ID: Dv34ebRXV8

Pink/black themed showroom!

lee jeno x reader

description. In a small town where everyone knew everyone, it didn’t come as a surprise for my little self to quickly fall in love for the boy I spent my entire childhood with. But after he left the town one night, I refused to head back there. That is until I received an envelope one day that contained a postcard that had a short note along with polaroid pictures

genre. angst, fluff, childhood friends/crush to lovers

word count. 8k~

warnings. nonee

a/n. hihiii I actually thought this idea is pretty cool. I never expected it to be this long but oH wEllS HAHA either way i hope you’ll enjoy since I really enjoyed writing this :D

“What was taking you so long to get here?” I shouted, looking down as I saw a shadow and the rustling sound of the grass, knowing who it was since no one else would be at this side of town.

“Dinner held me back.” The familiar voice rang through my ears as Jeno climbs up the ladder to the rooftop where I waited for him.

He gets comfortable next to me as he placed his hands behind him and leaned back, tilting his head up to face the night sky. We took the time in the comfortable silence to bask in the moonlight, the blank dark sky with only few starts to be seen as the cold breeze touched our skin ever so lightly.

“Don’t lie. They fought again, didn’t they?” I finally spoke up. I brought my knees close to my chest, arms wrapped around my legs as I laid my head on one knee and turned to face him. His side profile looked as good and indulging as always.

“I can never lie to you.” Jeno suspired in defeat, running a hand through his soft and fluffy hair. “I don’t even know how I got caught up in it.” He added on. I frowned and placed my hand beside his head, moving it gently to rest on my shoulder. He leaned against me as I wrapped my arm around him and rubbed the side of it.

“We’ll get out of this town eventually. In a few years time, we’re fleeing this place.” I whispered gently. My hand creeps up his hair, running my fingers through his locks.

I really wished I could stay like this with him forever; being this close to him— having him appreciate my embrace as we admired the atmosphere of the plain boring night. Though my nights were never plain when it was with him. I liked him that much, when I wouldn’t mind doing anything as long as he’s here.

“Keep your promise.” I chuckled lightly, feeling his hands wrapping around me as he snuggles up closer. I felt his breathing against my skin with his touch setting off the usual butterflies fluttering in my stomach. “You know I always do.”

However, I also knew that his touch towards me has always been intentionally platonic. It hurt my heart in a way as I could only wish it meant something more without him knowing my desire towards him.

Silence once again settled in. But it quickly came to an end when Jeno took in a deep breath, the sound of him gulping can be heard. “If I happen to flee first, I promise I’ll find you again.” He suddenly let out. I raised a brow at my friends’s questionable words.

“What do you mean?”

Jeno heaved a sigh. I thought it was a normal sigh at first, but I realised that it had an underlining meaning to it, a probably gloomy one. “Nothing in particular.” He replied in a simple directness. I could tell he didn’t want to explain. I didn’t bother pushing it further. But I still wondered what he meant by that.

And that’s how I spent my nights with the boy I liked— hanging out at the rooftop of an abandoned house till late at night. Sometimes we’d stay there till morning if one of us decided not to go home.

I’d fall deeper for Jeno with every night passing by. I would talk about my late night thoughts and feelings. He’ll listen throughout, regardless of how weird or boring it got. And I did the same for him. I was never not entertained by him. His voice, the little actions he does while he talked, his indulging features. I liked him so much.

We were just reckless teenagers. Free to do whatever while we’re stuck in a tiny town with only each other to entertain and be entertained by. We depended on each other for everything; we only had each other. My relationship with Jeno was nothing but perfect in the most simple and boring way possible. And that’s what I liked most.

That is until one day, he left town without a word of notice. No signs, no announcement— nothing. He didn’t text me at all either, no matter how many times I spammed him with texts and missed calls. It’s like he vanished out of my life. My only friend and crush— gone. Just like that.

It sent me down an emotional roller coaster. Feeling anger, sadness and betrayal all in one go. I’ve been stuck in a loop of my own mixed up feelings for months, unable to get over Jeno.

He didn’t leave a single trace of him, but I knew very well that he had a special place in my heart. One so deep and impactful. I wanted to get rid of this place, but I never can, even after all these years. He probably doesn’t know it. With every step I took around town, everything had something to do with him. I was never able to get him off my mind.

It frustrated me. Everything here had a piece of him, and I was left to pick up each and every one as I ponder about why he left without letting me know. Was I that insignificant all this while that he couldn’t tell me before hand? Did I even mean much to him that he didn’t think about me on the night he left?

And those questions still remain.

“Yo!” I heard the shriek of a familiar voice right behind me as an arm swung around my shoulders. I didn’t bother looking at him as I kept walking forward while he followed closely beside me.

“Yes, Jaemin?” I asked, finally turning my head to meet his face, having his bright and bubbly smile as usual. “Bubble tea date?” Jaemin giggled like a child.

With a slight chuckle, I gave him the same smile and questioned, “Your treat?”

Jaemin rolled his eyes, faking his exasperation. Though he still walked while bouncing on the ball of his feet. “Why bother asking when we both know your cheapskate ass will never pay.” He grumbled.

I gave a light shrug of my shoulders. “True that.” I admitted easily. We headed to the nearby mall and got our bubble teas. Though I wanted to pay him for my drink since I did feel slightly bad, he gave an answer that said, “I mean if you want to.” I would have, but felt like I didn’t moments after.

We made our way back to the dorms. With my dorm and his being on the same floor and only a few dorms down the hall, we decided to go to my dorm.

And that’s when I saw it. The moment I opened the door. The first thing that caught my eye was the envelope on the floor, centimetres away from my foot as I took the first step to enter. Jaemin bumped into me due to my sudden stop of movement that led him to ask, “Why’d you stop?”

I bent down to pick it up in my hand, moving it around as I looked at it from all angles before standing up and showing Jaemin the envelope. He snatched it away from me and inspected it as well.

“Doesn’t have a sender.” He took note, handing it back to me with a shrug. I raised both shoulders before entering my dorm completely, standing aside to let Jaemin in and close the door.

I threw my bag beside where Jaemin put his; beside my study table as he plopped himself onto my bed and allowed his body to sink in the piles of pillows and plushies I had.

Sitting down next to him, I held the envelope up in the air, making Jaemin sit up straight with his legs crossed as leaning in with curiosity. “Open it, open it.” He chanted.

I tore open the seal, taking out whatever’s inside till it’s empty, crumpling up the envelope and throwing it in my small trashcan beside the bed.

“What the heck?” Jaemin and I muttered in unison as we stared at the items in between us on the bed. I tilted my head to the side, lifting up the item that was nearest to me. “A postcard?” I flipped it to the other side, noticing it had a note written on it.

“How are you?” A question that never escaped my mind during my free time. Though I may never get an answer, I wish to see you. But only from afar. I’d be too ashamed to have you in front of me. So, how are you?

As I read out the words on the postcard that was written in a seamlessly beautiful handwriting, Jaemin took the other items in his hands, continuously shuffling from one to another and repeating the process after staring at each one for a few seconds.

“Someone wrote you a note and sent you polaroids?” Jaemin asked, handing the polaroids out for me to take. I took it and gave him the postcard to allow him to look at it as well.

There were three polaroids. All had dates on the blank space under the picture. I didn’t know what the dates would mean. The date they took the picture? Any other significant meaning? I just knew the dates were about a few weeks ago and were days apeart from each other. The pictures were vague, seemingly random. But a closer look got me to realise it. “Whoever sent it must be in Paris.”

Jaemin clicked his tongue, nodding his head. “Weird. Do you know anyone that would send you something like this?” I furrowed my eyebrows and rolled my eyes, lifting the polaroids in the air and waving it around. “I wouldn’t be looking this puzzled if I had known.”

“Maybe it’s your secret admirer.” Jaemin assumed, the side of his lip rising a little as he cocked a brow. I scoffed, squinting my eyes at him with my mouth gaped open. “Yeah, sure.” I said sarcastically.

I rose from my bed, the polaroids in hand and snatching away the postcard from Jaemin. I walked to my study table and opened the small drawer under it, shoving them in and slamming it shut.

“For all I know it could be a stalker. Like hello? Who would know my location?” I went back to my bed, reaching my hand out to take the remote controller on my side table.

Jaemin chuckled. “Seriously? We’re in college. It’s not like they know your house address.” He shook his head and turned his body to face the television as I turned it on and headed to Netflix.

“I don’t know who sent that so I’m not going go give it anymore thought.” I simply stated as I searched for the movie that Jaemin and I planned to watch during our lecture in the afternoon.

After that first encounter with the envelope, a few months have passed. And the idea of it slowly slipped out of my mind completely. I didn’t think I’d be seeing it and having another encounter with it. I thought that has passed me already.

But mostly, I thought it meant nothing.

However, while I stayed up one night to study for a major exam that’s coming in about a week’s time, I heard something sliding on the floor. With my headphones on, I immediately took one side off and looked upwards, wondering where the noise came as my senses peaked.

I then look around the room. And on the floor, there it was. The same blank envelope I saw months ago. I squinted my eyes in awe, streching my body to grab the envelope. I put my pen down, now holding the envelope in my two hands.

It looked the same on the outside. A plain envelope with nothing but my college name written on it. I scratched my head slowly. “I don’t have time for this.” I muttered, thinking about the many other topics I needed to cover.

Either way, my curiosity still surfaced. I opened the envelope. Again I saw a postcard and three polaroids. This time however, the polaroids are showing a different place. Not knowing where it is, I looked at my laptop and searched up cities other than Paris. The last polaroids showed pictures taken in Paris. So maybe whoever took it could be somewhere near there.

As I looked through the different places, I tried to find matches of the pictures in the polaroids and ones on the internet. “Marseille...?” I glanced back and forth from the screen to the polaroids. Yup, it’s definitely Marseille. But why? And who?

I now looked towards the postcard. It had a drawing of buildings that look like the ones in Marseille. I took notice that there was another note. The handwriting looked neat and is definitely from the same person as last time.

You probably have forgotten about the first note I sent. Just to let you know, I’m doing fine. Our memories started to flood in and I couldn’t help myself but to contact you. Even in a way such as this, I’m glad to know that this’ll reach you someday. I hope you’ll remember the times we’ve spent together. You might hate me. I broke our promise afterall. Yet, I hope you’ll remember me like I do you.

My mouth slowly gaped open, my fingers grazing over the words as I read the short paragraph once more. The questions start to fill up my mind.

Our memories? Whoever you are, why can’t you just text me through text? Why are you being so meticulous and mysterious? Do you not want me to remember who you are? How can I remember you when you don’t give me a hint?

The questions almost sent me down a whirpool, one I’d probably won’t be able to escape if I have gone any further. I stopped yourself, opening the drawer where I kept the last postcard and polaroids, throwing them in as I thought about the more way important matter I had to handle, getting my head back in the game after picking my pen up to resume studying.

Though despite being able to complete what I wanted, I ended up staying wide awake, my mind still processing the weird envelope. Slowly, my thoughts went down the memory lane, trying to find what “memories” the sender is trying to make me remember. It was probably three in the morning at this point. I haven’t checked my phone for the time. I’ve probably been in deep thought for quite some time.

“What promise are they talking about...”

Nothing came to my mind as I tried finding answers. My brain could only store that much. My memory capacity is extremely limited now I had picked up such a major. My memories could only go as far back as my second year of college.

I grabbed a random plushie out of frustration, smacking my head with it. “Stop it. Just sleep. This means nothing.” I had to make a firm statement to myself. I can’t let my mind wonder too far over something like this. My life had other priorities. And this is definitely not one of them. Worse yet, something that’s making me lose my sleep.

I eventually fell asleep after shutting my mind away from any more thoughts; related to the envelopes or not.

Exams came and go, though it felt longer for some reason. On the last day of the exams, Jaemin decided that we should head out and explore our city this Christmas. It was a pretty good idea. We’ve been couped up in the dorms for way too long. Christmas break was the only time we were free, other than our midterm break.

The bits of snow fell and the city was bustling with Christmas spirit. Jaemin and I didn’t actually know what to do. But after walking around we found an area near the mall that was like an outdoor arcade. Or perhaps like a smaller version of a theme park.

We played for hours, going to different booths and playing different games. I was the one that had to play most of them since Jaemin can never earn a single prize. We went to many food trucks and indulged ourselves with the delicacy that we missed while being trapped in college.

We decided to head back at around ten, when the ciry began to quiet down and peace began to settle down upon the city. “Oh. I forgot to tell you.” I started off as we walked down the street, making a right turn to the traffic light. Jaemin walks forward a few steps to press the button as he went back to stand beside me. “What?” Jaemin asked.

“I got another envelope before the exams. He was at Maseille at the time.” I blankly replied. Jaemin stopped moving around and turned sharply to face me. I blinked my eyes. “You didn’t bother telling me then?! How could you!” Jaemin shouted out, a frown forming on his lips.

I scrunched my nose, shaking my head as I expected that he would make that kind of reaction. “We had exams? That shit got me up all night just from thinking about it.” I retorted back and began to walk forward across the street Jaemin quickly followed from behind and ended up beside me again.

“You can’t stop thinking about who the sender could be right?” I let out a defeated sigh, nodding my head with a hum. “Has the sender sent another one after that?” I gave a reply that was opposite to the previous one.

“I have a hunch that there’ll be another one today.” Jaemin commented nonchalantly. “A hunch.” I repeated back to myself.

Jaemin hummed in response. I didn’t reply, but rather allowed my mind to head back to the envelope. It’s Christmas Eve. Could the sender actually sent another one because of the occasion? I was bothered by the envelopes at first but now, I felt like I needed them to send me more. So I’ll be able to piece them up and find an answer.

Once we arrived, Jaemin wanted to come over to my dorm. Probably to check if his hunch was correct. And I couldn’t believe my eyes.

Jaemin immediately went down to snatch it from the ground. “I told you!” He announced with glee, the envelope flying around in his hand. “Okay, okay go open.” I urged him. He quickly goes to my bed, taking a seat while I closed the door and plopped down beside him.

He tore it open. The same contents dropped out. “Look at the polaroids.” I told Jaemin while I picked up the postcard. Jaemin tilted his head in confusion, eyes squinting as he tried to make sense of them. “It’s a different place from before, though.” Jaemin muttered.

I flipped the postcard, it was a regular Christmas themed one. I flipped back to where the note was written on the other side.

When the first snowfall fell, I thought of you. Every year the time I spent Christmas with you felt like a dream. We had nothing to do in that confined place, we only had each other to depend on, but the memories you’ve created for me were never lost since then. Even if you yourself have forgotten them, at least they’re still stored in me, waiting for you.

I read it all out. “It has to be someone you’ve been close to. They talk as if you’ve known them forever. Don’t you remember anyone that have you mean this much to them?”

Jaemin waited for me to answer. Though I already knew what to say, I was having second thoughts about it the more I dived deeper in my memories.

“It might have been someone from my childhood? Ugh I don’t know I can’t think of anyone. It’s probably more than five years ago.” I whined out. I slapped my hands on my cheek, cupping my face as I watch Jaemin running a hand through his hair.

“The polaroids looks like it’s been taken in Lyon.” As Jaemin said out his conclusion, I looked through the polaroids. “How’d you know?” I questioned.

“I literally have Architecture Geography as my elective. I have to learn the building styles of so many places. And this building....” Jaemin snatches one polaroid from me after peeking to look at it and showed it to me, pointing at the picture that showed a line of houses. “Is especially unique to Lyon.”

I nodded my let, letting out an “Ah...” while I remembered the fact that Jaemin takes electives on top of our main major.

“So you received three. All a few months apart from each other. And all of them showed a different city in France.” I nodded my head as I repeated each point he made in my head

Suddenly, a random question, or perhaps not, pops up in curiosity. “Do you think the sender will start sending more of them more often?” Jaemin kept silent to give my question some thought.

“They can’t be doing this forever. I mean I get they’re overseas but they’ll soon visit you here maybe.”

I smacked my lips, eyes glazing over the polaroids and postcards. This was the third time I received it. And a year has already passed. Does the sender want me to acknowledge them and find out who they are? Or maybe they’re communicating with me through this so as to be discreet and not want me to find them?

Question after question after question. The two of us sat in silence, Jaemin was probably thinking about this too, seeing how his finger were moving across his lips as he stared down to the items.

“Is there anyone that have you mean this much to them?” The specific question Jaemin asked. My answer would no. A firm no. Other than my family, I can never remember anyone that valued me so much as to go through such extends to keep their identity hidden like this.

My mind went blank. I couldn’t think. The postcard, the note, the polaroids; all served as puzzle pieces that can never be pieced together. The more I thought, the more complicated my answer got.

“Such a damsel in distress.” Jaemin finally spoke up, tilting his head up to look at me with both his brows raised.

“I’m not a damsel.” I stated, shaking my head. Though I let out a weak and defeating sigh, turning my head to the window as I watched the snow of dark night fall.

“But I certainly am in distress.”

On the third month of the new year, Jaemin and I had just finished our mini exam that our major would have every term.

“I’m glad we both did well. But that’s only one fourth of the chapters for this year and I’m already rotting.” Jaemin said, his back slouching as he dragged his feet on the floor while walking beside me.

“Your hair still looks healthy depsite the bleaching and brain deterioration.” I replied. We chuckled as we made our way to the snack bar at our dorm.

When we arrived there, I saw two other students hanging out by the chocolate area, chatting while one bent down and had his eyes scan across the area.

Jaemin wanted to buy his gummy bears and that’s where we went, and it was a few feet away from the two students.

“Which one should I get?” Jaemin bounced on the balls of his feet as he excitedly eyed the many kinds of gummy bears in front of him while tapping my shoulder at a rapid pace.

“I mean I’d choose the peach flavoured one.” I suggested with a shrug.

While Jaemin bent down to look for the peach gummy bears, the two students came into view.

“Wait so he’s coming back?” One of them started talking. “Can you shut the fuck up?” The other whispered, nudging his friends’ shoulder hard and placing a finger to his lips.

“No one is suppose to know.” He muttered.

“Please. No one here even knows him. He’s been away for that long.”

Though the friend tried to keep the conversation at a whisper’s level, clearly the other couldn’t care less, raising his voice back to a normal volume.

“Is he still doing that thing?” I heard the guy who spoke normally asked. The other replied with a sigh, nodding his head reluctantly. “It’s been a year. I honestly think he’s putting her in a weird and energy draining position. Seriously, they’ve been separated for years now, Chenle.”

Just as he was about to speak another word, his head turned to mine and our eyes met. We looked at each other, and he eventually gave a weirded out expression. I broke off the eye contact, embarrassed as I was probably caught eavesdropping their conversation.

Jaemin finally broke the silence. “Okay I’m going to get this peach one as well as strawberry. Oh you’re back.” Jaemin grinned happily. I raised a brow.

“I’ve been standing here all this time.” Jaemin blinked his eyes rapidly in disbelief, laughing and patting my shoulder after. “Seriously? Damn I didn’t even hear you breathe.” He said out of amusement.

I looked around and picked up another random kind of gummy bear. “I’ll just get this.” I said with a soft smile. Jaemim took it from me and headed over to the counter.

Before I could advert my attention back to the two students, they were already outside and walking away with the white plastic bag in hand. They’re conversation really stood out to me for some unknown reason.

Back at the dorm, Jaemin scrolled through Netflix on the television again, trying to find another movie to watch for the week. Absentmindedly, I couldn’t help but keep glancing at the drawer where it conatined all the postcards and polaroids the sender sent me.

And then my mind went back to the conversation the two students had. It’s like the two connected somehow. Like a clear string so thin that it seemed almost invisible. It’s there, but also not. I had a feeling. But I’m not sure what. And I can’t make a statement before I know it’s a hundred percent true.

“What are you thinking about?” Jaemin asked, his eyes still on the screen as he reads the description of a movie he selected. I turned my hard sharply. “Nothing.” I blurted out. “Don’t lie.”

I groaned, placing a hand on my forehead to cover my eyes. “You know those two people at the snack bar just now?”

Jaemin nodded his head. “Music majors.” I clicked my tongue. I kept silent for a moment. “Well I kind of eavesdropped on their conversation. And... something about it felt odd.”

Jaemin chuckled which made me look at him with confusion. “We’ve never encountered them at all, sweetie. We just see them on campus. Nothing more. Why would you think they’d have anything to do with the envelopes?” Jaemin questioned.

I let out a ‘tsk’ as I jerked my head slightly, biting my lower lip as I thought of an answer.

“The envelope thing has been going on for a year. They were talking about someone doing something for a year too. On top of that they said the person and someone else have been separated for so long. Doesn’t it lowkey resemble my situation? That whoever’s sending me this is hinting that I’ve known them for a long time.” I explained, pouring all my thoughts out.

Jaemin took awhile to respond. A minute has passed and he looked to still be deep in thought. But then, the sound of something sliding on floor near the door occured again.

I wasted no time to rush to the door, opening it and peeking my head out, looking left and right. I could’ve sworn I saw a glimpse of a shadow disappearing at far end corner.

“Woah what the heck?!” Jaemin shouts, surprised at my sudden reaction. I ran a hand through my hair in frustration.

I thought that if I can’t find the sender, I could find the deliverer. But as unlucky as I am, I missed it. Even if I chased after them, they’d be long gone.

I looked down, seeing the envelope right under the end of my shoe. I picked it up and swirled around to face Jaemin who was looking at me with their a shocked or confused expression. Obviously both.

“Speak of the devil.”

I walked back to my bed and tossed the envelope to Jaemin. Tore it open. Same contents.

“They’re probably at another city again.” I simply stated, picking up the postcard. However this time, the postcard looked different. Different in a way where it didn’t look like it came from the same area or region.

“Oh my God, wait.” I looked up to find Jaemin shuffling through the polaroids so quickly. “It’s in Japan.”

I whispered a soft, “What?” before snatching away the polaroids. And true to his words, the polaroids showed the unique city lit at night at different angles.

Can’t believe I’m here. I’m coming back soon. I really want to see you, but I’m scared of how you’ll react. If you remember now, please wait at our hangout spot. You should know where. One where we wasted our hours away looking at the blank canvas that we used to fill our hopes and dreams with and regret not sleeping the next day. But I never regretted a single night, since I was always with you.

“Wait so they’re right next to Korea right now?” I asked Jaemin once he finished reading the letter. He nodded eagerly. “Yeah but we still don’t know his exact location.”

My eyes narrowed down on Jaemin with a thin line forming in between my brows. “Why’d you think it’s a he?” I gave him a skeptical eye.

Jaemin shrugged his shoulders nonchalantly. “I’m still betting on the fact that this is your secret admirer.”

“It can be my long lost sister or something?”

I hate to admit it, but the idea of the sender possibly being my secret admirer had a romantic flare to it. My love life was getting boring in college. I never had time to mingle and I eventually closed myself away from love.

“If he’s in Japan, the next envelope would come faster right? By then, like he said in the note, he’ll be in Korea. We can track him down from there.”

Jaemin kept silent for a moment before opening his mouth to choose to continue. “But do you know where the so called hangout spot is?”

I thought long and hard. I kept muttering the description of the hangout place to myself. I couldn’t think of anything.

Not being able to come up with an answer, I went ahead to guess based on the words. And the answer quickly dawned on me.

“Is it someplace where it’s high up? Like a rooftop? It said that we stayed up all night at a blank canvas. That’s probably describing the night sky.”

Jaemin puckered his lips and nodded his head after processing what I just said. “If you can’t remember, why don’t you look at the other postcards? Maybe seeing them all together could help.”

His statement made me rush to my study table. I opened the drawer and dug out all the postcards I’ve received for over a year now. Coming back to the bed, I tossed them down and arranged them by the time I received them.

Quickly scanning my eyes over the words to quick read, I immediately picked up the keywords of each postcard.

“They don’t wish to be seen by me, significant memories, a broken promise, only had each other, confined space, a rooftop.” I laid it all out.

I thought long and hard. I really did. I dug so deep into my memories. I’ve probably been thinking for at least ten minutes. Jaemin didn’t say anything either.

“Anything?” He finally lets out.

“I think I know.”

Jaemin looked at me with eyes full of curiosity. My mouth gaped open slightly as I finally realise the thin string that connected all the dots becoming more visible.

Why didn’t I remember? Well, it’s been years. I couldn’t elaborate after what I said to Jaemin. Sudden waves of feelings crashed over me, over my heart— crashing so hard to let them in. The walls broke down quick. And the memories of him came to life. It flashed over me, like a movie tape being sped up at its maximum.

Everything I felt at the time surfaced in high intensity after being suppressed in my heart for too long. It was too much to handle.

I ended up finding Jaemin holding my arms and shaking me to get me out of trance. I blinked my eye once. Wanting to lift up a hand to touch my face, I realise my cheeks were wet. Very wet.

“Fucking hell what happened to you?! You literally stared at me for like- Forever that your eyes started watering.” Jaemin showed his concern, eyes looking straight at mine while he raised a thumb to my other cheek to wipe off the excess tears.

“I can’t believe this...” I breathed out. I gulped, desperately wanting my feelings to subside so that I can calm down, but also to allow Jaemin calm down as well. He was looking too worried for me and I hated it.

“Lee Jeno.” I croaked out. “Who’s he?”

I took in a deep breath, my hand going up to my head to press against it gently.

“Jeno... My childhood best friend. We lived in a small ass town. I had feelings for him. But he left without telling me one night. I hated him so much for it.”

As I expected, I couldn’t hold it in. The glistening tears wasted no time to well up in my eyes and fall down my cheeks. Jaemin instantly pulled me into his embrace as I cried hard into his chest till part of his shirt got soaked terribly.

Jaemin rubbed my back, not speaking a word as he allowed me to pour it all out on him. “Cry all you want, I’m here for you. Speak only when you want to.” Is what I definitely know Jaemin is saying through his comforting touch.

“I liked him so fucking much. And to have him leave and just magically disappearing out of my life. I hated the fact that he didn’t care to give me a heads up. I suffered so much the night he left. I fucking went haywire and didn’t even function properly for months while I thought about where he could’ve gone.” I spoke, my voice muffled as I dug my face deeper into Jaemin’s chest.

He hummed gently, still keeping silent as he knew I had way more to say than that.

“I don’t know what to do, Nana. I don’t know what to feel. I feel numb. I thought I’d be mad. Well, I am but I just...”

“I get it, love. It’s fine. I don’t understand how you feel. But you don’t have to explain, okay? Don’t tire yourself out.” Jaemin whispered.

“Give yourself time. You’re feeling a lot right now. Don’t think about the envelopes for the time being. It’s too much for you to handle.” He continued.

I pulled myself away from him, using the cuffs of my sweatshirt to wipe my face dry, sniffling as I glanced down on my lap before looking at Jaemin who had the most soft eyes that brought me calmness and peace at this point of time.

