Why did i draw this? I felt like drawing the sillies dancing.

I dunno if it counts for day 2 but it’s Mal telling Alina in the first episode of season one “I’ll meet you in the meadow” when he thinks they’re going to die in the Fold and then in the last episode of season 2 he says “You know where to find me” before she kills him in the Fold. It’s the darkling visiting them both in their dreams and ending it with saying “sweet dreams”. It’s Nikolai hugging Mal and Alina as they find out Mal is the firebird. It’s Nikolai giving both the compass. It’s Mal being the one to walk towards Alina as she’s close to burning the ship down in episode 2 and then being the first to try and bring her back from destroying the roof in episode 5. It’s Mal saying he keep walking till he found one that felt like home as it cuts to Alina and Alina saying later on that when she first saw him arrive she knew they were meant for each other.

There's a Silver Lining Through a Dark Cloud Shining pt. 2

Severus stared around the room wildly, heart hammering in his chest. He didn't…he had to be at Hogwarts, but no one looked right. The blond boy could only be a Malfoy and he'd know that thatch of messy dark hair anywhere, but they weren't right.

"Er, professor, do you remember anything?" The boy with the Potter hair asked, shoving broken glasses up his nose. 

Green eyes. He knew those eyes. Those eyes and that hair together…

"Fuck sake, tell me she didn't!" He demanded.

"Who didn't, sir?" The boy fidgeted.

"Tell me Lily didn't marry that Potter berk!" He demanded.

The boy choked and the group behind him sucked in a breath as one, eyes wide. They seemed inclined to just watch, though.

"Bloody fucking hell, she did." No matter what Lils said, he could pick up on some cues. And that one was an anvil.

"Er. Yeah. I…um…I'm Harry Potter." Well that decided it. Lily Evans had the worst taste in men.

"For your granddad." Severus murmured before he could help himself.

"Really?" The boy…Harry looked delighted. "I didn't know."

Oh, he wasn't touching that. If this child of theirs didn't know his grandparents…no…best not consider it. He cursed his ability to make connections so quickly.

"And…you called me professor." A quick subject change seemed the right way to go.

"You…well, you're usually a lot…older. There was an accident." Harry explained. "Er…I'm not sure what happened, really. We've sent for Madame Pomfrey."

He wasn't sure what to think. The blond boy could only be Lucius' child…with the Black eyes. Cissa? And the freckled specimen was likely a Weasley. You always knew a Weasley. And the Parkinson nose. Crabbe and Goyle looked about as one expected. 

But no child of Sirius Black or Remus Lupin or Peter Pettigrew seemed to stand among them. No MacKinnon or Meadows or Rosier or Lestrange seemed to be present. Features he ought to have recognized were nowhere to be seen. 

"What happened?" He asked, finally. "What happened here?"

Harry looked back at the crowd behind him. He seemed to be communicating with a girl with the most extraordinary hair Severus had ever seen and the Weasley spawn. He turned back.

"War." He answered simply.

Severus swallowed hard. "So it happened, then."

"Yeah." Harry shrugged.

They fell to awkward silence. Severus' mind whirled, trying to assimilate new information. 

"What year is it?" He asked.

"Nineteen ninety-two." Harry told him. "It's only just October. We're the second year Gryffindor/Slytherin Potions class."

"Which I'm meant to be teaching?" It came out more question than statement.

"Which you're meant to be teaching." Harry confirmed. He bit his lip. "Dunno what we're going to do for Potions now."

"Obviously, Potter, we'll have a new professor." The blond probably Malfoy drawled from behind Harry but didn't move. He'd found a seat and lounged in it.

"No one's asked you, Malfoy." Harry answered in the tone of someone who'd spent a great deal of time with a Malfoy.

Most of Lucius' dormmates sounded like that at least once a week. Generally it regarded haircare.

Slytherin would never forget the night Lucius Malfoy found a single split end. Pity that the child hadn't inherited Cissa's nice manners or way with people.

"Well you clearly haven't any idea of how anything works. Only to be expected, honestly, given your…parentage." 

The bushy-haired girl grabbed a handful of the Weasley spawn's robes and hauled him back while Harry looked at the ceiling and seemed to count. Severus thought that this particular version of Malfoy could use a pasting, to be honest. Lucius at least had…charm…of a kind, anyway.

"Malfoy, no one's asked your opinion or needs to hear it." Harry gritted out.

Just then, the door opened and Madame Pomfrey bustled in. 

"By the Cauldron." She breathed. "Professor Snape, what happened?"

Madame Pomfrey moved into the room, easily stepping around the mess on the floor. She cast a quick containment charm around Neville's cauldron on her way. 

"I was told it was an accident." Severus answered. "I don't remember much beyond waking up with a lot of people I've never met."

Madame Pomfrey breathed in sharply. 

"Well, why don't we go up to the Hospital Wing? We may need some help with this. All of you, please go to the Great Hall. I'll inform the Headmaster." She waited while students gathered what they could of their things.

"I could…" Harry started. 

"Please go up to the Hall with everyone else, Mr. Potter." Madame Pomfrey interrupted firmly. "We'll either return your professor to you or…well…I'm sure we can come up with a solution."

"Yes, Madame Pomfrey." Harry answered dutifully and filed out with the rest of the students.

"Now, we'll get you sorted out." She smiled down at Severus.

An actual familiar face left him so relieved that he smiled back.

WONDER TEA PARTY - PART 3

━

SHAYMIE : ~~♪ ~~♪ SHAYMIE : I'm so happy we're going for a walk~ But why are we going even deeper and deeper into the forest? EMMA : They said there's a way out of the forest if we keep going in this direction. MEL : Are you sure we can trust them? They are talking flowers. Isn't that a bit weird~? VOLKS : I think we can trust them. I can usually tell when someone is lying. ROUGE : They talked so beautifully, but I couldn't understand half of what they said~ OSCAR : Most of the information they gave was useless. Aside from the direction we should walk to exit the forest, and this "Alice" person.

FELD : Hmm? Do you guys see that tower beyond the trees? EMMA : Oh, yeah! It looks like there are some other tall buildings too! ROUGE : That must mean there is a city close by!

With that, we quickly hurried through the forest in the direction of the buildings. As expected, we found a city. SHAYMIE : That man has the same ears as Shaymie and Emma! Ooh! That man too! ROUGE : I see. This is our home away from home, Emma! I knew you and I were destined to be together somewhere special~! EMMA : No. My home away from home is Reckord. And our ears look completely different from yours, Rouge. ROUGE : Harsh…! EMMA : This is no time to joke around. Let's see if anyone can help us. In a flash, everything went dark.

EMMA : ….Wha!? MEL : What the hell!? Why is it suddenly so dark!? Volks, where are you!? OSCAR : Calm yourself, Mel. You're clinging to my cape. After a few minutes, our eyes adjusted to the sudden darkness and we could finally see the city again. Glancing up at the sky I noticed that the sun had completely vanished. Now replaced by a white, shining moon. EMMA : What the...!? FELD : Why is it night!? It was daytime just a second ago!

SHAYMIE : Wow~ The stars are so bright~! ROUGE : It's beautiful, isn't it? OSCAR : Nobody in town seems surprised by the sudden shift. EMMA : Ah, that's true. They all seem like they're used to it. EMMA : (My watch still says it's daytime, but the sky has turned to night…? So weird…) VOLKS : I'm sorry, sir. May I have a moment of your time? MAN : Hmm? What is it? VOLKS : We are tourists from another country. A few minutes ago it suddenly changed from day to night. Do you know why?

MAN : I dunno. It's been like this ever since Alice arrived. EMMA : (Alice! There's that name again!) MAN : It seems like a normal day when suddenly it turns to night. FELD : How can you be so calm about this!? EMMA : Who is this Alice? MAN : Alice is Alice. There is no other way to put it. VOLKS : Hm…Has anything else strange happened since the arrival of Alice? MAN : Well, let's see…

━

MEL : Yesterday a meadow suddenly appeared instead of the forest!? And an ocean in the sky!? Are you serious!? OSCAR : A person who eats a special pie purchased in the city will grow so large they break the roof of their house? ROUGE : I like the part about the cats suddenly appearing and disappearing. I wanna learn that power. Would come in handy when running from debt collectors. SHAYMIE : He said so many other weird things, I've already forgotten! EMMA : And yet, no one else is freaking out about this. It's like they've all just accepted it as normal. FELD : It sounds way too fucking chaotic!! OSCAR : ……… EMMA : Oscar?

OSCAR : I'm becoming more and more curious about what kind of culinary culture this country has developed. There's no way the food from such an ever-changing place is mediocre. FELD : Don't look so happy about this!! MEL : Wow~ To be so happy about such a messed up situation. The nerve of this guy~! VOLKS : It seems that this is a land where even the wildest of fantasies can come true. EMMA : Yeah, but if day turning into night is such a normal thing━

My mouth hung open for a moment. Afraid to finish the sentence and voice my bad thoughts. Finally, gathering up my courage, I turned to the man and asked… EMMA : We really want to get back to our country…If the moon doesn't rise in this land, how does the Moon Road get built? MAN : The Moon Road might not ever be built again! ROUGE : Oh no! Itsuki will lose his job! VOLKS : Hmm…I see now…If the moon doesn't rise, then the Moon Road can't be built…With such irregular day-night cycles, it would be very difficult to predict its appearance…If it appears at all… EMMA : (That's right….) Will we be able to return home safely from Wondermare? My anxiety continued to grow.

Once again, thanks for a detailed reply! I agree re emotional complexity of good betrayal stories, even though irl I know I wouldn't want to go back as I wouldn't have any love left for someone who betrayed me. (And, to return to HdL, I'd send CM to Hell w/o a second thought. I guess I'd make a very poor writer - but a vicious vengeful ghost lol) (Sorry, needed to get this out of my system bc I HATE CM so much it makes me incoherent. How people can ship him and MW is beyond my comprehension)

PS: And here's another random thought: it occurred to me that there's something knight-like in Chan-seong's devotion to Man-wol... and then this made me think about La Belle Dame sans Merci (I know this association is a bit far-fetched, but I can't get it out of my head now) (Ok, I'll stop spamming you now; have a nice day!) (2/2)

well, anon, i think there's a lovely place for vicious vengeful ghosts. (and to be honest, i am in partial agreement with you--i never really did sympathize at all with chung myung, just because like . . . ? i dunno, maybe it's just that his life never seemed too hard, and i didn't think the stakes were necessarily high enough for him to do all that he did :/ like, the hell dude. you didn't have to do all that, did you? like, what was the reason?

and also, like . . . maybe chung myung seems especially small in my opinion because of how sharp the contrast between himself and chan seong is. (in that chan seong's insanely selfless. he trusts man wol completely, and he's also willing to risk everything for her! even earlier in the show, he admits to that other hotel manager about how he does have feelings for man wol, but he won't act on them . . . and also, maybe chan seong and man wol's relationship hits a very personal chord with me because something about chan seong telling man wol to trust him and something about man wol being still somewhat stuck in the hurt that was inflicted on her years ago and something about learning how to love while also learning how to let go and learning how to wait are all so . . . GOD!! ! ! ! i didn't expect to get invested in their relationship, but upon the second watch, i realize that i really did love them a lot more than i thought--and i think part of that is just like. hotel del luna is one of those shows where i don't think people will really understand the appeal of it unless they're at a different point in their life, and each episode in the show sort of reflects so many different people's stages of life, so i think that's the beauty of the show. something about that other hotel manager, you know, the one directly before chan seong--saying something about how you meet all kinds of people and it makes life so much more interesting.)

oh, and as for the poem: i've never read la belle dame sans merci until this morning, and i agree. the image of sitting on a hillside and dreaming, the pale knights having maybe something to do with the ghosts, and then waking up and finding oneself alone . . . there's something bittersweet in the poem because it speaks of love for a woman found in a meadow (man wol in the garden!) with long hair and wild eyes (MAN WOL), but that emptiness that comes with waking up and looking around and just waiting (and this is why i sojourn here, / alone and palely loitering) :(((((((

Stars at Dawn - Part One

2.7k, 8 pages; So, uhh... I know I've already posted a part one to SaD, but I was never super in love with it. So while it still counts as canon, I thought I'd give it a retry. I definitely like this version better. I hope you all enjoy this newer and extended version as well!

CW/TW: (mostly vague) discussions of childhood poverty and starvation

Wren was flying. Air beneath his wings, wind ruffling his hair, tears whisked away from his cheeks –

Hush, little one, don't say a word

Papa's gonna fly with you like a bird,

The world looked so small from up so high.

