#woo hoo chapter 2! time for some action

[oh-katsuki]

bird of prey (tendou x reader) - chapter 2

series masterlist | ao3

Pairing: Tendou x Reader, Bokuto x Reader

Series Summary: Satori Tendou is your best friend, but you fuck for fun.

Chapter Title: Act I, Scene 2 — People I Want You To Meet

Chapter Summary: You and Satori attend a party together after an awkward moment in the car.

Chapter Content Warnings: afab!reader, college au, friends with benefits, no strings attached, angst, car sex, semi-public sex, jealousy, teasing, dirty talk, substance use (casual), mentions of tendou having previous sexual partners

Word Count: 8.6k

A/N: here's chapter 2, im excited to write the rest of this and flesh out the story woo hoo

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Satori has never seen something so lovely. Your silhouette in the streetlight’s dim glow through the back window of his car and the roll of your hips across his. You’re panting like an animal and there’s nothing in the car but the quiet sound of breath and whines.  

An hour ago he’d stopped by your place to pick you up. His intentions for the evening had been truly innocent. You were going to go get some food, maybe from the convenience store or from a quick curry house, then eat it before dropping you back off at your house. That was the plan. He’d pulled up in front of your house, you got into the car, and Satori drove away. Somehow, he’d ended up here, parked out at the top of a lookout with the engine turned off, just out of the direct light of the street lamp. 

You’re fucking him in has backseat and he’s leaned somewhat uncomfortably against the backdoor. Your legs are on either side of him, back hunched forward, and you’re using one of your hands to brace yourself on the window, the other on his chest. 

There’s no real goal to this besides making you cum. He’s not going to toy around or play, and he doesn’t quite feel like teasing you the way he usually would. His hands are spread over your hips, guiding them while you ride his cock with a practiced ease that makes him a little jealous to think about. What? Jealous of himself? He’s not all too sure, but he knows that he feels it, his fingers digging into the soft flesh on your hips. 

You whine, letting your head fall forward as you rock the car, hand slipping on the fog covered window. It’s cold out tonight and were you not being so active in the backseat, the car would be too cold to sit in. The outside temperature makes the condensation on the windows look almost impenetrable, save for where your fingers mark and melt the water on the inside and the frost on the outside. 

Satori moans unabashedly and his stomach winds into knots. When you reach down to touch his face as if to calm that rising pressure in him, your fingertips are cold. Cool like the window, sending a slight shiver down his back. He laughs a little. A low one from the back of his throat, accented by a slight tremor that almost makes him sound like he’s in pain. 

“All right,” he grits out, his fingers digging into your hips. “Come here.” 

You push your body against his and Satori’s slender arms wrap around you, pulling you to his chest as he turns you over in the seat. It’s an awkward clamor of limbs and he slips out of you as he does, hissing at the loss of contact. 

When he has you on your back, hips settled between the plush and trembling flesh of your thighs, he guides a hand up your forearms. You mold to his touch and connect your wrists to each other. His fingers slide up the skin, holding both of them as he places them on the window behind your head. You look almost hungry, as if his actions were a deliberate tease. Truthfully, he had only been looking to see whether you would obey him or not, and when you do, Satori feels a pleasant hum in his lower gut. 

Satori, at times, feels like he has some divine right to fuck you. It’s almost like a gut feeling, this idea that your body belongs to him the same way it might belong to you. Things just tend to fit when he’s inside of you and when you let him have his way, he can’t help but feel that there are other forces at play. Divine ones. Universal forces that draw the two of you together. 

At times, he almost feels possessive over you, especially when you are connected to him like this. Realistically speaking, he knows that he has no right. You could get up from underneath him and close your legs, tell him that you’re finished, and he’d drive you home and never utter a word of protest. But there are times when he feels that you and he were specifically meant for this. 

He slides his thumb along your jaw, almost as if it were slowly consuming the flesh it touches. Your skin is soft, warm with the flush of exercise, and Satori finds that you delightfully lean into it. Your mouth is dropped open a little, eyes glazed over and full of longing. It’s an expression that Satori quite likes on you. It makes you look almost desperate, needy in a way that you never look otherwise, and were he to think about someone else seeing it, he’d get indescribably jealous. 

His thumb hits your lower lip and you open your mouth, making room in yourself once again for him as he pushes it down against your tongue. Spit pools in the well his thumb creates, your mouth watering at the sensation of being touched. It coats the digit, covering it in a wet and glassy sheen. Then, he pulls it from your mouth and lowers it between you two. 

Satori momentarily pauses to look at where you connect, your legs spread wide open so that he can disappear inside of you. His cock disappears into your wet body under a patch of pubic hair and he can see the way his lower stomach heaves, causing his happy trail to move as if it were alive. He supposes that it is, seeing that it’s part of him. 

You whine when Satori places his spit-soaked thumb on your clit and he lets out a low laugh at the noise you make. Your cunt squeezes him as he fucks you in time with the careful movement of his thumb. Your fingers leave marks on the window, less recognizable in shape compared to the one you’d left before. Random marks caused by the flexing of them, by your grasping for leverage as the movement of Satori’s body rocks your own. 

Your hips push up against his, heightening his pleasure as you chase your own and he drops his head to groan. It’s habitual, almost involuntary, and the movement of his finger pauses as he’s consumed by the feeling. 

“I fucking love this,” he says into the space between you, leaning forward to catch your mouth. 

You nod your response, moaning gently into his mouth as you part your lips. 

“Love fucking you,” he babbles. “It’s always good. Always so fucking good.” 

He’s not really thinking about what he’s saying. It comes to him in the moment and Satori runs his mouth. It’s not a lie though. Satori does love fucking you. Generally, he loves being around you, but fucking you takes a special place among his favorite things. 

“You love fucking me?” you say, grabbing the back of his head and pulling it back down to you. “Only me?” 

There’s no real venom in your voice, but you sound jealous. His cock jumps inside of you and he feels a fresh rush of blood in his abdomen. The statement surprises him because, truthfully, Satori isn’t all too ready to jump into bed with anyone else. It’s different with you, better because Satori can really let himself go and you’ll never misinterpret what he says. 

“You jealous?” he breathes. “If anyone here should be jealous, it should be me, you know?” 

He speaks through a sly grin that makes his words sound slurred and liquor-dipped. 

“Hah,” you huff, though it’s more of a pleasure-soaked whine than a response, “and what on earth would be making you jealous?” 

His hips still fuck into you at a steady pace, your words interrupted by each flick of his hips up into you, occasionally cut off entirely by the pleasure. 

“You’re the one who’s got two,” he drawls, his lips curling up in a smile. 

It gives him a kind of satisfaction to know that, even though you’re casually seeing Bokuto, you’re still here with him. It sort of scratches this possessive itch in him, even if it’s a little perverse. 

He wouldn’t say that he minds. In fact, Satori cares very little who else you talk to. It would be overstepping the boundaries of your agreement were he to really care all too much about who else you’re fucking. After all, for a while, Satori was fucking other people too. Not for nearly as long, and though you remained the only consistent partner, there was a period in which it happened. Of course, you knew and it never bothered you. 

That’s what he likes so much about you and your agreement. You don’t get caught up and when you say it’s just sex, you mean it. 

When you’re finished, the two of you lay in the backseat for a moment. Your face is pushed up against his chest, warm breath fanning out over it as you lay directly on top of him. There’s not much space to move around in here and Satori finds that he needs to keep his knees bent to properly fit like this. 

He’s comfortable with you and his finger absentmindedly plays with a small lock of your hair, touching it lightly before letting his fingers run down your exposed shoulders. He feels the way goosebumps rise on your skin against him, a shiver that he feels against his own body. Satori hums with satisfaction, the sweat on his forehead beginning to dry. 

“Keep doing that,” you mumble. “It’s nice.” 

Satori doesn’t offer a verbal response and instead obliges with a small chuckle. His fingers run across the skin of your shoulder and back, consuming space like fire as it creeps up on dry brush. Your breath hitches when his fingers touch your side and you laugh because you’re a little ticklish. 

“You’re fun to touch,” he comments, whispering the tease. 

“Yeah?”

“Mhm,” he says.

He’s a bit sleepy now and he’s content to stay here for the rest of the night. The car is humid and the windows are fogged, trapping your body heat inside for the moment. It’ll get cold in a bit and Satori will wrap his arms around you and pull you nearer under the guise of warmth. Yeah, that’ll be nice. He looks forward to it. 

Things get like this between you both sometimes. Quiet and calm, as if you could stay like that forever. Sometimes, he’s still inside of you when it does, cock warming between your legs as you drift quietly off into half-sleep. 

Satori looks at his hands over your back, turning them over. Moments ago, they’d been all over you, grabbing at your flesh. Pinching and pulling and caressing whatever they could. Now, they are strangely idle, taken over by some low vibration that makes him feel like they are quietly alive with something other than him. 

You stir, turning your head to rest your chin on his chest. Satori’s eyes drift down to you, exploring your features before they settle on your gaze. You don’t say anything, sitting there for a moment like you’re waiting for something. Then, Satori cranes his neck forward and kisses you. 

It’s gentle, hardly something that hints at a deeper desire, and it betrays an almost romantic fondness that he feels for you in this moment. Your eyes flutter closed for only a moment and when Satori pulls away, they are open again. He searches your face for something—he’s not sure what—before watching as you push up on his chest into a seated position. 

“We should go eat,” you say bluntly, reaching forward to grab your underwear and jeans from where they’d been discarding in the backseat of his car. 

Satori pushes himself up on his elbows, seemingly in far less of a hurry than you are. “Worked up an appetite?” 

You hum your response, avoiding his eyes as you quickly attempt to wrestle on your shirt. You let your arms fall in your lap, your shirt halfway pulled up, leaving your back exposed. Your body language almost reads as turned away from him and in the dim glow of the streetlamp, he can see the calmness of your breathing. Satori doesn’t dare move. 

“You know you’re my best friend, right?” You say, not sounding particularly insecure. 

“Sure,” he says, nodding his head. 

“Friend,” you emphasize and Satori’s eyebrows pull up. 

“Right,” he responds, “we’re real friendly.” 

You look at him over your left shoulder. Your expression is urgent, almost sad, and it gives your features a quality he’s seen before in tragic paintings. Maybe you’re a little tragic. Not just in expression, but as a person. Maybe both of you are. 

“I’m serious,” you say. 

“I know,” he says, a bit more insistent this time. “I am too.” 

It seems to Satori that you’re a bit more caught up in specifics. Sometimes, he’ll touch you and you’ll shy away, calmly warning him of the line that you’ve drawn so clearly between the two of you. To you, the line is far more important and you very seldom cross it. To Satori, it’s all the same. Touch is touch and sex is sex and he cannot tie strings that don’t exist, so why bother getting worked up over the specifics? So what if he kisses you like that? Or runs his fingers along your air-chilled skin in the backseat of his car? 

“So what I’m hearing is you don’t want a round two? Or six?” He cuts the tension deliberately, bored of the conversation. 

You blink at him for a moment before smiling and breathing out a laugh. Your head rolls across your shoulder and you reach to shove his chest before pulling your shirt over your head. 

“Just put on your clothes already,” you say. “I’m hungry.” 

“Mmm, so that’s why we’re being weird and grumpy.” 

He leans forward with a grunt and you shake your head. Satori doesn’t even have his pants halfway up his thighs before you’re opening the backseat door and getting out, letting a rush of cool air into the car that feels like it hits Satori in the face. 

“Woah, whatever happened to privacy?” He drawls and you look at him after opening the passenger door. 

“You’re quick to take your clothes off but so slow to put them on,” you comment. “It’s no wonder we can’t get anywhere on time.” 

Satori pulls his shirt over his head and climbs out of the car, walking to get into the driver’s seat. He doesn’t waste time starting the engine, rolling the back windows down to rid the car of any remaining condensation. 

“It’s not like we have a reservation for the convenience store,” he snorts. 

Satori drives a manual, beat up car. He’d bought it his senior year of highschool after getting a job for the remaining half of the semester that he wasn’t playing volleyball. It’s not a very pretty car, but Satori keeps it clean and in good enough condition, though he doesn’t drive very often. It usually stays parked in his apartment building’s underground lot, out of the way of the sun, snow, and weather until the next time he uses it. He really only does so for you. Not that he thinks about it that way, but when he considers, he realizes that he only ever drives the thing for late night runs with you or to be the occasional designated driver after a long night out. 

He throws the car in reverse, placing his hand on your seat and looking behind him as he does so, a small laugh escaping his throat as you huff. You cross one leg over the other in the car, reaching to mess with the settings on the bluetooth so that it’s connected to your phone. 

“What?” he says. “This your car now?” 

You toss him a sideways glance and laugh, refusing to comment. 

As he drives down from the lookout, you stare out of the passenger side window. Satori can see you out of the corner of his eye, barely able to make out the somewhat conflicted expression on your face. He wonders, briefly, if he should pry. He’s strangely worried that if he does, your response will not be one that he likes. Ignorance is bliss after all. It’s a shame that Satori can’t be ignorant when it comes to you. 

He picks up on the little things. Changes in your breathing and demeanor that giveaway a larger emotional turmoil. For Satori, the picture practically paints itself and it doesn’t take long for him to have fit together the pieces of a puzzle you hadn’t even realized you’d given him. 

“You okay?” he says, tilting his chin in your direction. 

“Huh?” you turn to look at him. “Yeah, I’m completely fine. Just thinking is all.” 

“About?” He drags the word out. 

You shrug your shoulders, the corners of your mouth turning up in a delightfully false smile. “Nothing important, really. I’d tell you if it were.” 

Satori nods his head and turns his focus back to the road entirely. 

“Jeez, lighten up,” you laugh, throwing your head back against the headrest.

“I would if you didn’t have this expression on your face like you’re in some kinda drama,” he laughs. “Excuse me for giving a shit.” 

“Since when have you ever given a shit?” You say. The comment clearly isn’t meant to be harsh, but there’s a strange bite to it that Satori feels at the base of his head and neck. 

“You give me too little credit, doll,” he says. The words almost sound slippery and he pauses for a moment before asking again. “So what was it?” 

“Post-nut clarity?” You speculate, giving him a lopsided grin and effectively shutting down the conversation. 

“Oh, you’re beyond nasty,” he smiles and you shrug your shoulders in response. 

The lookout isn’t far off from the city and it’s only a short while before you’re back in the heart of it. He watches as the trees on the hill become a somewhat flat landscape of glowing electric signs and stores. 

Satori feels that there’s something he’s not fully piecing together. There’s a piece of information that he doesn’t know, or refuses to accept, obscuring a usually-whole picture from him. It feels almost like dread, a discomfort that Satori is slow to name or recognize. 

—

The clock in Satori’s room reads 9:30 pm. It glows red, casting the side of his bed in a dim, hardly noticeable electronic glow. You’re sitting next to him by the window, wearing one of the outfits that he’s seen you in a million times. 

It’s open, the double doors of it pushed so that they protrude from the side of the house and you both lean with your backs up against the wall. He looks to the red of the clock and then to you. You’re holding your arm out of the window, a half-smoked joint between your fingers. The gesture does little to keep the smell from making its way back inside, but it’s something and he thinks the natural way you do it makes you look so casual in such a lovely way. 

Satori reaches with his free arm to take it from your gentle grip, giving you a little smile as he does. He lifts the burning thing to his mouth and feels the damp spot where your lips had once been, taking a long drag. Wisps of gray smoke float up from the end of it, drifting unevenly toward the ceiling where he imagines it sticks like glue. The taste of it isn’t anything Satori particularly likes, but he does like the way it seems to round him and the world out. It smooths out rough patches, soothing over cracks he finds until everything is delightfully heavy and spherical. 

“Party started half an hour ago,” you say calmly as he takes another drag. You seem to suggest that the two of you should get up to go soon and Satori leans his head back with the joint in his mouth. 

He finishes taking his drag, pinching it between with pointer and thumb as if to inspect its wrapping before tilting his head back to exhale out of the window. 

“Do we have to?” He groans. “I’d much rather stay here and do… other things.” 

Satori leans forward, holding the joint away from you as he tucks his face into the crook of your exposed neck. His mouth rests unmoving against it and he inhales, nudging you gently. The high makes the touch feel softer somehow. 

“Mmm,” you hum, taking the joint from him and hitting it quickly before extinguishing it on the window sill and setting down the remainder. “You always prefer that. It’s good to get out and make new friends, Satori.” 

You’re not chiding him. Your tone is actually rather light, almost as if you agree with him. 

Satori has never understood the importance of making new friends. Sure, there’s always people worth meeting, but he doesn’t understand the obsession with excessive collecting. He feels no need to be recognized everywhere he goes, nor does he think that any interactions could be benefitted by adding new people. 

He’s not sure why you’re so insistent on spending time with anyone but him or the people you already know. It’s not that he judges you for it, but rather that he can’t seem to get where the desire comes from. There’s no need for anyone else in Satori’s little world and he’s perfectly content to sit here smoking this joint with you forever. It’s already interesting enough. 

“They’re always so boring though,” he says into your neck. “This is more fun.” 

Satori snakes his hand up your shirt, his cool hand coming into contact with your warm belly and chest. There’s no goal and the touch is casual, feeling you up like he’s done it a million times.

“I know,” you breathe, reaching into your shirt and pulling his hand from it. You momentarily interlock your fingers before letting go. “But I made some promises, so I gotta go.” 

You stand up from the window, pulling your shirt down to cover the part of your stomach his hand had left exposed. Satori watches you for a moment, his body sinking into an awkward position against the wall, his tilted head leaning against it. 

“To Mr. Popularity?” He grins, his eyes heavy and low-lidded. 

“He’s got a name, you know?” You laugh.

Satori leans forward and makes a show of standing up. His limbs feel a little off-centered—a result of the weed, no doubt—and his brain feels fogged up in an almost blinding way. He can tell that he’s squinting and if he looked in the mirror, he’s certain that he’d find his eyes 

bloodshot. 

“Fine,” he says, grabbing his phone off of the nightstand and tucking it into his pocket. “Let’s go.” 

Satori walks up behind you and puts his hands on your hips, snaking them around to the front of you and snapping your waistband lightly against your body. 

“But it’s only ‘cause I’m such a good friend,” he hums before letting go of you and smiling at the way you shiver and laugh at his touch. 

He’s not sure why he felt the need to touch you at that moment. It felt different from most of the other times he touches you, almost as if he were proving some kind of arbitrary point. Sort of a look what I can do. 