“You’re right. I can’t handle it. What a shitshow...” I mumbled at the end. “Now Jeno suddenly wants to come back to me? After what he did? What he put me through?” I shook my head.

Just what am I going to do now?

That night, I couldn’t sleep. And of course, being the most greatest friend, Jaemin slept over in my dorm and stayed awake till I fell asleep. I tried so hard to put myself to sleep because I know Jaemin’s stubborn instinct will insist on staying up till he heard me snore.

But everytime I closed my eyes, I thought of Jeno. The boy I adored for so long, but also the one I resented for so long. What does he look now? How’s his life going? What part of himself changed and what remained? Once again questions circled around and eventually I grew tired, falling asleep at a late hour and feeling regret the next morning as I looked over to see Jaemin sleeping who probably would have to drink a heck ton more coffee than usual (which is already health threatening enough) for him to stay awake for the rest of the day.

It didn’t take long for the next envelope to arrive. In fact, it came way quicker than expected. I wasn’t even sure if I had my feelings under control yet. I felt better. But the envelope arriving at my doorstep didn’t give a chance for me to fight my feelings that I wouldn’t want to experience again for fhe second time.

I’ll give you a month till 5th Sep. I’ll be there at 10pm. And I’ll wait till 12. If I don’t see you then, I’ll take it as you really do hate me and want me gone from your life forever. And if you do come... I’d be over the moon to see your face again. Whatever’s the answer, I’ll respect it wholeheartedly.

The note on the postcard got me sighing and rubbing a hand down my face. I had to make a decision by fifth september. Can I even do that? Is he really doing this again? Does he want me to go through the same emotional roller coaster ride like I did years ago with all these mixed feelings constantly swirling around me while I get pressured?

“Fuck it. He’s putting you through too much. Don’t meet him.” Jaemin slammed his coffee on the table. The action got eyes looking towards our table as the loud slam rang across the coffee shop.

“It’s conflicting, Nana. Part of me can’t face him since I know how much rage I’ll be feeling. But at the same time, I want to see him. I’m curious. And I need answers.” I said, sighing after and covering my face with my hands for a moment before huffing.

“I weighted both options. I know the pros and cons. But if I’m going to be really honest with myself, I would want to see him.”

Jaemin smacked his lips and nodded, his fingers tapping against the drink while he stared out the window and looked at me. “Okay then go. I know you’re scared about the cons and all. But you can’t overthink. Go with your first option and just do it. You really can’t contemplate.” Jaemin read my mind. He was able to get my thoughts so accurately and precisely that it might have scared me a little.

“You know me well, huh?” I let out a weak chuckle. I frowned. “You’re right.” I glanced at my phone, tapping the screen to show my lockscreen to look at the date. “I have eight days left till fifth September.”

“Great. You can take your mind off him till then. You need to fee as lighthearted as possible.”

Jaemin gave me his bright smile. His bubbly nature starting appear and take its place on his expressions and tone.

“I’ll definitely need your help with that.”

Jaemin did everything he could to make me happy and simply carefree. He’d offer to buy me bubble tea after lectures, accompany me wherever I went. He practically stayed over my apartment for the whole eight days.

As the days inched nearer, I ended each night with thinking of Jeno. I know Jaemin’s whole point of being with me was to get my mind off him. But I just couldn’t. Every night I’ll envision how he’d look. Which country did he flee to? What college major is he taking? What about his friends? Sometimes I even wondered if I ran through his mind like he does in mine.

But then, on one night while Jaemin fell asleep on the couch, I couldn’t help but think of the two music majors. The situation they described was awfully similar. It felt too similar. Indirectly it was. And of course, due to my demanding nature, I decided to find them to see if my speculation was correct.

It wasn’t hard for me to find out that they ended lecture at eleven today. Which is three hours before mine. I snuck out of my dorm, leaving Jaemin who’s still sleeping. Walking to the music department, I kept my eyes out for them. It shouldn’t be that hard since it’s about to be eleven and they’d be walking out of class by now.

The students started to scramble out and I instantly concentrated on the crowd, looking for them. One prominent feature that made them stood out was the fact that one of them had bright orange hair. Chenle, if I’m not wrong.

After waiting outside the lecture hall for at least ten minutes. It felt like almost everyone has already left and I started to wonder if I missed them. Luckily I didn’t. When I saw the bright orange hair guy coming out with another person and a lecturer, eventually waving goodbye to him and separating way.

I immediately intercepted, blocking their way. They looked at me with confusion. “Can we help you...?” The brown haired question awkwardly. I cleared my throat. “I actually need to talk to you guys about something. Why don’t we sit down?” I offered as I motioned by hand to the hangout area where there were wooden tables and benches.

The two turned their heads to each other, exchanging unrecognisable looks before walking ahead of me. They sat down side by side while I sat opposite. They looked like they didn’t know what was going on. Obviously, they didn’t.

“Um so basically I wanted to ask...” “Ask away.”

“Do you know of anyone named Lee Jeno?”

Silence ensues. No one answered for a whole minute. One stared blankly on the table while the other looked around as if trying to search for an answer.

“U-Uh no. We don’t. I’m sorry but we’re busy. Haechan let’s go.” The orange haired rose from his seat and held the other’s arm. Just when he was about to get dragged away, I held onto his free arm.“Wait. Please.”

Chenle lets out an inaudible sigh, allowing Haechan and him to slowly sit back down. “What?” “The conversation at the snack bar of our apartment dorm. Who are the two people that’s been apart for a long time?”

Haechan scoffed, cocking up a brow with one side of his lips lifted up. “You eavesdropped on us?”

“I’m sorry but that is not something you should know. We’re leaving.” Chenle insisted. But Haechan placed a hand on his shoulder. “But shouldn’t she know-“ “Know what?” I asked, that slip up of Haechan’s made me confirm that they definitely know Jeno someway.

“Can you fucking shut up?!” Chenle growled at Haechan, groaning. His head immediately shot to me. “You have nothing to do with this. I don’t know why you thought it was you, but we were referring to our lecturer’s personal problems. So please, we have to go.”

With that, they dashed off. I knew from the get go that they lied. They knew Jeno. That gave me some information in a way. Like perhaps they are the ones that’s helping him to send the envelopes. That little information gave me a sense of closure, in the smallest way possible. At least I had an answer to something.

It helped me to push through those days. A small portion of the whole big truth brought me this much strength.

I felt a lot of things while I walked to the town that’s deep in the unknown side of Korea, out of sight from the world. That’s how insignificant the town was.

As I got closer and closer, my heart began to feel heavy. Pounds of weight that contained feelings, reactions, the overthinking— slammed my heart. I could barely hold up.

I lifted up my phone slightly from my side. 11:45PM. I should have gone out earlier but I was having too much fun playing Mario Kart with Jaemin to even realise.

The street there began to look darker and darker as I entered the town. Just barely lit enough for me to see. The houses were very worn out. People still lived here, seeing how the light to the houses on the second floor are bright. But other than that, if all lights were switched off in the town, it would definitely look abandoned. Not a single trace of life to be seen.

I had trouble finding the house. I had to go deeper in to find the ribbon that was tied on the tree beside the house. Remembered it to be bright red. Years have passed and it’s almost nothing now, only strings of it left to hold it together.

I saw the ladder already prompted on the house for me to climb up. Step after step, I tried my best to stay calm. Though on the last step, as I peeked my head over, there he was.

The Jeno I haven’t seen in more than five years. The Jeno I had forgotten despite him giving me the best memories for us to live by. The Jeno that I hates but I now realise I couldn’t as I looked back on our relationship. I loved him. And though he never showed his love back other than platonically, I was still greatful for it.

“Hey.” I heard him say. His voice got way lower than it used to. “Hi.” I breathed out, finally getting on the rooftop as I quickly take a seat next to him. He apparently had lit a candle in front of him.

“You got my envelopes.” He stated.

Not replying, I took the time to look at his face. He certainly outgrown better than I expected. Puberty hit him like a truck. The features that pulled me in are now more prominent and defining, his soft fluffy hair still looked fluffy. Though his hair is now blue. Questionable, but with that face of his, he can pull of anything.

“I’m sorry for leaving you that night.” Jeno said after taking in a deep breath and hugging his knees close to his chest. His eyes kept straight to the front. It looked like he was too afraid to look at me.

“On the last night before you left. What you mumbled to me but couldn’t catch. Was that what you meant?” He nodded, tlting his head down.

“I’m sorry.” Jeno said again, his voice ever so soft and gentle but he could be at the brick of tears by the sound of it.

“I’m sorry for breaking the promise that we’ll leave this shitty town together. For saying that I’m not one to break a promise. Ours was the only one I broke till now. I was scared on making any other promises after you. I know you suffered a lot because of me. And I’m sorry I couldn’t give you an answer at that point of time when you’re most hurt.”

Jeno sniffled, running a hand through his hair. “Not seeing you for years, I kept thinking how I couldn’t be with you on your worst day and your best. We depended on each other so much I thought about how you could even survive without me. But I’m glad to see you’re doing well.”

I heard him sob. After he spilled out the last sentence, he broke into tears, hiding his face from me by wrapping his arms around. I didn’t know what to do. I reached a hand out, my finger inches away from his back to give a light rub. I finally placed the hand down, making him tilt his head up and turning to me. Finally our eyes met.

It’s like I was sucked into the swirl pool of his eyes. I drowned in them, fully mesmerised by it. I kept my eyes on him as I feel the nostalgia kicking in.

“You underestimated me.” I said. Jeno chuckled weakly. It sounded way more intense and low now. It made me feel some type of way. “I did.”

“How’d you even come up with the envelopes?”

“I had to find a way to talk to you. I would have searched you up online...” Jeno kept silent for a moment. “But it wouldn’t have been romantic.” He answered plainly.

My forehead creased as my eyes narrowed down at him. Tilting my head slightly, I asked, “Romantic? What do you mean?” I was suddenly intrigued.

Jeno’s lips pursed into a thin line. Both his brows were raised as he glanced sideway before looking at me again. “An excuse would be that I’m a literature major and it’s in my nature to be poetic and old school.” He joked. I let out a sigh, breathing out a soft chuckle.

“But other than that, I liked you. I-I mean I still do. I like you. I have never forgotten you. No matter what you thought. The fact that I didn’t tell you properly that I was leaving hurt my heart so so much. I couldn’t even confess my feelings for you before I left. I love you, _____.”

I froze. Every inch of my muscle prevented me from moving as I say over whatever I heard in my head for the second time. Is what I’m hearing really true? He liked me, when all this time I thought he didn’t.

“We were foolish teenagers. Wild, and free. But my love for you never changed. We were continents apart. And I knew you would have hated my guts and forget me. But I still held on, wishing everyday that I’ll get to meet you.”

Jeno smiled. His eye smile. Now that— that’s something that didn’t change a single bit. He looked exactly the same years ago. I saw the younger self in him and it made me realise how much I missed him. How much I wanted to see him smile like that more. How much I wanted to have nights with him again. I wanted to restart it all.

“I missed you.”

“I hated you, but I miss you.” I leaned in subconsciously, probably too much to the point where our faces were centimetres apart, our lips could have brushed against each other if I made a single move.

“I missed you too.” 

I couldn’t tell you how ht my face got. It was burning. My cheeks were definitely flushed red and I didn’t even need a mirror to tell. 

Slowly, our lips met. For the first time, I’m kissing my first love. My first love’s lips on mine. It felt as though time froze. The wind stopped blowing. The trees and grass stopped rustling. Silence fell on us. It was almost magical. His lips were extremely soft and felt like it was a perfect fit for mine.

We didn’t move. But rather let out lips sit on each other with our eyes closed. A subtle kiss that meant so much. A kiss that’s storing all the feelings the two of us felt while we were apart.

I opened my eyes, my lips still on his while his eyes were still shut. His eyelashes grew beautifully and his eyelids were smooth and pretty. His skin looked too clean up close for it to be true even.

I felt his hand making its way to my waist. The way he did it made me feel as thought if was something natural for him to do. His hand placed comfortably on my lower back, an action that felt so normal despite it being the first time. And the same went with the kiss.

I was the first to pull back, licking my lips after. His hand was still on my waist, in a way it refusing to let me go. 

“You aren’t going anywhere... right?” I asked, uncertainty filling my tone. I had to know. I wanted him to stay. I want him to be with me again. I want to feel his love that only he could give; that only he could have an impact on me.

“I’m staying. I had to turn on my father for this. But I didn’t care. I just want to be with you again.” Jeno whispered.

“Don’t leave me again.”

Silence.

“That kiss is a promise. Like a true love’s kiss. And the world is going to give no cure to it, so that I’ll be with you by your side till the end.”

when time runs out | ii

⋆ summary:  A young girl has fallen deeply ill with an unknown disease in her, so with all her free time spent in an empty hospital room, she spends it online playing video games. That's until she meets her cousins friends, one spiking her interest with his extremely vulgare language.

pairing: bakugou katsuki x reader

word count: 2.1k

warnings: small mentions of suicide (I’ll put a star ‘⋆’ on top and below the paragraph so you can skip over it if your uncomfortable, you won’t miss anything too important so dont worry!)

"Bro, honestly I still can't believe that you of all people made it into the elite, number one hero school in the country."

"Waahh, I'm telling you! I'm the real deal Y/N!"

"So, how's your summer been? School's gonna be starting soon, are you excited?" Denki could only smile and sigh as his character was finally killed off.

Said girl chuckled as she heard Denki's voice rise through her headphones as they continued killing zombies in front of them. She grimaced as a zombie attacked her from behind her character. Geez, I never get a break in this game.

"Well, to be honest, nothing big really happened besides me getting my acceptance letter from U.A. Just me training and hanging with the fam." He laid back in the comfort of his bed, headphones still on in order to hear his cousin.

"Aah, already training, hero boy? That's why you haven't been visiting me lately." Y/N pouted and crossed her arms as her TV screen turned black, returning her to the main page of the game.

"Man, we suck at this game!" Denki laughed out loud as he saw how long they lasted in the last round. Y/N smiled and let out a small giggle of her own as she placed down her controller.

"Yeah, how long have we had this game for? It still feels like it's our first time playing this." Denki cracked a smile, even though Y/N couldn't see him.

"Hey, sorry for not being able to come to the hospital. Getting ready for U.A. is no joke, haha." Denki rubbed the nape of his neck, eyebrows scrunching up with regret. 

"Nah nah, it's fine! I understand that you have things to do. You have big plans for the future." Y/N brushed a strand of her hair away from her face, looking down at the needles that were plunged into her arms. Her eyes were clouded with an emotion she often felt when talking with Denki. She always felt guilty whenever the feeling came around.

"Must be nice to be able to achieve your dreams." Jealousy. She hated the feeling she got every now and then, but you couldn't really blame her. She lost everything in only a couple of months. Silence passed between the two teenagers, Y/N finally realizing what she said.

"Uh s-sorry about that! I didn't mean to say that alou-" Y/N was cut off by Denki's soft voice.

"Y/N, it's... okay to feel like that. I don't understand what you have been going through, but I know that you shouldn't bring yourself down for something you can't control. You're such an amazing person and to be honest. . ." Denki paused as Y/N's eyes began to glaze over.

"I'm doing this for me and you. You always encouraged me to take any opportunity by, as you like to say, the neck. I-I wanna make you proud, y'know? I wanna make it feel like you're a part of this crazy world, even if you're not really here, walking with me through it all."

Y/N’s lips wobbled as she let out a watery laugh. She hunched over, small tears falling down her face. To someone else, this would've boosted their ego, but to Y/N, those words meant the world to her. No one had ever said that to her before. She felt like she had a purpose in this wretched life of hers. She sniffles were heard by Denki

"H-hey! It's okay, p-please don't cry!" Y/N heard shuffling coming from Denki as he reassured her to not cry.

"I mean it. I only wish you could be there though, it would be so much cooler!" Denki smiled, trying to lighten up the mood. Y/N's sniffles slowly quieted down as she let out a soft laugh that made his heart swell with joy. At least he can make her laugh.

"I'm s-sorry, but no one has ever told me t-that." Small hiccups came from the girl as she calmed down, taking deep breaths to slow her heart rate. Won't want doctors to come rushing in just to see her crying over something so small.

⋆

"I-I'm just really happy you said that." Denki's heart clenched at those words, his chin trembling every now and then. He knew that Y/N wasn't happy with where she was. She had even admitted that she had urges to rip out the needles and slowly lose her life from there. Denki spent the rest of that night talking to her after. To say he was concerned was an understatement. He was terrified when she told him.

⋆

"I think us being able to play games together is already enough!" They both laughed and talked for a couple of minutes before deciding to to hang up. 

"Y/N, I mean it when I say I want you to be happy, okay? I hope you feel better tomorrow. Buh-bye!" Y/N said her goodbye to Denki, hanging up and closing the laptop that sat on a movable table. 

Her smile slowly left her face, leaving her staring blankly at the pure white wall and mirror in front of her. When visitors were gone, her window would turn to a mirror so no one would disturb her. Y/N took a good look at herself and only sighed. Despite being as healthy as she could get, she looked a bit on the thin side, this complimenting her skin. Running a hand through her hair, she untangled the little knots that had formed there.

"Geez, what happened to you girl? You look like a zombie." Y/N looked at the zombie game and cringed.

"Literally."  Just then the door to her room opened and shut quickly, the air filter turning on when a female doctor entered. Y/N watched her carefully as she checked the IV that connected to her arm. The protective suit never made Y/N feel better about her condition.

"Are you alright, Ms. L/N?" The light, stern voice rang through her ears as she looked at the woman in front of her. Y/N gave the doctor a grin.

"Never been better."

It had been an hour since the doctors had turned the lights off, but Y/N didn't feel the slightest bit of exhaustion. She had been sitting in the pitch black room for the time being and was really debating on turning on the TV.

"Ahh, fudge it." Instinctively reaching out for the remote, she turned on the TV and winced as the bright light hit her.

Looking back to the screen, she chose the option of going online and waited for other players to join. While waiting, a new character popped up next to her and she could only smirk at their username. Tapping on her mic, she decided to make conversation with them to see if they also had a mic.

"Now, what to play. What to play..." Y/N had settled for playing OverWatch since she didn't feel like playing any story type games. No cliffhangers tonight, Y/N thought. As the game loaded, she laid back and began thinking about cheesecake. When was the last I ate strawberry cheesecake? Great, now I want some. Thinking about eating cheesecake made her excited about the next day.

"Well hello, dear ol' '​​​​​King Explosion Murder_1.' Nice name you got there." Y/N chuckled as she said the name out loud, seeing another player enter.

"Hello 'Tape Dispenser?' What's with the wack name?" The girl’s eyes crinkled as she smiled at their name, hearing the user chuckle through her headphones. '​​​​​​King Explosion Murder' still had yet to reply, but that didn't bother her. They're either using the bathroom or don't have a mic. 

"The name was inspired by my quirk. But what's up with '_DeathGirl_', huh? You good?"  Y/N could only laugh at what he said. She should really send him a friend request.

"I’m honestly great, a little tired, but great! I just gotta make up a name, y'know? But your quirk has to do with tape? I don't know if that's wicked or useless." The boy laughed while Y/N laughed as well, losing her grip on her controller. That was until a gruff voice interrupted their laughing session.

"Shut the fuck up, your annoying ass voices are giving me a damn headache." Finally, after being silent, 'King Explosion Murder_1' spoke up.

"Aah, so you do talk. I don't know why you didn't say anything sooner Mr. Explosion Murder." The other player could only sneer at what she said, hitting his desk with his fist. Another player had joined, Y/N only noticing.

"Ah, hello 'Sleep Deprived Controller!'" Said player made their character wave, making Y/N chuckle. While they had their interaction, 'King Explosion Murder' was shouting at her, now realizing that she wasn't paying attention to what he was saying.

"Hey! Listen to me when I'm fucking talking to you, emo bitch!" Y/N’s eyes widened, soon rolling her eyes, watching the game load as they were placed into a match. What's his damn problem?

"Hey man, no need to go calling people names now." 'Tape Dispenser' nervously chuckled as he heard the other player growl. Y/N sported a shocked face as she heard this. What is he, a dog??? 

"Outta this conversation, extra!" Tape dude could only deadpan at what he was just called. Who calls people extras?? I’m not an extra, in fact I think I’m- 'Sleep Deprived Controller' listened with an annoyed expression on their face, wishing they could shut their shouting teammate up. Damn, wish I actually had a mic.

The game began as all the players separated, going their own way to kill their enemies. Everyone was in the zone, getting items and yelping every now and then if they were attacked. The first to go down was 'Tape Dispenser', then 'Sleep Deprived Controller', leaving both Y/N and 'King Explosion Murder' left on their team. Y/N smirked at their winning team, only one player was left on the other team. Just as the game was going to end, the opposing player shot down 'Explosion Murder', killing him.

"FUUUUUUUUUUUUU-" His mic cut off, causing the two players with mics in a cackling mess. Y/N calmed down, remembering she was still playing, trying to hunt down the last player. Finally, after many curses by a certain player and cheering from another, she located her enemy. 

"You better fucking win this or I'll kill you." Knowing he didn't mean that last part, she only focused on the first part. You better win this. Those words echoed through her head as she stopped aiming for the player. She hated being told what to do.

"Ah, so you're one of those people." Not knowing what she meant, they only watched with wide eyes at what she did. Y/N jumped down next to the enemy, shooting them twice with her weakest gun, signaling them that she was there. Quickly, the other player shot her character down, killing her. They lost the game.

"THE FUCK WAS THAT FOR?! WE COULD'VE FUCKING WON!" Explosion Murder wasn't taking defeat easily like the other two were. Y/N could only give a grunt of disapproval towards the loud player.

"Ha, why did you just give up right there? You could've easily killed him." Tape Dispenser was just as confused as the other two players, slightly disappointed at the loss. Y/N sighed as she rubbed her forehead.

"Sorry not sorry, but this dude really thought he could get away with telling me what to do. I'll make my move when I'm ready, sorry to disappoint you guys." She sighed as she rubbed her neck, ready to hear the disapprovals of her teammate. But what she heard and saw made her smile.

"Nah, it's fine. It can get a tiny bit annoying with Murder yelling in your ear." Tape Dispenser reassured her, with Sleep Deprived's character giving her a thumbs up. Though, the annoyed sigh caught her attention back to him. Her eyebrow twitched. What is it now?

"I'm done with this fucking sappy shit scene. I'm out." Those were Murder's last words before he disconnected, leaving them in an awkward silence before Y/N stifled a giggle.

"I have a feeling that won't be the last time I'm seeing him." Tape Dispenser chuckled while Sleep Deprived's character shook their head, making Y/N softly laugh. After sending friend requests to both people, she bid them both fair well and left.

Y/N turned off her console and tv, putting the controllers on the table near her. She laid down in the comfort of her bed, thinking about her interactions with the people she met. She smiled, closing her eyes and drifting into a dreamless slumber with only one thought in mind. 

King Explosion Murder is such a weird name.

Resemblance (A Holmesbury Fic)

Hey everyone! It’s been a long and stressful week but I made it, and with a new fic! Spoiler: it’s another pregnancy one but I decided to write it because I was in the mood to write another cute fic about them just being cute and cuddly so I guess this is the product of that haha.

Summary: The due date is days away, and Tewksbury and Enola decide to look through old archives to see what their future child would look like.

“It’s the box to the left.”

Enola watched as Tewksbury searched her vanity for the box she was looking for. It was a small one, but beautiful nonetheless. It was easy to miss since it blended in well with the other items on the table, so she didn’t blame him for not seeing it at first. She would have gotten it herself but she was due in less than two weeks and was confined to bed most of the time with intense pain and weakness. As she watched her husband walk back towards the bed with the box, she grunted as she put herself into a sitting position.

“Easy, easy, not too fast,” Tewksbury said as he placed the box in Enola’s hands. He lay down on the bed next to Enola. “Let’s see what we got here.”

Enola reached into the box and pulled out a pile of old photographs. It’s been so long since she looked at them, and seeing them made the childhood memories come flooding back. Tewksbury reached into his jacket and pulled out a pile of his own photographs and placed them on his lap.

“Let’s see,” he said as he laid out the photos on his lap. “Ahh, this one.”

Enola smiled as he reached over and placed one of the photos on her stomach. In it, a much younger Tewksbury sat on top of a rocking horse and smiled back at her. He couldn’t have been older than two or three.

“You were such an adorable baby,” she said. “Look at that sly little smile. What mischief were you cooking up?”

“My master plans to raid the kitchens,” Tewksbury laughed. “Especially the chocolate.” He reached over and took a random photo from Enola’s hands. “Let’s see what you’ve got.”

“Oh, that one!” Enola exclaimed as she looked over. “That’s one of the only pictures I have with my father.”

“You still have the same stare,” he said with a chuckle. “That deep, concentrated look on your face when you’re deep in thought. You were probably concentrating on getting out of your father’s arms.”

“Yes, some things just never change,” she joked. “Always the rebellious one.”

“Hmm,” said Tewksbury as he searched through his pile again. “This one! For my sixth birthday I got a pony and this photo is from the day I got him! I was very proud, you know.”

Enola couldn’t contain her smile as he handed her the photo. He was such a beautiful child, with his angelic curls and sweet smile. Cherubic indeed. As he shuffled through his photos again, Enola placed her free hand on her stomach. Ten more days. Ten more days until she would meet the tiny creature that had been growing inside of her for nearly nine months. As the due date grew closer, she decided to go through their childhood photos to figure out what their future child would look like. It was a brilliant idea, really. Seeing their younger selves gave them a general idea of their baby’s appearance and it seemed like the possibilities are endless. Enola’s face with Tewksbury’s smile. Maybe Tewksbury’s eyes. Or maybe he or she would completely like Enola or completely like Tewksbury. Genetics are truly mysterious.

“Enola, look!” Tewksbury’s voice broke her train of thought. “I remember this day so clearly. “I was in the gardens and my father was teaching me about flowers and what they symbolize!” He handed her a photo of himself sitting on one of the benches in the gardens with dozens of flowers in his hands. A proud smile was plastered on his face and as her eyes scanned the photo, Enola noticed he was surrounded by different flower bushes.

“Look, it’s you in your natural habitat,” she joked as she playfully shoved her husband. “How old were you?”

“About eight,” he responded. “And yes, I was in my true habitat,” he added with a smile. “I like to joke that I found living with flowers much more appealing than living in the manor.

“Of course you did,” said Enola. “I have an idea,” she added all the sudden.

“As you always do.”

