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buck-nialled · 4 years

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Empty Pages - R. Mendes (3)

NOTE: well if you saw my last post then you know how this chapter is going to end but if you haven't, well, get ready *cue evil laughter* also let me know if you’d like to be added to the tag list by messaging or replying to this post, thanks!

PROLOGUE // PART ONE // PART TWO

Raul was not expecting to put that much effort into the drawing, really. Half of the hard work was already done, thanks to Lily and Mrs. Basel discussing most of what the work’s finer elements were right in earshot of him. The boy thought by the time he was finished sketching out the rough design in number two pencil, going as far as to outline it in black pen exhibited enough effort. But he knew it was lacking in its message and persuasion. The anger only the red colored pencil glaring at him from the unopened box buried beneath the healing pile of past schoolwork on his desk could portray to his audience. His fingers twitched and finally, his body caved and leaped up from his bed and to his desk where he reached for the box of perfectly sharpened, untouched pencils.

He was tentative with his color choice, and even more cautious when blending the different shades and allowing movement across the piece. No weights nor frivolous purchases of ripped jeans and leather jackets would come to be quite as cathartic as scrubbing the colored lead furiously back and forth across the paper. A full two hours had passed when Raul finally conceded to his completed drawing and set the dull pencil down. His hands were cramping, and various splotches of blended wax tainted his palms and knuckles like bruises, but he felt okay with it, strangely.

“Hey, Raul do you—” Shawn’s voice made his brother’s head snap up from the drawing to look at him. “Woah, dude…that looks great.” Shawn slowly approached his brother’s work with caution, afraid to lift even a finger in fear of Raul reaching out to snap it. “And I thought you were going to cheat off of me or Pete.” He chuckles, eyes continuing to study the slogan and illustration encompassing the destruction of routine and tradition. “You came up with this yourself?”

Raul bit his lip, now becoming irritated with Shawn’s wandering eyes. “Did you need something?” The older asks, rising up from his bed so his frame could shield the paper. Shawn’s eyes grew wide and he cleared his throat.

“Yeah, I was just gonna ask if you still had that drawing stuff. You know, the stuff that mom gave you that one—” Shawn’s ask was interrupted with a sharp “oof” when Raul shoved the box of pencils against his chest.

“Anything else you need?” He quirks a brow to his brother. Shawn sets his lips into a firm line and shakes his head, before sending Raul a quick ‘thanks’ and retreating back into his own bedroom. When his bedroom door is shut once again, Raul heaves a sigh and lets his tired hands into the river of curls say on his head. The heap of gel he applied to his hair this morning made the dark locks a little less smooth than what he had imagined. Turning back to face the paper with a sigh, Shawn’s unanswered question continued ringing in his ears until he slid the paper into his folder and the folder into his backpack.

“It’s just a project. Just a project…” Raul repeated this mantra to himself that night until he fell asleep.

The following morning, Lily waltzed up to her teacher’s desk with the best smile her fatigued state could muster, propaganda in hand ready to hand in.

“Here you are, Mrs. K.”

“Oh, no sweetie. You’re going to be presenting them.” Her eyes flicked away from the digital attendance sheet on her computer screen and to the young woman. Lily notes that her eyes never even glanced over her work, meaning other students must have had the same idea of turning it in.

“Oh…everybody?” Her smile begins faltering. The teacher hums and sends a small nod, cueing Lily to walk to her desk with crushed expectations. As she sank down into the chair, the sight of a brooding form drenched in black caught her site. She tilted her head to the right, spotting Raul Mendes early and eager in his chair. Had Raul not been adorned in the shirt with burn holes near his collarbone and eight years younger, there was no doubt Lily would be on the edge of her seat beside him, drumming against the wooden desks with their no. 2 pencils in anticipation.

But Lily would say she overall felt a riveting urge in her stomach to make a beeline toward the school clinic and bluff her anxiety with a stomachache. Mrs. K completed attendance as the girl continued to gnaw on her lip.

“Alright, let’s begin!” The instructor announces, reading down the line of various names. Finally, she reached ‘M’ and beckoned Raul up to stand before the rows of desks and share his work. Normally, Raul would prefer his brothers (mostly Peter) to be in the same class as him, in order for time to be stalled even longer for any assignments the oldest might have missed the night previous. Raul, however, lacked a single complaint in his mind as he let his black sneakers steer him to stand in front of his English class with a tantalizing smirk.

“I title this piece: Breaking Tradition.” Silence followed the boy’s introduction due to the overwhelming surprise his peers felt that Raul not only completed his project within the given time limit but did so marvelously. Some lips parted in appalment--Mrs. K’s included—while others gasped. The initial silence was not long-lasting, however, and the proof lied in arbitrary whisper’s floating around the cinderblock building, all discussing Raul’s piece.

But one voice remained silent through the tirade of talk. Her jaw was too busy clenching furiously. Her teeth were grinding together to the point where they might have ground one another to dust but Lily could care less. That was her idea on his paper. That was her design she discussed with Mrs. Basel only a day prior, which was displayed gloriously on Raul Mendes’s paper. Even worse, it looked better than hers did, despite the hours she spent through the night blending and measuring and lettering every word on the damn slogan to perfection.

And the man stood to the front of the class just sat with an accomplished smile and dazzling brown eyes, as if he thought he deserved the credit. Her heart began thrumming in her chest, drowning out some of Raul’s syllables amidst his explanation which Lily was certain mimicked her presentation verbatim. Her fingers curled and twisted against her palms, the nails she would bite everyday subconsciously now digging broken crescents into her skin. Mad was one emotion Lily never found herself yearning to express—unlike Raul, who found no trouble allowing his to show a swelling bruise against Connor’s cheek—but this anger surging through her veins and rampant pulse appearing at her temples in seconds felt multiplied. The girl was furious.

As her sight of Raul began to become tainted with red, she detected Raul’s eyes in one, continuous spot. They remained on Isabella’s seat for the duration of his speech, though his target was not trying her hardest to reciprocate. From Lily’s seat, one could see the artificial light graze the girl’s profile like a brushstroke. Her jawline was slim and sharp, yet her lips portrayed a soft, childlike pout as she gazed adoringly down at her recently manicured set, coated in only the most overelaborate-named polishes, like “Harp Seal Silver Fur” or “Black Kyoto Pearl”. If it was not her nails, it was the new string of text messages her and Connor were participating in more often than class discussions if the teacher was too enthralled by the symbolism Orwell disguises so carefully, or how the human brain makes up an entire two percent of your body weight.

Unfortunately for Lily, she was also seated beside Isabella in their anatomy course, very much against her will.

“Brilliant job.” Mrs. K mutters to Raul upon him handing her his work. He returns the compliment with a taller smirk than he was holding before as if he was not staring into the woman responsible for questioning his attendance only two days prior. His eyes flickered back to Isabella and remained on her throughout his journey back into his desk seat, absorbing her from every angle, and allowing his footsteps to slow in their stride.

“Lily?” Her head snapped away from the spot Raul was just occupying, to Mrs. K, heartbeat rattling her ribcage like a xylophone out of tune.

“Huh?”

“It’s your turn…” The teacher informs.

“Oh…uh…” Her cheeks were aflame but thankful for her shoulder-length hair to curtain them as she tilted her head down to the open binder. Her work glared back at her, yearning so badly to be picked up and bragged about, but how was she to repeat the last five minutes of class in a different body and less adequate art piece, and not expect consequences. Judging by Raul’s unbridled confidence, Lily doubts he would come clean about his plagiarism. Even worse, he would not hesitate to manipulate the situation to fixate the blame on Lily, instead. It was not hard to do with the golden honey encapsulated in his irises and pair of choppers he has since been exchanging for a fine smirk. The point is that, though she had an honest reputation, so did Raul Mendes—for the most part. And who was she to allow that to possibly deteriorate within a matter of minutes over a school assignment?

It would be the mature thing to do, sure. But this was high school, and an eighteen your old Raul Mendes has made it clear that playing dirty in order to appease this newly constructed figure of his was less than bothersome.

“I guess…I-I forgot.” Lily murmurs quietly from her desk, closing her binder to remove the work from her sight. “Sorry, Mrs. K.” There was a tingling sensation against her right cheek from Raul’s speculating pair, but the feeling faded from her profile seconds after Isabella’s presence was invited to the front of the class by the instructor.

She would find a way to avenge the assignment soon. Little did her privy classmate know that Lily Mirray could play dirty when fate beckons for it. And fate’s call was Isabella standing up from her seat and strutting towards the whiteboard, skirt swishing in each step.

Raul’s fascinated stare remained on Isabella’s form throughout her entire presentation.

And so did Lily’s.

TAGLIST; @fanficshawn @lonelyreputation @shawnmendez @fan-of-many-bands

#shawn peter raul mendes #shawn mendes #shawn mendes fanfic #shawn mendes fanfiction #shawn mendes imagines #shawn mendes imagine #shawn mendes blurb #shawn mendes one shot #shawn mendes fluff #shawn mendes smut #shawn mendes angst #shawn mendes au #mendes triplet au #mendes triplets #raul mendes #peter mendes

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alizardjae · 5 years

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Alright babes, you asked for it! Agency mermaid AU it is!

This got long, so most of it’s gonna be under a read more.

Gonna use selective bolding to make this a bit easier to read.

Anyway, you’ve got your nice classic setup of merchant White traveling home by ship when a storm sends them off course and she gets separated from the rest of the group after going overboard. Black is out in the open ocean, like most of the shallower-water mermaids during a storm, and hears her struggling in the water and smells a bit of blood, so he goes to investigate.

By the time he finds her she’s half drowned and insensible, he saves her and keeps her head above water until the storm, then takes her to the edge of the lagoon his town is in, away from the other mermaids because they rarely see humans and might freak out. When she finally wakes up, they have nearly no luck communicating, as both their languages and body languages are so different. The lagoon is separated from the main body of land by high cliffs, not impossible to climb, but more trouble for most humans than it’s worth to explore safely. Anyway, once she’s feeling well enough, White picks her way up and around the cliffs to get back to her home, see what happened to the ship she was on, and let everyone know she’s not dead.

