#writing children is fun when you sorta know how they think

[solargeist]

hi this is the one anon from a while back who suggested kidxelqua gives people random items out of affection. now i propose the Opposite: he ALSO steals their personal possessions (ie clothes) out of affection. never anything hes given them (i think itd be funny if he had every gift hes given memorized for the sole purpose of effective theft. mostly unrelated to actual child psych but hes a baby god so ??)

sorry child psychology is very interesting to me (read: i study it) esp the way kids view materialistic things. i have to cut this off here bcs i started typing up a ramble abt behavior imitation & association 😭

Psychology is very interesting !!!! I used to be interested in it as a teenager, tho more so just mental illnesses or how people behave in groups. Child psychology sounds interesting too, I’ve had to work with kids before, you rly do have to try and think like them.

Xelqua probably does steal from others, whether from affection or genuinely not understanding he can’t take something. He takes Grian’s stuff all the time, but he also lives with him so there’s not rly consequences to it.

Probably would steal from Mumbo, stuff he doesn’t even understand, weird bolts or redstone stuff, little things he figures Mumbo won’t notice.

[lovelykil]

SHELDON ONESHOT PLEASE I'M BEGGING

e=m+u

oneshot

: ➛sheldon

note; I'm begging, begging youuuu so put your loving hand out baaabbyyy

"e equals what again?" You ask, tapping your pencil against the sheet of paper. Your feet swung in the air as you laid upon Sheldon's bed. Sheldon twirled around in his chair slowly and gave you an unconvinced look.

"you don't know a formula so simple even children should know of?" You look at him, legs coming to a halt. "Oh just tell me Shellyy." Your lips come in contact with the top of the pencil, grinning as you do so at the boy. You were teasing him with that mean grin of yours but also flirting in a way, of course he didn't know of this.

"don't call me that." He replied in slight annoyance but the tone of his voice was kept the same, low and nonchalant. Sheldon swirled around to type endlessly on his computer. You stared at the back of his head then looked down at your paper.

you begin to let out a sigh, "You're no fun."

"then why are you here?" His quick response made you sit up on the bed to think. You quickly looked at the open window you came through in then at him— well at the back of his head again.

"because.. it's no fun at my house andd you let me in all the time so.."

"Actually– you BROKE in, I don't let you in at all, if anything I would've told on you but you did give me what I most wanted and for that, I guess it's acceptable.. for now." He points to the glass of Yoo Hoo on his desk then goes back to his device.

you smile lightly at his words, making you feel sorta okay I mean at least he hasn't told on your ass for the last couple of days you've sneaked into his room. You knew how difficult he was but there was also something about him that made you feel comfortable around him.

comfortable around Sheldon? Yeah it's kinda bizarre but give him what he desires and he usually can keep his shit together.

your eyes fall back on your paper again, looking at the unsloved formula. You knew what the rest of it was you weren't stupid.. but it was nice playing dumb around him so you could pull a few tricks like what you were about to do now.

"hey can you come here for a sec." You call him over, trying to look conflicted as possible. Sheldon mumbles something beneath his breath but does turn around.

"why, what for now? You know I always go on the computer to—"

"yeah yeah but no actually do come over here, please." You tap the pencil against the paper again, pleading over at him. He takes a moment but with a slight grumble, he listens and sits beside you. You watch him sit down with an innocent smile and begin to ask the question once more.

"Okayy so.. e= what again??"

"you can't be serious." His judgmental tone makes you laugh lightly, knowing you knew absolutely what you were doing. "Dude cmon tell me." You poke him with the pencil playfully, to which he reacts not so gratefully for your foolish actions.

sheldon takes the pencil away from your grip along with the paper to explain.

"you break into my room, lay on my bed, disturb my computer time and I don't tell on you.. jeez that Yoo Hoo isn't enough." He murmurs, shaking his head. You shove him slightly and give him a face.

"hey be nice, I could've easily just broken your window with a rock, plus you like it when I come over." You grin. He looks up from the paper to stare at you in disbelief.

"its shocking you think I actually enjoy your company."

"piss off just tell me the answer, nerd." You playfully roll your eyes before tapping on the paper. He goes back to writing after attempting to come up with a comeback.

after he was done you looked at the paper in his hands and clicked your tongue. "I'm afraid you're wrong." Sheldon looks over at you like you've said the most outrageous thing ever, in which through his ears... you did. He watches you take the paper from him in shock at how YOU assume he was incorrect.

"excuse me what?"

"no.. see e actually equals..." You begin to write the formula below his nicely handwritten one. As you do so he observes intently with his brows scrunched.

when you finish you set the writing tool down beside you and give him the paper.

"E=m+u." You read. Your eyes fly to his confused ones as he also mouths out. He looks at you for an answer, "what's m+u?"

"me plus you." You smile at him then lean in to peck his pale cheek. You then throw yourself off his bed and start to collect your things to go off into the night.

"well I gotta go, this was funnn." You put everything into your bag before lifting the window a bit more to make your escape. You left with no words but let out a light giggle as your tummy churned with butterflies, walking away from the crime scene where Sheldon remained sat on his bed with that paper stuck in his hands.

the boy eventually touched his cheek then stared back at the paper.

"that doesn't even make any sense?" His brows scrunch once again in confusion as he states out loud.

[cupidjyu]

the sweetener you are

hyunjae x reader (idea from the anon who requested childhood friends to lovers!)

summary: when a mysterious man moves into the apartment next door, you realize that he’s your childhood best friend who’s disappeared for years. he changed, his life seeming to have soured. but you could just be his sweetener, the one to make him smile again

genre: best friends to lovers, and boy-next-door sorta thing, hurt/comfort for him because he deserves the world, nightmares, healing, one bed trope, youre forced to move in with him hahaha am i evil, back hugs, he acts "drunk" when tired (dont ask why, it was just an excuse to write him being clingy), hes flirty ish and teasing, hes shirtless for like one second (BECAUSE.), sleepy love confessions, kissing, is there tension? i can't tell myself, “sweetheart” good god notes: school started so expect much much less after this... so see you in a bit 🥲🥲but hope u enjoy!!! this is literally just yumi who needs to stop writing long interpretations of their love for hyunjae in the form of fics + song inspo! word count: 12.7k

You coughed. You choked. And then you glared straight at Younghoon who was staring back in complete alarm. Setting the unfinished glass down on the counter with a loud clink, you clenched your jaw with unspoken curse words that threatened to escape your lips.

“This tastes like dirt,” You garbled out. Rushing over to one of your cupboards, you pulled out one of those small sugar packets that you liked to swipe from those cute coffee shops. If it was free, why not take a few? Ripping the paper open, you poured it into the drink that didn’t even look like it belonged on this planet. It was both… green and yellowish-blue at the same time.

Younghoon gasped, slapping a hand over his mouth dramatically. “That’s not healthy!”

“But it tastes so bad,” You whined. “It needs a sweetener.”

He glared, dragging his hand all the way down his jaw in an unattractive way. “It’s an herbal drink. It’s meant to taste bad. Think of all the health benefits you could’ve gotten out of that without the sugar.”

“You made this?” You scrunched up your face in disgust.

“No, I–” He laughed nervously. “My mom did. I promised her I would finish it.”

You narrowed your eyes. “And you couldn’t because it tasted so bad. So you’re making me finish it.”

He gave you a pained smile as he stepped away. “I– who said that?”

“Why’re we even friends?” You questioned before jabbing a finger at the door. “Get out.”

Younghoon pouted but he eventually obliged, opening the apartment door. “You still owe me money for that overpriced tiny piece of cake by the way.”

“It tasted good!” You shot back.

“It did not.” He sighed. “It’s just you with your horrible sweet tooth. Don’t even– hey…” You noticed him peeking out of your door and into the hallway. And then he leaned back in, searching your face with wonder. “Someone’s moving in next door.”

You brightened with interest at that, practically jumping off where you were sitting on the kitchen counter. Bounding over to the door, you poked your head out under Younghoon’s, just like they did in the cartoons. Squinting your eyes, all you could see was a tall man with a cap on that covered most of his face. 

“Who’s that?” Younghoon said, slightly too loud for your liking.

With a groan, you elbowed him in the ribs. “Shh…how would I know? Though... he does look better than that old dude who constantly yelled at those courtroom TV shows like he was the judge.” It was like the apartment next to yours was cursed. Magic wasn’t real here. Or at least, in this world. But you still believed that a witch had strolled by and casually placed a hex on Apt 245 for the fun of it. For the time that you’ve been here, you’ve seen about five people move in there. And they were never happy. 

Once, there were two parents who had to deal with multiple children who would not stop crying. You hadn’t slept a wink the whole time they were there. They did receive a noise complaint though. Another time, there was a teenager who couldn’t even properly pay off the rent. He didn’t have a job. But he could somehow afford the loudest speaker where he would play the most gut-wrenching, saddest music ever. He got evicted.

But this man… well–he looked decent. Really. No evident curse here. Or at least, yet. When he turned around, you could see that he was very tall and… broad. Apparently, that was the first thing you noticed. He also seemed to pick up the moving boxes with ease and when he had stepped just the slightest to the side, you could see the impossibly perfect slope of his nose. Also a very odd thing to notice.

Younghoon grasped your arm, pulling you back into your own apartment.

“Don’t fall in love.”

You gaped at him. “What? I don’t even know who he is.”

He raised an eyebrow. “But he’s tall. And broad. And has a nice nose. I know you. I know your type.”

Shit.

“You do know me,” You mumbled sheepishly. “But still!” You poked him harshly. “I won’t fall in love. I probably won’t even see him for like– a month. Or he’s going to be cursed and moved out like the others. Don’t worry.”

Your friend narrowed his eyes in skepticism but he eventually nodded. “As long as you don’t bump into him tomorrow or something.”

You laughed, rolling your eyes. “Of course. I won’t fall in love.”

You didn’t fall in love. You fell onto the floor.

And you also happened to bump into him the next day ironically enough.

If only—if only—you decided to pick up your mail yesterday like you were supposed to, this wouldn’t have happened. And by this, you meant being distracted by a cup that rolled out of your new neighbor’s door and then walking straight into his chest. 

You squeaked in horror. “I’m sorry!” And then you stepped backwards, tripped on your badly-timed untied shoelace, and ended up on the floor in the middle of the hallway.

When you looked up, there was a pretty hand that reached out to help you up. Taking it with burning cheeks, you could finally see what this man looked like up close and without a cap.

And you would have expected maybe one of those boy-next-door romantic moments where you would fall into his arms and start dating the next day. Oh, and also kiss and eventually get married. But no, you—

“Hyunjae?”

The man—Hyunjae—gaped at you with comically wide eyes. 

“Y/n,” He breathed out.

As long-lost childhood friends, the most sensible thing to do was ask how he was. But you often defied expectations, positively or negatively, and so instead you lunged forward, wrapping your arms around his waist and pulling him into a tight hug.

Hyunjae, whom you’ve known since you were just young kids, has been your best friend for as long as you could remember. He used to be on the elementary school track team while you… were on the bleachers trying to tell the difference between subtraction and addition. But luckily, Hyunjae was both a smart and kind kid and so he had stopped in the middle of his running to sit with you and teach what your teacher couldn’t do properly.

He was always one year older, always more mature and experienced. But he tended to throw that away just for you and join in on playing games with you when he should’ve been studying for an exam. But he did so to cheer you up. He was sweet like that and you adored spending your afternoons after school with him.

The two of you even got to experience those dreadful high school years together, except there was always that haunting realization—that he would eventually graduate first. But he always reassured you.

“It’s just one year, silly,” He joked, pulling you into a side hug, one that perfectly portrayed his understanding of your worries. “I’ll text and call you all the time. Promise.”

Promises were often broken and this wasn’t any different. For when he had left for college, he never contacted you ever again. You had tried to reach out, but he never responded. And so, for your whole college term, you never saw Lee Hyunjae, your supposed “best friend,” ever again.

And you should have been mad—no, furious to see him again. You should have pushed him away and went on with your life while skillfully avoiding him. But just the simple sight of him brought back all those fond memories–baking cupcakes, falling asleep together just after screaming over a horror movie, holding each other when life just gets too much... And so you found yourself buried into his chest, holding him tightly.

“Hyunjae,” You whispered again, shutting your eyes in both contentment and fear of him pushing you away again. 

But you felt two hands snake around your middle, hugging you back. There were a million questions running through your mind at that moment, wondering why he had disappeared but welcomed you so easily. But you set them aside, choosing to just melt into his still familiar embrace.

Finally though, you managed to pull away, looking at him with a fond smile. He smiled back. He had grown even more handsome than before. He managed to become taller, broader, and more charming all at once. His features were sharp, more mature. Something about him–the way he was dressed in a literal suit–really portrayed to you that he really was an adult now, as opposed to the teenager who procrastinated on science projects.

“How are you?” He smiled, almost too polite for your liking. You could see the way he stood, awkwardly and with fidgeting hands. And that was when it all hit you like a truck.

Your eyebrows suddenly furrowed, your lips pulled into a scowl, and your eyes narrowed as you stepped forward. “How am I? No. How could you–” You banged a fist on his firm chest. “–leave me–” Another punch. “–like that–” He stepped back in growing alarm. “–and act all polite and uneasy as if we weren’t best friends for years?” Both of your fists lingered on his chest, your strength growing weak from frustration. 

“Y/n, I–” He winced.

“Actually, I hate you.” You glared. But your words differentiated from your actions when your hand came to smooth down his crumpled tie. “I don’t want to see you ever again. You’re an absolute asshole and I–” But your eyes met with his, his gaze amused and soft. And then you sniffled, looking down at the ground, the urge to cry suddenly overcoming you.

Hyunjae laughed quietly. “I’m sorry. If you would allow me to explain?”

“Great,” You grumbled. “Then do so. Since you’ve owed me an explanation after all these years.”

He glanced at his watch. “I have work. Tomorrow, maybe? Trust me.”

You looked at him in bewilderment. “Work? But you haven’t even unpacked yet.” You eyed his apartment with the door open. There were multiple boxes strewn about, some not even open yet.

“Emergencies,” He sighed. That was when you noticed just how exhausted he looked. “I have to go.”

“Oh,” You stuttered. “Okay. I– good luck?”

Hyunjae smiled, pinching your cheek just like he had done all those years ago. He seemed to be completely unfazed over the fact that you just punched him in anger. “Thank you.” And he was locking the door behind him and heading for the elevator. But just as he was walking away, you felt the need to call something out. Just a few words.

“Hyunjae?” You said.

He turned around, tilting his head. You never knew just how well work attire suited him. He looked almost… attractive. But god, what were you thinking?

“I missed you.”

He smiled but he never quite gave you a response as the elevator ding had interrupted him. Instead, he just gave you a small wave. 

It was odd. Awkward. But one step at a time, you figured. It’s been years after all.

The next day, as promised, he had shown up to your door. This time, since it was the weekend, he was wearing a simple white shirt. One that still never failed to accentuate his broad shoulders.

But initially, you thought it was Younghoon and not a guy who you haven’t seen for multiple years. So you may or may not have opened the door with your hair like a bird’s nest and your sleepwear on that… wasn’t meant for the general public to see. Apparently, Hyunjae fits in the general public category now. Best friend? No, you hate him.

Kind of.

Not really.

Stumbling to the door, you flung it open, your eyes barely open. Immediately, you were met with the sight of just. Long legs. Not very helpful.

“Who–” And then you looked up, only to meet Hyunjae’s eyes. Choking on your spit, you straightened up. “Hello,” You blurted out in a monotone voice.

He raised an eyebrow and tilted his chin down with amusement. “And who’s the uneasy one now?”

“Sorry, I…” Your eyes trailed down to what you were wearing. With an internal gasp, you stepped backward. “I’m going to– change.”

He widened his eyes and then his gaze also traveled down. His cheeks were oddly red and he cleared his throat, looking away.

You cringed and shut the door in his face before he could even say anything.

Now in proper clothes that were for the general public, you opened the door again. He was still standing there with that same smile. The same kind, caring one he always regarded you with even when you were just kids.

“Where should we talk?” You asked. 

His eyes glanced over to his own door. “My place?” He offered quietly. “I have unpacking to do.”

You stared at him silently. And then you nodded with an excited smile. “I can help.” 

“Oh no,” He laughed softly. “You don’t have to. I’m fine on my–”

“You don’t look fine,” You interrupted. And without thinking, your hand came up to cup his cheek, turning him to face you. “You look tired.”

He stared at you wordlessly before sighing. “I guess I am.”

“So let me help.” You grinned. “I’m using my vacation days from work right now anyway.”

He could only mutter a shy “okay” as he opened the door for you to enter. Looking around, you found that the only things that he had unpacked lacked much of any personality. He took out the necessities and a bunch of… work. Papers, a computer, work suits and the like.

“You seem busy,” You remarked as you walked over to the box labeled “decorations” only for there to literally be one single plant that looked like it needed to be watered. In fact, it was on the brink of death. Immediately, your face was contorting in worry and you turned to where he was just standing at the entrance with an embarrassed expression. “What… happened to your initial dream?”

He approached you and peered into the box. “What dream?”

“The one where you wanted to have a place full of pretty plants.”

“Yeah well,” He laughed bitterly. “Circumstances change aspirations.”

You gulped nervously at his change of tone. Something was bothering him. Something, in particular, caused him to move here. You led him to the couch and sat next to him.

“So what is it? Why did you cut everyone off and– disappear?” You asked cautiously.

He looked at you for a long minute like he was trying to figure out a response for himself. And finally, he just sighed in defeat.

“Problems.”

“Like what?” You prodded.

“A lot. And I wouldn’t want to lay them all on you.” He gave you a weak smile. You regarded him with a soft look in your eyes, searching his face for any sort of answer. All you could see was a flame that had long been put out.

“Then tell me one.”

“One?” He bit his lip nervously. “One…”

“Just one,” You said gently.

“Like the one where the place I used to work at didn’t treat me right? That they refused to give me anything?” He mumbled, his voice trailing off with embarrassment. “So I moved here so that I could get away? That one?” 

You froze at his words. You processed them and that was when it began to make sense. He wasn’t going to work yesterday. He was going to an interview. His computer was open to job openings and the papers weren’t reports. They were resumes.

“Hyunjae,” You whispered. But he was already distancing himself, standing up from the couch. You gazed at him with concern as you stood up, only for him to take a step backward.

“Why are you…” You frowned. “It’s okay, you know. Did you think I would look at you any differently?”

His jaw clenched. “Well, I did cut you off because I didn’t want to worry you. You always told me I would be successful, the best. So how exactly could I face you after they…”

“That’s not your fault. And I’m sorry for putting that on you,” You mustered, stepping closer. This time, he didn’t step away. He allowed you to do anything. He let you trail a hand down to his wrist, holding it gently. “It’s okay. You don’t have to tell me more. I’m sorry.”

He watched you with slight surprise, and with his lips pulled into a straight line, he whispered a small, “I should be the one who’s sorry.”

You shook your head with a smile. “Don’t be.”

He stayed silent at that, simply studying your features. You could tell he still wanted to apologize. But then the corner of his lips lifted slightly. “You grew up.” His tone was gentle, so kind, just like you’ve always known. It was a little quieter than before though, more closed off as if he was afraid–scared of what you would think of him.

You laughed bashfully. “And so did you.” Your hand trailed up to his shoulder. “Did you start working out?”

He smirked. “Why, do you like my progress?”

You snorted. “Could improve.”

He scoffed yet he only looked at you with fondness. The two of you simply stood there, in the midst of his empty apartment, just staring at each other. And then you giggled. He laughed as well before reaching forward and pulling you into his arms, squeezing you so tight that you felt the air leave your lungs.

“Ah–” You choked. “Hyunjae. You’re killing me.”

