problem.  There’s another red head on your mind and you can’t help but compare the two. 

Joanne seems to feel your hesitancy.  “It’s fine,” she says, her smile turning gentle as she places a hand on your arm.  “Ava suggested you might be a little emotionally unavailable, but it’s been a while since I had a date with a cute girl, so I figured what’s the harm?”

“Sorry,” you say, ducking your head. 

“Don’t be,” smiles the red head.  “Look, we’re here, why don’t you tell me what’s going on?”

“You don’t deserve that,” you say, shaking your head.

Joanne merely smirks.  “You’re buying the drinks.”

There’s something about her easy manner that puts you at ease.  You look up at her, waiting patiently for you to speak.  Ava had clearly told her more than your favourite tipple. 

“What’s her name?” she asks.

You feel your cheeks heat up.  Here you are, sitting on a date with a beautiful, interesting, apparently endlessly patient woman, and she’s asking about her.  “Melissa,” you say in all but a whisper.

“Let me guess,” smirks the other woman.  “Red head, my kinda age?”

Your blush only deepens.

Joanne chuckles.  “Ava ain’t subtle, honey.  But you know you gotta move on before your little heart breaks even more.” 

The hand that had been resting on your arm moves to cup your cheek as she leans in to kiss you.  It’s nice.  It’s really nice.  And for a moment, you find you’re not thinking about Melissa. 

*

“Well fuck,” sighs Melissa, halting in her steps.  She stands, unable to look away as she sees you in the bar, clearly on a date.  For a moment, she’s not sure what to do.  She had been on her way to your apartment, but she can hardly interrupt your night now.  “What a shitty end to a shitty night,” she breathes, stuffing her hands into her jacket pockets as she turns on her heel and heads home, her steps much less determined than they had been.

*

When Monday rolls around you’re in a better mood than you’ve been in a while.  To your surprise, you actually enjoyed Ava’s date.  She was good company, and after you were honest with her, it turned out she was also rather good at giving advice.  The advice being that you should be the friend you’ve always been to Melissa, after all, it’s not the red head’s fault you fell in love with her.  The kissing and light making out was just a bonus, really.  A little fun never hurt, after all. 

Melissa, however, isn’t quite so bright come Monday.  She’s quiet, distracted and when you finally ask what’s wrong at lunch, she just shakes her head and leaves the room.  You look to Barb, hoping she’ll take pity and at least cast a little light on the situation. 

“She and Gary broke up,” she tells you quietly, her voice low to keep the other’s from hearing.

“Oh,” you breathe.  You’re not quite sure what to say to that.

*

At the end of the day, you look up from your tidying to find Melissa loitering in your doorway.  “Hey,” you say by way of greeting.  “Barb told me,” you tell her, offering a sad smile.  “Sorry to hear.”

She shrugs.  “I think I knew it was coming…just, didn’t expect it to happen the way it did.”

You watch as she comes to sit on the edge of your desk.  “Saw you out on your date on Saturday.  Was actually on my way to yours.”

“Oh,” you say, your cheeks heating up.  “Yeah, Ava set me up.  She was great but we’re not taking it any further.  Or at least, it’s nothing serious.”

“But you looked like you were having a good time, and she…”

You shake your head.  “I was…it was…Gary’s an ass by the way, for leaving you,” is what finally comes out.

“Actually, Gary isn’t an ass” she sighs.  “Gary called it quits because he asked me if I’d ever say yes if he asked me the question…and I told him I couldn’t.”  She drops her gaze, hanging her head.  “He knew it wasn’t just my past that meant I couldn’t say yes.  He knew my heart wasn’t in it…”

You start putting two and two together and getting dangerously close to four.  Gary broke up with Melissa because she wouldn’t say yes to that question.  Because her heart wasn’t in it. 

“Why did Ava set you up with that woman?” asks Melissa, still not looking up. 

Unable to properly see her face, hidden as it is by her hair, you can’t read her expression as you’d like to.  Your next words feel important thought.  “Ava knows my type.”

Melissa nods, her eyes still on the floor.  “Why ain’t you gonna see that woman again?”  This time she does look up.  “You looked like you were actually enjoying yourself.”

“I was,” you admit.  There’s no point lying.  She saw you, probably smiling and laughing.  “Ava set me up with her because she knew I’d find her attractive.  But she also told her I might be a bit hung up on someone else, so that night, when you saw me with her, I was probably talking about you.”

“You were talking about me, with her, while she was kissing you?”

That comment lets you place when Melissa would have walked by.  You nod.  “When you saw me, that was probably right around the time she told me I should think about moving on if I didn’t want to break my own heart even more.”

Melissa stands and is in front of you before either of you can think.  She looks at you for what feels like forever, green eyes searching your face, for what you don’t know.  She reaches up to touch your face and you close your eyes on instinct, gasping at the featherlight touch of her lips against yours.  Covering the hand on your face with your own, you open your eyes as she pulls back.  “I can’t do this if your heart’s not in it.”

“What if it is?”

* Ava

*

“Well I was gonna ask how you enjoyed my date but I guess I got my answer.”

The pair of you jump at the sound of Ava’s voice.

“About damn time you two got your shit together.  If I’d knows all it would take to get you with this spicy white was to put another firecracker in front of you I’d have done it months ago!”  She claps her hands excitedly.  “Oh this is too good to keep!”  She disappears from the doorway, only for her head to pop back around a moment later.  “Just no funny business in front of the kids.  But what happens in the supply closet stays in the supply closet,” she grins, waggling her eyebrows at the pair of you.  With that, she leaves you, the sound of her heels echoing along the hallway. 

“Ava!” scolds Melissa, thinking she’s going to have to take disinfectant wipes the next time she ventures into the supply closet.  With Ava, there’s no guessing what level of depravity the room has been subjected to. 

You know your cheeks are beet red, and you hide your face against Melissa’s shoulder. 

“This isn’t exactly how I saw this going,” admits the red head. 

Raising your head, you look up at her with hopeful eyes.  “But you saw it going somewhere?”

She shrugs.  “You seem keen on going on all these dates, how about one with me?”

Biting your lip, you take a moment to just look at her; the slightly shy expression, the twinkle in her eye.  Nodding, you lean in to kiss her once more.

“You know I almost didn’t believe her.”

You pull apart to see Barb in the doorway.

Melissa rolls her eyes.  “Anyone else wanna come and watch?”

A moment later Janine’s head appears around the doorframe, Jacob close behind.

“Seriously?” snaps the red head, hands on her hips. 

Ava returns, a wide grin plastered on her face.  “They wanted to come and confirm before I collected my winnings.”

“Winnings?” asks Melissa, eyebrow raised and tone bordering on dangerous.

“Hand it over people,” smirks Ava, hand extended.

“Oh hell no!”  The red head snaps into action, heading for the group.  “You did not bet on me!”  She snatches the notes from Ava’s outstretched hand.  “You bet on my happiness I’m sure you won’t mind if this goes towards it!  Y/N? Let’s go!”

You look at the hand being held out towards you and are quick to hoist your bag onto your shoulder and follow her.  You duck your head and blush under everyone’s gaze but can’t help but grin as your hand settles in her own. 

“Don’t do anything I wouldn’t do!” calls Ava. 

The group watches you both go, Melissa rolling her eyes at the hollering they let out as she puts a possessive arm around your waist.

* Barb *

If Barb notices that Melissa is unusually reserved as they order their drinks she says nothing of it.  Truth be told, she had only suggested the meal to make sure Melissa wasn’t left sitting in the house on her own on a Friday night, or worse, going out to the bars on her own in search of some company for the night.

“There’s something I gotta tell you,” says the red head, setting down the menu wasn’t even reading. 

“You’re not getting back together with him, are you?” asks the Kindergarten teacher. 

“What?  No!  No, I…that’s over and it’s for the best,” replies Melissa.  “No, the night Gary broke up with me, I ended up going for a walk to clear my head and ended up heading to Y/N’s apartment, except I didn’t quite make it there,” she admits.  “I saw her out on that date Ava set her up on.”  She sighs, wishing she had waited for their drinks to have arrived.  “And it made me feel…”

“Jealous?” Barb ventures.

Melissa looks up, meeting her friend’s eyes.  “I guess that covers it, yeah.”  Taking a deep breath, she pushes on.  “Anyway, I spoke to her on Monday about it…and I might have kissed her.”  Admission made, she looks away, pleased to see the waiter arriving with their drinks.  She doesn’t even let him put it on the table before she takes it and raises it to her lips.  It’s only when she finally sets her cocktail glass down, half empty, that she dares to look at her friend once more.

What she sees is a gentle smile.

“Took you long enough.”

“What?” she asks, a frown creasing her features.

“You have liked that girl since before Gary was even on the scene,” says Barb.

Melisa’s frown only deepens.  “Then why did you push me, literally may I add, in his direction?”

At this, Barb’s smile falters.  “I hoped it might make you realise how you felt about her.”

The red head lets out a huff, reaching for her glass once more.  “Well that went well, didn’t it?”

“It wasn’t my finest moment”, admits the older woman.  “But maybe it’s all finally working out in the end?”

Melissa fidgets with her straw.  “So you don’t think she’s too young? Too…”

Reaching out, Barb places a gentle hand on her friend’s arm.  “I think she’s in love with you, and I think you like her, a lot.”

Cheeks pinking, Melissa puts down her glass.  “I do.  A lot.  A helluva lot.”

Knowing it says something in itself the fact the red head isn’t making a joke, but rather admitting how she feels, Barb knows this is the real deal.  She knows if this goes South that hearts will be well and truly broken, but she’s seen the two of you together.  You work well together.  There’s a quiet in you that balances out the boisterousness of Melissa.  A steadiness that although she won’t admit it, the red head craves. 

“I think you could be good for each other,” she says softly.  “And no, I don’t think she’s too anything.”

[misslovasstuff]

[Sanji x reader]

Sol lucet omnibus

He’s like the sun.

And the sun, it shines for all.

An observer. That’s what you have been since coming across an interesting type of person which you couldn’t really understand as easily as you understood others. In almost two weeks, you have mentally noted five things that he does which you find weird:

1. He has a soft spot for women

“Namiii-sannnn~ “ - Sanji slides smoothly in front of his crew mate who widens her eyes. - Your fresh juice of the day!”

He happily lends her a glass to which she politely smiles. That’s more than enough to make him ecstatic. He twirls away in joy to another nearby table.

“Robin-chaaan~” - the same thing again. Not any less or more excitement than just a second ago. He lends yet another glass on Robin’s table and leaves while leaving flower petals blooming behind his footsteps out of the immeasurable joy he was feeling.

“My lady, your drink.” - Sanji approaches you with a charming attitude, bowing as he gives you a glass of juice.

“Thank you, Sanji.” - you smile softly, taking in another exaggerated reaction out of the cook.

“Ahhh~ it’s my pleasure.” - his cheeks glisten red whilst his eyes appear to create a heart shape.

“Oi. Sanji- Usopp is heard from the other side of the deck, - can I also have a -

“Wait for your turn.”- he cuts him sharply, fixing his tie and giving you a soft smile before walking away.

A giggle escapes your mouth as you rest your cheek in the palm of your hand, staring at the cook who you knew to be gentle to all, but to women he was more than just that. He was kind and submissive. For a man that appears strong and confident, his ability to love and care whilst also being witty and rough when needed, is to be admired.

However, the thing about kind people is that, they’re always, no matter what, misunderstood.

2. Acts prideful when actuallyhe has a low sense of worth for himself

“Alright we get it, love-cook, - Zoro teases, - you keep being walked like a dog and you like it.”

