#Plant Dad Hob
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Many gremlin wishes on this most auspicious of days, the day of your birf!! As a gift of words, I offer...
OKAY SO I KINDA COMBINED BOTH, SO WE'RE GOING TO HAVE A BIT OF BOTH.
~!~!~!~!~!~
It started because Hob needed something to care about after Eleanor and Robyn. The first plant, gently handed to him, with care instructions, and a small basket of fertilizer, a pot for it to grow into, and fresh soil, had been what he needed and he hadn't even known it until he'd gotten the plant home. It flourished, and Hob spent the better part of a week crying when it flowered for the first time.
He was back immediately after he'd managed to pull himself together, the enigmatic man behind the plant counter giving him a quick, secret smile as he asked for another, so his plant wouldn't get lonely.
Six months later, his flat had become a veritable jungle and he had no regrets. He had something to live for, something small, and it was enough, for now. The Orchids required daily care, the spices were flourishing (and he'd started cooking again to have a reason to use the spices), and his small shelf of succulents next to his computer made sure that he didn't fall too deeply into despair.
The benefit to so many plants, of course, was that he had an excuse to return to the garden center to see HIM. Dream, the man who had sold him his first plant, and then all the subsequent ones, who always seemed to know what his plants needed before he did, who always gave him the smallest and tiniest smiles, and nods of acknowledgment, was someone who understood Hob didn't know entirely how, but he did understand.
Which was why, when he made his way to the garden center, he blinked in surprise at seeing it was closed. His face fell, but he headed into the larger building to get what he needed. Dream was allowed to have days off, of course, but Hob had gotten used to being able to see him whenever he made his way over. Which made the sight of Dream standing behind a check out counter, looking pale, and thin, and drawn, even more surprising.
"Dream?"
"Hob," Dream said with a nod. "Apologies for..." he swayed, blinking hard. "For not greeting you outside as is custom. The shop required assistance."
There was no one else nearby, and the store was probably empty, so Hob stepped closer, and watched Dream's eyes that were glassy and cloudy, meet his. Something was wrong. Something was very wrong. "Dream? Are you all right?"
Dream managed to summon a scowl, but only barely. "Of course. I do not need your-" his knees buckled and he grabbed onto the edge of the counter, barely managing to stay upright.
Hob was around the counter, with an arm around Dream's waist, taking his insubstantial weight in a split second. He steadied Dream and bit his lip when Dream went even more pale. "Dream? What do you need?"
Dream trembled, fighting down a growl. "Outside. Sun. Need sunlight."
Hob looked out the front door, but they'd draw attention to themselves if he went to stand out there. Lifting Dream into his arms, Hob strode through the store and toward the Garden Center. The other man felt like nothing and was almost limp in his arms. He shouldered the door open and strode into the bright sunlight, biting down on his lip.
He found a chair to sit on, keeping Dream carefully cradled, even as he tilted his chin up and to the sunlight. Hob smiled faintly. "That better?"
Dream nodded without speaking, keeping as much of his skin as possible exposed to it, and after a few minutes, he no longer felt ready to shake apart. "Yes, thank you."
"Vitamin D deficiency?" Hob asked. Dream hadn't moved from his lap, and Hob wasn't about to force him to move.
Dream hummed. "Without continuous exposure to the sun and other plants around me, I would die. Working in the store is akin to torture if I cannot take breaks. Today was the third day in the store." He shuddered and let his mouth fall open, breathing in the scents around him, deep and slow.
Hob blinked, opening his mouth before he shut it. Dream not being entirely human, or human at all, explained a great many things. Such as how Dream knew about his plants, and about what he needed for them all of the time. "And you work at a garden center?"
"No one suspects anything if I spend my days outside among plants," Dream answered, shifting to rest his cheek against Hob's shoulder, his skin warming steadily. "I can care for them, and ensure they are placed in homes that will care for them properly."
"So I should be flattered that you've steadily turned my flat into a jungle with your recommendations?" Hob asked, even as Dream squirmed and then settled properly into his lap again. He adjusted his arms and then wrapped them around the not-a-human in his lap once more.
Dream frowned. "You have been surprisingly non-reactive to the information that I am not human. Should I be concerned?"
Hob shrugged. "I don't get out a lot these days, and you helped me find something worth living for. Unless you're actively hurting people, I don't care what you are. I just want you to be all right."
Dream trembled with his entire body. "The shop must stay open. It allows my home to stay safe."
Hob looked up at the building, at Dream's reminder that he would die if he was stuck inside. "How about you stay out here and tend to your plants, and I'll run the register. I already know where most everything is inside, anyway, and the orchids will be all right if I water them after closing."
Dream's eyes widened and he tipped his head up to look at the human holding him. "You would... work inside?"
Hob leaned in and kissed Dream's temple, where at his hairline, he could see vines at the base of his hair. "I will. You stay out here, and if I need help, I'll come ask."
Dream nodded once. "I would.. be very grateful."
"Happy to help," Hob said, helping Dream rise to his feet. He made his way back into the store and did a lap around the store, helping the few people who had been lingering, checking them out and getting them on their way. He tidied the shelves, and straightened them, and put away the stock that had arrived, and waved to Dream when he could see him watching. It felt good to be working, to be doing something, and when he finished, he was a bit at a loss, and made his way outside.
"Dream?"
Hob laughed in delight as Dream's head bobbed up from behind a plant shelf, and held out the shop keys. "Everything is locked." He handed Dream the keys, and watched him hold them close. His heart turned over in his chest as Dream stared at him. His lips were pink once more and he relaxed at seeing Dream much more normal.
Dream cradled the keys close and looked down at them. "You have done me a remarkable kindness. I don't know how to repay you."
Hob lifted his eyes to the door at the back of the garden center that led to the greenhouses and swallowed. The orchids would be all right. "Will you... show me your home?"
Dream reached out to take Hob's hand and gave it a slow squeeze. "I would be honored." He turned and led the way back into the greenhouses. By the gasp the human gave the second they stepped through the doorway, he knew they were not nearly as small as they appeared.
Hob followed Dream through a veritable forest, and was led to a grassy clearing, and when he was pulled down to lay under the moonlight of two moons, he didn't hesitate to stretch out beside Dream, admiring his ethereal beauty. "I'll work the shop as often as you need. So you can stay safe."
"You would?" Dream whispered.
"I would," Hob agreed, reaching out to tuck some of Dream's hair behind his ear. "Often as you need, promise."
Dream reached out to cup Hob's chin, tilting it up. "It is customary for you to kiss, now?"
Hob managed a soft laugh and turned to kiss Dream's palm. "If you would like-" the words were cut off as Dream surged forward, sealing their lips together, pressing him back into the soft and comforting grass. He tightened his arms around Dream and pulled him close, letting the kiss go on and on. Whatever Dream was, Hob didn't really care, he could help, he was maybe a little bit needed, and he had missed being needed.
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Please reblog for sample size :)
Info:
Moriarty- keeps Hob enslaved and forces Nova to be a prostitute. Knows where the LW’s dad is and uses that to extort caps from them, also keeps blackmail info on Megaton residents.
Myron- proud inventor of Jet - that got a whole town in addicted and relies on New Reno crime families for supply - treats mutants & slaves as objects, unapologetic rapist who tries to roofie an low INT female CO.
Daniel- treats The Sorrow like children, forces himself into making decisions for them as he suffers from White Saviour Complex, hides Walking Cloud’s husband’s death from her.
Swanick- ex Powder Ganger who is gleeful about winning the lottery while everyone around him suffered fates worse than death, abandoned Boxcars with his broken legs (I’d do that too to be honest )
Jones- head slaver of Paradise Falls, wants to enslave the kids of Little Lamplight.
Lynette- doesn’t believe anything the CO tells her, enforces the racist, elitist policies of Vault City and its feudal class system, sees Gecko’s leaking power plant as an act of war and wants the ghoulies there killed.
Crawford- sold a pregnant Carla Boon into slavery because she didn’t like Novac.
Codman- elitist upperstands resident
#fallout new vegas#fallout#fallout 4#fallout 3#fallout 1#classic fallout#polls#fallout polls#fallout poll#okay that’s enough choices#sorry#let me know who I should have added#no Joshua Graham this time#fallout 2
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The summer of the soul in December.
There is something genuinely magical about garden centers at Christmas, in Hob’s opinion. Sure, most of the plants are dead or dormant, but the lack of flowers are more than made up for by rows of netted Christmas trees waiting to be taken home, displays with yards of fairy lights, every kind of decoration a person could possibly imagine and, of course, Santa’s grotto.
Read the rest on AO3!
This is a big ole happy holiday from me, especially to everyone who sent in asks about Santa Hob + single dad Dream. A bunch of you requested so it only seemed fair to make it a fic! I hope it brings you joy ❤
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For the ask meme, how about P (Invent a random AU for any fandom (we always need more ideas).)
Ahhh man that is so much pressure! Inventing a whole new AU!
Okay, this is almost certainly not a new AU concept but! One I do not see enough of!
Your blorbos are a Gate Team out of Stargate Command. You get to decide which ones are military or civilians or aliens, what their specialties are, and which one keeps dying and being resurrected, and they go have weird hijinks on alien planets that all look pretty much like the outskirts of Vancouver, featuring populations of humans transplanted by ancient alien/gods!
So for instance if I was gonna do a Sandman Stargate AU
(I'm not!)
Hob is the anti-Dr. Jackson--he seems to die on a very regular basis but he's never actually dead. If you think he got killed on an alien planet you need to go back and look for him again because he will be there! Not at all dead!
Dream is some sort of civilian expert--an anthropologist specializing in common narratives and the way stories show relationships between societies--who somehow got recruited from the UK and displays a constant vague distaste for all the military everything and all the violence right up until the chips are really down and then he reveals himself to be terrifyingly badass actually
(he just dies the once.)
In season 3 it's revealed that Dream's younger brother was a mililtary member of a Gate team who disappeared under hushed-up circumstances and that's actually why Dream got himself into the program, to find out what happened to him--and it turns out he went AWOL voluntarily and is living very happily on an alien planet somewhere, but a lot of people get killed in the string of missions that lead to them finding that out, and he refuses to come back and relocates to a different planet as soon as they're gone so he can never be found again)
In the pilot episode Matthew's there as a military intelligence type guy on their gate team--the obligatory American to Hob and Dream and Jo's Brits--and then he gets killed but Dream figures out how to use a weird alien artifact to save him, except he gets transferred into an alien bird's body instead of it fixing his own body
Jo is British Army, from a long line of family members who have died in military service, usually doing something really weird and secret
her dad was on an early gate team, maybe even the first one--the one from the movie, that went to Abydos and fought Ra and thought that that was the only destination the gate could go to. He was killed there, and Jo wasn't told what really happened to him, but she knew it was something other than what they told her--and she was vindicated when she was recruited into the Stargate program by somebody who was with him on that last mission.
(Her dad was also an asshole, this is not like a touching vindication of him as a hero, he was a complete dick and a terrible dad and probably would have been an even worse one if he hadn't died, but that didn't mean Jo wasn't going to find out the truth and follow in his footsteps.)
Episodes 2-5 include a tragicomic subplot about Matthew's plight as a dead human and live alien bird and whether he's allowed to still be on the team or is just going to be a mascot in the SGC, and meanwhile a new charming blond American guy is temporarily assigned to Hob and Dream and Jo's team, and it's when Corin reveals he's an alien plant and tries to murder Dream that you first see Dream really turn on his badassery
after that they get young Lt. Rose Walker as their obligatory American for the rest of the series. Matthew is also on the team but they prefer to field four people who can all do stuff requiring thumbs.
See! Easy peasy! Go forth and write Stargate AUs for your favorite fandoms and characters!
Haha no I am not writing this what are you talking about
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i know that giving sanctuary has a lot of stuff about “dad with dead son” angst for plot reasons and stuff but i have to admit sometimes i think of either hob or dream in the like …classic middle class white american dad fit of a polo shirt and cargo shorts or something equally ugly (big chunky sketchers shoes, those neon reflective sunglasses, god forbid a golf club) and i lose my mind laughing so thank you for indirectly planting that seed in my brain
Oh goodness, WHAT AN IMAGE indeed.
That said---! I could see it. I mean, for Hob I could see it. If there WAS a modern AU of Giving Sanctuary, the modern equivalent or vibe I see for Hob is like... guy who waited until his late 30s to have a kid, who really made sure he had a high paying job, met the exact right person, had the perfect house etc etc then loses his family and falls into a depression where he loses everything and can't hold it together as a result. And yes, he absolutely wears a polo shirt and ugly khakis at Robyn's like...5th birthday party or something and there is photographic evidence that Dream, for all he's starting to love this guy, still cannot entirely forgive ;P
That said, the timing gets weird with immortality because there is a distinct theme in the story around losing an adult son, someone he spent 20 years knowing and who Hob was about to send out in the world to start his own family, only to lose him. So maybe the better vibe would be "If the events of GS took place in the 20th/21st century but the characters were still immortal." Would be an interesting visual challenge to do like what is Hob's 1589 equivalent in the modern era, except maybe an update of 1989 but with a beard?? A flashy Rolex?
Whereas Dream is the sort of father I don't really see shown very much in media, which is someone with actually a bit of style who nevertheless had a child while pretty young? Like, people have kids all the time while they're quite young, I don't even mean teen pregnancy stuff I mean, 21 year olds who are adults settling down and starting a family is hardly the most outrageous thing!
So for Dream's human/modern AU GS equivalent (or NOT Human AU just "What if the events around Orpheus happened in the 21st century instead?) I see him and Calliope as like... that Goth/Artist couple who got married around age 21 when none of their peers were getting married, like everyone (aka the other Endless and all her sisters) thought they were crazy to settle down and have a kid, it was so against type for both of them, everyone thought they were much more into their art but instead they took the time to start a family.
And then they lost that child, broke up horrifically over it, and the Dream who meets Hob in this 21st c GS equivalent, emotionally speaking, is now a 30-something year old, still a goth, still very much an artist, but who has this sort of life experience that almost no one in his age group has had, who has this depth of trauma brought to his life that gets interpreted all the time as him just being this artistic, introverted, misanthrope y'know? He's a goth, that's Why He's Like
That, and no one actually ASKS him what went wrong in his life to make him like this because if they did, hearing "I got married to a fellow artist when I was 21 and happy and optimistic about the world, we had a son who died, and my wife and I split up by the time I was in my mid-20s, and now I'm in my 30s and I've been traumatized and convinced the world is out to get me ever since, so I've buried myself in my work to cope" is just NOT the answer one expects to hear!
So a modern Giving Sanctuary would be Hob, y'know, at the end of his rope, at absolute rock bottom, meeting up with Dream (human or not) in a bar like they agree to while Hob is now unhoused after losing it all and hey, if we go full modern/human AU, maybe Hob is someone Dream got a job for years ago as a favor to his sister, thinking Hob would crash and burn at it only for Hob to actually do very well! So Hob and Dream still agree to meet up every year since then y'know, just following up on this favor (Dream hoping the first couple times it was just to see Hob fail miserably because he thought the guy was a jock and an idiot) only for Hob to confess why his life has fallen apart is his son dying and to see Dream's reaction and to actually be the first person *ever* to hear the story and not be like 'What were you doing getting married when you were 21??" and instead being... actually sympathetic? And asking if he's ok?? Because it really is a huge problem that men who lose their children tragically don't get anywhere near the same support and sympathy that women do?
So yeah the grounded elements of Giving Sanctuary actually DO work in a modern update, absolutely!
And Hob absolutely wore a polo shirt and like... a Rolex to the modern 1589-equivalent meeting which was held at like... Dream's art gallery showing, showed a bunch of pictures of his wife and kid on his phone while bragging about his high paying job, and Dream took one look at this fucking chad and peaced the fuck out of that noise, only to have Hob show up a year after to be the only goddamn person ever who has actually understood the fact that 10 years later, Dream is still traumatized by having his life fall apart in his early 20s. The End.
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Currently catches up on the IDW tmnt comics so here are some headcanon; spoilers for the later issues
Because of a couple of issues Casey has heterochromia! One eye blue and one eye brown
Jenny canonical like heavy metal so here what I think the boys like mike-pop, Donnie-techno and classic, raph-classic rock and (cononical) hiphop, Leo-classic and lofi/jazzhop
Leo and Donnie like to hang and listen to music together since they have the same taste
Since Leo has that scar on his eye he’s half bind. He can see but it’s fuzzy
All the boys have scars; from most to least scars is raph, Jenny, Leo, Donnie, Mikey.