“I’m showing you my newfound strength,” He joked, stepping away. You were about to refute but instead, you felt your gaze wandering to his arms. Since when were they so toned and–

“Very funny,” You weakly replied. Escaping from his persisting soft gaze, you stepped away and approached the various boxes. “What can I help you with?”

Hyunjae didn’t have much. Apparently, all those large boxes contained about three small things. 

“I overestimated,” He replied with a sheepish smile when you asked.

Most of his things were put away yet when you looked around, the apartment was void of any joy or charm. The only boxes that were left were his clothes which he claimed he could do another day. After putting away his single cup and plate–that’s all he had apparently–you turned around only to see that he was crouched, bending towards that same plant that you pointed out. Its leaves were drooping and the stem wilting, as his fingers gently prodded at it. When you looked closely, you could see a melancholy look on his face, a small frown tugging on his lips.

It was true, that Hyunjae had many dreams when he was younger. That was normal for many people. But to witness it all dissipate before your sight, no sign of light behind his eyes, you couldn’t help but feel your heart clench.

Walking over, you crouched down next to him. He gave you a forced smile.

“Kind of sad,” He remarked with a disappointed sigh. “I bought it only for me to fail to take care of it.”

“You can always buy another one.”

“Mhm,” He hummed dully. “Sure.” 

You watched him wordlessly, observing the way his gaze fell when one of the leaves broke off. Shaking your head, you suddenly stood up.

“Let’s go out.”

He looked up at you in surprise. “What?”

“I’ll be your tour guide of the town,” You joked. “I know everything.”

Standing up with you, he stole a glance at his phone. “I can’t.”

“Why?” You pouted.

“I’m waiting for my result from the interview.”

You sighed and took his wrist in yours, pulling him to the door. “You need to get your mind off that for a second.”

“But–”

“Please?” You looked up at him, even batting your eyelashes. “Just for a moment?” You also exaggerated a pout.

He blinked in shock, his eyes trailing over your expression. “What are you doing?”

“Making you feel bad. Is it working?” You held back a grin.

He huffed out a laugh. “Definitely. Fine, just for a moment.”

You grinned and you were already pulling on your shoes and bounding out the door, leaving Hyunjae to smile to himself.

“This is a convenience store.” You pointed at it with a bright smile.

He rolled his eyes. “I know what a convenience store is.”

You laughed and led him to the next block before abruptly stopping. “This is the karaoke bar,” You said, pointing at the nearby building.

“Fun,” He muttered.

“We should go one day.” You smiled. “Actually no.” You scowled. “I got drunk there once and I think they banned me because I was dancing on the tables.”

Hyunjae turned to you in slight shock. “You? Drunk?”

“What?” You widened your eyes in surprise. “What is it?”

“I just… you always said that you hated the taste of alcohol,” He replied in wonder.

“Times change.” You grinned, nudging his shoulder. He gave you a small smile back.

Then, you led him to your favorite spot. The central park in the middle of town. It was a beautiful day out, the sky bright and blue. You loved to sit at one of the benches, watching birds fly by or kids play happily on the playground. 

“Wait here.” You patted the seat. And then you were running off, nowhere to be seen. Hyunjae simply sat there, observing the calm atmosphere. When you came back, you were holding a stick of cotton candy in your hand. It was large, almost covering your whole face. Hyunjae chuckled, taking it from you so you wouldn’t trip on the ground.

“Aren’t we too old for this?” He questioned.

You shook your head. “I still love it.”

He took a bite and turned to look at you with furrowed eyebrows. “It’s so sweet.”

“That’s why it’s good!” You stared at him like he was the craziest man alive.

“It’s because you’ve always had a sweet tooth.” He frowned, gently placing it back in your hands. 

“Fine,” You scoffed. “If that’s how you treat your best friend.” And you were taking a bite on the opposite side. When you pulled it away from your face, you were startled by a loud laugh. From Hyunjae, specifically. Turning to him with wide eyes, you could even see him smiling.

It was not like the other smiles that you’ve seen so far. Those ones were small, lacking much of any emotion. But this one was wide, full with amusement and happiness.

“Wha– oh,” You huffed, realizing that there was cotton candy on your nose. Hyunjae laughed even louder and suddenly he was leaning in to gently wipe it off with his finger.

“Cutie,” He whispered fondly, his other hand gently cupping the side of your face.

Your heart stuttered at the word. “Wh-what?”

He gulped, pulling away like he was burned. “Oh, I…”

You quickly recovered, instead scooching even closer to him so that your shoulders were touching. “You think I’m cute? Even when I’m all grown up?”

“Always.”

“I missed your smile,” You stated as the two of you were walking back to the apartment complex.

You had expected him to point out that he had smiled other times before. But instead, he gazed at you with soft eyes.

“I did too. It’s been a while since I’ve felt so happy,” He said. “All thanks to you.”

“Of course!” You beamed, looping an arm with his before pulling him closer. “You can always count on me.”

He didn’t respond this time. But his expression said it all. Thank you, thank you, thank you, was all you could see in his dark brown eyes. Smiling, you bumped your body playfully against his.

“Are you busy tomorrow?” You asked.

Again, you found yourself in his apartment the next day. Apparently, he had just gotten back from running and he needed to take a shower. So, you were looking through his boxes full of clothes. You sorted through them, folding them until you came across a hoodie. You didn’t recognize it, but the fabric of it was so… soft and warm. Your hands held onto it, contemplating what it would feel like if you just–

The door to the bathroom creaked open. You gasped and shoved it behind you, greatly hoping that he didn’t notice you staring at it longingly. But alas, you just had to have slow reflexes at this moment.

“Do you like it?” He asked. “Put it on.” 

You laughed awkwardly, turning to face him, only for your protests to come stuttering to a stop. Your eyes trailed down from his damp hair to his… whole torso. His bare torso. He was shirtless. Right out of the shower, water droplets sitting prettily on his collarbones, traveling all the way down to his chest and his– he definitely works out. 

“Oh,” You breathed out, your cheeks flushing red as you frantically looked away. This was not how you expected to reunite with your best friend after so long. 

“Sorry,” He replied, his voice low. “My shirt’s in there.”

You nodded, refusing to look up. It was quiet for a moment, too quiet that you contemplated just shoving his clothes into his hands while dutifully avoiding the sight of his bare chest. 

But then he was right beside you and he smelled so, so good as he leaned over you, his hand gently grasping your waist. To take a shirt. Very unnecessary but it still left you inhaling sharply. Feeling yourself go dizzy as you stood there, eyes trained on the ground, and every single muscle in all of human anatomy completely rigid until you were sure he was properly dressed.

Taking a peek, you were met with his teasing smile.

“Everything okay?”

“Yes,” You mustered.

“You were staring weren’t you?” He leaned even closer, his eyes searching yours with amusement. His hand gently lifted your chin up, making you swallow thickly at the way he was gazing at you with a small smirk. 

“I wasn’t,” You whispered shakily.

“Hm,” He hummed. “You look a little flushed though.”

“It was nothing,” You shoved him away, feeling like your face was on fire. “You shouldn’t just walk around like that. It’s…”

“Mhm.” He only continued to smile wider. “Whatever you say.”

You groaned, abruptly turning away to hide your reddening cheeks. But then your eyes landed back on that same hoodie.

“I know that look on your face,” He teased, picking it up. “You like it.”

“I don’t.”

“Okay,” He simply replied, shrugging and turning around. You were just about to question his suspiciously short response when out of nowhere, he whipped back around and pulled the hoodie over you. Immediately, you were encompassed in warmth and– did he always smell this good? And why was he staring at you so softly with that stupid fond smile and why was your heart beating a mile a minute and–

“Hyunjae,” You groaned. “What was that for?”

But he stayed silent, simply examining you wearing his clothes. You tilted your head.

“Do I look good?”

His breath hitched and now it was him with reddening cheeks as he backed away. You stifled a laugh as you stepped forward, cornering him against the edge of the kitchen counter.

“And I know that look on your face,” You teased back. “You like it.”

His eyes fluttered, almost like he was fighting the urge to look over your body once again. He inhaled deeply and then he straightened, leaning over you this time. With a subtle smile, he whispered something that left shivers down your spine.

“I love it.”

Oh my god. You treaded backwards, suddenly feeling conscious of everything. His eyes on you–all over you–the way the shirt clung to his body, the rushing thought of the fact that you saw him without it on just a few minutes ago–everything came over you like a bucket of ice water.

“I–” With wide eyes, he only continued to approach you, the scent of his shampoo overcoming you quickly. You couldn’t come up with a comeback anymore. At first, you thought that this was just friendly banter, the type that you guys would do in the school cafeteria. But this–this was something different. With the way he was looking at you with darkening eyes, you weren’t quite sure this was that “friendly banter” thing anymore.

“Shut up,” You blurted out as you pulled the hoodie off you and thrust it into his chest.

“Why?” He grinned. “I like this game.”

You raised your eyebrows. “What game is this exactly?”

“The game of making the other person flustered.” 

You stood there for a moment, thinking. You couldn’t quite come up with a verbal comeback. So you could instead…

Taking a step forward, you hooked a hand around the back of his neck, letting your touch linger there for a moment. A stuttering breath was caught thickly in his throat as he looked down at you in bafflement.

And then you let your fingertips trail around, down his neck, across his collarbone, slightly pulling down the hem of his shirt and stopping just at his chest where you could feel his heart thump erratically.

Your trace on his skin left sparks flying in your heart and when you had looked up, you knew that Hyunjae was experiencing the same thing.

He was looking down at you, completely speechless and his eyes round in shock. You smiled in triumph, leaning close to one of his reddening ears.

“Then I win.”

And you were heading for the door. But just as you turned around, you could see Hyunjae who was still leaning against the counter, cheeks now red as he stared down at the ground. You giggled, closing the door behind you.

The next time you saw Hyunjae, unsurprisingly, he looked exhausted again. In fact, he didn’t even recognize you at first with how he was gazing off into space rather than unlocking his own door.

“Come over tonight,” You offered.

He raised an eyebrow. “To do what?”

You choked. “Not that. Movie night!” You winked, patting his shoulder before leaving for the grocery store. You made sure to mentally add popcorn to your list.

And so, when it was pitch dark at night, you had opened your door to Hyunjae, fidgeting nervously at the entrance. You laughed, grabbing his wrist and pulling him in.

“Don’t be nervous.” You grinned. “It’s just me.”

As you set up the movie, you couldn’t help but notice Hyunjae looking around your apartment. He seemed to be taking in all of your decorations, and the fact that you had more than one cup and plate. You smiled.

“We can go shopping if you want,” You spoke up. “For your apartment.”

He glanced at you in shock. But he eventually nodded with a small smile, that same one you noticed that he often forced when he was tired and down.

Now sitting on the couch, side-by-side but never quite touching, the two of you watched a movie. It was a comfortable silence and whenever you would glance at Hyunjae, he would notice and turn his attention back to you. And every time you would make eye contact, you made sure to give him a bright smile, one that showed him that “I’m always here for you.”

"Staring?" He teased.

"In fact I am," You replied. "Forget the movie, you're the award-winning feature."

He laughed again. The same bright one at the park.

"I didn't take you to be such a flirter," He remarked.

"I'm not," You refuted. "You really are amazing."

He gave you a smile that wasn't so convincing. "If you say so."

Near the resolution of the film, you found yourself scooching over to him, letting your shoulders touch. But that wasn’t exactly enough, so you lifted his arm so that you could rest your head on his chest, his body warmth easily spreading to yours.

“What are you doing?” He muttered.

For a second, you thought he might actually be annoyed. But, when you looked up, you could see his softening eyes and the slight blush on his cheeks. You huffed in amusement and you only persisted, snuggling close to his chest. Eventually, he gave up on the whole tough act and he let his arm wrap around you, rubbing your arm in up-and-down motions.

You didn’t notice that you had fallen asleep.

Though you did briefly remember two… moments. One of them was him cautiously bringing you to your bed. The other being a warm hand softly caressing your cheek.

You woke up alone. Good! Who else did you expect? Rubbing your eyes, there was a constant sound ringing in your ears. The doorbell, you groaned. Stumbling to the door, you were hoping maybe… Hyunjae? But instead, it was your landlord. You furrowed your eyebrows in concern.

She sighed, shaking her head.

“Bad news.”

When it was Hyunjae this time who had invited you over, you were pleasantly surprised. Opening the door, you could see him sitting at the table, staring intently at his computer.

Tilting your head, you were about to ask what he was looking at. But then he suddenly jumped up, the chair almost falling over. There was a bright smile on his face as he rushed over to you.

“Hyunjae?” You looked at him in confusion.

“I got the job,” He exclaimed. “I got it.”

“You did?” You gasped. “That’s so– that’s amazing! Congratul–” You inhaled sharply when you felt two hands grasp onto your waist. And suddenly, your whole world shifted once you realized that he was literally picking you up and twirling you around. You laughed shyly as you allowed him to, watching fondly at the way he smiled so, so freely.

Once he had slowed down, there was an impending thought in the back of your mind that appeared from all of the adrenaline. He could put you down and you could lean in and maybe… maybe– press your lips to his as an extra cheer. Mentally slapping yourself, you felt your cheeks grow hot. Again, what were you thinking?

His hands were still on your waist, the both of you out of breath. You smiled, giggling softly. He smiled back, his eyes bright and sparkling.

“I’m proud of you,” You finally said.

“It’s all thanks to you,” He replied.

“Hm, well,” You huffed. “Guess who lost their apartment.”

He gaped at you. “What?”

“Not permanently,” You groaned. “But there’s been a technical problem that has to be investigated and fixed. So I can’t stay there for the meantime.”

He looked at you, deep in thought. And then his hands tightened on your waist. “Then stay here with me.”

Now it was your turn to gawk at him. “What?”

“Please.” He smiled. “I owe you.”

You blushed. “I didn’t do much.”

“You did.” He walked forward, nearly caging you against the wall. “Everything. You’ve helped me get this job.” Another step forward. “I’m indebted to you.”

“H-hyunjae,” You stuttered, trying your best to avoid stealing a glance at his lips.

“Just temporarily.”

You made a mental pro and con list. Pros–He was your childhood best friend meaning that he knew you best. Cons–what if things changed? What if you… fell? And you didn’t mean physically.

With a hesitant sigh in defeat, you responded quietly. 

“Temporarily.”

When you and Hyunjae had art class together, you learned a little bit more about him. He was always the one who enjoyed the sketching, the outlining with the black pen, and shading in grey. You, on the other hand, were the one who would color in between those lines with vibrant colors, brightening the picture into something truly complete. 

That was how you complimented each other. People often painted him out to be cold and blunt, but you always saw past that. It was always you who thought that he was the sweetest person you’ve ever met–the one who took care of you when you were sick and who pulled you away from passing cars.

Just like one of those art projects, you began to liven up his apartment with your own things. Of course, you didn’t bring everything, but the simple pieces of your toothbrush next to his and your coat hung up on the rack, were enough to make the puzzle feel just complete.

Soon enough, the evening came which brought the dilemma of where you would sleep.

“The couch,” Hyunjae spoke up, walking out of the bathroom again, with damp hair. But at least he was fully clothed this time. Still, that vision was practically ingrained into your mind.

“You’re right.” You nodded in agreement. “I’ll–”

“Not you,” He huffed. “Me.”

“Oh,” You breathed out. Abruptly you stood up in defiance. “No!” You blurted out. “That’s rude.”

He looked at you entirely unimpressed. “I’m being a good host. A gentleman.”

“Exactly.” You scowled. “You’re going to make me feel like I’m intruding. And look who invited me in the first place?”

He sighed, glancing at the bedroom door. “There’s only one bed.”

“Then we’ll share,” You replied, completely sure of yourself. Hyunjae didn’t respond so you lifted your chin high and walked past him and into the bedroom as odd as it may sound. However, in the corner of your eye, you could see that his ears were slightly red.

You may have underestimated the sheer awkwardness. Just a bit. Maybe a lot.

The two of you stood on either side of the bed, facing each other, contemplating the fact that this would be the first time you would be sleeping together. Actually, it wasn’t really awkward per se. It was more… hilarious. You pursed your lips, trying to stifle your laughter, while Hyunjae’s cheeks were puffed out in embarrassment.

Again, as the bolder one, you climbed under the sheets first. Still, Hyunjae was just standing, hesitating. You squinted up at him through the darkness. 

Even under the dim lighting, you could see that his cheeks were incredibly flushed. 

“I think I’ll just go back to the–” He couldn’t even finish his sentence because you were grabbing onto his hand and pulling him down into bed. He didn’t really protest though as you could sense him slowly melting into the warmth of it.

The lamp was off now and you were both succumbed to darkness. It was silent, only the sound of Hyunjae’s calm breathing. You weren’t exactly tired right now. You knew that it would take you a while to fall asleep. But that was fine! You would just wait until he fell asleep first.

Except, when you turned on your side to face him, you could see him staring back, big, round doe eyes on you. So, scratch that. And now you were cold which you weren’t used to. Your apartment was usually the perfect temperature, but this one left you shivering all over.

Unconsciously, you began to shift closer to his body. He’s always been the warm one. That used to be your strategy to not freeze to death when the two of you would walk down the winter festival together.

Suddenly though, you felt an arm across your waist and steady breathing on the side of your neck.

“Hm?” You hummed in confusion, wondering if the chest against your shoulder was just a hallucination. 

But then he replied in a quiet, lower voice.

“Is this okay?” He whispered.

Oh, this was more than okay. You were familiar with his embrace. But to feel it just moments before you fell asleep brought a sudden bout of tranquility.

“Perfect.” You smiled to yourself, curling up to his body in which he held you closer in response. It was warm, comforting, just perfect. It didn’t take you a while to fall asleep anymore. 

When you awoke, you were slightly—no, very confused about why it was still dark out. You were pretty sure the room should be bright with natural light from the sun. Or maybe you’ve just gone crazy. But that was when you glanced at the time. It was still the middle of the night.

When you turned to your side, that was also when you realized that it was Hyunjae who had woken you up. Unknowingly at that. His arm was still around your waist but this time, his hold was almost painfully tight. If you looked closely, you could see that his eyes were screwed shut, his eyebrows twitching with small stuttering breaths escaping him.

But, you’ve always heard the saying that you weren’t supposed to wake someone up from a nightmare. So you hesitated, keeping your hands close to yourself, worriedly watching. At some point, he jolted awake by himself.

Now, his breathing was even faster and he had shot up, looking around frantically. Blinking your eyes sleepily, you turned on the nearby light and sat up with him.

“Hyunjae?” You whispered, looking him over in concern.

He turned to you in a growing distraught state and he widened his eyes. “Are you–”

“It’s just me,” You muttered. “Bad dream?”

Hyunjae froze for a moment but he slowly nodded. And usually, it was you who initiated the hugs. But this time, he was the one who lunged forward, holding you close to his chest. His hands grasped onto you tightly as he buried his nose into your neck.

With the way he was holding you so tightly, so… desperately, you wondered if this had happened before. But still, you allowed him to just hold you close, your own arms coming around to gently pat his back.

You didn’t know when, but he eventually pulled away. He refused to look you in the eye and so you brought a gentle hand to the side of his face, coaxing him to face you.

“How long has this been going on for?” You frowned.

He shut his eyes. “A while.”

Your heart clenched at his quiet response. For the past few days, you had thought he was feeling better, less exhausted. But behind the bedroom door, it must be different.

“Do you… want to talk about it?”

“I don’t know…” He trailed off.

“You don’t have to tell me–”

“...what they’re about.”

“Oh,” You breathed. “The nightmares?”

He nodded with tired eyes. “But while I was gone–away from you–people I’ve loved, everything I’ve cherished seemed to disappear before my eyes. It wasn’t just work it was… a lot.” His voice was quiet, hard to hear but it was loud enough that you could hear each and every heart-twisting emotion.

You stayed silent, your hand finding his to stroke the back of it soothingly.

“I felt hopeless.” He frowned. “I guess those nightmares felt like I was reliving that all over again.”