And if the clouds don't part for us,

Papa's gonna light a fire for us

Giants had become ants in Wren's eyes. Buildings like mountains could become little more than pebbles. All the problems of land faded away in the distant sky.

And if that fire for us burns low

Papa's gonna get you a fair meadow

All but the ones he brought with him, that was.

And if that meadow withers and dies

Papa's gonna give you some crystal ice

Was that the sun at his back, or the beginnings of a fire? Did the wind whistle in his ears, or was his father yelling for Wren to run? 

And if that crystal ice melts away

Papa'll love you for the rest of his days

Was he really flying, or did his wings just break the fall?

-*-_-*-_-*-_-*-_-*-_-*-_-*-_-*-_-*-_-*-_-*-_-*-_-*-_-*-_-*-_-*-_-*-_-*-

The thing Wren remembers most about that first year has always been the hunger. His memories are a haze he doesn't care to peer through, to remember the ways he acted more like a starving animal than a boy of seven. The way he was treated like one too.

And then there was Aya, breaking through the clouds with beams of light. They were still hungry, still starving children, but they starved together. Aya's gentle features gained them sympathy where Wren’s harsh lines and feathered wings never could. Wren's ability to slip through shadows giving them food when there was no pity to be found. 

They lived like that for years, one day at a time. Huddling together through cold winters and twirling around together in summer rainstorms. Their lives were awful, sleeping in alleys and keeping their latest meal from the guards, but at least they had each other. Someone to hold onto. Someone to know, to be kind to and receive kindness from. 

Others, street vendors and children and familiar faces, often called them siblings despite their vast physical differences. Aya seemed to have been grown from the ground rather than born: delicate and green and a healer. Wren was more a thing cut from the night sky, dark and full of harsh edges. 

And yet, they still fit together.

-*-_-*-_-*-_-*-_-*-_-*-_-*-_-*-_-*-_-*-_-*-_-*-_-*-_-*-_-*-_-*-_-*-_-*-

"Do you think we'll ever be like them?"

Wren looked up from where he had been watching the street below as he slowly chewed his (stale) bread. Aya still looked at the vendors past their knees.

"Like who?" He asked.

Aya gestured broadly to the many people all going about their day, "Them. Normal people, walking through the market. Stopping to buy some bread and meat for dinner later."

Wren looked back at the street. Below them, a brother and sister argued loudly over which kind of cheese to get. 

"I dunno. Wouldn't know how to do it." Wren shrugged, his mouth pinching downward. "Not like anyone wants to hire us to do so much as sweep their front steps. 'Fraid I'll pinch somethin' I think."

"You would." Aya said knowingly. Wren couldn't argue, but he opened his mouth to try anyway. Aya shot him a glare and continued on, "And anyway, I don't think we're big enough yet to do the work they would let us do."

Despite their age difference (four years, if they both remembered their ages right), Aya was barely half a hand taller than Wren and just as thin. 

Wren just hummed in agreement. "Maybe in a few years then."

-*-_-*-_-*-_-*-_-*-_-*-_-*-_-*-_-*-_-*-_-*-_-*-_-*-_-*-_-*-_-*-_-*-_-*-

They never got those years together.

-*-_-*-_-*-_-*-_-*-_-*-_-*-_-*-_-*-_-*-_-*-_-*-_-*-_-*-_-*-_-*-_-*-_-*-

That day would stand out in Wren's memories even years later.

It was an eclipse, a black and sudden end to what had been sunshine. A spillage of ink over what might have been perfectly good paper.

(It could have been a day like any other, if not for-)

Aya never came to their meeting spot, a hidden away corner that no one else seemed to know about. Wren never found out what exactly happened to her that day, despite his digging. All he knew is that even after hours of waiting, Aya never came.

Instead, there was a tall man with long black hair cascading wildly down his neck. His eyes were like golden coins and reflected light just as well. Most notable, however, were the huge, leathery wings which grew from his back like a shadow standing upright. 

"What'd you want?" Wren asked from his spot between two empty crates.

If the man had been surprised, he didn't show it. Instead, the corners of his mouth curled up into a smile. "All the jewels in the castle seems pretty nice, but rarely do we get what we want." 

Slowly, with a gleam in his eye, the man looked at Wren directly. "What do you want, kid?"

The man was still looking at Wren, and Wren met his stare. It was making Wren mad, the way the man looked at him. Like an ant trapped between finger and thumb.

"I want a bed and a nice house and a warm meal every night and a family who loves me, but we don't all get what we want, yeah?" Wren spat out, getting up from his corner and marching toward the man. He could feel the way his wings puffed up behind him.

"How about just a warm meal for tonight?"

The man's smile grew, pleased like a cat that had caught its mouse while Wren felt like he'd tripped into another world. He felt like the mouse.

"What's the catch?" Wren asked. Once, a man said he'd give Aya a meal if she went with him and did everything he said. He'd said it like he had been starved for days and Aya was the sweetest cake he'd ever seen. They'd both agreed that it wouldn't be worth it.

The winged man laughed. "You're a suspicious thing, aren't you? Good. How about you tell me your name, and I'll buy you a meal?"

Wren couldn't think of any reason to say no, so he slowly nodded. "Fine, but I run real fast when I need to. The guards never catch me."

The man turned, leaving Wren looking at his wings. They were so different from Wren's own, dark skin and clawed instead of the dirty feathers that made up Wren's. Wings like these were the mark of a blessed demon. Wren's feathers only marked him as a dirty-blooded hybrid.

"A good skill to have." The man said with that knowing smile in his voice. "Come, we'll get you something from a vendor."

Silence fell on them as they made their way to the main street. The man walked ahead of Wren with a prowl, reminding Wren once again of a cat. He was the big circus cat Wren had seen once (in a time he tried to forget), with bright yellow eyes and covered in smooth black.

The wings though, he'd never seen any animal with wings like this man's. It was rare to see anyone with wings at all, but these ones went beyond that. Wren could see the power in them. This man didn't just have wings, he could fly.

(Wren liked to say he could fly, but the truth was that his wings could only hold him up a little while when he fell. Maybe he should have been able to by now, but the muscles of his wings were too weak.)

“So then, what is your name?” The man asked as Wren peered beyond him. The market street was laid out in front of them, quieter as the sun hung low in the sky. The bustle and noise of the day had vanished, leaving just a few open stalls and wandering people about.

Wren folded his arms, “I want something with meat.” He almost never got his hands on meat. The booth’s guard was sharp-eyed, and almost everything he’d ever seen in the trash seemed bad bad. Wren remembered from somewhere that bad meat could make you sick.

The man started walking again, this time Wren walked at his side. They stopped in front of a small cart from which a man was selling sausages. “Again,” The man looked down at Wren, “Your name?”

“Wren.” He finally said after a pause. “My name is Wren.” 

Beside him, the man smiled and shook his head. It seemed more real than his earlier smiles. This one wasn’t some kind of act, but near-genuine amusement. Wren wanted to be mad at his reaction (his name was not funny, thank you very much), but then the man looked down at Wren.

(Wren loved Aya, but she couldn’t fix everything. She couldn’t fill the holes that had been left behind.)

“What-” Wren looked away, reaching out to accept the (cooked!) sausage from the salesman, “What’s your name? So I don’t have to keep calling you ‘that weird guy’ in my head.”

“Dearil Gladius.” Dearil replied, voice still holding traces of humor. His large hand rested on Wren’s head for just a moment. “Pleased to make your acquaintance, Wren.”

-*-_-*-_-*-_-*-_-*-_-*-_-*-_-*-_-*-_-*-_-*-_-*-_-*-_-*-_-*-_-*-_-*-_-*-

The days became cold without Aya’s warmth. Dearil’s golden shine was a cold comfort even as Wren allowed himself to be drawn in. He continued to take offers of fresh, warm food in exchange for easy questions about himself.

What was his favorite color?

Are there any games he likes to play?

How long has he lived on the street?

Has he ever flown?

The conversations that followed started to become something to look forward to. The golden gleam and shadows that followed Dearil bothered Wren less. He wasn’t sure why Dearil kept coming back, feeding Wren to no benefit, but Wren was happy to keep accepting until Dearil asked for something he couldn’t give. 

Honestly, what Wren really wanted to know about Dearil was why. Why did he keep coming back? Why did he feed him? Why did he avoid looking at the guards and only see Wren after colors began to paint the sky?

-*-_-*-_-*-_-*-_-*-_-*-_-*-_-*-_-*-_-*-_-*-_-*-_-*-_-*-_-*-_-*-_-*-_-*-

It took weeks for Wren to get any answers.

-*-_-*-_-*-_-*-_-*-_-*-_-*-_-*-_-*-_-*-_-*-_-*-_-*-_-*-_-*-_-*-_-*-_-*-

“Why’d you gimme food?” “You looked like you needed it. Still do, if I’m being honest.”

“Why’d ya keep coming back?” “You… interest me.”

-*-_-*-_-*-_-*-_-*-_-*-_-*-_-*-_-*-_-*-_-*-_-*-_-*-_-*-_-*-_-*-_-*-_-*-

“Why’d ya do that?”

Wren already had his prize for today, a meat pie, in hand and they’d found some out-of-the-way crates to sit on as he tore into it. Dearil hadn’t asked his question yet, unless the question was supposed to be what Wren wanted. The guards walked by on their route, as routine as the sun in the sky, and Dearil tucked his wings behind him and ducked his head, long hair covering his face.

“Always with the ‘whys’ little bird.” Dearil drawled as he rolled his neck back. “Can’t you just take a meal without asking a buncha questions?”

Wren just shrugged in response, mouth full of burning hot pie. The vendor must have had some kind of fire magic to keep them so hot. 

After a moment, he heard Dearil grumble something about ‘pains in the ass’ and ‘too damn curious’ before sighing. “Alright, fine. Why do I do what?”

With a fresh bite of pie in his mouth, Wren started to answer the question, “Y’know, wh-” until Dearil cut him off with a look. They’d already had many talks about talking with a full mouth, as well as eating with his mouth closed and which foods were appropriate to eat with just hands. Dearil called it ‘table manners’, while Wren called them ‘stupid’. It wasn’t like they ever ate at a table.

Wren quickly chewed and swallowed his food before he opened his mouth to speak. “Y’know, when the guards walk by and you try to be invisible. Why’d ya do that?”

Dearil huffed quietly. “You’re too clever for your own good, y'know. Most kids wouldn’t notice a thing, nevermind that it’s connected to the guards. One of these days you’ll notice something you really shouldn’t, and then you’ll be in real trouble.” There was a pause as Dearil rubbed at his chin. It was something he only did before giving Wren stilted, careful answers that usually didn’t really answer the question he asked. 

“The royal guards and I have a bit of a history.” Dearil finally answered. “Best for all of us if we stay outta each other's way.”

“So…” Wren leaned forward, dropping what was left of his pie into his lap. “You’re a criminal then. What’d you do?”

Dearil laughed like the clash of swords. “Little bird, you gotta be a little older for me to answer that.”

Wren crossed his arms and scowled. Older? How could Wren get any older when he was already taking care of and fed himself? How could he grow up when he couldn’t go to school? A lightning storm had spun into existence off of a single sentence, ready to strike. Wren was ready to strike, to open his mouth and yell about how stupid that was, but then he remembered the warm pie in his lap. Something he would only be able to get with gold that he never had to spare.

Sullenly, he picked the pie up and bit into it. Defending his age wasn’t worth losing the meals Dearil gave him for nothing more than conversation.

Silence stretched between them, Wren eating his pie with little enthusiasm while Dearil watched him. Dearil might have been waiting for Wren to break the silence, but if that was the case then he could wait. Wren didn’t want to talk.

“What’m I gonna do with you?” Dearil finally mumbled before leaning forward. “Alright, well, I was planning on offering you something today, if you’ll actually clean your ears out and listen. Think you can manage that little bird?”

Wren didn’t look up to meet Dearil’s eyes, but he nodded.

“Alright, well.” Dearil shifted on his seat again, turning to face what was left of the crowd. Watching them probably. “The… group I’m a part of has been taking in kids about your age. It’s not free exactly, you’ll be training to do our work and you’ll be expected to pay us back eventually, but you’ll be fed and given a place to sleep. No more living on the streets with no idea when you’ll get your next meal.”

That was… admittedly very tempting. Winter was approaching, and Wren had been worried as of late how he was going to stay warm through it. Food had been less of a concern with Dearil coming to feed him nearly everyday, but the more food he could get, the better. But, of course, this offer finally answered why Dearil would be interested in Wren. This offer was the endgame.