April, Angel, and Casey have some too but Casey has the most out of the humans squad.
Leo canonical grows plants and I think he would grow one that represent his family; Mikey-sunflower, Jenny-daffodils, Raph-gladiolus, Donnie-Iris, Alopex-Daffodil, Lita-Goldenrod, Angel-Black-Eyed Susan, April-Amaryllis,, Casey-Pink Azalea, Splinter-protea, Tang Shen-Lily of the valley
He also send a bouquet of Valerian, Tansy, Aconite, and Petunias flowers to his enemies
He can grown amazing flowers but he sucks at grown fruit and vegetables, that’s raph department, but he can kind of grow herbs.
Because he has a metal shell, Donnie had a hard time swimming. He can swim it just makes him really slow. Also he has chronic pain and use a cane.
Donnie also has Depersonalization after he got his body back. Sometimes that makes him slip into the astral plane. First time he had a Depersonalization spell he had a bad reaction, thinking that he was dead and a ghost. He’s working on it though
Foot!Leo had killed people (the writers are cowards for not making him be a killer/j )
Leo also has some Depersonalization as well, it was mostly during his time with foot.
Foot!leo had been tortured as well both my shredder and by kinsun during his time with the foot, he also knows how to torture someone
He, Jenny, and Alopex all help one another cope, since all three have s first hand experience what the foot can do.
Raph during his time on the streets pick up some habit and know a lot on how to survive, one of the trick he knows is how to sew. Another is how to salvage food and how to find edible foods and plants
Casey is very happy to meet raph because Casey believes that if it wasn’t for raph he would have one day have been murder by his dad.
The gang have odd feelings about hob but if they can think of shredder as “uncle saki” they could possibly think of hob as family.
That been said all of the turtles more or less want to stab or kill hob.
Leo is aro/ace, Mikey and raph are bi; Donnie is questioning, and Jenny is demiromantic
Mikey and woody are a couple, raph and aploex are also a couple. Leaving both Leo and Donnie single but there fine with it. But Donnie sometimes thinks it would be nice to have a partner to do science with while Leo is just lonely
They gang like to dress up and experiment with clothes and makeup.
Leo and Mikey were lots of dress and skirts (yes for the Leo one it’s base off his Halloween costume but i think it’s cute) as well as sweater and cute things. Thought Leo like to wear outfits that cover and protect him while Mikey just wears whatever is cute
Donnie wears sturdy clothes (overalls, flannel, cargo pants) as well has long sleeves. Raph wears jackets and heavy layers, casual. And Jenny wears punk.
Leo likes tea and alcohol, Mikey like juice and soda, Donnie like coffee and sparkling water, Jenny likes tea, and raph like water and soda
Leo and Mikey like sweet, Donnie like bitter, raph likes savory, and Jenny like sour.
There all left handed
All of gang and human friends have mental issues and Elizabeth O’Neil is desperate trying to have them go to counseling. She see the boys, aploex, Angel, and Casey as her kids. The turtles give her mother days cards since she the only mom figure they have.
Lila calls Donnie “dad” or “uncle don”
Mikey is “papa” or “uncle mike”,
Leo is “uncle Leo” or “daddy”,
Raph is “uncle raph” or “pop”
Jenny is “mom” or “auntie Jen”
Aploex is “momma” or “auntie apl”
April is “aunt April”
Casey is “uncle case”
Angel is “auntie angel”
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I've Got You || vhope drabble
--VHOPE DRABBLE
--where hoseok, who is visiting his parents on their farm, answers the door to find his boyfriend of almost a year standing there holding a rubber duck and a potted plant.
________________
When Hoseok wakes, he finds the fields are encrusted with frost and the morning chill has seeped through the flagstones of the kitchen floor. Through the back window of the old farmhouse, he can see his father checking on the cows and his mother collecting eggs from the chicken hutch. It's peaceful out here, far away from the chaos and smog of the city. The sky is bright blue, the only sound between it and the horizon the rush of the wind and the faint clamour of the animals.
He potters around the kitchen, preparing coffee and breakfast for when his parents come back inside. He gets the frying-pan down from its hook on the ceiling, fills up the kettle.
Half an hour later, the kitchen smells of boiled rice and he's just thinking of going into the attic to check his messages--it's the only place for miles that he can get any reception and he hasn't messaged Taehyung in days--when something out the window catches his eye. He has to wipe the steam off the window to see clearly what's going on.
His father, whose morning routine is about as immovable as a mountain, is standing stock still in the middle of his field of cows, staring at something out of Hoseok's line of sight.
Hoseok watches him for a few minutes and sighs. Maybe the postman is late again and his father has decided to give him the evil eye in the hopes it'll make him pick up the pace.
He's just buttering himself toast, really wishing he'd packed slippers--or that he owns a pair of slippers--when the doorbell rings. Maybe it really is the postman his father's watching like a hawk. The postman is the only person who rings the doorbell around here. All his parents' friends let themselves in the few rare times they come over.
He carries on buttering his toast and is just taking his first bite when the bell rings again, followed by a series of hurried taps of the door-knocker.
"Hold on a sec!" he calls, taking the pot of rice off the hob.
The knocking doesn't stop. It only gets louder, harsher.
"I'm coming! I'm coming!"
Did his dad order something that needs signing for? If so, his evil eye must have really freaked the postman out.
Toast in his mouth, he takes the seven steps down the hall and yanks the front door open. "Sorry, I was--oh my god. Oh my god."
"Hey," Taehyung says faintly.
He's standing on the old front porch, dressed in what looks like every warm layer he's ever owned. There are worry-lines around his mouth, stamped across his forehead, and under his eyes heavy shadows hang like smudges of coal dust. He looks like he hasn't slept all night and Hoseok doesn't have to hug him to smell day-old sweat and stale bus and train seats.
"Oh my god," Hoseok says again, floorboards creaking as he steps outside, closing the door behind him to keep in the little heat the house has. It's his job to light the fire to warm the house while he's here and, well, he woke up late, so that hasn't happened yet. "Honey, w-what are you doing here?" he asks softly, taking Taehyung's cold face in his free hand. The end of his nose is red, nipped by the wind. "What are you doing here with a…" He surveys the objects in Taehyung's arms, laughing, "rubber duck and a pot plant?"
Taehyung hangs his head, sucking in a shaky breath, and shrugs. "I don't know. missed you," he mumbles.
"Hey," Hoseok murmurs, lifting Taehyung's face. He gives him a soft, quick kiss, grimaces. Taehyung tastes about as good as he smells.
He steps back, taking in Taehyung's appearance once more, concern twisting in his gut. "Are you okay?"
"Um…" Taehyung's lips quiver. He hugs his pot plant tighter--it's the one off the windowsill in his kitchen. "Well… I was… and then… he was… and the man… and they told me… and it was a week… and I was… and I can't… and I'm not… and I should have… but I didn't and now I'm… and I need… and they told me… and it's just left a message… and we were… and my stuff… and I'm…" He looks ready to tear his own hair out, ready to cry as he sucks his bottom lip into his mouth and takes a shuddering breath and says, "You know how when I lost my job I said I had enough in my bank account to last me about five months, so I'd be fine. Well, it was one month and I'm not fine."
"What?" Hoseok blurts, almost dropping his toast. "What do you mean you're not fine?"
"Can you hold these?"
Taehyung shoves the plant pot and the rubber duck at him and Hoseok takes them, mouth working silently.
Taehyung goes through eight pockets before he pulls out a handful of scrunched up papers. He shoves those at Hoseok too, trying to switch them for the rubber duck and the plant pot. The rubber duck hits the porch and bounces down the steps, and Taehyung, clutching the plant pot, chases after it.
By the time he's back up the steps, Hoseok has unfolded the papers and can't believe what he's seeing. "Honey… Taehyungie… these are eviction notices…"
Taehyung nods. The three hats he's wearing are slipping to the side. "Yeah."
He can feel a headache coming on. He needs coffee. He needs more than two bites of toast to be able to process this. "There's four of them, Taehyungie! Why wouldn't you tell me? Why…" Oh god, no, he really can't do this. He presses the papers to his face, breathing hard. "Why didn't you tell me? Taehyungie, this says you had to be out of the apartment yesterday. Do you realise my parents are here? My parents! Taehyungie, you can't just show up here! They don't even know about us! I only just told them I'm gay. They are not ready to know I have a boyfriend. I think mum almost had a heart attack when I said she wasn't getting a daughter in law! I only just--why do you have a duck and a plant?"
Taehyung gives a tiny shrug, staring hard at the floor. "I don't know. I was going to pack. but I ended up picking up my plant because you bet me I'd let it die and well, I want to win the bet. This duck was a present from mum. I've had it since I was three. And I got on a bus and then a train and another bus. And I didn't know where to go so I came here."
Hoseok blinks, utterly at a loss. "W-wh-why are you wearing your entire wardrobe?"
"I knew it was going to be cold here and I don't have a suitcase. And I wasn't thinking clearly and I forgot I owned a backpack."
Hoseok shoves the papers into his back pocket. If he's lucky, he has another hour until his parents come back to the house, assuming his father doesn’t come over early to see what’s going on with the crazy, over-dressed man he’s just seen walking up the driveway with a child's bath-toy. Jesus, what a first impression Taehyung makes.
“I'm really sorry,” Taehyung says thickly. “I-I didn’t have anywhere else to go.” He looks pathetically out towards the fields, pressing his lips together hard in that way he does right before the tears come. His shoulders shake. “Hyungie, I don't know what to do. I don't have anywhere to go. I-I tried to call, but you don’t have any reception.”
Hoseok runs a hand through his hair, feeling torn and horrible. There's no question of how this is going to go, but he has so many questions that he doesn’t know where to begin.
Lamely, he holds up his toast.
“Have you eaten?”
Taehyung isn’t talking like a Taehyung who’s eaten anything in the last twenty-four hours.
Taehyung shakes his head and accepts the toast Hoseok pushes at his mouth.
They stand there until Hoseok has fed him every last crumb of it, then Hoseok sighs.
“Come in. I'll get you something else. you must be starving.”
He holds the door open, waiting.
“You’re angry with me,” Taehyung says quietly, and wipes his mouth on his mittened hand.
“Pretty much, yeah,” Hoseok says. He touches Taehyung’s arm softly, heart fluttering at the tears brimming in Taehyung’s eyes. “Come inside. I'll get you a proper meal. I love you,” he adds.
Taehyung nods, face beginning to pucker. “I love you too,” he whimpers. “I'm sorry. I don't have to stay here. I can go somewhere—“
“No, Taehyungie… honey… it’s…” he hesitates just short of saying ‘okay.’ “What’s done is done. Just… come in. You need to sleep and change and have a shower and brush your teeth. I'm going to make you tea and breakfast.”
He's not going to get any proper answers out of Taehyung like this and the last thing he has the energy for is a fight in full earshot of his parents in the freezing cold. He's been dating Taehyung for almost a year. It's high time he told his parents about his relationship. Does this mean he’s going to? Jesus. Maybe. But it isn’t exactly on his bucket list this year. It’s been hard enough for them having a gay son, but a gay son with a boyfriend?
“This was a bad idea,” Taehyung says. “I'm going to go. I-I’ll—“
Hoseok catches him by the wrist. “Taehyungie, honey… you’re running on like eight coffees. Have you slept at all? Just come inside. I don't think my parents will even notice we’re dating, you look like a crazy old cat lady or something.“
He wraps an arm around Taehyung's shoulders and pulls him inside firmly. Shoes off, up the stairs to the guest bedroom. He sits Taehyung on the bed and undresses him, folding up each item of clothing neatly as he goes. He really does think Tae might have worn his entire wardrobe. He runs his fingers through Taehyung's hair, a wild unruly tangle. Then he gives in and brushes it.
“Wear these,” he says, and gives Taehyung some clothes out of his suitcase.
He takes Taehyung to the bathroom next and makes him brush his teeth twice.
“There won’t be any hot water for a few hours—water’s heated when we light the fire downstairs—but when it’s hot you can have a bath.”
It's weird going through his Taehyung routine in a house that isn’t his own. Usually when Tae comes to him in a state, he has everything prepared, everything he knows sets Taehyung’s mind at ease. Here there’s no camomile tea or the fluffy blanket he wraps Tae in or Tae's favourite snacks. They can’t watch dumb netflix shows because his parents aren’t interested in owning a tv. Or having wifi. Or internet. All they have is a stupid landline and the house is still cold because he needs to light the fire like they’re in the stone age.
Taehyung eats the breakfast Hoseok lays out for him quietly, sipping the hot chocolate Hoseok made him. He's looking and smelling marginally more presentable now. If it weren’t for his haunted looking eyes and the pasty sleepless look to his face, he’d be normal.
Hoseok gets the fire lit while he eats, chopping the wood with more force than usual to make himself feel a little better. Weirdly enough, it works. That is, until he looks over at Taehyung and is confronted with the fact this isn’t all some bizarre dream. All he’d wanted was to get away from the city for a week or two, disconnect from everything. Now all he can think about is the ticking of the clock and how each tick means they’re one second closer to his parents coming through the back door and he hasn’t even thought of what he’s going to say to them yet. His mind is blank and it’s been blank ever since Taehyung explained about the rubber duck.
He makes himself a coffee and drinks it in three mouthfuls, burning his tongue and gums. Then he sits beside Taehyung and waits. And waits. And waits.
“Why didn’t you tell me?” he asks when it seems like Taehyung isn’t going to speak ever again.
Taehyung just shakes his head.
Frustration and confusion lash out. “Then what? Why? Why wouldn’t you tell me you’re broke and going to be homeless, Taehyungie? I-I could have helped. I could have lent you money or just given it to you.”
Taehyung looks at him with big, frightened eyes, and a tear slips down his face. “I don't know. I just thought I'd find a job sooner and it would go away.”
Hoseok's heart clenches and instinctively he reaches for Taehyung's hands, placing his own over them where Tae holds his mug. “Did I make you feel like you couldn’t tell me?”
Taehyung's face crumples and he does something that’s between a nod and a shake of the head that Hoseok doesn’t know how to interpret. Tears streak down his cheeks, taking a day's worth of travel-grime with them. He cries in great, heaving, exhausted gasps.
“I-I don’t want you to break up with me. I-I-I’m stupid. I don't have anywhere to go. I love you. Please don’t leave me. P-please.”
Hoseok glances out the window to see if either of his parents are in a position to see inside and immediately hates himself for his hesitation.
He shifts his chair closer and wraps his arms around Taehyung tightly. This is all so surreal, he can still barely process it. He hasn’t thought of breaking up with Taehyung, but now a part of his brain is almost saying why not? Taehyung didn’t trust him. What are they if they can’t be honest with each other?
“I love you too. I'm not going anywhere,” he murmurs. He means it. With all his heart. “It's okay, honey. I'm not going anywhere.”
A painful sound forces itself from Taehyung's throat. “I don't know where my stuff is. I-I don’t know what they’ve done with it. I ju-just left it all there.”
He threads his fingers through Taehyung's hair. “Stuff can be replaced. If it’s gone, we’ll get new stuff.”
“I-I don’t have any money. I-I don’t have anywhere—I'm homeless.”
“I'm not going to make you live on the streets, honey. You can stay with me. We’ll find you a job and a new place to live. It’s okay.”
“I'm sorry. I shouldn't have come here. I'm sorry I didn't tell you, I was just so embarrassed and I thought I could fix it by myself.”
“Taehyungie…”
“I-I know the whole point of having a boyfriend is so I don't have to fix stuff by myself. I'm so stupid. I-I’m gonna tell you all the things from now on.”
Hoseok bites back what he truly wants to say, that Taehyung wouldn’t be in this situation to begin with if he’d just been honest with Hoseok. He has a feeling Taehyung knows that. It doesn’t need to be said.
He pulls back and kisses Taehyung's forehead softly, breathing him in although he still stinks of travel. “It's okay.” He dries Taehyung's eyes, smoothing away the furrows in his brow with his thumb.