He didn’t say anything after that. You watched him cautiously, wondering what exactly to do. But then you felt his hand tighten on yours slightly and that was your cue to shift even closer.

He glanced at you with an ashamed expression that only made the pit in your stomach drop even more. Slowly, slow enough so that he could back away if he wanted to, you wrapped an arm around him, pulling him close against you. Almost instantly, he was breathing out a low sigh of relief as he nuzzled even further into your embrace.

“You’re not alone anymore,” You whispered. “And… thank you for trusting me enough to tell me.”

He didn’t say anything, but when he held you back, it was a perfect answer. The two of you stayed like that, in the dead of night, just holding each other until you began to feel drowsy from his warmth. It wasn’t the first time that you’ve done so. The only difference was that it was always you who needed that extra piece of comfort. It was never Hyunjae. Seeing him open up was different but something that you were most grateful for.

“I never replied to you the day we met in the hallway,” He spoke, interrupting your thoughts. 

You pondered for a moment, recalling the memory. “When I said that I missed you?”

He nodded. “I didn’t reply because I was afraid you would still be mad at me for leaving you so abruptly.”

You smiled softly and shook your head, your hand coming up to the back of his head to stroke his hair soothingly. His eyes widened slightly in shock but he quickly melted into your touch. “I was angry at first.”

He laughed quietly, though his voice was watery with unfallen tears.

“But now I’m not,” You whispered. “I promise. I’m just happy to see you again.”

He pulled away to look up at you, searching your face to make sure that you were telling the truth. When you only gazed back with utmost sincerity, he let a small smile tug on his lips.

“I missed you,” He had finally replied, answering your statement from before. “More than you know. It was hard without you.”

Your gaze softened once you noticed the sparkle of a few tears in his eyes and when he blinked, your sleeve was immediately coming up to pat his cheek, drying the ones that had broken free.

“I missed you too,” You responded and gently, you were pulling him back into bed. And this time, without hesitation, he was hooking both of his arms around you, tightening you into his chest.

“...so much,” He muttered sleepily. “I missed you so much.”

“You have me now.”

“Always.” And you felt his hand grasp yours, guiding it to where his heart was, thumping in a soothing rhythm. “In here.”

You were the first one to wake up. It seemed that Hyunjae’s nightmare and tears had left him too exhausted to even notice you unwrapping yourself from his protective embrace. And so, you took it as your duty to cook something decent for him to wake up to.

Except maybe Hyunjae did notice because he opened the door shortly after. You probably should have placed a pillow in his arms before you left. He walked out and you had to stop yourself from cooing because that would be a little bit… weird. But you couldn’t help it because the sight of his hair tousled and messy, his eyes barely opened and puffy from the tears, and his lips pouted adorably, left you smiling with endearment.

“Morning sleepyhead.” You grinned, turning the stove on. 

He didn’t say anything. Instead, he shuffled over to where you were standing behind the kitchen counter. 

You tilted your head in amusement, wondering how he managed to navigate with his eyes barely open. “Are you feeling better?”

Again, still no response. You watched as he circled the counter, positioning himself behind you. And then you gasped quietly once you registered the strong arms that enveloped your waist, pulling you into a warm hug, your back now pressed up against his chest. You could even feel his nose nuzzling into the back of your neck, breathing deeply.

You simply just froze, unable to do anything. Once you realized he wasn’t going to move anytime soon, you turned the stove off and simply allowed him to hug you to his heart’s content. He let out a sleepy hum. Or was it a whine?

“You’re clingy in the morning,” You mused.

“Mhm.” Even his morning voice was cute.

And when you said sleepy, you meant it. Literally–you were pretty sure he fell asleep while back-hugging you in the middle of the kitchen. You practically had to hold on to the counter to brace his weight and when you stole a glance over your shoulder, you had to stifle a laugh. His cheek was smushed into your shoulder and his eyes shut in content.

“O–kay,” You heaved, forcing your body to turn around. And still, he would have almost collapsed into you if you hadn’t planted your hands on his shoulders to hold him up. His head lolled to the side as he peeked an eye open to look at you drowsily.

You chuckled and your hand came up to his hair to ruffle it. Immediately, he was leaning into your touch and when your hand traveled down to cup his cheek, he was nuzzling into it like a puppy.

“I missed you,” He slurred, his voice huskier than usual.

“Mm, you said that already,” You hummed teasingly, a smile threatening to spread across your lips. “Hyunjae.”

“Hm?” He smiled lazily.

“You’re acting drunk and it’s like–” You glanced at the clock. “Seven in the morning.”

“And what about it? I missed you,” He grumbled, an adorable frown on his lips.

“Ah,” You sighed, shaking your head. “Go splash water on your face, you dummy. Then you’ll wake up properly.”

He still didn’t budge. And so, using every single ounce of your strength, you had to carry him all the way to the bathroom as he was still clinging onto you like a koala.

After a few minutes, with the sound of the bathroom sink splashing in the background, you finally managed to start cooking something. But then the door clicked open and you looked up. Hyunjae, his eyes finally open, was blushing so hard that you couldn’t even conceal your laugh anymore.

“Missed me?” You remarked.

He winced in response, his cheeks continuing to flame red.

“I don’t know what got into me,” He muttered, refusing to look you in the eye.

You beckoned him over and he finally looked up at you shyly.

“It was cute,” You teased. “You’re cute when you’re sleepy.”

“And what else?” He quickly recovered.

Your breath hitched. Ah, you thought. There he was. The usual Hyunjae when he was fully awake. The one who loved to tease you until you were blushing and hiding your face. 

“Don’t do this again,” You groaned.

“Do what?”

“That.”

“You’ll have to elaborate on that, sweetheart.”

You raised an eyebrow at the nickname, completely unfazed. But when your eyes traveled down, that was when you realized just how close he was. He continued to lean forward until he was caging you against the counter, both of his hands on either side of you. It wasn’t the flirting that got you, it was his body encompassing you so, so effortlessly, making you feel smaller than you really were. 

He chuckled. “Cat got your tongue?”

Oh, this is definitely how best friends act. You were one hundred percent sure about that. 

He smirked, tilting his chin down, as his hand traveled from the edge of the counter down to your hip. 

Fifty percent. 

His eyes wandering elsewhere–somewhere along the lines of your lips.

One percent.

“The breakfast is going to burn,” You stuttered.

He simply licked his lips, his gaze fixated on yours.

“I can always try something else.”

You were screwed.

The first day of Hyunjae’s new job was the very last day of your brief vacation from work. With a sigh, you scrolled through the shows and movies, only for you to ultimately turn off the TV in boredom. You weren’t going to beat around the bush and refuse to admit that you felt lonely without him. Of course, you saw him in the morning, already dressed in a suit (that fit amazingly on him, dare you add), but it was only for a short moment.

He still had nightmares but they were becoming less and less frequent. Sometimes, when they happened, you would just pull him closer and he would immediately relax with a small sigh, almost like you had the superpower to eliminate his night terrors.

And sleeping together never was awkward again. In fact, you adequately enjoyed it–his arms around you and vice versa. Did best friends regularly cuddle at night and gaze at each other for so long that your heartbeat started to speed up? That… you weren’t quite sure about.

Yawning, you found yourself lying down, spreading across the couch. You didn’t even do much today yet your eyes still threatened to shut close.

At some point, you blinked your eyelids open once you heard the door unlocking. Sitting up, you smiled softly at the sight of Hyunjae opening the door. His tie was already loose and his hair was blown up from the wind. Squinting your eyes, you then noticed that he was practically stumbling into the entrance, almost like all of his coordination had dissipated. 

His eyes were droopy and his lips pouted from what you would guess to be exhaustion. Everyone’s first day of work was like that. You watched as he set down his work bag and walked over to you, very… very slowly.

“How was work?” You questioned, looking up at him.

And just like last time, he didn’t respond. Silently, he leaned forward and literally–very literally–laid on top of you. His body weight pulled you back down to lie on the couch and his arms were snaking around you as his legs tangled with yours. Speechless, you felt as he nuzzled back into your neck, just like he’s begun to do so often now.

“You look gorgeous today,” He whispered, his voice very oddly slurred.

Your breath hitched. “Are you drunk?”

He looked up at that and you practically choked on air once you realized how close his face was to yours. And then he smiled languidly and shook his head.

“Are you sure?” You searched him for any sign–red cheeks, the scent of the alcoholic drink–yet you couldn’t find any. 

“I’m just tired,” He mumbled, planting his face back into the crook of your neck.

“Okay,” You laughed. Gently, your hand came up to his broad back to rub it in circles, the material of the suit rough and honestly quite unsatisfying. But still, you persisted once you felt his tense muscles slowly soften. Slowly though, you came to a stop. “Hyunjae.”

“Hm?” He hummed.

“You need to take a shower,” You huffed. “C’mon.” With all of your power, you pushed him up and off you. Again, his head tilted to the side with a tired smile. You laughed and shoved him until he finally obliged and went off to the bathroom.

Meanwhile, you were left there, contemplating his strange behavior. He never acted this clingy before. Not even for the years that you’ve known him. It was only after that particular night that he started to… do this.

When he was done showering, he stepped out. You had hoped that he would be more awake now, but it seemed he was even drowsier than before–too tired to even dry his own hair. With a click of your tongue, you motioned him over to sit down. Like a puppy, his eyes brightened at the sight of you as he obediently followed.

“You’ll catch a cold,” You ridiculed with a worried frown.

After finding a towel, you stepped in between his legs. Carefully, you began to dry his damp hair, marveling at the way his hair curled up after a shower. You rubbed his scalp, making your way around and behind his ears. When you peeked at his expression, you stifled a laugh at the way he basically fell asleep under your touch.

Once you deemed his hair dry enough, you were about to walk away but instead, he abruptly stood up, swaying slightly. And then he fell forward, pulling you into a warm embrace.

You smiled fondly. “Tired?”

It seems that when Hyunjae was tired, he never answered any of your questions, funnily enough. A lot of his answers were just “I missed you” or a small hum. But this… this answer was different. It was spoken so quietly, so softly yet it perfectly resonated through your ears. 

“I love you.”

Before you could even say anything or really do anything, he was reluctantly pulling away and heading to the bedroom. Your lips parted as your eyes fixated on absolutely nothing. Just– space. Your whole body had gone rigid as you simply stood there, processing his words. You couldn’t even blink. 

Best friends… say that too, don’t they?

It started to become a pattern for the whole first week of his new job. When he was actually fully awake, he told you that the work was demanding yet he never looked so happy and content. Sometimes, you wondered what his past work was like, but you never prodded.

But, because the work was just so demanding, every single day, from Monday to Friday, he came home exhausted. And any person would expect him to just head straight for bed. But like you said, it was a pattern, a usual thing, that he would cling on to you. Apparently, something had shifted in him. Originally, when you saw him exhausted, he would become closed off. But after… that night, he acted almost intoxicated. Not on a drink. But simply off being tired.

You found it endearing actually. His voice was always quieter and he often stumbled over his words this way. His eyes were dazed and soft on yours and he also became ten times heavier as he liked to lay all of his weight on you when he pulled you into a hug. He constantly just seemed to be in a completely different mindset–one that was very… loving and… yeah– different.

He liked to say things too. Slurred and quiet, but he still very clearly said them. You could never figure out if he meant them or if he was just tired and rambling things for the fun of it.

He said “I misssed you” a lot. Occasionally, he would blurt out that you looked pretty or beautiful. Or, it would be a small “hi” accompanied by a shy smile. Sometimes, if he was too tired to say much, he would just giggle over nothing in particular. But… there was one specific phrase that he would say out of the blue.

“I love you.”

That one always left you perplexed. It could be a… platonic thing to say, right? Where did the word “love” come from? You didn’t think much of it, but you couldn’t help but feel some sort of spark of light in the very depths of your heart.

It was weird, really. An out-of-this-world, alien-like thing for a best friend to say. The words I, love, and you arranged in that particular order were never syllables Hyunjae ever let fall from his lips. He never spent any particular ounce of breath to say them. 

Yet now he did.

For some odd reason.

But again, he was just tired. Surely.

And just like before, the pattern started all over again. The week was coming to a close so maybe you wouldn’t hear those words again after this. But you didn’t really mind altogether. With a tired sigh, you walked out of the room, now changed out of your work clothes and into something more comfortable.

Right on cue, the main door was unlocking, and once again, the pattern began to unweave itself. He would walk in, with the occasional misstep and stumble. And like usual, he looked tired. Though, you envied his ability to still look… attractive. And then he would look up, search for a particular someone, and do that stupidly lazy smile–the one where his eyes weren’t focused on anything but you.

“What are you doing here?” He giggled–he giggled now, apparently.

You eyed him, completely apathetic. “You let me stay here temporarily, remember?”

He blinked at you with an adorable pout. And then he nodded. “You’re right.” He smiled. “Aren’t you smart?” He pinched your cheek. 

Scowling, you wrestled his hands off. And for the first time this week, you finally decided to question his bizarre behavior.

“Why are you acting like this?” You whined, holding him up by his arms so he wouldn’t fall over you like he had done the day before.

“Because I missed you,” He grumbled, his eyes struggling to stay open. “Now let me–”

“Agh,” You groaned. But still, your hands fell to your sides as you let him wrap his arms around your torso, bringing you close to his chest. Whatever made him happy, was your motive. And totally not, I secretly enjoy this.

It was quiet for a few moments, just the sound of his slow breathing against your earlobe. For a minute, you worried that he had fallen asleep already, but he spoke again.

“Have I mentioned how uncomfortable this suit is?” He mumbled. “It’s very hot and–”

You didn’t even say anything. With a sigh–one that wasn’t particularly annoyed, but more… doting–you stepped away. He stared at you in both drowsiness and slight confusion, but his eyes slowly widened once he realized that you were taking off the jacket for him. Gently, you pulled it off his shoulders and down his arms, your eyebrows slightly furrowed in concentration.

He was quiet, simply watching as your fingers grasped his tie, unloosening it with a sharp pull, causing him to lurch forward, his lips startlingly close to yours. 

“Interesting,” He teasingly remarked, but his voice was still slurred.

“Shut up,” You snapped yet there was no malice behind your tone.

Your hands then came up to his collar, unbuttoning the first few buttons to reveal slightly past his collarbones which… you’ve already accidentally witnessed before. With a friendly pat on his shoulder, you deemed him undressed enough. He slowly turned his gaze to you and your breath hitched at the sight– his work attire now loose with his hair slightly messy… ah. Not to mention, his tilted head and sleepy expression that only made things worse.

Clearing your throat, feeling your cheeks burn, you scrambled off somewhere to shove a change of clothes into his hands and left abruptly, your heart thumping. Soon enough–you didn’t know when because you were busy contemplating all of your feelings and the meaning of life–he walked into the bedroom. Undoing the made bed, you motioned him to climb in. Obediently, he followed and you pulled the blankets over him.

“Y/n,” He muttered, grasping your wrist before you could walk away.

“Hm?”

“...love you,” He whispered.

Again, he was just rambling. He was just saying things. He had stumbled over his words and his voice was quiet, so that meant that he didn’t mean it. He didn’t mean any of it. It was all fake–

“I love you,” He repeated—clearer, louder this time without an inch of hesitation. And this time, he was looking straight up at you, his cheeks slightly pink, flushed.

Maybe it was more real than you had thought.

The first week was over, meaning Hyunjae was more situated at work and most importantly, less exhausted. On the first day of his new, non-intoxicated-on-fatigue persona, he had simply greeted you and strolled past. You wouldn’t admit it fully to him but that simple interaction that did better fit what you guys were–best friends–left you feeling empty inside.

But it was fine. It was just a one-week thing.

Until it wasn’t.

The next day, the pattern appeared again, but it wasn’t… like before.

He was fully awake this time yet he still–

“Hyunjae?” You stammered. The arms wrapped around your waist tightened further as he stood behind you, hooking his chin over your shoulder, and breathing out a low sigh. And now that he was newly… conscious, he did more. His hands began to wander over you in soothing shapes and he pressed his chest further against your back.

“Just stay here with me.” 

You could see his soft smile in the corner of your eye. With a bothered huff, you glanced back at him, only for you to inhale sharply at how close he actually was and how… nice his cologne smelt. Oh, and his hands were still wandering.

“I thought you only acted like this when you’re tired?”

He shook his head, shifting even closer, his warmth encompassing you comfortingly.

“Do you want to know something about me?”

“I know a lot about you,” You joked.

But he was quiet, a serious silence befalling the two of you. You gulped and whispered a small “what is it?”

You could hear him huff out in amusement, his hands never failing to leave your waist. “While I was away–when I was at my lowest–I thought of someone all those years.”

And for some reason, you knew exactly what the answer was. 

But still, your voice tremored. “Who?”

A squeeze on your waist.

“You.”

Shutting your eyes, you breathed out a shaky sigh and looked down to where he was still hugging you from behind. Your heart was thumping and you were sure he could hear you. And even if he could make out the pounding, he never budged once. Not once did he stop tightening his arms around you and not once did he cease to bury his nose somewhere into your skin, leaving shivers down your spine.

With your heartbeat practically reaching your ears, you nudged him and turned around so that now, you were facing him. Without his dazed, sleepy look, it was just his soft eyes and the slightest tug of his lips, an endeared smile. Without his exhaustion that often left him sluggish, it was just his firm, stronger arms that held you so easily.

“Hyunjae,” You whispered. 

“Sweetheart,” He replied, his voice gentle and content. And before, you wouldn’t have paid a single ounce of attention to that nickname because it just seemed like how best friends would fool around. But now… things were different and you weren’t sure how exactly. And so the name sweetheart now left your cheeks flushing.

You swallowed thickly, your breath shortening. “Do you know how much you confuse me?”

His smile only grew. “Elaborate on that.” A pause. “Sweetheart.”

You sighed, biting your lip with mortification. “That. The nickname.”

“Sweetheart? You never said you didn’t like it, I can stop if you want—“

“Don’t!” You rushed to say. You blushed more once you realized he was teasing you again, his eyes glinting with amusement. “Not just the nickname. Everything.”

“Like what?” He stepped closer if that was even possible.

You gazed up at him and you were sure you looked frustrated right now, judging by his fond smile. He always said you looked cute when mad.

“You say that you miss me all the time.”

“Because I do.” He dipped his head lower to look at you with those foolish, puppy-like eyes. “I think of you whenever I’m at work.”

“But,” You exhaled shakily. “Do you realize that you say something else?” 

You were sure he wasn’t aware. He didn’t seem to be in the right state of mind whenever he was exhausted. So maybe, he would just stare at you in utter confusion, deny it, and this whole… feeling fiasco would be done and dealt with. But then—

“That I love you?”

Your lips parted in surprise and you peered up at him, wondering if he was just taking a wild guess. But no, the soft, genuine look on his face said it all.

“You… knew?” You stuttered.

“Of course I did,” He chuckled softly. “And I meant every single one.”

Eyebrows furrowing, you stepped backward from shock. As you avoided his eyes, you missed the nervousness and the unsureness that flitted across his face. But, just that one step away left chills down your body–as if being away from Hyunjae and his embrace wasn’t even natural anymore.

And so you stepped forward again. Immediately, you could hear a low sigh of relief escape Hyunjae’s lips and feel his hands snake back around your waist protectively. You weren’t sure what expression was on his face though, as you were very adamant on staring directly at his tie–his chest. You knew that he could still see your reddening cheeks, but you still preferred not to look him in the eye. 

“That,” He said quietly. “You’re also quite confusing too.”

“Wh-what?” 

“Stepping away and stepping back,” He spoke softly. “Looking me in the eye but refusing to when I say that I love you.” One of his hands left your waist to gently guide your chin up. “So look at me now.” 

“I…” You trailed off, feeling yourself go weak just from his soft, loving gaze.

“And one more thing.” He tilted his head teasingly.

A pause. A great moment of silence.