Eventually, of course, she comes back to the lagoon because she has to see if she really was rescued by a mermaid of all things, and after a few times of visiting, she runs into Black again. Over time they figure out enough of each other’s languages to communicate and slowly grow closer, though not without awkward mishaps and faux-pas’ from being so very different. Of course, this develops into a mutual crush. Black likes to bring White things that are fairly easy for him to find in the sea, pearls, coral, etc that are great for her job as a merchant, and White shows him books (which are, understandably, not much of a thing underwater) and brings neat food since you can cook and season food more easily on land.

Cheren and Bianca suspect something’s up, and follow Black at a distance (mostly at Bianca’s behest, Cheren thinks it’s rude) and that’s how they find out about the whole thing. Cheren thinks Black ought to be more cautious because humans have the reputations of fae to most monsters, while Bianca wants to know all about it after getting over the initial shock. Eventually, young noblewoman Iris, to whom Black serves as occasional guard, also finds out, and has the time of her life teasing him all about the relationship.

Meanwhile, White eventually tells her coworker and friend Elesa about the whole thing and gets teased on that end, too. Not that it’s entirely undeserved, because…

The two of them really should have been more careful and looked into the history of human-mermaid relationships, even if they can’t find a lot of concrete information, because White notices, after they’ve been in their relationship for a while, that she’s missed a couple periods. She didn’t even consider this possibility (because she and Black are stupid young adults and make unwise decisions) and is more than a little bit panicked and in denial and doesn’t visit Black for several weeks. Black, of course, doesn’t know why, and he can’t leave the water to find her, so he’s very distressed and worried.

That’s about as far as I’ve gotten for now, I’m thinking I’ll go Little Mermaid style from here and have Black try to find a way to get legs for at least enough time to find White and learn that oops, time to find out what a half-human-half-mermaid looks like. Legs probably won’t stay the whole pregnancy, so he’s also left distressed and waiting for news the whole labor. Meanwhile White’s now got rumors circulating about her mystery lover who stumbled into town with strange clothes and an accent no one has ever heard of and who disappeared soon after visiting her. Plus, White has to find a way to explain that her lover is a mermaid, because it’s almost certainly going to be apparent as soon as the kid is born.

MerBlack:

Fun notes: Due to cultural reasons, her long hair and the fact that she’s wearing clothes makes Black think that White’s nobility.

Mermaids’ frills flush with brighter colors in a sort of equivalent to a human blushing, but with a bit more control.

Black and co. are near-shore mermaids, their hunting methods are somewhat similar to eels, and they spend very little time in open waters.

The area is subtropical, and the mermaids are boldly colored, with a wide variety of colors and patterns.

Near-shore mermaids like to wear and collect shiny and colorful things, though only nobility wears anything that could produce significant drag.

The lagoon contains brackish water, due to a waterfall that feeds into it.

Other characters might be in this world in various capacities ;)

For more info on the story or on the biology and culture of the mermaids, feel free to ask me! I love worldbuilding and there’s almost certainly stuff I forgot to include in this post!

#mermaid au #agencyshipping #pokespe #trainer black #trainer white #au #read more #for the record #the name for this au among me and a couple friends #is...#monsterfucker au #for obvious reasons #oops! posted this a couple days ago #but forgot to tag it as pokespe!#sorry!

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mitsunerokuyari · 5 years

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Eyes of Light

A highlander man awaited in the lobby of the Top Mast. The man had a well kept beard with braids within and his hair was black ending also braided in a ponytail. His clothese were modest, almost appearing as a small market merchant trying to find his way. He closed his eyes and leaned back into the comfortable fabric of the couch. He heard the door open once more letting in the salty sea air of The Mist and opened his eyes to see if it was the one he was looking for. It wasn't the exact person he was searching for but he knew she was associated with him. He did a slight bow before holding out his hand, "Miss Yhoknu. I am Siggurd Kantor."

Kihta was rummaging within her satchel as she entered the lobby, searching for her keys as she bit down on an envelope tucked between her teeth. Not quite expecting any greeting from anyone other than the caretakers at the desk, Kihta stopped her rummaging and grabbed for her envelope, tucking it within her bag with a curious quirk of a dark brow. She did not recognize the man standing before her, though politely extended her hand in return in proper greeting, "H...Hello. I'm sorry, Siggurd, you say? I'm sorry, I ... I don't think I was expecting anyone!"

The man shook her hand in his strong grip and smiled politely before putting it back to his side, "I am Mitsune's father. I'm not sure if he ever spoke to you about myself but I was in the area and just wondering how my boy was doing. Before you ask how I'm his father I adopted him when he was young." He chuckled slightly if she was wondering how in fact he was the Au Ra's father.

Kihta blinked at the man. He had taken the inquiry right out of her mouth. For a few moments in passing silence, Kihta finally snapped out of her surprise, and smiled, "By the Twelve, you're Mitsune's father?" She chirped, rubbing the back of her head in her awkward state. "He never mentioned he would be expecting you. Oh gods, and I'm afraid he's out on business at the moment."

He sighed with a frown and nodded, "Well he might not mention because when he was younger I always tried my best to prepare him for the world. The poor boy has had a hard life growing up after losing his real family and the orphanage was full of children. I felt sorry for the boy as he didn't really fit in with the Hyur children so I took him in my stead. We had some troubled times but I am glad he is doing well for himself." Siggurd pulled free a small sealed evelope from his hand and held it out for her, "I need to give him this before I"m off. Please see to it that he does, miss."

"Yes, of course," she smiled politely, albeit sadly at the mention of Mitsune's past. It was a tale she knew so very little of. Accepting the envelope, Kihta frowned, "I would invite you up for some refreshments, but I'm afraid I'm in and out myself today. I do hope you will accept my most sincere apologies." The Miqo'te bowed her head towards him, "Perhaps we might be able to arrange a proper visit in the near future."

Siggurd smiled and nodded once more, "That is no issue miss. I'll have to visit you two sometime soon. I have been a little busy myself and just wanted to check in on him. You have a good evening youself, miss Yhoknu." With that he gave a bow once more and walked from the Top Mast with a wave.

Kihta turned slightly to watch the man leave, curiosity continuing to grow all the more. Once he was out the door, she turned and looked at the envelope, flipping it over in her hands a couple of times before sliding it into her bag.

It was about half an hour since Siggurd's departure from speaking with Khita. Mitsune was finally home from his assignment within Thanalan. He opened the door and smiled weakly to his love, being tired from his recent contract, "Hello, love." He started to unstrap and pull off the armor plates, letting them drop from the floor.

Kihta grinned the moment she heard the door handle move from the other room, hurrying to slip her shirt on over her damp head of hair. She had just taken a nice warm bath in her preparation to visit the Jeweled Cypress later that evening and wanted to look nice amid the long, tiring day she also had within Limsa Lominsa's market proper. Rushing to greet her lover, Kihta threw her arms around his waist and beamed, "I am so happy you've come back early! I would have said something over the link pearl, but I wanted to surprise you with something."

Mitsune beamed as she ran up to him and threw her arms around him. He held her up and kissed her before putting her back on her feet. WIth a grin in returned the curiosity, "Oh, what do you have for me?"

Moving to a nearby table where the two usually kept any important documents, mail and the like - Kihta chirped happily and plucked up the envelope Siggurd had given her earlier that day. Turning back to Mitsune, she quickly neared him once more and held it out for him, bouncing on her toes in curiosity, "Your father dropped this off for you today. He seemed quite nice!"

Mitsune's smile quickly faded into a worried frown. He let go of her and looked to her eyes. It was if some dark spirit reached up and shook him back into reality momentarily, "Did you just say Siggurd was here?" He forgot to breathe momentarily and caught his breath. He tilted his head to the side before looking out the window to see if anyone was spying on him. Mitsune grabbed the letter quickly, looking to the blood red seal and his eyes widened. He pulled open the wax and pulled out a letter and read over it in his mind.

The eyes of judgment have fallen upon you.

Kihta's smile also faded quickly, noticing Mitsune's quick change in demeanor. Worried, she briefly placed a hand on his arm and sighed, "I did. Yes. What ever is the matter?"

Mitsune's eyes widened and he started to put his armor right back on quickly, "Khita, grab everything you need. We need to leave and we need to leave now."

Kihta's eyes grew large like dinner plates, eyeballing him with a touch of fear, "Mitsune? What's going on?" She didn't move right away, waiting for an answer to the madness that started to spiral around them. "You're scaring me."

He stopped a moment and gave her the letter before staring to her eyes, "I don't know when he will be back here but he will not be alone. We need to leave now. We don't have time to get everything just get what you must!"

"So he's not your father then?" She inquired, looking around the apartment sadly. Grabbing up what she could, including her weaponry and a couple changes of clothes, Kihta shook her head and looked at the letter, "Why don't we alert Priae and the others? Surely this is something they can help us with. The eyes of judgement have fallen upon you? What does that even mean?"'

It was if Mitsune stopped putting his things together and looked over to her. He shouted to her but he was not mad at her, "They are coming for me. They are cult who hunts down any kind of dark magic users and voidsent. We need to go and we need to leave now! There is no more time!"

Grabbing a few more items, Kihta nodded quietly and frowned. Just how long would they need to disappear? Forever? She was so happy here, but knew it wouldn't be as happy as it was without Mitsune around. When she had finally gathered what she could - Kihta finished with two satchels, her bow, and two ornate chakrams she had only recently been gifted by the troupe moving through Limsa Lominsa. How would she continue with them? She was learning so well! "I'm with you, Mits. Just as I always have been and always will be," her voice was calm as she neared him. "Can we at least send word back to the others once we get to wherever we are going?"

"Then write something down quickly! We're getting on a ship and departing for Kugane. I don't think they will find us there." He calmed down only for a moment and frowned sadly to her, "We will return, Khita. I promise you."

"Let us just worry about getting out of here first. Twelve, Mits, you look like you've seen a ghost," she looked to him worriedly and sighed. "I will send post to Koh'li when we arrive at Kugane then. I trust him with getting a message to us."