“We should put our pictures side by side depending on our age. Here, since we’re around two or three in these two, why don’t we put them together. Same for these. We’re around ten here so let’s put these together as well.” She reached forwards and started to match the photos that were already scattered over their laps. “Here, why don’t you hand me some and I’ll match those as well.”

“Enola, what are you doing,” Tewksbury asked with a furrowed brow as he passed some pictures to her. She matched them quickly and before long, a whole picture gallery was spread across their laps and the bed.

“I’m trying to figure out what our child will look like,” she responded and she straightened the photos. “Who our child will look like.”

“Us,” said Tewksbury.

“Yes, of course it will look like us,” said Enola, rolling her eyes. “By looking at these pictures, I think we can at least have a general idea of what to expect.”

“I know, I’m just kidding. I think it’s a splendid idea,” Tewksbury said.

“Anyways, look at this.” Enola held up two pictures. “What do you notice?”

“Well, we’re with our fathers. I know I’m six in that picture and you look like you’re four.”

“What about these over here?” She pointed to another set of pictures, this time with their mothers.

“Our mothers,” said Tewksbury, deep in thought. “Ooh, I think I know what you’re getting at. We both look nothing like our mothers. Except for you, I guess. You have her eyes and smile. But otherwise you look more like your father.”

“You look exactly like yours,” Enola said as she held his photos closer.

“I wonder why I don’t look like my mother,” he said as he leaned back. “I know some things about genetics and how it can vary, but most people I know have equal traits from both parents. Do you know why?”

“To be honest, I do not have an answer for that,” Enola said as she continued to scan the pictures in front of her.  

“Come on, you always have answers to everything,” her husband teased.

“I have heard from multiple people that firstborns look more like their father. Of course not everyone, but I know Mycroft looks like our father and he’s the firstborn. Here.”

Enola reached back into her box and pulled out an old photo of Mycroft and Sherlock and held it next to the photo of her father. The resemblance was uncanny. “I’m the first born and I look just like my father as well. This makes sense!” Tewksbury whispered. He turned to his wife with an excited look on his face. “Enola, what if? What if the baby looks just like me? There will be so much of me in my daughter!”

“Daughter?” Enola asked with a laugh. She could have sworn he had a bigger smile on his face than a child at the fair. “You’ve said that so many times already. What makes you think we’re going to have a girl?”

“Oh, I know,” he responded. “I have my way of sensing things.”

“Really? You say you can sense things but couldn’t sense someone was trying to murder you all those years ago?”

“Ok, fine. Fair point. But I do and truly think we will have a girl. A perfect little girl.”

“Who will look like her father,” said Enola as she held up one of Tewksbury’s baby photos. “She’ll have his perfect eyes and perfect smile.”

“And her mother’s brains, may I add,” said Tewksbury with a wink.

“Imagine this,” said Enola as she held up photos of each of them as toddlers. “The baby will have your good looks, but the same mischievous twinkle I had. Behind that cherubic face is a strong willed and free soul.”

“Agreed. Do you reckon she’ll share my love of flowers?”

“I don’t see why she wouldn’t.”

“Your curly hair?”

“I can definitely see that.”

“You want to hear something really crazy?”

“Of course,” said Enola as she rested her hands on her stomach.

“I have a feeling she’ll have your nose.”

Enola tilted her head back and laughed, ignoring the sharp pain going down her spine.

“My nose? Why on earth would it be my nose?”

Tewksbury looked at her with a sheepish grin.

“I thought it wouldn't be fair if she didn’t have at least one thing from you,” he joked. “I think your nose is your best quality, so we’ll give it to her.”

“William Tewksbury Marquess of Basilwether, you take that back,” said Enola as she playfully took a pillow and hit her husband over the head with it. Just as Tewksbury reached up to grab it, Enola felt a flutter in her stomach. The baby was kicking.

“Stop, stop, the baby’s awake,” said Enola as she let go of the pillow.

Tewksbury immediately stopped and threw the pillow to the opposite side of the bed, a concerned look growing on his face.

“I’m so sorry,” he said as he placed both hands on her stomach. “Should I call Mother? Maybe the physician?”

“No,” Enola said with a pained smile. “Everything’s fine. It looks like our little one has something to say. Stand still.”

The room fell dead silent as the two adults waited for another response from their child, who now seemed to be in the mood to move around inside Enola’s stomach. They held their breaths, not wanting to miss anything. After a while, she felt it again. This time, it was stronger than the last one. Tewksbury had a huge smile on his face and leaned over to press his lips over her stomach.

“What was that, my dear?” he whispered. “Did you have something to say to your papa?”

Another kick.

“Hello to you too,” he said as a small tear formed in the corner of his eye. “I can’t wait to meet you, my little angel. I’m not sure if you can hear us, but we were walking about you. I think you and I will look just like each other. What do you think?”

No response. As adorable as it was, Enola was glad she stopped because some of her kicks were hard and gave her a lot of pain. Tewksbury turned towards her and they made eye contact, enjoying each other's company before he spoke again.

“I think she agrees with me. She’s going to look exactly like me,” he said as he began to pick up the photographs.

“She didn’t kick back when you asked her,” Enola laughed as she handed him some pictures. “She went silent after you asked, so I don’t think she agrees.”

Tewksbury looked at her with a twinkle in his eye.

“Oh, no. She does. She just doesn’t want to hurt your feelings. After all, she knows that hurting her mother’s feelings before she’s even born would be an awful thing. Smart girl.”

“Nobody hurts my feelings,” Enola replied with a wink. “Especially a newborn baby we know absolutely nothing about!”

“I beg to differ, but we shall see. Trust me, I am right.” He winked back.

“Of course. You are the Marquess of Basilwether after all.”

Zutara, 10

*lays out probably the most g-rated writing I have written in a while* Please accept this almost 4K writing of a cinderella-esque story. It could have been tons longer but I wanted to at least put this out here :)

Katara scanned another book in the library before stamping the checkout card in the front of the book. She pushed up her glasses and turned to the underclassman, “All are due back next Tuesday.” The girl nodded and took her books. “Have a good week.”

Katara sat back and took out her phone from under the checkout counter. She wasn’t on her phone for long when someone cleared their throat. Katara shot up and tucked the phone under her leg. “Sorry.” She tucked a hair that had fallen from her messy bun behind her ear. “How can I help you?”

“There’s some people in the history section making out again.” The boy placed his books on the counter.

“Thanks,” Katara slightly slumped again. She hated when people used the library as their spit swapping spot. They were always so annoying. Katara checked out the boy before slipping the sign that says she’ll back soon on the counter. 

Katara made her way to the back left corner of the library. She walked slowly and ran her fingers over the books. She heard the couple before she saw them. Katara stepped around the final bookshelf before crossing her arms and looking at the couple. She waited a few seconds before clearing her throat.

The faces looked at her, Mai and her flavor of the week stared back at her briefly. “You can watch if you want,” Flavor of the week said. Katara grimaced but not without a blush rising to her ears.  

Mai glared at Katara for a second before pushing the guy against the shelf when he tried to kiss her again. “Come on, the club house will be empty since the soccer team is away.” Mai’s shoulder knocked Katara’s causing her to stumble slightly. Mai dragged the grumbling guy away.

Katara stepped to the shelf and straightened the books. She sighed and ran her fingers over the spines of the books. They took so much abuse already. When she got back to the checkout counter there were a few underclassmen in line. She looked up to the clock, free period was almost up with only 15 minutes left.

[+.+]

Zuko sat at the computer at the back of the class. Jet chuckling as he changed the background of his computer to porn. The woman had on a uniform that was clearly was from a Halloween store in the 1990’s and the man balls deep in the woman looked like a steroid shot up pedo. Jet smacked the guy next to him, “We got to convince the principal into getting uniforms.”

Zuko shook his head and clicked through the assignment. It wasn’t too hard, just make a blog post about a recent event. He figured he would do that when he got home tonight.

Jet punched Zuko in the shoulder, “I heard Soaring Boars Football team was going out tonight. You in?”

“Maybe,” Zuko rubbed at his arm. “I’ve got training tonight.”

“Ah, man, come on you can have a rest day.” Jet pulled the internet back up on his computer going through more porn to put as his background. 

“I really can’t. We’ve got a competition coming up soon.”

“Man, whatever. If you get done with training, you know where we will be.” Jet clicked through a few more images before settling on a girl in a cheer outfit they must have gotten at the same Halloween store as the uniform and a guy even more jacked up than the last.

[+.+]

Katara hid her burning face in her hands. “Oh my god, no!”

Oc3anB3nd3r: Oh my god! NO!

PrinceSparky11: All I’m saying is that you should have just gone for it.

Katara shook her head and filled out another answer as PrinceSparky continued to type. 

PrinceSparky11: Just punched them both and then petted the books like Goby just got his first sock!

Katara rolled her eyes. 

Oc3anB3nd3r: Oh yes, I’m sure my noodle arms will really punch them out of the way.

PrinceSparky11: Lol you mean you’re not a 280pound pro wrestler?!

Katara laughed and picked up her phone completely.

Oc3anB3nd3r: LOL

Oc3anB3nd3r: Sorry to disappoint.

She sat her phone down and filled out a few more questions on her homework. Katara did her best not to just grab her phone as soon as it vibrated. But her fingers twitched to it.

PrinceSparky11: Oh, come on OB. Here I was sure I was talking to some 50 year old dude in his parents’ basement.

Oc3anB3nd3r: Haha I mean it could still be possible.

PrinceSparky11: True true

PrinceSparky11: But you’re not right??

Katara giggled and watch him type and then undo his typing multiple time

PrinceSparky11: Oh fuck

PrinceSparky11: You are, aren’t you??

Katara fell over on her bed laughing. She heard a few knocks on the wall that she shared with Sokka. She ignored him before she began typing.

Oc3anB3nd3r: No

Oc3anB3nd3r: But I do really have noodle arms.

Katara pulled up her sleeves on her t shirt and flexed as she took a picture. She studied it to be sure there was nothing that could really tag it back to her. The only thing she could maybe see was the peeling blue fingernail polish. But lots of girls painted their nails. PrinceSparky11 would not be able to pick her out.

Oc3anB3nd3r: [sent an image]

Katara tossed her phone, embarrassed that she had just done that. She quickly looked over her homework. Her phone buzzed and Katara looked over at it while biting her lip. She turned to see she had a new message from PrinceSparky11 with an attachment. She tapped her pencil nervously. She shouldn’t have sent the picture.

Katara unlocked her phone and did her best to read the message before looking at the picture PrinceSparky11 sent. But her eyes trained over the pale muscles. Katara bit her lip so hard she was slightly worried she would bleed. She slammed her phone down after practically memorizing the picture.

“Okay, Katara.” Katara ran her hand through her hand. “Be cool.” She lifted her phone back up.

PrinceSparky11: I don’t know OB. Those are some pretty muscles.

PrinceSparky11: [sent an image]

Katara blushed and began typing out.

Oc3anB3nd3r: Show off

PrinceSparky11: Now now OB no need to be jealous

PrinceSparky11: We can pump you up

PrinceSparky11: Get you a workout regime and protein shakes in you

Katara laughs and shakes her head at her phone.

Oc3anB3nd3r: Alright, I think it’s time to call it a night. You’ve gone crazy!

PrinceSparky11: No Wait!

Katara rolled her eyes and placed her phone beside her as it filled up with messages

PrinceSparky11: Come on OB

PrinceSparky11: It won’t take that long

PrinceSparky11: If you give it your all

PrinceSparky11: Okay Okay

PrinceSparky11: I was kidding!

PrinceSparky11: OB! Come on!

PrinceSparky11: Don’t leave me on read!

There was a pause for a few minutes and Katara picked her phone back up

PrinceSparky11: Alright, Goodnight OB

Katara sighed and plugged in her phone. She placed it on her side table and slid under her covers. 

[+.+]

Katara opened her notebook and pulled out her phone until her teacher got there. She bit her lip as she opened the messaging app.

PrinceSparky11: Mornin OB

Katara typed back a ‘Good Morning’ before scrolling through her social media page.

“Nice phone case.”

“Thanks.” Katara said as she looked up and then did a double take as Zuko walked by. Katara flipped over her Voltron phone case and watched as Zuko took his seat in the back. He raised his eyebrow at her and Katara turned back to her phone.

“Alright class!” Mr. Boomi walked into the room. “I’ve got partner assignments today!” The whole class groaned. Mr. Boomi passed around his bowl of numbers to decide who would be with who. 

Katara smiled as she took out her number. “7.” She whispered to herself and passed the bag onto the girl sitting next to her. She gathered up her items and prepared to move seats, when someone asked the girl next to her to move. 

Katara turned and watched as Zuko took the seat next to her. Zuko flashed her a smile and Katara squinted her eyes at him just a bit. Zuko flashed his paper with a number 7 in Mr. Boomi’s handwriting. She sat her stuff back on the countertop and watched as the others moved around.

“Hey.” Zuko tapped his pencil on her notebook.

Katara gave a halfhearted smile. Great, looks like she’ll be the only one doing the work this assignment. At least you’ll get an A. “Hi.”

Mr. Boomi passed out the assignment and smiled at the two of them, “Well this seems like an unfair advantage.”

You’re telling me. Katara smiled at the voice in her head. Katara looked down at the assignment. It looked easy enough.

“So,” Zuko started.

Here we go.

“It’s Katara right?” 

“Yeah, and you’re Zuko. Look, I’ll put your name on the paper. Just try not to burn off either of our eyebrows.” Katara flipped the instruction page. Before her eyes widened as she realized what she just said. She whipped her head towards him, “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean-!”

Zuko was chuckling and shook his head as he took the assignment from Katara. “I’ll let that slide as long as you let me put my name first on the paper.” He winked at her and Katara felt herself gape at him for a moment.

[+.+]

PrinceSparky11: OB

PrinceSparky11: Do you think we know each other?

Oc3anB3nd3r: Sparky, there’s not many of Voltron fans this far south of Crescent Island.

PrinceSparky11: So, the percentage that we’ve met is…

Oc3anB3nd3r: Definitely in the 90s percentile.

PrinceSparky11: So, if I ask you to the homecoming dance Friday…

Katara blew out a breath. Them meeting. Her fingers hovered over her phone. The bell rang and Katara put her phone away and stuffed it into her backpack. She shuffled with everyone to the exit. She bumped into Mai when they stepped out to the parking lot. 

Mai looked over her shoulder with disgust, “Move, loser.”

Katara rolled her eyes as she watched Mai wrap her arms around Zuko. He smiled as she kissed his cheek but moved out of her arms to lean against his motorcycle. Katara always wondered if he knew about Mai’s library catalog of boys. But the way they continue to hold hands and stay in a lengthy relationship. She looked away from them and made her way to Sokka’s truck. Katara slid in and pulled out her phone and opened the messaging app.

Oc3anB3nd3r: I might say yes.

[+.+]

Katara unlocked her phone and relocked it. She unlocked it to read the message again.

PrinceSparky11: i’ll meet you there

PrinceSparky11: On the dancefloor.

PrinceSparky11: My mask is very… us

Katara locked her phone again, putting her phone in the dress pocket and took a deep shaking breath. Sokka patted her back before making his way down the stairs. He knew about her meeting a fan tonight. He still wasn’t completely okay with Katara having internet friends. But he figured here was as good as place as any. He could keep a watchful eye on her, and she could meet an internet friend.

Katara followed Sokka down the stairs. Her dark red, two piece dress swished around her legs, causing the spilt to open and show a jeweled thigh piece every other step. She blew out a breath as she made it to the bottom of the stairs. She touched her mask as someone walked by and smiled at her.

Katara looked over the sea of heads and noticed where a majority of people danced. She looked around the dancefloor a few times before walking after Sokka to the drink table.

“What are you doing? Go meet your friend!” Sokka knocked shoulders with her.

“I don’t… What if they don’t like me?” Katara said as she reached for a glass of punch. 

Sokka grabbed the punch from her and handed her a small bottle of water. “Someone not like my sister? Ha. Not possible.” 

Katara pouted but unscrewed the lid of the water, “You don’t like me most of the time.”

“But I love you all of the time,” Sokka patted the top of her head. “Besides I’m your brother. We aren’t supposed to like each other all the time. That would be weird.” Katara couldn’t help but pout for a little longer. “Alright, come on. What do they look like so we can get this over with?”

“I, uh don’t know.” Katara bit her lip and pulled out her phone.

“You don’t know?!” Sokka turned to her so fast she thought his drink would come out of his glass. “How do you not know what they look like?!”

Katara shrugged, “We didn’t exchange face pictures.”

“You exchanged other types of pictures?!”

“No! Sokka! Calm down! No!” Katara reached out a hand to her overly concerned brother. “We just never exchanged pictures. I don’t know what they look like. All he said was that he would be wearing a mask that was very us.” Katara opened her phone to show him the message.

“He?!” Sokka practically screeched. “You didn’t tell me this internet friend was a he! Nuh-uh. Nope we are going back home. Come on.” Sokka began to pull her way.

But Katara caught sight of a mask across the room. It was like a phantom half mask, black with “Altean” marks that bled light blue down the mask. Katara stopped as his face turned, and he caught eyes on her. Sokka was pulling on her arm but Katara wasn’t moving. He looked to where she was staring across the room.

Katara stood there as they seemed to have a conversation of, “I am, are you?”

Katara’s grip tightened on her phone as her “friend” made his way across the room. When he was about four steps away from her the lights swept over his face and confirmed maybe her worse nightmare. 

Where the mask didn’t cover the other half of his face sat a pink scar. “OB?”

Katara let out a soft ‘ha’ before shaking her head. “Sparky?” 

His face lit up and he pointed to himself, “Yeah that’s me!”

Katara looked around for someone to jump out and scream, ‘Gotcha!’. Then looked back at Zuko’s face which had fallen somewhat.

“What?” 

“Nothing, it’s just.” Katara looked around again. Somehow Sokka had left her alone or maybe she left him a little. But now she didn’t see him at all. 

“Just?” Zuko looked around as well, trying to track her eyes. 

“You’re,” Katara licked her lips, “Zuko.”

“Oh,” Zuko looked down and shoved his hands into his pockets. “I know the, uh, mask is on the wrong side. It kind of gives it all away.” 

“No, it’s not-”

Zuko scoffed, “No, I get it. I do. I just thought, you’d look past that.”

“Zuko, it’s not the scar.” Katara shook her head.

“Then what?” 

“I just want to know who put you up to it.” Katara bit her lip and then looked away. “Another lost bet? You had to trick me to get me here?”

“What? No!” Zuko reached out to her, but Katara took a step back. “I don’t even know who you are.” Katara’s eyes widened under her mask. “I mean - I know who you are. I just don’t know-”

Katara nodded and began to walk away. 

“No, wait! I didn’t mean that either! Not like that!”

“My name,” Katara pulled away the hand Zuko reached out for. “What’s my name?”

“Uh,” Zuko stood there a little dumbfounded. Katara shook her head and began to walk away again. She could find Sokka and get out of here. “Wait, OB!” Zuko jumped in front of her. “Let’s talk. I mean it will be great to talk to someone who actually gets me.”

“Actually, gets you?” Katara’s eyebrows wrinkled in more annoyance than confusion. “Zuko, I’m not like you at all. So, why don’t you run back to Mai before she finds her another flavor and sneaks to the historical section.” 

“Flavors? Mai?” 

“Yeah, your girlfriend, go find her. I’m sure she understands it all more than I do.”

“I broke it off with her,” Zuko mumbled.

Katara looked up to him, “Yeah, sure.” She shrugged her shoulder and began walking away again. “But you’ll somehow end up together again. I mean you always do.”

“No, it’s for good this time.” Zuko sounded almost lost. Katara turned around to see his hands were shoved back in his pockets. “We weren’t really together anyway. More for the show of it I guess.”

“That’s a long ass show.” Katara blew out a breath before grinning. “Sounds even more tragic than season 8.” 

Zuko cracked a smile, “Fine, if by the end of the night I haven’t guess who you are correctly, you can officially unfriend me on social media and in real life.”

Katara raised an eyebrow at that and gave a moment of suspense, “Okay, deal.”

Zuko’s smiles widened, “Then,” Zuko bows as he holds out his hand. “How about a walk about the… outside of the school.” Katara laughed and put her hand in his.

They made their way through the crowded venue, then walked outside and through the little gardens around the place. “You know, no matter who you are, you’ll always be OB to me.” Zuko was the first to break the silence.

“Ha ha, sure Sparky.” Katara looked over at him. They had dropped hands when they exited the loud ball. “So, you really don’t know who I am?”

Zuko tilted his head towards her before looking up at the sky, “I know you, I just-,” Zuko grinned over to her. “You’ve got a good mask.”

Katara touched the black and red mask. It wasn’t nearly as fancy as a few she had seen inside. “Well it wouldn’t be any fun for me if I just took off my mask.”

Zuko chuckled and nodded his head, “I guess not.” They walked a few more steps. “So, you’re a student here? In my graduating class? And you know who I am?”

“Yes, yes and yes.” Katara ticked off the yeses on her fingers. “If we are playing twenty questions, you’re going to run out of questions asking the obvious questions.”

“Good point,” Zuko nodded to her, they turned the corner of a walkway. 

The gardens were filled with fairy lights in the trees and along a few bushes. The walkway was lined with little lanterns leading around the garden. A large fountain sat in the middle of the gardens. The couple slowly made their way to it.

“Do we have any classes together?” Zuko asked after a minute.

“One,” Katara nodded.

“Yes! Okay,” Zuko tapped his chin. “I won’t ask which one because I feel like you wouldn’t answer it.” He hummed and look around the garden. “Are you going to college? Do you know where you are going to college?”

“That’s two questions,” Katara held up two fingers. “Still, yes and Ba Sing Se University.”

“What for?” 

Katara peaked out of the side of her eye at him. He was studying her. Katara looked back to the pathway in front of her, “I was thinking of becoming a linguist.” Katara shrugged her shoulders and shook her head. “I know, it’s not anything big. But I’d like to travel the world and help people.”

“So, how many languages do you speak now?”

“There’s more than just learning the languages.”

“How many?” Zuko nudged her with his elbow.

“I’m almost fluent in three. And can translate two other languages but I just can’t get the guttural sounds down.” Katara touched her throat with a laugh. “I plan on being able to speak at least seven by the time I graduate. That’s seven languages not seven dialects.”

“Damn,” Zuko shook his head. “That would be pretty cool.”

Katara blushed and shoved her hands in her pockets, “Next question.”

The game went on for a long time. The walked the perimeter of the garden, then made their way to the fountain and walked around it at least three times, before Zuko finally stopped them and they sat on the edge of the fountain. 

“Okay, last question before I get to guess who you are.” Zuko looked at her in a very serious manner. Katara nodded and felt her heart race slightly. “Are you disappointed that I’m PrinceSparky11?”

Katara bit her lip and shook her head, “No.” She waited a minute as he looked over her again. “Shocked. Definitely. But no, I’m not disappointed.”

Zuko laughed and tucked a curl of her hair back behind her mask. “I know you OB. I do. I-”

Katara sat up straight suddenly and reached into her pocket. “Sorry, my brother is calling me. Hold on.” Katara got up and answered her phone. “Yes?”

Zuko looked around the garden and then to the girl who was talking on her phone. She gave a tight smile to him before turning. Zuko caught a glimpse of her phone case. It was cute. Definitely a fan made item. Wait, a minute… 

Katara hung up the phone and looked at him only for a minute with sadness all over her face. “I’m sorry. I have to go. Something happened to my grandmother! I need- I’m sorry.”

Zuko got immediately and shook his head, forgetting all about his game. “No, go. There’s no need to apologize, OB. Just let me know if you need anything.”

“Thanks, Zuko.” Katara gave a wavering smile before pulling off her shoes and took off.

+++

Katara sat in her chair the following Monday and pulled out her phone. Her grandmother was doing better but was still in the hospital doing recovery. She locked and unlocked her phone a few times.

“Good Mornin’, OB.” 

Katara paused a moment before looking up from her phone and to Zuko, “Morning, Sparky.” Zuko chuckled and sat down next to Katara. “How did you guess?”

Zuko reached over and tapped her phone case. “I never would have known without this.”

“My case,” Katara shook her head. “If I wouldn’t have had to take the call, would have said my name?”

“Does it matter now?” Zuko stretched and went on, “To be honest, all I could think while you were answering those questions was that I knew you. But you were just OB. You were just my friend. It really didn’t matter who was behind the mask. I already knew I liked you. So, mask or no mask, behind a messaging app or in real life, I knew I wanted us to always be friends.”

Katara blushed and looked away from him, “That was really sappy for it only being 9 o’clock in the morning.” Katara rests her head in her hands that are propped up on her desk. She turns her head just slightly. “But I wouldn’t have you any other way Sparky.”

1041

survey by chasingghosts

What is the age gap between you and your parents? 27 for both. Technically, 26 years with my mom since she had yet to celebrate her birthday when she had me, but she was going to turn 27 all the same. Guh. I can’t believe I’m just five years away from that and I’m still nowhere near building my own family.

How many bathrooms does your house have? Is this enough? Two. I’d say it’s enough. Two people in the family rarely have to go to the bathroom at the same time so it works out for us.

Have you sent a letter to anyone in the past year? Yeah. I used to give Gabie a handwritten letter every Christmas along with her gifts. I still plan on writing her one, but obviously the content will be vastly different now.

Have you ever video chatted with someone you met online? I did this with Carley a handful of times; we’d video chat when I came home from school which was around the time she would get ready for school. She was such an extrovert who was so lovely and bubbly around me, and I’ve always felt bad that she had to contend with my shy ass with my mic always muted lol.

Are you hungry or thirsty right now? I’m neither but I can go for a light meal right now, which is great because I got myself a chicken barbecue sandwich and a caramel macchiato from Starbucks as a treat for myself tonight :) I went through five video call meetings just for today alone, went through several breakdowns while at work, and am also on my period, so I thought I deserved a break.

When was the last time you ate something, and what did you eat? Literally just had a bite from my sandwich.

Have you ever seen the film Boondock Saints? Nope. Sounds nothing like my type of film.

Do you own a pair of gumboots? Nah. I don’t like walking in floods anyway, so I don’t plan on getting a pair.

What colour is your favourite mug? Copper.

How far away from your town/city is your state's capital city? I already live in my province’s capital.

Have you ever worked somewhere where you had to clean the toilets? I haven’t.

Do you know anyone named Doug? No, not really a common name here.

What cut of jeans is your favourite and why? Do mom jeans count as a cut? I’ve been all over those throughout 2020. They’re stylish and yet so comfy, which are two words that seldom go together.

Do you rate people's attractiveness on a scale of 1-10? Uhhhhhhhh unless a friend asked me to rate someone they know, I don’t really think in these terms.