“Hey, by the way,” you say a few minutes later as you climb into the back of the cab with him, “I’ve got some friends from my major that’re gonna be there. A few of them want to meet you.” 

“Yeah?” He says, scrolling through his phone. “Girls?” 

“A few,” you say. Satori can feel that you’re looking at him, but he feels no real need to look up. “I think they’re mostly curious about who I hang out with all the time.” 

Satori snorts.

“‘Kay,” he says, “I’ll play nice.” 

His voice has a pleasant, teasing quality to it. A kind of tenor that betrays some sort of joke or non serious aspect within the conversation even when he is being completely serious. 

“Any of your friends going?” 

Satori looks up from his phone at this, raising his small eyebrows and giving you a coy smile. 

“Oh come on,” he responds, “You know you’re my only friend.” 

You suppress a smile. 

“Oh right,” you say. “Those girls from the Pharmacology department aren’t your friends.” 

Satori just hums a noncommittal response. He hasn’t spoken to any of those girls in months. Not since soon after he’d started sleeping with you and lost interest in the rest of his toys. He wouldn’t be surprised if they’re upset with him the next time he sees them. After all, messages have gone unanswered and conversations have been dry. 

Don’t get him wrong. It’s not that he doesn’t think they’re not worth the time. It’s more like… well, it’s more like Satori isn’t really a good person and he doesn’t see the need to pretend that he is. Besides, most people know what they’re signing up for when they involve themselves with him. His noncommittal, teasing, aloof demeanor usually cues people in on the attitude he takes with physical encounters and it never really comes as a surprise to anyone when things just don’t work out. 

He puts down his phone, leaning his head up against the glass of the window. Sometimes, Satori thinks that he might be a romantic at heart. He’s really quite affectionate, more so than a lot of the people he’s been with. Satori likes to touch and to keep, but he never really holds on all that tight and when things start slipping, he finds that he simply lets go rather than holds on. 

Maybe it’s about control. There are certain rules and customs that Satori doesn’t quite like to abide by. The whole concept of dating and relationships, he thinks, is twisted by this perpetual idea of normalcy. What’s normal? There’s nothing normal about any of it because love makes people a little crazy. He knows that it would make him crazy. There’s an irritating aspect to courting and the chase which he particularly doesn’t like. This idea of coyness, of behaving in a way that is respectable to others, makes his skin crawl. 

He doesn’t appreciate other people’s way of playing the game and though he can’t pinpoint the exact reason, he knows that he’d rather not do it at all than phone it in. With you, he doesn’t have to. He likes the way that you play the game, open-minded to the point that it almost makes you feel detached. Many times, Satori will think to himself that you’re one in the same, but that comfortable distance still prevails. You can be together and entirely separate all at the same time and he never has to pay all too much attention to the labels or semantics of it. Maybe it’s because it’s not real, but any idea of normalcy—of rules—is out of the picture. Satori never stops to think about what’s appropriate, he just does what he wants and you let him. Well, you let him most of the time. 

He thinks that makes him a bit of a romantic, as odd as it sounds. It’s a romantic thought, the ability to do whatever he wants without consequence. But he finds that consequences often come creeping up anyway, no matter the agreement or feeling. 

—

When Satori is at parties, he gets the distinct feeling of being just outside of the collective. Like a cog separate from the machine, he can turn on his own and affect no one else. Occasionally, you will join him and he’ll get the sudden feeling that you are now two cogs, turning each other but never affecting the whole. 

To say that he’s unpopular would be a lie. Satori has many friends, most of them acquaintances, some of them close, but none are as close as you. People know of him and they see him around, though he’s unsure if that’s his own magnetism versus just being around you a lot of the time. You often tell him that he has a gravity about him. You’ve told him before that it almost feels like being sucked into a separate place and that conversations with him often feel like they occur in some liminal space different from where you’d been only moments earlier. He’s not quite sure what that means, but he believes you. 

When you both arrive at the party, it is in full swing. His eyesight is pleasantly hazy and the world is well-rounded and muffled. He can hear his heartbeat in his chest over the sound of the music, thumping rhythmically against his ribcage as he follows you through groups of conversing people. A few stop him to say hello, gripping his shoulder with a firm hand and asking how he’s been. Then, they give him a knowing smile as he shrugs his shoulders and grins at them. Short, like-minded exchanges that don’t extend past niceties.

Whoever’s house this is, it’s spectacular. For a college student to live in a place like this is unfathomable to Satori and he briefly wonders if it’s been rented out for the event. That’d be a lot of trouble to go through for a party they weren’t even charged for. Though, maybe he wasn’t charged because he’s with you. 

“Satori,” you call as you stand with a group of people, motioning your head for him to follow. He slinks away from the people he’d been conversing with in one fluid motion, coming to stand beside you. 

The people you’re with look vaguely familiar and he glances at each of them individually. A girl with cropped short brown hair wearing a white cardigan, one with thin rectangular sunglasses and a particularly stylish look, and a girl with thick curly hair that comes to her shoulders. He raises his eyebrows at them and then turns to you for introductions. 

“These are the friends I told you about,” you say, introducing each of them in turn. 

“Literature majors?” He grins, tilting his head down as the corners of his lips curl. 

“Yup, you the photography major?” The girl with sunglasses, introduced as Yuki, speaks. Her voice is low and husky, and her gaze carries something guarded and judgemental. 

“Sure,” he says, shrugging his shoulders. “I’m Tendou, good to meet you.” 

Yuki doesn’t respond, interrupted by her friend. 

“We’ve heard a lot about you,” says another. Her name is Alice and you smile pleasantly when she talks. 

“Alice is an expat from Europe,” you say, almost impressed with the idea. 

Tendou grins a little, tucking his hands deep into his pockets. “And she’s a Japanese lit major?” 

“Expat is an extreme term to use,” Alice says through a small laugh before giving Tendou a rather pointed look. “I was raised here. Japanese is technically my first language.”

“Mm,” he hums. “So you’re a technical expat.” 

“Sure, whatever you wanna call it,” she laughs. 

Alice appears to be the most easy going out of the group and she doesn’t seem all too bothered by the somewhat old-fashioned line of conversation. You elbow him lightly in the ribs for his teasing and he looks at you over the tops of his cheeks momentarily. 

The girl in the white cardigan, Keiko, is silent, but she looks like she wants to say something. In her two slender fingers, she holds a burning cigarette and when she speaks, Satori thinks that the vice doesn’t suit her at all. 

“How long have you two known each other? ____ says it’s been three years but I think they’re lying. They like to keep secrets, you know?” Keiko says. 

Satori laughs a little, his small eyebrows pulling up in the center. “Three years sounds about right.” 

“So you met in first year?” She tilts her head and takes a drag off the cigarette. 

The girl has a particularly innocent look about her and her voice is high-pitched and curious. Still, Satori can see a distinct calculating look in her eyes, one that’s usually characteristic of the people you hang out with, him included. 

Satori only nods and Yuki laughs a little, rolling her head on her shoulders as she speaks. 

“How did that happen? You’re incompletely different majors.” 

“I wonder,” Satori hums, not really keen on rehashing the somewhat boring story. The truth of it is that when he’d started school, his major was undecided. He’d been indecisive about his future then, he still is, but he thinks that his indecisiveness isn’t really all that important to where they are now. 

Someone calls your name. It’s a loud, booming voice and when people hear it, they turn their heads and instinctively smile upon seeing who it is. Bokuto approaches the group, carrying three drinks precariously in his arms. They slosh in the cups and Satori watches to see if he’s going to spill any. He doesn’t and you take two from his arms and hand one to Satori. 

He takes it and thinks for a moment about how subtly cruel it is to have the guy you’re sleeping with bring a drink to the other guy you’re sleeping with, not that he particularly cares about the logistics of it. If you notice the cruelty, you don’t show it, handing him the drink and then turning to Bokuto. 

“You’re back,” you say with a light smile. 

He shrugs his shoulders and smiles bashfully. “Someone wanted me to slap the bag, how could I say no?” 

The little one, Keiko, looks at Satori as she takes a drag off of her cigarette. Her eyebrows are pulled up a little, like she’s concerned about the outcome of this interaction. Satori just tilts his head down at her and gives her a little grin. Maybe to scare her out of his business, he’s not really sure. She raises her eyebrows quickly and exhales, tossing the cigarette butt on the floor of the veranda and stamping it out with her shoe. 

She seems to be the only one of the three who obviously knows about Satori and you, and she’s probably the worst of them at keeping secrets. If the others know, they don’t let on and instead smile amiably at Bokuto. Yuki, the more guarded of them, seems more relaxed speaking to him compared to how she had been with Satori and it wouldn’t be a far off guess for him to assume that she also knows about their unique arrangement. 

“Oh, sorry!’ Bokuto says, as if a thought has just occurred to him. “I’m Bokuto!” 

He steps forward into the circle, reaching his arm across you to extend a hand. Satori glances at it for a moment before pulling his from his pocket and shaking it. Bokuto’s grip is tight, very firm and bordering on too firm. 

“Tendou,” he responds through an even smile, his eyes curled into crescent moons. 

“Oh!” Bokuto says, “You’re that friend of theirs!” 

Satori nods his head. “That’s what I’m best known as.” 

“I’ve heard a lot about you, man,” he says pleasantly and Satori is a bit perplexed by his reaction. 

Satori just grins at him through his eyelashes. He doesn’t have a response for that, seeing as Satori has heard very little about Bokuto on account of how tight-lipped you are surrounding your connection to each other. 

“Uh oh,” is all he says, shrugging his shoulders. 

Keiko giggles a little behind her hand and Satori’s eyes slink down to look at her. She’s covering her mouth with the back of her hand, almost like she’d suddenly hiccuped. Then, she smiles somewhat apologetically. 

“Sorry,” she says. “His reactions are funny.” 

“What’s so funny about ‘em?” Satori asks, teasing a little. Keiko definitely knows and Satori has found a new target for amusement. 

“Keiko thinks everything is funny,” Yuki says, nudging her friend a bit harshly with her elbow. Keiko doesn’t seem to mind this though. In fact, she blushes a little and Satori tilts his head at the perplexing response. 

Bokuto looks at this short exchange and then smiles broadly like he’s figured something out. Then, he leans in and whispers something quietly into your ear. You laugh and furrow your eyebrows before quickly shaking your head. Bokuto insists on whatever he’s said and you stand on your toes to speak into his ear. He bends down to listen. His expression goes from confused to a bit surprised and you nod your head and laugh a little. 

If your friends notice the somewhat intimate exchange between the two of you, they pretend not to, too wrapped up in their own conversation. Satori gets the feeling that he’s meant to be listening to it, so he hunches forward a little, still watching you and Bokuto from the corner of his eye. 

Your connection to Bokuto appears to be in the early stages and Satori feels simultaneously relieved and oddly unsettled. It’s obvious that there is something there, likely in the same way it’s obvious that you and Satori do what you do, and the thought makes him a bit uncomfortable. The perverse idea comes to his mind of you in bed with Bokuto and the fact that he gets to hear the delightful sounds you make. He imagines you wrapped in his bedsheets, panting as Bokuto touches you beneath the thin fabric. 

Unsure of why he’s so caught up in the image of it, he shakes out his shoulders and turns his attention to the girls in front of him. 

“I’m gonna go get another drink,” he says, interrupting the conversation with the tenor drawl. 

“You’ve got one in your hand,” says Yuki and Alice raises her eyebrows in response. 

“I don’t like beer,” he gives a sly grin. “But I’d hate to be rude to Bokuto over there.” 

“I’m sure he won’t take it too personally,” Alice offers, a grin creeping up on her features. 

Satori kisses his teeth and then straightens his back, giving them a small wave. Then, he turns to you and places his hand on your shoulder. His pinky brushes the exposed skin at the base of your neck, close to your pulse point and he leans close to mumble his plan to you. 

You glance at him, your face a little too close to his. He can smell your breath, the cranberry vodka mix of it, and it’s warm against his face. Near intoxicating. Satori smiles lightly, pats your shoulder once, and then heads in the direction of the drinks inside. 

Just inside the kitchen, there is an island filled with hard liquor and mixers, as well as a keg in the corner and a few cases of beer stacked on top of each other, the bottom packages unopened. Satori hovers over the drink table for a moment. Truthfully, he didn’t have another drink in mind. The beer actually suited him just fine, as he’s not particularly picky about what he drinks with the goal of getting drunk in mind. 

For some reason, he just wanted to be away from the conversation, from Bokuto and your friends who seemed to simultaneously know everything and not know anything. Satori likes the way it feels to read people, but he’s both settled and unsettled by being read so plainly himself. Going into a conversation where people know more than him makes him too curious for his own good and if he hadn’t left, he’s certain that he would have stuck his nose somewhere he’d regret. 

Keiko’s cigarette smoke clings to his clothes. He can smell it on the worn knit sweater he’s wearing, clinging to the thick stitches. Satori likes to smoke cigarettes occasionally and he doesn’t mind the smell all too much.

“Sorry,” someone says to him as they bump into him trying to slip past. 

Satori glances down at whoever it was. She’s considerably smaller than him and she keeps her eyes down as if to avoid conflict, carrying three red solo cups in her arms, half filled with a red liquid. He keeps looking at her, examining the crown of her short blonde hair. He’s seen it before. Then, as if horrifyingly aware that someone is watching her, she tilts her head up slightly. 

Big round eyes stare back at him, wide and anxious as if she’s being looked down on by a predator. She looks at him and he looks back, his expression blank as he tries to figure out where he knows this girl from. 

“Did I spill something? I’m so sorry,” she starts, glancing around to see if he’d gotten any drink on his clothes. He hadn’t. Satori’s drink still sits comfortably in his cup. He shakes his head and she stares up at him. 

It’s like he’s watching a deer caught in headlights and his lips turn up a little. It’s an interesting reaction and he tilts his head as she puts her head back down to look straight ahead and continue a bit faster in the direction she’d been going in previously. 

“Hey,” he calls after her, his voice barely loud enough for her to hear over the music. She turns around slowly. 

“What?”

Her voice is high pitched and timid, the kind that almost makes you feel bad for speaking to her at all. 

“You’re in some of my classes, right?” He says. Satori is actually certain of it. She sits in the back of his self-lead project class, by the window and just behind him, so he can never actually see her. 

“Maybe?” She says, like she’s unsure of saying anything definitive. 

“You are,” he confirms with a sly grin. “You usually sit by the back right?” 

“Oh,” she says, her eyes growing wider as she tilts her head. “You’re the guy with those pictures of that person in bed.” 

Satori laughs a little, looking at her with his head tilted down. “So that’s my legacy.” 

“Not that it’s bad!” She says defensively. “Just memorable.” 

Satori nods a little. 

“Your name is Yachi, right?” He tilts his head and he can see that it makes her nervous that Satori knows her name. 

“Uh, yup!” She nods. “And you’re…..” 

The girl trails off, her face turning red at the fact that she can’t remember his name. 

“Tendou,” he concedes, “Satori.” 

“Ah, right,” she blushes and glances at her shoes. 

Yachi has an interesting air about her. Satori can tell that she’s shy and when he does see her in class or on campus, she almost scurries like a small animal. She reminds him a little bit of a hamster. She’s small and a bit plump in the way that sweet girls can be, and she’s got an innocent face. Her hair is cropped short at the shoulders and her eyes look like wells of anxious emotion. He tilts his head at her. 

“You don’t seem like the party type,” he grins. 

“I’m not,” she deflates, her shoulders slumping forward. She seems relieved that someone has noticed and taken pity on her. “I’m here for a friend.” 

Satori glances behind him. Through the doors, he can see you talking to Bokuto on the veranda. Your friends have wandered off and you’re alone with him, leaning against the bannister and smiling as Bokuto speaks animatedly about something. 

“Me too,” he offers, turning back to her. 

Yachi glances around Satori’s body, following where his gaze had been. 

“Is that the person from the pictures?” She asks, her lips pinched together. 

Satori doesn’t answer and just gives her a knowing look. Yachi’s face turns bright red and she glances at him and then the ground, mumbling an apology. He doesn’t really think she needs to apologize. Satori doesn’t really care if people know he takes pictures of you, but he’s not sure if you’d like for everyone to know that you’re the person in them. 

Yachi looks at him like she’s waiting for him to say something else. Her mouth is slightly dropped open, revealing the bottom of two large front teeth. He hasn’t really got anything else to say, so he just motions his head in the direction she’d been walking in. 

“Your friends are probably waiting,” he grins, getting the distinct impression that she’d wanted to speak to him longer. 

“Oh!” She says. “Right! Sorry! Uhm, nice to formally meet you! Sorry again!” 

She shrugs her shoulders at him in a makeshift wave and he waves back, lifting his cup and following her figure as she joins two people standing by the back entrance to the kitchen. One of them is a tall, beautiful girl wearing glasses. The other is a surly, average looking guy with a buzzed head who immediately reaches out and grabs Yachi by the top of her head. She squeaks and spills part of the drinks she’d been holding. The dark-haired girl slaps his stomach and takes the drinks from Yachi with a gentle smile. 

Satori has never seen those people before, save for Yachi, and he marvels for a moment about how there are people in this world he’ll never meet or see in his life.

He makes his way back out on the veranda, realizing that more time has passed than he intended. When he gets out there, no one is familiar and he sighs deeply before taking a long sip of the drink he’d had to begin with. Satori isn’t uncomfortable being alone and it really isn’t long before he’s found a group of people that he knows smoking in a circle on the lawn. He sits with them and decides to forget for a moment who he’d come to the party with in the first place. 

— 

It’s a long while before he sees you again and by the time he does, Satori is thoroughly hammered. He’d kept the drinks coming and whatever smoke people offered him, he’d accepted readily. Despite being as intoxicated as he is, Satori seems to have his wits about him. At least from an outside point of view, the only real perceivable difference is that his eyes somehow look even sleepier than they usually do. It’s probably why Semi kept passing him the joint, not particularly worried about Satori’s well-being. Besides, if Satori didn’t want anymore, he’d stop. To him, his limits are very clear cut. 

“Hey,” you tap him on the shoulder and he turns his head up toward the sky to find you looking down at him. 

Your eyes look pretty from his angle and he has the urge to kiss you. You smile at him, glancing at the people in the circle. 

“I wondered where you ran off to,” you say. “You ready to head out?”

