#also i'm almost done with the next post so i think it'll be out on sunday (unless i can finish it tomorrow but idk) | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

spnhits-blog · 4 months

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Abandoned Mansion

Pairing: JJ Maybank x kook!reader

Warnings: fem!reader, slight mentions of abuse, "kidnapping", readers dad was pouge turned kook like kiaras, readers dad is an asshole, snarky jj, slight john b x reader, italics are flashbacks, 7.4k words

A/N: (spoilers-ish) i got the inso from season 3, where JJ saves Kie from Kitty Hawk but with a slight enemies to lovers feel. this is set before s1 even happens. hope you like it, and I'm posting a prompts list so you guys can request!

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JJ and John B were out of Figure 8, working their asses off for some cash. John B luckily was able to score working for the Cameron's doing boat maintenance, while JJ got stuck doing yard work for the Y/L/N's.

JJ hated most kooks out on this island, but he particularly didn't want to be here. Especially when the Y/L/N's daughter would come around. She was Kie's only kook friend, and Kie would always try to convince the pouges to letting her come around sometime but JJ's always been hellbent against it.

He wiped the sweat off his forehead with the back of his hand and continued mowing the lawn for the last stretch of grass.

"Hey, Maybank!" He heard your dad's voice call out to him. JJ sighed, turning off the motor before looking up to find him on the upper part of big fancy two story house.

"What can I do for ya, sir?"

The man didn't laugh at JJ's obviously fake greeting. "After you get done with the lawn, you're free to go. I gotta take Y/N to the Wreck."

JJ eagerly nodded, quickly turning the motor back on so he could get done as quickly as possible.

Once he had finished, the only thing left to do was put the lawn mower back into the Y/L/N's garage then head out. He thought, why would they even own a lawn mower if they'd never even think about touching it? God, he hated kooks -

"JJ, right?"

He swirled around, seeing Y/n stand in the doorway that connected the garage and the rest of the house. With a slight frown he answered, but turned back to his task of wrapping the cord together in a semi-neat fashion. "Uh, yeah."

Y/n pursed her lips, and rocked to the back of her heels. Her friend Kie always told her how much she loved the pouges, and how they'd all get along if they became friends. But she also knew how much pouges and kooks hated each other, not that she did at all. She thought the entire 'war' on the island was pointless and stupid.

"I'm Y/n." You continued to try to entice him in a conversation. "Kie's told me a lot about you and your friends."

He huffed and threw the cords next to the lawn mower. "Yeah well I haven't heard much about you. Now if you don't mind, I gotta get out of this hell."

She crossed her arms and didn't know what took over her as she followed him out of the garage and towards his bike he quickly hopped on. "I'm just trying to be nice, you can't even have a conversation with me?"

"I'm sorry this is the first time you're not getting your way, princess." He grinned, revving his engine once.

"Y/N! Come here now." Her dad yelled out, standing by their newest car a few feet away from them, narrowing his eyes at the scene of the pouge talking to his daughter.

Y/n looked to her dad and opened her mouth to give an excuse but was cut off by JJ revving his engine again. He wasted no time in staying on figure 8 any longer, and quickly drove out of their driveway and headed back to the cut.

"What were you doing with that pouge, Y/n?"

She scoffed under her breath, watching after the beautiful blonde boy who was almost out of her sight by now. She tucked her hair behind her ears, smacking her lips together and finally pulled herself to get into her dad's car. "Nothing.."

---

"I'm telling you Kie, I think you're wrong."

Kiara ignored her friend as she wiped down the counter at the front of the Wreck. Y/n just finished telling her about the interaction she just had with Kiara's quote on quote, "always a fun time best friend."

"He doesn't like kooks. It'll take some getting used to." She shrugged. Suddenly her head snapped up to look at her girl friend with wide eyes.

"What?" Y/n froze holding the chip she was about to eat close to her mouth but got completely freaked out by Kaira's spaz antics.

"Come to the chateau with me tonight."

"What?!" She practically screeched. Hanging out with the pouges seemed like the worst idea after how JJ and her so nicely got along earlier today. "I'm not doing that."

Kie smiled wide, not taking no for an answer. "You have to, come on. It'll be fun were going out on the HMS, and I know John B and Pope have been wanting to meet you forever." She saw Y/n still not budging. "JJ will be fine, I promise. If not, just ignore him that's what I do."

The two girls laughed, and Y/n squinted her eyes at her pretty best friend. "Okay, okay. I'll come."

"Great, John B is picking us up in 10 minutes."

"You knew I'd cave didn't you?"

"I knew no such thing."

The two girls walked onto the dock, seeing the HMS Pouge pull up to the side of the dock.

"You've got to be kidding me." JJ groaned, throwing his head back, looking at his two best friends with a hateful look. "Why is she coming?"

"Be nice, JJ." Pope spoke up, standing up as the boat got nearer to picking the two girls up.

"Hey, ladies." John B smiled, slowing the boat down next to them.

"Hi, boys." Kie called out, holding up a cooler no doubt filled with drinks and some of their favorite snacks.

Y/n smiled at the boys, "Hey, I'm Y/n."

Pope helped Kie in, while John B held his hand out for Y/n to take and come aboard. JJ sneered at the sight of it, because that's exactly what they needed. Another kook.

John B smiled, taking in all of Y/n's beauty. "So I've heard. I'm John B, this is Pope." He gestured to Pope who gave a small wave. "And that's JJ. Don't mind him."

Y/n chuckled seeing JJ's clear distaste of her being there. She took a seat next to Kie, who sat beside Pope now with JJ on the other side of him. John B got behind the wheel once again and took off towards the marsh where they all liked to hang out.

The four out of five got into some small talk while JJ pouted, lighting up a joint to take the edge off.

John B finally found a spot he deemed good enough and him and Pope lowered the anchor. "JJ, don't hog that." Kie reached out her hand with a pointed look, waiting for him to pass it to her.

He cocked his head to the side, looking at her before landing on the other girl with a glare. "Well, wouldn't want goody two shoes to get secondhand high, she might freak out and ruin the night."

Y/n sent a glare right back at him. "I've smoked before."

He gave her an unimpressed, "hmm." But reached over and passed it to Kie before he had both of them hating him for the rest of the night.

"Okay," John B clapped his hand, plopping down to sit close to Y/n. "What'd you girls bring?"

Y/n grabbed the cooler, opening the lid to show all the beer they packed. She took a couple out, handing one to John B and the other she extended out to JJ. Like a peace offering.

He stared at it, leaning forward with a hand outstretched. A smile started to form on her face, that is until he quickly reached into the cooler and got a different bottle for himself and left the one she held ignored. She moved her jaw to the side, trying to boil down the irritation he kept filling her with.

She sighed and leaned back into her seat next to John B, and twisted the cap open before taking a swig.

"Ignore him," John B whispered to her in her ear causing Y/n to smile. "He just needs some warming up to."

JJ swallowed the beer and thought it must've been the bitter alcohol that caused the sick feeling in his stomach as he saw you and John B practically all cuddled up together. So you think you can just come here and steal all his friends, no way was he letting that happen.

And unfortunately for him, you came around practically everyday that they all got together and became close to everyone but him. Unfortunately for you, his comments and attitude seemed to only worsen the longer you stuck around.

It's nearing towards the end of summer, and the pouges have brought you on so many different crazy adventures you've never experienced before. Like sneaking into private property, stealing alcohol, and just finally being free. It wasn't like your old, fake kook friends who only cared about where they were seen, what they were wearing and how much money they could spend. And that just wasn't you, and that's why once you met Kiara it was like having a first actual friend.

The two of you girls got closer, now that she wasn't having to separate her time with the pouges and you. She was the only one you confided in your attraction and crush on JJ.

"Do you think JJ hates me?" Y/n asked, brushing her hair and looking into her vanity mirror. Kie sat up from your bed, looking at the girl through the mirror.

"No. I just think it takes a long time to get through the walls he puts up. There's only three people JJ cares about, so just give it some time and he'll be your best friend."

Y/n only hummed, not impressed by the girl's answer. She kept looking at her hair in the mirror, and didn't see Kiara's interest peak and scoot closer.

"Why?" She asked Y/n, who only shrugged at the question. "Do you like JJ?"

"What?!" She snapped her head around to look at Kie, dropping her hairbrush on the ground. Kie smacked a hand over her mouth, trying to not let the gasp escape her mouth.

"No way! You so like him."

"No, nu-uh. I don't like JJ." She waved Kie off and turned back towards the mirror. She looked at her reflection with a frown, picking out any flaw she could in her mind. "I mean.. how could I like someone who doesn't even want me around?"

"Oh, girl.." Kie stood up and wrapped her arms around the girl who's sadness was coming off her in waves. "Trust me, he's lucky to even be near you."

You and Pope got along too, since you both were always focused in school and enjoyed reading. John B was your new best friend, you never had a bad time with him and he always made you feel welcomed.

You'd even have them come to some of your 'kook activities,' as JJ would say. But all it really was is that they got to hang out in your gigantic pool and hot tub when your parents weren't around, got to go to the country club without being immediately kicked out, and being gifted gifts.

That in it's entirety irked JJ, he didn't need your handouts and you weren't going to buy his friendship like you did the others.

But everyone else knew that you weren't doing that, just that you'd show your appreciation in small gifts like a book you and Pope had been talking about, or groceries for John B or even a matching bracelet with Kie.

Y/n parked beside the twinkie and began to grab the bags of groceries she had in her car from her trip to the store. She held 3 bags in one hand and a case of beer in the other. Y/n knocked on the from door, since she had no ways of opening it herself.

JJ ignored the knock and continued smoking on the couch. John B smacked the side of his head as he walked towards the front door. He opened it with a wide smile, "Y/n, hey!"

She giggled as he gave her big hug and took the three bags she was holding. "Hey, John B. I picked up some groceries on my way here since we've been eating everything here."

The two walked towards the kitchen to set everything down. JJ watched with a frown as John B threw an arm around her shoulder and gave a kiss to the side of her head. "Thank you, Y/n. I really appreciate it."

"Pope!" JJ heard your voice and the fast footsteps as you ran up to the pair of them who were in Pope's boat. They were making grocery runs out on figure 8. "Here, I forgot to give you this last night."

"Oh my god, thank you! Where'd you even find this, it wasn't even in Charleston." Pope wrapped his arms around the middle of her back and gave tight squeeze.

She laughed, "I'm not giving up my tricks."

"What were you guys doing last night?" JJ asked, crossing his arms as he watched Y/n's face change from happy to slightly worried.