“You don’t say it but you show it.”

“Hyunjae,�� You breathed out, your heart beating like a loud, intense drum.

“I wasn’t completely unaware.” He smirked. His hand had already left your chin and found its place back to your waist, yet you found yourself staring straight into his dark eyes, stuck in a trance. “I know that you dried my hair with a towel–that you even undressed me. I know that you took care of me.”

You did do that all on your own accord, simply because you thought that you were being a perfectly good friend. But now that you thought about it–you didn’t have to. You could have easily pushed him off, and told him to do everything on his own but you didn’t. And it was all because you–

“So tell me then,” He whispered, his voice quiet–only for you to hear, almost like he wanted you all to himself. “What are we?”

You held your breath, your cheeks growing hot. Your hands rested on his chest and you could feel his heart pound, exactly like yours. He felt the same, you realized. With a shaky sigh, you gazed up at him.

“What do you want us to be?”

He hummed, a soft smile on his lips. “What do I want?” 

He slightly reworded your question and you wondered why. But you nodded, your eyes studying his features. His handsome features. They were sharp when you had met him in that hallway. But his keen eyes, the angle of his eyebrows, his perpetual frown–they were just soft, soft on you. No longer was there a frown, but just an affectionate smile.

“What do you want?” You repeated his question, your voice hushed to a whisper.

He leaned in, his gaze warm and gentle, his eyes wandering over each and every detail of your face.

“I want to love you.”

You had expected to inhale sharply, gasp maybe–but no. Because everything made sense to you now. His kind words, his soft and fleeting touches across your body, it all pointed to one thing. And so, instead, you smiled shyly.

“Then love me.”

And just like that, his grip on your hips tightened and he turned you around so that your back was facing the door. He was walking you backward until you felt the hard surface against your shoulder blades and he was leaning down, close enough that if he inched further, he would be kissing you. But he didn’t–not yet.

“May I?” He muttered, looking over you with slight concern. 

You nodded, embarrassingly with a bit too eagerness. He laughed softly and then he was fitting his lips against yours as your eyes fluttered closed. The press of it was gentle and tender as he tilted your chin up and angled himself so that it was more comfortable. The kiss was unlike any that you’ve experienced before. It was like the tension that had built up before had completely broken down, as you allowed yourself to just fall.

Fall, physically, almost because you felt your knees go weak, with only the door behind you to hold you up. But his hand traveled back down to your waist, hooking you in against his body, keeping you steady as he muffled a groan against your lips. You couldn’t hear anything but his breathing and the thumping of your own heart. 

All you could think of was him–how he could so easily change from rough to soft, how he could push forward so quickly but pull away so easily to allow you a gasp of breath, and how he could make your heart pound yet lull it into a steady rhythm of love. He kissed like he could devour you, but if you decided to peek an eye open, you would see his adorably furrowed eyebrows and his flushed cheeks, showing that he wasn’t anything like that.

He was just a man who needed a bit of a sweetener in his life.

With a quiet noise, he pulled away. Immediately, his eyes searched over your features, making sure that you were okay and that he didn’t do too much. But, when you gave him a smile, your eyes flitting nervously, he grinned and leaned in to grant you another soft kiss.

“How long?” You laughed shyly.

“I came to the realization when you tried to cheer me up whenever I was tired. But I think I’ve already felt this way for a while.” He replied. He pinched your cheek again. “All those dates and extra care that you gave me…very cute thing to do.”

Your eyes went wide. “You… noticed?”

“I notice a lot of things, sweetheart,” He teased. “Like how you’re grabbing onto my suit to pull me into a kiss right now.”

“O-oh,” You stammered, letting go of his crumpled collar. “I didn’t realize I–”

He shook his head and before you could finish your sentence, he was cupping your cheek–something that he’s never done before–and guiding you back to his lips. And this time, his tongue swiped against your lip, making you gasp quietly.

“You taste like candy.” His gaze fixated on your lips.

“I didn’t know you could…” You had to stop for a second to catch your breath. And it wasn’t just because of his exceptional kissing, but it was the beat of your heart, of all of your love. “...you could kiss like that.”

“What can I say?” He tilted his head with a teasing look. “I guess I have a sweet tooth.”

“Trust me on this,” Younghoon whined. “I followed the instructions to the very dot. They’ll taste good. Promise.”

You eyed him skeptically but still, you picked up one of the cookies that he had baked. They looked a little… off, but it should be fine. Taking a bite, you took note of the odd texture, and then the taste started to register on your tongue.

You coughed. You choked. And then you threw the cookie back on the plate. 

“Bitter,” You gagged. “It’s so bitter.”

“What?” He cried. “Are you kidding me–”

Your eyes lit up once you remembered your boyfriend who was sitting next to you on the couch. He was busy on his computer, doing some sort of work report but you ignored that, turning to him and grasping his collar tightly. You pulled him in, pressing your lips to his, causing him to let out a small “mmph” in surprise.

But almost instantly, he turned into jelly from your touch, a smile growing on his lips as his eyes fluttered close. He had tried to deepen it desperately but you pulled away shortly after, leaving him to chase after your lips adorably.

Younghoon gawked. “I’m right here.”

“So?” You shrugged, smiling innocently. “At least he tastes sweet.”

“Oh my god,” Younghoon mumbled, getting up to throw the cookies into the garbage can. 

Meanwhile, Hyunjae was staring at you in a daze, his cheeks flushed. But, he quickly recovered and he was quick to pounce on you, pressing kisses all over you once Younghoon had left.

“A warning next time would be great.”

He was now hovering over you on the couch, caging you under his arms and his computer long forgotten. The position left you flushing but it was also the perfect one to knee him in the stomach.

He winced in pain. "What was that for?"

"A warning, you said," You mocked. "When literally yesterday you kissed me up against a wall in your own workplace."

"That's an exception." He smirked. "You liked it, didn't you?"

"I..." You blushed, remembering the way he had kissed you so fervently, dressed in that suit and tie, the thrill of getting caught still running through your veins. "It was alright."

"Sure, sweetheart," He whispered in a teasing tone. He looked annoying handsome like this, with that amused smile that contrasted his soft, loving gaze. "Then I'll make sure you like this one."

Oh, how you despised him.

And then his lips were on yours again, swallowing up any shy noises that threatened to escape you. But just before he did, he had whispered three quiet words against your lips.

"I love you."

And how you loved him too.

[tennessoui]

Hi kit!! I just reread the hs reunion au + the christmas fic and once again had a lil cry about it 🥺

I think you said before that shmi is the one who got luke and leia obi-wan’s childrens books to start reading, but the christmas fic shows that their post-obikin breakup relationship wasnt good. How do you think it was repaired before her passing?

(the hs reunion fic + the christmas fic for it)

(thank you for this ask because it actually got me to reread all the christmas fic collection lol which was something i did not have time for but still found very fun)

(but back to hs reunion au)

so the whole crux of the au is that qui-gon gets a terminal diagnosis so obi-wan ruins his life to stay with his dad in small town tatooine to take care of him without letting anyone (anakin) know that qui-gon's sick

but i imagine after like 5 or 6 years when qui-gon is getting very very sick (even though it's a bit of a miracle he's still alive at all), he goes by shmi's house and asks her to please look after obi-wan once he's gone because he doesn't want his boy to be alone. and at first shmi is very resistant to the idea, but qui-gon's got a way with dying wishes, and obi-wan does pathetic very well in the days after his dad's funeral, so shmi shows up at his house with a casserole and sorta just bullies her way inside. and eventually they talk about the whole breakup between obi-wan and anakin and obi-wan confesses that qui-gon was supposed to only have a few years left to live and he couldn't leave him alone but he also couldn't damn anakin to rot in tatooine when he hated the town so much so he just let him go and gave him a reason to make sure he left

and shmi is oh you stupid boy (but sorta tearfully) and makes him eat an extra serving of casserole.

and she sort of becomes his biggest advocate after that, carefully keeping from anakin that she's talking with obi-wan and reading his rough drafts of his childrens' books. but she knows obi-wan still loves her son and she's pretty sure her son is still fucked up over obi-wan in a way that's mostly love, so she sends a copy of obi-wan's book to anakin for his kids to read because she thinks it's so obvious that obi-wan is writing about the lives he's dreaming up that anakin is having

[holdmytesseract]

All The Right Moves

Robert Laing x fem!Reader

Summary: When Robert comes home from work, he catches you dancing in the kitchen - and decides to join you...

Warnings: this is a songfic? fluff, dancing, suggestive smut - it gets quite a bit hot and steamy

Word Count: 1,9k

a/n: Some of you were quite a curious about the 'Secret Project'. I told you about. Well, here it is - and it's a birthday gift for @muddyorbsblr ! 🥳 We talked about those gifs and she told me about the story she imagined - and I immediately started to write it; knowing that her birthday was coming up. 🥰 Bestie, I really hope you like this! Happy Birthday! ❤

Tagging: @lulubelle814 @km-ffluv @eleniblue @loz-3 @vbecker10 @jennyggggrrr @mochie85 @chantsdemarins @peaches1958 @multifandom-worlds @fictive-sl0th @lovingchoices14 @simping-for-marvel @stupidthoughtsinwriting @vanilla-daydreaming @lou12346789 @lady-rose-moon @evelyn-kingsley @the-princess-of-loki @acefeather2002

Peeps I think might be interested in this one... @smolvenger @anukulee @lokiforever

°☆• Masterlist •☆°

This is basically based on this song...

... and this scene...

The High Rise was still bustling with the people who lived inside the big building, despite the fact that it was quite late in the evening. Robert had to work a few hours longer today, resulting in the sun already setting, as he stepped through the big doors of London's biggest, most modern skyscraper.

It was early June - the beginning of the summertime, and it showed. The days had gotten longer and the nights shorter; temperatures steadily rising. Several children were still awake; running around, laughing and having fun - just like the adults. Countless men with bottles of beer and women with swim attire crossed his paths; probably planning on throwing yet another party. Like they always did. Robert though, was tired. A long day stuffed to the brim with work was behind him and all he wanted to do, was to spend some quality time with his wife, perhaps eat something and then fall into bed to catch some much-needed sleep.

Taking one of the elevators, he leaned against the metal wall and waited almost impatiently for it to make that familiar 'ding' sound; announcing that it arrived on the 25th floor. Luckily, he didn't have to wait long.

Robert walked straight to yours and his apartment then, literally storming through the door; shutting the loud and annoying world out.

As soon as the door was closed shut behind him, a relieved sigh left his lips. He had been quite a bit lost in his own thoughts, when the sound of music - coming undoubtedly from the kitchen, pulled him back down to earth in the here and now.

And some aces up your sleeve

I had no idea that you're in deep

I dreamt about you near me every night this week

It caused an immediate smile to appear on his lips. Robert knew that song. By heart. It was one of your favourites - and became over the years one of his favourites, too.

How many secrets can you keep'

′Cause there′s this tune I found that makes me think of you somehow

When I play it on repeat

Until I fall asleep

Spilling drinks on my settee

The doctor took off his dress shoes, placed them neatly beside your shoes and put down his working bag. Then he made his way quietly, but quickly to yours and his shared bedroom, slipping out of the greyish black suit jacket he wore; the tie following immediately. Undoing a few of his shirt buttons, Robert felt finally comfortable and 'free'.

The music wasn't extremely loud, but he could still hear every word.

(Do I wanna know?)

If this feeling flows both ways

(Sad to see you go)

Was sorta hoping that you'd stay

(Baby we both know)

That the nights were mainly made for saying

Things that you can′t say tomorrow day

Being only in his matching suit trousers and white shirt now, he sneaked up to the kitchen. Carefully, he lurked around the corner. There you were, in the middle of cooking something which smelt like spaghetti Carbonara - but undoubtedly heavenly; blasting one of your all-time favourites. You were definitely feeling the music with all your heart and soul. Robert could tell, because you had abandoned the pots and pans, in order to dance.

Crawlin' back to you.

Ever thought of calling when you′ve had a few?

'Cause I always do

Maybe I′m too busy being yours to fall for somebody new

Now I've thought it through

As soon as the refrain hit, your dance moves increased. Robert leaned against the door frame, watching you with a smile; hands buried in his trouser pockets. How you moved so gracefully. How your light blue knee-length summer dress flowed with every move you made. And he watched, how happy you seemed to be. It made him happy in return as well - and his heart to beat faster with the love he felt for you.

You had your back towards your husband and therefore hadn't a single clue that he was even there. But when the last line of the refrain sounded through the kitchen, you turned around...

Crawlin' back to you.

The sight of Robert standing casually in the door frame with a soft, but amused smile on his lips caught you off-guard, of course. You visibly flinched; hand flying up to your heaving chest. You could practically feel your heart thumbing against your palm.

Then your cheeks reddened; feeling a bit like a deer caught in the headlights. But once the realisation set in, that it was your husband standing in front of you, a small giggle slipped past your lips. "Robert!"

So have you got the guts?

Been wondering if your heart's still open and

If so I wanna know what time it shuts

Simmer down and pucker up

I′m sorry to interrupt it′s just I'm constantly

On the cusp of trying to kiss you

I don′t know if you feel the same as I do

But we could be together, if you wanted to

With 'Do I Wanna Know?' still blaring in the background, you closed the distance between yourself and your husband. Without saying much, you placed a small kiss on his soft lips, in order to greet him. Automatically, your hands landed on his well-trained chest; displayed through the way too tight white shirt he wore.

While Robert's hands found their way to your waist, you rubbed his pecs with your palms in an affectionate manner. "How was work?" The doctor just shook his head. "I don't want to talk about work, darling." You raised an eyebrow and crooked your head in slightly amused confusion. "You usually always talk about work, honey."

Robert licked his lips; baby blues gazing deeply in your Y/E/C ones. "Later. I don't want to talk now. What I want is to dance."

(Do I wanna know?)

If this feeling flows both ways

(Sad to see you go)

Was sorta hoping that you'd stay

(Baby we both know)

That the nights were mainly made for saying

Things that you can′t say tomorrow day

Before your brain was entirely able to process what Robert just said, he suddenly pulled you with a quick movement closer against him. So close, that your chest collided with his. You let out a small yelp; having not expected this 'bold' move.

Crawlin' back to you.

Robert's timing was perfect, to say the least. With the peak of the refrain, he started to dance; causing your body to sway with his, of course.

Ever thought of calling when you've had a few?

(Calling when you′ve had a few)

'Cause I always do ('cause I always do)

Maybe I′m too busy being yours to fall for somebody new

Now I′ve thought it through

Robert had always been a great dancer. You knew, but he showed it to you once again...

With one hand placed firmly on the small of your back, he moved his hips in sync with yours. His head lowered; forehead pressed against yours. Your hands had wandered as well; moved from his chest to cross behind his neck. Therefore, that you were so close to one another, the dance became quite intimate very fast - and utterly intense. You could feel the warmth radiating off his body; his big, warm hand splayed over the clothed skin on your back - on the verge of touching your ass. You could smell his expensive, rich cologne; him and letting yourself drown in it.

You and Robert literally danced on a thin line between romance and eroticism. Tendencies to the latter. And when he switched positions, you knew exactly how this dance was going to end.

Crawling back to you, (do I wanna know?)

If this feeling flows both ways

(Sad to see you go)

Was sorta hoping that you'd stay

(Baby we both know)

That the nights were mainly made for saying

Things that you can′t say tomorrow day

Robert let go of you and took a few steps back. As soon as his touch left your body, you already missed it; longing to feel him again. But you were not the one in control... He was.

Taking your hand in his bigger one, he lifted both your arms and signalling you to twirl yourself around - which you did with a small giggle; dress flowing in the air once more. Although that 'foolish', girly, little giggle soon faded into a sinful, quiet, little moan, as your husband caught you mid spin with his free arm around your middle, and pressed your ass against his crotch. That was the moment you started to lose it.

Robert splayed one big hand over your lower abdomen; keeping you snugly pinned against him. If that wasn't already torturous enough, he started to move and grind in hips to the beat of the music - and what you felt through the thin layers of clothing caused a gasp to fall from your lips.

Unbeknownst to you, Robert had a naughty smile on his face; knowing exactly what he was doing to you.

(Do I wanna know?)

Too busy being yours to fall

(Sad to see you go)

Ever thought of calling darling?

(Do I wanna know)

Do you want me crawling back to you?

You were in such a haze; totally lost in the way Robert danced with you, that you didn't notice where he was leading you. Therefore, you found yourself trapped between your husband and the kitchen counter by the end of the song.

With the last line, Robert spun you once more around - this time in his arm, and pressed you against the wooden surface. A small, shocked yelp escaped your lips, before your eyes widened in realisation. The position Robert put you in only now dawning on you. Despite that you were quite flustered, you had nevertheless gained a little bit confidence.

Lifting your hand, you let your fingers toy with the opened buttons of his shirt. "Dr. Laing... How naughty..." You tutted playfully; shaking your head. Unfortunately, you weren't able to stay serious and broke out into another fit of giggles.

Robert loved that about you. Your sweet tries to act all dominant and seductive, but you were way too shy and flustered.

The doctor caught your wandering hand easily mid-air and pinned it against his own chest; his large palm swallowing yours whole. "Nu.Uh, Mrs. Laing. If I recall that correctly, you are the naughty one..." Robert stated; letting his gaze drop. His baby blues were no longer staring into your Y/E/C ones. "You started this, didn't you? Dancing to such a quite erotic song... You literally begged for this to happen, am I right?" He underlined his words by pushing you closer against the counter; hips colliding with yours. You gasped - audibly; eyelids fluttering shut. "R-Robert, I-I-I-"

He didn't need to see or hear more to know, that he was right. Your reaction was clear evidence.

"You got yourself in this situation..." Your husband whispered deeply; hoisting you up on the kitchen counter. "And now you have to deal with the consequences. Although, I'm sure you are going to enjoy it," Robert announced with a wolfish grin, before you heard the familiar sound of a zipper being unzipped. You swallowed hard. You were in trouble - because of a damn song!

[yaut-jaknowit]

Hi there! I wanted to say that I love your work and I’m really enjoying seeing all the good shit you put out! Tbh me and my twin have been eating up the story with We’ar-ow! We’ve sorta created our own character to fit in as the reader, and we chat about each update after you post them! It’s a fun little book club in a way! If you ever end up publishing any books, be sure to tell! I love your writing style it’s so distinct and enjoyable!

Also! I wonder how yautja would react to a real short s/o (imma dude and being 5’2 sucks a lot, my mom had to fuck a short king sigh) I had to grab something next to my couch that’s only 2 feet off the ground and I almost flipped my body over reaching. I can’t even wrap my arms around my knees when sitting either

I am able to reach a lot of small things hidden around my house, and I’m really good at anything small with my hands like sewing- tbh that’s the only upside

also quick yautja question- do you think they’re able to produce twins or triplets? Mostly asking cuz I’m one! :p

also I’m so thankful for you writing for readers who aren’t female! it really warms my heart <3 sometimes it can hard to find non female readers and x male readers help with my dysphoria

Short King

Pairing: Uihoy (Male Yautja) x Mas!Reader

Word Count: 692

Summary: After the countless times you've fallen off of places or even found yourself somewhere you're not suppose to be, your wonderful mates have gotten you a step stool. Uihoy understands the frustrations himself. But he doesn't want you getting hurt.

Author Note: I'm so thankful and love this message so much. And the fact you chat about my writings?! Seeing this message for the first had me squealing and kicking my feet like a school girl. I hope one day I'll publish books but for now, I stick to writing fanfics about being dicked down by aliens.

P.s. Gonna be honest, I never knew how many AMABs liked Yautjas. I'm used to fangirls since I'm one myself. But I'm happy to help fill in the hole for the lack of AMAB writtens

Masterlist

Ao3

Knowing some Yautjas out there, they have a size kink. So you being much smaller than them goes burr for them.