Satori’s got tunnel vision and right now, he is only capable of registering you in his field of vision. When he spins around with his legs crossed to look at you, he gets a better picture. Your hair is messy and your mascara is smudged on the right side. Your lips are puffy and swollen, either like you’ve had far too much to drink or you’ve been sucking a little too much face. He frowns, reaching up to touch the side of your cheek. He looks like he’s going to say something romantic. 

“I don’t know,” he says through the goofy grin that creeps onto his face, “I haven’t stood up in about an hour. I’m worried I’ll fall.” 

You laugh, crouching down. “You won’t fall.” 

“Will you catch me if I do?” He says leaning forward, his smile slick and completely conscious of what he’s doing. 

Goshiki whistles behind him and you offer an apologetic and somewhat embarrassed look to both him and Semi. 

“Sure, Satori,” you say. “Now get up, we’re heading back.” 

Satori laughs a little and gets to his feet. He’s actually quite stable and when he tucks his hands into his pockets, he thinks that he probably doesn’t look any different from how he would if he were on campus. 

He tilts his head to look at you, examining further the state that you’re in. He doesn’t like that he can tell that you’ve been with someone tonight. It makes him feel unusually needy and somewhat jealous. He hates even more that he knows who it is. 

Satori steps close to you and you let him, grinning up at him as he slips a hand from his pocket and wraps it around your lower back. The action is possessive and he pulls your hips flush against his when he does it, resting his head on your shoulder and speaking by your ear. 

“We getting a taxi?” He drawls. 

This behavior isn’t all too unusual for him when he drinks or smokes, so you laugh and hold his upper arm, mumbling a quiet yeah as you do. Satori knows you well enough to know that he’s probably made you a little wet.

“My place?” He asks, a little needier than he’d intended. 

You let out a loud laugh, pulling him away from your body and holding him by the shoulders. “Duh, all of my stuff is there.” 

Satori nods sagely, letting the moment of jealous behavior pass. He follows you down the front steps of the house and onto the curb, where it appears that you’ve already called a cab to take you both back to his place. Even in his high state, Satori pulls the door open for you, leaning into his slouch a little more than usual. Then, he climbs in behind you and shuts the door. 

You stare out of the window, leaning your head against the glass. Maybe it’s to keep yourself from getting carsick, he’s not sure, but he watches you anyway. You yawn lightly, making a soft sound at the back of your throat. 

“Tired?” He asks, resisting the urge to reach across the seat and touch you. He always gets touchy when he’s like this. 

“Mhm,” you nod. “It’s bedtime soon.” 

Satori chuckles a little. “Seems to me like you’ve already been in bed.” 

You narrow your eyes at him, your mouth open in an incredulous laugh. “What’s it to you?” 

Satori thinks that’s a stupid question and just closes his eyes and grins a little, settling into the seat and leaning his head to the side. 

“Nothing at all,” he responds with a hum. 

He can feel you looking at him, but he doesn’t open his eyes, instead forcing his expression to stay in that contented, somewhat teasing, position. Truthfully, Satori thinks that it does matter to him who you sleep with, because it matters that you keep sleeping with him. He likes this arrangement you have and it suits him just fine to continue. 

It was dumb of you to ask what it matters as if he doesn’t fuck you three times a week. Even the least sensitive of people could see that. He’s not all too sure why he cares and he furrows his brows lightly as he considers it, snuggling up against the side of the cab door.

Satori can hear you breathing in the seat beside him. You take deep, even drawls of breath that tell him you might be falling asleep. That’s just as well, he may fall asleep too. What matters is that he gets up when the cab pulls up to his apartment, where he’ll take you inside and tuck you into his bed. You’ll spend the night and leave in the morning, apologizing briefly for the intrusion, and then you’ll call him over later in the week when you need it. When you’re wet between the legs and aching, desperate for him to touch you. When it’s over, you’ll tell him he can’t stay for long. Satori, being Satori, won’t even dream of asking to. 

[project-aphelion]

09.02.2023 - Chapters 11 & 12

Hi. So. These updates are going to be a little bit different now. Originally I wanted this current draft to be a polish pass, but after making many changes to the wip, I realized this is going to be another regular draft, with the focus on knocking the story into place rather than finetuning edits. If I'm going to finish this draft in a meaningful amount of time, I can't be contemplating over minute wording and pretty prose. The goal now is to just get this new version of the story done.

So what does that mean, exactly? Honestly, I'm not sure. I just know I'm changing my attitude on this draft and not letting myself get caught up in the details of it all.

Anyway, onto the story and what I wrote! We're officially in Part 2 of the story now. Chapters 10, 11, and 12 cover a spicy jailbreak (spicy as in it's action packed, not that it's sexy) and Bee and Rian finally meeting! Woo-hoo! The fun thing to play with here is that Bee has no idea about Rian's superpowers. She's just like "why. is this child in prison."

There's some connective tissue missing in there, but I'm not gonna let myself worry about that right now. There are a looooooot of things I'll need to edit in Part 1, lots of exposition that are handled really clumsily, but I'm just going to make notes for myself and tackle them way later. This was the process I had with Suddence, and that worked pretty well for it. There are just certain things you won't know how to properly edit and execute unless you actually have a whole (if messy) story to work with.

Currently the word count is at 42364! I'm letting myself write shittily from now on, so the excerpts won't be as pretty. Still, I think it's fun to share them, and it's always fun for me to look back on these documenting posts and see what changed.

(Photo description in alt!)

[juliandev0rak]

Evil And A Heathen

Chapter Two of I’m Your Villain

Words: 2515

Warnings: blood, death, brief description of injuries 

In his dreams Cadmus is a hunter. 

He runs through the forest on bare feet. The pine needles and sharp thorns littered on the floor cut his feet until he bleeds, but he doesn’t stop. Nothing exists but him and his prey. He has no weapon in his hands and yet he chases to kill.

But no matter how fast he runs, his prey stays just out of sight, just out of reach. The light fades quickly until he’s running in the pitch black darkness of the trees. He blindly reaches his hands forward and brushes against something soft, he thinks it might be fur. But then he emerges into a moonlit clearing and blinks in the sudden light, it’s hair, not fur.

Somehow he’s on the ground now, a girl’s body slumped in his lap. All he can make out in the dim light is blonde hair, matted with blood. As he moves the hair out of the girl’s face he recoils. Blood oozes out of a deep gash on the girl's neck, bruises cover her face, and then her eyes open- ice blue and far too familiar. 

“Cadmus, why did you kill me?” His sister Daphne asks. 

Cadmus opens his mouth to speak but no words come out. He watches in horror as the limp body turns its eyes, her eyes, to look at him. She looks at him so pleadingly and he can’t bear to look at her but he can’t seem to close his eyes. He wants to scream that he didn’t do this, that he’d never hurt her, but he just stares as her mouth gapes open.

“Why didn’t you protect me?” She cries, her voice sounds as brittle as the winter-frozen trees around him. Something wet touches his cheek and Cadmus realizes it's snowing. He shivers in the cold as the body in his lap grows frozen to the touch, his sister's skin turning blue. 

“Don’t you love me Cadmus?” 

The snow has turned hot now, so hot it burns his skin. He smells the sharp scent of iron and looks down to see the snow has turned to blood. He leans forward to shield his sister’s body on instinct. As the blood pours down he realizes he can no longer feel the weight in his lap, the body is gone. 

A voice in his ear whispers, “This is your fault.”

When he whips his head around there is no one there. Cadmus is alone in the clearing, freezing and burning at the same time. He shuts his eyes and lets the blood fall on him, letting it burn him. He’s used to blood and fire after all. 

He hears a sudden squawk and looks up from the ground to see a large raven swooping towards him, wings blocking the moon. His hands move up to shield his face and he feels the sharp sting of claws digging into his skin. The raven caws again, the noise almost deafening this close to his ears, and the sound pulls him out of his dream. 

Cadmus wakes with a shudder, nearly falling out of bed as he tries to get his bearings. He often has bad dreams but this one had been so vivid. He can still feel the press of claws against his hands, and he can still smell the scent of blood. He sits on the side of the bed with his head in his hands, willing himself to forget what he’d just seen.

He comforts himself with the fact that he knows he would never hurt his sister, he’d die before he let anyone hurt her. Still, when he closes his eyes the image of Daphne’s bloodied, lifeless face stares back accusingly. Before he can delve too deeply into despair a raven caws outside the window and Cadmus startles, remembering the dream raven’s claws. 

He pulls his duvet around his shoulders to ward off the chill and trudges over to the window, looking out into the beginnings of dawn. It’s still mostly dark outside, the clock on the wall tells him it’s not yet six in the morning. He spots the raven sitting on a tree branch maybe thirty feet away, preening its feathers.

It feels like a bad omen and it brings to mind a nursery rhyme his governess had taught him as a child about counting ravens- one for sorrow, two for joy, and so on. Cadmus scowls, he can only see one raven.

“Nonsense,” He says aloud, turning away from the window and the raven. He’s never been superstitious, and he isn’t about to begin now. It’s just a bird, and his dream was just a dream. 

Cadmus gets dressed, pulling on his typical black training clothes and lacing his boots. He spends more time on his hair, using a bit of magic to make sure it lays exactly how he’d like it to. If anyone asked if his hair is enchanted he’d deny it, but it’s windy today and there’s no way he’s going outside without his hair properly styled. 

He has a bit of time before training so he heads down to the kitchens for breakfast. There are plenty of mice around the castle for Agatha to catch for her breakfast, so he holds the door open for her to slither out behind him. The halls are empty this early in the morning and his footsteps echo loudly off of the stone. He’s quite adept at silencing the sounds of his footsteps when need be, but he has no need to hide here. He is not without enemies in his home, but at least he knows who they are.

A quarter of an hour later he’s outside with a sword in his hand, fighting off the chill in the winter air and his swordmaster’s attacks.

“You’ve lost your touch, old man,” Cadmus grins as he spins out of the way of Master Xiphos’ sword. He counters but the attack is blocked by the edge of Xiphos’ sword just before contact. 

No matter, he retreats and watches for an opening. Xiphos advances towards him and Cadmus feints right, hoping to catch his swordmaster’s unprotected left side. But Xiphos sees through the obvious trick and Cadmus has to duck out of the way, retreating backwards until he’s effectively backed against the edge of the stables, cornered.

“Not so cocky now, are you?” Xiphos’ voice is gruff, his face set into a look of supreme determination. Cadmus had been scared of Xiphos as a child, intimidated by his harsh way of speaking and even harsher training sessions. As he’d grown the old man had become his mentor, and eventually, his friend. 

“Cocky? No, I’m merely confident in my abilities.” Cadmus moves forward, attempting to get past Xiphos. He rolls at the last second, narrowly sliding under the edge of Xiphos’ sword. Successfully out of the corner, he turns to attack and is met with the tip of his master’s sword at his chest.

“Not quite fast enough. You’ve improved, but pride will be your downfall, Cadmus.” Xiphos lowers his sword as he speaks, his solemn expression fading into what could barely be counted as a smile.

Content that his student has learned a lesson, he turns his back. Though the lesson is supposedly over, Cadmus takes the opening and lunges forward, cutting a strip of Xiphos’ shirt off and just barely grazing the skin of his arm.

Xiphos wheels around to look at him, his face stony and unreadable. 

“Never turn your back on an opponent. I believe you taught me that when I was six,” Cadmus grins, waving his sword around in a flourish. 

Xiphos stands silent for a moment, the air charged with tension as he stares at Cadmus. Then, the corners of the older man’s lips turn up and he laughs, a deep belly laugh that Cadmus hasn’t heard much before. Xiphos reaches his hand out to shake Cadmus’ and he can’t help but join in on the laughter. 

“I’ve taught you well.” Xiphos sheaths his sword and takes a seat on the stone wall bordering the training field, Cadmus joins him.

Now that he’s no longer moving and fighting the morning air feels frigidly cold, but he knows better than to complain about the weather. They sit in silence for a minute and Cadmus resists the urge to ask his swordmaster a million questions about his travels. He opts for just one instead, the most important one. 

“What can you tell me about my new assignment?” 

“Hmm, I can tell you that your father is a fool.” Xiphos turns to look at him and it’s impossible to tell if he’s joking. Cadmus raises an eyebrow and waits for him to continue.

“Greythal poses no real threat to Avronne at this time. The cities are at peace, this will only stir things up. He knows that, we all know that.” He waves his hands expressively as he talks. “But his mind has been made up.” 

“Merona are our allies, would it not be better to ensure our connection to them is strengthened rather than allowing them a chance to ally with Greythal? Surely an alliance between the two cities would pose a threat?” Cadmus frowns, he’s never heard Xiphos question the Comte like this.

“Perhaps.” 

“Well it’s enough of a threat that my father wants to prevent it, so I’ll do what I must.” Cadmus nods his head slightly, his tone resolute. He only ever does what he must, to survive, to ensure his sister’s safety, to ensure his family’s safety. There is nothing else he can do.

“The castle in Greythal hasn’t changed in two hundred years, I know it well so heed what I tell you.” Xiphos pauses to make sure Cadmus is listening. He turns back towards his swordmaster, inclining his head in respect to show that he’s paying attention.

“The princess’ rooms are in the east wing of the castle. Her window is the one with the blackthorn tree beneath it, the trunk has a distinctive twist in it. There are patrols every twenty minutes, typical rounds with two guards at a time.” Xiphos goes on to explain the rest of the castle layout, including a possible escape route through the cellars.

“If you’ve scoped the place out so much why didn’t you just do the job?” Cadmus complains. He likes to do his own reconnaissance, he feels safer that way. He needs to see things with his own eyes before he enters a situation. 

“Your father gave this job to you for a reason. What that reason is I do not know, but this is your assignment. You must finish it yourself.” Xiphos stands up and Cadmus takes it as a sign that the conversation is nearing its end. 

“What does the target look like?” 

“She’ll be wearing a crown and people will be wishing her a happy birthday. I should think you’ll be able to spot her.” 

Cadmus rolls his eyes, he’d be angry at the sarcasm from anyone else. “Fine. Anything else I need to know?” 

“It needs to be quick, with visitors from Merona there may well be extra guards. Get in and out as quickly as possible.” 

Cadmus laughs, “Don’t I always?” 

Cadmus is good at his job. He’d grown up with a sword in his hand and a dagger at his belt, knowing that someday he would have to use them. By the time he was Daphne’s age he’d already been on assignments by himself, he’d already killed. 

He remembers the first assignment he’d gone on. He’d been a gangly teenager still growing used to welding a sword and adjusting to his new found height which had seemingly sprung up over night. Back then he was still weak enough to feel afraid.

His father had told him it would be easy, “Just swing the sword and you’re done.”

But it had been so much more than that. Cadmus had crept into the target's house, a suspected smuggler, and had found the man asleep in his bed.

“Just swing the sword.”

So he had, but the man hadn’t died right away- no. It had taken more than one swing, and the dull thud of the blade against skin, the wide open eyes of the man who had no chance to fight back, had haunted Cadmus for weeks. 

He’d come back covered in the man's blood, willing himself not to cry or be sick. When he’d gone to report to his father he hadn’t been praised for his actions, he’d been scolded for getting blood on his clothing. Cadmus had learned quickly to be faster, to be neater, to wield himself like a weapon with deadly accuracy.

And he’d learned to rid himself of guilt over the years. He kills, yes, but it’s for a good cause. He can justify a little bad for the greater good. The people he kills are often murderers in their own right, corrupt politicians, thieves, spies, people who would turn around and kill him just as quickly if they had the chance. He’s sure this target is no different, some selfish princess who would have grown to become a selfish queen with no regard for her subjects. 

The Comte is cruel, Cadmus knows that first hand, but he cares for the city. He protects and provides for the people who live there. And Cadmus is the sword of the city, willing to do what must be done to protect everyone who calls Avronne home. They hate him for it. They whisper about him in the town and call him all sorts of names, they think he’s some sort of devil come to bring evil to the world. But Cadmus knows that secretly, the people are grateful. Avronne is safe, Avronne is prosperous, and it’s thanks to his family.  

Xiphos’ gruff voice pulls him back to the present, “Go finish your training, Alexander is waiting.” Xiphos points off to the distance where the castle guards are exercising.

Alexander waves at him and Cadmus nods in his general direction. He bids Xiphos goodbye and sets off across the field, this might be his last chance to see Alexander before he leaves. He schools his features into a mask of cool indifference, tilting his chin up in a way he’s been told is haughty.

Cadmus likes to pretend that he doesn’t care, he likes to pretend that he’s too good to be worried about the possibility of death. That confidence, or dissonance really, is what keeps him steady in situations where his life is on the line. He has to believe that he’s invincible, indestructible, immortal- and so far he is.

Even so, he makes sure to say goodbye before he leaves for a mission. He doesn’t actually say goodbye, more… hints at it by being slightly less of an asshole than usual, but Alexander knows. He has the courtesy to never comment on it, Cadmus couldn’t bear to have someone pity him. He doesn’t need anyone’s sympathy, or well wishes, or good luck.

He’s a Durand. He was made for this.

[anistarrose]

Ford in Amphibia - Chapter 2

Summary: Ford is subjected to mild bullying, and the gang decides to hunt an endangered species but makes an unexpected new friend along the way.

Warnings: none

AO3: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19375102/chapters/47328493

The Beginning

This chapter references a few more episodes of Amphibia than the last one, but doesn’t spoil any overarching plot details past the first episode, so it should be possible to read even if you’re not caught up. This is starting to look like it’ll eventually wind up as four-chapter fic, so stay tuned for more!

***

Ford sat on the couch next to Anne, watching intently as she flicked through albums of photos on her phone.

“Here’s my cat, Domino — oh, and here she is again, in my parents’ kitchen! What a little troublemaker!”

“She’s quite precious,” Ford agreed. “You say you have music on this device too?”

“Of course!” Anne answered. “I’ve got all the best tunes — stuff to dance to, stuff you can sing along with, stuff to listen to as you think about how far you are from home and regret your life choices —”

“Do you have anything by Eurythmics? Or Talking Heads?”

Anne stared at Ford blankly.

“Or do you prefer classical? The Planets by Holst, maybe?”

“Uh, I’ve got All Star by Smash Mouth —”

“Mention that song again and you’re dead to me,” Ford growled.

There was an awkward pause, and then Ford sighed. “Sorry. I shouldn’t be surprised that we appreciate different aspects of human culture. You’re young, and I… left my dimension a very long time ago.”

“That’s, um — that’s too bad,” Anne stammered, not really knowing what to say. “Uh… do you want to keep looking at pictures?” she finally asked.