“What did you say, moss head?” - Sanji fiercely shouted, pushing his forehead against Zoro’s. The latter grabs his tie and shouts back:

“I said, you’re getting used, again, for the 100th time. Just quit it already. - Zoro states but his tone of voice slowly goes down as he notices a change in Sanji’s demeanour. - No one will… - his words don’t come out of his mouth. Instead he lets go of Sanji’s tie and walks away.

“No one will love you if you fight so hard to be loved. You can’t feed others if you yourself are hungry, can you?” - Zoro states before going down the stairs, entering the bedroom.

You were there to witness it all, and now, you see Sanji lightening his cigarette, throwing lost thoughts in the horizon.

“Hungry, huh?” - he scoffs.

3. He tells others the words he wishes to hear himself

“What’s wrong?” - a worried Sanji appears out of nowhere. You don’t know if it was your lack of being aware of your surroundings or just that he literally proofed right next to you, leaning on the deck whilst gazing up at you, checking your eyes and face for any clue or getaway to understanding your emotions.

He can read people well.

“To be honest, - so it didn’t make sense to hide anything from him. - I feel a bit useless sometimes, and I’m afraid of doing things wrong. Most of my life, I’ve been thrown away because I ‘wasn’t fit’ for the job. People would always bring me down and the ones who didn’t, would just end up disappointed. But here, right now with you… all, I don’t want that to happen. I want to be of use.”

“You’re not a tool, sweetheart. - Sanji caresses your shoulder, - you’re not meant to be used, in any way.”

Your eyes widen at his statement, taking in all that was happening in the moment.

“And what if you do mistakes? - he explains as you lean to the deck with him, both staring at the wide open sky. - If people blame you for your mistakes, they’re just being hypocritical. Those do not define your capability to thrive and fit in. You can always try again. - Sanji sighs, turning his face to you, putting a strand of hair behind your ear. - To ever think that such a kind person such as yourself is a disappointment, may be your greatest mistake yet.”

Fighting your hardest to contain tears, but it felt like swallowing a still-beating heart.

“Mhm? - Sanji widens his eyes at the sight of you shedding a few tears. - Now now, there’s no need to cry. - He sighs, gently smiling at you. - But if you need to, I’m here to hold you.”

Sanji lends you a hand to which you lend yours. He pulls you in slowly and hugs you tight, he himself feeling a bit of pain of his own.

4. He dares to dream the impossible

“Wait, I’ve heard about that? It’s the legendary sea-

“The all blue! - he excitedly interrupts. - You know, I used to read all about it and when I was working in the kitchen…. but I just knew it existed somewhere… and then I set sail because…”

Sanji began to talk about his dream. You knew that feeling when someone’s eyes seem to come alive at the mention of something they’re passionate about.

You also knew how fast that light could die if the person who’s hearing, either doesn’t care or cuts your dream as unimportant, boring, impossible or pathetic. That hurt, a lot. It takes a lot to break a dreamer, but just a little to plant in doubts.

“Sanji, - you claim with a serious voice. -never give up on that dream! It’s yours for a reason!”

The cook smiles, not expecting your reaction.

“Don’t worry, - he gazes at the horizon in front, - I’ll find it someday, and I’ll show it to you.”

He sounded contented and smiled, from which you saw a glimpse of his soul.

“Perfect, - you whisper. As the sunset was setting, Sanji’s eyes turned into a lighter shade of blue.

“Actually, you gotta stop looking for it, - you claim, smirking and crossing your arms, shifting your weight from one side to the other, - I already found the all blue, in your eyes.”

Goodness, these type of cheesy yet profound lines get Sanji every single time. You add gasoline to his fire that already burnt hotter than the rest. He puts his hands on his chest as if it was aching. Sanji falls down on his knees, punching the floor and almost crying.

“Sanji?” - you ask, confused.

“I need a moment.” - he claims, raising his index finger as he covers his bashful face.

5. He shines for all.

This one, is more of a complaint.

The more I got to know Sanji, the more selfish I become. Every touch of his, every stare, smile and laugh, I wanted him all for me.

Is it stupid or egoistical to ask the sun to shine on you alone?

Not only was he radiant, but he was away, far, so I tried to reach him. Although anytime I went close, his warmth would devour me, and I’d be unaware that I was slowly and steadily burning.

How can I turn to ashes from such intensity and yet feel so alive?

When he calls me:

“Love.”

When he kisses the back of my hand, staring directly into my eyes, as if he knew that I could surrender to those his any time.

When he listens patiently, worries and cares about me, finds time and makes effort not to allow loneliness to make me its slave.

It’s a fear, to stay in the darkness, unaware and alone. That was what I always feared, my whole life. But now,

“Aren’t you coming? Let’s walk together!”

,now I feel like I fear losing the light of the sun.

[paradiseismine]

Love at first bite - Boris Pavlikovsky x reader

Pairing: Boris Pavlikovsky (The Goldfinch) x f!decker!reader

Warnings: very fluffy, just Boris (metaphorically) drooling over the reader. Sfw still 🎀

Summary: you’re Theo’s cousin, in Vegas for a few days to visit him and his dad. While you’re cooking at the Deckers house, Theo gets an interesting and very good looking visitor.

Love note from Nina: I know not many people like my Boris fics, but I recently finished reading The Goldfinch for the first time, so bear with me here. Hope you enjoy it 💕

You had gotten to the Deckers house earlier that morning - Theo had already left for school, but uncle Larry and Xandra picked you up at the airport before leaving for work. That meant you were alone in the house for a few hours, so you decided to do some cleaning and cooking to wait for everyone to come home.

At around 3 in the afternoon, the doorbell rang. You opened the door, but surely wasn’t hoping to see such a tall, handsome dark haired boy in front of you.

“Hi! You’re Theo’s friend, uh… Boris, right?” you asked, trying to sweeten up your voice as much as you could and fixing your hair.

Theo didn’t have any friends in Vegas besides Boris, so of course you knew about him, but his accent seemed even cuter and more distinct in person as he spoke.

“Yes, that is me” he nodded, smiling softly. “And you’re…?”

“Y/n, I’m Theo’s cousin, nice to meet you” you answered, greeting him with a kiss on the cheek, something very common in your part of the family. “I guess he should be coming home soon. Would you like some coffee? I just brewed it, it’s still pretty hot”

Boris nodded and you turned around to get back to the kitchen, not catching his silly smile as he gently touched his cheek where you had kissed him.

“Are you coming, dear?” you raised your voice slightly so he’d hear you from the door, as you were now in the kitchen.

Boris soon came along and sat on one of the kitchen chairs. You served him some of the cookies you had baked earlier, as well as a cup of coffee.

“You made these?” he asked, mouth full of cookies already. “So good”

“Yeah, just before you got here, actually” you chuckled, finding his reaction funny. “So Theo would have something to eat when he came back from school, you know… But I made way too many, so I’m glad you’re here to help us eat them”

“I’m glad too” Boris answered, happily chewing on the cookies and sipping the coffee you had made.

“I was also making him a cake, so I’ll have to finish that and put it in the oven” you said, turning around to resume your work.

“I couldn’t find the cooking spray anywhere to grease the cake pan, so we’re gonna have to do it the old fashioned way” you shrugged, opening the fridge and reaching for a stick of butter.

“Can I help?” Boris asked, sounding like a little boy wanting to help mommy in the kitchen.

“Of course” you chuckled. “Can you grease the cake pan for me?”

“Sure” he responded, his accent thickening as his body got closer to yours in front of the kitchen counter. “So I just spread the butter on the inside, everywhere?”

“Exactly, and then you put some flour on top and make sure the whole cake pan is covered with a thin layer of flour, ok?”

“I can do that” Boris nodded. He did as he was told, and soon, the cake pan was greased and the batter was nicely deposited on it.

Boris helped you open the oven, chuckling at your worries that he’d burn himself. As soon as the cake was put in the oven and you had set the timer, Theo opened the front door.

He walked around looking for Xandra - it was weird that she hadn’t been home yet. But he saw Boris and you, which was more than enough to get him concerned - he knew Boris couldn’t see a girl doing “old fashioned girly things” (like cooking) and leave her alone. That foreigner boy was a little too flirty for Theo’s liking, and he wanted none of that to happen to his cousin.

He took Boris to the living room to talk more privately, leaving you in the kitchen to prepare the icing for the cake.

“Potter, she’s so beautiful! Your cousin?” Boris asked, nearly whispering. Too bad for him that you could hear it perfectly, and a hand quickly clamped over your mouth to stifle a chuckle.

“Yeah, Boris, she’s my cousin. She’s visiting for a few days. Why do you ask?” Theo answered, seeming annoyed. You didn’t even have to be looking at him to know he rolled his eyes so hard they nearly fell off his head.

“Would you mind if I kissed her? I don’t have to do more than kiss if you don’t want” he said, seeming a bit defensive. “But she’s so beautiful, I really want to kiss her, I never met a girl like her, so, uh, so женственный”

You blushed to yourself in the kitchen, stirring up the icing of the cake in order to keep normalcy - the noise from the whisk on the pot would be enough for them to pay you no attention at all. You had no idea what that last word meant, but it sounded like a compliment.

“Well, you don’t have to ask ME that, you can go ask her if she wants to kiss you” Theo spat, coming off jealous.

“Fine, you cranky” he answered. “But you better seem happier when I marry her” he added, as he walked towards the kitchen. “A woman like that has to have a good husband, and I make sure is me”

Boris entered the kitchen again as you were setting the icing bowl aside.

“Everything ok with Theo?” You asked, trying not to bring up anything you had heard from the living room.

“Da, he’s just cranky” Boris shrugged softly. “I said you were beautiful and he got jealous”

You laughed at his sincerity. “Really? You think I’m beautiful, then?”

“Totally, very beautiful. I asked if he would be mad if I kissed you” his right arm had ended up around your waist somehow, but it’s not like you were gonna swat it away. You enjoyed his touch.

“And what did he say?” You asked, turning your body to face him, your lips now dangerously close to his.

“I don’t really care. Can I kiss you?”

You nodded, chuckling and putting your hands to his cheeks, lightly pulling him down to compensate for his height.

Boris leaned in and kissed you very gently, as if you were made of sugar and could melt at the slightest touch of his lips. His arms were around your body, fingers lightly tracing the curve of your waist, his cold hands sending shivers to the hot bare skin of your belly.

His lips intertwined perfectly with yours, his tongue timidly slipping into your mouth as his hands grabbed your waist. You couldn’t help but faintly moan into the kiss and put your hand to his nape, fingers interlocking in his hair, bringing him closer. He was clearly trying to contain himself, and seemed utterly out of breath when you bit his lower lip maliciously.

When you broke the kiss, the look on his face was quite similar to when he used drugs: pupils dilated, eyes wide open, mouth slightly open and cheeks flushed. His palms were a bit sweaty and he muttered something in Russian that you couldn’t comprehend. You had gotten him wrapped around your finger - it must have been love at first bite.

[hamiltonaf]

Daddy’s Princess | Kylian Mbappé

Pairing: Dad!Kylian Mbappé x Mom!Female Reader

Requested: Yes

Word Count: 2.5K

Warnings: Angst if you squint but mainly fluff

A/N: Hi my loves. Apologies I’ve been away for so long, I had so much going on but now I’m back. This has been in my drafts for so long, I think it came to a point where I was writing this half asleep. Not proofread, hope you babes enjoy.

Also, you’re more than welcome to send requests .xx

1 year. A year filled with ups and down, but ups for the most of it ever since giving birth to my bundle of joy, Sofia. I couldn’t believe how quickly a whole year has flew by and she’s already one.