They can also wrap themselves around you easier. It makes for the best cuddling sessions because they can probably almost encase you completely. That way, they can protect you better!

They also wouldn’t treat too much different either. They might ensure your items are closer to the ground so you don’t have to climb as much to reach them.

A step stool around either their ship or hut on Yautja Prime is necessary. They wouldn’t want you to go without it either. Less climbing means less danger for you! Safe on the ground floor where you can’t bust your head open.

After one close call with a fall, your mate wouldn’t want you to even think about getting on the damned counters again. So, he got you a step stool.

Once in awhile, you’ll see him use it too. Don’t let him know or say a damn word about it.

Plus, imagine those with the size difference kink. You desperately trying to reach something too far above you. They come up behind you, squishing your body to either the counter or wall. That day ended up differently than you originally thought.

Seeing the way your hand barely fits in their palm. They’re purring up a storm and holding you close.

As for the twins and triplets: yes, it is possible but a very rare occurrence. With their head structure, it’s already hard to push out one. It also puts a huge strain on their bodies. Some go through with the pregnancy if they believe they can endure the journey. Others don’t to save them either the downfall of an unnecessary death of themselves or their children.

I believe in some cultures of the Yautja, it’s celebrated if a female produces more than one offspring and survived. It is a feat that many don’t endure or survive.

Hands encased your hips and pinned you to the counter. A heavy body draped acrossed your back. Hot air caressed the shell of your ear. “What does little hunter think gonna do?” a grumbly voice spoke, slightly scolding you for what might have been a dangerous action. At least in those bright orange eyes of his.

Your entire body jumped at the sudden feel before relaxing, head titling to the side. Uihoy’s profile met your gaze. “I have no idea what you mean,” you brushed off. “I’m just trying to grab a bowl.” That was only thing that was the second shelf they hadn’t moved yet. You best believe it will be after today.

Uihoy snorted then reached above you and grabbed hold of the item you were attempting to take. It was placed before you on the counter in front of you.

The hand left on your hip drifted up to clasp hold of your throat. A finger was used to tilt your head back. Uihoy leaned over you to look you in the eye. “Next time, use the stool,” he scolded and pinched the column of your throat in warning.

Your shoulders sagged, eyes rolling with attitude. “But Uie! I was fine. Three feet off the ground ain’t gonna kill me,” you complained and leaned your weight against the short Yautja. His body barely even wavered at the added weight.

“No, but Uihoy might if little hunter doesn’t listen.” There was no bite in his words. You groaned.

His hold on you slipped away. He took a step away from you. You snatched the bowl off of the counter in front of you and marched over to the refrigerator-like device in the wall.

As you pulled out the stew made yesterday to consume as a mid-day lunch, you narrowed your eyes on Uihoy. The Yautja still stood in the kitchen, leaning against the island. With a spoon, you pointed it at him, non-threatening. “You’re lucky I love you enough I won’t smack you for calling me short,” you pouted and poured some of the stew to fill half the bowl.

A disgruntled grunt sounded from the elder. “My heart is yours, little one.”

[moltworm]

watched the wild robot recently, it was a very pretty movie and i liked the design of the robot. i went into it with bigger ideals than i should have for a big brand childrens movie, but i just think that they opened too many doors on big topics and didnt follow up.

complaining under the cut, i mostly just want to write my thoughts down. obvious spoiler warning for the movie

i KNOWWW its a childrens movie i KNOWWWW its a big brand name of COUUURSE it isnt going to be all that i hoped i KNOWWW i shouldnt be looking this deep into it and i KNOWWWW i shouldnt have gone into it with the (externally caused) attitude i did.

but it was disappointing mannn it was disappointing. im going to watch it again in theaters to try and introduce more joy into my heart and change my thoughts but this is all first-pass emotions.

they open too many topic doors without properly exploring them.

duck that is a runt but ends up still being accepted by the flock? Awesome, great! when that duck is an allegory for minority kids, varying as both rep for physically disabled or neurodivergent, and the way he gets accepted by the flock is by going above and beyond and ultimately learning to behave the way they do? baddd. doesn't address that no, sometimes people CANT do things that other people can. almost had "sometimes you have to find a different way that works for you" which wouldve been great but as far as i can tell that was only a transitional point and he DID end up behaving just as everyone else did.

robot that doesnt know how to connect with nature ultimately learning to become one with it?? cool, fun!! when that robot is a metaphor for a minority individual having to drop its original personality in order to survive and become accepted by the community? bad, although i cant weigh in on this too much. loses the fun bits of being a robot. i guess the "original culture" was weirdly intertwined with obtuse capitalism advertising but augh. good to unlearn advertising propaganda, bad to have to almost completely remake who you are just to fit in and give your kid a fighting chance?

expressing that animals have to survive and that means hunting each other? cool moment!!! later saying that you CAN unite them and writing hunting with a negative moral weight and later implying that they can just eat fish and live happily together? aughhhh mannn MANNN. like, okay, animals CAN form really interesting pairbonds. but also hibernation is NATURAL. animals dying is NATURAL. they almost went for it in the beginning but towards the end they backed out. rgh.

it just feels to me like if theyre going for a disabled/minority/neurodivergent metaphor, then those characters that are disabled/minority/neurodivergent are shown as having to Save Everyone to be Liked. The robot has to almost completely Sacrifice Herself for people to end up liking her. They wanted to do too many things and it ended up being a real big tangle all around.

designs are pretty cool. i sorta liked how roz resurrected and named rummage. they couldve done more with the fox and saying "violent raising begets more violent raising" but they Really Already Had a Lot on their Plate. i didnt like the evil robot who was a blatant bait character that didnt even have much "robot" in the personality. i didn't like how they handled robots, i didn't like how they handled animals, and when those are the Two Big Main Bits of the movie, WELL,

im sure that i could be swayed into liking it by someone who does like it a lot and ill probably change my thoughts when i go rewatch it. but i needed to nail down and articulate why it rubbed me the wrong way, as a known robot liker and nature liker.

[moxpunk]

Moxie's Big-Ass Retrospective on Games She Played This Year

There's going to be a lot of games under the break, and I'm going full-hog on spoilers. Honestly, I'm going stream-of-consciousness with these, so there's not going to be a clear point made for some of them. Just how I remember them and how I feel now looking back.

Final Fantasy XIV This is my current MMO of choice, and it's been this massive part of how I spent my time this year. The patches and content continue to be great, even if I breeze through it all in a few days after the patch when plugins/mods are back up. I've definitely noticed a dip in my interest lately. I think it's because we've hit a good stopping-point for the plot and junk, so most of us are just waiting until the pre-patch of the new expansion next year. RP continues to get fucking worse and worse for someone that plays a lalafell, since the community at-large (especially the modding community) is actively hostile towards lalafells and their players. Having to check every single venue to see if my middle-aged potato is going to be treated like a child by the hosts gets exhausting after the umpteenth time. Still love the game and I poke at it on a regular basis.

The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom One of my favorite games I've played this year, but also one of the most frustrating in hindsight. There was a ton of lost opportunity in multiple aspects in this game, and it's sorta the thing I keep coming back to in my head. I loved the exploration and fucking around with physics and just getting to play around in Hyrule. It's a magical experience that I think transcends the fact that 2/3rds of the map is essentially re-used. The Underground was a missed opportunity to shove lore of ancient civilizations in there, Ganondorf was a missed opportunity to finally depict him as a tragic hero with Hyrule being the villains for once, and no plans for DLC or even a Hero Mode is a massive miss for me wanting to return to the world.

Baldur's Gate 3 Hands-down my favorite game of the year by a massive margin, but like TOTK, an immensely frustrating experience. The game is half-cooked in so many areas, and the bugs are plentiful to the extent that they can't really be ignored. The pathing system continues to be the Larian Special of being jank as all hell, with my characters running in the opposite direction of the path it lays out for them. I played this one on stream, and I cannot remember a single stream where I didn't have at least a handful of frustrations with the combat system. Hell, I had to completely restart my file in the middle of Act 2 because Karlach's romance bugged out. I continue to be very upset and frustrated at how goblins are treated, doubly so since in order to pursue the Good Route with Halsin, you have to attack fucking children. I don't care if they're goblins, they're kids. Also very disappointing we don't get a single short-race origin character, meanwhile half of the cast is some form of elf. At least it's nice letting me be full-on cock-out trans. Despite that, the writing and characterizations in this game are unparalleled. It's immensely refreshing to finally have a RPG where you fucking roleplay, after years of it being dialogue that doesn't matter in the slightest other than "points towards the good/evil ending". I love the Brain Slug Squad immensely. This game is probably going to become part of my "play this every year" list because there's just so many different ways to play through this game.

Bomb Rush Cyberfunk Been waiting for this game (or a game like it) for fuckin' years, and it's everything I wanted and expected. I know a lot of people went into the game expecting some massive thing that lasted hours and hours, but my memories of JSR/JSRF was a game that I could reasonably beat in an afternoon or two because I just get into the flow and know what I'm doing. Cyberfunk is the purest successor to JSF that I can thing of where it just adds to the fun formula of the past. Incredible game, love seeing the mods coming out for it, hope we get another game in the universe since Team Reptile said they aren't doing DLC.

Pizza Tower Love this game, adore the movement and the music, absolutely fell off at about the halfway mark. I think it's because a lot of stuff was coming out at the time, and I just kinda played those instead. One of these days, I'll beat it and be very satisfied, but for now my gremlin-brain that demands collecting every single collectable and getting at least an A-rank on every stage gets exhausted just thinking about it.

Elden Ring Opened the game up after upgrading to a new PC, marveled that I could run it on Ultra with the game keeping a smooth framerate, killed a few enemies, remembered about the fucking giant ants in this game and how there are zero mods to remove/change them, and then turned the game off and uninstalled. Begging someone to make a mod that gets rid of the fucking ants. Please. I've already gotten every trophy in the game last year, so any incentive I have to return is predicated on that.

Cyberpunk 2077: Phantom Liberty So, I'm going to give my thoughts about the base game and the DLC, since I played both. The base game continues to be this utter fascination to me where my brain adores just existing in the cyberhell future of nonstop advertising (if I have to hear YO YO YO MY CHEWERS SHROOMERS AND FUMERS! one more time I'm going to fucking strangle someone to death) and ultraviolence. The game continues to ride that weird line of "might as well do every side-quest because they're quick enough to get to and there's hardly any compared to Witcher 3" and "oh my god I do not care about these fucking sidequests other than I have gremlin-brain". Doing anything with sniper rifles or heavy machine guns is an exercise in frustration thanks to there being zero silenced sniper rifle until late-game and there being no unique HMGs.The DLC is... fine. It's fun antagonizing Idris Alba, it's not fun that the DLC is based around a stealth build, it's extremely not fun that the changed ending is deeply unsatisfying from a narrative standpoint.

Pseudoregalia An adorable little game that I enjoyed quite a bit for the very short time I got to fool around with it. Love the movement, love the style of the graphics, love the little pieces of story. Game doesn't get enough love, so here's me giving it some more.

Potionomics I fucking adore this game. I think what helped endear me was getting to do all the voices on-stream, but who cares this is my retrospective and I get to be biased. Loved the romances and characters in there. I absolutely headcanon Xid as being trans, Roxanne turns me into a babbling idiot, and I relate to Luna so hard it almost hurts. I enjoy that characters remain your friend if you already picked a partner, and you have to have a conversation about "hey, you were kinda flirty for a while and I feel a little weird about that now" for each of them. Breaking the economy by the third competition was immensely satisfying.

Paradise Killer I slammed through this game over the course of a single sleepless night thanks to Super Depression. Love the character designs and how bold they are, love the lore behind the world, got kinda sick of it taking so long to travel from place to place, gremlin-brain refused to let me part with the game until I collected everything. Hope to see a prequel/sequel of some sort, because Lady Love Dies is such an interesting character and I liked the bugfuck-weird world.

Peglin It's Peggle, you're a goblin, you get funky ball powerups, adore playing this game on my phone in short bursts. Not much more to say, it's my potato-chip game.

Rimworld Friend gifted this to me and I got horribly obsessed for like a week. It's a lot easier to grok than Dwarf Fortress thanks to the UI and information being easier to comprehend. I never know how to do the crazy shit in these games, I usually peak at having a little self-sustaining settlement with like 4 characters that live their little lives until a plague or bandit raid sweep through and kill everyone.

Halo: Master Chief Collection Another series of games I got obsessed with and pounded out before dropping it. Halo 1 is like twice as long as I remember, Halo 2's remastered cutscenes are fucking gorgeous and it continues to be my favorite out of the series, Halo 3 I'm lukewarm on it's whatever, Halo Reach is... eh I don't care, ODST I petered out of thanks to playing it with an ex that does not understand videogames, Halo 4 is a slog. Didn't do any multiplayer.

Helltaker Finally played it, beat it in like 2 hours, thought the puzzles were fun and the art continues to rattle around in my noggin.

A Hat In Time Another game that I finally beat after owning it for like the better part of a decade. Cute little game, I don't have a clue what any of the updates and junk do these days. The big mountain level is a fucking nightmare to navigate and explore and that's why I fell off last time.

Puzzle Agent Played this one on-stream because I'm Minnesotan as all fuck and I enjoy Professor Layton puzzles. It's just as good as I remember, even if it's incredibly short.

Kingsway Love the premise, adore that it takes me back to the Windows XP era of using my parents' computer. I had like one good run that died in the middle of things, and I never really went back. I should do this game again at some point.

Loop Hero Another procedural game where progress is usually bottlenecked by gathering base resources in each run so you have a fighting chance. All my runs sorta ended up the same by a certain point and I wasn't really having much fun anymore.

Lethal Company Game scares the absolute shit out of me, I cannot play this game for extended periods because I get heartburn from fear. Excellent experience with friends.

Super Mario RPG I didn't have a SNES growing up, so I never got a chance to play the original. So far, I've been greatly enjoying the remake! I don't have much to say because I've only played like four hours of it on stream.

Katamari Reroll Just beat this game again on stream last week. Extremely fun, extremely short, Lonely Rolling Star continues to make me get emotional and cry, my memories get mixed-up with We ♥️ Katamari when it comes to the final sequence of levels.

World of Warcraft I made the return, and holy shit have things changed in-game. The UI actually looks like it's part of a cohesive artstyle, catching up with the story and questlines after bouncing in the middle of Shadowlands is honestly kind of exhausting, and the RP community is still splintered and fractured between Retail and Epsilon. Controller-support has been my biggest gripe since XIV's is fucking stellar and I do not have the wrists/hands for putting my abilities on the keyboard anymore, I either have to use my janked-out mouse buttons or a controller using ConsolePort which is... serviceable but nowhere near good. Uh, I don't particularly care for the dragon-stuff in WoW's lore, and I still haven't done a single dungeon since I play Brewmaster and I'm so out of whack with WoW tanking that I just don't bother. I'm usually doing RP on my endless ranks of characters if I'm not playing with my girlfriend. Season of Discovery has been a fun thing to do with my friend and our guild, it's sorta what I wanted out of Classic when they announced it. The "No Changes" thing was stupid because we'll never get back the lack of information and endless time we had back then, so I'm very happy to have World Of Warcraft Chopped And Screwed Edition. As much as I still have massive, major gripes with Blizzard and ABK in general... Azeroth is still home for me. It's been important to me as a person. Wouldn't have realized I was trans or poly without it.

SO THERE YOU HAVE IT My thinks and feelings on all the games I played this year in 2023. I guess to sum up the year in general? It's been a real shit year for me. Went through like three big breakups, my art output's been dogshit in quantity thanks to mental-health issues, and for the first half of the year people just sorta generally treated me poorly which exaserbated a lot of problems. I'm recovering, but I've noticed it's been a lot slower than it has been in the past. Games are a huge hobby of mine, so I'm glad I've gotten to play some bangers this year. Being more active on Tumblr's been good for my mental health, since I finally feel like I've got a community again after not really feeling like I've had one in forever. Love you guys, stay weird. 💖💖💖

Sorry not sorry for this being so long.

[teecupangel]

I come bearing Unity thoughts. How about Yew Branch style Desmond, but in Revolutionary France? And to just make things interesting... As one of the children of Marquis de Sade

Now, I am merely doing Sequence 5 so I have no idea if they show in the game. But! Consider Desmond low-key having fun at the expense of others. Even if it is only because he is bored, he knows who his father is (historically) and modern time sense of modesty does not measure up to those of his now-contemporary France

In short: Desmond finds Cafe de Theatre and has fun making Arno blush. By using modern style innuendo

Before we start, I will confess that I do plan to write a Yew Branch for August 26, Arno’s birthday, but it’s more or less set before Unity because… uuuhhh… plot reasons? XD

Anyway, I will say AC Unity has the easiest time to just kick Desmond anywhere we want because you can pick anyone from the Nomad Assassins in the companion app and bam, you have Desmond’s new identity.

Also, here’s Desmond being reborn as either Arno’s brother or Élise’s brother/twin and, while this is more focused on AC3, here’s Desmond being reborn as Marie Antoinette.

Okay, let’s set up Desmond’s life as Marquis de Sade’s son.

Now, we actually have two options for this (according to wiki):

Louis Marie de Sade (1767) would be a year older than Arno

Donatien Claude Armand de Sade (1769) would be a year younger than Arno

If you wanna go down the ‘Desmond gets a pussy’ route, there’s Madeleine Laure de Sade (1771) as well, but if we’re gonna give Arno some dick, then I like the idea of Madeleine being a secret fangirl who totally ships her brother (and maybe even her father) with that sexy hooded man.

(As far as I remember, they don’t show Marquis de Sade’s children in the game so we’re good to go)

Regardless of who we pick as Desmond’s new identity (an older man showing Arno the ‘ropes’ or a younger man who Arno believes to be the most dangerous of all… in a very different way), Arno’s in for a very… well… informative time of his life.

The de Sade Family:

Marquis de Sade doesn’t formally invites his children to his ‘new kingdom’ but he will welcome them nonetheless if they do join. He and his wife don’t really have a good relationship so he’s not that close to his children. Desmond would definitely be his favorite and, even if Desmond is reborn as his second son (if we’re going for the younger man route), he would still name Desmond as his heir and successor because, as far as he knows, Desmond is his ‘true child’.

Desmond doesn’t want any title or riches or whatever. He does, however, like Marquis de Sade. As a father? Far better than William Miles, hands down. But honestly? Desmond saw how the Marquis was lonely as not many people understood his ‘true self’. Desmond gets it though since he experimented a lot when he left the Farm and learned how sex could be quite enjoyable. Desmond actually knows more than Marquis de Sade and sorta-kinda acts as his proofreader.

In public, Desmond is considered to be polite and as noble as one gets, heavily leaning on Haytham Kenway’s remaining bleeds. In his father’s new kingdom though… total dom. Known to be the bored prince and there’s a lot of people that try to get his attention in any way they can. Desmond is usually just there to make sure his father doesn’t do anything actually illegal or every ‘depravity’ he does would be done with consent on all sides. He does disappear as soon as his father starts… really going because, yeah, he doesn’t have a kink for that one.

The brother we don’t choose will have an inferiority complex against Desmond and think that Desmond is a depraved sick bastard. But he will also remember how kind and understanding Desmond was to him when they were children. Hell, he was still kind to him even when it’s clear that he was trying to bully him (Desmond just thinks it’s cute he thinks he could bully Desmond). This conflicting feelings make him ignore everything that Desmond does in their father’s kingdom while trying to protect both him and their father as much as he could. He would insist he’s protecting the family name though. (His kink is definitely a form of cuckolding)

Desmond’s mother would be distant and ignore all of her children (except maybe her daughter) because the whole relationship was just to keep the power among the nobles so there’s no love lost anywhere. Desmond doesn’t feel anything for her and, yeah, there’s some childish pain there, but he’s good at ignoring his unresolved feelings for his parents at this point anyway.