“What does your gang do? Why not recruit adults?” Wren asked, trying to keep his head low as he did. 

Dearil was quiet for a moment before he answered, and Wren tried his best to not squirm. “You know what mercenaries are, yes?” Wren nodded. “Good. We’re mercenaries with an interest in being discreet. We put more emphasis on small groups or individuals with skills in stealth than most. But most people with the skills we want are already taken or don’t want to be found, so we’re training them instead.”

Wren nodded again. It made some sense, including why Dearil might be asking Wren, but he couldn’t help feeling as if he was missing something. A part of the picture was still covered in shadow, but Wren couldn’t ask too many questions before Dearil took the offer back. If it was too bad, Wren could probably just run away. Go somewhere he’d never been and hide away from Dearil.

“Okay.” Wren shoved the last of his pie in his mouth and stood up. He looked at Dearil, met those coins for eyes. “Where are we going then?”

Dearil smiled, every bit the prowling cat.

-*-_-*-_-*-_-*-_-*-_-*-_-*-_-*-_-*-_-*-_-*-_-*-_-*-_-*-_-*-_-*-_-*-_-*-

He didn’t forget Aya. She hadn’t become part of the unknowable before, her loss hadn’t stopped aching. 

But Wren knew from an early age that the world does not wait for the broken hearted.

It did not wait when he lost his father, did not wait for him to pack his things when he left his childhood home forever. You learned to pick yourself up, or you laid down and died. That was the cruel way of the world. 

So if Aya was gone (dead, missing, who knows what but definitely gone), then Wren could not wait for her. He needed to move on.

For King and Country (47/122)

For King and Country | saratogaroad rating: T total wordcount:  280,466 characters: Evan Pettiwhisker Tildrum, Roland Crane, Aranella, Batu, Tani, Lofty, Leander Aristidies, Bracken Meadows relationships: Roland Crane & Evan Pettiwhisker Tildrum, Aranella & Evan Pettiwhisker Tildrum, Roland Crane & Aranella, Batu & Tani, Batu & Evan, Tani & Evan, Evan Pettiwhisker Tildrum & Lofty, Rolander other tags: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Canon-Typical Violence, Mother-Son Relationship, Father-Son Relationship, Place Slowly Becomes Home People Slowly Become Family, Found Family, For Want of A Nail warnings: none

Pulled from his world by mysterious powers, former president Roland Crane finds himself caught in the middle of a coup meant to take the life of the young King Evan Pettiwhisker Tildrum. Joining forces with Aranella, the pair of them set out to aid Evan in making his dream of a kingdom where everyone can live happily ever after a reality.

But the road to peace is a long and treacherous one and there is no promise of success in a world where darkness spreads ever thicker with each passing day. If they are to stand a chance, they must stand together, for king and for country.

(A retelling.)

=

“If I may be so bold,” Leander said suddenly, pulling everyone’s attention from the map they had been going over on the deck of the Eternity. Roland glanced up to find Leander looking directly at him. “May I ask you a question, Roland?”

“Sure,” Roland said, confused. Where had this come from all of a sudden? Standing beside him, Aranella shifted her weight. “What is it?”

“It is something that I noticed. While you were in the palace, you appeared to be almost ill.” He inclined his head, raising a finely arched brow. “But it seems to have passed now. Are you sick?”

“No,” Roland said immediately, shaking his head with a sheepish huff. “No, it’s not an illness, it’s…” He rubbed the back of his neck, thinking over how to say this. Starting an alliance on truth would be the best idea, but it was obvious where Leander’s loyalties lay. Would he believe them now? There was only one way to find out. “I get headaches sometimes,” Roland said, “When there’s a thick Darkness in an area.” He glanced up and met Leander’s startled gaze. “It was pretty thick down there.”

“It would have been worse in the throne room, I think,” Evan chimed in pensively. He looked at Roland for a moment, then said to Leander, “I’ve been told that Darkness has a rather distinct smell to it, like rotting fruit. I smelled that in the throne room earlier, and…” He paused as Leander went pale. “…I take it that Queen Nerea doesn’t wear that sort of perfume.”

“She never has,” the Archon whispered. A second later he shook himself and adjusted his glasses. “How certain are you that that is what you sensed?”

Roland and Evan shared a look. Evan’s ears pinned back and Roland ducked his head. He understood where Leander was coming from, and knew full well just how badly anyone would want to believe that someone they cared about wasn’t hurt or worse, but there was no denying it. Darkness had hold of Queen Nerea. The only question remaining was how strong was it’s hold actually was.

“Really?” Lofty asked before Roland could say anything. The little Kingmaker slumped at the waist, giving Leander an unimpressed look. “Youe’ve got two people tellin’ ya they sensed bloomin’ Dark stuff and you ‘en’t buying it? You really need those glasses, dontcha?”

“Lofty!” Evan lunged across the table and snatched his Kingmaker up off the surface. The higgledies scattered as Lofty kicked and squalled in Evan’s arms. “You can’t just say things like that! It isn’t polite!”

Somehow, Roland doubted Lofty cared that much about things like politeness and being nice. Shaking his head, he turned to Leander.

“We’re sure,” he said. “Has Queen Nerea been acting…odd lately?”

Still pale, Leander tensed. “…In what manner?”

“Oh, I dunno,” Tani said, arms crossed over her chest, “Like making crazy laws like—” She dropped her voice an octave, trying to mimic Commander Neptune’s baritone, “Love is strictly forbidden!” She snorted, returning to her normal tone. “Gimme a break. What kinda person goes and outlaws a feeling?!”

Roland watched as Leander took a deep, steadying breath. His attempt at maintaining his cool worked, for the most part. His fingers twitched against his thighs as he said, “Queen Nerea’s laws are set into motion to protect her people. There is a reason for all of her decisions..”

“Even this one?” Aranella asked. Lofty shut up at the sound of her voice, his squalling protests dying away. She eyed him for a second then said to Leander, “If Cetus is such a threat, why not send your Navy out to deal with him?” She inclined her head. “I understand she would need to be sure of us, but why send you in their stead, Archon?”

“I…” Leander trailed off. Everyone watched him. “…I…will admit that I do not understand this decision.” He adjusted his glasses in a motion that Roland was coming to understand was a nervous tic. “Perhaps…perhaps there is some merit to what you say.”

Lofty barked out an unamused laugh. Evan hissed at him. Leander glanced at the young King.

“When first we met, you said that the Kingsbond between the leader of Goldpaw and their Kingmaker had been severed. How was this achieved?”

“A man came to Master Pugnacius,” Evan said, “And offered him power, a way to lift his people out of poverty. Master Pugnacius accepted his offer, and, well…” Evan grimaced. “Doloran managed to slowly manipulate him into turning his desire to help his people into an overwhelming greed. He taxed his people so badly that they turned against him in the end.”

“They found him wanting,” Aranella said, gesturing with one hand, “And Longfang returned to the city to test him once again. Once he was close enough, Doloran used some sort of Dark magic to sever their exposed Kingsbond and that was it.”

“I see.” Leander said. He took a few silent breaths, then shook his head. “Then, this cannot be the same thing. I am at her Majesty’s side night and day. There is no way that this Doloran could have done the same to her.”

“All night and day?” Batu raised an eyebrow. “Every blessed second?”

“All night and day,” Leander confirmed, holding his head up high. Roland rolled his eyes skyward. Good grief. Here they went again.

“Could Doloran have grabbed her from a distance?” He asked before Batu could really pick up steam. Lofty jumped back up onto the table.

“Oh, aye,” he said with a firm nod. “‘En’t much of a stretch, ‘specially if the bugger’s got a scryin’ pool or some such nonsense. Even worse if she’s a magic sensitive type.” He looked up at Leander, but the man stood tall and motionless. Lofty sighed. “Alright, look. If it ‘en’t Doloran, the only other thing that could do this kinda mess’d be a Broken Heart, and that’s a whole other bucket of chum to fix.”

Roland frowned. “Broken heart?” he asked, but Lofty just waved a hand at him. Leander closed his eyes, then sighed quietly.

“Leander,” Evan started gently, “You said that the laws were set into place to protect the people of Hydropolis.” When Leander nodded, Evan frowned. “That tells us that Queen Nerea cares for her people. We know that, but…” He shook his head, “Something is obviously wrong. What is she trying to protect them from?”

Leander took a deep breath. As he exhaled, all emotion disappeared from his face. Roland made a soft noise in the back of his throat as the Archon turned away.

“A tale for another time, perhaps.” He said, his voice flat and empty. “Please, excuse me. I must think over what you have told me.”

With a short bow to the delegation, he left the group and headed below deck. Batu huffed.

“There’s secrets there,” the big man grumbled, arms crossed over his chest. “Or I ain’t chief o’the pirates.”

“Yes,” Evan agreed. His eyes, and Roland’s, had yet to leave the door to the hold. Roland twisted his arms band, wondering just what was going on. There were as many secrets in Hydropolis as there were fish in the sea, and they all lead back to Queen Nerea and Archon Aristides. “Yes, there are.”

“And it sounds to me that history will repeat itself if we aren’t careful,” Aranella said. She eyed the horizon, the sun setting through clouds of violet and gold. “If Queen Nerea is attempting to protect her people, then…this is likely to end much like it did in Goldpaw.”

The best intentions invited the worst kind of trouble. With a heavy sigh, Roland nodded.

"Yeah," he said, "I get the feeling that it is."

Super Furry Animals - "Venus And Serena" (2003)

Son: - Father, father I have sinned I dunno where to begin Give me words of advice I'll save them up for a clear day

Father: - Keep your eye upon the ball Write your thoughts upon the wall There's some words of advice Save them up for a clear day

Venus and Serena understand Flushing meadows down the stream Living life as though it's a dream Eat the future today Don't save it up for a rainy day

Holy bombs make holy holes Holy holes make homeless moles Take the turtle and hare Don't run around if you can walk there

Venus and Serena understand

Son: - Father, father, father, father can't you see? I'm a walking tragedy Father, father, father when I look to the past I never realised that it wouldn't last

Venus and Serena understand (Venus and Serena understand)

Father: - I've one final thing to say I'm not your father anyway Found you under a cloud Left outside by the wolves one day, hey

what do you think of the designs of the badges in pokemon scarlet and violet compared to the designs of the badges in past pokemon games?

I'll be honest I haven't played Scarlet or Violet so I had to Google what they looked like and the fact it was difficult to find a picture with all the badges and I could only view them all on a zoomed in YouTube thumbnail, oof that ain't it fam. I'll give the game the leeway of its a new game therefore there may be less footage but after some research I found you don't even have a badge box? Which. I'm taking away points again there cause no badge box?? No easy view?? Gotta view one at a time? Nah. Hate that personally.

While looking at the badges as well, again probably because I haven't played it, but I genuinely couldn't identify which was what, like okay the link fairy looking one probably fairy, ice cream probably ice type, the weird block probably steel, paint palette? Paint type??? Though it's probably normal type though Larry is that gym leader I think and that doesn't actually make sense now I'm thinking about it? Obviously flower plant thing for grass, I was a bit disappointed there the grass type gym leader he's a bit of a menacing bramble thorn themed man he could've had a bramble thorn looking badge but no it basic leaf you'd think they'd give him or he'd be allowed a custom badge like do the gym leaders design them? If they do oof uninspired. Also blue one for water, bug for bug, yellow for electric type I think. But I saw at least 3 that I thought were dark type and wasn't sure on. They don't really feel very good in my opinion.

Now I do respect its probably hard to come up with decent designs game after game maybe they're running low on inspiration tank but compared to past games they don't feel very good. I never played sword or shield either but that badges make a circle shield idea was cool! If a little impractical I suppose like in a logical world sense, they're very weird shaped it'd feel strange showing off singular badges and it probably looks strange in your badge box but satisfying when you have them all that's fun. I think they should have fun with badges experiment.