The downside of this one year was the harsh break up between Kylian and I just a few weeks after Sophia was born. Post-partum depression was already bad, the break up just made it all worse. Everything was perfectly fine, or so I thought, Kylian was so excited for us to finally be parents and so was I. Little did I know that he wasn’t ready for the odd hours of waking up for feeding or hearing cry’s then having to wake up in a couple of hours for training, plus balancing our relationship, it was apparently all too much for him to handle so he felt the need to sacrifice our relationship to make it easier for him to focus on his career.

He was so used to being an uncle that he didn’t realise that parenting was a whole other ball game. I was willing to reason with him and do all night duties so he can sleep in but unfortunately that wasn’t good enough. Co-parenting isn’t easy.

It really sucks to co-parent because even though Kylian and I have broken up, I still have to see him every weekend when he comes over to spend time with her or he picks her up to take her out for the day. We’re civil, basically acting as if we’re friends, but who are we kidding ? Ever since Sofia was 4 months I’ve noticed Kylian being particularly nice to me, passing compliments, asking me to tag along with him when it’s his turn to spend the day with Sofia, interacting with my socials a lot more…something is cooking.

Unfortunately my pettiness is here to stay, so whenever he’s being ‘overly’ nice, I just brush it off like it’s nothing. It just bothers me that he didn’t try hard enough and think about what I was going through. It was hard when I eventually had to go to work, I was so attached to Sofia that I didn’t want to leave her but I didn’t have much of a choice. The last thing I need to hear whilst I’m depressed is that I wanted to have Kylian’s baby just to get money. Absolute nonsense.

The interesting thing is that even though Kylian isn’t with us everyday of the week 24/7, once Sofia is with her dad she doesn’t want to leave him. She’s so attached to him, funnily enough that she doesn’t even bother crying for me when I’m around.

So since she’s daddy’s little princess, Kylian insisted that we had to have a big first birthday party for her at his place. I went along with it and we both settled on a Disney princess theme.

Kylian had outdone himself, the party was as big and fancy as one would throw when they turn 16. I invited a few people from my side, majority family and a few friends.

Sophia was looking absolutely adorable in a pink puffy dress with a gold crown to top it off. I held Sophia on my hip as I greeted the guests, it’s as if Sophia has a sixth sense that she spotted Kylian approaching us from behind. She immediately started jumping and squealing, eagerly waiting for her dad to carry her. “Is that Princess Sophia ?” He said in shock. I smiled at their interaction as she nodded her head and got shy.

“Come here princess” he held his arms out for her which she happily jumped into his embrace. “My baby looks so cute. Who picked out your dress ?” He pecked her cheek. “Mama” she said as she pointed at me. My heart melted. “Who dresses you better princess ?” I wiggled my brows at her. “Mama” she admitted shyly. “You made daddy sad” he pouted as he faked a cry. Sophia falling for it, she cupped his face and kissed his nose. Catching us both off guard, Kylian and I burst out laughing. “Bubs you’re too cute” I said as I cupped her cheeks with one hand and kissed her cheek. “Doesn’t mama look so beautiful” he said as he looked at Sophia. I suddenly froze. Was not expecting that.

“That’s because mama is a princess” she smiled. “Awww my little pumpkin pie, give mama a kiss” I leaned in and pouted at her, which she gave me a kiss. “Does dad get a kiss from mama too ?” He playfully asked. I gave him a side-eye. Just then our interaction was disrupted when someone hugged be from behind, catching me by surprise. “Darling” a familiar voice said. I turned around and was met by my work friend, Nate. “Oh my god ! Nate ! I’m so glad you could make it” I said as I pulled him in for a hug. Nate is a good friend of mine from work. I believe the crucial thing to mention here is that Nate has a girlfriend, whom which I’m very good friends with as well, unfortunately she couldn’t make it since she was away on a work trip… life of a model.

Kylian hasn’t met him or heard of him up until now. “Nate, I’d like you to meet Kylian, Sophia’s dad and my little princess, Sophia !” I introduced them. “Pleasure to meet you” they shook hands but Kylian didn’t look too pleased. “And look at this girl, beautiful like her mum” he cooed at Sophia. “So I’ve been told” I said proudly. Sophia got shy and cuddled up closer to Kylian. “Anyway let me not take up too much of your time. I’ll meet with the others in the mean time” Nate said with a soft smile and excused himself. It was so obvious that the energy changed in the air, well for me at least.

“I can’t believe you did that” Kylian said. “Excuse me ? Did what ?” I raised a brow in confusion. “Do you really think this is the time and place to bring a lover of yours ? That too to introduce our daughter to ?” He lowered his voice just so I could hear him. “What the…are you okay ? If you don’t know what’s going on, then don’t give me your 2 cents !” I said back. “I know exactly what’s going on. I’m not stupid. Keep him away from Sophia.”

“I- you know what… believe what you want” I rolled my eyes at him. “Let’s go bub” I said as I held my arms out for her. She happily obliged to jump into my arms as we walked away. I can’t believe he got so jealous.

I ended up getting caught up in a conversation with my mum and Fayza, mainly because I had their granddaughter in my arms. I was baffled mid conversation when the topic of discussion was about having another child. Did Kylian not tell them about our break up or are they assuming we’re back together. I didn’t even bother arguing with them to avoid any further drama.

Kylian took me by surprise when he took the initiative to be the MC. Everyone had dropped their conversations to go get seated, while I had to go stand beside Kylian since I had Sophia with me. “Hello everyone and welcome to my baby’s first birthday !” Kylian announced as everyone erupted into cheers, Sophia had joined everyone as she clapped along, making us giggle and look at her in awe.

“This party would not have been possible without you all so thank you to every one of you for coming” he paused as everyone started clapping. He then glanced at me for a brief second before placing a hand on my back and pulling me to stand closer to him. “This party would also not be possible without my (Y/N), who has given me the greatest blessing of being a father. I will forever be thankful for all that you did and continue to do. Thank you for also shaping me into being a better version of myself. Lastly, thank you for helping me out and telling me what Sophia needs when she’s crying” everyone had burst into laughter at his last line.

“So a round of applause for (Y/N) !” He yelled as everyone followed by cheering. He then turned to look at me as he pulled me in for a hug. My heart had completed melted at his speech. More especially when he referred to me as my (Y/N). He released from our hug and kissed my cheek. It’s as if we forgot that we had Sophia in between us, it was only until she said “I love you mama” and kissed my other cheek that I snapped back into reality. “I love you more bubba” I smiled and kissed her cheek.

We then sang for her and cut her cake before everyone was free to mingle and eat. Sophia was actually starting to get crabby I guess with all the attention she was itching to play with the other kids so I accompanied her on the jumping castle. Low-key reliving my childhood through Sophia.

Nate then caught me by surprise when he joined us on the jumping castle, we were laughing more than talking. I guess our laugh was that loud that it caught Kylian’s attention. “Dada jump !” Sophia squealed as soon as she saw Kylian make his way towards us.

She quickly lost interest in jumping in these few minutes that she sprinted into her dads arms. “Tired bubs ?” He asked her softly as she cradled her face into his neck. She shook her head. “Do you want your bottle ?” He asked. She nodded her head. He then gave me a glance as a sign of help. I quickly said goodbye to Nate to help Kylian out.

“Wanna come by mama ?” I cooed. She shook her head as if I was a stranger. I gasped in shock. “You just broke mama’s heart” I faked a cry. Sophia actually started giggling. As we were walking into the house, both our mums spotted us walking together. “Aww where are you taking our baby ?” Fayza cooed. “She’s hungry, (Y/N/N) and I will take care of her” Kylian said. Both of our mums shared a look before moving out of our way.

Once we were inside, it was total peace and silence. Just the three of us, with of course the party happening being a soft background noise. Kylian sat her on the kitchen counter top and was about to make her bottle but I stopped him. “Watch her..I’ll do it” I said with a soft smile. He then kept her occupied by making small talk with her and played a game.

It didn’t take me long to make her bottle. After testing to see if the temperature was fine, I shook the bottle in front of her to see her reaction. “Who do you want to feed you ?” I playfully asked. “Mama !” She squealed. “Now you’re leaving dada for mama ?” Kylian acted offended and faked a cry. In the cutest way possible, she covered her eyes with her tiny hands and the cutest smile on her face. I cradled her in my arms and walked over to the couch to sit down. She held her own bottle and got distracted when Kylian started making faces at her. “Oii stop it” I joked. He then sat down beside me. “Is it a good time to talk now ?” He asked curiously. “Depends on what the topic is” I said as I glanced over.

“It’s about us” he hesitantly answered. I remained silent for a while before speaking up, “Not the perfect timing but I can’t run away from this so you might as well just be frank” I shrugged. “I feel terrible ever since I left you and Soph. It was wrong of me to let you take care of her on your own when you needed me the most. Spending time with the both of you in these last few months have shown what I was missing out on this whole time. I want to be with you every step of the way to take care and watch our little princess grow” he said. I was left speechless. “I know it’s a lot right now, but I obviously wouldn’t have dropped this on you if our feelings weren’t mutual” he smiled softly. “How do you know our feelings are mutual ?” I raised a brow.

“I notice the little things, when you get flustered after I compliment you. Especially earlier when I asked for a kiss until that idiot ruined our moment” he said annoyed. “Wait wait… is this about Nate ?” I furrowed my brows. “No !” He scoffed. “Oh my god. It is ! You’re jealous of him aren’t you ?” I started giggling. “What ? Me.. jealous ? No” he laughed. “Ky, I just know when you’re lying” I shook my head trying to fight back a smile. Sophia finished her bottle and handed it over to me. I then held her upright against my chest to rub her back. “Okay fine. I was triggered to do this sooner. I’ll forever hate myself if I didn’t try to make things right with you. I don’t want to lose my girls. I’ve always loved you and never stopped loving you”

I was taken aback by everything he said. “Why didn’t you come back then ?” I asked. “Because I figured you wouldn’t want me back so soon after I what I did. You didn’t deserve that and I thought I didn’t deserve you, but I couldn’t let you go.. after all I’m still in love with you. So I hope you find it in your heart to forgive me and allow me to have a second chance” he said hopeful. I sighed. “You’re making this harder because I literally see Sophia’s face when you look like that” he broke into a smile. Speaking of Sophia, she fell off to sleep. Sleeping beauty. “You’re lucky you’re her dad” I smiled.

“So you forgive me ?” He broke into a smile. I nodded my head. He was about to make noise until I shushed him and pointed at Sophia. “Oh sorry” he said in a hushed tone. He then pecked Sophia’s forehead then looked at me. “What ?” I asked confused. “You didn’t answer my question from earlier” he grinned. “Which was ?” I raised a brow. “Can daddy get a kiss too ?” He wiggled his brows. “I’m feeling petty so not right now” I grinned. “Ahh chérie just one” he pouted. “Later Kyky” I said as I stood up. He then took Sophia from my arms and carried her. “I think I’ve been tortured enough by how you look every time I see you” he pouted. “Nice try” I then surprised him by pecking his lips. “That was too short” he pouted.

[unniekiwi]

Zhongli with male reader who is also a dragon but never changes forms ever but Zhongli wants to invite him to meet the traveler and Childe for dinner and just for zhongli he does

“Im (name) mortals”

“nice to meet you! You must be mister zhongli’s friend”

“Oh no, he is not my friend but my spouse”

“WHAT!?” I imagine reader is really pretty and still have draconic features even in human form

I'm back from the death-

Not gonna lie, I imagined [Name] utterly good-looking.