He thinks of the first time he met Taehyung, Taehyung almost knocking him into the road in his hurry. He'd been wearing jeans that looked like they were falling apart and a hoodie covered in stains. His hair hadn’t been brushed then either and he’d been buzzing on so much coffee it was on the verge of giving him an anxiety attack.
He doesn’t know what made him ask Taehyung out exactly.
Taehyung, most of the time, looks like he’s just about to go through a mental breakdown. Or like he’s in the middle of one. He supposes he’d just liked Taehyung’s softness. His big soft clumsy Taehyung who struggles to take care of himself and struggles to hold down a job. His Taehyung, who has been trying not to drink so much coffee because it makes him have heart palpitations.
He rubs Taehyung's chest gently, moving up over his collarbone to his shoulder. There’s always one particular spot that hurts there when Taehyung gets especially stressed.
“It’s just so hard, you know?” Taehyung sniffles. “I was getting it together. And then they fired me and it ma-made me feel so small. I-I just didn’t want you to know I’d fucked up again. I want you to be able to rely on me for stuff and not just me rely on you. Like I want to cook you food and make sure your clothes are washed.”
“Honey, you do cook me food and make sure my clothes are washed,” Hoseok laughs softly.
He kisses Taehyung’s temple, then his cheek, tasting salt.
“You do it all the time for me,” Taehyung mumbles, leaning into Hoseok's embrace.
“Yeah,” Hoseok whispers.
He's aware of how much he takes care of Taehyung. Mainly because otherwise Taehyung doesn’t do a very good job of it himself. It's not as though Hoseok does everything for him, but if Taehyung leaves clothes on the floor then Hoseok picks them up and washes them. If Taehyung’s forgotten to tidy away a half eaten plate of food, Hoseok does it so things don’t go mouldy. If Taehyung comes out of his bedroom wearing a dirty shirt, Hoseok kisses him and laughs and tells him to go change into something clean. Taehyung functions in a heightened state of stress most of the time. He's forgetful and spontaneous. His emotions come in waves heavier than other peoples, sometimes to the point they make it hard for him to do things other people do easily. He's a lot to handle, if Hoseok is honest, but he doesn’t mind handling him. It’s worth it for when Taehyung smiles at him and gives him head massages when he’s sick. For when Taehyung makes him dinner and listens to him talk about his problems. Taehyung likes to kiss his chin and Taehyung likes to fall asleep with him on the couch and hear about the dumb things Jungkook did at work that day.
"Come here," he murmurs, pulling Tae in for a kiss. "Look on the bright side. You're gonna meet my parents and that's going to make getting evicted seem amazing."
"Oh," Taehyung says. The idea doesn't seem to amuse him like it does Hoseok. "Oh, I'm gonna meet your parents. I'm a mess. I can't meet them like this. They'll hate me. Oh, um… Oh… Are we… friends or… boyfriends…? To them. I can be either. People never believe anyone would date me anyway."
Hoseok glances out the window again. His mother is checking on the lambs. She probably can't see inside from here with the angle of the sun. "Well… my dad owns a shotgun, so it's really up to you," he says.
"What?" Taehyung blurts, looking positively terrified. "Are you serious?"
Hoseok nods gravely. "Yeah, he uses it for hunting foxes."
"But… but he wouldn't… he wouldn't… with me, right?" Taehyung squeaks.
Hoseok counts to five in his head, watching Taehyung search his face. Then he grins. "No, you're safe. He might threaten you with it a bit, though."
"Hyung!"
"You don't have to worry, honey," Hoseok says, "it's very unlikely he'll waste a bullet on you. He's always talking about how expensive they are."
"You're not funny," Taehyung mutters, relaxing into Hoseok's arms. He rests his head on Hoseok's shoulder.
"Do you really think I'd have let you come inside if I thought he'd shoot you?" Hoseok chuckles, kissing the top of Tae's head. "Even if he did, his eyesight is pretty bad these days, so he'd probably miss."
"Stop it," Taehyung whines.
"Consider it your punishment," Hoseok murmurs.
“You’re mean,” Taehyung says. “you know I’m no good with jok—“
The telltale creak of the back door being opened sounds from the hallway, cutting him off mid-sentence. For a moment, they’re frozen in each other’s arms, then Taehyung sits up, running his hands through his hair. He wipes his face, puts his hands in his lap, on the table, in his lap again, around his mug of hot chocolate.
Hoseok doesn’t give himself time to begin hyperventilating. He just stands and begins clearing away Taehyung's empty bowls.
He's stacking them to be washed when his father walks inside, closely followed by his mother, who is carrying a lamb in her arms, one of the weaker ones that has been struggling with the cold.
“You should get us if someone comes over, Hoseok-ah,” his mother says, putting the lamb on the dog bed she’d set up for it by the fire. “We might have kept this young man waiting forever if your dad hadn’t seen him walking up the track. Honey, has he offered you a drink?”
Taehyung lifts his hot chocolate, blinking shyly. “Yeah. It's nice.”
She smiles, dusting herself off. “People don’t usually visit this early. We’re a bit unprepared. Haven’t even fed all the animals yet. What can we do for you?”
Taehyung glances at Hoseok nervously. “Um…”
Hoseok walks back to the table on numb legs. They've barely had a chance to discuss anything. He doesn’t know if Taehyung is okay with his eviction being discussed. He doesn’t know if he wants to tell them about their relationship. He doesn’t know anything.
His father stands silently by the door, watching Taehyung with unreadable eyes.
“Mum, Dad… actually… this is Taehyung-ah,” Hoseok hears himself say, his voice disembodied and far away to his own ears. “He’s here to see me.”
His mother’s eyes widen slightly, a silent question. “Oh, I didn’t know you were having someone round,” she says, in her ‘if someone wasn’t here, I’d lecture you about this being my house’ voice.
“Well… I wasn't. Taehyungie—Taehyung-ah needed some help with something. And he couldn’t reach me because there’s no reception here. So… he showed up. Um…'' Taehyung is my boyfriend. Three words would be all it would take. Wait, no, that’s four words. He's lost the ability to count. Great.
“What kind of trouble’s he in?'' Hoseok's father asks.
“N-nothing bad,” Taehyung says quickly. “At least, not bad as in I'm bad. I'm good.”
Hoseok almost laughs. Yeah, thanks for that, honey. Because bad people never lie about those kinds of things. “I didn't say he was in trouble, Dad. He just needs a place to stay for the night. He's… he’s my… my friend and it would really help me out if he could stay until tomorrow. He's been travelling all night.” And if you say yes, he’s going to sleep in my bed.
His parents exchange a look. “Hoseok-ah, honey, there’s only the couch for him to stay on. I don't think that’ll be very comfortable… he’s welcome to, of course, but…”
Like I said, he’s going to sleep in my bed. “The couch will be fine, right, Tae?”
Taehyung nods eagerly.
Hoseok smiles. “Okay. cool. I… um… I fed him already—there’s rice and some other stuff if you guys are hungry. Um… yeah.” His heart is thudding, in his mouth, his throat, his chest, his fingertips. “Tae, do you want to go upstairs and have a nap? You can use my bed for now. Come on, I'll—Tae?”
Tae is peering over the table at the lamb as it bleets softly, his eyes large. “Does it have a name?” he asks, looking from Hoseok, to Hoseok’s father, to his mother. “Oh, it’s nice to meet you both. I didn't say that. I—ten cups of coffee. No sleep.”
Hoseok's mother smiles and his father shakes Taehyung's hand briskly.
“We don't name the animals,” his father says.
Taehyung frowns at him almost reproachfully. “Everything should have a name. Is it a boy or a girl?”
“Doesn’t matter much. Doubt she’ll survive for long.”
“What? Why?" Taehyung asks, brow furrowing in distress at the thought. “Is she sick? Even if she’s sick she should have a name. You can’t put sheep number four on the headstone.”
Hoseok's father throws him a look as if to say, ‘what the hell is this crazy person doing in my house talking about headstones for sheep? Sheep are food, Hoseok-ah. is he a vegetarian? get my shotgun. This is worse than if you brought home a boyfriend.’
Hoseok stifles a nervous giggle. “I seem to remember a certain group of goldfish named number one, number two, number three, and number four.”
“We flushed those down the toilet when they died,” Taehyung says. “They didn’t get headstones. Would it be okay if—will I scare her if I…?”
“She's tame,” Hoseok's mother says. “So long as you move slowly, she’ll even let you feed her.”
“Do you feed her from a bottle like they do in films?”
“We do.”
“Wow. That’s… Wow…" Taehyung grins.
Hoseok's father is still giving him looks, needing someone to commiserate Tae's weirdness with.
“Would I be able to feed her?” Tae asks faintly.
“Yes, of course, honey,” Hoseok's mother says, looking pleasantly surprised. She, too, gives Hoseok a glance, although her’s is only slightly puzzled, not outright judgemental. “I'll get the milk.”
Hoseok relaxes a little as Taehyung is ushered over to the wood burner by his mother. She's brisk, getting him a cushion to sit on, showing him where to stroke the lamb, explaining what’s wrong with it.
Hoseok smiles involuntarily wide as Taehyung’s deep laugh fills the room. The lamb has licked his fingers, nosing at them curiously.
“Hoseok-ah, a word.” Hoseok's father touches his elbow, jerking his head towards the door.
Hoseok's heart sinks a little. “Oh, um… sure, Dad. I… Tae, I’ll be back in a minute, okay?”
“‘Kay.”
Taehyung doesn’t even look up, just lifts a hand vaguely, engrossed in coaxing the lamb to lay its head on his knee.
Hoseok closes the kitchen door firmly behind the two of them, watching his father apprehensively. “Dad, I'm so sorry. I had no idea he was going to show up.”
Hoseok's father blinks grimly at him. He's never been one for surprises or fun. Or much of anything really.
“What trouble is he in?” he asks.
“Nothing you need to worry about,” Hoseok says, which, ironically, makes him sound exactly like the man he’s talking to. He cringes internally. He's spent a lot of time trying not to sound like his father. Vague answers like that are precisely the reason why. “I just mean… It's his private business and I'm not sure he wants people to know. But it’s nothing bad. He's not on the run from the police or something.” The joke falls flat because his father has no sense of humour and really it wasn’t very funny to begin with.
“Someone shows up here jittering like a nervous wreck, I want to know why,” his father says. Out comes the finger, jabbing to emphasise his point.
“Jittering?” Hoseok throws a glance towards the door. Had Tae been jittering?
“Jittering, smelling like a homeless guy, looking like he’s had no sleep or he’s on drugs.”
Hoseok has to choke back a laugh. “Dad, he’s not on drugs.”
Taehyung on drugs is much more put together than Taehyung not on drugs. It’s a bizarre phenomenon to behold on the rare occasions it does happen.
“I saw what he walked up the track in. Looked like someone off the streets. You changed his clothes, Hoseok-ah.”
Hoseok swallows, casting around, for what, he doesn’t know.
“Of course I gave him some clothes, Dad. He's been travelling all night and he’s a really good friend of mine. Just…” Give him a chance, he wants to say. Give my boyfriend—who you don’t even know is my boyfriend—a chance. “He'll be out of your hair by tomorrow. He'll probably sleep most of today. He won’t bother you. I promise.”
His father looks wholly unconvinced, but nods. Whatever fight he’s attempting to have with Hoseok had been lost the second Hoseok's mother said Taehyung could stay anyway.
“He's a good friend of yours?”
Hoseok nods, smiling gratefully. “Yeah. A really good friend.”
“Is ‘good friend’ code for something?”
“Oh. Um… N-no. he’s just my friend, Dad. Like I said.” His tongue betrays him. It really would be easier to just get this over with now while he has Taehyung’s support. That's so much better than telling them alone.
His father raises an eyebrow at him, folding his arms. He clears his throat and says gruffly, “Alright. Well, I guess that’s that, then. But I don't appreciate you giving our address out to strangers.”
“He's not a stranger. He's a friend of mine,” Hoseok says softly.
“You know what I mean.”
“Yeah. I'm sorry.”
They stand in stiff silence, Hoseok scrambling internally for something to break it. A lightbulb goes off in his head as he hears his father’s sheepdog barking.
“Hey, let’s go finish feeding the animals. mum said you weren’t done yet.”
“Alright,” his father mumbles. “Get a proper coat—none of those fancy fashion things. A proper one. And wellies. Ground’s still muddy in places.”
“Okay, I'll just…” He gestures to the kitchen door, opens it.
Taehyung has the lamb in his lap and is gently supporting its head as he feeds it from a bottle. Every few seconds, a beaming grin spreads across his face and fades, only to come back again as he watches it.
“Tae?” Hoseok says softly, not wanting to startle the lamb.
Taehyung looks up. “She's so cute. I've named her Bella.”
“Bella,” Hoseok says, keeping himself in the doorway even though the only natural response to this is to kneel at Tae's side and kiss him. “I like it. Listen, I'm just going outside with dad. We still have a few of the animals to feed and stuff.”
“Horses, pigs, the cows need moving to the other field,” his father chimes in, although his voice is a grumble that makes it hard to know who he’s talking to or if he’s talking to himself.
Taehyung's face positively lights up and he almost drops the bottle of warm milk in his excitement. “You have horses?”
“Two,” Hoseok's father says, holding up two fingers. “You know much about horses?”
“Not really, but I love them. All animals, really. They’re so… majestic.”
“I wouldn't say there’s anything majestic about a cow or a pig.”
“Oh, well,” Taehyung giggles, “I meant the horses. cows and pigs are good in their own ways, I'm sure.“ He nods as though he has any clue what he’s talking about.
Hoseok chuckles, not sure what to do with himself. “Oh, well, anyway, Tae, that’s where we’ll b—“
“You any good with animals?” Hoseok's father asks.
“Oh, well… I-I don’t know," Taehyung says. “I’d like to be. I haven’t had much experience.” He pets the lambs head softly.
“You strong enough to carry a bucket?”
“Probably,” Taehyung says.
“You scared of cows?”
“No, sir.”
“Got a problem with smells?”
“No, sir.”
Hoseok's father surveys him for a second, nods, and jerks his head towards the door. “Hoseok-ah, get him your coat.”
“My coat?” Hoseok says, frowning. He's not entirely sure what he’s just witnessed.
“He says he wants to be better with animals,” Hoseok's father says. “Well… he can help me with what’s left of the chores then, can’t he?”
Hoseok blinks. “Um… Dad, Tae’s not had any sleep…”
“I'll help,” Taehyung says brightly. “I don't mind. I like animals. I can herd cows. I can. I won't sleep for hours anyway. I've had too much coffee.”
Hoseok opens his mouth to protest, but he’s not sure how to say anything without it sounding gay as all hell.
“O-okay, I guess,” he mumbles, bemused. “If you want… you don’t have to, Tae.” He really should be used to Taehyung's spontaneity by now, most of the time he is, but there’s something about this morning that’s making it impossible to process.
“I want to,” Taehyung says. and he clearly really means it as he gently passes the lamb to Hoseok’s mother and dusts himself down. “I want to,” he says to Hoseok. insisting even though he looks dead on his feet.
Before Hoseok can say anything else, he’s slipping between him and his father, taking Hoseok's coat off the peg in the hall. He puts on Hoseok’s Wellington boots, which are a size too big for him. And he’s out the door, calling after him about how he can’t wait to milk cows, if they do milk cows, that sounds fun!
Hoseok’s father splutters, looks at Hoseok like Hoseok’s going to be able to do anything.
Hoseok laughs helplessly. “You'd better go after him, Dad. He'll start trying to milk cows without you." He's not comfortable with Taehyung and his father being in the same room, let alone in a field just the two of them. But what can he do? Taehyung's already halfway down the track.
He’s just going to breathe. Breathe and help his mum with the shelves he promised to put up today. It’s only a few hours and then Tae will be back inside. Nevermind that Tae hasn’t slept at all, that he’s lost his apartment, possibly all his things, Hoseok’s father probably won’t be very nice to him—Hoseok wouldn’t put it past him to make Taehyung cry by accident. His father isn’t exactly the warmest person on the planet.
Fortunately Tae is pretty good at being oblivious. He’ll probably be too engrossed in the animals to even care what Hoseok’s father says or does. He will be fine. Hoseok will be fine. Jesus, what the hell has just happened?
“Everything alright, honey?” his mother asks, patting his back. “Is your friend okay?”