Mitsune nodded to her, finishing up packing his essentials, weapons, and armor. He frowned as he held her close in his arms to take a moment to breath from all of the chaos and panic quickly racing to him. He breathed a few times before looking into her eyes, "Then lets be off."

#FFXIV RP #MAteus #crystal data center #Mitsune #Khita #Koh'li #Chimera FC mention #Dark Knight #dark stories incoming #voidsent

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lovingthesales · 4 years

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Girls & Ladies Who Inspire

Hi Guys, you know it is so inspiring to read about young girls and women being successful in areas of their life, I always find myself reading about them or watching movies & films about them.I absolutely love to see people over coming challenges and having the power to over those challenges. The era we are in guys is a powerful time for us.Ladies we are taking on the business world, the fashion world, and the world of politics with many more areas which inspires me. I hope it inspires you to, so I am going to share some of the stories and short biographies I have covered here so far at Loving The SalesI start this selection in order of my previous blog post also from past to present. We have come a long way guys and have a long way to go.Number 1 Fashion Designer Coco Chanel, female fashion liberator

Coco Chanel was supposed to have license to design clothes back when she started her label. That certainly was not going to hold her back. This are some of quotes which will give insight into why she was going to be a worldwide success. Coco Chanel Top 3 Quotes “If you were born without wings, do nothing to prevent them from growing.” –Coco Chanel “A girl should be two things: Classy and fabulous.” –Coco Chanel “In order to be irreplaceable, one must always be different.” –Coco ChanelThen Coco Chanel went on to designed and created The Little Black Dress (LBD). A must have for every women who wants to celebrate her body the way we should. One of her top design creations. Imagine a uniform for all women of taste and how correct they were, think about it there is rarely ever an event that occurs that you have been to, where the Little Black Dress doesn’t make an appearance. Comparing the Little black dress to the other famous beauty The Little Red Dress which draws eye attention through the virtues of nature. I will always side with the solid colour of Black which you know makes you feel instantly slimmer when you put it on as it hugs your skin tightly. The LBD flatters every figure, hides unwanted perspiration, stains and of course any unforeseen mishap which may occur when you wearing it out. Of course you wondering about accessories. Here is The Solutions K.I.S.S (KEEP IT SIMPLE SEXY). If your hair style will be up then add earrings, pearls for example, if your hair is down wear an imposing necklace. Done and you’ve already won. Today you may also hear The LBD referred to as a Cocktail Dress which is fine for the occasion but the original may be renamed or reimagined but class never goes out of fashion so guys take it from me, fashion may come in and go out as we say but the Little Black Dress is here to Stay. “Coco Chanel published a picture of a short, simple black dress in American Vogue. It was calf-length, straight and decorated only by a few diagonal lines. Vogue called it “Chanel’s Ford”. Like the Model T, the little black dress was simple and accessible for women of all social classes. Vogue also said that the LBD would become “a sort of uniform for all women of taste” source Wikipedia. Top Tip The Coco Chanel Movie is wonderful. Her Story, Her Fashion, The Drama of her struggles with her Love is a must watch. Enjoy it as I did.Number 2 Fashion Models Ashley Graham

Click the pic for her Instagram its worth the follow.Ashley Graham is one of the most recognized American models in the industry, gracing the covers of major fashion magazines. Ashley is a plus sized model who inspires all of us to love and embrace our different figures with her confidence and accessibility. She is an ambassador for the real beauty movement that has forced brands to reconsider their branding an marketing which I love.Movements like this has forced brands such as Nike to create a full plus size for us to enjoy and not feel slightly embarrassed about it. Daisy-May Demetre

Diversity, difference and body types in The Fashion Industry. We are absolutely loving the fact the difference is now being celebrated widely in the fashion industry. The stories of the people who are spear heading these movement are inspirational. Let me share 2 short stories with you guys.These 2 stories I have shared before I have written about them and keep find myself drawing inspiration from them. The 2 girls are on another level enjoy. Daisy-May Demetre is a little beautiful 9 year old girl from Birmingham England who walks the fashion runways of the world in her blades. Daisy is a double leg amputee model and has with such brands as Nike, River Island and famous fashion designers.This little powerhouse shows us all, no matter walk if you have the ability walk talk and proud of who you are. Daisy has is managed by this modelling agency if you would like to have her model your fashion brand Kids London Model Management Ailbhe and Izzy Keane of Izzy Wheels

Their Story “Izzy Wheels is a Dublin based brand founded by Irish sisters Ailbhe (pronounced Alva) and Izzy Keane. The idea was inspired by Izzy who was born with Spina Bifida and is paralyzed from her waist down. Izzy always saw her wheelchair as a symbol of freedom but never felt it expressed her bubbly personality. Ailbhe created Izzy Wheels as her final year college project in The National College of Art and Design (NCAD) in 2015.To have a relationship like this with your sister must be amazing, Izzy in particular inspire me to be more outgoing personally. Izzy does not use her wheelchair as a excuse to stand back she has joined the term “IF YOU CANT STAND UP, STAND OUT” power to you girl. We wish the girls continued success with their business.” The Magnitude of what these girls are inspiring In previous blog post if you have been following, you will know that that I have highlighted the fact that the fashion industry and social media can be a mean place sometimes when you are different from perceived model template.But YES, here is two young beautiful awe inspiring ladies that saying I don’t care for template or status quo. I will strut my stuff down you cat walk like I own it, Daisy-May we are loving you here at loving the sales.Then you have Izzy the girl who really does “Stand Out” The girl who really does represent what a positive attitude and some creativity can bring to the world.Note to self on this postHighlight what these girls are doing a lot more and find a way that we can help them sell their products. We will be in touch ladies haha. Number 3 Celebrity Bad Girls

Mileys Quote “They move on from one beautiful young woman to the next MOST times without consequence. They are usually referred to as legends, heartthrobs, Ladies Man etc”.I like this pic and quote because after a break of long time love Mr Hemsworth Miley is now free and single and because she has some dates she is getting called a slut which is unfair when below is her honest and insightful opinion of what a man is referred to in the same position. “Men (especially successful ones) are RARELY slut-shamed”. Like or Love Miley she is standing up for equality and we deserve it, want it and we will get it. The ME TOO Movement was only the start of it and it girls like Miley that help get it moving forward.Guys, spare a thought for young girls that actually have it beyond hard little orphan girls in Africa who live a daily nightmares we all are aware of but somewhat helpless to make a difference but again movements and people like Miley help. The Queen of Bad Girls

RiRi is known for taking people on that she does not agree with, such as refusing the half time show at the Super Bowl to show her support for another great cause Black Lives Matter. We also love the fact she’s cool with her body and knows her weight fluctuates which inspired her to create her fashion line Savage X Fenty which will someday be worth billions of dollars.And yes girls I mention money because its ok for guys to be ambitious and free so I want that for us to, so let take it from the top with Rihanna’s Business Bio below.Rihanna is a Barbadian singer, fashion designer, actress, and businesswoman, who has been recognized for embracing various musical styles and reinventing her image throughout her career. Rihanna has an estimated net worth of $600 million which is such a powerful Statement to make in this so called man’s world. She is on her way to becoming a Billionaire along with all of the above.Cheers to the freakin' weekendI drink to that, yeah yeahOh let the Jameson sink inAnd Cheers to the BAD GIRLS out there, wish I was onehttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vcc10IrsNJk Turn it Girls YEAAAAAHHHHHHHH and enjoy it in the back ground while read just as I am doing while I write haha. Style Advice as a bonus The Over-sized Shirt matched with shorts is the fabulous iconic look which come straight to mind when I think of Ri Ri this year. To me it shouts the Boss is here move over as she signed some major deals with LVMH and took the world by storm with her Lingerie Brand which included sizes for all of us lady’s. Come on guys she is a mogul we are LOVING Ri Ri forever.Ok I nearly forgot my tip for you on this is to achieve look for free.Borrow a shirt from your Boyfriend, Dad or Hubby and by borrow I mean as soon as I get makeup on it you’ll never want it back haha. Accessorize with a nice slim belt and a necklace like Ri Ri and you have a free outfit ready to roll.Girl & Ladies Who Inspire, what they have in common There are a lot of positive words that come to mind when you think of successful women but the major for me when I looked at these ladies isBelief,Belief in themselves. Easy to write the word I know this personally when you get the jitters going on stage or posing for shoot in an outfit that leaves little to the imagination but they have it in spades. Like the ladies with a little self-talk to build your inner confidence, you too can build this strength.“Yes you can do this and you will enjoy this” is mine personally. 10,000 times later it works haha.Passion Each lady Loves what they do, sometimes it is this simple. My two inspirational ladies Izzy and Daisy May both love there industry. Izzy loves creativity and design and Daisy May loves getting her hair and makeup down before she walks down the runway.Work Ethic Talent will only get you so far in live guys, if you do not work like these ladies you will fall short.Rihanna would daily have her dinner standing up as she learned her next dance retune.Ashley Graham call agent and offer to model for free, I have given you tip before guys about learning how to get a job in the fashion and beauty industry. Work for free until they see you’re worth paying.Coco Chanel done everything under the sun to get her business off the ground and even broke a bull shit law back then but she still drove forward to her goal.Of course they are many other ingredients to make a successful women but to me and the ladies in family present and past. These are the corner stones, the foundations of how women can gain their independence, freedom and shine like diamonds we are.Guys if you have any stories, movies or books of ladies who inspire you, please do share or leave in the comments below and I will get in touch and may include it in a future post.Thank you guys, I know it’s a long post but that’s the point.Finish what you start and enjoy what you do.Loving conquers all.ByButtercup RyanEditor and Blogger at Loving The Sales Read the full article

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shinneth · 5 years

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Gem Ascension Tropes (Peridot-specific: H)

Reference:

Primary Peri Post ▼ Primary General Post ▼ Full Article

Had To Be Sharp: If not the main reason why Peridot was such a Manipulative Bastard during her Homeworld Days, it was certainly what enabled her behavior more than anything else. The Peridot class is largely disrespected, unappreciated, and collectively the Butt-Monkeys of Homeworld gemkind. With very little in the way of personal rights, no hope for upward movement in their lives, and being routinely abused by higher-caste gems and their own kind (as Peridots are among the most common gems living on Homeworld), Peridot quickly gathered that she needed to focus on dominating her competition and care for no one other than herself. She would do whatever was necessary to get ahead, and eventually even opted to get her “competition” brutalized when it wasn’t necessary. This was the only way Peridot was ever commended for her efforts, and the main reason she was eventually promoted to head an interplanetary mission to Earth.