A fun idea I just had, perhaps the next badge box because please bring it back is a scenery and getting the respective badges adds in that respective element to complete to picture, a badge that looks like flowing water that sits in the scenery as the start of the river, maybe a grass type plant that's a cluster of flowers or petal like shapes that make a barren patch a meadow of color ect. I dunno just thoughts.

should probably archive this over here as well before i forget

my submissions for Spring Creativity Contest 2022 prompt:  An Astounding Amazement

“I just found the coolest thing! You’re never gonna guess what it is!” Nyklo spun around at the voice and the insistent tugging on her sleeve. It was Poe, splashing in the shallows of the river and looking fit to bursting with excitement. “Yeah?” Nyklo indulged the girl, stepping into the water and watching as Poe dropped below the surface before popping right back up. “What’s it, then?” “I dunno! But it looked really cool and mysterious, and I thought that maybe you’d wanna see it. ‘Cause you’re a worldhopper and worldhoppers are cool and mysterious, too! So, do you?” For a moment, Nyklo looked to be in deep thought, a hand rubbing against her chin and lightly humming. Not that she actually needed to ponder her answer, of course, she’d made her mind as soon as Poe asked the question, but it was always fun to build up a little anticipation. “Sure, you’ve convinced me; I’ll look at what ya found. So, where’s it at?” She looked back down at Poe, but Poe wasn’t looking at her anymore. The kid was peering past Nyklo and into the land-based stalls of the festival. “Where’s your dog?” “Huh?” Nyklo cast a look over her shoulder, frowning. Had her Meadow Hound decided to wander off and she hadn’t noticed? “Antera should be, uh,” her voice drifted as she scanned over the crowds, trying to spot her companion. “... Right there.” She sighed— all too used to the creature’s uncanny ability to appear right when needed— as the Hound trotted out from between two stalls, a dumpling held in her maw and looking all too pleased with herself. Antera swallowed down her treat as she padded closer to the worldhopper and goldfish, then hopped right into the water to snuffle at Poe. The girl reached out one fin to rub at the Hound’s snout. “Oh!” Poe jumped out of the water with a splash. “Can I ride your dog to the thing I found?” Nyklo’s face pinched, ears pressed back against her head. “I don’t think that’s how it works, kid. Don’t ya have to stay in the water?” Poe rolled her eyes. “Yeah… But your dog can swim, right? C’mon, everyone back at school will be soooooo jealous when I tell them how I got to ride a dog at the festival.” Nyklo pursed her lips, no less than a little dubious that it would work. She looked at Antera, who whined and shoved her nose into Poe’s cheek. “You can try. But don’t be upset if it turns out you can’t.” Poe pumped her fins with a cheer as the Meadow Hound sank further into the river, deep enough to let Poe clamber onto her back but still remain partially submerged. “This is so awesome!” “Well.” Nyklo blinked at the sight. Seems Poe could. “Alright! So, the super cool mystery thing I found was in,” Poe began, squinting over the festival before pointing off in the distance. “That direction!” Nyklo expected her Meadow Hound to begin a leisurely swim that she could easily follow along from the shore. She did not, however, expect the Hound to leap into the shallows and break into a gallop, sending up a volley of water in her wake as she sped away with Poe, shrieking in delight, clinging to her back. Nyklo was frozen where she stood, wide-eyed and tail bottle-brushed as she watched the two grow smaller and smaller in the distance. The cries of the splashed festival-goers broke her from her shock, dropping into a sprint of her own as she yelled out: “ANTERA!!” The worldhopper ran along the shoreline, dodging around individuals and groups alike, in the direction that Poe and her Hound had gone, one hand pressed atop her head to keep her hat from flying away. How far could they have gotten? Where had they even gone? Would she be able to find them?!-- Well, actually, she knew Antera would always, somehow, be able to find her. So she didn’t have to worry about that. But still!! For a few minutes more, Nyklo kept her pace down the river, scanning the water for the sight of Poe or her Hound. Then– There!-- in a little carved out cove Antera was lounging in the water, Poe sat at her side. A small gaggle of children surrounded them, patting and cooing at the Hound. As Nyklo drudged her way through the water to the duo, the children scurried off, giggling amongst themselves. Once close enough, she dropped unceremoniously into the water and shot a withering look at her Meadow Hound. “Can you not do that again?” Antera huffed. Poe hopped up from her seat and swam in circles, energized by the event. “Now that you’re finally here, we can see the thing I found! It’s just down this stream.” Without waiting, the girl sped down a winding little stream that fed into the cove. With a slight smirk and a remark on the boundless energy of sugar-fueled small children, Nyklo followed along. And it was… strangely empty. There were no stalls, or entertainers, or even wandering visitors of the festival. Only a little twisting stream bound with tall grasses on either side. But it was calm. A peaceful experience rather than eerie. How Poe found this place was just as much a mystery as whatever it was that she discovered in it. “It’s here!” Poe called from a little ways up, one fin raised high and waving above the water. “Come look!” Nyklo swam a little faster, truly intrigued to see whatever it was that Poe had found for herself. As she approached, the girl explained that her discovery was underneath before dipping below the surface. Nyklo followed suit, diving down to see Poe gesturing furiously towards… something. Two small structures jutted out from the stream bed: amorphous, many-lobed, and a pinkish color. Nyklo, frankly, had no idea what she was looking at. Poe, however, launched into her own thoughts about her findings. “It’s like coral! But it can’t be coral because coral doesn’t grow here. I even asked my parents and they said so, too. Do you think it could be a super secret treasure from Signi herself?” “It’s…” Nyklo scrutinized the mysterious objects, reaching out to prod one with a finger. “Made of stone, whatever it is. Maybe there’s more of it that’s buried?” “Maybe!” Poe agreed, plunging her fins into the sand and silt of the stream’s bed. “I can feel more of it, let’s dig it up.” Together, the two scraped away the muck from around the stone shapes, revealing more and more of what was hidden beneath. Poe was practically bouncing as she dug, thrilled that her discovery was so much more than she had first thought. “Oh, I think it’s a statue! Come on, come on, I wanna see it!” “I think I can pull it out from here, Poe. Get back, alright?” Nyklo grabbed around the widest part of the mud-obscured item as Poe nodded, swimming back and buzzing with excitement. With a great heave, Nyklo dredged up the treasure from the sticky bottom of the stream. She trudged through the water, the object cradled in her hands, to deposit it on the bank of the water. Splashing it with water to clear away the remaining mud, she called back; “You’re right, it’s a statue!” “Whoooaaaa!” Poe popped out of the water and leaned close to the freshly unearthed statue. “That’s so cool!” Carved from red sandstone, a great sea dragon arched up with its wings flared (Those had been what had originally been sticking out, revealing the statue’s hiding place). The dragon was curled around a koi, its fanning fins glistening in the sunlight. Each had a tear at the corner of their eye, and both were set against a backdrop of a blooming lotus.The sculpture was ancient, one could tell just from looking at it, its details worn almost smooth from the passing of many years. Still, enough was retained to show its beauty. “It’s Signi,” Poe’s voice was softened in her awe. She then brightened and turned to face Nyklo. “I bet we could sell this and make a lot of money. Then we could buy SO MUCH candy!” “Ooor,” Nyklo drawled, concerned over how many sweets Poe had consumed over the course of the festival. “We could show it to Lian. She’d like it, don’t ya think?” Maybe the festival custodian would display the statue, a long lost relic from a festival held an untold number of years ago. A testament to the ever enduring reverence of Signi. Poe puffed out her cheeks. “I guess.” “Let’s bring it to her, then.” Gathering up the statue, Nyklo began the trek back to the festival grounds, Poe swimming beside her. “I hope we get a reward for the statue. Like a big badge reading ‘Best Treasure Finders.’” Nyklo chuckled at the girl. “If not, I’ll get you something.” “Like one of those Signi shaped candies? Or more of those sweet dumplings you got me a few days ago, actually. Can we get some for your dog, too?!” She looked ahead, spotting the Hound luxuriating in the water of the cove she’d been left in, once again surrounded by adoring children. “If you really want to, sure.” “Awesome! This has been the best day ever!”

Your Highness | JJK

➳ Ship: Jungkook x Reader

➳ Genre: Fantasy AU. Prince!Jungkook x Warrior!Reader

➳ Word Count: 3.3k

➳ Rating: General Audiences (nothing mature/explicit)

➳ Summary: Your childhood best friend. The prince of your realm. One minute you were causing trouble together, the next he was... gone. But almost 100 years later, you finally see him again.

(banner made by me)

I lunged out with my wooden sword, the tip cutting through the dummy’s throat, sending its head flying. I smiled at my work, thinking about the possible praise I would get from my trainer. Someone started clapping from behind me.

“What are you doing here Jungkook?” I said, walking towards the decapitated head of the dummy and picking it up. With all my strength, I threw it across to the nearest bin.

“Well you know, escaping classes and what not,” he said. I rolled my eyes. Typical.

“You do know these will be important once you’re the emperor, right?”

“I still have ages until I have to worry about that. Besides, don’t you want to… you know, get out of here for a bit?” he asked, looking around at the old training arena, “It smells in here.”

“True that,” I said, contemplating his idea, “You know what… why not? BUT, I get shouted at for ‘being a bad influence to you’, you will not get off easily.”

“Sure,” he said, grinning mischievously.

“Now help me with tidying up.”

“That’s not fair! You made this mess!” he pouted. You stopped for a moment to admire his expression, before looking away.

“But you,” I said, dragging out the u, “want to get out of here quickly.”

He sighed, walking over towards the rest of the equipment, grabbing it, “I could always go without you, or with my hyungs, you know.”

“We both know you would never.”

[…]

As soon as the dummies had been thrown out and the area cleaned, we made our way towards the stables. Technically, Jungkook wasn’t supposed to be here, so we couldn’t just ask Hoseok for the horses like we normally would. Instead, Jungkook was going to saddle them secretly, while I went to distract Hobi.

“HEY! HOBI OPPA!” I yelled out, waving furiously at him. Jungkook had already snuck to the other side, entering the stable from the back door.

“Hey Y/N! What are you doing here?” he asked, smiling at me.

“Well, I was bored so I decided to come here.”

Walking towards a bench, I sat down, patting the spot next to me. Maybe I did feel a bit bad for lying to him, but that could be worried about later.

“Jungkook’s in class, right?” he asked.

“Yeah, his classes are getting longer and longer every day. So, what have you been doing?”

“Oh, not much, just this and that. Oh, we got a new horse, did I tell you?”

“You did? Is it a he or a she?” I asked, genuinely interested. Horses were beautiful creatures, especially the royal steeds.

“A she. Her name is Snowy and she’s beautiful! If you want, I can show you right now?”

Shit, no Hobi. I appreciate it but please don’t.

“Ugh, maybe another day? I’m sure she still has to get used to everything. Wouldn’t want to disturb her now, would we?” I said, mentally slapping myself. Couldn’t I have come up with something better? I glanced around, focusing on my peripheral vision. I couldn’t see Jungkook anywhere, so he was still inside. I sighed internally, couldn’t that boy hurry up?

“Ah no, she’s the sweetest. She gets along really well with the others, even with Flare and you know how she is.”

“Yeah. But just to be safe, you know.”

“Sure…” Hoseok narrowed his eyes at you, but you smiled.

“How did your training go?”

“The usual, Taehyung managed to land himself detention once again, and I stayed back a bit to practice after that.”

“What did he do this time?” Hoseok said, shaking his head, a smile on his lips.

I laughed, replaying the scene in my head, “Well, the usual prank. This time, it was on the assistant trainer. It was hilarious, but no one was dumb enough to laugh.”

The image of the assistant, covered from head to toe in paint, flashed in front of my mind and I bit back another laugh.

At that moment, I saw a figure waving out of the corner of my eyes. Jungkook. Mission accomplished.

“Anyway, it was nice chatting and all, but I have to get back to my grandmother now. Thank you! I’ll see whether I can stop by later?”

“Sure,” he said, as I ran off to the back of the stable, waving at him until I wasn’t in sight anymore.

“…TELL JUNGKOOK THAT HE CAN’T SKIP CLASS FOREVER!” I heard Hoseok shout after me. He must have seen me glancing at the stable doors every now and then. I grinned at his words and shook my head, yelling back “I WILL!”

A second later, I reached the edge of the forest, where Jungkook was waiting for me.

“I’m supposed to tell you, from Hobi oppa, that you can’t continue to skip class,” I said, taking the reins, which he held out towards me.

“You have to be more subtle next time. I mean, if Hobi hyung can pick up on it, then anyone could.”

“Stop complaining,” I said, playfully hitting him on the shoulder, “I’ve been doing the same thing for years, and Hobi oppa and the rest of your hyungs are the only ones who ever pick up on it. By the way, why did you take so long? What the hell were you doing in there?”

“It’s not my fault that Fire over here was trying to bite off my finger!”

“You should have let her, you know how much she likes eating human parts. It would have made her happy,” I said, giving him a smile.