Ford didn’t say no, so she opened a new album. “Here’s some of me and Sprig, and of some wildlife we saw the other day — oh, and here’s where I tried to teach Sprig how to use the camera! You can tell because it’s all blurry and —”

“Wait!” Ford interrupted. “Go back! To the one with the caterpillar — er, the cat-erpillar, rather!”

“This one?” Anne pulled up a picture of a black, orange, and red cat-erpillar glimpsed from across a meadow.

“That’s it! See the flame pattern, and those prominent tufts on the neck? That’s the endangered Sunburst Mountain Cat-erpillar!”

“Whoa, are you like a conservation expert?” Sprig asked, springing onto the couch. “Do you need to capture it and get it to breed with others of its kind to save the species?”

“Quite the opposite, actually,” Ford told them. “I need a sample of its chrysalis for my own use — and ideally I won’t seriously harm any specimens, but you never know!”

Noticing Anne and Sprig’s mildly horrified looks, he went on: “Let me explain. For years now, I’ve planning a mission to a very dangerous dimension, of which the atmosphere is contaminated with just about every pollutant imaginable. There will be zero margin for error on this mission, but if I inhale too many of those pollutants, they’ll almost certainly hamper my performance. So for the past few weeks, I’ve been searching for a solution…”

He pulled a carefully rolled-up piece of paper from his pocket, and spread it out in his lap to reveal a detailed scientific drawing of the cat-erpillar and its cocoon, along with a sketch of a mountain with wisps of smoke emanating from the peak.

“Every generation of the Sunburst Mountain Cat-erpillar pupates near volcanic vents, and as a result, they’ve evolved so that their chrysalides absorb and break down a wide variety of toxins. I learned of their existence shortly after coming to your world, and I’ve been trying to track one down ever since in the hope that harvesting some of that chrysalis material would help me design an air filter to get around that pollution problem — but unfortunately, the location of Sunburst Mountain has been lost to time, since those vents are dormant most of the year. The whole time I’ve been here in the valley, I’ve just been stumbling around blindly without glimpsing hide nor hair of any of the right cat-erpillar species.”

He flipped his paper over, and pulled out a pen. “The period of vent activity should only last another week or two this year, and at this rate I’m probably going to miss it — but if you could tell me where you saw that specimen the other day, then I’d have my best lead yet!”

“Cool!” Sprig exclaimed, at the same time that Anne spoke up:

“I gotta admit, tracking down a lost volcano sounds like loads of fun, but… cat-erpillars are a lot more dangerous than they look. Sprig can tell you about the Domino Two incident — did not end well for anyone, except maybe Domino Two herself.”

“Oh, I know how to handle myself, don’t worry! I’ve conquered many foes more deadly than a mere —”

They were interrupted by a yelp as Hop Pop jumped straight up, slamming into the ceiling.

“Darn it, Ford, I know you mean us no harm, but every time I walk by here I think there’s an owl perched on our couch and my heart skips a beat!” He rubbed his head, and began collecting the books he’d dropped.

Sprig snapped his fingers. “That’s it, an owl! I knew he reminded me of something predatory!”

“What?” Ford scowled. “I do not look like an owl!”

“Uh, except you kinda do!” Polly chimed in, bouncing into the living room behind Hop Pop. “There’s your big wide eyes, and the way your eyebrows jump up and your head whirls right around whenever you hear something behind you — oh, and the way your cloak billows behind you like giant wings!”

“You’ve got to be joking! I —”

“Such a majestic and terrifying creature!” Polly went on, tugging on Ford’s cloak. “You are the swift and deadly hunter I wish to emulate! Will you teach me your ways?”

Ford’s mouth opened and then closed, at a loss for words, but Anne cut in.

“Hey, that’s enough. Owls are supposed to be wise, remember? Ford set his face on fire less than five minutes after we met him. I think that instantly disqualifies him from owl resemblance.”

Ford just shook his head as Anne and Hop Pop cackled.

“And did you see how he slept on the couch last night?” Sprig added. “His face was buried in a whole stack of pillows and his feet were practically out the window! No majestic old owl would sleep like that!”

“I still want to see him in action, though,” Polly declared. “What do you hunt, old man? Tell me so that I may watch you and learn your ways of stealth and dismemberment!”

“I’m not planning to dismember any endangered species if I can avoid it,” Ford corrected her. “But you’re welcome to come with me anyways. The more eyes who know this area, the better!”

“Ooh, can we take Bessie?” Sprig asked. “Anne can drive us!”

Hop Pop’s eyes narrowed. “I don’t know. I’ve got errands to run, and I’m not sure how I feel about letting you all run off without a chaperone…”

Ford stifled a laugh. “Hopediah, I’ve earned degrees in everything from cryptobiology to quantum physics — I’m basically the best chaperone these kids could hope for. Think of it as an educational outing!”

“Oh, well why didn’t you say so? That’s fine, then — just be sure to be back before nightfall!”

“Woo-hoo!” Anne cheered. “Time for an adventure with the weird hobo scientist from outer space that we adopted!”

“Adventure! Adventure! Adventure!” Sprig and Polly chanted. Anne joined in almost immediately, and after a moment, Ford did too.

***

“Okay, I think this is where we saw it,” Anne announced as Bessie the snail slowed to a halt at the edge of a clearing. The meadow was dotted with patches of mud, and seemed devoid of any life besides a lone chickfly that squawked and flew off as the gang dismounted.

“It looks… swampier than last time,” Sprig mused. “Did it rain over here or something?”

Ford knelt down in front of one of the patches of exposed mud, removing his glove to run a finger along the edge. “If anything, it looks like a creature tore up the grass at the surface while hunting here, revealing the damp earth underneath.”

“But these claw markings are huge! Whatever made them must be bigger than me!” Anne shuddered. “Ford, do you know why everything is so giant here?”

“Not for sure, but I can certainly speculate!” Ford’s face lit up. “For one thing, my preliminary scans have shown that there’s more oxygen in the atmosphere of this dimension than there is in the environment either you or I would’ve came from, which paleontology suggests may allow for life to grow larger.”

“Ugh, forget I asked,” Anne muttered, but Sprig bounded over to Ford’s side, eyes wide.

“Wow, really? If you and Anne keep breathing our air, will you get bigger too?”

“Not necessarily due to the oxygen concentrations,” Ford told him, “but that’s not the only difference between our dimensions! Gravity is slightly weaker here too, which most importantly means that it’ll be easier for the skeletons of megafauna to support their body mass, but also could cause Anne and I to pick up a few extra millimeters when our spinal columns expand. The effect should be subtle, but less weight pressing our vertebrae together means we’ll stand a little taller.”

“You’re not a majestic owlish hunter after all,” Polly groaned. “You’re just a nerd.”

“He’s a brave adventurer and he knows all about everything!” Sprig told her. “I want to be just like him when I grow up!”

“Two nerds,” Polly grumbled.

“Hey, guys?” Anne poked Sprig in the shoulder with a stick. “There’s something coming this way, and it’s kinda… on fire?”

“Where?” Ford leapt to his feet. “Is it a cat-erpillar?”

“No, it’s more like… an amorphous blob.” Anne pointed towards the creature, which had made its way almost halfway across the clearing. “I’d stay back, in case it explodes in our faces… oh, or you could just walk right up to it! That too!”

“Would you look at that!” Ford exclaimed, kneeling at the creature’s side. “I hadn’t expected to find any cryptozoological oddities I was familiar with here!”

“Cryptozoological?” Sprig tilted his head. “I thought that stuff was all bogus.”

“As in, like, cryptids?” Anne asked. “I saw a Moss-Man here once, does that count?”

Ford plucked a twig from the ground and placed it in the palm of his hand, which he then slowly extended towards the anomaly. The mass of its body seemed to be concentrated in a blob of mud that spilled across the ground with a radius of about half a foot and a height of about five inches at its highest point, from which several plumes of glowing green gas extended.

Two small, dark eyes blinked within the largest plume, and a muddy tendril extended from the creature’s base. For a moment, the mud began to pool in Ford’s hand, but then it pulled the twig back to its main body with a sudden slurp, leaving almost no dirt or moisture behind whatsoever. The twig vanished inside the muddy blob, and the creature gurgled in satisfaction.

Ford ran a hand through the fiery-looking plumes and Anne cringed, but he didn’t get burned. The creature’s flickering eyes widened as it responded with some semblance of a purr, apparently eager for more petting.

“Fascinating! I’ve encountered Scampfires back home, but I think this individual might be better referred to as a ‘Swampfire!’ Although technically speaking, there doesn’t seem to be any actual fire involved — I suspect it’s fueled by phosphorus and hydrocarbon compounds from that muddy blob of biomass, which undergo some form chemiluminescence to produce light without a substantial amount of heat.”

“Is it dangerous?” Polly asked. “Or will it help us on our quest?”

“Neither, I think,” Ford replied. “It seems perfectly content to just ooze along here and keep absorbing plant matter while we head on our way — although, I should really get a quick sketch first!” He pulled out a pen and notebook, adjusted his sitting position, and set to work.

“What happened to finding the cat-erpillar?” Anne groaned. “I thought that was some critically vital mission or something!”

“Oh, it is!” Ford told her. “But it’s not every day one gets to discover and catalog a new anomaly! You know, I wouldn’t be surprised if Swampfires exist in my dimension too, but are endangered due to habitat loss… Humanity really needs to do a better job of preserving wetlands and all the biodiversity they contain…”

Sprig peered over Ford’s shoulder at his work — a set of simple drawings, cartoonish yet detailed enough to capture all the details of the Swampfire’s form in multiple poses. “Wow! You drew that so fast!”

“Thank you, I’ve been doing this for quite a while! Now, Swampy, if you could hold that pose for just a moment…”

Swampy, naturally, chose that moment to bolt, darting back between the trees with surprising speed as its lights dimmed.

“Drat. Well, what I’ve got down here is still better than nothing —”

“Hey, guys?” Anne asked. “Is it just me, or did a really big shadow just pass over us?”

In unison, the four of them looked up. Above, a massive shape blocked out the sun — a shape with wide eyes, a pointed beak, and long, silently flapping wings.

“Scatter!” Ford shouted as the owl dove towards the clearing, and the children bolted as its talons raked the ground.

***

End notes:

Thanks for reading, feedback/reblogs are appreciated as always!

This was very fun to write, as fics with Ford often are, because I got to use him as an excuse to ramble about science! Since Sprig showed an interest in science in “Family Shrub,” I figured he’d be pretty inquisitive, and look up to the whole adventurer-scientist deal Ford has going on.

Swampy the Swampfire, also known as the best character I’ve ever written about, is based partly off the Scampfires from Journal 3, and partly off of the “will-o-the-wisp” ghost lights, which are believed to be a result of gases produced in wetlands by decaying plants. (The endangered due to habitat loss detail Ford mentions isn’t a joke, either — according to Wikipedia, will-o-the-wisp sightings are rarer nowadays, and it’s probably because wetlands keep getting destroyed. We need to save the Swampfires!)

[mizmahlia]

1-3, 8, and 14 for the film asks! :D

Woo-hoo! Thanks, Sep!! :)

1. Talk about your favorite film of all time (or one of them)

This is one of several at the top of my list and it’s a sports movie!

It’s Major League! 

A sports comedy about the Cleveland Indians MLB team, it’s a story of a group of wanna-be’s, has-been’s, and misfits who come together to win the division title just to spite the owner of the team. It’s got TONS of heart, a lot of great comedy, some romance, and a metric ton of awesome quotes:

Bob Uecker is honestly the best part. :)

2. Talk about your favorite tv show of all time (or one of them)

I’m gonna date myself a bit here and sound like a bit of a snob, but  ¯\_(ツ)_/¯.

The X-Files was my favorite show as a kid. I started watching it when I was 9 or 10, and I fell in love with it. It was weird, creepy, funny, endearing, dramatic and smart as hell, and seriously underrated at first. I’d never really been into sci-fi before, and it grabbed my attention immediately. I watched every single episode as they aired from 1993 through May of 2002 for the 9th season/series finale. 

Come to think of it, I think I still have that 2-hour episode on VHS somewhere. Seriously.

Now, it came back just before my birthday in 2016 and I gave up after three episodes. It was awful. So for my own sanity, I pretend that everything stopped after the 9th season. As far as I’m concerned, the movie in 2008 never happened, and neither did seasons 10 and 11. 

See, the show was in a decline after the 7th season because of casting choices and David Duchovny being gone through most of it, but I still think the series went out well. Whatever the hell they tried to do after that? Ugh. It didn’t work for me. At all.

3. Talk about a movie, or an aspect of one that you think people don’t get or misunderstand

In tandem with the recent 30th anniversary of Batman with Micheal Keaton being released, I wanted to call out Micheal Keaton’s brilliant performance as Bruce Wayne and Batman. Everyone obsesses over Jack Nicholson’s Joker (who wasn’t really that great, IMO), and they forget that Micheal Keaton was the one who came up with the incredible idea for Batman to sound different from Bruce. It was Micheal Keaton who first really delved into the role and explored Bruce Wayne’s psychology. Not Val Kilmer, George Clooney, or Christian Bale. (Ben Affleck came close and his performance, for me, comes second only to Michael Keaton.)

And it was Micheal Keaton who really got the blockbuster, major box office attention focused on superheroes. If it weren’t for his incredible talent and passion for the role? I’m not sure we’d have the massive pool of superhero movies we do.

8. Talk about a movie you love

Serenity!!

It continues on from where the series Firefly left off and it told such an incredible story. Basically, it’s a space-western soap opera in the best way possible. Action, adventure, heartache, suspense, love, and loss. It’s got it all, really. 

And if you haven’t seen the show or the movie? Please do yourself a favor and remedy that. You won’t regret it.

14. What’s a character, from film or television, that you relate a lot?

This was a tough one- I honestly don’t know. Someone who comes to mind is Katie in The Decoy Bride.  She’s a bit awkward, but kind, smart and independent. She doesn’t give herself enough credit and never wants to get her hopes up. I think this quote sums her up well:

“This is where you tell me I'm just one chapter, not a whole book.”

Film/TV Asks

[seenashwrite]

The Nail: August 2017

The Nail isn’t about perfection. It isn’t about award-level contenders. It’s about seeing focus and effort and hard work radiate off of the screen.

And The Nail’s purpose isn’t to highlight genres of fics or specific ships or pieces written during a certain time frame - the sole focus is quality.

Character dimension. Writing with clever readers in mind. Solid world-building. Tension through boundaries. Crazy crisp dialogue. Incredibly tight plotting. Big emotion.

And though yours truly - nice to meet you, new folks, I’m Nash! - is editor of the list, the goal is for YOU to curate the content.

Read more about how all this came to be, find past editions, see what factors are considered when constructing the list, and how to get your recommendations in/be a curator HERE.

Hey, ramblers? Let’s get ramblin’.

For your reblogging convenience, here’s The Nail Master Post of Editions!

Quickie Nash Note:

As this project evolves, I'm still determining the best way to present it for easiest reader use.

And so, faithful followers of The Nail, you'll notice a touch of a categorization change-up. The lengths are still the m.o. vs. type ["angst", "fluff", etc.], but are now listed in order of word count, low to high. The rest of the categories remain the same, plus a new one that may or may not appear on every edition [you'll see why!].

I've also put a new page on my blog, mainly for authors, with explanation for things they may question regarding this format - things I’ve mentioned prior, but it takes up too much space. Some of the current FAQs are....

- Why did someone make up a summary/why didn't you use my summary? - Why did someone make up a title for my story/poem? - What are those Q comments? - Is Nash actually reading all of this?

One last thing: The Nail is meant to go out the first full week of each month, and was mostly ready this weekend, however I just wasn't in a jovial, woo-hoo mood, I made a brief post why, I've no doubt each and every one of you understand, but you have my apologies nonetheless as poor time allocation on my part meant this wasn't out at some point during the past week.

XO - Nash.

* ~ * ALL FROM THE WORLD OF "SUPERNATURAL” UNLESS OTHERWISE NOTED * ~ *

- SUPERNATURAL SUPERSTARS - Organized by length.

THE BOY KING'S DEMONS  -   @rex-daemoniorum / @vengeuse WORD COUNT - 279

Sam understands that there are exceptions to even his own rules. 

Q: Nice detail, pertinents given painted the picture effectively/no belaboring; through-line present of Sam's ability to relate without spelling it out/written for intelligent readers; complexity of situation related in short amount of space

[Nash Note: Additional shout-out to @azazelsocks, who provided a high-quality prompt, as - if your humble editor may be blunt - most fic prompts are beyond lame. Well done, 'Socks.]

--> I cannot tag these folks, if someone could kindly let them know or give it a go in your reblog

CIRCUMSTANCES -  @jessmoorechesters WORD COUNT - 347 words As years pass, the Moores have often found their thoughts turning to Sam.

Q: While perhaps started as headcanon, reads third-person omniscient; emotional, rambling, almost panicked cadence/style/lack of caps/punctuation absolutely works for this subject matter; nice full-stop short sentence toward end; inclusion of poignant details/no unneeded detail

[Nash Note: I already had this on the list, had a couple informal suggestions to check it out, spotted it more than once in my feed - overall, this resonated with many of you, and rightfully so.]

DESIGNATED DUTIES  -  @fanforfanatic  WORD COUNT - 412

A tale about the seemingly ordinary things we do for one another.

Q: Moves at a crisp clip; heartfelt without bending sappy; several great lines/points of humor, prevents getting too heavy given the short length/action in question; nice cap-off/prompts reader to use imagination while not ending on a proverbial cliffhanger

HELLO, DARLING  -  @whispersandwhiskerburn  WORD COUNT - 789

Crowley and Billie have a little chat.

Q: Excellent use of vocab in descriptions; quick, crisp dialogue; spot-on characterization; kept story moving/pacing well done; didn't waste time on explaining things/rehashing things readers already know from watching the show/written for clever readers

SHAPE OF YOU  -  @winchester-family-business WORD COUNT - 1K [minus song lyrics]

In which Dean walks into a bar, has a drink, meets a woman, and whether it's for now or forever, it's definitely meaningful.

Q: A get-in-and-get-out in the opener, setting the scene with just enough information and moving on to the actual story/no wasting time with a long set-up; excellent use of a "gimmick", re: initial communication; nicely fleshed-out protag who has her own thing going on, which he respects, which is in line with the character we know; took a commonly used set-up and took it to a thoughtful but not belabored/shmoopy place

GOOD NIGHT, LITTLE KING  -  @moonlightcas WORD COUNT - 1.6K

At the age of six, Sam is visited by Lucifer.