"Oh, well I had Pope, John B and Kie come over last night. I figured you wouldn't want to come, plus they said you had a family thing - "

"Yeah." JJ huffed, feeling the bruises on his ribs. He went home and to just his luck his dad was awake and angry like usual. "Well, we have a job to do, so."

"Right." Y/n nodded and slowly backed away from their boat. "I'll see you guys later, then."

"Where'd you get that bracelet, Kie?" JJ asked as they were cleaning up around the chateau. This obviously wasn't anything JJ wanted to do, but it had been getting bad and Kie already scolded all of the guys for not doing anything for so long. John B and Pope were cleaning in other areas of the house, while they tackled the living room.

Kie smiled, "Y/n got me it. She has a matching blue one." She twisted it gently around her wrist, the turtle charm dangling and the green yarn designs effortlessly beautiful.

"Oh.. it's nice." He murmured, tossing an old red solo cup in the bag of trash they were filling up.

"I think she got you something too." Kie mentioned, trying to pry into how JJ was feeling. She knew you had a crush on him, but she knew how well JJ was at hiding how he felt. And that usually came out with him either making jokes or being rude.

"Really?" He asked without a beat. Kie's lips curved upwards, gotcha. On the counter he saw a photo of the five you that you took on your polaroid a few weeks ago, you all wore big smiles after a day on the boat. You and Kie posed next to each other, the three guys making goofy peace signs or sticking their tongues out behind them.

"Yeah, I think she mentioned some type of pocket knife or tool you needed for your bike."

He softly smiled, his eyes not leaving the picture just yet. He remembered telling everyone about how his bike broke down and that he lost his favorite pocket knife after a run in with some kooks in the twinkie about a week before that polaroid was taken. "I didn't think she'd remember that."

JJ snapped out of his thoughts when he heard the four of you bust out laughing. How could they be so okay with you coming in and ruining the dynamic of the group? He also hated how well you got along with just about anyone, he wanted to make sure that he'd be the exception if no one else was going to.

"What's so funny?" He grumbled, kicking an empty beer can before resting against the outside of the chateau where everyone was lounging at.

Their laughter quieted down and Y/n just kept her gaze on her feet once JJ entered their conversation. John B nudged her with his shoulder, still laughing as he looked at her shyness. "Little miss Y/L/N here took Topper down earlier on the beach."

His eyebrows raised, "What are you talking about?"

Pope excitedly began to tell the story, "Okay, so I headed over to figure 8 to pick Y/n up, right? And so when we were heading back to the HMS when Topper started yelling at me for being over there. A-and then he started coming at Y/n saying how she's a turned pouge and then - "

"Well, that's dumb." JJ started to laugh, thinking that's the reason why they'd be laughing. "Y/n's not a pouge."

Silence.

Y/n frowned, subconsciously slumping more in her seat from the awkwardness. "Dude," Pope sighed.

Kie looked at him pissed off, "What's your issue, JJ?" John B shook his head as he looked off into his backyard adding, "Don't you think she's earned that after what she's gone through and done with us?"

"No." JJ bluntly said not even sparing at the girl who sat in the chair. "She's a kook, she'll always be a kook."

Y/n rolled her eyes, looking down at her phone. It showed a few text messages from her parents that were sent to her hours ago, her mom saying, 'please come home soon,' and her dad's saying 'you know what we talked about. home now, last chance.'

"You know what, since I'm such a kook why don't I just leave?" She hopped out of her chair and faced JJ with a sour face. He didn't show his surprise of her stepping up to him, and just smiled.

"Great, I'll show you the door."

She scoffed, "God, JJ. You've made it so hard to be your friend, I give up you win. You won't have to deal with me crashing your fun anymore," she turned to the other three who wore worried expressions. "I'm sorry guys, but I have to go home. I'll call you." She turned away, giving JJ one more look before rushing off to hear car to head home in order to spare herself another fight with her father for being friends with pouges.

The last time she got into a fight with her parents, JJ was with her. It was weird for JJ to be there, because if anyone was going to represent who her friends were, Y/n would much rather have had Kie and Pope or John B be there. But JJ was the only one available, and didn't say no.

"You said I'd listen to you, and then you'd listen to me." Y/n reminded her dad as the two teenagers stepped inside and sat in the living room. She saw his pissed off face when she didn't come alone.

JJ gave him a head nod. This already wasn't going well. Y/n's dad had wanted to have a sit down about what she was doing wither her life, but they all knew it was going to be him telling her she couldn't hang around pouges so she brought back up to change his mind.

They'd been going back in forth until her dad had enough. "Listen, I think you've been led stray away, Y/n. And you JJ," He looked towards JJ, remember months ago when he first saw Y/n and JJ.

"Y/D/N.." Your mom warned, never really speaking until now which caused Y/n to roll her eyes. Her mom always let her dad take the reigns on anything and never thought for herself.

"No, no, no. Lets get this all out in the open." He walked towards JJ who had made his way into the open kitchen whereas the girls of the house still sat in the living room. "You need to understand that I do get it."

JJ faked a laugh, "Sure you do."

"You hear me? I do. I like you JJ, and I bet you're fucking fun to hang out with and go down to the break with because I was once just like you, bro. I didn't think that anything mattered, and that I could make any bullshit story and these stupid kooks would believe it. But then I learned about hard work, about what really mattered."

JJ kept his sights on the glossy, fancy marble table as her dad talked down to him.

"All I care about - all I care about.. is my daughter. That's it. And all I know, is that she was a lot better off before she met you and your friends."

"Dad, I was never better off." Y/n cried, getting up from the couch and walking over to the two of them.

"Yes you were." He interrupted his daughter. Y/n's mom walked over, scared to see what else would happen.

"I was never better off!" Y/n repeated with a stern voice. "I was miserable."

"Miserable? Look at your life now." He laughed at her. "No, no. NO!" He snapped at his wife who was trying to get him to stop. "These pouges, have ruined my daughters life." He spat out the word pouge as he looked at JJ like he was dirt.

JJ rolled his shoulders back, shifting his gaze to see Y/n's distraught form, and decided to take the heat. "Didn't mean any disrespect, Mr. Y/L/N. Y'all have a good day."

JJ walked backwards away from Y/n's dad, and made his way to his bike outside.

"What are you doing?" Y/n pleaded her father to stop, she knew JJ barely liked her as is and after this she knew he never would.

"I'm protecting my daughter! Everybody says it, he's just life his father. He's a liar and a thief."

"No, he's not!" Y/n yelled throwing her hands up in frustration. JJ, not yet outside, stopped to listen to what else the kooks had to say about him. "He's nothing like his dad. You don't know him, they're nothing alike."

JJ heard your footsteps come closer and quickly stepped out of the front door before you did. "Where are you going?" Your father yelled after you.

"I listened to you, y'all were supposed to listen to me.. it's not fair." Y/n kept walking away, leaving her parents yelling at her while she ran after JJ.

"JJ, I'm sorry." She breathed out, watching him only stare in front of him and not look at her. "I-I didn't know he was going to react like that. You didn't deserve that."

JJ already started his bike but still waited for Y/n. "It's whatever. I already know what they think of me." He waited until Y/n hopped on behind him, and wrapped her arms around him.

He looked behind her with a soft gaze, "You ready?"

Y/n's cheeks reddened by how close they were, and nodded with a shy smile. "Yeah."

"JJ!" "Dude, go talk to her!" "You're an idiot."

JJ waved them off and just took a seat in the chair you were just in. His mind was heavy with memories and thoughts swirling around. "What? You're telling me she understands what it's like to be a pouge? As if she has had to deal with the same things as us in her life?!"

John B picked up a random wadded up shirt he found near him and threw it at JJ's face. "Dude, do you know much shit she's had to deal with her parents over this summer because of us?"

"Yeah, her parents and mine were talking about wilderness camps. It took mine years in order to get there, but it took her's only a couple of months." Kie glared at the sun, hating how much their parents despised their friends.

JJ hesitated to speak, he did know how you were being affected by spending all her time on the cut with them. But still, a disappointed parent in exchange for being rich? He knew her parents were looking down on them anyways, and whose to say that Y/n wouldn't do the same eventually?

"And why do you hate Y/n so much anyways? She's just like Kie, she was a kook before too." Pope pointed out causing JJ's leg to start bouncing.

"It's not like that, god." He jumped from the chair and faced all of them. "Y'all don't see it like I do, okay? I see how she really is - "

"What, a good person? She's nothing like a kook, JJ and deep down you know that. She's always been there when any of us need anything, and stood up for us with Rafe and all of them so many times." Kie defended you, she's watched this go on for too long and she couldn't risk your guys' friendship over it.

JJ just shook his head, unable to wrap his head around what she was getting at. "Nah, you heard it for yourself she's going back to figure 8 while we stay here, because we have each other! She's not apart of that."

The three pouges looked at each other, it seemed more like he was trying to convince himself that he was right and to ignore anything they might've said. So they dropped it, I mean you did say that you'd call them later.

---

Y/n parked her car in the drive way with a huff. She's so exhausted over JJ. Throughout the four months she'd been hanging out with the pouges, she hoped that he'd give her a chance and they'd become at least cordial with each other. But she couldn't keep dealing with him, no matter how much she did like him or being friends with the pouges.

She wasn't necessarily thinking about stop being friends with everyone, but.. JJ was their friend first, and she wasn't going to make them choose between them that wouldn't be fair.

She stepped out of her car, and shut the door behind her. She noticed another van park on the other side of the street with the logo, 'Kitty Hawk' and a rainbow. A man stepped out of the car, keeping his trained eye on her.

"Hey, Y/n." She started walking towards the house and the strange man kept following her. "Hey, come back. I'm not going to hurt you. I just want to talk to you."

"Uh, no I'm okay." She said back to him. She hurried up the stairs to get to the front door, whispering to herself, "What the fuck."

She finally got to the top of the stairs and twisted the doorknob. Only it was locked. Y/n's heart dropped, looking back to see the creepy man still walking towards her. She yanked on the doorknob, pounding on the door. "Mom! Dad!"

The door opened, but it was another strange man wearing a shirt with the same logo from the car.

Y/n gasped taking a step back. "Who are you?"

"Look, this can go one of two ways." The man said, taking a couple steps toward her.

"No, no, no, no." Her heart was racing. She never thought her parents would really send her away. She couldn't believe this was happening to her.

"Y/n, I'm sorry." Her mom stepped into view, her dad behind her. "We're sending you away for a while. They say Kitty Hawk is the best."