Name a few of your favourite actors. Kate freaking Winslet. Also Kristen Stewart, Emma Stone, Audrey Hepburn, Brie Larson, Florence Pugh, and Eddie Redmayne. I’d name Timothée Chalamet but I have yet to see a work of his.

Do you collect anything, or have you ever? The first item I ever collected was notebooks. In my past relationship (is it obvious I’m not over it yet and probably never will be? Ha) I initially liked to collect receipts from places we went to and ate at. I’d also like to be able to grow a collection of wrestling memorabilia, particularly action figures and belts. It’s not really a life goal of mine but it’d still be a cool thing to achieve.

So, how has your week been so far? I mean it’s only Monday, so nothing much. I cried and broke down a lot today which wasn’t a good start, but tomorrow’s a holiday so no work; and for Thursday I was invited to the Christmas party of the department I initially interned at and apparently they’ll be sending over a Christmas kit over to my place so I’m looking forward to these! It’s super touching they remembered and still invited me even though I’m not a part of the team anymore, so I wouldn’t have missed the party for the world.

Is there anything that you could cry about right now? Definitely, and being on my period at the moment makes it so much easier to cry. But I already cried too much and too hard earlier today and it felt exhausting, so I’m trying to avoid it tonight.

How old were you when you learned how to tie your shoelaces? I was five. I probably would’ve made myself learn later but one of our ‘exams’ in kindergarten was to show that you know how to tie your shoelaces, so I had to ask my grandma to give me a crash course.

Have you ever slept in a car overnight? Why did you have to? Yeah. I had to pull several all-nighters in college and work at 24/7 coffee shops, but I usually gave up by around 2-3 AM and would sleep in the car by then.

When was the last time you used Facebook? Earlier this evening, but I couldn’t scroll too much because spoilers for Start Up are everyyyyyyfuckingwhere and I’m still several episodes away from the finale, which aired last night.

Do you have a PO Box or does your mail get sent straight to your house? Our mails and parcels get sent straight to our door.

Are you interested in entomology? Do you know what that is? Never been. I think it’s great that insects have a lot of capabilities and contributions that we often take for granted; but I personally find a great deal of them icky as well lol so I wouldn’t say I’m interested in this branch.

Have you ever had to claim insurance? What for? Hmm I don’t think so. Not my own nor my parents’. Do you like to listen to albums start-finish without skipping or shuffling? I’ll do this sometimes with my favorite albums, yes. Fuck knows how many times I listened to After Laughter from start to finish with no skips; it was my favorite for a while.

Do you have any unspoken enemies, or maybe frenemies? I’m not the biggest fan of Patrice, but it’s not something I broadcast to people because why would I? I’m sure she slightly does not like me too, so we’re even.

What was the last thing you broke? That would be my last phone charger cord. I’ve since had it replaced though.

Do you have a favourite state/province/territory in your country? Not necessarily an overall favorite but I do have a favorite place I’ve traveled to, which is Sagada. I need a second vacation to see if it still lives up to my expectations and if it would still be able to give me an experience as cathartic and therapeutic as my first trip there, but for the last five years it has sat on the throne.

How many vowels are in your street name? Is this question too mundane? Three. I mean I’ve never been asked this on a survey before, so I wouldn’t call it that.

What are your three top favourite flavours of ice cream? Cookies and cream, chocolate chip cookie dough, coffee.

How far away is the nearest Target? At least a couple thousand miles away.

Do you prefer Target, Kmart or Walmart? Idk and idc.

Have you ever farted in class or somewhere else you shouldn't have? No. I suppress my farts, even when I’m alone haha it’s just my least favorite bodily function.

What's your middle name? Would you change it? I’m not giving it away. I wouldn’t change it and I’m definitely not giving it up even if I get married. I’m keeping my middle name then just hyphenate my surname so that I get to keep all three names.

When was the last tie you wore heels? What was the occasion? September. Job interview for a position I didn’t really want but still chose to undergo because it was still an interview.

Do you find yourself lost for words often? I guess yeah, depression does tend to do that to me.

Did you share baths with your siblings/cousins when you were a child? Yep, I remember sharing the shower with my sister as late as when I was 10. Then puberty happened to me and I did not want to continue the practice anymore, haha.

Have you ever been a member of an online dating site? How did it go? I joined Tinder while I was in a relationship (she made an account as well at the time so it was fair game) literally just to people-watch. I wasn’t interested in cheating; I was just genuinely curious to see how the app worked. I put on a fake name, age, location and my profile photo was of a cat I saw in school so it was impossible to tell it was me.

Do you know what your neighbours even look like? I would not be able to recognize them if you lined them up with a bunch of other strangers, to tell you the truth. I’d probably be able to recognize the carpenters working on the house currently being constructed in front of ours though; they’re super nice and they’re crazy over Cooper haha.

How many siblings does your best friend have? Angela is an only child.

Do you put ketchup on your fries? No. Ketchup does not go anywhere near my fries.

Have you been lucky enough to make out with anyone in the past week? LOL lucky enough...but no, I haven’t done that in a while.

Have your parents ever worked in the agriculture business etc. on a farm? Neither have.

Do you have an ex that makes you angry with literally everything they do? No.

Are you easily susceptible to brain freeze? No but tooth sensitivity, yes. I have a certain tooth that acts up whenever I eat ice cream, and it can get soooo inconvenient and uncomfortable for a few seconds.

VolFes 2020 Shop Event Report

That got intense so fast.

Crossposted at Wanderlust.

Because of the current situation and the company probably not wanting to risk it, VolFes 2020 got cancelled and instead was turned into a pop-up shop so that they can sell the goods meant for the event.

Around an estimate of 99.5% of Japan events are mostly all about buying merch, so it felt like a bloodbath of sorts as everyone around me was spending money like it grew on trees (someone I know spent at least USD2,000 for merch alone). I’ve been attending Voltage events for three years now and it always amazes me how far the fangirls will go to spend for their favorite character (I’ll be calling them ‘oshi’ [推し]) from this point forward.

As mentioned in this post, it is always good to go to an event on the very first day to avoid disappointment and loathing when the merch you’re eyeing gets sold out.

I took a leave from work for Day 1 of VolFes 2020 Shop as I knew that it would get crazy; the last few merch buying events I’ve been to left me exhausted, even if all I did was buy. It can get pretty intense at times since the people I hang out with can really get wild with the buying spree.

It was announced in the website that they would allow a free-for-all-entry to anyone wanting to buy goods after 2PM. My friend Y and I took this opportunity to eat lunch and relax since it’ll take time; between her and I, she was more tense and kept checking Twitter for any announcements. As for me, I was a bit more chill, knowing that if they run out of goods, I could still buy online.

If you’ve read my past entry, Y is a huge Saizo fan, so she’s more into this merch buying than I since she has to compete with a lot of fangirls for Saizo goods. I’m happy that with Masamune and Ieyasu, the competition for merch for the both of them isn’t as tense as Saizo’s.

The Chara announced on Twitter that the free-for-all entry would be delayed by an hour, so we took our time to have some dessert, then head off to Ikebukuro Marui. While waiting for the distribution of the designated timeslot tickets, Y and I decided to go to the nearby bank so that I could get some money (thought to pay in cash to keep the expenses lower), and on our way back, Y met an acquaintance who was just on their way out as they were done buying merch.

The acquaintance started asking Y what she would be buying this time around, and Y confessed to not buying anything related to Ouji/Be My Princess series as she had gotten disappointed before with her merch pick. 

(Spoiler alert: her oshi is Ivan Chernenkov, she tried to get can badges of him by buying up to the maximum number of can badges allowed in one transaction (20 for that event), and ended up with no Ivan. That traumatized her that she swore off buying merchandise from that series.)

Acquaintance was with a friend, who then started asking Y if she could buy 20 (!!!) can badges from Ouji-sama no Propose EK (Be My Princess 2) 10th Anniversary art plus a bromide from MiraPuri (Kagami no Naka no Princess Love Palace), with 20 being the limit for can badge purchases.

At that point, Y turned to me, who was simply listening to the conversation, and said, “Kiyo isn’t buying any Ouji trading can badge merch, right?”

I gave her a confused look. “Yeah, I’m sticking to KoiRan and Ouji, with hardly any trading merch on my list.”

The acquaintance’s friend then straight-up asked me, “If you don’t mind, would you buy me 20 more can badges for Ouji EK 10th Anniversary art? I’ll give you some money to cover for the expense.”

I then took out my list (in Google Sheets); the acquaintance’s friend started dictating to me her wishlist. Upon seeing my list written in English, she gave me a look and then said, “Oh… uh, I can’t read English–”

“No worries, I got you covered and I wrote it down. So you want 20 can badges for Ouji EK…”

“Yeah, the ones with the grandsons! 20 of those, and one bromide from MiraPuri!”

Total cost of the merch was JPY9,020, enough for her to get three bonus postcards from MiraPuri.

We then promised to meet up after the buying so that we could hand over the goods, then off we went inside the building to wait for the ticket distribution.

This is the part when my friends and their other friends (at that point, I didn’t know them) got really disappointed and pissed at the free-for-all entry system that had a designated timeslot entry ticket.

If you didn’t know by now, if there’s one thing that sets off a local in this country, it’s the horrible queue/entry ticket system. It’s no exaggeration when someone says that queuing is a national sport/pastime, so if an event is crowded but has a good queue management system, a lot of people would be willing to put up with that.

However, if there are fewer people but the management is horrible, people would really criticize the hell out of it.

Which brings us to Day 1 of VolFes 2020: the website states that the entry ticket they will be handing out will be given at random, which means that even if you arrive late during the distribution of the entry ticket, there is still a chance for you to be able to secure an early timeslot.

Ex. Person A arrives at the venue at 1:30PM and has been waiting for the entry ticket distribution to start, which is an hour away. There’s a chance that they’d be given an entry ticket for the last time slot, which is at 7:40PM ~ 8:00PM.

Person B arrives at the venue at 2:30PM, the designated start of the distirbution of the numbered tickets. There’s a chance that they could get the earliest time slot to buy goods, which is at 3:00PM ~ 3:20PM.

What upset my friends was that when it was time to distribute the tickets, everyone made a run for it as soon as we were asked to queue, and when they gave us the entry ticket, we got a really late timeslot since we were positioned at nearly the end of the line. 

In other words, the entry tickets they gave us was based on how "late" we got to the line; the ones that got ahead of us got an earlier slot, despite the fact that the website mentioned that the time slot on the entry ticket would be shuffled and handed out at random.

Everyone around me was ranting about how half-assed (they all kept throwing the word 中途半端 [chuu’to han’pa]) the whole system was (they could have stuck with a full online timeslot reservation system for Day 1 and Day 2), and how they didn’t go through with the promise of giving out the entry tickets that shuffled the entry time of the attendees in the spirit of equality and fairness, while I figured out the loophole of the system. 

No matter how early you arrive, if you’re not fast enough to queue for the entry tickets as soon as they ask you to, high chance of you being given the last timeslot.

Since we had two hours and twenty minutes to kill, we all headed for dessert at a nearby cheap restaurant and just chatted with one another until it was time to go in.

Unlike last year, VolFes 2020 is smaller, more compact, and you had less time to have fun and enjoy.

Admittedly, the merch line up is better and much more gorgeous, but goodness, there’s just too many of them that it was difficult for me to decide which one I should purchase.

In the end, I decided to skip out on buying the maximum number allowed for buying random merch and stuck it out with getting 3 ~ 4 can badges.

To prevemt the spread of the virus, anyone who enters Ikebukuro Marui and the building had to wear a mask, sanitize their hands, and had 20 minutes to complete their shopping, from picking out the merch to paying at the checkout counter. They only allowed up to 8 people at a time at the shop so you had to plan your purchases. All of us shopping had a list that we referred to while searching for the goods because entry to the venue was controlled and you are not allowed to go back in anymore after paying. 

If you missed out on an item, you’ll have to ask someone whose timeslot to buy the goods is different from yours to buy your merch, you go back the next day, or you order online, which means there’s a three-month waiting period before you receive the item.

Day 1 of the shop was on a Friday so I still had another day to think about any additional purchases, so even if I missed out buying merch, it’s not really a big deal.

[I’m chill that way]

With the buying done, my friends and I headed to another cheap restaurant across the street. Just like last year, the majority of them used that time in the restaurant not to eat, but to open their merch in blind packaging to check and see who they got. If it’s their oshi, they keep it, but for the ones that are not their oshi, they carefully place both the item and the shining packaging inside a ziplock back so that they could trade it with the others.

After we ordered dinner, Y got a message that her acquaintance was at the restaurant we were at, which meant it was time for me to hand over the merch. The girl who asked me to buy for her was so thankful that I think I actually got really shy over it haha.

When I got back to my table, the food was there, so I ate dinner and continued chatting with Y, who also took the time to multitask by eating and opening the merchandise she got. Sad part was, not one of the items she bought for Day 1 contained Saizo, which made me feel sad for her. It’s really rough when you spend so much and end up with no oshi; it’s really the worst feeling in the world.

Y had an early day for Day 2 of VolFes 2020 Shop so we all parted ways early as everyone was exhausted from stressing out whether merch would get sold out on Day 1 and from simply buying goods.

Day 2 wasn’t that eventful, aside from us buying more goods (I bought Ivan’s goods this time around as my priority was Yakov’s), and I ended up trading all my Saizo goods with Y for other characters. Nothing against Saizo, but I know that someone who isn’t me would actually cherish him more than I will ever do.

———-

Not sure if anyone’s interested to see what I bought, but let me know if you’d want me to post photos of my haul.

———-

More event photos:

End-of-the-year Dream Owls

I translated the Fukurodani lottery ticket chapter!

The battle game Akaashi references towards the start is Pokemon! “Charm” and “Flatter” are translated from the Japanese Pokemon moves. Had to look those ones up haha.

Under the cut!

It happened on an early morning, with hints of sunrise still left in the sky.

Daybreak had just passed, and a certain town in Tokyo was still engulfed in a chilly air. Akaashi Keiji buried his nose in his tightly-wrapped scarf, hurrying his way to school.

It was winter break, and there weren’t many passers-by at the train station, but with the Spring High Tournament right before their eyes, Fukurodani Volleyball Club had training from the morning.

There’s no use complaining, but it’s tough in the winter mornings. He didn’t think it was a human’s nature, to push through cold and drowsiness. Akaashi recalled the weather report he glanced at, as he was leaving.

“Tomorrow, there will be snow in the mountains.” The reporter had said with a bright smile, but Akaashi didn’t know what part of temperatures dropping made the reporter so happy.

He pushed his hands, numb from the cold, into his pockets, and walked on, hunched over.

“Um…”

His arm was suddenly tugged on.

He turned around, and a woman was apologetically looking up at him, beside the bus stop. It wasn’t someone his age. It wasn’t a child, or a middle-aged woman either. It was an elderly woman. She held paper bags in her hands, and carried a small rucksack on her back. She had a lot of baggage.

“Sorry to bother you. Does this bus go to the general hospital?”

Akaashi glanced at the destinations list of the bus stop, but of course he didn’t know about the route of a bus he doesn’t usually go on. “Wait a moment, please.” He looked at the route map of the bus stop, but there was no hospital name in question.

He could have just said, “It doesn’t,” and left. It wasn’t like he had left his house with time to spare.

But the dependent look in her eyes, as she shrunk with the cold, glued Akaashi’s feet to the ground. Perhaps he’d seen something like it in a video game that he used to play as a child. Was it “Charm”? No, it might have been “Flatter”... He takes out his phone, and looks up the route map of the buses.

“It’s the bus stop on the opposite side of this road, the one with number three written on it.”

He points, and the old lady murmurs, “Oh, it’s the opposite side. Thank you kindly.” She bowed.

“Oh-”

On the old lady’s back, Akaashi noticed that the rucksack was left open. But it was already too late. The contents of the bag fall onto the ground with a thud. A purse, a foldable umbrella, a thermos…

“Oh, my.”

The old lady bent down to pick her things up, but a paper bag fell from her hand. From the bag, a few apples began rolling out onto the ground.

“I’ll pick it up.”

So don’t move, I’m begging you, don’t move anymore. Akaashi punctuated his sentence with his thoughts in mind, picking up the fallen items and placing them back into the rucksack and paper bag.

He looks around, and makes sure that the rucksack is buttoned properly. It’s fine now, he can go to volleyball now.

“I’m sorry for your trouble. Being old is no good, isn’t it?”

“It’s fine. I’m going to school, now.”

“I’m really sorry for keeping you.”

“It’s fine.”

Akaashi ended the conversation with a light bow, and began to walk hurriedly to school, but his reddened ears picked up the old lady’s muttered words.

“On the other side of the road… Oh my, the traffic lights are quite far away…”

Akashi turned around at the alarming words, and his bad feeling turned out to be true. There was no zebra crossing anywhere, but the old lady was looking around, attempting to cross the road. She was about to step out onto the road, but cars were passing normally.

“Hey-! Um, please, wait a moment!”

“Hm?”

The old lady stops, and a car runs right past her.

“Is there another problem?” She smiles, as if nothing has happened.

Yes, there very much is a problem, Akaashi thinks, but he swallows his words with a cool expression and says something else.

“Actually, I’ll take you to the bus stop.”

“Oh my, you’re awfuly kind..”

Before she can bow deeply, he offers his hand. He can’t risk having something belonging to her roll out onto the ground again.

“I’ll hold your bags.”

At that moment, Akaashi could hear in his mind Bokuto Koutarou laughing, “Eyyy, Akaashi, you’re late! What would you like for a penalty?” and shuffling near him, but it couldn’t be helped. Human life came first.

They crossed the zebra crossing a few metres away, and arrived at the bus stop safely. “Thank you very much,” the old lady said, placing her bag down and digging inside. Not noticing Akaashi’s stern gaze, concerned that she may spill her belongings again, she pulled out her purse. “I have it, thank goodness.”

“Here’s my thanks. It’s nothing much, but please take it.”

“Huh.”

Akaashi flinches, wondering if he’s getting money. He only carried her bags. He can accept an apple, but money is different.

“No, thank you.”

“It really isn’t much. Take it. It’s just a token of my appreciation.”

But what the lady took out of her purse was not money. Akaashi accepted the colourful paper he was handed, and his eyebrow twitched.

“Wait. This is…”

“Yes, a lottery ticket. The end-of-the-year one.”

Why.

“I’m only going to tell you this, but this is first prize. It’s worth seven hundred million yen.”

The old lady was smiling softly, but that was not how a lottery worked. The results would be announced on New Year’s Eve. He starts to wonder if this person is okay, in more ways than one.

As he remained shocked at the unexpected gift, the bus came. The old lady hopped on with a “I’ll be going now, thank you very much.” The driver gave Akaashi a “Are you getting on or not?” look as he stood there blankly, and closed the door when he concluded that he wasn’t getting on.

“What? This thing…”

The waving old lady’s face fades into the distance. Akaashi glanced at the bus getting smaller and smaller, and the lottery ticket in his hand, blown by the north wind as he stood at the bus stop.

“And that’s why I was late.”

Akaashi said, and displayed the lottery ticket in question. The club members, who were about to head over to the gymnasium, crowded around Akaashi.

“Let’s see, let’s see.”

“Such a devotion to parents.”

“It wasn’t his parent.”

Bokuto, the captain, takes the lottery ticket from Akaashi.

“Hmmm… and this is that, you say.”

“She said we’ll win seven hundred million, but I wonder if it was okay leaving her alone…”

Not even noticing his underclassman’s conscience, Bokuto rubbed and flicked at the paper. “Group number 13, Number 117532.” He played around with it, placing it up to light, but eventually stared at Akaashi, exclaiming in a high voice, “So, I think… That old lady is a real

God!”

“Wha?”

Akaashi assumed that he’d heard wrong, but Bokuto repeated himself clearly, in a voice that made the lockers in the club room shake.

“I’m saying, that old lady is a real God! We’ll definitely win first prize! We’re getting seven hundred million yen-!!”

Bokuto made a fist pump, hyped up on his own. Komi Haruki, the libero, laughed at Bokuto’s bold remarks.

“Keep the noise down. seven hundred million, huh? But what if we use up our luck now, and lose in the Spring High?”

“Don’t say that…” Washio Tatsuki says with a serious expression, and gets his back patted by Konoha Akinori.

“Ooh, so we shouldn’t ask for too much, and be happy with one hundred and fifty million. I’m sure God’ll make it convenient for us.” Konoha laughs it off.

“Oh, you’re going along with nonsense?” Sarukui Yamato laughed wryly as if to tease him, but Konoha spoke as if it were nothing.

“Because it’s more fun that way. It’s not like we lose anything if it’s not a winning ticket.”

“Well, yeah. So, we’ll say it’s a thanks from God, and aim for the secondary prize!”

A light laugh filled the club room, and it seemed as if the story had ended there. Akaashi’s lottery ticket, Bokuto’s jokes, Washio’s worry, it was all meant to be lumped into a conclusion of “It’d be great if we got a secondary prize. Now that the situation’s all wrapped up, we should head to practice.

But, the predictable, social-etiquette conversation did not work with Bokuto.

“Oi, Saruu, it’s not like that.”

Sarukui, having been called, turns around with an “Eh?”. As soon as he sees Bokuto’s face when he shifts beside him, he realises it’s a face he pulls when he’s going to be a pain. All of Fukurodani volleyball club had gotten a sixth sense for Bokuto, and it was correct, again.

With an expression more serious than ever, Bokuto started blowing air out of his nose roughly.

“You guys… Can’t you be like! Have a stronger motivation, like gah! If you’re going to aim, aim for first prize! Second prize means nothing! Right, Onaga-kun!”

“Uh, it’s not second prize, it’s a secondary prize.” Onaga Wataru returned a fair point, and the rest of the club turned away, thinking, “He should have just said, yeah, yeah. Now it’s going to be even more of a pain in the ass.”

As predicted, Bokuto shouted, red-faced,. “I’m! Not talking about that!”

“Then, what were you talking about?”

“Own up to your mistakes.”

“Aaaargh, shut up!” Bokuto made his teammates shut their mouths, and continued. “All right! We’re watching the New Year’s Eve lottery together! We’ll see whether me, the believer of the lottery God, or you guys, is right!”

For some reason, Bokuto’s eyes were menacing. But he was ignored by the other voices of his teammates.

“What does it mean to be right?”

“First prize, secondary prize, second prize, if it’s in the hundred millions, does it matter?”

“Well, yeah.”

As the club members talk to themselves, Akaashi opened his mouth.

“Um, Bokuto-san.”

“What?”

Bokuto had a huge voice and an attitude, he was childish, and sulked easily. Akaashi approached his captain without any fear.

“This lottery ticket isn’t the whole club’s property, is it.”

“What’s yours is mine!”

“No, it isn’t.”

Akaashi answered calmly, and the club room’s foor opened.

“What are you guys bickering about, practice’s about to start.”

The two managers, Suzumeda Kaori and Shirofuku Yukie, popped their heads in. Cold air enters the room, that was heated up by a strange warmth.

“Today’s, like, really cold.”

“I heard your body won’t be warmed up if you don’t eat breakfast.”

Akaashi explained the lottery ticket incident to the two chatting managers.

“I see. Seven hundred million, one hundred and fifty million, shouldn’t we increase it with stocks either way?”

“Eeh, I’m fine with three thousand yen. Let’s go and eat something nice.”

“If the money doubles, so does the food.”

“Then, let’s increase the money.”

The managers were having a conversation that Akaashi couldn’t decide was dreamy or realistic.

“Our humanity shows.” Akaashi muttered.

That was the trigger.

Akaashi never expected such a statement he said without thinking to strangle his own neck. He’d begun to take pride in his Bokuto handling abilities, but even he couldn’t predict what Bokuto said.

“What?” Bokuto stared down at Akaashi. “...Hey. Is this lottery ticket real?”

“Wha?”

The realness, or the fakeness, of the lottery ticket. It’s not like he bought it himself, so it’s unclear whether it’s real. But fake bank notes aside, was there such a thing as a fake lottery ticket? And before the winning numbers were announced?

And why was Bokuto asking him that in the first place? Maybe he was thinking that they couldn’t cash it in, even if they won. But it was something he got from another person. Bokuto didn’t have to raise his eyebrows so much.

Bokuto changed his question, when Akaashi didn’t know what to say.

“The story about the old lady, is that a lie?”

“Huh?”

Before Akaashi would ask him why he would lie about that to explain why he was late, Bokuto shuts him down.

“You… Aren’t you testing our humanity with one lottery ticket?”

So that’s what it was.

Akaashi looked at Bokuto’s face.

His eyes were serious. It was the look of true suspicion.

“Of… of course not.”

“You… You’re laughing at our greediness!!”

Akaashi regretted his actions.

He still doesn’t understand how, what and where Bokuto will react to something…

He looked at his upperclassmen to ask for help, but their eyes did not have the usual compassion and connection of warmth. Instead, they turned suspicious, cold eyes at him.

“Akaashi, are you for real?”

“I never knew you were that kind of person.”

Akaashi is shaken by the change in attitude of his trusted third years.

“What…? No, it’s not like that. Obviously.”

But their stare of mistrust remained. Inside the small room, Akaashi realises he’s the only one standing out.

This can’t be happening.

Akaashi sighed, internally.

This was a pain in the ass.

Money really brought out the true colours of people. Or maybe the power of money changes personalities. Ugh, he shouldn’t have shown them the lottery ticket, and he shouldn’t have taken it in the first place. It was a mistake to stop for the old lady in the first place.

Really, it was too late for him to realise that there was nothing scarier than things given to him for free.

Akaashi looked at the faces of his teammates, consumed by suspicion, and prepared himself.

“...All right. We’ll spend the money on the club, for all of us.”

The response was very simple.

“Yeah! Let’s go and eat yakiniku every day after practice!”

“You’re the man loved by God, after all!”

“Hail the Great God Akaashi!”

Akaashi noticed that the situation was changing, as he observed his excited teammates.

These people were starting to believe that they were actually going to win the lottery…!

Well, he wouldn’t say believe, but they were getting excited about winning. Just a few minutes ago, it was just a topic of conversation for everyone except Bokuto. Since when…

A suspicion began rising up in Akaashi’s chest, as the tables turned. Of course, it wasn’t about the money. It was about his decision.

He wonders if he really did the right thing. Was it really the right thing to do, to stir up the situation by saying he would spend the money for the club…

The club members were already counting their chickens before they hatched. Yakiniku, cake buffet, a TV and video games in the club room, a training camp in Hawaii, no, a traning camp in the hot springs nearby first. The third years were going to retire soon, and they wouldn’t have another training camp, but they seem to have forgotten that.

What would happen if they didn’t win?

Akaashi imagined it.