Hair-Trigger Temper: Mostly contained for the comedic moments, such as near the end of Act I’s first chapter when she can’t enter any of the Crystal Gems’ rooms… or when she snaps at Lion for being uncooperative in Chapter 3 (before immediately regretting it). She starts getting this way around Lapis in Act III before the Armor-Piercing Slap, but that’s mostly due to Peridot being in no mood to talk about her problems that Lapis can see plain as day and doesn’t hesitate to point out. Also noteworthy is the first chapter of This is Who I Am, where Peridot nearly attacks 5XF just for insulting Steven.

Hammerspace: Peridot’s most often-used post-ascension ability is to store various items (or fellow friends) into independent Pocket Dimensions that can be summoned at her discretion and dismissed just as easily.

Hyperspace Arsenal: Meaning as far as combat is concerned, Peridot can easily will a weapon into existence, store it into Hammerspace when she’s done, then summon it to use again whenever she likes.

Hates Being Alone: Especially since Lapis abandoned her in canon, Peridot really does not feel comfortable being isolated. Even when she holed herself up in the bathroom to mope, she still at least had Pumpkin (and knowing other friends were very close by at all times). So, of course, Peridot had to suffer alternating between this and being with just White Diamond for nearly a week after she was stranded on Homeworld following Act I’s conclusion.

Height Angst: Although this is probably the least of Peridot’s many problems in the GA continuity, it’s significant enough of one that’s lingered since her early canon days that it plays into her post-ascension growth spurt.

Hero Protagonist: Much of GA revolves around Peridot transitioning from Plucky Comic Relief to this.

Heroic BSoD: Happens to Peridot twice in the main GA series.

First happens towards the last quarter of Chapter 4 of Act I, when her Heroic Safe Mode can no longer hold out after Peridot completes a major objective. A culmination of the PSTD from the No-Holds-Barred Beatdown she recently suffered at the hands of 9FC (and being conscious for the latter’s brutal execution) and the suffocating levels of guilt she suffers from regaining memories of her past life (also a recent occurrence) makes Peridot fully break down, though she has enough restraint to warn Bismuth and Lapis from interfering in her need to vent (although she does this in the form of a warning shot). Despite poofing an entire workstation full of Peridots (and Yellow Pearl), the only true casualty of this instance is Peridot’s old console, which is crushed into a fine powder by the time she finally comes down from this.

Fast-forward to Chapter 8 of Act III. Peridot’s life has gotten so much worse in a variety of ways, but what truly breaks her is seeing Pumpkin’s life fade before her very eyes. Being indirectly responsible for Pumpkin’s death and acting like a hysterical Jerkass when she could have been saying goodbye to Pumpkin only intensifies the levels of Peridot’s misery, which finally becomes too much for her to keep locked in. It doesn’t help that Peridot’s never suffered loss like this before, either. This Heroic BSoD includes a Brown Note-inducing Death Wail followed by an Angst Nuke that brutally tears up an already-dying Homeworld and destroys any possible way for the Crystal Gems to escape its imminent destruction. Peridot (who Involuntarily Shapeshifts to Chartreuse Diamond) nearly kills all of her friends and herself through this and is completely out of control; the saving grace is Steven (as Pink Diamond 2.0) coming in to halt the destruction with a Cooldown Hug and heal Peridot with some intensive Epiphany Therapy.

Heroic Fatigue: It doesn’t take long for Peridot to start feeling this. It almost makes her collapse within the very first chapter. It comes and goes after that, but what helps Peridot pull through this is to think of Steven.

Heroic Safe Mode: Strongly implied Peridot invokes this after the No-Holds-Barred Beatdown from 9FC, as she’s surprisingly functional and casual right after this (as much as one high off from sedatives can be, anyway), and contrary to her usual demeanor, is quite the Guile Hero when she fools Yellow Pearl into thinking she’s going back to work, only for Peridot to drop a Logic Bomb on her entire station, which poofs everyone (including Yellow Pearl, who becomes the team’s Skeleton Key in this form). Peridot’s behavior after this highly disturbs Lapis and Bismuth, and when they try to call her out on it, Peridot threatens them with violence if they try to intervene. Once she’s finally given some time to be alone, she slips into full Heroic BSoD.

Heroic Self-Deprecation: While psyched to legitimately be the leader of the Crystal Gems and finds that she enjoys this position when being serious about it, Peridot’s fully aware that she could have been better at her job in so many ways, and is under no delusion that she’s anywhere near Garnet’s level. She openly acknowledges her flaws to her friends late in Act I, and several Video Wills in Act II have Peridot outright lambast herself for being subpar at best.

Heroic Willpower: Due in part to her Determinator nature, Peridot was able to resist White Diamond’s influence for nearly a week. White couldn’t even draw Peridot out of her own gemstone without resorting to dirty tactics. On both occasions, Peridot only ultimately lost due to being unfairly tricked.

Hidden in Plain Sight: Nobody, not even Peridot herself, was aware she was a randomly-chosen Unwitting Test Subject. Not only did her visor constantly cover her Mismatched Eyes as Peridot never had a reason to take it off, but she was also the first heterochromatic gem to emerge in thousands of years. And of all potential possibilities, no one in their right mind would believe a low-caste gem like her would ever be chosen for such a unique and exclusive experiment; history proves all past heterochromatic gems were much higher on the food chain and none were Era 2s.

Higher Understanding Through Drugs: The injuries Peridot sustains in the No-Holds-Barred Beatdown with 9FC in Chapter 4 of Act I are so severe that she literally needs to be injected with high doses of sedatives in order to move or function in any way; after all, Peridot is not only borderline-crippled from the incident, but was also sent into catatonic shock. Despite all this, Peridot is still expected to report for work soon, so the medic who cares for her gives her enough painkillers to make her functional for the duration of her shift. While very obviously high as hell as one drugged with sedatives would be, Peridot’s at least able to walk and talk with her friends… as well as remember her objective for her current mission while her other teammates forgot about that detail after that traumatic event. In order to truly perform to the best of her ability, Peridot’s Heroic Safe Mode slips in to take over, which brings back haunting shades of the Sociopath she used to be. While very unnerving and unpleasant, Peridot’s performance is arguably more proficient this way opposed to not being under the influence of any drugs. Even Peridot’s critical flaws like being a Bad Liar disappear while under the influence, which makes her able to fool Yellow Pearl to fall right into her trap. Only after achieving her objective does her drugged state start to cause legitimate problems…

Hostage MacGuffin: Peridot’s Heroic Sacrifice at the end of Act I leads to her being this through the entirety of Act II up until about a third of the way into Act III. However, she slips back into this role towards the end of Chapter 6 until the end of Chapter 7. Bear in mind that by Act III, everyone is aware Peridot is simultaneously a MacGuffin Super Person, so White Diamond is using her as more than just a bargaining chip to lure Steven back.

Hot-Blooded: Not quite as notorious as Ruby is, but it does show with Peridot on more than one occasion.

Hurting Hero: A trope that has a consistent snowball effect for Peridot the further along she goes in GA and beyond. Act I’s challenges of insecurities, the burden of responsibility, being selfless, defining how she feels about Steven, and the persisting fear of overall failure seem pretty trivial to what Peridot goes through in Act III. Then there’s issues regarding her origins, coping with a new life she didn’t want but had to take to save her friends, and especially her identity when she becomes Chartreuse Diamond. Post-GA stories don’t give Peridot a break, either; with the emotional baggage she’s accrued across GA, she’s still carrying a lot of that on her back. While she’s come to terms with most of it, her role in the new Era 3 is overwhelming, to say the least.

Hybrid Power: After ascending, Peridot has roughly the same capabilities as Chartreuse Diamond, although if she’s in her Peridot form, there will be a cap on her potential due to her inherent limitations. Even feats Peridot can pull off as Chartreuse can will often result in strain, fatigue, or pain depending on what she’s trying to conjure or invoke.

Hypocrite: She berates Lapis and Bismuth in the very first chapter of Act I for expressing desires of getting revenge against the Diamond Authority when their top priority should be to rescue their friends (while also pointing out how much of a suicide mission it is to retaliate on the Diamonds’ home turf); however, Chapter 4 shows Peridot not being much better when her plan to gain a Skeleton Key to Homeworld in the form of Yellow Pearl’s gemstone doubles as a way for Peridot to get back at her former boss for all the grief she put her through. This also extends to her more innocuous coworkers, as Peridot had no problems risking their lives poofing the entire workstation just to get Yellow Pearl’s gemstone. In her compromised mental state, she even briefly considers shattering her helpless poofed coworkers, but Lapis and Bismuth bring her out of it while not hesitating to call Peridot out on her hypocrisy.

This is revisited late in Act III, as everyone can tell something happened between Steven and Peridot while they were separated from the others in Chapter 5, which is causing Peridot to act like a major Jerkass to others while Steven stays conspicuously quiet. Lapis doesn’t hesitate to point out that Peridot has a serious problem and she’s sucking at trying to hide it. She references how Peridot forced her and Bismuth to be Locked in a Room way back in Chapter 3 of Act I to sort out their differences so that they wouldn’t become an issue during the mission. Yet Peridot refuses to face her problems and resolve them as they’re on their way to directly face White Diamond. Peridot can’t bring herself to face her issues at this time, so she can’t offer any kind of rebuttal. Instead, she opts to snap at Lapis and deride her for having skewed priorities, but of course this ends up biting her in the ass hard by Chapter 7.