Y/n took another step and knocked into the first man she saw. He held his arms out so she couldn't run away. "Wait, wai - "

"Okay?" Her mom asked, but it wasn't like Y/n was given a choice. "We just need to try this, okay? We're just trying to help you."

The two men started to grab her arms and lead her to the van. Y/n's breathing was ragged and looked at her parents with crazy wide eyes. She just kept repeating, "no, no, no." Hoping this wasn't actually happening. "Mom, no. Dad!"

She tried yanking her arms away from the men, even trying to hit them to get off her but they were much stronger. "No, I can't do this!"

"We are trying to help you." Her mom tried to reason with her, but even she knew this was insane. "This isn't forever."

"You can't send me to camp wilderness, kookoo's nest!" The men kept dragging her, even down the stairs as her parents followed.

"They're not gonna hurt you. They're good people. They're going to help you out, don't fight it." Her dad warned her, stopping his wife from going further down the stairs.

As the three went down the stairs, Y/n whipped her head around to look at her parents. Tears started streaming down her face, "But I said - I said I didn't want to go!" She reached out grabbing ahold of the fence in from of their house. The two men tried yanking her off but she wasn't going without a fight. "I don't want to! You can't do this!"

They finally pried her off the fence and continued carrying her out to the back of the van. "No!" She sobbed, as they kept leading her further away from her house. "Dad! Mom!" She screamed watching as they stood at the top of the stairs doing nothing from her being taken away.

The men threw her in the van and immediately shut the door so she couldn't try to escape. There was no door handle from the inside so she began to bang her fists on the window. Still screaming and crying for her mom and dad.

---

That "I'll call you later," never happened. The whole night it was complete radio silent on your end, no matter how many calls or texts they left you. They all just kinda figured you wanted your space.

It wasn't until the next day of not hearing anything that they were all starting to be concerned. Especially since they had all agreed to go surfing in the morning and then fishing and drinking.

It was about 10 in the morning and the four of them were all packed in the twinkie for the day ahead of them, the only thing missing was you.

"Has she said anything?" Pope asked the group, a small frown on his face.

John B and Kie shook their heads. "I wonder why." Kie snapped looking at JJ who had been more quiet than usual since you left.

He's been trapped in his thoughts, and the pouges had a point. He really was hating on you for no reason. Well, not no reason but not one he wanted to admit to anyone. At first, yeah strictly because you were a kook. And that was valid. Until it wasn't and you were actually a genuine person to be around. You were funny, smart, and beautiful. And JJ hated that.

"She's seriously coming again?"

"Yes, JJ. We all like her so she's invited."

"Does she even know how to surf? Or are you gonna teach her as an excuse to get near her?" JJ grimaced at the thought, if John B and Y/n were to get together then surely Pope will find the balls to ask out Kie and he'd be left out for sure.

"Yes, that's exactly my plan." John B pushed JJ out the doorway and headed out to the twinkie, he was only humoring him. Every other time JJ has hinted at John B liking Y/n he's denied it, but that hasn't changed anything so he might as well have fun with it.

Once the guys made it to the beach they met Pope, Kie and Y/n already there. Y/n laid on a towel soaking in the sun while Kie and Pope sat together talking and laughing.

"You guys ready?" John B called out, both him and JJ holding their boards. The other three jumped to their feet with excited "yeahs". "Oh and Y/n?" He called out with a sly grin, waiting till she got her attention to slap JJ on the back. "JJ here volunteered to help you out today, how nice is that?"

"Really?" Y/n's eyes widen in hopes he finally wanted to spend time with her. While JJ's mouth was dropped open as he looked at John B with killer eyes.

John B only smiled smug and gestured to answer Y/n. He knew JJ wasn't going to be that much of a dick to just say no now. JJ cleared his throat, scrunching his face as he scratched the back of his head. "Uh - uh yeah. I did tell John B that, didn't I?" He grumbled the last part ignoring Kie and Popes weird gazes at how he was acting.

They all headed out to the ocean with their boards, JJ and Y/n hanging back so he can try to teach her some basics. They paddled out a bit and off away from where the other three pouges were riding waves. Y/n sat straddling her board, as JJ sat on his next to her. "Okay so, you probably won't want to take on big waves right now. But if you're getting lessons from me, you'll be one of the best surfers out here in no time."

Y/n let out a belly laugh causing JJ to have a smile of his own. "Don't get too cocky now."

"Oh trust me, pretty girl. I got a reason to be cocky."

Y/n's breath got caught in her throat after hearing what JJ just called her, but he didn't seem to register what he even called her. She swallowed and wiped the whispy hair that escaped her braid out of her face. "I'm sure you do." She tried to tease him back, and it got a chuckle out of him before he stopped himself. What are you doing, he thought to himself, you're supposed to hate her. Even if she really is pretty.

He paddled a little closer and began with the teaching lesson. "Alright so all you need to do…"

"Give me the keys."

All of the pouges looked at JJ with shock. But JJ didn't falter just had his hand gesturing to John B for the keys. "JJ we should wait for- "

"Look, give me the keys right now. Her parents already hate me, and I kind of owe her."

John B's lips formed an 'O' and the other two looked at each other with small smiles. "Stop making that face." JJ shook his head, not even wanting to see the 'I knew it' looks Kie and Pope had on.

"Oh, you owe her, huh?" John B snickered, but dropped the car keys in JJ's awaiting hand.

JJ only jumped in the front seat and waisted no time in speeding to your house leaving the other three pouges at the chateau.

"I knew it!" Kie squealed, the other two boys nodding along. "That idiot so liked her all along."

JJ sped in the twinkie as fast as it could go to your house. On arrival he already noticed that your car was parked in the driveway so you had to be home. Just ignoring him for being the asshole he is. He also noticed your parents were sitting on the steps, like they were expecting someone.

He hopped out of the van and slammed the door behind him. He turned around to face your parents, your dad looking at him like he hated him. Granted, he did. "Howdy, y'all."

"JJ," Your father called out. "Don't even step on my property."

"Yeah, right." JJ sighed, looking around before back at them. "Well, you know why I'm here. To see Y/n, and well we were supposed to hear from her but we haven't yet. So I - "

"JJ, she's not here." Your mom said.

He looked over at your car still in the driveway. "Like I'm supposed to believe that. Okay, um, well then where is she?"

"Let's just say you're not going to see her for a long time, alright?"

JJ's heart dropped. No, they couldn't have.

"We sent her someplace where she can rebuild what you are your friends are ruining."

JJ's nostrils flared and his lips formed into a thin line. "You sent her to that wilderness camp?"

Y/n's dad nodded, with a proud look on his face. "Yes."

He let out a deep breath, his hands becoming a fist as he turned towards the van. "Y'know.." he snickered, shaking his head while he kicked at the ground. "Y'all are some real kooks."

Y/n's dad shot up from his seat, starting to run down the stairs. He wanted to pummel JJ for causing the tear in his relationship with his daughter. Y/n's mom stopped him from actually reaching the teenage boy though. "No, Y/M/N. These pouges are destroying my daughter's life!"

JJ yanked the driver door open, "Nah.. You gooned her. You gooned your own daughter."

"You gave us no choice, JJ! And I don't want to see you around my family again."

JJ stuck his head out the window already putting the car in reverse. "Don't worry, Y/D/N. You won't."

He floored it out of the driveway, creating tire marks in his wake. He then put the car in drive and headed towards Kitty Hawk to save you.

Your 24 hours at Kitty Hawk were horrible. When you arrived all the girls looked at you like you were the weird outcast, but you couldn't even care. All you could think about was getting the hell out of here.

They took your phone and you doubted anyone knew where you were, especially how you left the pouges. You just hoped that they'd figure out that this wasn't your choice and figure out some scheme to help break you out. If they still wanted to be your friend that is.

It was dark when JJ finally reached the cabin they placed you in. He went through the front office and hiding from security to get to you, but he finally did it.

He grabbed a credit card from his wallet to unlock the door, heavy breathing as the bandana he tied around his face covered his mouth and nose. He quietly opened the door, slipped in and closed it behind him.

There were about 20 bunk beds lined up on both sides on the cabin, so he crouched down and started trying to look for her. "Y/n," he whisper shouted trying to not wake up any other girls other than you. "Y/n.. Y/n."

A girl sat up and turned on her light, gasping when she saw a random man with a bandanna in their cabin. "What are you doing in here?"

His eyes were wide and instinctively raised his hands in surrender. "Hi, uh.. evening miss. Sorry, sorry uh." He slowly stood up as practically all the other girls woke up and focused their attention on him. "Shit."

He looked all around but still didn't see you, it was still dark in some areas of the cabin. "I know this looks bad - I come in peace. I-I'm just looking for someone.. I'm looking for - "

"Me?" Y/n was now sat on the edge of her bunk as she looked at JJ.

He slowly turned to where he heard your voice and froze when he saw you. You weren't hurt, thank god. "Y/n.."

She fought the tears that started to form in her eyes, and climbed down the bunk. She ran over to him and threw her arms around his neck and he tightly held her close to him. They both were breathing heavy in relief. He finally saved her, and she was finally saved.

She pulled away for a moment and looked from his left to right eye frantically. "But how did - how?"

He gave her a small laugh, "I know.. it's a long story. No time to explain though." He paused hearing her angelic laugh and allowing himself not to force himself to ignore it. "There's one thing though.. Y/n I just.. I just want to say I'm sorry. I'm sorry for everything."

Y/n's eyes softened and nodded her head. She knew how JJ is with his emotions, and this was the biggest gesture he's ever made to show that he cares about her as a friend. But with what she's experience in the last two days; her fight with the pouges and her parents shipping her away.. She couldn't afford not to be honest with her feelings, it would kill her more.

"I like you." She said softly, emotion thick in her throat. She had a sad, but genuine smile on her lips.

He sucked in a deep breath of air, not blinking as he registered what she told him. His heart started beating fast, and the urge to run away scratching at him faster.

"I like you too."

They both let out a breath looking at each other like they couldn't believe what the other was telling them. They both made themselves believe that there was no way the other could've liked them back for so long it was shocking to see that they were wrong.

Y/n took a step forward, his hand coming up to cradle her face. The two both looking at each other's eyes to make sure they really wanted to do this. Y/n's eyes fluttered close and JJ leaned in all the way to finally be able to kiss her.

The two of them held each other so gently but firm, to show all the tender and protection they could offer the other.

All the girls in the cabin started cheering loudly. After a second the couple parted with smiles, until they realized they were about to get caught if all the girls kept being loud. Without a word Y/n turned back to grab her bag of clothes while JJ shushed everyone in the cabin.