First prize, secondary prize, second prize, even fifth prize worth three thousand yen, if they were to win it, they would all rejoice and get fired up on what to buy. But what if they didn’t even get sixth prize, worth three hundred yen?

Akaashi began to feel worry.

They were getting excited that they would win first prize, secondary prize,a present from God, but if they got nothing, even if they weren’t Bokuto, whose mental state went up and down like a rollercoaster, their motivation would lower. Akaashi definitely wanted to avoid going to Spring High with everyone’s condition shrivelled up.

But then, what would be the best thing to do?

Akaashi began to think.

1. Buy ten tickets, to make sure they would win at least three hundred yen- with his own money?

2. Get something that would get them hyped up even more than the lottery ticket- something above seven hundred million yen?

3. Lie that he lost the ticket, and make them give up- would he get away with it unscathed?

Akaashi furrows his brows, and a wrinkle appears between them.

The more he thought about it, the more effort it seemed to do any of the plans listed above. He didn’t want to do it. Why did he have to do so much, anyway?

“..........”

Akaashi shook his head sideways, a little.

Whatever.

It wasn’t his fault. He just treated an elderly person with kindness. He shouldn’t be blamed for that, and he doesn’t need to feel bad for it.

Whatever happens now, happens.

Akaashi finally entered the stage of acceptance, and stopped mulling over it. Opening his locker, he placed his belongings into it, calling to his teammates.

“Let’s start practice, now.”

And so, New Year’s Eve came. The end-of-the-year lottery, the number draws would be carried out. The club members were restless when they gathered in the gymnasium in the morning- “Finally, seven hundred million.” “That granny is definitely a God.” “Where will we have our hot springs training camp? Yufu-in? Noboribetsu?” “Do you even know where that is?” - but concentrated as normal when practice began.

Their stoicness could have been because they were a powerhouse school, that had gone through many experiences, but Akaashi thought that they were getting motivated by their greed for the lottery.

“At long last, huh?” Bokuto says, wiping the sweat off his brow. The clock on the wall read twelve.

“We’ll watch the draws after lunch, then.”

“Yeah. Our gorgeous, extravagant club life will commence soon!”

The third years are going to end their club life after Spring High, Akaashi thinks, but instead shoves his face in a towel. There’s no use raining on their parade and making it even more of a pain.

After lunch, everyone gathered in a corner of the gymnasium and huddled around one phone.

“I think this is the first time I’m using digital broadcasting services.”

“Whoa, really?”

“Why would you bother watching TV outdoors?”

“True.”

“Oi, it’s starting! Everyone, concentrate! Be quiet!”

“You’re the loudest, Bokuto.”

They were talking more than usual due to their nervousness, but their tone of voice became even higher when the programme started.

“Look, the roulette!”

“There’s a lot of people at the drawing hall. Well, I kinda feel bad for them. We’re getting first prize.”

“You’re acting high and mighty…”

“Oh, was I being kinda crappy?”

“But well, it can’t be helped. It’s first prize!”

“And what was our number again? Bokuto, show us the lottery ticket.”

“Alright!” Bokuto clapped his knees and stood up, reading out the number. “The number of fate is Group 13, 117532! Everyone, remember it!”

“No, we’re not gonna remember that.”

“One one seven five three two.”

“That’s not making it any easier.”

As they chatted and cracked jokes, the programme moved on, and an arrow was fired at the roulette with a goofy, pooping sound.

“The end number is three! So close!”

“Guess it’s not working.”

“It doesn’t matter. We’re first place anyway. Anyway, what’s our number?”

“I told you, it’s Group 13, 117532.”

And the draw for fifth prize-

“The last two numbers are 25.”

“We still have plenty of opportunities!”

But as they moved from third prize, second prize, the numbers started increasing, and numbers very different from 117532 are being read out. The hot air in the gymnasium starts cooling down, and their energy levels were less than when they just woke up. The numbers didn’t even match sixth prize, the one they were most likely to win.

“Well, this is reality.”

“Yeah. Maybe Akaashi’s grandma wasn’t a God, just a little bit senile?”

“She’s not my grandma.”

Amidst the defeated atmosphere, there was a man standing in the middle of it, bravely.

“Shut up! Listen up, our lottery ticket is a first prize lottery ticket!”

Only Bokuto hadn’t given up on the seven hundred million dream.

“Think of it this way. In an airplane, if even one person thinks they’re gonna crash, it’s gonna crash! If one person in a team thinks ‘Maybe we’re gonna lose’, we lose! We won’t win the lottery unless everyone believes we’ll win!”

“Wait, plane crash?”

As Sarukui muttered , the presenter raised his voice in the screen.

“Now, the seven arrows, carrying dreams, will soar!”

The switch was pressed, and the roulette deciding the first prize number began to spin. At last, the number that would win seven hundred million was being decided. The seven arrows were released all together, and shot the roulette. In order, the TV camera began to show the numbers.

1.

3.

“Wait, this is Group 13, right? We’re Group 13, too!”

“Whoa, for real?”

“Come on! 117532!”

1.

1.

7.

5.

“What….”

“Wait, perhaps… Maybe, it could be…!!”

The club members all paled, and stared at the roulette and the ticket in Bokuto’s hand.

“One one, seven, five, three, two, right.”

“Komi, you did remember it like that.”

“I think my stomach is hurting.”

“Shut up!”

As the team members were taken aback, Bokuto had a laid back expression.

“I told you so!”

Everyone’s eyes gathered to Bokuto. Their hearts shifted from the unclouded, confident expression Bokuto had. They could follow him, right? In the end, he was a reliable ace, right? He was an idiot, but if it was taken this far, it could be a talent.

The fact that it was “The lottery ticket Akaashi received” began fading, and everyone began to think of it as “Bokuto’s lottery ticket.”

“I don’t really mind,” Akaashi muttered in his mouth, and the screen showed the second last number.

3.

The gymnasium was filled with everyone’s rich voices.

“Oh my god, we’re going to win!”

“There’s no reason we won’t win!”

“God…”

“Two! Come on, two!”

“Yakiniku that isn’t an all-you-can-eat!”

“Training camp in Hawaii!”

“Motorcycle licence!”

“A luxury liner!”

“A kotatsu!”

“All volumes of Kochi Kame!”

“Live alone! In Kichijouji!”

The wants of the volleyball team members echo in the gymnasium. At the same time, the emotional voice of the presenter rang in the drawing hall.

“First prize is Group 13! Number 117538!”

117, 538.

“Eight?”

“So dumb.”

“It’s not even a secondary prize.”

“Meaningless…”

“Who said they wanted a kotatsu earlier? Just buy it normally…”

They’re all dragged back to reality, in an instant. Their dreams of being a billionaire disappears, and the sulking students roll onto the floor. In the middle, Bokuto was standing there, gripping the lottery ticket.

It’s the scene Akaashi had dreaded the most.

As Akaashi tried to plan how to fix the situation, Suzumeda took the lottery ticket from Bokuto’s hand, asking him to let her see. And as she looked all over the ticket, she bursts out laughing.

“This is last year’s. See?”

“What?”

Everyone gets up and gathers around, checking the year on the ticket. It really was from last year.

“What the hell…”

“I actually feel relieved now…”

Relaxed and given up, everyone heaved a sigh. Konoha laughs wryly, calling the second year that started it all.

“Oi, Akaashi!”

“Yes.”

“Bring the grandma in question here.”

“Can’t do that.”

“Then bring your grandma.”

“My grandmother has no part in this.”

As Konoha and Akaashi argue, Bokuto, who hadn’r moved an inch, stands up suddenly. He stared around, made a fist bump, and shouted.

“Hey hey hey hey heeeeey! We did it everyone! We can win now!”

At the out-of-place words and smile of their captain, Bokuto’s teammates give him a cold glance.

“What are you on about?”

“Your voice is loud.”

“I never knew you were so dumb, you didn’t notice we didn’t win…”

But Bokuto took no notice of his teammates’ cold voice, and puffed out his chest.

“Now, our luck will carry over!”

Everyone looked up at Bokuto, stupefied. They didn’t understand anything, and couldn’t think of words to say to him. Taking advantage of their silence, Bokuto started talking eloquently.

“Listen! We didn’t win seven hundred million, so now we have seven hundred million’s worth of luck! Now, combine that amount of luck with our skills…”

Realization dawns on them.

“So…”

“Are we all extremely powerful, at this moment?”

Bokuto nods hard, satisfied.

“Exactly! This year, we can surely win!”

The club members stared at each other.

“Well, I guess.”

“It’s kinda forced…”

“But, if we push it, that might be right.”

They had already fallen into the abyss, and so they depended on that little gleam of light. Who always stood vigorously on his own, when the team was standing on the edge of despair? It was Bokuto, their captain. The Ace’s job wasn’t just to earn points. The Ace was the one who gave hope to the team.

“Exactly! Goodbye, seven hundred million! And hello, winning championships!”

Bokuto stated loudly, and the Ace ripped up the lottery ticket, throwing it on his teammates’ heads like confetti. The pieces of dreams flew around, shining from the light gleaming through the window.

“Hey, what are you doing!”

“Ugh, man, you scattered rubbish around… Oi, Bokuto! Pick it up yourself!”

But the emotional support pillar of the team ran out of the gymnasium, saying, “Oh, I need to go to the bathroom.” And yelled down the hallway, “Akaashi, pick up the rubbish. Oi! Stop pretending you didn’t hear me!”

They returned to practice, and never checked the winning number from last year. If even one person had looked it up, they would have discovered that the lottery ticket was last year’s first prize ticket.

Lottery tickets could be exchanged for money for one year. The ticket ripped up by Bokuto and thrown away by Akaashi was still valid for another few days. But nobody ever found out, and the ticket expired the next year, on January the sixth.

SilveeLocke | Let's Go Eevee ZombieLocke | Pt. 2

I’ve got a good stock of back log and am going to be posting these every 3 days or so. I’ll continue to add to it as time goes on. But I need to give myself time to writ more haha. After that they will be consistently uploaded every Wednesday once we reach the current issue. I am currently working on part 10 as I post this.

♡♡♡

Part 2: Juniper Berries

♡♡♡

>Next Part

>Previous Part

>Part 1

>Meet Silviana

>Meet Xander

The laboratory smelled funny, nothing there brought comfort to her as the Professor talked to the only other child in the room. She rolled her only pokéball in her hand.

That, she could admit, was one of the only things keeping her comfort.

"Alright my boy, this is your brand new pokémon," Professor Oak opened the pokéball in his hand and a yellow pokémon came out.

"Pika-pi!" It cried and jumped into Xander's arms.

Xander laughed brightly, "Oh my god you're so cute!" He hugged the little pokémon tightly as it nuzzled his face, "I'm going to call you Spark!" The Pikachu happily cried out hearing its name for the first time.

Silviana lifted her pokéball to her chest, and with a click the ball opened all on its own. The little Eevee popped out onto the lab table she was standing next to. The little brown pokémon was giving her a look.

"Oh wow! Is that an Eevee! That's a pretty rare pokémon out in the wild!" Xander came over to the table with Spark still in his arms. The Eevee quickly turned to glare at him and his pikachu. It lashed its tail as he spoke, "You know I thought that it was mostly breeders that came to own rare pokémon like these," he pulled his face slowly closer to the Eevee.

The closer he got, the more Silviana could see the little pokémon's brow furrow. With a growl it barked loudly at Xander and made him jump.

"Wow! It's really got some spunk doesn't it!" Xander got a spark in his eye, "Hey! Why don't we have our first battle! We are rivals now after all." He smirked at her.

Silviana looked to the little brown pokémon on the table, "I don't know Xander, I kinda wanna just get goi–"

The Eevee jumped off the table, landing on the floor with a readied stance.

"Aww yea! That's the spirit!" He let go of his Pikachu.

As soon as Spark touched the floor, it was tackled by the Eevee. They rolled across the floor, the Eevee nimbly jumping out of the tussle while the Pikachu. The Pikachu in turn did not get up from the laboratory floor, it made little sounds as it lay there.

"Oh no! Xander I swear I didn't mean for it to do that! It doesn't listen to me for some reason!" Silviana clutched her arm.

Xander looked at his fainted Pikachu, he gave a nervous laugh, "Haha, well I guess we'll just have to watch out for you in the future then, huh?" He crouched next to Spark to pick him up gently.

Professor Oak came over, "No need to worry my boy, we can heal him right away." He pulled Xander over to one of the many machines in the laboratory.

"If you want to go on ahead I'll catch up as soon as Spark is healed!" He called back to her.

"If you say so," she called back to him. She looked over to the Eevee, "You should get back in your pokéball so it's easier for me to cary you." When she pulled out the pokéball, the little pokémon growled, "Well what do you want me to do carry you?"

The Eevee looked at her expectantly. Silviana rolled her eyes and crouched down, but the pokémon turned with a flick of its ear and started walking toward the exit. Silviana gave the Eevee an exasperated sigh and followed it to exit the building.

On their way out of town Silviana thought to herself, Xander was able to easily name his Pikachu... Why can't I come up with a name for you...

She looked at her Eevee. It half glanced back at her, with a flick of its little tail it looked back forward. She sighed and pulled her bag in front of her going through it to look for her phone. She pulled out a couple of pokéballs that the professor gave to her for her journey, still digging trough the backpack.

She felt something catch her foot and she fell with a thud, her face landing in the grass and the poéballs flying out of her hand into the grass ahead of her. She picked up her head, taking off her glasses, she rubbed her face.

Dang, I'm such a klutz today.

She looked to the Eevee who had its eyes half-glaring ahead. Silviana heard something shuffle in the grass ahead of her, she couldn't see past the tall grass though. She heard the cry of a strange pokémon and a flash of red. Hearing three clicks, she got up to look at what she had "caught".

Popping open the pokéball, a little grassy pokémon with vines and a yellow flowering head stared back at her.

"Well you look like a little Venus Fly Trap don't you?" Something clicked in her mind, "Oh that's perfect! I'll name you Trahp! Strange spelling of course 'cause it's cooler," she smiled at the Bellsprout, it gave a cute little quack in response. Silviana giggled and looked at the Eevee. It was unamused.

"Look I'm sorry I don't have a name for you still," she put Trahp back into the pokéball, "maybe you should come up with your own name." Silviana pouted, the Eevee used a paw to pat down the little tuft of hair on top of its head, then glared at her. She watched the pokémon continue on ahead and she march down the path following close behind.

As Silviana continued to ahead, she looked carefully at the little pokémon. Huh... Small, brown... Brownie! No that's stupid... She watched the Eevee stop and use it's paw to pat down the tuft of hair on its head again.

She looked at the color pattern on its fur and noticed the tail had dark stripes that stretched from the base and wrapped around its tail. It somewhat mimicked the little tuft of fur that was bothering the little pokémon.

Wow, that actually reminds me of... Blue skies, shaded clearing, a strong hand holding her up to pick the berries from...

"Junipur!" She halted and cried out. The Eevee stared back at her with a raised eyebrow, she crouched down next to it, "I'm going to call you Junipur." She smiled at Junipur and opened her arms for the pokémon to rush toward her.

Junipur looked at her for a moment before glancing off to the side. With a little nod of its head, it continued onward.

"Right," Silviana stood up somewhat disappointedly, "Junipur," she smiled softly as she caught up to the little brown pokémon.

◇◇◇

As they entered the little town of Veridian, Silviana pulled out a little list her mom had made for her.

"Right, so we need to go to the..." she squinted at the paper, "pokémart, to get some supplies before we head further," She looked at Junipur who just ignored her, "you can't walk into a grocery mart, I should carry you or something so they don't think your a wild pokémon. Since you refuse to get into your pokéball," she complained.

She called to Junipur and crouched down with her arms open. Junipur sat and stared at her for a long minute.

"Oh come on... We need to get going," Silviana put her hands on her knees, she saw Junipur rush toward her. When she caught the little pokémon in her arms it squirmed, Silviana tried to hold her a little tighter, "Hey! Stop! Ow! Your claws hurt!" She let go with a gasp. Junipur used this opportunity to climb onto Silviana's shoulder. She supported herself by resting her back legs on Silviana's backpack with her front paws gripping onto her shoulder.

Silviana looked at Junipur, "Oh, well I guess that can work." She continued to the pokémart. Junipur settled itself more onto Silviana's shoulder as they walked into the mart. The little pokémon continued to fuss with the tuft of fur on her head. As Silviana checked out with all of the items she needed, she looked down at the clear glass container at the counter. Pointing to one of the items in the glass, she said, "Can I have one of those in a blue color?"

"I'm sorry miss, we only have them in a black color at this location," the clerk said.

"No worries," Silviana paid for her supplies. She grabbed the little black hat she had purchased in addition and plopped it onto Junipur's head. The pokémon looked stunned at first then looked at Silviana confusedly, "I just thought you could use something to cover up the fur you kept messing with," Silviana smiled kindly.

Junipur looked away and gave a short snort of approval.

They wondered around town. Silviana stopped at every little wonder she could see, Junipur even seemed to be enjoying herself because she found a few berries near the a path that stretched eastward out of town. Silviana watched her Eevee eat the berries as she soaked in the sunlight of the mid afternoon.

She glanced to her right when she heard footsteps coming in her direction from the path beyond.

"Heya Sil!" Xander waved to her, his Pikachu hopping along side him, "There was a guy further down the path that said that that way is blocked for us, he recommended to go north if we're doing the Gym Challenge.

Silviana came to a stand, "Well what were you doing over there in the first place?"

"Oh I was just looking for rare pokémon, did you catch anything yet?"

"Yea," She brought out Trahp. The little Bellsprout let out a toot of happiness.

"Sweet Bellsprout! You wanna battle?"

"Isn't that unfair for you since I have two pokémon and you don't?" Silviana retorted.

Xander looked down at Spark. His Pikachu had it's ears pinned back and was glancing nervously between Xander and Junipur, slowly it tried to hide itself behind one of Xander's legs. Xander let out a chuckle, "Yea, probably, I think Spark wants to go. Plus I should be off if I want to catch up to you, you seem to be giving it all you got!" He waved to her as he and Spark walked off.

"Well," she looked to her pokémon, "I think we should head on our way too." She put Trahp back in the pokéball and crouched down so that Junipur could hop onto her shoulder once agian. Junipur just stared at her.

"Please Junipur, we need to get moving," She pleaded.

The little brown pokémon looked at her. It picked one of its paws up, but marched off in the direction of the next route. Silviana let out a soft sigh.

They walked across town to get to the route gate. Silviana walked over to the little billboard that was right outside of the entry way. There were a lot of dumb ads on there and some flyers for pokémon training classes. But at the top was a notice to trainers heading into the forrest beyond.

Veridian Forest

Please be mindful of the bug pokémon that inhabit the forest. Do not disturb the Beedrill nests.

Oh great... Bug pokémon

"Vee!" Junipur snapped her out of her thoughts.

"Right," she glanced from the billboard notice to Junipur and began to walk up the small flight of steps, "Let's hurry up and get through this." As they walked into the building, they were greeted by a couple of the forrest care staff. She received information about the different pokémon that inhabited the forrest as well as a map to get her through.

Silviana looked to the archway that lead to the forrest beyond. Looking down at Junipur she watched the tiny pokémon flick its ears and listen to the sounds coming from the forrest. With a deep breath, she walked out into the dim light of Veridian Forrest.

Hogwarts Mystery: Year 1

Summary Moira Fickle, an 11-year old student in her first year at Hogwarts, begins investigating the mysterious Cursed Vaults in an effort to find her missing brother, Jacob. She is accompanied by her new friends Rowan, Ben and Penny who are happy to help her no matter what. Good thing too because she'll need them in the years to come.

Chapter One Diagon Alley

Alternate Title Weird Together

Available on Wattpad, and AO3

"Curious indeed how these things happen. The wand chooses the wizard, remember... I think we must expect great things from you, Mr. Potter... After all, He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named did great things — terrible, yes, but great."    

— Mr. Ollivander, Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone by J.K. Rowling

                                                   ❃ུ۪ ❀ུ۪ ❁ུ۪ ❃ུ۪ ❀ུ۪

 Diagon Alley. It was busier than ever with families bustling about for back to school shopping. The majority of the students scuffling behind their families were going to Hogwarts. The school of witchcraft and wizardry, of course.

Young Moira Fickle is one of these students, preparing for her first year of her magical education. She stood clutching her list near her turning stomach as her light eyes wandered up and down the stone-bricked streets of the very place she used to visit every year with her family. Her whole family.

While many 11-year-olds would normally be excited to attend an academy that taught some of the greatest minds in the history of magic, this particular 11-year-old only grew more nervous as the first day of school crept closer. Not a nice kind of nervous, more of a this-school-will-tear-me-apart kind of nervous because even though the world of magic seemed mystical and appealing, it was still often at times socially unkind to people who had been dealt cards that were... less than ideal.

They were weirdly medieval for the 20th century.

Well, when you have to keep hidden from the rather dominating and intuitive muggle world it's bound to be like that. Moira really only knew how great the divide was because of magazines and the occasional walk through London. Which meant that perhaps she really didn't know enough to make a statement on muggles and their societal values. After all, wizards and witches are still hiding from them after years of being hunted and burned for their way of life. So it's hard to believe they've actually gotten far enough.

A tall slender man with an atrociously overgrown mustache and slanted eyes just like Moira's watched her round face for any twitch of a smile or excitement. Nothing. "You know," he sighed, adjusting the periwinkle baseball cap. "Your brother was much more hopeful going into his first year."

It was true. Jacob's eyes lit up when he got his letter. If he were still around, they'd be attending school together. "Well, he messed that up, didn't he?" She muttered bitterly. Her eyes twitched with regret when the silence followed. The dark, solemn expression on her father's face made a guilty swell in her heart. Her small hand lifted up slowly to pinch at the corner of his sleeve. "I'm sorry, Dad. It's just—"

"Don't worry, Mo," he reassured his youngest child. Large, warm hands engulfed hers and she felt something cold drop into her palm. He gave her a gentle, forgiving smile. Sometimes it felt like he was being careful with her. Micah and Jinora Fickle had already lost one child so maybe they were afraid she'd disappear too. His top hand lifted from hers to reveal several galleons and a sickles.

"What are you doing?" Moira inquired and gave Father Fickle a confused smile.

The creases in the corner of the man's eyes deepened. Micah's mustache twitched as he let the hand that was still holding hers seconds ago fall to his side. "I have to run to go pick something up, then I'll meet up with you in front of Gringott's."

"High noon?"

"No, I'd say more midday-ish," the wizard held up three fingers and was very happy to see Moira nod in confirmation. "Go ahead and get some of the items on your list. Try to have some left so we can visit the sweets shop when we're done."

"Erm, alright," she mumbled and closed her hands around the coins. Micah's mustache scratched at her forehead. It hurt and tickled, but the kiss on her forehead was always a quick and sweet transaction between these two.

Micah left her daughter in the trusted hands of Diagon Alley. Moira wasn't afraid to shop by herself, every one knew the alley was safe, but as she passed a few store fronts she became more overwhelmed at the idea of going into all these shops by herself. Normally, she'd be holding her mother's hand walking into Flourish & Blotts, usually they'd be searching for the newest edition of a cooking spells book. Now she was alone.

Her fingers twiddled with the corner of the parchment as she looked through the store windows. Stacks of books seemed to peer right back at her as she tried to gain confidence to go in on her own. Moira hardly heard the tentative steps right by her.

"Are you... okay?"

Caught off-guard, Moira sidestepped away from the voice. The young witch who had asked the question seemed just as taken aback as Moira. "Oh," she exclaimed. Her dark eyebrows curled upwards behind her horned glasses. "I didn't mean to startle you. I'm not very good at... talking to people?"

Moira quickly composed herself and turned to the other kid. The girl looked to be about the same age as her. "No, it's... it's fine," she attempted to soothe the apologizing witch before her. The witch was probably doing school shopping just like her too. Her clothes were gray and pale blue. The cold colors contrasted her warm skin tone, and honestly, really suited her. "I shouldn't have reacted like that I was just—" She didn't want to admit that she was nervous about going into the book store. "— trying to figure out where to start."

"Well," the young witch considered the options momentarily and pointed at the shop right in front of her. "In my personal expertise in list organization and my general carrying of things, you probably shouldn't start at the bookstore."

"Why?"

"Books are sometimes heavy."

"Oh." Now that it was pointed out to her, it seemed pretty apparent. How humbling. "Haha, yeah... You're right."

"As much as it would pain me to go to another store. We should start with something light," she stated with a hand held to her chin. Did she say "we"? Was this witch planning on shopping with Moira? "Oh, I know! Have you got your wand yet?"

"Er, no. I just got here."

"If you walk two shops down, you'll be right next to Olivander's." The black-haired witch pointed behind Moira. She turned to look. It was true it wasn't far. This girl was really helpful.

"Oh, I see. Thanks?"

"No problem! I'm Rowan Khanna by the way." A thin, dark hand held out, anticipating for a handshake to be exchanged.

"Moira—" A beat of silence punctuated her first name as she questioned whether or not she should give her last name, afraid Rowan would recognize her family name and immediately judge her or write her off as being crazy. It was unfair for people to think that of her, of course. It was also unfair for Moira to write her off as someone who'd judge her. "— Fickle."

Moira tried her best to keep her composure as she watched Rowan's eyes for any sign of recognition as she grasped the outstretched hand. There wasn't anything Moira could gleam from Rowan's welcoming expression. Maybe she was a muggleborn and she didn't know anything about the Fickle name?

"I'll go ahead and walk you down to Ollivander's. He's a friend of my family. We actually supply wood for wands and brooms. For generations, actually."

Guess not. Now there was no explanation for Rowan not knowing who she was. Every witch and wizard read the Daily Prophet and so every witch and wizard knew about what happened to the Fickle family last year. Then their children would find out, and... Well, let's just say Moira didn't have many friends anymore.

"Why don't you come with me, Rowan?"

"R-really?" Why was she so stunned? Moira raised an eyebrow, but the corners of her mouth curled upward on their own.

"Uh, yeah?" Moira thought the witch was gonna shop with her anyways. She really needed to stop assuming things. "I mean, shopping is more fun with a friend, isn't it?"

"Yeah, it is."

                                                  ❃ུ۪ ❀ུ۪ ❁ུ۪ ❃ུ۪ ❀ུ۪

 The warm lighting inside the store didn't help the store look clean, but it sure did make a customer feel more at home. The front desk was perhaps the cleanest part of the store despite the many empty boxes, and wrapped packages pushed against the walls. The various stacks of loose parchment perilously teetered at the edge of the desk.

A bell rang to tell the old wand maker to come to the front of his shop, however, when the two young witches arrived they weren't greeted by anyone at all. They looked around the floor as they shuffled in. Books were pushed up against the walls and stacked on various chairs. Dust tickled Moira's nose as she breathed in. A threatening sneeze welled up inside her and exploded from her mouth from behind her elbow. The force was so great she had jumped an inch back. She barely noticed Rowan gasp as an eccentric looking man came from the backroom carrying a stack of wand boxes taller than himself.