꒱࿐♡ ˚.*ೃ꒱࿐♡ ˚.*ೃ꒱࿐♡ ˚.*ೃ

꒱࿐♡ ˚.*ೃ꒱࿐♡ ˚.*ೃ꒱࿐♡ ˚.*ೃ

– Sweetheart, you don’t stop talking about that… mortal traveler and their flying friend. – Zhongli’s eyes rested on his mate’s dragon form; an elegant black-red and gold dragon who was resting in the air looking at his humanized mate. – Are they so amazing that they are more astonishing than me? – The dragon jokes with a strong but gentle voice at Zhongli.

– Love. You know that no one can beat your dazzling personality and beauty… – Zhongli responded to his partner by petting the furry scalp of the dragon. The dragon grumbles, satisfied by his mate's answer. – Would you do something for me, please? – Zhongli said, looking at the red eyes of his mate, which made [Name] stare at Zhongli's eyes. – Would you go for dinner with me and my mortal friends…? – he made a little pause and sat next to the dragon. – I beg you, please? I would love it if you met my friends… – Zhongli looked at his partner, he knew how he didn’t like being in his human form, but he wanted his cute [Name] to meet his friends.

[Name] thought about it, he had really bad experiences every time he swapped into his human form. But meeting the friends that made his mate finally a bit happier made [Name] not think too much about it.

– Alright. Anything for you my sweet thing…- [Name] said looking into Zhonli’s eyes.

– They're late… – Childe said, looking at Traveler and Paimon who was impatient to eat Xianglin’s tasty food. That’s when the door opened and lots of voices were heard, the eyes of the three mortals were surprised and stuck to the door. They were seeing the most majestic human ever? Traveler’s eyes shone when they saw the solemn male beside Zhongli.

– Mortals are so agitated – [Name] said calmly and annoyedly. Zhongli chuckled a bit at his mate. The people of Liyue recognized them in the instant and followed them.

– Friends… Meet [Name] my Adeptus mate… – Zhongli introduced [Name] calmly and happily. He was pleased by the delighted faces of his mortal friends, they seemed to enjoy his mate’s elegant and luxurious looks. [Name] liked wearing dark kimonos when he was in his human shape, colors that matched his body and his physical palette, which made him absolutely stunning to everyone.

– Nice to meet you! You must be Mister Zhongli’s friend. – Traveler asked [Name] politely and interested in the attractive male.

– Oh no, he is not my friend… but my Spouse. – [Name] said smiling showing his cute fangs mentioning his Spouse Zhongli. Did they think that they were only close friends? Oh, how naive mortals are…

– He is your Spouse!? – Paimon asked loudly to Zhongli not expecting him to have a partner. – Do you always pay for everything? – The flying girl asked again, sounding a bit hesitant as Childe and Traveler looked a bit stunned because of the information they just received. As [Name] chuckled at the words of the flying girl, Zhongli hid his blush by looking away; he always referred to [Name] as his mate, not Partner or Spouse.

– Are you guys good listeners? Because you might wanna hear some stories about this absent-minded Adeptus… – [Name] smirked playfully as he sat down with the mortals and his Spouse. It was going to be a long and embarrassing dinner, that’s for sure.

[thecoolerliauditore]

What are your thoughts on SL Gem? I’m genuinely interested to hear your take on her character.

So first off I haven't fully watched Gem's SL POV, nor do I feel totally confident talking about her in a traffic series sense since she's lacking screentime even more than Ren. So this one's gonna be less grain of salt and more. salt mines. do not take it seriously

Gem's character to me is defined by her bravado and natural affinity for leadership but also by her pseudo-crush on not Pearl, but Scarlet Pearl specifically.

I feel like I've made too many cynical jokes about gempearl being evil to me, I don't think they're like. Bad for eachother necessarily in fact incorporating HC into things they're one of the pairs in the series I personally headcanon as hanging out post-horrors (not necessarily in a fully fledged capital r Relationship just. they're hanging out).

But I do think there's something very fangirl-ish about the way Gem idolizes Scarlet Pearl and encourages Pearl to lean more into the character, when Scarlet Pearl has always been more of a coping mechanism. Like, whoa that thing you did to protect yourself and only made things worse is SO COOL. Which is both what is really genuinely awesome about gempearl and what is really scary about it. To me at least. Gem takes all the things Pearl hates about herself and thinks they're Awesome, Actually but doesn't understand why Pearl hates those things in the first place and how they hurt both her and the people around her.

It's all bookended really well too, since Gem despite all her efforts still ends up on the other end of Pearl's knife in the final episode and suddenly it's not so awesome anymore.

On the non-pearl-related side of things, Gem kinda lands in the same hunger games career-esque personality that I box people like Scott, Joel and Martyn into in that she's very much in her element in the death games (until she's not).

I've seen people say she reminds them of how the cast acted back in 3L and SL being her introductory season i.e. her having not quite yet experienced The Horrors would make that make a lot of sense. Especially when she takes death very lightly until her allies start permadying (e.g. her happily accepting Scott's sacrifice and even hitting him around for fun at one point and leading the zombie apocalypse task but being a mess when Scott asks her to kill him the last time). There's this great contrast with her being incredibly confident and capable yet very naive.

The misogynist in me wants to see her knocked down a few more pegs but at the same time she already kind of has. Idk I hope the asuka-coded behaviour rears full-blast next season instead of kind of being in the background. It would be awesome. character arcs and whatnot.

As for like. more miscellaneous headcanons. I think there's pretty much a bit of boy inside every girl but Gem especially I like to think over-performs aspects of femininity to "make up for" her uber-competitive personality. Everything she does is underlined with insecurity to me, apparently. She's also a lesbian.

[everythingne]

KINTSUGI - AKIN TO A PRIDE VERSE - MV1

When brought to panic by ruthless reporters, Reina snaps and hits a reporter out of instinct. In desperation, Hana flies Max to London help her daughter out of a depressive episode caused by Reina thinking that she's more like her father than she ever wants to be. And Max realizes some things about who you call family.

warnings: reporters grabbing reina, mentioned rumors of domestic abuse, mentions of child abuse and past/current broken metacarpal (hand) bones (wow look at me being sciency?), many assumptions about max's childhood, reina has a whole break down, reminder this isn’t a romance series, also btw I changed reina's age to make her 20 (legit go back and look LOL) and that totally isn't something for silly foreshadowing purposes no no, my comeback after going to college LMAO

I'M FUCKING SCREWED. I'm so fucking screwed. I can feel the anxiety coursing through my arms as I stand there, my teammates off to my side as we try and fight through the media pen. We weren't even supposed to be here but Ollie Bearman had decided he was bored and dragged me and Kimi Antonelli along to see some other drivers by wandering along the pit lane. We were all pretty civil with one another, save for one or two weird rivalries here or there, so we were quick to amass a group that eventually Trident broke up when they needed Richard back.

And then media had shown up, and we'd gotten quickly swarmed with no real way out.

Luckily, Kimi had called someone from the paddock to come get us and help us out so as we slowly pushed through the crowd as politely as possible, someone was actively coming to us.

And then I had gotten split off.

"Ollie!" I shouted, trying to grab his attention, but my voice is lost among those of the reporters who chase after him. How theres so many reporters here, I have no idea. It's not normal. And then again, nothing about this season really was normal because of the whole siblings thing.

"Miss Matsumoto!" someone shouts and a camera is shoved in my face, I try to keep a calm composure, nodding sharply in greeting as I try to continue through the crowd, "How are you feeling about your race tonight?"

"I think I'll be alright," I nod, pulling the rim of my hat down a bit further, "My team has grown a bit with Max's personal trainer giving us some tips for my physical training and it's been really interesting seeing how just changing my diet and training has made drive different."

"How is your relationship with Max?" Someone else shouts and a smile happily crosses my face, okay, I can do this. Just keep talking and just keep pushing forward. Do what Max taught you.

"He's been incredible, a lot kinder than people give him credit for." I make sure to point that out as I walk. A few more questions about Max are tossed my way, what exactly he's been teaching me (how to train for Formula One specifically, different ways to keep my brain sharp, physical training adjustments, how to cope with the drastic difference between F2 and F1, which both Logan and Oscar had already told me about), if I've met Kelly and Penelope (I have, Penelope adores me for some reason), who I've met in Red Bull (Daniel, Max, Christian, Geri, a few engineers, some other drivers who now raced for other teams, and such.)

And then someone asks something that makes my stomach crawl, "Can you tell us why we haven't seen your father in the paddock this season even though his racing company is one of your main sponsors?"

"It's only the third race. I'm sure we'll see him in Sakura." I smile, trying to keep my voice level, but the reporters have found something to latch onto. I took too long to respond.

"How is your relationship with him been impacted since moving in with your mother?"

"The timezones make it hard to speak, but he is still my father, so," I shrug, trying now a bit more desperately to shove through the crowd. They're not letting me go. I can hear Kimi telling someone to move, his voice is sharp and annoyed, but the reporter doesn't listen.

"Is it true your father abused you?"

"What?" I gape, but reporters flash cameras and shove over each other to get to me. My reaction fuels them.

"Is Project Matsumoto a real thing, or just a mimic of Project Verstappen?"

I can't even recover from the last question as I gasp out, "I'm sorry?" I don't even know what they're referencing.

"Did Red Bull pick you to be Max's sibling due to your similar childhoods?"

I can't get words out now, the berating is on, and all I can do is try and back away. I can see Ollie waving a hand, trying to beckon me through the crowd, and now FIA officials are coming to move the reporters away. It's a mess of shoving and screaming, people in my face as they repeat themselves until their voices pitch to shouts and screams. I can't move through because any step I take is immediately countered by a shift in the tide of cameras and voices, blocking my path.

"Was your fathers attitude is Sakhir last year reflective of your childhood with him?" "How did your parents divorce effect your racing career?" "Is it hard to be living away from your Japanese roots?" "Why did your mother accuse your father of emotional and physical domestic abuse when they divorced?"

A reporter steps forward and grabs me and I rip back from him. Ollie's shoving a reporter to the side, trying to grab me before he's closed off by the ocean of people around me.

"Is the rumor of your fathers mistreatment of you true?" The man asks again, trying to grab me and I stumble back in a panic. My hat is pulled off by him instead, and I just let it go as I bring my arms to my stomach and wrap around myself.

"Please! Everyone, wait--!" I cry out, the obvious panic in my tone making my skin flame with embarrassment.

"Answer the question!" The same man shouts, shoving a reporter aside as raising his hand with his microphone. All I see is the raising of a fist in the shadow of my father, and my brain reacts before I can really think about what I'm about to do.

Crack!

I gasp as soon as I make the connection. It's hard. Max's training paying off well. Ollie's infront of me, grabbing my wrists and gently pulling me to the side until he can get me out of the crowd. Prema's around me in seconds, closing me off as I stare at my hands and feel the blood seeping across my knuckles.

I'm so screwed.

They get me into the paddock, voices over my head and slipping through my ears. I'm sat in my drivers room, Ollie and Kimi being peeled from my sides to go off and get ready for the race. I can't hear, can't think, a constant ringing ruining any conscious thought. My knuckle is split. My ring finger. I stare as one of the medics begins to clean up the wound.

Not even the sting can pull me from the thoughts racing through my head.

I hit someone. Struck a man out of fear. He had grabbed me, knocked my hat off, I had every reason to hit him. Yet, I had hit someone. I could hear my father's voice ringing in the back of my head, warnings of inheritance and passing down genetics I had shaken off to make myself feel better.

I was not my father. Never would be my father. I was so sure of that. Until today.