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pendragonfics · 7 years

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Wednesday

Paring: Bucky Barnes/Reader

Tags: female reader, punk!Bucky Barnes, rlly I mean punk, amputee Bucky Barnes, amputation humour, dark humour, College AU, punks, alcohol, reader is a dancer, angst, cutesy, fluff, Bucky feels, POV Bucky Barnes.

Summary: Every Wednesday, without fail, there was a girl who’d run through the conjoined classrooms in E Block. She’d always have her satchel bursting at the seams, and be wearing the same thing. Black leotard with ruched shoulders, tights. Hair falling out of a scrappy bun. Worn out military boots.

Bucky Barnes got out of the military, but not after his arm decided to leave him first. Now, in university, he's trying to make something of himself, but that's all fine and well but he can't help but notice the girl who'd interrupt his advanced physics class...

Notes: Inspired by one of my favourite tumblr artists’ rendition of Punk Bucky. Shout out to @illustratedkate for being so darn talented!

Word Count: 3,035

Posting Date: 2017-05-29

Current Date: 2017-06-15

Every Wednesday, without fail, there was a girl who’d run through the conjoined classrooms in E Block. She’d always have her satchel bursting at the seams, and be wearing the same thing. Black leotard with ruched shoulders, tights. Hair falling out of a scrappy bun. Worn out military boots. The only reason Bucky noticed her was she constantly interrupting fourth period advanced physics. At first, he didn’t really see her at all, she was just another person. A human on earth, an ant to a boot. Someone he’d forget about come graduation when everyone was not magically hired to companies, and were as broke as ever, just with a diploma. But really, it was Nat who reminded him of this mystery girl, over nips at their favourite bar.

“You think you’re so cool pretending not to see _________ when she cuts through the room,” The redhead smirked into her beer, and taking a drink, drank her laughter along with the stuff Bucky wasn’t that fond of. “I can see straight through you, Barnes.”

Nat was the kind of punk who just how scary they were, and owned it. She was a litany of snark and lip piercings and tattoos over the scars of her past. Bucky had trouble picturing her as a little kid with red ponytails – he wasn’t sure if it was her harsh undercut, or the way her knuckles were always caught in a cycle of healing, and bruising. He could see her as a child who gave too much lip, and tore her pinafore, and ran off to join the army. That’s where he met her, but they’d both been kicked out before any real damage happened. Read: Nat losing her arm too. It had just been a week until return to home soil. He only wore jackets and gloves over the prosthetic, even in summer. It added to the punk aesthetic.

“Who?” He asks. The name doesn’t ring a bell, though it is a nice name.

Nat laughs again, but she doesn’t elaborate. Instead, she’s turning, and has seen someone in the bar, and calls out to them. Usually, Sam and his girls would hang out here, or even Steve in the back with his little sketch book, but when the person Nat is beckoning comes over, Bucky can’t think right.

It’s her.

“__________! Please, introduce yourself to James. He’s an idiot and doesn’t have good taste in human beings. Present company included,” Nat grins, making her snakebite rings tilt against her painted lips.

At once, _________ puts her hand out toward him. Her hand is the same size as Nat’s, but it doesn’t have a tattoo of a star, split into shards. But it’s then Bucky realises that if that’s the hand she’s given him, that means…

Nat shakes her head. “See? He can’t even call his social life shots.” She scoffs, but as she flashes ________ one of her priceless, pseudo-seductress smiles that led many a person into her bed, she also shares a weak look of acquiescence with him, as if to say oh my freaking dog I’m so sorry I forgot.

“Wait, you’re James Barnes?” She repeats the name Nat had given. “I’ve heard so much about you! I’m sort of a friend with Steve. He likes to come and watch us practice.” At this, she flags down the bartender, and after she orders something too sweet, too bubbly, and too alcoholic for the meds he’s on, adds, “He’s always chatty after practice.”

Bucky raises a brow. “Practice? Is that where you’re always running to?”

________ laughs. He’s not sure if he’s drunk already, or that it’s the nicest laugh he’s ever heard, and he’s heard a few dozen people in his life time laugh at him. She tilts her head back, her (h/l) (h/c) hair falling everywhere, but it doesn’t look messy. It looks like art.

Yep. He’s probably drunk.

“I’d have thought you’d have figured out by now,” she titters, “I’m a dancer. Bachelor’s degree.”

Bucky takes a swig of his drink, processing. It explained the leotard. Just not the fact that she was always running late. “Dancer?” He muses, but the words probably come out less than elegant. “Like West Side Story?”

Nat chuckles. “Yeah, buddy, like West Side Story.” From her grungy wallet, she whips out cash to pay for _______’s drink, and a tip for the bartender whose brow sweat Bucky can relate to on almost a spiritual level. “Alright. While you two keep chatting up, I have a booty call to attend to.” She winks at him, and ascends from the barstool like she’s an otherworldly being and not the 5”3 crimson horror.

But all the wit has left him for the night, and as ________ claims Nat’s stool, all he can think about is the assignment that needs to happen as soon as possible, and that he used to be able to sing the alphabet backwards as a kid.

“So, you know Steve?” he stammers. He sounds like a fourteen-year-old in his adult body, but the words have already left his lips, and there’s no going back. What happened to the suave as midnight, rotten-to-the-core punk Bucky the world knew him as?

She nods. “Yeah. I didn’t realise we took Professor May’s portraiture together until the seating arrangement changed, but yes. He practices form when we’re dancing.” She takes sips between sentences, acting more her age than Bucky sure is. An afterthought, she adds, “I probably should work on my project…”

Buck nods. Before he’d run off and joined the army, Steve was a budding artist, scraping pennies to go to school and try to learn more about the whole business. On some whim, the army had taken him in, and in return for his tours (where he’d not gotten his arm blown off, lucky bastard) the military paid for his education. Neat deal.

“So, how long have you known Steve?” She asks.

He stops to think, but not long enough to remember how drunk he really is, and what that does to the filter he doesn’t have. “I can’t remember. Forever? We were in the same day-care.” He blurts.

“Nat was wrong about you, James.” She considers aloud, tipping the last of her glass up. “You’re sure as hell not an idiot.”

---

As usual, it was a Wednesday, but instead of studying in class like he was supposed to, he wasn’t. Well, nobody was, their professor had texted everyone a picture of an overflowing toilet with the text beneath reading can’t teach gotta stop an impromptu swimming pool. But still, old habits die hard, and he sat in the room like always, flicking through his phone trying to find a joke he’d jotted down after dreaming out it, wanting to bring it up next time he saw Steve. His pal was always hanging out with new crowds, like the hippy Wanda, and her athlete brother, and the smartass Tony who built his first computer when Bucky was still in nappies.

But it was a Wednesday. And every Wednesday, without fail, Nat’s friend _________ would run through the conjoined classrooms in E Block, regardless if advanced physics was on or not. Upon ruminating this, he heard the door push forward, and the patter of her feet as she fled through the rooms.

Curious, and for once, not distracted by the beauty of crazy maths that took his mind off the shitty realities of life after service, and able to follow, he did. His clunky boots were as quiet as they could be, as he threaded his way behind her, tracing her footsteps toward the F Block where he knew the physically-artsy people did their things. As he entered the dance room, obeying the sign to take off all shoes with hard soles before standing on the sprung floor. But when he saw the group that congregated in the centre, his breath was taken away.

In her black leotard, and tights, ________ was at the forefront of the dance troupe, surrounded by junior students, all kitted out in the standard pearl-white outfits anyone thinks of when picturing ballerina. They all follow her lead on the bar while the professor looked on from near where he stood. Bucky wasn’t a cultured kind of guy – perhaps the most culture he got sometimes was the fact that his clothes were made overseas, and he drank orange juice from a few states over, and ate tacos occasionally – but he could say for certain that he’d never gone to see people dance. He was rubbish at dancing himself, and moved like a sardine who’d escaped the tin on the supermarket shelf when there was music to dance to, but he wasn’t an idiot. _______, and the rest of the dancers moved like air was water, and they were swans, masters of both.

“Are you another student from Melinda’s art class?” The professor has her sleek hair pulled into a fashionable bun, eyes alert, makeup simple, yet elegant. “I don’t think I can handle another one like him watching the dancers, they get distracted when there’s handsome boys about.”

Bucky feels his face heat up. “I’m – I don’t take art, I’m a computer science student. I’m – just watching ________. A friend.” He tells the professor hurriedly, and adds, “Handsome?”

She waves the word off, almost swatting it so it flies away. “Kids these days find everyone good-looking for anything. I assume you’re quite the lady-killer from the hairstyle alone,” It sounds like a joke, and Bucky laughs. “So, computer science student watching ________ dance, what really brings you here? Youth are always chasing love these days. I suppose you are too?”

His face reddens. “I – I think I like her?” It sounds like a question. He isn’t sure if it’s supposed to be a question. “I was a bit curious as what a dancer did.”

The professor frowns. “They dance, computer science student. But that’s not all. You are a book, and I am reading you.”

“I was also going to ask her if she liked to drink coffee sometime soon,” He admits. He’s not sure why, but this professor of the dancing department has some serious vibes that make him want to spill all the beans. Bucky glances to ________, watching her as she leads the dancers into the centre of the room, executing a fancy twirl he doesn’t know the name of. He frowns, and turns back to the professor, his not-prosthetic out to shake her hand, “Bucky Barnes. And you are?”

She grins. “Professor Cho. And I know that ______ is free tomorrow after class – same time as today – and likes drinking coffee a little too much.” At this, she claps her hands, and the dancers disband, and walk toward where they keep their bags, and sip water. “_______! Barnes wishes to take you to grab coffee. Tomorrow okay?” She calls out.

“Sure!” She calls out, going to her own bag. “See you then, James!”