"Oh, sir! Let me help," Rowan offered.

"No need! No need!" The tottering tower nearly took a tumble, but that Garrick Ollivander skillfully put a stop to it, for he had a free hand carrying his wand and with a swish and flick every box gracefully went into it's appropriate shelf. Moira wondered if this man had any grandchildren and if he gave them heart attacks like this. Maybe not though. He seemed like he lived for just wands. "See there, Ms. Khanna! Taken care of!"

"Ah, incredible, Mr. Ollivander!" Rowan laughed her panic away and gave a little celebratory clap. The old timer's eyes moved to Moira, who was clapping alongside Rowan unknowingly. As soon as Moira noticed his eyes on her she quickly dropped her hands to her side and nodded. "This is—!"

"Moira Fickle!"

Another nod from Moira. "Y-yes, sir." Merlin's beard, she must look so silly right now. Her owl-eyed expression studied the man just as he studied her. He wore velvet. Which only seemed to collect dust from the store. His gray hair was thinning, but big. Like every adult to an 11-year-old, he was tall. Like cracks in wood, the wrinkles in his face had deepened in the six years that had passed since she had last stood in the wand shop.

Rowan looked back and forth between the two with a smile. "I take it you've met her then?"

"Yes! Six years ago when her brother came to get his wand," Ollivander informed.

"Yes, I can hardly believe you remember that."

"Indeed, I do! I remember every wand I've ever sold. His was maple wood, dragon heartstring core, ten inches. A fine wand. Shame they snapped it in half when he was expelled." His smile faded with hers as he looked down at her, hands folded together in front of him. "I understand that he has been missing since. That must have a profound effect on you."

"Yes, well," Moira mumbled before she could really find her voice. At this point, it was hard to avoid this subject in front of Rowan. "A number of things were felt. I think at first-- I was angry at him for being so stupid and for ruining our family name. For not coming home, but I think I should be more concerned with restoring the Fickle family. I'll become strong so they can be respected."

"I see that you've grown to be quite determined and I can tell you have a lot of fight in you." Ollivander gave a curt nod and walked in between the tall shelves behind the counter. "I believe I have something for you to try, my dear." He returned with two thin, red boxes. Both boxes were opened and glanced over before both wands were placed on the wooden counter in front of both girls. Moira hovered between the two before she reached for the first to be unboxed. It felt promising in her hands, the handle fit perfectly into the curve of her hand.

"Aha!" Rowan gasped. "Hornbeam!"

"Correct, Ms. Khanna! Hornbeam wood, unicorn hair core, eleven and a quarter inches. Inflexible." Ollivander smiled at Rowan before he turned his attention to Moira. She had taken a few steps back from the desk to ready herself. She widened her stance and held the wand out in front of her. Straight faced, she drew a sideways S-shape in the air between her and the wall of books and boxes. Then she flicked the glowing tip away from her face and in a spectacular gush of wind the stack of loose parchment toppled off the edge of the counter. The paper swirled around her in a grand hurricane.

"I believe that's the one." Ollivander spoke with a proud twinkle in his eye. There was a smile splayed on his old, cracked face that was familiar to the young witch. Years ago he gave the same smile to her older brother. She couldn't fight the growing grin on her round face as she twirled against the whirlwind.

The short brown hair on Moira's hair was tousled and harsh looking after the paper brushing it. "It feels like the one," She responded, seemingly blown away by her own wand work. Well, she couldn't really call it that just yet, but her confidence at this very moment? Said differently. The papers fell in an almost perfect circle around the witch. Perhaps she was actually excited about learning magic now— she cleared her throat with a cough, and flattened her hair with her wand hand. No way.

Rowan gave her a round of applause. "No spells, and yet it was a spectacular display, Moira!" She chuckled.

"Thanks." The praise was appreciated, however, the mess around her caused the heat rise from her belly to her face. She rushed out an apology as the river of yellow parchment flew through the again and filed into a pillar once again.

"It's quite alright, Ms. Fickle."

"Thank you, Mr. Ollivander."

"I expect to see great things from you in the years to come."

Great could mean many, many things. After all, You-Know-Who did many terrible things and yet many of those things could be considered great. The founders of Hogwarts could also be considered to be great, but their moral alignment varied way more compared to the Death Eaters. Moira hoped, not-so deep down in her heart, that she would be a good kind of great. She prayed that many generations after her would try to be a good kind of great too, the years ahead of Moira had much in store, however.

"I won't disappoint, sir."

                                                     ❃ུ۪ ❀ུ۪ ❁ུ۪ ❃ུ۪ ❀ུ۪

Their arms felt lighter as soon as they had the chance to sit down on those white steps up to Gringotts. Rowan was very correct about the books being incredibly cumbersome. Moira found the other witch to be correct most of the time, it seemed. She seemed to know an extraordinary amount about... well everything. Especially Hogwarts. Her eyes smiled for everyone and despite what Rowan had told Moira— the one time throughout their time together that the young witch was wrong— she was an excellent conversationalist.

In fact, once Rowan Khanna started talking, it was hard to get her to stop. Listening to her, however, wasn't as unpleasant as one may think. Her excitement was infectious and if you needed a question answered she always elaborated with a big grin. You couldn't help but feel as happy about trees as she did. "Hey, Moira?"

"Yeah?"

"Are you as excited about attending Hogwarts as I am?"

"No," she said with a shake of her head. She only decided to continue with that when she saw how confused her new friend was at her response. "I mean, I wasn't excited. Not until I met you at least."

"Oh."

"Yeah, I suppose having a friend going into that place makes it a little better," she hummed. She found herself, once again, unable to hold back a grin at the sight of Rowan's pleasantly surprised face. "But no. I really don't think anyone could be as excited about school or studying as you."

"Yeah," Rowan let out an airy chuckle, she pushed her glasses up from the sides, nudging them up onto the bridge of her arched nose. It was nice having someone to talk to, someone her age that didn't seem to be judging her for her brother's actions. Although, Rowan really didn't know the full truth. "Are you sure you want to be my friend, Moira?"

"What?" The question caught Moira off-guard. Why was she asking this? "Where did that come from?"

"Well, I know that sometimes I can be a lot—"

"Not to me."

"— And sometimes, I can be a bit weird."

"Well, that's alright. I can be weird too." Moira looked away from Rowan and fell back on the step behind her. She took a deep breath to calm herself. "Honestly? I should be asking you that."

"Why? Because you're Jacob Fickle's younger sister?"

"Ah, you know," Moira sighed. It was to be expected. Rowan wasn't daft and she was bound to find out when they got to school.

"I knew as soon as you told me your name," Rowan said calmly. "Your brother's the very same Jacob Fickle that went missing after breaking several school rules and getting himself expelled."

"Yeah."

"The Prophet said he went mad looking for the Cursed Vaults."

"Yeah," Moira breathed out. Her leg was bouncing nervously. "Why didn't you say anything about it?"

"Well, I didn't really care— I mean, you're not your brother." Rowan didn't know it, but those words were blessed to Moira's ears. Another kid knew about her brother and didn't think she was crazy too. Someone didn't shun her or pity her. Moira smiled at Rowan who simply smiled back. "We can be weird together."

There was a comfortable stroke of silence as both the girls looked away from each other and towards the length of Diagon Alley. When you were done with all that chaos below the bank, people watching really seemed like the perfect pastime. "It won't be easy— Being my friend I mean. The other students might not be as understanding as you and will, surely, waste no time to pick on me."

"I got it. What do you want me to do in those situations?"

"I dunno. Follow my lead, I suppose."

"Understood. I'll use my extensive vocabulary to verbally pummel anyone who attempts to besmirch your reputation."

Moira laughed, "Alright!"

“What If....?” Part 2

“Here’s the rest of her things....” Todoroki sighed out as him and Katsuki collected the few bags she had in his car; A costume case, a purse and a suit case. They made sure Izuku was upstairs, and Katsuki eyed up Todoroki who was more than okay with this situation.

“I don’t get it...” The angry blonde growled out as Todoroki closed his trunk. “You chased her all over America for two years.... you were—“

“I still am in love with her.” Todoroki said simply and Katsuki instantly went on guard. “Which is why I know that this is best for her.” He held up his hand to stop Katsuki from talking. The blonde boiled with rage and confusion. “The day she left, you almost died...” Katsuki's argument was deflated right out of him. “I was in the same hospital room. You were the only one she visited before she left, she came in the middle of the night too, I couldn’t sleep cause of the broken ribs.” Todoroki shrugged his shoulders.

“.... did she say something...?” Katsuki asked, genuinely wanting to know what it might be. Todoroki looked him in the eyes, and let out a sigh.

“Ask her that yourself, moron.” Katsuki stiffened in anger instantly. “They were words I weren’t meant to hear. If she wanted them heard, she’ll tell you herself. So just thank me already.” Todoroki turned and got in his car.

“WHO WOULD THANK YOU, SHITTY ICY HOT!”

“That’s my hero name, don’t wear it out.” Todoroki called from his car, before driving away. Katsuki almost set off explosions in anger, before remembering he was holding her things. He glanced up at the apartment on the top floor, seeing the lights on from the outside. It was something he never experienced before, knowing some one was up there waiting for him.

“I sound like a damn idiot...” he growled out as he stormed inside the building.

“This place is really nice...!” He wasn't surprised to see her hobbling around as she admired his penthouse apartment. “So clean too... I didn’t expect that.” She hummed out as she hobbled into the kitchen.

“I don’t want to hear that from the All Might memorabilia hoarder.” Katsuki grumbled as he shuffled towards the hallway. “Here’s the spare room.” He called out as Izuku hurriedly hobbled after him in the hall. He flicked the lights on to show a simple small bed, an empty desk, and a few sealed boxes. “It’s mostly just for storage.” He grumbled as he put her suitcase down on the desk along with her costume case and purse. “I’ve got spare blankets, those idiots crash here some times.”

“... thanks, Kacchan.” He turned to look at her, and his heart ached a bit as she hobbled towards the desk. “I appreciate it... I’ll find some where to live when I can move properly.”

“Ah... yeah.” He looked away from her, it was hard to see her like this... He wanted to pick her up so she didn’t have to struggle so much... Carry her where she needed to go, help her with every small thing... But he knew that would be the worst thing he could do to her. She was trying because she felt a need to, she felt helpless and wanted to show the others she was capable of moving on her own.

She didn’t want to be weak, that was how she got a quirk from All Might, that was how she became a hero...

That was also how this mess all started.

“The bathroom is at the end of the hall.” Izuku looked up at him, shock written on her face as he pulled some blankets and pillows out of the closet. He set them on the bed as he let out a heavy sigh. He couldn’t be mad at her, he would protest help too, being weak was the worst.... “I’m across the hall; if you need help, don’t bother me.”

“Heh...” Katsuki looked back at her in surprise as she let out a genuine laugh. There was a real smile on her face, how ever small it may be. “Thank you,” she laughed out again and he looked away from her quickly. He hurriedly stormed out of the room and grabbed the door handle.

“Help yourself to the fridge! I’m going to sleep!” He snapped and closed the door with a bang. He could hear muffled giggles on the other side and he ran his hands through his hair. It took all his will power not to swoop her off her feet and kiss every damn freckle on her face. He groaned in frustration as he stormed into his room; All the words he had planned on shouting at her, all the rage he felt towards her for leaving like she did, it was all gone.

“Hmm...” Katsuki woke the next morning from a restless sleep. His dreams haunted by her  horrified features, her crying face and frowns as he slept. It really ate away at him all night, but he moved up out of his bed and scratched his stomach as he yawned.

He opened his door, and saw that the spare room door was wide open. He no longer saw her things on the desk and he took a step inside. The blankets were still folded neatly and the pillows untouched.

His heart dropped instantly. Was it all a dream? Did he imagine her? He scrambled towards his front hall and banged into the corner as he came around.

“FUCK!” He growled out in anger and slammed an exploding hand of frustration on the wall, glaring daggers at the singes he left behind. “GOD DAMN FUCKING DEKU! GOD DA—“

“I’m sorry, d-did I wake you...?” He stopped dead in his rage as he saw Izuku on the floor. Her expression was one full of confusion and a nervous smile was on her face. He saw her crutch was a few feet away from her, and there was a spilled mug of tea beside her hand.

“What the....?” He looked at the clock. It was 6am, she should be asleep if she was injured, or have run away again. “What are you doing? Where was your stuff?”

“I-I put it in the closet... I wanted to keep the room tidy...” She continued to smile at him nervously as he walked over to her and slumped down into a squat with a sigh. He lazily nudged up the mug and looked at her.

“The blankets were still folded...” He analyzed her face, and saw dark circles under the blood shot eyes.

“Ah uhm...” she looked away from him and his brows knitted together. “I couldn’t sleep. Jet lag... different time zone... you know...” she shrugged her shoulders. “Also the broken bones hurt a bit, I was thinking of seeing Recovery Girl today.” She laughed out and looked over at him finally.

“You’re a bad liar.” He told her simply and he stood up. She looked up at him curiously as he bent over to grab her crutch before lifting her up by her arm easily. “Here,” he shoved the crutch into her good hand before he picked up the mug and went to his kitchen. “Sit your ass in the living room,” he grunted out before he began making a quick breakfast of toast and eggs. While the items in question cooked, he cleaned up the spilled tea with a rag.

“Ehm... thank you, again... for letting me stay here for a bit...” Izuku laughed out nervously as he grabbed some plates. He started some coffee for them both and glanced over at her as she carefully sat on his couch. “How are your parents...?” She turned her head to look at him and he shrugged his shoulders.

“They’re fine, she still looks thirty while dad looks fifty. She’s still loud and he lets her do what ever.” Katsuki poured the coffee and tossed some sugar and cream into one mug. He stirred it before he gathered everything and walked over to her. She was staring at her knees nervously as she sat straight on the couch, like a nervous little kid who was in trouble. He rolled his eyes before he set the food on the coffee table and sat down on the other end. He held out the coffee and she looked at in surprise before taking it in her hands.

“Thanks...” she muttered out shyly, and he shrugged his shoulders before flicking on the TV.

“The damage done by the Villain Alliance has been seen all across the world.” Katsuki’s eyes widened in surprise as he saw the news showing him and the others helping out in Japan, along with clips of news from Australia, South Africa, England and Brazil.

What came next though almost made him drop his own mug. A bloodied Izuku stumbling over a pile of rubble, holding an unconscious All Might on her back, tears in her eyes as flames roared behind her.

”The Symbol Of Hope, Deku fought valiantly in New York a few days ago, but the damage was too great. With the rise in villainy and lack of heroes, she was—“

“TURN IT OFF!” Katsuki was brought back to reality as he heard the 'Symbol of Hope' shriek at him from two feet away. He looked over at her and her emerald eyes were wide with horror as she looked at the screen, tears forming in her eyes. “TURN IT OFF! TURN IT OFF!” She cried out again and the mug shattered as sparks of green electricity arched off of her skin. She grabbed at her head and Katsuki quickly stood up and flicked the TV off. Her sobs filled the room and he threw his mug down on the coffee table and grabbed her shoulder. “ALL MIGHT! GRAN TORINO!” She cried out loudly and Katsuki looked at her horrified face. “SAVE THEM! I HAVE TO SAVE THEM! WHERE IS THE BACK UP?!? SAVE THE—“

“DEKU!” She stopped instantly as she heard him snap her name, and her wide emerald eyes flicked to look up at him. She saw concern written all over his face as tears streamed down hers.

“Ka... Kacchan...?” She looked up at him in confusion before she looked around the room. His hands gripped her shoulders firmly as she seemed to realize where she was before she looked up at him again. “Kacchan’s apartment....” She nodded her head, before looking down at the broken pieces of mug on her lap and the spilled coffee. “Kacchan’s mug... haha...” her echo of a laugh rung through the silent air, and Katsuki felt his heart wrench in pain.

Just what happened? She was so shaken... So shattered by what he only saw a glimpse of... Yeah what happened yesterday was an awful shit show, but at least he had...

“Help....” He muttered out and she looked up at him, that fake sad smile on her face. “Let me help you... you got coffee everywhere.” He told her before standing up.

“Sorry... broken hand, you know...” she laughed out halfheartedly before she was picked up swiftly by him in a princess carry. “K-KACCHAN?!”

“Shut up, you’ve spilled too many liquids all over my apartment.” He told her firmly before storming down the hallway.

“I-I’m okay, I can clean it up...!” She cried out as she tried to get out of his grip, but he held her firmly in his arms as he nudged the bathroom door open. She looked around the large tiled room with wide eyes and he set her down on a stool for washing.

“Strip,” he told her simply and turned his back on her.

“I-I can’t do that!” She cried out and he let out an exasperated sigh as he got a bucket and a cloth with some soap for her.

“After I leave, idiot. Wash yourself off, be careful of the casts. I’ll call recovery girl here.” He handed her the bucket and she looked up at him with wide surprised eyes and a bright red face. “You can do this much, right Deku?”

“Y-yeah....” she nodded her head slowly and he nodded back at her before leaving the bathroom. He shut the door with a click and clapped a hand over his face.

“Shit like that is the last thing on my mind, fuck...” he hissed out before he went to get his cell phone. There was thousands of concerned texts from the others. He flicked them all away before phoning Recovery Girl. It was a simple call, she didn’t seem surprised and didn’t mind making the trip to his apartment for Izuku. He let out a sigh as he hung up, before he heard clattering in the bathroom.

“Kacchan...?” He raised an eyebrow at the shy tone of voice. “I-I need clean clothes...”

“Ah...” He almost exploded his phone, before he shook his head again. “She’s injured, idiot.” He grunted out to himself and went to the spare room. He found her suitcase at the bottom of the closet, and opened it up. He was irritated but not surprised to see it was a cluttered mess inside. He ruffled through it for a blouse and a skirt. “Should be easy to get on...” he sighed out before he ruffled through the mess for her underwear. He felt his face redden as he held up the unexpectedly adult underwear she had, and put a hand over his bright red face. “... fuck me...” he hissed out before he heard a clatter of pills. He stopped, and looked at a makeup bag. He picked it up and zipped it open, surprised to see a few different bottles inside. Some he recognized as pain meds, but one was a name he didn’t recognize.

“Kacchan...?” He hurriedly zipped it shut and tossed it back inside the suit case. He went to the bathroom and grabbed the handle before pausing.

“You covered up...?” He called out and heard a clatter inside once again.

“Yeah, sorry...!” He could almost feel the second hand embarrassment through the wooden door, before he opened it up and saw her doing her best to stand by holding onto the sink. He expected the towel wrapped around her chest to cover her body, but it was the one over her head like a hood and another on her shoulders that puzzled him.

“Don’t use all the damn towels.” He grunted out as he dumped the clean clothes on the sink and yanked a towel off her head.

“S-sorry! I uhm....” she was red all over and he felt his own cheeks redden. “I’m just... never been uhm... naked... in front of... a man...”

“Get dressed!” He snapped and Izuku stood up straight in surprise. “Recovery girl will be here in twenty minutes!” He turned and left in a hurry, slamming the door behind him.

“Fuckin' Deku....” he growled out as he cleaned up the living room from her mess. He looked at the pieces of mug in his hand and glared at them before looking at the TV. He wanted to know more, but he didn’t want to see her hysterical like that again, what ever happened it broke her more than just physically... he grunted as he finished cleaning up the mess and went to his kitchen to make more coffee.

“Kirishima.” He had his phone to his ear as he poured more coffee for himself.

“Bakubro, is everything okay?” He heard the concern in the red heads voice, and sighed. “Not really... I’m gunna take today and tomorrow off, got it?” He grunted out into the phone.

“That should be fine after yesterday, I’ll let Iida know. Can you at least be on call?” Kirishima asked and Katsuki could hear the bustle of the office in the background.

“On call is fine, but somethings not right.” Katsuki made up a mug of coffee for Izuku again, three sugars and extra cream. “... maybe arrange the schedules so some one can be around her for the next couple of weeks.”

“That should be manageable.... Todoroki is back here at the office now too,” Kirishima sighed out.

“...Tell Icy Hot to call me when he’s free, I’ve got fucking questions.” Katsuki growled out, before he hung up the phone.

“Ah... that was harder than I thought...” He turned his head as Izuku hobbled out of the hallway, fully clothed now. “... You didn’t dry your hair.” Katsuki grunted out as she made her way to the couch and sat down with a thump. He handed her the new coffee, and she sipped it gratefully. He set his own down and went to get a brush and hair dryer.

“Y-you don’t have to—“ Izuku looked at him confusion before he turned the dryer on and began brushing it out for her.

“Just shut up, I don’t need you having a cold while being broken to bits.” He told her simply, and she sat silently as he did her hair. It was quiet aside from the sound of the dryer, and he could smell his shampoo in the air, but it smelled sweeter some how.

The doorbell rang and Katsuki stopped the dryer, shaking his head. He went to answer it and a tiny old woman smiled up at him as he let her in.

“Bakugou, you look well!” She said cheerfully as he lead the way in. “Where is Miss Midoriya? Ah...”

“Recovery girl...!” Izuku smiled warmly at the woman from her spot on the couch. Katsuki narrowed his eyes at her as he noticed that once again the smile didn’t reach her tired eyes. “Sorry to bother you....”

“It’s never a bother anymore.” Recovery girl laughed out as she approached Izuku and looked her over. “Obviously broken bones... some cuts and bruises... more or less the usual with you, let’s see.” The woman set her bag down and Katsuki excused himself to his bedroom.

He changed his clothes and combed his hair while he waited for the check up to be over. He grumbled a bit in annoyance as he tried to pass time, kicking stuff into his laundry basket before he heard Recovery girl call his name. He hurried a bit faster than he cared to admit as he entered the living room and was a bit shocked to see Izuku passed out on the couch. Her arm was out of its cast along with her leg, but both were still wrapped up.

“I’m sure you’re well aware she could have used the sleep.” Recovery girl sighed out as she disposed of the casts and looked up at Katsuki.

“It’s pretty clear in her eyes...”He muttered out as he looked at the old woman. “I found this weird medicine in her bag...”

“You shouldn’t be snooping through a woman’s things.” Recovery girl tutted and he rolled his eye in annoyance. “But you’re bringing it up for a reason I assume...?”

“The name was weird...” he wrote it down and Recovery girl looked at it before sighing.

“It’s a psychosomatic treatment drug. “ she told him and he raised an eyebrow at that. “She must need it to sleep, but the side effects are iffy.”

“Should she be taking it...?” He asked and Recovery girl seemed lost in thought for a moment.

“She’s probably bothered by the stress of the situation that happened in New York.” Recovery girl patted the sleeping Izuku on the head. “Considering I’m her primary doctor, I know a lot about her medical history... this isn’t the first time she’s needed it.”

“What...?” Katsuki was floored by that and Recovery girl nodded her head. “Well what do—?”

“She’s been given a month off, I would like it if you made sure she doesn’t work at all, and just relaxed.” Katsuki grumbled at the thought of babysitting for a month. “I’ll be flying to America to check on All Might. I leave this up to you. Phone me if anything happens.”

“Alright, alright...” Katsuki grumbled and waved a hand in annoyance, before letting the woman out of the apartment.

Amazing Quest 1: Chapter 8

Here it is, the penultimate chapter. Only a little bit more!