When the medic lets go of my hand and sets it on my lap, I feel fear strike my bones. And when René comes to get me, my silence is terrifying to everyone. I stand silent, straight faced, not even cracking a smile. The cameras watch me twice as much, I react a thousand times less.

Max is sitting on his bed, Penelope happily napping on his chest as he watches the pre-race bullshit for Reina. He had off today, oddly enough, and Kelly had gone out to do some sort of PR management event which left him to watch little Penelope. No problem at all.

The pre-race is what he's expecting, he can see Ollie dragging Reina and Kimi around and amassing a small group of F2 drivers outside of Trident. He laughs when Kimi hoists Reina into his arms, loudly announcing her by her nickname of Little Lion and making the rest of the boys cheer. What he isn't expecting is when they break up from the rest of the drivers to return to their paddock. Ollie's leading Kimi and Reina back when they get cut off by a mass of reporters. F2 hadn't been prepared for their usual amount of media to almost multiply by ten, and apparently it had been causing all sorts of issues.

Like this.

The questions are easy enough. He feels a weird swell of pride when he notices how easily Reina answers the reporters compared to before he'd started teaching her some media techniques.

And then the questions shift.

He can see Reina's panic after the first question, actually he sees it as soon as the word 'father' is brought up. He sits up a bit, gently readjusting Penelope as he turns the TV a bit louder. The camera swings away for a moment to show Ollie and Kimi pause when they realize Reina's not there, and their quick turn around before the camera swaps to show Reina.

She looks horrified. Max feels a burn in his chest as he sits up and leans forward, almost willing Ollie through the crowd. He can see multiple Prema people attempting to shove through, but every attempt is in vain. Nothing is working. It's a Sisyphean task.

Then the reporter tries to grab Reina and Max has to hold himself back from getting up and shouting at the TV. Not that it's gonna change anything. Reina steps back, and her eyes are darting around, trying to find a weak spot to escape. She can't, Max realizes, as the reporters close in.

The next thing he sees is her arm jut forward, a loud crack sounding over the speakers. His jaw drops, the sight of Reina hitting someone so foreign to him. Silence falls over the crowd as Ollie grabs her and pulls her away, someone else shouting for her to come on as Prema swarms her in a protective bubble. The feed cuts there and leaves Max on a cliff hanger for thirty minutes until they are just about to start the race. The anthem is playing. But, the Reina he sees on the screen is not his Reina.

She's silent, stone faced, frozen still and almost robotic. She moves soft as a dancer, but her gaze is sharper than an ice skaters blades. She wins, sure, but he can't get her haunted look out of his brain. She carries it even through her podium, not even able to smile when she hoists the trophy above her head.

The call from Hana the next day is expected. The invite to their flat in London is not.

"She just needs someone who understands what she's going through." Hana had pleaded on the phone, "I know it's wrong of me to say it, but you were treated a very similar way when you first got into F1 and especially when you started winning. You had a similar past, you both have similar struggles. She needs your help, Max.”

Max had wanted to suggest a therapist, a psychiatrist even, but he knew Reina would rather throw herself in front of a Le Mans car, probably the Porsche 936, than talk about her problems. Which left the question of if she would even talk to him.

But he tells Christian and Geri what's happening for a second opinion, and he is told he should go.

So he's on a flight to London three hours later, about a weeks worth of clothing packed haphazardly. He thinks he forgot a toothbrush and aftershave, but he doesn't care to check. After careful conversation, Hana had agreed to let him get a hotel close by, so he could give Reina space. Hana had been so certain Reina needed him, but Max wasn't even sure if Hana had tried to reach out to her daughter herself. Apparently Reina wasn't eating, doing her training, or even the sim. She had been in bed except for when she was forced out, and luckily there was a bit longer break than usual, it gave Max time.

He gets to the flat around eleven in the morning, twirling the keys of his rental car in his hand. He tells Hana he's coming inside and she gives him the code to the lobby and to the flat. The second one isn't needed, the woman is waiting for him in the hall.

“Thank you so much for coming out here.” Hana sighs when she sees Max and he’s shocked to see the usually classy woman in such a disheveled state, he gives her a hug in greeting but allows her to ramble through it.

“I’m sorry that I’m such a mess, I just—Reina hasn’t done this in so long it’s genuinely frightening to see it again.” Hana wipes her face, sniffling as she shakes her hands to sort of shake it off, “I’ve been trying to get her to do anything and she just won’t, she’s usually twice as active after a race, not sedimentary! I don’t know what to do—“

Max cuts off her rambling with a soft, “Hey, relax. You’ve done all you can. You go and take care of yourself, I’ll talk to Reina.”

It must be what Hana needs to hear (it’s something he’d been told by his mom when comforting Victoria growing up) because Hana barrels into his chest in a hug, thanking him probably thirty times in a row before stepping back and letting him in.

The apartment is gorgeous, Max can’t lie. It’s got big windows and tons of natural lighting, bright bold colors in decorations he’s sure Reina picked out. Which, he guesses, makes sense, because it will become her apartment soon. Hana points him in the direction of Reina’s room, but seems so genuinely distraught she can’t go near.

And this is where he’s stepping off the dock.

He hesitates to knock, but does eventually. It’s soft enough he’s sure Reina won’t hear it, but then he hears the most broken, teary and bitter, “what?” from the other side of the door.

“It’s Max.” He presses his hand to the handle, eyes staring through the wood as he leans in to the door itself, almost as if trying to see Reina through it, “can I come in?”

There’s a long enough pause he thinks she’ll say no. But theres a soft, "okay."

He pushes the door open to the darkness of Reina's room. One Himalayan salt lamp is on in the corner, providing a slightly warm glow to the room. The blinds are drawn tight, blackout curtains hastily thrown over them, and Reina's head is the only part of her body that's visible under her mass of blankets. Her room isn't quite messy, just cluttered with partially empty water bottles and a plate of cold breakfast. He remembers this. The shutting yourself off part of this all, of being raised like they had. Or, the lack thereof.

"Mornin'." He says simply, walking over to sit on the edge of her bed. Reina blinks a few times, like she can't even believe Max is there, and slowly sits up.

"Why are you here?" Her voice is groggy but not in the sense of just waking up, it sounds more like shes been sobbing for hours. A claim backed up by the redness of her swollen eyes and sniffly nose.

"Your mom called." He doesn't sugarcoat, never has, "I saw the punch. What did the FIA give you for that?"

“Five second penalty. Kimi was behind by six. Didn’t matter.” She grumbled, looking over at him from where she’s bundled up. She looks miserable, and though Max knows he’s started to crack through to get her to talk, he needs to keep trying.

“Did they fix your brakes?” Max asks and Reina nods, then sits up and sighs.

“I know you didn't fly all the way from Monaco to London for small talk. What’s wrong?” She asks, scrubbing at her red cheeks as she crosses her legs and grabs a large plush Hello Kitty and buries her face in it.

“Your mom said you’re not handling it well,” Max hums, leaning back on his hand and looking over at Reina as she curls a little bit tighter around her plushie.

“I hit someone.” She whines, “I hit him.”

“He grabbed you.” Max says, looking over at Reina and letting out a tiny non-committal hum, “the reason the FIA gave you such a little punishment is because it’s self defense.”

“But Max, I hit him.” Reina emphasized and Max blinked. What the fuck was she getting at here? His confusion must be all over his face because she shifts slightly closer and he can see where she'd split one of her knuckles open. Hana hold told him the finger was technically broken, but Reina refused to wear her brace on it. Something about having already worn one in the past. Not that Max would know. But when Reina goes to ball her hand into a fist, he notes her pinkie and ring finger don't close. Daniel's injury rings in his mind for a second, but he shoves the thought away as Reina continues to repeat herself, more broken, more panicked.

“Reina," Max attempts to soothe her, scooting a a bit closer to place a hand on hers, hiding the injury from her sight, "what are you getting at here?"

"I..." She stammers, eyes darting around his face, and then she huffs out a question he's not expecting, "Are you afraid of being like your father?"

Max blinks. The silence encompassing the room for a long while before he sighs out a soft, "Yeah, terrified."

"Me too." Reina nods, flexing her hand again. Max watches the way her eyes dart down to her injury and he realizes she's trying to cue him in. It's like a puzzle, and he has to put together the pieces to get the picture. She doesn't say anything next, leaving Max to figure it out himself, so he just watches Reina.

She's fidgety, fingers tapping along her injured hand, but he notes she keeps poking her pinkie. She'd injured her right ring finger, not the pinkie, so he's not sure what she's trying to do. She's not concerned over her current injury, but the past one. His eyes trail along her clothing, her mothers old NASCAR jersey, the rest of her hidden under mass amounts of fuzzy blankets. Her hair is braided back, greasy, and knotted, her skin is dull but still clear save for one or two pimples in her hairline. She wasn't taking care of herself, he could see that, it was a classic depressive episode.

Max meets her eyes and sees shes trying to pick him apart too.

But why? What did she need to know? Max was pretty open with her, he'd told her more than he told most people. Geri had encouraged it, hell she'd even asked if she could tell Hana some stuff from when he first got to Red Bull. The first time he'd snapped at Christian, expecting to be shouted back at, but was shocked at his calm tone. The first Christmas, when he had no one to go to, and Christian invited him to their home and though Max was slightly out of place he'd stolen the attention of the kids in a heartbeat. That was the day he'd become almost like a fifth kid to the Horners. Geri had asked if he was comfortable talking about his childhood with Hana, and he had, though it was a difficult conversation. She'd asked wonderful questions about healing and growing up and moving on, asked how much moving to Monaco and being on his own at eighteen had helped. Being on his own was freeing, he'd said that much, and though he kept some parts out he knew Hana could piece it together.

Hold on.

Max had snapped because he thought Christian would be like Jos when he'd failed to overtake on a turn.

Max hadn't had anywhere to go that Christmas because it was the first time he was celebrating without any family in the same home.

Max became an unofficial Horner because his own familial issues.

Max had moved to Monaco to get away from his father.

Reina was afraid to be like her father.

Reina was always looking to Max for validation, even with how short they had known each other.

Reina's injury, from what little Max knew, was caused after she had crashed out of a race--in heer drivers room. The last time she'd seen her dad after she'd left their house in Fukushima.

Shit.

"Reina." Max starts, not sure if he even knows how to approach this. He'd been the messy one, the one to snap, the one to shout, the one to lash out. It was evident of an 'avoidant attachment style' from his childhood or whatever the hell that meant, therapists always confused him with technicalities. Max wasn't gentle, he wasn't soft like this, he was hard edges and half-broken promises. How does one avoid their own sharp edges when trying to handle something so soft? How can Max be sure he won't break Reina?

"What happened to your pinkie?" He asks, gently prodding the knuckle with his own. Reina meets his eyes. He can't find her in her own gaze.

"Boxer's fracture." She murmurs, "Like Daniel's."

"I know that, but how did it happen?" He pushes and when Reina freezes up, he whispers, "Listen, it's just us right now. I'm gonna keep you safe, yeah? Like a real brother would."

Max had enough experience protecting Victoria.

"My dad." Reina starts, then swallows and closes her eyes. She leans forward, seeking out Max, and he moves so she can rest her head on his shoulder, staring down at her hands covered by his, "Last year, when I crashed out towards the end of the season. I was living with my mom by then, so I never really saw him. I didn't even know he was at the race. I got to my drivers room and we got in an argument. My mom tried to split us up and he slapped her so hard she fell over. I pushed him to get him to leave her alone and..."

Reina struggles to find the words and whatever she had gone through is a thousand times worse than Max could've ever expected.