“Don’t you worry about my happiness, woman?”

“Nope.”

[...]

A long ride and a few close encounters with castle guards later, the rushing sound of the waterfall could be heard. The forest was teeming with life, like it always was. Birds were chirping happily, the leaves were rustling and every now and then, I could hear the sound of animals rushing around between the bushes.

As we got closer, the water splashing was more and more obvious and the air started to feel more humid.

“Y/N, look!” Jungkook said.

I turned around to look in the direction he was pointing to find the trees clearing up, revealing the waterfall we had been looking for.

“Woah! It’s not changed at all since the last time we were here,” I said, gaping at the beautiful sight. The fog started to get thicker, but still, it was beautiful.

“What did you expect to happen, for it to suddenly turn red?”

“You never know. Maybe someday one of you magicians decide red fits the landscape more?”

We dismounted the horses, tying them to nearby trees. The closer we walked, the louder the sound of the rushing water became. At some point, it started to be close to deafening, but neither of us cared. We walked to the side of the curtain of water and over a bridge.

The water was splattering me everywhere, but I didn’t notice too much. We kept on walking and soon we had reached the opening to a few dark caves. I took a torch from the wall and held it up for Jungkook to light. Immediately, the rush of cold air greeted me, as we walked further in, but I ignored it. A few moments later, we had reached our destination.

With a flick of Jungkook’s wrist, the lights in the small cave turned on. They were glittering in every different colour, creating a rainbow effect on the walls. A heap of blankets and books were piled in the corner, just like we had last left them.

I went over to them, while Jungkook unpacked the food which we had bought in village. The delicious scent of baked goods immediately filled the cave and I sighed in content. Quickly arranging the blankets, I grabbed a croissant from the basket and sat down in the fluffy haven. Jungkook plopped down next to me and I leant my head on his shoulder as we munched the food.

“I read that earthlings do similar things. They sit on a checked blanket and eat food like we are now, but I heard they do it on meadows or in a forest instead,” he said, staring into the distance.

“That’s boring! Why don’t they find more exciting places?”

“Dunno, but I think it’s interesting that they don’t,” he said.

I laughed. This was typical Jungkook. There was a comfortable silence, as we were both lost in our own thoughts.

“Kookie, what do you think will happen in the future?”

He didn’t reply for a while, thinking it through. “I’ll become emperor… probably marry some stupid whore my father wants me to marry, and die at some point I guess and you...”

My heart stung a bit, but I already knew what he said was true. There was no way he would ever fall for me.

“…you’ll become the best Valkyrie in the realm I bet!”

“As if!”

“Well, even if you don’t, as soon as I have the power to, I’ll appoint you head of the royal guard. This way we’ll never be apart.”

My cheeks felt warm and I turned my head to look at him, to find his eyes already on me.

---

TIME SKIP

I watched the scene unfold from afar, standing in the shadows opposite the small café. There he was, wearing normal clothes and working at a normal job, smiling at and interacting with normal people. With earthlings. Yet, as much as it was weird to me, I couldn't help but be happy for him. This was what he had longed for so many years.

Before he was banished, Jungkook had always been curious about the earth. He would read about it, the way things worked or the way people behaved, and then go rant about it to me. He had told me about how he found it fascinating and that one day, he would see it with his own eyes, regardless of whether he had permission or not.

Therefore it hadn't surprised me at all when his hyungs had informed me of his banishment. That couldn't be said about the people of Yinshratha however. It was the only topic talked about for days. No one had believed it at first, because Jungkook's father, the emperor, had always made sure that he was known to be 'an exceptionally well-behaved boy'. Any time we had gotten ourselves in trouble, his involvement was always kept quiet.

As a result, it had been a great shock for most people to find that Jungkook, their prince and the successor to the throne, had been caught returning from the earth. Going there without permission was a major crime, which was punishable by death. Normally, the emperor would have just kept it quiet, resorting to giving his son house arrest instead, but unfortunately, many people had witnessed Jungkook being dragged towards the palace. There wasn't much of a choice for the emperor after that, but to banish him. I hadn't seen my best friend since.

100 years had passed now, and every day, I had missed him. I had thought multiple times of just going to earth to find him, but the last words I had said to him before his banishment prevented me from doing so, along with my responsibilities as a Valkyrie.

A year ago, the emperor had declared war to a neighbouring realm, underestimating their power completely. Half of his troops, including most of my comrades, had been killed in the last battle, leaving the emperor no choice but to look for reinforcements where ever he could find them, which meant looking for banished folk. I had already found nearly all of them, the only one left now was Jungkook.

I had always doubted whether he would return when he was called, but instead of dwelling on it too much, I had pushed it to the back of my mind instead, focusing on tracking and finding the others.

Yet, as I watched him go about his business, serving customers in a small café, these doubts resurfaced. He seemed so happy, making me wonder whether I should really bother him with the news of his old home. As soon as I had registered what I was contemplating though, I shook the thoughts out of my head and moved out of my hiding spot. It was 16:50 now and the shop would be closing soon. I had already wasted enough time.

Silently, I entered the small shop, joining the shrinking line. There were people chatting happily everywhere, most of them were holding a weird rectangular thing in their hands and moving their thumbs over it quickly. In fact, there were multiple tables where all the people who sat there didn't talk to each other at all and just stared at their rectangles instead. How weird.

I looked to the front, where Jungkook was currently serving another customer. He was as handsome as ever, with his forehead showing underneath his hair, and his charming smile. There was that feeling in my stomach again, almost as if it had never disappeared and always been there. I was getting distracted again.

The line moved again and a while later, I was at the front.

"Good afternoon miss. Welcome to our café, what would...?" he trailed off, staring at me with wide eyes, "Y/N? What are you doing here?"

I knelt down in front of the counter, "Your highness."

There was a lot I would have given not to do it, but Vakyries who didn't kneel were often punished and even though I knew that Jungkook would never do anything of the kind, there was no telling who was watching.

The people in the café looked at me weirdly, while Jungkook's eyes widened, quickly telling me that there was no need to bow. I stood up slowly, "I have been sent by his majesty, the emperor-"

"Let's not talk about this here. Come with me," he cut in quickly, before more people could overhear and question my sanity, "Sejin, can you cover for me?"

I walked behind the counter and followed him into a back room. He pressed something rectangular, causing the room to suddenly be lit. A small table, surrounded by a few sofas was placed in the middle of it and there was a fireplace on the wall before the small setup. Additional tables lined the wall. He turned towards me, leaning against one of them, and smiled cheekily, "Since when have you called me 'your highness'?"

"It is required of all Valkyries to call all members of the royal family -"

"I've told you before that even after you finish your training, that you won't have to do that. It already gets annoying enough when everyone else does it, there is no need for you to do it too."

"Yes, your highness, but it's been a while since we've last talked," I replied. My thoughts strayed once again to the day we had last seen each other and I cringed internally. Clearing my throat, I said, "His majesty, the emperor -"

"I hereby command you to drop the 'your highness' bullshit and all that formality," he said, making me sigh with relief, "Now before you go on again about-" he imitated my voice in a ridiculous manner, for which I almost hit him with my bag and stopping myself at the very last second, " 'his majesty, the emperor-' I wanted to catch up. What have you been doing? How are you doing?"

"Jungkook, I- oh shut up," I said at his smirk. Only then realising what had slipped out, I quickly covered my mouth. 'Shut up' was not something I was allowed to say to the prince.

He laughed at my gesture, shaking his head, "Seriously, you've changed. When have you ever cared about this stuff? You used to hit me with a ruler and tell me to shut up for no apparent reason all the time."

"I was a kid back then! And you definitely deserved it. Your status was really getting to you," I said, smiling feebly at the old memories of us running through the beautiful meadows and laughing. Immediately, an image of the battle flashed before me, making me drop it instantly.

"Jungkook, listen. I was sent here to inform you that your banishment has been lifted," I said, " His majesty declared war to Hanashem and unfortunately, their forces are stronger than was anticipated. He sent all of the elites in, but- but most of us didn't make it. He's afraid of losing this war, with the majority of us gone." The images of the battle scene were there again, haunting me as they had done in the past few weeks.

"He...what?" Jungkook said, his voice laced with hatred, "How could he have been so careless to send you in? And what the hell happened to the 'realm of peace'."

"Please Jungkook, I know you hate him, but the realm needs you. Your hyungs need you. I need you," I pleaded, images of my dead comrades were now flashing before my eyes, "Please. Please come back."

The next thing I knew, arms were wrapping themselves around me, enclosing me in a comforting hug. Butterflies were gathering themselves in my stomach again, but I ignored them, subconsciously leaning into the embrace, forgetting the principles which had been drilled into me completely and any will that I had had in the last few years to get over Jungkook.

"Of course I'll come," I heard him whisper as he stroked my hair softly, "It's going to be okay."

We stayed like that for a while until he spoke again, "There's something that I've been meaning to talk to you about."

He pulled away, looking me in the eye. I had an inkling of what he wanted to say. This was something I had been dreading for a while. I had kept the thought at the very back of my mind, but it was always there.

"Did you mean what you said to me in the last few moments before I was banished?"

There it was. The words I had dreaded. If I told him the truth, would it affect his behaviour around me? I knew it would because there was no way he felt the same. I was just his best friend, nothing more.

But I couldn't lie to him: he always knew when I wasn't telling the truth, not to mention, however close we had once been, I would be lying to the prince, a member of the royal family, which was something not to be done.

I hesitated, avoiding his gaze, before bringing the words out, "I did."

"Do you still feel that way?"

"It doesn't matter, I-"

"Do you?" he persisted.

I sighed heavily, "I do, but I can get over it. I -"

But I never got to finish my sentence. I felt his lips moving against mine, carefully but passionately at the same time. My heart pounded loudly in my chest and I felt my knees going weaker and weaker. Heat rose from my stomach upwards and I felt the butterflies fluttering around. Was this a dream? If it was, it was one I didn't want to wake up from.

As we pulled apart, both gasping for breath, I could only stare at him, wide-eyed.

"Did you expect me not to fall for you when you were, and still are, so perfect all the time?" he whispered.    

A/N: This was written a long time ago on wattpad. I like to think that my writing’s evolved since then, which is why I will make time to edit in sometime in the near future.

Fic: CLEAR

Genre: Fluff, slice of life, this has barely a plot

Pairing: implied Shikajin

Lenght: 2,2k

Inojin notices Shikadai behaves oddly. Something is not right and Inojin is determined to find out what it is, and help him when needed.

Alternatively: This is a brainworm that has lived in my head since April 2020. You’re welcome. 

Please read down below and keep reading! 🖤

 CLEAR

They were sitting out in the meadow bordering to the Nara Forest, just talking about this and that, passing time, like they liked to do, just the two of them.

It was a beautiful day in Konoha and Inojin enjoyed this afternoon immensely. He finished the juice they had with them, swallowing the final drop of liquid, as some guests peeked out of the edge of the forest a bit away from them.

Two deer.

Inojin liked the deer. Not the same extent the Naras did, but he found them beautiful to look at. That was why he became so excited when he saw the brown animals sniffing the fresh spring air out in the open.

“Look!” Inojin whispered, looking at the deer. He didn’t dare pointing at them, in case his movement would spook them.

Shikadai looked up and stared. Just stared. He didn’t say anything, just let his gaze wander along the line of trees. Inojin looked at him, waiting for a response.

It didn’t come.

Shikadai’s wrinkle between his eyebrows let Inojin know he was confused.

“The deer,” Inojin said and pointed at them. “Over there. By the big tree.”

Shikadai stared some more before breaking out in a smile.

“Aaah,” he said. “Yes. They are brave when they come out here. Normally they hide inside.” He nudged Inojin gently. “They’ve gotten so used to you, since you come here so often as well.”

He laid down flat on his back, closing his eyes. Inojin looked at him, feeling a little but concerned by the weird reaction. Shikadai’s peaceful face was however enough to calm him down. Maybe he just had been a little bit tired. Inojin followed him down on the ground and let his eyes close as well.

  The next time Inojin noticed Shikadai was behaving oddly was when they watched TV. There was a humour show going on, where the participants had signs with funny text written on them, and even the funniest jokes didn’t immediately warrant a laugh from Shikadai. The laugh came delayed, after Inojin had laughed and after the narrator read the signs out loud and Inojin found that odd.

And after that he found a lot of different moments that only served as proof to his theory. Shikadai didn’t tell hi to friends who walked the opposite direction towards before it was almost too late and both Inojin and Chocho noticed training didn’t go as well as before. This behaviour spanned on for a couple of weeks, before Inojin finally decided to confront him.