Q: in medias res; excellent pacing; perfectly plausible in canon; slightly chilling and pressing and foreboding without being suffocating; timing of the name reveal is Absolutely. Spot. On.

ONE, TWO, THREE  -  @kathaswings  WORD COUNT - 3.4K

A trip to a bookstore turns out to be more than you - or Sam - could have imagined.

Q:  in medias res; structure that would please any screenwriter; meet-cute without being immature/shmoopy/saccharine, specifically - protag didn't turn into a pile of weepies or gigglies/displayed strength; nice choice to include action; solid ending/author knew when to step away from the keyboard

[Nash Note: author's inspiration is revealed post-story, however they kept a light hand/did not merely re-hash source material bit-by-bit & just throw SPN atop it, instead made it their own - points and gold stars for this, always]

SUNDOWN, SUNDOWN  -  @thayerkerbasy  WORD COUNT - 6.2K 

"Crowley was done. After hundreds of years and one last sacrifice, he was done. Except, somehow, he wasn't."

Q: in medias res; spot-on characterization; tackled character departure in unique manner that could have easily gone shmoopy/author demonstrated restraint in walking the emotional line/kept that slightly off-kilter tone; moved at quick clip/efficient structure/fluid; touched on things/events seen in show but did not belabor/used as tool vs. crutch; phenomenal end dialogue/last line

- POEMS & POETICAL PROSE - Mostly quick reads, these are actual poems of any structure & short [< 2K] stories that have a poetic feel to the narrative with appropriate use of poetic verbiage given the subject matter and / or setting; pieces in the less-than-300 words neighborhood are considered quality in their entirety, therefore no "Q" notations; organized by length.

SECOND FALLING  -  @vintagesam  WORD COUNT - 135

"Despite the silence in the church, the earth is deafening."

INTOXICATION  -  @copbydayfangirlbynight  WORD COUNT - 199

"Out of nowhere, these two guys you’ve never seen show up and slip onto the bar stools next to you."

THE LEGEND  -  @quailpower  WORD COUNT - approx. 300 words

Exploring the costs of immortality, and what one angel chooses to do with his time.

JULIET  -  @roxy-davenport  WORD COUNT - 1.7K [minus song lyrics]

A night in the life of Crowley's beloved hellhound.

Q:  HERE [Nash Note: Short version? Knowing when it is appropriate to inject "flowery" verbiage into a narrative. Hint: fits the time period and/or character, is kept crisp, to-the-point, and used sparingly, regardless]  

- MULTI-PARTERS - Stories with a minimum of 2 parts, max of 3-to-4, with modestly sized [1-to-2K] chapters; completed as of this list; organized alphabetically by title. 

None this time! [but I’ve got a couple bookmarked whose wrap-ups appear to be en route]

- SERIES SPOTLIGHT : SUPERNATURAL & SPN CROSS-OVERS - Works that are completed series, as well as ongoing / in progress series, with at least 3 parts published as of/prior to the edition of The Nail in question; unfinished series must have been updated within roughly 6 months of this post;  these are lengthier than multi-parters, getting into a 5K+ range per chapter; organized alphabetically by title.

MISE EN PLACE  -  @sp-oops  

A look inside the ways you  - and the rest of the family - help Dean deal with the effects of the Mark of Cain.

Q: in medias res; quick, crisp dialogue & pace; no heavy-handed/laborious descriptors of setting/emotions, whether internal or verbal; nice character development/casual, easy feel to character interactions; sex fit into plot organically/didn't feel forced; plausible reactions by Dean/Sam/protag regarding the complexities of the residual impacts of the mark; witty humor throughout; nice cap-off/author knew when to step away from the keyboard  

Curated by @smi727 , who said: "Stumbled upon this little beauty of a series recently. I was seriously blown away by the plot, the writing, the reader’s personality, everything! Please Nash, share this wonderful writer with the world!"

- RANDOM FANDOMS -   All types, all lengths, all the things that aren’t SPN but are still pretty damn super; organized alphabetically by title.

AGENT 15  [series in progress]  -  @bellamysgirl

[MARVEL - AGENTS OF S.H.I.E.L.D.]

"Agent 15 was one of S.H.I.E.L.D.'s top agents - that all changed when a mission went terribly wrong... but Coulson found a way to drag her back."

Q: in medias res; moves at a quick clip/no time wasted on extraneous detail; well-done characterization of both known/O.C.; reads as if watching episodes/movie; nice format/use of time flip vs. heavy exposition telling another character about those events; keeps intensity while splashing in moments of camaraderie

VERY MUCH FAEBLOODED [drabble]  -  @mickeyrowan

[POTTERVERSE]

"She knows she’s different. She’s always been different... No place lets her forget this."

Q: Introspective without taking the reader on a deep, angst-filled dive; even-handed character portrayal; tone consistent; nice choice of event highlighting vs. a traditional narrative; well done on complementary kick-off/wrap-up

WHO YOU ARE [one-shot]  -  @blackcaptainrogers

[MARVEL - AVENGERS]

Bucky knows showing love takes on a variety of forms.

Q:  HERE

[Nash Note: Short version? Your audience consists of such variety, it’ll take your breath away. And, well...]

On that piece of white paper, Sam wrote, "Write about me sometime." And I typed something back to her, standing right there in her bedroom. I just typed, "I will.”  ― Stephen Chbosky, The Perks of Being a Wallflower  

- ORIGINAL WORKS - Anything from haiku to novella; pieces in the less-than-300 words neighborhood are considered quality in their entirety, therefore no "Q" notations; organized by length.

IT IS SO TIRING TO BE DIVINE  -  @mythaelogy WORD COUNT - 52

"The architecture of your bones was built by conquerors."

MYSTERY GIRL  -  @inkskinned WORD COUNT - 111

"[A] girl who convinces you of magic, who flickers just a little on the edge of reality..."

I HAVEN'T LOOKED AT THE STARS IN A MONTH  - @poemsforpersephone  WORD COUNT - 125

"It’s an easy thing, to open a window, to step outside."

A TRADITION  -   @wakor-rising / @wakor  &  @sonatagreen   WORD COUNT - 189

"In peacetime, the ruler grows their hair long. In war, they cut it short."

--> I cannot tag these folks, if someone could kindly let them know or give it a go in your reblog

NEW YORK CITY TO RICHMOND  -  @haleyincarnate  WORD COUNT - 269

"I wonder if he knows that I can see the trying part of him..."

THE HOUSE OF GRUMLY  -  @erinnightwalker  WORD COUNT - 553

"Everyone knew that the Widow Grumly’s granddaughter was a werewolf."

Q: Sharp start with a phenomenal choice of an opening sentence; took a "historical fact", ran with it, and created a captivating world / plot in an incredibly short span of time; formatting, flow, verbiage crisp; nice & layered/written with a clever audience in mind

THE ADVENTURES OF ROXY AND JUJU   - @wheresthekillswitch  WORD COUNT - 2.4K  [part one/series in progress]

"JuJu finally relents and hands over the car keys to Roxy. It couldn’t possibly go more wrong than it did the last time Roxy drove…. right?"

Q: in medias res; crisp dialogue; absolutely engaging, witty characters developed in a short amount of space; vivid descriptors without being heavy-handed; leans into a vignette [character study] feel vs. hashing out a distinct plot; nice intro/kick-off for a series, though if author opts not to proceed, works just fine as stand-a-lone...

[...which is why I broke my own damn series criteria rule, so sue me. -N.]

- STUFF SO CREATIVE & UNIQUE, IT JUST CAN'T BE CATEGORIZED - What it says, organized alphabetically by title.

ENTRIES  - @cardinaleyes

An inside look into the journals of Team Free Will:

DEAN

SAM

CASTIEL

Q: an ongoing pseudo-series with a creative concept; keeps distinct style for each; bonus points regarding convenience for the reader by having a "home" for each character vs. all together in one blog

JEOPARDY

In which Team Free Will plays a game.

It began with a piece of fanart by @lastlabyrinth  ....

....which got some dialogue by @phantomrose96  ....

.... which got a follow-up by @casonly, and a nice wrap-up from  @guntheramvs 

Q: Written with sharp, quick-witted audience in mind; spit-take worthy humor; great characterization, spot-on in fact regarding our host for the evening; crisp, fun dialogue; excellent collaboration by all involved

[h/t  @waywardafbabygirl ]

JOURNAL OF A MAN OF LETTERS  -  @petite-madame

From the creator: "[This is] a diary in first-person narrative written from Sam's point of view. Once a week, I post an art and a ficlet inspired by an episode or a scene. I'm following the show timeline as close as I can but I'm taking liberty with canon here and there."

Q: Extraordinary, above-and-beyond, clearly evident care, devotion, countless hours put into this project, and it has paid off many times over - there is some of the most beautiful art you'll ever see, there are stories [have a sample] that will hit you right in the feels, there are moments ranging from light-hearted to introspection, and you even have an option of platform - go HERE for the LiveJournal headquarters. Phenomenal, top-to-bottom. I am not over-selling this.

TWO AGENTS MISSING, PRESUMED DEAD - @bohoartist & @piecesofscully

[THE X-FILES]

Two agents are missing - follow the twists and turns as clues are examined, leads are followed, and information is exchanged.

Q: The planning and execution throughout was nothing short of excellent; written/developed with smart audience in mind; methodology of storytelling unique and, more importantly, appropriate for how the authors chose to unfold the plot; format/use of images was spot-on; clear through-line and tone; mystery that was engaging, teasing but not frustrating  

[h/t @itssteaksauce ]

*~* Shameless Self-Promotion *~*

Happy Reading!  XO - Nash.

* Authors, I encourage you to express your appreciation to your curator(s). Readers, if you enjoy curator selections & found them to be of quality, I encourage you to not only give the authors feedback, but also thank the curator(s) for bringing the story/series to your attention. I suspect they’ll dig it. *

[gamergirl8989]

So after a long time, I finally made a new unit, she isn't a MU but an individual character herself, I even found ways for her to be integrated into all 3 routes and be playable. Warning, long post! (And I don't know how to put things under a cut, so sorry for this being long!) Name: Nayeli Class: Wyvern Rider Backstory: A headstrong and peppy resistance fighter from Windmire but moved to Cheve as a young child. She was born into a family of Knights, but her parents died in action at the hands of a mage, and she was nearly killed by one herself. Nayeli was going to be a knight, but ended up joining the Chevois resistance because she couldn't stand the Nohrian Oppression any longer. Is the most of afraid of magic. Chapters she appears in: Birthright: chapter 13 (ally unit only, not playable) Chapter 14 (playable) Relevance to plot: she appears in Chapter 13 with Scarlett and Ryoma as an Ally unit as backup for the rest of the Chevois resistance. In Chapter 14, she appears after 3 turns, and has a chat with Scarlet, claiming that she had only just been informed at the start of the chapter and had made haste to catch up. Scarlet then introduces Nayeli to Avatar and says that she makes a valuable asset. From there, the battle continues as normal. Conquest: Chapter 10 (as enemy) Chapter 12 (appears at the end of the chapter, wishing to join the group Chapter 13 (becomes playable) Relevance to plot: she appears in chapter 10 as an enemy, as Scarlet commands Nayeli to help defend Takumi. However, when given the chance to deal a finishing blow on the Avatar or another unit, she couldn't do it and significantly weakens the attack (doing no damage as a result). At the end of the chapter, she ends up fleeing to report what happened to Scarlet. At the end of chapter 12, she had found the avatar and asks to join them. She reveals that because she had spared the group and fled, she had been banished from the Chevois resistance by Scarlet, and she ended up hearing that the Avatar's intentions were actually different from what the Hoshidans and Chevois resistance thought, and decided to join the group. This allows her to become playable in chapter 13, and if she is in gameplay and goes against Scarlet, the two actually have a conversation, which leads to Scarlet branding her a traitor, even though Nayeli tries to explain. She ends up leaving for a bit because even though she was branded a traitor by Scarlet, she couldn't bear to see her execution. Revelation: chapter 13: (as enemy) Chapter 17: (playable) Relevance to plot: she's an enemy in Chapter 13 alongside Scarlet, helping her out with Ryoma. She ends up having no will to fight after hearing Azura's song, and leaves with Scarlet and Ryoma. Nayeli comes back in Chapter 17 to assist Scarlet and the others after having gotten lost, joining their cause (thus becoming playable). In chapter 18, she arrives a little while after the battle is over and is grief stricken when she learns about Scarlet's death. Skills: Lunge Strength +2 Rally Strength Stats: As unit: Revelation: Strength: 20+2 Resistance: 3 Magic: 0 Health: 30 Speed: 18 Defence: 20 Luck: 15 Base level: 5 Birthright: Strength: 19+2 Resistance: 3 Magic: 0 Health: 29 Speed: 19 Defence: 20 Luck: 15 Base level: 2 Conquest: Strength: 23+2 Resistance: 7 Magic: 0 Health: 30 Speed: 21 Defence: 22 Luck: 17 Base level: 6 As enemy: Strength: 21+2 Resistance: 5 Magic: 0 Health: 27 Speed: 20 Defence: 20 Luck: 16 Base level: 5 Supports: Romantic: All males (except child units) Other: Her children Camilla (Conquest/Revelation) Hinoka (Birthright/Revelation) Scarlet (Birthright/Revelation) Sakura (Birthright/Revelation) Elise (Conquest/Revelation) Nyx (Conquest/Revelation) Azura (all) (F) Avatar (all) Quotes: My Castle "I wonder who dropped this? Maybe I should try to find the owner." (Item) "Let me have at anyone! I can take 'em all on!" (Surge) "There, all done! Nice and shiney, now!" (Weapon proficiency) "Hm, maybe a new accessory wouldn't hurt anything." (Accessory gift) - "Aww, (Avatar) you sweetheart! Thank you!" (Accessory gift given) - "Hey, this is nice! Thanks (Avatar)!" (Accessory gift give ) - "Ah well, I probably would've given it to someone else as a gift anyways." (Accessory gift refused) - "Eh? This is definitely an... unusual gift... but thank you anyways!" (Accessory gift: bath towel) - "Ah, thank you! You didn't need to get me anything though." (Friendship birthday gift) "Hey, (Avatar)! Care to spar?" (Idle) "Good day, (Avatar), nice day today, huh?" (Idle) "Hey avatar, care to go to the local town and help people?" (Idle) "Hey, thanks for being a good friend!" (Idle) "(Avatar)! How are you today?" (Idle) "Wow, your everywhere today! Be sure to take breaks though, okay?" (Idle) "Oh, hi there! I'm Nayeli, welcome to our fort!" (Visitor) Asking - Normal "Hey, I'm curious, what usually occupies your free time?" (Hobby) "Hey. Let's team up in the next battle! Nobody would stand a chance against us two!" (Team up) Replying - Normal "Me? Oh, when I'm not helping people I just like to care for Mersy! She's a real sweetheart." (Hobby) "Absolutely! Nobody'll know what hit them with the two of us together!" (team up) Asking - married "Hey, please be careful out there love. I don't want to lose you, it'd be really hard on me." (Promise) "Hey, sweetheart! Just wanted to say that I love you!" (Love) Replying - married "Aw, (spouse). I promise I'll be careful, but don't exhaust yourself worrying, okay?" (Promise) Asking - Child "(Child), let me know if you need anything, okay? I wouldn't mind spoiling you!" (Gift) "Hehe, spending time with you is so much fun, (child)! I hope we can continue to spend this much time together!" (Spending time) Replying - Child "(Child), you don't have to get me anything, just being with you is enough of a gift for me!" (Gift) (Child), let's spend some time together! I wanna make up for all that time you spent without me." (Spending time) Private Quarters Friendship "Hey, thanks for inviting me over!" (Invite) "So, what are we going to do today?" (Invite) "Hiya, (Avatar)! What did ya need?" (Invite) "Aww, you two are so cute together!" (Invite -married) Bonding - "Hey, we should do this again sometime, this is fun!" (Invite ally friendship bond quote) - "I can't wait to come back to your room, I always have a lot of fun with you!" (Invite ally friendship bond quote) - "Ya know, it's nice to talk with people that have the same ideals about helping people!" (Invite ally friendship bond quote) - "You know, if peace ever does return to our countries, I wouldn't mind being your knight!" (Invite ally friendship rank up quote) Lovers "Welcome home, love! Ready to spend some time together?" (Entrance) "Hey (Avatar)! How was your day so far?" (Entrance) "Hi love! My my, you look dashing today!" (Entrance) "Oh, (Avatar)! I didn't hear you come in, sorry about that!" (Awakening, good) "Eep! Oh, (Avatar)! You scared me, please don't do that!" (Awakening, bad) "Aww, can't you stay a little bit longer?" (Exiting) Bonding - "Hehe, you make me feel really special, you know?" (Lover bonding quote) - "I really love you, (Avatar)." (Lover bonding quote) - "Hm? Oh, do you want a kiss? Hehe, well, okay... aw, you sweetheart!" (Kiss quote) - "You know, I'm really happy our paths crossed." (Lover Rank Up quote) Armory "Hey, welcome to the armory! Let me know if you need help!" (When entering the shop) "Your buying something for me while I'm here? Well that ruins the surprise!" (Buying something for her while she's on duty) "Aw shucks, you don't need to get me anything!" (When buying something for her) "Hm, I really should wait until later for this, but oh well." (When selling something of hers while she's on duty) "Well, at least I can put this towards helping others!" (When selling something of hers) "See ya later, come on back anytime!" (When exiting the shop) Vendor "There's never such a thing as having too many healing items on the battlefield!" (Entering) Smithy "Hey, welcome to the smithy! I'll try to help all I can." (Entering) "Huh, I didn't know we could improve my weapon any more than that!" (When forging a weapon for her) "Well, I'll see what I can do! Hopefully I won't mess up, or I'll be out one weapon." (When forging something while she's on duty) Lottery shop "Hey there, wanna try your luck? Your at the right place!" (Entering) "Ooh, you got the top prize! Congratulations!" (Getting gold) "Hey, that's not too bad!" (Silver prize) "Hey, don't be so down! It's better than nothing, ya know?" (Wood) Arena "Hehe, you must've come to wish me luck if you came here, huh?" (Entering) "Hey, do you mind if I join ya?" (Partnering up with someone) "Woo hoo, victory!" (victory) "Aw man, I'm really sorry, you probably had your hope up for me for nothing..." (defeat) Accessory shop "Hey, welcome to the accessory shop! Let me know if you want anything!" (Entering) Mess hall "Hey, (Avatar)! I'm on duty today, so let me know if you want anything to eat!" (Entering) "Let's see how I do!" (Before cooking) "Well, here you go! I hope it tastes as good as it looks!" (After successful cooking) "Gah, I don't think it turned out too well... but if you still want to try it, go ahead." (After unsuccessful cooking) "Wow, this is great! I think I've got a new favourite chef!" (After eating good food) "Hey, not bad! But it feels like there is something missing." (After eating decent food) "Oh gosh, this isn't sitting right..." (after eating bad food) Prison "I've never liked being here, it really makes me nervous." (Entering) "I'll do my best to get them to join us!" (Before persuading a prisoner) Hot Springs "Oh, hi (Avatar)! Come to relax a bit?" (Entering as the female avatar) "Hey Avatar! Come on in- the water's perfect!" (Entering as the female avatar) "Yeah, the water is nice, isn't it?" (Responding to the female avatar) "Gah! (A)(-Avatar)! Wh-What are you doing here?!" (Entering as the male avatar, unmarried) "Oh, hey (Avatar)! You here to relax, love?" (Entering as the male avatar, married) "Yeah, this is nice. Nothing like spending time with my husband and relaxing in the springs." (Responding to the male avatar, married) Einherjar Shop "Welcome to the Einherjar shop! It may not look like it, but these cards can be really helpful!" (Entering) Gathering spots "Y'know, there's a lot of good recipes that use beans. Maybe I can show you some time!" (Bean field) "Wow, I don't think I've ever had rice before! I wonder what I can make with it!" (Rice field) "Ah, fishing. One of the best supply giving past times. Here, have some- I caught lots!" (Fishing hole) "Man, this fruit is really sweet! Here, I have lots, take as much as you want!" (Berry/Peach field) "Wow, look at all these vegetables, what should we do with them all?" (Daikon/Cabbage field) "We had a great hunt today, (Avatar)! Here, have some- we don't need all of it!" (Hunting Forest) "Y'know, milk is really good for your bones, so be sure to drink lots of it!" (Dairy) "Wow, we can make so much flour with all this wheat! Here, you can have some if you want!" (Wheat field) "Wow, look at all this ore, it's so pretty! Here, have some!" (Hoshidan Spring) "Hey, I remember finding ore like this in a cave back at home once. Why don't you take some?" (Nohrian Mine) "Hi there, we just finished harvested some food. Why don't you have some so you can eat?" (Food gathering, visiting another castle) "Hi there, traveler! Here, have some ore; fresh from the mine!" (ore gathering spot, visiting another kingdom) Avatar's birthday "Happy birthday, (Avatar)! I hope today holds great things!" (Regular) "Happy birthday, my love! I hope I can make it the best day possible." (Married) Level up "Wow, I feel so much stronger!" (6+ stats up) "This is great, but there's still room for improvement!" (4-5 stats up) "Not bad at all!" (2-3 stats up) "Gah, that's not what I was expecting at all." (0-1 stat up) "Haha, nothing's stopping me now!" (0-1 stat up, most stats capped) Class change "Hey, I think I may like this!" Confession "Wow, I knew I'd find my Prince Charming, but I never thought he'd be an actual prince! But no matter what, you'll always be my love." Help description A supposed-to-be knight turned Chevois resistance member. Loves to fly high into the clouds with her Wyvren and very considerate of others. Is the most afraid of magic. Born on 6/20 Final chapter "There's no way any of us can give up, you understand?" (Final Chapter quote) DLC prebattle quotes Boo camp "Ah jeez, this is scary! I-I mean, please, this is child's play, I can handle this easily!" Ghostly gold "*yawn* huh? Me? Tired? Please, I don't need sleep! I... I... *snores* huh?! What?! Let me at 'em!" Museum melee "Well, this'll be interesting! Plus free weapons?! Score!" Anna on the Run "Brr... it's really cold here, I really should fix my arm or so it'll keep me warmer." Battle quotes Dual support - "Don't worry, I'm here!" - "Your safe now!" - "We've got this!" - "Let's do this!" - "You'll do great!" - "Don't be scared!" - "No backing out now!" - "Be careful!" Attack stance - "Take this!" - "Hyah!" Guard stance - "You okay?" - "Watch out!" Critical/skill - "You'll regret that!" - "Take this!" - "You won't get away with that!" - "I got you now!" Defeated enemy - "Haha!" - "That's what you get for messing with us!" - "Good job, Mersy!" Partner defeated enemy/healed - "Phew." - "Awesome!" - "Your doing good!" Defeated by enemy "Ah... no... this c-can't be happening..." Death/retreat quote - "Gah... sorry guys, I need to retreat. I'll only slow you all down otherwise." - "Agh... sorry guys, I'll only slow you all down, I need to pull back." Possible endings (Birthright) Nayeli - Astounding Knight Nayeli lived on to be a great knight, and ended up staying with the Chevois Resistance. Tales of her unfaltering kindness lived for many generations. (Conquest) Kind Wanderer After being branded a traitor by Cheve, she ended up going back to her hometown of Windmire. She would sometimes wander to other countries with her Wyvren Mersy. (Revelation) Nayeli: Resistance leader After the war, she mourned the death of Scarlet for a long time. After an inambiguous vote, she stepped up as leader of the Chevois resistance, should they ever have to rise again. Facts: her Wyvren is named Mersy