"He grabbed me by the wrist, I grabbed a door to get away and he slammed it on my hand. Broke my metacarpal in two places, I needed surgery, so I never finished the season. Finished thirteenth."

Max is still. So still he's not even sure he's still breathing. Reina sniffles, and Max feels her tears hit the back of his hand.

"You don't wanna wear the brace because it takes you back." He says and Reina just lets out a soft hum. He doesn't know what to do. So, he does what Geri had done the few times she'd had to comfort him. One arm around her shoulders, the other on her head, and he pulls her taught to his chest to cradle her there.

The sob she lets out shatters his heart and he tries to pull her impossibly closer. They're flush to one another, theres no more space to close, but he still tries as Reina breaks and shatters in his hands like fine china. He attempts to piece her back together but there's not enough of him intact to repair her. Max, for his benefit, has dealt with Penelope's tired melt downs and so he gives Reina a waterbottle and wipes her tears, lays her down admist her blankets and tucks her in tightly. He sits on the floor by her face, running his fingers through her hair as best he can, gently running his thumb along her shoulder.

He can tell shes not just crying because she'd hit someone, but theres more to it. And an hour or so later, when the tears subside, she finally opens her heart to him.

"I hate my dad." She whispers after maybe five minutes of silence, no longer broken by her sniffles.

"I do too." Hate his dad? Hate hers? He's not sure. But he stands up to open her curtains and blinds, hands itching to do something rather than just sit silent. The noon sun warms the room almost instantly, and Reina lifts her head to shift into the sun. He turns and speaks as he bends down to pick up a stray bottle, "Why do you hate him?"

"Just... everything he put me and my mom through." Reina sighs, "There's a lot he did I can never forgive him for."

"What did he do?" Max sits down again and Reina reaches out to his hand, which he obliges, and she pokes at his fingers.

"When I was growing up, I started karting in Japan with my father. He wanted me to race rally cars since I was born, even with his obvious disappointment I wasn’t a son. I competed for the first time on my fifth birthday, and won. I got scouted that day and my dad completely changed. It went from a little hobby I could have to a future career, especially when my mother learned she was infertile after my birth." Reina speaks monotonously, eyes distant as she recalls, and though Max has read up on her past he knows he's getting a new raw look at her life.

"My dad finally got me in rally when I was ten, a year before the divorce. I did it for three years. The worst three years of my life." Reina shifts so she's laying on her back, looking up at the ceiling and avoiding Max's eyes, "everything that my father had just simply said became physical. Every single time I made a mistake, I was hit. Every time I talked back, ignored him, walked away, did anything he deemed to be incorrect, I was hit. Sometimes just a whack to the back of my head in annoyance, most of the time closed fists. The only thing I was allowed to do was race, extracurriculars, and school. And that includes sleeping, eating, showering, and such."

"On my thirteenth birthday, my mom came to visit us in Japan for a race I had in Fukushima. I finished second because of some dirty play and my dad was so angry at the company for not catching that, he took it out on me completely. My mom and her boyfriend at the time saw the entire thing, a huge fight broke out, the cops got called, it was a whole thing.

"My mom sued my dad for only my custody, no payment, nothing. And he dug his own hole, the court found out he was spending all the money my mom sent for me on himself, I had saved years of evidence... my mom ended up getting full custody without a challenge, and a payment that amounted to all her payments of child support and then two years worth of payments of my fathers child support in advance. That all happened around the time I switched to Formula racing. The entire time I've been racing Formula I've been living with my mom and my dad has been sending child support."

"When he got... aggressive with you, was it always physical?" Max hums and Reina shakes her head. Max slowly starts to undo one of the braids to redo it, trying to ignore the greasy feeling on his hands, and she leans into his touch so much he has to pause as he feels her face rest against his arm.

"No, it was just shouting until I got into rally and then every once and a while he’d hit me. And the most he did before I got into rally was slap me once when I was like, six? But it was mostly just him ignoring me or screaming at me, or making me race to exhaustion." Reina sighs as she then rolls to curl up against his side and Max adjusts so that he's half laying down with Reina curled up on his chest. It's similar to the way he'd gotten the youngest Horner kids to sleep when he'd visit or babysit over the years.

"My father is one of the worst people on the planet," Reina stares out the window. Max hums non-committedly, moving a little bit closer as Reina speaks in the most dead tone he's ever heard as she says, "and I have always been his favorite punching bag."

"I was my father's favorite too." Max admits and Reina nods.

"What was he like?"

"Just a lot more manipulative and way less physical. A lot of it was just him ignoring me, leaving me places, shouting at me, pressuring me. A lot of manipulation when I'd call him out on it." Max hums, finding the braid he'd half undone to fully pull it out. Reina grabs a brush off her nightstand and hands it to him so he can start to brush out her hair. It's weirdly remnant of Victoria and Penelope. Reina hums and as Max brushes out her hair, he feels the way her body relaxes.

“So did you pick me or did Red Bull?” Reina asks maybe five minutes later and Max hums, fingers finding loops of her hair to slowly braid it again. Practically hearing Geri’s voice instructing him on how to braid because it was ‘something good to know for Penelope.’ He was glad he had listened to her. It was a good thing to know.

“They told me I was gonna train you, then told me I was gonna train Ollie.” Max hums, “Ollie’s great but… I dunno. I just knew I should mentor you. Call it divine intervention but I knew.”

“Im glad you chose me.” Reina murmurs against the fabric of his hoodie and he realizes how odd this moment is. He’d packed up in thirty minutes, gotten on a two hour flight, and spent an hour coaxing his mentees trauma out so he can help her. He could’ve just said he was busy, and yet he’d already given so much of his heart to Hana and Reina he knew he couldn’t just abandon them. Reina needed him just as much as he needed her.

"I'm glad I did too. And... listen, Rei, you hitting this guy because he scared you doesn't make you an abuser." Max watches as Reina picks her head up, resting her chin on his sternum to watch him, "and Reina, you being afraid of being like your father tells me you will never be."

"But I just... I hit someone like he hit me and it was just an echo. He always told me I would grow up to be like him." Reina closes her eyes and Max takes a hand to cup her face, running his thumb along her wet undereyes.

"But you hit out of fear, not out of anger or with the intention of abusing someone, thats the thing that will never make you like him."

Reina nods, and Max knows it'll probably take him the whole week to convince her of that. But, as Reina lays her head back down with a soft thank you, he feels like he's done enough. Only twenty four hours ago he had Penelope sleeping on his chest. Now Reina’s in the same spot, her hand reaching out to cup the setting sun with her injured hand.

“Kintsugi.” She says softly, then sits up. Max watches her, head tilting as she moves to her closet and swings the door open. Grabbing a stool, she clambers up to the top shelf and starts rustling around. From his vantage point on the bed, Max can see deep scars running the inside of her leg and wonders briefly where they’re from before Reina settled back in front of him on the couch. She sees him looking and swallows, digging something out of a box from her closet.

“Also from my dad.” She says, eyes flickering up, “same day my mom was in Fukushima.”

“Ah.” Max nods, and lets Reina continue to rustle. He wants to ask questions, but he’s curious as to what she’s doing. She sets down her brace and a thing of gold paint and hands a brush to him.

“What is this?”

“Okay. It’s kinda stupid because this is no where close to what you’re supposed to do, but hear me out,” Reina raises her hands in defense. Max let’s her have the floor, he’s not gonna judge her.

“Kintsugi, it’s a Japanese art of repairing broken pottery or dishes or whatever with urushi lacquer mixed with powered gold or whatever and I don’t have lacquer and this isn’t technically broken but!” Reina pauses her rambling, chews her lip, and looks away from Max and to the window, “When I had my first hand brace, my Jiji—my grandmother, she painted it with this beautiful gold design. She told me it was my kintsugi. That I was broken, and that she was mending me. And… she’s always been my biggest support. Besides my mom, Jiji sacrificed so much for me, almost all her salary went to helping me get into F4 because my dad stopped helping me pay for racing until he started sponsoring me last year. And… Kintsugi is our thing. If she breaks anything she waits for me to fix it.”

There’s something hanging here, something so vulnerable, so Max asks with plenty of pause to show his trepidation, “Why did you give me the brush, then? Where’s Jiji?”

“In Washington.” Reina hums, “And… you… you’re a really big supporter to me. And you mean a lot to me, Max. I’ve only known you for half a year now but… you’ve helped me with a lot. And you sacrifice a lot for me. You flew all the way here to help me because my Mom asked. And don’t think Christian didn’t tell me about you trying to anonymously sponsor me.”

Max laughs softly, “Guilty as charged.”

“I want you to paint something on it. Anything. I have a—“ Reina starts to dig again, “a gold marker too. I do this all the time with things I break—like my phone cases or my hair ties. This is a whole bin of knockoff Kintsugi.”

She hands Max the marker and then rolls off to the side to curl back into her blankets, but rests her head on his thigh. Max sits and stares at the brace in his hand, rolling it around in his grasp as he thinks of what to write. There’s about a thousand things that ring through his head, and none he can settle on.

And then he gets an idea.

While Reina watches him focus, the golden light of the sun haloing him, she wonders briefly if she’s found her own form of Kintsugi in him. Sure they weren’t perfect, and both deeply troubled in their own right, traumas rooted deep within them, but they had each other and that was what they needed.

And Max knew he found Kintsugi in Reina.

Reina sits up when Max hands her the brace back, making an odd face when she sees its written in Dutch.

“laat u niet definiëren door uw naam. Do not be defined by your name.” Max says simply, and Reina looks up at him and tears prick in her eyes immediately. When Max helps her put it on, he adds a bit more gold flare to the boring black brace and smiles.

“Now you can wear it, yeah?” he says, and Reina leans up to wrap her arms taught around him. He laughs softly and hugs her back, letting her bury her face in the side of his neck.

If she sobs, he doesn’t comment, just lets her lay there until she’s run dry.

A week later, Max is unpacking in Monaco when he notices something new in his bag. He finds a small little keychain, a little blue ribbon tied to a clasp he knows he can snag on his keys. It’s in Japanese, but the note attached makes him smile a little watery smile.

‘Max,

Thank you. That’s all I can say. For everything you were supposed to help me with, and everything you chose to do on your own. I hope I can return the favor.

Reina.

ps. it says ‘do not be defined by your name.’ just like my brace,’

The keychain hangs off the zipper of his work jacket instead. And if anyone asks—and Yuki is the first to ask the meaning since he knows what it actually says, he simply smiles and says it’s a gift. No other explanation needed.

Except for when Geri asks, and he tells her the whole story, and then Christian ‘yells’ at him for making Geri cry.

reinamatsumoto made a new post!

liked by gerihorner, logansargeant, maxverstappen, and 458k others...

reinamatsumoto: [come back soon, big brother]!!

viewing translation from japanese

tagged: maxverstappen

misshanatanaka: [so sweet! glad having him by helped sweetheart!!]

user1: CAPTOIN HAS ME IN FUCKING TEARS

user2: MAX IS HER BROTHER !!!!!!

logansargeant: did our sushi date meaning NOTHING.

⤷ reinamatsumoto: GOD YOU WANT A POST FOR FUCKING SUSHI??

⤷ logansargeant: YES?

⤷ oscarpiastri: please rei he's pouting.

⤷ reinamatsumoto: fine. anything for my favorite white boys.

⤷ user6: my favorite prema survivors <3

user3: CRYING OVER HER CALLING MAX HER BROTHER. OH. IM SO NOT WELL.

user4: so are we gonna talk ab her punching a reporter? bc shes hot for that.

oscarpiastri: PERONI??? FOUL.

gerihorner: so so so cute!!!!!

⤷ reinamatsumoto: thanks mom!!!