“Can you read what it says on that sign?”

They were out on a market square and Inojin had spotted a sign for a teashop a bit away from them, golden text against black metal. It seemed like the perfect text to test Shikadai.

“Which sign?” Shikadai sounded indifferent.

“The teashop sign,” Inojin said. He followed carefully how Shikadai’s eyes darted across all the signs along the streets. He didn’t seem to find the sign. “Black and gold,” Inojin helped even more.

“I don’t know,” Shikadai finally muttered. “I can’t see the sign you’re referring to.”

Inojin grabbed Shikadai’s arm and gently dragged him with him.

“Tell me when you see it,” he said, and they walked closer and closer to the sign. Inojin waited with anticipation for the moment when Shikadai would see the golden text.

“There,” Shikadai said when they were close to the sign. “Golden Leaf – Tea Shop.”

“Yes,” Inojin said. He took a deep breath before opening his mouth. “You know, I saw this text from where we were standing at first. It was sharp and clear from the very start.”

Shikadai was quiet for a while and Inojin gave him all the room to puzzle through the reality.

“It’s not normal to not see it sharply before at this length from it,” Inojin continued softly. “You don’t see things well far away, isn’t that right?”

Shikadai stared up at the sign, clearly irritated at it.

“I guess,” he finally muttered. He sounded angry. Defeated. He turned around to walk back to where they had walked from.

“It’s easily fixed,” Inojin said, trying to level down the situation. He followed Shikadai, who had his eyes steadily fixed on something invisible in front of him. “Hey. Talk to me.”

“This is just so troublesome,” Shikadai muttered.

“But easily fixed,” Inojin continued, on purposely sounding light-hearted. Shikadai shrugged. “Are you embarrassed?”

“Dunno,” Shikadai said.

“You seem like it,” Inojin said. “It’s fine. It is nothing weird to wear glasses. Sarada does it.”

“Sarada has worn them since she was like three years old,” Shikadai retorted, as if that was the only allowed age to have decreased eyesight if one was younger than fifty.

“And it doesn’t matter,” Inojin continued. “What matters is that you don’t seem to see things like deer in your own forest. That we have managed missions so far is a miracle. What if you get hurt because you didn’t see something approaching you, or someone in camo clothing? And what if your eyesight continues worsen? What then?”

Shikadai pressed his hands down his pockets, annoyed, but he knew Inojin was right. He didn’t see faces of people standing further away from him. Animals disappeared for him among the green and brown of forests, the colours blurring together. He couldn’t always read texts in the tv if he didn’t sit closer than the sofa.

He could work around his weakness, and it had worked thus far, but it only worked so far and so long. Soon he’d begin to suffer from not seeing. The worst part was the colours blurring together. Roots in the ground weren’t as visible anymore and he had tripped a few times.

“I’ll talk to my parents,” Shikadai finally said.

“Good,” Inojin said.

   Shikadai stared out of the window while eating dinner with his parents. He saw a big lump of green from the trees, individual leaves not existing for him, only a big green cloud with blurred edges. He stared at the blurry edge, feeling angry, because why wouldn’t his eyes make them sharp again like they once had been?

“Dad,” he finally said, accepting defeat. “I don’t think I see that well anymore.”

Both Shikamaru and Temari looked up.

“What do you mean?” Temari asked.

“I can’t… see things far away,” Shikadai said. “Like the leaves outside.” Both his parents looked out of the window at the leaves in question. “They’re all blurry. I can’t see deer in our forest. I can’t read signs if they’re not close to me.”

For some reason he had expected them to be disappointed. Disappointed in him and his body for not following the perfect shinobi mould. Instead, they offered empathic glances.

“How long have you noticed this going on?” Shikamaru asked gently.

“I don’t know,” Shikadai said. “It’s not like you notice when it happens. Probably for months. All of a sudden it hits you that you can’t see. And I’ve tried to work around it, tried to ignore it and make up alternative ways of working where sharp eyesight isn’t necessary so no one would know. I thought I could defeat it on my own, you know. But I don’t think I can anymore.”

To his surprise, Shikamaru just shook his head fondly and chuckled.

“Awfully stubborn as usual,” he said. “You should have told us as soon as you noticed something was up. It’s okay, Shikadai. Let’s appoint a time for you to an eye doctor and get it checked.”

Shikadai sighed, not knowing how to feel. Partly relieved that he would get to see well again, but also annoyed at having failed making this on his own.

He was a stubborn boy, but one that finally accepted his little weakness.

    “I want to come with you to choose your glasses!” Inojin pouted in the phone when Shikadai called him after the visit to the optician.

“No, I want to choose myself without your input,” Shikadai replied, voice filled with warmth, as he sipped a bit of the milkshake he had bought himself as a reward after the weird experience of having someone shining bright lights in his eyes and having him look at letters, red and green, dots and stripes through prisms and glasses. “I’ll go back to choose frames soon after my milkshake.”

“Choose something colourful!”

“Never,” Shikadai smiled to his phone, sipping some more. “You have to wait until your eyes suck as well.”

“What if mine never sucks?” Inojin teased.

“Hah ha,” Shikadai said dryly. “My milkshake is empty now. I’ll go back and choose some frames for me. They’ll come in a couple of weeks, whichever I choose.”

“You’re going to be so cute,” Inojin said and Shikadai blushed a bit.

“Bye,” he said and his voice sounded like a sunny smile.

   The couple of weeks rushed by. Shikadai lived in the world he was used to and that had become his normal, with leaves not visible and faces he couldn’t recognise. It was what he was used to, and he was a bit nervous as he walked into the opticians’ shop to fetch his glasses. Now something was going to change, he wasn’t going to have to squint all the time or accept some information was inaccessible for him.

And something was going to change about his appearance as well. He didn’t care about that part too much and was more concerned about other hassle that came with glasses.

His first thought when he got the glasses on was disappointment when he became hyper-focused on the black frames around his eyes. So, I am going to look at this all the time, huh? He even expressed his concerns and the optician promised him he’d get used to it and he’d forget they’re there. He’d even forget to feel them on his nose and around his ears. She warned him he could be dizzy or feel nauseous, but he just had to get used to see again without straining his eyes. Seemed fair.

Everything seemed okay and Shikadai walked out of the store, only to stop and just stare.

Everything was so clear. Edges were so sharp he wasn’t even able to comprehend this was normal and this was what the world looked like with a clear eyesight, something he now realised he hadn’t had for months. The depth of his surrounding felt different as well and he walked as in a daze, just staring around him through clear glass with the right adjustments and strength.

He had learned how to recognise Inojin even with the weakened sight of him – it was hard to miss the whirlwind with blond hair and most often purple clothes, but now he could look at Inojin’s features without standing close to him.

Shikadai could see Inojin’s face and despite him feeling like walking on clouds thanks to his depth perception feeling off when he just had everything corrected, he walked faster up to him. His own face cracked up in a smile.

“Hi, handsome,” Inojin said when he was closer. “Oh, they look really good!”

Shikadai put his hand instinctively up and touched the temple pieces. It still felt very new and odd.

“Hehe, thanks,” he said. “Do I look smarter now?”

“You look gorgeous as always,” Inojin said. “Milkshakes?”

“Yeah,” Shikadai said, still feeling the glasses on the side of his face.

He spent the day marvelling at the world around him. Feeling shocked at the brightness, the everything he hadn’t known he was missing out on. The milkshake tasted extra good, despite his head feeling weird from the new perception of his surroundings. It helped also that Inojin smiled to him in that terribly sweet way all the time.

   Two deer were peacefully munching on the grass and Shikadai was sitting on the other side of the river. He observed them while aimlessly touching his face, feeling what would become his new normal and every day. He could see them sharply, every thine on their antlers clear as they’ve never been before-

His parents had taken a look at him and nodded affirmatively when he had come home with the added aid to his face, but they had not drawn any attention to it. Shikadai was grateful for it. This was nothing spectacular after all, just a new look on him and nothing more. When he had gotten used to the glasses, and he took them off before bed or a shower, he couldn’t understand he had once been satisfied with blur around him.

“How many deer do you see?” Inojin asked.

“Three,” Shikadai snorted back at him.

“Good,” Inojin said. “Was just gonna check if you’re eyes work.”

“I hate you,” Shikadai jokingly said and affectionally pushed Inojin.

“Have I told you how good you look in those?” Inojin asked, through a little laugh.

“I don’t need to look good; I need to see!” Shikadai replied, knowing well that Inojin had been staring at him nonstop since a few weeks back when he received his spectacles the first time.

“Sure thing you do, sure thing,” Inojin said and leaned against Shikadai, lacing their fingers together as the deer peacefully kept munching on.

 The End

There's a Silver Lining Through the Dark Clouds Shining pt 2

Apparently I wrote this nearly a year ago and completely forgot to post it. Or at the very least I can't find Part 2 anywhere on my Tumblr from March 2022 on. Part 1 here. If I posted this already, well, it's getting reposted. :)

Severus stared around the room wildly, heart hammering in his chest. He didn't…he had to be at Hogwarts, but no one looked right. The blond boy could only be a Malfoy and he'd know that thatch of messy dark hair anywhere, but they weren't right.

"Er, professor, do you remember anything?" The boy with the Potter hair asked, shoving broken glasses up his nose.

Green eyes. He knew those eyes. Those eyes and that hair together…

"Fuck sake, tell me she didn't!" He demanded.

"Who didn't, sir?" The boy fidgeted.

"Tell me Lily didn't marry that Potter berk!" He demanded.

The boy choked and the group behind him sucked in a breath as one, eyes wide. They seemed inclined to just watch, though.

"Bloody fucking hell, she did." No matter what Lils said, he could pick up on some cues. And that one was an anvil.

"Er. Yeah. I…um…I'm Harry Potter." Well that decided it. Lily Evans had the worst taste in men.

"For your granddad." Severus murmured before he could help himself.

"Really?" The boy…Harry looked delighted. "I didn't know."

Oh, he wasn't touching that. If this child of theirs didn't know his grandparents…no…best not consider it. He cursed his ability to make connections so quickly.

"And…you called me professor." A quick subject change seemed the right way to go.

"You…well, you're usually a lot…older. There was an accident." Harry explained. "Er…I'm not sure what happened, really. We've sent for Madame Pomfrey."

He wasn't sure what to think. The blond boy could only be Lucius' child…with the Black eyes. Cissa? And the freckled specimen was likely a Weasley. You always knew a Weasley. And the Parkinson nose. Crabbe and Goyle looked about as one expected.

But no child of Sirius Black or Remus Lupin or Peter Pettigrew seemed to stand among them. No MacKinnon or Meadowes or Rosier or Lestrange seemed to be present. Features he ought to have recognized were nowhere to be seen.

"What happened?" He asked, finally. "What happened here?"

Harry looked back at the crowd behind him. He seemed to be communicating with a girl with the most extraordinary hair Severus had ever seen and the Weasley spawn. He turned back.

"War." He answered simply.

Severus swallowed hard. "So it happened, then."

"Yeah." Harry shrugged.

They fell to awkward silence. Severus' mind whirled, trying to assimilate new information.

"What year is it?" He asked.

"Nineteen ninety-two." Harry told him. "It's only just October. We're the second year Gryffindor/Slytherin Potions class."

"Which I'm meant to be teaching?" It came out more question than statement.

"Which you're meant to be teaching." Harry confirmed. He bit his lip. "Dunno what we're going to do for Potions now."

"Obviously, Potter, we'll have a new professor." The blond probably Malfoy drawled from behind Harry but didn't move. He'd found a seat and lounged in it.

"No one's asked you, Malfoy." Harry answered in the tone of someone who'd spent a great deal of time with a Malfoy.

Most of Lucius' dormmates sounded like that at least once a week. Generally it regarded haircare.

Slytherin would never forget the night Lucius Malfoy found a single split end. Pity that the child hadn't inherited Cissa's nice manners or way with people.

"Well you clearly haven't any idea of how anything works. Only to be expected, honestly, given your…parentage."

The bushy-haired girl grabbed a handful of the Weasley spawn's robes and hauled him back while Harry looked at the ceiling and seemed to count. Severus thought that this particular version of Malfoy could use a pasting, to be honest. Lucius at least had…charm…of a kind, anyway.

"Malfoy, no one's asked your opinion or needs to hear it." Harry gritted out.

Just then, the door opened and Madame Pomfrey bustled in.

"By the Cauldron." She breathed. "Professor Snape, what happened?"