Madeleine is Desmond’s favorite sibling and she’s quite spoiled. Desmond’s influence makes her more open to their father’s preferences but she’s quite reserve about it, blushing whenever she tries to open up and ends up just going ‘never mind’. Desmond gives her a more clinical explanation to these kinds of things in a form of a notebook of some sort because he thought she would be too embarrassed and awkward if he directly talked to her. This leads her to the path of voyeurism and enjoying erotica so… well… you win some, you lose some. She joins her brother in visiting their father in secret though, because if words got out that the young de Sade girl was a deviant, she’ll be ruined in the eyes of the nobility. Their father and Desmond just go “it’ll be fine.” because they’re actual deviants (by 17th~18th century standard anyway)

His father and sister are the main reason why Desmond stayed in France. He could have gone to America as soon as he turned 13 (maybe even 10 if he was really determined enough) but he didn’t because he didn’t want to leave his little sister and someone has to look after his father without judgmental eyes.

Desmond does, however, send money and supplies to Davenport manor, disguising it as an investment or some sort although the American Brotherhood knows he’s an ally of some kind. He is also Ratonhnhaké:ton’s pen pal.

Arno and Desmond’s Relationship

Arno would see Desmond as a beautiful mysterious man tempting him at every chance. The way he moves, the way he speaks, the way he looks at Arno. It makes Arno feel a lot of things that he had never felt before and he is torn between remaining loyal to Élise who is always running (not from him, Arno doesn’t think that, she’s not… is she?) or finally taking a bite of the fruit the devil keeps dangling in front of him.

Desmond… knows Arno has a crush on him but he actually doesn’t act all that different. He might have a soft spot for Arno because he’s an Assassin who clearly needs help and maybe he pays more attention to Arno than the men and women throwing themselves at the bored prince but, let’s be clear, Desmond isn’t trying to lead him on. He’s flirting with him but it’s more on the side of “I’ve been a bartender far too long that flirting on an easy mark is more of an unconscious choice because I might get more tips” than actual serious flirting.

Unfortunately, Desmond doesn’t know that Arno is having a very confusing bisexual awakening that’s only amped up by all the usual 17th~18th century repression thing soooo, yeah, Desmond doesn’t know he’s affecting the young man more than he was thinking.

Marquis de Sade definitely wants Arno to join in. With him or with his son, he doesn’t care, Arno is just a wonderful specimen to be left in that uptight boring world. He also knows Arno’s ‘crush’ on his son, he keeps pushing him to his son though because that would be fun.

In other words, Desmond is unintentionally creating a love triangle that he honestly have no time or desire to be part of. He doesn’t know about Élise! He honestly thought Arno is single (“He has that pathetic wet virgin kitty vibe to him.” “I don’t think he’s a virgin, my boy.” “Oh, definitely not. Maybe it’ll be better to say he’s ‘pure’?” “Ah. Well then, have fun corrupting him.” “We’ll see, father.”)

Once Desmond learns of Élise, he’ll back off (and even feel a bit icky because he was unintentionally becoming the ‘hoe who the asshole cheated on’) and it’s… it’s gonna get messy, especially considering Desmond’s inclusion in Arno’s life makes Arno wonder if he and Élise are even still together or if… his love for Élise was true and not something twisted by his lonely childhood and his ‘abandonment’ issues.

Oh shit. I just turned this smutty fic idea to angst, abort, abort, abort.

If Desmond and Arno will have a relationship, it’ll be after Dead Kings DLC.

You know what would be funny?

If Arno realized he wasn’t just sexually attracted to Desmond but was in love with him during the ending parts of Dead Kings when he finally accepts Élise’s death.

Then when he returned to Paris?

He learned that Desmond had taken his sister to America and now…

Arno thinks Desmond is the one who got away.

(“Arno, I can’t believe I’m saying this… you can follow him to America. He’s literally living with the American Brotherhood. We know where he is.” “I have missed my chance. There is nothing left for me to do.” “Oh my god. Someone just chokes this drama queen unconscious so we can ship his ass to America!”)

[zelenxa]

Storytelling Secrets

Hah, I hadn’t realized this was a pass-it-on type of thing until I was looking back at @townsenddecades’s posts. Considering I’m still sorta finishing up the next few UDC posts, take this as a treat!

1. Originally, I had a story in mind for Marci and Gloria to come together to solve their differences and stuff, but I had procrastinated for far too long, and, well, it never happened. Along with that, it’s also why it’s taken so long for Dayana to marry — I just got absorbed in the Kensington’s day-to-day life and neglected my side households. Dayana’s plot line was supposed to start in 1302, where she was initially supposed to be sixteen at the time until I pushed it back.

2. I’ve been keeping news on the royal family pretty vague (cough, King ‘Edworth’ and Queen ‘Isabel’) so as not to lock myself into replicating the actual shenanigans happening during the 1310s. Nonetheless, things are happening behind the scenes that I just don’t feel fit the story right now. By the 1320s, however, the family will definitely be mentioned in detail - just by very morbid news. As of right now, though? The Crown Prince has just married a noblewoman, and his parents are multiplying children like crazy given I haven’t applied any birth rolls to them.

3. Speaking of the royal family, my thought process for Kurtis’ latest knight tournament was that it was brought together in celebration of Queen Isabel’s 16th birthday. Luckily, I had thought far enough to not write that down, because the in-game royal family really doesn’t have a damn thing to do with Isabella or Edward the II.

4. Kerstan Lassiter never existed. When I first started UDC, I had very surface-level teachings of the medieval times, so I wasn’t really following the most realistic situations for my sims. This is the main reason why I have little to no pictures outside of big events. 1) I had never expected to start blogging so I barely screenshots. 2) A lot of development for the side households never happened in-game and was only recently written down for a more coherent story. Trying to justify little things unthought of back then has been pretty fun, though! I literally rethought the (Gen 0) Lottway’s entire backstory just to justify Kurtis’ existence as a knight.

5. Though Lord Kerstan doesn’t exist, his son does. I don’t think it was well explained in my 1310 Kensington post, but after his death, Samir Lassiter - in his early 20s - takes his father’s place. Like the royal family, he won’t have a role to play until after the Great Famine, when he decides to show his face a lot more often. Spoilers, he’s very much an asshole.

6. I don’t know if I’ll ever mention this in Lottway posts but, funnily enough, there was a period of time when Kurtis and Casandra would visit the Kensingtons constantly by themselves. Anytime Casandra visited at the same time as Kurtis? Kurtis decided to leave. It’s actually why I’ve interpreted their relationship as a downward spiral. To make matters worse for the Lottways, per the RPO mod, Kurtis initially never wanted kids, and therefore, Brynn was born as an unwanted child. Yet, one day, after updating the mod, everyone’s thoughts on children refreshed which left Kurtis’ opinion on having kids neutral, AKA leaving Brynn as literally the only child he did not want.

Anyway, this was fun! I can’t wait to talk about the 1320s/1330s. I’m passing this on to @abigailsultimatedecadesblog (I don’t know how but I hadn’t fully realized you had a udc blog?!?) and @soffiisims (welcome back again!).

[ohm-myy-god]

Hello Edna and Harvey fans & all interested parties, here I present to you my made up fan-lore for Edna’s mom (and her dynamics with other characters and all that). Also featuring some supplemental artwork.

Warning in advance it’s very long, but it’s split into sections and has pictures so hopefully it’s bearable. Have fun…

Sketch page from May 2022

So this is my character for Edna’s mom, her name is Ana. 

My main idea for her was that, in contrast to Mattis’s sort of helpless attitude about parenting, she was the more assertive parent. Not necessarily mean or strict, but she had more self confidence and experience working with children, and overall gave the impression that she “knew what she was doing”, at least from her husband's perspective. 

This leads into her passing being not only a major blow for her family for obvious reasons, but also because Mattis wasn’t ready to be a single parent and never really adapted to the role. He was very stressed all the time and part of that came from feeling extremely inferior in his capabilities of being a father, with pressure from his neighbor/friend who seemed to have the most perfectly behaved kid(s) (ah yes the perfect family nothing to see here), and from his belief that his wife would’ve made a better single parent than him. That’s not necessarily the truth, as it would’ve been hard for anyone, but that was his perception of it. 

I’ll now go into outlining her individual personality and her relationship with her family:

Physical description:

Appearance Timeline:

(Note on her Birth Year: My whole e&h timeline is based around the assumption that Brich Aus takes place in 2008; so Edna was born in ~1990 and Mattis was born in ~1957, give or take a year. This also therefore means Mattis and anyone his age is a boomer (heartbreaking).) 

Name- Ana is a name I picked for no specific reason. I don’t know why I used that spelling instead of Anna but I did, and I’m used to it now, but if you prefer Anna it also works. 

I didn’t pick a maiden name yet, so for now she only exists as Ana Konrad. DOCTOR Konrad actually but we’ll get to that. 

Appearance- Ana looks very much like her daughter; they have the same eyes and complexion and hair (albeit different styles). I think the more “realistic” you try to make Edna and Harvey the more confusing it gets, so yeah their purple hair is genetic and natural and not specific to Edna (I mean it’s not like she could dye it in the hospital anyway). I just think of it as regular dark hair in their universe. 

Personality:

In terms of personality, Ana was very goal-oriented. She was calmer and more collected than Edna, but just as determined to do whatever she set her mind to. She liked reading and writing more than Edna, but much like Edna she was always rather lonely no matter how outgoing she was. Their circumstances were different, but both Edna and her mom were kind of socially outcast growing up.

I’ll go more into her time at school in a later section, but when going to Uni her choice was to study psychology, and eventually be a child psychiatrist. Which might seem random but LISTEN… I think the idea of her being a psychiatrist with a completely different mindset from Marcel’s is a fun one, and it sorta adds to the tragedy of “man, if only someone could’ve stopped this” when it comes to how Mattis bought into Marcel’s ideology. And it adds another layer as to why Mattis trusts in unstable hypothetical science so much more than himself or his own daughter. And overall, I think she is a “strong-headed professional” just by personality, and being a doctor makes her seem far more impressive or competent than Mattis (especially from his perspective). 

As a kid, Ana loved climbing trees. She and Mattis spent a lot of time there as kids. She also loved to sing and dance, things she probably did less and less as she got older. 

Being that they lived next to a church in a small town, it seems to be that the Konrads were at least a bit religious (and in the audio book they mention Edna threw a Bible in the basement fireplace). I haven’t really thought about how that might play into their lives, but I like the angle that Mattis became more religious / started going to church after his wife died. (Edna meanwhile is not religious—too many arbitrary rules for her.)

Relationship with neighbors:

Ana was definitely more suspicious of Marcel when they first moved next to him than her husband was. Not that she assumed he was evil or anything, but she was a bit worried about how he was parenting his kids. Ana found the kids’ behavior more concerning than “exemplary”. But she chalked it up to Marcel having a hard time adjusting after his wife left and didn’t really investigate; she wasn’t around for the whole “we should brainwash kids to make them behave better” era, that happened later. She probably just vaguely distrusted him. 

I like to imagine she hung out with Ruben if the neighbors came over too. Kind of like how Mattis would end up “babysitting” Edna and Alfred later on a lot, maybe she’d play cards with him or something and inadvertently create a more positive experience than anything Marcel ever did. Ruben needs someone in his life looking out for him…unfortunately this arrangement didn’t last long. 

Relationship with Edna’s dad:

Ana and Mattis were childhood sweethearts; I imagine they met in high school and started dating near the end of it, so maybe the final year before university. But they were friends before that too. 

Basically, their dynamic as kids was “trouble maker” and “kid who gets good grades but is also a trouble maker”. I like the idea that in contrast to his adult personality, Mattis was a lot more like Edna as a kid; he was still always a bit timid, but he had a rebellious phase where he wanted to stick it to the authorities and lash out more. At this point in his adolescence, he got into trouble a lot, and it wasn’t until Uni that he really changed himself around. (However, ironically, instead of being able to sympathize with his daughter when she started acting out later, he could only envision all the bad things that might happen to her as a consequence of her behavior and it made him all the more stressed to find a way to “fix” her.) 

Ana, however, wasn’t quite so rebellious and did well at school. She felt the same way on the inside, though, and the two found kinship in wanting to “run away from it all” and escape pressure from family/peers. They would hang out on tree branches and throw rocks at people they didn’t like, but Ana still avoided anything that might get her in serious trouble. 

But basically, dumb kids doing shenanigans. Ana didn’t think Mattis was particularly smart for vandalizing property and getting detention, but she also didn’t think less of him for it. Perhaps she had the “oh I can fix him” mindset, but mostly she was admiring his dedication. 

But when it was time to go to university they decided to break up, since they’d be moving apart. They were sad about it, but they both moved along and figured they’d never see eachother again.

…That was, until they met again sort of randomly as adults years later.

This was probably 4 or more years after they’d started Uni; Ana was still in school and was a bit too busy for a serious relationship but they stuck together anyway and ended up dating again. This ended up working out, and they eventually got married. (Apparently it isn’t that uncommon to marry even while pursuing a doctorate, but I haven’t picked what year they got married. Shrug)

(Note about psychiatric education lmao- from what I can tell, it takes at least 6 years of medical school and an additional 5 years of full-time employment to become board-certified psychiatrist. Assuming Ana started university when she was 18, she was at least 30 when she got her doctor's degree.) 

(Also, I can imagine being a woman pursuing a doctorate in the 80s wasn’t that common or easy, and I thought about her just being a psychologist instead since that takes half the amount of time. However have you considered the THEMATIC PARALLELS the IRONY of it all… Edna’s mom was a doctor and it’s funnier that way.) 

Mattis and his wife would definitely be at odds sometimes because of the difference in their personalities. I think the dynamic would provide interesting conflict & they’d work it out. 

Parenting:

So I suppose the big question is, how would Ana have affected Edna’s life had she lived longer?

I think the loss of her mother contributed heavily to Edna’s childhood rebelliousness. Not that she wouldn’t have had behavioral issues or struggled with making friends anyway, but I think she became so dependent on her own subconscious / on Harvey as a result of loneliness; evidence from the comic can back this up. In the comic, Edna is very withdrawn and more timid pre-Harvey, and Harvey’s eventual personality seems to be highly influenced by Freya - Edna’s close friend who coped with her own struggles by rebelling instead of following all the rules. Seeing as both girls also had a missing mother figure (again, WHO DOESN'T IN THIS SERIES), I don’t think it’s a stretch to imagine Edna started feeling alone in the world when her mother passed. 

But tangent aside, I don’t think Ana would’ve necessarily had an easier time with Edna than Mattis, but with the crucial difference that she wouldn't have been so easily influenced by others opinion on her parenting (eg Marcel). Anyone has insecurities, but listening to someone else basically say “your kid should get brainwashed” and thinking “mmmm maybe” is a very concerning state of mind. 

Ana would have been frustrated and would have got impatient. She would have wanted Edna to “act normal” but she might have been more adept at figuring out WHY she was acting out. But meanwhile, I also think that being a doctor, there would have been tension in the fact that Ana saw “patients” and her daughter as entirely separate; thinking, Edna couldn’t be as mentally ill as the people she worked with…there must be a different answer…

But as a little kid, Edna got along just fine with her mom. They played together and did puzzles and ran in the sprinklers and mud and everything like that. Maybe even played with stuffed animals pretending that they could talk. 

Rip 💀

So: death. For the record I think the trope of “main character’s mom died” isn’t very intriguing or creative (and I mean. Do you know any e&h characters with a mom? any of them? Exactly.) However, it isn’t even brought up by Edna in the game at all, and the “show not tell” aspect is a bit cool at least. (It isn’t even until the “yo mama” joke in the 2nd game that Edna is pointed out as an orphan. Her memory got washed and all so she didn’t even think of her mom when looking through her old house.) And if we were to ignore poki’s character profile website, yes, it’s also equally as plausible that Edna’s mom left rather than died. BUT personally I prefer this version because I already wrote this whole thing lol (and anyway, I think Marcel’s wife for sure left him, and we don’t want to get too repetitive). 

But how did she die??…I haven’t really picked an answer to that. 

If we’re looking for story parallels, medical malpractice or even being MURDERED might work, but I just don’t really know. Maybe it’s a let-down, but I’m indecisive, sorry  🤷 

Ana became sort of idolized in death by Mattis especially, since Edna couldn't properly remember her as time went on. 

Bit of a tangent, but I think a lot of self doubt and insecurity and general depression contributed to Mattis being lost about parenting—with the fact that Edna was intentionally acting out, fighting against something she saw as intrinsically opposed to her. In the 1st tempomorph Edna “sees” through Harvey that her dad is betraying her and eating ice cream with Alfred- this is her imagination, but it shows her perception of her father as a kid, that he wasn’t looking out for her. I think it’s clear Mattis cared about his daughter but he was just unable to rise above his own insecurities and be there for her. (I also think he went a teensy bit off-the-rails when the Murder happened and that’s partially why he pleaded guilty. Guy broke down). After all, his wife wouldn’t have ever let Edna act so uncontrollably if she were alive, would she?  

That’s it

Thanks for reading all that if you did!! Hope reading about shit I made up was entertaining. I might do this again with other characters for funsies at some point in the distant future, we’ll see. 

She isn’t even a character I spend too much time thinking about, so I figured this would be a good way to practice organizing my thoughts. And draw her some more since it’d been a while. It was fun.

Let me know your thoughts/impressions of her…

& goodbye 👋 

Bonus- sketches from May 2022

[stardusthuntress]

What Does Beauty Look Like? 

Sergeant Hunter x female!reader (if you want a gender neutral version, just say something and I’ll make a second version of this or any of my pieces!) 

Word Count: ~3.5K

TW: jealousy, body dysmorphia (reader’s feelings), so kinda angsty; no use of y/n; maybe a touch of exhibitionism, if ya squint; sorta getting smutty again, so 18+ only! I think that's it, but lemme know if I missed anything (not beta'd)!

Summary: Hunter’s love is struggling to feel pretty, so he takes it upon himself to make sure she knows how attractive she is to him. His brothers make a point to do the same (Hunter and reader are clearly a thing, but if you wanna read this as though it's poly you can do that too, I tried to leave it a little open-ended so that that would be up to you as the reader! If you have a problem with that then, move along, move along)  

EDIT: I FORGOT TO INCLUDE THE DRIODS GUYS!!! They're a part of this family too! I fixed it! AZI and Gonky are now in the story! And I had forgotten to translate all the Mando'a terms, sorry! dictionary is at the top, but below the cut now! And fixed a few typos I spotted along the way too.

A/N: You guys! I just cranked out another fic! Idk why I can only really do them in one sitting lately, but hey, it's not a bad rhythm! And I tend to write the stuff I need to read, so I hope this resonates with others out there too! And I NEEDED to get started on Hunter-focused fics, so here's my first one for you guys!

EDIT: I FORGOT TO INCLUDE THE DRIODS GUYS!!! They're a part of this family too! I fixed it! AZI and Gonky are now in the story! And I had forgotten to translate all the Mando'a terms, sorry! dictionary is at the top, but below the cut now! And fixed a few typos I spotted along the way too.

Fun fact: the dumb question Tech gets asked is a legitimate question I was asked by an adult while in college. You know what they say, never piss off a writer or they will immortalize your idiocy for all eternity 🤪 everyone has bad moments and I still hope that question was just someone forgetting to think it through before opening their mouth, but every now and again it still haunts me that it was not a child that asked me that question. So now it can haunt you too! Hehe!

Mando'a: Ad'ika = little one (a name for one's children; literally ad = "son/daughter" mando'a is gender neutral, and "ika" = little) Mesh'la = Beautiful Sarad = flower

Hunter-specific dividers by @djarrex

For several months now, the Bad Batch has been more than a band of nearly-identical brothers and their little sister. Ever since the day Hunter fell in love and found the courage to ask the woman he fell for if she would join them on their adventures, with his family’s blessing of course, it went from 6 to 7. 