---

Tomorrow comes faster than he can stop. It’s crazy. If he texted Nat to say he had a date, she’d freak out and call him more names than he could handle, or if Steve caught wind of the fact he was doing something other than playing around with his laptop, he’d tell Sam, and then everyone would know because Sam probably hated his guts (he wasn’t sure if that was true or not, but acting like an ass to Sam and Sam acting like one back just became the parameters of their not-quite-friendship). So, he keeps it quiet. He showers. He washes his clothes, even using the dryer on campus. He looks at the prosthesis before fitting it for the day, and contemplates that discussion. But his classes rush by like a train going through Siberia, and then boom! he’s waiting outside of F Block, one hand over his messenger bag, other in heaven, R. I. P. hand.

“Hey, stranger,” ______ greets, and guides him by his good elbow in the direction of the campus coffee shop. “Let’s get coffee.”

He nods, and starts on the process of making small talk. “I had no idea what was going on yesterday. Your professor, she’s nice.”

_______ nods. “Yeah, Helen’s great. She was the youngest professor to teach here in fifty years, and she once danced on Broadway!” She beams, and adds in a lower voice, “Sorry for Professor Cho. She overheard I was going to ask you and insisted. Like, didn’t-take-no-for-an-answer insisting. She’s nice, once you get to know her.”

He understands. “It’s all good.”

A beat passes between them, and she adds, “So, at the bar you said you knew Steve since you were practically foetus, and Nat tells me you’ve known each other for years.” Bucky has a sinking feeling that he knows what’s coming next. Even though he’s hardcore and hardly ever cries (that much anymore) and paints his eyes black for concerts, he’s dreading the next words that come from her mouth. The words, they’re practically predestined to happen.

You always been one-handed?

“So?” he prompts, tempting fate.

She shrugs. “I can never get friends to stay with me long enough like that,” she plays with the quick beside on her fingernails, and chews upon her lip. “You’re a lucky guy. I’ll kill to have a squad like that.”

He frowns. “Is that what the kids are calling their friends these days?” he jokes, knowing full well of the language. _______ barks out a laugh – the sort of laugh that if she’d been drinking, would have spouted all of it from her nostrils like a sort of whale. Bucky’s sigh inwardly takes days off his life as he wonders why he likened the girl he likes to a whale.

“We’re here,” he notes.

The coffee shop on campus is always teeming, full of those hipsters with odd tattoos that look like they’ve been downloaded from C list celebrities and onto their skin. Bucky isn’t fond of the coffee shop. He isn’t fond of coffee. But he drinks it. Everyone drinks it, even those who say they don’t. The last time he had been in had been a year ago and he’d gotten a nice croissant and donated money to the rescue dog fund by the cash register.

“Hey, I’ll order, and you stay here. Flat white cappuccino?” She asks, and adds, “Yay or nay?”

Bucky nods. “Yay. I’ll pay you back.”

Walking off, ______ shakes her head. “You can buy next date.”

His face is warm. Date.

---

His roommate had spilled energy drink over his posters when he was supposed to go out. It was a Thursday, and about three or four (or five?) months after the first date he’d had with _______, drinking mediocre coffee and walking around the campus. He was supposed to be helping with something to do with an art project, but he wasn’t sure if it was a naked model sort of gig or pasting-sequins-and-glitter-everywhere sort of gig, and he was supposed to be meeting _______ by the fountain downstairs three minutes ago.

But there was guava-smelling crap all over Jimmy Hendrix and Peaches. And the dorm door opened.

“Babe,” ______’s voice sounded pained, but as he glanced over his shoulder, he saw that she could see the tragedy of the pair of rock stars, and bent to help. Her hand brushed his, but not the one he could feel from. At this, Bucky couldn’t help it, he moved his hand away. _______ frowned. “James, what is it?”

He shakes his head, his other hand dropping the towel that too smelt of guava energy drink. “Not …. Not that hand. Please.” It was almost him pleading. If only the other goths and punks from the bar that knew him as Bucky “Take No Shit” Barnes could see him now. “I –,”

“I know you have a prosthetic,” she blurted, face reddening by the stain of blush that spread like ink upon water. “I saw Steve’s sketchbook, the drawings of your arm. He was very tipsy, and he told me about it. Sorry, I didn’t want you to know I knew from him, because he’s your best friend and all, but, it doesn’t make me feel any different about you.”

He sits there. The fear that has been chasing him for months has suddenly died and now it’s sort of empty in his head. All those intrusive thoughts – poof! Gone.

“Did he say how?” He wonders.

She shakes her head. “No, he threw up on me before he got to that.” ______ takes his hand, the one they had issued to him, and in with her other hand, takes his. Her gaze is unrelenting, static, gorgeous. Damn. He might even be in love. “Dude. Say something.”

Bucky takes a breath. “Can we raincheck the art project?” He asks.

______ nods. “Yeah. Can we cuddle for like, twenty-four hours straight?” She asks.

Bucky takes a moment to consider. “It sounds impractical, but I’m up for it,” he rises, glancing to his unmade bed, strewn with all sorts of stupid comforters, and pillows he loves. “and after, I’m paying for coffee?”

_______ beams. “And I’ll pay for new posters.”

---

It turns out that if you don’t pay attention in class, you can notice things others are blind to. Almost like seeing fairies, or little secrets you share with the world. James “Bucky” Barnes, the punk ex-military computer science student wasn’t fond of advanced physics. He was fond of sci-fi and warm patches of sunlight with chairs to soak up the morning in and someone else’s brain to relate to after all the crazy shit he’d been through.

It so turns out that if one doesn’t pay much attention in class, they can notice the girl who runs through E Block, runs through the world, and right into their brain. The person who’s naïve, but wise, punk, but loving, fantastic, and dorky…all at once.

It turns out that soulmates aren’t real. It’s just a story to help you sleep at night. But if Bucky Barnes had ten bucks on anything, he’d bet that his girl, the girl who ran right into his head and caught on hold of his heart, was his soulmate.

#bucky barnes #james bucky barnes #bucky barnes x reader #bucky x reader #bucky barnes x oc #bucky/reader #avengers #avengers x reader #marvel x reader #marvel fanfic #chaotic--lovely #pendragonfics

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artificialqueens · 7 years

Text

I Remember You Differently (Trixya) - Chapter 2 - goth

One more high school lesbian AU for the good people of this blog. It’s the end of senior year, prom season, and Trixie thought she was finally over her crush on Katya from freshman year drama class. She was wrong. Kim is over it before it even starts.

A/N: Thank you so much guys for the support. I mapped out this entire fic, epilogue included, which should make writing it easier and faster. In this installment, Trixie is roasted by family and friends alike. In the next, we’ll get started on Trixya flirting, and I’ll be introducing some Sashea into the mix soon.

Trixie is halfway through her house’s side door, when she hears someone bitching and whining.

The high-pitch whines can only belong to her younger sister. Farrah. Trixie wishes it was because the poor girl has a fever, but if anything, being sick has toned her down.

“Hey losers. I’m home.”

Farrah, swathed in a blanket like a baby, turns around in her chair. She frowns at Trixie, who’s setting her pink backpack on the couch. “Why do you even go to school? You only go for a couple hours.”

Trixie walks into the kitchen and musses up Farrah’s hair. Their oldest sister, Milk, is preparing dinner. “Farrah,” Milk starts, not looking up from chopping lettuce, “Once you’re as smart as Trixie, then you can spend two hours doing makeup for the three hours you spend at school.”

Farrah’s busy soothing out her hair, when Trixie sits next to her, she dodges Trixie’s half-hearted attempts to muss it up more. Trixie rolls her eyes. “Milk, please. You wear as much as me.”

Farrah pulls her hands out of her hair, and touches her cheeks. “My teacher told me I wear too much highlighter.”

“Oh my God,” Trixie muffles a laugh with her hand. “Farrah, everyone wears too much highlighter freshman year. Tell her to stuff it.”

Milk stops chopping lettuce and looks over at Trixie, who freezes. She knows exactly where this is going. Milk, along with the rest of the family, has been asking the same question for a month.

“How’s the prom development going, sis?”

“It’s… Going.” Her voice is squeaky. She avoids the curious look from Milk, only to fall right into Farrah’s. Fuck.

“Did a girl finally ask you out? Did you finally ask a girl out?” The excitement pours out of her so rapidly, so overwhelmingly, Trixie can’t get a single word in. “I knew you were lying about going in groups. Nobody cool would do that.”

Trixie plants a hand over her younger sister’s mouth. Sometimes, Trixie imagines Farrah never learning how to speak. Or at least whine. “Oh my God, Farrah.”

Milk leans over the counter, her eyes matching the excitement in Farrah’s. Neither of them are adopted, that’s for sure. “Wait, is Farrah actually onto something?”

Farrah wriggles out of Trixie’s grasp and pouts. “Hey!”

“That wasn’t an insult, honey,” Milk props a fist under her chin and taps Trixie’s arm with her finger. “Who is she?”

“I have a project to work on. Bye.”

……

Trixie blows on the fresh-painted nails of her left hand, and slowly sprawls across her bed. She’s careful not to mess up the pink paint, nor the pink sheets. All the while precariously balancing her phone between shoulder and cheek. She’s multi-talented.

And multi-worried.

Trixie’s over-analyzed every second of the exchange between her and Katya, and has made Kim Chi listen to all of it. Deservedly. Bailing rather than being a wing woman is a dick move. Trixie should know, she’s guilty of doing it as often as Kim.

It’s why they bicker like sisters. One of the reasons why, anyway. There’s far too many to list.

“Trixie, you’re just repeating yourself. Can I go? I have to catch up on—”

“Nobody else knows,” She hears Kim sigh. Trixie scoffs. “Who else am I going to talk to? I’d sound crazy.”

Trixie pauses, and rolls over on the bed. She lets her face sink into her pillow. “I am crazy.”

“I can’t understand you.”

“Oh, so my Kim Chi impression is improving.”

“Fuck you, Trixie.”

“Huh. Interesting, you understood that.”

Trixie smiles into her pillow and props herself up, feeling slightly better. Back and forth deadpanning with Kim always improves her mood. The contentment starts to dwindle however, the silence on the other end becoming deafening.

“Did that actually hurt—“

“I’m not the only one who knows.”