Chapter 8: Collect-a-thon! Alright, team, ready to get all the items necessary for the best ending? Of course you are! The first and most important thing in this chapter is that we can get Hiro's ultimate weapon now. We actually need to go back to the small, otherwise-useless lake near Toruble Castle and you need to go noodling a few times and then sit and wait 5 real-world minutes. Go ahead and grab yourself a drink or a sammich or something. Hiro: Doo-doo-dee-doo~ Hm? Suddenly, the water in the lake glows and a lovely, buxom lady rises slowly from the light. Hiro: What the heck--?! Woman: Fear not, Hiro of the Pudding Tribe, I am Eroustei, goddess of light and mercy. Eroustei then presents two swords, one a glimmering gold color, and one with an ornate hilt and silvery blade. Eroustei: Did you drop this Sword of Power, or this Gold Blade? Hiro: But I didn't drop a sword. I have mine right here. Eroustei: … Let's try this again. Did you drop a sword that will grant you great might, or this sword that will bring you great fortune? Hiro: Oh, I don't need either of those. I have my friends. So long as I have them, then I don't need to rely on artifacts and legends to find my way. Eroustei: YOU BITCH!!! Eroustei very angrily winds up and hurls both swords at Hiro, who bash him with their hilts. Hiro: GYAAAAH! Hiro is knocked flat. Eroustei: YOU THINK IT'S EASY DOING THIS LADY IN THE LAKE THING, YOU INGRATE?! Hiro: Owww... Eroustei: YOU NEED TO THINK ABOUT OTHER PEOPLE'S FEELINGS, YA JERK! Eroustei drops back into the water and out of sight. Hiro gets: PdngSword and GoldSword! Hiro: Wh-what just happened...? Hiro's best sword is, obviously, the PdngSword which is a huge step up from any other weapon in the game for him. The GoldSword is, in itself, useless (Loyroll can equip it, but it's not terribly strong), but leads to our next quest! We have to find the little encampment to the south of ToneLand's island, which can be a little tricky to get to. But once we're there, we'll meet an old man. Old Man: Hey there! I'm the weapons maniac! I dedicate my life to things that cut others short! Haha! A little dark humor there! Hiro: That's pretty dark alrig-- Old Man: Hey, is that a sword made of gold?! M-may I please see it? Hiro: Sure. Not doing us any good anyway. The Old Man takes it, admiring it lovingly. Old Man: The sheen. The weight. The beauty... Loyroll: The inability to retain an edge? Old Man: I... I must have this! W-what if I traded you for something of equal value?! Hiro: Um. I guess... that's fine? The Old Man runs into his tent and returns, giving the party the TinFlStar, the strongest weapon for Kimaywa! Kimyawa: Yatta! Old Man: This weapon is deceptively powerful. Treasure it always! Hiro: Um. Well, one man's trash, I suppose... At this point, wander around and get into a fight with Kimyawa and Loyroll in the fray. Have Loyroll use the Mirror of Ki and you'll be treated to an amusing scene where Kimyawa's new weapon gets caught in the fire and all the enemies get incinerated. Kimyawa: Nii-chan! Baka! You nearly cooked us all! Loyroll: Even after all this time, this legendary artifact of our ancestors contains fabulous secret powers! Perhaps we could harness this more constructively? You've unlocked Kimyawa and Loyroll's strongest dual tech: Over-Arcing. This deals huge light-based damage to all enemies. And now it's time to revisit an old friend: you have been taking care of Stinky the Griffohump this whole game, right? Well, if you have, by now, he's likely evolved into his adolescent form, where his wings are more developed and his mismatched eyes have evened out. Once all his stats are over 500, which should happen around now-ish if you've been taking good care of him, he'll evolve into his adult form, where he actually resembles a majestic creature of myth and even has a Pudding Warrior Knot on the side of his head, like Hiro's. Hiro: Yes! I knew you had it in you! You were just like me – you just needed a guiding hand to help you out! At this point, the rancher from before walks up. Hiro: Have a look! It's all thanks to you! Rancher: Who'd have guessed you'd really do it? Well done. Hiro: The last of his kind, the proud Griffohump~! Rancher: Oh. Right. That. Yeah, no, he's not the last of his kind. Hiro: W-what? Does that mean... you found him a mate? Rancher: … Dude, Griffohumps are everywhere. They're overpopulated in most regions of the world where they live because nothing wants to eat them. People that try usually end up in the hospital from food poisoning and depression. Hiro: … Rancher: We tell people they're the last of their kind to give them some kind of marketing appeal. I'm genuinely amazed that you made something of him. So I guess the joke's on me. Hiro turns to Stinky as the rancher walks off. Hiro: You and me. We are more alike than you know, my friend. Now with Stinky fully grown, we can ride him around on the overworld map! This not only moves us faster and reduces the encounter rate, he can even fly short bursts when you get a running start, allowing you to clear mountains and get into areas previously inaccessible, including one north of the ocean of Mermania to get Mancala's ultimate weapon, the Abacus of Ages. But as no one uses Mancala, who cares? There's also a neat, but ultimately useless trick you can use because the game maintains Stinky's speed regardless of turns, so if you have him run back and forth over two spaces rapidly, you can cause him to fly anywhere at any time. This is dubbed by the fans as The Stinky Shuffle. Anyways, now it's time to address a particular plot thread that's been dangling since chapter 2. Return to Toruble and speak to the King. King: Siigh... Hiro: … King: Siii-iiigh... Ozma: … King: Siii-iii-iii-i-- Ozma: What's wrong, daddy? King: Oh! Ozma! When did you get here?! See, I've just been a little melancholic lately. Can't quite shake it. It's just been so quiet here in the castle without you running around randomly braining people. Ozma: I have never done such a thing!! … Recently. … in the past few months. King: I just wish I could shake these blues. I haven't been nearly so proactive in banishing people recently either! Hiro: So some good has come of this at least. Ozma: Seems that way... The party exits and fans out. Kimyawa: Dame desu. This is no good. A king can't rule his land like this. Moore: There must be some means by which to cheer him up. Loyroll: It seems more severe than just having a rainy day. Perhaps he is coming down with a bad cold? Ozma: There's a doctor we could ask for help from, I suppose. Let's go have a chat with him! So, now it's time to return to the Mountain of Outcasts. Thankfully, this time, the Dreaded Mountain Maze is in rubble due to Ozma's last temper tantrum here and we can take a shortcut through it and monsters no longer spawn here. Once on the other side, there seems to be quite a change: there's way fewer NPCs here than last time. Eh, probably not important. Go back to the doctor's house and Ozma will knock. You go, JeffCom, reuse those art assets for great justice! Ozma: Doc, it's me. Please open up. The door opens a small bit. Doctor: W-what do you want?! Oh. Princess Ozma. Ozma: Daddy's been really down in the dumps lately. Would you please come have a look at him? Doctor: That's... not really a very good idea. Reasons, you see. Valid reasons, mm, yes. Ozma: I... what? Please, I'll talk to him about overturning your banishment and-- Doctor: No, no, quite busy here, please, and thank you! He slams the door shut and there's a sound of many, many locks being slapped into place. Ozma: W-what...?! What's he trying to pull?! Why that! I'll turn this door to splinters!!! Ozma winds up and slams into the door. When she hits it, she's stopped cold and overblown, comedic tears rush down her face. Ozma: … G-gimmie a hand, please! Hiro: Right. Ozma: On the count of three. Ozma backs up a few paces and counts on her fingers with an accompanying “click” sound so the player knows when to go. If you mistime it, Ozma will back up and count again, signaling you when to go again. If you both hit the door at roughly the same time, your party will go plowing through it and enter into a cave-like bedroom. Ozma: Alright! Doctor, now you listen here-- eh? Hiro: No one's home? Ozma: He couldn't have gone far. C'mon, how deep could these caves go, anyway? Let's find him! There's a bed you can rest in and a save point here, which is a none-too-subtle hint that this is more than just a town. You venture deeper into the caves and monsters start appearing like Banished Munchkins, Outcast Ostriches, and Willow Whips, ghostly plant-like monsters. Most monsters here fear fire attacks, so Kimyawa and Loyroll are excellent choices. A few floors down, the caves change and suddenly have crystal structures laced in the walls, giving this place a weird sense of style. Around here, new monsters like the Crystallis Caterpillar, and Wind-Up Golems start appearing around here and despite looking very rock-like, they're weak to earth attacks. Go fig, right? A little further in and the caves are completely replaced by metal corridors and what looks like a lab setting. Ozma: W-what in the world is this...? Loyroll: This is no mere hide-a-way for the untouchables. Whatever is happening here is happening on a grand scale. You can then go forward, but the puzzles here get a bit dickish. There's one room where you have to rush into a library and sort out books via Dewey Decimal System in a very short span of time, otherwise the room resets due to “Radiation” as a nearby sign will say. After that, you play a minigame not unlike the board game operation, and failing at it causes the miniboss monster, Chimantera, to spawn an infinite number of times. At least, in the SNES release. In the GBA remake, it'll only spawn once and win or lose, the door to the next room opens. Here, you play hopscotch against a kangaroo to cross electrified floors. There's a reason fans of the series call this area “The Cut Content Dungeon” as there doesn't feel like there's a unifying theme here. But once you're past that, you can then go to the last area here, a massive, circular room with a large tube in the center of the room with a woman inside of it and the doctor standing before it. Ozma: Doc! What are you doing?! Doctor: Gah! H-how did you get here?! Ozma: We let ourselves in. What is this? What were all those weird things we passed to get here?! Doctor: N-now that you've seen this... my, you've really put me in a bind... Ozma: What is that...? Oh my God! Is that... my mom?! Party: Say whaaaaaaat?! Doctor: … Well, since you're here anyway and you're so damn curious, I'll enlighten you. Your father hired me to save your mother from her unfortunate condition. At first I thought it a fool's errand – to find a cure for Disney Parent Syndrome! Preposterous! But... as I began my work, I started making breakthroughs and discovering new things... things previously completely unknown to modern medicine. Curiosities in the genetic structures of what we once believed to be ordinary humans. “Golden Tribe” indeed, I must say. Ozma: What are you...?! Doctor: I don't suspect a silverback gorilla such as yourself could appreciate it, but I've been wanting to tell someone about these discoveries for such a long time and I'm about to kill your asses here and now... well, let's just call this two birds; one stone. Hiro: Ozma! Ozma: I'm fine... Doctor: You see, true humanity is no longer with us. They haven't been with us in eons!! The mitochondria here indicates that there was an extinction event of some magnitude. Deima: Cough-cough-hack! Doctor: And now, modern chimerism is nigh-omnipresent! Every tribe! Every person! It's just a matter of dose! Ozma: I don't get any of this! And what's any of that have to do with my MOM, you creep?! Doctor: As I thought, you don't appreciate the meanings of the truth I've discovered here... very well. Let us cut to the heart of the matter then, shall we? The King tasked me to save the Queen... and abandoned her. I was the only one there with her in her twilight years! I realized she was... perfect. Ozma: Oh God, please tell me this isn't going where I think it's going... Doctor: She had to be... preserved. By any means necessary. Ozma: Oh God, it is!!! Doctor: She was too beautiful. Too pure... Ozma: Oh God, I'm gonna barf... stop lusting after my dead mom, asshole!!! Doctor: Dead? Dear girl, she is not dead. She is alive and well and I was just putting in my finishing touches on her new, perfected chimeran body! Ozma: You... you what?! Doctor: Arise! Perfect Human-Chimera 01! The tube's glass slides upward into the ceiling as the green goop pours out. In the Japanese version, the nude woman falls flat before standing up and throwing up some of the green fluids. This was removed entirely in the international release and she was even given a white towel from out of nowhere she clearly did not have previously. Woman: Where... where am I? Ozma: M... mommy?! Woman: O... Ozma? Is that you? You're so tall now... And, um, buff! Like, um, damn. Doctor: Oh-ho-ho... her memory is perfectly in tact too. Seems the “donations” made by my fellows here on the mountain weren't spent in vain! Loyroll: Stand down, you dastard and know when you're defeated. To flail about helplessly is disgraceful. Doctor: You think I am helpless? I'll show you the fruits of my labors, such that even simpletons like yourselves can appreciate them! The Doctor runs to a control panel and messes with buttons. Hiro and Loyroll advance, but the Queen steps into their path. Hiro: Y-your majesty?! Loyroll: Heh. Truly, this is not the first time a naked woman threw herself at me. I'm just not interested. Queen: H-help! I can't control my body! Doctor: Haha! Yes! It's better than I could have dreamed my perfect woman, my perfect creation, and your perfectly beautiful demise! Hiro: You're sick! Doctor: Prepare to die! Ozma: No! Mom!! -Boss Fight!- PHC-01 LP: 70000 MP: 6000 This is a dangerous fight as her stats are not dissimilar to Ozma's, having very high physical stats with very low magical abilities. Equally so, Ozma cannot attack directly during this fight, as you get the unique message “Ozma can't bring herself to do it!” so she's either benched or on support during this battle. Oddly enough, if you invoke her double techs with another character, this circumvents this – so punching her mom is a “no-no” but slapping her with a fish is A-OK! Focus on Kimyawa's elemental abilities or have her and Loyroll use Over-Arcing, use any attack items you have (which are calculated vs. magic defense) and heal often as her physical blows are enough to drop the likes of Mancala in one blow. When her health dips below 25%, then you have to worry about her special attack, Chimeran Rage, which hits the entire party for physical, melee damage and runs the risk of reducing physical attack and defense stats in the party. If this happens, you must heal quickly or she'll just reduce you to paste. -Boss Fight!- Queen: Ah... something just snapped. Doctor: No! Dammit! Move! Move! Queen: I'm free. Ozma: Mommy! Queen: My Ozma. You've grown so strong. And you have such wonderful friends. I couldn't be more proud of you. Doctor: This is an unforeseen turn of events. I didn't think they could go toe-to-toe with Perfect Human-Chimera 01!!! Queen: And as for you... The Queen turns to face the Doctor. Doctor: Oh... shit. Queen: My name is NOT “Perfect Human-Chimera 01”! My name is Valerie Po Toruble, Queen of the proud nation of Toruble! And as its Queen, I must establish justice within the boundaries of my beloved nation! Submit yourself to the court and beg for mercy as your sins will be dredged up before the light of day! Hiro: Um. Wow. I better take notes... Ozma: Mommy!! You're so cool!!! Doctor: Very well, Plan B it is. The doctor messes with the control panel again. PA: Emergency! Self-destruct sequence is initialized. This entire mountain is about to be leveled to the ground in 60 seconds. Have a nice day! Hiro: Quick! Grab him! There's time! Queen: There isn't. You lot get out of here. I'll ensure the evil of this place never spreads beyond this God-forsaken mountain!!! Ozma: Mother! Queen: Ozma. As the Princess of this nation, you must never forget... your heart gets a vote, but your brain has veto authority. Tell your father you love him, dry your eyes, and continue on your journey. You are our beloved land's future! Ozma: Mommy! No! Not without-- Hiro and the others restrain Ozma and pull her out the door. Queen: That's right. Be a good girl and listen to your mother. The Queen turns around, then just puts her entire arm through the Doctor's body. Doctor: BARF!!! Queen: This is the way it should be. The past is in the past and the future, set free into tomorrow. Farewell. The screen whites out here. In the SNES version, the party is returned to the overworld without further delay, but there's an extended scene that cues in the GBA remake when the party enters Toruble again. The House Man we saw briefly before walks in through the ruins of the lab. House Man: My, my what a loud explosion that was... He moves around, exploring the ruined boss chamber. House Man: Hmm... his research was thousands of years behind my own... but I must admit, he had some good ideas. I could probably put these to some good use, even if it takes some time. House Man chuckles to himself, as he uncovers a charred remains of one body. House Man: But then again, I have all the time in the world~! The party returns to the throne room of Toruble. Ozma: Daddy, I-- King: Oh-ho! Ozma! How good to see you! Ozma: Huh? Daddy?! King: I don't know why, but... it seems that funk I was in has been lifted from my shoulders! I'm ready and chipper and ready to start some banishing! Ozma: Ugh. Father... King: Oh, before I forget! The King goes to Ozma and gives her the Queen's Knuckles. Ozma: What on Earth? King: These were your mother's. I found them while taking my little trip down memory lane. I'm sure she'd want you to have them! Ozma: … King: What's the matter, dear? I thought you'd be happy! Ozma: I... I am. I have great friends and my whole future before me. I love you, daddy, but my travels aren't over just yet. See you soon! King: Do your best! Now Ozma has her ultimate weapon and unlocks her final attack “Regal Rampage” where Ozma bequeaths royal beatdowns, which hits six times and runs the chance of lowering one corresponding stat with each blow! Hiro: Your mother had a set of custom brass knuckles? Ozma: Yes, why? Hiro: No reason... And now, the only character without their ultimate weapon is Moore. At this point, we need to return to Moore's hometown and they'll mention a “legendary weapon of the miners” had recently surfaced and that a weapon's expert had it. So that's your cue to return to the weapon maniac from before. Old Man: Oh, hello. Here to discuss weapons? Hiro: Sort-of. We're looking for the legendary weapon of the miners. Deima: If this just ends up something dumb like a shovel, prepare for pain, old-timer. Old Man: No, no! Not a shovel! Much more sophisticated than a shovel! Moore: W-what? What is it? Please, tell us! I'd do ANYTHING to be not be rock-bottom tier in this game! All: … Moore: It's never going to happen, is it? Hiro: A-hem. Show us the weapon. Old Man: Can do! Got: Rusty piece of crap! Deima: Okay, so clearly, you want to die... Old Man: Eep! I just dug it up! If you want to see its true power, you'll have to go see the Old Lady Weapon Maniac! Deima: There's another one of you?! Old Man: Just head east from here! You'll find her there! Well, this is just a damnable lie. You need to go WEST from here to find the small hut in the middle of an island that's otherwise quite easy to overlook. Going east is useless as that section of the map is impassable. When you go there. Old Lady: Good morning! Are you here to ask about my weapons collection? I do love weapons! Moore: Sort of! This is... Old Lady: Ah, yes, the legendary weapon of the miners, unrivaled in their tribe as the pinnacle of design and form. Moore: So it can be repaired? Old Lady: Yes, yes! But I'll need the POLISH. Hiro: Special polish? Old Lady: Yes, but you're saying it wrong. It's POLISH. Hiro: Of course it is. Moore: Where do we find it? Old Lady: A merchant in Mermania has some! Mancala: Sounds simple enough. Let's go. So head to Mermania and speak to the merchant guild merman. Moore: So we're looking for the, uh, POLISH. Did I say that right? Guildmaster: Well, you're too late. I just sold the only POLISH I had to a man in Toruble! Hiro: Is this weapon really that great? Moore: It must be! It's the very best weapon of my people! Deima: Yes, God forbid we overlook the tallest of the dwarves. So head to Toruble! There, we find a wealthy looking fellow. Merchant: Oh? You want this POLISH? It cost me quite a lot! Moore: You don't understand, it's a matter of pride... Merchant: Hmm... okay! I'll give it to you! Moore: You will?! Merchant: But first-- All: ugh! Merchant: Bring me a Lucky Rabbit's Foot! Moore: Just... a rabbit foot? Merchant: No, ding-dong, the LUCKY RABBIT'S foot. The Lucky Rabbit only lives on Mushroom Island. Moore: That doesn't sound so hard. Let's go guys! So now, you need to head north-east-ish until you find a newly-made bridge and cross over to the previously-inaccessible island. There, you'll enter a cave and see a large, white rabbit sitting in front of many, many mushrooms with different spot patterns. Rabbit: What-ho! Welcome to the sacred ground of the Rabbit Clan! How can I help you? Moore: um. I am of the miner clan. I wish to request you for, uh, a Lucky Rabbit's Foot. Rabbit: That's all? That's not really a problem, but would you mind doing something for me first? Deima: HISS!!! Rabbit: Go to the top of the hill here and find me a mushroom that looks like... this! The rabbit places down a mushroom with a particular spot pattern. What pattern this is varies in each playthru. You then head up the mountain dealing with Mushkins, Hedgeshrooms, and Ecobandits, all of which can inflict poison. At the top of one of the four staircases are sets of mushrooms, so one of the 12 mushrooms up here is the one that matches Lucky Rabbit's request. Take it back to him. If you bring the wrong one, he'll scold you for being “dumber than a miner” and show you the one he's after once again and you'll return. Once you get it right, he'll speak to you again. Rabbit: Oh, frabjuous day! Here you go! Obtained: Lucky Rabbit's Ruler. Hiro: What? But this is a ruler and-- oh. Wait. I get it. Lucky Rabbit's... foot. Moore: Let's go guys! You then return to Toruble and speak to the merchant. Merchant: Excellent! Just what I needed! Hiro: Odd, I thought you wanted a, y'know, like a foot-foot. Like the Rabbit's actual hind-quarters leg. Merchant: Eww. You're weird. And gross. Here, take the POLISH and get outta here, ya weirdos. Hiro: Grumble... Then head to the Old Weapon Lady. Old Lady: Awright! Now I'll apply the POLISH and... there! Moore: Is it ready?! Old Lady: Almost! Head back to the Old Weapon Man and he should apply the finishing touches. All: Ugh! Moore: C'mon, guys! For all this work we're putting in, this weapon is going to be the best! So return to the Old Weapon Man. Old Man: Why, you lot have been busy. Now, let me just use my RUST REMOVER here and it'll be ready before you can say “Done”! And... Do-ooo-ooo-ooo-ooo-ooo-ooo-ooo-ooone! Got: Pickax! Moore: Of course!! Where a shovel fails, the Pickax prevails! All: … Deima: That tears it, everyone dies. Moore: But-- Deima thrusts her hand skyward and the Old Man's tent is blown away. Old Man: Oh noooooo! Moore: Cough. Cough. W-well, on the bright side I got my best weapon in the ga-- wait, does this mean I only HAVE two weapons in this WHOLE GAME?! Hiro: … The Pickax is... a little better than his shovel, I guess? But now that we have all the legendary weapons, we can finally go to that random forest in the north stretch of the game, with the healing spring in it. When we go to heal in it this time, Hiro and the party just jump into it. You'll then follow a spiral staircase downward until you reach a Pudding Shrine at the bottom. “But wait!” I hear some of you call out, “How the hell were we supposed to know about this?!” All I can say is: Player's Guide Sales! Go inside and Hiro will pull away from the party. Hiro: The final shrine... A small, strange, hairy creature appears before him. Hiro: Um. Lulz: Greetings, Hiro. I am Lul Invictus, but you can call me Lulz for short. Hiro: Very short. Lulz: Oh, the wit. Never heard THAT one before! You do remember my voice, do you not? Hiro: Um... Wait... you were the one who spoke to me when my powers first awoke! Lulz: Indeed so. Your journey is nearing completion, Hiro. You will need the fullest extent of your abilities now. Do you know what I mean by that? Hiro: Yes! My friends! Lulz: Indeed! You've learned much! I now release the limitations on your abilities and bless you with the mighty power of the Final Swirl Flavor Fusion! Hiro glows brightly. Hiro: Thank you, Lulz. Lulz: Fare thee well. And remember: Pudding is meant to be enjoyed! Not contained! Keep those snack packs a popping! Hiro: The more you speak, the less I understand. But I'll do my best despite that. Hiro returns to the others, draws out his sword and poses. Hiro: Do that which is right, live your life for others, and never, ever give up! That is the oath of the Light Puddings! Ozma: Heart~! Kimyawa: Sugoi, Hiro-ni-chan! Loyroll: Well said, friend! Deima: Heh. Hot. Moore: Mm! Mancala: Ooo, we should copyright that phrase and make mint after the war's over! And with that, the last optional quest is finished and we're ready to get us the best ending of the game! It's time to enter the next chapter, with our heads held high!

When Uber Becomes Tinder (tinder!Ashton) - part 2

When Uber Meets Tinder, by @larryologymajor Read Part 1 here.

Part 2: Friday.

Ember awoke Friday morning feeling refreshed. From bed, she blindly swooshed aside the black out window curtain in her bedroom. Although Ember couldn't clearly see anything, she scrunched her eyes shut at the sudden influx of sunlight that signaled the end of the snow storm. She rolled over to grab her glasses of the night stand and climbed her way out of bed. Peeping through the window shade in her bedroom, Ember admired the sun glistening off the snow like tiny diamonds crystallized on the ground. Quietly she stepped into her fuzzy slippers and snagged her robe that was draped over the headboard of her bed. She picked up her phone and slid it into her robe pocket then made her way into the kitchen where she blindly stabbed at the power button of her Keurig. Her eyes refused to focus. Clearly Ember needed her daily boost of caffeine.

Ember grabbed her favorite coffee mug from the cabinet, not caring that the words were long faded and the rim had a weathered chip in it. Her best friend, Anna, had given it to her many birthdays ago and, although they lived states apart, drinking from that cup somehow made her feel like they were in the same room together sharing their favorite blend and laughing like old times.

After Ember sucked down her first cup of coffee, she stretched out on the couch and turned her attention to her phone. She vaguely recalled receiving that lost item text last night from Uber, so she chuckled as she again read the words her flirtatious passenger had written. Ember admired Ashton's courage to send it, but damn she was confused.

In her two years of driving Uber, that text was by far the most interesting thing that had happened to her and it was certainly her first fake "I forgot something" aka "let's hook up" message. Curiosity was on Ember's mind and she wanted to know more about this guy. Ember reached over to grab her laptop from the shelf under the coffee table and powered it on. Once it booted, Ember opened two tabs in her browser: Google and Facebook.

Ember first typed Ashton's phone number into Google but didn't really find any interesting hits. Next she typed his phone number into the Facebook search box. The results popped up and after scanning the names and tiny picture thumbnails, Ember silently cheered when she located a match to what she was looking for.

She clicked on the thumbnail of Ashton's smiling face. Her mind was a complete whirlwind of disbelief as she read through his profile. Ashton Irwin. Music/Band. 5 Seconds of Summer. Drummer. World Tour. 415,000 likes. Billboard #1.

Ember closed her eyes and shuddered from head to toe. She gently closed her laptop and reached over to pet her kitten who was curled up next to her, lightly snoring. "Who is this kid??" she asked out loud to no one, although her kitten rolled over and blinked an eye in her direction.

Ember spent the next several hours on her couch, in pajamas, surfing the internet. She was convinced that she had gone to the end of YouTube and back learning everything she could about Ashton Irwin, the hot young Australian with a quirky personality from a famous pop rock band. Ember sat on her couch grinning. How did she become so enamored? Ha, wait. She knew that answer. His performer personality was sparkling, smile wide and bursting with pride over his work and band mates, eyes bright, and laughter loud. God, she didn't really know the guy but she was in love with his laughter. She wondered if his real-life personality was anything like his stage persona.

Her head was throbbing from staring at her computer screen, so she shut it down and grabbed her phone. She opened up Spottily and queued up a 5 Seconds of Summer playlist. Ember walked to the bathroom and tossed her phone on the counter commanding her Amazon Echo Dot to take over playing the Spotify list. She gulped down a few ibuprofen to mitigate her headache and eye strain before stripping off her pajamas; then Ember jumped in the tub to take a relaxing bubble bath.

Forty-five minutes later, Ember was out of the shower and changing into clean clothes. She laughed to herself as the song "She Looks So Perfect" poured out from the Echo Dot in her bathroom. Standing there in her underwear, she settled on her favorite dark wash skinny jeans and super soft maroon Henley. Ember loved how the three delicate snaps on the front crept from her cleavage to collarbone to accentuated her breasts without flaunting them.

Ember's stomach growled and she realized it was nearly dinner time already. She skipped breakfast in favor of coffee, and she was much to occupied with her Ashton reconnaissance to eat lunch. She rifled through her freezer until she pulled out a frozen dinner.

When the dinner tray was in the oven, Ember returned her attention to her phone again, internally debating if she should message Ashton back. She reasoned with herself that she should message him back in case he was going to be cranky and report to Uber that she stole something he lost. Ember clicked open a new text message and carefully composed a message: Hi, this is Ember from Uber. Sorry you 'forgot' something in my car last night. ;) It was a pleasure chatting with you during your rides, hope you have a great day!

Less than a minute later, Ember's phone dinged with a reply. Her fingers shook nervously as she unlocked her phone.

Ashton: Hey. lol I wish I could have gotten it back last night ;) hope your day has been good!

Ember's heart raced. Was he trying to flirt with her? She quickly tapped out a reply: I put my phone on do not disturb and went straight to bed. I'm too old to stay out late haha.

Again, another reply from Ashton: Lol understandable but I wouldn't say all that.

Ember was baffled beyond belief; she quickly shot back a reply: Why's that?

Seconds later, Ashton replied: Age doesn't mean anything.

She was confused. So so confused. But she put on a brave face and silently thanked all of her friends in the undergraduate program for her keeping her young during grad school. Quickly she tapped out another reply: Definitely not. I'm a firm believer that you're only as old as you think you are.

Several long minutes went by, and Ember's oven timer sounded, letting her know that her frozen dinner was ready. She was pulling it out of the oven when she heard her phone ding, vibrating in place on the couch. She peeled away the foil cover to let it cool for a few minutes before returning to the phone. Ashton agreed with her theory.

Ashton: Exactly, that's a great belief to have.

She read Ashton's latest reply and let the conversation quietly die.

The rest of her afternoon was business as usual. Homework, laundry, errands. She was in a great mood and almost ready to login to her Uber app. She grabbed her jacket and shuffled down the hallway and out to her SUV. She drove over to the gas station across the street where she needed to top off her gas tank, wash her windows, and grab her customary Diet Coke.

Within a minute of logging into her Uber app, Ember was off to her first pickup of the night. It was Friday night and business was hopping! Several hours went by but Ember didn't even notice because the back-to-back pickups kept her busy. 10:30pm rolled around and the app was quieting down. Ember took advantage of the lull and pulled into the parking lot of a restaurant open 24/7 to sneak in and use the bathroom.