Hoseok smiles, shaking his head. “He’s fine. just… I need to make a few calls. Can I use the landline? I…” he sighs. This is going to be a long day.
“Have you eaten, honey?”
“I had toast.”
“Sit and eat. Make your calls after.”
Hoseok rubs his forehead. "N-no. I'll eat later. I just need to call a friend of mine. I'll be okay, Mum. Actually, I might go out and help Taehyung-ah and Dad with the animals, I--"
"Honey," she says, touching his arm, "you look pale. I'm going to get you breakfast. Sit."
Hoseok lets her steer him to the table and push him into a seat. He leans into the one armed hug she gives him. He lets her get him breakfast. And he lets her fill the rest of his morning with whatever she needs help with around the house. At this point, he really doesn't have the will-power to do anything else.
By the time Taehyung and his father come back inside, it's been hours. Or it feels like hours.
Hoseok's head snaps up so fast his mother flinches where she's standing at the stove making lunch.
Taehyung's cheeks are tinted a healthy pink and his hair is wind swept and he barrels into the kitchen with his arms open and a wide smile on his face.
Hoseok wraps his arms around him instinctively, head catching up a second later. “You had fun, huh?” he says, pushing Taehyung away gently. Jesus, Taehyung needs sleep.
“Hyung, I want you to teach me how to ride a horse.”
“What?” Hoseok laughs.
Taehyung bounces on the balls of his feet. “Your dad grunted at me when I asked about riding them. Teach me how to ride a horse. I'll probably never get another chance to ride a horse. Hyung! As your b—very good friend, this is your duty. Please? Please, please please ple—“
“Okay,” Hoseok says hurriedly. “Okay. Just… under one condition. I want you to go upstairs and go to sleep after lunch.”
Taehyung frowns. “But you’re not going to be able to teach me if I'm sleeping.”
“You need sleep. You’ll collapse otherwise,” Hoseok says. He's fully aware from past experience that Taehyung can keep going like this for days on end, but the severity of saying Tae will collapse helps emphasise his point. “Just sleep until this evening and I'll wake you up.” And we’ll go riding in the fields at sunset as totally platonic, not at all gay, not even a little bit, friends do.
He can’t tell if Taehyung has read his mind or if the sparkle in his eye is from the caffeine.
“Okay. Deal. But it’s not my fault if I can't fall asleep," Taehyung says, and goes to hang up his coat and wash his hands.
Heart hammering, Hoseok looks over at his father, who has already taken his seat at the head of the small kitchen table. He's staring at nothing, a frown etched on his forehead. All in all, pretty much his normal expression.
Taehyung survived and apparently managed not to say anything that might have aggravated Hoseok's dad. Wow.
“Well, he’s certainly something,” Hoseok's mother chuckles.
Hoseok flushes. “Sorry, he’s just… excitable.” Hopped up on caffeine, homeless, in the middle of the denial stage of his freakout, sleep deprived.
“It's sweet, don’t you think?” his mother says to his father, catching the man off-guard.
He huffs at her. “Sweet isn’t exactly the wording I'd use.”
Hoseok feels a lump in his throat. He'd known this would be his father’s reaction to meeting Taehyung. Anyone who displays emotions is someone his father finds flighty and ridiculous.
“Did he manage okay?” Hoseok asks.
“Oh, he managed fine. Doesn’t half talk, though, and about the most nonsensical things.”
Hoseok tries to smile. He can just imagine Taehyung interrupting his father’s instructions to ask if the pigs have names or something. Honestly he wouldn’t be surprised if Taehyung had asked that very thing just to wind his father up a bit.
“He’s just enthusiastic,” he says quietly. “He’s grown up in the city. This is all new to him and he… he loves animals.”
His father grunts. “Too much, if you ask me.”
Hoseok refrains from saying that he hadn’t asked, and starts setting the table.
He sits Tae by his mother while they eat. The more distance Tae has from his father, the better.
Taehyung spends the whole meal talking about the animals, asking Hoseok's parents questions. Hoseok is thankful. It means neither of them get to ask Tae why he’s here, what his job is, etc. Maybe that’s why Tae doesn’t stop until the very last second when Hoseok pushes him out of the kitchen and upstairs.
The moment they’re in Hoseok’s room, Taehyung kisses him.
“I love this place,” he mumbles against Hoseok’s lips. “I love all the animals. I love you.”
Hoseok nods softly, hands curled on Taehyung’s chest. “Love you too.”
“No, but I…” Taehyung pauses in the middle of his sentence to kiss Hoseok again, “I’m sorry,” he says quietly when he breaks away, taking Hoseok's breath with him. “If we're going to fight when we get home, can you tell me now? I don't like this.”
Hoseok sighs, leaning against the door. “I don’t know, Taehyungie. I just feel… on edge with you being here.”
Taehyung sinks onto the bed, nodding glumly at the floor. “Yeah. I'm sorry.”
“Sorry doesn’t fix this,” Hoseok says, too harshly for his liking. “I don't want to hear you apologise anymore. I just want to get through the rest of the day and leave tomorrow.”
Taehyung nods again, bottom lip wobbling. “Hyung, you don’t have to show me how to ride the horses. I can stay up here and pretend to sleep until tomorrow.”
And now he feels bad. Great.
He presses his hands over his face. “No, Taehyungie, honey, it’s fine. just get some sleep, please?”
“I love you,” Taehyung whispers, and it sounds like he’s begging Hoseok to say it back, so Hoseok does, burying his face in Taehyung’s hair. He whispers it hoarsely, and for awhile he just holds him, dreading going back downstairs. For awhile, just a little while, he clings to Taehyung like he’s the only piece of driftwood in the middle of a storming sea.
“I really do like this place,” Taehyung says, when he lies down. “When we do tell them, if they’re okay with it, we should come here together instead of it being just you. If we tell them,” he says, squeezing Hoseok's fingers. “Not when. Unless you want it to be ‘when’.”
“Go to sleep,” Hoseok says. “I'll be back in a few hours.”
Taehyung closes his eyes, long lashes casting shadows over his pale cheeks. Despite the coffee, he’s asleep before Hoseok has reached the bedroom door.
He doesn’t go back downstairs straight away. Instead, he takes his phone and heads up to the attic. Nevermind using the landline. He wants privacy to do this, not his father’s eyes boring into the back of his head.
An hour before sunset, he shakes Taehyung awake gently. Then a little less gently because waking Taehyung up requires force.
“Horse time,” is all he says. “Wrap up warm. It’s cold outside.”
Taehyung is up in a flash, stumbling blearily.
They get out of the house without encountering Hoseok's parents. His mother is in the kitchen, making dinner, and his father is out with the cows again. They’ll have total privacy while they do this.
The horses are still outside, but come trotting over to the stable when they see Hoseok and Taehyung standing there. Hoseok goes up to each one, breathing in the thick scent of hay, grass and horse as he strokes their necks.
He picks the smaller of the two for Taehyung, slipping a harness over its head.
Taehyung watches from a slight distance, clearly a little unnerved by how big the horses are and how there’s no fence separating him from them. When the larger of the two comes up to sniff him, he goes rigid.
Hoseok giggles. He hasn't felt like that around animals since he was a kid. “Honey, none of them are biters. Relax.”
Relax, he tells himself. He hasn’t relaxed since it hit him that Taehyung was really standing in front of him this morning. Relax. The air is cold and so clean in his lungs. And he loves the smell of horses. He's grown up with that smell.
They'll be home tomorrow. Maybe he’ll even ask Taehyung to move in with him permanently. That would be nice.
“I called Jungkookie,” he says as he hoists a saddle up and over the horse’s back. “He and some friends went to your apartment and packed up your stuff. He says you can buy them dinner sometime to repay them.”
“They did?” Taehyung says. “They have my stuff? Oh. Oh.” He lets out a long, strained breath. “Oh. Okay. I can buy them dinner. Lots of dinners.”
“Jungkookie’s taken everything over to my apartment,” Hoseok says.
“Oh. He has a key? I didn't know. I'd have asked him.”
“I know you would have.”
He pulls Taehyung over, Taehyung’s feet dragging hesitantly. “Okay, put your foot in the stirrup and pull yourself up. I'll get on behind you.”
“Behind me?”
“Yeah. Hand here. Another one here.” He pats the places he wants Taehyung to hold. “Now up.”
Taehyung makes it most of the way up before he begins to slip back down and Hoseok has to give him a final push so he doesn’t fall off. Then he gets up behind him, putting his arms around him to take the reins.
“Okay, just hold them like this. Don’t kick the horse. They only do that in films when they’re in a hurry. Press gently.”
Between them, they get the horse walking in a wobbly line over the grass, Hoseok giving quiet instructions here and there when Taehyung pulls too hard on the reins.
He can feel Taehyung coursing with excitement, the muscles in his back pressed to his chest. It’s irritatingly infectious considering he’s supposed to be staying mad at Taehyung or something.
He rests his forehead on Taehyung's shoulder. “Honey, I don't think we’re going to fight when we get home. I'm just going to need a few days to get my head round this. And I'm going to need you to promise you aren’t going to keep big things like this from me again. I don't know how the hell you expect a relationship to work if you don’t tell me this stuff.”
Taehyung's shoulders hunch. “I promise.” He tenses nervously as they near the fence. “I know it won’t work if I don't.”
Hoseok brings them round, steering Taehyung’s hands gently.
“We will tell my parents someday,” Hoseok says. “Just not now.”
“Okay.“
“My dad thinks you’re a weirdo,” Hoseok chuckles. “You’re going to have to do a lot of work if you want him to invite you back.”
“Man,” Taehyung sighs. “He's never going to like me.”
“I'm pretty sure he doesn’t like anyone,” Hoseok says, rubbing Taehyung's side reassuringly. The sway of the horse is soothing his nerves. “Not even me.”
“He loves you,” Taehyung says. “He’s your dad.”
Hoseok hums and lets the conversation fade.
“So we're definitely okay?” Taehyung asks after a moment.
“Yeah,” Hoseok murmurs, kissing the back of Taehyung's head. “We’re okay. I love you.”
“I love you too. Thank you for putting up with me.”
“I don't put up with you.”
“Well… thanks for… dating me then.”
“Thanks for dating me, too, honey,” Hoseok says. He kisses the shell of Taehyung's ear clumsily. This whole affectionate peck thing is hard to do on a horse.
Taehyung laughs. “Your mum calls people honey, did you realise that?”
“I guess I did? Why?”
“Well, now, whenever you call me ‘honey’ I'm going to think of how you say it because your mum does. You guys even have the same eyes and expressions.”
Hoseok chuckles. “We do?” He supposes he’s not spent enough time staring at himself to notice.
“It's like looking at you only female and wrinkly,” Taehyung says.
Hoseok snorts into his hair. “Okay, enough talking. Hold on tight.”
He digs his heels into the horse's sides, picking up the pace.
“But what if I slip?” Taehyung squeaks, recoiling into his chest as they go from walking to a brisk trot.
“You won’t slip. I've got you.”
He urges the horse onward, from a trot to a canter, the cold breeze ruffling their hair.
“But who’s got you?” Taehyung cries.
“No one. Don’t worry about it.”
“Hyung!”
“Don’t shout. You’ll scare the horse.”
With a final dig of his heels, the horse begins to gallop, and Taehyung lets out a frightened little laugh, trying to twist in Hoseok’s arms to no avail.
“Stay still,” Hoseok laughs. “I've got you.”
“But what if you fall off? How do I slow it down?” he wails.
“I'm not going to fall off.”
“But—“
“Taehyungie, honey, I've got you.”
They stay out until the light has faded and the sun has all but disappeared. He helps Taehyung dismount, lifting him down from the horse looking bright eyed and windswept and full of life in the darkness.
Between them, they put the horses away for the night. Then Taehyung huddles against him in a corner of the stable and presses kiss after kiss after kiss to his mouth.
“It's kinda sexy that you can ride horses,” he says.
“I can tell,” Hoseok giggles, trying to catch his breath mid kiss. It doesn’t work. “Only kinda sexy?”
“More than kind of,” Taehyung corrects, pulling back.
Their breaths plume before them.
He hasn't seen Taehyung in weeks. He’s only just registering that. His body is figuring it out the hard way.
They disentangle themselves from each other and head back inside.
Dinner that night is awkward and Hoseok doesn’t begin to feel okay until he’s lying in bed, wondering if it’s worth following through with the idea of Taehyung sleeping with him. He ends up deciding against it. He's spent so much time surreptitiously watching his father at dinner that he’s not sure he has the energy for any sneaking around at night on his parents creaky staircase.
The next morning he wakes before his alarm has gone off, his heart pumping, and he packs methodically, forcing his suitcase shut on all of Taehyung's things.
He'd arranged last night for his father to drive them to the bus station in town. There's an early bus they can catch to the train station in the city.
Taehyung is feeding the lamb when he walks into the kitchen, apparently having heated up milk on the stove all by himself.
“She was making all this noise,” he says. “I got her water and… well…” He nods to a bowl of grass.
Hoseok stifles a laugh in his hand.
“She ate some of it,” Taehyung says. “And I lit the fire because I thought she might be cold, but it kept going out so I gave her a blanket. Morning, hyung.”
“Morning,” Hoseok chuckles. He's feeling better knowing they’ll be gone from this place in a few hours time. He bends down and kisses Taehyung quickly. “How are you feeling?”
“Okay,” Taehyung mumbles. “I think I need to come to terms with everything too. It’s weird… not having a home. But I'm okay. I have a bunch of jobs I've applied to.”
“You’ll get one of them,” Hoseok says. “I know you will.”
When his parents come down, they all have breakfast together and his mother exclaims in delight when she sees Taehyung’s fed the lamb. She seems to really be warming to him.
Hoseok can’t say the same of his father, who gives a noncommittal grunt when Taehyung asks if he needs any help with the animals this morning.
“Go out with him, honey,” Hoseok's mother says, giving Taehyung a little push. “He's getting old, but he won’t admit it. He needs help.”
Two hours later, after Taehyung has said goodbye to the lamb (and, apparently, the rest of the animals judging by the eye roll his father gives Hoseok) they climb into the old land-rover, Hoseok in the front seat, Tae in the back.
Hoseok's father must really be glad they’re leaving because he actually clears his throat and talks to Taehyung as they trundle and bump along the old roads. They talk about animals. Taehyung tells his father about his brief job at a veterinary clinic. He'd been the receptionist, but it hadn’t worked out because when there wasn’t anyone to be served, he’d leave the desk to play with the nearest dog or cat or bird that was waiting to be seen. Then he’d forget to go back to the desk when someone needed serving.
At the end of this short story, Hoseok's father actually takes his eyes off the road and looks at Taehyung while he responds. “Sounds like you should work with animals.”
“I know, but there’s so many qualifications you need to be a vet. I'm no good with exams. At all.”
“Me either,” his father says. “Wasted half my life on that junk. Only passed the basics.”
“Really? But don’t you need something to be a farmer and look after all the animals?”
Hoseok's father shrugs. “No. Just need to register the farm as an agricultural holding and make sure you feed and keep the animals clean and healthy. Simple really. Doesn’t need all that smart-ass science mathematics geography crap.”
“Wow.”
“Wow, indeed.”
They pull up at the bus stop an hour later, just as Hoseok's father and Taehyung are beginning to discuss how to properly take care of horses.
Hoseok's father gets the suitcase out of the back for them and shakes Taehyung's hand. “Hope whatever trouble you’re in works out, son.”
Taehyung smiles, clutching his pot plant. “I'm sure it will. Thank you so much for letting me stay and help with the animals. I had a lovely time.”
“I can tell,” Hoseok's father huffs. It almost sounds like the beginning of a laugh.
Taehyung waves and takes Hoseok's suitcase over to the waiting bus.
Hoseok stands awkwardly by his father. He never knows how to say goodbye to him. especially since he came out. Especially now.
“I'll visit again soon?”
“Yeah, you do that,” his father says.
They nod.
“Well, safe trip,” his father mutters at last. “Better get on that bus before it leaves without you. See you.” he opens the car door and climbs in, but doesn’t close it.
“Yeah, see you,” he says, trying to smile.
His father nods a final time and moves to pull the door shut.
“D-dad?” Hoseok blurts. “Taehyungie… Tae’s… he’s my boyfriend. He’s… we’re dating.”
His father blinks at him, looks away, and nods at the steering wheeling. “Figured as much.”