[hellostarlight20]

This Week in Writing

(Take 2)

I tried to post this last night but Tumblr gave me all sorts of trouble and I wasn’t in the mood to fight it. (It won that round, let’s face it!) So here we go again!

I received 3 critiques for my original story, all of them very positive and all of them with constructive thoughts I need to take into account re: action. The emotion was well received and each one loved my writing and had all good things to say about that. Woo hoo!

July is Camp NaNo so I’ll be setting this story aside to focus on another story, then in August I’ll tackle Book 1 again. I’m just so thrilled by all the positive feedback!

On a fic-front:

I Will... is nearly finished! I have some tweaks to make and then send it over to my beta, Mrs. Bertucci, so I’m not sure about an update this week but I’m very pleased with how it turned out. And for those who follow it, yes, the next chapter is a twisty doozy of a take on the Master.

Soldier’s Solstice, formerly known as Once Upon a Time on His Beach, based on an awesome manip by @rose--nebula is over the halfway mark. I gave her the choice of posting now or waiting, and she left it up to me. Honestly, I'm just more comfortable posting once the story is complete so I don’t feel pressured or find glaring plot mistakes I can’t go back and fix (which may still happen but it’s less likely to this way!)

Once I finish these 2 stories to my satisfaction, I’ll move on to the other WIPs I have glaring at me. Your options for stories that are started but not finished are:

1. Spanning the Stars--Jack and Idris are dimension hopping to match-make Rose and the Doctor, but on their first stop, Jack runs into a person from his past. (angsty).

2. Don’t Stop Me Now @zoebelle9 prompted me: “Shake what you got. Wait, I mean the- no don’t stop!“ for Ten x Rose? (Exactly what it sounds like in all its smutty goodness!)

3. It’s a Beautiful Day Nine/Rose based on the prompt from @kelkat9 said: “It’s a beautiful day to question everything.” Nine/Rose can be DW or AU :) (Cracky, campy goodness!)

4. Tau Theta Eight/Rose interlude to my We Are Never Alone series wherein Rose pops up just as Eight is drinking that Pythia potion to regenerate him and stops him from making a mistake and change time like the Sisters of Pythia  want. It’s a 50th Anniversary re-write. (Angst, lots of Doctors, fluffy Eight/Rose moments, rewrite)

What are you working on? How’s your week going? What do you hope for this week? Writing or otherwise?

[trashglasses]

Some Things Never Change ch.1

Cross-posted on AO3 as well: http://archiveofourown.org/works/10189937/chapters/22629308

Relationships: Prompto Argentum/Noctis Lucis Caelum and Gladiolus Amicitia/Ignis Scientia

SFW

Words: 6993

After the game killed my little heart, I needed something sweet and fluffy. So here we are. Our Chocobros with adorable children. I’m so in love with these kids.

“Nikolas! Woo Hoo! Buddy! Look over here for Daddy!” Prompto called out from behind the toddler that was playing in front of him, adjusting the camera a bit to catch the boy in action. Nikolas was trying to catch a frog he saw but it seemed it was a bit harder than what he imagined it would be.

Nikolas Lucis Caelum was Prompto’s and Noctis’ 4 year old son. He had tousled black hair that more often than not resembled a nest rather than actual hair. It was quite the contrast to his pale skin. He had stunning green eyes which were only further emphasized by the dark freckles that peppered his face under his big rosy cheeks.

He was a quiet child; keeping to himself most of the time. He preferred to color in the living room rather than go outside and play. Prompto was trying to get him to get out a little more with these impromptu photo shoots. Nikolas seemed to enjoy them since Prompto often took to him to interesting spots around the kingdom.

They have been at the slough for a few hours now. Prompto wanted to get a few pictures of the place while the lighting was good and it was an excuse to take Nik out into nature. The toddler was reluctant at first, taking careful steps through the grass and tightly gripping Prompto’s pants. But after seeing some of the wildlife that surrounded them, he warmed up; especially when he saw the frogs.

Nikolas had been chasing the frogs for over an hour, only getting his tiny hands on one before it jumped right out of his hands. Prompto could help but document the entire ordeal, chuckling behind the camera, even after Nikolas had scolded him for laughing at him.

Nikolas was sitting down on a rock nearby, looking over at the water in front of him.

“Ready to go home buddy?”

The boy looked at him with sleepy eyes, rubbing them gently as he nodded. Prompto couldn’t help but laugh at his display. He was just like his Papa.

He snapped a few pictures of the tired boy before calling it done. He walked over to Nikolas, picking him up slinging him on his hip. The boy instinctively curled up on his father’s jean jacket, leaning his head on his shoulder.

“Sleepy? Ready to go home and take a nap?” Prompto asked, running his fingers through his messy black mop.

The boy nodded, rubbing his eyes again. Prompto laid a soft kiss on his cheek before walking towards home.

“Too sleepy to get ice cream?”

The toddler perked up in his arms as if he was never tired in the first place. Prompto laughed loudly and bounced the boy lightly on his hip.

“Ice cream it is then.”

----

“Noct! We’re home!” Prompto yelled, setting the now ice cream covered toddler down before closing the door behind him.

There was no answer.

“Noct!” he called out again.

“Papa!” Nikolas called out as well. The boy looked up at Prompto with a sulky frown.

“Hey, It’s okay Nikky. We’ll find him.” he said, walking through the living room. The toddler ran off to check the couch in the back room first. It was Noctis’ favorite sleeping spot in the house. But he wasn’t there.

Prompto checked their room next. Nothing. Just the messy bed he left this morning when he woke up. He sighed deeply as he ran his hands through his hair. He heard the pitter patter of little feet running towards him. Nikolas pulled on the hem of Prompto’s jacket.

“I can’t find him Daddy…” the child said quietly.

“Looks like he might be out. I will call him. Don’t worry about it. Why don’t you color while I call him, okay?” Prompto said, ruffling the boy’s messy hair. The toddler nodded and went off to room to grab his coloring stuff.

Prompto pulled out his phone from his pocket and quickly dialed the familiar number. It rang a few times before the line picked up.

“Hello?”

“Hey Noct. Where are you? Nikky and I just got home to an empty house. He is freaking out a bit because you aren't home.” Prompto said, starting to walk to the living room. Nikolas walked past him, his arms filled with crayons and markers as well as a notebook.

“Oh. My bad. I went out fishing. Gladio and Specs are coming over later so I figured I would catch something for dinner. I didn’t think I would be out that long. Kinda got sucked in.” Noctis’ explained.

“It’s okay. I just wanted to make sure everything was okay.” Prompto said, sitting in a nearby chair, keeping an eye on Nikolas, who had laid out all his supplies on the coffee table and carefully separated the crayons from the markers.

“How was the photo shoot? Did he cooperate this time?” Noctis asked.

“It was better than last time. He really liked the water so I took off his shoes and socks and let him put his feet in. He tried to catch a few frogs too. I got quite a few cute shots of him trying to catch it. He got sleepy though after a bit so we went home.”

Noctis’ laughed a little. “A frog huh? Guess he is more like you than we thought Prompt.”

“Not even! I never chased frogs unless you managed to get yourself turned into one! Someone had to use the maiden’s kiss on you!” Prompto argued.

Noct laughed harder, making Prompto turn a bright shade of pink. He sat back in the chair and sighed deeply.

“Okay it wasn’t that funny! Just tell me what time are Gladdy and Iggy coming over so I can clean up a little. I would rather not get another earful from Iggy because of state of the kitchen.”

“Gladio said around 4 or 5. Knowing Ignis, it will probably right at 4 o’clock.”

Prompto looked over at the kitchen stove for the time.

“NOCTTT!” Prompto whined, making Nikolas look up from his current drawing.

“What?!”

“It’s 3:30! You won’t even be home by then!” Prompto said, standing up and heading to the kitchen to start picking up the dishes over the counter and putting various boxes of sugar cereal in the cabinet.

“It is not 3:30 already! It can’t be.”

“Tell that to clock on the stove Noctis. It never lied to me before.”

“Shit! I hasn’t even felt like I have been out that long. I’m sorry. I’ll be home as soon as I can okay?”

“Hurry please. I would rather not have to deal with the rath of Ignis alone.”

“I will. Talk to you when I get home.”

“Love you Noct.”

“Love you too Prom. Bye.”

Prompto took the phone from his ear and hung up quickly. He tossed his phone onto the table and turned on the hot water in the sink so he could start washing the massive pile of dishes that were in the sink.

“Daddy?” Nikolas asked, looking up from his drawing.

“Yeah buddy?” Prompto answered, slipping on the big yellow rubber gloves and grabbing a sponge and the soap.

“Uncle Iggy and Uncle Gladdy are coming?” he asked, putting his crayon down.

“Yeah. That’s why I gotta clean the kitchen. I don’t want Uncle Iggy to get mad at Papa and I again because we leave it a mess.” he explained, furiously washing the dishes in front of him, not regarding the water that was splashing all over him.

“Okay.” he said, turning his attention back to his drawing, making an outline of what could be interpreted as a frog of the sorts. “Are Malena and Neveah coming too?”

“Well of course. They can’t just leave them at home buddy.”

“Oh okay.” he said quietly, grabbing a green crayon and filling in his lines. Prompto smiled softly and sprayed a heavy cleaner onto the stove to scrub the living daylights out it.

----

Knock Knock Knock

Prompto looked at the time and quietly cursed to himself. 4 o'clock on the dot. Just like Noctis said earlier. He sighed deeply and continued to scrub a particularly caked on spot on the stove. He quietly prayed to the Six for their decision to pick a black stove instead of the white one they originally wanted.

“Doors open! Come on in!” he yelled, using all his strength to scrub that stubborn spot on the stove.

The door opened slowly and in stepped Gladiolus and Ignis. Ignis came in first, with a large black bag slung over on one shoulder and a smaller gray bag on the other. Ignis greeted Nikolas, who was still coloring in his frog, with a soft smile and a wave.

Gladiolus came in after and was carrying two infant car seats, one in each hand. He set both down on the floor by loveseat nearby and stretched a little bit, groaning in the process.

“They are getting too heavy to be in these things Ig. Think it’s time to just start carrying them in.” Gladio mentioned, pulling his arm across his chest to stretch a bit.

“Wouldn’t have expected a man who could still take down a behemoth, if the need was present, to be complaining about carrying in two car seats less than 50 feet from the car.” Ignis snapped back.

Gladio rolled his eyes a bit. “You wouldn’t be saying that if you had to carry them.” he muttered under his breath.

Nikolas looked up from his drawing finally to see the 2 car seats sitting by the loveseat. He perked up, dropping his crayons down on the table and ran over to where they were at.

“Malena! Neveah! They’re here Daddy!” he said excitedly, looking at the purple blanket that covered one seat and a deep blue one covering the other. He looked up at Gladio, silently asking for permission to remove it. Gladio smiled and gave the boy a steady nod. He carefully moved both blankets from the car seats to reveal both sleeping baby girls.

“Careful now Nikolas. They have just fallen asleep. They haven’t napped all day.” Ignis said, setting the larger black bag down near Gladio and taking the other bag towards the kitchen.

“Calm down Ig. He’s not doing anything to ‘em.” Gladio said, crossing his arms across his chest, glancing over to look at Nikolas.

“I would rather not have Malena wake up too early from her nap. She gets rather fussy if awaken too early.” Ignis informed Gladio, pushing his glasses up on his nose.

“I know that Ig. She is my daughter too ya know.” Gladio said, looking at the baby.

Prompto stepped out the kitchen, his shirt soaking in water and smelling like some strong cleaner. “Hey, guys! Long time no see!” he said with a big smile.

“It’s only been two weeks Prompto.” Gladio mentioned. “Where’s Prince Charmless?”

“Noct went out fishing to catch something for dinner. He should be home soon.” he explained, pulling the rubber gloves from his hands.

“Good because I am starving.” Gladio said, plopping on the couch and putting his muscular arms over the top. Prompto went to the back of the house to change his shirt quickly since he was practically dripping wet.

“Uncle Gladdy?” Nikolas asked, his eye still glued to the sleeping babies in front of him.

“Yeah Nik? What’s up?”

“When are they going to wake up? I want to play with them already.” he asked, turning to face the large man with a soft pout.

He shrugged, crossing his legs. “Don’t know bud. Babies need a lot of sleep.”

“More than me?”

“Way more than you and your Papa combined.”

He looked back at the baby girls with wide eyes. “That’s a lot of sleep.”

Prompto came back into the room with a clean shirt and dry hands. He looked over at Nikolas, who was sitting criss-cross in front of Malena’s car seat, head in his hands, waiting for her to wake up. Prompto couldn’t help but snap a picture or two of the sweet moment.

He walked over to the car seats and squatted down in front of them both to get a good look. He took a long look at Malena then Nevaeh. “Hey Iggy! Both of them are really starting to look like you! Before you know it, they will need their own pair of spectacles .” he said, mocking Ignis’ accent with the last word.

Malena Marie Amicitia was the “oldest” of the 7-month-old twin girls of advisor Ignis Scientia and King’s shield Gladiolus Amicitia. She had a head full of wavy sandy blond hair which was neatly brushed down and held in place with a white headband with a big bow one the side. She had almond shaped hazel eyes and slightly tanned skin, both courtesy of Gladio. Despite both men being tall (and one rather large man) she was tiniest of the two girls, often having to wear clothes for 5-month-olds. She was a healthy baby though and it showed in her attitude.