As she approached her car, her phone dinged, signaling a new text. It was Ashton: Driving tonight?

Ember wasn't sure what to say, so she tapped out: Yes

Ashton: Lol I just ordered one, wish it was you.

Ember rolled to a stop at a red light and quickly replied, feeling brave: Cancel?

Ashton fired back: They just pulled up....

Ember spotted an empty parking spot and carefully swooped in so she could focus on her phone.

Ember: That's tragic...

Ashton: Wish I could see you

Ember: Where are you heading?

Ashton: Downtown

Ember was at a loss for what to say. She was thinking when her phone dinged again.

Ashton: Don't you want to see me?

Ember: Well..... maybe if I get a drop off downtown I'll message you for your location and stop by to say hello.

Ashton: Just to say hello?

Ember knew she was sliding down a slippery slope, but chatting with this boy was outside her comfort zone and it excited her.

Then without warning she got a pickup request at a bar 15 minutes away from her. Knowing the crowd who patronized that bar, she was probably heading out to the countryside at least 25 minutes from town to drive them home.

As Ember pulled up to the curb at her passengers pickup location, she clicked the button to confirm her arrival. She minimized her Uber app and shot Ashton one last message: Heading to drop someone off out in the country. It'll be at least an hour, maybe longer, until I'm back downtown.

Although it was dark, Ember expertly navigated her way through the countryside with her passengers. A sleepy, and likely inebriated, late 20-something male sat immediately behind her. His female counterpart sat beside him in the back seat. She chatted animatedly with Ember, completely convinced that she and Ember had met before. Finally, Ember pulled into her passengers driveway and put the car in park so the duo could get out safely. Once they were out the car she shifted into reverse and stepped lightly on the gas. Nothing happened. Ember was stuck; her poor SUV was billowing smoke out from the engine. She quickly popped the hood latch and jumped out of the car while her male passenger came running over and they both stared at the engine in disbelief as it spewed an unrecognizable fluid all over the driveway. It was black out and neither of them could tell what was going on with the car. Ember wanted to cry.

The wife urged her to come sit in the kitchen with her while they figured out what to do. Reluctantly, Ember followed her into the house and dialed her roadside assistance hotline. While she waited on hold, she tapped out a message to Ashton: Raincheck on seeing you. My car is acting weird and I'm stuck out in the country waiting for a tow.

Moments later, her phone dinged. It was Ashton: Do you want me to call you an Uber? Ironic, huh...

Meanwhile, Ember was patched through to towing dispatch. "What do you mean you can't get a truck out here to tow me for three hours? It's already 2am! What if I find someone local? Can I pay them myself and submit for reimbursement?" Ember pleaded to the phone. After nodding a few times, she spoke again. "I'd really like to have my Subaru towed to my apartment building until the dealership opens up on Monday morning, then on Monday I'll need to have it towed to Subaru."

Satisfied with their response, Ember promised to call back and cancel the roadside assistance tow when she found someone who could be there sooner then hung up.

Ember wanted to cry again. Tim, her male passenger, chimed in, sobering up slightly. "I'm a mechanic and my buddy lives up the road. He runs a tow company. He owes me a favor and I'd love to drag his ass out of bed. Can I call him for you?"

Grateful, Ember agreed and waited quietly while Tim made a phone call. As Tim spoke to his buddy on the phone, Ember watched Tim nod his head. "Yeah, she drives a Subaru so you'll need something that can pull all-wheel drive."

Tim turned to Ember, "My buddy Dan will be here in about 30 minutes to tow you home. Feel free to hang out downstairs until he gets here."

Ember could have hugged him. "Thank you so much for helping me out, you're a huge lifesaver."

"Ah, it's no problem. You got us home safe. I just wish I was more sober to take a better look under your car," Tim chuckled.

Ember sat back down to call her roadside assistance hotline to cancel their dispatch with the three hour wait. When she hung up, her Snapchat app notified her that she had a new friend request. Ember almost freaked out. The user who added her was @ashton5sos.

She accepted his request and sent him a selfie captioned: Worst night ever. Car is broken. Waiting to be towed home.

Within seconds she had a reply. Ashton sent a selfie back: How about that Uber? ;)

Ember immediately snapped another selfie: lol that's super ironic but I'm going to wait here with my car. I'll probably be home in a few hours.

Ashton was waiting for her snap because his response came back in rapid succession. This time, he was shirtless and the snap showed only his tanned torso and sculpted shoulders... Are you sure? I could make your night a hell of a lot better...

Ember wanted so badly to screen capture that snap, but she knew she'd look like a fool if she did so instead she tried committing it to memory. In that moment she felt too old to be having this sort of conversation with someone so young, yet alone so famous. So she sent her final snap, a shot of her shoes. Sorry buttercup, I'm going home and going to bed.

Ashton shot back another selfie, this time it was his beautiful lips posed in a pout, shadowed by the dim light. Bae? Try me when you get home. I'd love to come over and sleep. Nothing more.

Ember switched over to the chat feature, not knowing what else to snap. Bae? Oh boy, now things are getting serious. I'm much too old for that word.

She watched Ashton's emoji pop up and could see he was typing: Age is just a number, bae. *kissy face emoji*

Ember could see lights in the driveway and hear tires in the snow, so she peered out the window to see that the tow truck had arrived. She and Tim both hurried outside. When the cold winter air hit Ember's face, she clicked open the car locks and grabbed her winter jacket from the driver's seat. It was was icy cold. Why hadn't she thought to bring it in to warm up.

It took nearly 25 minutes to get the Subaru all strapped onto the tow trailer. Ember told Tim thank you, again, and said goodbye as she hopped into the passenger seat of the tow truck.

It was a few minutes past 4 am when the Subaru was unloaded into Ember's parking lot and the tow truck left. She snapped a picture of her disabled car and e-mailed a copy of her receipt to herself. Feeling depressed that she was going to lose out on time driving and she was going to spend all of her rent money to fix her car, Ember trudged her way inside. She quickly undressed, changed into pajamas and fed her kitty.

Right before she crawled into bed, she sent a text to Ashton attached to a picture of her car. Got my car towed back to my apartment okay. Thanks for try to cheer me up tonight... Goodnight!

Ember put her phone on Do Not Disturb and quickly fell into a deep sleep.

READ PART 3.

Thanks for reading! There’s more to come! If you enjoyed this chapter, I would appreciate a reblog please and thanks! <3 I’m also looking for a beta/cheerleader for furture chapters. Message me if you’re interested!

Tags: @mycollectionofnuts, @kaxseychill, @sunnysidesblog Want to be tagged? Let me know!                                                                                                                            

booked and busy

sometimes when i think about dating again i’m like “how am i supposed to do this when i’m not young and hot anymore?” and then i have to remind myself that i’m 25, not dead. it’s hard to not feel behind though when everyone i went to high school with is already on their second marriage. 

speaking of marriage, all of my friends got married last summer. i get that pandemic weddings suck for the people getting married- but they were great for me, because i didn’t even have the option of having to be like “haha hey sorry i can’t come i’m still grieving the loss of my wedding xoxo send me ur registry.” for future reference, i am still emotionally unavailable to attend any weddings. i don’t even really drink anymore so don’t even think about trying to lure me in with an open bar- hit me up for your second weddings, i might be ready by then. 

let’s address the elephant in the room: i’ve been lonely lately. i’ve finally gotten to a point where i’m not constantly in survival mode, the last couple of years have been tough- between the whole being so sad i thought i was simply going to pass away thing and being so poor that i thought i was going to pass away thing. but i’m finally at a place where i have a little bit of time to think of other things than “oh my god am i going to be able to pay rent this month?” and the thing i’ve been thinking about is how much it sucks to come home to…just myself. 

in november, i officially moved back to austin after my departure due to the pandemic. when i initially returned, i wasn’t sure how long i’d be back in austin for. my lease at my apartment ended in july, and i ended up basically housesitting for a friend. and as the paramount kept having events, i kept extending my time housesitting. and eventually i wound up with a second job. 

a coworker asked if i was available for a couple-day gig and i was like “yes, i love money” and that gig has extended until now. it’s not technically permanent, but maybe if i bat my eyelashes enough i can keep working. i’ve now somehow weaseled my way into the TV industry which is hilarious because one of my favorite pastimes in college was getting involved with film bro dudes and absolutely horrifying them with how little knowledge i have of tv/film. 

with the second job, i knew that i needed to find a place to live. i also knew that i still didn’t make enough money to actually be able to rent anything in this hell city without a guarantor, and as a woman that has no financially stable adults, my options were slim. and somehow- i got lucky. the friend i was housesitting for ended up actually moving out, and i just slid right in. and now look at me! the proud renter of a house! i have a backyard! i pay way too much money in rent! i love it! 

i love my house. she’s uhhhh, quirky- but she’s a place to live. in november, i began the arduous process of moving all my shit from abilene back to austin, a shuffle i’ve made too many times at this point. it took three trips, but i eventually moved my wares- a desk, a nightstand, a handful of kitchen items, my clothes. for awhile, it was pretty empty in here. but it’s finally starting to fill in. i spent my first couple of weeks building flatpack ikea furniture, and eventually started scouring the salvation armies near me. my biggest dilemma was trying to find a couch.

how do people with no friends, no truck, and no money get a couch to their home? i’d find a cheap one on facebook marketplace, but would need someone to pick it up for me. i looked through wayfair, but the idea of waiting for a couch that may or may not arrive in 5-10 weeks and need two people to assemble was too much. and eventually, my neighbor was like “hey do you want my old couch? i just got a new one” and i was like “uh yes, absolutely.” shortly after that, i found a chair at salvation army for $25. and hark! there it was, finally i had a place to sit down. as they say, every desk is a standing desk when you don’t have anything to sit on. 

when it came to furnishing my place, i was willing to wait for the right pieces. when i moved in, i thought a lot about the place i had in philly with nathan. if i’m being honest, i hated it. all of our furniture was black, from walmart. it looked ugly, it was uninspired, but it was functional. and sure, at that point, that’s all that mattered. we only lived there for a month, so obviously there wasn’t time to actually move in and personalize it. but still, i didn’t want to have that experience with my place. in all honesty, it’s always felt like home. even when the only thing i had was a mattress on the floor of my bedroom and a bar cart. but now that it’s starting to fill in, it’s been really great. 

when jose first came to visit, he immediately was like “this place has good vibes,” and i have to agree. when i first moved out on my own after nathan died, i moved back into an apartment that i had already lived in during the before times. it haunted me. even though i had filled it with completely new furniture, in a completely different arrangement, the walls still knew too much. 

sometimes it’s lonely living by myself. i’ve always had a roommate and this is my first time where i’m just coming home to me. i miss living with nathan. it was all the perks of living alone (not having to wear pants in shared spaces, being able to be awake at stupid hours of the night) with the addition of the warmth of being able to come home to a partner. to be able to say “hey, i’m at 125th right now, i’ll be home soon,” and have someone excited for my arrival. to not have to stress about doing all the chores because someone else was there to lighten the load. to have someone to reel me in when i start spiraling before bed. 

i had to have a weird conversation with myself when it came to hanging up pictures on my wall. i have pictures with all of my favorite people, which obviously includes pictures of nathan and i had to take a moment to ask myself “does seeing his face every day still make me happy?” when i try to make myself sad, i’ll go through all the pictures of him on my phone. and for a period of time, catching the glimpses of us hanging on my wall would put me in a weird mood. i ended up leaving the pictures up. i hate thinking about the day i’ll eventually take them down. 

becoming a home-renter has taken a village. from my friend advocating for me to make sure i got the lease, to jose and dan coming here on the weekends to do all the stuff i just don’t have time for (yard work, knocking down wasp nests, cleaning my blinds), to everyone that’s given me furniture or other home goods. and most recently, my friends that let me live with them during the snowstorm because my home became uninhabitable because one of her quirks is that she’s impossible to keep warm! 

i’ve felt so supported by my friends lately, which has been dope- but there’s still a lingering emptiness. starting next week, i’m going to attempt to fill that emptiness with 50mg of zoloft (yes, ya girl finally got an anti-depressant prescription), but realistically, i know that i’m missing having a partner.

something i’ve noticed a lot on The Apps is that dudes will put “no kids, never married” in their bio, and while i do appreciate the child disclaimer- the whole ‘never married’ disclaimer sends me on a spiral. because like, yeah i’ve never technically been married, but i feel like that’s an even worse way to try to explain my past than just being like “yes i’m 25 yes i’m a widow yes we exist,” and it’s like- why are you seeing that and addressing it like it’s a red flag? shouldn’t be a good sign that there’s been at least one person who liked me enough to want to marry me? i still haven’t worked out the best way to navigate the whole “haha yeah i’m a widow” conversation, as you can imagine, it’s A Lot to ingest. 

(also, a quick side tangent- over the last few months, my blog has gotten a lot more hits, like literally thousands more than usual, and as a result of that, i’ve been getting a lot of pushback because of the way that i refer to myself as a widow even though i wasn’t married. i’ve never had to make this disclaimer to anyone that knows me in real life, because they get it. but i wanted to make a quick disclaimer to anyone that’s ever thought “lol this poor grieving woman isn’t a widow!!! i must tell her in a very rude way!!!” literally the only reason i wasn’t legally married was because nathan died before we could get married. in every other aspect, we were married. we had joint finances, we were on a lease together, but more importantly, every decision we made was with the other person in mind and with the intent of bettering each others’ lives- we were very much A Unit. being legally married doesn’t legitimize a relationship in any sort of significant way, other than….legally. the whole point of marriage is to promise to take care of someone until they (or you) die, and that’s exactly what i did. and by that merit, yeah, i do refer to myself as a widow. if you want to be technical about it, legally, no i’m not a widow…but like….get over it….are you really going to argue semantics with someone that lost their partner?)

ok so back to the hell that is Being On Dating Apps. i’ve done my time, i’ve put in my work, and when nathan and i got together i was so excited that i didn’t have to date ever again because honestly, i hate it. and now look at me, back in business. 

it’s exhausting being this unimpressed by men. my arms are tired from having to carry every conversation. 

i’ve talked about the first date i went on after nathan died, but the second one is truly a train wreck that needs to be witnessed. 

picture this: i’m on bumble, and i start talking to this dude that’s like….pretty decent. we’re having a good enough conversation, and eventually he’s like “hey! let’s get lunch this week” and like an unsuspecting fool, i said yes. so we go to lunch, and once again, things are surprisingly normal. until eventually, he looks me in the eyes and says with his whole heart- “hey, i’ve gotta be honest with you. i’m actually a magician, i recognized you on bumble from in & of itself and i really just wanted to pick your brain and ask some questions about the show,” and i immediately was like “oh yeah for sure, let me run to the bathroom real quick and then we can discuss magic” and then i literally made myself disappear. i just left. poof. no trace of me to be found again.

i’ve always said that i hate magic because if i wanted to get lied to i would just do it for free by talking to a man- and boy, have i always been right. 

anyway, now i live in fear of being bamboozled by a magician again. 

one time i let my friend swipe through my apps for me, and she was like “you sure do match with a lot of people named nathan,” and i was like “yeah, i think it’s the trauma.” i went through a phase where i’d swipe right on anyone with any sort of commonality with nathan….like literally anything. i’d see someone that graduated from columbia and i’d be like “ok that works” or like…..i’d see a picture of someone playing a trumpet and i’d just swipe right. 

i’ve tried to break myself of that habit because like, that’s not fair to the other person but sometimes i recognize those little patterns and it’s just a little reminder of how i’m still broken. 

when i’ve mentioned being back on apps, sometimes people are like “omg how did you move on? i couldn’t imagine dating someone else” and first of all- bold of you to assume i’ve moved on, also bold of you to assume that it’s not totally terrifying to me. being back on apps isn’t the same thing as being in a relationship with someone else. just because i’ve been casually talking to people doesn’t necessarily mean anything substantial. it’s progress, but the thought of having to be genuinely vulnerable around someone else is hard to wrap my head around, especially now with all this additional baggage. 

there have been times in my life where i’ve struggled with feelings of being unloveable. when i was in college, i was convinced that i would die alone. and a lot of the work that happened within my relationship with nathan revolved around getting me to a place where i was able to be like “i am a person deserving of love.” 

i’ve had to come to terms with the fact that there are also countless other people in this world deserving of love, and i have plenty of it to offer. do i wish i was offering to nathan? absolutely, all the time. i know that my relationship with nathan is incomparable, but that doesn’t mean that i can’t go on to have fulfilling relationships with other men. right before nathan and i got together, in the time when we thought we were about to go our separate ways- we had this conversation where i was like “lol you’ll be fine, you’re about to move to new york and you’ll find someone better than me and forget that i exist” and his response to that was “shut the fuck up, do you actually believe that? i have what i have with you- even if i wanted to, i couldn’t just replicate that with someone else.” and i think about that a lot now- in the sense of i had i had with nathan, and nothing will touch that, or replace that, or compare to that- and that’s totally okay. that doesn’t take away from or negate the importance of theoretical future relationships. 

i can’t say that i’m actively looking for a partner right now, but if the opportunity presents itself, i’m not opposed to the concept of dating someone. like i tweeted the other day, “i can’t believe that one day i’m going to have to be a mother figure to a straight man, yet again.”

ok cool, so that’s enough vulnerability for today- i’m gonna save the rest for my therapist xoxo

+++

the fun thing about having jobs (plural) is that instead of feeling emotions i just feel stressed. i can’t believe that i’ve finally become one of those people that has to be constantly doing something but here i am, working from 9-5 and then coming home to do chores and then scrolling through my phone while watching netflix because god forbid i allow my brain to have one single moment where i’m alone with my thoughts. some days i work from 9am to midnight and those are the days where i really don’t have any time to be alone with my thoughts. thank god! 

i have been taking time to try to do more creative pursuits. i’ve been writing more- recreationally. my resolution this year was to become the most insufferable woman in the world, so i am currently working on both a screenplay and a stand-up routine. i’ve also been doing some freelance editing and social media consulting. which like…..how millennial of me to do. 

circling back to the “having thousands more readers” on my blog thing i mentioned earlier, i checked my stats the other day and i’ve somehow gotten 10k page views in the last few months. i’ve been getting a lot of DMs on instagram/emails/etc from people that are like “oh my god i feel so much less alone now” which is insane. 

after nathan died, i purposefully stayed away from all grief content- i didn’t want any influence on what i was feeling- especially when i started writing how i was feeling. i wanted to be able to look back on it and know that the feelings i was writing about were uniquely mine. and then slowly, i started introducing works about grief into my reading lists and i also remember having those moments of “oh!! other people feel this way!!” but, if i’m being honest, a lot of grief writing makes me cringe. i hate platitudes, i hate cliches, i hate when people try to give me unsolicited advice and i hate published collections of advice even more. 

nonetheless, i keep getting asked the same question- “does it ever get easier?”

so here’s what i’ll say about that, it does. 

there was a period of time in my life where i’d be awake at 4am frantically googling “can you die from a broken heart?” (spoiler alert, apparently you can). i didn’t leave my house for 9 months. i literally could not be social without having to step away to cry. it was impossible to function. everything felt so incredibly empty (and i definitely still have days where things feel meaningless), i was literally a whisper of who i used to be. and then gradually, it got easier. my chest was a little less tight, the weight on my shoulders was a little lighter, and now i probably feel the closest to “myself” i’ve ever felt. 

everyone told me that the second year is the hardest, but there was a chunk of time where i didn’t even think i would make it to the second year. and then i did. and the second year has been weird (love grieving and also getting tossed into a pandemic) but it’s been better. i’ve been joking about it a lot more. which i’ve noticed a lot of people being very confused by- but to paint you a picture, one time pretty shortly after nathan died one of my friends texted me and was like “hey…..you haven’t made any jokes and i’m pretty concerned. you must really be doing terribly if you’re not joking about it” and they were right! i was doing terribly! 

but i’ll leave you with this- perhaps the most egregious platitude of them all- it gets better.

but first, it’s going to be really awful.

Loki x Reader - A Human’s Journal Part 5

So if anyone hasn’t already worked out, this series is a bit random, and is just kind of a random drabble series I’m messing around with - I honestly have no idea what I’m doing with it - so when people stop caring/reading it, I’ll stop posting it haha

What this does mean though, is that if anyone wants anything in particular to happen in this story, just let me know and I can work it in! :)

Let me know if you want to be tagged in anything

REQUESTS ARE ALWAYS OPEN!

MASTERLIST

“It’s freezing!” I cried indignantly, only halfway up the hill from the house I rented on the outskirts of the centre of Asgard.

Loki was already a few strides ahead of me and I rubbed my exposed hands together in a poor attempt to get some heat from the friction, regretting not having grabbed my gloves before I left.

“Yes, but there are fewer people about.” Loki pointed out, knowing how self-conscious I was – therefore not particularly enjoying running alongside the many other inhabitants of the city who were either completing chores or out running similarly to me.

I often recognised some of them as guards on their days off, keeping up their training, but having them run easy laps around me wasn’t exactly encouraging.

I pulled my sleeves as far over my hands as possible, soldiering on.

A short while later I was sharply reminded what followed the freezing weather when my feet slipped out from underneath me. I caught myself quickly, managing to stay upright, my arms slightly raised to steady myself.

Loki noticed this and paused, glancing back at me, puzzled. “What’s wrong?”

“It’s icy.” I called up to him. He continued to look confused at why this meant I had stopped. I sighed. “It’s slippery.” I explained.

His face lit up in sudden understanding and I glanced back down at my feet, trying to determine where the worst of the ice was. The path ahead of me was white with hazardous crystals and a glance behind me showed I had only managed to get this far thanks to the early morning sun having already defrosted parts of the path.

Ahead of me though, the path was largely shaded, and the ice remained.

“Just step carefully.” Loki advised, already walking forward again without any apparent cautiousness in his steps.

I frowned as I watched him walk, watching his feet that showed no signs of slipping despite his lack of care. Maybe his boots just had really good friction - though they didn’t look overly grippy – or maybe it was that magic of his at work again.

It would have been nice if he could spare me some of it.

I scowled at his non-slipping feet but, when Loki glanced back at me to see why I still hadn’t move, I attempted a tentative step forward.

When my balance held, I continued on, though still wary -  any attempt of mine to return to a ‘normal’ walking pace causing my feet to slip, slowing me again.

Loki gallantly slowed to my pace, though he always remained a few steps ahead of me, glancing back whenever I faltered, skidding slightly.

When we reached a small park-like area I immediately moved off the treacherous path and onto the frozen, crunchy grass. Here, I met the opposite problem to what I had on the pavement – where the ground was frozen I made good time -  easily walking with no loss of traction -  but where the ground had defrosted I was subject to the slick mud.

It slowed me down, but not nearly as much as the ice had and I managed to catch up with Loki.

The prince continued to lead the way until we reached the same place as last time. Loki allowed me to walk a little further than last time until we found a large area that had already been exposed to the early morning sunlight and was thawed enough to not pose too much of a hazard to my Midgardian feet.

He then led me through the same workout as before.

This time I felt the ache in my legs sooner, but, by the time I began to truly pay attention to it, Loki had called for my free run – my chance to choose whether I wanted to run or walk for the next ten minutes. I walked.

I had little regret – after all I was just starting out.

Loki didn’t hang around very long after the run again, dismissing himself with the excuse of having duties to attend to. I didn’t mind – he was the prince after – and my studies began soon which promised to take up the rest of the day.

I didn’t see Loki again until late that evening.

“You’ve had a busy day.” Loki spoke from his place on my bed as I finally entered my room for the night. I was slowly acclimatising to him constantly being in my room, but I still jumped when I saw him.

“Have you been sat here in the dark waiting for me to come up?” I asked in disbelief, throwing my bag down. I had been sat with my housemates for a few hours now, unable to escape away despite my exhaustion.

“No.” He said, “I heard you come up.” I frowned at what that meant until it suddenly occurred to me the state of my chambers. “Oh, god – sorry.” I apologised quickly, grabbing at my workout clothes I had thrown on the floor earlier, my bag and a few other random items scattered around.

“You don’t need to tidy.” He muttered as he watched me dash around, throwing things out of sight in the bottom of my wardrobe.

I turned back to him, slightly out of breath and red in the cheeks - more out of embarrassment than anything else – and Loki simply raised an eyebrow at me in amusement. I felt myself blush even more intensely.

“Don’t you have anywhere better to be right now than sat in my room?” You asked in a poor attempt to move the conversation on.

“I do.” He admitted, and his lips quirked into a half-smile when he noticed my crestfallen face.

“Then can I ask why you are crowding my room?” I sassed my heart hadn’t just dropped, moving to the old desk in my room and shuffling some papers together in an attempt to look uncaring.

He gave me a bored look, “I came to check in on you.” He said, “That was my part of the deal, after all.” He muttered moodily, “However, I am [A1] [AC2] still waiting for you to hold up on your end.” He pointed out, his face clouding over.

“What do you mean?” I frowned turning back to him. “I went out with you this morning.”

“The exercise is not the problem.” He stated seriously. “The problem is your eating habits.”

Shit. I’d been caught.

But could I really be that surprised?

“This is the third day you have not stuck to what we agreed.” Loki told me.

I dropped my eyes in shame. It was true.

I sighed heavily, shifting awkwardly on the spot. “I know.” I admitted. “I – I just can’t help myself in the evening.” I confessed. “I wanted to today,” I insisted, “- I barely ate all day whilst I was studying – but – but when I got back – I just - I couldn’t help it.” I shrugged in disgrace, perching slightly on the edge of my chest of drawers, unable to look at him.

I hated disappointing him – it hurt my heart for some reason. The problem was, in the moment, I forgot all about that – and the many other reasons I shouldn’t be eating - only able to remember the pleasure and comfort the food gave me.

I could feel Loki’s eyes on me, but I still didn’t look up from the worn carpet.

“Ok.” Growled Loki. “Maybe I need to be more strict about this.”

I glanced up now, not particularly comfortable with what he was possibly proposing.

“What is that supposed to mean?” I asked warily.

Loki’s eyes had been staring off into the room, but now they snapped back to mine.

“You’re afraid of me.” He stated in disbelief, noticing the fear in my eyes.

I didn’t say anything – I didn’t want to lie to him – I knew he’d be able to tell if I did, but also admitting it sounded stupid.

He must have been able to read the answer in my eyes as well though, because his face darkened, and I saw his jaw clench.

“I can’t believe this.” He growled, pushing himself off my bed.

“Loki, I –“ I started, standing up with him, reaching out to grab his arm, but the look he turned on me made me falter. Before I could stop him, he vanished right before my eyes leaving me alone in my chambers.

tags: @one-loki-fanfic @sheldonsherlocktony @@jemjem-chan@white-chocolate-mocha-fan @wolfsmom1​