The two then ran for the cabin door, and headed to the forest where JJ had stashed the twinkie so he wouldn't get caught. They laughed once they successfully made it out of the Kitty Hawk property.

They stopped and caught their breath for a second, and Y/n took this time to turn and admire the boy. "Thank you."

He looked at her with a genuine smile and offered a shrug, reaching out to touch her fingers. "I'll always help my pouge when she's in distress."

#jj maybank x reader #jj maybank x kook!reader #outer banks #kiara carrera #john b routledge #angst with a happy ending #jj maybank x fem!reader #jj maybank fluff #jj mayback imagine #jj maybank angst #pope heyward #outer banks imagine #the pouges #outer banks fic

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heartsforseo · 1 month

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Strawhats with an author member

Summary: You're an author (you go by anon), and one day you ate a devil fruit. Now you can trap people inside your novels. (I think you BSD fans know where I'm going...) The straw hats found you and decided to invite you. (You said yes...cuz that's literally what this story is abt and cuz u were bored).

You live on a small island somewhere in the new world. You work as an author who goes by the pen name "S".

Usually, pirates would come to your island twice a month. The townsfolk were very friendly and you sometimes stepped in when pirates crossed over the line.

One day, you and your friend were hanging out in a small secluded alleyway. Your back was against the only entrance and you were facing your friend who was already opening the mystery novel.

"Good luck," you had said.

Your friend only nodded. Bright yellow light surrounded the both of you. When the light finally disappeared, your friend was gone, and the closed book fell to the ground. You picked it up and turned around, ready to leave the alleyway.

Your eyes locked in with a black one. A 5'11 man with a straw hat was staring right at you with mouth agape from amazement.

Your eyes widened, and you were about to open the book facing his way. But his arm suddenly stretched and took your book before you could open it.

"COOL!!! How did you do that?!" The guy wearing the straw hat asked.

"Shh, don't be too loud or the others will catch us," you walked towards the man, "they don't know about my ability. And I would like to keep it that way."

You took the book from the stranger's hand and walked away. The rubber man beside you said, "That's an awesome ability. How about you join my crew?"

You stop walking and look right into his eyes. "Crew? I don't know anything about you and would like to keep it that way."

The man only smiled back and responded, "Is information all you want? Well then, I'm Monkey D. Luffy, and I will be the king of the Pirates!" He raised both of his hands and made a fist. All this while smiling.

"King of the pirates? Don't make me laugh. Plus, I decided to live here for all my life."

"Really?? But don't you want to go on an adventure? I and my crew always go on fun adventures. You will never be bored!"

Before I could say anything back, a woman with long orange hair came up to me and Luffy.

"There you are! We're gonna leave in 2 days. Next time don't dash away and wait for us, Luffy!" The tangerine girl said.

The girl who was scolding Luffy finally noticed me and apologized. She then introduced herself and dragged Luffy by the ear. I watched the scene until they vanished into the crowd and walked off. I hope that my friend is almost done with the book.

I went to different places for inspiration. Being a mystery writer was no easy task. Especially if you only have a limited view. The sun was almost setting, and my friend was still stuck. My new story really did a poll on them.

I walked into Naty's bar and ordered a drink. Luffy's sentence rang into my head. An adventure? I wonder what it'll be like...My books had always sailed the sea, but shouldn't the author, too? No. Being a pirate is dangerous. My view may be limited, but my mind is not.

As long as I have a paper and pen, I can do anything...is what I would like to say. I took a few berries, placed them on the counter, and left the bar. Today took a sour turn.

A/n: This was supposed to be a head cannon but I accidentally made it as a story...so uh... ALSO PLEASE REQUEST IM BORED AF :((( part 2 getting posted...tomorrow? BTW WHAT SHOULD BE THE DEVIL FRUIT NAME BE???

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avelera · 17 days

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Avelera's Dreamling Fic Status Update:

Keeping Sanctuary (subscribe for updates here) - Giving Sanctuary Sequel follows Dream and Hob from the events of the altered meeting in 1689 up to the modern era. (aka, What if they hooked up after the 1689 meeting?) Current word count: ~7,000 words across several chapters. Realistic progress update: 1/10 complete total, Ch. 1 is about 1/5 complete.

(The rest are below the cut!)

Come live with me and be my love - Dream and Hob fall in love during the Regency Era when Dream loses a bet to Desire. Shenanigans ensue. (aka, What if they hooked up after the 1789 meeting?) Ch. 16 is at 2,500 words, probably about 1/3 done. Current plan is to wrap up Part 1 in the next few chapters then create a part 2 which finishes out their "1 year of marriage" on a month by month basis instead of following them day to day like Part 1 done. Probably won't be a separate fic though, just a change of format.

This Rough Magic - My take on "Hob rescues Dream from Burgess" with a twist that Hob ends up on Burgess's radar himself when he picked up some occult magic skills in the hopes of contacting Dream after 1889 and apologizing. Now he has to pretend to be friends with Burgess in order to get them both out of there, because Burgess thinks Hob can help force Dream to give him immortality. (aka, What if they hooked up after the 1889 meeting?) Ch. 9 is about 800 words in. Story is still very much in progress I just have a lot of WIPs, as you can see.

Joke's On You (I'm Into That) - The 1589 meeting goes very different when Hob proposes to Dream, who is so offended that he just can't let the matter go. A very angry, very horny competition kicks off between them. (Aka, what if they hooked up in 1589 when they were both at their absolute worst as people?) I have literally 40,000 words written for the rest of this fic. The problem is, there's big gaps in that first draft I have to fill in and scenes that need to be added. This might be my favorite WIP but it's also the hardest to write with all the smut scenes so it'll arrive whenever I can manage, I'm afraid.

Banana Daiquiris Ch. 2 - Comic-canon compliant (mostly) - Dream fakes his death to go on a vacation with Hob and Destruction. They end up in Tahiti. Destruction plays matchmaker. Hob doesn't know whether to thank Destruction or strangle him. Current word count 6,000 words. I've been playing around with adding on to this fic for ages. One of these days, I'll pull it all together.

And for fics that haven't been posted anywhere yet (you can subscribe on my Ao3 author page for alerts about them):

Hob Amesia Fic - Dream and Hob are dating officially now in the 21st century when Hob gets hit with what seems to be a memory loss curse, shaving off 100 years of his life each day until Dream finds a cure. This effectively grants Dream a walk down memory lane as he is reacquainted with the Hob of each era and, in the process, learns how much longer Hob cared for him than Dream ever realized. Current word count: 35,000 words. Currently writing 1489 (1889-1589 are done) and I might re-write the opening. It genuinely kills me not to have this one posted lol.

"Dream Accidentally Cursed Hob with a Normal Life" Fic - Dream learns that from 1689 on, Hob's life has been safe. Too safe. Improbably safe. Nothing bad or extraordinary or even terribly special has happened to him since Dream began to consider Hob his friend. He knows this because during his imprisonment, Hob's life became exciting again and suddenly went back to normal the day Dream was freed. Hob is not convinced that Dream is the reason for this, Dream disagrees. They talk about it. And fight about it. And some things that they've probably needed to talk about for a long time finally get said. (aka, sometimes the author just needs to write their weird headcanon into a 20,000 word fic that's almost entirely dialogue). Current word count: 16,000 words. This one also kills me that it's not done yet.

You Found Me Ch. 2 - (Comic-inspired) Hob's girlfriend Audrey survives the car crash. They got married. Then, in 2021, they got divorced. The Hob Dream meets at the New Inn when he returns is newly-divorced, bitter, and angry, and not in a good headspace to reunite with the friend who ghosted him over thirty years before. -5,000 words left to post. One of the first one-shots I wrote for this fandom then abandoned. Never could quite find an end for it that didn't become a huge long fic but I think I finally cracked it.

"Fairy God Marlowe" - 1589 fixit fic where Hob and Kit Marlowe strike up a conversation while Dream and Shaxberd are talking. Hob and Marlowe talk about plays, and faith, and salvation, and queer love, and what it means to live forever. Hob gets a second chance at a first impression. Current word count: ~5,000 words. Sadly, it's all dialogue in script format. I'd need to convert it into prose to publish which would be a slog. So it's a bit shelved until I find the energy to do so. No, I will not post it in script format, I'm allergic to the thought.

I've got a few other concepts kicking around, but these are the ones that actually have (*does a quick calculation*) over 100,000 words written that I haven't had the chance to post yet?? And it's driving me insane????

Anyway, I should probably pin this post for those curious lol. Feel free to ask me any follow-up questions, I love talking about WIPs even as they ruin my life!

#dreamling #maggie's writing progress #dreamling fic update #1689 fic #1589 fic #arranged marriage au dreamling

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don-dake · 11 months

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So I've been playing around with Cāngjié…

And I thought a post like this (similar to a post on Zhùyīn done by linghxr) may be of interest to some.

Edited: 10 Sep 2023

This post has gotten a little popular lately and on scrutinizing my own post again, I've come to the conclusion that I had made some mistakes in my given character examples.

Amended now. Namely, 「唔」 and 「龍」 have now been swapped over in the examples.

「唔」 is really the “3-parts”, and 「龍」 is indeed a “2-parts” character! Amendments are reflected in orange.

What (and who) is Cāngjié?

For those who may not know, Cāngjié is another way to input 漢字/汉字 (Hànzì — Chinese characters). It is way less popular than Pinyin (or even Zhuyin) but it still has its fans, and has a few advantages over the other two.

Cāngjié is also the name of the mythical figure in Chinese legend who is said to have been the inventor of 漢字/汉字, for which Cāngjié (the input system) was named after.

Would I recommend it?

Yes, if you think you have already acquired a good (enough) understanding of 漢字/汉字, and/or just like a new challenge.

(TL;DR at the end)

Why am I learning Cāngjié (and why you may like to, too)?

1. Mostly for fun.

Have long been intrigued by both Cāngjié and Zhùyīn, and since I finally mustered up the courage to tackle Zhùyīn not too long ago, I thought I'd finally give Cāngjié a try.

While learning Cāngjié does require more effort than learning Pinyin or Zhuyin, it can also be really fun! Inputting 漢字/汉字 with the Cāngjié method is almost like doing a jigsaw puzzle.

The euphoria derived from figuring out and piecing together the radicals that make up a word is something that learning Jyutping (Cantonese equivalent of Pinyin), Pinyin or Zhuyin can't quite match.

And while I know I'll never be as adept with Cāngjié — my knowledge of 漢字/汉字 is nowhere near good enough to ever use Cāngjié efficiently — as I do Jyutping or Pinyin (or to some extent, Zhuyin), it'll still be fun to use Cāngjié every once in a while!