Alarms go off in Trixie’s head. Loud, blaring ones. Her heart stops for the second time today. She has about fifty questions to ask, long and detailed, yet all she can muster is a four letter word.

“What?”

“Freshman year. After first semester ended, the girls threw a party to chill you out. You were so depressed.”

“Oh… My God. Don’t tell me I—“

“You did. So drunk. You told Trannika how bad you wanted to suck Katya’s dick. You pretty much repeated the same thing to Shea, Pearl, and anyone else who was within earshot.”

Trixie’s baby pink phone, moments ago pressed so hard against Trixie’s ear the skin turned red, lies at the foot of her bed. On speaker phone. Both hands cover her face. She groans.

“Everyone knows, Trixie.”

“Yeah, uh, I got that part!”

“I told them to never say anything.”

Trixie is unable to voice any emotion she has, all of which are bad, until what Kim last said registers. She breathes in deep. Relaxes her closed eyes.

“Thank you. You’re a good person. I love you.”

“You’re welcome. There’s plenty of other things to make fun of you for.”

“You’re a fucking bitch. I hate you.”

Kim giggles. A small smile spreads, slow, across Trixie’s face. She couldn’t ask for a better best friend.

“We’ll have to get another fucking reservation somewhere else. For the second time.” Kim pauses. “Make sure Katya matches your dress.”

Trixie cringes, and crawls closer to her phone. “Slight problem.”

“What?” It’s more of a statement than a question. Trixie cringes again.

“Um, she’s Maleficent and I’m Sleeping Beauty, for a start.”

“I don’t care, Trixie. We planned this all out a month ago. You and Shea were going to match. I expect the same with your new girlfriend.”

Already the ‘girlfriend’ shit has begun. She’s dreading talking to the other girls about this.

“She’s not—”

“Oh, right. Freshman year. Your old girlfriend, then?”

“Suck a dick. I’m hanging up.”

Kim giggles again. It’s nice, Trixie thinks. Kim sounds even more stressed than Trixie, whose world crumbled, just a little bit, today. She can hear Kim shifting around in bed, clicking on her laptop. Trixie just knows she’s going to fall asleep watching anime.

She’s seen it happen enough times.

“Tomorrow you’re helping me get a new reservation. And at some point this week, you’re taking Katya out shopping.”

“Alright. Love you. Goodnight, Kim.”

“Love you too. Goodnight, Trixie.”

……

Four years of never hearing a single word about Katya, courtesy of her sisterly bond with Kim Chi, goes down the drain in one night. Post revelation phone call, Trixie’s been harassed by each and every one of her friends.

All at once, too. The girls gathered together for the last weekend before prom week. The last weekend of stress, as Trixie and Kim managed to get an updated reservation. What was supposed to be a fun two days of drinking at Fame’s house quickly turned into a roast.

William and Trannika are the worst culprits.

“Okay, but her name is Ketchup, though.”

“Trixie wants to eat her hotdog.”

William and Trannika, respectively.

“Oh my God.” Trixie leans back against the couch, pressing the cool plastic of a pink solo cup against her forehead. She, at the least, looks fabulous while her love life is being torn to shreds.

“Katya’s hot,” Trannika starts again, leaning her cheek upon Trixie’s shoulder. “I’ve seen her drink her own blood. I’m so into that.”

“Kim, I’m blaming you for this.”

“I prevented this from happening for four years.”

“Kim blue-balled us, comedically.” William offers, “But Trixie blue-balled Katya, romantically.”

“Trixie asks me for chapstick once a week,” Trannika starts, and presses a kiss onto Trixie’s shoulder. “I just didn’t realize it was for her dry pussy.” Trixie shoves her off.

“I need another drink.” Trixie pushes herself up off the couch and wanders into Fame’s kitchen. They’ve had so many parties here, she’s not sure she’d find the fridge if she was sober. Bent over, searching for another light beer, she grumbles when someone taps her shoulder.

“You good?”

Trixie pops up, nearly banging her head on the fridge shelf. She spins around, surprised it’s Shea looking concerned, rather than William trying to grab her ass.

“Totally.”

Shea frowns. “I’m serious. I’m not gonna lie, those bitches are making me laugh so hard, but if they’re actually hurting your feelings—“

“Shea, it’s fine. Really, it’s fine. I mean, yeah, I’ve had a crush on her for four years,” Trixie shrugs. “So what. I’m not obsessed. I have a life. I forget Katya exists ninety-nine percent of the time.”

She can’t find the right words to say. She just says all of them.

“It’s been like, off and on. That kind of crush. Junior year, I almost completely forgot about her. I see her every now and then. Handful of times over the course of four years. Those are the times when I think about wanting to kiss her, that’s it. You know?”

“I know.”

“There’s been other girls. It’s not like, oh, she’s the one! I mean, maybe? We’ll see. I guess, but how lame is that? If I kiss her at my high school prom and she’s the love of my life. Gross.”

Trixie can’t stop talking.

“I just think she’s cute. And nice, and funny. And so on. I’m not in love. If I was, then yeah, I’d be offended, but I’d also be a crazy woman.”

Shea’s silent for a few moments. Trixie considers stepping backwards into the open fridge, shutting the door, and never coming back out.

“You need some rest.”

Trixie sighs, looking down into her empty cup, and nods. “Yeah. I think you’re right.”

#goth #i remember you differently #trixya #high school au #lesbian au #cisgirl au #katya zamolodchikova #trixie mattel #fluff #tw alcohol #tw anxiety #rpdr fanfiction #submission

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shirewalker · 7 years

Note

tamar/nadia + 10, nikolina + 47

omg thank you gaia!!!! you’re a saint!

also, omg I’ve never written tamadia! I hope I did good or expect me to jump on the next airplane and running off the the closest irish cave.

Anyways! Both got longer than expected and both are rated T for kissies!

(I’ll also cross-post them on ao3 laterz)

send me “I found you” otp prompts

Tamadia + planning asurprise party for me

Tonight Nadia was extra… Nadia.

She wore her hair in a style that could only be favoured by mermaids. Herblonde hair was curled in perfect ringlets, each weaved with a string of ribbonor pearls or glitter. The style was finished with a beautiful braid thatcrowned her head as if she were a queen. Tamar couldn’t take her eyes off ofher.

But that wasn’t what tipped her off. Neither was the beautiful dress hergirlfriend had put on that day, blush pink and hugging her body in all theright places. No, what told Tamar that something was different today was thesecretive smile that seemed to take over a corner of Nadia’s mouth every oncein a while. As if she knew some major secret on the President of Ravka thatcould bring down the whole country in flames. The Shu-born hoped that wasn’tthe real secret she was hiding.

“So…” she started, lacing their hands together, “Why exactly are you alldressed up today?”

Startled, Nadia almost missed the key hole, “What?” she gasped before openingthe door to their building, “All dressed up?”

Tamar fought a smirk and tugged on her hand, “You’re extra pretty today.”

“Aww, thank you!” Nadia said before placing a quick peck on Tamar’s lips.For a moment, her focus wavered with the kiss and the taste of cherry lip gloss.And she almost, just almost, forgot about her curiosity. But she had beentrained to look for secrets and to never let go until she uncovered the truth.No kisses, no matter how delicious they were, could distract her for too long.

“As wonderful a kisser as you are, you can’t make me forget about myquestion.” She said, relishing in the startled blush that blossomed on her girlfriend’scheeks.

“Oh Ta, I wasn’t trying to distract you. You’re just bored, you haven’t hada big job in a few weeks and you’re already looking for plots to assassinatethe President in every corner.” Nadia’s quick remark hit the nail so perfectlythat Tamar found herself seriously doubting her suspicions for the first timein the whole day. Perhaps Nadia was right. Perhaps she had been just lookingfor secrets and mysteries and found enough material to come up with one.

“Maybe you’re right.” She finally said, the two already in the elevator.

A low, soft tune rang all around them, the elevator music just loud enoughto keep her restless mind at ease. Nadia giggled, “I AM right. Always.”

Tamar rolled her eyes and quickly brought her lips to Nadia’s, drinking inthe last remains of her girl’s laughter in earnest.

All right, she was bored. Tamarrubbed her bleary eyes and got up from her bed, Nadia’s side perfectlyarranged, while hers was… a crumpled mess. Nadia… Where the hell was sheanyway? It was half-past two in the morning and she was still in her study,which wasn’t a real study, more like a guest room with an extra desk and astuffed to the brim set of shelves. Tamar had gone to bed early, with the planto play some solo chess games on her phone and try to get her brain back tonormal. She’d been playing endlessly since then, waiting to distress, waitingfor Nadia. When it became obvious she wasn’t going to see her girlfriendanytime soon, she got up and went looking for her.

She found her in the study. Her blonde siren huddled over an old notebook,colourful notes all over the pages. Strange, Tamar had never seen thatnotebook.

“All right, are you sure it’ll work?” Nadia whispered into her hand. No,not her hand, her… phone? This was intriguing and had Tamar been in her bestself, she would have quickly discovered what was going on. But she was sleepyand in need of some action, vacations did no good to her. And so, she made amistake. She ran her pinkie toe headfirst into the doorframe.

“Tamar?!” Nadia’s eyes were rotund and enormous as she hastily closed hernotebook and ended the call. In her pain, Tamar missed where the two mysteriousitems went, her entirely focused on the throbbing pain in her toe. “What areyou doing still up?” she asked, already up and busy checking on Tamar’s hurtfoot.

Then she led her away from the room, making sure to lock the door in theprocess. Tamar hopped along, “You weren’t in bed yet,” she answered, “I waswondering what was keeping you up so late.”

She eyed her girlfriend with attention. The way Nadia bit the inside of hercheek told her she had almost caught something she shouldn’t have.

Nadia cleared her throat, “I was working on a thing. Lost track of time.Sorry, babe.”

Somehow, Tamar knew there was more to it than just a ‘thing’ but she wastired, in pain and in serious need of cuddling. She would pursue this mattertomorrow. Tonight she’d demand some cuddles and kisses.