Madame Pomfrey moved into the room, easily stepping around the mess on the floor. She cast a quick containment charm around Neville's cauldron on her way.

"I was told it was an accident." Severus answered. "I don't remember much beyond waking up with a lot of people I've never met."

Madame Pomfrey breathed in sharply.

"Well, why don't we go up to the Hospital Wing? We may need some help with this. All of you, please go to the Great Hall. I'll inform the Headmaster." She waited while students gathered what they could of their things.

"I could…" Harry started.

"Please go up to the Hall with everyone else, Mr. Potter." Madame Pomfrey interrupted firmly. "We'll either return your professor to you or…well…I'm sure we can come up with a solution."

"Yes, Madame Pomfrey." Harry answered dutifully and filed out with the rest of the students.

"Now, we'll get you sorted out." She smiled down at Severus.

An actual familiar face left him so relieved that he smiled back.

76. it’s my birthday and you just fucking ruined my party and I don’t even know you

Danbrey, sfw or nsfw, please!

Here you go! I went SFW on this one

“Wow, dude, this is so fancy.” Jake takes in the dining room of Yosemite Lodge, “look, napkins!”

“Jake, we have cloth napkins back home.” Dani smiles fondly; while she’s more interested in the location and the decor, she agrees with her brothers overall enthusiasm.

The rest of Amnesty Lodge, where Dani lives and works, pooled their resources to surprise her with a weekend trip to Yosemite for her twenty-fifth birthday. She would have been happy camping, but they even went to the trouble of booking rooms in the main lodge and scheduling her a birthday dinner in the restaurant that looks out onto the valley.

Mama whistles at the menu from her seat at the head of the table, “damn, this is a good lookin dinner.”

Dani picks up the single sheet of paper, the silver writing informing her the meal with consist of a summer salad, shrimp scampie, and a strawberry rhubarb tart for dessert. When she glances across the table, Barclay is smiling down into his water glass.

“Oh my god, did you request a specific menu just for me?”

Her friend nods, blushing a little, “Head chef is an old friend from my line cook days.”

“Aw, you guys.” She sips the fancy cider Barclay ordered for the table, “you didn’t have to do all this.”

“You ain’t had a real party in years; seemed time to fix that.” Mama’s about to say something else when the fire alarm blares through the room and a server asks that everyone please exit through the side doors into the courtyard.

“Probably just a false alarm.” Barclay leans against a decorative rock.

“Uh, dudes? I smell smoke.”

Dani cranes her neck, tracks the path of the curling smoke through the lights from the windows to the main meeting room on the bottom floor of the hotel. A woman about her age, dressed entirely in red and black with, “The Lady Flame” emblazoned on her sparkly jacket, is talking and gesturing rapidly with disgruntled staff.

Two minutes later, the same woman steps onto the lawn with a sheepish smile.

“Hi everyone! It’s safe to go back in now. I, um, there was a tiny accident with some flashpaper. I think. Anyway, point is, I’m super sorry and there’s no more fire so please come enjoy my show. Oh, but, um, we have to move to the dining room due to some, um, ash.”

Just as she says this, one of the servers whispers in Barclays ear.

“Fuck. Sorry gang, sounds like we gotta postpone until tomorrow; whatever party booked ms fireball over there is gonna take up the whole restaurant.”

Dani sighs, resigning herself to a night of vending machine dinner as they head back inside. Then a hand settles on her arm and she’s locking eyes with the person who just ruined her evening.

“Hey, I always ask the cutest girl in the audience to be my assistant for the next bit. Do you want to-”

She pulls her arm away, “Yeah, hard pass, I’m not in whatever group decided to book you. I’m the person who’s birthday is getting turfed for your party.”

The magician cringes, “EEsh, I’m so sorry, I’ll, um, I’ll just.” She steps back, eyes glued to her black boots. As Dani continues into the lodge, she swears she hears the same voice go, “aw beans.”

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

The spring sunshine feels perfect, the breeze is gentle, and there are literal bluebirds calling around her. Dani feels like a dang disney princess as she naps on a rock near one of the meadows.

Something--a chipmunk, she assumes--munches the grass below her.

“Dr Harris Bonkers, no! This is a national park and I’m not letting my only son go to jail for vandalism.”

Dani rolls onto her side in time to see the magician from last night scooping a massive, orange rabbit from the ground. When she straightens enough to notice she’s not alone, the woman freezes.

“Um. Hi. Again.”

“Hi.” Not feeling like rehashing last night, she studies the rabbit, “should he really be running around out here?”

“Not even remotely. He was supposed to stay in my room, but he gnawed his way out of his carrier, hopped onto the windowsill, and decided to bounce when he saw all the plants out here.” She cautiously sits on the edge of the rock, rabbit in her lap, “I really am sorry about last night. I never used to have problems during my shows, but lately it’s like my flashpaper has a freaking mind of its own. I was kinda hoping it wouldn’t screw with anybody’s plans but mine.”

“It’s fine.” Dani shrugs, “we’re just going to do a dinner re-do tonight.”

The woman bites a matte black lip, “Could I, um, make it up to you?”

“How?”

“Well, it’s your birthday, right? You’re supposed to spend your birthday doing things you like, so I could, like, keep you company while you do them?”

It would be nice to have a hiking buddy. Mama is taking a well-deserved nap, Barclay is off for a swim, and Jake found some rock climbers to hang with. And while the Lady Flame looked good last night, today she’s downright gorgeous. The dyed-red streaks in her curly, black hair, the freckles, black shorts that make her butt look incredible, all of it adds up to someone Dani wouldn’t mind spending the day with.

“Do you have shoes you can hike in?”

She kicks up one leg, showing off her Doc Martens, “I once walked five miles in these with no problems.”

“Great. Let’s get the doctor” she rubs the rabbit’s ears, “somewhere safe and get on the trail.”

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

The hike’s only three and a half miles, but it’s taking them a long time to complete it. Not because they’re slow, but because Aubrey (as the Lady Flame calls herself) keeps stopping to look at or point out any interesting thing that catches her eye. It’s adorable.

Dani likes when she points out plants, because then she can show off a little.

“Dang, you really know your plants.” Aubrey stoops to take a picture of some Scarlet Monkeyflower.

“I run the teaching garden out back of the Lodge. Uh, Amnesty Lodge, where I live, not this one.”

“Coooool. I keep thinking about making Dr. Harris Boners a little garden when I finally find a place to stay put for awhile, but everything is always about how to keep bunnies out of your garden.”

“I mean, they can really trash it if you’re not careful.”

“I believe it, Dr. Harris Bonkers can take out a whole patch of rug in, like, ten minutes.”

“Herbs would probably be okay, clover too. I guess it depends on how much space you have.”

“Probably not much” Aubrey holds out a hand to help her across a creek, “traveling magicians don’t make much.”

Their talk turns to Aubrey’s life on the road, and her various misadventures trying to transport a fifteen pound rabbit on public transit. When they reach the waterfall that marks the trails end, they slip off their shoes and socks to dip their feet in the nearby pond, shoulders touching as they compare notes on growing up in sometimes stressful family situations.

It’s well after lunchtime when they get back, so they sit in the meadow and split a bag of chips, shooing away several overly ambitious squirrels. Mama joins them for a bit, and Dani smiles when she notices how quickly the older woman takes to Aubrey. Mama can never turn down a stray.

Dani’s already scheming for how to spend the last day of her vacation with Aubrey when the magician turns down her invitation to dinner. She’s a little disappointed, but Aubrey promises she’ll see her later.

Her birthday dinner redux is halfway into its second course when the lights at the front of the room brighten and the ones above her dim.

“And now, as an added, surprise treat for this evening's meal, the magnificent Lady Flame is here to dazzle you all with her astounding feats of magic!” The server at the edge of the room gives a thumbs up and Aubrey bounds into view, smile glittering brighter than her outfit.

To Dani’s delight, Aubrey is an amazing magician; her tricks are interesting, her patter is the same funny, energetic pace that their conversations were this afternoon, and her assistant is adorable. When she declares she needs a volunteer for her next trick, she’s holding her hand out to Dani before anyone else can raise theirs.

The trick turns out to be picking cards and showing them to the audience, though Dani notices Aubrey devotes as much sleight of hand to brushing their fingers together as she does to her act.

“And now, esteemed audience, I will produce a flower from my lovely assistant's hair!”

Dani smiles, then claps along with everyone else as Aubrey produces a spring of Larkspur from thin air. Literally, Dani cannot for the life of her tell where she was hiding it. Or how she was able to get what Dani said was her favorite flower on such short notice.

Aubrey finishes up her act (and doesn’t set anything on fire) to thunderous applause, and Dani spots Mama leaning over to whisper something to Barclay, who nods thoughtfully. It’s only after the magician has taken her last bow that Dani has a horrible realization; Aubrey went to all that trouble to make her birthday dinner memorable, and she didn’t get to eat any of it.

Her white sandals sink into the carpet as she carries a plate down to Aubrey’s room. When her new friend opens the door, she’s between worlds; sparkly jacket on top, red pajama pants on the bottom.

“I brought you some cake. Or, uh, I guess it’s a tart.” She holds out the plate and Aubrey takes it, cheeks going pink, “since you didn’t get the rest of the dinner.”

“Thanks” Aubrey steps back so Dani can join her in the room, “it’s chill that I didn’t get to join you all; I wanted to make up for ruining your dinner last night.”

“You already did way more than that. Aubrey, this was the nicest day I’ve had in months, and most of that is because I got to spend it with you.”

“I dunno, feel weird getting cake from a thing I crashed.” Aubrey is fidgeting with her bracelets, blushing harder every time she looks up and finds Dani still smiling at her.

“Can I give you something else instead?” Dani takes a half-step forward.

“Sure! What-” Aubrey’s words fade into a little sigh as Dani wraps her arms over her shoulders. Then her back bumps into the nightstand as Aubrey throws herself into a kiss.

“Hey” Dani teases, nibbling her ear as Aubrey holds her tighter, “you messed up my big reveal.”

“Aw dang, guess I’ll have to make it up to you.” Aubrey slips her hands down to the small of her back, “how does even more making out sound?”

Dani pulls her towards the bed, heart buzzing with warmth at the sight of her smile and the touch of her hands, “like the best birthday gift ever.”

dorlene. that's it that's the ask <3

(thank u for enabling me! <3)

the night was warm, and filled with something akin to dread. marlene hated warm nights. it reminded her of drunken anger. of her siblings, alone at home with no one but their half-empty mother for company. 

marlene took a long drag from her cigarette, holding it in her lungs before letting it out in a long cloud of smoke. she coughed, and then the cough turned into a sob, and tears were collecting in her eyes like forgotten heroes that had become stars. 

a cold hand found her shoulder. “marlene,” dorcas said gently. marlene turned to look at her. she had a thick blanket wrapped around half of her, and her hair was flatter on one side. guilt gnawed at marlene’s stomach.

“you were sleeping,” she said numbly.

dorcas nodded. “yeah, i was. you woke me up.”

marlene bit her lip before turning her head away. fresh tears pricked at her eyes. she needed to stop doing this, stop burdening others with her problems.

“i don’t mind, though,” dorcas continued gently, sitting next to her on the ledge. “i’ll always be honest with you, m. you woke me up. i could’ve chosen to shut the window and go back to bed. but you’re... my friend, and i wanted to check on you.”

“oh,” marlene sighed gratefully. oh. she had gotten everything mixed up. “what about the others?” she positioned her hand to take another drag from her cigarette.

“still asleep,” dorcas said, taking the cigarette out of marlene’s hand and taking a puff herself. marlene frowned at her playfully. dorcas laughed. “what, you didn’t want to share?”

marlene averted her eyes, her cheeks hot. “not that,” she began, “just...” how was she expected to keep a straight face when dorcas was doing that? “it’s... erm. it’s nothing.”

dorcas shrugged, looking away. “alright, then.” the silence stewed between them for a bit, the two of them sharing the cigarette until it practically burned marlene’s fingers where she held it. dorcas snuffed it out, the mark joining the countless others they had made on the stone. 

“i hate warm nights,” marlene said quietly, though it sounded loud in the silence.

dorcas looked at her carefully. “why?”

“my family.”

“oh.” 

dorcas scooched closer to marlene and placed her cold hand on marlene’s warm one. marlene sighed and rested her head on dorcas’ shoulder.