One night, they find themselves eating dinner in a tavern while several very attractive people make every effort to catch the eyes of the men. 

Hunter has no interest in the new people, even though they are clearly interested in him. He only has eyes for one woman, his lover. He and Omega head back to the ship, having barely even met the new strangers the rest of his men are so interested in before noticing Omega was getting tired. He brought her back to the ship, alone, and now tracks their comms from the ship to make sure the others are all safe. As he watches, one of the dots on his screen departs the group and heads for a lake not far away. It’s hers, his lover’s. 

He checks on Omega one last time, nodding to AZI, before heading out and closing up the ship behind him. Tech will be along soon to keep an eye on her. Not that Tech isn’t interested in a partner, but Hunter knows Tech isn’t usually the type for one night stands. Which is rather handy for Hunter in situations like this, when he needs one more adult to keep an eye on the kid (AZI was helpful, but not trained for defense if need be) when he wants to spend a little alone time with his partner. 

He catches up with her and can tell by her body language that she needs him. She’s sitting on a rock, hugging her knees, chin tucked on top, eyes closed. As he watches, she shifts, sighing, clearly trying to hold it in, looking up at the sky above her. Pain sits in her eyes, but he knows this is not physical pain, but internal pain. 

He sits down behind her, one knee on either side of her, and wraps his body around her, pulling her into his chest. But where she would normally smile and lean back into him, she barely reacts at all. 

“My strong, brilliant, gorgeous woman” he whispers in her ear. She turns her head a fraction, acknowledging his presence and words. He knows how to get her attention when she’s down. He also knows of her body dysmorphia. The whole team does. She only told Hunter, but Crosshair and Echo figured it out pretty quick, confirmed the symptoms and her body language with Tech, and asked Hunter about it. She doesn’t know they know about it though. He made them promise never to say anything about it, he knows she didn’t even want him to figure it out, but he wasn’t about the let the woman he loves suffer through it alone. 

“Talk to me, Love,” he whispers in her ear “what’s up?” 

She sighs. She couldn’t hide anything from Hunter even if she tried. “They say it’s not about whether or not a woman is pretty. But as soon as someone who IS pretty shows up, it’s like they forget I even exist, and all the things they said to me about it just evaporate into thin air.” 

“I think they just want what we have,” Hunter counters. 

“Still doesn't change the fact that I’m NOT one of the lucky ones who gets to be pretty. You deserve someone who at least matches you, Hunter. Couldn’t you feel the glances at us, the way those women clearly could tell you deserve more than what I can give you?” 

“They are shallow and just looking for a quick lay, you know I’m not that kind of guy.” 

“Pretty sure any of them would have agreed to date you without hesitation, Hunter” 

“Doesn’t mean they have what I need in a partner” he nuzzles into her shoulder “You know what I like. I like a woman who’s good with kids, who can hold her own both in combat and in conversation with my brothers - I know my family is a lot. I like a woman who is independent and self sufficient even before she joins my squad. I like a woman with a brilliant mind who uses it to protect others. None of them had that.” 

“Must have been at least one with a mind in there to entertain Tech.” 

“Na, he usually just rambles to see if one of them will listen. But it’s not like any of them can keep up with him anyways, and he knows that. He’s not really interested in them, just is bored and has someone new to listen to him. Wouldn’t be surprised if he comes looking for us soon enough.” 

“What about the others?” She’s not convinced. 

“Well, Crosshair and Wrecker just like the attention and don’t mind a quick lay. Echo needs a quick lay to prove to him he’s still got it. The guys are only interested in them because they are just temporary. If they really wanted a woman to stick around they wouldn’t go for one that made you feel uncomfortable, they each know the pain of that feeling themselves and they adore you and would hate knowing their actions made you feel that way.” 

“I’m still not attractive, Hunter.” 

Hunter looks at her, astonished that she’s still not aware of the effect she has on him “I suppose, you think that because you can’t see the way your eyes sparkle when you’ve found a new challenge you want to take on. You can’t see the way your laughter lights up your whole body. You can’t see how beautiful you look when you’re concentrating on something, like when you’re reading a book and your mind is in a different universe. You can’t see how you glow when you get a chance to be a mother to Omega, especially when she falls asleep curled into you. You can’t see how beautiful it is when you’re so focused on doing something right that you bite those luscious lips of yours. Nor how good your ass looks when you bend over while working on the ship with us. And you have no idea what all of that does to me. I guess I usually steal glances at you when you’re doing little things. And I don’t know why I try to sneak glances when you aren’t looking. Maybe next time I should let my gaze wander long enough that you know when I’m checking you out.” 

He plants a long kiss on her ear, and his hands begin to wander. Rubbing every inch of her within his reach. Her chest, her arms, her legs, her shoulders. Anything that holds her close to him. His mouth begins to wander too. It moves from her ear, where it’s been during their conversation, to trail kisses down her neck, which become open-mouthed as they reach her shoulders, sucking passionately. 

She opens to him. Head falling back onto his shoulder, breathing heavy, whispering his name to the heavens like a prayer. Feeling his member harden behind her at the use of his name. 

“I know what you need, Love.” He whispers back. “Let me take care of you tonight. Let me lay all my love on you, be it sexual or not. Let me love you like no man ever has. I know it will take time for this to heal, and that I cannot fix it for you, but let my love help you see that you are attractive, not just in mind and soul, but also in body. Let me show you how gorgeous you are to me, every inch of you. And I swear I will never hide another glance at your body from you. I love all of you, and I need you to feel that.”

“Oh, Hunter!” She mueled as he continued caressing her body. 

He could hear the tears in her eyes with every noise she made as she gave in to his touch. 

“I’m here, Gorgeous” his gravelly voice sending shivers down her spine, knowing that it was her he was describing that way, and that he genuinely meant it. 

Without letting go, he maneuvers around her and scoops her up, bridal style. 

“Let’s find a spot that’s softer to lay you out on, my Love.” 

He carries her to a bed of moss and lays her down gently. Then with a smirk, he dives in for a passionate kiss, covering her body with his own, and letting his body weight act like her personal weighted blanket.

When her hands begin to try to reciprocate and make him feel good too, he takes her hands in his - not her wrists, he wants this to be gentle and sensual, not dominating - and holds them above her head. 

“Not tonight, my Love. Tonight I need to make you feel good. Just let me hear you, you know what your voice does to me.” 

Tech has detached himself from the group and is looking for his Seargent and favorite conversationalist. Tracking Hunter’s comm signal, he follows it to a quiet spot by a lake, hidden by trees and covered in soft mosses. At first he finds it odd that they are so far from the ship when Omega is still on the ship, until a noise makes its way to him as he approaches. A noise like a whimper puts him on high alert, and he ducks out of view behind a tree, listening closely. But the second sound that reaches him puts him at ease. It’s her voice, moaning Hunter’s name. Still hidden behind the tree, he relaxes, and smiles to himself. 

“Good” he whispers, mostly to himself, “bed her well Brother. Give her a night she won’t soon forget, as rare a gem as she. She needs to know how much she means to us. Make sure she feels it, Brother.” 

He quietly departs, not wanting his presence to ruin the moment for them. 

Hunter, still covering the woman he loves in kisses, surfaces for a moment, and glances through the trees. He looks back down at the woman beneath him and finds her eyes, enjoying getting lost in them for a moment. She’s getting her glow back, but Hunter is far from done. And now he doesn’t have to worry about how long they have been out here, now that someone is back at the ship with Omega. 

The next morning, camped in the sunlight on a new planet, the team begins to wake up. Most still groggy, they reaching for extra caf. Hunter, still spooning his love, wakes to the sight of the love of his life curled around little Omega, both still sleeping soundly. But Tech took watch all night that night, as he usually prefers to do on nights like this (something about no one else being sober nor focused enough after a night of ‘wild abandon’ as he called it, to actually keep watch), and someone needs to relieve him. So he plants a long kiss on her temple, enjoying how she stirs a little beneath him, but doesn’t wake up. 

“Sleep, Mesh’la, I need to give Tech a break.” 

He tucks his girls in and heads to the cockpit. 

Tech looks up when he enters, and gives him a knowing smirk. 

“I think she’s starting to feel it” Hunter’s voice is a little extra gravelly with sleep. 

Tech’s eyebrows raise in question. 

Hunter smirks in return. “How rare a gem she is, and how much she means to us,” quoting Tech from the night before. 

“Ah, so you were aware of my presence. It was not my goal to disturb you.” 

Hunter lets a laugh surface for a moment “I kinda hoped you would hear it when you came looking for us. I knew you would look for us. She needs the encouragement of knowing when you lot seek her company.” He glances back over his shoulder to where she and Omega continued to sleep peacefully, “When she wakes up, don’t hide your appreciation for her, make sure she knows how much she means to all of us. Yeah?” 

Tech smiles, and nods. 

“But as far as she’s concerned, you didn’t hear it from me. But that doesn’t mean you didn’t hear us last night” he winks at his brother. 

Tech’s smile widens, and he nods. 

When she does wake, she finds the men and Omega enjoying the fresh air and sights of the beautiful new planet Tech brought them to during the night. 

Hunter’s legs are stretched out along the side of the entire ramp as he leans back against the door frame, eyes closed. Tech sits on the other side of the ramp and a bit farther down, a project in hand, spilling onto Gonky, who sat at Tech's side next to the ramp.  

She snuggles up to Hunter, sitting between him and Tech. Hunter wraps an arm around her in return, checking her eyes to make sure her glow is returning, and smiling brightly back at her when he finds it. 

“Good morning, Love” he kisses her hair, and she leans into him with a relaxing sigh. 

Tech exchanges another knowing glance with him. 

“How was your night, Tech?” She asks, still holding on tightly to Hunter. He can tell she’s trying not to brace for a story about another woman, and an endless description of how pretty she was. 

“Fine,” Tech responds, matter-of-factly, “finally got a chance to finish a few projects I’ve been working on for far too long.” 

Something about the way he doesn’t even mention the women that were chatting them up the night before, almost as if he’s forgotten them already (he has), makes her feel a little better. 

Hunter can feel her relaxing against him. He smiles. 

“And you? It sounded like you two had a good night last night.” Tech’s attention is still on his project, and he acts as though he did not just say he caught them making love the night before. 

“Uh,” she glances at Hunter, and finds a mischievous look awaiting her there. So he had known Tech overheard. She blushed. “Yeah.” Her eyes trailed to the ground, she didn’t mind that he had heard, but she wasn’t exactly expecting him to bring it up so nonchalantly either. “And you?” She tossed the question back at him, not exactly sure what else to do. 

“They, were not my type,” he answered, simply. “One of them asked how water gets back up to the top of a river, because they thought they were essentially circular by nature. I left shortly thereafter. However, you should ask the other three that question, as each of them attempted to sneak into the ship very early this morning. None of them successfully snuck into the ship, but since they did not wake you, Hunter, nor Omega, I suppose they did not entirely fail, either. But I thought you would all appreciate waking up in a place like this instead of stuck amidst the stink of that city.” 

She and Hunter laughed at his story. 

“Much appreciated, it is beautiful here. All in all, not a bad night though, despite the shallowness of the company?” Hunter asked. 

“Affirmative. It was nice to finally finish up a few projects. Speaking of, I believe that completes one more.” Tech seems to be done fiddling with the project in his lap and holds it out to her, “the reading light you wanted.” 

She looks at it, surprise etched onto her face, and then her eyes move to Tech as though she’s missing something. 

“Crosshair saw you eyeing one at that book stall a few planets ago,” Tech explains. 

She looked over to where Crosshair sat, alone, but not far away, and caught him watching her out of the corner of his eye. He nodded at her, confirming Tech’s story. 

“It took me a while longer than I liked to acquire all the parts and complete it for you. Echo helped discreetly acquire the pieces and keep my designs for it out of sight so that it would be a surprise for you. I know you’ve probably already finished the books you bought that day, but for the next time we find you some new books.” 

She takes it and turns it on, examining it, a smile on her face. 

“I made sure to make it not too bright so it won’t wake Hunter if you want to read at night, but not dim enough to strain your eyes,” he supplies, always ready with more info. 

“Thank you, Tech. I didn’t realize anyone had noticed that, let alone cared enough to make one for me. You have so many projects you’re working on already, you didn’t have to do this for me.” 

“I wanted to do this for you. You mean a great deal to all of us, not just because Hunter loves you. As you know, we do not let just anyone stay with us. This is my way of saying thank you for all the little things you do for us. Do not think we do not notice them.” 

Her eyes are glossy as she leans over to hug him “thank you, Tech. You’ve no idea how much this means to me.” Tech reciprocates the hug, and Hunter smiles at him from behind her, nodding at his brother. 

She leans back into Hunter, resting her head on his shoulder, clutching her new reading light to her chest. 

Hunter pulls her close, and whispers in her ear “See? You mean the galaxy to all of us.” 

“How do I know you didn’t set that up just to make me feel better?” She giggles, but her voice is quiet, not wanting the others to hear. 

“Then trust me that he did not ‘set it up’, I have been working on it since we visited that bookshop and left early last night to finish it and a few other projects when I found myself quite bored,” Tech piped up. 

“Sorry, Tech. I didn’t mean—” 

“You have nothing to apologize for. It meant a lot to me to have someone with us who also appreciates books and knowledge as much as I do. Making something as simple and small as a reading light is the least I could do in return.” 

She reaches out and takes Tech’s hand, squeezing it for a moment as a way to say thank you. Tech squeezes back for a moment, then picks up the next project that had been sitting atop Gonky. 

Hunter is beaming with pride for his little family. 

Omega bounces up to them, her cheeks pink from frolicking in the great outdoors since she woke up. 

“Good morning!” She smiles brightly up at Hunter and his partner, throwing herself into their arms. 

“Good morning, Ad’ika [little one],”  Hunter laughs, hugging both his girls tightly, and making them laugh too. 

“Tech! Look what I found! What kind of flowers are they?” Omega holds out a bouquet of a wide variety of flowers, and Tech begins to tell her all about the different species and why they are different colors and shapes. 

Wrecker approaches, brushing off the grass acquired from following his little sister through the meadow and helping her pick one of every type of flower they could find. He pauses, picking two more flowers on his way over. 

“Mornin’!” He practically shouts as he arrives at the ramp to the ship. And then he leans forward and sticks one flower he just picked behind the ear of the girl, and one behind the ear of the woman at Hunter’s side. Beaming at the young girl and the woman, he wordlessly plops himself down in the grass at the foot of the ramp to listen to Tech rambling about the flowers in Omega’s hands. 

“A flower as beautiful as you, Sarad [flower]” Echo approaches from behind, holding a steaming mug of caf, and looking at the woman in Hunter’s arms. She smiles as Echo leans against the doorway behind Tech. 

“Aww, thanks, Echo.” 

He winks at her, and nods at Hunter. 

She cuddles her way into Hunter, who’s hand now rubs her back. He’s still smiling broadly, eyes full of love as he watches her. 

Crosshair nods his approval from his spot nearby, giving her one of his rare smiles, as he plucks a toothpick from one of the pockets on his belt. 

Maybe Hunter had been right. Not that she didn’t trust him, she just had trouble believing it when someone told her she was pretty. After a lifetime of what seemed like evidence to the contrary, it was nice to start a little collection of evidence beginning to prove that that notion may have been jaded by her own self-doubt. 

Please don't steal my work though! I pour my heart into these so if you like it please reblog to share instead of reposting it!

[sorrygotthesesacks]

Response to fic request (Malleus, Idia)

For @moody-b1tch, the only person who responded to my "give me two characters and I'll write a few lines of dialogue" invitation.

Which is probably a good thing, because this is ... I don't even know what this is.

Characters: Malleus, Idia, with extra bonus prompt: water

Which is included...metaphorically, I guess.

As usual, this kinda got away from me. Don't think it's good enough to post on AO3 - it's hardly good enough to post here on Tumblr - but it's 1221 words and I do love when the word count is a fun number like that.

Also: TIL that Tumblr has a limit of 30 tags per post. How did I learn this? No reason in particular.

Also also: It used to be 1221 words and then I panicked and rewrote some of it.

“Sometimes it’s better to forget. Pretend it never happened.”

“Is that how you truly feel, Shroud?”

“Gah! You look like you’re ready to incinerate me! Not that I think you’re gonna go all OP again. … Uh, you’re not, right?”

“It would be foolish to repeat such folly. Surely you, of all people, can agree.”

“Of course I agree! I’m just like. Not used to this heart-to-heart protag chat. I’m not some shounen manga hero with an 'I'm-all-fired-up!' speech, and even if I was, it’d be pretty cringe coming from me. Your guards are good at that sorta thing. Especially the big guy. He seriously likes to talk! Or Silver. He’s got that intense princely vibe.”

“Silver and Sebek have had much to say, but it is your thoughts that I am most interested in hearing.”

“Because I’m one of the SSR level problem children? You could talk to anyone else about this! Leona, he was big mad. Your guards were there; they can vouch. Or Riddle! That hothead was the first. He probably has some S tier thoughts on his experience.”

“SSR…? Shroud, I am interested in your thoughts. You hold the power to enter the underworld. To speak with those who have crossed to the other side.”

“Whoa, whoa, whoa! I can open the gate, but that was a one-time thing, going down there. You saw how that turned out.”

“I did not. I was at Night Raven College, if you recall.”

“Of course you were here. After you went all berserker mode, I don’t think Charon would’ve been enough to get you to the Island of Woe.”

“You could have simply invited me.”

“Invite the great and powerful Malleus to play a sim game? Are you for real?”

“I am quite real.”

“That’s not - yeah, okay. Anyway, it’s more like a curse, the gate opening thing, and not Pumpkin Knight level cool.”

“Is it not? Shoenheit, Rosehearts, and Kingscholar all mentioned that the closer one travels to Tartarus, the colder it gets.”

“I meant it wasn’t exactly fire. Not like … dragon fire, fire. I mean, it’s not…”

“Shroud. I am merely teasing. Is that not what friends do? Lilia and the Child of Man assure me that it is.”

“Friends?”

“We have spent time together. We have shared experiences. Are you telling me that is not common with friends?”

“You sound like Ortho.”

“Your sibling is wise indeed. I understand that it was he who prevented you from using your River Lethe. Come now, Shroud, surely you can agree that at least some of those memories were to be cherished.”

(Eep! Is he serious? Even if I had an IRL trap card to flip this, could I even use one against someone as OP as him?)

“Shroud, are you unwell?”

“I’m f-fine! HP is at max. Wait, what are you doing?”

“Calling Lilia so that he may assist me in translating.”

(Gah, is he really using a synchro summon?) “You don’t need to do that!”

“It appears I cannot. My phone screen is blank. Lilia will be rather cross.”

“Your phone’s broken?”

“It happens frequently. Lilia has told me many times to be careful. My lightning has broken several phones just this semester alone.”

“I, uh, can fix it.”

“You would do that?”

“Hee hee. It just needs to withstand high electrical input. EZ PZ.”

“Lemon squeezy.”

(Did he seriously just say ‘lemon squeezy?’)

“Shroud?”

“EEP! I mean, I was just surprised to hear you say that.”

“Is that not how it goes?”

“No! You got it right! It’s just weird hearing it from the Malleus Draconia.”

“Why is that?”

“It just is! Let me see your phone. I mean, if you trust me with it.”

“Here. You cannot possibly damage it more than I have.”

“How old is this phone? I haven’t seen one of these since pre-5G.”

“Can you repair it?”

“Of course I can fix it, but it needs a serious upgrade.”

“What would you like in exchange?”

“Huh? You don’t have to give me anything!”

“Of course. Because we we are friends.”

“No, we're not!"

“Is there something about myself that causes you hesitation?”

“It’s not that. It’s not you, it’s me.”

“I, too, would like everyone to forget what happened. What I did. The lengths to which I went in order to selfishly hold on to something - to someone - who is dear to me.”