A week had gone by and Tamar hadn’t found anything. The mystery was drivingher mad. And so were Nadia’s fantastic looks that she kept sporting every day.For some reason, she had gotten herself all dolled up every day during the pastweek, and while Tamar couldn’t and wouldn’t complain, she certainly grewcurious over the eye candy.

“Stop ogling me like that, Ta.” Nadia whispered, a smirk on her lips. Todaythey tasted of peach, as Tamar had found out earlier that morning.

She tried to, she really did. The elevator was crowded today, no one reallyneeded to be anyone’s third wheel. But Nadia was her very best today. If a weekago she had looked like a siren, tonight she looked like the queen of the sevenseas and beyond. Saints help her, Nadia would kill her one of these days andall just by looking too beautiful.

A playful smirk grew on Nadia’s lips before she pulled Tamar closer andwhispered into her ear, “If you don’t stop ogling, Mrs Taylor will startplanning our wedding in the next five minutes.” She pointed at the dark skinnedold lady standing in front of them. The woman was small and frail, her hairgone stark white years ago, but she had pure life running through her veins.And a love for love. She had also been a very successful wedding planner in herday. And nothing was more delicious for an ex wedding planner than a youngcouple in love.

Tamar nodded. She wanted to marry Nadia, sure, but not yet. And shecertainly didn’t want Mrs Taylor planning some big event. So, she sacrificedherself and locked her eyes on the elevator’s buttons.

Nadia took her sweet time with unlocking their door. And Tamar took hersweet time in feasting in the sight. Nadia smiled to herself, infinitelypleased with how well her plan was going, especially with how easy she coulddistract her girlfriend, all she had to do was to put on a beautiful outfit andbat her eyes. Finally, after pretending to fight with the keys for a good fullminute, she unlocked the door. She flashed a victorious smile at Tamar andopened the door.

The two went inside.

Darkness engulfed them and Tamar’s instincts kicked in. There were supposedto be lights on. Nadia’s fairy lights were always, always on. Why was everything in the dark? And… was it breathingshe heard from the lounge area? She took a step back, ready to protect Nadiafrom whoever had forced entry in their home when suddenly light flashed allaround her.

“SURPRISE!!!!” a crowd cheered, loud enough to make her jump on the spot.

Her eyes locked on the sight. Everyone, including Nadia, was standing inthe middle of the room, hands up, big toothy smiles on their faces. Colourfullights illuminated the whole apartment and there, on the centre table, was acake. A cake that Nadia carried to her right now, a… birthday cake.

She gaped at everyone, “What… Nadia? I told you, no party!” she said,finally able to speak. Zoya snorted somewhere in the back of the crowd.

“I told you she’d say that.” She said to Genya.

Nadia just rolled her eyes, paying attention to no one but the surprisedTamar, “I know. But you’re my girl, how could I NOT plan a party for you?” shesaid, stopping just a step away. Harshaw moved from the crows, matches in handand, with more flare than necessary, he light up the candles. At the sight ofthe burning flames, the lights were turned off and everyone started to sing,their happy and out of tune voices making Tamar smile wider than ever. When thesong was close to ending, Nadia spoke over the voices, “Make a wish, babe!”

Their eyes locked for a moment as Tamar made her wish and then, when thesong was over, she blew the candles.

Nikolina + Where I should have been looking in the first place

The nerveof him!

Alinahuffed in mild annoyance as her feet left craters on the snowed landscape.

Hide andseek?

Hide and seek?!

WhenNikolai had suggested they play a game, she had honestly expected something farmore interesting than a classic game of hide and seek. Certainly something thatinvolved more kissing and hands up her hair and less actual looking for thehazel eyed idiot all over the Little Palace grounds. It’s not that they hadkissed yet or done any feeling up at all, but for the past few weeks Alina hadcome to terms with the fact that yes, she had very well lost it over Nikolai.Of course, she didn’t want to admit it at all, but when the game suggestioncame up in their daily conversation, Alina had thought that Nikolai was finallygoing to make a move.

A wildgroan rattled her bones as her eyes searched for him. He was nowhere to beseen. And Alina had been so looking forward to being thoroughly kissed by him,while denying she had any feelings for the young king, of course. The fantasyhad played in her mind so many times by now. He’d tease her endlessly, she’droll her eyes and threaten him, he’d lean in close enough to have her resolvecrumble just a bit, she’d push him off only to have him capture her hands.Their eyes would meet and for a moment they would just look at each other. Andthen she’d do the mistake of looking at his lips and licking her own and then…Nikolai would flash that knowing smirk of his, that very smirk that drove hermad. He’d say something perfect, somethingright and then… then he’d finally kiss her. And only then would she admitit she was in love with him.

Her air gotcaught in her throat as the fantasy ended abruptly, interrupted by a thought thatsparked to life. She knew where hewas. How hadn’t she thought of it before?!

She ranthrough the thick coats of snow, through trees and doors and startled students.Her cheeks grew hot as burning coals, the chilly wind cutting through her likea well-honed knife. Her heart raced so fast she couldn’t tell where oneheartbeat ended and where the next began.

Finally, thereit was. That damned pier.

And at thevery end of it was… Nikolai.

Her stepsslowed to a silent pace and Alina placed a hand on her heart, trying to silenceits loud drumming, certain that the king could hear it with how loud it drummed.Suddenly she didn’t want to lose the game at all.

“Alina,sunshine!” He called, without so much of a glance over his shoulder and theformer Grisha wanted to scream in frustration. So much for catching him offguard. “What took you so long?” he said, and for some reason, she felt as if hewasn’t talking about her finding him.

“You’re ahard man to find, Nikolai.” She deadpanned, no longer trying to silence hersteps.

Hislaughter, pure and unrestrained, just like that of a carefree child, rang inthe cold winter air. The sound was so comforting that Alina felt it aimstraight to her heart and melt it in a blink. “Alina, love, come.” He pattedthe spot next to him. Her eyes fell on it, her mouth open and ready to complainabout the cold, when she saw that he was sitting on a thick blanket. A darkblue blanket large enough for the two of them to sit comfortably.

So, shesat. And she felt his gaze fall on her. She made sure to not look back.

“Congratulations,Alina. You won!” his voice was bubbly and light. After knowing him for so long,Alina knew this was his happy beyond limits voice. This was the voice not manypeople in the world got to hear. She felt a warm feeling spread its tendrils insideher chest knowing she had the privilege to hear it.

Stiflingdown the smile that threatened to crack her face in two, Alina kept her eyes onthe frozen lake when she answered, “And what did I win, Nikolai?”

She felthis body heat seconds before his shoulder touched hers, his breath tickling herskin before he whispered in her ear, “Whatever you wish for, sunshine.”Pretending not to be affected by his touch and his voice was an impossibletask. Goosebumps spread all over her skin, her blood turned to burning gasolineand her heart jumped straight out of her chest. If she were to look for it,Alina had an idea where it would be. Somewhere in Nikolai’s hands. How had shegotten like this? She simply had no idea. One day she was living a plain lifewith Mal, the next day things had gone south. And then she was back in Os Alta,just like that. And just like that, she and Nikolai fell back into the littleroutine they had forged so many months before. Walking from one place toanother, just the two of them, chatting about their day, joking about anything,going through crazy plans and outlandish ideas, casually flirting once in awhile. A detail that Alina might have missed if she hadn’t caught Tamar lookingat her and Nikolai with a shine that was unmistakable. She’d seen something andshe had no qualms in voicing her thoughts. Youtwo flirt like hopelessly in love teens.

Nikolaibumped her shoulder again and she realised with a startle that she’d gottenlost in daydreaming, again.

“What?” shebreathed, finally looking at him. The fire in his eyes caught her off guard,catching her breath in one handful and taking it far away from her.

“I said…Whatever you wish for. So…” his voice had grown raspier, as if he was holdingback something. She desperately wanted to know what it was. “What do you want?”he finished in a breath.

“I…” she wasforced to lick her lips, they had grown far too dry, and Nikolai’s eyesmomentarily got distracted with the movement. “Huh…” his attention went back toher eyes, and he waited. Alina readied herself, “I want to know…” she took adeep breath, this was after all… something she had been curious about for yearsnow, “That night… Here…” Nikolai froze in place and she realised he’d beenleaning in, “Why… Why did you want to kiss me?” She winced, that was not whatshe wanted to know, not exactly, “I mean… Why did you say those things?”

A sheepishsmile tugged on his lips, “I wanted to kiss you… Alina, I wanted to kiss youbecause why wouldn’t I?” she frowned, “You’re brilliant, you’re beautiful, you’refunny and you’re not afraid to say what you have to say. Plus, I’d never metanyone that got me as well as you do. You saw right through me and I never feltmore naked. And I loved it.” His smile grew so wide it had a shine of its own, “AndI wanted to kiss you,” his voice grew huskier with every word, “because youmade me feel like the sea does. Light, free, happy.” He raised a hand to tuck afew locks of white hair away from her face, his eyes followed the movement, “ButI knew the feeling wasn’t mutual, at least… not yet. I couldn’t kiss you whilefully aware your heart belonged to another.” A pause, “But I still want to kissyou.”

Where wasit… her voice… oh, right, there it was, “Oh? You do?”

“Yes.”

That wasit, he didn’t say anything else. He just… waited. For her. Alina wanted tosmack him. There she was, breathless and dizzy and unable to move, ready forthe taking, and Nikolai wanted her tomake a move. This man, this man was going to drive her mad one of these days.

“Well?” shesaid, growing impatient.

Nikolai’ssmile changed. Where it had been carefree just seconds ago, now it had aninsufferable edge to it. “Do you want me to kiss you, sunshine?” he asked andher whole body vibrated with that little nickname.

Shebreathed, “Yes, you big dolt.”

This timeNikolai wasted no time in kissing her still open lips. And Alina wasted no timein kissing him back. There were moans and chuckles and a yelp when Alinapinched him, but mostly, there was a lot of satisfaction ringing through theirbones.

#grisha fic #tamadia #bellaemyblakes #userzoyalina #nikolina #grisha #my writing #otp: I want to kiss you #otp: cut to the navel #Questions

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