“Oh.”
He searches his father’s face for any indication of what he’s thinking, but it’s as unreadable as ever.
“You love him?” his father asks after a moment.
“Y-yeah. I do. We've been going out for about a year now.”
“Ah,” is all his father says, still nodding just a little.
“I wasn't sure if you’d want to know,” Hoseok says, feeling tears gathering in his eyes, nose, throat. “I just… I didn't want to make things worse.”
“Worse how?”
He wishes he hadn’t said anything. “You know how. You just ignore I’m gay and things are fine, but you can’t ignore I'm gay now, Dad. I have a boyfriend. It’s not possible to ignore it.”
He glances back toward the bus and sees Taehyung's eyes are fixed on him. And just like that he’s crying and humiliating himself in front of his father. He turns away, breathing hard as he tries to choke back whiny little sobs that make him sound ‘gay.’
“Who said I was ignoring it?” his father asks.
No one had needed to say anything. His father’s actions spoke volumes.
“Just didn’t have anything to say about it,” his father mutters gruffly. “Figured you’d tell us sooner than a year, though.“
Hoseok sniffs. He really shouldn’t have started this now when the bus is minutes from leaving, but he’d needed the option to get out. Back at the farmhouse it’s miles on foot from the town. The only car is his parents. Jesus, Taehyung walked all that way.
“He’s a nice boy,” he father says. “A nice man. A weird one, too chatty. But he knows his animals. And what he doesn’t know, he learns quick. Wouldn’t hurt to have someone like him on the farm more often. You should… bring him on your visits. Yeah.” He nods, closes the door, and drives away, leaving Hoseok standing uncertainly on the pavement, trying to dry his tears. He hadn’t even had time to ask his father what exactly had made his father ‘figure as much.’ He wonders if it was something legitimate or if it was just that Hoseok is gay and therefore any guy he hangs out with is now the presumed boyfriend.
He half frowns, half laughs wetly when he sits down beside Tae at the back of the bus. “I-I think my dad just… I think he just gave us his blessing?”
“What?” Taehyung says in alarm. “You asked if you could marry me?”
“What? No, why would I ask him permission to marry—Tae if we were getting married, you’d be the one asking permission from him, not me! I meant dating.”
“Oh. Well, yeah," Taehyung says, frowning too, “he gave me the talk when I helped him with the animals yesterday.”
“He what? What talk?” hoseok splutters. His father doesn’t know any talks besides the ‘don’t get a girl pregnant’ one.
“He said,” Taehyung lifts a finger and shakes it, putting on a gruff, funnily accurate impression of his father, “you’re his very good friend, so don’t go hurting him or anything because I have a shotgun and I'll use it. And then he told me you used to like running around the fields naked when you were little and you’d scream if anyone tried to put any clothes on you.”
“W-what? I don't remember telling you that story before.”
“You didn’t. Your dad did.”
“But…” Hoseok looks down at his hands quickly. “Oh,” is all he can manage.
He lets Taehyung pull him into a tight hug and realises as he breathes Taehyung in between sobs that they never did run him a bath.
“You smell really bad,” he whispers.
“Yeah. I know.”
___________________
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willa fitzgerald . thirty-three . she/her ➶ i recognise that face ! that’s posy hawthorne , the thirty three year old teacher & trainee healer from district twelve . they’re lucky to have escaped to district thirteen during the 94th games, and have been here long enough to gain a reputation for being so stolid & somber .
┊ ➶ ｡˚ ° 𝑩𝑨𝑺𝑰𝑪𝑺
𝗳𝘂𝗹𝗹 𝗻𝗮𝗺𝗲 … posy hawthorne
𝗻𝗶𝗰𝗸𝗻𝗮𝗺𝗲𝘀 … po ( preferred ), popo (exclusively allowed to be used by brothers only )
𝗮𝗴𝗲 … thirty-three
𝗴𝗲𝗻𝗱𝗲𝗿 … cis woman
𝗽𝗿𝗼𝗻𝗼𝘂𝗻𝘀 … she / her
𝘀𝗲𝘅𝘂𝗮𝗹𝗶𝘁𝘆 … bisexual
˚ · • . 𝐭𝐫𝐚𝐢𝐭𝐬 ...
— (+) stolid, tough, soft-hearted, courageous, observant
(-) somber, harsh, clinical, unforgiving, dishonest
˚ · • . 𝐥𝐢𝐟𝐞 before the capitol ...
— circumstances for the hawthorne family meant that posy took on a maternal role in her home very young. She didn’t have a lot to remember or say about her dad, she got used to that because she had to. Her mom crawled inside her own mind after losing two husbands, posy was old enough to recognize she had to step up, in a different way from how gale had to but that was just it : they both had to. An observant kid, she was able to pick up rudimentary skills that became necessary for them to survive. Before her mom became a ghost, a shadow at best, she’d learned how to make soups and stews out of pretty much anything. In school she learned to read as quickly as she could, knowing her time there would be limited. She made friends in the hob and asked people questions she felt would help her help her family, like where certain seeds might grow when they thought she was wasting money she didn’t have to buy the seeds.
With help posy planted a secret garden, all it grew was potatoes but the staple was enough to keep them all fed most of the time. When gale and katniss started hunting, Posy figured out how to skin and clean the animals, how to identify the good bits, how to cook them and fill bowls evenly. Posy planted a few herbs when she could, not a lot could grow in twelve but she gave what she could to katniss and primrose. In exchange for the herbs mrs. everdeen taught posy some basic first aid. Posy was grateful to the everdeens, but even though she knew gale trusted them entirely posy had never been very good at trusting anyone but flesh and blood.
Posy managed to stay in school longer than most of her peers, she was smart enough to understand more complicated concepts and her teacher gave her as many lessons as possible until she ran out. Posy was fourteen, she asked to teach the younger kids and the job stuck until the day she ran from district twelve.
Though she had never confided in anyone except gale, posy had dreams of a better life. She was wary of romantic entanglements after seeing what the loss of their partner had done to her mother and to mrs. everdeen. The probability of loss was much too high in district 12 to risk it, and she’d lived the life of a woman with young children to look after and keep safe and fed. Children who had no future, no prospects, no hope. Maybe posy buried her desire for her own family in the dirt with the potatoes, maybe it leaked out of her over the years of struggle and starvation and fear, maybe maybe maybe ….
When gale first whispered of revolution, Posy was immediately on board, no questions asked because in her sharp mind she knew that change required too much and she was willing to give all of it because nothing could possibly be worse than the hell she’d spent her entire life living.
˚ · • . 𝐥𝐢𝐟𝐞 after the capitol ...
— once posy got to thirteen she saw to it that her younger brothers were taken care of before she accepted any care herself. Once they got settled in their spaces she began to worry about gale and couldn’t settle down until he arrived safe. After a few days posy decided she needed to make herself useful, she’d always been driven to help even if she wasn’t the warmest of people. It was ironic really, she was different with the children, the young ones that needed a kind word. But with everyone else she revealed nothing. There were not a lot of children in thirteen and it was tragic learning why, and her brothers were adults even if she still saw them as kids.
Thirteen had no need for a teacher, not yet so she had to pursue her only other real skill set. Mrs. everdeen had taught her when posy had had the time to help, now she asked to be trained as a healer in earnest. They’d started a war, there would be a need for medics and healers and she had a good foundation. They agreed to train her and she learned fast, she had to and she’d always been so smart. Seeing the soldiers and innocents wasn’t difficult for posy, she had a thick skin and she wasn’t a stranger to adversity, pain, injury, blood. She was a good fit and she enjoyed being close to primrose and mrs.everdeen again. Life wasn’t necessarily easier, but it was simpler somehow and posy could accept that.
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Vegan Lemon Rice Soup | Slimming World Friendly Recipe
New Post has been published on https://eazydiet.net/vegan-lemon-rice-soup-slimming-world-friendly-recipe/
Vegan Lemon Rice Soup | Slimming World Friendly Recipe
This beautiful vegan Lemon Rice Soup is one of those comforting soup recipes that’s so surprisingly tasty. It is loaded with speedy vegetables, and keeps you feeling full and satisfied. You can easily make this vegan lemon soup with very simple ingredients that you probably already have in your fridge.
If you’ve made any of my soup recipes before, you’re probably pretty sick of reading all about how much I’m obsessed with soup. But I literally love the stuff!!! It’s warming, it’s filling, it makes for a light lunch or a hearty evening dinner, it’s perfect for sneaking veggies into kiddos… what is not to love about this awesome delicious liquid?
Why you’ll love this recipe….
Light, tasty and full of flavour
Tangy and sweet
Filling and delicious
Freezes really well
Syn Free when following Slimming World
Only 91 calories per serving!
Full of healthy nutrients
Easy to swap out veggies for whatever you have available
What are the benefits of making a soup with lemons?
It’s a great way to cut down on salt intake. There are some people that will actually add lemon juice to their recipes and soups over adding salt.
Lemon is an appetite stimulant, so it will make all the other vegetables in this soup even more enjoyable! Perfect for those children who aren’t so keen on veggies.
Lemons contain a high amount of vitamin C, soluble fiber, and plant compounds that give them a number of health benefits. Lemons may aid weight loss and reduce your risk of heart disease, anemia, kidney stones, digestive issues, and cancer.
Looking to take this soup to work?
My dad actually recommended this product after he started his weight loss journey. He is obsessed with homemade soup (and his soup maker may I add..) and he was desperate to take soup to work. His company is tight and wouldn’t fork out for a microwave so he invested in this awesome soup thermos. It will keep food hot for up to 6 hours! Perfect for soup, porridge, curry etc.
Batch Cook – Storage Information
Fridge: Store leftovers in the fridge in an airtight container for up to 5 days.
Reheat: Reheat in the microwave or on the hob.
Freezer: Allow to cool before placing in a suitable containers. Keep for up to 6 months. Thaw before reheating.
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Vegan Lemon Rice Soup
This Vegan Lemon Rice Soup recipe is absolutely delicious and so easy to make! It’s comforting, quick and loaded with nutrients! Who knew a lemon soup could taste so amazing? Well you do now! This recipe has been created with Slimming World followers in mind but it is also suitable for WW followers and anyone following a calorie deficit.Nutritional InformationSlimming World: Zero SynsWeight Watchers : Coming SoonCalories: 91 Per Serving
Course Appetizer, Lunch, Main Course, Soup
Prep Time 10 minutes minutes
Cook Time 30 minutes minutes
Total Time 40 minutes minutes
1 Large Onion [Peeled, Diced]
2 Large Carrots [Sliced]
3 Large Celery Stalks [Chopped]
1 tsp Salt
½ tsp Black Pepper
1 Medium Courgette [Chopped]
100g White Rice, Long Grain [Uncooked weight]
950ml Vegan friendly vegetable stock
60ml Freshly squeezed lemon juice [Retain a tablespoon of zest]
½ tsp Oregano
Low calorie cooking spray
400ml Water
3 Garlic Cloves [Crushed]
Spritz a pan with low cal cooking spray (such as Frylight) and throw in onion, carrot and celery. Cook over a medium heat for a few minutes.
Add garlic, pepper, salt and oregano. Cook for a further 2 minutes. If the mixture is really dry add a splash of water.
Add courgette and rice. Pour over the stock and extra water. Stir well and cover with a lid. Bring to the boil for 1 minute.
Reduce to a simmer and allow to cook for approx 25 – 30 minutes or until the rice is light and fluffy and the vegetables are soft.
Remove from the heat and stir in half of the lemon juice. Taste and add additional lemon juice if you require. This is quite an acquired taste. You may find it will need some additional salt too.
Have you created this recipe?
Please let me know how it turned out! Leave a comment below or share a photo on Instagram tagging me at @fatgirlskinny__ and the hashtag #fatgirlskinny.
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Can we get some spare Launo headcannons for July?
Launo sucked big time at knight school when he first arrived—he didn’t exactly have any background help given no one in his family was a knight either. He was basically assigned the equivalent of “equipment manager” during the first few months. And when he did get proper actions with a broadsword or a bow, Launo struggled with footwork and precision and all the minute details of a duel so he often got his ass handed to him.
But one the top kids in Launo’s class thought he was cool anyways—that was, one Arcadius Hartell. Pretty, rich, ace with sword, bow, spear, and anything sharp, and pretty much had no flaws or weaknesses. Launo at first thought the guy was just pitying him, the kid who has never won a single sparring match and consistently put on training dummy duty (that is reattaching their heads when they got lopped off)
So it came as a bit of a surprise when Arcadius came to ask something from him.
“How do you do that?”
Launo turned from the training dummy he was working on. “S-Sorry, what?”
“The...the thing you do. With the...thing?” Arcadius pointed to the needle and thread Launo was holding as he was reattaching the dummy’s forearm. “How do you do that?”
Launo scrunched his eyebrows in confuzzlement. “This is, uh, well. It’s just sewing I guess. If this guy were real I guess it would be stitching, haha...” He patted the dummy’s wood shoulder playfully as if joking with a pal—the dummy immediately tipped over, Launo coughed and stepped in front of the mess to ignore it. Arcadius nodded thoughtfully.
“So, do you have a special technique or something?”
“I mean, not really, it’s just regular old sewing...”
“But I assume you’ve spent years training on the art.”
“I...uh...I guess? My mom taught me.”
“Oh! So it’s like...an apprenticeship...?”
“...Are you under the impression that sewing is some sacred gift that gets passed down to the worthy or something?”
“.........no....”
The two boys just stood awkwardly for a moment longer, Launo studying Arcadius’ face.
“You don’t even know what sewing is do you?”
“O-Of course I do! It’s the...thing.” He made a sword motion with his fingers, as if wielding a tiny blade. “You stab the stuff and it repairs. With the...” Arcadius squinted as he thought for a moment, “...stool...”
“Spool?”
“Yeah! That! So, look, you’re pretty skilled at everything—“
“I am??” Launo took a step back in shock.
“Yeah! You always fix the equipment, and somehow haul around all those weapons, and make us cool lunches—“
“I don’t know, I made Rubeo vomit last week cause I forgot he hates blueberries...”
Arcadius shook his hands. “N-Not the point. And he sort of deserves it. The fact is you’re obviously leagues ahead of the game—“
“I—Actually I wouldn’t say—“
“—so you just gotta teach me everything you know!” Arcadius pumped a fist and closed his eyes. “How could I ever call myself a knight if I don’t even learn the basics of equipment management! Who will mend the wounded holes in my soldier’s pride if I can’t even fix the tears in my uniform! A mountain’s peak is equivalent to the shallow shore if you have no bearing of the heights you soar.”
Launo blinked. “Are you...okay?”
Arcadius scratched his head. “Aha...sorry. That’s a quote from Aria Nori’s newest volume. Guess I was too into the moment there.”
“Oh! The Zora poet! I’ve read her stuff! I haven’t read her latest volume, but my dad often binds her books—“
“Really?!” Arcadius’ eyes were suddenly star struck. “That’s so cool! This is all the more reason you gotta teach me this stuff.” He waved again at the collapsed training dummy. “Maybe start with the beetle and thread.”
“Needle. D-Do you not know what a needle is?”
Arcadius’ eyes glazed over. “...no...oh my gods that’s not gonna be on the test is it?? I’m so screwed—“
“Nonono it’s not, I’m just...” Launo bit his tongue. Now that he thought about it, he never really saw anyone else in his class do mundane house chore stuff. They were far too busy sharpening swords and bragging about their parents or grandparents or great uncles or cousins that totally were war heroes and high ranking political figures. Sewing could just be a Hateno thing, could it..?
“Can’t you just hire someone to teach you?” Launo started. “I mean, I’m super flattered! Just that, I’m not exactly a master at this, so I’m sure there are adults out there that are more accomplished.”
Arcadius hung his head. “I don’t think my dad would let me...Pretty much everything not sword related he just hires someone to do for me. And he’s super picky about what training I focus on.”
“Well it’s not really official training, it could just be a hobby.”
The boy raised an eyebrow, sounding out the word. “H...Hob...?”
“O-OK, just forget that. H-How about...” Launo didn’t meet his eyes as he absentmindedly kicked the dirt. “Y-You like poetry, right? You can come over to my house and look at my dad’s collection. And when we’re there, I can let my mom...” He scrunched his eyes, trying to nail down the words, “...apprentice you? On the...art, of sewing?”