“Where is all this heart-to-heart coming from?”

“If we are to be friends, we should be honest with one another. I have learned that by watching Lilia with Diamond and Al-Asim, and by listening to Silver and Sebek. It is not an easy thing, but I must start somewhere.”

“Why are you starting with me?”

“Because we have a shared experience. This ‘SRR problem child’ status.”

“SSR.”

“I beg your pardon?”

“Ah, the uh, it’s SSR, not SRR. It stands for Super Super Rare.”

“That makes what we share uncommon.”

“Yeah, you, me, and five other people. Uh, here’s your phone.”

“You are done with it already?”

“I couldn’t upgrade it more with what I have here, but the screen is fixed, and it has lightning fast internet speed. No pun intended!”

“You do get so easily flustered around me. You are an interesting man, Shroud. Oh, I see Lilia has been trying to reach me. We must do this again.”

“Uh, yeah, sure.”

“Until we meet again.”

“Yeah, kthxbai.”

“Idia? Was that Malleus Draconia who just disappeared into thin air?”

“Hey, Ortho. Yeah.”

“You have made another new friend!”

“We’re not friends! My HP is critically low after that.”

“Your heart rate is accelerated, but the rest of your vital signs are within normal ranges. And I clearly heard Malleus Draconia state that you are friends!”

“I know you mean well, Ortho, but-”

“I think he needs a friend, too.”

“Malleus Draconia? Needing a friend?”

“We have spent time together. We have shared experiences. This ‘SRR problem child’ status.”

“Idia?”

“Yeah, Ortho?”

“You’re smiling.”

“I was just thinking about the new volume of the Mew Mew Chronicles manga!”

“Yes, I remember. It arrived in the mail just this morning.”

“So of course I’m excited. It’s the only good thing that’s happened since all of this started. I’m, uh, going to the store to pick up some snacks, if you want to go with me.”

(Your heart rate and eye movement tell me otherwise, Big Brother, but I am happy to see you happy.) “Of course! I’m interested in seeing the ingredients in this new mystery flavored fruit twist that Ace Trappola and Deuce Spade were arguing over.”

“It can’t be worse than last year’s pineapple-lemon-licorice mystery flavor.”

Ortho remembered that. It had been very popular the first two weeks, with numerous reactions posted to Magicam. After that, the only person purchasing it had been Lilia Vanrouge. His eyes lit up.

“You should buy some for Malleus Draconia and Lilia Vanrouge! And Silver and Sebek Zigvolt, too! And Cater Diamond, and Rook Hunt, and…”

By the time they were done, they’d purchased a mystery flavored candy twist for all of the third year students, all of the housewardens, plus Silver and Sebek Zigvolt, Ace Trappola and Deuce Spade, the Ramshackle prefect, and Grim (especially Grim).

Ortho’s analysis of the candy indicated the primary flavors were seaweed and cinnamon, and he could hardly wait to see everyone’s reactions.

Everyone's, but especially Idia’s newest friend, Malleus Draconia.

[kinkandkreep]

Connor Kenway: Celebratory Birthday Headcanons- Part 2

A/N: Aight y’all, here’s the second round of Connor-canons! These will focus on the canonical, non-yandere iteration of Ratonhnhaké:ton. I hope y’all enjoy! Oh, and please feel free to send me Connor-related requests! I’ve been in quite the  ✨ him✨ mood lately and I would be happy to write more for him. 😊 (Also sorry this post is so long y'all, I just have lots of feelings about him. 😭)

Canon Connor Kenway Relationship Headcanons

First of all, Connor is a huge teddy bear

Like seriously, he gives the warmest, most comforting hugs ever 

As my mom would put it, he "sinks into the hug" and uses his larger body to ensconce you safely in his embrace *swoon*

He's naturally very warm, which is perfect for those cold Frontier nights 

During the summer…not so much 🙃

(The two of you still snuggle anyway because no matter how hot or cold, no matter how tough of an exterior Ratonhnhaké:ton may have, he will implode without his daily cuddle time with you and yes this is a threat)

I think we all know that Connor is a real sweetie at heart 

I saw someone the other day describe him as having "so much love to give"

And frankly, I thought that was beautiful 😭

And very true

And with that being said, Connor has so much love to give to you

He’s very accommodating, though he can still be stern with you

He wants to ensure that you are comfortable and well cared for at all times, but he also knows that he can’t always be there to “keep watch” over you 24/7

So, it would make him feel better if you had a least a lil’ training in self-defense 

But even if you don’t, him still gone love you 😊

Connor tries to be as gentle as possible with you, touching you very carefully and using a softer way of speaking 

He also is very fond of picking you up and carrying you around

He thinks it’s fun, and it also makes him just the slightest bit smug when you compliment him on how strong and built he is

His chest definitely puffs up a little more 😏

Con-Con man smiles a helluva lot more when he’s around you

I say more instead of period because he occasionally smiles at you guy’s friends around the homestead

He’s particularly fond of the children, namely Norris and Myriam’s and Prudence and Warren’s

Speaking of children…

Connor would L.O.V.E to create a family with you 

Like, look me in the eyes and tell me Connor Kenway, Ratonhnhaké:ton, Con-Con man, whateva you wanna call him, ain’t a family man 

No seriously do it 👁️ 👄 👁️

Exactly, you can’t 

And if you tried, you’d be w r o n g

(I mean think about it, even in the canonical storyline he has not one, not two, but three babies. The man either always desired to have a big family or has a serious pregnancy kink and is super dedicated. 🙃)

Connor would love to see you waddle around with your swollen belly, all irritable (which he finds sorta hot) and emotional (which he finds endearing) and needy (which is a major turn on for him) 

Over the course of your relationship, and especially during your pregnancy, Connor discovers that he has the ability to use something called the “puppy dog eyes”

Much different from the Eagle Eye, in terms of appeal and capability

He finds that by using these, he is able to coerce gently convince you to do things

Like let him stay out hunting longer or massage your feet to help you feel better even when you say they’re swollen and you don’t want anyone touching them

He tries not to use the eyes often, for fear that their - quite potent - effect may wear down over time 

But he’s so adorable, I mean just look at ‘im!

Such a sweetheart 😭

Also, when you get the chance, please smack his ass when you walk past him, he thinks that shit is so hilarious 😂

Try also to compliment him when you do, it gives him a little morale boost every time

Noah Watts, the voice actor for Connor, can sing, and so naturally, I imagine that Connor can carry a tune as well

He doesn’t hum often by any stretch and outright singing is a once in a blue moon occurrence with him

But when you can get him to share in song with you, his voice is very sweet, mellifluous to the ear, with the slightest growly undertone and a rich, full sound

Hol up y’all, I’m finna make myself cry thinkin’ about it

You always compliment him on how well he can sing (admittedly, sometimes in an effort to get him to do it 🙃) and every time he gets bashful and counter compliments you to take some of the attention off himself

Which, speaking of compliments…

Connor can be quite the schmoozer towards you when he wants to be, especially as he gets older, which also ties into the usage of his puppy dog eyes

That sexy lil’ smirk he sometimes wears becomes more effective as well 

If you can visibly blush, he never fails to make you do so, otherwise he’ll have you averting your eyes and covering your face to hide your flattered embarrassment often

Noah Watts also implied that Connor’s character’s got some Gothic influence, so he can (as I’m actually sure we all know) be a lil’ dramatic at times

But, he can also be quite the romantic, surprising you with scenic excursions and planning lil’ picnics

Even at home, when he’s not in his uniform and can relax, he still likes to help you with tasks around the manor, even the mundane things like washing dishes and redecorating

It’s all so cute and domestic 😭

All in all, Connor is the absolute love of my life, Ubisoft owes him another game and screw everybody that hates on my boi

[cwarscars]

ivory-paragon

Send me a url and I'll write some positivity for it.

@ivory-paragon

consider this a fuckin duel answer of multi-positivity goodness cause im gonna sperge over u both like some weird stalker who admires your shit from afar but is too terrible ( lazy? overworked and not around enough? idk lets ignore the fine deets ) to interact more ( as much as id love to shhhh )

SO firstly;

james aka my boy rufus - heid's boy rufus? lmao, probs not. everytime i see james on my dash, i see the fuckin' king you know what i mean? i see a passion that is inspiring, a love for the character that spans decades (im pretty certain, how long is a decade?) in a strange way, james' portrayal / love for rufus makes me feel nostalgia. i have flashbacks to advent children being realised, i remember my sister ( i wonder if she'll see this she follows me lol ) fawning over rufus in the og. it's a cosy feeling. like watching toonami or playing dirge of cerberus, i feel snuggly.

that's a weird way to describe somebody and their portrayal - but i hope it makes some sense. it's a warm, comforting feeling. i can see the appreciation for the original source material in james' portrayal and writing whilst also seeing a nice blend / respect for the newer stuff / way that rufus is written now. i know a fair few people who write with james and whenever i see the threads appear on my dash - they're the sort that i stop and read. i find james' take on rufus interesting and intrigueing, and it makes me really think about how my heid and his rufus would interact. i know that i could get something there that wouldnt be a 'typical' kinda ship. yknow? it would be something complex, potentially dark but also not without the family(sorta) aspect that comes from the shinra line & heidegger.

another thing i wanna note here in my admiration towards james is the two of yous interactions / the entire scenario that you've shaped around rufus/cloud's relationships. i find your combined passion admirable and it's very clear, i think, to anybody on the dash that the two of you have a lot of chemistry when it comes to writing. it's the kind of writing partnership a lot of rpers dream of; i love that.

@spec-b

AS FOR YOU, i know you didn't send this in for your url but fuggit, im a rebel, a bad boy -

you know i'm an absolute grade a simp for anybody appreciative of the og. for anybody willing to give it a shot ( too many turn their noses up at the older graphics ) and anybody who actually runs with it, admires and appreciates it. you do that. you not only appreciate it - but you do it justice. you insert the nuances both suggested and outright shown in the original into your portrayal and i see 'em - i see you doing it, goddamn i admire it.

it's so refreshing being able to actually reccomend something as silly as new threat to someone and see them play it, enjoy it - have fun and speak about it with such a passion / joy. it's so refreshing and so, so lovely to see. i know that if i threw up some headcanon garble to you about how heid is fearful of the north crater because in the og, he doesn't leave the highway - you'd GET IT. like, i know you'd probably see my silly ramble and understand it because your passion for the original game is as prominent ( if not more so ) than my own love for it.

i adore the depth you give cloud that he had in the original; i love that you not only play with that depth but also add your own take onto it. you play with things suggested, stuff that could have been canon had the story shifted in a slightly different direction. seeing your both extremely loyal / to-character but also alternative take on cloud is both refreshing and respectful to the original. i admire that a great deal.

i don't write with the two of you anywhere near as much as i'd like to - and that's entirely on me. i'm awful for finding the time to just write these days outside of starter calls or asks but i want you both to know that i really do admire you, i love seeing your stuff on my dash and i appreciate you both hugely as people. keep doing you, keep loving the original, keep loving your characters. you're inspirational and i hope you both know it. <3

[dcbbw]

Hii 😍

I saw this template and thought it’d be fun to learn more about your MC / OC 🥰 (no pressure)

Thanks for the ask, @peonierose! This fits in with a WIP I started about 18 months ago and abandoned. I took the questions from your template, added a couple more … and TA-DA!

As you know, I have various alliterations of Liam x Riley in several AUs/stories, so we’ll be hearing from my (and hopefully yours) favorites as they answer the questions.

I hope you enjoy reading this as much as I enjoyed writing it. Please excuse any typos, missing/extraneous words, and /or grammatical errors. MS Editor gives me 100% error-free for this story.

Thank you to those who read this over and Thank you to all who will read it. Your feedback, commentary, likes, and reblogs are appreciated more than you will ever know.

All characters belong to Pixelberry.

Song Inspiration: Made for Me, Peter Cincotti

Word Count: 1,246

Relationship Status?

Riam:

Him: Married. With children.

Her: King and Queen of Cordonia.

SGL x Riley B:

Him: Dating, kinda sorta maybe.

Her: I don’t have a boyfriend.

Mermaids:

Him: Engaged, proposal under consideration.

Her: There are conditions.

UnRomance:

Him: I’m single but monogamous. For now.

Her: He’s my boyfriend.

Where did you meet?

Riam:

Him: Brooklyn, New York.

Her: In a dive bar. That should tell you something right there.

SGL x Riley B:

Him: Work! We started the same day.

Her (with a smile): I think he answered for both of us.

Mermaids:

Him: New York

Her: We saw each other in New York. We didn’t really meet until your ex dumped you.

Him: And I wrote on your walls …

Riley blushes as she looks around at everything but Liam

UnRomance:

Him: Museum exhibit

Riley nods in agreement

How long have you been together?

Riam:

Him: We are five years into an eternity together.

Her: Too long.

SGL x Riley B:

Him: 10 years!

Her: I .AM.SINGLE! We’ve known each other 10 years.

Mermaids:

Him: Four months? There was a three-month social season, and we’ve been engaged one month.

Her: We’ve been together ONE MONTH!

UnRomance:

Him: I believe in keeping score, not being confined to a timeline.

Her: 9 ½ weeks.

Who made the first move?

Riam: 

Him: She did.

Her: Damn straight.

SGL x Riley B:

Him: I did. Ball’s in her court.

Her: I don’t play sports.

Mermaids:

Him: To be honest, I’d have to say my father and stepmother did.

Her: He ain’t lying.

UnRomance:

Him: I did. She … interests me.

Her (with surprised look at Liam): I do?

Any quirks?

Riam: 

Him: She folds dirty laundry, talks with her hands, and bites her nails.

Her: He does this … thing whenever he’s reading where he drums his fingers on the back of the paper

SGL x Riley B:

Him: She’ll play a song on repeat for days at a time.

Her: He’ll talk straight through a movie or television show, and most times it isn’t even related to what we’re watching!

Mermaids:

Him: She hums herself to sleep.

Her: He bites his lip before he tells a lie but licks them when he’s telling the truth.

UnRomance:

Him: She plays with her hair when she’s nervous.

Her: He doesn’t yell when he’s angry; he whispers instead. And that’s scarier somehow.

What was your first date?

Riam: 

Him: Tomato pasta dinner at House Beaumont.

Her (swatting his arm): CONEY ISLAND! It was our first time freely, openly, IN PUBLIC as a couple.  

SGL x Riley B:

Him: As best friends, we have “date nights” but I do plan to take her out on an official first date soon.

Her: Where?

Him (smirking): It’s a surprise.

Her: OMG! Remember that night in Georgetown?

Him: Of course I do. Movies, drinks, dinner, trying to break into the Swedish Embassy.

Her: We were hella drunk.

Mermaids:

Him: I believe we were at a club, right?

Her (shaking her head): Where you texted Olivia all night? WE have not had a date, first or otherwise.

UnRomance:

Him: I’m an indoor guy.

Her: We rarely go out, but he did take me to a marvelous restaurant for my birthday.

Favorite food?

Riam: 

Him: Baklava, Chicken Tagine, apples

Her: I’m allergic to peaches and cauliflower and can’t stand the taste of coconut.

Him: Love, the question is: What is your favorite food.

Her: I SAID WHAT I SAID!

SGL x Riley B:

Him: Bulgogi, ramen, and whatever she’s having.

Her: Everything.

Mermaids:

Him: I’m not picky.

Her: You teased me about my cheese eggs.

Him: You used an entire block of cheese for two eggs!

Her: I was nervous because you invaded my personal space! Besides, I like cheese.

UnRomance:

Him: I don’t have a favorite anything.

Her: Whatever he feeds me.

Favorite movie/TV show?

Riam: 

Him: Grey’s Anatomy.

Her: What he said, with an extra side of McSteamy.

SGL x Riley B:

Him: NFL football, PBS

Her: Big Brother, PBS, Homeland

Mermaids:

Him: I don’t watch much television; I prefer music.

Her: Trashy reality shows.

UnRomance:

Him: Billions.

Her: I’ll watch whatever’s on.

Favorite color?

Riam: 

Him: Blue. All shades of blue.

Her: Only because it’s my favorite color.

SGL x Riley B:

Him: Gray.

Her: Orange.

Mermaids:

Him: Cordonia blue, of course.

Her: Yellow. You don’t know this but in high school, I was teased whenever I wore it; I was called Big Bird and stopped wearing it for years.

UnRomance:

Him: For décor, I prefer basics: black and white. For clothing, I lean towards darker neutrals such as black, navy, grays.

Her: I love bright, bold colors like turquoise and magenta. And hats! Big, floppy ones.

Him (combing fingers through her hair while staring intently at her profile): Are you hinting at another shopping trip?

Her (softly): I would like that very much.

Him (fingertips walking up her thigh): You know what I like …

A trip you took together?

Riam: 

Him: In our capacity as monarchs, we travel all over the world but are planning a family vacation with our sons.

Her: I’ve never been to Japan. Or South Korea. Or Dubai.  Let’s look into that!

Him (confused): Which that?

SGL x Riley B:

Him: We take weekend trips to nearby cities: Baltimore, Philly, New York City.

Her: I’d love to go to Austin or Chicago. Maybe Vegas!

Liam pulls out his phone to look up flights

Mermaids:

Him: We have not yet traveled together

Her (sarcastically): He LOVES going to Lythikos. Alone.

UnRomance:

Him: We don’t go out.

Her: He likes to stay close to home.

What are arguments like between you?

Riam: 

Him: She starts them. I end them.

Her (rolling her eyes): Miss me with that, Liam!

SGL x Riley B:

Him: Infrequent; we understand each other.

Her: Loud.

Mermaids:

Him (with raised eyebrow and sidelong glance):  Passionate!

Her: I got nothing.

UnRomance:

Him: While I don’t actively seek them out, I do enjoy a challenge.

Her (with small shake of her head): I don’t like when we argue.

Favorite thing about the other?

Riam: 

Him: Everything.

Her: How he loves me.

SGL x Riley B:

Him: I can’t pick just one thing. Riley B. is the total package.

Her (with lingering gaze at Liam): His patience.

Mermaids:

Him: She has the BEST personality when she isn’t angry with me.

Her: His sense of duty.

UnRomance:

Him: I see myself in her.

Her: He makes me feel things no one else ever had.

If you could change one thing about the other, what would it be?

Riam: 

Him: Her jealousy.

Her: WHAT?? You can’t say everything about me is your favorite thing, and then want to CHANGE something! DO OVER!

SGL x Riley B:

Him: I wish she knew she can trust herself, she can trust me.

Her: I wouldn’t change a thing.

Mermaids:

Him: She’s given me a chance, so no … no changes.

Her: His ex.

UnRomance:

Him: Her obedience could use some improvement.

Her: I wish he communicated more … openly with me.

Any regrets?

Riam: 

Him: I have a few; they are Riley-related but not about Riley.

Her: None. At all.

SGL x Riley B:

Him: That I didn’t make my move sooner.

Her: I want a boyfriend. Know anyone interested in the job?

Him: I bought you SOCKS!

Her: PLAIN WHITE ONES!

Mermaids:

Him: Even though she was right in my face, I wish I had seen her sooner.

Her: So far, no.

UnRomance:

Him: No.

Her: No.

Tagging: @jared2612 @ao719  @marietrinmimi @merridithsmiscellany-blog @queenjilian @indiacater @kingliam2019 @bebepac @liamxs-world @mom2000aggie @cmestrella @liamrhysstalker2020  @neotericthemis @twinkleallnight @umccall71 @superharriet  @busywoman @gabesmommie1130 @tessa-liam @phoenixrising0308 @beezm @gardeningourmet @lovingchoices14 @foreverethereal123 @mainstreetreader @angelasscribbles @lady-calypso @emkay512 @jovialyouthmusic @21-wishes @princessleac1 @charlotteg234 @queenrileyrose @alj4890 @yourfavaquarius111 @motorcitymademadame @bbrandy2002 @queenmiarys