2. Helps with thinking and typing in Chinese.

The upshot of relying too much on using Jyutping/Pinyin/Zhuyin is, I'd tend to think in Roman letters or ㄅㄆㄇㄈ before I'd even think about the actual 漢字/汉字.

But with Cāngjié, because it's based on knowing radicals and joining them together to form actual characters, it'll encourage thinking of 漢字/汉字 first, so I think that would help some with 漢字/汉字 memory retention.

Now you may be thinking, why not just you know, practise actually writing then? That is the tried and proven method to better remember 漢字/汉字 after all?

Yes, of course I can do that — and am doing so occasionally — but we live in a digital age now, and the probability and opportunity to type things out is much higher than actually writing stuff by hand.

The idea here is, more looking to think of and envision characters fully in my head, and trying to lessen over-reliance on Jyutping/Pinyin/Zhuyin.

And this is where I find Cāngjié can be useful, which leads to my next point…

3. Haunted by “What if” scenario.

What if there comes a day (however improbable) where I'm presented with only a Cāngjié keyboard to use for typing Chinese? It has happened with Zhùyīn for me!

That means, no Pinyin or Zhuyin keyboards, no Handwriting tools/touchscreens to write with fingers/mouse, no speech-to-text, and no option to copy-and-paste characters from somewhere else either! What then?

4. Able to type without knowing pronunciation, and with more accuracy.

Cāngjié is shape-based. Unlike Jyutping/Pinyin/Zhuyin, where you have to know what a character sounds like before you can type it out, with Cāngjié, you can type out (again assuming no Handwriting or other tools available) characters without needing to know how to pronounce them at all.

With shape-based typing, you'd also get more accurate hits in the first few 漢字/汉字 that show up, versus sound-based methods like Pinyin where for e.g., typing out “wan” will get you a whole list under the same sound and you may have to scroll through a whole lot to get the exact “wan” you need.

You can also type both Traditional and Simplified characters without having to toggle something or switch keyboards.

So how does one begin learning Cāngjié?

Install a Cāngjié keyboard.

Duh…but of course! Heh! Gboard offers one, banded under Cantonese language input (Android user here, don't know about iPhones, sorry).

There are two versions of Cāngjié that are prevalent currently. Cāngjié 3 and Cāngjié 5. Cāngjié 5 is supposed to be an improvement over version 3 but I don't find there's much; having a slightly altered version just adds to the confusion and unnecessarily complicates matters, in fact!

If you have a choice, I'd recommend selecting Cāngjié 3 as that is more supported. Some operating systems may not be too compatible with Cāngjié 5 still, for some strange reason.

You may also come across something called “Quick” (速成) aka, “Simplified Cāngjié”.

This is simply a scaled down version of Cāngjié, it's still based on Cāngjié's formula. So you still need to know how Cāngjié works in order to use “Quick” efficiently.

You'd then need a chart like this. ↓

* the 重 (Z) key doesn't really come into use. I don't really know what it's for, but it seems to be used (paired with other keystrokes) mainly to type out various punctuation marks.

There are variants out there, some having a little more, or less, radicals shown than in the above example, but I'll say the chart here is one of the more comprehensive ones I've found so far (and sufficient enough) — other charts often fail to highlight the 難 (X) key and what it corresponds to.

You don't have to memorize the chart all at once. Just always have a chart like this on hand to refer to and with enough typing practise, you'll eventually remember which key corresponds with which radicals.

Remember the rules. ↓

“1 part” character (e.g. 寫) = first 3 & last (radical).

“2 parts” character (e.g. 唔龍) = first & last, first 2 & last.

“3 parts” character (e.g. 難) = first & last, first & last, last.

e.g. 寫 ↓

With radicals 宀，丿，臼 (first 3) and 灬 (last).

Corresponding keys: 十，竹，難 and 火。

寫 → 写 ↓

With radicals 冖，卜，㇆ (first 3)，一 (last).

Corresponding keys：月，卜，尸 and 一。

e.g. 龍 ↓

With radicals 亠，月 (first & last), 卜，コ (first 2)，ヒ (last).

Corresponding keys: 卜，月，卜，尸，and 心。

龍 → 龙 ↓ (Simplified 龍 → 龙，a “1 part” character)

With radicals 丶，ナ，ヒ (first 3).

Corresponding keys: 戈，大，and 心。

e.g. 難 ↓

With radicals 廿，人 (first & last)，亻(first & last)，土 (last).

Corresponding keys: 廿，人，人 and 土。

難 → 难 ↓

With radicals ヌ (first & last)，亻(first & last)，土 (last).

Corresponding keys: 水，人，and 土。

Occasionally, you may get a character that looks like a “2 parts” but is actually a “3 parts”. ↓

e.g. 唔 ↓

With radicals 口 (first & last)，一，一 (first & last)，口 (last).

Corresponding keys: 口，一，一 and 口。

Or looks like a “1 part” but really a “3 parts”. ↓

e.g. 奪 ↓

With radicals 大 (first & last)，亻，土 (first & last)，丶 (last).

Corresponding keys: 大，人，土，and 戈。

奪 → 夺 ↓(Simplified 奪 → 夺，a “1 part” character)

With radicals 大，寸 (first 3; the 丶 is the 3rd component).

Corresponding keys: 大，木，and 戈。

But these are exceptions, and don't occur that often.

And you can start practising!

You can try out this pretty good app called 『五色學倉頡』 (learning Cāngjié with 5 colours), for practise. It's on Playstore, just search for “Cangjie Dictionary” and it should show up.

You have to pay to unlock higher levels, unfortunately. ↓

Anyway, each character comes with colour coded hints and you can opt to turn them off if you like more of a challenge. There are also hints (提示) and the chart (字根表) to refer to if you're really stuck. Also has a dictionary component (查字典) to check out the Cāngjié input for characters.

Another option would be a website called HKCards. ↓

You can use it to check the Cāngjié input for any 漢字/汉字, and there's section for practise (倉頡輸入法練習) as well. After inputting your answer with Cāngjié keys (手田水口廿卜), you can click on the “Answer” (答案) button to see how right or wrong your answers were. ↓

There are 8 characters each time, and you can just hit “Practise Again” (再做練習) to refresh for another 8 to practise with. I've yet to hit a limit.

Unfortunately, this website has lots of ads popping up. And it only supports searching in Traditional characters (Cāngjié was initially catered more for Traditional).

Or you can just try practising randomly with a Cāngjié keyboard and check for mistakes with a Cāngjié dictionary (『五色學倉頡』 app's dictionary comes in really useful here — it appears to support searching in Simplified too).

TL;DR

Cāngjié could be useful (and fun) to know if your 漢字/汉字 knowledge is already adequate, and/or you just like a new challenge.

And if watching videos is more your thing, here's a really helpful YouTube tutorial on how to use Cāngjié (has English subs)!

#Cangjie #Congkit #Cantonese #Mandarin #Jyutping #Pinyin #Zhuyin #Bopomofo #Traditional Characters #Chinese Language #Language #Long Post #Dake Rambles

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snek-panini · 8 months

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It is Monday, and Monday is for books. Look at these beautiful things! They took me five months to make. I tried so many new things in the process and I am extremely proud of them. This is a binding of @racketghost's amazing Good Omens fic Strange Moons (Hi. I hope it's ok I tagged you in this. Your fic has been one of my favorites since I found it in 2019.) The story is a series of short fics (and one long one) that really need no introduction from me. They're set throughout the 20th century, and they are beautiful and sensual and moody and you should definitely read them if you haven't already. This is the longest work I've bound so far, but I was fortunate that the word count on the shorter fics added up to almost exactly the length of the final, longest one, making them the perfect choice for a two-volume set. I tried very hard to get them to be an exact match, and they turned out even better than I pictured.

More pics under the cut! Two books means twice the pics, and all the stuff I tried here means it's a very long post, so be warned.

Individual images of the covers. The titles are done in silver htv over brown faux leather, edged in charcoal bookcloth. The graphics are the same on both, except for the title text, and they have the same image of the reaching hands on the back. All the art assets are from rawpixel, I just flipped and rotated some of them to make the back image.

The cover materials were an interesting challenge. I'd worked with both before and wanted to incorporate them both in the design, but after measuring and checking grain direction I found I didn't have enough of either of them to do a full book, or even a half bind. So they're actually made by affixing the faux leather to the book board, then layering strips of book cloth over the top. The corners are actually mitered at a 45-degree angle. Here's a close-up:

It's two long strips of cloth (spine and fore edge, not mitered) with two short strips (top and bottom, mitered) glued over the top. There was so much measuring, omg. I bought a new tool to make sure I got it right. Hilariously, I still didn't have enough leather and had to order another roll anyway. Also hilariously, I got the idea to do this after seeing an image of a leather-bound book made by a professional that appeared to have the same feature, i.e. multiple materials with an inset and mitered corners. Wow, I said, looking at a video thumbnail, I'm going to do that! So I did, even though I didn't watch the video. Much later, after I watched his tutorial, it was clear that the design was from leather dye and tooling, not the thing that I did at all. But I do like the effect, and now I know it's possible I think it'll be great for using up weird offcuts from making other covers.

Look, spines! With TITLES on them! And LITTLE RIDGES! Both firsts for me. I'm a little obsessed with them. The cricut has opened up entirely new worlds, though I suspect the little silver lines might have been easier to do with a foil pen (which I don't have) than they were with a heat press. I did them by making the cricut cut out several "=" symbols that were the same width as the spine. The raised bands are false bands; I made them by layering little pieces of chipboard on the spine stiffener, then molding the book cloth around them when I covered them. I was worried it wouldn't work, since this is usually done with leather and book cloth is apparently way less stretchy, but it worked fine. Probably because it's a small straight design, no curves or fancy bits. I'd layer the chipboard thicker next time so they stand up higher (this is 2 layers, I'd do 3 in future) but I'm delighted by how this turned out. They look so professional.

The endpapers on both books are a constellation print. I had a really hard time trying to find something to go with the typeset, and the only ones I liked were from an etsy seller who kept selling out of them. I got lucky eventually but it was one of many hassles that befell this project. I also made my own end bands using a tutorial from the Renegade Bindery discord. I had some issues and I didn't quite nail them but I think they're pretty good for a first time (ok, second time, the first one was on a practice text block, but my point stands). I had originally intended this to be a split boards binding, my first time trying that, but when I got the boards glued on I found that they were crooked. Really crooked. Completely misaligned. Much swearing followed this discovery. I ended up having to cut the boards free, cutting the mull and tapes in the process. The mull was easily replaced, but the parts of the tapes that are usually glued to the boards were a lost cause. I reused the boards, but flipped them so the edge with the cut tapes inside is at the fore edge so I could have a cleaner hinge. You can see in the last photo that the cover board is a little wider at the fore edge. On the plus side, there are no tapes to wrinkle my pretty endpapers and it combated the small bit of spine swell I had. On the downside, the hinge has less support and the only thing I learned was How Not To Make A Sewn Boards Binding.