Arcadius’ eyes were wide enough to reflect the heavens themselves. “R-Really?? You’d do that??”
“I don’t see why not. It’ll be after call and,” Launo’s eyes suddenly sparked, “...You can just tell your dad that you’re training me! Say that you were asked to help your fellow classmates cause you’re already so far ahead from everyone else.”
Which isn’t exactly a lie, Launo thought, bitterly.
“Hmm...” Arcadius tapped his chin, before shrugging. “Might have to tweak the explanation to ‘getting extra credit for top grades by tutoring’ cause I don’t know how he’ll feel about me helping the competition.” He articulated the last word with a mocking, adulting tone. Then he held out a hand. “But I think it sounds like a deal! I’ll give you some pointers, and you introduce me to your mentor.”
“My mom.”
“Yeah, that.”
Launo shook his hand, still a bit timidly, given he now noticed that a few other boys in the training yard were watching the prodigy student interact with the glorified janitor boy.
So they both tutored each other: Larc, in the art of knowing what sewing magic was (Larc bringing the most expensive and ornate needle Launo had ever seen, even though Larc claimed he just found it in his father’s closet) and brewing delicious broths (“Wait, you have to stand around this pot for hours and cook this stuff?? I thought you just made soup in a bowl! You know, like how servants take off the silver cover on the tray and the soup is already there?” “We...dont have waiters or anything...so our method of cooking different.”) Meanwhile, Launo was able to make some progress with knight training—keyword, “some.”
“Don’t make your stance so wide.” Arcadius shoved Launo’s back foot with his boot. “Keep your feet closer together, you only want enough distance so that your front foot can hover an inch off the ground while your back foot stays planted. Any further, and you’ll topple too easily.”
Launo adjusted his stance as instructed, and readied the rapier again. He set his jaw. “OK. Come at me!”
Arcadius nodded. He picked up the wooden sword and swung (a bit slowly and wide) at Launo’s side.
Launo immediately shoved his rapier point left to counter his attack, but instead moved with such force and vigor that he practically fell onto Arcadius’ blade.
Arcadius chuckled, dropping the sword and helping Launo up again. “You don’t need to use to much force when you swing. In fact it’s better to work with simple quick movements with any rapier or piercing sword, since the damage is done by the tip, not the weight.”
“S-Sorry...” Launo mumbled as he got up again.
“Don’t be! Oh hey!” Arcadius suddenly went back around towards the pile of weapons and pulled out a claymore. “Actually, maybe a sword like this will work better for you! You won’t have to worry as much about holding back, or being finesse. All the power is in that downward swing—!” Arcadius swung the sword into a nearby log to demonstrate, nearly cutting it asunder.
He offered it to Launo. “And don’t let the size fool you, it’s not actually that heavy. Large weapons still need to let soldiers be quick enough to parry and block attacks.”
Launo turned the claymore around in his hands, studying the blade and handle.
Arcadius gestured to the log. “Well, go on! It’s similar to the grip I taught you with the broadsword, but this time you use your other hand in the bottom to support the weight as it turns on an axis. Try that downward swing I showed you!”
Launo paused for a moment, thinking. Then, he planted his foot down, and swung the claymore down with all his might, aiming for another soon-to-be piece of firewood.
The claymore whistled as it fell, and it cut into the log deep—about halfway. Yet, still not nearly as deep as how Arcadius had done it.
Nonetheless, he was hopping with joy for Launo. “That was awesome!! You did great!!”
He sighed as he left the claymore in the log. “No I didn’t...”
“What are you talking about? That was probably the best blow you’ve done all night!”
“Yeah! And it’s not even a quarter of the damage that you did with your swing!”
“Well, it still took me a while to—“
Launo gestured to the other log. “It’s been how many weeks?? And I’m not even CLOSE to being as good as you, much less being a top student...” He plopped into the dirt and laid himself out like a starfish.
Larc stood over him, confused. “Why would you want to be a top student?”
“BECAUSE I SUCK ASS, DUDE!” Launo held up his arms, exasperated. Larc, on instinct, stepped back and held his hands close to his chest as he fiddled with his thumbs and mumbled an apology. Launo immediately sighed.
“I’m sorry, I don’t mean to sound like I’m mad at you. You’re really great, Link. You’re so nice to me and you’re talented and I’m so grateful, but I’m just...” He shifted in the dirt again. “I don’t think I could ever be like you. I’d even dare to say it’s impossible.”
Larc stilled, playing with his thumbs, before daring to step closer and sit in the dirt beside him.
“Can I tell you a secret, Launo?”
He was quiet, but he nodded a yes.
“I think my brother’s a stronger fighter than me.”
Launo furrowed his eyebrows confused, but he continued.
“He just never takes his knight training seriously, because of my father. But I bet if he really tried, he’d be great at it.”
Ah. So that’s what he meant.
“But I AM trying.” Launo whined. “I guess compared to you it doesn’t seem like much but—!”
“Nono! Sorry that’s not what I meant!” Larc quickly cut in. “I just...” He trailed off.
“...There’s a reason I have to be the best.” Larc finally said. He was looking out into the woods, but Launo felt that he wasn’t really looking at anything in particular, maybe deep in thought. “There’s a reason I can’t settle, I can’t rest. It’s really important that I get this all right. And I guess that makes me admirable to most people but...”
He looked down at Launo, still spread out in the dirt. “I didn’t really choose to be a knight, unlike you. I didn’t actually choose to be the best, and I don’t get why so many people do train to be at the top out of their own violation. It really...sucks ass.” He articulated the last part in Launo’s tone, and they both giggled.
“So...I guess that I’m trying to say here is that...” He thought one his words a moment longer. “I think so many people are afraid of trying new things, because they fear not being the best at it, not being at the top. And I suppose ambition is good but...” He tilted his head and shrugged at Launo. “As someone who’s supposedly at the top, I would say I envy anybody that can make progress that their proud of. You choose to be a knight, and you’re training for it out of your own strength and courage. That’s more than I’ll ever have, so you should probably get off the ground and realize that soon.”
Launo’s eyes widened, a bit unnerved by how uncharacteristically blunt Larc was being.
“In my opinion, anyone that aims to be better than everyone is stupid—maybe that’s just me, but...I would think that if I was you, I’d be proud of any progress I made. If I was more skilled than I was yesterday, that’s really all I would care about. Why would I care about being the top of my class? I would kill to just be satisfied with being a better me.”
There was silence as the boys took in Larc’s words. Then he suddenly stood up. “G-Goddess Hylia, sorry I’ve been talking for so long, I didn’t realize how late it was getting.” He went to collect his things. “You can keep the claymore, I think you’d be great at it, just...”
Larc packed his swords and backpack, before turning back to the flopped out Launo. “...I think you’re really cool, Launo. So don’t tap out for my sake—I’m not the person that matters in your training, am I? So don’t give up for any silly reasons like that.”
Launo perked his head up to meet his gaze. While Arcadius was usually serious and controlled during training at school, Larc always seemed to have genuine excitement about swords when it came to him. The bright smile on his face caused his cheeks to warm and he immediately flipped his head back to hide it.
“I’ll see you tomorrow, Launo!” Larc ran off into the night, a cobblestone streets in the distance swallowing his figure.
“See you...” Launo whispered.
He lay in the dirt a moment longer—his mother would probably berated him for the stains again—when he finally got up and looked at the claymore in the log. He walked up to it and observed it further, it was another a sixth of the way deep. He glanced at Larc’s log, which was nearly split in two, and sighed. Then he glanced back at his own work.
“Well, it’s better than when I first started I guess...” Launo mumbled.
No one responded.
The boy let out a huff, and gripped the sword again in his hands.
“But I can do better.”
By the time Launo was 16 he was finally beating his classmates with ease, specializing in longswords, axes, and hammers. And while he definitely still “sucked ass” in things like archery and lance work—to which some boys still teased him for—he found overtime that he no longer cared about what they thought. They had their strengths, and he had his. And to top it off, absolutely no one in the academy could make a lemon cookie like him. So at least he had the best in show for that angle.
Even years later, after certain incidents transpired concerning House Hartell, Launo always welcomed Larc to his house for “training.” Although after a while, it would be hard to still call it that when a large chunk of time is really just spent running their fingers through each other’s hair.
“But we’re friends, right?”
“Yeah.”
And even years after graduating as part of the top ten in his class and working as a knight, some of his old classmates would tease him for being the “rich boy’s lap dog,” Launo would find that he still really didn’t care—after a punch or two was thrown, of course. He found that his new lack of anxiety and concern heavily stemmed from that night, when Larc had told him about his envy for choice and satisfaction. Thinking back at the memory of his handling with a sword and his happy little smile once made Launo blush so hard his father teased him about it for the rest of his life—his mother claimed he went so red he would fit right in with the tomato stew. One of these days, Launo would pay Larc back for the endless teasing he got from his parents. And pay Larc back he would, indeed.
I mean, he already had the ring.
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Jon swayed side to side with the music, stirring a sauce that smelled divine, probably something special to celebrate Emma being home on holiday and while Martin knew he’d be adorably cross (for a second), he wouldn’t tell him no. Trying to be subtle and failing, Martin placed hands made to fit just there on Jon’s hips, pressing his lips to the back of his neck and pulling him into a rhythm and away from the hob.
“Habibi, I’m making din--” Martin spun him around to face him, tugging him flush to his chest and kissing him properly.
“Dinner can wait.”
“You know, Waltz began as a country folk dance in Austria and Bavaria in the 17th century.” Jon kissed him back, looking up at Martin through dark lashes. “It was the first dance where a man held a partner close to his body.”
“You’re ridiculous, ballroom trivia isn’t romantic, Jon.” Scandalized, he sputtered indignantly.
“I happen to think it is!” And giggling, they continued on, the rolling of eyes in the doorway practically audible.
“Ugh, you’re both so embarrassing.”
“Em!” Martin’s dad voice in full swing. “There’s no one here but us!”
“Yes and that’s quite bad enough.”
Martin dipped Jon dramatically and they laughed loudly together.
“I seem to remember a certain small child shouting “Baba, Baba, dance with me!” while standing on my feet.” Jon eyed her upside down, pouting.
“Yeah, well.” She huffed, trying to hide her smile and wholly unable to. “Dinner’s burning.”
Martin would swear later that he most certainly did not drop Jon in his haste to prevent an accident.
@celosiaa and @morelikeazirafailamirite! Thanks for planting this idea in my head :D
#TMA#The magnus archives#jmart#jonmartin#jon sims#martin blackwood#waltz#dancing in the kitchen#emma#adoption#natural hair#kisses#love!#they're so in love and that makes me fear for the next episodes#dancing#scars#nb jon#EDS#braces#apron!
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Priorities
Pairing: Bucky x reader
For the Flex Your Muscles Writing Challenge set up by @captain-rogers-beard
19th of June prompt: A set of twins fighting
Word count: 1.4K
Summary: Bucky worries about the effect his job is having on his family
Warnings: Pure fluff
Authors notes: GIF not mine. This is a bit of a change, still fluffy as hell. Dad Bucky is cute as, well I think so anyway! Please feel free to comment, message etc. Feedback is always appreciated x
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You could hear the shouting from the kitchen. “That’s my bear” Then there was a thud followed by some loud crying. “I got it” Bucky stood up from the stool and rushed out to the back garden. This was the second fight this week, by all accounts that was a good week. Things had been going well since Bucky had got back from his mission, until yesterday when Steve called and said that Bucky was needed for another mission. The twins hadn’t reacted well; they never did. They missed him when he wasn’t here, acting out and fighting with each other. They calmed right down when Bucky was home. He had a pacifying effect on the twins. Of course, they loved you a lot and you did your best when Bucky was away. But the dynamic was always at its best when you were all together.
“But Daddy that’s my bear.” Sarah’s voice was rising and you could hear Nathans cries were getting louder. Time to provide some back-up. You turned the hob off, abandoning dinner and went outside. Bucky was knelt in-between the two 4-year olds. Nathan was cuddled into Bucky’s side, fat tears rolling down his face. Sarah was stood, her little hands on her hips and a frown on her face. The bear in question filling the space between the stand-off. “Sarah it might be your bear but you need to share ok. You certainly do not push your brother over.” Bucky’s voice was soft but you couldn’t miss the authority in his words. Sarah looked like she was going to start arguing, her lips forming a pout. She was a Daddy’s girl through and through, not that you could blame her. As you stepped closer, Nathan pulled away from his father and towards you. Lifting him up and resting him on your hip, you wiped away the tears still falling from his blue eyes. He was Bucky’s double just in miniature form.
Bucky sighed and looked at you for direction. These fights had only started in the last 6 months, during which he had spent a lot of time away. He felt guilty about it and wondered if ultimately, he was to blame. “Let’s go inside and talk about this?” You suggested. Sarah crossed her arms and turned away from both of you. Bucky was reminded of you in this moment. She had his eyes, the rest of her features similar to yours. Sarah was feisty and bright as a button, she was definitely going to be trouble when she got older; she was already keeping both of you on your toes at the age of 4. Bucky scooped her and the bear up into his arms and followed you into the living room.
Nathan was now clinging to you tightly, his head pressed against your neck. You untangled him and sat him on one end of the sofa, Bucky placing Sarah at the other. You and Bucky sat on the coffee table opposite them, Bucky holding onto the catalyst for the argument. “Nathan, you know that isn’t your bear, did you ask Sarah if you could use hers?.” They had both made bears at build-a-bear the other week when Bucky was last home. Nathan had picked a Falcon bear, much to Bucky’s disgust and Sarah had picked a Captain America Bear. Both bears in honour of their favourite uncles. Nathan looked at you shook his head slowly. “And Sarah do you think pushing Nathan was a good idea?” For a four-year-old she was bright, you could see the cogs turning in her head. “Well Daddy pushes people when they do something they shouldn’t.” Bucky looked horrified at what had just come out of his daughters’ mouth. “That’s different honey.”
After a minute Bucky seemed to recover from the shock. “Where did you get that idea?” Nathan spoke this time “Uncle Tony told us that Daddy fights people for a living.” You made a mental note never to leave the kids alone with Tony again. As you glanced across to Bucky you could see his grip on the bear had tightened, his knuckles white and his metal hand raking through his hair. “Your Daddy saves people as part of his job, he protects everyone from bad people. It is very different to fighting over a bear.” They didn’t look convinced. “Ok, let’s put it another way. Do you think that Uncle Sam would borrow Uncle Steve’s shield without his permission?” Both of them shook their heads. “Do you think that if Uncle Steve borrowed Uncle Sam’s wings that Uncle Steve would push him?” Again, both of them shook their heads. “Well this is exactly the same. You need to be grown up about this. Ask if you want to borrow something and don’t push each other.” Bucky was still quiet, his eyes focussed on the floor. “Apologise to each other please.”
After they had said sorry to each other you told them to go and play outside. “Buck, it’s not your fault”. Bucky looked up at you, his eyes filled with sadness. “Y/N our kids think I am some sort of monster. That I hurt people for a living.” You rubbed a reassuring hand up and down his back. “No, they don’t. They think you’re a super hero, which you are.” He rested his forehead on yours and took in a deep breath. “Maybe I should stop? You did” Pulling back, you tilted his face up to look at you. “Bucky, you love your job. I quit missions because they weren’t for me. I would have quit missions’ kids or no kids.” He closed his eyes and thought carefully. “I do love my job Y/N, but I love my family more.” He kissed your lips softly. “Come on, we can talk about this later. How do you fancy going to the park?”
The kids were exhausted when Bucky put them to bed. He was only on the second page of the book when the twins drifted off to sleep. He looked at their sleeping faces and made his decision. Switching off the light he headed towards the study and pulled out his phone. He remembered the day you had told him you were pregnant, the image of you holding the test in your hand would be forever burned into his memory. He had cried, he had never thought he would have a normal life after everything that had happened. Moving out to Brooklyn had been the next step. You had only just moved in when you went into labour and your beautiful children had been born. The next four years had flown by and Bucky realised that he was missing out. He wanted to be with you and the twins as much as possible. His job made that more difficult.