⤷ maxverstappen: thanks mom

user5: logan crying in the comments is so real

yukitsunoda: [max is a big softie!]

⤷ reinamatsumoto: [I KNOW !!!]

taglist (thank you for your support!!)

@vellicora @justsomejess @struggling-with-delia

[vorthodoxy]

ok but hear me out. An immortal pred who has a fucked up sense of love, falling in love with mortals and not wanting to leave them behind when they eventually die. so the best course of action? Eating them and digesting them. The pred thinks this will keep them together forever, and is totally fine with it, despite the guilt of hurting their love. The pred will eventually digest them of course, and in the morning the pred will lovingly caress the new fat on their tummy, having their partner apart of him forever

It's RLLY angsty but also kind of hot idk...

-🍓🎭

yESSSSS I'M ENTIRELY ON BOARD FOR THIS thank u strawberry thespian

the pred is lonely, part and parcel with being immortal, but the world is filled to the brim with so many interesting people! they travel from city to city, spending just long enough to get to know each one like the back of their hand before moving on to the next one, and then coming back once it's been long enough for the city to grow and change and transform.

they LOVE people. no matter where they go, they immerse themself in the lives of others, fascinated to see the way mortals learn and grow and make mistakes and leave a legacy. they dance with them, they tell stories with them, they tumble into beds with them.

every so often, they meet a particularly interesting one-- a savant of the generation, a genius, or a true humanitarian, or someone with enough ambition to strike the gods down from their seats. the pred will become this person's lover, their confidant, their muse. and they'll reveal their immortal nature to the sweet, brilliant, fascinating little human.

and, almost unfailingly, the mortal who has won their favour will ask if it's possible for them to share their immortality.

the pred will often play coy, piquing their mortal's interest even more fervently.

well, there is one way. it's wonderful. you would become so much more. but it's also painful. it... changes you in more ways than you know. i would only share this with someone i truly trusted.

and the mortal is so eager to prove their love, to prove they're trustworthy, that they're worth bringing into the aeons.

i would love nothing more than for you to join me.

the pred helps plan their delectable little artist's "last day as a mortal." the best day of their life, the day in which they finish their magnum opus, and prepare to become part of something much greater.

it's almost time. i trust you. do you trust me?

and the mortal nods...

hours later, the pred's immaculate, ravenous belly is gurgling and squeezing playfully around its squirming prisoner, hard at work processing the new hefty meal.

the pred is amorously massaging their massive gut, trying to get their tasty lover to just relax, it's okay, let it happen. you wanted to be part of something greater, and I wanted you to be part of ME. and now we both get what we want! shh, shh, i know it's scary, but i'm right here, i'm all around you, and i'll keep you safe... soon, nothing will be able to touch you, no blades, no disease nor famine, not even time itself... i couldn't leave you behind to waste away, to fall to dust, you're too (uuurp) beautiful... and delicious... just stop squirming and let my belly take you apart~

of course, they planned this perfectly, they've had practice. no one will disturb them this evening, or the next day. they fall asleep still rubbing their great, bulging tummy, trying to soothe their softening meal.

the next morning, their gut is about halfway done redistributing their lover to their hips, chest, thighs, and waistline. they happily pinch and squeeze the new layer of soft, warm pudge on their body, delighted to see their lover taking so well to their new position in life. they spend the day in bed, celebrating their lover's "immortality".

then, in the evening, they sigh, squeeze into their traveling clothes, and set out. it's time to move on to the next city.

[tobiasdrake]

Ranma 1/2 episode 3. I can't be the only person who somehow, despite not thinking about this series seriously in a long time, still hears "YAPPAPPA YAPPAPPA II SHAN TEN hashagu koi wa ike no koi" in their head when starting up the reboot series.

Where did you come from? I thought I forgot you.

By contrast, the new OP hasn't grown on me as much. Can't imagine why. It couldn't be that I've heard the new one twice but heard the old one eight billion times over the course of three decades, such that any new music in its place is going to inherently sound like an imposter.

Nah, it's probably just that the song isn't good. That's a reasonable thing to conclude.

(In seriousness, new OP is fun.)

Uhhhhh, part 1 because I had a lot to say about Nabiki, my fave from back in the day who gets to be in the spotlight for the first time this episode.

Speaking of the OP, this is my favorite shot.

I don't know what it is exactly but every time I see this, there is a haunted look in Ranma's eyes. I don't think that's on purpose. I think he's just supposed to look like he's happily jogging.

But I see a thousand-yard stare on this boy. The look of a person who has seen things that can never be unseen.

Which.

Is fair.

For Ranma.

Rejected so hard. This is a misunderstanding but it's still hilarious how quickly Nabiki nopes the fuck out of this shit.

To be fair, she's seen the way Kuno treats the women he's interested in. If I were her, I would want no part of that.

Ironically enough, Nabiki/Kuno is IIRC the most popular ship for both of these characters. Though, given that being physically strong enough to beat the shit out of him at martial arts is such an important quality to Kuno, I'm not sure he and Nabiki are really compatible.

Makes perfect sense from Nabiki's perspective but honestly I'm pretty sure she's more likely to Black Widow him for his wealth than fall in love with him sincerely.

So begins Nabiki's career of being the absolute worst person in Ranma's life, in a cast that includes multiple people attempting to murder him. Nabiki is something far worse than a shonen rival. Worse than a romantic rival. Worse than a shonen rival who wants to surpass you at romancing your love interest.

She's a capitalist. And she has found a saleable product.

(My characters are always the absolute worst. Goddammit, Nabiki.)

There's something really interesting in Nabiki's reaction to that remark. Like. She gets back into gear pretty quickly after this moment.

But.

Just for a moment.

She had a visceral, kneejerk reaction of shock and disgust at the realization that Kuno was planning on pursuing Ranma and Akane at the same time.

Just for a moment, she had an emotional reaction strong enough to break her poker face.

I mean, she's still going to profit off it. She is a capitalist after all.

But it happened. That brief glimpse into the humanity underneath the cash register was there.

For those unaware of yen to dollar exchange rates, she's charging about $20 for Ranma's photos. Akane's are about $27. So we can actually quantify her feelings for Akane. She loves her sister exactly $7 more than a stranger she met a few days ago.

Don't take it personally. It's just business.

(I felt really gross saying that. Probably because it was really gross. In seriousness, Nabiki is an active participant in Akane's harassment, without Akane's knowledge.)

That said, she does still try to help this situation once she's done cashing in on violations of Ranma and Akane's privacy.

It doesn't take because Kuno aggressively refuses to learn the truth about the Pig-Tailed Girl throughout the series lest it compromise his delusions. But she does try. There seems like there's basically no reason for her to do this except to burst Kuno's bubble.

...except then she also does this when she realizes Kuno didn't get it.

She tried to burst Kuno's bubble and it didn't work so now she's making it worse instead. At this point, it's clear that Nabiki's just starting shit for funsies. She is the show's trickster. Her allegiances are to money and entertainment.

She was expecting a hilarious blowout the one way and when she didn't get it, she went a different route. Goddammit, Nabiki.

Of course, her troll antics eventually blow up in her face when they out her capitalist antics.

But she never really has to face any sort of consequences for it. Right when it seems like things are about to turn against her...

Ranma, rather than presenting a united front against their mutual abuser, decides to open his fucking mouth and insult Akane instead.

This is how capitalists win. They skate home with all the money and no comeuppance while their victims pick each apart.

[dunmeshistash]

A foil is used to highlight the differences in the protagonists to the other character. More often than not, they are viewed as opposite, but that isn’t necessarily true. It’s to mirror complexities of the protagonist, making their traits more pronounced and their story more compelling.

The reason why it’s more Delgal is if you look at the entire journey Laios is on is to solve Delgal’s problems despite Laios running away from his own problems. This is highlighted more in the fact that Laios hates being king (ran away from being Chiefton as well) and would never have chosen to be king while Delgal happily took the responsibility and the throne. It’s further highlighted in how Thistle turned out as a sibling in comparison to Falin. (Thistle is a foil to Marcille but that’s pretty obvious.) There is a lot more to it, but that requires a lot more time.

Senshi = Kabru foil becomes a lot more obvious when you look at Senshi’s journey in comparison to Kabru’s where you see both of them lost the people they love due to the dungeon and monsters yet ULTIMATELY take it in two WILDLY different directions which includes Kabru starving himself in contrast to Senshi being WELL aware and making sure he and his team are always WELL FED and nourished. You also see it in the way that Kabru treats Mithrun is a mirror to how Senshi’s and Chilchuck’s relationship works. Also their dynamics to Laios being mirrored where Senshi DID NOT CARE until hearing the groups goals and wanting to help them while Kabru focused purely on his own goals which is why he was obsessed with Laios rather than seeing Laios as a person within himself. You also see it in how Senshi is a mentor for Laios throughout the dungeon to accept the ecosystem of the dungeon while Kabru becomes a mentor for how to accept people on the outside of the dungeon and such.

I see! I don't know if I agree with everything but it's an interesting regardless so thank you!

Mostly I just don't think we have enough focus on the differences between Laios and Delgal for it to work as well as it works with the differences between Laios and Kabru? Cause delgal doesn't show up a lot and most of their differences show up late in the story (maybe that doesnt matter tho)

I like the perspective about Kabru and Senshi too, and I agree, can a character foil more than one? Or have more than one foil? lmao

Lots of the characters in dunmeshi are contrasts to each other in different aspects I think, Shiro also contrasts with Laios a lot for example, anyway, thanks again for your perspective!

[from-the-coffee-shop-in-edoras]

For a reason I can't tell you yet 🤐, I'm thinking a lot about Bryttalíf and Hálwinë today... Do you want to tell us some headcanons you have for them?

I WILL make my own headcanon public once it's not a spoiler for unpublished pHORSE chapters anymore! (Not that they will appear in pHORSE, only that the HC is related to some of my OCs who haven't had their big reveals yet!)

I am very intrigued that there is any kind of connection between my Háma’s family and a HC of your pHORSE story, and I look forward to hearing more about it (at the appropriate time of course)!

I’m about to unload probably way more than you ever needed/wanted to know, but I’m not sure the fic I was working on that would include a lot of this is gonna work so I might as well spoil it all! So, here’s a bunch about Háma’s family, which also naturally features lots of Háma himself!

Art by @ rinthecap (I’ve got no art of Háma’s family but imagine he’s thinking about them!)

—Bryttalif (Brytta to her friends) was originally from Harrowdale. Growing up in the mountains gave her a hearty constitution — she was outdoorsy and strong and not afraid of hard work or getting dirty.

—Her father was a swordsmith, and they moved to Edoras when she was a teen because there was a bigger market for his work there. But a capital city is a more expensive place to live, and so Brytta trained as a midwife in order to add another income to the family. She was a natural, and by her mid-20’s she was the most popular midwife in Edoras, known for being especially calm and efficient.

—Because she was unmarried, she still lived at home. Her father was *extremely* domineering, and both Brytta and her mother spent a lot of their time trying to avoid upsetting him.

—He pushed her *hard* into a relationship with Grigan, the son of one of the wealthiest merchants in the city. She liked Grigan well enough — he was much nicer than her father, at least — and she wanted to please her parents, who clearly thought the match would be advantageous for all of them, so she tried to make Grigan happy even though she never loved him.

—That resulted in her getting pregnant while they were still courting, and Grigan freaked out. He ran, leaving Edoras to go stay at a family estate in the Westfold, and refused to acknowledge that he’d ever had anything to do with her.