I may have gone a little nuts with the images in this typeset. In my defense they look very pretty. In order, that's the title page, table of contents, section break image (same as the back cover, just tiny), chapter header and ender (each chapter has one on its first and last pages, they just look particularly cool when you can get a full page spread like this), and the image on the last page of the book (same as the cover image, almost). The cover image was also supposed to have little rays coming off its moon like this one does, but the lines proved too thin for the cricut and it ate them. I still like how it looks though. The prose in this story is really rich and I was in the mood for opulence when I did it. I have absolutely no regrets.

Here's a feature that's unique to this typeset. One of the chapters in the second volume has three alternating, interwoven timelines. I read them fine on Ao3 but had trouble following them when I formatted it for printing. Usually I'd use the section break image to denote when there's a scene skip but there are literally dozens in this chapter, like 40-60 breaks over the course of 10 or so pages, and it looked very busy with images in it. So I left them out, made the line skips single instead of double like they are elsewhere in the book, and I color-coded the text instead. One timeline is printed in black, one is dark gray, and one is dark blue. And it's a very surreal chapter, with the characters having some very confusing and conflicting emotions, so I feel like reading multicolored text when you're not expecting it (the rest of the book is all normal black and this bit is near the middle) sort of reflects that unbalanced feeling? I hope so anyway, because I love the way it looks so much.

I learned so many things in the course of making these. I'm absolutely doing all of them again. Part of the reason it took so long was that I wanted it to be perfect, or as near as I could get, and I had to take the time to solve all the puzzles it threw at me. But it stretched my creativity and ingenuity and I could not be more in love with the finished product.

#bookbinding #fanbinding #snek makes books #good omens #fic rec #this got super long #and considerably more journal-like than I planned #i guess when you work on something for five months it becomes part of you huh #there were more images too #i took so many photos of these

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lambertdiary · 7 months

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Jealousy, Jealousy

"Sorry Won't Fix This" Masterlist

A/N: So I posted part two a couple of days ago and I had a few people asking for a part three, and I'm not gonna lie... I got a little carried away lol, so definitely I'll post a part 4. This was really fun to write and hopefully it'll be fun for you guys to read it! PLEASE let me know what you think 🫶🏻 Also I was watching an Andrew Garfield movie so keep that in mind.

Word Count: 2.1k+

Warnings: angst, language, jealousy, Dalton being shitty (again)

MASTERLIST ✩ SEND ME A REQUEST

After Dalton left, Y/N just stared at the door trying to hold her tears in. She was doing a good job, until Chris walked through the door and asked her what was wrong. She broke down immediately, but Chris stayed with her comforting her all night. She cried until she couldn't anymore, and all that was left was a raging headache.

Y/N told Chris everything, she had been avoiding that subject but letting it all out made her feel a lot better. She felt bad for Chloe, she really did, but at this point she just wanted to detach herself from the whole situation and just Dalton in general, so her next step was moving on.

“You need to forget about him Y/N, he’s not worth it” Y/N nodded agreeing with her friend, but a part of her still felt like she lost someone really important.

“I know I do” She sighed deeply before continuing “I guess the last time we broke up I thought we would somehow find our way back to each other, you know?”

“Y/N, I love you and I know what you mean, but I just want you to think of all the times he did something shitty, and then tell me you still want him”

Y/N laughed a little, admitting to herself stupid her feelings were “You’re right”

“I know I am, dude. Go out, have fun and meet guys who are not gonna kiss someone else in New Year’s”

After a minute of silence, Y/N finally built up the courage to ask “Did you know?”

“Know what?” Chris asked in confusion.

“That Chloe and Dalton were like together together”

Chris thought about her answer for a moment, but ultimately decided there was no point in hiding it anymore “Sort of… I mean I knew he was getting invited to her parents’ house and hanging out with some of her friends” Y/N just nodded, a sad look still on her face “But it doesn’t matter because you’re over him now”

Chris encouraged her to go out with someone. Y/N wasn’t the type to approach a guy and ask for his number, so Chris offered to introduce her to one of her friends she thought Y/N could get along with.

She met Andrew a couple of days later, and she was surprised when they immediately hit it off. He was cute and funny and really easy to talk to, so Y/N was excited when he started to take her out on dates. They were seeing each other almost every day, and Y/N even took him to her favourite coffee shop, telling him that she got her best work done there and how it was the best coffee she ever had. He chuckled at her statement but agreed with her, sharing his love for coffee too.

⋆ ★

Dalton didn’t tell Chloe what happened that night, of course he didn’t. He kept seeing her like nothing happened and she couldn’t be happier about it.

The thing is, Chloe felt like she didn’t have him for a number of reasons, even when they started dating he was barely any special towards her. Sure, she would spend a lot of time with him and he would seek her attention, he even drew her for an art project but that was before they became a thing, and the portrait was just somewhere in his dorm.

She would go there with him and see the wall with a bunch of paintings and drawings of Y/N, and before he told her about them she had no idea they used to date, but she couldn’t help but feel jealous that she never made the wall.

So one day she decided to ask him to put it up “I’m your girlfriend now, don’t you think it’s time you put the drawing of me on your wall?”

“Uh” He looked at his art displayed on the wall, realising a lot of them were Y/N “I will” He simply replied, thinking he could maybe do it later, but the look Chloe gave him made him understand that she meant right now. So he did, he stood up and removed a few portraits, making space for the new one. He couldn’t bring himself to actually get rid of them, so he decided to just leave them on his desk. That was weeks before he told her about his past with Y/N.

The day after Y/N rejected him he concluded it was officially over, so his relationship with Chloe got a little more serious. Chloe properly introduced him to her parents, they started to have more dates and they even had ‘romantic’ weekends.

Days went by and Dalton tried his best to keep Y/N out of his mind, constantly telling himself that he was with Chloe now and that it was for the best. He wanted to be a better boyfriend for her but he sometimes forgot to put in the effort.

One day Dalton decided to get coffee after class, buying one for him and one for his girlfriend who was waiting for him in his dorm. After receiving his order, he turned around and was ready to walk out, but a familiar face stopped him.

He saw Y/N sitting at one of the tables, talking and giggling with some other guy. Dalton stared at them for a moment, his knuckles whitening as he gripped the cups he was holding. He decided it would be better if he left, but just as he started to walk again he noticed the guy stand up and make his way to the washroom.

Before he could think about it, he found himself standing in front of Y/N, giving her a questioning stare, as if she owed him any explanations.

“What are you doing here?” He asked in a demanding tone.

Y/N was both surprised and annoyed at his question. She scoffed and crossed her arms, giving him a bland tone to make him feel like she didn’t care about him “What kind of question is that?”

“I know you’re here with someone, I saw him”

“Why do you care? Aren’t you still with Chloe?” Y/N asked him, pointing at the cup with her name on it. Dalton shrugged and thought about something else to say. She had a point, he was with Chloe now so he shouldn’t care, but he did “You should probably take your girlfriend her coffee, it’s gonna get cold”

“We need to talk”

“There’s nothing left to talk about”

Before Dalton could say something, someone else joined the table “Hi, I’m Andrew” He said, sitting across from Y/N.

“Dalton” He replied, pressing his lips together.

“He was just leaving” Y/N quickly added.

“Oh” Andrew immediately suspected she didn’t want him there “Well, nice to meet you man”

Dalton clenched his jaw, he didn’t say anything else and just gave them a quick nod before leaving the coffee shop. He was walking to his dorm and the whole time he wished he had said something clever to Andrew.

When he got to his dorm, he was received with a sweet hug and kiss from Chloe, telling him how much he has missed him. As usual, they sat on his bed and talked about their day before moving on to schoolwork.

“So, my birthday party is this Saturday and I was thinking we could wear the same colour” Chloe said out of nowhere.

Dalton tried to hide the fact that he forgot about her birthday “Uh- yeah, what are you wearing?”

“The dress I bought last week. I told you it was for my birthday, remember?” She asked, hurt and mad he forgot such an important detail.

He nodded his head quickly “I remember baby, I’m sorry” Dalton brought her closer to him and gave her a reassuring kiss “We’ll both look phenomenal in pink”

⋆ ★

Y/N wasn’t surprised to see Dalton, it was impossible to avoid him completely given they lived in the same building, but anytime they saw each other they just pretended the other didn’t exist, it was working just fine for Dalton until he saw her with someone else.

Her feelings towards him definitely changed, while she still felt like she lost someone important to her, she was also disappointed at how much he had changed since the party, so they were a mix of many different things. Often she couldn’t help but wonder how different things would be if she tried harder when they were together, but at the same time she resented him for not always showing that he loved her the way she wanted him to.

“How long do we have to wait?” Andrew asked, holding his hair away from his forehead so the face mask wouldn’t stick to it.

“About 20 minutes” Y/N was smiling down at him, finishing up with the thick paste on his cheeks.

He opened his eyes and smiled back at her “Do you have like a hair thing I can borrow?”

Y/N chuckled and reached for another headband, carefully sticking all of his hair back “This is a great look on you” She joked.

They laughed as he looked at himself in the tiny mirror “I guess you’ll have to style me more often”

“I mean, you already look great all the time so I don’t think you need my help”

She watched as his smile went shy, almost sure he was blushing under the face mask. Andrew handed her the mirror and she put it back in a small vase that had a few makeup brushes in it.

“Did you make that?” Andrew asked, paying close attention to the drawings on it, recognising Y/N’s favourite flowers.

“The vase?” She asked and he nodded “Yeah, last year in a pottery class”

“A pottery class?”

“Yeah. I mean, I only went like 3 times but this is great, isn’t it?” She picked it up and examined it. It had been a long time since she did.

“May I?” Andrew grabbed it and looked at all the different colours on it “And you drew these?” He asked, pointing at the beautifully painted flowers.

“Not really, my- uh friend helped me with those, but I still did most of the job” She clarified.