When he came down stairs half an hour later you were curled up on the sofa with a cup of tea in one hand and a book in the other. He planted a kiss on your head and lifted your legs so he could sit down, letting your feet fall into his lap. His thumb absentmindedly rubbed small circles over the denim of your jeans. You put your drink and book on the coffee table and looked at your husband. He turned to look at you. “So, I just spoke to Steve” You raised an eyebrow in question “Tomorrows mission is going to be my last.” Your mouth opened but before you had chance to speak Bucky finished “I’m going to be running the training program. No more missions. I don’t have to leave you ever again.” You moved over and straddled his lap and held his face in your hands. “You sure about this Buck?” His hands fell down to your ass and squeezed lightly. “Only been sure about a couple things in my life. The first marrying you then second that you and the twins are my life now, not work. You come first, always.” You pressed your lips to his, your fingers slipping into his hair pulling him closer to you. His hands wrapped around you more tightly, holding you against him. When you finally broke apart you were a little breathless. “I love you Y/N.” His fingers stroked your cheek. “I love you too” Leaning down you captured his lips again. “Mummy? Daddy?” The voice of your daughter made you break apart again. “I’ll go” you whispered to Bucky. He shook his head. “We’ll go.”
Taglist is open so let me know if you want in
Taglist: @stargazingfangirl18 , @silentcoyotesong, @queenofstarliqht, @buckys-henley, @lonelyheartsm
#flex your writing muscles challenge#bucky x reader#bucky barnes#bucky imagine#bucky#bucky fluff#bucky fanfic#james buchanan barnes#marvel fanfics#marvel#avengers#writing challenge
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(Very inspired from a fic from a different fandom that I can definitely see fitting here)
College student Dream is utterly obsessed with his professor Gadling, who is so handsome and warm and engaging, and was so supportive of Dream when he came out as trans, and who (Dream’s fairly sure) has such a soft spot for him already that surely it wouldn’t take much to woo him, if it weren’t for their age difference and status as teacher and student. He’s willing to do anything to claim him, even if it’s underhanded. So he hatches a plan: if Dream can not only trip Hob into bed with him, but also have Hob get him pregnant, then surely the conscientious professor would take responsibility. Once Hob is successfully baby-trapped, then Dream can get to work on making him fall in love (speed run straight to married honestly if he can manage it).
Besides, once Dream pictured Hob as a dad, Hob caring for their children, Hob impregnating him, breeding him, his fate was sealed. Hob just has to belong to him and give him all the babies.
Dream downloads a fertility-tracking app, takes all the supplements, and bides his time for the perfect moment. He also starts dressing a little more sexily in Hob’s class, invading his personal space a little more when they talk, nothing incredibly overt, but just enough to plant the idea in the professor’s mind that Dream is both desirable and interested (part of him hopes that Hob might catch on and pounce on him about it, but he’s not too disappointed when this doesn’t happen as the main point is to lay the groundwork so that phase 2 doesn’t appear to come out of left field for Hob).
The night Dream sees that he’s at his peak fertile, that he’s at his most likely to become pregnant that he’ll ever be, he goes to the White Horse Tavern, the pub he knows Hob lives above and frequently spends his evenings at, and “happens” to bump into Hob there. They share a few drinks, and Dream pretends to be more affected by the alcohol than he actually is, faking some wooziness and a need to lie down for a bit. Hob is concerned and tipsy, so he thinks nothing of it to offer up his flat upstairs.
Hob Gadling has been guiltily but helplessly drawn to his student Dream from the beginning, and his defenses are even further down that night thanks to the drinks. So when he helps a “drunk” Dream up to his flat and onto his bed (clearly because it’s darker and quieter than the couch, obviously), and Dream tearily begs him to stay with him he agrees without hesitation. And when Dream suddenly climbs into his lap whining how much he needs Hob, he folds like wet paper.
-🪽anon
Oh I dooooo love a sneaky sneaky Dream!!
Dream doesn't have a lot of positive role models in his life so it's probably no surprise that he gets attached to Hob. Hob is kind and hot (and queer) and Dream is absolutely smitten. Honestly if he could just bide his time a little, Hob would probably actually make a move on him eventually (after Dream has graduated), but Dream can't wait that long and he can't risk Hob finding someone else in the meantime, so he has to get his man!
Thus he pulls off his grand plan: he comes off his birth control in advance, he tracks his cycle, and he makes his move on his man. Hob is just drunk enough to make some slightly risky moves but sober enough to know what he's doing. He feels very protective over Dream already, so he's got no reason to hesitate in taking him upstairs to recover from his dizzy spell. He wouldn't want some creepy guy picking Dream up in his vulnerable state...
Dream’s heart is racing so much as he slides into Hob’s lap. He can't believe he's actually got this far, and that Hob is letting him do this. Meanwhile Hob is desperately trying to persuade Dream to slow down without rejecting him outright. He just likes Dream too much to actually say no. For all his moral standards, he can't help but slide his hands around Dream’s waist and hold him there. Dream is an adult, right? He can make adult choices if he wants to?
Admittedly Hob might not be morally perfect, but he certainly knows how to fuck. He bounces Dream in his lap like he weighs next to nothing, and he's the first person in the whole world actually make Dream cum. He takes this as a good sign for the future. That, and the fact that Hob seemed to completely forget about using a condom.
Dream feels so loved and affirmed in his own body when Hob calls him a good lad, tells him he's got the sweetest, most lovely boypussy. He can't wait for Hob’s seed to take inside him. Hob is going to be the most wonderful daddy to their baby, Dream just knows it <333
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3 Days + 1: Plus 1
Solangelo Spring Ball 2020 collab with @solangelover
Day 1 | Day 2 | Day 3 | Day 4
Linking all these together so make sure you reblog the linked posts, also please go check out my collab partners works! Also posted to ao3, and also FF.N for my collab partner.
@solangeloweek
-
Will didn't get back until morning, and Nico felt a little empty. He hadn't gotten to get to know Will as much as he'd have hoped to, and whilst he was happy at the prospect of being let out of this place, he'd kinda miss Will's company. He hadn't fully processed why he was so drawn to Will until he'd realised the skeletal butterflies were more than just social anxiety, and now? Now Nico had one mood and that mood was gay panic.
Because now, in order to interact with Will, he'd actually have to approach him, and if there was one thing guaranteed to make Nico go non-verbal, it was approaching people. And Nico would probably freak out and kill all the plants out of nervousness anyway, so, he was thoroughly screwed and isolated if he left the infirmary today. So that left him with the crazy plan of pretending to still be sick or injured, but, that was crazy and obsessive and Will would know he was faking it anyway, so, Nico was doomed to admiring the cute kind guy from afar, and whilst being friends with the cute guy with feelings involved probably would have gotten messy in the long run, the cute guy was still a genuinely kind person Nico would like to have been good friends with, but no, he was destined to be lonely, of course.
Nico took a deep breath. Over thinking his gay panic really didn't work out well, ever.
By this point, he was sitting up in the hospital bed hoping to keep his hospital pyjamas after he was discharged, but also desperately hoping that he wasn't discharged or that Will would maybe wanna spend some time with him. He doubted it, but he still craved it, of course.
It was several hours before Will bounced into the infirmary with a bright grin and a bright glow and an even brighter smile- seriously, just what was this guy putting on his teeth they shined- Nico huffed, realising he hadn't seen a dentist in years, and, much to his chagrin, Will was carrying several leaflets about root canals, fillings, extractions, and braces. You admit to having a dental abscess once and suddenly hot boys want to poke around in your mouth with pointy drills.
"No," Nico said with a warning scowl, but Will beamed at him, his own blue rhinestone braces showing, and honestly? Nico would let this boy take his kidney if he asked. "Okay, fine," Nico relented, fixing Will with a playful glare, "but I want black ones fitted."
"Cool!" Will beamed, "we'll get you booked in for next week for your extractions! Then the root canals, then the fillings, and finally braces!"
"Joy(!)" Nico rolled his eyes, picking at an itchy patch of acne on his cheek. Will had quite a few acne scars on his, although he was also currently going through an acne flare-up right now too.
"So! Are you ready to be discharged today? I just gotta sort out your prescription and book you in for check-ups, then you can go!"
"Can't wait," Nico said with a grin, and Will smiled back, dumping all the leaflets on the hospital table.
"I, will be right back!" Will announced, bouncing on the balls of his feet, "You should get changed, I won't be very long! smell you later!" Nico snorted and rolled his eyes, watching Will leave before letting out a frustrated huff. He supposed he should probably do as he was told and get dressed without arguments.
Will didn't take long to return, as promised, holding a bag of medications for Nico. "Okay, all that's left to sort out now is your discharge papers," Will said, "then I'll process them and book your future appointments, and you can go. You never have to see me again!"
Nico didn't pick up on Will's joking tone effectively, frowning. "Or maybe we could… see each other outside of the infirmary and hang out together?"
Will flushed darkly, a blotchy wine blush spreading over his now ruddy cheeks. Nico cringed internally- he'd gone way too far in asking to be friends, and he'd almost definitely creeped Will out by now, no doubt about it. "Uh- I'd love to! It's a date! I, uh, didn't realise you were into me too, otherwise I'd have asked you out a lot sooner!"
Wait. What? Nico almost corrected him by saying he'd meant as friends, before the smart part of his brain, thankfully, shut him up and prevented him from doing so. He'd just accidentally asked out Will Solace, who had confessed that he'd wanted to ask Nico out first. Nico wasn't going to screw that up now. No way. "It's a date," Nico confirmed, turning a dark cherry puce at the realisation that he'd just rather embarrassingly accidentally asked his crush out, and that now, apparently, he had a date with a boy.
It didn't take very long for Will to sort out all the appropriate paperwork, and he was rather endearingly smitten with Nico, generally more relaxed around him, save for the bright glow. Nico was going to need sunglasses, it seemed. It was… really cute, actually.
Nico had to leave, though- after all, he had a date to plan on a whim, so, with the hope of pulling off some miracle, he told Will to meet him in the strawberry fields before dinner. Will, of course, gladly accepted it, and Nico silently congratulated himself for being smooth.
He headed to his cabin first, pacing around. He needed an idea… a picnic? That was romantic, and Will loved picnics. Maybe Nico could cook and bake, could leave the food on the hot plate and pull it out of the shadows, a private, romantic dinner date, but in the casual format of a non-pressured picnic. That… was actually a good plan, Nico mused. He could totally pull that off, no problem. He just needed a suit, something he could bother his father about, of course.
-
Will was beyond excited. He'd been on dates before, of course. He'd dated two others in the past, although one girl found him too intense and was pretty biphobic to him, one boy was only in it to date a doctor, and the agender person he dated had to move away. So whilst Will had been on dates before, he was a little nervous of things going wrong.
Which lead him to his current predicament. His siblings had evacuated the cabin and left him alone. Usually he'd love the prospect of being completely alone for a while with no siblings in the cabin and no interruptions to whatever alone time activity he decided to do in that time, but this time, they'd evacuated the cabin because he'd screeched and squealed and stressed so much about his date that they'd decided to simply leave him to it.
Will had the entire contents of his wardrobe strewn across his bed, had tried on the same outfits several times, and had screamed into the void. He wanted to look cute, and babey, but also hot and handsome. He had so many pastel clothes and he could look pretty adorable in them, but again, he wanted to be hot, and Nico would probably be all dressed up. But, then again, being his authentic self was best.
He usually wore clothes that clashed, purely because he could, and he wanted to, so he did. He picked out a pastel lilac hoodie, a little oversized, and some pastel pink and blue jeans where one leg was pink and the other was blue. He figured he looked pretty bi, and he put on some pastel mint trainers to top off his look. He was dressed casually, but more presentable than usual, like he'd made the effort but also like he felt comfortable to be himself too.
He looked to his hair. He had natural curls, although he looked after them terribly- they were salt damaged from all his time spent in the sea at the beach, and he didn't take care of them beyond shampoo- and, unfortunately, dry shampoo more than actual shampoo. So his hair was full of split ends, rougher to the touch then they should have been, and being as he rarely brushed it, he usually had to spend some time working out matts with his detangle spray, which really wasn't made for curly hair and honestly made it ten times worse.
He wasn't very gentle when he brushed it, either, so he ended up with a sore scalp and a palmful of hair, wondering how the hell Nico's curls were back to looking beautiful again after so much damage.
It had to be witchcraft, Will was sure of it.
He wanted the date to go well, badly, and he didn't want to be running late, so he hurried as quick as he could to get ready. He hoped that he was a good date for Nico, because he really liked him, and he kinda really wanted to impress him. He grabbed his stim toy, counting down the minutes until he'd be meeting Nico, except they'd set a vague time, so Will figured he'd give it about half an hour.
-
Nico cursed loudly, pulling his hand back. He really should not have stuck his hand on the ring to make sure that it was hot enough. He shook his hand, quickly running it under cold water before glaring at the hob as though it could possibly comprehend what it had just done to him enough to feel guilty for it.
He returned to the stove nonetheless, and fixated like a mad scientist on perfecting his food- it had to be perfect. This was a date, and Nico was Italian, dammit, and he'd had to threaten the Stolls not to give him penne lisce because he needed tagliatelle for this and he refused to touch penne lisce with a ten foot pole. That didn't mean he was particularly good at cooking though, so he'd had to rope in some help in the form of Percy, who helped his mom with the cooking and cooked a lot for Annabeth. He picked it up pretty quickly, though, once he'd figured out how to use an oven. Time was ticking away, so Nico quickly went to get changed whilst Percy watched the stove for him.
His dad had, thankfully, sent him a suit to wear, simple black with a dark red shirt and a black bow tie, which Nico had to go and fetch Reyna to help him with. Needless to say, she was a little surprised at his impromptu shadow travelling into her bathroom, being as she was showering at the time, so that had certainly been awkward, but she helped him with the knot and an offer to gut Will like a fish in the event that he mess up, so he quickly shadow travelled back ready for his date.
He managed to plate it up on his own, placing the food on a hot plate to keep it warm, before shadow travelling to the strawberry fields ready for his date. Will wasn't here yet, which gave Nico the opportunity to lay out a picnic blanket and make the area look presentable. He radiated a slight death aura just to keep the ants away, and lighted a candle or two which he kept weighed down to make sure that he didn't accidentally set Will on fire. After all, that would be a terrible first date experience, for both of them.
He was anxious about whether Will would change his mind or not, whether somebody would see him on a date with a boy before he was fully out. He had an irrational fear that this was all an elaborate practical joke, the kind girls at camp had played on him before, only designed to mock and ridicule his sexuality, but then he reminded himself that Will wasn't like that, and besides, he wanted this with his whole being, so of course, he didn't regret his plan and he vowed to himself that he wouldn't regret it even if Will didn't show up.
Will did show up.
And he was breathtaking.
-
Will couldn't believe his luck. Nico looked… he looked stunning. He looked nervous too, smoothing his hair back and flushing puce, but he was in a suit, an expensive looking suit for a picnic. Will almost felt underdressed, but he could see in Nico's eyes that Nico found him beautiful. Will couldn't doubt that he did when the boy looked at him with such gentle affection and awe.
Will sat down slowly, a blotchy blush spreading down his cheeks as he noticed how the rest of the world seemed to fade away, the strawberry plants providing a nice level of cover and shade without making the space feel too closed in. Will was about to ask about the food when Nico reached into the shadows and pulled out a plate of pasta, placing it in front of William before grabbing his own, and Will decided that this was already the best picnic he'd ever had.
"You made a romantic meal for a picnic?" Will asked with a shy blush, and Nico nodded with a half shrug.
"I wanted our first date to be special and memorable," Nico said, looking down shyly, "you're the first guy I've ever… been on a date with, and I want it to be memorable."
"It's amazing, Nico," Will replied gently, "best date I've ever been on already."
"What if you decide I'm weird or creepy," Nico asked nervously, and Will shook his head adamantly.
"You're a human being," Will replied, "and my friend, and hopefully maybe more, and if I found you creepy, I wouldn't be sitting here now."
"I…ve never had a- a boyfriend before," Nico added nervously, fiddling with his fingers and looking up slowly, and oh… gods, Will melted.
"We can figure it out, together," Will said softly, reaching over nervously to brush his hand against Nico's. Nico pushed lightly against his hand in reciprocation, and Will brushed Nico's knuckles with the back of his hand, blushing at the little gasp that Nico let out from the sensation.