—This obviously made things very hard for her — the gossips and scolds of Edoras had a lot to say about an unwed pregnant woman (fed by damage control from Grigan’s family), and her father, in particular, was furious with her for having “ruined” his plans. But into this chaos and unhappiness walked Háma!

—He met her by chance when he came to commission a sword from her father. (Their meet-cute is here as a WIP snippet.) They started to spend time together, and she fell for him hard, knowing almost immediately that she felt far differently about Háma than she’d ever felt about Grigan or any other man.

—She was (happily) shocked when he seemed to like her just as much. He didn’t care what anyone else thought of her (“a man of worth trusts in his own wisdom”) and wasn’t put off by the idea that she was going to have a baby (“often times the best things in life are those that were unlooked for”).

—There was quite a stir in town when people found out that Háma had taken up with her. It even came up when he was considered for promotion to captain of the king’s guards. One of the king’s advisors asked what it said about him that he was consorting with someone like Brytta; Háma answered that Brytta was clever and kind and brave, and so it said that he was a lucky man. (He got the promotion, obviously, with Théoden reasoning that a man of unshakable loyalty is exactly who he wanted in charge of his safety.)

—The stir quieted down fairly quickly once people realized the whole situation was a lot less interesting and salacious when there was a loving couple at the center of it. And in all the best ways, Háma and Brytta were boring — they got engaged and were happy and lived a quiet life with a small, tight circle of friends and family.

—When Hálwinë was born, Háma loved her like she’d always been in his plans. She was even registered as “Hálwinë, daughter of Háma” (Háma cried when Brytta asked him if he’d like to be Hálwinë’s legal father). When he and Brytta were finally married two months later, he carried Hálwinë through the whole ceremony.

—Hálwinë was an enormous daddy’s girl. She loved to braid his hair (badly), go for rides on his shoulders and listen to him tell stories. He was her first hero.

—It tickled her to see the other guards all treat him with the respect due to a superior — she didn’t totally understand it, but she could clearly see that her dad was Important and she agreed!

—Once he became door warden, she liked to visit him while he sat watch, and Théoden knew her by sight from how often Brytta brought her to Meduseld to see Háma, give him a hug and sit with him for a few minutes.

—(Incidentally, she became a bit fixated during these visits on Gríma, who she saw often. After Gríma scowled at her once, Háma told her that Gríma was a sad man who used his sadness as an excuse to be mean. This made her decide that Gríma just needed a friend, and so she tried repeatedly to befriend him, always waving and saying hi and sometimes bringing him little flowers she’d picked or a treat that Brytta had intended for her. Gríma found this very confusing and eventually told Háma to keep his brat away from him; this is the closest Háma ever came to murder.)

—Hálwinë was barely 6 when Háma died. She had a hard time truly understanding what had happened and would periodically ask Brytta when he was coming home. It wasn’t until the next year, when Brytta was able to take her to Helm’s Deep to see his grave, that it really sank in. She went back to visit him there regularly for the rest of her life.

—Brytta was 5 months pregnant when Háma died. She had a boy and named him Wilspell (“welcome news”). The need to care for Hálwinë and Wilspell carried Brytta through this extraordinarily painful time, along with the love and support of Háma’s sisters and the guards, who looked in on their old captain’s family often.

—Once Hálwinë and Wilspell (“Willie”) were old enough, Brytta went back to work and was the one to deliver Éomer’s kids because she was *still* the best midwife in Edoras and would be until she retired.

—Grigan came back to Edoras to take over his family’s business when Hálwinë was 13, and he and Brytta inevitably crossed paths. He sort of apologized, and she told him it was all for the best because things had worked out much better for her without him. She asked Hálwinë if she wanted to meet him, but Hálwinë had no interest in a father that wasn’t Háma.

—Brytta never remarried, though she had offers. When she died, she was buried at Helm’s Deep beside Háma, the only woman buried there among the war dead.

So…like I said, way more than you probably wanted! Thanks for asking and hope it wasn’t a total overload! (And yes, the Háma of my HC is a dream, he’s a dream based in reality — I borrowed the Háma - Brytta love story from an elderly relative of mine, who was pregnant and unmarried in the 40’s when she met the love of her life!)

[balkanradfem]

In my neighbourhood, there was a small abandoned-looking backyard, filled with grass and flowers. An old abandoned house next to it, small metal fence protecting it from the road. I liked walking past it because I love abandoned houses, the nature starts to take over them and I dream of sneaking in, exploring, finding a weird bug or a trinket that looks interesting. I also loved seeing the grass and the flowers, allowed to grow naturally, bees buzzing in it happily.

That was 8 years ago, and since then, the city decided to build a hotel nearby, and the whimsical backyard was to hold a road connecting to it, and to be converted into a parking lot. I mourned the loss of the grass and the flowers, watched them do construction on it, walking past every day. In the end, they left a little patch of soil, planted a few decorative bushes on it, and a few very small, decorative trees. They poured a bunch of tree bark around them as mulch, so grass wouldn't be able to grow anymore. Few meters of bushes and trees was the entire landscaping that the hotel got.

They didn't maintain it though, so eventually the bark decomposed, and grass grew once again. I missed the old big patch of green, but I liked the little patch, bushes and trees well enough, and I hoped the trees would grow large, make some shade, house some animals. They did buy pretty big bushes, and I can imagine the tree saplings also cost them some, so I hoped they would grow to be a part of the neighbourhood.

I was, of course, wrong. I walked past it last week, and found the orange plastic fence all around it, big machines flattening everything to the ground. Trees, bushes, grass, all gone. Another painful punch to my heart, and also general disappointment and frustration to my faith in humanity. It was more profitable to them to clear the area completely than to let those few bushes and trees grow. I don't know yet what they're planning to do with the area, I can assume they're going to pour cement over it first.

Similar goings-on have been happening all over the city. When I first moved in, there was a grassy patch where people would park their car, and then there was also an interesting well-like brick tower in the middle of it, which I found magical and cool to look at. One day the tower was missing, and the grass was flattened, to make it a regular, asphalted parking lot. Parking on top of the grass patch just wasn't good enough I guess. Tower was blocking the space where one car could have been parked.

There was a big space of abandoned bushes, trees and some very big walnut trees, just right next to where I live. They were such a big source of oxygen, walnuts, beauty, and not only that; they were blocking the sound of cars and vehicles on the main road, making our neighbourhood quiet and well shaded. Cars would park under the big trees, cooling in shade while their owners were off. One day as I was going home, two people with chainsaws were cutting it all down. Huge walnuts trees were lying next to the parking lot. I stared in shock and disbelief, and they ignored me. In a few days, the entire green area was cut to the ground, trees collected and hauled away.

The noise from the main road now reaches our building, and it ruins spending any time on the balcony. There's no more green backdrop, no more pretty sights to see, only empty space and buildings. The cars have no shades to park under. The area didn't stay brown for long; invasive species planted themselves within weeks, and are now covering the area. It's covered in thorns and ferns, impossible to navigate trough. They didn't do anything with the area except clear it, and now it's left to it's own devices. I still don't know why they did it.

I've talked about this to a few local people, and they're not as upset about it. 'They're probably going to build a factory there, or a store' was the common response. They've been surprised to hear I'm mourning the trees and the grass, as if such thing has never occured to them before. Technically, we do still have some trees and grass left, but I can see it disappearing, bit by bit, every year.

This lets me know that I'm living among people fully ignorant of what is going on in the environment. They don't know pay attention to how their area is slowly being cemented and asphalted over, soon to be unhabitable to any plant life. They don't know what happened to such areas in more commercialized countries; they are not afraid of food deserts, of what will happen to the air quality, the dust and heat of hot sun reflected in the white asphalt. They don't realize their children will soon be out of safe places to play with, or that soon being outside will become untolerable.

Progress can't be stopped, people will clear out the areas of nature to build something that brings them profit. They'll make money by building a store, or a factory, or a parking lot. The green area doesn't generate money. And money is all we need, it's all anyone on this planet needs.

But will the money-making area still be habitable by humans, 10, 20 years on? When the climate change hits harder, when the temperatures outside are over 40 degrees commonly, just walking from one building from another will become sickening, dangerous. A giant tree surrounded by grass and flowers would be invaluable. A green area shaded and life-supporting, would make it possible for people to be outside, to hide from the sun. An area filled with green spaces, trees and bushes and balanced plant life, would be able to actually decrease temperatures and stabilize everyone's ability to survive. It will become invaluable.

But you can't build a green city in a year, like you can build a parking lot, or a store. You can't bring back the huge walnut trees that shaded you and gave you a refuge from the hot sun.

But they don't think like this. Once the city is out of areas that can be lived in, the heat is overwhelming, the buildings and asphalt reflecting the sun back into people's faces, making it impossible to breathe – people will just take the money they earned and go live in another green space that wasn't ruined yet. As green spaces become monetizable, the more scarce they are, the more people will be willing to pay for them. Then the unlivability of the cities will become an incentive to charge people money to go spend summers outside of them, and only poor people will remain struggling with the heat, missing the big walnuts trees and the green grass that once was theirs to enjoy.

This would not have happened in any circumstances where nature was held sacred and protected by the people. If we understood that our lives and our happiness came from those trees, from the grass and the green spaces, a person would not be able to cut them down and rationalize it with personal profit. Only capitalism could support this brutal destruction of everything that supports life. The moment we started regarding to nature as 'resources', we had it wrong. Nature is where life comes from. The trees and the soil and the rocks, the rivers and the mountains, forests and grasslands, they're the reason we're able to live, to thrive. Taking them away is like taking life away. There's nothing valuable enough to give this away for.

[stillwithmeisonlyyou]

I have this headcanon that emmeline vance is one of regulus' besties and part of slytherin skittles. I hc that she is a hufflepuff (although a lot of people hc she is in ravenclaw i just have a vision) and a muggleborn. Their houses are kind of close so they just run into each other when reg runs away from home (i mean with the intention of returning, just like a little act of defiance that orion and walburga never find out about) and maybe connect over books and stuff and reg is interested in things em would know about as a muggle concerning literature and other things because he is naturally curious.

Nobody can know about their friendship as reg states and if em is a bit taken aback by that she doesn't show it because even if she doesn't hear the rumours of black family's questionable ways of discipline as she isn't part of the pureblood circles, even she can tell there is more to the story that reg doesn't let on. Maybe they explore their sexuality together a little bit (like maybe they kiss and stuff and reg thinks there is smt wrong with him because em is a pretty girl and he does really like her personality and he can't wrap his head around why he wouldn't want to do this with her. He first thinks there is smt wrong with him till he comes to the conclusion that he is gay. And em is the first person he comes out to)

In this hc dorcas is a half blood slytherin and reg's quiditch captain and after having a muggleborn friend for all those years he isn't a blood purist at heart so when she is being bullied for such things reg stands by her side and defends her abilities as an excellent quidditch player and captain which starts their friendship although at this point evan, barty, and pandora still don't know about emmeline. (Maybe pan suspects things being a seer and all- cuz yes she is a seer in my hc too) (also cas and em are a year older than the rest) and anyway dorcas becomes a part of their circle too. Maybe reg sort of push em and dorcas together (you know being partners in certain projects and stuff since they are in the same year) but still doesn't tell anyone about em openly since that would cause troubles with his family.

After sirius runs away and the abuse becomes too much to bear even for regulus he runs from home and em takes him in. He stays in their house for a bit and em is the one who writes to dumbledore about the abuse and sirius and she understands why he would want to keep their friendship a secret. After he is out however, he does openly make emmeline a part of the slytherin skittles

And they live happily ever after :)

Anyway yes my thoughts might be a bit scattered but i had this vision 4 so long i had to share.