“i just... i’m confused. i want to hate him, i want to hate my mom, but i can’t stop myself from loving them. even when he does this shit over and over, and my mom just excuses it.” marlene grasped dorcas’ hand tightly. “d’y’know she’s pregnant again?” she laughed bitterly. dorcas was silent. “i should be happy, right? but it’s another mouth to feed, another year of the youngest not being the youngest anymore, another sibling to explain to that our dad didn’t actually want them, he just wanted some fucking fun on his breaks from work.” marlene wiped angry tears from her eyes. “i want to hate him so much.”

dorcas squeezed her hand gently. “it’s okay to be confused about it,” she said firmly. “you don’t owe anyone any emotions. you have to feel what you feel, alright?”

marlene looked torn for a moment before looking up at her. “you really mean that?”

dorcas’ mouth felt dry. she nodded, keeping her and marlene’s gazes locked. “yeah, i do.”

before marlene knew it she was kissing dorcas, and it was harsh and wonderful for a moment before dorcas pushed her away. 

the two teenagers stared at each other for a moment, faces flushed, before dorcas furrowed her eyebrows and asked, “what?”

marlene groaned loudly, covering her eyes with her hands. “i dunno- you were saying all these things and i just- i figured i’d kiss you.”

if dorcas were not so irrevocably in love with marlene, she would have started yelling at her. but she laughed. “merlin, marls, you can’t just kiss me if i say something nice to you.”

marlene blushed red and shook her head. there was so much she wanted to say-- how it wasn’t just that, how she was so deeply in love with dorcas meadowes; how her touch alone could help soothe her nightmares, how sharing a cigarette on a warm night meant more to her than anything else that had happened that day. 

but marlene raised an eyebrow at her, and hid it away. “you’re such a dork. you’re just sad i pulled away.”

dorcas laughed, and shoved her playfully. “you didn’t pull away! i did!”

marlene smirked. “sure, keep telling yourself that.”

dorcas shook her head. “whatever, mckinnon.”

sunkissed

A/N: the fic we never asked for but didn’t know we needed;; shirtless quidditch matches at the burrow. pond fights. high asf emotions. soaked through t-shirts clinging to wet bodies. wildflower makeout sessions. it’s fine, are y’all emotional yet? ‘cause i am. OKAY WAIT I HOPE THIS LIVES UP TO EXPECTATIONS SOMETIMES I WORRY THAT I SUCK; also i did not proofread this so forgive me

pairing: george x fem!reader

concept tag list: @dreamer821 @thoseofgreatambition @frediweasley @andromedaa-tonks @laneygthememequeen @myblissfulparadise @harrysweasleys @enjoying-fantasyland21 @samnblack @fortrapsandfordaphne

george tag list: @mintlibri @georgeweasleyx @seppys-return-to-madness @fopdoodledane @fredd-weasley @iprobablyshipit91 @darling-details @lupinsx @keoghans @helloallthethingsilove @bobduncanlover @feffffffy @the-hufflepuff-of-221b @62442-am @wtfweasleyy @obsessedwithrandomthings

When he tapped you on the shoulder, very rudely interrupting your game of exploding snap with his sister and Hermione, you groaned in frustration. You whirled around, the sight of him sending you into a frenzy. You gulped over your nervousness; why is it, you thought, that you found yourself, time and time again, attracted to someone that was off limits. An absolute no-no. Definitely not allowed to happen, according to Ginny. You’re not allowed to date any of my brothers, she’d said. You’re my best mate! But that was years ago, back at the mere age of eleven. She couldn’t possibly still feel that way now, could she? You suppressed the thought with a slight cough.

“Y/N,” he began, his air of confidence engulfing the room fully, “come join us, would you?”

You tried your best to ignore the thin line of sweat at his hairline, the water-droplets of beady sweat attaching themselves to the fabric of his shirt; clearly, you weren’t doing so well at suppressing your feelings, as adrenaline coursed through your veins like a rapid fire. Bloody hell, it was already one million degrees — you didn’t need the sight of him alone getting you all hot and bothered.

“For what?” you asked George, trying very hard to not sound as excited as you felt.

“Quidditch,” came Fred’s voice, and he appeared next to you. He ran his hands through his hair. “Perfect day for it.”

Ron and Harry appeared as well, looking positively dreadful. “The earth is on fire, mate — I’m not playing Quidditch in this weather,”

“Come on,” the twins chorused together. Fred continued, “don’t be so dramatic, Ronniekins. Besides — why not make it more interesting?”

You and Ginny peered up at the twin grinning cheekily to himself. To her older brother, Ginny inquired, “Interesting? How d’you mean?”

“Winner gets two galleons,”

Ron’s eyes widened in delight alongside Harry’s smile; Ginny immediately began tugging her long hair back into a ponytail, as Hermione went to fetch the brooms with Fred from the garden shed. Guess you were all about to play for some money.

“So,” George started, taking you by surprise, “you coming or not?”

You stood, sizing him up; he was nearly a foot taller than you, easily better at Quidditch than you’d ever be, and yet — you felt this strange surge of confidence take you over. You pushed him gently on his chest and said, “Can’t wait to kick your arse, Weasley.”

“Oooh, confident, are we?” he teased, jabbing you in the ribs as you both headed out toward the field, the hot, sticky air attacking you as soon as you’d stepped out the door. He slammed a pair of sunglasses onto his face and suddenly you weren’t feeling so confident anymore. You hated that. He just had this way about him. “We’ll see who wins in the end, darling.”

You were about to throw a rather rude suggestion his way, but you were a bit taken aback at the sight of him. You nearly choked on the air you were breathing in. Everything seemed to be moving in slow motion when he ripped his shirt off of his back, displaying his very toned torso and beater arms, and he winked at you before taking a place next to his twin, who was doing the exact same thing. Once more, George turned around and tossed his shirt in your direction; you were frozen solid, it nearly hit you, but landed gently at your feet. He laughed a bit haughtily at your flustered state before mounting his broom and soaring into the air, the piercing sun biting at his exposed skin.

“Y/N?” The sound of your name made you jump; you turned slightly to see Ginny standing there, hand on her hip, growing smirk plastered on her face. Shit. Her words from all those years ago echoed in the back of your head. You’re my best mate! Guilt engulfed you, but you hadn’t even done anything wrong. You regained your focus when she tossed the Quaffle at your head. “Ready to play, or not?”

The match had only lasted about fifteen minutes before Ron, rather dramatically, mind you, fell to the ground and lay directly in the knee-high grass, not moving, but instead moaning, “It’s too bloody hot — I’ve died — I’m dead — I’ve survived, but I’m dead,”

You were rather happy, actually. You’d missed more goals than not, and you very much wanted to blame the stupid redhead in front of you, twirling his shirt in the air like the idiot he is, but you held your tongue. It was very rude of him indeed to look the way he did and flaunt it so dramatically, especially when he knew how you felt. Of course he did. Everyone did. You wondered if Hogwarts Quidditch could rid the uniforms, because Blimey —

“Grow up,” Ginny growled at her brother. Before Ron could answer with a snarky retort, he found himself biting down on his lip, both due to the sharp blow he took to his shin, and also to prevent himself from shouting words he knew his mother would most certainly not approve of.

“Alright, I dunno about you lot,” Fred started, shaking the sweat from his hair, “but I’m about two seconds away from sticking my head under the sink. We’ll all go in pairs — us first since we’re mums favorites,” he smirked.

The unmistakable sound of Ron snorting from the meadow hung in the air. “In your dreams,” he replied, earning yet another sharp blow to his shin from George. This time, he wasn’t so careful at keeping those inappropriate words to himself. Hermione scolded him while Harry did a right awful job of holding back his laughter.

You tried desperately to ignore George’s lingering look — it didn’t help that the sun was highlighting each and every crevice of his body where the sweat had pooled; your knees buckled at the thought of pulling him into the nearby garden shed and shagging him senseless. Instead, you ignored it, “I’m not waiting for you idiots to use up all the cold water,” you told them, tying the bottom of your shirt in a knot at your waist. You met George’s gaze, and you were both baffled and elated to see him a bit taken aback at your stance; eyeing you up and down as if he was only just seeing you for the first time. And without a second thought, you pushed past them all, kicked your shoes into the grass at the water’s edge, and jumped into the very inviting looking pond just outside the Burrow.

The cool water rushed over you; you felt revitalized, as if you were breathing properly again. When you resurfaced and peered toward the group, the majority of the lot just laughed but didn’t seem to keen on swimming, so instead they left for the Burrow — you could hear Ron and Fred arguing over who was going to use the sink first, and were almost certain you could hear Ginny’s frustrated groans lingering in the air.

George was standing at the water’s edge, looking intrigued. It’s really not bloody fair, you wanted to tell him, that playing Quidditch for years has done wonders for his physique — you were both pissed off and dangerously attracted to him. You noticed the tan line from his jeans near his waist; the sun had kissed his skin perfectly. He slowly dipped his foot in and slammed his hands into his pockets; instead of diving in, though, he just watched you with dazed eyes and a lazy grin.

You bobbed back and forth in the water, still feeling the side effects of the heat. Was it the heat? Or was it —

“You going to join me?” you asked, floating on your back in the cool liquid. “Or not?”

When he only laughed, you made sure to kick enough water that it hit him square in the chest. He painted a shocked expression on his face, earning himself a laugh from you, before running a hand through his bright red hair. “Now that’s just rude.”

“It’s called, getting you back for nearly knocking me off my broom,” you told him straightforwardly, again kicking him with a bit of water, “so now we’re even.”

“No we’re not,” he replied, and he kicked off his own shoes and jumped in, completely drenching you and causing you to swallow a mouthful of pond water; you shivered a bit and managed to elbow him in the ribs underneath the water.

“Thanks a lot, you prat,”

“That’s not a very nice thing to call your favorite person,”

“What’re you on about? Last time I checked, I called him Fred,”

“That’s cruel, Y/N.”

You replied by splashing him a bit, and he did the exact same thing back.

It must’ve been hours the two of you were out there; eventually, the heat began to subside, the sun fell behind the trees, and yet there you both were, still goofing off and splashing one another like five-year-olds, ignoring Hermione’s calls from inside the house that dinner would be ready soon. But still, you couldn’t shake the feeling that something very sharp was lodged in your throat; each and every time George sent eyes your way, you felt that sharp feeling growing stronger — nothing could rid you of it.

“Hey,” he replied, wiping the water away from his eyes. “Y/N?”

Just then, a very enormous storm cloud above you both that you’d neglected to notice opened up; you were lucky you were already drenched, or you would’ve stormed the Burrow immediately. But instead you stayed where you were, dancing foolishly in your rain-soaked clothes, as George just watched you again.

Each and every time he blinked, you watched the water droplets from his eyelashes fall onto his cheekbones.

And each and every time he glanced at you, he couldn’t help but peer admiringly at your soaked-through shirt, the amused expression you had painted onto your face. When you removed your shirt completely, squeezing the excess water out, exposing your abdomen and chest, George felt his insides constrict. He tried his absolute hardest not to pounce on you.

“What?” you asked him, noticing the very rise and fall of his chest. Teasingly you asked, “not going shy on me now, are you, Georgie?”

When he inched forward, both of you stopped short at the sound of a shrill voice coming from an open window at the Burrow. “Kiss her, you idiot!”

The unmistakable sound of Ginny laughing echoed through the air; you supposed, if she was yelling at you both through her window, she could see what everyone else could — what everyone had been screaming at you for the longest time. What you’d yearned for for years. This, this exact moment, when George finally took the next step and closed the gap between you both.

His bare skin felt electrifying beneath your fingertips; clumsily you both slipped a bit, causing yourselves to fall into the water in a very un-graceful like state. It was hungry and dizzy and desperate, years in the making so there was absolutely nothing innocent about it. You tugged gently on his hair, nearly sending him backwards into the water in a flustered mess. But his hands found your body again; he gripped you tightly around your hips as you both bobbed absentmindedly in the filling pond. You ran your fingers gently over his muscles, breathing in the scent of rainwater mixed with sweat, nipping gently at his bottom lip before he hungrily moved toward your neck. Then a call for dinner came.

You hummed a bit dramatically against him. “C’mon,” you laughed begrudgingly, standing up and attempting to pull him to his feet, “your mum’s going to kill us.”

“So let her,” George replied breathlessly, pulling you back into the water. His wandering fingers made their way up your back, and he found the clasp on the back of your bra. The garden shed idea once again flooded your mind. He pressed his lips to yours again, grinned like a cheeky bastard and said, “‘m not quite finished with you yet, love.”

reblogs, feedback, comments, all are appreciated! thanks lovelies x