“Oh…” He faked disappointment “And you had me over here thinking you were an artist”

She scoffed playfully as he took the vase from him “I am, did you see the one at the bottom?” Y/N showed him a smudged spot of paint that looked like it was supposed to be a flower “You wouldn’t get it, it’s abstract art” Andrew gave her a frisky look that made her blush “Are you an artist?”

“Born to be but my lack of skills didn’t allow it, very tragic” Y/N giggled at his dramatics as she scooted closer to him “I can’t really draw… I mean I can, but it’s not very good” Andrew laughed “Why? Do you have a thing for artists?

A strange feeling took over her heart, but she just shook her head and forced a smile “No, just for guys that look good in headbands” She teased. Andrew felt his face get hot again and an impulse made him lean over, getting really close to her face but Y/N stopped him.

“You don’t wanna taste this face mask, it’s gonna linger for days” Andrew shrugged his shoulders and took a quick look at her lips, and then back at her eyes.

“You already have that effect on me”

Y/N was speechless. For a moment they stared at each other intensely, Y/N almost gave in, but the door swinging open made both of them jump.

“Oh- sorry to interrupt” Chris said slowly, dropping her things on her bed.

They turned red and quickly got away from each other, trying to cover their embarrassment “You didn’t, we’re just doing face masks”

“Without me?” Chris joked.

The three of them stayed there for the rest of the afternoon, and as soon as Andrew left Chris couldn’t help but tease Y/N about what she almost witnessed.

“So, I see you two are really getting along”

“I guess” Y/N replied, unsure of how to feel.

“What? Do you not like him?”

“I do… I think I do” She stopped to think about it for a moment “It’s been great but honestly i don’t know if I can take it any further”

“Y/N he’s like perfect for you” Chris stared at her friend, waiting for an explanation “Why not?”

“Because he’s not Dalton”

#dalton lambert #dalton lambert x reader #dalton lambert imagine #dalton lambert fanfic #dalton lambert imagines #dalton lambert fic #dalton lambert angst #dalton lambert fluff #insidious #insidious 5 #insidious the red door #ty simpkins

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igglemouse · 2 months

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The last Sunday of the month and I'll definitely miss it! Why is February so short, huh? Ahh, well, there's still time for some love and appreciation to give out, there is always time for that.

@goodtea-nicehouse ~ Well you all know right now the biases I have for legacies and this is a simblr newer to me that plays legacies! I have really enjoyed their posts and look forward to the new legacy as well!

@woohoojuicesimoleons2 ~ I meant to put this simblr on here a week or so ago but then it was not found! I was like oh no! I was happy to find it reborn! A simblr with beautiful sims and deco and I'd follow for the name alone.

@growing-up-crumplebottom ~ I mean...how can you not like a simblr about our favorite lady Crumplebottom! The posts are fun and filled with humor which I also always love!

@wavvie ~ A very creative simblr that writes fantasy stories what of course are accompanied with amazing pictures! If anyone knows me, I love three things. Fantasy, sci-fi, and horror, and not in that order! So I'm already signed up to this one!

@corrienteallita ~ Another simblr new to me and vanilla sims 4 simblr! I love that! Also a sense of humor that I enjoy! When it comes to simblr I think it is good to show that you don't need 50gb of CC and mods to post here.

Well, the next time you see one of these posts it'll be March. We are already in the 3rd month of 2024 which means we are almost 25% done with the year. It's true by the way, the older you get the faster time seems to pass so make the most of every day!

#simblr appreciation sunday

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nuvoloso · 1 year

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I'll be there.

Oikawa x masc reader (he/they)

Support is something I just know that silly little volleyball captain craves from a s/o. This is about somebody who tries their hardest to give him that, even if sometimes it's a swing and a miss.

This one's in first person, y/n is the soccer captain at seijoh, dating Oikawa, yeah yeah you get it. the little ~~ means change in view or time, it'll make sense as you read.

[Side note: I play soccer, so if I write in another sport, it's always gonna be that until somebody tells me to do something else so yeah slay]

Word Count: 4233

Spring was always a busy time for me, but especially so this year. The captain of the volleyball team, Oikawa Tōru, and I had (to the dismay of his many fans) started dating. Not only were they devastated because surprise! He's gay, but now he was also taken. I loved it though, they'd swarm him and I'd infiltrate their ranks, my lovely Tōru only embracing me, not giving those girls a second glance. Sometimes I'd play with them and flirt with him loudly, just to see how long before they got so jealous they had to leave. Honestly such a fun game to play.

Anyway, spring was crazy this year because Tōru had a ton of volleyball shit going on, and I had soccer tournaments too. We'd made each other promise when we got serious that we'd make it to each other's games whenever we had the chance. Of course we both understood the importance of keeping grades and appearances up since we both wanted to go into the athletic field post-grad. However, we also understood the importance of supporting each other, so we really did try our best.

Sometimes for me that meant if I knew I had a game the same day or I wouldn't be able to be there for whatever reason, I came to practices leading up to it or took him out to dinner afterwards.

When I could make it, despite not totally understanding everything, I cheered louder than anybody else when Tōru was up for serve or if he did something especially dazzling.

Today, he would be playing against Karasuno, which he was especially excited about. He had been telling me all about it yesterday, I guess there was this Kageyama kid that he went to junior high with that he'd be playing against for the first time. He said that during a practice match they'd had not long ago, Kageyama and some other kid had done some kind of super fast move that had upset a lot of players on the team. He was really looking forward to cracking down on them, it was almost scary.

"You'll be there today right?" He asked me, shutting the door to his locker. I was leaning up against the others next to his, thinking about my schedule today.

"I should be, unless something comes out of the blue. I'm not anticipating anything getting in the way though." He grinned at me, his smile infectiously making its way onto my face. "You better not be lame." I threatened, but he brushed it off and grabbed my hand, pulling me towards the cafeteria so we could get lunch.

"I'm never lame, and this game is gonna be fast paced so even you will find it entertaining, I can almost promise it." His hand gripped mine tightly, like he always did when he was excited or determined.

I smiled at him as we made our way down the stairs, "Yeah, I'll believe it when I see it later."

As we got our food and looked around for a place to sit, a few others from the volleyball team were furiously waving us over to them. Tōru dragged me over to them, despite my wanting to sit with guys from my team.

"Y/n! Are you coming to the game tonight? Gonna watch us kick Karasuno's ass?" Iwaizumi asked, I guess Tōru wasn't the only one hyped for this game.

"I should be, I've got nothing on my schedule for later. Is everybody so excited for this thing? I thought Karasuno wasn't any good at volleyball anymore." The team all shook their heads, everyone started talking at once about different people on the team and what they could do, a lot of the conversation based around the freak duo.

The team continued to chatter away about the game and everything they were looking forward to, I just quietly listened, catching every third word. Tōru's games were always in the evening which was nice because it meant they were usually just after when I finished up at practice. But, it also meant I had to either shower and change in a massive hurry and bolt to the gym, or I had to just go in my soccer stuff, I did a healthy balance of both.

My mind had drifted to thinking about what drills we'd be doing today, hoping that it wasn't going to be a push day since I wanted to get cleaned up before the game later. I felt a hand on my shoulder, lightly shaking me which brought me back to the present.

"You in there somewhere, y/n?" Tōru asked, I cracked a smile and briefly apologized for spacing out. "Do you really find my favorite sport in the world so boring?" I couldn't immediately tell if he was joking or not, so I decided to play it safe and assume he was serious.

"Of course not, I was just thinking about the plan for practice today, I might try to convince coach to let us have a rest day so I can have time to clean up before I come watch. I'd never think volleyball was boring, you play it after all." He seemed to like that answer.

Soon enough, the bell had rang and we parted ways with the rest of his team and went back up to our classrooms. I walked with Tōru to his and lingered with him until I really needed to get to my own. He pouted as I left him, but I just laughed at the stupid look on his face and made my way out.

When I got to my own class I found a few of my teammates talking to each other, greeting me as I entered.

"Hey captain! Excited for later today?" One of them asked, I naturally nodded, assuming he was talking about the volleyball game later. It looked like he was going to say something else, but our teacher entered and they quickly dispersed getting back into their seats.

The later half of the day went by slowly, but eventually we were released. Alongside my few teammates that were in my class, we headed down to the school's main gym so we could get changed before getting out to the field. My team had an interesting energy today, it seemed like they were all pretty pumped for practice even though it was a regular day.

I didn't say anything though, and focused on getting changed and making sure all my stuff was good to go in case I needed to get out quickly to catch Tōru's game. Needless to say, I was very determined to make it to this one. I hadn't been able to make it to one of Tōru's real games in a while since they nearly always lined up with my own, or I had practice matches with other teams during them.

I knew Tōru was always a bit let down that I couldn't watch him play as often as he wanted me to, and I honestly couldn't blame him. I, of course, loved it when he came to my games to support me but never really affected me when he wasn't there, at least not as much as it did him. Since I couldn't honestly remember the last game I had made it to, I was absolutely going to make it to this one. Plus, Tōru was beyond excited for this match and I wanted him to enjoy it as much as he could.

When I made it out onto the field, the coach greeted me and I helped him finish setting up cones and getting the practice jerseys and water stations set up. Soon enough practice had started and things were pretty normal for the first half, it was when we were taking our larger break that I noticed something different.

The managers were handing out our official away uniforms, as if we were going to be playing a game. It was odd enough that we were getting our uniforms, but to be getting the away ones was even stranger. Generally, if we hosted a match or practice match, we got to wear our home jerseys, and the other team would compensate for that and wear whichever of theirs differed from ours the most.

It's not as if I didn't like our away jerseys, I liked them better than the normal teal and white ones for sure. The away's had to be decently different from the home's so they were mainly black with white and turquoise details.

As our manager handed me mine, I thought to ask her what we needed them for.

"I thought we weren't having any practice games today, why are you handing out the uniforms?" She gave me a weird look.

"You don't remember? Coach said that Date Tech would be coming over for a practice match today because it was the only day that worked for them. He sent out a mass email about it a few days ago, don't you check your emails?" God why? Of all the days they had to surprise me with a practice match it had to be today?

I sighed, "I guess I must've missed it, thank you though." She looked puzzled at my lack of excitement towards the match, but didn't ask about it. "Hey coach?" I called, getting up to meet him before I got changed.

"Yeah, what's up--is something wrong? You look a little distressed." I nervously wrung my jersey as if it wasn't already bone dry.

"I just, didn't realize we had a practice match today. How long do you think it'll go for?" Coach was surprised at my question, usually I wanted these matches to go on forever but asking when it was over was new.

"Well, it all depends on you guys. We'll start as soon as they get here, but we're going to do a full match. It's what? 16hr right now?" I checked my watch, nodding. "Ok so we'll probably be done right around 18hr, maybe earlier but it depends."