Will decided to be a little bolder, curling his fingers around Nico's own until their palms were pressed together. Nico looked down at their hands, and then up at Will, and it was clear in his awestruck expression that he wasn't used to this kind of affection. Will squeezed his hand, watching the puce blush on Nico's cheeks spread down his neck. Will leaned in a little closer, gently kissing his cheek, but hesitating before he pulled back. He stayed close, eyes searching Nico's face for some sign of consent.
If Will was honest, he'd never had his first kiss, and he hoped it wasn't too soon but he really wanted to kiss Nico, providing Nico wanted to kiss him too, of course. He chickened out, clearing his throat awkwardly and finally turning his attention back to his food.
He immediately noticed how it was most certainly home cooked, because it looked to be too good a quality to possibly have been a ready meal. It smelled amazing, and Will took his first bite. It was warm, and comforting flavour, yet not overpowering on the palette. It reminded him of his mama's cooking- not because the flavours were similar- because they weren't, his mom always used the smooth penne pasta- but because he could tell that it was made with love. Or, rather, affection, at least.
It was a little nippy, and Will noticed Nico leaning into his warmth slightly. Will made a silent note to himself to cuddle Nico sometime, finding himself suspecting that Nico may quite enjoy hugging him, for a while.
"Have-... have you ever had a boyfriend?" Nico asked nervously, and Will blushed a little.
"Not exactly," Will replied, "all my past dates kind of… didn't work out. So far you're probably the best date I've ever had." Nico blushed at that, both boys giggling slightly as they resumed eating. They fell into a comfortable silence, although the conversation soon picked up after eating.
Will learned that Nico really liked all kinds of music, even if he learned more towards alternative music. He liked pirates and vampires and reading, he played mythomagic, which was a shared hyperfixation, they both liked horror podcasts, and both really loved junk food. Even where they didn't have shared interests, they still had chemistry and an easy vibe between them.
Will finally decided to bite the bullet, taking a deep breath before speaking. "Hey Nico…"
"Hm?" Nico furrowed his brows, looking up at Will with a mix of curiosity and trepidation.
"Is it okay if I like maybe try and like- uh- kiss you? Like, on the lips?" Will felt himself go red, although he saw Nico physically turn red.
"I- uh- you- wanna kiss me?" Nico looked shocked, and Will hoped that he hadn't crossed a boundary.
"Uhm… yeah? If- if that's okay!"
"Uh- yes! You uh- you can- um- yeah. You can kiss me."
"Cool! I'm uh… kissing you now, uh… ha." Will took about few seconds to calm his nerves, before pressing his lips to Nico's in a gentle kiss. It was softer than he imagined, more tasteless, but also so much better than he imagined it could be. His first gay kiss was pretty great.
-
Nico was freaking out in all the best ways, because he was actually kissing a dude. His lips were pressed against a guy's lips, he was kissing him. They were kidding, two boys, in a strawberry field, being gay together.
Nico felt alive.
His heart was pounding wildly, nerves intense and distracting as he kissed back softly, because he was finally allowing himself to act on his gay feelings, to be queer, to engage in a homosexual act, kissing another man.
And it was perfect.
The kiss was sweet and tender and rough and manly all at once, then Will was cupping his jaw and Nico was melting because his calloused hands felt so big and manly against Nico's cheek. Will began tracing his jaw with his finger, and Nico let out a soft whimper, knees like jelly, reaching up to cup Will's jaw and oh… he had stubble and it felt so masculine and hot, and when Will let out a soft gasp, Nico had to pull back to stop the escape of any embarrassing sounds.
Will looked beautiful. His skin was completely flushed, lips shiny and slightly kiss swollen, and Nico's brain was screaming because he'd just kissed a boy in a strawberry field for his first kiss, and that felt amazing to realise.
Nico never wanted anything different from life.
Nico finally felt free.
And that was enough for him.
Will tucked Nico's hair behind his ear, resting their foreheads together with a wide grin.
"Hey," Will beamed breathlessly.
"Hi," Nico greeted, voice shaky with adrenaline as both boys let out as slightly buzzed laugh, high off the adrenaline of a first gay kiss.
"So, we're really doing this, huh?"
"We're really doing this," Nico confirmed, intertwining their fingers together.
Nico was filled with a profound sense of pride, and a sense that somehow, things were going to be okay, that things would work out, and that maybe- just maybe, he was going to fall in love.
#solangelo#nico di angelo x will solace#nico di angelo#will solace#nicostolemybones#solangelover#nico x will#will x nico#will solace x nico di angelo#solangelo fanfiction#solangelo fanfic#solangelo fic#pjo#hoo#toa#pjoverse#pjo fic#pjo fanfiction#pjo fanfic#heroes of olympus#trials of apollo#percy jackson and the olympians#solangelo spring ball 2020
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I swear I’m gonna hit whoever thinks aquarium keeping is easy lmao
I did a pretty deep clean of both my 10 gallon (African dwarf frogs) and my 20 gallon (community tank with gouramis, tetras, plecos, and rabbit snails). I started late by accident, but still worked on them for probably around 5-6 hours straight, then had to tidy the basement after (which I’m gonna have to finish tomorrow).
The 20 looks pretty good, just a little barren. I got rid of one of the major big decorations because I don’t really like it and I worry about fish getting stuck in it (it’s happened, but it was all good). I also accidentally broke one of the medium rock decorations, so I feel like there’s not as many places to hide :( It also only has 3 silk plants, so I really kinda wanna get more plants (and maybe a replacement rock). I don’t think I’ll do live plants because that never goes well with me.
And the 10 is gonna make me SCREAM. The decor is okay, though it could also use some more greenery. But oml there’s detritus (mulm) all over everything! I did a 90% water change, I sucked some of it up with my gravel vacuum, I even added more sand because there wasn’t enough. After I added the decor, the detritus settled over everything so it still looks disgusting ugh.
I think the issue is that I’m relying mostly on biological filtration rather than mechanical. I’m using sponge filters on all my tanks because I had issues with overflow while using HOB filters (and destroyed some of the flooring sorry dad), plus they often got jammed because sand somehow got stuck in the impeller.
ANYWAY it was a lot of work so I’m not really gonna bother with it anymore, at least not within the next week. I’d been wanting to do a super deep clean for a while now, and I finally got it done. Yay.
One of my ADFs has an injury, so I’ve been trying to keep the water pretty clean. I hope the stress of the clean doesn’t make it worse, but it seems to be healing okay. Fingers crossed that it helps instead of hinders. I was hoping to get another frog or two for that tank, but I wanted to clean/rearrange first, and I don’t want to add any new things while he’s healing. They’ve also started their mating calls again, so that’s exciting.
The fish in the 20 are all doing well, I think. For some reason, one of gouramis is stunted and I have no idea what caused it. All the other ones are plump and healthy, but the one is just small and disproportionate. They all grew up in the same tank (and they used to be in a 40 gallon, so I sincerely doubt space is an issue), and they get fed the same diet. I feel like if it was an issue with my care, all the gouramis would be stunted, and maybe some of the other fish as well? I see the stunted one eating and swimming, she just looks like the bulldog of gouramis. I think it must be a genetic thing with her. The tetras are still shy for some reason. My plecos have made progress on chewing through their driftwood, which is exciting to me. 2 are now full sized so it’s harder to tell them apart from each other, but the youngest one is only about 3/4 of the full sized ones. Also idk why but I’ve had really good luck with rabbit snails. My first one lasted 3 years (but he passed away a few months ago 😔), and the second one is now going on 3. I got another one after the first one died, and he’s a giant. Idk how old he is but I’ve had him for ???3-4 months???? He’s good.
Anyway that’s all the aquarium rambling I’m gonna do today because my feet and my back hurt and I’m TIRED
#animals#fish#quasimodo speaks#frog#african dwarf frog#clown pleco#thick lipped gourami#kitty tetra#rabbit snail
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Happy Birthday, thestuckinbed!
Today, we wish @thestuckinbed a Happy Birthday! We hope you’re having a wonderful day so far, and that you got exactly the presents you were hoping for! To kick the birthday feels up a notch, the lovely @mega-aulover has written a story just for you!
PROMPT: I’d love if you could write an in-Panem AU where the reaping doesn’t exist (Everlark, of course😉)
A/N: For @thestuckinbed hope you have the happiest of birthdays. I truly hope you enjoy part one of your gift. Special thanks to @Norbertsmom for her quick and effortless beta skills!
Rated G
Title: Better Tomorrow
The reaping stopped the year Katniss turned 15. The president keeled over and died during the Victory Tour for the previous Games. It was odd when Reaping day came and none of the kids had to appear in front of the Justice Building. Her sister Primrose stopped having nightmares about the Games and her name being called. All Katniss Everdeen had to do was concentrate on survival. That and somehow paying off the debt she owed to Peeta, the youngest son of the town’s baker.
For two and a half years she looked for ways to repay him for saving her life. Katniss looked for ways to speak to Peeta but the opportunity never presented itself simply because Gale Hawthorne always seemed to be around her. Gale was always underfoot trying to impress upon everyone they were a couple, which they weren’t.
Her last two years of high school were basically her following him around trying to find a way to repay him for his kindness. His burnt loaves of bread not only fed them for a long time but the next time she’d seen him at school she’d seen the red welt on his face. A clear sign his mother, the witch had found out about the bread. From that moment Peeta became her boy with the bread. That afternoon, Katniss looked away and that’s when she saw the dandelion on the ground. The bright little yellow flower was the first sign of Spring, and it caused her to search for her father’s plant book. She used it to scavenge for plants around the district until she went under the fence and foraged for food. Eventually finding her father’s bows hidden in the forest.
With the bow Katniss was able to hunt for animals. It was there she met Gale. He looked old, like a grown up when she met him. They didn’t trust each other and for the first two years things weren’t easy between them. It wasn’t until Gale saw how easily and effectively she used a bow did he come around to forming a partnership that evolved into a quasi friendship.
When the Games were cancelled Gale turned his attention onto her like the searchlight of a hovercraft. He insinuated they should have more than what they had at first, then when she turned seventeen he wanted to, “court her.” Katniss found the idea ridiculous.
He argued the Games were gone and there was no need for her to continue with her childhood distaste for marriage and children. She often wondered why she even spoke to Gale, he frustrated and annoyed her. Maybe it was because they were great hunters.
There were a lot of girls that wanted to be with him because he was good looking, but to Katniss he was just so bulky and everywhere. There were times she hated his musky sweaty scent and she often found herself scrubbing her clothing and her body to eradicate the smell. Now that she was eighteen and graduated from school Gale was even more persistent. Today he was especially even more irritating with the whole ‘they belong together’ shtick.
Katniss couldn’t wait to get rid of him.
“There aren’t any more Games. I don’t understand why you don’t want to get married or have children,” Gale said trailing after her.
“It’s my decision, Gale. What I do with my life, is my decision.” Katniss enunciated each word hoping he would take the hint.
“Come on Catnip, we make sense,” Gale pouted.
“Gale, you’re like family.” Katniss refused to make eye contact with him as she moved passed him in the Hob. She sat down at Greasy Sae’s stall.
“Katniss, what you got for me?” Sae poured Katniss one of her infamous bowls.
“I’ve got a badger for you, and a few fish.” Katniss took out her catches.
“Very nice,” Greasy Sae said, putting coins on the table.
Katniss was going to take a spoonful when Darius sat next to her.
“Hey hot stuff,” Darius said. He took off his helmet and settled it next to him.
“What’s going on Darius,” Katniss blew on her spoon before she shoved it in her mouth.
“Did you hear about the bakers youngest son?” Darius grabbed the bowl from Greasy.
The mention of Peeta Mellark, her boy with the bread caught her attention. She continued to eat, trying not to show her concern, but she wanted to know what was going on.
“That poor kid,” Greasy Sae said.
“You don’t know. His father declared Peeta is going to inherit the bakery, but his mother is refusing on the grounds that Peeta has never had a girl and has no interest in marrying.”
Hearing the news Katniss frowned and stopped eating. She hadn’t heard any of this. Peeta was the only one who could run the bakery. By taste Katniss knew who had baked the bread. His older brother Colton always made dry bread. River’s bread was always brittle. Their dad’s bread always thin. Peeta’s bread was fluffy, flavorful, and hearty. His cookies always tasted better as well.
“No one knows why he doesn’t want to marry?” Greasy leaned over the counter, answering the question Katniss hadn’t dared to ask.
“Nope but who else can handle the bakery?” Darius sat back. “His older brother Colton moved in with his bride, and the other kid, River, is a drunk. I have to haul his butt from Rippers every other night.”
Katniss stood from the booth and headed out. There was always gossip being spoken at Greasy Sae’s stall. Normally Katniss never paid attention. This time it was about the one person in the entire district that she had a vested interest in. Katniss walked to the bakery and slipped into the backyard. She stood there with her hands in her pockets carefully picking apart the conversation Greasy Sae and Darius had.
As she stood there it occurred to her, she had an opportunity to repay Peeta and to help him out with his bakery. She walked up to the back door. She knocked hoping he would answer. A lot of the time it was his father who opened the door.
Katniss took a deep breath in when she saw Peeta open the door. Her eyes scanned his form. There were a lot of things she noticed about him, the way his forearms were almost always covered with flour, how muscular his arms were, how wide his chest was, the way his mouth crinkled when he smiled, and the way his long silvery lashes never tangled. She also noted his scent, he smelled like bread, cinnamon, and dill. It took her a long time to identify the dill scent, she didn’t know what it was until her mother showed it to her in her father’s plant book. It was used for all sorts of curative purposes.
Katniss located the plant deep in the forest by rocks, the scent was unmistakable when she came upon them in the forest. Gale found her sitting on the forest floor smelling them with the biggest grin on her face ever. He was confused as to why she was so happy, but Katniss never confessed it was because she was reminded of her boy with the bread. A boy who over the summer had grown taller and his stocky frame had become manly and as appetizing as soft fresh bread.
“Hi,” Peeta greeted.
“Hi,” Katniss blurted.
They stood there staring at each other. Katniss wasn’t good with words, she was often lost for words, unless she had verbal diarrhea and that only happened when she was mad or really tired.
“So do you want trade with me?”
“NO!” Katniss shouted. At his confused face she blurted, “I have a business proposition.”
“Oh?” He arched an eyebrow and walked out onto the back stoop. “About trading?”
“No, not exactly,” Katniss began to sweat.
Peeta came closer and she could smell him, and she struggled with the need to sniff the air around her.
“What then?”
“I heard about your dilemma.”
“You heard about my mother have you?” Peeta asked.
“I heard you don’t want to marry, but you need to get hitched in order to keep the business.” The words rushed out of her.
He blinked several times, then rubbed the back of his neck. “What are you proposing?”
“We could get married. It wouldn’t be real since we wouldn’t be doing a toasting. It would be a marriage of convenience.” Katniss felt her knees shake.
“So I would keep the bakery,” Peeta said slowly, “but what’s in it for you?”
“I get Gale off of my back?”
“Come again?” Peeta’s jaw was slightly ajar as if he couldn’t believe what she said.
“Gale wants me to have a toasting with him, but I don’t want to marry him.” She grimaced at the thought of Gale. It was akin to drinking one of her mother's bitter medicinal teas without a hint of sweetener like sugar or honey.
“I thought you two were,” Peeta said as he shrugged, “together.”
“NO” Katniss shook her head as she spoke. “Gale and I have never been and will never be a thing. Blech!” Katniss was so disgusted by the thought of being with Gale she became physically ill with nausea.
“Okay,” Peeta laughed, “I get it, you’re not into Gale.”
“So what do you say?” For some reason she became nervous. She jammed her hands in her pockets, and it struck her she looked like a hot mess. She had blood stains on her pants and her boots were muddy. She didn’t want to think about what sticks or leaves were sticking out of her hair.
Peeta smiled, he stuck his hand out. “Deal.”
Katniss shook it. “Deal!”
“What’s going on?” Gale said from behind them.
“I’m getting married to Peeta,” Katniss said softly not removing her eyes from Peeta’s face. She liked the way his face filled with color. He looked cute.
“What?” Gale sputtered.
“Tomorrow, I’ll meet you at the Justice Building.”
“Tomorrow it is,” Katniss agreed. Tomorrow she was getting married to her boy with the bread.
#everlark#everlark fanfiction#everlarkbirthdaygifts#everlarkbirthdaydrabbles#fan fic#by mega-aulover
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