Contrary to both her parents, She was bouncy, smiley, and happy most of the time. She loved to smile and laugh and she always enjoys playtime and lots of company. Although she was an overall happy baby, when she isn’t in the mood, it’s very obvious. She gets cranky easily when woken up, sending her into a fit of tears until she is calmed down.

Nevaeh Arya Amicitia was the “younger” one of the twins. She was bigger than her sister , though, being able to fit into clothes meant for others her age.  Malena and Nevaeh were virtually identical as far as looks went. They shared the same sandy blond hair, almond shaped hazel eyes, and tanned skin. Neveah was a happy baby as well, sharing laughs with her sister and enjoying playtime just as much. Unlike Malena, who could be sent into a crying fit easily, nothing really upset the girl,. She stayed quiet and happy, hardly ever cried and slept soundly through all of her naps, not matter how loud it was around her.

Ignis typically had the girls presentable and dressed at all times, typically in dresses or little other little outfits he or Gladio found. Today, both girls were wearing a summery type dress with ruffles for sleeves and the same ruffles around the hem and the matching leggings. Malena’s dress was a soft baby pink while Nevaeh’s was a bright shade of yellow. Malena wore a white headband over his head, with a big bow decorating the front. Nevaeh wasn’t fond of headbands (she pulled them right off her head most of the time) so, her hair was pulled into neat little pigtails on each side of her head with little white ribbons hanging from each one.

Ignis rolled his eyes at Prompto’s comment before pulling his cooking utensils out of the smaller bag he brought into the kitchen. “I'm surprised you managed to clean the kitchen so well Prompto. It’s almost like you actually tried for once.” he said, taking a look around the freshly cleaned kitchen.

“Hey! I try! A lot actually!” He yelled, crossing his arms and pouting a bit like a child.

“Shh! For gods sake Prompt you are right next to two sleeping babies. One of which will lose her damn mind if she wakes up too early.” Gladio said, quietly scolding the other man.

“Sorry!” Prompto said in a whisper before moving away from the girls. But alas, it was too late, Malena started to stir in her car seat, starting to whine loudly as she woke up. Nevaeh kept sleeping soundly, sucking softly on her pacifier.

“Now you have done it.” Gladio said with a deep sigh before digging into the black bag next to him and pulling out another pacifier.

Malena started to cry loudly, squirming around in her seat as if she was trying to get out by herself. Nikolas reached out and gently pet the girls head, trying to get her to calm down.

“It’s okay Lena. I don't like when anyone wakes me up either.” He said to the infant, still petting her head gently. It didn’t stop her crying but it was a sweet gesture.

Gladio smiled and stepped next to the car seat. He pushed a button on the side that caused the handle to swing behind the seat so he could easily grab the crying baby.

“Watch out bud. Gotta get her out of here.” Gladio said, leaning down and unbuckling the straps across her chest before grabbing the baby girl with both hands. He gently set her on his chest, where she continued to cry, clinging to her father’s too tight tank top.

“I know. I know. You got woken up too early. Blame your uncle Prompto on that one, baby girl.” Gladio said, cutting his eyes towards Prompto before giving the girl her pacifier. She started enthusiastically sucking on the pacifier, calming down enough to stop crying. He started gently bouncing her, holding her to his strong chest.

“I didn't mean to! Sorry!” Prompto said, flushing a little pink. “I’ll be quiet next time!”

The door suddenly flung open, hitting the wall behind it and Noct took a few steps in with a bag of fish one hand and his tackle box in the other. “Prompt! Nikky! I’m back!”

The sudden loud noises made Malena spit out her pacifier and start crying again. Gladio groaned quietly and grabbed the loose pacifier.

“Way to go, your highness.” Gladio said, in a sarcastic tone as he bounced the girl a little more.

“My bad.” Noct said, putting down his tackle box and handing Prompto the bag of fish for Ignis to start cooking. He peeled off his slightly damp jacket off and tossed it on a nearby chair before walking over to his shield and the crying baby. He reached out and grabbed the girl from the stronger man’s arms.

“I’m sorry Malena. Come to Uncle Noct.” He said, cradling the girl in his arms. “I didn’t mean to wake you up from your nap.” he said quietly, rocking the girl in his arms.

Malena started to cry harder, obvious not wanting to be in his arms at the moment. She squirmed viciously in his arms, trying to escape.

“You smell like fish Papa. She probably doesn’t like that.” Nikolas said, looking up at his father, plugging his own nose with his fingers.

Ignis came over and carefully grabbed his child from Noctis’ arms, moving her onto his chest so he could rub her back softly. “Nikolas is correct Noct. You smell like the fish market in Lestallum. Might I suggest a shower or at the very least, a change of clothes.” He said, bouncing lightly to keep the cries from getting any louder.

Noctis groaned loudly and ran his fingers through his hair. “You guys are all over exaggerating. It is not that bad.”

“Noct, I can smell you from over here. Change your clothes ya lazy ass.” Gladio said, plopping back on the couch.

Noctis rolled his eyes and headed to the back of the house towards to his room to change.

Malena’s crying starting to quiet down after Noctis left to change his clothes. Ignis let out a sigh of relief as his bouncing slowed down as well, whispering a few words into the girl's sandy hair.

“Gladio, could you reach in the bag and grab her playmat. I am sure she doesn’t want to go back into her car seat after the fuss she put up.” he said. He turned to Nikolas, who was still sitting in front of the car seats, waiting for Nevaeh.  “Would you like to sit down and play with Malena, Nikolas?” Ignis asked the toddler.

Nikolas nodded furiously, quickly moving to get all of his toys out the floor in order for Ignis to lay down the playmat. He tossed the mounds of toy cars, plushes, and random crayons into the bin the corner of the room.  “I’ll help! I’ll help!” he said, reaching to grab the mat from his uncle’s hands. He carefully laid it out, taking his time to smooth out all the wrinkles, just how Ignis like it.

“Good job Nikolas. At this rate, you will be must neater than your parents.” Ignis said with a little smirk. He carefully got down and sat Malena down, fixing her hair a bit under the headband and putting in her pacifier while he was down there. Nikolas sat right next to her, playing her her flailing hands.

The baby cooed loudly, clapping her hands a little as Ignis laid out a few toys on the mat in front of her as well. Nikolas sat down next to her and let her little fingers grip onto his.

“She's strong!” Nikolas said as she squeezed his fingers.

“Got it from her Pop!” Gladio said proudly, patting his chest a bit. Ignis rolled his eyes at the display and headed back into the kitchen to clean the fish for dinner. Even after all these years, and despite the fact that he was now married with a family, he still found himself cooking for Noctis just as often as he used to.

Nikolas was helping Malena play with a musical learning ball, fixing her sleeves a bit as they fell off her tiny shoulders.

“Are Malena and Nevaeh always dressed this nice, even at home, Uncle Gladdy?” Nikolas asked as he watched Malena push the ball away and stumble forward onto her stomach so she could crawl around.

“Yeah. Ig likes them to be ‘presentable’ at all points in time. Just like him. They are always wearing dresses. Dresses and headbands with bows. Those are your Uncle Iggy’s favorite thing to buy. I say, let them run around in their diapers. They like it better anyway.” Gladio said, stretching out on the couch.

“There is nothing wrong with them looking presentable every day. You never know who is watching Gladio. It also instills good habits for later in life.” Ignis commented from the kitchen.

“More like you have to see them in every outfit you buy them. You see a cute dress or an outfit and have to buy it right away. For someone as frugal as you are, you indulge in buying the girls’ clothes and stuff that they’ll grow out of faster than ya bought it.” Gladio retorted.

“Am I not allowed to purchase clothing for my own children now?”

“That’s funny coming out of the mouth of a guy who wouldn’t let us get a hotel room while it was pouring rain outside because the room was a little more expensive than what we normally paid.” Noctis interjected, walking back into the room with a fresh outfit on. He walked over to the other twin, who was still sound asleep in her car seat. He reached down and picked up the girl from her seat and set her on his chest, rubbing his hand down her back to keep her asleep.

“That was a vastly different situation Noct. I am still as ‘frugal’ as you all remember. I just spare no expense for my girls.” Ignis said, carefully gutting the fish.

“So you spoil them?” Prompto pointed out.

“Spoil is hardly the correct word to use.” Ignis spat, defending his choices.

“Yeah, he spoils ‘em.  I have been trying to convince him for the past 2 weeks to let me get a new belt buckle. He keeps saying that is ‘isn't in the budget’ yet the other day, he came home with 6 new outfits and 4 pairs of shoes for the girls.”

“Gladio, for the last time, I will not let you get that god awful belt buckle. Even if we had all the gil in the world, I still would say the exact same thing.” Ignis snapped back.

“What’s on the buckle to make you hate it so much Specs?” Noctis asked, still bouncing with Nevaeh on his chest.

“It's big and gold and had BAMF on it. I saw it in the market.” Gladio said, puffing his chest out a bit.  “I think it fits me pretty well. It would be a nice addition don't cha think?”

All three men rolled their eyes at the statement.

“Daddy, what does it mean?” Nikolas asked, trying to keep Malena from crawling off the mat.

“What does what mean Nik?” Prompto asked, digging his thumbs into the front of his pants.

“What Uncle Gladdy said. The letters.”

Prompto almost choked on his spit and shot a look at Gladio, who shrugged. Prompto sighed and ran a hand through his hair.

“They are bad words. You don’t need to know them.” Prompto said.

“Like what Papa says when he is mad at his phone or out getting fishies?”

Ignis chuckled from the kitchen, trying to cough to cover it up. Noctis gave his advisor quite the look.

“My apologies but Noctis has always had quite the potty mouth, even when he was younger. Not much a surprise to see Nikolas had figured that much out.”

Noctis rolled his eyes hard before setting the second girl down on the mat beside her sister. “I get it. I get it. I need to watch my language around Nik.” he grumbled. He took a seat next to Gladio on the couch, leaning his head back against the backrest.

“I could use a nap right about now.” he said to himself, yawning loudly right after.

“You always say that Noct.” Prompto pointed out, taking a few pictures of the kids playing together.

“Because I could always use a nap. Never a bad time for one.” Noctis said, putting his hands behind his head. “Specs? How’s dinner coming along?”

“Slowly but surely. I had to properly clean the fish first. That takes most of the prep time.” Ignis said from the kitchen, slicing the now clean fish into fillets.

“What’s for dinner Papa?” Nikolas asked.

“Uncle Ig is making fish with rice.” Noctis answered.

“Fisssshhhh?” the child whined loudly. “But I don’t like fish!”

Gladio held back a laugh, patting Noctis on the back. “Like father like son.”

“It will be good I promise. Uncle Iggy can cook way better than your dad and I can.” Noctis said, sitting up to look at the pouty little boy.

“I would hardly call it cooking.” Ignis chimed in.

“Hey! We really do try! I followed that cookbook you gave me to a T and it still didn’t come out as good as yours.” Prompto said in a half whine.

“Practice makes perfect Prompto.” Gladio said, leaning down in front of him to pick up Nevaeh, who had crawled over from the mat. He set her on his lap, holding her up with one hand.

“Easy for you to say! You get Ignis’ cooking every day!” Prompto said, with a little pout.

“Not every day. I have had to cook more often lately. Iggy couldn’t do much while he was pregnant with the girls so I learned to cook a few things outside of cup noodles. Take out wasn’t really his thing.” the man said, bouncing his knee a little to get Nevaeh to laugh.

“Prompto just wanted take-out all the time.” Noctis teased.

“Oh, we very much knew that. I remember more than a handful of times having to wake up at strange hours because you needed the car to take Prompto to get a cheeseburger.” Ignis said from the kitchen, now starting to sear the fish in a skillet.

Prompto blushed a little bit. “I like cheeseburgers okay? I used to eat them all time when I was younger. The cravings just made me revert back to my old self.” he said, shifting in his seat a little.

“What did Specs like to eat Gladio? I am sure he had some fancy ass cravings in the middle of the night.” Noctis asked, turning his head to face the man.

He heard a loud cough come from the kitchen along with an accompanied glare in Gladio’s direction.

“I would rather not sleep on the couch tonight.” Gladio said, messing with the ribbons Nevaeh’s little pigtails as she noisily chewed on her fingers.

“Aw come on Ignis! Tell us! You were all secretive about all that. We hardly ever saw you.” Prompto said, walking towards the kitchen.

“And there was a reason why.” he said, flipping the fish over.

“You were there every step with Noct and I. Even when I was endlessly throwing up on the side of the road that one time. We weren’t even allowed to return the favor. The least you could do it tell us a little bit about it.” Prompto said, leaning against the door frame with those big blue puppy dog eyes.

Ignis cleared his throat and pushed his glasses up on his face. He could hardly say no when he put it that way. “I...I fancied potato chips and those awful snack cakes you find a local gas station.” he said quietly.

“What!? Mr. All-this-junk-is-simply-disgusting wanted junk food from the gas station? That's wild!” Prompto yelled out, mocking Ignis.

“He also drank those dollar a can, over sweetened, teas. He would beg me to go get him a pack of those chocolate cupcakes and a can of tea all the time.” Gladio added.

Ignis’ cheeks flushed a soft pink and he continued to cook the fish in front of him. “It doesn’t matter any longer. I can’t stand to look at the things now. It makes my stomach churn at the sight.”

“What were your favorite flavor of chips?” Noctis asked.

“Barbeque.” Ignis answered plainly.

“Nice choice! I prefer sour cream and onion though.” Prompto said, still leaning against the doorframe of the kitchen.

“It was a convenient craving so I can not really be upset about it. It wasn’t like I could stand up and whip something up.” Ignis pointed out. “Standing for long periods of time were out of the question. Additionally, my feet were terribly swollen most of the time so having Gladio leave for a few moments to go down the street was fine by me.”

“Not to mention you were sick more often than not those first few months. If you wanted to eat something outside of hot broth, I was ready and willing to go everywhere.” Gladio said, lifting the baby in the air above his head with a smile. Ignis stole a glance from the corner of his eye and smiled softly at the display.

“It was worth it, though. I got two beautiful little girls who were born happy and healthy and Iggy is here to tell the tale. The fact he is still here was a blessing from the gods anyway.” Gladio said, still playing with a loud and laughing Nevaeh.

“I agree. It was worth all the fuss and pain. I’m sure Prompto and Noctis feel the same way about Nikolas.” Ignis said, finishing up the fish and checking on the rice.

Prompto walked over to the boy and scooped him into his arms. “Yup!” he said, peppering kisses all over Nik’s cheeks. Nikolas started laughing loudly, pushing Prompto’s face away playfully.

“Daddy!” he said through his laugh as Prompto continued kissing the boy.

“Looks like dinner is close to ready. About 5 minutes left on the cooking time.” Ignis called out, putting the final touches on the rice.

“Come on buddy. Let’s get you all cleaned up so we can eat.” Prompto said, carrying Nik to the bathroom to wash his marker covered hands. Noctis headed to the kitchen to take a look at what Ignis was doing.

“Looks good Specs. As always.” Noctis said, trying to tear a small piece off the fish to taste. Ignis swiftly slapped his hand away and give him a glare. Noctis laughed and shrugged away.

“Okay. I get it. No tasting.” he said with a smile. The kitchen was quiet for a moment, only the sound of cooking fish echoed through the room.

“You haven't changed Ignis.” he said, his tone shifting just a bit.

“The same could be said for you as well Noct. Nice to see fatherhood hasn’t changed you even the slightest bit.” Ignis replied with a soft smile.

“Well, Nikolas is pretty much a mini-me so I didn’t have to change much.” Noctis said.

“Seeing as I am here cooking nearly the same meal I made for you when you were younger is very telling. Although, it is rather funny that the boy carries such a distaste for fish.” Ignis said with a chuckle as he pulled some plates from the cabinet below.

“Well, there was a long period of time where Prompto was trying to learn to cook fish. We ended up eating fish a lot and Nik got tired of it real quick.” Noct explained, sitting in the nearby counter. Ignis rolled his eyes as the younger man sat on the counter but he would save the argument and let him sit there this one time.

“Oh, poor child. I would have come much more often if that was the case. He probably hasn't had a proper meal in weeks.” Ignis joked, starting to fix plates for everyone. Noctis chuckled softly as he leaned back on the counter, watching Ignis finish making everyone's plates.

“Could you at the very least get some silverware ready for the table?” Ignis asked, carrying the various plates to the table in the room over. Noct sighed and jumped off the counter and gave himself a good stretch before heading over to the nearby drawer to grab a handful of forks and knives, including one fork shaped like a Chocobo for Nik and took it to the table.

Everyone was already in the dining room waiting for the food.

A very grumpy and pouty Nikolas was next to Prompto after arguing that he was a big boy now and could sit in the chair without the help of the booster seat. Unfortunately for Nik, he wasn’t even tall enough to get his entire head over the table so he was forced to sit in the seat yet again.

Gladio had both girls sitting on the tabletop in front of him while he dug into the black bag from earlier to find their food. Without their high chairs, he wasn't sure where to put them while they fed them so he just hoped Ignis didn’t freak out when he saw them on the table.  Both girls were sitting, waiting patiently for their Pop; Malena sucking away on her pacifier while Nevaeh had her hand in her mouth yet again, that is, until she saw Ignis walk into room, plates of food in hand. She cooed loudly, leaning forward on her hands and knees to crawl over to the other side of the table. She managed to crawl over to where he was, and plopped down right here, reaching her hands up in their air with a coo and big smile.

Ignis couldn’t help but crack a smile at the girl. “I was only gone but a moment Princess.” He said with a smile as set the other plate down nearby. He picked her up and places a soft kiss on her cheek, slinging her on his hip. “Seems your father has been messing with your hair again.” he said, using his free hand to push the stray hairs back into the pigtails.

“I was trying to fix the ribbons. They looked a little tight.” Gladio chimed in, setting out a few jars of baby food out on the table. Ignis shook his head in a playful manner before heading back to the kitchen to grab more plates.

Noctis bought out two more plates, setting one in front of Gladio and the other in his spot. Ignis came back with a small plate for Nikolas, setting down his plate in front of the toddler before sitting down next to Gladio. Gladio already started feeding Malena, who was already making a mess as usual.

Ignis set Nevaeh down on his lap, reaching over to grab one of the jars in front of Gladio.

“Ahh I do not miss those days. I celebrated the day Nik could eat on his own. I made sure to put a spoon in his hand as early as I could.” Prompto said, watching the other parents.