I pursed my lips, sighing quickly but thanking him for humoring my questions. Tōru's game starts at 17hr 30m, and he said they usually last about an hour. I might be able to catch the last half or so if I hurry.

I watched the Date Tech bus pull in, and silently begged them to just go faster. I had no time to waste, I needed this game to start as soon as possible.

Luckily with everyone's excitement surrounding the match, they wanted to get going too, and things started shortly after the visitors offloaded their bus. We greeted each other, and play began shortly after.

When half time rolled around it was just turning 17hr, which meant after our ten minute break, we really would be finishing right at 18hr. I pulled out my phone to shoot Tōru a text, though I was sure he wouldn't read it since he was likely getting ready for his match.

Y/n [hey I'm not going to be on time to the match, I got blindsided by a practice game. I might be able to see the later half or so of the match]

I was going to just put my phone away after I sent it, but I saw that he had read the message, and the dots that meant he was typing.

Tōru [hope you can make it <3]

That was all I got. And I could practically feel the tribulation on his end through the simple message. I threw my phone back into my bag and put my palms into my eyes for a few moments, until I could tell I was being watched.

"You ok y/n?" Someone asked, I moved my hands from my eyes and looked up towards the voice. It was our goalie, and he was offering me a hand up.

I groaned, "I was supposed to go to Tōru's match that starts in thirty minutes, but now I don't know if I'll make it. I promised him I'd be there too, but I had no clue we had a match today." He gave me a very knowing look.

"Ah, yeah I get it. My girl's on the tennis team and our schedules never line up. Maybe these clouds will start doing something interesting and we'll get released early." I looked up at the sky and noticed that he may be right. The clouds were dark and looked about ready to dump some rain on us, I couldn't believe I hadn't noticed it earlier.

I loved playing in the rain, I thought it was fun and challenging but the coaches definitely didn't feel the same way, they saw it more as a danger since it made everything so slick. We had a tent set up so our stuff was never at risk of getting drenched, but soccer was an outdoor game and the weather was unpredictable.

Play resumed again, and as we went on I could feel droplets of water setting on my skin. Just a little downpour, please. Just enough to let me get outta here soon. As if the sky was listening to me, the droplets doubled in size and quantity and soon rain was coating the field and everyone on it.

"Alright everybody, we're gonna stop here for today and we'll pick this up again another day! Get your things and get inside to dry off!" The coaches were yelling, everybody running to the sidelines to get their shit and leave. I was probably the fastest, checking my watch it was 17hr 50m which meant Tōru had been playing for at least twenty minutes, and I was gonna make it before it ended.

I grabbed my things and about as quickly as I could, changed out of my cleats and into an old pair of sneakers I only ever wore outside because I didn't care how dirty they got. I threw on my jacket and ran to the street in front of Seijoh to try to get a taxi so I didn't have to try to run to the Sendai City Gym.

That, was where my luck ran out. The streets were empty, not a taxi in sight which meant I had to call for one and wait for it to show up. Thankfully there was one nearby and it didn't take too long to show up but I was losing time. The driver handed me a towel she had on hand and told me to dry myself off as well as I could because she didn't want water all over her cab. I apologized profusely as I did my best to dry myself off.

We arrived at the gym a handful of minutes later, the kind taxi driver giving me a disposable umbrella she had, telling me to not get drenched again. I thanked her over and over while I gave her some cash for the ride, and ran as fast as I could to the gym's entrance. When I got there I quickly changed out of my disgusting shoes, shoving them into my bag and pulling out a cleaner pair of hightops to wear. I ran into the bathroom to take a look at myself, running my hands through my hair a few times and dabbing off some residual rain and sweat that I'd missed while in the taxi.

When I deemed myself mostly presentable I jogged through the building until I heard the sounds of volleyball. There were a few different sections that had teams going, and to my luck Tōru's was the last one I checked. I ran up the stairs leading to the bleachers, but didn't bother to find a seat, I just got as close as I could to where Tōru was on the court.

I looked at the score, it was the third set, and about in the middle from what I knew about the volleyball score system. I looked around the court, recognizing a few players on the other team from what I had heard, and noting the positions of everyone on Tōru's team.

To my joy, he was going in to serve next. I tried calling out to him, but the crowd of Seijoh supporters drowned me out. Luckily I caught Iwaizumi's eye, a grin appearing on his face when he realized that I'd made it. I couldn't hear anything he was saying, but as the team was quickly transitioning he got Tōru's attention and pointed up at me.

When his eyes met mine, I could immediately see a change in his demeanor, his eyes lighting up with a vigor unlike anyone else. He made a small heart with his hands as he walked back behind the court line, I returned the gesture, and Tōru started his serving routine.

The rest of the game flew by, it really was one of the most captivating volleyball games I'd seen. Both teams fought viciously; any bystander could feel the hunger between the two teams, but our team's skill was just higher than the other's. The match ended with Seijoh on top, 33-31, and upon their win I ran down to the entrance to the gym so I could meet Tōru.

I had been beyond crestfallen when I'd gotten the text from y/n saying that they had a practice match. It had been ages since they'd come to one of my games, so I was really looking forward to having him here, but I should've known that something would come up.

Iwa thinks that's why we lost the second set, because I thought y/n would have arrived by then, but ultimately didn't show. If I'm being honest, I had given up on them showing up, I knew he wouldn't abandon his team or a practice match just to watch my game.

To say I was shocked when Iwa yelled at me to look in the stands, is a major understatement. When I saw them there, waving and smiling at me from the stands, nearly falling into the court from leaning so hard against the rail, I knew my heart skipped a beat or two. He looked a bit crazy, if I had to guess it was raining and he just sped from his game to here without changing. They looked fantastic in their soccer uniform, the jersey being a bit snug helped show off some of his great features, plus his skin glistened from the rain and probably sweat that coated his skin. That is, not to mention, the look on his face as they watched me, pride and love just emanating from his eyes and smile.

I felt a new energy run through me after I saw them, and we battled the shit out of Karasuno, but they held their ground. I was almost happy for Tobio, he played...better than he used to. I wouldn't say well or great, but he was improving if ever slowly.

When the match ended and we thanked the fans, I didn't see y/n up there anymore, but I wasn't worried. I knew where they'd be.

As we wrapped things up, I half-ran to the entrance of the gym and saw my lovely partner waiting for me. They nearly tackled me in a hug, telling me how proud they were and how incredible the game was. It felt amazing to hear that, and to know that they actually had seen me play rather than had just heard me tell him about it.

I kissed him when he had paused, and I could feel him smiling beneath my lips. He laced his fingers together and rested them on my lower back, keeping me closer to them while my hands were on his face. We stayed like that for a few minutes, trading kisses and just enjoying the moment we had together that came so rarely.

Eventually, y/n pulled their face away from mine and watched my eyes for a handful of seconds before he decided to say anything.

"I told you I'd be here." They said, a slight smirk emerging on their face.

I rolled my eyes, "You said that you'd be able to watch the whole thing! You only got to see the last half of the final set!" He pulled his hands off of my back and put them up in front of him defensively.

"Hey it's not my fault! I checked my email again and I didn't see anything from anybody about a match today! I really did think I had the day off from practice matches!" I sighed as dramatically as I could, and let the topic drop.

Though suddenly remembering what he'd looked like when they'd got here I asked, "Why did you look soaked when you got here? And you're still in your uniform and your hair is..." My eyes widened a bit, and y/n laughed, coming his hands through their wet hair a few times, catching a snag or two from whatever had gotten it so wet and frazzled.

"We were still playing our match when it started just dumping rain, and the coaches canceled the rest of it. Since it was just Date Tech and they're not too far away, they didn't feel bad about canceling the match rather than trying to move it inside." I hummed, that made enough sense. "I had to call a taxi to get here though, and that poor driver was so mad at me for getting in her car soaked through, so she tossed me a towel and a disposable umbrella and I tried to dry off before I got here." They gestured to the somewhat dryer parts of their uniform, but shook their head chuckling in defeat. "I guess I didn't do a great job."

"Yeah you're gross, and in desperate need of a shower and dry clothing." Y/n only aggressively nodded, but claimed that all of their stuff was either still in his locker at the school or super dirty and in his bag.

I was trying to think of something to do when Iwa joined us, laughing at y/n's state. They joked back and forth about how gross the other looked, when Iwa tossed me my duffle bag. "You left this in the gym, I thought maybe you'd forgotten it. And dude," He said shaking his head at y/n, "You seriously gotta do something, you smell like shit."

"Thank you so much Iwa I had no idea, your input is so appreciated and valued and will be thought about heavily throughout the rest of my life." Y/n loudly and sarcastically proclaimed.

"Damn right!" Iwa sneered back, their bickering finally coming to an end. Iwa excused himself to help pack up the team's things, and it was just me and y/n again.

Looking down at the bag Iwa had thrown to me, I had an idea. "Y/n," I said, gathering his attention from his previous interaction, "I've got a spare club t-shirt and a pair of sweats in here that you can wear after you rinse off. I'll just put my jacket on and wear my uniform on the way back."

He tried to protest, insisting that I get changed since I just finished a game, but I wouldn't have it. Y/n was almost shivering and I could tell he was trying to hide it, they were barely dry from the rain, and they'd worked hard during the practice match not that long ago. When he'd conceded, I showed them where the showers were and left my bag with him, deciding to just sit outside the room and wait for him.

I pulled out my phone, and found that there were a handful of notifications from different social apps and my messages. I checked my messages first, seeing that they were nearly all from y/n, he'd texted me what they thought of a play every time it happened. I smiled, that was one of their more adorable habits. The other notifications were mentions from pictures that y/n had added to their stories or had just posted of me and the team.

I loved having y/n here to watch my games, I loved having their support and their love during these important times of my life. It meant the world to me that they supported me through all of this, even if they couldn't watch the game live. I could only hope to return the favor the next game they had.

Y/n emerged from the washroom, now looking much more put together, and also looking quite well in my clothes. They were a bit small on them in a few places, but I knew they wouldn't mind, and I certainly didn't care either.

"I saw your messages, and the stuff you posted, all very cute!" I grinned, him smiling back at me and taking my free hand, helping me stand up.

"I've gotta let the world know how proud and lucky I am to be with you." I felt my face flush, and he took the opportunity to land a quick kiss on my lips before pulling me towards the exit of the building. "Come on sunshine, we can't keep everybody waiting, they'll start making up stories."

I knew he was right, and together we went back out to meet everyone else.

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