“Eh. I kinda miss when he was that small. He was a pretty cute baby.” Noctis said, taking a bite of his food.

“He’s a pretty cute little boy too!” Prompto said with a smile. He took a huge bite of his dinner and the noise he made was almost unholy. “So good! Tastes great Iggy!”

“Thank you Prompto.” Ignis said, feeding a spoon full pureed sweet potatoes to an awaiting Nevaeh.

Nik was poking at his dinner, moving it across the plate with a pout still on his face. Prompto sighed deeply and reached over to the boys plate and picked up a small bit on his fork. “Come on buddy. Try it first before you say you don’t like it.” he said, putting the fork up to his lips. Nikolas shook his head and turned away.

“Fish is gross.” he said plainly.

“But this isn’t my fish. This is wayyyy better than mine. I promise it will taste good.” Prompto coaxed, but it wasn’t working. Nik pushed his hand away and crossed his arms over his chest. Prompto sighed deeply and went back to his plate.

“Nikolas.” Noctis said sternly, looking up from his food. The boy didn't budge, still looking away from his plate of food.

“You have to eat something Nik. You won’t get anything else if you don’t eat something. At least just eat the rice.” Noctis suggested.

The boy looked back at his plate and pushed the fish off to the side so he could eat the rice.

“You spoil that boy. He is just like his damn Father.” Gladio said, finally able to start eating his own dinner.

“If he is just like me, then there’s practically nothing we can do to make him eat something he doesn’t want to.” Noctis pointed out with a grin.

“I can attest to that. I was quite difficult to get Noctis to eat anything that wasn’t fried or smothered in some vile sauce.” Ignis said, taking a bite of his dinner and giving a tiny piece of fish to Nevaeh as well.

“Hey! I got better with age.” Noctis pointed out, his mouth still full of food from his bite.

“If that is what you would like to call it.” Ignis said, taking another careful bite. Nevaeh whined loudly, lunging forward to get another bite of his food. He held her back gently and gave her another bite of fish. “At least Nikolas will attempt to eat his vegetables.” Ignis added.

Noctis rolled his eyes and took another bite. Nikolas had finished eating the rice on his plate, leaving his fish untouched. Prompto looked over and dropped his head a bit.

“If you try the fish, I’ll let you get 2 cookies for dessert tonight. If you don’t like it, it’s fine but you gotta give it a try first.” Prompto said, attempting to bribe the kid to eat.

Nikolas looked at the fish on his plate, then at Prompto, then back at his plate again. “Can I get a choco pudding and a cookie instead?” he asked, poking the fish with his fork.

“Pudding and cookie it is! But you gotta have a whole bite. Not a baby one.” Prompto said, leaning over and taking a piece with his fork and holding up to the boy’s face. Nikolas grimaced and leaned forward to put the fork in his mouth. He made sure to get the whole bite before pulling away and chewing slowly, his brows furrowing and whining under his breath.

The men at the table couldn’t help but laugh at Nikolas’ facial expressions. It was clear that no matter who cooked the fish, his mind wasn’t going to change. The boy managed to swallow it all the way down before looking at Prompto with sad eyes.

“I don’t ever want that again…” he whined. Prompto cracked a smile and ruffled the boy’s messy head.

“Okay buddy. You don't have to. Always gotta try it first before you make a choice to not like it.” Prompto said, taking the fish from Nik’s plate and putting it onto his.

“Can I get my pudding nowww? The fishy is still in my mouth! Blegh!” Nikolas whined, taking a huge gulp of juice.

The entire table started to laugh in response.

---

Prompto finished gathering up all the dishes from dinner and headed into the living room where everyone was settling down. He stood in the doorway and watched everyone for a moment.

Nikolas was sitting on Noctis’ lap as they watched whatever was on tv at the moment, devouring his pudding cup, his face covered in the chocolate goo.

Ignis was attempting to change Malena out of her now pureed pea and carrot covered dress while she thrashed around in protest.

Gladio was playing with Nevaeh on the floor, pretending to bench press the girl, giving her a kiss every time she came down.

Prompto smiled brightly, leaning up against the doorframe to watch everyone.

Even though they had all moved on, gotten older, and had families now, it never changed them. They could still get together like they did years ago and still act the same way they always did. Even with the kids around, it was still like the good ol’ days they cherished. It was pretty nice, Prompto thought for a moment before heading into the living room himself with his signature big smile, settling in the spot next to Noct, laying his head on his shoulder while Noct put his arm around the blond.

Some things never did change.

[my-one-love-is-music]

Be My Player 2? Chapter 10

Yay chapter update!! Woo hoo!! I'm really glad that I got this done today since I leave for a weekend trip tomorrow and don't have to worry about coming back and trying to finish this, so I hope that y'all are looking forward to reading it.

Also, I got a twitter if you're interested! It's just a place for me to ramble about fics and give more consistent updates about how things are going and when things might get posted. So you can follow that here: https://twitter.com/m_o_l_i_m

Cheers!

Also on AO3!

Friday felt like an utter dream to Keith. He hardly registered his own actions throughout the day and didn’t even really remember waking up or getting ready for the day. He almost felt like a zombie and didn’t really register where he was until he received a slap on the back, forcing him to look around and comprehend that he was at work. He didn’t even remember clocking in or going to class! And was honestly surprised that he managed to even dress himself in his work clothes, although he was sure Linda would’ve stopped him if he’d looked too out of sorts.

               “Someone seems to be a little out of it today,” George said, bringing Keith out of his thoughts and to focus back in on the drink that he’d been preparing. “Late night? Too much studying? Or too much gaming?”

               “Uhh…” Keith responded eloquently, grasping for some sort of explanation as to why he was acting the way he was. He couldn’t exactly say he was thinking about the hot guy that he met online while gaming. Not only did he not know how to go about explaining that situation, but he didn’t think he was prepared for the lecture that he would undoubtedly get about interacting with strangers online and the possibility that his life might turn into an afterschool special. George would probably even go so far as to suggest he’d been featured on America’s Most Wanted. You’d think being twenty-one would get you a pass for things like that, but Keith was never so lucky.

               “Based on your intelligent response and the fact you’re grasping for some sort of response, I’m going to take a wild guess and say that you were up late gaming last night and didn’t get enough sleep,” he said with a chuckle and moved to pick up a bottle of alcohol for the next order coming in. It was getting into the busier part of the night where more people were coming out just for the drinks than for actual meals.

               Keith didn’t bother responding and did his best to focus back in on his work and knew that he wouldn’t be able to let his mind wander any further. He didn’t want to risk messing up anyone’s drinks because that would mean losing drinks and money and he wasn’t prepared to be responsible for that on top of everything else. And with the growing crowds, that would slow things down for them if they had to make twice as many drinks to make up for Keith’s lack of concentration.

               He looked at the pile of orders that were quickly stacking up and turned back to the drink he was almost finished with. He wanted to shove it all away and not worry about it, but a thought struck him. Something that would help to keep him focused…

               “Hey, George,” he called, smirk pulling at the edges of his lips.

               “Yeah?” he asked, bottle in hand and eyebrow raised in question at Keith’s expression. He’d known him long enough to know that a smirk wasn’t always a good sign.

               “Feel like having a little competition tonight?” he asked, gesturing to the pile of tickets that was waiting for them.

               A grin slowly pulled at the edges of his mouth, eyes lighting up at the prospect of making a game out of their workload. “You’re on,” he said, raising the bottle in his hand. “Whoever gets the most drinks made wins. And the loser has to do all the closedown procedures.”

               “Hope you like staying late,” Keith said. “Because I’m not going to lose,” he said getting back to work with a renewed fervor. These next few hours were going to pass by with a breeze.

               “How is it that we both managed to end up with the same number of tickets?!” George nearly screeched as they finished totaling their piles.

               “Damn, I really thought that I was ahead there,” Keith said, running a hand through his hair.

               “You were ahead. Clearly, I was making the most drinks during the night.”

               Keith raised an eyebrow. “I don’t know what you’re talking about,” he said, reaching for the bottle of cleaner and the towel to wipe down the counter.

               “Please, you’ve been out of it all night. I don’t understand how you have the same number of tickets,” George grouched and reached for the empty bottles to take inventory of how much stock they’d used.

               “I don’t care who won what or what you’re arguing about, but I want to see more cleaning boys! It’s Friday and I know that you as much as me are ready to get out of here for the night,” Linda called as she walked past.

               The two of them hurried back to their closedown procedures and probably got done in record time. Getting motivated at the end of a long day wasn’t too hard when the threat of your boss was just around the corner. Keith and George parted ways quickly, knowing that they’d see each other again soon enough, and were more concerned with getting home after a long day. Keith may not have had a shift the next day, but that didn’t mean that he wasn’t looking forward to spending time with his friend that night and getting more than enough sleep.

               He pushed into his apartment and made his way into the bedroom, leaving his backpack at the foot of the bed while he moved over to his dresser to pull out something more comfortable to wear. Swapping out his work clothes for a pair of sweatpants and a shirt found him back in the kitchen with his headset and rummaging around for something to make for dinner. He was still doing really well on food and thought he might be able to pull some money from his food budget if he ended up running low after being pulled from the double shift on Sunday. Things really seemed to be looking up for once. Or maybe it was just memories of having someone to lean on that were helping him see the brighter side of things.

               As he was heating up the water to make some of the pasta that he’d stocked up on-and it was in fact pasta and not ramen noodles-he heard a ringing coming from his computer. Keith stepped over and was surprised to find Shiro calling him through skype rather than his Voltron account which he had already pulled up. He answered quickly and grinned when Shiro’s face came into view.

               “Hey, Shiro,” he said, picking up his computer and carrying it over to the counter next to his stove.

               “Wh-what’s up? What are you doing?” Shiro asked, belatedly.

               “Making dinner. I just got back from work and decided to make some pasta to celebrate that it’s Friday. I would say that I’m surprised that you’re online already, but I can’t really say that I am.” He felt relaxed talking to him like this. He was a little worried that things could’ve been a bit weird after the night before, but he found Shiro’s presence particularly grounding. “How are things on your end?” he asked while reaching for the box of pasta.

               “Oh, you know, just another Friday. Not really one for the history books,” Shiro said, laughing awkwardly.

               Keith glanced at his screen and found Shiro looking away from him and off screen. He saw traces of pink along his cheekbones and leaned in further while absentmindedly stirring the pasta.

               “Shiro, are you feeling alright? You’re not sick are you?” he asked, squinting for good measure.

               He looked back at the screen and looked taken aback when he caught how close Keith was. Keith watched as his face got even redder.

               “Fine, fine,” Shiro said, trying to wave away his concern.

               Keith gave him one last look before returning to his pasta. “Okay. I still think you should make sure that you don’t have a temperature and aren’t sick.”

               “Later. I can take it later.”

               “Okay,” Keith said, not entirely convinced.

               Shiro cleared his throat, searching for something to say. “Allura and Lance had a lot of fun with us the other night. They’d like to join up again.”

               “Cool. I can’t wait to kick Lance’s ass again.”

               Shiro laughed. “You know, the point of team missions are so that you work together and not fight amongst the players.”

               Keith shrugged and speared a piece of pasta to taste. He hummed in satisfaction and turned off the stovetop, picking up the pot and carrying it over to the sink to drain. “As long as it doesn’t cause us to lose, I think that we can manage to have a little bit of fun at least. ‘Sides, Lance’s ego’s big enough that he can take it.”

               “I’m not sure that he’d agree with you on that, but he’d also probably claim that he doesn’t have an ego. Still, I’d like the two of you to get along on some level at least,” Shiro said.

               Keith paused as he grabbed the jar of tomato sauce from the cabinet above his head. He looked down at it as he addressed what Shiro said. “You think that we don’t get along?”

               “Do you?” Shiro asked, disbelief obvious.

               Keith rolled his eyes and placed a hand on his hip as he turned to face the screen. “Of course we get along. Even I could tell from our first night gaming together that Lance wanted to see how I held up. Eventually, it became less about testing me and more about seeing how far we could push each other. I just managed to come out on top. Don’t worry so much.”

               Now that his dinner was ready, Keith moved his computer and his bowl of food over to the table while Shiro sat there silently, obviously thinking.

               “So did you want to game or what?” Keith asked between bites since it looked like Shiro wasn’t going to say anything anytime soon.

               “Hm?” Shiro asked, being pulled from his thoughts. Keith raised an eyebrow at him. “Oh, yeah. Sure, we can game.”

               “You can invite Lance and Allura if you want. If they’re free anyway.”

               “Actually…do you mind if we do something else?” he asked, rubbing the back of his neck.

               Keith shrugged. “Sure. What did you have in mind?”

               Shiro shrugged, obviously feeling a bit embarrassed about the request. “I just feel like maybe hanging out and watching a movie or something.”

               Keith quirked an eyebrow. “You want to try and stream a movie at the same time?”

               “Yeah.”

               “That’s great and all, but I don’t have Netflix.”

               “Oh.”

               “Hang on,” Keith said, leaning forward and pulling up his web browser. “I don’t remember the name of it, but I heard about this website that can let you watch things at the same time. It’s sort of hard to explain. So you would be streaming from your Netflix account, but I’d be able to watch it too, even though I don’t have Netflix.”

               “That sounds perfect. I think that I’ve heard of that too, actually…”

               “Here it is! It’s this website called rabbit.” Keith heard Shiro typing even as he looked around the website himself.

               “Oh hey, this looks pretty cool. So I just need to set this up with my Netlfix account…”

               Keith listened as he clicked several things and typed in information.

               “Okay, I think I’ve got this figured out. I’m going to send you the link to this room through Skype and we should be able to get started.”

               Keith heard the notification from his Skype window and pulled up the room. Once it was opened in his web browser he shut off the call with Shiro and brought up the video and audio capabilities of the chat room.

               “Shiro? You there?”

               “Yeah. Although, cutting out without saying goodbye was a little rude.”

               Keith rolled his eyes. “Oh, please. I was gone for like two seconds, it didn’t kill you.”

               “It was still rude,” he muttered. “Anyway, what do you want to watch?”

               “It doesn’t really matter to me. I’ll probably be fine with anything so if there’s something in particular that you like watching or are in the middle of watching, I’ll probably be fine with that.”

               Shiro hummed. “Do you like anime?”

               “I’ve never really watched it, but I’ll give anything a try.” Keith picked up his computer and the remains of his dinner and headed over to his couch. He moved a few of the pillows up against the arm of the couch and laid down, leaning against them and stretching out his legs. He settled his laptop on top of his legs so that he could still eat and sighed happily as his muscles relaxed in the soft cushions.

               “Okay, I think this one’ll be good to start with. I’ve been wanting to watch it for a while so I guess this is just my excuse to get you involved too.”

               “What’s it called?”

               “The English name is Your Lie in April. It’s supposed to be really good.”

               “Okay. Is this going to have subtitles then?”

               “Yeah, is that a problem?”

               “I think I’ll be okay. I just might have to do full screen so that I can read them, depending on how small they are and if the video quality isn’t too fuzzy.”

               “Well, let’s find out.”

               Keith watched as Shiro pulled it up and animated cherry blossoms filled his screen. The image followed a blond girl walking down the street and following a cat.

               “Is this an anime about music students?” he asked as the opening began to play. He might never admit it, but he thought the music was pretty catchy and could see the appeal of why people went to such lengths to find it sometimes.  

               “Yeah.”

               “Okay.”

               Silence fell between them again as the episode progressed. He thought that this might be something he could actually get into even if it wasn’t along the lines of what he usually took interest in.

               “What did you think?” Shiro asked as the credits began to play.

               “I like it. Can we watch another episode? I really want to see what happens with her violin performance.”

               “Yeah, of course.”

               One more episode turned into another and another and another. Even with his eyes drooping and his mind complaining about the influx of information that the anime was giving him, Keith couldn’t find it in himself to complain or ask Shiro to stop despite the late hour and his need to actually get some sleep. Keith was enraptured by the storyline and the characters to the point that he might even be a little bit obsessed. He wanted to know what was going to happen to Kousei and he wanted so much for Kousei to succeed at his solo competition.

               It was probably unhealthy how invested he was in the wellbeing of a fictional character, but the writing and the characterizations just made him want to care about him. He wanted him to do well and find motivation in the people who claimed to be his rivals. He wanted him to find support in his friends and realize that it’s okay for him to play the piano and move on with his life and be great.

               Keith sat up and clutched the sides of his laptop, staring with wide eyes as Kousei battled himself during his performance. He felt himself saddened by the turn that the anime had taken and sagged against the couch’s back cushion, nearly burying his face in the fabric.

               Shiro paused the episode as the ending music began. “You okay there, Keith.”

               Keith groaned. “I was really hoping for a different outcome for Kousei.”

               “I know, but he can’t just magically come back after having such an impactful experience. He has to find his love for the piano again and deal with the trauma that he’s been through. We’re only half way through the anime so there’s plenty of time for it to get better. Unless you want to put that off for later.”

               Keith looked at the time and sighed. “3am huh? I should probably get to bed.”

               “You don’t have work tomorrow, do you?”

               “Nah, it’s my night off. But I’m getting together with some friends. We’re going to hang out and watch movies before mid-terms-shit! Fuck, mid-terms. I should really be studying for those.” He groaned again, not wanting to think about his upcoming tests or the rest of his anxieties.

               “So study tomorrow-well, later today anyway. Get some sleep, get refreshed, and then study before you get together with your friends. We can finish this next weekend after you get through your tests. Just think of it as the reward that’s waiting for you.”

               “Okay. Yeah, sounds good. I can totally do that,” Keith said, trying to convince himself. Neither of them made a move to leave the chat. “I guess, I’ll go then. Talk to you later, Shiro?”

               “Yeah, talk to you later.”

               Keith closed out of his web browser and stared at his desktop for a minute, not wanting to move off the couch. He hadn’t even considered the amount of hours that he’d need to put into studying next week. That would mean he’d probably not be able to game or talk with Shiro for a while at least. He sighed and shut down his computer, setting it down on the coffee table before wearily pushing himself to his feet.

               He shuffled into his bedroom and let himself fall down onto his bed and pulled his comforter over himself, his eyes sliding shut easily. It was so strange. They’d only known each other for a short amount of time and had been skyping for barely a fraction of that, yet Shiro already felt like a large part of his life. It felt weird to even consider going a day without interacting with him. Shiro had wedged his way so far into Keith’s life already that the thought of him possibly disappearing was absolutely terrifying for him to consider.